"I'm just saying, if we're going to have a party, I don't think I should be trusted with the beer... and Arthur and Lenny should probably be limited too." Celina admitted with a slight shrug of her shoulders. She stood before Dutch, speaking to him more than she probably had in the last few days. She needed a break from being around him so much and because of that, she had been spending quite a bit of time away from camp, out riding mostly but hitting up some towns for fun non-robbery style. It had been nice.
She remembered that night of drinking with Lenny and Arthur, the details becoming more and more clear over the last couple days. She was, nonetheless scared to put herself in such a vulnerable state in front of the whole group.. afraid that she would accidentally reveal she and Dutch had had sex earlier that week and cause unneeded tension with Molly.
Sure, she was jealous of the woman to the point she thought she'd lose her self control every time she saw them together. But- she had managed to keep her cool. She could suck it up, she could do it. However, under the influence of a beer too many, she wasn't so confident with her self-control.
Heck, in that bar a few nights ago with Lenny and Arthur, she had all but admitted to being completely taken by the charismatic leader. It was wishful thinking that Lenny and Arthur hadn't remembered what she said. Maybe they did though... either way, neither of them even attempted to comment on it.
Dutch looked amused as he stood just outside of her tent, Celina sitting on her cott, half-wishing he would go away, "What exactly went on in Valentine? No one quite filled me in." He rolled his cigar between his fingers, eyeing her with interest.
The woman shrugged, not feeling all too interested in telling Dutch how much reckless fun the three of them had had, "We drank, too much... talked, didn't think about any of our problems. Got arrested for being drunk and disorderly. Woke up the next morning and here we are."
He looked like he wanted more information, like he truly wanted to make conversation. The idea made Celina scoff for no apparent reason to anyone but herself, it was about time the son of a bitch tried to talk to her. Too little, too late. Was she being overly hard on him? Maybe. But it was easier this way, if she couldn't have him to herself, it was better this way. All Dutch had to do was leave Molly, and she figured he would if he felt the way she did. That, however, was clearly not the case. She attempted to change the subject, "So, Arthur busted Micah from jail and saved Sean... are we going to have this party, or not?"
Dutch took a hit from his cigar and slowly exhaled while nodding, "I think so, miss. I've just sent John into town to pick up some supplies in preparation for it. I do wish Micah would find his balls and come back."
Celina rolled her eyes at the mention of Micah, "Dutch-" she cut herself off and shook her head, deciding against what she had thought to say. At that, she stood up and smoothed down her freshly cleaned shirt, "I think I'm going to go and meet up with John, maybe Lenny will go with me."
Dutch raised a brow, "I was going to ask you to help the ladies set up for the party."
She shrugged yet again before looking in her small mirror by the cott and tying her dark hair back, "I don't care what you were going to do, Dutch. I don't care what you want me to do. As far as I'm concerned, you have no authority over me."
He took a step back in surprise at her attitude, "What's what supposed to mean?"
She spun around on her heel and looked up at him with fire in her blue eyes, "I'm not here for you Dutch. I'm here because I love everyone else here. Heck, right now, I even like Bill more than you!" Her tone was a whisper-shout. She felt her hands began to shake and her face becoming hot.
Dutch stepped forwards, a fire now alight in his eyes as well, "You need to calm down." He pointed at the ground demandingly as he ordered her to cool her temper.
Celina shook her head, "No, I won't calm down. You know why I like Bill more than you, Dutch? Because be never fucked me and threw it in my face that I would never be more than just a nice pussy to him. He never threw it in my face that he was going to continue to fuck and keep company with precious Molly O'Shea who he liked too much to leave but yet not enough to be exclusive with, not even to take a chance with someone who truly cared about him. He didn't know he hurt me but was still inconsiderate enough to have sex with Molly the next night to the point I could hear it!" She kept going, seeing that she seemed to be getting through to him at least a bit. She couldn't help it, she had opened her mouth to say a bit and kept letting more and more out. "He didn't do those things to me, Dutch. That was you." She pointed at him angrily, "He didn't charm me into giving him what he wanted only to throw it in my face that he didn't care how I felt."
Dutch held up his hand in attempt to silence her, his own voice shaking as it often did at emotion, "I never knew things were like that- shit." He glanced at the ground, shifting his weight almost nervously, "Look, I-"
"-No, you look, Dutch." Her words were firm and final, "I should have never expected anything from you. You looked at me like-" She shook her head again, "Nevermind. I'm going into Valentine." She walked past him, "I'll see you later. Maybe I'll hook up with one of your boys."
...
"I don't know, John." Celina sighed, "This beer... I mean, it isn't real cheap if we're going to buy as much of it as everyone wants." She ran her hands through her hair, "I just feel that it could be spent better. Let's just get enough for the party?"
John was quiet for a moment before leaning down and whispering in her ear, "I heard tale of a wagon heading this way soon- full of beer. How would you feel about seeing that it never arrives?"
Celina jaw dropped at the proposition, her eyes widened. Was he really suggesting what she thought he was? With her? She looked up at him, "Are you saying?"
John nodded slowly, "I'm asking. Arthur said you were getting good with a gun- not that anyone needs to get hurt. And if we catch it before it comes into town, no one should catch us. No trouble."
Celina chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, she never found the idea of robbing anyone appealing... but... She found herself nodding, "Ok, we'll do it."
...
"Pull your banana up and stay here, don't want us being recognized just in case. They should be coming through here in a few minutes." John peered out from the trees they were using for cover, "I'm going to go hide on the other side of the road. Hopefully these fools won't be armed."
Celina swallowed, "And if they are?"
John grimaced, "Either they can back down or we'll-" he stopped at the nervous look on her face, "I'll take care of them... ride out when you hear me inform them that they're being robbed and we can go from there.
Celina nodded despite her rapidly beating heart making her want to back out and tell John that her coming along was a mistake, "Ok," she swallowed and took a deep breath in attempt to calm herself, "Sounds like a plan. Let's do this."
John nodded before trotting off on his horse to the trees on the other side of the road. Celina took another deep breath, looking through the trees on her side and down the road in the direction the wagon of booze was said to be coming from. She was doing this, she had to do it now since John was relying on her. She was committing her first robbery and she felt a bit sick to her stomach thinking about it. The thing that truly concerned her, however, was that part of her was excited to see how all of this would go down.
Before long, the wagon was in sight, luckily, at least from a distance, it looked like there was only one man in charge of it. She laughed a bit, that was a stupid idea, traveling alone with items which one like John and apparently, herself, would steal.
Once in sight, the wagon came closer and closer to the two of them quickly, John riding out from the trees just as the wagon passed him, the horses hooves pounding hard against the dirt road to catch up to the front of the wagon, "This is a robbery! Please stop the wagon and put your hands up!"
At those words, Celina bust through the trees on her steed as well, gun in hand, galloping to catch up to John and the driver.
"Please mister," The middle-aged man begged, "I don't have no money, only beer. That won't do folk like you much good."
"Oh we know exactly what you have, and it'll do us plenty good." John trained his weapon on the man as did Celina, still riding their horses at a canter, "Now do what we say and no bloodshed will be necessary."
Reluctantly, the man slowed his two shire horses to a stop and climbed out of the wagon at gun point, walking to the side of the road as John guided him to do. John nodded his approval at the man's obedience, "Good, see? As simple as that." He climbed down from his horse and up into the wagon, Celina following his lead and doing the same.
She looked back at the shaken man as John drove the horses forward, leaving the guy without a clear method of transportation back home. She sighed and lowered her bandana, as did John, "Don't you ever feel bad? Stealing things from people like that?"
The outlaw shook his head, "Not for a real long time." He glanced over at her, "I know that was your first robbery, how do you feel?"
She raised herself up in her seat to take a look at the many of cases of beer in the back, sarcasm winning out, "Like our party is going to end with us all getting black-out drunk."
He laughed at her comment, "Really though, are you feeling ok?"
She shrugged, "I think I'm alright, I mean, I feel bad, poor fool. It could have been worse though, you could have shot him."
John laughed again, "One thing about us, Celina, we do our best not to kill innocents. I'm pretty sure Dutch would beat me himself if I would've killed that man without any absolute reason."
Celina wanted to change the subject away from the leader but couldn't quite bring herself to do so, not at the perfect opportunity to ask some questions, "Is Dutch really against killing innocents?" She thought she knew the answer as yes, she hoped she was right and secretly crossed her fingers for that belief to be confirmed.
"Well, yea." John answered, nodding. "Dutch hasn't ever liked the killing... He really isn't a terribly violent guy... just greedy, not a killer. Even then, we usually only rob the people who's robbed others, it's not really stealing if something's already stolen."
Celina nodded back at him too, taking a moment to admire the scenery around them, new leaves beginning to grow on the trees after the harsh winter, "What about on the boat?"
John took a deep breath, "I don't know what got into Dutch on the boat. It's likely he just snapped if he killed an innocent like that, or maybe it was an accident."
She tucked her lips into her mouth and made a popping noise, "Do you think it had anything to do with that Micah guy? I mean, don't get be wrong, I have barely spoken to Micah but from what I heard, and from what Arthur's told me, I really don't have a good feeling about him."
John took a deep breath, "Neither do I, but I suppose time will tell what he's all about."
She refused to look back over at the cowboy but instead kept her gaze fixed on the opposite direction, staring at the scenery as she had so often done in the time of cars as they made their way back to camp.
...
"Well, well, well, look at what you guys have managed to drag in!" Dutch spread his arms in greeting as he walked up to John and Celina getting down from the wagon, Arthur at Dutch's side, approaching them as well. The question came from Dutch, "What do you guys have in store for us?"
"Beer, lots of it," John made his way to the back of the wagon, he and Celina each grabbing a case of beer and carrying it around front, "Wouldn't have been successful in stealing this lot of it weren't for Celina, caught it before it reached Valentine."
Dutch crossed his arms, looking impressed as he looked at Celina who wouldn't make eye contact with him, "Well is that so?"
Celina nodded, following John and sitting her case of beer on the same table as he set his, "That's me, the lean, mean, robbing machine."
Arthur laughed and waved the girl off when she started to walk back to the wagon for more, "I've got it, you go sit down. You've done enough for today."
Celina offered the cowboy a small smile in thanks, "Thanks Arthur, I'll do that." At that, she walked back over to the table and grabbed herself a beer, before opening it swiftly and taking a swig from it, all the while finally making eye contact with Dutch who looked surprised.
"I thought you said you were going to be staying away from the beer tonight, miss Knoll?"
Celina shrugged before swallowing, "To hell with it. I'm going to see where the night takes me."
...
A/N: And there's chapter 12! Some one-on-one time with John, she blew up on Dutch and committed her first robbery, trying to get things even more exciting from here. May seem like it's moving slow but goodness, I want to make things as detailed and in-depth as possible!
So, what are your thoughts on this chapter and as usual, what would you like to see?
Any ideas or hopes for what the party in this next coming chapter will hold?
Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 or anything associated with it.