"But wait," Celina stopped in her tracks and turned back towards Trelawny, "Something else doesn't make sense."

"And what would that be?"

She gestured to herself, "Technically I wasn't born until 1995... how am I not aging back in time being in the year I am? How can I exist at this time if my parents haven't even technically been born?"

Trelawny smiled knowingly, "You and I, we seem to ask similar questions. The answer the witches gave? They advised me that it is the will of the universe- of God himself for you to age as normally as anyone else alive in 1899. Fear not, you will only grow older as years go by, not younger my dear."

Celina let out a laugh of relief, "I've never been so happy to hear that I'll eventually grow old... assuming that no one kills me."

The magician chuckled, "I surely understand your relief."

She took a deep breath, "I guess I'll start considering myself born in 1875."

It was weird to finally hear someone confirm what had happened to her out loud although she had been facing the reality that she was truly in 1899 for a good few months now. Hearing it truly confirmed by someone else as well, just made the reality of the situation hit her all over again. She cleared her throat and smiled, "I really appreciate you, Josiah."

Trelawny bowed dramatically, "You're welcome, my dear." He straightened again and adjusted his suit, "As it is, I'm now going to make my rounds and deliver my getting to everyone I care to."

Celina laughed, "You do that. I'm gonna check on Bill. He was acting a little weird."

Trelawny raised a brow, "You do that, see if can get him to behave like a normal human being."

"Oh stop," she shook her head as she came out of the woods with him and they went in separate ways.

She was on her way back to the campfire where she had last seen Bill but didn't quite arrive at her destination as Dutch approached her looking as if he were in good spirits, "So, you know what we're going to do?"

Celina shook her head almost nervously, "No, but I feel like you're about to tell me."

Dutch chuckled, "I've managed to catch word that Mr. Leviticus Cornwall is going to be coming up the river and into Annesburg later today. Got me thinking, what a better way to ensure we successfully escape than to take out the very man who is funding the law persuit against us?"

Celina closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Dutch." She sighed and looked up at him, "Leave the man alone, please. It's not necessary and I thought you didn't believe in revenge anyway?"

Dutch looked a little offended, "You think this is about revenge?" He spread his arms wide as if the answer were obvious, "This isn't about revenge, this is about finally being free."

"No." She pointed at the ground insistently, "We- you kill Cornwall and it is going to scream to the law that we're close in the area. It's like we would be beckoning them here. I say we stay quiet and avoid attracting any attention to ourselves. If-" she licked her lips, "If we are quiet enough until that boat to Tahiti arrives in Saint Denis, no one will know where we ran off too. It's going to be really risky sneaking back into the city, I know that and maybe we should make noise a good way away from here..." She shrugged, "I don't know, Dutch. But don't be doing anything close. That's like screaming to everyone we're nearby."

Dutch looked irritated, "If we just-"

Celina shut him up with a look that could kill, "I mean it, Dutch. Nothing good is going to come out of this... and really, I didn't expect you to come up with something like this without Micah around. It's making me nervous, Dutch."

Dutch sighed and looked up to the sky, "I. Miss. Him."

Celina cringed a little and whispered under her breath so that Dutch couldn't hear her, "He's definately not up there."

Dutch pulled out a cigar and rolled it between his fingers, "I'll take into consideration your disapproval. You do have to remember, Miss Knoll that there is a reason this gang follows me, and all due respect, but not yourself."

Celina tilted her head to the side at his words, doing her best not to quip something smart back to him. It was hard sometimes for her to bite her tongue, however... She felt she had to at the moment. So, instead of getting mad, she grabbed his hand and gave him a small, sad smile, "I love you, Dutch. Please don't do anything stupid. Please try to trust me."

Dutch stared down into her eyes for a long moment and took a deep breath, "I love you too. You've got to understand though, I'm-" he took a deep breath, "I'm getting desperate here."

Celina was speechless for a second, not expecting those words to make their way out of his mouth- ever. She did her best to find a response that would comfort him, "It'll be ok, everything-" she looked around at the camp before back at him, "Everything will be ok." She put her hand on his chest, trailing her fingers over the silky fabric of his vest while staring up into his dark eyes. She wanted to kiss him, really wanted to kiss him.

Celina did just that, raising up on her tiptoes and placing her hand on the back of his neck, she leaned in, kissing him gently. Dutch kissed her back for a moment before pulling away, "Not now, we can't-" He gestured between the two of them, "I can't focus on us until we're through this whole mess."

Celina nodded and dropped back flat onto her feet, "I know. I just... It's been a while since I got to do that."

Dutch took a deep breath, "I know." His voice held slight disappointment, "It has been a while. But as soon as we're free, I am going to be the man you deserve." He lit his cigar, "Give you the life you deserve."

Celina tucked her lips in, savoring the taste of his, "Trelawny found out what brought me here."

Dutch raised a brow in interest, "Did he now? Well I've got to say, that man has a real knack for obtaining information that the rest of us can't seem to." He took her hand in his and began to lead her back in the direction of their tent, "Why don't you tell me about it?"

Bill sat outside by the fire in the same spot that Celina had left him to go and speak with Trelawny, still with his bottle in hand, drinking out of it slowly. He watched as Dutch stopped Celina from approaching him, so convenient. Bill grunted and stood to his feet, wanting to walk away but not being able to bring himself to do so as he watched Celina kiss Dutch and then head with him back to his tent.

The man took a deep breath and dropped the now empty bottle to the ground. Karen approached him with a small, half smile, "Are you gonna grow a pair and talk to her or not?"

Bill screwed up his face in annoyance and shook his head, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Karen rolled her eyes at the brute of a man and gestured discretely in the direction of Dutch's tent, "It's so obvious, Bill. The way you're always trying to keep her in your sight from what I see? Maybe you need to try letting her know how you feel."

Bill scoffed and uncorked the next bottle, "I don't feel like anything towards her. And it ain't none of your business."

Karen sighed and shook her head as Bill walked off. Sadie, seeing that she looked disappointed, approached her out of curiosity, "What's going on?"

Karen gestured to Bill who sat down on a crate by a tree a little ways away and out of earshot, "Bill likes Celina."

Sadie laughed, not because anything was funny, but because she was caught by surprise, "Bill likes Celina?" She kept her voice low so no one would overhear them.

Karen nodded and began picking up the empty bottles which the veteran had abandoned, "I'm trying to get him to let her know how he feels but he won't even admit it."

"Of course he won't," Sadie reasoned, "Why would he? Celina's with Dutch and I'm sure she doesn't feel the same way."

"You don't know that," Karen shrugged, "Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't know it yet."

Sadie raised a brow, "Really, Karen? Bill?"

"Well," Karen started, "You just don't know. Anyway, Celina seems like a good girl. I don't think she'd hurt him... could do him some good to talk about his feelings anyway."

"You know he won't." Sadie took a couple bottles from Karen, "I haven't known Bill long- haven't been with the gang long but he really don't seem like the talking sort."

"Yeah, I know that." Karen seemed a bit discouraged, "So I'm thinking maybe I'll just tell Celina myself."

Sadie rolled her eyes with a slight smile, "Of course you'll go looking for drama."

"Not drama, I'm just trying to help."

"I'm trying to help too by telling you to stay out of it, it will be better for everyone that way. If Bill wants her, he can tell her... but there's no way she's going to leave Dutch for him- or for anyone. It just ain't gonna happen." Sadie was obviously getting a little irritated at the drama Karen seemed to feel like she needed in her life, "Bringing this into the open is only going to make it worse for him.. if you're even right about how he feels."

At that, Sadie walked away and threw the bottles in the trash bin as she passed it. The need for drama and the lack of cleanliness were the only things which truly irked her around the camp. How hard was it really for someone to pick up after themselves? Her Jakey never had a problem with it..

...

"I still don't see why you can't just leave him alone." Celina grabbed Dutch's arm as he tried to make his way out to the horses. He had refused to listen to her about not killing Cornwall and she was frankly a little more than simply irritated regarding his decision, "Is this how it's going to be? You reverting to not listening to me?"

Dutch turned around to face her, doing his best not to get mad himself, "I've been living this life quite a bit longer than you. So, despite what you may think, I do happen to know when doing something is a necessity or not."

Celina let go of him and raked her hands through her hair to try to keep herself under control. He was being rediculous. Once again, Dutch was being utterly rediculous and she didn't like it, not one bit. She looked over at Arthur who had reluctantly agreed to go with Dutch as well as Sean, "Would you please try reasoning with him, Arthur?" She said this only after Dutch had put enough distance between the two of him that he likely wouldn't hear what was being said.

Arthur proceeded to mount his horse, not looking to happy about the current situation, "I tried." He sat up straight in his saddle and adjusted the reins, "I tried. I'm sorry but... He was going to do this whether anyone went with him or not."

Celina closed her eyes and nodded, "I know he was, you're... you're right."

She watched rather hopelessly as the three men rode out of camp, setting off towards Annesburg. She couldn't help but to be worried about Dutch, how could she not? Not only was she worried but she was actually mad at him always being hot and cold about listening to her and respecting her calls. She wasn't in charge of the gang, she knew that. She wasn't trying to be in charge, she was just trying to keep things from getting more complicated than they had to be.

She almost jumped when Hosea spoke to her, approaching from behind, "You've got your work cut out for you with that man."

Celina laughed humorlessly, "You're telling me." She shook her head and gestured in the direction they had taken off in, "I got him to agree to leave the natives alone at least. That's something."

Hosea looked confused, "Natives?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "The Indians. They haven't shown up here yet but they will soon and if things go how they have before, Dutch would take advantage of them and use them to draw attention away from us. Which is just... it's just wrong."

"Well of course it's wrong, no question about it," Hosea agreed, "At least that's something."

...

2018

Aiden leaned on the locker beside Scotty, facing outwards towards the hall as everyone else made their way to their classes, "No man," he slammed his hand against the locker in anger, "I'm so sick of how everyone looks at me because of... because of history. I'm proud of my family, I think it's cool as heck that I'm related to the people I am. Sitting in class though, it's like..." he tugged at his hair, "I don't even know."

The corner of Scotty's mouth dipped down slightly and he pushed himself off the lockers, "Makes you feel like everyone looks at you like you're like them?"

Aiden took a deep breath, "Yeah, man. I mean, I'm not ashamed. They were good people... in the end. But still, I just want to be seen as who I am. With my dad.. it," he laughed, "I feel like everyone's waiting for me to be wanted by the law next. Waiting for me to be hauled off to jail... or prison."

"So do you think Mrs. Clouse will allow you to skip out on the essay that we're writing?"

"Heck no," Aiden began to trudge on to his next class with his friend by his side, "She won't excuse me from it. She wants to see what I'll have to say. As fascinated as she is with the gang she's got to be absolutely thrilled to have me in her class. She'll milk it for all its worth."

Scotty made a sound of agreement, "I guess that's true... well," he stood there for a moment before parting ways temporarily with his best friend, "Just write the best essay you can man. You if no one else knew they were outlaws- not criminals, they stood for something."

Aiden nodded, "Yea, I know that. I just," he sighed, "I just wish that everyone else knew that about them. I guess I can't expect everyone to research history like I do though. I'll see you in a bit man."

Aiden walked into the classroom and took a seat at his desk im graphic design class. To him it was the best class of the day, sure, it was supposed to be about graphic design but if he sat there and did nothing or screwed around on the computer the whole period, the teacher wouldn't do anything about it.

The essay he had to write for his American History class was going to have to be well thought out. He typed 'Van Der Linde gang' into the search bar on the internet. The task was to explain how they felt about the Van Der Linde gang and why. They had to not only write about the gang as a whole but had to write about two specific people and their role in the gang as well... Well, actually their role in history as a whole he supposed. They had to determine how they had effected history and use facts to determine what type of people they thought their two choosen outlaws were- not based on how the law saw it, but just how they think they were personality wise. It may have been a fun task, Aiden thought, if he didn't feel like people would make out his family to look like pieces of crap.

Who would be write about? Celina And Dutch most likely. He only felt it right that he should in attempt to defend them against anyone who spoke badly about them. He hated high school, hated it so much. He knew that he should just drop out, but Mr. O'Reily... He had practically promised him that he wouldn't do that. He liked his principal and he knew that Mr. O'Reily hadn't been doing too well health wise... the thought saddened him, he couldn't be letting the old man down.

He looked over as Anna sat next to him, he knew the girl liked him, it was obvious. She moved her chair a little closer to him, looking as if she didn't think he would notice. He smiled at her a bit, "How's your day going?"

Anna shrugged and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, studying him with her brown eyes, "Ok I guess. Ready for it to be over." She clicked her computer on, "What about you?"

Aiden shrugged back at her, "It's ok."

"You going to write about your great-great grandparents for American History?"

Aiden rolled his eyes, "Yes, I don't see why not."

She offered him a small but shy smile, "I didn't mean to make you mad, you know... I was just trying to make conversation."

"Then ask me what movies I like or what I did yesterday... what I'm doing tonight. Be different, would you try to? I'm sick of everyone looking at me and seeing the great-great grandson of Dutch Van Der Linde."

"Oh, I'm... sorry." She was quiet for a moment.

Aiden sighed, "No," he shook his head upon realizing that he had probably been a little too harsh on her, "I'm- I should be sorry." He opened up the Photoshop system on the computer and stared at the loading screen, "I should probably be nicer."

Anna bit her bottom lip lightly, "What did you do last night?"

The boy laughed, "Not crap.. Well, ok, stuff that I really wasn't supposed to be doing."

Anna looked at him with interest, "Like what?"

He shrugged, "Smoking pot and getting really freaking drunnkk. What else?"

Anna smiled and looked down at the desk, "I don't know. Your life is a lot more exciting than mine, that's for sure."

"Well, when your dad's in prison for doing dirty work for the mob.
.. And your mom works a heck of a lot in attempt to make up for him being caught... what else is there really to you but to find a real good way to entertain yourself?" He looked over at her as if he expected her to actually answer his question.

In response, she stared at him quietly for a moment as she tried to think of what to say. It ended up not being anything interesting, "I can't even begin to imagine what I would do if I were in a situation like yours."

He took out a pack of gum and offered her a stick which she accepted, "Sometimes I don't know what to do with myself. Sometimes I think maybe I should just give in and become whatever people expect me to. Give them a good scare that I'm going to start my own gang some day." He laughed and stuck a piece of gum in his own mouth, "Who are you choosing to write your essay on?"

She tried to ignore his previous comment about giving in and following in the path of what everyone thought of him, "I don't know really, probably Sadie and Arthur? From what we've learned in class I think they would be interesting in writing about."

Aiden nodded, "That's the only reason I'm slightly interested in when we start doing these presentations... see who everyone picks to write about and why. I want to see what everyone thinks of the gang members, except Celina and Dutch obviously."

"Obviously," she blew a small bubble before popping it, "What are you going to do if they write some bad things though? I know it's your family... it would be hard even if you never knew them to hear them talked badly about."

He nodded, "We'll see."

...

1899

Dutch had killed Cornwall, actually done it. Part of Celina hoped that he'd either change his mind on the way to Annesburg and come back or that Arthur would manage to talk him out of it but unfortunately there was no such luck and the man had been killed before he had even come off his boat.

Dutch returned with high spirits about the whole thing for the most part thinking he had done something good and that that was a crucial step to their freedom. Celina, seeing how excited he was about it, how much it had made his spirits soar, was nothing but irritated with him and had flat out told him that he needed to keep his distance from her for the rest of the night. She meant it too.

She meant it to the extreme that upon his return she had went and sat one of their few spare tents up and laid down in it alone when night came. Was she tired? Sure, but that didn't mean that she would go to sleep anytime soon.

She sat in her cott with a lantern beside her and pulled out the journal she had been writing in lately. She figured she might as well write in it, it seemed quite a few others were in the habit of writing from time to time. Heck, she had even witnessed Bill once writing and it warmed her heart to think that maybe if he managed not to lose the journals he wouldn't have such a hard time remembering in the future.

Still, she had made it clear to them whether they thought of it themselves or not to never, ever mention time travel ever in their writing. Knowing how advanced the future would be, even with the witches saying that the world couldn't handle time travel again, she feared that the consequences of people finding out it had happened before would be disastrous. Surely they would do everyhing in their power to figure out how to time travel themselves and who knew what that would cause?

As she sat upright on the cott, She stared at the blank page of her journal with her pen poised to write. The only problem was she had no idea what to write.

Dear journal,

Dutch was being almost unbearably irrational today... He killed a man despite how I felt about it and then came back like he had found a pot of gold. That man? Well, his name was Leviticus Cornwall and he had apparently been funding the laws persuit of us.
I just really hope that this don't come back to bite us and that we can make it out of here tomorrow or.. it may be the day after when the boat arrives to take us to Tahiti. I'm looking forward to it, a tropical paradise it will be, or I hope it will be...

I feel like when we get there it won't be long before Dutch asks me to marry him. I mean, we haven't talked about it- marriage. It's just a feeling I have. He keeps going on about wanting to be the man I deserve. If you ask me, not killing Cornwall would have been a pretty good step in the right direction. Then, he is Dutch, so what can I really expect?

Celina read over her journal entry once before sliding it and her pen under the cott and turning the lantern off, sitting it on the floor and then making herself as comfortable as possible in her bed. It was weird she thought to be sleeping without Dutch at her side, almost too weird.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the fabric above her before giving up. She didn't want to sleep alone and she truthfully doubted that she would be able to. That realized, she forced herself to get back up and made her way across camp to to Dutch's tent.

Seeing the fabric door closed, she pushed the flap aside and walked in without a seconds hesitation to see Dutch laying in his bed and reading a book. He lowered the book and looked over at her when she came in, "Thought you weren't talking to me for the night?"

Celina rolled her eyes, "Turns out I wasn't talking to you just for the evening."

Dutch eyed her quietly for a moment, "So you're coming to bed?"

"If you'll have me."

He laughed and sat his book on the small table beside his bed and beckoned her to him, "Of course I'll have you, come over here."

She reluctantly complied, climbing into the bed as he scooted over to make room for her. She snuggled up against him as he wrapped his strong arms around her and she relaxed against him, content. She said nothing for a moment but just closed her eyes, enjoying feeling him against her, his thumb rubbing small circles on her abdomen.

It was Dutch who broke the silence, "I'm sorry about Cornwall.. not sorry about killing him but sorry that I upset you by not caring about your thoughts regarding what I did."

Celina nodded in acknowledgement but did not comment on the matter. Instead, she spoke of something entirely different, "When does the boat leave for Tahiti?"

"The day after tomorrow."

She was quiet for another moment, "You really vex me sometimes, Dutch."

Dutch chuckled, he knew that was the case, of course that had to be the case, "Is that so?"

Celina couldn't help but laugh back at him, he sounded so full of crap, "It is so." She gave his hand a gentle, affectionate squeeze, "It really is." She licked her lips, "And sometimes I really want to shove my boot where the sun don't shine. But, but, I think if you went too long without getting under my skin I just might start to worry about you."

...

A/N: There's today's chapter, kinda struggled to get a decent length out of this one but that's where Aiden helps out XD

Anyway, what do you think about Karen wanting to tell Celina about Bill's feelings? How do you think that will go?

And any thoughts about the 2018 bit? Do you guys like Aiden?

They're finally about to try to make a break for Tahiti in about two days! Hope you enjoyed!

Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 or anything associated with it.