Van Der Linde Savior (Red Dead Redemption 2)

Beaver Hollow

Celina sat down on a log by the camp fire which Bill was sitting at alone and looking rather lost in his thought. For the time being, she was letting Arthur deal with the fact that Dutch seemed convinced they needed to make noise in order to leave the country. Of course she didn't believe that they should get the natives involved in order to draw attention away from themselves but that hadn't come up quite yet so for now, she felt like it would be best to just let it slide. Heck, even the bridge that she knew Dutch may come up with the idea of blowing up seemed like a stupid idea to her. She figured that at the point they were at they should just travel for a bit, get to a quitter location and then work on getting out to Tahiti. That, she would talk to Dutch about later, the idea seemed as good as any.

Celina finally said something to Bill, "Hey, Bill, are we..." She felt like she could talk openly to him as everyone else was doing one thing or another and she doubted anyone was paying attention, "Are we ok? After.. you know." She fidgeted with her hands almost awkwardly and looked down at the ground, "After what happened with me out by the river after the cabin, I just feel like we haven't spoken since and that was about a week ago."

"That's cause we haven't." Bill took another drink of his whisky.

Celina nodded and sat up straighter, "So what's going on?"

Bill sat the glass bottle down and fixed her with a hard stare, what was he supposed to say? That he could hardly stand being around her sometimes due to the fact that he was loyal to Dutch and she was too and it was all just... it was all just stupid, "Do you know why I'm loyal to Dutch?" There, that was a good start. Wasn't it?

"Well, I suppose I don't know the story if that's what you're asking."

Bill waited for a minute to proceed further with the conversation, it was a long enough pause that Celina for a second was uncertain if he was going to say anything else. He let out a grunt, "Dutch... he.." Bill shook his head and thought for another second of how he wanted to phrase what he had to say, "Dutch found me shortly after my time in the army had come to an end. I... well, I were in a real bad place at the time..." Bill gestured to her, doing his best to keep his eyes on her face, "Kinda like you were when I found you by the river, real close to it. I had almost... a few times." Bill shook his head, "That's why I told you that you didn't really want to do it.. I" He changed the direction of his sentence, "When Dutch came across me, I was drunk, real drunk and, well, I tried to rob him. Tried. You know, Dutch- well Dutch just laughed at me, and I was so mad that I coulda put a bullet in him right then and there. You know what though?" Bill perked up a little, "He managed to cheer me up, and he gave my life purpose. Dutch Van Der Linde saved me five years ago and to this very day, he did and I will be forever in his debt. So when I say I'm loyal to Dutch, I mean it. When I say I have faith in him, I mean it, he will get you through, he gets me through and he'll get all of us through."

Bill took another drink of the whisky he had sitting at his feet, "I guess what I'm trying to say is I couldn't envision a future where I would be disloyal to Dutch and if I ever were." Bill took yet another swig, "If I ever were, I suppose I would have to have a damn good reason and then more."

Celina stared at him for a moment in silence, not quite understanding what Bill's point was in telling her what he had no matter how heartwarming it was to hear him explain his loyalty to Dutch. She licked her lips slowly trying to assess how that tied into whether he two of them were ok or not, "It's good that you care about Dutch so much, Bill. I'm sorry you had to go through all you've had to."

Bill nodded, "I'm not stupid, you know? I may not be as smart as Dutch or Hosea but I ain't stupid. I notice things and I bring in just as much for the gang as everyone else. I," He pointed a finger at his head, "I know things and I," He put his hand over his heart, "I feel things."