Bad Beginnings (A RDR2 Fanfic)

Life Saver

The saloon was busy. It was around 1 and Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur had a table in the corner. Dutch and Hosea were drinking whiskey while Arthur was sitting and doodling in his journal.

It was supposed to be a quiet afternoon, but nothing normal ever happened when Arthur was involved. Dutch and Hosea were telling a story about a massive bear they shot, when a man approached their table.

"Dutch Van der Linde," the man said very dramatically, leaning over the table. "At last."

"How's it going, William?" Dutch says casually, taking another sip of his whiskey.

The man named William pulled up a chair. "Not very good, since the last time you stole from me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dutch replied, playing the ignorant card.

"Oh I think you do. You and Mr. Matthews both know what I'm talking about," William growls. William was very intimidating, so Arthur wasn't sure how Dutch was keeping his cool.

William was about 6 foot and had dark brown mixed with light brown hair, long underneath a black cowboy hat. He had a shotgun across his back and a revolver in his belt. His lips seemed permanently in a sneer and his dark eyes looked suspicious. His facial hair made it even worse. Long side burns, a thick handlebar mustache. What made it worse, however, was his lack of beard hair. Arthur wasn't into it and he vowed to never have such terrible facial hair.

Arthur tried to keep his head down, but checking out such a creepy guy made him look up a bit.

"What are you looking at, boy?" the man growled to Arthur.

"Hey, leave the kid alone," Hosea intervened. Arthur was shocked that Hosea was defending him, but he was primarily distracted with how nervous he was. This wasn't going to end well.

"Last time I saw you boys, y'all didn't have a child with you," William continued. "I didn't know you were recruiting children, Dutch."

Dutch stood with the screetch of his chair. "Mr. Matthews, Mr. Morgan, let's leave."

Arthur and Hosea stood to follow, and shit hit the fan as soon as they walked out the door.

If William was trying to piss Dutch off, he achieved his goal when the first punch was thrown, catching Arthur in the jaw and knocking him into the mud.

Dutch knocked William into the mud as Hosea offered Arthur a hand up.

"You're defending children, too Dutch!" William laughed. "One you must hardly know, cause I didn't see him with y'all a week ago!"

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about, Mr. Hunter," Dutch replied, cracking a punch across William's jaw.

William was clearly stronger than Dutch, so he quickly knocked Dutch off him and was able to start going to town, breaking a cut open on Dutch's lip and causing blood to run into the dirt.

Arthur knew that he couldn't just let Dutch get his ass kicked out here. It would ruin his reputation, saying that there was now a crowd gathering around.

Without thinking, Arthur grabbed a plank of wood from a nearby wagon outside of the saloon, then, with all his strength, hit it across the back of William's head.

With a cry, William fell to the mud, unconscious. Dutch sat up quickly, looking to Hosea first. When he realized Hosea didn't do anything, he turned to Arthur who was still clutching the plank of wood.

"Mr. Morgan!" Dutch said, as Arthur dropped the wood. "You quite possibly just saved my life."

Arthur and Hosea each put one of Dutch's arms over their shoulders and walked him over to The Count.

"I think we should call it quits for today, Dutch," Hosea said, after Dutch insisted that he could stand just fine. "We need to get out of here."

"Okay, Hosea, that sounds reasonable," Dutch replied. He then turned to Arthur. "Son, you ride with me."

Arthur nodded, then climbed onto The Count behind Dutch, and wrapped his arms around the older man.

"Thank you, Arthur," Dutch said quietly. "I think we should keep you around for a while."

"Thank you, sir," Arthur replied. "I'd love to stay with you guys." They went into silence, before Arthur asked, "Can I admit something kinda strange?"

"Of course, Mr. Morgan."

"I haven't known you or Mr. Matthews very long, but... you guys feel like, I don't know, family I guess."

"Well," Dutch replied. He paused for a second. "We'd be happy to have you."

Arthur smiled a little bit before wrapping his arms a little tighter around Dutch and pressing his cheek to the man's shoulder.