Chapter Text
John Marston’s Little Sister
She’s still trying to figure out how everything went to shit so damn quickly. Davey and Jenny are dead. Mac and Sean are…well, hopefully, alive and out there looking for them. She hopes that bastard Micah didn’t kill her brother or abandon him in that snowstorm. This job was supposed to be it. One last big score so they could retire and live comfortable lives for a change. But then everything went to Hell. So many people, not just Law, innocents too. She never liked killing innocents, always tried to find some way around it but at times her hand was forced. Forced by Dutch that is.
When Dutch and Hosea took John and Danielle ‘Dani’ Marston under their wings, they were both grateful. Their mother had died giving birth to Dani and their father, their birth father, was a drunken fool. The siblings were taught how to read, how to, well, how to live. Not that it was a great life mind you, seeing as they were usually on the run from the Law, but it was better than the one that had been originally planned for them. They were on the streets; Dani probably would’ve had to turn to prostitution when she got to a certain age while John would’ve robbed whoever he could for whatever he could get. With Dutch and Hosea, they were somewhat safe at least, they had plenty of people they could rely on. Eventually, they found that both Danielle and John were excellent shots and, although Hosea didn’t necessarily like Dani being on the more risky jobs, they were both often asked to come along on jobs that required guns.
So, the Blackwater job went to Hell, and now they were stuck up in the mountains in the middle of a snowstorm with almost all their crew dead or missing…most likely dead also. Abigail declared Davey dead, not that they really needed the confirmation. Miss Grimshaw gave her orders, as she usually did, and Hosea asked what they were going to do now.
“Well, first of all, you are gonna stay here and you are gonna get yourself warm. I sent John and Micah scouting out ahead, Arthur and I are gonna ride out and see if we can find one of ‘em.” Dutch told him.
Arthur wasn’t sure about that idea because of the storm but Dutch didn’t want to risk possibly losing John and Micah.
Although she was exhausted, Dani had to ask, “Dutch, can I ride out with you? I-I wanna make sure my brother is okay.”
“No way Danielle, not in this storm. You’re already exhausted, and don’t say you’re not because I know you’ve been up since Blackwater and I know you are in pain. Just trust me, Arthur and I will find John. Or at least we’ll find Micah and ask him where John is. I promise you he will be fine.” Dutch told her, adamantly.
Danielle knew there was no use arguing, she knew that she’d be outnumbered anyway since Hosea and Arthur would’ve told her the same. Arthur, more than anyone else in the gang besides John, of course, meant a lot to her. He was as much her brother as John was. Arthur had always looked out for Dani and John, no matter how much he teased John. So instead sighed and nodded and took a seat while Dutch began to give one of his infamous speeches.
“Now listen to me all of you, for a moment. Now we’ve had, well, a bad couple of days. I loved Davey, Jenny. Sean, Mac, they may be okay, we don’t know. But we lost some folks. Now, if I could throw myself in the ground in their stead…I’d do it. Gladly. Now, we are gonna ride out and we are gonna find some food. Everybody, we’re safe now. There ain’t nobody following us in a storm like this and by the time they get here, well, we’re gonna be long gone. We’ve been through worse than this before. Mr. Pearson, Miss Grimshaw, I need you to turn this place into a camp. We may be here for a few days. Now all of you, all of you. Get yourselves warm. Stay strong. Stay with me! We ain’t done yet!” And with that, he and Arthur left to find John and Micah.
And find Micah they did. He led them up to some homestead not too far from their new camp, where it turned out there were some damn O’Driscoll’s, who had killed the poor man who owned the place and…well, Dani didn’t even want to think about what they did to the man’s wife. What’s worse is that the poor widow could’ve kept her home, if she wanted to do so even without her husband there, but Micah was an idiot and scared her which resulted in her home being burned to the ground. And so, Mrs. Sadie Adler, widow, was now a part of their, now little, gang.
Dani was almost asleep when she heard Lenny yell that Dutch was back. Abigail tried to get her to keep resting but Dani had to see if Dutch had found John, and if he hadn’t, ask Micah where the Hell her brother was. She came to a halt when she saw Sadie on Dutch’s horse. Even in the state Sadie was in she was still one of the most, if not the most, beautiful woman Dani had ever seen.
Danielle knew she preferred the company of women when John had introduced her to Abigail. At that time, Abigail was the most beautiful woman Dani had ever seen, but she didn’t quite know what that had meant at the time. She had heard that two men were killed because they were caught, enjoying each other’s company let’s say, so when Danielle started to develop feelings beyond attraction towards Abigail, she pushed them down deep and never mentioned it to anyone. Certainly not John, not Hosea who was the closest thing to a father she had ever truly had, not even Arthur who was like another brother to her and who she knew she could trust with anything. Eventually, although she was still physically attracted to Abigail, Dani got over the stronger feelings she had as Abigail and John’s relationship grew. When John left the gang for a year shortly after little Jack was born, Danielle was furious. John had doubted that he was Jack’s father and rather than accepting Abigail was telling the truth, that he was, in fact, Jack’s father, he ran off because he didn’t want to be a father. The redhead was so angry with her brother because how dare he abandon his family; how dare he just throw away what she so wished she could have.
John just leaving like that was another reason why Danielle was so worried about his whereabouts now. What if he got scared since the Blackwater job went south and took off again? She hoped her brother would never do that to them again, but she wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t. So, Dani confronted Micah.
“Hey Micah, what happened to John?” She asked, glaring at Micah.
“Aw don’t worry about him kid, we decided to split up and once the damn storm came in, I couldn’t see anything. I’m sure he’ll turn up by morning.”
“That ain’t good enough Micah. Where. Is. My brother.” She was in his face now.
“You better back off little girl. Gettin’ in someone’s face like that might get you into trouble.” He leered back.
“Well ya see, I’m a Marston. Gettin’ into trouble is sorta what we do.”
Spotting the two before heading to his room, Arthur stepped in. “Alright that’s enough, the both of you. Danielle, I am sure John will be fine. You know him, things always turn out right for that boy.”
“Fine. But if we don’t find him by the end of tomorrow, I am holding you,” she poked the man’s chest, “responsible Micah and trust me, you don’t wanna be on my bad side.” And at that, she stormed off to finally get some rest.
“Bring it on sweetheart, I got no problems hittin’ a-.”
Arthur cut Micah off, “I said enough Micah.”
Walking into the cabin all the women, apart from Molly who was of course with Dutch, and Jack, shared, Abigail ran over to Danielle, “Dani, does Micah know where John is? Is he alright? Is he safe? Is he-.”
“Abigail, stop. Listen to me okay? Micah said he lost John in the storm but don’t worry. I’ll go out in the morning and see if I can find him. I told Micah if we didn’t have John back by the end of tomorrow he was in some serious trouble.”
Pulling the redhead into a hug, Abigail cried, “What if somethin’s happened to him Dani? Or what if…what if he’s left us again?”
Dani pulled the other woman close, “Hey, I said don’t worry okay. Whatever kind of state he’s in I’m gonna find him, even if he has…left us, again. I’m gonna hunt my dumbass brother down and beat the crap out of him for leaving you and that little boy again.”
That got a small laugh out of Abigail, “Thank you Dani. You do so know how to make a girl feel better.”
Danielle blushed, “Aw, it’s nothin’ really. Now,” she cleared her throat and pulled out of the hug awkwardly, we’d better get some rest. We can ask Arthur and maybe one more to come with me to find John in the morinin’.”
With that, they said their goodnights, and everyone finally got a good night’s sleep. They were going to be okay.
Or so they thought.