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"Maybe it's kind of like with Marlene," she replies. "I don't like her, but I respect the way she runs things. She can keep people in line, she sticks to her guns."
"I don't think Sadie wants to keep people in line. She wants people to take her seriously, though. People don't, where I'm from. Not a woman wearing trousers."
"They figure she wants to be a man more than she wants to be herself. Which ain't the truth. She wanted to kill the motherfuckers who killed her husband more than anything else, that's what."
"Gang leader got hanged. And then she asked me to come an' help her kill the rest of the gang."
So, yes. Revenge was thoroughly had, because Tess must know what Arthur said to that request.
"Did it settle shit?"
He doesn't know if it was ethical, but it was the right thing to do for a person he cared about. One of the last things he could do for her.
"For her? I don't know. Revenge ain't ever what you want it to be. But I know she wasn't ever gonna rest until it was done."
"I don't think I would either," she says. She and Sadie can be the same in that way, too.
"I know," he sighs, somewhat fondly. "I know. Take care of yourself first, and fuck up your enemies second."
Tess laces her fingers with his, supposedly under the guise of inspecting his injuries some more, but she ends up holding his hand just because she can, thumb idly stroking along an unmarred patch of skin.
"Sadie and I are going to have to get along, even just long enough to help you out."
His eyes stay closed, in that case. The touch is a comfort unlike anything he thought he'd needed. After nearly dying, after being manipulated, tortured, he needs an anchor.
"She was one of the few people left I could trust. Could rely on. I reckon you're all too aware of how much that means, ain't you?"
He cracks one eye open and gives her the smallest of smiles, pulling at his moustache.
"So you understand how much it means to me I can rely on you too. Don't know that I say it enough."
[After a long and very strange week, Arthur takes a day to be alone in his own head. He tells Tess so, that he just needs a moment to get back to himself - and then resurfaces, a day later, to knock on her door with a bottle of whiskey.]
Already back for more?
[That's lighthearted, but she figures some people wouldn't talk to her for a month if they had to ride around in her head for a week.]
Not if you're goin' out, I'm not. [He seems - a little surprised. Which is unfair, because she's always had a very active social life outside of him, but they usually catch each other at the right time.]
[She steps back to let him in to make a point, and she goes to get a couple glasses for that whiskey.]
I just figured you'd take off camping or something for a couple days after something like that.
[It's not like he'd let her duck what he'd heard in her head for all that long, but it's easier to pretend he'd be the one putting it off.]
As much as I'd like to hog the Enclosure for a whole week, I'm trying not to make any more enemies out here.
[He sits down at her table and twists the top off the bottle. Sorry, lady, you're not getting off that easy.]
[She sets the glasses down and goes back to putting her earring in.]
Ain't talked to the fellas who almost killed me yet, but I can't imagine they're too friendly here either.
[She feels confident about that. Her killer hasn't surfaced after almost a year, after all –– fucking coward, whoever they are.]
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