Chapter Text
The sun heated up the tracks on Butter Bridge, It was still morning though and the mix of cool air made the perfect temperature. Midge was still wearing Dermots saddle, it was old and worn but well kept, 'D.M' etched into the trim of it in false gold, the leather on the rest of it was a once-rich oak-y sort of brown colour. It was a little small for Midge, he couldn't lie, but even though Daisy was a cob, she was always kept a little on the heavier side so not too bad. She had a smooth gate, made Isaacs healing injuries ache less when he rode her. He could feel Irwins gaze on him as they approached the old rickety crossing, he could see Mexico on the other side.
It wasn't dissimilar to New Austin, sandy cliffs, pale sky, tumble weeds, some cacti. Still, it felt like liking looking into another world, separated by the calm river of San Luis below them.
They stopped at the edge of the bridge, where grass cut off into planks but the tracks continued across. He could see where some of the wood was different - some of the many repairs.
"You'll be okay," Irwins reassuring voice, sounded like it was reassuring himself more than Isaac. "write to me, I ain't the most literate... Neither is you but write to me, still."
"I will." Isaac replied, blankly.
They sat in silence for another little bit, staring off onto Mexico, feeling the breeze, Midges occasional pitter-pattering when she got restless, clearly unsure what as happening.
Isaac heard Irwin dismount, the slide of leather and the grunt of a man passed his prime, "come down 'ere a second."
The boy stared down at him for a second, before doing as he was told, dismounting so be was stood infront of him. Irwin reached out and wrapped his arms around the boys shoulders.
Isaac wasn't expecting that, Irwin was warm, sweaty, thank god he'd put a shirt on for the occasion. He didn't mind though, he hadn't felt that kind of warmth in a long time, the feeling that he was wanted. If only he could stay, live with Irwin, help him on one of his homesteads. He hugged Irwin back momentarily, until they pulled away and the farmer kept a firm hand on Isaacs shoulder, his unkept mutton-chops and mustache bent into a crooked smile.
He nodded up at him with his own half-hearted smile and climbed back up onto Midge, checking the saddle bag was secure and adjusting himself accordingly.
"I'll see you later, Farmer Irwin." Isaac couldn't bring himself to look down at him, it probably came off as dismissive how he just stared forward, eager even. He was far from it.
"Goodbye, best of luck." Irwin nodded back, watching as Isaac trotted away.
…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
Nothing really felt different when he crossed that bridge. He wasn't filled with a newfound motivation or enthusiasm when Midge hooves hit mexican ground or when night started falling and the sun faded behind the cliffs. He just rode and rode. The only thing that was on his mind was that he'd never see Siobhan again, or Nancy, Farmer Irwin or Kieran ...Dermot.
At some point he passed a structure that reminded him of Fort Mercer, big gates at the front. He could hear voices from inside but when he saw a military looking feller walking along the top of it, he decided to move along, maybe he'd stop somewhere that looks a little more friendly.
He kept riding until the moon passed the middle of the sky, right into early morning, watching as rodents scurried along the tall grass, eyeing the ruins and random buildings, graves and memorials. He didn't hate the climate, better than Lemoyne by far. The sky had some clouds, not rainy or gloomy, though.
He settled down for camp eventually, lighting a fire with a simple bedroll next to it, keeping his gun at the ready, incase he was bothered by locals. Not like he had much to steal anyway, not a dollar or 'peso' to his name.
The hair on his back stood on edge stood on end when he heard rustling in the bushes beside him, he grabbed his gun and pointed it, expecting a coyote or something.
Instead, the bushy tail of a fox emerged, dragging what looked like a juvinile deer by the neck. It was half eaten, it's ribs exposed, it's face permanently suspended in a wide eyed terrified expression that Isaac could see his reflection in the pupils of.
It dropped the deer to look at Isaac and Midge.
"What you want?"
The fox just stared at him, daring to take a few steps closer.
"Hey- no- go on! Get!" Isaac waved his arms around as he tried to scare away the fox.
It jumped back but didn't quite run away yet, he was getting frustrated now, so he picked up a rock and threw it in the foxes direction. It jumped back, hesitating as it grabbed it's deer again and started dragging it in the opposite direction.
The boy turned back to the fire, watching it dance, send little sparks up to the sky. He could hear Midge snacking on some shrubbery behind him. It was peaceful, in a depressing, lonely way. He took a deep breath, and lied down on his bedroll, laying a hand on his repeater, ready for if he were ambushed in his sleep.
…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
Waking up the next morning was uneventful, the air was fresh, a little sandier than in Big Valley, not as crisp. He didn't bother relighting the fire and just scoffed a can of peaches before packing up camp and tacking up Midge. He followed the direction he was going before, the landscape didn't much change, just shrubs and dirt and shrubs and dirt then a cactus and a pretty flower then more shrubs and dirt.
It wasn't long before he was riding behind a lone rider, much like himself. he was obviously from around here,, middle aged, decent weight on him, seemed like he could spare some money. He wasn't wearing a holster, infact he just looked like the average joe, going about his business, which is why Isaac felt guilty when he raised his gun to him.
The guy looked confused at first, why this scrawny white boy was pointing a gun at him.
"Put your hands where I can see them and get off your horse."
The guy put his hands up, "¿Que? ¿Americano?"
"What? I said get off your horse!" Isaac motioned the gun down this time.
The man seemed to understand, he slid down carefully, "¿Cómo? ¿Qué es lo que pasa? ¿He hecho algo?"
"Uh....shit," Isaac didn't know a lick of mexican or whatever he was speaking, "uh... Vamos!" He had no idea what it meant he just knew it was something.
The guy started running and Isaac panicked, "wh- hey! No! No!" Isaac said 'no' in a random accent as if that was supposed to help.
He chased the guy up with Midge, stopping her Infront of him, the man, still seemed confused.
"Look- just... Just stay still." Isaac slowly stepped off Midge and approached the man, keeping a hand up for him to stay put, still pointing his gun at him.
He slowly reached into the mans pocket, pulling out a wallet that was obviously very old.
"Espera, tengo que alimentar a mis hijos. ¡Por favor, hermano!" The mexican man pleaded, which only made Isaac feel even more terrible.
He opened it quickly and awkwardly with one hand, and took a portion of whatever notes were in there, before presenting the open wallet to the man, trying to show him that there was still some money left.
"¿No vas a llevarte todo?¿Solo unos pocos?¿Podrías haberlo preguntado?" Isaac knew the man was very confused, but he had no idea how to answer him, so he just slid the wallet back into the man's pocket, and pointed at his horse, watching as he mounted his own horse carefully, keeping an eye on Isaac.
The american pointed in the direction they both came from, trying to get him to go back, "go."
When the man just looked in that direction confused, Isaac jerked towards him threateningly, "go!"
The poor man seemed to get the memo, and turned his horse, galloping in the other direction. Isaac turned to look at his reward, that didn't go terribly, considering, there was a few notes, they had numbers on them, had to be enough for something.
The plan was to find the nearest saloon, see if anyone there looked like they could use a ranch hand, or a paper boy or something, maybe if anyone there could speak english.
…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
It was close to sunset by the time he approached another bout of civilization. Well... Civilised not-so-much. It was filled with rowdy drunkards, half dressed girls, broken glass and angry wives. It seemed the opposite of the last one he'd ridden by, not an ounce of law in sight.
Still, there was all sorts of people, he had to find some sort of work there. He left Midge outside the wall, out of fear for her safety.
Stroking her face gently, "If anything goes wrong, squeal and run," with that, he left her and wandered into the main area, making sure to take his valuables in his satchel out of fear he was robbed.
Isaac could feel the burns of peoples of people stares on him, some drunkards pointed and said something in a language he didn't understand, some of the working girls giggled and muttered things in hushed tones. He approached the building with the saloon doors, that had to be the saloon right?
When he walked in, the whole joint went silent, everyone turned to look at him, a sea of glazed over eyes glaring at him. Everyone, motionless, bar the bar tender who was cleaning a glass. The saloon wasn't very clean, well, not any cleaner then the bars in New Austin.
He sat down slowly at the bar, the people around him started going back to what they were doing, only occasionally casting a suspicious glare in Isaacs direction. The bar tender took a while to actually see him, not asking what he wanted, just leaning over him.
"Y- uh... whiskey, please... partner...," The boy mumbled.
The bar tender only tilted his head, a little intimidating, before nodding and picking up a bottle from behind him, pouring it into a glass, "tres pesos."
Isaac heard pesos... he didnt know how many so he just slapped five on the counter, it couldn't be more than five right? Well the bartender took three out of the five and slid the other two back to him.
"Oh... thank you, friend," He was trying his best to seem friendly, maybe the bar tender needed a cleaner? Maybe someone in the vicinity could hear his very obvious struggle with the mexican language?
He sat in the loud bar, watching working girls wander in and out with different men, drunkards get into scuffles, cheers, some folks dancing and singing, he watched one guy pick pocket another who was passed out on the seat. Isaac didn't really know what to do with himself, and like hell was he just wandering up to someone, the sound all started sort of blurring together.
"!una must, chicos!" A guy shouted, throwing his arms up and motioning to his group.
"Pareces solitario..." A lady said to a man who practically threw his money at her.
"Now... let's have some fun!" He heard Colms distant voice, all he could do was stare straight forward.
"¡hola, hermosa! ? Por què no te vienes aquí?"
"Bit late for that now, Son." He wasn't there, he couldn't be.
¡Canta conmigo!" The piano started playing.
After the music started he wasn't there anymore, he was in some distant realm, a million miles away, where Colm could catch him at any moment, or maybe that was right here, either way, he couldn't move. All he could do was stare unblinking, listening to the joy and cheerful singing of Mexico intertwined with the gut wrenching taunts and jeers of the O'Driscolls, covered in blood, his and Kierans, strike after strike after strike, laughing at him, helpless, weak, held down, passed around.
"Oye, estàs bien?" He thought he'd heard a voice, it half broke him away from whatever was possessing him, but it took one more try to grab his attention, "!oye, hermano!"
Isaac turned to the side of him, to see a girl, around his age, trying to get his attention, he panicked a little, having just snapped put of whatever trance he'd fallen into, "s-sorry I don't speak mexican..."
"Spanish."
"I- I don't..."
"No, Not mexican, mexican is not a language, we speak spanish here," He was surprised when the girl started speaking english, very well at that.
It was then Isaac really started to focus on her, she had long, curley black hair and these gorgeous amber eyes, she wore a simple white a blue dress with some lace-y sort of frills to it. She was beautiful.
"Oh- uhm... well I speak english..." Isaac was half tempted to smash his head onto the counter and knock himself out when he fumbled over his words like that.
He didn't, she giggled and leaned against the counter, examining him over while smiling, "I can see that, amigo, how long have you been here? In Mexico, I mean."
"Ran into some trouble, back home I mean, now I'm here, looking for work."
She grinned ear to ear and looked him up and down, now it seemed like she was laughing at him, "you want to be a prostitute?"
"Pardon me?" Isaac was dumbfounded.
She shook her head, still grinning, "This is Casa Madrugada, most of the work you find here will be selling yourself."
Isaac felt his ears burn, no, that was not why here was here, but he thought of a way to flip this, "Is that why your here?"
"Wow, what a gentleman," she rolled her eyes, "no... I'm just here, I ran away from my fathers farm a few months ago."
"Why on earth would you do that?"
"I was his princess, locked away in a tower, all I could do was read some books, do laundry and watch the sunrise every morning, he wouldn't even let my 'delicate hands' milk a cow, I am my own person, and now I'm free to be my own person,"
As Isaac listened to the story, he became more and more interested in her, the background noise of the bar slowly drowned out, muted by her, "oh, so how'd you learn english?"
She sighed, "through reading books, I taught myself more or less, to write too, I can't so much write English though, only Spanish, believe it or not you're not the first Americano to pass through here."
Isaac nodded along, "you must be real smart then, I can't really read or write... What's yer name?" Speaking to her felt so casual, so free, he couldn't remember the last time he spoke to someone his own age that wasn't Siobhan.
He missed Siobhan, the way she'd jab him at every opportunity, how they'd confide in eachother, how old fashioned her mother was, it was hard to believe Nancy fell pregnant to an outlaw.
"Rosita Elena Herrera," She said, holding out her hand for a harty handshake.
Isaac reached out and shook her hand, her hand was firm, shaking his enthusiastically, "Isaac Hosea Morgan."
"Nice to meet you, that big grey and black horse outside the wall your's?"
"Uh... Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I watched you walk in."
"You've been watching me?"
"¡Hola, señor! ¡Dos whiskies, por favor!" Rosita suddenly waved her hand at the bar tender and pushed a few pesos to him, ignoring his question, The tender was alot more friendly to her, sliding two glasses along the table with a nod.
"Buying me a drink, miss? Where'd you make the money to be able to do that?"
She took the whiskey down in one gulp and shrugged, that mischievous grin on her face. Maintaining eye contact with him, she made her way over to a drunk man, whos head was sat on the table.
Doing an innocent little spin, as if she was dancing to the music, she swiped a hand near his neck, then held up a gold chain to Isaac, who was now well out of hearing distance in the loud bar. Her breath-taking eyes then flickered over to another drunkard, who was stumbling around a lady who was clearly buttering him up, his wallet was half hanging out his back pocket.
This was it, this is where he decided to was either a thief, or move on from this 'Casa Madrugada' and try find an honest living. He turned away, fighting the urge to follow her every request, to rob the bar blind just to impress her, or shame her.
He looked back to the table, fidgeting with the glass in his hand for a second, before daring to slowly look back at her, Rosita was now pouting, as if she was sad he wouldn't rob the man, it made Isaac feel guilty, and a little embarrassed. Look at her, how could he not do everything she said?
The boy finally stood up, prompting another grin from the girl, and awkwardly shuffled over to the man.
The drunkard had the women backed up against the wall, he had a gold tooth so Isaac didn't feel as bad robbing him, and when he finally got close enough behind him, he swiped the wallet from his back pocket, slowly tucking it into his satchel. When he looked back and Rosita she was making her way toward the saloon doors again, motioning her head for him to follow her.
He had to scramble a little to catch up to her, but he did, she looked down into his satchel, "what's in it?"
"I- I don't know I didn't look," he was still shaking a little bit, he'd pick pocketed plenty of people in american saloons, but there was something different about the environment, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever stop shaking fully after what happened with Colm.
"Well come on, lets have a look." Rosita nudged him with her elbow playfully.
Quickly, he reached into the satchel as they walked towards the entrance of Casa Madrugada, towards Midge. When he pulled out the wallet, he slowly opened it, to be met with a healthy amount of green. Rosita quickly snatched it and counted all the money, "There must be a hundred Pesos in here, excellent work, Amigo, We will be good business partners."
She smacked his shoulder light-heartedly handed the wallet back to him, before he could answer, the voice of a man sounded from outside the bar, "¡Ay! ¡Ese gringuito me robó la billetera!"
"¡Mierda! Run!" She took off laughing, running towards Isaacs horse, he had no choice but to follow her.
She was fast, making it to Midge first, who panicked a little when she jumped up to sit on her rump. Isaac quickly followed, sliding his foot into the stirrup as he threw himself ontop of her. Usually it took much more of a climb due to her size, but either adrenaline or the few inches he'd sworn he had grown being so well fed by Farmer Irwin made it easy.
He kicked her into a gallop, and she took off into the night, kicking up dust behind her, a cloud that choked the man who ran out of Casa Madrugada, shaking his fist in rage. The working lady who was buttering him up only walked out to watch them leave, and as she watched her money disappear with them, she shrugged and waved off the man, who scurried after her. Rosita was holding onto him by the waist, which made his heart beat that little bit faster, and she could probably hear it considering the side of her face was pressed up against his back.
He kept riding even after he was sure they weren't being chased, he'd missed this, feeling the wind in his hair, the silver moonlight, the way the wind defend every terrible thought, the way Midges hooves shook the earth as her sheer mass hit the ground with every stride. This was his peace.
When the usual solace was positively broken by Rosita's giggling, it only made it better. As cactus and brown, crumbly bushes rode by them, she released Isaacs waist. He panicked a little, fearing she was falling off, but when she turned back to her eyes closed, leaning back with her arms spread wide, the wind sweeping even more of her black curls out of her face, she looked at peace, she was having fun, they were having fun together. He wasn't thinking about Dermot, or Kieran, or a job, or that he'd never see Nancy or Siobhan or Irwin again. He felt peaceful, watching his new 'friend' enjoy themselves, enjoying his own self, Midge running practically free as he let go of the reigns to copy Rosita, spreading out his arms like wings.
This was the start of the fresh start he needed.