bakerstreet | pic prompts.

Arthur sighed but agreed, knowing John was right. Putting anyone else on guard was too risky. They had the level heads and knew Colm well as Dutch and Hosea. It'd be a long night but, had to be done.

"Alright" he nodded, giving John's shoulder a tap before taking a seat against a tree not far away. "Bring me some dinner though, don't want to leave this bastard alone for a moment." he paused then added with a grin, "Don't want our bear to get hungry and find an easy meal here either."

Once John had left, Arthur went about cleaning his guns as he usually did after a big fight, relaxing much as he could.

Patting Colm on the cheek, John shook his head. "You're lucky my woman makes a decent stew," although John frequently poked fun of it, "Arthur's got a big appetite these days." He walked away, bumping his shoulder to Arthur's. He gave him a brief smile as he walked off, shaking his head.

Colm O'Driscoll, afraid. He never thought he'd see the day. The bastard was fearless, when things came down to it, and it was occasionally admirable, but at the understanding that the last place he'd see was the proof that Dutch's way worked. Arthur's transformation, though, that would scare just about anybody.

John returned a bit later with a large tin plate of stew, and a couple bottles of beer, then wandered back to the house to rest his wrist, get food, and talk with Sadie.

Colm seemed to behave those few hours, occasionally having a look at Arthur but not saying a thing. There was still anger in those fear-filled glances, but much subdued.

It was about John's shift, only just a few minutes before the man was about to leave his house that a few things happened.

First, a bobcat dashed by Arthur, speedy as could be with a sound that was a warning. Something was up, Uncle alerted. He had been, as he often did, keeping an eye on the boundaries of their ranch, and saw a grip of O'Driscolls making their way towards their home. He dashed off towards where he often slept to grab clothes and his guns.

Second, there were scents on the air; the scent of subtle cologne, sweat, and a house fire. The scents came with the quiet snapping of twigs from the woods.

And third, John arrived with clean dressings on his splinted wrist, with his belt and holsters on still. He had cleaned them - or really, he tried cleaning them, kept dropping things and swearing, then Sadie told him to stop being such a thickheaded man about doing things himself, and cleaned them for him.

"Anythin' excitin', or am I in for a boring night?" he asked as he walked up.

"Ya'know Colm, we ain't got a chance to chat in a long while" he said conversationally as he ate his stew, though with Colm gagged, was going to be a bit one sided. He'd come to appreciate Abigail's cooking quite a lot. Pearson was okay now that he knew about herbs and not over-cooking meat, but she'd taken off quite a lot in the skill since they settled down.

"While Dutch has his faults and some of you has admittedly rubbed off on him I think, at least we're living a good life now, trying to be civilized as folk would say. But you? You ain't changed nor wanted to change in all the time we known one another." He slurped down the juices of the stew and set the plate aside and worked on his beer.

"You're still hurtin' folk, running them out of their own homes, attacking innocents on the road, world definitely won't miss you when you're gone." He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and spotted a familiar bobcat. The hell was Uncle doing? Crazy old cat-

He got a whiff of something on the wind, unfamiliar men. He set his beer down and got up, peering into the woods as he fingered his pistol.

He heard John approach but didn't take his eyes off the trees.

"John, I think we have company." he said

John immediately went tense with Arthur's head's up, and he reached down to his offhand holster. "Christ, of course we do," he muttered, knowing that there would always be more of these pieces of shit, at least until Colm was killed. "I'll get Du--" No, he wouldn't. The old man was laid up worse than he was, which was a weird change of pace. "Hosea," he decided, running to do just that.

Just about that time, Uncle appeared, fixing his suspenders, in his union suit and pants, and little else. He held his shotgun, and walked up to Arthur, "Ten of 'em," he said, loading his gun. "Glad you got the message." His tone was still a little rambunctious, regardless of the situation. "You shoulda had me come with tonight! I was gettin' bored patrollin' the fences."

Regardless of who John was looking to wake up, Dutch came out anyway, his own pistol at the ready, though he was leaning heavily on one of Hosea's prop canes, and walked towards the tree where they had Colm tied up.

It was then that an arrow flew by Dutch's head and he hissed out a "Shit," and trained his weapon on the angle, firing blind, but still managing to hit whoever was out there in the woods, getting the man in the shoulder. "ring 'round him, boys... old man." He was surprised to see Uncle there, standing guard just as steadfast as Arthur.

Colm's eyes snapped open at the gunfire, and he tried to get up to his feet in his binds.

Arthur chuckled, "Figured you'd want to stay behind old man" he said to Uncle, giving Colm a kick in the shins. "Stay down you bastard."

An arrow whizzed by and Dutch retaliated, a great gun as ever. Another close call, man was getting too lucky today, Arthur noted. But he knew better than to tell Dutch to get to safety.

Arthur only had his pistols on him and the O'Driscolls-he could assume-were keeping pretty far back in the trees. Would need his rifle, or...

"I'm gonna go get our bear. Take cover, use Colm as a shield if you have to" he advised making the decision and zipping off towards the nearest building.

"Gotta be an easier way..." he grumbled, undressing quick as he could just inside the door.

A moment later, a familiar massive bear bolted out of the secondary stable and came towards the group, which was joined by Sean with Lenny close behind.

Dutch nodded to Arthur, having no problem with the man going off to do what he needed. He wasn't particularly itching for a fight, but he knew that there were two things the O'Driscolls were trying to accomplish with this ambush. Get Colm, or get him. Maybe both. He decided that it was time that they finished this and he put his gun to Colm's head, glaring down at him. "I would say I'm sorry, but I ain't." With that, Dutch pulled the trigger. Let the bastards collect his body if they lived. He then trained his sights back on the trees, ready for what ill-conceived ambush the idiots were attempting.

Uncle stood beside his leader, keeping his own gun pointed into the trees. Frankly, this was a situation that would be easily cleared up by one large bear. Lenny and Sean weren't strictly necessary, but it was nice to have backup.

John flanked Dutch at that point, his own gun at the ready. If anyone was going to try and kill Dutch, they'd have one hell of a time trying to do it.

Even though John knew that they were after the bear, even though he knew that Colm was now dead, he wasn't expecting the ambush. Watching Arthur barrel through the yard, he didn't realize there were twenty more men hiding behind them.

It happened in a flash: First, the men in the trees ran out, bows drawn, arrows at the ready. And the men in the shadows came out from behind, lassos drawn. First the arrows were let loose, flying forth to hit the bear. They were tipped with potent opiates, designed to take down a large beast, stronger and more concentrated than any heroin that the good Reverend would dare take for himself. Then the lassos flew, restraining Arthur and held fast, tying him down, while the rest of the O'Driscolls kept Dutch, John, Uncle, Sean and Lenny busy.

Back in the last remaining O'Driscoll camp was one last main gun that Sadie hadn't mauled into a pulp. Even if Colm died, this gang still had a leader, and this was his plan. If everything went according to it, they'd have one big-ass bear, and maybe even the head of the rival gang, should everything succeed.

John and Dutch fought like hell alongside Uncle, who hissed out obscenities when he saw Arthur getting pulled down and away, into the trees, where a large wagon was stashed. "You boys keep Dutch safe," he said, looking over his shoulder as he ran back to where he'd been staying once more, and decided to go change. The gang might have gotten Arthur, but he wouldn't let them keep him for long. Dashing outward to the trees once he was in his animal form, he bolted after the O'Driscolls as they retreated, staying well out of sight of everyone as he followed them.

"The hell?" John said when Uncle slipped away. He was too busy trying to take out as many O'Driscolls as he could, stepping over the legs of Colm's body as he advanced while they retreated.

"Do somethin', Dutch!"

"Do what, John? Arthur's six hundred pounds, we only got the seven of us, n'Uncle's run off!"

John fired off two last shots, then his arm dropped. "I don't know, but we need to get him back right away. I ain't lettin' him down again."

Arthur noted Colm was already dead and he was distracted by it for a moment. The man had been such a pain their asses for so long, felt strange he was dead. He also figured when the men found out they'd likely scatter and fall apart.

He was wrong. They were being tugged along by someone else it seemed, and still wanted him. They ignored Colm entirely and went right for him. Took over half a dozen of the drugged arrows to bring him down-double that of a real bear-before he dropped to the grass and then was dragged off and into a cart, quickly falling into a haze where all his senses felt numb, unable to even smell the familiar bobcat trailing the bumpy cart.

"More like 'alf a ton" Sean corrected unnecessarily but he was still processing what had just happened. They managed to kill two of the men in addition to Colm, but Arthur had been taken.

Lenny looked off where the gang had vanished then to John, nodding in agreement. They'd not abandon their man.

Dutch patted Sean on the shoulder, "You and Lenny, tail 'em, see where they go. I'm warnin' you both, don't get spotted. If they don't care a whit about Colm and are here for Arthur, that means there's enough of 'em that they'll be tryin' to use him somehow. John, go rest up.

"Dutch," John started to protest, his brows furrowed deeply, not wanting to abandon his brother, but was cut off.

"Son, I know you want to be there for him, but you won't be able to do that if you keep puttin' your arm at risk like you've been. Go home, rest up."

"What about me." There was a stern, raspy voice behind Dutch.

"Mrs. Adler, you go with the boys, keep 'em covered. You know how his gang currently operates probably better'n anybody here. Everyone else, we're lookin' after the ranch until we get word back. Nobody in or out 'til they come back with word or with Arthur. Pearson, since you're awake, get the bodies off the property, throw 'em deep in the woods. Colm too."

John clenched his teeth. He knew Dutch was right, but he wasn't happy about it. He wanted to be there for Arthur, he wasn't going to feel right about sitting this one out. Too many damn times since May, he'd had to sit out because of an injury. He growled low as he pushed past Dutch, walking petulantly to the house.

Uncle sped behind and to the side of the wagon as he watched them cart Arthur away. There were enough men where he wouldn't dare try to take them alone. Arthur, without being sedated, could have easily taken half, but that was unlikely to happen. He'd have to burn through the sedatives first.

When he finally saw the firelight of a camp, and watched them pull into it, he didn't know how far they'd run. Ten miles? Twenty? Whatever, as long as they were able to be tracked, he knew the gang would track them.

As Uncle watched, they unloaded the bear off the cart and into a huge iron cage, created to transport zoo animals. Once they were off, clapping each other on their backs, a job well done, Uncle snuck into the cage, wiggling himself between the bars and nudged Arthur. Come on, kid, wake up.

Pearson wasn't happy about needing to dispose of the bodies but it couldn't be helped. He took a horse from the stables and loaded them up on its back before leading it off their property, dumping the bodies down a ravine after going through all their pockets for anything of value-for money or otherwise.

Lenny and Sean were off like a shot, mounting up and riding quick as they could to catch up and tail the group, Mrs. Adler with them.

"What they grab Arthur for?" Sean asked as they rode

"They might have found out what he was. But makes no sense, no way in hell Arthur would do anything for them in any form." Lenny offered

"Well, they was prepared, that was for sure, and didn't seem to give a damn about Colm neither." Sean snorted with a laugh

Arthur was coming around when they started shifting him into the cage, his accelerated healing abilities burning the drugs rather quickly. One of the men commented they should have shot him a couple more times, but they wouldn't waste what precious sedatives they had now that he was caged.

He shook his mighty head to clear it, though his body still felt sluggish. He looked down at a familiar bobcat before looking around the area to see what he could make of where they were and his current situation. Bars were too close for him to squeeze through as a human, and too thick even as strong as he was to do anything with as a bear.

"They've been fallin' apart," Sadie pointed out. "Colm built his gang too large, it was startin' to collapse from the inside before you guys planted the documents. At least, that's what they told me." Unbidden, but some of his men were genuinely too easy to let free information while under duress. "There's been a group lookin' to break off for months now. Turns out, my last mark's the leader, and they're leadin' us right to 'im."

Uncle was glad to see Arthur starting to stir, glad that he wasn't knocked out for longer. He slipped back out of the bars, his eyes glinting in the faraway firelight, and dashed off towards the O'Driscoll camp, prowling around the outside before finding something that he was looking for.

It was a little bizarre, watching a little gray thing pilfer and then drag a lockpicking kit towards the cage, but nobody noticed him, and that was the point. What Uncle couldn't do as bobcat was more than made up for by the utter stealth that a small creature had. Dropping the kit, he looked up at Arthur again, then Arthur's paws. Shit, the man was just too big. He was tall enough to get to the lock, where Uncle wasn't, but both of them - at least in these forms - were fucked when it came to being dexterous.

"Well then, let's make sure they shatter entirely tonight!" Sean said, eager to kill some O'Driscolls, and get Arthur back of course.

Arthur watched Uncle zip off and then return shortly with a lock picking kit. He gave him a look. Now how the hell was either of them supposed to use that?!

He quickly took it though and moved to sit on and hide it as some of the men approached.

"He's awake already? We shot him a lot"

"Christ he's big!"

Arthur stuck his nose through the bars and bellowed.

The two men jumped back, then laughed. "Hey there now big feller, don't be gettin' no ideas, you're ours now!"

Arthur grunted. Yea, sure.

Uncle had to scamper before they got there, so he did. While those two idiots got close to Arthur, he had a chance to pilfer a pair of pants and a rifle, which he did, shifting out of sight of the camp and then wandering through the tree line to keep an eye on Arthur. If those two idiots tried anything, either Arthur would swat at them from in the cage, or he'd pick them off from outside.

Then Uncle heard horses coming from a good distance away. The cavalry came. Good enough. He counted twenty men, easy enough for the four... five of them. Easy pickin's.

Sadie jumped off her horse first, pressing her hat down on her head before getting her rifle off the horse, and told the boys to stay behind her. She might not have been at this as long, but she knew how to take care of an O'Driscoll or two. "That ugly bearded one's mine," she hissed at Lenny and Sean, then she noticed something happening just beyond the light of the fire.

"Now how the hell'd he get here?" She asked, pointing out Uncle.

"Wait, I thought we was to investigate and then report back?" Lenny hissed as they dismounted. "We're fighting?! We don't even know how many there are!"

"'ey, he's righ' Mrs. Adler, we really going for them now?" Sean said then looked at where she was pointing and noticed the old man. He chuckled, "Man gets around a lot these days, must have been righ' on their tail when they left."

"Need to find out what he knows before we go in, otherwise they might hurt or knock out Arthur again before we can get to him" Lenny advised and he flagged Uncle over.

Uncle gave them all a look before rolling his eyes and rambling over, motioning them to duck down as he did, himself. He spoke in a whisper as he hunkered down.

"You kids go'n tell Dutch I got this under control. Me'n Arthur can get outta here easy as peasy. Twenny of 'em ain't even worth the bullets."

Sadie scowled at that, then motioned at the leader. "He's fixin' to make the gang his with the help of his new pet, Uncle, we gotta take him out now."

"Not now, you ain't gotta. Let me handle this. N'for that matter, do you really figger Arthur'd help them? Them boys don't know what they got in that cage."

"Told yea" Lenny muttered.

"A'righ, how yea gonna get'em out of tha' cage? Soon as they see yer ass, they're gonna drug 'im again" Sean pointed out "Some use old English will be then!"

"I got my ways, Irish," Uncle said, a smile climbing onto his bearded face. "You just git and git fast, 'fore you draw attention. Mrs. Adler, there's always another time. Vengeance ain't all there is, beautiful."

Sadie seethed for half a second, but then sighed and nodded. The old man was right. "Fine. I'll see them home, and for god's sake, Uncle, be careful."

"Ain't lived this long bein' reckless. Shoo now! Tell Dutch we won't be gone too long. N'tell him to stay off his damn leg."

Sadie had to heave another sigh, looking at her mark one last time, before waving Sean and Lenny back to their horses.

"Sean," she said once they were well out of earshot of Uncle. "You stay here, keep an eye on 'em. If they need help, they'll have it. If these bastards start movin', you come and tell us."

Sean agreed but Lenny interjected, "No, I'll stay, you two go back home." he insisted

"Why? I'm just a good a shot as you!" Sean argued.

"Because I'm quieter and the whole point is not to fire anythin'" Lenny said bluntly. "Now go, get back safe." he said, leading his horse into the brush and then taking cover.

Sean sighed but shrugged and got on his nag and led the way back.

"Try and see if you can get him to eat out of your hand!"

"Hell no! You try!"

"I ain't no idiot"

The two men continued to bicker, Arthur having lost interest in them as he peered around the camp as much as he could, while also keeping a lookout for Uncle.

Sadie shook her head as the two bickered over who was going to stay, it didn't matter really who stayed. She would have, but she couldn't trust herself to stay out of business and kill every last person there.

Uncle had already disappeared back into the treeline and was waiting while the men in front of Arthur started fussing over the bear they thought they had. He'd never been in this sort of situation, himself, but he couldn't help but find deep amusement in it, in its own way. These absolute idiots truly believed that this was just a bear, didn't they. He gave Arthur a quick nod when Arthur's eyes scanned past him.

Eventually, the men wandered off, still bickering over who was the bigger coward for not trying to touch the bear. It seemed like things were starting to wind down in the camp. Everyone was starting to retire to their tents and the insides of the wagons that maintained a circle around a fire, with one man guarding the opposite end of camp from the huge cage.

Uncle waited until everyone in the O'Driscoll gang (Were they still O'Driscolls at this point, given Colm was dead and they were trying to break off?) was bedded down, before he snuck closer, whispered, "Arthur gimme the thingers," and waited so he could pick the lock.

Arthur lost sight of Uncle but he trusted the man wouldn't leave him. As for the men, course they didn't know what they had on their hands, how could they? They were under the assumption the Van Der Linde gang had at some point adopted a bear and trained it like a dog. And now were trying to make it do...whatever they had planned. Which of course he wouldn't do.

For a moment he thought about trying to get Uncle to call off the rescue for a bit in order to see these idiots attempt to train and make him do things and then end up looking like absolute fools. But no doubt such training would come with pain and irritation so, perhaps not.

Uncle was back and hissing through the bars for the lock pick tools

He got up and slid them over to him with a grunt.

With a look over his shoulder at the camp, Uncle looked to make sure everything was dandy, nobody was looking their way, and started picking the lock, feeling and listening to the pins as they caught. "Real smart of them boys, tryin' to steal you. Don't they know bears is dangerous? And real good at breakin' locks." He jimmied the lock open and slid it out, but he heard a shout of, "HEY! WHO'RE YOU?" and his eyes shot wide, before he scooted out of the way to make room for Arthur to leave the cage, quickly moving into the shadows to turn once more.

All those ol' O'Driscolls would find was a pair of trousers behind the cage, god willing.

Soon as the lock clicked open and Uncle was not within door-whacking distance, Arthur busted through and bolted. He took a couple gunshots to the back followed by a few drugged arrows, and he bellowed a cry of pain, but he ran quick as he could before they could get any more into him.

He didn't head back to the ranch, instead, he weaved through the trees to make it hard as he could to follow on horseback.

After nearly half an hour, he finally couldn't take it any more and he dropped, exhausted from the run. He sat down in the leaf litter, panting and drooling as he caught his breath. When he couldn't hear horses or smell O'Driscolls, he got up and began to make his way back home.

Little while before dawn, a familiar bear lumbered back onto the ranch, several arrows in his back, but alive and free again.

While Arthur dashed one way, Uncle skidded the other, running right past Lenny in the process. Shit, the kid was still there? Well, there goes the neighborhood. If Lenny told, it was going to be hell for his loafing. They might actually even put him to genuine work! Well... they weren't too bad, and Arthur needed him around, at least for a while.

John had gotten some sleep at least, though it was a restless, ill-suited sleep that only served to make him more tense than he had been when he laid down. Three hours wasn't a lot, but it was when he was keyed up from the siege, from the kidnapping, from frankly all of the day prior. He'd been so close to actually thinking that they would be able to leave all that shit behind, that the truth of their past wasn't going to come to bite them in the ass.

He was looking out on the paddock, at the sleeping horses when he heard the telltale sounds of a bear walking up. "That didn't take long," John said in a murmur. "Your clothes're folded in the stables on the stool. Didn't want 'em gettin' shit on by the horses. C'mere so I can get them arrows out."

Lenny did indeed see all that and he wasn't sure what he was seeing had been real but then he remembered-right, the bear could do the same damn trick.

Well, that explained a lot about Uncle.

Confident both men-beasts?-would make it out fine, he made his way back to the ranch and told Dutch, Sean and Sadie everything before turning in for the evening.

Arthur grunted a grateful chuff and took a seat in the grass to let John yank them, the wounds already starting to heal once they were removed. He then lumbered into the stables to find his clothes and get dressed.

"Did I ever mention how much I hate O'Driscolls?" he said, once shifted back, coming out in his pants and boots. He sighed, absolutely exhausted. "I need a vacation." he muttered, heading for the Marston's house to maybe snag some breakfast, and then screw the day, he was sleeping.

"Mighta come up once or twice," John retorted with a huff of a chuckle. "You'n me both, friend. Unfortunately, I don't got much a say in the matter." He'd had to use his elbow to get the right leverage with the arrow removal, using his left hand to yank. It was amazing Arthur didn't bellow from the pain of it.

At least Arthur was home. It'd let him sleep a couple more hours, knowing Arthur was back where he needed to be. John would have led a war party to get the man back, not wanting his brother to have to deal with the loneliness again. To deal with the abandonment.

Dutch was glad of Arthur's return, but was more than pissed that Uncle hadn't said one damn thing to him about knowing about any of this were-creature business. He'd have to have a talk with the old coot at some point about the importance of honesty and openness, especially when someone so damn important to this group was needing that knowledge.

Namely, himself. He was certain Arthur had talked to Uncle, but Uncle hadn't been clear about much of anything, now that Dutch considered it. But as he ruminated on it, he decided to get a second opinion from Hosea. He didn't bother with waking him just to confide in him. He waited until Hosea was awake and had some coffee in him before he explained what Lenny had seen.

Sadie had fallen asleep on the porch of the Marston residence, resting in a chair, so when Lenny told her what had happened, she snorted as she came out of her catnap. "Figures. I'll go after 'em in a couple days. They ain't hard to track." Then it clicked what Lenny had said about Uncle, and she woke up much faster, confounded by the news.

Lenny nodded then shrugged, “Yea, guy changed into a bobcat like Arthur does a bear and was off like a shot.” He laughed a little, “Wonder if there’s a shifter for every animal out there? Well, goodnight miss” He said, then left Sadie be to go get some sleep before dawn.

Arthur grunted as each was removed but he hardly felt them otherwise.

He thanked Abigail for the eggs and sausage, skipping the coffee in favor of just some cool water, then curled up as a bear in his room, and slept like a rock for the morning. Mercifully nightmare-less.

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Chaos!

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