#ditch van der linde critical

[jedi-mabari]

Dutch seems almost, angry, maybe more just disappointed that Lenny looks up to his own father more that himself. And it's real off putting that Dutch feels like he can be the only inspiration to the people around him.

[irishmacguirefucker]

What she deserves

Or alternatively, Dutch learns to respect women before molly ditches him for someone who actually deserves her

When everyone was ready to move to the ranch, Dutch was still treating Molly the way he does in Horseshoe Valley. Flirting sometimes, but fighting nearly nightly and just generally not treating her with the respect she deserves.

Arthur was painfully aware of how Dutch was treating her. He had always been aware of how Dutch treats his women in general. The cycle of flirting, romance and the eventual fall of some poor girl who fell for it. Normally he would consider it none of his business but he decided it just wouldn't work this time. The Ranch needed to be a new start for everyone, including Ms. O’Shea. She deserved a home just like the rest of them.

It started when he overheard Molly talking with Abigail on the way to the ranch. It was a long ride and Arthur was bringing up the rear of the caravans, so he could clearly head molly excitedly sharing her hopes with Abigail for their new home.

The lovesick girl told Abigail she hoped Dutch would have more time to be romantic with her, maybe he would be less tense and they would fight less, maybe he would be happy with the new life they would be starting together.

She moved to America for an adventure and in a way she was happy she got one. But her time in the gang proved to be enough adventure for her lifetime. Moving to a big beautiful house with the man she loved to live comfortably and domestic sounded like an absolute dream. Abigail was having a hard time contributing to the conversation. She was trying to be kind, while gently begging the girl not to get her hopes up too high because things take time.

Frankly, Arthur knew Dutch was unlikely to change on his own. He wouldn't voice that to Molly though, he didn’t want to crush the poor woman’s dreams and chances are he would be far blunter than Abigail about it. He would never want to hurt the poor girl's heart. Clearly, she was just in love and who was he to ruin that. So instead of saying anything to her and screwing it up as he tended to do when he had conversations like this with women, he decided he would speak to Dutch instead.

Dutch was still angry at Arthur, so what's one more tense conversation before they arrive. So when they were making a stop to let everyone stretch their legs and take a break, Arthur pulled their leader away.

It was a hard conversation. Dutch Van der Linde did not appreciate his adoptive son telling him how to treat his woman one bit. The man was already unhappy with the minor mutiny from Hosea and Arthur earlier, so the timing wasn’t the greatest. Not that Arthur cared, he barely kept himself from just telling the girl to run away and find herself a good man.

Arthur actually managed to make Dutch angrier than he had been since they introduced the plan, and they both knew it was because Arthur was right.

Arthur ended up telling Dutch that if he didn’t start treating Ms. O’Shea how she deserves to be treated, she was going to leave him. She is a beautiful, intelligent girl and Dutch should know damn well that if she left him she could find a rich young man to take care of her and treat her right. But she chose him, and he needs to start appreciating that fact soon or she will slip right through his fingers.

After that fight, Dutch was nearly enraged. Arthur felt no need to engage with that, so he walked away. He said his piece and showed dutch that he’s not a mindless dumb follower of all his wills. And hopefully if anything he said stuck, he would realize how precarious his situation with Molly was.

They didn’t talk about it again but when they started again, Molly sat with Dutch on The Count for and showered her with compliments and terms of endearment.

Molly O’Shea isn’t stupid. She knows that sometimes Dutch has good days and bad days, and sometimes Dutch has possessive days. On the possessive days, he would treat her like a princess, and she would bask in it for as long as she could. And she would grieve it the next morning when he was back to a normal day.

There wasn't a lot of time for more romantic moments beyond that, as they were still travelling, and Molly accepted that the ride had just been another temporary moment for her to recall when she was feeling lonely.

When they got to the Ranch and started allocating rooms, Molly was so excited that she would be sharing a beautiful, huge bedroom with Dutch. The bed there was dusty, but it was big and had pretty floral sheets and it was a bed. It reminded her of her bed back in Ireland, before she gave up her life of luxury to travel to America.

Dutch didn’t sleep in the bedroom for a while, but that was hardly new. Dutch’s insomnia wasn’t about to just disappear, and she had no issue with stretching out and taking up the whole bed to herself.

Early morning, the first day they were there, she woke to Dutch sitting beside her on the bed. He woke her with soft kisses to her shoulders, cheeks, head and lips. Then he gave her a porcelain teacup (found in the ranch house) full of fresh coffee made the way she likes and told her they needed to have a talk.

Dutch is a prideful man, so he didn’t exactly apologize for the fighting and neglect. But he did the closest thing to it and made a promise to her that early morning, in the soft light of the sunrise.

He promised her that he was finally going to give her everything she deserved. He would love her the way she needed, hold her the way she wanted, kiss her the way she craved.

She nearly cried at his admission, because honestly, she couldn’t bring herself to believe him. It hurt to hear him promise everything she had ever wanted of him, knowing that he was just going to go back to criticizing her and ignoring her by the next day. But she held back the tears and told him she loved him with her face pressed into his chest, and her breath caught when he actually said it back to her. It had been a long time since she heard anything more than a ‘thank you’ in response.

He treated her like a princess for the rest of the day, or as much as he could anyway. It was a very busy day, getting everything and everyone organized but between orders but when he could he would stop and kiss her sweetly, or compliment her. He had her sit her on his lap to eat lunch, complimented her taste as she organized their bedroom to her liking, and she absolutely revelled in the attention.

The next day he treated her the same. And the next. And by the end of the week, she was confused. Obviously would never complain that he was being so good to her but she had to wonder why. She talked to Mary-Beth (who had been swooning over the two of them all week) and Abigail about it, and neither of them had any answers for her. (Though Abigail was sure to call Arthur a good man later, to his chagrin. Mothers really do have eyes everywhere.)

Dutch was the same man he always had been. Arrogant, overconfident, and dangerous. But he was also romantic, and strong, and confident. The traits that made her fall for him when she met him. She had no idea what caused him to start being so good to her.

Maybe one day she would ask why he changed. Not for a while though, out of fear that he might change back. For now, she would soak in his love like a pampered cat in a patch of sunshine.