My fic I posted for the nine-lives challenge. Pain and Pleasure prompt.
Work Text:
Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes...
Daryl rolled onto his side and drooled on his pillow as he stared into a wrinkled old face beside him. The woman to whom the face belonged had her eyes shut like she was sleeping, and he couldn't understand why he had a wrinkled old lady in his bed. He thought what the heck he had been drinking the night before, as he reached out to touch her and saw a wrinkled old hand attached to his arm.
Daryl rolled onto his side and drooled onto his pillow and stared into a wrinkled old face beside him, she had her eyes shut like she was sleeping and he couldn't understand why he had a wrinkled old lady in his bed. What the heck had he been drinking last night. He reached out to touch her and saw a wrinkled old hand attached to his arm.
God damn it it was his hand, when had he gotten so old? He pulled back and stared.
"Why are you in my bed?" He asked her, he was bewildered about what was actually going on, he thought he might know her but he wasn't sure about having a strange woman in his bed, not that he was capable of doing anything. He felt down with his other hand and found he was in pajama's and did not have a morning problem which was unusual for him... or was it? He just was not sure. The woman rolled towards him, opened her eyes and gave him a smile.
"Morning... Daryl, I'm your wife and your life... remember? I think..." Carol looked slightly confused but felt she knew him well enough, he felt right, he felt safe. She knew he was Daryl and her husband but everything else was hazy this morning. She still felt tired and didn't really want to move at all.
"Hm don't remember shit, did we go on the piss?" Daryl looked around not remembering coming into this bedroom. Things started slowly coming back to him.
He was old, they were both old and stuck in the retirement home because he sometimes took a turn and they needed to be near a nurse.
His mind flashed over the past years that had flown by and now they were reaching the end of their own lives. "Fuck it, we are old."
Daryl and Carol had aged decades since the beginning of the turn, when people came back and tried to eat you. Nearly fifty years had past from that first moment they saw each other at the quarry until now. They had moments of clarity and moments of madness where they did not know who they themselves were or who the other person was. Even when they did not remember their past, they still had chemistry together. Sometimes they awoke and remembered they were still in love and some mornings like today it was a jumble of remembering each other and not remembering at all. It came and went as they grew tired and their minds were beginning to betray them.
"You're in my bed." Carol told him. A flash of confusion crept over her face. "What's your name again?" She looked at him, half unsure of herself.
"Yeah, yeah... I know... good morning Carol." He leaned towards her and kissed her on her lips, then he sighed. There had been a time when they would be doing more than kissing, but now his mind was keen but his body was lagging way, way behind. He leaned away from her and rolled onto his back and sighed again.
"Morning." She rolled into him and put her hand on his chest, resting there for a few moments.
There was a knock at the door and both of them glanced towards it. Carol called out to come in. A young nurse opened the door and headed inside, she walked towards the curtains to open them smiling at Carol and Daryl, she was trying to judge where they were at this morning. Carol was only looking slightly confused today and Daryl looked confused about everything this morning. They were starting to become a concern for the nurses in the home, they were beginning to dread checking on them in the morning and they had a system in place to knock on the door and wait for someone to call out. Only then would they enter the room.
They knew one day they might open the room and find them gone. No one wanted to be that person to find two of the founders of the Alexandria Safe Zone as walkers. There were concerns that if one died over night, that person would turn on their spouse. Daryl and Carol refused point blank when they first tried to separate them. Daryl always found a way to sneak into bed with Carol and in the end, after talking with family members they decided that the other person would probably die from grief if they lost the other. So together they stayed and the family took that risk that one could turn on the other.
"Good morning Daryl, good morning Carol, how are you today?" She greeted them.
"I'm ok, Daryl is a bit confused, but I think we are ok with everything today." Carol told her. The nurse looked over at Daryl, every day it was the same thing.
The nurse smiled at them, they were the oldest residents in the ASZ old folks home but they had lost their marbles a long time ago, years, and for years every day the nurses in the home took bets to see how things would go that day. She came around to the side of the bed to help Carol out the side and into her slippers. "Carol would you like to shower this morning?"
Carol always like a shower in the morning, and sometimes the nurses caught them in the shower together at night time. It always made them laugh because they thought they were sneaking around being sly, but their speed when they walked and did everything was so slow. The only thing they were worried about was that someone was going to break a hip if they got carried away trying to move to fast.
"As long as this pervert doesn't think we are sharing water." Carol whispered in a stage whisper as her husband of forty five years was trying to roll out of bed. His shoulder was stiff and he looked down to find that he had pin striped pajamas on. Someone had dressed him like an old man. He tried to roll his shoulder to rid himself of some pain.
"I'm not going to follow you into the bathroom, I'm not desperate, I'm going out hunting... where's my crossbow?" He asked the nurse.
He stood up looking around the room and he picked up a crossbow that was sitting on the dresser. It was a replica of his original one only about the third of the weight, no bolts just in case Daryl decided to fire one off in the middle of the street. He wanted to go hunting most days and made it a few blocks away with the light weight crossbow before deciding he wanted to take a nap. They indulged them more than any of the other residents who actually followed the common rules of the home, but for some reason Carol and Daryl just were so cute together that they could get away with anything and the staff would just smile at their antics.
"You probably couldn't get it up anyway." Carol told him as she shuffled into the bathroom. "You need those little blue pills... do we have some of those little blue pills?" She turned towards the nurse to ask.
"I'll see about the pills." The nurse told her trying not to smile at their antics.
"Nothing wrong with it." Daryl mumbled as he shuffled over to the mirror to see what was wrong with his shoulder, he had pain coming from it. He pulled at his pajama pants to check it, stared down at his penis and sighed. There was something wrong with it, he doubted it even worked any more. He stared at the old man in the mirror and was shocked about his appearance, the man with no hair staring back at him. "Who shaved my head? What's wrong with the mirror?"
"That's you Daryl, and no you are not going out hunting but you can get yourself dressed and go down the hall for breakfast." She laid his clothes out for him. "Now if you don't be a grumpy old bear and you ask Carol nicely she might help you get your shirt on and your pants."
"But she might see my... pecker." Daryl whispered staring over at the old lady heading into the bathroom forgetting that he was an old man himself again, he often spent the whole day in confusion of what was actually going on.
"Well... I think you have underpants on." The nurse moved about making their bed, Daryl looked back down his pants again to check he did have underpants on so the old lady could not see his junk, he looked surprised when he saw it and frowned. "I can stay if you want to shower..." she told him. Daryl looked confused again. "Daryl, you are in the old folks home and Carol is your wife."
"No she's not... Carol 's not like that... she's got tight tops and pants and a knife..." Daryl told her and indicated the chest area, "I think... but someone got to go catch some food." He picked up his crossbow and started to head towards the window. The nurse guided him back to sit on the side of the bed to wait for Carol.
Carol came shuffling out of the bathroom, dressed after her shower, she was looking at Daryl.
"Well you are not too bad looking for an old bugger." She gave him a wink.
After they showered and dressed they both shuffled down to the dining room. They took seats at different tables taking in their breakfast, both forgetting that they shared a bedroom and were married. The nurses kept an eye on them because usually it was around this time of the morning the flirting started. It was true romance, a long lost love story that they all loved to witness. Someone would glance at the other and they would come to realize that they might just know each other. They were a pleasure to watch day after day, all the nurses loved to watch them.
"Our names rhyme." Daryl stated leaning across his table towards the table Carol was sitting at.
"Hm slow down Romeo, just because I've seen your pecker doesn't mean anything is going to happen." Carol told him, Daryl blushed about the pecker talk. "I'm married remember... he's around here somewhere."
"You wanna sneak out of this place... where are we, look at all these old people." Daryl whispered audibly, gesturing to all the other old folk that were sitting about eating breakfast. Carol nodded forgetting she had already turned him down. They shuffled back to their room and looked around, wondering why all their clothes were in the same room. They put on their coats and shoes. "I could pop this window and we could climb out." Daryl told her.
"Or we could use this door." Carol indicated towards the door and opened it seeing that lead to the outside from their bedroom. They could see the street from the door. The door had been instructed to be put there by a doctor after Daryl nearly broke a hip last year as he tried to escape through a window with Carol. Every morning they decided to run away and every day they left via the door in their room, they never heard the buzz of their door being opened in the nurses station which alerted the staff of their escapes.
A young man followed them at a distance. They didn't know him but it was their grandson's turn this morning to watch out for his ailing grandparents, their daughter's youngest son. The teens within the community took it in shifts to follow the elderly Dixon couple as they tried to break out of the ASZ. Young Jacob wandered down the opposite side of the road and he almost lost them as they shuffled their way past the man made pond that had fish swimming around inside. It was part of the fish farming program they had going on, Daryl stopped to point it out to Carol, he took a chance and put his arm around her. Moments like this were far between, Daryl told her that it was his idea to farm the fish, Carol just nodded along unsure of what he was telling her.
They were basically self reliant within the walls. Outside the walls it was a lot safer now. Most of the walkers were gone. Sometimes you had one walker coming to the gates because of a death, but society was almost back to where it was before. They had farms outside the wall growing crops. They all worked together, they had farms which had fences around but since there was no huge build up of walkers travelling en-mass anymore, it was only for safety, just in case.
They were making everything within the walls as well now. Everything was grown and made safely by workers within the community, where Daryl and Carol were well regarded as two of the leaders who came and took over after the world had gone to hell. Both of them were the reason that the community was thriving. Along with Rick Grimes who died a few years ago and everyone else who came with the group from the prison. They were the reason they all had a place to live.
Jacob followed them down a street which they seemed to walk along every day without realizing that they were walking the same way past their old home where they had brought up three children within the walls. Back then Carol had thought that she would never have more children after Sophia died, but they came quickly once they were safe within the walls of the Alexandria Safe Zone. Their oldest child was in her late forties herself and she watched out her kitchen window as her parents shuffled past trying to escape the walls, she watched with a smile on her face the love her parents still had for each other.
"Hi uncle Daryl, aunty Carol... Its a beautiful day." A young blonde woman carrying a baby came out on the front porch. She appeared to have been be waiting for them to go past. She showed Carol the baby, and Carol reached out to hold her. After she had a cuddle, Daryl looked at the baby as well, then Carol handed it back to the woman. "Where are you both off too?"
"Someone locked us up with a bunch of old people... so we are escaping." Daryl told her quietly like he was letting her in on some kind of conspiracy. The blonde nodded when he told her, trying hard not to smile. Carol and Daryl kept going on their way, walking towards one of the walls to check to see if they could get out there.
"Oh well... good luck with that, I'll come by tonight to see you after dinner ok." The blonde called after them.
"We won't be there. We going out there." Daryl pointed to the walls. The woman smiled and nodded, she glanced across the road at her nephew who followed them, still pretending he was not. She made the sign to keep an eye on them. He nodded and followed the old couple, sticking nearby just in case.
"I think we should be able to climb these walls." Daryl stopped in front of one, he looked at Carol for her to say yes he could. She stood there with her hands on her hips watching him. There were bits of steel sticking out like a ladder that they could climb if they needed to. "You want to go first? I could give you a leg up."
"I don't need your help, you're just trying to feel me up or something." Carol crossed her arms over her chest. Daryl made a pfft sound and tried to jump up to get to the first rung. He was jumping but his feet were not leaving the ground. The problem was his mind was half gone and his body had packed up years ago. He forgot that he was old and would neither be able to jump nor to climb up over the fence. He appeared to be in pain trying to move his body this way but he would never tell anyone he was hurting. His grandson leaned up against the wall, watching his granddad as he had the realization that he might not be able to jump the wall like he used to in the good old days.
Carol watched Daryl trying to escape. "Jump higher. Jump higher." She started clapping to encourage him. Jacob just shook his head watching his granddad trying to climb the wall, he hoped he wouldn't hurt himself.
"I am jumping... aren't I?" Daryl did another stretch jump, then as his body sagged down he pulled the sore muscle in his shoulder, he did it everyday, forgot that he was old now and the things he did to his body by trying to get out of the safe zone. Carol moved close and started rubbing his shoulder, she was trying to make the pain go away. "I think I could give you a leg over." He told her again.
"You just want to put hands on my bottom, I'm onto you buddy! Wanting to take me out the walls so you can do things to me, I know your type." Carol scolded Daryl.
Jacob decided he better came forward to stop them from trying to climb over the twelve foot wall or break hips trying. "Granddad... if you want to go out to... um, catch dinner, how about you just go out the gate."
"The gate? Well show me the gate then boy." Daryl glared at the young teen who he just noticed was standing near him. "Come on Carol, I ain't got all day."
"So you don't want me to climb you like a tree?" Carol asked Daryl.
"Stop!" Even at the age Daryl was, he's cheeks still flushed with color.
Carol started to shuffle away, following Jacob. Daryl shouldered his crossbow and followed Carol and the teen that called him granddad. Who was that kid and why was he calling him granddad?
"Wait!" Daryl called out limping behind her, he could not believe he had pulled something trying to jump up to the ladder, he used to be able to scale it just running at it. He put his arm over her shoulder, "Something hurts." He whispered so that Jacob did not hear. "Do you mind if I go for a nap and we try get out this afternoon."
"We only been up a few hours." Carol complained, then she yawned.
"I'm just... I'm really tired." Daryl looked at his wife, she sighed and yawned again. They both shuffled their way back to the home to take a nap. Daryl put his crossbow on the dresser and he turned to watch Carol getting into the bed.
They took off their shoes and lay down on the bed. They each rolled on their sides then, studying each other once more. Carol sighed, rolled close and kissed him, for the first time in years both of them seemed to be really clear of who they were, Daryl grabbed her hand to hold it. It had been a pleasure to be married to each other for all these years. They had forgotten all the pain they had had to deal with during all this time, losing everyone they had grown close to one by one since the turn.
"I love you..." Daryl's voice came out tired, and he kissed her.
"I loved you first." Carol replied, her voice sounding equally tired, Daryl looked back at her, then indicated for her to move in and put her head on his good shoulder. Carol moved in close to her husband wrapping her arm around his middle and kissed him again. He wrapped his arm around her one last time.
Two hours later when the knock came on the bedroom door to wake them for lunch, no one called come in...