Never Look Back
Chapter Two

I woke up when Andrea did, and she told me that I was going to be helping her today with some of the chores. We were supposed to do laundry and then we had some free time to do our own thing then after that we would just go on guard duty till lunch; it sounded perfectly fine.

I grabbed my pack and changed my clothes. I pulled on my too large for me sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt that hugged me tight; my mother had gotten it for me since I could use it as a day shirt or sleep shirt. I pulled on my gladiator sandals and threw my hair up on top of my head. I had so much hair and with the Georgia heat all I would do is sweat.

I got out of the tent after slipping my knife against my thigh under my sweats and Andrea handed me my breakfast; it looked really good.

"Morning Sleepy head," Dale said and patted the hair that was on my head and I laughed. He reminded me so much of the father I always wanted.

I replied, "morning everyone," I sat down on the log around the fire. I looked around to see Glenn and Maggie were making eyes at each other. Lori and Andrea were right about them needing to be careful, especially if her father found out.

"Morning Chelle," Carl replied behind me, and sat down on the log next to me. I ruffled his hair and he ate his breakfast in silence after that. I just watched everyone silently and someone else sat by me; Daryl didn't say good morning or anything, but just sat in silence and ate some canned fruit. He seemed really out of place in the group and they weren't very friendly to him, but he wasn't nice back to them either. Saving their lives and keeping them fed had to count for something through.

"So, Andrea, whose clothes need to get washed?" I asked her excitedly. I enjoyed contributing as much as I could.

"Well, I'm getting Dales and Shane's clothes and Loris is taking care of Ricks and Carl's clothes. Carol does hers and T-Dogs. If you could do Glenn's and Daryl's that would be great," She said and put her plate down.

"Well you heard her boys. Leave the clothes outside your tent and I'll pick them up for you," I told them; picking up my plate and walking inside with Lori who had also gotten up

"You're going to be good for the group," She whispered and smiled taking my plate out of my hands when we got into the kitchen.

"Well, I hope so," I told her honestly.

"You will, and I can see you whipping some of these boys into shape. They have a tendency to get out of hand sometimes," She told me.

"I'll do as much as I can—short of spanking their behinds," I joked with her and she laughed. I was not going to even try to yell at Shane again; he didn't seem right in the head to me and I know what I did was stupid last night getting into his face without even being a solid member of the group. One wrong move and they could boot me.

"Well if you want to spank them go right ahead. I think Dixon may appreciate it," she gave me a damn look.

"Nothing is going on with him. Damn, I've known him one day," I told her.

"I've been a mother for twelve years and married woman longer than that. I know things little miss Chelle," She told me and walked out of the room towards the living room to collect probably her husbands and her son's clothes.

I face palmed and walked out of the house passed both of their tents picking up their clothes however Daryl didn't have anything out. Oh that boy was getting his clothes washed.

"Daryl!" I yelled from outside his tent and I knew he was in there.

"Wha yeh want woman?" he asked gruffly and poked his head out from inside of his tent.

"I told you to leave your clothes out and I don't see a scrap of clothing outside this tent," I tapped my foot impatiently against the ground. I heard mumbling about something and he went back into his tent.

"Well?" I questioned.

"I can do my own clothes," he said bitterly from the inside of his tent. I set Glenn's clothes down on the side of Daryl's tent and went into it while he was yelling at me to get the hell out of his tent. I kneelt near his clothes in the corner of it and started sorting through which ones were dirty and which were clean and pulled them to my chest.

"I'm washing them now move out of my way," I told him seriously.

"Get te hell out of ma tent woman and gimme back ma clothes," he growled blocking my way of exiting the tent.

"No, either I sit here all day holding your clothes or you let me go wash them," I said sitting down making myself comfortable. He seemed to eye me for a moment and just sent me a glare that would have offended and hurt the feelings of most people. I didn't blame him though especially when he was probably doing his own clothes before I got here. They didn't seem to include him in much and probably because he was being civil towards me he was doing it now.

He silently moved from the door way and dropped down onto his bed, and went to cleaning his crossbow. I smiled triumphantly and got up and walked out of his tent with a stack of his clothes. I bent over and picked up Glenn's and went on my way back to where the rest of the group was. Andrea had a load of laundry and so did Lori.

"Well I'll be damned. He actually gave you his clothes," Lori said.

"I had to wrestle him to get them from him practically, but I have them now so where do we wash them?" I asked and they nodded towards one of the creaks that ran across the farm a while away. We started our walk in silence and soon we were chatting about everything that we had missed at home.

"I miss my laptop," Andrea said.

"I miss all of my books," I replied.

"I miss having actual food. What I wouldn't do for a Klondike bar," and we all laughed at Andrea's comment.

"I miss my smut," Lori sighed.

"I miss all the free porn I got on skin-a-max," Andrea quipped.

"I miss my—"Andrea looked around and whispered quietly "— vibrator" and I threw my head back laughing at her. I missed mine too, and I'm sure all the women here missed theirs. I heard someone come up behind us and saw Carol coming up to us with her own laundry.

"What are you girls laughing at?" She asked and smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Just about how we all miss our vibrating buddies," I told her and she nodded her head enthusiastically. It looked like Carol had missed hers too.

"It's the apocalypse and I still think about it," she commented and gave a light laugh.

"Every night…" Andrea trailed off.

"Nothing can tone down your sex drive, even if there are dead people trying to eat you. If ya'll need some of my smutty novels to help you I have quite a few in my backpack," I told them and Carols face lit up and so did Andreas.

"Yeah, we could use them since Lori and Maggie are the only ones getting any around here," Andrea sent Lori a playful glare.

"Oh, I wish. I may have him, but sex is the last thing on his mind and that's the way it should be at this moment. We aren't out of the woods yet," Lori said.

We all finally got to the river and started to wash the clothes by hand against the rocks. We didn't even have something to rub them on except the rocks which as fine with me, I could do it with anything. I grabbed a bar of soap and began to lather it into the clothes cleaning the grime and some of the blood as best as I could.

I worked on mine first and washed my delicates very carefully and placed them off to the side to dry and then started up on Glenn's and then Daryl's clothes. He had a lot of things that didn't have sleeves and with winter coming at us he was going to need some more things. I frowned and looked at some of his clothes, they hadn't been properly mended in a long time it seems and I was going to have my handfuls. I would take my alone time today to finish them up.

"Everything okay Chelle?" Carol asked and leaned over.

"Yeah, I just noticed how his clothes haven't had any mending and he doesn't have many warm things," I replied.

"Oh well he doesn't let us work on his clothes. He normally wears sleeveless things too. He'll probably go on a run before December hits," Carol told me reassuringly and I just nodded and went back to what I was doing.

"So did you have a boyfriend before all of this?" Carol asked and the other girls laughed.

"Me? Nah, I didn't have time for a guy and all of the ones that tried I just wasn't interested in. None of them had any substance to them. No connection I guess," I shrugged my shoulders and finished up all of his shirts and went onto his jeans which were reeking of walker blood.

"Nothing at all so are you still a virgin or something?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah I guess you could say that. Never found the right guy but I have birth control pills that could last me a decade in my bag. If ya'll need them just give me a holler. My bag has tons of little things people didn't probably think about," I laughed and thought of the day I raided the pharmacy before anyone had got there. I took all off the birth control and condoms that I could find considering this was the end of the world and no one wanted to have a baby now out of all places.

"Tell me you have chocolate in there and ill love you forever," Lori said dropping the clothes against her rock.

"Say you love me," and her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"I have some candy too if the children want it, but there's not a lot so probably would be best to have it only for special occasions," I told them both and Carols face dropped and then I realized that they were only here for her little girl. Sophia. Andrea had told me about her yesterday and my heart went out for her.

"When Sophia gets back I'll be sure to save some candy for her. Does she like gummy bears?" I asked Carol trying to keep her thoughts from straying.

"She loves them. She'll like that," Her smile returned to her face but it didn't look like a full smile which I understood. I would hate to be a mother or a parent in general right now.

"Alright ladies are we finished?" Lori asked standing up and taking the washed clothes she had and put them in her small hamper. I just picked all of mine up and carried them. I hope he didn't mind that they were all touching. I had put glens on top then mine in the middle and Daryl's on the bottom that way I didn't get them confused though it would be hard to get them confused.

"Done just have to hang them up and mend some things," I told them and the rest of the ladies stood with their baskets and we made our way back to camp to hang up the clothes to dry. I would have to go dig up some of the needles and thread along with excess fabric I had in order to patch up some of these things. We all hung them up in our own section and were done for now until dinner and when we would have to take down the clothes and distribute them.

"So, what do you guys usually do now?" I asked them.

"Well, sometimes we read or we'll all just sit around and talk. We try to exercise sometimes to keep in shape because you never know when you need to run and then sometimes we join some of the guys on the search parties," Lori said shrugging her shoulders. It seemed like a simple life.

"Well, yesterday we had a bit of a girls time and just talked so I don't know— I may just go read with Dale," Andrea said.

"I think I'm going to make the RV look a little nicer for Sophia when she gets here," and with that both of those women left and left me with Lori.

"Maybe I should make Carl do some things with his homework. The world may be in shambles but my son isn't going to grow up stupid," She said and I waved her off. I was on my own since Beth and Maggie were inside probably doing something together so it was just me.

I pulled out an old Walkman that I kept with me and put it on play. I wasn't paying attention to anything in the world. I sat out in the field near the tents and watched as the clouds rolled by. I would stick my arm out and trace a few, imaging drawing them in my mind. I couldn't help it; it was just something that I did. I people watched with the music on, certain songs causing me to laugh as they were fast moving and the people were moving sluggishly.

Suddenly my sun was blocked and I looked up to see Daryl looming over me with a scowl on his face; he looked rather pissed at me. I didn't understand it and I scrunched up my face; I took out my ear pieces and just smiled up sheepishly.

"Keep those damn things out. If we needed to talk to ye then ye couldn't hear us," He said rather pissed.

"Oh leave her be. Were in no danger right now and she was rather entertaining," Dale said coming up in my defense and I just felt like a child being scolded. He must have seen me wiggling around in the field and people watching.

"Sorry the world ended, but if I'm going on living; I'm going to at least enjoy it somewhat no matter how hard it is," I told him and poked his chest which was probably a bad idea.

"Well, the world ended and now we need te be carefu,l so do wha I said and watch out for yerself," Daryl said seriously and walked past me. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him like a child and closed my eyes.

"Saw that" he replied walking away.

I flipped up my middle finger at his back and he raised his back to me and my eyes widened, "damn you Daryl!" I yelled at him and everyone was just watching. It was like they never had people joking around with each other before.

"Now I get what you mean, man is infuriating," I grumbled and sat on the porch swing.

"Oh he just doesn't want you getting hurt sweetie," Carol said walking up the porch and taking a seat next to me. He didn't seem to bother with anyone else when they were just sitting there doing their activities, and mine was harmless enough.

"When are we supposed to have dinner ready?" I asked Lori.

"Well we will be taking care of dinner since Carol mentioned you wanting to sew some of Daryl's things. So you get on and go do that, and we'll take care of dinner and call you from your tent when everything is ready," She said and shooed me away from them. I just smiled and blew them kisses walking towards the clothes which looked about dry. I had been on break for quite a bit. I grabbed the clothes down and delivered them to their respective person. Glen was thankful as hell which was nice to see.

"You finally got out a stain that even Maggie couldn't get out for like a week," Glenn praised.

"You just need to know how to scare it off," I told him with a shrug. He laughed and showed Dale who was rather impressed. If they really wanted to know lemon juice got out stains that included blood in them. It was rather effective against it.

"Just let me know if you need anything else like that," I said and walked back over to my tent and grabbed my needle and thread and went over towards the beginning of the field where I wouldn't be interrupted and started to sew and patch up a lot of his clothes.

I don't think he cared if it didn't match but as long as it kept him warm and safe. I patched up some of his jeans using some old fabric from tee shirts that I had worn. I also patched up some socks and a few shirts. They clothes looked like they weren't going to last when I first got them and now they were semi-decent. I pricked my finger accidently and quickly stuck my finger in my mouth, the copper hit my tongue and I cringed slightly. I hated the taste of blood but I wasn't about to attract some walkers.

"Hey Chelle!" Andrea called over and ran towards me; I looked up at her.

"Do you think, um, maybe you could find somewhere to sleep…tonight?" She asked me hesitantly.

"Yeah sure, why?" I asked.

"Well I sort of um—Shane," was all she said and I nodded knowing she would definitely want some privacy for tonight. At least someone was getting some around here.

"Steal a condom from my pack but don't use too many. Got to keep them till we know we'll get more," I told her and she just smiled and nodded running back towards the camp fire that was getting started. I bit my lip and thought about here I could stay. There wasn't really any place that someone wasn't occupying, so I decided to just stay out in the outdoors tonight and watch the stars. I would keep my gun and knife on me though in case of anything. I got up and walked over to Daryl's tent and put his stuff right outside. As much as I wanted to just put it in there it didn't feel right going in there without him being there.

I started walking over towards the fire and noticed it had already gotten darker. I went inside my tent for a moment and grabbed both my gun and put that on my ankle and put on my boots instead and grabbed a hoodie and pulled it over my shirt. I looked comfy and put up my hood.

I walked out to the fire and was greeted by everyone. Everyone but Daryl was here and I was getting a bit worried. I know he was looking for Sophia but I still worried.

"So how do you like it here?" Carl asked sitting next to me again.

"It's really great. You guys have something special here and I think anyone with any sense could see it," I smiled and pulled him into my side for a hug.

"Well you should stick around," Carol said this time smiling at me.

"I probably will. I really owe you guys so much," I told them all and Rick chuckled.

"Nothing is owed, just have everyone's back and we'll have yours," Rick said simply and went back to eating. I looked around camp one more time and Glen caught me looking and raised his brow. What was with everyone inquiring what I was doing?

"Is Daryl always out this late?" I asked.

"Yeh I am, someone's got to hunt," I jumped slightly hearing his gruff voice answer me.

"The hell, I'm getting you a cat bell Dixon," I glared up at him playfully. I couldn't believe I was getting this jumpy. I guess I really wasn't used to being around too many people just yet.

"Oh lord could you imagine him with a cat collar on," Carol said laughing and everyone joined in. Daryl just snorted and sat next to me and got himself a bowl of squirrel and vegetable stew. Before all of this I was a vegetarian but beggars can't be choosers. A girl has to eat.

I hummed Carrie Underwood as I ate and tapped my foot. Everyone was wrapped up in their own little conversations. I was starting to fill full and I poured some of my stew into Daryl's bowl and stretched out and dropped down so my back was against the log and I could lean my head back. My knees were against my chest and I closed my eyes.

"Any Luck with anything yet?" Rick asked probably asking Daryl.

"Yeh, I picked up a trail an I'll follow it in te morning. It looked fresh only a few days old. I saw a house and I found a small place in te closet. Looked like someone Sophia's height was in et," Daryl explained and that got a happy sigh from carol. I must have dosed off during some of their talking because I woke up startled with my head against Dixons knee; I mumbled a quick apology and yawned again.

"Night everyone," Andrea said and I mumbled a good night and I saw her make her way back to our tent. Shane left a few minutes after pretending like they weren't about to just go do the dirty. I hope she stayed on her cot and left mine alone.

"Well that wasn't suspicious at all," Daryl mumbled and I snorted.

"Night guys were going to head in," Lori said as her little family got up to go head to their tent which was right next to the house.

"If they're in there where are you going to sleep?" Carol asked.

"Where else? The great wide outdoors, you head to sleep and I'll be fine," I told her before she could even offer me a place to sleep. I kind of liked the thought of sleeping outside; the air was a bit chilly, but it was fresh and felt good against my skin.

"Sweetie, if there is walkers around," she said with a motherly tone.

"I can protect myself and then ill wake up before anything even gets close enough," I smiled at her and I could tell Maggie was fighting with herself. They probably had room in the house but I'm sure Hershel didn't want a new person just sleeping in there and I respected that.

"We're goin to head in now," Maggie said softly pulling glen towards the house to probably her room.

"Yeh aint sleepin outside woman," Daryl said looking down at me.

"Yes I am. You aren't my daddy," I retorted.

"I'm on watch duty tonight so yeh can take my tent," He grumbled and pointed at it across the field. It was furthest from everyone else's tent so he must have really liked his privacy.

"I'm not about to put you out of a bed," I told him simply.

"didn'nt yeh hear me? I'm on watch duty ta night. I'll wake ye up when I go ta bed," He pushed on my shoulder motioning for me to go to his bed. Maybe it would be comfy at least.

"On one condition," I said.

"I'm not agreeing ta anything. So sleep outside," He said getting up to head over to the RV for watch duty.

"I was just going to say you don't give me trouble doing your clothes from now on and I will!" I called over to him.

"Get in te tent woman!" he ordered and kept his back to me walking to the RV. I smiled and just walked across the field and entered his tent slowly. His cot was warm and inviting and sort of smelled like him. Not the gross stuff but the stuff that made him smell like Daryl. I curled up in his bed and pulled the blankets up so they were under my chin. I always was cold at night


Thank you for all of the support and Reviewers. It sure as hell means a lot to me. I love reading them and they always make me want to write more!

K
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Status: Edited