The next morning Lauren was up at the crack of dawn, collecting water from the well and feeding the chickens some of the grain they had in storage. She even put out some hay for the cattle, busying herself with a myriad of chores. She didn't feel like talking to anyone this early in the morning. She was never a morning person, but she could also never seem to sleep in.
Grabbing some of the water she gathered earlier, Lauren went and collected the hampers full of dirty clothes. Bringing them outside, she set them on the porch by a basin of water. Using an old trick her father taught her, she grabbed some ashes from the fire, placed them in a handkerchief she had on her and poured water on them into a tin can. She took the tin can and placed it on the side of the fire pit until it boiled, and then she took it off. She then grabbed a bit of gristle from the beef left from last night's dinner and put it into the lye and stirred it with a stick until it dissolved. She waited for a little while before going back to the clothes and sticking the can in some water, cooling it off quickly.
Silently, she started to clean everyone's clothes, keeping them all in separate piles so things didn't get confused. When all the house member's clothes were clean, she hung them all up on the clothes line, still keeping them in groups, then placed each person's basket underneath their respective clothes.
Lauren took a deep breath, wandering towards the edge of the farm, towards Daryl's camp. Like everyone else, his laundry basket was sitting outside his tent. Making sure she was quiet in case he was still asleep, she grabbed the basket and turned around and headed back towards the house. She grabbed her homemade soap and started washing his clothes. She let her hands move automatically, already used to the rhythm.
Lauren let her thoughts wander, wondering about her family and if they understood what was going on or if they were suffering. Unexpectedly, tears started to make their way down her face, leaving clear trails through the dirt and grime that had gathered on her face dirty tear tracks on her face , even as she continued to scrub Daryl's clothes clean.
After she finished with Daryl's clothes, Lauren headed off to the coop to collect the eggs the hens had laid, and brought them back to the farm house to put in a basket in the kitchen.
She leaned against a counter, thinking over what else needed done. She didn't bother to cook breakfast, as she wasn't a very good cook. She remembered seeing a cross bow at Daryl's makeshift camp, with a quiver containing three bolts.
Pushing away from the counter quickly, Lauren exited the house, a spring in her step. There were a few trees close to the property, and Laruen picked a large maple tree, settling beneath it. Sitting beneath the broad tree, Lauren pulled out the switch blade from her boot. Looking down at the side of it, she caressed her father's name that was engraved into the knife's handle . Reaching up towards a few of the lower branches, she selected a few potentially sturdy candidates suitable for bolts. Snapping the branches free, she sat back down, witling at the wood with her knife. Beneath her hands, a tip took shape, notches along the end of the branch added to add wings to later on.,
By lunch time Lauren had a pile of roughly 45 bolts carved out. Her fingers were blistering and sore but she dealt with it despite the pain. Done for the day, she stood up, picking her way through the grass back to the farm house. Pushing the door open, she was surprised to see everyone hurrying around, and as the door clacked shut behind her, everyone turned to look.
"Lauren! There y'are," Beth said, shooting her a grin. "We've been looking for ya everywhere!"
Rubbing the back of her neck lightly, Lauren gave a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, I couldn't stay in bed any longer and decided to get some work done." She glanced around. "Has breakfast been served yet?"
Maggie laughed as Lauren's stomach growled. "Nah, we couldn't find ya and wanted to wait to see if you'd turn up again." She turned into the kitchen, coninueing to talk over her shoulder.. "So I assume you're the one who brought the eggs into the house.?" At Lauren's nod, Maggie grined, "Thank you very much, I appreciate it."
Lauren blushed , not used to attention or praisethe attention, before hustling to catch up with Maggie in the kitchen. "Yeah, I was up pretty early and did some daily things. Fed the livestock, got the eggs, and e'eryone's laundry is outside dryin' out. It should be just about done by now." She leaned against the counter. "I would'a made food, but I never was a good cook."
"S'alright, you did quite enough for your first day here," Andrea said, coming into the kitchen and starting to help Maggie with the food prep. "Why don't you go collect the boys? They should all be outside either by the RV or down by the barn. You don't seem to like being cooped up." She gave Lauren a quick grin.
"I can do that," Lauren agreed." Want me to tell 'em breakfast is on the way to the table?"
"That's perfect," Maggie said.
The Atlanta sun was blazing as Lauren walked outside. The air was close and humid, much warmer than it had been before entering the house. She took a quick swing by the big maple tree, collecting her bolts. On her way to the barn, she dumped them in a pile outside Daryl's camp. As she neared the barn she heard voices. She knew it was wrong, but curiosity got the better of her and Lauren hunkered close to the barn wall to listen.
"She isn't a threat Shane! She has no one to go running to! She's still just a young woman! She's still a child!" Rick cried out, apparently trying to drill some sense into Shane's head.
Lauren quickly realized it was a debate on whether or not she should stay. Stepping away from the barn, she made a point of making a lot of noise as she came around the corner.
"Rick? Shane? The ladies wanted me to tell y'all breakfast is on the table." Lauren rubbed her arm nervously as both men stared at her. It was a nervous tick she had picked up as a kid, and she struggled to keep her arms still.
"Alright, thank you, Lauren. We'll be there in a moment," Rick said with a forced smile.
Lauren gave him a nervous grin, backing away and hurrying back towards the house. Keeping her head down, she wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously.
Are they going to kick me out? She thought worriedly. Where would I go? What if-
Lauren gasped as she crashed headlong into someone's chest. Rough hands grabbed her arms to keep her from falling, fingers digging into the soft curve of her biceps.
It was Daryl. Lauren scowled at him, pulling herself free. She tried to step around him but the insufferable man blocked her every attempt to move past him.
"Can I help you Mr. Dixon?" Lauren asked with an impatient sigh, settling her hands on her hips.
Daryl just stared at her, an odd look on his face, before shaking his head with a huff. Turning on his heel, he stomped back towards his tent.
Lauren stared after him.
What a weirdo.
She shrugged, continuing towards the house. Before she reached the edge of the house she paused, glancing over towards Daryl's tent.
" Breakfast is on the table if you're interested!" she called to him, giving him a little smirk as he scowled towards her.
Two can play that game, Mister-"you-can't-take-care-of-yourself-little-gir l" she thought triumphantly.
After breakfast, Lauren spread out on the porch to soak up the sun's rays. It was comforting, and she could feel herself slipping into a calm zen-like zone.
Of course the hillbilly had to ruin it.
Daryl suddenly loomed over her, blocking the sun from her face. Lauren cracked open one eye, eyeballing the interruption unhappily.
Daryl stared down at her emotionlessly. "Here." Lauren jerked as he tossed her missing switch blade onto her stomach. "You dropped it outside my tent."
Abruptly he turned away, clattering down the porch steps. Lauren stared after him incredulously.
"Hey!" she cried, racing to get to her feet, stumbling a bit. "Daryl, wait!"
She raced to catch up with him, and although he hadn't gone far, he had a faster stride then she did and he had a bit of a head start. She sprinted up to him, his face blank as he turned to look at her.
"I know we got off t'a rocky start, you and me, but…thanks. For bringin' my knife back.." She glanced down at the knife briefly and happened to glance out of her peripheral the red spot blooming on his abdomen.
"You're hurt!" Lauren gasped, grabbing Daryl's arm. She hauled him forcibly towards the house, plopping down on the porch despite his halfhearted struggles and protests.
"Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" she demanded, squinting at him suspiciously, half expecting the man to just shove her out of the way and stomp on his grumpy way.
Daryl stared at her as if she had grown two heads. He sat there with a strange look on his face, not moving.
Lauren sighed, tossing her arms up in the air for a moment before bending over and starting to unbutton Daryl's shirt.
From the way he sat there like a stunned mute, you'd think the guy had never been touched before.
Lauren's fingers flew down the center of the shirt, slipping the buttons out of their slots as fast as she could. While she was no medic, she understood that wounds needed tending to as soon possible. When she got the last button undone she quickly and carefully peeled she shirt away from his body. tore the shirt off his body. Looking at the wound, she noticed it was only a scratch but it was deep enough to still be bleeding.
She grabbed a cloth off the clothes line and dipped it into a basin of water on the deck. She gave Daryl's shoulder a light push, making him lay down on the porch deck. Daryl seemed too stunned by everything that was going on that he didn't resist. When she had Daryl lying down like she wanted, Lauren grabbed the cloth out of the water and rung it out.
She took the cool and now damp cloth and ran it lightly over Daryl's abdomen, cleaning the dirt and blood out of the cut.
"How'd ya do this anyways?" Lauren asked, lightly running the cloth over the area, making sure it was all decently cleaned. She lifted the rag off of him and rinsed the blood and dirt off the rag, dunking it in and out of the bucket of water.
"I dunno," he mumbled, looking away from Lauren, bringing his thumb up to his lips and biting it on the side."Probably scraped it on a tree 'er somethin'."
"You really have t'a be more careful. If you're not careful, you could get really hurt one of these days." Sshe opened the wrapper for one of the bandages she had tucked away in her pocket upon waking up this morning, on her and smoothed it out on his belly. Her fingers lingered on his skin. as she glanced up at him, and she didn't realize that she was staring up at him until their eyes met. Just realizing how her actions could have been seen, Lauren lookedlglanced up quickly to see Daryl staring back at her with icey blue eyes. Lauren felt drawn in, she had seen a lot of blue eyes before, but never any as captivating as his. With that thought, Lauren could feel the heat creeping up her neck into her cheeks and she looked away from his gaze. away quickly, her face heating up.
She gave the bandage a pat and stood up. "Well now that that's all taken care of, I best be running off." She took the stairs two at a time before she flew through the front door, letting the screen slam behind her.