Until I Collapse
A/N: So sorry this took so long to update, it turned out to be a busy week (tests and whatnot). This is sort of a filler chapter so Leah can have moments with some more characters that are necessary for the second half of this chapter. Plus there are more adorable moments between Daryl and Leah :D Yay
Fair warning, there is some slight talk of abuse in this chapter and if that subject is sensitive to any of you, I would skip this section of the story.
Anyways… enjoy the next chapter
Chapter 3 (Part I) – Daylight
The camp had been set up for about a week and everyone was settling into their daily chores. There was a 24-hour guard watch on top of Dale's RV, mostly men took the watch, but whenever Leah couldn't sleep, she relieved whoever's watch it was. So far the camp had been quiet, which everyone had been thankful for, although Leah silently wondered how long that would last.
Leah continued to take shooting lessons with Daryl, she was doing well enough that she could move onto moving targets, although she still had a long way to go with that; squirrels were a lot faster than they looked.
Leah had come to think of some of the members of their camp as family. Glenn, she took a quick liking to, he was always able to make everyone laugh, and that was a gift in today's world. Andrea and Amy she had grown close to, they reminded her of some of her old friends, even though they bickered like an old married couple. Carol and Jaqui felt like second mothers to Leah, they were always kind and Leah always felt comfortable around them.
Leah wasn't sure how the women immediately got saddled with laundry duty but she didn't mind the routine of it. She was helping Carol rinse out some shirts when she noticed a large, angry looking bruise on Carol's upper arm and an equally nasty bruise on the nape of her neck. Leah didn't mention anything with Ed watching them from a couple yards away, but she would sure as hell say something to Shane later. Leah shivered at the thought of what Sophia was going through, and if Leah could help it, she wouldn't go through it again.
…
The light of the fire was dying down when everyone lumbered off to bed, she waited until Shane took watch and everyone was in their tents before she went up to talk to Shane.
Leah felt her hands shaking as she climbed up the side of the RV, she wasn't sure how she should start this rather personal conversation with Shane, but something needed to be said.
"Shane?"
"Yeah, Leah. Is everything OK?" Shane asked.
"Everything's fine with me, but earlier today I was helping Carol do laundry and I um… noticed a huge bruise on her arm and another on her neck. I don't think she fell down the stairs if you know what I mean. And I was talking with some of the other women and they noticed as well, so we decided to tell you. I know you were a cop, so I figured you would be the best person to come to with this."
Shane stared at Leah as she relayed her suspicion to him.
"I appreciate you coming to me with this. There is no need for this to be public knowledge, and I had my suspicions like you, I just wanted hard evidence before approaching Carol about it."
"I didn't want to go to Carol directly either, I didn't want to start a scene or anything. I just didn't know what else to do."
"That's no problem, Leah. I'm glad you came to me when you did. I'll talk to Carol about it first thing tomorrow when she's alone."
"Thank you so much, Shane. It feels good to get that off my chest." Leah was relieved to have told Shane, although she didn't know how easily it would be resolved, if at all.
"That's okay. Have a good night now," Shane pattted Leah's knee as she stood up and left him to his watch.
Prince was sitting patiently at the foot of the ladder for Leah, his tail gently wagging as her feet hit the ground. They made their way over to her tent as the last embers of the fire floated into the night sky. Leah took a moment to look over the quarry, it was a crescent moon tonight, the stars shone brightly in the sky. They stood as an eternal reminder to Leah that beauty still existed in this world, it doesn't show all the time, but if you look for it, it's there.
Leah stopped just outside of her tent, she thought back to her road trip to California a couple of years back. She had gone with a couple of her college friends to see the Perseids meteor shower in the Mojave Desert. It had easily been one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, there were hundreds of meteors shooting across the sky that night. She had never felt so peaceful, or so small in all her life. That was on her bucket list since she was 18, and it was the perfect night.
And in that moment, Leah felt peaceful. Probably the only time she would feel peaceful in the world she lived in now. With a contented sigh, Leah climbed into her tent for another night of limited sleep.
…
Leah woke up to a pair of large brown eyes staring at her. She smiled at the sight of Prince wagging his tail in hopes for breakfast, Leah rubbed his ears and got licked on the cheek by her companion.
"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy, Prince?" He barked happily as she rubbed his ears.
She got dressed in a pair of distressed skinny jeans, a black tank top, and a pair of converse. She gave Prince a slightly larger breakfast this morning, he definitely deserved it after being so well behaved the past week.
As she stepped out of the tent about half of the camp was up and getting a head start on their chores for the day. She stuffed her gun into the back of her pants as she saw Daryl sitting around the fire pit. Leah had a little spring in her step as she approached the redneck still a little giddy from their "moment" earlier that week. Leah noticed that he had his signature frown plastered on his face as she sat down next to him.
"Morning sunshine," Leah chirped.
"Ha ha. Mornin' Leah,"
"Did you feel like going hunting for squirrel today?"
"If you're up for your ass being handed to you," Daryl teased.
"Is that a challenge, Dixon?"
"You tell me, Shields," he quipped.
"Okay, challenge accepted."
"You're on."
"Just promise not to cry too much when I win, we wouldn't want Merle to see you lose your manhood."
"Oh, he won't," Daryl chuckled.
"Speak of the devil… Morning, Merle."
"Morning, sugar tits. You two off to make love, sweet love again? I get to have her when you're done baby brother."
Leah had decided that she had had enough of Merle's comments and drew her gun from her belt, pointing it at his forehead.
"You wanna try that again, bumpkin?," Leah spit, "Call me that one more time, or even talk to me like that again and I'll keep good on my promise for Prince to bite your ass."
"Touchy, touchy. I don't know what you see in her Darlina." Merle sauntered away with Leah's gun still trained on the back of his head.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side. Damn."
"That, my friend, is a place you never want to find yourself," Leah joked.
…
True to his word, Daryl had gotten every single squirrel the pair came across while they were hunting, except for one, which Leah unpinned from the tree with great pride.
"In honor of his sacrifice, I shall name him …Acorn, King of the Trees."
Both Daryl and Leah broke out in a fit of laughter as Leah looped the squirrel onto the string they kept the others on.
Leah had to admit that it was nice to be alone with Daryl, away from Merle and the others. In the woods, there wasn't an apocalypse, it was just two friends hanging out.
Leah saw that Daryl was lining up another shot, and Leah had a brilliant idea.
Daryl was about to pull the trigger when Leah coughed as loudly as she could, sending the squirrel running up the tree and Daryl to miss his shot, probably his first since they met.
Leah couldn't help but giggle at the look that Daryl was giving her.
"Oh, you think you're so damn funny don't you," Daryl chuckled, there was no way he could be mad at Leah, they didn't need the squirrel anyway, they had already caught over a dozen.
"I like to think so, if you want more I have a special coming out soon on Comedy Central," Leah retorted.
Daryl had collected his arrow and punched Leah playfully in the arm, snickering has he did so.
"So that's how you want to play it, huh? Okay, fine," Leah shoved Daryl with all her strength, causing him to stagger a couple of feet.
Daryl threw his crossbow on the ground and started to bounce on the balls of his feet like a boxer.
"You wanna go? Do you wanna go?" Daryl smiled.
"Oh, I'm like Muhammad Ali. You never see me coming…" Leah set her bow and arrows down on a nearby tree. She made the mistake of turning her back on a Daryl, however. Before she knew it she was rolling on the forest floor with Daryl, both of them trying to pin the other. Leah was no match for Daryl's strength and he had her pinned within a minute.
Leah stared deeply into his stormy blue eyes and Daryl stared into her mint green ones, their faces about a foot apart, both breathing heavily. They were both frozen in place, neither wanting to move from their spots. Leah felt like prey under his intense gaze, feeling like he would pounce at any moment.
The sound of a twig snapping in the distance broke them of their reverie, both whipping their heads in the direction of the sound. Daryl released his grasp on Leah's wrists, but he was still hovering over her protectively. Leah adjusted herself underneath Daryl so she was on her stomach and could get a better view of the source of the sound.
Both of their eyes landed on a walker wandering about 30 yards away. It didn't look like it had heard them, and Leah was grateful for that, it gave them the element of surprise. Leah could feel Daryl getting up from above her, pulling a bowie knife from his belt. Leah watched is stunned silence as Daryl moved in stealthily behind the walker, stabbing it through its skull. Leah felt like a camera man on one of those nature documentaries, watching the lion make its kill; lethal and silent.
Leah stood from the ground as the walker fell to the ground, brushing off her pants and shirt.
Daryl walked back to Leah, wiping the blood from his knife on his pants, "We should head back to camp. Tell the others what happened."
"Right, okay." Leah would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little shaken seeing the walker this close to camp.
Daryl swung his crossbow over his shoulder, sensing Leah's worry.
"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now."
Leah nodded, knowing he was there to protect her if she needed it. She couldn't help the nagging feeling that told her where there was one there would be others.
She picked up her bow and arrows and fell into step with Daryl as they walked back to camp with their hunt for the day. The camp was in their sights when she felt a strong hand shoving her a few feet to the side. She glared at the redneck, a huge smirk across his face. But she went ahead and shoved him back just as hard, smiling widely when she saw that she shoved him into a tree.
Glenn was the first to greet them when they got back, "How did the hunt go?"
"Good. We uh… saw a walker. Just one though."
Daryl and Leah were given nervous looks from everyone who was listening.
Shane walked up, "All right everyone, listen up now. Luckily it was only one this time, but we need to do more to make this place safe. We can do daily sweeps of the area and put up more cans for the time being."
Everyone nodded in agreement and dispersed to finish up their chores before dinner. Leah decided to head down to the quarry to wash up. She grabbed some shampoo and body wash and a change of clothes from her tent, whistling for Prince to come with her. Despite his goofiness, Prince was a good guard dog and she always felt safer with him around.
She took a basin and filled it with lake water to the makeshift stall they set up out of sheets and towels. She was about to step into the stall when she heard Prince bark, his foot raised off the ground, ready to attack if necessary. Leah reacted quickly and pulled her gun out and pointed it a figure coming out from the tree line.
"To what do I owe the pleasure Merle?" Leah let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she lowered her weapon, Prince however still stood on defense, staring the redneck down.
"Didn't mean to scare you, sweet cheeks."
"And you did an excellent job of that," she retorted
"Ya know ya have quite the mouth on ya. I ain't never been talked to like that, 'specially from a priss such as yurself."
"I find that very hard to believe," Leah was getting tired of Merle's nicknames for her.
"As much as I don't like it, I respect ya for it. Not very many people take my shit and hand it back to me."
"Thanks, I guess." Leah wasn't getting the point he was trying to make.
"Anyways, I wanted to apologize fur earlier. I shouldn't have insulted ya like that."
Leah was staring at him, her jaw dropped to the floor. She quickly composed herself, "Thank you, Merle. I appreciate that."
"You're welcome, darlin'. If there's anything I can do for you just let me know."
"I will, Merle. Have a good night now." Leah hoped he would take the hint that she wanted to wash up before it got dark.
Merle nodded and started walking back up towards camp, but not without a parting remark.
"I'd be happy to help you rinse off, if you make your dog stand down," Merle chuckled at his cleverness.
"Good night, Merle," Leah said sternly, hearing Merle laughing in the distance.
She wondered what she had done to deserve such kindness from the gruff redneck, she half wondered if he was sober while he issued his apology. Either way, she was grateful that they had made amends… sort of.
…
The rest of the night had been peaceful, everyone had gathered around the fire to discuss more security measures for the camp. To be honest, Leah had only been half listening to the conversation, her mind wandering back to that afternoon with Daryl. She was snapped out of her daze when she felt Prince's cold nose against her palm, begging for pets. She knew that he was getting plenty of attention from the kids during the day, from what she could see, he had grown a tight bond with Carl over the past couple of days. It seemed like Carl was having a really tough time without his dad; it seemed like Prince had been a giant pillow for Carl, and Leah was glad for that.
As much attention that Prince got from everyone, Leah knew that Prince needed special attention from her. She had been petting Prince for twenty minutes when everyone had decided to head to bed. Leah stretched as she stood up, bidding everyone good night as she did so.
She got ready for bed, and before even physically got into her bed, Prince was snoring with his paws in the air. Leah laughed at the sight, she knew Prince was probably the only one in camp that was getting a good night's sleep during the apocalypse.
She hadn't pulled her iPod out in a couple of days and decided she needed a little lullaby to go to sleep, there were too many thoughts buzzing in her head to be compatible with sleep. She didn't scroll too far down her playlist when she found a song she hadn't listened to in months.
Here I am staring at your perfection
In my arms, so beautiful
The sky is getting bright, the stars are burning out
Somebody slow it down
This is way too hard, cause I know
When the sun comes up, I will leave
This is my last glance that will soon be memory
Leah found herself thinking of that afternoon again as she rolled up her headphones and drifted off to sleep.
A/N: So? What do you guys think? I hope Daryl and Merle aren't too OOC, but you will see the significance of that conversation with Merle in the next part of this chapter. Don't forget to leave feedback, I love it and it is always appreciated, it inspires me to keep writing. Hope you guys had a good Valentine's Day I should have the next chapter up by the end of the week.
