A/N: Thanks for reviewing, following and favoring! They keep me going!
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Walking Dead" or any of its characters. I only own Sarah.
~TWD~
Sarah can't remember the last time she felt feeling so awake and alive. It makes her realize that she was really missing out on sleep before arriving at the Atlanta camp. She forgot what a full night's sleep felt like until now.
She gets up and stretches out her arms above her head, more than ready to start the day. Unfortunately, her growling stomach reminds her that she needs to eat before doing anything productive.
"Need to eat first before I can earn my keep." Sarah steps out of the RV, the sun blinding her for a moment.
The smell of cooking food assault her nostrils, causing her stomach to protest further. She never got the chance to eat yesterday because she was so nervous being around people for the first time since the dead began walking that food was far from her mind. Now that she's more comfortable, food is the only thing she can think about.
Sarah sees Carol cooking what looks like to be meat in a frying pan over the fire and her mouth waters at the thought of having a cooked meal instead of beans from a can.
"You look hungry." Carol smiles at the newest arrival before focusing back to her cooking.
"Yes, I haven't eaten in three days." Sarah's stomach rumbles as if to confirm her statement.
"Oh my goodness, i'll give you a bigger serving than."
"Is that really fair to the others though?" Sarah feels because she had yet to contribute to the camp that she doesn't deserve it.
"The children get bigger servings too, I think we can make an exception for you today." Carol kindly begins scooping up Sarah's first meal of the day onto a plate.
"Okay, but only for today. I want the same serving as everyone else tomorrow." Sarah gives in, feeling she won't win the argument.
Carol hands Sarah a healthy serving a cooked meat. Sarah waits for her food to cool before taking a bite and pauses when she realizes what she's eating.
"Carol, is this squirrel meat?" Tasting the familiar meat in her mouth.
"Y-yes, you don't like it?" Carol asks nervously.
"I've had squirrel before, but you overcooked it. When you do that, the meat is tougher to chew." Sarah supplies.
"I didn't know that." Carol seems intrigued, curious to know a bit more on the subject.
"Even though it's tough to chew, it's still tasty." Sarah takes another bite of the chewy meat.
"What should I do to make it better?" Carol asks, wanting to do a better job.
"Don't cook it for long and it should turn out fine. You didn't do too bad, you could have burned it to a crisp but you didn't." Sarah can see that Carol appreciates her praise.
"How do you know this anyway?" Carol questions.
"My dad hunts and taught my mom and I how to cook it right." Sarah's eyes seem far away for a moment at the memory of her father teaching her the proper way to cook squirrel.
"Your father taught you?"
"Yes, when it comes to wild game, my dad know how to cook it best." Sarah says cheerfully.
With that, Sarah finishes her hefty meal of squirrel; chewing the last of the overcooked meat.
"Thanks Carol, I feel a lot better now that my stomach has food." Sarah pats her full stomach.
"You're welcome." Carol smiles.
"Now I just need something productive to do." Sarah says, not sure what she can do to help out the camp.
"If you're interested, the women are doing the laundry today."
"Laundry huh? Well, count me in." Happy to have something to do.
"You could collect some dirty clothes from the men. I'll wait for you when you're done." Carol continues cooking for the others with using her new knowledge on how to cook squirrel meat.
"Okay, thanks Carol. I'll leave you to your cooking"
Sarah gathers clothes from some of the men around the camp, noticing that no one checks to see if the Dixons have clothes that need a good washing. Sarah suspects they do, but that everyone is too afraid to ask.
"I'll go ask them." Sarah feels she can start paying them back for saving her by doing their laundry.
Sarah approaches the isolated tents, seeing Merle and Daryl sitting by their own small fire.
"Well, lookie here, lil' brother, it's sweetcheeks!" Merle's blue eyes oogle her body, but pays more attention to her average size breasts.
"Good morning, Merle. In a good mood today?" Sarah notices the older Dixon's leering stare, but ignores it knowing he won't try anything otherwise he would have tried something in the woods.
"When a woman comes to see ol' Merle, i'm always in a good mood." Merle wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
"You're funny, Merle. I never got the chance to thank you both for saving me and bringing me here."
"Right place, right time." Daryl won't even glance her way, inspecting his crossbow.
"Still, thank you both." Sarah says sincerely.
"So, there another reason yer up here?" Merle asks.
"Actually yes. I'm doing the laundry today and thought I would offer to wash yours."
"Ain't ya a peach? That include my stained undies too?" Merle grins.
"Merle, knock it off."
"It's alright, Daryl. Yes Merle, you're undies will be stain free by the time I am through with them." Sarah smiles, not minding the way he talks to her. She's been around men like Merle before so she's grown used to it. In fact, she finds the man's sense of humor funny.
Merle laughs, liking the woman more and more by the minute. She doesn't shy away when he makes sexual comments at her like the other women nor does she look at him with disgust.
"Darylina, go fetch the gal our clothes."
"I ain't touchin' yer shit Merle." Daryl growls.
"I'll gather them if you'll allow me in your tents." Sarah offers, not wanting the brothers to be fighting over something so trivial.
Daryl gets up and waves her over, leading her to his tent first. When they enter the tent, Sarah can see that his clothes are everywhere on the tent floor.
"Ya don't have to do this for us." Daryl rubs the back of his neck, the gesture showing he's either uncomfortable or embarrassed that a woman is in his tent.
"I want to, it's not fair that you guys don't get your clothes washed while everyone else does." She kneels down to pick up one piece of dirty clothing at a time and folds them over her arm.
"We're redneck trash, ya don't have to do this." Daryl repeats, not liking that a pretty woman like her would want to deal with their dirty laundry.
Sarah looks up at him, her eyes meeting his own blue ones.
"Daryl, there's no such thing as redneck trash. Right now, there's only the living at the dead."
Daryl stands in his tent in silence as she picks up his clothes. She takes advantage of his silence and continues talking.
"Would redneck trash save a woman trapped in a tree? Would they bring her to a place where she would feel safe? To me, you're just people like everyone else, Daryl. I've only been here for one day, but in my opinion you and your brother are good. The only way I could hate you is if you're a rapist or an abuser. You and your brother didn't do either of those things when you found me even when you had the opportunity to do so."
Daryl is quiet for a moment, not used to hearing people speak good things about his family. She makes some good points regarding the fact that they could've hurt her and yet she put her trust in them when she climbed down from that tree. He lets her words sink in before he speaks again.
"What 'bout a murderer?" Wondering why she never added it to her list of things she hates about people.
"The way the world is now, it can't be avoided. If it's for self-defense that's fine, but if you kill for the thrill of it then that's a different story." The world is a crueler place than before. Sarah knows this even if she has yet to be a victim of it since she hadn't run into people until she met the Dixons.
"Ain't gonna argue wit' that. Ya don't think the world will return to normal?" Daryl doesn't think the world will ever be the same, but is curious at what she thinks. Her way of thinking is similar to his and he likes that at least one person at the camp isn't a complete idiot, thinking they'll be rescued.
"The people that have survived so far have seen so much death; do you think they could return to a normal life? I'm realistic to that degree, but I have hope that we can rebuild. We have a clean slate and we should take advantage if it." Sarah speaks from the heart, believing that something good can come out of all this chaos.
"Never thought of it that way." Daryl stares down at her as the woman collects his clothes.
"I think instead of being judgemental of each other, we should be fighting the dead."
"Ain't that simple, woman." Daryl frowns.
"Nothing is simple, we just have to make the best of things and take it one step at a time." Sarah says, gathering the last piece of clothing.
Daryl gestures her to leave his tent, holding the entrance open for her like a gentleman.
"Yeah, I guess. I'll git my brother's clothes, don't think ya should go in there." Daryl puts an end to their depressing conversation, leaving his tent to go to Merle's.
Sarah waits outside, waiting for Daryl do return. After her conversation with Daryl, she can't understand why people think so badly of the two brothers. Though, she can understand that Merle's foul mouth will make people steer clear of him. So far she can't see any faults in Daryl, but she figures she'll find out as she spends more time with the group.
Daryl steps out of Merle's tent with a bag full of the older Dixon's clothes.
"Hope ya know what yer gettin' into. Bloody clothes ain't the easiest to wash."
"I've washed bloody clothes before so there's no problem. I'll bring back your clean clothes when i'm done." Taking the bag of clothes from the hunter.
Before Daryl can question her on the subject of bloody clothes, she leave the two Dixons to their own devices remembering that Carol is waiting for her.
~TWD~
Sarah is by the water with the other women cleaning clothes the old fashion way. Daryl wasn't kidding when he said their clothes were bloody. Not only are they bloody, but some of their shirts and pants have holes in them.
"Does anyone have a sewing kit? I want to sew these when i'm done washing them." Sarah says, scrubbing one of Daryl's blood stained shirts.
"Why are those clothes so bloody? They look too big to be yours." Lori says.
"They're not mine, they belong to the Dixons. They're probably bloody due to their hunting activities."
The women stop what they're doing and stare at the new arrival in shock.
"You're washing their clothes? Why?" Andrea can't stand the Dixons, particularly Merle Dixon.
"No one offered and that's rude."
"I'm surprised you came back in one piece." Lori comments.
"They'll not so bad if you give them a chance. They saved my life after all and didn't ask for anything in return." Sarah points out.
"That surprises me, Merle refuses to do anything unless he gets something out of it." Andrea says, remembering the time Merle offered to give her one of his beers if she slept with him as he was the only one with alcohol at the time.
"Well, i'm doing his laundry so I guess he does get something out of it." Sarah laughs, just now realizing the truth to what she just said.
"And Daryl?" Jacqui questions.
"Daryl is Daryl." Sarah doesn't know how to sum him up any other way.
"He's got a temper like his brother." Lori shakes her head. wringing out one of her son's shirts.
"I have yet to see that temper from them." And she speaks the truth, she had yet to see them truly angry. But Merle does like to pick on his little brother, she took notice of that.
"You haven't been here long enough to see how bad those two can be." Lori hisses.
"Maybe not, but I know that the food I ate this morning comes from their hunting adventures. They deserve respect for that." Sarah points out, scrubbing the last of the blood from the stubborn shirt.
"I hate to say it, but Sarah has a point." Amy takes the young woman's side.
"I agree." Carol nods.
"So, about that sewing kit?"
~TWD~
A/N: So my goal for these preseason chapters is for Sarah to establish relationships with key members of the group. I have a vague idea on what to do next, but suggestions are welcome! Please review as it is great motivation for me, thanks for reading!