Chapter 4

Fucking a…Daryl thought to himself as he watched Rick kiss Jessie through her house window. Of all the people to have drama, Rick had to be the one to start it. Jessie already had a husband, James. She obviously was unhappy with her husband, for whatever reason, and found comfort in Rick. This wasn't good. Daryl glanced around to see if anyone else was in the area, but he was the only person to his knowledge. He saw Rick exit Jessie's house and turned his attention elsewhere.

He found his feet leading him to Aaron's house. He was actually happy. Happy to have a project, something meaningful to do. He still was doubtful of the town and the people in general, but he felt this weird emotion-call it trust-for Aaron. The last time he had ridden a bike was at the beginning of the apocalypse. He hadn't had a bike since and he was happy to have one again. He had almost finished it. Aaron was a good scavenger. He didn't know much about cars or bikes, but he harvested good parts.

He was also happy about his new recruiting job. There wasn't much Aaron had to teach him. They spent time going over maps of the surrounding area. Aaron pointed out areas that were clear and the places that were overrun with zombies. They had yet to clear a food packaging facility. That was a goal of Aaron's. Aaron didn't just do recruiting. He was also a supply runner, but he combined both jobs when he went out. That's what Daryl was most excited about. Going out. Getting out from Alexandria's walls. The free land.

Tomorrow would be their first recruiting mission. They were going out together since the bike still wasn't finished. Daryl still needed brake pads and Aaron wanted Daryl with him for their first run anyways. If they found anyone, he wanted Daryl to learn how to invite people to Alexandria. He wanted Daryl to know what Alexandria stood for. Daryl just didn't show the same kind of love for the place as Aaron did. He understood this, but he was skeptical if Daryl could successfully recruit anyone if he himself didn't actually like the place. Aaron decided he would take the day to show Daryl a different side of Alexandria.

Daryl finally reached Aaron's house and knocked on his door. He waited to the man to open and when he did, he stepped up to enter, but Aaron blocked his way.

"I was wondering when you would get here," Aaron said, greeting Daryl with a smile. He stepped out of his house and closed his door behind him. "Come with me. I have something I want to show you."

"Ok," Daryl replied. He was hopeful because last time Aaron wanted to show him something, he actually liked what he saw. So he followed beside Aaron.

They walked to the other side of town. Daryl had been here briefly when he scouted the area when they first arrived. He didn't see anything important here. Just a bunch of empty homes. At least he thought they were all empty.

Aaron led him to the backyard of a corner house. The lawn was nicely kept. Why hadn't he noticed before?

They rounded the corner and saw an elderly lady sitting outside admiring her garden and what a garden she had. Being a corner house gave her the biggest backyard. She had neat rows of pallet gardening beds with a different plant in each one. The lady didn't notice them until their shadows crept closer to her on the ground. She looked up and waved to Aaron and he waved back.

"Daryl, I would like you to meet Alice," he said introducing them.

"How do you do?" Daryl managed to say as politely as possible with a wave.

She smiled and chuckled at his response and began signing to Aaron.

She's deaf.

Aaron laughed, "She says you have nice manners for a guy like you."

"And what kind of guy am I?" Daryl asked him back.

She began signing to Aaron again.

Aaron smiled at Alice and blinked, turning his attention to the ground. "She said…that you need a clean shave and a haircut."

Daryl raised an eyebrow to that. That's not what she said…why was he lying? Daryl didn't know sign language all that well, but you could get a general idea of what they were saying. And she did a lot of pointing to Aaron and Daryl when she signed.

Aaron cleared his throat. "Alice grows all the produce for Alexandria. I recruited her and her granddaughter several months ago."

"Oh, who's her granddaughter?"

"She…" Aaron began to say, but he saw Alice watching their conversation and she signed to Aaron.

Aaron smiled to her and nodded. He didn't speak.

"What did she say?" Daryl asked curiously.

"She says she lives in the garden now."

Daryl turned from Aaron to Alice and gave her a sympathetic smile.

She started signing again. Aaron nodded and signed back to her. She got up and went inside the house.

"She's going to bring us some lemonade. In the meantime, let me show you around."

Daryl nodded. Aaron picked up two baskets and handed one to Daryl.

"I come here to visit Alice and help her when I can. She's getting old and can't bend down like she used to," Aaron said. "Look these tomatoes seem ripe enough."

Aaron squatted down and began plucking the tomatoes from their bushes. Daryl remained standing with his basket. He liked this atmosphere. He liked Alice. He liked what Aaron showed him. These were human beings trying to exist in this crazy world and Daryl wrote them off as quickly as he could. These were good people. Isn't this what his group was searching for?

"You alright, Daryl?" Aaron asked as he stopped picking the tomatoes.

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"What?" Aaron said. He was caught off guard by the question so he stood and looked at Daryl.

"Why are you being so nice to me? You barely know me."

Aaron shrugged and turned to look at the tomato bush when he began to talk, "I don't know…when I watched your group in the forest, I saw you weep one day, all by yourself. I don't know what happened, and you don't need to tell me, but I think you deserve a better life. You're a good person and I know you can see goodness in others. That's why I asked you to recruit with me."

"Oh. Thank you," Daryl said. He didn't know what to say. Aaron said he was a good person. Thought he deserved better. No one ever felt that way for him.

Their conversation was interrupted when Daryl saw Alice coming towards them with two glasses of lemonade. She was wearing a bright smile and a huge sun hat that shaded her tiny body.

'Thank you,' Daryl signed to her. It was pretty much the only sign language he knew. Aaron thanked her as well and they took a swig of her lemonade. Daryl hadn't had such a wonderful non-alcoholic drink in a long time.

Aaron translated as Alice signed to him. "She says, 'there's a lot more where that came from if you come help me garden.'"

Daryl smiled. "I'd like that."

Daryl felt a lump in his throat as his heart beat faster. He truly enjoyed this moment with his new friends. Friends. That's what Aaron and Alice were. His friends. Friends laughed together, spent time together, protected each other. Daryl wanted to protect the precious smiles that Aaron and Alice shared with him.

Their moment was interrupted when loud shouts rang through the town. Alice showed a confused look as she should not hear the sounds, but Aaron and Daryl exchanged a worried glance.

ooo

'There's shouting in the distance. We need to go check it out,' Aaron quickly signed to Alice. She nodded and they gave her back their lemonade glasses and hurried out of her garden.

Their feet pounded the ground faster on the road as they neared the shouting. Aaron could hear James' voice arguing with Rick.

Drunk again.

They slowed to a stop when they neared the crowd that had gathered.

Daryl and Aaron pushed their way through.

"Let the people see. We need to take action against this criminal!" Rick was declaring.

"What I do wift my wife ish none of yer biznessss," James stuttered.

"I am the constable. It becomes my business when someone gets hurt," Rick said pointing to Jessie who had a black eye. Probably from her husband abusing her.

James had had enough. His crazed drunken mind took over. He punched Rick in his chin. Rick stumbled backwards and cradled his face. And that was it. As long as Rick didn't throw the first punch, he would fight him back. Rick grabbed James by his neck and punched his ribs until James couldn't take any more of his punches and threw him off of him and he landed on his back. James barreled toward him and pounced on him, holding him down.

Aaron and Daryl rushed toward the pair as James began punching Rick's face from under his stance. The crowd was shouting now and Deanna was outside ordering the guys to stop. Jessie pulled James' arm to get him away but he knocked her back. Aaron grabbed James from behind putting his arms under his shoulders and lifting him off of Rick. Rick jumped to his feet, ready to punch James, but Daryl stepped in front of him. He met Daryl's eyes and realized he had made a mistake. He lowered his fists. James watched and struggled from Aaron's grasp. He knocked his head back and hit Aaron's lip, releasing the hold on him. James rushed one last time at Rick and knocked him over. Rick's head hit the pavement and he passed out. Daryl restrained James from doing more damage.

Deanna had James escorted away. Aaron touched his chin assessing the damage. His chin had a small, bleeding split from where James' head hit him.

"You ok?" Daryl asked him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Aaron managed a weary smile, "Yes, thanks."

He patted him once more on his back and followed after his group, leading Rick away.

"Tomorrow night, we will have a town meeting," Deanna began to announce. "We will be discussing the actions that occurred here today and what we think, as a group, should happen."

Another town meeting, Aaron thought to himself. The last time the town had trouble was with a man named Walt. Walt was in a similar situation where a brawl broke out between him and another town member. They had a meeting and the group decided to exile him.

Aaron was worried for the meeting. If the group decided to exile Rick, would they exile just him or the whole group? Would Daryl go with Rick if he was exiled?

He headed to his house alone to nurse his injury. It wasn't very bad, but it stung. He washed it off in the shower and bandaged it up for the night. He still wanted to take Daryl out tomorrow to show him the recruiting ropes. Even if it was just for a day, they could at least spend that day together.

He knew Daryl was not interested in men the way he was, but he was growing on him. He hoped he didn't come on too strongly today with what he said in the garden. But he meant it. Daryl was a good person. He smiled, recalling what Alice said to him, but his smile vanished when he realized that he had lied to Daryl about what she actually said.

'The guy for you,' is what she actually said. And Aaron lied, saying that Daryl needed a "clean shave and a haircut". How could he tell Daryl the truth? They were barely getting to know each other and he already had these feelings for him. Things were different with his ex-partner, Eric. Eric liked things fast. The first night they got drunk and came out to each other, they slept together. Aaron realized they were both horny and probably the only gay men still surviving, so they fucked. He hardly got to know Eric after three months. They rarely kissed each other, for kissing needed a spark, passion, feelings.

Aaron laid in his bed, reminiscing on his thoughts. Daryl wasn't interested in him and never will be. He pushed his thoughts to the back of his head and tuned out for the night.