A/n: Surprised aren't you? That makes you and me both. Sorry for any mistakes found.
Warnings: Some perhaps butchered doctor stuff, some Edwin Jenner stuff and some Shane & Harry stuff.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or The Walking Dead.
.
.
.
"To our gracious host that pulled us off the streets from getting our asses eaten."
Rick
.
.
.
Chapter Seven
Harry gagged and his stomach rolled as he stepped over and around the bloated and already burst corpses of the people who had fought and died there. Soldiers still holding onto their weapons, gun shot wounds in their heads probably given by the comrades, civilians among the carnage.
The smell was ten times worse than the sight, blow-flies left the bodies by the the dozens when someone got too close and swarmed them. He didn't know which was worse. Seeing the insides of a decomposed man or having the flies that were eating him touch his face.
Carl and Sophia were close to tears asking to go back and Rick was at the helm of the group along with Shane pushing forward where the majority of the bodies were, piled up like flesh sandbags. Daryl was all shades of pissed, not because he was basically stepping in someone's guts but because Harry himself had to do it and Harry half expected him to kick on of the dead if he didn't think it wouldn't explode on contact from all the built up gases.
Harry coughed and nearly vomited when he got a lung full of the contaminated air, bile rising up his throat before he swallowed it back down. Daryl looked sharply at him him, eyes narrowing even more.
"Mhm fine" his voice was muffled behind his shirt and hand again, Daryl pulling him closer.
Merle was somewhere behind them, eyeing the corpses carefully in case any of them weren't really dead and reanimated.
"Keep moving everybody, stay together, we're almost there, just keep moving" he wondered how Shane could even be speaking when the air smelled like a dead rat stuffed inside of a bigger dead rat.
"Mom I want to go back" Carol shushed Sophia and held the little girl closer. Carol pulled away from Lori to go to Rick but was tugged back.
"I want to go with dad!" she shushed him, glancing at the corpses "Stay with me, he's making sure everything is alright first"
The closer they got to the door the stronger the scent of decay was, so strong now that his hand and shirt weren't doing much to filter out the odor.
"Oh my god is that someone's spleen? Is that what a spleen looks like?"
"Glenn don't look at it"
"But it's right there and- oh crap I think I'm gonna be sick"
Amy was on a makeshift stretcher held by Andrea and Dale at the back with T-Dog as guard and look out. They couldn't take any chances with the corpses, even if they looked dead reanimation could happen at anytime Harry would personally really prefer not to get bitten.
Looking at the building now Harry stared at the security cameras that lines the front, lights on but the camera itself wasn't moving.
"Keep it together people" Shane as the voice of reason was becoming increasingly weird.
Harry hung back, Daryl depositing him with Jacqui who wrapped his arm around him "You okay sweetheart?" she asked him and Harry nodded, not wanting to risk speaking because then he'd really puke.
Between Daryl, Shane and Rick pounding at the security door it was enough racket to wake the dead, hopefully not literally since they were surrounded by a lot of remains.
His baby kicked him hard enough that he hissed, rubbing just below his navel. His anxiety was getting to the baby but he couldn't help. They were stranded with no food, little gas, no water and outside was getting dark very quickly. Much too quick and the three men pounding at the door didn't seem to notice.
Looking back down at stiffs then back to the cars and RV that were almost invisible in the looming night he tried to slow his breathing because now would not be a good time to have a panic attack.
"Daryl.."
"There's no body there!"
"Then why are the shutters down? Someone's in there, I know it" Rick pounded at the door again.
Everyone was preoccupied with the door, with the building but Harry was looking out into the enclosing dusk, his eyes and mind creating moving shapes of people and things until the imaginations of his mind seemed so real when the first stumbling figure of a walker came out followed by several more.
"Daryl…" he raised his voice but his husband could hear him between Rick and Shane still hitting away at the door and Merle and him arguing.
"Oh my god!" Jacqui noticed the dead too, pulling him closer to the men.
"Daryl!" his shout got everyone's attention and he pointed to the odd twenty or thirty something walkers that were either attracted by the scent of decay or their noise.
"Carl come on"
"Mommy I'm scared!"
"I know you're in there! Open the fucking door!"
Daryl took out an arrow, now standing in front of Harry and Jacqui with Merle close by.
"Rick no one is in there! We have to go!" Shane pulled at Rick's shirt and the man yanked his arm away, looking directly to the camera now.
"This ain't gonna be my graveyard lil bro, not because of some cowboy who brought us to a dead end"
Shane rounded on Merle "Just shut up okay? Shut up!" he turned back to Rick "Come on man, we have to go"
Carol looked as panicked as Harry felt, Sophia clinging to her and she did the same in return "We are you going to go?"
"She's right, where are we going to go? We're too close to the city and it's almost fully night"
Shane glanced at Rick "Fort Benning, we go there-"
"On what? No food or fuel, water is almost gone. Amy needs help now! Not a hundred miles later!"
"One hundred and twenty-five. I checked the map" Glenn still looked sick but he wouldn't be Garth if he didn't offer facts no one wanted to hear during a crisis.
The horde was getting closer and it reminded him of that day in the hospital when a wave of dead had taken over and the soldiers gave up on trying to recognize the difference between the living and the dead, shooting anything that moved instead.
Only now the soldiers were already dead, they had limited weapons and even less bullets and the horde was still going strong.
"We don't need Fort Benning we need a better solution and now!"
Everyone was panicking and though Rick tried to hide it so was he. "We'll think of something.. We'll find a better way but someone is in there I know it"
"Rick give it up! We need to go now before they get any closer!"
"Baby come on, we have to leave! Shane's right!" Lori pulled Carl closer and Shane grabbed Rick's arm, tugging him away from the door.
Harry was staring at the camera and he saw when it moved the same time as Rick did. "It moved! The Camera moved!"
Dale shook his head, readjusting his grip on the stretcher they had Amy in "You're imagining it son, let's go before we get trapped"
"No he didn't I saw it too!"
"Harry!"
Harry dodged Daryl's arm and stood underneath the camera's line of viewing waving at it. "It moved I saw it too Daryl. Someone is in there"
"You both are seeing shit, nothing moved, the gears on the place are winding down it doesn't mean anything. We have to leave now, Rick come on man, think about the group, Daryl get your husband and let's go"
Daryl's face soured, blue eyes glaring at Shane at the order but Harry was ignoring them both, even Jacqui was murmuring to him to go back to the cars.
"I know you're in there. I know you can hear me! Please we're desperate, we've got women and children here with us, my friend is pregnant. We have no food, no water and the gas is nearly gone"
"Daryl someone is in there" Daryl glanced up at the camera and shook his head "Even if they're in there they are aren't opening. We have to go back to the truck Harry"
"But-"
"Bro-in-law listen to my stupid brother or we're all gonna be sitting ducks" Harry looked at Rick who was still fighting Shane's hold and Harry took a step back until Daryl was guiding him away from the doors.
"If you don't let us in you're killing us! Please! Don't leave us out here!"
"Rick come on! We have to go!" Rick let himself be pulled away from the door and Harry looked back, watching the camera shift again in his direction.
"Fuck!" he hadn't heard Rick curse much in the time he knew the man but when he did it was normally for a good reason. This Harry mused was a very good enough reason.
"You're killing us! You're killing us!"
The horde was close enough that their groans could be heard clearly enough and it surprised him how much hear fear could dampen the other senses such as smell because the scent of the decomposed bodies was hardly even registering.
Daryl had managed to corral his a few feet away from the door before the security door rolled up and the steel door behind it hissed before that too opened. Everyone raised their hands to cover their eyes at the bright, nearly blinding light practically made it seem like day time again.
Even though his heart was racing like crazy and his baby was kicking him hard enough to bruise he couldn't help but think this was very X-Files-ish.
Harry had forgotten how sleek the inside of the places like the CDC could be. All pristine floors, counter tops. Hell even the windows were top class.
"Hello? Anyone here?"
He was in the middle with the children and other women with the men surrounding them, guns at ready. It would be rather ironic for the person to save them from a horde and potential death only to bring them in to kill them.
The sound of a gun cocking made him turn to the right and both Daryl and Rick raised their own weapons, fingers on the triggers leveled on the man with a rifle.
"Anyone infected?"
"One of us was, but he didn't make it. Our friend here had her arm amputated to stop the infection but now she's in bad shape."
The man glanced at Amy from between the bodies "Is that why you're here? To get her treatment?"
Rick shrugged one shoulder "We're asking for a chance to survive."
"That's an awful lot to ask for these days. In case you didn't notice it's everyone for himself"
"I know. But I'm not by myself am I. I have my group, my people, my friends and family and we need this"
The man looks at everyone and his eyes linger on Harry long enough that he began to feel uncomfortable to the point that wrapped his hands around his belly. Daryl stepped in front of Harry and the man looked away.
"You all have to submit a blood test. That's the price of admission. If you disagree then you can exit now"
Rick nodded for them all "We can do that" he looked at them all, Merle grumbling but nodding. "We can"
The man, now a doctor lowered his gun, putting the safety back on.
"If you have any baggage or stuff to bring in I suggest you get it now because once these doors close they don't open back up"
An elevator door opened and he stepped in, followed by them all, the space nearly twice the size of the normal lifts.
"VI, seal the main entrance, kill the power up here" there was a series of beeps and before the doors closed the entire room went dark, the lights shutting off and the hum of machines whirring down to nothing.
"Were you talking a robot?" Carl's question was innocent enough and everyone looked to the man who quirked an eyebrow at the boy.
"Yea, kinda. She's the one who keeps the place running, tells me if anything if failing or needs fixing, when lab samples are finished."
"She?" Sophia looked interested now and her mother tucked her closer to her side.
"Yea, it's a female. Most places like this, ones that deal with technology have a female voice as the expert system"
"Why?" Carl and Sophia grinned at each other "Jinx! Double Jinx! Triple Jinx!" they both shrugged when no one won but the man chuckled.
"Because female voices are calming, don't you guys feel more calm with your mums?" the two children looked a bit contemplative before nodding.
Sophia would always feel more comfortable with Carol mostly because her father was an abusive drunk that didn't know his ass from his stomach. While Carl may have gotten away with more when he was with his mother; Harry mused.
Rick stepped forward a tiny bit so that he was maybe a foot or so in front of Daryl "Rick Grimes"
The man looked at the hand before he grasped it "Dr. Edwin Jenner"
Everyone else introduced themselves and Harry gave the man a wave though he didn't move from behind his now disgruntled husband.
"Doctors always go packing heat like that" Jenner shrugged his shoulders "Well there were plenty lying around, had to learn somehow right?"
Daryl grunted and Harry found himself between the two Dixon brother in a human sandwich which.. Ew if it was placed in the wrong context.
"Besides, you all looked harmless enough, well except you two. I'll have to keep my eyes on you both"
Carl and Sophia smiled, looking bashful and excited at the same time and Harry couldn't have been the only one to think just how wonderful children's innocence is. He looked up and away from where Daryl's hand was rubbing his knuckles, the thumb brushing over where their baby was kicking to gaze at the dark room beyond the elevator doors.
"VI, turn on the lights in the big room." Jenner stepped out and everyone followed, Daryl herding him to the back of the small crowd and Merle even shifted.
The lights in the room came to life slowly, the 'big room' was indeed a big room. Aptly named actually with couches, tables, computers, tv's and even a kitchen further along in.
It was probably a bit silly to think that Daryl hadn't noticed the man's more than lingering looks and if Daryl noticed something then Merle was never too far behind. He squeezed his husband's hand because the last thing he needed was for Daryl's well known anger to make an appearance after so long. Merle on the other hand was a loose canon if tempted.
Daryl squeezed back but didn't lose any of the tenseness in his body.
He focused with half an ear to the conversation at hand only catching a bit of what Rick was asking "-the doctors the staff?"
"I'm it, just me here"
"And the Vi.. the computer you were talking to. Can it talk back?" Lori asked and Carl looked so excited about the prospect of a talking computer he began to bounce.
Jenner tilted his head, a smile plastered on his face again "She sure can. VI say hello to our guests. Tell them… welcome"
A beep later and a feminine voice spoke up with a slight echo "Hello guests. Welcome"
Carl and Sophia squealed while Lori and Carol looked a bit amazed.
Harry, even as a doctor hated needles. It wasn't a phobia just plain and simple hated those things. So when Jenner swabbed his arm with alcohol and took out a fresh needle the only reason he didn't try to run away was because of Daryl's hands on his shoulders. Looking away from the blood that was filling the vial he just focused on breathing and Daryl's presence until the pointed tip exited his skin and cotton ball was pressed on the small puncture wound.
"All done"
Harry gave him a small smile and pushed himself up only for the world to suddenly become a roller coaster ride and tilt.
"Hey hey! Harry!" he blinked slowly up at his husband then at Rick's and Jacqui's who were hovering above him. He tried to stop blinking because it was only making their faces blurry and voices distant.
"Is he okay?" he looked at Jenner who was only now more of a shape than a person. What he was laying on was really soft and felt much more comfortable than the pick-up's backseat.
"He hasn't eaten for a few days" that was Jacqui's voice. Oh how he loved Jacqui. Daryl was probably useless right now all stony faced and worried. He really wished he had time to work on Daryl from an earlier age before he got so emotionally constipated.
"None of us have" how Lori managed to make such a simple sentence sound so spiteful and towards him was beyond Harry but now that his brain had caught up to his body he realized he was about to pass out. It kind of annoyed him that the last words he heard were from Lori but oh well.
.
D.H
.
He hadn't wanted to let them in. The moment they had stepped in the car park he had know they were there. Sensory detectors having been placed there by him personally after the dead had had a banquet with the soldiers and the other doctors and staff had evacuated to be with their families.
He didn't have a reason to leave. He had no one left to go back to.
His wife was dead, parents having been gone years previously. They never had children and his siblings and him had lost contact after they mother's funeral back in 2001. He did know that he had a few nieces and nephews but… they weren't important. His work was, his wife's work, the one he should have died in place of because at least then she would've made progress with his corpse.
After the samples had been destroyed he could admit to going just a bit crazy.
Then someone had started to bang on the door and several more faces appeared. He was content enough to leave them out there. To let the dead that never were too far away to run them off or let them join the 'brave and heroic' soldiers that fell instead of fleeing.
He didn't care what anyone said. There was no honor in dying for your country. Especially a country that was so beyond fucked that the president had went underground or died after the first major outbreak in DC. It wasn't only the president that went off radar. Anyone who had political connections went dark. No one knew if they were dead or in a bunker somewhere off the coast.
He didn't care though. He was beyond caring after his wife left.
But then he saw him. That face. The face that looked familiar it was like a shock to his system. He knew that face from somewhere but if he let the man in then no doubt everyone else would have to follow.
He had been right. But it wasn't like he could tell the men with guns that the only reason he granted them sanctuary was because of one man. That he had intended to let them stay outside and either watch them run or be devoured. To his surprise the man was pregnant. It had been so long since he had seen someone full of life and a part of him wanted to watch it blossom while another part wanted to snuff it out.
He had never been able to see one of them up close. No matter how 'normal' it was to see a pregnant male celebrity showcasing his belly or the random teenager on the streets, he had never had the chance to touch one. He had heard stories of some men dying half-way during the birth, their anal cavities grotesquely expanded and the child trapped and dying as well.
He'd also heard stories of those men who had smooth births but with it being very bloody, like a hemorrhage but not being one. Edwin wondered which one the man would be, the lucky or the dead one.
A part of him wanted this Harry Black, the name familiar as well, to be the unlucky one. To be the dead one. Looking at the husband he wondered if the man would grieve as loudly as he had done when his wife had passed much too early. Or if he would be as stone faced as he was now.
"Alright those of you who know your way around the kitchen you're welcome to start dinner or something. We'll take him and the girl-"
"Her name is Amy"
Jenner paused and looked to Andrea who looked just as shaky as Harry had been.
"Alright, Amy. We need to take them both to the sick bay. I'll have to check on her vitals and see if anything can be done for her arm." he looked at the girl who was still in the makeshift stretcher and pale as the dead.
"For him not eating for so long could have some pretty detrimental side effects since he's so far along in his pregnancy. Male pregnancies though not as frequently documented as normal ones are known to be a bit unstable and…" he cleared his throat and motioned for them to follow him.
"Do you need help Daryl?" Rick asked and Daryl shook his head, standing then carefully lifting Harry into his arms.
"The rest of you who aren't uh doing anything, the bathrooms are down the hall and the bedrooms are in the hall over."
"Hot water?" he glanced at the woman who was the mother of the boy and carried the same last name as the man who had screamed at him through the camera.
"Lots of it. Soap too. Just try to limit the hot water consumption per person by maybe thirty-minutes or so"
There was an audible sigh of relief and he went ahead.
The sickbay was his favourite and most hated place in the CDC. This was where his wife had been taken after she'd been bitten but it was also where he had met her all those years ago, where they fell in love.
He didn't have to look twice at the girl, at Amy, to know that sepsis had already settled in. Her skin was much too pale and mottled. Since she had been inside he had seen her regain consciousness once and that time was full of slurred words that made no sense.
She had been that way for far too long. If it had been the early stages of sepsis then maybe he would have been able to do something but he bet of he asked her sister, the one that made it a point if him knowing her name, she'd deny cleaning up after the girl- after Amy, when she lost control of her bowels. The girl was a lost cause. Harry however, wasn't.
Swallowing he looked for a stethoscope, having throw his own somewhere he couldn't remember weeks ago.
"You have to take his shirt off so the material doesn't hinder the sound coming through" he got the feeling that the husband Daryl didn't trust him very much, or even liked him but that only tickled his feelings maybe as much as Rick's cries for help had.
Jenner tries to not stare too much, tried to control how his hands trembled and passed it off with a joke about it being a bit cold in the room.
Pressing the cold surface to the chest listened in, counting the beats then moving it to another area. Staring at the developing chest under his palm was easier now that he was listening in to his heartbeat.
Some men developed mammary glands and some didn't. However even if a male's chest developed over 32% of them never lactated, something about hormonal imbalances. Staring at the perk swells he couldn't help but think that Harry's own would definitely lactate. The nipples were already swollen and the man still had a few more months to go.
"How far along did you say he was?" he was trying to listen to the baby's heartbeat now, touching the firm stomach made him shiver and he closed his eyes just to make it seem as if he was concentrating.
"Six.. six and a half months maybe" Daryl grunted and Jenner hummed.
"Everything seems to be fine from what I can see but later on when you're both rested and ate something then I'd like to do a sonogram. You..ah, you haven't had the chance to see your baby yet have you?"
Daryl stared at him for a long moment, before grunting out a no.
"Then it'll be perfect. You two can see your baby for the first time ever and I can see inside of him- to make sure nothing is wrong with the placenta and other bits, but for now I'll hook him up to some fluids and a couple of liquid form vitamins he missed so far."
Daryl nodded and Edwin fiddled with his shirt hem. "If you want to wash up or grab some-"
"No"
"It'll be no problem, he's safe in here and I could always-"
"I said no" he was being glared at now and the man still had the crossbow on his back. Nodding with a smile Jenner backed away.
"Okay. I'll just go and check on my other patient. If you need anything just uh shout"
He left the room and closed the door, going to the one next door where Amy was stretched out.
Listening to her heartbeat he closed his eyes and moved it to another location. Her breathing was a quick breathless pant and her muscles were tense so tightly he was almost afraid to touch her. Heat was radiating off her skin and the bandage on her arm was yellow.
Pressing the pads of his fingers down on her abdomen he winced. Glancing at her sister and the oldest man in the group Edwin shook his head. Her stomach was so rigid it felt like stone. Organ failure was certain death. If she had arrived maybe a week previously then maybe, he would have had the means to help but now?
"I'm sorry but she's in the late stages of sepsis, her organs are already beginning to shut down I… there's nothing that I can do to reverse it she's um" he trailed off seeing as how no one was paying attention to him anylonger. The woman was bawling her eyes out and the old man was giving him a look to 'get out'. He gave his most apologetic look and left. Closing the door behind him.
Going to his room he locked the door behind him, leaning on the door he slid down and finally let himself just breathe and think.
It wasn't as if he was sick. If anything this problem was just repressed feelings he had over never being able to have a child with his wife. Of not being able to see her full with him, never having experienced the pride in making a child that was half him and her.
It wasn't a kink, or something dirty that he should be ashamed of.
He was just expressing the lost of what he never had. It wasn't wrong to have gotten hard over touching someone's belly where their child was gestating.
Nor was it wrong to get off on the memory of how smooth and firm that belly had been, how his nipples and small swells of his chest looked delicious enough that he wanted to just-
Jenner groaned and quickly stripped, heading off to the bed to do it properly.
This wasn't wrong. He was cheated of a life of being able to touch his wife's pregnant stomach, to do everything he had wanted to do with her while she was like that. He had been cheated, and he hated how Daryl wasn't, so taking this bit of pleasure wasn't wrong.
.
D.H
.
After Daryl had strong armed him into the shower which ended up being less of a shower and more of them exploring one another's body, with him getting two orgasms that sent him straight to the gates of heaven and back down; they finally made their way back to the big room.
Dinner was done and when Jacqui saw them coming she stood up and gathered two plates of spaghetti with mixed meat sauce. Daryl took the plates from her half way and from the pleased smile on her face he figured that his gruff husband had thanked her with actual verbal communication and not just a vocal cord.
"You're okay then sugar?" Jacqui asked, petting his hair from where she was sitting beside him after eyebrowing Merle into submission.
He really wanted to laugh when the older Dixon brother moved and then paused as if realizing then that he had actually listened. Merle was still staring at Jacqui oddly but Harry recognised most of his looks by now to know that the man was just simply confused as hell. Daryl was beside himself with laughter his shoulders shaking as he ate.
"I'm okay, was just dehydrated and tired. This should help fix those few days of zero calories" she cooed before pinching his cheek.
"What did I tell you about not drying your hair?" she leaned forward to stare at Daryl "Daryl what did I tell you about making him dry his hair?"
Daryl looked a bit like a deer in headlights, his eyes actually widening to show the blue that Harry considered to be one of the most beautiful colours he ever seen. Jacqui sighed and poured him a glass of soda water considering everyone else except the children had some form of wine or rum.
He noticed that Andrea wasn't at the table and while he was tempted to ask, the mood at the table was light and happy, Dale was there and his face said enough. Any news involving Amy would put a damper on it. He had been keeping an eye on her, that was all he could do when the bandages ran out along with everything else. She had shown classic signs of sepsis which had only progressed further into the final stages.
He had told her when Andrea had disappeared for a bathroom break and she accepted it but had requested to keep it from Andrea. Guilt was still gnawing at his insides but he pushed on. Amy was a smart girl, she knew the risks and accepted them. It was Andrea he was more worried about.
The woman for all her bravado back at the pond in the quarry was in the best sense of words - fragile. Amy's death would hit her hard and even if Harry wanted to he couldn't be the one to catch her when she fell.
"Alright?" he peaked up to meet Daryl's blue and smiled, pressing a kiss to the frown of his lips.
"You're going to have so many wrinkles before our kid is born" he teased, giggling when Daryl glared at him.
"You're going to be a wrinkly daddy" the glare intensified but without any of the normal heat another person would get.
"Shut up" Harry grinned and kissed him again, humming when Daryl kissed back. "Nope, you love when I talk"
"I like it better when you scream" Harry blushed and focused entirely on the food on his plate ignoring the smirk that replaced the frown on Daryl's lips.
His husband was such a bastard.
"Eww.. it's like watching my parents flirt. Please stop it"
Glenn was such a little shit. He hoped a bird shat on him. A very big bird. Like a freaking vulture.
"You do know we're nearly the same age right?"
Glenn had the audacity to look offended and Harry huffed. "But dude, you're all married and about to produce a life and become a parent."
Harry raised an eyebrow "So?" Glenn crossed arms "It's all very mature and.. makes you and Daryl kinda..old"
Harry stabbed at the final bits of his dinner "Well excuse me for wanting a human spawn to carry on these fabulous genes. Between my looks and Daryl's diii-" he sent a look towards Sophia and Carl who were too busy trying to see who could hold their breaths the longest.
"Daryl's joystick, my kid is gonna be pretty blessed thank you very much" Glenn's eyes widened and he leaned back in his seat as if Harry's words were contagious.
"Dude."
Harry shrugged and sipped at his soda water until Jacqui tilted the glass and made him gulp down half of it before she was satisfied.
"Jacquuui you're so mean sometimes" Daryl snorted and poured himself another glass of whiskey, topping off Rick's and even Shane's before passing it down the line to his brother. Shane looked a bit surprised by the action but nodded in thanks while Rick grinned, all happy drunkard already.
"You alright there Rick buddy?" Rick turned to him and squinted before he grinned even wider. "Harry!"
"Rick! Still ain't answer my question buddy"
"I'm brilliant, just super" there was a round of snorts around the table. "Are you now" Rick nodded and leaned forward, beckoning Harry closer even though there were two people between them both.
Harry leaned across his husband and Shane leaned back trying to stay out of the conversation but couldn't. Rick licked his lips and practically threw himself across Shane's lap.
"My best-friend is fucking my wife and I right now I just can't bring myself to care" he stage whispered, words slurring and barely coherent before he giggled.
Harry's eyes widened the same time as Shane and Daryl's; looking up to glance at Lori but like everyone else she was too engrossed in another conversation, the noise level drowning out Rick's drunken slurring. Daryl looked more uncomfortable than anything, taking a huge gulp of his whiskey while Shane looked a bit sick.
"Rick, now's not the time to be talking about that buddy" the former police waved his away but didn't move from where he was sprawled over Shane's lap.
"I know know, but I mean I woul-woulda thought they'd be dis-discret or somethin' but they were just hump… humping like bunnies and-" he belched and Daryl snatched the glass of some very very strong smelling brandy from him, passing it off to Glenn.
"Bottoms up smartass" Glenn looked at the glass then at Daryl who raised an eyebrow until the younger man swallowed the two inches of rum down with a series of coughs afterward.
Rick pushed himself off Shane and stood, swaying on his feet with a sloppy grin on his face, grabbing a bottle glass of water he raised it but Harry knew the poor man thought it was more liquor.
"To our gracious host that pulled us off the streets from getting our asses eaten."
Daryl choked a bit on his spit and Harry pressed his face in his husband's shoulder to hide his blush.
T-Dog cheered and raised his glass of rum and coke while Dale just smiled and raised his own "Here here!"
Glenn giggled and Harry wanted to be a bit peeved at Daryl for getting the younger man drunk from one sip of alcohol but the little shit had called him old. "Booyah!"
"Booyah!" Merle raised his glass as well and the children mimicked him by swallowing their cranberry juice and slamming the glasses down. Harry raised his glass of soda water and Daryl nodded to the man while Lori, Carol and Jacqui gave the man soft smiles.
Jenner had been quiet the entire celebration, not joining in and only saying one worded answers.
"Thaank you Doc, thank-yooou" Rick swallowed a mouthful of the water and shook his head. Slapping Shane on the shoulder until he raised his third glass of cognac to Jenner and knocked it back to refill it again.
"Not to make the mood gloomy but mind telling us what happened here Doc?" Dale's question was met by many groans and objections. Jenner shrugged "When things got bad people left to be with their families, then when military got overrun the remaining few bolted."
"Every last one?" Harry's eyes flickered from Jenner to Shane and back. The doctor shook his head, pouring himself another glass of scotch.
"No, some of them couldn't bare the idea of stepping out through the doors so they.. had other methods. There were lots of suicides that week, I would say it was darker than what was going on outside of the doors" he laughed a bit and shrugged again.
"And what about you. Why didn't you leave"
Jenner gave Carol a queer look "I had work to do, I kept working when everyone else deserted hope"
He stood suddenly and everyone followed him with their eyes, Rick who was too out of it just watched behind blurry eyes but Daryl was tense.
"Let me show you all the living room where you'll have to sleep. The couches are big enough and soft enough if you want but there are bedroom available. Everything in this place is powered down, so try not to use anything that draws power including the hot water"
"Hot water?" it was a bit comical how everyone's intoxicated bodies seemed to get second wind at the mention of hot water shower.
Jenner gave them a slightly annoyed look "I told you all this before- you know what never mind. The showers have hot water but try to limit your time to fifteen minutes the most now"
After that everyone dispersed, Shane and Merle helping Rick to the couches and dropping in a single seat one before they disappeared to find a shower themselves, Shane taking a full bottle of cognac with him.
Daryl tucked himself around Harry on the bed, throwing the sheet and then the comforter around them both. "That okay?"
Harry hummed and even though his back was hurting like a bitch and he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep like this without at least three pillow under his body at angles to help shift the weight of the baby he'd stay still long enough for Daryl to fall asleep.
It didn't take as long as he thought it would. Within ten minutes or so Glenn was the first to arrive from the showers, looking refreshed when he knocked on the door, peeking in and murmuring a good night. Daryl was already down, arms slack around his belly and breathing deep.
Wiggling his fingers at Glenn he whispered for the man to help him up and after a touch and go trail error of nearly falling down again he was on his two feet. "Thanks"
Glenn shrugged and shuffled back towards the door "No problem man"
Finding Shane was easy enough. All he had to do was follow the angry shouts of a woman that sounded exactly like Lori then go in the opposite direction as the fuming woman who threw him a dirty look. Knocking the door to the room she had left open he saw Shane pressing a hand to his neck, four angry scratches on the skin that were bleeding.
"Trouble in paradise?" he closed the door a bit, leaving it a bit ajar. Shane sneered at him but didn't answer.
"Why haven't you told him yet" Shane looked confused and Harry guessed it was the alcohol still in his system rather than been totally clueless.
"That day in the hospital when it got taken by the dead and the soldiers began to to shoot anything that so much as twitched."
"How do you know about that?" Shane stood straight and Harry eased himself down in one of the chairs of the rec room a very flat look on his face.
"I'm pretty sure I told everyone that I was stationed there for a while, that I was Rick's doctor after everyone fled and left the ICU patients for dead. Don't tell me you thought I was bluffing…"
Shane shrugged and Harry rolled his eyes so hard his vision went dark for a moment. "Wankers all of you"
Circling the mouth of the bottle with his thumb he ran a hand through his wet hair before sitting across from Harry. "What- why should I tell him. You heard him tonight. He knows. You know… fuck you know and so does Dixon"
Why indeed. Rick had ranted on more than one occasion about how he felt being left to die. About being abandoned by his best-friend and family and with each rant it lost the vigor the previous one had held, until he had asked Harry
'Why did they leave me to die? why did someone who didn't know me cared more about my life than my bestfriend and my wife? Is it supposed to be that way?'
And Harry had no answer to give his friend.
"Because he's angry-"
Shane snorted "No shit Sherlock"
"That you all abandoned him, that you left him to die" Harry continued as if he hadn't been just rudely interrupted.
"I didn't abandon him" Harry raised an eyebrow and Shane growled, slamming the bottle down on the wooden table. "I didn't!"
"He believes that. Then he realized that you and Lori were bumping the ugly bits and well you can see how that looks from a third party viewing"
"I didn't- it was… it wasn't like that"
Harry really and truly couldn't believe he was playing therapist to a man that wanted to kill him back at the quarry for just stating his opinion or god forbid breathing. But he had realized something very early on in the game of Shane Walsh. There were two very different Shane's.
The one who was all hate when Lori prompted him to join in on her game, on her terms and then there was this one- this confused and frustrated and oh so very sad man that wasn't influenced by anything but his emotions.
So yes, he was playing therapist to Shane, if only so it'd help Rick.
Whenever Rick wanted to rant about waking up alone in the hospital, about being abandoned, he'd always start off with the 'good ole days' the 'sagas of Rick and Shane'. He'd talk about how they met, the trouble they got into, how they had instantly clicked, about the dreams they had as boys and young men, about who they dated and so on.
Then it would get slowly bitter the more Lori came into the picture, as if all the colours had been sapped from the image and only left in muted black and white.
His god-father had always said that when something didn't fit in such a once perfect picture then you cut it out and glue the two pieces back together that fit. The jagged edges of the torn pieces would eventually look normal, until you no longer noticed they had once been torn.
Then again that had been the same man who had told the story of how he proposed to his then boyfriend with a ring-pop because he didn't want to be classy.
"He's angry Shane" and that may have been the very first time he said the man's name in civility.
"I know that! Don't you think I know that?"
"But he's also hurt"
Shane bit his lip and hung his head "Why are doing this?"
"I don't want Rick to be a broken man any more than you do" that got Shane to look up, surprise in his brown eyes.
"Wouldn't it be better if he just hated me? Hated me enough to kill me or run me out of the group? Didn't you hear him tonight, my best-friend is fucking my wife. He's already broken, there's no going back from that- from what I did"
Harry rubbed his thumb where his baby was resting. "Is that what you want to do to him? Kill him or make him leave?" Daryl would flip his shit of he woke up and realized that Harry was in an enclosed room with a man who he had had to defend him against.
Shane let out a shaky breath but didn't deny it.
"Can you do it? Could you do it if push came to shove?"
"I-I don't know" at least the man was being honest with him and no evading his questions.
"You need to explain to him what happened, why you had to leave."
Shane glared at Harry and Harry was beginning to think that was default expression for many of the men in his life.
"Then why don't you! Didn't you tell him what happened in the hospital? About why it was so deserted?"
Harry nodded "So why the fuck do I have to tell him again huh?! What difference would it make between which one of us telling him the same fucking story?!"
Harry looked up at the now standing man, Shane's chest rising and falling in quick succession.
"The same difference it made being nursed back to health by a total stranger instead of by the people he considered family" Harry felt a bit bad when the other man stepped back, the flinch almost as if he'd been slapped.
Harry braced himself on the armrests of the couch and eased himself up, taking the bottle of cognac out of Shane's reach and corked it. "He's told me stories of you, how you once got roofied and he had to save you then drag you home with a hole in your pants"
While that was terrifying to think about because duh- rape, it was pretty funny to think about and Shane seemed to agree, snorting, his lips twitching into a smile.
"The dude who did that was huge and Rick's face looked fucked up for nearly two weeks after"
Harry smiled "Or the one where you tried to deepthroat a beer bottle" Shane coughed, a blush staining his cheeks as he tried to stop laughing just so he could cough.
"If I had a friend like that, of someone who cared so much about me, who risked getting a hole in their pants as well from a man three times their size, I'd never let them go."
"You're lucky Shane. Until I met Daryl I didn't have anyone and God knows those years were dark and lonely, and even then I was just this annoying kid who followed him around because he would give me my first meal in days and help me clean and hide my bruises. Not because I was seeking companionship or a friend. But he gave me that despite having some of the same bullshit on his end"
He was definitely on a ball if he managed to startle the former cop like that.
"You-"
Harry shrugged. "I had a shitty uncle and hard first couple years of life but it eventually got better. A lot better"
Shane was silent for a while, just staring at him and Harry let him. What seemed like some deep psychic evaluation ended Shane nodded tightly and Harry smiled.
Pausing by the door he turned to look at Shane who suddenly looked so much smaller.
"I know that we uh, got off on the wrong foot but don't wait too long before you tell Rick. He looks like the sort of extreme idiot who'd grow a beard and suddenly go off the deep end"
He cracked a grin when Shane chuckled, closing the door behind him he jumped when Jenner was only a foot away from him, blue eyes steady and still creeping him out.
"You should be taking it easy. Doctor's orders" and there was that crooked smile again.
Harry smiled and nodded, waiting until the man moved along before he shuffled as quickly as he could back to the bed with Daryl who wrapped his arms around him again, snuggling into the back of his neck. Four pillows were on the bed and he twisted a bit to find Daryl staring at him, eyes as lethargic as the man probably felt.
"I got them for you from the smartass next door" he mumbled and Harry smiled brightly at his dopey looking husband. "Thank-you" Daryl grunted but didn't close his eyes, watching Harry as he wiggled around on the bed.
Shifting he rearranged the pillows, kissing Daryl on the cheek when he got a sleepy gaze "Go back to sleep hon"
Daryl grumbled but obeyed and Harry sighed. His feet were killing him but his back was hurting more. The woes of being pregnant he guessed. Sometime in the night he heard another door close and Harry turned in Daryl's hold.
They would be alright, so long as no one decided to blow them up while they slept Harry believed they would sort it all out.
.
D.H
.
A/n: I may have paint Dr. Jenner as less nice and more of a paranoid unhinged fuck who misses his wife so badly he basically lives off of the memory of her and what 'could have been' had she lived.
This chapter was a sorry for the long assed wait you guys had to endure for chapter 6. See? I'm a nice enough gal.
Oh and Jacquelyn Frost - I can totally imagine Shane and Rick having hate sex :P
Read and Review guys~!
