thanks for the new followers and favorites, as well to Jules and Dragon for the review. I luv you all! Now on with the story!
1 Month Later
"Ow!" Sam cries. She pulls her hand back from the gates and looks at the new cut on her finger. Something had just bit her on the top of her finger. She looks around to see what it was and her eyes land on the small creature drawing across the spine of the gate. She frowns. "Stupid spider," she mumbles.
She bangs the gate and it rattles, sending the spider down to the ground. In a frenzy, the bug tries to crawl away as quickly as possible, but Sam took the bottom of the small boots she had on and crushed it, stomping it to the concrete. A few seconds later she pulled back. "Yuck!" There were spider guts all over her shoe now.
She pouts and places her foot back down on the ground. She brings her finger back up and sees the steady trickle of blood start to make it's way down to her wrist. Blood didn't faze her small little mind. After seeing it so much on all the monsters she didn't mind it at all. She always helped mommy when she went out hunting, and she handled bloody animals. But she still didn't like getting bit by something so small. It still hurt.
She sits down on the pavement and looks out into forest, and in the distance she could see some of the monsters stumbling around, trying to find something else to eat or to kill. She wondered deep down if there were still people in there, and they were just taken over by some weird disease, but every time she saw the white eyes, she knew that the people who were once in there were long gone.
"Sam?" she hears behind her. Sam turns her head and sees Daryl coming towards her. She smiles up at him. She liked Daryl. He made her feel safe. Not like her mom didn't as well, but he was one of the only other people that actually gave her that feeling. "Why ya out here? Aint safe."
"I was looking at the bugs on the gate and I followed one until it came out here," she says. She places her finger up in the air for him to see. "It was a spider, and it bit me." He kneels down to where she sat and looked at the finger.
"Got ya good," he mumbles. "Does it hurt?" She shrugs.
"A little," she replies. "It hurt at first, but it's going away."
"Yer a trooper if this doesn't hurt," he chuckles. "First time I got a spider bite I cried like a baby." She tilts her head.
"I can't see you getting hurt. You always see everything around you." He snorts a bit.
"Trust me, kid. I've gotten hurt too many times to count." He stands up and holds out a hand for her to take. "Come on. Let's get that patched up." She smiles again and takes his hand gratefully. Compared to her small and dainty one, his hand was huge and a bit rough, but she still liked holding it none the less. He helped her up easily.
"Can you carry me?" she asks cutely. His eyebrows raise in question.
"I don't think that's a go-"
"Please?" she interrupts, her bottom lip out in a pout. His shoulders drop at her look. Even if he could be an asshole to people he didn't want to see the kid sad. He sighs, glancing behind him to make sure no one was there, and turns back to Sam.
"Fine," he mumbles, leaning down quickly and picking her up in his arms. She giggles when she's settled on top of his arms, and wraps her small ones around his neck to keep herself steady. Hearing the kid laugh made a half smile appear on his face, but when he saw Rick and Glenn looking to where he was a walking, a smirk on both their faces, he sighed angrily and walked faster into the prison. "Why ya doin' this, Sam?" he whispers to her.
"Because you like me," she teases. He rolls his eyes as he walks into the shade of the tall building.
"Startin' to question why I do," he chuckles quietly. Sam rolls her eyes. He sits her down at one of the tables and takes a seat on the bench, having grabbed a wipe and a bandaid from the small table near him.
"You also like my mommy, so thats why I do it." He raises an eyebrow as he begins to wipe down the blood that had made its way down her arm.
"Why ya think that?" he asks. She shrugs.
"I see you look at her a lot when she's not looking. And you smile at her a lot but not at a lot of other people. And-"
"Ok, kid, I get it," he interrupts, hoping that no one had heard that little statement. "Just 'cause I do that doesn't mean I like her like that," he tells her. Sam's face drops and she looks down to the ground.
"Oh," she mumbles. He looks up and sees the frown.
"That don't mean I don't like her," he gets out, trying to undo what he said. He knew if he said somethin' stupid Sam would go straight to Lucy and tell her. She did that literally all the time. She looks up, her head tilted. "I like her just not...like that," he mutters. Sam sighs.
"Okay," she states. He wraps the bandaid around her finger quickly and nods.
"There ya go," he says. Sam looks at the bandaid and frowns.
"What are those?" she asks as she points to the picture on the bandaid. He looks at it and was surprised the little kid didn't know what it was.
"Those are, uh...princesses," he replies. Sam's brow furrows.
"What are those?"
"I think that's a question for yer mama, Sam." she shrugs, hopping off the table and running to the door. "Hey!" he calls after her. She turns around. "Stay away from the outer gates. They aint a good place to go for a four year old." She smiles, nodding her head.
"Thank you!" she yells, running back outside. He chuckles at the girls persistence to want to get back out. Even at night he saw how much she wanted to stay out and look at the all the stars, or the bugs. She loved the bugs.
He sighs and places his head in between his hands for a second. Granted it had been nearly a month since he had brought Lucy and Sam back to the prison. Lucy had fit in well here. She was practically friends with everyone by now. The two people he often found her with were the Greene sisters. They got along well. She also got along with Hershel, and sometimes she was in the infirmary helping any injured people. He didn't know where she learned how to do stitches but she knew how. And how to do them well.
But that was the thing about Lucy. She seemed to be good at practically everything. Sometimes to the point where is pissed him off.
She had been slow at skinning, but she picked it up super fast when he showed her how to properly do it. She was good at shooting any gun, rifle or pistol, but that hadn't been the fact that impressed him. After she had shown off the guns, she had taken on more advanced shit. Bow and arrow, got it. Knife throwing, got it. Hell, he had even wanted to see what she could do with the crossbow and she had picked it up within a matter of minutes.
Weapons wise, she was a fucking natural. She was fast. She was strong. She was everything that he didn't think of her when she discovered him in that cabin.
But then there was the gentle side of her. The mother side. How she was still a good mother to Sam even in this shit storm. How sometimes he would hear her sing to Sam before she went to sleep. How she would help out with meals sometimes. How she would play with the little kids. She was so sweet to everyone even when sometimes it looked like she wasn't even in the mood.
And it pissed him off.
It pissed him off that she was so nice and sweet but could be a total asskicker later. It pissed him off that she was good in everything. It pissed him off that her kid was starting to grow on him. It pissed him off that he had nearly told her about his past in that guard tower that night. And it pissed him off that every single fucking time he looked at her all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her. It pissed him off so much.
She was fucking twenty two! That was a thirteen year fucking age difference! Why was he even thinking about her like that in the first place anyway? It wasn't like he would ever have a chance with her. They had shitty fathers, that was basically where the similarities ended. She was a college student, a fucking performer, and a too fucking nice for anyone like him.
He sighs angrily at himself and bangs the table frustrated. About to get up and stomp off into the woods to let off steam, he's stopped by a small voice coming from the entrance of the cafeteria.
"Daryl?" he hears someone say quietly behind him. He turns around, ready to tell them to fuck off, but as soon as he sees Lucy's arms crossed across her chest with a concerned look on her face, his anger at himself dies down to a mild buzz that was still brewing. "Are you ok?"
"'M fine," he replies curtly. She doesn't even flinch at the anger that seeped from his words. Another quality. She didn't take anyones shit.
"You don't look it," she replies.
"Aint none of yer business how I am," he snaps back. She rolls her eyes at his stubbornness.
"Fine, be that way," she mumbles, leaving to go outside. He sighs, running a hand through his messy hair.
"Wait," he quickly says, looking down at the ground. She turns around, her brow raised, ready for him to talk. He looks up and sees that her dark blue eyes were boring into him, waiting for him to say something. He sighs, another hand going through his hair nervously. "Look, I'm just...stressed," he states. Yeah, that was the word. She walks forward to him.
"Stressed about what?" she asks, popping up onto the table. "Is it food? Water? I can he-"
"No, ya can't," he interrupts. She bites her lip. Would this be crossing the line?
"Is it...woman troubles?" she mumbles. His eyes widen.
"Why the hell would ya think that?" he whisper-yells at her. She raises her arms in defense.
"Well fuck me if you aint telling!" she chuckles. "You're not telling me why so I'm just guessing!" He looks her up and down quickly, seeing she was wearing a tight black tank top with a plaid shirt over it, as well as jean shorts with sneakers. He shakes his head of any thoughts that were finding their way into his head and sits down at the table. "So nothing like that?" she asks.
"No," he finally answers. She sinks into the seat next to him and thinks.
"Well, do you wanna go shoot?" she asks. He looks up with a raised eyebrow. "That's what I used to do when I was stressed. Go straight down to the shooting range and just shoot. It helps. We could straight off into the forest, maybe kill some animals." He scoffs a bit at the description, but realizes that was sort of what he was going to do before she came in. If she came with him, he didn't know what would happen with all of Sam's words floating around ins his head.
"I don't know-"
"Please, Daryl?" she whispers almost pleadingly. His eyes narrow. That wasn't something she usually did. Something was up.
"Lucy, what's going on?" he asks sternly. She looks down at the table, her face turning red. "Lucy," he repeats. She looks up and shrugs her shoulders.
"It's nothing, really," she mumbles. "There was this one guy down in the tombs before and-"
"Who?" he asks, trying to keep the slowly building anger that was dying to come out tamed.
"That Marcus guy? The one we took in a week ago," she replies quietly. His hands fist underneath the table.
"Lucy, if he did anything I swear to fucking God," he angrily replies, his voice low.
"He tried...but I stopped him before he could. I kneed him in the balls." He smirks a bit at this, but his face turns back to serious a moment later.
"Lucy, did he really not do-"
"Daryl, I'm fine," she chuckles. "But all I want to do is leave. Please?" He stares at her for a second, contemplating whether or not, but after hearing this from her, he felt that even more steam needed to be released. He sighs.
"Yeah, yeah I could do that," he states. She smiles at him. "But we're takin' the bike out." And the smile faded.
"Really?" she mumbles. He grins.
"Come on, aint that bad," he retaliates, but when she raises an eyebrow at him, questioning his sanity, he laughs.
"You're insane. I could fall off that shit or-"
"I aint gonna let ya fall off," he replies. She crosses her arms stubbornly but realizes that he was telling the truth. No matter how much of an ass he could be sometimes he wouldn't let something like that happen to her.
"Fine," she growls. "But If I die today I'm gonna haunt your ass." He snorts.
"Aint gonna happen," he replies, starting to get up. "What were ya doin' in the tombs anyway?" he asks. She sighs.
"I...you'll just think I'm crazy," she mumbles awkwardly. He rolls his eyes.
"Just tell me," he says impatiently.
"I thought I heard Quinn talking to me," she blurts out. He raises an eyebrow. "I just thought I heard her voice and I went looking for her, and I didn't know Marcus was following me into there." He shakes his head, looking out the door, hiding the still growing anger on his face.
"Another time ya should be payin' attention." he mutters. She sends him a glare but realizes deep down that he was right. She didn't pay attention well. In fact she often zoned out when things were super quiet. Another reason why she wanted to live in the city again. The daily sound of cars honking and people yelling kept her alert.
"Ok, I get it. I'm a dumbass," she laughs bitterly. "I can't help it if that asshole is a freaking ninja." He turns around swiftly, prepared to go off on that little comment but is stopped when Sam comes rushing into the room, going as quickly as she could. Lucy looks over and sees her running. She leans down to stop her. "Whoa there, Sammy, what's going on?"
The kid takes a minute to catch her breath before looking back up at them. She holds out something in her hands and gives it to Lucy, who takes the object with a questioning look. "Me and Luke were digging through the dirt to find something we buried the other day, but we found this instead. I don't know what it is, but Luke told me to bring it to you."
Lucy takes a good look at the object and sees it looked to be a really old notebook. She opens it and closes her eyes and the dust that puffs out. Looking inside she sees a name written down on the property line.
Property Of:
Elizabeth Hills
"Someone's journal," she mumbles. Placing it in her back pocket, she leans down to Sam and smiles. "Thank you, sweetie. That was smart." Her eyes move to the bandage, her brow furrowing. "What happened?" Sam smiles.
"I got bit by a spider," she states simply. "But Daryl cleaned it up." Lucy looks up at him with a raised eyebrow, only to see him looking the other way. But Lucy had great vision, and even she could see the tint of red that showed up on his face. She turns back to Sam.
"Well, that's good," she chuckles. "But how about you go play with your friends again. Mommy has to take a little trip." Sam's brow furrows.
"Where are you going?" she asks worriedly. "Are you leaving me?" Lucy smiles again.
"No, honey. I'm not leaving you. Daryl and I are just gonna be gone for a few hours. Nothing more." Sam nods, looking up at Daryl.
"Keep my mommy safe," she warns. Lucy laughs at the comment and Daryl even manages a smile at the little girl.
"Don't worry, Sam. She'll be fine," he replies. She nods, giving Lucy a quick hug and then running back outside to play. Lucy stands up, her hands on her hips, looking to Daryl with a smile. "What?" he asks, annoyance dripping through his voice. She snickers.
"She got bit by a spider-" He sighs and walks out the door to where his bike was, but she doesn't let this go that easily. "Wait, wait, hold up, we are not letting this just walk out the door. Why'd you do that?" He shrugs.
"She was hurt and I patched her up. Aint nothing no one else wouldn't have done." She crosses her arms, a smirk on her face.
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you're coddling her," she comments.
"Shut up."
~%~
This chapter was sort of a filler, but I needed to put it in to build up to the next chapter. Posting them both at the same time. Good stuff gonna happen. :) I hope the time jump didn't confuse people, I just can't write that much lol
Review? :) Luv ya!
