How the Man Designed Me

Chapter 7

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Metallica - Nothing Else Matters:

watch?v=NcbAibPA2yY

Ozzy Osbourne - I Just Want You:

watch?v=bDb8OPUS7LM

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As their convoy made its timely exit, walkers began to converge on their last location, a reminder of how present they always were. Janessa could see them shambling in the fields that cows used to occupy, as they quickly sped past and the irony of the food source reversal was not lost on her.

Focusing on the task at hand, she pulled a few CD's out of the pack at her feet and passed them forward to Daryl, before digging deeper in the bag for first aid supplies. Daryl gently traced his fingers across the plastic covers, feeling the pull of the past, surprised that she had just handed him some of his favourite music, Motorhead, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. Bringing him a rush of mixed emotions.

"Babe, you're awesome!" he said softly, half smiling at her through the rear view mirror.

Her heart fluttered at his response, as though she was on the downward swoop of a roller coaster and she lightly bit her lower lip to focus her attention on the seriousness of Jimmy's injury. If it was his femoral artery he might easily bleed out before they got to where they were headed.

"Thanks Daryl, but I have to confess I do have ulterior motives. May I request Metallica's Nothing Else Matters please?" She replied, knowing she needed something calming to work on Jimmy and to also get her overwhelming emotions in check.

Selfishly, she also sensed that Daryl wouldn't be the type to talk about his feelings even if they had unlimited time, but he just might be open to having music do it for him, at least she hoped he was. There were things she wanted him to know and there simply wasn't time for subtleties. Rubbing her eyes she exhaled thinking at least she was putting it was out there, it would now be up to him to pick up on it or not. Now that she'd set things in motion though she felt self conscious and hid behind the job at hand.

"There's some tough work that needs doing back here and that'll give me 6 and half minutes to get it done." she replied.

"Do your thing. Just holler if you need anythin'." Daryl replied holding her gaze through the mirror, making it clear what he meant as he slid the CD into the player.

She lightly tapped the knife in the sheath on her shoulder, letting him know that if shit got real, she had this.

"Jimmy, I need to get you out of those pants if you're able or I'm going to need to cut them off." She advised him in a professional tone.

The melodic guitar intro filled the truck, and Daryl leaned back in his seat keeping time as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. With one eye on the road and the other on the unfolding scene in the back seat, he marvelled at her focus and he thought the song was a great choice for putting everyone at ease.

"Angel, if your hands on me is the last thing I feel, I'll count mahself lucky. Havin' a pretty woman strip mah jeans off 'n' the backseat of a truck, is this good ol boy's dream come true." Jimmy chuckled with a tone that was just a little too serious.

Daryl couldn't stop the growl that started in the back of his throat before he replied.

"Yeah, an' people in hell want slurpees. Choose your words more carefully or I promise ~ it won't be the last thing you feel."

"Pardon ma'am, meant no disrespect." Jimmy apologized as he glanced at Daryl nervously.

"Accepted." Janessa replied nodding thanks to Daryl. Things were about to become a bit more intimate in the backseat and she didn't want any confusion on anyone's part.

"Better." Daryl grumbled as Janessa helped Jimmy out of his pants.

"Now look Jimmy, I'm not a doctor or nurse, but I did get some training, in what feels like a very long time ago. I didn't have any real practical experience until the dead started to walk, so I'm more of the patch 'em up type. I'll be honest, I need to look things up more times than not, but I'm all you've got." she advised him.

"Ah put may life in yowuh hands." he replied with a strained smile, his body covered in a sheen of sweat from the effort of getting out of his pants and adjusting his position. Leaning against the door with his right foot on the ground and the other stretched out for Janessa to work on.

Doing his best to ignore Janessa and a half naked Jimmy up in the back seat, and the fact that the man was younger and better looking than him was one thing. But the way he looked at her made him want to kick the man's nuts into his throat. Instead, he let himself sink deeper into the music and how it was reminding him of her line about being who Man designed her to be, wondering if that was where the trust in herself came from? Shaking his head he had to ask himself was it Mettalica that was making him think about God or was it her? It was as if the song was reaching into his soul and opening him up, it should be terrifying but somehow it wasn't. His life had always been about violence, it was something he understood, and then here she was making him want more than that.

"OK Jimmy," she said gently as she pulled on a pair surgical gloves and placed her stethoscope around her neck. "I'll be as easy on you as I can be, but I need to estimate the trajectory of the bullet."

She started with checking his toes and feet to rule out nerve damage. Moving up the seat she gently lifted his thigh and was glad to see an exit wound. Talking him through it, helped with her focus and kept everyone occupied.

"You've got a through and through, which although may not feel like right now, is a lucky break. That'll make thing easier since the bullet isn't lodged in there. Next I'm going to check for vascular injury. I wish we had access to X-rays , but we don't so I'm going to have to do it manually. " she informed him.

She knew there'd be no way for her to know the full extent of the internal injury hoping there wasn't an underlying fracture, but time would tell.

"Hold on, this next bit you're going to feel." She said as checked the circumference of the injured area, confirming that it had become a bit larger as she'd suspected, a clear indication that the wound was still bleeding.

He was pale from blood loss and winced, but didn't cry out as he clenched the headrest of the front passenger seat, his knuckles whitening.

"Good, you're doing great Jimmy, and you don't seem to have a fractured pelvis. Which, let me tell you might be the saving grace, otherwise you'd be looking at 3 months of bed rest."

"Good, 'cause I had some thangs I planned on doin' then, like liven'." Jimmy joked weakly.

"Next I need to check the femoral pulse of your injured leg and compare it to the other." She said more for Daryl's benefit at this point as she gently probed near Jimmy's groin, knowing he would be uncomfortable with it.

Luckily, it felt as strong as the uninjured femoral pulse. Putting on her stethoscope she checked nearby pulses, listening for a vibration which may be signs of arterial injury.

"No doubt, someone's looking out for you." She breathed with relief. "You've got a through and through and I can't find any signs or nerve or arterial injury. We'll see if there's a fracture soon enough, but at least it's not your pelvis. The main thing is going to be to keeping off of it and making sure it doesn't get infected."

Jimmy smiled back at her in gratitude.

"I won't lie to you this next bit is gonna hurt like son of a bitch, brace yourself." She then proceeded to irrigate the wound with a disinfectant.

Jimmy grunted and inhaled sharply through his teeth. Daryl had to give it to him, if begrudgingly, at least he took it like a man,

"Almost done, the worst is over. I'm just going to sprinkle some of this zeolite powder on you now, it's a fast acting blood-clotting agent" she said briskly, feeling a little bad for doing what she knew had been necessary but agonizing.

She used the powder sparingly because she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to get more of it. It worked by activating the blood-clotting components of the blood and by extracting the water, that collocates the protein portion of it used in the clotting process.

Finally, she wrapped his thigh in a fresh pressure bandage and then dug in her pack for a bottle of water, giving him antibiotics the last of her painkillers. With that done she covered him with a quilt, gave him a comforting smile and tapped his good knee letting him know she was about to move to the front seat. Jimmy gave her a thumbs up in response. The final chords of the chorus played out as she crawled over the seat to sit next to Daryl.

He switched the CD thinking of a response he wanted to give her, hoping he was reading the situation correctly as he reached over and put his hand on her shoulder, in an awkward gesture of comfort. Janessa sighed into it and looked up at him with unshed tears glistening in her eyes. She didn't need to say anything, both knowing today had taken a lot out of her and it was now plain her migraine was in full force.

Seeing the bruised look in her eyes took the sting out of how he had felt with her being draped over a man's crotch in the back seat. He had been surprised how angry that had made him. Part of him had just wanted Jimmy to die right then and there. He briefly fantasied about opening the door and simply shoving him out on the road. He shook his head at his jealousy, he'd known her for what? 5 hours? Instead, he handed her a water bottle and fished into his pockets to pull out the pills and sunglasses.

"Take some of those painkillers yourself and put these on," he said gruffly because her glassy eyes were making him uncomfortable. She didn't strike him at the pity party of one type, so she must be really feeling it.

Smiling broadly at seeing three pairs to choose from, she trapped the big movie star dark ones and pulled off her ball cap releasing her long hair.

"Daryl, you're wonderful. I mean that. Even my hair was starting to hurt." She said in a husky voice, deeply touched by his thoughtfulness.

Daryl blushed, feeling a heat radiate within him from head to toe. He still felt the need to mark her as his woman. Can never be too clear when it came to guys like Jimmy. Reaching over he pressed the play button and the song began. He was sick 'n' tired of feeling sick 'n' tired and he wanted her to know now, before the distraction of the next survival situation occurred, because there always was one. If only they could just keep driving.

"C'mere" he said instead with a gruff sweetness and pulled her to his side under his arm. "Rest now, I gotcha."

She lay her head on his shoulder and he brushed the hair from her face tenderly, always having wanted to do that. He'd let Ozzy's "I just want you" say for him what he didn't have the words for himself. She smiled up at him and quietly sung along and before he knew it he was singing a few lines himself and squeezed her tight. Wanting her to know he was baring his soul to her, just laying it all at her feet. This was just about the most exposed and vulnerable he'd ever felt in his life.

She burrowed closer to him and with her free hand draped it across his chest and placed it on his heart. He marvelled that she wasn't rejecting him. Part of him had been convinced he had just been seeing what he wanted to see in her looks to him. She reached up to touch the side of his neck and then cupping the far side of his face, brushing the beauty mark above his mouth with her thumb. They locked gazes during the guitar solo and his heart soared. She was surprised by how open he was being, sensing she was seeing a side of him no one else had ever seen as he softly sung I don't ask much, I just want you.

"There's just one part I don't completely agree with," she said quietly as the song finished. He bit the inside of his mouth and held his breath. "How can there be "no believable Gods", when he brought us together? I don't believe in coincidences, we're exactly where we're supposed to be."

His breath came out in a whoosh. "And I thought I was Zen. Don't scare me like that woman. OK, I'll give you that." He replied and then smirked before leaning over to kiss her lightly and pulled her closer to him.

Thinking this might just be as good as it got as he savoured the honey taste of her on his tongue and the feel of her body pressed to him. The past few months had been the darkest he'd ever known and that was saying something.

Life certainly has it moments and this was one of those times that made all the other shit worth it. He wasn't kidding when he wished they could just drive off into the sunset and leave everything else behind them, but life wasn't that simple anymore even if he wished it was.

Another half hour passed before they turned down a lane with a stone wall and iron gate at the end. Blake had stopped and Janessa squeezed Daryl's thigh lightly to let him know that she was about to hop out. Although he enjoyed the squeeze he didn't like the idea of her opening the gate. She just smiled and pulling on her ball cap and tucking one of the arms of the sunglasses into the top of her combat vest above her cleavage and reached for "George", her long handled tomahawk. When Bob and Merle pulled up behind her she gestured to Merle through the window to join her. Daryl had to admit it made sense. Kissing him quickly she hopped down to the ground and walked back to meet up with Merle, with Daryl watching her every move.

Merle smiled broadly at the sight of her, decked out like GI Daisy Duke, twirling her Tomahawk like a band leader. He'd already attached the bayonet to his stump and met her halfway. She grinned back and tipped her hat to Bob, letting him know in the gesture that Jimmy was ok.

"Hey Merle!" she called out sweetly. Feeling like she could walk on sunshine, still feeling Daryl's kiss on her lips.

"Hey yourself darlin'." He replied with a big grin. He liked how she was always so nice to him, never looked at him like he was trash, or made him feel like he had to keep provin' himself. Around her he could just be. She had a way about her that just took the piss 'n' vinegar right out o' him. He'd never felt that way sober before. Fuck he thought, his baby bro was a lucky man if he had the smarts and the stones to know it.

"The house is just up ahead down the lane a bit, but you can't see from here if an inside wall has been breached, so first thing is just to open the gate and then close it back up quick. The key for the lock is in one of the those fake magnetic stones attached to the gate, near the right side hinge if you ever need to come back here." She said as they approached the gates.

He was touched at this show of faith and figured he'd return the favour first chance he got. Not seeing or smelling anything of concern they unlocked the gates and walked them open on either side of the driveway, letting the three vehicles through before locking them up again behind them. Getting into Bob's car they drove up to the second gate farther into the property and repeated the same action.

"Blake and I put in another fence closer to the house last fall, so we should be pretty secure once we get there, having the double layer of a high stone wall with a solid gate and then a tall chain link fence is a pretty good precaution these days," she said reassuringly.

Once through, they drove down the lane with two beautiful rows of old oak trees, hundreds of years old that lined either side of the road that formed a vast canopy overhead as they approached the old plantation house. Pulling in front of the fantastically beautiful old building Blake smiled and waved them over with a flourish. "Welcome to my ancestral home, Oak Alley, the Turner family estate."

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Thanks for the reviews FanFicGirl10; nathalie033; FrankiKaos; Guest; Manchester Lady; fanreader01 and DixonLover. I'm glad you guys are still with me as we see where this will go. To the readers, glad you're here too please feel free to drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you. If you're reading this a second time round you'll notice that the lyrics are being removed and replaced with descriptions. It's a copyright thing.