Safe
Chapter 7
AN: Spoilers through Chupacabra, I finally buckled down and wrote out a revised outline for this story to go with the unexpected turns the shows taking this season, so hopefully updates will be coming a little more quickly. There is mentioned Maggie/Glenn in this chapter, nothing graphic, had to be done. :) I hope to finish off up until the episode we just saw in three longish chapters, but then, this weeks could change everything so who knows? :D There should be some slashy goodness in the next chapter, I tentatively promise
The farm was a balm on everyone's ragged nerves; even more so than the CDC and the perceived security they had had there. Day to day life hadn't ground to a halt here, it couldn't. The cows still had to be milked, the chickens had to be fed, Glenn was fairly certain that he had seen Hershel's youngest daughter and her boyfriend sneaking off to the barn for some afternoon nookie, trying to conceal a large bundle of blankets between them. At the Greene's life seemed blissfully normal. Well, maybe not normal normal as far as a city boy like Glenn was concerned, but normal in a picturesque Mayberry sort of way that was nevertheless very comforting. The Greene family's seeming denial about the danger the walkers posed wasn't very practical, but it was kind of infectious.
Glenn found Maggie's innocence in regards to the horrifying shit storm all around them very appealing. As they walked their horses slowly into the nearby town, Maggie peppered him with anecdotes about the people that had lived in all of the pretty little houses they passed in hushed tones as if she was worried someone would overhear her gossiping. And though her gentle prattle wasn't quite enough to make him forget that the world had ended, as they gingerly picked their way around abandoned cars and badly decomposed corpses, it provided enough distraction to let him pretend for a little while.
Glenn didn't think twice when she offered to have sex with him. His libido had been on overdrive since his recent sexual reawakening, and how often did a beautiful girl say "eh, why not?" and take off her shirt? He would later rationalize that Daryl hadn't actually shown any interest in him, but the truth is at the time he hadn't thought of Daryl at all.
As they made their way back to the farm, (Maggie was silent this time, Glenn attributed it to speechlessness at having her world rocked so hard), Glenn's thoughts drifted to Daryl and the implications of what they had done sank in. This was possibly what Daryl had been trying to tell him. Judging by his inspired (though admittedly brief) performance in the pharmacy, Glenn was clearly not gay, so his temporary sexual identity crisis was just a result of him being so sex-deprived that he didn't even realize he was horny until his frenzied mind had locked onto the only potential sexual partner in the vicinity. (Glenn felt the inkling of wrongness in that explanation in the form of a giant Andrea shaped hole, but another of the most enduring aspects of his personality was his ability to ignore giant gaping flaws in his logic.)
Daryl had been doing without for at least as long as Glenn, but did he jump on the first warm body that had shown an inkling of interest? He'd recognized Glenn's overtures for the desperation that prompted them and as politely as he knew how had asked Glenn to back off.
When you put it that way, punching Glenn in the face had been down right gentlemanly of Daryl.
Glenn however, in awkward Glenn fashion, had allowed his hormone addled lower brain to do the talking and had coerced Daryl into starting something Glenn wasn't anywhere near ready to finish. He'd clearly made Daryl feel like crud, he'd embarrassed himself to the point that he had trouble looking anyone in the face, and all for a fleeting attraction that vanished as soon as a pair of boobs showed up. Well most of it had, and he he was pretty sure that any residual attraction was the result of leftover horniness and with a little help from the farmers daughter would be cleared up within the next few days.
The hell of it was, Glenn really missed Daryl. He missed sitting around pretending to smoke while Daryl silently brooded like a gay vampire. And the smug little smiles Daryl always seemed to flash him when a member of their band of survivors did something stupid and "city-folk like" (complaining about the lack of toilet paper, refusing to eat squirrel organs, using the water that it had taken over an hour to purify to wash their hair) as if Glenn was sharing the secret joke. More than anything he missed sitting silently by Daryl's little fire, basking in the warm security that the slightly bigger, slightly brawnier, way more bad-ass man had come tho represent to him. Surely now that Glenn had straightened himself out and would no longer be throwing himself at Daryl, they could heal that rift? Go back to how things were?
The thought cheered him considerably and he rode the last leg back to camp with a big dopey grin on his face, despite Maggie's protests.
The next time he saw Daryl was when the redneck caught him red handed ogling Maggie's backside as she took the laundry down that evening. Before Glenn could stammer out an explanation and another apology, Daryl gave him an amused look that clearly said "I told you so." Glenn decided to take it as tacit forgiveness when Daryl sank down onto a tree stump a few feet away, taking out the dark green oilcloth sheath that he used to store the arrows he used for shooting food rather than walkers. As soon as an arrow had touched walker blood Daryl kept it in a separate bag made out of tough black Naugahyde and never used it for food again, though he cleaned those arrows just as carefully. Glenn saw there were only six arrows left in the food arrows\ pouch. He made a mental note to keep an eye peeled for a sports equipment store the next time he was in a town.
"I hear you were showin' off some impressive ropin' skills earlier." Glenn blushed. He wondered briefly who would have told Daryl, but quickly realized it didn't really matter. Daryl seemed to be made up entirely of ears sometimes with all the details he knew about everyone and everything in camp. If Daryl were half the busybody Dale was, it would be impossible to keep anything quiet for more than a day.
"Between you and me, it was kind of a fluke. I was freaking out so bad that I dropped the rope and it sort of caught on him. I didn't realize I had a real hold until I was halfway back up the well." Daryl gave that soft rumbling chuckle of his. Glenn still thought it was pretty damn sexy, but he pushed that out of his mind.
"So how goes the search? Do we have a plan for tomorrow yet?"
Daryl thought about it for a minute then nodded. "Think I'm gonna ride a horse up that ridge, see what's what." Glenn nodded in agreement.
"Shane said he was going to do a firearms training class tomorrow evening. After that maybe Rick will give me back my gun." When Daryl met his eyes he looked sort of uncomfortable. He opened his mouth to say something then seemed to think better of it and snapped it shut again. Glenn frowned. "What?"
Daryl hesitated, but finally said "be careful."
Glenn gave a weak smile and stretched his legs out toward the fire. "Don't worry about that, I learned my lesson about gun safety."
"I don't mean that." He paused and then continued in a slightly softer voice. "Just watch your back. Not everybody's gonna bite the bullet for the good of the group like Saint Rick. Some folk are always gonna be looking out for number one."
Glenn waited a moment for him to elaborate, but Daryl just turned back to his arrows. After a moment Glenn shrugged it off as typical Dixon cynicism. They sat in silence, just like how they used to, for the better part of an hour until a movement beyond the tents caught Daryl's attention.
"Where the hell does she think she's goin'?" Glenn looked up and followed Daryl's gaze to see the tall lean frame of Lori walking briskly out into the north pasture. Daryl rose to follow, his crossbow already swung up into the ready position, but Glenn tugged him back down. Well, tugged fairly hard on his pant leg and earned himself a bewildered eyebrow raise.
"She probably just needs a little time alone. I doubt she'll go far, and it's not like there are a lot of places for walkers to hide in an empty field." Daryl looked suspicious and glanced toward Lori again. She had stopped now about fifty yards away. Daryl slowly sat back down.
"I don't like it. Just 'cause we ain't seein' any walkers don't mean they ain't around. No one should be going out alone."
"She can take care of herself. And look, she doesn't look like she plans on going any further." It was true, she had sat down on something. Though in the dark all they could see was a faint silhouette, Glenn had a fairly good idea of what she was doing. It was weird knowing something Daryl didn't, especially something that had the potential to change the group so much. It made Glenn itch to come clean and ask Daryl what he should do. He managed to keep his mouth shut though because he knew exactly what Daryl would say. He'd shrug and say it was none of his business and it wasn't Glenn's either. Glenn kept that in mind when they saw Lori get up and make her way back to her tent fifteen minutes later and was able to keep from following to ask her what the verdict was.
Glenn got a little carried away with the return of the status quo, sitting up with Daryl until the wee hours of the morning despite his complete lack of sleep the night before. The next morning when he emerged from his tent, the camp was already bustling. He spotted Daryl in the middle of the morning meeting Rick had called around the hood of the Cherokee, and it made him do a double take. Daryl was wearing sleeves. It looked. . . wrong some how. It actually made him look a little vulnerable. Glenn chuckled at that ridiculous thought and set out searching for Lori. It may be none of his business, but he definitely had to know one way or the other.
It took him the better part of the morning to get her alone (long enough to embarrass himself with some awkward flirting) and when he did, he didn't even have to ask. Her tone when she told him to mind his own business told him everything he needed to know. Rick showed up before he could get any more information, clearly pissed about something, so Glenn made himself scarce.
He spent the rest of the afternoon trying not to over-think things. He managed to get a little more awkward flirting in, an though Maggie still said something cutting about his stamina, at least she laughed when she said it and she smiled at him over her shoulder as she walked away. He finally finished the courtroom drama he had borrowed from Dale more than a month ago. It wasn't his style but his only other options had been a thesaurus and a set of five romance novels about "virile vikings" and the duchesses that loved them. He was almost glad when Andrea called out a walker alarm, it was scary that they were this close to their haven, but for a few minutes he didn't feel completely useless.
Until he saw who the walker was.
Daryl's sleeves were gone, and for one frantic moment that was all Glenn could think about. What had happened to them? Then the horror of what he was seeing set in. His eyes were red and there was blood all down his face and chest, and he was staggering along at the slow pace of the undead. Glenn thought he might cry as he asked the others to confirm what he thought he was seeing.
The angry taunt that Daryl practically shouted at them was quite possible the sweetest sound he had ever heard and Glenn nearly collapsed in relief. Daryl was alive, swaying slightly on his feet, looking like death warmed over, but alive and panting. Up until Andrea shot him.
AN: DUN DUN DUN. Okay fine not actually a cliffy, but it seemed like such a good dramatic place to stop :)
Please let me know how I am doing!
