Disclaimer: Not mine sadly.
A/N: so the good news is that I am over my writers block. YAY! I only got over it because I decided to step away from my frustration and paint a bit and now I want to paint all of the time – which reminds me that I need to buy more paint.
A/N2: second awesome bit of news it was the end of the semester last week so I am done and free….at least until august then back to college for me.
Chapter ten
~_~_~_~_~_~_~ TWD ~_~_~_~_~_~ TWD ~_~_~_~_~_~ TWD ~_~_~_~_~
Once Daryl had finished Marlie's hair the little girl went back over to where she left her notebook and colors and decided to color a few more pictures for other people in the camp and meanwhile Merle, Daryl and Natalie were just lounging around talking about inconsequential things to pass the time. Natalie had finished sharpening the knives and had moved on to checking her recurve bow over and making sure that it was still in top shape and working order, she would have offered to look at and clean Daryl's but the man was a tad but possessive of the thing. He treated the thing like another child some days – best not to touch it.
"What do you want me to draw for you uncle Merle?" Marlie suddenly asked budging into the conversation that the adults had been having – Daryl and Natalie were arguing over in the recurve or the cross bow was the better type of bow while Merle said it was the compound bow all the way.
Merle looked over at his niece with a confused look on his face, "What?" he asked.
Marlie giggle a bit held up some crayons, "What do ya want me to draw, I'm drawin' you a picture silly." She said to him and looked up at him expectantly.
"I don't know Mar," Merle said with a shrug and gently tugged on the girls pigtails. "Draw me somethin' cool or somethin' that you'd like to see someday." He said and scratched the back of his head uncertainly.
There wasn't one artistic bone in Merle's body so he had no idea what to tell his niece to draw him and the things he did think of telling her were all hunting related and he was pretty sure that wasn't what she wanted to hear. Marlie has loved drawing and painting ever since she was born and that was definitely something that she inherited from her mother rather than her dad's side of the family.
For a few moments Marlie seemed to contemplate what she was going to make her uncle until she suddenly grinned widely, "I know what I'm gonna draw you," she said and started to draw a few stick figures onto the piece of paper that was in front of her. "I'm gonna draw you and daddy beatin' up all of the monsters. Beat 'em and smash 'em till they go splat." She said and even did a few sound effects to go along with those words.
When Marlie said that to Merle he couldn't help but give a small happy grin at her antics, Marlie was a small little fiery girl who was so full of life and wasn't afraid to be herself – something her parents had taught to her since she was born. When Merle first found out about Natalie being pregnant with Marlie he wasn't sure what to think, he liked Natalie and thought of her as family and was glad that Daryl had someone like her in his life but kids were a whole another thing. Kids were a different kind of ball game, Merle had never been around kids much when he was growing up, he was thirteen years older than Daryl and when he was born their mother barely let him around him let alone let him hold him; though at that age Merle would have rather been outside in the woods or riding his bike with his friends.
Merle wasn't stupid; he knew that he wasn't the best of kind of person for a kid to be around or to grow up seeing day in and day out so the fact that Natalie was pregnant scared him – though Merle would never in all his life admit to that, he wasn't a pansy. Marlie Cherianne Dixon was born on October 13th at seven forty-two at night, the moment Daryl put Marlie into his arms all of Merle's fear and hesitancy about being around a kid completely disappeared. Just one look at Marlie and he knew that she was a Dixon through and through, and there wasn't anything in the world that could tear him away from her. Merle was going to be there for her like how he wished he would have been there for Daryl while he was growing up, he was going to teach her things and show her what it truly meant to be a Dixon.
"Hello," a meek sounding voice said from the edge of camp. "I brought you all some breakfast." Carol said to them with a small, yet forceful smile. "It's just some instant oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar but it's better than nothing at all." She told them and gave a quick look between Natalie, Daryl, Merle and Marlie.
Setting her bow down next to her Natalie jumped up from the chair that she was seated in and took two of the bowls that Carol had carried over to the small family and handed one to Merle and then the other to Daryl before she looked back at Carol; the woman was very petite, short and was quite frail looking and had very short close cut pixie hair and seemed to always be looking over her shoulder. It was as if the woman was expecting an attack from somewhere within camp – curious.
"You didn't have to do that Carol," Natalie said to her as she grabbed the other bowls and handed one of them to Marlie who immediately started to eat. "We're not useless; we can come and get our own food." She stated feeling a tad bit guilty at making the older woman bring the food over to her and her family's camp.
Carol gave a small smile at that and waved off Natalie's concern, "It's fine, really. You guys were over here spending some time with one and another. You deserve to do that, and to be able to just spend some quality time with each other after the weeks you've been separated." She said to Natalie sincerely.
At that Natalie gave a half-hearted sigh of annoyance but gave Carol a nod in appreciation, "Thank you Carol, I mean it. It's very sweet of you to bring some food over to us but the next time just yell that there is food or something like that and one of us will come over and get it," she said and then gave Daryl and Merle a pointed look, silently telling them that she was definitely not going to be the one who would be doing that all of the time. "It's not like we're all staying at a five star restaurant and need to be catered to twenty-four seven. We're definitely not helpless." She said and then glanced at her husband and brother in law. "Well I'm not at least, don't know about those two some days. You should see them when they're sick; they act like such babies and are completely useless." She said with an amused shake of her head.
When Natalie said that both Merle and Daryl turned towards her and sent her a dark look but in response to their looks she just sent them a sweet smile and acted as if she hadn't done anything wrong. Over the years of knowing the two brothers Natalie has basically become immune to their dark looks and annoyed glanced which would make a lesser man quiver – Natalie won't take anyone's shit least of all her husband and brother in laws and if they can't take a few sarcastic remarks and jokes then they aren't the men they claim to be.
"All right Natalie," Carol said with a small laugh at the interaction between the brothers and Natalie. "I'll try and remember that next time." She said to them sincerely. "Try and enjoy your breakfast, all of you." She said and then turned to leave and head back over to where her husband Ed, and daughter Sophia were at before the sound of Natalie's voice stopped her from continuing.
"Hey!" Natalie said gaining Merle, Daryl and Marlie's attention. "You three have anything to say to Carol?" she asked with a pointed look at the three.
Seeing the determined look on his wife's face Daryl glanced away from her and then up at Carol and gave her a quick nod of the head, "Thanks for the food Carol." He said and then started to dig into his bowl of oatmeal; he definitely wasn't the biggest talker in the world or at least not to people he didn't know well.
Merle looked up from stuffing his face full of food and grinned widely, "Yeah thanks for the grub, it ain't the best in the world I 'spose but definitely better than havin' beans again. Getting; sick of that shit." He said to her and then went back to eating his food intently.
Hearing their response Natalie couldn't help but give a small chuckle at them and silently shake her head, never was it said that her husband and brother in law were the most eloquent of people in the world. Compared to what the two of them could have said she guessed their responses to Carol were as nice as it was going to get – at least the two said thanks in their own weird and unique way.
Carol nodded at them and then took a good long look at the Dixon family and gave a small sad smile; when Sophia had been younger, even younger than Marlie was there were days when she had dreamed and hoped of being a family like the Dixon's were. A family who loved and cared for one and another. God how many nights did she go asleep praying for that kind of family. A happy family. Natalie, Daryl, Marlie and Merle may not be the perfect family, or the kind of family that you envisioned or that you saw advertised on TV for stores used for modeling their products or even for those Vacation deals but the Dixon's odd family dynamic seemed to work and Carol was somewhat jealous of that happiness. So many times over the years she's wished for Ed to change, she's hoped that this was the last time he would every lay a hand on her and insult her or yell at her but every time she was disappointed; there was nothing she could do anymore she was in too deep and didn't know how to get out. All Carol could do now was hope and pray that someone or something would save her and Sophia from Ed.
"Marlie?" Daryl questioned as he glanced over at his daughter. "What do ya got to say to Carol?" he asked before Marlie was able to take another bite of food.
Marlie's spoon was about two inches from her mouth and she looked at it sadly for just a moment before she put it back into her bowl and then looked up at Carol, "Thank you very much Miss Carol for bringing the oatmeal so I can eat." She told her and gave her a bright smile.
At that Carol couldn't help but smile a bit in return, "It's no problem Marlie," she said and was about to say something else to the little girl but before she was able to a stern male voice yelled over at Carol.
"Woman get back over here!" Ed, Carol's husband yelled over at her. "What are ya doing over there anyways. We don't need to be mixing with their type more than we already have to."
Carol gave a barely noticeable cringe and gave a tight smile to the Dixon family before she turned around and hurriedly went over to where her husband was waiting for her at, watching closely Natalie saw that Ed grasped Carol's arm tightly before shoving his empty bowl into her hands. Narrowing her eyes Natalie clenched her spoon in her hand; she knew his type and already could figure out what kind of man Ed was and what he was more than likely doing to Carol.
Turning away from the sad scene Natalie quickly glanced at her daughter and saw that she was far enough away so that Natalie could have a quiet conversation with Daryl without being overheard, "What the fuck?" she asked as she looked at Daryl with fire in her eyes. "What does he mean by their type? Are we some lower class of people? That fucking ass doesn't even know us, and the majority of them look at you and Merle as if you are some kind of second class hicks." She said with a disgusted shake of her head at how the campers were treating her family.
"Nat, he doesn't matter. Ed is a piece of shit and no one really c-" Daryl started to say in a soothing tone of voice that usually always ended up sounding more gruff than anything else.
Before he could continue his sentence Natalie cut him off, "Don't you dare try and calm me down Daryl Matthew Dixon," she threatened and glared at him in anger, she was pissed off not just for the comment that Ed sent their way but because Carol was more than likely being abused by that nasty man – she hated men who abused and took advantage of their women.
Daryl clenched his teeth and gave a quick nod, "Yeah the ass has been abusin' her since we got here and from what me and merle can tell has been doin' it to her for years. The woman acts like a scared animal at times," he stated and looked into Natalie's eyes. "We don't know if Sophia is gettin' any of it though, we've been tryin' to keep a close watch of her though." He explained.
Both Daryl and Merle have nasty tempers at times and they can be quite explosive but never in their lives, no matter how angry and frustrated they've gotten have they ever laid a hand on a woman or a child, the two of them would rather hurt themselves before ever doing something like that. With the lives that both Daryl and Merle had growing up neither of them were all that fond of abusers, so Ed was definitely on their shit list.
When Daryl said that Natalie narrowed her eyes and looked over at Ed Peletier and wished so badly that she was the kind of person who blurred the lines of what is right and wrong – she would definitely kill Ed without a second thought, his type deserved to either die or be eaten by the Walkers. At this moment in time Natalie would have preferred him to suffer and be eaten by Walkers. You'd think with the camp being filled with all of these mismatched survivors that someone, anyone would step up and keep Ed from abusing his wife but apparently that's not the case, not even with a cop being right there in camp.
"You..you and Merle…you both know…I," Natalie said incoherently as she looked at her husband and brother in law in shock. "After what both you and Merle went through growing up with your father you both are just standing around and letting that poor woman get beat, not doing anything to stop it?" she asked in anger.
At that Daryl looked at his wife seriously, "No!" he said to her. "You think we haven't fuckin' tried to help her, geeze woman ya know me better than that." He said slightly insulted over the fact she thinks they haven't done anything to stop what was going on with Carol and her husband. "We tried to stop Ed the first few days we were in camp, got into a couple fights and beat Ed right up but Shane in his god damn fuckin' cop glory stopped us and said that it ain't our fight and it definitely wasn't our marriage to get into. Told us to back off and to leave it be." He growled in anger.
"I'm sorry," Natalie said once her husband finished and gently took Daryl's hand into hers. "I know you guys would have done something to stop it," she said and gave a heavy sigh. "I just hate seeing someone getting abused when I can't stop it." She said with a pained tight smile on her face and remembering years ago when she wasn't able to save her friend from an abusive boyfriend – her friend just kept on going back to him no matter what he did to her.
Daryl leaned over towards Natalie and gently kissed her lips and chuckled a bit when he tasted oatmeal, "I know Nat, ya are just wantin' to protect someone. I get that but we can't do nothin' to help her." he said with a shake of his head.
"Shane really said that?" Natalie questioned as she looked up at the RV where the cop was seated on the roof.
Setting his bowl down, Daryl ran his hands through his somewhat short hair. "Yeah. Said that if Carol isn't gonna ask for any of our help then it ain't our business to get into it and to leave it alone and just deal. Told us that we don't need no more drama or problems in camp then there already is." He said with a disgusted snort, the only drama going on in camp at the moment was the fact that Shane was fucking his dead best friend's wife.
Finding out what Shane's response to Carol getting abused was made Natalie angry, beyond angry actually and made her rethink her view of Shane. Shane was supposed to be a damn cop; a cop was a person who kept the bad people from hurting everyone else. But here they were, it was the end of the damn worked and the one lone cop that Natalie managed to run into isn't doing shit to keep an abused and battered wife from her abusive husband.
"Can we kill him?" Natalie whispered as she glared in Shane's direction, he was climbing down the latter on the RV and Glenn was going to be heading up.
When she said that Daryl gave a small laugh, "As much as I would love to watch ya do that, 'cause I really would Natalie. Watchin' ya beat up a guy as ya are yellin' at him and tellin' him how he's supposed to do things sound's really hot, but we don't need to deal with the drama that a dead body would bring." He told her with a half joking smile on his scruffy face. "I'd rather not go through the work of tryin' to hide a dead body on top of having to deal with all of the undead folk wanderin' around and tryin' to eat us."
Natalie sighed heavily and ate a bit more of her oatmeal, it was just plain flavored oatmeal not even the good kind at that. "If the abusive bastard goes too far I ain't gonna just stand back and let him wail in on Carol and Sophia. FYI." She said to him with determination and a pointed stare. "Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise."
For a moment Daryl thought of arguing with her, Natalie may be strong and fierce but she was still smaller than Ed and he was pretty sure Ed could pack a punch from the bruises that he's seen on Carol once or twice. He won't let her put herself in danger but so far Ed hasn't done anything to warrant someone needing to step in, and hopefully it would stay that way. Daryl would hate to have to get into an argument with his wife over something like this, but he will if it means Natalie stays uninjured.
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ RV: Natalie, Amy & Sophia ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~~_~_~_~_
Once everyone had finished up with eating their breakfast Natalie volunteered to help with the clean-up from breakfast as a way to say thanks to everyone in camp for letting herself and Marlie stay with them, and also a thanks for them all not being crazy killer type people like the other groups that Natalie has managed to run into. Daryl and Merle had tried to convince Natalie to stay with them in their camp are and to just relax for her first official day of being in camp but she crossed her arms under her chest – kinda hard to cross them over your chest when you have big boobs – and told them that she was going to be useful to camp and if being useful meant doing a few menial chores such as dishes then she was going to do it.
So at the moment Natalie, Amy and Sophia were all in Dale's outdated RV doing dishes from the morning meal; thankfully they had a generator and basically lived right next to a water source without those two important things doing dishes would be a lot more complicating.
"Mrs. Dixon?" Sophia asked softly as she looked up at the older and stronger woman, Sophia hoped one day she could be like Natalie and be able to get away from her dad and to get him to stop hurting her mom all of the time. "Can I ask you something?" she questioned.
Natalie glanced down at Sophia from where she was washing the dishes from breakfast and smiled down at her, "Sure ya can sweets, but I gotta ask you to please not call me Mrs. Dixon. I may be Daryl's wife and enjoy being his woman but only official people call me Mrs. Dixon usually." She told her with a playful half smile on her face. "So how about you call me Natalie or Nat like most of my friends do. We're all friends right?" she asked.
Sophia gave a small nod, "I guess so." She said unsure of herself.
Even before the apocalypse happened Sophia didn't have all that many friends at school, it wasn't because she didn't want any because she really did but her dad told her she couldn't have friends that she and her mother weren't allowed to hang out with anyone outside of the family. The people who she was allowed to hang out with which was few and far between had to be approved by her dad.
"You guess so?" Amy asked with an amused smile and playfully flicked some water and the young girl. "C'mon you know you wanna be friends with us, us girls gotta stick together and make sure those men out there don't think that they know everything. You know how men are." She joked.
At that Sophia giggled and wiped the water off of her face, "Okay." She said as she took a dish from Amy and dried it off before putting it on the counter next to her.
Sometimes Sophia reminded Natalie of herself, not in the fact that Sophia had an asshole abusive father but because of how she presented herself. Sophia was naturally a quiet and reclusive girl which was more than likely from the years of growing up with Ed as a father, from one of the college classes Natalie took years ago she recalled that children from abusive families are basically ingrained from birth to be as quiet and seem as unimportant as possible so that they don't get in trouble or hit. It still pissed Natalie off that no one in camp was willing to do something to save this little girl and her mother from the abuse that Ed more than likely inflicts on them, it was complete bullshit that Shane demanded no one do anything but fine, whatever she'd play by the rules for now.
"So what did you want to ask Sophia?" Natalie asked looking at the twelve year old curiously and scrubbed stubbornly at the pot that had oatmeal stuck at the bottom, oatmeal that did not want to come off as easily as she had hoped. "You can ask me anything. Promise I won't get mad." She grinned hoping to ease Sophia's hesitancy.
For a few moments Sophia was quiet before she reached around Amy and touched Natalie's arm that had the half sleeve tattoo on it, "Did those hurt a lot?" she asked with genuine curiosity.
Natalie glanced down at herself and then grinned over at Amy and Sophia who were looking at her, "Nah, not really." She said with a shake of her head. "After the second or third tattoo you get used to the feel of the needle on your skin and often times miss and crave the feeling and the sound that comes with getting a tattoo." She said with a small smile on her face.
Hearing that Amy and Sophia exchanged looks before looking at Natalie oddly, "Okay Natalie, I don't want to alarm you but I think you have a weird obsession for pain. And needles are definitely painful." Any said to her with a shake of her head.
"It's a thing us tattooed people have in common," Natalie said with a shrug. "It's not meant in a weird or creepy way, but the sound of the tattoo gun and the first few moments of the needle touching your skin…. it's like finally having an itch that you can't reach getting scratched. Once you start it's hard to stop," she explained to the two girls and then paused for a moment. "Well unless the end of the world happens and you don't have any friends who are tattoo artists then it's kind of hard to keep the habit up."
Amy shook her head at Natalie, the woman was so completely different from who she figured Daryl would be with not that she really thought on that. "You're a bit odd you know that right?" she asked.
At that Natalie shrugged, "I do have my moments." She admitted. "Besides what's normal nowadays?" she asked with a grin on her face. "We got undead people walking around trying to eat us most of the time, what one thing about that is normal?"
"Touché." Amy replied.
While Amy and Natalie were talking Sophia had taken a good look at Natalie and all of the tattoo's that were visible on her body; there was her half sleeve on her arm that was a kind of creepy and dark scene from Alice in Wonderland, a small script tattoo on her left wrist, a tattoo on her ring finger, a tattoo on the back of her neck that Sophia couldn't quite make out and then there was a larger one on her back of two gothic roses with tribal designs underneath it – Sophia thought they were all really cool looking.
"My daddy said only bad people and criminals have tattoos," Sophia said as she tried off a couple of the cups that Amy handed to her. "He said that anyone with a tattoo was bad news and that we should stay away from them. That those kinds of people never get anywhere in life and are trash." She said to Amy and Natalie quietly.
Hearing that Natalie wanted to snort in amusement, it was obvious to anyone that Ed was a sexist, judgmental asshole who enjoyed looking down on all sorts of people and not just his own wife and daughter.
"I don't look like a criminal do I?" Natalie asked as she looked over at Sophia and jokingly looked herself over which made the girl laugh a bit. "I mean sure I do have quite a few tattoos and some criminals do have quite a few tattoos so there is a similarity there. Otherwise I think the only things I am, is a somewhat badass and having a few redneck tendencies but I get all of that shit from Daryl so I completely blame him for that." She said and laughed. "For the most part though I don't think I look like a criminal or a bad person really, right?" she asked looking at Sophia.
Sophia smiled at that and shook her head, "I don't think you look like a bad person Natalie," she told her. "I think you're really nice and cool."
"She's like the other older sister I always wanted," Amy said and she gave Natalie a one armed hug and grinned at her.
Smiling at that, Natalie blew a few soap bubbles at Amy and Sophia which made the two girls laugh, "Amy you're only saying that because you have an overprotective sister who can be a tad bit stern and serious." She said to her.
At that Amy shrugged, "Guilty." She stated and then grabbed another soapy dish from Natalie.
For a while after that the three girls fell into a comfortable silence and just concentrated on doing the dishes from breakfast; looking out of the window that was in front of the RV's sink Natalie could see that everyone was doing what chores they needed to do in order to keep the camp going for one more day. Everyone needed to work together to make sure things ran smoothly, everyone was linked so to say and counts on one and another to make sure things get done and they live to see one more day.
Taking another glance out the window Natalie rolled her eyes when she saw Daryl was standing a few yards away with Marlie and was staring at her intently; in response to his look she raised one eyebrow at him challengingly. The two of them were playing with fire and teasing each other subtly – you could cut the sexual tension that was between the two of them with a knife. Soon, very soon they were going to have to release that tension.
"You know," Natalie said reluctantly pulling her gaze way from her husband back to Amy and Sophia. "The doctor that delivered Marlie was covered from head to toe in tattoos and she even had a few tattoos on her neck and hands." She said as she looked over at the two of them, her doctor had been one kickass lady and the main reason she probably chose her for her main doctor was because of the tattoos. "Nowadays all sorts of people get tattoos, even top notch CEO's get tattoos and no one bats an eye until the business suit comes off. Our society just needs to be more accepting of creativity being shown on the body. Tattoos have been around for thousands of years." She said to them.
Amy looked at Natalie with a curious gaze, "So how many tattoos do you have exactly?" she asked.
Natalie considered that for a moment and then shrugged "To tell ya the truth I have no idea how many I have now. I stopped count after six or seven, but if I was to guess I'd have to say at least ten or so by now." She said as she ran her finger over the script that was written on her left wrist. "I could have totally seen myself as an old grandma covered in tattoos, well at least before the world went to shit I did. There were still quite a few more tattoos I wanted to get done and was hoping to convince Daryl to get a few more too." She said to them. "I think if the world would have gone as it was, no biters/walkers or whatever that I would have ended up as a cool badass tattooed grandma that everyone wished they had for a grandparents and Daryl would be the kickass hunter who even at ninety something years old would go out meandering through the woods hunting down deer and squirrel." She said with a snort of amusement.
With that comment being said all three of the girls laughed at the image of Natalie being old and wrinkly with tons of tattoo's littering her body and Daryl being an elderly hunter and the both of them being surrounded by children, now if that isn't an amusing thought who knows what is.
~_~_~_ ~_~_~_~ _~_~_~ Quarry: 1 PM ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~
It's been more than a few hours since breakfast ended and so far Daryl has been more than patient…..well as patient as he can be at least. For a good portion of the day Daryl has been watching Natalie like a hawk and has been waiting for an opportunity where she was alone so that he could snatch her up and take her somewhere so that they could finally have their talk, somewhere where there wasn't any prying eyes of fellow campers. So far though Natalie has been keeping herself relatively busy; she made a string of cans and had a few of the kids help her put them up and around the outskirts of camp as a warning system in case the Walkers eventually did make their way up to the Quarry – smart idea actually. After Natalie had finished doing that she asked Carol if she needed any help sewing up some of the torn clothes of the campers, she helped make lunch for everyone, and now she and Glenn were reorganizing the camp's supplies so that it was more efficient or something like that.
At the moment Daryl was watching as Natalie was folding up a few blankets and putting them near the back of the van that they were storing a majority of the camp's supplies in, it made more sense to store the stuff in a random vehicle than to try and find a relatively safe spot out in the main camp area where animals could possibly get into it.
"Ya know ya face is gonna get stuck like that if ya keep on makin' that face," Merle said to Daryl as he unceremoniously plopped himself down into the chair that was beside his brother. "Then the wife is definitely not gonna be comin' to you for any lovin' ever again. Hadn't even had the chance to have reunitin' sex yet. Second best sex other than angry sex." He said with a wide grin on his face.
Daryl glanced over at his brother with a dark look, "Shut up Merle, I don't need ya to be talkin' about mine and Natalie's sex life. Or the fact we haven't had a chance to have sex since we found each other again." He said with a shake of his head and then went back to watching Natalie once again. "Ain't ya supposed to be huntin' or some shit like that?" he questioned.
In response to that Merle gave a snort, "Went and came back already," he said and leaned further back into the chair. "Ain't nothin' but bugs out there right now and then damn fuckin' squirrels are too damn fast to catch." He stated with a narrowed look on his face, he was annoyed that he wasn't able to catch one damn squirrel while he was out hunting.
When Merle said that Daryl tore his gaze away from Natalie – who at the moment was bent over giving a great view of her jean covered backside; and instead turned to get a good look of his brother. Taking him in Daryl gave a sigh and shook his head in disappointment when he saw Merle's jittery hand movements and took a quick look into his eyes – it would be nearly obvious to anyone that Merle took some sort of drug while he went out hunting. The idiot just couldn't help himself, Daryl had hoped that since both Natalie and Marlie were back with them that Merle would try and cut down and hell maybe even quit – though even he knew that was a stretch but he had hoped nonetheless. But apparently that wasn't in the cards, Daryl wanted to be angry and pissed off with his brother for pulling this shit when the world was ending but he wasn't stupid, he knew his brother and knew the likelihood of his quitting was slim to none. One of these days Merle was going to get himself killed because of the drugs or get scared straight.
"Maybe if-" Daryl stopped himself before he could finish that thought, he just wasn't in the mood to get in a fight with Merle about his drug problem not to mention it wouldn't really do any good – Merle's gonna do what Merle wants.
Merle looked over at his younger brother challengingly, "Maybe if…what?" he questioned with narrowed eyes.
At that Daryl shook his head and then went back to looking at Natalie, "Maybe if ya would have brought ya own damn bow with ya woulda had an easier time catchin' some game," he stated as he gestured to his own Horton crossbow.
That wasn't exactly the first choice of words that Daryl had to say to Merle but it was better than getting into a fist fight with him, plus Natalie would have a bitch fit if the two of them started wailing on one and another even more so if she ended up having to pull the two of them apart. When Natalie got angry it was not a pretty sight, she could be downright vicious at times.
"I don't need no damn bow," Merle said with a scoff. "All I need is my knife, been suitin' me just fine so far." He said as he patted his knife almost damn near lovingly. "Maybe ya should go 'n steal ya wife from helpin' the chink with whateva the hell they are doin' and stop bothering me about by choice of a hunting weapon." He suggested to him with a pointed look. "Can hunt just fine." He grumbled to himself and crossed his arms across his chest.
In response to that Daryl just rolled his eyes at Merle and then pushed himself up and off of the chair that he had been sitting in, slung his crossbow across his back, grabbed his bolts and then headed towards Natalie – she was going to becoming with him to have their talk, he's been more than patient enough.
It was Glenn who noticed Daryl first to which Daryl responded by giving him a sharp nod before gazing at Natalie's turned back; she was looking through a box of some basic medical supplies and from what he could tell she was complaining about the terrible system that the camp had and was amazed that it has worked for so long. Daryl shook his head in amusement when she started doing that.
Glenn was about to open his mouth and tell Natalie that her husband was there but before he was able to Daryl signaled for him to be quiet, so with a simple shrug of his shoulders Glenn went on with helping Natalie organize the supplies. Having Daryl standing behind the two of them and watching them was kind of creeping Glenn out – okay so technically Daryl was only watching Natalie but still the man was damn intimidating and scary when he wanted to be. Right now with the silent and intense stare thing he was doing, it was definitely intimidating and scaring Glenn to just the right amount.
"Dear god Glenn, I mean seriously." Natalie complained to the young Korean as she put the last medical supply into a box and situated it towards the front of the supply pile in the van and couched down to see what else she needed to look through. "You guys really need to put the more useful things to the front and in a more easily accessible area instead of putting it wherever the hell you feel like. And come on, we aren't going to need the heavy blankets for a couple more months, fall and winter will be here soon but not that soon."
Glenn just nodded at what Natalie was saying, "Right. Sorry." He stated and quickly looked over his shoulder nervously; Daryl was still standing stock still against one of the cars and was watching Natalie.
"You guys have damn near no organizational skills whatsoever," Natalie said with a disappointed shake of her head. "It's more sad than anything." She stated, if her mother could see this now she would have it unpacked, repacked and organized neatly within a couple of hours if not less – she could be quite the neat freak at times.
When she had said that Daryl couldn't help but give a small bark of laughter, "Ya know it's pretty damn funny to me that you are so adamant 'bout this stuff bein' organized when I'm sure that ya work desk back home was a complete disaster." He said to her.
Natalie moved from her crouched position and stood in front of the open doors of the van and looked over at Daryl who was leaning casually against a car that was only a few feet away from her, at the moment he looked like a model who just stepped foot off of a hunting magazine cover. Though, now that Natalie thought about it she wondered if hunting Magazine's had models like the Sport's Illustrated magazine did – half naked models of both men and women posing for the cover. If that's the case Natalie would have totally gone for it….well if it was Daryl on every single cover she would have. He looked sexy s hell when he was covered in dirty and forest after getting home from a day of hunting.
"Cat got ya tongue?" Daryl smirked when Natalie didn't respond to him.
Daryl could only guess the things that were going through his wife's mind right now, whatever she was thinking about he definitely knew it was something naughty especially since she was looking at him with dark, lust filled eyes. Oh the things the two of them could be doing if they were alone, hopefully today would give them a chance to do more than just talk.
"I wouldn't refer to it as a cat," she said with a playful look on her face. "And FYI the desk was more of a chaotic organization than a mess. I knew exactly where everything was that I needed without any problem," she retorted to him with a smirk on her face. "It was just everyone else who had problems trying to find their way through chaos." She said with an unregretful shrug. "Not my fault that a majority of people didn't understand it."
That statement made Daryl give a small, but quick smile which was so brief that Glenn could have sworn that he had imagined it. This was Daryl Dixon they were talking about after all, he wasn't the kind of person who would smile even if it was momentarily…..he smirked, he glared, he scowled and even growled but he definitely didn't smile.
"So," Natalie said with a small smile on her face as she walked away from the van and over towards where Daryl was at. "Dear husband, how has your day been?" she asked casually as she threaded her fingers into the belt loops of his pans and pulled herself a bit closer to him so they were nearly nose to nose. "Been busy?"
Natalie knew that he had been waiting for her impatiently for most of the day; she noticed him watching her for the last few hours but she wanted to be useful to camp and not be a freeloader so to say. So instead of going off with Daryl that morning to talk she helped around camp for a while, but now it seemed that Daryl's patience has ran out and it was time for them to talk.
At that comment Daryl leaned down towards Natalie's ear and lightly nipped at it which made her suck in a breath sharply, "Ya know how I've been most of the day, ya saw me watchin' ya hours ago." He said to her huskily. "don't think for a minute that I didn't notice the game ya was playin' with me woman, tryin' to wait me out and shit and see how long until I pulled ya away." He said as he grazed hos nose up the length of her neck. "We've played this game before Nat, and it wasn't me who ended up losin' if ya remember."
When he said that Natalie couldn't help but give a small half giggle/half laugh at that statement and lean her head against his chest; they have played this sort of teasing game many times over the years. They enjoyed seeing how far they could press each other until the other one broke and gave in. Natalie tried, tried being the operative word, to withhold sex from Daryl for two weeks for some offhand comment he made. Natalie barely lasted two days before she all but attacked Daryl during his lunch break in his office – she thoroughly enjoyed that day, or at least until Merle interrupted the two of them. Merle is talented at being a great buzz kill when Daryl and Natalie were having sex in random places; their kitchen, the garage, the woods behind their house and then Daryl's office at work.
"It's not my fault," Natalie said with a childish pout on her face. "You're addicting and I love sex. A lot." She told him innocently.
Daryl smirked, "Makes two of us then," he said to her and then pulled way a bit. "As much as I love talkin' about our sex lives I came over here for a reason." He said and looked at her seriously.
Right now all Glenn was hoping for was for both Natalie and Daryl to leave so he didn't have to hear any more about their sex lives even if they didn't give any details; the thought alone was scarring enough for him.
"You wanna go and have that talk now don't ya?" Natalie asked with a sigh, though she already knew what Daryl's answer was going to be.
Nodding Daryl looked into Natalie's dark brown eyes, "I need to know what happened Natalie." He said to her in a soft tone of voice and leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. "I deserve to know and you know that. Ya said you'd tell me today and I ain't gonna be waitin' any longer."
Taking a deep breath Natalie nodded slowly, "Okay," she said quietly and gave him a somewhat pained smile, some of the things that she and Marlie went through weren't great and even Marlie didn't see everything that had gone on with the groups they were traveling with. "We probably should go and tell Marlie where we are going before we just head out, she'll throw a hissy fit if she goes looking for us and we're nowhere to be found." She explained to him. "She'll think the worst and somehow get the idea in her head that we were eaten by Walkers or something like that."
Hearing that made Daryl shake his head, "Let's go and find her then and tell her what we are doin' we don't need her goin' off to search for us herself." He said, as unlikely as it sounded for a six year old little girl to do something like that Marlie was the type who would – she was a leader, fiery and determined and at times that could be a bad combination.
"Hey Glenn," Natalie said as she glanced over back towards the van where Glenn was still sorting through a few of the boxes. "You're okay finishing this up, right?" she asked questioningly.
With a tight smile Glenn gave a sharp nod of his head without looking back at Natalie, he was still feeling a tad bit awkward after hearing the things that she and Daryl had said. He knew that married couples did that but he didn't want to hear or know about it whatsoever.
"I'll be fine Natalie," Glenn answered after a few moments. "Just go…go….go and do whatever it is you two need to do." He said with a wave of his hand. "I can handle this."
Natalie smiled at that and grabbed Daryl's hand and started to pull him towards the main camping area, "Thanks K-pop." She threw over her shoulder in a joking reference to Glenn being Korean. "Let's go and find that mischievous child of ours, there's no telling what she's been able to rope all of the other kids into doing. That girl has a silver tongue." She said to Daryl with a shake of her head. "Could talk the most evil of men to give up their life of crime and turn to the church."
Daryl just gave a laugh at that and then led Natalie over to where their daughter was at; she was sitting at a small group of tables with Carl, Sophia, Eliza, Lori and Carol and from the looks of things all of the kids, including Marlie were doing homework. Natalie was more than grateful for that, the world may have ended and the dead may have risen to eat the living but she would be damned if Marlie was going to be uneducated. Marlie was going to have hands on life skills that she needed for the world but she was also going to know Math, English, Science and history or at least as much as she could.
"Hey Marlie!" Natalie yelled lightly, gaining her daughters attention. "Can you please come over here for a sec?" she asked smiling lightly at her daughter, she was glad that Marlie now had kids near her age to be able to play with and talk with, she needed the interaction.
Marlie grinned widely when she saw her parents and quickly dropped her pen to the table and ran over to her mom and dad and hugged both of their legs, "Hi Mama, hey daddy!" she said with a wide grin on her face. "Guess what Miss Carol is teaching me." She said to them excitedly.
"What?" Natalie asked as she crouched down to her daughter's level and looked at her with genuine curiosity.
"I've been learnin' math," Marlie said to her. "It's kinda complicatin' but once I gets into it and know what I'm 'spose to do I can to it easy peasy lemon squeezy." She said to them proudly, she hoped that her parents were proud of the fact that she was understanding math.
"That's my girl," Daryl said as he gave a gentle pat to Marlie's hair and smiled to himself when he saw a few hairs escaping from the braid that they had put it in earlier that morning. "Ya gonna be real smart one day Mar."
Natalie kissed her daughter's cheek, "That's great Marlie. You know, I've enver been all that good at math maybe you can teach me a thing or two. Maybe if i learn it from you I will understand it better," she suggested to her. "Your dad over there is the one who has always been good with numbers." She said and pointed a thumb over in Daryl's direction. "Me, not so much." She said with a grimace and shook her head.
Hearing that Marlie looked up at her dad, "Really?" she asked.
Daryl gave a nod of his head, "Had to with my work, but somethin' about numbers just always made sense. But all of that technology stuff and artistic shit ya mama does, I just don't get." He said pulling a face and ignoring the look Lori sent him for swearing in front of the kids. "Ya mama has crazy skills with a computer." He stated.
"Come see what I did," Marlie said with a smile and pointed over at the table she had been sitting at. "Come see, come see! Ya two will be amazed." She said and grabbed both her mom and dad by the hand and tried to pull them behind her.
Before Marlie was able to try and pull her parents all that far the sound of her dad's voice stopped her, "Mar," Daryl said seriously making his daughter turn and look between him and Natalie. "We need to talk to ya about somethin' and then ya can get back to workin' with math if ya want to." He told her carefully and hoped that Marlie wouldn't overreact too much to what they were about to tell her.
Marlie furrowed her brow and looked at her parents questioningly, "What's goin' on?" she asked as she bit on her lower lip, a habit she picked up from her mother.
Hesitating a moment Natalie pushed a stray hair behind her daughter's ear, "Me and your daddy need to go and talk for a while about some stuff," she explained. "We need to do that alone and here in camp with so many people around we can't get much alone time." She stated carefully.
Before the world ended Marlie was a pretty tough girl and could take almost anything thrown at her – she as a Dixon after all, but with all of the things that she and Natalie have been through just to get to Daryl….well Marlie needs a bit of time to deal with what happened. Marlie has been a tad bit overly attached and clingy since they were reunited with Daryl and even a bit before that fact; when Daryl had gone to the woods to go get some fire wood to chop up Marlie had barely let him leave. What she really needed was for both of her parents to talk to her about what happened with the groups and the undead walking around.
"NO!" Marlie all but yelled which drew the attention of the kids at the table and from a few other people within hearing distance. "You can't leave me! You said you wouldn't leave me, that we were going to be a family and we can't do that if you two leave me and never come back again." She said in a slightly panicked voice.
At that Natalie looked at her daughter comfortingly, "Now Marlie, you know me and your daddy would never leave you." She told her as she looked into her daughter's beautiful blue eyes. "We love you and aren't going to leave you, not ever. But me and your daddy need to talk and we need to do that alone. But we will come back." She told her.
When her mother said that Marlie just shook her head stubbornly and crossed her arms and sat herself down right where she was standing in front of her parents; no matter what Marlie wasn't going to let them go off by themselves, if she let them leave then they might not ever come back and she wouldn't be able to live with that. She needed her mama and daddy, she didn't know how to survive by herself and then she wouldn't have anyone to protect her from the Walkers. Her mom and dad were the only people who could protect her best from them. They couldn't leave.
Sighing Natalie grasped Marlie by the arm gently and tried to pull her up but the girl refused to move, "Mar, get up." She said and tugged once again but the girl just wouldn't move. "Marlie stand up on your feet, you're six years old and damn near seven and are not a toddler anymore so stop this right now." Natalie demanded.
In response to that Marlie just huffed and kept her arms crossed and glared across the camp.
"Marlie Cherianne Dixon!" Daryl growled at his misbehaving daughter. "You don't ever ignore ya mama when she is tellin' ya something. Ya got me girl?" he asked as he looked down at her but she again said nothing. "You best respond to me unless ya wanna get in trouble." He said sternly.
Marlie scowled, and if Natalie hadn't been so annoyed with how Marlie was acting she would have laughed at how Daryl it looked.
"You guys can't go!" Marlie whined, and was close to tearing up. "I won't let you! I don't want to be an orphan. You guys are being mean and are going to abandon me. I'll hate you forever if you leave!"
The whole time that this was playing out the campers were all watching with baited breath, wondering how exactly the young family was going to deal with the tantrum of a six year old little girl.
Hearing that response Natalie was done playing the calm mother, she has taught Marlie better than this and she was giving her a bit of a leeway because of everything that has happened but it definitely did not qualify such a hissy fit.
"Marlie look at me right now!" Natalie said lowly and carefully as she stood up and looked down at her daughter. "You better start acting like a big girl right this second or else you are gonna be in a world of trouble. We didn't raise you to act like a spoiled rich little brat," she said to her with her hands on her hips as Marlie looked up at her. "You are old enough and know not to be saying or acting like this. You're six years old and I know you can act so much better than this and you I better never hear you say that you hate us" she said as she pointed at her daughter and then gestured to herself and Daryl. "We are your parents, not your slaves, not your friends, not you're maid and not someone you can treat like crap. You never tell us things like that again."
Kneeling in front of his daughter Daryl cupped Marlie's angry face in his rough hands, "I love you Marlie but you need to stop actin' like a child who needs to still be in diapers." He stated. "Ya mama and I need to talk, there is no gettin' around it and we are gonna go whether ya like it or not. There are things we need to talk about, ya mama and I but we thought that if we left that our daughter would act like a little adult. The Marlie I used to know would be fine with us leavin' for a while to talk, the Marlie I know acts like a six year old and the Marlie I know is strong and confident and fearless and can take care of herself just fine." He said with a stern look on his face. "This Marlie isn't the one I raised, I don't know where she went but this definitely ain't the way she acts."
For a few moments Marlie looked at her dad and then up at her mother's hurt and angry face before her lip started to quiver and tears began to run down her face, quickly wiping at them so that her parents didn't think that she was a baby she looked down at her feet regretfully.
"Mama, daddy." Marlie said in a much calmer and quieter voice "I'm….I'm sorry." She said to them sincerely. "I didn't mean to be actin' like that. I was ove…over'eactin' and said something I didn't mean." She apologized to them. "I don't hate you." She whispered. "I couldn't ever hate you, I love you both more than all the sand in the whole wide world."
Daryl nodded and kissed her forehead, "We know that but you need to understand sometimes adults need to go and talk, ya mama and I need to have some alone time to talk about some things. Okay?" he asked looking at her intently.
At that Marlie nodded, "Okay daddy." She said with a smile smile.
Standing back up Daryl lifted Marlie to her feet, "Ya ever talk like that to ya mama and I ever again, saying ya hate us then you are gonna get a worse punishment than whatever ya mama has planned for ya." Daryl said to her admonishingly. "I love ya but ya can't get away with actin' like that."
Marlie nodded in agreement before she hesitantly looked up at her mom, "Mama?" she questioned quietly. "I'm really, really sorry 'bout how I acted and sayin' that I hate you when I don't. I love you bunches. I just was bein' silly." She said and looked at her mom hopefully.
Taking a few calming breaths Natalie looked at her daughter with an unreadable expression on her face, "Mar I'm not angry, but I'm not happy either." She told her honestly. "I love you, but you need to act like my six year old girl. I need you to be a little adult for me." She told her and then glanced over at the camp and saw that a few of the campers had stopped what they were doing to watch the small family feud. "I'll always love you no matter what." She said and leaned down to kiss Marlie on the crown of her head.
"I love ya too mama!" Marlie responded without hesitation.
Looking over at the other campers who couldn't help but stare at them Daryl gave a dark scowl, it was as if they enjoyed seeing him, who they think is a heartless, anti-social outcast acting like a father. It's as if a half of these people in camp have never seen a family interact with one and another before but Daryl knew for a fact it was because it was him who was doing the family thing, they never thought he would be the kind to have a wife and kid yet here he was. They all needed to mind their own business and stop staring at him and his family whenever he did something that they weren't used to or didn't think he did.
Pulling away from her daughter Natalie smiled down at her, "I need to talk to Carol real quick, okay?" she said to her daughter who nodded.
"Okay mama." Marlie said now in a better mood than she was before.
Walking over to where Carol, Lori and a few of the kids were seated Natalie looked at Carol hopefully, "I know I don't have a right to ask this seeing as I haven't been here all that long yet but do you think that there is any way that I can ask you to watch Marlie for me and Daryl while we go into the woods for a but to talk?" she asked looking at the older greying woman.
Carol glanced up at Natalie from where she was seated beside Sophia and having her do some math and then over at Marlie who was talking animatedly to her father, "It would be no problem Natalie," she said with a smile. "She seems like a very bright child and is actually really good at math." She said to her.
Hearing that Natalie smiled, "That's good, wish I could have been like that at her age." She said to her offhand before shaking her head from the thought. "If anything happens or you don't think you can watch Marlie anymore just have Merle watch her if he is around or ask Amy." She stated.
"It's fine Natalie, Marlie will be just fine with us." Carol told her with a small smile. "I promise you." She said confidently, something that she has barely felt in the last few years.
Without much of a warning Natalie leaned down and gave the older woman a quick but tight hug, "Thank you! I really do appreciate the things you've been doing for us." She told her sincerely.
Carol just smiled at that, "Go and have your talk with your husband," she said with a wave of her hand. "He already looks like he is getting antsy."
Natalie laughed a bit at that, "Something along those lines." She said with a shake of her head. "Bye, we shouldn't be more than a few hours." She told her to which Carol nodded in understanding.
Hopefully Carol understood her subtle meaning when she said that if Carol couldn't handle Marlie to give her to someone else, she meant that if Ed started acting up and being violent to send Marlie away so that she wouldn't see it and wouldn't get hurt. She hoped it wouldn't come to that but just in case she had a plan.
"Ready?" Natalie asked as she looked over at Daryl.
Giving a quickly nod Daryl turned to his daughter to say by but saw that she was already back at the table with Lori, Carol and all of the kids. "One minute she is distraught over us leavin' and the next we don't even get a goodbye. I see how it is nowadays." He said with an amused shake of his head.
Smiling Natalie grabbed his hand, "Don't worry I'll always be here for you Daryl." She said to him and grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows as they passed by their own campsite. "I ain't ever gonna leave ya, not ever." She said putting on a fake, yet very convincing southern accent.
The only response that Daryl had to that was to shake his head at her, wondering about her sanity and continue on making his way into the woods with Natalie in tow. He was finally going to find out what happened to Natalie.
~_~_~_~_~~_TWD ~~_~_~_~_~_TWD~~_~_~_~_~_~_~TWD~_~_~_~_~_~_~_
Quote of the day:
People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
Eleanor Roosevelt