Danielle always hated the way she felt after falling asleep crying. Her eyes always felt sore and it took forever for them to open when she woke up. Worst of all was how red and puffy her face looked. The fact that Daryl would be there to witness it made her dread lifting her face up from her pillow.
"Don't shoot" she mumbled when she felt him stir awake. All she heard was a gruff "huh" in her ear. His arm was draped heavily over her and she let out a loud sigh. "I may look like a very puffy and red walker this morning" she added, "So, don't shoot."
He said nothing but laughed quietly into her neck before she turned to face him. She didn't dare open her eyes and just mumbled, "How bad is it?"
"Right now you're just pretty" he muttered moving her hair from her face, "If you'd lemme see them eyes, you'll be you're beautiful self."
Danielle furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes under their lids before opening them to look at him.
"Bullshit." She replied making him smile a little.
"You callin' me a liar?" he asked playfully. He placed his hand on her cheek and moved his face closer to hers. Danielle just nodded and let out a little "mhm" before closing the gap between them with a kiss. She felt him smiling against the kiss as he bit on her bottom lip gently. With a quiet laugh, she moved herself on top of him and stared down at him hungrily.
"I see even the puffy morning look gets you going" she grinned holding her hands against his chest.
"I've done told you that you look just fine" he mumbled pulling her down to another forceful kiss running his tongue along her bottom lip. She smiled a little opening her mouth to him and letting him slip his tongue in to explore it. When she saw Carl's silhouette pass by their tent out of the corner of her eye, she laughed a little and pulled out of the kiss.
"There are innocent ears in the area" she mumbled leaning her forehead on his, "And Maggie pointed out to me not long ago that even when we're trying to be quiet, we're not."
Daryl couldn't help but laugh loudly at the last bit of her comment.
"You were the on makin' all the noise" he said moving his fingers through her hair, "Spent so much time tryin' to shut me up, you forgot to do it yourself."
Danielle scoffed and slapped his chest gently before sitting up and reaching into her bag for something to wear. She got up off of him and took her shirt off quickly.
"Well, don't move too fast" Daryl said with a joking grin, "Take it slow. If I can't have a mornin' treat, I at least wanna watch what I can't touch."
She just rolled her eyes and slipped her jeans off leaving herself standing in front of him in her black bra and panty set. When she felt his eyes still glued on her, she decided to bend over slowly to grab her fresh shirt. Daryl knew instantly what she was trying to do and he was having none of it.
"Get over here" he said gruffly as he reached up and pulled her back down onto the bed. She let out a squeal when he laid her down and held himself over her. "None of this teasin'" he smiled kissing her neck gently, "Now, we gotta get dressed and see what needs gettin' done 'round here."
Danielle grinned and nodded before kissing his lips gently one last time before getting ready for the day. They both exited the tent to an instant feeling of awkwardness lingering in the air. Danielle looked up to see Rosalinda doing what looked like one of her apology speeches for Dale. Even though she knew her cousin didn't mean a word of whatever she said, it looked as though Dale was buying it. Normally, she would call her out on it, but they didn't need the extra drama. It wasn't until Rose walked over to her and Daryl that she finally spoke.
"We're fine" she mumbled not even wanting to hear a well rehearsed speech, "Just don't pull shit like that anymore."
Rosalinda just pursed her lips and nodded before walking past them to talk to Lori who had been upset with her for using profanity in front of Carl.
"You didn't even give her a chance to say sorry" Daryl said quietly as they walked toward the house for some breakfast."
"I've heard the speech before with a few minor differences to fit the situation" she replied knocking on the door and waiting for Hershel's approval to go in. When he finally bellowed for them to enter, Daryl opened the door for her and walked in after she had.
"Thought you felt like you owed her or somethin' like that"
"I did" she mumbled looking at the ground, "but after last night and after meeting you, I realized that it takes a lot more than what she did to show that you really care for someone."
"You ever gonna talk about what she did?" he asked hopefully.
"Give it time, Daryl." Was all she said, but it was enough to get him to shut up.
There wasn't much to be done around the farm except feed the animals and keep watch for any other passing walker herds. With everyone still recuperating after the day before, no one was really useful at all; especially Hershel. It seemed as though finally killing walkers for himself had hit him hard. A month before, it was no secret that everyone would wonder why he was so reserved about killing them, but after Sophia, everyone just kept their mouths shut about it. Daryl was just focused on how he would often catch Danielle looking nervously at Rosalinda. Sometimes, he would try talking to her, but she was too focused on her cousin to even notice that he was speaking. He also saw that she would only do it when Rose went off with someone alone. At one point, she began pacing when she thought Rose had been gone with Lori for too long in the camper. He had in itch to pull her aside and talk to her about it, but with how reserved she had been acting lately, he didn't want to risk upsetting her.
"It's great that you found Rose" Daryl mumbled draping his arm over Danielle's shoulder.
"Yeah," she replied leaning her head against him, "she's more like a sister to me than a cousin. I'm just worried that, after last night, she's gonna have some issues fitting in with the group."
She felt him shrug and looked up to see him looking back at her. He leaned down to kiss her forehead gently; it was easy to tell that he had something on his mind.
"What's wrong?" she asked with a sigh wrapping her arm around his waist. Daryl pursed his lips wondering if he should bring it up. When he saw the look in her eyes, he knew that she was just going to pry it out of him eventually.
"I know you love her and all" he said cautiously, "but ever since she showed up, you've been actin' all bothered."
"I am not"
"Don't even play that. It's one thing not to wanna talk about it, but don't lie to me."
"Fine," she mumbled letting go of him, "I don't wanna talk about it."
She moved out from under his arm and walked over to where Rosalinda was helping Carl with his spelling work. Danielle sat in one of the fold-out chairs and smiled down at the boy.
"Carl, I think your mom was looking for you" she lied sending the boy off. Rosalinda smiled brightly at her taking a seat across from Danielle.
"Isn't it stupid that Lori makes that poor boy do homework when all the world's gone to hell?" she laughed, "Who does that?"
Danielle smiled a little and shrugged before replying, "Maybe she wants to keep his mind as strong in case a cure is found and everything goes back to being as normal as possible."
Rose just shrugged and took a drink from her glass of water while fanning herself with Carl's homework.
"I know I said we're okay" Danielle added making Rose roll her eyes, "but I still need to talk to you about something."
"Shoot."
"Well, you've seen what it's like out there. Daryl and his group have seen the worst of it in Atlanta." She said glancing over at Daryl who was now getting ready for another hunting trip, "We need them. There is strength in numbers. What happened last night just can't happen again. If you do something to piss them off and send you packing, I don't know what I'll do…"
"How about come with me?" Rose cut her off angrily, "I'm your fucking family. While Mr. Hunter Man is hot, I'm blood. I have always been there for you. Where was he when you were at your worse? Does he even know where you came here from?"
"Yeah actually he does" Danielle replied furrowing her brow, "I told him pretty much as soon as I met him. Rosie, you can't act this way, not now. Do you have your medication?"
"What the fuck do you think? Oh, I can just waltz into a pharmacy and find it now?" Rose laughed humourlessly, "Not only has everyone raided pretty much every pharmacy for that shit, I'm out of what I had before all this went down. You have no idea how hard it is for me to act normal right now."
"I know it's hard, but you can't lose it now."
Rosalinda just stood up shaking her head and walking away as fast as she could leaving Danielle holding her head in her hands; she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. When she heard someone sit across from her, she didn't bother looking up.
"Go away Daryl" she mumbled.
"Daryl's been gone for about ten minutes now" she heard Shane answer. She looked up quickly flashing an embarrassed smile. Shane grinned back at her before continuing, "I wanted to talk to you about Rose."
Danielle pursed her lips and nodded as she had seen this coming. Although, she kind of figured Rick would be the one to bring it to her attention.
"I know what's wrong with her" Shane added, "Keepin' someone like her around ain't safe and you know it."
"What do you expect me to do?" she asked, "She's my cousin."
"I understand that, but you have to see it from my point-of-view."
"You don't think I feel uneasy about the whole situation?"
"I know you do" he sighed, "I'm just wonderin' if it would be good for the group to kno-"
"No" she cut him off, "Then they will just wanna throw her back out there and I don't wanna have to choose between going with her and staying here with Daryl."
"We both know what Daryl would do if that happened."
"Exactly and I don't want to endanger his life, too." She sighed, "When I first saw her, I was just happy to know she was alive, but now that the reality has set in about her not having any meds, I wish she had just wandered somewhere else."
Danielle quickly stopped talking and pursed her lips again when she saw Daryl emerge from the trees with more squirrels on his rope. She stood up quickly and looked down at Shane.
"We'll talk more about it later" she whispered, "Until then, just keep it quiet."
Shane nodded as he watched her walk away. He knew he had to tell someone and walked immediately to where he expected Rick to be. As Danielle neared Daryl, she smiled brightly at him.
"Bringing us another bountiful feast I see"
"Oh yeah" he grumbled setting his crossbow down and hanging the squirrel corpses on a tree branch. Once his hands were free, he quickly took her hand in his and started walking toward their tent.
"What're wanting to do now?" she asked with a small smile.
"I've been out in the heat huntin' damn squirrels." He mumbled as they neared the tent, "I wanna take a nap."
"Oh?" she laughed, "I don't remember volunteering to join you."
"That's because you're bein' voluntold to."
Danielle let out a semi-loud laugh as he pulled her into the tent after him. Not even taking time to pull his shoes off, Daryl fell into bed leaving Danielle to smile down at him.
"You're lucky I love you so much" she mumbled sitting down at his feet and pulling his boots off for him, "Otherwise, I would just walk out once you're sleepin'"
"No need to tell me how lucky I am" he replied holding his arm up. She smiled and crawled next to him resting her back against him and letting him drape his arm over her. Feeling his breath on the back of her neck, she snuggled herself closer to him. Even though she didn't feel the least bit tired, she felt her eyes drooping. The last thing she remembered hearing before falling asleep was Daryl's muffled voice saying, "I love you."