Ripples

Jamie woke slowly, her brain fuzzy and her mind disoriented and out of order. She looked around herself at the tent she was in, taking a minute to try and place the surroundings. The time she spent with Daryl, half asleep, slowly came back to her, bringing a faint and tired smile to her lips. She pushed herself up carefully, her back and side beginning to ache again. The entire space she was in smelt so much like Daryl that it was almost like the times they had spent at the hunting cabin. Everything was marked with his smell; it was soaked into the walls there. She sat on the edge of his mattress and pulled her boots on gently, making sure that the laces were tied up so that Daryl couldn't comment on them again.

When she rose from the tent, unzipping it quietly, she immediately noticed that things were different. The bodies were all gone, Andrea and her sister were no longer outside the RV and the day had begun to dim as the sun disappeared behind the trees. She stepped along carefully, taking it easy on the abused span of her back, and looked around for where everyone was. She soon spotted them all surrounding the fire, standing about or sitting and chairs and listening to Shane speak.

"Those of you that agree," Shane was saying, looking around at the people that surrounded him. "We leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

Daryl noticed Jamie approaching slowly from across the fire and immediately moved her way, the others following him with their eyes to see what he was doing. She looked confused, having slept the entire afternoon away, and looked to him for an explanation.

"We're leaving in the morning, heading to the CDC," Daryl said immediately, knowing that she would want to go wherever Rick and the others went. She nodded her head in understanding, not needing any further detail. "Sleep enough?"

"I don't think I'll ever sleep enough," she replied back simply. "But I do feel much better," She added on when she saw his face begin to draw into a frown. "Now all I need is food and a bath." She leaned forward against Daryl's chest for a moment before she looked over to where people were starting to separate, moving to go and back their things, prepare dinner and set up for the night.

"You can clean up down at the quarry," Daryl suggested, moving over toward his tent again. "You may not have all those fancy soaps and scrubs-"

"Hey," she said, stopping him, "You have never complained about those before. You always said that you liked the way they smelled." She stepped up to him again, chest to chest with a mischievous look in her eyes. "You liked the way it made my skin feel," she teased softly, taking his calloused hands into her slightly smoother ones.

"Don't start what you can't finish, darlin'," Daryl warned softly as he looked over to where Shane was watching him and Jay carefully. He glared over at the other man, not liking that he was paying any attention to his woman at all. Preferred it when he was drooling after Lori all the time, at least he didn't have to worry about his fiancé. "Come on, Angel, let's get you cleaned up."

Daryl brought his crossbow and a shotgun with him down to the quarry, Jamie carrying her freshly cleaned knife and bag down with her. Daryl looked up toward the camp and manoeuvred them around the rocks until they reached a place that wasn't completely visible to Dale atop his RV, already getting a look from most of the camp that told him they knew not to come down for a while.

Jamie sat down on one of the rocks and began to pull her boots and socks off, showing the sharp contrast of pale and tan from hardly ever wearing sandals. He could clearly see the veins and tendons in the tops of her feet, just as he had always remembered. He also remembered that she had freezing cold feet from having bad circulation, often waking him up rather unpleasantly in the middle of the night.

She peeked up at the area that he had chosen for them, seeing that he had deliberately hid them from the camp and began to pull her shirt up, careful to put it in her bag since it was still clean, before ducking around the rock to remove her pants. The sports bra that Rick had found for her at the station was all that he could see as she ducked to pull the sweats off, throwing them at him afterword to put in her bag. She wore a playful smile on her face, familiar to him and bringing an anticipation that stirred in his gut like no other.

They hadn't truly had their moment of reunion yet, and he wasn't going to let the others interrupt it when it came.

Jamie stepped over to the water that lapped at the pebbled shore, still remaining unseen to Daryl from where he stood. He took one last quick look back toward the path that led up to the camp before he pulled his stained green shirt off, tossing it nonchalantly onto the rock that Jay had hid behind before beginning on his belt, slipping his boots off at the same time. He could hear Jamie deliberately splash in the wash softly, spurring him on.

When he finally had stripped down to his boxers he looked around the rock for where she was, he spotted her farther out in the water, and she was low below the surface—only above her lips visible to him. She raised an eyebrow at him suggestively, her eyes looking over his defined body. Daryl made a sharp 'tch' sound at the challenge and stepped into the water, the chill a welcomed feeling on the hot day of work.

Jamie lifted herself above the water to her shoulders, grinning to him as he approached her. His boxers soaked through quickly as he stepped deeper and deeper, getting closer and closer until he was up nearly to his shoulders as well, right in front of her. She didn't try to play with him as he thought she could, darting away and trying to get him to catch her as she had done in past experiences, but instead she stepped up to him right away.

Her hands lifted from the water to frame his face, the water running down his neck and beginning to clean his skin. "I love you," she whispered softly before she pulled him down to meet her in a kiss, finding absolutely no resistance from the man before her. Daryl's arms wrapped around her waist, gentle at her back and right side, and pulled her closer with a hand at her lower back. She pulled her face away from him for a moment to press one quick kiss to his lips before she began to litter them all over his face, moving down to his neck as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"I looked for you," he rasped out against her hair, the strands already wet passed her shoulders but still dry atop her head. "I looked fuckin' everywhere." His grip on her back tightened for a moment before he remembered her back and he pulled away from her, looking down at her face. Dipping his hands into the water, he instructed for her to close her eyes before he poured the water down her face, watched as it glided along her skin.

"I looked for you, too," she whispered as soon as the water had stopped falling onto her face, Daryl's hand soon beginning to rub at the skin, washing off the dirt there.

"I wanted to stay behind," he said carefully, feeling her hands place onto his sides lightly as he continued to wash her skin. "Merle made me leave. He kept telling me that you'd died, just like everyone else. I never believed him," he explained, looking away from her face for a moment as his expression soured in anger. "Fuckin' prick."

"Hey," she said softly, opening her eyes to look at him, drawing his attention back to her. "I'm alive, ain't I? Forget about Merle, if he hasn't come back now, then he won't. If he knew that there was Rick and Shane back at camp, he'd also know that he'd be better off on his own. If Rick hadn't handcuffed him to that roof, Shane would have shot him eventually. He seems like that kind of person," she whispered the last part, leaning in closer so only he could hear, as though there was someone else around.

"Or you might've," Daryl added in, causing her to smirk. She stepped back from him and took a deep breath before ducking down under the water, her golden blonde hair floating at the surface for a moment before it disappeared below as well. He could still see the faint shadow of her below the surface, scrubbing at her hair to try and get as much oil out as she could. When she finally came back up her face was cleared of all dirt, the tan skin of her shoulders glistening with water. She pulled him further into the water, deeper, until she could easily wash at his face, removing the grime, dirt and sweat that had been building up.

"You need to clean more," she commented, before instructing him to hold his breath and having him duck below the surface of the water and begin to scrub at his hair. They pulled apart for a minute to wash the rest of themselves, Jamie far more furiously than Daryl did so that she was sure there wasn't a single trace of walkers blood left on her skin or her hair, or anywhere.

"Yer gunna take yer skin off," Daryl drawled as he slipped his arms around her and took hold of her wrists, standing behind her in their secluded space of the quarry. He took in her natural smell, pressing his nose against the hair at her temple.

"I hate the feeling of their blood on me," she mumbled to him, her hands rising up to run her hands back through his hair, making the wet strands spike up as she went. "Come on, I'm gunna get rid of that facial hair," she said as she began to pull away. The look on his face told her that he'd misinterpreted and found herself laughing. "You can keep the goatee, ya fool, I mean your stubble."

Daryl followed after her more easily then, the sour look that had adorned his face disappearing. He didn't know how much he trusted her with a blade of any kind near his face, but he had never seen a cut on her body from shaving before so he trusted that she'd be careful. He couldn't help but to hang back in the water and admire the view as she stepped up carefully along the rocks in nothing but her underwear and bra, wishing nothing more than to take them off.

She pulled out a shave blade that she had stashed away while in the showers of the sheriff's station with Rick, Morgan and Duane. Daryl didn't question the men's shave blade that she had with her and pulled his body up to sit on one of the other rocks, the cooling air rising bumps on both of their skin. She took her time shaving his face, knowing that his cheeks sometimes got irritated after shaving. She would rhythmically tap the blade on the rock to remove the excess hair before resuming, just as careful as before.

"Got another one of them fer yer legs," Daryl asked as he motioned to the blade that she had just finished using on his face. "'Cause those legs 'a yers-" She cut him off with a mock slap to his smooth cheek, causing him to snort in laughter and lean away from her assault. She moved down to the water to clean off the blade before pulling herself onto the rock and switching from the blade she had used on him to a blue one, the same that she had used the last time she showered. "Oh, so ya do!"

"Watch it, Dixon, or you're sleeping with the fish tonight," She warned, pointing the blade at him before she commenced with shaving the stubble that had grown on her legs. Daryl had already seen the process enough that he was fine with it, watching as she glided the blade up her wet legs in perfect lines, not missing a single hair along the way. Once she was finished with the first leg, she let Daryl run his hand along it with the excuse of looking for hair. In truth, he just wanted to touch her. In any way that he could.

They didn't linger long after they had finished up, pulling on their dry clothing after stripping of their wet undergarments to dry overnight. Jamie commented on being less than pleased at being forced to wear the uncomfortable underwear again while on their way back up toward the camp. Carol and Lori had looked over when they heard the sound of someone being slapped, seeing Daryl and Jay making their way up to trail, Daryl grinning like a fool and trying to hide it, Jay blushing like a teenager and failing just as badly as her man.

"Why dontcha just not wear any?" he had asked. She hadn't taken in well.

It didn't take long for their things to be packed up. Since Daryl didn't spend much time in camp and Jamie only had one bag with her, they were finished within an hour and were making their way over to the group that was cooking up dinner, canned corn and beans that night. Jamie's stomach had been bothering her since she woke up and the smell of food was almost too much to bear, she was almost drooling.

"Wow," Dale said as a greeting when they came over, a small smile in place. "I almost didn't recognize the two of you. You look much better now, dear, I bet that was just what you needed?" he asked, looking to Jamie ask he spoke. Her wet hair was pulled back into a bun until she could brush it, but there were some strands that had fallen loose.

"I do feel a lot better, I was starting to forget what it felt like to be clean," she joked back as she looked down at herself, glad that the white shirt was thick enough that it wasn't completely prominent that she wasn't wearing a bra. Daryl did not seem to mind, however.

"What do you know, Dixon, I was starting to think dirt was your natural skin colour," Shane threw in as he moved over to join in as well. Jacqui held down a laugh as Jamie discretely flipped Shane the bird, hiding the hand gesture from the two kids that were sitting with their mothers. Daryl smirked and draped an arm around her shoulders, getting a disgruntled look from the cop.

"How're your ribs?" Rick asked when a silence fell over the group, his attention turning to Jamie.

"They're still really sore, but the sleep that I got definitely helped. So did that painkiller," she said as she accepted two bowls from Carol with a quick thank you, handing one down to Daryl. The group was slightly unsettled at the sight of the youngest Dixon sitting with them, not quite accustomed to it. However, they didn't want to be rude to Jamie, because they all knew that if he left then she'd go too, so they welcomed him as well.

"Is it true that you have a tattoo?" Carl asked suddenly, turning eyes toward him. Jay didn't seem surprised or offended, only nodded her head to the young boy to quench his curiosity.

"Yep, on my back. They're angel wings, pretty big, too," she described, feeling that arm that Daryl had placed around the back of her chair begin to trace where he had memorized the tattoo to be. She repressed a shiver at the feel of his hands on her back, the pleasant feeling so wonderful.

"Can I see it?" Carl asked excitedly. Jamie just chuckled as his enthusiasm, but she knew that she couldn't show him the tattoo. Daryl had told her that only half of it was even visible, and she didn't want Carl to see the damage on her back.

"Not right now, it's too dark and it's dinner. Eat." Carl looked slightly crestfallen, but started to eat anyway. "I'll show you another time, a'right?" she added on, not wanting to leave the boy so down after all that he'd been through. He smiled again and nodded, resuming eating. She looked up to Rick to make sure that it was alright that she'd said that, seeing him nod with a faint smile.

"Why angel wings?" Dale asked suddenly, having been pondering on it while she was talking with Carl.

"My mother passed away when I was 18, her names was Angelica. She always had things that were themed with angels. I'd actually gotten it on a complete whim, I was still mourning; not quite thinking straight. I went down to the nearest tattoo place and got it done. A lot of people told me I'd regret it but to this day I am proud to have it there."

"Then you went back four more times to get additional details on it," Daryl added on as he leaned on the arm he had on the back of her chair, allowing his body to discretely lean in her direction. "The guys there knew you by name." She smacked his leg lightly, not intending to hurt, before eating another forkful of her dinner.

"They had to work on it five times?" Andrea asked softly, looking pale and tired. Jamie's smile softened so that it wasn't too bright but she still looked happy.

"Yea, the first was just a basic outline, I added in more lines, detail and shadows every time I went back. My last one was when I was twenty one."

The group continued to talk amongst themselves softly for a short while more, full darkness soon falling down on the camp. Jamie and Daryl soon fell out of the conversation entirely, just sitting back and leaning shoulder to shoulder, whispering to each other. Rick and Dale noticed their behaviour, the latter smiling at the change in the younger Dixon's behaviour since he had returned to camp with Jamie. He was still a bit of a loose cannon at times, but nowhere near as bad as when Merle had been around. Before long, they rose to leave.

"I've been ordered to go sleep," Jamie announced when they looked in their direction, "So I will bid you all good-night, and I'll see you in the morning." Lori and Carol smiled softly in amusement at her complete opposite attitude as Daryl, watching as he guided her back through the darkness toward where his tent was located, the shotgun that Rick had given him still in his hand with his arm over Jamie's shoulders protectively.

"Well," Dale said first once the couple had disappeared into the tent, zipping it closed behind them. "This was not the way that I saw things happening when Daryl got back from his hunt." Glenn grinned to himself as he silently agreed, wondering just how it was that two people that could be so different could have fallen in love.

"It's not a bad thing, though," Rick said softly. "Jamie kept telling me about the boyfriend that she was looking for, asking me about the family that I was looking for. Believe it or not, Daryl's the reason that she's still alive. She's survived through hell just for him."

In the tent, Jamie sat on the edge of the bed pulling off her boots as Daryl pulled off his shirt to sleep. She looked over the tattoos that he had on his own back, not as large as her one, but still there. His had colour, too. She put her boots off to the side to keep them out of the way before she pulled her bag over to herself and pulled out the long sleeved shirt that she had stolen from Daryl's place when she went looking for him after it had been left behind.

"You ransacked my place?" Daryl asked in mocked annoyance, looking to her as she prepared to lift off the white shirt she had on in favour of the long sleeved one of his. She lifted an eyebrow at him in question before continuing, baring her entire left side to his eyes. It was still fairly dark in the tent, but he could make out the contours of her body, the shadows caused by her exposed ribs and the swell of her beasts above her flat abdomen.

"Yours is more comfortable," she stated simply, pulling his shift over her head. She pulled her still wet hair from the band, rolling the elastic onto her wrist before pulling out her brush. Daryl fell to sit down as well, pulling off his own boots, before he popped open a plastic container and held something out to her.

"One more for tonight, then no more," Daryl said as he let the painkiller fall into her hand. She nodded her head in understanding; coming to the realization that he must have gotten the pills from Merle's dug stash. She took down the pill dry and quickly finished with her hair, feeling Daryl stretch out on the bed behind her. She deposited her brush in her bag before turning to face him. She could vaguely see that his arms were up with his hands tucked beneath his head, his bare torso expanding and relaxing as he breathed.

She crawled up along the small mattress until she was hovering over him, her hair falling down like a curtain on one side. "Thank you," she whispered softly, seeing faintly as he blinked his eyes before he lifted one of his hands to run his fingers along her freed hair, not a single resistance meeting his ministrations.

"I love you," he said back, the three words that she had been waiting to hear finally bringing a smile to her lips. She bent down to press a kiss against his lips before she laid down flat, half lying on top of him as one of his arms came around her waist, pulling the sleeping bag over her at the same time, warding off the chilled air of the night in the process.

"I love you, too."

No, I did not make the bathing scene a sex scene and I have my reasons for that. Don't worry, it's coming. I thank everyone who reviewed, you are wonderful people and I love reading your feedback! I hope to get many more for this chapter. I'm going to be making them about this long from now on, give or take a couple hundred words depending on the chapter.

Chapter 12 – Dying to Leave

Jamie smiled from her place in the passenger seat, looking out at the passing trees and fields. The wind blew in from the open window, blowing her hair back cooling her face in the hot Georgia air. She looked over to where Daryl was focusing on the road, his hand at his mouth as he chewed on the thumb nail. He caught her look out of the corner of his eye and quickly pulled it away, lowering it to the steering wheel. Jamie scooted toward him until she was sitting in the middle seat, taking the hand nearest to her from the steering wheel.

"What's gotten into you?" Daryl asked, surprised at her gentle actions. He was expecting her to scold him again for chewing on his nail.

"I'm having a nostalgic moment," She said back wistfully, placing their hands palm to palm. His were still a digit longer than hers, but the difference in tan had changed a lot since they started dating. The amount of time that she spent out with him at the cabin or just in the outdoors had drastically changed her physicality.

"Damn, that's never good," He remarked sarcastically, glancing down at their hands briefly before he returned his eyes to the road. She didn't scold him at all, just moved closer to him yet again, lacing her fingers through his and leaned against his side, her head falling to rest on his shoulder.

There will be a couple of flashbacks in this chapter, as well.