Eight Months Of Change
So this chapter is going to jump the eight months that the seasons jumped but don't worry, I'll have flashbacks here and there about things that happened, there are a few important details to mention from time to time.
Also I'm sort of mucking around with things for season 3, some things stay the same, others (obviously) are going to change or not happen, and others will happen but to different people.
Daryl was verging on psychopathic rage. His grip on the crossbow constantly tightening, his eyes persistently narrowed, his mouth drawn in a hard line, teeth gritting more often than not.
And it was all Bo's fault.
Oh sure, she probably wasn't doing it intentionally, likely didn't even realize what her actions were doing, but that still didn't make it any easier.
The winter was over and done with and the warmer the air got, the less clothes the med student seemed to wear. She would hop onto the bike behind him, a pro at it by now, in jeans that she had cut short and a tank top that didn't always want to cover her belly button. She was doing things that made him just wanna toss her over his shoulder and take her behind whatever thing could provide a decent cover and have his dirty way with her.
Their sleeping habits hadn't changed much. Still near each other but not touching. They talked more now, ever since Daryl's declaration of not wanting to let her out of his sight eight months ago, he had kept true to that. If he went hunting, he'd bring Bo with him. If she was busy, he would wait, stand nearby, and watch. He had woken a couple of times, momentarily disoriented and verging on rage at not finding her nearby, only to discover her talking with Anna or sitting with Maggie, sometimes doing a watch with T-Dog.
"We've already been round that way." T-Dog's arguing tone brought Daryl out of his angered thoughts as the hunter's eyes remained locked on the blonde woman across the vehicle hood from him. Her own eyes were intent on the map as they tried to figure out an alternate route that they had yet to take that could be safe.
"I know...I know." Rick muttered, running a hand over his face. "And I know it got swarmed over, but if we back track and circle around west, we could miss the herd."
"That's an awful big risk." Maggie muttered. It wasn't an intentional thing, nor a common thing for people to question Rick. He had a few moments on occasion when the stress made him snap. Anna would usually take him away from the group for some solitude. The two of them had gotten closer over the eight months. With little chances to be alone, whatever relationship they could possibly have wasn't too intimate but it wasn't unusual to have one kiss the other's cheek, comfort the other, wordlessly move to a position to offer a shoulder rub when one (mostly Rick) would get too stressed.
"Not much that ain't a big risk these days, Mags." Bo pointed out. She glanced off to the side where Carl stood, his back to them, gun in hand. At the other side of the pack up was Beth in a similar position, only she had a crowbar.
"What do you think?" Rick asked, eyes drifting up for the map to look at Bo before sliding over to look at Daryl. The two were Rick's primary source of second opinions, the right hand people. The three of them together covered all aspects of thought: Rick with his protective nature, Daryl with his tracking and underlying genius, Bo with her medical knowledge and, by this point, full knowledge of every person in the group. He valued what they had to say and took their thoughts into consideration.
"I think...we need to go hunting." Daryl spoke up with a huff. The group hadn't eaten since the last time they actually had a roof over their heads, two days ago.
"Yeah...alright." Rick agreed, hands on his hips. "T-Dog, swap off with Beth, Glenn with Carl." The mentioned men nodded their agreement and move to do as they were directed. "Daryl, Bo..."
There was nothing needed to be said as their weapons were gathered and they headed off. A few months back, they had found a gun store that was thankfully still stocked on a few things. They had picked up silencers for their guns, ammo, and Daryl had even found a second crossbow which he had promptly begun to teach Bo the proper ways of using. They had discovered a few packs of bolts which the duo made sure to retrieve if they ever fired off, even if they did continue to make their own.
Bo now constantly walked with her crossbow across her back, the sling of bolts and arrows over her shoulder, a knife at her thigh and one hiding in her boot and a small emergency medical kit attached to her belt. They had gathered the supplies and she and Hershel had sat down and worked on making several emergency packs for the members of the group that went off on scavenging and hunting trips. They had come in handy a few times already, most recently the previous week when Carl had ended up with a fair sized cut on his arm when he was successful in ramming open a door.
"We really need to find a secure place." Bo mused out loud as she followed the guys through the trees. "The others are getting worn out, can't be good for Hershel at his age."
"We're trying, Bo." Rick assured the woman. "Just ain't easy."
"Well how secure we talking?" Daryl asked, suddenly stopping. The other two went past him a few steps before realizing he had stopped. They looked at him then turned to look where he was looking. Beyond some trees they could see a large concrete structure.
With a fence.
***TWD***TWD***TWD***TWD***TWD***
She looked through the shelves, getting more irritated as she went along. Finding random packets of things that were at least somewhat useful, she stuffed them away into her bag and moved along. The bell over the door chimed and she paused, her eyes turning to the side and watching as the decayed body shuffled it's way towards her. It snapped it's jaws and she frowned, reaching up to pull her sword free from it's sheath. The blade just becoming visible as the body suddenly flinched and went still for a moment, the tip of something metal suddenly protruding from it's forehead. She tilted her eyes up after watching the body fall to the floor to observe the man standing there.
He gave her a slight nod which she returned before resuming her search. He held his knife tightly as he silently moved on to another part of the shop to locate anything helpful. They were always quiet on these runs, not wanting to draw attention in on themselves. He moved fast but lightly, not wanting noise but wanting to be done quick and get back to whatever shelter they had at the time.
Once they had cleared out what they figured they could need, they left the shop. She was behind him, something he wouldn't have allowed a few months ago. Not to say he still didn't trust this woman but he trusted her a great deal more nowadays then when they first met. It was the same for times now when he followed behind her, once they had found ammo for his gun, she was even more sceptical about allowing it, even with her chained walkers between them.
"Andrea?" His voice called out carefully as the pair walked through a large sliding door that sat open enough for them to squeeze in one at a time. He walked over to the army cot where the blonde woman was sitting up, looking worn out and pale with a rounded stomach.
While Shane had had suspicions a couple of months after being separated from the group and finding Michonne, Andrea had refused to even believe the possibility that she was pregnant until the rounding of her stomach and the fluttering kicks from within made it impossible to ignore. At which point she had promptly flown into a panic and then broke into an argument with Shane about keeping out of the scavenging and staying hidden as often as possible. She didn't like doing nothing, that much was clear, but why risk the small life yet to be born?
"Everything go okay?" Andrea asked, worry in her eyes. Shane smiled softly at her, hoping to ease the worry, and nodded in affirmative. Her tension eased slightly as she swung her legs over the side of the cot. Her eyes drifted over to their comrade as Michonne unlocked her walkers.
"As okay as ever." Michonne answered. She glanced over, watching Shane feed Andrea some of the pills they had found that was going to help her. The blonde made a face as she swallowed the medication and took the man's hand to get to her feet. "Are you good to move?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Andrea argued quickly. Shane gave her a look as she packed up the things she had nearby. He took the bag from her and slung it over his back. She narrowed her eyes slightly but he just shook his head, silence falling once. He nudged open the door more, something that the blonde wasn't exactly happy with since she knew it was mostly for her and that was just one more reminder that she was larger. The somewhat rough kick from within her eased her annoyance at the door and brought it to the round shape that concealed the soon to be born child.
"We'll need to find a permanent type place soon." Shane informed Michonne. The dark skinned woman gave a nod as she tugged her walkers through the door and the little group went off trekking again.
***TWD***TWD***TWD***TWD***TWD***
Anna wandered one direction of the inner gate of the prison while Rick went the other direction. Every time they passed by each other, he'd lightly touch her hand or arm, his shoulders dropping as he relaxed slightly. His fear of her hitting an opening and getting attacked without help kept him tensed until he saw her again, perfectly fine.
"You think they'll ever be satisfied?" Hershel muttered, watching the pair.
"Rick's pretty protective." T-Dog remarked.
"He'll be doing that all night?" Beth asked. T-Dog shrugged and picked at his food, caught between actually wanting to eat and needing to preserve what he could.
"Anna will get him to sit down and eat soon." Carl stated, fairly certain. He knew his dad would keep going unless someone stopped him and he also knew that Anna was good at keeping him on track.
"Course she will." Glenn agreed with a smile. "Real question is, who's gonna bring those two down?" His eyes moved over to where Daryl and Bo were standing on top of a turned over jeep, doing their own pacing. Only they were twisting to walk by each other with minimal contact.
"I'll bring them something to eat." Maggie decided, putting some of the food on a plate and rising from her spot by the fire. She walked over to the jeep and raised an eyebrow when she actually heard the two on top talking.
"All I'm saying is that some of the jumps were not particularly believable." Bo muttered.
"Woman, you do not know what you're talking about." Daryl shot back. "Quit now before you embarrass yourself."
"You honestly think with the way the General landed, that it wouldn't have popped a wheel or something?" Bo asked.
"Wait, are you guys arguing about Dukes of Hazzard?" Maggie asked, looking surprised. The people on the jeep looked at her, surprised to have company.
"Uh..." Daryl mumbled.
"Whatcha got there, Mags?" Bo asked, crouching down. Maggie passed up the food and got a smile from the blonde. "Thanks."
"No problem, you guys don't need to stay up there all night." Maggie pointed out.
"We'll come down in a bit." Bo assured. Maggie nodded and walks back to the rest of the group.
"Not when the car is constructed right." Daryl resumed the conversation as Bo straightened up.
"I'm telling ya, it's not possible." Bo argued, shaking her head. She strapped her crossbow over her back and tasted some of the food. "Not once did one of those landings fuck up that car, it ain't possible."
"You don't know what you're talking about." Daryl grumbled, taking some of the food.
"Well it ain't like we can get all the seasons and you can try and prove me wrong." Bo pointed out, grinning. "Well, we probably could but not like we can find the electrical outlets for a tv and dvd player."
"We could find one of them portable ones." Daryl suggested.
"They still get plugged in." Bo reminded. Daryl shot her a look and Bo smirked. "Got another thing that'll get you all messed up." Daryl looked at her, eyebrow cocked. "This is probably the equivalent of the new world type of date."
"You're looking at this like a date?" Daryl asked.
"Well gotta start somewhere, don't we?" Bo questioned curiously. "You're the one not believing me that I ain't got no other person of interest." She looked at him with her head tilted. "You think you ain't good enough and all but then you don't take into consideration that you are about five hundred times better then other guys I've been with because you don't care how people see ya." She sighed and shook her head. "You're you...and that's that. You ain't going crazy with protecting me but you're there if and when I need ya. Teaching me shit and keeping jackasses off my ass."
Daryl sighed, unsure of how to respond to this. Bo put her hand on his shoulder, passed over the plate of food, then leaned in and kissed his cheek, lingering for several seconds. She dropped a soft kiss to his lips before she got down off the jeep and went to join the group.
I just so wanted to see how Shane might act around Merle and the Governor lol. I can only imagine he'd be like in between Andrea and Michonne on it. But I figure, gotta keep him and Andrea in Woodbury, and if Shane is like Michonne and not trusting them there, Andrea would actually likely go along with the leaving. So her being pregnant and close to birth will persuade Shane to sticking around but keeping a close eye on things.