Thank you for the awesome reviews, and welcome to all the new folks! Special shout out to MollyMayhem84 for the Gollum review, as I do the EXACT same thing. FanFicGirl10, hope you like this one.
Not a HUGE amount of action, but some character advancement and general sweetness. Please, let me know what you think.
"So, what's got you all worked up?" Daryl held the pack while Seraphim dug through it, selecting knives that the kids could use. The position allowed him a glimpse of black at the top of her spine, and he wondered what else she had inked into her skin.
"Walsh."
Daryl grunted in return. "He's an ass."
Smirking, Sera stood and zipped the bag closed. "I know, but he gives me the creeps."
"Shoot 'em."
The answering giggle had the corner of his mouth turning up in an unconscious grin. She sounded like a little girl when she did that. He briefly wondered if he could get her to do it again.
"Nah, Rick likes him. He needs to leave me alone, though, and go back to staring at that Lori woman."
"He's just pissed she don't want him no more since Rick came back from the coma he was in when this all started."
Seraphim felt her eyes widen as she took in the new information, though it made sense. The man was obsessed with his best friend's wife, and she had denied him. It made Sera wonder how far he would go to be in control again, and she made a mental note not to let down her guard when he was around.
Sophia looked up as they approached, smiling brightly waving a little. "Hi Daryl! Feelin' any better?"
"'M alright," Daryl looked down at the table and surveyed their prizes. "Did pretty good out there."
"Thanks! That big rabbit there was fast! Sera got him, but made me do the rest on my own." The teen beamed up at him and then glanced at Carl. "She says she's takin' Carl out in the morning to see how he's gonna be with a bow. Could be better with something else, though."
"Yeah, that's true."
Carl, seeming to gain his voice once he saw Sophia speaking to Daryl with no fear, looked to the older man. "Are you better with your crossbow than anything else?"
Daryl shook his head. "Naw, pretty good with most guns. Crossbow is quiet, though."
"I, on the other hand, am not as good with some guns as others." Sera wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue at Carl. "Could never quite get the hang of a crossbow, though I know how to use one. My aim is always off. I'm good with my compound, the Berettas, and I like shotguns."
"Kinda hard to suck with a shotgun, though, isn't it?" Carl grinned mischievously.
Sera nodded. "My point, exactly."
"So," Daryl pulled a chair from in front of his tent over to the table, ready to clean the animals the girls had supplied. "Anyone givin' me a hand?"
Sophia giggled softly. "It looks so gross, but Sera says I have to learn how to do all of it or it's not worth the time I spent hunting."
"Well, Sera's right. Hunting will keep you fed, but only if you know what you're doing after." Daryl began working on the largest rabbit, watching the redhead as she stretched her arms over her head and slowly rotated her shoulders before wincing slightly and then grabbing some buckets for water.
"You okay?" Carl asked when she came back from the pump, and Daryl was happy the young boy had asked so he didn't have to.
Sera nodded and rubbed at her shoulder. "I pulled a muscle helping Daryl when he was hurt yesterday."
Carl frowned. "How?"
Daryl felt himself tense at the question. It was bad enough that he knew she carried him. If the kid found out, everyone would know before dinner. He'd be something to laugh at again, just like not-Merle had said in the ravine.
"Well, he's pretty big. Had to help him into a house and then move him around." Sera figured she was safe wording it like that. Everyone would assume she meant assisting him in walking, and Daryl wouldn't have to face anything he was sure to see as ridicule.
"Now," Sera pulled a face at the headless animals lying on the table. "Let's get this over with."
"Thought you said you had to know how to do it?" Sophia was suspicious of Seraphim's obvious distaste for cleaning her kills.
Sera chuckled. "You do. Just because I don't like doing it doesn't mean I'd go hungry just so I didn't have to. 'S man's work, though."
"Yeah?" Carl seemed to puff up a little and look between Sera and Daryl.
"Yeah." Daryl and Sera both spoke and nodded at the boy before going back to work, though neither of them missed the way he focused on the lesson until they were through.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in relative peace.
The kids took to cleaning the animals better than Seraphim had hoped, though Daryl fussed about wasting meat with the amounts that were left on the skins. Rolling her eyes, Sera had simply removed any usable meat and placed it in a pan for stew. Upon hearing that this was the usual fair, she made a note to start dinner early the following afternoon to make something special for the group that had allowed her to stay.
Dinner was likewise quiet, with the exception of Lori's imperious demand that Carl stay at camp the next day instead of going into the woods. When he protested and appealed to Rick, permission was given nearly immediately. The deputy saw the importance of learning a weapon, and was happy to hear that Daryl would also be going. Glancing at the brunette, Sera felt her anger and annoyance seething through the humid air.
"Seraphim," Dale's voice floated over the fire to where she sat between Daryl and Maggie. "I'm sure I'm not the only one who's curious about you. Where are you from? How did you learn all that about plants?"
"Up in Dawsonville, sir." The man may look like a cartoon of a retired guy, but Seraphim's mother would die (again) of shame if Sera thought of disrespecting an elder.
Shane's too-loud, blunt approach was next. "What were you doing in Atlanta, then?"
"Was headed down to Bama, my brother and grandparents are down that way, with two of my other brothers. Mike and Tommy, my brothers, were tryin' to keep their kids and wives safe. Bad things happened, I got left behind."
"They just left you?" Maggie sounded angry enough for a whole army of wet cats.
Seraphim could only shrug. "They wanted to go to this gated neighborhood Mike and Tommy had done construction on. I didn't think it was a good idea. Their wives, Marry and Denise, didn't like me much to start with, so they pushed for whatever I wasn't happy with."
Maggie scowled again, and Sera decided she liked the other girl. "Still not right."
"I know, but that's life. Was never close with those two, and they didn't let all this change that a bit." Sera lit a cigarette and stared into the fire. "When I went to check on them, the place was overrun. They're either turned or moved on."
Glenn spoke from his spot on the other side of Maggie. "Where'd you learn all that stuff about plants and everything? That's pretty awesome."
"My momma taught me plants and cooking, anything you could do at a camp or at home without much to work with. Turns out being no-count backwoods trash is good preparation for a zombie apocalypse." Sera smirked at Daryl's snort of amusement. "She'd let my daddy take me out with the boys for a while here and there, but put her foot down 'bout some stuff."
"What kind of stuff do you know?" T-Dog smiled at her.
"Well, I know how to make snares, run trotlines, and hunt. Can also make a warning signal with a keychain alarm and a trip wire if I have a mind to. Daddy also showed me how to make traps for people, in case I was ever in need, along with some knife skills and fighting."
Rick chuckled quietly. "He taught you knife fighting, but your mom thought over stuff was too far?"
"Don't know how to hang a man, or how to slit a throat, but all five of my brothers do." Sera let her eyes travel around the group before focusing on Rick. "Don't know how to make 'shine or grow pot, but they all did that before this happened.
"Anything illegal, dirty, or too harsh is men's work, and I'm better off not knowing it."
"True enough," Daryl nodded while he chewed the last of his meal.
He sure knew how to hunt in all the ways she did, but he could also track. He knew fishing and trotlines. While he didn't know any tricks with keychains, he didknow more than his fair share about knives and fighting. Nice to know there are others out there who know the way of things. Wonder what they'd think of me.
The group was quiet following Sera's story, breaking up to head to their tents or watch post soon after. Sera helped with cleanup since she hadn't cooked, making sure to let the other women know that she would be cooking the next evening. When she was finished, she moved to her own tent.
The material was old and fading in some places, but it was a solid tent, and she liked it quite a bit. It was the first tent she had been given once she was deemed "old enough not to do anything too stupid" by her father. The backup tent in her Jeep was nowhere near as nice, but that's what backups were all about. She could hear the others calling out their goodnights all around as she pulled a camp chair over in front and had a cigarette before opening the tent flap and freezing in fear.
There, sitting on the middle of her sleeping bag, was the largest spider she had ever seen. Long, brown legs hooked wickedly out from its body. As she watched, it lazily moved a few inches, putting it slightly further from her position at the door. Sera moved just a bit to see how it would respond, and was suddenly sure she was going to somehow scream and throw up at the same time as it darted slightly at her.
Glancing around quickly, she seized a boot from the floor. If she aimed true, it would do nicely. However, throwing anything usually resulted in her missing its intended target. If she missed, Sera was absolutely positive it would leap onto her face or worse: disappear somewhere in the tent.
"Crap." Sera whispered to herself in fear that the eight legged monster would hear and become angry enough to charge her. "What do I do?"
A grunt came from the next tent, and she didn't hesitate to drop the tent flap and dash the few strides necessary to reach it. Tapping the tent's material, she cleared her throat.
"Daryl?" She shifted from foot to foot, fighting the urge to glance at her tent in case she saw the thing following her. If she didn't look, it couldn't get her. "Daryl I need help."
A disheveled head poked out of the flap. "What the hell, woman?"
"Please?"
"What's goin' on?" He rubbed tired eyes, and Sera felt terrible about rousing him when he obviously needed rest.
"Sorry, nevermind." Sera jerked her thumb toward the fire. "I'll just go sleep by the fire. The stars are pretty enough."
"What's wrong with your tent?"
Now, standing outside and away from the stuff of her nightmares, Seraphim felt ridiculous. Not wanting the man to get too agitated, she sighed.
"There's a spider in my tent."
Daryl's face managed to remain a complete blank, even as he fought a chuckle. "What?"
"Spider. It's huge, and right in the middle of my bed."
"Smash it."
"Can't. It moves when I try to do anything and raised its legs at me." Sera bit her lip and looked at the ground. "Please come kill it? Please?"
Without responding, Daryl drew his head back into the confines of his tent. Before she could turn and start toward the glowing embers of the fire, he came back out. He padded over the worn ground in his socks, his left boot dangling carelessly in his right hand.
Getting a good look at the spider, Daryl had to admit that it was pretty impressive. "Huh."
"I told you." Seraphim twisted her fingers and then crossed her arms, trying to peer past Daryl's broad shoulder. His stepping into the tent had her grasping that same shoulder tightly. "What are you doing?!"
"Gotta shoo it off your bag. Unless you want its guts on your bag?"
"Okay," Sera knew she was being stupid, but couldn't seem to stop. "Just be careful."
Daryl's chuckle made her smile. "Pulled an arrow from my side and shot a walker. Think I can handle a little ass spider."
"Little, my foot." Sera caught at the door flap, keeping it open so she could keep an eye on what was happening. If he killed it, and she didn't see, she just knew she wouldn't believe it.
"Yeah. That's pretty tiny, too." With a movement of his foot, the spider scuttled away. Once it was off her sleeping bag, Daryl slammed the boot down onto its body.
Its legs were so long, they curled around the sole.
"Oh, ew!"
Daryl chuckled and stepped out into the cooling night air. "Thought you were a country girl?"
Sera shrugged. "Hate spiders. Always have."
"Well, that one ain't botherin' no one from now on." He took a step before her voice brought him up short.
"Do you think there are more?"
"Nah, probably just the one." Daryl really did not feel like searching her tent for a spider that may or may not exist.
She nodded in return, even though she knew there was no way on earth she was sleeping in that tent until she had searched it for invading arachnids. She thought she'd just keep that to herself. Turning, she placed her hand on the hunter's forearm.
"Thank you, Daryl."
He shrugged and dropped his head slightly. "Yeah, okay."
Impulsively, she went on her tiptoes. Using her hand on his arm to steady herself, she leaned forward and placed a kiss just at the corner of his lips. The answering blush made her feel bad until she caught the slight upturn of his mouth.
"Night, Catchfly."
