Helloooooo lovely readers! Two things: 1) My computer screen crapped out on me, so that is the reason for the delay on this chapter update. Typing on a TV is very weird and takes a bit to get used to; 2) You guys make me so happy :) After that last chapter, I had some great conversations with a few of you, and a point of interest was brought up that I'd like to share with everyone else. You may have noticed that Carol got a fairly substantial scene with Addison in the last chapter, and some readers thought that she was jealous of the attention that Addison was getting from Daryl. I was asked if that was my intention, and my answer is: I don't really know. As I may have said before to some of you, I don't mind Carol and she can be a friend all she wants; it's Caryl and all that goes with it that I hate. Initially, yes, she was going to be jealous, but then I thought about it and I can see it going both ways - her being jealous and trying to get between Addison and Daryl, and her just being a friend and making observations. What do the rest of you think? Input would be lovely, because I write for you!
I'm done, enjoy!
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Addison quietly slipped out of her sleeping bag, careful not to wake Daryl in his chair at the end of the bed. She paused before passing him, wondering how he managed to get any sleep at all in that chair night after night. It couldn't be comfortable. Addison felt her cheeks flush as she thought of the solution for that. She quickly left the room.
Downstairs in the kitchen, she met Hershel. He was sorting through the cans on the counter with a disheartened expression on his face. He nodded in greeting to her as she surveyed the drastically smaller collection of cans. "This isn't going to last too much longer," he observed as Addison finally decided on pineapple chunks. She detested pineapple, but given that the other cans contained diced tomatoes, water chestnuts, or sauerkraut, there really wasn't a too much of a choice.
Rick came through the doorway then and he too frowned at the paltry selection. "Looks like we'll have to make a supply run… today," he added, making a face at the can of tomatoes in his hand.
"Glenn and Maggie are on watch today," Addison reminded him.
Rick nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'll figure something out."
…
Early afternoon found Addison teaching Carl and Beth card games from her childhood.
"What's this one called?" Beth asked as Addison dealt the cards.
"Uh, 'Shampoo'," Addison said, placing the remainder of the deck on the bed between them. "But I doubt that's the original name," she added as Carl looked at her as if she was crazy.
They were part-way through a practice round when someone knocked on the door. Addison turned to see Daryl standing in the doorway, his crossbow slung across his back. "Hunting?" she asked, playing a card.
Daryl shook his head. "Supply run. Glenn and Maggie are on watch, so Rick asked me to go. Said I couldn't go alone."
"Is that so?" Addison asked amusedly. She debated pretending not to understand what he was getting at, making him ask outright, but decided against it, as entertaining as it might have been. He probably wouldn't find it as funny as she did. "I'll go get my shoes on, then," she told him, and then turned to Beth and Carl, adding, "We'll finish this when I get back, okay?"
Ten minutes later, she and Daryl were driving down the now-familiar stretch of highway towards the nearest town, under Addison's navigation. The passed the turn-off where she had her first shooting lesson. She was delighted to discover that she had improved enough for him to trust that she'd have his back if they ran into trouble in town. The ride was spent in the comfortable silence that Addison had grown accustomed to during the times she spent with the hunter, broken only when she had to tell him where to turn.
They arrived in a town called Dawsonville twenty minutes later. Addison could see that the street they were on was the main thoroughfare, and she could even see where the other side of the town ended.
"Place is barely a town," Daryl remarked, voicing Addison's thought. He steered carefully around the debris strewn about in the road.
"There," Addison said, pointing to a building on the next block. Daryl pulled up to the curb when they reached it and switched the ignition off. The storefront proclaimed "GENERAL STORE". The two checked their weapons and Addison looked over at Daryl, who nodded. They got out of the car, weapons held ready, and scanned the area for Walkers. The street was deserted. Addison secured her gun in the waistband of her shorts and pulled her knife out of its sheath. Daryl led the way into the store, swinging his crossbow back and forth in front of him in broad sweeps.
"You grab a couple baskets or a cart and start filling them up; I'll be on guard," Daryl instructed. Addison nodded and righted a shopping cart off the floor. She picked an aisle and started through it, Daryl close on her heels. The store had been picked through, but not as much as she had thought it would have been. She dumped all the cans she could reach into the cart; food was food and they were long past having the luxury of being picky. The next aisle she turned down held over-the-counter drugs. She placed several bottles of ibuprofen and other pain relievers on top of the canned food. She searched a few more aisles, wrinkling her nose at the rancid perishable foods that sat in the coolers. Down the next aisle, they found several dented jugs of drinking water and Daryl helped load them on the bottom rack of the cart.
They made their way back to the front of the store. "Need anything else?" Daryl asked.
Addison shook her head. "Don't think so. Shall we?" Together, they pushed the heavy, over-laden cart back out to the car. Daryl popped the hatch open and they emptied the cart into the back of the car.
Just as Daryl was reaching up to close the hatch, a white Ford Explorer rounded the corner at the end of the block. Both Addison and Daryl froze, warily watching the newcomers. The Explorer pulled all the way up onto the sidewalk and coasted to a halt next to their car, on Addison's side. The engine idled for a moment before shutting off. The passenger and the backseat doors opened, and then three men stepped out. Each of them had a weapon; one had a sawed-off shotgun, another carried a baseball bat spiked with nails, and the third held a crowbar. The weapons hung loosely at their sides, diminishing the feeling of a threat. Daryl stepped up, crossbow raised, positioning himself just in front of Addison. She glanced up at his face and saw that he was completely focused on the newcomers; she wondered if he had even really realized that he had placed himself between her and the men.
Then the man with the shotgun spoke up. "Well, aren't you two a sight for sore eyes? Haven't seen any survivors outside of camp in, what? Weeks, surely." The other two nodded in agreement, their gaze shifting between Daryl, his crossbow, and Addison. "Where are you two staying?" continued Shotgun. When Daryl didn't answer, the man looked at Addison. She frowned, disliking the feeling she was getting from him. "I see. No hard feelings; I understand. Well you are more than welcome to follow us and join our camp. We're pretty well set up in a motel a few miles east of here. All we ask is that you lend us your services to help out around the place." At this, all three men stared at Addison.
Daryl shifted, further blocking her from view. Addison could have sworn she almost heard him growl.
"We're not interested, thank you," she said around his arm.
Baseball-Bat and Crowbar still hadn't taken their eyes off her. Shotgun sighed. "You sure? We're an open community. We share everything and nobody goes wanting. There's other women there, too, not just us, and they have their own ways of contributing."
"We're leaving," Daryl snarled, grabbing Addison's arm and pushing her back to the other side of the car, still keeping himself between her and the men. Shotgun smirked.
"It's the end of the world… we can't afford to be selfish, now can we?"
Daryl stopped pushing and turned, glaring at Shotgun. He started forward, bringing up the crossbow.
"Daryl!" Addison hissed. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and yanked him back. He ignored her efforts, so she stepped in front of him, pushing on his chest. He was breathing heavily, rage etched in his expression. He noticed her after a moment and wrapped an arm around her, putting her behind him again, but finally moving back. "Get the hatch," she muttered, slipping out of his grip. She climbed over the driver's side into the passenger's seat and Daryl slammed the hatch shut and sat down behind the wheel seconds later. He peeled out onto the street and continued to floor the gas until they were well onto the highway again. Addison glanced over at him and saw that his expression was still deadly. She bit her lip, her heart still racing from the encounter.
After about fifteen minutes, Daryl took an exit.
"Where are you going?" Addison asked, sitting up straighter.
"Good chance they'll be following," he told her shortly. Addison got the map out of the glove compartment and tried to follow where he was going so she could get them back to the house once he decided that they had lost the men.
They had been riding in silence for another fifteen minutes when Daryl finally spoke:
"You should've let me kill them."
Addison took a few moments to think about it. "You aren't a killer," she finally disagreed. "A hunter, yes," she went on as Daryl opened his mouth to argue. "But I think I've gotten to know you well enough to tell that you wouldn't kill a human."
Daryl squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "I killed a man before," he confessed quietly. He then proceeded to tell her about a former member of the group that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Fuckin' Walker nearly tore him to shreds. Guts spillin' out everywhere. Rick was gonna do it, but he'd already gone through so much. So I took the gun. Shot Dale in the head. He was human."
Addison had already begun to shake her head. "That's not the same. You saved him; he would've become a Walker." She sighed. "Killing those guys… That's murder."
"They deserve it," Daryl argued heatedly. "You can't tell me you ain't thinkin' the same!"
Addison rubbed her face and sighed again. "I agree with you," she relented. "But Daryl, if we go back and kill those shitheads, then we're no better."
Daryl was silent for several minutes. Addison began to worry that he was mad with her for stopping him from killing the bastards. She turned back to the map to find where they were. After a couple minutes of searching, she found the right road, put her finger on it, and began to look for a way back to the house from where they were. Then:
"You don't go on any more supply runs without me, got it?"
Addison stared at Daryl, the map completely forgotten in her lap. He kept his eyes on the road straight ahead.
"Got it?" he repeated when she didn't immediately answer.
"Y-yeah, promise," she stammered.
"Good." His expression relaxed slightly. "Let's get back." Addison looked back down at the map, located the road again, and directed him back to the house.
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Reply to Flowers: I'm sorry for the wait; I hope you're not too mad! Thanks for the review, dear!
Reply to Lilly72: Hello! I'm so glad you like it so far! I tend to develop relationships really quickly, so I'm trying super hard to slow it down with Addison & Daryl and make it good :) Thank you so much for your fantastic review!
Everyone: How about that, huh? Couple quick end-notes: 1) I have begun to get a little distracted while writing… the products of this distraction are on my DeviantArt profile, and the link to that can be found on my profile page here on FanFiction. I will try to remember to let you know when I post more on there at the end of chapters; 2) Please let me know what you think, both for this chapter and the question posed in the note at the beginning! Love.