Author's Notes: Thank you for all the lovely comments, I am much obliged.
The rating is now M. Not necessarily because of any sort of smut. ;)
TWDTWDTWD
When he woke, she wasn't with him in the bed. Daryl rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and the cell came back into focus, he spotted her at the end of her own bed, fully clothed, her head bent down to her lap where she patched up a shirt.
"Hey." He grunted at her, rolling over to sit up.
"Morning." She murmured with a smile, glancing up at him from her work.
"Feel better today?" He asked. He tugged on his boots quickly, strapping on his weapons. Today would be the day he helped shift the body of Keith. He would've been prepared to just chuck it out the door, but he figured Carol and Beth wouldn't want to see that every time they looked down from the watchtower.
She nodded. "Much."
"Gonna tell me what happened exactly?" He stood up, leaning over her shoulder.
Carol shook her head lightly. "There's nothing to tell. It wasn't anything to me, just Beth. It was only words, Daryl." She shrugged. "They can't hurt."
He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot because he knew that wasn't true. He remembered his words to her not so long ago, ones that made him cringe when he thought of them now. He couldn't believe that they hadn't hurt.
"He's gone, so what's the point in hashing it out?" Carol snapped the thread in her fingers, holding the garment out to inspect her handiwork. "Besides, to be truthful, even though it was frightening, there has been worse done before now." She folded the shirt, seemingly satisifed. "And I made it through that, right?"
She stood up and gave his limp hand a squeeze.
The way she spoke made him angry. She shouldn't have had to endure anything at all. What went on with Keith should've been the worst thing that ever happened to her but it wasn't. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about that.
"I'm going to make breakfast."
Carol could hear Carl's voice outside the door, no doubt waiting for her to whip up the pancakes he'd become fond of recently and she gave him one last smile, reaching for the door.
"Gonna start a watch in the tower. Proper one, just to make sure they don't come back." He told her gruffly. "You wanna be on my shift?" He didn't really know what to say to her, after last night. She seemed happy enough, but she hadn't tried to kiss him again. Did she not want to? Or was she waiting for him to take the lead? He was shit at this sort of thing.
"Of course. Just give me a shout when we're ready to go."
"Wait. Take this with you." He picked up her rifle from the corner of the cell, slipping the strap over her shoulder.
"To cook breakfast?" She asked cynically, but she let him pull the strap over her head, positioning the weapon across her back.
"Not everyone is gonna be happy 'bout what happened to Keith." He explained and Carol suddenly remembered Adam, the man who had been prepared to stab Daryl whilst his back was turned. His hand lingered on the strap, fingers brushing her shoulder and she reached up and stroked them.
"Alright." She pulled the cell door opened and his hand fell away just as Carl and Lori greeted her. "Come find me when it's time to go on watch." She murmured as she ruffled Carl's hair, giving Lori a soft smile and following them down to the kitchens.
Tyreese was all for burning the body. There were plenty of them fallen in the yard these days and he wanted to stack them up outside and burn them all. Keith didn't deserve shit. He wasn't worth burning even. If it wasn't for the fact that he was in the prison, Daryl would've left him where he fell, like he was good for.
"We've got to get these fences fixed up, get the yard gates closed before we start a fire. A herd of Walkers spots the smoke and we'll be overrun again." Rick stood just outside door of the watch tower, surveying the land with a pair of binoculars.
"The gates are kind of a tricky one. They're operated by electricity. You can disable the mechanism to be able to do it manually, but those things weigh a ton. Might even need a vehicle to be able to do it and aside from that, there's the time it takes. It's never quiet enough to be able to do it without gettin' bit." Simon had found a diagram of the gates and had stuck it up on the glass to show everyone exactly what he meant.
"Even if the gates do work, fire ain't that way t'go. You said Woodbury ain't that far. Ain't worried that it might get spotted by them?" Daryl rested his chin on his rifle as he spoke, squinting into the direction of Woodbury, not that he could see anything.
Tyreese shrugged. "We ain't seen nothing about Woodbury. Might be nothing there at all, might be just good folks tryna make it through like the rest of us. Who knows?"
"Well, you obviously don't think much like that or else you'd be headed down there already." Rick told him, turning back to look towards the heavy gates, open wide enough to let the vehicles through.
Daryl resisted letting out a snort at Rick's words. Tyreese shuffled uncomfortably on the spot. Idiotic bastard.
"I'm just sayin', we don't know shit, could be nothing. Alotta rumours from a couple of people who aren't around no more. But alright, no fires. Still, we may aswell clean out the buildings first, maybe just stack the bodies outside for now. Once the buildings are secure, then the outside can get sorted."
"I don't want men sitting on their asses for this, Tyreese. We need to make a really push. We've been here weeks and all the progress we've made on securing this place has been one floor of one block. It's not enough. We're gonna lose a lot of daylight soon and we need to be making proper runs here, get some stuff stocked up for winter."
Daryl was glad Rick finally told Tyreese how it was. Too many of these idiots sat on their idle asses, getting their meals cooked and their clothes cleaned and doing nothing to deserve it. It was time to see who could be trusted and who needed to be locked back in a cell.
"I'll talk to them. I'm sure they'll be prepared to help out here."
"They help out, or they get the fuck out. It ain't hard." Daryl shrugged.
"You wanna tell them that? 'Cause I'm sure they ain't gonna see it that way, seeing as they been here the longest."
"If you ain't gonna man up to it, I got no problem with it." Daryl snarled, stepping forward.
"Cool it." Rick threw a hand out in front of Daryl, stopping from moving any further. "How about you two go round up some men, see who wants to shift some corpses after lunch?" He suggested and Tyreese threw one last glare at Daryl before nodding and following Simon down the stairs.
"What the hell is going on with you and him, huh?" Rick rounded on Daryl the moment he heard the downstairs door shut.
"Nothin'. Man's a jackass. Tired of hearin' his crap." Daryl turned away from Rick, looking back out the window.
"Come off it, Daryl. You and him have been on the verge of a smackdown for weeks. What's the problem, here?"
"Ain't no problem, hoss. Just tired of him pretendin' he's all that when he ain't prepared to do the dirty work."
Rick raised one eyebrow, considering Daryl for a moment before finally shaking his head. "Just lay off, alright? We do not want to make any more enemies."
Daryl growled under his breath. He could promise no such thing. Everytime he caught sight of Tyreese he wanted to sock him one, not matter what the other man said or did. He would never admit that his problem with Tyreese was his roving eye on Carol. What was worse, was that Tyreese did absolutely nothing to warrant a punch. He was the perfect gentleman to Carol and it was beyond infuriating. He held open doors, stood when she stood at the table, offered to carry anything she held.
What was even more infuriating was the way Carol just took it all with a smile. Never once told him to fuck off. She was just as damned polite back to him and if there was ever way to make him feel as inferior as shit, it was the way those two behaved around each other.
Still. She didn't kiss Tyreese. He took some comfort in that. He'd almost wanted to rub it in the other man's face but it was a little premature. It was only one kiss. It could mean nothing. Or everything. It could mean everything, if she wanted it to. He'd leave it with her, he had already decided on that. He had no clue on how to lead on this sort of matter so he wasn't going to even try. She would have to make it obvious what she wanted.
When they stepped into the hall, lunch was being handed out, everyone queuing in front of the open grate separating them from the kitchens.
He took his place at the back of the line, watching as Carol and Lori dished out trays with sandwiches and soup to everyone. Tyreese held the line up with his chitchat and he smirked to himself when he saw her brush him off in favour of getting everyone fed.
Lori handed him his tray and he took it with a nod, heading to sit a couple of seats up from Glenn and Maggie who were having an animated discussion about something or other, which he quickly tuned out, forcing down the soup even though it was too hot.
He was halfway through the bowl when as shadow came from behind and Carol slipped in the seat between him and Glenn.
"Hungry, huh?" She nodded towards his half empty tray and he just shrugged.
"Gonna take watch after this, still up for it? S'gonna be till after dinner." He told her after swallowing a large bite of sandwich.
"Sure. I'll just check Lori will be alright to cover the clean up, get a move on dinner."
Daryl pulled a face. "Just leave her to it. She ain't doin' anythin' else." It was irritating, the way she always felt she had to check with others before doing anything, like she needed permission.
"It's not easy cooking for over three dozen people, you know. It wouldn't be fair. But I am sure Maggie and Beth will be willing to cover it."
"Say what?" Maggie called over, hearing her name being mentioned.
"Just wondering if you'd be able to help Lori with dinner tonight, if I go on watch?" Carol asked, breaking her sandwich into mouthfuls.
"Sure thing." The other woman nodded and turned back to her conversation with her boyfriend.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence and Carol took his tray from him when he finished.
"Just going to get my jacket." She told him with a smile, taking off just as Rick sat opposite him.
"So, if we get Connor to run along the high wall in the yard where the cars are, distract the Walkers with flares, we're gonna move the truck to the entrance between the two yard and block it off. Then we can load up the bodies. Carol good enough to watch our backs up there? Tyreese thinks so."
"She's fine. Now that she knows how to use the damned gun properly."
"Gotta make sure you guys have our backs." Rick told him, lowering his voice.
Daryl reared his head back. "I don't see what the damn problem is. We got it. Just radio when you go." He shook his head at Rick's words. As if it needed to be questioned.
TWDTWDTWD
Daryl had set her to reloading all ten machine guns they had up in the watchtower, making sure each one was cleaned and ready to go. She did it with a sigh, but she didn't complain about it any more than that because it didn't do anything. He was a hard taskmaster and chose to ignore any protests she made.
He took to circle the watchtower, binoculars out, looking for the missing prisoners as she worked.
As she pieced together the last gun, she picked up her own and joined him, following his view out onto the deserted town.
"You really think they'd be dumb enough to come back here?" She asked, taking the binoculars from him to see for herself.
"They got no weapons, no vehicles, no food. Desperate people make stupid mistakes. They likely bit it already. But if they did, probably ain't too far from here and their geek asses might wander in." He told her.
"What will happen if they do come back. Alive, I mean?"
"Same as what happened to him." Daryl told her firmly.
The thought of them dying didn't entirely repulse her. It had turned out that they were largely responsible for Axel's injuries, which were so severe he would likely be bed bound for weeks. Simon thought he had broken ribs, his nose and his jaw and with only mild painkillers available, it was likely to be an excruciatingly painful healing process.
"I don't think Tyreese will allow that." She tried to keep her tone light. "Not again."
Daryl snorted dismissively. "Yeah, well I am pretty sure that dumbass thought Keith could fix his wrongdoin's with a freakin' song."
"Yeah, he's very trusting. He sees the best in people. Or tries to." Carol lifted the gun to her shoulder and peered throught he sight, hitting a Walker that was hovering near the door they used to enter and exit the yard.
"There weren't nothin' in Keith to see." He told her angrily, snatching up a gun leaning up against the wall and popping off two Walkers before looking back at her.
"I'm not knocking what you did, Daryl. That's not what I meant." Carol put the gun down and sat on the bench nearest to him. "I mean, Tyreese, he's naive, I suppose. People have always been good to him and he sees no reason why they wouldn't be. He hasn't lived like this group have. Hasn't lived the way we did, before the Walkers came."
His head snapped up at that. They hadn't really spoken about lives before Walkers, he didn't really know shit about her, in a conventional sense. Didn't know how old she was, what she did for work before, or if she had a favourite song or movie. He knew she slept fitfully and scrunched her features up in her sleep. Knew she always drunk a glass of water before doing anything else in the morning and that when she was nervous or worried, her hand would fly to her necklace, fingers running the pendant across the chain until she was distracted with something else.
He assumed she'd had a shitty homelife. Pretty sure he was on the money on that one. And apparently she correctly the assumed the same thing about him. Not that he was ever going to confirm that one. The past was the past.
"Yeah, well there ain't no room to be nice anymore, you know that." He groused, shooting another Walker before putting the gun down.
"I know that, yes. Learning it, slowly. Tyreese will learn it too, I'm sure."
"You wanna quit talkin' about him? Pisses me off." He stalked back inside the watchtower, picking up the radio that lay on the side. "We gonna get a show goin' here? Wastin' daylight."
"We'll be five minutes or so." The voice crackled back. Simon, he thought but the quality was pretty poor so he couldn't be sure. "Just huntin' up some flares."
Carol was staring at him when he turned back around, assessing him, almost.
"What?" He snapped.
"You remember what I told you, right? Nothing going on with me and him." Her voice was soft and she turned her body to face him fully as she spoke.
He didn't say anything, instead pulling his cross bow from his back and loading a bolt.
"I wouldn't kiss you, Daryl, if I wanted to...whatever with him."
She sighed when he didn't say anything. He didn't seem to want to give her anything to work with. Sure, he seemed to enjoy their kiss the night before, but he didn't appear to have anything to say about it. Like if he would want to do it again. He made her feel so damn uncertain.
"Am I completely off the mark here? Because if I made you uncomfortable last night, then I am sorry. I don't want to make you feel obliged to do..." She shrugged. "Anything. Anything you don't want to do."
"Woman, when have I ever done shit I don't wanna do?" He spat the words out and he wished he hadn't. Why did he always sound like he was on the verge of biting her head off? This was exactly the reason why there had never been girlfriends. "Fuck." He dropped the crossbow to the wall and slide onto the bench beside her.
"Then why-" Her words were muffled when he leant over, closing the half a foot gap between them, hand cupping her jaw coarsely, his mouth clamping over hers.
She squeaked in shock, the sound vibrating right into his own mouth but a second later her felt her relax, her hand settling on his knee to steady herself as she submitted to his kiss.
He was rougher than he had been the previous day, tongue duelling with her own, his grip on her jaw firm and he used his other hand to pull her closer, scrunching the lapel of her jacket in his palm.
They broke their contact briefly, breath a little ragged and he could see her lips move, as if she were going to say something and he stopped her quickly by catching her bottom lip in his teeth because, hell, the last thing he wanted to do was talk.
Her hand found her way to his neck, fingertips pressing firmly into his skin. Nails just grazing his skin when he found his touch getting a little more aggressive, a gentle reminder that with her, he had to be softer.
He was just contemplating on how he could get her inside the watchtower without having to do any talking, if she would let him grip her by the hips and carry her in when there was a crackle behind him.
Carol jumped away quickly, startled and slid across the bench as if she had been caught by somebody face to face.
"You guys ready to go? We're comin' from the other yard in a few minutes."
Daryl jumped up from the bench as she dragged her hand across her mouth, as if it would wipe away any evidence of what they had just done.
"Fuck." He cursed. As if they couldn't wait five more fucking minutes.
Carol stood up behind him, scooping up her gun. "Yeah." She murmured.