* Disclaimer! I do not own the walking dead. Sadly...Just my OC...*
She bit harshly into a piece of Jerky that Carl offered as Hershel finished up the last stitch to her leg. She hated needles. She did NOT get to crush Daryls hand unfortunately. Instead her support came from her newest side kick, Carl. He offered Jerky as compensation as Hershel made sure her leg was wrapped tightly so she couldn't pull at the stitches, which she would probably do anyway later when he wasn't looking. Stitches ITCH. When he was done Hershel helped her to stand. "Well then, we got a plan to head out, stayin off the main roads. You can ride with us." Rick said and she blinked, tilting her head to the side. "No?" She said in confusion. She was not about to leave her truck behind. "We don't have the gas to keep the truck, I'm sorry." Rick said. She scoffed. "Don't worry about it. That beastie is a frankenstein. Part electric and I've got solar panels all along the roof and rails and extra already charged battery packs in the bed. So you'll run out before I ever do. I am NOT leavin my truck. That's like asking Daryl to leave his motorcycle. Don't see you doin that." She said and heard the scoff that came from her favorite redneck. She really wanted to be in her truck now. She may be keeping up appearances well but the shaking that was in her hands was not from blood loss as Hershel might believe. "Hey mom, dad? Can I ride with Payne?" Carl asked. She smiled over at him and inwardly grimaced. She couldn't very well have a break down with the kid around her. Rick and Lori both looked over at her and she smiled. "Not this time Carl. Your mom and I, we were real worried when we couldn't find you. We want some time with you. Maybe the next time we stop." Rick said. Thank god. Carl sighed from his spot beside Lori. "Ok." He said and Lori guided him to the vehicle they would be riding in. Hershel helped her towards her truck and she slowly pulled herself into the driver seat. "Ya'll need anything to eat?" She asked loudly. She saw a few heads pop up looking in her direction. Reaching behind her seat, she pulled out a handful of bags of jerky, putting them in Hershels hands and dug some more for a box of ranch flavored wheat crackers. "Give those to Lori. Jerky for everybody. Breakfast of champions." She said as she unwrapped a sucker and popped it into her mouth, moving the stick around with her tongue. "Thank you." Hershel said and she nodded, closing the door as he walked to hand out the bags. Looking in her rear view mirror she grimaced. Her top and bottom lip had a straight line through them. No wonder she had tasted blood. Her eye was completely blood shot, as in it looked like her eye was bleeding. She'd had worse but it was still uncomfortable to look at. The bruising covered her cheek bone and over her temple, into her hair. Her face was covered in dried blood, so were her shirt and pants. Pulling her jacket and long sleeve off, she winced against the motion and began to unbutton her pants. Reaching over into her pack, she pulled out a pair of leggings and another jacket. Looking around to make sure nobody was looking her way, she took off her boots and shimmied out of her jeans. Under her seat sat a pack of cucumber green tea baby wipes and she used them to wipe her legs face and arms clean before pulling on the leggings, carefully pulling the legging up to the thigh of her injured leg. With her leg exposed she might as well actually put on her knee brace. She pulled the black wrap over her knee and grabbed a thigh holster for her knife, strapping it into place. Looking down, she ran her hand over the tattoo trailing down the side of her leg. Black and grey rose vines that started at her hip and ended mid calf. Pulling on her jacket was last before she noticed vehicles starting up. She would just have to drive barefoot and with the wrong foot but she was fine with that. Pulling her hair into a quick pony tail, she started her truck and turned on her ipod to her playlist, pulling a set of headphones into her ears. Daryl passed her first with Carol sitting behind him on the bike. Lucky woman. Carol actually winked with a small smile. Oooooooh that sneaky bitch. She laughed and flipped up her middle finger for the woman to see. Next went the green Hybrid with Glen and the Greenes, and then the red and white truck with T-dog and the Grimes family. She looked over at the pickup they would be leaving behind sadly before turning her truck to follow at the rear.
As she drove she looked out into the woods, hoping for even a brief glimpse of her beloved Demon. As she looked, the tears came, her breath caught in her chest and she struggled to pull in a full breath. Her lips trembled and she pressed her knuckles against her mouth. Even with the aggressive beat pounding through her headphones she didn't think she could stop the whimpers that threatened to escape her. She didn't hear the honk but she saw the truck in front of her begin to slow down and so did she, wiping her cheeks with her sleeve. She would see her bubby boy again. She would. She slipped the headphones from her ears and cut off the truck and ipod, watching for what they would do. When she saw them getting out of their vehicles she opened her door and slid out, pulling on her boots and walking forward with a limp to stand by Carol as she leaned against the guard rail. "You out?" Daryl asked aloud. "Runnin on fumes." Rick said. "We can't stay here." Maggie said. "Well we can't all fit in one car." She eyed Glen but said nothing. She was perfectly fine with riding alone. "We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning." Rick said as he shifted his feet back and forth. "Spend the night here?" Carol asked. "I'm freezing." Carl said. "We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori said as she rubbed her hand quickly over Carl to try to provide him some warmth. "You go lookin for firewood, stay close. Only got so many arrows. How you doin on ammo?" Daryl asked. "Not enough." Rick said as he passed his jacket to Carl and walked by. She would admit that she was cold. But not COLD cold. Not yet. It would come though. "We can't just sit here with our asses hangin out." Maggie said and she coughed trying to hide a laugh as Hershel scolded her. "Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick." Hershel said. She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and leaned more on the guard rail. "All right, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushin on." Rick said. "Glen and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie offered but was shot down. "No, we stay together. God forbid somethin happens and people get stranded without a car." Rick said and turned to look down the road. "Rick, we're stranded now." Glen said. He kinda had a point. "I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure...I really wasn't...but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place." Rick said. She nodded. It was a good speech, it really was, but without much to back it, she could see the doubt on others faces. "Rick, look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." Glen said and she also nodded. Why did everybody have to make sense? It's really hard to back someone when everybody else also has valid points. Time to step up your game Rick. "There's gotta be a place, not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a LIFE for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it." Ok, she liked Rick but the way he waved his gun around and punctuated each word with a jab of it towards the ground, kinda made her nervous. "Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinkin that that was safe." She looked over and Maggie and then towards the ground. "We won't make that mistake again." Hershel said. There was a pause and she shuffled her feet. "We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day." Rick said as he motioned towards the crumbling remains of what she thought used to be a church or house. "Does this feel right to you?" Carol said, looking back and forth between her and Daryl. "What if walker come through or another group like Randalls?" Beth asked as she walked up to Rick. "You knew we found Randall, right? He had turned but he wasn bit." Daryl said. "How's that possible?" "Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asked. "Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to. Payne saw em and he beat her, left her hangin from a tree in a trap." Daryl said. She scrunched her nose and clenched her fists tightly. "And then the herd got him?" Lori asked. She looked up and tilted her head. "We're all infected." Rick said after a moment. She stared at him and frowned. "What?" Daryl asked. "At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." Rick said. She watched Daryl as he walked in a slow circle, shaking his head at the ground. "And you never said anything?" Carol asked. "Would it have made a difference?" Rick asked and she shook her head. Bad answer Rick. "You knew this whole time?" Glen asked. "How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that mot-" "That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told. For the good of everyone." Glen said. "Well I thought it best that people didn't know." Rick said. The hard set of his face dared anyone to say something about his decision and she scoffed. Limping back to her truck, she pulled down the tail gate and reached for a tote, opening it and pulling out blankets before closing it and putting the tale gate back up. With blankets in her arms, she limped over to Carl and draped one of her fuzzier ones over his shoulders. "You hungry?" She asked. "No. Thank you. Just cold." He said and wrapped himself up in the blanket. She smiled and ruffled his hair before handing a blanket to T-dog and Hershel, then walked over to give one to Carol and Glen, figuring he would share with Maggie. She held on to the last two. One for Daryl and one for herself.
They had a fire goin, keepin the flame low while Daryl brought back small branches for fire wood. She sat in a corner further away from the group, watching them. Carol was talking to Daryl. She caught bits and pieces of what she said but turned away to stare at the fire. Her blanket laid over her legs and she huddled in her jacket. When the sound of a something moving about came from the woods, she looked over. Standing and running her fingers over the knife at her thigh. "What was that?" Glen asked. "Could be anything. Could be a raccoon, could be a possum." "Walker." Glen finished. "We need to leave. I mean what are we waitin for?" Carol said, her voice rising in fear. "Which way?" Glen asked. "It came from over there." "Back from where we came." "Yeah." She glanced over at Maggie and Beth before looking back out into the dark woods. She didn't like it. She had avoided a panic attack by just staring into the fire, nothing looking out into the darkness. But with something moving, she was forced to and she could feel her heart beginning to race. "The last thing we need is for everyone to be runnin off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles. No one's travelin on foot." Rick said as he came back into the small clearing. "Don't panic." Hershel said as the sound of something coming closer came. "I'm not...I'm not sittin here waitin for another herd to blow through. We need to move. Now." Maggie said. "No one is goin anywhere." Rick said. "Do something." Carol said. She scoffed. What did she expect Rick to do? Single handedly kill every walker in the state of Georgia? It'd be nice but she didn't see that happening. Rick is just one man. Not a god. "I am doin somethin! I'm keepin this group together, alive. I been doin that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people for Christ's sake! You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He nearly killed Payne. He gave me no CHOICE. He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean." Rick stopped to stare out at each of them and she stared back. "Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us but maybe...maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe.. Maybe I'm foolin myself again. Why don't you...Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a post card. Go on. There's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." Rick said. If he pointed that gun at her or Daryl again, even just motioning with it, she was goin to flip her shit all in his face. Daryl looked back at her and she looked at him briefly before going back to staring at Rick. "No takers? Fine, but get one thing straight. You're stayin, this isn't a democracy anymore." She scrunched her face and spit at the ground before dropping to sit, propping her arm on her bent knee and staring into the fire. If there was anything that could calm down a panic attack, it was anger. And she was angry. At Rick, at Carol, at Glen and Maggie, at the whole damn situation. She could see that the pressure of having to keep everyone safe was weighing down hard on Rick and he was buckling. After things calmed a bit, she saw Daryl set his pack a few feet away from her along the wall. Grabbing the blanket she had grabbed for him, she threw it to land on the pack and he looked over at her. He nodded after a minute and settled down. It was gunna be a long night.
"I want Daryl, Payne and Glen to go into town. Check for food, ammo. Anything useful." Rick said. It had been a few months since his little pow-wow and true to his word, he became the Ricktator. On cold or wet nights that they couldn't risk a fire they slept in the vehicles, huddled together for warmth with the extra blankets she had given out. Well, they huddled. Carol stayed in the truck with Lori and Daryl slept in her passenger seat. She would huddle. She wanted to. But the closest she came to huddling or cuddling was when Daryl would fling his arm out in his sleep and it happened to land on her side or, on occasion, on her boobs or stomach. The mornings when he woke up realizing what he had done were priceless. A couple times she swore she felt him squeeze them a bit. It made her crazy. It was like being a teenager all over again. She was sex crazed and only for him. He could grab all he wanted and she wouldn't mind a bit. He had grown just a bit closer to her and she was happy to make him blush on a regular basis. She hadn't stolen another kiss but she wanted to. Dear god, she wanted to. She had drifted into her thoughts as she stared at Daryls ass. A nudge to her side brought her back to earth and she nodded. Carol giggled and she smiled before grabbing her bow from her truck and walking to stand between the two men. Her leg had healed well enough and she was happy to be able to walk and run normally again. "Alright. Come on." Daryl said and she followed after him with Glen close behind. The first stop was a small gas station close by. The door was wide open and shelves knocked over. She had little to no hope of finding anything useful there. Going inside, she pulled her knife and crouched to look under the shelves, searching for anything. Best she found was a pack of gum and some tums which she stuffed into her pack for Lori. Daryl went behind the counter not doing any better at finding anything than she did. Glen searched through the coolers and came back gagging with a lingering smell of rotten milk. In his hands were a few bottles of water. At least someone found something. Leaving the building, they crossed the street quickly, Daryl taking point with his crossbow raised. There were a few walkers, they wouldn't bother them though as long as they didn't get motivated. Daryl stopped by the door to a small general store. The door was still locked but that didn't mean anything nowadays. The window beside it had been smashed in. Daryl knocked against the wood of the door and waited but they heard nothing on the other side. He looked back at her and she nodded before quietly making her way over the shattered glass and through the window. Unlocking the door quickly, she looked over the room. The shelves still stood and was were free of anything bloody which was a good sign that there weren't any walkers unless they were closed off somewhere. She scanned the shelves, shoving whatever she found into her bag. Small things like a can of tuna that had fallen to the floor. A pack of crackers. A package of fig bars. A box of frosted flakes. Divide it up and it was more than they had eaten in days. She saw Daryl pocket something before he turned and walked towards a doorway at the back. She moved to follow him but paused as she saw a few small yellow packages laying on the floor. Picking one up she read the label. Enfamil ready to go formula. She grabbed up every little pack she could find and put them in her pack. She was always grabbing things for Itty Bitty, storing them all in a tote in the bed of her truck. Lori's due date was still a couple months away but it was better to start gathering things now than last minute. After clearing the building they moved onto the next. A pharmacy. It was about the same. Cleared of any useful medicine. While Daryl and Glen searched through the shelves she hoped over the counter to look through the cabinets. Some were smashed in and the contents tossed about but it didn't matter. On the floor she found a powder filled bottle for an oral solution. Azithromycin. She stuffed it into her bag and kept looking. A lot of people wouldn't know what to do with the powders but she could mix the solution and they would be set on antibiotics. Searching through a stack of empty boxes, she came to one that held the opened packages and bottles for pain killers. She sighed but tipped over the box anyway. What she did not expect was a full pack of them to still be sealed at the bottom of the box. She grinned and stuffed them in her pack. In the corner of her eye she saw a door slowly open. Gripping her knife, she turned in a half crouch and waited only for the end of Daryls crossbow to poke through. She laughed lightly and stood, giving a small wave once Daryl fully noticed her. He nodded his head in the direction of the door and she nodded, following after him. They left down the street when she paused in front of a small book store. In the store display was a familiar image on a small paperback novel. She remembered that one. The main male character looked a lot like Daryl now that she thought about it. She scrunched her nose. The character also acted a lot like Daryl. She would know. She wrote the damn thing. She whistled and held up a finger to halt the men before they left her. They walked back towards her and she quickly looked through the doorway and entered, going to the display and snatching the book from its propped position and shoving it into her pack. Daryl eyed her with a frown and she scoffed. Looking around for other books she remembered, she shoved them into her bag and then walked easily over to the counter where she slid over it and opened a small cabinet to find a stash of chips and cookies. Grabbing a plastic bag from a stack, she filled the bag and stood with her haul and a grin on her face. She knew very well that most people that worked in book stores had a stash of junk food for when the store was empty. She always did.
The rest of the town went much the same before they were heading back towards the group. They were holed up in a house about a mile from town. It would be relative safety for a night. Rick never let them stay long and nether did the walkers. They seemed to be circling which made no sense at all but then again, they're dead people that can walk soooo...yeah. With the sun beginning to set she was happy to be back indoors. "Find anything?" Rick asked as they walked up the steps to the small porch. "Food for tonight." She said and walked inside, setting the bag on a table and pulling the food from her pack. Lori came closer to look over the haul, a noticeable bump beginning under the womans shirt. "Time to check on Itty Bitty again." She said and Lori nodded. Lori had been very distant and quiet every since that night Rick took the throne. Setting her pack down, she jogged out to her truck and grabbed her journal, measuring tape, and doppler. Going back inside, she saw Lori sitting in a corner. "Alright. Lets do this. Lay down." She said and sat on her knees while Lori laid back and lifted her shirt. Using her measuring tape, she pressed one end just above her pubic bone and ran the tape over the bump until just under the womans ribs. She quickly wrote down the measurement in the journal with a guess for gestational age. Grabbing the doppler, she smeared a small amount of KY over the end and pressed it against Loris lower abdomen. She moved it back and forth until she heard a strong beat. She smiled and counted for a minute before writing down the heartbeat rate. "Its a bit fast and at the gestation, the sex is fully formed. I'd say its a girl if I had to guess based on heartbeats. Girls hearts always beat faster. But I could be wrong. Could just have a very excited little boy in there. But my money is on a girl." She said with a wink. Lori gave a small smile as she wiped the womans belly clean with a baby wipe and tugged her shirt down. "Thank you." Lori said and she took ahold of the womans arm and pulled her to sit up. "Still taking the prenatals? Do you need more? Just say when." She said. Lori shook her head. "Take em every day. And I still have a full bottle from the last time you got them for me." Lori said. She smiled and walked over to her pack, pulling out the bottle of tums and walking back beside her. "Found these for you. Figure the heart burn will start up soon." She said and handed over the bottle. "Thank you." Lori said and gave her a small hug. "No problem. Anything for my Itty Bitty." She said and smoothed a hand over the womans belly. "Do you want kids?" Lori asked. "Yeah...I do...but I seriously doubt my fingers are gunna knock me up any time soon." She said with a grin and laughed at the choking sound that came from behind her. Turning she saw Daryl coughing into his hand with a bottle of water in the other and the tips of his ears going red. "Unless you're volunteering." She said and winked at him. He was up and walking out the door in record time and she laughed, Lori joining in. "You really like him don't you?" Lori asked. "You kidding? He's a walking wet dream. And a big softie. Rough around the edges and that fits me perfectly. He's a good guy. Just doesn't know how to show it. So...yeah... I really like him. Probably love him." She said and looked towards the floor. No probably about it. She knew she did. Lori shook her head. "Hey, you fell in love with Sheriff Roscoe over there, can't blame me for goin for the younger Duke brother." She said. "Dukes of Hazard? Really? Who's Daisy?" Lori asked and she laughed. "That'd be Maggie." Lori made a small noise as she held her hand over her mouth, her shoulders hunching as she tried to hold in her laughter. She patted Lori on the back and went to retrieve her pack, pulling out the book that reminded her of Daryl and settling on the couch to begin reading. She didn't know when but after flipping the page for the next chapter, her finger was stopped by Carol who was craning her neck to read the last passage. "It's getting good." Carol said and moved her hand away as she flipped the page. "How long have you been there?" She asked, laying her head back to look up at the woman. "Long enough to know that mister Chris Wimberly will be in my dreams tonight...kinda reminds me of Daryl though." Carol said. "Hey, back off. Dixon is mine." She said and stuck out her tongue. "I know sweetie, I know. Just like to tease you a bit." Carol said and settled back on her elbows on the back of the couch to read over her shoulder. "Here, you can read it." She said and handed the book over before walking to the table that held the food, ruffling Carls hair as she picked up the pack of fig bars and a pack of crackers. Walking out onto the porch, she sat down on the steps beside Daryl and tossed the crackers into his lap. "Didn't know if you'd want the figs or not." She said. "You need to quit sayin shit like ya did." He ground out. "Aw come on. A girl can dream." She said with a smile and he scoffed, shoving her to the side. She laughed. "Found this for ya." He said. She looked down to see him holding out a kit kat bar and she looked around quickly. Carl was a candy thief. She grabbed it, opening the package and breaking off one of the pieces. Biting it in half she moaned in bliss. Her stash of candy had run out weeks ago and had been going through slight withdrawals without having any. "Dear god. I love you Daryl Dixon." She said before eating the other half and moaning again. He stiffened beside her. "Don't say shit like that either!" He said gruffly and moved to stand. While he turned she stood, waiting for him to step onto the stairs. As he did she stepped up to him and grabbed his shirt, pulling herself forward to press her lips against his. He jerked back and opened his mouth to shout at her no doubt. Stepping forward, she pressed against him again, running her tongue over his bottom lip and kissing him before pulling back to stare at his mouth as he backed away angrily. "I meant what I said Daryl Dixon. You don't have to do anythin with it. Just felt like lettin you know." She said and turned, walking into the house and grabbing her pack to find a spot away from the others to settle down for the night.