*** After this chapter we won't have such heavy stuff to deal with :) and guess what? I OWN NOTHING with the exception of Linney ***
The next day was a bit better. Mostly because nothing happened. Life at camp rolled on around her, as she lay trapped her in bed, having to suffer the indignity of Daryl helping her to the RV each time she needed to use the bathroom. Her bruises were horrific, a brilliant sunrise of color splashed across the entire side of her body, more bruises showing up on her hip, legs, arms and shoulder, all the way down that side of her body.
Ed remained under guard. Amy had snuck in to sit with her for a bit and told her that Merle was insisting they kill the guy.
"It's weird, because he's not being a jerk about it. It's like he's suggested we bake some muffins, like it's the most obvious thing." Amy explained, her face puzzled. Linney wasn't sure what she felt. She certainly didn't think the man should die for what he did to her, maybe for what he'd being doing to Carol and Sophia all this time, but not her.
She was steadfast in her insistence that the fall was her fault, clumsiness and arrogance making her careless. Linney felt that someone needed to talk some sense into Merle, before he did something stupid. But she couldn't talk to Merle; he came into the tent the night before when she was already asleep, and was gone in the morning when she woke up. He hadn't stopped by to visit at all either, which she tried to tell herself didn't bug her at all.
On top of everything, Ed appeared to be suffering very badly. She had caused him some fairly severe damage in his groin and Amy reported to her that T-Dog was saying he thought maybe Ed would die.
"I think he deserves it." Amy said. She had been checking in on Carol all day, and said that the woman was very severely beat up, her face a mess. Amy's normally gentle demeanor was not in evidence when she talked about the man, she was just as furious as Linney.
"'Course he deserves it." Daryl spoke, as he walked back into the tent. Linney gave him a small smile in greeting and he just stared at her in return. He'd been acting funny since the night before, and Linney stopped defending her motives to him. Her insistence that it was the right thing to do, that anyone should have tried to stop it, big or small, seemed to only upset him.
She started getting irritated with him. If this was a protective instinct on his part, it was pissing her off, chaffing at her natural born desire to do what she thought she needed to. He was in and out of the tent all day, checking on her, but never staying to chat much.
Her watch shift was being shifted until she was better, Lori told her, when she brought Linney lunch.
"That was a very brave thing you did." She softly, as she helped Linney sit up so she could eat. Linney smiled at the other woman in appreciation.
"Thanks for saying so, Daryl's making me think it was wrong somehow." Lori gave her a strange look, "Why do you think that? It was reckless, but I'm sure it's something everyone else is wishing they had done a long time ago." Linney shook her head, "I don't know, nevermind, I'm just going batty in here."
By dinnertime, she wanted desperately to leave the tent, telling Daryl it was making her crazy. He shook his head at her and pointed at the bed. "Ya stay there until Amy says it's safe." Linney pressed her hands to her head in resentment, "She's not even a doctor you know, just the daughter of one." Daryl smirked at her, "Closest we got then, ain't she?"
When he left to go see about getting her dinner, she wasted no time, easing herself out of bed, wincing at the pain, but happy to note that it was slightly less sharp than the day before. Just a mac truck today, she thought.
She couldn't bend to put on any pants, so she stayed in her grey pj's, pulling on Daryl's hoodie and sliding her feet into her boots. She grabbed one of their spare blankets, a grey and red striped affair, and wrapped it around her waist securely, making sure it wasn't long enough to trip on.
Linney unzipped the door, stepped outside and then zipped it back up. She took a slow step away from the tent and turned around to find Merle leaning casually against a nearby tree, a smirk on his face. He started clapping for her and she glared at him.
"Now you show up?" She cried and he chuckled. "Daryl jus' told me you were wantin' to come out for dinner, figured ya'd just do whatever the hell ya wanted. Thought I'd come n' watch."
"Of course you did," she said, making a face at him. Linney walked carefully towards him and then held her arm out to him.
"Care to escort a lady to dinner?" She asked, smiling at him. He raised his eyebrows and turned away from her.
"Let me know when ya see one." He called over his shoulder as he walked away. Linney stuck her tongue out at his retreating back and slowly followed after him. By the time she made it to the fire pit, everyone was sitting down to eat, except Daryl, who turned away from the kitchen area with two bowls in his hand.
"Aw, dammit, Linney." He grumbled, putting the food down and heading her way. He reached out to help her, and since Shane was watching her avidly, she allowed him. Easing down carefully onto the ground, she rearranged her blanket and waited for Daryl to join her.
"How're you feeling?" Shane asked, raising an eyebrow at her before eating a scoop of rice. Linney smiled and met Carl's eye, who was seated next to Shane. "Feel like I got stepped on by something gigantic, maybe an elephant." The boy smiled back at her, rolling his eyes at her lame joke.
Linney saw Sophia sitting close to Lori, her wide eyes watching every move Linney made. Carol was nowhere to be seen and Linney worried about her.
"She wasn't feeling up to dinner out here, just yet." Lori explained and Linney nodded. She ate a couple mouthfuls of food and chewed thoughtfully on the meat mixed in with the rice.
"What is this?" She asked, pointing at the bowl with her fork. Daryl laughed next to her and leaned over to whisper, "Squirrel." Linney froze with a mouthful of food and looked over at him.
"Really?" She asked, talking around the food. Daryl smirked and nodded, digging into his bowl. Linney looked over at Carl, who was laughing at her again.
"Mom says it's just as good as chicken, and that fresh meat is important to stay healthy." He informed her, pointing at her bowl. "You'd better eat." Amy and Glenn laughed at her too and Linney swallowed her mouthful. She finished her entire bowl, hunger overwhelming her worry about squirrel meat.
"Not so bad, right?" Amy asked her and Linney nodded, glancing up at Daryl as he took her dishes and walked away. Glenn hopped to his feet and nudged T-Dog. "Daryl and Merle hunted, Amy and Lori cooked, you and I clean." He informed the big man. T-Dog sighed and got to his feet, following Glenn over to the tub they washed dishes in.
"So, I was talking to Daryl about your bruising, Linney," Amy began and Linney tilted her head with curiosity, "Yeah?"
"Well, we can't give you ice, which sucks, but the quarry is clean and cold, you should go swimming, it'll feel great." Linney perked up, not immediately hating the idea.
"Will you take me?" She asked Daryl and he shrugged, "Sure, tomorrow."
"Can I come?" Carl asked hopefully and Lori shook her head at him, "No honey, let's let Linney relax a bit." Lori looked over at Linney and winked. Linney wasn't entirely certain what the wink meant, but she turned to Carl and said, "I'm the absolute champion of the universe when it comes to swimming, man. Next time I go, I will allow you to challenge my title." The boy nodded and giggled and Linney looked over at Sophia, "You too, kiddo, you look like you could show him a thing or two."
The girl smiled shyly at her and nodded, "If my mom says it's ok." Her voice was quiet and sweet and Linney realized she hadn't heard the girl say more than one or two words since they'd arrived at camp.
Amy offered to take the kids back to Lori's tent and sit with them, and Carol, until bedtime and Lori smiled at the girl gratefully.
"That's lovely, thank you Amy, please let me know if you need anything, ok?" Amy nodded and the kids took her hands as she walked them back to the tent. Glenn watched her go with wistful eyes, but didn't follow.
"How is Carol?" Linney asked Lori directly. The other woman pressed her lips together and shook her head. When she looked at Linney her face was regretful. "She's hurting and she's angry."
Linney nodded at that, "She has every right to be, Ed's a fucking monster." Lori shook her head again and smiled sadly, "No, Linney, she's mad at you." Linney blinked at her, not even sure what to say.
Glenn had no such problem and blurted out, "What the hell? Why? Linney saved her!" Shane glanced over at him and rubbed his chin. "No man, Carol don't see it that way." Daryl shifted uneasily next to her and Linney put her hand on his shin, resting it there against his jeans.
Glenn looked completely flummoxed and Shane rolled his hand through the air. "She's been getting that shit from Ed forever, man. She's used to it, conditioned to it almost. In her mind, Linney just made her life harder; the next beating is just gonna be worse." Linney put a hand to her mouth in horror.
"Holy shit," she breathed, "Merle, just kill the sick fuck now." Merle chuckled and pulled on her pony tail. "Gladly, sweetheart. But I don't think these good folks would 'preciate that much." Shane shook his head.
"Guy may die on his own. You super fucked him up." Linney smiled faintly with one side of her mouth, "Well it was that or have him break my face. I think I made the right choice." No one said anything and Linney was suddenly very tired. She turned to Daryl, "Can you help me back to the tent? I'm done." He nodded and helped her get to her feet. He wrapped an arm under shoulders and led her slowly back to the tent. When they got inside she yanked off the blanket and sat on the bed.
"Can you pull my boots off for me?" She asked Daryl and he nodded, squatting at her feet. Once they were off her feet she swung slowly into the bed and carefully removed the sweatshirt, before laying down. She patted the bed next to her.
"Sleep in bed tonight," she demanded and he shot her a skeptical look. "Maybe not such a good idea," he responded. Linney shook her head, he'd slept on the floor the night before and though the pain meds kept the dreams at bay, she hadn't liked it much, so she patted the bed harder. "Please, I insist." He rolled his eyes and got ready for bed. As he sat on the edge of the bed, Linney tugged on his shirt.
"How come you always sleep in a shirt? You've seen most of my chest, I think you should return the favor." Her tone was teasing, but his face was still and definitely not playful.
"Not now." He finally said. She felt a little stung by his behavior, but said nothing, wondering what his problem was. He flicked the lantern off and lay on his back. She lay on her side and said nothing, not reaching for him.
"I'm sorry." He finally said, speaking into the dark. Daryl reached over and picked up her hand, laying it flat on his stomach. He rested a hand on top and began lazily running a finger back and forth across her wrist, like he was drawing a figure eight.
"I'm ain't comfortable without a shirt, got some scars I don't wanna show everybody." Linney tried to make out his profile in the dark and pulled her hand from his to place her palm against his face. "I'm not everybody," she said softly. He turned his face away and her hand fell to his shoulder.
"They're from my pa." He finally said, his voice so gruff and quiet she almost couldn't hear him. His words ran through her head over and over again. Things began to click together. His strange behavior, his silence, his hard face whenever the Ed and Carol situation was talked about. Her whole body felt cold as she thought about a younger Daryl suffering so badly at the hands of a parent, who didn't have a busybody stranger there to step in and try to help.
She thought about the place they'd both grown up in, a place where his story was the same as many others. She was lucky, she knew, her dad was a lot of bad things, but he never once raised a hand to her. Until he turned into a mindless monster and tried to eat me, that is.
"I'm not going to say I'm sorry, because I'm guessing that's not what you want to hear, right?" He grunted and she slowly sat up. "Turn the light on." He didn't move. "No."
"Daryl, for godssake, turn the fucking light on." He grumbled and did as she asked, laying back down, looking up at her. She turned her back to him and lifted her hair up, away from her neck, pulling the hair apart to show the bottom of her scalp.
"See that pink patch?" She asked him over her shoulder and waited while he leaned up and ran a finger over it gently. "I got that when I was 6, I was playing Barbie's in the living room and one of my dad's clients was over and he dropped a bottle of whiskey on my head." She dropped her hair over her shoulder and said, "Pull up the back of my shirt." He pulled up the back of her tucked in tank top a little, his hands moving slowly against her skin. She felt them pause at the circular scar there, with the ragged edge.
"That's from a nail. My dad got drunk and fell on the coffee table one night when I was 10, he cracked it everywhere and didn't clean it up. The next morning I tripped and landed on the wood, a nail sticking out impaled me and he didn't take me to the doctor and it got infected and I almost died. Thank god it wasn't rusty, just a bad infection." Daryl's thumb moved across the scar and she suppressed a shiver.
Linney turned to her side and carefully stretched her left leg out, laying it straight across his hips. She looked over at him and met his eyes, which were staring back at her with an expression she wasn't sure she could define.
Linney grabbed the waistband of her shorts at the side, and pulled it down, exposing her hip entirely, all the way down to her upper thigh. There was a four inch scar there, with little dots around it, indicating it had been stitched up.
"That's another gift from a client. He got mad at my dad, saying he shorted him. He pulled a knife and attacked my dad. I was 14 and tried to stop him and he slashed at me at the same my dad pushed me to the ground, only got my hip." Daryl sat up and swallowed, looking down at her skin, running his hand slowly over it. He glanced up at her and she frowned.
"These are the ones you can see. One time he drove drunk with me in the car, I was still in a car seat, it was right after my mom died, and he hadn't hooked the seat in right, and we got in an accident. I broke my leg." Daryl stared at her, his eyes narrowed, still saying nothing. Linney pulled her waistband back up and pulled her leg off him, tucking it under the blankets again.
"Another time, when I was 7, I was playing in the yard and he was driving drunk, yet again, and he hit me with the car." She reached for his hand, picking it up gently in her own, and ran it along her collar bone, stopping just to the right of the hollow in the middle. "Feel that lump? Broke my collar bone, cracked 4 ribs, broke both wrists."
She stopped talking and he looked at her steadily, his eyes burning. He turned away from her and reached down, pulling his shirt up and off. When Linney saw the scars, she had to use every ounce of self control not to cry out. His scars were huge, angry, and raised. The thought that he'd received them as a child, broke her heart. She slowly reached a hand out and ran it slowly and gently across the scars. He didn't move and she leaned forward and placed a kiss on the largest one.
He tossed the shirt on the floor and turned to her. His chest was scarred as well, with two long welts across the centre. She knew they had to be belt scars, same as the ones on his back. He looked at her, his face so hard it was like granite and she fought to control the emotion on her face.
Linney pushed him back down on the bed and he went willingly, laying on his back. She lay across his stomach, and flicked the lantern off before laying on her side next to him and putting her head on his shoulder. She pressed her whole body up against him and rested her hand on his chest, gently rubbing her fingers up and down the scars. He rested a hand on her arm and the other one he pressed against her bare back, avoiding her bruises.
They lay silently together, drifting off, and when she was certain he was asleep, Linney tilted her face up from it's place on his shoulder and kissed his stubbly cheek.
Soon they were both asleep, wrapped around each other, scars and all.