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She had not told him what she was waiting for, but Merle noticed Katie seemed more tense and less bubbly than usual. All weekend long she had been checking in with Cassandra or whoever was up at the main house sitting in that little room with all the security cameras and satellite phones. Not that she didn't check in, but she normally didn't do it five thousand times a day. Saturday night he had woken up to find her passed out in the easy chair in their room, a well worn paperback book in her lap. It wasn't like her to have insomnia, she usually fell asleep before he did and slept hard all night with her head in the crook of his shoulder or rolled over on her side with her knees tucked into the back of his and her soft breath against the base of his neck. Since whatever was making Katie tense didn't seem to have anything to do with him, Merle didn't question her. He figured she would tell him what she had to tell him when she was ready to.
In the very early morning on Tuesday, they were both woken by a loud pounding on their bedroom door. Then the door was unceremoniously flung open without waiting for a response. Addy was in the doorway, looking more awake than anyone had a right to be at such an early hour. She must have been up all night on watch. Katie sat up, shoving her hair back out of her face and wrapping it up into the tiny little nub of a ponytail that it finally fit into.
"They called!," Addy said, her voice full of excitement.
"How far out are they?," Katie asked, tossing the covers so they folded up double on top of Merle, who was rummaging in the drawer of his beside table for a smoke. Once she was up he tossed the heavy blankets back off.
"Three days out," Addy said. Katie nodded, she grabbed the pair of jeans she worn the day before off the back of her reading chair and pulled them on over the skimpy pair of bikini bottom panties she was sleeping in. She needed coffee. A big coffa cuppee before she could think straight. Preferably with a lot of sugar in it. And some milk. Followed by another cup of the same. She tired to get her thoughts together.
"Who's going?," Addy asked, trying to help her out, "I can go wake them up."
"Umm," Katie said rubbing at her face. Who in the hell was going? She should know this. Katie and Roberta already decided this last friday when Roberta came back from the run to Amish country. "Lexi, Cassandra," Katie said. Those were easy, they almost always went. Cassandra drove the bus and Lexi was the only field nurse now that Maria was in a very large could barely walk family way. And she was taking some of the new girls out. Not Maggie, Roberta said the woman's boyfriend drove her batshit crazy and didn't want her going anywhere without him. She remembered now who she was taking, she had talked to both women about it over the weekend. "Andrea and Michonne." Michonne had gone out with Roberta, but Andrea was still a virigin. This was her test run.
"No Roberta?," Addy asked. She did not ask about Mandy. Everyone knew Katie and Mandy were not on speaking terms at the moment.
"She needs a break," Katie said.
"Who's playing mechanic then?," Addy asked. Katie swore as she pulled her sleep shirt off over her head and snapped her bra on, adjusting the cups so her boobs looked even inside them. They always took someone with medical training and someone who knew engines in case something went wrong with their beast of a bus. She supposed she could take one of her brothers, but that meant both of them and she didn't want to deal with their bullshit or the smell of them. Everyone got ripe out on the road but nothing compared to the stink of an unwashed teenage boy. Plus the twins liked to piss and moan whenever she made them do anything.
"Going somewhere?," Merle asked. Katie turned and smiled at him. She had forgotten he was there.
"Trading run, the one we do every month. We were waiting for the call, from the other group we trade with," she said. She felt a little bad about not telling him before this moment what was going on. It was easy to forget Merle had not been living with her long enough to know their normal trading routines. She felt like he had been there forever and knew everything she knew.
"Why ya need a mechanic?," he asked with an excited gasp since he finally found a smoke and a working lighter. Katie was always cleaning up his things. Which meant nothing was ever in the same spot he set it down in. She was afraid her son would get ahold of one of Merle's lighters and had a bad habit of hiding them and forgetting where she put them.
"In case the bus breaks down," Addy informed him. Merle nodded. Like most of their reasons for doing things, it sounded reasonable. He opened the door to the deck and stepped partway outside before he lit his smoke and took a deep drag. Katie was bending over, yanking a backpack out from under the bed. He took a moment to appreciate the view and then made a suggestion.
"Could take little brother," he said. Daryl could fix anything with wheels and most things without. Merle saw Addy's face light up at the suggestion of taking Daryl on a run. And the thought of Daryl stuck on a bus full of women made Merle want to start laughing. Maybe they could teach him how to use a tampon. Or braid his sissy ass too long hair for him. And somewhere down deep inside it made him feel better to have Daryl watching out for Katie while she was out on the road, not that he would ever admit that to anyone. Addy watched Katie, waiting to see what she was going to say about Merle's idea. Katie shrugged.
"Go wake him up," she said. Addy took off down the hall and Katie called after her, "everyone at the bus, we leave in an hour."
"How long you goin' be gone?," Merle asked her, taking another drag from his smoke and trying not to blow in into the bedroom.
"Rest of the week at least," she said. Tossing her bag on the bed she drifted over and wrapped her arms around his waist, ignoring the smelly cig he had between his fingers. "Goin' to miss me?," she asked. She was still clad in only her bra and a pair of low waisted jeans that showed the top of the curves of her hips. Smiling up at him, she pressed against him in a way that said she was going to miss a certain part of him more than the rest while she was gone on her run. Hugging her back with his bad arm since he had a lit cigarette in the other he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.
"Nope," he told her. She smacked at him.
"Liar!," she accused with a laugh, swatting at him some more, trying to hit him on the ass and getting his hip instead. He lifted up his bare foot and gave her a solid boot to the ass, sending her flying and flopping down onto the bed. Katie landed so hard she almost rolled right off the other side of the bed onto the floor. It was obvious Merle never had any sisters, since the dope didn't know how to play fight without practically killing her. Even now he was still laughing and she was going to have a bruised ass tomorrow.
"Asshole," she said, rubbing at her behind and returning to the task of packing her bag for the run. She made sure not to smile until her back was to Merle. The door shut behind her and then Merle's body was pressed up against hers. His arm around her waist, holding her close and his hand between them, massaging at the spot where he pushed her with his foot.
"Didn't mean to hurt ya," he informed her, nuzzling into her hair. His hand went down the back of her pants, pushing her underpants down and grabbing a handful of her tender flesh. "Can kiss it better, know you like that," he offered, one finger slipping down between her cheeks to feel the moist folds between her legs. She started to push him off, but he held her tight against him. "Ain't going to see ya for a whole week," he reminded her. His finger slid in deeper and a soft moan came out of her before she could stop herself.
Making no further protest, she unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them down, bending forward over the bed. He wasted no time, grabbing at her hips and shoving inside her from behind. The sex was fast and rough, but not unsatisfactory. With the last few pulses of her orgasm rolling over her, Katie pulled her pants back up and turned around to give him a kiss on the mouth, parting his lips with her tounge and not caring if she was being sloppy. Her husband had thought french kissing was gross, and it had taken her awhile to feel comfortable with handing out the tounge whenever she felt like it. And she felt like it a lot.
"Keep doing that and we are goin' back to bed for another round," he informed her once she pulled back for air. Katie thought about the offer and then remembered she had other things to do besides play around in bed all day with Merle. She sighed and went back to packing her bag. Extra pairs of socks and underpants. Couldn't have enough of those on the road. She dressed, layering up two tank tops and another shirt on top, all durable but still breatheable material. She got a good pair of socks on, and then her hiking boots. The weather got cold at night, near the ocean, so she pulled out an old worn brown leather jacket and tossed it on the bed near her pack. Merle picked the jacket up, looking it over. It was a men's jacket, and too long in the sleeves to be Katie's. Probably belonged to her husband. The suicide king.
"It was my Poppa's," Katie said like she could tell what he was thinking. "It's lucky," she added with a smile. Merle smiled back. She got rid of all her husband's old things shortly after he started staying with her, so he should have known the jacket belonged to someone else. Katie pulled her machete down from a high shelf and strapped it to her thigh, then stuffed a knife in her boot. The guns she was taking were downstairs in the safe. So was the rest of the crap she was packing in her bag. Food and bottled water mostly. She looked sexy geared up for the road. And Merle noticed she did not put on the necklace with her and her husband's wedding rings on it. That had disappeared shortly after his arrival as well.
Katie stood in the middle of the room, looking back and forth between her bag and the door to her son's room. She didn't want to wake him so early, or he would be a terrible bear for Momma D all day.
"Can you do me a favor?," Katie asked. Merle nodded, looking curious. Katie did favors, she didn't ask for them.
"When Bash gets up can you ask Maria to get him breakfast and take him up to the main house to my Nana? I don't want to wake him or Maria while they are still sleeping...," she asked. She wasn't sure about the favor. Merle didn't seem to mind her son, but Bash was not his responsibility. He was not the boy's father.
"I kin feed him and take him up there," he said, waving her off like it wasn't a big deal at all. He didn't mind the boy. Bash behaved a lot better when Katie wasn't around. He liked to put on a show for his momma, acting like a big baby. Katie cocked her head, looking at Merle like he was crazy.
"Are you sure?," she asked. He held in a laugh at the irony of the situation. Katie went on all damn day about how women could do anything men could do. But since he was a man, she didn't think he was capable of dumping some milk in a glass and walking a child up the driveway to his grandma's house. "He likes eggs in the morning," Katie added like cooking eggs was a major imposition.
"I know how to cook eggs," Merle assured her. Who did she think took care of Daryl? Not their drunk parents, that was for sure. By the time Daryl came along, they had been getting drunk every morning by ten o'clock. Katie was still staring at him, looking unsure. "Goddamn woman I said I kin do it," he added, trying not to laugh. That made her smile, and she hugged him again.
"Thank you," she said, her voice full of emotion. Having someone to share the load with her felt strange, but not completely unwelcome. "If you make sure Bash doesn't drive Momma D totally insane while I'm gone I can give you something special when I get back," she almost whispered, looking up at him with a devish smile. He leaned down and gave her another kiss.
Katie went into her son's room, kissing him and smoothing his soft blonde hair back from his face. She ran the back of her hand over the soft chubby curve of his chubby baby cheek, trying her hardest not to get emotional. If he was awake, that made it easier somehow. Maybe because he was always so excited to go stay with her grandmother while she was gone. If this trip went well, she reminded herself, she would not have to leave Bash again for a long time.
Daryl leaned back, putting his feet up on the seat across from him. He chewed at a hangnail on his thumb, thinking for about the hundreth time how in the hell he had managed to get roped into this. Not that he minded pitching in, or going on a run. The last one had been alright. But he had not been the only man on that run. It just felt uncomfortable, being alone with all these women. And at the first place they stopped, that fruit orchard, everyone that lived there had stared at him like he had grown a third eye in the middle of his forehead. He even saw a few people pointing and whispering. What is that man doing with them?
Since the moment he climbed onto the bus, Daryl had been wondering what these crazy girls were going to make him do. But so far the only thing that had had been forced upon him was a lot of bad music, some even worse singing along with the bad music, and then what he guessed was the entire disney princess collection on Lexi's MP3 player blasted through the speakers of the bus. Michonne sat in the bench across from him, and her head was resting against the window, her breathing slow and even. How in the hell she could sleep through this fucking god awful racket he had no idea, but he decided he might like to know her secret.
Addy walked up from the back of the bus, heading down the center aisle between the seats. She handed him a peach from one of the large baskets they had picked up from the orchard. Whatever trade Katie had worked out with the people that lived there must have been made ahead of time, because they had only stopped there long enough to load the fruit up and drop off one large pig that had been oinking and squealing loudly inside the large cage Katie and Addy had unceremoniously shoved it into before they left. The only thing good about the music was it drowned out the loud noises being made by the large frightened animal.
There were about ten more cages, much smaller, with chickens and roosters inside. Daryl thought those would also be given to the people at the orchard, but Katie kept them on the bus. Except for the two roosters, the chickens were quiet and only an occasional flapping noise could be heard.
Daryl thought Addy might sit down and visit a while, but she continued on her way up to the front of the bus. Cassandra was driving and Katie was sitting behind her, fiddling with the antenna on a CB radio and turning the knobs, trying to get some sort of signal. Addy reached up and hit a switch, turning off the music and leaving them in silence. Then she grabbed the radio from Katie. She wrapped some wire around the antenna, and then wrapped the other end of it around the handle of the spiked aluminum bat she used to kill walkers. She held it up, moving it around while she fiddled with the knobs on the front of the radio.
"Got this sonofabitch on the totally wrong frequency," she informed Katie, "Little Lake uses channel 21 or 23." Katie shrugged and took the handset, squeezing the little button on the side while she talked into it.
"Little Lake... Come in... This is Fox Force 5... Come in Little Lake...," she said, waiting a few moments before repeating her phrases. This continued on for about five minutes. Addy moved the bat around while Katie talked, trying to get a better signal. Finally there was some static and then a crackled up voice could be heard.
"Hot damn!," Addy yelled. She kept the bat where it was and Katie turned up the volume on the CB. They both tilted their heads close trying to make out what was being said. Daryl found himself leaning forward, interested to find out who the girls were trying to get ahold of. Addy tilted the bat to the left and the voice got clear enough to understand.
"Lieutenant Mark Hammond here... Camp Little Lake... Try again you were breaking up..."
"Fox Force Five here... Encoming... ETA 30 minutes...," Katie said, adding the part about their estimated time of arrival. A new voice came out the the CB, replacing the man that had been talking.
"Katie?," the voice said, "That you?..." Katie and Addy started laughing and Katie held down the button again.
"Hey Charlie!," she hollered into the CB, "It's me..."
"Hey girls, I was getting worried about you...," the voice said, "What's your ETA?..."
"30 minutes... "
"I will have the bridge down... see you soon... over and out..."
Katie switched the radio back off and Addy took the wire back off the end of her bat, coiling it up carefully so she could use it again. Then they both got up and headed for the back of the bus. As Cassandra drove forward, slowing down once in a while to nudge a larger herd out of their way with the V shaped plow on the front of the bus, the girls were moving things around and getting out the bags of items that Daryl knew they used for trading. Once again, he wished he had thought to bring something of his own to barter with, but he didn't really have much. He could have done some hunting, maybe brought some meat to trade.
Michonne was still asleep, but Andrea was up, and she followed the other women to the back of the bus. Daryl could hear some excited conversations going on back there, mostly about the trading. Since no one had told him he couldn't he headed back to at least listen in on what was going on.
When she saw Daryl coming, Katie motioned for him to join them. She gave him one of her prize winning smiles and scooted a little to her left to make room for him between her and Addy.
"Little Lake is the next stop," she told him. "We will stay the night there. They make antibiotics and bullets there. And Soap." She gestured to the chickens. "The birds we are trading for the bullets and the medicine." Then she pointed to the large pile of items in the middle of the loose circle the girls were in. There were a ton of items there that seemed random, but might have some value to the right person. Baggies of pot, bottles of wine and booze, batteries, herbs that Daryl guessed had medicinal uses, some food that looked like mostly candy and snack items that were getting harder to come by, plus a ton of other junk. "This is for personal trading," Katie told him.
"Where and how do they make bullets?," Daryl asked. Katie shrugged. That was not information she was privy too. Little Lake liked to keep that shit a secret and Katie didn't blame them. Not every group that came to trade was like her group. If other people found out who the bullet maker of the camp was, that person might find themselves kidnapped and on the way to serve a new camp whether they liked it or not. Daryl looked again at the pile of stuff in front of him.
"If I wanna trade, I can take some of this stuff 'ere?," he asked. Katie nodded.
"They have a real blacksmith," she said, "so you should at least get your knives sharpened." Daryl nodded. He wasn't sure if he was in need of anything, but it was nice to know if anything caught his eye, he had something to barter with. He supposed he wouldn't mind some new bolts for his bow or a new hunting knife, a bigger one to replace the one he left behind on Hershel's farm. Once she was done with him, Katie turned to Andrea and Michonne, who had crept up behind them without Daryl noticing it.
"Little Lake is a family camp, but there are a lot of single men there too," she said, "Charlie keeps them mostly in check, but no one goes anywhere alone just in case. And don't be offended if they try and offer to pay for it."
"Pay for what?," Daryl asked. Most of the girls laughed except for Michonne, who only smirked at him.
"For the pleasure of our company," Katie said, leaning her head on his shoulder and batting her eyes up at him while Addy laughed. Daryl felt the heat rush into his cheeks. He cursed himself a little for asking such a stupid question. What did he think she was talking about? Playing checkers? He put himself in the place of the men at this camp, alone with no hopes of even meeting a single woman. Then these girls show up, titties out and asses bouncing around in their tight pants. They were hot too. Even little Lexi was a looker, and she was hardly even a woman yet. He bet some of those men were willing to pay. Willing to pay a lot. What Daryl was wondering now was if any of the girls would be willing to sell.