Chapter Twenty Five: Bliss
Bliss: perfect happiness; great joy.
Day 63
Daisy stood sandwiched in between Glenn and Merle; the doctor, Jenner, had allowed them into the CDC on the condition that they submit to a blood test. Now, they were in the elevator going downwards to the main area.
"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl snidely asked from the corner, referring to the rifle Jenner clutched closely to his chest. Daisy peered around Merle and shot Daryl a look.
"Ah, there were plenty left lying around. I familiarised myself." Jenner didn't take offense, "You look harmless enough. 'Cept you," He looked down at Carl, "I'll have to keep my eye on you." Daisy stared at him with a raised brow, hoping he didn't freak the kid out too much. They descended in silence once more, Daisy was grateful to see the elevator doors open.
"Are we underground?" Carol asked as the group walked down a stark white hall.
"You claustrophobic?"
"A little." Carol admitted.
"Try not to think about it." Jenner added helpfully, "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner said loudly to some unknown presence, Daisy glanced around the room but so no one. "Welcome to zone 5."
"Where is everybody?" Rick took the lead, "The other doctors, the staff."
"I'm it." Jenner said shortly, though Daisy hadn't had much hope on their being a cure for all the shit outside, her heart still dropped into her stomach. "It's just me here."
"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?"
"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them, 'welcome.'"
"Hello, guests." A cold, robotic voice sounded around the room, "Welcome."
"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." Well, that's even more depressing, Daisy leaned against a railing. "Blood tests?" Jenner looked disparagingly excited, Daisy mentally groaned.
Minutes later she was sitting in the proverbial hot seat, Daisy crinkled her nose as Jenner slid a needle into her arm. She looked away, catching Merle's gaze, he sniggered at her expression. With a sharp warning look directed at Merle, Daisy breathed out a sigh of relief as Jenner finished.
"All done." Jenner tried to smile comfortingly at her, pressing a tiny Band-Aid onto the wound he had inflicted. Daisy wasn't buying it. Sick bastard, she joked to herself in her head, slipping off the chair and letting his next victim take the seat. She meandered over to where Merle was sitting comfortably against the wall, dropping down beside him. Daisy looked at him and saw that he was staring at her in amusement.
"Oh, do you enjoy getting needles?" She asked insolently, rubbing her Band-Aid with a pout. Daisy let loose a yawn, hugging her arms around her chest. "Aren't you s'posed to have OJ after a needle?" Daisy called over to the doctor, he looked up from where he was treating Andrea.
"Ah, no 'OJ,' sorry...I'll see what we have when you're all done." He assured her, Daisy huffed impatiently, suddenly remembering the hunger pains she had struck from her mind. Daisy kept quiet, rested her head against her knee and waited for the group's collective doctor's appointment to finish.
Later, the group had collected around a table, everyone was happy, laughing and drinking wine. Daisy sat quietly at the end, between T-Dog and Merle, having a veritable love affair with the food they had been served.
"This mac and cheese is bomb." She said with wonder, smiling at Merle who had his face buried in a wine glass, "So classy." Daisy nodded towards his wine, he jokingly sneered at her, unable to hold it, with the festivity that pervaded the air causing it to dissolve into a genuine smile. As she was smiling around a delicious forkful, she listened intently as Dale tried to get Carl's fuddy-duddy parents to allow him a drink of wine.
"When Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori parried Dale's argument with a warning smile.
"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick said lightly, "Come on." The group dissolved into giggles once more as Rick handed Carl a plastic cup filled with a finger of wine. They all waited with bated breath; Carl, predictably, scrunched up his nose at the taste.
"Ew." He exclaimed, Daisy chuckled to herself, silently proud of him.
"That's my boy. That's my boy." Lori praised him.
"Just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane smiled.
"Not you, Glenn." Daisy smiled disbelievingly at Daryl, who appeared to come out of his shell after being plied with a few bottles of hard alcohol.
"What?" Glenn wondered, looking over at Daryl with a slightly terrified smile.
"Keep drinkin', little man. I wanna see how red your face can get." Daisy dug another forkful of pasta, swallowing with a snort.
"Seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick toasted to Jenner, raising his glass.
"He is more than just our host." T-Dog added, raising his glass as well. Daisy scrambled for her cup and raised it, then took a small sip of the barely touched drink.
"Hear, hear!"
"Booyah!" Daryl exclaimed, making Daisy snort unexpectedly into her drink, some of the wine dripping down her chin, the others followed with his cry. Daisy shared an amused glance with Merle, who was being unusually quiet in their festivities.
"So, when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?" Shane suddenly interjected soberly, Daisy's smile dropped and she sat her cup on the edge of the table. The group quietened. "All the, uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"
"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick tried to assuage his depressing thoughts, "Don't need to do this now."
"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move. S'posed to find all the answers, instead...we, uh, we found him. Found one man. Why?" Shane stared at Jenner.
"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families." Jenner told them seriously, "And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."
"Every last one?" Shane smirked disbelievingly.
"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They...opted out." Daisy grimaced, grasping what Jenner had meant, "There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
"And you stayed?" Rick interjected.
"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good." Jenner finished optimistically, Daisy picked up her cup again and drank a mouthful, widening her eyes into the cup, uncomfortable.
"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn sighed at Shane, Daisy smirked bitterly, agreeing with his sentiment.
After a few moments of awkward silence as they sat around the table, appetites forgotten, Merle suddenly spoke up, "Kinda digs you got?" He nodded his head purposefully towards the hall, giving them a much needed out. Jenner faltered and stood up, nodding his head lightly along with him, exclaiming that he would show them to their rooms.
Daisy followed him along with the rest, strewn out in a line like a group of sated, unwashed ducklings. "Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like." Jenner explained, "There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies if you shower, go easy on the hot water." Daisy had stopped with the rest of the group, staring wide-eyed around Glenn up towards the retreating doctor.
"Hot water?" Glenn turned and smiled hesitantly at the group, then looked towards T-Dog.
"That's what the man said." T-Dog grinned.
"Oh, no." Daisy gasped quietly, "I'm so happy." She smiled up towards Merle, eyes watery with ecstatic tears. He shoved her forwards with the rest of them, a relieved smile even spread across his face.
Not too soon, Daisy stepped under the light spray of a hot shower and almost moaned in ecstasy. She scrubbed her hands through her hair, then almost lunged to grab the provided shampoo. Minutes later, with the limitation to the hot water in mind, Daisy stepped out of the shower feeling better than she had in two months, she wrapped a fluffy robe that she found around her, snuggling into its soft collar.
Daisy smiled widely at Shane as she passed him in the hall to her room, getting an unexpectedly contempt look in return; it seemed not everyone was as pleased as she was at their new accommodations. She shrugged off his bad mood and bounded into her room. Inside, Merle was lounging on a cot, Daryl sitting cheeringly in a corner, bottle of scotch in hand—with the limited amount of space available, Daisy had been stuck with the Dixon brothers, not that she minded too much.
"Good shower?" Daryl smiled sleepily at her, the alcohol having made him more pliant. Daisy laughed in surprise, nodding in the affirmative.
"You should go have one." She suggested, nodding towards the door. Daryl hummed contentedly, then decided to do just that, leaving her alone with Merle.
"He's happy." Daisy smiled over at him, Merle scoffed in response, stretching his arms behind his head.
"Always did turn into a pussy after a drink." He mumbled, not unkindly. Daisy wrinkled her nose but didn't say anything, deeming it not to be ill-intentioned. She bent down and pulled her bag onto the cot, rifling through it for her pyjamas.
"Hey, can you leave for a sec while I change?" Daisy smiled hopefully up at Merle, who just cracked one eye open and shot her a disbelieving look. "Yeah...thought so." She snorted, pulling out her pyjamas and sinking to the floor. After a lot of wiggling around, she managed to change into her clothes without Merle seeing, the bed and her bathrobe acting as cover.
Daisy jumped up, landing on her bed for the night, a particularly hard and uncomfortable couch, and hugging her bag to her chest, shoving her clothes in. She glanced over at Merle, amused to see that he was pouting. "Oh, boohoo! Perv..." Daisy shook her head, he cracked a smile. She drew up the blanket she had managed to find and snuggled her face into it.
"Think we're safe here?" Merle suddenly asked, Daisy peeked her eyes over the blanket and caught his gaze, seeing that he seemed genuinely worried.
She thought for a moment, before deciding, "I think we're safe here tonight." Daisy grimaced, "I don't know about it being a long-term solution, though. Jenner seems a bit...off."
"Hmm." Merle hummed, then sighed in misery, taking a heavy swig of the bottle of alcohol Daisy now saw he had been holding lovingly in his arms.
BANG! Daisy startled and looked up; the door to their room had slammed open, Daryl stood in the doorway swaying slightly. She relaxed once more, throwing a dirty look to Daryl, who didn't seem to notice.
"Shit, tha's a good shower." He smiled cheesily, stumbling into the room and onto his own cot across the room. Daryl groaned, curling his legs up behind him and pulling his blanket up to his neck, "I don' feel too good." The blanket was pulled further up and over his head. Daisy shared an amused look with Merle, she snorted quietly to herself.
"Kid never could hold his liquor...passed out more times 'en I can count," Merle muttered, "Ya think he'd be able to—redneck and all—disappointment o' the family right there." He smirked bitterly, Daisy stared at him with wide eyes. "Prob'ly a good thing." Merle dropped his bottle down onto the floor and turned over, Daisy took his action as him being done with their conversation.
Daisy sat up, slinked over to the doorway and glanced up and down the hall—no one in sight. She closed the door quietly, then flicked off the light, dousing the room in darkness. With two quick hops, she landed heavily onto the couch—having never gotten over that irrational fear that occurred between turning off the light and reaching the bed—wrapping herself in her blanket once more. Seconds later, Daisy drifted off into the calmest rest she had had for two months, feeling safe however many floors underground, no walkers to be seen or heard.