Persephone Chapter 26
Three days later, Tony, Michonne, Maggie, Lucy and Achilles and Persephone were ready to fly out to Montana. Lucy and Daryl had decided four dogs on the road would be too much for just Daryl and Aaron to handle, so they had checked with Tony and he had agreed two of the dogs could fly with them. He had told the group that it would be about a seven hour flight.
Lucy had spent the last three days pacing and making lists for Daryl and the dogs, while Daryl spent the time pacing and smoking. Neither liked the idea of being away from each other for a week, much less knowing Daryl would be on the road with no telling what he'd run into. The plan had originally been for Tony and Michonne to fly with the caravan to scout for safe areas to camp along the way, but now that they were taking Maggie straight to Montana, the plans had changed. Tony and Rick had worked out a route that travelled the "blue highways" or the old interstates before the super highways had been built. The blue highways would have had less traffic on them and went through more isolated areas of the country so there would be less risk of running into traffic jams full of abandoned cars and herds of walkers. Now the plan was that Tony and Michonne would leave Lucy and Maggie and two of the dogs at the base and they would fly back to pick up with the caravan and scout for them. Glen kept apologizing to Daryl until Daryl blew up and snapped and stalked off. Rick told Glen to just leave it alone and he would talk to Daryl and Lucy.
For her part, Maggie was a wreck. She cried almost constantly –scared for Glen and their group, embarrassed that she'd asked Lucy to go with her, missing her sister Beth. Lucy tried to be patient but by the night before they left she was ready to punch somebody.
She and Daryl sat at the table in the kitchen and stared at each other, their food growing cold on their plates. Finally they laid the plates on the floor for the dogs and went outside to sit on the steps and smoke. The sun was setting and the evening breeze had a chill to it. Daryl silently reached for Lucy's hand and gripped it tightly. All he could think of was when he had lost Beth and he was scared to death something would happen and he would lose Lucy too. Looking at her, he could see his near panic in her face as well.
"It'll be okay," he mumbled, and Lucy wondered if he was trying to reassure himself or her. She wasn't worried for herself-she didn't have a horrible feeling about this. But she felt anxious. She didn't like having Daryl out of her sight for so long-he was so prone to jump headfirst into a bad situation to protect those with him that she worried something would happen to him on the trip. When she was around or he knew he'd be home soon to see her, he seemed to be more cautious and careful and less prone to act first and think later.
"Promise me you won't do anything rash," she mumbled into his shoulder. He grunted. He wasn't angry with her for saying it-she knew him too well. What she didn't realize yet was just how careful he'd become since being with her. If she thought he was reckless now, she would fall off the steps if she'd seen him years ago right after the shit hit the fan. It wasn't that he hadn't been careful-he knew what to do in the woods and around the walkers. It was that he hadn't really cared too much if he had been killed. He had nothing to live for. And then for a little while he did-Beth. And then since Beth he'd become reckless and restless again. He would never fully be an indoor cat, but he wasn't as much of an outdoor cat as he'd once been. And he was grateful to Lucy for that.
"I promise," he said quietly. "Ain't gonna do nothin' to keep me from seeing you out in all that snow," he mumbled.
Lucy smiled softly. "Have ya ever made out in a snowbank?" she asked.
Daryl shot her a look. "Don't never snow much where I come from, but something tells me that ya might have some experience with that yerself," he teased.
Lucy giggled. "Mmmmm," she hummed and he smirked, realizing how many habits they were each picking up from each other.
He leaned into her face and kissed her roughly on the mouth. "Come upstairs with me, I wanna give ya a proper send off for yer trip," he whispered against her lips. She stood up and they went inside, the dogs following them. When Daryl motioned to the living room the dogs went in and settled down on the floor, looking at both he and Lucy accusingly. "Be right back," Daryl whispered to the dogs.
Lucy laughed and started to run up the stairs. "Liar!" she called out to him and he ran up after her.