Chapter 26
Daryl sat on the patio, wondering where the hell Olivia had gone to. Aaron had left not long ago, and he'd expected Olivia to be back before Aaron left. He stubbed his cigarette out and decided to go walk around and see where she'd gone to.
He started up the street towards his old house and saw a few people standing on the lawn in front of Jessie and Pete's house. He didn't like Pete. Something about the guy gave him the creeps. Squinting, he saw Jessie and Sam, Carol, Michonne, Rick and Pete and Olivia. What the hell?
He sped up into a jog and came up beside Olivia on the lawn. Pete's face was banged up and he saw to his surprise Rick had cuffed Pete. Michonne and Carol had their arms around Jessie and Sam, and he could see Jessie's face looked banged up as well. He shot a look at Olivia. "What the fuck is goin' on?" he rasped, running his gaze over her quickly to check for any bruises or cuts on her.
Olivia frowned. "Caught Pete beating Jessie, and I stopped it," she whispered back. Daryl opened his mouth, but Olivia held up a hand to shush him. "I'll explain at home," she said quietly. Daryl snapped his mouth shut. She was using her FBI voice on him. He'd teased her about that a few times, but he knew when she talked like that something serious was going on and she didn't want to be distracted. He respected that, could understand it. It was how he felt when he was tracking-he didn't want any distractions, he needed to concentrate.
Daryl stood beside Olivia, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes taking everything in. From what he could see, Olivia was telling Rick what she wanted done with Pete, not asking his opinion. And Rick seemed to be listening to her and agreeing. Apparently Rick didn't like Pete either. Daryl thought that had something to do with Pete's wife. Daryl thought he'd seen something there when Rick and Jessie looked at each other the few times he'd been around the both of them. There was definitely a lot going on here to think about later.
As he gazed around his eyes caught Carol's and he shifted uncomfortably at the sudden hurt and anger on her face. He sighed. Christ. Could he not just ever be happy without something ruining it? As he stood brooding, Olivia touched his arm softly and nodded toward their house. "Let's go home," she murmured. He nodded and they linked hands and headed back to their house.
As they strolled back to Olivia's house, they missed the looks from the others that had been standing on the lawn. Carol clenched her fists and led Jessie and Sam back into their house-straightening the mess Pete had made of the things would help work out some of her hurt and anger. Rick and Michonne gave each other a look of surprise that turned to concern at the look of hurt on Carol's face.
"Is there a full moon or something?" Rick mumbled to Michonne as they led Pete toward the jail.
Michonne smirked. "If it's not it sure should be," she mumbled back and they both shook their heads at the events of the evening.