Merry Christmas Everyone!
Every time they hit a bump, Daryl held his breath. Keeping himself balanced on the ATV used a lot more abdominal muscles than Daryl would have thought. But Daryl did what he had done his entire life, and that was that he pushed the pain down. He had a knack for being able to block out what ever hurt so that he could focus on other things, such as survival.
When they got to the spot where Daryl had killed the boy, Marty helped him ease out of the Gator so that he could check the area. There were still bloodstains on the ground and he knew that droplets that lead away to where he had been in the truck were his. He realized just how close of a call he had. He knew that he had let his guard down that night and that was a weakness he could no longer afford. He had noticed that since he had become so close with Anna, that the distractions of happiness had caused him to lose some of the focus that he had always had. Somehow he was going to have to find a balance between happiness and survival, and he had spent the most part of his forty-three years only focused on the survival part. It was time to broaden his horizons.
Daryl followed the tracks that lead to where the incident took place. He back tracked them and noticed that they actually headed down the mountain towards the logging trail. Marty and Joe got back on the Gator and followed Daryl as he intently studied the direction the tracks continued on. After about another hundred yards Daryl spotted a tent and the remains of a camp. He held up his hand for the men to stop. He listened to see if he could hear anything before he walked over to the tent to investigate.
When he pulled the flap back on the tent he found the remnants of what he guessed were Wylie Simpkins supplies. He pilfered through the belongings and found what appeared to be some sort of crude journal. Picking it up, he began reading through the pages.
He walked out of the tent and addressed both men, "I think we got a much bigger problem on our hands than McGrady."
Marty looked curiously at Daryl and replied, "What the fuck you mean? What did you find in that tent?"
"This," Daryl said as he handed the journal over to Marty, "The kid was just trying to get the hell out of Laurel Springs. Apparently they have a fucking army built up of bikers and gang members. They have been taking out all the towns around the area all the way up to some place called Sparta. There are probably about three hundred of them according to his notes."
Joe then joined in the conversation, "Shit, we can't take on that many. We aren't really safe here. Not without re-enforcement's, and a lot of them."
"Not a word of this to the women just yet. Daryl, tomorrow we will celebrate Christmas like planned and you are going to marry my niece and have a little honeymoon. After that, we have to decide what to do. I don't think they are aware we are up here, that boy was here because he thought it was deserted. But it won't take them long to figure it out."
Daryl nodded firmly. They had a mess on their hands. His mind wandered to the boy that he killed. The kid was only seventeen. The whole situation was fucked up. The kid tried to kill Daryl because he must of thought that Daryl was after him to bring him back or something and Daryl killed the kid in self-defense. It left a bad taste in Daryl's mouth, and something else he hadn't felt in a long time, guilt.
The men all headed back to the house, paying more attention to their surroundings and taking extra care to make sure that no one was watching them. When they got back to the house the found the ladies in a full blown combat training session with Anna. They walked in the house just in time to see Viv knocking Anna completely on her ass. The look on Anna's face had Daryl holding in a laugh. He couldn't tell if she was Angry, frustrated, about to laugh, in shock, or all of the above.
Isabella stepped in to show Anna what she had done wrong. She corrected Anna's stance and showed her how to turn her body to escape someone holding her. The women continued on for another hour and Viv finally spoke up, "Anna honey, I love you, but you are going to have to toughen up. Stop being so apprehensive. There isn't time for that. I saw you freeze up the other night during the Walker attack, and if it hadn't been for Daryl going over the fence, you probably wouldn't be here right now and Hunter wouldn't have a mama. I want you to focus on that little girl. When someone comes at you like I just did, you picture them going after Hunter. Channel that anger and turn it into precision. You know you would stop at nothing to protect her!"
Isabella snuck up behind Anna and grabbed her from behind. Anna turned quickly and reversed her position, pulling Isabella's arm behind her and throwing her to the ground. Anna let out an angry yell and pounced on Isabella, holding her down by her hair and keeping her in place with a knee on her chest.
The room was suddenly filled with applause. Anna had done exactly what Viv had told her to do and the result was flawless. Joe came over and helped his wife get up and both of her aunts were smiling proudly. "See baby girl, I knew you had it in you! That is how you defend yourself!" Isabella gushed.
The training session was winding down and everyone was dispersing out to the rest of the house. Viv took the chance to grab Daryl, "Follow me, I have something for you."
Daryl panicked briefly, but followed Viv obediently. She took him upstairs to one of the extra rooms and shut the door. She rummaged through the closet for a second and then turned to him, "Here, you can wear this tomorrow." She said.
She had picked out a pair of nice black jeans, a long sleeve white linen button-up shirt, and a pair of black Italian Leather loafers. These were by far the finest clothes that Daryl had ever seen in his life. He checked the sizes and they would fit him perfectly. Viv spoke, "These were my son's clothes. I haven't seen him since the outbreak, and I want to think he is alive and surviving out there, but I just don't know. These will be perfect for you to wear tomorrow and it will make me happy to see you wearing something besides the rags you are always dressed in. You are a handsome man Daryl, but sometimes you just gotta take a little pride in your appearance. So for the love of God, put forth the extra effort tomorrow. You are one of us now, and when we celebrate, we like to do it up right!"
"Yes ma'am, I promise! It's the least I can do for all you have done for me." He paused, then spoke again, "Um, do you think the stitches will be OK for, well, you know, tomorrow night?" Daryl flushed when he asked the question.
"Take off your shirt, let's check them now." Viv said.
Daryl obliged and took off his shirt and sat down on the bed. Viv came over and lifted the bandage and checked the wound. The swelling and puckering were minimal and almost all the redness was gone. There were no signs of infection and Viv was pleased how it looked considering she had just re-stitched him the day before.
"As long as you don't do anything too crazy, I think you will be fine. Just my two cents worth, some positions might be better than others, but I am leaving that up to you two kids!" She joked.
Daryl sighed in relief. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for him. He was going to have his daughter blessed, marry the woman he loved, and finally, give himself wholly to someone that he trusted. He couldn't keep the smile off of his face.
Viv interrupted his thoughts, "You need to keep Anna occupied for about an hour or two. Isabella and I are heading up to Gus's to get everything ready for the wedding. We found some things here in the attic that will work out perfectly, but we don't want Anna asking questions. Do you think you and the men can handle that?"
"Yup, not a problem. I don't know how I am ever going to thank you for all of this." He said.
"You already have. Now stop worrying and go find Anna and keep her busy." Viv commanded.
Daryl found Anna nursing Hunter in their room. They were a glorious sight to behold. He couldn't believe how something so natural was so beautiful. His heart swelled with love and admiration seeing his woman care for their child. He sat down on the bed and noticed she had pulled out an old photo album.
"Whatcha got there darling?" He asked.
"Sort of a family tradition. We used to do slide shows on Christmas Eve. I figured that tonight we could go through old family photo albums. All of our recent photos were digital and I lost them when I lost my computer, but I think dad still has some on his computer. Maybe when we get back up to the house we could hook up the computer and could print some of them out. I wonder if his digital camera is up there somewhere?" She asked.
Daryl excused himself and ran to catch Viv and Isabella before they left. He asked them to see if they could find Gus's camera and some batteries. He was thinking that they could take some photos of the baby's dedication and of their wedding tomorrow. Viv thought it was a wonderful idea and Isabella felt certain she knew where Gus kept his camera bag.
When Daryl popped back in the room Anna looked at him curiously, "What are you up too Daryl Dixon. And don't tell me nothing. I know you better than that."
"Shit" he thought to himself. What was he going to say? He stammered for a minute and then said, "I'm working on a Christmas present for you. Your aunts are helping me out so stop asking questions or you will ruin the surprise." He didn't lie, but he just didn't give her the details.
"OK, OK," She held up her hands in surrender. "You know we don't even have a tree. We should have gotten one, it would make things seem more festive."
"I saw your Uncles head out to the woods with a saw, so maybe they had the same thing in mind. You know I never really celebrated Christmas before. I am actually looking forward to it. I should have made a run to town to get something for our baby girl. I kinda feel like Shit that she won't have anything, except…. I got an idea. You stay here and get some rest, because you had a tough training day today. Baby girl will get something, but I gotta find some tools first."
Once again Daryl took off through the house and headed to the basement. He found some blocks of wood, sand paper, and his carving knife. Yep, this would be perfect. He was going to make the perfect present for his baby girl. He got to carving and sanding and before he knew it, three hours had passed. He was pleased with his work and was sure that everything was "baby" safe. This Christmas was going to be wonderful, and Daryl couldn't help but think that without the commercialism of the past it made this Christmas especially special.
Everyone returned back to the house late afternoon. Sure enough Joe and Marty had gone and got a tree and had begun to decorate it with ornaments that had been stored up in the attic. The ladies had returned and just as Isabella had promised, they had a working digital camera. Joe and Marty's house ran off a generator that was fed by natural gas, so they didn't have quite the same worry that existed a Gus's house, which ran off of solar power and bottled propane. They would be able to string lights on the tree and run the computer to pull the photos off the camera. Everything was coming together perfectly.
Tomorrow was going to be a magical day for everyone. Daryl knew deep in the recesses of his mind that after tomorrow, things were going to have to change drastically. He didn't know if they would even still be staying here in a week, but they could relax for just one day and make their decisions about what had to be done afterwards.
Hope everyone is enjoying a bit of a Christmas themed chapter...Tomorrow will be the wedding, and well, the honeymoon if you get my drift. These two kids have been waiting waaayyyyy to long to consumate their relationship!
Hope you all have a happy holidays, and please, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW...