Here is another update for you! I said that I would have an update for Black Moon Blues soon and I still plan on it. I lost connection last night so I couldn't go over the story so I could start the chapter. That's what I am doing now so it should be up tomorrow night! Thanks so much for the reviews! I've missed hearing from all of you. Hopefully this chapter makes you laugh. Poor Buck. I love that man. lol
Chapter Thirty Five
Daryl stretched and then winced as a sharp pain flashed through his head. With a groan he cracked one eye open. The sun was shining in through the window and it felt like it was searing his brain. The world shifted under him as he tried to roll over. He frowned when he realized the world was still shifting and rolling over wasn't easy. Fuzzy memories started to rise to the surface, causing his head to throb harder. Him and Carol... Buck's bed... oil. "Oh man," he groaned. He didn't even want to think about the mess they had made.
Carol was sprawled across him, her hair matted to his chest in oily clumps. He could see that all she was wearing was the same tiny shirt she had worn to the party and a pair of barely there panties. She shifted and then moaned. When she raised her head he almost laughed at the mess that was her hair. The only thing that stopped him was knowing that he probably looked just as ridiculous. His jeans were ruined also but he was glad that he had remembered to at least put them back on.
"It's gonna take us all day to clean this up. What were we thinking, doing that in Buck's room?" She asked as she tried to move. She slipped and landed right back where she had been.
"I don't think we were thinkin'. We were both messed up. How the hell can people do this all the time? I feel like somebody chewed me up and then spit me back out." He really didn't have any reason to complain. He had done this to himself. No one forced them to drink and smoke pot. That was all on them. He was almost ashamed of himself. Him and Carol definitely should have just holed up in his room for the night and let Merle do whatever it was Merle needed to do. Instead they had been right there in the thick of it.
"We should get up so we can start cleaning. Could you imagine if Buck knew what went on in here last night?" She asked and then her face reddened.
With a lot of effort he raised up, dragging her with him. "You're right. I don't even wanna think about that. He ain't do back for another day or so. We have plenty of..." His voice trailed off when he heard the sound of heavy boots coming down the hall. He looked at Carol sharply. Those weren't Merle's footfalls he was hearing.
"It can't be," Carol breathed, eyes wide.
They grew quiet as the footsteps walked past the door. It sounded like they stopped outside Daryl's room. They heard the door open and then close again. That was all the confirmation they needed. Buck was back. Both of them started struggling to get out of bed. Once he finally managed to get one leg over he was able to pull the rest of him to the edge. He grabbed Carol's hand and yanked her towards him but he slipped. The door opened and he looked up, his heart thumping painfully fast.
Buck's eyes zeroed in on them and he froze there in the doorway. Daryl finally managed to stand up and he felt Carol join him. Buck's face was getting redder and redder and Daryl was a little afraid that he may have a stroke right there on his bedroom floor.
"What the hell happened? Why the hell are you in my room? Jesus! Did you poke a goddamn hole in my bed! You two are soaked!"
"It isn't water. We didn't hurt the bed, Buck," Carol said quietly, looking at the floor.
"Then what the hell..." His voice trailed off and Daryl watched as all that color seemed to drain from his face. "No. No, no, no! You didn't! Tell me you didn't get wasted and... No. Did you? Did the two of you little... little... perverts come into my room and do... do... perverted shit all over my goddamn bed? Oh God." He ran a hand over his face and for a few seconds Daryl was afraid the man would faint. Buck Dixon, the scariest mother fucker Daryl knew was about to faint right there in the middle of his bedroom.
Daryl wanted to ease the man's mind but at this point he wasn't sure how. "We didn't do it on the bed. Well... not at first. And it was only at the foot of the bed really..." This wasn't helping. The more he talked the more pale Buck's face got.
"Shut up. Just shut your filthy pervert mouth. Carol Ann! Get your goddamn pants back on right now!" He must have just noticed that Carol was still standing there in her shirt and underwear. "What in the hell is wrong with you two? What in the hell is all over my mattress?"
Carol was in the process of wiggling herself into her oily shorts so Daryl figured he would go ahead and try to explain. "Well, it's baby oil."
Buck went perfectly still but Daryl could see the muscle ticking in his jaw as he glared at them. "Oil? You squirted oil all over my room and then..." He groaned and pushed his hair out of his face. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves, you know that? Here I am workin' my ass off to provide a roof over your head and food in your stomachs and the first chance you get you come into my room and use my bed as some kinda sick slip and slide for your weird sex games! How the fuck am I suppose to sleep on that thing knowin' that the two of you had your naked asses slidin' all across it? Oh God..." He gimaced.
Carol cleared her throat and finally looked up. "Buck, we thought we had time to clean it all up and..."
"Stop!" Buck ordered. "You two... sickos, are grounded. You understand me? Grounded! No fucking truck. No T.V. No sleepin' in the same bed. I don't even want to see you look at one another."
Daryl opened his mouth to protest but closed it when Buck's eyes cut over to him.
"Now look at what you've done! You've gone and made me sound like some goddamn... Pansy assed old man!" He growled. "Never mind. You two go get that shit scrubbed off of you and then you march your asses back in here and you clean this shit up. Then you drain that bed and you burn it."
"Can I have it?" Daryl asked without thinking.
"Boy..." Buck growled, a warning not in his voice.
Daryl shook his head. "Forget it." He grabbed Carol's hand and was about to lead her past Buck and towards the bathroom but Buck's hand snaked out, grabbing Carol's wrist and shaking his head.
"You really think I'm fallin' for that? She stays here while you take a shower first. Then she can go. I mean it. No more foolin' around. I hope last night was a memorable one for you cause from now on I'll be watchin'. Understood?"
Daryl scowled but let go of Carol's hand. "Understood," he muttered as he slipped past him.
~H~
Carol wanted to die. She couldn't look at Buck. She couldn't look at Merle or Andrea either and she was pretty sure that if she even tried to look at Daryl, Buck would yell at her some more. She was completely mortified. As soon as she had managed to scrub all the oil out of her hair she went to help Daryl clean up Buck's room but she didn't get the chance. Buck had ordered them both to the kitchen, where Merle and Andrea were already waiting. They were sitting at the table and she could feel their eyes on her. She knew that anyone in the house had heard the fit that Buck had thrown. It wasn't really that she blamed him. She'd be mad too, but the whole thing was beyond embarrassing.
Buck broke the intense silence after she sat there looking at her hands for what felt like ever. "I'd like to yell at all of you some more but right now we ain't got time for any of that."
She risked looking up then. Buck didn't look mad anymore and he didn't look like he was about to be sick either, which was a good thing. What bothered her was how serious he looked. She couldn't help but panic at that look on his face. She had never seen it before. Had he decided that trying to raise all of them together was too much for him? Was he about to tell her and Andrea that it was time for them to move on? The thought had her stomach in knots.
After a long pause he went on. "I got a call today at my brother's place from some Detective here in Savannah. He told me that last night someone killed Jenna and the man she was with." Carol stiffened, her eyes going to Daryl. He was frowning but otherwise didn't look too upset at the news.
Merle scooted his chair out and stood up, slamming his fists against the table hard enough to make all of them jump. "You son of a bitch! You did it, didn't you? You went off and killed the bitch! What the hell are we suppose to do when the cops show up and haul your ass away?"
"Sit your ass down!" Buck barked. "I wasn't even in the state last night, damn it, and they know it. James told them I'd gotten there yesterday mornin' and hadn't left." He glared at Merle until he finally sat back down. "Now, I know that the two of you ain't got much love for the woman but the fact is, she was still your mama. You boys with me so far? If you need some time to process this then I'll give you what time you need."
Carol found Daryl's hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. She knew he had hated Jenna but Buck was right. She was still their mother.
"I'm fine," Daryl said, sensing, as everyone else did, that there was more to Buck's story than the bombshell of Jenna's death. Carol still wasn't sure if he was truthfully okay but she knew him well enough to know that if he wanted to keep something in then that's what he would do.
Buck nodded, as though his son's feeling nothing over the death of their mother was perfectly normal. "Well. Here's the real kicker. Seems the Motel room they were stayin' in wasn't exactly empty. There was a... a baby there. According to this Detective, since your mom and I never went and got a divorce, legally the kid is mine. She's a Dixon by name anyhow."
And there it was. Carol glanced at the brothers and they both looked stricken. If she had just walked in the room she would have instantly thought that they had both been slapped. Daryl's grip on her hand became so painful that she actually flinched. When he spoke, his voice was little more than a whisper. "That's why he didn't leave her."
Buck frowned. "What?"
Daryl shook his head and finally loosened his grip on her hand. "That asshole that she was with. The guy had plenty of money. The only reason he kept stopping by was cause Jenna was sleepin' with him, and she let him smack me around. I guess he got a real kick outta that. But after seeing them in that Diner I couldn't believe he'd stuck around. I left that house over two years ago. She must have got herself knocked up either right before I left or right after."
Carol waited through the silence, afraid to be the first person to say anything but there were a hundred questions she wanted answered. Merle and Daryl had never looked more alike than they did then, both trying unsuccessfully to hide the pain in their eyes. She could only imagine what they were thinking. Knowing that they had a sibling out there that they had abandoned to the wolf that was Jenna had to be a hard thing to deal with. She knew them both well enough to know the guilt that was eating at them. Merle's words cut through the silence, confirming her suspicions.
"I got Daryl out but left some defenseless kid there to take his place for those sick fucks," he said, staring at nothing. Andrea put her hand on his arm but he didn't even seem to notice.
Buck leaned forward in his chair, his large hands splayed flat on the table. "This ain't nobody's fault. You did right by your brother. You couldn't have known this would happen. Believe me, I sure as hell didn't."
"Where is she?" Carol finally asked. Her voice was so quiet she was surprised anyone heard her. "What's gonna happen to her?"
Buck looked away from all of them, his eyes more troubled than his son's. "She's at the hospital. They wanna keep her for the night, keep an eye on her."
Carol felt Daryl stiffen at her side and the air suddenly grew thick with tension. She glanced at him but his head was hung, his hair blocking her view of his face. Merle looked like he was ready to murder someone. If she didn't know him she would have been terrified of that look.
"As far as what's gonna happen to her, that's somethin' that we need to talk about. I'm in over my head here. After what you all did last night, I shouldn't trust that any of you are grown enough to help me figure this out, but you're all I got. This is somethin' we need to think hard about. As far as I know, legally, I can bring her home."
"And if you don't?" Carol asked even though she knew the answer.
Buck met her eyes. "Then she goes into the same system that you girls were thrown into," he deadpanned.
"Fuck that!" Daryl nearly nearly shouted as he came up out of his chair.
"That ain't happening! Not to any kin of mine," Merle yelled at the same time.
Buck shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Sit down," he ordered quietly. "Both of you."
Carol felt panic well up inside her chest. "Buck, you can't be considering that. You can't let that happen to her. We can do something."
Buck was quiet for a few long moments, letting them all settle down before he spoke again. "I thought the same thing at first. Right off the bat, my mind was made."
"And now?" Daryl barked, causing Carol to flinch.
Buck threw his hands up. "How the hell am I suppose to raise another kid? The way we live might seem normal to us but to anyone else, this place is like a goddamn zoo. Last nights fiasco proves that. How can I handle a baby when all I've done for the past nineteen years is fuck up as a dad? Answer that?"
"Buck you have to think about this," Andrea pleaded, her pale eyes barely holding back a flood of tears.
"I am," he said quietly. "What can I do? Set up a playpen at the shop? Raise her up in that world? Around a bunch of fucking criminals. Hell half of them men, more than half of those men, have at least the blood of one man on their hands. Our life ain't normal. It's all I can do for you four but a little one needs more than that. More than I got to give."
"So you throw her to the fuckin' wolves?" Merle growled. "You decide that it'd be too fuckin' hard on you so you don't even try? She's our sister for fucks sake!"
"So you think I should bring her home? Throw her right into this kind of life?" Buck asked.
All four of them answered without hesitation. "Yes!"
There was silence for a long time while they all pondered how their life was about to change. Either way it went, things wouldn't be the same after this. Finally a slow smile graced Buck's face and he sighed. "Well. I guess now we figure out how the hell we're gonna manage a baby then."
Carol and Andrea were both out of their seats at the same time. Buck grunted as both girls threw themselves at him, nearly knocking him out of the chair. He rolled his eyes but managed to wrap his arms around both of them.
"We're gonna have a baby!" Andrea beamed.
"I know!" Carol gushed.
Across the table Merle and Daryl shared a look, their expressions dazed.