*** I OWN NOTHING - except Linney! ***
The last person he wanted to see was her, stepping out of the RV with him. He'd forgotten they were in there, when he saw Lori and Rick leave the RV a little while before. Rick had nodded at him and headed over to the vehicles, calling T-Dog as he went. So fucking confident that everything will go his way, that everyone will just follow him, Shane thought bitterly.
Lori stood and watched her husband walk away and Shane stepped to her quickly. Her eyes turned to his and he felt like he'd been kicked. Her expression was so hard, so angry, so mistrusting, when just two days ago she'd looked at him like he was her world.
"Lori, you can't be thinkin' he's right." He said in a low murmur. She clenched her jaw and stared past him. "I don't think what I'm thinkin' should matter to you anymore." She answered tightly. He stepped closer to her and looked her in the eyes. "How can you say that? How can you even think it?" He whispered and her eyes shone briefly before she turned away.
"I said all I mean to say to you on the matter, Shane, down by the water. You leave me and family alone, you have no right to us anymore." Shane felt his breathing shudder through his lungs inside him. Felt his grasp on control slipping. Losin' your touch with the ladies, a mocking part of his mind said.
He leaned in closer and began speaking in a low, pleading, desperate voice. Telling her about how he felt, how worried he was about her and Carl, about the utter wrongness of the plan to go to the CDC. Lori backed away from him, her eyes fixed on his face, her expression frightened. He tried to tell himself it was because she knew he was right, that it wasn't because he was scaring her.
He stepped closer, grabbing her arm, tightly, feeling her delicate bones below, "Lori, he'll lead us to our deaths, you can't follow him, believe in him, just to spite me." He squeezed harder and she yanked her arm away.
"I don't think what happens between me and my husband is any of your business anymore, and I'd thank you to never touch me again." She snapped at him, her voice low and terrified. He took a step closer to her, not saying what he was thinking, I could fix this, I could have you back, it's such a little thing.
"What's going on out here?" Linney spoke from behind him and he turned to her, but not before seeing the look of intense relief on Lori's face. She stood there, still bloody, still dirty, still beautiful, her posture stiff, her eyes wide as she took in his expression. The fucking redneck hovered behind her, his face tight, his posture ready to interfere.
"We're just discussing the plan, to go to the CDC." Linney looked over at Lori, as if waiting for confirmation of his words. Lori nodded and pushed past them. "I need to go check on Carl," she said in a harried voice. Shane watched her go and then turned back to Linney.
"So, it's a done deal, then? We're going for sure?" She asked him, her voice careful. He felt an eye twitch and stared back down at her. "Nothing's for sure, I plan to convince Rick to do something else. Try Fort Benning." Linney didn't looked convinced and he watched her carefully, wondering what was going on behind those eyes. The redneck put a hand on her shoulder, turning her to him.
"'S none of our business, Linney, c'mon." He slid the hand around her shoulders, urging her away and Shane felt a flash of rage go through him, wanting to reach out and slam his fist into the back of the other man's head. He managed a smile though and nodded in the direction of where Rick was standing and talking with T-Dog.
"I'm gotta go have a chat with my buddy now, see ya'll later." She watched him carefully and he smiled at her. When she shuddered, his smile grew bigger and he turned away. Both of them, I could have them both, it would be such a little thing.
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Linney watched as Shane walked towards Rick, pointing off to the back of camp and when Rick nodded and followed him, she suddenly stiffened. "Let it go," Daryl murmured, his hand dropping from her shoulders once Shane was out of sight. "You saw that, you saw his face, you saw Lori's face," she replied, her eyes tracking their movements across the camp.
"Linney, it ain't none of our business what goes on between those three, leave out of it." She looked over at him and nodded. His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. "You ain't gonna leave it," he said flatly.
She met his eyes, held his gaze and shrugged. "I like Lori and Rick, and Shane's batshit crazy." Daryl put a hand on each of her shoulders and turned her to look at him squarely. "That's why I want ya to back off, it ain't yer fight, he's not right in the head, yer gonna get hurt." Linney nodded and pulled away.
"I need to go talk to Glenn, have to get my knives back." Daryl nodded and headed off towards Merle's bike, she assumed to make sure it was ready to go, to take them on their terror-filled ride later. Linney jogged over to the firepit, where Glenn was chatting with Carol and Lori.
"Hey, Glenn," he looked over at her expectantly and she smiled, "Do you have my knives? From the bodies?" He smiled and reached to a wrapped up towel behind himself.
"Yeah, meant to give these to you earlier, but with Jim..." He's voice trailed off and he cringed. Linney pressed her lips together and pulled the towel from him, laying it out on the ground. She crouched next to it and was pleased to see that despite being blood splattered, they were still sharp and whole. She began tucking them in their proper places, putting her empty guns in their holsters as well. Have to get more bullets from the bag before we go, she reminded herself.
The people around her watched her with fascination and when she looked up she blushed, embarrassed by the attention. "Linney," Lori began curiously, "Where did you learn to throw those things?" Everyone chuckled and Jacqui leaned forwards eagerly, "After the other night, I have been wondering this myself." There was more light laughter and Linney realized that despite being actually curious, they needed a diversion, something to take their minds from last night, from Amy, the camp, Jim, and their upcoming travel.
"My dad." She said, patting a hand on the handle of the biggest knife at her waist. Lori opened her mouth to say something, but paused, then shook her head. "What?" Linney asked her and Lori looked up at her shame-faced. "Never mind, it was rude to even think it." Her face was red and Linney could guess what she had been thinking. She lowered herself to sit on the log between Glenn's and Lori's.
"My dad right?" Lori nodded and looked down at her hands. Linney surprised herself by laughing, "Yeah, he was drunk, or high, most of the time, totally useless. But there was a time, before my mom died, when he was a pretty badass kind of guy. Loved his guns, loved weapons, was good with all of them. He prided himself on being a real renaissance man of the weapons world." Linney looked down at her hands and stretched her fingers out.
"So he had a dart board set up in the living room, and even drunk, he'd sit in his recliner, and throw his knives at it." She patted her arms, "These knives." She closed her eyes for a moment and started speaking before she opened them. "I used to watch him, when I could, when he wasn't in a bad mood. He was so good, it was like his version of darts. I wanted to be good like him, be just as good as him." She glanced over at Carl, before turning to Lori, "I thought if I could impress him, he'd really like me then." Lori's face softened and her eyes were shining as she nodded.
"So I started practicing when he wasn't around, cut myself so badly so many times." She chuckled, "He caught me and for some reason, took it really seriously that I was interested. He started to teach me, and I loved every last second." Linney ran a hand over the sheath on her calf and looked around at everyone, "God, I must have been about 8, he took the longest chunk of interest in me he'd ever shown, started taking me shooting with him too, to get me comfortable with guns." She cleared her throat, getting to her feet; the memories of shooting with her dad were some of the most precious ones she had and she couldn't share them. Her throat suddenly hurt and she said hurriedly, "Anyways, that's the story." She turned to walk away and found Daryl sitting in one of Dale's lawn chairs a feet behind her, fiddling around with his arrows.
He looked up, raising an eyebrow at her and she turned away. Linney jogged away, to the back of camp and was relieved when Daryl didn't follow her. She needed a moment to calm her stupid, over-emotional heart.
When she reached the edge of camp, she heard voices off in the trees, and realized Shane and Rick were out there, arguing. Looking around to make sure no one saw her, she darted into the trees, following the sound of their voices.
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Rick wouldn't listen to Shane's insistence that the CDC was the wrong choice and the bigger man could feel himself getting more and more angry, more and more unhinged. As they searched the woods for the missing guns that the men on watch, who were killed, had dropped, they continued back and forth over what was the right choice.
Shane saw red, when Rick suggested to him that he didn't understand. Didn't understand because he didn't have a family of his own. Resisting every urge to crack Rick's skull under the butt of his rifle, Shane got in his face, reminding him of all he'd done for Rick's family.
He was momentarily caught off guard when Rick grew earnest, his eyes shining, "You know I can never repay the debt I owe you for keeping them safe." Shane stepped back, his mind clearing for a moment; this was Rick, his best friend, alive and well, back from the dead, and he was grateful to Shane for doing what he did. Calm down, man, take it easy, he cautioned himself.
When they heard the slight crack of a twig being broken underfoot, Rick quickly signaled him and they split up, guns trained carefully ahead of them, eyes open, senses wary. Shane made a slow turn and suddenly saw movement in the scope on his gun. Rick. He paused, licking his lips. He knew that all he had to do was flex his finger the tiniest bit and everything would be better, everything could go back to normal. He warred with himself, his face twisting and tormented as he fought to shoot his friend, fought not to shoot his friend.
Finally one part of him won over the other and he growled in frustration, his teeth bared in an angry grin. He lowered the rifle and became suddenly aware of another person, when they breathed, "Jesus." He turned away and found Linney, standing a few feet away, her hand hovering over the blade on her arm, her face horrified, eyes watching him like he was a threat.
"We heard a noise, it's damn easy to get turned around out here, see the wrong thing, you know?" His voice was deep and throaty and she stepped back from him, her jaw clenched. She looked over in the direction Rick had gone and Shane strode over to her. He watched with pleasure as she involuntarily took a step back, into the tree behind her. He stood close, but didn't touch her, not fancying the idea of having his face torn open by one of her knives.
He watched her face and saw that she would indeed cut him, first chance he gave her, and it excited him. "Seen you and the redneck arguing a lot today." He said, in a soft voice and her eyebrows shot up. "You're not very observant then; we always argue." She shot back. He chuckled and she took a step to the side, away from the tree.
"Still, looks like things could be better." He commented, casually. "Do you honestly think after the past couple days he and I have had that everything would be hunky dory?" Her face was strained and she was edging slowly away from him, back towards the direction of the camp. He hunched his shoulders, smiling when the joints all pleasurably cracked.
"Despite everything, ya'll should let me know when that inevitably falls apart. I think I could comfort you." He was trying to be calm, conversational, pulling out his old charm, hoping to show her that his interest was real, that he wasn't out to kill her, like she seemed to think.
Her face went pale and she looked disgusted and that suddenly infuriated him. She thinks I'm not good enough, that I'm not right for her, he thought in fury, his mind in a whirl, bringing his gun up into both hands again. I could show her, right now, right here, maybe kill that redneck back at camp, be done with it, him and Rick, just be fucking done with it.
He realized that he was raising the gun, his body one step ahead of his mind, already planning on swinging it at her, taking her down. When her eyes shifted behind him and relief flooded her expression, he realized that Rick was back.
"What's going on?" Rick asked, his voice worried, obviously having seen the look on Linney's face a moment before. She turned on her heel and ran back to camp and Shane chuckled.
"Girl's a little freaked out, I think," He turned to Rick and his friend nodded, his forehead knotted up like something didn't make sense. Shane hurried on, "Told her we heard a noise and she was worried 'bout you." Rick chuckled, "I'm fine, I should tell her that." Shane put a hand on the other man's arm, stopping him before he could go forward.
"A'right, I'm on board, we'll try the CDC." Shane spoke softly, like it had taken him awhile to come to this decision, but now he was convinced. Rick's whole demeanor changed and he knew that Linney and her worry was forgotten. It surprised him briefly just how much his approval meant to his friend and he felt a wash of guilt. I could never kill him, he's all I'm allowed to love now.
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Linney raced back to camp and nearly collided with Dale, who was also making his way into the woods. He caught her by the shoulders, his face concerned. "What's wrong? Linney? What's wrong?" She looked up into his dark eyes and considered telling him, she knew he'd at least listen to her, but she couldn't. She was still so uncertain about her place at this camp, with this group. Uncertain about her and Daryl anymore, things were so strained between them since everything went down the past couple of days.
She shook her head at him and forced a smile at the old man. "I was out in the woods, going to help Rick and Shane, but I heard something and got spooked." She shrugged, like she was embarrassed.
"I don't buy that, Linney." He replied, looking at her cautiously. She pulled away from him and cleared her throat, and just then Rick and Shane walked out through the treeline, big smiles on their faces. Dale watched her watching them, and put a hand on her back, leading her back to camp. They stood side by side, at the edge of the group and listened as Rick and Shane detailed the final decision: the CDC. She and Dale glanced over at each other at the same time and she raised her eyebrows at him, before heading towards Daryl, who was standing next to Glenn, one foot propped up on a log.
She wanted to hug him; she felt gross and freaked out by Shane, freaked out with herself even for how close she'd gotten to just killing him when she saw him aiming the rifle at Rick. But Daryl was absorbed in what everyone was talking about, and she was dimly aware when Morales stood up and explained he and his family were heading to Alabama. Daryl looked away in disgust, and turned to her.
"Damn fool's gonna get his whole family killed." He muttered to her and she looked back then, watched Rick hand Morales a gun, Shane hand him ammo. She and Daryl walked away, watched as everyone said their goodbyes. Neither of them wanted to be a part of it; Linney felt sick watching them go.
"I saw something in the woods," she finally said to Daryl and he grunted, still distracted by the family climbing into their car.
"Why'd you go into the woods?" He asked her, his voice disapproving. She shrugged and then sighed, "I was worried about Rick." Daryl turned to her then, saw her face and caught her chin in his hand, turning her to him.
"What'd you see?" His voice was interested, worried, and she looked back up at him.
"Shane was going to kill Rick, and I caught him." Daryl sighed in frustration, his hand falling from her face. "Then he saw that I saw, and I think he was going to kill me." When Daryl's eyes turned back to hers, they weren't worried, or concerned, or frustrated anymore; they were murderous.