Daryl fiddled with his crossbow as he stood beside Henry. High above, a woodpecker drilled violently against the bark, with a rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat that seemed suddenly deafening. Henry drew his forehead from the tree and turned to Daryl, his eyes dull and...tired. He looked strangely tired to Daryl.
"They's headin' back to the truck with the boar, the three of 'em. Told 'em I'd check on ya. Bring ya along."
"Did Jakob or Al say anything to him?" Henry asked. "About Gloria and me?"
"Al just said Gloria was in the Kingdom. We ain't any of us said nothin' else."
Henry let out a long, shaky breath. "She thought he was dead. She thought she watched him die."
Daryl nodded. "Yeah. I got that."
Henry shook his head. "I've made her a bigamist."
"Ya couldn't have known," Daryl told him. He jerked his head toward the direction in which the others had retreated, Jason and Al dragging the boar, Jakob standing guard with his rifle. "C'mon. We gotta get back."
"To what? The happy reunion? She's going to leave me for him."
"Ya don't know that."
Henry laughed bitterly and shook his head. "You saw him. Handsome fellow, isn't he? I'm ten years older than either him or Gloria. And she was married to him for nine years. She's not going to choose me over him."
"Ya don't know that," Daryl repeated, because he didn't know what else he could say. He turned and took two steps toward the clearing, paused, and waited for Henry to follow.
The dead leaves broke apart beneath their boots as they walked slowly, side by side. "What would you do, if Carol's husband turned out not to be dead after all, and he suddenly showed up in the Kingdom?"
"She wouldn't want 'em."
"I don't think I can say the same for Gloria," Henry replied. "She said he was a good husband to her, though we didn't talk much about our spouses to one another. We were trying to go on living."
Daryl murmured, just to show he was listening.
"Should I tell him, do you think?" Henry asked. "On this drive back? Or let Gloria tell him?"
"Dunno. Might be best to let her. Don't want trouble on the way back, if'n it makes him angry. Don't want a fight while we's drivin'."
Henry covered his eyes with his hands and pulled his thumb and forefinger to a point at his nose, as if maybe he was wiping away a few stray tears. He looked off in the distance.
Daryl felt horrible for him, but he didn't know what to say. Finally, he tried, "Gloria loves ya. Anyone with eyes can see that."
"Yes, she does. Because I was available, and I was alive, and you love the one you're with."
"You weren't the only single man in that Kingdom when she got there, was ya?"
Henry looked at the dull brown and tan leaves beneath his feet. "I was the only with the guts to come onto her."
Daryl wished he'd been more like that with Carol, that he hadn't been so timid. All this time he could have been with her, maybe, if he'd just admitted he wanted to be.
Henry exhaled. "Oh...fuck. Fuck it all."
Daryl wasn't used to Henry swearing much. He fell silent and just walked beside him, step by step, until he heard the trees rustling. Daryl whirled and shot one walker in the head with an arrow from his crossbow, then another.
"All that gunfire drew the lurhcers," Henry said, leveling his gun, but not shooting, as Daryl's third arrow quietly whizzed into the last walker.
When Daryl went to recover his arrows, he saw several more walkers - a herd of about eight - coming their way from a distance through the trees. "Shit."
"I didn't think there were many left in these woods," Henry said.
"We better get movin'."
They began by walking quickly, but eventually broke into a jog. When they caught up to the others, Henry said, "Lurchers, over half a dozen coming our way. Pick up the pace."
Dragging the boar took some time, so Daryl and Al had to hang back with their quieter weapons, picking the walkers off with arrows and spear while the others got the boar back to the truck.
Al was jumpy with adrenaline when they got to the pick-up and smiling broadly like he'd just won a marathon. "Have not had the chance to do that in some time," he said.
"You like it?" Jakob asked.
"Admit it. You miss it, too," Al replied. "You did not train all those years with Mossad just to hunt game."
Jakob shook his head and pulled open the back of the pick-up. Jason climbed in next to him, eyeing him warily. "You worked for Mossad?" he asked as Daryl squeezed in next to him.
"That is what he claims," said Al from the front passenger seat as Henry started the truck. "But Jakob told me many tall tales those months we were surviving in the embassy together."
Daryl had never heard Jakob say more than a handful of words at a time, so he had trouble imagining him being chatty with Al, but he didn't really know either man well. He was reminded that, just a few days ago, he had been as much a stranger here as Jason. It was odd for Daryl to realize that he might already be settling into the Kingdom.
Nobody said anything about Henry and Gloria on the drive back to the Kingdom. Jason asked questions about the Kingdom, which Al answered.
"So you all know Gloria," Jason asked. "She's well?"
"She is in good health," Al answered him. "She teaches the children, from age six to eleven. And she conducts the orchestra."
"You have an orchestra?"
"You must see," Al said. "You must see the Kingdom with your own eyes. And you will come before King Ezekiel, and his Prviy Council will assign you a calling. What are your talents?"
"I can fish. I can fight."
Daryl snorted.
"What?" Jason asked.
"'Ya couldn't even hit one of us by yer second shot," Daryl said.
"Well, you didn't hit me with that blind barrage of gunfire either," Jason said. "But I've survived this long on my own. And I kept my wife alive for a long time, too."
"Perhaps she kept herself alive," Henry said, and then bit his tongue.
"Gloria's a strong woman," Jason replied, "but I doubt she'd make it alone in this world. I'm glad she was found by good people. You are good people, aren't you?"
"Should have zought about zat before you got in ze truck with us," Jakob said, and then chuckled dryly.
"We are good people," Al reassured him. "Are you?"
"As good as anyone can be in this world, I suppose," Jason replied. "I haven't killed anyone who didn't need killing. Haven't robbed anyone. Haven't taken anyone's wife."
Henry plowed down a walker in his path. The truck jolted and rose and leveled again on the road.
[*]
When they arrived at the Kingdom, Jason looked around with wonder, his eyes falling on the fountain in the courtyard. "You have running water?"
"Yes," Al said. "Power, too."
"Take me to Gloria."
"I'll bring her to you," Henry told him. "You need to be oriented to the Kingdom. Al will introduce you to the tour guide."
While Henry went in search of Gloria, and Al took Jason to the tour guide, Daryl and Jakob brought the boar to the butcher's table in the cafeteria, where the butcher was already present and sharpening his knives. As they cut through the cafeteria to leave, Jakob said, "I would have left zat man in ze forest. But Henry is a better man zan I."
Daryl peered at him. He made a note to himself to keep Jakob on his good side.
[*]
Daryl headed to the locker room to wash up. Sasha popped out of the gym as he passed. "Aren't we lifting today?" she called after him.
He turned. "Dunno. Don't want to today." He was too agitated on Henry's behalf.
She jerked her head to motion him over, so he walked back to her. "Council meeting," she whispered.
He followed her to the weight room, where Rick, Carol, and Michonne were already gathered.
"Brought in a new guy," Daryl told them. "Found him in the Royal Forest." He'd wait until he was alone with Carol to talk about the fact that the man was Gloria's husband.
Michonne smiled. "Really? Is he cute?" Rick looked at her scoldingly, and she smiled back at him.
Sasha chuckled. "It's a fair question."
"I thought you was too busy playin' footsie with Ezekiel to care 'bout cute guys," Daryl said.
"Footsies?" Sasha asked. "I may flirt sometimes. If and when it serves my purpose."
"Ya ain't attracted to him?" Daryl was thinking about that genuine-looking smile they'd shared at the concert.
"Why would it bother you so much if she was?" Carol asked. She sounded a little irritated.
"'Cause Sasha's one of us," Daryl told her, "and Ezekiel's a crazy fucker. How do we know he don't just take what he wants?"
"Because if he did," Sasha said. "He would have taken it by now. You don't really know him."
"Nah, I don't," Daryl said. "Ya know why? Because he's an elitist asshole who don't mingle with the commoners. Hangs out in his royal quarters, sits on the stage at banquets, don't talk to no one but his Privy Council."
"His habits and methods are bizarre," Sasha said, "but you have to admit - he's built something good here. Something solid. Organized. Efficient. Peaceful. Safe."
"It works, Daryl," Michonne agreed. "And that's more than any of us can say for most of this screwed up world."
Daryl didn't reply.
"I thought you liked it here now," Carol said quietly, with the slightest hint of fear in her voice.
"I don't hate it no more," he told her. "'Cause I got ya...y'all. And I like Henry. Got Savannah, too. I like huntin', feedin' people. Guess I don't mind the comfort too much neither. But we're still guests here. We ain't part of the structure."
"I am," Sasha insisted. "And I can represent you all on the Privy Council. So what is it you want changed?"
"Don't want to have to wait to pick up my damn fork 'til Ezekiel does it," Daryl said. "Don't want to call him king."
"That's not worth exerting my influence for." Sasha put a hand on her hip.
"This calling thing is bullshit too," Daryl said. "People need to contribute, need jobs, but it ain't got to be just one. Let people decide what they want to do."
"There are things we need done, though," Sasha said.
"Well, then tell people what we need done, and let 'em pick from that. Don't just lock 'em into one thing for good. I can hunt and I can be a supply runner. I got too much time on my hands here."
"Do you?" Carol asked with a smile. "I thought you were enjoying your free time."
Daryl flushed and looked at his boots.
"I thought you were going on supply runs with Savannah?" Michonne said.
Daryl looked up. "Yeah, but she's got to get permission every damn time for me to come. Shouldn't be like that. Have a log or some shit, if you need to know where people are. Sign in, sign out at the gate. But this rigidness..." He shook his head.
Sasha nodded. "I'll suggest a log instead of the permission process." She looked around at the others. "Anything else you want me to suggest?"
Rick suggested the knights needed more range time and less playing with swords. "This isn't the 12th century."
Michonne rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know. Some of us can accomplish a lot with a sword."
"Swords are fine for fighting walkers. But we needed more guns and more marksmen. And everyone in the Kingdom should take lessons and know how to shoot, not just the knights."
Carol offered a suggestion next, about changing the day for rations from the communal pantry, and the meeting wore on, until Sasha had a long list of things to bring up at the next Privy Council meeting.