Chapter 27
Outside of that main square was a whole new town that newcomers didn't always get to know. Electric blues watched as she debated it before finally tucking her hand in the crook of his elbow and then led her down the street. Being sheltered in the castle, Abigail never got to experience or see the outside world, so this was quite a treat. She knew Wonderful was huge, but that word didn't do it justice. All she'd done was stuck to the front of the town, near the gates and common house, the tower where Taker resided…but there truly was so much more to Wonderful. The streets were bustling with life, vendors out trying to make a quick trade or whatever since money wasn't necessary anymore.
"Oh wow…" Dean pointed out a few buildings to her, explaining the history and Abigail concluded he had been here a long time. "Where are you from originally, Dean?" She asked curiously, once they stopped at a vendor with food and Dean had taken care of the transaction. "Or have you lived in Wonderful your whole life?"
Dean considered her for a moment, having stopped at a street vendor who served up some delicious walking tacos and gestured for two orders. "Now Abs, that's information you got to come back and see me again for." He teased, turning to take her food and held it out to her, cocking an eyebrow when she seemed surprised. "What? You don't like this?" He took his, and started rifling in pockets. "Benny, you wanna put it on my tab?"
"Oh yeah, sure, Ambrose…" The vendor rolled his eyes. "Pass it over." He held out his hand.
Shrugging, Dean pulled a small vial out of one of his pockets and slapped it into that waiting palm. "Not promising it's gonna take care of that bald spot…" He smirked, leading Abigail off.
What was that vial full of, Abigail wondered, continuing to walk with him while eating her taco. It was surprisingly delicious, and she didn't realize how hungry she was until she devoured the whole order. Granted, her appetite for lunch had been dwindled due to her tense conversation with Taker, so she hadn't eaten much. Hell, since she came to Wonderful, she didn't have much of an appetite in general.
"Thank you for the food, Dean." She threw her garbage away in a nearby trashcan, refusing to liter since the streets were…somewhat cluttered plastic bottles and whatnot. "So, do you do this with every new woman you come across or am I special case?" Abigail grinned, eyes sparkling under the sunlight. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and warm.
"Babe, you're breaking my heart here." Dean laughed, having long finished his food. He was a big man with a big appetite. "Do I look like the kind of guy to woo every beautiful woman I come across?" She was giving him a look and Dean couldn't keep the sparkle of amusement out of his eyes, wrapping his arm around her shoulders playfully. "I promise, from here on out, Abs, my eyes are only for you. Oh hey, c'mon, down this way is the amusement area, so to speak. You'll love it. You old enough to remember parks? There's a park."
Dean was quite the charmer, that was for sure, and she found herself laughing at his boyish antics. "Uh huh, sure." Her tone was just as playful and implied she didn't believe him for second regarding being the only woman he had his eyes on.
There was no way. He was a handsome man and probably a HUGE playboy. Her eyes lit up however when he mentioned the park and Abigail could remember the very small playground her school had when she was a lot younger.
"Really? Does it have swings?" The smile on her face grew at his nod and Abigail suddenly became excited. "I haven't been to a park in…ages." She sounded wistful, somewhat missing the old days, minus the beatings Bray had endured.
Shops that worked in bikes, skates, and old-school boards. Toymakers along with an old arcade, off the way, which was run on a generator and a few buckets of old quarters the kids used freely to play while the sun was out. This made up some of the other part of Wonderful Abigail hadn't seen until now. Dean took great delight in showing Abigail this part of Wonderful, finally stepping off the street and heading towards the park.
"See the wall?" He pointed off into the distance, at the giant masonry wall Taker had built in the early days. "And beyond this is the land they use for gardens, and I think on the far side to your left, people raise animals and shit. But this is what we want," Dean stopped and turned her to the right, where really old iron gates led to what had been a huge park back in the day. It was a lot smaller now, but the swings were still there, maintained, and he just loved the giant metal merry-go-round.
There was an old metal slide as well as a set of monkey bars. It reminded her a lot of the school's playground when she was in elementary school, her hand sliding up the pole attached to the swing set. Swings were always her favorite part of the playground. It was one of the only good memories she had from her childhood, those days when her and Bray would play at school, but then the nightmares would unfold once they were back in the foster home.
Testing the weight of the swing, Abigail sat on it and heard the slight creaking sound from the chains, glad they hadn't snapped off. Dean started pushing her, making her laugh as she pumped her legs to get more velocity while he took the one beside her and began swinging as well. After they did that for a bit, he guided her over by the hand to the merry-go-round, spinning it around as fast as he could while she held on and hopped on once it was at the speed, her squeals filling the air.
Dean didn't come to the park much because… adulting sucked sometimes, but… he made a mental note to do it more often, if she was with him. There was something very innocent and almost childlike with Abigail, wistful, and… sad. He sat on the merry-go-round with her, enjoying the breeze whipping in his face and flashed her a genuine smile. Reaching out with his arm to steady her when she rocked into him, he laughed at her squeals.
"Now THAT was a lot of fun!"
Abigail felt a lot lighter after doing something as simple as playing in a park with Dean, having a feeling Taker would never do something like this. It wasn't his style, and he was the leader of Wonderful, so he had a lot of responsibilities and obligations. Dean was…carefree and had such a beautiful spirit, at least that's what she saw. If he was putting up on a front with her, he was damn good at it. Through the ivy that had taken over the gate surrounding this place, Abigail saw the livestock in the far distance and figured that was where the milk, cheese and other fresh foods, including meat, came from.
"Thank you for bringing me here, Dean. I needed this, to clear my mind and you helped do that."
"You do look a lot less stressed, babe." He commented, studying her thoughtfully, now guiding her along the old fence that bordered the park. "When I saw you walking down the street, coming my way, you looked like you had a lot on your mind." Dean caught her nod from the corner of his eye and pushed open the gate, gesturing at her to follow him, heading towards the barns. "Follow me, pretty sure some fluffy ass ducks hatched not too long ago." He liked ducks.
"Ducks? Really?"
She did NOT peg Dean as a duck loving type or an animal lover, in general. Never judge a book by its cover, she mentally chastised herself, following him down the path from the park that opened up into a big lake. Why hadn't anyone mentioned all of this to her? The water looked safe enough, but since nobody else was swimming in it, she figured it was used for a purpose. Not paying attention to where she was walking, Abigail tripped and nearly fell in the lake, only for Dean to catch her at the last second, his arm wrapped around her waist.
"Christ!" She clutched her chest, feeling him pull her back and felt as if her heart would explode out of her chest. "T-Thank you. Holy shit, that could've been bad…"
"Uh yeah, probably, this is one of Hardy's pet projects. Look," Dean held her steady, keeping his arm firmly wrapped around Abigail, holding her to his side as he pointed at a series of pipes at the far end. "They have to purify it before it can be used for drinking. Did you know the bottled water here in Wonderful comes from this lake? There's an underground spring that feeds it, and… there are fish in there." Taker had rules about fishing however, there was a 'season', something about ensuring they didn't over fish the lake and ruin a food supply. Dean smiled slightly, the impish gleam coming back into his eyes as he stared down at her. "Now, if you ever feel like swimming, I know a spot."
"No, I didn't know that. I really don't know much about this place, actually. Thank you for saving my ass, again." She'd been here a month and had stuck to the common house and workout room, never straying. Why she decided to stray and explore today of all days…Abigail needed a change of scenery and new people, for some reason. "That would be great, especially in this heat." He nodded in agreement as they kept walking toward the barn that was in the far distance. "So, there's two sides to Wonderful, because I've never seen you or any of these people up front near the gates. Is there a reason for that?"
"First, there's more than two sides to Wonderful, babe, you'll just have to come visit me again and I'll show them to you."
He chuckled, pulling her along the lake shore towards an old cluster of willow trees where they could sit out of the sun and enjoy the breeze coming off the water. Once there, he dropped down on a very old, large rock, smoothed down by time and patted the spot next to him. She sat, and he found his grin widening.
"And… I go up there, now and again, when I need something I can't find in the other wards. You've probably seen a lot of the people from these areas up in the market buying or selling, but… Wonderful has a lot of residents. You can't be expected to remember all their faces. Now, let me ask you something, Abs, you ever notice all the people up there are connected to, or working for Taker in some fashion?"
Now that she thought about it, what he said was the truth. Stephanie, Trish, Amy, Steve, Johnny, John, Ron…a few others she couldn't remember the names of. "I never gave it much thought, but yeah…now that you've pointed it out to me, it seems like he has a tight knit group…"
The rock was comfortable enough and the breeze felt amazing blowing through her hair, even though it was still braided back. Hell, even back at the castle in the DOV, Bray had his tight knit group of soldiers and the rest were just fodder, as far as he was concerned. Luke and Erick were the perfect examples, his right-hands.
"Why is that, Dean?" She moved her gaze from the water to look up at him, furrowing her brows questioningly.
"I don't know." Dean procured another cigarette, making sure he kept it away from her. He had noticed she wasn't very fond of them. Staring back down at her, his blue eyes were thoughtful. "Guess he can't be friendly with all of us, right? I know some of us don't, uh, always agree with his rules…." Like him, for example, and his tone made it clear he was one of those people. "But this is a good place, so we have to suck it up and deal with it." Now he sounded amused, and he was, because there were ways of working around Taker's rules.
"I suppose not…"
Abigail didn't know how to feel about Dean's tone when it came to Taker, especially since she'd been intimate with the man. She should've been defending Taker instantly, but…something held her back and she didn't understand what it was. Granted, she knew the rules were in place for a reason, to keep everyone safe, but Abigail didn't know what all they involved, only that the gates were shut at night and there was a magical barrier in place to make Wonderful impenetrable.
"Why don't you like his rules? Are they really that difficult?" Maybe she could get an outside perspective to the type of man Taker was since she hardly knew him.
"Mmm, depends, I guess. I'm a difficult man, I guess." Dean's smile didn't quite reach his eyes as he studied her. "You're getting in that circle of his, aren't you, babe?" He asked quietly, a bit bothered by that actually. "Why is that?" She asked him a lot of questions, but she hadn't really told him much about her, at least not verbally. Her facial expressions and tones were telling him quite a bit, however.
"Maybe? I don't know." Frankly, Abigail didn't think she was part of that group because they didn't trust her, for obvious reasons. "I don't think I am though, honestly. They don't trust me…and I understand why to an extent, but I've also been honest with them about everything. It's just…frustrating, I guess. I feel alone here, and helpless because I know what needs to be done, but nobody will take the leap, the jump, the risk." Maybe she was wrong about Taker being the savior of her people, the hope. "And for the record, you don't seem that bad, Ambrose." Abigail nudged him playfully with her arm, cracking a smile at him. "There shouldn't be circles and tight knit groups, not when it comes to running an entire town like this. Everyone should be treated equally, but that's just my opinion."
"Oh man, I bet Taker hates having you around!" Dean started laughing, slapping his knee with mirth as he took her in. She looked so confused and he leaned down to kiss her forehead, a loud, smacking kiss. "Babe, babe, babe…" He shook his head, took a pull off his cigarette and began laughing again. "God… you know what needs to be done, huh? Lemme guess, Taker says no because it wasn't his idea, right? Or it involves magic? I bet it's both, you got that look on your face, Abs. I love that look."
"Okay…"
Now Abigail was a little wigged out and stood up from the rock, distancing herself from him with guarded eyes. As far as she knew, nobody outside of that meeting in the tower was aware of who she truly was. How did this man know about magic if he wasn't in Taker's circle? Wouldn't that be something Taker kept under wraps? Just who was this Dean Ambrose and what was his game?
