Just a short one to round out the weekend. Happy Sunday!

Chapter 24 - Jane Doe

"Woods?"

Tahlia looked up in surprise as Daryl pulled up on his bike next to her while she was on her knees at the veggie patch.

He shifted awkwardly for a moment, almost wishing that he hadn't come to ask her, wondering if it was too much too soon. God, it had only been a couple of days since he'd last taken her out there. "Gonna go huntin'. Just thought maybe-"

"Yeah. I want to come." She cut him off as she wiped her hands on her pants and shouldered her katana, jumping on the bike behind him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tight. "And you're overdue for your daily-"

"Girl!" he barked, throwing an elbow back to try and dislodge her arms from him.

"'Kay, while we're tryin' to hunt, I need you to-"

"Crash along through the woods behind you, make heaps of noise and flush the animals out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know how this works."

The look on Daryl's face at that was priceless, and Tahlia chuckled.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

Eyeing her up dubiously, Daryl wondered how much he'd regret bringing her out here today. Usually he didn't like to bring anyone hunting with him because they were such an obvious presence to both him and the animals and he found it seriously irritating, so was already mentally preparing himself for an infuriating and unsuccessful hunting trip.

He turned out to be pleasantly surprised at how quiet she was, and how well she blended into the environment. Her footfalls were light and mindful, her movements carefully calculated, her breathing low and slow and near silent. More than once he had to turn and check that she was actually still with him and he hadn't lost her somewhere along the way. But she was always right there, following without question.

Who would have guessed that she would be someone he could actually tolerate hunting with?

As they trekked further on, Tahlia was lost in thought, when Daryl reached out and curled a hand around her arm, making her jump. She looked up at him, questioning, only to see him pressing a finger to his lips. Pushing her gently, he steered her to the side of a tree trunk, then pointed through the trees ahead. It took Tahlia a few moments to find what had caught his attention. Finally she spotted a black-tipped bushy tail at the mouth of a hollow log – a grey fox curled inside the log, with 3 new pups rolling around on top of her. Tahlia's eyes widened in delight as she watched the little balls of fluff wriggling about. It took Daryl three attempts to drag her away from the scene before he had any success.

"They were so cute." mused Tahlia. "Do you think we could-"

"Naw." Daryl cut her off.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask!"

"I know the answer is naw."

Tahlia frowned at him, then her expression softened as she thought about the foxes again.

"Stop it." Daryl elbowed her.

"What?"

"Can see ya goin' all gooey eyed over there."

"Me? Nooo. Not over that beautiful mama fox, Loxy, and her tiny little gorgeous babies, Fantastic, Michael J, and Gandalf! Definitely not."

Daryl clapped a hand to his forehead. "Y'ain't namin' 'em! They're wild animals!"

Tahlia gave a helpless shrug. "It's already done."

"Girl, you are a lost cause."

Daryl had caught the trail of a deer, and was carefully tracking it deeper into the woods, as Tahlia dutifully followed along silently behind him, eyes on the ground, lost in her head. Continually glancing back to check on her, Daryl could see that she was in a dream and didn't even register him looking at her half the time - he began to wonder if she'd even notice if they got separated. When fretting over her outweighed his ability to concentrate on the deer's trail, he turned and stopped short and, as expected, she bumped right into him, her gaze flicking straight up to his, startled.

Catching her elbow with one hand, Daryl lifted his other, crooked a finger and pressed it under her chin firmly, tilting her head up. Then he gave her a small but sharp double tap on the cheek, and finally with two fingers, pointed to her eyes, then out at their surroundings.

Pay attention.

Tahlia's eyes widened and she drew her lips into her mouth guiltily and gave him a quick nod and salute. With a frown on his face, he just shook his head, but gave her arm a little squeeze at the same time and she knew he wasn't mad. She felt so safe with him that it was easy for her to get complacent, but still, she did her best to concentrate from that point onwards, more from the fear that if he caught her daydreaming again, he might not want to bring her back out here with him. And already, spending this time alone with him in what seemed to be his natural environment was quickly becoming her favourite thing to do.

A couple of hours later, Daryl was shouldering the small doe that he'd finally shot and he turned back to see Tahlia staring at him with wide-eyed dismay. He quickly looked around, wondering what had upset her.

"What?"

"You killed her!" exclaimed Tahlia, pointing at the doe.

Daryl stared at her for a second, trying to figure out if she was serious. "Yeah?"

"Why would you do that?!"

"Ya do know what the point of huntin' is, right? Think we were trackin' this deer for fun? What did ya think was gonna happen?"

"Well," Tahlia shrugged helplessly, "-thought maybe we would just capture her, take her back to the prison and she could live with Butter and the other goats happily ever after."

Daryl couldn't help but laugh at her childlike reasoning, which only made her pout even more.

"You are too goddamned soft, girl." he told her as he walked past. And too goddamned cute. "We got a lotta mouths to feed back at the prison. Need this."

"I know." replied Tahlia with a dramatic sigh as she fell into step beside him. "I'm sure I'll get desensitised to it real soon and become a cold, heartless beast, just like you."

With a lopsided grin, Daryl aimed a kick at her leg. "Doubt it. You gonna be soft and sweet as cotton candy 'til the end of your days."

Tahlia wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"What?" asked Daryl, as he caught her expression, his own misting with something unreadable as he squinted at her. "I love cotton candy."

He saw her eyebrows flicker a little at that, and his lips twitched with a smile as he picked up his pace and pushed on ahead of her through the woods back towards the bike.

Standing next to the Triumph, Tahlia propped her hands on her hips.

"Uh, so how's that chick getting home?" She nudged her head at the doe.

"Hold her legs." Daryl instructed as he sat on the bike and laid the deer across his lap.

"You're kidding."

He wasn't.

Reluctantly, Tahlia slid on behind him and grabbed hold of the dead animal's legs. "Don't worry, Jane Doe, I've got you."

"Tahly!" Daryl shouted in exasperation. "Swear to Gawd, if you keep namin' every damn animal we come across, I'ma fire a bolt straight into your ass!"

He could feel her shaking with laughter behind him, and he glanced back over his shoulder, trying to bite back a smile. "Rule number 1 of becoming a cold, heartless beast: Don't name the food. Got it?"

"Yes boss." she giggled.