"Ya okay?" Charlotte asked as she slowly approached Daryl.
The confrontation with her brother had not gone well. After confirming they'd left Merle on the rooftop, Daryl had predictably gone after Rick, only to be wrestled to the ground by Shane.
A lot of screaming and yelling pursued and to Charlotte's surprise, Annabelle had been the loudest. The moment Shane got Daryl to the ground, the little girl had flown at him, screaming for him to let 'Darie' go.
Charlotte had been stunned, and it had taken Shane pushing the little girl away for her to finally move. She'd snatched Annabelle up and taken her kicking and screaming into the RV.
By the time she'd gotten her calmed down it had been decided that Rick would be returning to the city with Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dogg to rescue Merle. Once she'd gotten Annabelle down for a nap, she'd emerged from the RV to find them preparing to go back.
Glancing up as he cleaned his bolts, Daryl glared at her, "Just fucking peachy," he retorted.
"Look, I know you're upset Merle was left behind, but I didn't fucking leave him there."
"Ya said your brother was dead."
Blinking, she wrinkled her nose, "I thought he was," she hissed, "Why are ya so pissed at me?" she asked, confused.
Looking past her to Glenn backing up the box truck he stood up, "I gotta go. I get back, I want ya out," he said motioning towards the tent before stalking off down to the truck.
Completely bewildered she turned and watched him climb up into the truck, "What the fuck?" she muttered as they drove away.
She contemplated moving her and Annabelle's stuff from his tent. For all of five minutes she thought about it, but then she got pissed. She didn't understand why he was so angry with her, and until he explained it to her, she wasn't going anywhere. She wasn't about to turn tail and run from him.
Instead, she went back down to the RV, so she'd be close by when Annabelle woke from her nap.
"Hey, ya want to come down to the quarry with us?" Amy asked, hauling a Tupperware bin of dirty clothes out of the RV.
"Oh, Belle's sleeping," she began.
"I can keep an ear out for her," Dale cut in, "Ed's gonna drive ya all down," he said, gesturing towards where Carol and Andrea were busy loading more bins of dirty laundry into the back of Ed and Carol's jeep Cherokee, "So I'm takin over watch for him. I'll hear her if she wakes up."
Looking at Amy's hopeful face, Charlotte found herself agreeing to go down to the quarry to do laundry, "Don't ya have any you need to do?" Amy asked, picking up the Tupperware bin and heading for the jeep.
"I don't have that much yet. Daryl and I went down there the day before he left to go hunting," she answered.
"Dixon doing laundry," Ed snickered.
Turning to the man, Charlotte scoffed, "Yeah, Ed. Real men help their women. They don't just treat them as subservient slaves."
"Better watch your mouth," he told her, yanking open the driver's side door and climbing inside.
"Sorry Carol," she apologized, softly.
Pressing her lips together, Carol nodded, hurrying to the passenger side.
"He's such a dick," Andrea whispered before opening the back door. Squishing into the back with Andrea and Jacqui with Amy practically sitting in her lap, Ed drove them down to the quarry. Once there the women unloaded the bins, carrying them down to the water's edge while Ed sat his ass on the back tailgate of the jeep and watched them.
Annoyed, Charlotte kicked her shoes off, rolled her pant legs up, and plopped her ass down on an overturned bucket, "Give me that scrub brush."
They'd worked out a system with Charlotte, Amy, and Carol scrubbing the clothes while Andrea and Jacqui rinsed them. She was halfway through her bin of clothes when she heard a splash from the other side of the quarry. Looking up she saw Shane splashing around with Carl.
"I'm beginning to question the division of labor here," Jacqui commented as she too watched Shane and Carl playing across the water, "I mean can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?"
"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" Amy laughed.
"It's just the way it is," Carol said, glancing over her shoulder to where Ed still sat smoking a cigarette on the tailgate of the jeep.
"Not in my world," Charlotte muttered, scrubbing at a stain. So focused on scrubbing the jeans it took her a second to realize Amy was nudging her. Looking up she saw her nod her head across the quarry.
Following her eye line, she saw what had caught the blonde's attention. Lori and Shane were clearly arguing with one another. Watching them she looked for any signs that they were still involved. When her sister-in-law stomped away Charlotte decided Shane was probably telling her the truth.
"I do miss my Maytag," Carol said, pulling Charlotte's attention back to the women around her.
"I miss my camera," she told them.
"I miss my coffee maker with that dual drip filter and built-in grinder, honey," Jacqui laughed, closing her eyes as she imagined it.
"My computer. I miss texting," Amy added, mournfully.
"I miss my vibrator," Andrea chimed in.
Laughing, Charlotte flicked water at her, "I don't have that issue," she stated, causing the others to laugh.
"Bitch," she responded, winking as she kicked water back at Charlotte hitting both Charlotte and Amy.
"Hey!" Amy exclaimed, laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Just swapping war stories, Ed," Andrea answered over her shoulder before turning around and rolling her eyes.
"Do you have a problem, Ed?" Charlotte questioned, when the man stood watching them.
"Nothin that concerns you and you outta focus on your work. 'Bout time you pitch in with everyone else."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, throwing her scrub brush back into her bucket and standing up.
"It means we can't all trade favors for ya to be doing our laundry and cookin our meals," he sneered.
Gasping, she would've moved to slap him, but Amy stood too quickly, blocking her path, "He's not worth it, Charlie. Ain't nobody's business what's goin between you and Daryl."
Glaring at the man, Andrea picked up a wet shirt bawling it up as she walked closer to the man, "Tell ya what, Ed, you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself," she told him, throwing the wet blob at him.
"Ain't my job, missy," he fired back, throwing the shirt back in her face.
"Andrea, don't," Amy warned, moving away from Charlotte to stop her sister.
"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" Andrea questioned, angrily.
"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart mouthed bitches," he responded, flicking his gaze over both Andrea and Charlotte, "Tell ya what. Come on. Let's go," he called for Carol with a snap of his fingers.
"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed."
"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now," he repeated, glaring at his wife.
"Carol, you don't gotta listen to him."
"Andrea, please it doesn't matter," Carol whispered.
"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just cause you're some college educated cooze, all right? And you, I ain't afraid of Dixon. You keep gettin in my business, you're gonna regret it," he threatened, pointing a meaty finger at Charlotte, "Now you come on now or you're gonna regret it later," he warned Carol.
"So, she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed? Yeah, we've seen them," Jacqui spoke up disgusted.
"Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of ya'll's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on," he demanded, grabbing Carol by the arm and yanking her to him.
Everything happened so fast, Charlotte wasn't sure what exactly happened. All she knew was that the moment Ed backhanded Carol, she and Andrea, both launched themselves at him, as Amy pulled Carol away.
She knew how to take care of herself. She'd been trained young by both her father and her brother. Growing up with both Rick and Shane, she'd been taught how to fight. The first rule was to keep a clear focused head.
However, she was too pissed off to listen to that rule today. Using her anger with Daryl, her anger with Shane, and her anger with Ed, she simply started swinging anywhere she could reach. She knew she landed a few blows as he was busy fighting off Andrea too.
Blinded by her anger, she didn't see his fist come up, till it landed on the side of her face causing her to stumble back and hit the ground. She wasn't sure if she'd lost time or not, but the next thing she knew Shane was there dragging Ed away while Amy was next to her pressing a wet cold shirt from the laundry to her face.
"I'm fine."
"He just hit you," Amy responded, glancing over her shoulder, "Shane's gonna kill him."
Lifting her head, Charlotte blinked at the sight of Shane on the ground pounding on Ed. Normally she would've said Ed was getting what he deserved, but despite everything Carol was crying in Jacqui's arms for her husband.
"Help me up," she told Amy, taking Amy's hand as she helped her to her feet. A little unsteady on her feet, she held onto Amy as they made their way to the two men, "Shane! Shane, stop now!"
She didn't dare touch him, as blinded as she was by her anger, Shane was twice as bad. She didn't fancy risking a second punch to the face, so she took the wet shirt Amy still had pressed to her face, bawled it up, and threw it at Shane.
Growling, he paused mid punch and lifted his head to glare at her, "That's enough," she told him sternly, "He's had enough," she said, looking down at Ed's bloody face.
Blinking, Shane looked down at Ed, "Ya put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time," he warned, "I'll beat ya to death, Ed," he told him plain and simple. Standing, he left Ed and moved towards Charlotte, "Let's go," he said scooping her up into his arms.
"Shane, I can walk," she muttered as he headed up the hill to camp with Amy hurrying alongside him.
"Coco, if I put ya down I'm gonna go back there and finish what I started," he told her.
"Dear Lord, what happened?" Lori cried, catching sight of Shane carrying Charlotte back into camp.
"There was a fight with Ed," Amy answered, "Charlotte got hit by accident tryin to protect Carol."
"Dip a rag in some water," Shane instructed, carrying Charlotte to the RV, "Side of her face is already bruising. And someone may want to get some first aid ready for when Ed brings his sorry ass back to camp," he said over his shoulder.
Through the commotion of getting Charlotte inside the RV, resting with a cool cloth, Annabelle woke up from her nap. "I'll watch her," Amy offered, picking the little girl up, "You get some rest," she told Charlotte before leaving the RV with Annabelle on her hip.
"I don't think you should sleep," Lori said, laying the cloth over Charlotte's cheek, "There's a chance of concussion."
Humming, Charlotte laid back on the small bed, closing her eyes, "I'm fine. Wake me up every, like, hour or something."
Clucking her tongue, Lori sighed, "Fine. How bad is Ed?"
Keeping her eyes closed, Charlotte huffed, "He would've killed him had I not told him to stop," opening her eyes at Lori's silence, she looked at her sister-in-law, "Shane's always had a temper. You knew that," she reminded her.
Biting her lip, she nodded, "I know."
"Did you think stopping a relationship with him, even if my brother hadn't come back from the dead, would be easy?"
"Charlotte."
"No, I don't want to hear it. I already had this conversation with him. I'll keep your secret, for Rick and Carl, but word to the wise, Rick ain't stupid. Ya keep arguing with Shane like ya did down at that quarry and he's gonna notice something."
Pressing her lips together, Lori simply nodded before standing, "I'll check on ya in an hour," she said, walking out of the RV.
"What tangled web we weave," Charlotte whispered, closing her eyes.
