A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters in any way, shape or form.
TRIGGER ALERT: While not in every chapter there are chapters that mention rape and/or abuse.
Chapter 21
Adrian woke the next morning to sunshine and birds singing cheerfully outside. The sunshine and bird songs were a stark contrast to the dark clouds and pounding rain that had been going on for the last two days, but not an unwelcome change. Adrian had thoroughly enjoyed hers and Daryl's little getaway but she also knew that it was time for them to go back to the prison and back to reality.
But while she also knew that they had to get back to the prison, there was no need to rush it. There was no telling when they might get to come back so she was in no hurry to grab their things and charge out the door. She could feel Daryl pressed against her back and knew that he was still asleep because she could hear his deep rhythmic breathing. It was rare that she would wake up before he did, he seemed to wake up before even the worms, nevermind the early birds. She would've turned around so she could watch him as he slept, as creepy as that sounded, but she knew that if she moved at this time of the morning that there was a very high chance that he'd wake up.
Adrian laid there and enjoyed the peaceful sounds around her. She closed her eyes and would shift her focus to different things, the birds chirping and singing, the fresh air and sunshine, even Daryl's peaceful breathing. She had needed this and she hadn't even known it. She hadn't known that she needed to get away from the prison that had claimed the lives of so many of their friends in a single day. She hadn't known that she needed to get away from it all, but Daryl had.
She opened her eyes as she remembered everything that had happened the night before. She remembered her and Daryl making poker into a drinking game. She remembered how Daryl had finally asked her how exactly her son had died, a story that only she had known until that moment. And she remembered telling him that she had loved him. She wasn't embarrassed that she had told him, wasn't regretting her decision to tell him how she felt, because she knew that she had made the right decision. In this world literally any moment could be their last so they couldn't afford to leave words unspoken.
Rick and Lori were a perfect example of that.
Rick had spent so many months hating his wife and then suddenly she was just gone. He didn't get a chance to resolve anything with her or even get closure because she had died so suddenly. Adrian didn't realize that she had learned from their example about leaving things unspoken or unresolved, but clearly she had. She knew Daryl may not have been ready to hear her confession but she had been ready to tell him.
She heard Daryl's deep inhale, indicating that he had just woken up, even if he hadn't moved yet. "Sun's out today. Gonna have to head back in a few hours." she whispered, her voice sounding loud in the quiet shack. Daryl hummed his agreement, not unhappy that they had to head back to the group but he could admit to himself that he was disappointed that their alone time had come to an end. They hadn't had this much time alone since the farm, and even then it was only during the nights that they were really alone.
Daryl had brought Adrian out here with the intension of helping clear her head of all of the dark and depressing thoughts that were causing her nightmares, but it seemed that he had needed to get away just as much as she had. He may not have been there when any of their friends had died, unlike Adrian who had to help Maggie deliver Ass Kicker, which had killed Lori, but he had been part of the group that had found T-Dog's body and Carol's scarf. He may not have shown how much their deaths had effected him like the others had, but he did feel their absence. He hadn't realized how much their deaths had effected him until he and Adrian had left the fences of the prison. Once they had entered the woods he had felt a sort of calm peace fall over him. He was sad that they were gone, sure, but he also knew that their lives were more than just how they had died. He had heard Adrian tell Oscar and Axel that the best way to keep their dead friends alive was to remember them as they were, not as they had been after their deaths and that's what he was going to do for Carol, T-Dog, and Lori.
Adrian got up to use the small bathroom before Daryl got up and did the same. When Daryl stepped out of the bathroom he seen Adrian standing at one of the intact windows, just looking outside. Whether she was actually seeing anything outside of that window was a different story.
"I think we should go ahead and head back. I'm sure the others are getting antsy and I'm ready to see and hold Ass Kicker." she told him, turning to him as she told him.
Daryl couldn't find a reason that they shouldn't go ahead and head back so he told her he agreed. Daryl could admit that he was disappointed that he wouldn't get to see her walking around in nothing but her panties and his shirts for what was likely to be a very long time. She gave him back his shirt and pulled on the faded blue jean shorts and black tank top that she had packed. Daryl pulled on the extra jeans and light grey button up that he had brought along while Adrian packed up what little food they had yet to eat and their full water bottles.
Adrian was already outside by the time Daryl shouldered his pack and walked out the shack, closing the door behind him. Adrian reached out her hand for him to take, which he did, before they turned to look at the tiny shack they hoped they could visit more often. "I remember everything I said last night." she said, turning to look at him as she said the words. She could visibly see him stiffen at her words and she couldn't even begin to imagine which of the many scenarios he had running through his head.
"I want you to know that even though that I was on the shallow end of the drunk pool that I not only remember everything that I said, but that I meant every word I said too. I do love you Daryl. I realized it the first day we were here, so don't think that I only said any of that stuff because I was drunk. And don't feel like you're letting me down because you can't say it back right now because I know that you care for me and I'm looking forward to the day that you can tell me that you love me too." she told him.
Daryl had been thinking about what she had told him the night before as he had been looking back at the shack. He was still carrying a healthy dose of denial at her words, but he was slowly coming to accept that her words were true, because what reason would she have to lie to him about something like that. Daryl didn't know what to say so he settled on a simple nod of the head to tell her that he understood.
They turned and left the clearing, heading back to the prison where the rest of their group, their family, was most likely eagerly awaiting their return.
TWD
They were two miles into their journey back when Adrian spoke. "I can't believe how much I miss Ass Kicker after only a few days away. I even miss hearing Glenn trying to defend his awful taste in superhero movies." she chuckled. Something she had said made Daryl curious about something, and what possessed him to ask his next question, he would never know.
"Do you ever think about havin' any more kids?" he asked. Adrian jerked to a halt at his sudden and unexpected question. She turned and gave him a very confused look. "You getting an itch I need to know about, Daryl?" she asked, wondering where his question had come from. The horrified look that settled onto his face as his brain registered her question made her smile. "Hell no!" he said loudly. "Then why do you want to know if I want any more kids or not?" she asked. It wasn't like this was a topic Daryl of all people was likely to start, so she was genuinely curious as to how he had even gotten onto the topic of children. "You just really seem to eager to get back to Ass Kicker. Not to mention that we haven't been usin' protection or anything the last few days." he told her, a little embarrassed that he even had to point that fact out.
It had never occurred to him before that moment that they had never once used protection and they had been fairly active over the last few days. He may not want any kids, hell for all he knew Adrian didn't either, but it may be too late for either of them to have a say in that matter at this point. The thought of him becoming a father formed a pit in his stomach. If he had to pick a person least ready to be a father in what was left of this world, it would be him. He didn't know a damn thing about kids. Sure he interacted with Carl, but Carl wasn't his.
And not only was he not ready, hell he may never be ready, to have kids, but the topic also brought Lori to mind. He knew that if, God forbid, Adrian got pregnant and she was put in the same position as Lori had been that she would do the exact same as Lori. He knew that Adrian would do anything for a child that she loved, especially one of her own, and if it came down to her trading her life so that her child could live, that she wouldn't hesitate to do it. And if he had ever lost Adrian the same way that Rick had lost Lori, he didn't know what he might do.
Sure the situations would probably be different in that Daryl couldn't see himself hating Adrian, but if she had to die so that their child could live, he wasn't sure that he wouldn't end up hating the child that took the life of the woman that he could possibly some day love. He would like to think that he was man enough to love a child that they could possibly make together, but he also knew himself well enough that he couldn't say with 100% certainty that he wouldn't hate it if she had to die for it.
Hell, he knew himself well enough to know that he would hate anything that ever took her away from him permanently.
Adrian seen the troubled look on Daryl's face as he fell deeper and deeper into his thoughts. She could only guess where his out of control thoughts were spiraling to and knew that if she didn't put a stop to it soon that he would find time to always worry about it. She released his hand that she had been holding, which he didn't even seem to notice, and placed both her her hands on his face.
The feel of her touching his face seemed to snap him out of his thoughts because she seen his eyes clear of the glazed look they had just had but his face was no less troubled that it had been a second ago.
"What's got you so troubled?" she asked him.
"Just thinking about everything we've been doin' the last few days and that whether we want kids or not that you could already be pregnant. And after what happened to Lori..." he trailed off.
That was all he could make himself tell her. He wasn't brave enough to tell her that if they ended up like Lori and Rick that he probably wouldn't be able to make himself love the thing that took her from him.
"To answer your first question, no. I've known for a long time that I didn't want any more children after Seth. And to put your very worried mind to rest, you don't have to worry about me possibly being pregnant because we haven't been taking precautions. I decided a few years ago that I didn't want any more children after Seth, so I went and had my tubes tied. I've always been aware that we weren't using protection whenever we've been together. I love you, and in a perfect world I may rethink my standing on any more children, but this isn't a perfect world, or even the one we had before, and as we both know, having a baby in this world is most likely a death sentence. Ass Kicker may not be mine but I love her and am more than willing to help raise her." she told him.
Daryl would never admit how much relief he felt at her words. Not only had she been aware of their actions but she had decided long before she met him that she didn't want any more children. She was just as aware of the possible deadly results having a baby could be now, but she also didn't have to worry about it because she had dealt with the issue long before they had even met.
"So you have nothing to worry about. This lady's baby factory is permanently closed for business. Besides, can you even imagine the horror the group would feel if they ever found out that there could possibly be a tiny version of you and me running around?" she asked, a large grin on her face at the thought.
She smiled even wider at the loud laugh Daryl gave at the same thought.
TWD
Everyone was relieved to see them when they returned. Someone must have been on lookout, most likely it was Glenn and Maggie since they seemed to spend the most time in the guard tower, because everyone, with the exception of Rick, was out in the courtyard when they locked the fence up behind them. They suffered through a lot of welcoming hugs, which Adrian quickly put a stop to once she laid eyes on Ass Kicker. She quickly took the infant from Beth and began to talk to the very curious baby.
They all watched as Ass Kicker kept her eyes locked onto Adrian as she promised to sing and read to the baby all she wanted to make up for the long time that she had been away. "Where the hell did you guys go, we were about to send out a search party if you had been gone much longer?" Glenn asked them, partly joking some of his worry away. They had all been through a lot recently and Daryl and Adrian suddenly packing up and leaving for a few days had them all a little worried for the simple fact that they were out of each others sights and didn't know if they were really safe or not.
Adrian looked up from the baby to give Glenn a somewhat mocking look. "Glenn, we've only been gone a few days. Of any of us, Daryl and me are probably the most likely to survive by ourselves out in the wilderness. And as far as the search party goes, I would've paid money to watch that. Most of you can barely track, if at all, so watching you guys chase your tails trying to find us out in the woods would've been hilarious. Chances are that if a search party had been sent out we either would have found you first or we would be sent back out to find you." she said.
Everyone laughed at the statement because all of her points were true. If anyone was comfortable in the woods it was Adrian and Daryl, and besides Rick, they were the best trackers in the group so sending out a search party to look for them seemed a little silly. They all retreated inside where Beth had just finished making breakfast when Maggie had come inside and told them all that Daryl and Adrian were on their way back.
"Where's Rick?" Daryl asked Hershel.
"He's been in the tunnels mostly. He's come out a few times in the day's you've been gone, but not much." the old man told him.
Once they were all inside, Daryl brought his and Adrian's packs up to the cell that held all of their belongings. Adrian, who was still holding Ass Kicker, walked with him as she spoke to the energetic baby. Adrian followed Daryl into their cell as he threw their packs onto the floor. He turned to see her silently looking at him as she gently bounced the baby in her arms.
"Thank you, for bringing me out there. It really did help. Being away from here for a few days, it makes me look at it a little differently now. Now it's not just the place that we lost T-Dog, Lori, and Carol, but the place where our family eagerly waits for us to return whenever we leave. I don't think I ever would've looked at this place differently if I had just locked myself into another cell block, so thank you." she told him softly.
She could admit that when Daryl had told her that they were leaving for a few days to help clear her head of the haunting memories that were causing her nightmares, she had been skeptical at best. But it really had helped her and she'd be forever grateful to Daryl for that. Discovering that she was in love with him and all of the sex they had indulged in while there was just an added bonus.
"You ain't gotta thank me for that. Somethin' needed to be done about you're nightmares and I knew I could help, so I did. If it had really come down to locking you in another cell block 'til they went away, I wasn't gonna let you go alone, no matter how much you bitched about it." he told her.
Adrian was giving him that soft smile that he loved so much. It may seem like something small to some but to Daryl there was so much meaning and emotion put into that soft, tiny smile. Adrian's attention instantly turned to the tiny human in her arms when the baby jerked suddenly and gave a short whine.
Adrian's soft smile never left her face as her attention was redirected. Daryl simply just stood there and watched Adrian as she interacted with the baby. Despite all of his reservations towards having kids of his own, a fact he now knew was impossible at best, he had to admit that Adrian looked damn good holding that baby. He could tell just by watching her that she had once had a baby of her own. She was just too damn good with the kids to never have had any of her own.
Daryl had heard people say how so-and-so looked good holding a baby, and while he understood the meaning of the phrase had never really understood it before. Then again many things had changed in the years since he had first heard the saying. His life had changed in so many ways in just the last year alone, and even though the overall situation was shit, he could admit to himself that he much preferred his life now to how it used to be. Before he didn't really matter, to anyone. If he had died nobody would've cared, aside from Merle maybe but even that wouldn't have lasted long he was sure. But now, God forbid anything ever happen to him, these people who everyone now considered family, would be crushed by his loss, just like they all felt with all of their fallen friends.
Adrian looked up from Ass Kicker and seen the expression that Daryl was giving her. It wasn't a specific look, no. No this look held so many emotions that Adrian couldn't really pin down just one. "What's with the look?" she asked him. Adrian voice seemed to snap Daryl out of whatever fog he had been in because he blinked a few times before he took the few steps needed to stand right in front of her. Daryl gently placed his hand on top of Ass Kicker's head before he looked at Adrian.
"I just remembered how I always thought people were full a shit when they would say somebody looked good holdin' a baby. But then again I didn't really care back then either. But seein' you hold Ass Kicker, I understand what they meant. You really do look good holdin' her." he told her.
Adrian knew he was being serious but she couldn't help but tease him a little, especially after the conversation they had on the way back to the prison.
"Well let me tell you, seein' you holding Ass Kicker the day she was born, made me want to drop my panties for you right there. Watchin' you ooh and aww over her while you fed her her first meal, with that bashful smile of yours, I wouldn't be surprised if every woman in the room that night had an orgasm on the spot." she teased him, the grin on her face mischievously wicked. Daryl scoffed at her teasing but decided that he wanted the last word. Adrian was expecting him to just leave the cell after teasing him. What she wasn't expecting was for him to kiss the breath right out of her.
Daryl had never really kissed her like that when the others were around or close by before but after their days of self-imposed insolation he had to admit he loved the dazed look she always got on her face when he would kiss her like that. Daryl smirked when he pulled away to see that same dazed expression on her face.
By the time Adrian came back to her senses, Daryl was gone.
TWD
They were all sitting around eating a simple meal of oatmeal in the common area. Glenn, Maggie, Carl, Hershel, and Beth, who was now holding Ass Kicker, were all sitting at a table while Daryl sat on a set of steps and Adrian was sitting between his legs. Oscar was standing beside the steps instead of sitting and Axel was nowhere to be found.
Everyone was eating in silence until a gruff voice broke it. "Is everyone okay?" Rick asked a second before the sound of the door to the dark hallways were stopped eating as Rick came into the room. He was clean, so either he had cleaned up or had been hiding somewhere where walkers weren't an issue. "Yeah, we are." Maggie answered him. Daryl and Adrian may have been gone for a few days but from the way everyone was acting, it was a safe bet to say it had been a while since they had last seen Rick.
"I just wanted to come check on Carl and the baby." Rick said as he placed his hand on his son's shoulder and looked at his daughter. It seemed that while Rick had come to accept his daughter, he was still fighting to accept that the wife that he had spent so long hating was really gone. Adrian could only imagine how much that was tearing Rick up inside. He still loved Lori, he had never stopped, but he had spent so long ignoring their issues instead of working them out. And now that Lori was dead, there was no way for Rick to be able to work through everything he had hated her for, no way for him to find closure.
Rick left the table and walked towards Adrian and Daryl, although Adrian really knew it was Daryl that he wanted to talk to. "I want everyone armed with a gun and a knife, got it?" Rick told him. The order seemed a little stupid to Adrian, carrying anything less than a gun and a knife minimum could possibly get you killed, but she didn't say anything. "Yeah. We're runnin' low on ammo though." Daryl told him.
"Maggie and I were planning on going on a run. Found a place in the phone book. Some place we could look for bullets and baby formula." Glenn told him.
"Breakfast of champions. I'll come too." Adrian said in response to Glenn's statement.
"The generator room's been cleared out. Axel's in there now trying to fix it, in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels today too." Daryl told Rick.
"Good." Rick said before he turned and left, the sounds of his boot heels hitting the floor as he closed the door behind him and left.
Glenn looked over at Adrian who was spooning the last bit of her oatmeal into her mouth.
"You don't have to come, you know. Maggie and I can handle it. It's just a simple run, the place isn't even that far from here." Glenn told her.
"Don't be ridiculous. The more people out there to keep an eye on each other the better. Besides, there's more than enough people here to do what needs to be done." Adrian told him.
They had just gotten back to the prison not even a full hour ago and already Adrian was volunteering to leave again. But Adrian's and Daryl's trip had been more pleasure than business for them, so to help make up for it she was willing to go on the run with the young couple to make sure nothing went wrong or something important was missed. And quite frankly the couple could use a little less alone time together in her opinion.
Glenn told her that they were going to leave once everyone was done with breakfast and Adrian nodded that she understood. Once everyone had finished their breakfast and the few dishes were washed everyone went their separate ways. Maggie, Glenn, and Adrian armed up for their run, Adrian deciding to leave her bow behind since she was taking not only her gun and machete but her knife as well. Everyone said their goodbye's before the three got into the vehicle they were taking and drove away.
Once the gates were closed behind them Daryl decided it was time to start checking the lower levels. There was no telling how long it might take, especially since they were all going to be going at a slow and cautious pace. Daryl decided to take Oscar and Carl since Rick was still in hiding, Hershel was now crippled, and Beth was taking care of Ass Kicker. They were walking down the dark hallways when a noise caught their attention. It was a door to one of the solitary cells. The door was barely moving, but enough for them to notice.
"Must have missed it when we were down here last." Oscar said as they watched the door barely open before it would close again, only for the motion to be repeated. "It's probably only one or two of 'em. Don't look like they got much fight in 'em." Daryl said as he pushed back against the door. Deciding that it wasn't an immediate threat, Daryl moved past the door. He noticed that Carl was distracted and whistled at him to catch his attention. Daryl couldn't say that there was a lot that he had in common with Carl but he did know one thing that might help Carl relate to him, to let the kid know he wasn't alone.
"You know, my mom liked her wine. Liked to smoke in bed too. Virginia Slims. I was playin' with the kids out in the neighborhood, I could do that with Merle gone. They had bikes, I didn't. We heard sirens, heard them gettin' louder so they jumped on their bikes, hopin' to see somethin' worth seein'. I ran after them but I couldn't keep up. I ran around the corner to see my friends lookin' at me, hell, everybody was lookin' at me. Fire trucks everywhere, people from the neighborhood. It was my house they were there for. It was my mom in bed, burnt down to nothin'. That was the hard part, she was just gone, erased. Nothin' left of her. Just made it seem like it wasn't real, ya know." Daryl told him. He may not have lost his mother in the same way that Carl had, but he had lost his mother all the same, so he could kind of understand what the boy was going through.
Carl sigh, making Daryl turn to look at the boy. "I shot my mom. Well, I wanted to shoot her, on my own, ya know. But Adrian wouldn't let me do it, said that shooting a person you love isn't as easy as it sounds. I didn't believe her at first, but the longer I stood there the more I understood what she had been trying to tell me. My mom was dead, could turn any second, but the longer I looked at her the more I knew that I couldn't do it, not on my own. She helped me shoot my mom so she wouldn't turn. We ended it. It was real." Carl told him.
Both Carl and Daryl looked down, both knowing that that day had been felt by all of them.
"Sorry about your mom." Carl told Daryl. Daryl leaned down so he could catch the boy's attention. "Sorry about yours." Daryl told him. They had decided that that was enough talking for now and continued to look for any walkers that they had missed in their first sweep.
TWD
The silence in the SUV didn't last long after they left the prison. Glenn was driving while Maggie was sitting in the passenger seat beside him. Adrian had opted for the back seat, knowing that the couple would take the front seats. Adrian was looking out the window when she heard Maggie speak.
"You look better." she said.
At first Adrian didn't realize that the words were meant for her, but once the words registered with her she turned her attention to the young brunette.
"Yeah. I guess Daryl had the right idea in getting away from the prison for a bit." Adrian told her.
"Where'd he take you?" Glenn asked her, looking at her in the rearview mirror.
"A little moonshine shack a few miles from the prison." she told them.
"Moonshine? Did you drink any?" Glenn asked her, a little surprised to find something as mundane as moonshine these days.
"Well, Daryl called it moonshine. I called it paint thinner. That shit was pretty potent. Not to be taken in large doses." Adrian said, silently laughing.
"What all did you guys do there? I mean, you couldn't have gotten out much since that rainstorm blew in." Glenn asked her.
Adrian's green eyes met his brown ones in the mirror and he knew he had made a mistake in asking when he seen the wicked grin spread across her face.
"A lady never kisses and tells, Glenn. But if you really want to know..." Adrian trailed off, enjoying teasing the young man.
"No! No, really, I'm good. I swear, I don't need to hear what you guys got up to while you were gone." Glenn quickly answered.
"Well, if you two weren't so stingy with the guard tower, maybe me and Daryl wouldn't have to leave the prison completely to get a little alone time." Adrian told Maggie and Glenn, enjoying when she seen Glenn's ears go red and the slight blush that dusted Maggie's cheeks. A short while later they pulled up to a small shopping center. There were dusty, long abandoned vehicles parked in the parking lot and debris everywhere. Adrian spotted the chain on the door when she climbed out of the back of the SUV, while Maggie did a quick check to make sure there weren't any walkers close by. Glenn ducked into the door Adrian had left open and pulled out a backpack and a pair of bolt cutters.
"It's clear." Maggie said as she rounded the the front of the vehicle. Adrian was looking around, not really caring about anything she was looking at when she realized how quiet it was. She turned and looked at Maggie and Glenn to see them kissing.
"For the love of God, guys please, for my sanity, break it up. You two are no better than a couple of horny teenagers." Adrian said, throwing a wadded up piece of paper she picked up off the ground in their direction.
Glenn and Maggie laughed at her before Glenn walked to the chained doors and cut the chain off the doors. Adrian and Maggie were standing behind him when he opened the doors, and they were all given quite a scare when a flock of birds flew out of the door the second Glenn opened them.
"I swear if I hadn't used the bathroom before we left the prison, I would've just pissed down both legs." Adrian said as she placed her hand against her chest, able to feel how hard her heart was beating after the sudden scare.
Maggie gave Adrian a look, whether it was from her words or her actions, Adrian didn't know, but if it had been from her words then that was Maggie's fault. She'd had all winter to get used to Adrian's sailor mouth so if she was still offended by anything that came out of Adrian's mouth, that was all on her. "What? You can't tell me that you had planned to have a heart attack today, because I sure as hell didn't." Adrian told the brunette as she followed Glenn into the store.
"Glenn, grab that duck." Adrian heard Maggie say from behind her.
"What?" Glenn asked, confused by the demand.
"Get that duck." Maggie told him again.
"You serious?" he asked her, as if the request was completely random.
And it might have been, had they not had an infant back at the prison.
"Yeah. A kid growing up in a prison could use a few toys." Maggie told him.
Adrian rolled her eyes when Glenn just continued to stand there and grabbed the little rubber duck that Maggie was talking about. She kept her eyes out for anything and everything they could use, even if it was little random toys that she could give Ass Kicker at a later date. Maggie stayed outside to keep watch while Glenn and Adrian raided the store.
"Holy crap!" Adrian's words echoed through the empty store.
"What is it?" Glenn asked, alarmed that there might be trouble.
"Glenn, find a basket and bring it here. We just hit the jackpot." she told him as she starred in wonder at her find.
She hadn't been lying when she said they hit the jackpot, hell with what she had just found they had just won the lottery as far as she was concerned. Glenn, still very confused since Adrian stopped talking, found Adrian standing in one of the isles looking at a section on one of the shelves in awe. Once Glenn seen what she was looking at he understood her words.
Baby formula.
At least a dozen cans of baby formula.
Adrian had never been so happy to see a can of powder before. Adrian and Glenn tossed every can they got their hands on into the basket at their feet and then continued to see what else they could find. Adrian found quite a few things that Ass Kicker needed and hauled it all out to the SUV. Adrian walked past Maggie with arms full of bottles, packs of diapers in different sizes, baby wipes, and even a few more toys. Glenn walked out of the store with the basket of formula and another basket with some canned goods and had even managed to find some batteries. "It's a straight shot back to the prison. We might even make it back for dinner." Glenn told them. "I like the quiet. Back home you can hear them no matter where you are." Maggie told them.
"Speak for yourself. I'd rather have to hear their constant growling than listen to deafening silence. In this day and age the silence gives me the creeps. Makes me on edge, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. At least back home we know where they're all hiding." Adrian told them.
"And just where is it you good people call home?" they heard a male voice say.
They all jerked in the direction of the voice to find a man slowly walking towards them with his gun aimed at them. The man was tall, in fairly good shape, and only had one hand from what Adrian could see. Maggie quickly dropped the basket of formula onto the ground and drew her gun, as did Glenn. Adrian's first instinct was to reach for her machete but she didn't want to be the only one who had brought a knife to a gun fight. Maggie had moved to the other side of the vehicle to get a different angle on the man while Glenn slowly moved forward. Adrian stayed right where she was, which happened to be right in front of Glenn.
The man kept his gun trained on them but knew he was out gunned. Adrian felt like the man was familiar to her somehow the longer she looked at him. He was wearing a tank top that looked like it was supposed to be light grey but was darker in places that were drenched in sweat. The over shirt that he must have been wearing was draped over his right arm, which didn't seem to have a hand, only a metal stub with a knife attached to it. He was tall and in decent shape by her guess. His hair was cut close to his scalp, he had blood running down his nose from a cut on the bridge of his nose, and he had very bright blue eyes.
"Merle?" Glenn asked, as if amazed that the man was there.
Once Glenn said his name it finally clicked with Adrian. She had seen Merle back at the camp in Atlanta when she had been spying on the group. Merle Dixon had been left on a rooftop in Atlanta the day Rick reunited with Lori and Carl and had been presumed dead when he wasn't where they had left him when the men had went back for him and a bag of guns Rick had dropped. It had been at least a year since that day, and considering that Merle had only one hand and had been severely injured when he had left Atlanta, it was no wonder Glenn was shocked to see the man.
Recognition dawned on Merle's face as he put his gun down and began walking towards the small group.
"Hey! Back the hell up!" Maggie yelled at him, having no clue who the man was.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Okay! Okay!" Merle said, a smile on his face as he stopped walking.
"You made it." Glenn said, still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that against all odds that Merle Dixon was still alive.
"Can you tell me, my brother, is he still alive?" Merle asked him.
Glenn hesitated in answering.
"Yes." Adrian told the man.
Merle quickly looked at the woman that had answered his question. She was attractive, there was no doubting that. Average height, slightly tan skin, slender build. She was wearing jean shorts and a black tank top that was slightly damp at the collar from sweat. But what really caught his attention were her bright green eyes and red-orange hair. When standing in the sun it looked like her hair was on fire. He didn't recognize the woman, either of the women really, but it seemed that the ginger knew who he was because he never said Daryl's name, but she had answered his question which meant she knew who he was, who his brother was, and more importantly, where to find his little brother.
"I'll tell you what, you take me to see him and I'll call it even for what happened in Atlanta." Merle told Glenn.
Merle seen Glenn eyeballing his stump and explained that after Atlanta the he managed to find a medical warehouse and rigged it up himself. Whether the story was true or not was of little consequence to Adrian. The only thing she knew for sure was the Merle Dixon was alive and wanted to find his brother.
"We'll tell Daryl you're here and he'll come out to meet you." Glenn told him.
Merle started to protest the idea but Adrian couldn't find any fault in it.
Merle, while Daryl's brother and blood family, was now considered an outsider and couldn't be trusted. Adrian knew it was a smart plan to leave him here and tell Daryl where to find him so they could keep their location a secret. "The fact that we even found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. You can trust me." Merle tried to bargain. While Adrian seriously doubted that they could really trust him, she did agree that it was a miracle that they happened to have found each other again after all this time.
"I'll stay with here with him. You go back and tell Daryl where to find us. I'm sure once you tell him that Merle is alive and here with me that he'll be on that motorcycle like his ass is on fire." Adrian told Glenn.
Adrian could tell from the look that Glenn gave her that he hated the idea and wasn't going to agree with it. But Glenn was overlooking the fact that Adrian was a grown woman, older than him, and that she hadn't been asking for his permission.
"No. We go back together. I'm not leaving you out here alone with him. We'll go back and tell Daryl where he is and he'll come back for him." Glenn told her.
"He wouldn't dare hurt me. Brother or not, Daryl would shoot him if he even tried." Adrian told Glenn.
"No. Merle, you trust us. Stay here and we'll tell Daryl to come back for you." Glenn told Merle.
Adrian could instantly tell that Merle didn't like that idea and she didn't blame him. Merle quickly drew a gun that he had tucked into the back of his pants and shot at the back window of the SUV, causing them all to duck in different directions. Glenn and Adrian ran around the SUV to see Merle holding Maggie in a tight grip with his gun pressed against Maggie's temple.
"Put the guns down or she dies." Merle told them.
"Let go of her!" Glenn yelled at Merle but they all knew that Merle had the upper hand.
"Put the guns in the vehicle." Merle told them.
Glenn dropped his gun through the back window of the SUV and turned to Adrian when she didn't immediately do the same. Adrian clenched her teeth as she looked at the situation in front of her. Her grip tightened on the butt of her gun before she finally tossed it through the shattered window with Glenn's gun.
"Get in the car, Glenn. You too, sweetheart. We're goin' for a ride." Merle told them.
"We're not taking you back to our camp." Glenn told him.
"No, we're goin' somewhere else. Get in the car, now! You're driving Glenn. Ginger, you're in the back with me and girlie here. You try anything and somebody's gonna catch a bullet." Merle told Adrian.
Merle pulled Maggie up from the ground, his arm still tight around her neck with his gun pointed at her head. Maggie opened the back door as Glenn and Adrian walked around the SUV. Adrian got in through the same door that she had gotten out of when they first arrived and closed the door behind her. Glenn quickly got into the drivers seat and started the vehicle.
"You're gonna listen to every word I say or girlie here is gonna die real quick. You understand me, Glenn?" Merle asked, his gun still pressed firmly against Maggie's temple.
"Yeah, I got it." Glenn said.
Adrian couldn't see him but she could tell from his tone that he was clenching his teeth and probably strangling the steering wheel in a death grip. Adrian said nothing as she grabbed Maggie's hand and held the poor girl's hand. Adrian would never say it out loud but she knew that all of this could have been avoided if Glenn had just listened to her and left her with Merle while they had gone back to the prison. But their situation was bad enough, so she would take that secret to the grave with her.
Hopefully she wouldn't be entering that grave any time soon.