August 31, 2010
A month at the lake has Shane feeling the pressure of leadership much less. It's not just fully sharing the lead with Quinn, but also the security provided by the lake border on three sides. They do get walkers, but not in large numbers due to a series of roadblocks that make it difficult for larger herds to get close.
They spent the time systematically stripping the nearby resorts and marinas of supplies. Their peninsula now has a dock that can handle larger craft than canoes, which Shane is nudging one of their two primary boats up to right now. He took out a team of six to clear out a marina on the Alabama side, a big success.
"From the look of those grins, y'all scored big time," Maggie says, watching as several folks who didn't go on the run head down the dock to start unloading the waterproof containers onto wagons to take up to the lodge. Since they don't really need the living space, Jacqui is turning the place into a massive warehouse, one load at a time.
"We did. Need to mark the map to send trucks for the fuel." The diesel fuel stored in most marinas is not something anyone wants to figure out how to tow over the water. It's also stored further out than where they live for safety concerns.
Maggie opens a storage clipboard and makes a note. Her injuries shifted her to working with Jacqui as a sort of assistant quartermaster, but Shane knows she's been chomping at the bit to get back out and active. That thought makes him realize Maggie's brace is missing.
"Quinn clear you for the collarbone?"
She grins, looking happier than he's ever seen her. "Yeah. X-ray shows it is all clear. I'm supposed to take it easy for a little while, but no more brace."
"I'm betting you're going for a swim this evening?"
"After all this time, oh yeah. Besides, it's good exercise for my shoulder without stressing it, right?"
"Might take the canoe out tomorrow, if you want to go along."
"Sure. I best follow these up and take inventory before Jacqui thinks I've deserted in freedom to move my arms properly again." Maggie pauses though, looking back over her shoulder as she gets to the top of the trail from the dock. "Beers on the front porch tonight?"
"Sure."
He, Maggie, and Quinn have a bet running. Since Shane moved out of the bunkhouse to a cabin three days ago, they're waiting to see how long it takes anyone to notice the 'breakup'. So far, no one has, even with him and Maggie having a drink on their shared porch each night.
He's not stupid. Quinn assigning him to the empty half of Maggie's cabin duplex has set up written all over it in blazing neon. But his concerns over being far too old for Maggie still stand. Just because the world's narrowed her possibilities doesn't make him a good one.
It makes him scoff softly at himself. The Shane before Rick was shot would never have hesitated if a young woman was interested, as long as she was old enough to legally drink. He did have enough semblance of honor to swear off eighteen year old coeds after he turned thirty, at least. After what happened between him and Lori, getting a taste of family life skewed so badly, compounded by the content friendship with Quinn, Shane is no longer as shallow as he once was.
It probably helps that officially moving out of the bunkhouse didn't change much other than not having Quinn warm and soft against him every night. Finding sleep is a little harder, and he misses the closeness, but there was a point where they thought it might be lasting too long. He makes his way to the cabin, kicking boots off at the door.
"Jimmy? You home?"
That's the other thing they did, Jimmy coming to live with him. After years of foster care, Shane decided the teen needed his own space that was his and only his. Since the duplex cabins each have two bedrooms, Jimmy has the second in his.
"Yeah. Finishing up some painting," the teen calls out.
Shane follows the voice to find the teen has repainted the once beige walls. Three walls are white, but the exterior one with windows is emerald green. "Looks good. Gonna paint the rest of the cabin?"
Jimmy grins, looking accomplished. "If you want me to. Eventually someone is gonna notice me signing out paint though."
Well, that answers his question that Jimmy is aware of the bet. Most of the kids probably do and are complacent in it. "You could always convince them we let you move out on your own."
"That probably wouldn't be hard after Micah got the one next to Merle." Jimmy gathers his painting gear up. "If you're serious about the rest of the cabin, I don't mind. It's a lot more fun than I thought it would be."
Shane looks around the living area. Whoever painted every single cabin interior beige should be commended for the most dreary paint scheme ever. "If there's enough pale blue, maybe?"
"When they started repainting in general, Merle brought back the large part of a paint store. It's all down at the old caretaker's place."
"Go with a pale green if there's no blue. Gonna shower before supper. You gonna head on out?"
Jimmy nods. "I'm supposed to help with prep."
"I foresee a lot of vegetable chopping in your near future."
The teen doesn't seem perturbed by that, so Shane leaves him to get changed out of the sweaty clothes that always are a result of loading up supplies in the August heat. Part of him wants the heat to ease. The other part is worried about keeping enough firewood for winter heating, since every building on the peninsula is wood heated. That's going to be a priority soon, once Jacqui's food supply numbers get where she wants them.
Supper is fried fish, as it is at least three times a week, not that he minds. Shane does prefer the days he didn't have to clean half of them, though. Dessert is cherry pie, thanks to a motherlode of canned pie filling they found in the nearest town, and homemade ice cream thanks to the goats.
Shane ends up on dish duty with Harper, Beth, and Glenn. By the time they're done, the others have settled in to games, enjoying the fan setup of the dining hall that tends to cool it off better than the cabins. He takes a seat that Jesse vacates at a game of spades when the teenager gets invited to swim with the other kids. Setting down his glass of tea, Shane peeks at the score pad and grins.
"Do I get to keep his score?" Considering Jesse is over a hundred points in the lead, it's a good start for coming into the game late.
Merle scoffs, grinning. "New scores so the deputy does get to profit off child labor."
The other players agree to the score reset, so Shane shuffles and deals, falling into the rhythm of playing through the day's gossip. It isn't until about three rounds in that anything serious comes up.
T-Dog looks at Merle as the man tallies the new score, idly shuffling the cards. "Mind if I ask you something personal, Merle?"
The older man looks up from the scorecard and shrugs. "Might as well."
The two men aren't what Shane would call friends, but they get along much better than they did at the quarry. It helps that Merle's been fairly settled since they got here, batted between Quinn and Jacqui, but no signs of another break with reality like he had on the rooftop. Then again, none of his family have been in mortal peril since the either.
"Way you acted toward me, even before the mess on the roof… how did you do that when you've got Quinn and Jesse in your family? I mean if you don't see Quinn, Harper passes for white. Hell, she half looks like she could be Shane's kid. But Quinn and Jesse…" T-Dog trails off with a sigh.
Merle sets the pen down and looks tired, more than Shane's ever seen him. "It's not really your color I objected to. It's just an easy blow to take to piss you off. Grew up like that, where the color was an issue. Did a lot of business with men who definitely had problems with it."
Remembering Quinn telling him about the Triumph's original owner, Shane fills in those blanks. White supremacists weren't uncommon in biker gangs. It had to be an odd juxtaposition to have Quinn and her kids at home, but do business with men like that.
"Then why?" T-Dog looks anxious, but like he's been needing to know for a while. Shane doesn't think it's simple curiosity. Could be protectiveness for the kids, since the man has a soft spot where all the group's kids are concerned.
"Y'all acted like I did something wrong, putting a stop to Ed Peletier laying hands on Carol." The connections fall into place even without Merle looking to where Quinn is playing a board game with some of the other women. Shane still doesn't know everything she went through, but he knows enough.
"You beat him half to death," Dale says, looking concerned.
"Would have finished the job if I could have." Merle frowns at the shock from most of the folks at the card table. "Guess she don't really give two shits if y'all know. Can't stand a man like that. When Quinn showed up on my doorstep twelve years ago… Christ."
The man falls quiet, lost for words, but no one interrupts. "She left Louisiana with nowhere safe to go and two little boys. Wasn't even legal to drink yet. Knew our family didn't care for those not of our color. Her daddy told her that much. But she figured maybe her grandaddy would take Micah in and give her some breathing room.
"She stopped at the diner in town, and some little waitress told her it would be safer to try her luck by my garage. Pouring rain, she just ventures inside, and didn't even have to open her mouth to tell me who she was. Not with Micah beside her."
Merle looks unfocused for a moment. "That beating I gave ole Ed? She looked worse than that. I couldn't see a goddamn thing other than a mama and two boys needing help that I could give. So I did and got over that bullshit about mixing of the races I got fed all my life."
Shane can do the math. He's seen the scars on Merle, who doesn't bother hiding them. Daryl is more private, but that's as telling as Merle's openness. Merle looked at Quinn and those boys and saw a different set of boys and a battered woman… and decided to do what no one did for him and Daryl.
"Who?" T-Dog asks softly.
"Her ex-husband." Merle smiles grimly. "He went to prison, even with her fleeing the state. Fought the cops when he got arrested. Get more time breaking a cop's nose than half killing your wife seems like."
"Jesus," T-Dog mutters. "Guess that would make you want to kill Ed and pissed we didn't stop him first."
"Wasn't having a man like that near my family, not unless he knew without a doubt I would finish the job. I'm not a good man by anyone's definition, but I never hit a woman or a kid or anyone else not big enough to fight back."
That makes Jacqui look thoughtful. "When you lost it on the roof, you went after T-Dog and Morales, not Glenn or me or Andrea."
"Glenn's a damn kid. Plus even with my brains scrambled I could remember he's Quinn's duckling. She'd have shot me herself if I hurt him, episode or not. Same with you ladies, although she did threaten to pop Andrea for me a time or two."
At least that particular area of conflict settled down since they left the quarry. Hell, Shane thinks the older blond might have developed an interest in Merle after he saved Amy's life if the man showed her an iota of interest once his intent wasn't to constantly piss her off. Once he lost the antagonism, Merle stopped crudely propositioning Andrea. It adds to the idea of him being deliberately vulgar to make everyone keep their distance.
The card game resumes haltingly, but for the first time, Shane thinks T-Dog might eventually forgive Merle what he did on the roof. The unknown factor of the odd racism must have been feeding the issue. He certainly seems to watch Merle a little more thoughtfully.
After they conclude their game, Shane falls into step beside Merle in the fading light outside. "Quinn said Harper's father died in prison."
"Funny how that happened, white boy falling afoul of Aryans of all people, right?"
Quinn hadn't told him that much. "Real funny."
He thinks Merle is going to leave it at that, but then the man speaks. "He was threatening to take Harper and had a parole hearing coming up. I asked the man who owned that Triumph if a message could be passed on. Didn't know he lost a sister to a bastard like that. Message ended up a permanent one, and he didn't care that he would normally call Quinn or Harper an abomination. Some things transcend prejudice."
Shane can't fault him even if he knew the message would be a deadly one. Having sweet, cheerful Harper in the hands of the man who nearly killed her mama while she was still in the womb is something he doesn't want to consider. Bastard got his just desserts.
Merle speaks again, but it's a shift of subject. "What are the stakes on this bet y'all have going about the rest noticing you and Quinn are no longer cohabitating?"
With that light hearted note, conversation turns to better things than a man ten years dead of his own foul nature and stupidity. But it's something Shane thinks he'll do well to remember.
There is nothing Merle won't do to protect anyone he's claimed as his.