Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.
― Langston Hughes
I've never been so broken that I haven't been able to repair myself. Never. The long, overwhelming road ahead is too familiar. It's intimidating. But I've never gotten off the horse. I've started over so many times I can't even count. This is no different. Back on the road to redemption. I'm an old pro, so let's get the show on the road. The stakes are high and I'm going to need everything I have inside. Danni made her way past Merle asleep on the couch. "I'll just have interesting company this time. " She said aloud as he snored.
She sat on the porch watching the sun emerging in the eastern sky. "Count your blessings then move on to your worries….Nan always said," she mumbled to herself as she put the two thick white pillar candles in front of her. She had carved her name on one and Daryl's on the other. She turned her face to the ascending sun and pulled on its power as it gained strength and spread first light. As exhausted as she was, limbs stiff, lower belly sore and traumatized from the previous day Danni felt calm and strong doing something to help bring them together. The focus and meditation of the spell calmed her anxiety and fear. She channeled her energy in a positive, productive direction. That's what Nan taught her to do with spell work.
The intent is all. She focused her intent on finding him. She opened that box of knowledge in her head and pulled out the words she needed.
"Eastern Gate, the land of the rising sun, bring me the gift of fast flight communication." She began, her voice shaking a bit at first but gaining strength with each phrase.
"May Mercury's swift feet walk true and bring me news of friends lost,
with truth love and trust.
I come here today to entreat
a time and space here to meet,
an individual lost to distance and time.
Allow us to communicate once more, please.
Oh, Gods, a second chance for a connection is my will.
So Mote it be."
She lit the candle that represented Daryl, then her own.
"I see you in my mind, I feel you in my heart.
Bring us together, don't keep us apart."
She moved the candles slightly closer together as she spoke. She repeated her request three times moving the candles nearer to each other as she did. When she said "I reach out to re-unite us," she touched the candles together. Staring into the twin flames she closed with
"What was lost,
let it be found,
what I seek,
now bring it near,
Goddess hear your child's plea,
oh so mote it be."
She sat and hugged her knees close to her chest. She stared at the sky but didn't see it. Her view soared beyond the horizon. She visualized what she wanted to manifest: Daryl walking toward her. He was there in her mind's eye approaching, leading with his hips, chest out with that small smile curled at the corner of his lip as he nodded when she called out to him.
"You found me."
"Did you ever doubt it?"
She tried to picture her children with Daryl as she hoped they were together. The image was not as clear and she felt a pang of longing. Before she let herself dwell on uncertainty, she opened a spiral notebook she'd found in the study of the house. Aside from the spell, writing was her other comfort at that moment.
I hope I've let you know just how much you mean to me. You are my sun in the morning, the sweet dreams that make me want to sleep forever at night and the only real friend I've ever had. Most of what I breathe in is you. Everything I write or do has a bit of you in it. My heart is hungry for you all the time and I know I will feel it for the rest of my life. You know that I love you, right? My mind searches for new ways to link my life to yours; I hate missing you right now. By the way, you know that I love you, right? My mind keeps returning to days when everything was good. Now I'm starving for that feeling, the sustenance of emotion is non-existent when you're not here; I'm so cold and my mind is blank. I miss you eternally, and I'll wait for you longer than that. You know that I love you, right?
I realize that being in love with you is all I'll ever be. Whether that is your soul's burden or your one true blessing, I could never be anything but yours. It takes all the strength I have to hold on now, but the attempt to give up took so much more. I love you; no doubts, no remorse, no regrets. I will search for you until all the stars are gone and the nights skies are merely an expression of the darkness I feel. My adoration for you is infinite, my love everlasting, and my commitment forever. I will always want you by my side to laugh and cry with because, without you, all my feelings are numb. You are the love of my life and the best I ever had. Without you I am nothing. You know that I love you, right?
"Damn it, that's sappy." Danni laughed at herself. "Damn romance novel fluff." Daryl would cringe. She brushed away a tear and sniffled a little closing the notebook.
When she entered the kitchen, Merle was at the table eating some Pop Tarts he'd found in a cabinet and reading a comic book that had belonged to one of the kids who had lived there.
She sat across from him without even getting a grunt of acknowledgment.
"Good find. These things have so many preservatives they'll probably never go bad." Danni observed grabbing a silver foil package from the box. She was hungry. She realized she hadn't eaten since the previous morning. Were the twins fed?
"You know comic books have changed since I was a kid, I'll tell you what. They got way more words than pictures."
'Graphic novels." Danni commented biting into the dry, too sweet pastry creating a taste memory that brought her back to countless mornings walking to school with Tara splitting the last package of Pop Tarts, the only food in the house.
"Huh?"
"That's what they are now, graphic novels not just comic books."
"Mmhmm, " Merle went back to reading.
"Do you think someone's feeding them?" Danni felt a pang of loss stab her chest. They were so helpless. "They still need formula since I can't be breastfeeding. They're eating solid food but not enough and if they don't get the right mix..." She would have been giving Ryder and Scout breakfast right now. They must be so hungry. She missed the weight of them in her arms…missed their complaining, hiccupping cries and soft pink smell. "Think they are warm enough? I wasn't there...to put them to sleep... what if they are crying and I'm not there-"
Merle watched her wringing her hands and spoke quickly. "Yeah, I do think the sprouts are fine. I think Daryl's got 'em and they're safe with their Daddy. Don't be worrying about that. Focus on getting your strength back. We got a long road ahead and I expect you to pull your weight queenie."
"So are we leaving soon?"
"No, we ain't going anywhere today. You need to rest up some."
"We are wasting time. "
"You don't look so hot queenie." Mere observed her pallor and the darkening shadows beneath her large eyes giving them a hollow, sunken appearance despite their emerald intensity. "I say we stay here for another day or two till you're feeling better. You, ah...you went through a lot. We got a long road ahead, dangerous, and like I said I need you watching my back. You better be one hundred percent. You ain't hitching a ride."
"But-" She knew he was right. She was weak and tired from the miscarriage and still in some pain. She was just used to pushing herself.
"Go lay down. I'll be back in an hour or two. Gonna look for more supplies in some of the other houses 'round here."
"Merle, thanks, I couldn't do this without you."
He snorted. "Yeah you could. "
"No, you saved my life yesterday. You-you're making plans. You're so fucking together right now. I need that. I need you-"
Together. Me? Together? I need you? Merle looked long and hard at the woman before him. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. Not since ...Luanne. Danni may need his strength now, but he realized he had needed hers. He needed her stand up to him. To stand up for him. The fact that she considered him family, that she made Daryl give him another chance. Damn this girl had an impact on him as well as Daryl. "Aint my first rodeo, sugar." Merle tried to dismiss her compliment. "Your's neither. Am I right?"
She nodded. They were both fighters. They were both the oldest sibling who was used to having to take charge and pull it together.
"We were nobodies." He said.
"What?"
"Dixons are a scourge. Heard it our whole lives. I spent my life trying to toughen Daryl up, make a man of him 'cause he didn't have nothing else going for him. Christ neither of us did….I'm supposed to be dead or in jail. Daryl….well he was gonna be following in my footsteps. It's destiny for guys like us."
"Destiny? So you really believe that-" Danni pushed her hair back over her shoulder.
"It aint about believing, but about knowing how things are. If the world hadn't gone to shit, you best believe that's where we'd be."
Danni was quiet and stared at the crayon marks marring the table contemplating Merle's words. Daryl dead or in prison.
"But you, you saw Daryl differently didn't you? Why's that queenie? You know, I always wanted to ask you that. No offense but what in the hell made you wanna get with my brother?"
"If you were a woman you wouldn't have to ask that question." Danni joked.
"Don't need to go there queenie. Shit he's my brother." He grinned.
"Thought you taught him everything he knows." Danni paused. "Which is complete bullshit."
Merle chuckled. "Tell me, seriously why Daryl?"
"Meeting him was fate. My Nana had a hand in that. I didn't know it at the time. Becoming his friend was a choice, but falling in love with him? That was something I just couldn't control. Maybe the boots did it? I don't know. Maybe the way he saved my ass so many times when we first met. I mean, I always took care of myself, it's all I ever knew. No one looked out for me or cared about me enough to risk their life for mine. And he just did it, he wouldn't take no for an answer. And neither would I. We wouldn't let eachother run away. He respected me too, I could tell. There are so many things about him. I don't know, we just felt it."
"Well, you saved his damn life. I'm convinced of that. In the big picture sense of things."
"You know what he said to me?" Danni's tone became wistful. "The first time we ever fuc-"
Merle coughed with a chuckle interrupting her.
"He said, 'you're the prettiest goddamn girl I've ever seen.' Don't tell him I told you, he'd hate that. But still-"
"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother. That's probably the most pathetic pickup line I ever heard."
"Well, it worked on me." She said softly. "Do you remember that morning at the lake, you and me?"
"Aww yeah…about that-"
"You were a real motherfucker but I guess I should thank you. Daryl defended me and I saw something in him, right then, his eyes."
"He stood up to me for first time in his life. That boy never tried to back me down like that. It was over you."
"The night before we left the quarry he asked me to go with him, just leave the group with him alone. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we did. Where we'd be now? Merle I can't accept or believe I'll never see him again."
"A lot can happen between now and never."
"I hope so."
"You know queenie, my momma was like you," Merle told her. "Seeing things, knowing things ahead of time. You knew this was gonna happen didn't you?"
"I knew the governor was gonna come and I knew he'd destroy the prison. I saw it. Yes. That's why I had the plan ready; you know to take off Daryl, me, and the kids. A fucking lot a good it did me. It wasn't 'sposed to happen like this." Danni shook her head. "Not like this."
Merle nodded. "My momma saved my daddy's life with her knowing, seeing the future I'd guess you'd call it. At the time, she thought it was a good thing, but looking back it'd be better if she let the bastard die. Keeping him from work that day...saving him from the mill explosion didn't do nobody any favors. It's what turned him I'd say. After that, after he lived and all his friends and cousins died, he took to drinking, took to being a real asshole. Violent. That's why she started to think her blessing, what your Nan called it, was a curse. They say meanness don't just happen overnight, but I seen it that way."
"Daryl never told me anything about your parents. Not much anyway."
"He don't remember as much I 'spose."
"There are storiesI could tell you, but I gotta get a move on queenie and you need to rest."
"I'd like to hear them."
After a brief silence, Danni swallowed hard then said "Well come back soon. By noon. Please?"
Merle shrugged then nodded understanding she didn't want to be alone.
"Be back faster than a jackrabbit on moonshine." He paused then put his sidearm on the table, sliding it toward her. "Hang on to this while I'm gone."
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me." He brandished his bayonet.
"Okay. Well, find more Pop Tarts, please." She smiled.
After Merle had left, Danni laid her still damp laundry, clean shirt, and jeans, over the back of her chair then headed up to the teenager's bedroom again. She scavenged a backpack from the closet and packed it with some notebooks and pens. The encroaching autumn chill was clear that morning so she obtained some warmer clothing from the girl's dresser. A denim jacket and a navy blue hoodie were items Danni herself would have owned. And socks. She was thrilled to pack several pairs of warm socks. She silently thanked the girl, wherever she was. She considered putting the gun in the bag but tucked it under her belt. After hesitating she tossed her band's CD into the bag as well.
Danni fell into a deep sleep immediately on the teenage girl's bed.
... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .
Daryl woke early in the morning still feeling wrung out. He'd hardly slept, constantly watching for any potential threats through the night. He rose slowly, his belly grumbling its complaint about lack of food. He pulled himself up, battling aches and fatigue remaining from the previous day's battle. He figured a squirrel or maybe rabbit for breakfast would be fine and shut his damn gut up. He observed Beth leaning against a tree staring off into space. When he moved, she glanced over questioningly, but he didn't say anything more than "Need some food," and headed out to hunt.
An army travels on its stomach, something Merle used to say. Merle. His brother's last words had been 'I promise to get her back to you safe.'
He moved silently through the trees and spotted his prey, a gray squirrel on the pine to his to left. He squinted, aimed, drew back released. Missed. Shit. The only time he ever missed a target was when his head was messed up about Danni. Beth's pep talk the night before had grown fainter in his consciousness and even the motivation of the moon was fading. The reality of being without Danni was hitting harder today. Shock had worn off. Reality had sunk in. Without her, he was missing half his heart. He pulled the bolt from the tree. Without her, he was only half a soul. The weakened wood snapped in two. He felt like that broken bolt.
Only love makes a heart whole, a whole man. Only half of a heart is only half a man.
He realized that it hurt to wake up this morning without her there next to him. It felt all wrong not seeing her face first thing when he opened his eyes, not to hold his kids. He missed Danni's teasing or encouragement depending on what the day ahead entailed. Damn, he missed her babbling on about a dream she'd had… some crazy plan or idea for the kids… Something he'd gotten used to. He realized this whole thing would be a hell of a lot easier if he'd never met her. Being alone was easier if you never knew anything different. Now that he had something to lose and had possibly lost it for good he was shaken…off his game.
He missed her, he ached for her. He'd never felt so incomplete. He'd never known he wasn't complete before Danni. Now without her he understood. The loss was a painful, powerful thing, a rush of the most essential emotions he had. Fear, anxiety, anger, depression all rolled together into a spiky little demon that fed on his heart. Nothing felt as intense. He had never experienced anything like it before. This was heartache. He resorted to anger and frustration.
Don't you understand how much I feel for you? Can't you see that my life is shit without you? Please don't make me go through this. I need you make me whole. I don't even know how to exist and not be in love with you; I honestly don't know how much more I can take without falling apart, shutting down. I still need you. Please be alive. Don't fucking be dead Danni. Don't. You know I love you, right?
He wanted to give up; to just say fuck it all and head back to camp. The twisted knife tore at his stomach as his barb-wired soul spilled out onto the ground. He never believed that there would be a time he'd just give up, that he'd accept the inevitable and be a weak ass pussy. That was not who he was. He'd struggled with emotions all his life hiding them, denying them so it was almost funny to realize that emotion could be so much like a revolving door. One emotion and you're on the inside; enveloped in warmth, love, and all things that feel good. Let that same opening swing you the other way and you're on the outside in the cold where the ache is so deep within your being that you can't imagine it could be caused by the same person; the one you love so much; the best you ever had. This internal chill wanted to consume him. His old demons tried to make him relive feelings of regret and stupidity for all that he'd believed in. His stomach, on the other hand, protested loudly enough that when he heard the slithering and rattle on the ground nearby he searched quickly for something with which to snag and immobilize the snake.
He found a branch that would work as a perfect snake tong; the stick was long with a wishbone fork at the end. It was as if someone put it there in front of him. He pinned the quick moving creature's head with the end then and cut it right off.
He held the snake up. He heard a twig snap behind him. Beth was staring nervously. She watched him skin their breakfast with a look of revulsion. His despair was bringing on the comparisons again. Danni never had that kind of helpless look on her face. Damn paper doll. Beth was irritating him. Or maybe, she was scaring him.
"Can't fucking deal with this." he muttered slinging the snake over his shoulder with hostility and shoving past Beth.
Comparing again. Her voice was higher pitched and had a constant whine that made his ears ring. She talked like a kid.
Daryl's silence cast a pall over their camp like a black cloud as he roasted the snake on a spit over the fire. He refused to react to anything. Beth wondered if Danni was ever frightened of him. Often, like now, his stare was so angry and feral the thought of holding that gaze made her stomach churn apprehensively. His muscles rippled and flexed so powerfully beneath his dirty, sweaty skin it appeared as if he could easily hurt her. The idea was reinforced by his rough, grimy calloused hands always clenched into balled fists as if ready for a fight. He painted an intimidating picture radiating palpable, heated dissent. At that moment, it was hard to imagine him being gentle or sweet. Every move he made displayed angry tension. But she knew he had his moments. She tried to soften her opinion of him, but he ripped into the roasted snake with his teeth, eating with his hands and fingers, sloppily making noises like a mannerless pig completely ignoring her presence. She sighed with disgust. He was so gross and rude and...
"I need a drink." Beth announced despite her unease.
Without looking her way, Daryl wordlessly threw a plastic bottle of water her hitting her thigh. That did it. She'd had it, no matter how frightened she was of his anger.
"How the hell does Danni deal with you?" Beth clenched her fists.
"Hey don't you talk about her!" Daryl growled, kicking the dirt and blazing his gaze on Beth. There was a deep burning anger in his pain-filled eyes. If looks could kill, Beth would be dead.
"This sucks! It sucks being stuck with you!" She shouted.
He flashed his eyes menacingly again, but other than that Beth couldn't read his expression.
"What the hell is wrong with you Daryl? Do you feel anything? Yeah, you think everything's screwed. I guess that's a feeling. So you want to spend the rest of our lives staring into a fire and eating mud snakes? Screw that. We might as well do something."
He didn't answer.
"I can take care of myself and I'm gonna go find Maggie. Glenn, Dan…" she stopped herself. "We have to try. We made it. We made it for a reason. You know all I wanted to do today was lay down and cry, but we don't get to do that!" Beth rose to her feet and made a gesture to the trees. "I don't need you or you or your suck ass attitude!"
He remained enveloped in strained silence and ignored her outburst.
"It's a lot easier to be mad than admit you're hurt. You miss her, admit it!"
Daryl stood, his eyes slits boring into her. "They took everything; they took her and I couldn't do a damn thing about it!" Daryl spoke so rapidly and vehemently that spittle flew from his mouth. "What do I have, huh? Nuthin', that's what! Not one damn thing. I had a year with her. Not enough. One day its fine, the next its all gone. Danni's my reason for living. Hell, she was even my reason for eating and breathing cause I knew I had to do those things so I could take care of her and my kids. To keep them safe and give them the things they needed and deserved. Now I got nothing!" His voice broke and he turned away from her to wipe tears away with his forearm. He clenched his jaw, the vein on the side of his neck pulsed with his effort to rein in his emotion.
"This sucks but you can't give up. I miss Maggie I miss…my dad."
Daryl winced remembering Herschel realizing Beth had seen him die. "I'm sorry 'bout your dad." His voice was graveled and hoarse, but softer.
"Daryl, when…when you care about someone hurt is kinda part of the package."
He let out a long breath and shook his head sitting back down heavily.
"Danni is lucky you know." Beth's voice was calmer as she joined him on the ground.
"I'm the one that's lucky." His voice lightened when he admitted. "I never expected her to even look twice at me."
"Why?"
Daryl snorted. "No girl ever did."
"I don't believe that."
"Its true. Besides I thought there was no way in hell a punk rock, city girl like her could be interested in a stupid, backwoods hick like me. Women never thought I was worth talking to. But she did. She wore me down Beth, she fucking didn't give up. I kept pushing her away... thinking I was no good for her, but she never stopped. Thank God she never stopped." He couldn't help the small smile on his face. "For the longest time I kept waiting for her to be gone, just disappear like the whole thing was a dream. Or a joke. Looks like I was right."
"She makes you smile you know. The only thing that does."
"What?" he hissed through his teeth dismissively and spit to the side.
"The only time you don't look like you hate the world is when you're with Danni."
Daryl looked hard at Beth.
"She's not gone Daryl. She's not. You feel it I know you do. And the babies, well you gave them the best chance of any of us. You and Danni are the strongest people I know. I mean you are living even now. It's like no matter what the Walkers took from us you guys keep going… doing normal stuff. You got married and you had kids. You do things that you would have done before Walkers and you are doing them well. Daryl, you and Danni made a real family when most other families fell apart. You are building your lives when it's so easy to lose life. You didn't let this world stop you. Whenever I started to lose hope and think it was all too much, I'd see you guys together. You looked so happy and I just knew there was a reason for all of this, for us to keep going." Beth couldn't stop herself. "When I helped you with the twins when they were just born and Danni came out of her coma it gave me hope; I still feel it. Whenever I felt like it might just be easier to be afraid and give up I looked at Danni. She never acted afraid of anything. One time she told me that there was no point in living if I didn't have hope, but that it was even more important to believe in myself."
"She said that?" He asked quietly realizing Danni had made him believe in himself time and time again.
"Yes. You guys made things …okay. And, I…I think that's beautiful. Don't you? Think that's beautiful?"
Daryl didn't answer. Without Danni by his side and his kids in his arms, Beth's words rang hollow. He understood what the girl was saying and last month he would have nodded in full agreement. Danni and he had built a life. While the rest of the world was losing itself, they found themselves. Like underdogs, they'd scrapped and fought their way to each other and made something out of nothing. But now…. it was gone
"Well, I do. I think it's beautiful. It means we have a chance. We all have a chance. Maybe I'll have it someday, what you and Danni have."
Daryl shook his head.
As if reading his mind Beth added. "You're going to find her."
"Sound pretty sure of that.'
"I am and you should be too. She's like you. She's strong and she won't give up."
"She's stubborn you got that right. She… you know she has this way of always knowing exactly the right words; she always has a quote or a damn saying…and she never stops talking I swear I love that about her." He looked at Beth sideways. "She could ramble on twenty-four seven and I wouldn't mind a bit. I give her shit, but she knows I'm playing. What I wouldn't give to hear her right now. You know even cussing at me…anything. And singing….her singing."
Beth smiled. "You'll hear her again."
"Its hard. Hard to talk about her."
"I'm sorry. We don't have to. "
"S'okay."
"Yeah?
He nodded.
"Oh. I almost forgot. When we were rushing out of the prison, Sophia handed me this and told me to give it to you. I forgot until now." Beth took a folded piece of paper from her back pocket.
Daryl leaned over and stretched his arm out to take it. He recognized Danni's handwriting immediately. It looked like a page torn from her journal.
Life stops when you stop dreaming, hope ends when you stop believing, love ends when you stop caring. So don't stop caring.
His anguish may have been great and all-consuming, but he was not giving up on Danni. She was his life and without her he didn't exist.
You know that I love you, right?
... .. .. .. .. .. .
"It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there ... I can Apparate us both back ... don't worry ..."
"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you."
Sophia was reading to Kieran from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", one of the books Danni had stashed in the car, as they drove.
She paused. "I wish we could do that. Apparate. You know instantly teleport from one place to another so we could already be at the house and Danni and Daryl could do it too and...my mom. I miss her so much. Do you think she's okay?"
"I do. We need to have hope. Alas, we can't teleport, our journey will take a bit more time than that but we still have to focus on the same things. You know, the three d's?"
"Destination, determination, and deliberation." She recited while stroking Fionn's silky coat as he lay curled on her lap.
"Exactly."
"Danni can do stuff like that you know Sirius. See things, go places, make things happen with spells. Just like Harry."
"Oh, can she now? A bit of that runs in our family, true enough. But I don't think anyone is as good as Harry."
"Danni is. I know she is. Sometimes I see things too and I was afraid of it until Danni told me it was a good thing."
Kieran was about to answer when the twins began to wail in unison. "Hmm think breakfast is in order aye?"
He kept his eye out for a good place to pull over and attend to his grandchildren. He and Sophia made a good team caring for them, grateful for the formula and changing supplies Danni had packed. Kieran felt strongly he would see Danni and Daryl at the safe house. He had traveled a long, strange road never expecting to find his daughter again. He knew the fates, not to mention his mother, would not let him lose her now.
"Sometimes the wrong choices take us to the right places." He said pulling the car into an abandoned rest stop a the side of the highway.
... ... ... .. .. .. ..
Danni awoke from sleep to the sound of strangers in the lower level of the house. At first she forgot where she was but it all flooded back as the raucous commotion of men entering the ground floor startled her back to reality. At the sound of footfalls heading up the stairs towards Danni's bedroom, she quickly moved to the floor and slid under the bed. Suddenly, she froze hearing the steady thud of boots. Her heart pounded rapidly. Her chest closed in tighter than ever. She saw dirty Timberland work boots approach the bed then a figure collapsed on the mattress.
"Tony, Len, get your asses down here! You hear me?"
The man who wasn't laying heavily on the mattress above Danni headed downstairs shouting noisily "Claim, claim, claim!"
"Len, shut the hell up. I'm trying to sleep!"
Danni felt the blood pounding in her ears but not loud enough to drown out the loud voices of the men downstairs.
"There's a woman shacking up in here."
"Say what?"
"Come on in here man."
"She hot?"
Danni could hear the leer in the man's eyes in his predatory tone.
"Don't grab your pecker just yet Len. She ain't here."
"What the hell you hollering about then?"
"Found her shirt. Must have washed it this morning. Smells good."
Danni felt her adrenaline surge; she had to get out of the house as fast as she could.
"Oh, so you found a shirt? She could be miles away by now."
"Why'd she go to all the trouble of washing a shirt when she's just gonna ditch it? She'll be back."
"And who knows who else. We best be ready."
"Yeah Joe we will, but I call first claim on the girl when she gets here."
"The fuck you will." Danni hissed under her breath, feeling for her knife before remembering Merle's gun.