"So queenie, what's this I hear about you letting Daryl go off on a suicide mission?" Merle strode into the kitchen with purpose.
"What-"
"He says he's going to look for Rick and the rest of the fools who went to that Terminus place."
"Oh, he told you?"
"He did."
Merle sat on a backward chair and watched Danni feed the twins.
"He needs to do this Merle."
"Now I know you don't want him to go as much as I don't." Merle practically growled.
"No, I don't want him to."
"So you go on upstairs and tell him he's not going."
"Me? Why don't you tell him?"
Merle looked uncomfortable. "Well, now I did, but see he told me to stick it where the sun don't shine."
Danni had to smile. "He did, huh?"
"He don't listen to me, but you…" Merle cleared his throat. "To be honest, I never though the two of you would last. "
"Thanks, Merle butter me up a little why don't you."
"What I'm trying to say is, he's changed. You changed him. It's something. I'm rarely that wrong."
"Really?"
"Let's face it hon. You took a wild stallion and broke him."
"I don't think I really broke Daryl."
"Oh, you broke him. You done broke him hard. You can open the gate, and he's not gonna bolt. You can kick him with a spur and he aint gonna spook. You own him."
"Merle stop. That's ridiculous."
"Look aint nothing to feel bad about. Happens to the best of men. But imma tell you something, I'm only comfortable with Daryl being your bitch, not Rick Grimes'. "
"Daryl isn't-"
"Hear me? You need to forbid him to leave here and risk his ass for that son of a-"
"I get it. You hate Rick. But I can't make Daryl do anything. "
"Oh you can and you will queenie. I'm counting on you, them little sprouts are counting on you. You don't want them losing their daddy. And for what? Rick Grimes?"
She suddenly thought back to that night when they were trying to make it through Atlanta. It seemed like a hundred years ago. Daryl didn't exactly trust Rick then.
"Are you listening to me?" Merle's voice intruded on her memory.
"Yeah."
"Good. Now go talk to him."
She hesitated so Merle kept going. "Survival, now that's short term proposition." Merle asserted. "We done that. It's time we start thinking about long term which means living. Daryl going out there again, now that's a dumb move. I'm telling you he's going ass backward. You see that right?"
"I guess." Living versus just surviving. What are you willing to do? What sacrifices are you willing to make? Leave people behind?
"Now we're going hunting but when he gets back tonight you tell him."
.. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .
Daryl and Merle didn't return until after dinner. Kieran and Sophia were playing scrabble at the dining room table while in the next room Danni worked on researching the crossing over ritual. After Daryl had grabbed a quick supper of leftovers, he found Danni and his kids in the parlor. He crouched in front of the playpen for a moment to observe the twins playing contentedly. He stretched and walked to the fireplace.
"So Merle says you wanted to talk to me about something?" Daryl stoked the flame, his back to Danni, who sat cross-legged on the floor. She had Lorelei's old journals and her Nan's spell book spread out on the old wooden coffee table beeswaxed to a shine. She was glancing back and forth between the twins in their playpen and her research on the table. Fionn was being a true cat as he inconveniently sprawled on top of some papers watching Danni through slitted eyes.
Satisfied with the state of the fire, Daryl slid down to the floor beside Danni. She offered him spoon full of peanut butter she'd been eating out of the jar. He shook his head. Daryl had been out hunting with Merle most of the day. He looked tired, he needed a shave and his hair was falling in long dank streaks across his forehead.
"What? He did huh?" She paused then realized she'd been set up and muttered "bastard," under her breath.
"Daryl, did I break you?"
"What?"
She put the jar of peanut butter down. "Merle said that I broke you, that if I kicked you with my spurs, you wouldn't spook. Is that true?"
"Ah, no, I'd definitely be a little spooked."
"You know what I mean."
"Naw I honestly don't." He rubbed his temple.
"I guess he meant that you belong to me or something."
"Well, do you belong to me?"
"Yeah, I guess I do. But he also said that I can make you do things…or not do things."
"He doesn't want me going after Rick and them, I know."
"And he said that if I told you not to, that you wouldn't go."
"He's right."
"He is?"
"Yeah."
She nodded. "We've been through this before. I wouldn't. Ask you not to go."
Daryl chewed his lip in hard staccato nibbles and nodded curtly with a wince. They stared at each other in solemn silence for what seemed like an eternity. Finally Daryl asked, "So what's this plan you mapping out here," changing the subject, lightening his tone as he traced her book with his forefinger.
She cleared her throat."Well, um, this is a ritual my Nan used to do to help souls pass to on to the afterlife." She scooted closer and he pulled the Book of Shadows nearer to see the words. "We doing it tonight? Got your supplies lined up?"
She looked up at him from under her bangs. "Yeah, I do."
He put his hand over hers and squeezed. "Okay, then. What do you need me to do?"
"You're doing it."
She turned back to the parchment pages of the old book. Daryl loved watching Danni concentrate. Utterly focused, she was as absent and unselfconscious as a child, twisting a finger in her glossy hair, pulling her legs into effortlessly odd angles, flipping a pen around her mouth and abruptly pulling it out to murmur something to herself.
"In a couple hours after we put the kids down to sleep, we should head out, okay?"
Daryl nodded. "Then this whole ghost thing will be over."
... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
Midnight. As the rest of the house was sleeping, Danni lead Daryl to the back of the yard beyond the fencing and through a patch of woods to the secluded graveyard. They had to rely on the three-quarter moon as the only source of light. Every exposed surface took on a milky luminescence, giving the road an icy appearance that directly contradicted the warm early spring wind blowing in from the north. The entrance to the cemetery loomed a couple of yards in front of them, its rusty cast-iron gates creaked eerily in the breeze. Both were spread apart to reveal a bitumen road leading inside; a one lane highway for hearses, visitors and maintenance crews to travel over. The gravestones dated back to the late 1700s, many of which were deteriorating at an exponential rate and were missing large chunks that looked as if they'd been bitten out. Other headstones from more contemporary times merely had hairline fissures and chips, but in another fifty years they would more than likely succumb to the similar fate that befell their neighbors. Daryl trudged beside Danni, crossbow shouldered but ready. And then she stopped for the longest of moments, deep in thought as if listening to someone. "Here. " Danni dropped to her knees. "See this?" On the ground were two flat stone markers. It's them. "Their children are buried here."
Danni began to pull candles out of her bag and her tarot cards. Daryl watched her in awe as she set up the scene. She looked so confident and in her element.
She lit the candles and placed the center one on the Moon tarot card. She tilted her head up to look in Daryl's eyes. "We need to focus on John and Lorelei, keep them here with us in our energy." She took his hand. "Thanks for doing this."
Danni stood and brushed the dirt from her knees. She prepared to cast the circle. In a strong, clear, voice she invoked the goddess.
"I call on Macha goddess of life and death for help with my intent."
Daryl felt chills race up his spine. She was almost glowing with that ethereal light again. Her hair was long and loose over her shoulders and it framed her face like black curtains. Her eyes were bright and focused. Something told him she was supposed to be here, doing this at this moment. She was part of some larger plan their ancestors had created. Destiny. He knew he was part of the plan too.