It's My Life
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Charlene. (pronounced "Shar-lean")
Chapter 3: Nutritious Hearts
Shane had been about to introduce her to everyone when he noticed the blood oozing from her side. He growled, "What the hell happened?"
Charlene cringed at the harshness in his tone; "Merle and Daryl saved me from a couple of men trying to kill me."
Daryl muttered, "Tryin' to rape ya'. Why don't ya' just say it for what it was."
The small woman sent him a withering glare. She caught sight of the small smirk that played on his lips at her irritation. Shane's eyes darkened angrily. "Where are they?"
His hand gripped her upper arm; Charlene wrenched it from his grasp. "We killed them all; nothin' to worry about."
The bloody woman turned away from him as an older man approached her with a gentle smile, "I'm Dale, and lets get you fixed up before you go running around."
Charlene smiled, "Hi, Dale. I can do it myself. I just need some supplies."
Shane placed his hands on his hips as she followed Dale to the RV. He spoke again, "Where's Derek?"
Her body stiffened. She turned and looked at him slowly, her teeth dug into her lower lip in thought. "He tried to kill me, so I killed him."
Shane stared at her long and hard before speaking finally, "Good."
Lori approached Shane slowly. Her lips were pursed in thought. She crossed her arms over her chest, "I know she's your sister, but-"
The man cut her off, "Lori, I'm not going to talk about this. She stays."
"She killed her husband."
"Yeah a husband who landed her in the hospital at least two times a month. He would have killed her eventually."
Lori's face deepened in thought. "I'm sorry, I hadn't known."
Shane shrugged with a small smile, "Not many do know. She's a private person."
They stared at each other for moment. A gentle smile played on Lori's lips. Shane pulled her to him and whispered in her ear. Her eyes flickered deviously.
Charlene leaned on the table in front of her. Her eyes narrowed at her brother and the woman, Lori, talking. She couldn't hear anything, but knew it was about her with the way that nosy woman kept looking over to her.
Charlene huffed in annoyance and was interrupted when a couple of squirrels landed in front of her. She blinked and looked up at the grinning face of Merle. "There's a few squirrels for ya' to skin and cook, woman."
She tossed them back at him. "Skin your own damn squirrels." He caught them at his chest and smirked before sitting opposite of her.
"Ya' don't know how to skin, do ya'?"
Charlene rolled her eyes as she cleaned the blood from one of her throwing knives. "No, Merle. I don't how to skin. I've been eating them whole all this time."
The sarcasm dripped off her word. She stared at him with a straight face. Daryl gave a quiet chuckle as he threw down his squirrels beside his brother. Merle laughed boisterously. He snatched the knife from her hand and dug into the little body of the animal.
Charlene shifted down and plucked one of the many knives up off the table. She began to dig into a squirrel herself.
A blonde woman passed by with a fishing pole slung over her shoulder. Charlene faintly remembered her name being Andrea. Merle gave a whistle, "Hey, sweetheart. How 'bout me and you go bump some uglies?"
Andrea shot him a filthy glare, "Go fuck yourself, Merle."
Charlene shot a glance at him as he muttered, "rug muncher."
"Real popular around here, huh?" A small smile played on her lips as she pulled another squirrel towards her.
"Shut the fuck up." He tossed the heart of the squirrel at her head. Charlene caught it in her hands and wagged a finger at him.
"Don't waste that. Hearts are incredibly nutritious. Native Americans believed that the character and spirit of an animal is in their heart, so they'd consume everything that was that creature."
Merle and Daryl stared at her in disbelief as she popped the heart into her mouth and ate it. A hiss of disgust caused their attention to turn to Lori at the end of the table.
Her face was screwed up in a vicious glare. She started to leave when Charlene picked up another heart and held it out to her. "Serious, they're really good for you. It might just even remove that permanent scowl from your face."
Lori huffed in irritation. "You know I was coming to apologize for wanting to have you thrown out of camp. It seems like your husbands beatings did more damage to you that I thought."
She stormed away. Charlene's eyebrows had risen up her forehead in surprise. "That is one angry woman."
Daryl snorted in agreement. She tossed the heart to him and he stared at her before looking to it. Merle popped one into his mouth. "Come on, Darylina, don't be a bitch."
The younger man glared at him before throwing it into his mouth. "I ain't no bitch."
Darkness descended upon the camp quickly. Charlene sat around the fire while everyone ate in an amicable silence. Andrea and Amy argued quietly. The younger blonde shoved Andrea lightly.
The older woman huffed and broke the silence. "So, I have got to know- where did you learn to throw knives so accurately?"
There was a general movement as people looked to her in interest. Charlene smiled, "I was deployed to the Middle East for about six months, and at times it got boring as hell- so I started throwing knives to keep myself entertained."
Amy stared at her. "That simple, huh?"
The dark haired woman laughed. "Yeah, practice enough at anything and you'll get good."
The young boy named Carl spoke up suddenly, "Did you kill people when you were in the Marines?"
Lori reprimanded quickly, "Carl!"
"It's okay, Lori- it's just an honest question. Yes, I did Carl." She rubbed the back of her neck as she felt the eyes of the camp trained on her. Amy spoke with a tone of distaste, "The war was wrong."
"Think what you like, but those people over there are some crazy sons o' bitches." Charlene muttered and leaned forward.
Amy continued, "I watched as a bunch of soldiers stormed streets and hospitals and began executing everyone-"
Charlene cut her off, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I was discharged before this shit storm."
Glenn jumped in quickly to change the subject, "Why were you discharged?"
"It was a medical discharge." She said simply. Her eyes were trained on the flickering fire.
There was a snort of disgust. Charlene's eyes jumped up to a large man she had come to know as Ed. "Of course it was a medical discharge. Bitches don't belong in the military."
Her eyes narrowed in rage. Charlene snarled, "Bitches? Don't call me that if you know what's good for you, asshole."
Everyone sat in a stunned silence. Glenn shifted uncomfortably, "So!-"
Ed growled in response, "You women need to learn your place before you get hurt."
Charlene leapt to her feet, "Is that a threat?"
His response was cool and contrasted the small woman's heated rage. "It's a warning, bitch."
She moved forward aggressively, but was halted as an arm encircled her waist and yanked her back. Shane and Dale had moved in between them. Shane spoke quietly to Ed as Charlene shouted over the two of them, "You better watch yourself, dickhead!"
She struggled and pushed against the man that had a hold of her. The calloused hand rested against her stomach as he continued to tug her back away from the group. "Get off me!"
He released her and she stumbled to the ground. Her angry cerulean eyes gazed into the icy stare of Daryl Dixon. Charlene brushed her pants off and grumbled in irritation, "I would have been fine."
Daryl suddenly laughed sarcastically; he leaned closer to her face so that she felt his hot breath ghost over her skin. "You think I did that for you? Get the fuck over yourself, lady. That dipshit has a wife and daughter and if you laid a hand on him, they would have paid for it later."
He left Charlene standing there completely bewildered. Her anger ebbed away and gave way to shame. She dropped her head to her chest. The fuckin' redneck was right.
Here ya guys go! Thank you to all the readers and reviewers! I hope y'all enjoy the chapter, thank you for reading. Don't forget to review, I love hearing y'alls thoughts :)
