...in which there is good news and more sexytimes with daryl and stella because, of course there would be
There was a crowd of people outside the infirmary waiting for news about Maggie. Word travels fast in such a small town, so even those who didn't really know her very well asked for news when they passed by on their way to and from their daily activities.
Marie and I were sitting on a bench. I had succeeded in picking off all of the vowels from the slogan on my t-shirt so it now read "Kp Clm nd Hd Bhnd th Rdnck." Marie had chewed down all of the fingernails on one hand and had started in on the other. Carl was pacing madly back and forth, while Carol tried to distract Judith, who clearly knew something was wrong. Tom and Matt were trying to play a game of war. Beth, Herschel and Glenn were all inside with Maggie. At first, we could hear her crying out in pain every so often, but it had been quiet for the past fifteen minutes or so. None of us were sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.
Suddenly, there was the sound of boots on pavement, and we all looked up to see Daryl sprinting down the road. He definitely looked like he had spent two days in the woods, but I was utterly relieved to see him in one piece. As much as I had the urge to throw myself into his arms, I remained glued to my seat. I could not process a single additional emotion right now. Judith, however, wasn't so conflicted and flung her arms around Daryl's legs. He swept her up into a hug.
"What the hell is going on?" Daryl demanded of all of us. "Is Maggie OK?"
"We don't know anything yet. She started having pains about an hour ago," Carol explained. "We're waiting for someone to come out and tell us what's going on."
Daryl ran his fingers through his hair and gave a frustrated growl. He kicked at a chair leg and lit a cigarette. Through the smoke, he caught my eye and gave me a slight smile but stayed where he was. I smiled back at him tiredly, and then put my head in my hands and stared at the pavement. Can't…handle…any…more…right…now.
Mercifully, Beth came out a short time later. "She's doing OK," she announced, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. "It was just false labor, but the baby's doing fine, too. Glenn and Dad, I'm not so sure about," she said with a weary laugh.
All of us broke out into giddy laughter, spurred on by the release of all the worried tension that had built up among the eight of us. Immediately, everyone started chattering, walking around, and stretching the muscles that had been clenched for the past hour or so. Beth said that Maggie wasn't up for visitors just yet, but that we could come back in an hour or so to see her. Apparently, the stress had made us all hungry, so we started to head to the kitchen for something to eat. As we were walking away, Beth called out, "Hey Marie, Stella, hang on! Maggie did say she wanted to see you guys just for a sec."
Marie and I headed into the infirmary, and I was struck as always by how cool and comfortable it was in there. This was the only unit on the premises that had air conditioning. Remember how I mentioned the tinkerers before? Well, years ago, the town council came up with this idea to create the job of tinkerer. They realized that in order to have any kinds of developments in technology, as rudimentary as they were, the town needed people whose sole job was to mess around with things in hopes that they would invent something that would make our lives here easier.
Amazingly enough, there had already been some successes. So far, we had two wind-powered pumps – one brought drinking water up from an underground spring, and one brought water in from the pond and through a filtration system so that we had water for showering, cooking, and the like. There was a solar panel on the infirmary. It generated enough power to supply a small air conditioner when it was needed, as well as a couple of pieces of medical equipment that were scavenged from a nearby doctor's office. Glenn had been assigned to the tinkerers when he arrived and was already working on generating power with a stationery bike and some other exercise equipment that had been gathering dust - much like they probably had been doing in the homes of their original owners.
Maggie was sitting up in her bed, looking pale but clearly feeling better than she had been before. Paler still were Glenn and Herschel, who both looked like they had been the ones in false labor. Maggie looked at them affectionately. "Why don't you guys go out and get some fresh air? Marie and Stella can keep me company for a minute." Maggie got a kiss from each as they reluctantly headed outside. She rolled her eyes at us and said, "I'm not sure how Glenn is going to survive when I go into actual labor. I thought he was going to completely lose it."
I giggled. "Well, I can understand that he would be nervous. You scared the shit out of us!"
"Yeah, you need to not ever do that to us again," Marie agreed.
"I just wanted to thank you guys. I really appreciate what you did for me," Maggie said.
"What are friends for, if not to rush you to the infirmary when you go into false labor," I replied.
"You are such a faker, going into FALSE labor," Marie teased.
Maggie laughed. "If that's what false labor feels like, I am NOT looking forward to the real thing."
Glenn and Herschel came back in to send us away so Maggie could rest. Marie and I each got a hug and a heartfelt thank you from both of them for how we had helped Maggie that day. I was feeling exhausted but cheerful as I walked out the door when I saw Daryl standing there, looking like he might actually be waiting for me.
"Hey Gun Show," Marie drawled. "How's hunting?"
"Can't complain, Mouth. Think I killed more walkers than squirrels, though," he replied. He turned his gaze to me and asked, "You got a minute?"
Before I could respond, Marie quickly excused herself. "Going to grab a bite. Catch you later." Once she passed him, she turned around to give me a big, overly dramatic thumbs-up. I just shook my head slightly.
"So what's up?" I asked, trying desperately to seem nonchalant.
"Nothin'. Just missed you the past few days and wanted to see you." And then he gave me that insanely sexy smirk that slayed me every time.
I felt like I was going to melt into a puddle of ecstatic relief. "I…I missed you, too." Missed was the understatement of the year. More like, felt complete and utter dread the entire time he was gone.
"For real?" he asked, actually seeming pleased and surprised. "Are you shitting me?"
"I shit you not. I definitely missed you," I declared.
"Well goddamn, Funny Girl, that's the second good news I got today." And then he took my face in his hands and kissed me.
Aaaand moments later we were back at my place, tearing off each others' clothes. Daryl was dirty as hell but I didn't care. He was covered with scrapes and bruises, and if it was humanly possible, that only made him sexier. But I won't bore you with all the details. Oh wait, who am I kidding? These are definitely not boring details!
I fell back on the bed, and apparently he decided he was going to drive me to the brink of insanity with his mouth and hands. As he kissed me, his hands explored the surface of my skin, outlining my nipples with his rough fingers. Soon I was arching my back and groaning against his salty, smoky mouth, but then his hands moved further south, tickling my belly and then sliding up in between my thighs. Once again, he quickly found the magic spot and brought me right to the edge. And then he moved on to other territory. He did this maddening little routine repeatedly until I had about lost my ever-loving mind. I finally grabbed his hand, looked him dead in the eye, and told him, "You're killing me, Smalls. You need to finish what you started." Which he oh-so efficiently did.
Then it was my turn to return the favor. I straddled him and decided to do a little research. Sucking on his earlobe resulted in some nice groans. Working my way down, I discovered that my tongue flicking and swirling around his nipples yielded some pretty good results, but when I ran my teeth over them, I was rewarded with him twitching with pleasure and muttering, "GodDAMN." Moving down the line, I was able to get him more and more turned on the further I went. He about lost it when I slid my tongue along the hollow below his hip bone. Finally, I verrrrry slowly reached my final destination. If you've never gone down on an extraordinarily sexy redneck badass, you need to add it to your bucket list. There is something truly miraculous about watching a smoking hot ruffian writhe and moan in ecstasy because of what you are doing to him.
We were lying sprawled across the bed afterwards, and he murmured, "Don't think I forgot 'bout you avoiding my question last time we were together."
And we had been having such a good time. I sighed. "You know, normal people usually have conversations BEFORE they have sex."
"Normal? Ain't nobody claiming to be normal here," he laughed.
"Anyway, it's my turn to ask you some questions. Let me see, I had some written down somewhere." I pretended to look for something on my nightstand and grabbed a scrap of paper. "Oh, yes, here it is." I grabbed my glasses and put them on the end of my nose. "So my first question for you is-"
He was staring at me with an incredulous/amused look on his face. "Nope, nobody normal here, that's for damn sure," he muttered.
"My first question is, what the hell? You take off for a solo hunting trip the day after we hook up? That's very suspicious timing."
Daryl lay back and stared at the ceiling. "I was tryin' to clear my head. Had a lot of crazy thoughts running 'round in there. I had a chat with a friend while I was in the woods, and he told me to quit being such a chicken-shit and go back home to you."
"Yep, there's definitely nobody normal here," I teased him, grinning. Thank you, Daryl's imaginary friend. "But your friend definitely gave you some good advice." I pretended to look at my paper again. "Question number two, what did YOU do before the world went to shit?" I squinted, looking him up and down. "I'm guessing something along the lines of lifter of heavy things or…male stripper." That made him crack up. Mission accomplished!
"I worked in construction, building houses around Atlanta. Definitely wasn't no college boy. Shit, I barely made it out of high school. Spent time with my brother, drinking and getting into fights mostly. Wasn't for the fucking plague, you'd have never given me the time of day." He rolled over on his side and started tracing little circles on my butt with his calloused fingertips. I shivered contentedly.
"Ha. You wouldn't have given me a second look if our paths crossed in our old life."
"I definitely would have been looking at this ass as you walked away from me." He planted a kiss on my backside. "Any more questions, officer?"
His kiss completely distracted me, and I rolled over and kissed him on his lips. I stretched out luxuriously, and shook my head. Daryl sat up for a second to look for his cigarettes, and I saw the map of scars that ran in all directions across his back. Jesus… I reached out my hand to touch them, and he stiffened for a second. Softly, I asked, "What happened?"
He paused for a second and lit his cigarette. He took a long drag and then said simply, "My dad was a real asshole. He would get shitfaced drunk and for fun used me as a punching bag." He took another drag, then turned around and looked at me. "See, it's not that hard to do."
"What?"
"Talk about real shit. Everybody now's got a story. Ain't no shame in it. And hiding from it ain't gonna make you forget." Daryl stood up.
He was right, and I knew it, but I just...couldn't. At least not yet. "Where are you going?"
"I don't know 'bout you, but I'm starving. I haven't eaten nothing but squirrels for two days. I'm going to get a shower and head to the kitchen. Wanna come?"
"Oh yeah. Just let me get dressed." I started looking around for my clothes.
"Uh, you might wanna shower, too. Looks like I rubbed off on ya," he said.
I looked down and noticed that I was smudged everywhere with dirt. Also my pillows, sheets, and blankets all looked like a couple of pigs had slept in them. I sighed. "Hmmm, so how do you feel about doing laundry?"