Safe

Chapter 6

Eventual spoilers for the whole season eventually, but this chapter only gets us to 2x2

AN: After the season finale I scrapped the plans I had for this and started anew, if I connect this with girl child the whole thing will start being way too AU and I think what makes this work is that it fits into the show fairly well :) This chapter is still a bit short, but I wanted to post something so y'all would know I haven't been hit by a bus.

One of the most persistent (some would say most annoying) aspects of Glenn's personality was his complete and total inability to let things lie unresolved. He hadn't even begun to sort through his mire of hormone addled feelings to decide what exactly it was he wanted from Daryl, but already he had a constant niggling feeling that he had to do something to set things right, whatever right might end up being. After he talked to Daryl he could set to work on the unexpectedly tangled issue of his sexuality.

Unfortunately, the morning after the heart-stopping kiss that had caused Glenn's minor meltdown, Rick had decided they should all search together woods-combing style so no one got nervous and accidentally shot someone else in the foot. He'd happily given his little pistol up when Rick had confiscated it pending a gun safety class, but as no one other than Daryl (who seemed to know everything) had known he had a gun in the first place, Rick didn't want to take any chances.

Daryl, for his part, hardly looked like he'd been shot at all. There was no visible limp, no slowing of his pace. The only sign of discomfort was a subtle shifting of his weight to his left leg which wouldn't be noticeable by anyone but Glenn who had long ago noted that Daryl made almost no unnecessary movements when he was in his comfort zone.

Daryl's optimism about their chances of finding Sofia alive and un-bitten had surprised Glenn. Daryl had never acknowledged that the little girl existed as far as Glenn knew. Well, he had backhanded Ed once when he'd gotten a little rough with her, but Glenn had always figured that had more to do with Daryl hating Ed's guts than caring about a nervous little kid he barely knew. It was kind of infectious, for Glenn at least, and he began to think in terms of when they found her rather than if they found her.

When they got back to camp, after Lori had been taken away by that scary Xena girl and T-Dog had been medicated from Merle's stash and was resting in the back of the camper in preparation for the trip to the mystery farm, Glenn and the others started loading the many scavenged supplies into the station wagon. The water truck, sadly, had been mostly empty bottles, but they managed to fit the six full ones they found into the back section, and used what remained of the one Shane had used for his impromptu shower to top off the water tank in the RV. Dale joined them as they moved on to the large pile of things that everyone had decided they couldn't live without.

They worked in silence mostly, methodically dividing the haul into stacks according to the priority of finding space for things and then painstakingly making that space by repacking and scrunching up all the necessities they already had. When it became clear that less than half the stuff was going to make the cut, the others rested and Glenn set to work carefully breaking into a sweet little hatchback someone had bothered to lock that, he argued, was a brand new model and probably got good gas mileage. Daryl leaned on the hood watching as he lit a cigarette.

"So Merle was a drug dealer?" Leave it to Dale to say what everyone thought in the most blatant way possible.

"Makes you say that?" Dale lifted an eyebrow but played along,

"That was a lot of meth"

Daryl shook his head. "Naw, Merle didn't even have that much of a problem. He just tended to stockpile shit. Our dad did too. Family trait."

Glenn involuntarily glanced over at Merle's motorcycle, still apparently full of Merle's stuff, and the small satchel that he had seen Daryl stuff with two cartons of cigarettes, three shirts (one with sleeves), four dingy balls of socks, and an extra pair of jeans. (No underwear, his traitorous mind pointed out.) Other than his crossbow, which he treated with the deference and careful handling of a bridegroom for a virgin bride, Daryl seemed to equate "stuff" with "nuisance."

"What did he do?" Dale pressed.

"Drank mostly. When he wasn't in jail."

"What about you?" Andrea this time, though she seemed genuinely curious rather than suspicious.

"I was the general manager at a bar over in Madison." Andrea's eye's widened.

"That's so, I don't know, respectable. I thought you needed to go to school for that kind of thing." Andrea seemed to realize how that sounded almost as soon as she said it. Glenn could almost see the gears of her mind scrambling to back track.

Daryl took one last pull on his cigarette before dropping it on the ground and stamping it out with his boot. "Associate's degree in business management."

Wait what? Glenn abruptly straightened and slammed his head into the frame of the newly opened door. The others were staring at Daryl who seemed to be getting agitated. He crossed his arms over his chest and took a step back.

"The hell y'all lookin' at? I ain't slow. Even a dumb hick can handle a few classes at a shitty community college." He backed up a little more and then turned and started actually walking away. "Goin' ta do another sweep for food and such." He disappeared behind an overturned semi.

Andrea sputtered for a moment, then retreated to the RV mumbling something about checking on T-Dog. Dale stared after Daryl for a while with a pensive look on his face.

Glenn almost followed. This was the first chance he'd had all day to get Daryl alone, but he hesitated. It had been an unbelievably emotionally charged week from the day of the Merle/Rick throwdown on the roof of that Sears. Between the roller-coaster of events and Glenn's daily overtures/apologies, Daryl hadn't really had a moment to catch his breath. Glenn stared at the spot where he'd disappeared for a moment before determinedly turned back to the hatchback, ruthlessly suppressing the feeling that he had to deal with Daryl right now.

Glenn calculated the farm to be about a twenty five minute drive total, first on the highway and then down a winding assortment of back roads. It was strangely awkward being alone with T-Dog. Though the other man had been in the quarry camp for the entire time Glenn had, their paths hadn't crossed much. His cohorts had been Jacqui and Lou Morales back in Atlanta, now he was just as isolated as Daryl seemed to be in the small group that remained.

Glenn had no idea what to say. He gossiped with Andrea, but T-Dog might take his observations and suppositions about the others as criticism which could create all sorts of uncomfortableness whether he agreed or not. With Amy and Peyton they had always jokingly bitched about all the things they didn't miss, like reality TV and waiting in line at Starbucks, but if T-Dog didn't share a similarly cynical sense of humor that line of conversation could do anything from piss him off to seriously depress him.

"I'm sorry about Jacqui."

"Look Glenn, you seem like a good kid, but I am really not in the mood for a discussion about my feelings okay."

"Right. Of Course. I'm sorry."

Glenn watched the road studiously for several minutes before T-Dog took pity on him and broke the tense silence.

"I guess your boy is okay."

"He's not my boy."

"More yours than anyone else's. You're the only one I've ever seen go out of their way to talk to him."

Glenn couldn't argue with that. Though by that logic Merle had technically been his as well, and that thought gave him the heebeegeebees.

"When I saw you get out of that truck that first day. Cute little thing like you, I was worried they'd kidnapped you from someplace. I was headed over to suggest that you share my tent when Shane put you in with Peyton."

Glenn laughed nervously, but it wasn't really funny. There was no law anymore, getting abducted by any asshole who's stronger and doesn't have the scruples to care about the morality of it all was a legitimate danger. Glenn realized, really realized, for the first time how unbelievably lucky he was to be found by Daryl.

"Daryl would never hurt me. He's a good man."

T- Dog conceded the point. "I was really more worried about Merle. He was bigger and intentionally threatening. I figured Daryl would probably just follow his lead. If I'd known then that Daryl was the only one keeping Merle in check, I would have been a helluva lot more nervous."

"Would it be cliché to say Merle had his demons?"

T-Dog gave a shrug of agreement and went back to staring out the window.

"Honestly? I'm glad the two of you get along. Because if any of us are going to make it to old age, it'll be you and Daryl. Well, so long as you don't shoot him again."

That startled a laugh out of Glenn, and they finished the drive in a far more comfortable silence.

AN: yay finally an update! This is really a transition chapter between the story I had planned and the story I have planned now, and I think it shows a bit. Let me know what you think!