Safe

A/N: BAM Mega chapter :D It's because I love ya'll so much. In my quest to make this as close to canon as possible without recapping, really much at all, this possibly ended up a little choppy. But I hate recapping so I am leaving it as is :) This chapter contains spoilers through Pretty much dead all ready.

Chapter 8

Glenn crouched in the corner, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible as he silently freaked out, watching Carol carefully bathe Daryl's unconscious body with a soft rag and a bowl of rapidly graying lukewarm water. She'd had to cut his shirt off of him, it was so caked in gore that it had become too stiff to peel off, and there were bits of it deeply embedded in the hole in his side that she cut around and left for Hershel to extract when he came to treat Daryl's wounds.

Hershel had given Daryl a cursory look-over when they had first brought him in and declared him "not so bad." By miracle whatever had punctured his side hadn't hit any major organs or blood vessels and though the force of the bullet had knocked his for a loop, the bullet wound was really just a scratch and didn't even need stitches.

Glenn was having trouble breathing. He didn't make a move to help. Carol had asked him, when he had lingered in the room after the others were gone, if he wanted to be the one to clean Daryl, but Glenn had shook his head and retreated to the farthest corner. It seemed like far too intimate and intrusive a task for him.

"I think he's ready for Hershel to come stitch him up. D'you mind running to get him?" Carol asked as she wrung out her cloth one last time and set it on the tray beside the bowl. Glenn hesitated, not wanting to leave, but when Carol reached for the kitchen shears and started cutting through the crusty denim of Daryl's pants, he practically dove out the door.

After sending Hershel up, Glenn went outside for some fresh air.

When Andrea found him twenty minutes later, he was slouched against the huge shade tree behind the barn, staring vacantly out into the surrounding woods. She approached him carefully from the side so he wouldn't be startled by her suddenly appearing. Even so, he ignored her presence as determinedly as he could.

"Daryl woke up. Rick's with him now trying to pin down where he found the doll. It would probably do him good to see a friendly face." Glenn stood and started hurrying back toward the house, still trying not to acknowledge her, but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"I am so sorry. What I did was stupid and dangerous and I have no real excuse. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Glenn went completely still. He still didn't turn to look at her. "I think you've done enough. Don't you?" He was surprised by how steady his voice was. And mean. He didn't think he had ever spoken to anyone in such a harsh tone, but he didn't regret it. He wrenched his arm away and nearly ran back to the house.

Dinner was horribly awkward. More awkward than the first time Merle had ever joined the main group for a meal back at the quarry. More awkward than every dinner he had ever had with his parents. Even more awkward than the time Kelsey's upper crust family had taken them to the best steak house in Atlanta and he had asked the waiter for ketchup.

Glenn wasn't too terribly bothered by it. Daryl was alive and well on his way to full recovery. After Rick left Glenn had sat with him until he fell asleep. He hadn't said much, but just before he drifted off he had flashed one of his rare smiles at something Glenn had said, so Glenn didn't have to pretend to be upbeat as he tried to break the tension at dinner for the sake of group harmony.

Maggie seemed pleased by his efforts. When she passed him a note suggesting another rendezvous Glenn faltered for a second unsure of what to do. He still wasn't with Daryl, still wasn't sure if he was gay or just really attached to his platonic best friend, but he didn't think the time to be making these big decisions and burning bridges was when he was so emotionally raw from seeing the object of his obsession and potential affection get shot shortly after feeling relieved that he wasn't a zombie.

Still, Maggie had never indicated that she wanted more than occasional casual sex from him. He jotted off a quick note for her to meet him. If nothing else he should talk to her about it, and if she was still amenable, a roll in the hay with her might help him decide what to do.

Glenn checked on Daryl again after dinner. He was sleeping, but he had managed to finish off most of the food on the tray Carol had brought him. Glenn tugged the blankets up to cover him a bit better and carried the tray back down to the kitchen before going to find some blankets of his own for his potential tryst.

He found a big old blanket in the closet of the RV that was only slightly scratchy. He thought for a moment about grabbing the set of the freshly washed sheets neatly folded by the side of the bed, but quickly decided that he would rather be chaffed than explain to Carol what he had needed them for.

He about squealed when he turned back toward the door of the camper and saw Dale standing there. Glenn immediately shifted to panicked explanation mode.

"Hey, Dale. Can I borrow this? It's been so cold at night lately." It hadn't been. It had been sweltering, but Dale didn't comment, he he just nodded and smiled a little before his expression went serious again.

"I don't think you're being fair to Andrea." Dale started in his patronizing fatherly tone. "Lets not forget you shot him too." Glenn's expression went cold.

"Fuck off Dale." Glenn pushed past him out the door and headed toward the barn.

Zombies. In the Barn. Less than 100 yards from Glenn's tent. Shit shit shit. Despite hastily extracted promises to keep it to himself, Glenn desperately wanted to tell Daryl and let the other man handle it. Daryl of course wasn't actually up to handling anything, but that didn't stop Glenn from approaching the house eight times that night only to chicken out when he saw a member of the Greene family or thought too hard about how angry Daryl would be. Daryl kept to himself and was adamant about leaving others to their business, but Glenn was pretty sure that wouldn't extend to letting someone house a dozen brain eating monsters a stones throw from where he slept.

Glenn hadn't slept at all that night. He'd paced, he'd fidgeted, he even started a little fire and cleaned Daryl's arrows even though he knew that Daryl would just re-clean them as soon as he was healthy enough to sit up properly. What to do, what to do, what to do? Glenn fingered an arrow and for one crazed minute thought about taking care of the problem himself. He almost went to talk to Dale but then he remembered the awful thing he had said and was too ashamed to face him.

Glenn passed out from sheer stress and exhaustion in the early morning hours. When he woke up he went to the house to check on Daryl, finally resolved to tell him if only to ask his opinion. He nearly started hyperventilating when he got to Daryl's room and saw Patricia stripping the bed, but she quickly informed him that Daryl was fine, was well enough in fact Hershel had let him be moved out to his tent to sleep in his own sleeping bag at his request earlier that morning.

Daryl's tent was farthest from the house on the outer edge of the camp. Glenn approached cautiously, not wanting to wake his friend if Daryl was sleeping. He heard soft talking as he got closer and paused when he realized that Andrea was in there apologizing. He backed away so as not to eavesdrop and waited nearby.

"I'm sorry Andrea." He blurted out almost as soon as she emerged from the tent a few minutes later. His anger at her for accidentally shooting Daryl had seemed much less important after spending a whole night freaking out about his imminent death. "I know that you would never hurt him on purpose."

Andrea smiled. "I'm sorry too. It was stupid. You guys had it under control and I just wanted to, I don't know, prove myself I guess. I have definitely learned my lesson now."

Glenn turned to walk with her toward the small fire where Carol was making breakfast. "You don't have anything to prove Andrea. There's no one I would rather have watch my back. Well. . . Daryl, I would probably pick Daryl over you. Because of the crossbow. And his sneaky stalking skills. But you're top three for sure." Glenn grinned as Andrea gave him a playful shove just this side of too hard.

They sat together with fairly comfortable chit chat, though Andrea didn't tease Glenn about Daryl like she normally would have. Afterwards he took a bowl of slightly burnt Spaghetti-O's to Daryl's tent, but the redneck was sleeping so he covered it with a plate and left it close enough so Daryl would be able to reach it but far enough away that he wouldn't knock it over. Then Glenn went to look for Lori to check on her and give her his own portion for the baby. Maybe after he would try to apologize to Dale.

Glenn thought he should probably be embarrassed that Dale had gotten both of the huge secrets he had sworn to keep out of him so easily, but mostly he just felt relieved. As he stuffed supplies in his knapsack on his second pharmacy run in three days he thought about what Dale had said about telling the others. It was probably true that they all had a right to know, but there wasn't really anything they could do about if they didn't want to get kicked off the farm. Honestly Glenn kind of wished that he didn't know himself.

There was also Maggie to consider. Her insistence that the walkers were still her family might technically be naive, but he could hardly blame her. Who wouldn't want to think that there loved ones were just sick? What if he told the others and Rick decided to take kill the walkers despite what Hershel would think. What would that do to her? He'd checked the barn thoroughly once he knew what was in there, and he was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to get out. What could it hurt to sit on the information for a while? One of the others would find out eventually. Heck, Dale knew and he was the least subtle person left on the planet so there was an excellent chance that half the camp knew already. Okay possibly second to least subtle if you counted Glenn and his big secret spilling mouth.

Well, it was settled then. He would keep an eye on the barn and he would try not to tell anyone else just yet.

Then Maggie screamed.

Glenn dispatched the walker rather easily. It wasn't particularly strong or fast, but it had still almost killed Maggie. He was getting lazy. There was a time when he wouldn't have dreamed of grabbing so much as a bottle of water before he was sure the whole building was secure, and he had just let Maggie wander off while he stocked up on luxuries like toothpaste and breath mints without even a cursory glance in the back. Somewhere along the way he had become inured of the constant looming threat of walkers, and it had nearly cost Maggie her life. He needed to tell the others about the barn.

The ride back was mostly silent, but when they got back to the farm Maggie exploded at Lori. Glenn didn't blame really blame Lori, she was scared and didn't know what to do, with good reason, but it was nice to have Maggie defend him. Even so, he did his best to assure Lori he wasn't mad at her before he went off in search of Dale to discuss the best way to let everyone in on the barn situation.

Maggie found him after dinner and dropped some suggestive hints, but Glenn decided to be deliberately obtuse and let them lie where they fell until she got annoyed and left in a huff. This was partially because he was planning to reveal her secret to the group the very next morning (which he doubted would go over well with her) but mostly because he was fairly certain that right after you saved someone's life was not the time to suggest keeping things casual while you decided whether or not you were bisexual. She knew how dangerous the walkers were now so he was sure she would cool off in a few days, and once her hero worship had blown over he wouldn't have to worry that he was taking advantage of her.

His announcement the next morning went about as well as could be expected; Glenn washed his hands of the entire thing as Shane and Rick fought it out. It was Rick's problem now, Glenn wanted no part of that responsibility.

Glenn spent a large part of his morning avoiding Maggie after his impromptu egg bath. He still thought he did the right thing, but he felt bad about betraying her trust. He saw Carol and Daryl wandering off together at one point and sourly wondered when they had gotten so chummy before kicking himself for being an insensitive boob. Daryl had nearly killed himself trying to find her daughter, of course they were chummy. Still, he had an inkling in his stomach that felt a little like jealousy.

He managed to patch things up with Maggie by early afternoon. He still didn't feel like it was the right time to bring up his potentially curved sexuality however, so he didn't let things progress beyond a little light necking.

They were sitting on the porch together joking about something or other when Shane had stormed the farmhouse with the entire bag of guns.

Days later, T-Dog would coin the term Barnyard Massacre to refer to what happened next. It was an extremely apt description, though no one was killed who wasn't dead already. As the smoke cleared Maggie finally let go of her unresponsive father so she could break down in Glenn's arms. Even then, holding a hysterical Maggie as she screamed into his shoulder, all he could think about was how hard Daryl had searched for that little girl. And how badly this would affect him.

Daryl disappeared after depositing a still sobbing Carol into Patricia's care. Glenn waited until Maggie had cried herself to sleep before he went searching.

He found Daryl in the barn with a badly damaged hand near an equally bloody wall. He was pacing around agitatedly and fidgeting; it was the most animated Glenn had ever seen him.

"What do you want?" He demanded as he stalked towards Glenn. Glenn took an involuntary step back which caused Daryl to sneer. He moved closer to Glenn, backing him up until he was pressed against the stall door. "It's about time. Maybe now you'll leave me the fuck alone."

For the first time since he had met him, Glenn felt a little bit scared. This was Daryl. Daryl embodied protection and safety. But Daryl's eyes were empty. Glenn desperately wanted the spark back, so he acted completely impulsively for possibly the first time in his life. He threw his body as hard against the larger man's as he could and twined his arms around Daryl's neck.

It was different than the fantastic wet dream of a kiss they had shared in the woods by the highway. That kiss had been all heat and wet tongues, but this on was rougher, more primal. This kiss was all teeth and muscle and Daryl's blunt nails leaving welts on Glenn's hips. This kiss was hot in a completely different way. That kiss had been about submitting, allowing Daryl to play his body like a violin. This one was all about control. Before he could over think it he slid his hand into the gap in the front of Daryl's jeans left there by long days and scant meals.

The bulge was still there, felt even bigger and harder than it had before. But Glenn wasn't afraid this time. He was the one in charge. Daryl was his to command. Glenn sank to his knees on the hard concrete floor.

It wasn't bad, he decided. The flavor was nothing to write home about, but it wasn't unpleasant either. Kind of salty, a little bitter, easy to endure for the sake of the sounds Daryl was making as he twitched and writhed under Glenn's inexpert attentions. Daryl's had found it's way into Glenn's hair, but even as angry as he had been when Glenn had found him in the barn, he was gentle and very careful not to thrust his hips. Then Daryl moaned and Glenn lost himself in it. Daryl came apart in less than a minute, and Glenn was pretty sure he managed to swallow most of it.

Daryl was silent after. He didn't move at all as Glenn carefully wiped the saliva off of him with a corner of Daryl's own shirt and gingerly tucked him back into his pants. Daryl was completely still as Glenn climbed slowly to his feet, noting with surprise the sticky feeling in the front of his own boxer shorts. When Glenn smiled at him however, Daryl was out of the barn like a shot.

Glenn stood in shock for several minutes letting the gravity of what had just happened sink in. He wanted nothing more than to keep hiding in there until he had sorted everything out in his mind, but the barn still reeked of it's previous inhabitants and his self preservation instincts kicked in and drove him out the door.

AN: so nervous. This is almost definitely the most blatantly sexual thing I have ever written, so be gentle