(A/N: Whee! Here is the next re-write. Meant to have this up sooner than now but along with the business of life for the past little bit we've been arranging a relocation and so I've been a busy busy little bee and very exhausted by the time I have to sit and write. Hopefully the next update won't be so delayed!)
Chapter Six: Vatos: Pt. Six
To his credit, Glenn's plan played out almost exactly on the street as it had when he had laid out the rough idea using office supplies. One man in the open as opposed to many proved to be just as quick and efficient as predicted in getting the job done and now the satchel of guns and ammo was once again safely in Rick's possession. The best laid plans seldom go off without a hitch, however, and the one glaring misstep in the grand ordeal was the fact that while the guns had indeed been returned, Glenn himself had not. An ambush, a unforeseen foil in their strategy and now they had put themselves one step forward only to fall a handful behind.
For the second time in as many days Analeigh's head was a jumble with thoughts racing through her mind faster than she could process them. The view from the rooftop had left quite a bit to be desired with all its angles and ledges fit to obscure a good eye line. Even when laying flat on her front and leaning out as far as she dared over the edge, it was hard to pick up a good sense of what was going on where Daryl and Glenn were positioned. Wind kicked up bits of gravel that pricked against her eyes and after days inside the glare of the sun was downright blinding without the benefit of sunglasses. Even the pits and pieces she had seen from her perch meant little at all to her with what little context there was to be had from such a distance. There was a vast difference between seeing and knowing as far as Analeigh was concerned anyways, and the only thing she had managed to sort out was that but a few seconds in their favor would have made for a completely different outcome.
"Son of a bitch!" Daryl growled, slamming the butt end of his fist against the door and leaning against his forearm as he attempted to catch his breath. "This was a shit idea…didn't we all decide this was a god damn shit idea?"
"What the hell happened?" Analeigh fumbled with the doubled over strand of chain and pulled it free with a clumsy clatter.
"What's it look like happened?" His shoulder knocked against her roughly and he slipped into the office. "You had the prime view…you didn't pay attention or somethin'?"
"I saw dick all actually."
"What's it look like happened?"
"I was just askin'."
"Well, stupid questions get stupid answers." Daryl spat a mouthful of blood across the floor and swiped the back of his hand across the wide split in his lip.
"None of us that saw what happened." Rick put himself in the middle of things and ushered as scrawny looking kid, who was notably not Glenn, into a small square office. "Are we gonna handle this or do I have to wait for you two to have it out again before we can get some damn answers?"
Analeigh turned her attention to the ground. Keeping her mouth shut had never been her strong suit at any point in her life and there was no question she shared at least part of the blame in stirring the proverbial pot. Milking a martyr's roll and insisting she hadn't done a thing was going to get her no where and beyond that it probably wasn't about to endear her to Rick, or anyone else for that matter, in the long run. With the amount of adrenaline and ever present testosterone undoubtedly flowing through Daryl's system at present, the least she could do was try her best to hold her tongue to herself. She'd yet to have found anything to say that didn't set him off and in keeping with the situation, even a helpful offering would probably do nothing other than further provoke his ever present temper.
"Can we do this or not?" Rick asked again pointedly waiting the favorable response he was fishing for.
"Why you askin' my permission?" Daryl flicked his tongue across his lip and spat again. "Get it over with…like we ain't got enough to do already."
"You fly off again in there and it ain't gonna help us none."
"Whatever."
Daryl stormed after Rick into the office and in a split second Analeigh was left to debate whether following was a good idea or not. A moment more and not without a little trepidation, her curiosity got the better of her.
Tension hung heavy in the room and even hanging back a ways, she felt awkward, out of place, and not at all like she had any business eavesdropping or being involved in anything that was about to unfold. Daryl's constant pacing did little to dissuade her feeling of unease. Never taking a moment to stop moving, he was ramped up on a fresh surge of adrenaline and over compensatory anger and neither of those things could lead to any good.
Analeigh tried to fix her attention elsewhere in the room, on the kid slouching back in the chair, or on Rick or T-Dog respectively. Hell even on the piles strewn across the desk would do just so long as she could keep somewhere, anywhere out of Daryl's direct path despite the fact that try as she might she couldn't help but lock on to him as he stalked about the room. Covertly as possible she would let her eyes trail after him on each pass and then look away as he turned and changed direction. Whether either of them liked it or not
Analeigh tried to fix her attention else where in the room; on the kid in the chair, on Rick himself or on T-Dog; hell, even the piles of paper strewn across the desk would do. Anything to keep her attention away from him was seemingly impossible to find. As unfortunate as it was, Analeigh couldn't help but fixate on Daryl as he stalked about the room; covertly letting her eyes trail after him on each pass. Whether he knew it or if it was intentional or not, he was apparently all too good at being the center of attention, even if he was completely unaware.
"Those men you were with," Rick leaned against a desk, square across from the kid from the alley. "We need to know where they went."
"Man, I ain't telling you nothin'."
"Jesus man," T-Dog jumped in, turning to Daryl for a little insight. "What the hell happened back there?"
"I told you," He spat. "This little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me."
"You're the one who jumped me puta. Screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault."
"He's lying." Analeigh offered quietly from the corner. "Daryl's right, they jumped him first."
Daryl eyed her, somewhat taken a back that she'd actually voluntarily stand up for him.
"Dumb bitch," The kid hissed. "Who asked you?"
"Watch your mouth." Rick warned. "You talk to me, you don't talk to her."
"Didn't get a great view, but that much I was able to suss out." She smirked slightly. "That and the arrow in the ass."
"You shot someone in the ass?" T-Dog's voice jumped a couple of octaves.
"Was about the only thing I could do." Daryl shrugged. "Who knows…they took Glenn, they could have taken Merle too."
"Merle?" The kid scoffed. "What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle."
Surprisingly little provocation always seemed to have the greatest effect on Daryl's temper. Much as predicted, and much as Rick had warned against, he lashed out in a split second. He charged towards the kid with a growl only to have Rick intercept as he flung his leg out in an attempted swift kick. The first genuine flare of anger Analeigh had been witness to that didn't involve a puffed chest, faux threats, and a biting verbal assault.
"Daryl…" Rick grappled with him and only just barely managed to throw him back a ways. "Daryl, back off."
"I told him I was gonna stomp his ass!" Daryl eyed the backpack Glenn had left behind and formulated some sort of plan that was more Rick's style. "Kid's gonna talk in circles around us and be a smartass he deserves what's coming to him.
Analeigh rocked up on her hands slightly, and hoisted herself up a little higher on her perch. Daryl had ripped the pack open, rifled through, and randomly pulled out an old and neatly folded handkerchief, the contents of which made her jaw drop.
"Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?"
With a sickening thud, Merle's grayed and revolting looking severed hand landed in the kid's lap and sent him flying from the chair with a chain of horrified screams.
Daryl lunged for him again and pinned him against the ground. "I'll start with the feet next time."
"That's enough." Rick pulled him back again.
"Man…leave the boy alone." T-Dog aligned himself with Rick. "Maybe if you get outta his face for a damn minute he just might start talkin'."
"Yeah, well maybe we ain't givin' him the option of not."
"Guess your momma never taught you you'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar huh?" Analeigh added.
"Whatever…you want us to play nice, you ever stop to think maybe his friends are the ones that knocked your ass around?" Daryl grumbled and circled the room again to at least look like he was trying to temper himself down a little. "Ya'll are so busy making friends, ain't anyone considered it except for me…girl gets the snot beat outta her and those assholes are the only ones we've seen around…pieces fit to me."
"They didn't touch her." The kid sighed in aggravation as he pulled himself together. "They wouldn't mess with any chick man, I swear."
"And we're just gonna take your word on it?"
The kid clammed up again and offered little more than a half assed shrug and a self assured smirk to keep the room guessing.
"He look familiar to you?" Daryl asked, damn near willing Analeigh to confirm that he did so that a little more force would be undoubtedly justified. "Even just a little."
"I dunno…" She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with suddenly having the attention drawn towards her situation. "I mean, I don't think so...coulda been anyone right?"
"Well, there can't be that many people still left around here." T-Dog suggested.
"You'd be surprised." The kid mumbled matter of factly.
"You sure you didn't get a good look at them?" Rick sighed, not really wanting to get into Analeigh's business in front of everyone but full well knowing it was something else that needed resolution if possible. "Maybe he wasn't one of them, but maybe he might have been around?"
"No." She muttered, diverting her eyes. "I-I don't know, I can't remember…sorry."
"That's fine." He assured her. "There's not much we can do if you can't remember, no one'll press you on it if you don't want to be pressed."
"Really?" Daryl scoffed. "You just gonna give up and call it fine just cause she don't remember? You gonna let them get away with it?"
"It…it Daryl? We don't know if they did any damn thing at all." Rick reminded him.
"So what?"
"So, maybe we ain't about to go picking fights where we don't need to be. Now we give them back theirs and they give us back ours and that's where it ends." He folded his arms across his chest and laid things out in no uncertain terms. "Maybe you're lookin' to go beat someone's ass but that won't end in anything but a shitstorm."
"Maybe we oughta send a message." Daryl countered. "Just 'cause the world's gone to shit don't mean they can just mess with people. Start throwin' punches…make it real clear."
"You might feel differently about that when it's your ass getting beat down…again." T-Dog reminded him. "We don't even know what we're walking into. We're thee, they could be thirty for all we know."
"All I'm sayin' is when shit for brains tells us where his homies are hangin' out we bring her with us and she tells us if any on 'em look familiar…whatever happens next just happens."
"She doesn't get a say in all this." Analeigh bristled, taking none too kindly at Daryl apparently deciding for her where she did and did not go.
"Why wouldn't you want to?"
She tossed a quick, fretful glance in Rick's direction.
"She said she doesn't remember." He reiterated.
"Might trip her memory." Daryl twirled his fingers at his temple. "Get her wheels spinnin'…she might just come around if she sees 'em."
"No." Rick shook his head and held fast to his word.
"Man, what's the problem? She recognizes them, we lay it down…she doesn't we get Glenn back and get the hell on the way."
"I won't tell you again to let it go."
"Why?"
"Look at her…" Rick skirted him to the side slightly. "You look at her and you tell me you honestly think that would be a good idea. That girl is about to break and whatever it is you think happened, I can tell you right now you don't know the half of it."
Daryl narrowed his eyes slightly and peered over at Analeigh who at once quieted and seemed tense, and uncomfortable with the conversation.
"They did a lot more than just throw a few hits and give her a good scare." Rick's voice fell barely above a whisper. "If you can't read between the lines I will spell it out for you, but not here and not in front of her." He continued. "Now, I don't care how much you two can't seem to get along, even you have to know that putting her in that sort of situation. Maybe coming face to face with whoever it was that did that to her…you really wanna force that when there ain't a thing we can do except rough 'em up a little and then be on our way? You think that's gonna make her feel any damn better at all? You think that's gonna be enough?"
Daryl grit clenched his jaw and bit back another wave of temper.
"And what if you put that seed in her mind? That she's gonna recognize someone even if she don't." Rick suggested. "You think she's gonna be alright knowing we're so close to someone she thinks attacked her? As far as Analeigh knows, whoever attacked her has moved on, maybe hundreds of miles from here. She fought free, and you can bet she wonders just what would have happened if she didn't. There is enough to worry about out there and she doesn't need to be scared shitless whoever attacked her is gonna come outta nowhere and finish the job. She gets left outta this, she's got nothing to do with anything…we clear?"
Daryl nodded. "Crystal."
Though he was somewhat resentful in accepting the fact that he had been overruled on the matter, he full well knew that a valid point had been posed. Out of all of them Rick was, after all, the one who cared about everything and everyone the most from as much he had seen anyways. Looking out for people's best interests was an admirable trait without question. Whether or not doing so without taking appropriate action was going to get them anywhere was another story entirely.
Sidestepping Rick, Daryl circled around the desk slowly and rather uncharacteristically calm in his demeanor. All he needed was just enough cool to throw the others off even just a little, make them think he was at least attempting to harness whatever composure he was capable of even if it couldn't possibly be further from the truth.
Whether or not he liked Analeigh was beside the point really. Unlike Merle, Daryl actually had a heart and he had the mind enough to know what was right and what was wrong even though most of the time he erred on towards the unfavorable choices in life. If he knew one thing, however, he knew that you didn't beat on women and get way with it. All the more, he sure as hell knew that whoever had the balls to treat Analeigh the way they did deserved lot more than he could ever lay down on them, but if the chance ever presented itself it wouldn't stop him from having a go.
Rick was right in that respect. Daryl was more than willing to pick a fight over the matter and just who was to be the victim was but an afterthought and nothing more. The only viable target present in the current scenario, unfortunately enough for him, was the kid who was still cowering and shaken on the floor. He'd catch hell for it undoubtedly, but it would without a doubt feel infinitely better to unleash a little hell than it did sitting around and talking about things all day long. Odds were it would be worth the fallout and even if it wasn't Daryl wasn't sure he even cared.
Just as all focus was turned back to the issue of finding Glenn and dealing with the fall out from what had happened in the alley, Daryl seized his opportunity while he still could. Lunging at the kid, he grabbed him by the scruff of his well stained shirt and hauled him roughly to his feet. Before anyone could react Daryl had him slammed against the wall, wide eyed and quaking in his grip. Landing one blow hard and square on the kids jaw, then another Daryl pulled back for a third only to have Rick swiftly intercept.
"Daryl…" He grabbed Daryl's arm mid swing and bent it painfully around his back, giving him a good yank back and wrenching him away sharply. "For fuck's sake get off of him!" He hauled down on Daryl's arm slightly to make a point. "I warned you there ain't room for this shit in here! Ballin' up and knockin' the kid around won't help us none…control your damn self or get the hell out."
Crumpled to the floor with hand to his face, the kid shrunk against the wall, expecting a secondary attack that never came. Daryl all but pitched a fuss as he wrangled himself away from Rick and with another false threat and a curse under his breath, Daryl yanked his cross bow off of the ground and stormed out of the office.
"Man." T-Dog whistled lowly, braking momentary silence that hung over the room.
"Yeah." Rick cleared his throat and took a moment to process how to proceed with things.
"He's gonna leave."
"I'd doubt even Daryl is stupid enough to go outside right now." He heaved a sigh and passed a hand over his brow.
"In that state…I wouldn't exactly call Daryl smart."
"Well if he does leave it's his own damn fault." Rick snapped. "We can't worry about that right now. There's more here to deal with than a pissy redneck set on one speed."
"I can keep an eye on him." Analeigh offered unexpectedly.
T-Dog eyed her incredulously. "You serious?"
She nodded.
"You do what you wanna do…I ain't gonna stop you." Rick cracked an amused smirk. "Won't lie and tell you it's your best idea either."
"I need a little air anyway." Analeigh slipped deftly off the desk and with a slight note of hesitation made her way off to find Daryl.
The threat of Daryl actually leaving the building was about as unlikely as it was for pigs to grow wings and fly. Analeigh had dutifully chained the doors back up once they were all inside and in order to break the lock, he would have to find something that as a little more helpful than a stapler or the leg of a busted up chair, which was another unlikelihood in itself. Even if he did, Daryl would have made a right racket in the process, which meant no possibility of casually slipping away. It wasn't for concern that Daryl was about to put himself in direct path of harm that Analeigh followed him out of the room and tracked him down but more so a strange sort of gratitude. She couldn't thank him for giving the kid a beating of course, that much would be wrong she knew but still she felt she had to say something. What exactly that something was, or why exactly it had to be said at that precise moment was anyone's guess.
"Hey…" She called after him quietly as he half stomped back in the direction of their sleeping quarters. "You wanna hold up a minute?"
"Not really."
"Just…please…" Analeigh's brows knit together anxiously. Riled up as he was, trying to engage Daryl in any sort of discourse was more than likely tantamount to poking a pissed off bear with a stick.
"They send you out here to babysit or somethin'?"
"Not exactly."
"Not exactly…" Daryl scoffed and turned heel towards her. "The what?"
"I dunno." She shrugged. "Just…you ain't plannin' on goin' back out there again are you?" Her fingers wrapped in the hem of her dress. "I mean…not right now anyways…not after ya'll just stirred up a damn hornet's nest."
"What's it any of your business? Ain't anything you can do to stop me if I am."
"Yeah…" Analeigh nodded, meekly diverting her gaze from his. "I know that."
"Why don't you run along the? Go on back to the others and throw your two cents in every time you think someone gives a shit 'bout what you got to say."
Analeigh crooked her jaw and rolled her eyes to herself. No that she had expected anything that resembled extreme niceties but it would have been nice for a change if Daryl had been willing to set aside hostilities even just for a moment.
"You always gotta be an asshole?" She folded her arms across her chest defensively.
"Yeah, I do. So what?"
"You're unbelievable."
"And you're a nosey little bitch…some light tough honey wanna be that jumps at the first chance for a free ride."
"You ain't got a damn clue." Analeigh seethed. "I told you I didn't ask for shit! You don't know a damn thin about me."
"I know enough…what makes you think I wanna know more?"
She stumbled slightly, grazing the wall and scraping her injured leg sharply with yelp as in standard fashion Daryl pushed past her a little too aggressively.
"You think it's easy for me?" She spat, eyes welling with tears on account of bruised ego as much as a fresh surge of pain in her thigh. "You think it's easy to know what to do, or what to say? You think I know who I can trust in all of this? You think riding my ass is gonna make it any easier or that it's gonna help you out any?"
Daryl paused and turned to catch a look at her over his shoulder.
"I don't have anyone on my side…I haven't for weeks." Analeigh snuffled and berated herself inwardly for her impromptu display of emotion in front of him of all people. "I never asked to be left alone just the same as I never asked ya'll to show up so whatever the hell your problem is I don't want no part of it. Find someone else to act as your damn punchin' bag."
She straightened and started to hobble off away from him, back to the others only to have Daryl caught her mid stride. Fingers snaking around her forearm tightly, he held her to the spot and met eyes with her in an awkward exchange of intended apology he couldn't quite bring himself to vocalize. As quickly as he'd reached out and drawn a crooked finger across her cheek to swipe a tear away Analeigh wrenched her arm out of his grip.
"I am done with your bullshit." She spat. "Leave me the hell alone."
Fleeing briskly down the hallway, she left him alone to his thoughts and for the first time in as long as he could remember, Daryl's thoughts were fixed on something other than himself.