CDC PART TWO
warning beforehand: events are not at all as they were on the actual episode. neither is dialogue. another CDC chapter to come after this one and then I swear to God, I'll move on to another episode or a filler chapter that makes sense to go in the story.
She felt herself being tapped awake. "One hell of a snore." Daryl commented as he held her gaze and then nodded to the large building they sat parked in front of. She stretched and it was only then that she realized she'd fallen asleep at some point and so much asleep that apparently, she'd been resting her head against his leg.
Had he been playing with her hair? She distinctly remembered the feel of rough fingers gently tangling in her hair. She thought it wise not to mention it, so she didn't ask him about it. It was probably just one of her damned erotic fantasies about him and she was wishing for it to be a reality and if she did ask, things could get awkward between them and that's the last thing she wanted.
He was staring at her a little, she was staring back at him. He blinked and grumbled, shook his head as if he were shaking it free of any and all thoughts. "Reckon we're gon ta hafta make a run fer it." he nodded to the small clusters of Walkers lurking.
"Yeah, it looks like it." Lana mused quietly, biting her lower lip, reaching down, pulling the handgun out of the waistband of her jeans where she kept it tucked most of the time. Daryl eyed the gun and Lana asked him with a raised brow, "What?"
"Usin that thang yer askin ta get bit."
"Well it's all I have, Daryl."
"Shitty man you had. He didn't give ya a quieter weapon?"
"When he got me this one, Daryl, the world wasn't in shambles. Besides, I didn't exactly want a gun in the first place, I… What the hell are we arguing for? We need to get inside."
"Alls I can say is stay behind me, god damn it."
Before another word could come, they were making their way past, praying to god not to be noticed by the walkers lurking. Unfortunately, one or two did. Daryl took them out and looked at her, held up his knife.
All Lana was seeing was how damned close she'd come to watching him be bit, not one time but two. "You're going to give me a god damn heart attack." she grumbled as they made their way into the building behind the others.
"This guy's insane."
"If he can actually help us, it won't matter." Lana whispered back.
"Reckon a hot shower won't be so bad." Daryl whispered as soon as the words running hot water were mentioned. Lana groaned at the thought, to have a shower again, to sleep in a bed again… It was almost like she'd woken up from a nightmare.
Shane caught up to her as she passed by and he asked, "Feelin okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Good… I just wanted to make sure, hon." as he glared a hole through Daryl, who glared right back, tempted to just punch him and be done with it, not sure why and mad as hell about it.
Being around Lana always made him like this and he wasn't sure half the time whether it was a good thing or a bad one or if he'd wind up losing his damn mind because of it. He didn't want to feel things for her, yet he did. He didn't want the magnets pull, but it was there.
"This is me." Lana stopped in front of a door. Daryl nodded, eyed her and asked, "You gon be alright?"
"I'll be fine. Just cannot wait for this hot shower. I never thought I'd be so happy to hear those words again." Lana admitted as she asked Daryl, "You?"
"Yeah. Hungry as hell too. The food better be good."
After this strange lingering moment, he slunk down the hall and into the room two doors down. Lana went into her room and immediately stripped down and got into the shower, groaning as the hot water hit her body and she worked on getting clean. She'd just stepped out of the shower when the smell of an actual cooked meal hit her nose and her door was knocked on.
Lori stood outside.
"What?"
"Just wanted to see how it went… Riding here with Daryl.."
"I slept. Why? Wanna steal him too?" Lana blurted the words out before she could stop herself and then she quickly added, "Because there's nothing there, I mean the guy acts like he tolerates me at best."
"I didn't steal Shane."
"You damn sure didn't make matters any better, did you?"
"Maybe if you'd actually shown him you needed him, Lana. I mean he was always saying how he didn't know if you really needed him around or not. A man has to feel needed..."
The door slammed in Lori's face and Lori sighed and shook her head. She almost knocked again, instead, she found Rick and they made their way down the hall and into the cafeteria area to eat the food that had been prepared.
Lana had just st epped into the hallway when Daryl came out of his room. He eyed her and she eyed him, neither of them saying anything. Since tonight felt special, the hot bath and an actual bed to sleep in, she'd done her hair and her makeup and broke out her heels. Daryl, of course, eyed her feet and assessed, "Gon break yer god damn neck in them, woman."
"I've been walking in heels since I was eight, Dixon, fight me."
"Ain't good for ya though."
She grumbled, but relenting, which was a thing she rarely did she noticed that seemed to happen a lot with him, she slipped the heels off and found a pair of flats sitting just inside the door to her room. "Happy now?"
"Didn't say ya had to change, woman. Just sayin, you woulda tripped and broke yer damn skull." Daryl smirked, he'd been mostly trying to pick an argument with her.
Judging from the flare of her nostrils and the faint flush of her cheeks, it worked nicely. He couldn't help but notice that she looked sexy as hell when she was angry. Or the way the makeup sort of made her chocolate colored eyes even brighter somehow.
Or the way the cherry red of her lips just sort of taunted him. He grumbled at himself, annoyed. He didn't want to think those things. He didn't want even more things to find attractive about her, damn it.
Quietly, they made their way into the cafeteria, just as the man who'd let them into the building started to hand out the alcohol. Lana eyed Daryl in concern when he gripped a bottle of whiskey and took a healthy sip.
He did seem to liven up though.
Once or twice as they ate, he'd accidentally sort of brush against her. Lana sipped her water and ate her food quietly, almost spitting her water out when Daryl started to tell her some of the things he and Merle had gotten into.
They'd gotten into this conversation and it felt like the room and people around them just sort of disappeared. She found herself telling him things that she hadn't ever really told anyone before, not even her older sister. Not even Shane and she'd told him absolutely everything, once upon a time. She wasn't drunk like the rest of them, she just felt liberated, done with all the bullshit and drama with her sister and Shane, at last. Free again. More like herself.
Seeing everyone cozy and in conversation and laughing and having a normal time, a good time, she asked Daryl quietly, " I'm really not in the mood to be around a whole lot of people… And Shane keeps watching me like a damned hawk with that sour look."
"I can go punch him in the face." Daryl blurted as he wondered to himself, 'Where the fuck did that come from, exactly, Dixon?' and quickly coughed to cover up what he'd said, hoping to hell it would work. Naturally, it didn't.
"Noooo.. No, you really don't have to… I just wanted to know if maybe you wanted to wander around?"
"Yeah. Gettin too damn loud in here anyway." Daryl muttered as they stood and slipped out of the room, into the hallway, continuing their conversation.
Shane watched as Lana slipped out of the room and he clenched the bottle sitting beside him tighter, ignoring Lori's mouthing to him to let it go. He didn't want to let it go. He had to watch her with that damn asshole Dixon now and know what he gave up just for the hope that Lori really wanted him this time.
"Whatever you're thinkin, Shane, don't do it." Rick told his best friend as Shane slapped on a fake smile and did his best to insert himself back into conversation. Where the hell had they went? He couldn't get it off his mind and it was really grating his nerve.
Everything was falling to pieces all around him and he didn't even have her anymore to lean on.
CAVEAT LECTOR:
Another chapter written and posted and holy shit!? I got 14 reviews, oh man, wow. And thank you for your encouragement again, Azraelthegunslinger, I'm so glad I'm still doing fairly decent at portraying Daryl in my story! You're so kind, all of you who review and favorite and follow, you have no idea how much it means to me. And someone pointed out an earlier mistake. I did in fact mean T Dogg, I was loopy when I wrote that particular chapter, sinus meds and a long day in general, it must have slipped when I re read to edit. Thank you so much for mentioning it though! I cannot believe this thing has 14 reviews (13) favorites and (19) follows! I'm so thrilled.
Hey, guys, if you don't mind, I have a poll up for the next story I should post, if you see anything in the list that interests you, could you vote, please? Anyway, THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH AGAIN!
I honestly meant for this chapter to be the conclusion of the CDC but it isn't. And more awkward fluff between Daryl / OC. I will be revealing who she'll wind up with soon, I swear to God. :)
