A Leisurely Jog

Sarah

She went upstairs to her room and plopped down on her bed, not knowing what to think of Daryl (which was nothing new) or his brother. Sarah had noticed how Merle peeked down her shirt when she bent over, and she had fought the urge to slap him. She decided that he was easily the most offensive man she had ever met. Thankfully, Rose hadn't seen Sarah get him the beer. If she did, she would have had a conniption fit and bitched to Sarah about how wrong it was to help out the opposite sex and fulfill the traditional gender roles. She definitely saw Rose's point, in at least that situation; Merle had asked her to get it for him just because he wanted her to, not because he couldn't.

Sarah had also taken notice of his many offensive remarks over dinner. She was still rather confused about how Merle had gotten left behind and what it had to do with T-Dog and Rick, but it was obvious that he was still holding it against them, even if he pretended to be over it.

The Dixon brothers just seemed like trouble, and she vowed that she would stay away from the both of them. Marco and Rose and really been right the whole time. While she was happy that Daryl had found his brother, the two of them were just too wild for her. Comparatively, Sarah had grown up in a world of formalities and basic chivalry.

Also, Sarah couldn't help but wonder what happened in the city between Marco and Daryl. Marco had been painfully vague about everything. All he told her was that Daryl wasn't worth her time, which wasn't any new information to her. She turned to Rose, who was sitting on the other twin bed next to Sarah's, and asked, "Did Marco say anything to you about his fight with Daryl?"

"Nah. I think they were just being guys…they're both the type to pick a fight over nothing, so I'm not too surprised. I mean Marco probably said something about you and Daryl got fed up with it. You know how Marco is…he can push people to their limits pretty quickly."

Sarah nodded in agreement, having experienced that frustrating quality of Marco herself. She was just glad that they had both come back okay. As mad as she was at Daryl for the way he had treated her lately, she couldn't help worrying for him while he was gone. The biggest sigh of relief had left her lungs when she saw him climb out of the car. Things must have gone very smoothly during the mission; no one had any horror stories to tell, and everyone brought back a good amount of supplies.

She was so tired of obsessing over Daryl, but it continued to plague her and dominate her thoughts. Sarah was just completely clueless as to his reasoning. This was an odd, and even more troubling, thing for her because she was usually so quick to figure out other people. She did have a minor in psychology, after all.

Sarah sighed, deciding she needed to try and distract herself. She pulled out her notebook that contained her theory for the cure, a complex idea confined to only a few pages. She worked on it almost every night before going to bed, sometimes adding to the writing, and other times rewriting what she had already completed to make it more concise and easier to comprehend for the others. The most difficult thing about writing a theory was definitely learning to put abstract thoughts into words and make them comprehensible to others. So far, she hadn't been able to fulfill that goal; not that anyone had really tried to read it either. It made her a little sad that no one seemed to take interest in her work as the actual process unfolded, only the potential outcome. Perhaps, she reasoned, the survival situation made the others focus on only one thing: survival. The explanation seemed reasonable to her at least. She supposed she couldn't really blame them for being preoccupied with other things.

Tonight, however, the pages and pages of her scrawl held no escape for her from her thoughts of Daryl. She looked out the window to see that the sun was just beginning to set. Rose had either taken a nap or gone to bed early, so Sarah didn't bother saying goodbye as she grabbed her blue and white Nike tennis shoes and headed downstairs.

Everyone seemed to have already dispersed to their rooms, except for Daryl and Merle. Sarah could see their outlines through the window; they were still sitting on the back porch. She didn't want to deal with either of them, so instead of going out the back door, she exited through the front. She crossed the prickly grass of the lawn and picked up a moderate jog on the road.

It had been too long since she last had the chance to run (well, for recreational purpose at least). She was nearing the end of her year-long marathon training plan when the infection occurred. The pounding of her feet on the paved road felt like heaven; her head was immediately cleared. The only thing missing was her seemingly endless supply of music on her iPod. Unfortunately, it had been left behind in New York by accident the day of the plane ride. Not that it really mattered- there was no place to charge it now anyways.

Sarah focused her vision on the setting sun, wishing they were in California near the Pacific instead of the Atlantic so that the sun would set over the water. Her breathing fell into a regular pace as she worked through the winding subdivision roads that led away from Scott's beach house. It was the kind of subdivisions her parents would approve of. They all featured gates and fences, each with two stories or more. The outside, though unkempt, left the general feeling of grandeur. Sarah felt a twinge of pain inside as she remembered her parents, wondering if they were still alive and in the city, or if they had somehow gotten away before everything went to hell.

She was about to turn the corner and run down Hemingway Path, as the road sign announced, when something grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a large flowering bush. Sarah was too surprised to even scream.

"What the fuck do y'all think yer doin'?"

She immediately recognized the rough voice that had asked her this question and she ripped her arm out of his grip in response. "Running…thought that was pretty obvious, Daryl," she said mockingly.

"Did it even occur to ya that it's unsafe to go running around, especially at night? A walker could have been following you this whole time. Ya know, for a doctor, y'all are really lacking in the common sense department. It's not that goddamn hard. Not just yer safety either…coulda led a whole pack of 'em back to Scott's."

Sarah felt guilty because of his last remark. "I'm sorry. I honestly just wanted to clear my head, I didn't even think about the walkers."

"No shit." He shook his head.

Sarah felt her temperature rise and her face turning red. Never before had she experienced such outright rudeness. She didn't lose her temper often, but his cold responses and insults were making her blood boil. "What the hell is your problem? Should have just let me get bit by a walker, wouldn't make a damn difference to you."

He looked at her for a few painstaking seconds. Then, "How can ya say that? Y'all think I want ya to die? What kind of sick bastard do ya think I am?"

"Gee, maybe the kind that would lead me on and then completely turn on me and blow me off. I don't know who the hell you are, Daryl. You've made damn sure of that," she put plenty of contempt into each word. Her level of aggravation continued to rise.

"Yeah? Well you go ahead and tell me what the fucking point is to get close to people. We're all gonna die off one by one in the end. If you don't think that, you've got to be the stupidest bitch I've ever met."

She stopped herself from slapping him. "Well, I don't think that's true…I think there's hope. It's not my fault that you've completely abandoned it. I guess if that makes me a stupid bitch, I'll accept it."

"Oh yeah, the precious cure. Y'all are fooling us and yourself if ya really think there's a way to fix this fucked up world we live in now."

His words stung like a hundred wasps. Sarah had always been a sensitive person, and she felt tears jump to her eyes. She bit the inside of her cheek, hard, to prevent herself from letting one escape. Her body betrayed her as one slid down her cheek and fell to the ground. She just hoped that it was too dark for him to see.

Sarah shook her head and turned to leave, but Daryl grabbed her arm and turned her back toward him. His eyes had softened somewhat. "Look, I didn't mean that. I say a lot of shit I don't mean when I'm pissed."

"I don't even know what I did to piss you off Daryl," she said exasperatedely.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I dunno…I guess it's just the fact that y'all are so careless with everything ya do. Don't know how to survive."

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't prepare more for this. If I was given the chance I would have. I know I shouldn't have gone running. I'll try to think about things more carefully. But I need you to tell me why you've been so distant, because it's driving me up the damn wall."

He sighed and didn't respond for a few seconds. She was afraid that he'd just blow her off again. Thankfully, that wasn't the case this time. "I was just thinking about a lot…It's too much to explain."

"Please tell me? I'm sick and tired of wondering about it."
"I don't know how to put it into words. I'm sorry."

Sarah gave up and sighed; obviously, she would never get an answer from him on the topic. She was still upset at all the cruel things he'd said to her, but thought it was best to just let it go. He'd apologized once and she knew better than to accept another. "Just stop being so cold to me."

"No more bullshit," he said in his usual serious tone. "We should start heading back though. Gettin' pretty dark."

They began walking again, and Sarah didn't know how to feel. She was glad he was finally done being cold to her, but she wasn't satisfied with his "answers" to her questions that had been plaguing her so often in the past couple days. He did, however, mention something to do with the fact that he didn't want to get close to anyone…Sarah figured that probably had a lot to do with his distance. She decided that she would have to take this as his answer to his previous behavior.

Daryl and Sarah reached Scott's backyard. By this time, everyone else was inside and likely asleep. She was walking toward the house when Daryl laid down in the sand. Sarah paused, contemplating if she should join him or not.

'Oh, what the hell,' she thought. 'What do I have to lose at this point?'

They just stayed there in silence, looking up at the many constellations and the brilliantly shining moon.

"I'm not used to being able to see the stars," Sarah said to him. "The city was always too bright to do anything like this."

He didn't respond, but turned his head and looked at her for a few long seconds and she felt his rough hand cover hers. Sarah closed her eyes and just enjoyed the moment. She kind of liked that he was quieter and didn't start meaningless conversation all the time, unlike guys she had dated before that troubled her with every detail with their lives. The only difference was that Sarah wanted to know everything about Daryl; he was so mysterious to her.

"It's pretty lucky that you found your brother," Sarah said. "Seems like….quite the character."

"Y'all have no idea," Daryl said. His voice sounded distracted, like his mind was in some far-off place. "Sorry about earlier, he can be a real asshole sometimes."

"It's not a big deal," she said, though she was glad Daryl had apologized on his brother's behalf. "So what happened in Atlanta? Everyone was so vague about it."

"Guess he started trouble and Rick cuffed him to the building. They had to leave in a hurry and T-Dog dropped the key down a drain. Merle's one unlucky bastard."

"So he cut off his hand? I can't believe he survived; it must have been bleeding like crazy." Sarah had to assume that the Dixon brothers featured a different kind of knowledge, opposite her own. Sarah was book smart, but they had what it really took to survive in such a harsh world. It made Sarah wonder how she was still alive. Seemed like Sarah was the lucky one, not Merle.

There was another long, though not uncomfortable, silence. After a while, the silence made her mind drift to some less than pure thoughts, mostly focusing on their encounter in the forest a couple of days before. Perhaps he was thinking about the same thing, because he rolled on his side toward her and kissed her cheek. He kissed her a second time, this one on her lips.

Daryl's hand rested on her cheek at first, but then it traveled down her neck and arm, brushing her breast on the way down. Her breathing quickened; it surprised her once again how fast he could turn her on. He pulled himself closer to her so that he was half on top of her body. The stiff prod to the side of her hip was a signal that he wanted her as badly as she wanted him.

Sarah wondered if she was doing the right thing by letting him have his way with her so soon after his odd behavior. She didn't know if it classified her as a slut or not, but she decided she didn't care. After everything, she was still undeniably attracted to him and drawn to him in a way she'd never experienced, even with Marco. Sarah knew she hadn't completely forgiven him, but that would come with time. Trust couldn't be rebuilt over the course of one conversation; she'd just have to get to know the true Daryl to find out if he was worth the second chance or not.

In the midst of her thoughts, Daryl's hand slipped under her tank top and rubbed her breasts, circling her nipples that were pointy due to the cool night air. He broke their kiss and exhaled. "We should go somewhere else."

She nodded, looking up at the house and realizing that if anyone was to get up in the night and look out the window, they could easily see Daryl and her beach make-up/make-out session. Daryl stood first and offered her a hand, pulling her to her feet once she took it.

They walked down the beach to Scott's neighbor's lawn. There were several flowering bushes, similar to those that they had just hidden behind while close to the road. From the house, it would be impossible to see the two.

Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes so that she could reach his lips. He leaned down slightly and kissed her back hungrily, running his hands through her hair that was now full of sand. They lowered back down to the ground and Sarah pulled his undershirt off from over his head. He tore off her green tank top in a swift movement, following suit, and then her sports bra quickly followed.

Then he slid off her shorts and underwear, leaving her completely naked on the cool sand. He kissed her collarbone and brushed her hair back from her face. He kissed her again, this time with his mouth open. His warm tongue slid inside her mouth and it circled hers. Meanwhile, Daryl had started fingering her.

Sarah moaned a little and reached down to feel his package, realizing he still had his pants on. Even through them, she could tell he was well-endowed. His finger sped up and Sarah unzipped his pants. She was having trouble with the button, so he stopped kissing her for a moment to help her out.

He stepped out of his pants and she saw that her predictions of his endowment had been correct. Daryl was on top of her in a few seconds. He fingered her again and propped himself up over her. Their eyes locked and she worried that he would turn on her again, but fortunately, that didn't happen.

Daryl removed his fingers and brought his arm up to the other, holding himself even further above her. He kissed her again and used his dick to tease her clit. She moaned and pushed her hips closer to him, wanting him to get the message that she wanted him inside her. He lifted himself further away and teased her once more.

It was driving her crazy. "Daryl, please."

"Please what?" he smirked and whispered in her ear.

"Stop teasing me!"

"What, like this?" Daryl circled her clit with his erection once more.

"Yes." She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled herself to him. He finally gave in and was about to enter her, when, in a cruel twist of events, they heard voices coming from Scott's backyard.

"Shit." Daryl leaned toward the bushes and peered through them. "God damnit."

"What?" Sarah whispered. He gestured that she should look through the brush and see for herself. Glenn and Maggie were on the beach, now making out and stripping down. "Oh my God," was all she could manage.

I'm back from the weekend, hooray! Hope you are all ready for another week of updates. So Daryl and Sarah are okay again yayy :) As always, please review and keep reading! I'm pretty religious about updating in case you haven't noticed by now :p