Before The Farm
Daryl unloads his bike without any help from the others. He glances at Lori as she starts to sort through his stuff in the pick-up and continues offloading his bike.
"You got anything in particular you want to keep?" She asks him quietly.
He shakes his head. "Anything useful, anything the group can use." He grunts as he finally gets the bike on the ground. He pushes down the kickstand and then checks the fuel lines and spark plugs. He switches the ignition and then kick starts it. She goes first try. Merle may have had bad taste in life but he sure had good taste in engines.
Going to the cab of the truck Daryl grabs his backpack. He opens the glove box and take out an old tin box shoving it inside his backpack. He bends down looking under the seat and grabs the rags and torch he keeps there along with the toolbox. Leaving his backpack on the seat the takes the rest to the RV and Shane stashes it. He's watching Andrea and Daryl is glad his focus is not on Lori for once.
Shane was leaving his jeep behind as well. They were taking the RV, Carol's Cherokee and his bike. Daryl wasn't overly happy with the RV but he understood why they were trying to keep it. Keep a semblance of their old lives. Wouldn't work in the long run, but he understood it.
Lori brushes past him with his tent and other useful stuff. He'd check to make sure she hadn't left anything else they could use behind but she was on the ball with shit like that. More so than the rest of them actually.
At the tailgate of his truck he stopped for a second and just breathed. She'd stayed. Why? He couldn't fathom opting to let your life just vanish. It was wrong on so many levels he couldn't even begin to understand it. Daryl could barely look at Andrea knowing she'd tried to as well. Only the old man had been able convince her to do otherwise. Shaking his head he turns as Lori walks up.
"Did I miss anything?" She asks standing beside him and looking in the truck.
"That bag there." Daryl motions to another backpack. Lori frowns.
"That's just rags, we have plenty." Daryl snorts.
"Rags I wear, 'S my fuckin' clothes woman." He answers turning away to hide his smile. She was right, they were rags for the most part, but they were all he had. He had good boots, his crossbow and steel for close-up work. Anything else was gravy. Though he'd need more when winter came on. He'd not taken any winter clothing at all when he'd left home to get Merle.
"Shit, sorry Daryl." Lori muttered to his back.
"All good, but if you'd not leave it behind I'd be thankful. Tell your man I'm goin' huntin' we need meat. I don't know about you but I can't take another night of Dale and Shane and baked beans on their own." He walks off without saying anything further but he hears the quiet snicker of Lori behind him.
##########
Lori watches Daryl's backside saunter away from her. There was no other word to describe it other than saunter. Shaking her head she grabs his backpack of clothes and takes it to the Cherokee stashing it safely with her and Rick's belongings. Then she goes to tell Rick Daryl had gone hunting. He nods and continues on about what they can scavenge from the small shopping complex around them. It has been fairly heavily looted but they've found what they can, Carol had Sophia and Carl scrambling around under shelves to get what people had dropped which had turned out to be a good idea. Lori sorts through what Carol brings her as the kids continue to crawl around on the floor getting happily filthy.
Carl was occupied for the time being which she was grateful for. Lori cuts her eyes to Rick and Shane. She wishes Rick would spend more time with Carl, she's always wished that. Not that Rick wasn't a good father, he was. When he was around. And that was the trouble. He hadn't been around as much as he should have been. She knew Carl needed him. They had a bond she and Carl didn't have but Rick seemed to be unaware of it.
Sighing Lori goes to Andrea and enlists her help. She is still somewhat unsteady and not happy with being forced to survive but Dale was unapologetic in his quest to keep her from killing herself. Some hours later Lori feels Rick slide his arms around her waist. "Hey." She speaks as she leans back on him.
"Hey yourself, we're gonna push on a little further before we camp. I don't want to spend the night here."
"Daryl's not back yet." Lori answers. She has no idea why Rick doesn't want to spend the night where they are, there hasn't been any traffic, infected have been minimal.
"Dammit, there's no line of clear sight. We could get trapped real quick. Where the hell is he?" He asks turning around. Lori knows he likes Daryl but she also knows he's antsy at the moment and that means he pushes people.
"He'll be here, we can wait Rick." Rick is about to open his mouth when a whistle cuts through the humid air. Shane walks over to help Daryl lay the carcass of the goat on the hood of an abandoned vehicle. "There you see?" Lori's question is a little on the sarcastic side and Rick looks at her with a slight frown but Shane distracts him.
"Says he'll be half an hour at most. We can wait or he'll catch up." Shane takes off his cap and scratches the back of his head. He didn't like the look of the place either.
"We wait, no one gets left behind remember?" Lori speaks firmly and goes to help Carol pack the food and little water they'd found. She ignores Rick and Shane looking after her.
"I can't believe they were going to consider that." Carol mutters to her as they sort and stack and pack while keeping a mutual eye on the children.
"Men." Is all Lori can say on the matter.
Within twenty minutes they're on the road again. They camp that night and Daryl shows she and Carol how to use wood to spit roast the goat. Apart from the CDC it's the most meat they've eaten in one sitting for a while. A lump rises in Lori's throat as she realises it's because their group is so small now. Suddenly Lori stands and holds out her cup of water. She waits until everyone looks at her.
"To Jacqui and Jim and those who left and those we've lost." She doesn't mention Ed's name. Just the most recent two they'd lost.
No others stand though they echo her toast word for word. Then Daryl stands and raises his cup.
"To Jacqui." He says no other names and sits down again. Lori nods at him before she sits down herself.
The next morning they're on their way, travelling slow but constantly toward Fort Benning. Lori relaxes in the car as she and Rick and Carol talk about anything and nothing, she laughs as she and Rick recount their aborted Grand Canyon trip with Carl as a baby. But it brings a feeling of melancholy as they realise its unlikely they'll ever get there now as Sophia requests.
Just then the RV slows down. Rick pulls to the side and they get out. There is a massive traffic snarl ahead. Fine for Daryl to get through on the bike but not the rest of them without any trouble. And then the RV's water hose busts again.
"I don't feel right about this, this isn't an abandoned store, these are people, their belongings." Lori shades her eyes. Everyone is looking at her like she's crazy. They might be dead but they were people once. She is outvoted so begins to look for stuff they can use. She tries to look for non-personal stuff but pauses when she sees Carol holding a red blouse against her own body.
"Ed never let me wear nice things." Is all Carol says as she folds the blouse and puts it back. Lori doesn't answer but she looks around. She doesn't like it but they're right. These people, yes they were people but they're dead now, they have no further use for the belongings. And so Lori looks for anything useful, personal belonging or not.
Just then a wave of queasiness swamps her. Shit, she hoped she wasn't coming down with something.
"You okay?" Daryl asks quietly as he passes her by scavenging as well. He stops but doesn't look at her not wanting anyone else to notice them.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just queasy, hope I'm not coming down with something." Lori straightens up and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, she hadn't vomited but it was a close thing.
"Something like a second heartbeat you mean?" Daryl says to her as he continues on his way leaving Lori staring after him. She blanks for several seconds and then tries to calculate but is stopped by Rick's whistle and whisper shout. She drops and rolls under a vehicle with Carol. When Carol's breathing grows heavier and louder she places her hand over her mouth. They watch their children and Lori looks across to Rick.
Thoughts flash in her brain before they're wiped out by the shambling hoard of feet that pass them by. They take forever, walking slow and steady the way they do. Lori flinches internally at the odd stumps and broken feet she sees some of them walking on or dragging behind them. When they've been passed by as far as they can tell and they crawl out from under their cars the air is split by a scream of terror.
Sophia is off down the embankment and Rick follows her, leaving Lori with her heart in her throat.
Farm
Lori's eyes close slowly. Carl is going to get better, Shane had returned with the right equipment. Otis, the man who had shot Carl did not. She can't bring herself to care. Carl was going to live and that is all that mattered. Shutting her eyes Lori drifts, she hears engines and opens them some time later to see Daryl's bike and the RV drive up to the farm and stop at the grove of trees not too far from the house.
Without realising she's doing it Lori watches Daryl switch off the bike and push the kickstand down with his hand before he stands and grasps his crossbow and slings it over his shoulder. Settling further back into the arm-chair by the window she closes her eyes without realising Daryl had stopped and was looking up at her as well. Lori smiles as she finally drifts off to sleep.
##########
Lori heads toward Daryl as he comes out of the RV. "Don't bother, she ain't comin'," He answers her unspoken question.
"Really?" Lori shades her eyes as she looks at him. He looks seriously pissed off, more so than she's ever seen him she thinks.
"Yeah, fuckin' stupid bitch." He snarls before he heads toward the freshly dug graves.
"You did what you could, more than what anyone else here did combined, you didn't give up like we, like even Carol did Daryl. That's nothing to be ashamed of." She speaks to his back as he's loping ahead of her.
Daryl turns on a dime to look at her. "I know what I did and I know what none of you did, I'm ashamed of all of you for not doing more." He says simply as he moves away.
Lori wraps one arm around her middle as if to protect her unborn child from the hard truth that had just verbally slapped the shit out of her and the other over her mouth to stifle the exclamation of pure guilt that wanted to leave her mouth. He was right. He usually was.
Later that evening when he's packed and moved to some old ruins further away she tells the others to leave him be. Rick frowns at her but doesn't say anything.
##########
A few days later Lori sighs as she sinks down into a chair on the Greene porch. She needs to breathe, just take a breather from everything. She's exhausted, more so now because she's carrying and everyone knows it. And she's sick, morning sick as well as so very sick of taking care of people. Watching Beth had exhausted her. But she was trying to step up like she'd sworn to at the CDC. And after what Daryl had said when Sophia had been found and finally laid to rest.
But Andrea, that argument had drained her. Is that what everyone thought of her? That she had everything still? Whoopdedo. She had a child who ran to the beat of his own drum, a husband who could barely acknowledge her as being different from those he minded in everyday life and an ex-lover who wouldn't let go. The ex, well he wanted to father the child she was having and the one she had and the father of the one she already had could to nothing more than pat him on the head as if he were two instead of ten. Yet he was letting him handle a weapon. And she was called a Queen Bee and hypocritical.
Lori wanted to walk away from them all. Several months ago she would have. Just taken off and driven, anywhere for the silence, so she could hear herself think, dream. Just be. Now though, she couldn't and she was mentally exhausted as a result. And besides, the reason they were all the way they were was because of the lack in her. God knows she'd loved Rick in the beginning but did she still love him, or had she ever truly been in love with him? Any more than he'd been in love with her? "Argh!" She was driving herself crazy with these thoughts. She did love Rick, he accepted her and her unborn child whoever it belonged to.
He accepted that she had been unfaithful to him; was willing to overlook it and still be the husband to her he'd always been. He would raise her unborn child exactly the same way he'd raised Carl, with unconditional love. And why did that make her sad?
God, she didn't know which way was up anymore. And she didn't even know if he was looking at her differently and she didn't know why Daryl Dixon's opinion mattered. But it did. He was another who marched to the beat of his own drum, though unlike Carl he could make it beat parallel alongside everyone else's.
Though he'd certainly been blunt enough when she'd asked him to go looking for Rick. Lori snorts as she thinks of what he'd called her. "I'm not Olive Oyl, but you're sure Popeye." She closes her eyes in mortification as she hears a snort behind her,
"Sure thing Olive." His voice is teasing. Lori nearly drops off her seat in shock and turns her head so fast she almost gets whiplash. He's standing there in his jacket, a concession to the cooling weather, his crossbow is over his shoulder as always. She remembers how he'd held and comforted Carol when Sophia had been discovered in the barn. And then how he'd tried to get her to attend Sophia's funeral.
"Sorry Daryl." She says simply. She knows if she says anything else she'll put her foot in her mouth. It's almost becoming a habit when she speaks to Daryl. Maybe she should come with instructions Lori thinks to herself. 'when in the presence of Daryl Dixon, open mouth; insert foot.' Daryl just grins at her though. Lori is surprised to find her heart skips a beat as his eyes crinkle at her in amusement. It skips another beat when she realises that he has never grinned at anyone else the way he's full on grinning at her now.
"Nah, I'm sorry, though you are lean 'n leggy an' bein' a brunette, you kinda' resemble her you know. Maybe you should put your hair up in one of those bun things and see if anyone else calls you Olive." He grins at her again. Lori clears her throat.
"Yeah, well. You call me Olive and I'll call you Popeye." She answers in return.
Daryl surprises her by just chuckling. "Deal." He tips his fingers to a hat she's never seen him wear saying, "Good day to you Olive." And he walks away. Lori stares after him flummoxed. Had he been flirting with her? She shakes her head and rests it back on the chair, her eyes sliding to half-mast as she finds herself watching his very fine backside. She winces when he calls back to her.
"Starin's rude you know." How did he know she was watching him?
"And not on your life will I put my hair up in a bun like that." She mutters still sneaking peaks at his backside as he moves further away. She is surprised though knows full well by now that she shouldn't be when she hears his chuckle float back to her on the air. He'd heard, of course he'd heard.
Daryl breathes a sigh of relief when he sees Lori is out of the truck like a shot and Carl is in her arms, Rick follows. She and her kid were gonna be okay. Not that being on the road was gonna be good for someone expecting, but they were alive and not bitten. He frowns when Rick says not to go back for Andrea though. Didn't feel right. But he was right, she'd be long gone, she'd learned from he and Shane well enough, if she didn't get bit, she'd survive.
They take what little is left and head out. Carol rides in one of the cars and he is thankful. He'd never had a passenger on a bike before, it'd felt damn weird and he could almost feel Merle fucking screaming at him. 'Pussy don't get on my bike baby bro.' Yeah sure Mer, what the fuck ever.
When they stop for the night on the side of the road Rick drops his bomb. They're all infected, when they die whether it be by a bite or not they'll all turn. Fuck. Daryl closes his eyes for a few seconds to process it. Of course they're all infected, it makes the most sense. Something the government had tried to inoculate them with most likely that had gone wrong. Maybe the UN since it started in several countries at the same time.
Daryl listens with half an ear as Carol mutters to him. He shakes his head in disagreement and tells her in no uncertain terms he's staying with Rick. He watches Rick and Lori and Carl and a frown crosses his face. Something had happened. They weren't talking, weren't touching Carl was carefully between them. Rick had given Carl his jacket, not Lori, Lori was pregnant.
Shaking his head Daryl settles down and puts thoughts of the Grimes' out of his head. They've got some fucking shitty times coming up.