AN: Man, I am on a role this weekend... here's another chapter for you guys. :)
There was something to be said about the saying "strength in numbers". Once Rick and Harry joined with Daryl and Merle, well, things got a lot easier. Daryl, and sometimes Merle, was good at heading off into the woods in the morning and coming back in the afternoon with a line full of food... from squirrels to bunnies, birds and even a deer occasionally. The addition of fresh meat to their diet helped to not only make their non-perishable food last longer, but eased Rick's worry that Harry wasn't getting enough nutrients and protein for his growing body.
It was nice too that Rick felt like he could depend on Daryl, and even Merle, to help protect Harry and be there for him if God forbid something happened to Rick. It eased the worry and stress in this new life a bit, not all or even a lot of it, but it was there. Rick still worried that this new world was just too dangerous for those left alive, especially children. He worried that Harry would get separated and would have no one to turn to. He worried that he'd never find Carl again, forever wandering, never knowing what happened to his son. Or, he worried that he'd die or get turned before he found Carl and Carl would be left to never know that Rick woke up and was alive and desperately searching for him.
Some days, life seemed as bleak as possible as they seemed to flee from one dangerous situation to another. The walkers weren't the only thing to worry about in this new world; there were murderers and thieves, cannibals and rapists... the low dredges of the old world that had a knack for surviving... walking on the backs of honorable survivors, bleeding them dry both literally and figuratively. Their small group had quite a few tussles with unscrupulous people who wanted everything from their supplies to their bodies. They always came out ahead with three skilled fighters in the mix, but Rick worried about the day when the odds were no longer in their favor.
Of course, there were just as many good days as their were bad.
Harry had the ability to bring light and happiness into even the most dark times. His smiles, his curious nature, his stubborn refusal to not use his magic to help his daddy, Mr. Daryl and Mr. Merle as much as possible.
"How many times I got to tell ya, kid, stop calling me Mr. Merle... makes me sound like some fucking idiot accountant." Merle griped as Harry once again called him by his surname.
Harry giggled, well used to Merle's gripes and curse ridden language. It was a funny thing, Merle could be a real bastard with a potty mouth and an ability to turn even the most light situations into a battle of wills and words... but the foul mouthed redneck had a soft spot for the little boy. From begrudgingly (read: without prompting) helping Harry to learn how to build a fire to fiercely protecting him in dangerous situations when Rick and Daryl were a little to far away.
Rick was surprised at how Merle treated Harry. Yeah, he didn't curb his words or the harshness in his voice, but he seemed to put a playfulness into it that Harry always seemed to like.
The most surprising thing about the Dixon brothers, for Rick at least, was Daryl.
The man seemed to be a contradiction of soft and hard; stoic and gruff versus gentle and helpful. Daryl treated Harry like a little adult, which Harry seemed to appreciate, never guarding his words when he needed to teach Harry about the dangers of the world or the expectations put upon him by the reality they lived in. But, in that same regard, the quiet redneck seemed to be just as gentle in equal turn... holding Harry when the boy wanted to cuddle, patiently teaching Harry how to skin and cook animals, carefully watching over the boy as he and Rick painstakingly taught Harry how to shoot a gun in case his magic ever failed him (a day which Rick found equally sadly horrifying and proudly optimistic of).
The relationship between Harry and Daryl always put a smile on Rick's face. It was clear that the two formed an immediate bond the day that Daryl rescued him from being lost in the woods and as their relationship continued to grow that bond turned into one of friendship, trust, love and respect.
The day that Harry asked Daryl if he could call him papa a month after they had all been on the road together, Rick thought Daryl was going to cry. To see that gruff and quiet man kneel down in front of Harry and tell him that he could if he wanted to... well, that was the day that Rick realized that he wasn't just attracted to Daryl, he might just be half in love with him already.
It was funny how just a little over two months ago Rick was vastly different. He was married to Lori, still in love but working through a hard spot in their marriage, happy as a sheriff's deputy for King County and the proud father of a boy who amazed him on a daily basis.
Now, two and a half months later, Rick's marriage was over in every way but legal, his love for her had shriveled up and died the day that she had abandoned not only Rick to the walkers but Harry as well. He found himself each day getting a closer look into Daryl's heart and soul, carefully guarding the fact that with each new fact he learned about the fiercely protective and capable man he fell a little harder for him. And now, he was the proud father of two amazing boys... he just had to find Carl once again.
Rick had been driving for the better part of four hours in the late evening sun and was looking for a spot to stop for the night when in the front passenger seat Harry woke up with a start.
"Carl?" The little boy rubbed his eyes tiredly and looked around eagerly. "Where is he?"
"Harry, we're still looking for him, remember?" Rick answered sadly, a tightness in his throat as he thought about the fact that it had been more than a month since he had last heard his son's voice and known that he was safe.
"No, I can feel him... he's close!" Harry just about yelled frantically, sitting up in the seat, knees folded under him as he stared out the windows with a far reaching look that was more than just looking with his eyes.
"Whatcha' talkin' 'bout, kid?" Daryl asked softly as he leaned forward from the back seat and looked at Harry, a frown on his face.
"I can feel him, I know it... there!"
Rick stared at Harry for a moment in question and then glanced out of the windshield to look at an offroad that lead up into the mountains where an old quarry was. With a grin, Rick swerved across the road and started the long drive up the winding mountain road. He couldn't say why, but he just knew that Harry was right, he trusted the boy's magic, even when he didn't understand it.
It took them another two hours to get up the mountain to the spot where Harry was sure Carl was. The darkness had crept up on them until they were forced to turn on the headlights to guide by.
Just as they came around the bend, headlights shining on a camp at the top of the road, a walker appeared from the trees, stumbling around an RV camper and closer to a group of people sitting around a fire. Rick didn't even think about it, he slammed on the breaks and pulled his Python out of his holster and aimed out of the open window. With the walker in his sights, Rick pressed his finger on the trigger just as a blonde young woman stepped out of the camper.
The sound of the shot echoed through the canyon, blood splattering on the thankfully unharmed blonde girl, and screams began to sound out as walkers started stumbling out from the trees.
From one second to the next, Rick watched in horror as Harry jumped out of the car and ran into the thick of the fight... a second later a green light burst from the boy's hands and the walkers dropped dead.
It was quiet after that, harsh breaths and stunned expressions as the new group took in the sight of a six-year-old Harry who had somehow killed close to thirty walkers in one fell swoop.
"Harry, you okay?" Rick yelled as he ran into the thick of the group and to Harry's side.
Harry grinned and nodded, then he pointed to a place off to the right of Rick.
"Dad? DAD! HARRY!"
Rick spun around and dropped to his knees at the sound of Carl's voice. He eyes found Carl frantically trying to pull away from Lori's tight grip, her face filled with a mix of emotions as she held on tightly. Shane stood beside her, his face equally filled with mixed emotions as he looked at Rick. Finally pulling free, Carl ran to Rick and wrapped himself around his father, crying and hiccuping as he burrowed into Rick's arms.
"It's okay, I'm alright, we're alright." Rick murmured into Carl's hair as he grabbed hold of Harry's t-shirt and pulled the younger boy into his arms as well.
Carl as soon as he noticed Harry was there wrapped an arm around the younger boy. "I thought you guys were dead. Mom and Shane took me away and wouldn't let me go back and save you guys, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Carl... Daddy and I saved ourselves." Harry whispered as he burrowed right back into his new brother's arms.
The three held on to each other for a few minutes as voices murmured around them, words of surprise, thanks, comfort and anger swirling around them as the group reacted to the fight and Harry's ability.
"Rick... you're alive? How?"
Finally, Rick pulled away from his two boys and stood up, glaring into the questioning eyes of Lori and Shane.
"Well, no thanks to you two. I can somewhat understand you leaving me, I was stuck in a bed and in a coma, but to leave a six-year old boy who you knew was abused by his family and was more than likely to be left behind... that, I can never forgive." Rick growled, his voice hard and unforgiving as he spoke.
"Hey, man... how were we supposed to know that the kid's family wasn't gonna' come get him? It was a bad day, still is a bad day, and all I know is that I had to get Lori and Carl to safety... that you would want me to do that." Shane yelled, fists clenched tight as he paced in front of Rick.
"Shane, I know you and Lori heard Harry telling Carl about how his family mistreated him... multiple times. I was there, I heard it myself!" Rick said in a deadly voice, quiet and laced with a threat that had Shane backing up a step.
"Man, what are you talking about, you were in a coma. You couldn't hear shit."
"I may have been in a coma, but I could still hear everything and besides that, Harry could hear me talking in my head... I know what he knows too."
Lori and Shane's eyes widened at those words.
"You could hear... everything?" Lori asked quietly.
"Yes, everything." Raising his eyebrow, Rick stared them down.
"Boy, what have I told you about doing that freakish thing." A harsh voice echoed through the group, drawing Rick's attention. It was meant to be quiet, but with everyone silent and caught up in the drama between the three of them it might as well have been a yell.
"Ya' betta' back the fuck of ma' son, if ya' know what's good fer ya'." Daryl growled as he aimed his loaded crossbow on a large fat man who had Harry's arm in a tight grip.
"I'd do what he says, Mr. Dursley... we don't take kindly to people who abuse children." Rick threatened the whale-like man as he strode up to them, his hand resting on his holstered Python as he spoke.
"Rick, how do you know the Dursleys?" Lori asked, confused, as she looked from Rick to Vernon Durley, to Harry and Daryl and back to Rick.
"Do you not care at all that Harry was an abused child?" Rick growled and pointed to Vernon Dursley. "This 350 pound man is the same asshole that held Harry down and let his equally fat son kick him enough to send him to the hospital just because he got lost in the woods, or were you not paying attention when Harry was talking about it... giving names and all. Vernon Dursley isn't exactly a common name."
"Now see here, I won't having you disparaging my son and I because of this freakish little hooligan." Vernon Dursley puffed up, his blubbery face going red in anger as he spoke.
The next sound to be heard was the man wailing in pain as Daryl and Rick moved in tandem with each other. Daryl knocked the butt of his crossbow into the man's face as he ripped a crying Harry from his grasp and Rick kicked the man's feet out from under him, the man falling hard on his wrist, the snap of bone singing through the air.
As Daryl held Harry in his arms, murmuring soothing words into the boys tousled hair with a resolute Carl standing beside him, his hand rubbing up and down Harry's back, Rick spoke.
"I'd suggest you never lays hands of either of my sons again, Mr. Dursley. If you do, you'll wish the walkers, or whatever you call those flesh-eating monsters, got to you... because I won't be so civilized next time."
The threat made the man shiver as he glared up at Rick as a thin horse-faced woman and a short pudgy boy ran up to Dursley and tried to help him up, no doubt Petunia and Dudley Dursley.
"Well, ain't this a fine night." Merle laughed as he holstered the gun he'd unassumingly had aimed at Vernon Dursley's head. Walking over to his small group, Merle laid a quick comforting hand on Harry before an uncomfortable look appeared on his face at the surprisingly kind gesture and he stepped back to scowl off at the trees, rubbing his bald head nervously.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Asked a soft spoken gray haired man from near the RV camper. Two blonde women stood beside him, one of them the young woman who nearly got bit by the first walker.
"Sorry," Rick said with a sheepish looked on his face, adjusting the cowboy hat on his head, standing up straighter, looking like the deputy sheriff he used to be before the Turn, uniform and all. "I'm Rick Grimes, deputy sheriff of King County... or what's left of it. Carl, who I am sure you know, is my son and this is my other son, Harry. That's Daryl Dixon, Harry's papa, and his brother, Merle."
"Um... what was the green light that killed all those things... the, um, walkers?" Asked the younger blonde woman beside him.
Rick was quiet for a minute as he looked at Daryl, a silent conversation going on between them before he finally spoke. "Harry has a special gift, one that allows him to do a great deal of amazing things, including killing all those walkers."
The older grayed haired man grinned and stepped forward. "He's a wizard..."
Harry raised his head from Daryl's shoulder and looked back at the man as he spoke, the light from the fire shining perfectly on the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"... well I'll be, he's not just a wizard... he's Harry Potter!" The older man chuckled.
"How do you know who and what he is, Mr...?" Rick asked suspiciously as he looked at the man.
"Oh, name's Dale Horvath. My mother was a squib, ah, a non-magical child born to a magical family. She still kept in touch with that side of the family up until a few years ago when she passed away." Dale answered, a little sad note at the end, before he smiled again. "Young Mr. Potter here is a little bit famous in that world. His parents, well, his birth parents, were a part of a group that was fighting a very bad wizard who had plans to take over the wizarding world... there was an incident where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked them in their home. His parent's died that night, killed by the very green light that took out those walkers, but Mr. Potter survived that killing curse... he's the only one to ever do that. It was rumored that he could grow up to be an archmagus, the most powerful type of magical being in the wizarding world, one who isn't bound by the use of a wand and harnesses wild magic from the earth itself to bend magic to their will. I expect that he was given to the Durlseys when they passed away, being the only relatives he had left to care for him."
Dale sent a dark look at the Dursleys as he finished speaking, it was clear he thought that they had done some truly horrible things to Harry that he disapproved of.
"Magic ain't real, you idiot." Shane said annoyed as he glared at Dale, then Rick and his group, glaring especially long at Harry as he sat in Daryl's arms.
"Oh, it's very real," Dale said seriously before he pointed down at the dead walker at his feet that almost bit the blonde young woman standing beside him. "And, it just might be the only thing that keeps this group from ending up like that."