Hello, Here is Chapter 8 - I apologize for the delay - had a bit of a busy week. I hope you all enjoy! Please read, review and be merry. :) You all are too good to me.
Carol's eyes were about to drift closed when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was his touch, just knew. Dawn was still hours away.
"I'm awake." The drowsiness came through in her voice loud and clear.
Daryl held out his hand to her and spoke softly. "Come on. We can catch a few zzz's before we gotta go. Rick'll take over."
She gladly grasped his strong hand to pull herself up. He had the basketball under his arm and opened her bag to drop it inside.
Her limbs felt someone had poured lead into them as she followed him into the cabin. The baby was fussing which drew her into Lori's room before she knew where her feet were taking her. "Need any help?" She asked yawning.
Lori stood with little Judith in her arms. "She's gassy tonight. Must've been something I ate." She paused looking at Carol in the low light of the lantern. "You're exhausted, get out there. We'll be fine, but thank you."
As much as she wanted to help, she didn't stop for a second when Lori let her off the hook. The thought of her mattress near the couch was the most prominent thought in her mind and when she walked around the corner there laid Daryl sprawled out across it on his stomach. She stopped in mid step, her mind foggy as to what to do. The couch was the only other option. She sighed, taking the quilt off the couch and carefully covering him up, then she bunched the blanket up in her hand and drew it over her as she climbed over the arm of the couch, making herself comfortable. The first chance she got, she snuck a peek at Daryl who appeared to be asleep. His breathing was shallow and deep, he looked completely relaxed, but suddenly he squinted one eye open, reached up and grasped her wrist. In one quick move he pulled her off the couch and she landed half on top of him and half on the mattress with a squeal. That earned a round of "Shhh's" from everyone who happened to be awake.
She heard Daryl groan in her ear, which sent chills down her arms. He wriggled out from underneath her and let her settle in next to him. It took them a moment to figure out what went where but her eyes fluttered closed almost instantly, despite her feet being tangled partially in the blanket and under his boot.
It seemed like no time had passed at all when Beth woke them up. She rubbed Carol's foot and said, "Breakfast. Come on, we're leaving soon."
Daryl stirred next to her, his hair stood on end and the stubble from his chin tickled under her arm. When the room came into focus, she saw both Beth and Carl at the edge of the mattress on the verge of laughing. She sat up immediately flashing them a disapproving look, and straightened the blanket and quilt. The sounds of them giggling as they ran off picked at the edges of her frayed nerves. Was it really that funny they were sleeping in the same bed? Daryl looked peaceful enough and she couldn't stop a grin from forming on her lips either. She reached out to trace a finger down his jaw, but thought better of it and left him to go help with serving breakfast. He'd wake when more of them began moving about.
Coffee was what she needed more than anything. T-Dog already had some going when she made it to the counter. He eyeballed her as she dragged her feet, stretching and yawning. "That couldn't have been too comfortable." He noted, nodding his head toward the corner where Daryl still lay.
"Hush up." She whispered, pouring herself a cup of the hot, dark brew.
"What's up with you two? You got a little love connection goin' on?"
She was glad she hadn't taken a sip or she would've spattered coffee all across T-Dog's chest. "You of all people, I'd expect Glenn to ask, or Maggie, but - " She stopped, considering just what in the hell was going on. "You know? I don't know exactly. And I don't really want to define it, or force it. I just wanna let whatever happens – happen."
T-Dog tipped his head to the side as if considering what she'd said. "Well, it was Glenn who wanted me to ask." He said with a smirk.
She grinned and smacked his strong arm playfully. Lori came out with the baby in the sling, one of Judith's thin little feet hung out of the bottom. "The iron's starting to help already." She announced. "I appreciate you and Daryl going to get it even if you almost killed me with your ball game last night." She winked as she said it, so Carol knew she wasn't upset.
Carol set her cup down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Not a problem – about the iron. Where's Rick?"
Lori sighed. He's out front making sure everything is secure. We'll be leavin' in the next few hours. You might wanna wake Daryl."
Her eyes moved to where his feet were poking out from behind the couch and she let out a deep breath.
Lori followed her gaze and smirked. "Hey he's in your bed."
"Shhh. I have no idea why, really." Carol told her.
T-Dog piped up from behind them. "It's like I was just tellin' her. Don't define it. Just let whatever happens happen."
Carol shot him a glare and he threw his hands up in defense, but as soon as he started to smile, they all laughed quietly.
"Seriously though, we have a long day ahead of us." Lori said, breaking up the camaraderie. "This isn't gonna be an easy task. Probably one of the biggest fights we'll have on our hands since that night at the farm."
"It's important to keep the groups moral up." Carol gently reminded her, knowing Lori's emotions had been up and down since having little Judith.
They all jumped as Daryl kicked the floor with the toe of his boot, then both of his feet disappeared and he hopped up from behind the couch.
Carol began dishing out the oatmeal that Beth had cooked up, trying to give Daryl a little privacy as he pulled himself together, but she had to smile at some of the stray hairs that escaped as he tried smoothing it down with his comb. Beth joined her, picking up bowls and carrying them to the table.
"Thanks for cooking honey." Carol told her, patting the girl on the shoulder.
Beth raised her eyes to Carol's meekly. "I figured I'd and show my gratitude for the stuff you brought Carl and me. We were all up pretty late. Where'd you take off to before you took watch?"
Daryl straddled a chair, clearing his throat loudly. She couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze which she felt burning into her. He didn't stare long before shoving a spoonful of hot oatmeal into his mouth jumping a little as it burned his tongue.
Herschel joined them taking the seat next to Daryl, clapping him on the back. As Daryl opened his mouth to gripe at him, Herschel interrupted, "They were out back with me before I came in."
Daryl blew on the gob of oatmeal on his spoon this time and carefully ate it.
Carol's heart was beating a mile a minute but she took a second to mouth a silent "Thank you." to Herschel as she served breakfast to the others who were filing in.
Leaving the place that they'd called home for the past six months was bittersweet. Rick made sure the cabin was locked up tight in case they needed it as a temporary form of shelter again, but Carol was looking forward to being someplace different, safer, a place where they had sturdy walls around them and towers to watch from. Clearing the place out would be the scary part.
She and Daryl were the last two on the porch, with his bike parked at the foot of the steps, bringing up the rear of their convoy so to speak.
"Here." He said quietly. He ran his hand down he strap of her bag, accidentally brushing past her breast, stopping to scrunch his face up as if he were embarrassed, but his hand continued on its way without hesitating, lifting it off her shoulder. He left a trail of what felt like tingly electricity from her breast all the way down to places that he'd been stirring many feelings in as of late. It was nerve-wracking. She knew nothing about whatever it was they were getting into – or if it was really anything at all. God only knew it could wind up meaning more to her than to him and that thought scared her. There was so much more they needed to be aware of.
She looked on as he carried it to Maggie's car, stowing it in the back. When he came back, he hopped on the bike then gave her a look. "You comin' or what?"
Reading Daryl was like reading Chinese, and she didn't want to make a fuss so she just boarded the bike, even though it was too small to ride double and always had been. She hadn't been on it with him since the night they fled the farm, but it turned out to be a short ride anyway.
The meadow Daryl and Rick had scouted out ahead of time was more than she'd given them credit for. On the map it had looked to be right out in the open, but when they drove their vehicles in off the back country road, around a maze of trees they found a wide open space with plenty of room to see anything comin' at them and a long, high ridge to sit on that bordered a large pond.
They immediately began to set up camp, so used to it by now that they had the routine down pat. They had tents that they'd found in an abandoned town just before the cold had dipped down into Georgia. Luck had been with them the day they'd found the cabin, but Daryl knew it wasn't gonna be forever. It'd been tough to keep an eye on things there. He took off on his usual perimeter walk which served four purposes – to gather firewood, to get a feel for the area, lookin' for anyone living or dead and to hunt any nearby wildlife for their dinner. This walk yielded three squirrels, a rabbit, no sign of walkers or humans and a shit ton of firewood.
He'd forgotten about the fact that in the past, he and Carol had separate tents when he was about ten steps from where the women had set up a fire pit of stones. Carol's tent, he remembered was blue and white. She'd set it up under the tree and her olive colored sweater hung over a low hangin' branch above it.
His tent was the only one not up and sat off to the side with the rest of the things that needed to be unpacked.
Rick met him before he reached the main area and took his kills from him. "Anything?"
"No seems pretty tight for now. No tracks, no nothin'."
"Yeah well hopefully it stays quiet. You and I will go check out the prison tomorrow, figure out if that area we were lookin' at last time is still the best way in."
Daryl nodded and reached down to grab his tent and gear, when he spotted Carol and Lori cleaning the kills he'd brought back. It wasn't as much as he'd wanted to bring back but it would serve each of them a mouthful or two to go with whatever else the women cooked up.
Finding a spot among the other tents wasn't gonna be tough, but he hesitated. Lori, Rick and Carl's tent had been set up on the other side of the tree from Carol's. Maggie and Glenn's tent was past Lori and Rick's with Herschel and Beth's right next to it. T-Dog's was behind Carol's which left an open spot near hers but the terrain didn't give him a suitable surface to set it up on, so he had to move it even further away.
Oh what the hell? He thought. Just because you shared a bed with her at JCPenny's and this morning in the cabin, ya think ya gotta smother her, dog her like some horny desperate son of a bitch? He grew more disgruntled by the second. What'd did he expect her to do, pull out one of the larger tents they had extra and lay an offer on the table he couldn't refuse? This was how they always camped. Nothing had changed. He tried to tell himself. But it had.
"I'll take watch first." Daryl offered while they were eating.
Rick shot him a snake-eyed look. "You barely got any rest this mornin'."
"I'm fine. Wide awake. Just keep pourin' coffee down my neck. I recon I'll grab one of the fold out chairs and take it up on the knoll there by the pond. You can see for miles. Anything comes at us I'll be able to give ya enough warning to get to the vehicles.
"What about you?" Carol asked lifting a dainty bite of rabbit meat half way to her lips.
"I'll be fine." He snapped, causing her to turn away from him quickly. Everyone took notice. In fact she stood suddenly and began serving dinner without so much as looking back at him or questioning him further. When she got around to him, she shot him a quick glare and plopped a plate of instant potatoes, gravy, meat and green beans in his hands just so that a little splashed up and hit his nose. He grumbled, not really knowing what he was saying or what to do and sat down on a nearby log to eat and stew.
The more he sat and thought about it the more pissed off he got, pissed at himself for assuming or expecting anything from her. He had better things to do, like get with Rick and go over what would happen tomorrow at daybreak when they hiked it up over the hill to the prison. From the knoll they could spot the watch towers just over the trees.
He hurried through dinner, hopin' for a distraction and found one when Rick caught him as he was setting up his tent. His thoughts ran along the same lines as Daryl's – figurin' out the best way into the prison. Rick had drawn diagrams based on what they'd seen on their last venture over. Sitting down together they poured over them while everyone bustled around them cleaning up after dinner.
Rick had his finger on the east side near the gate. "This is where we saw the least amount of walkers. This is our way in. We clear it bit by bit till we make it up to the actual building."
Daryl nodded in agreement, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "If it ain't too many we might be able to clear this section tomorrow."
Rick snickered. "I like the way you think, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. It might be possible. And I'd rather have somethin' done by the time we get our people there to show them it's possible. Might ease their minds a bit."
His thoughts were on the conversation at hand but when he caught sight of her maroon shirt drifting by he had to look to see where she was headed.
Glenn, Maggie, T-Dog and Carol were making their way up the knoll, presumably to check out the pond up above. They were laughing quietly among themselves as they went on their merry way and he 'sposed that since she was laughing meant she couldn't be too upset with him.
The mixed signals were bullshit, but he couldn't expect her to be a mind reader. Neither of them had any clue when it came to relationships. It'd been since he was a tot when the last bond he'd had with anyone had been severed. And Carol, after watching her take out her fury and pain on Ed Peletier's lifeless body, it was clear the last bit of true caring she'd felt for anyone since Ed had been for her little girl. Sure the lot of them had become somewhat of a family unit. He didn't know why or when it happened but he'd lay down his life for any of them. But relationships? "Fuck love." He grumbled, as he watched her up near the pond.
"What was that?" Rick asked.
"Hmm, nothin'. Now what tools are we gonna need in case we wanna penetrate this area here?"
He talked to Rick, with Lori nosin' around behind them for a good hour. Laughter from the ridge rolled down, hitting his ears on occasion, Carol's especially cut deeper and deeper into his nerves. If he weren't such an asshole thinkin' she would've at least discussed where they'd be sleepin, his feelings wouldn't have been hurt. That was a big realization and when it dawned on him anger overrode the hurt. Feelings. Fuckin' pussy is what he was bein'.
Darkness blacked out the inky pink sky. Rick folded up his notes and diagrams once they weren't visible to the naked eye. Daryl trudged up the steep knoll to where the four stood. Carol with T-Dog and Maggie hugging onto Glenn like a leech. He set a fold out chair on the ground none too gently and made his presence known. The conversation stopped abruptly, the smiles faded and pretty soon after Maggie said, "Hey Daryl." And when he only nodded in return, they all walked carefully back down the hill. Carol craned her neck around to see him in the near darkness once, slipped and caught herself on T-Dog's arm.
Long after everyone had retired to their tents, their silhouettes wavering back and forth, settling in for the night, Carol and T-Dog sat out near the fire talking quietly. He watched through narrowed eyes, hoping he'd burn a hole into her back or that she'd somehow sense him watching. All the while he kept an ear out for anything out of the ordinary, another group, walkers, even wild animals, though the walkers were running most into near extinction these days. Hunting had become way more challenging.
After about an hour and a half of pure torture – he'd checked the watch he carried in his pocket - he stood up and began pacing. As if she'd known or heard his minute actions, she finally stood, touching T-Dog on the shoulder. It looked as though she was going to go to sleep herself, but instead he followed her movements as she tugged her sweater off the tree branch, pulled a bundle out of her tent, moved out of the fire's light and back up the hill.
There was a momentary stab of panic that ran through him when he lost sight of her, but before he knew it she was right in front of him, a little out of breath, flushed, and somehow extremely sexy as he held up his low burning lantern taking a really good look at her.
"What did I do?" She asked.
"Nothin'." He answered in a grated tone of voice, placing the lantern beside the chair. "Ya need rest. What'cha doin' up here?"
"Can't sleep." She argued simply folding her arms over her chest, clutching the bundle she carried. "We need to talk."
"Seems like ya got all you're talkin' done down at the fire."
She turned her whole body to look back down at where she'd just come from. Hesitating for just a moment, she finally said, "Nice view you got from up here." She nodded her head to make her point.
"So what's your point?" He asked plainly.
"I wanna know how we can go from you sleepin' in my bed to you snappin' at me at dinner time."
Daryl refused to play into it. He wasn't gonna budge. "Carol, it was late. I fell asleep on your bed. That simple."
"And I suppose this was just that simple?" She set the bundle, which turned out to be a blanket down on the chair he'd been perched in, took his face in both her hands and brought her lips to his. The fight left him at the sheer touch, taste and smell of her. He breathed her in and his arms snaked around her waist. Everything in his life had been simple before. Black and white. Life and death. Nothing was simple now and nothing would ever be simple again, not after her.