Chain Link
It was hard to walk around and Jamie hated that she had to stumble about whenever someone wasn't there to help her, but she knew that there was no chance she was going to let herself be slowed down because she got cut of a damn tree. She pushed herself onward, knowing better than to press her limits and do more damage, and helped where she could with Lori and Carol, putting aside some time to teach Carl some cheats for the trouble he was having with his math. Guess some good came out of her job after all, architecture definitely helped more than she had thought it would after the world ended.
"Hey, Jamie," Glenn said, jogging up to her.
"Hey, tank man," she teased, holding an arm out to wrap around his shoulders. "Mmm, peaches." He held the basket up for her to take one, giving her a moment as she took two. She'd force one down Daryl's throat if she had to and everyone knew it; especially Daryl. "What's happening with you lately, I haven't really seen you since you thought I was a walker."
Glenn laughed nervously, peaking her interest.
"What's going on in your head there?" she asked curiously, leaning on her good leg as she prepared to stand for a while. Leaning away from him, she kept her hand on his shoulder and looked into his face, trying to determine what it was that he was hiding. "I'll figure you out yet, Glenn."
"There's nothing to figure out, I'm just handing around some peaches," he defended. He slipped out from under her hand and quickly slinked away. She raised an eyebrow and stared after him, knowing full well that something was going on with him. He actually thinks that he can act like that and have someone believe that he was telling the truth about being alright? Not so smooth, Chinaman.
"Right," she mumbled to herself, tossing a peach up and catching it before she turned back toward the tent that she was staying in with Daryl. Carol had tried to convince them to stay in the RV once they left the house, but the two of them were dead set on staying in their tent. Things were already changing too much for their liking, they didn't want anything else to get thrown off its axis.
She paused on her way to the tent when she saw that Daryl wasn't alone. Andrea didn't linger inside the tent for long and when she saw Jamie standing a couple of yards away, she looked ready to run. She paused, however, when she saw that Jamie didn't look threatening toward her in any way. She had a relaxed posture and she wasn't glaring at her as she had done every time since she and Daryl left the house.
"Let's talk," she called over simply, before turning and heading over to the fire area. Andrea looked back into the tent, seeing that Daryl was giving her a look that ordered her to obey his fiancé, before she turned and followed after her fellow blonde. Jamie had barely reached the fire when Andrea caught up, slowed down terribly because of her left leg injury, and didn't hesitate to sit down.
"Look, I'm really sorry-"
"I'm not looking for apologies," Jamie interrupted, looking up into Andrea's blue eyes. "I was completely pissed off with you when you showed up in that field; to be completely honest I don't even remember much of it, it's all a big blur. But I know I said things that were out of place; threatening to take your life, for example." Andrea shifted uncomfortably under the hard stare of hazel eyes, not noticing the amusement that appeared in them. "Sit down before you trip over your shuffling feet."
Andrea hated that she was right and took a cautious seat beside her.
"I'm sorry for threatening to kill you and calling you a bitch; I thought that you had killed the love of my life and I snapped. Daryl's the one person that I would have and still will kill for should something come to that."
"I understand," Andrea said softly, finally beginning to relax when she realized that Jamie wasn't searching for a fight. "I would have done the same for Amy."
"I know, that's why I know you're very aware of why I did what I did. I don't want to be at ends with you, Andrea. We both want to keep this camp safe and we can't do that if we're constantly jabbing the other in the back."
"True," Andrea finally agreed with a smile. "Did Dale talk to you about this…"
"Nah, but the 'fatherly stares' weren't really helping," Jamie jested, getting a smile and nod from Andrea. The tension between them was disappearing faster than the morning fog and they both would admit that it was a relief.
"I do really want to apologize, though," Andrea quickly added in while she had the chance. Jamie's eyebrow rose up in wonder as she waited for what Andrea was going to say, leaning her hand on her propped up arm and looked at her closely, but not in a scrutinizing manner. "If you had been standing on his other side I could have shot you, or I could have actually killed one of you-"
"But you didn't," Jamie interrupted, smiling softly. Andrea was shocked at the smile, not expecting her to suddenly be so forgiving. "This is now a world of hate, fear and death. People won't survive and those that do can't afford to regret and pause. If there's actually a walker, we know we can trust you to alert everyone and try to take care of the threat." Andrea began to smile, understanding that things were finally clear. "However," Jamie added on as she held up her hand with her index finger up in a 'one moment' signal.
Andrea looked hesitant. "Yes?"
"Let's make a deal. You agree to never touch or aim a gun at anything living or un-living until you've actually learned how to shoot and I will hold nothing against you and act like it never happened, alright?"
Andrea let out a breath that she had not realized she was holding, nodding her head and taking Jamie's hand to shake it, sealing the deal between them. That was not what she had been expecting her to say, but she was as hell was not going to complain about it.
"Well, now that that's settled, please excuse me while I go force a peach down my fiancé's throat," Jamie said in all seriousness as she hoisted herself up from the chair.
Andrea opened her mouth to try and halt Jamie, but she thought better of it and simply watched the woman limp away, back toward the tent that Andrea had been in only minutes before. She really wanted to know more about why Jamie was with Daryl, the curiosity so strong inside of her, but knew that the moment wasn't right.
"Oh," Jamie said quickly as she halted and turned to look at Andrea. "And if you do shoot my fiancé again, I will kill you." Without a word more on the matter she turned back to her destination and continued to limp away; Andrea wasn't sure whether or not the blonde was serious but she felt her stomach tightening in fear none the less. Jamie wasn't going to stay injured forever.
Jamie's leg was starting to ache when she reached the tent, pushing the opening aside and dropping down onto the mattress that Daryl was lying on, boredom consuming him and leaving him to sit there with his arrow and poke holes into the side screen of the tent.
"We're going to be infested with bugs if you keep that up," she warned, looking at him over her shoulder briefly as she carefully pulled her boots off and pushed them aside, trying her best not to bend her left leg—the action nearly impossible with the bandages she had been given, anyway. She lay down on her side against Daryl, looking down at him as he adjusted his head on the rolled pillow so that he could see her better.
"Have a nice chat?" he finally asked after a beat of silence between them, continuing to roll the arrow between both sets of index fingers and thumbs. She shrugged her shoulders before reaching back to where she had placed the peaches on the edge of the mattress and lifted out up to where he could bite into it. Daryl nearly went cross-eyed, trying to get a look at it, before he rolled his eyes with a sigh.
"You're going to eat it; whether it be a pleasant experience or not."
He raised an eyebrow at her in challenge, causing her to mimic the gesture. "And just how can ya make it pleasant?"
She grinned devilishly and almost caused him to worry before she took a great bite from the peach in her hand. The juice flowed down from the broken fruit and drew a groan from Daryl as he watched the liquid slip down her tanned flesh. He wished so badly to lick up the juice, healthy be damned. She didn't chew the fruit, though, and instead leaned toward him and pressed a kiss against his lips. His lips were soon forced apart and he felt the bite of peach being pushed into his mouth.
Daryl felt the juice of the fruit caress his lips and pass his teeth as the morsel of food touched his tongue, Jamie's lips urging him to bite it. She smiled against his lips when she felt his jaw close and knew that he had given in; the peach slice exploded with flavourful liquid inside his mouth. She held the bitten peach in her hand away from him to stop the juice from falling on him as he urged the kiss to continue.
"Damn," T-Dog's voice said suddenly from the entrance of the tent, "Wish I had a girlfriend that fed my food like that." Daryl didn't even open his eyes as he chucked the arrow he was holding toward the voice. T-Dog was laughing as he walked away, glancing back only once to see that Daryl had wrapped his now free arms around his fiancé to draw her closer.
To have her in his arms once more was something that he had feared he had lost, petrified he would never be able to do it again when he had seen her in those trees. He wouldn't admit to anyone what he had been truly terrified in that moment, and was now truly relieved and rejuvenated to know that she was indeed alive and in his arms.
He refused to let her leave his embrace, even if that meant having her feed him peaches—the best way to eat peaches—and knew that he was going to be hard pressed with letting her leave his sights when they weren't in camp.
The openness of the tent didn't deter him when the peach was finally finished, the seed thrown out the opening, as he took hold of her arm and ran his tongue along her forearm, where there was a sticky trail left behind that had been calling to him since he watched the drip glide along her flesh. He continued to run his tongue along her arm until there was no trace left of the sticky residue.
She gladly returned the favour with the peach juice on his lips.
"No sex!" Shane yelled from outside the tent, effectively killing the mood between the two and immediately causing Jamie to roll off of Daryl at the thought of Shane being anywhere near either of them. She repressed a chill at the thought of him actually seeing what they had been doing and looked over to Daryl, seeing that he was glaring up at the roof of the tent as the sexual frustration began to mount.
"Imma kill the fucker," he growled out, wiping his face with his hands.
"When are they leaving for gun training again?"
Jamie sat in the RV hours later, her elbow leaning on the table with her eyes looking off out the window as she sat still. Carol wrapped a new bandage around her leg as gently as possible after she had applied new ointment to the injury, not taking notice of Jamie's intense stare out the window. She watched as Rick spoke with his wife, clearly something between the two of them pulling them farther from the other.
She could not help but to be concerned for Rick.
"That should do it for today, Hershel's going to give you enough for a week but after that we need to start going off our own supplies," Carol explained when she stepped away from Jamie and moved to sit opposite her at the table. Jamie looked away from the married couple and smiled her thanks to Carol, trying not to seem distracted.
"Thanks for helping me, you've got very careful hands."
"I'm sure that Daryl would have helped you just fine," Carol answered, but they both know that he couldn't do much knocked out on painkillers in their tent. He had promised Jamie that he would take one to get a good night sleep for at least one night, but they took affect faster on him because of his lack of food intake and Jamie was left to search for other helping hands.
"Maybe tomorrow," Jamie jested and was glad to see a smile of amusement come to Carol's lips. She sighed loudly, then, and leaned back in her seat and once more looked out the window to where Rick and Lori were. They weren't distant anymore and seemed to have made up for whatever they had been disagreeing about before. "I wonder how long Hershel will let us stay," she whispered finally, voicing her thoughts.
Carol looked down to the table of the RV and tried to avoid voicing her own opinion.
"We haven't really been the best guests."
"We can't take blame for that, though. Not entirely. They only reason we're here in the first place is because Otis shot Carl, we would have continued on if it were for…" Carol tried to explain, getting a nod from Jamie but not much else. Carol could see that there was a subtle change in the woman before her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She acted mostly the same, but there seemed to be a strange edge to her that told of a difference in her.
Jamie could feel it inside of her, the anger and hatred that had begun to grow after the first death that came up on the news that revealed the infections. She had tried to push everything away but there was no way to completely forget or ignore what was happening. Andrea had put a crack in the restraining chains on her anger and had seen what she was capable of when she was not in control of herself, but that was not even the beginning.
"I should be getting back to Daryl," she said suddenly, rising up carefully. She pulled the leg of her pants back down to cover the bandages; Carol quickly leapt forward to offer her assistance and helped Jamie down the steps of the RV as best she could.
"Are you sure you'll be alright in the tent?"
"Don't worry about us so much, Carol," Jamie said softly as she placed a gentle hand on the other woman's cheek. Carol was looking for more than just a way to distract herself—she was looking for someone to take care of and tend to with Sophia missing.
Carol had become the unofficial mother of their strange family.
"Everything'll be a'right," she assured, pressing a kiss against her forehead. Carol seemed to go limp for a moment before she continued on, letting Jamie limp back to the tent that she was sure Daryl would still be unconscious inside. She walked over to the entrance and picked up on his lack of movement right away. He was still out cold.
Heartbreaking as it is, it's almost time for the barn walkers…and Randal. I've got a couple of chapters pretty much done but I've got some finished and editing to do before I can publish them.
I would also like to ask the opinion of my readers-those that review-what they think about the continuation. Should I following along the way that season 3 is, or change it into my own flow? I know that some people would like to read the story as the show is but from a new perspective while others enjoy something completely off road. Let me know what you want in a review or PM, it would be so much appreciated.
Chapter 28 – Severance
"And let me tell you something else," he yelled, stepping around Rick. "If she was alive out there and saw you comin', all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck she'd run in the other direction, man-"
Rick expected a confrontation between Shane and Daryl, especially after Shane yelled that at the man, but he did not expect Jamie to launch herself over his outstretched arm, not able to stop her hand from snapping out and slapping Shane hard across the face. Daryl didn't reach back to stop her but was snarling and yelling back at Shane in just as much anger.
Andrea and Carol reached for Jamie, pulling on her shirt to get her back as Rick pushed Shane and Daryl apart, separating the fight that was quickly escalading.
"You don't know anything," Jamie screamed, not fighting against both women but continuing to scream at Shane from a distance. "Fuckin' pathetic, thinkin' you're so above! What have you done? What have you done!"