A/N: Don't own (although I'd love to have my very own Norman Reedus :D) don't sue!
Lyrics are from 'Rain' by Patty Griffin
Rain
Chapter Eight
It's hard to listen to a hard, hard heart
Beatin' close to mine
Poundin' up against the stone and steel
Walls that I won't climb
Sometimes a hurt is so deep, deep, deep
You think that you're gonna drown
Sometimes all I can do is weep, weep, weep
With all this rain fallin' down
Strange, how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I'm holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
It's hard to know when to give up the fight
Some things you want will just never be right
It's never rained like it has tonight before
Now, I don't wanna beg you, baby
For something maybe you could never give
I'm not lookin' for the rest of your life
I just want another chance to live
Strange, how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I'm holdin' on underneath this shroud
Rain
"If you keep doing that, Red, we're going to put on a lot more a show than I'm comfortable with."
Cassidy grinned and removed her hands from where she'd been massaging Daryl's tense shoulders. She leant forwards so her long hair formed a curtain between them and the rest of the camp a few feet away.
"I was just trying to help, redneck. You don't seem to understand the concept of resting."
"You don't seem to understand that what you're doing will not lead to resting." He chastised, gripping his knees tightly beneath his hands to keep from touching her.
They were drawing a lot of attention but Daryl's grumpy demeanour and Cassidy's standoffish-ness had them keeping their distance.
"Maybe I like it like that." She breathed, her breath warm against the lobe of his ear. "Maybe an audience does it for me."
"Playing with fire." He growled warningly as one of her little hands crept into the opening of his shirt.
Her body was shielding most of them from the group around the fire and the dim light from the setting sun cast enough shadows for her probing fingers to be hidden from view. He grunted and hunched over when her fingers brushed his jeans.
"What're you doing?"
Her palm rubbed him gently through the rough denim of his jeans.
"I'm bored." Her tongue touched the shell of his ear. "I need entertaining."
His eyes were fixed firmly on the group around the fire. No one was looking at them.
"Hey." They both jumped guiltily. Lochie was looking at them. "We need more firewood."
Daryl climbed to his feet. Cassidy sighed impatiently at the interruption and was about to join Lochie by the fire when Daryl's hand latched onto her wrist and yanked her out into the darkness with him.
"I thought you were out here looking for wood." She said as he practically dragged her along.
"I thought you were going to finish what you started."
She laughed as he threw her against a wide tree, his mouth working at her throat and his hands working at the buttons of her shorts. She pushed his hands away and he grunted. His impatient grunt turned into a growl of surprise as the warm night air hit his sensitive exposed skin.
"Do you think they'll realise where we are?"
He shrugged, too worked up to reply as her long fingers rubbed and caressed and stroked. He really couldn't care less who knew what they were doing, he was far more interested in what they were doing. He was so intent on undoing the buttons of her shirt, he ripped several of them off and they pinged off into the undergrowth like tiny bullets. She'd washed after sparring with Lochie and hadn't thought to put a bra on afterwards, as he pushed aside her shirt her bare skin broke out in tiny goosebumps.
As his mouth worked against her throat, his hand slid along her bare thigh until he reached the edge of her panties peeking through the shorts. She shivered as his knuckles brushed against her. He groaned, buried his face in the cloud of hair pooling on her shoulder and erupted in her hand.
"Hey! We're freezing over here, get a move on!"
Cassidy's head fell back against the rough bark of the tree as Daryl caught his breath.
"That fucking bint." She sighed. "I swear to god that girl is the best form of contraception on this Earth."
He chuckled. She fastened her ruined shirt in a bow to cover herself up, wiping her hands on the tree.
"We better get back before they send out a search party."
Daryl was about to reply when Rick appeared bearing an armful of firewood. It was somewhat obvious what they'd been up to, their cheeks flushed and Daryl pressed up against her with his jeans still open. Rick didn't comment, he just nodded and continued on his way.
"Awkward." Cassidy muttered as they followed him towards the fire.
Cassidy hesitated just before they rejoined the others.
"Hey, next time it's my turn." She breathed.
"Yes ma'am."
"This is your fault, you know."
Cassidy staggered to a halt and leant against a nearby tree to catch her breath. Lochie disentangled herself and hopped over to a gnarly old tree stump nearby.
"In what way is this my fault?" Cassidy protested, swiping sweaty bloodied hair out of her eyes.
Lochie manoeuvred down awkwardly onto the stump, extending her injured leg out in front of her with a grimace of pain.
"You should have told me it was there."
"I did tell you it was there!" Cassidy objected as fiercely as she could when she still hadn't caught her breath back yet.
"Well you should have been clearer." Lochie insisted, tucking her hair behind her ears as she squinted down at her bloodied leg.
"Yeah I can see how 'watch out for the trap' might be confusing for you." Cassidy pointed out, kneeling down before Lochie to look at her wound. "You weren't listening."
"Don't start." Lochie snapped, hissing in pain when Cassidy unwound her shirt from Lochie's wounded leg.
"I'm just saying… you don't listen."
The shirt was soaked in blood and Cassidy's hands were sticky with it as she checked the damage. It wasn't a particularly gruesome wound but it had bled like a bitch. A significant gash almost the length of her entire calf. With any luck she'd get away with only a few stitches.
"I do too!" Lochie swore as Cassidy re-bandaged her leg, pulling the shirt tighter to secure it. Any drops of blood would lead walkers right to them. "Is this about the lake house incident?"
"No." Cassidy snapped, turning her attention to her own wound. Whilst struggling to save Lochie's leg and grapple with a passing walker, she'd taken a nasty flailing branch to the ribs and she had the uncomfortable feeling that she'd broken at least one. "Although I did say turn left."
"You did not!" Lochie howled mutinously. "You said right."
"Did not." Cassidy murmured distractedly, probing the nasty bruise blooming over her ribcage.
"Did too! I said 'turn left?' and you said 'right'." Lochie insisted, swiping sweat from her forehead.
"Yeah, as in 'right, turn left'."
"Well you didn't say that! You said right."
"It was a dead end, Lochie! Of course I meant left, turning right put us in the lake. Literally."
"Yeah… and whose car got swamped in icky lake water? Who had to pay for the repairs?
"Who turned right and drove us into the lake?"
"You said to turn right!"
Cassidy glared at Lochie, who glared right back. They had had this argument at least once a month since the accident three years ago. It never got them anywhere. Cassidy held out her hand to Lochie. She took it, trying not to lean too hard on Cassidy when she knew she was hurt too. Cassidy levered Lochie to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist again. Lochie leant her arm on Cassidy's shoulder, taking the weight off her painful leg.
"Are we nearly there?"
Cassidy squinted into the trees around them as they set off again.
"About half a mile."
Lochie didn't reply. Cassidy could feel the tension in her friend's body, every muscle rigid as she forced herself to keep going. What hadn't seemed like a long trip out had turned out to be a very long way back after Lochie had fallen into the trap and hurt her leg.
"Do you believe this?" Lochie grumbled as they made their slow, painful way back towards the farm.
"Daryl is never going to let me forget about this." Cassidy agreed.
"Where you going?"
"Hunting." Cassidy said around the leather belt dangling from her mouth as she fiddled with the strap on her knife sheath.
"Alone?"
She gave him a quizzical look as she took the belt from her mouth and slid it into the loops of her jeans.
"With Lochie." She frowned at him. "What's with the Inquisition?"
He shrugged, scratching his cheek and watching her as she strapped the knife to her thigh.
"You're not worried about me, are you?" She looked about ready to burst out laughing at the very idea of it. "Please, redneck. You think I need a babysitter?"
"I think you're like catnip for trouble." He grunted irritably, not willing to admit that he was more concerned about her than he'd like to be. "And if you go tripping out into the woods like a bunch a tourists, you ain't likely to come back."
"Would you miss me?"
He glared at her. She laughed and pressed her warm palm against his chest.
"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine."
"Bet you wish you'd let him tag along now, don't you?"
Cassidy's laugh turned into a wheeze of pain and she stumbled. She was feeling slightly faint, the difficulty breathing clashing with the strain of half-carrying Lochie so far.
"Of course not." She lied.
"You can't lie for shit."
Cassidy tripped over a fallen branch in surprise and Daryl's hand flashed out to steady her. She would have glared at him, if she'd had the energy. He took Lochie's other arm and some of the weight left Cassidy's shoulder, easing the pain in her chest.
"I'm an excellent liar, thank you." Cassidy snapped back as they set off back towards the farm.
They moved a lot quicker with two of them spreading Lochie's weight between them.
"Can I just point out." Lochie wheezed breathlessly. "That it's the three injured people who are in the woods brimming over with walkers."
"Who's fault is that?" Daryl said with a very pointed glower at Cassidy over Lochie's bent head.
"I agree."
"What?" Cassidy cursed. "It was your idea to go hunting!"
"I wanted to go fishing."
"Where? Have you seen any water likely to carry uncontaminated fish around here?"
"You insisted on going alone, I wanted to bring that sexy Sheriff with us."
"He was with his wife, Lochie… and if I'd known you were going to do nothing but whine I would have stayed put."
"Well excuse me for not enjoying having my leg ripped open by some lunatic's homemade trap."
"I told you to watch where you were going."
"It took you long enough to get me out."
"I was busy saving your ungrateful ass from a trio of nasty walkers." Cassidy snapped. "Next time I'll leave them to it."
"Oh that's nice… I'm your best friend and you'd quite happily just leave me there as walker food?"
"When you're in one of these moods then yes, I would!"
"One of these moods? You mean the kind of mood where my leg feels like it's hanging off and I've just narrowly avoided becoming an appetizer?"
"You know, it doesn't matter because there won't be a next time, I have no intention of ever doing anything with you ever again."
"Oh and I'm the spoiled brat? You're basically saying you're never going to play with me again."
"No, I'm saying I'm never going to save your bitchy ass again."
"Ladies! Whoa. Calm it down, will ya?" Daryl interrupted nervously, not quite betting on his chances against the pair of them in the mood they seemed to be in.
The two of them fell into an annoyed silence as they made their way back to the camp. Once they were in sight of the house, Lochie slowed down.
"I don't want that guy touching me." She said suddenly.
Daryl flinched back as if she'd slapped him.
"Not you." She grinned. "I have no problems with you touching me, at all." Her smile fell and she cast a dark look at the building ahead of them. "Hershel. Creeps me out. Like a lot. Even more than walkers do."
Cassidy didn't reply and Daryl could see that she thoroughly agreed with Lochie. She nodded at him and they started moving again.
"It's just a scratch. I should be able to take care of it."
They skirted around the makeshift camp and the barn towards their tent, managing to avoid everyone except one of Hershel's people who watched them carefully but didn't comment. Cassidy dragged Lochie's sleeping bag out of the tent and Lochie lay down on it gratefully. Cassidy sent Daryl for clean water and some bandages as she unwrapped her shirt and looked at the wound in the bright sunlight.
"It isn't even as bad as I thought." She said reassuringly, accepting the water from Daryl and washing the blood from her leg. "You probably won't even need stitches."
"Damn. Scars are hot." Lochie grumbled faintly.
Daryl kept silent as Cassidy cleaned the wound, washed it with alcohol and bandaged it tightly. Lochie fell asleep almost immediately and they covered her with a thin blanket.
"If you say 'I told you so' I will harvest your organs as jewellery." She said quietly, without looking at him.
"You're hurt."
She shrugged, rubbing her sore ribs without commenting. He forced her to get up from the grass and sit in one of the chairs besides the tent so he could look at her ribs.
"You're a doctor now?"
He peered at her from beneath his furrowed brows.
"You're mighty bitchy for someone who might have a bunch of broken ribs."
"They're not broken." She said shortly as his fingers found her bruised rib.
He leant back on his haunches and looked at her. She looked back defiantly.
"I've been looking after myself with a lot of success. This was a one off. If Lochie hadn't been taken by surprise and started squealing we would have made it right past those walkers no trouble." She broke off and rubbed her hands over her face.
"You're tired." He got up and tugged her to her feet. "Sleep. You'll be safe."
"No 'I told you so'?" She asked sceptically.
"Nah." He grinned. "Not my style."
"Ha! Style. Your style? Really?"
"Go to sleep, Red."
She shot him a look but curled up on her sleeping bag nonetheless. She fell asleep straight away, the deep exhausted sleep of someone who never knows where their next safe harbour will be. He sank down into the chair she'd abandoned by the tent entrance. Lochie slept like the dead, flat on her back never moving an inch. Cassidy was a troubled sleeper, she moved around a lot. They'd only spent the full night together once so he had no basis for comparison but it wasn't long before she was tossing and turning. Eventually she rolled over, one arm catching the extra pillow besides her and tugging it to her chest. She cradled it against her chin like it was a teddy bear and for a brief moment he was quite tempted to crawl in there besides her.
He massaged his wound. Lugging Lochie back to the farm had done nothing to help the healing process along.
Cassidy rolled over, confused about what had woken her up. After a moment of tense listening she heard shouting and she scrambled out of the tent. Lochie was sitting up outside looking bemused and afraid. Cassidy helped her to her feet, keeping as much weight off her injured leg as she could.
"That sounded like Shane." Lochie murmured, her little hand tightening on Cassidy's waist.
"Mr Subtlety? Yeah."
They started towards the noise, moving cautiously but swiftly. Cassidy liked Shane, even if he was on the edge at the moment. Maybe he'd finally blown his top. They crossed the deserted camp. They'd obviously left in a hurry, the fire was burning and breakfast dishes were scattered on the grass. They could hear shouting by the barn, thumping whacks that did not bode well.
"If something happens, drop me." Lochie said quietly as they walked. "You can't protect either of us by clinging onto me."
Cassidy squeezed Lochie's waist to show she understood, her intent gaze fixed closely on the barn. It took a long stunned moment for everything they were seeing to sink in. Shane was going rather ballistic at the barn door, Hershel's people were shouting and Rick was trying to reason with Shane. Lori turned towards them as they approached but for once there was no disdainful look in her eye. She looked petrified and she was keeping a tight grip on Carl. The door gave way with a whining shriek and the silence that followed hung heavy in the air, tight with malice.
Lochie's grip on Cassidy tightened unbearably as the shuffling filled the air. Cassidy took a step back, taking Lochie with her. Her heart was hammering unbearably hard against her bruised ribs and she was sincerely regretting not grabbing a weapon on their way. Despite promising to drop her if the need arose, she couldn't bring herself to fling her friend into the grass to save her own skin. As it turned out, she didn't need to anyway. The shots were very loud in the tense silence and Lori turned, pressing Carl's face against her abdomen. It seemed an interminably long time the shots rang out, a never-ending parade of walkers. Something rippled through the group when the little girl appeared, something snapping and breaking.
"It's her." Lochie, who'd spent hours with Carol listening to her grieve, murmured.
Cassidy didn't need an explanation; Carol had sunk down into the grass. Even with the things she'd seen and done, she'd never heard a sound like that. It was the keening, wailing sound of a heart breaking… a mother's worst fear realised right before her eyes. Daryl had hold of her. Rick moved towards Sophia. Everything seemed to stop. Even the girl walker wasn't moving, nothing except her eyes wavering over each of them. Lochie wavered, shrinking back against Cassidy. She was trembling, clinging onto Cassidy in a way she never had before… a helpless defenceless way. Cassidy did something she'd never done before, she turned away from the danger and put herself between it and Lochie. She felt Lochie's tears damp on her bare collarbone. Lochie jumped violently at the sharp crack of the shot, mumbling something that was lost amongst Carol's renewed sobs.
"Come on." Cassidy murmured, leading Lochie back towards the camp.
Whatever was going to happen between Hershel's people and their little group, was not going to end pleasantly.
SaraLostInes – there'll be more Cassidy Daryl building soon, once I've decided how to continue with it
RagingRaven – thanks
DalonegaNoquisi – I was quite surprised when I found out how old he was actually, he certainly doesn't look that old but never mind. Glad you liked it here's some more for you