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

Hiatus Drabble 3

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

"What are you sulking about?" Lochie chirped happily, snatching the unlit cigarette dangling from his lips and shoving it into her mouth. "You've been stomping around like a bear with a sore head all day."

He snarled at her and made to snatch the cigarette back. She dodged daintily out of the way, pulling herself up onto one of the car bonnets.

"You don't even smoke you annoying little-"

"I'm thinking of taking it up." Lochie cut across him cheerfully, readjusting the cigarette and striking a pose. "To add a little mystique to my character."

He muttered something under his breath but he was too irritable to start an argument with her. Besides, he'd probably lose anyway.

"She didn't screw him."

He goggled at her. She was sitting innocently, swinging her legs and eying him in amusement.

"She totally could have done. If she'd really tried, he wouldn't have stood a chance." Lochie slanted her gaze at him from under her lashes. "She's not like that… except for you. You wheedled your way in somehow." She sighed. "It's all part of her defences."

"What would you know about it?" Daryl snapped.

"She told me." Lochie replied calmly, not in the least fazed by the black expression on his face. "She also told me about you storming off like a big baby. A big jealous baby. A big jealous baby who doesn't like to share his things. In fact a big jealous baby-"

"I get the point."

Lochie slid down from the car. She barely came up to his chest. She slotted the cigarette back between his lips and patted his cheek with a little more force than was necessary.

"So get over yourself then." She smiled sweetly. "She doesn't like mind games. She won't play them and she won't put up with people who play them. Either you're together or you're just in it for the boning. Go and sit down, take out your microscope and examine those wriggly burning things that are making you so miserable. They're feelings. Big baby." She muttered under her breath as she sashayed away, grumbling at having to spell things out for idiotic people.

It was the sound that startled him out of his brooding. The sharp crunch. So familiar and yet so foreign in this new world. She was sitting on the back of his truck, peering intently across the fields and there it was in her hand. An apple. Its crisp green skin reflecting the hazy sunlight as she rolled it over in her hands.

"Where'd you get that, Red?" He called out as he approached her.

"Lochie swiped them. I didn't ask where from."

She held it out to him. The crisp green skin was beaded with juice and he licked his lips. She shook it a little. He grabbed her hand in his, holding it steady while he bit into it. The skin broke beneath his teeth and juice dribbled down his chin. He grunted. The fresh taste sliding down his throat. It made a hell of a change from roasted squirrel. She tugged her hand back a little. He kept hold of it as she took another bite. She licked her fingers, sucking the juice from them lightly. This time after he'd taken a bite, he ran his tongue along a trail of juice down over her wrist and her grip on the apple tightened. He moved closer to her, placing himself right against the trunk of the truck between her sprawled knees. She took the last bite of the apple and he held their twined hands holding the core out of the way, pressing his lips against her chin. He licked the juices there, moving his lips down her throat as she swallowed. Her lips were sticky and moist when he kissed her, apple-sweetened tongues duelling lazily spreading juice and saliva everywhere.

"You ate my apple." She said reprovingly when he finally drew back. "Got over it then?"

He frowned at her. This was not a conversation he wanted to have, especially not when she looked so thoroughly desirable with her cheeks all pink, her eyes sparkling and sticky apple juices smeared all over her chin and mouth.

"Whatever bug crawled up your ass." She clarified, turning away from him and lobbing the apple core into the darkness of the trees.

Before he could reply Rick rounded the corner and hailed them. He looked very worried. Daryl hesitated, he'd been mulling everything over, making it a lot more complicated than it actually needed to be and he had the feeling that he'd be able to get over whatever it was niggling at him if he just threw her into the back of his truck to see how far down that trickle of apple juice had actually travelled… but Rick did look so very worried. He mumbled something under his breath irritably and strode over towards him.

She was sprawled rather indelicately in the bed of his truck, her long slender legs hooked over the side of the truck and her feet twitching every now and then, her toes curling in as a breeze tickled them. Her head lay besides his thigh as he polished his bow, his elbow shading her eyes from the sun. It was a disturbingly domestic scene and he felt a relaxed and satisfied warmth spreading under his navel. Rick had been worrying over nothing for a change and when he'd returned to his truck he'd found her lying in the sun with her nose in a book. Rather than drag her out of there, or start a verbal sparring match or any of the other things they usually did, he'd retrieved his bow and hauled himself up besides her.

He squinted down at her.

"Good book?"

She lifted her eyebrows in amusement at the question, stretching one cramped leg out and pressing her warm foot against the cool glass of the back window.

"Not bad. Read it before."

Her silky hair was dangling over the edge of the truck, ruffling in the breeze. He peered down at her. She was holding the book in the air with one hand as she read, casting a shadow over her collarbone. She reached up the spare hand resting on her belly and turned the page idly, running her finger the length of the page first.

"Why you re-readin' it then?"

He felt her shoulder move against his thigh as she shrugged.

"Hardly a huge range of reading material available nowadays is there? Besides… I read it in the original French last time."

He glanced at her. When she said things like that he was reminded of how little he actually knew about her. Her lashes were shading her cheekbones as she read, her cool green eyes fixed intently on the little black characters. She'd pulled her lower lip between her teeth and was worrying it slightly as she read. He examined his bow critically. It gleamed back at him. With a sigh he placed it carefully behind him on the bed of the truck near her knee, leaning back on the heels of his hands and peering around the camp. Everyone was occupied. He'd be out there too if they hadn't ganged up on him and prevented him from going while he was still injured.

He felt her little hand stroking the inside of his bare arm where it leaned besides her. She ran her fingertips over the inside of his elbow and upper arm as she read. If he forced his brain to forget he could almost imagine they were back in the past when things made even less sense, pretend he was just killing time on a lazy Sunday afternoon and she was just a girl. He glanced at her again. Her brow was wrinkled and she was frowning at whatever she was reading, her hand tightened slightly on his arm and her eyes darted rapidly to take in the words faster. No. She could never be just a girl. He still didn't know that much about her but he was pretty sure she'd never been 'just' anything.

Slightly disturbed at how comfortable he was getting around her, he brushed his free hand over her cheek and lips suddenly, spreading oil in a black smear all over her. She didn't react for a moment, then her green eyes lifted. She had that unfathomable smirk on her face, the one seemingly reserved just for him.

"I shall get you for that." She said calmly, a sweet lilt of menace in her voice that sent a sharp shock of desire shooting through his groin.

"I'm quakin' in my boots, girly."

She lowered her eyes back to the page without replying, although that little smile was still there. He kept quiet. He wasn't used to this. When he sat in silence with the others it was tense silence, they were afraid of saying the wrong thing to him but the quiet between them was always relaxed and comfortable with nothing but the usual frisson of sexual tension. Whenever he got blustery and his testosterone took over, she just gave him that look until he felt like squirming guiltily. Which only made him act even more peevish and pig-headed.

"You should rest."

He blinked down at her. She wasn't even looking at him, she was focused entirely on her book but her hand had drifted to his arm again.

"I know you didn't sleep last night."

He stared at her suspiciously. How could she know he hadn't slept? She read his unasked question in the silence between them.

"You clump around in your boots." She said idly.

He grunted. Unable to sleep he'd taken to patrolling their little camp, occasionally crossing over to her tent and taking a circuit around it. The routine pacing had helped him relax and keeping watch had made him feel as if he was doing something when he couldn't go looking for Sophia. He realised that she was right, he was restless because he was tired. He lay back. The metal of the truck was warm from the sun beneath him. Her leg was stretched out above him as she cooled her feet on the window, the slim suntanned limb dangling tantalizingly over him. He propped both arms behind his head and stared at the sky beyond her calf. The hand that had been caressing his arm moved to his stomach now besides her. Her fingers wriggled into the gap between his buttons and under his shirt, tracing over the fine bronze hairs there and tickling his belly button and the taut muscles of his stomach. He fell asleep almost immediately.

SaraLostInes – no one could fail to be interested in Rick but this is still a total DarylOC fic if that helps :D Truthfully I've been watching re-runs of "Teachers" which was what the actor who plays Rick was in years ago and his character was my first crush so I've been a bit overtaken by nostalgia lol

B. Longbottom – thanks a lot :) he's a difficult character to pin down but I'm trying my best lol

Alina Maxwell – thank you very much here you go

VileMalapert – thanks here's an update for you

undeadangel – thanks I'm glad you like it