I know, I know. I'm not pacing myself very well. Here is another chapter that I hope you like! =)
Chapter Seven
Carol was helping clean the huge haul of fish that Andrea and Amy had brought back earlier. Lori, Andrea, Amy and Jackie had been giving her strange looks the whole day. She kept her eyes trained on the fish but she could feel their eyes on her.
"So, you and Daryl, huh?" It was Amy who finally said something.
Carol didn't move her head but her eyes flicked up to Amy's face.
"Amy!" Andrea admonished.
"What? We all want to know." Amy said as she continued on cleaning her pile of fish.
"There isn't anything going on between me and Daryl." Carol said quietly. She knew this was coming. Someone couldn't even talk to someone else around here without other people, especially the women, jumping to conclusions. She wondered to herself why no one had ever said anything to Lori about Shane.
Lori gave her a small smile. "He's really coming out of his shell since his brother's gone."
Carol carefully slit open the belly of her own fish, picking her words carefully. "I guess he would have too. He's all alone now and no one in this group have done much to make him feel very welcome."
"Except for you." Amy said with a grin.
"He's nice." Carol shrugged. "And he's smarter than people think. And he's funny. And he's..." She let her voice trail off. She really wasn't helping her own case here. She was practically gushing over the man.
Jackie wiped her hands off on a dishtowel and looked up at Carol. "Sometimes people don't know another person's kindness until they show them their own. I think you and that Dixon can do a lot of good for one another. Already have if you ask me, honey."
Carol looked up at her. Jackie was probably the kindest person she had ever met. She had liked her from the moment they had met out on the highway, before ever coming here. And her words seemed to touch Carol to her core.
"Okay," Amy said with another small smile. "So if you aren't interested in Daryl then how about Shane? I heard him say that you were riding with him tomorrow."
Lori's head shot up. "You and Shane?" She asked as she tried to regain her composure.
"God, no!" Carol nearly ground the knife into the table.
All the women, except Lori, chuckled softly.
"What are you ladies laughing about?" Rick asked as he came up behind his wife and placed a kiss on the back of her head. Carol flushed a little but smiled. She really liked Rick. She felt a little bad for him but him and Lori seemed to be doing fine.
"We were trying to get Carol to spill but she isn't giving anything up." Amy said without looking up.
"Maybe that's because there isn't anything to spill about." Rick said as he wrapped his arms around Lori's shoulders. "Men and women really can be friends without it leading to other things."
"Thank you, Rick." Carol said sincerely. He gave her a wink and then walked away.
"Lori, I was wondering if you could maybe do me a favor?" Carol asked quietly. She glanced around to make sure Ed wasn't anywhere close by. He had been stalking around camp all evening and she was growing increasingly worried.
"Sure Carol. What do you need?"
Carol gave her a sheepish smile. "Do you think maybe Sophia could sleep in your tent tonight. I'm not sure what Ed may do and I'm not sure where I'm sleeping myself and I'd feel better knowing she was near Rick."
Lori nodded. "Of course. We would never let anything happen to her. You could stay too. The tent is pretty big."
Carol shook her head. "I'll be fine. I just wanted to make sure Sophia had a safe place to stay."
Andrea looked over at her. "Amy and I have been sleeping in the R.V. I have an extra tent I could lend you. We don't need it."
Carol smiled. "That sounds fantastic. Better than sleeping on the ground, which was what I thought I would be doing tonight."
Amy grinned. "Oh, I'm sure Daryl would make roo..."
"Amy!" Andrea snapped.
~H~
Daryl kept his back to the woods, his eyes on the fire in front of him but his ears were listening to the sounds behind him intently. Whoever was creeping around in the woods behind him wasn't doing a very good job of keeping themselves concealed. He heard every footstep the person made. From the sounds of it he was pretty sure he knew who it was. It was Ed. Stalking him like some big smelly sasquatch. Daryl rolled his eyes and threw a few sticks on the fire.
"You gonna keep this up all night, dumb ass?" He finally asked without turning around.
The footsteps stopped for a little while and then Daryl could hear them moving away. He smirked. That man really was that stupid. Sneaking up on someone like Daryl wasn't an easy thing to do. Unless you were Sophia. She had managed to do an okay job.
At the thought of the girl he looked up towards the main camp. She was sitting at a small table playing cards with the cop's kid. She had made good on her agreement to keep close. What he had meant was for her to keep close to her momma but she had spend the whole day keeping close to him instead. He didn't really mind. She wasn't right under his feet or anything. She just stayed where he could see her. And he felt better knowing he was watching her anyway. Even if she was with Carol, Ed could snatch her away. Carol really wasn't strong enough to stop him. Not yet.
It was the millionth time since this afternoon that his mind had wondered to her. He'd made a fool of himself earlier. But she seemed okay with it. She had been stuttering at him about seeing him later and the question just popped out of his mouth before he even thought it out. He hoped she didn't think he was trying to come onto her or anything. It wasn't like that. Was it? He shook his head. Of course not. But he had to admit that he liked having her around. She was easy to talk to. Obviously, since when she was around he couldn't seem to shut his stupid mouth. She didn't look at him like everybody else did. She didn't judge him the way he knew the others did.
A noise caught his attention further down the treeline and when he looked he saw Ed emerge about twenty yards away and head over to the main camp himself. When he looked over Daryl couldn't help but to smile at the man and then flip him off. Ed just looked away and stalked off.
"Sophia!" Daryl called.
The girls head shot up and he motioned for her to come over. She didn't waste any time. Especially when she looked over and saw Ed.
She didn't ask any questions. She just sat down on a log across the fire from him. Carl joined her a few minutes later, looking excited. Daryl had ran him out of his camp quite a few times so the boy must have been glad to be there. They started chatting amongst themselves quietly, leaving Daryl alone once more with his thoughts.
The sun was almost down and it was getting darker. Daryl was about to ask Sophia where her and Carol had planned on camping out but someone else called for the girl before he had a chance to ask.
Lori was standing at the edge of the main camp. She waved. "Carl, Sophia!" She motioned for them to follow her and Carl took off towards his mother.
Sophia watched him go and then looked over at Daryl. He shrugged. "Just scream if you need me." She grinned and ran off to join her friend.
Daryl shook his head and repressed a smile of his own. She was a decent kid. As far as he could tell anyway. He didn't know very many kids.
Daryl heard someone else approaching but he didn't have to look up to know who it was. He knew the sound of her footsteps by now.
"You hungry?" She asked as she sat right down next to him on the ground and handed him a plate.
"Fish?"
She nodded and handed him a fork off her own plate. He ignored her and used his fingers instead. Mostly just to get a rise out of her. She rolled her eyes and sat the fork down on his plate.
He noticed that there was a lot more food on his plate than hers. "Why'd you give me so much if all you got is one piece?" He asked around a mouth full of food.
She shrugged. "Figured you would be hungrier than me."
He grunted and then snatched the fork off her plate and used it to spear some of his fish with. He filled her plate until they had the same amount. She tried to hide a smile but he caught it.
"What?" He asked.
"You're sweet, Daryl." She shook her head at him. "I don't know how I didn't notice that before."
"I ain't sweet. I can't sit here and enjoy my food while you starve yourself for no reason."
"I'm not starving myself." She laughed.
They ate in silence for a while, their arms barely brushing but each hyper aware of the others presence. It was a lot better than eating with Merle. He was always trying to fill in the silence with bullshit and it usually caused Daryl to lose his appetite pretty quick. But having her around wasn't bad at all. And when she did say something it was usually something that made him laugh, or at least want too. He didn't laugh much.
"Did you remember to feed Ed?" He asked, catching her off guard.
She glared at him for a second and then shook her head. "Don't start on me, Daryl. I threw out the bones towards the edge of camp. Let him eat that."
He shook his head. "Hell hath no fury, I suppose."
She bumped her shoulder against his causing him to drop his last bite of food from his fingers. He narrowed his eyes at her and she thought he was actually angry until he grabbed her fork from her hand and stuck her last bit of food in his mouth.
She laughed, quite loudly and then she covered her mouth with her hand.
Their heads came up when they heard someone clear their throat a few feet away. Andrea was standing there smiling. "I figured I would bring you this. I didn't mean to interrupt anything." She held out a green canvas bag.
"The fuck is that?" Daryl grumbled. He didn't care too much for blondie. She was a know it all bitch as far as he was concerned and he didn't like the way she was looking at them just now. As soon as he started feeling comfortable someone had to show up and screw it up for him.
Andrea sighed. "It's a tent."
"Oh!" Carol stood up quickly and took it from her. "Thank you. I almost forgot about this." She looked around warily.
"Don't thank me yet. I haven't used it in a while and it looks like we might get some rain later. I really hope it don't leak. If it dies then we can always make room for you in the R.V."
Carol nodded and sat down the bag next to the fire. She hoped Andrea was wrong. She had been looking forward to tonight all day.
Daryl watched Andrea walk away and then Carol sat back down next to him again. They were outside. There was plenty of room, but that didn't seem to matter. She sat right there next to him. On one hand, he liked it. He liked her. She was funny and smart and about the nicest person that had ever talked to him in his life. And her eyes were really something else. He had a hard time looking at them for too long. It always seemed like she was looking right into his head. And her smile was enough to make him sick. But in a good way. And the way her bottom lip pushed out a little when she was thinking too hard.
"Daryl?" Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned his head. He hadn't realized that he had been staring at her mouth.
"What?" He growled.
"I asked you if you really thought it was gonna rain tonight?" She asked as she looked at him.
He kept his own eyes on the fire, feeling a lot less comfortable than he had earlier. Now she probably thought he was a freak. Hell, he was a freak. Thinking about things like that. "I don't know."
Just then thunder rolled in the distance and she sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't risk going anywhere tonight."
"Maybe that'd be for the best." He grumbled, feeling the last of this rare good mood fade away.
"So, do you think Rick is onto something? Do you think we'll get any answers at the CDC?" She asked as she rubbed her hands over her arms. There was a breeze picking up and it brought cooler air in with it.
"I don't think so. I don't think anybody knows what's goin' on out there anymore." He said as he watched goosebumps raising on his own arms.
She nodded. "That's what I was thinking but I didn't want to say anything to him about it. He seems really hopeful."
Daryl just shrugged.
"I guess I need to go find somewhere to put this up." She patted the bag that held the tent.
He looked over at her and then up to the main camp. "I don't know. Maybe you should put it up here. It's higher up so if it does rain they may get flooded out down there." He made it sound like a sweet deal. But really he just didn't want anything to happen to her and he didn't trust anyone at camp to keep their guard up. His was always up. If someone came sneaking around he would hear them.
She nodded. "Sounds good." She got up, picking the bag up with her and took it a few feet behind where they were sitting.
"Carol?" He looked over his shoulder.
"What? Isn't this a good place?" She asked.
He shook his head. "You put yourself right by the trees. If someone wanted to snatch you outta there it wouldn't be too hard and you might be too far away for me to hear."
"Then where?" She asked, dropping the bag at her feet and placing her hands on her hips.
He got up with a sigh and snatched the bag up. He walked around the fire and dumped the contents out right next to his own tent. He didn't look for the instructions. She had been dreading trying to erect the tent herself. She had never been any good at things like that but he obviously knew his way around a tent. He had it up quickly, the entrance to it was only about two feet away from the entrance to his. It was small. Barely big enough for one person but it was home for tonight.
"You think you two will fit in there?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his neck and studied the small tent. His wasn't a whole lot bigger.
"Sophia's staying with Rick and Lori. I figured Ed wouldn't try anything if she was with Rick."
He nodded and then looked off towards the woods. "He's already been stalkin' around out there tonight. I heard him a while back."
She tensed and stepped a little closer to him, scanning the woods herself. He almost reached out to pull her closer but that thought freaked him out so bad he took a few steps away. She didn't notice though. Her eyes were trained on the blackness of the woods.
"It's alright. You're close enough. I can hear him if he tries anything."
She looked up at him with those impossibly wide eyes. "If he gets his hands on me tonight he'll kill me for the way I've been today." She whispered.
He moved closer but made sure he kept his distance. "He ain't getting' near you." He said in a gruff voice.
Thunder rolled again and she flinched.
He shook his head as the first few drops of rain hit them. "Guess that means it's bedtime. Unless you wanna get soaked."
The corner of her mouth went up in a half smile. "Goodnight, Daryl."
He nodded and watched as she crawled into the tiny tent and zipped it closed. He stood out there for a while, listening, until the rain became a steady downpour. Then he crawled into his own tent and rearranged his bedding so he could sleep with his head near the entrance. He'd hear if anyone came for her. And then he would have the excuse he needed to kill the asshole.