Author's Note: Thank you SpriteCokeFanta and Angel for the reviews! Like I always say, they really do make me smile, and I honestly appreciate them! I know I say this a lot but it really does help push me forward with updates when I see that people are interested in the story. So thanks!(:
Thank you to those who are new subscribers or favorites, there were a lot after the last chapter and I was so thrilled, thanks to you as well. :D
For those that like the other characters, there's a little of Maggie and Carol in this chapter! (And there will be plenty of Maggie in the future for those of you that like her, since she's Taylor's cousin and will be her main confidant. Glenn too :P)
Without further ado, here is chapter sixteen. Sorry it took so long to put up :l
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
PAIN.
Taylor opened her eyes slightly, the sun beam that stretched across the room burned them slightly. After a few painful attempts they fluttered open and searched around rapidly. She was disoriented and confused. How did this pillow get under my head? When did I get into a bed? She rubbed her eyes gently a few times before sitting up and surveying the scene in front of her. She knew this room, she'd been in it so many summers ago. It was the guest room of the farmhouse.
"Hey," Maggie walked in and quietly shut the door behind her, smiling softly at her cousin. "You're up?"
"Didn't realize I went to sleep," she began to regain her senses and heard shuffling both in the house and outside. There were more car noises, lots of moving around, lots of loud familiar voices. She slowly gathered that others must have made it.
"You passed out earlier," Maggie broke her out of her intense concentration. "You came back for a few seconds and were out again. I figured its cause you haven't had any water in a while, that's what Carl said anyway." She stated simply, sitting on the edge of the bed like a concerned parent. "You missed a lot," she whispered quietly.
"Apparently," she pondered why Maggie had been so quiet the whole time until her glance to the right side of the room made it obvious. "Oh..." she titled her head to the side a little perplexed by the picture. Tucked away in the corner of the room sat Daryl, sleeping in the rocking chair. He had Jackson in his lap, also contentedly sleeping, and Bailey at their feet zonked as well.
"They've been there since you were brought up-"
"How long ago?" Taylor hadn't meant to cut her off but her curiosity was getting the better of her. If the whole group was here, the evidence of outside clamoring and Bailey's presence, then why wasn't Rick up here waiting for her to wake up?
"A few hours," Maggie answered plainly, a small smile breaking onto her lips. "Is he-"
"Hey," a familiar voice stopped Maggie short of her question, though Taylor had a faint inkling of what she was going to ask regardless of the interruption. "You're up?" he smiled and bent down to give her a delicate peck on the lips.
"Yeah..." She smiled up at him then nodded to Carl who was peeking from behind his fathers leg, he nodded back with a happy grin. Maggie's eyebrows furrowed at the kiss, a questioning look spread across her face.
"Gave us a scare," he said while rubbing the back of his neck. He looked nervous and Taylor couldn't place why. She thought he'd be more excited to see her after two weeks, she also thought the feeling would be mutual. Nothing seemed to be the way it should at the moment. She watched his hand go to his forearm, the nervous rubbing continuing there. He appeared guilty, she couldn't place why she thought that, but she felt it bursting off of him in spurts.
"Sorry, dehydration," she shrugged her shoulders and looked up at him expectantly, waiting for an explanation of his odd behavior.
"Glad to see you're doing better, we've all set up camp outside," he motioned to the window and smiled half-heartedly, "when you feel up to you could come out and look around?"
"Sure," she returned the wane smile and waited for him to exit before turning over to Maggie, she could feel her eyes boring into her skin.
"Uh..." Maggie glanced over at the three huddled in the corner. "I thought that... um, he, was..."
"No," Taylor quickly shut the idea down, she didn't like hearing it, the words would just break her heart more. Ever since their secret kiss even looking at him hurt. She could tell herself, Rick, Daryl, Shane even, that she didn't care anymore but she couldn't fool her cousin.
"So you and the cop then?" Her scrutinizing glare made the blonde shift uncomfortably. She could tell Maggie wasn't buying it.
"I think so," she answered honestly. At the CDC they had made it official, at least she thought they did, but his sudden weird behavior after their time apart made it questionable. It was as if two weeks had gone by and he accepted the she was gone; or perhaps he had just decided he was glad there was no attachments anymore and then she was suddenly back in his life? She couldn't be sure what the issue was and promptly decided that she would talk to him later.
"You think?" Maggie scoffed and shook her head before standing up from the bed. She nodded over to the man asleep in the chair, the one that hadn't left her side. "I think you made the wrong choice, Tay." With that the brunette left her alone, well semi-alone. Jackson began to stir on Daryl's lap and his eyes popped open quickly. He noticed Taylor and jumped off his lap in three seconds flat, climbing up onto the bed with her.
"Tawor!" He sat beside her, giving her a tight side hug before sitting Indian style with the faithful teddy bear in his lap. Daryl soon awoke as well, hearing all the commotion that the small child had caused. He stretched and rubbed the back of his neck which was sore from both the chair and the position he had fallen asleep in.
"Hey," he yawned and his half-lidded gaze met hers.
"Hey," she parroted him and gave a small half-smile. It was met with a lopsided grin that made her heart melt, she pushed it into the back of her mind, you cannot do this shit again.
"You're finally up?"
Bailey heard his shuffling and scampered up to his feet, excitedly jumping up on the bed once he noticed his previous owner. They say animals never forget and it seemed like Bailey remembered her perfectly well. She gave him a few pats on the head until he sat down- practically on top of Jackson.
"You're the millionth person to ask that," she giggled and shifted Jackson until he was sitting on her lap to avoid the dogs weight. He smiled up at her and then back over at Daryl.
"I named my bear," he said quietly, craning his little neck to look at her. She saw the wide grin on his face and smiled back, it was good to see he was okay without her.
"Did you?" She decided to indulge him and play along.
"Yupp. I named 'em Darrol," he took a gulp of spit that he forgot to swallow in his excitement, "cause Darrol is weally cool. I sat on his motorcycle! And den we came up here and waited for you to wake up-"
"That's great," she quickly stopped his rambling not wanting to hear anymore good things about him. As if it wasn't enough that he sat there and waited the whole time for her to get up, he was also apparently great with Jackson. Awesome, just another reason I'll have to be around him. Taylor knew if Jackson liked him that she wasn't going to force him to stay away, she would just deal with the pain that came along with it. For that little boy she would do anything, she did know that for certain.
"Can we go dahnstairs? I wanna show you camp!" He bounced excitedly on her lap as he waited for an answer. When she hesitated he ceased his jumping and sat still.
"Yes of course, but can you do me a favor?" He nodded his head slowly as he waited patiently for her request. "Can you go down with Bailey first and wait on the porch? I'll be down in a few minutes," she patted his head softly and he squealed in delight that he was going to be her tour guide.
"Okay!" He got off the bed and coaxed the dog off with him, calling for the pup to follow after him, which Bailey did so obediently. When it was just the two of them she slid out of the covers and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Thanks," she finally managed to squeak out, her heart thumping in her chest made it hard to speak. All of the blood seemed to rush to her ears and suddenly hearing became difficult too.
"It was nothin'," he shrugged nonchalantly and lifted himself from the chair with ease, starting towards the door. She examined his features which appeared to be something she couldn't place... remorse? Guilt, even? Did he know why Rick was acting weird, or did he perhaps have something to do with it? She couldn't quite pin down the expression but decided it was not guilt after all, he seemed sad... sad for her. None of it made sense or really registered so she shook her head lightly to phase the thoughts out.
She stood up and wobbled for a second, trying to find her feet again. Her legs felt like jelly and this time it wasn't from his painfully close presence- or his hands on her shoulders. When did they get there anyway?
"Do ya need help?" He asked quietly from behind her.
"No," she yanked herself away from him and huffed in defeat, ignoring the carnal urges he gave her was not going as planned. "I'm fine, I just need a second."
"Sorry," he stepped back, not wanting to be scolded again. She turned around to see the hurt look on his face, which really never happened.
"Ugh, stop. Don't apologize..." she didn't know why she snapped at him in the first place but when his eyes flickered the same way that they did right before he kissed her she felt the anger bubble back up again. All of his rejection and all of his confusing kissing at the CDC mixed together in her brain until it was mush, it only fueled the unreasonable fury that was building inside her. Why did he have to push her away one minute, and then be caring the next?
"I was just trynna help-"
"I don't want your help! I told you we were going to stay away from each other! I told you that I was going to be with Rick and that you and I weren't even going to be friends!" He let her pour all of her anger, confusion, and sadness out. He let her direct it all at him without even batting an eye, just took it in stride. He even cracked a small grin; this action of course ignited the fuse that was attached to her time bomb of emotions.
"What's so funny?" She scowled at him to the best of her ability.
"Nothin'," he shrugged but didn't wipe the smirk off his face. He couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.
"Tell me!" She demanded, unsure of why she kept raising her voice. She internally berated herself for flying off the handle but continued to look incredibly exasperated despite it.
"I can't... you'll be even more pissed," he responded honestly. He knew what he was thinking would just push her off the edge more, though at the moment he was pretty sure she had already jumped off that edge.
"Just tell me," she said through gritted teeth. His smile in her time of complete outrage made her need-to-know grow tenfold.
"Fine," he laughed for a second before composing himself, he knew what he was about to say was not going to end well, but she was the one pushing it. "It's hard to take ya seriously when ya get mad... cause it's kinda cute."
"Really?" She threw her hands up in the melodramatic way that he was accustomed to. The more she looked at him the more that she didn't want to be angry anymore, but she couldn't let it go. He had hurt her and she wasn't going to get trapped back into his twisted web. Her mind raced as she tried to think of something, anything to pick at him for. She had to have the last word, but unfortunately there was nothing she could really say. She looked him up and down quickly and ignored the quell in her lower belly, she would not let his smile change her mind.
"Well..." she glanced at his bare arms, his naked biceps that always made her mouth go dry. "Don't you own any long sleeve shirts?!"
"What?"
She realized her insult was not as insulting as it was meant to be, she shouldn't have looked there, she shouldn't have looked at him at all. If fact, he shouldn't have put her in the situation by sitting by her bedside and caring, in her opinion anyway.
"Just..." she flicked her hand at him and stormed out of the room, she had to get out of there, the tension was too much. She couldn't be alone in a room with him, it was suffocating. As she trotted down the stairs she decided that sending Jackson out was a bad idea. She just didn't want him there when she thanked Daryl, in case things went south; exactly as they had.
"Jackson?" She let the screen door slam behind her directly in Daryl's face who she hadn't noticed chasing after her. He rose and eyebrow at her, she rebutted by hastily turning away from him. She already felt like a jackass, looking at what she could have sworn was a crushed look in his eyes, only made it worse.
"Here!" He sprang up from his seat and raced over to them, grabbing both of their hands. "Me and Darrol will show you da camp..." Taylor frowned and knelt down to his eye level.
"I think Daryl has something that he needs to do, so maybe just you can show me?" She offered, not wanting to hurt his feelings, but also not ready to deal with Jackson's new best friend just yet.
"She's right champ," he forced a smile and began to prod down the steps lightly. "I'll see ya in a little."
"Okay," Jackson nodded solemnly, he had obviously been planning the whole thing out in his head while they were upstairs. This didn't seem to be the game plan he had come up with. He squeezed Taylor's hand comfortingly as he watched him walk away. Her heart broke in a million pieces at the wounded look he had on. She prayed that he would not attach himself any further to Daryl, God knew she was still trying to heal from her own attachment to him.
"Come on Jack, show me around," she tugged encouragingly at his hand and he seemed to perk back up, leading her out to their new campsite.
"You shouldn't be putting up with all this shit," a voice erupted from behind him, startling him slightly. He dropped the logs near his tent and spun around to meet her disapproving gaze.
"All a' what shit?" He asked, humoring her even though he really didn't want to talk.
"With her," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the blonde who was being led around by the tiny blonde.
"Carol," he sighed and ran a hand over his face in exasperation. He just wasn't in the mood to talk about Taylor, not after the way she blew up on him. "What are ya talkin' about?"
"Come on," she plopped herself down on his fold up chair that he had strategically placed directly in front of his personal fire pit. He had set up his mini-camp a decent length from the main camp. He liked privacy and wasn't keen on everyone in the group anyway. Truthfully, he didn't want to be around Rick, not after what he had witnessed a few days prior to them arriving here. "You don't need bullshit like that, and I know you're not the type to deal with it..." she fiddled with one of her earrings as she praddled on. "I guess what I wanna know is why you're doing it."
"I ain't doin' anythin'." He said defensively, stacking the wood in a pile in front of the fire pit, throwing each one down with a loud thud.
"You're chasing her, it's pretty damn obvious," she said accusingly. Daryl had always found it funny that when Carol's daughter wasn't around, her mouth was just as bad as his. He scoffed and glared over at her.
"I ain't," he heaved a heavy branch out of his mini-camp and threw it into the other pile of future firewood.
"Why won't you open up to me?" Her voice sounded offended and he knew why before she even said it. "Before Cassidy," she rolled her eyes enthusiastically at that, still finding some humor in it, "before Taylor... I was there for you."
"So?"
"So why can't you talk to me anymore?" She huffed indignantly with his obliviousness. "You just act like I fell off the face of the earth!"
"We never really talked... you told me about your shitty husband an' I listened," he frowned when he heard her sigh. It was a sigh of true sadness, not aggravation.
"Okay, we still kind of bonded... then that little blonde piece of tail came into the picture-"
"Don't talk about her like that," Daryl interrupted, the defensiveness taking her back a little. She didn't think that he genuinely cared about her, she kind of figured he just wanted to 'hit that' as the younger ones now referred to it.
"You really like her?" Carol asked, a little stunned by the revelation. She didn't even need his answer, she already knew. She couldn't help feeling slightly jealous. He shrugged his shoulders at her question, he never liked announcing his feelings, usually because he was too busy denying them. She gasped once her revelation came into full fruition.
"Oh my god... you love her?" Carol's voice now seemed to have a little edge to it, an accusing tone if Daryl were to place a particular word to it. He didn't like the way it came out in a sneer, rather than a statement, and he didn't like that she was branding his feelings for another person.
"I never said that," he said after a long pause that pretty much gave Carol all she needed to form the accusation into a true fact.
"You're wasting your time! Why are you bothering with someone so indecisive and naive?" Daryl bit back some of the choice words he had at that moment. Oh, like you're any better? Stickin' around with a wife beater. He was already involved in an argument once that day and was too exhausted to do it again so he kept his thoughts locked up. "She's too young for you, you know? Do you even know how old she is?"
"Yeah, twenty-four," he let out a sigh, this one was of annoyance. This was why he had chosen to separate himself from the group, he didn't like his privacy being invaded on and he certainly wasn't keen on gossiping. "I'm only thirty-two," he added quickly.
"Huh," she let out a low whistle, "between you and Rick... she has daddy issues."
"Enough!" Daryl whipped around, the first time he had fully faced her through their entire conversation. "I know you an' I used to talk an' be friends," he used the word loosely, just what he assumed she considered them, "but I ain't gonna gossip with ya, or confide in ya. Especially if you're just gonna accuse me an' other people of shit." After his outburst he sat down on one of the rocks, dropping his head into his hands. He felt like horrible. Carol sat in the seat still, her hands in her lap, too shocked to move. He never went off on her like that, he usually didn't go off on anyone like that.
"Sorry..." he sighed and lifted his head, she had relaxed some, her face didn't look frozen in fear anymore. "I just got a lot on my mind. I don't like talkin' to people about that kinda bullshit."
"I know, I shouldn't have pressed you, I'm sorry too." They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments. "I was just kinda jealous I guess."
"Why?"
"Daryl," she giggled at his ignorance, "I know you don't see it but a lot of girls here think you're uh... well," she racked her brain to think of a way to put it to him where he wouldn't be embarrassed and clam up. She couldn't think of any so she just blurted it out and hoped for the best, "they think you're attractive."
"Bullshit," he snorted at her confession.
"You're not used to being pined after, are you?" She took a steadying breath, "that's why you pushed her away."
"It's happened before," he furrowed his eyebrows thinking back to college when girls tended to throw themselves at guys in general, but he got a pretty good share of it. He always felt used though, he wasn't the typical guy, he didn't just want to have one night stands and be done. He had always wanted a steady relationship, and every time he was in one, they never failed to hurt him. Girls were mean, nasty, sneaky, worse than boys in his opinion. Every single one had either cheated on him, lied to him, or left him for a better looking guy. Women had truly broken him.
"Girls like Taylor..." he struggled with what to say, he hated showing emotion, it made him feel small, stupid. Carol seemed to truly care, like she really wanted to help, so he decided to suck it up and confess. "They kinda ruined me."
"The pretty ones usually do that," Carol chuckled thinking of all the horrible 'popular' girls she went to high school with. Just because they were beautiful they had a ridiculous self-entitlement attached to them. They also tended to consider everyone else below themselves. She subconsciously agreed with his thoughts, pretty girls could be fucking brutal.
"I knew from the beginnin' she wanted more. But when I knew she was gettin' too attached I bailed," he sighed and wiped around his mouth, more of a subconscious thinking action than anything.
"Cause you were scared?" Carol's soft voice reassured him enough to continue, he wanted to stop a long time ago. He wanted to stop sharing these girly fucking feelings, but he couldn't; for some reason she helped him press on, to finally get it off his chest so it wasn't as much of a burden anymore.
"That, an' I didn't wanna hurt her. Not after the shit her fiance pulled." He screwed his eyes shut thinking further into the reasons why. "Plus, I know I can be a crude sonofabitch... she's one of 'em girls that needs a romantic kinda guy-"
"Did she tell you that, or did you assume?" Her question was sincere, not accusatory as they had been at the beginning. He felt like she would have made a wonderful therapist, and wondered if she was more than a housewife before the zombie outbreak.
"I told her an' she said she didn't need all that," he inhaled deeply, starting to realize that maybe she was telling the truth, not compromising like he had accused her of. That was all too late now, he had pushed her too far, right into Rick's arms. His teeth and fists clenched at the thought, his mind replaying the scene of Rick and-
"Is there something else?" She asked, noticing his hands and breaking him from the replay in his mind.
"If I tell ya somethin', ya can't tell anyone..." her small nod let him know to continue on, "I was afraid of hurtin' her, but I let her go to someone whose gonna hurt her."
"What are you talking about?" Carol was puzzled by his statement, as far as she knew Taylor was with Rick, what did he mean he was going to hurt her? She folded her hands neatly in her lap, awaiting an explanation. He suddenly seemed to clam up. "I-"
"Wait a sec," he stood up in the middle of her sentence when he saw something that made his blood run cold. He shook his head in disbelief and looked down at Carol sympathetically. "I'll be back in a minute." She nodded slowly in agreement, wondering what his sudden change in emotion was about.
"Hey," Daryl approached Rick hastily, his voice coming out in a growl. He looked between Cassidy and the sheriff.
"What's up Daryl?" Cassidy asked with mock innocence.
"Shut it," he sneered at her, honestly both surprised and disgusted that she was talking to him. She knew what was up. "Ya'll are all chummy again?"
"What?" Rick's eyes narrowed towards him, not wanting their voices to be heard when Taylor was so close. Once her and Jackson had gone back inside Rick stepped closer to him. "I thought you said you weren't going to say anything?"
"I ain't," he stepped forward as well, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. He could not believe what he was seeing and he wasn't going to just let it slide. "But ya'll aren't just gonna go around actin' like nothin' happened."
"What would you like us to do?" Rick was calm and cool, like usual. Daryl was about to lay someone out, like usual.
"To stay away from each other... ya really got the balls to do this in front of her?" His voice was low now, trying to not yell.
"We weren't doing anything, we were talking," Cassidy piped in, in their defense.
"Unbelievable," his scoff made Rick's steady face flatten into a hard-line. He was not so calm and cool anymore.
"It's none of your damn business, Daryl." He seemed to notice the anger building in his counterpart and became a bit irritated as well.
"It's Taylors' business an' ya haven't told her, have ya?"
"If you're going to put yourself in the middle of this, you're going to regret it." Rick was beginning to lose his cool and Daryl immediately picked up on it. Not only was he good at observing animals behavior, he was good at reading other humans as well. He knew he was slowly getting under Rick's skin. He was going to make him confess to Taylor whether he liked it or not. He wasn't going to keep their little secret any longer.
"I am... stop actin' like you didn't screw her three days ago," he motioned over to Cassidy who gasped in mock horror, resting her hand on her chest.
"Keep your voice down!" Rick bellowed, not wanting Taylor to hear from inside. "I'll tell her when I damn well please."
"You're disgustin'," he spat as his own rage began to match Rick's.
"I thought she was dead." His voice was flat now, but the statement fell on deaf ears. As far as Daryl was concerned, if he really cared about her he wouldn't have bedded another woman just a week after he thought she died. It was bullshit in his eyes; an excuse, it was going to happen regardless of her disappearance.
"So ya buried your sorrow in her pussy?"
"Fuck you!" Rick's fist connected with Daryl's face in a sickening, knuckle cracking thwap! He grabbed his face where the shooting pain began to course through him. Directly above his right eye was split, blood slowly pouring out. Rick went for a second swing when Daryl ducked out of the way, his hand connecting with the tree behind him. His hand cracked in too many places to count and limply fell in response. The two men stood face to face, one broken handed, the other with a cut eye.
The group was slowly starting to pull apart. It looked as if things were about to get a whole lot worse.