Charlotte ran after Daryl. He was at their tent, throwing everything out. "What are you doing?" she asked. He didn't answer, just picked things up and threw them out. "Daryl!" she yelled. "What the hell?"
"I'm movin' the tent!" he yelled, throwing the blankets out. Once it was emptied, he started to dismantle it.
"Daryl." She tried to stop him, but his ears were closed to reason. "Daryl, enough!" she grabbed his arm and he withdrew with force, spinning around to stare down on her. She stared back up at him. "Don't do this, Daryl. Just don't."
"We're better off on our own." He muttered, turning around to keep take the tent down. "I'm done with these people."
"We need these people." She said. "And they need you."
He scoffed. "They don't need me."
"Carol said it herself, you could run this group. Believe it or not, they'd fall apart without you." He rolled his eyes at her. "Daryl, I'm serious."
He threw one of the tent poles, kicking the rest down. "If I was so great I would have found her a long time! Before she turned to a geek." His voice echoed, the only time he had shouted like this was the last month before infection.
"That's not on you." She tried to calm him down, grab him before he sunk down into his pit he couldn't be pulled out of. Whenever he got like this, time was the only thing that brought him back.
"Why don't you go do something, I'm busy. Got no time to be chit chattin'." He turned away from her.
"Daryl, don't do this please." She begged. "Daryl. I need you, please."
"Get out o' here!" he yelled. "Just let me be!" tears threatened to spill and Charlotte ran from him. She ran to the RV and found Carol in there, sitting at the table, looking out the window. Charlotte sat across from her, not saying a word.
"How's he taking it." Carol asked, eyes still trained out the window.
"Not well." She choked out. "I'm so sorry." And that was all she could say. And the women just sat there, in silence.
Daryl dragged the tent far away from the house, set it back up, and put everything back in it. He stared at the house, it seemed a mile away.
All he wanted was to be alone, with Charlotte anyway. But he was falling back into the pattern where he didn't know how to shut his mouth, how to not push her away.
He sat against the stones, buckling down and putting his head in his hands. All that time wasted, all that time he believed Sophia was out there, hiding. She couldn't make it. He couldn't help her. She was alone and scared, and that's what was killing him. Knowing what that little girl felt like in her final days, it tore him apart.
Daryl was outside, smoking his Parliament. It was one of those few times he looked around and realized he had something to be proud of.
He had just gotten back from his honeymoon a week ago, had his own set of land, a wife, a stable job. He glanced at Charlotte, she was bringing out lemonade to the boys, wearing a pretty dress. "I hate to rush any of you but I want this deck done by nightfall."
One of the guys from his work scoffed. "Yeah right. Try next week."
Daryl walked over. You heard the lady, she wants it done tonight." He grinned at her, she grinned back at him. He flicked his cigarette. She gave him a look.
"I put the coffee can out for a reason." She scolded. He scooped her up and brought her inside, the men groaning. A couple of his work friends were over, helping them build a deck. They were getting paid for it, so Daryl couldn't care less if they complained.
He dropped her on the couch and crawled on top of her, kissing her neck. "Babe, we have people outside."
"I'm sure we can be quiet." He smirked, his hands running up her skirt. She was laughing, hardly trying to push him away. What started out as fun and flirty at first got passionate and serious quick. She breathed heavily as he undid himself from his pants, lifting her skirt up. She moaned in his ear, he whispered her name, his heart racing as all the good feelings filled his body.
God his life was good.
Hours later, Charlotte stepped out of the RV. As soon as she did, Lori came up to her. "Can you talk to Daryl?"
"What'd he do?" Charlotte asked, worried.
"He's shut up way out in the field. I asked him to go find Rick and Hershel, Beth went into shock and they went into town to find Hershel, and he exploded on me."
Charlotte stared at Lori. "You can't find your husband so you try to send mine off after him?"
"That's not-"
"Why don't you try to keep track of your husband and not send mine to run errands for you. It's not his problem." Charlotte didn't care if she hurt Lori's feelings, if she wanted things done she didn't need to go to Daryl and send him out in harms way. She could do it herself. However, Charlotte would go out. She told Carol she was heading out before taking a car and going into to town.
Charlotte walked in the bar, "What'd I miss?"
Rick looked relieved to see her. "Just convinced Hershel here to give up drinking."
Charlotte nodded. "Good man. Lori wants you to come back. Beth has gone into shock."
"Is she alright?" Hershel asked.
"That's all I know." Before she could go on, the doors to the bar opened up. A large man, and a small Hispanic man walked in.
"Well holy shit, they're alive."
"I'm Dave." The Hispanic said, then nodded to his friend. "That skinny douchebag is Tony." Charlotte smirked and took a shot. "And who are you?" he asked charmingly.
"I'm Charlotte." She smiled back.
Dave grinned at her. "Nice to meet you, cher." Charlotte smiled even bigger at the French term. The man had to have Cajun in him.
"It's nice to meet others. I'm Glen."
"Rick Grimes."
"Aren't you gonna have a drink?" Dave asked Hershel.
"I quit today." Hershel answered.
"You have a unique sense of timeing my friend." Dave joked. While he was handsome, he was a stranger. Charlotte would keep her distance.
"That's Hershel, he lost people today. A lot of them." The room grew quiet and Dave's eyebrows pulled together in genuine sympathy.
"I'm truly sorry to hear that." He answered, taking a drink. "To better days and to new friends." Charlotte nodded and took a drink. "I'll tell you, it's rough out there." He added. "Where you guys held up? It doesn't look like you're living in your cars." Charlotte glanced at Rick. He had clearly just switched into a defense mode. "Cars are perfectly clean. Are you staying in the outskirts of town?"
"We have a group stationed a ways down." Glen looked to Charlotte nervously; the air thinned and the room was tensed.
"Like a trailer? A house development?" Dave leaned in more. "Or a farm?"
"Old McDonald had a farm…" Tony sniggered as he slid over to a corner in the room, his back to them and the sound of his pants unzipping. Charlotte decided she didn't like these men.
Dave chuckled a bit. "You set up on a farm?" Rick was staring at him hard. He looked trapped in a corner. "Do you have food and water?"
"And girls?" tony chipped in. "Its been weeks…"
"Excuse my friend." Dave cut him off.
"We're setting off." Rick said.
"Now wait a minute, this farm seems like a sweet deal." Dave went on.
"Real sweet." Tony added, zipping his pants off and facing them. Charlotte mindlessly went to place a ran on her gun. This wasn't heading down a good road.
"We have bodies back at camp." The man almost sounded sincere, but there was something about him and his voice that sent red flags. "They're having a real hard time." Charlotte caught Rick glancing to her; she tried to convey what she thought through her eyes. He gave a curt nod. "You could make room for a few more couldn't you?"
"I'm sorry, that's not an option." Rick answered. The two men exchanged a look. Dave shook his head a little. "We can't take in anymore, we're already over capacity."
Dave laughed, and that's what irked Charlotte. For people wanting somewhere to stay, they were going about it all wrong. "You guys are something else. I thought we were friends. We have people to look out for too." Tony for sure Charlotte didn't trust, but Daves voice was silk and he chose the right words and it was hard for Charlotte to not trust him, but her instincts told her no, and she would follow those.
"We don't know anything about you." Charlotte shot back.
Dave looked to her, looked her up and down. He had a look in his eye, the kind of looks she would get in bars every once in a while right before Daryl knocked them out for getting too close for his comfort. "That's right, Cher. You don't know a thing about us. What we've been through, what we've had to do. Same things you probably had to do." Rick was stone now, looking at Dave blankly. "No one has clean hands in this world."
"This is bullshit." Tony interrupted.
"Calm down." Rick warned.
"Don't tell me to calm down, don't you ever fucking tell me to calm down." Tony blew up, and that closed the book right there for those men to ever have a chance.
"Back off." Charlotte said in a low voice.
"I'll shoot you assholes in the head and take your fucking farm." Charlotte's gun was out and pointed at Tony's head by the time Rick stood up.
"Choose your words very fucking carefully." Charlotte said.
"Woah, woah!" Dave said, standing up, putting a hand to his friend to warn him to calm down. "Nobodies killing anybody." He hopped over the bar and let out a sigh. "Just friends having a drink." He added as he went under the bar to pull out a bottle. Rick had his hand on his gun, Charlotte lowered hers to her side. "You gotta' understand, we can't go back out there. Don't you know how it is?"
"I do know. But the farm is too crowded so I'm sorry but you're gonna' have to keep looking."
"Keep looking huh? Where do you suggest we go?"
"I don't know." Rick said, his patience thin. "I hear Florida's nice."
Dave laughed. "Florida. This guy." Then any smile was gone from his face and he went for his gun. Rick shot him in the head before he could and Dave dropped. Another shot went off and Charlotte whipped around and shot Tony. The room went silent, Charlotte looked around to see who fired the second shot, but all eyes were on her.
"Oh God." Glen said.
Charlotte looked down, blood seeping from her thigh. "Oh, Fuck."
Daryl walked into the Greene home, it was morning and Charlotte hadn't come to the tent last night. If she was ignoring him, he could at least know she was somewhere safe.
They were having breakfast. Lori spotted Daryl. "Did Charlotte make it back okay?"
He froze. "Back from what?" the room got quiet and no one said anything, just looked at each other. "Back from what?"
"She went after Rick and Hershel yesterday." Andrea answered finally.
"She what?" he blew up.
"We though you knew." Andrea defended.
"I didn't know shit about her leavin'. Ya'll just let her go without sayin' nothin' to me?"
"We thought she would have told you-"
"She don't tell me shit, that's her thing." Daryl snapped on her. He was getting heated up. Charlotte wasn't in the house. She wasn't pissed off at him and safe at the farm. She was out god knows where. It was shear panic, that was all Daryl could think of; not knowing where she was. He didn't know if she was okay or not. Or if she even made it to Rick. "Ya'll are worthless." Daryl tore out of the house.
"Wait up now." Shane said, going after him out of the house. "I can't let you go out there-" he grabbed Daryls arm to stop him but he tore is arm away.
"Ya' don't have a say in what I do!" Daryl yelled. Before a fight could break out, they heard the familiar sound of a car coming. Daryl was frozen, staring to see if his wife would be in the car.
The car pulled to a stop and he could see her in the backseat. Hershel jumped out of the car. "Patricia, get two beds ready, we have injured!" he called out, opening the back seat and helping Charlotte out. There was blood all over her, his heart stopped. He ran over to her, thinking the worst.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
"She was shot at the bar." Hershel answered.
"Shot?" he slowed down, losing all air in his body and he froze again, his feet stuck in his tracks. He couldn't move, he could only watched as the brought her inside before his legs started to move again.
AN sorry it took so long to update. Leave me some more wonderful reviews?