A week with the other survivors- Shane's survivors, gave Cassia more hope for not only her survival but her sanity. She highly doubted there was another hour she could have spent in antagonistic silence with the Dixon brothers. It wasn't that she didn't like them- Hell, they were the only friends she had left now. The only ones she knew before the Outbreak, anyway. They were their own little family within the group. It was weird how that worked. Certain people were associated with each other and treated like little groups or families within the main one. Dale, Andrea and Amy were just one example. Carol, Ed and Sophia were another. Cassia blinked extra hard to bring herself out of her own thoughts tangent. Merle was right. She really was a daydreamer. Anyway, Cassia's inital point had been that she reckoned another hour stuck in the car with the Dixon brothers would be where she started to lose it.
They'd settled in pretty well. Cassia offered Jacqui a pleasant little grin as she passed her, making her way down towards the pond where she knew she would be able to find Amy. The girl had let Cassia borrow a few bandanas to keep her hair off her face, and in return, Cassia had mended a few of Amy's shirts. It was an amicable deal. After the exchange was through, she took a seat next to Andrea, holding her hand out to be passed a shirt so that she could assist with the washing of the clothes. The sun was just beaming right on down on them today, Cassia noted; closing her eyes and lifting her face towards the sun. The world suddenly went cold and dark and so Cassia reopened her eyes with a jump. Urgh. Ed. The bastard was leaning over Carol, getting in her face and shoving at her to do something different with the clothes. Cassia felt her palm itch. Man, she really wanted nothing more than to slap him full force around the face, the way he went on and treated his own family. Made everyone sick. Even Merle. Well, that was a stretch, he more complained about the noise than anything else. Cassia tuned back in to see Andrea now getting involved. Shit. This wasn't about to be anything good,
"Well Ed, if you'd like to wash your own clothes then go ahead, otherwise, take yourself elsewhere," Cassia realised that this had come from her own mouth, and now everyone was staring at her. Double shit. Great. She cringed and got to her feet slowly, dusting her hands off on her jeans,
"The fuck did you just say to me, bitch?" Ed raged, his overgrown, sweaty face was swiftly turning an ugly shade of maroon, and he was much closer now than Cassia had ever wanted the guy to be. It dawned on her how much bigger than her he was. Well, she reasoned with herself, someone's gotta do it. And so she shoved him as hard as she could, the result was more than slightly underwhelming, but it did the trick. His ugly maroon face screwed up even further, and with a growl of rage, he turned on Carol, who had been pawing at his shoulder, trying to persuade him to back off. The sound echoed around them as he smacked her, and Carol's cry stood out to her as if she had stood right by a speaker and turned it up to full volume. There was a stunned silence from everyone there, and then Andrea and Cassia lost it. Both snarled in rage and lunged forward to grab at Ed, to try and get purchase on him and inflict some percentage of the pain Carol was feeling on him. Cassia had been wrong before when she'd thought she wanted nothing more than to slap him. There wasn't enough motivation behind that. She wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. For Carol. For Sophia. Cassia was too distracted to take note of who was holding herself and Andrea back. Ed clearly hadn't forgotten who had been insulting and manhandling him, and swung straight for Cassia, who was swift enough to duck, and was lucky enough to only have to do that, as a gruff and more than slightly angry voice called out to them,
"Hey." Came the voice of none other than Daryl Dixon, and Ed slowly pivoted to face the crossbow that was now aimed at his head. Cassia visibly sagged in relief, throwing her arm around Andrea. Daryl wouldn't kill him, she knew that.
...Right? Daryl wouldn't-
Daryl apparently would, as he took a few calculated steps closer, he moved like a hunter, silent and precise,
"D'you just throw a punch at my baby mama?" Daryl asked Ed, his gaze was steely and his posture was rigid and unforgiving, his hold on his crossbow and his aim unwavering, yet his tone was soft and cool, almost dangerous.
Oh, right... Cassia thought to herself, looking down to the very slight protrusion/swelling that used to be her toned stomach, I'm pregnant.
