Favorite Line(s):
"Daryl, don't get me wrong! You are possibly the only man in the world who could be covered in fuckin' mud and I would still fuck you into oblivion!" She grinned and he couldn't help but grin as well he tilted her head back and kissed her. It was a sweet kiss and when they broke apart and his lips attached to the back of her neck, Tessa ended up closing her eyes in bliss. "However, you being clean is the first absolute turn-on I'd ever jump to!"
"Is there anybody in your group infected?"
The voice that rang out around them when they entered the great marble foyer of the CDC, took them all by surprise, and they quickly turned around to see a tall man with thinning blonde hair and wearing nothing that you would assume a scientist would wear. He was standing by an archway holding a gun – a military issued assault rifle.
"One was," Rick told him before shaking his head. "He didn't make it, unfortunately . . ."
"Why are you here? What do you want?" The Scientist (at least, they could assume he was a scientist – who else would be there, after all) called back. His voice and his eyes were still untrusting and Tessa found herself unconsciously moving closer to Daryl. His arm moved around her shoulders and he pulled her tighter against him and her arms moved tighter around Ethan in turn. The Scientist made a slow way down the stairs to their level the entire time, his gun still trained on them.
Rick replied back with, "A chance," And Tessa could practically see Daryl rolling his eyes at the answer. However, the Scientist didn't seem to think it was silly. He simply smiled a little as he took another few steps towards them.
"That's asking an awful lot these days . . . you do realize that, right?" He asked him and Rick nodded, signaling that he did indeed know. The Scientist took in all of their wide-eyed, frightened faces for a moment, his eyes lingering on the children a minute longer than the others, before swallowing hard and nodding.
"You will all submit to a blood test – that's the price of admission." His voice was slightly stronger when he said this, and Rick nodded, the relief he felt at finally getting his group to safety, rolled off him in waves.
"Yes - yes, we can do that!" The Scientist nodded and sighed as he lifted the muzzle of the gun away from them, pointing towards the doors as he did so.
"You got stuff to go get, then you better bring them in now – once these doors close, they aren't opening again!" Rick nodded as everyone immediately ran for the doors to get whatever they needed from the vehicles. When they were back, they pulled shut the doors and the Scientist moved to close the shutters and to kill the upstairs power. It was as the shutters closed, that Rick moved to introduce himself, the Scientist replying with a semi-cautious:
"Doctor Edwin Jenner."
The blood tests, Tessa assumed, were purely to cover Jenner's own ass and the Scientist admitted as much when Andrea asked that if they were infected, then wouldn't they be running a fever? She didn't mind the blood test – after all, she had them done before while pregnant, and Ethan hardly flinched as well when Jenner took his. It didn't seem to mind the others as well but she could tell by the paper-white look on Daryl's face as his eyes remained unflinchingly on the various needles lying on the table beside Jenner that he was going to have a major problem.
Daryl was afraid of needles.
"What's with Daryl?" Lori asked her, her voice barely above a quiet whisper as she leaned over to talk to Tessa, and Tessa glanced up at her and smiled.
"He's afraid of needles." She replied back and the look of shock on Lori's face was almost comical.
"Daryl Dixon . . . is afraid of needles?" She asked her slowly, as if allowing the news to fully sink in as she did so, and the scowl that Daryl threw her definitely almost made Tessa want to laugh. She knew that Daryl could hear them - after all, he wouldn't be a good tracker if he couldn't - but Lori didn't and a hot flush ran across her face at getting caught talking about someone else.
"Yeah, what if I am?" He hissed back and Lori opened her mouth to say something, however, she was interrupted by Jenner motioning for Daryl to approach him and the table. The man's face (if possible) whitened even more and he couldn't help but swallow the hard knot that had been steadily growing in his throat since the words 'blood test' was first spoken. Tessa smiled and leaned up on her tip-toes, where she kissed him on the cheek.
"You'll be fine – don't worry about it!" She told him and he scowled again as he moved out of her reach although his eyes held a slight strength in them from her words that she hadn't noticed before.
"Yeah, yeah, I know! Ya don' have to harp on me, woman!" He snapped as he moved down past the rows of chairs towards Jenner and the table. Walking as tall as he could and as cockily as he could, only Tessa and Lori could see how really afraid he was.
"That is so ironic!" Lori couldn't help but laugh with a roll of her eyes and Tessa grinned and glanced at her.
"That he's afraid of needles?" Lori nodded.
"Well, yeah! Here he is, completely unafraid of beings that could literally rip his face off and eat it, yet he is absolutely terrified of one tiny little needle!" Tessa turned her attention back onto Daryl, laughing quietly at the sight of him determinedly not gazing down at the needle and she shook her head.
"That's Daryl for ya, though, Lori. He's always freaked out about the little things, opposed to the big things."
"But mom, Ethan got to have some!"
The entire table broke out into laughter as Lori shared an amused look with Tessa. "Yes, well, that's because Ethan's parents are not . . ." She stopped, searching for the correct word while all-the-while forcing a grin to not find a home on her face. The entire thing caused everyone to break out into laughter again as Tessa reached out a hand. She had laughed as well and while Daryl did not, a look of amusement shone in his eyes as well. Daryl Dixon had never been one for outright laughter unless he was extremely close to you but he had to admit – this conversation had him coming close.
"It's okay Lori, we get it!" She laughed as Ethan took a drink of wine before sliding it away from him, a slightly disgusted look on his face. Daryl grinned and laughed as he ruffled the kid's hair.
"Tha's ma kid – ain' got tha taste for wine, huh?" He asked him with a grin and Tessa immediately pinned him with a stern look.
"He might not, but that is not the excuse you need to give him something heavier, Daryl Dixon!" She told him and he arched an eyebrow in playful challenge as he took a gulp of whatever liquid he was drinking from the bottle he held in his hand. He left it at that, though, as Dale poured himself a drink.
"You know, Lori, in France, it is normal for a child to have a little wine with dinner – and in Germany too!" He informed her, and Lori laughed as she placed a hand on the top of her son's glass currently filled with wine.
"Be that as it may, when Carl is in France or Germany, he can, but here, no." Laughter rang out again as Rick gave her a look. "What?"
"Let him have some – what can it hurt?" He asked and her eyes widened in slight skepticism as he laughed. "Go on - let him have some! Like he said, Ethan's had some and it doesn't look like anything bad has happened to the boy!" Lori couldn't help but grin as she shared another amused look with Tessa, who gave an indifferent shrug of her shoulders before she slowly took her hand away from the glass.
"Fine, go ahead!"
Carl shared a small smile with Ethan across the table before he picked up the glass and took a small sip – a sip much smaller than the one Ethan had. Like Ethan, a look of disgust immediately appeared on his face as well as he shoved the glass away. "Eww - that tastes nasty!" He immediately spoke, and Ethan nodded in agreement as the adults at the table began laughing.
"That's my boy – that is my boy!" She muttered as she picked up the glass and upturned the rest of the maroon colored liquid into hers. Shane grinned from across him.
"How about you stick to soda pop for now, buddy, okay?" He told him and Carl nodded and smiled a small smile in agreement.
"Oh, Hell no – ya wait jus' a minute, Glenn!"
The amused voice came from Daryl and Tessa looked over at him in interest as Daryl got to his feet, a twinkle of amusement in his eye as he turned a look onto Glenn across the way and as he reached for another glass, where he poured him some more wine. The younger man had been observing a bottle in his hands with slight distaste, and turned an oblivious look up onto Daryl.
"What?" He asked with a grin, and Daryl returned it.
"Keep drinkin' little man - I wanna see how red ya face can get!" He told him, and everyone laughed again and Glenn rolled his eyes good-naturedly and took the glass of wine from him, who was still nursing the harder stuff. No one noticed when Rick turned an impassive gaze onto Jenner, who was sitting a little ways away from them, a conflicted look on his face.
"Jesus Christ, I forgot how you are when you drink!" Tessa grinned as she pulled Daryl back down to her and he returned the grin as he happily retook his seat beside her.
"Oh is tha' so? And how do I act when I drink, Tess?"
She shrugged. "You're a happy drunk – you always have been. And it's a relief, too!" She replied as she leaned in to peck him on the lips. When she withdrew, her grin had turned down to a smile and her voice had become a whisper. "It's a relief to see something normal for once, you know?" Daryl's grin turned down to a soft smile as well as he leaned in and kissed her softly, which deepened ever-so-slightly after a moment. Only a couple of people there saw noted the affection in their kiss and they both took hearty gulps of their wine.
Now that it was clear between them that - for all intents and purposes - they were together again, things had smoothed considerably between them. While Daryl still flinched at her affectionate touches whenever he didn't know they were coming, he allowed them nonetheless and everyone there had immediately taken notice when Daryl started to relax and let down his guard ever-so-slightly. And while it was clear that there were still some things in their relationship that he would never be able to forgive (like her leaving him), he was content to leave those alone for now and just enjoy what life had managed to give him amidst this shithole that was now the current world. Even Ethan had started to open up slightly with his tentative friendships with both Carl and Sophia and found that he didn't mind it when Daryl switched from 'tha kid' and started calling him, 'ma kid' instead. At least he was acknowledging that he was his father now. At least it was a start.
The tinkling of silverware against glass halted everyone's laughter as Rick rose from his seat. Daryl and Tessa parted then, only for Daryl to place an arm around her shoulders and bring her closer to him, her head immediately moving to descend onto his shoulder. "It just occurred to me that I don't think we have given our host a proper thank you!" He spoke up as he rose his glass up towards Jenner sitting a few feet away. Everyone immediately joined in the toast, Daryl even contributing a 'boo-yah' as he rose the bottle he had been drinking from, because, after all, hewas Daryl Dixon and when have you ever thought of Daryl Dixon drinking from a glass?
Tessa couldn't help but laugh as she raised a glass to him too, echoes of 'thank you' coming from everywhere. Jenner smiled a tight smile and raised his glass in turn before he took a sip from it.
And it was then, when everyone was having such a great time, that Shane had to be the complete and total buzz-kill that he was.
"So when are you gonna tell us what the Hell happened here, doc?"
Everyone fell silent then, their mood of merriment completely evaporating. Jenner took another sip of his wine before turning a polite gaze onto him as Shane continued blithely on: "All the, uh . . . the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what the Hell happened; where are they?" Rick turned a politely reprimanding look onto Shane.
"Buddy, we're celebrating! Now is not the time to be asking questions like that!"
"But wait a second! This is why we're here, right? This was your move – supposed to find all the answers! Instead we, uh . . . we found him!" He jerked a thumb in the direction of Jenner who was gazing at him with an expression that Tessa couldn't rightly place – that no one could rightly place, in fact. "We found one man. Why not can we ask these questions?"
"Well, when things got bad," Jenner began before Rick could answer him. "A lot of people just . . . left – went off to be with their families, I suspect. And when things got worse – when the military cordon got overrun, for example – the rest bolted."
"Every last one?" Shane asked in sick amusement, and Jenner shook his head.
"No, don't be silly. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They . . ." He paused for a short time to search for the right word. "Opted out . . . there was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."
"You didn't leave, though . . ." Andrea brought up. "Why didn't you leave?"
"I just kept working . . . hoping to do some good, I suppose." He replied and Glenn rolled his eyes as he pinned Shane with a disgusted look.
"You are such a buzz-kill, man!"
Tessa almost died in delight when she turned on the shower later that night to find hot water spraying down on to her from the shower-head. Jenner wasn't lying – there was hot water and it was possibly the biggest luxury that not one of them had experienced in probably a very long time. Hell, Tessa couldn't help but let out a moan of happiness before nearly jumping out of her skin when she felt the door of the shower open behind her, letting in a slightly cool breeze that quickly warmed from the rest of the heat. She relaxed, however, when she glanced behind her and found that it was only Daryl and not, God forbid, Shane. She fought to rein her frantic heartbeat under control.
"Hey, where's ma kid at?" He asked her as he moved further into the shower, and Tessa grinned and rolled her eyes as she tilted her head back, allowing the hot water to run over her throat and down her front. She shivered in delight as one of her hands moved over her slicked back hair.
"Ethan just took a shower. I wouldn't be surprised if he's passed out on one of the couches but I'm pretty sure he's in the rec room playing games with Carl and Sophia." She told him and could see the conspiratorial grin as he moved up behind her.
"So, in other words, we have tha whole shower to ourselves?" He asked her in fake awe, and she nodded and chuckled as he kissed the side of her neck.
"Yes, the whole . . . entire shower!" She replied, still grinning as she turned around and directed him to stand in the hot spray. He let out a groan at the feel of the warmth, although a playfully irked look appeared in his eyes never-the-less.
"If I didn' know any better, I'd say ya were insinuatin' somethin' . . ." He muttered, and Tessa laughed as she pushed the soap into his hands. Rolling his eyes he began to wash himself as she stepped closer to him and turned around. He got the request and his soapy hands ran up her back for a moment instead of himself before he finished and they returned to his body.
"Daryl, don't get me wrong - you are possibly the only man in the entire world who could be covered in fuckin' mud and I would still want to fuck you into oblivion!" She grinned and he couldn't help but share the grin as well, before he tilted her head back and kissed her. It was a sweet kiss and when they broke apart and his lips attached to the back of her neck, Tessa ended up closing her eyes in bliss. "However, you being clean is the first turn-on I'd ever jump to!"
He chuckled as he turned her around and when his arms wrapped around her waist before his hands moved down to cup her ass, her hands moved to his neck and she pressed a kiss to his throat. Her tongue swept over the pulse-point in his neck and Daryl let out a low moan of bliss. Tessa then pulled him down to her and their mouths met roughly. Her arms moved to wind around his neck and her tongue ran against the roof of his mouth and whatever was left of Daryl's will collapsed in on itself at that moment. He gathered her up in his arms and pushed her up against the wall of the shower, where he kissed her deeply and passionately. His tongue entwined with hers - both muscles fighting tooth and nail for dominance.
Tessa readily jumped up into Daryl's arms when he prompted her to, and her legs immediately moved to hook around his waist. Her hands gripped his arms as he pinned her between the unmoving shower wall and his hard, muscular body. He then attacked a nipple – playing with it, with his tongue, and she let out a low moan at the feeling as her fingers curled in his hair.
Their lips met again and he slid his hands up her sides, enjoying the feel of her soft curves before one hand cupped a breast, where he ran a callused thumb over the pebbling nipple. She moaned into his mouth as she pressed her body even more up against his. His other hand curved around her ass, pulling her close against his enticing hardness.
She pressed herself harder up against the wall behind her, Daryl stepping closer to her as she did so. His knee slipped in-between her thighs and their lips crushed together in a passionate, frenzied kiss as her arms moved to wrap around his back. She begged him to take her in desire-filled whispers, and he did, rather readily.
Her hands smoothed over his bare chest and over his shoulders, where she gripped them from behind as he entered her with a quick thrust that made her let loose a little whimper of pleasure. She parted her legs for him even more, begging him to go faster and harder.
She murmured his name as one of her hands clenched tightly in his hair and she let out a moan. The moans eventually raised in a crescendo as her nails ran down his strong, rigid back, leaving little scratches in their wake. They found their end on the small of his back, where she gripped his ass, her fingers biting into the soft flesh as his hips rocked up into hers. Daryl's lips left her neck and he grinned at the feeling.
"Goddamn, have I missed tha feelin' of ya hands on ma ass . . .!" He whispered to her teasingly and she gave a laugh as he kissed the hallow of her throat. He bit gently at the flesh located there, although the slight stinging pain of the cuts that were left on his back by her nails, caused him to let out a growl as his thrusts came faster and faster and seconds after she came with his name on her lips, he managed to give one final thrust home before he came hard inside her.
Their chests heaving afterwards, and with both of them trying desperately to catch their breath, Daryl gazed down at the beautiful visage of Tessa pinned against the shower wall, her heavily-lidded, brown sloe-eyes and blue black hair surrounding the white wall behind her and her mocha-colored skin flushed a delightful pink with the last remnants of pleasure. She smiled and he chose that time to lean down and kiss her lovingly before he gently pulled out of her and set her down on her feet.
"You . . . you stay and finish your shower. I gotta go get Ethan from the rec room; I bet he's as exhausted as we are!" She told him with a smile and a laugh, and Daryl nodded. She gave him one last, lingering kiss before leaving the shower. She wrapped a fluffy white towel around herself and walked into the room the three of them were sharing. She dressed in a comfortable pair of yoga pants and matching tank top before heading from the room after toweling off her hair.
She moved past the rec room where Ethan sat playing checkers with Carol, Sophia and Carl, and towards the big room. Jenner was working alone at his customary bank of computers and Tessa let out a cough as she neared him. He looked up and immediately, a look of confusion appeared on his face as he pushed himself away from the computers.
"It's, uh . . . Tessa, right?" He asked, and she smiled and nodded. "What can I do for you this evening?" She heaved a sigh and looked down at her hands.
"Can you, uh . . . can you still do medical tests?" She asked and Jenner nodded, an even more confused look appearing on his face.
"Well, yeah, I did take your blood earlier, remember?" He asked with a little laugh, and she nodded, a laugh coming her as well.
"Well, yeah I know that, but . . . I didn't know if you shut off the power to wherever you do it at or what, but . . . I need you to do something for me, if possible. I mean, I know you don't owe us anything and it is completely your choice to tell me no, but . . . it would certainly give me some much needed peace of mind!" He nodded, his eyes softening slightly.
"Tessa, don't think anything of it – whatever you need, I'll do whatever it is in my power to see it done! Now, tell me . . . what do you need done?"
