scoobydoo0811 - Thanks for the review, I needed it lol. I've been doubting lately whether or not I've been writing him a little OC lately but apparently I'm not and I'm happy about it. Its fun too, to write him when on those emotional playing fields. :)
There is a rather nice, tall (slightly angry) glass of lemonade in this chapter because, I don't know, I felt like it? There is almost some pretty fun dirty talk in this chapter too and normally I don't write dirty talk for various reasons but in this one I felt like I had to. Don't know why, just did ;)
And may I inquire as to where my reviewers have gone? Like, literally, they have faded away into the wall work. Come back, please, I miss you guys XD
Favorite Line(s):
He spit the blood from his mouth onto the ground and turned another expressionless, slightly cold gaze onto her. "I get it . . ." He nodded then, a grin and a laugh coming to his face as he wiped away the blood beading on his split lip with the cuff of his shirt. But even then, his grin and his laugh were cold – his eyes too. "I get it, ya pissed. But is tha' all ya got?" His eyes flashed again in the thin gloom. "Ya a Dixon now, Tess – ya gotta have more in ya than tha' - I know ya do!"
"So, what do you think about this whole thing?"
Tessa glanced up at Dale standing before her, usual rifle slung over his shoulder, and shrugged. She was sitting in front of the cooking fire, skinning and gutting some of the squirrels that Daryl and Ethan had brought back – anything to keep herself busy. While dropping the heads and other useless things into a bucket in-between her legs while depositing the cleanly skinned and gutted carcasses into another, she had barely heard Dale walk up to her, so entrenched in her thoughts were she.
"What's there to think about?" She asked him when he finally crossed the distance between them, and Tessa shrugged as she spoke.
"I'd figure that you – a woman of learning – would be opposed to this – to the slaughter of an innocent boy!"
"Is he really innocent, though, Dale?" She asked him as she glanced back up at him again, her labor coming to a brief stop. "From what Daryl reports, he hasn't exactly been traveling with Buddhist Monks!" Dale shrugged.
"But does he really deserve to die for it? If it was truly as bad as Daryl reports, then how do you know that he wasn't coerced into doing it?" He asked, and Tessa heaved a sigh as she shook her head and finally turned her full attention onto Dale.
"I don't, Dale. I don't know if he was coerced or if he did it willingly, but quite frankly, I don't give a damn! I watched as Daryl walked in that shed as normal as could be but then returned wearing a side of him that I haven't seen in decades! I kneeled there, Dale, in our tent, and held him as he battled with himself over the right and wrongs of what he just done!" She shook her head, her lips pursing in slight irritation as her eyes turned stormy. "If you want my honest opinion, it's not exactly that kid's head I want on a spike right now. Right now, it's the person who forced Daryl to do that – who almost made him lose himself that badly!" She shook her head as she returned to what she was doing. "And don't you say that Daryl is an adult and nobody can force him to anything – it was supposedly for the good of the group. And while I partially agree with that, none of you also saw how broken he was when we got into the tent. It took more than fucking superglue to piece him back together after that."
Dale shrugged. "So if your animosity is not towards that kid, then why not just agree with me and advocate for his release? It seems like you could simply do it in order to cause friction with this person you are referring to!" He spoke and Tessa paused for a moment before continuing.
How old do you think he is?" She asked and Dale shrugged.
"He's older than Ethan but looks younger than Maggie, so probably around Beth's age?" Tessa nodded.
"You know . . . that was what hurt Daryl the most. It wasn't actually beating up and torturing another human being – no, he had been beat up and tortured his entire life since the time he could walk, so . . . that was just like welcoming back an old friend. What hurt him so badly was the realization that in a few years, that kid would be Ethan – that he could be Ethan."
"Then do it for Daryl's sake – do it because you're a mother to a son who will eventually be his age!" Dale suddenly spoke up, his voice regaining an impassioned tone and Tessa turned her eyes up to him, wide with surprise. Dale nodded and continued on. "If not for Daryl's sake, who I think could get some closure if this kid is set free – if he is given the chance for freedom that Daryl never gave him, then side with me because he is a kid who had a mother. Do it because you're a mother to a kid who's only a few years younger than him." Tessa let out a short laugh and shook her head.
"Last time I looked out for someone else's kid, not only did I almost get bit but later, it came back to bite me in the ass. Why should I look after another one?"
"That's why I say that doing it for Daryl's sake, is better," He told her stubbornly. "Daryl has never hurt you. Choosing Daryl's side has never led you astray. Please, side with me on releasing the kid because it could give Daryl some semblance of closure. Or do it because Ethan is close to his age – it doesn't really matter your reasoning in the end because you'll be upholding everything human that we cherished before all . . . this!" He shook his head as he gestured bitterly to their surroundings before taking a step closer to her. "But people listen to you, Tess – Rick, Lori, Hershel – they'll give your opinion consideration – you and Daryl's!" Tessa sat there and thought for a moment and while she did, Dale stepped closer to her still and got down on his haunches. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and she turned a slightly shaky gaze onto him. He noticed her breathing had picked up as well. She was close to tears but refused to let them show.
"I know you're hurting, Tess. I know that Daryl is hurting – I know that your entire family is hurting right now with the exception of Ethan and that's only because you've kept him in the dark about what his father is going through right now. But does a kid deserve death for something he possibly has never done?" His gaze became pointed then. "Would Ethan deserve death for something he possibly had never done?"
She sat there for a moment, just holding his gaze and saying nothing before, quietly – so quietly that he could barely understand her, she finally spoke: "I'll think about it, Dale, but that's all I can promise you right now. You'll see what decision I come to whenever Rick calls the meeting okay?" She could tell from the look in Dale's eyes that it wasn't exactly the answer he had been hoping for, however, she could also see that he had no choice but to accept it.
"Fuck - the only reason I come up here to do shit is to get away from ya people!"
Dale shrugged as he finished climbing the hill towards Daryl and the half-crumbling brick chimney. He was surprised to not see Ethan with him and once again wondered where the kid had gotten off to. If he wasn't with Tessa, then he was probably with Daryl but speaking he wasn't with Daryl . . . Dale found himself vaguely wondering where the kid was.
"It's a good place . . ." He admitted, and Daryl gave a scoffing laugh as he glanced at him.
"Did Tess send ya?" Dale shook his head as he propped one foot up on a nearby rock.
"Tess is not the only one that's concerned about you, you know – you or your new role in the group. Ever since you came back from that shed, I could see that you've changed a little and Hell, she even admitted as much when I talked to her earlier!" Daryl shook his head as he began collecting the freshly made arrows for his crossbow. A couple had been done by Ethan, for practice, and he nodded in approval. Kid was getting good . . . pretty soon and he'd be making his own arrows.
"Oh man, I don' need ma head shrunk! This group's broken – lost. I figured tha' out earlier today after I came out of tha' barn and only saw Tess waitin' for me," He shook his head. "I speak from personal experience when I say tha' torturin' people is crossin' a line – a line this group never should have crossed to begin with. Hell, they never should have even flirted with tha idea!" He heaved a sigh before glancing at him. "And Hell, if it wasn' for Tess and tha baby needin' Hershel when their time came, I'd think we'd have a better time fendin' for ourselves!"
"You act like you don't care." Dale spoke keenly and Daryl nodded as he reached over and grabbed up his motorcycle vest. He pulled it on as he replied.
"Yeah - tha's 'cause I don'! Tha only ones I care 'bout now are Tess, Ethan and ma baby. Might sound harsh, but tha truth can hurt sometimes."
Dale gazed at him for a moment, searchingly. "So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Daryl shook his head.
"Nope, not at all - sorry."
"Even though Tess has already told me that, chances are, she's gonna stand with me? Why not stand with me too – with us and try to save the kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other to you?" He asked and Daryl heaved another sigh.
"It's not tha' I don' care, its jus' . . . I feel tha', after what I done to him today, I don' think I should be passin' judgment on him. Hell, I'm prolly gonna be his executioner too - why should I also be one of the men who condemns him?" He glanced at him as he straightened his vest. "And besides, I didn' peg ya for a desperate sumbitch."
"Whether you want to believe it or not, you and Tessa's opinion makes a difference in this group." He told him and Daryl shook his head as he bent down and picked up his arrows.
"Man, I can tell ya right now tha' ain' nobody lookin' at me for nothin', 'cept maybe Tess and Ethan. People may look towards Tess, but not me."
"Tess does, your right! Ethan and Carol do too and I am – right now. And you obviously – you have Rick's ear!"
"No, tha's where ya wrong. Rick jus' looks towards Shane!" Daryl snapped at him, his voice when he spoke Shane's name harsh and slightly bitter. "And I say let him! It'll be his funeral." He turned around and walked off then, however, Dale's voice kept him from going much further than the crumbling chimney.
"You cared about what happened to Sophia. You cared about what it meant to the group – what it was doing to Tess, because that's when you got invested - when you saw how badly Tessa was taking it! Now I know Tess is the one person that will always have your undivided loyalty and love and we agree on the fact that torturing people isn't you! You're a decent man – Tessa wouldn't be with you if she didn't think you weren't! And I see how you interact with Ethan – the love and adoration you show him as your son, and that's when I know, with every fiber of my being, that you are a good, decent man!" He jerked his thumb back towards camp. "And so is Rick. Shane . . . now Shane is different."
"Why's tha'?" Daryl asked, nodding towards him. "Is it 'cause he killed Otis?"
Dale adopted a look of keen interest on his face as he moved closer to Daryl. "Did he tell you that?" Daryl shook his head.
"He told some story – how Otis covered him and saved his worthless ass, but I saw through that – prolly one of the only ones who did. Fuck, he showed up with a dead man's gun – a dead man's gun that the dead man in question supposedly used to cover his ass!" He shook his head again. "Rick ain' stupid, Dale. If he didn' figure tha' out, then it's 'cause he didn' wanna. It's like I said – this group's broken. I'm jus' hopin' me and ma own ain' gonna get caught in tha crossfire. What I did to tha' kid – I had to go to a dark place - a very dark place. I don' wanna go there again but I have a feelin' tha' I'll have to if Tess and Ethan find themselves caught in tha crossfire," His eyes flashed in the light. "Hell, I'd do it in an instant if tha' was the case."
"Are you feeling any better at all?"
Daryl's bright blue eyes silently found hers through the slight gloom of their tent, and she pursed her lips in slight irritation as she went back to observing his busted knuckles. They still didn't look pretty but they were clean, nonetheless, and starting to scab over. She found herself thanking God that he wouldn't need stitches for them. The both of them had enough of stitches for a long, long time.
The fire that everyone had grouped around for that evening's meal (the first one they had at the camp for a long time) still flickered outside their tent, not yet dying embers, and he watched for a moment as the moving shadows flew across her face and body. He remained silent and chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment as her eyes flickered up to his. He had remained silent all day and had spent practically all day in the woods hunting. Ethan had spent all day doing odd jobs around the camp and the house that needed doing but really, it was anything that would have kept himself away from the clearly still on edge Daryl.
Tessa had her old Daryl back but yet . . . she also didn't. There was still a part of him that the bad wolf controlled – she could see in his eyes whenever he would gaze at someone – his mannerisms and the way his body would react when that someone in question would approach him to speak to him. He was constantly on edge and quite clearly was entertaining that vicious side that had long since remained dormant since her return.
"Daryl, baby, you have to talk to me!" She told him, shaking her head. "I don't know what to do to help you if you don't talk to me!" Her hands moved to fame his face, where she forced their eyes to connect. Once again, she saw a flicker of warmth in those beautiful blue depths and her heart ached ever-so-slightly. "This suffering in silence crap might have been your best bet with your old man but now, it's not even an option! Here I am, kneeling in front of you and willing to listen – so talk to me!"
"Have ya given any thought to Dale's plea?" He finally asked her, his voice small and quiet, although still slightly interested, and she recoiled slightly.
"This is what has been bothering you all day?" Daryl shook his head.
"Not even close, but ya said to talk to ya, so tha's what I'm doing. So, really, have ya given it any thought?"
Tessa gazed at him for a moment, noticing how the slightly snide words struck a particularly taut chord inside her. Then, before she could stop herself, she found her teeth gritting in anger. Her hand reached backwards before meeting his face in a hard slap. The slap seemed to crack through the still air like a damn gunshot and his head found itself thrown backwards from the force of it. He felt his lip split open and blood flooded his mouth and for a moment – a split fucking moment – he was proud that Tessa could slap that hard . . . that she had the balls to slap him!
He spit the blood from his mouth onto the ground and turned another expressionless, slightly cold gaze onto her. "I get it . . ." He nodded then, a grin and a laugh coming to his face as he wiped away the blood beading on his split lip with the cuff of his shirt. Even then, his grin and his laugh were cold – his eyes too. "I get it tha' ya pissed. But is tha' all ya got?" His eyes flashed again in the thin gloom. "Ya a Dixon now, Tess – ya gotta have more in ya than tha' - I know it!"
Tessa knew she shouldn't have allowed his words to goad her like that – that she should have found the strength to restrain herself - but she found that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help herself. All the anger and frustration that she had felt those past couple of months, she channeled into various punches and slaps that found themselves landing on his torso and his arms. When he suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrists with entirely too much ease to allow her heart to settle down from its frantic beating, he pulled her to him and their lips met in a brutal, bruising kiss. Teeth gnashed and sunk down into each other's lips to the point that Tessa felt her lip split open as well. Blood flooded their mouths in a sick, macabre aphrodisiac and their tongues met and fought for an angry, brutal dominance. His hands moved underneath her thighs and pulled her upwards onto his lap, her legs immediately wrapping around him as her fingers buried in his hair and she pulled him closer to her. His arms wound around her body to hold her to him as tightly as she was holding him to her.
They were so close that for a moment, it seemed that their hearts beat in sync and when they broke apart, it wasn't loving need that echoed in their eyes - it was brutal, feral want. And when she murmured those three little words to him that he never thought he'd hear from her, it was like something snapped inside him. Their lips met again in another bruising kiss as their hands tore at each other's clothes - Daryl's absolutely busting the button and zipper of her jeans before hers moved to his.
Daryl, fuck me . . .
The words echoed in their mind like a broken record as he turned them around, flipping her onto her stomach as he did so. Her front met the smooth softness of their bed underneath her and for a moment, her heart jumped up into her throat in fear. This is how it had gone in the barn . . . in the barn with Merle. He had bent her over the haybales and she had lain there, completely helpless as he had his fun. This was the first time she had felt herself be thrown on her stomach since that afternoon - the first time that she had allowed herself to be thrown onto her stomach by a man since the attack, and even though this was Daryl and she knew it was Daryl, it was still . . . completely and irrevocably raw.
Daryl must have seen her sudden tenseness, for he leaned over her and planted a kiss on the back of her shoulder – the first soft and loving kiss that they had shared since that morning. "It's me, Tess . . . it's me . . ." He murmured and she nodded and murmured back that she knew as her hand reached behind her so that her fingers could glide into his hair. She held him close with that grip anchoring him as his lips moved to the nape of her neck. Her heart pounded in her chest when she felt his hand reach down in-between them. He started by gently rubbing and encircling her nub then and she could immediately feel herself getting wet, a fact that almost made her thank the Heavens for. His fingers were inside her then too - stretching her, teasing her. She tried very hard not to squirm but he was taking his sweet time tormenting her. She felt her anger at that fact return and her teeth gritted with the same emotion.
"Goddammit Daryl, get on with it!" She snapped before subsequently feeling the blunt head of his cock pressing against her entrance. He slowly pushed himself inside, only to immediately pull out again. He was rubbing against her - why wasn't he taking her?
Then, in one sharp but smooth thrust, Tessa found her body pushed down even more against the soft bed she was currently being pressed against, a moan tearing loose from her lips as he did so. One of his hands moved to plant in the sheets beside her head while the other grasped her hip in a firm but gentle hold and she arched her back underneath him, taking him in deeper.
He started out by moving slowly and while it certainly wasn't the fuck she had asked him for, it did give her the time she needed to adjust to him - more mentally than anything. His cock was going in slow and deep and when he brushed against something deep inside of her, she let out another small moan. She felt his hand squeeze her hips firmly in warning though, and it took her a moment to realize that he had stopped moving - an even longer moment to realize that he didn't want her to make a sound, lest one that the others could hear. She bit down on her lower lip, hoping that he would continue.
His hand returned to her hip as he resumed his fluid thrusting into her. He was going in deeper than before now - driving into her. She wanted to scream out 'faster!' but knew that she shouldn't. All she could do was bite down on her bottom lip, knowing that eventually, she would draw blood again. It also took a moment for her to numbly realize that Daryl wasn't saying much of anything at all either, although his breathing was starting to come out harsher and more irregular through his nose against her shoulder. She smirked and instinctively clenched her inner muscles together, drawing out a loud groan from him in response that betrayed just how much he was truly enjoying this. It was followed by a hard squeeze on her thighs as his hands moved down to grasp them. He spread her legs even more and this time, she had to consciously stop the moan that came so close to ripping forth from her throat.
Daryl was thrusting faster now - consistently hitting the spot inside her that made bolts of violent warmth shoot throughout her body and her hands found themselves balled into tight fists against the sheets underneath her. She bit down on her bottom lip with all she had, trying not to scream, and that time, she did manage to bring blood again.
He was making her feel so damn good . . . it was the best feeling in the world since earlier that afternoon when Daryl walked out of that shed a changed man. She was relieved to find that at least something hadn't changed. It was also made even better when – finally - she heard him making his satisfaction known.
"Ya feel so good Tess - so warm and fuckin' tight 'round me! Tell me how much ya want this, babydoll . . . tell me how much ya love me bein' inside ya!"
She tried to get the words he wanted to hear out of her mouth, but only guttural whines and whimpers would emerge instead. "Oh God, more Daryl - please! . . . You feel so good!" Another hard, slightly uneven thrust hit her sweet spot in reward and she continued blithely on. "Fuck me harder - please!" She was started to babble at that moment – to the point where she couldn't form any coherent sentences and she could practically see the grin on the face. "Want to . . . see you . . . please . . . fuck, Daryl!"
Daryl, chuckling then, stopped at her words and abruptly pulled out. A muscular arm wrapped around her waist and turned them back onto the blanketed air-mattress underneath them. This time, however, he landed on his back and brought her back down onto him seconds later, her heart free-falling into her stomach as he did so. Hands grasping tightly on to her waist, he rocked her roughly against him, the friction building deliciously between them as he rose up to kiss her, his arms wrapping around her, holding her close.
His lips found the pulse point of her neck and he started sucking on it, causing Tessa to instantly forget everything. Her head fell back and her legs wrapped around his waist as her arms wrapped around his neck. Her hips eagerly matched his speed.
"Tell me ya want this, Tess! Say it and I'll let ya come . . .!" He spoke through his harsh breathing. He was also biting down hard on the nape of her neck - a sharp, biting pain that only heightened her pleasure.
"Fuck, Daryl! I want this – I want you! Oh Goddammit, do I want you!" She obediently moaned out. She wasn't listening to anything he said, all she wanted - all she needed, was her release.
Then, he was pushing himself deeper into her and his fingers were between them rubbing her nub again – rougher this time. She suffocated her moans with a kiss to his lips as her orgasm ripped throughout her entire body with the force of a hurricane, and as she came hard on his cock, Daryl's guttural groans joined hers as he reached his peak too.
Minutes passed with them trying desperately to catch their breaths before, slowly, she lowered herself back down onto the mattress behind her, Daryl's hands on her waist helping her. Slowly, she also registered that her body was starting to feel sore, wet, and vaguely sticky, but strangely, she felt . . . content. She could feel his eyes run over her naked, heaving body as she fought to catch her breath, his hands smoothing almost reverently over the expanse of flesh, following the path of his eyes. She found that she could barely move a muscle as he slowly pulled out of her and flipped her gently back over onto her stomach, his hands immediately moving up to grasp her shoulders. She grinned, knowing that she now had her Daryl back . . . hopefully, anyway. She couldn't exactly see the bad wolf being this affectionate afterwards.
"Mmm, are you giving me a massage after such a fabulous orgasm? Of course, I'm not complaining – my back has been aching lately . . .!" Daryl chuckled behind her.
"Yeah, in case ya have forgotten, Tess, tha' amazin' orgasm wasn' exactly one-sided!" He grinned and placed his lips to her ear. "'Cause, ya did kinda need me to achieve it, remember?" She grinned and shot him a playfully imperious look over her shoulder, a look he couldn't help but grin at.
"Bullshit! I could have gotten off without you!" He gave her an amused look.
"Oh really . . .? So, what exactly happened with tha punches and those three little, not-so-innocent words ya told me earlier?" She laughed as she closed her eyes and gave herself over to the blissful feeling his callused hands expertly massaging her shoulders, gave her. She had back pain all-throughout her pregnancy with Ethan and while she was relieved that this pregnancy was different in that regard (although she completely expected the aches and pains to increase the further along she got) her back was still a little sore nonetheless. It felt great having his hands on her in such a way - massaging away the pains instead of allowing them to fester like she had done with Sam because she couldn't stand to allow anyone to touch her then.
"Yeah, that was just to make things more fun . . ."
Daryl let out a scoff of a laugh as his hands left her and he fell onto his back to the bed beside her. She turned her head to face him, trying not to allow her disappointment of his hands leaving her back to show. "Are you okay now?" She asked him and he stayed silent for a moment before shrugging, a slightly pensive expression flitting across his face then.
"I don' think I'm ever gonna be fine, Tess, jus' like ya ain' never gonna be completely fine. But again, like ya said, I jus' . . ." He shrugged again and turned to face her, a smiled tugging at the corners of his lips. "I can jus' manage to forget 'bout it for a while."
