Chapter Fourteen

Daryl slept like the dead that first night. He had braced the door of the shack with a chair just in case something tried to get inside. He hadn't had time to think about anything since as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. He hadn't been too tired to dream, however, and when he woke up he was almost too embarrassed to go back up to the cabin.

He had never had dreams so vivid in his life. They had been so vivid, in fact, that when he woke up, he had actually reached out to see if she was still there. When he discovered she wasn't, for a few long moments, he had even assumed that she had walked out just as quietly as she had walked in. When he finally realized that the whole thing had been nothing but a dream, he had almost been disappointed.

That was seven days ago. They had been living in relative peace for seven whole days. They had no idea what the hell was going on off the mountain and none of them even brought up going down to check. Daryl didn't feel the need to go anywhere but he knew they would have to eventually but he didn't want to be the one to tell the others that. It was good that they were taking the time to simply breathe and try to adjust to all of the changes they were being forced to go through.

"Do you know how much laundry I have to do? I don't have time to do all the washing, all the cooking, all the cleaning and learn to hunt food on top of that. This is just taking me away from things that need to be done that the rest of you don't want to do."

She had been grumbling over the fire earlier about how she felt like Caroline Ingalls. She had been cooking breakfast and hadn't heard him coming up behind her. He had asked who Caroline Ingalls was and she had grudgingly explained to him that she was a pioneer woman that was stuck with all the house work.

He looked over and shrugged. "You don't wanna be stuck with all the cleaning, so you can learn how to do somethin' else. It'll be good for you."

"Does that mean that it'll be good for you if next I give you a lesson on stain removal?" she grumbled.

He snorted. "You'll thank me some day when you ain't starvin'."

"But you do all the hunting," she said, shouldering the rifle. "I'm not a good shot."

"Stop fuckin' whining and walk. I'm doin' you a favor."

She rolled her eyes. "A favor?"

He nodded and let her walk a few feet ahead of him on the narrow path. "Yeah. A favor."

"Can you elaborate?"

He sighed. "Say you're down there on your own at the creek washing clothes. Now, you know how to use a rifle but me and you both know that you suck. Say three of those things come out of the woods? With as shitty as you shoot, how you gonna bring any of them down?"

She shrugged. "Exactly my point, Daryl. I'm not any good with a gun. I can hardly hit a still target and I think we both know this is pointless."

"Well, we're runnin' out of food fast. You either shoot somethin' or you get to go back and tell those kids that they're going hungry tonight."

She stopped and spun around, her arms crossing over her chest. Anger flashed in her eyes. It was what he wanted to see. She was changing and he was fascinated. She wasn't so timid anymore. She wasn't constantly second guessing herself and she wasn't always apologizing for things that really weren't her fault. "You'd let the kids starve just to get a rise out of me?"

He shook his head and watched a bead of sweat slide down her neck, over her collar bone and disappear at the low cut collar of the tank top she was wearing. "I'm not plannin' on letting anyone starve. You ain't gonna take this shit seriously until you have to. Now you have to. I'm not huntin' right now. You are. If you don't then the kids go hungry. You're the type of woman that needs to be pushed. This is me pushing."

Her hands went to her hips and his eyes followed. She was forced to wear clothes that were way out of her comfort zone. Clingy shirts and jeans that made it hard for him to concentrate. "This is stupid," she grumbled.

He shrugged.

"You're being a stubborn asshole."

He shrugged again.

She glared and finally turned around, stalking further down the path. He grinned and glanced down, allowing himself to focus on the sway of her hips and the way her jeans clung to her ass for just a second before he sidled up next to her. Their arms brushed and the small contact had his mind going to places he usually reserved for when he was alone in the shack.

He kept his eyes focused ahead of them, even though his body was hyper aware of her proximity. Up ahead he spotted a fat rabbit crouched down next to the path and slightly downhill. He grabbed her elbow, stopping her and then pointed.

She looked up at him, blue eyes pleading. He shook his head. She wanted him to make the kill but she needed to get better with that gun. If she thought that it was all up to her to get food back to the kids then she would probably be able to shoot something. It was just how her mind worked. But he also knew if she did make the shot, it would give her the confidence she needed and would be able to get better from there. "I'll miss the shot, Daryl," she barely whispered.

He sighed and stepped behind her, swallowing hard. His hands went to her hips and he leaned in so his lips were next to her ear. "You ain't gonna miss the shot. Not this time. Now, sights," he whispered. He was torturing himself but goddamn if it wasn't a sweet kind of torture.

She slowly brought the gun up and peered down the barrel, lining up the shot. "Okay."

"Breathe."

She took a deep breath, holding it for a few moments.

As soon as she was ready to exhale he pressed his fingertips into her, "Squeeze."

The slight recoil had her jerking against him and he had to drop his hands and step back. His eyes took in the area and then landed on the rabbit and he felt a slow smile. "I did it," she breathed, adjusting the rifle so it hung from her back again.

"See. You just work better under pressure," he said.

She turned so she was facing him, a grin lighting her face. "I just killed a rabbit."

He nodded and then he grunted, stumbling back slightly when she slammed into him. Her arms were around his neck and he clenched his jaw tightly as she bounced excitedly. His arms went around her, if for no other reason than to keep her still. He was already having enough trouble with his body's response to her without her hopping up and down all over him.

She pulled away, flashed him one more grin and then started down the slight incline towards her first kill. He was glad she had been able to do it. He liked seeing her happy. At first it bothered him that he gave a damn one way or another but now he just accepted it for what it was. She was his friend. A person other than his family that gave a damn about him and appreciated him. He liked her. He could ignore the physical attraction if it meant that he could enjoy brief moments like this, where all her walls were down and she smiled like that.

~H~

He was proud of her. She could see it in his eyes when he looked at her and it made her want to go right back out there and hint some more. And he was right. He was teaching her how to better take care of their family and that was important, she was important here and she was important to him. It was such a good feeling.

The rabbit wasn't very hard to clean, which was something she had been worried about. He showed her what cuts to make and the best way to get to the meat. She wasn't disgusted. She was excited to learn. She wanted to learn more and she knew that he could teach her. He knew everything. She had never met anyone so skilled in the art of basic survival.

Ed had boasted often about how competent he would be if it ever came down to him surviving off the land but Carol knew he was full of it. He was a lazy insufferable abusive coward and she never believed he was capable of much. Daryl didn't boast about anything, even though he could have. She had also overheard Ed boast about his sexual prowess to his drunken buddies when in all actuality, the man had never gotten remotely close to pleasing her in bed.

She glanced over as she stirred the stew in the pot. Daryl was working on making more bolts for his crossbow, his head bowed slightly as his hand skillfully slid the knife over the sliver of wood. He was good with his hands. Everything he did, he did with a single minded focus. She had no doubt that he would bring that focus into the bedroom.

His hands stilled and she looked up at his face, startled that he was giving her an odd look. She licked her lips and looked back down at the stew that was close to boiling over. She cursed and then took the pot off the fire.

When she looked back up he was working on the bolt again but she could see the slight upturn of his lips. She needed to stop thinking about him like that. It wasn't easy though. Everything he did seemed to draw her attention. Like the way he was a little shy and more than a little introverted but still carried himself with a self assured swagger. And Jesus, the ass on that man. Even in those baggy threadbare cargo pants he was so fond of, it was still worth staring at.

"It's early. You still wanna take some clothes down to the creek?" He asked without looking up.

She really did need to get some laundry done. She was on her last clean outfit from the suitcase. She wasn't sure what the hell had happened to the clothes she had worn when they had gotten here but they had vanished. "I should. You can go up stream and take a bath and I can wash your clothes. They're filthy and so are you."

He scowled. "I'll pass."

She heard the others coming around the side of the cabin and sighed loudly. "You're just like a child."

He sat the knife down and stood up, looking down at her. "And you're just like a nag. You wanna go down there or not?"

She shrugged and handed him a bowl. "I suppose." She filled her own bowl and sat down next to him. It was something that had become habit. They ate together every night. Merle didn't bother staring at them anymore and no one else commented on it. The kids usually took their meal and ate inside, complaining about bugs but Carol suspected they just didn't want to hang out with the grown ups. Either way, this was normal, this was life and this was home and she enjoyed it.