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Chapter Sixteen
Carol was about to knock on the closed door when it was suddenly yanked open and Daryl plowed right into her.
"What the hell are you doin'?" he snapped as he steadied her with his hands at her waist.
"I was coming to check on you," she said, stepping away from him. He was in one of those moods again but she knew how to navigate them now. "You just stormed off."
"I ain't five, Carol. I've told you before that I don't need a goddamn baby sitter," he grumbled as he stalked past her.
"Oh, right, I'm sorry. I just thought, since you're throwing a tantrum that you were reverting. Why are you so upset?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest.
He spun around, thrusting his finger in the direction of the cabin. "Because those people don't need to be here. It's just more mouths to feed. You saw that yuppy fuck. People like that wouldn't piss on people like us if we were on fire. Why the hell should we waste our resources on them?"
"Because they have kids with them. We can't turn away kids, Daryl. You didn't turn me and Sophia away," she said, trying to placate him so he would look at this from her point of view.
"That's different," he barked, giving her a look like she was an idiot.
"No,actually, it isn't. You didn't turn us away and you could have."
"We came here together. Me and you fought to get here together. That meant that the plan was to fuckin' stay that way once it was over. You didn't pop up out of nowhere in some big expensive car wearin' a suit and tie and beggin' for scraps. I brought you here with me!"
She would be a liar if she tried to say that the way he said the word together didn't send an electric thrill through her body. She pushed the thoughts aside and pushed on, needing him to be okay with this. At least for now. "I don't know. I think you'd be impressed with how well I could pull off a suit and tie. I think you'd be begging me to try some of your rabbit stew."
He eyed her but she saw some of that anger fade. "You won't be sayin' that when our own kids are goin' hungry because we're wasting our food on them," he said, still angry.
She decided to change tactics and move on to faze two. "Haven't you heard?" She asked, tilting her head to the side and smiling. "Some extremely talented, ruggedly sexy man just taught me how to hunt. We won't run out of food."
"Stop it," he grumbled, turning on his heel.
She saw the blush before he could get turned all the way so she decided to mark this as another win. She was learning how to handle him. It wasn't too difficult. Especially once she stopped being afraid of him. She hurried to his side, not wanting to bring this up just yet but feeling like she needed to. She grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"What now?"
She bit her lip, saw his eyes slide down and linger there on her mouth and then she remembered that look he had given her back there at the fire before the newcomers had shown up. "I'm not sure if it's anything really but I wanted to talk to you about it anyway."
His eyes shot back up to hers. "What?"
"I don't know. I just don't feel very comfortable around this Richard guy and I know you, it isn't something I would be able to hide from you once we got back up there so I thought I would lay it all out here now."
This got his attention. "What the fuck are you talkin' about? Did he say somethin' to you?"
Carol's eyes widened. "No, nothing like that. It was more his wife. I feel like maybe..." She felt stupid now that she was voicing this out loud. But in that brief moment that the man's wife met her eyes, she recognized something there. Something she saw a lot every time she looked in the mirror when her marriage had been at it's worst.
"Tell me," he demanded, quiet fury in his voice.
She shook her head. "I just think that maybe we should keep an eye on him, that's all. I think that he may not treat her very well. It could just be me though. I don't know these people and I don't want to judge so soon. You and your brother are doing just fine with that."
"What makes you say that?" He asked, studying her closely.
She shook her head, not wanting to open up this can of worms.
"Bullshit. Why do you just assume, after seeing them for all of two minutes, that he don't treat her right?"
He wasn't going to let this go. "Because I know the look. I used to wear it every day, okay?"
His eyes hardened and he closed the distance, his lips set in a thin hard line and his nostrils flaring slightly. "You keep your fuckin' ass away from him. I mean it. He looks at you for too long and I'll put a fucking bolt in his head in front of his whole goddamn family."
Her eyes went wide. She was used to seeing him upset. It didn't take a whole lot to set him off but she hadn't ever seen actual anger. Not like this. "It's probably nothing," she said quickly, wishing she hadn't said anything at all. She really hadn't expected him to react so harshly but she should have.
He held her gaze for a few more moments and then surprised her when he gripped her hand and turned to stalk away with her in tow. At least, for once, it was someone else that inadvertently earned his anger.
~H~
Daryl saw their point. He really did. That didn't mean he had to like it. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he could send a couple of hungry kids packing, but he wasn't the one that made the last call so if he wanted to pitch a fit over this mess, he damn sure would do exactly that.
Merle was still sitting outside with the newcomers but Daryl really hadn't expected him to leave them to their own devices. Merle would keep an eye on them. They seemed harmless enough, sure, but you couldn't be too careful in this world anymore. All eyes came up, the new people turned their heads and continued eating while Merle, Damon and the girls stared at them with wide eyes. He realized then that he still had a grip on Carol's hand. He wanted to drop it but he didn't. She didn't drop his either so that was something anyway.
He was planning on going straight to the cabin but he stopped when Merle asked the guy why the hell he was dressed like that. His answer had Daryl scowling and turning back to the group.
"I'm a... was a Senator," he said, like someone should be impressed.
Merle snorted. "Well, ain't this somethin'. Looks like the big shots of the world ain't faring as well as the scum, huh? I mean, here you are, fancy suit, nice ride. I bet it even has one of those proud parent of an honor roll student bumper sticker on the back, huh?" He grinned.
"Merle," Carol said, her voice quiet.
Merle looked up and shook his head. "What?"
Carol glanced at the little girl pointedly and he glanced down, frowning. Daryl understood why Merle was being so... Merle. Carol probably thought he was being an asshole. Actually he was but if there was anything that Dixons trusted less than the police, it was the fucking Government.
He wasn't going to be the one to deal with any of this. He looked at Carol and motioned towards the cabin. "We're losin' light. Let's get the hell down there so you can do what you need to do."
"Should we do that right now?" She asked, glancing at Merle.
His head moved closer to her. "Yeah. You don't wanna be here when Merle really starts and you sure as hell don't want me to be here to chime in with him."
She gave him a look and then shook her head. "Fine."
"Fine," he said gruffly and pulled her around the side of the cabin. He finally dropped her hand once the door closed behind them. He knew how this was going to sound but he needed to say it anyway. Maybe she would think less of him. Maybe she wouldn't. Either way he had to say it. "I know you got a soft spot for kids, okay. But those people need to move on first light in the mornin'."
Her hands went to her hips. "Daryl. It isn't that I have a soft spot for children. It's that people need to help one another now more than they did before."
He shook his head, needing her to understand. "I don't think that's true. I think we need to watch out for ourselves. We don't know those people. You already said that you didn't trust the guy. Well, it was a good call. Greasy politician. The whole family is fuckin' weird and we can't save everybody. We gotta make sure we have what we need for our own damn family."
"You weren't watching out for yourself when you offered to let me stay here with my daughter. I don't understand wh-"
"I don't either!" He snapped, being completely honest. "You're different. They ain't. They need to go."
"What do you mean, I'm different?"
He snorted. "Our fucking world exploded and it was just me and you there to watch it. I didn't know if my family was alive. You didn't know if your daughter was alive. All that time, it was me and you. That makes it different. For a little while we were the only goddamn people alive in the world."
She nodded. "I understand that. I do. But do we really have to turn them out. Look at them. They won't survive out there."
He ran a hand through his hair and didn't pull away when she reached up and smoothed it back down. The touch was actually calming.
"Daryl, please. It isn't about that man or his wife. It's about..."
He growled cutting her off. "Goddamn it."
Her eyes were wide and pleading but he had a really bad feeling about this and he trusted his gut.
"She's only eight years old."
"Okay. I'll talk to my brother. But I'm tellin' you, if that man steps out of line one time, one of us will kill him. And that'll be on you."
"I'll talk to him myself. I'll explain to him-"
"No," he deadpanned. He knew just from what she said earlier that she'd been through enough bullshit with men. She didn't need to get involved.
"What do you mean, no?" She asked, frowning.
"Don't give me any feminist bullshit okay? You want them? Fine, but you stay the hell away from him until I decide it's safe."
"Daryl you can't-"
"I swear to Christ if you give me any shit over this I'll haul them up, put them in that fancy SUV and I'll send them packin' now."
She looked like she was thinking about it but finally nodded. "Fine. All I want to know is, why? It isn't like the man is going to do anything with you and Merle around. Hell, even Damon is more dangerous than he is."
He scowled. "Can't you just say okay and leave it at that?"
"Of course not."
He shook his head and stepped around her. "Lets just get this over with before we lose light." He couldn't answer her question because he didn't have an answer. He didn't know why her safety was becoming something that he put before everything else. He didn't know why his first thought when he heard the damn SUV pulling up was about whether this was going to be a danger to her. He simply didn't know. He didn't like it. He hated it. He hated caring. He hated the fact that she was the last person that he thought about when he went to sleep and the first fucking person he thought about when he woke up.
Most of all he hated the fact that he didn't know how to let her know that he felt anything at all.