A/N: I have been so busy lately, so I apologize for the lateness of this post!
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Daryl...Daryl...
A gentle murmur escaped his lips in a faint manner, eyelids peeking open to see Olive's shirtless figure sleeping soundly with her back facing him. Daryl smiled at the sight of her smooth, streamlined skin, the broad shoulders folded forward slightly and the crease in her hips indicating her sleeping position was a curled one.
He shifted closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her frigid form towards himself. The sheet was pulled upward to wrap around the pair of them and he remembered her reasoning for being sans shirt.
During the night, Olive had been thrown into a fit of fever sweats as her body tried to break her high temperatures. She had shed her shirt to cool off and was now chilled. Daryl kept her close to himself to keep her warm as she slept.
Hours later - or was it merely minutes? - Olive groaned as she began to stir and Daryl was instantly awakened at the sound of her.
"How're ya feelin'?" he asked from his lips' position beside her ear.
Olive sighed, nestling herself between his arms more comfortably. "Better than last night," she answered, and he could feel her shiver.
"At least yer fever's broken."
She nodded. "True." She then grew silent and Daryl became worried about her, so he pulled her even deeper within his embrace. "I have a bad feeling about today."
"About us?"
"No. It's general."
"...I won't leave ya."
Olive's eyes fluttered closed, moving a hand up to clasp around his wrists and hold them around her. "I know. I don't want you to."
Daryl nuzzled his nose into the side of her neck, lightly pressing his lips there. "I won't. Not again."
Olive rolled over within his arms, coiling her own limbs around him and burying her body amid his element, his existence.
"I need to shower," she mumbled into his skin. "Wanna join me?"
Daryl nodded, pushing his lips into her hair and against her scalp. "Of course."
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Initially, the shower water felt like Hades to her icy flesh, but soon she warmed up to it and felt the muscles in her abdomen and in her lower back slowly begin to soothe themselves to relaxation.
Daryl's presence with her certainly nudged this process along and encouraged it to full fruition. The broad calloused palms he bore were gently massaging the bar of soap into her skin to help clean her. She shampooed her hair gently before turning around to face him, doing the same with his own hair. Gingerly, she wrapped the length of his locks around her fingertips and kept them there, examining them.
"What is it?" he asked, letting the suds caress her shoulders.
"I'm going to give you a haircut today," she said with a gentle smile.
He grinned and then chuckled. "Are ya now?" When she nodded, he gave a light shake of his head. "Well, then, I ain't gon' object to that."
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Olive could feel the humidity in the thickened air within the prison prevent her hair from fully drying - at least, not in the way she had wanted it to. Instead of allowing it to stick to her neck and the places where her shoulders lay bared from her tank top, she gathered it into a side braid and knotted a bit of torn t-shirt around its base.
Heading down to the main level, she could see Maggie sitting by herself. Attempting to show hospitality she'd never shown before, Olive smiled in her direction, not hardly surprised when she received a brief one in return.
"How are you doing, Maggie?" Olive asked gingerly.
"I am doing as well as I can," was Maggie's blunt, sad reply.
"You know what I mean."
Maggie's face turned dark and she closed her book, standing from the table. "I don't want to talk about that - "
"Wait, Maggie, please." Maggie's back was turned to her, but she stopped walking. Olive frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just...I wanted you to know that...know that you're not alone."
Maggie turned back to face her, her eyes wide with questions. "Not alone?"
Olive nodded slowly, pausing before she spoke again. "Not at all. I wanted to tell you - "
"Tell me what?"
Olive took a seat across from where Maggie had been seated, folding her hands together on the table. " - what happened to me in Woodbury, if you'll hear it."
Maggie returned to where she'd been sitting prior. "Only if you wanna tell me."
Olive nodded. "I'll tell you. I had just lost my sister..."
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I had wandered for days on end. I had no real direction anymore, nothing worth keeping alive. I had no reason...nothing.
The spokes of Olive's pitchfork caught against clumps of grass as she dragged it along the ground with her. Her shoulders, once erect, were now slumped over in defeat. If one were to spot her from far off, they would most assuredly assume she was just another Walker but for the pitchfork in her hand and the knapsack on her back.
When she happened upon the walls of Woodbury, she hardly noticed that she was being taken captive by some of the brutes therein. Olive did not speak to them.
What would I say to them even if I could speak? Would I tell them of my loss? Fuck no. Everyone in this new age has losses to tell of - why should I burden someone else with my problems? Nobody gave a damn. Not even me.
Olive sat in the chair, the only piece of furniture in the room save for another chair just across from her. While she did not notice much, she did take a mental note that the two chairs did not match. Aside from that fact, Olive's eyes refused to waiver from their point-blank stare just ahead.
Another entered the room and she did not budge an inch. She could sense that it was a man's presence, but she knew no more than that.
"What's your name?" the man said, his voice deep and slightly gravelly. Olive did not answer. "You have a name, I hope?" Again, silence. "Come on, girl, give me some kind of sign of life."
"I breathe, do I not?" Olive answered blankly.
"There you are." A long pause ensued between them.
"If you're going to kill me, do it quickly."
The man chuckled a kind of sickly, sinister sound that turned Olive's stomach to rot. "I don't intend to kill you - you are far too pretty to kill." Another pause. "Come to think of it, you look familiar."
Since I hadn't looked at him yet, there was no way that I could've remembered him for the moment. Still, he was so incredibly stricken by my presence that it was completely unnerving.
"Look at me - don't make me force you."
I recall the emphasis he put on the word 'force.' I don't think I'll ever forget that...
Olive turned her eyes up to look at him, her weary browns blinking a few times to regain clarity.
"I remember you now. You're Frank Norton's daughter."
I remembered him. He had worked with my father some years ago when I was about twelve. How he remembered me was an amazing thing, but it bothered me that I had come full-circle in my bouts of acquaintances.
Olive swallowed, her heart skipping a beat when she remembered him. "I know your name, but do people in your group know it?"
His face darkened and Olive's head spun. "They think they do, but if you tell, I just may have to rid everyone of your pretty face." He paused, shifting forward to place his elbows on his knees. "Where is the rest of your group?"
Olive's gaze fell. "All dead except me."
"Even your father?" When Olive nodded, the man clicked his tongue. "Pity. Now, we have some...rules around here, Olive Norton. I expect them to be followed - is that understood?" She did not answer, but he continued on regardless. "If you do not follow my rules, at the very least you will be sent away. If it's a larger offense...well..."
"I'm good with rules."
"I hope so. Now, where lodging is concerned, you could bunk with me. It does get awfully lonely, and it's not as if we're entirely strangers."
What the fuck kind of offer was that?! I hadn't seen him since I was sixteen.
Olive shook her head. "I would like to have my own bed if it's all the same to you."
"I'm afraid I won't take no for an answer. It seems my bed is too empty and some people here don't take me seriously as a leader without a strong woman at my side. When my men found you, all they could seem to say of you was that you are strong. I remember you - the bull-headed girl skipping about her father's office, begging for her older brother to go rollerblading with her." Olive's stomach riled and tears welled in her eyes at the memory of her brother.
Who the fuck did this guy think he was? I knew him as Philip Blake, a man my father had long been friends with before the world went to shit. He knew me. He wanted me.
"Please stop."
"Only if you say yes."
"I won't."
Again, he clicked his tongue. "Come now, Olive. You know that a warm bed to come home to is the best thing."
"I've never known such a thing."
The man's brows rose. "A virgin? Even after all that's happened?"
Olive nodded slowly. "Especially after what has happened."
"You think it's merely coincidence that you ended up with me after all this time?"
"I'd rather not think about it."
"No..." Quickly rising from his chair, he rushed to her, kneeling in front of her and clutching her chin in his grip. "...you'll definitely think about it. You have to. Our life here is the only chance you have. Don't waste it on being a prude."
"It's not prudency - I just don't have the will to be with anyone like that - "
"Ah. You value survival above everything else." He moved in closer. "Usually, I bring new people into the room they'll be staying in, but when my men mentioned how lovely you are, I had to...sequester you until I had seen you for myself. I told you I have been lonely..."
"...please, Philip. Please." Olive trembled beneath his grasp, struggling to stay strong. "Let me be in peace."
"No, I don't think I will, not until you give me what it is that I want from you."
...sociopath. This man is demented...
"Do you treat all women here like this?"
He chuckled again, this time containing a darker air. "Just you."
"Because you knew me?"
"No." His grin subsided and his pupils enlarged. "Because you knew me." Grabbing her throat in one of his strong hands, he lifted her from the chair and kicked the chair aside. Olive refused to whimper as he quickly pushed her back to the cement floor. With knees on either side of hers, he tied a bandanna tightly around her wrists to keep her hands locked behind her.
He removed her clothes by literally tearing them from her. Olive bit into her bottom lip to keep from crying out as a lump formed in her throat to prevent her from breathing normally. Philip unclasped her bra and threw it to the side as well, his hungry, lustful gaze peering down at her bared chest. With each of his hands he palmed them harshly and she shuddered, her body trembling and her chin quivering as the tears fell quickly and silently.
"And now you'll be mine...finally."
The emphasis he placed on that last word - that fateful 'finally' - signalled to me that he had been thinking of me perversely since I was young...since he knew he before...the sick, evil son of a bitch.
Flipping Olive over, he placed her bare-chested against the cold reality of the cement, the rest of her bared for him. She could not turn her gaze to look at him, but when the tinkling sound of metal could be heard, she knew what was happening and, moreover, what was about to happen to her.
Olive's eyes stung with the hot tears streaming directly from them. Her vision blurred and in a moment, she could feel the sharp pressure of something down below her waist.
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Maggie's mouth hung open as Oive paused in her story, unsure of what to say to console her or to apologize for what had happened to her.
"So, he...he raped you?" she asked, wanting clarification.
Olive hesitated for a moment before answering. "More or less."
"Either he did or he didn't."
Olive sighed. "He entered me and only got a few thrusts in before Merle burst in. He didn't know what was happening until he came in the room. When he finished talking to the Governor, he left. Philip pulled out of me and hurried out, calling the town together to whisper that I was a whore and that I'd corrupt their children."
Maggie shook her head, her chin quivering softly. "I'm so sorry for what happened to you."
Olive nodded, a sign of her thanks for the sentiment. "I just wanted you to know that you're not alone."
"I'm not...but I feel like maybe you are."
Olive gave her a small smile. "I have Daryl."
Maggie reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "...and me."
Olive squeezed Maggie's hand, more than appreciative to have a new confidant.
"Hey," Daryl said to the two of them as he entered the area. He didn't say anything else, merely nodding his head in the direction of the courtyard. Maggie and Olive stood from the table, readying to follow him. Olive quickly slung her knapsack onto her back, following him in haste to the courtyard where she could then spot what it was that he wished them to see. Just inside of their fenced grass plain beyond the garden patch just slightly was a tank, several humvees, armed civilians, and the Governor.
Olive squinted slightly in the light of the sun, spotting two familiar faces at the Governor's feet - Michonne and Hershel. They had been on body detail, taking Walkers to the outlying woods to burn them. Apparently, he had nabbed them while they were near and now they were hostages.
Maggie whimpered from beside Olive and she turned to face her friend, placing her hand on the arm of the other. "He'll be fine," she murmured, barely moving her lips so the others out there couldn't tell that she was talking. "It'll be okay."
"You know that man better than anyone here - do you know he won't hurt my dad?" Maggie whispered, following Olive's pattern of barely moving her lips.
Olive frowned, shooting Daryl an extremely worried look. "Daryl, we need guns."
"Be right back," he said softly, slipping back a bit before Olive grasped his vest to keep him close for a moment longer.
"Grab your bag while you're there."
Daryl's brow scrunched, unsure of why she was asking that of him, but he nodded regardless, slipping away unnoticed.
"Daddy..." Beth managed gently before Maggie silenced her.
"He'll be okay, Bethy," she comforted.
Rick patted Carl on the back before giving him his gun and stepping into the fenced area with his hands up in surrender.
"Here," Daryl said as he returned, standing directly behind Olive and handing her one of the semi-automatics he had found. He nudged the other one into Maggie's side, discreetly giving it to her as his eyes noticed Rick speaking to the Governor. "Can you hear him?"
Olive nodded. "He's telling Phillip that he doesn't need to do this," she whispered to him. "He's taken Michonne's katana and he's threatened to kill one of them...Daryl, I don't think both will survive this."
That last part she spoke in a volume that only he could hear. Daryl rubbed her back softly, keeping close to her. "I think yer right, but just wait..." he responded, his mouth beside her ear.
The Governor unsheathed the blade and the Greene girls drew sharp breaths, nobody moving while Rick said something they couldn't hear. The blade was placed just beside Hershel's neck and did not move for a watching waited, unmoving, all holding their breaths.
Olive studied the Governor's mouth, watching with a skipping heartbeat as his lips formed the word "never" and with the sheen of the blade catching the sunlight as he drew his arms back and swung the blade, instantly slicing partially through Hershel's neck.
The Greene sisters howled out their cries and all opened fire. Within all the flashes, the tank drove towards the courtyard, running part of it down while the gunfire began drawing Walkers into the prison walls and the onto the cement nearby.
"Daryl, they're surrounding us," Olive said over the firefight taking place. Walkers growled and howled, bodies dropping to the ground and artillery attempting to fire through the walls of C-Block. Bricks clunking against the cement signalled the demolishing of the prison they had once found safe.
"We need to go - Glenn!" Maggie screamed, clearing her path as she found her way through the rubble to nab her fiance and make certain his safety. Beth was cut off from them, regrouping near where Sasha and Bob were fending off the Governor's civilian army.
"We need to leave - the prison's lost," Olive said to her love, grabbing him and attempting to pull him away.
Daryl removed the arrow he'd fired into a Walker's skull, backing away from the devastation being caused on the grounds where they'd once had peace. With his eyes wide open, he looked towards the spot where he and Olive had shared a sweet kiss towards the beginning of their relationship - that area was now saturated in the blood of the deceased.
His chin quivered as he turned, looking at his love as he put the strap of his bag over his shoulder and together they fled what remained of the overrun prison, not daring to look back.