Love's Long Road Chapter 27, a walking dead fanfic

A/N Thank you so much everyone :) Well those boys are back safe and sound, we've met the militia and it seems we're on common ground regarding the governor. Now what?

As they drive away from the prison Abraham feels the anger coming off Rosita like steam, but his words aren't exactly dripping honey, "C'mon now Sweetcheeks, at least wait until I've had a chance to mess around before you get mad."

"You're a giant red-headed douchebag Abraham."

"I am that and worse, you're right, but let's take a minute here while you come clean. You and I both know you've been done with my red ass for a while now, you were just waiting for someone else to come along. Tonight it sure looked like someone did."

"Maybe Caesar's different, maybe he'd appreciate me."

"Oh no now, you just wait a fat minute. I have appreciated the holy living shit out of you from every possible angle. It's gonna take your new lover boy a while to appreciate you in all the ways I have."

"I still have to decide if I'm even giving him the chance to be my lover. I wish I would have thought longer about giving you the chance, now that I know what an ass you truly are."

"I can't deny that I'm a card carrying member of the Assholian Tribe, that's a fact. Head shitbird. Now that we're in agreement on all that, let's talk about the business of survival. What did you think about these prison people?"

She shrugs, "They seem like an honest group, and all of them somehow managed to survive the biggest blowout the world has ever seen, but they don't have the same mindset as the Freebirds. They're also not the kind of highly trained soldiers the Freebirds are, although you can tell a couple of them are genuine asskickers."

"Lemme guess, that big one, Merle, his brother Daryl and the one you've got your eye on."

"Yes to all of them, and I'd bet the sheriff puts up a helluva fight. Then there's Oscar and that big football player Tyrese. Just the size of those guys makes me feel pretty confident they can hold their own in a good old-fashioned street fight."

"I have no argument with that. So how do feel about teaming up with them to take out the governor?"

"If something goes wrong, if you don't get your chance to break his head open before all hell breaks loose, and it turns into an all-out battle, then the more soldiers we have the better. The prison fighters will be good to have as backup."

"Well see there? At least we're on the same page about that shit. I wouldn't mind having those Dixon brothers in our camp full-time, but I got the feeling they're not joiners. They'd be hard to keep in line and they're liable to wander off at any time."

"Yeah, I got that feeling too."

"We'll see the key players at our own camp in a couple of days. Maybe when they're on our turf we can get a clearer read on them. But no matter what, I think once this mission is complete, we'll all just go our own separate ways, we can admire each other from afar."

"Except for you and that Sasha chick."

"And you and that Caesar dude."

"Done."

"C'mon Rick, you know I love Carl, and I don't think there's any question about how much I love you, but why should that mean I can only sit and wait, or sit and watch when things happen? I'd like to do more to help the family. I want to be part of the reason we survive. After what we heard from Caesar, and what I heard tonight, I especially want to help win this battle with the governor."

The man's face isn't much good at hiding his feelings, and right now Rick's face clearly shows how tortured he is, "I…dammit Amy, I know you're smart, capable, and you picked up knife throwing like you were born to do it, shit, you're much better already than I'll ever be, and you're a good shot. Merle trained you right. It's just…"

"I know exactly what it is Rick, you're scared. You've lost too many people already. I get that, I don't blame you for it, but I want to help and I'm going to figure out the best way I can do that Rick. I know I can fight for us and still manage to stay out of harm's way, and when we're rid of this guy, then I'll be more than happy and content to stay right here picking tomatoes, making quilts and having your babies."

He nearly chokes on the air he's breathing, "My babies?"

She smiles, "Don't panic quite yet, so far it's just you, me and Carl."

The big copper kettle full of canning jars is sitting just above the fire and the water is about to begin boiling. Meanwhile Beth's busy filling another 16 jars with the luscious fresh peaches. As soon as she takes one batch of jars out, another goes in.

It's going to be a very long day. Day? Who's she kidding? She'll be standing right in this same spot tomorrow doing this same work, until it's finally done. Behind her are baskets filled with fresh corn and green beans, just waiting for their turn to be processed. Daryl has already carried most of the apples and potatoes down to the root cellar. She'll only can a few of those.

Yesterday he helped her can the meat he harvested, two deer. Later today, just before dusk, he'll be out trying to get them at least one more. She's hoping for some grouse or guinea hens too. They've managed to find some chickens and get them back in the coop, but they won't eat them, they want the eggs more than the meat. They've also got geese and ducks they keep for eggs and meat.

Although working by a fire in this oppressive heat is pretty miserable, it could be worse. She's so grateful Daryl built her this makeshift outdoor kitchen with an overhang for shade. It makes so much more sense than doing the canning in the kitchen and heating up the whole house. Good Lord it's warm enough in there. At least out here there's an occasional light breeze.

Beth's hands and back ache from the task but she smiles and says a little prayer of thanks, she's so grateful for this year's bountiful harvest and to have this life with Daryl.

She looks over to the near pasture, sees him there and smiles at the sight of him. Daryl never seems to quit, and talk about backbreaking work. He's working that plow through the soil by hand. They used to live in a modern world, now it's more like they live in 1800. They agree, they don't mind. The life they have is good, and the love they feel for one another gets stronger every day.

She hopes that someday soon he'll at least have a horse to help with the plowing and other chores.

As luck would have it, they found a sweet little orphaned foul not long ago. It's hard to say what became of the little guy's mama. It could have been walkers, or hungry people, or the mare may have simply died of natural causes. Whatever happened, she left a perfect little baby behind.

She and Daryl knew when they found him his odds of survival were slim, still they had to try so they brought the baby home anyway. They've hand fed it, nurtured it and the little fella is now strong and sound. They named him Blue and Daryl's even started to train him.

Daryl must feel her eyes on him, he looks in her direction and raises his hand in a quick wave, she waves back and they both return to their chores. This is the work they do, this is how they live; this is how they survive.

Her mind isn't yet fully awake, it's caught somewhere between the farm life of her dream and the reality of this room in a prison, then she smiles as she feels the power and warmth of his strong arms wrapped around her.

His face is nuzzled in her hair, his hand fondling her breast when he softly whispers, "Mornin' Baby," and Beth feels a wave of desire rush through her body, spurred by both his words and his touch. She's still basking in the deep love and appreciation she felt for him in her dream as they make a sweet, slow and sleepy kind of love. Afterward they lay quietly in one another's arms, neither of them is anxious to leave the other or their cozy bed.

She watches him as he rises. His beautiful body so badly scarred, and no longer just from his father's cruelty. Some of those scars are from far more recent encounters. Just like in her dream he never complains, he just keeps doing whatever needs to be done.

He turns his head and smiles down at her, "Farmin' begins today, huh?"

"Yes, but I'd much rather be going on this run with you."

"How bout the pig? Did ya forget? What I didn't get soakin' in the curing salt I gotta cut n wrap 'fore I go?"

"No, I didn't forget at all and I plan to help you with that." She smiles adding, "And I can't wait to eat pork roast tonight."

"Yeah, me too. Maybe while me n Merle are out I'll come across some deer or sumthin', we could can that."

She smiles again, "You could butcher it, I could can it." Then she borrows an idea from her dream, "If you should happen to come across ducks, geese, guinea hens, all of them lay eggs, it would be nice to have eggs again."

"Yeah, well if they're out there I'll get 'em," he reaches out a hand to her, she takes it and he helps her to her feet, draws her close and says, "I'll try'n find ya whatever ya want."

She has no doubt he'll do just that. She hurries to catch up with him, quickly putting on her most worn clothes, the ones that should probably go in the rag bag. She's got what will no doubt be a messy and dirty day ahead, why ruin what are still good clothes.

The first thing they do is have some breakfast, then get right to processing the pig. Daryl butchers the animal while she helps to trim and does the wrapping. Karen helps with the wrapping too. She has experience helping her Daddy wrap game meat. The scrap meat and good fat that's been set aside will then be ground and end up mixed with venison for hamburger.

With so many hands helping it shouldn't take too long. Then Daryl and Merle will leave on their run, looking for more food, specifically sugar, flour, spices and canned goods, including canned drinks, and anything else the family can use. Now that they've formed a relationship with the militia, maybe they'll even come across goods they can trade.

While Merle and Daryl are gone, Beth, Maggie and Herschel will be overseeing the farming operation. Rick's already got those boys who want so badly to be grownups helping with a grownup task. Axel, Oscar and Tyrese are helping to. It's no easy job getting all that grass dug up. They've been hauling it by wheelbarrow out to the back, near where the kids slipped out from under the fence.

They're very careful not to block access to that spot though. They've decided it's a good idea to make an escape route right there, sometime they may all need to run. Oscar seems to have some pretty good ideas about how people can break in and out of prison unnoticed, "It wasn't me, but I heard a lot of stories." Once the farm work is well underway, and the battle with the governor is no longer hanging over them, an escape tunnel will be dug.

The pile of earth and grass they've dug up to make room for their fields is destined to become the starting point of their mulch pile. They'll start composting too. Both will help build good soil for their crops. They've got a lot of people to feed, and if more Woodbury residents join them they're going to need all the food they can grow, trap, shoot or scavenge.

While Merle and Daryl are out on their run they'll be on the lookout for trash barrels. Those will become rain barrels. Their crops are going to need irrigation water.

Beth doesn't plan to use her Mama's heirloom seeds for the prison farm. She feels uncharacteristically selfish about those seeds. She's not sure why it's important to her that she save them, it's just a strong intuition that she and Daryl might need them. She could never be completely selfish though, if it turns out the family needs them, that's different. But for now, Rick has hundreds of seed packets he helped himself to at a feed store he raided. They'll use those first, and when they harvest these first crops, they'll also harvest the new seeds the crops produce.

There are even lots of flower seed packets and Tara and Carol are busy turning up soil and making flower beds around the prison. Tara smiles as they work, asking no one in particular, "Who says a prison can't look lovely and spring-like?"

They've all had a long hard day. Everyone's grateful to Tyrese for taking on the job of cooking pork roasts outside. Caesar's pitched right in too, he peeled the last of the potatoes and they're in a big pot with the last of the carrots, slowly boiling in the coals of the outdoor fire. There won't be more fresh vegetables until the crops come in, or if they're lucky enough to find some.

Merle and Daryl show up just as dinner is about to be served and they've had a good run. They've got several trash cans to catch the rainwater, and they tell the group they can get more on their next run. Daryl shrugs, "People took their canned goods and their peanut butter, but I guess they didn't think they was ever gonna need flour n sugar again. We found a lot left behind, spices too. Even found a bag a onions, half of em are still good, and a big bag of rice that ain't wormy. We'll be good for a while longer."

Something else the Dixon brothers brought back are a nice sized buck deer, some rabbits and squirrels. Beth's going to cook the small animals tomorrow and can the meat, while Daryl jerks the scrap and tougher cuts of the venison.

He grabs something from the back seat of the pick up and Beth watches as he's walking toward her. He's practically cuddling the gunny sack and it appears to be fighting him as he holds it close. He smiles at Beth, "I found these two ducks nesting by the pond at a little town park. As bad as they wanna get away I guess I'ma halfta lock em up until I can get a nice outdoor pen built."

She gets a quick peak inside the gunny bag at the hen and mallard smiling, "Maybe we let them breed rather than eat their eggs. If we can get some more of these guys, we'll end up with eggs to eat and meat cook."

He smiles, "I can get more. There were a few of em around. I guess they're smart enough ta fly off when them walkers come around."

It's after dinner when the room turns quiet and things become far more serious. The family are all gathered to give input and discuss their opinions regarding the best way to permanently rid themselves of the governor. The topic has become as important to them as the topic of where their next meal will come from.

They knew Philip Blake was a problem before, but when Abraham Ford shared the story of the young female militia member who wandered too close to Woodbury, and the unspeakable things the governor did to her, they came to fear and loathe him more. No one will be safe until the man is out of the picture.

They bat around a few suggestions, and then Amy mentions her plan, finishing with, "I know it will work, I can pull it off, I know I can."

The group is shocked only because they didn't expect this from her. It's Rick who is beyond disturbed, he knew she wanted to participate, he didn't know she intended to go this far. He emphatically states, "No, no Amy you can't do this."

She looks him right in the eye and asks, "Is that because you're afraid my plan won't work, or because you're afraid I can't pull it off?"

He seems frantic, "I have no doubt it would work, and I'm sure if anyone could pull it off it's you, I just don't think I want you that close to the guy." He doesn't think about the fact everyone is listening, he doesn't really care if they hear what he has to say, it's the truth, "I can't risk you. I can't risk losing you."

"Rick, you're not going to lose me. It will work and if something should go wrong, you're all going to be right there. Between the family and the militia, you can storm the place and take him out. Just let me give it a try first."

That's when Merle intervenes. "A'ight now, I think Amy's come up with a good plan. I think she can make it work, but this is sumthin' you two gotta settle between yourselves before we can move on. Why don't ya do that in private tonight, then we talk about it again tomorrow. Day after that, we call on the militia."

Rick and Amy both know this discussion could get heated, and rather than hash it out in their cell where everyone can hear, they take it outside. Daryl watches as they go, then turns to Beth and whispers his question, "Ya wanna go to our room and fight about sumthin'?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

He thought he was kidding about fighting, so he's surprised when she really is a little upset about something, "Daryl you just stood there not saying a word when Amy offered herself up like a human sacrifice, but my gosh, let me just say I want to go fight for the family and it's the end of the world."

He tells it like he feels it, "That's cuz it is the end of the world when it's you. Shit, I like Amy plenty, I don't want nuthin' bad ta happen ta her, but it's Rick's job ta keep things straight with Amy. I ain't got time ta worry about anyone but you, that takes up all 24 hours a my day."

Beth can't argue that, she knows how much he worries, she only says, "Amy is a lawyer, so I'm pretty sure when she and Rick are done talking, he will have agreed to do things her way. And just so you know Mister Dixon, I'll be going on this mission with you, I'm not staying behind."

He's drained, tired of this bullshit. He doesn't want her out fighting, but he damn sure doesn't feel like it's his place to tell her what she's allowed to do. That doesn't matter though, not when is comes to letting her know how unhappy he is about it. His brow creases and he's chewing on his lower lip, and when he responds she can hear the growl in his voice, "I thought ya wanted ta be a farmer, what the fuck Beth? Now ya wanna be a soldier? And you're goin' on a mission, huh? Ya sound like ya already joined the militia."

She knows he's scared for her, she knows how he is. She's not trying to make him miserable so she does her best to try and reassure him, "Daryl, I do want to be a farmer, and I don't want to be a soldier, and once this mission or battle or whatever you want to call it is done, I won't be going out to fight again unless I absolutely have to, but Amy's my friend so I'm going."

She moves closer to him, wraps her arms around his waist and rests her head on his chest. She draws back just enough to stand on her tiptoes and kiss his cheek, "You know I love you Daryl, more than anything. I'm going to be okay, everyone will be. We're going to surprise this guy and the whole battle will be over before it's even gotten started. The element of surprise, remember?"

Shit, it's not fair, how does she do this to him every time, "Yeah, I remember." She kisses him on the lips and although he wants to stay grouchy with her for a while longer, he just can't. He gives in, kissing her with the heat he feels, only pulling away long enough to say, "Ya don't fight fair Beth."

He's agitated and anxious and his lovemaking reflects his feelings, it's a little bit rougher, it feels a little more demanding, but she knows what's going on with him and she doesn't mind this change. Besides, she knows if it got too rough or she asked him to stop, he would.

It's after they've reached that place, and they're catching their breath that it hits him. He feels a little guilt as he gently holds her in his arms and nervously asks, "I didn't hurt ya did I?"

"No, no, not at all Daryl. I would have said something if I didn't like it. I think you could tell I liked it."

The militia guards are expecting them, Rosita's there waiting to escort them to Abraham. She's driving an ancient military jeep and they follow behind her. The ground isn't designed to be welcoming or well graded for driving on, it's all natural in the militia's encampment.

She gives them a quick tour of the compound and it's impressive, but certainly not a place you'd want to just wander around on your own. There are so many booby traps you could be taken out with practically every step. Most of them are not designed to kill walkers, these folks were prepared to keep people away long before the apocalypse.

She leads them to the big log house. The size is impressive out here in the middle of nowhere, yet the house also seems very rustic. They soon discover something else, it's not just a house, it's also a command center.

There's a wing that's designed like a panic room. A thick steel door guards the entry, with a lock even Merle would have trouble breaking. Abraham invites, "C'mon in, let's talk this out."

Representing the family are Rick, Daryl, Merle, and Amy. A small group but enough, they're not here to socialize, they're here to strategize. That's what Rick reminds Abraham and Rosita of when they inquire about Sasha and Caesar. Abraham smiles, "I guess I have to get my ass down to the prison if I want to have some fun."

Merle snorts a laugh but the others have no time for that bullshit. Daryl and Amy are busy observing everything about the room they're in. The walls are lined with every kind of gun imaginable, plus other weapons like huge fighting swords, throwing stars, knives and daggers. Along one wall are several locked steel cabinets, the visitors assume those are where the ammo for all these weapons is secured.

The militia group is small as well, consisting only of Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa and an odd man they had not met before, Eugene Porter. He doesn't give the appearance of a soldier, not at all. He must be there for some other purpose.

Whiskey is poured but no one is here to get drunk. They sip slowly as Abraham discloses the militia plan for taking Woodbury and taking out the governor. There's nothing wrong with the plan, it's all about shock and awe and should work just fine. If what's housed in this room is any indication, the militia certainly has the firepower to pull off a direct attack.

The family leave it to Amy to present her plan and the militia team is impressed. Amy finishes strong with, "We should be able to get in there, dispose of the governor and secure the place for ourselves without much hassle or bloodshed."

Abraham nods, looks to Eugene Porter who says, "By golly that's brilliant, a downright solid plan. I'm disappointed I didn't think of it first."

Rosita has her own ideas, "I think it's the perfect plan for that asshole, and I want to be part of it with you Amy. You, me, the other blond woman, Beth, we'll be a force. The governor will be so distracted by the three of us, heck, us just showing up there is going to put his whole camp in a spin." She smiles while anticipating the end result, "He'll never know what hit him."

In the meantime, Rick and Daryl are filled with dread. The worst thing is, the plan really is solid. It's their best chance at beating the governor while putting the least number of their people in danger. But the people who will be in the most danger, the people who will be most exposed are the women they love.

The prison family are anxiously awaiting them when the small group returns home. Carol sets a rare snack on the table as they all sit to talk. Daryl and Merle came back from their run with a big plastic jar of popping corn, and although there's no butter for it, there's plenty of salt.

Again, the men let Amy take the lead, after all, it's her plan. She spells it out in detail and Beth's mouth drops open a bit when she hears she's involved. Amy sees that and says, "It's only if you want too Bethie, no one has to do anything."

Beth looks toward Daryl and when their eyes meet she sees the hope in his eyes. She's torn. She doesn't want to hurt or upset Daryl, but she does want to secure their home once and for all and this seems like the best way to do that. For her, for Daryl and for the whole family.

A/N What is the plan? Will she? Won't she? Please leave a comment. The chapter photo is on my tumblr blogs gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please check it out. I'll be back next Thursday with more of Love's Long Road, and I hope you'll be here too. Until then remember, love ya large! xo gneebee