Red River Blue
Chapter 92
Daryl was rooting through the limited contents of his refrigerator while Mika sat on the counter nearby. She was swinging her dirty bare feet, intentionally bumping them into him and laughing when he swatted her away. Sam was still gone. But since Mika came home to visit, Wren and Carl had been a near constant presence in his house. And between the two young women, they even managed to coax Lydia out of River's house a few times to eat or play cards with them. The noise and laughter was making Daryl's house feel more like home again. And Mika seemed so happy there that he was starting to build up a little hope that she might decide to make her visit home more permanent.
The backdoor suddenly flung open, bringing with it the strong scent of decay. A smell that put everyone immediately on edge. Dog darted out from under the table and started barking like crazy. Mika leaped down from the counter, a kitchen knife from the drying rack already in her hands. Daryl moved, putting his body between hers and the door. But he quickly relaxed when he realized that the filthy walker looking woman that just barged into his kitchen was his niece.
"Harley, what the hell are ya doin'?," he hollered. She promptly ignored him, addressing Carol instead.
"Got somethin' for ya Momma C," she announced, lifting a fabric sack that looked to be soaked in blood and still slightly dripping. Harley set the bundle on their kitchen table with a disgusting wet thunk. And then she stomped back out the door without another word, slamming it shut behind her. Mika was the first to move, darting around him and pulling the top of the sack open. One peek inside sent her shrieking back over towards the sink.
"It's severed heads!," she warned before she leaned over the sink and tried her best not to vomit.
Daryl ignored the offering for the moment, choosing instead to open the door and holler out the door after his deranged niece. "The fuck is wrong with you?!" When he turned back around he noticed that Carol was pulling the top of the bag open with what seemed like an unnecessary amount of excitement.
"She did it," Carol murmured. "I can't believe it." Everyone else that was sitting at the table moved back when it became obvious that Carol meant to dump out the contents of the bag. She gripped the edge of it and lifted slowly, not wanting the heads to roll away. The first one was just a giant mass of long tangled hair. But the second was easily recognizable. Alpha's milky eyes stared forward and her jaws snapped in instinct.
"Holy crap," Wren exclaimed. "She did do it. She killed Alpha."
A rumbling of hushed shock and excitement rippled through the rest of them. It took them a moment to realize that the war they'd all been dreading since last summer had ended not with a bloody battle but with a mess on their kitchen table. Daryl quickly put the pieces together in his mind. That blast they heard earlier must have been either Harley or Negan blasting the mouth of the cave shut. Which meant that not only were Alpha and Beta dead, the hoard had also been neutralized.
"Don't touch that," Daryl scolded, pulling Carol away from the second head. He shooed Dog away next. Then he moved in, grasping it by the hair and lifting it off the table.
"Holy shit!," Wren squeaked, her eyes widening as she got a better look at the man's face. He turned. But even in walker form, the man's features were still easily recognizable. "Do you know who that is?," she gasped.
"Yeah," Daryl grumbled as he stuffed the head unceremoniously back into the bag it arrived in. "It's no one." Touching the other head as little as possible, he rolled it back into the damp bag and pinched the top closed.
The bag was placed on the back steps momentarily, while Daryl pulled his boots and jacket on. Carol was also slipping her feet into her boots. But no one else seemed to be interested in joining them. Wren was whispering to Carl while Henry helped Mika wipe down the table.
After gathering their weapons, Daryl and Carol headed quietly out the backdoor with Dog trailing closely behind them. Daryl retrieved the gruesome bundle from the porch before they headed down between the houses and out towards the front gate. They didn't say much at first. But once they passed through the gate, Daryl wrapped his arm around her. He smiled when Carol tucked herself into his side.
"Crow's crossing?," he asked, checking to make sure they were on the same page about where to display their undead trophies.
Heading out of Alexandria, the first crossroad was a four corner stop. Harley and Aiden liked to hang the bodies of any raiders or trouble makers they killed in the trees there, as a warning to anyone else that might be thinking about committing similar crimes against the town. The decaying flesh attracted birds that fed on it. And so the corner was eventually dubbed crows crossing, named for the large black birds that tended to flock there waiting on their next meal.
"Might as well," Carol said. She originally intended to place Alpha's head on the border, right where the woman displayed her son's head after she killed him. But crow's crossing would be better. Everyone would see it there.
"Will this end it fer you?," Daryl asked, glancing down at her as they walked. Carol considered his question. Then she softly nodded her head.
"I think so."
"Good," Daryl said, hugging her tighter against him. "Cause I want my wife back."
Carol stopped, pulling from his grasp so she could face him. He was always a master at hiding his emotions. Maybe even as good at it as she was. But even without an outward show, she knew how badly she hurt him. It was hard to explain why she left. At the time, she was sure she was saving Daryl from the burden of her grief.
"I've been back," she countered.
"Yeah," he agreed. "But it don't feel the same. Ya never kept secrets from me before."
"You used to trust me, before," Carol argued.
"Ya didn't usedta act crazy as fuck before," Daryl huffed, unhappy with her comment about him not trusting her. He'd only been watching Carol like a damn hawk because she needed to be watched. And the moment he turned his back, the first thing she did was pull that shit with Harley and Negan. Carol never would have done something like that before Sam died. And she especially wouldn't have done it without telling him first.
"Hey!," Carol protested, cocking her hand up on her slim hip. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment. And then she lifted her hand and gave the universal Dixon family gesture of goodwill and love for each other, her middle finger pointed directly into his face. Daryl dropped the bag on the pavement and grabbed her. Pulling her into his arms, he nearly crushed her against his chest before he dipped his head down to kiss her.
"No more secrets?," he whispered. "How 'bout that?" Carol nodded, kissing him back before she answered.
"No more secrets," she agreed. The moment she said it, her face lit up with a mischievous smile. She had a secret to tell him already, Daryl could see it in her eyes.
"Fuckin' hell," Daryl cursed, already regretting his demand to hear the full truth. "What the hell else did ya do?"
"I sorta agreed to give Negan a council seat if he killed Alpha and destroyed the hoard without anyone else getting hurt…," Carol admitted, offering him a sheepish grin to soften the blow.
"WHAT?," Daryl yelped. "Tell me yer kiddin'! Merle's gonna have a fuckin' cow! There's no way! There's not even an open seat!"
"Harley's abdicating her seat," Carol said, letting that sink in. She knew Daryl was smart enough to infer what that meant, but just in case he wanted his suspicions confirmed Carol added, "...she's going to marry Rick."
Carol wasn't sure what she expected Daryl's reaction to this news might be. And she certainly wasn't expecting him to burst out laughing. He leaned forward with his hands on his thighs and just let his deep rumbling giggles bubble out of him.
"Well R.I.P. ta Rick," Daryl said, finally getting enough control over himself to speak. "I swear that fucker must like gettin' his goddamn ass kicked in the sack or somethin'. First Michonne. And now he picked the only bitch on the planet scarier than her."
"Daryl!," Carol squeaked, barely holding in her own laughter. "That's no way to talk about your niece!"
"Why not? It's the fuckin' truth. Ya know she's meaner than a poked 'possum," Daryl insisted.
At his opossum comment, Carol gave up the fight and finally just laughed along with him. Daryl wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight. And for the first time in a long time, she didn't feel like there was a wall up between them. The unquestioning trust they used to have between them might not return instantly. But she finally felt like they were on the right track.
"Let's get this bullshit over with," Daryl suggested, snatching the bloody bag back up off the pavement before Dog could have his way with the contents inside.
Putting the heads of their enemies on pikes didn't feel as satisfying as Carol thought it would. In the end, killing Alpha still didn't bring her son back from the dead. But Dog added his own extra flare to the process by pissing up both poles and nearly soaking Daryl's pant leg in the process. He cursed and jumped back, shaking his head at the silly animal. His head snapped up when he heard a quiet voice rise up from the bushes behind them.
"Is it true?," Lydia asked. "Is it really over? Is my mom dead?"
"Lydia!," Carol gasped. "What are you doing all the way out here? Are you by yourself?" The girl was so pregnant she could barely make it up the stairs without help. She had no business leaving Alexandria. And certainly not by herself.
"I'm sorry," Lydia said, taking Daryl's hand and letting him help her up the gentle incline and onto the cracked pavement. "I just had to see for myself." She slowly circled around him, the soft fabric of her dress swishing as she moved. Lydia wrapped her hands around her swollen belly as she stared at her mother's undead head on the pike. Turning towards the opposite corner, she let out a soft sigh when she saw Beta's head. "He was always good to me," she admitted. "My mother got into his head. She had a way of doing that to people." Lydia rubbed her hands over her stomach. "I'm glad my baby won't ever know her."
Lydia took one more look at what remained of her mother before she clutched her stomach and fell forward onto her knees. She let out a strangled scream as fluid gushed out between her legs and onto the pavement beneath her. Daryl took one look at the mess before he snatched the girl up and started hauling ass back towards town.
"RUN AHEAD!," he hollered to Carol. "Get them out here with a stretcher!" Carol cast a hesitant glance towards Daryl and Lydia, not wanting to leave them alone but also knowing they needed help. "GO!," he urged. Carol finally nodded and took off as fast as her legs would carry her back towards Alexandria.
Daryl was moving as quickly as he could. But with Lydia screaming and thrashing in his arms, that wasn't as quick as he would like. The noise was making Dog bark. And between the two of them, they were attracting every walker in the area that managed to escape being rounded up by Lydia's old group. Daryl managed to dodge the first few dead that shuffled in his direction. But when a few more stumbled out of the woods in his direction he had no choice but to set Lydia down and deal with them. She leaned back against the trunk of a tree, clutching her stomach and making a horrible sound that was somewhere between a scream and the howl of an angry cat. With the last of the small herd downed, Daryl moved back towards the girl. He leaned down to lift her back into his arms, but she pushed his hands away.
"It's too late for that," she gasped between her hard panting breaths. "The baby's coming!"
"What do you mean the baby's coming?," Daryl asked, the panic rising in his voice. "What am I supposed to do?"
The only birth he'd ever attended was Wren's. Because his idiot brother got himself arrested again. But that was at an actual before the outbreak hospital. All he had to do was hold River's hand. The doctors and the nurses did all the hard stuff.
"Help me get my underwear off," Lydia said. Daryl nodded, pushing her dress up and trying not to look at what was under it anymore than he had to. If the situation wasn't pants pissing level terrifying, he might have laughed. It was obvious that River had been sharing her closet with the girl. Because instead of the practical cotton panties he expected to find under the dress of a heavily pregnant and painfully shy teenage girl, Lydia was wearing some frilly lacy nonsense. The flimsy fabric ripped as he tugged them off.
Lydia leaned forward. Her hands dug at the dirt as her face turned about three different shades of red. And then between her thighs, a small slimy baby appeared. Daryl's hands were shaking as he scooped the tiny creature up. Lydia was leaning back against the tree, sucking in deep breaths of air as her face slowly returned to its normal color. She reached for her baby. And Daryl was happy to hand it over, sighing in relief when it let out a loud mewling cry. The hiss of a walker quickly snatched his attention away from the happy moment. Daryl reached for his knife. But as he turned, he could hear the crumble and crunch of leaves behind him. Carol was back. And she brought reinforcements from town. The group was an odd mashup of people. Daryl guessed that Carol just grabbed whoever was in earshot of the gate and ran back with them. They dispatched the walkers. And by the time they were done, Denise arrived with the stretcher. Lydia was gently lifted onto it. And Daryl was finally able to breathe a real sigh of relief when they wheeled the girl into Alexandria and locked the gates behind them.
Lydia objected to staying in the infirmary. So after Denise declared her and her brand new son to be healthy and well, Lydia was settled into a wheelchair and taken home. The original plan was to take her back to River's house. That's where she'd been staying. And that's where all her baby stuff was. But after their intense shared outdoor birthing experience, Lydia decided she wanted to go home with Daryl. He could tell River was disappointed. But she hid it well, at least from Lydia. And once they had the girl settled comfortably in Sam's old bedroom, River had Merle carry over the bassinet and what looked like enough baby items for a least ten newborns. Lydia wouldn't allow anyone to hold her precious new arrival, but she did let River sit next to her on the bed and gently stroke her hand over the baby's soft tuft of blonde hair.
"I think I know what I want to name him," Lydia said, beaming down at the tiny bundle in her arms. "...I think I like Jamie. You know, from that book we've been reading."
"Oooh," River exclaimed. "I love that. I wished I'd named Axel after a book, instead of letting Merle name him after car parts."
Daryl chuckled and shook his head, heading down the hall to the sound of Lydia's soft tinkling laughter. He went straight for the fridge and did what he'd been waiting for the last two hours to do. He twisted the top off a bottle of hard cider and took a long pull.
"Yer not gonna fight my husband when ya get done chugging that are ya?," Mika teased.
"That's up to him," Daryl quipped back, wrapping his arm around the girl and hugging her against him. "Yer new nephew's got a name now," he told the girl, wincing when Mika began her loud squealing demands to know what name Lydia picked. "It's Jamie."
"Jamie like Jamie from Outlander?," Mika squealed. Daryl shrugged. He knew Lydia picked the name from one of River's idiot books. But he had no idea which one. Hopefully it wasn't the one with the naked cowboys on the cover.
Mika took off for the living room, thundering up the stairs before she missed any more of the baby naming excitement. Carol was coming back from the community food pantry with a large bundle in her arms. She had to flatten herself against the wall to keep from being run over by the girl.
"Where's the fire?," she joked.
"Lydia picked out a name for her baby," Daryl explained, moving forward and taking the bulk of the items from Carol's arms. "It's Jamie. She picked it from some book I guess."
"From Outlander?," Carol asked.
"Hell if I know," Daryl huffed. "What's the deal with y'all girls and this fuckin' book?" Carol flashed him a coy smile and she began to sort out the food items on the counter.
"It's very romantic," she explained, smiling again but this time adding a little wiggle of her eyebrow with her grin. Daryl pulled her into his arms, kissing her hard on the lips. The sound of the backdoor broke the kiss momentarily. But as it was only his brother barging in, Daryl quickly returned to his previous business. Carol squeaked, trying to wriggle from his grasp as he pawed at her.
"Got enough pratice taking babies out fer the day?," Merle asked with a loud guffaw. "Gonna practice putting one in instead?"
"Shut up," Daryl said, flipping his brother the bird.
"Want me ta shut up?," Merle asked. "Guess I won't tell ya about how there's no one at my house right now except fer Harley. And she's soaking in the tub with her headphones on. If ya wanna go over there and bang one out real quick, ya can."
"Daryl!," Carol yipped, as he dragged her out the back door. Once it shut behind them, he lifted her up into his arms. "I was about to make dinner. What are you doing?" Her words came out like a protest. But he could already feel her lips brushing against his neck.
"Tell ya what I'm doin'," he said. "Gonna show ya somethin' ya can't read about in a book."