Chapter 14

Daryl never moved as slowly as he did during that first hour after he woke. It always looked to her, like he had to force his body to move and his body protested against that force by trying to weigh him down.

When he would climb out of the tent in the mornings, it was as though his muscles were to heavy for him to carry, they made his shoulders slouch forward and his steps hit the ground heavier then she'd ever heard them, though they were still much quieter then anyone else she'd paid attention to.

But this morning he hadn't dragged his body from the tent before the sun rose. Today he'd stayed in their bed, with his arms locked tightly around her.

She knew he was awake, but she was almost to afraid to say anything, in case it made him realize that he was running late in his race against the daylight. A race that he always wanted a head start on, so that he could get as much done as possible before the sun set again.

She briefly wondered if he knew she was awake, before his hands started soothingly gliding back and forth over her lower back and arm, where his hands had been settled.

"Sleep good?"

The question was barely more then a whisper and if she hadn't been laying on top of him with his mouth so close to her ear, then she might not have heard it.
She nodded her head into his chest and sighed when she felt the quick kiss that he planted in her hair, as he started shifting around, sliding her body of his.

She fought the urge to grab hold of him and stamp her foot, maybe thrash around on the mat and demand he stay. That's what she felt like doing. Throwing a tantrum. Because even though he had not been far from her over the last few days, she still felt as though she had only just gotten him back and she didn't really want to let him go.

But she was, unfortunately, an adult.

She knew he had things to do, important tasks that he was expected to complete and that meant she couldn't make demands on his time.

She laid still and watched him as he sat himself up and stretched out before leaning back on his palms.

She watched him far to closely, because Daryl was a creature of habit and everything he was doing right now was not in the routine he had created.

He starred straight ahead for a minute, still dazed from having woken up, before his head dropped to look down at her.
His eyes always looked soft in the mornings, lighter and calmer. She thought it was because he hadn't had enough time, after waking up, to let the pressure of everything weigh him down and that left him looking much more at ease then he usually did. In the mornings, it seemed his biggest problem was that he needed to get out of bed.

"I'm not gonna go out today. But I'm gonna go set some snares nearby and have a look around. I'll be back in a few hours."

His light whisper sent a jolt of excitement through her body. She nodded enthusiastically and pulled her elbows back to lean forward. She knew the prospect of having him around for the day shouldn't have really excited her so much, but it did.

She was ready to follow him out and see him off just as she always did, but before she could push herself up, he was suddenly leaning over her.

"Nah, ya stay here. Rest some more" he whispered with a faint smile as he put his hand on her shoulder. There was no pressure in the touch. He wasn't holding her in place or pushing her back down, he was just hovering over. Wearing an expression that had her so stunned that she obeyed without question.

He looked her over for a long moment, chewing the corner of his lip before he leaned down and kissed her. He'd done nothing more then press his lips to hers, applying only the lightest bit of pressure, but when he pulled away the intense look in his eyes had deepened.

She didn't know what he was thinking right now, but she wished she did. What ever it had been, he must have finally caught himself in it, because his face was suddenly turning red before her eyes.

She smiled curiously at him. "What? What is it?"

He quickly dropped his eyes from her's and cleared his throat awkwardly, as if something he was thinking was choking him. "I'll be back real soon and we-… we'll have breakfast together."

She nodded in response, unable to do much more, especially when she could see how his face was burning right now, without any real reason, other then what was occupying his thoughts.
Daryl shook his head as he let out a choked laugh. He darted his eyes from hers and quickly left the tent.

Most days when he fled the camp to hunt, the only thing that was on his mind was finding somewhere that was safe enough for him to…relieve some of the tension that had been built up. Who could blame him really. She basically slept on top of him and she smelt fucking amazing…then there was the making out, the touching, not to mention the fact that she was grinding up against him in the mornings. She was driving him damn near mad, but this morning she had struck something inside of him, that he couldn't quite wrap his head around.

There was no point in denying to himself how much it had turned him, but he needed to stop thinking about how she looked in his shirt. He'd thought about it far to much, so much that he feared he was entering into a creepy weird fetish zone. There was something about it that just hit him the right way. But he had no fucking clue why.

He had to get out of there, but he didn't want to leave her. Not today.

He'd excused himself so he could fix his problem, before burst into flames, and then he'd set the traps and made his way back to the camp.

Today he was going to stay nearby and sneak in as much time as he could with her. Even if that time was only really spent on helping her with laundry and preparing lunch. He didn't care. He wanted to be around her as much as he could.

When he got back to camp he could see the breakfast line thinning. As soon as she had spotted him, she had hurried everyone along and then prepared three more bowls.

He thanked her for the meal that she had not only cooked but also served him. And as always he noticed how uncomfortable the simple words made her. It was something he refused to stop doing, even though it made her look like she didn't know what to do with herself.

He didn't really mind making her uncomfortable, because that's exactly what she did to him when she constantly did all this shit for him. She was washing his clothes, cooking his meals and cleaning up after him. He tried to put a stop to it, but now it had gotten to the point where she was sneaking his dirty clothes away when he was off hunting.

He'd been doing these things for himself for as long as he could remember and it made him uncomfortable that she kept trying to wait on him like she was his maid.

He was going to have to say something, but he decided against doing it today. Today he just wanted to hang around her as much as he could, even if that meant just being with her while they worked her assortment of jobs around the camp.

The three of them settled in for their meal in their usual spots and he listened as Sophia and Carol started talking about a movie that Sophia apparently used to watch on repeat. Even though he thought she was to young to have heard of it.

There was a lightness to the conversation and in how they smiled and laughed at each others recollections. He found the sound of their voices soothing when they talked like this, because he'd never witnessed it at the quarry.

When they first arrived here, he could hear them in the tent at night, talking and laughing quietly amongst themselves, but lately those conversations had been drifting out of the safety of the tent and into the open.

The seating arrangement was done by design. His design. He'd put the fold out chairs across from him and he sat himself on the other side of the burnt out fire away from them. He'd done this so they could eat in peace without having to see Ed glaring at them through every meal. But he could still keep an eye on him.
And most days he quietly applauded the idea in his head.

They were half way through their meal and Carol and Sophia were still talking about the movie and he was still quietly listening to the back and forth.

"That little fluffy thing…That part where he screams because they wanted to leave him behind" Sophia barely got her words out as she laughed at the memory and it was enough to make him smile. He'd thought that little fuzzball was funny too.

"What was his name?" Sophia asked as she took another mouth full of oatmeal. He was ready to answer her question when Carol quickly jumped in.
"Fizzgig"

They didn't notice him nodding along with her answer before he went back to eating. They had been so caught up in the conversation that they hadn't taken any notice of him at all.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Sophia had stopped eating again and was holding her full spoon in the air.

"What was that movie called?" Sophia asked while rolling her eyes up, as though she could look in her own head and find the answer.

He waited for Carol to answer, but noticed her mirroring Sophia, attempting to have a peak inside her own head.

He narrowed his eyes at Carol after a full minute of waiting for her to answer the question.
"Ya serious?" he asked, snapping them both out of their concentration.

"What?"

"Ya remembered Urzah, UrSkeks…just remembered Fizzgig. You spouted out every weird name in that movie, but ya cant remember what its called?" he laughed out.

He could see that she was offended and she was ready to give him a little piece of her mind, but obviously something else hit her.

"You've seen it?"

He hummed and smiled at her.

"You remember what it's called" she added with anticipation and relief in her tone.

Again he hummed and smiled at her, taking a big mouth full of his oatmeal.

He raised his brow at her and took much longer to chew then was necessary. She looked pissed, but she also had a devious grin on her face that he thought was pretty damn cute, so he wanted to let her stew for a minute.

As he opened his mouth to tell her the answer - Ed's loud voice suddenly cracked through the calm setting, giving Daryl a perfect view of both Sophia and Carol flinching and jumping in their seats.

Ed's aggression hadn't been directed at them, the moron had spilled his coffee on his lap. But it didn't matter. The sound of the mans voice was enough to bring everything to a standstill.

Sophia and Carol both went back to finishing their breakfast and their conversation was done. The looks on their faces sent a sick feeling into the pit of his stomach. They had grown quiet quickly and had both sank down a little in their seats, because they were still wired to react to Ed's outburst.

He knew exactly what they were feeling right now and remembering that feeling brought something to the surface that he had to work to push down.

Daryl liked routine. He liked repetition. He found it comforting and he would take it anywhere he could get it. It was in short supply during the end of the world, but he still found times when he could rest easy knowing that certain things would go a certain way.
Pretty soon Sophia would be done with the school shit that she done with Lori, then she would help him gather up firewood.
He knew in the evening he would help Carol out with dinner and the three of them would eat together.
He knew that tonight, like every other night, he would crawl into their tent- he would go to bed with Carol in his arms and Sophia sleeping safely close by them.
There were a bunch of little things like that, things he could count on, things that helped ease his stress because he didn't have wonder about what was coming next.

But this was one routine he was done with. This routine was driving him damn near insane.

"Wantcha to go over to Shane, ask him for the shot gun." he asked as he looked over at her.

A confusion wiped away the concern that Andrea's face had held a few seconds ago. He was happy she no longer looked like she was about to cry for the moment.

"What? Why?"

"Andrea, its dying, it's in pain. Let me put it out of it's misery" He pleaded.

Andrea's jaw obviously tightened as she swung her hand out and pointed to the junker "Can you fix the damn car or not?"

He shook his head to himself. He was frustrated with her. He couldn't help himself.

He'd had this conversation with her to many times to count and he didn't think he'd known her long enough to have already had repeated conversations. There were a million things he didn't know about Andrea, they had plenty to talk about. But they seemed to only ever discuss one thing.

He ducked his head back under the hood and continued to look it over, as though there was a shred of hope. He knew at this point he was just humoring her, he hoped that if it looked like he had put in a great deal of effort into saving the car, that she might let him get the gun.

He'd had actual fantasies about pushing the thing off a cliff or beating it with a baseball bat.

Even at the quarry he'd told her it needed to go, but she had insisted on keeping it, so he had forced a few more miles out of the thing.

There were cars everywhere, there was a whole highway full of em, she could have her pick, yet here they were once again, trying to breathe life into the rusted old corpse.

"Weren't you some fancy lawyer? Why you driving around in this shit box" he asked while he aimlessly poked and prodded things.

"I brought it when I was seventeen. I got a job, worked hard, and paid for it with my own money"

"How long and hard did you have to work to buy a 74 corolla coupe" he said in jest. He didn't really mean to be a prick to Andrea, mostly he just liked to rile her up and poking fun at her prized possession was an easy way to go about it.
The car was a sore spot for Andrea and the more he poked fun at it- the more pissed she got, and his opinion, the more entertaining she was.

"What were you driving around when you were a kid smart ass"

He kept his head under the hood but pointed over to his truck, that was parked in its usual spot.

Andrea scoffed and he could almost hear her asshole smile mixed in with the sound. "Your just as sentimental as I am"

He paused at the words, before he sighed heavily and stood up to face her.

She was right, he was sentimental. He had caught himself being sentimental a hundred times over. And he had kicked his own ass for it, because it was a waste of time and energy.

But that's not what they were talking about here.

"This ain't about being sentimental. That's a good fuckin' truck. Always has been. Even when I brought it's broken ass. It just needed a bit of work, bit of my time. That's the first car I ever fixed on my own. I've slept in that car more then I've slept in a bed. Weren't great, but that truck always made sure I had a roof over my head. So yeah, I guess it means a fair bit to me and I understand where ya comin' from"

Andrea firmly nodded. She looked proud of herself, thinking she had just succeeded in proving her point and he had accepted defeat by delivering her a speech. She seemed to think she had won the argument because he had admitted that he loved the damn truck.

He wiped his grease stained hands over his pants and smiled at her.

"But if it was running like this piece of shit is, I'd chuck a match into it and warm myself by the flames." He quipped, watching as Andrea's proud smile faded.

"This shit here Andrea" He said nodding to the car. "It ain't safe. When this breaks down, and it will breakdown, what if you need it to keep goin? What if your life depends on it? You could die right along with it. This car worth more then your life?"

Andrea rolled her eyes, but he could see she was considering what he had said. He didn't mean to lecture her, he wasn't really in the habit of telling people what to do. But he didn't want to be told that Andrea got lost out there, or killed, because of an old run-down corolla.

She let out a defeated sigh, that was half mixed in with a infuriated groan.

"Well, I need something. We're going on a run tomorrow. I need a car, or I'm going to have to travel with your girlfriend's husband. Frankly, I'd rather take my chances with the car"

"Take my truck. You cant take this, less ya wanna push it the whole way"

Andrea released an exaggerated gasp and slapped her hand on to her chest."Take the make-out mobile? What will you and Carol do without it?"

He smirked at her and slammed the hood of her car down, with much more force then was necessary.

"We'll use your car. It's about the only thing this piece of shit here is useful for anyway. Besides, it was good enough for you and Merle, I'm sure me and Carol will be able to make do."

Andrea's eyebrows raised and she flashed him a grin that was quite obviously laced with a silent threat. He couldn't help but laugh at her.
The more he talked to her, the more she let her guard down and the more he understood why her and Merle actually made sense.

It was easy for him to see why Merle would have been interested in her enough to sleep with her more then once, which was a rule Merle rarely broke. Merle Dixon didn't really do relationships, except for those few times he did. But when he did them - he did them quietly.

Merle bragged about every women he slept with, like they were trophies he won. As if they were proof of his great charm.
It was the women that Merle didn't brag about that were the real achievements. Those were the the women that his brother had actually given a shit about. But he could count all those women, including Andrea, on one hand, and still have fingers to spare.

"I'll give you the keys later, when I get back from gettin the water"

Andrea crossed her arms and nodded as her eyes raked over the deceased car, a car that he had actually heard her refer to as "her baby" more then once.

He was ready to suggest a funeral, or a cremation, when Carol caught his eye, working on the laundry across the camp. His thoughts of offering to help her quickly morphed into something else that raised his interests. It was an idea he couldn't shake and he really didn't want to.

"Hey. You maybe wanna do me a favor"

The playful expression that Andrea had been holding quickly disappeared. Without even knowing what the favor was, she suddenly looked serious and ready to grant any request he had.

"What'd you need?"

"Ok, I'll take it from here." Andrea announced slapping Carol on the back before she dusted her hands together.

Carol looked down at the towel she had been folding and back to Andrea.

She doubted the towel was what Andrea intended to take off her hands, but she didn't have anything else to offer her so she eyed the women in the confusion.

"What? What are you taking?"

Andrea looked down and waved her hand over the table, narrowing her eyes at the piles of laundry that Carol had been folding. "This. I got it, you can go" Andrea said, while reaching out and trying to grab the towel that Carol was holding, but wasn't ready to hand over.

She frowned at Andrea and tugged the towel back.

"Where exactly is it you want me to go?"

Andrea smiled and gave the corner of the towel, that she was still holding, another hard yank, obviously finding the game of tug-of-war amusing. Finally Andrea gave in and smiled at her, nodding her head to the side.

She followed the gesture and looked over to see Daryl standing by his truck and her daughter sitting in it, both obviously waiting on her.

"They look eager. You better get a move on"

Carol approached the truck cautiously. She looked like a kid who had just been offered candy to jump in the white van with blacked out windows. Though she was skeptical, she still got into the truck without question.

Her sullen expression was more then enough to urge him forward. He was sure they needed this.

He nodded to her as he got settled and slammed his door shut. She frowned at him slightly and he could see that she was confused. But still she didn't ask him why she was invited on the trip that he and Sophia usually took alone.

"Ready?" He asked turning to Sophia, just as he always did before he started the truck.

Sophia looked down and he knew she was doing her own little mental checklist. Her head bobbed slightly as she silently ticked each thing off, before she finally nodded. "Ready"

Sophia nursed his pack on her lap, holding it tightly. He noticed Carol eyeing the kid, wondering what was going on, but still she didn't bring up the impromptu trip or the fact that Sophia had obviously had changed outfits. Though he was sure she noticed.

It was easy to take a guess at what they were doing, there wasn't really anywhere else for them to go. The truck wasn't used for anything else except to transport water from the stream to the camp. But even so, he wished she would ask instead of just following his requests without question. He certainty didn't expect that of her.

"Daryl"

Sophia's softened voice barely broke over the sound of the truck, as they slowly left the camp.

She seemed to sense that tension that was in the air around them and Sophia still assumed that meant that it was best to keep herself as quiet as possible.

"Yeah Soph?" he asked glancing down to where she was squashed in between him and Carol.

"What was the movie called?"

He'd had to strain his ears to hear what she was saying, then un-jumble the mumbling in his head to work out what she had asked him. He'd noticed Carol look over at them, but her eyes quickly jumped back to the window that she staring out of.

"The Dark Crystal"

Both Sophia and Carol had nodded with a flicker of recognition in their eyes, but neither of them spoke again as they drove down the trail.

There was no quick fix to what they were dealing with, he himself was still dealing with it seventeen years later. What he did hope was that he could at least offer them both a small bit of peace before the day was done.