Chapter 17
"Finished"
The sudden sound of Sophia's voice caused him to jump back slightly.
He looked down to find her holding her emptied bowl out towards him. He took the plate from her and put it into the bucket that was reserved for cleaning dishes, then started scrubbing the dried oatmeal from it.
For once Carol hadn't insisted on cleaning the dishes, she seemed to accept that it was easier to let him take over the small chore. It seemed reasonable to him, that she allow him to do it. Especially since she had both cooked and served the meal and was on her way to cleaning the seemingly bottomless collection of dirty clothes.
He wondered if she couldn't be bothered arguing over something so simple, knowing the argument would take longer then the task itself, or if she had just accepted that she had already done enough for him this morning. Honestly, he wasn't sure which it was. Either way she had let it slide and though it wasn't much, he thought they were at least heading in the right direction.
As he finished cleaning their dishes and a few other things that had been left behind from when the meal was being cook, he noticed that Sophia was still beside him.
She leaned her elbows onto the table and absently dragged her finger over the surface, as though she was drawing something only she could see. No matter what imaginary game she was stuck on right now, it was obvious that she had every intention of sticking with him this morning.
Though neither she or Carol spoke it aloud, he had noticed that they both seemed more content when he didn't go on daylong hunting trips. And as valued as it made him feel, it also made it harder when he knew he simply had to go.
This camp was their home, it had been months, and he hated knowing they felt uncomfortable in their own space.
"We should go down to the stream for a drive, get some more water. Might as well have a look for some fire wood while were down there. Two birds, one trip" He said to Sophia while he dried of their dirty plates and stored them with the rest.
"I'm not ready"
He looked down, noticing the kid was still wearing the pajama pants that sported a pattern of angry ducks all over them.
He gave her a nod, "Well, go get ya ass ready. I'll wait by the truck" he said watching as she bounced from his side, before he had even finished talking.
He openly starred at the Carol as he made his way over to his truck and leaned his hip into the tray. She was caught up in a conversation with Lori. She was laughing and giving Lori a light shove at whatever joke Lori had just made.
He hadn't noticed it until now, but she was different. She'd changed so quietly that he hadn't noticed.
It was hard to say how long they had been at the camp. Dale had apparently been attempting to keep track of time, but he had never felt the need to ask the old man. By looking at Carol right now, he could have easily been convinced they had been here for years.
That crying women he saw walking up the trail, battered and bruised, she seemed like a completely different person to the one he was watching now. The thought grabbed his attention, wondering if there was a moment he had missed or if it was a bunch of small ones he hadn't, and they were what made her into this woman standing before him.
She looked…. happy.
When he finally pulled himself from his daydreaming, he realized he had been standing there for good while. He started to wonder just how long it had been and what taking the kid so long.
He turned around to look for her, to tell her to hurry it up.
She had held up their chores before, though he never cared. He assumed he would find her as he always did, that she would be chatting away to Carl and loosing track of time. Sometimes Amy caught her attention for some reason or another and he was left waiting for Amy to finish putting clips and crap in Sophia's hair, simply because sometimes it struck Amy that she might want to play with Sophia's short hair.
He scanned the camp for her and when his eyes landed on her, the air was knocked out of his chest.
Ed was kneeling in front of her, using Carol's tent as a shield to hide himself away from the rest of the group, who were far to occupied to notice.
For a single second he froze and took in the scene. The pricks finger was pointed in her face as he spoke to her and his eyes were narrowed in on hers. But that wasn't what made him brake inside. It was the kid. The devastated expression saturating her soft features had made every drop of blood in his veins boil.
"Sophia!"
He didn't realize it, until after her name left his mouth, that he had expected a specific response from her. He had gotten used to her chasing after him and seeking his protection. So much so, that when she turned to look at him with nothing but anger filling her expression, he was left with a sick feeling flooding in his stomach.
She glared at him, looking him up and down, like she was seeing him for the first time. It was almost enough to stop him in his tracks. Almost.
It was all over in a few seconds.
He could hear Carol running up behind him, he could hear her calling out to both him and Sophia.
He could see Ed nodding his head off in their direction and the kid leaving Ed's side, at her father's command.
He slowed his running as she got close to him and he instinctively started checking her over.
And while he looked her over for blood or bruises the kid continued to glare at him, as if he was the source of all her problems and the cause of many more still to come. He continued to scan her from head to toe, looking for something physical that could explain the expression she held.
That's when the heat in his chest became unbearable.
He flew past the kid and straight at Ed and Ed didn't move an inch. His arm swung and his fist collided into Ed's jaw, long before his mind had decided to throw the punch. Then that was it.
Before he could continue, he was being dragged away by multiple hands.
He could hear Rick in his ear, asking what happened. The exact question that he himself wanted an answer to.
"What did you do" he demanded, yelling over everyone else that surrounded him.
Ed rubbed his jaw and narrowed his eyes, as a cruel smirk began to spread on his mouth.
Daryl attempted to lunge forward, causing Ed let out a light chuckle.
He demanded to know what he had said to the kid once more. But Ed had nothing to say, no excuses or antagonizing responses. He apparently had expected the hit and even welcomed it.
Whatever happened, had been planned and he knew that in the pit of his stomach. He knew the strategy Ed had been planning had finally emerged and he had failed to protect Sophia from it.
"Daryl. Go! We'll handle this" Rick roared, in amongst the threats that Daryl had been yelling, his own hopeless attempt to get Ed to talk, or at least wipe the smug look from his face.
T-dog and Glenn had been working to pull him back, trying to get him to regain his senses, and finally he gave into their efforts.
As his head swung around he could see Carol, kneeing in the dirt trying to talk to her daughter.
The kid's eyes were fixed straight ahead, as if she was looking straight past her mother and at something dark and dangerous. He could see it in her eyes, she was suffering through the kind of pain that stung your throat and burnt your eyes. And he knew it was his fault.
He knew Ed wasn't going to say anything, there was no way the prick was going to give an inch when he had obviously gotten the reaction he had hoped for.
He swung himself free from Glenn and T-dog's hold on him, moving past them to drop himself to his knees, in the dirt next to Carol.
"What did he say to you?" he questioned trying to keep his voice steady, watching as the kids eyes slowly moved from Carol to him.
Her expression remained unchanging, assuring him that something was very wrong. As her eyes met his, he could see the evidence that remained from the mere minutes she spent with her father. There was resentment, rage and heartache swimming in in her gaze, all of it directed at him and Carol.
"Sophia what happened?" Carol lightly pleaded. He knew the hushed tone was an attempt to get the kid to stop looking at them like they ruined her life. Like they were going to hurt her. But Sophia didn't soften to it, if anything, it seemed to only make things worse and he watched as her jaw shook and her eyes glistened with tears.
Whatever he had said to her, it had crushed everything inside of her and he didn't know how to fix it.
He reached out without thinking, his fingers only lightly grazing the kids arm before she stepped back quickly, leaving them both speechless as she turned and ran into the tent.
It took him a moment to notice that Carol had stood up, he had expected her to run after Sophia, but that wasn't what had brought Carol to her feet.
He looked up just in time to watch as she flew at Ed, her hands instantly reaching for his throat.
A part of him wanted to let her go and let her attack him. She had every right to, it had been a long time coming. But the rest of him was screaming to stop her.
One of them had already gotten hurt today and he wasn't about to make it two for two.
Seconds after she collided with Ed, Daryl wrapped his arms around her waist and started pulling her back, as she demanded to know what he said to her daughter.
But it didn't do any good.
Ed observed her reaction with the same satisfied look, his eyes skimming her up and down, taking in her emotional state like it was a drug he had been missing.
He sat outside the tent, his gun in his grasps and the crossbow by his feet.
He quietly listened to Carol, trying to get Sophia to talk to her, trying to coax Sophia into saying anything at all. But there was never a reply to the questions Carol asked.
The only thing he heard the kid say, was that she was going to sleep. The kid's words were cold and dismissive, bearing a tone that he didn't even know she was capable of conjuring. He knew it would hit carol like a truck, because he himself felt even sicker then he had when he heard the simple words muttered.
Rick said that maybe the kid was confused by his parent's separation, maybe she missed her father. There were a hundred different maybes, but he didn't buy one of the fairy tales that Rick had created, in order to keep the peace. That had been Carl's story, not Sophia's. She hadn't been confused about why her father was no longer an active member in her everyday life, she wasn't an idiot, she knew why Ed had been cut off from communicating with them. And she didn't miss Ed. The few times when Ed had so much as looked like he might cross Sophia's path, Sophia's path had changed, because Sophia was horrified of him.
He knew Rick had his own reasons for spinning the crap he had been spinning. But he also knew that Rick wasn't stupid. He was just trying to maintain the peace. So Rick had put all of his energy into trying to calm him down. He hadn't needed to waste this time on Ed, because Ed seemed very calm and very fuckin pleased with himself.
Ed had kept his cool, he didn't try to continue the fight after he'd been hit. If anything, Ed had made him look like a psychopath, a lunatic who attacked a man that only wanted to speak to his own kid.
That was the story he was trying to sell to them all. It was that simple, Ed apparently missed his daughter and wanted to talk to her.
He didn't know if any of them believed Ed or not. He hadn't asked.
But if they did believe Ed, Daryl would wonder what kind of lives they had lived, that had been so damn sheltered that they could not see that something very fuckin big had taken place in those few minutes. Everything had changed and no one could tell him why. Sophia was obviously traumatized and Ed was to blame. But once again, nothing was being done about it.
She came out of the tent and sat beside him. Both their bodies were stiff and tense, both looking across the camp to Ed's tent.
They both knew Ed wasn't going to emerge from the tent anytime soon. By no stretch of the imagination, he knew Ed was in that tent sleeping soundly, knowing the chaos he had caused.
And though they knew it would be a long time before Ed showed himself again, they still couldn't take their eyes of the tent.
"I don't know what happened" he confessed as forced his eyes to the fire.
"She was only gone for a few minutes…I think… I mean- she was..." he added as his eyes narrowed, playing the event over in his head.
"It's not your fault" she replied softly as she rested her hand on his knee.
He noticed, that even in amongst her anguish and distress, there were still traces of warmth and compassion when she spoke, though he didn't understand how.
This was his fault.
He wasn't paying attention to the kid, when he had sworn not to take his eyes off her.
He didn't expect forgiveness for that, and even if she offered it, he could never bring himself to accept it.
He angled his body, so that he was facing her, and grimaced at his own thoughts, hating the question he wanted to ask. But it didn't stop him from voicing it.
"You know him better than anyone. Right?" he asked cautiously.
She froze for a moment, then nodded in response, her eyes still fixed on Ed's tent.
"What do you think he said to her?"
Her head turned to his direction, but her eyes were fixed on his chest like she was scanning through a thousand memories, trying to find the answer to his question.
Suddenly her brow knitted together and her lips straightened into a fine line, before her head slowly shook as her eyes snapped up to his.
"I don't know" she admitted, her tone flooded with a distress that kept him awake long after everyone else in their tent had fallen asleep.