A/N: This chapter starts with a flashback.
Chapter 14
He laid on his side, with his lips resting on her neck, kissing her lazily while she whispered the trivial questions, one after another. It was the kind of thing that would usually annoy him. He had always been a private person, even with the small things, but right now he was thoroughly enjoying handing over the insignificant details to her.
"Well, what did you do before all this?" She asked, continuing the long stream of questions she had for him. They had been talking about nothing of importance for hours now, but he still couldn't find it in him to stop the conversation and go to sleep, not when she seemed so interested in the answers. Quietly wondering why, he was so willing to hand them over and why she cared about the responses.
He brushed his lips over her neck once more."Nothing" he murmured, before planting another long kiss onto the soft skin.
"Oh c'mon'" she chirped with obvious amusement, while her fingers continued to fidget with his hair.
"Guess"
The word was mouthed against her neck and he was sure she could feel him smiling into her skin, wanting to hear her theories, assuming they would be ridiculous. He waited for her to make ridiculous assumptions about him, because she had always held in such high regard. Much higher then he thought he could ever deserve.
So he waited her out, anticipating a good laugh from the surely irrational conclusions she had drawn.
"Mechanic" she said confidently, making his eyes widened and his body freeze as the familiar term swept passed him.
"How the fuck did you know that?" he laughed out, leaning on his elbow to get a better view of her in the dim light. She smiled widely at him as he inched himself further onto her body, until he was resting over her chest and peering down at her.
She kept her eyes locked with his, as her fingers slowly slid up to cover his.
"You had grease stains on your hands when I first saw you" she paused, rolling her eyes and flashing a small smile at him.
"They are still stained in your clothes" she added obviously annoyed that she couldn't remove them. "
And I saw you fix the truck, when we were at the quarry… you seemed very… poised" she added as she rubbed her thumb over his hand. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the word.
Poised?
he doubted that anyone, ever, had used that word to describe him.
He continued to eye her off, taking in the quiet assessment that still had his head spinning and his features drenched in disbelief. She let out a quiet laugh as her hand left his so she could tap one finger to her temple. "Observant"
He had the hood up and his body hunched over the engine, growling viciously through his teeth when he saw the problem… the problem he had no hope of repairing when he had no tools and no damn time.
"FUCK!"
Poised, he thought. God, if she could see him now. On the side of the road kicking the car that had broken down after only four hours of being on the road.
"Daryl, we need to go into the woods, there's more cover" Daphne said from beside him, as his foot collided with the car once more and his hands slammed hood down with a loud bang.
"Daryl!"
He growled and turned, snatching up his things and running along behind Sophia and Daphne, so that he could keep Sophia safely between them.
They ran through the woods, staying close to the roads. He wanted to get as far away from the car as possible before they stopped. He was sure its sound would have drawn in any nearby walkers and his outburst that quickly followed the car breaking down would not have helped.
Sophia was the first to stop and as soon she did he froze to look back at her. The absence of the sound of her feet hitting the ground had crashed into his ears like thunder and his heart stopped until he found her safe. He couldn't understand why that feeling running through him annoyed him so much, it was driving him crazy trying to figure out how a kid could have him so frustrated when she had never done a single thing to deserve it.
This was his job, as it had been for months and he wouldn't have it any other way, he wouldn't trust anyone else to watch out for her until she was back with her mother and that thought only added to his annoyance with the unsuspecting kid.
She leaned her palms into her knees, hunched over trying to catch her breath.
He stood starring at her. He hated the thoughts that entered his mind, ones that questioned her being strong enough to do this, fast enough to keep up if they needed to run for their lives. Without warning he found him self hating her for being the first to stop, as if her exhaustion was putting more weight on his shoulders.
But as quickly as that thought came came the self-hatred for thinking it hit him even harder. The disgust with himself only intensified when she lifted her head to look up at him. Her shoulders still raised and dropped harshly as she struggled to breathe, the hopelessness in her expression was the same he had seen that day by the stream, when she couldn't drag the drum of water back to the truck . She didn't need him judging her.
Daphne seemed completely unfazed by the sudden break, focused only on looking around them, looking at everything but them.
"We should follow the stream. We can keep it to our backs at night. It will help cover us" she said as she started walking ahead of them, ready to continue without an answer from them or even a look in their direction.
By the late afternoon he watched as Sophia started to slow her pace in front of him. The three of them had been walking in silence all day and he was grateful for that because it allowed him to listen to everything around them. She looked down at her feet that were dragging on the ground and he realised he didn't know how much rest she'd actually had overt he past few days.
"We should stop soon" he said as his sights drifted forward again.
"We still have a few hours of light left. We should keep going" Daphne urged, maintaining the same brisk pace she had kept all day.
He looked down and assessed the kid, wondering if he should have left her at the camp. Wondering if he made the right decision. He questioned himself as Mary had done, before he took her out into a war zone.
She was tired and slow and he couldn't help but think that he was being reckless, but then he had to wonder if the kid was right, was Mary and her group doomed? Was she safer with him?. He wanted to believe that she was safe with him. That he knew what he was doing. He wanted to believe that he was doing what Carol would have wanted him to do.
He bit his lip as he walked, glancing at the exhausted kid, before he let out a rough sigh. He quickly walked around her and reached down, yanking her off the ground and into his arms without warning.
She didn't say anything but he noticed Daphne look in his direction as he settled Sophia in his arms.
The kid stayed silent, resting her chin on his shoulder and leaning her head into his neck. It wasn't long before her body began to slouch in his arms and he heard her breathing change. He turned his head slightly when he realised she was sleeping, before he fixed his eyes ahead again and continued moving forward.
"You should have made her keep going"
He looked at Daphne out of the corner of his eye, wondering if she knew something he didn't, still questioning every decision he made.
"Why?" he mumbled, trying to act as if he was unfazed by the comment.
"Build her stamina up, make her stronger"
His brow instantly creased at the comment and he thought of a hundred different things he should reply with, but instead he stayed quiet and continued to consider the statement this stranger had made about a kid that she hadn't even known a day.
He wondered why her saying it had pissed him off so much, when he had thought something similar only a few hours ago.
They ate dinner and Sophia eyed Daphne the whole time, looking her her up and down with a obvious distaste. There was nothing Daphne could do right in Sophia's eyes and he found himself watching the women himself, just to see what made Sophia hate her so easily. But he found it hard to hate her when he knew jack-shit about her.
Early the next morning he sat by the fire with the kid asleep by his side, looking around them nervously.
He had only slept a few hours, unable to fully trust Daphne to keep them safe. When he had woken up for his shift, he saw her continually scanning the area with a knife firmly gripped in her hand. As he looked around he noticed the piled bodies of a three walker on the ground.
She was good at this he decided. Bringing her with them was most likely the best decision he had made, she was a hard ass, maybe to a fault. But he didn't need a sweet and compassionate person right now, he needed a coldblooded fighter who was ready for what was ahead.
Daphne had told him to wake her at first light, eager to leave as soon as possible. He had silently agreed with a nod, looking at the kid and wondering how she would cope with the early start.
He could see darkness easing away and he knew it wouldn't be long before it was time to leave. He started gathering up the few belongings they had and packing them away.
He walked over to Daphne and said her name in a rough whisper, happy when her eyes snapped open, worried he was going to have to shake her awake. The thought of touching her made him uncomfortable, even giving her a light shove to her arm made him feel uneasy.
Within minute of waking she was ready to leave and he waited until he had everything ready to go before waking Sophia.
He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a light push as he spoke.
"You gotta wake up Soph" he told her as her eyes blinked opened to look up at him, her tiny fists rubbing them roughly as she took in her surroundings.
She eventually nodded and slowly got up. He watched as the cold morning air hit her when she stood up and he noticed her rubbing her arms trying to warm herself, while she looked around through glazed and unfocused eyes.
He quickly grabbed his jacket that she had been sleeping on and shook the dirt off it, holding open in front of her.
"Let's go" Daphne said eagerly while he helped Sophia slip her arms into the jacket. The kid was still half asleep and almost unaware of how slowly she was moving.
He ignored Daphne and started rolling the sleeves up on the jacket until he found her hands.
Daphne started walking off as he finished the last sleeve and he looked at Sophia in front of him as she yawned heavily.
"You ready?" he asked straightening up the jacket that hung down to her knees, watching as she nodded lazily and turned, following Daphne without a word.
They walked in a line and he found he was more comfortable with the positioning. Daphne led the way, Sophia was a few steps behind her and he followed them both. They kept going like this all day, without a word spoken between them.
As the day went on, Daphne's pace often picked up and she would occasionally look back at them to see if they were keeping up, rolling her eyes when she noticed that he was following Sophia's pace and not hers.
She was pissing him off. And he got even more pissed when he thought about the fact that Sophia could see Daphne's annoyance.
The kid was walking at a good speed, one that she had maintained all day without complaint. She didn't need anyone giving her shit when she was doing her best, much better then he himself thought she was capable of.
He watched Sophia attempt to quicken her steps and he followed her lead by increasing his own, but eventually she would slow again, unable to maintain it.
When they finally stopped for the night he dropped his pack to the ground and looked around, wandering off to get some sticks to start a fire.
He heard the light footsteps behind him and instantly stopped what he was doing. He turned to see her gathering up branches in her arms along with him, focusing on the ground searching for more.
The sight made him want to break down right there and then. He wished more then anything that Carol could see her right now. Whatever had happened back at the camp, had been put aside and her daughter was being brave. She wasn't glaring at him constantly or ignoring him, she was doing everything she could to survive and make it back to her mother.
He didn't care that she didn't like Daphne, she wasn't a likeable person and they didn't need to be best friends. He just needed someone who knew how to keep watch so he could sleep, help him take down walkers so he could protect the kid. That was his main priority. The kid was all that really mattered now and he would put up with Daphne to keep Sophia safe.
When his arms were full he looked over his shoulder and saw her looking up at him.
"This enough?" she questioned looking at the pile in her arms, making a smile quirk up on his lips unexpectedly.
"Yeah, it is"