Naomi
I knew something was up because Daryl was weird and quiet, driving me somewhere with the determination of a kidnapper. If he'd been anyone else, I'd have been deeply unsettled. But, even if he planned to tie me up in some kind of basement, I wouldn't have minded. Daryl kept glancing at me, amused by how I kept looking out the window for clues about where we were.
The mystery was killing me.
"Wait," I sat up straighter in my seat, my nose practically pressed against the window. "Are we near Alexandria?"
"You recognize it?" It wasn't a 'yes,' but he seemed pleased.
"Yeah, I think so." Many roads looked the same, especially as nature reclaimed them. Plantlife obscured signs, and abandoned cars rusted at more or less the same rate. The edges of the roads were blurring with overgrown vegetation. But something about this particular road was familiar.
"Alright," Daryl nodded, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. He was avoiding looking at me, leaning forward in his seat. Anticipation tensed his shoulders, but… anticipation of what?
"Are we… visiting?" I asked. I tried not to let it show but hoped we weren't. I'd spent the last week and a half secretly arranging for Daryl's nearest and dearest to come and surprise him at Sanctuary in a few days. As sickeningly adorable as other people might find it if we'd decided to surprise each other with the same thing, my competitive streak couldn't handle him getting there first.
Daryl smiled a little and said, "Nah. It's just us today, angel."
That was a relief. And nice. It was lame to admit, but hanging out with him was still my favorite way of spending time. Even if he'd almost drowned me. Even if all we did today was drive around and test his freshly made biofuel. A special kind of relaxation comes with spending time with the one person who knows you best. There are no airs or graces to put on. You don't always have to explain yourself in words; you don't even have to talk if you don't want to, which I knew Daryl appreciated even more than I did.
He brought the car to a slow stop, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. "You know where this is?"
I looked at the bend in the road and nodded slowly, unsure why we were back there. "This is where I left water out for you guys. Before Aaron and I recruited you all to Alexandria. Right?"
"Yup," he nodded, and I felt a rush like I'd got something right on a test. "I knew it was you. Nobody believed me, but I knew that handwriting on the note…you could've at least signed it or something. Helped a guy out."
"I wanted to, but Aaron wouldn't let me," I said. "He had that stupid idea that you'd be…different somehow. Not the man I remembered. That we'd be… dangerous to each other."
As I said it, my chest ached. We were dangerous together, in a way, but only because the lengths we'd go to for each other bordered on a level of unhinged previously unreached by other human beings. Dangerous only to each other because the end of this would be the end of me. Daryl was right, we had it too good. Losing it now would be the real end of the world.
"Yeah. Rick said something similar," Daryl said.
"Dummies." It was easy to smile about now that we were all so close. The burning frustration I'd felt at being able to see Daryl physically and not run to him was a thing of the past. Now, he was usually close enough that I could reach out and touch him—no running or pining required. Daryl nodded and looked over at me and my stomach did a stupid little flip.
"They just didn't know how we… are with each other," Daryl said. There was something in his eyes when he said it that made me choke up. Our relationship was a little easier to explain now that we could admit we were in love, but it had always felt much deeper than an outsider could understand. Even now, 'boyfriend' didn't sum up everything he was to me. There probably wasn't a word for it.
"Think they get it now?"
"They're starting to," he said with a smile and popped open his door. I watched him hop out of the car and shut the door behind him. He started walking toward the treeline at the edge of the road. Didn't wait for me, knew I'd follow. Curiosity dragged me out, and I chased hot on his heels. The control freak, anxiety-driven part of me was threatening to spin out. The only thing stopping me was how safe Daryl made me feel, and the slightly amused smirk on his lips every time he glanced around to check that I was following.
We'd only trodden this path once, but the memory of it was seared into me. Seeing him walk down it, away from his group, toward the small barn just visible beyond it, knowing we were moments away from speaking again, was etched into my soul. It would live there forever. What had already been an impossible moment now marked the beginning of something incredible.
"Nobody believed me when I said it was you. Rick thought I was cracking up, which, looking back, was fair; we'd been through a lot," he said. His gaze dropped to the ground for a moment as we walked side by side through the trees, down the same path he'd taken that had led him back to me. "We'd lost a lot."
"I know," I said quietly, taking his hand. He didn't need to tell me what they'd been through. Losing their first real home at the prison, losing Beth and Hershel, everything they'd suffered at Terminus… There were some deaths he'd carry with him forever.
"Rick told me to walk it off," Daryl said, coming to a stop under a familiar tree. Dead leaves piled up on the patch of forest floor I'd found him sitting on, burning a lit cigarette against his skin. "I was sitting down right here, and honestly, angel, I was starting to think Rick was right. Losing so much was making me lose my mind. I wanted to find you so bad, but it just seemed like no matter what I did, someone I cared about wound up dead. Started thinking you'd be better off if I never found you."
"No." I couldn't bear to hear him say that. Nothing had ever felt right without him. I remembered seeing him sitting there. How broken he'd looked, and how nothing, not even Aaron pulling a gun on me, could have stopped me from getting to him in that state.
"It's how it felt. Like nothing would ever go right again. I was at my fucking lowest…" Daryl shrugged, the toe of his boot scuffed against the dirt, a self-conscious tick. "…and then there you were."
He looked up at me. His blue eyes caught me off guard. My heart clenched, "Daryl…"
"Right when I needed you most. Like a goddamn miracle," he said. I had no idea what was going on, why he'd brought me here, or what he was doing, but my heart started beating a million miles an hour. Like it knew something was coming—something it needed to prepare for. "You've always been that way. I don't know how you do it."
"Well, I wish I could say I planned it, but it was sheer dumb luck I found you."
"Nah. Feels like more than that."
"What, you tryna say it was fate?" I said. It was meant to make him laugh. I thought he'd call me a dumbass, but he didn't. He shrugged.
"I dunno. Maybe. I mean, even when we first met. My Mom had just died, and Dad was… gettin' worse. Merle was in juvie. I had nobody. Nobody gave a shit where I was or what I was doing. I could have fallen off the face of the Earth and nobody would've given a damn," he said. Daryl took both of my hands in his like he had when walking me into the lake earlier. I studied his face. He was so damn serious. "And then there you were."
"Lucky me," I said quietly.
"Pfft, yeah."
"Nah, I mean it," I said. "You looked out for me. First thing you did was teach me to hunt so I wouldn't have to steal food anymore. Nobody had taken care of me before. I didn't know what that was like."
"I wanna keep taking care of you," he said. "Forever."
"Well, you're the best at it. When you care about someone, Daryl, you really care. I was lucky then and I'm lucky now," I said. "You're so loyal and protective, and you make me feel so safe and loved. You're such a good man, I know you don't always think it, but you are."
God, why am I getting so damn emotional?
Daryl was too. "Shit, you're better at this than me. I knew you would be."
"Better at what ?"
Daryl shook his head and took a deep breath. He shoved a hand deep into his pocket. "Seeing you again, after I never thought I would, was the best thing that could've happened to me. I lost you once. I've tried living without you and I hated every second of it. I couldn't do it again. Not even for a day. So, I know that you 'n' me ain't been a couple that long, but you've always been my… I gotta ask… Naomi, will you -"
What the fuck was that?
Whatever Daryl was about to say was cut short. The forest had been so quiet it felt like we were the only two people in the world, a burst of loud popping sounds quickly shattered that illusion.
Gunshots.
Daryl grabbed me and dragged me down to the ground. His body shielded mine. I loved him for trying, but I'd never forgive myself if he went out this way. I gripped his clothes, pulling him with me as I tried to move back. Protecting each other was an instinct so deeply baked in that it would probably end up being our undoing. Annoyed but unable to argue with me, Daryl followed, and we slowly shifted until I felt roots under my shoulders. The forest was silent now. Backs up against that same tree I'd found him under, both of us scanned the forest for movement like we used to search for game. Daryl's hands touched my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him.
"You good?" he asked in a low whisper. I nodded. His hand rubbed my arm, concerned eyes looking right into mine. "You hit?"
I shook my head. "Don't think they were shooting at us."
He nodded in agreement. Daryl's arms wrapped around me, his face alert for danger. "Sounded close."
We kept listening, but there were no further gunshots. Now that everything had fallen quiet, it was hard to tell which direction it had come from, but it seemed to have been behind us and toward the road. I pointed in that direction, and Daryl nodded in agreement.
"We should go look," I whispered and felt him tense.
"Why?" he hissed back.
Shooting at Walkers was a dumb move that would only bring more. It was a desperate, last resort. "They might need help."
"Knew you'd say that," Daryl muttered, his head shaking slightly. He pulled his gun and looked at me. "Follow. If it looks dangerous, fall back."
"I got your back," I said, drawing my knife and pistol. There was no way I'd leave his side if things looked dangerous, and he knew that. The warning glare he shot over his shoulder was meant to scare me off. It didn't.
We moved like we used to when we were stalking deer—quiet, in unison, so in tune with each other, we didn't have to speak. Our ears tuned in to every light rustle of our surroundings. There are ways to tell the difference between wind and a deliberate step, especially at that time of year when the ground is littered with decaying leaves. The dead weren't smart enough to tread lightly.
A few paces in, a new sound cut through the silence - an engine. Daryl looked at me.
" The car , " I mouthed. We'd left it parked right in the middle of the road. It's not like there was traffic anymore, and we didn't usually have to worry about other people on the roads. I couldn't remember the last time we'd seen another moving vehicle. From the lack of disrepair and the outward signs of modifying it for Daryl's biofuel, it would be obvious to anyone passing by that it was one of the few functional cars left. Valuable in a world like this. Worth killing for.
" Fuck, " he breathed. As fun as it had been the first time, we couldn't afford another night stranded on the road. There was too much work to be done. We couldn't afford to lose a vehicle either, especially after all of the modifications Daryl had done to it.
We broke into a run, closing the gap between us and the road. Judging by when we'd heard the engine start, we only had a few seconds before they took off. Knowing our luck we'd get to the road just in time to see some asshole driving away in our car. I could still hear the engine running.
Daryl burst into the road ahead of me and came to such a sudden stop that I almost crashed into his back. "What the hell?"
Gun raised, he had it trained on the car. It was exactly where we'd left it in the middle of the road. The engine was running, the doors were open, and there wasn't another person in sight. Even the trunk had been popped.
Daryl moved cautiously toward it. I stuck close by, but my attention was on the surrounding trees. We'd been drawn out here for a reason, and whoever had done it was nearby. They couldn't have had time to go far. Daryl swept the car methodically. I covered his back, watching every movement in the treeline. The engine cut out as Daryl leaned in and removed the keys.
"Car's clear," Daryl muttered after he'd checked that nobody was hiding under it.
"They take anything?" I asked, although, as far as I knew, there wasn't much to take, and a glance told me Daryl's crossbow had been left in the backseat. He reached in to get it. Why would someone go to all of this trouble and not take a weapon that was sitting right there?
"Nope." Daryl's back pressed against mine as we covered both sides of the road. A movement drew my eye. Something was coming out of the forest, human-sized and shaped. Another one followed quickly behind. From the way they stumbled, I knew what they were.
"I got two Walkers comin'," I said, raising my knife.
"I got a few, too," I felt him turn to glance back at me and judge how far they were from me. "You good, baby?"
"Yeah, I got 'em," I said, looking over his shoulder at the three heading his way. They were about as close to him as mine were to me. We'd have to divide and conquer. Daryl clearly hated the idea, and I wasn't much of a fan either. If someone was about to attack us, waiting until we were separated and distracted with something else before they struck would be a smart move.
Ignoring every instinct yelling at me not to, I walked away from the comfort of Daryl's back. I moved quickly on the first Walker, all the time hyper-aware of anyone else moving in my peripheral. The first Walker reached for me, I dodged it and jammed my knife into the base of its skull. A bolt whizzed through the air and took out the second before I could get near it. I looked over my shoulder at Daryl, half expecting to see someone sneaking up on him while he was distracted by helping me. But it was just him.
"C'mon," he said urgently, gesturing for me to get back to him. There was a wild panic in his eyes. I walked back to the familiar comfort of Daryl's back up against mine. The forest around us was treacherously quiet.
"Why would anyone… do this?" I whispered.
"We're going be jus' fine, angel," Daryl said quietly.
"I know," I said. I didn't need to be reassured of that. We were a formidable team, bound by the knowledge that we'd do anything for each other. "But why draw us out here? Why mess with the car without taking it? It's like they're trying to distract us from something, but… there's nothing else here."
Daryl gave a start, "The barn!"
"The barn ?" I repeated, chasing after him. "That ain't ours."
Daryl didn't answer, running with a dogged determination that I didn't understand. Anyone who'd been trying to distract us while they took it was welcome to it. We didn't store anything there. It wasn't ours. It was largely empty when Aaron and I had checked it out as a potential place to recruit Daryl's group. That was a long time ago, and I couldn't think why that would have changed. Now would have been the perfect time for us to make a quiet exit. I followed him anyway, leaving his side was not an option. I'd run into the mouth of hell before I let him go into danger alone.
We ran back into the woods, past the tree we'd taken shelter under at the sound of gunshots. Slowing as we neared the barn, wanting to maintain the element of surprise, Daryl paused. He was right. Two men were emerging from the barn, carrying a whole skinned deer between them. There was a truck backed up to the front of the barn that hadn't been there a moment ago.
Maybe this was all just a weird trick to distract us long enough for them to move their supplies. They might've thought that we would steal from them if we found their stash. This had all been a misunderstanding. I relaxed, assuming Daryl would too. We could back off now and leave them to it. But I looked at him; his jaw was clenched tight, and his eyes were fixed on the deer. He was pissed.
"Sonofabitch," Daryl muttered, striding forward with his crossbow pointed at them.
"Wait!" I hissed. "Leave them! Why are you -?"
"Hey!" Daryl yelled, either not hearing me or ignoring me completely. "Drop the deer and go. Nobody needs to get hurt."
The two men paused for a moment, looked over at him, and then kept going. The bigger of the two, with a large graying beard, looked at Daryl, unfazed, "Deer's ours."
That sounded fair. We had no stake in this, I wasn't even sure why we'd come back. Daryl tensed, I could feel his anger bristling around him but I didn't understand it. "No, it ain't. It's ours."
"You got proof of purchase?"
"I shot it."
You did?
When?
I stared at Daryl. I didn't want to contradict him in front of these strangers, but… Things weren't adding up. Why would he stash a kill here instead of bringing it back to Sanctuary?
"Can you prove that?"
"It's my fucking deer," he said, finger tense on his loaded crossbow.
"Woah, woah, woah," I said, trying to cool him down. One deer wasn't worth dying over. He knew that. "It's fine. Let 'em have it."
"Listen to your lady," the bearded man said. There was a thud as they threw the deer into the back of their truck. "Ain't no reason for this to go badly for anyone."
"Give it back ," Daryl snarled. The bearded man sighed and raised a gun at Daryl. Not just any gun, a goddamn machine gun.
" Daryl, " I hissed urgently. These guys were too well-armed to mess with.
"Are we going to have a problem?" the bearded man asked. His machine gun was unnervingly clean, the barrel glinting as Daryl glared down it.
"No. We're good," I said, fighting to keep my breathing neutral. "Ain't we?"
The bearded man's eyes slid back over to me. "You guys got a place near here?"
"Why?" I asked. "Do you need one?"
The offer was almost a reflex. It had been a while since we'd come across survivors in need and been able to offer shelter, there was a second where it felt like we might be able to do that again. They could bring the damn deer, and Daryl might stop losing his shit about it. I should have known it was too neat a solution.
"Naomi," Daryl breathed my name as a warning. I paused, glanced at him, and noticed the way he was looking at the strangers. These people were clean and well-armed. Their clothes looked fresh, and dirt-free. They didn't look like people who'd been on the road or in need of shelter. Even their truck looked factory-fresh.
"Do you? " the man asked, still looking at me. I clammed up real fast.
"Hey. Don't talk to her. Talk to me," Daryl snapped, stepping in front of me.
"We've got a place," the bearded man says as if Daryl hasn't spoken. "It's safe. Secure. Family-friendly"
"We're good, thanks," I said, but my blood had turned to ice. 'Family-friendly' was a weird turn of phrase. Had they seen us before? Did they know about Mia? I tugged on Daryl's arm, "Leave it. Let's go."
The muscles in Daryl's jaw tightened, but there was a little give in his arm. He was about to walk away with me and then a third man walked out of the barn, a green cap pulled down low over his head and a box of something in his hands. Daryl tensed again, we both did. We were outnumbered. Were there any more of them?
"Nothing else worth taking in there, we should-" the third man stopped when he noticed us. "…what's this?"
The bearded man didn't take his eyes off Daryl, "This guy says the deer's his."
"Doesn't look like it," the man in the green cap said. He stared at Daryl, "That your car on the road? I suggest you get in and stop trying to claim what ain't yours."
"You first," Daryl said through gritted teeth.
"Alright," the man said with a shrug. They started backing toward the truck. "We'll get out of your hair."
"What's in the box?" Daryl said, stepping forward as they retreated.
"Daryl!" I hissed. "What the hell are you doing?"
He didn't answer me. The guy in the green cap put the box in the back of the truck with the dead deer and hopped in there too. He picked up another machine gun and pointed it at us from the back of the truck while his friends got in the front. Daryl was so enraged that he looked like he might shoot. I knew he wouldn't, not when there was a chance of them retaliating, but he really seemed close to it.
"Hey, quick tip if that is your barn," the guy in the green cap said, raising his voice over the sound of the engine switching on. "Shouldn't have so many candles in there. It ain't safe."
Candles?
Daryl's head whipped around as the truck took off.
" Fuck!" he yelled. "FUCK!"
I didn't take my eyes off the retreating truck, but my heart raced at how panicked he sounded. How angry. Daryl looked back at the truck, and I could tell he was tempted to shoot. Blow the tires out and run after them. He was breathing hard; his fingers gripped the gun so tightly that his knuckles turned white. But the guy in the back had a gun trained on us too. The stalemate wouldn't end until they were far enough away that none of us could damage the other.
Behind me, I could smell smoke.
"Daryl…" I said, my voice shaking. "What's that smell?"
"It's the barn," he said. "It's the fucking barn, them assholes burned it."
The truck was far enough away that I chanced a glance back. Smoke billowed from the barn doors. Flames lapped at the entrance. It was out of control, the place would be destroyed, but it shouldn't upset him. It wasn't our barn. When the truck was out of sight, Daryl turned toward the fire. It reflected in his eyes.
" Fuck!" he yelled again. He started pacing, agitated, looking at that barn like it was Alexandria burning. Like everything was falling apart around him and he didn't know how to stop it. "And they took our fucking dear… I can't… we can't… I'll never be… FUCK!"
My heart sank. He was spinning out. Over a damn deer. Had I been putting too much pressure on him? Worrying so much about the food shortage that he'd tried to shoulder the sole responsibility for fixing it? I caught his arm to stop him pacing. "Daryl, it's alright. It's just a deer. We'll get another one."
When he looked at me, there was such a desperate hopelessness in his eyes that it made my heart ache. "This was fucking dumb idea, I don't know what I was thinking. I never should've…"
He stopped. I waited for him to go on, but he didn't. The anger in his eyes was dying out, washed away by that deep hopelessness, which was so much worse. I hated seeing it and didn't know how to pull him out of it because I didn't understand where it was coming from. That scared me more than anything else had that day - more than getting in the water, more than someone fucking with our car, more than coming across strangers with guns. I touched his cheek and turned his face to look at me, "What's going on?"
Indecision flickered across his face for a moment. I hated how sad he looked. He swallowed something down and sighed.
"C'mon," he said. "Let's just go home."
I nodded, and let him walk back to the car in silence. Sometimes he just needed time, needed space to process things before he found the words for them. We reached the road again, the road I'd seen him walking down after all those years. Daryl came to a stop, staring blankly at the car but not getting in. I hated that this was putting a damper on what had been such an otherwise perfect escape from our usual work at Sanctuary. I waited for him to open the driver's side. When he didn't, I moved to stand with him, wondering if I should offer to be the one to drive us both home. Daryl didn't seem in a fit state to get behind the wheel.
"C'mon, it ain't so bad," I nudged him, trying to jolt him out of it. The sigh that came out of him could've knocked a house down. "I still had a good time today, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but-" Daryl looked at me for a long time. So long I started to get nervous. Something in his eyes changed, and a decision clicked into place. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Fuck it."
"Fuck what ?"
He sighed again. "I wanted to do this right. I need you to know that."
"Do what right?"
"I had whole fuckin' plan, sweetheart," he said, his frustration giving away to tense nervousness. It was putting me on edge. "And you deserve… well, you deserve a hell of a lot more than I could ever… but it all just went up in smoke, and I want you to be my wife, and I don't wanna have to wait anymore, I just want-"
Daryl froze when he realized what he'd let slip. I froze too. We stared at each other for a moment, hearts beating like crazy in the silence. " What did you just say?" I managed to ask, breathlessly. It probably wasn't the right way to handle it or the right thing to say. If he'd blurted out something he didn't mean I didn't want to put him on the spot by drawing attention to it. But how was I supposed to think about anything else?
"Shit, that wasn't how I meant to… I mean, I should've…" Daryl dropped to one knee and my stomach dropped with him. Something glinted in his fingers, but I couldn't focus on it because my vision was blurring.
Is that…?
Is he about to…?
Holy fucking shit.
My heart damn near stopped. It leaped up to the back of my throat; my hand flew to my mouth. Never, not in a million years, would I have seen this coming.
"Wait," I said, but I could barely speak. Panic started setting into Daryl's eyes, and I tried to get the words out as fast as I could. "Before you… do what I think… you might be… are you sure ?"
"Yes." He sounded sure, but it was hard to see his face through newly formed tears.
"Cause, you can walk it back," I said, my voice breaking with emotion. "No hard feelings, just… don't ask me unless you're sure. Okay?"
I couldn't say no to him. Even if it might be the right thing to do, even if I thought he deserved something better. I didn't have that kinda strength. I'd never in my life thought I'd be in this position but now that I was, I knew I'd never be able to hear that question from his lips and say no.
"I ain't ever been more sure of anything in my life."
My cheeks were wet with tears. "But, what if I decide I don't want -"
"I don't care. You're my family, you're my future. Whatever that looks like, that's what I want."
I nodded. Words momentarily escaped me.
"Naomi," he said, voice gruff. "Will you-"
"Yes," I said immediately.
"I ain't asked yet."
"Sorry," I said, half-laughing and half-crying, but I found I was kneeling too because I didn't want to be any further from him than I had to be.
His hands took mine, and even though I'd already given him my answer, he still took a deep and shaky breath, "Will you marry me?"
"Yes." I reached for him, closing the gap between us to kiss him. Daryl's arms wrapped around me, pulling me against him. He kissed me back, and he felt like the only solid thing in existence. It was difficult to stay upright because we were both crying a little.
I couldn't believe it. Neither could he, his lips still pressed against mine, he whispered, "For real?"
" Yes."
He pulled back and held me at arm's length for a moment to look at me. "Like…you'll be my wife?"
" Yes, Daryl," I laughed, wiping the tears from my cheeks. "Ain't that what you just asked me?"
"I know. But…gotta be sure you heard me right."
"Yes." I laughed again. "Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes ."
Daryl laughed too, his cheeks as damp as mine. He took my hand as he got to his feet, helping me up, too. When I was on my feet, he held onto my left hand and opened his palm. A ring glinted in the middle of it. "Can I…?"
"Yes," I said again. My new favorite word. My hand shook in his. I wiped my eyes with the other hand, trying to hold myself together enough to take it all in. Real gently he slipped it onto the ring finger on my left hand. It glided on there, fit like a dream. The band looked like intricately twisted branches of a silver tree, cradling a stone in the middle. It was blue. Like his eyes.
I couldn't speak. My silence made him anxious. "I know it ain't… I couldn't find a diamond and I didn't want anything that, uh, stuck out too much, y'know, in case it got caught on anything and you couldn't -"
"Holy shit, it's so pretty," I blurted out, tears threatening to well up again. Daryl's ears went pink as he tried to hide how much he was smiling. "It's beautiful. Where the hell did you find something like this?"
"Glad ya like it."
"I love it," I said, on the verge of babbling again. "I love you. God, I can't believe… you… and me… I just…"
Daryl took my face in his hands, his thumbs brushing tear tracks from my cheeks. "I love you so much, angel."
This time when we kissed, we were smiling through it so much it made my cheeks hurt. Daryl's arms wrapped around me, holding me so tightly to his chest that after a while I struggled to breathe. I didn't care. There was nothing in my life worth complaining about.
"Let's get you home, baby," Daryl said, opening up the car door for me. His ears were still pink, his smile didn't budge. Excitement buzzed in the air around him. I'm sure it was around me too. I slipped into the car, still feeling like I was in a dream.
"I can't believe it fits so well," I said, looking down at the ring again as Daryl got into the driver's seat. I couldn't stop staring at it.
"What?" Daryl said quietly. "You think I don't know what size your hands are?"
"But you found one that's exactly… " I caught the look in his eye right before he looked away from me "Hold up. Daryl, did you make this?"
The self-conscious pause before he answered told me everything I needed to know.
"Well, I found one, but it didn't seem right or the right size, and like I said, I didn't want anything that could get caught if you need to get away from something fast, so I just…" he trailed off. His voice quieted, "Yeah, I guess I made it."
I started crying again immediately.
I had almost recovered by the time we reached Sanctuary. Thank God Daryl was driving, because now I was the one who was in no state to be behind the wheel. Mia and Bryce were waiting on the steps. They didn't usually wait for us like this. Mia was grinning from ear to ear, shifting impatiently on the balls of her feet. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her looking excited. Christmas when she was little, maybe. But not for a long time. Bryce, who'd never once heard me voice a desire for marriage and, in fact, seen me roll my eyes many times at the idea that I'd end up someone's wife, looked nervous. A few things fell into place. I looked over at Daryl, "She knows, doesn't she? They both do."
"Yeah."
We got out of the car. Mia sprang down the steps, the anticipation written all over her face. When neither of us said anything right away, she looked at Daryl, "Did you do it?"
I feared for Daryl's safety if he'd said no. Even as a joke. No wonder he hadn't wanted to get back into the car without saying anything.
"Yeah," he said, his cheeks reddening.
Mia looked at me, and even though I'm sure she could see the answer in both of our faces, she asked, "Did you say yes?"
A tiny part of me wanted to mess with her, but I couldn't bring myself to even pretend I'd said no. I held up my left hand. Mia's feet barely touched the ground as she ran at us.
Daryl
The workshop was dark and quiet but not empty. There was a stillness to everything that was fake as hell, like the air was being forced to be silent. I can't explain it better than that. When you've spent a lot of time alone in the quiet, you learn that there are different kinds. I stopped with my hand on the door handle. People were there. People who didn't want to be heard. I couldn't walk away, couldn't ignore it. The safety of this place might rest on it.
I drew my knife and tried not to worry about the fact I hadn't seen my girls since the morning. If anything had happened to either of them, whoever was in here was about to breathe their last. I nudged the door open a fraction. Nothing stirred inside, but it did still.
Waiting for my eyes to adjust to the gloom, I managed to pick out at least one person-shaped shadow. Whoever it was, I hoped they were important enough to the others in there to be a valuable hostage. In one swift move, I kicked the door open and lunged for them, hauling them to their feet. My arm clamped tightly around the guy's neck to stop him from struggling.
"Woah, man, it's just me!" A familiar voice protested.
" Glenn? " The lights came on. Glenn looked at me with as much surprise as I was looking at him. Naomi stepped in front of me.
"Surprise…?" she said, almost apologetically.
"What the hell?" I quickly let Glenn go.
Naomi started laughing, "I should have known hiding was a bad idea."
Rick slapped me on the back. I looked back at Naomi, " Rick's here?"
"Yeah, man," he chucked. "Naomi invited all of us."
All of us?
Michonne appeared at Rick's other shoulder. Carol and Ezekiel emerged from behind one of the workbenches. Mia and Carl stepped out from behind the door. There was a low groan and then a heavily pregnant Maggie stood up, aided by Rosita. Aaron and Bryce waved at me from near where Aaron had turned on the lights.
"Even Maggie's here?" I stared at her. "Shouldn't you be resting?"
"That's what I said," Glenn muttered under his breath.
"You think I'm going to miss one last chance to see you all before the baby comes?" Maggie said. "No way."
"We probably should have come to you," Naomi said, eyeing Maggie's bump as if she was about to pop right there and then.
"Nah I got a few weeks in me yet," Maggie brushed her off.
Naomi's brow creased in that anxious little frown. "Okay, but if you feel any-"
"If I feel anything at all out of the ordinary, I'll let you know," Maggie said in a way that made it obvious my sweet girl had been fretting over her since they'd arrived.
When had they arrived?
I'd been out most of the day. Naomi had asked me to go on a hunt, but I was now suspecting that it had been a trick to set this all up. I looked around at them all, my head spinning like I was hallucinating. I couldn't remember the last time we'd all been in one place without a war to fight or some kinda life or death problem to solve.
"What the hell are you all doing here?" I asked. I knew how rude it sounded but I was in too much shock for manners. Not that I was great at them at the best of times. Rick laughed again.
"It was all her, man," Rick said, nudging me and nodding to Naomi. "She suggested we all come to drop the last lot of supplies before Winter at the same time, and invited us to stick around for the night after. One last hurrah before the snow hits."
"You did?" I looked at her. Naomi went bright red. I wanted to scoop her up right then and there.
"That's a good future wife you got yourself there, Daryl," Michonne said with a grin.
Naomi's blush deepened but there was no way I could make fun of her for it because I was sure I'd gone even redder. "Oh you heard about that, huh?"
"Mia radioed Carl," Michonne laughed. "I think it must have been about ten minutes after you guys left."
Mia held her hands up, pretending to be all innocent, "Hey, I was excited, I had to tell someone that I'm going to be a bridesmaid."
"Bridesmaid?" Naomi repeated with a flash of alarm that mirrored a twist in my gut. "Mia you know it ain't gonna be like how weddings were before all this, right?"
"Right," Mia said slowly, nodding. "But you know that group celebrations are important in keeping a sense of community, even and especially when groups are separated by distance."
She said it like she was quoting something, and the way Naomi looked like she wanted to start cursing suggested that she was hearing her own words parroted by her baby sister. It was her own damn fault for being so clever, and for raising a kid clever enough to challenge her.
"She's right," Carol chimed in. "That is what you said to get us all here."
"Well, I take it back," Naomi said, trying not to laugh. "Y'all are welcome to mind your own business. That goes doubly for you, Mia."
Mia stuck her tongue out at her.
God, I love my girls.
"Congrats, man," Rick slapped me on the back again.
Mercifully, the conversation moved on as Jerry and Eugene came in with trays of food. The smells wafting off them made my mouth water. I shot Naomi a puzzled look. "You been holding out on us? We had all that in the kitchen?"
"We all brought something, so as not to put a drain on your resources," said Ezekiel. "We all need to be cautious with supplies in the run-up to winter, so it wouldn't be as bountiful a feast as we had in the summer, but food tastes better in good company, wouldn't you agree?"
"It's like a potluck!" Carol added cheerfully.
I shook my head, "Stop. I hate it when you get all Stepford Wives on us."
Carol pretended to be offended. "Well, then you don't have to eat anything of mine."
"Em, he doesn't speak for me," Naomi said quickly, worried that she would also be cut off from whatever food Carol had brought with them from the Kingdom.
Recovering from the shock of not being attacked, I greeted all of them in a blur of hugs and hellos. We all mucked in to set the table. It was damn good to see them all like this. We were used to catching up in tiny little fractions. A visit to Hilltop to get more corn for biofuel from Maggie and Glenn, or seeing Carol and the King when they came to drop off a few supplies. It reminded me a little of our early days at the prison. Everyone gathered in one place, sharing plates of food, talking over one another, and passing dishes around. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen them all so relaxed. There were noticeable absences, people who should have been at the table but hadn't made it. But, having everyone else gathered here, with Glenn and Maggie on the verge of welcoming their little one, it felt like we'd come out the other side of a long, dark, tunnel. There was daylight, fresh air, and each other.
Didn't even feel like we were in Sanctuary anymore. All of that bullshit melted away. It was just the group.
After Mia and Carl had been sent to bed, Naomi pulled out an unmarked glass bottle.
"This is strong," she warned as poured out a drink for everyone but Maggie. "So go easy on it."
There was a curious little glint in her eye as she slid one of them over to me. I sniffed it, braced myself, and took a shot. There was something familiar about the burn in the back of my throat. I winced, "The hell kind of paint stripper is this?"
"Merle's recipe, actually," she said, passing them out to everyone else.
" Merle's? " I was sure I must've heard her wrong.
"Yeah," she said. "He showed me how to make it once. When I was staying with you guys."
"Why?"
"He had a bunch of questions about how to copyright something - I think he meant trademark or patent because I think he wanted to sell it," she said. "He was not sober at the time, so the conversation was hard to follow. I remember the recipe though. I think."
"Well shit," I looked around at everyone else. "Y'all better take it real slow. Merle's hooch ain't to be trifled with."
It was kind of fun to watch their reactions as they took a drink. I thought Glenn was about to hurl the moment it passed his lips. Rick toughed it out, but I could see his eyes watering. Michonne took careful, measured sips instead of a shot. Rosita downed it like a champ. Aaron coughed for about three solid minutes afterward. Naomi knew better than anyone what to expect, but I still saw her brace herself before she drank.
Seeing as everyone survived the first round, Naomi started pouring out a few more. Food portions had been small because every community was rationing on the run-up to winter; the drink was strong, and it wasn't long before people were getting a little tipsy.
"I take it she's not…?" Rick looked pointedly at the glass in her hand.
"Nah," I shook my head. I could feel Rick studying me for any sign of disappointment about it, but there wasn't any. All of that was long gone. "It's all good."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
It was better than good. I didn't want to bring up Lori again, not when things had been so good tonight. But, I felt like maybe I owed him an apology for not thinking about how he'd lost her. I was about to have Naomi as mine forever until death did us part, which meant she'd literally have to be pried out of my cold, dead hands. No way I wanted to chance speeding that kind of ending along. I still couldn't think about the possibility of losing it, not for anything.
"Hey, uh, you and Michonne…," I cleared my throat. Rick's eyebrows shot up in a where's-this-going kind of way.
"Ye-es?"
"I'm just glad you found her, y'know," I said. I had to start staring at my shoes because I wanted the ground to swallow me up. "It's nice to see you happy after… everything."
Rick put an arm around my shoulder. "Thank you, brother."
Shit, I should stop drinking.
I'm getting sappy.
It was too late. Knowing Merle's concoction it had been too late since that first drink. My damn sappy heart kept getting pulled back to Naomi. I couldn't stop looking over at her. No matter who I wound up talking to, I found myself drawn back to her again and again.
She'd been sitting opposite me at the table, and at first that was kinda nice because I could look at her, catching her smile. The way she laughed. Seeing her so at ease with the people I'd come to think of as family while we'd been apart, people she'd invited here because I loved them. But after a couple of drinks, I started wishing she was next to me so I could reach over and touch her thigh under the table. A few more tasted like I needed her in my lap.
Thankfully, I wasn't the only one whose inhibitions were lowering. Michonne's hand had settled in Rick's some time ago and neither of them looked like they were letting go anytime soon. Carol rested her head on the King's shoulder and I noticed she's lost all of that tension she often carried in her shoulders. The way Eugene was looking at Rosita… he had my sympathies. It wasn't that long ago that I'd been pining after the girl of my dreams. And now she was going to be my wife.
How'd I get so lucky?
It didn't feel real.
The next time I found myself in her orbit, I put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. It was nice to just stand like that for a moment. The chatter and laughter of our friends were a little muffled by the alcohol, making my head fuzzy. It made me feel warm in all kinds of ways. I leaned closer to my girl, "I can't believe you did this for me."
"I mean, it's no proposal ," she said, a smirk tugging at her lips. "But you miss them. They're family."
Something tugged at my heart. She was all I could focus on. " You're family."
"Yes," she agreed. "But so are they."
Couldn't argue with that. I wanted to kiss her. My hands found their way to her hips. From the smile that had now fully spread across her face, I knew she could tell what I was thinking. That alone was enough to almost make me cave.
It's okay to kiss your future wife in front of people, right?
They weren't even paying much attention to us. Some of them had started drifting away to the rooms and beds Naomi had set up for them by now. Maggie and Glenn were first to head off. Not because heavily pregnant Maggie got too tired but because Glenn couldn't handle his drink. Aaron had turned in for an early night. Bryce had disappeared at a suspiciously similar time.
The rest were taking their sweet time.
I'd been so happy to see them, but now all I wanted was her. "Think we can duck out for a sec?"
"That wouldn't make us very good hosts now, would it?" Naomi said, but she was giving me that smile I've never seen her give to anyone else.
I think I'd die if she did.
I leaned in close to her, "C'mon, baby, just a minute. They won't notice we're gone."
Naomi didn't say anything, but the smile didn't budge from her face. It made my heart beat right up against my rib cage. Her hand found mine, fingers interlocking, she walked backward and quietly pushed open an old fire exit behind her. Pulling me with her into the stairwell, I made sure the door shut real quiet behind me. Or, I tried to. I was drunk and clumsy so I probably wasn't as slick as I thought.
In the stairwell, I could finally hold her like I wanted to. Her body against mine, the taste of her burning on my lips so much stronger than any liquor ever could. The small plates made the alcohol hit a little harder, but my head was spinning for other reasons. I'd thought one kiss would be enough. That I'd be able to go back to the party after one stolen moment with my girl.
That was dumb.
Alcohol ain't exactly known for calming flames down. I'd accidentally created an inferno.
Through the door behind her, I could hear the rumble of our friends laughing and talking together. "You wanna go back in?"
A pause, another little smile, and then she shook her head.
Good.
I kissed her again, my hands roaming her body, pulling her closer to me and away from the door. We both stumbled against the bottom step. I grabbed her tighter so she didn't fall, although I wasn't so steady on my feet either. Her laugh was the sweetest music, and I was surprised to hear my own join in. I wasn't used to being a happy drunk, especially on Merle's shit. Usually, there was an initial buzz that ended in a fight. I'd mouth off to the wrong person, or my thoughts would drift somewhere I didn't want them to and put me in the kind of mood that made me want to smack the first person I caught looking at me wrong.
But there had been no wrong people around the table. And every time my thoughts had drifted, they'd landed on Naomi.
I picked her up, one arm under her legs and the other supporting her back.
"Whatcha doing?" she laughed, but I could feel her arms around my neck as I ran up the stairs with her.
"Practicing."
Her body was still shaking with laughter as I carried her bridal-style over the threshold of the stairwell into the hall, and then the second one into our room. I set her feet down on the floor. For maybe the first time in my life, I felt excited about the future. Not nervous, not anxious. Excited. I was giddy with it. Until now, my life had been an uphill battle, but I felt like I'd finally reached the top. And the view was so damn worth it. Even the really hard things I'd gone through looked less shit from up here. I looked into her eyes and tried to work out how to tell her all of that.
Naomi's face, moonlit and beautiful, looked up at me. Her cheeks were flushed. My clumsy fingers pushed some of her hair out of her face, "Should've asked Gabriel to this thing so I could marry you right now."
I heard it after I'd said it, and winced at how corny it was. For a second, my heart lurched as my brain caught up with my mouth. But before I could sink into regret over telling her that I was already completely ready to be her husband, damn any kind of engagement period, she said, "Maybe I should've."
My heart flipped, my lips on hers again. I was too far gone. Drunk on her and just plain drunk I pushed her down onto the mattress. Eager hands pulled me down on top of her and tugged at my shirt. I laughed against her lips, "Patience, angel."
"Fuck patience," she said, head shaking, pulling harder on the material of my shirt. Couldn't stop smiling now. Not after seeing her like that - wanting me as much as I wanted her. I lifted my shirt off. Her hands against my skin - gentle but needy.
God, I love the way she touches me.
Naomi's hands tracked light lines across my skin. There was a look in her eyes that she usually tried to hide from me, but was too drunk to. Pure, naked lust as she looked at me, a sweet little sigh left her pretty mouth, "God, you're hot."
"It is warm, yeah."
She looked back up at my face. Her eyes narrowed, "That ain't what I meant and you know it."
I kissed her again. She tasted as sweet as she looked. My hands slipped under her shirt, mapping the soft skin underneath. For all I was teasing her, I was as needy and impatient as she was. Dangerously close to ripping every scrap of fabric keeping her body from me. Under her shirt, I reached her bra strap and tried to unclip it with uncoordinated fingers. I ain't saying I'm the smoothest guy at the best of times, but this was the worst it had ever been.
"Fuck's sake!" I grumbled, tearing my lips from hers so I could focus on it. "You gotta quit wearing these damn things, baby."
"I'll burn 'em tomorrow," she said, leaning her forehead against my shoulder and she laughed. It was contagious. She reached back to help me out, and together, we finally got the damn thing unclasped. I pulled it off with her shirt.
"Finally." I threw it to the ground with a drunk man's resolve to go through with burning the damn thing in the morning in case she forgot. Might throw the rest of her clothes on the bonfire while I was at it.
Naomi's hands ran back down my chest, her fingers brushing against my lower abdomen in a way that sent shivers right through me. She looped her fingers around my belt, focusing on the buckle with an adorable degree of determination. I grinned. "Whatcha doin' there?"
"I ain't got time for your damn teasing," she grumbled, looking up at me as she unfastened it. "C'mon, Daryl. Please?"
Damn, straight to 'please', huh?
She ain't messing around tonight.
I caught her lips with mine again, heard the sound of my zipper, and felt the confinement of my pants loosen. Her kisses got a little fiercer as she pushed my pants and boxers off my hips. I groaned as her soft hands wrapped around my cock.
Fuck patience.
She was right. We were too drunk, too horny, too in love to wait.
I pushed her down again. Rougher than I probably should have, but by the time my brain caught up with what I'd done, I'd already ripped the rest of her clothes off, too. A flash of guilt was all I had time for before her legs wrapped around me, pulling my hips down to hers.
Our kisses were deep and fuckin' sloppy, too. Too hungry for each other to care. Hands running all over each other's bodies. I could barely hold it together. Neither could she.
"Come on, Daryl, please please, " she whimpered. Her hand reached down, gripping my cock again as she guided me to her entrance.
"Look at me," I said. She turned her face, and I watched it change as I slowly pushed inside her. The little gasp, the quiver of her eyebrows, the way her eyes started filling with pleasure so intense that, for a moment, she looked like she was about to start crying from it. Seeing that always stirs something in me - a warring urge to protect her and undo her all at once. I took it real fucking slow, drawing the moment out for as long as could. She shivered and whimpered. One of my hands brushed through her hair, "That's it, baby, that's it."
She moaned as I slowly stroked my full length inside her. It felt like there was something important we'd forgotten, but she looked up at me and said, "I'm so in love with you," in the softest way and any hope of thinking about anything else flew out the window.
She really is .
I knew it.
I felt it.
So unconditional. I always thought I'd be hard to love, but she has a way of making it seem easy.
I'd move heaven and earth for her if she asked me to, but she never would. She was just happy having me around. Seeing me happy and making me the happiest man alive.
I kissed her, my little miracle. That's what she was to me. A fucking miracle.
"Fuck you're so pretty," Liquor loosened my lips way more than I'd have liked, but the way she smiled at me made my head spin twice as fast as any alcohol. "You look so fucking good taking my cock, angel."
Felt damn good too, like she'd been built just for me, but I couldn't focus on that or I'd bust too early. Naomi's eyes were wide and misted over with pleasure. Fingernails biting down on my back. She bit her lip, trying to stop the sweet little sounds she was making.
"Nah, c'mon angel," I ran a finger over her lip, pulling it down away from the teeth pressing into it. "You make such pretty noises for me, I wanna hear 'em. Lemme hear ya."
Naomi's back arched away from the mattress, her body pressing into me. Her moans filled the room again. "You feel so good, Daryl. Don't stop… Please."
Heady hazy with lust and booze, I couldn't hold back any more. I'd already been hanging by a thread. One of my hands gripped her hip tight to anchor myself as I started fucking her harder, faster. My other hand stayed up in her hair, making sure she was looking at me. Making sure I caught every moan that fell from her mouth.
"You're so perfect, baby," I said, watching a blush rise in her cheeks.
That look was back on her face. That beautiful, pleading look that makes me wanna give her the world as long as she's mine, wanna make her come undone so I can be the one holding her together.
"Daryl, I'm so close," she whimpered.
"I know, baby. I know." I could hear it in her voice, feel it in the way her pussy gripped me like a vice.
My hand was holding the side of her neck. It must have slipped down there at some point. I could feel the pulse in her throat and worried for a moment I was holding on too tight.
"Daryl, please…"
"Tell me your mine, angel," I said, pounding her a little harder. "Then you can cum for me, alright?"
Naomi nodded, propped herself up on her elbows. Our foreheads pressed together for a moment. All I could see were her eyes. Those damn pretty eyes. "I'm yours, Daryl. Of course I'm all yours. I love you." Her left hand touched my face, the cool of her engagement band against my cheek.
Fuck.
She really is mine.
I buried my face in her neck as I felt her come apart. "Good girl," I whispered to her over and over as I followed her over the edge.
Slowing down and then finally stopping as we came down from our high, I stayed buried inside her, my face still in her neck. Breathing her in. Her hands traced light lines up and down my spine as I caught my breath.
I rolled over, pulling her with me. My back sank into the mattress. I knew I should clean up but I didn't want to be apart from her. Even for a minute.
Desire had kept exhaustion at bay, but now it was all burnt up I could feel the tiredness deep in my bones. We'd had every intention of going back to the others when we'd stepped out. I think. It was hard to remember anything beyond my desire for her. I looked down at her and cupped her face in one of my hands, "You wanna go back downstairs, sweetheart?"
"Maybe," she said, but she'd nestled down against me. "Five minutes?"
I wanted to laugh. Her eyes were already closing. There was no way she was getting out of this bed. No way she was getting out of my arms.
I pulled her naked body tight against mine, closing my own eyes. It was probably the drink, but I felt like I could feel the way the world spun underneath us. A big dumb rock full of people just trying to get by. And somehow, the best person who'd ever existed on it was drifting off with her head on my chest. "Whatever you want, angel."
