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Chapter 4: The Light Came Down
She woke up and stretched lazily on the couch and realized that the familiar scent of coffee was hanging in the air. She inhaled and popped her hand out of her mound of blankets. She looked down and noticed his cot on the floor was straightened up and shoved next to the couch. Looking over to the kitchen area she frowned. Grabbing her many layers and putting them back on she stood from the couch and walked to the window checking to see if he was outside. Maybe checking out the barn. The truck was gone.
She grabbed her pack and tightened the scarf around her face. All of the doubts she'd had before he'd arrived yesterday started swimming through her head again. Perhaps he wasn't planning to stay with her, maybe he had only found her to realize she wasn't what he wanted. Maybe he had only found her out of obligation, maybe she was too broken, maybe she was too old etc… Distracted by those complicated and racing thoughts she didn't notice a lone walker stumbling across the snow in her direction until she turned to look at the cottage.
With her gloves on, her knife wasn't as accessible or easy to use. The walker grabbed her coat and her feet faltered. She stumbled backwards taking it with her. She pulled her glove off in time for an arrow to pierce through its mouth. She sighed and pushed the dead weight from her body and laid there for a moment. He hadn't left.
"Carol!" He yelled. She heard his running footsteps crunching across the layers of ice and snow. By the time he reached her she was standing up and brushing the cold snow from her body.
"I'm fine. They move slower up here." she assured him.
He shook his head and sighed and lowered his bow. "You ain't gotta go out alone like that."
"I woke up and I thought-" she looked around nervously.
"I hid the truck in the barn this morning after I cleared it." he pointed to the offending structure. "I was on my way back to the house when I spotted the deer tracks again. Thought I'd surprise you with some real meat." He started walking back to the house. "C'mon I got a different surprise for ya."
She nodded and followed him. He stopped and waited for her to catch up to him. They fell into an easy rhythm together and when they got back to the porch her eyes widened in surprise.
"What-"
Before she could even ask he grabbed the short evergreen, "Found a stand in the barn and just thought, maybe we didn't have to miss it this year."
She helped him carry it inside. He re-stoked the wood stove shoving another small log inside and they got to work setting up the tree. When it was finished they sat on the couch together staring at the small token of the old world. "Looks kinda sad." he chuckled.
"Nah." She looked at him and smiled brightly. "It's enough." He smiled shyly at her and she leaned into him. "You're enough."
He stiffened at her statement for a second and pulled away from her touch. Both of them were so traumatised by their past and present it was almost a foreign idea to declare such feelings aloud. When he saw her face looking at him with unadulterated affection he relaxed. "It's never enough." he said weakly.
She scooted away from him on the couch so she could look at his face better. She grasped his hand and held it affectionately. "I hoped you would find me."
He chewed on the inside of his lip. So many questions lingered between them. She could see them in his eyes. He let go of her hand and stood. "I need to go check the perimeter. Probably not smart of us to be burning the stove during the day. S'more visible."
She nodded agreeing with him. "I could come with you." She stood and began to put her layers back on.
"Nah. You stay here, stay warm."
"What about doing this together?" she questioned him.
He shook his head, "It won't take but a few minutes. No need for ya freeze ya ass off for a quick check."
"Daryl." she insisted stepping toward him at the door.
"Just-I'll be fine. Stay here." He put a hand up and gave her a stern glare. She relented and watched him from the window as he traipsed around the property. Pretty soon she saw him coming back to the door with a few rabbits over his shoulder. He entered with a gust of wind and snow and shook out his hair and dusted his shoulders off.
She was in the kitchen pretending to start dinner. "You found some game." she stated. He nodded and set their meal in the sink.
"Give me a few minutes and I'll take it back out to clean 'em quick."
"Just clean it there."
"We don't have any running water-"
"It's fine." she smiled trying to ease away whatever tension had arisen between them in the last half hour. "Relax." He took a deep breath and removed his coat.
"You okay?" she asked him.
He shrugged and sat at the kitchen table watching her as she began clean up the kills at the sink. After a few minutes of silence he spoke up. "I got scared when I saw you earlier."
She turned and gave him a reassuring look, "I'm still here."
"Yeah," he replied, "But ain't no one else." She lifted the skinned meat up onto butcher block on the counter and rustled around in the pantry for a few canned items and a pot she'd found at another house.
"You and me, at the end of the world." she said sadly.
"You ever think-"
Before he even finished his thought she finished it for him, "Sophia would've loved you."
He chewed nervously on the edge of his thumb nail at the words. He sniffed and tried to hold back his tears.
"They're out there somewhere." she said.
"They cain't be." he said rubbing the tears away from his eyes.
As soon as the pan was on the stove she grabbed a cup of the coffee he'd made and took a sip. It was luke warm now but officially burnt from sitting on the wood stove all day. She grimaced and began to tease him, "How did you drink this earlier?"
"What? It aint that bad!" he chuckled softly as he tried to fight of the looming sadness. "Keeps ya warm!" he declared
She giggled and set the mug down. "It's not starbucks but it'll do." she smiled and reached for his hand on the table. He reached out for hers at the same time. "I'm glad you found me."
His lip curled in and the water works turned on. She pulled him into her and held him as he cried into her shoulder. There was no reason to hash out each and every moment of their life on the road and how it had changed them. There was no reason to dwell on what could've been. He sighed and shuddered and looked up at her. He leaned his forehead against her own and closed his eyes.
She reached a hand up and caressed his hair and the side of his face. She kissed his cheek and closed her eyes on a sigh. A tear slipped down her cheek and she giggled a little. "I'm not leaving you."
"I'm not leaving you." he rasped.