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The Hunter Within

The Calm Before

Though Daryl had all but dragged himself through the front door just a few long minutes after midnight, he woke as the sky began to grey over the rooftops of Alexandria. His stiff shoulders were stacked upon one another as he struggled for space, one arm folded under his head and the other extended loosely, coming to rest on the adjacent coffee table. Bringing it to rub at his eyes, he worked at shifting back from the edge ever so carefully, not wanting to disturb the figure the still sleeping figure that had wedged itself between him and the back of the sofa sometime after he had drifted off to sleep. Fighting against the limited space they were granted, Sophie’s forearms were pressed against his upper back, tucked tightly between them, the backs of her hands touching at the ridges that littered the covered skin.
Holding his breath, Daryl dared to twist in his place, stealing a long glance over his shoulder at the girl that had squeezed into the space there almost seamlessly. Twisting a little more, he released the breath he held to watch it brush over the strands of loose hair that seemed to consume the entirety of the pillow she had stolen from him. Contrasting against the white that lay upon her cheek, Sophie’s black eyelashes did the same, her features smoothed of anything but peace. Following the contour of her cheek, Daryl found himself pausing to study the slightly parted nature of her chapped lips, pressing his own together as he wondered how it would feel to kiss her again. He wouldn’t, though. He couldn’t.
Forcing his lips into a tighter line, his heart climbing up into the base of his throat, Daryl used his free hand to touch at the fullness of her lips, curiousity getting the better of him. From his awkward angle, he twisted a little more to run the base of his thumb over the rise of her bottom lip, pausing midway to let her even breath wash over the calloused pad, his eyes darting between where it sat and her eyes for any sign that he had been caught out. Swallowing the lump in his throat, finding himself only wanting more, he let it drop from her lip to travel up the slope of her jaw line, tucking her loose hair behind her ear before retreating back into his own space.
“No,” she mumbled sleepily, eyes still closed as she pulled it weakly back towards her, Daryl’s own wide with the horror of being caught out. No sooner than she returned his fingers to the edge of her hairline did Sophie settle back into sleep, enough so that he questioned if she had even been awake in the first place.
Not daring to move for fear of actually waking her, Daryl kept impossibly still as he studied the rise and fall of her chest before moving to lie on his back, right shoulder hanging off the edge of the couch. Despite her request, he retracted his hand once more, pinning the fingers beneath his armpit, scolding them for acting on their own accord, knowing that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, he took to stealing periodic glances at her sleeping frame through half closed eyelids as he tried to convince himself to rest a little longer, his entire frame complaining that it wasn’t enough. Not sure if any amount of closeness would ever be enough, having resided to the fact that he was in too deep to lie to himself anymore, Daryl gave up on the prospect of further sleep as shrill cry broke the silence of the early morning.
Knowing what came next, he glanced over at Sophie, heart pounding violently in his chest as she stirred beside him, brows furrowing at the sound of Judith’s cry. Waiting for her to still once again, Rick’s unsteady footsteps already moving across the floor above them, Daryl reached for the throw Carl had too strategically positioned on the sofa to drape it over Sophie’s still sleeping frame anxiously, listening as the master bedroom door creaked open. By the time Judith’s cries dulled into hungry sobs, Rick had reached the top of the stairs, Daryl shifting back onto his side carefully, tucking one hand beneath his head and letting the other fall out to span the space between him and the coffee table once again.
Though Daryl was usually already awake when Rick came down to mix Judith’s bottle, they had always kept the light off, the brightness all too confronting for such an early hour, this morning being no exception. The other man was chatting softly to his daughter as they reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded into the kitchen, pausing mid-sentence to consider the way Daryl forced himself up of the couch, rubbing at his eyes as he opted to pretend to have only just woken up. Meeting the pair in the kitchen, he slid onto the end stool at the kitchen bench to grunt in reply to Rick’s greeting, daring a glance at the couch as the other man turned to rummage through the bottles stored within one of the kitchen draws.
“Huh?” He frowned, catching the end of Rick’s question as he turned back to face him, eyes dropping to the hands he anxiously knotted together before he forced them back up to the man before him.
“I just asked what you had on today?” Rick explained, cocking his head to consider the darkened space over Daryl’s shoulder as he mixed Judith’s formula.
Trying to swallow the lump in his throat, it coming to rest heavy in the base of his chest, he scolded his poor attempt of acting casual, as if he had something to hide. “Jus’ watch later tonight.”
The room fell quiet as Rick worked at microwaving the milk, the sound of it humming the only thing keeping the silence at bay as Daryl dared another glance over his shoulder. “I might grab you sometime this morning,” the other man propositioned, stopping the microwave before it beeped to test the warmth. “I want to talk with you, Abe and Sasha a little more about those men you ran into out there.”
“I won’t go far,” Daryl promised as the other man moved back towards the staircase, letting Judith take the bottle with her little fingers.
“And one more thing,” Rick added as he dared upon the first step, his eyebrows raised and an amused smirk playing at his lips. “I don’t need Carl coming down here for a drink late one night and coming back with a lesson in biology. There’s a room down the hall. Please use it.”
The blood ran from Daryl’s face as the other man left him to his complete and utter embarrassment, an audible groan slipping through his lips as he heard the upstairs door shut once again. Rubbing at his face, as if it would be enough to rid himself of what had just happened, he forced himself up onto his feet, legs like jelly as he crossed the paling room for the sofa. With careful hands, Daryl worked at lifting the throw from where it was still covering Sophie’s figure, still reeling in the embarrassment of Rick’s words as he reached out to poke at her shoulder, as if she were a wild animal. Poking her once again, she winced beneath the intrusive touch, her brows furrowed as stretched out, considering him with a questioning frown.
“Five more minutes,” she moaned, swatting away his hand to burrow back into the blankets.
Daryl studied her longingly for a moment, the less humiliated part of him wanting to join her, the much more logical knowing that the kitchen will soon be crowded with residents of both his own house and the one next door. “Sun’s up.”
Sensing his uneasiness, Sophie opened a single, suspicious eye to study him for a long moment, Daryl lowering to sit on the edge of the coffee table as she pulled herself up to match his seated position, her own legs crossed beneath her. “You want me to leave before anyone sees me here?”
Anyone else, he cringed internally, cursing himself once more. “It’s not… Yes.”
“We slept together for a whole winter on the road, Daryl. We shared a cell at the prison,” she raised an eyebrow, her messy white hair catching the sunlight that struggled through the drawn blinds. “You really believe that they don’t think something’s going on anyway.”
“Nothing’s going on.”
“I know that,” she assured him, tone somewhat impatient as she worked at wrapping the throw around her shoulders in an attempt to shelter from the crisp morning air.
With her frame sitting inches from where he sat, her hair ruffled and eyes heavy with sleep, Daryl found himself tripping over the unreadable green that stared back at him, over the sense of longing that lingered in the silence between them, the same one that had gone undetected in her previous words, in the way she had nestled against the width of his back in the early hours of that very morning. In the way she looked at him. Feeling completely out of his depth, Daryl leant back in search of air, his lungs seizing around what Rick had implied, around what Sophie’s tone implied, their words threatening to drown him entirely. Stubbornly refusing the life raft that sat before him, her brows furrowed and eyes now only concerned, he looked for another, his hands automatically reaching out to scoop up the blade that was still sheathed to yesterday’s jeans.
Watching as he took to whetting the steel with the sharpening tool he kept in his matted box of belongings beneath the table, Sophie lingered for a moment longer, knowing better than to push the matter any further. It wasn’t until she sighed in defeated, standing from the sofa before him a little too late, did Daryl look up, his glancing touching on her retreating figure before moving to where the front door was pushed open without any invitation. “Aw,” Rosita cooed as she entered ahead of Glenn and Eugene, the trio pausing in their search of breakfast to consider Sophie’s dishevelled, blanket covered frame. “I remember my first walk of shame.”
“That’s not what –”
“Oh, you think this is my first?” Sophie laughed over the top of Daryl’s fumbled words, his cheeks reddening at the teasing nature of her tone, it laced with a foreign sense of confidence.
“It’s way too early in the morning for this,” Glenn groaned, his shoulders slumped as he made a move on the coffee machine, the others busying themselves with breakfast preparation as Daryl did the same with his knife.
“Don’t you guys have your own kitchen?” He grumbled as they made themselves at home, Carol moving down the stairs to immerse herself in the hushed commotion.
“Eugene eats everything we try to keep in the fridge.”
“Do not.”
“You do,” Rosita added, placing a single hand on her hip. “My bedroom is between yours and the stairs, it’s impossible to not hear you sneak down to the kitchen once everyone’s gone to bed.”
Giving up on those five minutes she had asked for, Sophie re-emerged from her room fully dressed as moments later, her gaze touching on Daryl as she moved into the kitchen to join the slowly growing crowd that gathered there, banter bouncing from one person to another as they settled into the respective spots. With the seats at the bench claimed and Carol shooting her daggers as she attempted to perch herself upon the counter, Sophie flopped onto the centre of the sofa, her bare feet propped up on the coffee table beside him, leaning forward to place a bowl of warm oats in his lap. Glancing up to nod shyly in thanks, he mulled over the sharpness of his blade for a moment longer before taking to the much, trying not to look at Sophie as she exchanged good mornings with the others that overflowed into the lounge area.
Shovelling a large helping of warm oats into his mouth, Daryl dared a glance up to find Carl lowering himself into the space beside Sophie, the ravaged remains of his right eye bandaged and his own cereal breakfast clutched with white knuckles. Swallowing the mouthful, he watched as both of their own gazes turning to the sound of laughter that erupted from the kitchen bench, the small group there having taken it upon themselves to talk about the people they were seeing before the world went to shit, as if they weren’t all dead now. Desperate to avoid the conversation all together, Daryl kept his eyes low, concentrating on the one between Carl and Sophie as the first animatedly filled her in on what had happened in the newest volume of the comic series he had thrown himself into, the kid uncharacteristically reserved amongst the greater group, usually having already assumed prime position around the kitchen bench by now.
Glancing up as Rick entered the room, he found the other man just as surprised to find his some removed from the commotion of breakfast, a sense of disappointment playing at the slight smile that had previously settled there. Feeling the weight of his stare, Rick’s gaze shifted from his son to meet Daryl’s, his eyes dropping instantly, blood threatening to pool in his cheeks as he considered what the other man had implied earlier. It wasn’t until he could hear Rick speaking with Sasha about the watch shift she had just finished that he dared to look up, his gaze touching on him before mechanically moving to watch Sophie, her head resting on the back of the couch as she and Carl laughed at the way Judith giggled excitedly at the way Carol bounced her on her hip.
“Soph!” Maggie called out from where she stood beside Glenn, her elbow propped up against the bench and eyes shining with amusement. “I never asked if you were seeing someone before all this?”
Seemingly just as reluctant to get involved in the conversation as Daryl was, Sophie’s gaze met his as she turned to glance over her shoulder, her previous laughter dying off to an almost forced chuckle. “I, uh… I was getting coffee with this guy I worked with when I saw the first story on the news…”
“I was sleeping with my local barista for free coffee,” Rosita added, as if it were the same thing, Daryl finding himself meeting Sophie’s gaze one again as the others considered her confession.
“You were not.”
“Guys,” Michonne warned, her eyes darting to where Carl sat, completely engrossed in the conversation as she set her own mug of coffee aside.
“What?” The brunette laughed at Tara’s reluctance to believe the fact, she and Sophie strategically seated facing away from each other, the wounds of the day before yet to heal. “You never slept with someone for free shit before? As if.”
“Merle slept with girls so we had a place to stay that night,” Daryl mumbled a little too loudly, the confession slipping from his tongue before he had a chance to edit his words. Much to his horror, the room around him fell silent, eyes resting on him while his own refused to move from the spoonful of mush he pushed around his bowl.
“Yeah, but,” Sophie attempted, her grimace evident in her tone as the audience shifted to consider her. “The girls he slept with only did it to get meth for free. So… It was a you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours kind of situation.”
“Not really,” Carl snorted, much to his father’s horror and everyone else’s surprise. “Meth is pretty expensive, so he could have used that money to pay for rent, right?”
“What the shit’s going on here?” Abraham hesitated over the threshold of the open door, the large man searching the shocked faces for some kind of context.
“What? How… How do you even know that, Carl?” Rick sighed, his mug clenched in tight fingers as he pushed away from the counter to move into the living room, the room falling silent once again, this time to the embarrassment of his son rather than Daryl.
“It was in my comic. The bad guy –”
“Why can’t you read a book? There’s no meth in Harry Potter,” Rick groaned, choosing to ignore the sniggered rebuttal courtesy of Eugene to address the whole group. “And can the rest of us at least try to stick to about PG-13 around here? Seriously.”
“Yes, sir,” Maggie smiled, her eyes shining as she lifted a lazy hand to salute the man as he retreated to sulk into his breakfast.
From there, the conversation shifted to everyone’s plans for the day, as if the previous one had never happened. As if they were all adults, something deep down growled at him, scolding the fact that he was blushing like a teenaged boy, blushing exactly like the teenaged boy across from him, the pair hiding behind their long hair as they tended to what remained of their breakfast. With the supply team heading out later that afternoon, there was a sense of excitement resting in the spaces between Glenn’s reassurances that everything would run smoothly. Though it had gone unsaid, Daryl knew that it had been coordinated so soon to provide both Heath and Vincent with a chance to prove themselves, the pair having been tasked with coordinating the run by Rick without any indication of the offer he planned to make.
As Glenn spoke Rick through the specifics, the others beginning to trickle out the front door to start their own days, Daryl took to studying the way Sophie listened intently to the discussion, her body twisted and elbow propped up along the back of the sofa. Though she had been given a spot on the initial supply team, the injuries she still carried from the previous week meant that she had been forced to give her seat over to Rosita, the healing sprain her ankle endured not strong enough to take the weight of a quick escape. Daryl hadn’t dared to ask how she had twisted it in the first place, something deep down smart enough to tell him that he didn’t want to know.
“You sure you don’t wanna come, Daryl?” Glenn offered once again, Sophie turning in her seated position to consider his answer. Before shifting to consider the younger man, Daryl met her gaze, forcing himself to think about how relieved he had been to hear that she wasn’t going out there without him.
“Nah,” he shook his head, tone less confident than he had hoped as he glanced over Sophie once again, knowing that while the day he would have to face the outside world once again would come, it didn’t have to be the one stretched out before them. “I’d just end up crowding the van.”
“I need Daryl here, anyway,” Rick added as Glenn hesitated by his seat, the younger man now the only of their prison group that was heading out on the run, a notion that seemed to strike him just as oddly as it did Daryl.
Accepting his fate with a shaky nod, Glenn exchanged goodbyes to those that remained in the less crowded kitchen before making his move for the front door, Maggie on his heels and Rick lingering just long enough to remind Carl that he had chores to do before following the pair. Watching the pair leave, Sophie turned to confiscate the comic off the teenager next to her, raising a single, stubborn eyebrow when he complained. Not being able to help but chuckle at the back and forth before him, his gaze touched on where Michonne watched on from the kitchen sink, her own smile suppressed by tight lips as she considered the innocence before them with the same sense of disbelief.
It took much less time than Daryl had expected for Sophie to wear Carl down, the kid accepting his fate with a groan before shuffling off to the first of his jobs for the day. Watching as he took to the laundry, Daryl’s eyes brushed over the newest addition to the dining room wall, a large map of Virginia now centring the wall, the tiny section they now called home outlined and coloured in a deep, navy blue. Decorating the surrounding area were pins, marking future possibilities, marking supply areas that have been exhausted, herds and the trap Aaron and Daryl had run into. Chewing at the inside of his gum, Daryl glanced down at the container of coloured tacks to pick at one of the red with careful hands, his eyes finding the place they had run into the convoy on the road before pressing it into place.
“Mark the town, too,” Sasha suggested, taking a seat at the table behind him, Daryl turning in his place to find her pointing at the area to the east.
Doing as he was told, he sourced another, forcing it into place as Sophie fell into the space beside him, her arms crossed over her chest as eyes searching the marked roads that surrounded the red markers. Shifting almost anxiously as she cleared her throat, she took to rummaging through the plastic container in search of another, her gaze touching on him before brushing over the map one again before pressing the pin into place a little to the west of the others. His own eyes became rooted to the red marker, studying the triangle grouping of red with clenched teeth, his mind reeling through possibilities he didn’t want to consider. The room around them fell dangerously silent as Sophie shifted, his eyes dropping to consider the slight limp she carried as she moved to take a seat at the table next to Sasha.
Glancing over their contributions to the large map, his hands bundled by his side, Daryl worked at reminding himself that he was the one that had chosen no to know what had happened that day, that she had tried to tell him. Too stubborn, or perhaps just too scared, to take it back, he paused to study the marker for a moment longer before turning to where Abraham had joined the woman at the table, the trio chatting about the hopes they had for the supply run. Knowing that Rick would stay with the team until they were ready to leave, Daryl took to the sofa once again, perching himself on the edge of the cushions as he rummaged through his boxed belongings in search of a distraction from the bubbling curiousity that plagued his thoughts.
Anchoring himself to the bundle of brand new bolts he found stashed in the bottom of the box, Daryl concentrated on tightening each of the bagged arrowheads into place, pressing his finger against each of the tips to test their stability before setting them onto the sofa beside him. Soft chatter filled the silence around them, Abraham lost in a story from before as Sophie lowered herself down into the space beside him, pinching at one of the carbon fibre shafts before leaning back into her seat. Glancing back over his shoulder, Daryl studied the way her fingers twisted around the arrowhead with a sense of confidence before setting it aside to retrieve another, the pair falling into a practised rhythm as they waited.
“We’ll have to find you a new one,” she offered, leaning forward to place a bolt onto the growing pile, her hand brushing over his thigh as she collected another from the much larger one between them. “Maybe we could go out during the week, see what we can find?”
“Nah,” he all but growled, glancing back through the loose strands of hair he hid behind to consider the way her smile faltered ever so slightly. “I’m gonna get mine back.”
“Okay,” Sophie shrugged, her light tone a little too forced as she pretended to disregard his resistance. “We’ll find you one to use for hunting in the meantime. I don’t know about you guys, but it’s been too long since I’ve had squirrel.”
“I’ve got some great recipes to try out now that we have more than a campfire to work with,” Carol agreed, Sophie glancing up over her shoulder to where the older woman worked to back her up. “I’m thinking maybe in a stew with some vegetables now that the weather's beginning to cool.”
“Olivia found a mincer the other day,” Sasha added, Daryl making no attempt to follow Sophie’s gaze as she considered the notion, his eyes dropping to the bolt he twirled between his fingers. “We could team that with the bread maker for some venison burgers.”
“Burgers and beers,” Abraham groaned, his deep chuckle enough to lift Daryl’s gaze to consider the excitement that filled the space around them. “A woman after my heart.”
“I was thinking,” Carol added, moving to take a seat in the armchair adjacent to them, a mug of coffee clutched in both hands. “Since Morgan moved back into the brownstones, you should take the study. It’ll feel more permanent.”
“Morgan moved out?”
“Yesterday afternoon,” the older woman nodded as she sipped at her coffee, her gaze meeting Daryl’s as she glanced over him to consider Sasha’s question, the reasons as to why not as hidden as she believed them to be. “He took the mattress, but you could grab one from one of the empty houses.”
“Should have put a request in with the supply team,” Michonne piped up from her position at the kitchen bench, all eyes moving to the front door as Rick re-entered the room. “Save having to replace the one you take later on.”
“They’re on the radio if you want them,” Rick hesitated, having missed the context of the conversation as he moved through the open living space to join those gathering around the table. “What do you need?”
Daryl shifted, his gaze meeting Sophie’s from where she listened on carefully, her earlier impatience etched into the cracks of her carefully constructed resolve. “Nothin’.”
“Well, it’s with Maggie if you want it,” Rick offered as she settled into his seat across from Abraham, Daryl setting aside the bolt he was working on to lean up against the back wall of the dining room, trying not to look at the red grouping pinned onto the map. “You said there were seven men? That they worked for someone else?”
“Negan.”
“You think this guy is a threat?”
“Hard to say,” Abraham started, shifting to prop his elbows upon the table before him, fingers intertwined. “His men talked the talk, walked the walk… Could’ve had us if it weren’t for the kindly donation from our service men and women.”
“You think this Negan is connected to the guy who stole your stuff?”
“Yeah, I do,” Daryl nodded, chewing at the inside of his gum as he considered the men in the forest, as he considered the things Dwight had said. “Think they’re all part of something bigger.”
“Whatever it is,” Sophie added, glancing up from the arrowhead she was tightening. “It’s been here longer than we have. Maybe just as long as these walls have… I don’t think we should go looking for trouble.”
“The difference between looking for trouble and letting it play out is our survival.”
“I’m not saying we just move on and forget it ever happened,” Sophie assured the serjeant. “I’m just saying that right now, they don’t know we’re here, they aren’t looking for us. For all Dwight knows, Daryl was just a lone survivor passing through, there’s no need to welcome ourselves to the neighbourhood by sticking our noses in places they shouldn’t be.”
Holding his tongue, Daryl shifted under the weight of the choices he had made, the trust he was forced to place in Dwight sitting heavy on his shoulders. “If we’re not going to take the offence, we sure as shit are doing defence,” Abraham pulled him from his thoughts, the large man continuing when no one disputed the idea. “The lookouts are a good start, but I’d like to see more, I’d like to see thrice daily scouting parties doing laps of the outer wall. If a rabbit so much as shits in that forest, I wanna know about it.”
“I know we don’t have the supplies right now, but what about designated safe houses?” Sasha suggested as she shifted to nod at the map stretched out on the wall before Daryl. “We’re surrounded by houses no one has touched in years. We lock a couple of them down every few miles. Hide supplies, cars, fuel, enough to get us away if we need.”
“Wait,” Sophie hissed as Rick opened his mouth to speak, the room falling still as she turned over her shoulder to look out the front window that bordered the porch. “Can you hear that?”
Straightening from his leant position against the wall, Daryl’s brows furrowed with a deep sense of contemplation as he considered the silence that seemed to stretch out before them endlessly. Taking a step forward with light feet, his fingers twitched, his hands too empty as the undeniable sound of yelling echoed through the streets of Alexandria. Without hesitation, those surrounding him were on their feet, rushing for the locked away weapons, Daryl assuring Sophie that he would grab hers as he spun for where he stored his rifle upon the dresser by her bedroom door, her staff leant up against the wall beside it. Hurrying down the short hall to move through the kitchen, he offhanded the staff to load the magazine into the rifle, Rick calling out for Carl to watch Judith.
Surrendering himself to the adrenaline that coursed through his pounding heart, his weary muscles feeding off the strength it provided, Daryl pushed himself across the porch and down onto the asphalt only steps behind Abraham and Sasha, the two having already been armed. Working at controlling his breathing, at locating Sophie’s position at his heels, he followed the curve in the road to where the other residents were beginning to gather, their frantic screams adding to the commotion that surrounded the construction of the broken section of wall. Arriving at the scene first, both Sasha and Abraham had taken to their knees adjacent to Rosita and Cal as Daryl took in the walkers that struggled through the maze of construction equipment abandoned there.
“Where’s the crew!?”
“We pulled them in!” Cal yelled in reply to Abraham over the mix of silenced and unsilenced gunfire that followed, gesturing to where Tobin and the other men watched on anxiously. “There’s too many!”
“I’m going to get the truck!” Sophie offered as she approached, knowing that there was little else she could do. “Maggie! Maggie, get the gate!”
Adjusting his position, Daryl settled the rifle against his shoulder, its weight more compacted than that of his crossbow. Taking in a deep breath, he released it along with the bullet loaded into the chamber, watching as it ripped through the side of an approaching walkers skull, it staggering off balance before he reloaded to sight his weapon a little better, the next landing much more centred. Behind him, the old pickup truck rumbled angrily between the echoing bullets and hungry moans, it disappearing beyond the gate. Finding his aim once again, Daryl worked at putting another walker down as Sophie rounded the wall to shudder to a halt before the opening, the horn sounding out over the silence Rick demanded from them.
“Try not to shoot me,” Daryl grumbled as the dead turned to the noise, shouldering the rifle in favour of his hunting knife as he crossed into the space between the nervous residents and the incoming dead.
Moving for the walkers that Sophie couldn’t distract with the horn, Sasha trailing his back, he shoved the blade up through the soft flesh of the rotting jawline with a grunt before forcing the limp body back onto the one behind it. Continuing towards where she was working at banging against the door of the rusted truck, her elbow propped against the horn, Daryl worked at dodging dead hands, using his own to grip at the half exposed skull of another walker, his other hand thrusting his knife through the clouded eye beneath it to pierce the brain. Stepping over the body, he climbed up over the loosely stacked woodpile and into the tray Sophie had backed up against the pile, steadying himself before kicking out over the edge, his booted foot connecting with the side of a brittle skull to knock the walker off balance, its brains spilling over the ground on impact.
Whistling at the dead to follow, Daryl knelt to thump on the back panelling with a clenched fist, coaxing them to follow as Sophie shifted into forward. With most of the herd dwindling outside the walls, they succeeded in convincing most of the walkers to follow, the dead falling into a slow convoy behind them as they rumbled away from Alexandria. Keeping to the tray, Daryl met Rick’s distant gaze from his elevated position over the dead, the other man motioning others forward to dispose of the walkers that lingered within the walls. Settling into the back corner of the tray to catch his breath, he then met Sophie’s stare through the back window with a shaky nod, as if she had spoken her question aloud.
As they settled onto the road, their pace slow enough to keep the walker's attention, Daryl pulled himself up from the back corner to move across the tray, feeding his rifle through the open window. Rolling his shoulders, he gripped at the chipping roll bar to lean out over the side of the tray to open the passenger side door with the other. Kicking it open, he dared upon the edge, clutching at the doorframe as he navigated the width of the truck to settle onto the footstep before folding himself into the space beside an anxious Sophie. Reaching out to grab at the swinging door, Daryl glanced back at the herd once more before securing it into place behind him.
“Show off,” Sophie smirked as he made himself comfortable, one arm slung over the open window, the other propped on the rifle he leant against the seat between his legs.
“Wasn't about to let you go alone. You got a radio?” He ignored her teasing to search through the glove box she nodded to, hand curling around the transmitter stored there, it already calibrated. “Glenn, you there?”
“Glenn’s clearing the perimeter,” a familiar Canadian accent replied over the airwaves moments later. “You want me to pass on a message?”
“We’re moving a herd between B and C,” Daryl replied vaguely, all too aware of the open channel they used, glancing over at Sophie when she shook her head. “Through A and B, sorry.”
“A and B?” Vincent double-checked, pausing long enough for Daryl to confirm. “Roger that. We’ll be at A for another hour or so. We’ll check in then. You guys keep safe.”
“Should be clear by then,” he assured the other man before releasing the transmission to store the radio in the cup holders by his knee. Wincing at the stiffness that plagued his shoulders, Daryl glanced back at the herd before settling back into his seat.
“It’s from sleeping on that sofa,” Sophie mused, releasing her two-handed grip on the steering wheel to rub at the muscle of his shoulder with her right. “It’s not good for your back.”
Turning to jelly beneath her touch, Daryl’s gaze barely touched on her as her fingers slipped from the width of his shoulder. “I’ve slept on worse.”
“Okay, I’m going to be real with you for a second, and I need you to bare with me,” she warned him, eyes not leaving the road ahead as Daryl glanced back to check that their herd was still following close behind, his fingers brushing over the cracks in the leather of the passenger side door as he swallowed the lump in his throat to nod shakily. “I haven’t had a good night sleep since cashing in our get out of jail free card. Things are changing, and I don’t want you to sleep on the sofa anymore, I don’t want you to move into the study either.”
“An’ what changes have you noticed?” He dared, the question slipping from a curious tongue before he had a chance to hold it, his eyes following his fingers as he took to picking at the cracking leather.
“I don’t know,” she mused, his gaze flickering to consider the lie, knowing damn well she knew exactly what she was talking about. “Just that the wind’s getting cooler. The nights a little longer…”
“Yeah,” he grunted, settling into his seat a little more to study the trees that paralleled the road they travelled down, brown threatening their green complexion. “Second autumn since all this shit started.”
“That’s not what I was trying to say…”
Contemplating the sincerity of her whispered words, Daryl chewed at the inside of his cheek, his gaze lingering out the window for a moment longer before he forced himself back into the single cab to look at her. Her own eyes stayed on the road before them, as if somehow, she was just as scared as he was. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Daryl forced himself to admit that maybe it was entirely possible as he lifted his right hand from where it clutched at the butt of his rifle to tuck the hair she tried to hide behind away. “I know…”
The truck fell entirely silent as they approached a leaf littered intersection, his acknowledgement hanging in the air around them as his hand dropped from her hair, his eyes from the side of her face. Swallowing his fear, Daryl glanced down at the hand wrapped too tightly around the butt of his rifle, it working to anchor him in his place, as he considered what sharing a bed with her would mean, as he considered what she wanted. Someone like Sophie knew what she wanted, she knew how to get what she wanted, while someone like him had no idea how to give her that. He knew how to keep her alive, he knew how to keep her safe, keep her fed. He knew how to give her all the things she needed, but the things she wanted, or what he could only assume she wanted, those things scared Daryl shitless.
Swallowing the lump that resided in the base of his throat, it sliding down the length of his neck to rest heavily in the pit of his stomach, he glanced back at the herd, huffing anxiously at Sophie’s promise to behave herself, at the hand she used to squeeze his own comfortingly. Placing all his trust in her, not naïve enough to believe he didn’t want the same, he twist his own to grasp at her fingers before coaxing them back onto the steering wheel as they rumbled through the crossing. Rolling her eyes at the notion, Sophie glanced over at him to smile, or to laugh, he couldn’t really be sure, not with the way his name fell from her lips, laced only with dread.






Notes

Many, many thanks to Tripper, Thanya, Witchy, Zophie_, Sanders151, Phoebe with a P, LisaP10 and Kass for your lovely, lovely comments. Thanks to all those reading, I appreciate the support.

See you in the comments x

Comments

Who's here on 2020 for a re-read? :D

Tee- Tee-
4/17/20

@QueenUchi

New readers make my heart sing, especially when they start this journey ten months after I ended it (abit abruptly but we won’t get into that because it’ll make me sad again).

Thank you you so much for leaving a comment. Nothing is more motivating for the unmotivated than a little bit of love. Whenever I get a comment from someone new all I find myself wanting to sit down and grill them with a million different questions.

If youre chasing updates about any eventual stories I write, please follow me on instagram @ sophyl_

Thanks a million again!! xx

aryaaa aryaaa
11/28/18

thank you @sanders151 for recomending me this fanfic

Your fanfic has been in the center of my life for the whole month November. Let me just tell you that im in love with everything about this story. Im even at loss of words about how amazing this journey has been.

There have been moments when i actually had to get up and calm down from all the feelings may they be joy sadness or just extreme suffering. Ive been cheering, i've been crying to the point of ugly sobbing, ive been screaming while reading this all.

I dont even know how to tell you how i feel about this fanfic there arent any words for it so ima just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH about it cause thats the closets that i can think off "insert all the feelings i cant express here"

I am just so thank full for all your time and effort and everything youve put into this story. Cause WOW youre an amazing writer and when you do make your original story please do know that I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT TOO.

This journey has ended but it will forever be in my heart.

QueenUchi QueenUchi
11/27/18

@Sanders151

I was so surprised to see a new notification on this story after all these months. Thank you so much for taking the time
to comment, I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read since. Please feel free to leave me updated on your thoughts xx

aryaaa aryaaa
11/25/18

Hello,

It's been a looong time since i've read this story. Life got busy and i totally forgot to finish it.

SO i decided to reread everything and lemme tell you...I STILL LOVE IT AS MUCH AS THE FIRST TIME.
Im currently at chapter 62 (right after fort hill) and i can't wait for what is to come.


Sanders151 Sanders151
11/15/18