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Breaking Free

Chapter 40


"My best defense,
Running from you
I can’t resist, take all you want from me
Breaking Slowly."

Red “Already Over”


When morning came bursting into her bedroom, streaming its rays of sunlight into her bedroom bright enough to roust her from a fitful slumber, Mia rolled over groggily and glared at her open window, as though the day gave a shit how she felt about being woken up. Grumbling at the unwelcome intrusion, Mia sat up and dangled her legs off the side of the bed, to where the majority of her bedding lay in a heap on the floor. Long ago, she had pushed the thick comforter she used in the cold months off the bed, but in the heat of summer she had added the thin top sheet to the pile as well. If the heat didn't break soon, the bottom sheet might join the party and she would just sleep on the bare mattress.

After only a handful of hours of sleep, most of which had been spent tossing and turning, Mia felt less than rested and far crankier than she typically was in the morning. Of course, she knew the real reason behind her foul mood and it was not the lack of sleep, but had been at least partially responsible for the cause of her lackluster slumber. Between the anger she felt at being brushed aside by Daryl the second he had come inside of her, the embarrassment that followed and the illogical guilt she felt for cheating on her husband, most people would have had a hard time falling asleep. But, add in the thick humidity that accompanied the sweltering southern summertime heat without air conditioning and restful sleep was just wishful thinking.

A fine sheen of sweat already coated her skin and morning had barely started. The thought of how miserably hot it would be later in the day only made Mia's mood worse. Oh, how she craved winter. Sure, it was cold, but she could layer on clothes to keep moderately warm. There was only so much a person could take off before they were completely nude. At least the laws against doing so in public were no longer an issue, but she still wasn't keen on the idea of parading around town in her birthday suit. She could, however, walk straight out the front gates and go swimming now, since Gage had relented on her prison stay inside the gates, so long as she took Daryl with her. Of course, that aspect of her plan ruined her mood even further.

Growling in frustration, Mia gathered up clothes for the day and snatched her towel off the back of the door. It made absolutely no sense to take a shower before starting her day when she was just going to end up coated in sweat immediately after she toweled off, but she felt grimy and sticky, thanks to the sweat from the heat and the unfortunate aftermath of having sex without a condom. She had, of course, tried to clean up as best as she could afterwards, but only an honest to goodness shower was going to take care of matters now. So, armed with everything she needed to get ready, Mia marched out of her bedroom and straight into Blake.

“Oomph,” she muttered in surprise when they collided in the hallway. Gripping the items in her hand a bit tighter to keep them from falling to the floor, Mia apologized, “Sorry, B, I didn't mean to just barrel into you.”

“It's okay,” Blake replied with a good-natured smile, his unnatural happiness in the morning grated on her nerves even more than usual, thanks to her foul mood. “Showering already?”

“It's hot, I want a shower,” Mia grumbled, thankful for the excuse of sweaty skin, so that she didn't have to explain the sticky skin situation between her thighs. The very last thing she wanted to do was let anyone know that she had given in to her hormones the night before and let Daryl hump her against the damned kitchen door. Moving past the subject, she asked, “You going to the kitchen?”

“Yeah, you hungry? Want me to fix you something?” Blake asked, even though she typically didn't eat anything at all, or if she did it was usually something small and easy to grab on the way out the door.

“Nah, not hungry,” Mia fibbed, as she was kind of hungry, but her nerves were also balled in the pit of her stomach over the thought of dealing with Daryl at some point and she wasn't sure eating was the best idea. “Could you fix Micah something though? He barely ate a thing at dinner last night and he needs to eat. I can do it if you don't want to. I just have to go talk to Gage, but I need to run by the girl's house to see if they need anything first, and you know how it is with Gage, the earlier you get there the better.”

“Yeah, sure. No problem.” Blake started towards the stairs, but glanced back at her with his hand closed around the railing. “You okay? Seem, I don't know, weird this morning.”

“I just didn't sleep well,” Mia said, not bothering to explain as to why she hadn't slept well. Lord knows she had plenty on her plate to cause her to not sleep at night, and that was without adding issues with Daryl to the equation. “I'll be better after a shower, I promise.”

“If you need to talk,” Blake said, trailing off without adding that he was available to listen to her woes. Mia was more than aware that Blake was a good listener and a damn fine shoulder to cry on, which she had not done in a very long time. But, the latest issue in her life that was giving her trouble was not something she felt like sharing, even with her best friend. Mia was certain she was breaking some sort of best friend code, but at that moment she didn't care. Daryl and their moment of insanity was something she fully intended on taking to her grave, whenever that day came.

“I know and thank you, but honestly, I'm fine,” Mia offered up, knowing that somehow her promises of being fine fell flat, because even her voice sounded weird to her. So, in order to keep any further questions at bay, she simply offered up a smile to Blake and darted across the landing to the momentary safety of the bathroom.

After a bone chilling cold shower that would have normally made her mood worse, Mia stepped from the bathroom feeling at least slightly better than she had after waking up. Without a fifth of whiskey, she was as ready as she was ever going to be to face the day and Daryl. After putting her dirty clothes and wet towel in her bedroom, Mia took a deep breath and clamored down the stairs with her proverbial big girl panties on. Of course, the moment she reached the bottom of the stairs and their gazes connected, the butterflies in her belly turned into condors and her traitorous body heated up at the mere sight of him.

Damned hormones, she thought to herself as she forced her feet to move forward. “Good morning,” she finally managed to say after a painful moment of awkward silence. The ice on her voice was evident and she honestly had not meant to sound like such a bitch, especially with Blake in the other room and more than close enough to hear what was going on between them and smart enough to put two and damned two together and figure out what was causing her weird mood. Mia bit back the apology on the tip of her tongue and turned towards the kitchen to where Blake was standing in the doorway, taking in the conversation with curious eyes. “I've got to run over to the girl's house and check on them, see what all they need food-wise and go grab things to stock their pantry. After that, I'm going over to talk to Gage.”

“You think that's the best idea?” Daryl asked, and if the sound of his voice wasn't enough to grate on her nerves in the mood she was in, then the added doubt in his voice sure as hell was.

“It's the only one I've got at the moment,” Mia snapped out in response to his question as she accepted an apple from Blake, who tried his best to convey a questioning message to her with a simple look, but she was too annoyed to play that game with him at the moment. Thankfully, when she ignored his attempt, Blake gave up and headed towards the stairs with a tray of food held carefully in his tightly gripped hands. No doubt he felt slighted at being left out of whatever was going on, but Mia just couldn't deal with his hurt feelings right then.

Once he was out of earshot, she glared at Daryl and hissed, “I don't want you to go with me.” Pushing past him, she headed towards the front door and added quietly, But, I know Gage will flip otherwise, so just keep your distance.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daryl snatch his crossbow up from where it rested against the coffee table and head after her, thankfully silent, although the look on his face clearly showed her that he was not pleased with her decisions at that moment. Which, to her, was some damned karma, because she was less than thrilled with his decisions the night before. With him so damned close she could smell the musky scent of his sweaty skin, she pushed aside the tingle of desire that flared up inside of her and snatched open the front door with far more force than was necessary. When she found Heather standing on the other side, she failed at keeping the yelp of surprise contained.

“Gage needs you,” Heather said immediately, not even giving her the chance to say hello. Stepping out onto the porch, Mia knew that Daryl had followed behind her, because she could literally feel the heat emanating from his body as he violated her personal space in a way that had her both sexually frustrated and annoyed with him. But, the next words out of Heather's mouth pushed all of Mia's other troubles to the side. “Emily's missing.”

Despair pooled in the pit of her stomach at the announcement and while she had no clue as to what the circumstances of Emily's disappearance were, something told her that they weren't good at all. Worried and on the verge of panic, Mia jogged towards the girl's house, knowing without being told that was where Gage was. Rounding the corner, she picked up her pace when her eyes landed on Gage's massive form pacing across the front yard as he emphatically gestured his frustration to the group of men crowding around him.

“What happened? Where is she?” Mia asked Gage after she pushed past the throng of bodies surrounding him, the panic inside of her clawing up and spilling out into the tone of her questions. While her childhood best friend was known to be a raging asshole on a good day, the anxiousness and concern on his face showed her that he cared about the missing teen and warmed her heart towards him slightly.

“She's gone, Mia. I don't know where, I don't know what happened or how, but she's gone.” Gage said as he motioned for the people around him to get busy doing whatever it was that they had been ordered to do, leaving him alone with her, and of course, Daryl. “When's the last time you saw her?”

“Yesterday, after lunch, I think. She was tired and wanted to lay down,” Mia explained. While she didn't want to spill the secret she had been keeping quiet, she knew in her heart that Emily's disappearance had something to do with her pregnancy and therefor, it needed to be brought to light if they were going to find her. “She's pregnant, Gage.”

“What?” Gage asked, oddly calm, but what came out of his mouth after that one question was anything but. His long, thick curly hair wasn't contained by its usual hair band and swirled wildly around his angry face as he berated her for not telling him Emily's condition beforehand. “What in the fuck do you mean she's fucking pregnant? How in the hell could you keep that from me, Mia? Who the fuck do you think you are around here, huh? I deserve to fucking know what's going on with my girls!”

“Who the fuck do I think I am? I think I'm the fucking person those girls trust to take care of them Gage, and not treat them like their god damned prisoners here. That's who the fuck I think I am,” Mia shouted in return, earning her more than a few curious sets of eyes from the windows of the house where the girl's lived. She knew she was probably scaring some of the younger ones, so she lowered her voice and channeled her inner calm. “She was scared, Gage. I did what I thought was best at the time.”

“They aren't damn prisoners, Mia. I'm just trying to keep them safe.” The rage was still evident in the tone of his voice, but Gage had at least lowered his voice for the moment.

“Are you?” Mia asked quietly, honestly surprising even herself for asking the question. But, it was one that needed to be answered and so she asked it again. “Are you really, Gage? Is that what you're doing, keeping them safe? They feel like prisoners here, kept under lock and key, day in and day out. What did you expect?”

“Obviously I'm not, otherwise Emily wouldn't be missing,” Gage replied, sidestepping her questions altogether. “Who's the father?”

“I don't know, she wouldn't tell me. Said I'd get mad at her.” Mia shrugged, knowing that she would have gotten mad, because the only male at the facility that was anywhere near Emily's age was Ollie and Mia was more than certain that painfully shy, nearly mute Ollie wasn't the father. “Is anyone else missing? Maybe she ran off with the baby's father, knowing she was going to start showing soon and wouldn't be able to hide the pregnancy much longer.”

“No one else is missing. We did a head count,” Gage replied grimly, the look he gave her let Mia know he was thinking the same thing she was, the absolute fucking worst outcome.

“If everyone is here, then she either left alone or,” Mia trailed off, not wanting to verbalize the horrors her mind was coming up with, but Gage finished the sentence for her.

“Or, someone killed her.”



Notes

Thanks, as always, to my faithful readers and reviewers. I truly appreciate it. Next week's chapter will likely be delayed by a week, as I will be on vacation and for some reason, my laptop does not like it when I copy and paste onto this site. I will try, but if I am unsuccessful, I will post 2 chapters the following week.


Comments

@Serenity
I look forward to it....always was one of my favourite stories on Fan fiction.

Lewis Lewis
6/5/18

@lewis7


Glad to see you under any name! Thanks so much for all the comments! I am hoping that my muse shows back up, so I can write some more. I have had some ideas about writing short, one shot stories with Sam and Daryl from Need You Now. There were several scenes I had sketched out that didn't make it into the actual story, so I would like to write them out and post them if muse cooperates.

Serenity Serenity
4/25/18

Back to signing in as Lewis 7 as mel2a has stopped working!!
Love this story and really going to miss it and your brilliant Daryl story telling.
Will keep an eye out for you for future stories.
Thank you for your stories and writing talent.
xx

lewis7 lewis7
4/22/18

@Arubaredx


I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for commenting and good luck with the move!

Serenity Serenity
4/19/18

In the middle of packing to move so everything is crazy, but managed to finally catch up on your final chapter:) A very joyful ending, and very deserved for them too. Very much enjoyed this journey.

Arubaredx Arubaredx
4/18/18