Something To Savor

Defending Connie Pt.1

"You can't hear me? " he grinned with a light shake of his head," so your deaf?"

Eyes narrowed, Connie didn't feel the need to respond to this man. She didn't see the reason for responding when he'd already knew his answer. Though her stern silence had only caused the two to give another chuckle. Guard up, she caught a glimpse from the side of her when the second man made his way towards her being obnoxious when he waved his hands to her.

"Hellooo" he spoke rather loudly, waving his hands at her with a mocking smile," Can. you. Hear. Me" he laughed, whacking a playful hand towards David's arm," Out of all the women here, you would choose the defective one."

Connie felt her heart stop. Her stomach fell to her knees at the sentence she made out from the second man who was grinning like the clown he was. Feeling pent up emotion inside that she hadn't wanted to show, she didn't hesitate for a moment. Eyes narrowing at the two, she shook her head before whipping around and starting her stride to get away from past memories that started to cloud her mind like the tears in her eyes.

Only a few steps away a hand was then felt grabbing her shoulder. Stopping, she threw a hand up and withdrew his hand from her shoulder. Taking another step the mans hand grasped her arm. Feeling threatened as he'd restrained her from getting away, she turned in his hold. Yanking her arm from his grasp, she caught him grinning when her clip board went flying to the ground.

"Easy! No need to be upset."

Though his comment didn't stop her from bringing her hands up and shoving him away. Watching him stumble backwards a step, Connie felt her adrenaline running. Feeling in danger, she had no choice but to defend herself from the couple of jerks.

"Maybe if I spelled out the words you'd understand me" David mocked adding to her distress. Seeing he hadn't been phased at all by her shove to his chest, he took a step towards her.

Ready to defend herself from whatever these jerks had coming her way, she watched as David took a step towards her, but before he could even reach her something flew in between the two of them. Flinching at the suddenness, she was thrown back so quickly that she'd stumbled a step or two behind the familiar stature of her much loved Daryl Dixon who was there to protect her in the nick of time.

Mildly shocked. She stood still for a brief second while seeing Daryl yelling. Catching bits and pieces of his rage colored words,

"-Hell you think your doin-"

"-you keep your hands to yourself-"

"- Stay away from her!"

Shaking out of her numbed state, she grabbed at his shoulders in an attempt to get him away from the man he'd sized up to.

Passersby soon circled around the chaos in all different angles. Watching and witnessing the yelling coming from Daryl and the two men who didn't seem so intimidated, but had their chest raised, sizing him up just as much as he had them. Fearing for a fight, Connie reached for Daryl's arm only for him to pull it right out of her grasp and continue to aggressively point into the mans face. She was sure insults were being flung between the three as the two men grinned almost manically at the angry words being thrown at them as if every word being yelled was a joke.

Her heart pounded in her chest. Racing quickly at how fast everything was going by that she couldn't make out their words of anger anymore. Overwhelmed, she shook her head, face beginning to crumble at the scene that would eventually cause harm between the three men very soon. Eyes clouding once more with tears, her vision began to blur.

Heart jumping, she witnessed David push Daryl only for him to retaliate and shove the man with such force that he'd stumbled into the other guy. Panicked, she lunged toward him only to be held by a pair of hands on her shoulders. Turning her head, she'd seen Rosita right by her side holding her. Returning her gaze back to Daryl, she'd seen Aaron and Jerry breaking up the fight before any harm could be dealt between the men.

"You don't speak her name and you sure as hell don't get to look at her!" Daryl growled, glaring at the cocky prick before him," If I see you even lookin her way or even thinkin' bout it, I'll make sure your sorry ass wished you ain't never walked through them gates in the first place" a sentence set in stone for the man to hear as the hand of Aaron was felt ushering him back and away from the man.

"Leave it-Leave it" Aaron repeated," their not worth it" he whispered making sure his words would stuck into his hotheaded friends head.

Eyes frantically looking around the crowd of people that surrounded them, Connie saw Father Gabriel appearing from in between the sea of people before waving his hands at everyone as if he'd been announcing for the crowd to go back to what they'd been doing before.

Slowly, one by one the crowd began to dissipate. Connie looked towards Daryl to see him still fuming with anger while Aaron furthered him away from the men who kept shouting insults his way. As if he'd known she was looking over to him, Connie caught a glimpse of Daryl's eyes meeting hers when he finally turned. With Aaron's guiding hand on his back, she then further watched as Daryl walked her way before briefly bending down and picking up what seemed to be her clipboard and pen before continuing his walk towards her.

Feeling Rosita's hold loosen, she stepped away from her and walked towards Daryl. Meeting him half way, he was agitated. Still fuming and breathing heavy, he rose his eyes to meet hers as he'd walked up.

"You okay?" He signed rather quick, eyes scanning her over as he stopped just in front of her, his free hand reaching out and gently touching her arm he'd seen the man grab.

She nodded," I'm fine" though he didn't buy it when his eyes seemed to slightly narrow in disappointment.

"What happened"

"I'm fine" she nodded before adding," we'll talk later. Promise. You okay?" Looking him over, he was less irritated and more stable now. Though as she looked into his eyes there was a hint of guilt behind his baby blues. He gave a nod followed by a "Yeah" before he'd surprised her with an embrace.

Wrapping his arms around her, she followed through. Snaking her arms around his neck and holding him close, she couldn't help but feel an overwhelming amount of emotion in his arms. Holding back tears for the sake of their sanity from things getting more out of hand, she sucked it up. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes in his warm embrace.

He'd came back from his perimeter check just in time. Thinking about the incident and what had happened a few minutes ago, she didn't like thinking about what could've happened if he hadn't been there to save her. It scared her just a little. No one she knew had been around to save her. She couldn't scream or shout for help let alone run.

Feeling their embrace cut short when she felt him withdrawal, she withdrew her arms from around his neck before he turned to face the figure walking towards them.

Her gut wrenched at the stern look written upon the mans face when he'd been eyeing Daryl from the distance, so she crossed her arms, holding herself as she watched the interaction between the two.

"Daryl what the hell is going on here?" Gabriel asked his voice filled with questioning concern.

"Them assholes started it. Looked like they said some things before that jack ass put his hands on Connie"

"What happened?"

He shrugged," Don't know. She'll tell me later when she's ready. Right now she's a little shook up from what happened."

Gabe glanced towards Connie before returning his gaze back to Daryl and giving a nod." Alright. Tomorrow morning we'll reconvene to talk about the inconvenience. I'll let the rest of the counsel know."

From the looks of it things were handled with just a few words before Gabriel took off on his own way. She'd guessed he'd been curious about the look of things and what had caused the situation. Holding herself a little tighter for comfort her eyes met with Daryl's when he'd walked back towards her.

"C'mon" he spoke while reaching out a hand," let's get out of here." Wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder, she nodded. Fitting comfortably snug in his side as he held her close they made their way down the street. Avoiding eyes that were staring and ignoring the murmurs that were being whispered.

She just wanted to go home and be alone with him. This morning had been a rough one. She was acting as if she was okay, but she wasn't. She knew from this day on, stepping outside her door was going to be different. It was going to be a struggle. She didn't know how she was going to deal with this new feeling, but as long as she had Daryl for now she'd be okay.