6 months later
My eyes fluttered opened as I woke from a peaceful sleep. I stretched my arms out as I sat up, my hair a dishevelled mess from sleep. When I stood the button up black men's singlet with ripped off sleeves, fell mid way down my bare thighs before I made my way across the cell to where there were a few draws and pulled out a pair of jeans and a charcoal singlet. I got changed and then turned around to see Daryl sitting on the edge of the makeshift double bed that had replaced the bunks. He wore no shirt and leant forward to rest his arms on his knees as he looked up at me.
"I'm on breakfast duty with Carol." I explained, stepping closing to him with his shirt that I had slept in hanging in my hand and placed a quick kiss on his cheek as he took the shirt and I ran out the door, knowing I'd slept in a little.
"Morning." I grinned at Carol as I joined her behind the table where she had already started cooking breakfast. "Sleep well?"
"Mmm." She hummed. "You?" She asked with an edge to her voice.
"Quite." I smiled back as she rolled her eyes with a slight shake of her head.
There were a few people already outside, but soon there were more and more, each coming to grab their food.
"Morning, Daryl." A voice called as I looked up to see Daryl making his way over to Carol and I as he now wore the black button up singlet.
"What's up, Dr. S?" He responded, the man being a new recruit that had turned out to be a doctor.
"Morning, Daryl." Another voice called followed by another, "Morning, Daryl!" and then a "Hey, Daryl!" He looked around, unsure what to do and it was making him somewhat uncomfortable.
"Smells good." He nodded at us, turning back to the food as I handed him a plate.
"Just so you know. We liked you first." Carol said as I smiled at the look on his face.
"Stop." He shook his head, taking a bite to eat. "You know, Rick brought in a lot of them, too."
"Not recently." Carol said. "Giving strangers sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love."
"Right." Daryl grumbled.
"Now that you're here. I need you both to see something." She then quickly added, nodding over her shoulder as a gesture that we had to walk somewhere.
I nodded before turning and spotting a young boy. "Patrick. Can you take over?"
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded with a smile.
My eyes narrowed slightly at the word, but Daryl tapped my shoulder and gestured for me to follow, slightly amused.
"Mr. Dixon." Patrick stopped us though. "I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday." He said. "It was a real treat, sir." Daryl glanced over to where I was now standing slightly amused. "And I'd be honoured to shake your hand." Daryl looked back to him as the kid held out his right hand.
Daryl looked down at the hand as Patrick continued to smile. Then he took his right hand, sucking each of his fingers after he'd been eating his food with his hands and then grabbing Patrick's with a firm hold. Carol and I smiled while Patrick continued to grin like he'd just met his hero and was never going to wash his hand again before we finally followed after Carol.
She led us out to the front, Daryl still eating his breakfast.
"About today, I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run."
"That place is good to go. We're gonna move on it." Daryl said. We'd found a store called Big Spot that had been overrun by walkers inside a fenced off area the army had set up. We'd placed a boom box on the roof to draw them out, clearing the store for us to move in on it.
"Yeah. The thing is, we had a pretty big build up over night." She explained as we now saw the walkers that surrounded the fence and a group of our people inside the walkway, taking them out through the wire. "Dozens more towards tower three. It's getting as bad as last month. They don't spread out anymore."
"With more of us sitting here, we're drawing more of them out. You get enough of those damn fence-clingers, they start to herd up." Daryl explained.
"It looks manageable." I said. "So long as we get ahead of it. We can still go out. We've got enough people now to do both. You don't have to be skilled beyond the fences to take a walker out through them."
Daryl nodded in agreement. "We'll take Glenn. "Tyreese, Sasha... Zach said he wanted to help out. That should be enough.
"Alright." Carol nodded.
Soon we were loading up Betty with a few supplies we would need which was mostly just spare fuel. Beth came by, heading over to do her part on the fence.
"Hey. I was just gonna come find you." Zach said to her as she came over to us. She smiled and gave him a kiss while I rolled my eyes and Daryl nudged me in the side.
"I'm allowed to worry." I whispered before turning Daryl around and pushing him forward a few steps to give Beth and Zach some privacy.
"'Bout him?" Daryl questioned. "Were you like this with Glenn to begin with?" He questioned.
"Maggie's older. I was like this when she was 17." I shrugged, picking up a crate and handing it to Daryl before picking up another and we started to head back to the truck.
Beth kissed Zach's cheek quickly and then started to walk away.
"Okay, are you gonna say goodbye?" He called after her.
"Nope." She said happily.
"It's like a damn romance novel." Daryl commented.
"Hey!" Another voice called as a man who Daryl had found a week ago named Bob walked up to the car. "I'd like to start pulling my weight around here." He announced.
"Bob, it's only been a week." Sasha spoke up.
"That's a week worth of meals, a roof over my head. Let me earn my keep."
Sasha said nothing for a little while before looking him in the eye. "You were out on your own when Daryl found you."
"That's right."
"I just want to make sure you know how to play on a team."
"We ain't gonna do it unless it's easy." Daryl spoke up as he walked past Sasha and Glenn and I stopped next to them.
"You know he was a medic in the Army." Glenn informed as Bob look over contently at Sasha.
"We have Kat."
"An extra pair hands never goes astray if something happens." I shrugged.
Her glare was still stubborn as she looked back to Bob. "You a hell of a tough sell, you know that?" He said.
"Okay." She finally agreed.
Sasha, Tyreese, Bob and Zach got into the Hyundai while Glenn jumped into Betty with me and Daryl led the way on the bike. We drove down to the front gate, but stopped upon seeing Michonne. She had been out hunting for the Governor on and off for the last 6 months, never stayed for too long while she was here. Daryl had been searching with her initially, but had since given up and turned his focus on the prison. Daryl stopped the bike, talking out of earshot from where we were in the cars, but by the looks of it she hadn't found the Governor.
Rick and Carl had opened the gate for her and while Rick stood with her and Daryl, Carl was standing away a bit with the horse Michonne went out with. Another few minutes and Michonne was walking towards Betty and opening the door. Glenn slid over into the middle seat and she jumped in.
"You ever heard of taking a break?" I questioned, but not sourly.
"You want my help or not?" She said back with the hint of a smile.
I nodded with a smile back. "Glad you're back."
It took us a little while to get to Big Spot and once we had arrived, Daryl started explaining to Bob what it was and what we'd done.
"Army came in and put these fences up." Daryl said, he and Bob standing next to the wired fences that surrounded the building with me behind them and the others a little way back. "Made it a place for the people to go. Last week when Kat and I spotted this place, there was a bunch of walkers behind this chain-link keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs."
"So they all just left?" Bob asked.
"No." I spoke. "We drew them out with a boom box hooked up to two car batteries on the roof a few days ago. Hear it?" Everyone went silent for a moment as the faint sound of music was heard in the distance.
"All right, let's make a sweep." Daryl got us moving again, taking the lead through the hole in wire we'd cut last time we were here. "Make sure it's safe. Grab what you can. We'll come back tomorrow with more people."
There were army trucks and tents set up all around and the occasional dried out corpse. After a quick sweep we discovered there wasn't much on the outside. The next was to head into the building. Daryl sat down on the windowsill, crossbow in hand, before banging his elbow three times on the glass behind him to draw any walkers out before we went in blind.
"Just give it a second." He said, mostly over to Zach who was leant against the brick wall closest to the door. I took up a seat on the other side of Daryl, leaning back against the glass with a deep breath, the heat of the sun being particularly bad today.
"Okay, I think I got it." Zach finally spoke up after a moment of silence, a smile coming to my lips after I'd been waiting for him to give todays guess.
"Got what?" Michonne asked.
"I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn."
"He's been trying to guess for, like, sex weeks." Daryl shot back.
"Yeah, I'm pacing myself." Zach argued. "One shot a day."
"All right, shoot." Daryl nodded.
"Well..." He started, "the way you are at the prison, you being on the council, you're able to track, you're helping people, but you're still being kind of... surly." He chose the word carefully as I chuckled to myself while Daryl gave me a sideways glance. "Big swing here." Zach warned as Daryl looked back over to him. "Homicide cop."
Michonne immediately broke out in a laugh while I tried to keep mine in, the idea of Daryl in a suit, tie and polished shoes, pacing around a crime scene as he sipped on a takeaway coffee all too amusing.
"What's so funny?" Daryl shot over to Michonne.
"Nothing." She shook her head as she composed herself. "It makes perfect sense."
Daryl glanced back over to me while I had a large grin on my face before lightly nudging me in the side. "Actually the mans right." He started, still looking at me as I lightly rolled my eyes knowing he was just playing around before he looked back to Zach. "Undercover."
"Come on, really?" Zach asked
"Yep. I don't like to talk about it 'cause it was a lot of heavy shit, you know?" He explained seriously before turning his head back into my direction and away from Zach, the tiniest hint of smile in the corner of his mouth.
"Dude, come on. Really?" Zach tried again as Daryl turned back, looked at him for a moment before giving one shake of his head in a 'What do you think?' kind of way.
"Okay. I'll just keep guessing, I guess."
"Yeah, you keep doing that." Daryl agreed, knowing the kid would never get it. We'd had this conversation months back, but Daryl hadn't told me what he did before either. He just shrugged the questions off and said it didn't matter anymore. I'd asked once again after that, but had the same result and hadn't tried since.
A walker came up to the glass with a groan, slamming against it to try and get to us. Daryl was on his feet first, followed by Zach.
"We're gonna do this, Detective?" Michonne joked.
"Let's do it." He agreed.
I got to my feet with a slight head rush, the heat of the sun still beating down and I mentally reminded myself to drink more water.
"All right, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep." Sasha said to everyone, mostly Bob who was new to runs. "After that, you all know what you're supposed to look for. Any questions?"
"Was there ever a time that you weren't the boss of me?" Tyreese asked, joking at his sister.
"You had a few years before I was born." She smiled back.
Daryl headed in first crossbow raised and I was right behind him, machete ready. We did a sweep and found nothing so then split up to look for whatever we thought we might need. I grabbed a trolley and started pushing it up and down the isles, feeling oddly nostalgic. Daryl walked along beside me, his crossbow always at the ready. We came across some drinks and I immediately reached for a bottle of water and cracked it open. It wasn't cold, but I was thirsty and swallowed back nearly a quarter of the large bottle in one. Daryl stopped and raised his eyebrows as I screwed the lid back on and then offered the bottle to him, but he shook his head as a no and kept walking.
A little while later we came across another section. Daryl stopped and stared for a few seconds before I spoke in a whisper, the eerie quietness to the store making me feel like I had to keep my voice low.
"Grab them."
He did as instructed and quickly grabbed a box of condoms and shoved them in his pocket and not the trolley before taking one step forward, stopping again, turning back and quickly grabbing a second box as I shook my head with a smile. He continued walking and after a few seconds of thought I grabbed a third and followed after him.
We were browsing for a little longer before there was a loud crash followed by the shattering of glass. Daryl quickly followed the sound with me right behind him, leaving the trolley for the moment. We found Bob trapped under a fallen shelf, broken bottles of wine all around him.
"You all right?" Daryl asked. "You cut or something?"
"No, man, but my foot is caught." Bob said back.
"All right." Daryl stood and looking around, seeing Zach and Tyreese and nodding them over for an extra hand. "He's just caught. Come on, help me lift it up."
"What happened?" Glenn's voice called out from a distance.
"Everyone's all right. We're over in wine and beer." Zach yelled back in response as we all easily lifted the shelves back onto their feet. Bob immediately started to explain without needing to be asked what had happened before we'd even gotten the next shelf up.
"I was moving fast. I drove right into the drinks."
"Man, you lucked out. If this thing had came down on you the wrong way..." Tyreese said.
"I'll check you over once we're back outside in proper light." I said just as Glenn and Michonne made it over to us.
There was another crash and everyone looked up. A walker from the roof had fallen straight through the ceiling and now dangled, their intestines caught on one of the beams. The sound of the crash must have drawn them to the space above us and the extra weight wasn't holding out too well.
"Yeah, uh, we should probably go now." Glenn said.
"Bob's still stuck. Get him out of there." Daryl ordered.
Another creak echoed around us before another walker fell through the roof and hit the ground... and then another and then another. They fell and hit the ground hard like rag dolls. Some hit the ground in tact, others had limps torn a ripped off in the fall, but some just splattered on the ground in a wet red mess.
Then they started to get to their feet, more still falling to the ground.
They're a little more "couple like" now. It's been six months. I'm thinking about having flashbacks later on to things that happened during those six months so it isn't such a big difference all of a sudden.
They are now basically established as a couple among the people in the prison and outside the original group no one has seen them not be together, even Sasha and Tyreese, so it's basically just the normal state of being.