A United Front Chapter Five

Sweet lady, won’t you be my sweet love for a lifetime…

The sound of an exceptionally beautiful voice poured from the speakers of the CD player Beth had found in the bottom desk drawer of the teacher’s desk while she was searching the room for things she and Daryl may find useful. She’d found some size D batteries that were half charged and waited for Daryl to return to their room. She’d lit candles and convinced Dale to part with a half-full bottle of red wine in exchange for an extra slice of the chocolate cake she’d made for dessert, though she suspected he would have given her the wine anyway.

When Daryl had come home to the music, the wine, and the candles, he’d noted Beth had carted out the desks that had been in the room and cleared the walls of school related material. She’d hung curtains in the two windows of the room that he remembered had hung in a couple of the windows in their old apartment in Woodbury.

“You kept the curtains?”

“Packed away in our things,” she’d said. “While you were working in the kitchen, Sasha, Carol, Glenn, Daddy and I went into town.”

Daryl’s eyes narrowed. “Who said you guys could leave the group?”

“Daddy took us. It was fine. He’s a good shot. Look what we found.”

She motioned at what Daryl had initially taken for a pile of blankets that needed to be spread out, but he soon realized it was an air mattress. It was one of the good kind made to hold a lot of weight and to last. It would be a proper bed for a good long while.

“Get undressed,” she said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He did as told and felt his muscles protest after a long day of helping to clean out the putrid contents of what had once been the freezer and refrigeration section of the kitchen with Rick, Tyreese, and Dale, not to mention helping to clear out the dead walkers they'd killed when taking the school. The cold shower he’d taken had done nothing to soothe his muscles. He knew what Beth wanted, what she needed, and he wondered if he had it in him tonight to make love to her as he’d promised. The whole situation made him feel old, at least in comparison to her.

He’d just undressed when Beth emerged from the small bathroom that Daryl had discovered was in every single classroom. He reasoned they'd been installed to keep kids from using a need to go to the john as an excuse to run the halls and smoke in the bathroom. She wore red lacy panties and a matching bra.

Oh yeah. He was going to be able to keep his promise.

“Beth,” he said, and it came out almost as a sigh.

“Just stand there for a moment,” she’d said, and came up behind him. “I want to enjoy your body.”

She ran her fingertips, light as feathers, over his shoulders and down his scarred back. She’d come to love everything about him, and she accepted the scars as part of what made him who he was, even if he didn’t.She loved every inch of this man's body. She loved everything about him, heart and soul.

“You’ve got a sweet ass on you, Daryl Dixon,” she’d said, and pinched his bottom.

He tried not to feel embarrassed. “So do you.”

She came to stand in front of him and enjoyed stroking every inch of his skin. Each touch had the desired effect, and without actually touching him below his waist Daryl became hard.

“Lie down,” she’d breathed, and so he had.

Now, as the music continued, some mixed CD of R&B love songs, Beth was also naked and astride Daryl, feeling him inside of her. He gently pinched and rolled her nipples as she moved against him, her head thrown back and her hair loose, giving her the ethereal appearance of a halo. She was his angel. He loved her so much it was sometimes a physical pain in his chest that left him choked up and speechless.

“Daryl,” she sighed, as she found release.

He turned her onto her back and moved inside her. Beth’s legs wrapped around him and held him close while she continued to run her hands over his arms, his back, and his shoulders. She dug her fingers into his hair and planted soft kisses along his jaw until he, too, found satisfaction in his release. She felt him spill himself inside her and her body ached with pleasure at the feel of it.

At some point Beth’s fingers reached out to shut the CD player off. They’d save the battery power for another night. She blew out two of the three candles. She still wanted light enough to see his face.

“I told Daddy how much I love you,” she said.

“How’d he respond?”

“He gave us his blessing.”

Daryl smiled. “Good.”

“Daryl, I’ve been waiting for you to bring the subject up but I’m afraid you never will, so I’m going to. Have you thought of us getting married?”

He turned to face her and she wrapped one of her long, slender legs around him. “Of course I have. I just…”

“What?”

“It just never seems to be a good time. We’re always moving, always under some kind of threat.”

She stroked a sweat dampened lock of hair from his forehead. “Our life will always be that way. That doesn’t mean we can’t live and do good things with the time we have. I want your name. I want to have your babies.”

Babies, Daryl thought. Shit…

Children had always been something Daryl wanted but never thought he’d actually have. He’d drifted along with his brother, never settling down, never meeting a woman he’d loved enough to start a family with. Then the Turn came. Then he met Beth. Children with her was a dream. A good dream, but he’d considered it a dream nonetheless.

“How can we bring a baby into this?”

Beth didn’t respond right away. She considered her words carefully before she said, “If we can make this place safe, and if we can defend it, then I want a family. Daryl, I want us to have children of our own. You’ll be an amazing father. I’ll be a pretty good mom.”

“You’d make an amazing mother, Beth, don’t ever doubt that.”

She smiled. “It’s not just children, though. It’s the whole package. I want to be Beth Dixon. I want to feel like I’m yours and you’re mine. Rick was a cop. He could do it. He could marry us. Everyone would know I’m your wife, and you’re my husband.”

Daryl’s heart was thudding hard with more happiness than he’d ever felt up to that point in his life. There was a damn good woman who wanted his name and wanted him to be the father of her children. She wanted to share his life in every way possible. He didn’t feel as though he deserved it in some regards. In others, he felt his life had been so hard that it was his due to know this kind of joy.

“Marry me, Beth,” he said. “Take my name. Be my wife.”

She broke into laughter and kissed him hard. “Yes. I’ll be your wife.”

“I need to find a ring,” he said.

“We’ll worry about that tomorrow.”

“After I’ve put one on your finger, then we can announce it. I’ll talk to Rick about marrying us.”

“I don’t want to wait months, either. I want to do it as soon as possible.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll get it done quick!” he laughed. “Already nagging me and we ain’t even married yet.”

“Get used to it, Mister,” she said, and blew out the last candle.

*****

Michonne stood by the main gate, pacing back and forth as she kept lookout for threats from both the dead and the living. She had an hour left on her watch before the young man, Glenn, came to take over for her. They were going in four hour shifts, one guard on the main gate and along the front of the school, and a guard on the back gate. There were two more guards walking the grounds at night and came by every half hour to visually confirm that the gate guards were in place and all right.

With summer gone and the fall setting in, days were still prone to be hot but the nights were getting cooler; not unpleasantly so. Michonne’s light jacket flapped in a soft breeze and she listened to some fallen leaves scatter along the drive. She was bone tired. The day had been one of the rare hot ones with lots of humidity, and she’d spent it helping Maggie and Sasha pull weeds and push one of the four old fashioned push mowers that they’d secured in town. The blades were good and sharp but all the yard work, in the heat, left her muscles tired. They had cold running water, which was great, but she would have traded her katana for a hot shower. She rolled her shoulders and tried to stretch her neck.

“Tired?”

Michonne jumped. She hadn’t heard Rick’s approach, which showed how out of it she was.

“Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I’m glad it was you and not Bishop,” she said.

“We’ve had a big day. Just think, you’re due for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep when your watch is over,” Rick tempted. “We’ll lay down and cuddle.”

She rolled her shoulder and gave him a smile. “Sounds good.”

“Shoulder hurting?”

“Just tired muscles. I’ll be fine.”

“Take off your jacket.”

Michonne eyed him knowingly. “That’s a bad idea, Rick. Any time either one of us takes something off in front of the other, when we’re alone, it leads to other things.”

He wiggled his brows and earned another smile from her. She sighed and turned around, shedding her jacket. His hands, big and calloused, yet gentle of touch, began to knead the muscles of her shoulders and behind her neck. He used just enough pressure to work out the tension without hurting her. She moaned from the sheer pleasure of feeling the pain ease from her shoulders.

“Moaning isn’t going to incentivize me to behave,” he said, and kissed her neck lightly.

“Then stop touching me just right.”

“Come here.”

“I’m on watch, Rick.”

“Watch me drive you wild.”

She turned to face him and his lips pressed to hers. He had yet to intensify the kiss when they both heard the movement in the trees behind them.

Michonne spun and grabbed her sword. Rick saw, in the light of the full moon that hung in the cloudless sky, there was a man on the other side of the fence watching them. Rick took off, thankful that the brick wall was only chest high. It was a wall that was easily three feet thick, made of stone and concrete, perfect for keeping out walkers but not men. He jumped, dragged himself over, and then landed on the other side with Michonne close behind him.

The man ahead ran hard, and he was fast. He would probably have escaped had he not tripped and fallen. He clenched his ankle and began screaming. In the quiet of night it sounded as loud as a train horn. The guy tried to get up and run but his foot dragged uselessly behind him. Rick tackled him to the ground and straddled him.

“Who are you?” Rick demanded.

“I’m nobody. I just came--”

His words were cut off by a hard punch to the face. “Don’t lie to me. Who are you?”

“I swear, I’m nobody!”

Rick looked up at Michonne. “Go open the gate. Ring the bell twice for trouble.”

She nodded and ran back to the gate, which was about fifteen yards from where Rick held the man down as he continued yelling. Rick clamped a hand over the guys mouth.

“Calling for help? You with Bishop?”

There was a look in the man’s eye, suspiciously like recognition of Bishop's name, that Rick didn’t like, before the man shook his head. “I’m on my own. I don’t have a group or anything.”

“Liar.”

“Please, don’t hurt me.”

“I ain’t making any promises.”

*****

The entire group was awake. By Rick’s watch the time was two-fifteen in the morning. Despite having been aroused in the middle of the night, not one face was sleepy. Rick smelled coffee brewing in the kitchen. Beth emerged with a pot and began filling the Styrofoam cups that people held.

Their guest was tied to a chair in the pantry, blindfolded and gagged. Rick now faced his group, who stood watching him with worried expressions.

“He claims he’s a loner, that he doesn’t have a group,” said Rick.

“He ain’t no loaner,” Daryl spoke up at once.

“How do you know?” asked Sasha.

“Daryl’s got uncanny powers of observation,” Andrea answered.

“He’s got on clean clothes. His hair is a little long and scraggly but it’s clean. He’s neatly shaved. He’s not underweight which tells me he’s eating regularly. He’s got scars but they’re all old, like he ain't had to scrap with either men or walkers in a long time. He’s also got a brand burned into his arm and it’s been there awhile. Looks like somebody marked him,” Daryl explained.

Hershel looked at Daryl a long while. He’d seen all of those things but had not pieced it together like Daryl had. “That makes sense,” he said, to the man who would someday marry his baby daughter.

Daryl nodded once in acknowledgement.

“So, who’s he with?” asked Maggie.

“The brand on his arm was a B,” said Tyreese. “I’m guessing he’s with Bishop.”

“They’ve found us already?” Carl asked worriedly.

Rick’s mind went back three days, to when they’d left the house, after Bishop’s attack. Carol said she’d seen a man fire on Bishop’s men. Was it possible that same man had led them this direction, possibly tracking them?

“What are you thinking?” asked Michonne.

“Carol said a man fired on Bishop’s group the night we left. I’m wondering if he didn’t join up with them and follow us.”

“Why would he do that?” asked Carol. “Why try to save us at the house just to kill us here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he was a loner. Maybe he saw something in our group that he wants but knows he can’t get on his own.”

“Maybe the man who helped save us is locked up in the pantry,” Dale pointed out. “He could have followed us on his own, hoping to join our group, and now we’ve gone and locked him up and treated him like a criminal.”

“He was trying to get the attention of his men,” Michonne told Dale. “I’m sure of it. The racket he was making…he was trying to get help. He’s not here alone.”

“It doesn’t matter how they found us so quickly. All that matters is that we don’t have long before they attack,” said Sasha.

“We should go out and look for their men,” said Glenn. “We should see where they are, how many there are, what they’re armed with. Maybe we can pick a few of them off.”

“Before you get yourself picked off?” Maggie shot back.

Rick got the impression this was an argument they’d had several times already behind closed doors.

“We’re not going to get anywhere until we have information, though I do like Glenn’s suggestion about scouting. Daryl, you’re the best hunter/tracker we’ve got. Pick a team and head out in the morning.”

“Best to go at night,” he said. “We could use the cover of darkness.”

“Whatever you think is best. Take weapons and ammo,” Rick ordered.

“Tyreese, Glenn, Michonne, you’re with me,” Daryl said.

Rick didn’t want Michonne to go but he also knew she’d hand him his balls bloody and flat if he tried to pull any chivalry shit. She was a capable fighter, fast and strong, and she could take care of herself.

“I want to go too,” Maggie said.

“No,” Daryl came back. “These men are rapists. Hell, taking our women is their number one motivation.”

“Michonne’s going,” she indignantly pointed out.

“Michonne’s a warrior and I’ve fought with her before,” Daryl said calmly. “If we get captured it’ll take all she’s got to get away without getting raped. Tyreese, Glenn and I will be killed on sight. If you’re with us, you’ll be gang raped. I’m choosing this team and you’re not comin’, plain and simple.”

Maggie looked ready to revolt but both Hershel and Glenn shouted her down.

“You’re staying here,” Hershel said.

“I’ll tie you to a chair myself if I have to,” Glenn added.

Maggie’s face was thunderous. She wanted to go to protect Glenn. While she knew a lot of what they said made sense, it still felt like chauvinistic bullshit.

“Hershel, you, Dale, Sasha, and Andrea take watch outside. Pair off and stay close to the school. If you see the enemy come back inside and warn us.”

“What are you gonna do?” asked Carol.

Rick cast a wary glance toward the pantry. “I’m gonna have a word with our guest.”



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