A/N - Okay everyone, here is the first chapter in my multi chapter expansion of Daryl and Lori that was originally posted in Walking Dead Hook-Ups. I'm not fooling around and rating this T to start with though the smut doesn't start yet because anyone who knows me knows I'll more than earn that rating when I get to it.
Quarry
"Dear God!" Lori cries as she watches the explosions in Atlanta. Shane takes her in his arms and holds her tightly, turning her head away. He murmurs to her, tells her it will be okay, he's there, he'll never leave. But Lori is in shock. Surely not everyone in Atlanta had been infected? They turn unlike the other people who'd been looking for a vantage point and begin the hike back to their jeep.
About halfway there Lori stops. "I can't do this. I can't go on Shane, you have to take Carl and go on." She sits on the ground silently, folding in on herself, looking almost like a praying mantis in repose with her gangly limbs. Shane squats in front of her.
"Ain't goin' anywhere Lori. I'll take care of Carl and you. It's always been you, you know." And he kisses her senseless. Lori can't even begin to fight him off and she doesn't try. Shane was offering her a reason to live, feeling good, feeling again. The past weeks of the outbreak and months before that with Rick in a coma before he passed away were a blur against her sudden need to be loved and held. To be taken.
"Make me feel again Shane, make me feel." Lori ignores Shane's words of love and devotion, she ignores his mutters of how long he's wanted her, wanted them. And she responds eagerly if not wholeheartedly. If her mind flutters repeatedly to her dead husband, well that was her secret. Neither of them see the shadow some feet away as it stands and watches them silently, waiting until they've finished and put themselves back together and continued on their way.
Daryl moves silently after them. He'd been trekking back from the vantage point he'd used to watch Atlanta be bombed when he'd come upon them. He'd seen the guy strutting up and down the highway talking and posturing a little. Beyond making sure he didn't come into contact with Merle he'd more or less left him alone. Though he'd caved when he'd seen the kid. If it'd just been the woman he wouldn't have bothered, but the kid, well…a kid was different.
So he'd told the guy about the quarry, mentioned it to the a-hole that beat his wife as well, again because of the kid. Daryl had one soft spot in his life and that was for kids. He sniffs the air as he passes where they'd lain and fucked. He could smell them, guy smelled like any other guy, but the woman? He paused for several seconds inhaling her smell. She smelled good, even after fuck knows how long on the road, she still smelled good.
He inhaled deeply, imprinting her on his senses, he'd be able to recognised her if he were blindfolded now from her scent alone. Then with a small tinge of regret that he had not been the man she'd been fucking in her mind if not her body he moved after them. It was time he was back to Mer anyway. But in his mind Daryl is replaying the scene he'd just witnessed. And if he himself replaced the guys she'd been fucking in mind and body, well that was his secret and his alone. He'd always had a thing for legs, she had miles of 'em.
##########
Lori stays in the jeep with Carl as Shane gets out and talks to the people they can see gathered so far. They'd taken the turn off the road away from Atlanta after seeing what the Air force dropped a couple of nights ago. Lori was looking around when she saw Carol and Ed's battered Cherokee pull in behind them. Shit. She liked Carol and Sophia as did Carl, but Ed was a pain in the arse. He gets out and ignoring Lori, walks past her window hitching his belt as he moves to where there is a small group of men gathered.
"What's going on Mum? Can I go see Sophia, please?" Carl asks.
God, he was at that age where he wouldn't stay still or listen to anything she said. Sometimes she could just slap him. "No baby, after Shane says it's okay." She answers brushing the flies away with one hand. She lifts her hair off the nape of her neck with the other and smiles over at Carol who smiles back. She hears Carl huffing in the seat behind her but ignores him, she's thankful the jeep doesn't have back doors or she's sure Carl would ignore her and just get out.
Shane comes back and says they're staying. He gets back in and moves the jeep, reversing it around so it's ready if they need to leave in a hurry. She notices Ed do the same thing though the only other vehicle that had taken the time to do it is an old blue pick-up already parked, it has a low rider on the back. Or what Lori thinks is a low rider. She has no idea if that's even the correct term for the bike and doesn't care anyway. Then they get out, taking their belongings with them. Lori gives Carl their tent so he doesn't just run off knowing that was what he'd had in mind when she sees the disgruntled look on his face. She turns with her arms full of stuff she can barely see around and bumps into a solid figure.
"Shit, sorry." She says automatically not even looking at who she'd bumped into.
"No problem Legs, you can bump into me anytime." Lori falters as she looks up, which is unusual in itself, she was usually at least the same height as men being close to six feet herself. And mostly leg as the guy called her.
"My name's Lori, not legs." She snaps looking at the guy who was grinning at her. She could tell immediately he was on something.
He steps back giving a mock bow, "My humble apologies dear lady." He says as he turns away. Lori frowns as she watches him walk away. He was tall and lean and she knew he was going to be trouble. Lori jerks as Shane calls her name and she moves toward him. It is late that same evening when she is introduced to him again. Merle Dixon. And he has a brother. Daryl. Lori merely nods as she looks them over. Hillbilly white trash is what she thinks though it doesn't take long for her opinion to be changed.
For the worse with Merle as he was using steadily and he was almost vivaciously loud when he was at the apex of his high. Lori learned over the coming weeks to turn in the other direction when Merle's voice rose above a certain decibel. Daryl though. Daryl was an unknown. He hunted, set traps, was useful and ambiguously around without ever seeming to be. Lori and Carol and another woman who was a teacher, Jacqui started classes for the children. There were not quite a half-dozen in camp. Carl, Sophia and a few others. Jacqui oversaw the lessons and lent them books but let her and Carol take care of the real lessons. Lori was happy with this arrangement.
"God, I'd love to be just lying beside a pool with a nice daiquiri." Andrea's words come out of nowhere as they cook dinner one night. Glenn had brought back strawberry jam that day and Carol had managed to make some jam drops, enough for everyone to have one at least. This had prompted Andrea's longing for a strawberry daiquiri. Carol smiled though she didn't offer anything up herself. Lori though for a few seconds.
"Bubble bath, hot, bubbles everywhere like in the movies." From the sighs she gets after that sentence she figures her option had been popular. "I pushed for the house we had because of the master bath. Big enough for both Rick and I to just lie back and relax." Shaking her head she looks around to see the women looking at her with sorrow and pity. She shakes her head. "No, I still have Carl, I have something to still be thankful for." She continues to chop the remaining fresh vegetables they had for the stew and ignores what she knows are pitying glances. If she was honest with herself for once she and Rick had been heading for divorce anyway. And now she had Shane, kind of.
Lori frowns as she drops the vegetables into the simmering water. She pays no attention to Daryl Dixon as he drops some animal carcasses down on the makeshift table and walks away without saying anything to anyone.
Daryl looks back at her with a frown. He'd seen her and the cop making off together though they went in opposite directions each time. They went too far from camp and he didn't know why they didn't just use the fucking family tent she and the kid lived in. Daryl had never stayed around or listened to other's talking enough to know Lori and Shane's real history. Shaking his head at the vagaries of humans he heads inside his own tent. Merle is sleeping and Daryl undresses and joins him. He was tired.
Their life settles in to some sort of routine and Lori is on her way back from spending time with Shane one day when she and Daryl actually do something they don't normally do. They interact with each other.
"Stop 'n stand still dammit!" The words are whispered harshly at Lori and she freezes obediently as an arrow suddenly slides past her legs to slice through the snake on the trail in front of her. She would have stepped on it if not for that irritated whisper.
She stands while he slips silently past her and retrieves his arrow and the snake. His knife is in his hand and he slices off the head, slinging the body of the snake around his neck heedless of the blood dripping down his arm. Daryl looks her over. Lori knows that he knows she's just been with Shane. She doesn't know how she knows he knows, but he does. Bringing his eyes back to hers he shakes his head. "Don't let him take you so far out, less you got protection. An I don't mean the rubber kind neither." He snorts as he walks ahead of her back up the trail to their camp.
Lori raises a shaking hand to her lips as she stares after him. She doesn't realise it at the time but she appreciates his silent and stealthy walk. Daryl is a predator and he walks like one.
Some weeks later Lori watches as several of the group head into town with Glenn, she understands his unhappiness, you can move faster with just one person. Lori is going stir crazy wondering what is happening out in the world. Has this infection taken over the whole world? Or just their country? She remembers reports about it being less in the true country areas. And a couple of countries that stopped air traffic so were faring better. She wonders if they're taking other survivors in.
Shaking her head she goes to lie down, she's done all her allotted chores and Carol is on teaching duty this afternoon. She just needs five minutes to herself. She is irritated that she hadn't been able to convince Shane to let her or someone put up signs warning them not to go to Atlanta, because of all the hordes. She presses the heel of one hand to her forehead, trying to push away the migraine she can feel lingering. She misses Rick.
It is a shocking thought but one she settles on nonetheless. She does miss him. His steadfastness if nothing else. The migraine settles in behind her right eye, throbbing in time with her pulse, draining her energy. Lori finds herself remembering her last words to Rick. She'd been spoiling for a fight and he'd not obliged her. He never obliged her, not like Shane did. But then Shane could only oblige her physically.
Wanting a release from everything and everyone around her and from the guilt she carried over Rick Lori tries to think of someone, someone who will take her mind off things, someone she can just imagine herself with. Trying to think of her favourite actor, the guy from her favourite movie that'd never admitted to liking let alone loving didn't work. His face kept blurring. He was probably dead now anyway.
Still, there was someone in camp who kind of looked like him. Rolling on her side Lori pulls Daryl's face to the forefront of her mind and she pictures him walking toward her with a smile she'd only ever seen one his face once. It had looked uncomfortable and he'd wiped it off as soon as he'd seen her watching him, but she'd still seen him smile. She bet no one else in camp had seen him smile. And she knew a lot of women single and attached had tried to work one out of him.
With her head throbbing harshly and the light of the day coming through the thin walls of the tent Lori smiles back at Daryl as she drifts off to sleep.
##########
The next day she is up and moving sluggishly. Her migraine's always left her feeling like she had a hangover even though she never drank with them. She was wondering if she could dig out some sunglasses toward the afternoon when a blaring horn has them all on edge. It's sounding constantly as a red Mustang moves up the quarry road.
When Glenn steps out and Jim cut's off the horn the silence is blessed. Lori and Shane look at each other and Carl comes over as Glenn and Morales talk about the FNG they'd picked up. When Morales mentions him being a cop Shane becomes more alert even as Lori's heart thuds. She knows Rick is dead, Shane had told her he'd seen his body but some part of her can't help wishing.
Carl comes to her and they turn thinking to welcome him to camp. And Lori's heart stops. It is Rick. Her husband is alive. He is here. As Rick hugs her Lori's hard starts beating again, double time. She looks over at Shane and shuts herself off from him. He'd lied to her, he'd fucked her knowing Rick was alive. She closes her eyes to him and hugs her home. Her steadfastness.
##########
Daryl settles down for the night gnawing on some jerky. He was feeling twitchy. The deer he'd been tracking had been shot twice and hadn't slowed down. She was leading him on a merry chase. She was also leading him back toward camp. Hopefully he'd catch her before she busted right through it or swung around. From the blood it'd be several more hours before she slowed down enough for him to catch.
Hopefully none of the infected found her first. It was a risk these days especially as she was leaking blood, they'd sniff it for sure. Closing his eyes Daryl enjoys the silence. Back in camp there was always noise of some kind. Most often the human kind, and more often than not it was of the sexual kind, especially in the evening. Wondering why Shane and Lori try to hide their relationship he fritters away a quiet peaceful evening as one can have these days. He couldn't know that it would be his last for some time.
The next day when Daryl returns to camp he finds this group that he and his brother had kept fed for months had turned on his brother, leaving him to die on a rooftop in Atlanta. "What the fuck's wrong with you people?" He yells in their faces. Only Rick Grimes keeps eye contact with him. Fuckin' cop, of course he's a fuckin' cop. Daryl's eyes widen slightly before they narrow even more as he hears Lori speak to him, guy was her fuckin' husband. He snorts but says nothing, her and Shane weren't his fuckin' business, less she pissed him off more than she was right now. He got her wanting her old man to stay behind, reminded him of his own Ma begging their father. Didn't work for either woman.
Idly Daryl wondered how many more times she'd try to beg Rick for shit before she gave up. That would be the beginning of the end, had been for his Ma.
When they return to the van with the guns but no Merle to find it gone, Daryl knows he's taken it. They're on their way back to camp and as much as he hates running he goes full pelt, wanting to make sure the children are safe. Merle would be too blinded and he could understand that, even approve of it, but the children were innocents.
##########
"Bury our fuckin' dead, I never got to bury my fuckin' brother, hell prick could still be alive for all I know. Never did care enough to stop and think, you fucker Mer, there were kids here." Daryl mutters as he tries to sleep by the gutted fire. He can hear cries and sobs all around him. Andrea being the loudest.
He'd worked all day like a demon dragging, burying and burning and now he couldn't fucking sleep. Rolling to his feet in one motion Daryl grabs his crossbow and heads for the water. He sits down on the rocky shore and lets the soft lap of the water relax him. After some time he rouses himself enough to stand and strip down. Dawn is breaking as he walks into the water and dives under relishing the coolness of the water on his skin.
Lori freezes on the footpath as she watches Daryl disrobe, she can see his body clearly in the pre-dawn light. She frowns over the tattoos and other marks on his back. Had he been in an accident? Then the spit dries in her mouth as he dives into the water and submerges himself. She presses a hand down low on her stomach as she feels herself clench down deep inside. "Down girl." She mutters to herself as she turns and walks back up the path, leaving Daryl to his solitary swim.
But Jesus God, the guy had one truly spectacular butt. Better than her migraine induced fantasy had imagined. Ignoring the fluttering in her stomach and the longing to turn around and spy some more, maybe see a front view Lori returns to her family.
Her family, they were whole again, but would they be whole again? She thought they could be, but Shane, why had she been so God Damn stupid? She'd had rocks for brains that night. Lori could tell herself until the cows came home that he'd taken advantage but she knew full well if she'd said no, Shane would have stopped.
"Ugh! Get over yourself already, your husband is back, alive and well. You have your son, alive and well, you're alive and well, everything else is icing." Muttering to herself Lori walks into camp. Rick and Shane are talking, deciding to head to the Centre for Disease Control, the CDC. From there who knows. Lori methodically packs, she tries to get Carl to help but he's too busy playing with Sophia.
Lori leaves them be, Sophia is looking more relaxed than she's ever seen her and Lori can pack by herself. Suddenly strong arms lift her tent and blankets just as she reaches for them herself. Not looking at her Daryl walks them to Carol's Cherokee. She nods a thank you that he doesn't acknowledge and watches that butt walk away stopping when he gets to the children.
"You two, help your Ma's, play when you're packed." His voice is firm but gentle enough that Sophia doesn't spook. In fact she looks up at Daryl and flushes as she watches him walk away.
"Oh boy." Lori mutters to herself, she recognises a crush.
"I figure her first crush could be worse." Carol says softly as she stands beside Lori and watches Sophia with a smile.
"Yeah, man sure has a fine arse." Lori says with a smile and a wink.
Carol chokes back a loud laugh, spluttering a cough that still causes several people to look over at her. Then she straightens up. "I'm partial to legs more than rump myself." She snorts again as Lori just stares at her.
"Really?" Lori says, "It's always the quiet ones." She mutters before she splutters herself trying unsuccessfully to laugh quietly. If there was an edge of hysteria in their laughter, well that was their business.
When Lori returns to packing she is surprised to see all of their heavier stuff packed already, stacked exactly where she would have packed it herself. Rick hadn't done it, Lori had had him in her sight the whole time. She turns to Daryl who is in his truck checking the bike was still strapped down securely.
"Thanks for the help." She says as she walks uncertainly to the truck. Daryl stops and looks at her briefly before he shrugs. Lori looks up at him. "You need a hand with anything yourself?" A snort is her only answer. Rolling her eyes Lori walks away. She and Carol wait for Rick to arrive and they settle in the car and begin the trek to the CDC.