Living Like You're Dead

After several sleepless nights Daryl did get to look into the eyes of the woman he had grown to love. She smiled, almost dreamlike while Daryl held her hand. But the moment she was lucid he gave her a piece of his mind. He was completely irritated with her reckless saving of his life. She gave him a smile, as if she didn’t care what he thought. She was so happy he was breathing; so happy he wasn’t a walker.

She was bedridden for a few days - until she regained enough blood to give her good color. She would sit up in the bed while Daryl insisted he feed her several cans of food. She didn’t like the beans, but she ate the fruit willingly while he force-fed her with a plastic spoon. Carol and Lori came in a few times to talk with their long lost friend – whom they missed.

When she felt fine enough to walk upstairs she was able to join everyone for dinner. She had to lean on Daryl for a significant amount of time as they made the journey upstairs. She felt good, but she was still quite weak. They talked and caught up on what had happened while they were gone and how the new city was surprisingly tame compared to Atlanta. Of course anything was tame compared to Atlanta. No one had been bothered here by walkers, only if they went around town would they run into them – Addie nudged Daryl when Rick made that comment.

Everyone was convinced they were safe. Something they took their time to get comfortable with. It seemed wherever they ran – trouble found them.
_________________________________________________________________

They evaded trouble for the next six months.

They were driving away from their home, it was burning, crumbling, everything they’d claimed theirs was now being engulfed by flames.

They had prepared though – for the day they would need to run again. It seemed you never found a same home, just a place that was safer.

With plenty of supplies they headed west. Hoping they could find an operational CDC or containment center – somewhere they could derive a cure. No one was a chemicst – no one knew anything excecpt Addie had saved Daryl’s life, and somehow she was still here too.

Although today was a different day.

Addie found herself kneeling at Lori’s feet as Dale tried to drive the RV away from the flaming city. Raiders had found them, the town – they took what they wanted and set fire to the rest. But everyone had gotten away.

Daryl was driving ahead of them leading Dale through the confines of obstructing vehicles. Glenn and T were following behind with guns to make sure nobody followed.

Rick was trying to stay calm while his wife was in labor. Carl even had to tell his own dad that everything was okay. Addie assumed the heat from the escape had left him a little shaken – as it had for all of them. Lori was anxious enough to enduce labor. Making all of them just a little bit more worried.

They had planned and learned how you were supposed to deliver a baby, but none of them were really ready for it. But by the end of the evening Lori had a beautiful baby girl in her arms.
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Addie found her way to the pitched blue tent that she knew to be Daryl’s. Lori was exhausted as well as everyone else who helped in the ordeal. She was unhappy when she saw Daryl wasn’t here, she sat atop the structured cot and layed back against the sleeping bag. She missed her bed, the mattress, the way Daryl would make it sing when he was in top of her. But this cot, both of them could barely sleep on it comfortably.

She could feel the dryness of her hands for them sterlization of the alcohol, she could feel them crack when she bent them causing her a bit of pain.

Daryl unzipped the tent to find Addie had fallen asleep, he had missed her that day. Without her by his side Daryl did feel lonely. He threw a blanket on top of her before he slid against her, feeling her cold body.

“Daryl…” she muttered.

“Here.” He told her. “How’d it go?”

“Girl…” she said, “healthy girl.”

After a long pause Daryl decided to ask: “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if theings had ended up differently?”

“What do you mean?” she asked confused. “Are you asking if I’d be in Paris?”

“No I mean if… you had, or were pregnant.”

“Why Daryl, did you catch baby fever?” even in the dark he could hear her smile.

“I just wonder… what we’d be like now.”

“I think we’d be just them same,” she said rolling over to face him, “just a lot more tired.”

Daryl smiled back at her – “When this is over…” Daryl told her. He stopped his sentence short, he didn’t want to talk about that – so he changed the subject.

“Given any thought to what I found yesterday?”

Addie thought back to yesterday, she had been happily eating canned peaches when he handed her a bunch of military documents.

***

“Found them in that humvee, down the street.”

Addie flipped through them – a lot of blacked out information, mathematical formulas and many names. She only recognized one.

“Military?”

“Suppose so.” He said as he began to clean off his arrows.

“This guy seems familiar, Faust.”

“Give you any ideas?” he asked her.

“Not any complete ones.” She told him, eating another peach.

***

“Not really,” she said. “Seems like a lot of grey area.”

“Well whatever you want to do.” he told her.

Addie couldn’t help but wonder about Daryl’s curiosity of finding a cure. Sure it was possible – but not without a team of medical researchers, technicians, chemists. It all seemed impossible when you looked at it.

“They need us.” Addie told him, referring to the group.

“Yeah, who’d go huntin’ when they ran outa food?” Daryl asked her.

“Certainly not Glenn.” She laughed. “I don’t think we can run like this forever though. Time gets shorter every day.” She told him.

“It did that before too.” He reminded her.

“For now,” she said. “I’m happy here, in your arms.”

“You always are,” he told her, “you should think about your priorities, beauce if my arms are all that make you happy we could run into some serious problems.”

“Just don’t get your arms eaten off Daryl.” She laughed.

Daryl was quickly reminded of his own bite mark, and the night that Addie saved his life. He remembered that a week later he’d lost his temper. Telling her that she was wrong, that she made the wrong choice – Daryl didn’t think his life was worth hers. But then he remembered the glorious makeup sex they’d encountered later that day.

Addie’s eyes were open when she realized she was being poked by Daryl’s erection. This bed left little room for him to hide that. She gave into his libido slipping out of her clothes and waiting for him to get the picture. Daryl’s hands were roaming her body before she was even fully naked; Daryl always got the picture. Daryl had decided to tease her before giving her any real pleasure by flicking her nipples with his tongue, she had hoped that her moaning would move him along, but eventually she had to climb on top of him and free his erection herself. She chose to ride him slowly at first, because she knew he hated that. He always wanted her to go faster. He sat up curing his arms around her and tried to quicken the pace but she forced him back down giving him little leverage. She waited for the one thing she knew he’d do, and when he finally let that growl escape his lips she let go, he flipped her onto her back and almost onto the floor. The pace sped up before he back had even touched the blanket, Daryl was strong and his muscles were definitely at their best when they had sex.

She reached up to kiss him, she could tell he was nearly there, whispering “Daryl… Daryl… I… Love you.” While she dug her nails into his back, arching her own.

They collapsed against the tiny cot, breathing heavily, but completely content. She nuzzled herself close to him and fell asleep. Daryl delicately held her – her naked body was beautiful to look at, she was so happy with him, even amidst all this shit.

Maybe they'd be fine after all.