chapter twenty five: finally
3509 words

Daryl kissed like a dream. He took his time with it but Lin could feel the intention, the urgency in the way his tongue moved with hers, the way his fingers pressed into her skin like she'd vanish if he didn't hold on tight enough. Lin's lungs ached for air but she wasn't going to give up a moment of this, not one moment of Daryl touching her, holding her. She told herself that if died in this exact moment, she'd die a happy woman.

He was the one to pull away, a smile tracing those stupidly wonderful lips as she chased them with hers.

"Hey angel," she whispered between them. Daryl looked her in the eye, let his thumb move along the too dark bag under her eye to let her know that she had his full attention. She pretty much always did. "Anyone ever tell you you're a really good kisser?"

"Nah."

Lin brought her hand up to cover his. "Was that your first?" She was a little scared to ask it because no man kissed like that the first time. But she also knew a little bit about his life before all this, emphasis on little, and any kind of long term relationship was conveniently left out. He shook his head, momentarily refusing to use his voice to answer her. Lin got the message and it made her chest ache for the man sitting beside her. She squeezed his hand and nodded against it. She hooked her finger under his chin and brought his close again to kiss the frown off his lips. He responded in kind, taking more to the kissing than she thought he would. She wasn't complaining at all of course, it just surprised her. But then again, Daryl surprised her almost every day, usually in very good ways.

The kiss was just pushing onto something more when there was a knock on the back of the bus. The two jumped apart at the sudden interruption and when they heard the gentle but teasing laugh that followed, they came to realize that it was just Carol. Carol knew Daryl just about as good as Lin did. The two had been the facilitators of his transformation and in turn he opened up to them.

"Brought our archer some dinner," she rounded the bus to the edge they were sitting on. The emphasis she put on our had Daryl flushing despite himself. Carol leaned up on her tip toes to hand it to them and Lin took it for Daryl as he began to stand. Carol expected that the couple wanted to be left alone but Lin set the bowl to the side and helped Daryl get her up onto the top of the bus with the both of them.

"No reason to send you back when there's plenty of space here," Lin mused as Daryl began to inhale the meat Carol had brought. She looked between the two of them with a knowing smile as Lin settled back down onto the bus, noticeably a little further away from Daryl than she was before but still within reach.

"Don't let me ruin the moment," she added, not willingly to give up the opportunity to tease the couple. "Just thought I'd bring what little there was left because if you don't eat now you won't eat at all." Daryl grunted around the tip of his finger.

"Ain't no moment to ruin," Lin mocked her offense, leaned over and thumped him on the back of the head. "Guess little Shane over there has got quite the appetite." It was a little too cruel of a jab but it made Carol smile and then instantly shoot her gaze to Lin to see her reaction. Lin just rolled her eyes and turned them over to the fire, to her sister.

"Don't be mean," Carol chastised for Lin. "Rick's gotten us a lot farther than I ever thought he would, I'll give him that." Lin was thankful that Carol could see that. She was thankful that the doubts everyone had in the beginning faded. She trusted her brother-in-law like he was family, like he was her own brother. It was cheesy and too cliché for a world like this but family was all they really had left. Lin was glad she had Rick and Lori and Carl still. "Shane could never have done that."

He couldn't have. Fort Benning was a bust. Rick had sat down with her one night the week after, told her everything that happened. Lin had gathered a bit of information from his outburst but still wanted him to lay it all out for her. Shane had tried to kill him so Rick did what he had to do. The men in town told Rick that For Benning was overrun. It would have been a suicide mission anyway. Shane couldn't have done what Rick had done. Lin knew that for a fact.

Carol shifted her shoulder uncomfortably, something Daryl noticed instantly.

"What's wrong?" He asked her, making Lin turn to look too.

"It's the rifle. The kickback. I'm just not used to it." Lin understood perfectly. Dale's rifle didn't have that much kickback but as she used it more over the time in between, she'd gotten used to having to steel her shoulder against the opposing force. But it was a bitch to get used to at first.

"Kickback is a bitch," she hummed, leaning her cheek against her knee. Carol nodded in agreement, somewhat glad that someone else had the same pain. It didn't make her feel as left out. Daryl set his bowl down onto the bus side, standing and urging Carol to come with. He began to slowly massage at the muscle of her shoulder like he'd done with Lin. She hadn't asked him too either but he knew that cramps hurt like a mother and he didn't want that piled onto everything else she had to deal with. Lin smiled behind Daryl's back, the interaction between the two sweet and gentle. As if she didn't want to kiss him already.

"Better get back," he mumbled loud enough for both Carol and Lin to hear. Now that the massage was over, Carol turned to put both Lin and Daryl in her sights.

"It's pretty romantic. Want to screw around? The three of us could," Carol suggested it purely as a joke, knowing full and well why Lin went over to him in the first place as well as why Daryl blushed so hard when she teased him about it. Daryl was completely taken whether he knew it or not. Everyone else did, even if he didn't. He had something with Lin, something unspoken. Carol saw it, which was why she just couldn't resist teasing them for it. Daryl deserved to be happy.

"I'll definitely consider it Carol," she went along with it, sending a very teasing wink to Daryl when he turned to her to silently ask her what the hell she was saying. She just smiled over at him from where she sat, the expression kind and so pretty it nearly knocked him on his ass. Carol noticed because of course she did.

"I'll head back first and save you both a spot by the fire." She edged toward the side of the bus, sitting down to jump down. Lin moved quick to help her but Carol waved her off to give her more time with Daryl.

"Thank you, Carol. We'll be there soon." Lin took the bowl up and leaned back to hand it to Daryl so he could finish the meat.

"Why'd ya let her go alone?" He stayed standing by right next to her, so close she had to crane her neck back to see him.

"She wasn't gonna let me help her," Lin answered, letting her leg drop back down. She shivered as the breeze rolled past and Daryl set the bowl onto the bus. "Think she wanted to let us be alone for a little bit longer." She paused for a moment and then continued. "She actually didn't let me bring that food over at first,"

Daryl sat back down next to her and leaned her way to keep her warm. "Why?"

Lin turned and he was glad that he was sitting down. "Call it a woman's intuition but she knew that we were going to do other things besides eating." Daryl huffed but didn't move. She bumped her shoulder against his in the silence, savoring the warmth he gave off. "Kiss me again before we head back?"

She went off the hunch that this wasn't something he wanted to broadcast to the whole group yet, or really ever. If she could have Daryl like this, close and warm, she'd do only what he was comfortable with. She set her hand over his, let the heat of his touch consume hers.

"Ya know ya ain't gotta ask anymore, right?" He asked her. It made her chest just tighten with how easily the question slipped from his lips. She nodded once, just enough to get the point across. Daryl closed the space to kiss her again and it was every bit as wonderful as the first. Lin couldn't fathom how much she had wanted this and hadn't even really known. It had just been there one day, once when she realized that Daryl was there with her and he was something more than everyone else. It didn't have to be perfectly articulated or even really spoken in the first place. It was just there, formed out of concerned glances and less than hesitant hugs. Somewhere along the way her axis titled just enough to let him in and then, not long after, his had done the same.

Testing the waters, she pushed a little further into the kiss, leaned a little further into him. As she broke away from him, she bit at the seam of his lower lip, heart thudding a little louder in her ears as the corner of mouth lifted into the smile she was looking for from him.

"You want to head back now?" She nodded her head over to the empty forests beyond the fences. "I think we can relax for one night." Daryl nodded.

"Yeah." He shuffled closer to the edge. "I'll go down first." He didn't leave her room to argue or disagree because he was already down off the side of the bus, turning around to help her down too. His hands went to her hips, the first knuckle of his middle fingers slipping into her belt loops. He lowered her down carefully, slow enough that his forearms flexed the whole way down.

"What an angel," she mused, squeezing her hands around his wrists. Daryl shook his head, shrugged his shoulders in his poncho.

"Stop it," he told her without tangible anger. He took the bowl from on top of the bus in one hand and with the other, took three of her fingers around his. Not quite hand holding but not quite the opposite either. The two of them walked back to the fire and Beth began to sing softly. They hadn't heard her sing, not like this. Her voice drifted about the field, reaching Lin and Daryl where they were walking about halfway across the lawn. The softly sun lyrics of memories, of gentle goodbyes had Lin stopping in her steps. Her hand tugged against Daryl's, getting his attention. "Hey, ya okay?"

Lin was. She was better than okay, better than she'd been in months, or even since they'd left Atlanta, since she'd lost Dale and Jim and Jacqui and Amy. They had a home now, a safe place for them to keep each other alive, to help Lori have her baby. She had Daryl to watch her back and do a little bit more when they wanted to, which she hoped was often because he was a damn good kisser. She was more okay now than she had been in a long long time.

She brought Daryl's hand up to her mouth and kissed his thumb knuckle. "Yeah Daryl, I'm okay."

Maggie began to sing with her sister when Daryl and Lin finally reached the circle. Lin squeezed Daryl's hand before letting go, sitting at her sister's side as Rick joined them as well. The song was sweet, melancholy and promising. This was the beginning of something for all of them, Lin could feel it. She felt it in the way that Daryl kissed her, the way that Lori leaned against her as if she had no worries, no stresses about her. Something good had to come from this. It had to.

Daryl stayed standing up on the opposite side of the group, Carol beside him.

"Beautiful," Hershel complimented his daughters as the song came to a close. Lin brought her head down to Lori's shoulder to rest it there for a moment, making it so she didn't see how Daryl cast his eyes her way.

"Better all turn in," Rick suggested to everyone. "I'll take watch over there. Got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked. They hadn't discussed any further plans after that night, except for T-Dog's of gathering all the bodies up. Rick tipped his head down to the grass below him, at his son to his left.

"Look, I know we're all exhausted. This was a great win. But we've got to push just a little bit more. Most of the walkers are dressed as guards and prisoners. Looks like this place fell pretty early." Lin didn't want to imagine how. "It could mean the supplies may be intact. They'd have an infirmary, a commissary."

Lori sat up off of Lin, making her perk up to ask what was wrong. Lori set a hand on her stomach, right along to top; she reached for Lin's hand too. She expected Lori to have her feel the baby kicking but when her hand touched down on skin, she couldn't feel anything there. It made her worry, instantly.

"An armory?" Daryl questioned. Rick knew the prison system better than anyone here.

"That would be outside the prison itself, but not too far away. Warden's offices would have info on the location. Weapons, food, medicine," Rick continued. The hope in his voice, in his pleading actions was enough to rile everybody for the cause. "This place could be a gold mine."

"We're dangerously low on ammo," Hershel reminded the sheriff. "We'd run out before we make a dent." It was a reminder what had happened last time they'd tried to shoot their way through somewhere. They'd lost, fatally.

"That's why we have to go in there hand to hand." The idea was startling, a bit scary on its own. Going on hand to hand combat against the horde inside the prison wasn't an ideal situation at all. It was dangerous, downright crazy. "After all we've been through, we can handle it, I know it." He looked over to Lin and Lori together then to Carl, his family. "These assholes don't stand a chance."

He was right, as he usually was. Lori stood to follow Rick, to voice what she thought to her husband. Lin didn't want her to get up, didn't want her to leave but she did anyway. And the moment she got over to Rick, they were bound to argue. It made Lin shut her eyes and sigh. Carl reached over from where he was sitting and set his hand over Lin's. Carl didn't deserve to see his parents fight. He didn't deserve any of this really. She tugged on Carl's hand to get him to scoot over to her.

"Come here little man." Carl acquiesced, taking the space his mother left and laying his head in Lin's lap. He'd drifted closer to his aunt over the months as he pushed his mother away. Lin knew it wasn't right and it made her feel like she was taking a side that she didn't mean to. Lori made mistakes, they all did at some point, but Lori was still family, still her sister and she couldn't hate her even if she tried.

Daryl looked over from where he stood. Everyone had settled in to sleep, spread out on blankets with the packs they carried around for pillows. Lori began to head back to the group, the look on her face and the tears in her eyes betraying the way their conversation went. Their marriage was on the rocks as it was and every day it grew closer to shattering completely. With one hand Lin helped Lori lower herself back down onto the ground. "Here, take him," Lin whispered. Lori laid on her side, her arm beneath her head to cradle it. Lin helped move the sleeping teen to lay beside his mom. When he was settled too and they were both sure that he was going to wake up, Lin began to stand up on her own. Daryl was at the other side of the fire, now sitting with his poncho in his arms.

"Where are you going?" Lori's head rose up, the question just loud enough to wake Maggie up in Glenn's embrace. She didn't move though as to not wake him up too.

"I'm going to go talk to Rick. Don't worry about saving me a spot; I'll be fine." She meant it to sound nonchalant but Lori could no doubt pick up the clues within the past hour. Lin was going to go sleep by Daryl, it wasn't that hard to guess. She took Lori's hand and squeezed it before leaving her side to fine Rick.

She stooped down by Daryl first and kissed above his temple. "Wait for me?" He nodded, his hand coming up and catching at her wrist when she straightened. It never failed to make her giddy, to make her some kind of happy she wasn't before.

Rick had taken to the bus for the night watch. It was a good perch to see out and much to her luck, he hadn't climbed up yet. She really didn't want to get back up there for a second time that night.

"Hey."

The sheriff looked over his shoulder, his other pressed to the dirty glass of the bus. "Hey," he shot right back. His lack of any conversation conveyed to her what she wanted to know. He was tired. She reached out and set her hand on his shoulder.

"You've done good Rick. We can all see that. She's scared just like we all are." She pulled her hand back to cross her arms over her chest. Rick nodded but didn't say anything else. There was still hurt there, still a stinging wound left behind from the death of his best friend and the crumbling of his marriage. That was something that no one could fix in just a conversation.

"Get some sleep Lin. We'll be up early in the morning." His reply was short, a little curt. Lin just nodded and while she wanted to somewhat blow up in his face for being so damn stubborn, she kept her temper about her. It wasn't going to do any good.

"Count me in on the plan then. Whatever it is I want in." They had so much more to clear out and they needed as much help as they could get. Rick eyed her again, ready to turn her offer down, but then accepted with one nod. "Get some sleep, Rick. Don't stay out here all night."

Judging by his lack of response more than a gesture, he wasn't going to listen to her. If it he didn't then that was on him. Lin trusted Rick, she really did, but he had to get his head out of his ass at some point.

Daryl brought Lin in close when she returned. Everyone was asleep already as he drew her into his chest, moving his poncho to drape it over her instead. He dropped his crossbow down next to her bow and laid on his back, his hand wrapped around her bicep to get her next to him. It made her smile. She had to wonder if she'd ever stop smiling around the archer if he kept doing things like that. She supposed she had to get used to it now, if this was going to continue. Daryl poked a finger against her cheek, dragging it down to her lips. And Lin hoped, really hoped that it would continue.

Maggie watched the scene as it unfolded, keeping her eyes as closed as she could get them while still being able to see. It was cute, the way the two drifted together the way that they did. Lin was good for Daryl and him to her. She shut her eyes and curled closer into Glenn, exhaling when his arm tightened around her. Tomorrow would bring more work, the sweat and grime that came with living in this new awful world. But tonight was all theirs. They had earned it.

an: yall life has been kinda crazy this past week. I sort of got into the college of my dreams?? and i cried when my parents had me watch rudy because wow i understand??? its crunch time for the last half of my semester at my community college too which is going to be So mUCh fuN. i hope you enjoy this part, watch the new episode tonight!! and ill see you in the next part!! :))