pigsfeet: 1/2. bracelet. (so i was like)
father daryl. ([personal profile] pigsfeet) wrote2016-11-06 11:53 am
smad: (09)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
For Maggie, it's an instant. Her heart's in her throat, she's slipping, and then she's on the roof, clutching Daryl to keep from landing hard, gasping like he just saved her from drowning.

And then he lets her go, and she slumps against the ledge. Everything stops for a minute or two, and all she does is breathe. When she can hear anything besides the air cutting ragged down her windpipe, the inhuman wailing of the boar comes through, and she forces herself to her feet. "We get it?"
smad: (06)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Good." She takes the bandages and the water from him, so she can clean the rust from her hand. The cut's nastier than she'd expected, and now that she can think again, it's starting to throb. "Bacon for dinner."

The last time she felt this wrung out, they'd just fended off an attack - but Maggie supposes she just did, too. The smile she gives Daryl is weary, but it's genuine.

"The piglets," she says, after a moment, wrapping the bandage around her hand. There's more to plan if they try that. "We gonna take them back with us?"
smad: (14)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Could try keeping 'em." They probably can't, she knows. They'd need more than a sty for a creature that fast and mean, let alone several. But Daryl knows hunting, and she knows farming; between the two of them, she has to believe they could keep a litter of hogs under control. If not this time, sometime. "Not long, just until they're a little bigger."

They'd still have to die eventually, of course, but they wouldn't bother Carol half so much when they did.
smad: (05)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
Maggie's already thinking it though as she rips off the end of the gauze and tucks it in against her palm. They'll drive them toward Alexandria, pen them up as best they can, and find a way to keep them for the long haul. It'll be worth it to try.

"Now that we got that boar?" she asks, with some warmth. After she takes a swig of the water, she puts it and the bandages away. "I'm great. All we gotta do is get all the hogs home, and we're in the clear."
smad: (12)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
She takes it - with her good hand this time - and pulls herself up. For a moment, they're standing in each other's space again, sweaty and tired and close enough to breathe the same air.

"Yeah," she agrees, and goes to get her bow. "Got a lotta work ahead of us."

They don't stop moving until dark, and during the summer, that's one hell of a day. But by the end of things, the sow and her ill-fated children are all back at Alexandria. The mother's butchered, the entirety of Alexandria buzzing with excitement over the thought of meat tomorrow, and Maggie's put in a word with the right people to figure out a long-term solution for the piglets.

She's swallowing a yawn as they walk back to the house together. "Gimme a couple days before we go for another boar. I haven't run like that in - I don't know how long."
smad: (11)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
She needs to go upstairs, say goodnight to Hershel and try to clean herself up before she collapses into bed. The kind of work they do doesn't actually ends, just pauses long enough for a little sleep before it starts all over again. But for the first time in a while, Maggie wants a few minutes in between.

So she sits at the edge of his bed, petting a very satisfied Dog, who's breaking every rule of life with Daryl and experiencing no comeuppance whatsoever. And eventually, after she's scritched the dog's ears enough, her hand falls somewhere in the vicinity of Daryl's, resting lightly next to it.

"Ended up being close to a hundred-fifty pounds," she tells him. "It won't last us forever, but we'll get by until something else sticks out."
smad: (02)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
"After all that running?" She snorts. "I'd've told them to skin you along with the boar."

It's still hard to believe they survived, frankly, and that they're here now. That Daryl's an old hand at nearly getting killed by feral hogs, for that matter. And yet they'd managed to get away without much more than a scratch between them.

Which reminds her - "You hear about another one, bring me with. I don't like the idea of you doing the whole thing on your own."
smad: (14)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Hunting boar on your own? At eight?" Catching his food on his own? Of course he was. For reasons that were probably both terrible and unavoidable, she'd bet. Maggie's reminiscences around him tend to stick to the recent past, their shared past; she'd rather not leave him under the impression she might be expecting him to talk about a time he wants to keep to himself.

Her hand finds his, squeezing. "You're a good hunter, Daryl. Best I've ever met. If something kills you out there, it won't be on account of anything but bad luck."

So don't get yourself killed over nothing.
smad: (14)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course they did. Maggie doesn't trust her tongue to answer with something that isn't dripping with venom, so she doesn't try. It radiates off her, though - anger on his behalf, this little boy thrown to worse than wolves, decades too late. It's a good thing everyone involved is probably dead.

Better they just talk about today's hunt.

"I get half credit," she says, trying to tame that out-of-place fury into teasing. His hand's hard in hers, rough with calluses, but gentle for all that. That's Daryl, the softness in him preserved in small, strange places. "But you did a hell of a job out there, you know."
smad: (11)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 12:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't fire a single shot," she points out, not to argue but to give credit where it's due. Daryl actually killed the thing, and he had the strength to bring his kill back without help. "But I'll come out with you when I have the time. Probably safer that way."

Not that he'll need her for deer or checking the trapline, but if there's another boar? She likes their chances better when it's both of them after it.

He's looking at her, his face tired and lined - but happy, all the same, happier than she remembers seeing him in a while - and for a moment, all she wants to do is lie down there beside him and Dog, and fall asleep with an arm around his chest. It's sudden, and it's bewildering in its intensity, and if she's going to look over that feeling and make some sense of it, she's going to have to do it someplace private.

She swallows.

"I better make sure Hershel didn't trash the place while we were gone," she tells him, and on instinct, she leans down to brush a kiss over Daryl's forehead. It's good night and good work and Jesus, I need to get back to my side of the house all in one. "Get some sleep."
smad: (03)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Our kill," she corrects him, and her hand lingers at his shoulder for a moment. And then she goes to bed.

Hershel's already heard the news, and he's ecstatic. From the sound of it, he and Judith and RJ have been imagining how it went down all day, and maybe got into an argument over who actually killed the thing, the battle lines drawn unsurprisingly. "Tell Jude I said we both did," Maggie says, right before she kisses him good night, and Hershel's disappointment is palpable. Team Mom was clearly supposed to win.

She's up a long time, lying sleepless in her bed and listening to the house settle around her. Eventually, sleep overtakes her restless thoughts, and she's so tired she sleeps until late morning. Everyone brushes off her apologies, she throws herself back into rebuilding, and the world goes on. Her thoughts keep circling, but at least her hands are busy while they do.

After dinner, a few nights later - Judith and RJ having come over for the promise of Uncle Daryl's company and Aunt Maggie's cooking - Maggie makes a deal with the kids: they don't have to wash the dishes if they spend the dish-washing time reading something. It's pure bribery on her part, and it works, the three of them thundering up to Hershel's room, where she's not convinced they'll actually pull any books off the shelf, but at least they're guaranteed to stay away from anyplace a chore's happening.

"You wanna give me a hand?" she asks Daryl, as she gathers up the plates. "I wanted to talk to you about something."
Edited (finish your sentences, dove) 2022-11-17 17:59 (UTC)
smad: (10)

[personal profile] smad 2022-11-17 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Daryl comes and goes like a feral cat, and Maggie doesn't mind it, for the most part. It doesn't change much besides how many plates she sets out at dinner - and it likely makes his life a little easier, having some time away from the house. Hershel's not always noisy, but Maggie's still not convinced they won't eventually wear out their welcome. She keeps her attention on it, keeping an eye out for the point where Daryl's quiet turns bitter or frustrated, but it doesn't come.

Maybe she shouldn't be surprised. He's been good with kids from the first time he picked Judith up as a baby. But she is, all the same, if only because he's always been solitary by nature, too.

"Just to talk." She's used to We need to talk meaning Something's wrong. That it doesn't, for Daryl, is strangely charming.

It doesn't, however, make starting this conversation any easier. She takes a breath, trying to remember what she'd rehearsed in her head earlier in the day, about the time they've spent together lately and how it's changed things - but she can't. Shaking her head, she tells him, "I'm not gonna beat around the bush here, Daryl. I think that'd be an insult to both of us. The long and short of it is, I'm attracted to you. And I think you might feel the same way."

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-17 19:54 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-17 23:49 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 00:49 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 01:27 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 01:57 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 14:40 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 21:02 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-18 22:05 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-19 01:36 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-19 02:02 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-19 03:09 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] smad - 2022-11-19 03:26 (UTC) - Expand