Unattainable (A Daryl Dixon love story)

8

She smiled, once again, finding his rage funny. 

She kept eye contact with him as she plopped down on the ground. “I’ll sit here all day if I have to, and you know if you leave without me Rick will chew your ass out.” He still stood over her, he still looked at her, then he finally gave in.

“Fine.”

Pepper happily jogged over to the driver’s seat and got in. “Oh hell no! You are not driving!” Daryl followed over to driver’s side and yelled at her through the window. “Look, I’ve already won one argument, I’ll win this one too” she laughed.

“The hell you are!” Daryl opened the door, picked her up, walked her to the passenger side and sat her down. She was still in shock when Daryl got in the driver’s seat and started the car.

“Now what’s wrong?” he sighed, driving out of the gates. She coldly replied nothing and they sat on silence. When they got out they both drew their weapons. He had his bow, and she had the silent gun and her dad’s special knife.

They’d each killed two squirrels in silence before Daryl started to speak “I’m sorry about last night.” He said it coldly, which Pepper noticed. “It’s fine, I know the only reason you asked was because you care for your group.” Daryl stopped and turned to her “Don’t let your head swell too much Sergeant Priss” then turned back around.

She smiled, saying “I knew you were a nice guy, deep down in there, like a pitbull puppy.” “What the hell? Don’t ever say that again” he said this smiling, making sure she couldn’t see though.

“So Sergeant Priss, do you want to make this fun?” Daryl said, breaking another fit of silence.

“My name is Pepper, and sure” she said annoyed. Daryl crinkled his nose asking what kind of name was that for a girl. “My dad wanted a boy, you know, like Sergeant Pepper” was her answer, which made him almost lose it, but instead let out a little chuckle. “Let’s have a little competition. Whoever gets the most animals wins” he told her.

The thought of playing a game with a guy she hated made her laugh, but she agreed “What does the winner get?” Daryl was obviously amused, he never thought she’d actually agree to it, or even talk to him after last night “How about the loser has to do the winner’s duties for two days?” without even thinking she blurted “Sure… but we need a point system. It wouldn’t be fair if I caught one deer and you got like seven squirrels and declared yourself winner.” He smiled now “That’s true, let’s say a buck is 20 points, a doe is 15, a hog is 15, and squirrels are 3.” She nodded.

They met back up by the truck after two and a half hours. Pepper felt pretty confident, having caught a hog and four squirrels. She heard rustling in the tall bushes in front of her. She brought up her gun in case it was a walker, but it was just Daryl. “Why don’t you put that thing down before you hurt yourself” he called to her. He had a doe slung over his shoulder and about a dozen squirrels in a bag. He was sweaty, but in the good way, and his arm muscles were bulging.

Pepper noticed her mouth was open as she watched him walk over and quickly closed it.

“So we I’m guessing we don’t even need to count” he said with a very slight smile, slinging the animal carcasses in with hers. She rolled her eyes and got onto the passenger’s seat. The ride back was silent.

When they got back to the prison, everyone was so excited about their haul. “This is more than we’ve seen in awhile, see Daryl, I told you there was nothing to worry about” Rick said as they unloaded the animals.

Most of the animals were being stored away for the next few days, but there was still a lot for them to eat that night. All of the women helped cook this time because there was nothing left to do, Pepper declined the offer because she didn’t know how, but Lori insisted they’d teach her.

They prepared the meat and potatoes outside while the men and children waited and watched.

Daryl sat at bench with Glenn and Garrett. Their conversation fell silent and Daryl found himself looking over to the women, more specifically Pepper. He watched her smile, he watched her eyes light up in enchantment when she saw the other women magically turned the scraps into a meal, he watched her do some weird dance for the other women, he watched until he was caught.