Chapter three.
Three weeks had passed since their home had been violated, but the police still didn’t know who it had been. The prints had come up negative in all databases, and the lab had so far been unable to determine what fiber it was that they had found on Daryl’s nightstand. The team observing their house had been withdrawn after a few days when it had become apparent that whoever had broken into their home was not going to come again anytime soon. All four of them were hyper-aware of everything happening around them, high-strung and nervous around the clock.
Daryl was on his way home on the bus. As he was the first one to come off work today, with the council meeting closing early and all his paperwork for the day completed, he had sent a message to Helen, Carol’s mother, and contacted Carol herself through their link, to let them both know that he would pass by Sophia’s school to pick her up. Merle, he knew, was doing a double shift and wouldn’t have had time to get her anyway.
It was a cold day in early November, and all his usual precautions hadn’t sufficed to keep him warm on his way to the bus. By the time he had boarded it after waiting in the ice cold wind for five minutes, the ache in his bad leg had had him shaking. Unable to bend his knee, he had dragged his left leg up the two steps into the bus like so much dead weight, and a young girl had noticed him and offered him her seat, facing the aisle.
He had accepted gratefully, and just as he had been sitting down, his left leg stretched out stiffly in front of him, he had noticed a nondescript man with light skin and brown hair jumping into the bus through the front door at the very last moment before the doors had closed with a hydraulic wheeze. Making a show of leaning forward to rub his braced knee, he had surreptitiously watched as the man held his cash badge against the payment terminal for his fare - and spotted him glancing straight back at him and averting his ice-blue eyes immediately when he noticed that Daryl was watching him.
Daryl’s throat constricted.
He was being followed.
Why had he not paid closer attention to his surroundings on his way to the bus stop? Seriously annoyed with himself for not noticing his tail sooner, he leaned back in his seat, dropping his head against the window. He closed his eyes, appearing to rest or even take a nap, but was careful to keep a tiny crack open so he could continue to watch his stalker. He memorized every little detail about him and watched out for some sort of signal which would tell him that someone else had taken over from him - for of course the guy would not follow him from the bus, now that he knew his cover was blown.
Two stations after Daryl had boarded the bus, a middle-aged woman hopped in, also at the front, and seemed to be accidentally pushed into the man by the people following her. The man turned and inclined his head for a moment and Daryl was certain that he saw his lips moving. The woman in turn hid an answering nod almost perfectly - Daryl was certain he would have missed it, had he not been trained to notice such details for his work as both a TE agent and guide.
The man left the bus at the next stop, while the woman got out at the same station as Daryl, half a block from Sophia’s school. Daryl took great care to walk slowly, and the cold actually helped him for once. Rubbing his hands, he stepped into a coffee shop to get something hot to drink for Sophia and himself. As he opened the door, he quickly glanced back toward the bus station and spotted the woman not five yards behind him. At the pace he had been going, she should have passed him long ago. She had clearly held back, walking much more slowly than she normally would have.
He had thus identified his new tail, and was careful to memorize everything about her, just like he had about the man on the bus - stature, hair and eye color, complexion, build, hands … little details that he would give not just to the police but also to the TE sketch artist, a highly talented former arts teacher who did amazing portraits and had done them for TE when all operatives had had to be warned of specific individuals and a description had not been sufficient.
Keeping his eyes on the door even as he paid for the fake hot chocolate for Sophia and the synthcaf for himself, he watched the woman amble past, then stop just as she was about to pass the storefront, seemingly perusing the items on exhibit in the display of the store next door. He was hard put not to shake his head. Who taught these people? To him, she couldn’t have been more obvious if she had carried a sign reading „I am following Daryl Dixon“.
Daryl put sweetener and powdered cream into his caf, carefully put lids on both cups, picked up two straws and two cardboard jackets for holding the hot beverages, and nodded his thanks at the barista before heading for the door again. The woman jerked her eyes away from him as he allowed the door to close behind him and started walking toward her, intently staring into the display of what turned out to be a DIY building supplies place.
He was prepared for any number of things as he passed her - a hand reaching out to grab his hot drinks and pour them over him to hurt and stop him, a hand coming up with a weapon, a foot pushing out to make him fall. Personally, with his greatest physical weakness openly on display because of the cold, he would have gone for the foot if things had been the other way around, attempting to bring his target down so he could overwhelm them more easily.
In the end, she didn’t do anything. He could feel her eyes on him as she followed his reflection passing hers, and he heard the soles of her shoes on the pavement as she turned on the balls of her feet to openly stare after him once he was half a dozen steps ahead of her again. But she didn’t address, approach or attack him - yet.
.-.
When he stepped onto the street again half an hour later with Sophia in tow, the dark-haired, dark-skinned woman was nowhere to be seen. Daryl was certain that she knew his purpose here. From going through their house, these people knew that a young girl was living with them, and young girls attended school. They had been taking turns dropping Sophia off at her school and picking her up again after her classes, so the people observing them had to know where to find her in the morning and early afternoon.
It couldn’t be helped, though. They had no wish to disrupt Sophia’s life too much for now by taking her out of school and getting private tuition for her, so this was a risk they had to take. However, this had been the first instance in which he had found himself being followed to her school more or less openly, to the point of feeling physically threatened and anticipating a physical attack. He needed to warn people that this shit was getting serious.
.-.
That night, after Sophia had gone to bed, he initiated a meld between himself, Carol, Hershel, Tyreese, and Glenn. Glenn had insisted on being part of this as soon as Hershel had mentioned over lunch that Carol and Daryl were being targeted by an unknown group over their TE activities of the previous year, and Daryl was deeply touched by this.
Once they could feel the minds of all the people gathering to help them, he cleared his throat, looking up at Carol who was curled up on the sofa opposite the comfortable chair he himself was sitting in, huddled in a warm blanket. She gave him an encouraging smile and nodded at him, boosting his confidence.
„So,“ he began hesitantly, picking at the skin of his left thumb, „all of you were involved in some way in that big mission last year that helped bring the Feina down and drive them off. You all helped save our lives back then, so I know we can trust you with this.“ He felt concern radiating off his mentor, his friend, and Hershel’s confidant and pushed on, unwilling to leave them worrying over his vague hints.
„Although nothing points at that right now, I feel that the situation we’re finding ourselves in, Carol and myself, is somehow connected to what went down last year, and Merle agrees with us. He hasn’t been able to convince his superiors yet but I feel they will come around once shit starts hitting the fan.“ He felt Carol wincing at his choice of words and silently apologized to her.
He went on to outline the events of the past week, the break-in into their home, the unlisted finger prints, the mysterious unidentified fiber, his stolen medical records, his medication being moved and maybe tampered with. He sensed Hershel’s concern for him skyrocketing when he mentioned these last two bits and choked up for just a moment, but caught himself. This session was not about him.
„Today, I was followed when I went to pick up Sophia at her school“, he continued, and described both the man and the woman who had tailed him first to and on the bus and then to the school. Hershel immediately offered the services of the sketch artist, which he gladly accepted. Taking a deep breath, he took the plunge then.
„I am asking for your help tonight“, he all but whispered, and both Carol and Hershel knew how hard this was for him. He had always, even at the worst moments in his life, relied on his own strength and cunning to get shit done - unless he had been out for the count. And even when Carol had been dragging him out of the Feina headquarters right before the charges he’d planted had gone off, he had been on the verge of sending her out alone, without him, to save herself and leave him behind.Â
Carol silently rose from her couch, walked around the table between them and curled up next to his seat, leaning against his good leg and cradling his hand between both of hers. She could feel and sense him relax, his anxiety bleeding out of him.
„Now that we are absolutely positive that we’re being targeted directly and openly, this is getting too much for the four of us to handle, especially since we’re all working regular jobs“, he went on. „So I’m calling on you to team up with us. If you agree to this, I will give all of you Sophia’s schedule as well as our rotation for dropping her off and picking her up. While I don’t feel that this situation will continue much longer, we’ll fix this for four weeks in advance each month, and we’d ask you to work your own schedule out between the three of you.“Â
He waited for a moment to give them all time to protest this idea, but nobody spoke up. Instead, he felt both Hershel and Glenn, both of whom he had met in person, reach out to him across the distance physically separating them. He could feel tears welling in his eyes and closed them at once, fiercely willing himself not to give in to the emotions threatening to overwhelm him. First, he needed to finish this.
„You will receive an encrypted e-mail from my private account with our Sophia schedule“, he went on, and even his mental voice was rough with emotion. „I will meet you in person, separately, to hand over the decryption key. If you don’t object, I will give your addresses and phone numbers to Merle so he will know how to reach you in case Carol and myself aren’t around. We will prepare to be shadowed by you during our routine so we won’t give it away - but we’d appreciate a heads up.“
Taking a deep breath, Daryl risked opening his eyes again. Carol was still hugging his good leg, leaning into it, and her face was hidden against his calf. He tried to control his rapid breathing and heartbeat. Although he should have known that they would have their friends’ support, he had never expected this to go down without a single question being asked. He was asking for help - and their friends were giving it to them, without question, unconditionally, trusting them implicitly.
Trusting him.
This was an overwhelming feeling, one that he hadn’t experienced like this ever before. Tyreese, Hershel’s friend, was more or less a perfect stranger to them, yet he was willing to pitch in solely based on Hershel’s trust in them. He forced himself to breathe.
„I … I really don’t know how to thank you for this“, he whispered in closing. „We know what we’re asking of you. We know this might turn very nasty pretty quickly as we have no idea yet who we’re dealing with, and there are no words -„ His voice broke and he had to give himself a moment. „There are no words that would express how grateful we are for this. Sophia … Sophia is a child, and she has been through some shit in her life. She doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this, and we will always be in your debt for helping us out here. If any of you ever need anything that we can help with -„ Again, words deserted him.
It was Glenn who helped him out. Daryl imagined him sitting next to Maggie, his wife, hugely pregnant with their first child, and was torn between gratitude and terror. Glenn, too, had had a close call the year before, only getting out of the building moments before it had exploded. What the hell was he doing here, dragging others into this?
“Hey, Daryl“, Glenn’s mental voice spoke up. „I’d really appreciate if you stopped beating yourself up for once here. You didn’t ask for this. You didn’t ask for strangers to break into your home, go through your things and steal your stuff. You didn’t ask to be followed to work and to Sophia’s school. You’re the victims here, you’re our friends, and of course we’ll help you.“
Daryl felt Carol taking a deep breath, her shoulder against his leg rising and falling with it. She lifted her head off his leg, caressing his knee. He wondered briefly if she might mistake his right leg for his left because she was being so very tender. „Glenn, if you should have second thoughts about this … We know that Maggie is almost due, and we’ll understand -„
„We’re not going there“, Glenn interrupted her, his voice gentle. „I know how I would feel if some asshole were gunning for our child. We’re with you in this, and we’ll bring them down.“
Daryl leaned forward, resting his cheek on the crown of Carol’s head as their friends all reached out to them, one after the other, giving each of them a reassuring touch before dropping out of their meld one by one.
He didn’t deserve this.
