ONLY TIME WILL TELL

V: Just leave

He stands there, staring at her, trying to figure out what she just asked. Stay with her? What is her game? Nobody had seemed to want anything to do with him since they arrived in Alexandria. The Alexandrians seemed afraid of him, all but Aaron and Eric, and his group knew him too well to think he would ever lead anybody on like that. He struggled to think of how to respond.

“Uh...what?” he asks, to be sure he heard her right.

Thinking frantically, Jolene thinks of an excuse to get him inside: “Well, I’m new here and this will be the first time I’m somewhere where I won’t be attacked in the middle of the night, potentially, but I would feel better if you might stay. You could sleep on the couch...it would just make me feel a whole lot better if you were here…lamp, remember?” she says pointing to herself.

Again he is dumbstruck. She’s asking me to stay on the couch? He starts biting his inner lip as he considers her request. She seemed to be getting impatient and starts pleading.

“Please...I just...I feel safer with you...please Daryl.” She says.

Starting to feel guilty and a little aroused from how she said his name he finally gives in and nods with a grunt of acknowledgement. “Just for tonight.” he says “I ain’t no fuckin’ guard dog.”

“Thank you.” she responds as she opens the door and goes inside.

He follows behind her closing the door to the house behind him. He takes the crossbow off his back and leans it against the wall next to the front door, just in case, as Jolene heads up the stairs. Daryl goes to the couch and lays down, draping his arm across his eyes. Before he knows it he falls asleep. 

Daryl’s hands explore every part of her. He moves down to her neck, then to her back, that ass he had admired so much fills his hands and he can’t help but grab and lift her with that ass. As he does she moans deeply and he can’t take it anymore. Still kissing her he lifts her up so she can wrap her legs around him, which she does so obligingly, and carries her to the nearest wall, across the staircase. He slams her into the wall, pinning her with his body. She grunts from the contact, but doesn’t break their kiss. He continues to explore, reaching up and grabbing both breasts and then down under her jeans. It was easy to slip in through the loose denim and he starts exploring her mound with his fingers. She breaks the kiss and arches her back in response to his touch. He watches her reaction, reveling in the fact that he is making her feel this way. He thought she might not like his rough hands, but she quickly starts convulsing in what he thinks may be an orgasm.

“Oh Daryl” she whispers in his ear. f**k, he felt like he was going to c*m right there. She starts kissing him again, forcing his mouth open so she could taste him. As she kisses him she starts undoing the buckle of his pants and he gets stiff in response. She releases his p***s, grabs it and strokes him. He moans into her mouth, about to burst. He starts pulling off her clothes like he never wanted to see her dressed again. As he pulls off her shirt she lets go of him and he kisses down to suck on her left n****e. Her body responds and she moans loudly, egging him on. He continues to suck on the soft pink bud, trying to get her to peak again.

Then he starts undoing the button and zipper of her pants. She drops her legs and kicks off her boots as he slides the material down. As he does he releases her breast and starts kissing relentlessly, all the way down her body. He stops at her womanhood and lifts one of her legs over his shoulder to get at her lower lips. She is already soaking wet. She groans and grabs a fistful of his hair as he applies pressure to her c**t with his tongue. He licks over her opening, tasting her. Then he inserts two of his fingers and continues licking her c**t with his tongue until she cannot contain herself and cums again, her juices soaking his fingers. 

Then he is back on the lips of her face kissing her hungrily. He lifts her legs again and she wraps around him, sliding her wetness against his hard d**k. He moans into her mouth and starts kissing down her neck and back up. As he does she grabs his now throbbing c**k and slips him inside of her. He gasps and grunts his approval. She moans loudly and contentedly as he fills her up with his d**k.

He starts thrusting in and out, “Oh Daryl…” she moans quietly. He continues to f**k her against the wall; each thrust feels better than the last. Daryl is lost in this woman’s p***y. She is so wet and tight. As they f**k she squeezes his d**k with her p***y pushing him to his climax. As he reaches his peak he notices that she is beating him to it. She starts convulsing and as she cums her p***y starts tightening harder around his d**k pushing him over the edge. He quickly pulls out and cums on the wall beneath her, groaning in exhaustion.

Daryl wakes up suddenly. What the f**k? He thinks to himself. He hadn’t had a wet dream like that in a long time. It felt so vivid. What is she doing to me? He thinks. He starts wondering what to do. He can’t stay there. She is too close, there is too much temptation. So he decides to sneak out and head back to his house a couple houses down. He gets up quietly and heads out the front door with his crossbow. 

Jolene lays in her new bed, in her new bedroom staring up at the ceiling. This bed is too soft, she thinks. She sits up grabbing a pillow and the comforter. She lays the comforter and pillow down on the side of the bed. Grabbing the sheet she lays down on the comforter. Much better, she thinks. She closes her eyes and tries to drift off to sleep, but something keeps nagging at her mind. Daryl. Shut up. You cannot have him...this is not the right time...you didn’t even make a move...He doesn’t give a s**t about you and doesn’t need a simpering woman to take care of...Fuck, leave it alone! She thinks as she smothers her face in the pillow. Sometimes you just have to squash the old feelings and move on. She has to be tougher than this crap. She thinks of her plan tomorrow to leave the group without having to deal with any objections. Maybe you could just explain yourself…No! Don’t give them a chance to object, just leave. Don’t say goodbye, don’t make a scene. Just f*****g leave. God, go to sleep! She thinks. Finally she gets her mind to clear and passes out.

Jolene wakes up at what she considers rather early; still dark outside, probably around 3 or 4 in the morning. The first thing she does is pull her hair into a french braid to be sure that it is out of her face for a while. She finds her dirty clothes on the floor of the bathroom and considers her options. She decides to borrow underwear, socks and a plain shirt from the dresser, but she has her own bra and will wear her shorts. It was way too hot for pants, plus shorts were better for running. She gets dressed quickly and eyes up the bathroom longingly. If she wasn’t in such a hurry she would take another shower, but she couldn’t think about that now. This was a good stop, but she has to keep going. She does use the bathroom facilities one last time, enjoying the fact that she doesn’t have to squat in the woods, even if it’s just once. She thinks to grab some of the toilet paper left in there and looks for anything else useful. She finds a bottle of aspirin and some deodorant. She takes the time to put some on then and there, making her feel better about skipping the shower. 

After making sure she has everything she runs downstairs to get her boots and her things. s**t! She thinks. She invited Daryl to stay over last night. Hoping that, by some miracle, he declined her invitation she tiptoes into the living room. Not there. Thank God! she thinks. She finds her boots where she kicked them off last night and slips them on. She bends down to lace them up quick so she can leave. She finds her bag next to the door and puts in the contraband from the bathroom. Then she goes back to the kitchen to grab food to go. She packs a couple of cans, the whole box of protein bars and some crackers in her bag. She goes to the refrigerator and puts two water bottles in her bag and one that she will have for breakfast. She has to get back on her ration system so she doesn’t run out of food again. 

Feeling content that she has everything she may need she puts on her oversized jacket and hood and heads outside into the crisp morning air. It seems that everybody is still sleeping in Alexandria, but not taking any chances she closes the door as quietly as possible and tries to walk stealthily through the town. About halfway to the gate she hears him, “Goin’ somewhere?” he asks. 

She doesn’t even need to turn in his direction to know who it is at this point, but she does. Sitting on the side porch of the house she just passed, cigarette in hand, Daryl is burning a hole through her with his eyes. “No...I’m uh…” She struggles frantically to think of a response “well I just...wanted to...just...uh...look around.”

“Cut the s**t. Where’re you goin’ Jo?” asks Daryl.

She sighs. “I’m leavin’” she responds, dropping all pretenses. “I didn’t intend on bumping into anybody this early. I’m sorry, but I’m going.” She says as she turns again to leave. 

“Well you should know…” she stops. “The night guard isn’t going to just let you out the front gate.” Says Daryl. 

Jolene sighs in frustration bending her knees and angling her body back in defeat, which makes her hood fall back; she looked like a child throwing a fit. “Why not?” she says without turning to him. 

“Somethin’ about needin’ more people I’d think, but ain’t my rules.” he responds. 

“Fuck.” she whispers under her breath, lowering her head. She turns around and looks at him incredulously. “Do you know another way out?”

“What if I did?” he asks. “What’s in it for me?”

He was clearly toying with her which she hated. She walks over, up the porch and stands in front of him. She pliays her body down so her legs are splayed in front of him leaning her elbows on her knees and bringing her hands up to her chin. She angles her head to the side and bats her eyes. “What do you want Mr. Dixon?” She asks in her best sultry voice. 

Daryl looks at her and had to admit that he wanted her...badly. His d**k presses against the zipper of his pants, but he couldn’t think about that now. It was funny how she was trying to be sexy, but her eyes gave away the anger burning beneath. He rather enjoyed pissing her off this morning. He bends down so his face is inches from hers, “What d’ya got?” he whispers, frustrating her further. 

A boot for your ass she thinks. f**k, what is his problem?

“Ok, seriously Daryl. What the f**k is it going to take for you to help me?” She asks, standing up from her squatting position so she is looking down at him. 

He stands in response and looks her in her hazel green eyes. They stand that way for a few seconds, both sizing the other one up. Jolene gets a good smell of his fresh cigarette and feels her mouth water. She hadn’t had a cigarette since she was 20 years old. Finally he answers, “Nothin’” and shrugs his shoulders. His eyes go from serious to complacent instantly and he smirks at her as he sits back down on the bench, purposefully getting under her skin. 

Jolene just stares at him with a look of annoyance on her face. “Really? Then can you please show me the way?” she asks. 

“Not until I finish my cigarette.” he says.

He is really testing my patience, Jolene thinks. She wonders if she might really get stopped at the front gate and considers going anyway. She turns around to look in that direction, putting Daryl behind her. She could always start scaling a part of the wall and climb over. There was a tower leaned up against the other side not far from here where she could climb up. As she is thinking Daryl is admiring her ass again. Her hair is pulled back in a braid and he starts imagining holding onto it while grinding into her ass. He wonders if she knows how f*****g sexy she really is then shakes his head. Don't f*****g do that, he thinks to himself. Jolene, considering her options, starts to notice that the sun is rising. I’m running out of time Dixon, she thinks and turns around.

“Ok look. I get it okay. You’ve proven your point, I’ll probably regret this decision, but it’s mine to make.” She says, trying to get him to understand.

He stands up and looks her up and down. Then gets closer. 

She catches his scent of cigarette and leather and she feels pressure in her lower abdomen. She is overwhelmed by the fact that she wants him this bad. 

Daryl did not really want to help her, but admired her independent spirit. He gets close enough that he can smell the deodorant she must have put on recently. There was something else there too, a scent that makes him yearn for her, but he couldn’t quite place it. He scoffs in her face and walks around her, leading to where she can get out. 

Jolene stands there for a second in confusion then turns around and follows behind him apprehensively. Was he really going to help her? Or was he just leading her to Rick or somebody else? She doesn’t recognize the path he is taking so she continues to follow him. The sun has risen at this point and she is getting more and more nervous that somebody will see her. Daryl walks with confident strides, never once looking back to make sure she was following. She guessed he could hear her? He had mentioned tracking and hunting so that was likely the reason. 

Finally they reach a stretch of the wall where a person could fit if they were leaving, but not coming back. “There ya go.” says Daryl gruffly pointing to the section she was eyeing up and flicking his cigarette. She takes a moment to analyze the area to be sure she can fit through. 

“Thank you Daryl...for everything...this was amazing. And it was great to see you again...even if it's really the last time...I wish we could have caught up more” says Jolene taking off her backpack. 

“You don’t have ta go.” he tells her, looking past her to the horizon, avoiding her gaze. “You know you can stay here for as long as you want.” he says in his gravelly voice. 

“I have to go Daryl. I can’t stay here. This…” she says gesturing behind him “is an illusion of security. Rick even admitted already that there are issues. Nowhere is safe. If I keep moving they can’t catch me.” 

He moves towards her. “I used to think that too. I used to think being alone was better than having anybody that you might lose...but I was wrong.” he crosses his arms, uncomfortable with his confession to her. She looks at him with sympathy, she couldn't believe he, of all people, was begging her to stay. He continues, “You...We need people to survive.” 

Jolene considers what he tells her and has to admit to herself that there is logic to it, but she just wasn’t ready to risk other people’s lives. She didn’t want people to die protecting her and she knows that she would risk her life staying here. Her mind was already made up. She walks up to Daryl and places her right hand on his cheek, he closes his eyes and she leans in and kisses him softly on the lips for the last time, then turns and leaves through the fence. 

As soon as she is out of sight Daryl runs back to his house a few feet away, grabs his crossbow and pack, and heads back to the hole in the fence. She got a good five minute head start, but he knows he can track her. His only worry is that somebody might come looking for him, but he has to get her back...somehow. He had a feeling last night that she would try to leave. She was so much like him when all this s**t started, guarded and closed off, independent and stubborn about everything. He just has to make her realize that she needs to stay here with him. She will die by herself. He thinks of Beth who was killed just a few weeks ago, how strong she was and yet with one shot she was gone. He still wishes he could go back to that f*****g hospital and kill all the motherfuckers in that place. She was better than any of them. 

Moving quickly, but stealthily he finds Jolene’s tracks and starts heading in her direction. She is travelling through a wooded area outside of Alexandria. It looks like she is trying to avoid the main road that has all the buildings and old shops, which would lead her right to the river. He catches up to her quickly, but doesn’t expose himself to her just yet. He follows her for a couple miles through the woods, watching her. 

She stops at a tree and looks up to it and then looks at her surroundings. Daryl is sure to hide behind a huge oak when she turns around. He hears scuffling so chances to look back at her. She has reached up and is pulling her body up one of the lower hanging branches of the tree she was looking at. She gets her legs around it and pulls her body up so she can sit on the branch. Then she stands on the branch and continues to climb higher and higher. Daryl had never seen anything like it. The leaves conceal her from view which would make it difficult for somebody to see her there. 

Suddenly he hears other footsteps coming from where Jolene was just standing on the ground. They are loud, shuffling steps so he knows that walkers are headed his direction. As they appear Daryl can see that there are over five coming towards him. He realizes now why she had climbed up there. Trying not to give away his position to Jolene he backs away quietly to lead them far enough away that she wouldn’t hear him kill them. 

Luckily, something catches their attention so they veer off in a different direction. All but one, who comes towards him reaching out decaying fingers and an exposed jaw. He backs away a little farther and as the dead guy falls towards him he stabs his large bowie knife into the side of his skull. Luckily this one was not too loud so he hopes Jolene is still unaware of his position. He pulls the knife out and tucks it away in a holster on his belt and carefully lowers the walker to the ground.

He quickly gets back behind the oak tree that was concealing him before. He is a little concerned about the noise that distracted the group of walkers. It sounded like screaming, but he couldn’t be sure. 

He hears Jolene jump down from the tree quietly and waits until he hears her walking the other direction, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t hear her at all. Suddenly worried he chances to look around the tree for her. She is looking directly at him and standing only a few feet away. 

“Seriously?!” she says incredulously, but quietly while walking towards him. Jolene was frustrated that he came all the way out here just to try to drag her back, she wasn’t having any of it. “Go back Daryl.” she says to him sternly. 

“No.” he says back gruffly. “I’m not leavin’ you out here by yourself Jo.” She notices the dead walker behind him and that he has his crossbow and a backpack. He must have grabbed it right before tracking her down, she had only gotten maybe a few miles away from the community. 

Jolene groans in frustration and points to where he came from. “Look, they need you back in Alexandria. You clearly have established yourself there. That’s your family...go back to them.” she tries to reason with him as she turns around and starts trudging away from him.

He goes after her. Her words make him think of Carol.  “Yeah, you’re right. They are my family, but that wouldn’t have been the case if they hadn’t taken a chance on me.” Jolene is a little taken back by his honesty and slows down so he can catch up to her. She was struggling so much. Everything in her was telling her to go back with him, but her memories, all the s**t that had happened to her kept propelling her away. Stay away, don’t be weak, just keep going, she tells herself over and over again. You’ll only watch them die, she thinks. 

Daryl tries sincerity to get her to come back with him. This was the most he had confessed to anyone in some time, but he had to get her trust. He continues to walk beside her, only glancing in her direction. “Look...I was a lot like you in the beginning. I didn’t need nobody. Merle and me were gonna go on our own just like always,” he thinks for a moment, gauging her reaction. She is nodding attentively so he continues, “But then he was gone and Rick took a chance on me to help them survive. I realized that they were the closest thing I ever had to a family. I’m better for them. You will be too.” He starts biting his lip again in that way that he always does. 

Jolene stops walking and Daryl ends up in front of her and turns around. She couldn’t believe that he could talk this much and was in awe of his admonition. He walks back to her so he is a mere foot away from her. She bites her lip instinctively, considering what he has told her. Daryl clearly notices as he looks from her eyes to her lips. She stops and looks down, feeling embarrassed from his gaze. He can see she is considering it.

“Just give it a week and then I’ll really let you leave. No questions asked.” He says. 

Jolene thinks for a moment considering his proposal. “One week?” she asks, looking at him again. Daryl nods his head squinting at her contemplatively. While she is thinking she sees one of the dead coming from behind Daryl. He turns around and stabs the thin decaying woman in her soft head with a back downwards thrust of his knife. Jolene notices a “W” carved into her forehead and wonders what that was about, but then remembers that she had to make a decision. 

“You’re not gonna go back unless I go with you, are you?” she finally says. 

“There’s also that.” he responds gruffly. 

She was frustrated that he was taking away her choice, but also thankful that she was going back. “f**k. Fine. Whatever. One week though and I’m gone.” she says, scowling and pointing her knife in his face. 

“Sure, one week.” he says smirking at her. She wanted to punch him in the face, but luckily she heard one of the dead coming towards them. She turns her attention to the thing, takes her knife and stabs the rotting man in the temple of his head. She pulls the knife out and the body falls at her feet, so she wipes off the blade on her jacket and puts away her knife. Then she turns to scowl at Daryl, which only makes him smirk at her. He gestures for her to walk in front of him back to Alexandria. She obliges him, and he gets a good look at her ass again as they walk back.