Her first night with him was...
uncomfortable.
She supposed neither of them had anticipated it to be that way. Something about being totally conscious and aware he was here and would be sharing the bed with her, from the moment she opened the door and let him inside, created some lingering aura of dreadful unfamiliarity. A sort of unspoken tension was heavy in the air.
Daniel even looked vaguely apprehensive, his typical calm expression of nonchalance almost shy now. She tried not to stall, turning the lights off and slipping into bed once the door was closed and locked. She dressed in light pajamas devised from her late husband's wardrobe as per usual. Dog remained clothed entirely for her comfort, she imagined.
It could've been worse.
The conversation she had with Oz the day before was no more comforting than holding up her end of the deal with Dog. She was frustrated. Try as she might she had no genuine argument other than a man who was no longer here had rounded up the fuel supply they were enjoying now free of charge, and they had no rights to the place she called her home, or her supplies here. Little that did to claim victory in the argument.
Nothing belonged to anyone anymore. In situations like these even a good man like Oscar shrugged his shoulders at the end of her protest to their occupation of her home and reminded Charlie that she couldn't honestly do anything to stop them from being there. He had people to think of as well, and in his mind, his group had brought one near feral boy back to the land of the living... a young hermit couldn't be any harder than that.
The guy carried around an intimidating looking sword, and so Charlie was less and less inclined to argue with him as their meeting went on. She didn't imagine anyone would carry such a weapon just for show. They all seemed to have their own personal favorites when it came to weapons, so she dared not push it. She wasn't a match for anyone in hand to hand or gun fighting. Oz was respectful in his delivery and his points were solid. It was harder and harder to argue why she couldn't act like a decent human and allow the weary travelers to occupy the space with her for a while, aside from the crass behavior of one unhinged man. The resort was massive.
If Charlie wanted it so that they would never have to cross paths with one another, it could be done... but he expressly informed her that it was a dangerous world, and that survivors—especially youth—were the human race's most precious assets in these times. He urged the assumed young man not only to let them stay and work together with their group, but to consider traveling with them once the winter season passed... to be one of his own.
During the conversation, Oz moved their stay from 'two weeks', to 'the Humvee is in need of repairs', to 'possibly occupying until Spring'. He complimented her methods for storing, preserving and canning, and made a point to mention Dog, Slash and Ruthless were highly capable hunters. Charlie listened more than demanded, and quietly made the decision to buy her time—and stay on Oz's good side. She downplayed the situation in the hall when he finally brought it up not wanting to cause any distrust, and hardly believing Oz would consider her side of the story, anyways.
At least he had been kind enough not to bring his brother along. The younger man they called Skully seemed to have a certain unfounded disdain for her, far more animosity toward the young stranger than any of the other members of the armed and rather intimidating group. It was unnerving and dug deeply enough into her mind to keep her awake hours after Danny had come.
"You need someone to watch your back, these days... you'll find you gain brothers and sisters in strangers and hold onto them even longer than blood. Even so... if you want to leave, you're free to do so. Nobody is going to stop you, or hurt you—I'll make sure of that. You're safe with us, Charlie." Oz would end.
Her options were laid out clearly before her; she either dealt with her guests-turned-neighbors or left the resort. That was what the conversation ended in, with the closing of a very sincere apology from the group leader for any discomfort his men and their presence may have caused. She knew that leaving in a situation that was not a sure emergency needed planning, and preparation. She hadn't been out there in years, she didn't know what to expect, and was not the best at off road expeditions. The map had been devised back during a time when roads were clear and safe. It may well have been centuries past, by apocalypse time.
Charlotte didn't even begin to contemplate how she would manage to hold up against the dead. It had been years since she had to deal with the stumbling, blood-thirsty rotting corpses... years now, on this isolated little gem nestled on a cliff along the coast. Aside from the starving group assembled to ward away any unwelcome guests, the walking dead weren't exactly common occurrences. Early on she remembered they were terrifying, and quick... like rabid animals. They didn't tire, and they didn't stop. Now, they were slow and weak, but still, heavy masses when gathered together may have well been swarms of once-human piranhas. A group of them could easily overwhelm the living... a group of them could easily end a lone traveler.
It happened that Dog could not doze off so easily, either, with Charlie's mind racing. He lay still, and patient, and did not press the boundaries of the beautifully somber woman who seemed absorbed in a battle of thoughts. After nearly an hour of listening to her discomforted breathing and feeling her rolling gently beside him, he rose quietly from the bed and navigated the suite with sharp recollection.
He turned on her iPod and placed it on the Classical playlist she liked to doze off to. He moved to the balcony and opened the sliding glass door, the soft rumble of the sea sweeping in on the breeze. And for a moment he perched on the balcony to give her a moment to adjust to his presence.
The entire foreboding aura of the room seemed to melt away, and she found herself distracted from toiling over her misfortunes and difficult, dangerous plans of escaping this dilemma unscathed. She rolled on her side gently to watch Danny with a vague curiosity as he leaned out over the rail and watched the tide rolling in the darkness. It was bizarre having a man in her room again... he rather resembled her lost love right now, the way he stood and how he gazed out over the sea.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, urging herself to doze off quickly so that morning would arrive, and she would once again have her privacy. He seemed fond of her. Surely if she decided to barricade herself in here he wouldn't let her starve, right? Several months of solitude seemed truly more like a prison sentence, but Charlotte coyly reminded herself that aside from her chores with the livestock, the inventory, the greenhouse and checking the corpse 'soldiers' that had been stumbling along in the moat she all but hid out in the suite day by day anyways.
Sleep had nearly claimed her when she felt the bed shift gently and Dog slowly move beneath the blankets, curling his body near her own. He left a small space between them and gently looped a thin arm at her hip, and as much as she wanted to be annoyed, she felt a twinge of comfort at not being alone with such stressful thoughts in her mind. The warmth was inviting. She drifted off with a soft brood upon her delicate features.
He watched her, listened to her breath ease, and admired her in the dim lighting. She had replaced a bulb in the lamp beside her, after disposing of the candles she kept to conserve electricity, the dim golden glow cast over her almost magically. Her hair was long when it wasn't braided and coiled to be stuffed beneath a beanie, this he noticed while daring to stroke his long thin fingers through it tenderly, to no response. She left it loose after her shower, probably because she had no intention of leaving again.
Some guilty part of him still felt obligated to fetch whatever she would ask him to, for upsetting her so much, and so it was fine with Danny if she wanted to stay hidden, and probably safer for her. Oz was reneging on an earlier, sound decision—a promise to not allow anyone else into their group, for all of their safety, and while it went unchallenged he knew it wouldn't sit well with some of them... especially his younger brother Skully.
For some bizarre reason, he was having a hard time getting the dark, delicate beauty out of his thoughts and mind's eye. If she stayed safe in here it would also mean she wouldn't bother with her disguise, and when he visited he would get to enjoy the rare, brazen beauty entirely in her element. She was by far his favorite thing to look at left in the decaying world... more beautiful even than the ocean with the moonlight rippling over the waves.
