It's been a few weeks, days within the communities get busier and busier; more tasks at hand to tackle, More mouths to feed, more resources to gather, more people to give homes and settlements. As the group becomes more trusting, the more people join their group consequentially becoming stronger and larger.
Daryl returns home with Carol, Aaron and Lydia after a three day long scavenge returning back with two carriages full of food, clothes, weapons and furniture along with some new horses, and a new car. Judith and Rj wait excitedly on the upper walkway, waving at Daryl as he drives the car in, They rush down once everything is brought into the walls to hug Daryl.
He gets out the car, shutting the door quickly before rushing to receive their greeting, he opens his arms wide, taking the impactful force of their hugs, wrapping their tiny arms around him as he picks them both up, them all laughing. Connie and Kelly head over, helping take the stock off the carts and to the storage unit near the entrance, flagging others down to come help.
"Uncle Daryl we missed you!" Judith shouts, giggling as he hugs them.
"I've only been gone three days!" Daryl laughs, kissing the top of their heads, "Did you have fun with Kelly and Connie?"
"Lots!" RJ says, beaming.
"Good.. Hey you guys go put those strong muscles to use and help aunt Carol, Lydia and Uncle Aaron unload those wagons." He lets go of them, laughing as they flex their "Muscles" before rushing off to help. He waves Connie over, who rushes over, arms open for his hug.
He embraces her tightly, rubbing her back gently as she sways him side to side. He tilts her chin upwards, kissing her gently before letting go. Their comfort allowed them to express their relationship to the others who claimed to already know but still proudly and kindly congratulated them along with light-hearted teasing.
Missed ya, Daryl signs, tucking his strayed hair strands behind his ear as he looks down at her.
She rolls her eyes, imitating a vomiting expression before chuckling at herself, Missed you too.
The pair head down to finish retrieving all the supplies and setting them in their correct places to be handed out, everyone's doing their part, Lydia is separating them into certain piles based on the contents of the boxes and crates brought back, Carol's handing stuff from the carriages, Aaron is lifting the heavy stuff around, RJ and Judith are working together to carry the boxes with distributed weight and Kelly is marking the items down on the white board for stock count.
What did you Kelly and the kids do whilst we were gone? Daryl asks, curiosity plastered on his face.
Well Maggie and Hershel stopped by so we taught the kids important sign language phrases whilst Maggie was dealing with a horde outside Hilltop. Gracie joined in also, it was nice. I feel more connected to them all everyday.. Connie explains, Daryl has also been improving his sign language so these long conversations grow to make more sense everyday.
That's amazing, It's going to really help them especially if they need to speak to you or warn you of anything.. Daryl smiles, kissing her cheek, You help Kel I'll help Aaron.
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Once all the work was done, Daryl, Connie, Dog and the kids head to town to check on the stalls and catch up with everyone. The kids rush around, talking to their friends whilst Daryl and Connie walk hand in hand with Dog brushing up against Connie's leg. The people wave to Daryl and Connie as they walk, smiling and whispering as they do. Daryl remains secluded from the conversations still trying to get used to this whole publicly in a relationship thing.
