undergrounds | A bobcat and a squirrel walk into a house...

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A bobcat and a squirrel walk into a house...

Feb 3rd; Hillingdon House
Daryl was a hunter. Daryl was a good hunter. He could set a snare and shoot a turkey between the eyes at a hundred paces. What Daryl was not was a trapper. Keeping the things he hunted alive usually went against his nature.

Today, just a few hours before stomping through Hillingdon's doors, that nature had been challenged and he, well...

"I need a trapper," he announced loudly and tersely, shoulders tense and eyes darting around to see if anyone understood what he was talking about. "Pest control, even. The kind that do humane trapping that don't kill or harm the rodents. Anyone know anyone?"

At worst, one of the mice or rat shifters might. Was better than nothing.

Feb 5th; A park (Dawn); Closed to first responder
Daryl had a trap. He had the kid's scent. And now he just had to find her and convince her the trap wasn't a trap and... hell, would she even understand what he was saying? He'd only managed to realize she was human in some sense when she'd decided shifting and kicking him in the head would do more to save her ass than squeaking loudly as his paws came down on her. Convincing her he wasn't out to eat her now might be impossible.

Which is why he had back up. Turning to his accomplice, he whispered, (not for the first time), "If I can't get her to come eat, you gotta do it for me. I can take watch."

Because having someone on watch was very important. Especially if she shifted again. Two grown adults chasing a naked 3 or 4 year old in a public park would look really, really, really bad. God help them if it took all day...

Feb 5th; Dinnertime; For Liadan
Daryl pounded on the door to Liadan's place. The day had been a very long and tiring one and he hadn't been able to get his daily nap in which meant he was cranky as all get out. The tiny squirrel squirming around in the bandana he held tightly shut was not doing anything to calm him down, either. He knew he needed to let the kid out, but he couldn't do it at his house (he'd tried, that was a disaster: see lack of nap). And Liadan had experience with some of the Clan's children, so it was to her he went.

Between Feb 8th to around Feb 20th; Hillingdon House
It wasn't the first time this sort of thing had happened in the back rooms of Hillingdon. Every so often one of the shifters tied to the clan couldn't get a sitter or didn't feel comfortable just yet with leaving their kid somewhere so they brought them to the house and set them off in one of the side rooms where they couldn't get into too much trouble. And every so often those kids would be small enough and just discovering their ability to shift that they ended up naked and running through the house. This was simply the first time Daryl had to deal with it and the kid wasn't even his. Well, technically. He was having no luck finding any info on Squirrel shifters that had lost a child in the last five years so chances were her parents were either out of the country, or dead.

Still, over the last few days, sight had become a regular one at the house. A small girl, maybe on the cusp of turning four, galloping through the non-public rooms giggling like a banshee and followed after by one Daryl Dixon, red as an apple, yelling at her to "GET BACK HERE AND PUT YOUR DAMN CLOTHES ON!".

After the 20th; Around London, but especially Richmond
It took almost three weeks to get the girl to listen to him and not try to shift in public and to keep her clothes on when she was human. A fair achievement for someone that had the literal attention span of a squirrel. Alert, but not necessarily focused. By then she was nearly attached to him by the hip and Daryl had started to take her out with him on his daily errands and even to work. He did his best to maintain her attention by talking to her in a quiet and constant string of explanations about what things were and what he was doing and that she really shouldn't try to touch that one thing there or put it in her mouth (oh dear lord not the anti-freeze!). Whether he'd intended to or not from the get go, he'd kind of adopted her and would need to put paperwork in soon with the right officials to try and make it, well, official.

That could probably wait until next month, though. For the moment, he was okay with carrying her on his hip or holding her hand and guiding her around while she stared at everything with wide eyes and wonder. Hopefully she'd start talking to him soon. He could only hope she was half understanding him as it was.

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"Hullo there, Willow," Nancy says calmly towards the child, not doing anything to encourage her use of curse words. "How old are you, beautiful?"

She glances over at Daryl. "She's not your daughter, I'll take it?" There's a careful note in her words. She was not above stealing Dammit Girl and taking her someplace safe, if she had any indication Daryl could be a threat to her. But the girl seemed happy enough with Daryl.

"Dammit!" she repeated, laughing.

Daryl blushed a little with embarrassment at her enthusiasm for the word, but he wasn't that upset about it. He had to readjust her on his hip as her attention was pulled away by a pigeon coming to land not far from them and peck at some fallen food. She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed, as if about to climb.

"Nah, don't do that," he said, taking a second to pat her on the back and shift her just enough he could get his face in front of hers and redirect that short focus. "You need to stay here, okay? We're talkin' to Nancy now."

He spun his body and walked sideways to get closer to Nancy and get Willow looking at her again, "This is Nancy."

Whatever worry Nancy had, Daryl missed it totally with how completely the girl in his arms had him wrapped around her fingers. He looked over at her, "Ain't sure her age. She's only just learning to talk. Think it's close to four, though, from her size. Still working on getting the paperwork filed to make her mine. Shuffling her off to somewhere else after I got her used to me enough to stay human when she's with me didn't seem like the right thing to do."

Edited 2017-02-04 02:20 (UTC)

Nancy gave the girl a little wave.

"How did- how did you find her?" Better Daryl, then, than Fagin. With Fagin, nothing had been done legally. Here he was already trying to get papers filed. It was darling, really. But she still was going to be wary, likely for the rest of Willow's life.

"Four? You're awfully big, aren't you, Willow?" Without waiting for an answer, she starts digging in her purse, until she pulls out a small fruit bar. "Are you hungry, lovely?" She knows how to win the trust of wild children.

She glances at Daryl.

"I have a lot of little brothers."

Willow's head tilted with curiosity and she reached out for the fruit bar. If she knew what it was or was just curious about the wrapping on it, Daryl couldn't say. He certainly hadn't fed her anything like that yet. Lots of nuts from a tin, though. She liked nuts.

"Nancy's got a treat for you," he said as she took it, trying to explain, "You gotta open it. You remember how to do that, right?"

"Richmond Park. Was uh..." And here Daryl coughed, a sense of shame rolling over him before he could shake it off and continue, "Out. In the park. Spotted her with some other squirrels."

He wasn't going to get into the fact that he almost ate her because she'd spent so much time around actual squirrels he hadn't been able to tell she was a shifter until she became human and socked him in the jaw with her heel. Better not to get into that.

He cleared his throat again and and reached up to brush some stray hair out of her eyes, "Been looking for her parents but ain't found no one in the community that knows nothin' about her. Ain't so many shifters in London that it'd be a hard search if they was still around."

Meanwhile, Willow had taken the bar in both hands and started to nibble at the packaging. Daryl eyed her carefully in case she tried shoving it in her mouth to hold onto for later. Human cheeks weren't as good for hoarding as squirrel.

Nancy's heart wrenches at the thought of the poor little girl living as a squirrel. Instantly, she takes a step forward, but at the last moment remembers this girl probably doesn't want a hug.

She laughs a little, looking at the girl. She certainly was eager to eat the food, that was for sure. "I'm so sorry to hear that- I'll ask around, too, see if anyone I know has any ideas." She had friends with the witches still, and in the nest as well.

"Poor thing. But it looks like she's in good hands. Let me know, if you need help with anything, too- babysitting, even. Like I said, I have a lot of brothers, so it'd be no trouble at all." she smiles a little. Babysititng. Hey, that was a normal job for a twenty-year-old to have.

Which was exactly what she wanted to talk to him about.

Fortunately, Willow's gnawing had started to tear the package open so she got the the tastier insides and decided to abandon the wrapper. The whole of the bar disappeared into her mouth where her cheeks puffed up to accommodate it. But before Daryl could worry too much she started to visibly chew. He took the package form her and read it's name aloud.

"...that's the kind you're eating, Willow," he informed her, holding the package up. "Know you can't read yet, but we'll work on that, too."

The package got shoved in his pocket so he could remember to buy some more of that later and he let his attention drift to Nancy, a smirk on his lips, "A babysitter? You got time for that with your boyfriend up on the council?"

He wasn't going to say it just yet, but if pressed, he wasn't trusting Nancy to watch Willow. Not with a vampire boyfriend she could take her home to. Nuh uh. He was cool with the Nest for the most part, but there were some paranoias he wasn't going to shake so easily.

Nancy, for her part, smiles with pride. She was so happy for Cooper. He was a brilliant man, and it wasn't often that he got to show it. It was finally time that he could. She nods. "Yeah- you heard about that, huh?" she looks down at her Nikes, sheepish. "But I do. I'm, ah... not exactly working right now."

She looks back up at him. "I don't suppose your offer is still on the table, is it?"

Please. Why go through the trouble of kidnapping a child for dinner when Nancy was perfectly delicious herself? Gosh, she'd probably be offended if she knew that was the reason.

"I was on the Night Train. Hard to miss it," he answered before moving on to her question. She'd basically ignored the offer for so long he figured she'd either forgotten about it or gotten something else. But it had been weeks and while he personally was still willing to vouch for her... "Gonna have to talk to the boss. Think she has her eye on someone for the position. It's been hard to fill, but she ain't stopped looking, you know? Should probably head on over or give her a call if you want to try for it."

He readjusted Willow, once again having to move to catch her attention as she started to squirm and draw it back to him, "You lose the card I gave you? Can get you a new one."

Nancy reaches out to touch his arm gently. "Oh, you should have come and said hello!" She hadn't had the best time on the train, unfortunately. Far, far from it. Though, it had bene lovely being able to be on Cooper's arm all night.

"Oh- no, I've got the card, still. I just wanted to check in with you, first. To make sure, so I didn't go and make a complete fool of myself. Yeah- I can give her a call. Can't very well turn up in trainers, can I?" She actually had no idea how to dress for an interview.

Or for a job, actually.

Daryl didn't pull away from the touch, not wanting to startle Willow, but the way he froze for a second made it pretty clear it made him uncomfortable. People casually getting into his space was one thing, but the kind of touches that people assumed were alright socially still bothered him. Hard to shake the need to brace for a tight grip followed by a punch.

He didn't try to shake her off, though. He could deal with the touch for the moment. She wasn't putting him in danger. Just had to remember that and let himself breathe.

"Sure you can. Better those than heels in an auto shop. Steel toes better yet. Dress for the job you wanna get," he answered easily. "You come in something fancy they're gonna wonder if you understand what kind of job you're applying for. Gotta be neat and clean, but working clothes that can get dirtied up are the best for this."

He freezes, and Nancy immediately takes her hand off of him. she knew what something like that usually meant, and she knew better than to press it. She just simply removed her hand, and said nothing about it.

"Neat and clean. Right. How would you exactly define working clothes? I've never really... had a real job."

"Nice jeans and a nice shirt and sweater combo I guess. If you're hired you'll be given a uniform shirt."

He was grateful for her quick removal of her hand and the lack of questions. Easier to just pretend it hadn't happened.

Nancy nods. "Alright- I can do that. Shouldn't be too hard." Some of her more casual clothing then. Easy as could be. And much more practical than most anything else she had. She pauses for a moment, then wonders: "It won't be a problem, will it? Not having had a job before?" She was twenty. It looked weird.

She looks over at Willow, and gives her another bright smile. She speaks softly and calmly again, "How'd you like the fruit bar, Willow?"

Willow's eyes moved to Nancy, recognizing the other word Daryl kept using for her. But she still didn't make any other noises herself as she watched the woman. Now curious, she reached her hand down toward her pockets.

"I think she wants another," Daryl chuckled. "And as long as you're upfront about it, I don't think it'll be too bad. Might have to take a practical test or something, but the job itself is entry-level. Means no experience necessary."

"That's it," she said with a soft smile. "I'm sorry, Willow- that's the only one I had. What about water, dear?" She noticed the flicker in her eyes at the sound of her name. "Yeah, that's right. Willow." she pointed at her, then back at herself. "Nancy." And then she looked at Daryl. "And he's-...?" whatever he wanted to be. She wasn't going to presume.

On the subject of the potential job, she nods. "Alright. A practical I think I can do." She thought.

"Daryl," he answered, pointing at himself as Willow's eyes followed Nancy's fingers right back to him. She stared a bit before tucking her head against his shoulder and turning to look behind him again. Once more distracted by something passing. Daryl just chuckled at it though.

"I'll let them know you're gonna be calling, then," he said, giving her a warm smile. "Hope it works out."

Well, they had given it a shot.

"I do, too. Thanks, Daryl." She gives him her brightest smile. "I suppose I should let you two get along, then."

He nodded at her, adjusting his hold on Willow once again as she started to squirm before he walked off, "Sure. Good luck."

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A bobcat and a squirrel walk into a house...

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