#daryl dixonxoc

[trashcanband4]

Torn Ch. 8

Torn Masterlist

Pairing: DarylxOc. Eventual DarylxOcxRick. Setting: The Greene Farm. Warnings: Mentions of substance abuse. A/N: Sorry if you got tagged and didn't want to. Please let me know if you want to be removed or added to the tag list.

Cassie woke up in the pitch black truck to the feel of Daryl's fingertips gently slipping up and down the small of her back where it rested since his arm was draped over her side. "Is it morning already?" She asked groggily.

"Yeah. I'd say we got about twenty or so minutes before everyone else wakes up." He answered and before she asked how he could possibly know that he added, "I peeked outside earlier. You slept through the noise." To give them a little of what light the early morning sun could provide, Daryl raised the back door of the truck up a couple of inches. Now that they could see each other he laid back down on his back, tucked one arm behind his head and held the other out to her. So she scooted over, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her. Both of them got lost in thought as they watched the light in the truck grow brighter.

They were pulled from their thoughts by the sound of someone knocking on the side of the truck. With a grunt Daryl rolled onto his stomach and pushed the back up just enough to reveal Dale. "Time to get goin'."

"Alright." Cassie grunted as she pushed herself up and started gathering their things. Daryl stood to finish raising the back of the truck, "Hold up."

He stopped and hummed, wondering why she stopped him. To answer his silent question she closed the space between them, placed her hands on his chest and looked up at him through her lashes. He smirked as he grabbed her hips and caught her lips with his in a slow deep kiss. 

Everyone was almost finished packing up to head to the Greene farm when Daryl met Cassie, who was sitting on the back of his bike. He was clearly hiding something behind his back. "Found ya somethin'." A smile appeared on her face as he pulled a guitar out from behind his back. "Do you know "Simple Man"?" He asked.

"Uh huh." She answered not surprised he was a Skynyrd fan.

"Let's have it." He told her with a come-at-me motion of his hand.

"Daryl I…" She sighed and shook her head, "I know I made you a promise, but I don't think now is the best time." She argued, doing her best to get out of it.

"Alright, later then." He told her with a nod then got on the bike as she threw the strap of the guitar over her putting it on her back.

TWDTWDTWD

As they rode to the farm Cassie prayed that Carl was okay, that Shane had come back in one piece. When they pulled up outside the house they were greeted with Lori, Rick, Shane and the people who lived on the farm. Daryl noticed a funny look on Cassie’s face as she got off the motorcycle. "What's wrong?"

"Otis, the guy who left with Dad to get supplies for Carl's surgery, isn't here and his people look down while ours look relieved." Cassie explained and Daryl did a onceover of their greeting crowd.

"How is he?" Dale asked them.

"He'll pull through." Lori answered with a relieved smile and a nod. "Thanks to Hershel and his people."

"And Shane." Rick added with a look over his shoulder at Lori. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Rick looked at Cassie who turned her eyes to her father who was wearing overalls that were several sizes too big and his hair had been buzzed off.

Everyone sighed in relief at hearing that Carl would be okay, but Cassie was now worried about Shane. Her concern for her father only grew when at the memorial for Otis, Shane made a speech that had her wondering how much of what he'd said about how Otis was lost was the truth.

TWDTWDTWD

Later, Cassie, Daryl, Shane, Andrea, Rick and Hershel stood around the hood of Carol's suv. "How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked.

"This will be day three." Rick answered.

Maggie walked over and rolled a map out on the hood of the suv. "County survey map. It shows terrain and elevations." They weighed the corners of the map down with rocks.

"This is perfect." Rick started as they all looked at the map. "We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you, not today." Hershel spoke up. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes without passing out." Herself then looked at Shane. "And your ankle, push it now you'll be laid up for a month. No use to anybody."

"Guess it's just me." Daryl spoke up. "I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way back from there."

"I can still be useful." Shane spoke up. "I'll drive up to the interstate, just in case Sophia wandered back."

"Alright, tomorrow then, we'll start doing this right." Rick replied.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives." Shane spoke up. "We need that gun training we've been promising."

"I'd prefer you not carry guns on my property." Hershel spoke up. "We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."

Cassie cut her eyes over at Rick then looked at Hershel. "With all due respect, I would personally be more comfortable if at the very least Rick and Shane were allowed to carry, seeing as they're law enforcement."

Hershel looked at Rick with a squint. "Cassie, it's fine." Rick told her as he took his pistol off his hip. "This is his property and we will respect that." Following his lead everyone including Cassie and Daryl surrendered their guns.

"Look, I hate to be the one to ask, but what happens if we find her and she's bit?" Shane asked. "I think we should all be clear on how to handle that."

Rick's face fell. "We do what we have to."

"And her mother, what do you tell her?" Maggie asked, looking like she disagreed.

"The truth." Cassie and Andrea answered at the same time. 

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons and make sure no one's carrying until we're at a practice range off site." Shane spoke up. "I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience."

When Hershel didn't reply Rick turned toward him, "Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." He reasoned with Hershel who finally gave them a nod. "Thank you."

"You comin'?" Daryl asked Cassie as he nudged her arm with his elbow.

"Yeah." She answered. "I'll catch up in a minute." Seeing that Shane was talking to Lori in front of where the RV had been parked Cassie waited by the car, overhearing that Glenn and Maggie would be doing a pharmacy run. When Shane and Lori were done talking she caught his attention. "You have a minute?"

"Yeah, what you got?" Shane answered, following her away from the group a bit.

"I uh…" she sighed, puffing out her cheeks before she let it go and ran her fingers through her loose waves. Shane squinted at her, a bit amused at her behavior. "This is awkward." Shane smirked and tilted his head. "I wanted to thank you for telling me all that stuff back at the church. All this time I've been holding a grudge against you for something that wasn't entirely your fault. The more I think about it the more I realize Mom really did keep you from me."

"I wasn't trying to turn your mom into the bad guy." Shane defended. "Or play the victim."

"No, I know." She replied. "But I realize now that I've been putting her on a pedestal and that's not fair of me." Shane made a face as if to say he agreed. "After you told me she wouldn't let you see me, it jogged my memory of some phone conversations I overheard. She told me she was arguing with her boss, but now I know that it was you on the other end of the phone." Shane frowned a little. "I just…" she shrugged, not knowing exactly how to say what she wanted to say. "You're the only parent I have left. So, maybe, I can learn how to not hate you."

Shane huffed out a breath with a smile. "I'd like that."

"I wanna start doing that by saying I am so, so, sorry for how I've treated you."

"Cassie, you don't have to apologize. Truth be told I've been taking my pent up aggravation at your mother out on you." Shane told her with a shake if his head.

"Yeah, well, truth be told I was such a brat I made it easy for you." She countered. "I never even thanked you for finding me that night at Shortie's party." Shane's face fell. "I always told myself you didn't care about me. But if you didn't care you would've let me lay there and die." Shane just pulled her into a hug. "I love you, dad."

"I love you too." He replied as she pulled back out of the hug.

"So, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah we're good." He answered thinking she was still talking about them.

"No, are you okay?" She asked with a glance up at his buzzed head and his face fell a little at her question. "You seem…off, for a lack of better word."

"I'm okay." He answered quietly.

She didn't believe him, but she let it go all the same. "If you say so."

She started to walk off but he stopped her, "You goin with Daryl?" He asked and she nodded. "Be careful, watch your back out there." He told her seriously.

She just gave him a two fingered salute and a nod before she turned and walked away.

Rick, in his and Lori's tent getting ready to head out, saw Cassie walk over to Glenn as Maggie left to go get their horses.

"Hey, you're going on a pharmacy run with Maggie, right?" She asked Glenn.

"Yeah, why?" He asked, squinting at her in the hot sun.

"There's something I need you to get for me while you're there." She explained.

"If you need feminine stuff Maggie would probably be the one to ask." He replied with a point over his shoulder.

"No it's not that." She told him with a shake of her head. "I need…" she looked around, seeing that T was a little too close to earshot for comfort, then stood on her tip toes and whispered in his ear.

"Oh." Glen said flatly before his brain caught up to her request and his eyebrows shot up, "Oh…You-."

"Can you keep this on the D.L.? If Shane or Rick catch wind of this my life will be ten times harder than it already is."

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Your secret's safe with me." He told her with an awkward nod.

"Thanks Glenn." She told him with an awkward nod of thanks then headed off to find Daryl.

Before he could leave the camp sight Rick ducked out of his tent. "Glenn."

"Yeah." Glenn said turning from where he'd been watching Maggie head over to them, two saddled horses at her sides.

"You're goin' in a run, right?" Rick asked and Glenn hummed. "You got a list?"

"Not yet, I think Lori's making one." Glenn answered.

"So Cassie didn't just give you one?" Rick asked.

"No, she just asked me to look for something." Glenn answered, accidentally saying too much.

"Which was?" Rick asked.

"Private." Glenn answered with an awkward upward inflection that made it sound more like a question. Rick deadpanned. "Look, I really don't want to break her trust."

Rick sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "Was it something that could get her hurt?"

"No. If anything it'll protect her." Glenn answered feeling as if he were digging himself I to a hole.

"I don't know what that means." Rick said with a squint at Glenn in the sun.

"It was condoms, okay?" Glenn finally answered just wanting the conversation to be over. Rick sighed and looked off into the distance. "And I'm going to get them for her no matter what you or Shane have to say about it."

Rick's eyes snapped back to Glenn. "Shane knows?"

"No, but she seemed freaked at the idea of either of you finding out she wanted them." Glenn answered. "She's a grown woman and smart and I'd hate to see her get knocked up or an std just because you and Shane are too protective."

"You think I'm too protective of her?" Rick asked with an amused smirk at how Glenn was defending Cassie.

"If you try to stop me, yeah." Glenn answered.

"I'm not gonna try to stop you." Rick told him. "Get her what she asked for." He clapped his hand down on Glenn's shoulder as he walked past him.

TWDTWDTWD

Cassie and Daryl gathered their gear and were walking past the front porch of the farm house, headed out to look for Sophia when Rick’s voice pulled them to a stop. “Cassie!” she stopped and turned back to see him walking over.

“What’s up?” she asked as she and Daryl met him halfway.

Rick just looked at Daryl. “Can I have a minute with her?” he asked. Daryl rolled his eyes with a scoff, but walked off.

“Is Carl okay?” Cassie asked with a squint in the bright sun.

“Yeah, he’s fine.” Rick answered. “It’s you I’m worried about.” Cassie gave him a confused shake of her head. “I know you want to help find Sophia, but I’m not sure you and Daryl goin’ out there, just the two of you, is a good idea.”

“Really?” Cassie asked with an agitated tilt of her head. “How many times do I have to prove that I can handle myself out there?”

“I know you can.” Rick pointed out. “Going hunting in the mountains and shooting a few walkers in a convenience store is one thing. Searching in the same woods that Sophia was lost in, woods that a herd of walkers recently passed, is another.”

“I’m not a twelve year old. I’ll be fine.” She assured him with raised brows.

“We’ve got a base. We can get this search properly organized now.” Rick argued.

“Right, and until then Daryl and I are going to spend what time we can doing what we can to find her.” Cassie argued. “You, of all people, know time is of the essence.” she told him with a stern face. “We’re goin’.” she turned and took a few steps before he grabbed her hand softly and she turned to look back at him, not taking her hand from his.

“Just…make sure looking for Sophia is all you two do out there. I'm not judging you or him.” he told her a bit stiffly. "I was young once, I remember how easy it is to get caught up in a moment."

All agitation melted away when she looked into his eyes and hhe had to bite her lips closed at his comment. Oddly enough, she appreciated his concern and when she let her lips slip from between her teeth, a quiet laugh left them. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course." He answered.

Knowing he’d seen Bambi and that he’d get the reference she simply replied, “Then believe me when I say I'm not going to lose my head just because I’m twitterpated.”

“Funny.” he replied flatly, not amused.

“I thought so." She said with a smirk and a tilt of her he'd then grabbed his face in her hands and looked him in the eyes seriously. "Stop worrying about me. I’ll be fine." She stood on her toes and pecked him on the nose then turned and started walking toward Daryl who was waiting for her off in the distance.

“What was that about?” Daryl asked as they fell into stride beside one another.

“Just Rick being Rick.” she answered dismissively.

“You mean he was being over protective.” Daryl corrected.

“I didn’t say that.” she countered. “Rick is just lookin’ out for me. He always has. I’m sure after doing it for so long it’s a hard habit to break.”

From then on Cassie and Daryl searched the woods in comfortable silence other than calling out for Sophia every once in a while. Eventually they came upon an abandoned house and after searching inside to no avail Daryl spotted some wild flowers. "What are they?" Cassie asked Daryl where he kneeled down looking at the white flowers.

"They're Cherokee roses." He answered then proceeded to tell her the story behind them and how they now represent the tears of a grieving mother. "Would it offend you if I brought one to Carol?"

"No. Of course not." Cassie answered. "I think it might just be what she needs to lift her spirits a bit." With that being said Daryl picked one. 

TWDTWDTWD

When they got back to the farm Daryl went to give Carol the rose and Cassie went to find Glenn. "Hey, how'd the pharmacy run go?" She asked as she walked over to him.

"Good, we cleared it of the last of the antibiotics." He answered then pulled a white paper bag out of his back pocket. "And I got what you asked for."

"Awesome." Cassie said as she took it from him and tucked it into her back pocket, pulling her shirt tail over it. "Thanks again."

After tucking the pharmacy sack away in her bag she headed into the house to pop in on Carl. Rick was in the room with him, sitting in a chair beside the bed, staring off into space with a tired look on his face. She knocked softly on the doorframe to get his attention. "Hey." He greeted her sleepily. "Any luck?"

"We found an abandoned house and it looked like someone had been there recently, but there's really no way to know if it was her or not." Cassie answered quietly as she walked into the room. "How is he?" She asked with a look down at Carl where he laid asleep in the bed.

"He's in and out." Rick answered and things fell quiet for a few moments as Cassie carefully sat down on the foot of the bed.

"Cassie?" Carl's groggy voice asked.

"Hey, Buddy." She said with a smile as she walked in and gently sat down on the bed beside him. "How you feelin'?"

"I'll be okay." He answered, playing the part of a strong man. She just smiled and brushed his sweaty hair out of his face. "Did you find Sophia?" He asked. "Dad said you went looking for her."

"No…" she answered quietly. "But we're not gonna stop until we find her okay? You just get some rest."

"Kay." Carl answered with a nod then closed his eyes.

Cassie smiled to herself, relieved to see that he was getting better.

TWDTWDTWD

Both freshly showered, Cassie sat on her side of the pallet Daryl had made in the middle of their tent. The guitar he'd found sat in her lap while Daryl laid beside her watching her tune it. When it was tuned she started playing "simple man" but when Daryl realized she had played the same part several times without singing he touched her knee, stopping her. She kept her eyes on the blanket she sat on. "Hey," his soft tone made her look at him, "I ain't gonna die, just 'cause you sing for me."

"Okay." She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, blew it out through pursed lips then opened her eyes and looked at the guitar in her lap. This time after strumming the first few notes she started singing. Daryl sat quietly, listening to her sweet, but powerful voice intently. After a minute she stopped, "I'm sorry, that's all I can remember right now."

Speechless, Daryl sat up and hooked his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her down for a kiss. As the kiss deepened Cassie blindly set the guitar aside and moved to straddle him. His hand stayed on her neck as he laid back and used his other hand to hold her waist.

She placed one hand on the pallet to brace herself as the other traveled the contours of his chest and stomach. Eventually she grabbed his chin and turned his head to the side, allowing her to trail kisses across his cheek, down his neck to a spot just above his collarbone where she swirled her tongue then grazed her teeth over the sensitive skin earning a pleasured hum from him. She moved back to his lips before she sat up and looked down at him with a lust that was mirrored back in his as she pulled her shirt over her head.

His hands went to her sides, expecting her to lean back down. Instead he watched her bite her bottom lip as she reached back with both hands and unhooked the clasps of her bra. The straps fell off her shoulders before she finished taking it off and dropped it to the side. With a heart that was beating a mile a minute she grabbed his right wrist and slid it up, silently telling him she wanted him to touch her.

A gasp left her lips as he sat up, wrapping one arm around her waist while the other hand cupped her breast before his lips caught hers in a needy kiss. The moan that his touch pulled from her lips was thankfully muffled by him. When he kissed his way to her chest and swirled his tongue around the peak of her breast her head fell back as a sigh escaped her lips. His actions sent a shockwave straight to her core. Her hands held the back of his head, her fingers embedded in his soft clean hair.

Meanwhile, in the house upstairs, Rick stood at the window of Carl's room, staring out into the night in contemplation. After watching Lori disappear into their tent his eyes wandered their camp, a movement caught his eye. As he looked closer he could easily make out Cassie's silhouette in her tent. But as the silhouette moved he realized it wasn't just Cassie, but Cassie and Daryl. Her head was leaned back while Daryl's head moved at her chest. As he watched a pit of anger grew inside him and his eyes turned glaring.

Back in their tent Cassie picked her head up and Daryl caught her lips with his as he laid back on the pallet, taking her down with him. As they made out, his hands fondled her chest, pulling sighs from her lips. "God, Daryl." She whispered, breaking their kiss before she started peppering kisses over his neck to the sweet spot just above his left collarbone. She sucked there lightly, pulling a groan from him before she kissed down his chest, repositioning herself to sit on her knees between his legs. He just watched as she kissed down his stomach then sat up and grabbed the button of his jeans but didn't undo it. "Is it okay if I…?" He gave her a nod before she finished the question.

So she unbuttoned his jeans, carefully pulled the zipper down then hooked her fingertips under the band of his boxers and pulled them down until he finally sprang free from the confinement of his jeans. He smirked, ever so slightly, when her eyes grew wide at the sight of him. Nervous but aching to please him she reached out and gently picked it up from where it rested on his lower stomach. Just that action alone pulled a shaky breath from him.

She'd thought about simply giving him a handjob, but now that she'd seen him her mouth was watering. So, desperate to taste him, she leaned down and licked him from base to tip. The action pulled a deep grunt from him that only fueled her fire and gave her the confidence she needed to continue. "Fuck, Cassie." He gasped after she sucked him into her mouth, using her tongue to flick along the underside as she bobbed her head. After a few minutes he managed to say, "I'm close."

She stopped long enough to give him a challenging smirk then swirled her tongue around the tip before sucking him back into her mouth. A few bobs of her head later a strained groan bubbled up from deep in his throat as he exploded in her mouth gagging her when it hit the back of her throat. She quickly recovered and waited until she was sure he was done then pulled back, swallowed and laid down beside him. He zipped and buttoned his pants back then looked across his shoulder at her.

The slightly reddened tint of her lips made him turn onto his side and cup her cheek in his hand, running his thumb over her bottom lip. She gave him a soft smile before he caught her bottom lip between his and grabbed her side, pulling her closer. After a minute of making out he gave her hip a soft push, putting just enough space between them for his hand to slip over the slick material of her athletic shorts. The feel of his hand where no one had ever touched her before pulled a hum from her lips. Daryl pulled back, silently asking if he'd gone too far.

"Keep going." She whispered.

He brought his hand back up to cup her cheek. "Tell me to stop and I'll stop."

"Okay." She nodded before he captured her lips between his. As they kissed her hand held the back of his neck and his slid from her face to her chest, paying each breast a bit of attention before moving further down into her shorts. Her breath hitched as his middle finger slipped between her slick folds. When he started slowly circling his finger around she broke the kiss and rested her forehead on his. After a few minutes he stopped, earning a sound of disappointment from her.

He just smirked down at her as he stood on his knees, removed her shorts and boyshorts panties, then moved between her legs, hovered over her and pecked her lips before moving to her neck. Kisses were slowly trailed down her body, sending tingles through her until he got to her core. The feel of his warm wet tongue caused a sharp gasp from her to fill their tent as her hands fisted the blankets at her sides.

When she'd grown used to that new sensation and little sighs and quiet moans came from her he stopped, making her look down at him as slipped a finger inside her, up to his first knuckle before he stopped, silently asking for permission. As soon as she gave him a nod he went back to pleasuring her. With just a few curls of the digit, buried deep inside her and flicks of his tongue she slapped a hand over her mouth in an attempt at keeping her orgasm from being heard by the entire camp. He sat up and watched her come down off her high, loving the sight of it, then moved to his bag, grabbed a clean red rag, wet it and wiped his mouth then handed it to her.

She took it, cleaned up, put her panties and shorts back on then laid down beside him where he laid with his hands tucked behind his head. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she rested her hand on his chest. "What happened to taking it slow?"

"You complainin'?" She asked with a smirk and a look up at him.

"Hell no." He answered with a shake of his head, his voice a little gravely. "Are you?"

Cassie gave him a closed lipped smile as she sat up and straddled him. His eyes slipped down to her naked torso for a few seconds as his hands found her sides. "Im'ma steal your words and say hell no." She answered as her hands roamed his bare chest. "To answer your first question, I still wanna take it slow, but," she fell forward and kissed the demon tattoo on the inner bicep of his right arm, "I don't think you know what looking at your arms all day does to me." then up over his shoulder. "Its torture."

Daryl rolled them over so he was on top. "You wanna talk about torture?" He asked and her eyes darkened as she smiled and bit her bottom lip. "Torture is every time you look at me with those sexy little angel eyes." He moved around so that his forearm was resting next to her head, his fingers slipping through her hair. She wrinkled her nose when he kissed it then hummed when he grabbed her thigh and pulled her leg up close to his hip. Her hands slipped around to press into his back as he ground his hips into her. The feel of him against her core combined with his lips on her neck pulled a quiet moan from her. "Don't take this as me pushin' you, but are you takin' birth control or anything?"

"No, I can't take birth control. So," she answered as she reached over into her bag nearby and fished around until she found the white paper bag covered box, "don't take this as me saying I'm ready, but I asked Glenn to grab these today." She pulled the blue and purple Durex box out of the bag, showing it to him. Daryl quietly laughed and shook his head. "What?"

"I made a request too." He sat up on his knees, reached into his back pocket and pulled out a condom. "I thought it was weird he only gave me one." He tossed the foil packet to the side. "Now I know it was because you were one step ahead of me. Should've known you know how to take care of yourself." 

Cassie smiled as he fell down, catching himself on his hands beside her shoulders. "And I should have known you're not one of those idiots that rely on the pull out method."

"Na, I want us to have fun, not ruin your life." Getting tired, and seeing sleep in her eyes he moved to lay on his back, holding his arm out for Cassie. She smiled at how clingy he was at night and tucked herself into his side, draping her leg over his as he wrapped his arm around her.

TWDTWDTWD

“Alright.” Rick started as the map was rolled out on the hood of Carol’s suv. “Everyone’s getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl and Cassie found she might have gone further east than we’ve been so far.”

“I’d like to help.” Jimmy, one of Hershel’s group, said as he joined them. “I know the area pretty well and stuff.”

“Hershel’s okay with this?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you.” Jimmy answered.

“Alright then. Thanks.” Rick said then turned back to the map.

“Nothing about what Daryl and Cassie found screams Sophia to me.” Shane spoke up. “Anyone could have been hold up in that farmhouse.”

“Anybody includes her, right?” Andrea asked.

“Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high.” Daryl added.

“It’s a good lead.” Andrea told Daryl and Cassie.

“Maybe we'll pick up her trail again.” Rick told them with a reassuring nod.

“No maybe about it.” Daryl said as he leaned over to look at the map. “I’m gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird’s eye view of the whole grid. If she’s up there we’ll spot her.”

“Good idea.” T-Dog said. “Maybe you’ll see your chupacabra up there too.”

“Chupacabra?” Rick asked with an amused raise of his brows and Cassie smirked.

“You never heard this?” Dale asked and Rick shook his head no. “Our first night at camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra.”

Jimmy laughed.

“What are you braying at, Jackass?” Daryl asked him.

“So you believe in a blood sucking dog?” Rick asked.

“You believe in dead people walking around?” Daryl countered.

Jimmy reached for the rifle sitting on the hood of the suv. “Hey, hey. You ever fire one before?” RIck asked as he took it out of his hand.

“Well, if I'm going out I want one.” Jimmy answered.

“Yeah, and people in hell want slurpees.” Daryl said as he tossed his crossbow over his back. He looked at Cassie. “You comin’?”

“You said you were taking a horse?” she asked and he nodded. “I think I’ll hang out here today. Lori slept in, the laundry’s stacking up, and Carol wants to cook dinner for Hershel’s family.”

“She’s scared of horses.” Rick said with a look at Daryl over his shoulder.

“I’m not scared of them. I just don’t particularly like them.” she defended as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Because you’re scared of them.” Shane argued from where he still sat sideways in the passenger seat of the suv with the door open.

“Okay fine, I’m scared of them, but only because they’re big and dirty and they have a tendency to bite and kick.” she admitted making them all smirk at how ridiculous she was being.

“How’s that any different than him?” T-Dog asked with a point to Daryl.

Cassie just deadpanned at him while Shane and Rick chuckled. Daryl walked over and took her hand pulling her a little ways away from the group. “Horses ain’t nothin’ to be scared of.” he reasoned. "Besides you rode one the other day with Maggie."

“I got kicked by one when I was a kid. I don’t mess with horses.” she told him sternly with a shake of her head. "And that was an emergency situation."

“Okay.” he told her with a nod not wanting to pressure her. “See you when I get back.” he placed his hand, that wasn’t holding the strap of his bow, on her waist then bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Be safe out there.” she told him with a look up at him.

“Promise.” he told her before he headed to the stables and she headed to join the other women in hanging up the laundry.

TWDTWDTWD

Worry started to build in the pit of Cassie's stomach when lunch time came and went and Daryl still hadn't returned. Rick found her taking her and Daryl's clothes off the line. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.

Cassie noticed the deep crease in his brow. "Of course." She answered as she finished folding her shirt then tossed it into a basket. Rick grabbed her hand and led her over to the nearby picnic table. "What's wrong?" She asked as they sat down on the bench facing one another.

"Do you think Sophia's a cat in a tree?" He asked.

Cassie frowned and shook her head. "I don't understand what you're asking."

"Are we wasting time and resources…putting our people in danger for a lost cause?" He asked.

Cassie tilted her head at him and bit her lips closed in thought. "Is that what you think?"

"No…" he sighed and rubbed at his temples. "It's what Shane thinks. He said I need to start making the hard decisions, thinkin' about the math. Alive or dead, Sophia only matters to the degree in which she doesn't drag the rest of us down."

"Yeah…that sounds like him." She sighed as she ran her hand through her hair pushing her loose waves out of her face.

"I just…I can't abandon her." Rick told her quietly. "If it was Carl out there…I'd need to find him…I'd need to know if he was alive or not."

Cassie put her elbow on the table and made a fist, pressing her lips to the back of her fingers in thought. After a minute she dropped her hand and looked at him. "I know Shane's a dick-"

"Don't tell me you agree with him." Rick interrupted her.

"I don't." She told him with a pointed look. "I understand why we're fighting so hard to find her. A parent should have closure in situations like this, but sometimes it just doesn't happen and there's nothing anyone can do about it." She pointed out.

He sighed and put his elbow on the picnic table, covering his eyes with his hand. She knew it wasn't what he wanted to hear, he was being Rick, fighting to keep hope alive. "I'm not saying we stop looking for her today or tomorrow or even the day after that." She gently took his hand from his face and held it in hers as she looked him in the eyes. "I'm just saying that nothing is ever completely black or completely white. Shane's not entirely right and you're not entirely wrong." Rick gave her hand a squeeze as he looked her in the eyes. "Sometimes the gray area is the right place to be."

"Yeah…maybe." He sighed as he dropped his eyes from hers to look down at their hands. Her eyes looked at them too and as his thumb caressed the back of her hand, making her heart skip a beat and her stomach flutter.

"Walker!" Andrea yelled from where she sat on top of the rv on watch, pulling them out of the moment.

They both ran toward the RV. "Is it just the one?" Rick asked.

Andrea grabbed the binoculars and looked then dropped them and grabbed a shot gut. "I bet I can nail it from here."

"No. Andrea put the gun down." Rick told her as Glenn, Shane and T-Dog came over.

"You best let us handle this." Shane told her walking over with a pickaxe in his hand.

"Shane, hold up." Rick told him. "Hershel wants to deal with walkers."

"What for, man? We got it covered." Shane replied, still heading toward the pasture.

"Damn it." Rick scoffed and grabbed his gun out of the camper then followed Shane, Glenn, Cassie and T-Dog, as they all started running out to the field.

When they got close they realized it was Daryl. He looked like he had been through hell. They all stopped, Rick with his gun still raised. "That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl asked, out of breath and pissed. Rick dropped his gun, realizing Daryl wasn't a walker. But a shot was fired, knocking Daryl backwards.

“No!” Cassie cried, frozen in shock for a few seconds while Shane and Rick jumped into action.

They both took an arm picking him up. "I was kidding." Daryl grumbled before he passed out.

Dale and Andrea met up with them as Shane and Rick dragged Daryl who'd passed out. “Oh my god. Is he dead?” Andrea asked.

“Unconscious.” Rick answered. “You just grazed him.”

“But look at him. What the hell happened?” Glenn asked. “He’s wearing ears.”

Rick looked at the shoe string of ears and pulled them off of Daryl’s neck, tucking them into his shirt pocket. “Let’s keep that to ourselves.”

Cassie just walked along with them, too shocked to speak. “Guys.” T-Dog said, making them stop to look at him to see him holding up a doll. “Isn’t this Sophia’s?”

“Dad.” Cassie said, getting Shane’s attention, her eyes trained on the makeshift bandage wrapped around his waist. The material at his side was soaked through with fresh blood. “His side…”

“Let’s get him to Hershel.” Shane said as he and Rick resumed carrying Daryl to the farmhouse. Once they got close Hershel ushered Rick and Shane into a bedroom, shutting the door before she could go in.

“They’ll take care of him.” Lori told her from behind her and she turned to see that Andrea and Glenn were in the hallways as well.

“Who the fuck gave your dumb ass a gun?” Cassie snapped at Andrea.

“Don’t be like that.” Lori told her. “She didn't mean to shoot him.”

“And that is precisely why she shouldn’t have a gun.” Cassie told Lori with a point at Andrea. “She doesn’t know how to handle it.”

“I can shoot just fine.” Andrea defended herself. “The sun was in my eyes.”

“I said nothing about your ability to shoot. Although that’s questionable too, thank God.” Cassie argued loudly. “I said you couldn't handle it, as in the responsibility. There is more to using a gun than aiming and pulling the trigger. You have to know exactly what you’re aiming at and be damn sure that pulling that trigger is the right choice.”

“Cassie, you need to stop.” Lori tried to calm her down.

“No.” Cassie told Lori then looked back at Andrea. “You need to understand that using a gun isn’t about feeling empowered or being a badass or trying to prove to everyone that you can handle yourself.” Cassie said as she took a step closer to Andrea who took a step back. “It’s about protection…survival. Killing animals or walkers.” The shot ringing out, Daryl falling, replayed in her head, sparking a burning fury inside her. “Not only was Daryl not a walker but he was surrounded by people who were without a doubt living humans, your group members! The sun was in your fucking eyes you could have killed one of them!”

“Cass.” Shane’s voice behind her made her turn to see him standing in the open door of the room. He jerked his head for her to join them. She walked into the room to see Daryl shirtless, the makeshift bandage gone.

He was still out, laying on his side while Hershel stiched up a hole in his back. “No major organs or arteries were punctured. He’s going to be fine.” Hershel told her and she heaved out a sigh of relief. “And I’d appreciate it if you’d watch your mouth while under my roof.”

“Sorry, Mr. Greene.” She apologized, looking up at Shane and they shared a smirk, both of them knowing where she got the foul language from.

Needing to be close to him Cassie moved to sit at Daryls head on the side he was facing. Rick left and came back with a map eager to find out what information Daryl had about Sophia. 

"I didn't want you in here, but since you are here." Hershel handed her a folded pad of white linen. "Hold this on his head to slow the bleeding." She took it and gently moved Daryl's head to rest on the side of her knee as she pressed the pad over the mark Andrea's bullet made.

He came too with a jerk and a wild look in his eye.

"Hey, you're okay. I'm right here." She instinctively soothed him and when he realized he was safe he let his head fall back down on her knee. She gently brushed his hair back off his forehead and away from the sore before she put the pad back on it.

"Who the hell shot me?" Daryl asked with a glare off into the distance then flinched and glared down at Hershel who continued stitching him up.

"Andrea." Shane answered.

"I suggest we steer clear of that subject for now." Rick said as he walked into the room and rolled the map out on the bed. Daryl picked his head up and propped it up with his hand and elbow. "How bout you tell us about this?" He tossed the doll onto the bed.

“I found that doll washed up on the creek bed right there.” Daryl told Rick with a point at the map. "She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere.” Hershel continued stitching up the other hole on Daryl’s side.

“That cuts the grid almost in half.” Rick said with a look over his shoulder at Shane who sat behind him in a chair against the wall.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Daryl said with a look up at Cassie before he turned to look at his side.

“How’s he lookin’?” Rick asked with a look at Hershel.

“I had no idea we’d be going through the antibiotics so quickly.” Hershel answered as he cut the string, finishing with Daryl’s stitches before moving to the wash basin to wash his hands. “Any idea what happened to my horse?”

“You mean the one that tried to kill me?” Daryl asked. “If it’s smart it left the country.”

Cassie couldn’t help but smirk as she watched Rick start rolling up the map. “We call that one Nelly.” Hershel told him as Daryl closed his eyes and laid his head back down on Cassie’s lap. “As in Nervous Nelly. I could have told you she’d throw you if you’d bothered to ask. It’s a wonder you people have survived this long.”

Rick and Shane left while Hershel stayed and finished bandaging Daryl’s stitches and head. “Don’t get those wet.” Hershel told him.

Daryl just hummed and laid back down, putting his hand back in Cassie’s lap as Hershel left. Content to just let him rest Cassie started playing with his hair soothingly. Daryl sighed at the relaxing sensation and she smiled to herself. After a few minutes his breathing changed and not long after his quiet snores filled the room. So she slipped from the bed, laying his head on a pillow. She brushed his hair off of his forehead before placing a soft kiss to the dirty skin and going back down stairs.

TWDTWDTWD

Aside from the scraping of forks on plates, the dining room was dead silent. People just looked around awkwardly or stared off in thought. “Uh, Cassie,” Glenn said, getting her attention and she looked up from where she was eating on the floor next to the kiddy table where he, Maggie, Jimmy and Beth sat. “was that you I heard playing the guitar and singin’ the other night?”

“Yeah, why?” she asked around a bite of ham.

“It just…really quiet.” he replied. “Thought some music might help.”

“I’ll play, if people want, but I’m not singing.” she answered.

“I’ll sing.” Beth spoke up.

“That won’t be necessary.” Hershel spoke up, shutting the whole thing down.

“Heavy awkward silence it is then.” Glenn sighed as he turned back to his plate.

“You tried.” Cassie told him with a half smile and a shrug.

As soon as she was done eating Cassie brought her plate and fork to the kitchen. Carol came in after her and started fixing another plate with the extras that were in the kitchen. “Do you care if I bring Daryl up some dinner?” Carol asked meekly.

Cassie gave her a confused look. “Why are you asking me?”

“I know you two have a…thing, goin’ on.” Carol told her. “I just don’t want to step on your toes or anything.”

Cassie laughed. “You’re not stepping on my toes.”

“Alright, just didn’t know after the way you reacted earlier…yelling at Andrea and all that.” Carol told her as she put a glass of juice on a tray.

“I’m protective, not possessive.” Cassie told her with a smirk. “You’re a grown woman, he's a grown man. You don’t need my permission to talk to him.” she said with a wave toward the stairs. 

"Ok." Carol told her then picked up the tray and walked away.

Cassie chuckled quietly to herself with a shake of her head as she grabbed Carol's dishes and started washing them. She was almost done when Rick came in with his and Lori's and started washing them. "I can get that." She told him as she reached for the dishes.

"The cook shouldn't clean." He argued as he pulled them back.

"Fine, I'll rinse." She sighed and he shook his head.

"So, you sang the other night?" Rick asked and she just hummed a positive answer. "What happened to the whole 'my voice is a curse' line you fed me?" He asked.

"I still believe it." She replied, taking a dish he handed her.

"But you'll sing for Daryl?" He asked.

"He asked me to and I told him the same thing I told you, but he kept insisting. So, I told him if he found me a guitar I'd sing." She explained.

"And he found a guitar." He guessed.

"And I don't break my promises." She finished.

"If I find you a pick for that guitar, will you sing for me?" He asked.

"Nope." She answered, popping the p at the end of the word.

"Aw come on, why not?" He asked, his voice jumping it pitch the way it always did when he picked with her, making her smile.

"Because, I know you keep a pick, autographed by Hank Williams jr, in your wallet for luck. And Lori kept your wallet." She answered as she rinsed the dish and set it in the drainer. "I'm flattered though."

Carol and a few other ladies came into the kitchen making it a little crowded. So Rick left and the women started cleaning up. When they were done Cassie headed up to check on Daryl. She found him lying on his good side, his back to the door that she closed behind her. He looked over his shoulder at the sound. "You haven't touched your dinner."

"I ain't hungry." He answered then looked back at the wall across the room.

"You gonna make me play nurse?" She asked as she sat down on the bed behind him. When he didn't say anything she worried she'd done something wrong, but he'd been through hell so she didn't press the matter. "Okay, I'll let you get some rest then."

When he felt the bed shift he turned to see her headed for the door. "Why you leavin'?"

She stopped and turned back to him. She hummed an I don't know. "Got the feelin' you wanted space."

"Come 'ere." He waved her over and patted the bed in front of him. So she walked around and laid down across from him. Daryl pulled her close. "I don't want space, not from you."

"Just everyone else?" She asked.

"I ain't used to people takin' care of me." He answered. "Under any other circumstances I'd still be out there, fightin' for my life on my own."

A few quiet moments passed. "You know why you're not on your own anymore, right?" She asked and he didn't answer. "Because you're worth caring for and people can see that now." Daryl's eyes softened. "So let them." He simply pulled her closer and nuzzled his face into her neck.

After a few minutes a knock came from the door before it opened and both of them looked toward it to see Beth, standing meekly in the doorway. "Cassie, my dad said you can't stay in here tonight."

"Why not?" Cassie asked with a frown.

"Unwed couples don't share rooms." She answered.

"Are you kidding me?" Cassie asked and Beth shook her head. "I swear…I'm living in Amish country." She complained as she rolled out of the bed onto her feet then stood. She was headed for the door when she heard Daryl grunt. "What are you doin'?" She asked when she saw him pushing himself up.

"Comin' with you." He grunted, as he swung his legs to hang over the side of the bed.

"No. You need to stay in bed and rest. Sleeping on the floor in a tent won't do your side any favors." She argued as she moved to kneel in front of him, resting her hand on his knees. Beth walked away, giving them some space. He glared at her, determination in his eyes. "Fine. Come on." She stood and hooked her arm around his back and he threw his arm over her shoulders.

She helped him to his tent where they bedded down and he fell asleep with her tucked into his chest.

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[twdeadfanfic]

Stranded Pt.5

TWD|Death Stranding AU with aspects of both worlds and my own thing, and mostly TWD characters showing up as we go.  

Daryl Dixon x OC

Summary: 30 years have passed since the Stranding ended the world as it was known, as if pretty much the apocalypse came, and now people live in isolated communities or by themselves, while the dead walkers roam the world and so do hostile groups of people. Daryl Dixon is a freelance porter that during a delivery finds an orphan baby who he takes, unsure of what do with her, and not much later stumbles into Rick Grimes, and ex-guard looking for his missing family with the help of Grady Memorial Settlement, in exchange of working for them by joining to their net the other settlements, reconnecting the world, and with the help of Vikki, a scout sent by Grady to take Rick to those settlements, and to help them reach Alexandria, the final destination, a big, distant settlement, where his family is supposed to be.

Chapter 4/25  Words 4082

Find more chapters and fic in my masterlist

The last chapter, Daryl and Rick met Glenn Rhree, a prepper friend of Vikki, and together they went to the Greene’s farm to conect the place to the net, finding out that a new nearby settlement, Woodbury, is giving trouble to them.

*

On the next morning, Daryl couldn’t help his worry as he watched Rick and Vikki leave the farm, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty too, but looking down at the baby strapped to his chest with the sling, he couldn’t help but feel that he had to stay with her. He kept her with him while he worked on repairing the wall of the greenhouse with Glenn, mindful of anything that could hurt Baby. When he had to get up on the roof to check that there weren’t any crack or fissure that could let timefall in, though, he left Baby with Beth, afraid of tripping with her strapped to him.

Baby seemed to like Beth enough, seeming happy with her, and the girl seemed good with her, she was always happy to hold her. While Daryl worked on the roof, he watched them from time to time as Beth fed the baby one of the bottles. She was good with babies and she really seemed to care for Baby. The Greene’s were good people, Vikki was right, Baby would be okay if he left her there, they’d take good care of her, and still…still Daryl felt uneasy at the idea of getting separated from her, and sad too, if he admitted it.

When he climbed off the roof and Baby saw him, she cooed and smiled, reaching out towards him, and Daryl couldn’t help the way it made him feel or his smile, approaching Beth and picking Baby up. “I think it was destiny that you found her.” Beth grinned. “I mean…it’s horrible that her parents died, I don’t wish it had happened, but looking at you both…it’s like you both belong together.” Daryl didn’t know what to think of all that…and neither did he know how he was going to leave Baby… “Did you ever want to have kids? I mean, I think it’s not in most porters' life, considering that way of living…but did you?”

Daryl looked at Beth, but of course, she couldn’t have known the dart of pain, sorrow, and guilt that would embed in his heart at her words, and she was still innocently smiling at him. Daryl looked down and swallowed hard, trying to push the feelings and memories away, to never think of it again. “Never thought I’d have one,” was the only thing he muttered.

“Well…you got one now.” Beth giggled. “But, you don’t regret it, right?” Daryl shook his head, he had to admit that he loved and cared for that baby. “I think you’re a great father, especially considering that you’ve been one for just like…four days?”

“I ain’t,” Daryl muttered, turning to walk away from Beth, she didn’t mean to, but her words were making memories that Daryl had fought hard to keep locked come back, and he didn’t want to, he couldn’t deal with them. Maybe Baby would be better with the Greene’s than with him…of course she would, what had made him think that a baby could be good with him. Yet, the idea of leaving her just added more pain to the one that his memories were making him feel, and he didn’t know how to stop it, and so he walked away, afraid of ending up crying in front of Beth and Glenn, towards another greenhouse to check that everything was okay.

*

When Rick and Vikki came back, they had a woman with them, her hands tied behind her back and a katana strapped to it. She seemed dangerous, or at the very least, a warrior or a survivor, and she looked around warily. Daryl tucked the baby in the sling, covering her so she couldn’t be seen, and approached them.

“Who’s this?” He asked and the woman looked at him, and then at the bump of material strapped to his chest, and even though the baby couldn’t be seen, Daryl knew that she knew what he was carrying.

“She says she’s called Michonne, she’s from Woodbury, we found her in our way there,” Vikki explained.

“And why the hell you took her and brought her here?” Daryl snapped.

“Because she came to us asking if we were from the farm and saying that she wanted to help.”

“And you trusted her?” Daryl rolled his eyes, neither Rick nor Vikki had seemed idiots to him, but now he wasn’t sure.

“No, I don’t, so I tied her up and we’re gonna interrogate her,” Rick said, pushing the woman towards the barn. Alright, maybe he wasn’t an idiot after all.

“I told you I’m not from there! I arrived there yesterday!” The woman, Michonne, said, glaring at them. “I heard some of them talking about attacking a farm in two days, that’s why I went out to tell you all!”

“Are you helping?” Rick asked to Daryl, ignoring Michonne, and Daryl nodded. He unwrapped the sling and passed the baby to Beth, who seemed scared but rushed to take the baby, holding her tightly to her chest.

Hershel approached them, frowning at the scene. “Vikki, I don’t know…tying up a woman, interrogating her in my barn…I don’t like it.”

“Me neither, but if we are going to be attacked, we need to know everything we can,” Vikki reached out to squeeze Hershel’s arm. “Now, get into the house with Beth and BB,” she said and Daryl didn’t lose time to correct her about the name at that moment. “Maggie, Glenn, go somewhere high and make sure nobody is approaching, take the rifles.”

“Do we have to shoot people?” Maggie asked, seeming as unsure as Glenn.

“No…maybe, I don’t know.” Vikki shrugged, letting out a sigh, but honestly, Daryl was impressed with how she was organizing everything in a few seconds. “Just…just keep an eye out for people, they could be porters or scouts, but they could also be from Woodbury and we know they’re not friendly, if you see someone, you call for us.”

“If they get close, you warn them to stop or you’ll shoot,” Rick added. “We three, let’s go to the barn.”

They tied the woman to a chair and took her katana, and she kept glaring at them as if she wanted to get her katana back and cut their heads off, but she answered to everything that they asked, and Daryl had to admit it, she sounded genuine.

“What were you doing in Woodbury?”

“I ran out of supplies and when I saw Woodbury ahead I went to see if they had something.”

“What were you doing out there?”

Michonne shrugged. “I don’t have a permanent place.”

“Why?”

“That has nothing to do with it.” Michonne shrugged but Daryl could read the look on her eyes, she was trying to run away from memories, he understood that well.

“Why you stayed at Woodbury?” He asked her.

“I didn’t want to but my gir- my friend, she did.” Michonne scoffed. “I found a woman a few months ago, she was being attacked by walkers and I helped her, she decided to stay with me…but she never liked to be out there. And it seems she likes the Governor more than she liked me,” she said bitterly.

“The Governor?”

“That’s how the man leading Woodbury calls himself. I didn’t like him, but Andrea is blind when it comes to him, I didn’t trust him, his men, the place…but she wanted to stay, said I was paranoid.”

“So…your girlfriend dumped you for a guy and so you decide to betray them,” Vikki said. “I mean, sure it sucks, but-”

“It’s not like that!” Michonne snapped. “I told you, I heard them talking about attacking a farm…I just thought about waning you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” The woman shrugged.

Daryl looked at Rick and nodded. He couldn’t be sure, he couldn’t trust her, but he thought the woman was genuine. What was sure was that the farm was in danger, they had thought that before, and now it seemed confirmed. They could just hope that the woman wasn’t trying to lead them to a tramp.

“When are they coming?”

“I’m not sure, tomorrow I think.”

“Can we speak to them? Negotiate?”

“I doubt it.” Michonne scoffed bitterly. “By the sound of it, it doesn’t seem like this would be the first place they raid.”

“And I was thinking we only had to worry about that Saviour group, what’s wrong with people? Alright…alright, we have to get ready.” Vikki looked at Daryl and Rick as if looking for support, and they nodded.

“Let’s go.”

“You’re gonna leave me tied here?” Michonne called after them.

“Yes.”

“I can help!”

Without another word to her, they left the barn. There wasn’t much to get ready, or to plan, though. The farm didn’t have many defenses, just fences that worked for walkers but wouldn’t do so for alive, thinking people, and they didn’t have many weapons besides a couple of riffles. Still, Hershel wouldn’t leave the farm, and Daryl could understand why. He wanted to help, couldn’t talk himself out of it even if he had just known that people for a day, but when he looked at Baby, he was overwhelmed with worry and fear. Over everything, he had to make sure that she was safe.

*

Daryl was about to go take watch so Maggie and Glenn could sleep when Maggie came running, calling for them. “Vikki? Rick? There’s a woman out of the fences, we told her not to move but she said that she has to talk with us.”

It turned out the woman was called Andrea, and she seemed to be the friend whom Michonne had been talking about, both women confirming it when they tied Andrea inside the barn too. Apparently, she had heard the men talking about attacking the farm too, as she apologized to Michonne for having doubted her and having put the Governor before her, and honestly, Daryl didn’t care for all that drama, he just wanted to keep the farm, the people, and the baby safe, he didn’t want to get tangled in whatever drama was going on between those women.

Andrea didn’t bring good news, though, she confirmed that the men had said they’d attack in the morning. “The people who live there, they don’t know anything about it, I promise,” she told them before she glanced at Michonne. “I didn’t either but I should have trusted your instinct, I’m sorry.” Michonne didn’t say anything, still seeming hurt, and Daryl understood, she’d been betrayed by someone she loved…still, the more he studied Andrea, the more he thought that she was saying the truth. “Let me go back, I’ll tell the people, I’ll find a way for them to believe me. If they unite, they can overthrow the Governor and his men.”

“What do you think?” Rick asked, looking at Daryl and Vikki.

“I think she’s saying the truth, both of them,” Vikki said. “What would they gain by sending someone like this? They already know where we are, if they wanted to attack us, they could, why send them?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why…” Rick nodded. “Daryl?” He chewed on his lip, but finally nodded too. Vikki was right, he didn’t understand why Woodbury would send those two women instead of attacking them, unless they were saying the truth, though he still was wary to trust them. “Alright then, you go back and tell the people, and us…what do we do?”

“We have to attack first,” Michonne said. “Take advantage of them not knowing that we are going, instead of waiting, we take them by surprise.”

“So you want us to leave this undefended when they attack?” Daryl asked, suspicious once again, and Michonne rolled her eyes in frustration.

“What do you want? You three against the Governor and his men while they tear down this farm? The crops getting destroyed and the cattle hurt? The farmer and his family getting caught up in it? That baby of yours?” No, he didn’t want that. Fear and rage filled him and Daryl felt like kicking Michonne’s chair, but he wasn’t going to take it out on her when she was just saying the truth.

“We can’t let that happen…” Vikki said.

“Then come on. Untie me,” Michonne said. “Keep someone on watch here, we go to Woodbury, sneak in there in the dark, find the Governor and their men while Andrea tells the people how they really are.”

Rick let out a sigh, but finally nodded. “I guess we can’t do much else.”

And so, they untied the women to follow Michonne’s plan, even get her katana back, and Daryl really, really hoped that this wasn’t a trap and they where about to be betrayed, because she looked like she could slash their heads off in three seconds without breaking a sweat. They left Hershel and Beth locked inside the house with Baby, and Glenn and Maggie taking watch, though they instructed them that if they saw the men coming, not to try to protect the farm but just leave and run away, to try not to be seen or caught. It took a while to convince Hershel of the idea of abandoning his farm, and Daryl had almost threatened him, Baby was with him and he wasn’t going to let her die protecting a farm, but finally he had agreed, and also Daryl trusted that Beth would run and hide with the baby.

She had been asleep when Daryl left and he was glad for it, she hadn’t known that he was leaving, maybe it’d have upset her…still, all the way to Woodbury, he couldn’t help but worry about Baby, scared of her ending up hurt or even killed, so much that his stomach felt like it was closing and as if a heavy weight were pressing on his chest. Everything could go wrong, he didn’t know how he’d ended up tangled in this, he should have just taken the baby and leave…leave where to? And he had to find Merle…he had known already that the journey to find Merle was dangerous, it wasn’t one to have a baby with him, and there he was, he was putting her at risk already…

“Hey…” Vikki whispered, tugging at his sleeve, and Daryl pulled his arm away but he looked at her. “BB will be safe, alright?” She tried to assure him, but despite her weak smile, she seemed nervous and unsure too. “Now let’s focus on this.”

“I’ve never sneaked into a settlement to kill the people in there,” Daryl admitted, he was starting to lose faith on this working, he wasn't sure that he’d had much to being with.

“Me neither…” Vikki whispered back. “But it’s for a good cause, yeah? I mean, they wanted to kill us and take our stuff?”

“Yeah, don’t care about them, they got it coming, just down want us fucking this up.”

“Maybe we don’t need to kill them, just capture them or-” Vikki kept going, but Daryl interrupted her, shaking his head, he wasn’t risking it, not with Baby at the farm.

“Nah, we do whatever we have to.”

“Yeah…yeah, I guess you’re right.”

They managed to sneak into the Woodbury settlement in the dark without being seen, following Andrea’s instructions, who had managed to steal from the Governor a key for the door of one of the back fences. It wasn’t a big place, but it was well prepared, all the area surrounded with grating and metal walls, and several roofs protecting it from walkers and timefall, so inside they had tiny, actual houses, similar to Hershel’s bigger one, a sight Daryl wasn’t used to. He was used to preppers bunkers or to tall, metallic and concrete buildings like in Grady, or even to underground places. This was nice, sure, but Daryl thought that it’d be harder to protect too in case of an attack either by walkers or hostile groups.

Michonne and Rick would cover one side, looking for the Governor and putting down his men if they found them, though Andrea thought that if they killed the Governor, then everyone might just give up, but they couldn’t be sure. Daryl and Vikki would do the same on the other side, while Andrea sneaked into her room to try and pretend that she’d never left, while thinking a way of making people believe what was going on. Daryl still thought that it wasn’t going to work, but he didn’t know what else they could do.

Vikki and him kept going, hiding in the shadows, until they spotted a man ahead, and Daryl felt Vikki’s hand on his arm but tried not to flinch. “I think that’s one of the men who came to the farm,” she whispered. The man was heavy-armed and wearing military gear…they must have raided old military camps, they had been abandoned long, long ago, and by now those were full of walkers, so those guys must know what they were doing. It didn’t make Daryl feel more hopeful. He took his crossbow and aimed at the man, putting him down silently. “Maybe we could have-” Vikki began, but she stopped when she looked at Daryl. “Yeah…you’re right.” They kept going, but as they turned a corner, suddenly the whole place was brightly illuminated by big spotlights. “What’s going?”

“Everybody, wake up! We are under attack”

Shit…Daryl cursed under his breath, looking around as armed men and civilians alike got out of the houses. He looked around and spotted a man on the balcony of a tall building, who was holding Andrea. Shit. That must be the Governor then and he had found out about Andrea. This was not working as it should…

“We have been betrayed,” the Governor announced. “Look at this. We took Andrea in, we welcomed her, and she goes out in the middle of the night to bring people to kill us, to take our settlement!”

“That’s not true!” Andrea struggled but she couldn’t break free. “He was planning on attacking a farm near here, he is the one who wanted to take their place and their food and he didn’t care who he had to kill to get it!”

“Stop lying!” The Governor went to take his gun as if he were going to execute Andrea, but she was faster than Daryl would have given her credit, breaking free of the Governo’s grasp and taking the knife from his belt. She went to sink it into his head but the Governor was already shooting, and so she didn’t manage to kill him, but Daryl heard the Governor’s screams as he held his bleeding face, so at least she must have hurt him. Andrea fell to the floor of the terrace and Daryl didn’t know if she was dead or not, but then bullets began flying and he felt Vikki tugging at him, both of them taking cover behind some stone pillars.

“What do we do now?!” Vikki asked him but Daryl didn’t have any answer. “If we leave they’ll go to the farm, we can’t let that happen.” No, they couldn’t, but Daryl wasn’t sure how they could stop those men either.

“How many of them do you think they are? The Governor’s men, not the civilians.”

“I don’t know…four men came to the farm but he must have had more here…” Vikki leaned to look around, but she ducked behind the column again when bullets flew in their direction. Daryl recharged the crossbow with an arrow and waited until the shots stopped. Hoping that the man was recharging, he took a deep breath and stepped outside the cover of the column, aiming and shooting the man dead before he could shot first. “Nice aiming.” Vikki said…yeah, he had good aim, might be the only good thing about himself, good aim for hunting food, putting down walkers silently, and now it seemed that to kill men too. Daryl didn’t let himself think much about it.

“Come on, we gotta fight back,” he told Vikki, even if he wasn’t sure that they could win, they had to try.

Before they could do anything, though, Daryl heard screams everywhere, and what seemed the growls and groans of walkers. “What’s going on?” Vikki’s eyes scanned around, wide and wild, but Daryl had no idea…walkers were attracted to the commotion for sure, but they wouldn’t have reached it so fast…

Then, a woman with a little kid on her arms took the corner, running and seeming terrified, but she stopped when she saw them. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot please!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Vikki raised her hands as if trying to calm her and Daryl followed her lead, lowering his crossbow, but the woman was still looking around terrified. “The Governor was lying, we don’t-”

“He’s gone insane!” The woman interrupted Vikki. “I saw him, he…he kept yelling about betrayal and he was bleeding, he’d lost an eye he…he opened a garage and he had a group of walkers there, he set them loose, it's big, they’re killing everyone, they’re everywhere!”

No doubt the woman looked so terrified. This was such a mess, Daryl didn’t even know what to think anymore. Vikki took her gun and handed it to the woman. “Take this and lock yourself somewhere, okay? Don’t open it, you hear me? There.” She pointed at one of the houses, pushing the gun into the woman’s hand, who seemed in shock, and then pushed her towards the house.

“Right…right…thank you.” The woman nodded and ran to the house.

Daryl could see a group of walkers approaching, and he couldn’t believe that the Governor had really released walkers on them, inside his own settlement, without caring about his people being killed. Daryl heard a rattling sound next to him and when he looked, Vikki had dropped her bag and was taking what seemed to be a chain whip out of it.

“Don’t get in the middle and I’ll try not to get in the middle of your shooting either,” she said, and before Daryl could say anything, she was charging against the walkers.

She swung the chain and spinned around, pushing away every walker around and cutting the heads off several of them as she did so with a skill that had Daryl glued to the spot, before he kicked into action and shot an arrow at one of the walkers who hadn’t died, putting it down.  Vikki looked at him and nodded before she swung the chain again at the approaching walkers, and off there were their heads again…she was way stronger than Daryl had thought, he had to admit it.

Daryl didn’t reload the crossbow again, instead shouldering it and taking his knife to put down the walkers by hand. It’d been a while since he’d had to face a group of them like that, but he was glad to find that he hadn’t lost the skill, and so he put down walker after walker, making sure to stay far enough from Vikki’s chain so his head wouldn’t be cut too, though she really seemed to know what she was doing.

Once there were no walkers around, they nodded at each other and walked up the street looking for more. There were a few dead on the ground, but also dead people, both armed ones and civilians, and they spotted some scared faces behind the windows too. Following the growls, they reached another group of them, but Michonne was there, swinging her katana around, skillfully beheading walker after walker. Daryl looked at her and then at Vikki, who was getting her whip ready again. It seemed that he’d teamed up with two warriors or something without knowing so, he kind of knew that they had to be fighters, but not like this…not like  he’d complain.

Rick was there too, shooting at the walkers who were approaching by the other side, and so did Daryl. Once all of them were down, they didn’t have time to recover their breath, as two Governor’s men came running to them, but Rick and Daryl were faster, and before the men could shot at them, they shot first, putting them down.

“Watch out!”

Daryl heard Vikki’s voice and he tugged at Rick just in time as he noticed the Governor seeming to come out of nowhere, trying to shot at them. He was holding his face with one hand, bleeding from his eye, but his shaky hand was holding a gun aimed at them.

*

We finally got Michonne! And kind of a cliffhanger.

Thanks to the people who gave me their support last chapter, and I’m sorry if this is a big dissappointment, but I really worked hard in this story, so thanks for giving it a chance.

As always, excuse my English, is not my first language

If you want to be (un)tagged, let me know. I also can remove you only from this fic.

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[trashcanband4]

Torn Ch. 7

Torn Masterlist

Pairing: Eventual DarylxOcxRick. Setting: On the road after the CDC. Warnings: None that I can think of.

Cassie woke up the next morning alone in the cube van. As she opened the back of the van she saw that the others were already gathered around the hood of a car looking at a map. When she walked up Rick stopped talking, placed the black roll that Carl had found the day before on the hood and rolled it out. “Everyone take a weapon.”

“These aren’t the kind of weapons we need.” Andrea argued.

“Would you like me to turn over my pistol?” Cassie asked as she pulled the pistol out and laid it on the hood of the car. “I gladly will, I don’t need it to protect myself. Guns will just get us in trouble anyway.”

“That’s not necessary.” Shane told his daughter as he picked up the gun, handed it back to her then gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder. “Cassie’s right.” Shane said with a pointed look at Andrea before he started speaking to everyone. “Daryl, Rick, Cassie and I are carrying. We can’t have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles.”

“It’s not the tree’s I’m worried about.” Andrea popped off.

“Say somebody fires at the wrong moment and a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it’s game over for all of us. So you need to get over it.” Shane shut Andrea up.

To keep the fight from continuing Daryl started talking. “The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she’ll be near the creek, it’s her only landmark.”

Cassie, just like everyone else, made sure she had everything she needed in her backpack before she stood at the guard rail waiting for Andrea and Dale to stop arguing and for the others to get ready to go out.

When everyone was ready, Daryl and Rick led the group. Cassie took the back of the search party behind Shane, Lori and Carl. “Shane, Look.” Carl started excitedly showing Shane the knife that he had been given. “Dad said I could carry it and mom said as long as I was car-”

“Keep it down!” Shane whispered harshly at the young boy. “We’re looking for Sophia. You need to focus on the task.” Shane scolded and turned around walking backward, looking around him. When his eyes landed on Cassie she glared at him. Carl caught up to his mom looking like a kicked puppy.

Cassie sped up to walk beside her father. “Do you have to be so hard on him?” she asked quietly. “I know things between you and Lori are…strained, for a lack of a better word, but you can’t take it out on him. He’s just an innocent kid.”

“Yeah, well, Lori told me to stay away from him, so…” he didn’t look at her.

“So don’t seek him out, but when he comes to you excited about something…be nice. If this is how you treat kids…maybe it’s a good thing you abandoned me before you could do anymore damage.” Cassie didn’t look at him as she sped up and left him behind.

When she caught up to Daryl and Rick, they all noticed a white and yellow tent off in the distance. Cassie and Rick followed Daryl while the others stayed further back. Daryl stopped and motioned for Cassie and Rick to stay back while he checked inside the tent. Cassie bit her lip and looked up at the sky with a quick prayer before she looked back at Daryl where he leaned over to look through the tent flap then moved to the corner to attempt a peek inside.

Rick called Carol over to get her to call out to Sophia. Several attempts got no movement from the tent, so Cassie and Rick moved in closer, taking aim as Daryl pulled the door flap aside. As soon as the flap was pulled back the foul stench of a rotting corpse hit them in the faces like a speeding brick wall. As Daryl went in Cassie couldn’t help but drop her bow to cover her mouth and gag. “Pretty sure she’s not in there.” Cassie said with a cough as she backed away from the tent and Daryl popped out.

“What’s in there?” Andrea asked from where the rest of the group stood further away from the tent.

“Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain’t that what he called it?”

A few seconds after Daryl stopped talking, what sounded like church bells hit their ears and everyone started running toward the sound, all spouting theories of what and who could be ringing them. Soon, they came upon a church, but as Shane pointed out, there was no bell tower or even a steeple.

Rick however didn’t listen and started off for the church in a sprint. The rest had no choice but to follow. Daryl and Rick quietly walked up the stairs to the front double doors and stood off to the side. Cassie and Shane got their weapons at the ready and gave Rick and Daryl a nod, letting them know they were ready for whatever may be on the other side.

As the doors were pushed open, three walkers stood from the pews. Cassie didn’t hesitate to let an arrow loose into a male walker who sat at the front of the room on the right side. Meanwhile Daryl handed his bow to Glenn, and made smooching noises at a female walker to get her attention, Cassie walked around him and to the walker she had shot and retrieved her arrow.

Rick took down the last walker in the room by bashing its skull in with a hatchet. “I’m telling you, it’s the wrong church. It’s got no steeple, Rick.” Shane said again as he walked to the front of the church. Right after he spoke, the bells started ringing again, loud and clear.

Daryl was the first to make his way out of the church and around to the side where they all saw a loudspeaker under the eave of the roof, attached to a timer lower down. Glenn pulled the wires, shutting off the loud nose. “A timer, it’s on a timer.” Daryl panted, disappointed.

“I’m gonna go back in for a bit.” Carol said quietly then started back inside, the rest of the group dispersed after that. Cassie, without announcing it, decided to do a sweep of the building, just to make sure the walkers in the church had been the only one’s around.

She had almost finished rounding the building when she heard Lori’s distressed voice say, “You’re just gonna disappear? You’re not even gonna tell Rick?” Cassie peeked around the building to see that Lori was talking to Shane.

“He’d only try to stop me. No, that’s on you. You tell him what you want or tell him nothing at all. You’re his wife.” Shane replied.

“And Cassie?” Lori asked with wide eyes.

“Rick was always more of a father to her. She’ll be fine without me.” Shane argued.

She listened to them argue until Lori walked away and into the church. Cassie stepped around the building seeing that she wasn’t the only one to overhear Shane and Lori. But when Andrea didn’t say anything Shane started to walk off. “Hey.” Cassie almost shouted. Shane could hear the anger in her voice and he stopped walking, but didn’t turn to look at his daughter. “What the hell, Shane?” she asked as she walked around to face him.

“Don’t take that tone with me.” Shane warned as if he were ever any kind of true parent to her.

“You’re planning on leaving?” she asked, glaring up at him.

“Why do you care? You hate me.” He asked

“Yeah, I do!” Cassie yelled, causing Shane to shush her. She glanced behind her father to see Daryl moved to stand in the doorway of the church watching them. But she turned her eyes back to Shane. “And this is the very reason why. When things get hard instead of making them right you simply remove yourself from the situation. You convince yourself that it’s easiest for everyone when it’s really what’s easiest for you!” she ranted.

Shane just sighed and ran his hand through his thick, dark, wavy hair. “Cassie, I have my reasons.” He tried, but it didn’t do much to calm Cassie.

“Yeah, and they’re all bullshit!” she yelled as she walked around and away from him toward the church where Daryl still stood in the doorway. She didn’t pay him much mind and instead moved down the nearest pew and flopped down at the end of it. She didn’t even realize that Rick and Carl were standing behind it until Rick leaned forward and whispered, “You alright?”

“Yeah, just…fighting with Shane…I’m fine.” Cassie answered.

“You sure?” he asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder and rubbed her neck with his thumb.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She reached up and placed her hand over his as she gave him a weak smile.

“Alright.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze then stood up and walked out.

“What was that about?” Daryl asked as he walked over and sat down next to her.

“I just found out that Shane’s planning on leaving the group. He wasn’t planning on telling me or anyone else. He was just gonna disappear.” She said as she looked around and realized that they were the last ones in the church. “We should probably catch up to the others.” She sighed and stood up. Daryl stood up too, but instead of following Cassie out of the row of pews he caught her by her hips and pulled her back into him. She smiled and turned around to face him. His lips caught hers as soon as her eyes caught his. She laughed a little as his fingers pressed into her hips as he pulled her close. “What was that for?” she asked when the kiss broke.

“Hate seein’ you upset.” He replied as he let her go and gave her a small nudge toward the door.

They were all standing around in a group outside when Rick and Shane walked up and Shane started barking out orders. “Y’all are gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you’re in charge. Me and Rick, we’re just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough.”

“You’re splitting us up.” Daryl pointed out, “You sure?”

“Yeah, we’ll catch up to you.” Shane answered.

“I wanna stay too.” Carl spoke up. “I’m her friend.” Shane, Rick and Lori shared a look.

“Just be careful okay?” Lori said, letting Carl know he was allowed to go. “When did you start growing up?” Lori laughed and pulled him in for a hug.

Cassie just stood by and watched Rick and Lori kiss and hug then Rick offered Lori his gun. When she refused to take it and leave Rick unarmed, Daryl surprised them all and offered her his spare gun. Andrea of course rolled her eyes unbelievingly.

Cassie was about to walk off when Lori stopped her. “Hey, would you mind going with Rick and Shane…help keep an eye on Carl?”

“I’m not his nanny anymore, Lori. If you want an eye kept on your son, then learn to do it yourself. I can’t always be there to do it for you.” Cassie snapped, tired of Lori being a half ass mom.

“I get where you’re coming from, I do, and I would go myself, but that would make Carl think that I don’t trust him. You’re more like a friend to him. He won’t get mad if you stay behind.” Lori asked almost pleadingly.

Cassie drew in a deep breath as she thought about it then let it out as she nodded. “Fine, I’ll stay.”

“Thank you.” Lori said in relief then pulled Cassie in for an unreturned hug. “I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Cassie said as she shrugged Lori’s arms off of her then left the woman to go catch up to Daryl. “Hey,” she touched his shoulder pulling him to a stop, “I’m gonna stay behind with Rick and Shane. Lori wants me to keep an extra eye on Carl. So I’ll catch up to you later.”

Daryl chewed on the inside of his lips as he nodded and glanced around them. “Alright, see you later then.” He said nervously as he placed his hand on her hip then leaned down and pecked her on the lips. Cassie caught the slightest hint of a blush on his cheeks as he pulled back and she smiled when she turned from him and headed back toward the church. It was starting to become obvious to her that Daryl wasn’t much for public displays of affection and she found it incredibly cute.

“Hey, where’s Rick?” Cassie asked as she walked up to Shane and Carl where they sat on the steps of the church.

“Carl, can you give us a minute bud?” Shane asked and Carl nodded and headed to sit over by one of the trees. “You still mad at me?” Shane asked her where she stood leaning against the handrail of the steps.

“You should know by now that I’m always mad at you.” she replied flatly.

“I know it seems like I’m always runnin’ away, but it wasn’t always like that. Not with you and your mom.” Shane started and Cassie finally looked at him.

“Really, because I don’t remember you being there for us, ever.” Cassie said and Shane shook his head. “Were you even there when I was born?”

“Yeah, Rick and I both were. I wanted to be in the delivery room, but your mom wouldn’t let me. So instead, Rick and I sat outside in the waiting room. Just two scared sixteen year olds.” Cassie just stared at him as he laughed quietly and ran his hand through his hair. Her mother had never told her any of this, she never told Cassie anything about Shane other than he wasn’t worth their time and energy. “She wouldn’t let me be a part of your lives. She always said that I was good for nothing, not enough of a man, not strong enough to take care of a family. According to her I didn’t deserve y’all.”

“She never told me anything about you. Up until her funeral I didn’t even know what you looked like.” Cassie admitted even though for some reason she always thought that Shane knew that she didn’t know anything about him. She thought he wanted it that way. She sat down on the steps next to him with a sigh.

“You and your mom are the main reason I went into the police academy. I wanted to prove that I could be worthy of you, but it didn’t work. Nothing was good enough for her. So eventually I stopped trying. There was no way to win your mother over.”

“I always thought you didn’t come around because you didn’t want me.” Cassie said as she dropped her eyes to her hands that were clasped together in front of her as she picked at her cuticles.

“Cassie I always wanted you, to see you, get to know you.” his words, how he said them, Cassie had never heard him sound so sincere.

A few tears slipped down her cheeks. As she looked off in the distance to see Carl tossing a pine cone into the air she wiped them away with the backs of her thumbs. “Then why didn’t you call me back?” she asked, making Shane look at her to see her crying. “After mom’s funeral, after you gave dad your phone number, I stole it off of his phone and called you, why didn’t you call me back?”

“Your step-father told me that if I tried to contact you that he’d get a restraining order.” He said and Cassie just stared at him not knowing if she believed him or not.

“Let’s get back to it.” Rick’s voice behind them put a stop to their conversation.

“You get what you needed?” Shane asked as they stood up.

“Guess we’ll find out.” Rick answered, aggravated with Shane as he walked over to Carl and ruffled his hair.

They had been walking for a few minutes when Rick walked closer to Cassie and asked, “You look like you’ve been cryin’ are you alright?”

She was about to answer him when they heard a rustle in the leaves ahead of them and they all froze and looked to see a deer. It looked back at them chewing, not fazed by them. Shane raised his gun to shoot the deer, but Rick stopped him when he noticed Carl slowly walking closer to the wild animal. Carl inched closer and closer and was a few feet away from being able to touch it when out of nowhere a shot rang out taking down the deer and Carl.

Cassie stumbled back, stunned, while Rick cried out and ran to the aid of his son. “Oh, my God.” They all looked from Carl to see a heavy set older man with a hunting rifle in his hand.

After a lot of yelling the man, Otis, told them that he was staying at a farm house and there was a man there who could help Carl. He started leading them in the right direction but quickly fell behind. “How far? How far?” Rick yelled, several yards ahead of Otis, Shane and Cassie.

“About a half mile! That way!” Otis shouted back, panting for breath as Shane shoved him along. “Hershel. Talk to Hershel. He’ll help your boy.”

“Dad.” Cassie said, getting Shane’s attention. “Go with Rick, I got this guy.”

“You sure?” he asked with a suspicious glance at Otis.

“Yeah, I’m sure. We don’t have time to argue about this. Rick needs you, just go.” Cassie demanded glancing over at Otis.

Shane just nodded and took off after Rick. “I’m so sorry.” Otis told Cassie who just shook her head and urged him to get a move on. While she wasn’t as harsh as her father, she couldn’t make herself be nice to the man at the moment. By the time the two of them got to the farmhouse Shane and Rick were standing on the front porch.

“Where is he, is he alive?” Cassie asked as she walked up the porch steps. Rick numbly led them to a room in the house where a small group of people were working on Carl.

“Do you know his blood type?” the old man she assumed to be Hershel asked while a woman held up an IV bag.

“A positive, same as mine.” Rick answered.

“That’s fortunate.” Hershel said with a look back at the three of them. “Don’t wander far. I’m gonna need you.” he then turned to Otis and asked him what happened.

“I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through.” Otis replied, still in a slight state of shock himself.

“The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go through clean.” Hershel said as he lifted up the pad that he was pressing over Carl’s stomach. “It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out and I’m counting six.”

“If it helps…If Rick’s in too much shock, I have o negative blood. I’ve given to Rick before.” Hershel gave her a nod.

Otis moved to talk to an older woman in the room while the others stood there in shock. Rick started crying, saying that Lori didn’t know. Cassie moved to hug him from the side while Shane pressed his forehead to Ricks. “We need space.” The younger dark haired woman in the room said as she ushered the three of them outside. Rick and Shane talked while Cassie simply tried to stop the tears that slid down her face. “Rick.” The young woman got their attention as she opened the door to Carl’s room letting them in. “He needs blood.”

“You two, hold him down.” Hershel barked over Carl’s cries and groans as he tried to dig a bullet fracture out of Carl. Shane held Carl still by himself so Cassie simply held his hand and attempted fruitlessly to calm him. Eventually though Carl went limp causing their hearts to fall. Shane and Cassie turned to Hershel for an explanation. “He just passed out.”

Not being able to stop them, tears started slipping down Cassie’s cheeks. Shane let go of the now still Carl and wrapped his arms around Cassie’s shoulders. Cassie fisted the back of Shane’s shirt and for the first time ever cried on her fathers shoulder. “Shhh Shhh Shhh, he’ll be okay. I promise.” He whispered as he hugged her a little tighter.

Things quieted down as Hershel dressed the wound and started taking Carl’s blood pressure. Eventually while Rick still gave blood to Carl, he said, “Lori needs to know. She needs to be here. I gotta go find her, bring her back.”

“You can’t do that.” Hershel told him sternly.

“She’s his mother. She needs to know what’s happened. Her son’s lying here shot.” Rick argued.

“And he’s going to need more blood.” Hershel argued back. “You can’t go more than fifty feet from this bed.” Hershel took the needle out of Rick’s arm.

“Well what about Cassie, she can give him blood while I go get Lori.” Rick said with a look at Cassie. She didn’t want to voice what she was thinking around the others so she looked to her father.

“Come on man.” Shane ushered Rick out of the room and Cassie followed. “He’s stable for now.” Shane informed Otis and the woman that Cassie had come to know as Maggie, who waited outside the room.

“Lori has to be here Shane, she has to know.” Rick kept on the subject as they walked into the living room.

“We get that. We do, Rick, but…” Cassie started.

“We’re gonna handle that. But you’ve got to handle your end.” Shane finished for her.

“My end?” Rick asked as he sat down on the couch.

“Your end is being here with your son.” Shane answered. “I know Cassie can give to him, but there is no way I’m letting you walk out that door. I’d break your legs if you tried. I mean, you know that right?”

Rick sighed and looked down at his hands like a broken man. Cassie couldn’t help moving to kneel in front of him. “Look at me.” She said as she took his blood stained hands in hers. Rick slowly turned his eyes to hers. “We all know that if something happened to Carl and you weren’t here that you would never let yourself live that down. You have to stay here. Shane and I will get Lori here. Do you trust us to do that?” Rick looked from Cassie to Shane then back as Cassie before he nodded.

“When you were in the hospital, man you should’ve seen Lori…I mean the strength of that woman…” Shane stopped to laugh softly as he kneeled down beside Katie. “You can’t imagine it. See that…” Shane placed his hand on his best friend’s shoulder, as Cassie stood up and moved to sit next to Rick on the couch. “That’s what you’ve got to have now. Carl…he needs that from you. So you wire yourself tight, my friend.” Shane and Rick pressed their foreheads together. “You’ve got the hard part. Just leave the rest to me, okay?”

“Alright.” Rick nodded and a second later the door to Carl’s room opened and Hershel stepped out.

A conversation was started about how they were going to get the rest of the fragments out of Carl’s abdomen without killing him. Eventually it was decided that Otis and Shane would go to the high school where a Fema trailer had been set up and would have all of the necessary things to get Carl fixed up.

After that conversation was settled Maggie and Cassie decided to take a horse out to get Lori and bring her to Carl. “I’ll trade places with Lori so we don’t lose too many people from the Sophia search party. The three of you will have things handled here when Shane gets back.” Cassie told Rick before she looked at her father. “Please be careful out there.”

Shane pulled her in for another hug then went their separate ways. Cassie followed Maggie out to the stables where they saddled a horse and headed out to the road. They were getting close to the highway when they heard a scream and Maggie kicked the horse making it run faster. Never having been the horse type, Cassie yelped and grabbed Maggie’s shoulders. “Here, use this.” Maggie said as she handed Cassie a baseball bat.

When they got close Cassie took aim and swung at the walker’s head, successfully knocking it to the ground and off of Andrea who had been the one screaming. “Lori!” Cassie called as she slid down off of the horse. Lori turned to her, eyes wide with confusion. “This is Maggie, you have to go with her. There’s been an accident, Carl’s hurt, there’s no time to explain, just go.”

“Rick said you had others on the highway?” Maggie asked and Glenn nodded like a dummy. “Backtrack to Fairburn Road, two miles down is our farm. You’ll see the mailbox, the Name’s Greene.” Just like that with a kick of the horse, Maggie and Lori were on their way to the farm leaving Cassie behind to explain.

“You want to tell us what the hell that was about?” Daryl asked with a motion to the disappearing women.

“Carl’s been shot. He’s at the Greene’s farm.” Cassie stated, then took a deep, tired breath and rubbed at her temples. “It’s a long story, let’s walk and talk.” Cassie then pointed toward the highway and they all started walking again as Cassie brought them up to speed on what happened to Carl.

Once they got back to the highway, Cassie told Dale what happened then they started discussing who was going to the farm and who was staying to look for Sophia. After establishing that Daryl, Dale and Andrea were staying at the highway and Glenn was bringing T-dog to the farm to be treated for the infected cut on his arm, Daryl walked away from the talking group to grab a bag of meds off of the motorcycle. “Keep your oily rags off my brothers motorcycle.” He told Dale as he toss said rag to him. “Why’d you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother’s stash. Crystal, x. Don’t need that. Got some kick ass painkillers.” Tosses them to Glenn. “Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It’s first class. Merle got the clap on occasion.”

“Ew, too much information there, Daryl.” Cassie told him as she pulled a face and slapped him on his arm.

“So what about you? You goin’ or stayin’?” Daryl asked her, realizing now that she hadn’t said if she was going back to the farm or if she was staying to look for Sophia.

Cassie was silent, thinking things through before she made her decision. “I’m staying.”

Daryl nodded at everyone, “Alright, we all know what the plan is, let’s get to work.”

Cassie helped Daryl and Carol paint a sign on the front glass of a yellow mustang with car window paint then set out a few drinks and a jar of peanut butter. By the time they were done the sun had started setting so they all turned in for the night. Carol took the bed in the back bedroom of the camper while Cassie turned the table and benches into a small bed and Daryl slept on the floor beside her.

Andrea sat in the driver's seat with the parts of her gun all laid out on a towel attempting to put them together. Between the clanking sounds that she was making and Carol’s crying neither Cassie nor Daryl could sleep. Finally, Cassie sat up and Daryl did the same. “I can’t sleep.”

“Wanna go look for Sophia?” Daryl asked and Cassie nodded.

Andrea was too dead set on getting her stupid gun put back together to even notice that the couple had walked out. “You worried about Carl?” Daryl asked as they walked side by side through the woods, shining their flashlights in an attempt to see anything.

“Carl, Sophia, Rick…” she listed off the people that she was most worried about. “my dad.”

“That’s weird.” Daryl said without looking at her.

“What is?” Cassie asked, looking around to see what he was talking about.

“You just called Shane your dad.” He said turning to look at Cassie across his shoulder. Cassie hadn’t even noticed that slip. “Somethin’ happen with you two after the group split?”

“My whole life I grew up thinking that Shane didn’t give two shits in hell about me. Mom made it seem like he ditched her as soon as he found out about me.” Cassie said not looking at Daryl but at the beam of her flashlight as it scanned the woods for Sophia.

“Shane told you otherwise?” he asked with a glance over at Cassie to see her brows drawn together in confusion.

“Yeah. Apparently, both him and Rick were there when I was born. He said he wanted to be in the room with Mom, but she wouldn’t let him.” She answered.

“Do you believe him?” he asked and Cassie shrugged.

“I don’t know what to believe.” She sighed with a shake of her head. “All I know is that he is the only blood family I have left and I don’t want to lose him.” She sighed and rubbed at her temples. “Change of subject please.”

“Did you even want to stay here tonight?” Daryl asked. “Seemed like you had a hard time making the decision.”

“I wanted to go to the farm.” Cassie answered. “I wanted to be there for Rick and Carl, to be there when Shane came back…if he comes back.” As she was talking they walked upon a campsite. A walker dangled from a tree snapping its teeth at them.

“Got bit, fever hit, world got to shit, might as well quit.” Daryl read off of the note stuck to the tree. “Didn’t know enough to shoot himself in the head.” As Daryl moved the beam of his flashlight along the walker’s body it landed on the bare bones of its legs. “Walkers came along and gnawed all the meat off of his legs.”

“Will you just put it out of its misery please?” Cassie asked, placing a hand on her upset stomach.

“Na, he ain’t hurting anybody, ‘sides, I won’t be able to get my arrow back.” Turning around to point the flashlight in her face.

She flinched and shoved the flashlight down. “Please?”

“You didn’t answer my question.” He pointed out and she sighed.

“An answer for an arrow?” she asked and Daryl gave her a nod while chewing on the inside of his bottom lip. “I stayed for several reasons. I told Rick I would stay and I didn’t want to go back on my word. Also, Sophia needs as many people in her corner as possible. But the main reason I stayed?” she asked rhetorically. “You.”

“Me?” he asked, but she shook her head and pointed to the walker, letting him know she wouldn’t answer any more questions until he shot the walker. So he rolled his eyes and turned around just long enough to shoot the walker making it go still and its growls stop.

“Yes, you.” she answered as she leaned down to peek inside the tent. There was just a sleeping bag and a battery powered lamp, nothing that indicated that Sophia had ever been inside. “I knew that if I went back to that farm I would just be sitting there doing nothing but worrying about everything. But if I stayed here with you I would have a distraction. Be it scouring the woods with you, talking to you or just sitting quietly with you. Being with you, helping find Sophia was the better decision.”

“So is that all I am to you, a distraction?” he asked as the two of them started walking again. He didn’t sound mad, just curious.

“No, but you should know that by now.” She said as she stepped in front of him and stopped. “You told me at the CDC that I wouldn’t lose you.” she placed her hands on his neck. “So why does it feel like you’re only letting me halfway in? Like you think I’m going to leave you at any given moment?”

Daryl took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Because everyone does in one way or another.” He shrugged then started walking so she stepped to the side. “My mom,” he paused to clear his throat and she knew what he was about to say was hard for him so she kept quiet, “she died, police said that she fell asleep smoking in bed. The cigarette started a fire and killed her. I was young, but not so young that I didn’t know that she didn’t fall asleep. Truth was she got so drunk she passed out.” Cassie’s eyes squinted, thinking about how much that must’ve sucked as a kid. How much it probably still hurt Daryl to know that his mom cared more about numbing herself than taking care of her kids.

She grabbed Daryl’s wrist as they walked and slid her hand down to hold his, lacing their fingers together. “You deserve better.”

He simply gave her hand a squeeze. “Dad was in and out on benders with random women. Merle was in and out of juvie, jail, even did a stint in the pen. at one point.”

“So who took care of you while they were gone?” she asked, imagining a child version of Daryl, abandoned and alone. No wonder he was the way he was. From the way things sounded she was surprised he had even let her this far in.

“No one.” He shrugged. “I’ve always been better on my own.” A pain shot through Cassie’s chest at his words and her hand loosened in his, but he tightened his grip, realizing how what he’d said could have sounded to her. He stopped walking and pulled her around to stand in front of him then placed his hands on her hips. “Until now.” He gave her a small smile then moved one hand to cup her cheek. She smiled as he closed the distance between them and placed a light kiss to her lips. The kiss quickly turned heated and Daryl picked her up by her hips as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He backed them up to the nearest tree and pressed her against it.

A moan left her lips at the force of her back hitting the tree and the feel of his hardness against her core through the layers of fabric between them. Her hands held the sides of his neck and his held hers sides as their tongues twirled and tangled together. Their flashlights laid on the ground shining useless beams of light out into the distance. When Daryl started kissing her neck Cassie’s eyes landed on them, wasting battery. “Daryl.” His name came out as a pleasured sigh before she blinked out of the pleasure he was sending through her body. “Daryl.”

“Hmm?” he hummed, still lost in her.

“As much as I would love to make out with you in the middle of the woods, it’s probably not the smartest idea.” She told him and he stepped back and set her on her feet.

“You’re right.” He grunted as he scooped up their flashlights and handed her one. “Let’s head back, we ain’t gonna find her tonight anyway.” They headed back to the highway and when they got back they saw that Dale had turned in for the night and Andrea sat on top of the RV on watch. Katie was about to head to the RV when Daryl snagged her hand making her look back at him. She could see him chewing on his bottom lip as he jerked his head to the cube van they had slept in the previous night.

She kept her hand in his and walked with him to the van and only let go to hop up into the back of the truck, when he didn’t follow her she gave him a curious look. “What’re you doin’?” she asked quietly as he grabbed a bit of rope from the floor of the back of the truck.

“Tying up the latch so we don’t get stuck in here.” he answered then motioned for her to pull down the door. So she pulled it down enough for him to reach the latch, he tied it so that it wouldn’t latch closed on them then hopped inside and pulled it all the way down putting them in complete darkness until she flicked on her flashlight. Daryl walked over with a glint of lust in his eyes and she backed up until her back was pressed against the metal wall of the truck. She bit her lip when he placed one hand on her hip and took the flashlight from her with the other, flicked it off and tossed it onto the blanket on the floor behind him.

“But I wanna see you.” she complained.

“We’ve already drained enough of the batteries tonight.” He countered and when he caught her lips in a kiss she no longer felt the need to argue.

A/N: I haven’t touched this story since 2019, so I have no idea who all is still interested and who all still wants to be tagged in my stories. So if I’ve tagged you and you no longer want to be tagged, or if you want to be added to my Daryl taglist just pm me or comment on any of my posts what you wish. How much attention this story gets over the next month or so will determine if I continue this story or not. Also I haven’t watched the walking dead past season 9 because that’s all that’s on netflix at the moment...

Daryl Tag List: @jodiereedus22 @mtngirlforever @zzeacat @moodygrip @hells-mistress @lighthope08 @sapphire1727 @luisadontcurr @ilkaeliseb @twdeadfanfic @ravenodindottir @1lluminaticonfirmed @my-current-fandom-is @coffeebooksandfandom @lonewolf471 @gruffle1 @mblaqgi @calumstuffs @beltzboys2015-blog @neontiger007 @sourwolf-sterek32 @dotslabyrinth @kayln97 @cbarter @chocolatealmondmilkk @daryldixonandfrogs @feartheendlesssummer @topsykretts926-blog @baseballbitch116 @diffidentphantom @valeecruz16

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The Revelation of the Other Woman Ch. 16

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15

Chapter Title: Settling in.  Pairing: Daryl/oc. Setting: The Prison. Wordcount: 4,837. Warning: None that I can thing of.

 After Rick, Daryl and Merle got safely inside the gates we all gathered in the cell block. Daryl, Carol and Beth stood on the perch and catwalk above while Michonne, Glenn, Rick, Maggie, Carl and I stood on the ground below. Hershel sat on the stairs. Merle was locked in the holding room. “We're not leaving.” Rick spoke with finality.

“We can't stay here.” Hershel argued the same case he had been arguing.

“What if there's another sniper?” Maggie asked. “A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds.”

“We can't even go outside.” Beth spoke up as if what she said wasn't already understood by everyone.

“Not in the daylight.” Carol added.

“Rick says we're not running. We're not running.” Glenn spoke up still playing the part of leader even though Rick was back.

“No, better to live like rats.” Merle spoke up through the bar door holding him back from the rest of us.

“You got a better idea?” Rick asked him.

“Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we?” Merle asked. “I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now.”

“We ain't scared of that prick.” Daryl spoke up from the catwalk, but I didn't even bother looking at him.

“Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing? That was just him ringing the dinner bell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to.” As much as I hated to admit it, Merle had a point.

“Let's put him in the other cell block.” Maggie said ringing a rag in her hands.

“No. He's got a point.” Daryl said.

“This is all you. You started this!” Maggie yelled at Merle who wasn't affected by it.

“What's the difference whose fault it is?” Beth spoke up loudly. “What do we do?”

“I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here.” Hershel said for the millionth time and Rick started to walk off. “Get back here!” he yelled at the ex-cop who stopped, but didn't turn to look at the old man. “You're slipping Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time. You once said this is not a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something.”

After Hershel yelled at Rick he just stared at him for a second then walked off. With him gone, people scattered. Most went to their cell's so that's what I did as well. I wiped the dust off of the metal mirror and looked at myself for the first time in months. Dark circles shadowed my eyes, my skin was darker than it used to be from the amount of sun I'd gotten during the winter and my hair had grown two inches, now touching my shoulders. I didn't look like the me I remembered. I was still studying myself when I heard someone clear their throat and looked over to see Daryl standing with his arm propped up on the door frame.

A pain shot through my chest at the way he was looking at me. With hard eyes and straight lips that gave nothing away. He was different than I remembered, everyone was. I guess we'd all changed over the winter. “Whatever you're selling I don't want any.” I told him emotionlessly and crossed my arms over my chest.

“That your way of tellin' me to go away?” he asked quietly.

“If you're going to call me more names...yeah. That's exactly what I'm telling you.” I said as I sat down on my bed, pulled my legs up and hugged my knees to my chest.

“I ain't good at sayin' sorry.” he said quietly looking more like his old self.

“Good then don't say it. 'Cause I don't want to hear it.” I practically growled at him still hugging my knees to my chest.

“Joanna, I really am-”

“No.” I interrupted him letting go of my knees to scoot to the edge of the bed. “You don't get it. I dreamed about you. Every night that we weren't together was another dream that had you in it.” His face flushed at my words and it was cute, but it didn't put a damper on my anger. “At first they were nightmares. I blamed you for me getting left behind and stuck with that bitch Andrea. But then I realized that you told me to stay behind because you wanted me to be safe and I stopped being mad at you. The nightmares turned to good dreams. I would be hunkered down in a house somewhere and you would find me or vice versa.” my voice was shaking holding back tears. “We would find each other, you would wrap those amazing arms of yours around me and give me the best kiss of my life.” a tear slid down my cheek as I watched him cross his arms over his chest and lean back against the wall.

“Then imagine my surprise when my wildest dream came true. You found me, hugged me and kissed me and...” I closed my eyes and smiled sadly at the memory of his arms around me and his lips on mine. “Damn it that felt heavenly.” I opened my eyes and let the smile fade as I glared at him again. “So stupid me, I think that means you actually missed me as much as I missed you, that you wanted me back. But then your brother comes in the picture and you no longer give a damn about me. I'm just some weak, uppity, booty call. And you leave.” my eyes glared at his hand to his mouth, chewing on his cuticles. “That hurt.” I glared at him with tears slipping down my cheeks. “I never thought you would hurt me. So don't expect me to jump into your arms at the first “I'm sorry.” because it ain't gonna happen.”

He just stared at me for a second as if he were trying to think of something to say before he nodded and walked out. A few minutes later I heard people talking down stairs, practically under my cell so I walked out on the catwalk to see what was going on. “I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch.” Rick said to everyone.

“I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence.” Daryl suggested.

“Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place.” Michonne suggested.

“We can't access the field without burning through out bullets.” Hershel added.

“So we're trapped in here. There's barely any food or ammo. Glenn added not helping one bit. Honestly his negativity was grating to everyone.

“We've been here before. We'll be all right.” Daryl tried.

“That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest.” Glenn directed at Daryl.

“Man, we gonna go through this again?” Daryl asked, getting in Glenn's face. ?Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it.” he looked up at me then at the rest of the group. “All y'all.”

“Seriously, Rick, I don't think Merle-” Glenn started, but I interrupted him.

“Just stop it Glenn.” I spoke up from the cat walk as Daryl came up the stairs. “No one likes him being here, but as much as I hate to admit it, we need him. He knows The Governors tactics and he has military training. So just get off your high horse and deal with it.”

Glenn looked from me to Rick. “I can't kick him out.” Rick said with a shake of his head.

Rick's words seemed to piss Glenn off even worse than mine did. “I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you.” Glenn's words pulled a look out of Rick and I tilted my head at Glenn's words. Shane tried to kill Rick?

“He may be erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to his brother.” Hershel defended.

“What if we solve two problems at once?” Glenn asked. “Deliver Merle to the Governor. Bargaining chip. Give him his traitor, maybe declare a truce.”

“No.” I said as I walked down the stairs to be a better part of the conversation. “We're sacrificing people now?” I asked with a twisted faced look at Glenn. “Delivering him to The Governor will be no different than leaving him on that roof to die. We couldn't do that back then and we can't do this now.”

“Who put you in charge?” Glenn asked.

I leaned back and raised my brows. “I could ask you the same question mister high and mighty.”

“Guys, cut it out.” Hershel cut off our building argument. “Look, Glenn, Joanna's right. That's not who we are.”

“We're not gonna figure this out now. Let's take a break.” Rick suggested and Glenn and Hershel walked off. Rick jerked his head for me to follow him to his cell so I did. “What all happened out there over the winter? I know you said Michonne found you two while you were running from the farm, but I don't know much more than that.” he asked as he sat down on his bed.

I sat down in the chair in the room with a sigh. “Not a whole lot up until Woodbury. I answered vaguely. Just a lot of running, scavenging and hunkering down for as long as we could. Michonne and I are pretty good friends, we don't communicate a lot, but we work well together. She and Andrea got closer though.” I said with a shrug.

“What about you and Andrea?” he asked looking curious.

“Oh we still hate each other as much as we always did, if not more now.” I said with a small laugh before it faded. “Bitches can't befriend bitches I guess.”

“You're not a bitch.” he said with a shake of his head.

“Really? Because I feel like one after the things I just said to Daryl.” I said looking up from the floor to his blue eyes. I had forgotten how blue they were and the fact that I was apparently a sucker for them. His and Daryl's... the same color yet so different. “But that doesn't matter. What about you and the rest of the group? There's some things I've been wondering since I got here.”

“Like what?” he asked and I sat up straighter.

“Like I hear Shane tried to kill you?” I asked and he nodded with a sigh.

“The night the walkers came through and we all got separated, he killed Randall to lure me into the woods and kill me.” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I killed him first.” he said before his dropped his hand and looked at me. I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything. “He wanted Lori, thought killing me was the only way to get her and Carl.”

“I'm sorry you had to do that.” I said and he waved me off. “So... I have to ask based off the way Beth spoke to me, did you and Lori ever work things out?”

He shook his head no. “What did Beth say to you?”

“She blames me for Lori's death.” he just tilted his head in confusion. “I guess she thinks that if I had never...been, with you that you and Lori would have been happier. I guess in her mind if you two were happier then you would have been there to save her or something.”

Rick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Those aren't only her thoughts...” when he lifted his head to look at me I tilted my head to the side in a questioning manner. “She's just copying what I've heard Carl say.”

“Wait, Carl's mad at me too?” I asked getting tired of being everyone's whipping post.

“Yeah.” Rick sighed and dropped his hand from his face. “He didn't put two and two together until recently...after Lori...”

“I don't know how to handle this... Should we talk to him, try to explain things?” I asked as I shook my head in confusion.

“No, I'll talk to him and Beth. You don't deserve all that hate.” he said as he stood up.

“No, I think it's totally justified.” I sighed as I stood up as well. “I'm a home wrecker.”

“You know that's not true. Lori and I had our problems long before you even came along.” he said taking a step closer to grab my hand.

“I know, but...” I said giving his hand a small squeeze. When I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye I looked out of the cell to see Daryl walk by and glance in our direction. His stopped when he saw Rick's hand in mine and shook his head. I could hear a scoff as he walked off.

I dropped Ricks hand and scratched the back of my head. “What else have you been wondering about since you got back?”

“Daryl and Carol.” I said crossing my arms over my chest

“What about them?” he asked.

“She seemed really upset to hear that he didn't come back and then she blamed me for him leaving like I pushed him into it or something.” I said and he just looked at me. “Are they...together?” I cautiously asked.

“Honestly, I don't know. It's hard to tell with him.” Rick answered with a shoulder shrug. “You'll have to ask one of them.” I sighed and placed my head in my hands. He placed his hand on my back. “Hey,” I looked up at him and he gave me a small smile, “If I hadn't said it yet I'm glad you're alive.”

I gave him a small smile in return and he engulfed in a hug. “I'm glad you're alive too.” I said with a small laugh then pulled out of the hug. His hands lingered on my neck and mine on his sides. In a split second every tender intimate moment we'd ever had flooded my mind. Then came the bad memories and all the arguments. That made me remember why I chose Daryl, why I love Daryl more than anything or anyone. So I let him go and gave him a sad smile. “Thanks for filling me in. I'm gonna go to my cell and try to process things.” he let me go without a word.

Daryl's cell was on the way to mine and Carol's voice made me stop just outside of it. “This is a tomb.” I heard Daryl say as I made sure I couldn't be seen by them.

“That's what T-dog called it. I thought he was right till you found me.” Carol said and it got quiet for a few seconds. “He's your brother, but he's not good for you. Don't let him bring you down. After all, look how far you've come.” she said making him laugh. God how I'd missed that sound. It got quiet and I was about to go to my cell when Carol's words stopped me. “I've never thought Joanna was good for you either. She's too weak, those panic attacks of hers...they'll only slow you down and make you weak.” I felt my teeth grind together as I bit down, forcing back more tears and made myself walk by as if I hadn't heard a thing.

About an hour later I heard some one approach my cell and I thought it would be Daryl or Rick, but instead, it was Merle. “What do you want?” I asked sitting up to pull my knees to my chest.

“Just thought that if we're gonna be under the same roof, we should clear the air.” he stated and I just stared at him. “The whole hunting you two down thing... that was just business. Carrying out orders.”

“Sure, whatever, just don't hurt my people.” I said and he just smirked at me. “What?”

“Good taste.” he answered making me immediately think of what he said back at Woodbury. How his brother had good taste. He just smirked again as he walked away.

I was still in my cell when I heard Rick yell for Daryl, Merle and some others to join him outside because Andrea had been spotted. So I ran out behind Michonne and watched as Rick let her in a treated her like the traitor she was. He pushed her to her knees and took her things before she confirmed that she was alone and she was eventually let into the prison, but just the holding room. Andrea greeted Carol first. “Hershel, oh my god.” she sighed, spotting the old man's lack of a limb. “I can't believe this.” she said as she looked around the room and let go of Carol. “Where's Shane?” he asked still looking around the room before she looked at Rick.

“Why should you care? You're sleeping with The Governor now right?” I asked earning a glare from her before she looked at Rick who simply shook his head and looked away from her.

“And Lori?” she asked and Rick just gave her a hard look.

“She had a girl. Lori didn't survive.” Hershel spoke up.

“Neither did T-Dog.” Maggie added and I made a mental note to find out exactly how he died.

“I'm so sorry.” she said before her eyes landed on Carl. “Carl...” the boy just glared at her sympathy. Then she turned to Rick. “Rick I-” she started to walk over to Rick but he backed away from her. So she looked around the room at other people. “You all live here?”

“Here and the cell block.” Glenn answered.

“There?” she asked pointing to the door to the cell block. “Well, can I go in?” she asked.

Rick stepped in her way. “I won't allow that.”

“I'm not the enemy here, Rick.” Andrea defended.

“No you're just sleeping with the enemy.” I said and this time she didn't even look at me.

“We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up.” Rick said still standing in her way.

“He said you fired first.” Andrea defended.

I wanted to point out that he was a liar, but I knew I wasn't the person to point that out. She wouldn't listen to me. She never did. “Well, he's lying.” Rick answered and she just stared at him.

“He killed an inmate who survived in here.” Hershel spoke up.

“We liked him. He was one of us.” Daryl said making her attention turn to him.

“I didn't know anything about that.” Andrea said with a head shake. “As soon as I found out I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out.” she said looking around at everyone.

“That was days ago.” Glenn said and now I agreed with his angry tone.

“I told you I came as soon as I could.” Andrea defended herself and looked around at everyone just to be met with glares and looks of mistrust. She turned to me “What have you told them?” she asked angrily.

“I didn't have to tell them anything.” I said from where I sat at the metal picnic table.

“You poisoned them with lies about me.” she yelled.

“She hasn't bad mouthed ya.” Daryl of all people defended me from where he sat at the table across the room from me.

“I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?” she asked getting mad at everyone.

“He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us.” Glenn started.

“With his finger on the trigger.” Andrea yelled with a point at Merle. “Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?” she asked then sighed and placed her head in her hands for a second. “I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done. But I am trying to bring us together. We have to work this out.”

“There's nothing to work out.” Rick said cutting her off. “We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will.”

“We can settle this.” she said taking a step closer to Rick.

“God, Andrea!” I yelled at her. “When are you going to open those ignorant eyes of yours and realize that there is no settling this. He will not stop until we are dead, that is just the kid of man he is. Merle kidnapped us, but it was under the orders of your boy toy. He is sick and twisted.” I said walking over to get in her face.

“There is room at Woodbury for you.” she said not giving up on the idea of peace.

“You're blind as a freaking bat.” I scoffed and walked back to the table.

“There's room for all of you.” she said looking around at everyone now.

Merle laughed at her. “You know better than that.”

“What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?” Hershel asked. “Did he say that?”

“No.” Andrea answered.

“Then why did you come here?” Rick asked.

“Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack.” Andrea warned.

“I'll tell you what. Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye.” Daryl warned back.

“We've taken too much shit for too long.” Glenn spoke up. “He wants a war? He's got one.”

Andrea turned to Rick. “Rick? If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town.” she heaved out a breath as she turned toward us. “Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore.”

“You want to make this right, get us inside.” Rick said walking around her to be in her line of sight.

“No.” Andrea said shaking her head rapidly.

“Then we got nothing to talk about.” Rick walked around her.

“There are innocent people.” she yelled after him trying to get him to stop.

With Rick gone Michonne and Andrea went outside to talk. So with her out of the way I went back to my cell.

I don't know when she left, I didn't go see her off like everyone else did. I didn't even leave my cell until I heard everyone getting together down stairs and the smell of warm food hit my nose. It turned out to just be rice, cooked with a chicken bullion cube for flavor. It wasn't much, but I sat on the floor next to Michonne to eat it. Not long after I finished my bowl Beth started singing. After listening to the song enough to recognize a pattern and pick up the chorus I started to sing along. “You gotta hold on, hold on. You gotta hold on. Take my hand I'm standin' right here. You gotta hold on.” I sang back up catching a few people's attention, but I didn't look at them. Beth glared at me, but I ignored her too. She wasn't going to put a damper on my fun.

When the song was over most people turned in for the night. So I followed suit. As I passed Daryl's cell he spoke up, stopping me. “So it's you and Rick again, huh?”

I stopped and leaned my back against the frame of his door. "Maybe." I replied with a shoulder shrug.

"I ain't interested in none of your games." He practically growled as he sat up on the side of his bunk.

"Are you and Carol together?" I finally asked and he looked at me like I was crazy. "She was more broken up about you leaving the group than everyone else and people around here seem to put your names together a lot. On top of that you two were close at the farm, so what am I supposed to expect when I find you." I explained deciding to leave out the fact that I heard her badmouthing me and Daryl didn't defend me. He just stared at me, biting his nails. “Was I supposed to expect you to just wait around for me to show up out of the blue? I mean as much as I missed you and longed to be with you I supposed you would move on at some point.”

"Did you move on?" He answered flatly.

“Oh, yeah, didn't you hear? Andrea, Michonne and I got real cozy on the road together.” I popped off and he rolled his eyes at me with a scoff. “No, I didn't.” I answered truthfully. “Have you?”

“Na. She's just a friend.” he answered quietly.

“Good.” I told him with a nod and pushed off of the door frame to walk away.

“You gonna give me a straight answer 'bout you and Rick?” he asked stopping me and I turned to see that he had stood up.

“He's just a friend.” I answered with a sigh. “Now if you don't mind I'd like to get some sleep.” I started once again to walk off but he grabbed my hand pulling me to a stop.

“Sleep here.” he suggested, not dropping my hand.

“Why, so I can be your booty call?” I asked sarcastically.

He bit his lip and shook his head. “Cause I love ya, Woman.”

“W-what?” I asked too shocked for his words to fully sink in.

“Come on, I ain't good at this shit, don't make me say it again.” he practically begged.

What he had done and what he had called me...it was all washed away by those three little words. Three little words that when said separately or with other words between them meant nothing. But when one sentence was composed of just these words they seemed to heal the worst of wounds and mend broken hearts. So what did I do when they finally sank in?

Laughter burst from my lips and I fell back to lean against the door frame again. When I managed to stop laughing I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. “Even in my best dreams you never said that.” I whispered then looked at him to see him looking at me like if I rejected him he would crack. “I love you too.”

A smile spread across his lips as he closed the space between us grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into him. The kiss was hard and passionate. A moan escaped my lips when his tongue found mine starting a battle with no winner. His hand moved from the back of my head to grip my sides and lift me up and pin me to that wall. My legs wrapped around his waist and my fingers embedded themselves into his soft hair.

Thirty minutes later we lay on his bed sweaty and breathless, but still tangled together like an unkempt line of string. “How do you do that?” I asked, not looking at him, but comparing the size of our hands instead.

“Do what?” he asked quietly.

“Make me lose my mind but stay perfectly grounded at the same time.” I said and he scoffed at me.

“Ya ain't makin' since.” he grumbled sleepily.

“Yeah, I guess my minds still a little lost.” I chuckled as I dropped his hand and rolled over to look at him. “It has to be, because I feel crazy for giving you a second chance.” I explained, resting my hand on his taunt chest. “I felt something for you before, I wasn't sure what it was, if it was love or lust or if it was just simply trust, and companionship. So when you told me I was nothing to you and chose to leave me, it hurt but I lived. Barely, but I did. And now, after tonight, after we said what we said? You have my heart, you're capable of destroying me.”

“Ain't gonna do that.” he promised, low and gruff as he placed his hand on my cheek and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “Can't make the same mistake twice.” from my face his hand slid down to my neck where he touched the mark his brother had left on me. “Let's get some sleep, missed havin' ya by my side.”

I smiled to myself as I tuned my back to him and he tossed his arm over my side. “Goodnight, Daryl.”

“Night, Ballerina.”

Tags:  @jodiereedus22 @mtngirlforever @zzeacat @winchester-angel @moodygrip @hells-mistress @lighthope08 @sapphire1727 @luisadontcurr @ilkaeliseb @twdeadfanfic @ravengalaxia @1lluminaticonfirmed @my-current-fandom-is @coffeebooksandfandom @lonewolf471 @gruffle1 @mblaqgi @calumstuffs @beltzboys2015-blog @neontiger007 @sourwolf-sterek32 @dixonluvv @dotslabyrinth @kayln97 @art-flirt @cbarter @chocolatealmondmilkk @chocolatealmondmilk-blog  @daryldixonandfrogs @feartheendlesssummer @brooklynalpha @topsykretts92

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Torn Chapter 1

Torn Masterlist

Story Title: Torn. Warnings: None yet. Pairing: none yet, eventual Daryl/OC then Rick/Oc then Love triangle. Setting: Pre-apocalypse.

To say that Cassie Harrington and her father Shane Walsh had a rocky relationship would be a massive understatement. The first time she met him was when she was twelve years old, at her mother’s funeral. He sat in the back for the funeral and when it was over he gave Cassie’s step dad his phone number, told Cassie that he loved her then left. After meeting him she understood where her brown eyes and dark, slightly wavy hair came from. A year later when Cassie snuck the number out of her stepfather’s cell phone and called it with her cell, it went straight to voicemail. She left him a voice mail, but he never returned it. From that day on she decided that Shane didn’t care about her.

The next time she saw him was when she was seventeen. After her step father tragically lost his life in a six car pile up on the freeway she was forced to live with the only blood relative she had left. Shane was less than thrilled to have his estranged teenage daughter move into his bachelor pad with him. For Cassie, the feeling was mutual. Having Shane for a father was like living in a house with a drill sergeant. He hated for the house to be anything less than spotless and when the weekends came around he wanted her out of the house. God forbid having a daughter cramp his playboy lifestyle.

When Cassie moved to King County it was during the summer, so not having made any friends yet, she spent her weekends babysitting Carl, the son of Shane’s best friend Rick, so that he and his wife Lori could have a date night. Rick assured her that eventually Shane would learn to be responsible and get used to a teenager being in his house, but he never did. The only fatherly thing Shane ever did was help her pay for collage.

Over the years that she spent in King County the only good thing in her life was Rick. If she was in a bad mood when Rick visited, he could easily tell and would do his best to make her smile. He usually had her smiling and happy again within five minutes of just sitting and talking.

The summer of 2010 she got even closer to Rick, Lori and Carl when the married couple hired her to be their nanny. Why they needed a stay in nanny when Lori was a stay at home mom, Cassie didn’t know, but she needed the money to pick up where Shane had left off on her collage tuition. So saying yes to the job offer was really easy. Cassie had always thought highly of the couple up until she moved in with them for the summer and started hearing the morning and night time arguments she and Rick were having. Cassie hated eavesdropping on them, but it was kind of hard not to overhear when her temporary bedroom shared a wall with the couples.

Cassie was picking Carl up from school when she heard a siren behind her and turned to see Shane and another cop car flying up to the school. It wasn’t hard to tell that something had happened, the look on his face as he came walking over to her with his hands on his hips said it all. “What happened?”

“Rick,” Cassie put her hand over her mouth, holding back for the bad news, “He got shot, he’s in surgery right now.”

“How did it happen?” She asked in a attempt to keep the conversation going so she wouldn’t break down for Carl to see when he came out.

“There was a radio call that said that there was two suspects in a car, but there was a third man. Somebody screwed up.” Cassie dropped her hand and glanced over her shoulder when the bell rang. “I screwed up. I didn’t see him in time. It’s my fault.”

Cassie took in a calming breath. “I’m assuming Lori knows?” she asked trying to figure out the next steps.

“Yeah, she’s already on her way there. She asked me to come get you and Carl.” As he said it his eyes looked past Cassie to where Carl was coming out of the school.

“We tell him nothing until he’s with his mother.” Cassie said as she turned around and smiled and waved to Carl who came running over. “ She has to be the one to tell him. Agreed?”

“Yep.” He told her with a nod before Carl reached them.

“Shane! What are you doin’ here?” the kid asked always excited to see Shane.

“I came to give you and Cassie a ride. Would you like that?” Shane asked and Carl nodded excitedly.

Carl went on and on about how cool it was to be riding in the back seat of the cop car, but all Cassie could do was hope and prey that Rick made it out alive. For everyone’s sake, Rick had to be okay, but her main thoughts were on Carl and how badly his life would be impacted if he lost his father at such a young age.

Tags: @jodiereedus22 @mtngirlforever @zzeacat @winchester-angel @moodygrip @hells-mistress @lighthope08 @sapphire1727 @luisadontcurr @ilkaeliseb @twdeadfanfic @ravengalaxia @1lluminaticonfirmed @my-current-fandom-is @coffeebooksandfandom @coffeebooksandfandomsohmy @lonewolf471 @gruffle1 @mblaqgi @calumstuffs @beltzboys2015-blog @neontiger007 @sourwolf-sterek32 @dixonluvv @dotslabyrinth @kayln97 @art-flirt @cbarter @chocolatealmondmilkk @chocolatealmondmilk-blog @daryldixonandfrogs @feartheendlesssummer @brooklynalpha @topsykretts92

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Father Daughter Duo Ch. 6

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4  Chapter 5

Chapter Title: Unsettled. Pairing: Eventual DarylxBay(oc) Warnings: Rape, Non-customary situations. Word count: 5,597.

I shot straight up in bed when the sound of a loud high pitched scream pierced the air. But it stopped when I realized that the scream was coming from my lips. 'It was just a dream; Merle's not here, your safe.' I had to repeat this in my head several times before I convinced myself that it was true. I had just gotten my erratic breathing under control when someone banged on the door at the bottom of the tower making me almost jump out of my skin.

I was met by the face of Rick when I unlocked the door and pushed it open. "Sup?" I asked trying to pretend like my heart didn't feel like it was going to pound out of my chest and he looked at me funny.

"Did you get even one wink of sleep last night?" he asked as he studied me and I squirmed under his gaze.

"Yeah, why?" I asked a bit confused.

"Because you look like you haven't slept in days." I laughed because the way my body ached all over suggested the same thing.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't exactly a peaceful sleep." I admitted giving up my act. "Anyways, what do you need?" I asked trying to bring him back to task.

"Oh, um, I just wanted to thank you." I caught the worried glance he sent Lori's direction. "Most people now days wouldn't have led a bunch of strangers to their camp" I couldn't tell if there was a warning hidden in his sentence or not, but the way he said it made me feel stupid. "We all really appreciate it." I sighed and leaned against the door frame.

"She looked like she could use the rest." I said with a pointed look at Lori. "To be completely honest I probably would have tried to run if I hadn't seen her." I was afraid that he would be offended by that but instead he look like he understood. I got the feeling he didn't want to talk about her condition so I pushed past him and started walking to the fire where everyone sat eating breakfast. My heart stopped when Daryl was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Daryl?" I wasn't really asking anyone in particular, but Maggie answered me. She said he left at dawn to go looking for his brother and that he was a good tracker. 'Is he going to find him? Will he bring him here to hurt me again? Is Rick gonna let that happen?' I clenched my fists and tried to focus only on the pain that shot through them.

I could feel Rick looking at me, but I ignored him. Daryl couldn't bring that man back here, he…he just couldn't. The food that was sitting in front of me remained untouched and soon I couldn't sit there any longer. I had to move I had to do something, anything. So I grabbed my knife and started killing the walkers that had gathered at the gate that led to cell block C. My abrupt departure didn't go unnoticed, because soon my father was at my side. "I get that yer mad at me, and I get why, but why are ya actin' like this Bay?" I stopped what I was doing and turned to him. He really didn't understand what had happened and he was shallow enough to think that Merle simply ran off without hurting me. "I've never seen ya like this."

"You really can't think of one thing that might have happened that would make me act the way I am?" If he couldn't guess then he didn't deserve to know. "Do you remember anything after dinner the other night?" When he shook his head I realized that he didn't even know that he told me he would keep an eye on me.

"I tied Merle up, then we ate and went to bed." That’s it? That’s all he remembers?

"You're such an idiot Sean!" he looked truly hurt, but I didn't care. "Yeah you tied him up, yeah we ate dinner, but you went to sleep, not me." Tears started falling down my face and he took a step toward me with his arm held out to embrace me, but I shoved him as hard as I could.

"What did I do to make you hate me this much?" I let loose a scream of frustration. He should be asking what Merle did.

"You let him rape me!!" It came out of my mouth like violent word vomit burning my throat as it came up. He just stood there staring at me with the worst look on his face I had ever seen. Unfortunately I had said it loud enough for everyone to hear and I looked around me too see them all staring. My father tried to hug me, but I shoved him again. "Don’t touch me!" I ran to the tower that had my stuff in it and locked the door behind me. My father started pounding on the door demanding that I let him in, but I pressed my back against it as hard as I could and told him to go away as I slid down.

I dug my fingers into the sores on my hands and used the sharp pains to distract myself, but when I no longer felt the pain, I heard my father's yelling again. "Ya knew about this?!" I dropped the knife and flung the door open. I wasn't going to let him take this out on Rick. "And ya didn't feel the need to tell me? I ought to-" my father had his fist raised at Rick.

"Leave him alone." He dropped his arm and looked at me like he couldn't believe I had just told him that. "It wasn't his place to tell you, it was mine and I didn't want you to know." He asked me why. "Because it doesn’t change anything. I still hate you and I will always wish Merle was dead." I walked back into the tower, and packed up my stuff before I threw it on my back and left the tower. The men went their separate ways and I went back to taking my anger out on the ugly things that used to be people.

I had taken down at least thrity walkers and the sun was straight up in the sky when Maggie said that Daryl was back. I walked over to where Maggie, Beth and Hershel were sitting around the fire. "Don't tell him." I could tell by the look on their faces that they knew what I was talking about. "He needs to hear it from me." They all nodded sadly before Daryl walked up and I walked away. I could hear Maggie when she asked him if he found him and I slowed my pace to hear his answer.

"Na, trail went cold." I let out a sigh of relief at the good news. Maggie cleared her throat before she told him she was sorry. I picked up my pace and went back to killing the undead.

A little after noon Rick had us all gather together for a group meeting. "I know we all want to enjoy this, but we've gotta push just a little bit more, most of the walkers are dressed as guards and prisoners. Looks like this place fell pretty early. It could mean the supplies may be intact." We all looked at each other knowing what that would mean. "They'd have an infirmary, a commissary," Rick looked around at everyone including my father and me.

"An armory." Daryl added and Rick nodded.

"That'd be outside the prison itself, but not too far away." I saw a light smirk on Daryl face at Rick's confirmation. "Wardens offices would have info on the location. Weapons, food, medicine, this place could be a gold mine." Rick pointed at the cell block and I cringed.

"I don't know about y'all, but we don't have much ammo left" my father looked around the group and Hershel spoke up saying that they would run out before they even made a dent.

Rick just shrugged. "That’s why we gotta go in there…hand to hand. After all we've been through, we can handle it, I know it." He looked at Carl and nudged him. "These assholes don't stand a chance." Carl smiled back, but no one else was smiling. I can't speak for everyone else, but I didn't want to go in there and I certainly didn't want anyone else going in there, not even Dad.

But no one had any protests, and it was decided that Rick, Sean, Daryl, T-Dog Glenn and Maggie would be going inside to clear out as much as they could. I stood by and watched as they gathered their weapons and whatever else they thought they would need then gathered at the gate. Maggie and Rick had machetes, Daryl had his crossbow on his back and knife gripped in his hand while Glenn had a long pipe and a knife and T-dog had a fire poker. My father glanced at me with his hatchet in his hand and his hunting knife on his belt strapped to his leg. Judging by the look on his face he wanted to talk to me, but he knew that I didn't want to hear it and he would be right, to a certain point. I was aware that he might get hurt in there so I walked over to him and simply said "Stay safe."

After that we both turned to see Rick take off the chains that my father had put on the gate and look around. Everyone nodded that they were ready and those of us that weren't going inside took our places along the fence. Rick slid the gait open and they all ran in taking on a circle formation. "Hey, hey over here!" We called to the walkers stumbling along the fence and they turned their ugly faces in our direction. Distracting the walkers from the people on the inside didn't last long though, because they eventually figured out that the real dinner was not us and turned their attention to my father and the others. Beth was standing closest to me.

"Can you see them?" Lori and I asked as the same time.

"They went back there." Beth pointed to the other side of the building. I didn't like not being able to tell what was going on and I could tell no one else did either, because they stayed huddled together while I stood off to the side. After what felt like forever they came back into view. I heard Glenn say that is seemed to be secure and Daryl pointed to something in the distance then at a female walker on the ground. I couldn't make out the rest of their conversation but soon they all disappeared into the building without even a glance in our direction.

"What do you think?" Rick asked as we all walked into the cleared building with our things in hand and Glenn said what I'm sure was in all of our heads, home sweet home. "Well for the time being." Lori asked him if it was secure. "This cell block is." I leaned against the back wall behind the rest of the people and listened to their conversation.

"What about the rest of the prison?" the question came from Hershel who walked in with a sleeping bag under one arm and a backpack over his shoulder.

"In the morning we'll find the infirmary and the cafeteria." Rick answered. I was excited about the idea of more food and medical supplies, but I didn't like the idea that my father could be going back out into the walker infested halls.

"We'll sleep in the cells?" Beth asked with a grossed out look on her face.

"I found keys on some guards. Daryl has a set too." Rick answered again and my attention was drawn up to the catwalk when Daryl spoke from above us.

"I ain't sleepin' in no cage, I'll take the perch." He walked over to the small platform where the stairs were attached and we all took that as our signal to pick our own sleeping arrangements. I couldn't help but crack a smile when I saw Carl follow Beth into one of the cells only for Hershel to shoo him out a minute later.

"Come on." My father jerked his head for me to follow him into a cell but I stopped at the doorway and watched him set his stuff on the bottom bunk. Did he really think I was going to share a cell with him after what he did? "I'll let you have top bunk." He frowned when he saw that I hadn't sat my bags down.

"I'm uh, going to find my own place." I tugged my pack further up on my shoulder and took a step back.

"Come on Bay don't be like that." He reached out to put a hand on my shoulder but I shrugged him off. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for ya sweetie, but-"

"But nothing Sean. I'm sleeping somewhere else, deal with it." He could try to apologize all he wanted, but I wasn't going to listen. I left him standing there looking like a kicked puppy. I didn't know where I wanted to sleep other than no where around Maggie and Glenn because I was sure they would be making noises that I didn't want to hear. So when I saw the stairs I walked up them, past where Daryl was laying on a blanket covered mattress from one of the cells and into the second cell I came to. It was far enough from everyone but not too far away from a door in case I ever need to make a run for it.

There was a dead walker lying against the wall in a pile of dried blood. So I threw my bag onto the dusty bed, grabbed its feet and started pulling. "Need help?" Daryl asked when I got out on the perch but I ignored him and kept tugging the dead weight until it was at the edge.

"No." I looked over the railing to make sure no one was walking below before I gave the walker a good kick that sent it tumbling to the ground below. I turned to look at him. He made the prison mattress look comfortable the way he was laying there all kicked back with one foot on the railing and his hands behind his head. "Thanks anyways." He shrugged before I walked back to my cell and sat down on the bed. Other than the dried blood on the back wall and floor the cell really wasn't that bad, the bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as Daryl made it look, but it was better than the metal floor I slept on the previous night. There was a small table that was attached to the wall and a stool pushed under it.

I had just started rolling out my sleeping bag on the bottom bunk when my father knocked on the bars. "Just letting' ya know that I'm going huntin' with Daryl while it's still light out." I shrugged and popped the blanket to get the wrinkles out.

"Kay, whatever." I didn't look at him, but I heard him sigh.

"And Hershel wants to look at yer hands, see how they're healin'." I hated the way he was talking to me. Like I might turn into a walker and bite his head off at any second. But I couldn't let him think that what he did was okay.

"Yeah, fine." I still didn't look at him and soon I heard two sets of foot steps going down the metal stairs. I took my sweet time making my bed and after a quick look out the door of my cell I let the song that was playing him my head slip through my lips. It had always been my way of venting. "I open my eyes. I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light. I can't remember how I can't remember why I'm lying here tonight. And I can't stand the pain and I can't make it go away. No I can't stand the pain."

"Your dad was right." I let out a girly squeak and spun around to see a smiling Hershel standing in the cell opening. "You do have a wonderful voice." I put my hand over my chest to try and steady the rapid beating. "Song choice could use some work though." I snorted and turned back to my bed.

"Yeah well I didn't really feel like singing walking on sunshine." He chuckled before I turned back to him. "I was going to come down when I was done." He walked out onto the perch where it was brighter and held his hands out for mine. I reluctantly held them out for him and he took off the dirty bandages. The open blisters under my fingers on both hands were scabbing over and the ones under my thumbs that were still covered with skin were tinder but okay. It was the hole in the palm of my right hand that looked the worst.

"How did you get this?" I didn't want to answer him, even if the whole world, or what's left of it, knew what happened to me the details were meant to be kept to myself.

"Does it really matter?" I asked with a tight throat and he shrugged before he finished cleaning it and wrapped it in clean cloth that had clearly once been a bed sheet.

After that everyone except for Daryl, who went hunting with my father, spent the rest of the day dragging bodies out of the building and court yard into the field. I had just dragged one of the last bodies to the pile when I saw my father and Daryl come out of the woods. Rick told everyone that we would get the rest of the walkers out of the court yard tomorrow.

Once my father and Daryl had their kill skinned and gutted we all gathered around the fire and watched it cook. I ended up sitting between Hershel and Lori. Everyone's spirits were high. They were all Joking, laughing and talking about the old world. Eventually someone brought out a bottle of wine and started passing it around. It had been passed my way a few times and I passed it on without drinking any each time. "Bay," My father got my attention from two people down "Beth sung last night why don't you tonight?" I gritted my teeth because I had become comfortably invisible in the circle and here he was putting all the attention on me. T-Dog, Beth and Maggie all said they would like to hear.

I didn't have a chance to refuse before Hershel opened his big mouth. "I'd like to hear too as long as it's not that depressing song you were singing earlier." I glared at him across my shoulder and he just smiled like it was no big deal.

"Oh so you'll sing for him, but you wont sing for me? I see how it is." I felt like throwing something at him. I didn't sing for Hershel, he just happened to hear when I thought no one was around.

"I didn't ask her to sing for me, I just overheard." He explained to my father and he calmed down a bit. Hershel turned to me and nudged me with his elbow. "Come on you're good and we'd all like to hear." Ugh I hated this, I hated the pressure they were putting on me.

"Uh, I don't really feel like it tonight, maybe some other time." I knew that whatever I chose to sing would kill the happy buzz more than me just saying that I didn't want to sing.

"Come on, why don'tcha feel like it? Ya apparently felt like singin' earlier." Dad just wouldn't let it go and I didn't understand why.

"Fine I'll do it if it'll get you off my fuckin' back." Me snapping at him was all it took put a damper on the happy mood so I tried to come up wit something that would counter act that. So I chose the only song I could think of that had nothing to do with me.

"Lying here with you, listening to the rain, smiling just to see a smile upon your face." I looked over at Glenn and Maggie to let them know this was directed at them and Maggie smiled up at Glenn. "These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive. These are the moments I'll remember all my life. I've found all I've waited for and I could not ask for more." Glenn stood up and held his hand out to Maggie. They walked off a little ways and started dancing. "Looking in your eyes, seeing all I need. Everything you are is everything in me." I saw Rick nudge Carl and jerk his head to where Beth sat. "These are the moments I know heaven must exist." Carl shook his head no and Rick nudged him again. "These are the moments I know all I need is this." Carl hesitantly stood and held his hand out to Beth who looked at her father. "I've found all I've waited for, yeah, and I could not ask for more." Hershel huffed out a breath before he silently told her she could. "I could not ask for more than this time together. I could not ask for more than this time with you." She took his hand with a smile on her face and they walked to where Maggie and Glenn were dancing before they started clumsily swaying back and forth. "And every prayer has been answered. Every dream I've had's come true." Rick looked like he was thinking about asking Lori to dance, but they just ended up sharing an awkward smile. "Yeah, right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be. Here with you here with me, yeah." With the two couples dancing the rest of us sat around the fire sharing awkward looks. Eventually T-Dog and Hershel scooted closer to where my father and Daryl sat. "These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive. These are the moments I'll remember all my life." I had been feeling unnecessarily lonely since we got to this prison, and watching the two couples dancing and looking happy only magnified that. The longer I sat there watching the men, the more it looked like they were talking about me. I saw Daryl's lips form the words hell no when my dad and T-Dog looked at him. Not long after that T-Dog walked over and held his hand out to me. I was glad that he didn't look offended when I shook my head no. I hadn't said even one word to the guy; there was no way I was going to dance with him. When T-Dog sat down they all turned to Daryl. He was clearly getting pissed off and I watched the words I ain't doing it fall off his lips. My father came over to me and leaned down whisper in my ear.

"Ya deserve to have some fun too; they ain't gonna mess with ya. If they do I'll kill 'em. So dance, let loose, have a god time." I couldn't believe what he was telling me. He wanted me to dance with a guy he barely knew even though he knew that I had recently been raped? "Daryl's agreed, so just do it." When he moved Daryl was standing in front of me looking like he really didn't want to dance with me, but I knew that if I didn't dance with him, my father would never leave me alone about it. It would be easier in the long run to just dance now and save myself a lecture later. The others kept dancing even though I had stopped singing as I walked over to them with Daryl.

I had never danced with anyone before. I'm sure standing on my dad's feet when I was little didn't count. I didn't know where to put my hands so I looked at Maggie and Glenn to see that her hands were draped over his shoulders her head was rested on his neck. Daryl rolled his eyes before he grabbed my arms and put my hands on his shoulders. If it hadn't been for my father glaring at me I would have just left right then. My stomach started rolling when he placed his hands on my hips and made us start moving.  "I've found all I've waited for and I could not ask for more. I could not ask for more than this time together.” I picked up singing again and tried not to look at Daryl’s face. Not looking at him didn’t keep me from feeling him. His shoulders felt like hard stones under my thinly bandaged hands and the feel of his warm hands lightly gripping my his made it hard to breathe. “I could not ask for more than this time with you. And every prayer has been answered.” No, they have not, if god was answering my prayers right now he would let me out of this situation so I could run away like I so desperately want to do. “Every dream I've had's come true. Yeah, right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be.” When Daryl’s fingers, pressed a littler tighter into the softness of my hips my eyes shot up to his. “Oh, here with you here with me. No, I could not ask for more than this love you gave me.” I had never noticed how blue they were, they looked a lot like his brothers yet somehow were vastly different. We ended up staring into each other’s eyes until the song was over. “Cause it's all I've waited for and I could not ask for more. No, I could not ask for more." As soon as we stopped moving I took my hands off of his shoulder and crossed my arms over my chest. “Thanks for the dance.” I told him as I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

Everyone clapped as we came back to the fire. They were all telling me how pretty it sounded and that I had a wonderful voice and so on, but I let it all go in one ear and out the other. I didn't know what to do with all of it so I decided it was time for me to call it a night. Why did I have to sing that stupid song? All it did was make me feel worse. I wished I could just walk into the prison and magically have my old life back. That I could travel back in time and be the invisible girl who's only problem was that she was 20 and still didn't have her drivers license.

But when I walked into the dark prison all I saw was the moonlit cells that were the closest thing I was going to get to a home. I grabbed my battery powered lantern off of one of the tables and made my way up to my cell. I sank down in the corner and tucked my head between my knees.

I sat like that for about twenty minutes before I heard someone coming up the stairs. I walked to the door of my cell to see Daryl walk over to his bed. I still needed to tell him about what happened, but I didn't know how. So I slowly walked out onto the perch. I felt like I was invading his space so I motioned to the edge of the platform. "Mind it I sit for a while?" he shook his head no and I sat down dangling my feet over the edge. When neither of us said anything I turned around and rested my back against the bottom rail and my head against the upper one. "Yer probably tired of hearin' it but ya really are a good singer."

"I'm not tired of hearin' it, I just don't believe it." This made me think of how I rejected T-Dog. "I hope I didn't hurt T-Dogs feelings when I didn't dance with him." A soft chuckle left his lips.

"Na, he knew ya would probably say no." I started picking at my fingernails not knowing what to say. "He just didn't expect ya to dance with me." All I could do was hope that I didn't give Daryl the wrong idea because I chose to dance with him. "For curiosity's sake, why didn't ya dance with 'em?" I hugged my knees to my chest and shrugged.

"Just don't like being touched." It was a simple explanation, but it didn't seem to be good enough for him.

"But ya danced with me?" I let my face show my discomfort.

"It was either dance with you or deal with my father." He didn't say anything and I hoped that what I said put any thoughts that he might have about me to rest.

"Yer the last person that saw my brother right?" the sudden change of subject wasn't any better than the last one. "Did he say where he was going before he took off?" I knew he would ask me questions like this sooner or later. I just shook my head. "So he just left without a word?" I squeezed my eyes shut because he did the opposite.

"He said plenty before he left." My voice was shaky and he looked at me funny. "Just nothing I feel like repeating to you." I hugged myself tighter as a tear fell down my cheek. "You don't need to find him; things will be a whole lot easier if he's left out there to rot." I couldn't control the mean things that came from my mouth and he sat up on his mattress and gave me a go to hell look.

"You best watch what ya say 'bout my brother and just tell me where the fuck he went." Apparently I hit a nerve, but so did he by defending his brother.

“Even if I knew where he went I would never tell you. That piece of shit deserves to be hung by his neck for what he’s done to me and I’ll be damned if I will let you bring him here to rape me again!” the angry words flew off of my lips just like they had when I told my father. I tucked my head between my knees anticipating his reaction. But one never came and I looked up to see him staring off into space.

Eventually his gaze moved to rest one me. "He…raped, ya?" I nodded my head and his face turned angry. "I don't believe ya."

"You don't believe me?" he shook his head sparking a flame in me again and I jerked up my shirt sleeve to reveal the hand shaped bruise then pulled up the legs of my bermuda shorts to reveal the numerous bruises that littered my inner thighs. "Then please explain to me where these came from, because my father sure as hell didn't put them there." He shook his head back and forth really fast like he was trying to shake the horrible idea out of his head. I pulled my shorts back down covering the purple spots back up. "I don't know what your brother was like before, but that's who he is now." Well now everyone in the group knew and there was nothing I could do about it. I tucked my head between my knees as all the anger seeped out of my body and the always impending sadness replaced it.

I hated letting someone see me cry. It made me feel even more pathetic than I already did. "Shit, don't do that." I kept my face hidden, because I couldn't make the tears stop on command. "I won't look for him anymore. The bastard never could keep it in his pants, especially if he was fucked up on something'." I sniffled a few times before I looked up at him.

"You're serious?" I found it hard to believe that he would give up looking for his family just like that. "You really believe me?" he nodded and I let out a sigh of relief.

"I thought it was yer old man that put that mark on ya." He nodded at my arm and I looked at him in confusion. "The way y'all treat each other," he didn't finished his sentence and I knew what he was saying. I shook my head and told him that my father would never hurt me. "Then why do ya hate him so much?"

"Because he let him do it." I said with a shrug.

"But he would never hurt ya?" he asked confused and I shook my head, because I didn't mean that he sat by and watched.

"He was too busy getting drunk to see that Merle was holding me hostage behind the bus. He waited until Sean passed out before he…" I couldn't say it again, and I didn't have to. He made a pained face and looked at the ground. Maybe it was this reaction that made me think Daryl wasn't that bad after all, but I still didn't trust him.

"I'm so sorry." I got the feeling he didn't say those words very often and I shook my head as I wiped the moisture off of my face.

"Don't do that. Don't say you're sorry for something you couldn't have helped." He shrugged and I pulled myself to my feet. "It only makes things worse." I took a few steps toward my cell before I looked at him over my shoulder. "Goodnight." He nodded and laid back down not bothering to cover up.

"G'night." I walked into my cell and lay down on the bottom bunk pulling the sleeping bag over me as I did. Sleep eventually did overcome me, but when it did it was anything but peaceful.

A/N: The song was Sara Evans’ "I Could Not Ask For More"

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Father Daughter Duo CH. 8

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter title: Yet Another Day. Setting: The Prison. Warnings: Rape, Non-customary situations, suicide attempts.

I sat straight up in the bed gasping for air and covered in sweat. My fingers clawed at my neck in an attempt to remove the imaginary hand that had only been a very realistic part of a nightmare. When I had caught my breath I climbed down off of the bed and peeked out of the cell. The sun wasn't up, but it wasn't far from it and Daryl was sound asleep on the perch. If he was still asleep the others might be too and I desperately needed a bath. So I grabbed a small draw string back pack out of my bigger bag and filled it with my shower supplies. I made sure my gun was loaded before I put it in the waist band of my pants at my lower back and secured my knife to my belt before I tiptoed out of my cell and past a quietly snoring Daryl to the door that led out to a set of stairs that would take me to the court yard. The door made a slight sound when I shut it, and I froze waiting for Daryl to wake up and come after me, but he never did so I kept on walking.

I had gotten to the gait that led out of the court yard when Rick's voice stopped me. "Where are you goin'?" I let my shoulders slump and turned around to look at him in the dim morning light. "Sean doesn't want you goin' anywhere by yourself."

"Yeah, I know. That’s why I was trying to be sneaky. Apparently it didn't work." I said with a roll of my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Apparently not, now where are you going?" he looked at me with suspicious eyes and I decided it wouldn't be worth it to lie.

"I was going to wash up at the lake." I said dropping my arms to my sides and taking a few steps toward him, "If you haven't noticed I kinda reek."

"I actually haven't." Ugh how could he not have? If I could smell myself I knew others could too. "Everything stinks now days and you're not allowed to get those wet." Aw damn, I forgot about that. “No come back inside.” he put his hand on my back and started ushering me back inside.

"So I'll hold my hands out of the water." I said exhausted with a shake of my head. "I need a bath. I can't walk around here smelling like this anymore. It’s driving me insane." I argued and turned to go out of the gate.

"Okay, fine, but I'm coming with you." I spun around smacking him in the face with my ponytail.

"No, you most certainly are not." The hardness of my voice matched that of his face. "I'm a big girl I can take care of myself."

"Really?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest. "That’s why you've tried to kill yourself, twice?" Eer! Why won't people just leave me the hell alone?

"It's my choice. My decision and if I don't want to be here anymore then you and my father have no right to stand in the way of that." I said angrily while talking with my hands.

"I agree." I opened my mouth to keep arguing only to shut it when what he said sank in.

"What?" he's a cop and he's going to let me kill myself?

"I agree." Huh, okay… "but your father doesn't. If you die on my watch he will blame me." I guess he has a point. "So I'm going with you."

"Aw freakin' A. Are you kidding me? I don't need some stranger watching over me and ogling my goodies." He laughed which only pissed me off even more.

"I'm not a stranger, and I've already seen you naked." I couldn't help the heat that flooded my cheeks.

"Fine, whatever." I gave up knowing that I wouldn't win and started walking not bothering to look back and see if he was following. When we got to the lake I made myself pretend that he wasn't there, stripped and walked out into the cool water keeping my hands out of it.

"So what kind of music do you like?" I heard him ask from behind me and I turned to see that he still had his back turned.

"A little bit of everything, but mostly country. Why?" I answered knowing what he was doing.

"Just trying to get to know you." No, he was making me talk so that he would know I was still alive. "How old are you?"

"Twenty two, twenty three, who knows now days?" I took a deep breath and dunked my head under water before I walked out and started washing my hair and body. I was trying my best to keep water off of my bandages, but little droplets still managed to seep into them. Oh well, maybe Hershel wouldn't get too mad at me if they got a little damp.

"Did you go to college?" he asked while I was walking back out into the water.

"Nope." I answered before I stuck my hands back up into the air and sunk down letting the current wash the soap out of my hair. I was about to stand back up when my foot slipped on a rock causing me to be pushed sideways and my hands to fall below the water line. I had almost regained my footing when a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me up out of the water and onto the bank. "Rick, let me go!" I shoved at him and he released me letting me stumble back. I put my hands on my knees and coughed trying to catch my breath before I glared up at him.

"What are you thinking?" he asked raising his voice. "Do you really want to do this to your father? Do you know what you not only dying but, choosing to leave him would do to him? Do you think that he would be able to just move on like you are nothing to him?"

"Why are you yelling at me?" I asked shocked from the sudden explosion.

"Because you were being stupid and tried to drown yourself again. Did you really think I wouldn't stop you?" he was still yelling at me.

"I wasn't trying to drown myself." I said standing up and crossing my arm across my chest as I grabbed my bag and pulled out my towel. "I slipped on a rock and fell." I wrapped the towel around me and went to hide behind a tree while I changed. He didn't say anything back. "But for the record, my father would be perfectly fine without me. All I do is hold him back."

"No, he loves you; you're the only family he has left." He said sounding kind of sad. "He wouldn't be able to live without you."

"How do you know? You don't even know him." I asked as I pulled on a converse t-shirt and picked up my pants.

"No I don't know him, but I can see how much he loves you and I know what I would do if something were to happen to Carl." He said and I took in his words letting them sink in. He was right. Dad hadn't gotten over mom. He had started drinking because we lost her. Rick was probably right about what Dad would do if he lost me too.

"You're probably right, but I still don't forgive him for what he did." I said as I pulled my pants up and stepped around the tree while putting on my belt with the knife secured to it. "I understand Dad's reasoning, but I don't think I'll ever understand why Merle did what he did. I'm not even pretty." I scooped up my bag and gun off of the ground before I started walking back to the prison.

"Well you're defiantly not ugly." He argued from behind me and I couldn't help the sarcastic laugh that erupted from me as I stopped walking and turned around to look at him. 

"Pfft, please, my hair's always a mess, my arms are flabby, my eyes are way too big for my face and now I'm all scarred up." He smiled and shook his head.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but…" the way he looked into my eyes made my stomach do flip flops, "You're very pretty." I don't know why, but what was going on brought out the old me. The me that turned to mush around men.

"You're lying." I accused meekly and looked at the ground.

"I wouldn't lie about something like that." He said defending himself and I looked up at him.

"Don’t pity me Rick, I don’t need it." I said in an exasperated breath and turned to walk away but I was stopped when his hand caught mine and I turned back to him.

"I do not pity you." He said it quietly with my hand still in his. "And your eyes are the most attractive thing about you. Kinda reminds me of Lori when she was Younger." He said and I could tell he sincerely meant it. But remembering that he had a wife I pulled my hand out of his and started walking back to the prison.

When we got to the cell block we went separate ways. Rick went in through the holding room and I went in through the door that lead to the perch, which thankfully was empty. Once in my room I sank down on the bed and let my head fall into my hands exhaustedly. Even with a shower I still felt dirty.

I was putting my almost dried hair up in a ponytail when my father knocked on the door frame of my cell. "Hey, just wanted tell ya that we're about to go." I asked him where without looking away from the mirror. "We're gonna find the commissary." That got my attention.

"Who all's gonna go?" I asked hoping he wouldn't leave me here with these people.

"Rick, Hershel, Glenn, Daryl and me." All of the men except Carl and T dog. I was glad that I was going to have a break from all of them, but I didn't like the fact that I would be left with just women and T-dog.

I don't want him to go, he said he would be safe, that there was safety in numbers, but nothing is ever safe and I was still mad at him. At the moment I was sitting on one of the metal tables watching Maggie and Beth kiss their father before he walked out into the hall and Rick sent Lori a look that I couldn't even begin to understand before he too walked through the opened gate.

Glenn clung to Maggie for a few seconds while my father was looking at me. I managed a small smile and a nod that he knew meant be safe. We had used this silent exchange while we were on the road and didn't feel like talking. Then he followed Glenn through the door and Daryl nodded to all of us before he walked out. I just sat there and watched the white wings on his back disappear into the darkness of the hallway. No one offered each other any reassurances; we all knew they were pointless and untrue. No one could say "They're going to be okay" and know that for a fact, but it was Maggie who came over and talked to me.

"So you must be feeling pretty useless huh?" I looked up from the floor at her. "I mean with your…wrists and all." She motioned to the now un-bandaged horizontal stitches and sat down on the table not far from me. How did she know that I had been feeling useless? "So, I brought you something." She handed me a hard back book. The pink moon on the cover suggested that it was a teenager's book, but it looked interesting all the same. "It's not great, but its somethin' to do if you like to read." I shrugged and set it off to the side. So far, Beth and Maggie were complete opposites.

"Thanks." I looked around the room to see that everyone was still in here. I got the feeling that this group had been together for a long time and had grown to take comfort in each others presence. This only made me feel like I was interrupting their harmony. "I'm sure it'll come in handy." I said with a genuine smile.

"So what did you and your father do before y'all found this place?" she asked trying to strike up a conversation and for once I didn't shut it down.

"Well mostly we just drifted around from place to place, taking what we needed and staying as long as we could before another herd came rolling in. What about you guys?" She shrugged and said that they had done the same thing. We spent a good while talking, and I actually liked her, we had an okay amount of things in common.

When the men came back, they didn't come alone. They were followed by five guys, prisoners, who had survived in the cafeteria since the beginning of all of this. They all looked equally scary in their own ways, but one stuck out more than the rest. The Hispanic, or Latino or what ever he was. There was something different about his eyes, a type of craziness that I had never seen before, not even in Merle. After a yelling match between all of them in the holding room Rick, T Dog and Daryl brought them outside. 

"Who were they?" Beth asked looking around at everyone.

"Prisoners, the huge guy is Big Tiny, the short nigg-” my dad stopped himself from saying the word when his eyes landed on T-Dog, “uh, short guy is Andrew, the bald headed one is Oscar, the red headed guy is Axel, and the one with the dark ponytail is Tomas." Tomas, he's the one that gave me the heebie jeebies.

Hershel looked like he had seen a ghost and Beth walked over asking him what was wrong. "I almost lost my leg back there." Beth started panicking asking him what happened. "We got surrounded, there were walkers everywhere and there was one laying on the floor that I thought was dead, but it wasn't. It reached up and grabbed me when I wasn't looking. Sean killed it before it had a chance to bite me. We ran into the cafeteria to get away from the biters, that's when we found those people." So my father saved Hershel? He looked at my father with the eyes of a truly grateful man. "You will never know how much that meant to me. You kept me with my daughters." He wrapped his arms around Maggie and Beth for a family hug.

"I'd just like to think ya would do the same for me if the time ever came." My father replied. We were all standing near the closed door of the holding room when the prisoners all came back in and Rick left T Dog and Daryl to guard them while he explained to us what was going on.

"We're going to help them clean out a cell block in exchange for half the food left in the cafeteria." There were several sounds of disagreement, but no one really said anything. "I've made it very clear that they are to stick to their own cell block. We won't have any problems out of them." His words were sure and his face was hard, but I didn't believe him. His eyes settled on Lori where she stood with her hand on her belly.

He kept on talking but I blocked him out and turned around to look through the closed bar door behind me. Tomas was standing with his hand on a gun that was shoved into the waistband of his jumpsuit as he stared at Daryl, but my movement caught his eye. That’s when I really noticed it, that level of insane that was almost inhuman. A sickening smile spread across his lips as he looked at me and winked. Daryl followed his gaze to me before he made a motion with his head telling me to back away. I did, but not before seeing and hearing what happened next.

"Don't even look at her." Tomas kept looking at me licking his lips and Daryl charged on him hitting him in the face with the butt of his crossbow. "I said don't fuckin' look at her." I didn't know if I should appreciate what he did or hate him for it. But I turned back to Rick catching the last bit that he said.

"But it's too late now to venture into the halls so they'll be locked in cells until tomorrow morning."

Rick went into the holding area and not long after the building was filled with angry voices. The prisoners where putting up a fight about having to sleep in cells. All the men where hollering at each other save two, Big Tiny and Oscar. They were just standing back watching the other men argue.

In the end the five men won. They where given sleeping bags and put outside. Rick and Daryl locked all the entrances to the building. We ate a meal of canned food from the prisons stock then we all headed to bed. My dad stopped me before I could go up the stairs. "Hey, why don't you move into my cell tonight? I don't like those men being just outside."

I shook my head and hugged myself. "Thanks for the thought Dad, but I'll be fine in my cell." For once he didn't push the subject and settled for a side hug that made me want to cringe before we went our separate ways.

I walked up the stairs and Daryl was already lying down on his makeshift bed. "Night." He called as I walked past him and I said the same back with an awkward wave over my shoulder before I disappeared into my cell. I changed into a pair of pink Nike athletic shorts and a black tank top. I climbed up the ladder, snuggled into the warm blankets and drifted off to sleep.

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Father Daughter Duo Ch.7

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Chapter Title: Making mistakes. Pairing: Eventual Darylxoc. Setting: The Prison. Warnings: Rape, Non-customary situations. Word count: 3,822.

I shot straight up in the bed and a sharp pain shot through my head causing a high pitched yelp to escape my lips. I pulled my stiff body off of the bed and to the dirty mirror over a small sink. The dirty shirt I used to wipe it with smeared the layers of dust enough that I could make out my reflection. A bright red streak of blood was leaking from the new half inch cut in the middle of my forehead near my hairline. It dripped off the tip of my nose and into the sink. I was too distracted by the reflection in the mirror to do anything about the blood.

There were dark circles around my naturally wide eyes that made their light blue color look brighter than usual. My thin lips where dry and cracked and my caramel brown hair, that I used to keep smooth with the help of a flat iron was now a tangled mess of loose waves that hung around my too thin face. I let my eyes fall on the small droplets of red liquid that splashed against the bottom of the sink.

"Ya do know yer bleedin' right?" the gruff voice that filled my cell pulled me from my daze and I glanced over to see Daryl standing in the cell doorway. I rolled my eyes, turned back to the mirror and started wiping at the blood with my hand. "Here." He stepped into the cell and extended a red shop rag out to me that I just stared at wondering why he was helping me. "That’s bleedin' pretty bad." He said observing the blood that still pored down my face. He huffed out an aggravated breath when I didn't take the rag and reached out to press it to my head. My hand shot up and jerked the rag from his hand before he could touch me and I backed up as I pressed it to the cut. "Forgot ya don't like to be touched."

"Sure you did." I said sarcastically and walked around him out of the cell. "What's the plan for today? Aren't we supposed to go look for food and medicine or whatever." From my view over the rail I could see the empty room below.

"Na yer old man talked Rick into lettin' everyone enjoy this for a few days." I was relieved to hear that, it meant more time for us to get settled and make sure there aren't any chinks in the armor of the prison. I moved the rag off of my head to feel more blood slid down it.

When I got down stairs I quickly figured out that it was still early, because only Rick and Hershel were sitting at a table in the holding room. Hershel was eating so I motioned to my head "Would you mind taking a look at this when you're done? I can't get it to stop bleeding." I asked and he sat his plate down, went to his cell and came out with his medical bag. He pulled up a chair for me to sit in then another right in front of it for him.

I felt blood trickle down my face when he removed the rag. "Oh that’s pretty deep. You're going to need stitches." I just nodded at him. He started digging in his bag and pulled out a needle and thread. I had never needed stitches before and I was nervous. "This is probably going to hurt more than necessary. I don’t have anything to numb you with first." 'Great' I thought sarcastically to myself. I squeezed the bottom of the chair every time the needle went into my skin. It hurt my hands where the blisters were, but I didn't mind because it took my mind off the pain that was shooting through my head.

When Hershel was finished the bleeding had stopped and I had four stitches in my head. "This is going to leave a scar isn't it?" I asked and he nodded his head. "Oh well, it'll just add to the collection." I reached up touching the razor thin cut on my neck that was already starting to heal then looked at my hands. I shrugged off my comment and grabbed a granola bar off of the table that had breakfast foods scattered across it and headed outside remembering that I had left my converse in the guard tower that I had slept in the other night. I preferred them over the heavy steel toed boots that I had been wearing and was ready to give my feet a rest.

I was humming as I walked up the tower and opened the door to the office. What I saw made me want to rip my eyes out. Glenn and Maggie were completely nude going at in on top of the desk. Their shocked looks matched mine before I slammed the door and ran, like I always do. And like always, I didn't know where I was going until I was there. I ended up in my cell curled up in the corner crying my eyes out. I was sobbing so hard that I couldn't breath and shaking so bad that I couldn't move.

Why did he have to hurt me? Why did he have to make me feel this way? Why can't I forget that it happened? Why did my father have to bring him into the prison with us? All the unanswered questions constantly plagued my mind like the walkers themselves. All those painful memories I couldn't forget were in the back of my brain always stabbing, drilling and chipping away at me every second of the day. I just wanted it to stop.

One of my knives was lying on the floor next to my feet and I picked it up with a shaky hand and flipped it open. The sharp, shiny blade reflected the blue line that ran up my arm and when I pressed down the warm red liquid of sweet release leaked down my arm and onto the floor mixing with the salt water that fell from my face. I had pressed the blade to my other wrist and started making a jagged cut to let every ounce of life drain out of me when the knife was snatched out of my hand.

I didn't even look up to see who had taken it from me. I just let my head hang in shame. "Bailey. Bailey look at me sweetie." I couldn't look at my father, not even when he grabbed my chin and pulled my face up brushing my hair out of the way. "Somebody help!" I had never heard my father sound so panicked. "What have ya done?" I still didn't look at him.

"Why won't you let me do it? I just want it to end. Why won't you let me make it stop?" I don't know how he understood my shaken weeping words, but he did.

"Because I love ya too much." Rick and Daryl came rushing into the room. "She slit her wrists." that’s all it took for me to be lifted off of the floor by Daryl and taken down stairs to Hershel. I was laid on a bed in a lower cell as Hershel worked on my wrists. When he was done I had stitches in both wrists that were covered with cuffs of cloth. I don't know how long I laid there zoned out before the soft touch on my shoulder made me talk. "I'm so sorry Bailey Bug."

"Don't touch me." My words came out emotionlessly flat. I knew it hurt him because I knew my father, but I didn't care. "You should have just let me go through with it."

I felt the pressure of his arms on the bed as he got closer to me and brushed my hair out of the way even though it wasn't in my face. "Ya know I can't do that. Ya saw what loosing yer mother did to me. I can’t loose ya too." I made myself look at him.

"Then why did you leave me to rot with a rapist? Why did you choose that night of all nights to start drinking?" My voice wavered and tears pooled in my eyes.

"I didn't choose that night to start drinking. I had been drinking for about two weeks before that." I reached up and grabbed the upper bunk in an attempt to sit up, but the pain that radiated from my wrists made me drop back down on the bed. My father tried to help me sit up but I batted him away and used my elbows to push myself up. "I know, that's not what ya wanted to hear, but it's the truth."

"I never saw you drink before that, ever." My father had never been a drinker, he was always a smoker. "When were you planning on telling me about this habit of yours?" When he didn't say anything I knew that he never meant for me to find out. "And why did you start doing it in the first place? Did you just wake up and decide 'Hey, I think I'm going to take up alcoholism today'?"

"The older ya get the more ya look like her." Did he mean mom? "Ya got everything from her. Her eyes, her pretty long bridged nose, her hair. The only thing you got from me is yer eye color and yer attitude." So he started drinking because he missed mom?

"I miss her too, but Dad…" he wiped a tear off of his cheek and looked at me with watery eyes. "Promise me you won't drink anymore."

"I promise." I looked down and started playing with my bandages. "Will you ever forgive me?" I didn't know what to say. So I told him that only time would tell. "Alright, well why don't you try and get some sleep?" I laid back down on my side facing away from him and gave in to the sleep that I had been fighting for who knows how long.

When I woke up my father was gone and Beth sat in a chair in the corner. I really didn't know how to act around everyone else, especially now that everyone knew I was a freak. "Hey." I greeted her as I sat up on the side of the bed. "Where's my father?"

"He went to help the others move the bodies out of the court yard." I asked her how long I had been in this cell. "All together, a day and a half." It felt like I had been in there longer than that. "Do you want to live?" I was shocked. I hadn't expected this mousy girl to be so…blunt. "Because if you don't, I'm not going to stop you." She tossed my pocket knife into my lap. I picked it up and looked at her with wide eyes. Why was she talking to me like this, weren't you supposed to be nice to the suicidal person? She smiled sweetly when I tossed the knife aside. "You do want to live don't you? If you didn't, you would have cut deeper than that."

I let more tears slide down my face as soon as she left the cell. I just sat there and let them fall telling myself the whole time that this would be the last time I would cry over this. That I couldn’t let what happened to me dominate my life and turn me into an unpredictable, uncontrollable ball of emotions. When I had completely calmed down I went upstairs and dug through my bag till I found a cuff bracelet that I had picked up at one of the houses we stopped at. It was wide enough to cover the bigger bandage on my right wrist.

It was made of black and brown leather with a silver cross in the center of it with flat stud accents. It looked like something a biker would wear and I had planned on just giving it to Dad, but now I used it to hide one of my mistakes. I didn't have anything to hide the other one so I guessed I would just have to deal with it. I gathered up my loose hair and managed to tie it up in a bun before I switched the tank top I had been wearing for a thin blue quarter sleeved shirt that covered most of my arms, and then changed my blue jean shorts for a pair of tan cargo pants. After a quick look in the mirror and a swipe under each eye in an attempt to wipe away the dark circles that I couldn't cover up I headed outside.

The change of clothes did nothing to erase the fact that I probably couldn't do anything to help the others. When my father saw that I was out and about he came over to me and gave me a side hug that made me cringe away. I had never been the hugging type, side hugs included. I wanted to tell him to get off of me, but I held myself back. "Hey, Bay, ya okay?"

"As long as you promise to stop asking me that, yeah. I'm fine." His eyes fell over my change of clothes.

"Where'd ya get the spiffy bracelet?" Spiffy, really? I told him what house I got it from as if he would remember it. "Ah, okay." I knew he knew I was only wearing it to cover up my wrist, but he didn't point that out.

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" I asked and he looked around him as if he was literally looking for something to occupy me. His gaze landed on Lori where she sat at a metal table watching everyone else hauling bodies to a pile outside the fence.

"Maybe go keep Lori company?" he said making t sound more like a question then a suggestion. "She looks like she could use it." I nodded and walked over and sat down on the ground, because my sore wrists wouldn't allow me to push myself up onto the table where she sat.

"You on medical leave too?" I asked and she cracked a small smile. I didn't really know what to say to her. If I should ask her about her pregnancy, or if I should just let her do all the talking. She didn't seem like the Chatty Cathy type.

"Something like that." I started picking at the uncovered bandage out of the need to do something with my hands. "Are you feeling better?" it wasn't 'are you okay', but it's just as bad.

"Yeah. Never better." It was a bold faced lie and she knew it. "How are you?" I looked up at her while she looked out at Rick. "I know it's none of my business, but what's going on between you and Rick?" Her eyes snapped over to me.

"It's a long story." I looked around at all the bodies that scattered the field. "And it's complicated." What wasn't complicated now days?

"I think we have time for a story." She looked over at me with a warning look. "Or it could me none of my business." I said turning back to watching the people.

"Have you told Daryl your little story?" I knew what she was talking about with out her having to elaborate. I also caught the bitter tone in her voice.

"Yeah, he knows."

"And…?" she asked pressing for more detail.

"And he said he would stop looking for him." That was really the only thing I knew to tell her.

"He believed you?" Oh lord please tell me she didn't think I was lying for the attention. I told her that Daryl did believe me. She just scoffed.

"So, are you scared?" I asked changing the subject without her following. "About the baby coming?"

"Look at me." I did. "Do I look scared to you?" her tone said no, but her eyes were screaming out for help. I shook my head no before I looked out over the field to see everyone walking to the prison. I must have slept for most of the day because when I looked up the sun was about an hour from setting and I guess that they were heading in for the day, but it felt like I had just gotten out of that place. Lori turned to me when I didn't get up when she did. "Are you going to stay out here?" I just nodded. "Okay, well Sean and Rick don't want you to be left by yourself, so." She said with a shrug before she turned her back and walked off.

I didn't care if my father wanted someone with me or not, I wasn't going back in that stuffy place. I just sat there and watched them all disappear inside. It apparently didn't take them long to realize that I wasn't in there, because T Dog came walking out of the building and over to me. He handed me a bowl before he walked over to the table and hopped up to sit on it. "What? Did they make you to come guard me?" I asked not disguising my distaste for the whole idea.

"Yeah, I think this was more of your pops idea than Rick's." I snorted. "He's only doing it because he loves you." I let a sarcastic laugh escape my lips.

"He's doing it because he wants me to be the same robotic daughter I was before we got here." He shook his head like he had known us for more than just a few days. I just ignored him and changed the subject. "Oh hey uh, sorry I didn't dance with you the other night."

He waved me off, "Pfft, I'm not worried about that." That actually made me feel better about not dancing with him.

"Did you even want to dance with me or did my father talk you into asking me?" he laughed and scratched the back of his neck.

"I uh…" it didn't occur to me until then that he might have actually been interested in me. "He asked me to, but it didn't take much talking." Oh, uh, crap this was awkward.

"I'm sure you're a great guy and all, but…" How do I tell a man I don't like him because I'm too damaged?

"Na, I get it. Daryl's the logical choice. You're white, he's white." I couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from me. "What’s so funny?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh." I took a moment to make myself stop before I finished my explanation with a semi straight face. "I’ve had Crushes on..." How do I phrase this without sounding like I was raised in a raciest household, “Guys of color, before.” I said with a awkward shake of my head. He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow at me. "So it’s not a skin color thing. It’s more of a I’m to fucked up to be with anyone right now thing." I said then ate the last bite of food out of the bowl and set it aside. “I only danced with Daryl for one reason.”

"To get Sean to leave you alone about it?" I nodded and looked at the sun that was slowly sinking behind the trees. "You should know that Daryl wouldn't have danced with you if he didn't want to." Uh, okay? Was that supposed to make me feel special, or was it a warning that I should keep a watchful eye on him. Either way I didn't like where this conversation was heading.

"So can we agree to just be friends?" I asked cutting the conversation short and picked up my empty bowl.

“Sure. Just friends.” He stuck his hand out to me and I gave it a quick shake before I turned my back on him and headed inside.

"Thanks for babysitting me." I told him and he chuckled before we started walking to the building. When we got inside my father was the only one left in the holding room. T-Dog walked past me heading to bed. "Night, T." I called and he waved to me over his shoulder. I then turned to where Dad was walking toward me. "Hi Sean, I'm alive and completely unharmed and I'm going to bed now g'night." I quickly avoided his attempts at talking to me and walked quickly to the cell block and was running up the stairs when I slammed into Daryl at the top.

My foot slipped off the top step and I grabbed onto the railing at the same time Daryl caught my shoulder and pulled me up right. "What's the hurry?" he asked as he let me go and gave me room to go around him.

"Dodging the warden." I replied wryly and rubbed at the wrist of the hand I had grabbed the rail with. He chuckled as I walked past him to my cell. I couldn't stop thinking about what T Dog said about Daryl. About how Daryl wouldn't have danced with me if he didn't want to, but it damn sure looked like Daryl really didn't want to.

I wasn't sleepy so I just sat down on the bottom bunk and pulled my journal out of my bag and started writing. "Whatcha doin'?" Daryl's unexpected voice at my cell made me drop my pen on the floor and snap the book shut.

"None of your business." I said with a glare.

"Have ya always been this jumpy?" he asked after biting at his nails.

"Have you always been this sneaky?" I countered and he smiled.

"Touché." I felt the corners of my lips slide up in a hint of a smile. "How's the wrists?" I held my bracelet free wrists up for him to see.

"Still there." I let them fall back into my lap. "Not trying to be completely rude, but why on earth do you care?" He didn't answer. "Beth already made it clear that she could care less if I died, and I'm sure everyone else feels the same. So why are you asking me about my wrists?" he shrugged.

"Guess I have a habit of cleaning up my brothers messes." That’s all I was to him? Just another one of his brothers messes that he thought he was responsible for fixing?

"So you only care because you feel obligated to?" he just shrugged. His overuse of the noncommittal action made me feel like throwing my boot at his head. "Well consider me the first mess that you don't need to clean up." I saw a brief flash of emotion on his face before it returned to the same glaring look that he always had if he wasn't smirking. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to get some sleep." He left my cell just as silently as he had come.

I felt tears stinging the backs of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I climbed up onto the upper bunk and tried to fall asleep, but it never came.

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Father Daughter Duo Ch.5

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Chapter 6

Chapter Title: Moving in. Pairing: Eventual DarylxOc. Setting: The prison. Warnings: Rape, Non-customary situations, Suicide attempts. Word Count: 4,136. 

When I came to I was laying in the back seat of an old Chevy truck. Someone had dressed me in the clothes that I had brought to the river with me and my hands had been bandaged in fresh linen. "Dad," I looked in the direction the voice had come from to see the back of a young boy's head who was standing where the front passenger seat had been leaned forward. "She's awake." The boy turned around and looked at me with a blank face. "You know you really shouldn't walk around the woods by yourself. It's not exactly smart these days." Like I didn't already know that? Before I had a chance to say anything he ran off and the wavy haired man that I had seen in the woods replaced him. He didn't say anything to me as I sat up and pulled my knees into my chest. He just stared at me, like he was expecting me to say something first. We ended up just sitting there looking at each other. 

The stare down between us was broken when a severely pregnant woman walked up to him, said something quietly then handed him a bottle of water. She cautiously smiled at me before she walked off. "I'm Rick." I just stared at him and tried to control the urge to run because I knew now that if I did I wasn't going to get very far, my body wouldn't let me. "Your name?" he tried to hand me the bottle, but I just ignored it.

"Bay." I choked out my name. I noticed the other man from the woods standing at the front of the truck looking at a map that was spread out on it. There was also a bald man, and a grey haired man that reminded me of my grandfather.

"Well, Bay, were you alone out there?" I thought about telling him I was, because my father was dead to me now, but I didn't.

"No." He looked at me like he was expecting me to say something more. "I'm sure my father wants to know where I'm at." I looked around me realizing that my backpack, which contained my weapons, was no where to be seen. "So just give me my things and I'll be on my way." I couldn't help but think that they weren't going to let me go that easily.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Of coarse it couldn't be that simple. "Where are you and your father staying and are there more people?" Did he really expect me to tell him, and if I did would my father get mad at me? "Look around you," I did and I saw three more people that I hadn't noticed before. Two girls, a brunet that looked to be about my age and another younger blond, were standing guard at one end of the line of cars while a Chinese looking man stood guard on the other. It had been a while since I had seen a real group, and these people looked almost normal compared to the string of horrible people my father and I had encountered. "If you're living in a safe place, we would appreciate it if you would let us join you." I once said that eyes were the first thing I noticed about people. Well, if I was reading this mans right at the moment, he was desperately in need of help.

I took another look around and my eyes stuck to the pregnant woman. She looked like she was going to pop at any moment. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the prison was big enough to share, and I couldn't let that woman give birth out on the dangerous streets. "It's just my father and me." He took several steps backwards and motioned for me to get out of the truck. So I braced myself on the back of the tilted seat and eased myself out. My knees were wobbly and he reached out to steady me, but I quickly dodged him and crossed my arms protectively over my chest. "Give me my things and I'll tell you the rest."

He huffed out a heavy breath and glanced at the other man from the woods. He looked me over before he gave Rick a single nod. "Fine, but no funny business." He walked around to the other side of the truck and came back with my backpack in his hands. He held it out to me and I quickly took it from him and checked it over for my stuff. It was all there so I tucked the gun in my waist band at my back and tossed the bag over my shoulder. "Okay, you have your stuff now where are you staying?" I really didn't want to tell him, and I probably would have just taken off if it hadn't been for the pregnant lady staring at me with one hand on her back and the other on her belly. My stomach twisted from fear and my heart went out to the pregnant woman. My sympathy for the woman pushed the fear aside.

"We made camp in the prison yard last night." They all made faces like they didn't believe me, but I kept on talking and told them how my father and I happened upon it. I told them how to get there. I was just going to walk back, but the man that I learned had bandaged my hands, Hershel, told me that I was too weak and would never make it on foot. I wasn't going to argue with an old man so he introduced me to his daughters, Maggie and Beth. I ended up riding with them and the Asian guy, Glenn, who I quickly figured out, was Maggie's boyfriend. It was nice knowing that there were other women in the group and that I wasn't going to be completely surrounded by men.

They chatted on the way to the prison, but I blocked them all out. If they were talking to me I didn't know it. I just stared out the window watching the trees go by eventually I got bored with that and stared at the tire of the motorcycle in front of us. Finally the prison came into sight and the sick feeling in my stomach only got worse.

When we had all gotten out of the cars I walked off and Rick followed. "I know you're probably expecting me to just let you people come waltzing in, but I need to talk to my father first." He squinted at me like he was expecting me to pull something, but I really had no intentions of doing anything like that. He didn't protest so I entered the yard to find my father still passed out even with the sun straight up in the sky. So I scooped up the Jack Daniels bottle from where it still laid in his limp hand. There was a decent sized rock next to his head and I let my eyes move between the stone and the bottle a few times before I threw it down hard. Whiskey and glass shards flew all over him and the loud sound caused him to wake up stringing together a line of curse words I didn't even know he knew. "ShitGodDamn. Bailey Simone Clark! What the fuck's the matter with ya!"

"You want to know what's the matter with me?! What's the matter with you?" he looked around him realizing that our prisoner was no where to be seen before he took in the look of pure outrage on my face. "When exactly were you going to tell me you started drinking? When walkers break down the fence and try to eat us?" he opened his mouth to talk but I interrupted him. "No, you were going to wait until there was a horrible disgusting man tied to an old rusty school bus. Oh wait that was last night." I said sarcastically and his brows knit together in confusion.

"Bailey I…" he tried to defend himself, but I held up my hand stopping him.

"Save it Sean." I could tell that it hurt him when I called him by his first name, but I didn't care, "I don't want to hear it and we have visitors." I pointed to where Rick stood with his group outside the fences.

"Who the hell are they?" he asked just as angrily as I thought he would.

"Survivors, like us. They found me down at the lake." It was the only explanation I felt like giving at that time.

"What the fuck were ya doin' at the lake by yerself?" the anger in his tone bordered on hysterical.

"What the fuck were you doing drinking yourself stupid last night?" I asked mocking his tone with my eyebrows raised. "Besides they're here now and they're going to stay here because I said they could." I could tell just by looking at him that he was wondering where this sudden change in me came from, but I wasn't going to tell him. I started to walk away, but he grabbed my t-shirt covered, bruised arm and spun me around before I hissed and jerked it out of his grip.

"Who the hell do ya think ya are young lady? Ya think ya can talk to me like that and get away with it?" his question angered me more than anything else had that day.

"I'm a woman that finally realized what kind of man her father really is. Now if you don't mind I'd like you to meet the men that saved my life today." This time he let me walk away and I could hear his faint foot steps behind me as I made my way through the maze of gates. "Sean this is Rick. Rick this is Sean, my father." I was going to leave them to talk everything out but my father's stupid voice stopped me.

"I'm not done talking to you young lady." I gritted my teeth and turned around ready to tell him to stop talking to me like I was a child but he cut me off. "Where the hell is Merle? Did you let him go or what?" that made me snap and I shoved him hard making him stumble from the unexpected force.

"Let Merle go? Let Merle go! I didn't fucking let him go he-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. How about you two save the yelling for when we're on the other side of the fence huh?" Rick got between us cutting off my ranting and pointed to a few walkers that were emerging from the nearby tree line. After that our arguing stopped as we all walked along the gravel path that lead to the prison yard. I could hear the others talking from behind me, but the only conversation I paid any attention to was the one that was taking place between my father and the man with the crossbow on his back.

"Who's this Merle guy y'all were yellin' about?" The curiosity in his rough voice struck me as odd. He didn't look like the nosey type.

"Just some ass hole that found us yesterday. Did have 'em tied up to that buss over there, but when she woke me up earlier he was gone. I still don't know what happened." My dad explained, but the guy asked another question as if he was excited about something.

"Yeah, whatever," The curiosity that was once there was replaced with an awkward urgency, "Was he missing his right hand?" it was this question that stopped me in my tracks causing my father to walk into me. I shoved my father off of me and turned around to stare at the crossbow guy.

"You…you know Merle?" I stammered out and he suddenly looked like a little boy on Christmas, but for me it was Halloween and a real live chucky doll was trying to stab me.

"Ya've seen my brother? He was here?" His…his brother? I didn't bother asking, the resemblance was enough to confirm what he had just called the man of my nightmares. Before I knew what I was doing I took off running and ended up hiding under a desk in the nearest guard tower. I hoped that no one would follow me but soon my father, Rick and Crossbow Guy's voices filled the tower. My father crouched down to look at me where I sat with my knees pulled to my chest under the desk.

"What the hell's yer problem? Ya've been actin' weird all day." He wanted to know what was wrong with me? If it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't stop my rapid breathing I would have told him off. My heart was pounding so hard that I could feel it in my head and I just wanted everyone to go away. My hand shook as I tried to wipe off the cold sweat that rolled down my forehead. 'Please just go away' I thought to myself as I listened to Rick tell my father to leave the tower. "And leave her here with just the two of ya? I don't think so." My stomach twisted and I was positive I was going to throw up on my father.

"She's having a panic attack and you're not helping. Leave or I'll make you leave." I heard my fathers familiar footsteps fade as he left the tower. I opened my eyes to see that Rick had kneeled down in front of me and Crossbow Guy was standing behind him. Rick put his hand on my shoulder but I jerked it away never taking my eyes off of the man behind him. "Look at me" I didn't. "Look at me Bay." Only when I felt like I was about to pass out again did I look at Rick's worried eyes. "You have to calm down okay?" his voice was calming, but it didn't put a dent in how I was feeling and my eyes darted back to the brother of the man that destroyed me. I couldn't calm down with him in here. I managed to get out one word that was directed at Crossbow Guy, leave. Rick looked over his shoulder and jerked his head to the door. The man shook his head no and said something about having to find his brother. "Daryl, I'll find out what I can, but I can't do it with you in here." I watched his feet as he walked to the door and slammed it behind him. Now that he was gone I focused my attention on Rick. "Breath with me and try to relax." he started taking slow deep breaths and I forced myself to follow along. Eventually I stopped shaking and got my breathing under control. But I was still sweating and I felt like I was going to puke. "How are you feeling?" he backed off, sat down on the floor and leaned his back against the metal wall.

Now that I looked at him he looked as exhausted as I felt. "Like shit." My voice came out sounding weaker than I had planned and I leaned up from where I had slumped back against the desk and rested my face in my hands.

"Wanna tell me what that was all about?" his voice wasn't demanding or controlling like it had been when he wanted to know where I was staying. It was soft and caring, but no matter how nice he sounded the truth was I didn't know him and I didn't know if I could trust him. "I know you don't know me, but you can talk to me if you need to. You probably won't believe me, but I'm a cop. Or I used to be anyway before all this flesh eating dead people stuff happened." Now that I looked at him and the way he acted before, I could tell. He was telling the truth, because all cops have this cloud of authority that surrounds them and it was all over him. "So you can trust me to keep my mouth shut." I didn't know how he know that there was something bad that I was holding in, but he did and it all came rushing out of me like a horrible title wave.

I told him everything that happened from the moment Merle push his way into my life up to why I was sitting here talking to him. "Just don't tell my father what he did please. I don't want him to know."

He looked like he was thinking about saying that he wasn't going to keep my promise, but he finally nodded his head. "Okay, I promise that I won't tell your father." You would think that letting it all out would make me feel better, but you would be wrong. For some reason it made me feel worse. It was only Rick's promise that made me feel even the slightest hint of relief. "But you should know that no one here is going to mess with you." I somehow didn't believe that. The only women in the group were either too young or taken. One of the men were bound to hit on me and I had a feeling it would be the brother of the man I now hated with every bone in my body. "Daryl needs to know what kind of man his brother is. One of us needs to tell him."

"No! You can't tell anyone." I hated the way Rick looked at me now that he knew and I knew that once my secret got out that everyone would be looking at me the exact same way. They would either pity me because they believed me and feel sorry for me because they would see me as a pathetic little girl who lied for the attention. Either way I didn't want my dirty laundry hung out for everyone to see.

"Okay fine, but both Daryl and your father need to be the first to know when your ready to tell them." He stood up and walked over to the door before he stopped and turned back to me. "And if you ever need to talk again, I'm here." He walked out leaving me by myself. I didn't want to go out there and face all of those people, or my father, but I knew that I would have to sooner or later. So I dried my face, tugged at my sleeve until it covered most of the bruise, then walked out of the door and down the stairs. Only to be suffocated by my father when I opened the door.

"Are you okay? What did he say to you? Did he try to mess with you?" I tuned him out at that point and pushed him back from me.

"I'm fine Sean, he didn't say anything important to me and he didn't mess with me." I crossed my arms over my chest and started walking across the yard to where food was cooking over the fire from the night before that someone had started back up.

"And why do you keep calling me by my fist first name?" my father caught up to me, but I didn't stop walking. "Answer me young lady." I stopped walking and got in his face.

"Stop calling me that and I'm calling you Sean because that’s your name. If I call you Dad it might make you think I respect you when I don't. You lost what respect I had for you last night, when you left me alone with that son of a bitch!" He grabbed my bruised arm again when I tried to walk off and I hissed from the pain and jerked it away from him. Judging by the look on his face the thought the hiss was one of anger. "Don't touch me!"

I ended up spending the rest of the day walking the parts of the outer layer of the fence killing what walkers had gathered there. It was Maggie that came to tell me that supper was ready. I followed her back the fire. There were only two spaces available in the circle, one between my father and T-Dog and another, wider, one between Rick and Daryl. I chose the latter and sat closer to Rick, because I felt like he was the only person here I could trust.

The over all mood around the fire was cheerful and it affected everyone but me. Everyone gorged themselves on the meal that my father and Daryl had killed, but I just picked at the stringy meat on my plate. When most everyone was finished eating and I had pushed my plate away, Maggie and Beth started singing. It was a slow sweet song that I actually enjoyed because it had been so long since I had heard someone sing other than myself. "Oh all the comrades that ere I had are sorry for my going away, and all the sweethearts that ere I've had would wish me one more day to stay. But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not. I'll gently rise and I'll softy call good night and joy be with you all. Good night and joy be with you all." Every one started clapping including me. My dad looked at me over the fire and I cast my gaze down, wishing I could just fade away.

"Why don't cha sing Bailey?" I rolled my eyes wondering why he was acting like I never even yelled at him. "Oh don't pretend like ya can't. I heard ya when ya thought I wasn't listenin'." I didn't know he had heard me, much less that he thought I could actually sing. I had never done it in front of anyone before other than my third grade music class.

"I'm sure they could care less." I tried to deflect the attention off of me, but it didn't work.

"I'd like to hear, and I'm sure everyone's getting tired of hearing me sing." Beth spoke up and I felt like punching her. Several other people chimed in that they would like to hear, which only added to the pressure. If this would have been happening two days before I probably would have caved.

"No. I don't feel like singin' and I'm not that good anyways." I said and my dad spoke up again.

"What are ya talkin' about? Ya've got a wonderful voice." He sounded happy like the rest of the people and the others made sounds of agreement like they new what I sounded like.

"I said no Sean, now drop it!" everyone got really quiet after that and I clenched my fists digging my fingernails into parts of my hands that weren't covered in bandages. My middle fingernail dug into the hole in the center of my left hand making a sharp pain shoot all the way up to my elbow. I thought everyone would stare at me, but as I looked around the group they all seemed to have started having their own conversations. Well everyone but Daryl. He was looking at where my shirt sleeve had ridden up. I reached my hand up and covered it making him look up at me. The look on his face suggested that he knew what happened. I made myself smile at him, even though I'm sure it looked pained, before I stood up, grabbed my sleeping bag and headed to the nearest tower.

My father grabbed my hand when I walked by him, and I jerked it away from him. "Where ya goin'?" I told him that I was going to sleep in the guard tower. "Why don't'cha sleep here at the fire where it's warm? Ya will freeze to death up there."

I looked between him Rick and Daryl a few times. "I'll risk it." I said coldly before I started walking to the tower again. I locked the door behind me before I pressed my back against it and slid down. I cupped my head in my hands and let the tears I had been holding in for the past five hours fall until I ran out of them. I almost didn't have the will power to even pull myself up the stairs, but I somehow convinced myself that I couldn't sleep on the filthy dirt floor. Once I made it up the stairs I rolled out my sleeping bag, took my pillow out of the foot of it and slid in. After a while I was able to push everything out of my head and I fell into a nightmare filled sleep.

Daryl Tags: @jodiereedus22 @mtngirlforever @zzeacat @winchester-angel@moodygrip @beegnc @hells-mistress @lighthope08 @sapphire1727@luisadontcurr @chloebabyboo @ilkaeliseb @twdeadfanfic @ravengalaxia@1lluminaticonfirmed @my-current-fandom-is @nikkiloves-bailey @coffeebooksandfandom @lonewolf471 @gruffle1 @mblaqgi @calumstuffs@beltzboys2015-blog @neontiger007  @lonewolf471 @sourwolf-sterek32 @dixonluvv @dotslabyrinth @kayln97 @art-flirt @beltzboys2015-blog @cbarter

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Father Daughter Duo Ch. 4

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Chapter Title:The Departure. Pairing: DarylxOc. Setting: The Prison. Word Count: 3.651. Warnings: Rape, Non-customary situations, Suicide attempts.

"What's yer name?" Dad bluntly asked the man that was still tied to the tree. I gave the man a once over. I know it's weird, but eyes are the first thing I notice about people. They usually tell me everything I need to know about someone. This man's eyes were a hard, searing, frightening, icy blue. Everything about the man scared me and I was afraid to know what might happen when Dad finally untied him. Especially considering that the blade that replaced his right hand was still attached to its metal contraption.

"Merle." The man replied with a red eyed glare at my dad. "Yer's?" I was wondering if that was really the man's name and if Dad was going to tell him his real name. When he answered Merle's question he also answered mine.

"Sean." Dad didn't lie, but I still wasn't sure if Merle was this mans true name.

"What about Sugar Tits over there?" Dad didn't hesitate to slam his fist into the man's face.

"Call my daughter that again and ya will wish ya were dead." Merle wiped blood off of his lip and glared at Dad. "Her name is Bay." A part of me wished that he would have lied and told him a fake name for me. Just looking at this man made my skin crawl. "No funny business. Stay there. We'll be back later." The man scoffed and spit a spray of blood onto the ground. I could feel his bloodshot eyes on my backside as we walked back to the prison. Luckily once we got inside the fence Merle was out of sight and out of mind, well as much as he could be.

I started taking out the walkers just as I did the previous day. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as the previous day, because the numb jelly feeling that affected my arms the previous day had turned into a pinching pain over night. Every time I lifted my arms it would shoot through my bicep up through my neck. Dad noticed my slowed pace. "Ya sore?" I dropped my arms to my side taking a break to answer him. "Only one way to fix that. Ya gotta work it out." I knew this was a lie, but I wasn't going to argue with my father, so I just kept my stabbing at an even pace and switched hands every twenty walkers. The longer we carried on killing the walkers the more sore my hands got. I knew I was getting blisters, but I couldn't bring myself to look. I just wanted all of these things dead, so I kept killing the ugly dead people trying to concentrate on the goal, safety.

Finally I dropped my arms to my sides and let the knife fall to the ground with blood and skin stuck to the handle. I looked out over the walker littered yard and up to the sky. Judging by the position of the sun I'd say it was about four in the afternoon. We had spent practically all day killing the ugly creatures and we were almost done. I could count about twenty more roaming the field. I gave Dad a weak smile at our success and he noticed the knife on the ground at my feet and frowned. He took my hands in his rough ones and flipped them over examining my palms. I had a long thin blister across the top of my palms reaching from pinky to pointer finger and another oval blister under each thumb. "Bay, ya should'a said somethin'. Ya could have stopped and I wouldn't 'a blamed ya." He touched the un-popped blisters testing how much liquid was in the raised bubble. I winced from the pain and he squinted at me before he turned back to the fence and whistled to the remaining biters. He took them all down effortlessly as they came over. "Come on I think I still have a first aid kit in Old Red's toolbox." My converse crunched on the gravel as we walked along the path then ducked through the hole in the fence, laced it back up and headed toward the truck.

Dad rinsed my hands with water before he drained the blister that hadn't popped and used some of the yarn to tie a gauze pad to each of my palms. I examined his work touching the sore spots through the pads. "Are we gonna move into the yard tonight?" I asked looking up from my hands and at Dad. He nodded and started gathering up our things. I hopped down off of the truck seat and started gathering up the things that I thought I would need and shoved them into a backpack. Once Dad had everything he needed moved inside the first fence we went back for Merle.

He was asleep so Dad nudged him with his foot. Funny, I would have done more than just nudge him. He woke with a startle looking around for immediate danger only to find my father towering over him. The man slumped back down against the tree. Dad bent down and took the knife off of the metal contraption and was met by a parade of complaints from Merle. Dad just ignored him and shoved the knife into my hands I didn't really know what to do with it so I put it in the side pocket of the backpack. He then untied the horrid man from the tree and started leading him to the prison fence. I untied the lacing and opened the hole. Dad didn't say a word as he shoved him in then followed never taking his hands off of the rope that bound Merles arms behind his back. We walked along the path between the two fences until we came to a gate. I slid it open wincing from the pressure it put on my hands. We had to go through a few more gates before we finally came to the one that led us into the yard.

Dad secured Merle's hands to an overturned bus and left him there while we went and got the rest of our stuff from where it still sat near the hole in the fence. Silence hung awkwardly in the air around us as we made our way back to the yard. I didn't know what to think about Dad keeping the guy in the yard with us. He was just another mouth to feed and not worthy of the food we would provide him with. We sat our stuff down in the middle of the yard and I started setting up to build a fire.

"I'm goin' huntin'. Take watch on that tower over there." I followed his finger to the one closest to the hole. "Lock the door and yell if something happens." I didn't want to take watch on the guard tower, because that would mean being alone, but I once again wasn't going to argue with my dad. So I did what he said and followed him to the tower and went in locking the door behind me like he said. A pair of binoculars were gripped tightly in my hands as I leaned on the railing and watched my father until he disappeared into the tree line. With nothing else better to do, I turned the binoculars to the man, Merle. He could probably see me watching him, but I didn't care. He was a bad man and bad men needed to be watched 24/7 in this new crappy world.

But eventually I dropped the binoculars to let them hang around my neck and took up walking the perimeter of the tower. I found it odd that we hadn't seen one walker outside the fences of the prison since we had been here. Everything seemed safe and uneventful around the tower so I sat down where I could easily see both Merle where he sat and where Dad would be coming out of the woods.

I was mainly staring at Merle though. I couldn't make my eyes leave him. It was like I could feel him looking at me so I had to look back. I found myself wondering why he did it. Why did he try to…to rape me? Did he get a thrill out of watching women cry because of the pain he inflicted on them? Soon I found myself wondering who he was. Was he a prisoner who actually managed to get out of this place? If he wasn't then who was he before this all happened. Was he a nice guy and this world changed him for the worse? I heard a sharp whistle and I looked away from the man to see Dad standing at the base of the tower.

"You can come down now. Got us some rabbit." He had a smirk on his face when he said it and I couldn't help but smile back at him before I walked down the tower and out of the door closing it behind me out of habit. I started a fire when we got back to camp. The meat was cooking on the pit when Merle spoke, more like yelled, at us.

"Are ya'll gon'na share that with me or just make me starve?" I thought about just letting him starve, but the annoying little person in my head named conscience wouldn't let me do it. I ignored the question until Dad and I were done eating. Dad smiled widely at me when I refilled my plate a third time. I expected it to fade when I stood up but it didn't. Why was Dad so happy? I hadn't seen him smile this much since, well since mom was still alive.

"Where are you going?" he asked slowly and I rolled my eyes without meaning to.

"I can't let him starve. No matter how much I wish I could." He nodded, mumbled something under his breath and started eating again. I turned and started walking towards Merle who I could clearly see in the moonlight. He was slumped down half laying half sitting against the bus. He sat up and lifted his head to look at me, but he didn't say anything. "I uh," I scratched the back of my neck with the hand that wasn't holding the plate, "I brought you some rabbit."

"How the hell am I supposed to eat it? Are ya gon'na feed it to me sugar tits?" I cringed at the name, but managed to ignore it and thought about his question instead. How was he supposed to eat it? His only hand was tied to the bus and I sure as hell wasn't getting my hands anywhere near his mouth. "Well, baby, come on I'm starving' here."

I held up one of my fingers signaling that I would be back in a second. I went to my dad and asked him what he thought. He shrugged. "Untie him and let him eat. Ya have yer gun on ya and yer guard up. I'll keep an eye from a distance." I didn't like the slur to his words or his simple and dangerous plan nor could I believe that he actually trusted me to guard him, but as always I listened to him without question. So I walked over to Merle who wasn't surprised when I untied the knot that held his hand to the bus. He rubbed his wrist on his pants before he slowly picked up the plate off of the ground where I had set it. I kneeled down on one knee straight across from him and propped my elbow up on my other knee pointing the gun straight at his heart. He snorted. "What are ya goanna do, shoot me?" he smirked at me.

"Only if you do something stupid." We were both quiet while he ate. I watched his long nimble fingers as he dropped piece after piece of the stringy meat into his mouth. He acted like I didn't even have the gun pointed on him. He finally looked up at me as he chewed the last piece of food.

"Do ya have a staring problem or something'?" he asked still chewing and I pulled a face before I shook my head not willing to speak to him at the time. "Well then why do you keep staring at me?" I shrugged and kept the gun on him. "How bout ya and me sneak away from yer precious daddy and bump some ugly's?" Ugh did he really think I would have sex with him?

"Not even if you were the last man alive." I spoke through gritted teeth and he smirked. Seriously, did he like being insulted? I got up and grabbed the string off of the ground where it had fallen and wrapped it around his wrist once before I wrapped it around a random part of the bus. I was about to tie the string into a tight knot when he suddenly jerked his hand back. Next thing I knew Merle was pressing me face first against the under part of the bus where my father couldn't see. I felt Merle quickly slide his blade out of my back pocked where I had placed it incase I needed it. He held me to the bus with his shoulder as he reattached it and I soon felt the chill of the tip of the blade against the back of my neck.

"Make one sound and yer dead, got me?" I nodded and he pried the gun from my sore hand causing me to let out a cry of pain. "What the fuck did I just say?" he hissed in my ear.

"It's not my fault you hurt me." I whispered back without thinking and he quietly snorted.

"Shut up, bitch." He took a deep breath. "Listen to me your fathers been drinking that whiskey for quite some time now and eventually he's gonna pass out. When he does we're out of here." What! I'm not going anywhere with this man. What is he talking about?

"Dad doesn't drink." I whispered disbelievingly and he snorted again. That was really annoying and unattractive.

"Are you blind girly?" Girly? What did he think he was a pirate? Then again he was missing an arm. He pulled me from the bus and kept the blade at the back of my neck. He walked me to the edge of the bus and made me lean over to look at my dad. Sure enough I could make out a bottle of jack in his hands as he drank it straight from the bottle. I couldn't believe my eyes, Dad didn't drink, and why on earth would he start now? Especially when we had a prisoner to look after. I heard a quiet laugh come from Merles lips behind me.

I felt so stupid at that moment. How could I not have noticed my father drinking before? I knew that after this our relationship would never be the same. He was a stupid drunk and he had let this evil man get his hands on me. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on us, but there he was plain as day staring into the fire as he tipped the bottle back and let the dark liquid slide down his throat. Soon he stumbled away from the fire to pee. "Any time now." Merle whispered in my ear and I cringed from his hot breath on my neck.

"Why do you have to take me with you? Why can't you just leave?" I asked in a pleading whisper hoping he would leave me here. "We won't come looking for you."

"Aww sweet, sweet Bay, maybe I want a girl by my side. Gets lonely out there all by myself." He answered in a mock caring voice.

"Then find a willing girl. I'm sure there's still a slut or two out there somewhere." He sighed and kissed my neck. I cringed as I pressed my face into my shoulder. "Please don't make me go with you." I pleaded with a shaky voice. He continued kissing my neck as we watched my father get more and more drunk. Eventually he did exactly what Merle said he would and passed out on his sleeping bag. Merle took this as his opportunity to get what he wanted in the first place and this time I was completely unarmed.

He held me against the rusted underside of the old bus, cut off my clothes then ran his hand over my body causing the familiar burning sensation of an unwanted touch. Then he slammed me to the ground, grabbed my left wrist and pinned it down, holding it there with the tip of his knife pressed into my palm. No amount of struggling helped it just made the tip of the knife dig deeper into my hand. He eventually caught my other flailing arm and pinned it down. I crossed my feet and clenched my legs together as tight as I could, but he easily parted them with his knee. His next action caused me to release a pain filled scream that probably attracted walkers from miles around.

I made my mind go somewhere else, numbed it even though I couldn't numb my body. He left me lying on the ground behind the bus feeling broken and betrayed, but most of all I felt dirty, inside and out, physically and mentally. I hated myself I hated Merle and I hated my dad for getting drunk and letting this happen to me. I just laid there until the tears stopped falling and dried into crusty streaks on my face.

When the sun had raised enough for me to see I pulled myself up off of the ground and managed to put my ragged, torn clothes back on. I went to my bag, pored everything out of it and put the one bottle of shampoo we had, some remotely clean clothes and a towel back into it before I threw it over my shoulder. Dad was still passed out and I gave him a disgusted look before I started walking to the little lake. For some reason I wasn't worried that Merle would come back. I just left not caring that my father might wake up with me not there or that I might get trapped out here by a pack of walkers.

When I got to the lake I undressed. The clothes that I peeled off of me were shredded and dirty. Just looking at them made me want to throw up so I wrapped them around a large rock and chunked them into the water letting them sink to the bottom. The water was cold, but I didn't care, it numbed the pain of the bruises that I was too afraid to look at. I washed my hair and tossed the bottle near my bag before I scooped up some sand off of the bottom and started scrubbing my skin. Surely if I rubbed hard enough the rough sandpaper texture would remove the filthiness, but I was wrong. Nothing helped; nothing would ever make me feel clean again, inside or out. And inside I was screaming, no amount of doing it out loud helped. Eventually I gave up, walked in until the water line was over my head and let myself sink as low in the water as I felt in life.

I made myself open my eyes under the clear water to observe myself. My hands, which were free of the gauze pads and yarn, slid over my raw arms. I could see a hand shaped bruise on my upper right bicep and several more round ones on my inner thighs. The blue tint of the water made the hole in the center of my hand, that was left from Merles knife, look black. I didn't care when I started feeling my lungs burn from the lack of oxygen. I just stared out into the water and stayed under liking the pain it caused me. It increased by the second but I still didn't come up for a breath. Soon my vision started to tunnel, the length of the tunnel increased with the pain in my chest and eventually there was no end, just a darkness that went on forever until I went completely unconscious.

I was aware of a pressure on my chest before I gagged and coughed up water. I quickly turned onto my hands and knees to spit it out. "Oh thank god." I heard the male voice before I spun around too fast and fell onto my butt as my head started spinning. "Have you been bit?" I waited for the two men to come into focus. The one that was talking to me had short wavy brown hair and worried blue eyes. The other had longer, light brown, side swept hair that almost covered his glaring eyes. The cross bow that he held in his hands was pointed straight at me. Why was he pointing that thing at me, I wasn't a walker and as far as I knew I hadn't been bitten.

The short haired man took a step closer to me when I didn't answer and I shuffled backwards not caring that twigs scratched my bare rear. He took another step to me and I forced myself to stand up. My legs wobbled as I took off running in the direction that I thought the prison was in, but soon I was face down in a bunch of pine needles. I couldn't control the speed of my breathing as I looked up and saw a nasty, half decayed biter stumbling toward me. I heard the faint familiar thud of an arrow hitting the walker's skull before my world went black for the second time that day.

Daryl Tags: @jodiereedus22 @mtngirlforever @zzeacat @winchester-angel@moodygrip @beegnc @hells-mistress @lighthope08 @sapphire1727@luisadontcurr @chloebabyboo @ilkaeliseb @twdeadfanfic @ravengalaxia@1lluminaticonfirmed @my-current-fandom-is @nikkiloves-bailey @coffeebooksandfandom @lonewolf471 @gruffle1 @mblaqgi @calumstuffs@beltzboys2015-blog @neontiger007  @lonewolf471 @sourwolf-sterek32 @dixonluvv @dotslabyrinth @kayln97 @art-flirt @beltzboys2015-blog