Title: She's Not You
Summary: Andrea and Daryl have a conversation late one night.
Notes: Spoilers for 18 Miles Out.
He wasn't one to interfere.
He'd heard about it while not really paying much attention at camp.
Andrea had left Beth alone to make her decision- live or die. It had paid off, the girl had regretted her decision seconds after choosing death, yet what Andrea had done had crossed a line. She'd defended herself and had received various looks from the others.
He hadn't said anything, hadn't given away any feelings from his glare, yet later she sought him out when the others had gone to bed and she hadn't been able to sleep.
He was still by their camp fire, still working on the piece of wood he'd had all night, carving it down to what might eventually make an arrow. He might have turned in, got some rest, but his stuff was all the way across the field at his own camp he'd made and he didn't feel like trekking across right now. She sat opposite, watching him work for a few moments before she spoke.
"So, am I the devil?"
He glared at her for a moment, and looked beyond the words she put out. She masked the fear at being labelled a bad person by the group well. She was trying to find her place.
She wanted to be tough like Shane, to be able to handle herself and make decision, yet Shane wasn't the type of guy anyone should aspire to be like. But he did understand why she picked him over Rick.
"Made a bad call," he eventually said.
"Really? You think it was wrong to make her choose between life and death? To make us all wait around while she battled over what she wanted to do? Because I don't. I think that she needed to realise it and just accepted it, one way or the other." Rant over, her jaw set in a determined way, like she'd proved per point and no one would be able to tell her otherwise.
Daryl rested the knife on his lap as he reached for a cup nearby, taking a mouthful of the water inside. "See, that there's ya problem," he said as he took another mouthful of water before spitting the water on the floor as he stood up. "When you looked at Beth, you saw all your weakness and self doubt in that girl and you made that decision for her. What you should have done when you looked at her is saw Amy. Then you'd have seen her differently."
Andrea watched as Daryl walked out across the field, back to his camp.
And she felt a coldness in her that she didn't want to be left with after Daryl spoke those words. Because she suddenly realised that she'd made a terrible mistake. Because Dale hadn't given her the right to choose her own fate, she'd wanted to give that choice to Beth.
Maybe she didn't want to be like Shane after all.