AN: so, new idea- this will be a multi chapter AU. Let me know what you think :)
I do not own or profit from The Walking Dead
Chapter 1
Waking up was like swimming upwards through layers of a dream.
First you could hear the voices, as they called to you, spoke to you in hushed worried tones, but they were from a distance. To far outside Daryl's current limited sphere of consciousness for himself to care. The voices were there, a constant background hum, of noise, but all he wanted was to sleep.
Waking up meant pain. A deep throbbing ache settles in behind his eyelids when he tries to listen to the voices, when he tries to come closer to them. So at first he ignores them. He stays suspended in blissful, peaceful sleep. Happy and safe and secure.
Until suddenly he wasn't happy. Suddenly he knew, he wasn't supposed to be asleep. Not like this, not in the inky blackness of his own mind. He struggled to get closer to the voices, to bring them into focus. To hear them.
They were a swirling gust of wind that seemed to float around him. Always past his reach. Mocking him almost. He could hear the concern, the hushed hope filled tones of the voices seemed to soothe his soul. Especially the sweetest voice that voice filled him with love. . But he couldn't reach out and grab it. He wanted to see that voice. To see the owner. He needed it.
Suddenly he could hear them. None of them made sense. Facts we're flying at him rapidly now. Car accident, head injury. He needed to wake up. Needed to come back to them.
He wanted to come back, he really did. He wanted to wake up. He was trying. He really was, and he was closer. So close to the surface it was as though he could feel the sun shinning on him in the dream filled waters. He was closer.
I need you, a voice whispered in his ear, one that filled him with such longing, he felt as though his heart was breaking in two. Show me how! He wanted to scream. I'm trying!
He was trying.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"You need to go home, get some sleep, eat."
Carol was curled in the uncomfortable hospital chair, her feet pulled up underneath her, her hair pulled up on top of her head in a sloppy bun, her hoodie up as she tried to steal a few precious minutes of sleep that seemed to only come in spurts and and naps the past four days. The worst four days of her life.
Without opening her eyes she murmured "I am sleeping Merle."
Merle huffed from where he was perched on the hospital window seat. "Pfft... I mean you need to sleep in a bed, get some food, real food not vending machine shit. Take a fucking shower." He grunted.
"I don't need a shower."
"You smell like shit Carol." Merle said directly.
She lifted her head up off the arm of the chair cracking one eye open. "You don't exactly smell like sunshine and roses yourself either Merle. Maybe you need a shower too." She said then flopped her head back on the chair. Her eyes scanning Daryl's prone figure on the bed. Scanning the machines that were beeping in a periodic rhythm and the hiss of the life support pushing air into his lungs.
Merle came around in front of her, kneeling down, taking her hand. "I ain't pregnant Carol...that's you. That's my baby brother's baby. He'd want you to take care of yourself..." Merle paused as Carol's head snapped up.
"Stop talking about him like he's not here or already gone." She snapped and regretted it instantly as she saw Merle's eyes surpringly fill with tears. "Sorry." She whispered, looking at her fingers uncomfortably. Suddenly a sob wracked it's way up her throat. "Oh god I'm sorry!" She said putting her hands over her face. Feeling like she had for the past four days. Lost. Completely and totally lost.
"Hey it's alright...you're ok. I'm sorry too. One thing I know about Daryl he ain't no quitter. He don't know how. He'll make it. But he'll be fucking pissed if he wakes seiing you look like this, fucking too tired to stand and pale as shit.. You got yourself a Little one you gotta think of now." Merle said staring at her from his knees beside her chair.
She nodded, wiping her eyes. He was right. She was exhausted. Daryl would throw a fit if he saw the bags under her eyes, or how pale she looked the last time she had glanced in the mirror when she'd been in the bathroom. She looked over at the bed again, a pAnic filling her. She suddenly felt as though she couldn't breathe past the lump in her throat.
"I can't leave.." she murmured.
"Carol..." Merle sighed.
"Not yet.." she started to say but stopped as two nurses came barreling into the room as an alarm rang.
Jumping up in a panic she watched as they worked on Daryl, other people joining them in the room.
"What's happening? " she asked in fear as the chaos threatened to engulf her.
A nurse smiled and looked over at them. "He's waking up."
Xxxxxxxxx
The room was dark, almost creepy. He knew they were in the room with him, but it was hard to see their faces.
The doctors had said, to keep the lights low. The lights might give him a headache. The doctors had said try not to talk to much, throat would be sore from the breathing tube, the doctors had talked and talked and talked until he couldn't remember what they had said, or the faces that had surrounded his bed.
Merle had been there. He'd known that. His face had swam out at him from the back of the room, pinched in concern.
Fuck his throat was sore.
"Do you want a drink?"
The voice was soft, sweet, filled with concern. He nodded towards her as she stepped into the light. Blue eyes piercing him. She looked tired.
A cup and a straw appeared at his mouth, his initial instinct was to draw greedily from it, the desert in his mouth reering it's head. But she murmured "Just a sip, or you'll get sick." So he stopped. There was something about her voice.
Suddenly her face, broke tears spilling over into her lashes trailing down her cheeks. Her face, seemed to fall foreward and she pressed her forehead to his own. He flinched in surprise, all the years of not wanting to be touched Haunting him.
She pulled back, hurt. Tears streaming down her face as she stared at him in confusion. He saw Merle suddenly who had been asleep in the corner stand smiling at him big and tightly. Merle looked like shit.
"Sorry lady, I don't like being touched, I wanna see my brother."
Merle gaped at him in confusion. "Daryl...that's Carol...your wife."
