Hey this is a walking dead AU starting with the first episode. The AU is basically that Daryl was also a patient in the hospital and he and Rick go on an adventure to find their families, but they go the wrong direction for most of it :) really short, probably five chapters of less to cover almost everything, not sure how far I'm going to go with it, at least until they get to Alexandria! But I am taking Negan in a slightly different direction, sorry if you hate him, I do too, but I'm making him a little more 'fixable' and not like the irredeemable prick that he is! Also (sorry for so much) I know that my Daryl may seem OOC, but I really just think this is more what Daryl's like when Merle isn't around for him to live up to (think season 6-8 Daryl and he's a little younger!). Thanks, xoxo -Cessa


Rick was over-heated and confused. He'd been blacking in and out for a while now, seeing different things each time. First he saw Carl who was teary eyed and standing by his hospital bed. At eight, Carl wasn't tall enough to be completely in Rick's line of sight, he could only see his son from his very furthest peripheral vision. Carl brought him a whole box of cards that were made by the kids in his class. One-by-one Carl held up the crayon decorated cards that read things like 'get well deputy,' and 'sorry you got hurt,' and 'thanks for saving us deputy," most of them with drawings of a nondescript deputy on the front. Rick had tried to respond, to tell Carl "hey, tell those kids thank you, I will get better," but just like his eyes refused to move, his lips refused to too.

Lori was the next person he saw, she held his hand and apologized for being a bad wife. In his mind, Rick was apologizing for getting shot. It was his job to protect his family, and he'd done a real bang-up job of that. After Lori was Shane who brought in ugly flowers in a vase that he was sure belonged to Shane's grandmother.

Rick opened his mouth once more, attempting to respond to Shane, and finally forced the words out, "that's a fancy vase you got there, partner, steal it from your grandma's?" Rick squeezed his eyes shut in surprise that the words had come out of his mouth. "Shane! did ya hear that!" Rick exclaimed, but when he opened his eyes again Shane was gone.

With control regained of his voice, he was able to look around. The first thing he noticed was that Shane was not, in fact, in the room, and that he hadn't been for quite a while if the dead flowers had anything to say for it. He figured at least Lori would have changed them-but then again maybe life had caught up with them. Rick wouldn't blame her for not visiting her comatose husband everyday.

Rick squeezed the familiar button in his fingers, the one that signaled the nurses to come. He pressed it several time, and when they didn't come he figured he may as well get up himself. He'd been lying in the hospital bed for God knows how long and he was sure getting up would be good for him.

Upon standing Rick wondered if maybe he'd been in that bed for longer than he thought, surely his body was atrophied that quickly. His position on the ground would say otherwise. "Nurse! Help!" He called out several times, but didn't hear anyone coming. As he was about to get up, after several minutes of being on the ground, Rick heard faint footsteps from outside his door. Quiet footsteps, either a real small nurse or someone who knew how to get around quietly. The door handle moved the wrong way once, and a pull, then it moved the right way and with a push the nurse entered the room.

Except, it wasn't a nurse. It was an average height man, who was built under the scant hospital gown and similar blue boxers that he was wearing. "Shit man! I thought I was the only one in here." The man said, crouching down to help Rick get up on his feet.

"What do you mean, the only one in here?" Rick asked, his cop voice turning on despite his obvious physical disadvantage. His head cocked to one side, and his right eye brow lifted slightly. It was a look that oozed don't fuck with me.

"I'm not exactly sure myself. I've been in a coma for a week, crossbow bolt right to the stomach. I wake up about three hours ago in a hospital with no one in it. I've been going room to room trying to find something to fuckin eat or any sign a' life." He spoke, and reached out to steady Rick when he seemed unsure on his feet.

At the mention of food Rick's stomach growled loudly, and he was reminded of a burning need for water in his throat. Turning deftly on his foot (motor skills really were like riding a bike) Rick ducked into the bathroom and submerged his face in the sink. Straightening up, he turned back to the patient while wiping his mouth with his bare arm. "Don't worry about a thing, I'm a sheriff's deputy, Rick Grimes, and we'll get to the bottom of this together."

The kid seemed to stiffen up a bit, which Rick was used to. He looked like he'd seen a fair bit of action in his life and Rick couldn't blame him for being wary of cops. Now, a sheriff's deputy was a little easier on the tongue and psyche than one of those Atlanta PD, but he knew a fair share of backwoods folks who thought every day of the year was hunting season, and this kid looked like he might know a thing or two about that. Finally, the kid seemed to realize he had no other option, so he stuck his hand out and said in his curt country drawl. "I'm Daryl, Daryl Dixon."

Rick shook his hand once and didn't bring up the fact that Rick was on a first name basis with another Merle, who was considerably older, rotting in a penitentiary around here, and more likely than not was this kids father. "It's nice to meet you Daryl. Now if you wouldn't mind explaining to me what's going on?" Rick asked. Everything on the inside was screaming red alert at him, but he'd been trained to keep people calm, and Daryl seemed flighty enough without a cop flying off the handle around him.

"Not much man, some whacked up shit I can tell you that. I woulda left but uh, outside, uhm, outside didn't seem that safe ya'know?" Rick nodded along, figuring that was bravado for I was scared, the kid continued: "I've been walking around, just this floor and I saw a body, like the dead kind-the eaten kind of dead kind. Like a dog got to her or something, her entire middle was missing, it was messed up man. Then I round the corner 'cause I hear this noise, I think it's the nurses you know, coming for like a clean up on aisle six. This is my first time in a hospital, so I thought it was kinda weird but maybe this is what rick folks are used too? I dunno. I walked around the corner and it was a door, locked up and real hastily written 'DON'T OPEN DEAD INSIDE' I think it's nothing big like the morgue maybe? So I walk closer but there were fucking fingers trying to squeeze through the door, and I got freaked man. Those weren't fucking human. Or they were but-"

Rick could tell Daryl was rambling to try and comprehend everything that was happening so he shushed him politely. "Can you take me back there Daryl?" Rick asked and the kid turned white as a sheet. "Never mind, it's right around the corner? Stay here."

Rick wasn't exactly the bravest man in the world but he could tell that Daryl was freaked out, and he could also tell that Daryl was freaked out because he was freaked out. He looked like a rough-and-tough moonshine type of man, the type that wouldn't be scared of anything. So whatever this was, Rick proceeded with caution. And he also proceeded to see everything that Daryl said he would. The half eaten corpse and the door with blackened fingers poking out.

This was the King County Hospital and Rick knew it like the back of his hand from having an eight year old son, and having grown up in the area. That wasn't the morgue, it was the fucking cafeteria.

Rick was breathing heavily as he made his way back to the room where he'd left Daryl. "We gotta go! I have to find my wife and kid. You can stick with me or stay here. Either one." He said quickly, looking around the room for anything he could wear. Not finding anything, he decided to just give up and go. Leaving the room Rick wasn't surprised that Daryl trailed behind him, staying about half a hall away but still behind him. Going down the stairs Daryl was always a flight above but Rick held open the door for him at the bottom.

"Listen kid, if you're with me, you're with me. No ifs ands or buts. Stick close." Rick warned.

"I ain't no kid." Daryl said petulantly and Rick gave him the look. To be fair, Daryl was probably only thirty to Rick's forty, and Rick knew how frustrating it could be, being seen as a 'kid' so he made a mental note to knock it off.

"Got it, now close behind Daryl." Rick said as he walked into the courtyard. The bodies he definitely wasn't expecting, maybe there was a disease or something? Whatever it was it just furthered Rick's resolve and he broke out into a gentle run. His house was in the first neighborhood across the park from the hospital. With any luck, Lori and Carl just weren't allowed in the hospital because of the disease. All of his machines were working, maybe the nurses just turned on the backup generators and were evacuated by the CDC or some shit-but Rick knew somewhere that was all far-fetched.

Daryl, to his benefit, was keeping up nicely and in no time they arrived at Rick's front door. They hadn't come across a single living thing other than the occasional bird and Rick was starting to freak out.

"Carl!? Lori!? CARL!? LORI!?" He called as soon as he entered the house. The door wouldn't be unlocked unless they were in there, Rick had instilled a sense of danger in them. They weren't in the house. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." Rick muttered, leaning over one of their granite counter-tops (Lori had picked out the pinkish color) and folding his head into his arms in a defeat pose.

Daryl was uncomfortably standing in the corner but approached Rick after a moment. "Rick," Daryl called softly, almost as if testing the name out on his tongue. "Rick," he repeated but slightly louder. "There's someone outside." He said, coming up to stand next to Rick and to point out the window at a dour faced black man and his younger counterpart.

Rick perked up at that, someone who might know what's going on. "Stay behind me," Rick reminded as he moved towards the door. Carl and Lori weren't forgotten about, they were in the forefront of his mind as he tried to find new information. He could school his emotions well, and while he'd almost had a breakdown at that counter, Daryl had brought him back to reality and he policed himself. Walking out the door, Rick gave a soft call the the man and his son.

"Hey, sir!" Rick called, which immediately got the barrel of a gun pointed at his nose. Rick's hands rose into the air and he started to stammer out an apology or a reasoning when Daryl stepped in front of him.

Daryl put his hand loosely in the waist band of the boxers he was wearing and stared the man down. "Hey, you better back the fuck up or I will fuck you up. Lower your weapon now, you sure as hell don't want to see which of us is a quicker shot." Daryl bluffed, obviously he didn't have a gun in his shorts, but the man seemed more worried for the safety of his kid than for the logic of Daryl's story.

The gun was lowered and if Rick had had a moment he would have contemplated just how resourceful that move on Daryl's part had been. Maybe the kid was finally getting it together and his fear was disappearing.


With things sorted out, and the four of them retreated back into Rick's house, Morgan had opened up a little and explained what exactly was going on, which seemed just as confusing as not knowing because Morgan didn't seem to have a clue either.

Rick brought Daryl some clothing and got dressed himself while he chatted with Morgan a bit more. The man seemed like he was an upstanding citizen, he said that he'd heard of the accident that Rick had been in and Rick saw no reason not to trust Morgan. After a little more prodding Morgan admitted that he had no idea where Lori or Carl would be. "The second my wife died I just went for a full radio silence. I heard the cities were being turned into safe zones, but I didn't hear which ones and I honestly have no idea where your family could be." Is what Morgan told them. Rick thought briefly of Lori's parents that were just South of Atlanta, but Atlanta seemed risky. After a car alarm had gone off and the walkers had flocked in a group of almost ten to that Rick couldn't even begin to imagine just what a big city would be like. Rick didn't want to think that his family could be somewhere that potentially dangerous.

"What about you Daryl? We've told each other our stories, what's yours?" Morgan asked, not unkindly.

Daryl let out a small huff and almost seemed embarrassed to answer, but finally he spoke up. "Born and raised in deer country by my piece a' shit father and older brother Merle. Pops's in prison and I don't know where the Hell Merle got off to. I was in the hospital for a uh... Well it was a heroin overdose, not on purpose I promise I ain't one of those type, Merle just finally roped me in to trying it out. I got freaked, called the police on myself, they checked me into the hospital basically while booking me. I'm guessing my stuff's at the lock up-and then I blacked out." He admitted.

Rick would absolutely not have guessed that was the story Daryl would have, but he supposed that everyone comes from different walks of life. Rick supposed he wasn't too far off, but he hadn't factored the drugs into the whole thing. Rick figured Leon would have responded to that type of call, and if that were true then Daryl's stuff most likely was in the lock up, along with a medley of guns, and Rick's sheriff uniform.

After a few moments of silence, Rick spoke up. "I think we should head down to the station. If what you say, Morgan, about getting them in the head is true than we can take some of the kitchen knives for the way down there and then on the way back we'll have an arsenal." Rick suggested and got no complaint.

On the way out of the house they all remained fairly quiet but he heard Morgan and Duane quietly talking about what sounded like Duane's mother, who was one of them.

Daryl got the first stab at taking out one of the walkers and did better than Rick had expected. In just over the course of a few hours Daryl had evolved from a scared kid to a confident hunter. Rick took the second, but he was a little slower and the thing got a few air fulls of empty bit at him before he finally drove the knife into it.

The thing that was really getting Rick was that not all of the walkers looked dead. Some of them, of course, had the missing parts of the face or were hobbling around with broken legs. Some of them, however looked perfectly normal except for an off gait and usually an inconspicuous bit mark. Rick, thankfully, didn't see anyone he knew on the way.

The department was empty and they got in easily enough, locking the doors behind them with a simple turn lock. Rick found his suit and his guns, and Daryl found and assortment of things that belonged to him, including a brand-new looking crossbow with about twenty bolts in the quiver. Morgan, Rick, Daryl, and Duane traded the guns up among themselves. Duane got a small gun, Rick took his own Colt Python, Morgan looked comfortable with a military grade weapon, and Daryl uncomfortably accepted a handgun, but looked more at one with his bow.

"Well, what's the plan now Rick?" Morgan asked.

"That's not up to me Morgan, I think you're best suited to make the decision, you've been in this the longest." Rick countered.

"I've been in this two weeks longer than you Rick, and I hadn't even managed to leave my neighborhood. You've been in it for less than a day and you've already made me and my boy safer? I think you call the shots." Morgan said, Duane gave a small nod, and Daryl too off to the side bobbed his head once in agreement.

Rick thought for a good long moment about his plan of action before finally coming up with something. "I think Atlanta is out best bet. but Fayette and Coweta County also lead SouthWest into it. I think out best bet is to circle around long and go in through the North. That's the industrial areas. There's not a lot of wide open spaces so it would be easier to get trapped, but it also wouldn't have been a good place to put refugees. I say we take advantage of the tall buildings and scope it out from there.

"Rick Grimes, I think that sounds like a plan." Morgan agreed.

"It's workable." Daryl agreed.


Things went well on their way skirting around the edges of Atlanta. They didn't come across any groups bigger than eight and Daryl knew the back roads well enough that with them in one police cruiser and Morgan and Duane in the other, they could just about get the city vehicles around alright. Daryl was quiet for most of their rides but Rick tried to break the silence often.

They were around day three of the drive when Daryl started to speak up a little bit. "Thank for helping me back at the hospital." He mumbled in his gruff voice.

"Hey no problem. And I wouldn't think of it like that, you saved my ass man. If it hadn't been for you I would probably still be back at my house, thinking about what I've lost." Rick stated, keeping his eyes on the road, though it was early in the morning and he couldn't go more than 45 unless he wanted to hit a deer.

"I don't get it, how are you able to move past it so quickly? I barely even liked my brother-fucker tried to kill me, and I still can't stop thinking about how much I wish he were here." Daryl said, speaking up a little bit out of a mumble so Rick could hear him a bit clearer. Daryl hadn't talked much about his brother, but from what Rick could gather Daryl was basically raised by him.

"We're just thinking differently. You think your brother is dead, I know my family is alive." Rick explained. "It's hard to just tell someone to believe, but it's what I learned on the force. They tell you that for kids under fifteen, the best thing to give them is false hope-they're parents are in a coma, just make sure to tell the kids that mom'll wake up soon and then the kid doesn't have time to be sad because they're waiting for them to get better. On the flipside, they tell you to do the opposite for adults. My mom was in a car crash when I was eighteen, not on the force yet and I still remember the prick of an officer telling me to expect the worse. It just made everything seem sadder, ya'know? She lived, with minimal injuries so it was a big relief and I always blamed the officer for making that a dark point of my life. Way I see it, everyone needs some false hope, and if believing my wife and kid are alive is what keeps me going, then I'll stick to it." Rick finished.

Daryl stared out the window for a long time, taking deep breaths in, and out, in, and out. Rick wondered for a moment if he was having a panic attack for a moment before Daryl turned to his side, look Rick directly at the profile, and with an oddly childish grin for someone his age Daryl said: "I bet my brother's killing all these undead suckers right now. We'll find both of them okay Rick? I won't leave you until we find your Lori and Carl, and you won't leave me until I find Merle." Daryl held out his hand for a gentleman's agreement and Rick couldn't help but grin back as he shook Daryl's hand.

He figured that Shane was with Lori and Carl. He also figured that Lori was a distraught wife and that Shane was showing her some 'comforts' that only a man could show her. He figured they probably started going at it as soon as he was in the coma. Back in highschool Rick and Shane both had a crush on Lori, but while Shane had been distracted with seducing their cute young math teacher for a better grade, Rick had made his move on Lori. Their friendship was never quite the same, and Rick always wondered if Lori hadn't secretly wanted Shane.

"Ya'know, I think my wife is probably cheating on me." Rick spoke out loud to no one in particular. Daryl was sitting there, but Rick didn't care if the man responded or not. Another long pause went by when Daryl finally said something.

"Her loss." Was all he said before leaning his head against the car window.

Rick pondered for a moment on what that meant. Rick would still love Lori, he still wanted to see her safe and happy and healthy, but he wondered how much he would care if he found them and Lori was cheating. Rick couldn't say that he was completely in love with Lori anymore either. He'd realized when he was about twenty one that he was bisexual and that he also liked his gender a bit more than the opposite. But Rick wasn't ever going to leave Lori so he hadn't ever really thought about it. Is that what Daryl had meant? Was that his way of flirting? Rick thought it was a bit inappropriate for Daryl to be flirting with a married man who may have just lost his wife and kids, so against his better judgement Rick lightly slung his arm over the back of Daryl's seat, in an intimate and protecting pose.


Things started to go bad almost immediately as they entered Atlanta. They had arrived later that afternoon and had decided to continue on foot. Climbing up the ladder on the side of a building all of them saw a white van speed by and pulled themselves up close to the ladder. Morgan was the last one up and as he pushed Duane to help him into the open window Morgan lost his footing and fell about thirty feet to the ground, just in time for the white van to come creeping by the alley again.

Duane started to lean out the window to shout but Rick caught the boy and clamped his hand over his mouth as they people in the van got out and expertly picked up the unconscious Morgan, getting him in the van and carting him off. Daryl was the first one to fly out the window, grabbing onto both sides of the ladder and sliding down, Rick could only imagine how raw his hands would be, but Daryl hit the ground running and took off after the van. "You go down next Duane, but do not move until I get down." Rick warned.

He didn't know where Morgan was taken to or why, but he did know that Morgan would be expecting Rick to take care of Duane for him in his absence. Duane nodded shakily and started to lower himself back down the ladder, Rick following after. Once they rounded out of the alley they could just barely see Daryl in the distance sprinting after the van.

Rick motioned to a car that had the doors wide open and Duane slid in as Rick expertly started it with a screw driver from his bag. The doors shut as he tore out down the street, walkers starting to come out of the alley from the sound of one car after another peeling down.

Soon enough they caught up to Daryl who effortlessly got into the car with Rick barely having to slow down. They were in hot pursuit of the van and easily gaining on it as they rounded a last corner onto a street that emptied out into Grady Memorial Hospital. Rick slammed on the breaks as the van went into the parking lot, but only stopped for a moment to think before he followed it in. He wasn't about to let Morgan just be taken.

Coming up to park next to the van, everyone who got out of it was wearing an Atlanta Police Department uniform and looked majorly pissed at Rick. "What the fuck are you doing following us?" A woman asked, a biting edge to her voice.

"You took Duane's father." Rick bit back, not ready to deal with whatever this woman was prepared to say.

"He fell three stories, we just wanted to take him back to the Hospital." The woman said, her temper not evening at all.

"And you didn't stop to wonder if he was with anyone?" Daryl spoke up, his arm protective around Duane.

"Listen kid, most people around here are on their own at this point. Now, we have a doctor who can fix your dad right up if you just give it some time. Let us save his life, then you can work off the supplied we used on you, and then you can go."


Daryl and Rick hadn't been able to say no to her offer after they saw what bad of shape Morgan was in, and it was just over two months before he was actually able to get up and going. The whole time Daryl kept his nose down unless someone was too nasty to him, and Rick had gotten into the fold because he'd been a deputy. Neither of them liked what was happening at Grady Memorial and it was making them question when exactly the officers were going to let them leave. All three of them working, four now that Morgan was back up, had to have been more than enough time to pay off their debt.

The two spent almost every night in the same room, one of them taking the arm chair and the other taking the bed. They didn't like the place that they were in, but they weren't going to leave Duane and Morgan alone. Every day that passed Rick got more jittery about finding his family, and Daryl started to lose hope again that his brother was alive.

Sitting on the bed next to each other and both staring blankly out the window, neither of them wanted to break the silence.

"Two months." Daryl finally said.

"I know." Rick agreed. They both knew it was too long for them to have been there, they should have been on the move, scouting around and not living the kush life up in the hospital. They heard stories of other people who were carted in, it wasn't pretty out there and Rick had a sick feeling in his stomach thinking about everyone else that was still out there.

"We have to get out tonight." Daryl mumbled and his breathing quickened slightly. Rick had learned by now that Daryl didn't much like dangerous plans. He seemed more than content to run headfirst into danger, but given the option Daryl would always pick to make a plan up as he went than to pre-plan it and have time to think about everything that could go wrong.

Rick placed his hand lightly on Daryl's leg, a comforting technique that he had learned Daryl liked. Daryl would rest his palm lightly on top of Rick's hand until he got himself under control, and finally Daryl did.

That night, the four of them found themselves in a stand-off, one of the officers pointing her gun directly at Duane and threatening the other three that unless they wanted Duane dead, they would stay and work.

Rick, Daryl, and Morgan were all armed and raised their weapons back in defiance but the woman didn't seem to care that they would die, she was confident that they would do anything to save Duane, and they would have.

It was just a mistake that one of the patients had a night terror at that exact moment and started screaming bloody murder. The female officer didn't even seem to realize she'd done it, but she pulled the trigger directly into Duane's forehead, which released a hailstorm of bullets onto their whole troop, decimating their numbers and taking out almost every single one of them who was temporarily blinded by the fact that a kid had just died.

Daryl and Rick left, Morgan stayed behind to finish the job.

"Morgan, please, we have to get out of here. We can talk about this later but right now there's more officers in here somewhere and they're on their way now!" Rick urged but Morgan just shook his head.

"I have to do this Rick. I can't go. You led us this far. I will find you Rick Grimes, I had better find you Rick Grimes, because the world needs Rick Grimes."