The winner of the book cover contest for my story "You're My Home" was WickedDare and this is her one-shot story. Be prepared for more contests in the future, this was fun. Wicked: I hope this is something similar to what you asked for and I hope you like it!
Daryl found Valerie out in the woods on her own about a year ago. She was far too skinny, her skin pale considering the time spent in the Georgia sun, making her tattoo sleeve stand out from a mile away. She has black hair and blue eyes which automatically drew Daryl to her. It took at least a month before anyone got much of a conversation out of her. Shy is almost a disservice used to describe her. Eventually she wormed her way into the hearts of the prison group, two of them in particular. Rick is her best friend. They confide in one another, have shared stories from their pasts and present, and Carl enjoys seeing his father come alive again when Valerie is around. Then there is Daryl. Daryl and Valerie are a lot alike. Both shy, quiet and only seem to speak when spoken to, and they are both loyal to a fault. They both had rough lives before the apocalypse but they seem to have found their places within this group of misfits and with each other.
Daryl and Valerie have had a tentative relationship, always seeming to tip toe around one another, feeling the other out. Lately though, their relationship has become more confident. They both know what they feel for the other and they both would die to protect the other. They are finally happy. Well, they were until three weeks ago.
Valerie never got along with her family. They always put her down, made her feel like an outcast because she wasn't the same as the other members of her family. She left them as soon as she was 18 and moved out with her boyfriend. She would later find that this wasn't much of an upgrade. John was a dick. He verbally abused her just like her family had her whole life, and he used the occasional "physical correction" he felt was necessary to get her where he felt was her place. She took the abuse because she felt it was what she had deserved. She didn't know any better since her whole life revolved around hurt and loneliness. The final straw was at a family Christmas where her family and John's family were over at their house. He had backhanded her across the face for burning the dessert pie crust and not a single person lifted a finger to help her. Her mother and father turned their heads, pretending the interaction never happened. Her sister stood in the corner snickering, playing on her cell phone and his parents and two brothers felt he was justified in his actions. So she decided that night while everyone was sleeping, she would take a backpack of supplies and hop on a bus to get as far away as she could on $450. She was 23 and that was the last time she had seen any of them, until three weeks ago. All of them were brought into the prison together as if they were one big happy family. The sight turned her stomach. She thought she was done with them, but she thought wrong.
Valerie was out working the garden with Rick today, anything to be out of those walls that seemed to be much smaller now with the newest additions. She tried staying away from them, never being alone with a single one of them, but it didn't always work. Sometimes they would corner her, say horribly mean things to her about how she was nothing, useless, she should be dead already and save the supplies for those who really matter to this new world; try as she might to ignore them, she still heard and felt the sting behind every word and she started to retreat back into the shy and quiet girl she was when she first joined the prison.
"You doin okay today, Val?" Rick said while picking some cucumbers. Valerie nodded her head and continued to pull the weeds from the tomato plants. She heard Rick let out a heavy sigh before stomping over to her and crouching down to her level, forcing her to make eye contact.
"Is it Daryl? Did he do somethin?"
"No…" Valerie shook her head adamantly. Daryl and Rick and this group are her saving grace. These people make her feel like she is special, like she has a real purpose in life and to these people. So why is she letting these people, her so called family, make her feel any less?
"Then what's goin on cause you haven't been the same. Is it those people we brought in? Have they done somethin?" Valerie took a deep breath and plopped back onto her butt, brushing her hands over her knees to get the dirt off. She looked at Rick, seeing the concern in his face and knew he would understand. He wouldn't judge her and call her names, he would protect her.
"Remember me tellin ya about my family and my ex? All the stuff I put up with my whole life…" she let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat off of her brow with the back of her hand, causing the dirt to smear even further.
"Yeah, what about em?" Rick looked genuinely confused and she couldn't help but let out a small, quiet laugh at him. "Wait…that's them? All of em?" All she could do was nod and look down at the ground, ashamed that she is allowing this weakness to show. She should be past this, she has a good life now, and she has a real family now, a real boyfriend, and a purpose. It's amazing what can sink into your brain if it's drilled into you enough. When she looked back up at Rick she didn't see the pity she was expecting to see, she just saw a friend looking for any way to help.
"Have they done anything to you since they've been here? Or anyone else that you've seen?" She shook her head and hesitated before answering, "They've cornered me a few times at night coming out of the showers, said some things to me. John, my ex, he pinned me against the wall one time because I kept trying to ignore him and walk past him." She rolled up one of her t-shirt sleeves to show the faded handprint bruise on her upper arm and Rick's expression changed from sadness to anger.
"Does Daryl know about this?" Again, she just shook her head.
"Why wouldn't you tell one of us what was goin on? Did you not trust us?" She quickly picked her head up to make herself look Rick dead in the eyes, blue clashing with blue.
"That's not it at all Rick. I trust you and Daryl with my life…I've never trusted anyone like the way I trust the both of you. I just didn't wanna bring my problems into everything else that's been going on. We just took in the group from Woodbury, things have been runnin smooth, and everyone's got jobs. I thought I could just ignore them and they could ignore me. Make everyone's life easier, ya know?" Rick sighed heavily and sat himself down and scooted as close as he could get to her and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, letting out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, also seeming to release all the tension her body had been holding onto these past few weeks.
"You're important to this group. You have a problem, then we all have a problem. You have to come to us when something like this happens. You aren't alone anymore." She couldn't help but smile at Rick's words. "You also gotta tell Daryl, cause I ain't keepin it from him and you shouldn't either. I'll be there to help you calm him down if you want. But this whole thing is in your court. You can decide that they aren't good for the group and no one will question it. They'll be gone, we'll send them on their way with a few supplies that we can spare and good luck to em, OR you can choose to keep em here and see how things work out. I know that's a lot to put on someone's shoulders, I've been there, but…ultimately no one can make this choice but you and I trust you to make the right call. You know them, the real them, and we don't." Valerie took in his words and took a deep breath and looked up the hill and Rick did the same, still locked in their embrace. What they saw was everyone out doing their jobs; laundry was being hung out to dry, something was cooking on the pit that they had made a little while back, people were milling about including her old family. She saw her sister flirting with Carl and her ex John had found a new girlfriend out of the Woodbury group, her name is Elaine. Real quiet and submissive girl, just like he likes them to be, a girl she no longer was and that filled her with a little bit of pride.
"I think you might want to warn your son to stay away from my sister…she is an evil cow on the best of days." She said with a laugh, causing Rick to chuckle and nod his head in agreement. "Will do. What about the rest of em?"
"I'd keep an eye on John. Elaine seems like a sweet girl but he likes to hit when something doesn't go his way." Rick again nodded his head, just more solemnly this time. Looking back towards the hill they see Daryl making his way down to them, crossbow slung across his back. He'd probably sleep with it attached if he could, an idea that makes her quietly laugh to herself. It's amazing how one look at this broken man, can make her smile? Two broken people that found their way to each other, and they've been made whole in one another's presence.
"Well look at you two, cozy as two bugs in a rug." Daryl says with a small smile on his face when he reaches them, causing them both to stand up and laugh. Valerie knows he isn't much on showing affection in public but right now she really needs a hug from her rough and tumble redneck and she just dives into him, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso. He hesitates for a minute, slightly confused before wrapping his arms around her back and rubbing small circles with his hands. He rests his nose in her hair smelling dirt, sweat, and apples all while giving Rick a confused look with his eyes. Rick rubs the back of his neck and clears his throat, starting the conversation, knowing Valerie would have a hard time with it.
"That group that you brought in a few weeks ago…that's her family and her ex." Valerie feels Daryl's entire body stiffen, breath hitching, and his hands stop rubbing in circles and clench in her shirt.
"Why didn' ya say somethin?" Valerie just shakes her head and buries her face in his neck, looking up the hill and seeing her ex staring right at them.
"Val…" His tone is gruff and warning and she knows she needs to have this conversation whether she wants to or not.
"Didn't wanna be a bother to anybody."
"Ya ain't no bother. Ya shoulda said somethin."
"She said they've been cornering her at night in the showers and her ex put his hands on her once since they've been here. Got some bruises on her arms." Daryl pushes her sleeves up to get a good look and his face hardens looking between Rick and Valerie.
"I'll kill em."
"I told her it was her choice if they stay or go. If they do stay though, they have to be made aware that there are rules and if they can't follow them then they're out. No exceptions."
"They're leavin…now." Daryl says, prying Valerie off of him and trying to walk up the hill.
"Daryl wait!" Valerie grabs onto his arm and steps back in front of him.
"Ain't no waitin. They're gone!" He tries to step around her again but she matches him step for step.
"Daryl, you taught me to believe in myself. You taught me that I'm worth somethin, that they're the ones that never really mattered…you give me confidence just by the way you look at me; the way your eyes always look so damn proud when ya see me helpin out or tryin somethin new. You give me that Daryl. They can see that and they don't like it so they try and bring me down where THEY think I belong. I know better now though and that's thanks to you. Yes, you and Rick gotta remind me sometimes but I know and I am so thankful. It may have taken me 34 years to figure it out but I did. Now Rick trusts me with this choice and I'd appreciate it if you did too." Valerie is panting from her speech and Rick and Daryl are looking at her in shock. It has been the most she has ever spoken to the men at one time and they can't help but be proud of the woman she has transitioned to.
"Aight. I trust ya woman."
"Thank you…I think they should stay, and before either of you object, just hear me out," Both men nod their heads at her, waiting for her to continue. "I think they should stay until they do somethin against the rules, then that's on them. I don't wish any of em any harm but I don't wanna deal with em either. Let them see I'm not the same little girl they can push around anymore, that I am important and that I have the both of you at my back when I need ya. Please." Both men look at each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes, before looking at her and nodding their heads in agreement.
"We're behind ya, one hundred percent. Anything happens, and I mean anything, ya gotta tell us though."
"I promise." Valerie smiles brightly when Daryl throws his arm across her shoulders and kisses the top of her head, the three of them walking back up the hill past her old family, her ex, and his family and the smile never leaves her face. Yeah…everything is gonna be alright. She isn't the same girl anymore, and she knows it.