I'm watching the New Year's Eve Marathon and I think "Save the Last One" is really one of my favorite episodes. I caught something in the scene this time when Daryl got up to go looking and it reminded me that it's not a flowers and chocolate kind of romance our beloved characters have. Maybe it didn't even start as a romance…
The Need To Act, by MissMishka
DISCLAIMER: The usual warnings, I claim no ownership of these characters, they are simply borrowed with love and adoration from the original creators to have their stories embellished on a little more than the show may do. Not for any profit.
Daryl was just trying to sleep.
He didn't think it such a bad thing to want or expect after the exertions of the day, but damned if these women would allow him a moment's peace.
To the foot of him, Carol lay sobbing quietly on the only real bed in the camper. He got her grief. Was glad of it, seeing as he'd like to think it still natural for a mother to worry for her lost child. The way she tried to stifle the tears twisted him up inside with memories best left pushed down deep.
To the head of him, Andrea sat at the kitchen table, methodically loading bullets into a clip. She gave no response to the glare he shot her way, trying to get her to do what women were supposed to and comfort Carol, but the blonde just clicked another round into the chamber.
Huffing up at the ceiling, he gave up any hope of rest and sat up on the floor. His eyes went helplessly to the bed and he couldn't think of a damned thing to do to help her find peace enough to sleep.
No words would have comforted him had anyone even tried to give them when he realized his brother was gone and so he had none to extend to her. He stunk to high heaven from a combined lack of water, time and energy to bathe properly, so he couldn't see her welcoming a hug any more than he felt comfortable making such a move. The years that had passed since anyone laid a kind hand on him were so many that he couldn't even think to try patting her back or rubbing her shoulder as he'd seen the others do most of the day.
Action was all he knew and he got to his feet with the intent of just doing something other than lying there like a damned pussy.
Her sniffles paused at his movement, but he focused on Andrea, asking her to relinquish his clip. Not because he had any intention of using anything besides his bow if action was called for, but because it just didn't seem right how this one was getting about guns.
Feeling the other pair of eyes upon his back, he quietly announced his still forming intentions to go out looking for the girl. He looked over his shoulder at her, felt her hope and gratitude like a kick in the teeth and made a decision.
The choice had been presented without any real fuss to draw attention to it.
He'd seen hints of it in camp before her husband died. That quiet suffering of a battered woman for some way out to find her because she'd given up hope or just been too scared to look for it.
Carol Peletier needed a helping hand.
A hero.
Daryl didn't imagine himself to be anyone's ideal of the latter, but he could manage the former. He had two good, relatively strong hands. While they might not be suited to cuddling her close and wiping away those tears, they were damned good at snapping the necks of zombies that might be threatening her child.
He could protect her.
Find that little girl and watch over her too.
Despite how small their group was, it didn't really include everyone and they both seemed to have fallen on the outskirts.
He was used to the outside and didn't expect to be anywhere else in gatherings big or small, but this woman needed to be part of something more than herself. She was a caregiver and nurturer, needing something to keep her hands busy so her mind didn't wander to darker places. He knew that same kind of itch, but always turned to violence to scratch it.
With the need for some of that violence in mind, he gave her a brief nod before heading out. Silently promising to do his best until her daughter was brought back to her and hoping he'd be enough of a purpose to keep her going in the meantime.