"The Dark Side of the Moon"
Author: carmen_085
Disclaimer: I don't own any Walking Dead characters. All original characters are mine.
Summary: When the Whisperers begin to threaten Hilltop and the other communities, Daryl gets a surprise as they find someone from the group's past among the enemy.
Author's Note: Plan to finish my other story, 'Better Days', couldn't resist this idea in the mean time.
Chapter One
Daryl scanned the road ahead through strands of dirty, sweaty hair. His eyes narrowed to small slits as he searched for movement. Behind him the horse trotted his heels clopping on the worn asphalt. Casting a momentary glance over his shoulder his eyes landed on Jesus; lifeless laying across the horse, Aaron pulling it with a frayed rope. Behind them Eugene was bent over clinging onto his own saddle. They had all gone out to find, Eugene and Daryl was sure that he felt responsible but this would have happened sooner or later. In this world it was only a matter of time before you ran up against some shit head who tried to take it all. Bringing his eyes back to the road he allowed himself to do something that he rarely did. He remembered.
All the people they had lost. He didn't want to remember them but sometimes he couldn't help himself. There was Sophia and Dale; they died before people turned bad and all you had to do was fear the dead. Simpler times for sure. And then it was Lori, Andrea, Hershel...Hershel had been the hardest. He could still see the Governor beheading the old man right at their gate. Really the first casualty to a bad person. The first of many. He thought about Glenn and all the things they had been through together. He thought about Abraham and Sasha and Bob and barely getting out of Terminus. But not matter how much he thought about all those people he always came back to the same two people. Beth and Rick.
Rick. He had searched everywhere for Rick. Followed the creek to the ocean and back, checked every walker, looked in every building and under every car. And for the last six years he'd lived with the fear that Rick was out there somewhere as a walker. But he couldn't find him. And he couldn't shake the feeling deep inside him that Rick was still alive. Somewhere with someone he was alive. But that didn't make sense either. Because if Rick was alive he knew the he would do anything to get to Michonne and to Judith. Still though...he felt something. Rick was like a brother to him, more of a brother than Merle ever was, and he would know if his brother was dead. He would be able to feel it.
And then there was Beth. Daryl let out an audible sigh as he put one foot in front of the other. In reality that's all he'd been doing since he lost her. They tracked those cars with the white crosses on them all the way to Atlanta; him and Carol. They found Noah but then Carol got hit by that car and Daryl was forced to leave and get Rick and the others. When they came back Rick worked out a deal with those assholes. The deal was done; she was back. She came right to him in that hallway, wanted to be with him and nobody else. He had been so worried that she would hate him for letting her get taken in the first place. But no...in typical Beth fashion she walked right up to him with those big blue eyes and soft smile and slipped right under his arm.
But then she wasn't. The bitch cop wanted Noah back and while he was ready to go back; Beth would never let that happen. She had helped him escape once she would help him again. She had her family; he wanted to go home and find his. So she stayed for Noah. Typical, selfless, do gooding Beth always putting others before herself. Rick tried everything he could to change her mind but somewhere deep inside she must have known that if they pushed this someone would die. Daryl was the last one left standing there with her. She held his hands; he never let anyone do that but her, and she leaned in next to his ear. "I'll find my way back to you."
Those words haunted him. The others wanted to move on, to leave her. Even her own sister. They felt she had made her choice. But that wasn't no choice. Not to Daryl, anyway. Beth sacrificed herself so that no one got hurt, she took Noah's place so he could go home. Daryl made one attempt, solo, to go back for her. But weeks had gone by and a herd of thousands had moved through. Atlanta, what was left of it anyway, was burning. He never made it to the hospital; couldn't get close enough. So he gave up, talking himself into believing that she was dead with everyone else. But he knew that was bullshit. Still, it had been eight years. He had sense of her, though, just like Rick. A sense deep inside that she was out there somewhere, alive.
Now Jesus was dead too. Daryl flashed back to that night on the porch of that shit hole moonshine den. Beth sitting there across from him drunk on grain alcohol smiling like there was no place she'd rather be. 'You're going to be the last man standing, Daryl Dixon." At the time he laughed but maybe he should have cried. The only thing the last man standing meant was that you had to watch everyone else die. Bury every last person you ever loved. That was him, alright. Last man standing. Lucky him.
A covered bridge came into view as a few walkers ambled aimlessly toward them. Magna and Yumiko slid off their horse readying their knives as Michonne unsheathed her Katana. Daryl brought his crossbow level as he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Normally this would be a no stress situation, less than ten walkers. Michonne could handle that herself; but nobody was taking any chances. He watched them closely, the way they walked. The first went down easy but the one behind them charged Michonne and was met with a sword to the gut. Daryl and Yumiko handled the next three as one of the ones in the back pulled a knife from under its shirt. Without hesitation Michonne skewered him right in the chest. Blood splashed everywhere as he cried out in pain. Daryl raised his crossbow level at the last one before it suddenly stopped ambling to turn and run. His bolt sailed just wide, a rare miss for him.
"I'm on it." Magna sprinted off after the small framed person, her knife drawn. Daryl looked around at the dead as Michonne breathed heavily.
"This how it's going to be from now on? Freaks in skin suits running around." Her voice was high with agitation as Daryl reasoned she was thinking of Judith and RJ. He grunted in return. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Magna dragging someone over the hillside back up to the bridge. Pushing the person out in front she put her knife against the skin wearers throat.
"What do you want to do with this one?" Daryl pulled his crossbow up and leveled it. But yet there was something familiar here. Something in way the person stood, in the shape of their hands, in the tilt of their hips. He heard the person breath out light and airy. He heard something else too. 'Oh.'
'So you do still think there are good people around?' She looked at him smiling like always, that sweet Beth smile. He flipped his hair not wanted her to catch the look in his eyes. Daryl had never fallen in love with someone before.
'What changed your mind?' All he could do is grunt. He flipped his hair again, he wanted her to see that look but he just wasn't ready. 'Don't uhhh...what changed your mind ?' This time he met her eyes and he found he couldn't look way. He was lost in her in a way that he had never been with another person. He would do anything for this girl and he hope that she knew it. A look of understanding passed over her face. 'Oh.'
"Oh." He heard it and he felt his heart stop in his chest. His arms felt weak as he left the cross bow drift down to his side. His mind was playing tricks on him. It couldn't be her. It just couldn't.
Gesturing toward Magna he finally spoke. "Let her go." Magna looked at Daryl like was crazy before taking her knife away. They stood there staring at one another for a moment the rest of the people faded away. Slowly those familiar hands went to the mask lifting it off. Shoulder length blonde hair fell out as the women finally looked up.
"Oh my God..." Behind Daryl Michonne let out an audible gasp.
She stared at Daryl just like she had that day eight years ago at Grady. Her eyes were still kind, her smile was still soft, but there was something different. She had been hardened by years out there alone. Daryl felt something inside of him crumble, a wall he had built the day he left her. Tears came to her eyes as she blinked once wiping her cheeks. She looked down and then back up at him as he felt tears in his own eyes. "Oh Daryl. You have no idea how much I've missed you."
Daryl wanted to reach out and put his arms around her more than anything in the whole world. But he didn't, he couldn't. Eight years had gone by and he had no idea if she was still the same person or not. Looking at the discarded mask at her feet he began to worry that Beth had changed in a way he never thought possible. "Daryl..." Her voice was small and unsure as he began to back up.
"Tie her up. Put a blindfold on her. We'll take her back, and see what she knows." Beth looked at him stunned as she felt Magna roughly slam her against the railing of the bridge. She watched as Daryl turned and walked away. Michonne looking between him and Beth before retreating to Daryl's side. They spoke in hushed tones that Beth couldn't hear.
"What the hell is going on here?" Michonne spoke through her braids as Daryl took a deep breath to collect himself. Beth...the only person in the whole world he had ever really loved...standing in front of him...after eight years.
"Can't trust nobody anymore. You should know." Michonne pulled back abruptly as if she had been stung. "Don't know where she's been the last few years..." He gestured toward the skin mask on the ground. "...Or what she's been up to."
Machine nodded as she looked between the small blonde woman and Daryl. "Yeah...but this is Beth...I mean you and her..." She trailed off as she saw the look on Daryl's face.
"We need to make sure she's still the person we knew." Magna and Yumiko pushed her onto one of the horses as they put a blindfold on her. Michonne watched the pain in Daryl's face as he turned his back on Beth and kept walking.
The group arrived back to Hilltop with a chorus of gasps as they unloaded Jesus's dead body. Beth could feel people staring at her even through the blindfold. She couldn't believe after all these years she had found Daryl again. She knew he was alive, she had a sense of him deep inside her and no matter what she had been through a part of her had always felt alive in a way she never had before that night at the funeral home. Him staring at her over those candles. She loved him then, she did what she did at Grady to keep them safe because she knew Daryl would be back for her. And she figured he did try to come back but they both just ran out of time. She had been on the run ever since; subconsciously finding her way back to him.
She felt his hands on her now pulling her down off the horse. His touch was gentle and familiar as she breathed in a familiar scent. Picking her up she felt him carry her down a set of stairs before sitting her down on a bed. She didn't move, just sat there blindfolded until she heard the jail cell slam shut. Reaching up she pulled the blindfold off but he was already gone. Looking down on the bed she saw something she never thought she would ever see again. Her diary. Breathing out raggedly she picked it up. Daryl had been carrying it with him all these years. Clutching it to her chest she laid back on the bed. Those pages were from another life...another girl.
It was dark in the cell when Beth heard the door open and footsteps on the stairs. Sitting up on the bed she stared into the darkness. In the dim light a familiar face came into view. Daryl. He stood there looking at her through the bars before opening the cell and walking in. Leaning against the door he stared at her with a completely unreadable expression. "You and me..." She had been waiting eight years for this to happen. "We gotta talk."
TBC... Let me know what you guys think !