AN: another chapter
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Chapter 2
2018 Alexandria
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The phone would not stop ringing. Daryl groaned pulling his pillow over his head. What fuck up had Merle gotten into now?
A phone call at 5 am was never a good sign and especially not in the last five years.
Merle had fallen back into old habits hard since ... Daryl's throat tightened painfully as memories flashed through his mind. The years had not been kind. Both the brothers had fallen back into old habits hard, Merle the spiralling addict unable to deal with Andrea's loss, Daryl cleaning up his mess, trying to hold their life together, out of guilt. A deep profound guilt.
Andrea was never supposed to be on that plane, it should have been him. He should have died with Carol. He should have held her hand, be there with her when she was scared. He could have told her one last time that he loved her, he could have begged her forgiveness. He could have done so many things differently.
Ceaser had insisted Merle sign over his half of the business to Daryl until he got his life together. Which was a blessing.
Without that foresight Merle would have lost everything.
Daryl had moved in with Merle. He'd needed to keep him in line. Constant calls of needing to bail Merle out, angry dealers, fuck even making sure Merle didn't choke on his own vomit had become his life. Along with running the shop with Ceaser.
Carol and Andrea's belongings had been stored in the apartment above the garage, neither man had been able to deal with throwing things out.
Daryl had become a hermit. Ceaser and some of the guys at the shop where constantly throwing girls his way, wanting him to move on, but he was at the point he was certain that wasn't even possible. He'd only recently agreed to start going on a few dates to shut the guys up. No one could compare to Carol. How could he ever be expected to move on? But he'd gone, trying to find some way to move on. There had to be an end to this pain.
There was a woman, a woman that Ceaser had set him up with. They more or less were trying to ease each other's loneliness. They'd gone on exactly five dates, she'd in her annoyance with Daryl told him not to call her again until he'd moved on.
How could you move on, when he'd already had everything and he'd thrown it all away? He would do anything, give anything to have a second chance.
Grunting softly he reached for his phone that would not stop ringing. Jesus Christ, He thought Merle was home sleeping, after his latest stint in rehab Merle was three weeks sober, had the asshole snuck out in the middle of the night?
Staring through one eye at the call display he realized it wasn't Merle. It was an unknown number. Grumbling he answered the phone. "Wat?"
And that's when the ground seemed to fall out from beneath him.
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He'd tripped over his own god damn pants. In his hurry to get dressed Daryl had been gathering keys, phone, wallet and shirt before his pants had even been hauled up. Daryl rubbed his head as he ran down the hall to find Merle. He was going to have one hell of a shiner.
This couldn't be real. There was no way. This was a dream, a wonderful amazing dream and he was going to wake in a few minutes to be devastated.
But he'd tripped over his own pants and his head was throbbing. Your head didn't throb in a dream did it?
Daryl banged on Merle's door so hard he was surprised his fist didn't go threw the wood. Fuck if Merle didn't answer the door soon, he'd rip the damn door off the hinges.
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"It must be their bodies Daryl, you must have heard wrong." Merle said from the passenger seat, as they swerved in and out of traffic. "It ain't possible" Merle was morose but firmly in denial. "There ain't no way."
Daryl knawed on his lip, trying to convince himself that he had heard the FBI agent wrong.
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"What do you think of all this?"
The man sitting next to Carol had leaned over and whispered to her quietly. Andrea had been taken for question she had been gone a long time. Carol sat nervously biting her lip in the enclosed room. No windows, one door with a guard standing manning the entrance this was enough to send her claustrophobia flaring to new and unpleasant heights. She'd been willing Andrea to reappear when the man had spoken to her.
She recognized him from across the aisle of the plane. He'd been sitting with his toddler, a well behaved small girl she'd heard him call Judith. Judith had to be no more than 3, She was currently passed out asleep in a pack and play the FBI agents had provided.
"I'm not sure what to think. How is it possible to be five years in the future, even if something happened to us, if we were kept somewhere and our memories where gone? You're daughter would be like 8 years old...wouldn't she?" Carol said softly not raising her voice.
She'd gotten a sense, a deep instinct since her interviews with the FBI, that the passengers were suspected of something, what Carol was not certain.
The man nodded affirmative "Yeah..." he stuck out his hand. "Rick Grimes." She nodded shaking his "Carol Miller."
"Our families must be going nuts out there huh?" He grimaced with a smirk. "I'd hate to be the security guard keeping my wife Michonne out of here."
Her chest constricted painfully. Ahh god Daryl. If what they were saying was true, he would have spent the last five years blaming himself for all of this.
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"Ladies and Gentlemen please be seated.
Daryl looked around the room the held the families of the flight. Some of them he recognized from a Facebook group that he'd been added to. Two sisters Maggie and Beth Greene has started it, mainly about their boy friends Glenn and Zach who had been on the flight. He wasn't even sure how they'd known his name.
"We just want our loved ones bodies!" Someone yelled from the crowd.
"Sit down, please." The FBI agent at the front of the room. "My name is Shane Walsh. Thank you all for coming. We asked you here tonight because you're loved ones have been found alive."
The room erupted in murmurs. Merle grabbed Daryl's wrist as if to stabilize himself.
"The plane landed early last night. We spent all night confirming identities from the DNA profiles that we created 5 years ago, when we were searching for the wreckage. It's them... all of them, they are alive. "
Cheers filled the room. Cries of joy surrounded him. Daryl felt like he couldn't breathe. He needed to see Carol. He needed to touch her.
"We don't know where they have been, they say..." Shane continued to the group but paused.
"They say what?"someone yelled.
"They say that they never left the airplane, they say the flight brought them forward in time." Hushed murmurs of confusion dissipated to a confused silence. "With permission from her father. I want to show you all a picture." The lights dimmed and a picture was projected onto the wall. "This is Judith Grimes, three years old taken five years ago on Vacation in Mexico with her family" A picture of a toddler filled the screen sitting on a beach under a sun umbrella. "This is her last night." The image changed and the same toddler was shown on the screen." These picture were taken five and a half years apart. We have confirmed her identity and DNA, it's her, she hasn't aged...Just like the rest of your family members."
