Hey guys! I wish I could of updated sooner but I guess life has a different story. This chapter was more to just get a bit of background going in the story. Promise to keep moving forward in the chapters to come! I just want to say thank you to everyone for taking the time to read, it means so much to me. Hope you enjoy and please Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead.
"How does she do it?" He'd been thinking about it for hours now, but there was still no answer. Daryl looked down beside him. Carol sat there with her head on his shoulder, and was sleeping soundly. Her hand was still in his but with a much looser grip, but nonetheless she still chose to hold his hand.
She had fallen asleep not long after their little talk. He knew it wasn't much, and most people wouldn't have found it at all helpful, but somehow she did. There was so much he didn't understand about her. How she found comfort in him. How out of anyone in the group, she chose to be close with him. In his mind, nothing made sense.
Throughout their journey during the apocalypse he had given her several chances to run, he would have understood. In his eyes he was worthless, nothing more than some a piece of redneck trash. Yet she stayed with him, never failing to tell him all the things he wouldn't believe. That he was important, that he was an asset to the group, that he was worth something.
Daryl's mind drifted back to farm, to the day they lost…her. He couldn't even bring himself to say her name. Just the thought of it made his heart grow heavy. Watching what once that little girl stumble out of the barn as one of those things, it was something she didn't deserve.
The images still haunt him. The look on her face as she ran to the thing that was once her little girl. He swears some nights he can still hear her cries as Rick pulled the trigger, putting down Sophia once and for all.
After that all Daryl wanted to do was comfort the now grieving mother, but he couldn't. Whenever he looked at Carol all he felt was guilt. He had promised to find Sophia and had failed her.
That's when he decided it was best he left. What good was he if he couldn't even keep a damn promise? As the days passed by he drifted farther and farther away from the group. He wanted it to be that when he left, no one would even think twice. Carol though, had different plans.
Every day she would come over to his make shift camp and did everything she could to convince him not to leave. The guilt though was eating him away.
He had said some nasty things, and there is not a day that goes by he regrets them. He had been so harsh to her; it was the only thing he thought that would get her to stop. All he wanted to do was disappear away from these people without being noticed, but with the things she said to him, that she couldn't lose him too. He knew at that point he'd have to do something to make her see he was nothing. That is why he had been so terrible to her.
The day before the farm got overrun he had been sitting by his bike making more arrows for his crossbow. It was about mid afternoon and he had made the decision to leave that night. He had been pushing it aside for too long, it was time.
To be honest he was prepared to go off and live the rest of his life alone. It had been how his father always said it would be anyways.
As he was finishing off his last arrow the sound of quiet footsteps approached him. He sighed, knowing that he needed to tell her. She was the only one that would actually care. Before she could even speak Daryl beat her to the punch, "I'm leaving tonight and that's that. There's nothing you can do."
His eyes focused entirely at the ground, he was in no way ready to see her cry, again. There were a few moments of silence before she spook.
"Daryl." It was quiet and he could tell she was trying to hold back tears. "I said I made up my", "Shut up and let me finish." She cut him off; a bit of anger was in her voice. He had been taken back by it, never had she been angry towards him. So he kept his mouth shut, he could at least hear her out.
She took a deep breath and continued; "Now I know you're ready to leave and you have been for awhile, but you're wrong. The people here care about you! You seem to be the only sane one out here now with Shane going psych and Rick caught up in Lori and the baby. We need you, I need you."
The last part had caught him off guard. Sure every time she told him to stay she had talked about everyone in general. This had been the first time she said something about herself directly.
"Why the hell you need me? I ain't anything special." He spoke with his own kind of anger, trying to scare her away. But there she stood, keeping a good eye on him as he felt the stare burn into the side of him.
She chuckled, causing his head to shoot up, looking at her for the first time during the conversation. "The fuck you laughing at woman?" He was growing frustrated.
"You and all this bullshit. I'm sick and tired of hearing that you ain't worth anything when in reality it's the complete opposite. Daryl look at you! In the short time we've been at the farm you've gone out and nearly killed yourself to find my little girl who ended up being here the entire time. You did more for her then than her father ever did in her lifetime! Then there was everything you did for me. You comforted me, gave me hope again about finding her. Hell when you gave me that Cherokee rose, I felt hope for the first time since I married Ed. And how about all the things you do for the group? You protect us, go on runs, and with all the hunting you do we actually have some food to eat. I swear without you this group has nothing. And even if that weren't true without you, I would have nothing."
Daryl was speechless. There were just no words. All this time he thought she didn't really seem to care for him, just felt sorry and gave him a friend. Everything that she just said though proved him wrong.
Did someone other than a Dixon, care for a Dixon? It sounded crazy, unbelievable really, but his proof that it was true stood right in front of him.
He looked up, searching her eyes for any sign of dishonesty but found none. Slowly he stood up and faced her. Cautiously he took a step closer to her, "You're making a big deal about me staying, why?"
He spoke quietly; his eyes fixed on the ground but looked to her as she answered, "Because you're the one thing in this world that I actually care about." She stood firm, confident in her answer. She had found no shame in the fact that she indeed cared for him.
Taking another step closer to her he spoke once more, "Ok. I'll stay." Carol had smiled so brightly she had practically been glowing. She then ran to him throwing her arms around him in excitement.
He hadn't expected any of it, and at the sudden contact he instantly tensed up unsure of what to do. He pushed the thoughts of running away, and even though he was still a bit tense he slowly wrapped his arms around her torso.
"This isn't so bad." He remembered thinking as they stood there. He felt his heart start to flutter as he looked at the woman who was wrapped up in his arms, "Maybe I could get used to this." With that he smiled, not realizing what he just got himself into.
Daryl was soon brought back to reality as he felt the woman move beside him. She nuzzled her head on his shoulder and wrapped her other arm around him bicep as if she wanted to make sure he couldn't leave.
There was a slight smile on her lips as she slept and he found it hard not to smile himself. He never thought that someone like her would even think twice about him, but he had to admit he was happy she did. He knew that Carol stirred up feelings inside of him that he was scared of, but he wasn't going to let them get in the way of the first good thing in his life. They could live the rest of their lives being just friends and he wouldn't care, as long as she was in his life, safe and alive, he knew he was blessed.
Looking again to the woman beside him, he couldn't help to think she was beautiful. Carol had done more that day at the farm then just keep him from running off, she had kept him from missing out at the one thing in life that made him happy.
The sun was beginning to rise in the sky and he knew she would wake soon. They had a big day ahead of them; today they would be leaving the prison. They were leaving their home.
Looking down once more he whispered, "I promise to keep you safe." He knew she couldn't hear him but he needed to say it. She didn't move, still fast asleep. "Thank you for making me so damn happy." Daryl knew he wouldn't be able to say it to her awake; he was terrible at showing feelings. Carol did make him happy though, and he hoped that one day he'd find the courage to actually tell her that.
