Daryl woke up with a needle nestled in the crook of his elbow, to the sound of pages turning beside his bed. He blinked his eyes in the dim light, immediately recognising the distinctive drapes and dusty air of the Barrington House. His head swam against the lumpy pillow as he tried to sit up, not quite catching the sound of heavy boots thumping over hardwood floors or the hushing of a gentle tenor above him.

His eyes locked onto the bright aqua ones above him as Jesus pressed down on his chest with an authoritative force. "You have some serious painkillers going through you right now," Jesus warned. "You wouldn't be able to kick your sheets off, let alone leave the House."

Daryl grumbled and settled down into the starchy sheets. "Where's everyone at?" he mumbled, his voice slurring.

Jesus took his seat and looked at Daryl seriously. "Michonne, Carl, Eugene, and Sasha are back at Alexandria. Aaron and Glenn are with Maggie in the infirmary. Rosita's over there with them, helping Harlan out. She got the bullet fragments out of your shoulder and patched you up before we brought you over here."

"How's she? Maggie?" he asked. As his brows furrowed under his hair, Jesus waved his hands noncommittally.

"The stress isn't doing her any favors, but she's stable and in good hands. You've been out for a day and a half. You've had a few blood transfusions to make up for what you lost."

Daryl nodded sluggishly. He could feel the medicine pumping through his veins now. He lifted a hand to brush against his shoulder, wincing at the tightly bound pressure in his chest. Jesus swatted his arm down. "You do anything now, you'll aggravate the wound and it'll take even longer to heal than it already will. If you hurt at all you let me know and I'll see to it, but don't move otherwise."

Silence fell between them. Daryl allowed himself to rest against the pillows but his eyes remained wide as he traced the patterns of the wallpaper on the ceiling of the bedroom. He focused his ears on the sound of Jesus breathing: slow and languid, punctuated with deep sighs and the sound of pages turning against calloused fingertips. Outside he heard the animals yell with indignation that could only mean they hadn't been fed yet. Footsteps echoed around in the distant half of the House. Daryl sighed and turned his head to Jesus, who met his blue eyes evenly.

"Lass time I was out of commision," he began, his words slurring, "Merle w's there to keep me alive."

"Who's Merle?" Jesus asked, his eyebrow rising.

Daryl shook his question off. "He wasn' really there - he was gone with the Governor already, prob'ly. It was all in my head."

Jesus leaned forward. He rested his elbows on the bed. "What happened?" he asked curiously.

Daryl scoffed, wincing slightly as it jostled his shoulder. "Fell on top of my bolts. Came back and was mistaken for a walker. Our Spotter was shit, though - she nicked my temple, didn' even leave a nasty scar."

He stopped and raised his good hand to lift his hair, revealing the straight line along the side of his head where the skin was smooth and no hair grew. Then he reached down to lift his shirt on his left side, revealing small puncture wounds where he pulled his weapon out from his side.

"'fore that, though," he continued, "Maggie's damn horse threw me into a ravine. 'm talkin' 15 feet of earth in front of me and walkers stuck in the mud behind me."

"Is that when Merle came?" Jesus asked, and Daryl laughed, coughing and wincing once again.

"Asshole knew he could piss me off and it'd get me up again. Accused me of bein' into girls and said no one will ever care about me like he did."

Jesus watched him curiously, but he didn't interrupt. Daryl met his eyes, though they were glazed over with the effect of the painkiller and his own memory. "Stupid piece o' shit, Merle was. Talkin' shit like he spent his whole life tryna make me a man, but he was gone the whole time."

With his eyes still trained forward, Daryl took a deep breath. Then, with a huff, he closed his eyes and Jesus faced Rick on the other side of the room. "Merle?" he asked.

Rick scrunched his brows together. "His brother. He was among the few I first met when I got to Atlanta. He beat one of our own into the concrete before pulling a rifle on the rest of us. I cuffed him to the roof and he sawed his hand off to escape before we went back for him."

Jesus's eyes widened and he sighed. "So this Merle was quite the character."

"Oh yeah," Rick replied; "He was an accomplished bruiser and dishonorably discharged for punching a sergeant in the face. He was racist, sexist, and misogynistic." He blew out a deep breath and eyed Daryl's sleeping form.

"Was he homophobic, too?" Jesus asked, and Rick looked to his hands in contemplation.

For several seconds, he said nothing, but then he shook his hed: "No, he never gave that impression. Still, though, we're lucky Daryl never took much after him."

The two lapsed into silence before Rick excused himself to check on Maggie. When Jesus was left by himself, he turned his eyes to Daryl's sleeping form on the bed. He couldn't help the smirk that formed on his lips when Daryl peeked open an eye to look at him.

"Merle didn' have nothin' against no gays," he muttered. He blinked slowly. When he opened his eyes once more, they were slightly crosseyed and his lashes fluttered against his cheeks.

"And what about you?" Jesus asked jokingly, and he smiled when Daryl scoffed.

"I ain't some hypocrite," he said, his voice slow and ending with a deep breath that settled into light snores. Jesus sat back with his book lying forgotten in his lap. Something in his stomach jumped when the words registered in his mind, and he tucked his chin to his chest to hide the grin that stretched over his lips.


a/n: that's a wrap on this three-shot! now, if you'll excuse me, i have two research papers i have to write before they're due sunday and a survey for a government internship that closes in like three days. i bid you as adieu.

like with my previous chapters, here is my shameless self promo: my twd blog, full of gifs from the show + ftwd, the cast, and darus/jeryl fan works, is thatsmygvn.