Summary: It's been eight years since the fall of the prison and Daryl has seen most of his family separate and be taken away from him. But with new threats around the corner, an old familiar face shows up with a surprising connection to the Whisperers themselves. Co-Written with WalkingPotterGirl14. Daryl/OC, Merle/Carol, Beth/OC. AU after the mid-season finale but will loosely follow the show.
Rebuilding The Heart
Chapter 3
She had never felt so happy as she did when they'd all been living at the prison. It had been their home. She could still remember Hershel's excitement over planting the tomatoes, soya beans, peas, and cabbage. Beth's delight at having Flame, the beautiful chestnut stallion that Michonne had found on a supply run.
Aunt Carol teaching the kids how to defend themselves at story time. Her and Beth learning how to preserve food, learning how to hunt and fish under Peter, Merle, Jamie and Daryl. Danny and Judith playing in the play room that she and Beth had decorated with Carl, quite happy to help.
The home that now lay in ruins and was swarming with walkers. None of that would have happened if Andrea had killed the Governor or when Rick had the opportunity at the meeting. So many had died, and what Rick had done to her aunt Carol...it made her burn with anger. So, what if she killed Karen and David to ease their suffering?
She had killed Jim. She killed the man to stop him from killing someone when he turned. She hadn't agreed with Shane and Rick's decision to leave him on the side of the road under a tree, so he could turn into a walker. That was selfish, cruel and reckless.
So, she'd gone back after the group had rested for the night and killed him by stabbing him in the back of the head. No one had known aside from Daryl, who had seen her come back to their camp that night. He had looked at her with respect.
She sighed and shook her head as she heard those bells ringing again in the distance. Where the hell was that coming from? A church? It reminded her of the church that all of them had thought Sophia was hiding in. Her heart broke as she thought of her sweet, shy but kind twelve-year-old cousin.
The cousin that she had tried so hard to protect from her father, who was Lena's uncle. She sighed sadly, pulling out a photo of her and Sophia with aunt Carol. It had just been taken before the world had gone to hell. She thought of how proud they'd been of her when she graduated college. Aunt Carol had cried with happiness, and Sophia had been thrilled for her.
They'd been her family, seeing as her own damn parents harboured no affection for her, and had died in a car pile-up. She put the photo back into her backpack, before taking a sip from the bottle of water thirstily.
She needed to find a place for the night to rest. She got on the motorcycle again and drives on the road for a while, before coming across an abandoned furniture department store in a long-abandoned shopping mall.
Lena hid the bike round the back, and cautiously knocked on the window to see if any walkers were inside. It was silent. She cautiously opened the door to see the store was empty.
Sighing, she decided to sleep on a comfortable looking blue velvet sofa and laid down after putting her backpack down. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes for a minute. She felt so tired but needed to stay awake. She couldn't let her guard down. She curled up under the blanket and closed her eyes as she tried to rest while it was still the afternoon.
Alden and Henry had radioed Daryl and the others, letting them know that they'd seen the mysterious young woman, and had gotten a good look at her. Yumiko who was good at drawing, had drawn a sketch of her based-on Alden and Henry's description. The young woman had dark red hair, blue and green eyes that had flecks of brown, almost like a hazel, and had a few cuts and bruises on her face, throats and arms.
She'd been riding a motorcycle, and based on Alden's opinion, it had been a 1917 Bonneville Hardtail Frame Conversion motorcycle. He had loved to learn about them before the turn. That had made Daryl freeze, as he knew only one person who owned a motorcycle like that.
Merle.
But the bike had been abandoned at the prison during the Governor's assault on the prison. His poncho had been left behind, along with Beth's guitar, Jamie and Peter's fishing gear, and Carol's photo albums.
It had to be someone else's bike. It had to be. He knew those kinds of bikes existed out in the world. He swallowed and saw the trail lead to an abandoned shopping mall that, like the other one, was being retaken by nature. Only this one had decomposing bodies, and there was a fresh blood trail.
"Found more blood. Whoever this girl is, she's hurt real bad," he said quietly, as it was decided that they would rest in one of the abandoned stores.
Magna volunteered to take first watch. Daryl radioed Beth and Bertie to let them know what was going on. Beth answered, and she sounded concerned.
"So, they're motorcycle tracks and they match Merle's motorcycle?" she asked wearily. Daryl nodded and sighed.
"Yeah, they match. She's hurt real badly. Think she might have gotten injured when she was fightin' that group of Whisperers," he admitted quietly, seeing Merle and Carol talk to each other quietly.
"Look, I know you might not like this, but do you think it's Lena?" Beth asked seriously. They had never seen the bodies personally. Daryl felt his stomach drop at her words.
"Lena's dead, Beth, along with Danny. Rick and Michonne told us how they found their ripped apart bodies in Richmond," he said flatly, trying to ignore the jarring pang in his heart.
"I know…but just be safe, Daryl. Give everyone my best," Beth softly. Daryl nodded as he and Jamie said goodnight.
He tried to get some rest, but his dreams were consumed by a face that had haunted his dreams for the last eight years.
Lena had woken up groggily and could hear something moving downstairs. She quickly slung on her backpack and hid in one of the offices silently. Sure enough, six damn Whisperers started to silently search the building. She sighed in relief at seeing Beta wasn't with them and snuck up behind the sixth one.
She slit his throat with her machete, blood staining her hands as she stopped the male Whisperer from yelling. She dropped him onto the floor and grabbed his pistol ammo.
"Asshole," she said bitterly, and started moving silently to the exit. She silently climbed down the ladder. She was just about to reach her bike, when two Whisperers spotted her.
Oh, shit.
"Here she is, tell Beta we found her!" One of them yelled quickly. She fired her pistol at him and swung her machete at the female Whisperer charging towards her. She shot her in the face, as she ran towards the overgrown grass and hid in it. As she laid there, she saw the remaining group of Whisperers coming closer.
"She headed into the grass, watch yourselves," one of them said darkly. Lena crawled under a car as she grabbed one of her three remaining nail bombs. She threw it at three of the ones near her, and when one of them walked towards it, it exploded loudly. She was about to crawl out, when a hand dragged her from under the car.
"You cunt! You fucking, outsider cunt!" A male Whisperer roared enraged. She shot him twice in the stomach and started running towards the other side of the shopping mall.
"Will!" One of the Whisperers yelled enraged and started firing at her. Lena kept on running and saw a Whisperer fire his bow at her, hitting her in her already bleeding wound. The pain was unbearable that it almost made her fall to the ground, but she had to keep going.
Grimacing, she grabbed the Whisperer closet to her. The second arrow hit her instead. She threw his body onto the floor and ran into the abandoned B&Q store.
"I have eyes on her!" A Whisperer shouted quickly. Lena threw a glass bottle at her as someone shot at the doors, shattering the glass everywhere. She dived over the counter and ducked low, as she saw the remaining five scouting Whisperers whistle. They started searching the store.
She grabbed the tip of the arrow with shaking hands, and pulled it out, as her vision went blurry briefly. Oh Christ, she didn't have any medical supplies either.
"Fuck," she whispers. How the hell was she going to take on all of these men with how bad her shoulder felt.
She always told herself that she would go out dying. Maybe this would be it. And it would be better than being overtaken by those fucking bastards.
"Come on out, little girl," one of them whisper to her. Lena quickly grabs her machete and tries to wrap a piece of her jacket around her wounds as much as she could. It hurt. By fucking God, it hurt, but she had to do this. She had to kill.
It was what she was good at.
She suddenly yells out and slashes the Whisperer that as closest to her across the throat. The next one hits her right in the back, and she felt the skin cut against the sharp object, but she banged her head back into him and stabbed her knife through his head.
Lena ducks and then takes out her gun. Before she could load her pistol, one of them jumps on her. She's forced to fire and the sound rings in her ear, but the shot had gone right through the head. She pushes the body off of her, cursing as she does so, and runs towards the other side of the area. Arrows were shot more at her.
She quickly hides behind a car and pulls out her bow, before aiming as best as she could. "Fuck!" she snaps before letting an arrow fly. It hit the man in the neck. The last one charges at her and she takes on final bullet and shoots. He falls to the ground.
Dead.
Lena collapses onto the floor beneath her, pain surging through her. The adrenaline was running low. She had nothing to keep herself alive. Her wounds were all open and there was a nice new fresh one on her back.
This was it. She knew this was it. Unless God gave her a miracle, this was it.
And then, she starts to laugh. She starts to laugh so hard that tears come out of her eyes and she feels like even more blood leaks from her body onto the pavement beneath her. Her whole entire life has led her up to this, to dying in the middle of a road with people after her, wanting to hurt and rape her. No one around her, not a single person.
Her eyes become blurry with pain and she starts to shake, still laughing and crying and feeling like the world was pulsating around her. Visions of people come by start to appear before her. She wishes she was with her aunt, with her friends, with her life back home, with Danny again, with…with the people she had loved and cared for.
Everything felt so wrong. But here she was, dying. And there was nothing she could do.
She suddenly falls back against the nearest car, shaking her head and still laughing. Her life was a fucking mess. Everything was a fucking mess. And she knew it wouldn't be long until more people came for her. To make her dead. To cause her life pain. And then, it would be done. Everything would be done.
She tries to get up, slowly but surely, and attempts to take the bike one last time. It was too hard. It was too heavy. Everything hurt. Blood dripped onto the ground beneath her.
"This…fuck…I can't…" She laughs, shaking her head before letting the bike fall to the ground. Her backpack does as well. And then she does. "I can't…"
The moment Daryl heard the gunshots in the distance, he took off. The rest of the group was quick to follow him. It wasn't long until they were running completely through the trees and the violence had stopped, until they reached an old department store somewhere else.
Daryl quickly steps inside and saw more dead bodies, before noticing an even fresher blood trail. He nods at the others as he steps outside, and in the far distance, he sees someone laying down on the ground. Well, not laying. It was sitting up, staring at the distance. And they were laughing and crying.
He holds a hand up to the others to stay behind him while he approached the person quietly. "Ma'am?" He tries. She stops suddenly. "We ain't here to hurt ya. We saw ya were fightin' those fuckers and we wanted to see how badly yer hurt."
The woman suddenly turns to face him.
He feels every fibre of his being freeze and still. A solid cry from behind him as well as a gasp could be heard. Daryl watches as the girl slowly rises, hovering over the bike that was on the ground behind her. Then, she starts to laugh. He didn't know what to do.
Her red hair was caked in dirt and blood and her eyes were completely cut around the skin. But he recognized them anywhere. He recognized her anywhere.
"You gotta be kidding me," she laughs, holding her aching sides. "Nice fucking trick, God!" The man in front of her takes a step forward but she shakes her head. "Don't fucking look at me, you're just a hallucination. I'm dying, leave me…leave me alone, you fucking…" She didn't even know how to react. She saw some of her group all the way in the back. She saw her Aunt Carol crying. She saw Merle shaking his head in disbelief. She saw…fucking Michonne, standing there in shock. She saw some other girl she didn't know who looked just as surprised.
And then there was him. Daryl. Right in front of her. But this…this couldn't be real. Her life wasn't real. None of this was REAL.
"Leave me alone!" She suddenly screams, stepping back. It was all a lie. Everything she saw was a lie. This was a cruel trick from God. A cruel trick she wanted to end. "Please just take me…. take me away…" She almost falls down, but she doesn't even notice that the man who came up to her catches her before she could hit the ground. She cries and shakes her head. "This isn't-"
And then she's silenced when he places his mouth on hers.
She freezes for a singular moment before closing her eyes. Tears stream down her cheeks. Her arms wrap around what was in front of her. She holds onto it tightly. She kisses him back like her very life depends on it. From the distance she heard an, "I knew it!" From one of the members, and then he pulls away.
Those blue eyes…
"You're real?" She mumbles.
Daryl could barely even form words properly, so he just nods and holds her close. "I'm real," he finally whispers, a choke of a voice escaping him. "And…and so are ya…"
The woman looks up at him and smiles, before suddenly falling unconscious in his arms. He springs up, his idea of happiness suddenly falling apart. Lena was alive. Lena was fucking alive. But she wouldn't be for long.
He picks her up into his arms and lifts her up. "Ya fuckin' liar!" He suddenly snarls at Michonne. She doesn't say anything as Daryl walks over to the fallen over bike. "I don't have time to deal with this shit. I have to get her back to Hilltop. Merle, take Dog and the others on my bike and come back."
Merle didn't even have the moment to speak before Daryl had taken off on the bike with Lena tucked deep into his arms, life draining ever so slowly. The older man looks over at the others before nodding ahead.
"Let's fucking go! We got a life to save!" He yells before heading back towards the bike.
When Lena woke up, she felt like she was in an unfamiliar place. The last thing she remembered was Daryl…Daryl being alive and…and kissing her and…no, that had to have been just a dream and…
She looks around the room and sees a backpack in the corner. There was her cut up jacket as well. Her weapons were on the far end. She looks down at her body and found her whole entire chest wrapped in bandages. Her back ached as did her shoulder. It all hurt so much.
But…but she was alive and…
The door suddenly opens, and she looks forward. There he was, stepping in with some food that looked like cooked deer. He closes the door behind him and places his crossbow down on the ground, before turning towards her. He stops short.
"Yer awake," he says softly. He comes over to her bedside and places the plate down. "Beth kept tellin' me that food sometimes wakes people up…been bringing stuff I made for the past month just…"
She stops. "I've…I've been out for a month?" She whispers.
He nods. "They hurt ya, real bad. I got ya here in time. Didn't know if ya would wake up…. but yer here now…"
She looks at him softly before looking back at the room. "We're…I'm safe…where…" Lena swallows before looking over at him confused.
"We're at Hilltop," he says to her gently. "My home. Yer safe here. We've been keepin' ya safe."
She looks at him, almost in disbelief. "This is…too good to be…be true." She was having trouble speaking, only normal with the pain she was feeling. Daryl shakes his head.
"It ain't. Yer here with us."
Lena feels tears start to slip down her cheeks. "And…and you're real?"
A painful smile comes onto Daryl's cheeks. "I'm real, Lena."
She starts to cry. He pulls her close to him and she begins to cry into his shoulder. All the memories that she felt, all of the pain she had lost. She had cared deeply for Daryl back then. They had been…well, more than friends, but he had been the closest she had ever had before that bastard, Nick. She had thought he was long gone.
But he was alive. He was here.
"You…you kissed me…" She sobs.
Daryl rubs her back. "Only way to get ya to realize I was real," he says to her softly. She pulls away and still cries, trying to get the sadness away from her eyes. "We're all here, Lena," he says to her softly. "We're all here. I ain't left this place even to go talk to Michonne. Bitch fuckin' split after she saw ya." Lena shakes her head.
"I…" She shakes it again. She didn't care about Michonne. "Where…Where are the others? Beth? Is Merle…and Carol still…" Her excitement was getting the best of the words she could speak. She was with her family again. It was real. It was all real.
Daryl smiles gently. "They are. Do ya want me to go get 'em?"
Enjoy, and review :)
