* Please Review! The vitamin are not a set up. It's just something I thought of. What could help keep people going when their food supply wasn't great? Vitamins. Melissa: That's how I see Daryl and how Reedus said he would be in a interview. He would want a woman but won't admit it or go to her because he has no game and he knows it. Water: I kind of thought the after shower scene was sad too but Reedus said the scars bother Daryl and that's why he won't ever take his shirt off around the group. Leyshia: She is kind of taking Milton's place but is different. I think Milton is as bad as The Governor where as Ashlyn really wants to help people restore order to the world. And I don't believe The Governor does.*
" I ain't takin any pills." Daryl snapped as he followed Merle back to the clinic.
" Ah,quit your whinin." Merle snapped back. " It's just vitamins. Helps your body when you ain't been eatin right."
" When the hell did you start takin shit like that?" Daryl asked.
" When Doc Ashlyn saved my sorry ass." His brother said, grabbing the clinic door. He walked in with Daryl coming in afterwards, a scowl playing across his features
As they walked into the large clinic, Daryl followed Merle around to the back, passing the door that led to the room he had been chained up in. His scowl deepen as he glared at the closed door. Merle pushed open another door and walked in. Daryl followed behind him, surprised at the sight in front of them. The room was lined with beds, some with people in them, some empty. Ashlyn was standing by a bed, smiling down at a man as she checked his IV. She was nodding while the man talked. When he started to cough, Ashlyn grabbed a cup and slipped one hand under his neck. She helped the man sit up enough to drink. For a woman who tied men up and exposed them, she sure was tender with people he was seeing more and more.
" Doc." Merle called out. Ashlyn glanced up at the boys and nodded then turned her attention back to her patient.
" You better now?" She asked the man.
" Yeah, thanks." He said as he settled back into the bed.
" Good. I'll be back to check on you in a bit." Ashlyn put the cup down and started towards the brothers. " Here for your vitamin?" She asked.
" Why yes we are." Merle said with his smile still firmly in place.
" Come back with me than." She said. She turned and started towards the very back of the room with the Dixons in tow. Daryl wasn't going to take anything she gave him, that was for sure. He didn't care what Merle said or did.
Ashlyn stopped walking when she reached a small desk. She quickly went through her check list, marking off Merle's and Daryl's name then picked up two small cups with one pill reach. She faced them with a smile while holding out the cups. Merle took his right away and downed it as he watched her. Daryl frowned but didn't move to take what she offered. Ashlyn's smile wavered.
" It's just a multivitamin." She said.
" Says you." He bit out. Ashlyn sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
" Just take the pill, Dummy, and stop wastin the good Doctor's time." Merle muttered.
" And let her drug me again, no." Daryl said without breaking his eye contact with her.
" Can I see you in my office, please?" Without waiting for his answer, Ashlyn turned and walked quickly into an office to his right. Daryl looked at Merle then back at her before following after her. As soon as he walked into the room, she shut the door with her own frown. " Look, I understand your distrust, I really do but you need to get it through your head that I am not trying to hurt you. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done it when you were knocked out."
" How the hell do I know what?" He asked, glaring at her. Ashlyn's eyebrows went up as she gave him her back. She walked to her desk and set the cup down. She pulled the pill out then faced Daryl again. She snapped the pill in two and popped one half in her mouth. She grabbed another cup off her desk and downed some of the water. He watched as she swallowed it down.
" There. Happy now? If it's poison it will hit me harder because I'm smaller than you. You said you have been living in the woods for months now. There is no way you have been able to get everything your body needs. The vitamins will give your body a boast, the jump it needs to continue. You're lucky you haven't lost more weight or gotten sick." She said, holding out the pill to Daryl.
" Ashlyn!" They heard The Governor yell.
" I just want to help you, I promise." Ashlyn said.
" Ashlyn!" When Daryl didn't move or say anything, she sighed again and set the pill down.
" You are so difficult." She muttered as she started pass him. She threw open her office door and stepped out to see The Governor and few of his men, carrying a man through the clinic. It was painfully clear that the man needed help and was on the verge of dying. " What happen?" She asked as she rushed forward.
" He was in a helicopter that crashed." The Governor said.
" Take him to the private room." Ashlyn said.
The Governor and his men hurried pass her and into the room that was directly across from her office, with Ashlyn hot on their heels. As she reached the door, she turned to shut it, facing Daryl again. He was standing in the doorway of her office. To her surprise, he had the pill in one hand and her water cup in another. They met eyes as he threw the pill back into his mouth. They didn't break eye contact, not even when he brought her water up and washed the pill down. She gave him a small smile and nod.
" Ashlyn! We are going to lose him!" The Governor said. She turned her back to Daryl and shut the door.
TWDTWDTWD
" Will he live?" The Governor asked as he and Ashlyn stood at the end of the hospital bed, staring at the man he had brought to her a few hours beforehand.
" Only time will tell." She said quietly. " I did the best I could but his internal damage was pretty bad. I repaired his liver and his stomach but I don't know if I did enough. He could still get an infection or start to hemorrhage." She admitted. The Governor let his left hand come to rest on her shoulder.
" You did everything you could, I'm sure." He said as he squeezed her. " Leave him and the other patients to the nurses. You worked hard, you deserve a break."
" I need to stay. What if he needs something?" She asked.
" Is there anything the nurses can't do for him?" The Governor asked.
" Well no. They can tend to anything he needs." Ashlyn said.
" Then go. Take your leave for the night. Go and have a drink, have two. Have yours and mine." The weight of his hand on her shoulder was a comfort for her. The Governor cared so much for the townspeople and her. " Go, Ashlyn. I'm going to stand guard, just in case he passes." He rubbed her then released her with a small smile. " You're tired. Go."
" It has been a while since I have had to operate on anyone." She said quietly.
" And yet you did it like a pro. You must have been amazing to watch in the ER." He said. " Now go."
Daryl had been pacing through the town all day. He was doing his share of the watch, standing on the trailer closest to the clinic. He watched for her. He stared at the clinic. He looked away from it. He did all that while convincing himself he wasn't waiting for to see her again. That he didn't want to see her. The pill he had taken had proven to have no affect on him, surprisingly she had been true to her word and not tried to poison him. Of course, inside, he knew that already. She wouldn't have taken the pill herself if it had poison.
Daryl put his back to the clinic and crossed his arms over his chest. It was almost dinner time and she still hadn't appeared. Merle was standing on the other end of the trailer, watching the woods for any movement. Daryl frowned and shook his head. Why did he want to see her so bad? He started to chew on the inside of his bottom lip as he thought.
Ashlyn walked outside and closed her eyes. She took a deep, long breath, loving how the night air smelled now that it was free from the death smell. She was going to take up The Governor's offer and stop off at the bar. Each member of the town could have one alcoholic drink a day. The Governor wanted people to have some of the things they had before the world died but knew there could not be drunks running around. So one drink per person although he often gave up his drink to others.
With her eyes opened again, Ashlyn looked over to the trailer, surprised to see the younger Dixon was staring at her. She tilted her head as they locked eyes. The sun was starting to set but she could clearly see how tight he was holding his mouth shut and how he squinted his eyes. He was almost painfully attractive. She wasn't sure what it was about him, his face, his body, his rough attitude, she couldn't tell but something about him just took her breath away. Daryl's face darken a second before he gave her his back.
Daryl squeezed his arms over his chest as he forced himself to stare out over the wall that protected the town. He hadn't meant to stare so long at her. He hated that she appealed so much to him. She wasn't like the girls he was used too, the girls he had been with before the outbreak. She was clean, they were dirty whores. She didn't seem to care about the men around her. The others were always trying to get one into their beds. She handled her own while the other girls wanted a man do to everything for them. But she was off limits, not that he wanted to go to her.
As he drew his eyebrows together, thoughts of his group invaded his mind. He hoped Hershel's leg wasn't getting infected and knew Ashlyn could help if it did. Lori's baby was also due soon. Ashlyn could get them both through the delivery safely. His group could really benefit from her knowledge and her caring ways but he didn't trust her and he didn't trust The Governor. He would not, could not, tell anyone of his new family. He may not be with them to protect them, but he would do his part from here. They were his to care for still.
" Come on, Daryl. We are done on watch. Let's go eat and get a drink." Merle said as he patted Daryl's left shoulder.
" Got a bar?" Daryl asked while they turned. He started to follow Merle as he walked towards the steps.
" Yeah. Ain't get shit faced drunk. We can only have one drink but one is better than none." Merle said.
TWDTWDTWD
Ashlyn stared into her beer as she sat in the back. She had made her rounds, saying hello to the people there and smiling at their jokes. She talked with a few, played a game of pool, and was now tucked away by herself. She was fine that way. Sometimes she didn't want to talk. Sometimes she just wanted her life over the past few months to wash over her. Everything from the world falling apart around her, to The Governor saving her, to life in the town. Her hands tighten on the beer bottle as she started to remember the night she learned things were changing...
" Well hey there, Doc. Fancy meetin you here." She looked up to see Merle smiling down at her and Daryl frowning behind him as his eyes bore into her face. " What brings you out? You never come to the bar." Ashlyn smiled as she forced herself to look at only Merle.
" Just thought maybe it might be fun." She said.
" Care if two old rednecks join you?" Merle asked.
" Of course not." Ashlyn said.
" Sit down, Daryl, with the nice doctor and I'll get us some beer." Merle said as he pulled out one of the chairs for his brother. Ashlyn swallowed hard while Daryl's face grew even tighter.