Chapter 6

Earlier that day.

Daryl stumbled forwards, half dead, the arrow sticking out of his side, his makeshift bandage and vest bloody and getting bloodier. He gritted his teeth against the pain in his pierced side. 'Com'on motherfucker, com'on you stupid son of a bitch. Got yourself impaled by your own damn arrow. Darlena, you stupid redneck bastard.' He muttered incoherently to himself. He made it to the edge of the field just in view of the look-out posts set up by Rick. Andrea was on duty with her binoculars and cried out excitedly 'Walker'! Her cry was quickly taken up by the others.

'No, no! It's me! It's Daryl!' He tried to shout but had no strength left. 'Don't shoot!' But his voice only came out in a croak. He staggered forth as fast as he could go.

'Just the one?' Someone shouted.

'Yep. No problem, I'll take it.' Andrea shouted gleefully, eager to prove her worth to the group. Quickly, she took her crossbow and drew it back. She shot her arrow but luckily she still needed practice because it missed Daryl's head and pierced his shoulder instead. He went down like a sack of potatoes, already mercifully unconscious. By then, Andrea's gleeful expression changed into one of horror as she realised her mistake. 'Oh my God, oh my God, Daryl!' she screamed as she ran forward. 'Don't die, don't die!' By then Rick and Shane had reached the injured man and lifted him up. They half carried and half-dragged him across the field to the medical tent.

'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.' Andrea kept repeating but of course Daryl couldn't hear her. She turned to the others. 'Will he be OK'?

Rick answered her calmly. 'I think so if we get him seen to right away. The wounds don't look serious just messy.'

Andrea looked back behind them and spotted something white gleaming on the field. She sprinted back and picked it up and showed it to the others. 'Look at what he was bringing back. He found Sophia's doll.'

Back in the trailer, Carol is gazing down on Daryl's lean and tanned body while holding her daughter's doll in her arms. Daryl keeps waking up and falling asleep again, mainly from the painkillers and physical exhaustion. She's just washed and dried it in the sun outside it being quite dirty – covered with dirt, grass and even some blood. Daryl's? She hopes it wasn't Sophia's. He begins to stir again from his drugged slumber. He slowly opens his eyes and smiles at her. His smile is almost boyishly innocent and it illuminates his whole face, in contrast to the usual snarl that he shows to the outside world.

Daryl's smile slowly dies as if he suddenly remembered where he was and it is replaced by his normal stern expression. He frowned. 'I'm sorry I couldn't find her for you.' He croaked.

'You tried your best.' Tears came into her eyes at the thought of her lost daughter and she looked away so he wouldn't see them. 'Here have some water.' She held the paper cup up to his lips as he sipped.

She smoothed back a sweaty strand of hair from his forehead, ignoring his flinch. 'I see you, Daryl. You aren't the sum of the things he did to you. I saw you when I first met you. You aren't just what you pretend to be. Give it time and the others will see you as well. I see your goodness and your compassion for my little girl. Your strength.'

'Jus' like yer ain't all the things that bastard did to you?' He retorted angrily as she took his empty cup away.

'Would you like some more?' She asked him but he shook his head. 'Thanks.' He said gruffly, as if in afterthought.

'I'm not saying that stuff doesn't change you but you didn't lose yourself. You didn't let him ruin you.' She continued. Some indefinable emotion flickered behind his eyes as he lowered them, some sharp pain from the past that he didn't want her to see but that she caught a glimpse of anyway.

'It was your father who did that to your back, wasn't it?' She asked him softly.

He hunched his shoulders defensively and looked down at his lap as he nodded. 'Yeah. But I ain't no saint. I've done some bad stuff you don't want to know.'

'You mean killed someone to survive? We've all done that by now.'

Daryl didn't meet her eyes.

'You could say I did even beforethe Apocalypse.'

Carol looked a little shocked but said nothing. Daryl continued hurriedly, as if he has revealed too much.

'Well, I didn't find your little girl. What the hell of any use am I?' He burst out abruptly.

Carol reached over and gently put a hand on his arm. For once, he didn't move away when touched like he usually did but left his arm right where it was. 'But you've tried longer and harder than anyone else in the camp. You've done more for Sophia than her father ever did her whole life. I'll never forget it until the day I die.'

'But I didn't findher.' He insisted.

She let go of his arm. 'But you bought her doll back for me and there's still hope. I can feel that she's not gone, a mother knows these things. I know we'll see her again. She came to me in a dream last night – she was in this beautiful green field full of beautiful white flowers – roses I think.'

'That's crazy.' Daryl laughed but not unkindly. 'But I hope it comes true.'