Summary: Betrayed by two people Daryl thought he could trust, he now stays with the group for Carol, Carl, Beth and Judith. When he befriends Allana a young woman whose life has been destroyed because of the Governor, he forms a strange bond with her over the grief of loosing loved ones at the hands of the ones they thought they could trust. Co – written with NadWri. Warning Character Death mentioned at beginning of chapter one.
No Rest For The Wicked
Chapter 7
"Oh hey you three," Allana smiled, taking Connor out of Carol's hands to make it easier for her. "You like Judy, don't you?" Allana teased. "Maybe you'll be her boyfriend when you grow up."
Daryl chuckled quietly. "He ain't gettin' near Lil Ass Kicker."
Connor cooed at Daryl and Allana as he curled into Allana's arms, "Someone's tired. " She said smiling as she put him in his crib.
"Carly's come up with names and she wants to tell us all." Carol said fondly she was fond of the children and was protective of them "And Sarah's doing well, she's up and about." She added softly.
Allana, Daryl and Carol all went back to the dining area, where Carly was bouncing around excitedly.
"Ok, everyone's here," Maggie smiled. "Tell us the names."
Carly grinned and pointed at the fluffy black and white female kitten first, "She's called Connie." She said smiling her hazel eyes glowing with joy.
"What are the others the called?" Hershel asked enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
Carly then pointed at the two male kittens, "That one is Sam and that one is Patch." She smiled at Allana before pointing to the last one. "And that's Lucky."
"They are so cute." Elle said walking over and stroking Sam, her green eyes looked happy "I like it here." She said to Daryl with a smile.
Sarah picked up her teddy bear, yawning and fell asleep on Axel's lap, her blonde hair in her face, Jaime and Billy were playing cards with Carl and Beth happily, and Sasha was reading a Marvel comic to David, Caleb and Ethan. Allana sat down on a sofa and crashed out as Carol sat down next to Axel leaving Rick and Daryl to talk as Glenn and Maggie went to talk and Hershel was with Rowan.
They headed outside the prison block as they talked about how many supplies they had.
"You think we need to do another run?" Rick asked, hoping that maybe Daryl would talk to him more now that they were alone and had worked some things out.
Daryl shrugged, bringing up his hand to chew his thumbnail. "Wouldn't hurt, I guess."
"You know anywhere around here we could go?"
Daryl thought for a minute. "There's the town nearby, that Maggie an' I went to get formula for Judith. Could head back there, see what's left."
Rick nodded "Hershel thinks Maggie could use some air so you, Allana and Maggie could go." He said quietly.
Daryl looked at him "I forgive ya, you know."
"That means a lot," Rick gave him a small smile. "I really am sorry."
Daryl nodded. "I know that."
Rick sighed "We've been to hell and back." He said quietly.
"No shit." He said as Sarah came towards them looking shy.
"Thank you for saving me."
"No problem," Rick smiled, crouching down. "You're our family now, and we look out for each other."
Daryl gave her a small smile too. "How are ya feelin'?"
Sarah smiled "Much better, my shoulder doesn't hurt so much anymore Uncle Axel said I'm a little soldier." She said smiling happily, her baby blue eyes sparkling and her face sobered "I miss my daddy will you two be my daddy?"
Rick smiled when she mentioned Axel. It was nice that he had gotten on so well with the children, and was starting to fit in as part of their group. When she asked her question, Rick's eyes widened, and he noticed Daryl's did too. He looked at the other man before smiling at Sarah again. "Of course."
Sarah squealed then and hugged them both before calling out "Auntie Carol!" skipping away to presumably play with Judith and Connor.
Jamie then walked towards them nervously "Did you see my mom when you were in King County?" She asked Rick quietly.
"Sorry honey, I didn't," Rick replied softly, noticing the girls face fall. "But that doesn't mean she wasn't there somewhere."
"That's because she was ripped apart by walkers when she saved us, we thought we were safe in Woodbury. Then weird things started to happen people started going missing like Allana did for a whole month." She said trying to ignore the fear she had felt.
"Well, we won't let anything like that happen to you here," Rick assured her. "Why don't you go see if Carol and Sarah need any help with Connor and Judith?" The young girl nodded, and quietly walked over to where they were.
Daryl shook his head as she watched her go. "Poor kid." He said feeling bad.
Rick sighed "I killed her mother when I was heading to find Lori and Carl, Jesus Daryl it was like a fucking horror film when I got out of the hospital." He said sighing.
"Weren't yer fault Rick and you put her out of her misery." He offered to his friend quietly.
"I think she's too young to understand that. She'd probably never trust me if she knew what I did."
Daryl glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Well hopefully she never finds out."
"Yeah." Rick said as they went to get Maggie and Allana to go on the supply run.
Maggie and Allana were playing with David as Carly cuddled Tinkerbelle with Ethan stroking one of the kittens; Martinez and Axel were on watch with Rowan reading a story to Billy.
"Hey, girls, you up for going on a run?" Rick asked as he entered the room.
Maggie hesitated for a minute before nodding, and Allana just gave Rick a weak smile. Neither of them looked very enthusiastic about it, but he knew they would both do it. "Daryl is going with you's."
"Sounds good." Allana said putting her knife in her holster as she and Maggie followed Daryl when Glenn spoke.
"I'll go too."
"Uh..," Rick didn't know what to say; only looked over to Daryl.
Daryl didn't look too happy, but nodded anyway. "Hurry up. We gonna have to take a car for this many people."
Glenn nodded and they took the jeep for the journey as they drove out of the prison, Allana sitting in the back with Daryl.
When they reached the town, Glenn thought it would be a good idea to split up. Not up for an argument, Daryl let him go ahead. Glenn and Maggie went off to check out the shops to see what food or medicine was left lying around, while Daryl showed Allana back to the day-care building to get stuff for the children. They walked inside slowly, checking for any danger in all of the rooms before they started to make a noise rummaging through cupboards. Allana walked into the main room, and paused when she seen the wall. The children had all painted pictures and hung them up, with their names in the bottom. She smiled sadly, wondering what had happened to all of these children now.
Most of them were probably dead. She froze when she noticed one with the name Dylan written in messy handwriting in the corner. Not her little brother, but seeing his name there brought back all the pain. She ran her fingers over the painting, which appeared to be of a dog, and felt her vision going blurry, as the tears welled up in her eyes.
Daryl found her looking at a hand print with the name Dylan on it; sadness engulfed him as he gently touched her shoulder.
"It's alright." He said quietly and she gave him a watery smile as they saw the name Sophia.
He felt his chest constrict as they gathered all the blankets.
Allana stuffed everything else she could find into her bag. There was no formula left in the cupboards as Daryl and Maggie had taken it all for Judith last time they visited, but there were some toys, blankets and spare clothes. She noticed Daryl still glance occasionally at the names on the wall. "Carol told me, about what you did... for her little girl."
Daryl tensed for a moment as he sighed and relaxed "Didn't matter in the end, I let her down, I promised her that I'd find her baby girl only to find her as a damn walker in the barn." He said guilt in his voice.
"It wasn't your fault Daryl, you tried to find her and Carol knew that." She assured him as she thought of her own mother and sighed.
Complicated.
"I guess," Daryl nodded quickly.
"Seriously, Daryl. You're probably one of the nicest people I've come across since the world went to shit."
Daryl looked at her back "You're a nice person as well despite the shit yer been through." He said back shyly.
They grabbed all the stuff and headed back to the car where Glenn and Maggie were waiting for them as gunshots were heard.
"Oh shit, not Woodbury again." Allana said fed up.
"Let's get outta of here that gunshot can attract walkers."
"I hoped maybe they would have all been torn to pieces now from those walkers that got through the fence," Allana muttered as she climbed into the back.
Maggie snorted quietly. "We're not that lucky."
They started to drive away as a herd of about ninety walkers headed towards the noise, Allana stared in alarm.
"Where the fuck are they coming from?"
"I don't know," Maggie said panicked. The noise of the car was attracting them closer to the car, and Glenn was desperately swerving to avoid them.
"Maybe if I can just go off the road a bit, I can get past," Glenn suggested, hoping that he wouldn't lose control of the vehicle.
"Go for it Chinaman." Daryl said gripping onto his crossbow and Glenn stepped on the brakes.
The car sped off, nearly causing Maggie to fly out through the windshield if Allana hadn't grabbed her.
Glenn drove as fast as he could away from the walkers, hitting nearly every single bump possible, causing their stomachs to churn. Once they were clear, he slowed down.
"Everyone ok?"
"Aside from some serious stomach acid we're ok." Daryl told Glenn who nodded and they began driving back to the prison.
"Maybe we can trick the Governor?" Maggie suggested as they headed into the prison.
Allana nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But how would we do it?"
Daryl thought about it for a minute "We could abandon the prison then when he comes here we could fight him and lure walkers to him." He said.
"Let's tell Rick."
The four of them walked into the main room of the cellblock and dropped the bags of stuff they had gathered. Maggie then explained her plan to Rick, who thought about it for a minute.
"We already tried leaving the prison and look where that got us last time."
Maggie narrowed her eyes, and chewed on her bottom lip. "We'll think it through better this time."
"Then we could retake the prison make it our home again." Allana said as a familiar figure walked in.
It was Michonne.
Allana let out a long sigh, as Michonne dropped her bags. "I thought we got rid of you?"
Before Allana knew what had happened a searing pain was shot through her as she looked down to see a sword in her stomach and then pulled out.
Stars began to cloud her vision, and she felt herself going faint. She could hear shouting and yelling, but the noise of the blood rushing in her ears meant she couldn't focus on what was being said. Her hands rushed to her stomach and pressed against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
Daryl ran over to her, putting pressure on the bloody wound the reason it wasn't healing was probably from not resting enough.
"Yer gonna be alright, I promise." He said as Rowan ran in.
"What happened?!" Rowan asked quickly.
Daryl ignored her question and wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her up.
"Help me back to her cell!" Rowan did as instructed, a little slower than Daryl due to the baby, but they eventually got Allana down on the bed. He noticed her falling in and out of consciousness. "Come on Allana, stay with us."
Her eyes fluttered then "I don't feel good to be fuckin honest." She rasped as Hershel and Carol came in.
"Allana what's your blood type honey?" Carol asked her gently.
"Uh... B+." Her head was swimming, and it took her a minute to figure out. The pains were unbelievable, and she reached out for Rowan's hand and squeezed as hard as she could.
Hershel nodded "I'm going to have to ask who's your matching blood type, you may be able to heal but its not healing as well as I'd like." He told her gently.
"I'll give her my blood." Daryl offered.
"Are you sure?" Allana whispered out, through her deep breathing.
"Yeah," Daryl nodded; sitting down beside her so Hershel could do whatever he had to. "You saved me before, didn't ya?"
She smiled "Saved your redneck ass." She said as Hershel hooked her onto an IV drip that went into Daryl as well.
"You can trust us all." He told her kindly.
Allana smiled then as she fell into unconsciousness, her friend's voices lulling her to sleep.
Maggie was fuming as she stared at Michonne "What the hell was that for?"
"I'm only trying to help," Michonne snarled. "She's one of those things. It's not safe to have her around."
Before thinking what she was doing, Maggie pounced forward, and tackled Michonne to the ground, throwing punches every two seconds.
"Does she look like a damn walker?" Axel snapped at her attitude.
"She may have a taste for raw meat, lure them away but she's still a human being, not an animal." Ben growled at her.
Elle burst into tears and Jamie ran to her, "I don't want Allana to die!" She sobbed; she was only six years old.
David looked terrified and curled into Duke's black, soft fur as he looked at Martinez "She's scary, that sword lady."
Martinez smirked slightly. "Yeah, she is. But she ain't staying long." He looked over at Glenn before nodding to Michonne. "Let's take out the trash."
Glenn nodded as Rick came and saw the blood on the floor "What the hell happened?" He asked worried.
"Crazy bitch stabbed Allana." Jamie answered cuddling Elle while Beth gathered the other children.
"Is she OK?" Rick asked, alarmed.
"We ain't sure," Martinez answered pointing up to her cell. "She's in with Hershel and his team right now. We're going to get rid of this crazy fucker."
Rick held a hand out to stop him. "It's too risky. What if she comes back and hurts someone else again? Put her in the same cellblock as Tyreese; make sure she can't get out. I'll go check on Allana."
Martinez and Glenn nodded and followed instructions.
Rick hurried into the cell where Allana was and saw that Daryl was giving her blood, her colour was pale but she alive.
"She ok?" He asked Daryl quietly.
"She's good, just gonna have ta take it easy for a while, heal properly and all." He said giving Allana's right hand a squeeze.
They then heard Michonne screaming "SHE'S DANGEROUS!"
"Stupid bitch, I should fuckin' kill her," Daryl muttered, but he couldn't leave Allana's side.
Rick only nodded grimly. "Martinez and Glenn are going to lock her up. There might be time for that later."
Hershel looked at them then with relief "She'll be fine but I'm gonna have to insist that she doesn't go on scavenging hunts for a while until she's healed." He told them quietly.
"Let's let her rest."
Everyone left the cell, except from Daryl who was still giving blood, and Rowan who insisted on staying with her.
Carol had already taken a bucket of water and tried to start scrubbing the blood off the floor, so as not to upset the children anymore.
Rick gave a tired sigh as he sat down on a chair. "What's it gonna be next?"
Axel winced, "Don't say that." He warned as Sarah ran towards them, her eyes shining with tears.
"Is Allana going to ok, Mr Grimes?" She asked scared as the other children came behind her.
"She's going to be just fine," Rick confirmed, much to the children's relief.
"Can I see her?" Sarah asked quietly. "I made something for her."
Rick looked at their hopeful faces. "She needs to rest just now, but you can go in one at a time. Don't disturb her if she doesn't want company though."
"We won't!" Sarah smiled innocently.
Rick smiled at them as Jamie carefully handed him Judith, smiling and Rick took a deep breath, "Jamie why don't you and Billy stay here, I have to tell you both something." He said gently.
They both nodded as all the other kids hurried away. Warily, they took a seat next to Rick. "Are we in trouble?" Billy asked quietly.
"No, no of course not it's about your mom."
Jamie looked at him with sad, understanding eyes "She was a walker, wasn't she?" She asked feeling sad but oddly comforted that their mother wasn't like that anymore.
Rick sighed "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault Rick; we know that it wasn't our mom anymore."
"She was the one of the first walkers I ever really saw," Rick said sadly. "It was hard for me too."
Jamie hesitated for a minute, before giving Rick a quick hug. "Thank you. She's not in pain anymore."
Billy hugged him as well "Thank you for doing that, mom would have hated being one of those things." He said shyly.
"I wonder how... it happened." Beth said looking at them all.
"We never found out," Rick said quietly. "We even went to the CDC, and they didn't know what it was."
Beth remembered hearing about the CDC, but never what fully went on. "What happened there?"
Rick sighed as Rowan came in to sit next to Beth, as he began "We met a doctor there called Jenner, he told us that the virus was world wide and that... We're all infected that we are the walking dead that we can come back from being shot, stabbed, and ill. He told us this before he tried to kill us." He said looking tired.
Rowan wrapped her arms around her stomach in fear.
"He tried to kill you?" Beth asked, shocked.
Rick only nodded.
Rowan looked at him sadly. "What if something happens to my baby, will it... come back?"
Rick shook his head violently as Lori came into his thoughts, "I won't let that happen Rowan, and none of us will; your baby is going to be healthy." He assured her as Glenn and Martinez came back in.
"That woman is crazy." Martinez said sagging onto sofa, rubbing his bruised arm.
"What did she do?" Rick asked.
"Put up a hell of a fight," Glenn answered with a sigh.
"You get her locked up?" Rick wondered, imagining Allana would have a few words for her.
"Yeah, she's not gettin' out any time soon," Martinez smirked.
Beth shook her head "And she thinks Allana's the dangerous one?" She asked disbelief in her voice.
Martinez winced "Milton's lab of horrors is fucking like Auschwitz." He said as the kids came back looking tired.
"I'm glad Allana's ok; I think Mr Daryl likes her." Elle said grinning as Carly yawned.
Rick smiled up to where they were both sitting in the cell. "I think he does."
Carol stood up, and rounded the children up. "Alright kids, lets go and get some rest, shall we?"
The children nodded and after saying good night to them and went to follow Carol, Judith was cooing at Duke who licked at her nose.
Allana smiled down fondly at the picture Sarah had drawn for her, that had 'Get well soon' written along the top. Her stomach still hurt, but slowly the wound was starting to heal. She felt better after the blood transfusion from Daryl, and had even managed a bite to eat that Rowan had given her. Daryl noticed her small smile, and looked round at her.
"Ya scared us all earlier, ya know?" His voice was genuinely concerned, and she reached out to squeeze his hand again.
"I told you, you won't get rid of me that easily."
He smirked, and then stood up from the bed. "I should go, let ya get some proper sleep now."
He turned to head out of the cell before her voice stopped him again. "Wait... will you stay? Here?"
Daryl looked shy "Sure." He got in the bed with her as slept on her left side.
"What did yer do before this?" He asked genuinely interested.
Allana smiled "I was a burlesque dancer." She said smirking at Daryl's stunned face, "You?"
"Uh... just some mechanics, here an' there, y'know?" They were silent for a minute before Daryl's curiosity got the better of him, and he turned on his side and propped himself up on his elbow so he could look at her. "A Burlesque dancer? Really?"
Allana laughed at his expression "I graduated from the ballet school in New Orleans, did some ballet shows then I decided to do Burlesque dancing at my uncle's bar here in Atlanta. I loved it." She said smiling.
Daryl could feel his cheeks turn red "Did ya... dance naked?"
"I wore costumes."
He couldn't help but picture it in his head. That must have been hot... Daryl groaned at his own thoughts.
Allana smiled up at him. "What did you expect I did?"
Daryl looked thoughtful "That yer worked in a nursery with babies seeing as yer good with them." He said softly.
Allana laughed "That as well, that was my day job. My dad and two brothers would have had a fit if they knew what I did at night."
Daryl paused for a minute. "You have another brother?"
She nodded looking away "He was an evil bastard."
"Why?"
"Some of the things that he did..." she paused, remembering back to the not so good bits of her childhood. "He was almost as bad as the Governor."
Daryl swallowed "I'm sorry." He told her quietly.
Allana shook her head "Sean was mom's favourite but Dad knew he couldn't leave us with him especially after what he did to our cat."
"What happened?" He asked horrified.
"He tried to set my cat Salem on fire but our uncle Phil stopped him and saved Salem, my dad argued with mom saying that he wasn't safe but she didn't believe him. Until what he did to those twenty women."
Daryl remembered Allana saying that her mom had committed suicide by overdosing.
"What the hell did he do?"
She shook her head sadly. "You don't want to know."
Daryl held on to her hand again. "My family weren't angelic either. Ya can tell me."
She took a deep breath.
"When he was nineteen, he left home after our dad found him looking at me as I got changed for bed. I was fifteen and Dylan was nine years old, Sean picked up a stripper called Stacey Dowling outside of a bar in downtown Detroit and took her to his apartment...Where he raped her, tortured her and killed her by strangling her. He dumped her body at the local park where a seven year old girl found her."
"And there were nineteen others." Allana paused as the thoughts haunted her brain. "It was too much for mom in the end."
Daryl didn't know what to say. Allana had lived a shit life before the apocalypse too it seemed.
"I don't know where he is now... If he's still alive. He was in a prison when this all started, but who knows if he ever got out. The thought that Dylan, the sweetest person ever, is dead and he might still be alive, it just..." She closed her eyes trying to think of something else.
"I'll look after ya now," Daryl assured her.
Allana smiled at him shyly "Tell me about your life?" She asked softly wanting to know this gruff but gentle man.
Daryl sighed quietly. "It ain't much to tell. What do ya wanna know?"
Allana smiled at him gently "Everything, I wanna know how you became who you are; Merle told me some of it but said that it was your story." She told him softly.
"I was born on October the twentieth in 1986, I'm thirty six years old, my momma was a kindergarten teacher and my old man wasn't around... Much, Merle was four years older than and I was two years older than Lily when things went to hell."
"Lily died, and mom started to take more alcohol than she used to. One night she was in her bed, smoking a cigarette and never put it out right. She set the house on fire an' burnt to death. Da started to take it out on me and Merle. It was that way til' I was eighteen."
"How did Lily die?" Allana asked quietly.
Daryl swallowed "We were always a bit poor seeing as our old man kept on taking the money and spending it on drugs, women and alcohol. Lily got ill with scarlet fever and by the time momma could get her to the hospital it was too late. Merle and I found her in bed being sick, she was five and I was seven, Merle was eleven."
She rubbed his arm soothingly as he brought back painful memories to the surface.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Daryl gave her small smile of thanks and very lightly traced her face with his calloused thumb, causing her to blush.
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