Chapter 6 -
Ariel's legs were burning.
She was used to running sure, but it was extraordinarily hot today, more than the other days so far. But today was too hot and the sun was shining when it shouldn't have been. Not when something like this had happened.
And Daryl knew something would go wrong.
After the church, Rick and Shane decided to keep looking while Daryl led the others back through the forest. Ariel of course offered to stay behind with them, Sophia had been her responsibility just as much as Rick's. If anyone would be helping in her search, it would be her.
"Don't like this," Daryl had told her, his face full of dirt and sweat. He made it look so attractive. "Rather have you with me, least I could keep an eye on you."
"I'll be fine, promise." she crossed her heart playfully with her fingers.
"Don't be stupid."
"Daryl, Rick's got my back."
And not that Rick hadn't had her back, nothing happened to her on their short roundabout in the woods. Nothing to her. That was the key point.
When Carl got shot, she thought Rick's life had ended with it. The utter despair in his eyes broke her down to a million pieces. All she could think of was how they had just lost one child and now they were about to lose another. Why were these things happening to them?
So she was running through the field, helping Shane with the guns and attempting to pick up the man Otis who was lagging behind. Sweat was running down her back and she was pretty certain that it did not look as good on her as it did on Daryl.
"Christ," she looked at Shane. "You got this?" they were almost at the house, and she just wanted to see Rick.
"Go on." he snapped, angry with the situation.
She nodded and ran full speed ahead, reaching the house before Rick could even step outside. The other two men were almost there, they would ask the questions that she couldn't. She didn't want to hear if it was bad, she could barely speak. Her vocal cords were lodged somewhere and her throat had closed up. Tears spilled over before she could hold them back, and Rick, a destroyed, bloody looking Rick stumbled out of the house and into her arms.
Sure, Ariel had not known Rick long. But Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon both had that annoying gravitational pull that forced people to fall in love with them. Rick Grimes was already her brother. Their small group of survivors was a family and right now, she had traded places with Rick. Ariel had to take care of him.
"I have you." she whispered, his head buried in her shoulder. She caressed his hair, turning sideways lightly to see that the other two men had finally reached the house. "Shane's here." she told him.
"He's still alive?" Otis asked.
Rick pulled away from Ariel, looking dazed. He wiped his hand on his forehead, spreading blood across it and she thought it was the most vulnerable thing she had ever seen him do. She held his hand as Shane wiped his forehead with a cloth like he was taking care of a child.
"Rick?" she whispered, putting a hand on the side of his face. "Where is he?"
Rick didn't say anything, just cried a little more and led them inside the home. She held his hand until they got in the room. There was an older gentleman pressing down on Carl's wound, a woman with blonde hair and a dress on and a younger woman, younger than Ariel anyway with short brown hair. She was very pretty, and holding an iv bag.
"You know his blood type?" the man asked, this had to be Hershel, the one Otis told them about.
"A positive," Rick said. "S-same as mine."
"That's fortunate. Don't wander far, I'm going to need you." he looked to Otis. "What happened?"
Otis, who clearly felt as bad as he looked, spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "I was tracking a buck, bullet went through it. Went clean through..."
"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life, but it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out...and I'm counting' six..."
"I can help." Ariel said immediately. "I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I was a nurse. I can...I can do something." Rick squeezed her hand and she tried to smile, but she didn't think it worked.
"I don't know what to do." she said, her hands shaking as she disinfected herself and washed her hands thoroughly. "What do I do?"
"You do exactly what I tell you to do."
"I'm a nurse." Ariel said for the fiftieth time. "I just started before...before..." she trailed off, looking at Hershel. "What do I do?"
"You sit by me, shine the light right by the wound so I can see." he gave her a flashlight, because whatever lights were in the room were definitely not enough.
Ariel was trying not to shake, so she ignored the fact that Rick was right outside with Shane, talking and crying. She tried not to think about Daryl and Lori, Lori who didn't know about her son being shot and Daryl who had begged her to stay with him. Who had told Rick that splitting up was not a good idea.
Ariel did was she was told and watched Carl get open up so Hershel can go through the wound and look for the bullets. Nearly immediately he woke up, squirming and crying. She closed her eyes for a brief moment trying to ignore his pleas for Ariel to help him, but there was nothing she could do, nothing, not right now.
"It's alright," Maggie told her, taking the flashlight away. "I'll do it. Can you take blood?"
"What?" Ariel opened her eyes, she hadn't even noticed Rick walk in.
Carl screamed, crying out for his father. Rick, the broken man yelled, "STOP, YOU'RE KILLING HIM!"
"RICK!" Ariel yelled back, doing her very best to keep herself from crying again. She did what she did with Daryl, grabbed his face so his attention went nowhere else but to her. "Do you want him to live? I need you to sit down and shut up so I can take blood from you, do you understand me?"
Rick nodded, still crying but sat down. Ariel forced herself to stop shaking, immediately plunging the needle into Rick to get the blood she needed. When Carl stopped breathing, they both paused to look over, panic rising in them.
"He passed out." Ariel said, touching Rick's face. "Passed out from the pain, it's okay." It definitely wasn't okay, but she didn't know what else to say to him.
"Lori needs to be here." Rick whispered to her.
"Rick, I don't know the way back." her voice was failing her, crying was becoming really hard not to do. There was a noise, metal against metal and Ariel knew it was the bullet. She was brushing his hair away, not that it was in his face, but she didn't know what else to do. His blood was slowly filling up the container, but if she knew Rick like she thought she did, she would not have been surprised if he got up and walked away to find his wife.
"She doesn't even know what's going on."
"Rick, hey," she murmured. "Your son needs you here, for more than just support. You are literally giving him blood."
Rick shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, whimpering. Ariel did not know what to do, so she kissed his other hand, the one with the iv in his arm and said a prayer.
Daryl Dixon had reached a point of annoyance that was indescribable. Though he had lost his cools with the ladies and Glenn, pointing out that he was the only one who was zen around them, he was most certainly not.
That one gunshot had scared him to no end. It was just his job to keep a level head about it. That was the last thing these people needed, or himself for that matter. Ariel had been right, Rick would take care of it.
And yet, there was certainly a feeling in his gut that he did not trust. They had been gone long, and even if they had done a few circles around to look for Sophia, Daryl was taking his time, giving the others a chance to meet up with them. If anything, anything happened to Ariel, Daryl would unload on a whole lot of people.
But even Daryl couldn't avoid it. He sighed, stopping them. "There won't be light before too long, think we should call it."
"Let's head back." Andrea agreed. "How much further?"
"Not much...maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies."
"Too bad we're not crows."
Daryl nodded, walking absentmindedly along the way. He didn't want to go back, he wouldn't sleep tonight anyway, not with Sophia in the woods and still not having reunited with Ariel. Not that she was his to reunite with but still−
A scream clouded his thoughts. He turned, hearing someone yell Andrea's name, thinking, no, no, not gonna lose another one. He ran, his crossbow up and ready, but someone else, two people had beat him to the punch. A walker was killed and a brown haired girl had a bloody bat, showing off her kill. There was someone else next to her...
"Ariel?" he didn't care who the other girl was, or why she was here. She was back, she was back.
"Hey hot stuff." she smiled, but it wasn't right. It didn't reach her eyes, not the way he liked. She had been crying, her eyes were swollen red, and there was...
"That blood?" he asked angrily, walking up to her and staring at her hands. She was on a horse, he realised, feeling stupid for not noticing anything beyond her. He hated this, this feeling of being completely powerless because of her. He could protect her, sure, but for how long until she kept running off without him?
"Not mine." she jumped off the horse, and she hugged him. He didn't return it, mostly because he had his crossbow in his hands but his stomach tightened all the same. She was alive, she was okay.
Ariel let herself go from Lori too soon and put the reins in her hand. "Lori, Rick needs you."
"W-what?" she stammered.
"Carl," and Daryl understood why Ariel could not smile right and why her eyes were red. "He's been shot. I brought the horse so you could go, I couldn't help, and it was just...they're better without me, Rick will be better with you."
Ain't no one better without you, Daryl thought. Daryl, feeling his breath caught from all this new information nodded once at Lori. She got up on the horse without another word, only her frightened face and took off with the girl.
Ariel was shaking, and Daryl caught her hand before she could start scratching her arms. "You know the way back?"
Ariel nodded. "Yeah, they said...they said to bring our stuff."
"Alright," Daryl nodded. Glenn looked at them holding hands, so Daryl moved it up slightly to hold her wrist. He wasn't sure it made a difference but he didn't want people making assumptions about them. They were friends, and any stupid whispers flying around would piss him off. Especially since, and sadly since, they wouldn't be true.
"She wrote it down for me." she went in her pocket to show him, as though he hadn't believed him.
"Right then, we'll make way tomorrow, yeah?"
Ariel nodded and wiped her eyes. Daryl wished he could have done it for her.
The walker, which he had presumed to be dead sat up, was groaning loudly and annoyingly. Daryl, who was losing his temper, shot his arrow at it. "Shut up."
"Shot?" Dale asked. "What do you mean, shot?"
Ariel was too tired to explain, she would soon, but once she was sitting. Daryl was in a bad mood, like he usually was, but at least wasn't taking it out on her.
"This chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn said.
"You let her?" Dale was surprised.
"Climb out of my ass, old man. Rick sent her; she knew Lori's name and Carl's."
"He was shot by a hunter." Ariel staggered, coming over the highway rail. She grabbed Daryl's arm to steady herself, sitting down. "Shot, he's alive but he was shot..." she shook her head, putting it in her hands. "Jesus Christ we can't even take care of the two kids that we have. What the hell are we supposed to do, we can't just take off to go to Rick, and we haven't found Sophia."
Daryl was leaning against the railing. "We'll make a sign, leave her supplies in case she makes it back." he suggested with a shrug.
Dale looked at Glenn. "You need to take T-Dog now, as soon as you can. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse; he has a very serious blood infection, get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die no joke."
Daryl almost laughed. These idiots probably looked in every car on the interstate except the one thing he owned. "Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." he shot them to Dale. "Why'd you wait till now to say anythin'? Got my brother's stash." he began to look through it. "Crystal X, don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers, doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion." he shrugged.
Suddenly Ariel burst into laughter, the others looking around in complete surprise. She started laughing, so loud that she had to cover her hands in order to stop herself from what seemed like her going completely insane. Tears were spilling over violently, but he wasn't sure why she was laughing.
"It's the zombie apocalypse," she was holding her stomach. "And one girl is missing, one guy is going to die by a fever and another got shot. It's the zombie apocalypse and three people that we know are going to die by what...things that happen every other day?"
Glenn stared at her with wide eyes. "She's completely lost it."
"She hasn't eaten, sun's getting to her." Daryl said, shaking his head. "Come on, get inside in the shade at least." he motioned to the RV.
"Sure thing hot stuff." she giggled, getting up. She nearly fell over and Daryl caught her, putting one arm around his neck.
"Let's go," he hoisted her inside, walking her over to the bed. "Try to sleep."
"No," she sat on the bed but held onto his wrists like a child. "No, I don't want to sleep."
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Talk to me." she told him, pulling him on the bed. He sat by her awkwardly and crossed his arms, shoving his hands under his armpits. "Tell me things about you."
Right, like Daryl would ever go down that road. "Ain't nothin' worth tellin'." he mumbled.
"I don't believe that." she murmured, crossing her legs on the bed. Her stomach growled a little and she wound her arm around her stomach. Daryl got up and rummaged in the cupboards, looking for something. He found her a granola bar and unwrapped it, kneeling in front of her and handing it to her.
"No, I don't want." she whispered, wiping her eyes.
"You gotta eat somethin'." he sighed, cracking it in half. "Half a piece."
She accepted and watched him eat the other one. He fell back on his butt and stared at his granola bar, not realising that he had been hungry himself. They both finished it quickly and then took another one from the cupboard, sharing another one in silence.
"I had a dog once." she said suddenly, surprising him.
"Had a cat." he mumbled, and it surprised him that he bothered to respond. But most of the things he did around Ariel surprised him.
"You prefer cats?"
"Like both." he began to rip his wrapper into little pieces, avoiding her gaze. "Just never had a dog. Cats kinda wandered in and 'round the house, so one stayed."
"Well our pets might have gotten along. My dog was a total baby, loved other animals. Only dog around that didn't go around chasing cats." she paused, before adding. "You're kind of like a cat."
"How's that?" he looked up and wished he hadn't.
She was staring at him with her tear streaked face, her eyes even bluer than usual. Her head was propped up through her fists, with her elbows resting on the sides of her knees. "You're quiet and calm right up until someone pulls on your tail a little too hard. You're mysterious."
"Well, guess you're kinda like a dog." he leaned back so his hands were on the floor. "Excited all the time, your bark is worse than your bite too."
"Oh, is that what you think?" she laughed lightly. "Well, when we get down and dirty you'll see how awful strong my bite really is."
He frowned at her. "It's sexual harassment what you're doin'." he said lightly, though he didn't mean it.
"Do you want me to stop? I don't want you to feel uncomfortable." she asked seriously. When he didn't respond, and only looked away, she said quietly. "I give you the green light and you don't want to take it. That's why I say those things."
"There ain't no green light to take." he sighed, finally leaning all the way back and lying on the floor. He stared at the ceiling, faintly aware of Andrea coming in the RV, making too much noise and making Daryl feel even more irritated than he already was.
Daryl didn't know why he didn't take the 'green light'. He didn't know why he didn't respond to her plain and unsubtle flirtations, or why he was more than willing to hold her hand or let her grab his face in public, but when they were alone it made him physically ache to sit next to her. It made him nervous and excited all at once, made his heart race and his breath stop but also made him want to run away, far. Just get on his bike and never look back. If that's what it felt like to have real feelings for someone, Daryl wasn't sure he wanted any part of it.
Truth of it was, he wished he could be more like her. To be able to touch her for reasons other than needing to protect her. He wanted to touch her just to please himself...no, you want to please her too. For the first time you want to be with a girl for more than just your own dick.
He slept very little, his thoughts having gone in and out of his dreams. What little sleep he did have, his dreams consisted of Ariel, naked, which made him force himself to wake up so he didn't explode right in his pants, or accidentally moan out loud.
When the sixth time of waking up came around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He did swear loudly, Andrea not reacting at all, and Ariel, whose face was dangerously close to him, smiled softly.
"Hi," she said.
He looked at her face, and even in the moonlight he saw that she didn't feel better. Not about Sophia, not about Carl, and probably not about him either.
"I can't sleep." though she was smiling, her voice was a disaster.
He sat up, moving to the side to avoid her face getting any closer. "Bad dreams?"
"No, life is enough of a nightmare." she waved a flashlight in his face. "Want to come for a walk?"
He sighed. "Sure, ain't sleepin' too well myself anyways." he gathered his crossbow and motioned for her to get out of the rv before he did. He followed her out, looking up at Dale who sat on top of the rv.
"Hey, we're goin' for a walk. Shine some light in the forest. If she's out there, give her something to look at."
Dale didn't approve. "You think that's a good idea right now?"
"I guess we'll find out." Ariel called, saluting him.
As they walked, Daryl stayed close to her. He shone the light around, looking at her every once and a while. Her flashlight stayed in one direction, she was looking at the ground.
"Thinkin' about Carl?" he asked.
"And Sophia, and Rick and Lori..." she waved her hand to show that the list was never ending. "I had one damn job and I couldn't even do that right." she shook her head. "I'm sorry."
"Don't need to apologize."
"Do you think we'll find her?" she asked.
Daryl looked at her and then shook his head. "You got that look on your face, same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with you people? We just starting looking. It ain't the mountains of Tibet, it's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive, it happens all the time. It happened to you and we found you."
"You mean I found you." she smiled lightly.
"Right," he rolled his eyes, he would let her keep that fantasy.
"Except she's not like me, she's a twelve year old girl, lost and alone in a world that doesn't make sense."
"I was younger than her when I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries and wipin' my ass with poison oak."
"That's uncomfortable." she wrinkled her nose, and that's when he had to look away again. "Who found you?"
"No one. My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doin' another stint in juive. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back through. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful."
Ariel laughed, not in that hysterical, losing her mind kind of way that she had done before. She laughed like...well, like she was high. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I really needed that." she wiped her eyes, and he realised that she was crying again.
"Hey," he said softly. "Sophia's got people lookin' for her, that's an advantage. She's got me and you and Rick."
"No," she said softly. "She has you and Rick. I lost her, and you and Rick seem to be the only two people here who are either making the effort or are good at doing something." she paused. "Shane too, I guess, if the situation works in his favor."
"You think awful low of yourself." he shined a light in her face. "You gotta stop cryin' too, when Sophia finds you she's gonna wanna see a smile on your face, not tears."
"I'm sorry." she sighed. "I just...I need something good to happen to us. I need one good day, one really good day so I can make it through the next one. Because right now, I'm tired."
"Doesn't seem like you are, half the time."
"I put on a good show Dixon. It's just...losing Sophia, it's like losing...my parents both died." she stammered. "I know what it's like to be a lost girl in the forest. Finding you that day, you bringing me to Rick, it was like finding an angel."
Daryl muttered bitterly. "Yeah, who's the angel, me or Rick?"
"Who's the one with the wings on his vest?"
"Know what they say, don't judge a book by its cover."
"Don't worry, you proved me wrong. I thought you were the biggest asshole ever when I first met you."
"Think you were right about that one." he muttered.
"No, I wasn't. You saved my life, more than once. You risk it for me too, you're risking it right now for a girl who's nothing to you."
A rustle in the trees interrupted their conversation. Daryl raised his crossbow and shone his light in the direction that it came from. He walked over carefully, lowering it when he noticed it was a walker in the trees, someone who seemed to have hung himself.
"What the hell?" he said, walking forward to read the note pinned to the tree. "Got bit, fever hit, world gone to shit, might as well quit. Well, the dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait, and a mess."
"You have a way with words." Ariel wrinkled her nose.
"Look at him, hanging up there like a big piñata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs."
"Can we get out of here?" she asked. "This is probably a metaphor for something in our lives and I'm not sure I want to figure out what it is."
He grinned and followed her, pushing his elbow against her arm to get his attention. "This whole apocalypse is a metaphor."
"That's a concept I do not want to deal with." she murmured. "You know, I read a lot of books growing up. I had a whole library in my house, books everywhere. I read about these people in these worlds, in apocalypses and in wars, and I loved living in them. Then one day I woke up and I was one of those people. Except I'm not a heroine with any powers, I'm just a girl, an orphan who lost another orphan and is walking around in the middle of a night with a hunter who doesn't even want to be near her."
"That what you think?" he looked at her. This time, she shrugged and looked at him, waiting for an answer. He chewed on his lip, trying to think of the right words to say. Don't be a fuckin' pussy, he said to himself, people always say it's easier to say things in the dark. "I like you better than the rest of 'em." he mumbled quietly.
"Is that saying much?"
He scoffed. "You don't know me at all, do you?"
"You don't give people a chance to know you."
That was right, Daryl didn't. People had to earn the right to know him, even this girl. Just because she liked him, it did not give her the right to get a free pass into his life. No one got to see the scars he had just because they had a pretty face and a couple of nice words on their lips. "You know I like cats. I, um...never had coffee before."
Ariel looked at him, smiling the first real smile that he had seen all day. It was enough to give him hope that maybe she needed the sign she was hoping for from him. He was doing the best that he could for her. "What kind of monster doesn't drink coffee?" she asked with a laugh. "Tell me something else."
"Smoked a lot of cigarettes." he looked sideways at her.
"That's an early death hot stuff." she teased. "I was a nurse you know, saw some nasty stuff."
"Yeah well, hadn't exactly had time to sit down and smoke since the world ended."
"Do you miss that?"
"Smokin'? Sure, I guess. Not as much as having a bed to sleep on or food to eat every day." he thought about doing what he always did, stop the conversation and let her ramble on, but Daryl was feeling braver in the night. "What do you miss?" he hoped he didn't sound stupid saying it.
"I missed having a family, and I still miss the one I had. But I think I found a new one that suits me fine."
He looked down. "You get attached quick."
"In a world like this, how could you not?" she stopped him, putting a hand on his arm, making the electricity from her fingertips travel all the way up to his heart. "I like you Daryl Dixon, and I know you like me too, mostly because of the blush that rises up your neck every time I call you hot stuff."
He frowned and she smiled.
"I'll wait for you to be okay with liking me back though." she shrugged. "I'll wait for you to kiss me when you mean it, but know that my hand is always ready for you to hold."
She turned and started to walk away, and the night, which was so full of metaphors and brave words, made Daryl do something he would have never had done before Ariel. "I can hold your hand." he said too loud and too uncertain for it to sound smooth. "But I ain't...I ain't good at the other stuff. I ain't the type of person you think I am."
"Hey," she smiled, coming back to him. She took his hand in hers, rough against soft and held it tight. He watched their fingers weave together, and it was the most foreign thing in the world to him. "You teach me how to shoot a crossbow and I'll show you how to be good at the other stuff."
"After we find Sophia." he told her.
She smiled. "After we find Sophia."
ok ok ok
so this was my fave chapter so far because as promised, there is already way more alone time. next episode is the Cherokee rose, so that chapter will have plenty of alone time as well. I am however, being sure to explore the ariel/rick friendship too
i hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. you all know i own nothing except her!
please review! it always makes me smile!