Reconnecting With Your Past in Hell

Chapter 9

Here's another jam packed chapter for you guys (: written by Kol and Elena so all credit goes to her! Please enjoy!

As night fell they sat around the campfire and talk turned to how Rick had felt when he stepped out of the hospital. He seemed stronger as he talked about it this time; more able to wrap his head around waking-up in a post-apocalyptic world and finding himself all alone.

Watching him cling so tightly to his family made the bottom of Naomi's stomach want to fall out. She missed Daryl. She wanted him there to rant and rave with her over Merle being left behind. She wanted to hold him so she knew nothing bad had happened to him either

"Disoriented." Rick nodded slowly. "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear. Confusion. All of those things but disoriented comes closest."
In the distance the thunder rumbled. She closed her eyes, the warm orange of the firelight reflecting against her eyelids. Where ever Daryl was tonight she hoped he found somewhere dry to sleep. She hoped he managed to sleep at all; to stay safe.

"Words can be meagre things." Dale put down his mug. "Sometimes they fall short."
Rick smiled sadly at the old man. "I felt like I had been ripped out of my life. Put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake-up from. Ever."

Carl looked up at his father. Rick had one of his arms around Lori and Carl sat between his legs. He was holding his family together, as close as he could possibly get them. "Mom said you died." The boy said softly. He sounded slightly bitter, like he was concerned that he had been tricked or lied to and it nearly cost his father his life.

"She had every reason to believe that." Rick reassured his son, looking between the boy and his mother to tell his wife he wasn't mad at her for leaving him. He ruffled Carl's hair. "Don't you ever doubt that"

Lori looked shattered. "When things started to get really bad, they told me they were going to medical evacuation you and the other patients to Atlanta and it never happened"
"Well I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell" Rick said

"Yeah" Lori nodded her head in agreement, seeking Rick's approval that she had done the correct thing by leaving when she thought he was dead. Her guilt was so thick you could physically feel her tension.

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun" Rick leaned Lori subtly onto him a little more, taking her weight onto him.

Across the fire, Shane shifted uncomfortably as well. "Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out. You know?"

No one made eye contact. Everyone had their own escape stories. She'd managed to escape with very few images of just how the world crumbled into despair.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. Can't begin to express it."
Shane swallowed and nodded wordlessly.
"There go those words," Dale mused, "falling short again. Paltry things."

The sounds of the night engulfed them; the crackle of fire and the crickets chirping in the background. Chester yawned and curled up next to Naomi. Amy snuggled into her sister. Naomi rubbed her arms. It was getting chilly out. The nights were nothing compared to the heat of full sunlight. Once the sun set the temperature seemed to plummet.
Apparently he'd had the same idea because Ed Pelletier dragged another log over to his fire and tossed it in.

"Hey Ed," Shane scolded. "You want to rethink that log."

"It's cold, man." Ed grunted in response.

"Cold doesn't change the rules, does it? We keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen at a distance, right?"

"I said its cold." Ed glared at the main group's fire. "Why don't you mind your own business for once?"

Shane stood swiftly and stormed over to the other fire to put Ed back in his place. Rick watched with shock as his friend calmly addressed the situation and talked to Sophia and Carol as if nothing were wrong. His eyes darted around the group. No one said anything. No one ever said anything. When he returned to the group Dale immediately changed the subject.

"Has anyone thought about how Daryl is going to react?" Dale looked around the circle pointedly.

"He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind"

Everyone turned to Naomi and she just shrugged" He's going to be pissed for sure. Daryl can't hold his temper."

"I'll tell him." T-Dog grimaced. "I dropped the key. It's on me."

Rick shook his head. "I cuffed him. That makes it mine."

"Guys," Glenn interrupted, "It's not a competition. I don't mean to say it like this but don't you think it might sound better coming from Naomi." The Korean turned quickly and gave her an apologetic smile.

"No offence."

"None taken. I didn't exactly take the news well and I'm not even half as easily upset as Daryl."

"Then there's the race card. It probably wouldn't sound good coming from a black guy." Glenn shrugged.

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." The black man insisted stubbornly.

Naomi shook her head. "You'd be better off hiding for a while just until I get him quieted down."

"You could lie." Amy offered her friend and Naomi just rolled her eyes.

"I'm not lying to him."

"What good would it do?" Andrea wondered. "We tell him the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Rick did what was necessary and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's." She turned to Naomi pointedly. "That includes you. I don't want you putting yourself at the mercy of Daryl Dixon just because you feel guilty."

Naomi scowled at the blonde sisters. "He won't hurt me."

"So you say... Naomi" Andrea sneered.

"Listen here miss blonde know it all lawyer I've known Daryl since we were kids he would never hurt me" Naomi snapped angrily.

"He's not crazy and he's not Merle. Daryl wouldn't hurt me no matter how pissed he was."

"Not purposely." Dale frowned. "I think what Andrea is saying is that when Daryl gets back from his hunt we're going to have our hands full."

Naomi didn't disagree with them, Daryl was going to be furious, especially when he found out his brother could still be trapped up on the roof, but he sure as hell wasn't going to take it out on her.

"You might. He's not coming after me." Naomi scowled.

"I'm the one who chained the door. Nothing's getting him up there." T-Dog grimaced. "Dixon's alive. That's on all of us."

The thought of leaving a man to die seemed to weigh heavily on everyone and the conversation quickly came to a close. As the fires burned down and it grew later, everyone slowly moved away from the fire and to their respective sleeping places. Naomi found herself reluctant to immediately crawl into her tent and fall asleep without talking to Daryl and she couldn't help but her mind kept going back to Merle. Even though the camp was full of the sounds of people going to sleep and talking quietly with their loved ones Naomi felt very, very alone.

Dumping the bucket of sand over the embers of the fire, Naomi let her eyes slowly adjust to the dark around her. Most of the people were already in their tents and the few that still had lanterns on were slowly dimming them. In the moonlight, Shane sat silhouetted on the top of the RV.

"Hey," She called up to him quietly.

Shane jumped as if Naomi had startled him. She turned toward where he was looking and noticed that it was toward the Grimes family tent. "What's going on, Naomi?" He spoke before she got a chance to process her thoughts.

"Mind if I come up for a bit?" Naomi asked.

He nodded and she climbed up the ladder quickly, holding her blanket tightly around her shoulders like a cape. "Is it just me or is it colder up here?" She settled into the lawn chair beside Shane's.

"It's the wind." Thunder rumbled in the distance. "I'm hoping that storm stays away too. It'll be shitty up here if it starts pouring."

"Do you think they mind the rain?"

"Walkers? Nah, they're too stupid to notice its pouring. Only think that might slow 'em down is a flood, maybe a mudslide. Don't expect to get one of those though."

"I guess that makes sense."

"You hoping they lay off Merle if it's raining' out?"

"A little." Naomi admitted.

"I don't know why you'd want him to come back. He's a psycho."

"He's family to Daryl all they have is each other." And me she silently added. Naomi glared at him "We live in a world filled with monsters and I hate judgemental people especially cops" she said coldly and whistled for Chester and they went into her tent.

_

The next morning Naomi got dressed and wore a pair of light blue skinny jeans and her black flat biker boots and a black vest top and pulled her hair long dark brown curly waves in a bun.

Naomi said good morning to everyone excluding T-Dog Rick and Andrea.

Naomi heard people screaming from the quarry and hurried over to see quite the disturbing sight, beside her Chester growled low.

A walker had literally half eaten the deer and now the walker was stumbling towards them ,Dale grabbed a rack and Morales grasped his baseball bat and began hitting it while Naomi shielded the children from the disturbing scene.

Then Dale decapitated the walker.

Daryl glared at the dead walker. "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this... filthy, disease-bearing, motherless proxy bastard!" he yelled angry.

Naomi glanced at him then. He was filthy, covered in sweat and dirt. She wouldn't be surprised if he'd actually dug himself a hole in the ground to sleep in.

At their feet a wet grinding sound drew all their eyes downward. The walker's jaw began twitching and the disembodied head started to move and moan.

Finally releasing Naomi from his piercing gaze of Naomi quickly, Daryl jumped toward the walker. "Come on people. What the hell?" He aimed his crossbow and fired, making a direct hit to its left eye. He planted his boot on the skull and yanked the bolt free. "Don't y'all know nothing? It's gotta be the brain." Naomi, turning her toward camp and leading her away.

"Daryl," Naomi started but he interrupted her.

"Now where's my good fer nothing brother?" Daryl laughed. "Gotta get him to help me dress this deer and drag it back to camp." He patted his side. "And a dozen or so squirrel. We're gonna be busy."

Daryl then glanced at Shane "Shall I bring it back?" he asked.

Shane shook his "No don't risk it" he said.

"Daryl, listen." Naomi begged

"Merle!" He called. "Merle! Get yer ugly ass out here. You gotta see what I got!"

Naomi planted her feet and Daryl stepped forward without her.

"What's a matter? What're you stoppin' for?" He turned to her confused.

"You've got to listen."

"Yer worryin' me, Ni. What am I listenin' to?"

"Merle..."

"What about Merle?" Daryl asked .

Naomi decided this was now the best time to tell him about Merle.

"Daryl something happened to Merle" she said softly reaching for his hand.

Daryl stared at her "What happened to him Ni did he get killed?" Daryl asked his dark blue eyes glowing.

"There was a problem in Atlanta."

"Wha's that supposed to mean? He dead?".

Shane swaggered up behind them. "We're not sure."

Daryl spun around furiously, "Well he either is or he ain't."

"There's no easy way to say this," Rick stepped in between his friend and Daryl. "So I'll just say it."

Daryl's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Who're you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes?" Daryl mocked. "You got somethin' you wanna tell me?"

"Daryl." Naomi whispered, resting her hand on his arm. "Stay calm."

Rick nodded his thanks. "Your brother was a danger to us all. So I handcuffed him to a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

Daryl yanked his arm free from Naomi. "Hold on. Let me process this." He spun his hand by his head,

"You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?" His voice hit an octave higher than usual and cracked a little. Naomi could tell he was crumbling.

"Yeah." Rick hung his head in shame.

"It's not Naomi's fault she wanted to get him free but miss Ice bitch thought it would be ok to drag Naomi away and T-Dog dropped the key" Lori said defending Naomi while giving her a look to stay quiet.

"No excuse to leave him there. No way to defend himself." Daryl snarled like a wild animal and chucked the string of squirrels at Rick, diving after them to tackle the man.

Shane dove in and his body slammed with Daryl before he could reach his target and forced him to the ground. The two men wiggled apart.

"Stop it for fucks sake!" Naomi shouted. "How's about we just talk?"

"Tell him that." Shane growled causing Naomi to glare at him in disgust.

Daryl reached for the sheath on his hip and slid his knife free.

"Watch the knife."

Daryl grunted and swung at Rick completely missing. Shane grabbed the hunter from behind and pulled his arm behind his back, then switched to wrap his arm around Daryl's neck in a headlock pulling him away from the other officer. Rick took Daryl's knife and tossed it behind himself.

"You'd best let me go." Daryl flailed, trying to get free.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane mused nonchalantly.

Lori had to hold Naomi back along with Jacqui to stop her from charging at Shane and getting him off of Daryl. "Get off of him you bastard. You all need to calm down. This is insane."

"Chokehold's illegal asshole." Naomi yelled angry that he was hurting Daryl.

"You can file a complaint." Shane chuckled. "Come on man, we can keep this up all day."

"Naomi is right." Rick knelt down in front of Daryl. "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic.

"Try letting him go then, assholes." Naomi snipped icily.

"We've gotta know he's not going to try something." Rick explained.

"Just a nice little chat with no funny business." He turned back to Daryl. "You think we can manage that."

Naomi snorted "What like dragging away someone when they try to help a friend is that it?" Naomi asked sarcastically.

Rick and T-Dog both winced while Daryl's face darkened at the thought of Naomi getting hurt.
Daryl's eyes rolled with rage and he struggled harder. Finally he locked on to Naomi and she shook her head gently.

"Do you think we can manage that?" Rick repeated.

Huffing, Daryl finally went limp. Shane looked at his partner and they shared a long glance before nodding and finally letting go. Releasing Daryl from his grasp, Shane dropped him on the ground. The hunter struggled to regain control over his body and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"What I did was not on a whim." Rick leaned over him. "Your brother does not work or play well with others."

"Let's not be so sarcastic." Naomi snapped, rushing to Daryl's side. He pushed her away but the movement didn't contain any malice. She tried again more insistently and he sighed, allowing her comfort. "We know what Merle was like."

"It's not Rick's fault," T-Dog said. Naomi glared at him to shut up. They'd managed a calm conversation, and now he was going to bring about a storm. "I had the key; I dropped it."

Daryl sneered. "Couldn't pick it up?" he snapped angry.

"I dropped it in a drain." T-Dog said ashamed.

Scoffing, Daryl got to his feet. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," he told them, hurling a rock at the ground.

T-Dog went on. "Well, maybe this will; I chained the door on the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock," he added.

"It's gotta count for something," Rick said.

Daryl seemed to be contemplating whether or not it actually did make him feel better. Naomi knew that he was contemplating going to Atlanta. "To hell with all ya'll!" he concluded. "Just tell me where 'e is, so's I can go get 'im."

Naomi made a move to talk to him but he shook his head at her "Not now Ni" and walked off.
Naomi felt upset but understood and watched him leave.

To Naomi's shock and secret delight Lori spoke up "Rick will go with you he owes you that" she said giving Naomi a smile.

Deciding to go and find Daryl she found Daryl fletching arrows in his truck he glanced up at her as Naomi approached Chester right behind her.

"I did try and get him free but fucking Andrea shoved me and Rick and T-Dog dragged me away and to top it all off Andrea fucking shot at a walker that had friends I did try Daryl" she said sighing.

Daryl glanced at her then his dark blue eyes meeting her dark brown eyes.

"I know you did Ni maybe you better stay away from the bitches aside from Lori and Carol and Miranda and Jacqui" he advised with a smirk then glanced at the others who were waiting for him.

The remaining campers then watched as the four men went back into the city to save Merle and it was warmed Naomi's heart that they were doing it for him. She then walked off Naomi watching the van until it was a small dot then Naomi felt a presence next to her and saw Lori had stepped next to her.

Lori gave her a warm, smile and left to give the kids a school lesson.

"Naomi?" Carol approached pushing Sophia ahead of her just a little bit. The little girl seemed reluctant to part with her mother.

Naomi smiled as warmly as possible. "Hey, how're you guys doing?"

"We're fine. Ed's going to drive a group down so we can wash some clothes. You got anything you need done?"

Naomi nodded in response "Yeah some jeans and t-shirts and vest tops".

"Alright, I'll take it with me." The older woman nodded. "Mind if I ask you a favour?"
Naomi stared at her "Sure ask away" she said softly.

"Would you like to come with us I know you and Andrea don't get on but –" Naomi cut her off.

"Its ok Carol I can handle little miss bitch snobby lawyer" she said with a grin.

The women went to the lake and sat on rocks and talked as they washed the clothes Naomi found it peaceful other than Andrea giving her sneers and the evil eye Naomi got on with Amy such a shame must be the parents.

Right now they were discussing what they missed the most.

Suddenly Andrea said in a loud voice "I miss my sat nav"

Jacqui said with a smile "Honey and coffee"

Amy smiled then "Laptop and texting" she said.

Naomi smiled fondly as she thought of her home videos.

"My video albums and CD player CD'S". She said she had managed to grab her photo albums and put them in her bag when she had left home.

"I miss my Vibrator" Andrea said with a smirk.

Carol cautiously glanced around and said in a sudden cheeky voice "Me too"

They all roared in laughter at that amusement on their faces.

Two hours later they had finished washing the clothes and Ed was in a foul mood.
He insulted poor Carol and Naomi resisted the urge to punch him or let Chester on him.

Only Shane and Andrea took it in their own hands.

"You're a chauvinistic pig Ed I hope a walker fucking eats you" Andrea screamed.

Ed then slapped Andrea and Naomi grabbed Sophia and Eliza "Hey why don't you guys play with Chester" she said and the kids ran off.

Shane then punched Ed and Naomi was impressed hey maybe Shane wasn't a complete asshole.

Shane stormed off to sulk probably while Ed stormed off to his and Carol's tent. Naomi then made it back up to camp and started hanging the now clean clothes on the washing line they had, thinking continuously of Daryl and worrying desperately.

There you go our lovely readers we hope you enjoyed this chapter (: we thank you again for the support it really means a lot!

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Thanks so much, Vmk-xx and Kol and Elena