Every time Daryl moved his entire body felt like it might collapse into itself, but he couldn't stop. He wanted these bodies out of the way so that Rick or Carl or Michonne didn't have to see them. When the fight was over he'd gone around, putting his knife through each one of the marauder's skulls to make sure they didn't reanimate, and then he began dragging each of the corpses away from the car campsite. Michonne had offered to help, but Carl needed her more.
His injuries slowed him down a bit more than he anticipated and by the time he moved the last body (Joe) it was daylight. He didn't mind all that much though. He was using the time to think of what to say to the man he had presumed dead. There were so many things he wanted to say, but there were two things that needed to be addressed above the others first. Daryl wanted to tell Rick why he'd been with these evil men and wanted to tell Rick he understood that he had to do what he had to do.
He'd taken each body about half a mile away and after the last drag he knew exactly what to say. Daryl made his way back and went over it several times in his head. When he got back he saw Rick where he'd been since last. Daryl hovered a little ways away from Rick and watched him for a moment.
The man's hands were shaking and his clothing and scruff were covered in Joe and Dan's blood. Daryl grabbed a water bottle and rag from his back and walked over to Rick, he wet the rag and tried handing it to Rick.
"We should save it to drink," Rick objected.
"You can't see yourself, he can," Daryl nodded his head toward the car where Carl and Michonne had placed themselves to sleep. Rick took the rag after that, for his son's sake. With a deep breath Daryl sat down beside Rick as he wiped his face and took a few beats to think about everything one more time.
Daryl started off, "I didn't know what they were."
Everything that Daryl had planned say went out the window when he realized that this was Rick, a man he'd spent so much time with that he understood him in just a few words. Rick nodded his head and asked, "How'd you wind up with them?"
Daryl knew that Rick was going to ask him that, it was something he'd tried to repair himself wince dragging the bodies, but the words came out with an awful taste, "I was with Beth. We got out together. I was with her for a while."
There was a lull in the conversation and then Rick asked another question "Is she dead?"
Was Beth dead? He'd asked himself that question since she was taken. He wanted to search for her, yeah, but it was only on the small whim of faith that she'd given him. Daryl made eye contact with Rick and said the only thing he could honestly think, "She's just gone. After that, that's when they found me. I mean, I knew they were bad, but… they had a code. It was simple, stupid… but it was somethin'. It was enough."
Daryl didn't know how much Rick took out of what he said, but he had a feeling Rick picked up on what was left tacit. "And you were alone."
For Daryl that was no excuse for him to stay with those men and he continued on trying to explain himself, "Said they were lookin' for some guy, and last night they said that they spotted him. I was hangin' back, I was gonna leave. But I stayed. That's when I saw it was you three, right when you saw me…" Daryl thought about the next, if it was true or if he just wanted it to be, "…I didn't know what they could do."
Daryl couldn't look at Rick anymore, he was ashamed of himself for letting this happen. He felt the full responsibility for it. Everything that had happened since the prison was on his shoulders like always and now this was added on to it.
"It's not on you, Daryl," Rick was giving Daryl a compassionate look that he didn't feel like he deserved. "Hey. It's not on you". Daryl couldn't say anything, Rick was just dismissing everything that was weighing him down. "You bein' back with us here, now, that's everything."
Daryl swallowed hard and let that Rick was saying sink in.
"You're my brother."
The last part of that caught Daryl off guard. To both of them, brotherhood was something that was sacred. The last time Rick called someone his brother, it was Shane, someone who stood in the steed of a biological brother and someone he had grown up with and shared a bond with until the turn. Daryl's real brother was dead, but he missed Merle, even if he was an ass. In their type of brotherhood they carried each other's burdens. Daryl looked at Rick and felt more reassured than he ever had before.
Now that the first issue was addressed Daryl carried on to what he wanted to begin with, "Hey, what you did last night, anybody would've done that."
It was Rick's turn to pile his burdens. "No, not that."
Rick had been savage last night, but Daryl didn't believe it was because he was a savage. Rick was a good person faced with difficult situations, "Somethin' happened. That ain't you."
Rick seemed to disagree though, "Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese. It ain't all that, but that's me. That's why I'm here now, that's why Carl lives. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."
He had said what Daryl had been thinking, that he did it for his son. The will to sacrifice for what you wanted and needed was nothing new to Daryl Dixon.
AN: Yup another scene straight out of the show with my own little pazazz to it. This scene with Rick and Daryl was so frigging heart wrenching (holla at my Brotp) it was absolute perfection and I hope I didn't butcher the hell out of it.
I just realized its Wednesday. I thought it was Tuesday all day and I was like, "yeah I'm actually uploading when I said I was gonna". But nope. The May Long Weekend messed me up, my bad. On a good note I don't have school Friday so I'll probably upload two or three chapters on that day.
I would like to thank everyone for reading and you're all absolutely amazing and I appreciate you guys all so much! xxxx