Chapter 10-I Love Daryl?!
****T's POV****
"I have seen the rain. I have felt the pain. I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. I don't know where I'm going I don't even know where I've been. But I know I'd like to see you again." Sam sings while we suit up, changing the lyrics of "I Have Seen the Rain" by P!nk to fit. I join in with her singing "Spend our days just searching. Spend our nights in dreams. I've stopped looking over my shoulder and I've stopped wonderin' what it means." At this point all of us are singing "Drop out, burn out, soldier ho-oh they've said we should've been more. Probably so if we hadn't of been in this crazy damn Afghanistan war." There's a knock at the locker room door followed by Yori yelling "You girls need a new song!" "Well at least we don't need a new brain like you Yori!" Sam yells back, she likes him but he's too dense to see it, I was too but she told me about it and asked if we were just dense when it came to "love". Suddenly I'm not in the locker room anymore but in a clearing aiming my bow at the trees. Daryl comes out of the trees and starts yelling "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…" as he walks over to the walker and starts to kick it adding "Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless proxy bastard!" I look around and notice that I'm back at the first morning of camp as Dale says "Calm down, son. That's not helping." Daryl then says while striding towards him "What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?" he turns away and starts to pull out his arrows from the deer adding "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" I turn and start walking away realizing that I've been staring at Daryl as Shane says "I would not risk that." Daryl then sighs and says "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." But then I hear the walker opens its mouth so I quickly spin around and shoot it in the head at the same time as Daryl does as he asks "Come on, people. What the hell? It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" Without noticing I did so he goes to get his arrow but pauses seeing mine as well. Glenn then looks at me and cheers "T one, walker head zero! T the one stop shop of awesomeness has done it again! If he can't do it no one can!" I glare at him as the others shake their heads at him. As I walk forward to get my arrow back Daryl pulls his and my arrow from the head, wipes them on the ground, and holds mine out to me. I nod as I take it from him and he asks me quietly "Do you even know what you do to me?" I look at him shocked and shake my head as I hear Sam in the back of my head saying "T I can't believe you're still so dense. You love him and he loves you."
I bolt up and shake my head not believing what I heard Sam tell me. 'She's in Europe right now. There's no way she could know. Besides Daryl would never like someone like me, like that.' I think before allowing myself to wonder if she and her family were still alive. I look around and notice almost everyone is awake so I stay on top of the R.V. waiting for Rick to organize the search. When the others start coming over to Carol's Jeep I hop down not bothering with the ladder only to be yelled at by Rick who says "There's a ladder for a reason." I ignore him and stand next to Daryl and also ignoring the little voice in the back of my head screaming 'You love Daryl!' "All right, everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the cabin Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far." "Cabin?" I write as Beth's boyfriend says "I'd like to help. I know the area pretty well and stuff." "Hershel's okay with this?" Rick asks Jimmy ignoring me so I give up thinking 'Karma, you are not my friend today.' "Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you." The boy says obviously lying. "All right then. Thanks." Rick says believing him, but Shane says "Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that cabin." "Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea asks. "There was drawings signed by 'Sophia' in there." Daryl says, as I look at Andrea questionably as she keeps giving me a weird look. "It's a good lead." Andrea says so Rick says "Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." "No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her." Daryl says as Dale puts the bag of guns on the car. "Good idea. Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there, too." T-Dog says. "Chupacabra?" Rick asks as I tilt my head in question as well now looking at Dale, making a mental note to ask Andrea why she looked at me the way she did. "You never heard this? Our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra." Dale says causing Jimmy to laugh. "What are you braying at, jackass?" Daryl asks him. "So you believe in a blood-sucking dog?" Jimmy asks so Daryl counters with "Do you believe dead people walking around?" so I clap silently, approving of the burn. Jimmy then reaches for one of the guns but Rick stops him asking "Hey, hey. Ever fire one before?" "Well, if I'm going out, I want one." Jimmy says so Daryl says "Yeah, and people in hell want Slurpees." Before walking away, giving me a quick glance but quickly looking away and continue walking away when I tilt my head at him.
I shrug and Jimmy starts to go so Shane says "Why don't you come train tomorrow. If you're serious, I'm a certified instructor." "For now he can come with us." Andrea says so Shane says "He's yours to babysit then." Motioning for Jimmy to come back. "T you're going with Dale and Jimmy here." Rick tells me then adds "Shane and I will be here and Andrea, T-Dog you're here." They start to get their weapons before we get our "flags" to mark the trees and head out. I opt for just having my knife preferring to be quiet and to be able to move without worrying about my bow getting caught on something.
****Yori's POV****
I woke up before Sophia so I get out of the van and lean against it watching the road. A few trucks were approaching so I made sure Sophia was hidden before pretending to look inside the cars. One of the trucks stopped while the others continued on. A guy who give off a bad aura gets out asking "Hey, man you alone?" "Yes. I like it that way." I reply continuing my pretend search praying that Sophia doesn't wake up right now. "You sure? We could use a man like you." He says stepping closer trying to be friendly but failing. "I'm sure, besides I only got one leg." I say looking at him hiding my emotions. His face turns to that of disgust and says "Just start with that next time." before getting back in the truck and driving away. "Well that went better than I expected." I say to myself shrugging before Sophia wakes up. "Yori?!" she calls scared. "Here, outside. Come on, if we want to make it to the farm by dark we have to leave now." I tell her. She gets out of the van so I walk over and bend down so she can climb on my back again. She does so I start walking towards the farm.
****Daryl's POV****
I'm hunting squirrels as I look for Sophia. I see something in the creek so I stop the horse. I get off and tie it to a tree before I slowly my way down the hill to the creek. Getting closer to the thing I notice that it's Sophia's doll so I look around calling for her. After a minute or so I climb back up the hill and get back on the horse. Walking a few steps the horse gets scared by birds flying by so I say "Whoa. Easy, easy." When it calms down I have it start walking again. It goes only a few more steps before a snake jumps out at it scaring it and causing it to buck me off. I roll down a ridge as it runs off. When I reach the bottom, and in the shallow water, I say "Son of a bitch." Noticing that I've been impaled by one of my arrows. I slowly make my way to one of the dry spots and use my knife to rip off one of my sleeves but just rip off the other with my hands. I tie them together then wrap them around my chest to keep the arrow in place. I secure the tourniquet, put my knife back, and look to see that I've fallen into a valley. Bushes rustle so I reach for my crossbow but realize it's not there. I grab a stick and start searching the water for it with it. I finally find it and start making my way up the ridge. I get half way up the ridge and throw away the stick and tell myself "Oh, come on. You've done half. Stop being such a pussy." So I go and grab a rock but it falls and thus causing me to fall and get knocked out when I hit the bottom.
****T's POV****
I've had this bad feeling for a few minutes now as I follow Dale and Jimmy. But I ignore it as I split off from them when they start heading back as we had the smallest grid. They don't notice that I split off from them so I look for some tracks. I find horse tracks but no people tracks walker or otherwise. I remember that Daryl took one of the horses from the farm so they must be from that as they are fresh. I shake my head as I suddenly feel happy thinking about Daryl, successfully shaking the happy feeling away. "T, there you are. Dale was worried about you." Shane says from behind me making me jump. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He says putting a hand on my shoulder before adding "Come on back to camp, it's getting late." His hand makes my skin crawl so I step away from him nodding but looking in the direction Daryl went, thinking 'T stop…He'll be fine.' with that bad feeling rising again. I turn and start walking back to camp without waiting for Shane as I try to ignore the feeling, again.
****Daryl's POV****
Waking up a little I see Merle. "Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy? You could bind your wound better." He tells me so I say "Merle." "What's going on here? You taking a siesta or something?" He asks so I say "A shitty day, bro." "Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" He asks so I say "Screw you." "Huh-uh. You're the one screwed from the looks of it. All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, little brother. And for what?" He says so I say "A girl. They lost a little girl." "So you got a thing for little girls now?" He asks so I tell him "Shut up." But he says "'Cause I notice you ain't out looking for old Merle no more." "Tried like hell to find you, bro." I say but he says "Like hell you did. You split, man. Lit out first chance you got." "You lit out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick, T, and I, we did right by you." I say. "This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talking about here? You his bitch now?" He asks so I say "I ain't nobody's bitch." "You're a joke is what you are, playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers, and democrats." He says chuckling then adds "You're nothing but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind your back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One of these days, they're gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dogshit. Hey. They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd go back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me. Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except me, little brother. Ain't nobody ever will, especially that mute girl. Come on, get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in." Standing up he starts kicking my foot adding "Come on." shaking me. I wake up more and hear growling I look down and see a walker trying to bite through my boot. I kick its head and reach for my crossbow but it recovers quickly and climbs on top of me so hold it back and punch it twice knocking it over, but it takes me with it so I roll and throw it off. I grab a branch and stand up as it stands up and another starts coming towards me. I take out the closer ones legs, jump on top of it, and start beating its face in with the branch before stabbing it in the head killing it. The other one is coming closer so I rip the arrow out of my side and quickly strain to ready my crossbow. I get it just as it gets to me so I quickly aim and fire hitting it in the head. It falls next to me and I sigh in relief and start panting before passing out again.
Waking up again I sit up and look at the two dead walkers. I then take off my shirt and fold it up and press it on my wound before securing it there with the torn off sleeves. "Son of a bitch was right." I say picking up my crossbow before getting up and start to skin a squirrel. I eat it before going over to the doll, pick it up, and tuck it under my belt. Then I take the shoelaces off the walkers, cut off their ears, and make a necklace with them. I pause and put T's dog tags in my pocket before putting it on and start climbing the ridge again. I'm almost to the top when birds screech above so I look at them as they circle me. "Please, don't feed the birds." Merle says on top of the ridge so I look at him and he starts laughing adding "What's the matter, Darylina? That all you got in you? Throw away that purse and climb." "I liked it better when you was missing." I tell him. Laughing he says "Come on, don't be like that. I'm on your side." "Yeah? Since when?" I ask. "Hell, since the day you were born, baby brother. Somebody had to look after your worthless ass." He says. "You never took care of me. You talk a big game, but you was never there. Hell, you ain't here now. Some things never change." I say as I try to find a way to make it the rest of the way up. "Well, I'll tell you what-I'm as real as your chupacabra." He says. "I know what I saw." I say before he asks "And I'm sure them shrooms you ate had nothing to do with it, right? You know what, I think that little mute girl-" "You best shut the hell up!" I yell at him cutting him off, so he says "Or what? You're gonna come up here and shut my mouth for me? Well, come on and do it them, if you think you're man enough." Laughing he adds "Hey, kick off them damn high heels and climb, son." I start climbing again as he says "If I were you, I'd take a pause for the cause, brother. 'Cause I just don't think you're gonna make it to the top. Come on. Come on, little brother. Grab your friend Rick's hand." I make it to the top and pull myself up panting and looking around but Merle is nowhere. So I say "Yeah, you'd better run." Before making my way back to camp and back to T.
****T's POV****
I'm sitting in the R.V. with Glenn, drawing Sam hoping that she was okay. "What's with the Annie Oakley routine?" Dale asks Andrea outside the R.V. as she went up there when he left. "I don't want to wash clothes anymore, Dale. I want to help keep the camp safe. Is that all right with you?" she says so Glenn says "And I want to be able to understand women." I look at him questioning but he adds "You I get, the others not so much." I shrug as Dale comes in. Glenn looks at him and says "Sorry. Just returning your book." Pointing to the book in his hands. "Oh, no, I'm sorry." Dale says picking up the book and tosses it on the table adding "If I had known the world was ending, I'd have brought better books." Before walking into the back of the R.V. Glenn then gets up and asks quietly "Dale, you think Andrea's on her period?" Dale holds up a hand but Glenn adds "I'm only asking 'cause it's like all the women are acting really weird. And I read somewhere that when women spend a lot of time together, their cycles line up and they all get super crazy hormonal at the same time." Dale holds his hand up again and says "I'm gonna advise you to keep that theory to yourself." Before looking at me so I shrug not caring. "Yeah." Glenn says so Dale asks "Who else is acting weird?" Glenn sits back down and thinks for a minute before saying "Maggie." "Ah, Maggie." Dale says knowingly so Glenn starts explaining "She started off being mean to me. Then she wanted to have sex with me. And now she's being mean to me again. And I don't even want to know what's going on with Lori." "What's going on with Lori?" Dale asks so Glenn looks at me, I shrug so he says "Nothing. I don't know." "All right, let's take this back a step. How do you know that Maggie wanted to have sex with you?" Dale asks. Glenn just looks at him smiling so Dale says "Oh, son, you didn't." Glenn chuckles so Dale adds "Did it ever occur to you how her father might feel about this?" "She's 22." Glenn states so Dale says "And he is our host." "He doesn't know." Glenn says then so Dale says "Well, see that it stays that way. Jesus, Glenn what were you thinking?" "I was thinking that I might be dead tomorrow." Glenn says sadly before getting up and adding "Thanks for the book. You're right, it sucks." Walking out of the R.V. "Walker. Walker!" Andrea then yells from on top of the R.V. so I rush out past Dale as Rick comes up asking "Just the one?" She looks through the binoculars and says "I bet I can nail it from here." "No, no, Andrea. Put the gun down." Rick says as the guys get their weapons and I start walking towards the walker. "You'd best let us handle this." Shane says so Rick says "Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers." "What for, man? We got it covered." Shane says catching up to me. I speed up to get away from him as Rick catches up and does the same. I falter as I see who the walker was. Rick points his gun at him as Glenn asks "Is that Daryl?" "That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl says so I start to walk towards him to help him as Rick lowers his gun. Then it happens, almost in slow motion, gunshot, my heart stops as Daryl falls, and I can't stop myself from screaming "Daryl!" as I run to him.
****Rick's POV****
When we get to the walker I point my gun at it as Glenn asks "Is that Daryl?" "That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl says so I lower my gun and T starts walking towards him concern showing slightly on her face. Andrea shoots and T screams his name as she runs to him. She puts pressure on him wound as her face actually showing emotions from affection to fear. Shane and I take him from her as he says "I was kidding." Before passing out. Andrea and Dale are running towards us as we start heading back. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God, is he dead?" Andrea asks as T silently follows us, obviously fighting with her feelings. "Unconscious. You just grazed him." I answer Andrea before Glenn says "But look at him. What the hell happened? He's wearing ears." I rip them off and say "Let's keep that to ourselves." As I hide them. "Guys, isn't this Sophia's?" T-dog asks so we pause and look at him.
****Time skip****
As Hershel stitched Daryl up Shane asks "Where'd you get the doll?" sitting in a chair in the room as I sit by the bed with the map. "I found it washed up on the creek bed right there. She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere." He says pointing to the area before holding the rag to his head again. I look at Shane and say "Cuts the grid almost in half." "Yeah, you're welcome." Daryl says. "How's he looking?" I ask Hershel. "I had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly. Any idea what happened to my horse?" Hershel says finishing up and washing his hands in the bowl of water. "Yeah, the one who almost killed me? If it's smart, it left the country." Daryl says. "We call that one Nelly, as in nervous Nelly. I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. It's a wonder you people have survived this long." Hershel says walking towards me before he adds "Go now. He needs to rest a bit." Shane and I nod and leave the room.
****Daryl's POV****
Shane and Rick leaves so Hershel turns to me and says "It's not my place to say this-" "Then why are you?" I ask angry cutting him off, my heart aching as I keep hearing T scream my name. He glares at me and asks "Do you still hear her scream for you?" I look at him shocked so he says "T, she's a strong girl but right now she's not. She was slapped in the face with her feelings for you the moment Andrea shot you." "What you getting at?" I ask angry again. "Daryl, you got past her walls without her even knowing. Just like she did with you. Don't deny it, I've seen how you look at her. Now…you need to tell her how you feel." He says sternly before leaving. I debate for a while trying to figure out how to tell T I love her.
****T's POV****
I was walking in the woods after Rick told me Daryl would be fine, needing to be alone. 'Sam, if you can hear me somehow, I just want you to know that you were right. I'm dense when it comes to love. It took him almost dying for me to accept the fact that I loved him. Though you're still wrong when it comes to him liking me.' I tell her in my head hoping she could hear me. A branch breaks behind me so I quickly turn around my hand ready to grab my knife. Rick comes out and says "There you are. Dinners about done, Carol asked me to find you." I nod and follow him back.
Glenn, Maggie, Beth, Jimmy, and I all have to sit at the "kids" table. We're all eating when Glenn suddenly asks "Does anybody know how to play guitar?" I sigh but he ignores me as he adds "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's got to know how to play" Everyone is silent till Patricia says "Otis did." "Yes, and he was very good, too." Hershel tells her before everyone starts eating again. I get up and go look for it then no one noticing that I left. As I'm looking I see something coming down the drive. I walk closer and they stop and put something down. The something is a child that runs to me limping and crying. "Sophia." I say breathless as she runs into me hugging me. "Glad I get a welcome back too." Yori says faking hurt as he comes closer. "Yori?" I ask not believing it. He nods as he smirks saying "You didn't think I was dead now did you? You should know by now that I'm awesome!" I shake my head at him as I hug him. Suddenly Yori asks "Who's this Daryl Sophia keeps telling me about?" Sophia laughs as I look at him in shock. "Well, come on girls and point him out to me." He says before grabbing mine and Sophia's hand dragging us to the house. Sophia keeps laughing as I dig my feet in the ground which only caused Yori to pull me forward and pick me up before holding me under his arm. I curse myself for being so light as he keeps walking without hindrance.
****Daryl's POV****
The door opens so I look and see that it was Carol so I pull the blanket up as she asks "How are you feeling?" before setting the tray on the bedside table. "As good as I look." I tell her so she says "I brought you some dinner. You must be starving." I turn a little to look at her then at it and she leans in and kisses me on the head. I look at her before saying "Watch out. I got stitches." She pauses before saying "You need to know something." I look at her so she adds "You did more for my little girl today than her own daddy ever did in his whole life." "I didn't do anything Rick, T, or Shane wouldn't have done." I say so she says "I know. You're every bit as good as them. Every bit." Before leaving.
A few minutes go by before a door slams open and a guy yells "Is this yours?" "Sophia!" Carol yells as Sophia yells "Mom!" I get out of bed and slowly make my way to the stairs. When I get there everyone is hugging Sophia and thanking the guy who has T tucked under his arm just hanging there. She's not struggling so I look closer at the guy and see the resemblance between the two while remembering the drawing she made of him. He's looking around at everyone and suddenly looks up at me. He studies me a bit before smirking and putting T down he says "Name's Yori and I'm related to that thing." pointing at T who smacks him like she does Glenn. I then turn and go back to the room. A few minutes go by and the noise dies down. Then the door to the room opens as Yori says "You must be Daryl." "What do you want?" I ask him annoyed as he shuts the door walking into the room. His face changes from friendly to threatening as he asks "Do you love my sister?" I don't say anything and look at him daring him to try something. "Look, I just don't want her to get hurt." He says friendly again. "Neither do I." I counter so he accuses "She's not some toy you can just throw away when it gets boring or when it is broken." "I know that!" I yell angry causing him to say "You don't." I go to say something but he holds up a hand and adds "I know she hasn't told you so I'm going to. When she was ten and I was already in the army our parents were murdered in front of her. The people responsible then took her and sold her into sex slavery. She was there for two years before she managed to escape. She was half dead when she walked into the E.R. and was in the hospital for a year. She then trained and joined the military when she was eighteen. We were in Special Forces for a year before I lost my leg and she decided that others came before her. A year goes by before she ends up getting captured. She sliced her own throat to prevent them from using her to get to the others. She can't forget anything she hears, feels, or sees and she can copy it exactly, it's what saved her this whole time." I look at him shocked so he accuses "Do you still love her?" "I do." I tell him immediately. He looks at me relieved before saying "Then do me a favor, don't get killed and tell her you do." He walks to the door and adds "Also just remember I don't have any qualms about killing others. Especially those who hurt my little sister." smiling at me before leaving.