Chapter 10

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Rick asked, stopping and glancing at Samantha.

"Caesar helped me," the blonde woman said, standing next to the Hispanic man. "He helped Daryl as well when he was in the woods."

Knowing that they didn't have time to argue about this, Rick decided that Martinez wasn't an immediate threat for them. So he climbed the last two stairs with Glenn and they followed Samantha inside, still supporting Daryl's unconscious body. The woman led them to the room where the redneck was held during the last few days.

"Lay him on the bed," she told Rick and Glenn, before leaving the room.

She came back about a minute later with an IV bag that she hung on a pole and a tube that looked like an IV line that she put on a small metal table.

"We don't have any of Daryl's blood type left," Samantha informed, sighing.

"What type do you need?" Rick asked, knowing that if a member of his group would have the same; he wouldn't hesitate giving it to help their friend.

"A-…"

"I'm A+…Someone else?" the sheriff demanded with hope, looking around the room.

Glenn, Hershel, Maggie, Michonne and Tyreese looked at him and shook their head, despondent.

"Don't worry, I'm A-," Martinez assured, entering the room. "And he received my blood before…We had to give blood a few times when we were at Woodbury and when we arrived here as well. One of the Governor's ideas…"

"Well, it seems like that bastard could have good ideas sometimes…" Michonne noted.

"Please…Don't talk about him like that…He was my uncle," Samantha said, looking upset. "Caesar, can you come on this side and sit in the chair?" she asked, changing subject quickly while checking Daryl's pulse.

Martinez sat down and showed his arm to the doctor. With the IV line, needles, an empty IV bag, and a small manual pomp she fixed the transfusion set between the Hispanic man and the redneck with the help of Hershel. When they were done, Samantha demanded that the other people leave the room and to go wait in the living room. During the transfusion procedure, Samantha and Hershel removed Daryl's clothes and cleaned him before stitching his wounds.

"Do you think he's going to make it?" Martinez asked when they were done.

"I hope so…But we'll know more tomorrow, if he'll get through the night," Samantha explained, covering Daryl with a clean sheet and a blanket.

After a while, Samantha judged that Caesar had given enough blood for now. She told him to go eat something and to lay down for a few hours in case Daryl needed more blood. While Hershel stayed with the injured man, Samantha joined the others in the living room.

"How is he?" Rick asked, standing up as soon as the woman entered the room.

"Stable. So I don't want to leave him alone. And since we are all exhausted and we all need a few hours of sleep, I was thinking that we can take shifts."

"Yea, of course..."

"No problem."

"I can stay with him all night…" Tyreese proposed.

"No, it's not necessary," Samantha said, looking at the black man's shirt. "And I need to have a look at your shoulder before you decide to go somewhere else."

Rick, Glenn, Maggie and Michonne took a few minutes to schedule the night shifts while the doctor took care of Tyreese's wound in the infirmary. Fifteen minutes later, everyone decided to find a place to lay down and get some sleep. There were two more bedrooms, Samantha's and the Governor's and two couches. After a few seconds of hesitation, Glenn and Maggie decided to take Philip's bedroom, Samantha shared hers with Martinez who was already asleep, Tyreese took a couch and Michonne left the other couch to Hershel who was still with Daryl to sleep on the carpet with a sleeping bag. Rick had the first shift and went to replace the old man.

After Hershel had left, Rick moved the chair beside the bed and took Daryl's hand in his. For a moment, it made him remembered of when Carl had been shot a few months ago.

"I'm so sorry Daryl…I should have come to rescue you sooner…And you're the one who saved my life again…" he said out loud, lowering his head. "But please, you have to make it…We need you…I need you, man…"

Daryl was slowly regaining consciousness. He remembered that he was in the woods with Martinez and had shot the Governor before he had the chance to kill Rick. He was feeling like he was sleeping for a while, so he guessed he was so exhausted that he had fallen asleep on the ground after he had fired his gun. Rick was probably around and he wanted to make sure he was okay. So he opened his eyes slowly and realised that he wasn't in the woods like he had thought. He was back in the room where the Governor was keeping him. He tried to move his hands and noted that he was tied to bed as he was before. "No!" he thought, feeling the panic raising inside of him. So that meant that Samantha didn't help him get out of here, Rick never found him in the warehouse, Michonne and Tyreese never been there either…Everything was just a dream. Not accepting that everything had just happened in his head, Daryl began to struggle against the straps that were holding him. He could feel pain in his entire body and his wrists were on fire but he didn't care; he had to get out of there.

"Daryl…Stop…You're going to hurt yourself."

The redneck was familiar with that voice; it was a female voice that he hadn't heard in a while. But it couldn't be real; it was his mind that was fucking with him again.

"Daryl…Can you hear me?" the same voice asked again when he kept fighting with his bonds. "Daryl!?"

Daryl felt a hand touching his cheek gently and he jerked away. But this small distraction made him focus more on his surroundings. Yes, he was in the same room, but there was someone else with him. Maggie was beside the bed and was looking at him with a worried face.

"Maggie!?" he managed to say with a weak voice. "Are you real?" He wanted to make sure that he wasn't dreaming anymore.

"Of course I am," she assured, smiling. "I'm so happy to see you back with us."

She touched his shoulder lightly but when he tensed again, she removed her hand.

"I'll go tell the others that you're awake," she said, leaving the room.

"Others?" Daryl thought. Did she mean that there were more people of their group in the Governor's camp? How was it possible? And where was the Governor, Samantha and Martinez? He didn't know if it was because he was thinking too much but his head began to hurt badly and the light in the room was now too intense for his eyes. He wanted to cover his face with his hands but realised he couldn't; he had forgotten for a moment that he was still tied up. But why was he tied up to the bed if Maggie was there? He was still completely lost in his thoughts when Samantha entered the room.

"Oh Daryl, I'm so glad to see you finally awake," she said, walking closer to him and checking his pulse by placing two finger on his neck. "How are you feeling?"

When he didn't answer, she reached for something in her pocket and took out the small light she was using to look at his eyes. When she approached his face, Daryl closed his eyes and turned his head away.

"Please, I just want to examine you," she assured him.

"It hurts," he moaned, shaking his head.

"What hurts?"

"My head, my eyes…my whole fucking body…"

"Okay…I'm going to give you pain killers but first, you have to let me examine you," Samantha explained, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He tensed a little but she didn't remove it.

Daryl turned his head toward her, opened his eyes and nodded. He wanted to get rid of the pain as soon as possible. Usually, he had a high tolerance for the pain, but he was so exhausted and had suffered enough during the last days to be able to tolerate more. "If Merle was here, he would probably call me 'a pussy'", he thought, but he didn't care. So he let the doctor examine his eyes, his blood pressure, his ribs cage and his several wounds. When she was done, she took two white pills from a small bottle and one red pill from another one and went to hand them to him.

"I can't…I'm still tied up…" Daryl complained, a bit upset.

"Oh, right…I'm sorry," Samantha said putting the pills on the small metal table and removing the sheet from the man's body.

She loosened the straps enough to allow him to move his hands away and covered him back. Even if he had felt the ambient air for only a few seconds, Daryl was already freezing.

"I'll go find another blanket," Samantha informed when she noticed that he was shaking.

She left the room for a moment and came back with a dark blue blanket that she laid over him. She took the pills from the table and a glass of water and gave them to Daryl. But when he tried to take the pills, his arms and hands didn't cooperate; they were still numb from being trapped for so long.

"There, let me help you," Samantha suggested.

When he had swallowed with a bit of difficulties the pills and drank some water, the woman left the room. After less than a minute, Rick appeared in the door frame, a big smile of relief on his face.

"God, I was so worried, man," he said, approaching the bed.

"Rick!? You're really there…"

"Yes, I am…"

"But I don't understand…What happened?" Daryl demanded, in need to have some explanations.

"What do you remember?" Rick asked, sitting in the chair.

"I was in the woods…and…and I shot on the Governor, well I think…You were there…"

"Yea…Thank you for that…You saved my life…But after, you passed out on the ground and your heart stopped beating. I had to do CPR on you."

"I died?" Daryl murmured. He didn't remember feeling that bad. Well, of course if he was dead he couldn't feel anything.

"Yes, for a short period of time, but I brought you back. With the help of Michonne and Tyreese, I took you to Hershel who was waiting on the side of the road. And Samantha joined us a few minutes later. She examined you and told us you needed a blood transfusion or you were going to die. So we followed her and brought you back here, so she could take care of you. Martinez has the same blood type as yours, so he kind of saved your life. And since then, we were waiting for you to wake up…You've been out for almost two days. We were so worried…"

Daryl nodded and thought about what Rick just told him. It all made sense. But he remembered that when he woke up, he was tied up.

"During these two days, I almost died again, didn't' I? It's why I was tied up…"

"Yea, sorry about that…We didn't want to take any chances…" Rick explained, feeling a bit guilty.

"Don't worry; I would have done the same…" Daryl assured, smiling lightly.

He didn't know if it was the effects of the pills Samantha had given him, but he was slowly feeling light headed and just wanted to close his eyes and get some sleep.

When Rick noted that Daryl seemed to be tired, he decided it was better to let him get some rest. So he stood up and headed for the door.

"Daryl," he said, stopping in the door frame. "I'm really happy to see that you're doing better. I don't know how we would have been able to keep going without you…You mean so much to us…And thank you for saving my life, again…" he added, before leaving the room.

Daryl was slowly falling asleep while thinking about what Rick had just told him. He didn't know if the sheriff really meant what he said, but he was sure that he said it just to give him a bit of comfort, knowing that the redneck had a really bad time during the last few days.

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