The first thing he's aware of when he wakes again are voices. There are several, and they are talking quietly. The next thing that penetrates his fogged mind is pain. It's not as blinding, agonizing, awful as it was when he woke up back in Alexandria the first time, but it's still bad enough to elicit a low moan. He opens his eyes to a foggy, unfocused world.

The voices have ceased and Daryl hears footsteps to his right. He turns his head gingerly and sees the doctor, a blond woman in her thirties. Tara is a step behind her. The doc smiles down at him.

"Welcome back. How're you feeling?"

Daryl isn't interested in answering that question. He's already trying to roll over onto his right side, which doesn't seem to hurt as much as the left. He's too uncoordinated and groggy to make much headway and the doc easily manages to hold him back with one hand.

"Where you think you're going, huh?"

"Rick," Daryl manages to croak, trying, and failing, to push the hand off of him that is holding him down.

Tara steps forward and sits down by Daryl's side. She takes both his hands in hers and holds him fast, but gently.

"Daryl, look at me."

His eyes, which have been flitting around the room, trying to locate Rick or, failing that, an exit, focus on her. She smiles at him calmly.

"That's better. Rick's just next door, Daryl. No need to panic, you're both safe. Ok? You got me?"

He nods slowly, feeling strangely calmed by Tara's firm grip on him. His brain comes back online slowly.

"He ok? Has he woken up yet?"

Tara's eyes flick to the doctor, who steps back into Daryl's field of vision.

"It's very early days yet…"

Daryl's heartrate speeds up, making his ribs throb. He tries to squirm away from Tara, wants nothing more than get up and go to his lover's side, the sense of danger deeply rooted in his gut.

"Is he ok?" he repeats.

The doc hesitates, looks him up and down and seems to decide she needs to give him something to prevent him from jumping out of bed. She takes a deep breath.

"Rick is awake, yes. He's resting, and we have to wait and see…" She quails under Daryl's furious stare and hurries on as he tries to disentangle himself from Tara again. "All right, all right, listen, Daryl. Rick has sustained injuries to his spine. At the moment we don't yet know how bad it is, but there is definitely some paralysis. Currently, he can't move his legs. Only time will tell if that is ever going to change again."