A/N: Wow... This chapter took me a while to write. I blame work. Anyway, I hope I don't disappoint with this chapter. I hope Daryl isn't too out of character and if he is then like I said before, I blame work.
"When a man loves a woman,
Can't keep his mind on nothin' else..."
- When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge -
"Leave me alone," he grunts to whoever those hands belong too and winces with each word he speaks. The vibrations of his own voice seems to somehow reach right down to where his wound is at. He isn't exactly sure where but he knows it's somewhere on his chest and maybe his stomach.
He isn't sure anymore. But he moves anyway and he sways a little and he barely makes out a chair and a doorway and a cupboard. There's very little space between where he had been laying down and the door so he doesn't have to travel far to escape this place he's in. He doesn't even want to figure out why the door was open in the first place. He was a prisoner here wasn't he?
"Hey man, stop," the voice mutters again and those hands are back around his waist again and then around his arm.
He shakes it off and tries to throw a punch which probably is more like a hopeless wave of his arm. But he makes contact with someone's head anyway and he shoves the person back and manages to free his arm from the hold. He hears someone fall down and he presumes he was lucky enough to have shoved the person right into that chair he almost stumbled into a second ago.
"You're going to hurt yourself even more," the voice continues but he ignores it.
He leans heavily against the frame of the door and his shoulder hurts like a bitch right then. But he presses his teeth together and he breathes in and out and pushes himself from the door. He has to get out of here. He has to go back to her. He has to find a way to at least make it back to the store. He'll find Glenn later.
He hears someone moving behind him and he steps into the hallway before that person can grab onto him. He stumbles groggily and ends up bumping his shoulder right into the wall. The pain shoots right up his spine and his hand is already there and holding his shoulder together. He barely catches sight of the shadow of the person rushing out of his room and with every last inch of will left in him he pushes himself from the door and hurries down the hall.
"Ain' y'prisoner," he tells whoever it is behind him as he stumbles down the hall.
Thankfully whoever his captor is decides to leave him alone but he knows the person is still there. He can still hear them following close behind. Maybe his half-hearted shove was enough to hurt the man?
"You ain' my prisoner," the person mutters behind him.
"Then why y'keepin' me here," he throws back as he continues down this seriously long hallway.
He squints and winces everytime he accidentally bumps his shoulder into the wall. But he manages to make out a turn down at the other end of the hallway. There's some light there and a window. Maybe he can jump out of it and get the hell out of here that way. It's the only plan he has for now and so he sticks with it and continues moving.
"Because you're hurt," the man continues.
He is almost at the end of the hall when he hears footsteps. He braces and holds onto his shoulder with one hand. It's probably a really dumb move for him but he holds out his injured hand anyway and hopes to take whoever it is by surprise. He hopes to shove them away with his uninjured shoulder.
"He sure is gonna be glad t'know y'here," he hears someone say.
He doesn't wait for a response though as he braces and waits exactly a second until he hears the last footstep. He rounds the corner with his uninjured shoulder thrust out and ready to make contact with whoever is there. But then all he makes out is a blur of blue eyes and blonde hair and everything familiar; everything warm and right and her.
He feels warm hands pushing into his chest and he is almost about to throw his shoulder right into her head until she pulls back long enough to look at him.
"Beth…what are y'doin' here?" he breathes and she just stares at him all wide eye and surprised.
"I came to-" she doesn't even get the chance to finish when he finally takes notice of the man that's towering and frozen in step just a space or two behind her.
He curls his uninjured hand around her and he pulls her so close to his side. He forgets for a moment about the pain in his injured shoulder and his leg and his stomach and every single wound that was aching with pain before. He fists his hand and he tenses all his muscles and glares at the man.
"Did y'fucking touch her?" he asks and swears he's going to kill this son of a bitch. Maybe he'll die later from the extreme exertion of energy. But right now he has to keep her safe. Right now he has to get her out of here. Right now they are prisoners and he has to get them out.
"No man," the guy holds both hands up and looks at him all wide eye and innocent.
"He didn' touch me, Daryl," she murmurs softly beside him and he feels her pulling away. He sees her taking a step in front of him and she still holds onto his hand and still curls her fingers around his arm, "He was just leading me to where you were recovering."
His vision doubles at this point and the pain suddenly weighs down on him without any warning. Maybe it's because she's telling him that everything is okay. Maybe it's because he believes that they're okay. That nobody has hurt her. That somehow or another she's found him. He feels like he's about to double over but he pulls focus anyway and he tries to focus entirely on her. He blinks a few times to try and blink away the pain but he ends up swaying and ends up bumping his shoulder into the wall again.
"Daryl!" he hears Glenn and he looks to the left to see the familiar man rushing to his side, "What are you doing out here, man? Beth? Beth, what-"
"Glenn!" he hears Maggie and he turns to his right and looks beyond Beth and sees the woman rushing down the hallway with Michonne close on her heels. They're followed by two other men he doesn't recognize but from the way they're all so relaxed and the way Maggie is smiling he doesn't think they're entirely strangers.
In between the chaos of happy tears and words and declarations he looks from Glenn and Maggie embracing to Beth who is still standing there in front of him. He sees her looking at them too and he really can't focus right anymore.
"Beth," he murmurs and closes the space between them, "I can't…hurts…"
He falls to his knees from the sudden weight of exhaustion and pain but before his knees can even touch the floor he feels strong arms holding him up. He sees Beth looking at him and sees her holding onto the side of his face. He barely hears her telling him to hold it together; telling him to relax and calm down and that everything is going to be okay.
He barely manages to reach up and curl a hand around the side of her face before he blacks out entirely.
####
He isn't sure where he is again or what he's doing here. He remembers her though; remembers her warm touch on his cheek and her soft and glowing eyes bearing down on him. He remembers her telling him that everything was going to be okay and alright. He hears familiar voices speaking around him and he tries to move. But everything hurts and everything feels so heavy and all he manages is to open his eyes. He barely even manages to do so but he opens his eyes enough to at least look around.
He sees a dimly lit room with a ceiling that looks like it's about to crack into two. He sees the wall plaster falling off and bits of splintered wood sticking out from the walls. He looks to the voices though and that's when he finally sees her and Michonne standing by the door. They're talking too softly for him to pick up any words but he sees Michonne handing her something. It looks like a bowl but he can't really make it out.
Michonne decides at that moment to look at him and he looks at her and he sees the woman smile.
"Looks like your hero has finally decided to wake up," Michonne comments loudly enough for him to hear.
He glares as best as he manages and the woman just shakes her head at him. But then he sees Beth turn and sees the brightest smile on her lips as she looks at him.
"You stay with him," Michonne continues, "I'll bring the others here…we should be here in a couple of hours."
"Be safe."
He watches Michonne back out of the room and watches as Beth finally turns to look at him again. She looks all warm and glowing and he has a million questions running through his mind. But his throat feels really dry and he still feels like shit. He watches as she crosses the room to him and he sees her pull something from the bed side table.
"Drink this," she murmurs and lifts a cup to his lips.
He drinks it and closes his eyes for a moment as he savours the feeling of the warm water flowing down his dry throat. She draws it away a moment later and settles it back on the table.
"Are y'feelin' okay now?" she asks softly, "You really scared me earlier."
"Thought…" he draws a breath in, "They'd caught you," he whispers.
She shakes her head at him and he feels her curl a hand around his hand. "'m fine," she assures him with a small smile.
"The baby?"
"We're fine," she reassures him but this time with a warmer smile.
"What happened?" he asks.
"You don't remember?" she murmurs and he shakes his head, "Well… Glenn said y'hit your head pretty good."
He grunts but doesn't glare. He could never glare at her.
"Said y'guys broke into here right through their front door," she explains.
"Who…" he draws a breath in, "Who are they?"
"The people that used to live in this safe zone," she tells him, "They've set themselves up across a bunch of apartments around here and when the herd came through, they said they saw y'and Glenn runnin'. Said that y'were goin' so fast that they's didn't have time t'help cause 'fore they knew it…y'busted down their door."
"'s that where I hit my head?" he asks.
She nods and continues, "They've heavily fortified their door…with concrete blocks so y'hit it pretty hard."
"Oh…" he isn't quite sure how to process that. But that would explain why he felt like incredible shit earlier. He still isn't sure if he had completely dreamed up that whole thing or if he really did stumble down that hallway and crashed right into her.
"Michonne and Abraham made it back t'the store after they lost track of y'and Glenn," she tells him, "Told us what happened…'n I decided t'come out here 'n find you."
"Ben?" he asks suddenly and curses at himself for having forgotten all about Ben. "Is he okay? Where-"
"He's fine," she assures him, "He's back at the store with Rick…Michonne's going to bring them here. They'll be here in a few hours."
"What about these people?"
"Abraham knows their leader," she tells him, "They're really nice people."
He grunts, "So was the governor…"
"It ain' like that," she tells him, "I just know it."