Chapter 25

Daryl stood up carefully placing all of his weight on his right leg. He gradually added some to his left foot testing his ankle, but he felt an immediate sharp pain all the way up his leg. He had hoped it would have gotten better overnight, but if anything it was more swollen and painful than before. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he yelled, his curses echoing throughout the empty house.

He had barely made it inside the house yesterday. Leaving Alexandria was one of the stupidest things he had ever done. Sure, it felt good for the first half hour or so, but then he started encountering walkers and he realized how bad his vision really was when it came down to fighting. What should have been an hour or two tops on the outside ending up being all night.

Dayna was going to kill him.

Daryl hadn't told her he was going out because he knew she wouldn't have let him. Sure, his vision wasn't perfect, but now he knew he had been overconfident in his abilities. The small herd he had encountered and subsequently had him running for his life had been nothing but a blur. Everything was so out of focus that he missed seeing the tree root that snagged his foot. He went down like a rock, with his ankle completely twisting under him. Daryl didn't think it was broken, but he had fucked it up enough so that walking right now was downright impossible.

He must have run at least a mile on the bad ankle before he finally saw the house. Daryl was able to slam through the front door and shove the sofa across it before the walkers hit the door. Their moans filled the room as he collapsed on the floor out of breath and in pain.

He didn't have a choice. He had to run on the bad ankle or die, and Daryl wasn't ready to die yet. Once, the intense throbbing had turned into a strong dull ache, he got himself over to the staircase and crawled his way upstairs and into the bedroom. He hadn't been able to leave the room all night, but at least the moans from the walkers had stopped. That meant they had moved on. It was one less thing for him to worry about.

A quick look around the room didn't show anything that Daryl could use to help support his ankle. The best he could do was rip up the sheet into long strips and use that as a wrap. He knew he had to get back to Alexandria as soon as possible. Dayna had to be worried sick. Once she realized that he was safe, she'd probably kill him and he deserved it. He was stupid, selfish and stupid again.

Daryl pulled the sheet off the bed and just when he started to rip a strip off of it, he heard a pounding on the door. He didn't know if it was a walker or a person, until he heard, "Daryl Dixon open this goddammed door now!"

"Was that Dayna?" he thought. As he hopped over to the doorway, she called out again. "Fuck, it is Dayna!"

Daryl slid down the stairs as fast as he could. He limped over to the end of the sofa and pushed it away from the door. His ankle was screaming at him, but he didn't care. He had to let Dayna in. He couldn't believe that she came out to look for him. Dayna was nine months pregnant. He was furious at her for risking herself and the baby, but he also knew she must have been really worried about him to chance that. He was fucked either way.

The second the door was open, she hurried inside. Daryl hopped to the other end of the couch and pushed it back across the door, essentially blocking it. Dayna had her hands in her knees as she panted to catch her breath. That was a close call. "What did you do?" she wheezed.

"Sprained my ankle," he muttered.

"Idiot," she said not caring that he heard her

Walkers were banging at the door again. "I am so fuckin' tired of this," Daryl thought. "Upstairs away from them," he suggested. The more the walkers knew they were there the louder they would get and that would attract even more.

Dayna gave him a look that clearly told him how much trouble he was in, before stomping her way up the stairs. Daryl purposefully sat down and moved up them one at a time on his butt, anything to delay her yelling at him.

He hopped over into the room and leaned on the doorframe. "If you help me wrap it, we can get outta here."

"I'll wrap it, but we aren't getting out of here until you and I have it out. First things first, let me look at it. Get on the damn bed." Dayna had a whirlwind of emotions flying through her. She was relieved that he was safe. Now, she had to see what he had done to his ankle. Then, she would find out why he did something as stupid as leave Alexandria without telling anyone.

She felt him wince as she pulled his boot off. It wasn't tied to begin with and she could see why. He had done a number on his ankle. It was extremely swollen and a dark bruise covered the whole outer side of it. "Relax and let me manipulate it," she told him.

First, she palpated it the best she could to feel for any broken bones, but the swelling made it hard to tell. Then she moved it up and down, and side to side. Dayna didn't think it was broken, just badly sprained, but he could have torn some ligaments too. She looked up from his injured ankle and into his blue eyes. "How did you do it?"

Daryl didn't break her gaze, "Running from walkers."

"And?"

After a moment, he replied, "Foot got caught up with a tree root." Daryl was still staring down Dayna, but she wasn't intimidated by him at all.

"Why the hell did you leave Alexandria and not tell anyone? Not tell me!" Dayna yelled at him. She finally broke his stare and started to pace the small semi-dark room with one hand on her back. "What were you thinking? Do you know how scared I was finding you were gone and no one knew where you were? You know you can't see well enough to fight off walkers! I bet that's why you tripped. You didn't see that root, did you? What if they caught you and you got bit? What about me and the baby? Did you think about us at all?" Dayna stopped pacing and turned to look at Daryl. "Did you?"

"Are you gonna give me a fuckin' second to answer you?" he retorted. She was right and he hated to admit that, but could she take a damn breath so he could answer her.

"Fine."

"Jesus Christ," he thought. "She hadda go and give me a 'fine'." The word all men all over the world hated. "I know I told you I wouldn't come out here until I could see better, but that wasn't happenin'. I had to go, Dayna. I couldn't take it no more. It was weeks since I could walk free out here and I just hadda go. These walls were choking the life outta me," he tried to explain.

"Then use your head for something other than bouncing off curbs. You should have asked someone to go with you." Dayna got how he was feeling closed in, but she hadn't realized how bad it was. He should have told her and they could have figured out a solution.

"A babysitter? You think I need a babysitter!" he exclaimed. She was treating him like he was no better than Judith.

Dayna rolled her eyes at him as she absently rubbed her belly. "Not a babysitter, but someone to have your back. You were completely blind up until a week ago. Sure, you can see some now, but not good enough to be out here on your own."

"So you say."

"Yes, that's what I say." Dayna took a step back so she stood in the doorway. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Daryl looked and looked. He squinted a little before he told her, "Three."

"Wrong. It's four. If you can't see that, how can you see a walker coming at you? I'm not here to give you a hard time…"

"Sure seems like it," he interrupted her.

"Damn it, Daryl! I'm here because I love you and I don't want to lose you to a stupid decision! I need you and the baby needs his father. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Dayna's voice broke as she started to get overwhelmed. Her shoulders slumped as tears started to slide down her cheeks. She didn't want to yell at him anymore. Why didn't he understand this? She just didn't get that.

Daryl saw her instantly switch from anger to crying. He was such a fucking idiot. He had been thinking of just himself. He was wrong a hundred times over. He jumped up from the bed and wrapped her in his arms. "I'm sorry. You're right and I'm a selfish prick. I thought I could handle it out here, but I couldn't. I had a hard time seeing the walkers comin' at me and I panicked." He took her face in his strong hands, wiping away the tears with his thumbs. "I ain't ever loved anyone like I love you. You took over my damn heart and there ain't no way I'm gonna let you out of it."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "The baby scares me. I gotta say that. But, I'm lookin' forward to us raising the kid…together. You gotta take care of yourself and him too. This is the last place you should be. Why didn't you send someone for me? Comin' yourself was just as stupid as me being out here. Right?"

Dayna just nodded her head. She was too far along to be out here. She waddled more than she could actually walk and she hadn't been able to run in months. She just did the same thing she accused him of…not putting the baby first.

"But, I'm taking all the blame. If I wasn't out here, you wouldn't be. I never had to think about anyone but me before and I keep fucking us up," he admitted. Daryl hated that he upset her, but most of all he hated that his being stupid, put her and the baby in danger. If anything had happened to them, he would never have forgiven himself.

Dayna couldn't be mad at him anymore. He had apologized and there was no way she was going to keep holding this against him. He made a mistake and she did too. She gave him a soft gentle kiss on the lips. "Let's get that ankle wrapped and go home, okay?" she said with a smile.

" 'kay. I was gonna tear the sheet up, it's all we got I think," he told her.

Dayna had been through the house enough to know he was right. They used to stay here every so often to get away and be just by themselves. She knew everything that was in here and while she had some medical supplies hidden, there was nothing would help with his ankle.

Daryl ripped the sheet up into long strips as Dayna sat on the bed resting her tired body. Between not sleeping last night and her back aching as bad as it was, she was exhausted. She was looking forward to a nice long nap when they got back.

It was hard to get the boot back onto his foot, but with a few grunts and groans from them both, it was finally on. Then, she used several of the long strips to bind it tight enough to support him during their way back to Alexandria.

Dayna stood up and looked at her handiwork. "I think that's the best I can do. Can you test it?"

He got up from the bed and gingerly put some weight on his leg. It hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, but he didn't want her to know that. "Better. Neither one of use are gonna be running, but I can walk on it." Daryl badly limped around the room showing Dayna he could do it…barely.

Daryl walked back to her and pulled her back into his arms. "I'm sorry. I really am. What the hell?" he pulled away from Dayna whose eyes were as round as saucers. "What just happened?"

"Oh my God, my water just broke! We have to…" Dayna couldn't finish as she was suddenly doubled over in pain as an strong contraction hit.

Daryl did the first thing he could think of which was pick her up and place her on the bed. He ignored the intense pain in his ankle. His heart was about to pop out of his chest, it was beating so fast. They had to get back to Alexandria now.

"Can you make it back?" he asked.

Dayna was about to say yes, when another contraction hit her. She practiced the breathing she encouraged all the women in labor that had arrived at her ER back when life was still normal. When the contraction subsided, she turned to a worried Daryl. "I don't think so. The contractions are coming too close together. You're going to have to deliver the baby, Daryl."

The full consequences of his leaving Alexandria slammed into Daryl. "I can't," he told her shaking his head. "No, fuckin' way."

"You have to. I can't do it alone. I need you, please."

First, he got her pregnant during a time that babies shouldn't be born and now he had to deliver his own kid. He was absolutely clueless on what do. Could he run to get Carol or Michonne? Fuck, he couldn't run anyway, nor did he think he could leave Dayna. He was going to have to deliver the baby. His son or daughter's life was going to be literally in his hands. While his brain screamed "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he looked at the woman he loved more than anything. "Tell me what I gotta do."