"Political Correctness, it Doesn't Hurt"

A Guide by T-Dog

I spent the night in my cell. I preferred the perch, but the night before people noticed I'd come back without Daryl. I was certain they were able to tell I'd been crying, I kept my head down, trying to hide my face with my hair, and hid in my cell. I wasn't comfortable sitting in the open without Daryl.

I laid down for the first little while, pretending to sleep whenever I heard someone come near. I wasn't sure who tried checking on me, but I'd heard footsteps entering my cell.

Later on, I couldn't hear any footsteps or chatter, everyone had probably gone to sleep. I peeked out of my cell at the perch to see Daryl still hadn't come back. My stomach dropped and I wanted to be sick.

I went from pacing around my cell, lying down, and constantly checking for Daryl to come back. When he didn't I started to worry, but then figured if he was gone for too long Rick would've gone to find him, he couldn't be missing.

Shit, Rick. Did he tell Rick? Is he going to? Is everyone going to know?

When my heels began to ache from the pacing, I laid down for what felt like the hundredth time. I was lucky enough to finally pass out. I kept waking up, tossing, and turning. I hated the quiet, I wasn't used to sleeping alone anymore.

I was glad when morning finally hit, and I could hear people walking around. Forcing myself out of the cell, I was once again met with disappointment that Daryl was still gone.

On the main floor Lori mentioned the pill I needed to take, Maggie brought me the pill and asked how I was feeling.

I shrugged, not feeling up to talking. I noticed she was looking me over closely, "m'fine."

In reality, my head was pounding from the crying and lack of sleep, luckily it was a distraction from the ear pain.

I sat against the wall on the floor, Carl joining me as Sasha and Lori handed out breakfast. It was some kind of bland cereal flakes with powdered milk. The cereal was so dry it started a coughing fit, which had Maggie making me use the inhaler.

"It tastes gross," I told her after the first puff.

"That's because it's supposed to hit your throat, not your tongue," Maggie explained before having me try two more times. I didn't like it.

As I ate, I listened closely to the others, waiting to see if someone would mention Daryl's absence. When no one did, I was worried that he'd already told them, and they knew why he wanted to be nowhere near me. But no one seemed to be looking at me any differently.

Just as I finished eating, Beth called out loudly from Hershel's cell. She was speaking in a hurried voice, it sounded like crying but almost not.

My chest tightened and my stomach went heavy, I watched the others rush to flood the cell. I was sure the same thing was happening, except maybe he couldn't be saved.

I was wrong. Some started cheering and somewhat laughing. There was no worry or despair among them.

Carl ran back over to me, pulling me up from the ground, "he's awake! He's okay!"

Why was it still hard to believe?

The cell was too flooded to push our way in, and I didn't think of any reason to be close to Hershel. He didn't know or care about me, I wasn't a family or friend, so I stayed back, stretching my neck to see past the others.

I could see him, reaching out to hold Beth's hand, he looked confused and somewhat happy.

I heard the cell block door noisily open, catching my attention to watch Rick and Daryl walk in. I didn't notice Rick was gone. While Carl rushed over to tell him, I examined his face, trying to figure out if Daryl had said anything. But Rick's face shifted too quickly after hearing the news, making his way into Hershel. Daryl met my eyes briefly before following him in. I almost reached out to stop him, but thought better of it after what happened the night before.

I watched and listened to the group, trying to revel in the relief. It was nice not hearing the panic and worry among them. Although, I had my own feelings of panic and worry building up.

"I think we're good," Carl mused, glancing around the floor. I followed suit, looking for anything we might've missed.

We'd both been given brooms to sweep around the cell block, I had a very long, wide, wooden one, while Carl had a smaller, more common sized one. While others had been double-checking for breaches and Walkers, they'd found janitorial supplies. They'd even found a trash can to drag in for any paper or debris.

Daryl was out with Rick and some others, cleaning up elsewhere possibly, I didn't know exactly what they were up to. Anyone staying in the cell block was tasked with cleaning it up, as it would be our main area.

Lori, Sasha, and Guillermo were working together on the upper floor cells, their job was to clean the blood from the walls and floor. Beth and Jimmy were on the main floor with us, wiping metal bars with rags.

I hadn't seen Daryl since Hershel woke up, which had me glancing at the door to the cell block often. I kept expecting Rick and the rest to barge in, freaking out about Carol, but nothing happened. Hershel continued to sleep most of the day, which worried the others, but he woke up often.

"Do we go upstairs now?"

I shrugged. We were supposed to sweep the cells and floor upstairs when they were done up there, but no one had come down.

"Are you mad at me?"

Taken aback by the question, I shook my head.

"You won't talk today, why not?"

I shrugged, looking around for anything to sweep up to avoid the question. I felt a tingle of guilt, seeing Carl's expression. I wasn't always oblivious, I knew Carl had started to get angry with me when I was refusing to talk to anyone. I'd hurt his feelings a lot.

"Sorry, just don't feel good." I forced myself to say. Carl nodded in acceptance, making me feel a bit better.

The cell block did already look nicer. It was still dull, grey, and dirty, but seemed more open. Examining the area around us, my eyes drifted to the door again, thinking about Daryl.

Snapping me out of my thoughts, something bounced off my head and onto the floor. Grabbing the crumpled up ball of paper, my eyebrows furrowed as I turned to Carl, who was nonchalantly sweeping again.

Without hesitation, I tossed it back and it hit his shoulder, "Hey!" Carl reached down to get the trash before hurling it back at me, I lifted my broomstick, swatting it away. An idea popped into his head, causing his eyes to brighten as he glanced between the broom and I. Raising the broom up, he charged at me. I gasped and let out a yelp of laughter, stopping the swing of his broom with my own.

Carl kept swinging as he laughed, pretending to try and hit while I continued blocking his moves. On one of his swings, I ducked and moved swiftly away before poking him in the side with the handle.

"Ow!" He exclaimed, still laughing, spinning around trying to get me. Carl kept coming at me with his broom-sword, I swung at him every so often but he dodged or blocked me. Then he smacked my handle with his own, twisting it to knock out of my hands. The actions caused me to stumble, and I know I've lost.

Instead of steadying myself, I'm struck with an idea and let myself fall on all fours. I began coughing, slowly at first but it built up into a fit. I spotted Carl's shoes pause when he noticed, waiting for him to step closer.

In the background, I heard the gate opening, but I was committed. I was focused on Carl, ignoring whoever was entering the cell block.

Carl came into reach after a few steps, about to bend over to probably ask if I was okay. I ceased my fake coughing, yanking the broom from his hands and causing him to tumble down. The broom was tossed aside while he attempted to get up.

It was difficult, my fake cough had irritated my throat, causing a real one to break out. It wasn't too bad so I tried to ignore it, I was fighting between laughing and coughing as I wrestled him down.

It all came to a halt when hands gripped my biceps to pull me off.

"What the fuck! Knock this shit off." Hearing Daryl's voice, my veins turn to ice. "Ya can't even breathe normal and yer runnin' around like a dumbass?! That's bullshit."

Daryl kept a hold of one of my arms, pulling me away toward the nearest cell, "that's fuckin' bullshit. Lay the fuck down. Yer gonna cough out a fuckin' lung."

"That happens?" I sputtered out with a cough.

He rolled his eyes angrily, pointing to the bunk "lay. Down. let's go." Once he saw me slowly sit down, he left.

"Wasn't that a little harsh?" I heard Tyreese's voice. "They were just playing around."

"She can't be doing that," Daryl told him before muttering the rest, "actin' like a retard."

"Hey, man, don't be saying that," T-Dog said.

"What, why? She is."

"That word, she's not . . . it's not politically correct."

"Are you shittin' me? The dead are walkin' and I need to be politically correct?"

"Doesn't hurt."

"Fine, she's being a fuckin' dumbass, is that politically correct enough for you?"

I sat in the cell on my own, listening as their voice got more distant. I wasn't sure how to react, feeling nervous, and worried about Daryl. After a few moments of trying to decide whether I should lay down or not, Carl poked his head. We stared at each other, not saying anything before bursting into laughter.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Daryl had only stopped in with the others for a few minutes before taking off again. I really wanted out of the cell block, but we had to stay, just to be sure it was safe from Walkers and the remaining prisoners. I was glad at the same time not to be around Daryl, I would've been constantly worried about what he was thinking or what he was going to say.

We continued cleaning, Carl and I swept and cleared the floor upstairs. After we finished we had to do some extra cleaning for each cell. Lori, Sasha, and Guillermo were only focused on cleaning all the blood so we didn't have to. Which did take a while. Just as everyone was getting ready to go to bed, Daryl and the others returned. I didn't bother looking as I went into my cell.

To distract myself, I tore out my hair elastic, it was painful as it was knotted so badly. I brushed my hair with my hands a bit, trying to get at least a bit of the knots out to put my hair up more properly. My arms and my scalp ended up hurting by the end of it, and it was still pretty bad.

I sat down on my bunk with an exasperated sigh, happy to be away from the others and try to sleep. Glancing down at my cot, I knew it wouldn't be a night of good sleep, I didn't want to be in there, not alone. I felt a sense of sadness as I thought about Daryl, how long would it be like this? Is he finally done with me? I tried to imagine life going on with him ignoring me, being distant, I hated thinking he would soon be nothing to me, just another body in the group.

The sadness I felt was interrupted by guilt. In Daryl's silence, I was reminded of the winter, when I refused to talk, to say a single word. Is this how he felt? Did I make him feel this way? I recalled all the moments I brushed him off, pushed him away, he was still always there. The times he'd snap at me in anger and annoyance. Could it all have been frustration from me not speaking?

Does it matter to him that much?

Before I could wallow in my misery and guilt, he was in my doorway.

My eyebrows furrowed at his presence, though his expression was seemingly blank. We stared for a moment before he motioned his head to the right, out of the cell, "c'mon."

I stayed on the bed until he left, waiting for only a few beats to follow, he didn't look back until we got to our cots on the perch. Daryl he lowered himself onto the bed, I did the same on the cot next to him. I laid myself on my side, facing away from him. I felt more restless than before, my mind going a mile a minute. What's he thinking? Is he still mad? Why did he tell me to come?

"I'm sorry," I said. I didn't know what I was apologizing for. What happened to Carol, lying about it, telling him about it? Maybe all of it.

"I know," he answered quietly, "me too."

Daryl's hand was placed on my arm which was facing upward, I waited for him to move it, but it stayed.

The coolness of his hand through my sleeve surprised me, causing shivers to go up my spine. But the weight of it comforted me somehow. Not too long after, I felt my eyes go heavy.

Maggie gently woke me, when I opened my eyes the cell block was flooded with light from the windows. I squeezed my eyes shut, my head cloudy with exhaustion. I could hear people walking around and conversing with each other, I wondered if I was the only one still sleeping. Rubbing my eyes, I glanced beside me to see that Daryl was gone. Maggie was still talking as I forced myself into a sitting position, my back and shoulders were sore. I didn't pay much attention to what she was saying, but after passing me a water bottle and a pill, I could guess what she was talking about.

The plastic of the bottle crackled in my hand as I grasped it. After drinking and taking the pill, I noticed the bottle was less than half full. From the way Maggie was eyeing the bottle, I knew something was off.

Maggie smiled reassuringly before leaving to join the others. It took me a moment, but I knew we were running out of water. We'd been lucky to find a lot of it in office buildings and stores, sometimes large packs of bottles or large jugs. But they were talking only a few days ago about getting low, I wasn't supposed to hear but I did.

We had the same breakfast as the day before. I sat there crunching on the bland cereal with dismay. I wanted one of the fruit cans, I really wanted peaches, I would've even settled for the pears, I hated pears.

I grimaced at Lori, who was seated on the stairs and finishing her second bowl. I looked away as Maggie poured her more.

I guess we're not rationing?

The stuff was so dry, even with the powdered milk, I wasn't sure how she was still chewing. To make it worse, both her second and third bowls didn't have milk, reinforcing my thoughts that we were low on water.

"Breakfast of champions," Glenn mumbled unenthusiastically as he finished his bowl.

I found out before eating that Daryl had already left to get work done. Glenn traded places with Sasha to stay behind.

I turned to Carl beside me, "when can we go?"

"Go?"

"Outside," I clarified. "Or just outta here." He was awake before me, which had me hoping he'd overheard anything about the day.

"Uh . . . I think we're going out there later," he motioned to the cell block door. I hadn't been outside or even left the cell block since talking to Daryl.

Why did I do that? Why did I tell him?

When later came about we did leave the cell block, but only to the outer room right outside the door. The door to get out of the outer room remained locked as we cleaned. We weren't as focused as the day before, taking lots of breaks to play some card games, which was nice. When we were about to play another match of crazy 8's, Maggie invited Guillermo to join, when he accepted, I got up and left.

"Are you done playing?" Carl asked as he followed me.

"Not sittin' with him," I said. I didn't mean to, I was usually good at keeping my comments to myself, but after glancing behind me to see I was still in close proximity, I realized it was possible I wanted him to hear me.

Carl let out a quiet sigh. "But we were having fun."

"Then go and play," I stated simply.

"But I wanted to play with you," he complained, "it's more fun."

"Well, I don't want to play no more, Carl!" I snapped.

I didn't mean to snap at him, but he just kept pushing. I couldn't sit around Guillermo, I didn't want to be there. Carl only wanted to play the game and have fun like we were doing, before that asshole ruined it.

Fuck, why does Carl always make me feel so bad? Why can't I just walk away and not care like I used to? I never gave a shit about any of the kids at school, even if one of them was nice.

"I'm just going to clean," I said after, grabbing the broom and turning back to look at Carl, "you can help me if you want."

He perked up at this and gave me a smile. "Sure."

I knew it would make him feel better if we did something together, it normally did. I remembered how happy he was in Atlanta when he used to read me comics, but even then I still felt bad for snapping at him.

I just wanted to be alone, "Can you grab me the dustpan?" I asked Carl, "I don't have it."

"Yeah sure," he agreed before leaving.

I continued my sweeping while clearing my throat to try and clear up the tickle there. When it didn't work, I began coughing, the irritation becoming more painful. Just as it began slowing down, a water bottle entered my line of sight, I reached for it then paused, noticing the skin colour.

My eyes met Guillermo's and I pulled my hand away, not taking the bottle. I turned from him, catching my breath between a few little coughs.

"Take this," He stepped around me.

"Don't want it," I said, which caused more irritation. I waved him away as I calmed the coughing. Only a few moments after, I'd slowed my breathing and calmed myself down, though my face felt red hot from it all.

"Are you better?"

It wasn't as if he never spoke to me, but I made it a point to let him know I didn't want him to speak to me, or even be near me! I thought the glaring and ignoring him for almost the whole winter was enough of a message.

I hated his face, looking at him I just thought about Shane, which made me think about Carl, then had me thinking about Daryl. I felt that rage that I kept buried deep down, bubble up inside me. I wanted to be sick, I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry.

With my jaw clenched, attempting to keep the anger down, I swatted the water bottle out of his hand. I heard it rattle across the floor and felt a twinge of regret, hoping it was sealed and I didn't waste anything.

"Leave. Me. Alone."

Guillermo watched where the bottle rolled, but otherwise gave no reaction to her outburst. "I know you are angry with me."

I spoke through my teeth, "you don't know shit."

Why can't he just leave me alone? I'd left it alone, only giving subtle warnings to keep his distance to avoid this. I didn't want to start anything, so why was he?

"I know what happened was not right. Before and after. I deserve your anguish. I want to resolve this."

My nails dug into my palms. It had been so easy to avoid him, avoid what he was talking about. Guillermo wasn't talkative, he'd barely spoken to me and never actually approached me like that. I tried so hard to keep it locked away for months, just like I had for Rick.

"I am afraid you don't understand."

The rage was pushing through, I could feel it showing on my face. I was going to run at him, scream at him, hurt him. Would he even stop me?

"I don't understand? You told them, you snitch-" My voice cracked as I tried to yell, coughing a few times to clear it up. It added to my anger and made me feel humiliated. "It was you!"

"Yes. I wanted to help. What he did was wrong."

"Ya didn't do no better!"

"No. I got him killed, he was not the first. But in this, it is justifiable. I can say I made the right choice," Guillermo's face began to twist up into an expression of defeat and determination. "I regret the outcome, but I had no control."

"You didn't have to do anythin', it had nothin' to do with you!" I exploded with desperation, as if I could get him to see what he'd done wrong.

"It did, I was there. That is enough." Guillermo kept calm following my continuous outburst, making it all the more frustrating. I wanted a reaction from him.

"It wasn't yer business," I pushed back, no longer yelling. My tone had taken on a higher pitch, sounding more desperate than angry.

"It was kidnapping."

"I never said no!" I snapped.

"You did."

Everything seemed to freeze after that, all the thoughts racing through my mind came to a stop as I stared at Guillermo, my mouth hanging open. Shane tried to make me leave, over and over again, but I kept saying no. I wanted to stay and he didn't listen to me. All this time, I had remembered Shane helping me, helping the group, but he was bad.

'No,' I remembered myself saying.

'No what? Toby, get in the car.'

'No, not now.'

'Now, we talked about this. We're leaving.'

'You talked about this!'

I didn't say anything, not wanting to admit defeat on the topic, but there was a part of me that knew Guillermo was right. Shane was one of the only people that actually helped me, he helped me shoot a gun, and taught me how to kill a walker. If it had been daddy, he would've given up a long time ago. I had just guessed that Shane was better, but he did bad things just like daddy.

Why didn't I see that until now?

A hand gripped my shoulder, and I faintly heard Lori's voice saying "that's enough". I looked up at her over my shoulder, and back to Guillermo. He gave a small apology, glanced at me one last time, and turned around to leave.

At that moment my anger dissolved and all I felt was only a deep sense of sadness.

I cast my eyes downward as Lori led me away, suddenly hyper-aware of the fact everyone was in the room. The shame and embarrassment washed over me in waves, causing me to hold my breath and grind my teeth from the stress.

Lori had me sat down in a cell, a quick glance around I guessed it was hers. After sitting for only a few moments, her eyes on me the entire time, she said something about a brush. I bit my lip to keep in any sound of annoyance. I almost felt like I should snap, tell her to fuck off, this wasn't the time. Instead, I kept quiet, letting her fetch the brush.

Lori had me sit sideways on the bunk, positioning herself behind while untangling the tie from my hair. "Just try to relax."

I rolled my eyes, was this supposed to help me somehow?

Over the past months, I was forced to get used to Lori touching me to brush my hair. Sometimes I could do it but the knots would get too bad and matted from me not doing it often enough. After a while I gave up because it hurt, Lori would press and press until I let her, she even went to Daryl behind my back and had him talk me into it.

I didn't make it easy for her. I'd pull and turn my head away too much, complaining and whining about the pain. The pain wasn't what bothered me, I just felt so annoyed by my hair and having Lori fixing it, I needed an outlet for the frustration. Making things harder for Lori seemed to work.

"Would you rather Daryl do it?" She'd asked me once.

I nodded immediately thinking it was a better idea. Lori seemed to know the outcome. Daryl knew just as much as me, maybe less, about what to do about hair. He was much rougher, didn't even try to be gentle as Lori did, whining so much more than I had and it wasn't even his hair.

I let Lori do her thing and didn't make things so hard after that. As long as Daryl came nowhere near me with a brush again. The silence between us had me feeling a lot less tense. I was finally away from the others, not feeling any eyes watching or judging me. I was alone in a quiet place.

"I understand that Guillermo can . . ." Lori trailed off as if deciding against her words, "The man unsettles me. I guess it's because we still don't know him. All this time, he still feels like a stranger."

That probably had something to do with how angry he made me. He was just this random guy stuck with us, and he would just walk on like he knew everything. It may have not been the reason why I was so mad at him, but it definitely didn't help.

"Shane felt that way with you."

I felt my muscles tighten at his name, just as the brush stroked down into a hard knot, making me wince.

"I told him to go."

I turned my head to the side, trying to see Lori's face, but she placed both her hands on my head, turning it back into position.

"He told me he thought it was better if he left. And I . . . I let myself believe it. I told him I agreed. Maybe, deep down I thought it would erase my mistakes."

I wanted to ask a million questions, I wanted to ignore her and snap at her all at once.

Why would you say that?

What mistakes?

Why are you talking about this?

Why are you talking about this, now?

"He wasn't a parent, he had no clue what to do or how . . . he didn't know you . . . but that didn't stop him from doing his best with you." Lori let out a small laugh. "I remember this one night, he was helping me get dinner together and said 'you know what? I bet it's something real simple and easy, like Emily, or Leah, or Anna'."

I furrowed my eyebrows, just barely smiling, I could almost hear his voice in those words.

"By then we'd stopped pushing you about your name. He was sure you would tell us when you were ready."

With all the questions tangling themselves in my mind, I expected to get angry again. I even waited for it, for the anger to rise as it always did, to start screaming and push her away. I didn't do that, because it didn't come.

I spent so much time being angry at her, for sometimes no real reason, that intense dislike, maybe even hate for her was always present. But it was gone.

I would get so angry when someone brought him up. When I snapped at Guillermo, that was me holding back. Whenever I remembered what Rick did, the fury resting, almost hibernating inside me would easily ignite. That fury inside would explode at any time someone tried touching his gun.

There was a heaviness in the way she spoke, I could feel it in my stomach, the weight we both shared.

I wasn't angry, I was just sad.

I spent a while alone in the cell. I was afraid I would be bothered by others to continue with chores, but I wasn't. Carl did come by at some point, to which we went to my own cell and played Go Fish.

"I used to think it was 'gold fish' for some reason," I confessed, sitting on the floor across from him.

"What? Why?" He was confused but then smiled.

"I dunno, just thought that was what I was hearin'."

"Your ear really is broken."

My jaw dropped in mock offense and I tossed my cards at him. "It ain't broke!"

I mean, yeah kinda is. But he can't say that.

Carl was laughing and I was trying hard not to, a large smile breaking out on my face.

After spending more time with Carl, walking about the cell, and having dinner, the day was finally ending.

When Lori came to tell us to get ready for bed, Carl protested, "but dad isn't back yet."

"I'm sure they'll be back-" Lori was cut off by the sound of several footsteps, we watched as the rest of the group returned.

They looked dirty and bloody, though not as bad as the day before. I took that as a sign of progress.

"Fuck," Daryl sighed alongside the others. "I'm starvin', but I'm too tired to bother."

"You said it," someone echoed.

My head turned as Maggie called out my name, she was coming out of Hershel's cell. I hadn't seen much of Hershel, I was too anxious to look at him myself, some of the others talked about him. He was still awake, and possibly getting better.

"Here," Maggie gave me another pill.

"I already took two today," I told her, looking at the pill in my hand in dismay.

"Go on now."

I rolled my eyes, already tired of swallowing the large pills. I knew I had to take them, my ear had been hurting, but I hadn't had any severe episodes in a while. I hoped the pills were working.

Maggie rubbed my arm. "Get some sleep."

Feeling awkward around everyone, I decided to go up the stairs. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to sleep with Daryl again, and I was too embarrassed to ask.

As much as I was worried after telling Daryl about Carol, I was feeling a bit better. Though Hershel's recovery may have had something to do with easing my guilt. It didn't stop my stomach from dropping and my head getting dizzy every time I thought of Carol or Daryl.

At the top of the stairs, I just decided to sit on my mattress, unsure of what to do. I didn't want to make Daryl mad or be in his way, but he would tell me to leave if he wanted.

I sat on the bed with the blanket over my legs, I checked for my gun beside the bed, I hadn't bothered carrying it that day.

I pretended to be picking my nails, waiting for Daryl to see what he would do. He let me sleep in our spot the night before, but I was still anxious about it.

After a few minutes, Daryl dropped down beside me on his mattress, cursing as he did.

I sat still, waiting for him to say something, though he only groaned and stretched.

"You goin' again?"

"Goin'?" He repeated.

"You been gone a lot," I clarified. "Will you go tomorrow?"

"Prob'ly," Daryl mumbled. "There's a lot of shit to do. Makin' sure the place is secure, any breaches fixed or blocked off, no Walkers roamin' 'round. Gotta clean up too, you guys been doin' good in here so far."

I didn't voice or show how disappointed I was. I missed him being around, it felt worse that he was mad at me. I was so used to Daryl being with me, or at least a few feet from me, it'd been that way for months. The separation sucked.

"Maybe I can help too?" The idea popped into my head.

"No," Daryl shut it down right away. "Don't start that shit, Carl's already been naggin' at Rick. No kids, not 'til we're sure of how safe it is. Another day or two, you can wander more."

I laid myself down, kind of annoyed with Carl. If he hadn't bothered Rick would Daryl think about it more?

No. You're a dumb kid and he doesn't want you in the way.

"Sorry," I said, my voice just above a whisper.

Daryl sighed in annoyance. "Ya don't always gotta be sorry. I know ya wanna help more, just do it in here."

"Don't wanna be in here no more."

"Help me by gettin' better. A few days ago you were screamin' yer head off cause a'yer ear. Get rest, eat, take yer meds. Get better. Then we'll talk about you doin' more."

I squeezed my eyes shut, still disappointed but understanding. I wanted to talk about Carol, only because it seemed as if it was being ignored all over again. Daryl didn't seem that angry with me, only annoyed and maybe a bit standoffish. I couldn't talk about it again, I was too scared of the outcome.

I closed my eyes, but it felt as if hours went by before I finally fell asleep.

Okay, wow so I suck as a person. I'm sorry this took forever... Thing is, I had this chapter done and found out it was 20 pages! I had a set place to end it off and didn't notice it was so long until I finished. So, I split it up into two chapters. I'm going to take more time to edit the next part and will post by tomorrow or friday. I'm saying I might not be able to tomorrow because I work a bit.

That's another thing, I started a new job. so that kept me busy. Soo yeah, I'm sorry this took forever and look out for the update TOMORROW OR THE NEXT DAY.

Also hope you like the title . . . I had literally no ideas and made it into a meme, oops