Wow, 10 followers already! Please review and request, guys! I can't do this by myself! And plz tell me if this is too OOC...
She woke up during daylight to find Daryl still asleep in the tree. She peered out at the tree line, hoping...
She nearly fell out of the tree. He was there, Ryder was heading towards camp...
"Ryder!" she yelled, jumping down. She wanted to be the first to greet him, the first to hug him...
"Ryder!" she was running towards him now, grinning. Rick stood from where he'd been tending the fire in their camp, watching her. Maybe there's be a joyous reunion- that was something that hardly ever happened these days.
"Ryder!" she was feet from him when she noticed it, he wasn't walking, he was stumbling... There was a bite wound on his shoulder.
She tried to move backwards and fell, scrambling backwards on her backside in the dirt. Her world was crashing down around her, and she started to scream.
"Jamie!" Rick realized it then and started racing towards them. Everyone had heard the screaming and raced forward.
"Jamie!" she stumbled back, almost on her feet, and fell. Daryl was there a moment later, grabbing her and pulling her back...
"Ryder..." she sobbed his name. Daryl held her against him, watching the walker that had been her brother moan and stumble towards them.
"Jamie? Jamie. We have to shoot him." Rick said. She was sobbing into Daryl's chest now, not looking.
"Wait. Lemme get her out of here. She doesn't need to see it."Daryl said, gathering her into his arms. She squeezed her head into the nook between his head and shoulder and cried, cried for all she was worth.
"Hurry." Rick said. Daryl was running towards camp with her in his arms, then.
The shot rang out and she screamed. It was muffled into Daryl's shoulder, but the anguish was in the air. Everyone could feel it, it was like when they'd found Sophia in the barn...
"Shh. Shh. It's gonna be alright, Jamie." he promised, though he didn't know that.
"He was all... all I had left." she muttered into his shoulder.
"You got me, if that counts." Daryl said quietly, stroking her hair.
"But Ryder... I should've been there! I should've found him." she cried, looking so upset.
"You did find him."
"I should've been the one to shoot him." and she kept sobbing. Daryl just rubbed her back. No words would soothe her, nothing would stop the pain. He felt it every day for Merle, though it wasn't as strong anymore.
"It'll be alright, Jamie." he said. "Do you want to do anything?" he set her down. The were on his hill now, by his camp.
"No. Nothing. Don't let any of the others near me."
"You want to be alone?"
She shook her head, suddenly grabbing his arm. "No! No, don't leave me, please don't leave me..." she pleaded, and Daryl saw the fear in her eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere, kid..." he promised, sitting beside her. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, rocking back and forth and crying quietly.
She looked down the hill and cried harder- she could clearly see Andrea, Glenn, and Maggie digging under the pines, digging a grave...
"How old was he?" Daryl asked.
"Sixteen. He was sixteen..." he voice trailed off and more tears cascaded down her cheeks.
"I... I know it's not much comfort... but I... I lost my brother, too..." Daryl said. "At least, think I did. He had to cut his hand off to escape some walkers, and let's face it- one hand isn't much good out here."
She nodded, taking a shaking breath. "I should've been there. I should've been with him..."
"You had no control over that. He knows that. That wasn't him- it was his body, but it wasn't your brother."
"He's dead. He... he left me here in this goddamn world!" she had fallen onto her side, now, and she curled into the fetal position, sobbing.
Daryl looked at her. Everything was written on her face, she was a kid, just a kid...
"It's gonna be okay." he pulled her into his lap and rubbed her back. He could remember his mother dong this for him, before she died, remembered it all...
His father had beaten the shit out of him and his mother hadn't been able to get him to stop. He'd been five, but he remembered Finally, his father had passed out, stone drunk, and his mother had wiped the blood from his face and sat down n the worn recliner they'd gotten from the salvation army.
"Shh, Daryl, baby, it'll be okay." she'd whispered. She'd held him and rubbed his back and let him cry and whimper. He'd nuzzled his head against her, finally, exhausted, and drifted off to sleep, aching but feeling safer than he'd ever been.
"Jamie. Shh, Jamie, it'll be alright, kid..."
"Everyone I love dies!" she choked out. "Everyone leaves me!"
"I know. But I'm not going anywhere. That has to count for something, right?"
She nodded, though she still looked shaken.
"Jamie- it's time." Rick said. She nodded, staggering down the hill, the shock and disbelief still clearly written on her face.
She saw the body and walked over, falling to her knees beside what had once been her brother. She stroked his hair, unaware that blood had been trickling out from the bullet hole, and soon covered her hands in blood. She stared into his milky white, lifeless eyes... The last of her family, gone. She buried her head in his chest and wept.
Andrea and the others all looked on from about ten feet away, giving her time to grieve. Andrea's sad eyes saw into the depths of her soul, how much pain she was in.
Dale looked upset. "We have to help her."
"We're doing what we can already, taking her in." Rick pointed out. "She'll have to fight her own emotional battle. We're already sparing food and water for her..."
"Don't. I'll hunt for whatever she eats, she won't take any away from the group." Daryl said. He wanted to ensure there were no objections to her being there.
Rick nodded. "We need to bury him. Daryl, can you get her away from him?"
"Yeah." Daryl said. He looked over at the girl. Her head was still buried in his brother's chest, body shaking with sobs.
"Then do it." Shane said gruffly. He had no idea how to deal with all the emotion...
"I could do it. But I don't want to." Daryl retorted. "That boy was all she had. The last of her family. She needs more than five minutes to say goodbye."
Rick nodded. "We'll give her twenty minutes. Everyone just... hang tight."
Daryl sat on a rock twenty feet away, giving her distance but watching. She lifted her head every now and then to look at his face, at the ashen gray skin and dull, lifeless eyes...
She reached up, affectionately trailing her knuckles across his cheek. She whispered words in his ear, and Daryl made no attempt to read her lips. She needed time to say the things she hadn't had time to say.
The boy looked like her, too, that was the hard thing. He had longer hair- the same chestnut color, a firm build, and wore some ripped up jeans like Jamie's and a dirty denim jacket over a blood-stained white t-shirt.
Finally, Rick looked over at him. "Daryl. It's time." Daryl nodded, standing and making his way over to her.
She looked up when she saw him coming, clinging to her brother even tighter and planting kisses all over his cheeks. How many kisses would be enough to last for eternity?
"Jamie. It's time." she nodded, tears silently leaking from her eyes as she looked down at the last of her family, Ryder had protected her for so long...
Daryl lifted up the upper half of the body and peeled the denim jacket off the boy, draping it around her shoulders. She clung to it as she cried, and Daryl put his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She buried her head in his chest and wept.
Rick laid the boy in the grave. "Jamie? Do you want to say anything?" he asked.
Jamie nodded, There was so much she wanted to say, but she couldn't get the words out around the tears...
"He was sixteen." Daryl said, looking at the ground. "He and Jamie survived for months together. He was one badass older brother."
Jamie nodded, burying her head in Daryl's chest again, They piled dirt over the body and Daryl stood, carrying her back to his camp.
He spent the day sitting with her, whittling, back against the log. She eventually ran out of tears. Every now and then she'd reach out and touch his upper arm, like she was making sure he was still there. Finally, she spoke.
"I want to cut it off."
Daryl looked up. "Cut what off?"
"My hair. It's stupid, it's too long. It's how they used to mourn people, right, cutting off hair? And besides, the walkers will just try and grab it..."
Daryl nodded. "You wanna go ask Lori?"
She shook her head. "I want you to do it."
He stared for a minute. "You'll look like a redneck cut your hair..."
"I don't care. I want it gone." she said bitterly. "If get some scissors, will you do it?"
Daryl nodded, and she trooped off towards the house. She found the scissors in the kitchen and turned, heading back towards Daryl.
"Young lady." she saw the old man called Hershel coming over and quickly hid the scissors behind her back.
"Yes?"
"I just heard about your brother. I'm sorry."
She nodded. "Thank you..." she pulled one hand from behind her back and brushed a lock of hair away from her face. Hershel plodded heavily from the room, and she let out a breath, relieved, before turning and running back up the hill.
"How short do you want it?" Daryl asked, looking at her hair. She'd let it down for the first time, and it was well down her back, long, full, even if t was dirty... He was totally out of his league.
"As short as Carl's- a little shorter, actually."
Daryl nodded. "I ain't no hairdresser, it ain't gonna be pretty..."
"I don't care. I want it gone."
Daryl nodded and ran his hands through it, unsure what to do... He filched at the first snip, but the second was easier, and the third, and soon he was surrounded by hair.
He left a bit in the back and left the bangs long.
"That's as short as I'm gonna get it without scalping you." He announced.
She nodded, turning and walking down towards the swamps. She knelt beside the water, looking at her reflection.
Daryl braced himself for the ear-piercing scream that was to come. He'd done a terrible job at cutting it, she looked like a boy with an awful haircut...
He heard her crashing through the brush and a moment later she was hugging him. "Thank you." she breathed, and he stroked her hair, feeling awkward for a moment. It'd been weeks since he'd been hugged like that, years, even, and he stiffened for a minute, before... he hugged back.