[A/N: I swear I blinked and the whole last week disappeared. Big hello to the new followers and favourites, and huge thanks to reviewers. Also, for those of you who were waiting for it, that smutty little one shot is up now too ;-)]
She was dreaming of the ocean, of huge swells pounding against a rocky headland. The water sucked and ebbed, never quiet even in the lulls, before crashing with renewed power against the unforgiving rock. Then she realised the ocean had voices, raised voices, filled with rage.
She woke up slowly, scrubbing her bleary eyes with the back of her hand.
'You find them and you bring 'em to me.' Tyrese's voice bounced off the walls of the prison, tearing up the ladder and echoing into the guard tower.
What the hell?
Daryl was gone. That, more than anything, jerked her into awareness.
She clambered awkwardly down the ladder into the morning sun, gripping with the forearm of her bad arm.
She blinked as her feet hit the ground. Daryl's arms were wrapped around Tyrese's neck, dragging the huge man back off Rick. Carol, arm outstretched, went to help Rick up, but he waved her off. A crowd from the cell blocks was starting to gather.
Rick got up slowly. Blood dribbled from his lip, and his face hardened as flicked it away fingertips. He snarled, and Asha's stomach clenched as he leapt swinging at Tyrese, still tied up by Daryl. His fist smashed into Tyrese's face―Daryl jerking back and quickly letting go―and then again as Tyrese slumped forwards. For a long moment there was nothing but the wet crack of bone against blood and flesh. Asha stared bewildered for a moment, seeing the shock reflected on the faces of the growing crowd.
'Rick,' Daryl's voice was gravelly, 'that's enough man.'
Rick's face jerked up, fist coiled above Tyrese. The heavy silence that followed was only broken by the Tyrese gurling though the bloody mess of his face. Rick's eyes, hard as flint, burned as they swung from Daryl, to Asha, to Tyrese and back again.
Asha flinched and grit her teeth. She hadn't seen Rick look like that in months.
'Enough,' Daryl said quietly. Rick blinked a couple of times, and the old him washed away as he looked around again and dropped his hand. Jaw clenched, he got to his feet and held out his non bloodied hand to Tyrese.
Tyrese ignored him, rolling painfully to his knees and spitting blood before pushing to his feet. He towered over Rick.
'You find them,' he said, voice thick, 'and you bring them to me.' Then he limped away in the direction of cell block A.
'What the hell happened?' Asha asked in a low voice, moving towards Rick and Daryl. Michonne pushed through the group from the other side, breath hissing through her teeth as she reached Rick. His shoulders were slumped, hands limp by his sides as he looked dejectedly at the ground, the blood from his lip and hand splattering slowly on the concrete.
'Karen and David are dead,' Carol said quietly, glancing around at the crowd.
Asha sighed. 'Shit, this sickness works quick.'
'Nah,' Daryl shook his head. 'Weren't that. Someone killed 'em.' Asha's head jerked up. Carol was watching the group, and Daryl's eyes slid away from her as he answered. 'Dragged 'em out and set fire to the bodies. Tyrese found 'em.'
Asha hissed through her teeth. 'Shit. There's a killer among us? There's gonna be a riot when people find out.'
'We can't let them panic,' Rick said tiredly. 'We just have to find who did it.'
He let Michonne gently lift his arm and look at his bloodied hand. 'You need Hershel,' she muttered.
'Listen,' Carol said softly, eyes still on the crowd.
There was silence for a moment, a heavy eerie silence and Asha felt the weight of a score of eyes on her as she scanned the crowd. There was a cough from somewhere off to the right, and then another from the other side of crowd. Then the cell door crashed open and Sasha pushed through it, body bent, and a sheen of sweat clear on her skin.
She slumped down the steps, a great tearing hack ripping from her chest that the crowd flinched back from.
'So much for keeping your distance,' Rick murmured, glancing at Asha and Daryl, and Asha's stomach sank as her eyes fixed on Daryl.
They gathered in one of the rooms off the prison library, the Council's unofficial meeting place. It wasn't so much a Council meeting as a gathering of some of the original prison group. Hershel, Carol, Daryl, Asha and Michonne faced each other in the small room.
It was barely a few hours past sunrise and Asha's was exhausted. Too many were sick. She was tense from searching the faces she knew for a sheen of sweat, a cough―and the frustration of not being able to do anything for those who were sick was taking a toll.
She leant against the far wall, Daryl only a foot away, but he might as well have been on the other side of the room. All she wanted to do was lean into him, and have the heavy weight of his arm draped around her, but he'd barely looked at her all morning, and whatever the thing was between them that had happened last night, it was far too fragile for her to push it.
She knew, just knew, that he wouldn't react well if she tried to touch him front of anyone else.
Hershel rubbed wearily at his face. 'We've moved all the sick into cell block A. About half of those from block B have come down with it, some of the kids, couple of people from cell block C.' His shoulders suddenly slumped.
Glenn.
Asha heard his name as if Hershel has said it.
Maggie wasn't with them. She'd slipped away after Glenn had gone into cell block A, and Asha had seen her not long ago, metal rod in hand, as she vented her frustration on the dead massing against the fence line.
'Doctor S is in there treating them,' Carol said. 'And we've quarantined the children, with Beth and Carl, in the admin block.'
'Rick's looking for whoever killed Karen and David,' Michonne added. She looked around. 'So what's next?'
'How do we treat it?' Daryl asked.
Hershel lifted his head. 'We need medicine―antibiotics, anti inflammatories. Whatever this is, the infection is destroying the lung before people have a time to fight it off.'
'We've cleaned out every pharmacy for miles,' Daryl said.
'There's a place that might have been missed,' Hershel said. 'A veterinary college, maybe 50 miles or so away. The medicines for animals are the same medicines we need for our people, but it might have been missed in the first rush for drugs.'
'Worth a try,' Daryl said.
'Better than doing nothing,' Asha agreed.
Daryl's jaw twitched but he didn't even glance at her.
'I'll take you,' Hershel said.
Nah,' Daryl shook his head. 'No matter how it goes out there, sooner or later, we always gotta run.'
Hershel nodded. 'I'll draw you a map.'
'I'm in,' Michonne said.
'Me too,' Asha added.
'No.' Daryl said, only half turning his head so his words were directed at her feet.
'What?'
'Ain't taking ya with only one hand.'
Asha's lips pressed into a thin line. 'Merle only had one hand.'
'Ya ain't Merle.'
'You're not going without me,' she snapped, turning to face him properly.
He finally looked her, blue eyes flat. 'Ya ain't commin'.
'I am.'
'Don't Asha,' Carol said. 'A team's only as strong as its weakest member, you'll put em all in danger.'
Asha glared at her, lip curling as she swallowed hard. Damn it, but that didn't leave her anywhere to go. She looked back to Daryl, who at least met her eyes.
'Fine,' she growled, crossing her arms across her chest.
The tightness around Daryl's eyes relaxed imperceptibly before he looked away. 'Sooner we go, sooner we get back,' he growled, turning towards the door.
Asha grimaced as Carol followed after him.
An hour later, Asha was convinced he was avoiding her. She ground her teeth together, suppressing the slightly sick feeling in her stomach as she searched for him. Whatever was going on, she would be damned if he was going out on that run with things left the way the were between them. Her stomach fluttered. Maybe it was as simple as he was having second thoughts about last night? Part of her didn't want to know, but then she shook her head at herself. Deliberate blindness never helped anyone.
She eventually cornered him under the hood of the car they were taking to the vet college, checking the oil and fluid levels.
He glanced up as she leant on the edge of the car, his face unreadable, and he quickly went back to what he was doing.
Asha felt a spike of anger and hurt. Her eyes narrowed. 'How long do you think you'll be gone?'
He grunted. 'If we get a good run we could be back tonight.' He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, leaving behind a smudge of grease. 'And we need a good run.'
'You gonna say goodbye or were you just planning on disappearing?' she asked.
He stopped what he was doing and grimaced, hands tightening where he gripped the front of the car.
'What do you want Asha?'
Her stomach plummeted at the coldnes in his voice. Then she frowned. Hell no. He was going out today and this was not ending like this.
'I want you not to shut me out,' she snapped. 'You don't want me on the run? Fine.' She dropped her voice to whisper fiercely. 'Hell, you wanna pretend last night didn't happen? That's fine too' ―it wasn't―'but you were my friend before that, and you are not leaving here without telling me what the hell is going on.'
His knuckles were white where they gripped the front of the car.
'Ya know Zach died?' he said, looking at the ground.
Asha jerked, hand going to her mouth. 'No. When?'
'Run we went on two days ago. Walker got 'im.' Daryl grimaced, hands squeezing the car so tightly Asha was surprised the bumper didn't buckle. His voice twisted as her continued. 'I couldn't reach 'im. He was right there and I couldn't get 'im in time.'
He looked up at her and she could see the loss of every person who had been just out of reach.
A wave of sadness washed over her. Zach's sense of humour would be sorely missed. Then she felt sick to her stomach. Two days. She hadn't even noticed with everything else that had happened.
'God damn it,' she said softly.
'Ya can't come. I can't be worrying about ya when we're out there.'
She nodded miserably. 'Ok. I'm a liability at the moment. I get it.' She swallowed hard. 'But that doesn't explain why you've been cold to me all morning.'
Daryl looked out across the yard, and Asha waited as the silence dragged.
Eventually she steeled herself and asked. 'You regretting last night?'
His eyes flashed to hers and she held her breath until he answered. 'Nah. But ya a damn distraction woman. Ain't no way I'm forgetting 'bout last night―it's the only damn thing in my mind whenever ya near me. 'He looked at her, eyes heating―and Asha felt her blood starting to race until he jerked them away, shaking his head. 'Can't be doin' that, not with all this other shit happening.'
Asha breathed a little easier, relief suddenly swelling at the knowledge that he wasn't regretting whatever it was that was going on between them.
She stepped under the cover provided by the open bonnet, prying one of Daryl's hands from the front of the car so she could slide in close to him. She reached out her hand and cupped the side of his face, his stubble prickling against her fingers. His eyes were wary on hers, but he didn't move away.
'Can't have you distracted,' she murmured eyes flickering from the intense blue of his eyes to his lips and back. 'Least not until you get back.' Her eyes latched onto his and she swallowed her desperation to keep it out of her voice. 'And you need to come back.'
'Always do,' he grumbled, face twitching away a little.
She slid her hand down the side of his neck and then leant in pressing her lips to his. For an instant he was still, and then his lips pressed against her, forcing her lips open so that he could taste her, matching her own hunger. She gasped as his hands tightened against her hip and around her back, pulling her to him.
'I mean it,' she murmured. 'Otherwise I will be pissed as hell if I have to come find you.'
Daryl's eyes blazed. 'Don't ya fucking dare.'
'So come back,' she whispered, holding his face close to hers.
Part of her, the little girl part, desperately wanted to ask him to promise―but the cynical adult part of her warned a promise was worth nothing if it wasn't actually in his power to keep it. So she just searched his eyes, hoping to god he could feel how important it was that he came back.
He held her gaze, and nodded after a moment.
She bit her lip, nodding back, feeling a lump forming in her throat. She had to get out of there before she started crying again. 'Ok. I'll see you then.' She squeezed his arm gently and turned to go, but his hand lashed out and caught her around the wrist, fingers searing a ring of heat into her skin.
'Ya make sure ya here when I get back this time, and Asha...,' his eyes locked on to hers with an intensity that burned through her body. 'Don't be in cell block A.'
She nodded, and slipped out of the cover of the open hood and away from the car, blinking rapidly a couple of times.
Michonne was headed across the courtyard towards her, and she altered direction slightly to meet her friend.
'I'm calling in that damn hug,' she said.
Michonne smiled. 'Why not? guess we've all been exposed now.'
She wrapped her arms around Michonne's shoulders, and the pressure of her friend's arms gripping her back somehow loosened some of the tightness in her chest.
'You know i'll bring him back right?' Michonne murmured.
'Bring your damn self back too,' Asha said, stepping back and wiping angrily at her face with the back of her hand.
'Obviously.'
'I really hate that I'm not going with you.'
'I know, but you can't with that hand.' Michonne paused. 'Can you check in on Rick? I can't find him. Make sure Hershel looks at his hand? After this morning….' she trailed off, voice tight, and then tried to shrug dismissively.
Asha shot her an understanding look, and squeezed her arm.
'Of course. I'll keep an eye on him.'
Michonne nodded gratefully.
'Michonne,' Daryl roared from the vehicle. Asha glanced over her shoulder to see Tyrese and Bob―the rest of the small group going on the run―already waiting.
Asha sighed. 'Be careful.'
'Course,' Michonne said, swinging her pack back up.
Asha watched, heart in throat, good hand clenching and unclenching, as the car carrying her best friend and her... other best friend, roared out the gate without her. God she hated this.
She waited until the last of the dust had settled behind them, scowling at the walkers lining the fence, and then she went looking for Rick.