Ch. 16
Carol woke up to the feeling of someone shaking her shoulder.
"Carol! Wake up, dammit!"
Carol cracked her eyes open. She had fallen asleep next to Daryl's bed, holding his hand. Hearing the urgency in his voice, she quickly forced herself up.
"What's wrong?!"
Daryl looked pretty bad. Pale, with bags under his eyes. She doubted that he had slept much that evening.
"I'm gonna be sick," he got out, before using his free hand to cover his mouth.
Carol jumped up and frantically looked around the room, trying to find something for her friend to use. After a few seconds, she located a basin. She turned to give to Daryl only to find that she was too late.
The woman sighed, feeling guilty. She should've been able to help him faster.
She looked him over once again, noting that he didn't dare to meet her eyes.
"It's okay," she said, softly.
On the bright side, he'd managed to lean over the side of the bed. Most of the vomit was on the floor, only a little bit on Daryl himself.
When Daryl didn't respond Carol left the room, intent on finding some cleaning products and something else for Daryl to wear. Maybe she could even get him a shower.
As she walked down the hallway she ran into David. He looked almost as tired as Daryl.
"Hey," she greeted him.
"Hi Carol."
"Everything okay?"
David sighed.
"Just a long night with Rick and Hershel. Rick's having some bad reactions to the medicine. He's sleeping now, thankfully. Was just going to go check on Daryl then get some breakfast for myself and Elena."
"He was sick this morning. I was going to try to find something to clean up with." Then, a light bulb went off in Carol's mind. "You, uh… You must be familiar with this. With whatever is wrong with him, right?"
"I took care of him for quite a while, yes," David answered. "I can clean him up, if that'd make your morning easier."
Really, he wouldn't have blamed her for wanting some help with Daryl. The man could be a handful at times.
"I think I can handle it. But I was wondering if you had any tips?" Better not to ask the question of what was wrong with Daryl directly. She could possibly figure it out if she got enough clues.
"Tips? Oh. Hmm," David thought for a moment. "I tried not to acknowledge if he made a mess too much. It'll make him upset."
"Makes sense. So this will happen more often, then?"
David looked at her, trying to gauge her true intentions.
"It usually happens in the mornings. Sometimes in the early afternoons. Don't try to make him eat too much, it makes him feel sick. He was starved for a long time, he has to work up to eating regular sized meals. The Governor tried to force it on him."
"Okay," Carol agreed, unsure of what to make of that information.
"If he gives you trouble come get me," David said. "It's no problem."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Carol decided to drop the subject for now. "If you want, we can go help him together. You can show me what to do."
"Yeah, sure. Let's go."
00
Daryl didn't show any emotion when he saw David and Carol enter the room. At least, that's what most people would have assumed.
To David's trained eye, he could tell that the man was upset. Probably a mixture of embarrassment, discomfort and annoyance.
"How ya feelin'?" David asked.
"Shitty," Daryl mumbled. Then he looked up, "Any chance I can get a shower?"
"I don't think that'll be a problem. Here," the younger man bent down to unlock the handcuffs holding Daryl to the bed. "Who do you want to go with you?"
Daryl glared at him.
"I can shower by myself!"
"And I'm saying you can't. So it's your choice - I can take you, Carol can take you, or I can handcuff you back to the bed and let you sit here like this. What's your preference?"
Now Daryl seemed truly angry.
"I could fucking kill you if I wanted to," he growled, forcing himself up.
David didn't seem to be intimidated. He quickly and easily pushed Daryl back onto the bed.
"You could try, but you wouldn't be able to. You're too weak."
"If I'm so weak then why'd ya handcuff me to the bed?"
"Because you'd try to run to get to your brother, but you'd inevitably tire out and we'd have to drag your ass back inside, hopefully before any walkers got to you. It'd probably make you more sick, too."
Daryl did not like this response.
"I totally could get out if I wanted."
"Yeah, out the front door, but not much further. Listen," David leaned over the hunter, pushing him back further. "I'm not here to fight with you. Now, who do you want to help you to the shower? Me or Carol?"
Daryl shrank back a little, realizing that David was right. He was weak. Even if he wanted to get back to Merle, he probably wouldn't have been able to. Oh, god. Merle. Now he wanted to cry.
"Fuckin' hormones," Daryl said, under his breath.
"Didn't hear you," David replied.
"I said you can help me. Please," Daryl added. The thought of Carol seeing him naked, as beaten and disgusting and awful as he looked made him want to be sick again. He didn't want to subject her to that. She'd never speak to him again, most likely. At least David was used to the sight.
"That's fine," David said, helping him up. He glanced over at Carol, who took that as her cue to start cleaning. She wanted to have everything ready for when Daryl came back.
She frowned as she pulled on the set of rubber gloves that she found. Cleaning up Daryl's puke wasn't a task that she relished, but she told herself that he would do the same for her.
Maybe.
Okay, probably not, but she pretended that he would.
00
The shower water was cold and Daryl began to shiver as soon as he stepped in. Worried about him falling, David urged him to hold on to one of the railings that had been installed.
Daryl quickly moved to the railing and clung onto it.
Noticing that Daryl was barely moving, David began to remove his shirt. Apparently Daryl would need some help getting clean.
He left his boxers on and walked in, doing his best to ignore the sting of the cold water.
"We'll do this fast," David told him. He held up a small bottle of what looked like shampoo. "Found a bunch of these earlier. Here," he poured some into his hands and moved closer to Daryl.
"Close your eyes."
Daryl did as he was told and allowed David to quickly wash his hair.
When his hair was done, David handed him a bar of soap. Though the small amount of vomit on Daryl's body had long since washed off, David felt like it was a good idea to clean the man up thoroughly.
"Go on," David said, watching as Daryl held the soap in one hand.
The older man paused for a moment, staring down at his own feet.
"Daryl?" David asked, coming closer yet again.
Then David saw it. It wasn't just water that was running down Daryl's cheeks. Tears were, too.
Daryl dropped the soap and moved his hand to his stomach. It was still pretty flat, but both men knew that it wouldn't be that way for long.
David turned the water off, got out, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Daryl, doing his best to dry the man off. For his part, Daryl didn't move. He allowed David to touch him, dry him, try to warm him up. The tears had stopped but he still had a sad look in his eyes.
"Thinking about Merle?" David finally asked.
Daryl's shoulders slumped.
"Thinking about everything."
00
By the time David was able to get Daryl dressed and back in bed, it was mid-morning. Elena was probably starving by now, he was sure.
Quick as he could, he made his way down to the cafeteria area where Glenn and Maggie had left food and brought a bowl of oatmeal upstairs. There had been bags and bags of it, and thankfully, Elena liked it.
He walked into the room where she slept and found that she was up, sitting with Beth.
"Hey baby," David addressed his daughter. She was busy braiding Beth's hair this time.
"Daddy!" she said, happily.
David noticed that there were two empty bowls on one of the countertops.
"I got her breakfast earlier. Hope that's okay," Beth explained.
"Oh, yeah. Thank you. I, uh, had a lot to deal with this morning."
"I figured. She came to our room earlier. If you want, I'll just watch her if you're busy and nothing else is going on."
"That would be… extremely helpful, actually," he replied. "Thank you."
Beth was wearing a pair of worn jeans and a pink hospital scrub shirt. Elena had done an awful job braiding Beth's hair, but even so, David had to admit that he found her attractive. She had a pretty face, nice eyes and a gentle nature.
Beth must have noticed him staring, because she began to blush.
"Ah, I found some scrubs… they were clean so I figured I'd wear them while washing the other stuff…"
David smiled.
"Pink's actually a nice color on you."
Beth's cheeks turned even redder.
"Thank you."
David nodded, then yawned.
"Sorry. I was up most of the night."
"Rick?" Beth asked.
"Yeah. He had some reactions to the meds your dad gave him. Then Daryl had some issues too. I'm just beat is all."
"Why don't you sleep?" Beth suggested. "I mean, Glenn and Maggie are guarding now. I can take Elena to me and dad's room. I found an old nursery waiting room, could grab some books. Me and Lena can make a day of it!" She looked at the little girl.
"Do you want to do that?" David asked.
Elena grinned, "Yeah! Beth's fun!"
"Great. Okay. Wake me if there are any problems at all, though," David said.
"Of course."
Just as Beth and Elena were about to leave, David called out for the young woman once again. Beth turned around to face him.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Just wanted to say thanks. For everything."
"You're welcome, for everything," Beth replied, before heading out.