Outdoor Cat, Indoors
Premise: Another post Terminus, post Bethyl reunion. The group is now in their new community in D.C. but Daryl doesn't seem to be fitting into it so well. Feature references and characters from comic storyarc.
Genre: Angst/Drama
He hates the Alexandria Safe-Zone. He hates everything about this place.
The streets were clean. The people roamed the community like no apocalypse had taken place. Everyone had jobs, good food, clothes, parties.
And they lived in house...actual houses.
They were living in a fantasy world. And the others...Rick, Carl, everyone...they got sucked into it as well. The whole thing made him sick to his stomach. But there was nothing Daryl could do about it. This place was everything that they have struggled and survived for, an organized society bearing the most resemblance to life before the walkers.
Back in Georgia, back when they had the prison, there wasn't any difficulty in Daryl knowing his place. He was a leader...a protector. People greeted him and looked up to him as if he was important. But here, hundreds of miles away, he was nothing...part of the masses. His importance and self worth were quickly diminishing.
The trouble all started with housing arrangements and Daryl almost got stuck with no place to go. Not that he wouldn't have minded. He had been used to not having a home before, but the community leader, Douglas Monroe, wouldn't allow any "bums" in their community. With no other options, Rick allowed Daryl to sleep on the couch in his new home. The arrangement turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because everyday, around breakfast time, Beth would be there, always arriving through the back door to greet the Grimes and then to get Judith ready to be under her care for the day. Hell, most of the time he would still be lying on the sofa half-awake but at least he got a good view of her for the few minutes she was there.
But it didn't seem like enough anymore to help Daryl feel at home. No one in the Alexandria Safe-Zone needed a hunter. Douglas joked that if they ever needed someone to clear out the rats, they would give him a call. Daryl then tried his hand at helping out with the construction and expansion projects in the community but that didn't pan out so well either. And every-time he walked out on the streets, people looked at him as if he was an oddity. They would whisper about him as he passed by. These people have clearly never seen a true white trash redneck before. They probably never thought they would have to.
He was pushed to change his wardrobe and get a haircut. It still wasn't enough for these people. Sure wasn't enough for Douglas who looked down on him with the most disdain. Even after Rick defended him and told Douglas how Daryl was the reason most of the people in their group were still alive, Douglas had to point out that this wasn't Georgia. There were no backwoods in these parts. No means of living off the land. Everyone needed to work and live as if their was no threat of walkers or bandits.
With each passing day it was getting to Daryl. Merle was haunting his dreams again, still taunting him with "friendly" reminders of what he was.
'You're a joke is what you are...You're nothing but a freak to them...redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind your back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dogshit.'
It may have been a vision of Merle that told him this, that but it was Merle all the same. And his friends...his new "family"...they hadn't completely abandoned Daryl yet but he felt like subconsciously they were. In a way he couldn't blame them. The days when his tracking and hunting skills were the difference between life and death for the people he cared about were over. He had to accept that.
"Daryl..."
He thought it was Merle getting on his nerves again.
"Daryl?"
Someone was shaking him out his dreams. He must have been delusional because he was seeing Beth Greene at the end of his couch with Judith in her lap trying to wake him up. "Don't you have work today?"
Daryl wiped his eyes to clarify her presence. He wanted to tell her that he was done going to that joke of a job and was tired of all the crap he had to deal with. He didn't know why but he couldn't be as open with her as he used to be. After the prison, after she got kidnapped, he had a hard time just getting close to her again. "Though I'd take the day off."
"Aren't you gonna go to the party tonight?"
"What party?"
"They're holding a welcoming party for us at Mr. Monroe's house."
Daryl thought 'just perfect'. Now there would be a whole house full of people gawking at him like some freakish spectacle of a low-class being. "Think I'll pass. Those shindigs ain't my kind of thing."
"But everyone's gonna want to meet you."
"I doubt that," he said.
Eventually Beth's urging allowed Daryl to give the party a chance, putting on the best flannel shirt and khakis he could acquire. When he got there, he knew he had truly stepped into a different world. And it didn't help that compared to others at the party he was clearly under-dressed. Some of the others came in business-wear. Michonne, of all people, was wearing a dress! The whole atmosphere reaked of a high class country club.
"Mr. Dixon." Douglas approached Daryl with a snooty look that he wished he could punch out of oblivion. "Nice of you to show up...as you are."
"Would feel better if I can get my crossbow back."
"We've already explained that you can't have weapons here."
"That ain't my weapon. That's my way of life."
Douglas smirked. "Yes, your way of life. Well I apologize if there isn't much to hunt around here. But if you happen to catch a squirrel or two, I suggest you skin it indoors. The others around here might get disgusted."
After Douglas turned his attention to the other guests, Daryl's head was spinning. He was in serious need of a drink.
He didn't know how much wine or liquor he had but it enough to the point where he felt like he was suffocating. He barely interacted with his friends or anyone at the party. From across the room Daryl spotted Beth but she might as well had been in another world. She was in a white floral sundress, hair down, interacting with all the new people as if she gracefully blended in. Perhaps in Daryl's mind, she might as have. These people, these were the kind of people in Beth's life from before. The place, this was everything Daryl never had or was even meant to.
That realization only made him take a few more drinks and then he went outside wandering around until he found the garbage cans and vomited. As his hands grip the trash can, he realized that he was losing his balance and quickly.
"Daryl!" Beth rushed outside, with Rick following him close behind. As soon as he felt Beth's hand on his back, he panicked. "Get back!"
"But Daryl..."
"Just leave me alone, dammit!" He quickly tried to run a few steps into the street but found himself almost collapsing again. Beth tried to run to him again but Rick got their first. "Beth, I'll take him home."
This time Daryl let Rick help him up but he was starting to wish he hadn't. When Daryl lifted his head he could see Beth running back into the house in tears and a good number of guests, Douglas included seemed to be gawking through the door and window.
'Ain't nothing sadder than an outdoor cat pretending to be an indoor cat.'
Joe's words were stabbing him at his very core. He had just left Beth to go back with 'her own kind' while he was stuck being an onlooker of a world he had no place in.
'Bet you miss the prison life don't you, baby bro? Everyone loved you when you were all high and mighty but look at you now. Don't say I didn't try to warn ya.'
...
Daryl hadn't slept. He was grateful for that or otherwise he would've had a massive hangover. Now he was sitting on Rick's couch drinking water at 3am contemplating. This place just wasn't him. The people sure weren't his people...even his friends were becoming strangers to him. The only holdback was Beth but he felt it was only a matter of time before that changed too.
He went over to the kitchen counter and eventually found a paper and pencil. She would be the only person worth leaving a note for. After he was done, he grabbed his things and snuck out of the house. He thought of walking by her house but considering it was already late, she probably was not up.
He was lucky that the walls that surrounded the community had very little security. He would've expected as much from people who rarely took notice of the walker-infested world out there. Daryl would eventually find a new crossbow. He would find a way to survive out there because that world was his real home. There was no place for him here.
I am so so sorry. This one was less Bethyl more angsty Daryl POV but I couldn't help myself. I may do a follow up to this one in future time but we shall see.
