I do not own walking dead or Daryl. Thanks everyone so far for reading my story. I have quite a few chapters written up so just getting them typed up and ready to go. Again thanks for reading.
Before she had a chance to continue, she paused and turned her head towards the bedroom. Rick also looked up, hearing a sound. Ahhme rose to her feet and quickly went up the stairs to the room. As Rick followed he saw Daryl standing clutching the door frame, pale as a sheet and shaking. Ahhme stood out in the hallway unsure of whether to help him or not. They were both unsure of Daryl's state of mind.
"Daryl! What the hell are you doing?" Rick quickly went over to support Daryl, lending him a shoulder.
"Rick…" he whispered between ragged breaths, "where are we, where is everyone."
"Daryl we gotta get you back in bed, you are burning up right now. You aren't in your right mind. Ahhme….help me with him please." Glenn and T-Dog had run up the stairs as well.
"What do ya need Rick?" Glenn asked.
"You and T-Dog just get back downstairs, keep watch. We got this." Rick dragged Daryl back into the room and Ahhme shut the door behind him. Rick set Daryl back down onto the bed and Daryl immediately tried to get back up. Rick placed a hand against Daryl's chest to keep him down. Daryl became frustrated and tried to push back against Rick.
"Daryl, don't make me do this. Don't fight this right now. You don't have it in you." Rick warned.
"Fuck you, Rick. What do you know?" Daryl pushed Ricks head away and stood up quickly. He doubled over, clutching the bed frame as deep coughs over took him. Ahhme came over to stand next to Rick, unsure of what to do. They both watched Daryl struggle to gain control, wavering for a minute before pulling himself up again. Rick could see that Daryl's entire body was shaking and he took a step forward speaking calmly.
"Hey Daryl, why don't you just take a seat for a moment, I won't force ya to do anything, but just sit down for a bit." Daryl watched him shrewdly til another coughing fit hit him hard. He slumped down onto the bed, coughing heavily. Ahhme sat down next to him on the bed and rubbed his back till it passed. Rick just stood by the bed, rubbing his hand over his face, exasperated on what to do with Daryl.
Once Daryl was finished Ahhme tried to reason with him.
"Hey Daryl" she said softly. He slowly moved his head in the direction of her voice. She continued urged on by his somewhat focused attention. "Why don't you lay back down for a short while, if your not really tired after a while you can get out of bed. Sounds pretty good, don't ya think"? Daryl nodded slowly and laid back onto the bed with Ahhme's help, his teeth chattering. He rolled onto his side and drew himself in holding the blankets close around him.
"Damn….I'm cold Rick. Why..am I so cold?" He coughed a few more times into the blanket. Rick could see the fever ravaging his body and burning in his eyes. Ahhme stayed sitting next to him wrapping another blanket around him.
"I know Daryl, you're sick. You aren't doing to good. You gotta stay here in bed and we are gonna get Hershel up here real quick to help you. Alright?"
"We should take his temperature, he seems to be getting delusional, and we need to get some water inside of him." Ahhme suggested.
"Well good luck trying to get his temp, he lost it on me before when I tried to get a feel for the fever. That's what started all this off. Lost his temper and stormed off." Ahhme just raised her eyebrow and returned her attention to Daryl.
"Hey Daryl, open up your mouth please I need to get your temperature ok? Im gonna out the theremoter in your mouth and that's it." Daryl was almost asleep, so he complied without any fight. She placed the thermometer in his mouth and waited for it to read off. Rick was stunned at the ease in which she handled Daryl and how well he took it. They waited silently for it to finish rising. "What's it at" Rick asked concerned. Ahhme sighed showing him the thermeoter. When he read the temp he sighed deeply and walked around the room.
"103.8, shit…. We gotta get our man Hershel up here ASAP. "
"Is he a doctor?" Ahhme asked, "And you have more to your group?"
Rick nodded, "Ya, we do and well Hershel isn't really a doctor. He was a vet, so it's still very good for us. I don't want to ask, but..." Ahhme stopped him before he could finish.
"You all can stay here, until Daryl is better. I don't mind. I suggest that they all stay downstairs and leave Daryl alone up here."
"Thank you, I really appreciate it. Can you give me a minute here, maybe show Glenn and T-Dog the rest of the house? "
"Sure, ya. Just let me know if you need anything for him." She left the room and shut the door.
Rick pulled the chair up right next to the bed and started talking quietly to Daryl.
"Ahhh" he sighed, "Damn it Daryl, why do you gotta be so stubborn. The group needs you. Hershel and me, we need you to back us up. You are the backbone Daryl. Without you the group can't stand in this world". Leaning back into the chair he continued, "Daryl, you're not the outsider you were before. We will always stand with you and be behind you for anything. I would hope by now that you would know that." Rick was struggling to keep his self anger in check as his frustration with himself grew larger. "I shouldn't have let you take off like that, but you didn't give me of a choice. The group knew Daryl; they all know that something was wrong with you. You weren't hiding it well from anyone. They came to me, concerned for ya and I still let you take watch and go out hunting. I'm sorry Daryl, it's not gonna be like that anymore. Its gonna be different. And I know that at first your gonna fight against it, but I'm not gonna let you shoulder as much of the weight anymore for this group. God, Daryl if we hadn't been able to find you….I don't know what we would have done. I don't think we could have kept going. If we had lost you, we would have been lost to this world." Rick rested his hand on Daryl's shoulder, frowning as the heat radiating off his sweat slick skin. Daryl shifted, stirring slightly under Rick's hand.
"Mer..ele," Rick heard his whisper, Rick leaned in closer, trying to catch what Daryl was mumbling.
"Can't….move, help….Merle." Rick gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.
"Merle, your damn brother. Bet he would have just forced ya on till you dropped then would have left ya out in the woods." Daryl just kept mumbling in his sleep, gripping the sheets.
Daryl lay across his mattress in the basement of their small house. He was so tired, so weak, and so warm. When he had the energy he would drag himself off the mattress to lie on the cool cement floor. He had missed the past couple days of school. His mom had tried to make the school keep him even though he had already thrown up in the nurse's office. When she finally came to get him, she scolded him the entire way home.
"I don't have time for a sick kid Daryl, I don't understand what your problem is, being sick all the time. This is the tenth time this year. Now Merle, he was never sick growing up. We never had to take care of your big brother. You though, that's a different story. You act up for nothing, look at you. You're barely even sick right now." She pulled up in front of the ramshackle house and hurried him out.
"Now I don't know where you damn father is and I don't think you want him showing up while you're here at home. If he finds your ass in bed, he will get right back to beating your ass! Now I'm leaving for a while and I don't know when I'll be back. And god only knows where your dead beat brother is. Now get yourself back to school as soon as possible." With that she slammed the door and sped off leaving Daryl standing in the driveway.
Daryl had been stuck somewhere between sleep and awake for the past day. He had stopped throwing up at least, but that was probably because he had stopped eating. He just didn't have the energy to get up and get anything for himself. As he lay in the dark basement he heard the front door open up and shut hard. He tried to get up off the mattress to go see who it was. If it was his dad he would need to be standing. He struggled hard and was able to get up to his knees. As he sat there drawing in deep breaths he could his name called out.
"Daryl, Daryl! Where are ya boy? Come on out and see me". Daryl raised his head, relieved to hear his older brothers voice.
"Merle" he said weakly. He crawled off the mattress and made it over to the stairs. "Merle, I need…help." Daryl reached up and tried to grip the stair railing. He grunted, pulling himself up. He stood at the bottom of the stairs gripping the railing. Sweat was beading up all over his body and he was trembling harshly from the exertion of even standing. He took a deep breath and started the long slow climb up the stairs. He got about half way up before a wave of dizziness hit him. He wavered on the stairs and started to fall backwards. He tried to keep his grip on the rail, but he just couldn't hold on. Falling backwards down the stairs he hit the ground hard on his side. He cried out as he hit, hearing a loud crack. He almost blacked out as pain overtook him. Above him the footsteps stopped for a moment at the sound of his fall and cry.
"Daryl….Daryl?" ,he heard Merle call out again. Daryl summed up all that was left of his strength and yelled out to his older brother, praying he was loud enough.
"MERLE!", the steps above him stopped and he heard them approach the basement door.
"That you baby brother, where the hell ya at?" Merle opened the basement door, "Haven't seen ya for a hell of a time…" He saw Daryl in a crumpled heap on the floor. He ran down the stairs and kneeled down next to his younger brother.
"Daryl! What the hell happened to ya? Did dad get to you again? I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch when I find him. Where the fuck is mom?! He started to scoop Daryl up ,but stopped as Daryl cried out in pain. Merle stopped and saw Daryl's arm was bent and twisted off to the side.
"We gotta set and split that arm baby brother, don't you worry Merle's got this." He tried to reassure his brother. He grabbed Daryl's arm to set it and found his skin to be burning. He took a good look at Daryl's face and saw that he was pale and had dark circles under his eyes.
"AH SHIT, little brother you're sick as hell right now! Alright, alright, don't worry I'm gonna get you to a hospital." He quickly scooped up his brother, despite Daryl's cries of pain from being moved around.
"Sorry, baby brother no time to splint your arm and it's gonna be a rough painful ride. I gotta get you in now!" Merle ran up the stairs carrying his brother. He step was torture to Daryl. Tears were streaming down his face and his broken arm was jolted and shaken around.
"Just pass out Daryl, the pain will go away soon enough. I got ya, and I'm gonna make sure you get better." As Daryl slipped into forgiving darkness he heard Merle says,
"Can't get sick Daryl, can't be weak.
Thanks for reading, so far this was one of my favorites to write. Please read and review.