Megan Grimes, thirty two years old and pregnant with her first child. It should be a happy time for her but instead she's fighting to survive with her sister in law and nephew. What happens when Daryl becomes overly protective of the mother to be?
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By the time the last walker fell to the floor the group was barely recognisable under all the blood and guts that covered them. Everyone was panting heavily.
"Guys." Megan said with tears streaming down her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Daryl asked.
She pulled up her sleeve and revealed the bite mark on her arm.
It was Merle that stepped into action first.
"Inside now." He ordered practically dragging her into the cell block.
Everyone gasped in horror when they entered covered in blood.
"Lay down." He ordered pushing her back onto a table.
"What's happened?" Hershel gasped.
Merle pulled up Megan's sleeve revealing the bite mark. Hershel gasped.
"Cut it off. It worked for me." He said immediately getting ready to help Merle.
"My baby, where's my baby?" Megan called.
Daryl was by her side holding her right hand as she looked around for Matthew.
"Where's my baby!" She shouted.
"He's here, he's here." Sophia said bringing Matthew towards the table.
"Gotta say goodbye to my little man." Megan whispered.
"No! This isn't goodbye." Daryl hissed squeezing her hand.
Megan ignored him and kissed Matthews head. "Bye little man." She whispered.
"Get the kids out of here. Where's Carol? Lori? Maggie? And Carl, where's Carl?" Rick asked frantically looking around as he tried to hide all emotion from his face.
No one replied. No one knew where the others were. Beth took Sophia and Matthew away as far as she could.
"I'm going to cut it off, you okay with this?" Merle asked strangely calm.
"I'm going to die." She whispered.
"Just do it Merle!" Daryl snapped.
Megan grabbed ahold of Daryl's collar with her right hand as her left arm was stretched out and held down by Hershel and Glenn as Merle raised the machete.
"Time to say goodbye." Megan whispered into Daryl's ear.
"I'm so sorry." Merle whispered before forcing the machete down into her arm just above the elbow.
She screamed in pain. The sound echoing throughout the cell block.
Daryl squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head to hers.
Her grip on his collar was loosening.
"Don't leave me yet..." He whispered his own tears falling on to her cheek.
Her once tight grip on his shirt had gone and her hand fell limp onto the table.
"It's done! We need bandages and gauze! Lots of them." Hershel ordered pulling Rick from his stunned state.
The blood was pouring from her arm, onto the table until finally dripping onto the cold concrete floor.
Her face was pale and there was no movement from her body.
"Daryl is she still breathing?" Hershel asked as he and Merle attempted to stop the bleeding.
Daryl said nothing instead he continued to look down at her pale face, her eyes were shut and her skin had began taking on a sickly grey shade. He stroked her hair gently as he tried to keep it together.
"Daryl!" Merle snapped. "Is she breathing?" He asked.
"Barely." Daryl muttered in reply not taking his eyes off her face.
The next few hours were heart wrenching for Daryl. He watched as the blood continued to seep through the bandages over and over again, and as Rick gave more blood than he could afford to loose himself.
Then he listened as Maggie and Carl returned with Loris crying baby but no Lori.
Carol had disappeared sending Merle and Sophia in a whirlwind of emotions leading Merle to walk out of the cell blocks and into the tombs. He hadn't been seen since.
Two babies were screaming for their mothers, three heartbroken men, and one huge bloody nightmare.
It was all going wrong. This wasn't how life at the prison was suppose to be. They should have been able to survive and thrive there happily without worrying about walkers ripping them apart at every opportunity
Daryl was furious! No one would give him answers, no one would tell him why that alarm had been set off or how the walkers had gotten into the tombs.
He was also furious with himself.
He hadn't told her, not properly. He had denied those feelings for her, lied and told her she was just a friend.
He should have kept her safe, away from the walkers and now he was alone, staring at her pale face listening guiltily as her son cried for her.
Beth appeared in the doorway, her cheeks were stained with tears. Matthew was crying but she couldn't do anything to calm him.
Daryl held out his hands and took Matthew from her. She nodded a thank you before taking one last look at Megan and walking away.
Daryl rocked Matthew trying to calm him. His diaper was clean, he had been fed formula but he still wasn't happy. He could sense something was wrong, something very wrong.
"It's alright little guy, your mama will be just fine you watch." Daryl said trying to sound hopeful although deep down he had very little hope.
Her arm continued to bleed and didn't show any sign of slowing down. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was shallow.
Hershel gave him the same look every time he returned and left the cell. It was a sympathetic look. He was loosing hope too.
The only thing that kept Daryl the slightest bit hopeful was the fact that Hershel had survived this, he had been bitten and had his leg cut away, there was still a chance for Megan too surely.
The deafening sound of a newborn babies cry finally began to die down leaving just Matthew to let out the odd sob and whimper.
Daryl sat beside Megan's bed and laid Matthew beside her.
Sensing his mother, Matthew almost instantly stopped his whimpering. After fifteen minutes he was fast asleep allowing Daryl to place him down in his makeshift cot.
Beth returned a few hours later with a bottle of formula prepared.
"Daddy said that it might be a good idea to leave Matthew with me tonight...we don't know..if...she...Megan..." She stammered.
"She might die and turn." Daryl muttered.
Beth nodded sadly.
Daryl sighed before handing Matthew over.
Beth gave him a sad looking smile before leaving.
This finally allowed Daryl to shut the cell door and lock it up.
He knew he would hate to see it if Megan did turn but he also didn't want her to be alone. He sat down in a chair that had been placed in the far corner of the room with his knife on his knee.
He waited.
Just like Hershel had done and shown him, Daryl changed Megan's bandages every time he saw the blood seep through again. He would make sure it was cleaned with the alcohol that Hershel had left and would wrap it tightly. He checked her breathing and her pulse making sure she was still alive before sitting back in his chair.
He couldn't be sure how my times he repeated those steps that night but by morning he was exhausted however he refused to leave.
"She's survived the night. That's a good sign Daryl." Hershel said reassuringly.
Daryl just stared at Megan's lifeless body saying nothing.
Hershel left a few minutes later leaving Daryl and Megan alone.
Many people appeared at the cell door to check on Megan. Andrea, Maggie. Glenn, Beth, Sophia, Carl and even Michonne but never Rick.
Merle was still in the tombs from what Daryl gathered, why he didn't know, he had bigger problems now.
Rick wasn't coping too well with the death of Lori, although they had split up it was obvious he still loved her and on top of that he was being left to raise his best friends child and his sister was in a critical condition.
Movement in the corner of his eye jolted Daryl from his thoughts. He looked over at Megan and waited for her to move but she didn't.
He blamed the lack of sleep...
He crouched down on his knees beside her bed as took her hand.
"Her only hand." He thought morbidly.
"Megan, I need you to wake up now, okay?" He whispered. "You need to wake up a-an-and mock me about crying and caring too much, you need to wake up and tell me I'm still your friend, tell me everything okay."
He waited for a response but got none.
"This is so stupid!" He said out loud angrily as he wiped his tears away.
"This is what you did! You went on about how I made you care about me, well guess what girl you made me care about you, care in ways I didn't think was possible. The moment I met you all I wanted to do was take care of you and your baby even though we knew nothing about each other!" He hissed angrily through the tears. "And I did, I tried my damn hardest to keep you safe but then there was Shane! That fucking asshole, the governor another asshole and now...now this!"
He squeezed her cold hand. "You can't leave me Megan. You can't leave Matthew..." He whispered. "We need you!"
He kissed her knuckles. "Never in my life have I felt this way, never have I cried over a women for crying out loud. How dare you make me feel this way!" He snapped as he dropped her hand and stood up. He paced the room with his hands behind his head.
"You can't do this to people Megan! You can't make them care and then leave them!" He snapped as he angrily wiped the tears away.
He sat on the edge of the bed hovering over her. "I love you Megan, is that what you want to hear!" He snapped as he grabbed the sides of her head with his hands. "Now wake up and mock me for being a pussy! WAKE UP!" He shouted shaking her head slightly.
His head fell to here chest and his arms wrapped awkwardly around her limp body.
"Just wake up..." He whispered.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Holy shit, I cried writing this. What a roller coaster of emotions for Daryl.
I know this us of course get OCC for Daryl but sometimes you have to sway that way...sorry of that isn't your thing but I need to make Daryl OCC for this part.
I think we have seen examples of Daryl being quite the emotional person for example when Merle went missing and again when he died. If he cares for someone a lot then those emotions seem to come out in full force even if he does try to hide them so I suppose it's not completely OCC, we just haven't been given the opportunity to see Daryl this way on the show.
I hope you are still enjoying it and don't hate me too much for bringing in the angst!
Thank you for reading.
Frankie.