Chapter 11
The chaos was building inside of her once again. People were yelling, begging, and pleading around her, while she stood, stoic, all her possessions in a bag hanging limply from her arm. Her eyes hadn't left Jenner, he was so calm in all the panic around him. But she wasn't really seeing him, her mind was elsewhere, memories flooding her brain.
Tabatha could hear the thunking of the axe against the door behind her, Daryl grunting with each swing. But in her mind she was sitting by a lake, her parents off to the side, arguing near the car as she played in the sand. She was five, an expert at blocking out the sounds of her fighting parents. They hadn't even noticed that she had wandered away, further down the water, trying to escape the invading sound of their voices.
She was following a lizard by that point, trying to catch it as it scurried up a little hill above the water. It's scurrying living a little trail of dust that she was following. It climbed over a rock and she followed, lunging after it. She wasn't very coordinated back then, and she ended up slipping.
Tabby fell over the side of the little ridge, landing in the water. It was so cold as it hit her, so very cold and deep. Her parents had never taught her to swim. She flailed, trying desperately to keep her head above the water. But the water was just so cold, it had numbed her body almost as soon as she hit it.
Her lungs were on fire, and she couldn't even get enough air to scream for help. She was going to die, even at her young age she knew it. Could feel it in her tiny little bones.
She let it take over. There was no way she could save herself, and her parents didn't even know she was gone, let alone drowning. A strange sensation took her over, angels were lifting her up to Heaven, taking her away from the cold lake and into their warm arms.
Something solid hit her back, but she still couldn't breath. Maybe the angel had dropped her, but it would come back for her. It had to, she was dead and the angel had to take her to Heaven.
There was a pressure on her, like someone pushing on her. The coughing came first, before she opened her eyes. The angel was looking down at her, saying something she couldn't quite hear. Another face came into focus behind her angel. "Another angel?" she thought. Why would there be two angels coming to take her? She wasn't that big, and the angel leaning over her was definitely big enough carry her.
"Can ya hear me girl?" her angel's voice finally came to her. It was gruff, like sand paper. Then she heard a sound she thought she'd never hear again. Her mother's screeching voice calling somewhere off to the side. She wasn't dead.
At the hospital she found out that her "angels'" names where Merle and Daryl Dixon. They had been fishing across the lake and had seen her fall in. They came to her rescue before her parents even realized she was gone. Both of them abandoning their fishing gear and diving into the water after her. Daryl was only a year older than her and he had been the first one to reach her. He was too small to pull her up, but Merle was right behind him, dredging her out of the water and onto the beach.
Merle had had Daryl push on her, to get the water out. He said he didn't want to hurt her, and Daryl was less likely to break her ribs. But he had been there, holding her hand and willing her open her eyes.
When they had left she remembered her parents muttering things about rednecks and them needing a bath anyway. But Tabatha didn't know what they were talking about. She didn't know what a redneck was, but she knew the two boys weren't rednecks. They were angels.
After her hospital stay Tabatha and the Dixon boys were near inseparable. Merle had laughed so hard when the little girl had told him they were angels to her. A Dixon being compared to anything other than trash a foreign concept to him.
But saving her, or her saying that, had endeared her to the rough teenager. She became the little sister he never wanted, and never thought he'd love more than anything else.
Tabatha absently heard Daryl yell something about someone's head as he rushed past her. But she was still stuck, her memory flashing back to the day her parents moved her away.
She was crying, sobbing really. Merle had been raging, he had gotten to the point of taking a bat to the moving van. The cops had come and hauled him away. Daryl had stayed by her side the whole time, his arm wrapped around her protectively until her parents had come to drag her away. She could still remember the tears in his eyes as her grandfather held him back. He had tried so desperately to break free and get her. Run away with her into the woods were they would never find them.
That had been the worst day of her life. The thought causing a small smile to form on her stoic face. That day was worse than this one. This was the day she died, Jenner wouldn't let them out and she was going to burn. But this day was no where near as bad as the day she was dragged away from her angels.
Today was the day she died, one angel by her side, and the other out there, surviving. She knew Merle was alive, she could feel it in her bones.
And then the door opened and everyone was running. Daryl was dragging her along, her brain still fuzzy. There was a blast, and she had ended up on the ground under Daryl. Next thing she knew she was being pushed into the cab of his truck as he jumped in beside her. The explosion was big enough to break the fog crowding Tabatha's brain.
It was then she realized she was in pain. Her leg felt like it was on fire, the pain shooting up from her calf. She reached down and pulled up her pajama pants, a sick feeling wrenching at her gut. "Daryl..." she barely whispered.
When he looked at her he felt his stomach drop. Her face was as white as paper, and he followed her eyes down to the bite mark on her leg. "I'm sorry." she whispered.
The small group stopped to regroup a little bit later, everyone gathering around the bed of Daryl's truck. He had moved Tabby there, trying to bandage her leg as she quietly cried. He hadn't said anything since he moved her out of the cab.
"Daryl?" Tabby asked as she watched him. He grunted, letting her know he heard her. She took a deep breath before continuing.
"Daryl, you know why I came to see you, I know Merle had to have told you that I needed to to sign the divorce papers. But there was also some things I needed to get off of my chest." she took another deep breath, "Now that this happened, I guess it's now or never." He glared at her, but she ignored him and continued.
"I never really blamed you for what happened. It was my fault. I started the fight, I got in the car with Merle when I knew it wasn't safe, and I'm the one who basically made him speed back to the house to kick your ass. It was my fault. But the worse thing that was my fault is that I never told you..." she faltered again, working up the nerve to say the next thing. "I never told you that we lost a son."
Daryl's eyes shot up to her's then. "A boy? We were havin a boy?" he asked, his throat feeling tight. She nodded and smiled sadly at him.
"And now I get to be with him. Daryl, I don't want to come back. I don't want to be one of these things. I need to just end it. Please Daryl," she could see the look in his eye, the look he had when they were kids and she was being pulled away from him. The look that spoke of how he just wanted to run away with her, run away were no one could find them. But she couldn't let him do that, not when she was a bomb waiting to go off.
He stared at her, tears stinging his blue eyes. He knew she was right, Hell, she was always right. But he loved her...how could he just let her die. Jenner had said there was no cure, no way to save those who've been infected. He knew this was the only way for her to go peacefully, like she deserved.
But could he do it? Daryl really didn't think he could. After a bit more begging he moved away. Forcing her to ask someone else to give her what she wanted. It ended up being Shane, standing behind her where she now sat on the grass. He could hear the gun being checked, no false starts. One bullet, the back of her head, and she would be gone forever.
Daryl hurried over to her then, grabbing her face and kissing her passionately before pulling away with a sob and damn near running into the RV where he didn't have to see the love of his life die. Where he didn't have to see the light go from her beautiful eyes.
Tabatha stared down at the picture in her hand. The picture of her and her angels, fishing at the lake she had nearly drowned in. Her fingers traced over the brothers, her heroes, her family.
Now she was going to be with her boy, the little angel she never got to meet. It would all be over with a...
BANG!
As the shot rang out, Daryl collapsed in the RV's bedroom, sobbing uncontrollably. She was gone. It was over.
Okay, don't hate me too much. This was shat I had planned for this story from the beginning. Please read and review, let me have all your hate on me lol.
Thank you to Miss E Charlotte, Alina Maxwell, and cuberftw for the reviews of last chapter. And to everyone who added the story or me to favs and/or alerts
