Disclaimer: Not mine, rar.
Notes: Alright last chapter for today's update; it is Spaghetti Tuesday after all so there must be an update!
Oh Hershel I miss you so…. : (
Chapter Fifty
(Daryl POV)
His pace picks up instantly; one swift glance at the empty bed confirms his fear.
She's awake, and she's outside.
He jogs to the fissured doorway, sunlight seeping through in a brilliant white outline against the dark grey wall, his hand yanks it open ready to chase her across the lot if she's running.
His steps falter still in the doorway temporarily blinded by the searing sunlight stabbing at his eyes after the darkened interior rooms even after only a few minutes.
He spots her immediately despite the glare, blinks not trusting his sight quite yet the scene sends guilt surging through him all over again.
She's not running; he's rendered her completely incapable of such a feat right now with his previous actions.
Her back is to him, bent forward on the rough pavement, whole body shaking, heaving with each retching puke on the asphalt. She barely kept breakfast down after two weeks of painkillers and an empty stomach and now he's sent her system into a tailspin.
He moves to stand behind her, kneels down at her back to put his hands on her shoulders, not sure what else to do 'til she can stop retching on her own.
He ignores her snarling at him to go away, her poorly aimed batting his hands away between gasping retches. He can't leave, not when it's his fault she's sick to her stomach.
She stops finally after a few tense minutes, presses the back of her hand to her lips for a few strangled breaths trying to calm herself before spinning on her toes and knocking him flat on his ass with one swift kick.
His back slams to the hot pavement, abs contracting to keep his head up; stop his skull from smashing into the concrete knocking himself silly.
He takes a deep breath should have expected that, starts to say he's sorry 'til all the air in his lungs leaves him in a single startled burst of sound as she drops onto his waist slapping at his chest with her hands, he pulls his forearms up in reflex to protect his face before realizing the blows don't hurt at all…she doesn't intend them to….can't actually be trying to hurt him; not when she can knock him on his ass in a split second, could clean his clock if she really wanted to cause him pain…
Instead she smacks her palm into his shoulders making a sound of pure frustrated outrage a wordless scream, jerking and twisting to keep slapping at him while he grabs for her wrists missing them several times with a frustrated grunt of his own at her quick movements before locking his fingers around them successfully stilling her outburst.
He wrenches her forward hears her hiss of pain and freezes with her hands trapped against his chest, both their breathing accelerated his heart pounding in his ears.
"There's a knife right there if you want to stab me with it."
One brow cocks towards her hairline in mock interest. "You're not getting off that easy."
He didn't think so.
Her shoulder catches his eye and he jerks his back up off the pavement, nearly knocking her off his lap his hands steadying her upper arms carefully; letting her right go so he can pull open the collar on the oversized men's t-shirt that swallows most of her frame.
He stretches the cotton ring off her shoulder so he can inspect the broken skin under the bloody spot ruining the off white cotton above her chest.
"You're bleeding."
"Yeah I figured that." She slaps his hand away from her shirt collar without much force behind it.
"You drugged me! Why would you think that was okay?"
"I'm not sorry."
She scoffs tilts her head back and stares up at the cloudless sky still straddled over his lap for almost a full minute before shaking her head finally. "Of course not…"
"You said yourself the trip would hurt."
She glares at him from half a foot away. "Yes, I did." Her eyes narrow still waiting for his defense, apparently not content with that answer.
"I didn't want you to be in pain."
Her hands raise between them clenching into fists like she's going to smack him properly this time.
"God Damnit!…That's not even, what gives you…how….ugh!" All the air leaves her in a rush.
He waits while she leans her head against his shoulder taking a few slow deep breaths before he speaks again. "Do you want to hit me again?"
"Yes…no. Maybe…"
Well that's exceedingly unclear.
"I'm sorry I made you sick." For that at least he is extraordinarily sorry.
"I hate puking." Her voice is sullen against his shirt.
"During my childhood puking was kinda the major family hobby; for my dad it was almost an Olympic sport."
"Alcoholic?"
"Yeah." He tenses waiting for her response.
She simply nods against his skin. "You can't do that Daryl. I get why you did it, but you can't make decisions like that for me. You either treat me as an equal or this won't work."
She raises her chin, waits while he stares across the lot into the trees. She keeps talking when he doesn't respond. "What if you'd driven into a herd while I was unconscious? What then? I couldn't defend myself, couldn't help you…"
"I'd have gotten you out."
She stares up at him. "I have no doubt. But you wouldn't have done that to Carol, or Michonne or Maggie..."
"It's my job to protect you."
Her eyes slip shut for a moment, when they open again they're overly bright, her gaze flicks away over his shoulder while she swallows quickly. "You can't protect me by jumping in front of me, or making my decisions and cutting me out of the conversation completely…if I did that to you…" Her brow quirks. "You'd lose your God Damn mind, and all the sense God gave you."
He's staring off over her shoulder again. Her voice is soft and thick when she continues, her next words knocking the air out of him in a single blow.
"How'd it feel Daryl standing in that basement? Being trapped on the other side of that wall when you realized they were going to find me, what they were going to do to me."
His eyes fly to hers, instant molten hot rage curling through his insides, burning its way up through his chest expanding with each pulse of his heart like a bubble ready to burst. She stares back at him for a few moments while he seethes, growls each ragged breath his furious brain clambering to verbalize a response that will be something more than an elaborate string of obscenities hurled into the air between them, all the while his hands are clench and unclench with undoubtedly bruising force over her skin.
He opens his mouth to snarl a response and her palm slaps over his lips stopping him.
"Then don't you ever make me feel like that either."
Her voice is fiercely passionate, the words curling around him dampening the anger boiling up, fizzle his rage out to nothing more than guilt laden tendrils of hot steam still winding through his chest.
He stares at her a moment longer, her palm still pressed over his lips eyes boring into his before his fingers release her arm, wrap gently around her wrist pulling her palm away from his mouth.
He stares over her shoulder again, can't meet her eyes waiting for her to draw away from him again. "Told you I'd fuck up."
Her palm presses to the side of his face instead thumb sliding over his rough cheek.
"Of course, you're human. Now, do it again and I'll lay your ass out in front of God and all his witnesses. In the meantime, I need to brush my teeth and I need to eat something really bland…"
She's grimacing like she might hurl again.
He moves to stand up, likes that she keeps her palms against his chest 'til he realizes it's because she's dizzy again by her slight stagger.
He scoops her up off the pavement pushing the door open with his boot and carrying her now limp form back inside to the darkened room behind the wall of boxes at the end of the hall.
Her breathing is slow and even having already fallen into a deep sleep before her head hits the pillow.
:: Walking Dead ::
NOTES: Not quite the level of angst I was originally going for in this chapter,
but it felt right when I was writing it, more angst to come in the next bits.
Alright, so I have my mother in law (dun-dun DUN!) visiting starting tomorrow, yikes: and they will be here the whole weekend and part of next week; then the day after they leave I will be traveling to Florida for about two weeks…with a crazy schedule there.
I plan to write while I am in FL but my updates might come a bit slower for a bit as I get bogged down with other things so apologies in advance! I'm hoping that the trip and lots of crazy activities will re-charge my muse who's a bit tuckered out after the whole ice storm fiasco!
As always you guys are the best, thank you all for your support for reading and definitely for favoriting/following and reviewing! You have no idea just how much it brightens my day and helps me write! -Kadyn