Chapter 8
When Shane woke up he could tell something was wrong. It was too late in the morning. Why didn't anyone get him up? Daryl was supposed to get his slashes fixed this morning. This morning. Oh no. Shane cursed Hershel under his breath. Why did that guy hate him so much? He jumped out of bed and could now hear the yelling of voices from the room down the hall. When he got to the door he saw Hershel, Lori, and Andrea trying to hold Daryl down while Glenn looked like he was pulling his hair out while trying to get them to stop. "Just wait for a minute! Shane will help. Just stop," Glenn said over the yelling of Daryl, Lori, and Hershel. Shane ran into the room and shoved the older man away from Daryl. He pushed Lori's and Andrea's hands off of Daryl and sat down on the bed. He turned to Hershel, "What the hell?! Why was I not aware we were performing this? I mean he's MY responsibility isn't he?" Hershel shrugged seemingly unfazed by Shane's eruption, "I thought we should get an early start." Shane laughed, "Yea alright." Daryl hadn't said anything during this exchange but now he spoke up, "Shane, I don't want the slashes fixed." Shane looked at him, "Why not? Look it'll be worse if you don't get them fixed." "I just don't want them fixed ok? Please? I'll be fine. They'll heal over time. I just don't want this," Daryl begged. As much as he wanted to let Daryl have his way he knew that if they didn't heal the slashes then the kid could get infected and even worse. Shane slowly shook his head, "I can't do that Daryl, I'm sorry. It'll be bad but then you'll be ok after that. I don't want you to be hurt like that forever." Daryl looked into his eyes, the pain showing there but finally nodded slightly, "Ok." Shane reached over and pulled Daryl's shirt over his head. There were five huge scratches across Daryl's chest and a few other smaller cuts on the side. Since the kid was sitting up at the time Shane saw that the bear had got him on the back too. There were plenty of bruises as well, probably from getting knocked around in the woods. But there was something else too. Shane frowned slightly as he saw scratches and scars that weren't from a bear. They looked like they'd been there for a long time. No one else noticed them or didn't care but Shane made a note to ask Daryl about it later. Daryl didn't like the situation at all. He was shaking again, as bad as last night. Shane helped move Daryl slowly down the bed so he was lying flat on the bed so Hershel could get a good angle. Shane sat on the opposite side of the bed from Hershel so he was out of the way but could still be by Daryl. Which Daryl seemed to need. The kid was shaking from nerves and pain and shifting every couple minutes. Shane realized that Daryl had the same older looking scars on his chest as well as his back. Hershel began to stitch up the slashes and Daryl closed his eyes. Shane rubbed his hand through the kid's hair a few times. The hours seemed to pass unbelievably slowly. Well, at least for the ones on his chest.
When they had to do the ones on his back Daryl started getting nervous again. "Shane, we did the front, that's all we need to do right? I don't want to do the back. They're not bad. I'll be fine," Daryl half-begged. They both knew that was a lie. If anything the slashes on the back were worse. Shane didn't reply to Daryl but instead just rolled him over so he was on his stomach. He could feel the kid's breathing get faster and the shaking pick up again. "It's fine Daryl, almost done," he said softly. Hershel started to get to work but had to stop. "Shane, you need to get him to calm down. I can't stitch him up if he's this tight," the older man said. Shane looked down at Daryl who had his eyes squeezed shut, his hands making fists in the sheets, and his back arched a little. Shane glanced at Glenn as he moved a little bit forward. Glenn shrugged. The guy was totally clueless. Great. Shane thought about his next move. How would he be able to get the kid to relax? "Hershel move away for a minute ok?" he asked. Hershel nodded and got up. Shane bent down next to Daryl, "Hey come on you gotta get out of this state man. Just let him fix you up." Daryl looked at him, "But they'll see….. no never mind. I just don't want them to fix it." Shane got why Daryl didn't want to have them working on his back. He and Rick had gone through lots of cases as cops that had to deal with different types of abuse. It looked like Daryl had been familiar with one of those. He hated the person who had done that to him. "You relax. They won't notice. It's not what they're looking for," he said quietly. He saw Daryl glare at him for figuring out what the problem was but he slowly unclenched the sheet. Shane nodded, "That's it come on." The kid's back muscles looked less tight and Shane nodded for Hershel to come back. Shane still sat next to Daryl as Hershel fixed the slashes. He rubbed the kid's hair as he winced and whimpered quietly. He sat there the whole time and just did what he had done before. As Hershel finished up he saw Daryl's even breathing and realized he had fallen asleep. Hershel had to smile, "Nice work there Shane. I don't know how you managed to get him to fall asleep." Shane smiled, "Magic I guess." Hershel nodded, "I think we could use a little of that in this world now." Shane nodded, "Yea I think we do." He looked down at the sleeping kid and said, "Let's go. He needs his rest."