HermioneandMarcus and smittendebs: Thank you guys! Keep reading! :)
HaloHunter89: I love writing Wren. I really do. And I think Daryl kinda views her as Aayla when their daughter grows up to be her age. Although something tells me that Aayla will be a little bit more weapon-savvy than Wren is ha ha. And your right - only Daryl and Lori were the only two people that Tessa had ever told about the barn and Merle until then. Not even Ethan knows and I'm still toying around with keeping him in the dark. But something tells me if he did, Ethan wouldn't exactly be sitting there not doing anything about it - he IS Daryl's son, after all!
Maddy-MarieXO: Just keep reading. We'll get to that part eventually :)
wickedclownsmile: Yup, that was a very fun part to write :)
"They have patrols," Michonne spoke as Rick pulled the car over on the side of the road and everyone filed out – everybody encompassing Daryl, Rick and Oscar. Axel stayed behind to continue working on the generators and to back up Carl, Ethan and Seth is anything happened while they were gone. "We're better off on foot from here on out."
"It better not be far; night's gonna be here soon." Rick replied as he headed around the back to get his weapons along with the others. Michonne nodded as she shouldered her samurai sword.
"It's a mile – maybe two. We'll be there before the sun falls but we probably won't get out before then." They ignored the walker shambling her way towards them and entered the woods, following closely on Michonne's tail. They didn't have time to fight every walker from Hell to Houston - they needed to get into Woodbury and get out as fast as they could and without being seen if that was entirely possible.
Hell, Daryl and his still bubbling anger made sure of all of that.
Rick could still feel the anger rolling off of Daryl in waves – he and everyone else there had felt it all on the car ride there, especially considering that he had stayed quiet the entire time and did nothing but stare out the window the entire car ride. He had drastically calmed down before the car ride, though, and for that, they were all grateful. No one wanted to be in the same car with Daryl when he was angry - they were suicidal. And Wren had certainly helped when she walked in and calmed him down with her gentle, quiet words and her small hand on his forearm, but Rick knew it was still there, just biding its time before it could come out fully unleashed again.
For the relative safety of everyone in Woodbury - not just the guards - Rick found himself hoping that it would be just a simple "Get-in-and-get-out" mission. However, when had anything gone simply for them? The only difference this time was that Daryl was teetering on the edge of mental insanity induced by scalding hot anger.
"I know what you and Tessa did for me while I was . . . working things out in the other cellblock – and for my baby, too," He finally spoke and Daryl glanced at him as they continued walking down the forest path before returning his eyes to the treeline, his eyes constantly searching for the herd of walkers lumbering their way. "I just wanted to thank you." Daryl glanced at him again before he nodded.
"It's what we do, ain' it - we look out for each other? Hell, I'm pretty damn sure ya would do tha same thing if it was me, Tess and the twins in ya place." He replied and Rick nodded that he would have. They continued onwards in silence then for a while before everyone froze. A pretty sizable group of walkers were lumbering towards - more than they had ever seen in a small group before. They fought the walkers that quickened their speed towards them, backpedaling as fast as they could backwards as they did so, but froze again when they found another one quickly coming up on their asses. It was about as big as the group they were currently dealing with and Daryl shook his head as he plunged his knife through a walker's head that had been lumbering as fast as it could towards him.
"Rick, There's too many of 'em! We can't take 'em all!" Daryl told him and Rick nodded in agreement.
"This way!"
Rick turned on his heels then and moved off the beaten path into the woods. The rest of them turned and followed closely behind him, Michonne bringing up the rear as he led them ever deeper into the woods, the snarling walkers constantly keeping them going.
"Look - in there!"
They picked up their pace when they saw the red, abandoned-looking cabin seconds later, taking the steps two at a time as they each hurriedly filed through he front door. Michonne slammed shut the door when she finally made it in after the rest of them and when she did so, they found themselves in near total silence. It reeked to high heaven in the modest, stuffy space and Daryl announced as such as he covered his nose with the back of his hand. Tracing the smell, it eventually brought them to a small dead dog – a dead dog that looked to have been dead for months.
"Looks like lassie came home after all." Daryl muttered, however, everyone ignored him as they turned onto Rick.
"What the Hell are we going to do now?" Oscar asked, the four of them almost jumping out of their skins when the walkers they had been running from began banging up against the closed door of the cabin, trying their damndest to get in. Brittle nails scratched against the dusty, dirty windows and hands grasped and pulled uselessly at the wooden planks nailed hastily to the wood walls covering the windows. Michonne shook her head.
"Those won't hold them for long." She muttered and Oscar nodded in agreement as Daryl took a few steps towards Rick.
"Shit, Rick, what do we do?" He asked and Rick swallowed heavily before glancing at him.
"I . . . I'm workin' on it."
"Well you better work fast or else the walkers are gonna find themselves a nicely little prepackaged meal!" Michonne hissed as she glanced at the moving shadows pounding against the door and windows behind her. Rick ignored her, however, as he moved towards the double bed situated in the back of the cabin. A shape could clearly be seen underneath he flowery blue cover and it was that, that had caught his attention. After glancing at Daryl, who nodded and followed closely on his heels, knife in hand, Rick quickly yanked back the cover, only for them to find themselves face-to-face with one alarmed looking hunter.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We mean you no harm!"
"Get the fuck outta my house!"
"We will but we can't right now -!"
"Shut him the fuck up!"
Michonne was the last to speak as she threw another frantic look over her shoulder at the door. At the sound of Rick and the hunter's verbal spat, the walkers had begun pounding and yanking at the boards and the door with more vim and vigor - movements that did not help settle their mind at all. Rick simply nodded as his attention remained on the clearly not all-together-there man standing beside him as he shouted out that he would call the cops, something that Rick immediately served back with a quick, "I am a cop!"
The man's gaze turned hesitant for a moment as Rick calmly implored him to lower the gun he was holding and to not do anything stupid. The hunter had begun by doing what he asked but surprised them all when he suddenly cocked the shotgun in his hands and pointed it straight back into Rick's face again. "Show me your badge!" He ordered and as Rick nodded, Daryl couldn't help but wonder if Rick still had it.
"All right, all right; it's in my pocket, though, okay? I'm going to reach for it in my pocket, nice and slow . . ." He moved to pacify the crazy man by reaching towards his back pocket. The man kept a careful eye on him the entire time.
"Oh shit!"
Daryl had just enough time to twirl out of the way as Rick suddenly made a grab for the man, completely abandoning all movement towards his badge in his back pocket. He knocked the gun from the man's hands and the shotgun went off with a loud bang into the nearby wall as he did so - the wall that had been directing behind Daryl and who would have littered him with scattershot if he hadn't had the quick reflexes needed to twirl himself out of the way as fast as he could like he had done.
Rick kept a tight grip on the now struggling, cursing and spitting man but no one saw what was coming next. Eventually the man managed to break free of Rick's grasp and ran full tilt for the door, his chest heaving. "Don't let him reach the door!"
"Fuckin' catch him!"
For a minute, it seemed like the man would reach the door and throw it open, immediately ushering in their death, but was suddenly brought to a stop by Michonne's sword sliding and silently cleanly through his torso – right through the heart. When she withdrew it with a fleshy 'shing' and sheathed it seconds later, Daryl found himself hardly spared her a glance as he moved to the door. Rick and Oscar, however, simply stood there, gaping at her for a moment. They didn't know what to say and thankfully, didn't have to say anything upon hearing Daryl heaving a breath and turning back to them.
"You guys remember the Alamo, right?" He asked and Rick nodded as he swallowed hard, immediately getting the same idea in his head that Daryl had as soon as their eyes jointly and briefly fell onto the corpse of the now dead man before meeting again.
"Yeah . . . yeah, I do . . ." He murmured as he quickly moved to help Daryl pick up the body. Rick supported it for a moment, ignoring Oscar's sound of protest, before Daryl quickly opened the door and helped him shove it through before quickly moving Rick out of the way and slamming it closed. Still ignoring the look of disbelief on Oscar's face, they readily used the now dead hermit/hunter as walker bait so that they could silently slip out the back door and into the woods, where Michonne quickly found the path they needed to get to Woodbury.
Who said anything about not using your imagination?
"We gotta find Tess! She could be anywhere down here!"
"Don't worry, Daryl, we will!"
Promises, promises - that was all he had been dealt since Michonne first came back with news that Tessa, Glenn and Maggie had been taken to Woodbury as hostages and so far, he wasn't really seeing results and it was kinda pissing him off. Or well . . . pissing him even more than he already was. He was pissed off at the three of them for getting themselves taken in the first place – he was pissed off at Michonne for not getting them where they needed to go quicker, he was pissed off at the two walker groups that had ambushed them and made them lose time by seeking temporary refuge in the crazy fucker's cabin.
But most of all, he was pissed at Woodbury for being Woodbury!
Damn Stepford illusion . . .
They moved quickly and silently down the basement hallways made of corrugated metals and clapboard, dodging the occasional guard as they did so in their quest to find Maggie, Glenn and most of all – Tessa. When they had first entered, they had encountered only one man who they had dealt with quickly by tying him up and stuffing a handkerchief in his mouth they had found in one of his pockets before Daryl's crossbow-butted him against the back of his head. After that, it had been smooth sailing to the basement catacombs that Michonne had led them to. Now, they were hearing indistinct voices in the distance. They couldn't place them, however, even when they could hear the occasional sob that was loud enough to reach their ears.
Soon, steps could be heard against the cement floor that moved quickly towards their position ducked behind a corrugated wall that opened out into a bigger room. They heard sobbing and a man's voice telling his companion to be strong and that everything would be alright and it was then that Daryl eyes finally connected fully with Rick's. "Shit – that's Glenn and Maggie! They must be movin' 'em!" He hissed and Rick cursed underneath his breath before the both of them quickly moved to search inside the bag they had brought with them and which was now lying on the floor between them for two of the flashbangs that Daryl had brought because, after all, "Ya never know what ya gonna need."
Rick uttered a relieved, "Thank God!" when they found them before the both of them got to their feet and quickly threw the flashbangs into the room, right in front of the people leading the covered Glenn and Maggie. Angry, shouted curses could immediately be heard as everyone in the path of the flashbang was suddenly blinded by a loud flash and smoke that filled the room. Rick and Oscar then darted quickly forward and after hooking their hands around their elbows, led them away from the smoke, Daryl giving them the occasional fire for cover that was occasionally answered back through the smoke still issuing forth from the bomb.
They quickly backtracked their way through the hallways before quickly pushing the two of them inside a nearby building. Michonne closed the door behind them and no one noticed that the woman was no longer with them as they immediately became preoccupied with checking their surroundings for Woodbury residents, as well as trying to find an alternate way out. "Dammit - there ain' no way out back here, Rick!" Daryl called as he moved back into the main room where the rest of them were congregating around Maggie and Glenn, and the battered looking woman immediately looked up at his voice.
"Daryl, Tessa was down in the basement with us when we arrived. She was moved, though, for some reason and we lost her. I'm sorry." She told him and Daryl's eyes shot down onto hers as he moved to crouch down in front of her, where he took a firm hold of her arm.
"She was moved - where to?" He asked, his voice coming out as quick as hers had been, but Maggie could only give him a weak, apologetic look as she shook her head and shrugged.
"I don't know - we both don't! All I know is that we passed each other in the hallway when I was being transported from the room they were holding me in, to Glenn's. They could be hiding her anywhere here!" She shook her head again as she shifted slightly to face him better. "What I do know, is that she's not hurt. They wanted to keep her as safe as could be - I heard that when were passing each other."
Daryl let out a violent curse then as he got to his feet. His ran his fingers through his hair in irritation and could almost not keep his anger from trying to claw its way to the surface. He felt his anger and his frustration come back and for a moment, he found himself briefly entertaining the idea that he would never see Tessa again. Briefly, he wondered if Ethan would never see his mother again and if the twins would grow up not knowing her the same way that Ethan had grown up not knowing him. He wondered how he would ever find the strength and the resolve to raise the twins without her - the babies that they had wanted so much together and as the thoughts entered his mind, he couldn't help but feel tears prickle up in his eyes. He stood there for a moment as he slowly gathered the strength to keep going, before forcibly shoving them back down. He heard Glenn weakly called for him and as he turned back to face the man, he at least felt good that she was safe and relatively unharmed.
Whatever that meant.
"Daryl, this was Merle! Merle did this!" He told him as Maggie helped him into a shirt she had found sitting on a desk feet away from them, and the look of stunned shock on Daryl's face was almost comical.
"What?" Glenn nodded.
"Merle was the one who kidnapped us – Merle was the one who first ordered for Tessa to be moved. He was rather adamant about her staying safe, too. Wherever Merle is, Tessa probably is too, I guarantee it!"
Daryl's teeth gritted as he immediately felt his anger instantly rise up within him tenfold what it had been - letting out a roar of fury as it did so. His blood felt hot - like the anger was lava spilling into his bloodstream and for a moment, he had to fight to keep his anger under control - something he hadn't had to do in such an extent in years - decades, even. If Merle was behind this, then no wonder Tessa was being treated like a Queen! He would only use her as leverage when they would finally meet again face-to-face and he found that he absolutely detested the idea of his brother using her like a pawn because he knew she was the only thing that her could use against his brother.
Well . . . something he could readily get his hands on, at any rate. He had three other things that could very well be used against him too - four, if you counted Wren - but thankfully they were all back at the prison, tucked away safe and sound from this Hell that was Woodbury.
And then he remembered what Tessa had told him months ago – what Merle had done to her in the barn – how he had been the real reason why she had left him the first time and for a moment, he almost couldn't keep the lid on his anger. Merle had been the reason he hadn't known about Ethan, why some dumbass Yankee had gotten to raise his son in his place. And now Merle had her again . . . whatever that meant!
"You . . . you saw him?" He asked, his voice lowering to a dangerous level and Glenn nodded.
"I saw him face to face multiple times. Hell, he threw a walker at me and used Tessa to get us in the damn car! I'm pretty sure he also interrogated her personally too - the same as he had me."
Daryl's teeth gritted a little bit more then, so hard it almost hurt, but he hardly noticed the pain. He vowed, right then and there, that if Merle had done anything to Tessa . . . if had laid one finger on her . . .!
"Are ya tellin' me tha' my brother's the Governor?" He asked and Maggie shook her head.
"No, someone else is. Your brother is like his lieutenant or something," Her eye brightened when she found a better word. "His second - like you are to Rick."
"Does he know I'm with ya guys?" Glenn nodded.
"Once he saw Tessa, it wasn't that long afterwards that he realized you were," He shook his head then as his apologetic eyes fell onto Rick. "Rick, I'm sorry, but they know about the prison – we couldn't hold out!" Rick shot them both a reassuring look then as a trill of alarm raced up Daryl's spine. They knew about the prison? Would they be sending people there now as they sat there gabbing or was them being here giving them the excuse they needed to send no one yet.
Shit, they really needed to find Tessa and then get the Hell out of Dodge!
"Don't! You guys have absolutely no need to apologize!"
Daryl, who had been entrenched deep into his thoughts, so far in fact, that he hardly registered when Maggie had asked where the missing Michonne was, that he practically jumped out of his skin when Rick told them they needed to move and then shoved him towards the exit. Daryl gave him a slightly weak look that didn't correspond at all with the rage that thumped through his veins like a marching army. "No, Rick, w-we have to find Tess! We can't leave her here!" He told him, a note of slight fear inching its way into his voice that was still nonetheless edged with anger. "I know she could be anywhere, but if we go back and we don' have her, then what the Hell do I tell Ethan and Wren? And if Merle's here too, then I gotta see him as well!"
And kill him in the most excruciating way possible . . .
"Not now, Daryl!" Rick told him firmly and look of fear was immediately wiped from Daryl's face, only to be replaced with a look of such profound anger that Rick felt himself swallow hard at the sight.
"How can ya say tha' 'bout Tess, Rick?" He asked him him in angered incredulity, and Rick shook his head, quickly trying to backpedal.
"Look, this place is huge and Maggie is right – they could be holding her anywhere! We need to get the two of them out of here and then we can focus on finding Tess, okay?" He shook his head as he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We'll get her back to you and your family, okay, brother? I promise you that! But right now, I need you, Daryl!"
Daryl hated it. He hated himself for it - especially when the anger inside him protested so furiously against it, but after swallowing hard and eventually nodding, he murmured a simple:
"Yeah . . ."
"How many of them are there, do ya know?"
"I didn't see - the smoke got in the way!"
"It doesn' matter – there's gonna be more of 'em in a minute!" Daryl spoke when they finally reached cover, the sounds of gunshots constantly being heard through the smoke of the bombs and flashbangs that they had thrown for temporary cover until they could reach more stable cover. The shots were potshots - shots fired by people who didn't know where in the Hell they were, hoping that they would hit something but the smoke was fading fast and when it did, their cover would be blown all to Hell. "Ya guys need to move now - while we still have the smoke to distract 'em!"
"Are there any grenades left?" Rick asked and Daryl nodded.
"Yup."
"Then get 'em ready – we gotta gun it to the wall over there as fast as we can!" Rick told him and they nodded in understanding as each of them quickly readied themselves. Daryl handed Glenn his gun to hold for a minute as he glanced at them.
"Ya guys go on ahead, I'm gonna offer some cover fire." He spoke and Rick immediately gave him a pointed look, although Maggie was the one who spoke first.
"No, we gotta stay together!"
Daryl shook his head as he glanced up at her. "No, it's too hairy. I'll be right behind ya, though, I promise!" She held his gaze for a moment before quickly nodding. He took back his gun then and caught and held on to Rick's gaze in the process.
"Are ya sure ya wanna do this?" Rick asked him, his voice coming out slow and even, and Daryl nodded as he bit down on his lower lip. Everyone else's eyes fell onto him and a indistinguishable look passed across Maggie's face then.
"Ya know tha' I can' leave without her, Rick! I promised her tha' I would find her if somethin' like this ever happened and I aim to keep my word. I gotta find her – I ain' leavin' and I ain' dyin' until I do, now tha' I can promise you!" The group had gone silent at his words and slowly, Rick nodded. He heaved a sigh as he clasped a hand on Daryl's shoulder.
"I'll be back, I promise! I'll come back for the both you two, so don't worry! You'll have your back-up!" Daryl smiled a small smile.
"I know ya will. But please, don' take ya time!"
As soon as those words had left his mouth, Daryl stood, lobbed the smoke bomb in the general direction the opposing firepower was coming from, and then darted for cover not that far away as the rest of them ran full tilt for the nearby wall. They could hear the popping of Daryl's gun as he gave them cover fire and after a minute, Maggie's voice split through the air:
"Daryl!?"
"Go on!"
They were on top of the bus by then, about to hop down on the other side when she shouted his name. He barely heard them over the gunfire still being lobbed at them from across the street but he knew enough to know that the shout had mainly been Maggie wanting to know that he was still breathing and that the dark shape lying completely motionless on the ground in front of the bus was Oscar.
He let out a curse under his breath as he sunk back against the brick wall he was taking cover against in order to reload his gun. He closed his eyes for a minute and had to summon a picture of Tessa, broad grin and sparkling brown eyes – looking as beautiful as he had ever seen her – in his head in order to get the strength he needed to go back over that wall and continued shooting.
However, it never came. As soon as he popped back over the wall, he saw the butt of a rifle speeding at his head faster than a bullet from a gun.
And then everything went black.
