A/N Hey everyone! I promise I haven't forgotten about all of you. Here's the next chapter, hopefully I'll get back to updating regularly. Hope you like it, don't forget to leave a review! Much loves 3
"How could you not tell anyone? You are supposed to be one of the adults here." Lori scolds Sam, "Not running off alone like one of the kids."
"Would you rather him have gone alone?" Sam can feel the anger bubbling up "He doesn't stay put when you tell him to, you think he would while I run and tell his mom on him?"
Shocked faces turn away from the argument, but Sam continues "He wants to help and everyone's treating him like a little kid. He thought he could do it on his own, and he probably could have. I thought it would be safer if I went with him."
Her frustration at her similar situation leaks out and she walks away, willing the burning behind her eyes to at least hold off until she can get to the perch.
Daryl walks into the cell block after getting Oscar and Axel into their own block and the air is thick with tension. Carol and Glenn are nowhere in the block, Carl is pouting in his room, everyone is talking in very quiet voices. He spots Sam sitting on the perch with her legs hanging over the edge, her back to everyone.
Daryl stops in to check on Hershel before going to see her "How's he doing?"
"He seems to have stabilized. He stopped breathing for a minute, but he's alright now." Lori says quietly, patting the sleeping man's hand.
He sits next to Sam, facing the other way, back against the rails, legs stretched out. "What the hell happened while we were gone?"
She is quiet for a long minute before answering "Carl and I decided to be useful and go find the infirmary. When we got back Lori lost it on us, and I told her the truth."
"Oh no," he leans his head back and looks at her "what did you say?"
A smile twitches the corner of her mouth, "She basically called me a kid, so I pointed out that it was smarter to just go with Carl than try to get him to stay, since he won't even listen to his mother when she tells him to stay put."
He shakes his head but she cuts him off before he can say anything. "I might not have snapped if I didn't already feel like everyone us treating me like a child. Since we got in here, all I've done is sit around here and baby sit. I can handle myself just as well as the rest of you. You know I can." she finishes with a huff.
"It's not that I don't think you can handle yourself, hell, I've seen you do it before," he pauses, trying to find something to say that wouldn't upset her more "but we can't have all our best people come out every time. Say something happens to that group, who will be left to look out for everyone else? Carl an Beth are getting better, but they'd be no good on their own right now. Lori's so tired she looks like a strong wind could blow her over. Hershel's got one leg now. Pretty much leaves you and Carol that can take care of yourselves. It's not cause I don't think you can handle it, it's because I know you can. So knock this shit off."
Sam raises an eyebrow at the last part, and for a second it looks like she's going to start throwing punches, but it passes and she nods. "If I'm always the one left behind though, I'm still gonna get pissed."
Daryl's eyes widen in frustration "One of these days, swear to God."
"Yeah, yeah. Impossible, gonna be the death of you. I've heard it al before. You know where the door is. I'm going for a walk." she slides under the bottom railing and jumps to the floor. She informs Rick as she walks past, "I'll be outside if anyone needs me."
Daryl watches her leave, assessing her walk for any signs of injury after that dumb ass stunt, but she seems unharmed.
Sam lays in the tall grass, staring at the cloudless sky and trying to ignore the almost ceaseless groan of the walkers. The days are starting to get oppressive again, not quite full summer, but the humidity is getting worse. It's been almost a full year since all this started. She lets her thoughts wander to last year before all this. Cally was getting ready for finals and graduation, and Sam was trying to iron out a plan to come down here and see Andy. She tries not to think too much of the fate that most likely befell him. It would be stupid to hold on to any hope of seeing him again, but like with her family, it would have been enough to know he was safe. Letting go of the thoughts of the past in a heavy sigh she closes her eyes and focuses on the present.
The smell of warm grass and late spring flowers brought to her by the soft breeze and the warm sun on her skin. If she listens carefully she can even hear the birds in the woods over the sound of the walkers outside the fence. She closes her eyes and lets herself drift off.
Daryl lets two hours pass without seeing Sam before he decides to go find her, she said she was going for a walk and now it's almost dusk and she's still not back. He's almost out of the cell block when Carol stops him.
"I hears about what happened with Sam and Lori, how is Sam doing? I Haven't seen her in hours." Carol asks, concerned.
"Bout to go find out, she's around somewhere."
"Want some company?" she asks, walking in step with him. He shrugs, not really caring either way.
"How did everything go with the other survivors?" she asks.
"Bout as good as expected. Couple of problems, only two of em left now." Daryl shrugs.
"What happened?"
"One got bit, other two tried to attack Rick. They ain't a problem anymore."
"They're dead?"
"The one that went after Rick is, the other one ran out, Rick chased him outside, so he's good as dead." he explains.
"Oh," Carol says, surprised "and the last two? What about them? Should we keep an eye on them too?"
"They've got their own block, Rick an I have keys to ours, so they ain't gettin in less we let them. I don't trust em, but I'm not worried bout em either." He does a quick scan of the square, looking for where Sam might be before searching the over grown yard. "Damn it," he sighs, unable to see very far in the dieing light "I'm gonna kill her, I swear. You mind giving me a hand?"
Voices and snippets of conversation make Sam stir in her light sleep. She cracks one eye open and is greeted by an orange sky, not the blue sky she last saw when she closed her eyes, and pushes her stiff body into a sitting position. The conversation is coming from two silhouetted figures in the courtyard. Even from this distance she can tell by the posture that one is Daryl, no doubt coming to find her and give her hell about staying out so late A twinge of annoyance shoots through her, going back to their argument earlier, but she lets it go in a breath and pushes herself up. That's why she came out here anyway, to get over all that.
She walks towards them at a fast pace, almost a jog. "Don't worry, I'm not walker food. Just dozed off for a while, sorry."
"False alarm Carol." Daryl shrugs and looks at her.
Carol turns and heads back, Sam explains "I get why I'm left behind, at least I do now, but it's still annoying. I mean what if something happened to one of us, and the other one wasn't there. I just worry."
"You don't gotta." he says "C'mon let's get back inside, get some good food."
They close the door to the prison just as the sun sinks below the tree line.