Chapter 145-Till death do us part

Daryl's P.O.V

The group looked at the door to the infirmary as they opened, and June stepped out. Her clothes were covered in blood and sweat as she sighed. "Is she-?" Daryl asks but stops, not able to finish the question.

"She's alive." June says, and Daryl sagged in relief as the kids hold him.

"Did we get the arm off in time?" Negan asked next.

"I think so, it was almost right away, but I don't know. She has a fever, but that could be from blood loss," June says. "The next 24 hours are going to be very important. If she makes it through them, she'll have a much better chance."

"Is she awake?" Maggie asks June, who shakes her head.

"No, she woke for a minute after we got her, but she fell back asleep. Daryl, you can go sit with her." June tells Daryl, who nods as he slowly moves towards the door. Negan lays his hand on Merle's shoulder as he tried to follow.

"Give your Daddy a minute." Negan tells the boy, who nods as he sits down beside his sister, and Charlie wraps her arms around them. Daryl shuts the door to the infirmary after Rosita, Tobias, Rikki, and Siddqi leave. He walks over to Alicia's bed. He sat down as he felt his legs give out. Alicia was pale, breathing raggedly as she looked almost dead. Daryl grabbed her hand.

"Wake up." He says, his voice once again hoarse. "Please, wake up."

Strand's P.O.V

Strand sat against the side of his cabin, staring into the sky. "Victor?" Strand looks at Alden as he walks up to him.

"Daryl still in there?" Strand asks Alden, who nods.

"Merle, Ofelia, and Charlie just went in," Alden says. "She's gonna be okay."

"Don't say that Alden," Strand said strained. "She might not be."

"We have to believe that she will be."

"She can't die," Strand says, his voice breaking. "She's like the daughter I never had. I love her. We can't lose her, Madison and Shane can't especially, not after Nick."

"She's gonna be okay, you know she's a fighter. Come on. You should be with the rest of us," Alden tells Strand, who nods as he follows Alden.

Negan's P.O.V

Negan sat by Carl as they heard something hit the wall and the accompanying groans of the dead, Carl looking over. "I'll get them," Negan says flatly as he grabs his mace and moved to stand up.

"Negan, we don't need to get them right now." Carl says. Negan doesn't say anything as he walks away from Carl, who followed him as he throws the gate open.

"Go back, Carl." Negan growls as he walks outside. He walked over to the dead, who look at him as they try and pull themselves out of the trench. He stared at then for several moments, as if making sure they weren't any of them hiding, then he brought the mace down on the first walker's head, turning it into mush as he swings at the second walker taking off the top of its head before he stomps the last walker's head to mush. Negan stood there breathing heavily.

"Negan-" Carl starts.

"I should be the one in there." Negan says. "Not her. I should be the one fighting for my life. She might die because I got into the damn wire. She should have let that damn thing bite me!" Negan says as he drops his mace. "Why didn't she let it bite me? I'm not worth her dying for."

"She doesn't regret what she did." Carl says, making Negan look at him. "I know that you're her family, and she'll tell you that when she wakes up, it wasn't your fault."

"It should've been me." Is all Negan says before he picks up his mace and walks past Carl, who sighs as he follows him.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl lay with his head on the bed. His hand wrapped around Alicia's. "Dad." Charlie says, making Daryl look up as Alicia opens her eyes.

Charlie stood up slowly, her face pleading as if wishing for her to speak and not if she turned.

"Hey." Daryl says softly, making her look at him.

"Am I gonna be okay?" Alicia asks softly, causing Charlie to wilt in relief.

"You're gonna be fine." Daryl says. "You lost a lot of blood, but you're looking better already. You're gonna be okay." He reassured as he squeezes her hand.

Alicia looked at Merle and Ofelia, who was staring at her in joy at her speaking. "Hi." Alicia says.

"Come here." Daryl says to their kids. "Take your Mama's hand."

Merle and Ofelia take Alicia's hand, and she smiles at them. "I'm gonna be okay."

The Twins nodded and started to yawn as Alicia immediately assured: "Try and get some sleep."

"How's Negan?" Alicia asks.

"Blaming himself." Daryl shook his head.

"I need to talk to him."

"You need to rest. You'll talk with him later." He assured.

"Can you guys give me a minute?" Alicia asks Charlie, who nods as she takes Merle and Ofelia's hands and leads them outside. "I didn't realize what had happened until Maggie shot it, and all I could think about it you and the kids." She says as her voice breaks.

"You're okay. We're all gonna be okay."

"I lost my arm." Alicia looked to the now stump where her arm had resided.

"We'll build you a badass prosthetic." Daryl says, making her chuckle. "We'll make you the most badass woman around."

"I'm not already?" She asks with a smile.

"Without a doubt." Daryl says as he kisses her head. "Get some sleep. I'll be right here when you wake up."

Alicia nods as she closes her eyes.

Negan's P.O.V

"Babe-"

"Oh don't fucking babe me, you know she's going to be fine. Last thing she would want is for you to throw a damn pity party." Kate chastised in front of him.

Negan gave her an annoyed look, but before they could continue the door opened With Daryl stepping outside, outside but left the door open. "You don't need to stay out here."

"I do." Negan says. "She's in there because me of."

Kate looked at Daryl and gestured to Negan. "I told you, it ain't your fault."

"Maggie's said that to you a hundred times doesn't change anything." Negan barked.

There was a bit of silence, before Negan looked down, Kate wrapping her hand in his "Sorry."

"She's awake."

"Charlie said that." Negan nodded, looking back up. "How is she doing?"

"She's processing what happened." Daryl says. "She wants to talk with you."

"I'll be ready when she wants me to come in. You should go back in there with her."

Daryl nods as she stands up. "Even if she died, I wouldn't blame you, and she wouldn't either. It wasn't your fault," Daryl tells him before he walks back inside.

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia opens her eyes and looks around the room. She sees Maggie sitting in the chair, reading a book. "What are you reading?"

Immediately Maggie shot her head up and looked to see Alicia awake and threw it to the side "Wasn't even reading, too distracted. Are you ok?"

"Where's Daryl?"

"I made him take the kids and get something to eat, he looked like shit." Maggie says.

"Probably smelled like it." Alicia joked weakly. Then she took a breath and asked "Maggie, I need to talk to Negan."

"I'll get him." Maggie nodded, as She lays her hand on Alicia's leg adding softly. "I'm glad you're okay."

"You're not getting rid of me that easy," Alicia says, and Maggie smiles as she leaves. A couple of seconds later, Negan walks in. "How do I look, still beautiful?" She asks with a smirk.

"Gorgeous." Negan quipped then sat down near her. "I'm sorry this happened to you-"

"Ok stop." Alicia says. "I'm alive, Negan. I'm still breathing. What happened there could have happened to any of us, it could have been Strand who grabbed you, or I could have been bitten anyways, but I'm alive, and I've lost a few pounds."

Negan chuckles at that, but looked around. "You shouldn't be in here."

"You shouldn't be blaming yourself for what happened to me. Nick shouldn't be dead, Ofelia shouldn't be dead, Travis... A lot of things have happened in this fucked up world, but the important thing is that I'm still breathing, and I'm gonna be here for my kids and my husband. Don't blame yourself for this, Negan. It wasn't your fault. It happened, we can dwell on it, or we can move on and make the best of the situation. I'm not blaming you, Daryl isn't blaming you, nobody is, so don't blame yourself. Don't let this tear you down," Alicia tells him as she takes his hand. "Okay?"

Negan nods as he squeezes her hand. "Anybody else you wanna talk to?"

Alicia stared and sighed "Negan-"

"They were out of their minds, and Madison broke down." Negan said to the point.

Alicia just sighed "Please get Rick...I'll think about it."

Nodding at that, Negan left and a few minutes later a puzzled Rick entered, looking at her confused.

"I was a little surprised when Negan came and got me." Rick says as he sits down, then stopped seeing the look in her eyes, himself now frowning in worry. "I'm not gonna like this conversation, am I?"

"No." Alicia says as she pulls herself up. "We don't know what is going to happen. I'm not out of this yet. I could still die, and if I...If I do die, I need you to take care of him."

"Alicia-" Rick said sternly, clearly wanting her to know she'd be alright.

"Please, Rick, I need to know that if I go, he'll be there for him. He'll need you. I need you to promise me."

Rick sighs but nods. "I promise."

Alicia nods then looked up at the ceiling. "I'm scared."

"I know," Rick says. "But you're gonna be okay. Do you want me to get someone else?"

Alicia thought for a moment, then muttered "No, not yet. Can you just sit here with me until Daryl gets back?"

"Of course," Rick says, taking her hand in his.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl slowly ate his food, Carol and Maggie sat across from him...Carol saying "well it does sound like she's doing better."

Trying to keep that hope up, Daryl nodded "Yeah...I guess. She...she has to pull through."

"Daryl."

Hearing that new voice, Daryl looked up and stared to see Shane slowly coming up, looking between three frowns and quietly asked "Can I sit?"

"...Sure." Daryl said, to Carol and Maggie's surprised expressions as Shane sat on the other end of the table, shuffling in place.

"Is she ok?"

"Better." Was all Daryl said.

After another moment of awkward tension...Shane bowed his head and started to say

"I'm sorry for what I said to you, for what I said in general last month." Daryl looked over at that, Shane staring at the table with sadness in his eyes "I was out of line and a complete asshole."

"You were," Daryl says as he stands up. "But we're good. But I wanna make something clear, if you ever do anything like that or say anything like that again, I'll break your jaw and make you swallow your teeth."

"Understood," Shane said after a chuckle as Rick comes in.

"She wants to see you two." Rick says to Shane.

"Me and Madison?" Shane shot his head up, eyes now hopeful.

Rick said in assurance "Yes, by name...now come on don't keep her waiting."

Shane's P.O.V

Shane and Madison walk into the infirmary slowly, looking at her in the bed...Shane felt his heart clenched. For a moment the three all looked at each other, till Madison walked up and wrapped her arms around her daughter, Alicia reciprocating with one arm weakly.

"Hey." Was all Madison said, soon kissing her on the cheek softly.

"You two okay?"

"No." Shane admitted, sitting down and choosing his words carefully as if walking on thin ice "Seeing you like that. It put things into perspective, we're sorry for what we did, and I'm sorry for what I said to Daryl. I talked with him before Rick came and got us." He paused then in a pained voice as if accepting he continued "You were right, Nick wasn't my son, and you're not my daughter. That doesn't mean I love you any less."

"I know." Alicia nodded at him as Madison slowly let go, sitting next to him "What you guys did was stupid and might get a lot of people killed. I meant what I said to you, that blood will be on your hands. That doesn't mean I'm not willing to give you another chance. But you're gonna have to earn my trust again."

"We will," Madison promised, hugging her again. "Mo's here. Would you like to see me here?"

"Please." Alicia says, and Madison nods as she leaves to go get Sherry and Mo.

The next morning

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia was woken up by the door opening, she looks at Daryl, lying in the chair with Ofelia and Merle in his arms, all three of them fast asleep. She smiles as she looks up at June as she walks in. "Good morning," June says as Daryl opens his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," Alicia says, and June nods as the twins yawned and the three of them began to stir.

"Your skin color is back," June says as she feels her head. "Your fever is also gone. You're gonna be okay, Alicia."

Alicia sighs and smiles as Daryl takes her hand as Earl and Carl come in. "What are you guys doing here?" June asks looking over confused..

"I have a present," Earl says. "I've been working on prosthetics, arms and legs. Eugene asked me to for when Alpha came back, and sucky for you, I was working on one when Beth told us what happened." Earl says as he sets it on the table and grabs her gun barrel. "Made specially for you, you can use it for your barrel, a knife, a mace. A fake hand," He says as he sets a metal hand down.

"Thank you," Alicia says, and Earl nods as he puts the gun barrel in the prosthetic.

"Fits pretty well." Carl commentated with a grin as Earl sets it down.

Merle stared in awe "Wow that's like a superhero!"

"Damn right." Daryl chuckled, rubbing his son's head.

"I'm glad you're okay. Let me know if I can do anything for you." Earl chuckled, letting the conversation back on track.

"Can you make me a new ring? It was on that hand," Alicia says.

Daryl smirks as he reaches into his pocket and pulls the ring out. "Strand grabbed it." Daryl says. "I cleaned the blood off." Daryl says as he takes her hand and slides the ring back on. Alicia smiles as she grabs his hand.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," Daryl says as he kisses her.

Thanks for reading. Of course, Alicia was going to live. Next chapter, we should finally get back to the war with Alpha, and there is still so much coming. Always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.