#michonne and cats are my weakness

[bishoujo-bitch]

just couldn't leave this behind. It's too damn gorgeous."

Season 3B as part of my rewatch challenge to draw a scene from each half season. This is one of my favorites- the moment Carl and Michonne became besties in one of the best episodes of the series. I love how much Michonne subtly loves cats throughout the show, it's just such a fun detail.

[trashcanband4]

The Revelation of the Other Woman Ch. 16

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15

Chapter Title: Settling in.  Pairing: Daryl/oc. Setting: The Prison. Wordcount: 4,837. Warning: None that I can thing of.

 After Rick, Daryl and Merle got safely inside the gates we all gathered in the cell block. Daryl, Carol and Beth stood on the perch and catwalk above while Michonne, Glenn, Rick, Maggie, Carl and I stood on the ground below. Hershel sat on the stairs. Merle was locked in the holding room. “We're not leaving.” Rick spoke with finality.

“We can't stay here.” Hershel argued the same case he had been arguing.

“What if there's another sniper?” Maggie asked. “A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds.”

“We can't even go outside.” Beth spoke up as if what she said wasn't already understood by everyone.

“Not in the daylight.” Carol added.

“Rick says we're not running. We're not running.” Glenn spoke up still playing the part of leader even though Rick was back.

“No, better to live like rats.” Merle spoke up through the bar door holding him back from the rest of us.

“You got a better idea?” Rick asked him.

“Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we?” Merle asked. “I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now.”

“We ain't scared of that prick.” Daryl spoke up from the catwalk, but I didn't even bother looking at him.

“Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing? That was just him ringing the dinner bell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to.” As much as I hated to admit it, Merle had a point.

“Let's put him in the other cell block.” Maggie said ringing a rag in her hands.

“No. He's got a point.” Daryl said.

“This is all you. You started this!” Maggie yelled at Merle who wasn't affected by it.

“What's the difference whose fault it is?” Beth spoke up loudly. “What do we do?”

“I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here.” Hershel said for the millionth time and Rick started to walk off. “Get back here!” he yelled at the ex-cop who stopped, but didn't turn to look at the old man. “You're slipping Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time. You once said this is not a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something.”

After Hershel yelled at Rick he just stared at him for a second then walked off. With him gone, people scattered. Most went to their cell's so that's what I did as well. I wiped the dust off of the metal mirror and looked at myself for the first time in months. Dark circles shadowed my eyes, my skin was darker than it used to be from the amount of sun I'd gotten during the winter and my hair had grown two inches, now touching my shoulders. I didn't look like the me I remembered. I was still studying myself when I heard someone clear their throat and looked over to see Daryl standing with his arm propped up on the door frame.

A pain shot through my chest at the way he was looking at me. With hard eyes and straight lips that gave nothing away. He was different than I remembered, everyone was. I guess we'd all changed over the winter. “Whatever you're selling I don't want any.” I told him emotionlessly and crossed my arms over my chest.

“That your way of tellin' me to go away?” he asked quietly.

“If you're going to call me more names...yeah. That's exactly what I'm telling you.” I said as I sat down on my bed, pulled my legs up and hugged my knees to my chest.

“I ain't good at sayin' sorry.” he said quietly looking more like his old self.

“Good then don't say it. 'Cause I don't want to hear it.” I practically growled at him still hugging my knees to my chest.

“Joanna, I really am-”

“No.” I interrupted him letting go of my knees to scoot to the edge of the bed. “You don't get it. I dreamed about you. Every night that we weren't together was another dream that had you in it.” His face flushed at my words and it was cute, but it didn't put a damper on my anger. “At first they were nightmares. I blamed you for me getting left behind and stuck with that bitch Andrea. But then I realized that you told me to stay behind because you wanted me to be safe and I stopped being mad at you. The nightmares turned to good dreams. I would be hunkered down in a house somewhere and you would find me or vice versa.” my voice was shaking holding back tears. “We would find each other, you would wrap those amazing arms of yours around me and give me the best kiss of my life.” a tear slid down my cheek as I watched him cross his arms over his chest and lean back against the wall.

“Then imagine my surprise when my wildest dream came true. You found me, hugged me and kissed me and...” I closed my eyes and smiled sadly at the memory of his arms around me and his lips on mine. “Damn it that felt heavenly.” I opened my eyes and let the smile fade as I glared at him again. “So stupid me, I think that means you actually missed me as much as I missed you, that you wanted me back. But then your brother comes in the picture and you no longer give a damn about me. I'm just some weak, uppity, booty call. And you leave.” my eyes glared at his hand to his mouth, chewing on his cuticles. “That hurt.” I glared at him with tears slipping down my cheeks. “I never thought you would hurt me. So don't expect me to jump into your arms at the first “I'm sorry.” because it ain't gonna happen.”

He just stared at me for a second as if he were trying to think of something to say before he nodded and walked out. A few minutes later I heard people talking down stairs, practically under my cell so I walked out on the catwalk to see what was going on. “I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch.” Rick said to everyone.

“I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence.” Daryl suggested.

“Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place.” Michonne suggested.

“We can't access the field without burning through out bullets.” Hershel added.

“So we're trapped in here. There's barely any food or ammo. Glenn added not helping one bit. Honestly his negativity was grating to everyone.

“We've been here before. We'll be all right.” Daryl tried.

“That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest.” Glenn directed at Daryl.

“Man, we gonna go through this again?” Daryl asked, getting in Glenn's face. ?Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it.” he looked up at me then at the rest of the group. “All y'all.”

“Seriously, Rick, I don't think Merle-” Glenn started, but I interrupted him.

“Just stop it Glenn.” I spoke up from the cat walk as Daryl came up the stairs. “No one likes him being here, but as much as I hate to admit it, we need him. He knows The Governors tactics and he has military training. So just get off your high horse and deal with it.”

Glenn looked from me to Rick. “I can't kick him out.” Rick said with a shake of his head.

Rick's words seemed to piss Glenn off even worse than mine did. “I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you.” Glenn's words pulled a look out of Rick and I tilted my head at Glenn's words. Shane tried to kill Rick?

“He may be erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to his brother.” Hershel defended.

“What if we solve two problems at once?” Glenn asked. “Deliver Merle to the Governor. Bargaining chip. Give him his traitor, maybe declare a truce.”

“No.” I said as I walked down the stairs to be a better part of the conversation. “We're sacrificing people now?” I asked with a twisted faced look at Glenn. “Delivering him to The Governor will be no different than leaving him on that roof to die. We couldn't do that back then and we can't do this now.”

“Who put you in charge?” Glenn asked.

I leaned back and raised my brows. “I could ask you the same question mister high and mighty.”

“Guys, cut it out.” Hershel cut off our building argument. “Look, Glenn, Joanna's right. That's not who we are.”

“We're not gonna figure this out now. Let's take a break.” Rick suggested and Glenn and Hershel walked off. Rick jerked his head for me to follow him to his cell so I did. “What all happened out there over the winter? I know you said Michonne found you two while you were running from the farm, but I don't know much more than that.” he asked as he sat down on his bed.

I sat down in the chair in the room with a sigh. “Not a whole lot up until Woodbury. I answered vaguely. Just a lot of running, scavenging and hunkering down for as long as we could. Michonne and I are pretty good friends, we don't communicate a lot, but we work well together. She and Andrea got closer though.” I said with a shrug.

“What about you and Andrea?” he asked looking curious.

“Oh we still hate each other as much as we always did, if not more now.” I said with a small laugh before it faded. “Bitches can't befriend bitches I guess.”

“You're not a bitch.” he said with a shake of his head.

“Really? Because I feel like one after the things I just said to Daryl.” I said looking up from the floor to his blue eyes. I had forgotten how blue they were and the fact that I was apparently a sucker for them. His and Daryl's... the same color yet so different. “But that doesn't matter. What about you and the rest of the group? There's some things I've been wondering since I got here.”

“Like what?” he asked and I sat up straighter.

“Like I hear Shane tried to kill you?” I asked and he nodded with a sigh.

“The night the walkers came through and we all got separated, he killed Randall to lure me into the woods and kill me.” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I killed him first.” he said before his dropped his hand and looked at me. I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything. “He wanted Lori, thought killing me was the only way to get her and Carl.”

“I'm sorry you had to do that.” I said and he waved me off. “So... I have to ask based off the way Beth spoke to me, did you and Lori ever work things out?”

He shook his head no. “What did Beth say to you?”

“She blames me for Lori's death.” he just tilted his head in confusion. “I guess she thinks that if I had never...been, with you that you and Lori would have been happier. I guess in her mind if you two were happier then you would have been there to save her or something.”

Rick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Those aren't only her thoughts...” when he lifted his head to look at me I tilted my head to the side in a questioning manner. “She's just copying what I've heard Carl say.”

“Wait, Carl's mad at me too?” I asked getting tired of being everyone's whipping post.

“Yeah.” Rick sighed and dropped his hand from his face. “He didn't put two and two together until recently...after Lori...”

“I don't know how to handle this... Should we talk to him, try to explain things?” I asked as I shook my head in confusion.

“No, I'll talk to him and Beth. You don't deserve all that hate.” he said as he stood up.

“No, I think it's totally justified.” I sighed as I stood up as well. “I'm a home wrecker.”

“You know that's not true. Lori and I had our problems long before you even came along.” he said taking a step closer to grab my hand.

“I know, but...” I said giving his hand a small squeeze. When I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye I looked out of the cell to see Daryl walk by and glance in our direction. His stopped when he saw Rick's hand in mine and shook his head. I could hear a scoff as he walked off.

I dropped Ricks hand and scratched the back of my head. “What else have you been wondering about since you got back?”

“Daryl and Carol.” I said crossing my arms over my chest

“What about them?” he asked.

“She seemed really upset to hear that he didn't come back and then she blamed me for him leaving like I pushed him into it or something.” I said and he just looked at me. “Are they...together?” I cautiously asked.

“Honestly, I don't know. It's hard to tell with him.” Rick answered with a shoulder shrug. “You'll have to ask one of them.” I sighed and placed my head in my hands. He placed his hand on my back. “Hey,” I looked up at him and he gave me a small smile, “If I hadn't said it yet I'm glad you're alive.”

I gave him a small smile in return and he engulfed in a hug. “I'm glad you're alive too.” I said with a small laugh then pulled out of the hug. His hands lingered on my neck and mine on his sides. In a split second every tender intimate moment we'd ever had flooded my mind. Then came the bad memories and all the arguments. That made me remember why I chose Daryl, why I love Daryl more than anything or anyone. So I let him go and gave him a sad smile. “Thanks for filling me in. I'm gonna go to my cell and try to process things.” he let me go without a word.

Daryl's cell was on the way to mine and Carol's voice made me stop just outside of it. “This is a tomb.” I heard Daryl say as I made sure I couldn't be seen by them.

“That's what T-dog called it. I thought he was right till you found me.” Carol said and it got quiet for a few seconds. “He's your brother, but he's not good for you. Don't let him bring you down. After all, look how far you've come.” she said making him laugh. God how I'd missed that sound. It got quiet and I was about to go to my cell when Carol's words stopped me. “I've never thought Joanna was good for you either. She's too weak, those panic attacks of hers...they'll only slow you down and make you weak.” I felt my teeth grind together as I bit down, forcing back more tears and made myself walk by as if I hadn't heard a thing.

About an hour later I heard some one approach my cell and I thought it would be Daryl or Rick, but instead, it was Merle. “What do you want?” I asked sitting up to pull my knees to my chest.

“Just thought that if we're gonna be under the same roof, we should clear the air.” he stated and I just stared at him. “The whole hunting you two down thing... that was just business. Carrying out orders.”

“Sure, whatever, just don't hurt my people.” I said and he just smirked at me. “What?”

“Good taste.” he answered making me immediately think of what he said back at Woodbury. How his brother had good taste. He just smirked again as he walked away.

I was still in my cell when I heard Rick yell for Daryl, Merle and some others to join him outside because Andrea had been spotted. So I ran out behind Michonne and watched as Rick let her in a treated her like the traitor she was. He pushed her to her knees and took her things before she confirmed that she was alone and she was eventually let into the prison, but just the holding room. Andrea greeted Carol first. “Hershel, oh my god.” she sighed, spotting the old man's lack of a limb. “I can't believe this.” she said as she looked around the room and let go of Carol. “Where's Shane?” he asked still looking around the room before she looked at Rick.

“Why should you care? You're sleeping with The Governor now right?” I asked earning a glare from her before she looked at Rick who simply shook his head and looked away from her.

“And Lori?” she asked and Rick just gave her a hard look.

“She had a girl. Lori didn't survive.” Hershel spoke up.

“Neither did T-Dog.” Maggie added and I made a mental note to find out exactly how he died.

“I'm so sorry.” she said before her eyes landed on Carl. “Carl...” the boy just glared at her sympathy. Then she turned to Rick. “Rick I-” she started to walk over to Rick but he backed away from her. So she looked around the room at other people. “You all live here?”

“Here and the cell block.” Glenn answered.

“There?” she asked pointing to the door to the cell block. “Well, can I go in?” she asked.

Rick stepped in her way. “I won't allow that.”

“I'm not the enemy here, Rick.” Andrea defended.

“No you're just sleeping with the enemy.” I said and this time she didn't even look at me.

“We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up.” Rick said still standing in her way.

“He said you fired first.” Andrea defended.

I wanted to point out that he was a liar, but I knew I wasn't the person to point that out. She wouldn't listen to me. She never did. “Well, he's lying.” Rick answered and she just stared at him.

“He killed an inmate who survived in here.” Hershel spoke up.

“We liked him. He was one of us.” Daryl said making her attention turn to him.

“I didn't know anything about that.” Andrea said with a head shake. “As soon as I found out I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out.” she said looking around at everyone.

“That was days ago.” Glenn said and now I agreed with his angry tone.

“I told you I came as soon as I could.” Andrea defended herself and looked around at everyone just to be met with glares and looks of mistrust. She turned to me “What have you told them?” she asked angrily.

“I didn't have to tell them anything.” I said from where I sat at the metal picnic table.

“You poisoned them with lies about me.” she yelled.

“She hasn't bad mouthed ya.” Daryl of all people defended me from where he sat at the table across the room from me.

“I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?” she asked getting mad at everyone.

“He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us.” Glenn started.

“With his finger on the trigger.” Andrea yelled with a point at Merle. “Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?” she asked then sighed and placed her head in her hands for a second. “I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done. But I am trying to bring us together. We have to work this out.”

“There's nothing to work out.” Rick said cutting her off. “We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will.”

“We can settle this.” she said taking a step closer to Rick.

“God, Andrea!” I yelled at her. “When are you going to open those ignorant eyes of yours and realize that there is no settling this. He will not stop until we are dead, that is just the kid of man he is. Merle kidnapped us, but it was under the orders of your boy toy. He is sick and twisted.” I said walking over to get in her face.

“There is room at Woodbury for you.” she said not giving up on the idea of peace.

“You're blind as a freaking bat.” I scoffed and walked back to the table.

“There's room for all of you.” she said looking around at everyone now.

Merle laughed at her. “You know better than that.”

“What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?” Hershel asked. “Did he say that?”

“No.” Andrea answered.

“Then why did you come here?” Rick asked.

“Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack.” Andrea warned.

“I'll tell you what. Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye.” Daryl warned back.

“We've taken too much shit for too long.” Glenn spoke up. “He wants a war? He's got one.”

Andrea turned to Rick. “Rick? If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town.” she heaved out a breath as she turned toward us. “Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore.”

“You want to make this right, get us inside.” Rick said walking around her to be in her line of sight.

“No.” Andrea said shaking her head rapidly.

“Then we got nothing to talk about.” Rick walked around her.

“There are innocent people.” she yelled after him trying to get him to stop.

With Rick gone Michonne and Andrea went outside to talk. So with her out of the way I went back to my cell.

I don't know when she left, I didn't go see her off like everyone else did. I didn't even leave my cell until I heard everyone getting together down stairs and the smell of warm food hit my nose. It turned out to just be rice, cooked with a chicken bullion cube for flavor. It wasn't much, but I sat on the floor next to Michonne to eat it. Not long after I finished my bowl Beth started singing. After listening to the song enough to recognize a pattern and pick up the chorus I started to sing along. “You gotta hold on, hold on. You gotta hold on. Take my hand I'm standin' right here. You gotta hold on.” I sang back up catching a few people's attention, but I didn't look at them. Beth glared at me, but I ignored her too. She wasn't going to put a damper on my fun.

When the song was over most people turned in for the night. So I followed suit. As I passed Daryl's cell he spoke up, stopping me. “So it's you and Rick again, huh?”

I stopped and leaned my back against the frame of his door. "Maybe." I replied with a shoulder shrug.

"I ain't interested in none of your games." He practically growled as he sat up on the side of his bunk.

"Are you and Carol together?" I finally asked and he looked at me like I was crazy. "She was more broken up about you leaving the group than everyone else and people around here seem to put your names together a lot. On top of that you two were close at the farm, so what am I supposed to expect when I find you." I explained deciding to leave out the fact that I heard her badmouthing me and Daryl didn't defend me. He just stared at me, biting his nails. “Was I supposed to expect you to just wait around for me to show up out of the blue? I mean as much as I missed you and longed to be with you I supposed you would move on at some point.”

"Did you move on?" He answered flatly.

“Oh, yeah, didn't you hear? Andrea, Michonne and I got real cozy on the road together.” I popped off and he rolled his eyes at me with a scoff. “No, I didn't.” I answered truthfully. “Have you?”

“Na. She's just a friend.” he answered quietly.

“Good.” I told him with a nod and pushed off of the door frame to walk away.

“You gonna give me a straight answer 'bout you and Rick?” he asked stopping me and I turned to see that he had stood up.

“He's just a friend.” I answered with a sigh. “Now if you don't mind I'd like to get some sleep.” I started once again to walk off but he grabbed my hand pulling me to a stop.

“Sleep here.” he suggested, not dropping my hand.

“Why, so I can be your booty call?” I asked sarcastically.

He bit his lip and shook his head. “Cause I love ya, Woman.”

“W-what?” I asked too shocked for his words to fully sink in.

“Come on, I ain't good at this shit, don't make me say it again.” he practically begged.

What he had done and what he had called me...it was all washed away by those three little words. Three little words that when said separately or with other words between them meant nothing. But when one sentence was composed of just these words they seemed to heal the worst of wounds and mend broken hearts. So what did I do when they finally sank in?

Laughter burst from my lips and I fell back to lean against the door frame again. When I managed to stop laughing I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. “Even in my best dreams you never said that.” I whispered then looked at him to see him looking at me like if I rejected him he would crack. “I love you too.”

A smile spread across his lips as he closed the space between us grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into him. The kiss was hard and passionate. A moan escaped my lips when his tongue found mine starting a battle with no winner. His hand moved from the back of my head to grip my sides and lift me up and pin me to that wall. My legs wrapped around his waist and my fingers embedded themselves into his soft hair.

Thirty minutes later we lay on his bed sweaty and breathless, but still tangled together like an unkempt line of string. “How do you do that?” I asked, not looking at him, but comparing the size of our hands instead.

“Do what?” he asked quietly.

“Make me lose my mind but stay perfectly grounded at the same time.” I said and he scoffed at me.

“Ya ain't makin' since.” he grumbled sleepily.

“Yeah, I guess my minds still a little lost.” I chuckled as I dropped his hand and rolled over to look at him. “It has to be, because I feel crazy for giving you a second chance.” I explained, resting my hand on his taunt chest. “I felt something for you before, I wasn't sure what it was, if it was love or lust or if it was just simply trust, and companionship. So when you told me I was nothing to you and chose to leave me, it hurt but I lived. Barely, but I did. And now, after tonight, after we said what we said? You have my heart, you're capable of destroying me.”

“Ain't gonna do that.” he promised, low and gruff as he placed his hand on my cheek and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “Can't make the same mistake twice.” from my face his hand slid down to my neck where he touched the mark his brother had left on me. “Let's get some sleep, missed havin' ya by my side.”

I smiled to myself as I tuned my back to him and he tossed his arm over my side. “Goodnight, Daryl.”

“Night, Ballerina.”

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[angelthefirst1]

The Tower - Season 10 episode 15

The Tower in this episode is the name given to the hospital that the community members are all hiding out in, but 'The Tower' represents 5 story lines

1. This current Hospital… (Obviously)

2. Grady, (The other hospital/tower) 

3. The water tower story, which I'm sure many will know from the comics, and is coming up and is alluded to in the background of this scene below

 4. The church 'Tower' in Alexandria and season 6 episode 2, when 'The Wolves' come into Alexandria, more on this soon...

5. Another reference to 'The Tower' was also made in season 4 episode 15 (not surprising, as the numbers do matter) that episode is called 'Us' and is about Glenn finding Maggie and also follows Daryl, just after he loses Beth. 

Daryl is trying to make it work with the 'Claimers' group.

In 'Us' also we see Abraham, Rosita and Eugene with Glenn and Tara. Glenn is hell bent on finding Maggie while Abraham is all about keeping Eugene safe and getting him to Washington. The group come across this Tower

And Abraham wants to stop and rest here, he says to Glenn that they all need to rest, this was a good spot, they would get up in 'The Tower' and stop for while.

Glenn does not want to stop in his search for his wife and ends up convincing Abraham to keep going by giving Eugene his riot gear, it ends with Glenn finding Maggie. Now the 'Claimers' story continues into 416 (A) which stands for train car A, and in episode 416 'A' Daryl finds Rick. 

That's where we are heading people...but with Beth instead! Eugene is heading to his meeting point at the train tracks which is a repeat of getting to Terminus and train car A, but this time around it will be train car B (Round 2, those that arrive survive) Daryl is going to come across Beth like he did with Rick back in 416. In 501 we also had the big Daryl/Carol reunion so I'm thinking it will be a mix between the two events and just like Terminus was split over 2 episodes (416 and 501) I think Beth's reintroduction and then reunion will be split over 1016 and 1101. They have combined all these ‘Tower’ episodes and are using pieces from all of them, Some notable callbacks are:

1. Lydia (Daryl) mourning Alpha (Beth) up in the Tower/hospital - Grady

2. The Whisperers (Wolves) coming into Alexandria... 

This Is a call back to the horde in season 6 and the truck that was smashed into the church tower 

The tower falls one episode later, but the trucks horn sounds and the loud noise causes the horde to change direction and head to Alexandria. The truck was driven by a Wolf (Whisperer) at the same time the Wolves get inside the walls of Alexandria.

It also explains the "how the harvest gets home" on the truck. The combination of events from all these episodes with ‘Towers’ is how Beth (harvest) gets home. In 602 we see Carol dress as one of the Wolves to help defeat them

Repeating her dressing like a Walker/Whisperer in 501 (With mask included)  and a possible reference to Beth dressing like a Whisperer or walker at some point to help defeat the Whisperers. 

(Note for my next post which will be out soon, in this picture below Carol uses a fireworks to destroy Terminus, and its a 4th of July reference)

3. Lydia patting the cat...

As I mentioned before this episode has aspects of 'Us' and the claimers group.

When Joe the Claimer talks to Daryl about staying with them he says "Are you a cat person Daryl? Nothing sadder than an outdoor cat thinking he's an indoor cat". The cat references in this episode are repeating 'Us'.

4. Daryl and Judith moments are so beautiful as always, but man it's repeating Alone... first Judith wanting to learn how to be like Daryl to protect the people she cares about, and him teaching her to be a hunter. 

She even figured out this was from a walker and not human and Daryl is impressed.

Second her getting upset about Daryl killing the Whisperer and not giving it a proper burial, is us being shown a repeat of this scene

When Daryl asks her what's wrong Judith says "I can't believe we just left her in a ditch" (reference to aftermath of Grady story and Beth's body getting left behind) Then when Judith is sad and missing Michonne, Daryl says "Nothing can take the place of someone you love being GONE" just another call back to the end of the claimers story where Daryl tells Rick Beth is just GONE...

It's confirmation that Daryl loves Beth!

Daryl also says to Judith "we gotta go, kiddo" repeating the start of his and Beth's story together when they leave the prison and he says "We gotta go Beth" 5. Kelly and Carol are repeating Noah and Beth in Grady. Carol is sorry for what she causes Kelly to go through with Connie (which is similar to Noah being beaten by Dawn for Beth's mistake of killing the Dr) and Kelly talks about not being weak just like Noah.

But they are also Connie and Beth repeats who i believe will be together, and they will travel to Oceanside and horses will be involved. 

Fulfilling these scenes...

Oceanside is where Daryl and Beth's reunion will be, fulfilling Connie bringing Dog back to Daryl and also Carol coming in on the boat at Oceanside. 

My next post will show Oceanside has ALWAYS been the location they would have their reunion.

6. Princess, Eugene, Ezekiel, and Yumiko are showing the story after Grady where some of the group  try to find  transportation to get away from Grady and the horde (it doesn't go to plan)

7. Arron and Aldan are showing the story after Grady of two individuals who try to lead the horde away but get caught by the enemy in the process. (This theme keeps coming up, I've written about it a lot so I'm confident it will be part of the aftermath of Grady story line too) 8. The very last scene is visually and symbolically VERY exciting for team delusional!

The horde comes to the hospital (Grady) parking lot... we are FINALLY back at the aftermath of Grady.

Greg Nicotero wasn't lying, they did use 800 walkers for the Grady hospital story...

We just had to wait 5 years and for the story to circle back to see it...

Brace yourselves TD the final is coming and with it Beth, and when she does this Team Delusional tag will explode!!!

[daydreamingstories]

I know it hurts

Daryl Dixon x Reader

960 words

Summary: Drabble with the prompt “I know it hurts”, requested by @soft-baby-blue , set after the prison fell and Daryl, Beth and the reader manage to run away together.

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You didn’t remember the last time you had been forced to spend a night out in the woods. At least last night you had found some cord in a car and so now there was a perimeter of wire around the little camp, helping you to notice if walkers were to approach.

Your home was gone. The prison had fallen under the Governor surprise attack. Your friends were gone, you didn’t know where. You didn’t know if they were alive or not, but you had to hope so, you had to hope they had run away too, somewhere…that’s what Beth said.

You had been lucky to be with her and Daryl, running away with them. If you had gotten separated from Daryl, you didn’t know what you’d have done. Alive or not, you didn’t know how you could find the others, and you couldn’t have much hope. Beth had asked Daryl to track them, but he hadn’t, as if he didn’t see the point. Or maybe it wasn’t that easy, you didn’t know, but to you, if someone could find the others, that was Daryl.

You didn’t press it, though, you knew he was having a hard time. He was hurting. He wasn’t sharing it with you, though. He was closed off, barely speak to you or Beth, and he was harsh when he did, but you knew he was also taking care of both of you, making sure you both were safe and fed. You knew he didn’t know how to handle what he was feeling, what had happened, and you wished he would let you help.

Beth was blessedly asleep and Daryl was sat down on the ground, crossbow on his knee, taking watch. You crawled closer to Daryl, intending on keeping watch yourself, he had already done it the night before and he hadn’t slept since.

“I’m going to take watch, get some sleep.” You whispered and Daryl didn’t say anything, didn’t look at you, didn’t move. “Daryl, you need to sleep.”

He still didn’t move, stubborn, and you let out a sigh. You shifted onto your knees and wrapped your arms around him to hold him to you. Daryl was stiff in your arms and you were afraid he was going to struggle and pull away but he didn’t, although he didn’t acknowledge you either.

“I know it hurts…” You whispered. “But we have to keep going.”

“That’s what I’m doing. We got food and water. A campfire.” He replied without looking at you.

“That’s not what I mean…”

“Then what else do you want me to do, Y/N?” He asked harshly, finally looking at you.

“Right now? I want you to sleep.” You didn’t back down at his tone, and you gave him a weak smile. Daryl just scoffed, looking away from you.

“It’s not that I want you to do something, you don’t have to, you do enough. What I mean by keep going is that we can’t let this bring us down. I know it’s horrible, and it hurts, believe me, I know…” You were hurting too, but you felt you needed to take care of Beth and Daryl, and so you didn’t allow yourself to fully feel it, you were grateful enough you were with Daryl. “We can’t just camp in the woods forever. We need to find something, shelter, I don’t know…maybe…maybe we could even look for the others…” You knew it was a long shot, but you also felt you needed to do something.

“The others are gone!” Daryl snapped, loud enough to wake up Beth, but she looked at you both and curled up again. “Rick’s gone, and Michonne, and Carl, and Lil’ ass-kicker, and everyone else.” Daryl’s eyes were wet and you let out a brokenhearted sigh. You reached out to cup his face and wipe the tears from his cheeks with your thumbs, but Daryl pulled away.

“We made it out, we ran away, I saw more people doing so, the others might be alive, somewhere…”

Daryl scoffed. “Even if they were, we ain’t seeing them again.”

“You can’t know that…and at least I’d be happy they’re alive…” You felt like crying yourself, but you tried to hold back your tears, even though you mostly believed Daryl’s words. “And at least we’re together, if we weren’t I-”

“Don’t want to think it.” Daryl cut you off sharply. “Can’t.”

“Then let’s just be grateful for it…”

“It’s not that I ain’t…” Daryl looked at you with sad eyes and you let out a sigh, wrapping your arms around him again.

At first, Daryl was stiff but then he gave up, leaning into you and nestling in the crook of your shoulder. You held him to you, stroking his hair, trying to comfort him somehow. Eventually, he relaxed enough to fall asleep, and you knew he must be exhausted. You were glad he was getting some sleep.

Daryl woke up in just a couple of hours, though, pulling away from you without a word and getting his crossbow again. You decided the best thing you could do was try to get some sleep yourself and so you lied down on the ground, curling up next to Daryl, and he allowed you to rest your head on his lap, even playing softly with your hair until you fell asleep.

Next morning, he was harsh and sullen again, but you hoped last night had helped…little by little��

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I hope you liked this little thing, please if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

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[capriswritingnartshenanigans]

Snapshot #2: The Storm (Negan/Carrie -F!OC)

Negan/F!OC, Carrie. SFW. 3,502 words. Warnings: Typical Negan language.

Links:

AO3

Snapshot #1: First Time

Carrie is leaving to help the Kingdom move to Hilltop as the harsh winter has finally done their home in. On return, she hears about what happened between Judith and Negan, and quickly goes to see if they are okay. Includes spoilers for Episode 16 of Season 9, "The Storm".

I pace uneasily as I prepare for the trip to the Kingdom to help them move to the Hilltop safely. With their pipelines only worsening with the impending winter and then finally busting, it was decided they needed to take shelter in another community for the time being. And, I wanted to help. However, that also means I have to leave Negan, and leave him in the hands of the others, namely Gabriel. 

I shiver as I exit out into the chilling air, snow crunching under my feet, my steps quick as I hurry to the said man’s prison. It’ll be weird not coming to sit with him every day, like I had for the last, what, four and half, maybe even five years now? I mean, I go on runs sometimes or I go help when and where I can with the other communities, but it’s been a long time since then. I’d taken over constant guard duty, which involved caring for Negan daily and keeping him company. Even if that’s currently possibly in jeopardy with the last time me leaving him in Gabriel’s hands resulted in Gabriel accidentally giving him an escape. My lips thin at the memory of the talking-to Michonne had given me once I got back. I’d never seen her so angry. 

I shake that thought off as I find the prison’s main door open due to Gabriel already being inside. I try to ignore the eager but also nervous fluttering in my stomach and chest at the thought of seeing Negan. Then the thought of having to say good-bye, even if it’s only for a little while hits, twisting those flutters into something else. As I go down the flight of stairs and approach where Gabriel stands, I hear Negan immediately start up, and it takes all my will not to grin at both that and the droll expression Gabriel is shooting him. “Oh, ho, ho! Gabe, looky here, my boss lady’s done fuckin’ showed up for duty! She’s standin’ attention as we fuckin’ speak, just like I would be if the shitty ass cold wasn’t freezing my nuts off.” 

And, no matter how hard I fight it, I still look over at him, finding a wide grin on his lips and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. My stomach goes wild when my gaze meets his and I find the usual warmth there waiting for me. “Yes, hi, Negan. I see you’re up early. Whatever could have caused that, I wonder?”

“The goddamn cold, fuck. It’s colder than a frosty ass head-nun’s vagina up in here.” It takes all my will to not snort and burst into laughter and I very quickly retract my gaze to Gabriel, who looks completely unamused while my shoulders shake violently at my repressed laughter. 

“U-Uh-huh, I s-see,” I stutter out, trying so hard to keep it together. “Well, uh, Gabriel, you mind giving out fellow inmate here another few covers? To, y’know, keep off the head-nun’s frosting of his cell.” The priest rolls his eyes and deeply exhales from his nose.

“I guess so. The group isn’t leaving yet, stay with him while I go get them, Carrie,” he requests as he quickly leaves, shaking his bald head. I purse my lips, look at the ground for a moment, then turn to Negan again. He’s steadily making his way to the bars, a long smile that shows off his dimples on his face. I approach them too, degloving my hands and wrapping them around the bars. I wince at the bite the cold has given the metal. As he closes in, he gently lays his hands over mine, and brings our heads next to one another, our noses practically touching. 

“Hi,” I reply softly, staring into his hazel eyes. 

“Hi. So, you have to leave today huh?” He tries to sound nonchalant, but I can hear the disappointment and unhappiness he tried to hide. He doesn’t want me to go.

“Yeah. There’s a big storm that’s moving in, and we can’t afford to let the Kingdom get caught in it as is. Hopefully, I’ll be back in a few days, four or five at most.” He seems to deflate further, his smile wavering. 

“Be careful, yeah? Don’t make me have to engineer another fucking escape to come lookin’ for your ass or else you’ll be coming home with some marks on it,” he says warningly, playfully. I grin at such a suggestion. 

“Why, Negan, it almost sounds like you’re saying you’ll spank me.” His smile becomes stronger, turning into a smirk. His voice drops an octave, which sends electricity skittering all through my body. 

“Oh, Miss Grimes, it almost sounds like you might be into such a thing,” he teases back, his eyes twinkling. I can feel a slight blush working up in my face. 

“Mmm, I guess you’ll just have to find out, huh big guy?” I look away for a moment, before taking a more serious tone. “Negan.” His playfulness drops with mine. 

“Yeah?” 

“Please, try to behave. Don’t give anyone a reason to do something stupid with so many of us not here,” I plead quietly, my voice earnest. When he starts to lean away, chewing the inside of his lip, I add, “Not all of them are as nice as me and Gabriel and none of them surely will enjoy your sense of humor for long.” He snorts offendedly. 

“What, you sayin’ I have a shit sense of humor now? Gonna say good-bye, be a good little fucker, and then say that?” 

“I adore you and your sense of humor,” I answer, knowing my look has to be teasing the hell out of him, “but you also have a tendency to antagonize anyone not me or Judith when you’re left alone with them. So, I’m asking you to just play nice until I get back. Please.” His eyes hood slightly and his thumbs begin running circles over mine as a soft chuckle rumbles out of his chest.

“You adore me?” He lightly tongues the inside of his lip. “Well, I gotta say, that’s real fucking cute and sweet of you.” I roll my eyes.

“If you haven’t figured that out by now, mister, then I do think we need to find a CAT scan for you,” I answer a little under my breath, but I know he hears me. One of his hands lift off of mine to stroke my cheek, then tuck a strand that fell from my ponytail behind my ear. 

“Yeah, I don’t know many people who’d sit ‘n argue for, shit, two or three hours just to get a man another table, chair, and candles.” As returning crunching steps filter down to us both, Negan retracts his hands with hesitation, letting me step back from the bars. 

“No, I did that because it’s a basic human right. Same for the showers.” Just then, Gabriel comes down with two more comforters. “Gabriel, if the storm gets bad-” 

“Don’t leave him down here?”

“Yes. Please do what you have to to see he isn’t left here. It’s not right. And if I find out otherwise… Rick’s rage will be nothing compared to what mine will be like,” I promise the priest. 

“I know. I agree,” he answers as he hands the comforters through the bars to Negan. “The group is ready now. You should go join them.” I look to Negan, whose expression causes my heart to squeeze painfully. 

“Please remember what I said,” I murmur, wanting to touch him. God, what I wouldn’t give to hug him right now. Before I leave. You never know if you get to come back. 

“I will,” he answers in a raspy, low tone, his voice sounding thick. 

“Promise?” He nods. I feel my lips press into a line as my heart fights to stay, while my brain knows I need to go. The climb up the stairs feels like the longest staircase I’ve ever had to climb.

~~Four days later, returning to Alexandria~~

“God, when we get home, I’m sitting in front of a heater or a fireplace until I feel cooked,” I grumble from atop my horse, shivering. The storm may be over, but the cold has done nothing more than settle in further. Shadow nickers in agreement, though I’m not sure how she plans to find something like that to be in front of, too. I lightly pat her neck.

“Aghhh, if I have to hear you complain about the cold anymore until we’re home, I will personally see to it you sit outside on the cold ass concrete,” Michonne answers, rolling her eyes playfully. I throw her a filthy look. 

“Them’s fightin’ words, Michonne,” I warn sternly. She chuckles, shaking her head, sending her dreads shifting around her head. 

“We’ll tie her to one o’ the church pillars,” Daryl chimes in, carefully keeping his face from my view. “Won’t have to listen to her ass sit and whine about the concrete.” I shoot him a withering glare and flip him off, which he returns with a low laugh. 

“Like to see you try, Daryl. You forget I’m good with a tranq gun.” Everyone laughs at that, though some roll their eyes or shake their heads. He snorts and it sounds like he mutters, "Bet," under his breath.  

As the gates come into view, I can see two guards in attendance, Kyle and Laura. Then, I can somewhat hear them shouting, something like, “They’re here! Open the gates!” Which is exactly what they do as we approach, heaving snow out of our path as the carriage comes closer to the entrance. Rosita is waiting there, as is a few other residents whose names don’t form in my mind. As those of us on single horses climb off, a few of said unnamed residents come up and take them while Daryl, Rosita, and I round the carriage to get the excess weapons and supplies out to put away. 

I grunt as I heave up a stack of spears and poles and some more wire. “Heavy ass shit.” 

“Best be glad we don’t have you on building rotation or we’d never hear you shut your complainin',” Daryl says with a grunt of his own as he grabs a couple of big boxes. 

“Shut up, Dixon, before your bike has an accident,” I grumble as we head to the store houses, Rosita follows with some stacks of fabric and excess grain from Hilltop. 

“You touch her, you won’t have hands left to keep your prisoner in line.” 

“Oh, who’s gonna take em? You? I can run faster and you have more weak areas pal,” I point out with a dip of my head towards his lower half. He lets out a disgusted noise. 

“Oh, you gonna fight dirty then? Cheap shot.”

“Says the man who prefers headlocks.” We split up as I head to the armory and he heads to the food cabinet. “Don’t trip over anything, Daryl! Hate to think of what that pickle vinegar will do to your vest.” 

“Yeah, hope you do trip over somethin’ and save me a headache later.” We both laugh as we head into different buildings, cut off from each other. Scott’s currently in the armory, checking supplies from the looks of him with a clipboard in hand. 

"More spears?" 

"And gardening stuffs for when planting times come around again," I reply, shifting my arms so he can grab the spears. After he does, I head to the second room back from the armory where all the gardening supplies are placed. While setting everything down, Scott strikes up a conversation.

“You guys just got back, like, now right?”

“Yep.” 

“So you don’t know what happened?”

“No?” I reply, a little harsher than I mean to due to throwing poles up on a high shelf. “Nah, haven’t heard a thing, man. I came here straight away.”

“Well, we were moving to Aaron’s house because the other fireplace just about blew up (since only like two places has fireplaces and shit was freezing), and Dog had been loose earlier, so when he started barking Judith tore after him!” 

“She what?!” I nearly yell, causing several rows of chicken wire to fall down as the row I was adding crashes into them.

“Yeah! And Negan went running like a bat out of hell after her! She’s alright and he is mostly, but he did fuck his knee up- hey! Hey, where are you going?!” I barely pay Scott’s yells any mind as I haul ass out of the building and on to the medical ward. He had best be here or there will be hell to pay, I promise silently as I nearly bust the door down. I turn to see Michonne exiting out of one of the single rooms on the left. She gives me a concerned look. 

“Is something wrong?”

“I just- I heard what happened- where’s Negan?” I speak so fast my lungs hurt in an effort to give my words air they need. She nods to the room behind her as she nears me. 

“He’s in there; he’s alright, but he has to rest his knee for a few days-”

“And Judith?”

“Fine,” Siddiq answers before she can as he rounds from the main room. “She’ll be just fine. A little cold burn, but that’s it.” I nod, relieved, but… I still want to see Negan. 

“I’m going to speak to Negan, make sure everything went well with Gabriel.” Michonne gives me a knowing look, one I pointedly ignore as I enter his room and close the door behind me. I hear his intake of breath, and I turn to him. He’s on a bed with his usual long-sleeved button-up, trousers, and a white t-shirt, with one knee bent and propped up with a pillow. He gives you one of his little grins, the ones with just a touch of wickedness. I can see spots of cold burn on his face, especially his cheeks. 

Before I know what I’m doing, I’m right at his side, cupping his face with one hand while the other strokes his buzzcut hair and the back of his neck. “Well, shit-”

“Thank you.” He stops when I speak, his grin fading a little. “Thank you for saving her. Are you okay? What happened?” He leans into my touch, his eyes closing for a moment as I stroke his brow. 

“I’ll be fine, darlin’. She went after the dog, right into the goddamn storm. I went after her.”

“Only you?” He nods. I feel my lower lip tremble, so I try to stiffen it. And, with one last stroke down his neck, I climb right into his lap, my thighs straddling his on either side, my pelvis hovering over his. A cocky look starts to work its way onto his face and I can see he’s preparing to say something that definitely expresses his interest in such a position, but before he can, I wrap my arms around his shoulders, only pausing to shrug off my militial jacket into his lap. I pull myself tightly to him. 

It seems the action surprised him, as he goes silent for a moment other than a soft stutter in his breath, before one of his hands makes its way under my hair to my undercut while the other splays over my lower back, pressing me into his chest. His face buries into the side of my neck, and I cup the back of his head as he does so. I’ve hugged him a very scant few times over the years as we became closer, mostly when one of us really needed it, or when the lack of touch outside of our hands became too much. Always trying to be careful, so I wouldn’t be forced off of watching him. 

I rub in between his shoulders, working at the tension there, while at the same time lightly pressing my lips right above his ear. We stay like that for a few minutes, before he slowly pulls back, looking in my eyes. His are more green today, beautiful tealish green, with brown only being visible around the edges of his irises. I let my hand drift from his head to stroke his jaw as his moves from my hair to stroke my face. His eyes drop to my lips, then slowly wander back up. He’s asking for permission. I tilt my head, letting my lips open slightly, and I do the same motion with my eyes. He slowly leans in, till his lips are a hair from mine, keeping eye contact even with our eyes hooded.

And when I let mine slide close, his lips press against mine, sweetly, gently. His are a little chapped, and I imagine mine are too, from the damned cold. His hands cup my face, their warmth soaking into my still chilled skin and the calluses scraping in a way that sends a shiver through me. After a few moments, he pulls back, but only slightly, his lips still brushing mine. “Fuck, I was wondering what that’d be like.”

“So was I.” I sound as breathless as I feel, and without thinking about it, I press my lips back to his, pulling his face gently to mine. We share multiples of these softer kisses, always drawing back together near immediately after parting, before they start to deepen and last longer. His lips taste like the fruity pain reliever Siddiq has in his medicine cabinet, and God, they feel amazing against mine.

But, eventually, we do fully part, our breaths a little shaken and mixing between us. There’s a vulnerability in his eyes, one I remember vividly during our talks of everything happening, losing his control on everything, his wife. I give him a small smile, before hugging him again, pressing my cheek gently to his as to not irritate it. “Why, Ms. Grimes, I do think you are sweet on lil’ ol’ me.”

“Mmmmm, why, Negan, you reckon?” I reply with a sarcastic falsetto to his teasing, enjoying being able to feel his low laughter rumble into my chest. “And ‘lil’ nothing, you are about half a foot taller than me, mister.” I pull back, pursing my lips to the side as he gives me a big grin, but not his usual one; this one is more goofy, more playful. It makes my heart feel funny. 

“Shit, I guess I am a blind motherfucker after all, you been hittin’ on me this entire time?” he teases, his tongue tip messing with his lower lip. I try hard not to focus on it and instead roll my eyes as I climb off of him. He goes to protest, his hands lingering on my arms, then slide down to my hands when I’m on my feet. “Wait, where you goin’? You just got here.” 

“I am not going anywhere, but you need rest and no pressure on that knee, as it wouldn’t be propped up if it wasn’t needing rest.” I grab a chair and haul it to right beside his bedside, then take one of his hands. “I am your guard, after all. Gotta keep you safe.” I wink at him, unconsciously drawing my lip between my teeth.

“Uh huh. And that’s why you needed to climb into my lap, make my dick hard enough to hammer in a fuckin’ nail, and then have the balls to be all soft ‘n sweet.” He shakes his head in fake exasperation, trying to not show how his lips are fighting to smile. “Goddamn, I ain’t got a guard, I got a master fuckin’ torturer with my name at the top of her ‘make it as painful as you fuckin’ can, maybe even nostril slitting if necessary’ list. My luck is both higher than a stoner with a weed forest and shittier than a stall with fifteen horses.” 

All I can do is laugh so hard I wheeze at his commentary. I had not been expecting his little speech, and God, I laugh so hard my lungs and chest ache. From what I can see through the tears in my eyes and my squinting, he’s more than happy at my reaction as over the buzz in my ears I can hear a laugh from him too. “Negan- I- what-” 

“Yeah, got your master-fucking-plan down, didn’t I? Figured you all out.” 

“Oh yeah, buddy, you got it,” I let out a few remaining guffaws, raising my hands in the air. “Got me all figured out, I admit to my crimes.”

“You are a lucky ass that I got room in my cell for someone else,” he says with a sigh and a shake of his head.

“Oh? Where am I sleeping in there? Your cot isn’t big enough for two.” He gives me a wicked grin.

“I make a mean fuckin’ mattress in every  sense, if you catch my meanin’, darlin’.” 

“Negan!”  

[storytime-hoe]

Tough Love Ch.10

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x O/C

Summary: Story picks up during season three as the group goes into Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie from the Governor. However, they pick up another prisoner of Woodbury, Emma (O/C). She is a thief who fears friendships after her hard losses. She stays on the move, studying communities from afar and then robbing them blind. She has stayed alive this way for a while until the Governor catches her in the act. Now she finds herself with the group from the prison in a mission to kill the Governor for what he has done to her. She plans on stealing supplies from the prison group after the Governor is killed, but she might be growing a little too close to the groups members, especially one man in particular: Daryl Dixon.

Warnings: Slow burn, language, usual twd violence, mentions of abuse/rape

Authors Note: Okay so heres the sitch. This chapter is going to be really short. I am sorry for that. BUT. Here’s the thing, I just want to get something out here for you guys cause it has been too long. Again... sorry. 

I will be posting more frequently now that I’m getting some stuff finished off. So for now you’ll have to suffer with a short chapter with a cute little Beth moment. 

I wrote it rather quickly and my mind is a jumble sometimes so things that make sense to me might not make sense in the story so like again so sorry but oh well about that one. 

Previously: Ch.1   Ch.2       Ch.3       Ch.4     Ch.5      Ch.6     Ch.7       Ch.8       Ch.9

I've never felt more useless in my entire life.

Everywhere I went to try and help out around the place, I was turned down. "You need to rest up." "Get off of that leg." It was all the same damn excuse. My leg was holding me back and it got on my nerves real fucking fast.

"I am so sick of people looking at me like I'm incapable of doing anything at all!" I complained rather loudly to Beth from my bed.

Beth had come by for the past few days with Judith to keep me company. At first I was wary that she might just be being nice to me because she wanted something from me, but slowly I was warming up to her after I came to the conclusion that she meant no harm. I think maybe she was getting a little lonely too, seeing how she was cramped up in the prison all day as well.

"I can't be kept in this room all my life. I should be out there looking for the Governor."

Beth sat on the edge of the bed, rocking Judith lightly, not looking at all bothered by my sour mood. "Michonne and Daryl are out every day looking. Besides, it's just until you can run on your leg. What would happen if you came up on a hoard and couldn't get away? It's not forever, you're just being dramatic. The bullet was pretty deep, so it makes sense that it's still in bad shape."

"Fuck my leg," I pouted next to her, leaning back against the cool cement wall and crossing my arms over my chest. "Fuck Rick too. He's the reason no one will let me do fucking anything around here. He went around telling everybody that I needed to take it easy. Now they look at me like I'm a fucking three-legged puppy and tell me that it would be best if I go lie down."

I was staring out in front of me as I seethed about the situation, waiting for Beth to have a counter point and defend Rick by saying how everyone wanted me to recover fast and they were doing this for my own good and all that bullshit. But she never did. I sat up curiously and looked around at her sly grin as she patted on Judith's back. I scanned her knowing smile carefully. She was keeping something from me. She knew something that I didn't, but what the actual fuck could it be that made her smile all smug like that.

"What is it?" I demanded, bringing my legs up into the bed with me, unable to contain my absolute need to understand what was on her mind. "What do you know?"

Her eyes had a mischievous glint to them as she flicked her gaze over to me. "Wasn't Rick," was all she whispered with a slight shake of her head.

I furrowed my brow, craving more information. "Beth, what the fuck are you on about?"

"You shouldn't use that language around the baby," she said in an attempt to quickly change the subject.

I rolled my eyes and shook her arm lightly. "Beth. Come on."

She still had that soft grin on. The one that I was fighting not to hate right now. "Daryl told everyone not to let you do anything. Everyone here basically worships him too, so they listen without question when they get an order from him."

I blinked at her twice, not trusting what I had just heard. Daryl was the reason people were treating me like a child? He was the reason I was going crazy inside these cement walls. It was not his damn place to control what I did. I was so furious at him that I hadn't realized the death grip I had on Beth until she squirmed away from me. I quickly apologized and stood up, ready to wait for Daryl to return from his Governor hunting so I could give him an ear full.

I was so overwhelmingly furious that Daryl was the one to betray me like this. He knew damn well that I was itching to get back out there and he was torturing me in his own sick little way. Fuck him. All good thoughts I had had about him flew from my mind in an instant. I didn't care that he was there to comfort me on the night of my panic attack. I didn't care about how good I felt when I was with him sometimes, like when I woke up strewn across him. The only thing I could think of was that he had done this to me as a way to drag at me. He saw me at my weak points, and he was making sure everyone else was seeing it too. That arrogant little fuck.

"I'm gonna kill that son of a–"

"Emma, stop." Beth was off the bed right after me. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the door before I could march out and make an even bigger fool of myself than Daryl already had. "Don't you think it's... I don't know... sort of sweet?"

"Sweet?!" I exploded. Beth had lost her damn mind. The only time he ever did anything close to sweet for me was the panic attack incident. Even then he didn't want to stay with me, he had wanted to get Maggie and be rid of the situation. I only made him stay because I couldn't stand for more people to know how weak I was being then, and he only stayed because he owed me for being his shoulder to cry on when Merle died. Beth didn't understand that his way of thinking was not something to call sweet when it came to me. I was still set on the conclusion that he was punishing me.

Beth giggle and guided me to sit back down. "He cares about you, Em. Come on, don't be dense. Everyone sees the way he looks at you."

I blinked at her stupidly, my anger sizzling down. "And how's that?" I said with a snarl.

She was looking down, her eyes glistening with a strange wonder. "No one knows a lot about him or his past, but he had a shit home life, that's no secret. And when he looks at you, it's like he's found what's been missing, like he has finally found someone that feels like home."

I swallowed thickly. We all knew he had had a shit life before the world ended. He was practically raised by Merle who would drag him into all kinds of messed up shit. So, it made sense that he was searching for someone he felt was solid in his life. But there was no way in hell that person was me. Did I even want it to be me? No, it couldn't be me.

"It's not true, Beth." I didn't sound as convincing as I would have liked. "Look at me. I'm not the type of person that guys care about like that. I don't even look nice. He's not interested in a piece of shit like me."

She met my eyes with a mesmerizing look. "I didn't say he liked you because you looked nice. Emma, you are art. Art isn't supposed to look nice. It's supposed to make you feel something."

I wanted to deny it until I was blue in the face, but the more she talked the more I thought it could be true. We may fight like cats and dogs, but he has told me before he'd protect me always. He was talking about from the Governor, but maybe that's what he was doing now. He was protecting me from getting myself hurt more or worse. After years of protecting other people, I wasn't used to being on the other side of things.

As much as I wanted to whoop his ass right now for sentencing me to do nothing at all, I couldn't bring myself to do it. After all those years of fighting, I, for once, was being fought for. And it made me feel those annoying little tingles of excitement and it also scared the shit out of me at the same time.

What was I even supposed to do with this new information? It wasn't like I was going to jump into his arms and we would ride off into the sunset. The only reason we were drawn to each other was because we were both recently broken apart; people who go through deep shit tend to migrate towards each other. We might look out for one another and always have each others backs, but it was just a friendship– a strong bond. There was nothing I was going to do to change that and Daryl sure as hell wasn't going to be making any kind of move either. Because even if Beth claimed he looked at me like every girl wants to be looked at, that was just her fantasizing about it in her optimistic rainbow loving mind.

And that was that.

***

Taglist:

@daryldixonandfrogs @jodiereedus22 @xchrisxevansx

[multiplefandomfics]

Reunion

So here is another oneshot of mine out of the walking dead universe. Hope you’ll like it.

pairing: Daryl x reader

warnings: smut, angst, fluff, separation

Summary: Daryl had been your boyfriend before the apocalypse started but you got separated at the beginning. so imagine the happiness when you meet him again in Alexandria. (sorry I suck at summaries so just enjoy reading).          

The end of the world is a strange thing. Many people made movies about it but when you experience it firsthand it doesn't feel like an Edgar Wright film much. When the virus broke out I was at the supermarket with my mom. Let's just say she didn't make it far when the walkers came. It still hurts to talk about it even after so may months. I am still devastated and often I find myself alone, hungry and sleep deprived. Before the apocalypse I had a boyfriend. He was awesome I often wondered if he was still alive or if he was one of them now. On my journey I met people here and there but they all turned against each other eventually so I always left before I could get in the crossfire. The only reason I survived that long is that I am an excellent Archer and I know how to make my own arrows and such. My boyfriend used to be the best crossbow Archer I had ever seen and he taught me how to shoot. I am glad the walkers are so slow and dumb or I wouldn't stand a chance. I don't know how long exactly I stumbled around, scavenging goods in towns and killing walkers. I don't get much sleep because I have to be alert at all times or I will be walker food. I learned a lot on my trip through the wilderness. I had been camping with my dad a lot when I was a kid so I knew how to make a fire and skin animals to eat. But oh how much I miss driving through a drive through and just ordering a greasy burger and fries! Sometimes I am lucky enough to be able to secure a car to drive with until I run out of gas. That was another attribute my boyfriend taught me a long time ago. Hot wiring cars. That really comes in handy now.

I gotta say I came around. After years of running and hiding I am walking cautiously through a forest when I suddenly hear rummaging. It is strange because I hadn't seen a living human soul in ages. So I decide to slowly close in on the people. I am not sure who it is or how many. I am aiming my bow at the possible threat. As I arrive at a clearing I am immediately met with the sight of three people fighting a herd of walkers. There are about 15 of them. I don't know these people but I still decide to help. I have to. They would lose without me. The taller mans head shoots in my direction when one of my arrows whirres past it and hits in the eye of the walker behind him. After we killed the last one I slowly walk closer. I am still not sure what to think of them. "Thanks for your help." The taller man wheezes out. "I'm Rick, that's Michonne and my son Carl. And you are?" I eye them skeptically "(Y/N)" I answer hesitantly. "We have a secure base not far from here. Our car is parked at the street uphill. You wanna join us? We have food, running water and electricity." He asks me. After short consideration I speak up again: "I think a little relaxing time can't hurt. I have been on the run for far too long." " Good decision but I have to ask you a few questions before we take you in. Just to make sure you're not some serial killer." He laughs and proceeds "How many walkers have you killed?" "Far too many to count. Those bastards aren't human anymore." "How many people have you killed?" "Just one." "Why?" "It was my mom. Right after the apocalypse started we were in a supermarket and the walkers came bargin in. They bit her and tore her apart and I killed her to not let her suffer any longer." I am close to tears again. I hate it to appear weak. "I am sorry but we have to get back to the car before even more of them arrive." Michonne adds. So we make our way through the bushes to their minivan. I seat myself on the backseat of the car next to Rick's son Carl. "So how long have you been out there?" Rick tries to make casual conversation after the silence got too much. "Ehm pretty much since the start. I've been hopping through groups but they all sooner or later started to kill each other over leadership." I answer dryly. Then we fall into comfortable silence again until we reach our destination. A guarded town called Alexandria. I am really impressed by all of that. It is astonishing that they survived so long. The gate opens and we drive through. The car comes to a halt directly behind it and Rick parks it in line with some others. I hesitantly step out after the others. I have no idea what to expect. I still don't really know these people. Suddenly I hear a voice behind me whispering my name incredulously  "(Y/N)? Is that really you?" I haven't heard that voice in years. I turn around "Daryl? I thought you were dead!" I am crying by now. I can't believe he is here. I found him. Finally. He races toward me and hugs me close. His smell is still the same as it always was. "I missed you so bad. Is this real?" I ask tears streaming down my face. "I love you baby and I'll never let you go again. Where were you when it broke out? I was at your house to get you and your mom but there was blood everywhere and I thought they had already got ya." He rambles worriedly.

"I was at the store. Mom didn't make it far. I had my gun with me. Wanted to head to the shooting range after to practise like you taught me. I had to shoot her. I went home shortly to get some things. My bow included and saw that the walkers had gotten my cat. That was probably the blood you saw." I am crying profusely now. Suddenly I notice everyone standing around staring at us. Some in confusion some in awe. "So you know each other?" Aaron asks to lighten the embarrassing mood.  You can cut through the tension with a knife "yeah, we were a couple before shit went down." Daryl throws into the round. "We were a couple Daryl? In my imagination we still are. I never stopped loving and searching for you. And I like the new haircut." I add. "You still want to? Be a couple I mean?" He looks shy as always. Under his hard exterior is a big softy. I had always known that. "Sure. By the way where is your ass of a brother?" I smile at him. Merle is a first class douchebag but he somehow belongs to Daryl. The look on Daryl's face tells me everything I have to know. "Oh. He didn't make it. What happened?" I ask and put my hand comfortingly on his neck. " He got himself killed a few years back. 's all." Daryl rambles under his breath. "I'm sorry baby! I truly am. I know how much he meant to you." I take him in a bone crushing embrace. "So you wanna show me around your new home?" I asked cheerfully. "Yeah, sure can do sweetheart." There is the old Daryl I knew again. He may be a little more rugged around the edges and had been through a lot in the past few years but he is undoubtedly still the man I love. He shoves me through the relatively big town of Alexandria and tells me about the connections they have with other communities around here. It's quite astonishing what they have build here but it still pulls me out of the walls to hunt and kill some walkers. "And this is my house. I live here with Carol." He finishes his tour. "This is so picket fence. Could you have imagined us having something like this before all hell broke loose?" I giggle."no way. I sometimes I am still not sure if this is really it for me ya know? But you make it definitely so much better darling!" He exclaims. "I understand what you mean. I don't wanna be confined in these walls either. You go hunting?" I ask him and he nods in affirmation. "Care to take me along sometime?" "Sure what about tomorrow?" He suggests. "That'd be great." Then I start a giggle spree. "What's so funny darling." Daryl slurs. "It's just so amazing that around you I still feel like I'm home. I love you so much." I admit. Everything was lovey dovey as Daryl kisses me deeply. I can feel my insides tickle and realize how much I missed him. Suddenly the air around us shifts and it gets heated. Silently we communicate and he starts pulling off my dirty shirt. "Shower?" He asks breathless from kissing. "Yeah" we stumble our way upstairs still kissing the air out of each other. The last time we were able to do that was too long ago. I am so lost in pleasure my only words are I missed yous and I love yous. Over and over I whispered that to him. His tongue is dominating my mouth like it always did. It turns me on so much. My panties are probably soaked. I am gonna throw them away anyways. They have already given me new clothes. This is gonna feel fantastic. At the sight of the shower I moan loudly. Haven't seen a functional one in forever. He rips the rest of my clothes off while I do the same to him. The moment the warm water touches my skin I moan again even louder this time. Of course I had tried to bathe in small creeks or lakes but that is not easy with the threat of being killed omnipresent. Daryl leathers me up with soap and the water does the rest. "This is fantastic!" I swoon."baby I can't take it anymore. I need to be inside you. I missed you so much." And with those words he pushes his thick length into my tight,slick channel from behind. My eyes roll to the back of my head and I groan loudly. I haven't felt that in years and just now I realize how much I craved his touch. Being close to him is all I want. I am never gonna let him go again. "Daryl… so good… perfect." I moan out to him. My voice spurs him on to speed up and with that he hits my spot dead on. My release washes over me suddenly. Me clenching around him brings him to his own end. The pure euphoria we feel is indescribable. I feel like I'm floating on cloud nine. He slowly pulls out of me what makes me wince from overstimulation. "I'm so happy that you came back to me. I wasn't whole without you." He whispers as we step out of the tub to dry of. "You're not getting rid of me any time soon." I smile back at him.

So this is the story of how I found the love of my life again after years of unknowing.

[prodicalviews]

Untitled

About a year ago I started writing this fic I was pretty tipsy (maybe even drunk). I remember laughing my head off like I was funny lol.

Please don't take this seriously, I mixed my drinks that night I was a mess the next day.

Feel free to call this drabble what you want.  In the meantime, I’ll be updating all the fics this week.  (yes all)

power to fanfic writers, may the new year grant you creativity, no writer's block, and clear skin.

I never understood why the landlord never warned me whenever we had a new tenant.  Specifically when there’s a vacancy next to me.  It shouldn’t be hard, the guy lived two doors down from me.  Though I wasn’t going to say anything to that big burly man.

Three.  Three people in the last 5 months went through this apartment.  And of course being the nice genuine person I am I’d give them a welcoming pan of cake or cookies.  I’d also befriend them, despite my loner tendencies. It never hurts to have someone watch after your cat when you go on a shopping trip.

No thanks to Abe, also known as the landlord.  I found out we were getting a new tenant from Carol.  My other neighbor.  Honestly, I understood why those girls moved out.  One, these condos were expensive.  Two, shopping sprees daddies money didn’t fully cover were more important than rent.  Three, everyone living here was either, doctors, lawyers or some other hotshot.  So holding a conversation without sounding like an idiot was damn near impossible.  Unless of course, you were talking to an actor or my downstairs neighbor, Jessie.  Bless her heart.  I can’t count how much celebrity’s I’ve met just walking to the dumpster.  Just taking out some trash the other day and hey would you look at that, Nicholas Cage.  Well, most of them were old time celebs but they were still famous, right?

As I was saying, right when I got to know these girls well enough.  They went and left me.  I’d ask Carol to watch Mike but she’s allergic to cats.  Morgan was always busy with his son. Glenn and Maggie, well they wouldn’t even bother feeding him.  I’m pretty sure Daryl would just throw him in the trash.  Negan would watch him, but of course, that came with a sizable price and Jessie?  I’m positive she’d kill him by accident.  Sasha watched him before but now she’s always missing since she became chief of staff at the hospital.  Abe would just have him testing landmines in the desert during my absence.

I stared down at my furless cat.  His big brown doe eyes called to me.  Yes, he was ugly.  Everyone made sure to tell me this.  But I loved him.  He’s my little muse.  But a girl needed new underwear, shoes, and blouses.  I don’t know how I managed to survive this long, I haven’t gone shopping in a year.  A whole year.  And if that meant sucking up to whoever was moving boxes of their shit into condo 7 then so be it.

It wasn’t long before Mike started mewling for his morning breakfast.  His stretchy skin rubbed against my bare legs.  His meows only seemed to get louder.

“Don’t worry Mike, momma’s going to get your kibbles.  You want kibbles don’t ya?”  He meowed in response.  I was positive on some level Mike understood me.  He’s been with me for eight years now.  Through thick and thin he stuck by my side. He was two when I lost my job at Atlanta’s art gallery.  I decided to take a leap of faith, the money I made from the paintings sold over the years was meeting its end.  Mike and I were barely surviving, with my last bit of funds I made a tedious treacherous journey down to LA in my small KIA.  It wasn’t long before I lost hope.  Selling paintings on the roadside didn’t pay the bill for that trash motel we stayed at.  Eventually, I took a job waiting at a restaurant.  It was a sight to behold, I earned my degree in the Arts yet I was waiting tables for the hillbillies, hippies and con artist of LA.

But I didn’t give up.  After getting the green light to display my paintings in front of the diner I worked for.  Things started to look better for me.  I sold a few pieces, enough for me to relocate to a different motel.  One that was more inhabitable.  Dale never asked for compensation if I sold an art piece.  He was a genuine man that wanted the best for me, along with a few of the other waitresses that were trying to get through school.  So when he told me about an inquiry on my pieces from a man in a not so modest suite I knew he wasn’t lying.

One can say I’ve made a name for myself, six years later I supplied work for some of the biggest Galleries in the city.  And a year since I had a stable neighbor in Condo 7 after Noah died.  He was a young up and coming actor with a boisterous personality and a genuine smile.  After dying in a head-on collision we all mourned his death.

Pulling open one of my cupboard, I grabbed the bag of overly expensive catnip along with Mike’s bowl.  He nudges my leg urging me to hurry and serve his food.  I loved him to death but his attitude needed an adjustment.

Pouring food into his bowl and I watched as he made a dash for it.  It evoked a chuckle from me.  We were living well.  I admit we gained weight, his pudgy stomach touched the wooden panels of the kitchen floor and those five-star dishes went straight to my hips.  It was Saturday, which meant I was due a visit from Carol shortly.  Yes, Mike gave her allergies but it never stopped her from urging me out of my shell.  Art has always been my safe haven.  A man-made solace of the sort.  I’ve never been one for an abundance of company, which is why, as my work became more popular I sold anonymously.  My first name, Michonne, was still attached to everything I’ve painted but no one actually knew how I looked or my gender.  Unless you count the assholes back in Atlanta, but I haven’t heard any news of them releasing images of my face.  After all, Michonne wasn’t a common name.  Along with my longtime neighbors and the folks who bought my work in the early stages of my career my secret was safe.

As if on cue, Carol’s signature knock sounded against the door.  I rolled my eyes at the clock hanging over my stove.  Nine o’clock sharp as always.

I took my time answering the door, we always had the same conversation. Like clockwork, so I wasn’t in a rush.  Releasing my locks and turning the doorknob I was greeted by a smiling face equipped with a pan of chocolate cookies.  My mouth was watering, my weakness.  I returned her smile and relieved her of the pastries.

“That thing hasn’t sat on the couch yet as he?”  She asked a bit weary.  For Carol’s sake and peace of mind, I was sure to spray the couch and keep Mike away from her designated spot.  I waved her off removing the plastic covering her pastries.

“By thing I assume you mean Mike.”

“Oh yes, him.”  I could hear the humor in her voice.  I shook my head and started the coffee maker in the kitchen.

“I thought you’d want to reserve some treats to sway our new neighbor with.”  Oh shit, I almost forgot about them.  This was my secret, I gave them baked goods, that Carol herself baked.  Normally she’d bring in anything left over from her bakery.  But this was different, these were chocolate cookies.

“They’re not even moved in yet.”  I mentioned from the kitchen.

“Oh sweetie, where have you been for the past seven hours?”  I was sleeping no doubt.  “Last I check they were just moving the last of their furniture.”  Carol was a dear, out of all my neighbors, we exchanged the most words.  I’ll even go as far as to say she’s my closest friend.

“I don’t need to schmooze the new neighbors this early, it’s only nine o’clock.  I’ll let them settle in first.”  After the coffee maker screamed in wake of its completion I grabbed two mugs.  Mine and Carol’s permanent Saturday morning mugs.  I know.  She literally bought a mug for my place that she uses.  I poured us coffee adding sugar.  I walked in the living area balancing our coffee and a plate of cookies.

Uncrossing her legs she took her mug from my hand and watched as I sat down.  I took a careful sip of my coffee, it was hot and the scent from the beans was strong as I inhaled, just how I liked it.

“You wouldn’t have to schmooze them if you’d just buy your clothes online.  This is the 21st century after all.”  She is 40.  Exactly ten years my senior, so her words were more than ironic.  It made me feel decades old.

“Carol we’ve been through this too many times.  I prefer to buy items that are my size exactly.”  I wasn’t lying when I mentioned that Mike and I gained weight.  Living the good life put me up a cup size and made jeans stop to my thighs when I squeezed into them.  It wasn’t as if I wasn’t working out.  There was a gym downstairs I utilized constantly, but once my hips and breast got bigger they decided to stay that way, despite all my effort and time.  “So I buy them in the flesh.”

She just waved me off.  “You don’t need to take a flight to buy clothes, Michonne.”  She was right, but it was one of the perks hard earned money bought you.  I clucked my tongue to the roof of my mouth deciding to change the topic of conversation.

“So how is Ezekiel doing?”  And just like that her blue eyes glazed over.  For as long as I knew Carol, they’ve been together.  I even gave him a few pointers on how to grow his locs.  I was glad they stuck together so I could watch his locs flourish past his shoulders.  I was also elated for Carol.  Ezekiel was a B list actor, one of my favorite actors since he played Victor on ‘The Last Knights’.  It was among many of my TV favorites.  Technically they lived together, but during filming season he had to go to a different state but they kept in touch.  As to why they’ve been together for years without getting married was beyond me.

“He’s doing just fine.”  Her cheeks were tainted pink.  She still swooned over him like a lovesick teen.  I smiled at her.  “Instead of diverting to the man in my life let’s talk about your love life.”  She sported a devilish smirk behind her gray flower mug.

Somehow I fought the urge to roll my eyes.  I knew I was attractive, in fact, most of the men I met found me alluring.  But since no one ever saw me with a man publically they assumed I was a lesbian.  Obviously, since I didn’t want the hassle and stress of a relationship I welcomed the notion.  Even Carol seemed on the fence about my sexuality.

“It’s nonexistent. I don’t get out much to meet anyone, hence another reason I need this shopping trip.”  I told her taking big bites out of the cookie.

“If you’d just go out with me and the others that would change.”  Yes, the monthly ritual they established.  Once a month everyone would get dressed and have dinner usually followed by the night ending at a posh club.  On more than one occasion Negan asked me to come.  He was handsome. I’d go as far to say he was sexy, with dimpled cheeks, a wide smile and a nice head of hair.  But my goodness was he a player.  My guess is that he was juggling about 5 different women right now.  Most lawyers I’ve met had multiple women.  Of course, that didn’t stop him from wanting me.

“I’m not one for outings with packed crowds,”  I mentioned.

Carol shook her head.  “I have a feeling your life will change, Michonne.  And soon too.”

“Are you hanging out with Gabriel again?  My life changed six years ago.  And for the better too.”  Gabriel was a pastor and Morgan’s brother.  He always stopped by to use our gym and Abe allowed it.  He was even gifted with an ID for the front gate last Christmas.  At this point, it wouldn’t be surprising if he moved into Morgan’s Condo.

As much as I complained about needing personal space, I loved everyone living here, in my own way.  Jessie was questionable.  I knew more about everyone’s personal life than they knew of mine.  On occasions, I’d even give them advice and water their plants when I’m not working.  I even parked bikes courtesy of Daryl Dixon.  After Morgan’s nasty divorce I held down the fort and watched his son, Dwayne, when he was on call at the Hospital.

Of course, I was happy to do it.  Dale’s good deeds rubbed off on me.  Because of that, they’d help me in return.  It wasn’t that no one wanted to watch Mike, they were eager to.  But I couldn’t trust them to care for him, especially since they didn’t have the advantage of living next door to me.  Where I held all of his emergency medicine.  He had cancer, which explained why he was bald.  Call me picky.  I just prefer the person next to my condo to watch him if need be.

A loud horn blared from outside.  My eyebrows furrowed silently questioning Carol.  She shrugged and moved toward the window, I simply followed suit.  There we were mugs still in hand peering through the open creases of my wooden blinds.  I squinted trying to make out the face of a brunette.

“That must be her,”  Carol whispered.  “Wait I see a man in the car...”  She paused.  “He looks homeless.”  I scowled in confusion.  Abe always did background checks.  He didn’t have connections to the military for nothing.  I didn’t blame him for wanting to make sure people were able to pay their rent.  Abe also offered a deal to share land, once you’ve paid a suitable size of money you were able to live in your condo without monthly rent.  It was a choice he’d offer and it was cheaper in the long run.  Of course, household bills still had to be paid.  Some people like Daryl and Carol chose that from the start.

“Why are you whispering, it’s not like they’ll hear us through the window.”

“It’s more polite.”

“Like the action of peeping can be softened with whispering.”  We both laughed before Carol shushed me.  I caught a glimpse of the man, he was still inside the sleek black Porsche.  He had quite the beard on him.  He also wore a ratty baseball cap which probably caused him to be called homeless.  It hid his face well so I couldn’t make out his features.  The brunette went back to the window leaning in close to the bearded man.  “Oh looks like they’re a couple.”

“What do you think they do?”  I asked Carol still staring at the couple, mug in hand.  I had no shame.

“I have no idea.  But I’m guessing the woman’s a model.  Though Abraham didn’t mention there would be two of them.”  She did look like a model.  Her silky hair reached past her shoulders, leading down to a trim tight body.  Hopefully, she wasn’t another Jessie.  Jessie did something to deserve my spite, she may not remember but I do. Oh, I remember very well.

The last person to move in was, in fact, Jessie Anderson, so in our defense, we did the same thing to Jessie when she moved in four years ago.  Along with the three women who moved in over the last few months, if they counted.  When Jessie modeled her way to her condo but couldn’t figure out how to open her own door. Bless her soul. We figured she had a sugar daddy or was a model.  We were right on both counts.

“Oh goodness, we can’t have another Jessie.”  Even Carol understood.  After a moment the woman pulled away from the car and it drove off.  She was heading this way. Shit!

We tried our best to scramble away from the window without spilling the remnants of our coffee.  I switched on my TV opting to settle on a random station.

“You think she saw us?”  She asked me.

“We’re inside unless she has a third all seen eye that’s impossible,”  I told her taking in gulps of caffeine.  I was quite sure we were in the clear so when a knock bounced off my door it caught me off guard.  I spilled coffee on my capris night pants.  A frustrated moan left my throat, these stains were hard to get rid of.  I was forced to answer the door with a stain the size of a black hole on my white pants.  I still had my locs gathered on top of my head, I decided against letting it down.

The door swung open and I was greeted by another smiling face for the second time this morning.  It was the brunette.   Up close she was actually quite stunning.

“Oh, I’m sorry I was actually looking for the landlord.  I’m Lori by the way.’’  She stuck her hand out towards mine her nails gleamed with a clear coat of peach polish.  I took her hand after a moment of silence.

“Michonne.”  She was nice.

Her eyes lit up upon hearing my name.  “You’re not Michonne the painter are you?”  Her tone held curiosity.

“Umm, no.  I’m not.”  Although she seemed nice I didn’t know her.  If the painting on my living room wall wasn’t any indication of who I was then she really didn’t need to know.

She rolled her eyes and dropped my hand.  “Of course, she’d have enough money for better…uhh apparel maybe even a house.”  Bitch! Her eyes darted to the stain on my pants. I wanted to scream ‘but bitch you’re living here too!’ I held my tongue.  “How silly of me.”

“It was an honest mistake.”  I had to suck up to this bitch?  I think not.  Funny how first impressions left a lasting mark.  I’ll mourn the loss of new undergarments later.  My only hope was that her boyfriend was nicer since her ring finger was bare.

Lori nodded lacing her hands together.  “Like I said earlier, I was looking for the landlord.”  Her tone was short all of a sudden like she didn’t want to stay by this door a minute longer.  I pointed to the left.

“He’s two doors down.  But if I were you I wouldn’t bother him this early on Saturday’s.  If Sasha answers you’ll be in luck.”  Abe didn’t have a knack for Saturday mornings, any time after eleven was better for him.  I learned the hard way after the pipe in my bathroom burst.  I ran to Abe banging on his door.  By the time he answered, he was red-faced and shirtless.  He fixed my plumbing problem but I was left with feeling that I interrupted something.  He didn’t speak to me for a week.

Lori thanked me, clearly ignoring my warning and made her way to Abe’s door.  I placed the locks back to their original position and turned to face Carol.

“Well isn’t she a dime.”  Carol mentioned sarcastically.  A dime indeed.  I rubbed the stain on my pants although it didn’t do anything to fade it.

“Now I’m hoping she does catch Abe at a bad time.”

“Just take my advice Michonne, order clothes and have it delivered here.  It’s what I always do.”  We were back to that conversation again.  We passed the time sitting together discussing neighborhood changes, our TV shows and of course neighborly gossip.

“Have you noticed that Maggie gained some weight?”  Only Carol would notice these small things.

“So? I’ve gained weight.”

Carol shook her head, exasperated with my line of thinking.  “Michonne, you weren’t having sex nonstop for the past two months.”  I was a tiny bit offended.  In fact I hadn’t had any sexual exploits since leaving Atlanta.  That was years ago.

“How would you know this?  You don’t even live next to them to hear anything.”  She scoffed at me.

“I’ve seen enough displays of affection between them to light up a cow.” ��Maggie and Glenn had been married when I met them.  They actually gave me hope that there was a forever.  They always said they’d wait to have kids, both being in the drug research field.  They wanted to focus on their careers before adding a little addition to the family.

“So you think she’s pregnant?”  I bit into my cookie.

“I know.”  Her eyes twinkled.

The infamous horn made its appearance again, prompting Carol and I back into peeping.  Lori had a scowl on her face as she made her way to the sleek car.

“You think Abraham made her angry?”  I questioned though I could care less.

“Oh, I’m sure they exchanged some words.  Or her boyfriend said something to upset her.”  She added when the heavily tinted window on the Porsche didn’t roll down.  Carol was onto something there.  Lori marched to the vehicle and tapped the glass.  The door to the car opened revealing a strong arm that held it.  Lori stepped in the open space successfully blocking our view.  The suspense was killing me.

“I need to get a good look at the man, can she just move.”  I felt the same way as Carol.  This Saturday was more entertaining than just chatting about the mystery around Daryl.  Except there wasn’t a mystery surrounding him, he was just a mechanic that owned a bike store.  The vibe he had was mysterious though.

Lori moved and he was just about to exit the car when my landline rung off.  What are the chances?  I huffed and told Carol to give me a play by play.  I dashed for the phone, promising myself to invest in something cordless.

Caller ID: Simon

I groaned knowing exactly what this call was about.  I clicked call and greeted him sweetly.  “Good morning, Simon.  How are you?”

“Something tells me you’re not working on your piece since you answered this phone so quickly.”  He knew me so well.  Simon was the one who picked up my art and delivered them to galleries amongst other people.  Technically he worked for me.  It was rare for me to do my work on site.  That usually required complete discretion and a sizable check.

Carol waved her arms around drawing in my attention.  “Good lord Michonne, he isn’t homeless!”

I tried to split my attention between both Carol and Simon but it didn’t work for me.  So I focused on Simon.

“When creativity hits me I’ll be sure to text you, Simon.”  Whenever I lost momentum Simon always reminded me that I was working on a time frame.

“Be sure to.  I forgot to mention the last time I made a pick up some guy name Gregory phoned me.  He seemed adamant on talking to you.  Said it was urgent.  He sounded crazy so I shrugged it off.”  The only Gregory that rung any alarms was the ‘Atlanta Gallery’ owner who fired me with little to no remorse.  Last I heard business for him went down the drain.

“Thanks, Simon, if he calls you again let me know.”

“Sure thing.”  I hung up and made my way back to Carol who was no longer peeping out the window.  Disappointment filled me.

“I thought you were going to give me a play by play.  Did they leave?”  I checked outside the window again noticing the black car was absent.  Just my luck.

“I did but you were in the deep end of your conversation on the phone.”  She gazed at me expectantly.

Sighing I told her “Simon was just talking about my old boss calling him, said he sounded crazy.”

“Simon himself looks crazy.”

“In an artistic way Carol.”  I defended him.

The thoughts in her head were clear on her face.  It didn’t make any difference what I said.  Anyone with messy hair and an array of paint covering them looked crazy unless it was me of course.

Mike made his grand entrance, he waltzes in and rubbed himself against my leg.  Carol coughed beside me putting space between us.

“That’s my cue to leave, be sure to leave some cookies for the new neighbors.”  It wasn’t as if I was going to devour the entire pan of cookies. After closing the door behind Carol I pulled my silk night top tighter around my body.

My place was vibrant due to some of my work being hung on its white walls.  When I first moved in I wanted something modern.  I also wanted parts to remain a canvas for my doings.  I actually came across this place by accident.  It had security and it was discreet.  There was a twenty-minute drive before you came across another building.  In total there were nine occupants in the building.  Morgan, Daryl, Jessie, Glenn, and Maggie along with Negan lived on the lower level.  Abe and Sasha, Carol, myself along with the new couple lived on the second floor.  Despite the number of occupants, my place was a spacious two bedroom two bath.  I used the extra room for my work.  I was still on edge about moving in here permanently, Atlanta taught me nothing good last forever.  Sighing, I turned on my speakers and headed for my safe haven.  I worked until nightfall.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 5x04: Analysis

Good morning everyone! So here is my analysis of FTWD 5x04: Skidmark. Buckle up because I’m about to get very long-winded! There are actually some great parallels in this episode. We didn't see any John or June in this episode, or any Althea. We did see a lot of Strand, Daniel, Luciana, Morgan, Alicia, and the kids.

I’m gonna warn you that I’m about to throw a lot of conjecture at you. I’m just seeing a lot of possibilities in these sequences and it gets my brain pumping.

Synopsis:

The crux of this is that youngest boy, Dylan, sent Morgan and Alicia looking for a phantom camp. He lied about its location. Then he secretly radioed his siblings, Max and Annie. While talking with them, he heard them get into trouble. In the end, we find out there's actually quite a few kids in this area. They’re the children of the people Morgan and Grace (the woman cleaning up fallout from nuclear plants) disposed of. I knew there had to be more than just these three kids setting up walkers. I was right about that. While we still don't know all the details or these kids’ complete back story, we have a better idea now.

Annie and Max saw and hid from a person wearing the same Darth Vader-like helmet and black uniform as the people who took Al. We can also confirm now that they’re the same group who took Rick and Jadis because while with the kids, Morgan and Alicia saw the same helicopter, complete with the three circles symbol on the side. The kids said that group had arrived in that helicopter some time ago, and are now leaving in it. The next question is, did Al leave with them? We won’t find out until next week.

In terms of Daniel and Strand, Charlie helped Daniel come around to sort of forgiving Strand, and allowing them to have the airplane. In the end Daniel left, saying he had other business to attend to. We don't know what that business is. I’m assuming we’ll get that information eventually. He seems to be leaving the group for now, though. Meanwhile, Strand used the plane, specifically the propellers, to save Daniel. He attracted the walkers into the turning propellers and pulverized them. (Ew.)

Daniel Stuff:

Charlie tries to hide from Daniel, but gets into he back of his black SUV and ends up stowing away there when he leaves.

I didn’t think much of this on first watch, but re-watching, something occurred to me. He got this SUV at the first store we saw him at. One reminiscent of the Big Spot. That may be significant. 

Then, when Charlie gets in, she uses hatchback door at the rear of the car to enter. It also occurred to me that this wasn’t the most logical place for her to hide. Car doors make noise when you open and close them, and there were about a hundred more convenient places she could have ducked into. To some extent, it’s obviously a plot device because they needed her to go with Daniel in this episode. But it also occurs to me that Charlie sort of accidentally ended up in the back of a car and was taken away (like Beth was to Grady). She later returned to help save both Daniel and her group. Just saying.

We had two different instances (another two) of Daniel trying to get guns and other supplies from a store. The first is in the opening sequence This story reminds me a LOT of the Big Spot in 4x01, and I think that’s purposeful. When Daniel loads his haul into the back of the black SUV, we see a blue cooler (remember @frangipanilove’s posts on coolers) in his cart. 

When he goes to the second market later with Charlie, there’s an “ICE” machine outside.

During this second excursion, when Charlie helped Daniel try to get the gun out of the store Charlie mentions peaches and artichoke hearts. I already had some idea what I thought this meant, but I looked up artichoke heart symbolism just to be sure.

Remember I’ve said that peaches usually represents weakness, or the bare minimum needed to survive, rather than the best. Obviously, this caught my attention because we saw peach schnapps with Beth. The symbolism holds there. Daryl said peach schnapps was a terrible drink, and it was very weak. He wanted Beth not only to have something better as her first drink, but something significantly stronger. So peaches = something weak or “the only thing left.” Rather than doing the easy thing (letting her just drink the peach schnapps) Daryl smashed it on the floor and insisted on going to find something better, which took more work and determination.

So the fact that Charlie mentioned peaches in article artichoke hearts, as though it were a range of something, struck me. She also mentions that no one usually takes artichoke hearts (path less travelled perhaps?) so they're always there.

Sure enough, it turns out artichoke hearts represent hope for a prosperous future. Especially because the core of the artichoke is a heart, it can also represent love and success in relationships. Just kind of an interesting symbol to juxtapose with peaches. I can't help but remember when Morales showed up in S8 and sarcastically called Rick “peaches.” You can see that it's a bitter symbol in TWD. One that doesn't inspire much love or kindness. But artichoke hearts are the opposite.

Granted, the symbol I think was mostly about Daniel. Him taking artichoke hearts rather than the peaches suggests him finally forgiving Strand and becoming a functional part of the group again. But it does back up other symbolism we've seen around Beth.

Charlie also mentions using music to distract walkers. Of course anything musical we tie to Beth, but this is also reminiscent of using music at the Big Spot to distract walkers in 4x01.

Essentially, Daniel was already doing this. He like to put a bell on his cat, Skidmark, to distract walkers. The jingle of the bell (music) is what distracted them. Later in the episode, we also see him actually take a boombox and lead walkers away. So the music was a big theme here.

When trying to get the gun with Charlie, the gun suddenly goes off, shooting through the window and freeing the walkers. Two important things here: I had to watch a few times, and the gun went off simply because the walkers ran into it and when they nudged it, it started firing. 

That’s exactly what happened in 7x12. One of the walkers walked into a gun and it started firing at Rick and Michonne. If you remember, this sequence in 7x12 was highly reminiscent of Alone, what with Michonne being in the trunk and all. And of course it’s where we saw the foreshadow of Rick's death fake out.

The second major thing here is that I noticed on the shelf in the background is, among other things (like peanut butter) a box of Frosted Flakes. So we can tie that to Frosty Cola, which we’ve seen several times around Beth. So here’s where this gets interesting. We have all the cooler/ice/frosted flakes stuff in locations that are reminiscent of the Big Spot from S4. We also have something reminiscent of 7x12, which foreshadowed Rick’s death fake out. AND we have a gun going off by accident and shooting the Frosted Flakes. If “frosty” = Dogstar symbolism = Beth, then this feels like a symbol of her being shot.

Not to mention, when the walkers get free and Daniel and Charlie run to the car, he calls his cat, Skidmark (you know the one who was making the music with the bell?) and it comes running and jumps into the car. Daniel says something about how one of these days he’s going to end up leaving Skidmark behind. 

So yeah, pretty on the nose. All the frosty/cooler stuff, gun going off, and mention of leaving someone behind.

Which leads me to all the resurrection symbolism in this episode. The 7x12 stuff makes me think they might be foreshadowing another death fake out. And yet, it’s different than 7x12. We didn’t see any deer and we didn’t see any minor fake outs, like we did with Rick and the yellow ride car in 7x12. So it’s almost like it’s trying to remind us of the resurrection symbolism without actually being a foreshadow itself. Given that we saw the helicopter that took Rick away at the end of this episode, perhaps that makes sense. Maybe it shows that we’re about to see a fulfillment of sorts of this, by learning where Rick went and what he might be up to.

Then there’s the cat itself. Again, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but some of us theorists have talked about how many times we’ve seen cats in the show. I think @frangipalove may do a more detailed post on this, but the short of it is that we think cats represent resurrection. It's the whole cats-having-nine-lives idea. In other words, if we see cats around a character, chances are they're gonna die many times and come back. Daniel is the perfect example of that. They’ve done at least three or four major death fake outs for him already. I think the viewers are used to it and know that short of seeing him turn into a walker or get his head chopped off, the dude simply isn't gonna die. Not for real, anyway. Seeing the cat around Daniel represents his many lives. We also saw cats around Jadis (the painting of the blue cat and the wire cat Rick took for Michonne). 

Both of those represent Rick and Jadis’s death fake out because they both left in the helicopter. In this episode we saw the same helicopter. So, you see the connections there.

While we didn't specifically see cats around Beth, we hear one mentioned around Daryl in 4B. Remember, Joe Claimer said the thing about cats being vicious creatures and there was nothing sadder than an outdoor cat who thought he was an indoor cat.

That got me thinking about how these symbols connect. While Daryl hasn’t left the show and returned as Daniel has, he’s definitely a survivor, as Daniel is. He’s been in plenty of situations he probably shouldn’t have survived but got out of. The major difference is that we saw him escape, while they don’t always show us how Daniel escapes.

See, the thing is, I’ve always equated Daniel with Beth because of all the death fake outs. But because of the cats, I’m now realizing that Daniel is much more of a symbol for Daryl. I’ll come back to this in a minute because there’s more evidence of it in this episode.

I also think it's interesting that they don't use the cat symbolism for Beth, but rather the dog/Sirius symbolism. While the themes between the two are similar (both resurrection) they are subtly different. Think of it this way. We saw cats around Daniel and Rick/Jadis, but they didn’t try particularly hard to make the audience think either one died. Most people assumed Daniel would return and they went out of their way to show us that Rick survived. With Beth/Sirius symbolism, she completely left the show for a long time with a subtle, symbolic promise of return that most of the audience didn’t even pick up on. So again, subtle differences. Nine lives vs. completely leaving to return later.

This is another possibility that occurred to me upon re-watching, but at this point it’s just conjecture. I’ve said many times that I hope Dwight helps bring Beth back to Daryl in some way. Thematically, I love that idea because if it plays out that way, it will mean that Daryl showing mercy to Dwight is what brought Beth back to him. If he had killed Dwight, it might not have happened. I saw a similar theme to that in this episode. 

By letting Charlie go to save Strand and the others at the warehouse, which Daniel did NOT want to do because he hates Strand, that allowed Strand to come back and save him. So if he’d just gone to the warehouse (where the walls were down) he and the others would most likely have died or at least found themselves running from a herd of walkers. But Daniel’s mercy, despite his hatred of this other person, is what ultimately saved him. 

I’m sure that’s a show-wide theme and we could find it other places if we looked, but it just reminded me of my thoughts on the Dwight and Daryl situation.

The songs Daniel listens to have some interesting things in them. I’m not going to post the full lyrics here, but the song we hear at the beginning is by Son’s House and is called Death Letter Blues. Some of its more interesting lines say things like, “The gal you love is dead,” “You gotta lay here until judgement day,” and “I didn’t know that I loved her until they laid her down.” Sounds like Beth and Daryl to me. We actually heard this song twice. Once in the opening sequence with Daniel and then later in the car when Charlie is with him.

We also hear part of a song called The Sunnyland by Doctor Ross. We only hear a snippet of this one, as far as I can tell, so I’m thinking it’s more thematic than anything else. “Doctor” and “sun” are both Beth symbols. Then later in the show, we hear a snippet of another song that the show doesn’t identify, and I’ve typed the lyrics into Google and can’t find it either. All it says is that it’s a blues song. We hear it when Daniels is leading the walker herd with the boombox. It says, “Yeah, I’m going to the river, walk it up and down. I’m going to find my woman.” I’ll come back to why I think this is important.

There's a shot on the highway when Strand shows up with the plane to save Daniel, who's trapped under Al's black van. When we see an aerial shot, I noticed the black and white theme with the plane being white and the truck being black. That’s what really helped me put the symbolism in this episode together.

The guns on Al's van wouldn't fire. They were broken. And if we want to get really deep into the symbolism, the black in the black and white theme represents Daryl, and this could symbolize him being broken after losing Beth. Then Strand shows up to save the day using the airplane propellers. First of all, the airplane represents Sirius symbolism, as I said earlier. So, it represents Beth RETURNING to save Daryl.

Which brings me back to Daniel. As I said above, I've always equated him with Beth because of all the times he's should've died and survived. But between the two, it's becoming more and more obvious to me that Daniel represents Daryl, not Beth. Not only do we have him equated with the black truck here, but we have a situation where he closed off his heart after losing the "girl he loved.” In Daniel's case, the girl refers to his daughter, Ophelia. In Daryl’s case, it obviously refers to Beth. And remember we had cats mentioned around both of them. So Daniel = Daryl. Which makes me wonder where Daniel is going and where his story line will lead. Very intriguing, but I have a feeling we won’t find out for a while what Daniel is up to.

Near the end of Daniel’s story, Strand admits to the others that he told Daniel he knew where Ophelia was, but lied because he needed something from Daniel. (This was in S3). By the time Daniel got to her, it was too late. Obviously we can parallel this with Beth and Daryl. Then Daniel says that he couldn’t tell Ophelia what he wanted her to know.

Later, Charlie asks him what he mean to tell her but never got to. Daniel says he wanted to tell her that “everyday brings a chance to start over; a chance to get it right.”

Guys, that is SO significant. First off, remember that in 5x02, when Daryl was basically trying to convince Carol to stay with the group, he says, “We get to start over with each other.” At that point, he was still being super hopeful and confident about finding Beth. In other words, we could infer that his time with her is what taught him this.

But in general, what Daniel is saying here is about faith and hope for the future. Which is exactly what Beth helped Daryl believe in. So if we applied this line to Beth and Daryl (again, Ophelia is Daniel’s daughter, and she’s the girl he lost, but the situation parallels to Beth and Daryl with Beth being the girl Daryl lost) then it means Daryl wanted to tell Beth that she gave him hope and faith and helped him believe in optimism. But he never got to tell her that before he lost her. 

Meanwhile, during this part where Daniel leads the walkers with the boom box and talks to Strand, we hear the song I mentioned earlier that says, “Yeah I’m going to the river. Gonna walk it up and down. I’m going to find my woman…”

And Daniel says there’s a reason he’s been at the warehouse alone all this time and he needs to go take care of it. That’s why he leaves. I don’t think he’s literally going to find Ophelia. (She really was bitten and is dead.) But he’s going to do something that will help him put Ophelia to rest, along with his demons. So once again, if we also apply this to the situation it symbolizes (Beth and Daryl) perhaps it shows that Daryl will soon go to “the river” (water = Beth) to find the woman he once lost too.

I noticed that Sarah referred to Daniel’s plane as a bear. She said something about getting "this bear in the air.” Of course, bears are part of the bear/polar bear symbolism we've seen throughout FTWD. And any bear symbolism is part of the Sirious/Dogstar symbolism.

It's also important that it was said about the plane. I don't know if I've specifically mentioned this in my posts, but @wdway, @frangipanilove and I have discussed that we think the plane symbol is simply an extension of helicopter symbolism. You know, both flying machines. That's important given that the group that took away Jadis and Rick (and who we saw again in this episode; more on that in a minute) use a helicopter.

And Sarah actually says this two different times. Two things about that. In terms of the symbolism itself, @frangipanilove pointed out that there are two bear constellations (literally two bears in the air): Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, one of which includes the North Star. So really obvious Sirius/return symbolism. Secondly, I did notice that many things happened in twos in this episode. I half wonder if that’s to show things (or certain blonds?) coming around for the second time.

At one point, Sarah tells Daniel she put a 36-foot hole in his fence to get the plane out. I wondered if we could relate that to 18-Miles Out somehow. (36/2 =18) but I wasn’t sure what to do with it, exactly. @wdway helped me out with this. TWD series episode number 36 is 4x01. You know, the one with the Big Spot and the Bethyl hug. Given all the other symbols in this episode, that makes perfect sense.

Dylan Stuff:

We saw the book, The Little Prince, around Dylan a lot. I’m going to look into this more and give it its own post, but I know this is significant. I know I looked into it briefly when we first saw the book in an earlier season, and didn’t find much. But I read through the synopsis again and some things are jumping out at me. On first look, it seems that Dylan should be the Little Prince. And maybe he is. (Again, I need to look into it more deeply.) But I think there’s deeper meaning than simply that as well.

Something awesome that @wdway picked up: behind Dylan at the truck stop, we see a little yellow toy truck. 

This is the EXACT same thing we saw in 8x02 when Rick found Gracie in the Saviors’ compound. 

You know, the scene with the Beth’s blue heron painting in it? If that’s not proof that these symbols link back to Beth (and Rick; death fake outs in general) I don’t know what is. I also noticed a pair of blue scissors on the table behind Dylan as well. Not to mention, it’s the same kind of car Charlie climbs into in this episode, except that it’s yellow, a Beth color!

Another interesting symbol: when Dylan secretly radios Annie and Max, he uses the phrase ‘olly, olly oxen free.’ If you look up what this means, it’s a phrase from children’s games that indicates it’s safe for players to reveal themselves without penalty, because the rules of the game have changed. So it makes sense given that the children end up trusting Morgan’s group a bit more by the end, but I still think there may be more symbolism in it than that. I’m just not sure what.

At the end, Strand says that his stunt with the walkers and the propellers damaged the plane’s engines beyond repair. I wasn’t sure what to make of that at first, because if plane = Beth, then what would this mean? But then Dylan asks Luciana what happens to the guy in the book who crashed his plane. She says he figures out how to repair his plane, fixes it, and flies home again. Dylan insists they can do the same thing. 

That’s the end of the episode and nothing else is said, but the implication there is that, somehow, they’ll find a way to fix the plane. It’s classic foreshadowing.

And I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. It was assumed that Beth, because of her head injury, was damaged beyond repair. But somehow, she’ll be “fixed” and return home. Remember, home is where her family is. I also can’t help but remember that Daryl “fixed” the music box in 5x10. So this idea makes me super happy.

In fact, seeing it in that light, this entire 5a season of Fear is one great big retelling or symbol of Beth’s arc. The plane crashing represents her being shot. And then we have Al, who disappeared, taken by a strange, shadowy group, and the rest of her family looking for her. Just saying. ;D

Alone Parallels:

Max and Annie try to put the walkers back up across the road when they see one of the people who took Al, killing walkers up the road from them. They quickly hide in the bushes. 

When the person in the dark uniform and helmet leaves, they come out. Just as they do, several walkers get loose and try to get Annie. She isn’t bitten, but gets knocked down and hurts her ankle. 

Her brother, Max helps her up, whole, and they make a run for it, so to speak. Except Annie can't run because her foot is hurt. I immediately saw the parallel to Beth having hurt her foot in 4x13, Alone.

It even shows a gun lying on the ground. So, the parallels to the scene where Beth hurts her ankle are strong here. In both cases, we have a guy and a gal (Beth and Daryl/Max and Annie) hiding in the bushes. Then there's an encounter with a walker in which the gal hurts her ankle, and the guy helps her up. The fact that they even showed the gun prominently on the ground is important because during Beth’s encounter with the walker, she’s after its gun, and carries the gun thereafter.

This is something TD has talked about a lot because the gun went missing at Grady. We never saw what happened to it, and it’s strange that they put so much emphasis on it, only to not show us what happened to it. Here, in FTWD, Annie drops her gun and they don't retrieve it. So, we have another lost gun, just like Beth's.

These parallels increase as the story goes along. Annie and Max can't run and we get to a point where the walkers catch up to them and they're about to be eaten. It's then that Morgan (once again, MORGAN!) and Alicia show up to save the day. 

They take care of the walkers and save the kids. Then the rest of the kids appear. About a dozen. From the way Max and the other kids look to Annie for decisions, such as whether or not to trust Morgan, Annie is the leader of this group. So ,we have a blonde, female leader, who hurt her leg here in a very similar fashion to Beth. Coincidence? I'm thinking no.

Remember that in episode 1 when the kids first showed up, with Annie driving the van, I said the shot looked very similar to when Ty’s hallucination of Beth drove the van in 5x09? Well, in this episode, Annie officially became a proxy of Beth.

So let’s recap. A blond, female leader (Annie) who is juxtaposed with this black, helicopter group who took Rick and Jadis. (Should we be equating the black they wear with the black/white theme as well, perhaps? If so, it may show that Beth will save people from this black group. Rick? Jadis? Daryl? Just throwing some ideas out here.) In this episode, that blond girl hurt her leg and lost a gun, in a major Alone parallel.

Meanwhile, we saw a representation of the Big Spot (4x01) and leading walkers away with MUSIC. And then of Beth returning (plane/Sirius symbolism) to save Daryl (Daniel/black color symbolism).

What does it mean? Well, I’m hoping it means that something about these kids (Child/Baby symbolism around Beth, perhaps?) and this helicopter group will lead to Beth returning to save Daryl. 

Remember that after TWD 9x14 aired (the really dark episode where Michonne had to kill those kids to save Judith) I said I thought it might be a foil sort of thing for Beth. Like maybe she’d return with a group of warrior children? I’m wondering if this could lead to a fulfillment of that. Granted, these kids are a bit older than the ones in 9x14. More like teens/young adults. But still. With these parallels, I think it could be a thing. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Random Details:

Let me first say that, in terms of details—coolers, red and green colors on cans, etc—I noticed relevant details in nearly every shot. I’ve mentioned the most relevant ones, but didn’t bother trying to hit them all.

Daniel uses channel 8 on the walkie-talkie to communicate with Strand. This caught my attention mostly because of the 8 behind Beth in 5x09, which I think means she’ll return eight years later. We also heard channel 9 mentioned. This is the channel Dylan, Max and Annie used to communicate secretly with each other.

Super-random symbol I’m not sure what to do with: We saw a tin several times that Daniel had in his possession that said ‘abanicos’ on it. That word means ‘fans’ when translated. Like the kind of fans that keep you cool in the heat. Not sure what that means or why the camera kept focusing on it. Maybe it’s part of Daniel’s story line and we’ll get more on it later. I noticed he did take it with him when he left. But if anyone can shed any insight on it, please do!

Morgan talked to Alicia about his wife Jenny and Duane. I thought it was interesting to hear him talk about his family, as he hasn't for a long time. I also noticed that he said, "She was Jenny. He's Duane.” He spoke about Duane in the present tense rather than the past. I'm assuming that's because he didn't put Duane down as a walker. He thinks of Duane as still being alive and walking around, even if he's turned.

But I also think there must be a specific reason they mentioned this. I know there have been some theories in the fandom about Duane not being dead. Personally, I don't think that's the case. They made such a big deal in Clear about Duane having turned, I really don't think he's alive. It's too on the nose to be a fake out. But the fact remains that we haven't seen Duane's body so we can't be sure yet.

If I were to guess, I'd say that at some point Morgan will have to return, find Duane, and put him down in order to truly put his demons to rest. This might be hinting at that. But it also shows a parallel between Daryl and Morgan. Because one of our biggest theories is that Beth was not put down either, which was one of the reasons she survived. This might be evidence that this might be evidence of that theory, by extension. Even though it's talking about Duane, it would apply to Beth as well. It would also help explain why Morgan will be so entangled in Beth's return. With these parallels, it makes sense that he would be involved somehow.

That's all I have for this episode. (It was a lot, I know.) I will say that I'm super excited for next week's episode. It's about Al. We’ll finally find out what happened to her and see things from her point of view after she was knocked over the head.

One thing I noticed watching the trailer is we don't actually see anyone other than her. She's talking to someone—I'm assuming the person in the helmet who hit her over the head—but we don't actually see this person's face. I'm not sure if what the reason for that is, and no, I'm not necessarily saying that I think it will be Beth. 

(Although, I do want to throw out that I think the person Annie and Max saw killing walkers might be a woman. If you look at this pic, 

the person in the black helmet is killing a female walker and is about the same height as that walker. Granted, that doesn’t prove anything. Could be a short man or a tall female walker, but it just occurred to me that there’s a good chance this person is a woman.) 

 I just think it's interesting that there being so mysterious about this group and who is wearing the helmet. Obviously would be great if it was Beth, but I don't necessarily think it will be. On the other hand, it might be interesting if we see Jadis again or something. Like I said, I'm excited for next week.

What did everyone think of this week's episode?

[lupienne]

Warning: rambling salt post about TV TWD ahead. Honestly, this is like literal thought diarrhea here.

As ya’ll know, I’m not really invested in TWD show anymore. I mainly only watch it because my mom does (and I got her into it XD). So I’ll sit there and draw or chat online or whatnot while it’s on. So it’s not like I’m hardcore into it, and it’s really just a source of irritation or eye-rolling for me at this point. (The new intro is badass though. Can we get a total reboot and have it animated in that style and follow the comics (but with more character development))

OK ANYWAY.

So as usual, I have contempt for the stuff they’re doing with Negan. Lol. I mean, the writers shot themselves in the foot by killing Carl and they’re kinda screwed by Rick’s exit. Two characters that have bonds with Negan and ‘know’ Negan. Carl came down and talked for years with Negan in his cell. Rick and Negan had a much more... dynamic relationship in the comics - they were the nemesis... not Negan & Daryl and sometimes Rick, but just Negan and Rick. Negan and Rick have a long history at this point. They’re... familiar with each other. Rick and Negan tried to out-cat-and-mouse each other in All Out War, they both did nasty things to each other’s people, and they both had their people’s survival in mind. Thus, they understand each other. Rick also kept Negan alive for the sake of his son. Carl wanted to kill Negan. Rick told him no. ‘We don’t have to live in that world anymore - where we just kill. We can be better but we can still punish him.’ He didn’t want a world where his son thought death was the answer and death was just... the norm. Accepted. Nothing to shrug over.

Of course, the writers fucked this up by killing Carl on the show. They used Simon as a scapegoat for the Oceanside stuff to try to make Negan look ‘not so bad’. But they must have realized how cardboard they made this character of Negan. No care for his people, no sense of doing this just to protect them. No, he treated them like shit. So they desperately scrabble for something to make Negan human... oh, ok....yeah, he had a wife, Lucille! Ok, we’ll use that! We’ll take every opportunity to shove Lucille into the audience’s face. Because we have to have some way to make Negan human and relatable!

They don’t have: oh, he was protecting his people. They don’t have the back-and-forth shit where Negan only ‘went to war’ after Rick tried to kill him. And then he only attacked Alexandria with grenades after Rick brought a fucking herd to Sanctuary, knocked down the walls and left Negan and his people - many who were innocent people including children - at the risk of being overrun, eaten, starved, etc. (I didn’t watch Season 8 so correct me if I’m wrong on this shit not happening in the show). When Negan returned Carl to Rick - Rick attacked him and Negan only fought back to the point of Rick being subdued. He didn’t beat him. He didn’t punish Rick’s people. When they came to Alexandria for supplies and Rick wasn’t there, Negan and his men stayed in a vacant house... they didn’t harass the Alexandrians (in the show they beat up Aaron? Or maybe Eric...) The point is - Negan was a dick in the comics but he was a dick for his people. Rick could be a dick too... and he was also a dick... for his people.

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is... the stuff with Negan and Michonne... it just doesn’t work. Not the way they’re trying to do it. They’re grasping at this desperate shard of humanity that they left Negan - the fact that he loved his wife. Because they didn’t give him the humanity of caring for and fighting for his people (in a misguided way. Yes.) And as much as I love Negan/Lucille...this being the only shard of humanity is weak. Everyone’s lost someone.

In the comics, he rarely ever talked about Lucille. He talked about her once in the early days. Then he mentioned to Alpha that he ‘lost someone’ and his world fell apart. Talking to Alpha is essentially like burning your diary - nobody’s gonna get to repeat your secret words. Then he talks to Rick about Lucille, again vaguely - worst thing I ever did was leave my wife to rot. It’s not this ‘omg my wife Lucille, who died, mah wife, she died of cancer and I was totally shitty to her and she was an amazing angel!’ It’s not this overkill outpouring to anybody within earshot of him in a ham-handed attempt to make Negan human and vulnerable.

And it was Rick whom he talked to about Lucille. Rick. Like I said above. Rick - who he has a bond with. Who he feels close to. Who he feels kinship with. Who is Michonne? He mentioned that Michonne doesn’t even talk to him. Thus this ‘bond’ they’re trying to make feels very forced and contrived to me. The ‘I care about Carl’ stuff feels contrived too. Negan was seconds away from bashing Carl’s brains in on the show and I’m supposed to feel a bond between them? That’s the problem - they left Negan bereft of being an empathetic character and they left no bonds between he and the other characters. They’re trying to force something that isn’t there. Everything just falls flat to me - keeping Negan alive (why? In the comics I understood it. It made sense.), trying to make Negan ‘human’ by constantly bringing up Lucille and making him actually extremely pitiful, trying to force a relationship out of thin air with Michonne. 

I DUNNO GUYS. This is all over the place. I don’t even know what point I’m trying to make. I don’t even know why I care. I’m still always gonna be salty about TV Neg and how TWD show went down the drain and pissed away the comic content. They could have built up on the comic stuff, elevated it, made it great - instead...they spit on it. They set up the foundations of their house with worm-eaten wood and built that fucking house anyway. I realize AL leaving throws a big stick in the machinery, but if the foundations had been solid... it wouldn’t have collapsed the whole house.

(Like did we really need Oceanside? They are so pointless. The whole ‘killing Saviors’ and Simon slaughtered everyone and basically Oceanside itself... I just hate it. What was wrong with having a moral back-and-forth because Rick’s group killed Negan’s people and Negan’s group killed Rick’s people...? And these two leaders are bullheaded and stubborn because they’re both trying to protect their people and both think they’re right - only for Negan to realize later he was misguided, jaded and his leadership stagnated and stayed in survival ‘dog-eat-dog’ mode even when the world had moved past that...?

[sueboohscorner]

#TheWalkingDead Season 8 Episode 9 'Honor' In-Depth Recap Plus Questions

Sunday, February 25th, 2018

CORAL?!?

*WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS EXPLICIT DETAIL FROM SUNDAY NIGHT'S EPISODE "HONOR." IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT, TURN BACK NOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!*

Oh. My. God. Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead marked a new death in the series' death list; our very own Carl Grimes. Our beloved one-eyed hero was bitten in episode 6 of the eighth season and took his own life at the end of the mid-season premiere. Many fans, including myself, were not looking forward to the episode because we knew what was coming. But, it was inevitable. R.I.P Carl Grimes. You will be missed. 

Episode 9 of 'Honor' began with another premonition of Santa Rick and an older Judith running up to Jerry. Then, it comes back to Rick and Michonne digging (presumably Carl's grave). Carl flashes back to the walker tangle. The walker is seen taking a chunk out of Carl's abdomen. Then, it shows the buildup to Carl's reveal, spending time with Judith, writing everyone notes, rescuing Siddiq and sneaking him inside and Carl changing and dressing his wound. Then, Carl visits Tobin at the gates. He hands Carl a note from Michonne that reads; I had to see it for myself. I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye first. Will be back soon. Michonne. Then, it shows him preparing the sewer for a hide-out and a cot for him when he's too weak to stand. He then shares a Big Cat with Siddiq. Morgan scouts the Sanctuary. He watches as the walkers begin to die and pile up, creating a trail. Then, they shoot at Morgan. He heads out and diverts a pack of walkers back as five or so Saviors appear. Gavin's group is seen heading towards the Kingdom. Morgan appears from within the treeline and follows. 

When the commercials end,  a walker is seen tangled up in Carol's wire trap. Henry kills the walker as Carol advises the Kingdom people of where to hide. Henry wants to tag along, but she refused him. She leaves. Carl is in bad shape. He's pale, sweating and visibly in distress. Rick is speechless, and Michonne is crying. Carl tells Rick 'It's alright.' He admits that he didn't know if Rick was going to make it back 'before.' He pulls out the stack of letters and hands them to Michonne. Carl tells Rick about Siddiq. Twice, Carl tells Rick "I got bit." 

Gavin is talking to Ezekiel when the second set of commercials end. He tells him that Negan's going to kill him. Ezekiel says he freed his people, so what is done to him he is okay with. Gavin says he liked Ezekiel. Gavin blames Rick. Ezekiel says he made a choice he could live with. He tells Gavin to do the same. Morgan sneaks in at this point. Carol then appears behind him. They strategize. Rick and Michonne put Carl on the cot. Siddiq gives Rick a few meds to Rick to help Carl through. Rick guesses he's a doctor. Then, he asks Carl if he knew. Carl says he knew Siddiq wouldn't make it to Alexandria alone. Michonne jumps up and charges Dwight. She orders him to make it stop. Then, she breaks down and somewhat begs him to make it stop. Rosita says their best bet is to get everyone to The Hilltop. Dwight says to ride it out, then leave. Daryl then says "All is us, together. We'll be their worst damn nightmare." 

Carol and Morgan sneak around, ambushing and assassinating the stragglers. Gavin's men load up supplies. Gavin asks the king "Is it gonna go bad, Ezekiel?" Ezekiel says it'll be fashioned to his start. Carl dishes on Michonne for leaving. She laughs and says she isn't the one dying. He says she looks great. He also says that 'it' needs to stop. Dwight's guess about the mayhem lightening up comes true. Daryl and Rick exchange a glance. Carol and Morgan get closer. He advances and ignores her. He mows them down, and Carol only gets one. They gather guns. Gavin tries to accommodate The King's ride. Gavin radios his men but gets no response. This worries him. He and his men rush away with Ezekiel while Carol and Morgan close in. 

A red wide-eyed Rick is seen. Then, he is seen in the premonition with Judith. They walk up to Eugene. Then, Michonne and Rick are seen burying something. He sits with carl while he says goodbye to Judith. The Saviors have left. Rick says Carl won't make it to Hilltop. They both decide to stay. He tells Judith to 'Be good for Michonne and Dad. Sometimes kids have to show parents the way.' He gives her the Sheriff's Hat. He tells her "Before mom died, she said that I was going to beat this world. I didn't. But you will. I know you will." As Rick pulls her away, she starts to weep. Daryl takes her and tells Carl "You saved everyone. That's on you." Daryl walks off with Judith. Siddiq tells him "you were helping me honor my mom. You brought me here. You gave me a chance. I know I can never repay you, but I can honor you. I can prove that your death wasn't for nothing." Carl smiles and says "Congratulations. You're stuck with us." 

Gavin and Co take Ezekiel to the auditorium. He hits Ezekiel. Gavin says it's too late, Ezekiel dies, and he lives. Then, there's an explosion at the doorway. Morgan and Carol fire. Later, Morgan gets into a fist fight and tears a man's guts from his body. Ezekiel finds a gun and Gavin runs. Morgan pursues. Michonne and Rick hold Carl, wiping the sweat away. She asks if he's okay. He tells her that he doesn't want her to be sad or mad. He wants her to be strong for Rick, Judith and herself. He doesn't want her to carry his death. Then, he says "My best friend, Michonne." She cries, smiles and replies "You're mine, too." The candle blows out AMD Rick says he needs help with getting Carl to ground level. 

Gavin goes through a maze. Morgan stalks. Michonne and Rick carry a limp Carl through a crispy Alexandria to the church. Morgan sets Gavin up and finds him hiding. Rick lays Carl down. He thanks Rick for making him who he became. "Back at the prison, when we were attacked, there was a kid, a little older than me. He had a gun. He was starting to put it down, and I shot him. I just shot him." Morgan taunts Gavin. He pleads his case, saying they can't beat Negan. Rick tells Carl "No, what happened, what you lost, what you had to do, you were just a boy." Carl tells Rick "And you saw what it did, how easy it got." Morgan stands Gavin up. Carl says Rick brought everyone in and they lived together. He says he did it so he could become what he was now. "It's alright. It still is. You can be like that again." Ezekiel doesn't want Gavin dead. Rick says he can't be who he was. Carl says killing them all won't happen. Carol tells Morgan he doesn't want to kill him, but Morgan says he has to. As he does to kill him, a hole appears in Gavin's throat. When he drops, Henry is seen. "I know you can't see it yet, how could we? But, I have. You have a beard; it's bigger. Greyer. Michonne's happy, Judith's happy. She's older, listening to songs that I used to. Before. Alexandria is bigger, new houses, crops, people working, everybody living to help everybody else live. If you can still be who you were, that's how it could be." Carl explains. Rick tells him "Carl; it was all for you. Right from the beginning. Back in Atlanta, the farm. Everything I did was for you. Then, at the prison, it was for you and Judith. It still is. It's going to be. Nothing, nothing is gonna change that." He tells Rick that he wants it for him and Rick promises to Carl that he's going to make it real. Carl and Michonne exchange a glance.

After the final commercial break ends, Ezekiel tells Henry that it's okay. Carol gets on him. Ezekiel de-escalates the situation. Rick apologizes for not protecting him. After all, it's a father's job. "Love, it's just love," Carl says. He deploys his gun. He wants to go out on his own terms while he still can. Rick doesn't want him to, but he succumbs to it. Carl and a wet-eyed Michonne say their final "I love you's" as well as Carl and Rick. Rick repeats "I'll make it real." In the next scene, Rick and Michonne are standing g outside of the church for a moment when a single gunshot is heard. Their heads are hung. They bury Carl in the Alexandria graveyard. Judith is seen walking up to a man gardening tomatoes. Wait, Negan?!? They're all pleased to see one another. Then, Rick is seen sitting up against a tree staring at the stained glass. He has a bloody hand. 

My God was this a compelling and sorrowful episode. I am utterly shocked by everything that went down. Were you surprised to find out everything that happened? Did you expect everything? What do you think will happen next? How will this affect the show as a whole? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, be safe everyone. 

Rest In Peace, Carl Grimes. Chandler Riggs, you will miss.

Editor: Joeleen Gatlin

[daydreamingstories]

After the bridge

Imagine following Daryl after Rick blows up the bridge.

Daryl crying and going away alone broke my heart, so I needed to write something like this. Short, hurt/comfort one.-shot. I hope you’ll like it.

Link to my masterlist with my other works can be found on the description of this blog. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but tumbl doesn’t show posts with links in the tags.

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You were in shock, seeing the bridge blowing up, walkers falling from it as lit matches, and Rick… It couldn’t be real, it couldn’t be happening…

Michonne’s wails made you look at her as Carol and Maggie hold her, preventing her from running to the flames, the walkers, the mess.

It couldn’t be real. Your brain was having a hard time processing it but you felt a burning pain in your chest at the realization of what had happened.

Rick had blown up the bridge to stop the herds of walkers, sacrificing himself in the process. Of course, leave it to Rick do something like that for his people. But it shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have been like that. He couldn’t be gone.

You took in a shaky breath, feeling light-headed. You knew you should go to Michonne too but you couldn’t even look at her as she fell onto her knees, embraced by Carol and Maggie. You couldn’t deal with her pain, her broken heart, the idea of Rick being gone like that, and you looked away.

You saw Daryl a little away from there, standing where he had been shooting arrows to stop the walkers from getting to Rick. He was crying too, you thought, and he turned over to walk away.

You didn’t think you could offer Michonne too much and she had the other women, so you jogged to reach Daryl as he walked into the woods. You thought you’d lose him but he stopped at some point, his back to you.

“Daryl…” You were sure he had heard your footsteps but he wasn’t turning.

“Leave me alone!” He snapped, sounding so broken it hurt your heart even more.

A long time ago, when you had met before you knew how he really was, you had stayed clear from him, backing away when he lashed out. Not anymore, though. You knew him good enough.

You walked to him and wrapped your arms around him, snuggling against his back. He struggled, breaking away from your arms.

“Told you to leave me alone!” He yelled before turning his back to you again.

“I’m not going to. Not right now.”

Daryl scoffed at that, rubbing his eyes. “I told him to go to the bridge. That it couldn’t take the weight of all those walkers and it would fall.” He rasped after a moment of silence in which he didn’t even turn to face you.

“It seems we are better at building than what could be expected.” You surprised yourself joking darkly, your voice breaking at the end of the sentence, and just then you realized that you were crying too. It just didn’t make sense… Something like that wasn’t supposed to happen… Rick couldn’t be gone like that…

Daryl looked at you as if he couldn’t believe you would say that in such a moment, angry, but he seemed to soften a bit when he saw you crying.

“I just wanted to help Maggie end Negan. I just wanted to stop Rick from getting to Alexandria before it.” He whimpered and you reached out for him but he didn’t move closer. “Those herds weren’t supposed to join… Weren’t supposed to go to the camp…”

No, things weren’t supposed to go like that. Everything had happened at the same time, every wrong thing, and you should be used to it but no, no, it wasn’t fair.

“The saviors came to the camp, there were some shots, that’s what drew the herd to us.”

Daryl finally looked at you at that. “It’s everyone okay?”

“Yes, everyone is okay.”

Daryl nodded and looked away again. “I should have been here…shouldn’t have taken Rick away.”

“No, stop, don’t even go there.” You approached him, half expecting him to storm away from you, but he didn’t move. “None could know what was going to happen. Just a bunch of bad coincidences happening at the same time.” You swallowed hard, rubbing at your tears. “Just things going wrong again and again, just like always in our life.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to say to Daryl when you wanted to comfort him, but it was how you felt, like the world didn’t want you to have good things, like you hadn’t suffered enough, like you hadn’t lost enough. It wasn’t fair.

Daryl looked at you and you couldn’t take the pain in his eyes. You reached out for him again and this time he didn’t pull away, letting you wrap your arms around him and pull him into a hug.

He hid his face on the crook of your shoulder as he cried and held you tight, almost making it hard to breathe, but you held him to you even tighter. Memories of that night after he lost Merle, when Daryl had held you just as tight, came to your mind.

Losing his brother had broken Daryl and now he had lost another. You knew how important Rick had been to Daryl, how much he meant to him. You wished to comfort him but you didn’t know how or if you could. You kissed his temple just held him a let him cry, running your fingers through his hair.

Eventually, after a long while of just holding each other, you lifted Daryl’s head gently. “We have to go back, okay?” He shook his head and buried his face on your shoulder again.

You let out a broken sigh and kissed the top of his head before making him look at you again. “We have to. We gotta be with Michonne, he needs us, we gonna help her through this, alright?”

You knew Daryl was going to need time to recover, lots of time, and that he was going to need time to be alone. But right then you weren’t going to leave him alone in the woods. You weren’t sure he was in the best state of mind to take care of himself. Honestly, you weren’t sure how he and Michonne were going to recover from something like this, but you would help them however you could.

This time Daryl nodded but he didn’t pull away from you, his arms still holding you to him. You gave him a weak smile and reached out to cup his face and wipe his tears before pressing a kiss to his check, surprised when he did the same to you, making you smile softly.

“I’m here for you, you know it right?” You told him softly. “No matter what, you got me. Always.”

Daryl didn’t say anything but nodded. You held him to you again for a second and then pulled away, reaching out to take his hand to lace your fingers and walk you both back to the camp.

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Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked it! If you have a moment, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, your feedback makes my day! It seems I finally was able to write a short thing.

As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.

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