#[ wan was just a boy but Andrea was there and watched it happen ]

[aworldofyou]

             I know they’re in cowboy hats but .. this is making me want to put the other members of the YANKTON PACK in Twilight verse to a post to expand on who they are so at least some people know who I’m referencing when I talk about them.

[marvelstarwarsetc]

All We Know- Daryl Dixon

PART NINE

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader

Warnings: Cussing, Violence, Gore (The fact that its the walking dead should be warning enough lol)

Summary: Finding her way back to her sisters was all that mattered to her. When the world ended she had lost everything, so finding them became all that mattered. Or at least, it was, until she stumbled across a redneck hunting in the woods.

*Starts in Season 1 and will be a multi part fic*

Part One  Part two  Part Three  Part Four  Part Five  Part Six  Part Seven  Part Seven (Daryl’s POV)  Part Eight

Dr. Edwin Jenner was a kind-looking man in his mid to late 40′s, his light brown hair was just starting to grey, whether from age or the stress of the new world was yet to be determined. He worked at the CDC as a virologist before the world turned, and according to him was the only one who stuck around when it became obvious there was nothing they could do to stop this from spreading. 

After he granted the worn down group entry after they all submitted to a blood test, his guarded expression and apprehension for the other survivors fell and he opened them with seemingly open arms.

It was when Jacqui mentioned no one had had a decent meal in days that Dr. Jenner served up a kind of feast that no one in the group had seen in a long time. The round table was filled with bowls of pasta and a seemingly endless supply of wine, and the group all sat around tables with warm happy expressions. Even Andrea wore a small smile, and Y/n’s smile widened a little at the sight.

The Harrison sisters still hadn’t spoken a word to each other, both still too upset with the other over the things that had happened at the quarry. So while Andrea sat on one end of the table between Dale and Shane, Y/n kept her distance on the other end as she sat with Glenn and T-dog. 

Dr Jenner had offered to fix up the younger Harrison’s battered face a little better than Lori and Carol could, and the mix of appropriate medical supplies and antibacterial cream had already made a huge difference on her face. The swelling had gone down significantly, and her vision was finally clear again thanks to that fact. 

“You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France,” Dale stopped behind Carl as he was filling everyone’s empty glasses at the table. He was looking to Lori for confirmation, who seemed conflicted for a second before she shook her head.

“Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then.”

“What’s it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on.” Rick gently tried to convince his wife, his eyebrows wiggling playfully at her as he did so. The action made Y/n’s smile soften at the playful family banter, and her eyes met her sister’s from across the table before they both looked away again. 

Finally Lori conceded and Dale laughed lightly while he handed Carl a glass with half an inch of wine in it. “There you are, young lad.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as Carl looked at the liquid in his glass with a curious expression, before lifting the glass to his lips and took a small sip.

When Carl let out a sound in disgust everyone laughed at the young boy, and then Y/n found herself looking across the table to where Daryl sat up on a counter, laughing along with everyone else and seeming relaxed. He had a handgun shoved into the front of his jeans, sticking out around the yellow plaid shirt he was wearing, the sleeves of course torn off like all of his other shirts. Y/n briefly noticed the small patch of skin by his stomach that was exposed thanks to the gun, and she quickly averted her eyes when she felt her face start to heat up. But of course the action didn’t go unnoticed by Glenn, who looked at her with a smirk and a wiggle of his eyebrows, garnering a punch to the arm.

“That’s my boy. That’s my boy. Good boy,” Lori praised her son, pulling him to her in a side hug before she picked up his glass and poured the wine into her own.

“Yuck. That tastes nasty.”

“Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud,” Shane told his best friend’s son, handing the small boy a can from the center of the filled table.

Daryl jumped off the counter at that, and rounded over to Glenn. “Not you, Glenn.”

“What?” Glenn asked the hunter in a confused tone, watching as he grabbed the bottle of wine off the able where Dale had put it down and filled Glenn’s glass to the top.

“Keep drinking, little man. I wan’ see how red yer face can get.” He shook the Korean’s shoulders, everyone laughing at the sight.

It didn’t go unnoticed when Y/n finished the last of what was in her glass and pushed it to the center of the table, seemingly done with drinking for the night. Daryl only clicked his tongue and grabbed the glass, filling it a little less than he had filled Glenn’s and pushed it back into the blonde’s hand. “Uh-uh, yer not done yet either sunshine!”

Y/n went to say something in her defense when Rick started to tap his fork against his glass, everyone stopping to look at the man.

“It seems to me we haven’t thanked our host properly,” He declared, turning everyone’s attention to where Dr Jenner sat off to the side by himself.

“He is more than just our host,” T-dog added, earning a chorus of hear hears and a loud booyah from Daryl.

The doctor smiled at the sentiment for a moment, before Shane spoke up, turning the happy moment into a somber one.

“So when are you gonna tell us what the Hell happened here, Doc? All the—the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?”

“We’re celebrating, Shane. Don’t need to do this now,” Rick tried to stop his best friend, but Shane wasn’t having any of it as he continued.

“Whoa, wait a second. This is why we’re here, right? This was your move—supposed to find all the answers. Instead we—we found him. Found one man, why?”

“Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted.” The doctor explained, yet Y/n could sense he was leaving something out.

“Every last one?”

“No, many couldn’t face walking out the door. They… opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time.”

“You didn’t leave. Why?” Andrea asked.

“I just kept working, hoping to do some good.”

With that everyone went quiet, not exactly knowing what to say further. The happy mood had gone now, and Glenn looked to Shane with a disappointed look. “Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man.”

----

When it was clear that there would be no more celebrating for the night Dr Jenner guided the group down to the living area.

“Most of the facility is powered down including housing so you’ll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There’s a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don’t plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies—if you shower, go easy on the hot water.”

“Hot water?” Glenn asked excitedly, looking around towards the rest of the group with a huge smile.

“That’s what the man said!” T-dog confirmed as the two ran off down the hall laughing.

----

After Y/n had taken advantage of the hot water, she found herself roaming the halls of the CDC aimlessly, looking for someone to hangout with as she couldn’t take being alone right now. When she was alone her mind drifted to places she’d rather not think of, and sleep wasn’t an option right now as the things she was trying to avoid while awake always caught up to her while she was sleeping.

In her aimless walking she found herself getting lost in her head anyway, and when Daryl’s voice boomed down the hallway after her she jumped in surprise, earning her a soft laugh and a shake of the head from the hunter. 

“Where ya off to?” He asked, a bottle of whiskey held in his hand. He regarded her with a soft smile, and she shrugged her shoulders in response to his question, not having a better answer.

“Just walking, I guess,” She started. “Didn’t really feel like being alone,” She admitted, and Daryl looked at her for a second before he turned in the other direction abruptly and started walking off down the hallway. 

When she didn’t follow him for a moment he looked back over his shoulder at her.

“Well c’mon then girl.”

----

The two found themselves sitting on the floor of the room Y/n had claimed for the night. They both sat with their backs pressed against the couch, sitting far enough away from one another that they weren’t touching, but close enough to where they could if they both moved over an inch. 

For a while neither said anything, just sat in a comfortable silence as they passed the bottle of whiskey to one another quietly. 

“So why ya ain’t wanna be alone?” He asked her in a quiet voice, looking ahead of them at the wall. 

She looked over at him for a fraction of a second before looking back at the wall too, shrugging her shoulders yet again.

“Bein’ alone is hard sometimes I guess,” She admitted in a small voice.

“ “M sorry bout Amy, by the way. Don’ think I ever said nothin.”

She found herself looking at the man beside her. This up close she could see that his shaggy hair was a little darker brown than she had originally thought, still lighter than Rick’s brown locks. His facial hair had grown a little longer than it was when they had first met in the woods, but she could tell he must have trimmed it to be a little neater when he showered earlier. His muscled arms had a warm tan that went all the way up to his shoulders, probably in thanks to the fact that none of his shirts had sleeves and he spent most of his time in the woods. She could also tell that he probably spent most of his time outside before the world turned, as his tan didn’t seem like it was anything new to the hunter.

When he finally looked over at her she faced back towards the wall, her face heating up at being caught staring. 

“I never thanked you,” She started, finishing when he gave her a confused look.

“For taking out that walker I didn’t see back at camp, when everything happened.”

“Ya don’ gotta thank me for that, Walker was comin’ at ya. Wasn’ gon’ let it get ya.”

She hummed in response before gently taking the bottle from him and downed a good amount of the amber liquid, scrunching her face up when the burn registered in her throat.

“Can I ask ya somethin’?” He questioned suddenly, causing her to look back at him again. He was staring at her face intently, and after a moment she realized he was looking at her various cuts and bruises. She hummed in answer to him and he stopped for a second before continuing.

“Why ya let ‘er do that to ya?”

For a second she was caught off guard because the more she thought of why, the more she didn’t know why. At the time it was because she knew she could take a hit and that Andrea needed to blow off some steam. She was just so used to letting people blow off steam that she didn’t even realize that it was wrong. 

“She needed to blow off some steam,” Y/n responded lamely, avoiding his eyes and what she might see in them.

But if she had looked over at the hunter she would have seen something in his eyes she wasn’t expecting. Understanding. It was then that Daryl understood that taking a beating wasn’t something new to Y/n. Even if taking it from Andrea was. She was used to taking that kind of behavior. It was something he knew all too well, and it was something he never wanted her to take again.

“Don’ mean ya gotta be the one to take it.”

She was going to say something back to him, but suddenly came back to her senses and changed the topic entirely. For the rest of the night the two just continued to pass the bottle to each other, making small talk and staying away from anything personal. Even if they both wished they could tell the other more about themselves.