Zedler, M.D. // Daryl Dixon

Chapter Fifteen: The Barn

•fifteen•

Beatrix

"Hey," I mumble as I enter mine and Daryl's tent. He's laying on his sleeping bag like usual, playing with his arrows.

"I'm sorry," Daryl blurts out as I sit down on my blanket.

"Did Daryl Dixon just apologize to me?" I raise my eyeborw and let out a small laugh.

"I'm serious, Trixy. I didn't mean to hit ya," he looks up at me.

"At least buy me a drink before you abuse me," I roll my eyes jokingly.

"Beatrix, I'm being serious," he says, clearly not amused at my attempt at humor.

"I know," I tell him. "It's honestly okay. It was my fault for getting behind you anyway. And you didn't hit me, you elbowed me."

"It ain't your fault," Daryl sits up. "It's mine for being a jackass and not watchin' out for you."

"You couldn't have known I was back there. Like I said, it was an accident. It's also time for your stitches to come out, so lay down," I scoot closer to him and roll his shirt up. "They look good. It's healing quick, which is obviously good."

I quickly get to work on pulling his stitches out, being careful not to reopen the wound. Once they're all out, I drop them at the foot of the IV pole. The empty bag of saline that I tortured Daryl with is still hanging up, so I decide to take it down too. While I'm reaching up for it, I feel my shirt lift up a little and Daryl grabs my hands, forcing me to look at him.

"Tell me I didn't do that to you," he uses one finger to point to my stomach. I lift my shirt up to reveal a bluish-purplish bruise forming right above my belly button.

"Well, you did, but-"

"You must think I'm a monster," Daryl drops my hands and rubs his hands over his face, letting out a sigh. "Hell, I am a monster for hittin' a woman. Especially you."

"You're not a monster, Daryl," I sit back on my heels and look into his eyes. "I'm fine, and I'm not hurt."

"Like hell you aren't!" He raises his voice and lifts my shirt up, pointing to the bruise again. "I done that to you! Ya shouldn't even be talkin' to me right now."

"You didn't do it on purpose. It would be different if it was intentional," I give him a small smile. "I'm not afraid of you if that's what you think."

"Ya should be," he mutters, looking down.

"I'm not," I whisper as his eyes flicker up to meet mine.

"Don't want ya to be," he mumbles before grabbing my face and pulling it to his. His hands cup my cheeks as he pushes his lips to mine. His lips are rough and chapped, but so are mine. He lightly kisses me before I pull back and rest my forehead on his.

"Thought you didn't wanna kiss me?" I say with a smirk.

"Never said that," he grunts and pulls back.

"So you do care about me," I smile and push my hair behind my ear.

"Never said that either," he sits back and picks his arrows back up.

"But you implied it," I say before standing up to leave.

"Where you goin'?" Daryl calls as I'm half out of the tent.

"I want to see what Rick and Shane are gonna do about the barn. You should come too," I say.

Daryl follows me out of the tent and we make our way back to the farmhouse. Once we get there, I can see that everybody is gathered around on the porch talking. The only people I don't see from our grou are Rick, Shane and Dale. Hershel and Otis seem to be missing too.