my angel ➶ ➶ daryl dixon

s i x t y t w o

"Hey everyone." I said as I made my way out of the forest onto the road. "This is Aaron." I motioned towards the stranger. Everyone jumped up immediately, grabbing their weapons.

"He's alone as far as we know." Daryl said, backing up, but keeping his crossbow trained on him.

Abraham walked up to Aaron, patting him down aggressively. He threw his bag onto the ground, out of Aaron's reach.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you." Aaron held out his hand to Rick, causing everyone to take a step towards him in defense. He looked around, meeting everyone's harsh gaze before taking a step back.

"There something you need?" Rick asked.

"I have a community nearby. I want you to a-auditon for membership." A few people scoffed. "I wish there was another word." Aaron continued quickly. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe. Anyways, I think all of you would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is simply to convince you all to follow me back."

Rick turned his head slightly, clearly unconvinced. "I know." Aaron resumed. "If I were you I wouldn't want to come either. Not until I knew what I was getting into. If you wouldn't mind, could you look through my bag?" Aaron turned to me.

Daryl stiffened slightly, but I made my way over to the bag. "Front pocket. There's an envelope. There's no way I can convince you by just talking about our community so I brought these." I reached into the front pocket, finding a manila envelope. "I apologize in advance for the camera quality, we just found it and-"

"Nobody gives a shit." Daryl interrupted.

"You're absolutely right." Aaron continued. I pulled out the first picture, which was a picture of large wooden panels held up by wooden beams. "That's the first picture because I want to prove that you will be safe. Otherwise there's no point in you coming." I handed the picture over to Rick, who scanned it for himself.

"In fact, there's only one other resource that is critical to our survival besides that wall. The people. You can make us even stronger. The next picture you'll see is-" I started to flip to the second picture when Rick stormed up to Aaron. Without a warning, he punched him in the face, hard. My mouth hung open as I stared down at Aaron, who was knocked out cold at my feet.

"Dump his pack. Let's see who this guy really is." He said to Carl. "Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us."

Daryl gave my shoulder a squeeze, before heading out into the forest. "Rick, we didn't see Aaron coming. If he had wanted to hurt us, he could have." I tried to explain to him.

He simply tilted his head, watching Michonne continue to riffle through Aaron's bag. "See anything?" He asked as Daryl reappeared on the road.

"Just a lot of places to hide." He responded and Rick nodded.

"What did you find?" Rick asked his son.

Carl held up a flare gun in response. Aaron groaned at my feet, and I looked down. He rolled over slowly, but laughed. "That's a hell of a right cross there Rick."

I couldn't help but let out a chuckle, and bent down to help him. I held a rag to his head, where a bit of blood was pooling.

"Sit him up." Rick ordered, walking over to us.

"I think it's better if he-" I started to say.

"It's ok." Aaron interrupted, working his jaw a few times before making his way to a seated position. "You're being cautious. I understand."

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick questioned. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people."

Aaron sighed. "Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"I mean, of course it matters how many people are actually out there. But does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say you're not going to trust me." Rick tilted his head, considering what Aaron was saying.

"Well it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face."

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road?" Rick paused again, as we all turned to look at the unopened bottles of water.

"How long you people been following us?" Daryl stepped towards Aaron, raising his crossbow a bit. I grabbed his tense bicep, preventing him from getting any closer.

"Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other. You're survivors. Like I said, and I hope you don't punch me again for saying it, that is the most important resource we have in this world."

I quickly flickered my eyes around the group, trying to gauge how they were feeling. While Rick still looked skeptical, everyone else had a hint of hope in their eye. Could we really have found a safe place?

I glanced up at Daryl, who was still glaring at Aaron. His jaw was clenched, and I knew it would take more than a few pictures for him to let his guard down. He didn't trust easily, and that was one of the things that drew me to him. While I wanted to see the best in everyone, Daryl saw the worst. He kept me safe, and I was working to help him learn to have confidence in others. He balanced me out, and I him.

"How many others are out there?" Rick asked again, pushing Aaron.

"One." Rick shook his head. "See I knew you wouldn't believe me." Aaron continued. "If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is real?" He looked up at me, clearly hoping someone would give him some slack.

"Rick, what if he takes us to the community, so we can see it for ourselves. From a distance, of course." I offered. Aaron gave me a small smile in thanks. I didn't know why, but I trusted him. He was willing to give up all the information he had, which was uncommon in this world.

"If we leave now, we'll get there by lunch." Aaron said.

"I'm not sure how all of us are going to fit in the one car you and your friend drove down in." Rick answered, trying to find any excuse to not trust Aaron.

"We drove separately." Aaron answered quickly. "If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us."

"You've really though this through." Rick countered, still suspicious.

"Rick. If he wanted to ambush us, he would have done it here. He had the element of surprise, he could have picked us off one by one, starting with me and Daryl in the woods." I was tired of running, and I believed Aaron. I felt that his community could be a safe place for us to start our future. We could finally settle down.

"Thank you Aspen. You can trust me." Aaron added on.

"Your way is dangerous. Mine isn't." Rick said to me.

"Passing up a place we can live? A place to raise Judith? That's dangerous." Michonne responded. "We're strong. We can handle ourselves."

"Alright." Rick sighed. "Glenn, Abraham, Rosita, y'all good with going to find the car?"

"Yeah." They all nodded.

"If you're not back within the hour, we'll come lookin." Rick stated. "But that could be exactly what they want." I sighed, making my way out of the barn with Daryl. Rick needed to learn how to trust again.