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[ season two, episode twelve ]
"Dale could get under your skin," Rick said grievously. "He sure got under mine."
Marley intertwined her fingers and stared down at Dale's grave. A small mound in the dirt, marked with a flimsy wooden cross and a blanket of sprinkled flowers. T-Dog and Daryl buried him the same evening he died ── because they were the strongest, most emotionally resistant members of the group who could dig up the earth without breaking down into tears.
It was beginning to hit everyone now. The loss. The grief. The realisation.
For Sage, the pain of losing Dale was insurmountable.
She was standing behind everyone, hovering near the tree line. She was wearing one of Beth's coats, and a pair of gloves to keep her warm on this early fall morning ── although, it didn't really do much. On the outside, she was warming. Inside, it had never felt so cold.
"He was never afraid to say what he thought. What he felt," Rick continued, folding his hands together. "That kind of honesty is rare. And brave."
Andrea shook her head slightly, trying to hold herself together. It didn't work. Everyone heard her gut-wrenching sob ── slightly muffled by her fingers.
"Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another." Rick pressed his lips together, eyes darting around at the others.
His words elicited a few sad smiles. Dale's look was notorious around their camp; from the Atlanta days. You knew when you had done something wrong because Dale would inform you of such with a simple brow raise.
Marley was going to miss that.
"I couldn't always read him, but he could read us." Rick said. "He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us. The truth, who we really are."
Sage rolled the heavy watch around her wrist. The clock-face was upward, hands frozen in time. In the circular pane of glass, her reflection stared back ── red-eyed, pale complexion, sallow hair.
She didn't look up from the watch. Dale's watch.
"He said this group was broken," Rick's heavy voice ebbed through them all, triggering emotions that had been buried deep down. "The best way to honour him is to unbreak it. Set aside our difference and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, take control of our lives. Our safety. Our future."
