The Beginning Of The End (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Skin

Rain looked out of the window of her office, a dog had just run through the gates followed by someone on a motorbike and then a horse drawn carriage.
She left the mansion and the dog ran straight up to her, it was bigger than the last time she saw it but she recognised it instantly.
"Dog!" She heard Daryl yell and Dog ran back to him as he got off of his bike. Rain looked up to see Carol and Henry, she ran over and hugged them both tightly.
"What a great surprise." She said as she pulled away from Carol,
"Henry's taken a stubborn interest in blacksmithing." She said,
"That's great."
"So about Daryl -" Carol started but Rain interrupted her,
"I don't want to hear it."
"He really misses you." She continued and Rain scoffed and shook her head.
Just then, Dianne called Rain over from the watch tower, she said there were people approaching the walls.
"How many?" Rain asked,
"Six." She replied.
She opened the gates to reveal Michonne and Siddiq riding horses and DJ steering a horse drawn carriage with five strangers in the back.
"Who are they?" Rain asked Michonne,
"They're good people looking for a home." She replied. "I told them Hilltop would consider taking them in."
Rain let them in but told them they would have to wait for Jesus to return so she could talk things through with him about them staying.
A woman with short curly hair stepped forward from her group and signed something with her hands, a younger girl stepped next to her,
"She said thank you." She spoke,
"You're welcome." Rain smiled,
"I'm Kelly." She said before pointing at the woman beside her. "This is Connie." She then pointed to a tall woman with dark hair and a bandage round her head, a woman with long curly hair and tattoos and squat, cheerful man. "Yumiko, Magna and Luke."
Rain pointing to herself,
"I'm..." She then messily spelled out her name in sign language. "R...A...I...N."
Connie held her hands above her head and wiggled her fingers down over her face.
"That's the sign for Rain." Kelly said and Rain nodded and copied her.
"I like it." She smiled.

~

The next morning, Rain walked down to the gate to see people arriving from their trip out, Daryl rode in first with Dog, then Michonne came in leading a horse with a girl on the back wearing a blindfold, next was Eugene riding a horse, then Yumiko and Magna and then Aaron, he was also leading a horse which had someone slung limply over the back of it.
"What's going on?" Rain asked, studying everyone's desolate expressions. As they got closer she realised the person slung over one of the horses was Jesus. "Everyone stay back." She yelled at the rapidly forming crowd as Daryl and Yumiko lifted Jesus's body down and Michonne took the blindfolded girl down to the cell. The girl didn't kill Jesus but her people did.

Rain and Aaron hadn't let go of each other for a while, they both needed the comfort. It was Aaron who suddenly broke the silence,
"They were wearing walkers skin as masks." He said quietly.
"What?"
"To disguise themselves."
Rain didn't reply before leaving and entering the underground prison they had. Daryl was in the cell with the girl they had brought in.
She looked over at Henry who was sat in the opposite cell, he was in there because the night before he got drunk and went outside the walls.
"Why is he still here?" She asked Daryl angrily.
"Earl said two days," Daryl replied looking up from the girl, "and I agree."
Rain scoffed.
"I forgot the part where you or Earl were in charge." She said. "Let him out."
"Come 'ere." He said before grabbing her arm and roughly pulling her round the corner.
"Henry's made friends with the girl." He said quietly. "I've been listening in on their conversations."
"Anything useful?" Rain asked and Daryl nodded,
"Her name's Lydia, she talks about her mom alot. We could use that."
"Okay." She sighed. "He can stay and you'll report any information to me."

~

A few days had passed and Rain hadn't heard anything about Lydia, she wondered if Daryl would ever report back to her, maybe he lied. She woke one night to a knock on her bedroom door, she opened it to see Daryl.
"You have information?" She asked him and he nodded before entering the room.
"I had to let Henry out." Daryl said. "He was getting too close to Lydia and he told her about the Kingdom."
"You should've asked me." Rain started but Daryl opened his mouth to interrupt her, she stopped him. "But you made the right decision."
"Lydia's useless." He continued and Rain looked at him confused. "She's so messed up, she thinks her mom beats her to show her love."
"So she's vulnerable." She replied. "That's good for us."
Up until now Daryl had been pacing up and down the room but finally he sat down on an armchair in the corner of the room.
"Can I ask you somethin'?" He asked and she nodded. "D'you think I'm a bad person?"
"Why do you ask that?" She asked,
"Henry said..." He replied. "He said his mom told him about Ed and that Ed reminded him of me."
Rain looked at him in disbelief.
"No. You're not a bad person." She replied. "You just do bad things... like leaving."
Daryl sighed heavily.
"I was lookin' for Rick."
"I mean leaving me." Rain said angrily,
"I know." He replied,
"If you don't tell me why, then Carol will." She said sternly and after a while he spoke.
"There was this woman." He said and Rain put her head in her hands,
"A woman?" She asked, tears starting to blur her vision, he nodded and looked down at his feet. "I think you should go now."
Daryl nodded again and stood up in silence before walking to the door, he placed his hand on the handle before looking back.
"Where's your necklace?"
"I lost it."

Daryl left and Rain sat down on her bed, she reached over to her bedside drawer and opened it to reveal the sparkling blue bird charm.

- Princexiero xx