my tears ricochet

Chapter Fifty Three

Rick had taken majority of the watch that night but Daryl spent the hours awake, unable to sleep. It was enough sitting in the same room with the people he had lost. The sunrise had devoured the shadows and Daryl kept an eye on the receding darkness, gently adjusting the blanket over Ivy's shoulder when it slipped down.

They needed to shuffle their belongings around and find new supplies. A new day meant an opportunity to scout out the area and use the church as a home base, building up their stronghold so someone could pick a direction. And Daryl wanted to find a proper sling for Ivy's shoulder. He couldn't give her much but he hated the sight of his kid going around with scraps.

Carl woke up first, gravitating to one of the windows to peer out. Eventually the rest began to follow, people scrubbing the sleep from their eyes and shuffling to greet the new day. When he saw Glenn's face Daryl had to look away, the memory of a baseball bat lingering overhead still. They had gotten lucky with Carol and Oscar's timing in taking down Terminus. Minutes later and Glenn's life would have been extinguished. His blood would have flooded through the darkness and the man would have turned into a memory.

He gently shifted his hand back from her hair when he felt her stirring. "Hey, you're with me."

Ivy rolled slightly, looking up at him. "Dad?"

Daryl pretended like she hadn't just taken her hand and yanked on his heart strings. "Yeah, you're okay. Everyone's still here."

"What?" She asked, squinting. But then she rolled back to her side, shutting her eyes. "So early."

He looked up in time to catch a plastic bag of pecans from Maggie. "Morning, sunshine. Get any sleep?"

Daryl shrugged, resuming his work at gently running his fingers through her hair. "Not bad. You?"

Maggie and Beth had spent most of the evening whispering to each other, their grief spilling out in new tears, the sisters holding each other tight. Beth's anger at Ivy had diminished easily enough, aware of the dangers that came from holding a grudge when time was limited for everyone. He had a feeling they needed to settle that grievance a little more before it was officially laid to rest but no actual tension caught between the girls. "Missing a mattress, but we've had worse."

"Yeah, I reckon."

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked softly, looking at him in the new light of the morning. "I never asked you what it was like after everything. You were alone."

He resisted the urge to bristle. "It was a long road. Just... long."

"I tried leaving Sasha and Bob at one point," she said. "Thought it would easier to go it alone. But it wasn't. It was awful, all that emptiness."

He tried not to imagine Beth sprinting into the unknown, danger all around her. She was so small and the world had teeth.

Maggie waited a beat until Daryl made a point of opening the plastic bag and withdrawing one of the pecans. She smile, tilting her head. "You're back where you belong. I'm glad you're here."

Daryl faltered, words drying up. She seemed to understand because she left quietly, crouching down to speak to Carol. He gently roused Ivy again and got her propped up. "I'm gonna go out on a run today. Won't be long."

"Can I come with?"

"Not yet."

Daryl was preparing for some kind of protest but Oscar had swooped in almost instantly, pulling out a book from his pack. "Have you ever done one of these before?"

Ivy looked at the offering with some skepticism but she took it, flipping through the pages. "What is this?"

"Soduko."