"I'm goin on a run, you wanna come?" I nod at Daryl, pulling my shirt on and forcing myself out of bed. It'd been a month since Daryl and I had moved up here, the community that was building in the prison was progressing nicely. A mixture of people from Woodbury and then people we found whilst we were out.
I was speaking to my sister again, she had apologised and I think she'd finally understood my boundaries, things weren't exactly how either of us wanted them to be but we'd get over it. I hoped we would at least.
I spent most of my time with the kids, I was like a babysitter in a way. Aurora would just talk to me for hours, she wasn't wrong when she said she talked a lot. She really got on with Sophia too, so the three of us spent the most time together but I made sure to keep up with Carl, he was still finding it difficult to adjust and just be a kid again.
"Alright I'll be out by the car." He tells me, "ooh can we have another driving lesson?" Daryl had given me a driving lesson the last time we went out, he was the only one willing to get in the car if I was behind the wheel. "Please?" He looks like he wants to say no but he gives in, he almost always gave in if I asked him for something.
"Yay, thank you." I peck his cheek, no longer sleepy but practically buzzing with excitement. "Yeah yeah, see you outside." He tries to keep the smile from his face but he fails.
Once I'm done I rush down and find Daryl leaning against the car, smoking as he waited for me. My steps are springy as I make my way over. Pulling the cigarette from between his lips I take a drag before flicking it to the ground. "Ready to go?" He nods at my question and so I hold my hand out for the keys. He hesitates for a second but all I have to do is give him a look and he places the keys in my eager hands.
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"Oh my god, you're being so dramatic." I huff after we reach our destination and Daryl has decided to pull out the dramatics so that he may complain about my driving. "What do you find so hard? The roads are godamn empty, are you purposely trying to kill us?"
"Shh, you don't wanna attract walkers to us do you?" He rolls his eyes at me but he doesn't say anything more on the matter. Instead he leads the way as we go to explore.
The run is fairly uneventful, we evade walkers with ease only having to kill a couple. We don't really find much though, the stores are pretty cleaned out, I do manage to find some board games. I pack them away with excitement, I'd been hosting little game nights in our guard tower with the original group and so I'm very pleased to be able to add to my growing collection of games.
"Do you really need more games?" I nod without missing a beat, "of course we need more games." Daryl pretended he didn't like game night but I knew that he loved them really. He and Rick were more competitive than the children. He scoffs under his breath and grumbles about finding useful things.
"Oh yeah? You think you've found something more useful my games?" I ask not noticing the small smirk pulling on the edge of his lips, "yeah I do." The proud look on his face intensifies once I notice what it is that he's holding up to show me. I feel my own lips begin to quirk as I focus on the strip of condoms in his grasp. "I think we'll have to test these before we deem them more useful." I say as I slink towards him, his eyebrows raise as he continues to smirk down at me. "Let's test them then."
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"Selene?"
"Jesus Christ!" I jump up once I see Aurora's massive eyes focused on mine. "What the hell Aurora?" It's the middle of the night and I don't know how she made it up here on her own or what she was doing here to begin with. Daryl and I made it back a bit later than we'd first anticipated but when we did, we were so tired from all our 'scavenging' that we crashed straight away.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I focus on my sister and it's then that I see the tears shining as she tries to blink them back. "What's wrong?" I ask softly, sitting up. "What's going on?" Daryl asks sitting up alert and ready to strike. He relaxes once he sees Aurora but his brows pull together as he frowns. "What're you doing here kid?" We we're both concerned because whilst the prison was safe it wasn't exactly safe for someone of Aurora's age to walk across to our room. Especially at this time of night.
"I'm sorry." She squeaks out turning to leave. "Hey come here, what's up?" I ask catching her arm and gently pulling her back. She can't hold her tears back any longer, Daryl and I share another concerned glance once we watch them fall. "Hey everything's okay, we're here Rory, tell us what's wrong." I tell her softly as I wipe her tears away.
"I had a nightmare." I'm confused, she shares a cell with Lia, why would she come all this way in the dark alone when she was already scared. "You had a nightmare?" She nods her lips quivering, "I'm sorry for waking you up but Aelia gets mad when I wake her up because of my nightmares." She says making me frown and pull her into a gentle hug. She sniffles before she leans forward and buries her face in my neck. "Oh everything's alright honey, we wouldn't let anything happen to you." She shakes her head and I feel her tears run down my neck. "It's all my fault." I run my fingers through her hair as she begins to hiccup because she begins crying harder.
"Rory you've got to calm down baby, come on talk to me." I gently coax her out of the hug and wipe her face as I try and soothe her. "What's your fault?" I ask looking into her guilt stricken eyes. "Mamma, it's my fault she's dead." My heart breaks at the pain weighing her voice down. "That's not your fault. It's not your fault Aurora." She shakes her head not believing me.
"Yes it is, I needed the toilet so they stopped the bus and then mamma got bit saving me." Her words are interrupted with hiccups and her small body continues to shake. "Aurora, it was just an accident. It's not your fault." I try and reassure her but she doesn't listen, "you're lying to me, Aelia said it was my fault, she said that's why she doesn't like me." My mouth drops and I'm appalled, "Aelia said that to you?" I'm suddenly angry, why would she say that to her, she's just a child and it wasn't her fault but saying such a thing could permanently scar her.
"I heard her, she said it to someone else, she didn't know I was listening." I pull Aurora into a big hug and resume running my fingers through her hair, "oh Rory, I'm sure she didn't mean it, she's just sad about mom. When people are sad they sometimes try and blame other people because they don't know how to deal with their feelings, it's not your fault though Aurora, I wouldn't lie to you. These things happen all the time now, it's the walkers faults, they're the ones biting people."
It takes Daryl and I a while but once we finally manage to calm Aurora and get through to her she falls asleep, she's curled up into my side snoring softly. "Would you mind if Rory stayed in our room with us for a bit?" I ask Daryl softly, not wanting to wake Aurora. "Nah, I don't mind, I don't think she should be bunking with your sister anymore either."
"I can't believe she said that she doesn't like Rory because of what happened." I whisper so unsure on what I can do to mend my fractured family. If anything Aelia watched Aurora grow up, she should be extra protective, she should be looking after our sister, one the one who just met the kid but I already would do anything for her.
I really thought things were gonna be more simple here but it just looks like everything was still a big mess.
