Future Ghosts • TWD

103. It's Over.

While Carl was bringing Siddiq- who Rosie still wasn't very fond of just yet- into the sewers of Alexandria, Rosie's job was to go home and make sure Daryl didn't see them. They thought he would've left again already, but when they got back, his motorcycle was still there, which meant that he was, too. As Rosie walked into the house, she tried not to think about Siddiq. She didn't like this plan anymore, but Siddiq was already there, so there was no going back now. Luckily- or maybe not so luckily- her thoughts weren't on Siddiq for long.

When Rosie shut the door behind her, Daryl practically stomped into the room. "Where the fuck were you?" he asked, clearly irritated. Damnit, Rosie thought to herself. She was avoiding Daryl because he was in a bad mood, and now she made his mood worsen even further. "I told you I don't want you out there no more," Daryl said.

"You told me not to go to the Hilltop. We didn't," Rosie almost paused to think up a lie, but she didn't, because that would be too obvious. She just said the first thing that she could think of. "Me and Carl just went for a drive, 'cause he can drive now," she said, thinking her lie was practically flawless.

"Yeah, that's why you got walker blood all over ya. 'Cause ya went for a drive. Stayed in the car, right?" Daryl said sarcastically. Rosie forgot about the walker blood. She'd been so focused on making sure Siddiq didn't switch up on them that she didn't even notice the blood on her clothes. Rosie held her arms out to her sides, looking at the blood on her sleeves, and murmured an oh. That was when Daryl noticed the rip in the side of Fraser's hoodie. Rosie hadn't noticed that just yet. "Fuck," Daryl muttered under his breath. He rubbed his face, thinking for just a moment, before holding his hand out. "Give me the hoodie. I'll wash it. Go change your clothes," he said.

Rosie's eyebrows raised just a little. Usually, he'd be yelling at her right now, but he was offering to wash her clothes instead. She wasn't even sure if he knew how to wash clothes at all. "I can do it. You said ya got more shit to do, 'member?" Rosie said. Daryl seemed to have forgotten to be mad at her, and she wanted him to leave before he could remember to be mad again. And, the sooner Daryl was gone, the easier it would be to help Carl with his plan, even if she thought it was stupid.

"It's fine. Go clean up. I'm waitin' on Tara, anyway. Give me the hoodie," Daryl said, growing a bit impatient. He wanted to get the hoodie away from her before she could notice that it was torn. Someone had to know how to sew. He'd learn to himself, if he had to. He could fix it before she would know that it was ripped in the first place. He could avoid whatever reaction she was going to have when she saw that it was torn.

Even though she wanted Daryl to leave, Rosie began to remove the hoodie. Daryl would be preoccupied with washing it, anyway, so he'd be out of the way when Carl started bringing more stuff into the sewer for Siddiq. Daryl waited for her to fully pull off the hoodie. It was like waiting to see if a bomb was going to explode or not. And, of course, just to Daryl's luck, Rosie's finger snagged in the hole as she was pulling her arm out. Confused at first, her eyebrows furrowed, and she took off the hoodie quickly before examining the side of it. Her eyes widened and her heart dropped down into her stomach when she saw the hole.

"I ripped it," Rosie said quietly, staring down at the messed-up hoodie. Daryl took the hoodie out of her hands and watched as Rosie's expression changed. Her face scrunched up a little bit and she bit down on her lip.

"I'll fix it," Daryl said, hoping that would be enough to keep her calm. Rosie took a deep, shaky breath and lifted her arm to wipe away tears that had just barely managed to fill up her eyes. She kept staring at the hoodie. "Hey," Daryl said, moving her hair out of her eyes. "Ya hear me? I'm gonna fix it. It's fine."

"Ok," Rosie whispered, looking at her shoes. She'd worn Fraser's old boots for so long that they'd gotten a hole in them, and now she had torn his hoodie, too. He took care of her for the first five years of her life, and she couldn't even take care of his hoodie for a full year.