Future Ghosts • TWD

115. Time.

Just as Daryl had promised, he was taking Rosie back to her old house in hopes of finding something that could at least somewhat make up for the hoodie that Liam destroyed. Lots of people were still out looking for Liam, so almost all of the cars were gone. This was the perfect opportunity for Rosie to ride on Daryl's motorcycle. She turned to him, raising her eyebrows. "We can take your motorcycle," she said. 

Daryl shook his head. "No," he said. Rosie huffed out a sigh, looking down at her shoes. "I don't got a helmet for you."

"I'll hold on tight," Rosie told him, lifting her head once again. She looked up at him and made her eyes as wide as she could. She prayed her trick would work today. There were some days that her trick didn't work at all, and Daryl would just roll his eyes and look away from her. She couldn't trick him if he wasn't looking. But on other days, he'd give in almost immediately.

 Today, Daryl scoffed and looked away. But he looked back a moment later. "You're pissin' me off, makin' your eyes all big, know that?" Daryl said, raising his eyebrows as he looked down at the girl. Rosie gave him a half-hearted, tight-lipped smile, hoping it would sway him in the direction of yes. "Jesus," Daryl muttered under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Rosie didn't know what that meant. Yes or no? Daryl sighed. "Go run inside, get one a' my shirts to wear on the way there. Too cold to be wearin' short sleeves."

Rosie's eyes lit up with excitement. "Yes?" she asked, her voice full of hope. 

"Yes. Go. Be quick. Don't got all day," Daryl said.

Suddenly feeling less devastated and horrible, Rosie ran back to Barrington House and went all the way upstairs to get one of Daryl's shirts. As quickly as she could, she took off her backpack, pulled a long-sleeved, gray button-up out of Daryl's bag, slid it on over her blue t-shirt, and put her backpack back on before running back out to Daryl's motorcycle. When she returned, Daryl was strapping his backpack to the back of the bike. He turned to her, having heard her quick footsteps crunch against the gravel on the ground. Seeing as he was strapping his own bag to the bike, Rosie handed over hers so he could strap that on, too. 

"Lemme see your hands," Daryl said once he was done getting the bags on the bike. Rosie held her hands out in front of her, but the gray sleeves of Daryl's shirt covered them up. Daryl cuffed the ends of the sleeves until he could see her hands, then helped her onto the bike before getting on himself. He turned his head back so he could look at her out of the corner of his eye. "You hold on. Understand me?" he said. Rosie nodded and wrapped her arms around his abdomen as best as she could. "Not havin' you fallin' off out there," he said as he started up the motorcycle. 

Rosie's stomach bubbled with excitement as the engine roared to life. "Don't crash!" she shouted to Daryl over the rumbling. He nodded and double-checked to make sure that she was holding on tight enough before driving off.

The motorcycle ride was everything Rosie could have ever dreamed of. She'd been on motorcycles before, but only around her old neighborhood. She never got to be on one this far out, away from the city. She liked to watch the trees whip by and the clouds floating above them. It made her feel a bit better- a bit more calm, after everything that had happened. 

They only made it about half of the way there before Rosie shouted out, "Daryl, I gotta pee!"

"Hold it! Only got a little while longer," Daryl replied.

"I can't!" Rosie alerted him. Daryl rolled his eyes because he was sure that she could hold it and she just didn't want to. But he pulled off to the side of the road, anyway. As soon as the bike was stopped, Rosie scrambled off of it, almost falling face-first into the pavement along the way. Daryl grabbed his crossbow off of the bike before leading Rosie out into the forest. While Rosie went behind a tree and did her business, Daryl kept his eyes peeled for the dead or the living. There was nothing. When Rosie was done, she went up behind Daryl and tapped his shoulder, almost spooking him. "My hair keeps goin' in my face," she complained to him.