Future Ghosts • TWD

118. Breathin'.

TW: in this chapter there is a flashback
with depictions of suicide.

I'll put *** at the start and end of it in case you want to skip over it. It's short.

"Rose," Rosie was awoken by Daryl shaking her back. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face into her pillow. She hadn't even been asleep for very long at all. "Ya missed breakfast by, like, four hours. What the hell are ya doin'?" Daryl said as he picked up her empty backpack off of the floor.

"Sleepin'," Rosie murmured.

Daryl scoffed. "Clearly," he said as he got to her dresser and began tossing some clothes into the backpack. Rosie sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Stayed up all night lookin' at them fossils, huh? Knew I shoulda' waited 'til mornin' to show you," Daryl grumbled.

"I was readin', too," Rosie corrected, dragging herself out of bed. She took the bag of fossils and her book off of the table next to her bed and carried them over to where Daryl was shoving clothes into her bag. She placed the fossils and book at the top of the bundle of clothes.

"Should be packin' this shit yourself," Daryl complained. He tossed her hairbrush into the bag and then zipped it up. He placed the backpack on the floor next to the door. "Get dressed and let's go. They're waitin' on us," he said.

"But I'm hungry," Rosie said.

"Grab something small, or you're just gonna have to wait until we get there. Maybe ya shouldn't've stayed up all night. Then ya woulda had time to eat," Daryl told her, raising his eyebrows. Rosie tossed her head back in complaint and groaned as Daryl shut the door and left her to get ready.

And even though she was hungry, tired, and annoyed, Rosie did as she was told because she wanted to go to the Hilltop and show everyone her new fossils. So she put on a dark red t-shirt with some brand logo she didn't know and a pair of black shorts that went down about halfway down her thigh. It had taken a little while for her to get used to those shorts, considering she'd only worn shorts that went all the way down to her knees before, but now she liked them just fine. After that, she put on her shoes and jacket, slung her backpack over her shoulders, and hurried downstairs to find Daryl. Just as she expected, he was outside, packing his crossbow onto his bike.

"Lemme see your hands," Daryl said when she got to him. Rosie held her hands out in front of her and Daryl cuffed the sleeves back. When he was done, he ruffled her hair, but it didn't really mess anything up because the hair was still tied back in braids, anyway. "Ready?" he asked, and Rosie nodded.

One good thing about everything that had changed was that Rosie was allowed on Daryl's motorcycle now. Apparently, the little trip to her old house proved to him that she was responsible enough and nothing bad would happen. Another part of that reasoning was that they were running extremely low on fuel. The less they used, the better. If that meant that Rosie had to ride on the motorcycle with Daryl instead of in a car, so be it.

The drive was longer than Rosie remembered, but maybe it was just because she was dying to show Maggie and Ian her new fossils. It was all she could think about. She liked listening to the clip-clop, clip-clop sounds Rick and Michonne's horses made, too, though. Rosie had never ridden a horse before, and she wasn't sure if she even wanted to. They were pretty and nice to pet, but they looked very bumpy and hard to control compared to motorcycles. She hoped that, when she got old enough, she could have her own motorcycle. Daryl told her no, but he used to say no to ever letting her on the motorcycle at all, so she was sure he would say yes eventually.

When they got to Hilltop, Rick and Michonne let one of the workers take their horses and put them in the stables while Daryl parked his bike. As Daryl was getting his crossbow off the back of the bike, Rosie ran to Maggie with a giddy, excited smile on her face, so she could show Maggie the velociraptor tooth on her necklace. Daryl watched her as he started making his way over, too. He felt too cheesy to ever say it out loud, but he was sure that Rosie had the sweetest smile he'd ever seen in his entire life, especially when she was as excited as she was then. But that infectious smile faded when she looked up and saw Maggie's face. She had a big, purple bruise on the side of her face.