Stand By Me (Daryl Dixon)

N i n e t e e n

"My leg feels better, not much pain anymore." I look up to Daryl when we were about to leave the house. I wrap the strap on my bow around my chest and nod ready to go.

I follow him out house and down the road to Ricks. He stays quiet as we walk. Looking up to him I see him looking in the direction of one on the women who was with the kingdom.

"Go talk to her," I say to him and he look down to me. "I'll be right here."

"Nah, ya keep walking. I'll catch up to ya." He turns and walks over to her.

I turn and continue to Ricks. I bring my hand up to my face and try to rub away the thoughts swimming in my head. Upset with myself for feeling jealous of a woman who is around his age, maybe older from the looks of her greying hair. She is beautiful. From the look on his face when he looked at me, he has unresolved feelings for her. The way he looked at her is the way he looks at me. Falling for a guy as problematic as he is, what am I thinking? What was I thinking when you had sex in the shower? Not even my past relationships were this back and forth. They were simple, normal. With Daryl it's nothing normal. Just have to keep chipping away at the ice.

"Shay, good morning." Carl says sitting in the porch chair, rocking a sleeping Judith.

"Morning." I blankly say. "Your dad in there?" I point towards the door and he nods at me.

I enter the door and Rick was leaning over the dining room table, arms stretched on either side of a map. He was geared up and I see Michonne sitting at the head of the table hands clasped together, both thinking. I walk up to them and sit across from Rick and he looks up to me.

"You sure this is the place we can get everything?"

I nod, "I am. This place is far away enough that Negan has no idea that it exists. We have to do this."

That's when the door opens, turning my head to see Daryl and the woman.

"Carol, this is Shay." Rick says, "Carol has been with us since the beginning, she's a tough one." I nod and look down to my fondling fingers. "This is a project, and we need as many people here to defend if things go south. We're going to have you, Shay, and Daryl driving the delivery truck and Carol and Aaron in the van. You guys are going to have to go to The Kingdom and pick up a few things before heading south. Go pack what you need, clothes, supplies, weapons, food and gas. We'll meet you at the front gates before dark."

•

Ashley opened the door when I knocked on the infirmary door. She gave me a small smile and let me through. I look over to the corner and see that Chase was fast asleep.

"Do you have a pen and paper?" I ask Ashley.

She turns and walks over to the desk and pulls out a booklet and a pencil. I quietly thank her and sit in the chair beside the bed. I write out the plan Rick and the few people conjured up. Told that I loved him and all the mushy stuff of how good of a person he is. Telling him to follow Rick, and not to be a hero if we get caught up in something. I signed the bottom, kidding his head and giving Ashley instructions to give it to him in the morning when he wakes up.

Leaving the infirmary I pick up my bag and head for the gate. It's hard, leaving someone behind when they need you. It's harder leaving him because he's all you have in this world that blood. He should be coming with me back to where we grew up. Back to where everything made sense. This world now is so confusing and dangerous that people thrive on power because there are no authority or no laws. Especially where people like Negan roam, bashing innocent people's heads in. I say innocent because Glenn, Abraham and the group I've come to love were and are doing what they thought was right. To save the people they love.

That's exactly what I'm doing going and leaving Chase behind in the state that he is in.

I keep my head down and head to the passenger side door. I pass Rick and open the door to the truck, pull myself in and closing the cab door. I pull Chases black hoodie out of my bag and pull in on, pulling the hood over my face and lean against the window. The driver side door opened and closed, the engine firing up.

"You good?" Daryl asked before putting the truck into drive and driving out of the gates.

"I'm good." It wasn't my intention to lie. It just came out like word vomit. Quickly.

A/n: Trying to write, work, go to the gym and have a social life is tiring. Plans on moving out of my parents is in the works and looking for a new job is going to be a lot of work. Sad life.
Short filler chapter.

Briena x.