Unattainable (A Daryl Dixon love story)

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Pepper wasn’t sure if she was dreaming; she heard familiar voices, but only saw darkness. “Do you have all of your stuff?” a man’s voice said. It was a very demanding, mean voice that she couldn’t quite place.

“Yeah” answered a deep monotone voice. “Where’s her stuff?” asked the other voice. “I got it” said the monotone voice but now in an annoyed tone.

“Then put it by her” the other voice demanded strictly.

Seconds after Pepper felt a sharp pain and pressure on her stomach. “Fuckin shit!” she cried. She grabbed her midsection and sat up to scan the room.

She saw Daryl, Tyler, and Tricia all in the living room. Daryl quickly grabbed Tyler’s collar “I said put it by her asshat!”

“Daryl, it’s fine, let go of him” she said getting up and picking up her backpack. He did so and said “If she wasn’t here I’d have your ass for that! Don’t you dare disrespect her like that!” he said into Tyler’s face.

“Just stop” Pepper said in an almost defeated tone, opening the front door.

Tricia quickly took her side and Daryl and Tyler shared a final look before following her out. They walked slowly to and past the mud but didn’t look at it. As soon as they were past it, Daryl took his place at the front and led them through the woods.

Nobody spoke. Tricia stayed close to Pepper’s side the whole time while Tyler was behind Daryl and in front of the pair so they could “keep an eye on him”.

Once they reached the road the topic of the cars was brought up. “I’m not sure we can trust the two of you to drive back” Pepper said looking at Tyler “so we’ll just have to split them up and drive back separately” now to Daryl.

“Good idea. Do you want to take Tricia and I’ll take him?” he asked. “Can I trust you enough not to strangle him?” she said in a serious tone. “I’ll try my best” he said then tapped her shoulder in a reassuring way. “I’ll follow you out” she told him and turned away to walk to the car.

He watched her walk off for a short second. She looked defeated, or pissed, or something. He couldn’t tell. He filled the tank with a few gallons of the gas that they had brought just in case and when done they left.

On the way back both vehicles were all but silent. Tricia had managed to lighten Pepper’s sour mood.

“Remember that time at Mr. Charlie’s pool?” Tricia snorted. “I could never forget! You’re so lucky I didn’t tell your mom about you and Larry, you nasty-“ Pepper laughed. “Don’t even talk about that!” Tricia laughed back.

After their laughs had died down it got uncomfortably silent. “Tyler still loves you, last night he cried after you yelled at him and he told me not to tell you but you need to know, he just doesn’t want you to act like our mom” Tricia through at her. “I’m not trying to be your mother, I told y’all that. I love you two like a sister would love her siblings…. I just really don’t want Tyler to turn out like Andrew” Pepper said, trailing off.