DARYL
Rick scraped leaves off the sign that'd fallen on the ground.
Terminus.
"Getting close, we'll be there before sundown."
I squinted up the track with my one good eye, the other is still swollen shut. Haven't taken a beatin like that in a long time.
I'm feeling every bit of my age today. But now I've got part of my family back? Starting to feel like I were normal again....where I was meant to be.
"Now? We head through the woods. Get a good look at them first" Rick ordered.
Carl is walkin behind me. Can hear him sniffin....trying not to cry out loud. Hung back until I was walkin beside him.
"I'm sorry, little man. About what that guy tried to do to yer, what yer Dad had to do to him. And Lil'....just real sorry is all" I whispered softly.
"Not crying just because of that, Daryl. And I'm really happy you're back home now. Nothing felt right without you....like a big chunk of us was missing. You know?"
He looked up at me and I ain't seen so much pain on his face since his Momma died.
"It's just....this morning? I heard Dad ask you. About Nate. You didn't answer, but he started crying....and then I guess I knew."
Couldn't look at him, not after he said her name out loud. First time I've heard it for weeks.
But he kept talking as we walked.
"I loved her. Not exactly like you did but....kinda different. And she loved me back too. I know that cos she always kept telling me....had done since the first day we met."
"She was my big sister, our big sister. Nate loved us, and she kept me going on the inside. Cos she taught me....about my ten minutes."
"Ten minutes?" Couldn't help myself askin.
Even though I feel like I'm dying....listenin to him talk about her.
"Nate said you have to take ten minutes every single day, just for yourself. To simply....be happy."
"No matter how bad things are around you or how guilty you might feel doing it? You just have to! Cos ten minutes of being happy every day....is enough to keep you going. Keep on doing what you need to."
"She told me, Daryl. That breathing keeps you living? But ten minutes is all it takes....to make you feel alive again."
"Nate said she had five of those minutes every single time she woke up. But the other five? I know she gave them to me. Just let me be a dumb kid again and didn't expect me to act like an adult."
"Would read and talk about comics with me, play swordfights or we'd just run around. Yell and dance and laugh and act like total idiots. Or go head-to-head on the basketball court....that was one of my favourites."
"Just being really stupid and happy....but not ever feeling silly for doing it. You saw it for yourself too, Daryl. So you know what I mean."
"I've been saving all my five minutes for her, every day since we left the prison. Just like she gave up her five minutes to me. Only I can't gift them back now, can I?"
Honestly didn't know how to answer him. Not after hearing about the other five minutes....
Cos I realised....they're the ones that she gave away to me every day?
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Home Is Your Heartbeat ('Home Is' Book Two - Daryl Dixon)
FanfictionSemi-mature. Completed. Book Two picks up immediately from the last chapter of Home is You. Nate is an Aussie girl who was stranded in Georgia during the outbreak. She and fellow traveler Leo joined a group of survivors in Atlanta. Nate got her firs...
