GIVEN TO FLY [Daryl Dixon]

II.

CHAPTER TWO
[ atlanta ]

Misty sits outside of her tent while lacing up her boots. They have decided to go back to Atlanta to get Merle, and she is going with them. Even if Glenn doesn't want her to. Even if he'd spent fifteen minutes trying to convince her not to go. She refuses to sit at camp and feel utterly useless. At this point, she will do anything to take her mind off of Addie.

She'd never been good at being still for too long, anyway.

He appears out of the trees, and she sees him out of the corner of her eye before she hears him, careful hunter that he is. Daryl Dixon stands before her, crossbow slung over his shoulder and bright Georgia blues shining with regret.

He is quiet for a while, just watching her tie up her boots. Finally, when he speaks, he says, "y'all right?"

"It's not broken," she replies, somewhat stonily. She doesn't look up at him.

"S'not an answer."

"I'm fine, Dixon."

"Didn't mean to hit ya, y'know." When she looks up, she sees that his head is bowed, his body language reading something like shame. His eyes refuse to meet hers.

"Is that your way of saying you're sorry?" He just gives a nod of his head and a shrug of his shoulders. "You know I'm coming to Atlanta, right?"

"I know."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He nods again, and she stands to get her weapon of choice from her tent. It is a bow and a quiver of arrows that she slings over her shoulder. Not a crossbow like Daryl's. Hers is much quicker to load and not nearly as bulky.

"Good, then I'll have someone to get my back." Nothing against Rick, but he'll be too busy leading them through the city to be always watching their backs. She then waves him along and begins to walk toward the group. "Let's go. They'll be waiting for us."

They arrives back in the centre of the camp to hear Shane arguing with Rick. And what she hears Shane say certainly made her wish Daryl wasn't right behind her. "Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, choose your words more carefully," Daryl warns.

"Oh no, I did. Douchebag's what I meant," Shane replies, making Misty roll her eyes. He may be a good man, and he may have saved lives, but he can be such a dick. "Merle Dixon. . . guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dyin' of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap, that's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being," Rick tells him.