GIVEN TO FLY [Daryl Dixon]

III.

CHAPTER THREE
[ vatos, pt. 1 ]

Daryl is quick to collect himself. He always is, Misty notices. He never lets anyone see him vulnerable. With a brother like Merle, she can understand why. Merle belittles anyone breathing, let alone someone showing emotion.

She can see him staring at the severed hand in front of them. Then, suddenly, he rounds on T-Dog, pointing his crossbow at the other man's head. Within seconds, Rick has the safety off of his gun and points it at Daryl. They stay like that for what seems like years, until Rick tells him, "I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

Finally, Daryl puts his crossbow down, followed by Rick putting his gun down. Misty lets out a sigh of relief. She watches Daryl, as he clearly does his best to fight the tears back.

And he does. He keeps it all inside, like he always does. "You got a do-rag or somethin'?" He asks T-Dog calmly.

T-Dog pulls out a rag and gives it to him, and Daryl bends down. He then lays the rag down on the ground and picks up the hand. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs," he says, inspecting the hand, "Ain't that a bitch."

He carefully wraps the hand in the rag then walks over to Glenn, pulling him so that his back faces Daryl, and shoves the rag into his backpack. When Misty sees the look on Glenn's face, she walks over and pats him on the shoulder. "Hang in there, love," she says quietly.

"He must have used a tourniquet," she then says, turning to the others. "His belt, I would assume. He would have lost a lot more blood if he didn't." There seems to be a trail, as Misty can see, but how far it will go she has no idea.

Rick nods to the rest of the group and they begin to follow him along, with Glenn still looking very unimpressed that he has to carry Merle's severed hand in his bag. She can't blame him for that.

They walk through a door into another room. Everyone has their weapons out, including Misty. Her bow is pointed at the ground as she pulls an arrow out. They walk down a flight of stairs, Daryl calling out for Merle.

"You in here?" He asks, but is only answered with silence.

There is a walker at the other side of the room and Misty raises her bow, but before she can let it go Daryl puts a crossbow bolt through its head. They walk along with Daryl leading the way, followed by Misty and Rick, then Glenn and T-Dog.

They check every room for danger, and spot two bodies on the ground ahead with their heads smashed in. "Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches," Daryl says while looking them over, "one handed."

He loads his crossbow and continues. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." He raises his crossbow again after finishing loading it.