Fight, Love, Live.

XX

I'm a light sleeper, I'll admit it. But I've never jerked awake like I did this morning. At first, I didn't know why I was awake, everything seemed normal. Until I glanced over to my left and saw that Riley wasn't in her cot. So I, of course, freaked out. 

I grabbed my crossbow, and left the tent without even putting my boots on so I could find her. Which I did, pretty quickly since, she wasn't able to make it very far before puking her guts out on a tree near the tent. Before I had even realized what I was doing, I had dropped my crossbow and moved over behind her, pulled her hair back with one hand, and was rubbing her back with the other. 

There wasn't anything for it, I knew, it was just part of being pregnant, but it had to suck, doing it all by yourself. While she was puking I took the time to look around and see what was going on. It was almost sunrise, and the only people out were Shane and Andrea. Andrea looked like she had just came up from taking a bath since her hair was soaking wet, and Shane was sitting up on top of the RV, gun in hand, and glaring right at us. I just glared back until she finally finished, and started to lean up. I still had her hair gripped in one hand, and the other on her back, so when she stood up she automatically leaned into me, making my arms wrap around her in a hug, and she reciprocated without even really thinking about it. I mean she had to not know it was me right? Other wise she wouldn't be doing this. I had to admit though. It felt nice. 

"Thank you Daryl." She murmured out against my chest. Shit. Well why the fuck is she hugging me if she knew it was me? 

"You alright?" I asked back, deciding not to question it as I let my fingers run through her hair. 

"Yeah. That feels nice." I just hummed back, and continued to let the pieces of hair run through my fingers, and after awhile she spoke again, though I could tell she was falling asleep since she was letting more and more of her weight rest on me. 

"Do you have any water? My mouth tastes gross." 

"Yeah. Go wait in the tent and I'll get it. It's in the truck." She just nodded and pulled away, and I could tell I had almost put her to sleep since her eyes were all blurry, but neither of us said anything about it, and she moved the few feet back to the tent, and I walked to my crossbow, grabbed it, and made my way to get the water from the truck. 

I could see Shane making his way down the ladder of the RV, and he was glancing at me every few minutes, so I knew he was heading this way, so I sped up, and made it to the truck, grabbed the water, and left before he could get to me, and slipped into the tent, even though I knew he was trying to get my attention. 

When I walked in, Merle was still asleep, and Riley was sitting criss-cross on the bed, staring at the flap like she was waiting for me. I handed her the bottle, set my bow down, and made my way to the sleeping bag to sit down so I could put my shoes on.

"Thank you."

"No problem. You don't gotta thank me for everything." I grumbled, tired of her saying thank you every three seconds. 

"Sure I do." She said after a pause, where she drank her water. 

"Naw. You don't." 

"Why not?" She questioned, that same note of curiosity that was always present when she talked to me rearing up full force. I sighed as I pulled my boot on. How do you explain this to someone?

"You don't have to do it alone. I want to help ya, so I am. You don't need to thank me." When I glanced up at her, she was already staring at me, with something in her eyes I didn't recognize, but she just nodded and took another drink of water, and I pulled my other boot on. 

"Come on, get your shoes on, we gotta get movin'." I grumbled, and she nodded, and began to pull her shoes on. I moved over to Merle and nudged his shoulder, and when he jerked up I just gave him a look before going back over to the sleeping bag to roll it up. He grunted behind me and started getting ready as well. 

"Good morning Merle." Riley said from next to me, and I tried to cover the smile at how just... nice she was. 

"Morning sweetheart. How'd ya sleep?" Ugh. Why does he call her that? 

"Just fine, thank you. Do you all need anything?" She asked, again with the thank yous. 

"You're not doin' anything. You can go get Bailey if ya really need somethin' to do. But otherwise? Nothing." I growled out as I stood up holding the sleeping bag. She just nodded up at me, still smiling, and left to go get Bailey, and Merle and I started the work of packing up the cots and taking down the tent. 

Once everything was settled in the trunk of the truck, I found Riley again, this time Bailey was back at her side, leash on and everything, and she was in a circle of other people who were listening to Shane's instructions. I moved up behind her, and tried to listen, but my attention kept getting pulled away by the sunlight bouncing off her hair. 

"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" No one said anything, and Riley was turning around to look at me, when Morales spoke up. 

"We're uh... we're... we're not going." Morales glanced at his wife for help and she stepped in. 

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Riley was turned towards me, but was watching them, and I could see the shock on her face, but I wasn't too surprised, if anyone else here thought there was still some family out there, you know they would go too. 

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane said, twirling his shotgun so it rested on his shoulder. 

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Morales said, glancing down at his kids. 

"You sure?" Rick asked, moving closer. 

"We talked about it. We're sure." 

"All right. Shane." Rick called, gesturing to the bag of weapons that we had got in Atlanta, and Shane rolled his eyes but brought it forward. 

"Yeah, all right." Rick just ignored him and looked back at Morales. 

"357?" Rick asked, pulling something from the bag. 

"Yeah." Rick handed Morales a gun, and Shane handed him a box of ammo. 

"The box is half full." Shane said grumpily, and started walking back over to his jeep. 

"Thank you all... for everything." Morales' wife said, letting the tears fall as she gave Lori a hug. Shane and Morales hugged, and so did Sophia and Morales' girl, Eliza? and eventually they started to leave. 

"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?" Rick said calmly as he sent them off, and I tried to ignore it when Shane spoke. 

"What makes you think our odds are any better? Come on. Let's go. Let's move out." Shane moved back to his Jeep, and I grabbed Riley's hand, and when she looked at me, I gave her whatever kind of smile I could muster, and helped her get in the truck, Bailey following after, and when I got in the driver's seat, I couldn't help but notice how close I was to her. 

It didn't take long after we started driving for her head to hit my shoulder as she fell asleep, and for the first time in awhile, I didn't flinch.