**Complete**
Riley Grimes. The baby sister of Rick Grimes, a Sheriff's Deputy in King County, Georgia, a real southern man with a southern wife, southern son, and southern best friend, he's a survivor. Riley though? She moved to Maine when she turne...
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"What the hell just happened?" Daryl growled out, bursting into the room, barely giving me a second to breathe on my own before he busted in.
"I just... I need to breathe. Can you just give me a moment to breathe!" I screeched out, almost hyperventilating as I paced holes into the ground, my hands in my hair, yanking it so hard I'm surprised it hadn't fallen out, but then he was there.
In front of me, holding my face in his hands, and staring into my eyes, making me swim in the blue.
"Riley... just breathe with me baby. Deep breath. In." He inhaled slowly through his nose, and I forced myself to copy him, my hands gripping his that were cupping my face, and I'm sure my nails were drawing blood, but I didn't even notice, and he didn't seem to care.
"Out." He mumbled again, and breathed out through his mouth, the air hitting my face as I copied it, letting my eyes fall closed as I did. We repeated the process a few more times, until it wasn't hard to do anymore, and I was doing it without his prompting.
"Tell me what happened love." Daryl whispered, moving so his forehead was touching mine, as I finally began to breathe normally, and I stopped digging my nails into his skin.
"It's just something Lori said..." I huffed out, still trying to catch my breath, so it came out sounding breathy and weak, and I hated it.
"What'd she say?" Daryl said harshly, backing away, and I knew he was going into protective mode, and if I didn't explain quickly he was going to be going down to fight with Lori, which, while sweet, is a tad ridiculous.
"She was worried about her baby. She hasn't felt it move yet. We told her it was normal. But she started talking about what if the baby was dead already. We all have the sickness. That means her baby has it too... and so does mine. Daryl... what if the baby dies? And eats me from the inside out? What if I die in childbirth, and kill the baby when I wake back up? What if I die in the middle of the night, and you don't know? And then I kill you? Daryl... I don't know... I can't..." I was losing it again, and I knew he could tell, because he dived back in, pressing his head to mine.
"In. Out. Riley. Breathe with me baby. In. Out." He whispered gently, over and over and over again until I was back to a semi-normal breathing pattern, before he started talking.
"Our baby is fine Riley. You can feel it move, hell, I can feel it move. It's alive, and it will be fine. Everything is going to be fine. And... and if you died... I would put you down. Make sure you didn't come back. And I would take care of our baby. Because it isn't just yours anymore love. It's ours. And... fuck. If you didn't make it. I would still love that baby just as much as I love you. And if it died... if it didn't make it, for whatever reason, it would never be your fault darling. But don't think about that. Think about how it will feel to hold it. To love it. To teach it things as it grows up. Because it will. And you'll be there to see all of it. If I have to kill the entire fucking world to make it happen I will. Because I can't lose you. And I can't lose this baby." He said it quietly, and I could tell he was about as close to tears as I was, but he didn't let them fall, just continued to stare into my eyes, letting me see into his soul as he poured it out in front of me.
You know... this world sucks. And it's overwhelming, and honestly sometimes I don't understand how or why we are still here. And I don't know why this is happening. Why the dead have risen, and decided to eat us, and sometimes I forget. I forget why I fell in love with this man. Why I fight, fight to keep my baby alive, keep myself alive. It's for him. This amazing guy, who I never would have known, had all this awful shit not happened to the world. And honestly, I have to think that if this hadn't of happened, if the zombie shit wouldn't have gone down, I still would have managed to find him. Because he is my soul mate. He's it for me.
Maybe I would have realized how shitty Ashton was, probably near the end of my pregnancy, since I'm batshit crazy stubborn, but I would have. And I would have left, gone back home to my brother. And maybe, after the baby was born, when I was pissed at the world for making me be a single mother, and worrying about money, I would have gone to a bar or something, and I would have met Daryl there, running around with his brother, acting a fool. But I would have said something, 'hello' probably, since I'm an awkward little woman, but I would have had to have said something. Because he just has this thing... this magnetism. Not for everyone, I know some are repelled from him, like Lori and Patricia before she died, but for me, he sucks me in. Makes me want to get to know him, and stay awhile. But I would have sensed that he was important. So I would have said something. Maybe he would have bought me a drink, but probably not, since he hardly knew how to talk to a woman before me. And then maybe he would have taken me home, or maybe we would have left as awkward friends, and I would call him up the next weekend, and we would do something. And eventually I would tell him about my baby, and he would love the little guy, and we would move in together, get married, live a nice happy life. And I know that's not possible now. I know that we can't have that. Living in a house somewhere alone, married, with babies running around, screaming their heads off. Happy.
