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RICK GULPED LOUDLY against his battering heart in his chest, stuffing his ears with the distant sound of his pulse. His peripheral vision blurred with a specific disturbance, almost as though they had been desperate to clench shut — never to reopen. Daryl could not stand the anticipation. He impatiently clamped at the shovel, and proceeded to dig deep as he refused to wait in anticipation for Rick's answer. He appeared to be messing with him. But Rick had to do it.
"Coda's... showing symptoms," Rick abruptly remarked, averting his gaze to the ground as he blinked away his tears.
Daryl's entire body cemented in place, stiffening his muscles as he lost grip on the shovel. It fell to the ground with an accidental clang, thumping against the grassland of the courtyard. Daryl's hands sunk to his sides from shock, along with his stumbling feet that barely held him up. How could his daughter have been exposed to this illness, to begin with? Until, in the same very moment, his mind pieced the puzzle together in a sharp instant — Ellie. No matter how unintentional it had been, their proximity had spread the illness from one to the other.
"They're putting her in cellblock A with the others," the leader hoarsely stated, suddenly connecting his tearful eyes with his friend's, "Hershel said it's looking likely that Ellie... passed it to Coda. He doesn't want Ellie to know yet."
"Why? 'Cause she'll refuse quarantine and try to stop this shit?" Daryl challenged sarcastically, already knowing the answer to his sharp question as he shook his head, "She ain't gonna do nothin' that we ask ever again if she finds out we lied to her."
Rick broadcasted a deep sigh from his seemingly hollow chest, prompting Daryl to merely squint his cautious eyes as he replied, "We can put them together, but she won't want to be away from either of us."
Daryl clenched his jaw. Tight. He allowed Rick's statement to rinse over him, breathing slowly to ebb the near-ignited rage in his stomach. He quietly retorted, "We tell Ellie, because it's the right damn thing to do."
"Tell me what?" Ellie's poetic voice alerted the two from their intense conversation, drawing their eyes to land upon her.
Rick's eyes softened entirely against the naïveté plastered on Ellie's pale face from the illness, entirely saddened by his recent admission. His lips slowly parted to speak, unlocking slowly like the slight shift in a tectonic plate. But, he stayed silent. His hands fastened tightly against the comfort of his hip; his gaze lowered to the ground. The shame had simply been far too much for Rick to rectify. His lack of leadership had been the catalyst for such a harmful virus spreading across the prison, and he was helpless to salvage it. He was not worthy of being the person to notify Ellie. Rick's aqua eyes slowly raised to Daryl, blinking away a thin glaze of tears as he merely shot him a nod of approval.
Daryl slowly declined his gaze to the ground, wandering close enough to Ellie for the encounter to be intimate, but far enough to keep Daryl safe. He gulped quietly, before ultimately summoning the courage to confirm, "Coda's sick. Hershel has put her in cellblock A with you and the others."
