It's a dog's life

7

Daryl paced furiously in the woods near the road, grunting as he kicked a tree in frustration. They had been all day looking for Sophia and not only hadn't they found the little girl they had almost lost the other kid too. A strange girl in a horse had shown up out of nowhere, saying Carl had been shot by accident and Rick and Shane were with him on her farm, and then she had taken Lori with her.

It had been decided everybody else would be joining them in the morning, so they'd made some signs and gotten some food ready in case Sophia came back looking for them. Daryl didn't want to leave but he also knew they couldn't keep staying at that intersection, and anyway the farm wasn't far, he could keep looking for Sophia from there.

He had just come back from looking for her with Andrea and Y/N. He had been trying to sleep but he couldn't with Carol crying quietly, seeming so broken, so he had gotten up to keep looking. Y/N and Andrea hadn't been able to sleep either and they had joined him, but they had come back without Sophia once again, much to Carol's despair. Daryl wondered if she was starting to lose hope. He had to find that little girl, but truth be told, he had lost the trail and hadn't found any signal of her.

He kicked the tree again and heard a whine coming from behind him. He turned around and found Cole looking at him.

"What you doing out here, uh?"

Daryl murmured, approaching the dog and patting his head as he looked around. If Cole was there then Y/N probably too. He heard a rustle and there she was, walking towards him as she looked around, clutching the gun he had given her. Shane had tried to take it away when for some reason he decided some of them couldn't carry guns, but Daryl hadn't had nothing of that.

"We could ask you the same." She holstered the gun when she reached him. "Are you going to look for Sophia again? Want me to go with you?"

"Nah, let's go back."

Daryl didn't like the idea of Sophia spending the night in the woods again, it was dangerous, but he knew there was no point trying to find tracks at night when he hadn't found anything yet. Sophia would hide somewhere and then he'll find her in the morning. He had to.

He fought the strange urge to place a hand on Y/N's back to walk her through the trees and to the road. He didn't know why he felt like that sometimes when they were walking together and he wasn't sure if he liked it. It could be maybe for all the small, comforting touches he got from Y/N, a hand on his shoulder or on his arm when she seemed to think he was feeling down. At first he had flinched at them, out of instinct and awkwardness, but not anymore. He kind of liked it now, and Daryl wasn't sure of how that made him feel either.

"I'm gonna take watch." Daryl told Dale once they reached the RV, the man had been on watch the whole night.

"You sure?" Came Dale's voice from the RV roof.

"You wanna sleep or not, old man?" Daryl grumbled.

"Mean." Y/N pocked his arm, but he knew by the tone of her voice that she was mostly kidding.

Once Dale was down the roof, Daryl climbed up the ladder, noticing Y/N climbing behind him. He thought about telling her to go to sleep, but if she had set her mind on keeping watch too, then she wouldn't listen. Dale had a chair there but Daryl sat down on the roof, leaving the chair for Y/N. She ignored it too, though, sitting down next to him. Cole looked at them from the ground, yawning and deciding to lie down, probably to wait for them to go down with him.

"You should be sleeping." He finally said to Y/N.

"Don't think I can..." She whispered back.

Daryl knew she had been feeling down. At first he had thought she was still shaken and scared after hiding from that group of walkers, and also worried about Sophia, but now he wasn't sure. She had been quiet since last night, unusually quiet, nothing like her normal self. She didn't participate while he and the others made plans for Sophia's search, she didn't join the conversations, she had been walking at the rear of the group all the times, talking with none, even when there had only been Daryl, her and Andrea. Daryl didn't know what was on her mind but it worried him. He wanted to know it so maybe he could help her, just the same way he wanted to protect her and keep her safe.