YEARNING - Daryl Dixon

THIRTY EIGHT.

DARYL finished tying the piece of fabric around the blonde's head and stood up, offering his hand to her, and when she took it he could have sworn he felt a shock.

"I'm exhausted." The woman muttered as the pair walked further into the barn, and sat down on the floor. "You can sleep soon." Daryl mumbled as he fell beside her and rested on his elbow.

"Aunty Bonnie I'm cold." Bonnie frowned at Frankie's words and opened her arms "Come here munchkin." The little girl walked over and into Bonnie's arms, snuggling as best she could.

"We'll get warmed up soon, Rick is making a fire now." Bonnie told her niece as her eyes drooped slightly "Here." Daryl spoke up from beside them as he shrugged off his vest, resting it over the little girl.

"Thanks Daryl." The man half smiled at her and ruffled her hair gently as Bonnie tried her best to warm the girl up, though her shivering still continued.

"You still cold Frank?" The older Australia asked and the girl nodded "Yeah." Bonnie sighed defeatedly and sat up as best she could "Here I got 'er." Daryl gruffly spoke as he gently pulled Frankie into his lap.

Bonnie smiled at the sight, her stomach doing flips and turns "That better?" Bonnie whispered, brushing her hand through Frankie's blonde locks as she nodded with a grin "Daryl's so warm!" She exclaimed in shock, causing Bonnie to giggle.

Bonnie met Daryl's eyes and smiled, mouthing a thank you to the male "I'll be back okay?" With that Bonnie stood up and walked over to her bag, opening it and pulling out a new shirt.

"Bonnie could you have a look at my shoulder for me? I must have knocked it running through the woods." Glenn asked at the woman with a pained gaze and she nodded with a smile "Sure, let me just get changed and I'll have a look."

He nodded as Bonnie turned and walked to where she thought was a somewhat hidden place behind a few hay stacks.

Without knowing, Bonnie's " decent" hiding spot was as clear as day too Daryl.

She tossed the shirt on a a lower hay bale and peeled her shirt off her body, the wet material causing it to cling to her skin. She wringed the top and water seeped onto the ground causing her to cringe.

Daryl's eyes ran over the group slowly, Abraham sitting on his own with a bottle of alcohol, Rick, Glenn Michonne and Carol sat around the fire and the rest asleep or laying down. Though where his eyes rested next, made him freeze and a blush to rest on his cheeks.

He had spotted Bonnie shirtless and in nothing but her shorts and a bra, he couldn't help but let his eyes follow her figure. She looked sore, with bruises and cuts littering her skin from the early run through the woods, though he had noticed the small surgery scars on her lower stomach.

His gaze was interrupted by the muttering of Rick and Carol around the fire and when he looked back to where Bonnie was, she had disappeared.

"Give me a look at that shoulder Glenn." Her voice made Daryl look over again at the the fire, and there she stood with a fresh top and a small smile on her lips.

Daryl carefully moved Frankie to rest on the ground before he stood up and walked over to the group.

He sat beside Rick as Bonnie began digging her fingers into Glenn's shoulder "Fuck." Glenn groaned out in pain as Bonnie began rubbing hard "You've just got some serious tightness in there is all, do you have any pain in your neck or back?" She asked him.

Daryl watched Bonnie's movements, he could see how she truly enjoyed what she did before the apocalypse "Yeah my back has been sore." Bonnie nodded and kneeled down beside Glenn "Lay on your stomach for me, please." She directed and the Korean followed her orders.

"They're lucky to have a dad like you Rick." Bonnie spoke up, noticing Rick's eyes resting on his son and daughter. Bonnie leaned forward and touched Glenn's back some more "Wish my dad was like that."

"Ok I want you to take in a deep breath, then exhale okay?" Bonnie told Glenn and he nodded as the woman placed her hands on top of one another in the centre of his shoulder blades.

"Why do you say that?" Carol asked the girl as herself, Rick, Daryl and Michonne watched Bonnie's skilled hands moved. "My dad was a right prick." She leaned forward and pressed down on Glenn's back hard.

The only sounds apart from the rain was Glenn's back cracking loudly, then followed by a groan and a satisfied smile on Bonnie's face "Holy shit, that sounded so bad but felt so good."

Bonnie laughed and kneeled back as Glenn sat up "That should take some of the stress away from your neck and shoulder now, I'll try and rub the knots out tomorrow." The man nodded and sat back, Bonnie following suit.

She looked to Carol "He cheated on my mum when my brother and I were only young, he was four and I was roughly one." She extended her hands towards the fire to try and warm herself up.

"Mum was a single mother then, we were on the brink of being poor and he didn't give a shit. Never payed his child support, but he always cared for us when we went and seen him."

She swallowed hard, she had never told anyone the story of her father and upbringing.

"He met his wife, my stepmother, and everything changed. She had two boys herself, and he treated them more like his own children than us." Daryl watched as the girl's walls break slowly.

"Not once did he go out of his way to make us feel loved, never rang to see how we were and that really hurt me." She felt the lump in her throat grow and her eyes fill with tears as the weight slowly fell from her shoulders.

"Your dad is supposed to be the first man you truly love as a little girl." Bonnie's voice broke "I hope the bastard suffered." She let out and stuffed her hands in her lap.

"You're afraid." Michonne spoke up, causing Bonnie to look over at her "You're afraid that the same thing would happen to you."

Bonnie looked on in shock at her words, she hadn't thought about it until now.

"You're right, I am afraid. I guess that's why I haven't settled down yet, because I certainly do not want my kids going through what my brother and I went through."

Daryl's eyes fell over her face, she was in pain and all he wanted to do was relieve her of it.

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