Daryls Sister {Book One}

175

It was the next day and I grabbed my crutches and started looking for Rick. I found him in the room where the cribs are. He was pulling the boards off the windows.

"Morning Rick." I said. He turned and looked at me then went back to doing what he was doing.

"Morning." He said. "Maggie turned off the generator to save gas and the kids are going to need air in this heat." He said.

"Rick please let me look at that cut. I can clean it for you." I said.

"Let me finish this first." He said. I heard about what happened out there with Rick attacking Negan and made him go out of that convoy. I didn't want to bring it up because I wanted to wait until he was ready to talk about it. I leaned against the wall so I don't fall. "He was at the back of the convoy that's why I did it. I had to try, I just had to." He told me.

"I understand why you did it Rick. I would've done the same thing if I was you." I said. "But I'm happy that you came back. If I lost you too, I wouldn't know what I'll do. Last night, I wanted to go out there and fight to kill the Saviors. But I couldn't because of my leg, that's the only thing that stopped me from doing it. I needed to be in here not only because of my leg but because the kids needed me and I wasn't going to leave them. I would risk my life to keep everyone alive and I know you don't want me to but I can't help it because I care about everyone here and I don't want any of them to get killed." I told him, feeling a tear fall down my cheek. He stopped what he was doing and walked over to me. He pulled me against him which made my crutches fall to the floor.

"I know Maddie but I don't want to lose you either." He said, pulling away but still holding onto me. He placed his lips against mine and kissed me, passionately. He pulled away after a minute. He put his forehead against mine and we stayed like that for a little bit. He picked my crutches up off the floor and handed them to me.

"Thank you Rick." I thanked him with a smile.

"Anytime Maddie." He said, finishing what he was doing. I made my way out of the room until I got to my worst enemy at the moment. The stairs. I was scared to go down them so I just sat down and started going downstairs on my butt. I got to the bottom of the stairs and realized I didn't think this far through. I don't know how I'm going to stand without any help.

"You good Maddie?" I heard Paul ask. I looked up at him slowly.

"I got myself in a little predicament." I said.

"I see and how did you get into the little predicament?" He asked.

"I was scared to go down the stairs on the crutches, so I came down on my butt and now I can't get up." I said. He bursted out laughing at my struggle. "Are you just going to stand there and laugh at me or are you going to help me stand up?" I asked, glaring at him.

"I'll help you but I won't let you live this down." He said, helping me stand up.

"That's what I was afraid of but I don't want to sit at the bottom of these stairs all day." I said, putting the crutches under my arms.

"Yes you do." He said.

"I will hit you in the head with one of these crutches." I said, trying to stay serious but failing at it.

"Don't you hit my precious head woman." He said.

"I will, just try me." I said, holding back a smile and a laugh. He then started running. "You're lucky I can't run Paul!" I shouted, laughing. I made my way outside and saw Daryl. I hopped to him and he saw me.

"You look like you're getting a hang of those." He said.

"I am but I made a stupid mistake going down the stairs." I said.

"Couldn't get back up?" He asked. I can tell he already the answer.

"I couldn't, Paul had to help me but after he finished laughing at me." I said. "All because I was in a predicament because I didn't think it through." I added.

"Good job Maddie." He said, chuckling.

"Shut up, you try using these." I said. "I wanted to turn around dramatically but I can't because of these things. So I'm just going to turn around normally and hop away." I said, making him laugh again.