No Looking Back {Book Two}

25

(Trigger Warning ⚠️: Mention of Rape.)

Daryls POV:

Two weeks later and she was still not awake. Siddiq said it could be the injury on her head that's causing her to take awhile to wake up. But he said that it could be something else but it's hard to tell without the machine he needs to scan her head with. I know he needs that machine to find out what's going on but that kind of machine is in a hospital but it's too dangerous to take her there and there's no power at the hospital to power it up.

Negan came back and he's back in the cell but I know he's close to Maddie but I can't let him walk around freely. Maybe I should let him see her. I sighed before standing up and walked out of the infirmary. I went to his cell and unlocked it.

"Do you want to see her?" I asked.

"Are you going to let me?" He asked.

"Yeah I am. Now come on but you're staying around me." I said, opening the door. He followed me to the infirmary and walked in, seeing Maddie in the bed. He walked over and sat down, grabbing her hand.

"How long has she been in a coma?" He asked.

"Three weeks." I said. "We don't know when or if she'll wake up." I added.

"She'll wake up. She has to." He said. He sounds very worried about her.

"I'm going to ask you something and you better answer me honestly." I said.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Do you care about my sister?" I asked. He looked at her then back at me.

"I do." He said. "I care about her a lot and I would do anything to protect her. But I know you don't like me and I don't know if she does." He said.

"Do you have feelings for her?" I asked, serious.

"I kinda do." He said.

"You know she might not feel the same for you. I hope you're prepared for that." I said.

"I know she might not have the same kind of feelings as I have for her but I will still do anything to protect her." He said.

"Alright. But if she does feel the same way towards you, I'm going to have to accept it if I like or not." I told him.

"I'm going to tell you something before when Simon brought her to me." He said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"She was sleeping in the room next to mine at the Sanctuary, so I can keep an eye on her. One night I was sleeping, I woke up to her screaming. I grabbed Lucille and walked into her room and saw David trying to rape her. Your sister ran behind me and held onto me, out of fear from David. It was against the rules to rape at the Sanctuary and the punishment was death. I killed him and I turned around and she hugged me. She was scared and so I let her sleep in my room with me. I didn't try anything on her, but I knew she didn't want to sleep in that room with his body in there." He told me. "There's something she didn't know. I was worried about her and I wanted to protect her but I had to act like I didn't. But before I killed him, she told me he raped her when she was in that cell and that made me more angry. More angry than before. But she held onto me and it was like she trusted me to protect her. Even before I wanted to protect her." He said.

"Is that when you started caring about her?" I asked.

"It is." He said. "I know I wasn't a good person then but I couldn't let her get hurt. Wherever I went, she was with me so I can watch her and protect her. One day, I threw the doctor I had there into a fire and she watched it. When I turned and saw her face, she looked scared and I wish I didn't let her see me do that. The more I got to know her, the more I cared about her. I'm always honest with her. When she comes down to my cell to talk about Rick and she would start to cry, every time I would want to just walk out of that cell and take her into my arms and hold her. I don't like that she's hurting like that even after he died six years ago. I know how she feels losing someone she loved so deeply because I went through it and hell I still am. I listen to her and I let her let things out and I don't judge her. When she told me what that group did to her, I wanted to kill every one of them for hurting such a sweet woman." He said.

"That's why she was always talking to you. I didn't like that she kept talking to you but I know she does things for a reason. I know why she let herself get taken again. She did it to protect the two people who were with her because she didn't want them to get hurt or killed." I said.

"She told me that sometimes she would talk to Rick like he was right in front of her and she would start crying. I wish I can help her through it but I know that she has to take her time and she'll let him go when she's ready to. I let Lucille go but I still think about her. I told Maddie that you'll never be able to forget the person you loved but you can still let them go. And that you'll never stop loving them for as long as you live. It hurts me to see her going through it but I know I can't stop it, she has to be ready to let him go." He said. "She probably wants closure. She said that you never found his body and that's probably why she can't let him go because she doesn't have the closure she needs. She even told me she sees him in her dreams and they talk." He said.

"At the beginning, she blamed Maggie for getting Rick killed. Maggie was coming here to kill you and Rick couldn't let that happen and so we started coming here to stop her but I took him off the road and went a different way. I still feel like she blames Maggie for his death. She told me that if Maggie just stayed at the Hilltop, Rick would still be here." I said.

"Maybe it would've still happened but in a different way. But I believe he still would've blown that bridge either way." He said.

"That's what I told her but she still believes it's Maggie's fault." I said.