Call me England Dixon

Chapter 15: Dead end...

England's POV:

We drive for about 10 minutes in comfortable silence. Every now and then I feel Daryl glance in my direction. I know he wants to ask me something but doesn't know how to approach it. I sigh and turn in his direction.

"Just spit it out already." he looks over at me and back at the road.

"I gotta question." I chuckle.

"Yeah, I know. Just ask."

"You're parents." I nod wondering where this is going.

"What about them?"

"How come ya gotta British accent, but they don't? Not even Carl has one." I smile sadly.

"I was adopted," I respond looking away as he turns his head. "I um. I was born in London, but I was forced to move here when I was 8 because the system didn't have a home to put me in over there. Not even a group home." I chuckle sadly at the memory. "Rick and Lori took me in with open arms. I was 11 when I met them, Carl was only 4. So I doubt he remembers when we first met." I paused for a second. "They took me in not even caring about my background. They were better parents in the 2 minutes they met than my sperm donors ever were in my entire life." I shake my head.

"What ya mean?" He asks. He was curious about it, that much I can tell. But I've never told anyone anything about my life before the system except for Glenn. Not even my parents know how my life was. All they did know was my grandmother watched over me until she died. I clear my throat.

"How long until we get to the CDC," I say trying to change the subject hoping he'll go along with it.

"A few hours." I nod.

"I'm going to take a nap. If you don't mind." He shrugs. I turn my head looking out the window once again letting the darkness consume me.

~ * ~ *

"Hey, Get up!" I feel someone nudge my arm. I open my eyes and see Daryl on my side of the truck with the passenger side door open. "It's Jim." That is all he says before walking away. I followed him out of the truck and headed to where everyone was starting to walk away. Dad is crouching in front of Jim who is sitting down by a tree. Dad stands and walks over to me.

"What's going on?" I ask as he stands in front of me.

"We're about to leave-"

"We're leaving him here? We can't do that!"

"We have to. It's his choice." I scoff. "He wants to talk to you." I nod and walk towards Jim sitting next to him.

"Don't be angry." He says, his voice sounds raspy. I sigh and look at him.

"I'm not. I'm just- We're almost there! We can -we can get you there. There are doctors that can hel-" He interrupts.

"You and I both know they can't help me," he says looking me in the eyes. "I want you to promise me something."

"Anything."

"Don't hide yourself." I look at him confused. "From your feelings. I want you to promise me that when the time comes, which it will." He glances behind me, I turn to see what he looked at and see Daryl staring at us. I turned back to him.

"Jim, I-"

"Don't bother denying it. We've all seen how you two look at each other." I blush looking down, allowing the tears to flow down my face. I swear I've cried a lot more this past week than I've done my entire life. "Promise me, England." I nod looking at him with a small smile.