Muted // A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

•Chapter One Hundred & Thirty One•

M U T E D

Season 10

Daryl's Point of View:
Carol and I walked from the beach and back to Oceanside camp. As much as I wanted to avoid the question, Carol asked me about B's issue.

"She's just been acting different. She tells me it's stress that's getting to her. That it happens to her every time she's over stressed." I explain.

"Never seen her do that before." Carol frowns. "That wasn't concerning, Daryl, that was scary to watch. To sit there and watch her look so disoriented...that's scary. She's never acted like that before."

"She said that's what's happened before. It was bad when she would worry about payin her medical bills, Y'know, the whole transplant surgery, learnin sign language and all that. The stress was real bad in the before world." I explain.

"I don't believe it for a second." Carol utters. I frown at her words. "Sure, yeah, people can pass out due to stress. But what Bobbie was doing? She started having a panic attack before she forcefully held her breath and collapsed. Daryl, she's holding her breath until she passes out. That's not...stress. Or even normal." She frowns.

"Stress can cause people to do things that they don't even realize it." I shrug.

"That isn't stress." Carol argues.

"If you believe it's not stress, then what is it?" I ask her.

"Definitely not stress. Have you talked to her?" She asks.

"I try. But...lately, B's just been real distant. All she tells me is she just wants to be left alone. I try to be there for her. I try to get her to talk to me. But she walks away and completely ignores me." I explain.

"There's more to it. We can't give her anymore time to herself, we can't keep giving her what she wants." Carol says.

"Then what do you suppose we do?" I ask.

"Get her to talk. There's more to it, you're not stupid." Carol frowns. "If she's going through something, it could get herself killed...or maybe the people around her." I inhaled deeply, looking around me.

"So, how was it out there?" I ask, finally changing the subject. She lets out a chuckle.

"Work till you feel like your backs gonna break, then you work some more, and at the end of the night, you fall down and sleep like the dead on a deck under the stars." Carol smiles. "It's the best."

"You find what you were lookin for?" I ask.

"Oh, then we sailed down south to this dock where Oceanside's been pickin up letters from Maggie. Wasn't anything there. Hasn't been for a while." She continues.

"It's been a while since I heard from ya." I say.

"I told you, fishin's hard." She chuckles.

"That's not what I mean." I frown. Carol stops in her tracks and turns to me. "You were lookin for her, weren't ya?" I ask.

"No." She shakes her head.

"Mmhm." I nod at her, biting my thumb, pretty much callin her out on her bullshit.

"Honestly, no." She says. "I tried to forget about everything. It was good. And if we're lucky, we won't ever have to think about those skin freaks ever again." She sighs. My eyes roll down to the ground, and I began to kick up some sand. "What?" She asks.

I let out a sigh. "We found one of their masks today." I tell her.

"Okay." She nods.

"Michonne just took a group out lookin for signs of 'em." I say. "You wanna go?" I ask.