Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-13-

JINX

Rick, Glenn and Hershel had returned just as some of the group had been about head out to look for them, but they'd brought an injured kid back with them named Randall. Hershel had fixed the kid's leg up best he could, but told the group there'd be nerve damage and it would take at least a week before he'd be able to walk on it again.

Everyone sat in the dining room of the farmhouse debating what to do with the boy, Rick wanted to let him heal up, then give him a canteen and drop him off somewhere away from the farm; Shane, being Shane, wanted to kill him, though he didn't quite put it in so many words. Jinx couldn't quite figure out what Dale and Carol wanted to do with him, but they pointed out that leaving him out on the road, injured, was probably a death sentence anyway.

Herself, she didn't really have an opinion, she'd missed the part of the story as to what the kid had actually done, but she didn't think it was fair to sentence him without actually speaking to him, so she kept quiet.

Shane made a dramatic speech, only to be shut down by Hershel, and Rick ended the debate by deciding they all needed to cool off, Randall was unconscious, and they weren't going to be doing anything about it right then. As everyone started to depart, Jinx glanced up and nodded briefly at Daryl, he'd slipped into the room slightly later in the conversation than she had and had given both her and Carol a look. His presence at the meeting gave her hope that he wasn't entirely lost along with Sophia, but when Carol went to say something to him, he disappeared out the door like lightning.

___

A week had gone by and Randall's leg had healed up enough that Rick and Shane were taking him 18 miles out to drop him off as they'd planned, so everyone was shocked when they returned with the kid still in tow.

Beth had tried to slit her wrists in the time they'd been gone, and tensions were even higher than usual around the farm. Maggie and Lori blamed Andrea for leaving Beth with a knife, but Jinx understood, in the world they lived in now, the girl wouldn't survive if she didn't choose to live, regardless of whether the death was at her own hand. Maybe it hadn't been the right way to go about it, but the girl had realised she wanted to live and that was what mattered.

Randall had admitted to knowing Maggie and her family which was why Rick had brought him back. Daryl got the job of interrogating the kid, which loosely translated to beating the crap out of him. The group stood around the campfire as Lori poured tea, Andrea asked if there was a plan of what to do next, "We'll know soon enough" Rick responded as Daryl approached, his knuckles bloody.

"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men" Daryl started speaking before he'd even reached the group, "They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead and our women, they're gonna.." he trailed off slightly, "they're gonna wish they were."

Jinx couldn't take her eyes off the blood on Daryl's hands, she didn't care who this kid was, torturing people for information was not who they were. She heard Carol ask what he did, as though it wasn't obvious, Daryl walked off as he answered.

Lori asked Rick what he was going to do, "We have no choice, he's a threat" Rick answered the whole group instead of just his wife, "We have to eliminate the threat".

"You're just going to kill him?" Dale asked incredulously.

"It's settled" Rick told the older man coldly, "I'll do it today", he turned around and began walking away with an expression of dark resolution on his face.

The older man jogged after him to change his mind, but Jinx needed to know more before she did anything and she wanted that straight from the source.