*Rick's POV*
Daryl left the fawn's skinless corpse next to his mother's. Needless to say it was a grim image.
Deer reminded me of the day Carl had been shot. I winced at the memory. I thought for sure my son was gone. If he had been, and I had lost Lori even after that, I would be insane. I would have just lost it.
Thats when it hit me. Daryl had been pissed when he walked through those gates. What had happened?
I didn't have to think long before I was walking toward the cabin, knocking loud on the sturdy wooden door.
"Be there in a second!"
I waited for about two minutes before he opened the door. "Yeah?"
I took in a deep breath. He still looked pretty upset. "Can we talk?"
Daryl nodded and pulled the door open wider to let me in.
"So. Thank you for getting the meat. Everyone will eat fairly well tonight."
Daryl just grunted as he walked toward the chest of drawers that sat across the room from the bed. You could feel the tension in the room, almost like his mood was seeping out of his pores and into the air surrounding him.
"So uh...", I said, "What was that all about? I can tell that you are upset."
Daryl took in a deep breath. His muscles stiffened and his teeth ground together. "Sapphire. She's dead."
My mind froze on that word.
Sapphire was dead. Dead. Gone just like that.
I sat there forever. I didn't know how to respond to that. He was feeling the same pain I had felt when Lori died. There were just no words at all. None. Just. No.
"I'm-"
Daryl threw something heavy across the room. It smacked against the wall behind my head. "No! Don't you dare come at me with the 'I'm sorry' thing! She did it to herself. If she hadn't been so damn determined to prove herself, or to get herself killed, or what the fuck ever else she may have een trying to do, she would still be here! That bitch chose herself over me. She deserved what she got!"
Daryl's anger faded into soft sobs as he collapsed back on the chest of drawers again. His muscles were slack, every inch of him relaxed. This was kind of the way I pictured he had been when Merle died. Just to less of an extent than this.
Sapphire had really been the only light in Daryl's life for a while. Yes, we all knew that he loved Carol as well. But she had never lit up his eyes the way Sapphire had.
So again, I was at a loss for words. How do I handle this?
He just kept crying. I eventually just lifted my back from the wall and walked out of the cabin, reminding Daryl to come out and get some food if he got hungry.
Everyone was smiling and eating food when I walked outside. Sean and his group of kids were joking, holding their little ones and smiling from ear to ear.
Nobody really noticed me until I got right up to the cabin door. Glen and Maggie were sitting on the steps whispering. He had his hand on her swolen belly. Smiles were painted across their faces.
Then they looked up.
Glen's smile faded and he removed his hand off Maggie's belly before standing up. "Rick? What's wrong?"
"Daryl. I figured out what was wrong with him."
They exchanged glances. "Well. What was it?"
"Sapphire. She's dead."
