Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-46-

DARYL

Once he knew she was going to be okay, he'd left Jinx sleeping in the cell block and headed back out to help the others repair the fence. He and Tyreese had just finished and as they pulled the truck back up near the main buildings, Ty jumped out and asked how Glenn was doing. Hershel told them he'd made it through the night and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

"He's breathing on his own now. Maggie and Bob are with him." Hershel told them. Daryl scowled at the mention of Bob's name but said nothing. "He seems stable enough for me to get some air."

"He's a tough son of a bitch." Daryl told them and Hershel agreed, "You're a tough son of bitch." Daryl told the older man pointing at him and Hershel agreed again as he began walking away. "How about Carol?" he called after the older man, realising she was the one person he hadn't seen or heard anything about since he got back, "She up in A block with Lizzie?"

"No. Talk to Rick about her." Hershel told him. Daryl frowned, raising his hand to block the sun from his eyes, "She's okay. Just talk to him." Daryl nodded and they both went their separate ways.

___

When he eventually tracked Rick down they stood in an empty cell block and Rick told him that he'd had to make the decision to send Carol on her way as she'd been the one to kill Karen and David. "Man, you couldn't have waited 'til we got back?" he turned towards the sheriff and waving his arm in anger.

"Until Tyreese got back?" Rick asked him.

"I coulda handled that." Daryl growled turning to walk away, but Rick called him back.

"She killed two of our own. She couldn't be here. She's gonna be alright." Rick told him. Daryl glared at him. "She has a car, supplies, weapons. She's a- She's a survivor." He continued.

"Stop saying that like you don't believe it!" Daryl yelled at him and Rick was quiet for a moment, nodding.

"She did it. She said it was for us." He said again as Daryl turned away. "That's how it was in her head. She wasn't sorry." Daryl saw Rick shake his head as he turned back towards him.

"Man, that's her, but that ain't her." He growled again. "What are we supposed to do about those two girls?" Daryl asked thinking of Mika and Lizzie whose father had been killed by the walkers in D block and Carol had promised to take care of.

Rick sighed, "I told her we'd look after them." Daryl shook his head slightly and leant forward against the railings beside them, resting his head on his hands. "I haven't told Tyreese yet. I don't know how he's gonna take it." Rick added apprehensively.

Daryl stood straight again, "Let's go find out." He said heading back out of the cell block.

___

JINX

The antibiotics had worked well, and everyone was finally starting to recover. Glenn and Jinx had both been able to move back to their own cells in C block. After sleeping for a few hours Jinx finally felt like she had the strength to move around again. She dragged herself to the showers and after washing herself with the tepid water and changing into clean clothes she finally felt a little more human.

Back in the cell, she combed out her hair, taking a moment to look in the mirror and wonder when it had gotten so long before she twisted it back into a bun. She stared at her reflection a couple of minutes more, her face had filled out since they'd been at the prison and they'd had access to food more regularly, but the sickness had slimmed it back down a little, though she still looked healthier than when they'd arrived there months earlier. She raised her hand to her cheek, tracing the thin white scar from the beating she'd taken at Woodbury, she shivered, but glanced down pushing it out of her mind and spotted a polaroid photo that she hadn't noticed before.

She remembered that Glenn had managed to bring back a camera from the unfortunate trip to the Big Spot and he must have left it for her before he'd gotten sick. She picked it up and studied the image, it was from a distance away, which explained why she hadn't known the photo was being taken, and in it she and Daryl stood with their arms around each other's waists talking. She barely recognised the version of herself in the photo, not just the way she looked post apocalypse, but how happy the girl in the photo seemed to be. She smiled, slipping the photo into her pocket to show Daryl later and headed outside, looking forward to getting some fresh air for the first time in days.

___

DARYL

He and Rick wandered through the tombs calling out for Tyreese, when eventually they heard him call back a response. They moved towards where they'd heard his voice and the other man appeared from the shadows. "You guys gotta see this." He told them with urgency in his voice.

"Can we take a beat, there's something we need to talk about." Rick responded calmly. Tyreese told them it could wait and got them to follow him back the way he'd come. As they rounded a corner, Tyreese stopped and used his flashlight to point at what he wanted to show them.

"What the hell?" Daryl asked as he approached what appeared to be a dissected rodent attached to a wooden board.

"I was just lookin' for answers and I found this." Tyreese told them, "Same person that killed Karen and David did this. Remember the rats at the fence? They showed up the same day she was killed. We got a psychopath livin' with us." Rick interrupted, but Tyreese continued, anger and determination filtering into his voice. "We gotta find him, Rick and I'm not gonna sleep until we do."

"Tyreese, whoever did this," Rick used his flashlight to point at the dead rodent, "I don't think that's who killed Karen."

"Why?" Tyreese asked the sheriff calmly, but before either he or Daryl could answer an explosion rocked the building around them.

"Come on!" Daryl called as the three of them dashed out of the room as plaster showered them from the ceiling.