Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

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DARYL

"Get Back!" Rick yelled as they ran towards the fences, on the other side of the fence they could see six cars lined up with a tank in the middle. On the top of the tank stood a man whose voice was unmistakeable.

"Rick! Come down here. We need to talk." The Governor called out to them. Daryl's eyes immediately began scanning the area for Jinx and he caught sight of her as she dashed out from behind a wall and joined the small group he was with beside the fence. He held his crossbow in his right hand, but his left automatically sought out her hand and gave it a quick squeeze of reassurance.

"It's not up to me! There's a council now. They run this place." Rick yelled back.

"Is Hershel on the council?" the Governor asked, and they watched as he made a gesture to one of his people on the ground. They took a couple of steps towards a red pickup and watched as a woman pulled Hershel from the car his hands tied behind his back. He heard Maggie gasp beside them but didn't look away. "What about Michonne?" The Governor asked again and another of his men pulled Michonne to kneel beside Hershel, "She on the council too?"

"I don't make decisions anymore!" Rick yelled again.

"You're making the decisions today, Rick. Come down here, let's have that talk." The Governor repeated. Rick glanced towards him, silently asking his opinion and Daryl gave him a small nod.

The sheriff stepped towards Carl and rested his hand on his son's cheek. "We can do this, alright?" he whispered to the boy before walking down into the field.

Daryl felt Jinx's hand rest on his arm, he glanced down at her, he could see how weak she still was from the illness, but he could feel the anger and hatred rolling off her, he knew if Hershel and Michonne weren't being held hostage she would already be down there trying to fight. He shook his head slightly and heard her growl with frustration as he grabbed her hand again, holding onto her both in an attempt to reassure her, but also himself that she was still beside him and not doing anything reckless.

"We can't take 'em all on." Daryl told the group. "We'll go through the admin building, through the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more. When's the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?" He asked, never taking his eyes off Rick and the Governor.

"Day before we hit the big spot." Sasha confirmed "We were running low on rations then, we're lower now."

"Yeah, we'll manage." Daryl gave a small nod, "Things go south, everyone heads for that bus, let everybody know."

"What if everybody doesn't know when things go bad? How long do we wait?" Tyreese asked.

"As long as we can." Daryl said with finality as he pulled Jinx's hand slightly as he began to walk away. He and Jinx each grabbed one of the large wheeled laundry baskets they kept filled with guns and subtly moved them closer to the group and began handing out weapons to everyone who stood there.

___

JINX

She tried not to flinch as she watched the Governor pull out a gun and shoot a couple of walkers that had been approaching. She stood beside Daryl both resting automatic rifles on the chain link fence, Jinx took a breath and centred the sight on the governor. "We gotta do something." She heard Carl say from Daryl's other side.

"Your dad's got it." He told the boy.

"They're talking. We could kill the Governor right now!" the boy told him.

"From 50 yards?" Daryl asked him.

"You could at least." Jinx pointed out at the same timed as Carl said "I'm a good shot. I could end this right now."

"Yeah, or you could start something else." Daryl told him and Jinx growled slightly in frustration, knowing he was right. "You gotta trust him."

She heard Maggie gasp and call out "No!" as the Governor jumped down from the tank and held Michonne's sword to Hershel's neck. Jinx adjusted her grip on the gun and gave herself a second to glance at Daryl, his ability to stay calm kept her grounded and she took a breath realigning the sight of her rifle.

She felt herself exhale slightly as the Governor removed the sword from Hershel's neck, but that moment of relief lasted less than a second as he swung the sword back, partially decapitating the older man.

She felt something in herself shatter as she watched her friend fall to the ground, listened to his daughters cry out for him beside her and as she squeezed the trigger of the gun, she barely heard Rick's scream of "No!" amid the start of the gunfire.

A couple of the Governor's men went down, but most were able to duck behind their vehicles for shelter, returning the gunfire before the tank began to roll forward, easily taking down the fences that stood in its way.

They all kept firing until they ran out of ammo, one by one turning to run towards the bus or to help others that were still inside. As her gun finally clicked to indicate that she too was out, she ran to grab some ammo. As she reloaded she turned to see a couple of walkers coming up behind Daryl where he stood taking cover behind some metal cabinets.

She quickly dropped the gun and without thinking grabbed the knife from her belt and launched it towards the man she loved. It hit the walker in the eye as it's teeth were about to sink into his shoulder and just as he used his own rifle to take it out. He glanced up at her and they gave each other a small nod as he grabbed the knife and tucked it into his own belt. She watched as he used the walker as a shield to protect himself as he moved into the open towards her.

She turned away for a second, grabbing her gun only to discover it was jammed and when she looked back towards Daryl she saw him pull the pin from a grenade and throw it towards the tank. "Go!" he yelled at her in the second before it exploded, and she turned to run.

She watched as Tyreese jumped into the one of the gardening beds as two of the Governor's people approached him, but a small group of children moved towards them and before she had a chance to react, Lizzie pulled the trigger, easily killing one of them. Two of the children turned and ran and as the woman paused for a second, Lizzie pulled the trigger again with perfect aim.

"We got to get out of here!" Tyreese yelled to the two girls and they turned and ran back towards the main building. "Hey! We go that way!" He yelled again, but Jinx saw why they were going the wrong way as they ran towards the car seat that held Judith. They struggled to pick it up between them. Jinx motioned for them to put it down as she ran towards them, quickly crouching down and unbuckling the belts and pulling the baby from the carrier before turning on her heel and running back towards Tyreese with the girls.

She glanced back just in time to see Daryl throw another grenade down the barrel of the tank and as they continued to run she heard the muffled explosion and saw the fire pouring out the top of it, but she was too far away and there was too much smoke for her to catch another glimpse of him.

For a moment she paused about to turn back, but Mika grabbed her arm, she glanced down at the baby in her arms and knew that Daryl would never forgive her if she risked both their lives for him, she just had to have faith that they would find each other again.