Lost ; Daryl Dixon

Chapter 32

When you joined Maggie for breakfast the following morning, she smiled sadly at you across the table, extending her hand to rest over yours.

'I know I've said it a thousand times, but I really am sorry, Y/N.'

'It's okay,' you reassured her. 'Honestly, it's fine.'

'I don't understand how you aren't still mad at me!' She began to pick at the apple in front of her, digging her nails in to the skin until the juice seeped out and trickled down her fingers. 'If it were the other way round, I don't think I could be so forgiving.'

'Honestly, Mags, you're the person I'm least mad at. You've been going through a lot.' Your mouth quirked into a smirk as she met your gaze. 'Anyway, I can use all the friends I can get right now. Literally everyone else seems to hate me, and you're the only one who knows the truth. Once I've smoothed things over with the rest of the group, then I might give you a piece of my mind!'

'Oh, shut up!' She kicked you under the table and you giggled. 'If I'm forgiven, I'm forgiven. You aren't allowed to backtrack.'

'Okay, well, you're definitely forgiven.' You scooped up a mouthful of scrambled eggs, washing it down with a sip of water as you revelled in the normality of laughing with a friend. It had been too long.

'Am I right in thinking the air's been cleared?' Jesus' voice came from the doorway and, a moment later, he slipped into the seat beside you, stretching over to snag a piece of fruit from the dish in the centre of the table.

You nodded. 'Pretty much. But I would like to be the first to tell you that I did not, in fact, sleep with Negan, nor did I agree to marry him, or anything else you may have heard. He worked my ass to the bone then tossed me in a concrete cell every night where I was allowed to get all of about an hour of sleep before he started pumping in the most obscenely irritating pop song I have ever heard in my life. It was torture, but I didn't even consider stooping that low to get out of it.'

'Well, I'm... glad to hear it?' The look on the slender man's face was priceless and you couldn't help the snort that escaped you. 'I mean, I'm sorry for what you went through, obviously, but I'm glad you were strong enough to stick it out without resorting to-'

'There is nothing that could have forced me to that, trust me.'

'So, what do you wanna do today?' Maggie asked, steering the conversation back on to safer ground. 'I need to go over some figures on the food production, but after that I'll be around if you wanna finish catching up.'

'Actually, I think I need to get back.' You'd been intending to stay at the Hilltop for a few days, to give yourself some time to relax and figure out what you were going to do about your situation, but after Maggie's revelation, you desperately needed to get back and talk to Daryl. You weren't sure yet exactly what you were going to say, how you were going to react, but you needed him to know that it wasn't true, that you had never, would never, betray him like that. The rest you'd figure out as you went along.

'You sure?' The look on your friend's face was one of concern, and you knew she was aware of your confusion about how to deal with this, but you gave her a tight smile.

'I've gotta talk to him, Mags. I can't leave things like this, not with him thinking that I...' You tailed off, unable to say it out loud again. 'I just need him to know the truth. If we still can't work things out then that sucks, but at least I'll know it hasn't fallen apart because of an evil lie.'