metanoia , daryl dixon (rewriting)

sixteen.

the group began to follow daryl back, him taking up the front as the other's trudged behind him, sharing nervous glances. silas had only followed the crowd for entertainment, he was curious to see what would happen. "merle! merle! get your ugly ass out here! i got us some squirrel! let's stew 'em up." daryl called out for his brother, unaware of how uneasy everybody else was. "daryl, just slow up a bit. i need to talk to you." shane sped up a bit to catch up to daryl's fast pace, rick following right behind him.

"about what?" the man barely looked around, taking notice of how quiet it really was and how everyone seemed to stare at him, some of them in pity. "about merle. there was a... there was a problem in atlanta." at the words, a look of dread flashed on daryl's face for a second before going away. "he dead?" he asked, staring at shane with narrowed eyes, "we're not sure." the man said, placing his hands on his hips.

"he either is or he ain't!" by now, daryl was very obviously agitated, not really understanding what was going on. all he knew was his older brother wasn't back. "no easy way to say this, so i'll just say it." rick now stepped up besides shane, finally deciding to make himself known as he attempted to help his friend out. "who are you?" daryl asked, eyeing rick with distrust in his eyes before scoffing.

"rick grimes." he stood his ground, chin held high. "rick grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" daryl sneered at rick, whose name he had spat out with distaste. "your brother was a danger to us all, so i handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. he's still there." at the words, silas frowned. damn. the winchester watched, eyeing daryl, who began to breathe heavily, "hold on. let me process this. you're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" daryl stared in disbelief, fists clenched and face red in anger.

"yeah." at the answer, daryl launched his string of squirrels at rick, who barely dodged them. he used this as a distraction, immediately lunging at rick, only to be shoved off. in his anger, daryl pulled out a knife, "hey! watch the knife!" shane snuck up behind daryl, immediately putting him in a chokehold. "you'd best let me go!" he screamed, struggling to get out of shane's hold as the knife dropped from his hand, now using both of his hands in an attempt to pry shane off. "nah, i think it's better if i don't." shane only seemed to tighten his hold on daryl, "choke hold's illegal." the man grunted out,

"you can file a complaint. come on, man. we'll keep this up all day." with his hands on his hips, rick stepped up, eyeing daryl in concern. "i'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. do you think we can manage that? do you think we can manage that?" daryl glared harshly at rick, who bent down a bit to get a better look at daryl. the man agreed, causing shane to let him go, and everybody watched as he began to brush himself off, angrily picking his knife back up. "what i did was not on a whim. your brother does not work and play well with others." yeah, no shit. silas thought all of this was a bunch of bullshit. they could have gone to get merle and been back by now.

t-dog, who had been quietly watching the whole time, steppped up, "it's not rick's fault. i had the key, i dropped it." the dark skinned man looked down in shame, gaze glued to the floor. "you couldn't pick it up?" daryl stared up at t-dog from his spot on the floor with a glare, obviously fed up with everything that was going on. "well, i dropped it in a drain." silas winced at this, chuck must have really hated them. "if it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." daryl grunted as he continued to glare.

"well, maybe this will. look, i chained the door to the roof with a padlock. it's gotta count for something." at his words, daryl scoffed before getting up and aggressively wiping at his face using his arm. "hell with all y'all! just tell me where he is so that i can go get him." his voice cracked, earning a small frown from silas. "he'll show you. isn't that right?" lori, who spoke up, stared pointedly at rick, her arms crossed, "i'm going back." rick decided, looking around at everyone as lori stormed into the rv.

words; 793

authors note;
im high asfk but hear me out, after reading so many twd fics i feel like we misunderstood what lori meant in this scene. she probably knew that rick would want to go back for merle, and maybe that's why she's so angry about it later. she wasn't volunteering him to go back, her 'isnt that right?' just idk i cant even explain it well, like im usually a big lori hater but at the same time i kind of understand her yk?