Survival in Numbers (Daryl Dixon/The Walking Dead)

Chapter Ninety Six - The Ultrasound

That very afternoon, the group that had set out to the hospital for an ultrasound had returned.

Daryl spotted Emma as soon as he pulled up in the truck, and he immediately made his way towards her - leaving his crossbow inside the vehicle.

Emma pushed herself to her feet a second before he reached her, throwing his arms around her waist and lifting her off of the ground. The red head pressed her face into his shoulder, inhaling his familiar scent.

"Thank you." She murmured against his neck. He nodded his head, holding her tightly against him, knowing that it was for everything he had done for her after they had lost Sasha. Carrying her; washing her; keeping her warm; staying by her side...everything.

"They gunna hook the ultrasound up now." He informed her, "Need t'check on the baby soon as."

They parted, Daryl's Georgian blues locked onto her own eyes before looking over her body, "Doc give ya permission to be up?"

"No."

He scoffed, "Don' even know why I asked."

She took a seat back on the porch step, the Hunter sitting beside her. Emma stretched out her legs in front of her, "I heard you." She said then, "Only you." She glanced at him, but upon finding him already looking at her she cast her eyes down to her hands. "Then the others after a day, or two. But you kept me here. I needed you." She thought by now she would have been in tears, but she wasn't, she didn't even have the tingling tell tale sign that tears were near. "I didn't want you to leave when you did...tried to squeeze your hand, but I couldn't."

"I ain't sorry I went."

"I know." She replied, gesturing to the truck with that they had come back in with the ultrasound machine. "But seeing you come back with that, I know why you needed to go. And I'm glad you did. If I wasn't comatose, I'd have fought to have gone with you."

"You got Noah to thank for tha'." He said then, "We went t'get damn dog food...which was when the kid told us where 'e came from. Grady Memorial."

"I worked there for a couple months as an intern."

"We gotta go back once we know the baby's okay."

"Why?"

Daryl sighed and ran a hand through his long hair, "Ya dad."

Emma frowned and looked around for the tall man, but was unable to spot him anywhere. "Where is he?"

"Merle's talkin' to Rick 'bout him now." He said, "Ain't gunna tell ya anythin' until we know the baby's alrigh'."

"Is he alive? Can you at least tell me that?!"

"Yeah."

The red head breathed a sigh of relief, she had only just mended things with him and this was their new start. She would hate to have lost someone else in the group, especially her dad. Especially after the still healing wounds of losing both Tyreese and Sasha.

You could've saved Tyreese.

She pressed a palm against her head, squeezing her eyes closed in a bid to force Sasha's voice away.

"Ya alrigh'?"

"Fine." She lied, getting to her feet and using the railings of the porch for support. Avoiding eye contact with him, she continued, "I'm going to go over to Siddiq's now, see if I can help set up."