Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Thirteen

I don't even know what the time was when I was woken up, hell, I think the only person who knew that was Dale. All I knew was that the horizon was just breaking over the trees and the remnants of the night sky was forming a line just above the tree tops. I didn't bother with getting changed properly, I just went to the bathroom and changed my shirt into a baggy pale blue shirt that draped on one shoulder, pulling my hair into a neat high ponytail, keeping up the loose strands of my hair.

I hopped out of the RV staying back by the vehicle so that I wasn't as close to Daryl as I probably would have done yesterday. It was difficult to not keep trying to catch his eye. Last nights events of almost kissing him seemed so vivid in my mind and I couldn't help but feel guilty about it, after all, I was leaning in to him as well but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I couldn't fall for him, I couldn't kiss him. Jacob was always in the forefront of my mind and I wasn't sure if I was ready to get rid of his memory just yet, let alone fall for someone else when we live in a world now where you risk losing the ones you love every single second of the day.

"We'll travel in groups. Daryl, you'll lead; you know these woods better than anyone." Rick nodded his head towards Daryl as they were all gathered around the hood of Carol's car, looking at the beat up map that was sprawled carelessly across the top of it. "We'll go in groups, staying to this side of the creek, then make our way back up the other side." Rick motioned to the side of the creek.

"Why there?" Andrea questioned as she stuck her thumbs through the belt loops on her jeans.

"It's her only landmark." Daryl hoisted the crossbow over his shoulder and walked around the hood of the car to the side of the highway, waiting for the rest of us.

"Daryl and I will be up front, we need the best eyes on this." Rick informed us, rolling up the man and handing it to Dale.

"Annora," I looked up as Daryl's voice called out to me and I couldn't help but stare straight at his eyes with a little bit of shock; like I was surprised he'd even remember my name, let alone talk to me properly. 

"Stay up front, don't want you to wander off." I didn't know if I should have been flattered that he was looking after me or a bit pissed off.

We were steadily making our way towards the side of the highway when Andrea's voice started echoing across the now silent highway.

"-Are you afraid once you give it back to me I'm going to stick it in my mouth and pull the trigger?" She barked at Dale. "Annora was going to stay, back at the CDC, why don't you take her gun off of her?" She bit.

"Because she doesn't know how to use it properly, she's not at risk." Dale responded. I didn't think it was meant in a harsh way but it still hurt my feelings a little. I knew how to use it, I'd had a little practice with it when I was with Jacob, but I didn't like using it. There was a difference. No one responded to what Dale said so they were either choosing to ignore what he had said or they agreed with him. I sighed and looked up as the group began moving again, trying to catch Daryl's eye so we could talk about what had almost happened last night but he wasn't even bothering to look at me. All he'd said to me all morning was an order.

Andrea eventually scoffed at the lack of answers people had given her and turned back to the RV.

"I'm just trying to protect you." Dale protested as calmly as he could.
"Well don't. I'm not your wife, I'm not your daughter and I'm sure as hell not your problem." With that, she slammed the door of the RV and stalked off to the side of the highway with the rest of us.


It took us a while to make our way back to the trail they had found yesterday before it was dark again, but everyone was blindly following Daryl, like he knew exactly what it was he was doing. Personally, I'd never even attempted tracking, all I saw were foot prints in mud; sometimes there weren't even prints and then I'd have been lost.