Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Thirty Six

Daryl and Merle had finally come back from whatever little mission they had been on when they had left. To be completely honest, right now I didn't care.As soon as Rick came within three inches of me, I bolted towards him, wrapping my arms around his neck, making sure he was okay.

Daryl made his way forwards, like he was aiming to walk towards me, but I ignored him, taking a couple of steps back from Rick after checking him over and walked back inside with the others. I could have sworn I heard Merle mutter something towards Daryl about me, but I brushed it off as nothing more than a passing brotherly comment and walked into the warmth of the cell blocks.

It wasn't long before Daryl and Merle walked in behind everyone else, and much to Daryl's protests, everyone had decided that locking Merle on the other side of the cell block door was the best for everyone. I wasn't complaining. It was a good idea.

Daryl however had stormed straight past everyone and dumped his crossbow in our cell before standing on the perch between rooms.

I wasn't really playing enough attention to the conversation around the room. My eyes had settled in the far corner nearest the entrance where Jacob was currently standing, a smirk on his face and his arms crossed.

I closed my eyes quickly, letting out a frustrated sigh and clenched my jaw, hoping that it would make him leave. I didn't need this right now. I needed Daryl but I wasn't about to forgive him. I had to let him know that I was angry at him. Even if all I really wanted was for him to wrap me in a hug and tell me everything was going to be okay.

"We're not leaving." I caught the Rick say to the others as he nudged my side; sending me a quick glance as if to ask if I was alright.

"Rick, with the Governor out there, we can't stay here. We'll be sitting ducks." I piped up, making sure people thought I was completely okay, even though I was 90% sure I was losing my mind.

"What if there's another sniper?" Maggie questioned, distracting me from glancing towards the now empty corner "A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds.""We can't even go outside." Beth brought up. She had a point. With people running around outside with guns and throwing walkers straight into our front yard, we had no chance of even stepping a foot outdoors to get supplies.

"Rick says we're not running, we're not running." In Daryl's absence, Glenn had appointed himself as second in command and I had to admit he was doing a pretty good job.

"Rick has a point. We fought for this place, we shouldn't be leaving." I shrugged and nodded at Rick who had send me a thankful smile.

"We should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window didn't we?" Merle piped up from the other side of the door.

"Who is this we?" I asked, finding a little confidence in my voice. I was pissed at Merle more so than I was at Daryl. Merle would probably have said something to Daryl to make him leave and not come back for me. Daryl knew that I needed him and the only reason he would leave me alone would be if his jackass of a brother had made him.

"I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now." Merle carried on like I wasn't even there.

"We ain't scared of that prick." Daryl spoke up and made his way down from the perch, closer to his brother and more importantly, closer to me.

"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind but he's got the guns and the numbers." Merle informed. I didn't like him and by the looks of things, no one else here did, but he did have a point. Merle was our best shot at trying to figure out exactly what it was the Governor was thinking and planning. I hated him, he hated everyone in this camp except his idiot of a brother, and I knew that he would stop at nothing to keep his baby brother safe. Even if he didn't like to show it. "If he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

"Let's put him in another cell block." Maggie spat and I couldn't help but laugh. We could have kept him in A block, no one really goes in there anyway. It would be our best bet to keep the peace.

"No, he's got a point." Daryl interjected from right behind me. I hadn't even noticed he was there.

"Daryl's right, Merle's our best shot right now." I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest, ignoring the brief sound of 'suck up' coming from the side of me sounding extremely like Jacob. "Excuse me."

I didn't wait for a response. I just took off up the stairs to the cell that Daryl and I used to share before burying myself into the corner of the bed, pulling the small blanket over the top of my head to hide away from Jacob and the rest of the group downstairs. "Pull yourself together Annora." I muttered, trying to block out the laughter I'd become so familiar with. I wanted to scream but I couldn't let everyone downstairs know that there was something going wrong with me. I had to keep my calm. I didn't want Daryl coming in and telling me everything was going to be alright. Right now he could kiss my ass. I didn't need that.

"Annora?" I internally groaned as Daryl's voice came from the doorway. He had been so silent walking up the stairs that I hadn't even noticed him enter."Please leave." I whimpered, trying to keep a hold of the blanket over my head but Daryl simply pulled it off and knelt down in front of me.

"You good?" I knew he was referring to my little heart condition, he clearly wasn't aware that I was seeing my dead ex-fiance everywhere. I couldn't bring myself to verbally lie to him, even if he had completely pissed me off, so I simply nodded and leant my head back against the wall; closing my eyes.

"You're going to have to talk to me at some point." He sounded annoyed at me, although he didn't really have the right to be.

"I don't have to do anything. You left, I didn't make you leave." I still didn't open my eyes as I completely deadpanned him.

I heard him sigh in frustration and it sounded like he was going to argue back before Rick called him down into the main cell block.

There was another loud sigh, like he was thinking of ignoring the Sheriff and talk to me instead but the sound of his boots clunking away and the sound of his crossbow being picked up made me think differently.At some point I was going to have to tell him about Jacob and all the things I'd been seeing, although right now I was planning on keeping this to myself as long as I could.