The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 45

Daryl

ALL OF US returned to the building where we first arrived. We've got three officers in the palms of our hands. 

"Your friend, what's his name?" Sheperd, the female cop, asks, referring to Rick, who was with Noah talking about the hospital and everything else we needa know. "I need to talk to him. Your plan is going to get me and your friends killed."

"We're gonna make it work." Sasha corrects her.

"It would work if you had different cops to trade." Shepherd argues. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her. "Dawn's running Grady into the ground. A bunch of us want her out and she knows it. Pretty sure she knows we want Lamson to replace her, too."

"Dawn doesn't know that." The second officer asks, the one who drove the car to kill us.

"She might." She argues. She turns to us. "And she's smart. So there's a good chance you can't make this deal work and that'll leave us all dead. But if you let us go, we'll take care of Dawn ourselves and then we'll let your friend go and this is over." Ty, Harley and Sasha turn to me. As much as this sounds good, still don't trust it. They could go back, tell Dawn what happened, come back and kill us all. 

"No, we're not gonna do that." Lamson claims.

"Do you want to die?" Shepherd asks. 

"No." He shakes his head. "I just need you to shut up right now." He turns to me. "You can make this work. But you gotta be able to talk to her."

"Noah told us all about her." Sasha says.

"I've known her for eight years, ma'am." He claims. "I know this woman. And my only interest is peaceful resolution, not dying, and sleeping in my bed tonight. So, please, let me help you. Please." I turn my head to the sound of footsteps and see Rick walking across the floor.

"Hey, Rick. You're gonna wanna hear this." I call to him. We tell everything Rick needed to know. Once he digested everything, he orders Sasha and Ty to look at their car and retrieve everything. Rick takes the third cop to a pillar and sits him down, speaking with him as Harley, Noah and I kneeled on the ground to discuss a few things. The entire time, I noticed Harley was oddly quiet. I wasn't sure if he was naturally quiet or if he was scared.

"Maybe we'll figure things out." Noah finishes. I nodded my head and turn my eyes to Harley.

"Hey." I call to him. I nodded my head over to the side and we get up, walking off to the side. He kept his head down, but he didn't say much. "You alright? All that action scare ya or something?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "What's up?" I ask. Harley inhales deeply.

"It's just...I don't wanna lose her, you know?" He begins. "I lost my parents. And I was only own for a bit. I annoy Mer all the time. I know I do. She might seem like she's really annoyed and that I bother her, get under her skin. But really, she turns away and starts smiling, as if she's trying to hide her laugh or something." He let's out a sigh. "Look, Mer might not ever replace my biological mom. But she sure as hell acts like my mom. She cares for me, you know? She just cares. I don't know if she's like that with everything, but I don't believe so. I see her with her friends, see her with the baby, but she doesn't act or talk the way she does with everyone else. Not like she does with me. She acts like a mom. I know you two are...together, and I don't know if she's even talked to you about it or not, but I think she's wanting me as her own. Like her own kid, you know? If she does...I don't know if it's too soon to say this, but I think you'd be a good dad. The way you ordered me to stay put with Michonne. Rick didn't say anything, didn't ask, Tyreese, Sasha, Noah. Nobody noticed me, except you. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but...I just...if I get to choose a family, since I'm still a kid, I'm only 15 or 16, but I'd choose you and Mer as my parents."