I'll Always Find You (A Daryl Dixon X Reader)

CHAPTER 7: Vulnerable

We all had gone back to our jobs as the guys prepared to leave camp. Shane had chased after Rick to speak to him. The two arguing as they came back up the hill from the tent sites.

    "Well, look, I... I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just... Throw me a bone here, man." Shane shouted after him gaining everyone's attention. "Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

    "Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl shot at him.

    "No, I did." Shane said. "Douchebags what I meant. Merle Dixon... That guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

    "What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst. Me. Thirst and Exposure." Rick explained. "We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

    "So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori scoffed.

Rick turned and looked at Glenn and I. We were both busy helping Dad with his RV, seeing as the hose had gone to crap on it. He was teaching us how to fix it. Glenn and I both looked at Rick surprised.

    "Aw, come on." Glenn sighed.

    "You know the way. You've both been there before. In and out, no problem. You said so yourselves. It's not fair of me to ask... I know that... But I'd feel a lot better with you both along."

    "No." Daryl said immediately gaining looks from everyone at camp.

    "No way, Y/n isn't leaving camp. Not again." Shane said giving Daryl a raised brow.

    "Whoa, I can say no myself." I scoffed.

    "So that's just great. You're gonna risk three men and MY Wife?" Shane scoffed harshly.

    "Rick, I'm sorry. I want to go and help, but I-I can't leave Charlotte again." I explained apologetically.

    "It's alright." Rick smiled softly at me in understanding.

    "Four." T-Dog said stepping forward.

    "My day just gets better and better, don't it." Daryl scoffed, sending glares at Shane.

    "You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brothers cracker ass?" T-dog said pointedly.

    "Why you?" Daryl asked.

I also was somewhat curious as to why he'd want to risk his life to save the man that almost beat him to death. But I'm sure it's redemption for being the second cause of him to be stuck on that roof.

    "You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

    "That's four." Dad pointed out.

    "It's not just four." Shane argued. "You're putting every single one of us at risk. My wife and child, yours. Everyone. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

    "Seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick said pointedly and I gasped.

    "That's right. The guns." I said in agreement.

    "Wait, what guns?" Shane asked confused.

    "Six shotguns, two high powered rifles, over a dozen handguns." Rick listed off. "I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

    "Ammo?" Shane asked, slightly more interested.

    "700 rounds, assorted." Rick said.

    "You went through hell to find us." Lori spoke from the back. "Y-You just got here and you're just gonna turn around and leave?"

    "Dad, I-I don't want you to go." Carl said.

    "Me either, Uncle Rick." Charlotte spoke up beside him.

    "To hell with the guns. Shane is right." Lori said. I scoffed quietly to myself. Since when did she side with Shane? "Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori begged.

    "I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

    "What's stopping you?"

    "The walkie talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." Rick admitted.

    "These our walkies?" Shane asked.

    "Yeah." Rick nodded.

    "So use the C.B. What's wrong with that?" Andrea asked.

    "The C.B's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap. Date back to the 70's, don't match any other bandwidth. Not even the scanners in our cars." Shane explained.

    "I need that bag." Rick whispered at Lori.

Daryl walked over to us as I was speaking with Charlotte. She had pulled me aside and was asking me how to not be so afraid and that she wanted to learn how to use a gun. It certainly came out of left field and I wasn't sure she was ready for such a responsibility.

    "Hey." He said.

    "Hey." I said back.

    "Hi, Daryl." Charlotte said softly.

    "I just wanted to say good bye. We're just about ready to head out." He said softly.

    "Okay. Just be careful. If it's not worth it, just come back to us okay?" I asked giving him my most desperate look.

    "Yes, ma'am." Daryl chuckled. He bent down to Charlotte's level which surprised me. He had met her a few times, and he was great with the kids in camp on those occasions, but he he really did avoid most of the kids like the plague. "Listen here, young lady. I need you to do me the biggest favor ever, you hear me? Take care of your mama for me. She ain't gonna know what to do with herself with me gone." He said cockily and I rolled my eyes. "Nah, I'm kidding. She's the bravest woman I ever met. And you are so much like her. So help take care of her, think you can do that?"

    "Yes, sir." Charlotte nodded with a look of determination in her eyes. One that reminded much of the way her father looked when he set his mind to something. Daryl chuckled and rubbed the top of her head with his hand.

    "Run along, young one." He chuckled. Charlotte grinned and ran over towards where Carl was playing. "I figured she might need a confidence boost."

    "Why would you think that?" I asked curiously.

    "Well, after the whole walker fiasco, Shane was tellin' her to quit being a baby and to toughen up, otherwise she'd die in this world." Daryl said with a scowl and I gasped.

    "He said that to her?"

    "Yeah. She's brave though I can tell." Daryl said softly and I smiled at him, before quickly frowning.

    "That must be why she was asking me for a gun."

    "Maybe it's not such a bad idea to teach her. I can help when I get back." Daryl offered.

    "Really?" I asked surprised.

    "Really." He nodded. Daryl leaned forward and pulled me in for a hug, before kissing my forehead and walking away.

I stood there in shock as Rick, Daryl, Glenn and T-dog left camp to go back into the city. I could only hope that they would return soon.

WORD COUNT: 1,256