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

CHAPTER 44: Growing Closer

I ran down the steps of the tower and greeted my family with a laugh and excitement running though my bones. We spent the last of the day light hours making sure the dead bodies, were really dead. I went around stabbing the few walkers skulls that I had sliced off from their bodies. Most of them though had been sliced clean through the head. We gathered firewood, a few of us went to get the vehicles and we parked them safely in between the fences of the vehicle entrance. To say it had been a long day would be an understatement. But it was a successful one.

Daryl and Charlotte had brought back some squirrels from their hunt and we cooked them on the fire. The smell normally was great, seeing as anything to eat nowadays was a blessing. But tonight it smelled off. It was probably the rotting corpses that still laid out across the yard. I shook my head trying to brush the nauseated feeling away. I looked up after it had gone away, to see Rick pacing the perimeter fence for what felt like the hundredth time, checking for imperfections. I had done so with him the first two times, but couldn't talk him out of taking a break. He was just being overly cautious and I couldn't blame him. Daryl was assigned to keep watch over on the tipped bus as the rest of us sat around.

    "Mmm. Just like Mom used to make." Glenn joked as he finished the bone clean.

    "Tomorrow we'll pull the bodies together. Want to keep them away from that water. Now, if we can dig a canal under the fence, we'll have uh, plenty of fresh water." T-Dog said.

    "And the soil is good." Hershel pointed out. "We could plant some seed, grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, soybeans..." Hershel stopped and looked up noticing Rick making for another pass around the yard. "That's his third time around. If there was any part of it compromised, he'd of found it by now."

    "This'll be a good place to have the baby." Beth mentioned to Lori. "Safe."

    "Stay here, I'll be right back." I told Charlotte and kissed her forehead. She scrunched face up like it was gross or something and I chuckled and shook my head at her. She was getting to big to fast.

I gathered up some food on a plate and a cup filling it with water. I walked across the dark field towards the tipped bus. Daryl saw me coming and smiled as I placed the plate and cup up on the bus. He rotated his crossbow and moved it to his back, reaching down to lend me a hand up.

    "It's not much, but I figured if I didn't bring you something, you won't eat at all." I said while I smiled and shook my head at him. Both of us taking a seat while he picked up the plate. He held it out to me and I grabbed a piece too, munching on it.

    "Yeah, I guess little Shane over there has got quite the appetite." Daryl joked as he threw some meat in his mouth.

It still stung a little knowing the baby was Shane's. After all he was my husband when she got pregnant. Most of the time, now at least, I was able to let it go.

    "Oh come on, don't be mean." I chuckled and smiled at him. "You know when I was pregnant with Charlie, I had the worst morning sickness. Don't let the name fool you, it lasted all day, everyday for a really long time. Probably was only the last few weeks with her that it had really slowed down. But man, I could pack away my food, only to throw it all up again. I wish I could of just ate and ate."

    "Sounds like she had my appetite then." Daryl smiled and we both laughed.

    "She still does." I pointed out with a smile watching across the field. Carl offering her the last of his food. She tried denying it but took it after they argued like normal. "You know, Rick's gotten us a lot farther than I think everyone thought he would, seems like they're coming back around. Shane never could have done that." I sighed. I moved my head around and my shoulders to try and make it feel a bit better.