Don't Get Dead | TWD | Volume 1

[36] Daryl The Babysitter

T-Dog had fallen asleep on the drive, stretched out and snoring quietly along the backseats, listening to a walkman he found in Wiltshire. Ace still had her iPod tucked away, which she would have used to fall asleep if it hadn't died a week or two before.

Besides the quiet music they could hear splashing from the headphones of the walkman, the car was in complete silence. Daryl would have been lying if he said he didn't appreciate the silence but he knew that it was bitter sweet. Ace was not a silent person, and he knew the lack of a conversation was due to everything that had happened over the past week and not because she was respecting his wishes to not talk as much.

He did notice that every so often, Ace would glance over at the fuel gauge and the speed to check that Daryl was driving okay. With the way everyone joked about it, he assumed that he was always doing something wrong. Still, he tried to keep the driving as smooth as he could, listening to the criticisms some of the others had complained about Ace giving, as a method of keeping her anxiety at ease.

After around an hour of driving, he heard Ace sigh quietly to herself, putting her head against the window. He knew that she probably wanted to sit in silence as much as he did, he knew how people had off days and just needed

For the first time in a long time, Daryl was the person to try starting a conversation for the two of them. "Ya okay?"

Ace didn't say anything for a second, but did eventually shake her head. Stupid question, he thought to himself. Of course she wasn't okay. He didn't really know what kind of answer he had even been expecting, but that should have been it.

Instead he nodded, as a way of acknowledging her response, "That's okay. S'been a rough week."

"Yeah," she breathed out.

He had hoped his talking would trigger the hyperactivity she normally had when they spoke, the way she could carry on talking for the two of them without Daryl ever saying a word. It made communication much easier on his part, and while he normally wanted the silence for a change, he knew that this was not Ace.

Maybe she would tell him about how she felt, what happened when she and Glenn went missing in Wiltshire, the attack.

"I just miss my dad," Ace said quietly. "After I almost died, I thought about how awful it must be for him. He doesn't know if I'm alive right now, and that I could—I could die at any moment and he wouldn't know.Or he could be... and I wouldn't know."

"Don' say that."

"It's true," she whispered to herself.

If Daryl had heard her, he pretended not to. Ace kept her eyes on the ground in front of her, looking down at her boots, not speaking for a long moment.

"I'm sorry you had to kill for me," she said finally. "You shouldn't have done that for me."

Daryl bit the inside of his cheek. Ace made no indication she knew who'd actually killed the man, he thought she didn't really care, or think about it, because she was in shock afterwards. Still, it didn't seem like she was angry that he was killed or anything, which was one of the reactions Daryl thought she might have. Maybe he shouldn't have expected that reaction after seeing what side she was on in the Randall debate.

"Thought ya didn' know," he said finally.

"I didn't," Ace said. "Not really. Just guessed it was you. It's just . . . You've just been a little different since it happened, not that it's bad or anything, but I was still the reason you had to kill someone."

Daryl's eyes flickered over to her. Rick said he seemed different too, but that was only after he started snapping and yelling at him. He was surprised Ace noticed anything with the minimal interactions they'd had since she was attacked.