VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴99

Daryl walked in on Ellie in a vulnerable moment. Before someone could ruin it, he locked the door behind him and hurried to her side.

"Ellie," he calls, kneeling to the floor in front of her.

Ellie looks at him blankly. She was holding the scissors he'd gave her.

"Ellie?" he asks, waving a hand in front of her face.

"You know.. Even though I'm high most of the time, I haven't dared get into Pope's liquor stash?" she asks, looking past Daryl to the floor. "The only good man I know drank and made bad choices.. It can really hurt someone."

Those medications. Leah had warned Daryl about her taking meds to get high.

"Where's Josh?" he asks.

"Sleep. He can't find Anna so he.. He feels like shit."

"Ellie, you gotta listen to me and snap outta this," Daryl pleads, somehow having flashbacks to Merle and his battles.

Ellie sits up just to hunch forward and rest her hands on Daryl's shoulders. "You.. You're an asshole."

Daryl cups Ellie's face in his hands and pats her cheek. "Ellie, come on."

"You teamed up with him and.. and he killed Glenn!" she blames. "He did those things to you. You.. You promised to help me survive the war and see it through until he was dead.. But- but you.. you're helping him!"

"I ain't helping him. I'm helping your-"

"My mom is helping him," she sighs, tiredly resting her forehead on his. "She.. She's helping him."

"You know about your mom being here?"

"Frost.. I was just trying to end him, but.. But, then he said that. Before I could do anything to change the outcome he.. he just.. I couldn't stop it. It was too late."

When they had returned from patrolling the area, Pope had shown them Frost's dead-er body. He was a walker, tied up outside. The sight made Daryl feel sick, though he didn't dare show it.

A tear falls from Ellie's eye and onto Daryl's cheek.

"The people in the barn just need to see a doctor," she whimpers. "Then, they'll get better and I can go back to school, right?"

Daryl's heart aches. "Ellie.."

"Carl's stitches are ready to be taken out, too.. He's gonna be fine."

Daryl closes his eyes as another tear falls onto his face from her.

"I don't blame Tara anymore," she cries.

Daryl hated that Ellie didn't know about Tara being killed. That just made the pain so much worse.

"And Daryl will be back with the medicine. We'll be okay, Glenn. Don't.. Don't worry."

Daryl's throat feels tighter. He pulls back to hold Ellie's face up. He wipes at the tears under her eyes as he tries to keep his own tears inside.

How had things turned out this way?

This poor girl.. She wasn't the twenty-something woman right now. She was a child, afraid of the world.

Daryl didn't know what to do. He'd come in here to talk to her. Maybe figure out a plan. Beg for her forgiveness. But, this was the worst thing that could have happened.

He pulls her into a hug, letting her softly cry on his shoulder. Her body shakes from the medication. She grips his vest in a fist.

"'m sorry, Ellie," Daryl sighs, rocking her side to side. "I feel like we all failed you."