RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

everybody turns

WILLOW TOOK SIENNA out to see the cattle after her talk with Ash. It was a good time to clear her head and to let Sienna pet the cows. She had been begging her and Daryl for a couple days.

"He's so soft!" Sienna squealed as she ran her hand down the cows side for the hundredth time.

Willow nodded, hardly paying attention. She had her eyes on the Saviors that remained with them- the Saviors that didn't take their opportunity to run. They had been cleaning the stables for an hour, and that was just one of the many things on Maggie's list.

"You sure that's where you want him?"

She jumped when she heard his voice. She only glanced at Daryl before looking back at her brother in the stables, swiping at the metal on the gates with a washcloth. "Yeah, for now. Just until everyone else warms up to him."

She could see him tilt his head in her peripheral, staring at her. Studying her.

"You all right?" He asked.

She nodded, but she didn't feel the least bit all right. She still didn't feel much of anything. "It's just a lot to process."

He bit his lip and nodded, turning his attention to Sienna. "You keep pettin' that thing, and he ain't gonna be soft anymore."

"I pet you, and you're still soft." Sienna countered and stuck out her tongue as she patted the cow's side.

"That's because I ain't no damn cow." He responded, a small, amused laugh slipping out.

"I ain't no damn cow." Sienna mimicked, earning a scowl and a nudge from Daryl.

Willow's eyes fixated on a man beside her brother, shoveling the old hay out of the stable and tossing around fresh straw. "You mind watching her for a minute?"

She was already walking away before Daryl agreed.

"Hey." She stopped just shy of the gate to the stable. 

The man stood up and stretched his back, flicking off a few pieces of hay from his hands. "Hey. How's the, uh- how's the shoulder?"

She rolled her shoulder back, only wincing slightly. "Fine."

He nodded, looking at her and waiting for her to say more.

"I never thanked you for helping me the other night. You know, with the whole window thing..." It felt like a betrayal to be thanking a Savior, but if he and her brother hadn't stepped in to help, she would've been flat on the ground with the man that refused to let go of her. She would've had more than just a dislocated shoulder.

He smiled lightly and nodded. "Yeah, well, there hasn't been much time for formalities, I guess."

"Yeah, you could say that." She eyed her brother for a second, and she could tell he was listening in as he wiped down the stable. "Well, thank you..."

"Alden." He said as he picked picked his shovel back up.

"Alden." Willow repeated quietly with a nod.

She watched Alden shovel more hay, but stopped again, his eyes drifting behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, watching Rick stroll towards them with a gun in his hands, tapping his fingers against the metal, anxiously.

"Where'd they go?" He asked before even getting to them.

Alden dropped his shovel and wiped his hands off on his pants. "We already told Maggie every-"

"So, tell me." Rick said with a thin patience.

"Sanctuary's our best guess. It's pretty much our only guess. There'd been some talk about trying to get out, but it was just talk, nothin' specific. Thinkin' they had a plan's giving 'em too much credit. They saw an opening, and they took it."