"I've done things," Charlie said, looking up into his eyes full of disappointment. "Things that I am not proud of. But everything I've done, I've done to survive...And I did. I survived."
"And are you happy?" Daryl asked, using all his power to stop...
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"Dale could...could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. This kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it at one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us. The truth...who we really are." said Rick as they were standing around Dale's grave. Oh, he knew who she was, that knowledge was scaring her, making her heart tremble with anxiety - even now that he was three feet in the ground. "In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and take control of our lives, our safety, and our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on, we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."
As they were heading back, Daryl found his way to her, sending her a glance. She caught his blue eyes and put on a smile. "I'm okay."
"You're blaming yourself," he said. "You couldn't do anything. It was too late."
She sighed. "There's always something we can do. I could have run faster. I could have just jumped on that Walker."
"If you could have done something you would have done it." Charlie stopped after his words and that made him stop in his tracks. He furrowed his brows seeing her face all worried. "What's wrong?"
"Rick said that Dale knew...things about us." she swallowed. "He knew something about me. What if unconsciously I didn't want to help him? What if I wanted him to die, so he wouldn't tell you about this?"
Dixon touched her shoulder carefully as if he was checking if it was okay that he was touching her. "Stop overthinking this. You wanted to help him."
She looked at him again with a serious face. Her words probably hadn't gotten to him just yet, so he didn't question what he just said to him. Besides, the truth was that Charlie didn't know if that was true. More than Dale, she cared about her secret still being a secret. And Daryl could see that she wasn't convinced of her answer.
"You were scared, Charlie," he said. "You're not guilty of his death...or any other death." His eyes full of compassion and sympathy was making her feel even more guilty. He trusted her so much, believing that she was a pure soul, delicate girl who was just waiting to be protected. In reality, she was a snake, camouflaged - ready to bite and kill. "I know you, Charlie."
Daryl's words broke her heart, so she had to bite her lip. She shook her head. "You know the version of me that I showed you. You have no idea who I am."
Daryl looked after her as she was walking away. Her words were echoing through his head, uneasy feeling was filling his body. He knew that the past was getting to her, messing with her head. After all the deaths she was weak and vulnerable for traumatic events to take the best of her. He wanted to know what happened before that she was acting this way, but he knew that Charlie had to come to him- not the other way around. Besides, he didn't care what happened before the world went to shit, what mattered was now, present. And now he trusted her and cared about her.
