THINK ABOUT LIVING | Daryl Dixon

008 | Who The World Was Made For

━━━━━━ CHAPTER EIGHT ━━━━━━
Who The World Was Made For
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          "NO," DARYL REFUSED FOR THE SECOND TIME already to let Mallory get past him with this. The narrow corridor of the prison was making it easy for him, a man of a considerable build, especially when compared to hers, to block her way; all it took for him to morph into a human barricade in front of Mallory was from his broad shoulders his arms to spread to the side, each palm planting itself on the surface of the wall there. But he needn't even do that much to be an obstacle in her path. Just standing there, arms crossed at his chest was sufficient; she wasn't getting through.

"We were supposed to stick together," Mallory argued, keeping the quiet tone demanded by their conversation being done in secret, on stolen time, even if doing so required her to step close and inch her chin upward. "Remember that?"

Daryl's never had someone look at him with as much worry as Mallory had in her eyes just then. All his life, he's always been tough enough to become a human repellent towards the pity and concern of others; he didn't look like the kind of guy who'd need anyone's help, so he got by without any to prove them all right. Waiting on the mercy of others was all about making guys like him starve. Not even Mallory had ever looked at him with such intense concern before and not because she didn't care enough in the past not to worry about him each time he was late in returning at night from "work", each time he came back bruised or bleeding and refused to go to the hospital, but simply because he demanded of her not to pity him, nor ask more than she was ready to accept. What they had was too precious to put in the same bowl with his brother's business.

But times have obviously changed.

Mallory had in her eyes the same look he thought himself capable of sporting too in the height of his despearation. If anything, the end of the world had changed one thing about everyone, making people realize how precious it is to have a connection with someone else. While he found himself caring about the people he survived with, he never thought he'd witness himself become that someone who is cared for.

There was simply something completely and utterly strange about having her, or anyone for that matter, this worried about him. In the face of such uncharted grounds, Daryl had no instinct to help him out, so his perplexed defenses were starting to come through in the shape of abrasive, borderline rough speech.

"We didn't know back then that Glenn and Maggie were taken," he reminded her in return.

Though the acid of the comment Your promises mean nothing awaited on her tongue, Mallory swallowed it down and buried it within a silent pout to think of a better answer. It let itself be waited.

"I won't be gone long," he attempted to pacify her calmly one last time.

"You don't know that," she almost cut him off, furious at the mere idea, but unable to hold back the little fragility it lit within her to say such things. "Just let me go with you, please."

"No." And that marked the third time he had to refuse her. Something in his patience was starting to snap. "The deal was that you have my back against Walkers. We'll be dealing with humans here and last I checked you ain't got no immunity to them. It's us men going—"

"Michonne is going too," Mallory interrupted.

"'Cause she knows the damn way, woman," Daryl sighed exasperated. "I thought we've decided not to tell anyone about your...," he trailed off, gesturing briefly at her. "Don't ya think it will look hella strange for me to just drag you, a wounded woman," his words drew Mallory's hand up at the side of her neck, where a clean bandage met her, "around with me when you're clearly not built for the in's and out's of a rescue mission?" Seeing as he's turned only slightly more rough around the edges of his speech, he sighed a second time in an attempt to soften up those ridges and not leave with any bitter remarks weighing him down. "Look, I know what I'm doing."