Broken Wings (Daryl dixon x Reader)

Chapt: 23: Ways to Survive

Later that same day, we were gathered around the campsite near the RV discussing what we should do with Randall. Everyone except Daryl and Hershal's family, besides Maggie. Daryl was talking with the boy, and Hershal didn't want anything to do with what we decided to do. Randall knew Maggie, and we didn't know if Randall was lying or if he knew where his group was and if he would lead them back to us if we released him.

"So what are you going to do?" Lori asked as she knelt over the fire and poured a cup of water for Carl. "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan, " she said to Rick while handing Carl the cup.

"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked

"Gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked.

"We'll know soon enough," Rick said, nodding towards the shed where Daryl was coming from. We had decided to keep Randall in the shed under lock and key.

Daryl's knuckles were bloody and bruised. He did more than just talk, "Boy, there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna...They're gonna wish they were." Daryl explained.

"What did you do?" Carol asked, staring at his bloodied knuckle.

"Had a little chat."

"No one goes near this guy. " Rick told everyone

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asked, walking closer to him.

"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked, dumbfounded. I was too. He was just a kid looking to survive.

"It's settled. I'll do it today, " Rick said before walking away toward the shed.

We all looked at each other, and Dale ran off after Rick to talk to him. To talk him out of killing the boy.

I watched from afar for a while while Dale talked with him. Finall,y it seemed as if Dale convinced him to wait. 

"Randall," Dale said, walking towards me. 

"I'm on your side, Dale. I don't want to see him hurt. He is just a kid." He smiled at me.

"Have you seen Andrea?"

"I think she may have gone into the R.V. looking for the guns

"Thank you." He smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder before going in the direction of the RV.

I was worried about the kid. What did Daryl do to him? Beat him to a bloody pulp? I looked at the shed, then toward the direction of Daryl's camp. Daryl told me never to go back to his campsite, but he had hurt his knuckles pretty badly, so I wanted to help him. I turned to look at the shed. The kid needed to be bandaged up, too. I sighed and headed off in the direction where Daryl was camped out. I would bandage him up first before he went out hunting or whatever he does, since we lost Sophia. The kid could wait.

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"Didn't  I tell ya to stay the hell away from here?!" Daryl said, yelling at me the moment I walked into his camp.

I held up the first aid kit, "Can I at least bandage your knuckles up before you go back out there?"

"I ain't some pussy that needs fixin' up why don't ya mind your own business?

I gasped a bit, "I just want to make it up to you for you not kicking me out of your camp."

He huffed, "Maybe by doing what I said and stayin' the hell away? That sounds good enough?" I stared at him, scared to say anything else, and I turned away, starting to walk off. 

He sighed, "Wait, just hold up a minute." I turned to face him.

"How did you know? How did you know I blamed myself?" he was talking about the chat we had the other day.

"I saw it when that little girl came out of the barn, I saw you hold her back, I saw the pain in your eyes. I watched your heart break for that little girl. After the funeral that day, you never came back like you did before."

He scoffed, "I did come back."

I shook my head, "No, you didn't, you didn't talk like you used to, you lost your hope, faith."

"My hope? Girl, My hope my faith, that's some sissy bullshit."

"You had hope and faith in Sophia still being alive." He stared at me and sighed.

"You don't know when to stop, do ya?" He shook his head, "Just leave me in peace."

So I did, I turned my back and he turned his, I headed off to bandage the kid and headed off to hid in the woods.

I didn't know why I wanted to help this kid, I was no doctor, I was the opposite, First aid, though I knew. We took a class at our funeral home, along with CPR. You would be surprised at the number of times people end up having a heart attack during services.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked as I walked up.

Once again, I held up the first aid kit, but this time with a water bottle. 

"Why?"

"He is just a kid, Andrea, he is someone's child, someone loved him, if he is gonna die, can I at least make the pain a little less?" She looked me up and down for a minute before sighing and rolling her eyes, "Fine, but yell if you need me."

I smiled at her and went into the shed. The kid looked up at me from where he was sitting.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" He said repeatedly, I smiled and began wiping the blood off of him, cleaning the cuts the best I could, and of course, he winced a few times, but didn't move much.

"You're a nice person, you know? Can you please let me go? Just out of these chains for a little bit."

"I'm sorry, I can't, here." He tilted his head back so he could drink some of the water I had brought.

"Come on, please, I'm just some guy, I'm not like my group." I sighed and shook my head, packing up the first aid kit, having finished bandaging him to the best of my ability.

"Why were you with them then?"

"Better to be with a group you know? Like your group! You all seem like nice people, except for maybe that Shane and that other man from before that hurt me." He was talking about Daryl.

"What would your mother think? Hanging out with a group like that?" I didn't know exactly what he had said to Daryl about his group, but I knew it wasn't good. I sat across from him, far enough so he couldn't touch me. He looked down.

"Yeah, she wouldn't have liked it, would she?"

"No, she wouldn't have, but she don't know, does she? I mean, she's dead."

"Son, she knows." He shook his head, starting to cry.

"No...No.." He cried.

"But you know what?"

He sniffed, looking up at me, "She still loves you, and if...this isn't up to me, I wish it was, and I would decide otherwise, if you have to join her tonight. She is gonna wrap her arms around you and welcome you." He smiled at that, and I went over to give him a few more sips of water

He was just some kid, some kid left to find his way in the world; he just wanted to survive.