Tragic Coincidence | Daryl Dixon

Chapter Seventeen.

I remember the first baby I ever had the pleasure of delivering.... I was twenty-two, and an intern at a military hospital in North Carolina. It was to Corporal Derek Anderson and his wife Michelle. They were two of the most nervous people I had ever seen walking through the hospital that day. She was a month early for her baby boy, and I spent majority of the time in the delivery room calming her nerves. Her husband had passed out onto the ground the second she began to crown, and to make matters worse the power went out due to a tropical storm that was brewing off the coast. 

I hadn't been mentally prepared for what was to come, as i was just a second year intern...but boy did that day change things for me. It was just me in that room that day, tending to Derek who was unconscious and his wife who was crying desperately for her husband and the son that was on his way. But somehow I manged to get her through everything that day, despite all the other obstacles that came that day. She delivered a healthy baby boy, Thomas, a little after midnight , and he was gorgeous....

The memory of that night came back to me as I looked down at the cooing baby in my arms. Lori's little baby girl was swaddled in a baby blanket we got in the grocery store, and despite the odds once again, this perfect little being was beyond perfect. She had this tussle of brown curly hair on top of her head, and soft grey eyes that i knew would change in a few months. I looked up to see her father looking off at the wall with this dazed look on his face. He would probably never be the same again after witnessing the death of his wife. 

Carl was upstairs with Glenn keeping watch on one of the balconies, and this morning he was in the same mind set as his father. Now more than ever I realized this group would need someone to take charge, someone to lead them in the right direction since Rick was incoherent. That person I believed could be me...I just had to fight Shane for it.....

"EMMA!" I heard someone scream down the hall, and I jumped up with the baby still in my arms. "Rick, take the baby!" I said frantically trying to get him to take his daughter. He just ignored me and kept his stoic glance on the floral wallpaper behind me. "RICK!" I said louder, making the baby cry. "Dammit" I said as I realized Rick wouldn't be moving anytime soon. 

I took off out the door with the baby still in my arms, and found Beth crying out for me. Daryl was running towards us from the other end of the hall, and I ended up practically shoving the baby into his hands to follow Beth. "Whats wrong?" I asked as I followed her into the room her father and herself shared. "Daddy stopped breathing!" She cried out, tears streaming down her paled face. I ran to Hershel's side and placed my ear to his chest, and sure enough his breathing stopped. 

I immediately started performing CPR on him, every ten second blowing air into his lungs. I pushed on his chest over and over again, hoping and praying that i wouldn't lose another family member today, that Beth and Maggie wouldn't lose the only parent they had left. I pushed a few more times, and suddenly Hershel reached up and grabbed the back of my hair. I gasped and pulled away afraid that he had turned quickly, but his grey eyes were still alive and his lungs were filling with breath once more ....He was alive. I sighed and slumped back onto the floor after making sure he was ok...and smiled knowing we didn't lose another member.

"Thank you!" Beth cried and tackled me into a hug on the ground. "Were family Beth, I wont let him go anywhere" I said softly in her ear, looking past her bushy blonde hair to Daryl who sat awkwardly in the chair across the room rocking the baby in his arms. I couldn't help but grin as he was whispering something to the baby, who was cooing once more. Beth let go of me and jumped up onto the bed to be with her father. "Your ok daddy" She whispered to him, and grabbed his hand. 

I placed a hand on her shoulder, which she patted in gratitude before I walked over to Daryl. "You ok sweetheart" Daryl whispered to the baby, who looked like she was about to fall asleep. I sat on the arm of the chair, and looked down on this rather unusual but pleasant sight. "Your good with her" I said softly, reaching down and rubbing the top of her head gently, her eyes closing in response. He looked up at me and smiled, a certain twinkle in his eyes that I had never seen before. 

"I always wanted kids" He said looking back down to the sleeping baby. This surprised me, I never pictured Daryl Dixon, bad-ass with a crossbow, walker killer to ever be the type to want a family like that. But then again, I couldn't blame him as I had always wanted kids myself. "Me too" I whispered and reached down and kissed the top of her head. Daryl looked up at me and smiled slightly, something I noticed he rarely did. "Too late for that now I guess" I said with a saddened tone. "Never too late" Daryl responded, looking across my face. I just nodded and took the baby from him to put down for a nap......

We had been at the hotel now for a little over a week, and the group was regaining some of its hope again...I could see it when I looked at them. The only exception being Rick....He would leave the hotel and wander off, not returning until late in the night, and even then not speaking to anyone. Carl I think had accepted the death of his mother, and became attached to his baby sister....the whole thing had hardened him even more than he already was though.

Our group may have had hope, but they sure as hell didn't have a leader. Rick was gone, and who knew when he would be ok again. Shane was determined to be head honcho now, but nobody would listen to him when he started barking out orders at people. I would try reasoning with him when his anger got the best of him, but he would always just end up screaming in my face....I think everyone was getting tired of him....me included.

And he would get angry and yell over the dumbest things...like where people would go to the bathroom...We obviously couldn't use the toilets in the hotel due to no running water of electricity, and he bit off poor Beth's head who was about to shit her pants and used a toilet in an empty room on the second floor. I about killed him myself for that one.....he never wanted to be the one to do the work, yet always was the first one to correct everyone else about what needed to be done.

Right now I was outside with Maggie boiling some water for the group. We had a campfire behind the hotel we used for purifying our water, and cooking meat and things. Rick had wandered off once again a few hours ago, and i caught myself looking over into the woods to see if I could catch a glimpse of him..but I had no luck. Daryl was on watch with T-Dog, and they were walking the perimeter instead of using the balconies like we normally did. I think they were bored, and every time they would walk past us they would be discussing the most random things...one time I could have sworn they were talking about  using condoms as water balloons....that gave me and Maggie a good laugh for a bit.

Glenn was watching Hershel who had finally woken up and was feeling better...and Carol was with the baby...Shane and Glenn were doing...Actually I had no idea what they were up to right now..."So you and Daryl are getting closer huh?" She asked, but her question came out as more of a statement...and I couldn't help but blush thinking about the man with the crossbow who was walking past us...every time he would catch my eye he would smile. I just shrugged pretending like I didn't know what she was on about....

"Emma, we all aren't blind...we saw something between y'all even back at the farm" She said, her county twang becoming more prominent the more she talked to me. "Daryl changed when you arrived....for the better" She added, stirring our large pot of water. I then helped her pour it into one of our jugs and pour in a new batch of water from the river that was about a mile away. "There's something between us, we just haven't figure that out yet" I said shrugging, and leaning back against my hands on the dirt watching our water boil.....and yes it is as boring as it sounds. We had water, food, shelter...but entertainment was something that was uncommon around here.

I heard footsteps coming from behind me and I jumped up with my knife in my hand purely out of instinct. And I lowered it realizing it was just Shane. "Oh it you" I said before plopping back down in my spot in the dirt.  He stood in between me and Maggie and redirected his attention from me to her. "Glenn says your ole mans asking for ya" Shane said to her. She looked at me and I nodded and she hesitantly got up and headed through the back door of the hotel.

It was all silent between me and Shane as I continued watching the pot of water as Shane watched me. I looked back to see T-dog and Daryl walking past for the tenth time, Daryl stopped for a second when he saw Shane instead of Maggie sitting by me. He gave me a questioning look, I just shrugged and gave him a small smile. He then followed T-Dog back around the corner. But the second I saw his brunette head walk around the corner, and out of my line of sight I felt myself forced against a tree....