Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 25

Daryl woke up and felt Emma beside him. It was a feeling he was still getting used to after them being separated for so long. He loved her warm curvy body snuggled up next to him and out of habit he rolled on his right side to face her. That was the wrong thing to do, and it sent stabs of pain from his shoulder down to his toes.

"Fuck!" he groaned, and he quickly changed to lying on his back. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"What happened?" exclaimed Emma as she woke up to his cursing.

"I rolled onto my god damn shoulder," he told her. "Fuck that hurts."

Emma automatically got up and filled a glass with water from the bathroom. Then she got a pain pill out of the bottle and handed it to him along with the glass. He downed it quickly. "Another," he told her.

"Umm, I don't think so. Why don't you wait until you see if that one works first?"

"When did you become my keeper? It's fucking killing me Emma, give me another pill." Daryl knew he wasn't being fair to her, but his shoulder hurt like hell. One extra pill was not going to make him an addict, but it would make him feel a hell of a lot better.

He never told her about the drugs he did with Merle before he met her. He had stopped a few years before, but for a long time, he and Merle were causal druggies. It wasn't anything he was proud of, and when he finally got his shit together, he never touched another pill, smoked a joint or took anything that was not necessary. Merle never understood why he stopped. Merle never wanted more for himself than what they had, Daryl did.

Emma glared at him holding the pill bottle. He had no reason to talk to her that way. She knew he was in pain, but she only had his best interest at heart. "Fine. You want the pills, here they are," she told him throwing the bottle at him.

Daryl easily caught it in his left hand but watched her storm out of the room slamming the door behind her. "Good job, asshole," he berated himself. He knew he had to make things right with her, but first, he had to take care of his shoulder. Daryl popped the second pill and waited until they started to kick in.

With the edge taken off the stabbing pain, he left the room in search of Emma. He didn't have to go far as he found her sitting on the front porch swing. Their eyes met, and he could see that she was still furious at him.

"Sorry I yelled," he told her sitting next to her. "But I don't need you to babysit me, Em. I'm okay."

Emma knew that she had overreacted, but she was sensitive to drug use. She had lost her parents to it and didn't want that to happen to Daryl. "I know, and I'm sorry I threw the bottle at you. That was childish of me. Good thing you still have fast reflexes."

Daryl chuckled at her comment.

"Just understand where I am coming from, I lost my parents to their drug addictions, and I don't want to lose you," she started to tell him before he interrupted her.

"Em, I was shot just a few days ago. I'm not taking these because I want to, I need to. I'm not going to become your parents. I promise you." Daryl understood now better where she was coming from. Sure she overacted, but so did he.

"I know, I'm sorry." Emma gave him one of her beautiful smiles that always had him questioning why someone as gorgeous as she was, would settle for him. He was a lucky man.

Daryl kissed her and the same desire he always got whenever he touched her or kissed her flowed through him. He couldn't wait until they could have sex again. He just wished he knew when that would be. Emma was being very weird about that, and he couldn't figure her out.