Barely Alive // TWD // Daryl Dixon

Chapter 09 -- Bad to Worse

Warming :

This chapter contains more violence and it might be a bit more explicit.

"Losing your life is not the worst thing that can happen.

The worst thing is to lose your reason for living."

- Jo Nesb

Even before sunrise Rick, Michonne , Daryl and Carl, who refused to be left behind, went out of the prison and went looking for Cecilia, this time they went on a car. Rick didn't allow Daryl to drive, not in his state, not when his head was all over the place.

It had been about three hours and as usual they had just found walkers. Carl thought it would be nice to tell Daryl about the C.A Mission, just to cheer him up even when Carl promised he would never tell anyone else about it but maybe Daryl needed to hear it.

"Daryl," Carl softly muttered. "You know that you and Cecilia didn't end up together by pure chance?"

"You don't think it was fate or something like that?" Daryl asked, not looking at Carl but out the window, looking for any sign of Cecilia.

"It was a plan, a mission, whatever you want to call it. Sophia and I always found ways to get you two to be close, to be in the same place," Carl said with a shy but mischievous smile.

"Sophia?" Rick asked in surprise. "Wait, does that mean you were planning this since the very start?"

"Yep, even before you found us after Atlanta, Dad" Carl told him. "And it finally worked, it was part of the mission to lock you in that room the day you got together, so... you're welcome, Daryl."

"You are unbelievable," Daryl said with a small chuckle, Carl felt happy that Daryl had finally smiled, he had finally laughed.

"Or do you remember back at the CDC that you shared the room with her because you couldn't find an empty one? Well, you're welcome again," Carl told him, daring to pat Daryl on the shoulder. "That was all my doing."

"You shared the room with her?" Rick asked surprised.

"Did you have any idea of all of this?" Daryl asked Rick, ignoring his question.

"It's the first time I hear it," Rick said with a proud but surprised expression, he smiled at Daryl who was very shocked at what Carl was saying.

"The two of you liked each other and both were too coward to admit it, you just needed a little push and that was what I did," Carl said proudly. "But I have to admit that once you got together, it got boring because I didn't have to plan anything else."

"Cecilia knows?" Rick asked his son.

"Yes, I told her when she came back, it kind of slipped," Carl said. "I told Michonne so she could help me that day when I locked them in that room. She makes a perfect partner."

"Well, thanks Carl," Michonne said smiling.

"What else did you do?" Daryl asked him with a smile on his thin lips. He was actually proud of Carl.

"Well, one time you were inside Dale's RV and I asked Sophia to tell Cecilia to go in there to look for something, the door 'out of nowhere'," Carl said doing air quotes. "Got stuck and you stayed in the RV for hours, do you remember?"

"Yeah," Daryl said chuckling. "I kept blaming Cecilia for it and she kept shouting at me until the two of us just gave up trying to open the door. I lied down on the couch and since there was nothing else that was comfortable she asked me to make some room for her, I refused, I was an asshole back then, so she actually sat on me. I pretended to be mad and 'tried'." Daryl did air quotes too. "To get her off of me but truth is that I didn't try hard enough and just let her stay there until Dale managed to open the door."