Fighting to Survive: The 3rd installment to Daring to Feel

Chapter 23: Telling Truths

"Morgan?" I hear Rick ask and say the name as I reach Daryl. Daryl holds on to me tightly around my waist and I push my head into his neck.

After he releases me he looks me over, eyeing all the blood, "It's Reg.." I whisper into his ear and he looks over my shoulder at the body laying beside Deanna.

"what happened here?" He asks me pulling me aside.

"It's been a long few days" I sigh out exhausted, momentarily letting my anger towards him slip away.

He pulls a string of my hair from my face and twirls it, "lets get you cleaned up." he tells me and walks me to the house.

He turns the shower on and I undress. I hop into the shower and expect him to join but I hear the door instead, "where are you going?" I ask pulling the curtain a bit to the side to peek out.

"Help clean up down there. I'll be back soon" he assures me and shuts the door behind him.

People start to trickle into the house an hour later. Glenn comes in with Maggie and he looks beaten up pretty badly. Of course I want to ask what happened but I know now isn't the time. Rosita comes in after, "what the hell happened out there?" She asks me once seated.

I shake my head not sure where to start, "Pete came out with Michonne's sword. Deanna's husband tried to stop him and he got hurt.. He uh.. He didn't make it."

"What?" She questions again.

"Pete pushed at him and the sword cut his throat. Rick shot Pete after that, Deanna told him too. She finally came around." I explain as simply as I could.

"Damn." She responds, "Tara's awake." She informs me, her being out for days.

I smile softly, "that's good, bet Eugene was happy to hear that." I exclaim.

She leaves me and I wait while others come back. Eventually Rick and Daryl walk in together and I stand up when I see them. Rick walks over to me and wraps his arms around me, "thank you Sadie for always being with me." He says while hugging me.

"Thank you, Rick." I reply hugging him back. We release and he leaves the room to find his son and daughter, "hi." I say to Daryl once he's gone.

"Wanna go for a ride?" He questions.

"Now?" I ask. It's the middle of the night, probably not the best time to leave after everything that went down. He just nods and affirms he wants to go now so I oblige , "sure."

He hands me a jacket and we walk out together. We get on his bike and Abraham opens the gate for us. Daryl speeds off and away from the town and I keep my head buried in his back. When he finally stops I recognize the place where we met up with Aaron and his boyfriend. Daryl parks his bike on the side of the old barn and we walk inside quietly. Once inside, he wraps me into his arms and holds on to me tightly, "I missed you" He says with his head buried in my hair.

"I missed you too but.." I push away a bit, "what is going on with you?" He squints his eyes, not following what I am saying so I elaborate, "you were distant before leaving, got into that argument and now this." I try to explain what I mean.

He sighs and looks down at the ground, "iight, come here" he pulls my hand and takes a seat on the ground. I go across from him, holding hands and sit, crossing my legs, "I'm sorry bout that, bout pullin' away," he starts off, "yur the uhh.." he bites his lip and looks at me, "first person I've done that stuff with in a long time and I uhm.." he tries to find the words to say. I take that moment of pause to lean in and kiss him. He relaxes a bit and continues after I pull away, "and I got scared bout how much I care bout yew."

"and you're telling me this here because..?" I drag out the last word.

"Cause I feel cramped, crowded behind those walls and I just wanna be wich yew."

"What happened out there?" I ask him, his eyes hiding something.

He just squeezes my hand and tells me, "nothin' you have to worry about right now" and I lean in for a kiss.

The kiss turns passionate and we end up messing around together on the floor of the old building, "can I tell ya something?" I say in a whisper laying against his bare chest.

"mmmm" he says stroking my arm softly.

"you're good with your hands" I smile up at him.

He chuckles nervously and replies, "stop" while shaking his head and blushing.

"I mean it babe" I say back, "I never would've thought it's been that long." I tell him. He doesn't respond though and just continues rubbing his fingers over my arm.

I wake to a gentle movement of my arm, "get up sleeping beauty" he whispers once my eyes open to see him.

"Hmm. How long have I been asleep?" I ask closing them again.

"an hour, maybe a bit more" he tells me.

"okay." I yawn and sit up, "hey, remember when you took me out to teach me to shoot?" I ask him. He nods at the memory, "well, that was the first night we slept together, just like this." I smile.

He smiles back, "yah, it was a great night." He offers me his hand and I accept. We go to leave and as soon as we get to the bike a walker starts stumbling towards us, "'ll get it." He says going to put the bike back onto the kickstand.

"Let me" I say stopping him. I take the knife from my pants and go over to it in a hurry. Blood spatters on me as it falls to the ground, "I feel useless behind those walls, like I'm turning back into who I used to be." I confide in him as I get onto the bike.

He turns his head to try and look at me, "then we'll get you out again, on the front lines."

I shrug, "but I don't know if that's where I want to be either." I say back.

"Why not?" He questions.

"Because I just want to be with you" I explain, using his own words.

"me too, babe." He smiles before turning the engine on and pulling away.

When we get back to town Abraham lets us in, we slow down the bike as he approaches us after closing it shut, "been awful eerie 'round here tonight, like we some kind of snow globe some asshole came and shook up." I try not to laugh and instead it comes out as a snort. He says some of the wackiest things, I don't even know how he comes up with them.

"yea well, we'll come back from this." I try to encourage him.

"always do" Daryl adds on before pulling away to put the bike away.

"Where are we going?" I ask as we cruise down a different road. He pulls up to Aaron's house and turns off the motorcycle once in the driveway.

I get off so he can too and after setting the bike he goes to open the garage, "so uh.. this is where I was after tellin' you I'd be at the house that night." The garage door opens and I see parts of motorcycles laying around everywhere. My eyebrows raise in awe and confusion. He walks the bike in and comes over to stand in front of me after, "yanno earlier, when you said it don't feel right being here?" I nod, "well yew right, it don't. And when I was pullin' away from yew I was comin' here fixing that bike."

"Why you telling me this now?" I wonder out loud, "it's fine."

He shrug with one shoulder, "in case you lookin' for me 'round here, you'll know where I'll be." I kiss him on the cheek and we walk back to the house hand in hand.