Taking a Chance

Chapter 23

Daryl realized he needed to get control of the situation at Rick's house or he stood the chance of everyone kicking him out. He wanted to talk to Gabrielle, but he definitely didn't need an audience. As much as he respected his friends, this was none of their business. This was between him and Gabrielle, no matter how much Michonne had already butted in.

Daryl turned to her, "I'm sorry, Princess. I screwed up everything and take full blame. We can fix this, just like you wanted, but will you come home with me and talk. I'm ready to listen. I'm ready for us."

Gabrielle wanted to believe him, but she was scared. He had hurt her twice already. "You've had some sort of miraculous revelation in the last few hours, Daryl? I wasn't good enough for you then, I don't see why now makes a difference."

"Princess, you were always good enough for me, too good, that's what the problem was. I'm not good enough for you. I'm a nothin', a nobody and I was 'fraid that when you figured that out, you'd hightail it back to Atlanta and I'd be nothing but a bad memory." Damn, he didn't mean to admit that in front of everyone.

His words had a huge impact on not just Gabrielle, but Rick and Michonne too. They both quickly looked at each other. Neither of them realized that he thought so little of himself. It staggered Rick and broke Michonne's heart to hear he considered himself to be nothing. How had they missed that?

"Daryl you would never be a bad memory," Gabrielle admitted. "Sure right now I am so pissed off at you for not even wanting to try to see if we could work, but this could never be a bad memory, maybe a sad one, but not bad." Could she trust him that he really wants to work this out this time? He ran away from them being together before, how did she know this was going to be different?

"What changed your mind?" she asked him again.

Daryl walked over to where Gabrielle was sitting on the couch and crouched down in front of her putting on hand on her knee. "You did." Daryl looked around at his friends and knew he and Gabrielle had disrupted their lives enough for one night. "How 'bout I help Rick board up this window and we leave them alone. We can go back to my place to figure this out." He could see that she wasn't quite convinced yet. "Please, Princess?"

It was him calling her 'Princess' that did it. "Okay."

He flashed her one of his rare, but devastating smiles and gave her knee a little squeeze before he stood up to help Rick. While the two guys got some old plywood that was in the garage to cover the window with, Michonne asked Gabby if she was sure that going with Daryl was the right thing.

"Yes, I'm sure. I can see it in his eyes that something's changed. I need to go with him. I love him Michy. I have to try."

Michonne loved both of her friends and if they could work through this and find the happiness that she had Rick has, she was all for it. "I'm happy for you, Gabs."

As the two women hugged, the broken glass on the floor crunched under their feet. "Oh God, I owe you a window. I wasn't thinking when I threw that figurine at Daryl. I'm so sorry."

"Let's clean this up while the guys are looking for something to cover the window with," Michonne suggested.

The girls were sweeping up the glass fragments on the floor. They heard the sound of footsteps on the porch and the laughter of the guys. Daryl opened the screen door and reached out his hand to Michonne.

"Here's the thing that Gabrielle threw at me. It didn't break, only the window did." Daryl had a smirk on his face when he looked at Gabby. "Damn, almost took my head off Princess. You got good aim."

Gabrielle simply smiled at him and said, "Remember that."

Daryl was laughing when he went back out to help Rick nail up the board they found. Gabrielle noticed that Michonne was staring at the porcelain owl in her hand. "Something wrong?"