Unexpected (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

26 - The Farm

"Dale could - could get under your skin. He sure got under mine. Because he wasn't afraid of saying exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare, and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision – I'd look to Dale. He'd always look at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us, saw people for who they were – the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about us losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor it was to unbreak it... Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, take control of our lives, our safety, our future. We're going to prove him wrong. From now on, we're going to do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

I swallowed every word Rick said that evening. I embraced it. I shed no tears, as Glenn and I held hands the entire time. The very last thing I told Dale was "How do we know a plant is poisonous unless we consume it?" Those words meant nothing other than the fact that the unknown can make or break us. The future of this group dependant on the unknown...

~

I helped everyone load our stuff into the Greene house. It was going to be packed in here with 16 people bustling around. I placed my stuff by the piano. There wasn't much. However my extra weapons lay in the tree outside. I don't even feel comfortable with my own group anymore. The only thing holding me here is Glenn, Carl, and Sophia. I would say Daryl, however he still hasn't talked to me. I do feel a lot better with Glenn sticking by my side for the most part. I wonder if he was having relationship issues as well.

"Aaron," someone called to me. I turned around and Glenn was leaning by the entry way.

"Wanna come with me to move the RV?" He offered.

I gave him a small smirk, "Sure."

We walked towards the RV and I hopped inside to start it. The engine revved but it didn't start. I looked at it and scratched my head.

"You gotta give tap it three time and giver her a twist," Glenn yelled.

I tried it, no use. I shook my head at him.

Glenn walked towards the hood of the RV and opened it. I grabbed the tools from inside and meet him at the hood.

"Uh, Dale told me that, these old vehicles, the points get corroded," Glenn started softly.

I looked at the tools in my hand and handed him a flat head.

"It's like you knew," Glenn chuckled softly.

"Had to learn a few useful thing growing up," I grinned thinking about how my brother would always fix up my mom's car. He'd make me watch just in case he wasn't always around. I knew how to do a few minor things.

Glenn stuck his arms inside the hood and started tightening some of the points and bolts.

"File," He stated, I handed him one. He started shaving some of the rust from the points.

"I let him down," He said softly.

"You could never, Dale was always proud of you, treated you like his own, maybe at the time it seemed that way, but he was always proud of you," I encouraged.

"That's easy for you to say, you always stay out of decision making, giving responses that never answered the question. You never let him down."

I was taken aback a bit, "I may have... more than you think, but he always gave us that same smile, and after that, a life lesson."

Glenn started sobbing and I placed a soft hand on his back.

"Glenn if anything Dale will always continue to smile down on us no matter how much we may have disappointed him. To him there was always a lesson to be learned."