Determined to Endure: The 4th Installment in my Daryl Dixon Love Story

Chapter 27: An Outside Friend

When I'm done helping and I turn to leave, King Ezekiel is there, "you understand my reasoning not to fight alongside your soldiers, don't you Sadie?"

"Do I?" I ask back, not sure what gives him that reasoning.

He walks slowly to me, "I am the King, I have eyes and ears all around my Kingdom."

I give him a knowing smirk and responds, "you heard Daryl and I earlier?"

He smiles and nods, "I had indeed. Sadie, I want to bring you to someone." I give him an odd look, having agreed once this month already to go with a man somewhere new, "the kingdom is a place of redemption, a place for life, I know you see that. I want to bring you to someone I know who is struggling with the idea of being here, behind these walls."

"Why me? You don't even know what I feel about this place yet." I remind him.

"Ahh" He smiles, "you forget what I see." He walks around the garden a bit, "someone who picks vegetables from a garden in a place they did not want to be would not have a smile on thy face while they did it."

"What am I suppose to do? Convince this person to live in here? Forcing people to stay is something the saviors do." I say to him, "I know that first hand. Is this that kind of place?" I ask him back.

His smile stays on his face when he answers, "no, do not force her. Just talk of what you've seen. Its been short, your time here, but you have seen what is out there. You were behind those other walls."

"So was Daryl, why not send him?" I ask another one.

He chuckles, "Daryl is not one to make friends. That is what his other half is for, am I right in that?" He puts it, asking if Daryl and I are together.

I nod to him, confirming his suspicion but say, "I'll do it, but not because I agree with you. I do think you should fight with Rick and the hilltop. I'll do it because I want people to see us as survivors, as fighters, as people who don't bow down to a tyrant."

"I will take what I am given. Shall we proceed?" He gestures for me to walk in front of him and I do. Ezekiel asks me about my life prior to the current crap world as we walk and I tell him openly. There's something about him that makes it easy for me to open up to. We keep on walking, and I get an occasional view of who King Ezekiel was prior to the title of King. When the little house comes into view, he stops, "yonder there you shall seek the women."

"Wait, you're not coming with me?" I ask him confused.

He shakes his head, "no, she has asked for no visitors."

"So you asked me to do your dirty work? King Ezekiel, do you like this lady? Do you need me to put in a good word?" I tease him.

He smiles but doesn't laugh or blush, he simply says, "please, go forth and proceed on this journey. I will return for you tomorrow at the suns highest point."

I start to walk forward, and when I get about half way there I turn and see Ezekiel already walking off. I keep on going, and when I get in front of the door I take a breathe before knocking. The door slowly opens and my mouth drops when I see her, "C-Carol?" I stutter out.

"Sadie!" She smiles, leaning closely to give me a hug. She squeezes tightly and when she pulls away both our eyes have swollen with tears, "what are you doing here? Is Daryl here, Rick?" She looks behind me as if to see other people come up soon.

"It's just me. Morgan said you left, but you're staying here?" I ask, glancing a bit into the house behind her.

She lets me inside and I go over to a table and sit, wanting to know everything, "I was planning on moving on, but I just haven't yet."

"Carol, why did you leave?" I ask her. She looks away, and I know she's not ready to tell me, "okay, let's start with some lighter stuff. Uhm, wow. I'm just so happy you're okay." I say, not really able to think of anything lighter. She has no idea anything all of us went through. She doesn't know about Abraham or Glenn. She has no clue Rick has agreed to provide for the saviors and that they've been to our home multiple times. She's unaware that Daryl and I were both behind the sanctuary walls and that we escaped. I don't even know where to start, so instead I spit out, "I think the king has a thing for you."

She smirks and responds, "he's an interesting man, have you talked to him a lot?" She asks.

I shrug, "not really. He asked me to come talk to a women. You, I guess. But I know you. I know that if you decided on something, you're going to stick with it. I'm not going to change your mind. I'm just happy your alive and okay." I say again, holding her hand and giving it a squeeze.

She smiles and nods. She then says, "I was going to start to make a veggie soup, would you like to help me?"

"Sure!" I agree, the two of us standing to move.

She asks me to cut the carrots and as I do, there's a knock on the door, "I guess he doesn't take the no visitor thing as seriously as I hoped." She smiles at me and moves to open the door, "oh" I hear from around the corner.

The voice I recognize instantly, "Jesus took us to the Kingdom. Morgan said you just left." It was Daryl's voice, "I was out here. I saw you." Silence between them when he asks, clearly hurt, "why'd you go?"

She tells him, "I had to." She lets Daryl into the house and when he sees me he nods. I give him a small wave and a grin and return to cutting the carrots. Carol asks, "so, you guys are staying at the kingdom?"

"For now" Daryl mutters.

Carol nods then says, "well, I'm going to finish cutting up these veggies and start a pot of soup. Daryl, would you mind getting a fire going while we work on this?" She asks him, wiping the tears that she was holding from her eyes. He nods, lowering his bow down to the floor and moving towards the fire place. Carol and I work together in silence and 20 minutes later, she puts the pot over the fire. Daryl and I sit at the table, my hand resting on the top. Daryl slides his hand over mine as we wait for Carol to explain to us why she left.

She exhales, but finally speaks up, "I couldn't lose anyone. I couldn't lose any of them." She pauses, looks down then back to Daryl, "I couldn't lose you. I couldn't watch you lose him" she looks to me, "but I couldn't kill them. I could. I would. If they hurt any of our people -- any more of them -- that's what I would do. And there wouldn't be anything left of me after that." She has tears streaming down her face. My stomach turns, not knowing how she's going to take it when we tell her what happened. She wipes at her eyes, sniffling and asks, "the Saviors, did they come?"

I simply say, "yeah" in a whisper.

"Did anyone get hurt? Is everybody okay?" Her voice breaks, so scared of hearing our answer, "did the Saviors— Is everybody back home okay?" We don't answer right away, she pleads, "Sadie, Daryl?"

I open my mouth to try and explain but Daryl beats me to it, "they came. We got them all. Made a deal with the rest of them, like Ezekiel." She sobs, from what I think is relief. I keep my eyes off of Daryl, not wanting to give Carol any reason not to believe him.

I add on, "everyone's all right."

She smiles "everyone's all right." She repeats my words, sniffling some more.

Daryl clears out his throat, taking his hand away from mine, "we gonna eat or -- or I got to be a king or something to get food around here?"

Both Carol and I chuckle, "shut up." She laughs, but stands up with the pot in her hand to bring over to the table.

She serves us all dinner and we start to eat. Daryl questions, "Ezekiel, is he okay?"

She answers, "yeah, I think he is."

I know we can't talk about any of the shit that went down so I let carol lead Daryl and I through most of the conversation. Afterwards, Daryl tells me he's heading back to the kingdom tonight. Carol walks us to the door, and I say goodbye, "Carol, be careful. Okay?"

She hugs me tight, whispers in my ear, "of course, but you watch him. Don't let him pull away, dear." I nod as we separate, letting her know I got it.

Daryl swoops in for a hug of his own and when they let go he tells her, "watch out for yourself, all right?" She nods, sniffles and wipes at her face. Daryl and I turn to leave, and as we walk away from the house, Daryl grabs my hand.