The Greatest Sacrifice - Daryl Dixon

Last Stand For Love

That evening, Ally stood by the boarded up window and peered between the wooden slats to see outside where the moon shine bright and full in a sky littered with stars. She could feel it all changing, she knew she was damaged and had a long way to go before she felt like her old self again but now she didn't have to do it alone, that ring on her finger was Daryl's promise that never again would she have to shoulder a burden by herself ever again. His arms around her waist were like an anchor keeping her grounded, a buoy in a fierce storm in the middle of the ocean and she felt such an immeasurable love for him that all she could do was turn into his embrace and bury herself into his chest where she would have happily stayed for the rest of her life. His hand rested on the back of her head, holding her to him as if sensing she needed him now more than ever. “You should come to bed” he murmured and she sighed, she knew she should go and sleep but she was worried about what she might see in her dreams. Daryl pulled her to bed and she shed her clothes like a butterfly sheds it's cocoon and crawled under the blankets to rest beside him, her naked skin a wicked touch against Daryl's until he could no longer resist her. Her fingers drew patterns on his skin that sent tiny shock waves of electricity along his body and as he moved her so that she lie beneath him, she smiled invitingly so that he knew it was okay to proceed, that she did want him in every way a wife should want her husband. He kept his weight mainly on his arms as he hovered above her, kissing her gently on the lips and then dipping lower to press kisses along her throat and down across her pronounced collarbone until she gasped aloud and gave a short giggle, Daryl knew exactly how to push her buttons. With calloused hands he traced and stroked every inch of her body until she moaned for him to hurry because she couldn't wait a second longer, she needed him. The sound the pair made echoed about the building loudly and as Ally cried out for Daryl one last time before she fell apart, there was nothing but love surrounding them.  They lie side by side catching their breath, wearing nothing but their wedding rings. Now worn out, all Ally could do was sleep and maybe it was the exhaustion or the fact she lie in Daryl's arms but something kept the nightmares at bay and she was able to get a good night's sleep. The glow did not last long for the very next morning there was a madness in the air, a group of Saviors had been spotted not even ten minutes away and it was looking like they were on the warpath, searching for those who had escaped the Sanctuary. Daryl and Ally dressed at warp speed and before he could even tell her that he thought she should stay hidden, she was out the door. First out the steel doors before anyone else could even try to stop her, Ally tore like a tornado not even caring to take on extra firepower. The men who were so close could easily destroy her home and kill her loved ones, this was her fight. The truck she drove bounced as she hit the bumpy road at full speed leaving a trail of fine dust in her wake, the men had been spotted recently and couldn't have gotten far and as it turned out her suspicions were right, the saviour convoy was dead ahead. She wanted to lead them away from the factory before taking them out, that way when others came in death of the lost men all they would find would be cinders and ashes with no trail left to follow. The truck was blessed with off road tires and so it was easy for Ally to plunge the large vehicle off the road just in time to cut around the three trucks carrying the saviour group, when she came back on the road she was ahead of them and she was forced to duck low in the driver seat to avoid being shot, her radio crackled with sound but over the deafening noise of gunfire and bullets ricocheting off the thick metal of the trucks exterior, she could not make out a single word. She led the group down past the old stone quarry she had passed coming to the factory and when she turned into the place sharply, the saviours followed. Running out of room she had little choice but to slam on the handbrake making the vehicle fishtail into a final deadly turn that only just blocked the only way in or out. The saviours knew they were blocked in but it was only when they saw their leader motion for them to stand down that they listened, cutting the engines of their vehicles and holstering their weapons. Negan stepped down from the truck and waited, he had suspected Ally was behind the wheel of the other truck and he had been right. “This isn't how this should end Allison, you should be by my side where you'll be safe. You can have anything you want” he said and she would have taken him seriously if he wasn't wearing that stupid smirk he always had when he was lying. “No thanks, I'll take my chances out here” she replied as she ducked out of sight for just a second where she reached under the truck’s passenger seat to remove the four grenades hidden there, holding two at a time she pulled the pins loose and threw them with all her might at the enemy trucks and as the men scrambled to figure out what she had thrown, their time ran out. Her truck was thrown sideways by the explosions and she felt the wind being knocked out of her body, she still held a single grenade but she wanted to hold onto it, just in case. The grenades had caused the upper level of the quarry to begin collapsing and she had to back up as the ground began to crumble, taking the saviour trucks down to the very bottom of the quarry. At that last moment she saw her father standing just off to the side where it would be safe, staring down at the mass of crumbling earth swallowing his men whole and she knew what she had to do. Gripping the final grenade she tore out the pin and ran for her father and just as she counted out five of the ten seconds before it exploded she threw her whole body weight at him, disguising the fact she was hiding the live grenade in his pack. She rolled away and began to run and began gave chase and she dove behind a rock as she mentally counted down the last second of the grenade. The explosion shook the ground and a rain of blood found its way back down to earth, soaking Ally in the process. She felt numb, she had just killed her own father like he was nothing. She had been so obsessed with keeping her family safe that he hadn't mattered any more. The others finally made their way to her having seen the explosions from the road, Ally sat in the middle of the road with her head down clutching the damned baseball bat that her father had once been so obsessed with. She wondered briefly how much blood had been smeared across it's oak wood surface and decided that it was better not to think of it. Daryl leapt from the truck and ran for his wife, stilling only when he saw her strange smile. “It's over” she whispered as she stood, the bat in her hand. It took the group a moment to put it all together and the sudden realisation that began wasn't coming back hit hard. They could go home to Alexandria if they wanted, nothing was there to stop them. Rick felt a surge of gratitude to this young woman for all she had done for them all even killing her own father to protect those she really cared about and as he looked at Daryl and Ally now he wished her all the happiness left in the world. Daryl's lips found Ally's quickly once he was sure she was alright, this was as good a honeymoon as any.