Heartless ➳ TWD² [COMPLETED]

Chapter VI ➳ Flawed

THE very next day, Maggie had everyone up bright and early, to help clean-up the Hilltop in the aftermath of the battle. Walkers taunted us on the walls outside, wanting access inside, banging on them.

Meanwhile, Tara drove one of the cars up while I sat in the passenger seat. I could see that her shoulder was bothering her, but I decided not to comment on it.

I just shrugged and said, "Missed you."

She smirked, but kept her attention on turning the car in the right place without hitting the other car already parked there. "Yeah? Well, I missed you more," she confessed, dimming her eyes afterwards. "I wanted to come after you. I was afraid that you... You were dead."

I shrugged and sighed, "I'll never leave you again, T."

With that said, she parked the car and jumped out, where Daryl was coming around the other car and called out to her: "Hey, you shouldn't be out here."

She shrugged and claimed, "Oh, it's just— It's just a scratch. I can help."

I come up beside her when Daryl countered, "What if it wasn't?"

Tara sat back on the car, glanced over her shoulder at me, before looking back at Daryl. "Then, it'd be my own damn fault. He's back with them because of me."

"That's not all on you, T," I claimed, putting my own spit into it, placing my hand on her shoulder. "We had to let him go."

"No, he's back with 'em 'cause that's who he is," Daryl growled, shutting down both myself and Tara in a heartbeat.

For whatever reason, Tara immediately countered: "W-We got lucky. Finding Maggie... Rick. It could've been different. It was, for me, when I was with the Governor."

"Yeah, but you weren't one of them," Daryl tried telling her, as I remember stories about someone that battled with in the past, who killed Maggie's father.

It took Tara a moment, but she finally breathed out: "But I was with them. Your brother, too."

"My brother?" Daryl growled, which made me forget that Daryl ever had one. "My brother ran the wrong way his whole life. If he were here, if I stuck with him when he left, we'd be with the Saviors, too, or some other group just like them. But, I'd have figured out who they were just like you did."

I began to slowly back away, now believing that this is their argument now, until Tara suddenly said: "Maybe that's what happened to Dwight."

That little statement made me stop right in my tracks, as I felt new meaning to life and to my friendship with Tara, too. I slowly looked over my shoulder and heard Dwight asked, "Is that before or after he killed your girl? Or, is that all square now?"

I held my breath and gulped when she answered, "It is. Look, I might hate him forever, but he saved my life."

"No, he tried to kill you last night," Daryl kept thinking of every reason to fight back, to keep his hatred for Dwight going.

I spun around when Tara replied, "When we were in the woods, when we were coming here, I saw him try and help us win."