Savage World •••Daryl Dixon•••

Lost and Found

"Daryl you need to slow down, you've been looking for months for Asher. Don't you think it's time to let go?" The said man glared at Rick Grimes with a hateful fire in his now dulled green eyes.

"If it were Carl then you wouldn't be stopping!"

"This is different-" The Dixon man lurched forward and slammed the cop into the concrete behind him. Others jumped forward to drag him off but they stopped when Rick held out his hand to tell them to. He understood Daryl's rage, the primal urge to keep going and never stop until he found what was his. It was a rage that would kill him one day. A rage he knew all too well.

"There's no difference! Asher is my child, my responsibility!" He let the collared shirt go, hands shaking but no longer with anger.

"Daryl please, look at yourself."

"I gave up on her once already." These few words shattered everyone's hearts. "I was holed up in a shack a few days from here. I was sick and angry and I gave up on her. I gave up on me. I sat in that house an' I put a gun in my mouth because if she wasn't here then neither was I."

"Daryl..." The man collapsed to his knees on the ground.

"I pulled the trigger, Rick. But the clip was empty. I don't think it was even real. So I just sat in that corner for what felt like days and I had some sort of fever dream. I didn't even remember falling asleep. I saw her, she was scared and cryin'. Callin my name. Over and over and over again. When I woke up I knew that I couldn't stop. Not until I found her, alive or dead. I have to." Rick fought back tears and knelt to the crumpled frame of his best friend. He looked so alone and broken it hurt his heart to see someone so strong be so worn.

"Then you keep looking for her, Daryl. You find her and you bring her home." Daryl nodded and they both pushed to a shaky stand. Rick's eyes were drawn away towards the fences, eyebrows furrowed in concern. Scooping up a rifle, he looked through the scope and his expression grew slack in shock.

"Holy shit." He dropped the gun and took off running, the others in quick pursuit. He kicked open the gate leading to the unsafe woods and drew his knife against the walkers.

"Rick! Wait up!" He ignored them until he reached his target, where he started to pounce on the walkers around. It wasn't long before the others joined him in the killing spree. The only things left were two people, covered from head to toe in walker blood. The smaller girl was supporting herself on the chain link, her eyes fluttering between open and closed with a big thick collar clamped around her throat like a vice. Even the grown woman was having a hard time staying on her feet. Daryl slipped between the group around them, his heart and bones freezing when he laid his eyes on the girl a few feet away.

"Oh my god... Asher?" His voice got her to forced her eyelids up to see who spoke her name in such a familiar voice and tone. She could only bring them up halfway and struggled to force herself to focus. Her friend had already dropped to the ground and she wasn't far behind her.

"Baby girl?"

"Dixie, I found you." Her eyes rolled and she collapsed down the fence with loud clanks. Daryl lurched forward and caught her before she could hit the ground. He scooped up her limp body and held her close to his chest, tears streaming down his face.

"You did, you found me. You found me." Him and the others moved back into the safety of the gates and towards Hershel in the cell block.

"Hershel!" The elderly man hobbled out of a cell and took one quick look at the two they were bringing in. He directed Daryl and Rick into the cells down the way a bit more. Hershel first worked on the stranger, Rick demanding that she be treated and placed outside the cell block immediately. Daryl didn't mind having to wait, he just wanted to be with Asher. Her heart was still beating, so she was still alive and still with him. But the collar enraged him to no end, especially once he realized there were blood encrusted spikes lining the inside ripping through a thin towel she had shoved in to pad the space.

"I gotcha, you're gonna be okay. I gotcha, you're gonna be okay." He whispered those words over and over again, whether it was for him or for her Daryl couldn't tell but he didn't care. Once Hershel finished with the stranger he quickly shuffled over to Asher to check her condition.

"She's even worse off than that other girl. Haven't eaten for a long time and had very little to drink. I need to rehydrate her and maybe give her some soft food. She'll be good in a few days maybe a week." Hershel vanished and returned a few minutes later with a long tube that he slowly slid down her throat to act as her feeding tube for the week.

"I'll find something soft for her to eat, keep her head elevated and the tube to the side of her mouth so she can breathe." Daryl nodded numbly and wrapped a finger around the tube to keep it still. She let out a rattled breath but soon adjusted to the tube and started to breathe normally again. It wasn't long before the old man once again returned, a small bottle of water and a bowl of sloppy mashed potatoes.

"Why not more water? You said she was dehydrated." Hershel set the potatoes on a small nightstand before using the open end of the tube to slowly pour the water through bit by bit until the bottle was empty.

"Her stomach has shrunk to half its size in the days that she hasn't eaten. If I give her too much she could spit it all right back up and drown in it." Daryl softly nodded and watched as he split the potatoes in half before pouring the soupy mix down the tube just as slowly as he did the water, his eyes locked on her stomach beneath her shirt. Once it reached its limit he stopped and poured the leftovers back into the original bowl on the nightstand.

"Give her some more at the end of the day just before sundown. She needs to get on a regular feeding schedule until she's healthy again. Same with the water." He started to limp his way back to his own cell, stopping when Daryl called his name.

"Thank you, for doing this for her." The man softly smiled and reached over to pat his shoulder gently.

"She's one of us, there's nothing we wouldn't do."