𝙈𝙮 𝘼𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬 | Daryl Dixon

Tʜʀᴇᴇ

They returned from their hunt with at least 15 squirrels. Daryl decided to check his snairs on their way back. Everyone seemed pleased at their quantity of food. Not only did they have the squirrels, Carol and Axel also made some simple vegetable soup.  Hailey helped them prepare the table.

"Hailey I just want to say, that for the short time you've been here, you've really contributed and pulled your own weight. Thank you for that."  Despite Hailey trying to keep up the 'hard ass' attitude, her heart melted slightly at Carol's kind words. Daryl scoffed whilst cleaning his handgun on the stair well.

"Problem?"

"Nah im just wondering why you were so easily accepted. If it had been anybody else they'd be treated like a damn outcast."

The group just stared at him. Hailey smirked.

"Got somthin' you wanna share with the class Daryl?" His eyes narrowed. He got up from his sitting position and approached her.

"Yeh, you don't belong here girl." This angered Hailey. She had been doing all she could to pull her weight.  Who does he thinks he is? She thought.

Daryl was about to walk away from sight when Hailey had worked up the nerve to actually show her anger. "Yeah?! And what the hell do you do that makes you belong here?!" Daryl immediately turned and began shouting at the girl.  "I drag my ass out there and bring back food for these people, I don't sit around and get groomed and set damn tables with dead clovers as center pieces! I damn sure never put in a front to pretend to be someone I wasn't! Your just a fake stupid bitch that survived cus' you know a thang or two!" Rick had heard enough. "Daryl! Stop! This isn't the way.."

Everyone stopped to look at Hailey. But she was gone. She had removed herself from the chaos. Usually she would retaliate, but not this time. All because Daryl had been right. It puzzled her how someone could read her so well, it also frustrated her. She didn't want to be reminded of her past. Who she used to be. She never forgot how timid she used to be, how nonculant she was during school. She used to avoid people like they were the dead walking among her.

Even before they were all dead.

Not because her peers had deemed her unworthy, but because all people had ever shown her is that she could trust no one. After a stream of broken hearts and how her friends turned on her, she became the person surviving in the land of the dead now. Her trust elusive, her fear eradicated, her heart turned to something similar to stone. As if Medusa had stared into her chest and destroyed any trace of the once sweet, sensitive small town girl that had once inhabited her mind, body and soul.

Make no mistake, Hailey did not run from Daryl. She merely left him to sit in solidarity to choke on his words. Daryl wasn't the only one who could read people and their intentions. Hailey knew that Daryl would soon be at her cell threshold to give his version of an apology. And she would accept it because she doesn't blame him for passing judgement upon her, she knows what its like to work your ass off to go beyond anyone's low expectations. Only to have someone and claim the spot you spilled blood for and they only gave a better story.

And so, she stood in one of the guard towers pondering her thoughts. She must have been there for hours lost in her own headspace.

"hey.." She recognized the voice to be Daryl's. Who would have thought.

"come to tell me that I have no place among you and your people again?"

"nah, just come to tell ye', that eh, I ain mean all tha stuff I said in there."

"I know."

"the hell ye talm bout?"

"Daryl, I know what its like to work so hard to step up to the plate and feel like someone took your place like it was nothing. To be honest, I don't know why im different. But I could never take away your credibility in this group. Just know that." The man nodded in understanding. Hailey felt a weight lifted, somewhere in the back of her thoughts, she could possibly care what this group thinks of her. She could mostly care what Daryl thinks of her. The pair walked back to the rest of the group. They were alike in some ways, Hailey and Daryl were.

They both crossed each others minds every. single. day. forth.