1. I Found

-the truth-

TRIGGER WARNING: TALK ABOUT RAPE AND ABUSE.

DISCLAIMER-I DO NOT THINK THAT THE CHARACTER INVOLVED WOULD EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS; IT JUST FITS WITH THEO'S STORYLINE

Daryl woke up in the night, forgetting where he was. He wasn't sure what woke him, but when he looked over to Theo, he soon realised why. 

Theo was meant to be sleeping peacefully, but she was unsettled.

Her chest was moving fast; her cheeks were shiny from tears, and her breathing got louder. She was having a nightmare.

She begged in her sleep for help, for someone to stop, and she made Daryl sit up from where he lay. 

"Theo", Daryl tried to call her, but she couldn't hear him.

"Please", she begged, crying uncontrollably. 

He crawled over to the sofa she was sleeping on, moving the hair from her sweat-stained face.

She stopped suddenly and opened her eyes slowly. 

She looked at him before clearing her throat, sitting up gently as Daryl gave her some room. 

 She hadn't had a nightmare in ages.

She wiped her tears and looked at him, embarrassed. 

"I'm sorry" She quietly apologised as he looked at her worried. 

"You wanna talk about it?" He asked her carefully, looking at her cautiously. 

She took a deep breath. 

"If I tell you something, you have to promise not to tell anyone. You'd be the first person I ever open up to about this," she cried.

"Okay. I promise" Daryl looked into her eyes to tell her he was serious.

"But I need to know before I tell you. Do you care enough about me to never tell a soul?" She questioned as her tears slowed and the redness dimmed in her eyes. 

Did he?

He knew that Theo was different to anyone he had ever met, let alone shared a somewhat romantic evening with. 

He knew that her family was complicated. 

Her father was not Daryl's biggest fan, and neither was he of Rick. 

Theo's mother was hard to get along with; she seemed to have no care in the world for her daughter, and Lori had made that clear to everyone in the camp but Rick. 

Theo was someone he tolerated a lot. 

He never annoyed her; she was confident, a strong fighter and a leader. 

They shared so many similarities, and now that Daryl had no one else after Merle had left, he needed someone. 

And that someone was Theo. 

He knew he cared about her much more than he cared to admit, which scared him. 

But he knew if he was going to have anyone's back the most in the camp, it would be Theo's. 

"Yeah, I do care," He told her confidently. 

She moved back and was now wholly facing him with a shaky breath, looking at her hands. 

Looking at her, he sat on the table next to the sofa that had separated the two previously while they slept. 

"If I tell you what happened, not all of it, just some of it, do you promise not to go mad, not tell my parents, tell no one and keep it to yourself until I am ready?" She asked him, looking at him through her soaked lashes.

He began to fear about what she was about to tell him.

She began to shake and sweat again. 

Theo was about to tell Daryl the most significant secret she had.

"Just to sum up my life, it involved a lot of drugs and bad decisions, but I don't want to get into that right now" " she began, upset as she played with her necklace. "But when I was 17, I was put under a tight house arrest for staying out past my curfew." She sighed, trying not to go on for too long, but for Daryl to understand, he needed to know the whole picture. 

Daryl nodded, telling her to continue and that she had his full attention. 

"One night while being grounded, my parents went out; they had a date night every week...So they called on Shane to babysit as I couldn't be trusted, and Carl was around three years old." She began to panic again, making Daryl reach out for his hand again, which she quickly took. 

"He was around my entire life. I trusted him with my life. But one night changed that..." She cried as she blew out some air in her lungs. 

"It's okay, you don't have to..." Daryl started, but she shook her head.

"I'm okay. I need to," she said, smiling as he took her hands.

He nodded and continued to hold her hand.

"Carl was asleep; I was in my room, probably trying to give myself a homemade tattoo or something..." she laughed through her tears. "Shane came upstairs to check if I was asleep. Of course, I wasn't, but that's when he started talking to me inappropriately," She cried. "I can't remember what he said because everything turned quickly." 

He knew where this was going.

"There was just one word I remembered, princess" She cringed. "I fought back, but I still wasn't strong enough to stop him", She struggled, looking at Daryl.

"Theo, what did he do to you?" Daryl asked her, trying to stay calm. 

She let go of his hand and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

Theo looked at him; her face was pale, and she looked as though she could be sick. 

She could, she might.

"Don't make me say it," she whispered, her eyes shining in the small amount of light in the room due to the tears in her eyes.

That's when he knew. 

He knew what Shane had done.

She broke into tears, holding her head in her hands to muffle the noise as much as possible.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you to tell me," Daryl said, feeling guilty.

She continued to cry as Daryl pulled her into his arms. 

Daryl held onto her all night. 

Daryl suddenly had a new perspective on the girl.

 She was tough.

But now he knew why.

Daryl would ensure that harm like that never came her way again, whether she needed his protection or not.

Over the next hour, she calmed down; Daryl didn't leave her side.

But when he finally noticed her nodding into a slumber, he grabbed the blanket off the floor she had kicked off in her sleep and covered her with it. 

She stirred quietly as he looked down at her.

"Thank you" " she whispered as she grabbed his hand.

He smiled at her softly before she let go.

He lay next to the sofa with the spare pillow and blanket.

He thought about everything Theo had told him that evening. 

Daryl knew that Theo was a weakness to him. 

He knew that nothing would ever come from their being together. 

But he was sure he would protect her if she let him. 

He finally found someone he cared about; she needed him, and annoyingly, he knew he needed her, too.

But friends were all it was ever going to be.