I'll Take The Pain (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Funeral March

The next morning I woke up and I was alone. I was alone when I fell asleep last night and I wake up alone. It didn't even look like Daryl came into the room at all. I sighed and got up, grabbing some clean clothes, and stepped into the bathroom. I took a quick shower before I got dressed in my blue skinny jeans and a gray long sleeve shirt. I tucked the shirt into my pants and put my belt on, walking back into the empty room. I put on some socks and slipped my boots on, putting my gun holster and knife in their respective places on my hip.

I walked out of the room and out of the house. It looked like everyone was busy with some task. I started walking towards the lake when the sound of a bike tore me out of my thoughts. I saw Daryl riding over to the gate and I started to run after him, "Daryl!"

He didn't stop. He got to the gate before me. Rosita was on watch but he opened the gate on his own. Once it was open he rushed out of the community. I saw Glenn and Michonne get into a van and start to leave when Abraham stopped them. Rosita then got into the van and they left. I finally made it over to who was left, Maggie and Abraham, and asked, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. They just left," Maggie said. I looked at her and said, "Yeah, no shit. Why did you just stand by and watch?"

"What did you want me to do? Throw Daryl over my shoulder and walk him away from the gate?" Maggie asked me, looking into my eyes. I looked right back at her and said, "Something of that sort would have worked, yeah."

"Well, I can't do that," Maggie said, looking away. I crossed my arms over my chest and said, "Oh, what? Because you got knocked up?"

She took a step towards me, just to have Abraham step between us, "Alright, that's enough. Maggie, go finish what you were doing. Maisie calm the hell down!"

I just shook my head and walked back the way I came. I heard the gates closing and then footsteps behind me. I then said, without looking back, "Don't you have watch?"

"Maggie said she'll cover until you're cooled down," Abraham said, grabbing my arm, stopping me. I turned to face him and said, "It's my fault."

"What is?" Asked the ginger. I looked at the ground and said, "Denise. It's my fault. I'm the one who basically encouraged her to stop. If we just kept moving, maybe she'd still be here."

"Now, darling. It's not your fault. You know that anything can happen at any given time. You were always the one who could come up with a plan the fastest when shit hit the fan while we were deployed. That's why the CIA recruited you," Abraham said. I scoffed and told him, "I must be getting soft then because when it happened, I didn't make a plan of attack. I froze. I did nothing."

"You did what you could," Abraham said. I looked at him and said, "I didn't. I could've done more. I'm clearly not that badass I was in the army. Not anymore. This damn apocalypse changed everything. Maybe because I let myself get soft. I let myself fall for Daryl. Now my own husband won't even look at me. He blames me just as much as I blame myself."

"Yeah, that's why he left, right?" Abraham said. I hesitated for a second because I knew what I was saying didn't make any sense now. I sighed and said, "I don't know Abraham. I just- I don't know anymore."

"Well, go find out. You know where to find me when you do," Abraham said. He then walked back to the gate and I sighed. I walked to the lake and looked over it a bit before heading back to the house. I walked into the kitchen and I leaned against the island. I let out a sigh as I ran my hands through my hair, the sigh turning into a groan. I stood up and walked into the living room and chewed on my lip. I walked out of the house and saw people loading up the RV. I walked over and asked, "What's going on?"