𝐍𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 | daryl dixon

- 𝟏𝟑𝟖

     "how's adam?" rosaline asked, offering him a small smile as she hoisted visenya up on her hip.

     "he's alright." alden answered turning to look at her daughter more clearly, "how's visenya doing?"

     she gave a small hum, "as good as she can do in this mess."

     "that's right... where's daryl?"

     "couldn't tell you. you might have heard from kelly what happened." the woman responded, trying to keep her smile up as she thought about connie.

      he gave a single nod, "yeah-" but was interrupted by earl raising his voice at aaron in the slightest. they seemed to disagree on something. mary had told them about wanting to see her nephew and about how she'd abandoned the way of the whisperers. rosaline could give an easy guess that was what this is about. earl and tammy had taken in the baby they'd abandoned at hilltop, and that was his adopted son.

     letting out a small breath, the girl made her way over to the infirmary where alex had gladly welcomed her in. he used to see her commonly when she'd been pregnant with visenya so the two knew each other well. he'd already learned about what dante had done before she got there, which was a wonder.

     it seemed that everything was fine at the check-up since alex had looked over everything he possibly could with the knowledge had gained from both dante and siddiq. although, when a rumble of a motorcycle engine resounded in the area rosaline had rushed out with visenya. she'd been worried about daryl's whereabouts and that was the sound of his bike.

     when the marksman pulled to a stop, rosaline could see he wasn't alone. lydia had released the grip on his back and climbed off the motorcycle. she'd returned, but her being there probably wasn't good news.

     yumiko approached him, "any sign of anything?"

     "we didn't get that far." he replied quickly, shutting off the engine.

     kelly stepped up, "what do you mean? what happened?"

     "we gotta talk-" he hissed, limping. rosaline frowned, slowly striding over to him.

     "d, i'm sorry, we gotta find our people man." luke pointed out, shaking his head.

     while lydia talked, daryl's eyes had landed on his wife, seeming like the color had drained from his face when he spotted his daughter along with her, "rosaline?"

     she walked over to him, confused as to why he'd looked so stressed. as her eyes lowered she could see a deep gash on his knee. a knife wound - he'd been stabbed right in the leg, "what's this?"

     "no, no. why are you here?" he murmured, taking her over to the side and putting a gentle hand on visenya's forehead, "you shouldn't be here. not with her."

     "no. you can't go out there." lydia protested in the background, "my mother's coming."

     immediately, rosaline understood. she'd brought herself right over to where the whisperers were going to strike and visenya came right along with her. she felt utterly stupid.

     "oh my god. dare, i didn't know, i really didn't-" she began to stutter, sweat already beading up on her forehead as the paranoia for the safety of her daughter set in, "your leg. who did that to you?"

     "hey, hey, that don't matter right now. i'll get it fixed." he stopped her, pulling the two of them close, "come on. we're just gonna have to get you out, okay?"

     she gulped, feeling his arm upon her back as they made their way over to the infirmary, daryl having a limp in his gate. yumiko had called on a meeting as soon as lydia told her about what alpha was going to do to them. that horde was coming, whether they liked it or not. people had put forward to abandon hilltop but earl had reasoned that they were never going to find a place like it. it was a stable argument that rosaline couldn't argue for.