Silence

2/8

You woke up the next morning when the sun began to rise, safe and sound, nobody had killed you in your sleep. You felt bad for having thought such thing about the kind people who had taken you in, but you'd learned that in this world, it was risky to trust people blindly.

You sat up and looked around. Some were awake, some were still asleep. Rick seemed to be patrolling around, looking at you when he noticed you sitting up. You wrote in your notebook what you wanted to tell him and then you got up and walked towards him, showing him the page.

"Thanks for taking me in. I understand why you don't trust me. Last time I trusted someone my people died. But your friends saved me and I'll help you all as much as I can"

Rick nodded and took the notebook. "They told me. I'm sorry about your people." He gave you the notebook back and walked away. You weren't sure if you were making progress or not at getting him to warm up to you, you hoped he'd see you were trustworthy.

You saw Daryl approaching and you gave him a smile. He looked down and nodded. He opened his mouth as if to say something but didn't, and for a second you thought he was going to take the notebook but he lowered the hand he'd lifted. It seemed he wasn't sure of what to do or how to behave with you. You were confused, but you also thought he was kind of cute, different from the first idea you had gotten of him.

Finally he looked at you, raising his eyebrows and pointing at your arm bandage and neck bruises before signing what was almost an 'okay' but not quite. You nodded, repeating the okay sign both to reply to his question and to show him again how the sign was done. He frowned and did it again, this time perfectly, and you nodded and grinned. Daryl reached out as if to take the notebook but he seemed hesitant, and so you gave it to him.

"Hurt?" He wrote down and you took the notebook to write, "not much. Nothing I can't handle. Thanks to you all." Daryl just shrugged shyly and when you gave him a smile he looked away...he really could be cute.

He took the notebook again and wrote down "You need something?" passing you the notebook back and chewing on his lips, averting his eyes from you before catching himself and looking at you again so he could see your answer.

You shook your head but then something came to your mind, and you wrote down, "I think Rick doesn't trust me. I understand it. But I wish he did." Daryl nodded, taking the notebook to write, "he will." You took the notebook again. "How you know you can trust me?" You couldn't help but ask.

Daryl just shrugged, looking down as if shy, but then he looked at you so you could read his lips. "Just do," he mouthed, shrugging again, and you grinned at him. Whatever it was that made Daryl think you were trustworthy, you were grateful for it. A small, crocked smile tugged at Daryl's lip, and he reached out to squeeze your shoulder before walking towards Rick.

*

Soon, you all got going to the place where Glenn wanted to go scavenging. Carol got behind Daryl on his bike, and you went with Glenn, Maggie, Beth and Hershel on their car, driving for a couple of hours. You stopped the vehicles at distance from where you could see the shopping mall, smaller than you all had thought, but from a safe distance in case there were walkers around.

You tried to understand what everyone was saying as they made plans. Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and Rick would go check the mall while the others stayed behind, T-Dog and Carol on watch duty to make sure no walker got too close to the cars. Rick also thought that if the mall was safe enough, maybe you could spend there a few days. Notebook in hand, you approached Rick.

"I'll help," you wrote down and Rick arched a brow at you, looking you up and down. You didn't know if take offense. "I've put down walkers before. I can aim and shoot. I can stab them too." You had made sure to learn how to fight walkers as soon as possible, knowing that you needed it to survive. You rather didn't fight them, the monsters were strong, and you'd rather put them down from away, but still, you could fight if needed, if it wasn't a group of those things.