Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-10-

He slept fitfully that night, waking up several times, eventually falling back to sleep by syncing his breathing to the soft inhale and exhale that came from the other side of the tent. The last time he woke it was getting light, and he could clearly see that the girl was sitting upright again, he assumed she was reading again, but she was facing the wall of the tent with her back to him now. He was about to rest his head back down when he realised her book was still beside her pillow. He stared at her back for a few minutes trying to maintain the slow heavy breaths of sleep so she wouldn't know he was awake.

It took him a while to figure it out, but eventually he realised she was looking at that damn cell phone again, the one that seemed to cause her so much pain before. He wanted to reach out to her again, take it away and hold her, but he couldn't. Instead, he continued to lay there and observed as she took one deep shaky breath before turning the phone off and tucking it back inside her bag. She laid back down then, still at no point turning to face him and he didn't move until her breathing had returned to the steady inhale, exhale of sleep.

___

JINX

Daryl was still asleep when she woke up the next morning, she smiled at his sleeping form on the other side of the tent, she liked how peaceful he looked. Quickly she got dressed and climbed out of the tent, pausing for a second as the ring on her finger flashed in the sunlight. Sadly, she slipped it off and put it back on her necklace, tucking it back inside her clothes.

As she went to put her trainers on, she swore, they'd been well worn before the apocalypse, but with all the walking and running they'd done, the shoes had finally given up and the soles were splitting. She'd have to ask Glenn to keep an eye out for another pair next time he went on a run.

She walked over to where Carol and Lori were hanging up some laundry, as she approached she heard Carol suggesting they cook a meal for Hershel and his family that night "I think that's a great idea" Jinx smiled brightly as she joined them. Carol suggested Lori extend the invitation, calling her their unofficial first lady.

Right on cue, Rick appeared calling everyone back over to tell them about the new search grids and Daryl was still doing his shirt up as he joined the group. They were discussing the farmhouse he'd found the day before, it sounded promising and Daryl decided he'd take a horse and ride out to a ridge and get a good view of the whole ridge.

"Maybe you'll find your Chupacabra out there too" T-Dog told him.

"Chupacabra?" both Rick and Jinx asked at the same time.

"You never heard this?" asked Dale, "First night in camp, Daryl tells us the whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and saw a Chupacabra".

Rick scoffed, "so you believe in a blood sucking dog?"

"You believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl countered.

"Touché" Jinx murmured under her breath with a chuckle.

Jimmy went to help himself to a shotgun, but when it quickly became apparent that he didn't know how to use it, the answer was no. He was adamant that if he was going out, he wanted a gun.

"And people in hell want slurpees" Daryl informed him, Jinx turned away to hide her laughter, he was on point this morning.

Shane invited Jimmy to the gun training they had planned for the next day and Jinx realised she was probably also going to have to join that. Maybe learning to shoot would help her get over her dislike of guns, like climbing had once helped her get over her fear of heights. Either way, she wasn't looking forward to it.

Andrea, T-Dog and Jimmy went one way, Daryl disappeared to go find his horse and Jinx stuck with Rick and Shane. She hung back from them a little, mostly they pretty much seemed to forget she was even with them. Rick was trying to engage Shane in conversation by talking about girls he'd dated in high school, it was a conversation Jinx wasn't entirely sure she wanted to hear, but she enjoyed seeing the pair talk about life before, jokingly winding each other up, almost like life was normal.

It had been nice for a while, at least until the conversation quickly turned sour when Shane so bluntly said "the people in our stories are all dead". Jinx wrapped her arms around herself then, she knew she'd never get the chance to see her friends or family again, but she had to hold onto hope that the people in her stories were still alive.

"What are we doin'?" Shane asked Rick, "You got every able body at your disposal out scouring these woods for a little girl we both know is likely dead."

"We don't know that!" Jinx growled at him, loudly, but not quite yelling, just in case there were any dead nearby.

The two men barely even acknowledged her. Rick wanted to know if Shane thought they should give up and Shane was obviously frustrated that Rick was in charge and not him. Shane pointed out that even before, after 72 hours they'd be looking for the body of a missing child, but Rick was still holding out hope.

Jinx had to admit, she wasn't sure what they were looking for. Outwardly she did her best to make it seem that she expected they'd find the little girl alive and well, but in her mind, she was more realistic, she just wanted to find the girl, whatever state she was in, because at the very least Carol deserved some closure.

The argument continued, but Jinx chose to tune them out. The men weren't interested in her opinion, so she just kept walking until they found a blue rag hanging from a tree indicating they'd gone as far as the others' section of the search gird.

___

They headed back not long after that, the three promptly splitting up and heading in different directions. Jinx cleaned up as best she could and went to track down Carol so she could help her and Lori cook the meal for the evening.

She heard Andrea shouting "Walker!", but ignored it, safe in the knowledge that the others could handle it, but she still startled when she heard the shot ring out.

They ran out of the house to see what was going on only to see Rick and Shane running towards them with an unconscious Daryl in their arms.

She ran towards them to try and help, but there wasn't much she could do. They got him inside and Hershel stitched him up while Rick and Shane talked to him about having found Sophia's doll.

Jinx went back to the kitchen, Lori was sat on the floor outside Daryl's room and had promised to let her know how he was when Rick came out, she could see that Jinx cared about him, but didn't make anything more of it for which the girl was grateful.

She continued to be distracted all through dinner, but she forced herself to eat the meal, she knew she needed to get her strength back up. The meal was awkward, but Jinx wasn't really paying attention anyway, so the uncomfortable silence didn't bother her.

Carol took a meal up for Daryl when they finished and Jinx stayed downstairs to help Beth and Maggie clear up. She caught Maggie looking at a note and peeked over her shoulder to see what it said: ever done it in a hayloft? She nudged the other girl's shoulder and lifted her eyebrows at her with a smirk, although she didn't recognise the handwriting, she guessed it was written by Glenn as she'd seen them flirting a few times. Maggie blushed slightly and held her finger up to her lips, nodding back towards Beth in the other room.

Jinx chuckled silently and mouthed "your secret's safe with me" as they both walked out the room. While Maggie headed for her secret rendezvous with Glenn, Jinx headed back to the room she knew Daryl was in, she'd held off as long as she could, but she needed to check on him herself and see he was okay with her own eyes.

When she opened the door, Daryl was asleep, but the lamp in the room was still on. He had his back to the door and she gasped, most of his back was covered by the dressing Hershel had put on, but sticking out the top were several old scars and a pair of demons tattooed on the back of his right shoulder. She slipped her shoes off by the door and tiptoed around to the other side of the bed where there was a chair. As quietly as she could she moved the chair to the side of the bed and sat down, pulling her knees up to her chest and reaching out to take hold of his hand softly brushing her thumb over the back of it.