Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

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Daryl took watch when everyone else went to bed, he was pacing around outside with a rifle in his arms and the crossbow on his back when he first heard the screaming. He ran back towards the cell blocks to realise it came from block D. His heart was in his throat as he ran in, throwing the door open as fast as he could.

He ran into the cell where the screaming was coming from to see Jinx alone. She was still sleeping, crying out for someone unseen to let her go. He dropped the weapon on the floor and ran to her. He climbed onto the bed and pulled her upright into his arms, waking her up.

She stopped screaming, but her eyes were still wide with fear as she looked around her, not knowing where she was. He could feel her almost hyperventilating as he held her to his chest, but she was fighting and trying to push him away until her eyes settled on his and she fell still in his arms.

She stayed like that, frozen, just staring into his eyes for a long minute. He wasn't sure what she was going to do. He thought she was going to push him away and walk off like she had every other time he'd seen her since his return. She looked like a wild animal caught in headlights, unsure whether to fight or flee, but he didn't let go.

The pain in her voice as she'd screamed out had torn him to shreds. He'd known in that moment that what he'd suspected when he'd found her had surely been true and he was devastated. He'd only vowed to Andrea earlier that day to take the Governor's other eye, but that wouldn't be enough, he wanted to take everything from that man, just as surely as he'd taken everything from the girl in his arms.

Finally, she blinked, and in a second the stiffness she had held herself in since realising he was there melted away as she wrapped her arms around his back and pressed herself into his chest. She was shaking, but not crying he noticed. "Did he...?" Daryl sked her, his voice barely a whisper.

She said nothing, but took a deep breath before nodding so slightly he almost missed it. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to leave right then and go back to Woodbury and rip the man limb from limb, but Jinx needed him there. He forced his anger down only to be hit by a wave of guilt. "I'm sorry." He whispered, "I'm so sorry. You went through that and then I left you." He paused, trying to swallow down his own emotions. "I left you to go off with my asshole brother who took you to him."

"He's your brother." She whispered, so quietly he wasn't even sure he heard it. "You left him once, you couldn't leave him again." He held her tighter in relief as he realised, she didn't just forgive him, she'd never blamed him in the first place. She'd understood all along.

She pulled away from him slightly, resting her hands on his chest to keep herself upright as she looked at his face again. He stared at her, almost afraid to move for fear she'd turn back into the other person who'd been inhabiting her body since he returned. "I don't know how to go back to who I was before." She confessed.

"I don't think you can." He shook his head sadly, "something like that, it changes you, but that doesn't mean that everything that comes after will be bad." He remembered the ring in his pocket, he hadn't had a chance to fix the necklace yet, didn't even know where he'd find the tools, but he reached down and fished them out and held them out to her.

She closed his fingers over the jewellery in his palm and pushed his hand back towards him shaking her head. "She wouldn't want to see the person I am now." She told him.

"You're gonna come through this." He told her, not moving his hand, "You'll be stronger because of it... in spite of it." He searched her face, she didn't look entirely convinced, but that light that had been missing in her eyes since he'd found her in Woodbury seemed to flicker. It wasn't back, but hope grew there, growing from his words. He tried to hold the jewellery back out to her.