I knock softly on the door that Shane had pointed out to me. "Come in." I see Daryl laying on the bed, no shirt as an older man, I'm guessing Hershel, inspected the wound on his side. "You must be Selene." I nod and stop in front of the door, "you must be Hershel."
"It's nice to meet you, would you mind coming over and helping for a moment?" I walk over to the bed, "if you can, could you please clean up Daryl's head and then I'll bandage it after I'm done with his side." I nod and grab the cloth from Daryl.
"After I'm done with Daryl, I'll check you over too. It looks like you went through a tough time out there." I shake my head, "oh no, I'm fine really. This is all from before." His brows furrow as he looks up at me. "Before?" I bite on my lip for a moment, "did they not tell you about... me?" He shakes his head, "just that you were new to the group and were out there with the girl." I nod, "uh well, I was kidnapped when I was fifteen." He just looks at me in shock for a moment, "I was held in the basement for just over ten years and Daryl found me the day I escaped my captor."
There's a silence for a few moments, "I'm sorry." He starts, "and I still think it'd be better for me to just check that you're ok." I nod, "okay." And then I go back to Daryl's head, I clean the blood away with gentle hands. "How are you?" I ask him as he stares up at me in silence. "Still living." I smile slightly before moving his hair from his forehead and grabbing the bandage from the side.
Once we're done Hershel turns to me. "You want to move to another room?" I shake my head, "you can just examine me here." I shrug not really caring about Daryl who looked like he was gonna fall asleep soon anyways. Hershel does a very typical check over me and is very surprised when he tells me I'm relatively healthy. "He was a doctor." Is all I offer getting a sympathetic smile in response.
"Now whilst you're not too bad, your body is exhausted and dehydrated from your days in the woods. You're gonna need lots of water and lots of rest to heal up right and so you can take a room in the house. There's one next door to this or-"
"The one next door is fine, thank you." He nods and gets up, "alright I'll leave you be now, you make sure you rest okay?" I nod and he smiles warmly at me as he makes his way to the door, "thank you." I call out making him nod at me as he leaves.
"That horse really did a number on you huh?" I ask as I turn to Daryl and see him already looking at me. "If it's smart it'll have left the country." He grumbles making me laugh. "You probably spooked it." He scoffs, "it was spooked by a damn snake."
"That's understandable, snakes are gross." I say shivering slightly at the thought, "you didn't see no snakes out there?" He asks confused, "we did, too many but I always just walked in a different direction." I say shaking my head, "you were out there with the walkers and you're more afraid of the snakes?" I nod, "don't laugh," I tell him as he starts to chuckle. "They're terrifying, so creepy." He shakes his head, still chuckling. "It's a wonder you survived out there."
"Hey I am a great survivalist. It's the woods that are the issue, it all looks the damn same and is overrun with disgusting snakes." That just makes him laugh more, "no wonder I couldn't find ya, you were just walking in random directions."
"I have no sense of direction," I admit, "it's my one flaw." His brow raises, "just the one?" I nod, "just the one, I am flawless otherwise."
"If ya say so."
We quieten down and I can't help but yawn as everything hits me at once. "You're supposed to be resting." He tells me making me shrug, "this is resting."
"You sleep at all out there?" He asks as I rub my eyes and force myself to sit up straighter. "Yeah, the nights we slept in trees I got a few hours." I explain pulling my knees up to my chest and resting my head on them. "Trees?" He asks moving to get a better look at me. "Yeah, walkers can't climb them." He nods, "smart."
"Yeah I tied our legs to the branches too with the spare clothes in my bag." He genuinely looks impressed, "my sister and I, we used to climb trees a lot growing up." I don't know why I told him that, "I had a brother." He offers making me look at him in interest. "I lost him back in Atlanta."
"I'm sorry." He shrugs and then we go back to silence.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
"Hey Daryl? Do you know where Selene is, she's not in her- oh." My eyes flutter as I hear Carols soft voice, "yeah I was gonna wake her up but Hershel said she needs lots of rest from her time out there." Daryl replies, "do you think we should wake her up to eat? I brought the both of you some dinner. You must be starving." I actually am pretty hungry but I'm that state of sleep where I can't move, like my body isn't awake but my mind is.
"You need to know something. You did more for
my little girl today than her own daddy ever did in his whole life."
"I didn't do anything Rick or Shane wouldn't have done."
"l know. You're every bit as good as them." Carol tells him, this confuses me because in my eyes Daryl was a way better person than Shane. Although thinking about it the group did tend to act like Shane and Rick were the best of them and Daryl was just there, he kept more to himself. "Every bit."
"Selene honey, I'm sorry to wake you but I brought you some dinner:" Carol tells me as she wakes me up softly. I'm disoriented as I sit up, not even remembering falling asleep. "You okay?" She asks me as I stretch, I nod and so she hands me a plate from the tray she brought. "Thank you." I mumble to her as I take it, "how's Sophia?" She smiles warmly at me, "she's fast asleep, Hershel said she was completely fine all thanks to you." I nod as she gives me another tight hug.
"Alright I'll let you eat now." She says before bidding Daryl and I goodbye. I turn to him completely mortified, "I'm sorry that I fell asleep here." He shakes his head, "it's alright." I want to get up and go as I feel so completely awkward but I feel like it'd be worse to do that, instead I just start eating quietly. I glance up at Daryl and see him struggling due to the stitches in his side. He grimaces every time he tried to bring his fork up.
I'm done quick and so I put my plate on the side and turn to him, "do you want me to-"
"No." He doesn't let me finish my question, "I can take care of myself." He grumbles making me nod, he then drops the fork and swears under his breath. "Really Daryl I don't mind." I tell him softly making him sigh as he avoids my eye.
I take his silence as my answer and move forwards so that I was sat closer to him, he pulls the blanket up over himself more and looks away from me. I pick his fork up for him and put some food on it before holding it up to his mouth. "I don't nee-"
"Daryl, shut up and let me help you." He rolls his eyes at me and then allows me to feed him, "if you tell anyone I'll-"
"Relax you big baby I won't say anything to anyone."
