The Middle of the End

Seven

"Aww, man! Just when I start likin' him he goes and gets bit." Carl, noticing how shocked I am, tries to explain what he means. "Well, he is gonna die now."

I had nothing to say so I shook my head. Lori and Carol finally join us, busying the kids with a history book so we could talk and I ask what's going on.

"Shane thinks we should shoot Amy before she turns. He also wants to go straight to Fort Benning." Carol shook her head, "But Rick disagrees."

"Like I told Daryl earlier, Andrea can handle it on her own when Amy turns. She's not stupid, she can take care of herself. Besides, she should be the one to do it. It is her sister." Lori and Carol agreed with me. Carol had been the one to 'take care of' Ed, with Daryl there to help if she'd needed it. "It's just something she needs to do on her own."

"I agree completely." Carol nodded and we watched the men fight over something, when Rick pulled his gun on Daryl. Shane says something and the gun is lowered, Daryl stomping off in our direction. Rick and Dale help Jim into the RV when we hear a gunshot, and Andrea stands up. Like I'd said, she was able to shoot Amy when the time was right. I knew she could do it.

"I'll be right back." I hurried off towards Daryl, bumping into Shane on the way.

"You alright?" he mumbled awkwardly. I nodded and walked away before he could say anything else. We had once been so close, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. But that was a long time ago.

"Hey." Daryl grumbled, throwing his crossbow to the ground.

"Careful! That might break one of these days if you don't watch out."

"Doubt that." he rolled his eyes. Dale waved us over to the firepit where he stood with T-Dog.

"We're having a burial in an hour." Dale said softly. His eyes were red and puffy, as if he'd been crying. He'd really cared about Amy.

"What's the point? They woulda died sooner or later anyways."

"Closure, Daryl. Don't be an ass because you're still messed up about Merle." I shot him a warning look, and he shut his mouth. If anyone else had said that to him he would have chewed them out. He didn't really want to go to the burial, obviously, and neither did I. But it was something we had to do and I made him go with me. Amy was the last to be lowered in a shallow grave dug by Jim; I guess he'd suffered from sunstroke while we were in Atlanta and dug a bunch of graves impulsively.

Andrea and Dale sat there long after Amy had been buried, just crying. Dale wouldn't let her be alone and I didn't really blame him.

"C'mon. Before you start cryin' again." Daryl took my arm and led me back down to camp. While he cleaned his crossbow, I sat with Lori and Carl.

"Shane's been lookin' for you." Lori muttered so Carl wouldn't hear her. He was reading one of the history textbooks.

"Yeah I bet he has. What's he want now?" I rolled my eyes. And that's when I heard Daryl and Shane hollering at each other. I found them down by the lake, Daryl on top of Shane, punching him furiously. "Hey! What in the hell are you two doing?!"

Daryl looked up at me, a feral gleam in his eyes. Shane used this momentary distraction to his advantage and pushed Daryl off, hitting him with all his strength.

"Shane. Get off him. I swear to God I'll never speak to you again if you don't fu.cking explain yourself." I made the mistake of trying to wedge myself between them and was smacked in the face by Shane. Well that drove Daryl wild, and he pulled himself off the ground.

"Callie. I'm so sorry, I didn't see-" Shane was wacked on the head with Daryl's crossbow. He slumped to the ground and if I hadn't grabbed Daryl's wrist, things would have gotten far worse pretty quick.

"Daryl. Enough. Come and tell me what happened." We sat on the large rocks and Daryl handed me a rag for my bloody nose. It wouldn't really help my split lip much. "I forgot what it felt like to have your lip split open."

"I'm sorry." he whispered, his face splotched red. He looked awful - blood covered most of his face. There was a deep cut on his forehead, his nose was broken and bloody, lips split. He'd have black eyes in no time. And what was that, coming from his watery eyes?

Was he crying?!

"Hey, it's ok. Everything will be ok." I didn't know what else to say, how to comfort him.

"No." he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I should've gotten you out sooner. Because of me, because of my father... something inside you broke. I never knew just how bad. Shane told me about the medical reports, the way you acted after they brought you home. Didn't talk, refused to eat. Screamed like hell if someone touched you. It's my fault, I shoulda protected you." he threw a rock, hard, into the water. "From them. You shoulda told me."

"I couldn't, or they woulda done it to you too. We were just kids. There was nothin' we could have done to stop them." I'd started crying too, flashbacks and memories of pain and absolute terror flooded my mind. "What matters now is whether we let the past control us or not. I don't think you know this, but you've saved me more than once. When I woke up in that hospital, I was furious. That you'd left me. For so long, you were all I'd had and then, just like that, you were gone. I didn't want to believe it at first, but you had saved me. You risked everything just to get me back to my family."

"I had to. I couldn't stand coming back from school and findin' you with fresh bruises, frest cuts, out cold in that stupid closet. I don't wanna remember you like that. But I do, every night. Sometimes I wake up, convinced yer dead."

"Is that why I see you standin' outside the RV at night, lookin' in through the window?" I smiled wetly before wiping my face and blowing my nose.

Daryl nodded and sat up straight, pointing in Shane's direction. "He's comin' 'round."

"Lovely. Will you go an' get Rick? Please? I'll be ok with Shane. I'm sure he's gonna feel terrible once he sees what he did to my face."

"Okay. You sure?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." I watched him as he walked up the steep and narrow path. And realized something, something I'd once thought was impossible.

"Callie? That you?" Shane sat up slowly.

"Yeah; you have some serious explainin' to do. Why were you and Daryl beatin' the cr.ap outta each other?"

"Don't worry 'bout it. Your face..." his eyes widened as he remember what he'd done. "Oh God Cal, I'm so sorry. It was an accident. I didn't see you, I swear."

"I know. Daryl's gone to get Rick. They should be back any second. No more fightin' with Daryl. There's nothin' you can do or say that will make me stay away from him. The sooner you accept it, the better it will be. I love you, Shane, but sometimes you can be a real asshole. Please understand how much Daryl means to me." I turned around and walked back to camp.

Jim wasn't doing any better. We needed to make a decision, and soon. Before it was too late.

|That did NOT turn out the way I'd planned. I've decided to skip the CDC, I find it boring and writing it would probably give me writers' block.