Future Ghosts • TWD

106. Wake Up.

"Rose?" a voice to her left said. Rosie was pretty sure it was Daryl's voice, but that didn't make sense, because she was with Negan before, which meant she had to be at the Sanctuary. She squeezed her eyes shut, because the pain in her shoulder felt like her bones were all shattering and she was going to die. But she wanted her velociraptor so bad. She tried reaching for it again. "Hey, stop, stop, stop," Daryl's voice said. She felt a hand on her arm, gently pushing it back down onto the bed.

When Rosie opened her eyes and saw that Daryl was leaning over her and reaching to the nightstand that was to her right, she was very confused. Was she not at the Sanctuary? What was going on? "Daryl? Where's- where's-?" Rosie didn't even know how to word what she was asking. Her mind felt all foggy and her arm hurt so bad. She tried looking over to the nightstand to see if Daryl was getting her velociraptor for her, but that hurt badly too. She squeezed her eyes shut again, letting out a small whimper of pain and frustration. She felt very out of it, and she hated that.

"You're ok. Stop movin'," Daryl said, his voice all soft and gentle in a way that Rosie had only heard once before- when he was feeding Judith at the prison. Rosie felt his hand wrap around hers, and then she felt the plastic velociraptor in her hand, and Daryl squeezed her hand shut. Rosie opened her eyes again and watched as he scooted a chair close to the left side of the bed and sat down on it.

"What's goin'-? What- what happened?" Rosie asked, her eyebrows pinched together. She felt so unaware and all over the place, and it was very frustrating. She did not like the feeling of not knowing- not knowing how much time went by, not knowing what happened, not knowing where she was, not knowing who she was with. It was so frustrating. "Where- where-?"

"You're ok, Rose. You're ok. We're at Hilltop," Daryl said. He put his hand on her head, letting his thumb move back and forth on the spot where her hair met her forehead. Rosie tried looking down at her shoulder again, because she wanted to see what happened, but the pajama shirt she was wearing must've been covering up whatever bandage she must've had on. Daryl lightly pushed her head back, making her lay it down again. "You're ok, darlin'. You're ok," he tried to ease her anxiety.

"Where's Judith? Is she-?" Rosie asked, suddenly remembering the promise she made to Rick.

"Judith's ok. We're all ok," Daryl assured the girl. But Rosie still felt every negative emotion, even though she was trying so hard not to. She felt like she was going to cry, but she didn't know why. She felt like she wanted to scream, but she didn't know why. She felt like she wanted to curl up into a ball and hide forever, but she didn't know why. She squeezed tightly onto her velociraptor toy, because it made her feel better when she was hurting on the inside. Maybe it'd make her feel better when she was hurting on the outside, too. "I know it hurts, Rose. I'm sorry," Daryl said, his eyebrows furrowed.

Then, upon hearing Daryl say the words I'm sorry, Rosie suddenly remembered how she was out on her own in the first place. "I- I left without tellin'. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she said quickly, her voice all shaky as she tried not to breathe too deeply, because it hurt her shoulder to do so.

"It's ok. I'm not mad," Daryl told her. But to say that he wasn't mad would be lying, so he decided to rephrase the statement. "I'm not mad at you," he said. Because yes, he was mad. He was very, very, very mad. But he wasn't mad at Rosie. He was mad at the Saviors, he was mad at Negan, he was mad at himself, and he was so mad at Dwight. Dwight was supposed to go out, find her, and bring her back. But instead, he went out, found her, and let her get shot.

"I lost my bracelet," Rosie said, her face scrunching up with sadness as her heart suddenly started to break apart, remembering that Carl was gone. "I couldn't- I couldn't find it," Rosie said, trying not to cry.