Staying Alive//TWDFanFic

Fifty One

We go back to the commonwealth later in the day to watch as Pamela announces that Lance Hornsby has been captured and justice will be served. I look around the crowd as she's making the announcement and noticed by body language and murmurs that no one is truly buying it, up until this point, they thought that Sebastian has been making people 'disappear' or getting them purposely killed which is correct but part of Carol's deal was to make sure that no one caught wind of that side of it.

We go to the carriage we set up for Aaron and a few others to take back to Oceanside. I'm helping load supplies in the back before Maggie pulls me aside. Once we're away from everybody she leans closer to me, "Hey, I just wanted to make sure that you're actually alright." I was confused momentarily until I remembered our conversation earlier, "Oh-uh, yes." She sighs, "I've been thinking about it and I'd want someone to say this to me if I were in your situation so I'm just going to say it." She pauses for a moment to make eye contact with me, "You do not have to stay anywhere just because Daryl is there. He is not your whole life and if you're not feeling completely fulfilled, you need to move on if you feel like you need to. Now, I don't mean leave him for someone else, I mean like go off and explore the world a little to see if there's a better place for you out there. You don't seem happy anymore and you're like a shell of a person and I don't like seeing you like this." I swallow the lump in my throat, "Thank you for your concern, Maggie, but Daryl is my home and until I feel like he isn't, I go where he goes." She smirks, "Okay, as long as you mean it but I just want you to know that I have your back if you ever decide differently." I felt a little bit like she was trying to convince me to leave him but I know she didn't mean it like that so I just hugged and thanked her before going back to loading up the supplies.

As Daryl and I are walking back to the apartment, I'm going over Maggie's words in my head and the first memories from Daryl in the prison started to come back up. I start to remember how closed off he was for the first few weeks that I was around him until one night, he just decided that he wanted me and I've been his ever since. I started to wonder if I actually needed him or wanted him, I started going over the differences in my head for a moment before coming to the conclusion that I want to be with him, I don't need him, which sounds fucked up but I think it's important to realize that you don't need a partner, it should be more of a want type of thing. I glanced at him as he packed up some of his stuff across the room from me and smiled, I just couldn't see myself without him and I take comfort in knowing that he always comes back to me too. I know it may sound pathetic to some but I just love this man and I can't help it. I notice he's eyeing his old vest for a few moments before he finally throws it back on. I whistle at him, "Damn, who's that sexy man?" He laughs, "Shut up." He steps out of the room as someone knocks on the door. I hear Carols voice before she asks frantically if we'll help her find Judith, I walk out of the room and go to accept before Daryl steps up, looking over at me, "I'll go with her, you keep packing up things here." I nod as he shut the door behind them, I mosey on over to the fridge and pick up the photo that fell on the floor, when I see it's a photo of Daryl and I, I smile. Connie took a photo of everyone when we first got to the commonwealth, so we could see if this place truly impacted/changed us. I stared at it and noticed that really all that changed was my hair, I was able to dye it back to the dark burgundy color I once had before the world went to shit, instead of my dark brown natural hair that had faded out ends when I came here. My hair was past my lower back before I came here and now it's back to the middle of my back like I prefer it, when you're out there fighting for you life every other day, you don't really have time to worry about cutting your hair, you just tie it up and go on. Daryl looks the same, just cleaner, I'm happy he finally put his vest back on, I didn't realize how much I missed it until it was on him again. I went into the bedroom and dug out my matching jacket, throwing it on quickly. I went back to packing.