The continuation of Fade to Black, a Daryl Dixon fan fiction.
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"I never thought I'd see you again. I thought i lost you."
"And here I thought, you've found someone else and moved on."
"I'd never move on from you, Natalia."
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"Is miss Grimes going to be okay?" Mika asked in concern as her and Lizzie stared at an unconscious Natalia on the bed.
"She looks very sick." Lizzie said as she watched the woman breathe with some difficulty. Lizzie remembered during the prison how pale she looked— Natalia didn't change much from that time. Lizzie just noticed the new scratches and bruises.
"She is sick. But she will get better, she always does." Carol sat beside Natalia, checking her pulse and her wound. After Carol stitched the bullet hole in her side, it stopped bleeding. "She just didn't have any time to heal while she was out there— she can do it now."
Mika approached Natalia's bedside and placed her red-headed doll beside her. "I'll let her have Griselda until she wakes up. So she isn't alone."
"That's very sweet of you, Mika. She'll love that." Carol sweetly said to the little girl.
When Carol took the girls to let Natalia to rest, Lizzie had other ideas— the girl came back and stared at Natalia bleakly as her heart began thumping against her chest. Lizzie didn't understand why she was doing it, but she had to do it. She approached Natalia's bed with a pillow in her hand, raising it slowly to put it on top of Natalia's face, to suffocate her like she had done to Judith when she was crying— right before she wanted to suffocate the older woman, Tyreese interrupted her and she immediately hugged the pillow.
"Hey, young lady." Tyreese said softly as Lizzie tried to compose herself. "You hungry? Carol prepared something that you'll like."
"C-Coming. I'm coming." Lizzie said as she dashed past Tyreese. The man raised his eyebrow at her questionable behavior.
———
"Hershel..." Natalia lowly called out in the dark, candles illuminating her face as Tyreese placed it on the side table.
"D-Don't go...Hershel." Natalia cried as she began twitching in her sleep, sweat covering her forehead.
"Natalia." Tyreese tried to shake her out of her nightmare.
"Nat." Tyreese shook her with more force and when her eyes opened, she let out a little gasp.
"Nat, are you okay?"
Natalia gripped onto his biceps as she pulled herself up after she realized she was just having another horrible nightmare.
"I was just...I think it was just a nightmare."
"I get those, too." Tyreese softly said to Natalia. "I think it's just going to be something normal to us. The walkers haunt us by day...and when we sleep, it's the ones we love."
"I can't get the image out of my head...the way the Governor..." Natalia couldn't continue as her voice broke.
"I know." Tyreese nodded his head.
"I keep thinking if I have done something...if I just tried to help Ricky with the Governor, then maybe Hershel would still be alive."
Tyreese shook his head as he placed his hand on top of Natalia's. "That's not true, you know? Maybe if you had interfered...then it wouldn't be just Hershel who lost his life. The Governor could have hurt Michonne or Johnny, too. It's not your fault. You shouldn't beat yourself up."
Natalia knew that Tyreese was right but she couldn't help but feel guilty and horrible about what had happened.
"You were unconscious for almost a day, I bet you're hungry."
"I'm starving." Natalia dramatically said.
"Come on— there's an endless supply of pecans." Tyreese helped Natalia out of bed and patiently went down the stairs with her slowly.
"She's finally awake." Carol beamed at the sight of Natalia. Carol was sat in the living room as the fire danced in its pit. "Feeling better?"
"Better. Just feel like I could eat a whole cow."
Tyreese and Carol chuckled as Tyreese helped Natalia sit at the dinner table, Carol immediately grabbed the cookies and served it to Natalia while Tyreese excused himself to check on the girls.
Natalia devoured the cookies and it reminded Carol of how Daryl would normally eat.
"I'm guessing you didn't tell Tyreese." Natalia spoke after swallowing the lump of cookies in her mouth, only to quickly grab another cookie.
Back in the prison when the flu was spreading, Carol took matters into her own hands and killed Karen and David to stop the flu from spreading, but she failed.
"I didn't." Carol shook her head as she suggestively looked at Natalia.
"Don't look at me like that. I won't tell him." Natalia poured the water in her cup. "It's your call. But what he doesn't know won't hurt him. But it's only gonna eat you alive if you don't."
