Panacea - {Daryl Dixon Fanfiction}

Day 70+ - A Fantasy Short Lived

He was eager to saddle up, get away from these people, and continue searching, but Carol stopped him.

"They don't think we'll find her...I mean..." She hesitated as Daryl stared her down, urging her to say it, "...I don't."

He gritted his teeth, and moved towards her. "What?"

She searched for words as she rubbed her eyes, and pathetically she whispered, "Can't lose you, too..."

He held in every profanity he could as he stormed out of the barn, and her words now echoed in his mind as he stared at the Cherokee rose before him. 

What the hell did she mean by that? Why the hell did he matter to her...?

He reached out and pulled at one of the petals. He had taken one to her a few days earlier as a sign of hope, of which there was none of that left in the group. And if everyone else had lost hope in finding Sophia after only a few days, what chance did he have of finding Gabry?

"You mind if I join you?"

It was Carol.

"Nah..."

She sat down next to him in the grass, looking out across the pond. "Things are getting heated at the house. I thought I might come find you."

He didn't say anything. She didn't say anything either. He thought of what Gabry might say in this moment and rehearsed it in his mind.

"I'm sorry...for what I said this morning." He referred to the word he had used on her when he had gone off on his tantrum. "I'm gonna find her."

"Why? This whole time I just...I wanted to ask you...why?"

Daryl chewed on his lip. "Someone told me to have a little more faith when others didn't...and I believe she's out there. Besides, what else have I got to do?"

Carol looked at him, and he looked at the white Cherokee rose. His Gabry was out there somewhere. He could feel it.

"Was Gabry the one to tell you that? About the faith..." She asked him.

"She was." He pictured her when she said it, not remembering where they were or what it was about, but remembering the look in her eyes: the undeniable belief in her own words. And that made him believe. And he had to believe in her, because that means that she would be out there, surviving and believing that tomorrow would bring them closer.

"Was she your wife?" Carol asked.

Daryl snorted. "Hell, I wish."

Carol smiled and then hesitantly asked, "What happened to her?"

Daryl shrugged. "I dunno...lost her. When shit hit the fan I went of to get her. She wasn't there."

Carol gave a silent, "oh" and things were quiet again. She was studying the Cherokee rose, and finally she said, "Well find her. The both of them." She patted his knee optimistically. "Maybe they're together." She mused.

Gabry would have loved that. If there was one thing she loved as much as God, it would be children. During the summer she gave children horseback riding lessons, and she loved each one of them that she spoke to. Daryl sometimes showed up to a lesson that had run later than normal, and there she'd be, hugging and kissing them as if they were her own. Daryl liked the children, too, because unlike their parents, they would speak to him without any bias. They were funny, and the boys thought his pocket knife was cool. There was one little girl, Hallie, who would always ask to wait around until he showed up.