Surviving. (Book Two.)

Chapter Seventy.

Sarah; 

Finally after another couple of days staying at The Hilltop, it was time for us to pack up our stuff and get back to Alexandria. 

Dr Carson came over to me as I was putting things in the RV, Daryl trailing behind him with his arm in a sling. 

"Hey," I greeted, "We're just about ready to go." 

Daryl nodded and came to stand beside me, clearing his throat awkwardly as he looked up at the Doctor, "Thanks for y'know, helpin' me 'nd tellin' us tha' we're having a baby." 

Carson gave him a nod then looked at me, "I've got some meds for him to take. These," he held out a box, "Are to fight the infection. These," he handed me another, "Are for the pain. Give them to him whenever he needs it."

"Okay."

"Now Daryl, you gave to understand that you can't put too much strain onto that arm. Movement to a minimum, no heavy lifting," Carson explained seriously, "It risks more permanent damage to the arm." 

"Don't worry," I smiled, giving Daryl's hand a squeeze, "He won't be doing anything on my watch." 

After another few minutes of conversation, Rick appeared and told us that we were going.

"Jesus is coming back with us." he told us as we climbed onto the RV. 

Daryl and I sat silently climbed on board and I made sure to put as much space between Sasha and myself as possible. 

It was only a matter of time before she let her feelings about me become known and I wasn't about to let that happen in an RV full of people. 

The ride back was spent with everyone in an uncomfortable silence. We didn't know how to talk to each other anymore.

After a further three minutes of silence, Carl cleared his throat and looked at me, "So, I think we all want to know...are you?" 

"Oh..." I trailed off, seeing Sasha pin a harsh glare on my from the corner of my eye, "Um, yeah. I am." 

There was a quiet chorus of congratulations and Maggie was the only one that gave a genuine smile. 

"That's great news." Rick then murmured. 

"Is it?" I asked quietly, standing up to go into the tiny bathroom, where I sat on the closed toilet seat. 

Nope. I couldn't do this. There was just no way. 

The door slid open and Daryl squeezed his way in, leaning against the wall opposite me. 

"Ye' okay?" he asked and I immediately shook my head. 

"No," I breathed, "I can't do this, Daryl. They're all thinking the same thing I am. That it's my fault Abraham is dead. And Sasha, she is never going to forgive me!" 

"Keep yer voice down," he whispered, crouching down so he was in my eyeline, "This ain't your fault. I know tha' he didn't deserve it but you didn't choose him. He did. Not you." 

"I know," I mumbled, wiping under my eyes, "I just don't know how we're going to come back from this." 

"We will. We always do." 

**

Daryl;

Arriving back in Alexandria was strange. We all got off the RV and went our separate ways and as I was waiting for Sarah to grab our bags, I saw her attempting to talk to Sasha, who instead shoved past her with her things. 

I get that she was upset, we all were, Abraham was part of the family but there was no need to take it out on Sarah. Like I had told her earlier, she hadn't told Negan who to kill. No one did. He made his own decision. 

Sarah was silent as we made our way home and on our way, I saw Carol and Morgan sitting on a porch swing so I told Sarah to go on ahead and that I'd catch up. 

She saw the two of them and nodded, giving me a weak smile before continuing on her way. 

Carol's eyes widened as I approached, "Oh my god! What happened to you?" 

I cleared my throat and pointed to the front door, "Can we go in 'nd talk? Somethin's happened." 

"Sure," she nodded and with Morgan's help, she got up (I'd need to ask her about what happened to her later) and the two of them led the way into the house. 

"Where have you been the past couple of days?" Morgan asked, "Enid said something about going to get Maggie some help. Is she okay?"

"Is Maggie okay?" Carol asked quickly, "I-I mean, she's having a baby." 

"She's fine." 

"So what happened?" 

"Abraham's dead." I said bluntly and the two of them stared at me with wide eyes, "We uhm, we ran into Negan a couple days ago. He had us all lined up, ready to kill one of us. 'nd he picked Sarah." 

Morgan opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out so I chose to continue.

"He was jus' about to swing that bat but...Carl. He said that Sarah was pregnant so Negan stopped. Said he couldn't deny the chance of procreation but he had to kill someone else." 

"And he chose Abraham?" Carol whispered. 

"Yeh," I nodded, "He chose Abraham. If we had known he was gonna choose him...we didn't even get a chance to try and help. There was so many guys." Letting out a sigh, I placed my head in my hands and squeezed my eyes shut. A few seconds later, I heard someone get up and leave while the other sat down on the sofa beside me. 

"Is Sarah pregnant?" Carol asked.

"Yeah," I murmured, looking at her with a smile, "'m gonna have a kid. Can you believe tha'?" 

"Good luck," she laughed then her face fell again, "Wait, how is she holding up? That can't have been easy." 

"She's devastated." I muttered, "Of course she is. She keeps blaming herself and I...Carol when I saw tha' he was gonna kill her. I don-" 

"Daryl," she said softly as my voice cracked, her hand resting on mine, "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it." 

I nodded and cleared my throat. I wouldn't tell anyone this but I was glad that Sarah wasn't the one who died the other night.

I stayed for a little while longer before saying goodbye, crossing the short distance to the bungalow. 

It was quiet when I closed the door behind me and I moved through the house to the bedroom, where Sarah was laid on the bed, her eyes shut and I wordlessly climbed on beside her and pressed my chest against her back, kissing the back of her head as she laced her fingers through mine. 

We were going to get through this. 

**

so this is way overdue and not the best chapter but i hope you liked it.