Your Crying Shoulder

Never Again

Forcing my heavy eye lids open, I see I'm in the room Herschel fixed me up in. Groaning,i tried to remember what happened. Let's see, daryl was shot, I punched Andrea...shit I punched Andrea. Well she deserved it right? She shot daryl and the moment I saw him go down it's like I couldn't control my body or my words. Maybe I should apologize to her? Sitting up, I hissed when my abdomen stung.

"You best be careful" a voice said causing me to shriek.

Turning my head, I saw daryl smirking at me laying right next to me in the bed. Wait...we were in the same bed?! I felt my face heat up as I saw the bandages around his head and his waist. He was shirtless. My eyes stayed glued to the mans body. He was very well fit and very muscular. My mouth suddenly seemed to run dry and my body started to tingle weirdly.

"Take a picture it'll last longer" he grunted.

Shaking my head like I just came out of a trance, I started playing with my hands,"what happened?"

"You opened up your wound, almost bled out when you got into it with Andrea" he said.

"Oh" I sighed.

"Why did you do it?" He asked.

"Do what?" I questioned.

"Hit her?" He lifted his eyebrow.

I looked into those deep blue eyes as he searched mine. My heart sped up as I whispered,"she shot you. I thought you were dead"

"So?" He said.

My eyes adverted from him,"so if you were, I don't know what I would've done"

He just starred at me as silence filled the room. Continuing to nervously play with my hands I asked,

"What happened out there?"

"Went looking for Sophia, damn horse got spooked and threw me off. Fell down a cliff and one of my arrows went through me." He said.

My eyes widened,"o my gosh"

We were silent again for a few minutes till he whispered,"I saw Merle"

"What?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure I was just hallucinating, but as I was layin there in that creek. He told me y'all back here laughin behind my back. None of ya care." He sighed.

"When was the last time Merle told you something truthful?" I asked.

He adverted his eyes,"that's what you said too"

"What?" I asked.

"Nothin" he grunted.

"No daryl tell me" I smiled.

He turned his attention back to me looked deep into my eyes. My breathing hitched as it seemed like he was dissecting me with his eyes. He sighed,

"When I was layin there bleeding out, I saw Merle, but I also saw ya"

"Me?" I asked.

"Yea...I was just gonna lay there and be done with this until you came along" he said.

My eyes widened, even though he was going crazy in that situation, it still gave me butterflies.

"You were just gonna give up?" I gulped.

He nodded ashamed, "yea"

"What changed your mind?"

"I promised ya" he said.

A huge smile broke out on my face as my heart beat faster. I swear it was like it was going to pop out of my chest. I've never had a man try this hard for me other than officer grimes, but this was different. There was something different about daryl. I just wanted to be wrapped up in his arms all the time. I've never felt like that before. We just starred at each other as he started to lean towards me. My breathing hitched, but I started to lean in too. I've never had much experience with kissing, but I think this is where this is leading. His breath hit my face and my heart beat faster at the anticipation and just as it about happened, the door opened and we jumped away from each other causing me to hiss from my bandages. Looking towards the door I saw carol with a plate of food. She set them down on the nightstand and smiled at us as she left. All was silent between me and daryl as we ate. Was he really going to kiss me? Would it happen again? We didn't say a word to each other for the rest of the night before we both finally fell asleep. The next morning I had woken up before daryl. Smiling over at his sleeping form, he looked so peaceful and so at ease. I honestly just wanted to run a hand through his hair. Sighing, I jumped a little when the door opened. It was Shane. He smiled at me and I brought a finger up to my lips,

"Shhhh" and I pointed at daryl.

He seemed to understand as he nodded and made his way over to my side of the bed. Pulling the sheet up more to cover my wrapped abdomen, I smiled at the ex cop.

"Hey how you feelin?' He asked.

"A lot better. I think Herschel's gonna let me walk around again today" I smiled.

"That's good, real good" he said sitting on the bed next to me.

I scooted a little closer to daryl because something in Shane's eyes was bothering me. They weren't their normal color. They were darker, crazier, just like my fathers was. Shane just starred at me for a minute and scanned my body up and down. I felt extremely uncomfortable as I pulled the cover up higher to cover my whole chest and yelped quietly when he forcefully grabbed the blanket from my hands and bulled it back down. My eyes widened in shock as he starred me down hard. He shook his head telling me not to cover up. I started shaking as he leaned his head in closer and moved a strand of my hair over my left shoulder exposing my neck. Tears started forming in my eyes as I finally realized what that different look in his eyes was..lust. His eyes roamed my body as he whispered,

"Damn, this is what all them clothes you wear was hidin girl?"

I gulped, but tried to remain quiet so I wouldn't wake daryl up. He's hurt and I know he'd go nuts seeing this and probably hurt himself some more. I fought back sobs as I looked desperately to daryl still sound asleep. I flinched when a hand touched me.

"You sure have grown up now haven't you Mae" Shane whispered in my ear as a tear rolled down my cheek.

His hand went from my neck and lowered itself down my wrapped abdomen. I started shaking harder and the sobs were getting harder to keep back. Closing my eyes, I didn't want to watch this as I felt his hand grip my thigh.

"Shhhhh...don't cry sweetheart. This is a good thing" he whispered.

I opened my eyes and looked to Shane and begged,"Shane please don't"

He just smiled maliciously and I felt his hand start to move to the inside of my leg. Tears started pouring down my face harder when another voice said,

"If you wanna keep that hand, I suggest you move it back to your side"

Shaking, we both turned and saw daryl now with his eyes wide open and glaring at Shane. Relief fell over me and I started to cry with tears of joy. Shane glared right back,

"She ain't yours, what say do you have?"

"You wanna bet? And what I say is if you don't move that hand and get out of this room right now yer gonna have one less hand to use and one less eye to see out of so you better get lost" daryl growled.

I started breathing heavier as I waited for Shane's reaction. Daryl sat up from his spot on the bed and grabbed Shane's hand from my inner leg and yanked it away. Shane growled, but got up and started walking out. He stopped at the door and glared at us one more time. Daryl growled and Shane walked out, slamming the door behind him. Once he was gone, daryl glared at the door for a few more minutes as I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and more tears started falling down my cheeks. Daryl turned to me,

"You alright?"

Trying to regain my breathing, I nodded. He shook his head, "no you're not"

I began shaking again as I was suddenly gripped by daryl and held close to his chest. I was shocked, but I felt completely safe wrapped in Daryl's arms. I finally cried hard into his chest as he held me tighter, resting his chin on my head.

"He's never going to touch you again" he whispered.