Firecracker ➝ Daryl Dixon

Chapter 17: Mistake

Arden stifled yet another yawn and attempted to pay attention to what Rick was saying but Daryl was standing next to him and the way his blue eyes kept flicking over to her was making her ears ring and skin crawl.  She removed her eyes from Rick and narrowed them at Daryl, a warning that he needed to stop acting so damn weird especially now with everyone in the prison sitting in one room and listening to Rick’s speech.  Daryl moved his eyes downward and there they stayed for the remainder of the announcement.

The whole monarchy thing was now over and King Rick would be dethroned by what he termed “the council”.  This council consisted of Glenn, Sasha, Carol, Daryl and their almighty leader would be none other than Hershel Greene.  Rick made it very clear that now the council would be making all of the decisions, not him.  No one seemed surprised.  Although Rick had still been the “leader” of the group most of his decisions had come at the urging of Hershel and it was becoming painfully obvious that Rick was tired of dealing with the problems associated with running a group during the apocalypse. 

“This’ll be good for Rick,” Maggie whispered, her shoulder bumping into Arden.  Arden merely shrugged.  According to Maggie, Rick had suffered some hardships prior to Arden arriving but hadn’t they all?  Arden had her own problems to deal with and didn’t care to know of Rick’s demons.

 The meeting ended and Maggie continued her chattering, something about needing to wash everyone’s bedding but not sure how to dry the clothes with it being winter and all.  Arden mumbled something about hair dryers (oh the comforts of the previous world that she had taken for granted) and left Maggie to solve the problem on her own.  Despite her legs shaking and throat closing up Arden walked with a newfound determination.  “We need to talk,” she murmured, grabbing onto Daryl’s forearm and yanking him backwards and towards a more secluded part of the prison.

Daryl muttered and stumbled and finally let out a curse word and ripped his arm from Arden’s grip.  Fearful that Daryl may leave Arden began speaking as they continued down the hallway towards the library, “Two things.  One I caught Talia and Hank sneaking back into the prison this morning,” she turned to see Daryl picking at his nails and shrugging, “They were outside the gate, snuck out and came back before the sun came up and when I asked them where they went they said they were looking for Matt and trying to help me because I seemed stress or some bullshit like that.”

“What’d ya do?”

“Threatened them,” Arden nibbled on her bottom lip and pushed the library door open, not bothering to hold it ajar for Daryl, “Told them if they did it again I’d tell Rick and he’d kick them out but now looks like it wouldn’t be up to Rick it’d be up the council,” she rolled her eyes and plopped down into a chair, sinking into it and crossing her arms over her chest.

Daryl nodded thoughtfully, his eyes scanning the room for the seat but the only other chair was right next to Arden so he settled for standing, “I’ll tell Hershel, he’ll kick those assholes out today if ya want.”

“No,” she shook her head and stared at Daryl’s boots, “No I don’t want them out  because I want to sneak out with them,” she looked up to see Daryl staring at her with his sleepy eyes and teeth clenched, “They’re hiding something and I need to figure it out.”

“You can’t-“

“Don’t try to tell me what I can and can’t do,” Arden hissed, not about to get into an argument over this, “I wasn’t asking for your permission I was just letting you know and despite what you may think those two, Talia and Hank, they’re harmless.”

Daryl laughed dryly and curled his hands into fists, “You not rememberin how we met them?  That asshole knocked us both out and that girl is insane.”