Flip Side {Daryl Dixon}

{Rat Trap}

"Hey! I thought we were passed this! Put the gun down Shane, it's Daryl!"

"Tell that to her!" He jolted the gun forward like a maniac, nearly jabbing the wiry man in the shoulder, but his words caught their attention more than his flailing.

"Her?" Everyone turned to face the archer, eyes wide and demanding. He yanked his arm around, the thin woman not much of a counterweight.

"Found that ghost." The curly haired man lurched forward and slammed the woman into the wall, forearm to her collarbone and the other hovering over his gun.

"Who are you?" Daryl wanted to warn that getting close was a bad idea, but he decided to let it play out. Curious to see if it was just a fluke or stroke of luck on her side. She kept her mouth clamped shut and simply glared at her interrogator. He caught the flicker of her hazel eyes and waited for the attack.

Eevee did the same to the new attacker as she did to Daryl, lunges out and bit down on whatever skin she could reach- in his case it was the curve of his jawline. As predicted, he lurched back in shock and she shoved him back to slam into the charging gunman from before. As they stumbled she made her escape, growling when a strong arm snatched her off her feet around her waist. Note to self: the wild animal catches on quick.

"Non dovresti essere qui!" (You shouldn't be here!)

"The shit did she just say?" She watched as everyone looked to Daryl, like he would understand a lick of what she just spouted at them. He held up his free hand and shrugged both shoulders.

"Don't look at me, I don't speak whatever the fuck she just said." They shared looks to see if anyone knew but came up empty.

"Did she say anything when you guys met?"

"Yeah, but she spoke English then. Said her name was Evenorra and that we shouldn't be here. Spent most of the time tryin ta chase 'er down." They looked back down at the smug woman that Daryl was holding like a towel instead of a person, keeping her legs and hands just off the ground so she couldn't race off again.

"Why didn't Jenner say there was someone here with him? He insisted he was alone." The group started to discuss and argue the possibilities until the wiry man grew frustrated and called for them to stop.

"We'll deal with this in the morning. For now, she'll be rooming with you." He looked pointedly at Daryl, whose brows arched at the idea of keeping the little spitfire in the same four walls as him.

"What the fuck? Why?" Everyone joined in on his confusion, their arguments talked over by the gunman- Shane if she remembered his name correctly. Which she did.

"Don't you think she'd be better kept in her own room with a guard? Or at least someone she hasn't already taken down at least once?" The look in his eyes made her stomach churn and she squirmed against her captor's hold.

"Tryna say somethin, Shane?" There was a new edge in the voice above her, dripping with the challenge of alpha versus alpha.

"Maybe she should room with me, seeing as she already got the best of you once by the looks of that bite on yer neck." Daryl skimmed over the bruising skin as Eevee smirked her victory.

"No, she's good with Daryl. It's his ghost after all." That seemed to be the final word on the matter, since the group scattered into their chosen rooms. She noted that despite being in their own rooms in relative safety, they kept their doors open just to have easy access to each other. Fascinating.

Daryl was in his room with the door shut and locked before he dropped her on the floor, silently impressed that she managed to land on her feet. He flicked his gaze between the cot and the couch before choosing the couch. He didn't plan on sleeping anyway, he wasn't very fond of waking up to a knife in the throat.

"Aright, ghost, don't go plannin any little tricks. You won't get far before ya get a bolt in the brain." She simply quirked a brow and slid onto the cot, sitting cross-legged in the middle with her back to the wall so she faced Daryl with those glowing cat eyes. She stayed completely silent as the night drug on, staring him down with a blink every so often to break the intensity. It was starting to get maddening.

"Will ya stop starin?" After a few seconds, she broke her gaze and turned to lay on her back before quickly shifting so her back faced him defiantly. He just barely caught the foreign words she grumbled under her breath.

"Non sono l'unico fantasma qui."

Daryl snorted lightly and busied himself with cleaning his crossbow, nearly jumping out of his skin when she spoke in her odd language again.

"Se dovrò essere prigioniero di questo letto, almeno lasciami leggere." He glared up from his work and lifted a brow.

"I don't speak gibberish. English." Eevee sighed and cleared her throat before working to translate the words correctly in her head.

"If I'm going to be prisoner to this bed, then at least let me read."

"Just go to sleep." She pushed back up to sit against the wall with her arms crossed rebelliously.

"I'm not a fan of sleeping when the person near me is planning on how to best shoot me in the head." He felt his mouth itch to try and smirk, but he forced it away and stayed stoically scowling before grumbling under his breath and pushing to his feet. Eevee did the same and she felt his fingers slide through her belt loop again before they walked in silent tandem towards the rec room. Daryl stood by the only exit and released her jeans so she could peruse for the books she wanted.

Eevee had long since read through every page of every novel, encyclopedia, and textbook this place had to offer. But she'd rather re-read material than lose her mind to boredom. She expertly plucked book after book off the shelves until her arms were laden with them. She didn't ask for help, she didn't expect him to offer it either, so she made her way back to the door and headed back to the room, shadowed by heavy boots and a finger through a loop again.

Once inside, Eevee dropped the books at the foot of the cot and returned to her mute cross-legged position and Daryl moved back to cleaning his bow. She scooped up the thick novel on top, and started to skim down the page, fingers sliding down the thin material before flipping the paper every few seconds. Daryl watched her read- at least he thinks she's reading, she's moving too fast to be catching anything on those pages. Right?

"What are you doin?" She didn't bother looking up from her book, of which she was almost a fourth of the way through already.

"Reading. Ever tried it?" He sneered at her jab to his intelligence.

"You can read that fast?" She started to spout more foreign language, though in English.

"The conscious mind processes sixteen bits of information. The unconscious mind processes eleven million." She glanced up at him and took one look at his blank expression before she realized he didn't quite understand what she just said. "Yes, I can read this fast." She flipped another page and continued her quick pace.

"Mmhmm." He finished cleaning up his bow as she toss d the book to the floor and reached for the next one. Without skipping a beat, she flipped a page and reached back to tug her ponytail out of her hair. Flipping to the next set of pages, she ran her fingers through the braids to undo them and she had to flip another page before she took out the last ponytail to let her waved hair cascade down her back and shoulders to brush against the blankets beneath her.

"What were ya?" Daryl was shocked to hear his voice speak without his consent. Eevee glanced up at him again with confused hazel eyes and a tilted head. "Ya know, before all this?"

"Does it matter?" Daryl scowled and grunted before closing off again, the man boredly twirling his knife around in his hand.

"I was a lot of things. Now I'm just stuck."