Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

91

It's been six years. Six years since Rick died. To me it feels like yesterday. I can still smell the smoke, hear Michonne sobbing. I'm back in Alexandria. I felt like I had to go back. I couldn't pinpoint why. To feel close to Rick, or something else, I didn't know. I still don't. Daryl's out there, in the woods. He's still looking for him. He comes by now and then to see me and the kids. Never spends the night. He hasn't been himself since the bridge. We were waiting for the others to come back. They had gone hunting, haven't been back in a while. When the gates opened, we rushed forward. I stopped in my tracks when I noticed something off. They brought people? Michonne wouldn't be happy.

"There's another one in the wagon. Female with head trauma. She conscious." Rosita spoke to Siddiq.

He looked in the wagon. "Alex and the other nurses are on standby. I'll take her to the infirmary right now." He told the others.

"I'm coming with her." One woman tried to step forward. DJ stepped in front of her, keeping her back. To say we have trust issues when it comes to new people is an understatement.

We all looked when we heard a horse whinny. Michonne was back. They closed the gates behind her and someone took the horse. She immediately locked on to the new people, tossing her bag aside. "You wanna tell me what this is?" She asked DJ.

"Five unknowns, all clean, one headed to the infirmary." Michonne looked at them, frisking one of the women.

"All clean? You sure about that?" She asked, maintaining eye contact with the woman she frisked.

"Indeed." Eugene answered. "They're whistle-worthy, clean as a- wise. They surrendered they're weapons willingly and submitted to standard frisk procedure."

"And why are they here?" Michonne asked.

"My call." Aaron spoke up.

"It's not your call to make." Aaron nodded.

"I decided." Judith spoke up. "They needed help."

Michonne walked up to Judith, a softer look on her face for her daughter. "Judith, you know the rules. You all do."

"Thing is, they're here now," Aaron nodded. "And one on 'em's badly hurt. Siddiq's checking her out, but... Look, no disrespect, but maybe their fate is something we should decide together."

"It'll be dark soon. First thing tomorrow we can bring them before the council for a vote."

Michonne was silent for a moment. "Okay." She finally nodded. She gestured with her hand. "Put then in holding." With that she walked away.

I noticed one of the people signing to another. She's deaf? It's kind of shocking she survived this long.

~*~

"As you can probably tell from our turnout here, it's been a long time since we've seen new faces inside these walls. We're a fair community of decent minded people, but we are not soft. And that's not going to change today. So let's begin."

I leaned back in my chair between Aaron and Siddiq, stretching my legs. We could either be here for a long time, or only a few minutes, depending on how fast Michonne shuts this down. "Which one of you is the leader?" Gabriel asked.

They exchanged looks. "What makes you think we have one?" One of them asked. She had wavy hair, a tattoo on her chest and sharp eyes.

"Did you know each other before?" He asked.

"No." A man wearing an old torn up blazer answered. "It was, uh, Magna and then Yumiko, uh, first and then, uh, Connie and Kelly and then-and then me and then Bernie." He gestured behind him, like he half expected Bernie to be there. Then he looked sad. "Sh-I'm sorry. Bernie was the one we lost yesterday. Um...There were others, of course, but, like Bernie, they just..." He started crying, the others looked sad. "They didn't, uh-they didn't make it."