Beauty and Her Beast (Daryl Dixon Fanfic)

92

This is gonna be a long ride to Hilltop. Magna has already complained about her knives and keeps shooting daggers at Michonne. If she knew what we'd been through...what Michonne had to do...maybe she'd understand. It was a few hours before we reached their rig-or what was left of it. "Oh, no, no, no, no. Sickos tore the damn place up! Look at this place."

"I didn't think it would be this bad." Yumiko said. "Is this all that's left?"

I got off my horse and pulled out my knife. "The herd you ran from did all this?" Michonne asked.

"No. A bigger one must've come through." Magna answered. The place was a mess, there were walkers crushed by their trailer that tipped over, clothes and supplies were everywhere.

"DJ, collect all their weapons." Michonne ordered.

"Hell no!" Magna yelled. "We're taking what's ours."

"No. I'm not letting my men take five armed strangers into Hilltop."

"Your men? What about you?" Yumiko asked.

"I came to see if your story checks out. It does. Siddiq and DJ will take you the rest of the way."

"So not only have you not been to this place in who knows how long, you aren't coming with us and we can't have our weapons?"

"You want your weapons, take them. Then you're on your own out here."

"Michonne-"

"You want an escort to Hilltop, a chance at something better, they stay with us."

Everyone was silent. "I vote for the second one." Luke spoke up.

"So, we're just supposed to trust her if she doesn't even trust us?" Connie signed, shaking her head. From what little I remember learning when I was in high school, she said something about a choice.

"I mean, guys, we-we made it this long. I-I say we take our chances out there." Kelly said.

"Nope. Second one. You with me? Second one?" Luke shut her down almost immediately.

"Stop it." Yumiko interrupted. "Luke's right. They wouldn't put us back together just to pull us apart again. They wouldn't." She looked at Michonne. "You said we'd be there by morning?"

"That's right."

She turned back to Connie. "Look, I know you don't like her rules. I don't, either. But we made it out here a long time on our own, with less than this. So, for a real chance, for a safe place to live, we can make it a few more hours. Okay?"

Magna reluctantly went back to the cart and horses. "Sun'll be down soon. We should find shelter."

We got back on our horses. "Hey, Mich." She looked at me. "I think maybe I'll stay at Hilltop for a bit, obviously I'll ride back and get the kids."

"How long, and why?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not sure how long, but I think I'll have better luck getting Daryl to stay at Hilltop. He's been...uneasy at Alexandria ever since..."

She nodded. "Okay, Judith'll miss you guys." She smiled.

I smiled back. "Yeah, but maybe...you can visit someday, when you're ready."

She was silent.

~*~

"Ah, no!" We were woke suddenly by a shout, all jumping into action, following the source of the scream. We lowered our guns when we realized it was just Michonne and Luke, Luke holding a violin presumably cut in half by Michonne.