The Walking Dead Imagines

It's Why I Love You

You walk up to the door and lift your hand to knock. As much as you want to, you can't make your hand move to make the sound. Daryl watches you secretly out of his window and you have no idea. He wants to open the door so badly right now, maybe he could pretend he was on his way out to see Rick and invite you in instead. You start walking away, down the steps of his porch and he panics and opens the door quickly.
"Oh, hey, (Y/N), you okay? I was just on my way out."
"Hey! Erm, oh never mind then, if you're busy. See you later," you mumble as you carry on walking.
"I'm in no rush, what's up?" He says quickly, trying to get you to stay.
"I was just wondering if..." you pause, for what seems like ages, "if maybe you wan-"
"Daryl! I need your help on my car again, can't believe it's gone wrong so soon," a familiar voice shouts out, interrupting you. It's Claire, one of the residents of Alexandria who have been here since the beginning. She has a thing for Daryl and is always tearing him away from you because she knows exactly how he feels about you and hates it.
"Not now, maybe tomorrow, I need to talk to (Y/N)."
"No, no it's fine, it can wait," you said, forcing a smile. You walked away and Daryl watched you until you were out of sight. Claire took his arm and practically dragged him to her place. He checked the car over and couldn't find one thing wrong with it so quickly returned home after making his excuses. He walked slowly past your door and glimpses you through the window sitting on your sofa with a notebook, furiously writing in it. The voice inside his head wanted to speak to you so badly, but he couldn't find the courage to even walk up your porch. He turned away and carried on to his house.
The next morning you hear a knock at your door. Running downstairs, you imagine it to be Daryl, he'll sweep you up into his arms and finally confess his love to you and kiss you passionately. You open it to find Rick instead.
"Hey (Y/N), we need you to go out on a run today, Daryl's not feeling too good and we need him on top form, can you go with Claire instead?" He asked. Shit, her. No wonder he felt ill, stupid woman always harassing him.
"Yeah sure, that's fine. I'll be out in 15 minutes." You gather some bits into a rucksack and a list that Rick gave you. Heading out to the gates, you see her in her car, tapping the steering wheel impatiently.
"Finally! Come on, lets just get this over and done with," she sighs as you get in the car next to her. Daryl comes out to see the car leave and notices a familiar face next to her.
"Rick, did (Y/N) go with her?"
"Yeah, she's as good as you, so the next best person right?"
"Shit! No, this isn't good, I don't trust her with (Y/N)."
"Why not? I'm sure they'll be fine, just take it easy and go back to bed."
Daryl huffs and goes back inside. He'd give you a couple of hours but come looking for you then. He knew the route you were meant to take, so it would be easy to find you. If he hadn't faked being ill to get out of going with Claire, you'd be safe behind these walls. There was something off about her, how she'd hold his arm just a little too tightly, or look at you for just a second too long with dark, evil eyes, then she'd snap back to acting like normal again. She was always like this since Daryl told her that he had feelings for you. She'd tried to make a move on him, but he knocked her back and admitted that you were the one for him. She hadn't like that one bit.
It was a little over half an hour into your journey and the route started to look unfamiliar.
"Are you sure this is the way?," you asked, confused.
"This a short cut, don't worry about it."
Soon you got to a small town, but it wasn't the one you were meant to be searching today. As you were about to face her, she pulled her gun out and pointed it straight at your head.
"Make one wrong move and I'll shoot. Get out of the car," she instructed.
"O- okay," you stutter. She leads you to a small warehouse behind a shop and pushes you through the door. Inside there's a chair and some rope.
"Sit." You do as she says and sit down in the chair. She ties your hands behind you and your feet to the legs at the front.
"Why are you doing this?" You ask.
"Because women like you don't deserve Daryl. I do," she says bluntly. She smirks and backs away, "well, this is goodbye. I'll leave the door open so the walkers can have easy access to you. Don't want them to starve do we?" With that, she exits and you hear the car revving up and leaving.
You struggle against the restraints, but with no luck. How the hell did she tie this so tight?
Daryl's given you both enough time, he tells Rick he's going out to find you and within seconds he's out on the road. As he's riding, Claire speeds past him and he notices you're not in the car with her.
"FUCK!" He shouts to himself. He heads straight to the town you were heading for, checks every building, but you're nowhere to be seen. He races back to Alexandria where he finds Rick questioning Claire.
"She WHAT?" He bellows.
"She got bit, so sad, had to put her down. Left her in a safe place though," she lies.
"The fuck did you just say?" Daryl interrupts, "she's not at the town you were meant to go to. Where the hell is she?"
"Oh, no, we went to the next one over, west a little bit," she smirks, hoping that walkers would have already got to you.
"Ya fucking bitch! If she's dead, I'm coming back and killing you myself," Daryl seethes. He jumps back on his bike and goes back out on the road.
He finds the small town and looks in all the buildings then finds the warehouse behind one of the shops. Stepping inside, he sees walkers shuffling about and quickly takes them out. He spots the chair, toppled over and the rope laying on the floor next to it with fresh blood coating it. He looks over at the walkers, they couldn't have eaten you that quickly, and there was no trace of you here, it wasn't possible that they took you. Looking around on the floor, he searches for a trail of some kind, and sees small droplets of blood, possibly yours, heading towards the door. Following it, he's lead to a small shipment container further back from the backs of the buildings that lined the road.
The smell of damp fills his nostrils as he enters the container. There are boxes everywhere, he moves them all out of the way until he sees something in the corner.
"(Y/N)? Is that you?"
"Daryl?"
"Oh my god, (Y/N)," he says as he gets closer and can see your body fully. Blood soaks your t-shirt and you have something pressed against your shoulder. "What happened?"
"That doesn't matter," you gasp, "I'm just glad you're here."
"Let me see your wound at least." He reaches out for your shoulder and peels back the cloth you found. There's an obvious bullet wound and he can see where it's also been dug out. It's bleeding heavily and you've already lost a lot of blood. "We need to get you back now."
"I can't move Daryl," you say slowly, "I can barely breathe."
"No, we need to get you back and get you fixed up."
"Daryl, you can see what's happened, look at all this blood... I can't do it." You're face is white as a sheet and Daryl knows how this is going to end.
"(Y/N), please, don't say that," he starts to cry. "That fucking bitch I'm gonna kill her for doing this to you."
"Daryl... you've got to promise me... you'll do it, when the time comes... please," you stutter through labored breaths.
"I can't."
"You can... strongest person I know... it's why I love you." You breathe, closing your eyes.
"(Y/N), please don't say that," Daryl sobs, tears now cascading down his cheeks.
"Love..." you start.
"I love you too (Y/N), I do, always have done, please come back with me, you'll be fine," he rambles desperately.
"Can't... love you," you smile as you finally let go and your breathing stops.
"NO! NO! (Y/N), please, please open your eyes, I know you can. Open them," he cries. He holds your face in his hands, rubbing your cold cheeks, trying to bring color back into them and get you to wake up. He knows you won't, and picks up his gun to finish it, but as he brings it to your head he can't make himself pull the trigger. Instead he uses his knife, slowly pushing it through your ear. Picking you up, he walks out to his bike and places you over it. He walks back to Alexandria with you and when he arrives everyone gathers round as they see your body. Rick is first to speak.
"Daryl, I'm so sorry."
"Where is she?" He asks, eyes red and puffy from crying.
"In the cell," Rick answers, knowing what was about to happen. Daryl walks off to the cell as Rick and Carl take your body and lay you down by the church while they dig a grave. As they're digging, a shot echoes throughout Alexandria and Daryl appears next to them soon after. He takes a shovel and digs at the ground furiously.
"(Y/N) gets a grave. She doesn't. I'll do this myself."
"Daryl, let me help," Rick says softly.
"No. Leave me," he shouts. Rick and Carl walk off to sort out the other body and take her outside Alexandria and leave her in the forest for walkers. They get back and Daryl is still digging, wiping tears and sweat away from his face.
"Let me go talk to him Dad," Carl says, seeing how worried his father looks. Carl walks over slowly to Daryl so as not to startle him.
"Daryl, I know you wanna be left alone, but I cared for (Y/N) too, she was like a sister to me, so I want to help if you'll let me."
Daryl doesn't say a word, but looks up at him through his hair and hands him the other shovel. They stand there in silence and dig until it's ready, and both lower your body into it.
"Carl, I can't do it, I can't bury her," he says, breaking down again. Carl looks at him shocked at how open he's being with his emotions.
"No, of course. Me and dad will if you want us to."
"Yeah, thanks," he says, dropping the shovel and looking down at you one last time. Then he heads to his house.
"Daryl, you can stay at ours, don't be on your own," Carl says after him. Daryl nods his head and changes direction to Rick's house, not wanting to admit he needs someone, but accepting the offer gratefully. Rick comes out after talking to Daryl and helps Carl cover your body.
"That was a real nice thing you did Carl. Daryl may not show it, but he appreciates it a lot. He really loved her."
"I know, we all did, and she didn't deserve what happened to her. I hope she told Daryl she loved him too."
"I'm sure she did Carl, don't worry."