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INSTANTLY DARYL DECIDED to set up a small search for carol, wherever she went. it resulted in negan having his hands bounded together by the rope that lydia had fortunately left behind. daryl did not believe negan whatsoever about his success in killing alpha, so he was going to have him lead the pair of them to where carol had supposedly left her head on a pike - just as alpha had done to her adopted son.
despite already being in a solid amount of trouble, negan's personality didn't allow him to stop talking, "this whole 'follow the leader' routine, it's kinda de ja vu for me. it's the same way it went down with alpha."
there was a silence as daryl exchanged a look with rosaline that only screamed 'can he shut up'.
"you know i get it. alright, you're pissed. your gal pal didn't let either of you in on the plan."
finally daryl answered him, "nobody asked you."
"look, i'm pissed, too. lone wolves, they're not thinking about the pack." he suggested, taking a glance back at both of them.
while rosaline was about to speak, daryl beat her to it, "maybe i'm pissed 'cause of hilltop. whole bunch of children, including mine, almost died 'cause of you. hell, you best be glad she's here cause i'd beat your ass."
negan turned around to take a long look at rosaline daryl before he ordered that he kept walking. rhaegar walked beside the woman slowly, looking to her as she patted his back.
"well, where is the little angel junior?" he questioned, gaze flickering to rosaline.
"ain't none of your concern about where our kid is." daryl snapped, pushing him further to the front.
rosaline was unsure of whether to say something, she'd kept quiet this whole time, "she's not here, but alive. that's all you get to know."
the sky had darkened with shadowed clouds, the sun dropping over the horizon, markings the signs of oncoming night. finally, they'd reached the spot where negan claimed that carol had placed the head he delivered. although, there was nothing there but a blood-ridden stick.
"i swear to god, it was on that spike." the panic in negan's voice was clear now as daryl pointed the crossbow to the back of his head, "look, uh- we... we sit here, we can wait for carol or i can take you to find the... oh, come on, man."
the woman glared at him, "so it just grew wings and flew off by itself? do you know carol is gonna come back? what is this? a trap?"
negan let out a shaky sigh, "its not what you think it is. we're talking about lydia here. why would i stash her out in banjo country unless the whole point was to keep her safe? unless the whole freakin' point was just to use her as bait so i could get alpha alone? here's an idea, why don't you get your furry-friend to find her?"
"you sure took your sweet-ass time, though, didn't you?" daryl accused.
"since you took your time leading us here, the scent will be faint. he can't track that far back especially with a bad foot. you wasted that opportunity." she told him, crossing her arms.
at that point he looked defeated, "what is with you guys thinking i didn't do it fast enough? you didn't kill her. i did. it took a minute. i had to get her to trust me because i wasn't on some half-cocked suicide mission!"
"no, it's because you liked it." daryl glowered, thunder beginning to rumble in the distance.
rhaegar let out a warning bark, followed by snarls as rosaline pulled him back by his chain collar. guns cocked beside them and rosaline threw her gaze to negan as her stomach dropped, "what do these pricks want?"
daryl couldn't look any more furious as he gestured to rosaline to empty her belt buckle from her weapons. the woman let out a sound of annoyance, dropping everything she had in her holster while keeping a tight hold on rhaegar.
"alpha's dead." one of them announced, staring negan down, "because of you. we kneel- to the new alpha."
suddenly, all the whisperers present dropped to their knees by negan. he probably enjoyed this. despite the confirmation they received rosaline couldn't help but be infuriated in some way. this was exactly what people did to him when he was the same asshole a decade ago. negan broke out in laughter as daryl dropped his hands, picking his things back up with a bitter look.
he commanded that the whisperers tied daryl up instead while keeping rosaline and rhaegar at gunpoint since there wasn't enough rope to go around.
"sorry man," he chuckled sinisterly, "i'm just savoring the moment. taking my sweet-ass time. alright, fellas, first order of business. wait, wait, wait , wait one damn minute. i'm supposed to be the alpha right? the only reason i'm asking is, i'm a little bit confused."
rosaline let out a scoff, "you kill the alpha. you become the alpha. battle for dominance."
negan shot her a grin, "right. so, riddle me this. why is there someone who is most definitely not the alpha, holding the badass shotgun?"
without a moment's hesitation, the whisperer holding the gun handed it over to negan who practically reveled in his power over them now, "see, that is what i'm talkin' about! that feels good. right? i mean, i never had a kid of my own but if i did, i would imagine this is what it's like holding your baby for the very first time, except for it turns out, my baby can kill people by spitting bullets at 'em." he exclaimed, looking to rosaline, "no offense, angel."
"eat shit." she seethed, feeling her hair beginning to get wet now as the rain rolled down harder upon them.
negan raised his brows in a patronizing manner, "let's play nice. now, daryl- kneel to the alpha."
one of the whispers tried to force him down to his knees but was failing pretty miserably at the act. daryl shrugged them off and kneeled, glowering at the man.
"damn. it's starting to get real now, ain't it?" he grinned, "now, angel i don't want you to feel left out so you can join him."
rosaline shot him a death stare before complying with the command, whistling rhaegar over to her, "happy, asshole?"
"of course! it's almost like we can take a family photo, except we are missing one important addition." negan taunted, running his tongue over his lips condescendingly, "daryl, you were right when you said that i liked it. the fact is... i like it a lot."
when negan aimed the shotgun at daryl, rosaline felt like standing up and beating the shit out of him but due to the situation, she had to have a bit of self-restraint. he could easily just shoot daryl.
"you should probably shoot me."
"don't threaten me with a good time." he responded, snapping the shotgun to the direction on his left, blowing one of the whisperer's heads off. daryl immediately, spun around, knocking one of the others out of balance as rhaegar bit into the flesh on the man's leg.
rosaline grasped another whisperer, shoving him away from daryl straight into negan's direction as he grabbed onto daryl's hunting knife, sinking the blade into his head.
reluctantly, daryl raised his hands to him, "untie me asshole."
negan let out a chuckle, his head dropping.
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daylight had come around, daryl letting rosaline rest between his legs, trailing his fingers up and down her arms comfortingly as they all sat in silence. negan eventually passed them a flask of water, the marksman accepting it and first offering it to rosaline.
"not to spin a broken record, but i don't think she's comin' back." negan spoke up, causing rosaline to look up to daryl as he sighed. she took his hand, intertwining it with her own and giving it a squeeze, "you know, i'm... i'm not bullshitting you."
"i know." the marksman murmured, staring down at rosaline, wiping a few blood streaks off from her cheek leftover from their previous encounter.
"when i said i liked it... that wasn't part of the act."
daryl suppressed a scoff, shrugging his shoulders, "yeah. i know."
"you know when your people locked me up, i lost everything. you know... seven years spent staring out that little window... man, it sucked. it got so bad that even my memories had bars painted on 'em. so when alpha took me in... i admit it, i liked it. it was... it was nice feeling like i mattered again. like i was respected." negan explained, "but she took it too far. you don't kill people that don't deserve it and you never kill kids."
daryl threw him a look, "is that supposed to make me like you?"
"no."
"good.
"but what about my winning personality?"
the dixon let out another sigh before pressing his lips to rosaline's hair, tapping her arm to signal for her to get up. she gave him a hand and he guided her along, rhaegar stalking after them with a small skip in his step.
"what about carol?" negan pressed further, starting to follow them.
rosaline let out a breath, shaking her head as they made their way home. hopefully, carol will decide to come back.
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the pair had eventually received the news that carol had returned to alexandria. although, daryl hadn't given her a warm welcome, simply opening the gate and letting her pass him until he returned to rosaline who was holding onto a sleeping visenya. rhaegar's leg was slowly in the process of healing as he had fresh bandaids wrapped around his bad paw.
eventually, news had reached the alexandrians that a horde could potentially be making their way there and they were forced to take refuge in an abandoned hospital dubbed as the tower. they had been there for a few days already and rosaline had managed to find a few volunteers to take care of visenya while daryl and her went out to scout. this time he had agreed for the pair to go together, instead of requesting for her to stay back at the tower.
of course, things were tough for the survivors. they were only managing with what little they had and to them, it was important that they brought back some game as well if they spotted any - however, with the activity around the area that was proving extremely hard.
the pair wandered through the woods that bordered alexandria, rosaline stopping daryl upon hearing the familiar sounds of hungry groans. it was no surprise that the horde had reached alexandria.
she exchanged a worried glance with daryl, "they're near."
"alright." daryl dipped his head placing a hand on the small of her back, fishing out the radio in his pocket. michonne had not yet returned and they were both praying that she was within the vicinity to hear their warning. she'd no idea what was going to be happening to their home.
that was a consequence of negan killing the alpha.
"don't go home." he began, "they'll only find us if you answer me. we got a plan to end this. one i think you'd like. man, being on the run like this, barely scraping by... reminds me of the old gang. seems like ages now. michonne? can you hear me? michonne?"
rosaline let her head rest on his shoulder as daryl stood still, "michonne has always been a survivor. even if she didn't hear you, she'd know better with all that noise."
soon she felt his head press against her's, "i know."
rosa pressed her lips to his cheek, "come on let's check around some more. we might spot something, if not we can get back to vis. she's starting to move around a bit on her own, it'd be good to spend some time with her together."
daryl let out a small grunt of approval, following after her as they scouted more of the area. there was nothing much out of the ordinary, except kicked up ground by potential walkers stumbling throughout the forest.
a snarl that was louder than the others had attracted their attention, daryl creeping towards it until the sound of a sword unsheathing caused the couple to raise their brows and trail after it.
within a few meters, rosaline could already spot the familiar sheriffs hat, shaking her head as she figured judith had taken it upon herself to take a trip outside the tower. it was clear the girl didn't like being there - it didn't remind her of the home she was used to. at all.
"judith." daryl voiced out to her, moving closer as he could see she'd taken down a walker, "what're you doing?"
"i'm fine." she insisted.
rosaline sighed, coming closer to her, "you know you're not meant to be out here on your own. we know you can handle yourself-" she immediately reminded, "but what if you get caught up in a group of walkers?"
daryl frowned, "you not with anyone?"
"just me." the little girl replied, knowing already where this conversation was leading to.
instantly the marksman shook his head, "come on, we're going back. let's go."
judith's expression dropped in disappointment, "please, i wanna stay with you and rosaline."
"no."
"i left father gabriel a note. i swear, it's fine." she pleaded, turning to her older sister, "please?"
daryl gave rosaline a look that immediately shut down any chance of negotiation, "no. that wasn't a question. let's go, your sister asked you to be one of the people to take care of visenya."
still, judith refused, "no. i hate it up there. smells like cat pee. i wanna learn what the both of you do, how to keep us safe. in case something happens."
a small sigh had escaped rosaline as daryl looked to her for support, "she's better off with us right now. give her a few minutes at least."
the dixon blinked, letting out a breath before coming closer to judith, "we walk the perimeter and look for anything that looks wrong. if we find something, we go somewhere safe and radio it in. there's no room for mistakes, not right now."
she nodded slowly, "i know."
"alright. if you do this with us, you're going to listen to everything your sister and i say. you stay right next to us, okay?" he proposed.
"promise."
"alright come on."
with that, rosaline smiled, jerking her head over to judith to walk beside them as she felt daryl wrap an arm around her shoulder to bring her closer to his body, squeezing it gently. he knew judith wasn't stupid, and so did rosaline.
if she wanted to learn, it was best to do it with people she trusted with her life.
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here's the second chapter promised for you all, i hope you enjoy. i'm trying to include more softer moments with daryl as they are far along in their relationship and it is pointless to keep them distant. they're married. anyway, i'm excited now that i've gotten back into writing this.
some people may wonder what i am going to do with one of the episodes that brings up where daryl had actually found dog and because of who. i believe the smartest idea is to either replace it or get rid of it within the plot. i'm going to have to see.
don't forget to comment and vote!
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