CHAPTER NINTETEEN
[ taken ]
(trigger warning - sexual assault)
Rick completely disappears. Goes down to the tombs and only comes back once, to check on Carl. And then he's gone again. Glenn and Maggie decide to go on a run to look for more formula, and they invite Misty along. Though she isn't thrilled about the idea of third-wheeling with Glenn and his girlfriend, she says yes. She will do anything to get up and do something. Anything to forget.
On their way out, and on his way to look for any stray walkers deeper inside the prison, Daryl stops her. "Hey."
"Yeah?" His fingers brush her arm to stop her.
"You goin' out there?"
She nods. "Yeah. Me, Glenn, and Maggie."
"Runnin' away?"
"No," she denies, then sighs, and says, "maybe. But I just need a distraction."
"You still here?"
"I'm still here," she confirms. And she is. She has done her best to, despite the deep sadness in her heart, stay present. To not fade away. Because it is not often that Daryl Dixon makes such a request, and she intends to keep her promise.
"Stay safe." A gentle pat on her shoulder and he's gone, followed by Carl and Oscar.
She takes her gun, but leaves her bow behind, deciding she probably won't need it, and meets Glenn and Maggie by the car, who both ask how she's doing. Terribly, she wants to answer. "Fine," is what she tells her two worried friends. But Glenn is doing just as bad as she is. The bags under his eyes give him away.
They get into the car, Glenn driving and Maggie beside him. Misty sits in the back, watching the trees go by as they drive down the road. Soon, the car pulls up in front of the store, and the three of them step out into the hot sun. Glenn goes first, and begins rifling through the place.
Maggie notices something inside and smiles, before telling him, "Glenn, get that duck." Misty looks closer and indeed, there is a little plastic yellow duck inside.
"What?" He answers, laughing a little.
"Get that duck."
"Really?"
"Yeah. A kid growing up in a prison could use some toys." Maggie looks over at Misty. "Don't you think, Misty?"
"Definitely," she agrees, nodding her head. He does grab the duck, and then Misty and Maggie go in to help him. They collect everything they can find, including plenty of formula. "Well, we just hit the powdered formula jackpot."
"I also got beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards," Glenn adds. "It's a straight shot back to the prison from here. Probably make it in time for dinner."
"I like the quiet," Maggie says. "Back there, back home, you can always hear them outside the fence no matter where you are."
"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" A new voice asks, and it makes Misty's heart still. It is a voice she knows and could not forget if she tried. Sharp, grating, obnoxious. Merle.
They turn around, guns pulled out and raised. "Merle?" Glenn says, the surprise coming through in his voice. And there he is, Daryl's brother, bloodied and with both arms raised. One, with a gun held up high, and the other with a big metal thing on it, with a big sharp knife poking out at the end.
"Wow," he says, amazed at who he sees.
"Hey, back the hell up!" Maggie barks.
"Okay, okay, honey."
"You made it," Glenn says, surprised but wary.
"Can you tell me, is my brother alive?"
"Yeah."
"Hey, you take me to him and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings." They say nothing. They didn't trust him when he was part of their group, they certainly don't trust him now that they don't know who he's with. He notices them looking at his new knife-hand, and grins that unsettling grin at them. "You like that? Yeah. Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Well, pretty cool, huh?"
"We'll tell Daryl you're here, and he'll come to meet you," Misty tells him, a fierce protectiveness rising in her.
"Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. You can trust me." But they can't. They can't take any chances. He starts inching closer, and they hold out their hands, tell him to stop, but he only does after he has closed the gap a considerable amount.
"You trust us," Glenn says. "You stay here."
He smiles again. That arrogant, unsettling smile. He throws the cloth on his arm at Misty and Glenn, and dives for Maggie. They're blinded, only briefly, but it's enough. By the time they round the car to go after him, he's on the ground with Maggie, a gun to her head.
"Hey, hey, hold up. Hold up," Merle says, and she is enraged. Once a piece of shit, always a piece of shit.
"Let go of her," Glenn demands. "Let go of her!"
He tells them to put their guns in the car and, reluctantly, they do. Then they put up their hands, watching him carefully, hatred in her eyes. "There you go. Now we're gonna go for a little drive."
"We're not going back to our camp." No, Misty agrees. Never. She will die before she lets that happen.
"No, we're going somewhere else."
Daryl sits on the floor outside the door with the walker inside, relishing in the quiet. Carl and Oscar went back at least twenty minutes ago. He'd told them to go on without him, had given some bullshit excuse about double checking something. Truthfully, he just needs a minute alone. The cellblock is so cramped, so constricting, that half the time he feels like he can't breathe.
He just needs a few minutes, a moment to take a breath, before he kills this walker and heads back.
This walker, who keeps pushing, though weakly, on the door. Almost with enough strength to get out, but not quite. He watches the door open a crack, then close. Open, then close. Open, close.
He digs his knife into the floor, just for something else to do, and thinks he should've just gone back, because this walker is irritating and the silence is deafening and shit, they should have been back by now. They should've been back by now. He knows exactly where they went, and how big the place is, and the approximate time it would take to get there and it's been too long. It's been too long, and he can't stop thinking the worst.
Open, close. Open, close. Open, close.
His worry turns suddenly to anger and he stands, grabs the body blocking the door and throws it. He takes his knife and jerks the door open, ready to stab the walker, but hesitates. He looks down at the walker that isn't actually a walker at all. It's a person, a girl that is alive, if just barely. Addie.
"Shit," he mutters, and all he can think of is I wish she was here. She should be here.
"Daryl?" Addie says, her voice weak and quiet. Her eyes open, but just barely. Just enough to see him. She then wheezes out what he thinks must be an attempt at a laugh. "We have. . . got to. . . stop. . . meeting this way."
He lets out a short chuckle. "C'mon, kid. Let's get ya back." He reaches down and slides one arm under her knees, and another around her lower back. He then picks her up, and carries her back to cellblock C.
She doesn't know where she is. They'd had bags over their heads for most of the way inside the walls of Merle's community. All she knows is that she is in a room with blank steel-panelled walls, sitting at a table, and her arms are duct-taped to the chair she is sitting in. The walls are thin, so thin, and all she can hear is the sound of Merle's fist hitting Glenn's face, coupled with Merle's taunting remarks.
She listens to her friend being beaten senseless and squeezes her eyes shut, as if that will make it go away.
After a while it stops, only to be replaced by crashing, a tortured scream, then silence. Then it is Maggie she hears. Whimpering, crying. Misty practically growls.
It isn't long after that the door to her room opens, and a man walks in. Tall, brown hair, light skin. The picture of a perfect man. But there is something off about him. Something so inherently wrong in him that she feels it in her bones. She steels herself, watches him with careful, observing eyes as he sits down across from her.
"You're the leader," she says. It is not a question.
"I am."
"I won't tell you anything." She stares him down, hoping to convey the strength in her mind rather than the fear in her heart. "I wouldn't waste your time." Beat me bloody. Torture me. Kill me. I will never tell you anything.
"I think you might change your tune."
"Is that right?" She raises a brow, daring to be arrogant.
"That's right." He nods once, and she knows her arrogance could never match his.
"And how do you figure that?"
"I see your strength, Miss Vargas." He knows my name. Merle must have told him. She didn't know Merle even knew her last name. "I have no doubt that you could endure torture, that you would die for this. But would you be so strong if I brought Glenn's hand in here? Or the girl's?"
"Do that, and I'll kill you." Her words ring true. She would kill him in a second, and she would not regret it.
He has the audacity to smile. "Just tell me where they are, and we can avoid this whole mess."
"Fuck you."
He gets up then, and walks around to her, pulling out a large knife. She does not flinch. But he doesn't cut her. No, instead he cuts the duct tape, and her hands are free. A mistake, surely. She doesn't miss the opportunity.
She springs up from the chair and throws her elbow into his ribs. He stumbles, gasps for air, and she goes for the knife in his hand. But he recovers quicker than she had expected, and lunges for her. He grabs her from around the back and presses the knife to her throat. "Nice try," he laughs in her ear. It makes her want to vomit.
He takes away the knife and shoves her forward. She stumbles forward and her thighs hit the table. "Fine," he says then, a smile on his face. "Let's try something different, then. Take off your clothes."
"Fuck. You," she spits, disgusted. So this is the kind of man you are.
"Do it, or I will take pieces off of your friends one by one until you do." And he'll do it, she can tell.
She starts to tremble, though she tries to hide it, as she does what he tells her. She takes off her shirt and slips off her pants, and sets them on the table. He comes up behind her then, and she feels his hands on her. On her hips, her back, and she feels so fucking disgusted.
And then he unclips her bra, forces it from her body, tosses it to the ground, and then his hands are there, and now she wishes he had just tortured her. "Just tell me where your camp is," he croons in her ear.
"I will never tell you anything, you repulsive, disgusting fuck." He keeps going, keeps touching her everywhere, and it's like she can feel the handprints on her skin, tainting her, and she wishes she could climb out of the cage of her skin. Wishes he had beaten her senseless like Glenn. Wishes he'd just killed her.
He touches her, gropes her, until he is bored of it. Until she is shaking, but still not crying— she refuses to cry for him— and he knows she won't tell him anything. She sees the anger on his face, sees the moment that he snaps. He grabs her, turns her around, and slams her face first onto the table. She lies there, shaking, and hears the clink of his belt.
No. No, no, no, no. Just kill me. Just kill me. Just kill me.
He grabs her again. She closes her eyes.
There is a knock at the door. "Hey, boss, we gotta talk to you," a voice calls from outside. The Governor heaves a frustrated sigh, and lets her go. He is still angry, though, and on his way out takes all of her clothes with him.
The door closes, and she falls to her knees, crying.
They come back a while later, and she folds her arms tight over her bare chest. It's Merle that grabs her and hauls her up, but not before tossing her bra at her. Her bra, but nothing else. Once she puts it on he grabs her again, and starts taking her out of the room, dressed only in her undergarments. She growls at him. "You fucking bastard." She wrestles in his grip, but can't get out of it. Still she tries, and for her effort gets a backhand across the face with his metal hand. Her head spins, and she knows there is blood. From her nose, her mouth, she doesn't know.
He doesn't talk to her, even as she sputters from the force of the blow. Doesn't convey any emotion. He just drags her down the hall to a room two doors down, opens the door, and shoves her inside. Glenn and Maggie are inside, and Glenn is shirtless. His shirt is on Maggie. Oh, god, she thinks. That fucker did it to her, too.
Glenn jumps up and grabs her in his arms, hugging her tightly to him. She breaks again as soon as his arms wrap around her. Tears stream freely down her cheeks and he holds her tight, so tight, and she hopes that when she opens her eyes she'll wake up, and this will all have been an awful dream.
It isn't. She opens her eyes and they rest on Maggie sitting against the wall, completely terrified. "Did he," Glenn starts to ask, choking on his words and his own blood, "did he. . ."
"No," she tells him, shaking her head against his shoulder. "No, he just. . . he just touched me."
"That fucker," he swears, pulling away from her in anger. "That fucking asshole."
She has never seen him so angry before. But she doesn't have the strength to respond to it, to deal with the intensity. Instead she goes over and sits next to Maggie, pulling her knees up to her chest. "How're you holding up?" She asks the younger woman.
"I'm not."
"Yeah," she says. "Me neither." She takes a long breath, but knows she has to ask. "What. . . what did he do to you?"
"He made me take off my shirt. Pushed me down onto the table. He didn't touch me. Just trying to scare me into telling him something, I think." Maggie lets out a shaky breath. "But you, god, Misty, are you okay?"
"No." The stone cold truth. She isn't okay, and she won't be for a long time. She can't stop feeling his hands, his disgusting fucking hands all over her and it makes her sick. I wish he'd just killed me. But she doesn't tell her friend, who is already worried, that. Instead she stays quiet, and watches Glenn drag over a body. A walker. They tried to kill him with a walker. That was what all the crashing was— him running away and killing it.
Misty leans over to her left, and vomits on the concrete floor. She wipes her mouth off right as Glenn starts snapping the limbs of the walker, and she thinks she might be sick again, but pushes it down. He hands them both a piece of sharp bone, and keeps one for himself.
They wait on either side of the door, and when they come back, they attack. Glenn goes after Merle, and Misty and Maggie each take their own guy. Misty drives her shard of bone into his eye, then yanks it out and stabs it into his throat. He falls to the ground. She spins around and sees Maggie holding a gun at Merle, who has his knife at Glenn's throat. "Let him go!" Maggie screams. "Let him go!"
But Merle smiles, and before they know it more guys with guns are coming in, and the gun is being wrestled out of Maggie's hands. They're then lead into another room and forced to their knees. Misty knows then that they're going to be executed. Some small, dark part of her is happy for it.
She and Maggie are on either side of Glenn, and he grabs both of their hands. "I love you," he tells them. "I love you both so much."
"I love you, Glenn," Maggie replies. "And Misty, I love you."
"I love you," Misty echoes, squeezing Glenn's hand. "You're the reason I'm alive, Glenn. I want you to know that. I need you to. I love you."
Then the bags are pulled over their heads, and Misty closes her eyes. Waits for the shot. She doesn't believe in God or heaven, but she allows herself to hope that somewhere on the other side of this world there is an afterlife, and Addie is waiting for her there.
But the shot never comes. Instead there is a small explosion that knocks them off their knees. The bags fall off of their heads and they see the room is filled with smoke. She can't see anything, and she tries to struggle to her feet but can't.
The first thing she sees is wings on a leather vest, and she remembers that though she doesn't believe in God, she does believe in guardian angels. And he's here. He's here, and he's hauling her to her feet and pulling her out of the room.
They run down the street of this town— a town, it's a whole goddamn town— that is in complete chaos, and duck into the nearest building. Glenn completely collapses once inside and the others are having a conversation but she can't take her eyes off of him. And he is looking at her, too, finally seeing her dressed in only her underwear and he growls deep in his throat. "What happened," he asks, murder in his eyes.
"He was trying to get information, he just," she pauses, swallowing her disgust. "He didn't do what you're thinking he did. He just. . . wanted to humiliate me."
"That son of a bitch." He's trying not to yell but he isn't doing it very successfully. She sees it on his face that he's losing it, giving himself fully into the need to murder the man that did this, and she knows she has to bring him back.
"Daryl," she says his name, and it catches his attention. "Daryl. Not now. We have to focus on getting out of here."
He nods, and the raging fire in him dies down to a manageable smoulder. He then sets his crossbow down, just for a moment, and takes off his vest. Then he steps in behind her and puts it around her shoulders and she starts to protest, "you don't have t—"
"Take it." No room for argument. So she slips her arms through and lets the leather fall over her chest, covering at least some of her.
"Daryl," Rick says then, getting their attention. He has paused their conversation just to tell the other man, "tell her."
Daryl's head whips back around to look at her, and his eyes are warm, now. "Addie's okay."
Her heart has ceased beating entirely, she's sure of it. "What?"
"She's okay. I found 'er while we were lookin' for stray walkers, tucked in a closet, dehydrated, exhausted. But she's okay."
The air rushes back into her lungs and she can breathe again, she can breathe again for the first time since that god-awful day and she almost cries. No, she does cry. Just a few stray, happy tears.
Until Glenn speaks up, telling Daryl, "Daryl. It was Merle."
"It's true," she confirms. "He's the one that took us. He threw a walker at Glenn, beat the shit out of him. Tried to kill him. Gave me this." She gestures to the blood on her face from where he'd hit her.
"You sayin' my brother's this Governor?" Daryl asks.
"No. But he's his right hand man."
"Does he know I'm still with you?"
"He does." She nods. "Before he grabbed us, we told him we'd bring you out to meet him. He didn't like that."
"Rick, I'm sorry," Glenn says. "We told him where the prison is. We couldn't hold out."
"Nothing to apologize for," Rick replies, patting Glenn's knee before returning to the window to check the street.
"They're gonna be looking for us," Maggie points out.
"We have to get back. Can you walk?" He asks Glenn, who nods, and Rick starts helping him to his feet. "We got a car a few miles out."
"Hey, if Merle's around, I need to see him," Daryl says.
"Not now, we're in hostile territory."
"He's my brother, he ain't—"
"Look what he did," Rick says, pointing at Glenn, at Misty. "Look, we gotta— we gotta get out of here now."
"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out—" his voice is desperate, strained.
"You're not thinking straight—"
"Daryl, please," Misty interrupts. He meets her eyes. "Don't leave us. Please, we need you." I do.
She and Rick wait for his response, and sigh in relief when he nods and tells her, "'M with ya."
Rick hands her a gun, and they slip out of the building and run out onto the street. They are immediately shot at, and return fire quickly. Misty shoots a few men, kills two for sure. They keep moving into the street, dodging dozens upon dozens of bullets. Finally they find a bit of cover by a building and huddle near the doorway.
"How many?" Daryl asks.
"I didn't see," Rick answers.
"Doesn't matter, there's gonna be more of 'em. We need to move."
"Any grenades left?" Daryl nods. "Get ''em ready. We gotta gun it to the wall." They quickly reload, and Daryl hands out more guns. They take them and reload the ones they already have.
"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna lay down some cover fire," Daryl tells them.
"We have to stay together," Misty replies.
"Too hairy. I'll be right behind you," he promises, looking her in the eyes. "I'll be right behind you."
They leave him. Run out into the street after he throws another grenade and go for the wall. Oscar helps Glenn up and over one of the many vehicles against the wall, but gets shot and falls to the ground, dead. Maggie calls for Rick, who still isn't there, before shooting Oscar in the head and climbing up herself. Misty quickly follows.
They get over the wall and kneel down behind some bushes, waiting for Daryl. There is a rustling behind them, and they all turn, expecting it to be him. Instead, a woman with dreads, a blood covered face, and a sword strapped to her back pops out. Misty doesn't recognize her, but Rick does, and he points a gun at her head, asking, "where the hell were you?" He doesn't give her time to respond. "Put your hands up. Turn around. Turn around." The woman does as he asks, and he takes her sword from her. "Get what you came for?"
"Where are the rest of your people?" She asks, putting her hands down.
"They got Oscar," Glenn answers.
"Daryl isn't here, did you see him?" Misty asks her, and the woman looks her over once before shaking her head.
"If anything happens to him—" Rick begins, but the woman cuts him off.
"I brought you here to save them."
"Thanks for the help." Sarcasm punctuates his words.
"You'll need help, to get them back to the prison, or, to go back in there for Daryl, either way, you need me."
Rick tells her to take Glenn and the woman she doesn't know back to the car. She argues, but she knows he's right. She tells him yes, fine, okay, but— "Bring him back, okay?"
"I will," he says. "I promise."
They wait at the car until morning. There is a green sweater in the car, and she tells Glenn to put it on, but he refuses, telling her to take it. She opts to tie it around her waist.
She studies this woman, this woman that helped them but Rick does not trust. "You brought them to find us," Misty says. It isn't a question, but the woman nods. "Then I owe you my life." She offers the woman her hand to shake. "Mercedes. Everybody calls me Misty."
The woman shakes her hand, firm, but not hard. "Michonne."
"It's good to meet you, Michonne." She nods to the damage done to Michonne's face. "I'll look at that for you, when we get back."
Michonne nods. "Thank you."
"It's the least I could do."
A while later, they hear a voice bark from the woods: "Misty! Glenn!" Both of them perk up, and turn and run into the woods. Rick is there, and Maggie, and—
She can't help it. Can't contain herself, not after the past twenty-four hours, not when she sees him. Daryl. Okay, if only a little beaten up. She runs at him and throws her arms around him, hugging him tight. He hesitates, just for a moment in surprise, and then slowly wraps his arms around her. "I'm so glad you're okay," she says.
Over his shoulder, she sees Merle. Eyeing them, criticizing their every move. She pulls away, and takes a step back.
When Glenn and Michonne see Merle, they lose it. Glenn draws his gun, and Michonne her sword. Rick holds out a hand, trying to stop them. "He tried to kill me! If it wasn't for him—" Glenn starts.
"He helped us get out of there," Daryl says.
"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you," Rick adds. Anger flares inside of her. Merle did that to him.
"Hey, we both took our licks, man," Merle tries to defend, only for Daryl to turn and call him a jackass. "Hey, shut up!"
"Enough!" Rick shouts.
They try to get at him again, and Daryl bats away Glenn's gun. "Hey get that thing out of my face!"
"Man, look like you've gone native, brother," Merle laughs, and there is nothing she'd like more than to punch him in the mouth.
"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there!"
"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby."
Andrea. Andrea, who they'd thought was dead. "Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asks.
"Right next to the Governor," Daryl confirms.
Michonne lunges again, prompting Rick to shout, "I told you to drop that!" He then asks her, "do you know Andrea?"
"Yep, she does," Merle answers for her. "Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it."
"Shut up, bro!" Daryl shouts at his brother.
"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying."
"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks.
"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."
"Shut up!" Rick snaps, but it only makes Merle laugh.
"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them."
"Merle, shut up!" Daryl screams for the thousandth time.
"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll—" he is interrupted by Rick slamming the butt of his gun into his head. Merle falls to the ground, unconscious, and Rick mutters, "asshole."
They gather on the road to discuss what to do. Everybody but Michonne and Merle. The outsiders. Rick starts, as always. "It'll stir things up."
"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now," Daryl tells them. "Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."
"I'm not having him at the prison," Maggie says.
"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Glenn asks.
"He ain't a rapist," Daryl replies.
"Well his buddy is." He doesn't look at Misty and Maggie, but the two women share a brief look.
"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night."
"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats," Rick says.
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?"
"She's not coming back."
That's when Misty knows she has to cut in. "She's injured. In no state to be on her own. And she brought you to us. If she hadn't, we'd be dead. She saved our lives."
"She's too unpredictable."
"That's right," Daryl says, "We don't know who she is. But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle is your blood," Glenn clarifies. "My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison."
"And you're part of that family," Rick adds. "But he's not. He's not."
"Man, y'all don't know." Daryl shakes his head, then nods. "Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
Misty's heart sinks. No. "That's not what I was saying," Glenn tells him.
"No him, no me."
"Daryl, you don't have to do that," Maggie says. But Misty, she can't speak. Can't find the words. They get caught in her throat, unable to make it up past her lips.
Daryl shrugs. "It was always Merle and I before this."
"You serious?" Glenn asks. "You're just gonna leave like that?"
"You'd do the same thing." And he would, and she would, but it's different. This is different. He looks at Maggie, tells her, "say goodbye to your pop for me."
And he starts walking away. Without looking at her. Without saying anything. No, she thinks. No, not this, not today.
She and Rick both start to go after him, but Glenn holds Rick back, shakes his head no. She follows Daryl to the car, where he's rifling through the trunk for his things. As she approaches, he shakes his head. "I gotta go."
"You don't."
"He's my blood. My family."
"Blood does not equal family." She shakes her head and grabs his arm, stops him from what he's doing and forces him to look at her. "He may be your brother, but when has he ever been your family? Your family is right here, and back at the prison, like Glenn said. The people that have protected you, cared for you—"
"I can't just leave him, Misty."
"We will be vulnerable without you. We don't know when or if the Governor will come for us, but if he does, we need you there. I," she pauses, taking a breath before finally admitting, "I need you there. Don't go. Please."
But his mind is already made up, and no amount of pleading will change it. I gotta, 'm sorry." He avoids her eyes, the eyes that are boring into his. The eyes that have always reminded him of the woods. Of the place that has always been home.
"We can work this out, it doesn't have to be this way. We can find a solution, I know we can—"
"You really think Glenn and Maggie wanna work it out? Rick? You think any of 'em wanna work it out?"
She knows the answer. Knows that nobody wants to live in the same space as Merle, and hell, she doesn't either. But there's no other way to make him stay. "It's a big prison, and the cell blocks have locks, we could make it work."
"I don't think so."
Her shoulders slump as a long, tired breath passes her lips. She's got nothing left. No fight. "Please, Daryl. I'm asking you, as a friend, as part of this family we have created together. Stay. Please."
His eyes meet hers, but only for a second. Then they dart away again, and he ducks his head, as if ashamed. "No him, no me," he repeats, shaking his head again. "'S'all I can say. Take care of yourself. Addie. Toughest kid I ever met, that girl."
She feels like she's been stabbed in the chest. Breathing is difficult and growing harder, and she's trying to keep the tears away, refusing to cry again today. Her sorrow quickly turns to anger, and she takes her hand off of his arm, reaches up, and starts taking off his vest. "Nah, keep it," he starts to say, but she shoves the leather into his hands.
"Take it, I don't want it." Her voice is cold, and she has never been cold, not to him. It's the last thing she says before she turns around and walks away, walks to the front of the car, where she doesn't have to see him walk away. Where he can't see the tear that escapes her eye and rolls down her cheek.