Natalie's POV
Jim's dead... another person of our group gone. And again, I couldn't do anything about it.
What was the point of all those years of training when I can't even keep people from dying.
Am I too distracted my Daryl? Nah.. I've had far more worse distractions, but him. He is different.
I am broken out of my thoughts by a bright white light shining from the open door of the CDC.
"Please. Give us a chance!" Rick begs. I look up to the man who is standing with s gun, a safe distance from us. He thinks for a moment.
"You have to submit a blood test. That's the price of admission." The man says. Lydia, Chris and I all exchange glances. Once we come into the light he drops his gun from aiming when he sees us.
"Hello Dr. Jenner." I say stepping forward and everyone looks at us shocked.
"Natalia Patrova. Lydia Romanoff. Christof Ives." He says in a low voice. "I knew you of all people would make it." He says with a small smile. Lydia runs up and hugs him.
Her and her hugging, she's always been that way. Then again it is nice to see a friendly face.
We've seen him many times at the facility.
"This is Dr. Edwin Jenner." I say adjusting my bag on my shoulder. Daryl eyes me, still unsure.
"How you know him?" Rick speaks up and I tense up, but relax quickly coming up with an excuse.
"In our line of work, we've crossed paths a lot..." I tell them. I notice Daryl still looking at me, unease about this. I nod to him letting him know it's okay. I see his tensed up muscles relax slightly and he nods back.
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"There are limited rooms so some of you will have to double up." He says and I walk next to Chris and Lydia. "And if you choose to take showers, go easy on the hot water." He says. Glenn and T-dog smile.
"You want to room with Daryl? or me and Chris?" Lydia asks as I see Daryl walk into a room.
"I'll room with him. I need to keep an eye on him and what better way to do it than be his roomie." I joke making her laugh. I set my stuff down in the room as we both head out to get our blood drawn.
Dr. Jenner finishes up with us.
"We haven't eaten in days." Jacquie says, helping Andrea stand up. He looks around at us then stands up.
"Come with me."
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After dinner, I help very drunk Daryl back to the room as he stumbles, leaning on me for support. Once we get back I lay him down on the couch.
"Easy does it." I say helping him down. He looks at me for a long moment and actually smiles. A drunken smile, but none the less, a smile.
"Ya know. Nobody ain't ever took care of me like ya do Natalie. Ye a special girl." He slurs, looping his finger around a piece of my hair and tucking it behind my ear. "Ye one of the good ones. Thank ya, for everythin." He adds, the smile still on his face. I nod to him.
"Shh, you're drunk Daryl. I'm going to take a shower, if you need anything let me know." I tell him as I grab a clean pair of clothes and walk to the bathroom. I turn the shower on and feel the wonderful hot water wash off all the dirt, blood and sweat off me. I smile at the wonderful feeling and scrub my hair at least 3 times, and wash down my body.
Thankful that Lydia always picks up good hygiene stuff, like razors, deodorant, and dry shampoo. Dry shampoo is good to have but that shit only helps for so long.
I finish up in the shower and turn the water off, wrapping the towel around me. I step out only to be met with Daryl leaning against the door frame. I roll my eyes.
"What do you need?" I ask tucking my towel tightly around me.
"Just needa take a shower, was waitin on ya." He says as I brush my teeth, before I could finish, he starts to undress making my eyes go wide. I grab my clothes and leave, closing the door behind me.
Jesus, that man is something else.
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***the next day***
I should have known it was a bad idea to come here. I knew he was hiding something. Now, this place is gonna blow up. And we got to get the hell out of here.
Chris and I rush around, grabbing bags out of rooms. I grab Daryls cross bow and sling it over my shoulder.
"You have everything?" He asks , our arms full of bags. I nod as we run down the stairs.
"Natalie watch out!" Chris yells as I slip on a puddle of alcohol, that somehow got on the floor. I fall on the ground and groan as I feel a sharp pain surge up my ankle.
Great. The all skilled Natalia gets hurt by slipping in a puddle.
Chris helps me to my feet as he takes some on the bags from me.
"Can you walk?" He asks and I nod, as a slowly limp to the main area, only for the doors to be slammed in our face.
"NO!" I yell as I slam my fists on the door. "Hey! Open the door!" I scream.
Lydia's POV
He puts in a code and the doors slam shut... with Natalie and Chris on the other side.
"Hey! Open the door!" Natalie yells as there is a slam on the other side. Daryl rushes up to the door and slams on it.
"Nati!" He yells, and I almost hear some sort of emotion in his voice... He leans his head and hands against the door. But that calm moment soon turns into anger. He runs towards Jenner, almost taking him out with the bottle of whiskey in his hand. Shane, and T-dog try and hold him back, the bottle of liquor crashing to the floor.
"Jenner tell them dammit!" I scream, knowing what's going to happen. Daryl looks at me.
"You know??" He says and I nod, giving Dr. Jenner one last chance. He looks away and I look to the group.
"When that clock hits zero. HIT's will deploy. That means this whole place goes 'boom'." I say as everything goes quiet except for the blaring alarm. Carol holds Sofia, and Lori holds Carl as they cry.
Flashback
"I don't understand why we have to go here. What's the point? We don't have anything to do with the CDC." Natalie grunts and I roll my eyes.
"Because they want us to get more socialized with these places. What if shit really does hit the fan? We need to have this place as allies." Chris says and she scoffs.
"Like that'll ever happen." She says back making my shake my head as we pull to a stop in front of the towering building.
"Even if it doesn't, we out of all people will be prepared. This is the ideal place to go to." I say as we all get out. Natalia slams the door shut.
"And how is that? I bet you with all the shit in this place if something DID happen. Who knows maybe the building will blow itself up." She jokes making me laugh.
"Whatever." I say as we enter the doors.
"Welcome to the CDC. We are honored to have you tour our facility." A lady in a white lab coat welcomes us as we walk through the huge place. Many people in lab coats buzz around. "I'm sure you know my husband, Dr. Edwin Jenner. I️ am Dr. Candice Jenner. It is a pleasure to meet you all." She says with a smile as she shakes all of our hands. I smile and wave at Dr. Jenner. He was so kind, I saw him all the time at our facility. I guess I've seen him as a father figure. I never knew mine...
I snap out of my thoughts by him putting in a code, Natalie staring at him putting in the numbers.
End of Flashback.
That's it!
I look over to Daryl who is hitting the door with an axe.
"Don't worry Natalie!" He yells as he swings the axe back. I grab it before it could hit the door making him look back to me.
"Daryl, listen. You need to stay calm. Anger isn't going to help this situation. Let me talk to Lydia." She yells over and he takes a step back.
"Natalia! Remember that time we toured this place? You saw the code he put in!" I yell so she can hear me.
"The code is 9998. Do whatever you have to do. Daryl I need you to restrain him until she can get the code in. Do what you want when it's over." She growls to us, anger lacing her voice and Daryl nods like she can see him. We run over, Rick blocking the way while he tries and talks to him.
"Move Rick I know the code." I tell him as he moves. Daryl pushes Dr. Jenner's chair away, standing in the way, while I put the code in the doors opening. I look into the doctors eyes.
"You betrayed me. Us. How could you." I ask my eyes flooding with tears. I feel a hand on my shoulder to see its Chris who leads me out just as there is a huge 'boom'. We get outside with everyone else as they hop out a broke window.
"Wait! Jacquie, Andrea, Dale! They are still in there." Natalie says running back. Daryl behind her.
"Nati wait! Thats their choice." I say to her and she shakes her head.
"I'm at least going to try."
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Natalie's POV
"Nati we have to go!" Daryl yells to me, and he grabs my hand making me look to him. His eyes hold worry. His hand grips mine tightly, like he is afraid to let go.
The rude, obnoxious Daryl I first met, he changed. In this moment he was vulnerable, scared to loose someone else.. scared to loose me.
I look to Dale who nods for me to go. I knew this is what Jacque wanted... and I couldn't stop that. I nod to Daryl as he leads me out. I grunt as my ankle gives out. He holds me up and swoops me up bridal style with ease.
"What are you doing?" I ask, never used to human contact. I've never had it.
"Relax, you can't walk on that ankle. I'll have to take a look at it later." He says as we head to the truck.
"GET DOWN!" Chris yells out the window. In an instant i️ feel my body hit he ground as Daryl shields me with his body. His strong arms come around my head, like he is protecting me. I feel a surge of heat as a huge blast goes up, shaking the ground.
"You a'lright?" He asks and I️ nod as he picks me up and carrying me to his truck and putting me in.
I feel this weird feeling, not used to someone protecting me. That's supposed to be my job.
Once he gets in he grunts, and I see the back of his shoulder is bleeding.
"Let me see that." I say making him lean forward and see that there is a shard of glass sticking out of his shoulder. He grunts in pain once more. "I'll take care of it once we get somewhere safe." I tell him and he nods as we follow the caravan of cars.
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I finish stitching Daryl up and put a bandage over it once I'm done. He nods in thanks and walks over to Rick.
We ditch some of the vehicles, including our Military vehicle being as bio fuel, or/aka vegetable oil, is hard to find nowadays.
"You coming?" I hear Daryl say behind me, as he stands by the motorcycle. I look to Lydia who nods with a small smile. I turn around to be met with his chest, my breath gets caught in my throat at his sudden closeness. "Let's go sunshine." He says grabbing my hand and leading me over to the motorcycle. I look at it unsure.
"Is this safe?" I️ ask sitting behind him.
"Is anything in this world?" He asks making me shrug.
"Touché." I say as I put my hands on my knees awkwardly. He chuckles making me look at him. "What?" I ask and he takes both my hands, making me wrap my arms around his waist. I freeze up at his actions
"To be 'safe'." He says to me with s smirk. "Hold on tight princess." He adds making a blush creep to my cheeks. Daryl revs up the engine making the motorcycle vibrate against us. My hands grip onto the front of Daryl's shirt making the material bunch up under my fingers. We pull off in the lead with everyone else behind.
To Fort Benning.
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Hope you liked this longer chapter!
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-Katdixon6