The next couple of days are spent preparing for the war. Putting up defenses, killing most of the walkers, hiding some of the vehicles to look like we ran away.
"If they try to drive up to the gate again, maybe some blown tires will stop them." Glenn says as he comes back up to the prison. I hand him a water bottle, along with Daryl and Michonne.
"That's a good idea." Rick says.
"It was Michonne's" Daryl tells him.
"We don't have to win, we just have to make them getting at us more trouble than it's worth." Michonne says. I smile at her.
"Well keep coming up with the good ideas, we can use as many as you got." I say.
"Hey." Daryl calls to Rick.
"Yeah, let's go." He tells him.
"Where are you two off to?" I ask.
"Just gotta take care of something." Rick tells me.
"Need help?"
"Nah, we're good." Daryl replies.
"Be careful then, both of you." I tell them both Rick's and Daryl's hands wave at me.
I continue to help get things ready. I'm loading magazines with Carol when Glenn comes up to me. "Can I borrow you for a little bit?" He asks. I look at Carol, she nods.
"I got the rest of this." She says.
"What's up?" I ask him, as he leads me to the gates.
"I want to marry Maggie, I have Hershel's permission, I want you to help me find a ring." He tells me looking at the walkers. I stare at him and smile a real smile for what seems the first time in a while.
"Okay, let's do this." I say looking at the female walkers.
"Thank you."
"That one has a ring." I tell him. We get the walkers hand and chop the finger off, but it was only a mood ring. We do this for a bit and finally find one with a pretty diamond ring. We chop her finger off and I clean the ring for him.
I'm sitting at the table with Hershel and the others when Rick, Glenn, and Maggie come over.
"When I met with the Governor, he offered me a deal, he said he would leave us alone if I gave him Michonne." Rick said, I look around for her, but she wasn't there, neither was Daryl or Merle.
"Rick? You didn't." I say standing up.
"No, I was going to do that to keep us safe, I changed my mind, but now Merle went to finish the deal and Daryl went to stop him. But I don't know if it's too late."
"Oh, my Goddess." I say turning my back on him and running my hand down my face. The rest of the group was still quite.
"I was wrong not to tell you." Rick continues. I turn back around in anger, scoffing at him. "I'm sorry." He says. "What I said last year, that first night after the farm. It can't be like that, what we do, what we're willing to do, who we are, it's not my call. It can't be. I couldn't sacrifice myself for the greater good, because we are the greater good. We're the reason, we're still here, not me. This is life and death. How you live, how you die, it isn't up to me. I'm not your Governor. We choose to go, we choose to stay. We stick together. We vote. We can stay and fight or we go." He says and walks away. I sigh and sit down. Grabbing my pentacle and praying for Michonne and Daryl to be safe.
Michonne thankfully makes her way back to the prison.
"Are you okay?" I ask her. She nods to me as I close the gate behind her. "And Daryl?" I turn and ask.
"Went for his brother." She answers still walking. I nod and keep watch for him. It's not till almost dark that he comes back. Merle isn't with him. I open the gate for him.
"Where is your brother?" I ask him.
"What do you care? You wished him dead and well....." He cuts off, it's then that I notice the dried tears on his face.
"Daryl....." I say putting my hand on his arm. He yanks away from me in anger.
"You got what you want. Leave me alone." He yells turning and walking from me. I run and grab his arm.
"I never wanted him dead," I say, turning him around. I look in his eyes as he tries to avoid mine. "I didn't like your brother that's true, but I never wanted him dead. I'm sorry for what happened. I really am." I tell him. He nods finally looking me in the eye. I frown at him. "Are you... Nevermind, stupid question."
"I'll be okay." He says. I nod and without thinking I hug him.
"I am sorry for your loss," I tell him, I feel him nod on my shoulder, he pulls away then, never really hugging me back. "Sorry, I forget you don't like to be touched."
"S'okay, I..." Daryl stutters. I tilt my head at him, he shakes his head like he can't make up his mind on what to say. Looking at me, he then kisses me. I freeze, and when I finally realize what's going on, he pulls away. I stare at him as he turns and walks away. I didn't know what to say or do so just silently follow him inside. That night I can't sleep, I can tell even Daryl can't. I lay watching him fidget. I sigh and get up, walking to him. I sit next to him and he looks at me. Without thinking I lay down next to him. He shifts to give me room on the mattress and pulls me into him. I lay there for a little bit, thinking he might soon push me away, but he never does. I turn to face him and he looks down at me, not saying a word, I move my hand to his cheek and lean up to him, lightly kissing him. Asking for permission. He doesn't kiss back right away, but when I'm about to pull away he deepens the kiss. We kiss for a while before I pull away needing to breathe. I lean my head on his chest panting. He pulls me closer and we fall asleep like that.
The next morning I wake up to movement beside me. I open my eyes and see Daryl sitting up packing the rest of his things. I hear footsteps coming upstairs behind me, and then Maggie's giggling. I close my eyes not wanting to deal with it at the moment.
"This looks oddly familiar." She states.
"Hmm." Is Daryl's reply. I hear movement beside me. Maggie then slightly shakes me.
"Esme, time to wake up." I grumble and stretch at that moment, rolling over to face her. I blink my eyes at her smirking face.
"What?" I ask. At that moment Rick comes upstairs and stops when he sees where I am. He raises his eyebrows at me.
"Umm.... Esme, I need you to check to make sure all the vehicles are in place." He tells me, but his eyes are asking a whole different question.
"Ok, will do, let me check my sugar levels, then I will, and to answer both of your unanswered questions, before we get bombarded by them, yes I slept here, no nothing happened, not much anyway." I say getting up and going to my cell. Maggie follows me, and leans against my cell door and staring at me, I can tell she wants more details.
"It's fine by me, just please try not to hurt her, and watch out for her." I hear Rick's voice. I look over at the two as Daryl nods to him. "Of course." I think I hear Daryl say. Rick turns to look at me at that moment and smiles at me. I tilt my head at him. Daryl then walks into my cell, I smile at him.
"What's your level?" He asks. I look down at the reader.
"90. A little low, but I'll grab something to eat." I answer and he nods.
"Going to go help, Rick." He tells me.
"Ok." I say to him. He then goes to leave, stops, turns back around leans down kissing me on the cheek. He awkwardly grumbles a bye to a grinning Maggie, as I blush.
"So?...." Maggie asks when he's out of earshot.
"We just made out, nothing more." I answer.
"But?....."
"I think we are, I don't know, didn't really get a chance to clarify. We fell asleep." I answer putting my shoes on. We make our way to the eating area where Carol has breakfast ready. A small number of powdered eggs.
"So I won the bet." Maggie says to Glenn as he makes his way in. He stops then stares at me.
"Couldn't wait another week or two?" He asks.
"What bet, a week for what?" I ask him confused.
"Maggie and Glenn made a bet on when you and Daryl would wind up together, Carl was also in on it and agreed with Glenn saying that you were too scared to make the first move," Carol explains. "So you and Daryl are together now?"
"I think we are."
"Think?"
"They only made out last night and slept in the same bed, but Daryl did kiss her cheek this morning so my guess is they are." Maggie explains for me as I eat my food.
"Yes let's tell the whole world this before breakfast," I say annoyed. "So what do you get for winning this bet?" I ask her.
"Off walker killing duty at the outer gate when we clear out the field." She answers.
"I'm in on this win as well since I didn't give permission for a bet on me." I laugh.
"Girls...." Glenn shakes his head.
"So why did you think it would be a week or more?" I ask curiously.
"Cause Daryl is stubborn." Was his answer. I nod a bit agreeing and understanding.
"So what about you two?" I look at Glenn with a knowing look. He smiles at me and nods to Maggie. I look at her left hand and notice the ring that I hadn't seen till now. I smile at her.
When I finish my breakfast I make my way out of the prison and check on the cars. All but the green black car are in their places. We pack up the cars and put them in their respective places. I make my way to Daryl who was talking to Carol.
"He gave us a chance." She was saying and helps him up. He nods to her and grabs his bag. She pats me on the shoulder when she passes me, I smile at her. She turns back around at that moment. "You two will be good for each other." She tells us. I smile at her again nodding. Daryl nods as well. She then leaves. I look at him and smile.
"What's up?" He asks.
"Your motorcycle, are we keeping it here or is it going with the other cars?"
"Should be fine here. It's out of sight and out of the way."
"Okay. That's fine. You know I've never ridden on one, they've always slightly intimidated me." I say inspecting his bike.
"Intimidated you?"
"Well, I guess mostly the people on them, not really knowing how to dive them. Always use to see them swerving in and out of traffic dangerously." I explain as I make my way around the bike. "Guess we don't have to worry about that now."
"Guess so, I can take you for a ride at some point." He says looking at the floor.
"I wouldn't mind that." I smile at him as he looks up at me. "Though I don't know how to ride one. Any rules or what not about them?" I ask. He nods.
"I'll teach you later when we get the chance, same with hunting." I nod and smile at him my smile falters then and he must have seen it. "What?" He asks confused.
"Daryl, are we?....." I try to ask partially embarrassed again. He smirks at my blushing.
"Didn't know I had to clarify." He says stepping up to me. I look down at my feet.
"Sorry, I don't...." I try to say, but he puts his hand on my chin and pulls up so that I'm looking at him.
"S'fine, I'm not good at this romantic crap, nor do I really know what I'm doing, if you understand me." I nod knowing what he is trying to tell me. "So to clarify, yes woman we're dating if you want to be." I laugh a bit at how upfront he is, standing on my tip toes I peck him on the lips.
"That means yes, in case I have to clarify." I smile at him. He smirks at me.
"Smart ass." He retorts.
"Get used to it." I tell him, as I'm about to turn around to go into the prison he grabs my hand and pulls me into him, slamming his lips on mine, I gasp and he deepens the kiss. My arms make their way around his neck, and he pushes me against the wall, I can't help but moan for a second.
"Hey Esme, Daryl." I hear Glenn's voice. Daryl pulls away and steps back as the door opens.
"Yes, Glenn?" I ask, trying to not laugh at Daryl as he acts as nothing happened.
"You coming?" He asks. I laugh as Daryl looks up at Glenn. "What?" Glenn asks confused.
"Nothing, yeah we will be there in a sec, just grabbing the last of his things." I say as I grab his quiver of arrows to make it look more convincing. We follow Glenn inside to our destination where we meet with the group and take our respective hiding spots.
We sit for a good five minutes before we hear the trucks approaching. I flinch at the sound of something blowing up and all the gunfire. We all stay quiet in our hiding spots till they come back out of the prison running from the walkers. We then commence the plan. I begin helping to shoot from my spot with Maggie. Chasing them happily out of our prison.
"We did it!" Maggie says happily.
"We did!" Glenn agrees. I get up happily and laugh with them making my way down to regroup. We come to the decision that we can't risk the Governor coming back and that we have to go after them. We make our way back to Hershel and the others in the prison only to learn then that Carl shot one of the Governor's men, but it was not in defense like he says. I shake my head wondering what to do about the angry kid. Daryl, Michonne, Rick and I go to deal with Woodbury. On the way there we find two abounded trucks from the group, we learn from a survivor Karen that the Governor shot up his group and that Andrea had jumped the wall to come to the prison. She never made it, however. We make our way to Woodbury with Karen to help get us in. We find Sasha and Tyreese there helping keep watch. We tell them what happened and find Andrea in the holding place where they kept Glenn and Maggie.
"I tried to stop them." She tells us.
"You're burning up." Michonne tells her from her side helping her sit up. She pulls away from her jacket and sees just how bad the bite is.
"Oh god." I whisper looking away. Tears sprung to my eyes, I may not have gotten along with her and found her stupid, but this was not how things should have gone for her. Daryl pulls me into a hug and I rest my head on his chest.
"Judith, Carl?" I hear Andrea speak, I turn a bit to see her. "The rest of them..."
"Us," Rick says. "The rest of us."
"Are they alive?"
"Yeah, they're alive."
"It's good you found them." She tells Michonne. Michonne nods trying hard not to cry. "No one can make it alone now." She turns to Daryl and me.
"I never could." He answers kissing the top of my head. I smile at him and move to crouch down beside her.
"I'm so sorry for the way I treated you." I tell her. She shakes her head at me.
"Don't be, you had your reasons." I shake my head and she places one hand on mine. I squeeze it. "I just didn't want anyone to die." She tells us. "I can do it myself." She says.
"No." Michonne argues.
"I have to, while I still can. Please?" She turns to Rick again. "I know how the safety works." Rick nods and I squeeze her hand one last time before getting up.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere." Michonne says as Rick hands her his gun and gets up.
"I tried." She says. I nod.
"Yeah, you did." Rick tells her and we leave. We wait in the hall for the dreaded sound, and when it goes off I fall crying, Daryl catches me dropping his gun. I collect myself enough to to get up as Michonne comes out of the room.
After talking for a while it is decided that we bring Woodbury, the rest of them, to the prison. We bring them on a bus back with some belongings, we will scavenge Woodbury as we needed. Over the next couple of months, we make the prison our home. Rick starts up farming with Hershel's help on the crops, he attempts to get Carl to help, with only little success. Carl still wants to go on runs and help with the walkers. I also help a bit with farming but only the herbs. There is now a council that helps run the prison and make decisions. We haven't had any trouble for a while and it was nice. My family, the original group in the prison, is healthy and great.
Daryl and I were still dating and bonding, getting to know each other little by little, we discovered new things about each other and that was how we liked it. It kept things fresh, it was all mostly about the world before the walkers that we discussed when we were alone. It was intriguing to think that in that world I would have never dared to date someone like Daryl. Shane and Rick would have chased him off in a heartbeat. He laughed at how dorky and shy, I really was in that world, wanting to be a Librarian and author. I knew that his past was dark and that Merle was always in and out of Juvie, I didn't ask much about his past, he didn't like to talk about it and I respected that. When we weren't talking about the old world he was teaching me how to hunt better, I was great now at catching small game with my throwing knives, but I let him deal with the bigger game. He had the bow that could handle it, I was too weak to pull his crossbow back, that lesson didn't end so well.
Daryl and I make our way over to Carol who was cooking breakfast, everyone was calling and saying "hi" to Daryl. I could tell he was feeling awkward about it.
"Smells good." He tells Carol ignoring everyone now. I smile at her.
"Just so you know, I liked you first." She tells him. "Well, Esme too." She smiles at me.
"Stop." He says to her and I laugh. "You know Rick brought in a lot of them, too."
"Not recently. Giving strangers sanctuary, keeping people fed, your going to have to learn to live with the love."
"Right." He shakes his head. I laugh again.
"What don't like love? I could stop and just ignore you if you want." I tease. He raises an eyebrow at me.
"Like you could." He replies as Carol laughs.
"Good point." I grumble.
"You two spend to much time together, your starting to grumble and sound just like him," Carol tells me. "But anyway I need you two to see something." She says I get worried all of the sudden. "Patrick, you want to take over please?" She calls to one of the new teens.
"Yes, ma'am," He says coming over and taking the grill pick from her. "Oh, Mr. Dixon, I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday. It was a real treat, sir." He looks at Carol and me for help, we just smile at him. "And I'd be honored to shake your hand." Patrick holds out his hand. Daryl looks at it, licks his fingers and shakes his hand. I cringe.
"You are so mean." I say as we follow Carol.
"What? I shook the kid's hand." I shake my head.
"Did you have to lick your fingers and then do it?"
"What don't want me sharing ?" Daryl teases. I nudge him.
"So about today, I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run." Carol says to us. Daryl and I were usually the ones in charge of the runs.
"That place is good to go. We're gonna move on it." Daryl replies.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"The thing is we had a pretty big build up over the night." She says as we get to the inner gate and look out to the outer gate. "Dozens more towards tower 3. It's getting as bad as last month. They don't spread out anymore." She was talking about all the walkers herding around our gates.
"With more of us sitting here, we will draw more of them out. You get enough of those damn fence cleaners they start to herd up." Daryl explains.
"Pushing against the fences, again." I say looking out at the fences starting to lean a bit.
"It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long." Carol agrees. "Sorry, Pookie." She calls Daryl by his nickname. I laugh as he nudges her. Picking on him was half the fun of being with him.
Daryl and I set up the truck for the run. It's decided that Daryl, Bob, Tyreese, Beth's boyfriend, Glenn and I will go.
"It's a damn romance novel." Daryl says as Beth and her boyfriend Zack kiss bye. I laugh.
"Oh hush you, you could learn a thing or two." I tease. He looks at for a sec and shakes his head.
"Thought you didn't mind." He says loud enough for only me to hear. I look at him realizing he was being serious.
"Oh, I don't," I say stopping what I'm doing and turn fully to him. "I'm fine with how things are, I'm sorry. I was teasing." I clarify as he nods not looking at me. "Daryl," I say to make him look at me. "I'm telling you the truth." I make sure he knows.
"S'fine." He nods to me, barely touching my hand to let me know he believed me. He wasn't much of an affectionate person in front of others. I didn't mind that.
We continue to load our gear in the cars. Once done we make our way down to the gate. Daryl and I stop when we see Rick, Carl, and Michonne.
"Well look who's back." Daryl says. I get off the back of his bike and hug Michonne.
"I didn't find him." She tells us. I nod. Knowing that finding the Governor was still top of her list.
"Glad to see you in one piece."
"I'm thinking of looking over near Macon." She says sigh and looks to Rick he didn't look too happy about it either. "It's worth a shot." She says when she sees our faces.
"That's 70 miles of walkers, you might run into a few unneighborly types. Is it?" Daryl asks.
"We're going to go check out the big spot. The one Daryl found, just seeing." I tell Rick when Michonne doesn't answer. He nods to me.
"Yeah, I have to go check the snares, I don't want to lose whatever we catch to the walkers."
"I'll go as well," Michonne says going to the green car.
"You just got here." Carl yells to her.
"And I'll be back." She calls to him. Daryl revs the motor in his impatience as I hug Rick and Carl bye. I slap his shoulder as I get on the back of the bike. I can feel him chuckle as I wrap my arms around his waist.
We get to the scavenging spot and kill off only two walkers.
"Army came in, put these fences up, made it a place for people to go," Daryl explains to the group. "Last week we spotted this place. There was a bunch of walkers behind this chain link. Keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs."
"So they all just left?" Tyreese asks.
"Give a listen." Sasha says and we all quiet down, I start to hear the music.
"You drew them out?" Michonne asks.
"Put a boom box up there two days ago."
"Hooked it up to two car batteries." Glenn says.
"Alright let's go." Daryl orders. "Let's make a sweep."
"Grab what you can," I say as well knowing the plan. "We will come back tomorrow with more people."
I immediately check the tents for medical supplies, only finding a few small things. No insulin.
"Esme, come on." I hear Daryl call.
"Be right behind you." I reply grabbing a small box of bandages. I follow where I heard his voice and see him with the rest of the group. He bangs on the window.
"Just give it a sec." He says.
"Okay, I think I got it." Zack says pulling my attention.
"Got what?" Michonne asks.
"Oh, I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn." He answers. I smirk knowing he would never get the answer right.
"He's been trying to guess for the last six weeks." Daryl says.
"Yeah, I'm pacing myself. One shot a day."
"Alright shoot."
"Well, the way you are at the prison, you being on the council, you're able to track, you're helping people but you're still being kind of... uh, surely. Big swing here. Homicide cop." He guesses. Michonne and I start to laugh. "What and with Esme's family being cops, I figured that's why she's into you."
"Wow." I laugh more.
"What's so funny?" Daryl asks.
"Nothing, it makes perfect sense." Michonne says trying not to laugh more.
"Yup totally makes sense." I nod to her. "That's exactly why I'm dating him."
"Actually the man's right," Daryl says, Michonne looks at me, I slightly shake my head no to her. "Undercover."
"Come on really?" Zack asks excitedly.
"Yup, I don't like to talk about it. Cause it was like heavy shit, you know?"
"You're full of shit." I say laughing.
"Dude come on really?" Zack figures out he's wrong. " Okay, I'll keep guessing."
"You do that kid." I tell him.
"Yup." Zack says.
A walker then makes its way to the window pounding at it trying to get to us.
"We're going to do this detective?" Michonne jokes.
"Let's do it." He calls to the Sasha and the others. I follow to the door.
"Alright, we go in and stay information for the sweep." Sasha tells everyone.
"After that, you all know what to look for." I say, we then move in and grab things we need. Paper towels, canned food, hygiene products, and meds. I'm checking the med supplies when I hear a huge crash and someone yells.
"Daryl? Glenn?" I call out.
"Fine!" I hear Daryl's reply. I nod, but can't hear Glenn's.
I grab what I can and shoving it in my pack as I run towards where the noise came. Daryl and the others are helping Bob from under a fallen wine rack.
"I'm fine, but my foot is caught." I hear Bob tell Daryl.
"He's all right just caught." Daryl tells the others as they come to check. "Come on help me get this up."
"What happened?" Glenn calls to us.
"Everyone's alright were in wine and beer!" Zack calls to him.
The men get one rack up, and I jump back when the ceiling caves in, a walker hangs from some cables and guts.
"Yeah uh, we should probably go now." Glenn says from around the corner with Michonne.
"Bob is still stuck let's get him out of there." Daryl calls. The roof starts to cave in at a lot of places, Walkers falling around us. I kill the ones that land near us as best I could but they just kept coming. I look up as more fall from the roof. I see a helicopter falling in on us as well.
"Daryl, go!" I hear Glenn yell.
"Get Bob." Zack calls, I turn to see Daryl trying to help Bob out from under the rack. Zack helps Daryl by lifting the rack as Daryl pulls Bob out. The roof caves in more.
"Let's go!!!" I call them. We all move to leave when I hear a scream of pain, I turn to see Zack being bitten.
"Go, Go!" Daryl tells us all, pushing me to get me to move. We get back to the prison with what little we got.
I escort the others back to their cells making sure they had everything they needed, it was a small routine I got in the habit if we lost anyone on a run. I'm escorting Glenn to Maggie,
"You know you don't have to escort me." Glenn says.
"I know, but I also want to see her before I go check on Beth. Besides your my best friend." I tell him he nods as we get to their cell. Maggie looks at us and automatically knows.
"Who?" She asks standing up.
"Zack." I answer. She nods sadly, hugging me. I hug her back.
"Do you two have everything you need?" I ask. She and Glenn nod. I hug Glenn and let them then get ready for bed. I go to Beth's cell where she's hugging Daryl. I rub her back but notice she's not crying.
"I'm glad I didn't say goodbye, I hate goodbyes." She says.
"Me too." Daryl says. I smile slightly at him.
"Are you okay, hun?" I ask her.
"I'm fine." She says and turns to her cell. I look at Daryl confused and he grabs my hand gesturing to go to our cell upstairs.
I follow him upstairs and sigh when I sit on the bed. Daryl closes the curtain on our cell door. We get ready for bed, I then check my sugar level, 111. I crawl next to the wall and lay down. Daryl lays next to with a long sigh of his own.
"She's not okay, is she?" I ask him.
"She's gotten used to people dying." He says. I frown.
"That's not okay...." I say turning towards him. He turns his head and looks down at me.
"Talk to Maggie about it. Maybe you both can help her then." I nod at his statement.
"Don't ever let me get like that please." I tell him. He rolls over facing me. "So I have to deal with emotional you all the time?" He asks a joking tone in his voice.
"Yes, the blubbering me you will have to deal with if Rick or Carl dies is a thing." I say frowning at the thought of losing them.
"I won't let you become emotionless then if that's what you want." He tells me. I smile at him.
"You don't get to lose who you are either, I won't let you." I tell him, poking his chest. He chuckles at me as I look up at him.