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babyyblues · 1 year

Text

Back Together

prompt 25: "How'd you survive this long on your own?"

Era: Prison (Mid-season 3) no spoilers,

Summary: When you're searching for food, you were threatened by two strangers, but who knew that these strangers would lead you to your family. || sister!reader x daryl

Word Count: 1,847

warnings: hunting, threatening, weapons (just twd things) heavy dialogue (sorryyy)

a/n: umm can you guys tell that I love the prison era?? I'll try to switch it up for my next fic, promise. anyways, enjoy some uncle!daryl, let me know if you want more! feedback is greatly appreciated.

Silence rang in your ears, you closed your eyes tightly honing in on the repeating of your brother's voice. “Focus on the target. Take your aim. Don’t be nervous, take a breath. Okay good now shoot.” A shot rang out, your vision blurring as the rumble in your stomach intensified.

“Fuck,” you growled, watching as your hunt ran away, startled by the sudden noise and movement around it. Your energy was completely diminished, and honestly, you couldn’t remember the last time you ate or even had a clean drink of water. Letting your eyes drop and your head fall back, you sniffled, willing the tears to stay in, praying to a god that you didn’t even believe in that this damned world would give you some kind of break. Shaking off the failure and wiping the wetness off your cheeks, you began a new search; at this point, berries would have to do, you needed something to keep going, something for her.

The leaves rustled around you followed by a loud snap of a branch. Stopping in your tracks, your vision darted around, your grip tightening on the weapon, your knuckles turning white.

“Put the gun down, now.” A low voice growled, the hammer of a gun clicking dangerously close to your ears. The metal against your skull sent shivers down your spine as you swallowed your pride, dropping the gun to the floor.

“Now let me see your hands and turn around.” You did as told, your mind racing as your eyes shot around, trying your best to think of plan. Think of a way out.

“How many of there are you?” the man asked. You looked him up and down, studying the tattered light brown button-up and dark-colored denim that adorned his body. Looking back up at his face, his bright blue eyes pierced into yours, the dirt and stubble scattered on his chin.

“I won’t ask you again. How many of you are there?” Your jaw tensed, teeth clenching as his grip tightened around the gun.

“Don’t have nothin’ you want. Jus’ let me go.” Before he could speak again, the branches next to him moved.

“Rick wait,” a voice called, another man appearing in front of you, your daughter in their arms. Panic filled your eyes, your heartbeat increasing as he held his arms tightly around the young girl.

“Get off of her! Jus’ leave us alone!” you demanded, taking a step toward the young Asian man.

“Take one more step and I will not hesitate to pull the trigger.” Presumably, Rick threatened.

“Rick,” Glenn spat, setting your five-year-old on the ground and letting her run up to you.

“Mommy,” she whimpered, You shushed her slightly, before picking her up and holding her tightly in your arms as she tucked her head into your neck. You felt her tears wet your neck as you looked back up at the men.

“‘S just us. Now jus’ let us go, we were jus’ tryna to find somethin’ to eat.”

Rick took a breath, lowering his gun before glancing over at the other man.

“How many walkers have you killed?” he asked, placing in gun back in his holster. Your eyebrows furrowed as you looked him over.

“Just answer the question,” the other man told you, before grounding down to dig through his back. You swallowed harshly, clearing your throat.

“Dozens.”

“How many people have you killed?” Your breath faltered and your chest flared with anger as a flashback ran through your brain.

“Two,” you spat out, your teeth involuntarily gritting.

“Why?”

“Tried to kill me ‘n take my daughter,” you answered quickly, shaking your head to keep the memories away, squeezing your daughter a bit tighter. Rick took another look over his shoulder before nodding towards the little one in your arms.

“Where’s her daddy?”

“Dead hopefully. Wasn’t no good in the first place.”

Rick nodded his jaw clenching and unclenching as he watched his companion hand you a slightly crunched-up granola bar. Looking at it for a second, Glenn nodded, pushing it toward you. You took it not hesitating to rip open the packaging and take a small bite to ensure its safety before whispering quietly to your daughter that you had something for her to eat. The men watched as you handed her a small piece and she gobbled it down, quickly moving on to the rest of the bar. Rick leaned over to grab your gun, turning it over to hand it back to you. Thanking him with a nod, you placed it back in your holster before gathering yourself to walk back into the unknown. Rick cleared his throat, however, before you could even take a step.

“We uh, we have a camp nearby, food, water, walls. It’s safe. Your daughter would be safe.” Rick said. You stayed silent, turning back around to look at them.

“Why should I trust ya?”

“If you didn’t, you would’ve killed us with that gun you have in your boot,” the Asian kid pointed out. Taking a deep breath and letting the silence linger, you watched as your daughter finished chewing the granola bar. “It’s all fer her now, ya know that right? Ya gotta give that kid a good life, better than what we had.” You hesitated but nodded nonetheless.

“Alright. Yeah, alright.”

“Good, just know we do expect you to earn your keep. Now come on, just about half a mile from here.” You nodded, beginning to follow them, readjusting the young one on your hip.

“Names Glenn by the way, Glenn Rhee, and that's Rick Grimes,” Glenn offered, his hand outstretched to be shaken.

“Y/n, Y/n Dixon and this is Hope,” you replied, reaching your hand out only for both of them to stop in their tracks.

“What did you say?”

“Uh, my name?”

“No, what’d you say your last name was?”

“Dixon?”

“Huh, that makes a lot of sense,” Glenn interrupted.

“What are ya on about?” you scowled taking a step back.

“Come on, Dixon, I think camp might be closer to home than you think.” Your face wrinkled in confusion, listening to the way your name rolled off his tongue with familiarity. You let them lead you, fear filling your chest as if you had fallen right into their trap. “Don’t you trust nobody, all you got is you and me and Merle when he’s around. Keep your guard up- always.” You swallowed, reaching for the gun swiftly and cocking the hammer back.

“What’s gon’ on? This some kind of trap?” you barked, waving the gun between the two as Rick raised his gun in your direction. Glenn looked at Rick, pushing his weapon down and placing his hands up.

“Woah, hey no! We swear.”

“That doesn’t mean nothin’ these days. Now ya tell me or I attract every dead one for miles around and send ‘em straight to your camp,” you threatened.

“Daryl. Daryl Dixon.” Glenn knew immediately he had struck a cord, seeing the way the anger melted from your face and your eyes began to gloss over as your muscles weakened.

“Is he- He’s-,” you stumbled.

“He’s alive. He’s with our group.” You let the tears flow, holding Hope even tighter as you holstered your gun, quickly beginning to jog in the direction they had been leading you.

“Y/n wait!” Glenn called quietly, “Rick come on.” They jogged behind you, not stopping until the large prison appeared. You slowed, waiting for the men to catch up as they whistled and the gates opened. You followed them, your head shooting around taking in your surroundings, searching. Hope wiggled in your arms, uncomfortable with the sudden movements.

“Daryl!” Rick called to the man that was hunched over his bike. You watched with teary eyes and quickened breath as he looked up at you, recognition flashing over his features. Your chest heaved, a wobbly smile spreading on your lips as your legs moved quickly toward the man, toward your brother. You didn’t stop until your chests collided, Hope whining as she was momentarily smushed between you two. Hands shaking, you let her down, returning your arms around Daryl’s torso.

“I thought I’d never see ya again,” you whispered, gripping his shirt and making sure it was real. His hand found the back of your head, supporting you as your face buried into his chest.

“I-I looked for ya, every day, and when I couldn’t find ya I-”

“Ya did what you had to do. It’s okay. Merle? Is Merle okay?” You felt him stiffen, a sharp pain aching through your heart as you held back a sob.

He reluctantly broke apart, a wet smile on his lips as he crouched down to be eye level with Hope.

“Hey sweetheart, member me?” She nodded meeking, sucking her thumb anxiously.

“Yer hair ‘s messy,” she spoke quietly, reaching her hand toward the undoubtedly longer locks. Daryl couldn’t stop the wet chuckle that escaped his lips, closely followed by the tears pricking at his eyes. He reached his arms out pinching her sides, a high pitched giggle escaping from her lips before being swopped up by the man in front of her.

“Missed ya sunshine,” he sighed, holding her close, “now let’s get you guys somethin’ to eat, yer mom looks like she’s about to fall over.”

You sat inside, taking in the cold concrete walls around you, waiting for Daryl to return with both your daughter and hopefully some form of protein.

“Here, just caught it this morning,” Daryl hummed, setting a bowl in front of you full of some kind of meat. At this point you didn’t care, pain stabbing through your body from hunger. You looked up, making sure Hope had something as well before digging in. Daryl aided Hope in using her fork, something you couldn’t recall her ever using before. A comfortable silence lulled in the air, Daryl mumbling every so often to Hope as she finished her plate.

“Daryl?” he hummed in response looking back up at you.

“You trust these people?” you asked sinceriously. He nodded, readjusting Hope as she let out a yawn.

“I do, yeah.” You nodded, shoveling the last bite in your mouth.

“Okay, I trust you.”

“You uh- you been alone this whole time?” he asked reluctantly, guilt creeping in. You answered with a nod.

“How’d you survive this long on your own?”

“Don’t be stupid, I’m a Dixon. Ain’t nothin’ different than livin’ with dad,” you scoffed, doing what you did best, hiding your fear and any sign of emotion.

“Y/n-” he sighed.

“You and M-merle went camping, and the radios started goin’ crazy. I tried to find you both, but things got- it was bad Daryl. I did what I had to do. Fer her,” you nodded towards the resting child.

“Want me to take her?”

“No- no. Jus’ a bit longer,” he swallowed. You nodded, sucking in a deep breath as tears filled your eyes yet again.

“We’re gonna be alright, ya know?” he whispered, placing his hand ontop of yours.

“Yeah- yeah we are.”