Chapter Text
It all went to shit so damn fast. In the blink of an eye the sky above the prison went from cloudless blue to thick grey billows of smoke, dust from crumbling concrete walls and flames tinting everything an ominous orange. Daryl sat in the back seat of the bus, Judith on his hip and his crossbow over his shoulder. Carl was in the seat across from him. They both watched as the prison disappeared behind them. He should have stayed. That was his plan- to put the kids on the bus and then go back for Rick. For Merle. But it all happened so damn fast. He was trying to convince Carl to stay and to take his sister so that Daryl could go after the two men that meant the world to him, but the bus started moving before he could get off.
“You aren’t making it up?” Carl asked. His face was tear-streaked and his eyes were fierce.
“Naw, man. What the fuck am I gonna make it up for? I saw them. Merle had him and they were climbing into one of the trucks. They’ll get out. Merle’s got him. We’ll find each other. Merle and I always do. Everyone knows the plan. The rendezvous.”
It wasn't a lie. Daryl was always keeping an eye out for Rick’s safety. And since Merle had returned he'd been keeping an eye on him as well. Of course he was more worried over Merle pissing people off than getting hurt, but regardless, a quick glance at the landscape as the bus started moving was enough for him to pick out the familiar shapes of both men on the horizon. Rick seemed a little worse for wear as Merle had helped him into the passenger side, but that wasn’t a detail that needed to be shared with Carl.
When the bus started moving Daryl had thought about jumping out the emergency door. Thought about screaming for the driver to stop, but Rick's children were his responsibility now, and Daryl wasn't sure he could face Rick without them. He couldn't just leave them with anyone. Hell, Carl was tougher than half the pansies they had at the prison anymore. Daryl had to be the one to protect them. It had to be him.
Judith hiccuped in Daryl’s arms and the archer bounced her. He looked in her eyes and she watched him and reached for his nose with another hiccup. “‘S ok, lil girl. We ain’t gonna rest til we find your Daddy, I promise you that.” He held her up over his shoulder and patted her back.
Daryl looked towards the front of the bus, scanning the backs of heads. None of them were overly familiar. He stood and handed Judith to her brother. “Gonna go check on everyone, ok.?”
“Don’t leave,” Carl said, his eyes pleading and it nearly stopped Daryl in his tracks. He had Rick’s eyes. And Daryl had the same loyalty to these kids as he did to the elder Grimes. He would kill or die for them. And he would get them back to their Daddy.
“Hey, you are my priority, you and your sister. We’re a team and I ain’t going nowhere. Just gonna check on everyone else. I’ll be right back.”
Carl took the baby and nodded at Daryl. He had grown up so fucking fast. The expressions he wore now- it wasn’t right for a kid that age to know the feelings that showed through them. Horror, fear, anger, despair. When Daryl first met him, he looked so innocent. Young. But now, he was world worn and weary from living this new life. His shoulders slumped with weight just like his father’s. He was a man in a child’s body and it broke Daryl to see the hardness in his young eyes. He knew how to kill walkers now. He’d killed a threat already. He watched his mother die before his eyes and put her down afterwards. He took care of his newborn sister when his father was falling apart. These are things for men, not children. And Carl had passed through the gauntlet of growing up a thousand fold. Daryl knew Rick was proud of him. Daryl was too.
“I know I can count on having you by my side, Carl,” Daryl said and the boy sat up straighter at the compliment.
Daryl walked up the aisles checking seats and nodding hellos. He couldn’t find anyone else from the council or from his original family. It was a bus filled with stragglers and ex-Woodbury residents. Even the driver was a woman whose name escaped Daryl. He leaned down to her and looked at the road ahead. “You remember where to go?”
“Yeah,” she answered, keeping her eyes and her focus on the asphalt before her.
Daryl looked back at the full bus. He was the only one on board who could hunt. The only one with any survival skills. But it shouldn’t take long once they hit the rendezvous point before others would arrive. Rick knows. Merle knows. Everyone knows what to do in the event of a catastrophe. Rendezvous. That was step number one in the event of a separation.
He thought back to the firefight- he and Merle at the back fence, guns aimed and waiting. Carl between them with his own weapon. He was itching to shoot and Daryl had stopped him. Was that a mistake? Should they have taken the shot? It all happened so goddamned fast.
Rick would be a mess. This Daryl knew. He’d just gotten his head back on straight since Lori passed. He’d been doing good, getting stronger, smiling again. And now this. This would destroy him. The only thing that could keep Rick sane after the fall of the prison would be finding his kids alive and safe and Daryl would give him that. It had been his mission to follow Rick’s lead since the man went back into Atlanta to try to get Merle. Rick hadn’t known Daryl from a tin can of tuna, but when he saw Daryl’s heartache at losing Merle, he didn’t hesitate to go back into the city for his brother, despite the fact that he had just found his own family.
And since then, Rick was always just there. Always in Daryl’s periphery. Always on his mind. He knew at any given moment from the quarry to the farm to the prison and everywhere in between where Rick was. Daryl never questioned his loyalty to this man. They just grew close quickly, naturally, effortlessly. They worked together well. They respected one another and Daryl had never had that feeling before, someone respecting him. Someone who wanted to know what he thought. Someone who needed him. Rick never pretended that he didn’t need Daryl. No one ever needed Daryl before.
Rick sought the archer out most days just to talk. And Daryl had found himself doing the same, noticing when he hadn’t seen the man in a while and walking the prison grounds aimlessly not even realizing what he was looking for until he saw Rick. He wasn’t worried though. Not about Rick or Merle. They were survivors. They were strong. They knew the plan. Rendezvous.
Daryl was pulled out of his thoughts by a scream from halfway back in the bus. He got to his feet, his bow raised and aimed before he even realized his body was moving. Everyone started screaming and moving to the front of the bus in a herd.
“He’s turned!” someone shouted and Daryl braced himself to keep the crowd from overwhelming the driver.
“Pull over,” he shouted over his shoulder.
The woman behind the wheel had been looking in the rearview at the panicked passengers. She glanced back ahead of her as they went into a turn. “Shit!” she screamed and she stopped the bus hard and fast. Daryl had just turned around to see a horde of walkers covering the road in front of the bus before he felt it lift up on two wheels and start to fall over.