Chasing Amy (Daryl Dixon/The Walking Dead)

Chapter 46 - Shouts and Silence

"Are you gonna explain to me what you were thinkin' today?"

Instantly, I recognised the voice as Daryl's.

I'd been laying in silence, taking a break from the incessant drama outside... I felt that if I just fell asleep, the day would be over sooner and I could start afresh tomorrow.

That was easier said than done, because my thoughts had been racing so quickly I couldn't let my mind rest enough for sleep.

My neck made a little noise as I sat up from where I lay on the top of my bed, my eyes narrowing on his blue-green ones almost as soon as I'd straightened my back.

Daryl had been the subject of my distraction, which only made me even more frustrated as he stood before me, looking flustered and undeniably mad.

His initial expression was one of guarded anger, his lips pressed tightly together as he stood in my cell, the sunlight that entered into the room through the doorway hitting his back and cascading him in sunlight, except for his front, which remained shadowed.

I didn't say anything at first, biting on my lip as I continued to stare.

I'd been in my cell since Hershel woke up, listening to the conversations outside and lying on my back, waiting for night to come.

"Huh?" I finally asked, my mind subdued by the fact that I had been watching a concrete wall for the last half hour.

"You need t' start listening." He stared ahead, under the top bunk, his breathing heavy. It seemed I had been on his mind throughout the day, as Daryl would never normally head in pursuit of conflict. "You hear? Those men... They were, they were bad news."

Daryl shook his head in one swift motion, "You shouldn't have been there."

"I was fine... I was okay, though."

"You weren't..." Daryl growled, stepping into my cell. He suddenly raised a finger to my face as I pulled myself from the bed. "You could'a been hit, could'a been shot--"

"I shouldn't have t' be watching your ass." His chest rose and fell at a faster pace, his eyes narrowing down on mine whilst I stared up at him, a skeptical look on my face. "I told you to leave for a goddamn reason."

"Really?" I almost scoffed, "What was it you said, 'Go clean something'?"

"Y'know, because I'm a woman... And that's what women do, right?"

My voice was laced with a sharp tone of sarcasm, which seemed to surprise him a little. Nevertheless, I continued.

"Why the hell couldn't you just say that!?" I raised my voice unintentionally, "Why did you have to be such a ... A typical asshole and say that kind of sexist bullshit?"

He only released a slow breath through his nose, before stepping back a little. "Like you listen when I say anythin' else."

"I would have!"

"No." Daryl shook his head, "I tell you to get away, I mean it... You jus' don't listen to anything." I shook my head at this, but he seized the opportunity to make a snarky comment, "Everythin' I say just goes through one ear, an' straight out the other."

"You were in danger, damn it, and I told you to leave."

"So what? I can hold my own." I tried to be assertive.

"Tried" being the key word.

"Tha's bullshit, and you know it. You pussy outta everything; killing walkers, hunting wild animals, defending yourself." He spat, "You think you would'a taken them men down yourself if somethin' went wrong?"