Work Text:
Full of Woe
Carl.
That’s all Daryl has to say.
One word.
One word and it wounds.
Of course, it does.
It splinters through her armor. Burrows beneath her skin. Slips inside all those hairline cracks in her heart and threatens to split it wide.
It would.
If he didn’t put his arm around her shoulder. Pull her close and absorb some of her hurt, his fingers gentle but sure. Soak up the tears she wants to but cannot cry.
Not here. Not yet. Not with Judith curled in his arms and…oh God.
Lori’s babies.
This terrible world. It’s taken so very much.
Hundreds of miles from home, even more through Hell, all that pain and all that sacrifice, and how did it happen?
He got bit in the woods, the monsters coming out of nowhere and taking their due, because that’s what they do.
They take.
And they take and take.
And it’s all come full circle now, even though she’s been fighting against the inevitability for what seems like a lifetime.
Children aren’t made for this world.
Certainly not her girls. Not Sam. Not even Carl.
She doesn’t know how they’re going to do it.
Protect Judith.
But they’ll die trying.
In and out. In and out.
She watches Judith breathe.
Watches her tiny chest rise and listens to her whine in Daryl’s arms. Presses a kiss to the grimy hand that still clutches her sleeve. Rubs her cheek against its softness and feels those tears she’d thought were under lock and key well at his look. Burn.
They’ve never needed words, she and Daryl, and that still holds true.
This is a loss that takes them both right back to that Georgia highway. To Hershel’s farm.
And it’s only a minute, only a few tears, but she lets them fall.