Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Part 78 (Twice as Far)

CJ's main fear these days was that it had become way too easy for them to just go out and kill a group of people they barely knew anything about.

She had spoken to a few of the others about it, and whilst some were adamant that it's what they had to do, most seemed to agree with her. Carol had even confessed to CJ that she had a list of everyone she had killed. CJ almost wished she could write a list, but at this point, she had lost track of how many lives she had taken. She knew they had to kill sometimes, but other times, it felt like more of a choice.

She almost felt guilty for having these worries. Knowing that the majority of Alexandrians were all for killing the Saviors and doing what needs to be done, she still protested that it was the wrong call. It had been a couple of days since the satellite station, and she would still be hit with flashes of images of the strangers she had killed. There was still that feeling in the pit of her stomach like something was wrong. Something bad was coming.

"Blood's comin'."

That's what that Savior's last words were, and they bounced around in her head all the time.

When CJ woke up, she glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was nearly 7am. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and rolled over to look up at the ceiling, fixing where the material of her tank top had twisted awkwardly during the night. Looking to her left, she saw that Daryl was still beside her, lying on his side with his back to her. She could tell by his breathing pattern that he was still in a deep sleep.

As her eyes scanned the scars that littered his back, overlapping one another like roads on a map, she was reminded of the fact that their worlds were dark and filled with suffering long before the walkers. Though they may have lived different lives and fought different battles, they had found each other in the mess of the end of the world and grown to love one another in spite of all their fears.

Careful as not to startle him awake, she slowly turned over and shuffled closer to him. She propped herself up by her elbow and leant over to pepper light kisses on his shoulder. She put her arm around his middle, her hand resting on his bare stomach and her thumb drawing circles on his skin.

He started to stir in his sleep and sighed as he unconsciously leant into her touches, keeping his eyes closed. She smiled softly as she moved up to kiss his cheek, trailing back to his ear and down to nuzzle her face in the crook of his neck.

"Morning," she whispered against his skin.

"Hey," he mumbled, his voice raspy with sleep. "You okay?" he asked, putting his hand over hers.

"Yeah," she replied, placing a chaste kiss below his ear.

He rolled over, so he way lying on his back. Still leaning on her elbow, she was by his side, gazing down at him and smiling warmly. She locked their fingers together and brought his hand up to her lips to kiss his knuckles, before letting go and brushing his tangled hair away from his eyes.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked softly, tracing lines up and down her side over her top.

"Better than yesterday," she said. "I...I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"These last few days I haven't been the best person to talk to," she whispered, stroking his cheekbone with her thumb. "Just with the Hilltop and the Saviors, then the whole thing at the satellite... I was afraid. And I'm sorry."

"You don't gotta apologise for any a' that, ya hear me?" he responded, taking her hand from his face and kissing her palm. "It's okay."

She smiled faintly and nodded her head. "Okay."