“I missed you.”
three word prompts || accepting || @daingean
The soft voice rippled through the night air, pulling Daryl’s gaze. Beth’s skin and hair shone pale in the moonlight and Daryl felt his heart stutter, still not caught up to the fact that she was here.
It’d been a rush of pure chaos, getting out of that hospital. Dodging staff and captors posing as police, nearly running straight into a yard full of Walkers and hotwiring a damn ambulance of all things with all that on their heels. After that it’d been chaos of another kind, the group gathering around Beth in a rush of joy and relief so rare it felt almost alien to them. There’d been introductions with Noah, exchanging stories Daryl knew and some he hadn’t, and Maggie clinging to her sister’s side the whole time like she might just never let go.
In all that, in all the hours since Daryl’d come face to face with Beth in that antiseptic-sharp hallway, he hadn’t managed a chance to just speak with her. ‘Til now. Most of the rest had finally dozed off, laid out on or around the church pews. Daryl’d been sitting alone on the steps, making effort to clean and sharpen his bolts. And now here she was, and Daryl’d spent every day since he’d lost track of this girl missing her, and now he had no damn clue what to say.
“Yeah.” It was barely a grunt, rough and low. His eyes dropped back to his bolt’s fletch. It was dented from a fall, uneven, and he couldn’t seem to work it straight again. He flicked his finger through it, searching for a grain of dirt, something gumming the works. “What happened back then… when I saw you gettin’ dragged off in that car…” He remembered running for hours, running ‘til his legs wouldn’t carry him. Remembered collapsing in that road and how lost he’d felt, how easy he’d fallen in with those sick asshole Claimers because nothing had seemed to matter anymore.
He dragged his shaky finger through the fletch again, finally finding the grain.
“That night we got drunk… guess you were right.” Clearing his throat, voice faint and catching: “I missed you too.”
