𝙿𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝙱𝙾𝚇 ;

[dadyl]

𝚃𝙴𝚇𝚃. / 𝚅𝙾𝙸𝙲𝙴. / 𝚅𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙾. / 𝙰𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽.

Comments

un; just_rey

[jedied]

Daryl? It's Rey.

They said everyone came back who died in the fight, but I just want to make sure you're okay.

[dadyl]

[ It's... oh. ]

Hi Rey.

I'm ok. I think. Alive, anyway.

So are you, I guess?

[jedied]

I'm ok. Death hangovers aren't great, but better than the alternative.

I saw you out there. It got bad.

[ She's hedging around the thing she can't make herself type. Maybe it's better not to tell him. There's no way to make it less awful. ]

[dadyl]

Got you too, huh?

You're tellin me.

[ He'd glimpsed her in the fight too, but they were a battlefield apart and Daryl hadn't lasted much longer than that. ]

[jedied]

Yeah.

I tried to get to you, but by the time I got there, you weren't really. you. anymore.

[ It's probably not a kindness to tell him, but she doesn't want to inflict the knowledge upon anyone else either. And it's not getting out of her head anytime soon. ]

[dadyl]

[ He wasn't... Oh, shit.

The realization of what she probably means makes Daryl go cold. He hesitates a minute or two before finally asking: ]

What do you mean

[ Because maybe, somehow, his assumption is wrong. He should have figured it would happen if he died, even in a place like this, but since he'd come back... ]

[jedied]

The demons had torn you apart, but your head -- you were still moving, somehow. I don't know if you could still feel anything. I couldn't leave you like that. But I wasn't sure if you'd wake up like everyone else.

[ Just typing it out makes her feel sick. She's honestly glad she didn't live much longer after that experience. Dying and waking up again took the edge off finding your new friend's zombified head and putting it out of its misery. ]

[dadyl]

[ Fuck.

... Fuck. ]

I didn't feel it.

[ He hadn't. He remembers none of it. At least he knows that for sure, now. At least there's that. He forces himself to think about that for a minute. ]

You shouldn't have had to do that.

But if you hadn't
I don't think I'd have woken up.

So thanks.

[ Like that's enough thanks for doing what family did for each other at the end where he's from. Like anything could be thanks enough. ]

[jedied]

I'm glad you can't remember.

And that you woke up.

You don't need to thank me.

[ There's no way to actually put into words her relief at finding that she'd done the right thing, that she hadn't somehow permanently killed him. She doesn't know how these things worked, but she knew she couldn't leave him that way in the moment, and then she hadn't known much else. ]

[dadyl]

I do.

No one I've ever done it for's had the chance to thank me. But I know they would've.

[jedied]

Then... you're welcome.

If it happens again, I'll know. And if I'm ever in a similar circumstance, I hope you'd do the same for me.

[dadyl]

Hope it doesn't. Wasn't any fun.

Don't think there's much chance of that. It's... somethin' that only happens in my world, I think.

[ At least, he hasn't seen any evidence of it here, yet. And he'd seen plenty die that day before he had. ]

So you ain't gotta worry.

[jedied]

It's hard to be sure what's going to happen here, even after a year.

Do you need anything? Everyone feels kind of awful the day after dying.

[dadyl]

Fair enough.

I'm alright. Headache's almost gone.

[ Was that a joke? ]

You know from experience, I'm assumin'.