There was a voice in the hot summer heat. A whisper that blew in with the dry wind and spoke the truth no one could say out loud to themselves. The dead summer air, as quiet as it was, somehow spoke to every single one of you as you walked along the road miserably.

It taunted you; emphasizing on every bit of pain you felt weighing you down. As though the words added pounds to your back. It kept the sting fresh as the memory of that moment repeated itself with a boisterous presence. You couldn't escape it... none of you could.

Maggie walks a few steps ahead of you, side by side with Glenn. You can see the way she carries her pain. It's faint, kept hidden from all those around her, but you see it. You know how to find it, after years of living with your older sister, you know how to spot her pain and her troubles no matter how well she's learned to hide it from you.

As you trudge along the path, melting underneath the nasty sun, you watch the way Glenn and Maggie interact. You can't hear what they say, or if they are even sharing words at all, but you can see the way Glenn looks at his wife. At your sister. And it unlocks something deep inside of your shattered heart.

He loved Maggie more than anything in this world, and it was obvious. And right now, after the loss that had killed her like she had taken the bullet herself, he has become her strength.

He's held her hand when she needed it held. He's whispered all the words she's needed to hear, no matter the fact that they can't fix anything. He's stepped up when she came crumbling down...

And all you could think, was why couldn't Daryl Dixon do that for you?

He held you that first night. After Daryl had carried Beth's body out of the hospital that horrific day. You crashed into his arms and he held you all that night. Never loosening his grip as sleep fluttered over you.

But as soon as the sun rose in the sky the following day, the man that had kissed your tears as he held you tightly, suddenly vanished.

He still watched out for you, he still protected and provided what he could for you, but he closed himself off. Leaving you completely deprived of the one thing you truly needed to survive...  him.

He walks slowly behind you somewhere, trudging along sluggishly just like the rest of you. Worn down from exhaustion and hunger and the heat that threatens to suck everything from you. But also crushed emotionally by the loss experienced just weeks ago.

Beth had been the most innocent of souls. The kindest of hearts. The strongest in ways others didn't know how to be. But more than anything, she was your little sister. Your small blonde haired, tender hearted sister that did nothing but love and believe. And still this world took her away... leaving you all to wonder what the point of all this was.

The night brought in the clouds and a chill that did all it could to break through the humidity, but you still felt the heat of the sun even as the moon had taken its place up in the sky.

The group had stopped for the night, laying in the grass on the side of the road with two staying up to keep watch. You laid flat on your back with your bag beneath your head as a pillow, but no matter how many times you closed your eyes and tried to clear your mind, sleep was no where close to finding you.

Instead, you felt yourself gazing blankly up at the stars that you could spot within the tree branches. They twinkled in a low light, trying to fight the darkness that nearly engulfed them. But just as you felt every single day, they were no match for the darkness that held a power they could never posses.

Releasing a soft sigh, you sit up. Looking over to the left, you look at Carl who sleeps with Judith beside him. And turning your head to the right, Maggie sleeps with Glenn's comforting arm wrapped around her. Keeping her safe even in sleep.

Looking away, you stand up. And without looking back at the others you venture into the dark woods ahead of you.

The sound of crickets chirping echoes around you as you walk further into the forest, and the faint breeze blows through the heavy leaf covered branches of the trees.

Reaching a slight clearing, over looking a dried up creek, you sit down in the underbrush. Resting your head back against the moss coated bark of the tree, and wrapping your arms around your knees, you pull them inward towards your chest.

The quiet is deafening in the dense nature that swallows you whole, but it makes you think of the night you all found the prison. Sitting out that evening in the dark, the quiet impending but broken up by a soft voice.

Her voice. Beth's sweet gentle voice that could soothe the hardest of people.

Closing your eyes at the memory of her sweet voice singing a song your daddy always loved, you feel a tear rolling down your cheek. A sting unlike that from the sun's harmful rays or the sting in your heart from the loss. This sting felt like acid falling from your burning eyes. Branding a path down your flesh that would be marked forever.

A crunch of a branch makes your eyes snap open and your head swings to the right. The darkness swarms around a figure, and with each step he becomes clearer to you.

"What are you doing?"

His voice enters the silence with an ease, and his tone is gentle almost. Tiptoeing carefully with his words.

Swallowing a lump that had formed deep in your throat, you wipe the tears from your face. "I don't know."

Your words are honest. They ring out softly in the air and Daryl Dixon steps closer until he sits down beside you. Even in the darkness, you feel as his shadow settles over you.

His blue eyes stare into you as he sits with an arm slung over his bent left leg, leaning forward slightly to get a better look at you. And his presence makes your heart beat faster.

"I can't sleep." You tell him.

"I hear her in the night. Her voice, like she's right here beside me. Singing an old song she learned on the farm as a child, or just talking to me late at night like we used to do. I can't get her voice out of my head." You cry out to Daryl, shaking your head as tears roll freely down your face.

"And I..." You take a breath as your eyes open slowly. "And I keep seeing her. Not as she used to be, but on that day."

You spot out of the corner of your eye, Daryl's head looking away and down at his hands. Knowing exactly what you're talking about.

"I see her lifeless body in my head Daryl. I see her laying there, limp. In your arms. My baby sister..."

Sobs escape you as your shoulders begin to shake uncontrollably with each tear that forms. And you know your words bring up the memories for Daryl as well, but he doesn't say anything. And you can't say you aren't used to it.

He didn't talk about things like you. He pushed them down in hopes that they would fade on their own. But you, you needed to talk about it. You needed to cry about it and go through it with someone. You needed to go through it with him.

"Why her?" You cry out. "Why her out of everybody left? Why her out of all the horrible people we've encountered that are still here somehow?"

Daryl's head lifts slowly as he breathes in a deep breath, and his blue eyes look over at you in the dark.

"It isn't fair." You say with a shake of your head. "Its not fair that it was her. Its not fair that she's gone. It's not fair!"

Your cries grow louder than the crickets and the sound of the owl that had perched itself in the tree above you. They echo around the two of you. But finally, something stops you long enough to catch a breath.

Daryl reaches his hand out, and rests it down on your thigh. Squeezing gently as your eyes turn to look at him.

"It ain't fair." He murmurs softly. "And it ain't right."

His words cause your cries to soften and slow. His voice is enough to get your mind to focus on only his warm southern tone. And his touch on your leg is enough to calm your racing heart and trembling body.

"Ain't nothin right bout this world anymore," Daryl tells you, and you find yourself lost as you gaze into his blue eyes and fall head first into his words.

"But we are."

And its then, as Daryl murmurs those three words, that it hits you.

All this time you had wished that Daryl could be half as compassionate or comforting as Glenn had been to Maggie through this whole heartrenching experience. But sitting beside him as his words echo in your ears, you realize that Daryl's ability to comfort was not lost. He just showed it differently than others. Than Glenn did. And this was it. With soft short meaningful words that could only mean so much coming from him.

Daryl hid so much emotion and care into the few words he said, but when he spoke... sometimes it felt as though he had said so much more. And now, as you rest your head against his welcome shoulder, you realize his way of comforting you was something special. Something that not every person got to experience. And instead of searching for more words or more movements to show his support, you decide to be thankful for this.

A/N: I wasn't sure how I felt about this one. There are parts I really like and some I'm not sure about... so I thought I would share it and see what you all thought!💚I hope you liked it!