▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ 𓆩♡𓆪 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑵
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────

❛  𝐄𝐈𝐘𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄,
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 ❜
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ────

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ. | ❝𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅, 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖?❞ | ₊ﾟ.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sᴇᴠᴇɴ
𝒟𝒾𝓈𝓈𝓮𝓇𝓋𝒾𝒸𝓮𝓈

THERE WASN'T ENOUGH TIME FOR MAGGIE GREENE TO CONJURE UP ANY QUESTIONS when her binoculars caught sight of Otis running back towards the farm, struggling to keep up with two men that carried bodies in front of him. She quickly pulled the frames from her face, yelling out to her father.

Hershel Greene emerged from the front door of his farmhouse, his eyes settling on the chaos barreling over his land. His chest heaved upwards in preemptiveness, lowering his eyes to the bleeding boy in the sheriff's arms. "Was he bit?" he called out to the man.

"Shot... by your man." He panted, nearly losing his grip on the boy.

"Otis?" Patricia asked in disbelief, following Hershel down the porch to see the damage up close.

"He said to find Hershel. Is that you?" The sheriff was breathless as he spoke quickly, watching the farmer nod his head in response. Before Hershel could direct the man to the house, he watched the other figure that trailed behind him finally come into view, his arms securely holding a woman to his chest, his forehead coated with sweat.

"Bullet went straight through the kid's shoulder into the girl's stomach.... I didn't see them, I swear it. The deer... it was right there and I.. I didn't see 'em!" Otis yelled from a few feet behind them, his back hunched over to rest his hands on his knees.

Hershel kept his thoughts to himself, immediately understanding— knowing Otis was notoriously a terrible shot, usually catching their dinner after two or three rounds.

"Get them inside." Hershel replied quickly, turning back towards the house to guide them. "Patricia, I need my full kit! Maggie, painkillers, coagulates- grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, and alcohol." Hershel pulled upwards on the bed sheets in the first guest room, removing the comforter and decorative pillows. "In here." he directed the father. The man set his son down on the bed where Hershel directed him, his eyes clearly out of focus as he stared at the young boy. "Pillowcase... pillowcase, quick!" Hershel ordered.

"Is he alive?" The father's question went unanswered.

Hershel continued to direct the women in the bedroom, his eyes briefing over the young woman that was placed beside the boy, the side of her tan t-shirt stained crimson. Maggie knew her father hadn't been in over his head like this in a while, but she stayed silent, following all the directions he barked out at the three of them. She folded a pillowcase into a square, placing it over the woman's side.

Hershel placed his stethoscope over the young boy's chest, a deafening silence falling over the room as he listened for the beat of his heart.

"I got a heartbeat...It's faint, but it's there." The farmer finally said, hearing the father's exhale of relief from beside him.

"And her?" Hershel turned quickly to see the other young man knelt beside the injured woman, his bloodied hand wrapped around her limp one.

"We need space." Maggie spoke up, gently placing her hand on the sheriff's arm, guiding him away from the bed.

"Your name?" Hershel asked quickly, grabbing his tools and turning his back to look over the woman. His stomach turned in knots while he looked over the bleeding area coating the clean pillowcase, realizing she was losing too much blood, much too fast.

"Rick.... I'm.. I'm-Rick."

"Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? For both of them. You need to give us some room," Hershel spoke calmly, his eyes meeting the pale face of Rick's. "Now."

Only thirty minutes had passed, and the two men found themselves seated in the farmer's living room, waiting. Shane's body was buzzing from the crash of adrenaline, his hands noticeably trembling while he listened to the provoking sound of the pendulum swinging from the grandfather clock mounted on one of the old walls. The otherwise silence was broken as Rick spoke up, his eyes unfocused.

"Why'd I let them come with us?" Rick spoke softly. "I should've sent them with Lori."

"You know you start that," Shane shook his head, his hands crossed in front of his face while he tried to form the words to tell his best friend it wasn't his fault. "You'll never get that monkey off your back."

But what Shane failed to tell his friend was that he was having the exact same thoughts about the sheriff's sister-in-law.

"Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple." Rick continued. "You said call it, head back–"

"Doesn't matter what I said." Shane interrupted.

"They got shot because I wouldn't cut bait– It should be me in there."

Shane chuckled sympathetically. "You've been there, partner. Right? And you pulled through. So will he." He didn't dare mention Lori's sister in that moment, afraid that the mere mention of her name would somehow cut the possibility of her survival.

"Is that why I got out of that hospital? Found my family for it to end here like this? This some kind of sick joke?"

"You stop it. Just stop." Shane was trying the best he could to keep it together for the man he considered a brother, but those damn green eyes kept lulling him back to her and the worst possibilities, her words circling around his brain like a tormented carousel– his words playing on an agonizing loop, drowning out anything and everything good.

"A little girl goes missing...." Shane let out a defeated sigh, running a hand over his face in frustration as Rick repeated himself, his voice shaking. "You look for her. It's plain and simple."

Before Shane could reply, the door to the bedroom adjacent from them swung open, the farmer's daughter, Maggie, coming into view. "Rick. He needs blood."

Both of the men were on their feet before she could finish her sentence, rushing into the room where Carl and Eiylan laid side by side. Patricia quickly rubbed alcohol over Rick's arm, prepping the transfusion for his son. Shane stared at Eiylan, watching Hershel press his fingers gently around the wound.

"She's gonna need blood... and lots of it," Hershel spoke quickly. "Do you know her blood type?"

Rick stared blankly at the farmer, his mind searching for any information that would be helpful, only as his mind raced through all of their conversations, all of their family procedures, he couldn't get a clear thought as he stared at his best friend's seemingly lifeless body.

"Rick." Hershel's stern voice pushed through the fog of his thoughts, making him remember the CDC.

"She's O positive. Same as Daryl. I...I saw Dr. Jenner group their blood vials together. " Rick answered, his eyes glued to her.

"Well, we need Daryl, and we need him fast or she's not gonna make it."

ꫛ

The sound of dried leaves and twigs snapping beneath their feet was tuned out by the paranoid Lori Grimes. For the third time in fifteen minutes, she stopped walking with the rest of the group, her ears straining to hear anything other than the birds chirping, or the faint chatter of the others.

"You still worrying about it?" An annoyed Andrea paused to look at the woman, making everyone else turn to look.

"It was a gunshot." Lori replied, still staring towards the direction her family had gone nearly thirty minutes before.

"We all heard it." Daryl confirmed.

At that, Lori finally turned to face the group. "Why one? Why just one gunshot?"

Daryl shrugged casually. "Maybe they took down a walker."

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane, they'd do it quietly." The eldest Carter sister shook with worry, her mind racing with possibilities.

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" The timid Carol chimed in, looking towards their current leader of the group. There was a short pause before Daryl responded.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyways. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori retorted, her patience waning thin.

"Same as we've been," Daryl replied coolly. "Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

Lori's sharp eyes didn't leave Daryl as her mind raced with different scenarios, each one poking a new pain at her chest with every thought of her loved ones.

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the R.V.." Andrea tried to reassure her.

Lori looked back towards the direction of the sound once more before her eyes fell to the ground and her body turned to face the rest of them, beginning to walk with the group once more, only to stop when Andrea spoke up again– this time, to Carol.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through; I know how you feel."

The entire group was at a standstill, again.

"I suppose you do, thank you." Carol offered a small, sympathetic smile to her. "The thought of her out here by herself... it's not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Carol's eyes immediately widened, her head shaking while she grabbed Andrea's hands. "Oh God– that's the worst thing I ever said."

Andrea reluctantly nodded her head, shaking off the hurtful words. "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

Lori stood and watched the two, Daryl walking past her to the women.

"I'll tell you what it's worth–Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hoping and praying." he said, standing between them. "'Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good Lord."

Lori couldn't help the small smile that reached her lips as he spoke, thinking of her sister's similar crass attitude. She waited for the women to pass her, giving one last glance behind her in hopes of seeing her family emerge from the clustered woods.

Andrea spoke up thirty minutes later as the group moved silently through the woods. "How much farther?"

"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards. As the crow flies." Daryl answered.

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea huffed, stomping dramatically over the branches on the ground.

Lori wished Eiylan were standing beside her at that moment, knowing she would have some kind of mocking comeback for the woman. She refrained from rolling her eyes, knowing her sister wouldn't.

As she continued to think about her daunting little sister, she hadn't noticed Andrea had fallen behind the rest of the group. At least, not until she heard the blonde's terrified screams coming from behind her. All of them ran towards her cries, gathering around her just before two horses came into view, the rider of one of them knocking the walker away from the distraught Andrea.

"Lori?" the mysterious woman shouted at the group. "Lori Grimes?"

"I'm Lori."

"And Daryl Dixon?" She looked around the group of strangers, her eyes landing on the archer as the group turned to look at him. "Rick sent me, you've both gotta come now."

"What?" Lori furrowed her eyebrows, confusion etched on her features. She took a mental picture of the woman who had her brunette hair cut in a pixie, and her peach blouse that looked freshly washed.

"There's been an accident. Eiylan and Carl have been shot." The woman replied quickly. "They're still alive, but you gotta come now." It was almost as if someone had sucked all the air out of the oldest Carter sister as the words registered in her mind. Immediate panic swarmed her, the absolute worst going through her mind while she allowed the consuming thoughts of the two most important people in her life being taken from her. She stood completely still, staring at the horseback rider. "Rick needs you, just come!"

In that instant, Lori dropped her backpack to the ground, running towards the woman.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We don't know this girl–! You can't get on that horse!" Daryl protested.

"You gotta come too." The woman said, helping Lori onto the horse.

Daryl stood dumbfounded while he stared at her, eyebrows pulling together in protest. "The hell I do!"

"Eiylan lost a lot of blood. She needs a transfusion. Rick said you have the same blood type."

Lori's eyes hardened while she stared at Daryl, her heart hammering in her chest as she willed him to get on the other horse with just a look.

Daryl's confusion only grew as he wondered how the hell that man knew his blood type, but still didn't move.

"Daryl, please. She's my baby sister– I can't lose her." Lori begged. After he still didn't move, she swallowed the lump in her throat. "She would do it for you."

Daryl would never admit it aloud, but even after not knowing the annoying girl for very long, he believed Lori. With that, he reluctantly took a look around the group, quickly telling Glenn in a hushed tone how to make it back to the highway.

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox, the name's Greene. Hyah!" The woman took off, the second horse following behind her after Daryl climbed onto its back.

The ride from the woods to the farm was a short one. Daryl analyzed as much of the land as he could when the rundown southern farmhouse came into view. He'd glanced at Lori while the horses slowed, and noticed the tears already starting to fall from her eyes. He felt a soar of pity for her, knowing her son and her sister could be on the brink of death.

The woman who kidnapped them jumped off the horse, quickly helping Lori down. The two of them raced up the porch steps to the screen door, while Daryl slowly hopped off the horse, following behind them. His pace quickened upon hearing the distraught, murder-like screams emitting from inside the farmhouse. Following the two women up the stairs and into the door, Lori was in hysterics over her sister and son laying almost lifeless in the same bed.

ꫛ

Hershel knelt beside Eiylan, his fingers carefully pinching the medical tweezers through her skin, digging the wedged bullet out of her. His thoughts were roughly estimating the time she had before she completely bled out while waiting for the donor to show up, and he worried he would have to tell her family there was nothing more he could do.

As he continued to pull out the fragments of the severed bullet, he noticed the pace of her breathing begin to quicken, knowing she was becoming conscious. He nodded over to Patricia, and she stood up immediately, quickly walking through the doorway to see about the arrival of the blood donor.

Hershel tried to hurriedly pick out the shallow fragments before the girl woke, but realized it was too late when she started groaning. He continued to push through her skin with the tweezers, and he yelled to the sheriff.

Both Rick and Shane came through the door just as the woman's hand forcefully grabbed the farmer's, stopping him from pushing the tweezers any further.

"You! Hold her down!" he shouted to Shane.

Shane immediately grabbed Eiylan's forearms, her screams piercing his ears and seemingly marking his soul forever. He stood over her, calling her name, willing her to open her eyes and look at him, to know he was there. At that moment, both Lori and Daryl were in the room, standing shell shocked in the doorway. They watched Shane struggle to hold Eiylan down, listening to the painful screams coming from her small frame. It was a terrifying sound that sent chills down their spines.

"Stop! Stop it!" She screamed, her hands curling into fists at her sides. "Rick, make him stop!"

Lori gripped onto Rick's forearm, her hand clasping over her mouth to keep her sobs from escaping after seeing her sister in so much pain.

"Stop! You're killing her!" Rick screamed at Hershel while Patricia held him firmly in place to keep him from lunging towards the old man.

"Rick! Do you want her to live?!" Hershel struggled to get the remaining piece from her abdomen.

Her normally olive colored skin was a pale white, with the exception of the red tint in her cheeks from the strain of screaming. Tears streaked her cheeks, her green eyes finally making contact with Shane's. Her lip trembled before she bit down on it, her eyebrows lifting innocently. "Shane, it hurts. Please... just tell them to stop." she cried in desperation, squeezing her eyes closed. Shane's eyes pooled with unshed tears, his grip tightening on the girl.

"She needs blood!" Patricia yelled.

Daryl had been motionless, staring at the woman writhing in pain. He felt an unfamiliar pang of sympathy while he watched her scream and cry, his previous mental image of her now deemed unfinished as he realized there were many other layers to her that he hadn't considered. The person he saw before him was not the sassy, strong, and undoubtedly irritating woman he thought he'd figured out. Seeing her this way felt wrong. Seeing her unwillingly vulnerable in a room full of strangers, he couldn't help but feel he was seeing a side of her he was never meant to see.

Shane turned and looked at Daryl, the veins in his forehead and neck bulging with frustration.
"Do it now!" He screamed.

After confirming his blood type, unable to remove her from his sight, the archer blankly followed the old man to a chair beside the bed closest to the brunette, allowing the quick prick of a needle to penetrate his skin.

Eiylan's screams suddenly stopped, causing an immediate panic within the people closest to her.

"Wait, wait... Hey." Shane muttered, his hand gently cupping her cheek, eyes wide as he looked at Hershel.

"She just passed out." Hershel assured. He then pulled the tweezers out, a bullet fragment wedged between the metal prong pieces. "One down... five to go."

ꫛ

As the sun began to set, an impassive Daryl sat in the wicker chair beside the injured woman. His right arm was turned over with a small needle poking into his vein, taped over by a sterile gauze; the needle was attached to a tube that connected to a bottle filled with the archer's blood. Another tube ran out of the same bottle, and attached the same way to Eiylan's right arm.

Her sister had been unable to leave the room since she arrived, sitting in the opposite corner, her eyes tightly closed while she slept. He sat in silence while his right elbow remained perched on the arm of the wicker, his fingers habitually rubbing against the gruff on his chin as his eyes moved from Lori and began to casually analyze Eiylan's face.

The dark downcast of her lashes were slightly upturned before hitting the top of her cheekbones. He'd never noticed how long her eyelashes were– probably because this was the first time he'd seen her eyes closed for so long.

While he thought about the amount of times he may have glimpsed at her with her eyes closed, his gaze traveled a bit lower to her nose. He took note of the narrowness between her bridge, the tip of her nose circular like a button. Her nostrils were abnormally straight, lacking the flare he usually noticed when speaking to her. The corner of his mouth twitched in amusement, thinking of her face turning red, nostrils flaring as she yelled at him. Sprinkled across her nose were light freckles, trailing from the tip to her cheeks, some stray ones placed around the bow of her lips. With the travel of his eyes, he noticed an indent above her chapped lips. Daryl's eyes squinted slightly to get a better look at the mark he never noticed before– her skin being completely washed out made the scar a bit more noticeable, he realized. The scar started a few inches past her nose, ending over her usually pink top lip. Upon seeing this, his eyes began to roam further with curiosity– he subtly looked over her forehead to her nose again, past her lips, and to her chin. He tilted his head ever so slightly while his eyes trailed her neck, stopping at the crease above her collarbone. A faded white line barely wrapped around the right side of the bottom of her throat, the flush of her skin pushing the discoloration forward. It was then that he fully registered how weak she looked. The normal pink hue to her face was nowhere to be seen, replaced with a sickly pale he couldn't recognize. His thumbnail had made its way to his mouth, gnawing at it as his thoughts became doused with doubt.

"Thank you for doing this."

The sudden words snapped Daryl out of his thoughts, only his eyes flicking up to look at the girl's tired sister.

"It ain't nothin'." He muttered, his hand settling back on the arm of the chair.

"It's everything," Lori replied quietly, her head leaning back in the rocking chair, eyes roaming slowly over her son and sister. "Losing her would just be...." She paused, wiping under her eyes and sniffling lightly. "A disservice to the world...just devastating."

Daryl didn't look at her, keeping his eyes now on the wood floor. He gave her a short nod, along with a half-hearted grunt, his legs shifting uncomfortably. Not only did he not feel comfortable responding, he really didn't know what to say. He hadn't known Eiylan for very long, but having a sibling himself, he understood Lori's point. Although he wouldn't go as far to say losing his brother was a disservice to the world, it still hurt like hell knowing the only family he had left was seemingly gone.

The farmer made a reappearance, unwrapping the gauze keeping the needle connected. He then gently took it out of Eiylan, placing the tubes on the side table.

Daryl furrowed his eyebrows. "That it?"

"For now." Hershel replied. He handed Daryl a cup of juice, motioning for him to exit the room. "Don't go too far."

Daryl nodded curtly, slowly standing up and walking out of the room, both Hershel and Lori following close behind.

Lori sighed, resting her hands on the dining room table. "Okay, so I understand... when Shane gets back with this other man–"

"Otis." Hershel filled in for her.

"Otis," she nodded. "The idiot who shot half my family."

"Ma'am, it was an accident."

"I'll take that under advisement later. For now he's the idiot who shot our son and sister."

"Lori," Rick interjected. "They're doing everything they can to make it right."

"Okay– as soon as they get back, you can perform this surgery?"

"I'll certainly do my best." Hershel replied.

Lori nodded with a sniffle, her eyes frantic. "Okay. I mean– You've done this procedure before?"

"Well, yes, in a sense."

Lori's eyes locked on the farmer's, her fingers gripping the chair even tighter. "In a sense?"

"Honey, we don't really have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." Rick spoke up again.

Lori chuckled humorlessly, taking Rick's arm in comfort while she nodded quickly. "No, I understand that. But I mean, you're a doctor... right?"

Hershel nodded once. "Yes, ma'am. Of course. A vet."

Lori's lungs released with relief, her grip on the chair loosening. "A veteran? A combat medic?"

"A veterinarian." Hershel corrected.

Lori stared in disbelief, her mouth agape as she turned to her husband who shared the same questioning stare. She turned back to Hershel, her heart resuming a fast thud against her ribcage. "And you've done this surgery before on what? Cows? Pigs?" When Hershel took a moment to respond, Lori slumped down into the chair she'd been grasping, leaning her face into her palm. "You are completely in over your head, aren't you?" she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks.

"Ma'am... aren't we all?"

collage made by edmundhasmyheart ♡︎
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AUTHOR'S                       NOTE

word count: 4,030

IM BACK! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, as it kind of dives into a couple different perspectives. The next chapter will be back from Eiye's POV. (it's my favorite to write!)

Grace (edmundhasmyheart ) & I have a bunch of ideas planned for the next few chapters and i'm super excited to write it out for you all!

Thank you for all of your votes and comments, it really means the world!! Also, welcome to any new readers! ☺︎

I should be updating again soon (I promise it won't be 3 months this time!) as i'm on summer break, and should have a bit more free time to write!

Until next time☻

-ry <3

published 5/29/22