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2021-10-22
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2022-01-01
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Hold Me Tight

Summary:

After joining the Reapers, Daryl is trying to keep the people he cares about safe, when a ghost from his past returns. Daryl/OC, Beth/OC. Co-Written with WalkingPotterGirl14. AU in parts of season 11.

Chapter 1: The Silence

Chapter Text


The woods were silent, aside from the occasional sound of the birds chirping in the distance, as walkers stumbled around hungrily. An arrow pierced the skull of a would-be bride, in a tattered, bloody, and white wedding dress.

Daryl let out a deep sigh as he followed Leah into the woods. One of the Reapers had spotted a group of seven people twenty miles from Meridian.

Pope had ordered all of them to attack the travelers when it became dark, and they would have the advantage. He was praying like hell that it wasn't people from Alexandria who had come to search for him.

"They'll reach the road in two hours. We need to be ready to ambush them, Daryl," Leah informed him quietly. He nodded. A part of him wondered if Pope had asked her about the young family that Leah had chosen to spare from being killed.

"I know the plan, Leah. Like I said, I'm here for you and not Pope," he said coldly, making that clear. At that moment, one of their other allies, Brandon, came over, waving his hand in their direction to follow him. Daryl does so, watching the man with quiet eyes as Leah spoke to him quietly.

He was still trying to get over the fact that Brandon was a Reaper. Shit, he'd known the guy before the turn. He had been kind, hardworking, military man who cared deeply about his family. Now he was cold, a killer. Daryl had seen the man tear someone's fingernails out. It was disgusting, to say the least.

He shook his head as the face of a young woman appeared in his mind, but he shoved the thought away.

She was gone, just like almost everyone else that he cared about. Which was what made this so much more important.

He looked to see where Brandon was and found him walking next to Shaw. The man had changed into someone that he didn't recognize, sure, but he could still see some of the old him, just barely there under the surface. He sighed as they all got into position and was glad that he hadn't been given a mask.

He hated that he was having to do this shit, but if it meant keeping Alexandria safe then he would do it. A part of him was also glad he had left Dog at home - better to have him safe and sound than in his mess.

"They're coming down the road," Powell said quietly, pulling on his mask. Daryl moved to the shadows. He wasn't going to hurt these people.


The weather was turning cold as a young dark blonde-haired woman walked down the road with her seven companions. Suzanne Giroux walked quietly alongside her friends, as she looked around uneasily at the road that they were on.

She couldn't help but get the sense that someone was watching them. But then again, they were being watched everywhere, weren't they?

Suzanne glanced over at where her husband Gavin was walking up ahead with Melinda, her younger sister, and Jose.

Her ribs still ached from the beating she'd gotten last night. Gavin had found out that he'd been picked to go on the trade with Alexandria, and he didn't like that. Not one bit. If there was one thing her husband hated, it was having to leave the comfort and privilege of leaving the nice, extravagant house that he was allowed to have.

And then that anger was put onto her.

She swallowed as she looked at Ronnie, who was limping slightly. He'd gotten hurt, keeping Melinda safe. He'd sprained his ankle and Emil was helping him walk.

"I think we should go the other way, guys. There's something off about this road," Lindsay voiced what most of them were thinking. But of course, someone had to respond - and that had to be Gavin.

"The other road will take us an extra three days to get to Alexandria, and unlike you people, I don't want to sweat any more than necessary. We're going through Meridian. Now shut the help up, you stupid bitch," Gavin snarled angrily, causing Lindsay to glare at him.

Suzanne sighed quietly. She hated how Gavin spoke to everyone who didn't have a good job. Her husband had worked as a wealthy defence attorney before the world had gone to hell, and the Commonwealth treated him with respect and gave him privileges.

She thought of Eugene, Yumiko, Princess and Ezekiel then and hoped they were alright. She was especially worried about Tomi who had disappeared, and Eugene who was in a cell, after punching Sebastian Milton.

Not like the little punk didn't deserve it most of the time though.

Just as she was about to stand up for Lindsay, they reached the road and were greeted by the sight of bodies strung up all along the sides.

"Holy fucking shit, what the hell happened here?" Carlos asked horrified, as he stared at the bloody scene. Suzanne felt uneasy and gripped her bow tightly.

Before anyone could answer, Ronnie was shot in the head with an arrow, while Annie had gotten three knives impaled in her chest, stomach and leg.

"Run for it! Save yourselves!" Edward screamed terrified. Suzanne quickly ran behind a tree as Gavin and Melinda fled into the woods in terror. Arrows were fired at them as she dragged Annie behind her.

As she looked on from behind the tree, she saw a group of fourteen people wearing masks, stalking towards them.

Who the hell were these people?

Suzanne swallows heavily and turns to Annie. "I saw an abandoned mall up ahead - follow me!" she whispers fiercely to her, and the younger woman nods, holding onto her hand as they ran through the shadows, trying to avoid gunfire and arrows.


Daryl heard one of the people from the group yelling at everyone to run for it as the Reapers began attacking them. He tried to see if he could help any of them when he saw one of the Reapers slit a young woman's throat. He swallows a bit, shaking his head.

"Two of them ran into the forest! Carver, Shaw, Dixon follow her!" Pope ordered ruthlessly. All of them nodded. Daryl felt sick but kept his face emotionless as he followed after the young woman.

They could hear their footsteps, but it seemed whoever the woman was actually seemed to be quicker. It wasn't long before they lost track of them in the darkness. Leah curses as she radios Pope, but all he says is that they need to go after them and make sure they're dead. The others were chasing the last few.

"Where the hell could they have gone?" Brandon mutters.

Daryl shines his light down into the fallen leaves below them, and there, he starts to spot tiny, indiscreet tracks. His brow furrows slightly, impressed.

These weren't normal footsteps. These were the footsteps of someone who knew how to track. Who knew how to hunt. She specifically made sure her steps weren't as large as they normally would to try and throw off her track.

But, luckily for them, he was still a slightly better tracker. Still, he had to give it to the girl. Maybe he could throw them off the two somehow. Until then, he had to keep his wits ahead of him.

"'Ey," Daryl states to the two of them, nodding towards him. "This way."

Leah and Brandon look over and he aims at the tracks. The three of them nod before running after them, moving as fast as they could.


It was still dark as night when Suzanne found her way through the clearing, and the mall wasn't that far from sight. She takes Annie's hand and guides her into the farthest store, one that seemed to once sell clothes of some sort.

God, the hours she would spend searching for outfits here. A part of her smiles a bit as she remembers the moment shared between friends, trying to look perfect for their dates. Sadly, those days were long gone now.

"Come on," she urges Annie. "Keep going. Don't stop!"

Annie stays close to her as they move forward, breaking down the doors. As soon as they do, three walkers stumble towards them, ones they take care of very quickly. Once they were dead, they grabbed a store shelf, pushed it in the front, and quickly looked around.

"Changing rooms," Annie suggests to her quickly, and the two of them run to the back, slamming the door behind them. As soon as they were in there, Suzanne grabs clothes from racks, taking them into the changing room behind her, and throws them over her body. Hopefully, if they did somehow come in here, they would just mistake her for a pile of clothes.

God, she prayed for this to work. Prayed that this all worked. She didn't want to die. Not like this. Not at all.


The sun had just started to rise when the track ran cold, and it led them right to where an abandoned mall used to be. It wasn't big - one of those strip malls that everyone used to go to for something quick, like medicine, a pop, or some shit.

But if the trail lead here, that meant something was up.

Leah nods to them. "You two, check out the back end. I'll do the front."

The two of them nod, separating off into two sections. Daryl and Brandon head towards one of the stores, pushing the door in. It looked to be an old greeting card store. He remembered the first card he ever got her - one that had a puppy on it or some shit. She had been wanting a dog so badly. He gave it to her with a stuffed animal.

Being with Brandon was bringing back all these damn memories he had been trying to supress for so long. So, he lets out a cough and glances at the man. "Hey." Brandon glances up. "Ya wanna tell me how you ended up with these people?"

Brandon raises his brow. "I thought you were with us, Daryl."

"I told all of you. I'm here for Leah 'cause we were somethin' once. But I don't get how someone like ya ends up here. That wasn't ever what you were - not even in the military."

Brandon glances away again, holding his flashlight, looking around. "That version of me is a long time ago, Dixon."

Daryl was silent for a moment. The two of them head deeper into the greeting card store, finding nothing. His question lingers on his tongue. "You ever think about 'er?"

Daryl doesn't need to specify who 'her' was. Brandon knew. He lets his flashlight lower for a second. They had avoided speaking about it since they ran into each other. But now, Daryl had a feeling Brandon was going to let it out.

"I do," he admits quietly, looking out the window at the rising sun. "I think about her smile. Her laugh. How she always seemed to make the best out of a bad situation. I think about when you two were younger and you used to punch the kids who made fun of her. That was funny shit. You earned my respect." He raises his flashlight back to Daryl's face. It causes him to squint. "I also remember you lost it when you broke her fucking heart, so now, we don't have to talk about that shit anymore."

Brandon stalks off after that. Daryl lets out a long sigh before coming up behind him. "It was for the better. She deserved-"

"You say she deserved better, I'll throw you into the biters," Brandon warns, turning to him. "What happened after you left her ended with a shitty guy, making her feel like shit. And that shitty guy ended up being the reason she's gone now." His voice cracked at the end, eyes narrowed, glazed over in anger. He forces himself to turn away from the quiet archer. "It was more than a decade ago, Dixon. It doesn't matter now. She's gone, we're not. Now, what matters is finding those two survivors and killing them. That's it."

Brandon heads out of the store at that, leaving Daryl behind. Daryl glances at the ground, hand holding his crossbow tightly. He had taught her how to shoot…

But Brandon was right. It was better to move on.


Suzanne shivers as the wind blows through the old clothing store. She had been sitting in this damn changing room for hours, hearing voices outside, muffled ones, and it was causing her whole entire body to remain on edge. Annie was silently waiting in one of the other rooms.

She wanted this to be over.

The voice began moving away and she quickly went to get Annie, who was bleeding badly from her stab wounds. She tried to clean the wounds as best as she could, but Melinda had run off with the medical equipment.

"You should leave me behind. I'm slowing you down," Annie told her quietly as she shook her head. Suzanne scoffs. She didn't leave people behind, unlike the other Commonwealth residents.

"I'm not leaving you, Annie. We need to get to Alexandria as soon as possible. There's people who need our help, " she said firmly. As she helped her stand and move out of the changing rooms, they came across Carlos, who was bloody and beaten, but alive.

Seems he had followed their blood. Which meant that the others might not be too far.

"What the hell happened to you, Annie?" he asked shocked. Annie grimaced as Carlos helped her lay down. Suzanne glanced around cautiously. This place was unnaturally quiet.

"Got stabbed with knives by that group that attacked us on the road...I'll be alright," Annie said weakly, Suzanne placed clean bandages around the stab wounds, wincing when she saw how deep the ones were on her stomach.

Fuck, she hoped that the knives hadn't caused any internal bleeding or pierced an organ. She was worried about Annie. Her left upper thigh was bleeding uncontrollably, even though she had bandaged it as best as she could.

"C'mon, let's get to the checkpoint. We're close to Meridian, but we can take a shortcut that can get us directly to Alexandria," Suzanne said encouragingly. Annie nodded, and they started to cautiously move through the back exit of the store.


Brandon had never thought that he'd see Daryl Dixon of all people again, for fuck's sake. The last time he'd seen the man it had been when Daryl's grandfather, Norman Dixon, had passed away from lung cancer.

That had been the last time he'd seen the man, until two days ago when he had been traveling with that group. Daryl had said that he wasn't one of them, but he didn't buy it for a minute.

He looked different. His hair was longer and there was a scar that went over his left eye. That made him curious. Brandon knew from Leah that Daryl had lost his group who were like family when they had encountered another group.

According to Leah, Daryl was the only one left and had been living in the wilderness. It didn't surprise him. Daryl was made for this world.

As he did a sweep of the clothing store with Daryl, he came across fresh, wet, bloody bandages and a blood trail. Someone was bleeding badly, and there were footprints.

"Dixon! Got a blood trail that leads upstairs," he called out. Daryl came over then. He saw the blood trail and muddy footprints. It looked like two women from the group were trying to escape and find somewhere safe.

"Can you tell if it's a man or woman?" Leah asked quietly as she spoke to Washington on the radio. Daryl nodded as he followed the tracks, and saw it led outside to the basement.

"Yeah, it's two women. One of 'em is hurt badly. Probably the woman that Boone threw the knives at earlier," he answered grimly. Leah nodded, and they started following the bloody footprints.

Fuck, he hoped they got away.


Suzanne turned on her torch cautiously as she looked around the room. She was relieved that it was clear for the moment, and that Annie could rest. She glanced over at Annie, who had slumped onto the sofa, her face pale.

"I'm not gonna make it out of here, Suzie. I'm losing too much blood, and I'm slowing you down. You have to leave me behind," she told her friend firmly. Suzanne shook her head.

"No, I'm not leaving you behind. We can get past these people," Suzanne said insistently, but tears stung her eyes. A part of her knew deep down that Annie was right. She was losing too much blood, and it was possible her organs had been pierced. There was no way out of this for her.

As stubborn as Suzanne was.

Before Annie could say anything to comfort her, something was dropped down near them. They both glanced over, and Annie paled when she realized what it was.

A nail bomb.

"Get down, Suze!" she screamed quickly, throwing herself over the woman. The bomb went off, the sound shattering to Suzanne's ears. Blood sprayed the walls.

Suzanne looked up quickly and looked around frantically for Annie.

"Annie?" she whispered quietly, trying to be quiet and turned on her torch. She saw a body nearby and cautiously walked over, feeling her stomach roll in horror and grief.

It was Annie - or what was left of her. Her upper torso had been impaled with nails from the nail bomb. Hot tears trailed from her eyelids as she futilely tried to check for a pulse.

'I'm so sorry, Annie. I'm so sorry...why did Pamela send you with us on this trip?' she thought distraught as she wiped her eyes. Suzanne quickly stabbed her in the back of the head to stop her from coming back, taking a deep breath before standing.

Wiping her eyes, she grabbed Annie's backpack and put all of her things into the one she had. She wished that she could bury her, but the best she could do was put a pale, blue sheet over her body.

Wiping her eyes shakily, she opened the fire exit door and started running into the woods. She couldn't help but blame herself for Annie's death. If only she'd just stood up to Gavin and spoken up for Lindsay.

But for now, she needed to run. Carlos was already ahead.


Daryl, Leah, and Brandon had found the body of one of the four young women who had been on the road. One of the other Reapers, David Boone, had thrown a nail bomb into the basement to draw them out, and it had worked.

The blonde-haired woman had run into the woods, and Boone wanted to use Dog so he could track her scent. Thankfully, Brandon and Leah backed Daryl when he pointed out there were more walkers than usual in the woods.

He wasn't putting Dog in danger. He wondered if Maggie and Negan were luring walkers to Meridian to create a diversion. If they were, then he was damn well impressed.

"Carver, Shaw and Dixon - follow them into the woods," Boone instructed coldly, and they nodded as they followed moved through the dense forest, trying to follow the sounds.


Suzanne found herself in the woods, as she tried to keep an eye out for any sign of those bandits. As she ran, she couldn't help but feel there was something hidden within the shadows. And as she stepped on a branch, crossing a river, one of those fuckers jumped at her from a bush.

Thank God her instincts weren't completely gone.

She kicked him in the crotch, hearing him grunt in pain, but he grabbed her by the throat, choking her. She grabbed the handle of her sickle, before slamming the blade into his carotid artery, hearing him yelp in pain. Suzanne kicked him again, stabbing him in the head. He slumps over, blood spurting from the fatal wound, dead.

Suzanne started running further into the woods. As she ran towards a stream, her feet were ensnared by a whip and she was dragged backwards, her head hitting the ground, and the whole entire world upside down.

She pulled out her knife, frantically trying to cut herself loose from the rope. As she did, she suddenly saw Emil running over, emerging from the woods, and helped get her untied from the rope. Carlos was nowhere to be seen. He must have gotten ahead.

"We need to get out of here," she said quickly. Emil nodded and cut her down, landing clumsily on her feet. They both started running, but as they did, Emil got caught by another hidden whip, and was dragged away.

"RUN!" Emil shouted at her quickly. Suzanne tried to get him back, but someone threw a knife at her. She avoided it narrowly, the blade just slicing the left side of her neck.

"No, Emil!" she cried distraught, not wanting to lose another friend so soon after losing Annie. She stayed completely still, when she heard the faint sound of footsteps creeping up behind her.

Grabbing Emil's sickle, she threw it behind her, and heard a cry of pain. She quickly ran over and yanked the sick from the Reaper's shoulder quickly, before running again.

She heard people yelling, and as she ran, Suzanne prayed that Melinda was safe. Yes, her sister was a selfish, self-centred woman, but she was her little sister.

It started to rain lightly. She came across a clearing and found the body of a dead walker. She pulled out her knife, as she started cutting open it's stomach, and covered the front of her coat in walker guts.

It was better to hide among them for now.


Daryl and Brandon had managed to follow the trail, and saw it led to a clearing, where they found a murderous David. His left shoulder was bleeding heavily as he glared murderously.

"That little bitch stabbed me in the shoulder!"

Leah grimaces as she comes forward. "She go far?"

"No…over in that clearing," David grunts out, holding his shoulder.

"You two, take care of him - I'll find the girl."

Daryl and Brandon nod. Daryl watches Leah head off, gun in hand. He knew Leah's hunting skills were good. He had seen them first-hand. But the last thing he wanted was for her to kill this innocent girl.

He really hoped she had gotten out. But for now, he needed to help out this fuck.


Suzanne stood in the corner of an old shack, walkers and biters stumbling around, avoiding her due to her scent now. She just needed to lay low for a little while. Just a little bit. Until they let.

But unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case now, as the door to the shack was slammed open. Instantly, whoever was there fired several shots into the group of walkers, killing them quickly. Suzanne took a deep breath, trying to keep her breathing slow, watching each walker fall by one.

When they were all dead, the person who had shot walks in, gun aimed, looking around. Suzanne was hidden in the corner, her hand reached for her sickle she had in her side. The woman walks forward, seeing the walker she had taken the guts from on the ground.

The woman chuckles. "You're smart, girly. I'll give you that. But you're not getting out of this."

Suzanne watches as she walks forward a couple more steps, holding her sickle tightly in her hands. There, she takes the moment to break from her spot and lunge on the woman. The attack surprises her and she shoots her gun, the sound echoing off the walls, and Suzanne sunk the sickle into the woman's side.

She cries out in pain as Suzanne jumps off, running towards the door. However, the other woman was quicker, and she grabs her gun, shooting it right in Suzanne's thigh. The bullet lodges in her skin and she fells to the ground, now unable to walk.

"Fuck!" she cries out, holding her leg.

Suzanne fearfully looks over at where the woman was, wobbling as she stood, holding her side as she took out the sickle and threw it to the ground. There was a look of murder in her eyes.

"You have led us on a chase all fucking night," the woman growls. "I hope that was worth it."

Before Suzanne could speak, the woman takes the bunt of her gun and hits her in the back of her head. The world blacks out, and she collapses in a heap.