Title: Moonlight and Grief

Author: GageWhitney

Rating: T

Pairing: Daryl/Andrea

Disclaimer: Very much not mine.

Summary: Post 2x11. When the gunshot ringing in his ears finally clears away, he's left with the sound of Andrea crying hysterically beside him.

Note: I don't know how happy I am with this, but this episode needed a post-ep story. So here it is.

When the gunshot ringing in his ears finally clears away, he's left with the sound of Andrea crying hysterically beside him.

She's still holding tightly to Dale's hand, her face turned away to avoid looking at the older man's body. Behind them, the others are upset and weeping as well, but it's her tears that stand out above the others.

Daryl sets the gun on the ground and tries to ignore the way his hand sweats and shakes. He watches her a moment, unsure what of to do, before looking back at Rick.

The other man wipes at his eyes and clears his throat, nodding a thank you. "Daryl, get her away from here," he sighs. He scrubs a hand over his face. "Shane, T-Dog… go back to the house. Find a tarp."

While Rick starts giving orders and the others attempt to comfort each other, Daryl tentatively reaches over and puts a hand on Andrea's back. "Come on," he says, his voice quiet but firm. "Let's go."

She doesn't even hear him, bawling as she is. She hugs Dale's hand closer to her body, bent over him, so he grabs her by her upper arms and pulls her up and away from their dead friend.

Immediately, she turns into him, seeking comfort. She sobs violently into his chest, gripping his leather vest in her fists as she pulls him closer.

"Come on," he says again, steering her away with an awkward arm around her shoulders.

She stumbles alongside him as they walk back to camp in the dark, her cries loud and echoing in the otherwise silent night. Halfway there, she suddenly pushes away from him and jogs a few feet before bending at the waist to throw up into the grass.

"Whoa," he says, rushing to her side. "Okay. You're all right," he sighs.

He grabs hold of her long blonde hair and fists it in one hand, holding it back until she's done heaving. His other hand rests lightly on her back.

"Where?" he asks when she straightens, his voice low.

She sniffles and swipes at her mouth. "The RV," she chokes out. It occurs to him that it's the first thing she's said since begging for someone to help their friend. "Please?"

"All right," he nods. "Let's go."

The crying's pretty much stopped by the time they reach the RV, and he's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

He opens the door and lets her walk in ahead of him, guiding to the little bedroom in the rear of the RV with a hand at the small of her back. It's dark, but there's enough ambient light from outside that he doesn't turn on a light.

The bedroom holds a pair of tiny mattresses positioned opposite each other, and he gently pushes her down onto one of them. "Sit."

He drops onto the mattress opposite her with a groan. Their knees almost touch in the confined space.

She leans back, her head against the wall of the RV. "He's gone," she sniffles. "Oh, I can't even... I can't believe he's gone."

Daryl nods. He eyes her face, watching the way it's painted with moonlight and grief, and hopes Dale's death doesn't break her. "I know," he says simply.

"I've been so awful to him lately," she continues with a slight shake of her head. "You know he's the only reason I'm here? And I don't mean just the CDC."

"How's that?" He already knows their story, more or less, but thinks it's probably better to let her talk.

"He took Amy and me in when this shit all started," she tells him with a sad smile. "We were total strangers to him, but we had nothing and he could see we were in trouble. And he just took us in."

"He, uh…" Daryl clears his throat. He's uncomfortable, but feels the need to help her at the same time. "He was a good guy."

Her head bobs up and down slightly, and tears start to form in her eyes again. "He's with his wife now." She's silent for a moment. "I should've been nicer to him," she says. "He was just trying to look out for me. I didn't want to listen…"

"You listened at the end," he reminds her. "Dale didn't want to kill the kid. You were on his side." He shrugs. "At least there's that."

Andrea nods at his words. "Yeah," she sniffles. "Yeah, there's that."

She's quiet, thinking, and his eyes following the way she chews at her bottom lip. "What?"

"It's just… I just had a conversation with Lori about loss. I told her to pretty much shut up about it, because really, she hasn't lost a damn thing." She shakes her head. "And look at me. Look at what's happened in a matter of weeks. First Amy, now Dale. I have no one left."

He quirks an eyebrow. "You've got the group."

She rolls her eyes. "The group. Look at the group."

"Hey, what do you think I'm still here for?" He shrugs. "This group might be broken, but it's all I've got left. It's all we've got left. Right?"

She seems to take in what he says and gives him a small smile. "I guess you're right."

Daryl sighs and rises from the mattress. "I should go. Let you get some rest."

Before he can walk away, she grabs at the edge of his vest. "Stay with me?" she asks, eyes pleading with him. She scoots over to make room for him, "I don't want to be alone. Can you just sit with me for a while? Please?"

He eyes the space she's created, and, with a slight nod, he drops down beside her. "Yeah. Okay."

He's pretty much out of words, but he's not sure any will comfort her, anyway. Instead, he lets her lean into him again, lets himself curl an arm around her waist, lets her drift off to sleep with her head in the crook of his arm.

Not knowing what else to do, he finds himself leaning back against the wall of the RV, eyelids heavy from the events of the day, and promptly falls asleep as well.

Before he realizes it, there's sunlight streaming in through the RV's windows and an incessant knocking on the door waking up him.

Daryl looks down at Andrea, her blonde head resting on his shoulder and her body turned into his, and hates to wake her. As gently as he can manage, he extricates himself from her and quickly walks to the front of the RV.

It's Rick, pacing outside. "What's up?" Daryl asks.

Rick looks beyond him. "Andrea here?"

"She's asleep," he says, jerking a thumb toward the back of the RV.

Rick nods. "We're doing it soon. Maybe you want to…?"

"Yeah," Daryl says. "I'll get her."

He closes the door and walks back to the bedroom to find Andrea awake, staring at him from her spot on the mattress. Her eyes are red-rimmed and tired, but alert, and she gives him a small smile in greeting.

"Hey," he says quietly.

"Hi."

"You all right?" he asks, because he doesn't know what else to say.

She shakes her head and presses the heel of her palms to her eyes. "Not really."

"Sounds about right," he says with a shrug. "Listen, Rick was just here."

"Are they burying him?" she asks, her voice quiet.

"Yeah," he says. "Soon."

She runs her fingers through her messy hair and nods. "Okay."

He watches her scrub a hand over her face. "You don't have to…" he says gently. "I mean, if Carol can…"

"No," she says, cutting him off. On shaky legs, she stands and begins to straighten out her clothes. "No, I'm coming."

He nods and gives her the smallest of smiles. "Good."

He moves to leave, and she grabs his arm. "Daryl," she starts, tugging so that he turns to look at her. "Before we go out there, I just want to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For staying with me last night. You didn't have to, but I really appreciate that you did." He shrugs, uncomfortably shuffling his feet, and she continues. "And for taking care of Dale when he needed you."

"I just did what needed to be done," he says, looking down at his shoes. "Rick –"

"No one else was able to ease Dale's pain when it came down to it. Not even Rick." She sighs and presses a kiss to his cheek. "So thank you."

Daryl lifts his head to look her in the eyes for a moment, then nods toward the front of the RV. "You ready to go out there?"

Andrea puts her hand in the crook of his arm and squeezes gently. "Let's go."