Living Like You're Dead

Fever meant infection.

"What do we do?" Daryl asked Dale.

"Well I suppose..." he paused not entirely knowing what to do. "We take her to bed I guess."

Daryl walked her to his room, and lay her down upon his bed. The sheets were disheveled. Why would Daryl Dixon make his bed? She was on fire. How could she have gotten infected?

Sure enough the was an ugly scratch across her arm.

"Why wouldn't she have told anyone that she ran into a walker?" Daryl said touching the scratch.

"How should I know?" Dale said.

Fuck, I stuck my tongue in her mouth, am I infected now?" Shane thought to himself.

Maybe it was after I left her, I left her alone, unable to fend for herself, and now this happens!" Daryl was angry with himself, the right thing to do was kiss her... hold her... and if he had he wouldn't be losing her.

Dale brought back some cold cloths. They draped them over her arms and forehead while she shivered.

"We need to get her temperature down. Slow down the fever. Or it'll cook her brain." Dale said.

"The tub. We can fill it with water from the river." Dale, Shane and Daryl left Addie for a few short minutes to gather the water for a cold bath, at night the river would be freezing, so it should help. Andrea walked out of her room as they passed her with buckets of water.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked.

"Addie's sick." was all Daryl could muster.

"Where is she?"

"My room."

Andrea walked up the stairs to find Addie shivering. Her body was hot, and she too noticed the scratch on her arm. Andrea let tears fill her eyes as she stroked her hair, her skin was burning... Then Daryl came in and picked her up he carefully carried her down the stairs and to the bathtub. He left her clothes on and let her soak. She was shivering, the fever was probably making her body cold, and cold water was going to make it even worse. They soaked the cloths in cold water and rung them out above her head.
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An hour passed.

"She doesn't seem as warm." Daryl said with a hopeful tone of voice.

Dale and Andrea knew she felt the same.

"Daryl.. maybe you.. should think of saying goodbye." Andrea touched his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. Daryl thought back to when he told himself, "You can't get attached to her, what if something were to happen." But he never really did listen, he spent time thinking about only her - she was the only thing that took away the pain from losing his brother. She had kissed him, she had done it. She must've really cared about him too and he didn't do anything but throw her away.

She seemed to be dreaming. She dove in and out of consciousness periodically. Daryl sat next to the tub watching her. He watched her all night, he held her hand, and tried to keep her fever down. He blamed himself for all of this, for leaving her alone.
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When morning came, Rick Grimes walked in to see Addie after Dale had told him what happened.
"Daryl... we need to know that if she turns... you'll be able to shoot her. Cause if not I have to. But you... you obviously care about her."

"She'll be just fine." Daryl snapped back. Rick knew that Daryl comment meant that he wasn't thinking clearly. He would have to wait around until she turned. Rick couldn't help but think of his friend from back home. The man who had found him after he left the hospital had to watch his wife go through this. How terrible it must've been.

After a while Addie's eyes opened. She saw someone standing over her... her mother.

"S'il vous plaît mère, ne me blesse pas, je suis désolé" she muttered. "Je suis désolé que vous ne pouvait pas m'aimer." her mother again put her hands on Adeline's shoulders.

Daryl hadn't heard her speak in complete french since she was on the hood of his car. She was having some sort of nightmare.

Adeline wasn't a child, but she was in this tub, and her mother was trying to kill her. She couldn't breathe, she again sucked up water -

Daryl tried to pull her out of the water, she was holding herself under, it looked like she was trying to breathe, was she trying to kill herself?

Her mother let go again, just like in her dream. And she sat up as quickly as she could coughing up water from her lungs. Rick stood behind Daryl his pistol was cocked. Andrea pulled the hair from Adeline's face, then Daryl could see her green eyes.

"Say something Addie."

"Where am I?" she said. She still recognized her friends... she felt cold. She looked down at Daryl holding her he seemed to be picking her up out of the water. She was in the tub.

Addie thrashed her body as hard as she could in attempt to get out of the tub, she hoisted her self over the edge and stood up, one leg was still in the tub and she kicked it as hard as she could, her left foot slipped from being wet on the bathroom floor and she fell. She caught herself with her hands and kicked herself to the farthest corner of the room.

It seems almost everyone arrived to see what the racket was. All they saw was Addie bawling her eyes out in the corner of the room with water all over the floor.

Rick pointed his pistol between her eyes.