I Just Wanted You to Know

Thank you to everyone who reads my story! :)

Enjoy.

CH. 4 Nice To Meet You

A commotion was taking place in the room next to where Mary laid. She awoke to the screams of pain coming from a young boy. Mary shook the sleep from her head and sat up. Much to her surprise she was still in Hershel's farm house. To the right of her bed, there was a pair of crutches leaning against the wall. She pulled her legs to the side of the bed and stood, placing little to no weight on the injured leg. With the help of the crutches, Mary limbered her way across the room and to the draped window. She peered outside. There were tents and several people walking around, an older lady, who Mary guessed to be Carol through squinted eyes and Dale on top of the Winnebago talking to Andrea.

Mary took a deep breath. She quickly pinched herself, one last time...and no, she wasn't dreaming. Ever feel like you have no idea what the fuck is going on? Thats how she felt. However, when you have lost all control, sometimes it helps to just go with the flow.

The boy's screams got louder. Mary assumed it was Carl, after all, one of the last episodes she watched, he had indeed been shot. She walked with the crutches to the nearby room. Slowly, making as little noise as possible, she glanced into the room. Carl laid on the bed, now passed out, with his two worried parents at the end of his bed and Hershel, who had a bullet fragment in hand between a pair of forceps.

"I was only able to get the shallowest fragment, any deeper and i can nick an artery. Your man needs to come back soon or we'll just..."

"Can i help?" Mary asked from the entrance of the doorway. Hershel stopped mid-sentence in surprise of her presence. "I'm sorry. My name is Mary, and i was a-a-a Doctor...before t-t-the... outbreak." She stammered to get her words across. Mostly because it was strange to be staring face to face with some of her favorite characters from the show. This was actually happening. This was going to be interesting.

Hershel didn't answer her question. Instead Rick nodded, helping her walk into the room with support to not trip and cause further damage to anything in the surrounding area. Mary sat into a chair on the opposite side on the bed from Hershel. Rick took her crutches and placed them to the side. Mary gave a soft smile to Lori, in an effort to comfort her.

With a trembling hand, she took the stethoscope from Hershel, mouthing a 'thank you'. Mary worked in silence, taking the vitals of the boy. She was never big on bed side manners. Most of her past experiences consisted of patients complaining about her hands and words being too cold. It was about the quality of the patient care not the way it was delivered, at least that was her view of the matter.

"He's stable. However, his abdomen is distended which is a sign of internal bleeding. He can't wait long for an operation."

"Do you have experience in surgery?" Hershel asserted.

With a grave expression, Mary answered, "No. I can help with the basics. I assume you have experience."

Hershel nodded his head in affirmation. Not revealing he wasn't a doctor but instead a veterinarian.

Lori leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh of relief. No doubt that there was a better chance of Carl's survival now.

"You look to be in good spirits." Hershel commented on her much improved condition.

"Oh yes. I feel much better." Mary then took a second to look at each of the two men in the room. Neither one had those blue eyes and a calloused touch. It had to have been Daryl who saved her. The arrow being the obvious give away, but being in denial held back such thoughts of being in his arms. Any fan girl would love that experience.

"Mary, if you want to stay with our group, i'd like to introduce you to everyone." Rick out stretched his hand to help her up. She steadied herself on the crutches and followed closely behind him. Lori stayed behind to be by Carl's side, she seemed grateful but not welcoming of Mary into the group. Hershel followed as well. The three of us were met on the way out by Hershel's two daughters.

"These are my daughters, Beth and Maggie." Hershel introduced his family before Rick led the way out the door.

Mary felt an acute case of anxiety mixed with excitement settle in. She was nervous that maybe the group wouldn't like her. The only skill she really offered was medical help. Other than that, she was about as useless now as a phone.

The walk over to their makeshift camp was a short walk, but Rick never ceased to amaze her as a leader and making her as a newcomer feel comfortable.

"Thank you for taking a look at my son," Rick began giving her a warm smile, "We could really use your help. People around here tend to get injured often."

Mary gave a nervous laugh, "Your welcome, officer. I'm just glad i could be of assistance." She gave a playful wink. Rick laughed as well.

Now arrived in the middle of camp, they began to approach several people at a time. However, all the attention was directed towards her. Especially the attention of a certain redneck sitting of to the corner of camp. Daryl watched the sheriff lead the woman who Daryl had foolishly shot while out hunting. Mary called it her rescue, but he had a different point of view. Daryl was sitting out side his tent skinning several squirrels to cook up for lunch later in the day. At the sight of her, he dropped his knife hitting the bucket of guts and moments later spilling its contents on the ground. With all the blood, dirt and sweat cleaned off of her, he thought she looked like a completely different person. She was everything but normal in his eyes. With long Auburn hair, green eyes and freckles that ran across the middle of her face, she definitely caught his attention.

Her heart accelerated when she was first introduced to Dale and Andrea. Mary could hardly speak, the uncanny resemblance to her landlord and nurse friend was too much to ignore. Much like how Hershel resembled Scott, the attending physician.

"Well, Good morning. Its nice to see another smiling face." Dale greeted her.

Andrea just smiled and said hi.

Mary opened her mouth to speak to the pair but no words would come out, so she laughed nervously and shook bother their hands. For a second her eyes became watery because she was scared she would never see home again.

"Is there something wrong?" Dale asked.

"No, no," Mary began, "It's just that you two resemble some good friends of mine that I lost." Andrea pulled her into a hug and patted her on the back.

Next, Rick introduced her to Glenn, T-dog and Carol. All seemed to be nice people just as they were portrayed on the show. Mary took a mental note that Sophia got lost in an earlier episode and was the reason for Carol's grave expressions. Rick also let Mary know that there was another man Shane but he was out with Otis getting medical supplies for Carl. However, despite everyone's knowledge, she knew what kind of relationship Lori and Shane had. Also, that Shane was a loose cannon and couldn't be trusted. But then again neither could Lori.

Mary felt her heart in her throat as Rick led her to meet Daryl. From afar, she noticed him. All she could really say was that he looked a hell of a lot better in person, more so than he did of tv. She was always a fan girl of the Daryl Dixion and Murphy Macmanus. She felt a tingly sensation throughout her body as they approached him. That tingling sensation was every ounce of common sense leaving her body.

Daryl was picking up several small bloody organs off from the ground, cleaning up his accidental mess. He looked up briefly, meeting his beautiful blue eyes with hers. She was almost stunned to be a mere foot in front of him.

"Daryl this is..." Rick began but was cut off.

"My day gets better and better. Im busy." Daryl snarled to both Rick and Mary.

"Calm down, will you?" Rick snapped at him.

"I j-j-just wanted t-to..." Mary began, but decided against saying 'thank you' because of his rude attitude. She tried her best to cross her arms but wasn't successful because of the crutches. "Ugh, I thought you would have been a hell of a lot nicer, Norman." The second the words left her lips she immediately regretted her decision to even speak.

"The hell ya call me?" Daryl stood up, his hands dripping blood as well as blood splatters on his shirt and jeans.

"Nor-mally people are nice to other people they save." Mary awkwardly made the sentence mess together, hiding the fact she called him 'Norman' by saying 'normally' in a dragged out way.

Daryl just grunted and returned back to his work.

Rick started leading her back to the farm house, "He's nice once you get to know him."

Mary gave a sarcastic laugh, "Thats like saying, he's an asshole but you'll get use to it." She said it loud enough for Daryl to hear.

Rick laughed as he helped her up the stairs and into the farm house. Daryl, on the other hand, watched her until she disappeared inside. He admired her from a far, and actually kinda felt bad for shooting her but like hell if he'd ever admit that to some useless woman.