‹ Prequel: Pregnancy: Life or Death?
Show Me a Life With Blood and With Beauty
A New Day Rising
A few days passed, but we kept on walking praying that somewhere along the line we would find a newer safe place. I had my head down looking at my daughter asleep in my arms occasionally glancing up to see the rest of the group trudging along. I noticed that Daryl had managed to get to the front of the line and I heard him saying something to Rick. I just kept quiet, until Glenn offered me a drink of water. "No thanks." I said pushing the bottle away. "You need to drink something, I know you're upset but still." I heard him say and saw Daryl turn back around and come back to me. "You want me to carry her?" He said offering me help. I slowly passed her into his arms. "Are you okay?" He looked at me worried. I mumbled something and just kept walking. He just grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Daryl, let go of me." I told him. "No, you're angry, and anger gets you killed and I'm not having you di-" - "That's what you think? I am fine. Let go of me NOW. I don't want to cause a scene." I pulled my arm away and kept walking. I saw Maggie and Glenn look at me with sad looks. We kept walking until we stopped for a break. I went and sat by myself, until Carol came over and sat near me and pulled me out of my day dreaming. "I know how you feel, but you really shouldn't take it out on Daryl. Everybody is just as upset as you are, but we're dealing with it." She put her hand on my knee and I looked at her "I.. I.. She was innocent. I wasn't there, but from what I found out. I.. She should be here." I don't want to think about it, but from what Daryl told me.. I would have done what he did in the moment. "I'm just.. she was a ray of hope. Now this world just looks bleak." - "You know that's not true. You have a daughter who lights up your world. I've seen how you smile when she's with you." I looked over and didn't see Daryl. I noticed Carol left a short time later and I had my daughter laying in my arms. I saw Rick walk over and sit beside me and just look at me. "I told Carl this back at the farm, stuff is going to happen, people are going to die and you can't ever be prepared for it. You can't be ready for it. People are going to die and it may hurt, but we're going to try to grieve together and work together." I started crying and shook my head "That makes sense. You still believe that even after Lori, that's what makes it even more special." I saw his eyes drop "I'm sorry." I saw Judith grab up to his beard and just play with it. I smiled. I noticed Daryl left. I figured he was beating himself up, like always. All of a sudden out of nowhere a herd of walkers came through and I was determined to fight. We managed to fight through the herd and then Daryl came back.
All of a sudden we saw a weird crate in the middle of the road.. We stood there and saw a brand new package of bottled water with a note "FROM A FRIEND" I saw Rick grab the note up and give it to Daryl and I looked at him. "We're running out of water" someone mentioned. I saw Eugene grab a bottle and then someone else knocked the bottle out of his hands. "It could be poisoned!" I went and grabbed for a bottle and Daryl jerked me back. "You're not putting that in your body!" I heard him almost scream at me. "Listen they are sealed.. we squeeze the bottles and-" I saw the eyes of everybody look at me "We're not taking these no matter what." All of a sudden it started raining, and I tried my best to shield my daughter from it. "THERE'S A BARN!" - "WHERE?!" We went to this little barn and went inside. It held up alright. I laid my daughter down in some clean hay and just smiled down at her until she cried. I saw Daryl walk over and sit down next to us. "Listen I'm sor-" I looked up at him "No I was being a real bitch back there." I leaned over and kissed him. I saw him just put Miracle in his lap and just start tickling her. I looked at his hand by the dim lantern light we had but I didn't say anything. I saw the burns on his hands, that were fresh. I opened my backpack and pulled out my journal and flipped and noticed an entry that I wrote "I'm scared. This random guy saved me in the woods, and helped me and even let me sleep in his tent, I didn't have anything to put on, and he gave me one of his shirts which was sort of big on me. I haven't been able to say thank you to him. Ever since he saved me I haven't uttered a word even to myself. He goes and hunts so we have something to eat, I guess because he doesn't want people to know about me. I'm just worried this will end up like the last savior did." Then I skipped to an entry further "Today Daryl left his knife here. It took every single ounce of my body to not grab it and put an end to all of this. I don't want to be here. Why the hell did he even save me? I'm not that special, after all I know I'm not even special in any way." I saw Daryl look over at me and look down at the paper and read it. "You thought I was going to hurt you?" He whispered to me. I shook my head. I saw his eyes drop. "Daryl considering what I went through before.." - "No, I get it." I put my hand on top of his and looked into his eyes. "You wanted to kill yourself because of what happened? How could you want to do that? Why?" - "Daryl I was scared. I didn't want it to happen again, you save me and then rape me. Plus you used stuff on me, bandages, clothes, hunting supplies. I wasn't worth it. I was scared." I saw his eyes drop, "You would have left me alone just like that cause you were scared?" He asked me. "I'm not scared anymore. Not for a long time." I smiled at him. We got up and sat next to the small fire that Rick built for warmth and he looked at Daryl and said "Hey we ain't them. We're not." I saw him just bite his lip. We sort of got comfortable for the night and I laid down with my head on Daryl's leg, he insisted on keeping watch. After a period of time I felt him shove my head off and I heard him start grunting, I woke up and noticed him standing at the door and holding it closed. After a while I saw everybody else get up and help. I placed my daughter on the ground and ran and helped. We held the door closed and then everything stopped. I sat against the wall and had my arm wrapped around Daryl's arm. Everybody else was asleep, but after what happened I couldn't sleep. I saw Maggie get up and sit next to Daryl and said "You can sleep now. It's okay." He started talking to her and said "She was strong, she didn't know how strong she was, but she was. So was he." I saw him point to Sasha who had lost Bob and just recently her own brother, Tyreese. I just wrapped my arm tighter around his and he looked over at me. I let go long enough to pull the jewelry box out of my bag, which Carl had found earlier and Daryl managed to fix. I handed it to Maggie who smiled. She went over and woke Sasha up and walked with her outside.
They came in a short time later with a random guy I hadn't seen before and I stood behind Daryl until he walked over and shoved the man to the ground. "My.. My name is Aaron. I have a safe place not far, I'm a scout. I go around and find what remaining people we can use. They have everything you need." I saw Daryl drop to his knees and start pulling stuff out of the bag. "We should go" I heard Michonne say to Rick. "No we shouldn't!" He said back to her. Rick told everybody to go look around and make sure everything Aaron said was true. "No you stay." I heard him say and I looked at him and Daryl agreed. I stood there sort of bouncing my daughter in my arms. "How old is she?" I heard Aaron ask me. "Maybe 2 months? I don't really know. We had secured a prison, and-" I heard Judith start crying. "There's some apple sauce in my bag." I saw Rick start to go through the bag and pulled out a spoon and a little cup and got a spoon full and put some in the spoon and shoved it in Aaron's mouth who scrunched up his face in disgust. "I hate apple sauce." After Rick saw it wasn't poisoned he started feeding Judith. "Like I was saying.." I sat down across from him. "We had a prison and I ended up getting pregnant and we must have stayed there atleast 9 months because she was conceived and born there.. a few days maybe a week after I gave birth we lost it. Judith is.. she's older I'd say about 4 or 5 months?" I looked over at Rick feeding his daughter. Everybody came back and everything checked out. "Lets take a vote. How many people want to go with Aaron?" I raised my hand and saw Daryl look at me. I saw a few others raise their hands. I think what made Rick go along was Carl. "Carl makes you think this is a good idea?" I heard him ask me. We piled into the cars and I held onto Daryl's arm the whole way. "What? My motherly instincts haven't spiked. Plus.." I pulled out the folder that Aaron had "Look!" I started to show him the photos. "These are sturdy. We could make our lives here. She could grow up here." - "No place is 100% safe now. The prison should be a great example." I picked Miracle up and looked at her little face and asked her "Do you think we should take this chance? You want a bed to sleep in?" I saw her sort of smile. "See.. your daughter agrees." I handed her to him and he just looked at her. He looked at me, "So how are you?" I looked around. "I'm okay, my scar seems to be healing okay. I just hope its not infected." - "Mind if I take a look?" I took the bandaged off and smiled "Turned into a pretty cool scar."
After driving for a while, we got stuck in a herd. "Daryl... What are we going to do?!" I looked down at my daughter crying. "Shhh" I started trying to calm her down. "When I say the word.. Run!" I started crying and shaking. "I can't do this." - "Yes you can. You have to!" I shoved the door open and managed to push some walkers back and started running. Daryl was right behind me. I looked over my shoulder and heard him say "Don't stop!" I couldn't see where I was going, and next thing I knew I stopped and let Daryl catch up with me. "Come on." - "Where are we going? We can't see anything." We managed to find the others, and Aaron found his boyfriend Eric. He came out of the room and Rick wanted to separate them and he said "If you want to keep us apart.. you're going to have to kill me." We stayed where we were for the night and started on our journey to this new 'safe place'. I was completely exhausted. "When we get there, you can sleep. The beds are soft. Perfect place for your family." I heard Aaron tell me. I looked at him and managed to choke out "How many walkers has your community killed? How many people? Why?" He looked at me weird. "Answer the questions." Rick spoke up. Aaron started answering the questions as best he could. We drove for a long time, and finally got to the gates. We sat there and I wasn't sure about this. I mean I wanted to believe in a safe haven, but really. I sat in the car and looked over at Daryl holding our daughter and heard it... the laughter of children. My heart skipped a beat. We got out of the cars and stood there as the gate opened. "Welcome to Alexandria." I heard Aaron say as he looked back at us and helped Eric inside. We heard a crash and I screamed and saw a opossum bump a trash can, and Daryl killed it. "We brought dinner." I heard him say as he picked it up. After we passed through the gates we were forced to turn over our weapons. I didn't want to risk anything even in this community. I just stood there, the only gun I had was tucked underneath some clothes I had and I wasn't willing to give it up. "She isn't good with guns." I heard Daryl say as he motioned towards me. After we turned over our guns, Aaron walked us around to the houses that were empty. "You can have any of these." I saw Daryl stand beside me and I looked at him and sort of saw his face change. I pulled him away from everybody and just put my hand on his cheek. "What's wrong?" I asked worried. "Nothin" - "I know when you're lying. Come on I promise I won't tell anybody." I saw him look down at the ground and back up at me. "It... It's just if this shit never happened.. I wouldn't have been able to afford a ring, if I ever got that far, or buy a house for my family. It's just... this world is shitty but it's given me so many different and wonderful things." I put my hand on his cheek and kissed him. "I saw how your face lit up when you first saw that house." I heard him say as he broke the kiss. "It's not about the house, it's about who is in it. That house is just four walls and a roof. We've got along before it, and we're going to get along after." We walked back over to the group, and Rick divided the houses up. "Daryl, you and your family can have that one." He pointed to the one in the middle. "We'd rather have the one on the far end." I heard him say. "Be my guest." I heard Rick say. "Okay everybody else can take these." He pointed to a few other ones. "We should stay together a few nights though, just make sure we're comfortable." I heard him say.
We were there a few hours and someone came and asked Daryl to go into this house for an interview. "Can I-" - "We rather do this one on one. I hope you understand." I heard the young man say to me. "Okay." I walked down the street until they got to the door and I sat down on the porch with my daughter in my arms. "Can I see her?" I heard Daryl ask me "Sure." All of a sudden I saw the door open, and a woman came to the door. "Hi." I heard her say with a smile. "Hello." I said back while looking at my daughter in her daddy's arms. "I'm Deanna Monroe. Leader of this wonderful community." - "Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking us in, you don't realize how much of a blessing this is. We'd be happy to repay you any way we could. Just ask." I said with a smile. "We're happy to have you here, we welcome people with open arms here in Alexandria." I saw her eyes go straight to my daughter. "So who do we have here?" I saw her smile. "Her name is Miracle." I heard Daryl say before I could even get the words out. "She certainly is a 'miracle'. How old is she?" - "About 2 months maybe, I don't really know." - "Umm I have questions, if you don't mind me asking, they aren't that hard." I smiled at Daryl. "If you both want, you can both come in and I can try to get you both through the process." I was shocked, "Um.. well I.. the guy that came and got us.. he said that only one of us could-" - "I'm bending the rules for you." We both shuffled into the house and I was taken back. "So, how did you two meet, the group I mean." Daryl didn't say much, I spoke up and in very broad detail how me and Daryl met. "He doesn't say much, so he's not being rude. Don't mind him." I motioned toward Daryl. She asked us more questions and we finished up and I was walking out and I walked to the door and noticed Daryl in the chair he was sitting in with his face in his hands. "What's wrong?" I went back and grabbed his shoulder. He looked at Deanna and just cried but between his cries he said "The.. kid outside... he deserves a roof. My... my... wife...and daugh-daughter... deserve a roof. I don't... don't deserve any...any.. any of THIS!" I got down on the floor and looked up at him "Daryl LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT ME!" I saw him look into my eyes. "We're a family. I'm not leaving you. If I'm staying here then so are you. You deserve this, I don't know how to make it more obvious." I sat there in the floor and then I handed him our daughter and he sort of stopped crying when he saw her sorta cry. We stayed there, for a while until Daryl calmed down. I grabbed his hand as he had our daughter in the other and we walked out and got almost out of the house and then Deanna stopped us. "If you two want a stroller, we have some just go to that place over there." I saw her point to a house. "Thank you. I think we're good for right now, but we might take you up on that offer." We walked until we got to Rick's house and went inside and I went into a bedroom and started to feed my daughter. I saw her eyes flutter as she was fighting sleep. She fell asleep about 5 minutes into her feeding and I just looked down at her and smiled. I slowly put her down in my lap and fixed my clothes and carried her into the bathroom where I went and turned on the faucet and to my surprise water.. actual water came out. "I grabbed a tissue off the counter and wet it and started to wipe the dirt from my face and looked in the mirror. I didn't even reconize myself anymore. I quickly grabbed another and wet it and carried it outside. I saw Daryl gutting the opossum he killed and had blood all over the porch. "What took you so long?" I heard him mumble "Nothing. Just investigating." He looked up at me and asked "Find anything?" - "No. Just this." I quickly bent down and ran the wet tissue across his face. "Eww" I said jokingly. I showed him the dirt and everything on it. "What was that for?!" - "Daryl we have water... which means." - "Oh no. You're not making me." I pouted "Don't even try that. It isn't going to work." I bent down and whispered in his ear "Well, what if I joined you?" I said with a smirk. "Nope. Still not happening." I was taken back. "Why? Our daughter is getting a bath tonight. So am I." He went back to gutting his kill and I sat against the rail and Rick came up and started talking to us. "Have you guys met anybody yet?" We shook our heads. "You should. We're all trying to make an effort and so should you." I saw Daryl glance over at me. He stayed and talked to us for a while and then he left. "Why does he think we want to meet everybody?" I heard Daryl ask me. "Neighborly I guess. We should considering we're going to have to live with them, but I suck at introductions." I said back to him. I heard our daughter stir in her sleep and start crying. "Shhh." I rocked her back and forth and she calmed down. "I've seen the way people have been looking at her." I heard Daryl say in an annoyed tone. "They probably haven't seen a baby in a long time. It doesn't mean I'm going to pass her off if they ask. Except-" I saw Daryl raise his eyebrow "That elderly couple over there, they seem nice." I looked at them and waved a little. "Just cause they look nice doesn't mean they are." I heard him grunt. "You don't look nice, but you're a teddy bear." I laughed. Rick came running up to the porch and I was worried "Have... have you seen Carl and Judith?" I heard him pant out of breath. "No why?" I stood up and craddled my daughter even more. I followed behind him, until this blonde woman came up and said "If you're looking for Carl he's over there." And pointed to at a house. "Its been a while since everybody here has seen a baby." She looked at the baby in my arms. "Hi I'm Jessie." I heard her say. "Hello." I said back in a low tone. All of a sudden I felt arms around me. Daryl actually came and got me. "Um... this is my husband." I motioned towards him. "Hi." I heard her say and Daryl just stood there, I knew he was pissed. "Um.. I have to go. I'm sorry." I said in a sad tone. "What the hell was that for?" - "I don't want you getting close to these people." I heard him say to me. "Daryl, I'm going to talk to whoever the hell I want. You're not going to stop me." - "Well if you insist then you're not taking our daughter." I looked at him "Who the fuck do you think you are? I carried her for 9 months, I went through the pain to give birth and I'm going to introduce her to who I want." I saw him walk away from me in an angry huff. I saw Aaron come up to me and talked to me. "You want to hold her? I said with a smile, just think of it as a "Thank You" present. I passed her to him and helped him hold her. "She'll be safe here, you all will." I heard him tell me. I smiled. He held onto her for a little while longer, and then handed her back. "Its getting dark. Stay safe, have a good night." - "You too" I said. I carried her back to the house and saw Daryl smoking outside. "Have fun?" I heard him say with an angry tone. "As a matter of fact I did. Oh and grow up." I said as I went into the house. Everybody was crowed into the living room and there was even a play pen. "You can put her down with Judith if you want." I heard Carl tell me. "I'm fine, but thank you."
I was sitting in the floor playing with my daughter when Daryl walked in and I looked at her with a surprised look on my face "Look who it is. It's your daddy." I passed her to Daryl and watched as he played with her. We were sitting down and enjoying being indoors for once. All of a sudden Rick walked downstairs and it was the first time in a long time since he was actually able to shave and everybody was shocked. Then we heard a knock on the door and Deanna walked inside and looked at everybody. "You look like you're all settled in here." I heard her say. "I'm still trying to find out Mr. Dixon there." I saw her look at Daryl and Daryl turned from looking at our daughter and then back at our daughter. I put my hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. "She's trying to be friendly." I heard him grunt. She left and we started to get ready for bed. I started to get up and walked into a spare room and started to nurse my daughter before bed. I saw the door start to open, and I tried my best to push it closed until I saw my husband. "What's wrong?" I asked him as I saw the worried look on his face. "Nothing." I looked at him as he just looked at the floor. "Just tell me." I said in a sort of curious tone. "I don't want to be apart from you in this place. Can I please sta-" - "You know you don't have to ask. You want to help feed her?" I asked him. "How?" I heard him ask me not getting what I was hinting at. "Here." I pushed him down on the bed and sort of sat down next to him and had him wrap his arms around me and help hold our daughter who was eating up a storm. "See? You can help." I said to him as I looked at our daughter. After a while Miracle fell asleep and I guess I did to. I saw Daryl coming back into the room and brought our daughter over and placed her on the pillow between us.
I woke up the next morning to Daryl's arms wrapped around me and our daughter and I brushed the hair out of his face and kissed him. He didn't even stir. Me and Miracle were the only ones up and I just looked at her and she started smiling. I started to get up and I felt Daryl's arm grip tighter around my waist. "Come on. I have to use the bathroom." I whispered in his ear. "No." I heard him say with a grunt. I just laid back down and he opened his eyes. "Good morning beautiful." I heard him say with a smile. "How are my girls today?" I saw him pick Miracle up and just play with her. I finally got to go to the bathroom and I heard a squeal coming from the bedroom. I saw my husband tickling our daughter and she was smiling and laughing. I quietly snuck up behind my husband and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Still worried that you'll end up like your dad?" I asked him. "Not one bit. He was a cold blooded asshole and I'm..." - "You're your own person." I said as I kissed him.
All of a sudden we saw a weird crate in the middle of the road.. We stood there and saw a brand new package of bottled water with a note "FROM A FRIEND" I saw Rick grab the note up and give it to Daryl and I looked at him. "We're running out of water" someone mentioned. I saw Eugene grab a bottle and then someone else knocked the bottle out of his hands. "It could be poisoned!" I went and grabbed for a bottle and Daryl jerked me back. "You're not putting that in your body!" I heard him almost scream at me. "Listen they are sealed.. we squeeze the bottles and-" I saw the eyes of everybody look at me "We're not taking these no matter what." All of a sudden it started raining, and I tried my best to shield my daughter from it. "THERE'S A BARN!" - "WHERE?!" We went to this little barn and went inside. It held up alright. I laid my daughter down in some clean hay and just smiled down at her until she cried. I saw Daryl walk over and sit down next to us. "Listen I'm sor-" I looked up at him "No I was being a real bitch back there." I leaned over and kissed him. I saw him just put Miracle in his lap and just start tickling her. I looked at his hand by the dim lantern light we had but I didn't say anything. I saw the burns on his hands, that were fresh. I opened my backpack and pulled out my journal and flipped and noticed an entry that I wrote "I'm scared. This random guy saved me in the woods, and helped me and even let me sleep in his tent, I didn't have anything to put on, and he gave me one of his shirts which was sort of big on me. I haven't been able to say thank you to him. Ever since he saved me I haven't uttered a word even to myself. He goes and hunts so we have something to eat, I guess because he doesn't want people to know about me. I'm just worried this will end up like the last savior did." Then I skipped to an entry further "Today Daryl left his knife here. It took every single ounce of my body to not grab it and put an end to all of this. I don't want to be here. Why the hell did he even save me? I'm not that special, after all I know I'm not even special in any way." I saw Daryl look over at me and look down at the paper and read it. "You thought I was going to hurt you?" He whispered to me. I shook my head. I saw his eyes drop. "Daryl considering what I went through before.." - "No, I get it." I put my hand on top of his and looked into his eyes. "You wanted to kill yourself because of what happened? How could you want to do that? Why?" - "Daryl I was scared. I didn't want it to happen again, you save me and then rape me. Plus you used stuff on me, bandages, clothes, hunting supplies. I wasn't worth it. I was scared." I saw his eyes drop, "You would have left me alone just like that cause you were scared?" He asked me. "I'm not scared anymore. Not for a long time." I smiled at him. We got up and sat next to the small fire that Rick built for warmth and he looked at Daryl and said "Hey we ain't them. We're not." I saw him just bite his lip. We sort of got comfortable for the night and I laid down with my head on Daryl's leg, he insisted on keeping watch. After a period of time I felt him shove my head off and I heard him start grunting, I woke up and noticed him standing at the door and holding it closed. After a while I saw everybody else get up and help. I placed my daughter on the ground and ran and helped. We held the door closed and then everything stopped. I sat against the wall and had my arm wrapped around Daryl's arm. Everybody else was asleep, but after what happened I couldn't sleep. I saw Maggie get up and sit next to Daryl and said "You can sleep now. It's okay." He started talking to her and said "She was strong, she didn't know how strong she was, but she was. So was he." I saw him point to Sasha who had lost Bob and just recently her own brother, Tyreese. I just wrapped my arm tighter around his and he looked over at me. I let go long enough to pull the jewelry box out of my bag, which Carl had found earlier and Daryl managed to fix. I handed it to Maggie who smiled. She went over and woke Sasha up and walked with her outside.
They came in a short time later with a random guy I hadn't seen before and I stood behind Daryl until he walked over and shoved the man to the ground. "My.. My name is Aaron. I have a safe place not far, I'm a scout. I go around and find what remaining people we can use. They have everything you need." I saw Daryl drop to his knees and start pulling stuff out of the bag. "We should go" I heard Michonne say to Rick. "No we shouldn't!" He said back to her. Rick told everybody to go look around and make sure everything Aaron said was true. "No you stay." I heard him say and I looked at him and Daryl agreed. I stood there sort of bouncing my daughter in my arms. "How old is she?" I heard Aaron ask me. "Maybe 2 months? I don't really know. We had secured a prison, and-" I heard Judith start crying. "There's some apple sauce in my bag." I saw Rick start to go through the bag and pulled out a spoon and a little cup and got a spoon full and put some in the spoon and shoved it in Aaron's mouth who scrunched up his face in disgust. "I hate apple sauce." After Rick saw it wasn't poisoned he started feeding Judith. "Like I was saying.." I sat down across from him. "We had a prison and I ended up getting pregnant and we must have stayed there atleast 9 months because she was conceived and born there.. a few days maybe a week after I gave birth we lost it. Judith is.. she's older I'd say about 4 or 5 months?" I looked over at Rick feeding his daughter. Everybody came back and everything checked out. "Lets take a vote. How many people want to go with Aaron?" I raised my hand and saw Daryl look at me. I saw a few others raise their hands. I think what made Rick go along was Carl. "Carl makes you think this is a good idea?" I heard him ask me. We piled into the cars and I held onto Daryl's arm the whole way. "What? My motherly instincts haven't spiked. Plus.." I pulled out the folder that Aaron had "Look!" I started to show him the photos. "These are sturdy. We could make our lives here. She could grow up here." - "No place is 100% safe now. The prison should be a great example." I picked Miracle up and looked at her little face and asked her "Do you think we should take this chance? You want a bed to sleep in?" I saw her sort of smile. "See.. your daughter agrees." I handed her to him and he just looked at her. He looked at me, "So how are you?" I looked around. "I'm okay, my scar seems to be healing okay. I just hope its not infected." - "Mind if I take a look?" I took the bandaged off and smiled "Turned into a pretty cool scar."
After driving for a while, we got stuck in a herd. "Daryl... What are we going to do?!" I looked down at my daughter crying. "Shhh" I started trying to calm her down. "When I say the word.. Run!" I started crying and shaking. "I can't do this." - "Yes you can. You have to!" I shoved the door open and managed to push some walkers back and started running. Daryl was right behind me. I looked over my shoulder and heard him say "Don't stop!" I couldn't see where I was going, and next thing I knew I stopped and let Daryl catch up with me. "Come on." - "Where are we going? We can't see anything." We managed to find the others, and Aaron found his boyfriend Eric. He came out of the room and Rick wanted to separate them and he said "If you want to keep us apart.. you're going to have to kill me." We stayed where we were for the night and started on our journey to this new 'safe place'. I was completely exhausted. "When we get there, you can sleep. The beds are soft. Perfect place for your family." I heard Aaron tell me. I looked at him and managed to choke out "How many walkers has your community killed? How many people? Why?" He looked at me weird. "Answer the questions." Rick spoke up. Aaron started answering the questions as best he could. We drove for a long time, and finally got to the gates. We sat there and I wasn't sure about this. I mean I wanted to believe in a safe haven, but really. I sat in the car and looked over at Daryl holding our daughter and heard it... the laughter of children. My heart skipped a beat. We got out of the cars and stood there as the gate opened. "Welcome to Alexandria." I heard Aaron say as he looked back at us and helped Eric inside. We heard a crash and I screamed and saw a opossum bump a trash can, and Daryl killed it. "We brought dinner." I heard him say as he picked it up. After we passed through the gates we were forced to turn over our weapons. I didn't want to risk anything even in this community. I just stood there, the only gun I had was tucked underneath some clothes I had and I wasn't willing to give it up. "She isn't good with guns." I heard Daryl say as he motioned towards me. After we turned over our guns, Aaron walked us around to the houses that were empty. "You can have any of these." I saw Daryl stand beside me and I looked at him and sort of saw his face change. I pulled him away from everybody and just put my hand on his cheek. "What's wrong?" I asked worried. "Nothin" - "I know when you're lying. Come on I promise I won't tell anybody." I saw him look down at the ground and back up at me. "It... It's just if this shit never happened.. I wouldn't have been able to afford a ring, if I ever got that far, or buy a house for my family. It's just... this world is shitty but it's given me so many different and wonderful things." I put my hand on his cheek and kissed him. "I saw how your face lit up when you first saw that house." I heard him say as he broke the kiss. "It's not about the house, it's about who is in it. That house is just four walls and a roof. We've got along before it, and we're going to get along after." We walked back over to the group, and Rick divided the houses up. "Daryl, you and your family can have that one." He pointed to the one in the middle. "We'd rather have the one on the far end." I heard him say. "Be my guest." I heard Rick say. "Okay everybody else can take these." He pointed to a few other ones. "We should stay together a few nights though, just make sure we're comfortable." I heard him say.
We were there a few hours and someone came and asked Daryl to go into this house for an interview. "Can I-" - "We rather do this one on one. I hope you understand." I heard the young man say to me. "Okay." I walked down the street until they got to the door and I sat down on the porch with my daughter in my arms. "Can I see her?" I heard Daryl ask me "Sure." All of a sudden I saw the door open, and a woman came to the door. "Hi." I heard her say with a smile. "Hello." I said back while looking at my daughter in her daddy's arms. "I'm Deanna Monroe. Leader of this wonderful community." - "Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking us in, you don't realize how much of a blessing this is. We'd be happy to repay you any way we could. Just ask." I said with a smile. "We're happy to have you here, we welcome people with open arms here in Alexandria." I saw her eyes go straight to my daughter. "So who do we have here?" I saw her smile. "Her name is Miracle." I heard Daryl say before I could even get the words out. "She certainly is a 'miracle'. How old is she?" - "About 2 months maybe, I don't really know." - "Umm I have questions, if you don't mind me asking, they aren't that hard." I smiled at Daryl. "If you both want, you can both come in and I can try to get you both through the process." I was shocked, "Um.. well I.. the guy that came and got us.. he said that only one of us could-" - "I'm bending the rules for you." We both shuffled into the house and I was taken back. "So, how did you two meet, the group I mean." Daryl didn't say much, I spoke up and in very broad detail how me and Daryl met. "He doesn't say much, so he's not being rude. Don't mind him." I motioned toward Daryl. She asked us more questions and we finished up and I was walking out and I walked to the door and noticed Daryl in the chair he was sitting in with his face in his hands. "What's wrong?" I went back and grabbed his shoulder. He looked at Deanna and just cried but between his cries he said "The.. kid outside... he deserves a roof. My... my... wife...and daugh-daughter... deserve a roof. I don't... don't deserve any...any.. any of THIS!" I got down on the floor and looked up at him "Daryl LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT ME!" I saw him look into my eyes. "We're a family. I'm not leaving you. If I'm staying here then so are you. You deserve this, I don't know how to make it more obvious." I sat there in the floor and then I handed him our daughter and he sort of stopped crying when he saw her sorta cry. We stayed there, for a while until Daryl calmed down. I grabbed his hand as he had our daughter in the other and we walked out and got almost out of the house and then Deanna stopped us. "If you two want a stroller, we have some just go to that place over there." I saw her point to a house. "Thank you. I think we're good for right now, but we might take you up on that offer." We walked until we got to Rick's house and went inside and I went into a bedroom and started to feed my daughter. I saw her eyes flutter as she was fighting sleep. She fell asleep about 5 minutes into her feeding and I just looked down at her and smiled. I slowly put her down in my lap and fixed my clothes and carried her into the bathroom where I went and turned on the faucet and to my surprise water.. actual water came out. "I grabbed a tissue off the counter and wet it and started to wipe the dirt from my face and looked in the mirror. I didn't even reconize myself anymore. I quickly grabbed another and wet it and carried it outside. I saw Daryl gutting the opossum he killed and had blood all over the porch. "What took you so long?" I heard him mumble "Nothing. Just investigating." He looked up at me and asked "Find anything?" - "No. Just this." I quickly bent down and ran the wet tissue across his face. "Eww" I said jokingly. I showed him the dirt and everything on it. "What was that for?!" - "Daryl we have water... which means." - "Oh no. You're not making me." I pouted "Don't even try that. It isn't going to work." I bent down and whispered in his ear "Well, what if I joined you?" I said with a smirk. "Nope. Still not happening." I was taken back. "Why? Our daughter is getting a bath tonight. So am I." He went back to gutting his kill and I sat against the rail and Rick came up and started talking to us. "Have you guys met anybody yet?" We shook our heads. "You should. We're all trying to make an effort and so should you." I saw Daryl glance over at me. He stayed and talked to us for a while and then he left. "Why does he think we want to meet everybody?" I heard Daryl ask me. "Neighborly I guess. We should considering we're going to have to live with them, but I suck at introductions." I said back to him. I heard our daughter stir in her sleep and start crying. "Shhh." I rocked her back and forth and she calmed down. "I've seen the way people have been looking at her." I heard Daryl say in an annoyed tone. "They probably haven't seen a baby in a long time. It doesn't mean I'm going to pass her off if they ask. Except-" I saw Daryl raise his eyebrow "That elderly couple over there, they seem nice." I looked at them and waved a little. "Just cause they look nice doesn't mean they are." I heard him grunt. "You don't look nice, but you're a teddy bear." I laughed. Rick came running up to the porch and I was worried "Have... have you seen Carl and Judith?" I heard him pant out of breath. "No why?" I stood up and craddled my daughter even more. I followed behind him, until this blonde woman came up and said "If you're looking for Carl he's over there." And pointed to at a house. "Its been a while since everybody here has seen a baby." She looked at the baby in my arms. "Hi I'm Jessie." I heard her say. "Hello." I said back in a low tone. All of a sudden I felt arms around me. Daryl actually came and got me. "Um... this is my husband." I motioned towards him. "Hi." I heard her say and Daryl just stood there, I knew he was pissed. "Um.. I have to go. I'm sorry." I said in a sad tone. "What the hell was that for?" - "I don't want you getting close to these people." I heard him say to me. "Daryl, I'm going to talk to whoever the hell I want. You're not going to stop me." - "Well if you insist then you're not taking our daughter." I looked at him "Who the fuck do you think you are? I carried her for 9 months, I went through the pain to give birth and I'm going to introduce her to who I want." I saw him walk away from me in an angry huff. I saw Aaron come up to me and talked to me. "You want to hold her? I said with a smile, just think of it as a "Thank You" present. I passed her to him and helped him hold her. "She'll be safe here, you all will." I heard him tell me. I smiled. He held onto her for a little while longer, and then handed her back. "Its getting dark. Stay safe, have a good night." - "You too" I said. I carried her back to the house and saw Daryl smoking outside. "Have fun?" I heard him say with an angry tone. "As a matter of fact I did. Oh and grow up." I said as I went into the house. Everybody was crowed into the living room and there was even a play pen. "You can put her down with Judith if you want." I heard Carl tell me. "I'm fine, but thank you."
I was sitting in the floor playing with my daughter when Daryl walked in and I looked at her with a surprised look on my face "Look who it is. It's your daddy." I passed her to Daryl and watched as he played with her. We were sitting down and enjoying being indoors for once. All of a sudden Rick walked downstairs and it was the first time in a long time since he was actually able to shave and everybody was shocked. Then we heard a knock on the door and Deanna walked inside and looked at everybody. "You look like you're all settled in here." I heard her say. "I'm still trying to find out Mr. Dixon there." I saw her look at Daryl and Daryl turned from looking at our daughter and then back at our daughter. I put my hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. "She's trying to be friendly." I heard him grunt. She left and we started to get ready for bed. I started to get up and walked into a spare room and started to nurse my daughter before bed. I saw the door start to open, and I tried my best to push it closed until I saw my husband. "What's wrong?" I asked him as I saw the worried look on his face. "Nothing." I looked at him as he just looked at the floor. "Just tell me." I said in a sort of curious tone. "I don't want to be apart from you in this place. Can I please sta-" - "You know you don't have to ask. You want to help feed her?" I asked him. "How?" I heard him ask me not getting what I was hinting at. "Here." I pushed him down on the bed and sort of sat down next to him and had him wrap his arms around me and help hold our daughter who was eating up a storm. "See? You can help." I said to him as I looked at our daughter. After a while Miracle fell asleep and I guess I did to. I saw Daryl coming back into the room and brought our daughter over and placed her on the pillow between us.
I woke up the next morning to Daryl's arms wrapped around me and our daughter and I brushed the hair out of his face and kissed him. He didn't even stir. Me and Miracle were the only ones up and I just looked at her and she started smiling. I started to get up and I felt Daryl's arm grip tighter around my waist. "Come on. I have to use the bathroom." I whispered in his ear. "No." I heard him say with a grunt. I just laid back down and he opened his eyes. "Good morning beautiful." I heard him say with a smile. "How are my girls today?" I saw him pick Miracle up and just play with her. I finally got to go to the bathroom and I heard a squeal coming from the bedroom. I saw my husband tickling our daughter and she was smiling and laughing. I quietly snuck up behind my husband and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Still worried that you'll end up like your dad?" I asked him. "Not one bit. He was a cold blooded asshole and I'm..." - "You're your own person." I said as I kissed him.