AN: This was my favourite bit of character development in the last 4 episodes, so of course I had to write it. Mild spoilers for episode 3.04. Daryl POV.
-Shazzy
-Atonement-
He wasn't going to let that baby die.
He couldn't.
He had already lost too much, he'd lost Sophia. He'd lost Carol.
The group had suffered heavily, too.
No, Daryl Dixon would be damned if he let Rick's baby die on his watch.
He stared at Rick as his friend suffered, as delirium set in and he collapsed under the weight of his losses. Daryl was afraid to touch Rick, lest he snap. He wasn't even responding to his voice. No, there was no way that Rick would have to deal with any more losses.
Not today.
Not so long as there was a breath left in Daryl's body.
That child was hope incarnate. That child was everything the group needed to bring them back together. They were a unit. They were a family. They had a new life to take care of.
It was a second chance.
A third chance.
A hundredth chance.
Daryl felt a pang of sorrow hit him and a wave of new resolve. The ghosts of a thousand mistakes, of missed chances, and apologies he would never get to say washed over him as the child mewled in Hershel's arms.
He wasn't about to let this child die.
There were already enough sins in his heart, and losing this baby was not one that he would abide.
Not when the wounds of losing Sophia were still so fresh.
Not while his heart bled for the missing Carol.
He would find his absolution, his forgiveness in that child's life.
Daryl Dixon was damned for a hundred thousand sins he could never atone for.
But he sure as hell wasn't going to add that baby to the list.
He would die first.
