Here's a sad little fic about what Father's Day must have been like for the Dixon brothers.

I own nothing. According to my headcanon I've been working on, Merle is 46 and Daryl is 40.

Don't You Remember?

Daryl stood outside the prison, bouncing rocks off the closed shutter. His brother was standing a little ways away, just watching him warily. It was actually a quiet evening, which left the Dixon brothers to think a little too much. Father's Day was just around the corner, (well, if holidays even counted anymore now that the world had ended), and that didn't bring back any good memories. Will Dixon had been an abusive, alcoholic bastard and had made his sons' lives a living hell for over forty years.

"You still thinkin' 'bout that ol' prick, ain't ya?" Merle asked, eyes casted downward at his bayonet arm as he began to situate it some. "It ain't worth it, baby brother. He's long gone, by now."

Daryl shook his head, glancing over at his brother. "Still can't help it. He was a damn horrible dad, and yet I can't shake it off that maybe we were just horrible kids…"

The older Dixon swore under his breath and came at his brother with a solid scowl in place. "Now, you listen to me, Darylina," he rasped, tilting his chin up to seem superior. "Our ol' man was a drunk fuck and there ain't nothin' we coulda done to change that."

"Really?" Daryl asked, narrowing his eyes towards the other redneck. "'Cause you was gone all the time, doin' drugs and gettin' thrown into the juvy. And Mama was too busy chain-smokin' and watchin' her damn soap operas to look after her youngens."

"Why are ya still tryin' ta stick up for 'em, Daryl?" Merle asked, teeth grinding together in aggravation. "Mama burnt the house down and pop was too busy drinkin' to care." The brothers stared back at each other for a long time before Merle went on, "why the hell do you think I left when I did?"

"Why did you leave, then?" the younger of the two countered, obviously taken aback by his brother's comment. "If you knew what was going on, then why did you leave?"

Merle shook his head, heading back towards the prison. "I was only thinkin' 'bout myself. If I had known what that asshole did to my baby brother, though," again, he shook his head. He really had no other words for his brother. The elder Dixon was never any good with words, especially not with affectionate words. He blamed that on his parents too. At least, with the way he ended the conversation, he hoped that Daryl understood that he did care, no matter how hard it was to show it any other way.

Daryl just stood back and watched as his brother went back into the prison. There was no way that he could go back in there right now. He felt like his walls were collapsing around him. It felt suffocating.

There were six years between the two Dixon brothers. Daryl always looked up to his older brother Merle. Of all of the shitty times that neither of their parents were there for them, they still had each other. The younger Dixon thought that they always would, but he was sorely mistaken when Merle started ruining his life by using illegal drugs. He had first went away at the age of twelve, leaving young Daryl to defend himself at the tender age of six.

That Father's Day was miserable for Daryl. His older brother would be away in juvy for… God knew when. Which meant that he got all of the beatings when dad came home drunken and pissed off. On Father's Day it was no different, even when the youngest Dixon brought his papa a gift that he had made himself.

"What is this shit?" Will Dixon grumbled under his breath as he snatched the handmade card out of his youngen's hand.

"It's a card, pops," young Daryl replied, obviously proud. "Merle woulda helped, but…" he trailed off, blue eyes widening at the sight of his father's ire growing.

"Boy, that squirrel that I caught the other night coulda drawn better with its fuckin' buck teeth than you ever could wit' yer dominant hand," the eldest Dixon leant forward and smacked the six-year-old right across the mouth. Daryl stumbled backwards, falling into the fireplace and scraping his knee against the sharp poker.

Mama came running into the room upon hearing the clattering from hers and Will's bedroom. "What the hell is going on here?" She looked down, seeing her baby wiping off his bloody knees. "Ya'll keep it down it here, ya hear me boy? I'm tryin' ta watch my soaps!"

"Yes ma'am," Daryl muttered before scuffing out to the backyard. He had never felt more alone in his entire six years of existence.

A few years later, when Merle was actually around for Father's Day, the two did nothing for their father. By that point, they both had realized that he didn't give a crap about them, and nothing that they ever did would make a difference. So, the two boys went out hunting and Merle began to teach Daryl everything he knew about survival. Daryl was ten, which made his older brother sixteen. When the brothers came home later that night, they were beaten senseless for everything under the sun. Merle, unfortunately, never got the chance to see that his little brother was getting just as much abuse as he was. At about that time, he left home for good and enrolled in the military.

The younger Dixon finally made his way back into the prison. Merle had been happy to see him. He even clapped him on the back and presented him with the resemblance of a smile. It was faint, but it was still there. Even with all the shit that they had went through recently with the Governor, none of that mattered. Daryl needed Merle, and it seemed like Merle needed Daryl just the same.

Carol and Michonne were watching their two men from a far. Neither one of them could keep the smiles off of their faces at that one, miniscule, heartfelt moment between the two brothers. When Carol had asked Merle earlier where Daryl had went off to, she had to restrain herself from going out to see him.

It was a Dixon thing, the elder redneck had told her. That much didn't matter now, not as long as he was okay. Merle came up to the two girls and whisked Michonne away, leaving Daryl and Carol to themselves. The former housewife took the first step forward and took her man's hand in her own.

When she smiled at him, everything began to fade away.

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