Day two- Chapter Two...

Tragedy

Daryl was awoken the next morning when he heard Rick's voice crackle over the radio. He got himself untangled from Anna and then stiffly made his way over to the radio set up in the corner of the great room.

"Rick I copy you" He answered.

"Morning Daryl. Sorry for the early morning wake-up call, but I have a bit of a crisis here." Rick informed him.

"How serious?" Daryl replied.

"Extremely serious. I have a three year old daughter that is making my life hell until she can see Hunter." Rick answered.

"Ain't no way I can get my truck out in this shit, it's too deep, and the Gator is having some mechanical issues I gotta work out. Are you able to get out in the snow and make your way up here with your jeep?" Daryl asked.

"I think so. The snow stopped sometime in the middle of the night and I've got to get out of this house or I'm going to go crazy. Michonne wants to go check on Buffy Sanderson this morning, and I told her I would take her over there, so I was hoping you could keep an eye on Judy for me too. Carl was on patrol last night with Tyreese and he just got home an hour ago. I think he is pretty much wiped out because of the cold and I know he isn't going to want to keep an eye on his sister right now." Rick informed Daryl.

"If you can make it up here then by all means bring Judy by. I wanna run some things by you before our meeting tonight." Daryl told him.

"10-4. I'll see you in about an hour then." Rick told him.

Daryl could sense there was more to Rick coming over than Judy wanting to play with Hunter. There was close to two feet of snow on the ground and the temperatures were only in mid teens, so there had to be a reason Rick wanted to talk to him alone and so urgently. Hopefully it was good news, because Daryl wasn't sure he could handle anymore bad news than what he had already handled over the past few months.

Besides the stress of the dwindling supplies Daryl had dealt with some tragedies since early October. The first incident being that Anna had finally conceived again only to miscarry in her fourth month of pregnancy. It had been devastating to not only Anna and Daryl, but to Hunter and the other family as well. Hunter was excited that she was going to be a big sister and after the miscarriage Daryl had to explain to his daughter that her baby brother had died and that was the reason why mommy was so sad.

They really shouldn't have been that surprised Anna didn't carry the pregnancy to term. She was close to forty-three years old and pre-natal care these days was sub-par at best. They no longer had vitamins and such to help to keep the baby and mother strong, and just that fact put women at much greater risk of losing their unborn child. Viv did all she could to help, but Anna had started to spot in her fourth month, and a few days later she went into premature labor. Viv delivered the tiny child, a son, but the little boy never drew a breath. Anna and Daryl held the tiny little boy and said their good-byes, never getting a chance to know him.

They buried their son, whom they named Michael Guiseppe Dixon beside his grandparents on the cliff that overlooked the valley. Daryl made a marker for his son and carved the boys name and date of birth. But Daryl never had a real chance to grieve the loss of his child because following the miscarriage Anna slipped into a deep depression. At first it was just uncontrollable crying, but then Anna began to withdraw from everyone, including Daryl. She barely had anything to do with Hunter and that left Daryl assuming the role of both mother and father while also handling all his other responsibilities on the council.

Things really got scary for Daryl when Anna refused to eat and then she wouldn't even let Daryl near her. His attempts to comfort her resulted in her completely freezing up, and in one final episode she ran from him completely and took off into the woods. He ended up calling Viv on the radio so she could come over and watch Hunter while he went out to find her. It took him two hours to find her shivering in the cold, curled up in a ball lying at the base of a tree in the middle of the woods. Her eyes were completely dead and she didn't even acknowledge his presence when he picked her up to carry her small form back to the house. He was beside himself with worry, and when he arrived back at the house, Viv could see what a mess her niece had become.

Viv also could see what the stress of Anna's breakdown was doing to Daryl. He would never complain, but the stress of taking care of Hunter, trying to answer all of his daughter's questions regarding her mother and her little brother, and maintaining their household as well as his responsibilities in the community was wearing Daryl out. He looked haggard with dark circles under his eyes, and his face had become gaunt from the lack of sleep and lack of eating. Viv guessed he was too preoccupied worrying about everyone else to take care of his own needs. When Daryl was worn out his limp would become more pronounced, and Viv noticed he wasn't even trying to fight it.

That night after they returned Viv sent Hunter and Daryl to stay at her home with Joe, Marty, Carrie, and Isabella so that he could at least get some rest and some food. Isabella immediately scooped the little girl up into a great big hug and ushered Daryl to go out to the porch to relax with the other two men. Hunter "helped" her aunt prepare a large meal while Marty and Joe indulged Daryl with some fine scotch and cigars. While being up at the Martinelli's helped, he was still beside himself with worry over his wife. He prayed that Viv could snap Anna out of her depression because he had done all that he knew to do with no success.

That night Daryl slept in the guestroom with his daughter snuggled against him. She cried herself to sleep because "Mommy didn't love her anymore". It broke Daryl's heart to hear his little girl utter these words. He tried to comfort her and the only way to appease his daughter's fears was to cradle her little body in his arms and let her cry until she was exhausted. He knew he needed a miracle.

Apparently Viv had managed to work that miracle because the next morning Daryl was awoken with a vibrant Anna throwing herself into his arms as he was asleep. She apologized profusely and woke Hunter up to tell her how sorry she was. Daryl finally broke down and let himself mourn the loss of his son as Anna grieved with him. They finally had their break through moment and explained to Hunter what had happened and why "Mommy had been so sick". It was the first step in finally being able to live again.

Each day after the breakthrough family life returned to normal for Daryl and Anna. The first part of December Daryl had agreed to go on a short hunting trip with Bill Mocksley and his sons Mark, Luke, and Matthew. They headed south to an area that was known for an abundance of wild hog and they hoped to bag a few to bring back to the community. Daryl had to admit some good old fashioned bacon sounded appetizing, so it didn't take much convincing to get him to go along.

After they made it out about thirty miles they came across a giant car dealership and Bill suggested they stop and see if they could possibly siphon some fuel. It didn't take them long to find an almost full tank that had been kept on sight to fuel up the vehicles for test drives. Luke found some additional gas cans and they were able to fill up Bill's truck which could hold thirty gallons of fuel, as well as being able to carry an additional forty gallons back with them.

Bill's youngest son Luke was fourteen and he asked his father if he could take a look around at all of the unsold vehicles. Daryl actually thought that was a pretty good idea and told the boy he would join him, which gave Bill some reassurance that Luke would have some sort of protection with him. Daryl was hoping maybe he could find a decent vehicle with four wheel drive that he could use to replace his truck that only had two wheel drive and would struggle on the mountain roads in the upcoming winter months.

Luke knew a lot about cars and told Daryl that he used to read his older brother's hot rod magazine and his dream car was a 1969 classic Camaro. Daryl wouldn't mind owning one himself but he knew that in this day and age it was an impractical car. Soon after looking at the trucks Daryl spotted a black four-wheel drive extended cab Chevy Silverado that he thought would be a perfect replacement for his truck. Luke got up in the truck to see if it would start but realized he didn't have a key. Daryl thought briefly about hot-wiring the car, but the two decided to head into the office and see if they could find a key. Daryl knew the keys would reference the VIN so he quickly memorized the last five digits. They headed into the shop and as Daryl began to look through the keys up on the pegboard Luke wandered over to an old snack machine that still had items in it. While Daryl was reading the various numbers, he heard banging and realized Luke was trying to break the glass to get some of the treats out of the machine. No sooner had he began to open his mouth to tell Luke to keep the noise to a minimum did three walkers make their way out into the dealership lobby.

Daryl yelled out to get the teen's attention, but Luke was so intent on ridding the machine of its chips and candies that he failed to acknowledge Daryl's yelling. Daryl lifted up his crossbow and took out one of the hungry walkers, but the other two surrounded Luke before Daryl could dispatch them. Luke looked up just in time for one of the walkers to take a bite out of Luke's upper arm. Luke grabbed his hunting knife and stabbed the walker that had just bit him, through the brain, and Daryl fired off another bolt and killed the third walker.

When Daryl reached Luke the boy had a look of terror on his face and both of them knew what needed to be done. Luke looked at Daryl "Just cut it off as quick as you can." He said bravely.

Daryl ran over to the fire extinguisher area and broke the glass pulling out an axe. He pulled off his belt and tied a tourniquet as close to Luke's shoulder as possible. The boy lay down on the floor, and Daryl could see the terror in the kid's face. Daryl was on his knees and with all his might, he swung the axe cleanly and hacked through the boy's arm and bone just below the shoulder. Luke bit through his lip, but didn't scream out and Daryl was impressed at how strong the boy was. Unfortunately, it took four strong whacks to remove the arm from the Luke's body.

Immediately Daryl ripped off his shirt and applied direct pressure to the blood flow. Luke was turning paler by the moment and Daryl scooped the boy up and ran out to the other Mocksley's, carrying the boy in his arms. They quickly got Luke in the truck and Daryl rode in the back holding the now saturated shirt to the bloody stump. He was praying that he was able to get the arm off before the fever had a chance to set in.

Bill Mocksley drove like a maniac to get back to Maggie and Viv so that they could hopefully get Luke stabilized. As they got to the mountain and headed up towards the Martinelli home Daryl felt Luke's body go limp. At that point Daryl knew that they had lost the young teen. They pulled up to the home and Viv and Marty met them out at the truck as Bill immediately jumped out of the vehicle to help Daryl carry his youngest son into the house, but the look on Daryl's face let him know it was too late.

Viv's face fell when she saw Daryl covered in blood and the lost look he had in his eyes. He would never admit it to her or anyone else, but this rocked him to the core. She didn't know all the details of what had happened, but it didn't take much to connect the dots.

Daryl then spoke to Bill "Do you want me to take care of this?" Bill knew that Daryl was referring to the final wound to the brain that would keep his baby boy from rising back again.

Bill shook his head, "I'm his daddy, I need to be the one."

Daryl cradled the deceased teen and held the boy so that Bill could have easy access to the brain. Bill removed his knife and swiftly inserted it into the back of his son's head, preventing his son from ever turning into one of the undead. Daryl then handed the boy over to his father as he exited the back of the truck. Daryl couldn't imagine how it would feel if this was Hunter. When Anna lost the baby there wasn't anything he could do about it, but Daryl couldn't help but think this was somewhat his fault. There was no way they should have been in that dealership without sweeping the area first. That was a poor decision on his part and it cost Luke his life.

Now here it was January and Daryl had never mentioned the events of that day again. Anna didn't push but told him she was there for him when he was ready to talk about it. He decided the best way to handle it was to push it down and not focus on the past. There were too many people in the community that were relying on him and the other members of the council to keep them safe, and that needed to be where he put his efforts.

Daryl was now focused on Rick's impending visit. He went and woke up Anna and told her they were expecting company and that he would wake up Hunter.

He then went into his daughters room and called her name "Hunter, you have a surprise on the way. You need to get up and get dressed Judy is on the way over here to play with you."

The little girl opened her eyes wide and quickly jumped out of bed running to wrap her arms around her daddy's leg. "Thank you daddy. Can we play outside?"

"No baby girl, it's too cold for that, but you two can play in the house anywhere you want. Now lets get you dressed and get you some breakfast." He told her.

He helped his daughter get dress and attempted to fix her hair, but gave up and simply told Hunter to let her mama take care of it for her. The two of them entered into the kitchen where Anna was preparing breakfast and she handed Daryl a cup of coffee and then put out three bowls of oatmeal with some apples and cinnamon. One nice thing about living in this part of the mountains was that there was an abundance of apples that grew from orchards that had been planted many generations earlier. So in the late summer and early fall Anna and the other women in the community had harvested and canned as many apples as possible. Anna was thankful her mother had taught her all the skills of canning and preserving because those skills were needed now more than ever.

Rick arrived a little while later with an enthusiastic Judith. The two little girls quickly headed off to play in Hunter's room and Anna reminded Hunter to give Judy the picture she had made for her the previous day. Daryl knew as soon as Rick entered the house that this was definitely more than just a play date.

"Rick, I know you man, what's going on?" Daryl asked.

"I am sure you have been suspicious all along, but Michonne and me, well our relationship has moved to beyond friendship. She has been there for me through so much, and Carl adores her…"

"Rick, you don't have to sell your relationship with Michonne to us. It doesn't take a genius to see the attraction y'all have to each other. Hell Rick, it's been three years and Michonne is one hell of a woman. I would worry more if you weren't attracted to her." Daryl informed his best friend.

"Well that brings me to the reason why I am here, and Anna, I'm actually glad you are here too. I have a favor to ask." He said.

"Go on Rick, don't be afraid to ask us anything." Anna told him.

"Michonne is pregnant. So obviously we aren't going to be able to keep our relationship discreet for much longer. Carl knows about it, Maggie knows because she confirmed the pregnancy, and now y'all know too, but that is it for now. The reason I am here is I wanted to ask Anna if she wanted to start helping Michonne on the council with working with the women in the community. As she gets later into the pregnancy she isn't going to be able to keep up the schedule she is following and she is going to need help. I know it's asking a lot…"

"Not at all Rick. When do you need me to start?" Anna asked.

"We are actually planning on going to visit Buffy Sanderson today. She's so quiet and shy that Michonne worries she won't ask for any help if she needs it. She really hasn't integrated into the community like we had all hoped after her husband died and Michonne really wants to get her to open up more."

Daryl then spoke "Rick, you shouldn't ever worry about asking us for anything. You are my brother and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. I guess congrats are in order for you and Michonne. How is she doing with the news?"

"She's excited, and I am too, but of course there is a lot of fear as well. Especially with what happened with Anna…I'm sorry Anna I didn't mean to bring it up." Rick said kicking himself for mentioning the loss of the baby.

"It's fine Rick. I'm truly happy for both of you. Now let's go visit Buffy and leave Daryl here to watch the girls." Anna told him.

Daryl truly did love Rick like a brother, and the feeling was mutual. They knew without saying that they had each other's back, and if anything happened to either one of them, they also knew the other would look after the remaining family as well. If anything good had come out of this damn apocalypse it was that Daryl had finally found what it was like to have a normal family relationship.

After hearing the news about Michonne, Daryl decided that he would wait and talk to Rick when they returned about some of his concerns. He just hoped that their meeting tonight with the council would offer up some ideas as to what they needed to do to get the community supplies built back up and to a point where they wouldn't ever run this low again. This was a serious situation, and Daryl wasn't sure if everyone fully grasped how serious it actually was.

So I wanted you guys to get a feel for some rough times that Daryl had gone through in the recent past. It is a lot for one person to deal with. I hope you aren't angry that I had Anna miscarry, but considering her age and the lack of care I think it was understandable why it happened. Next chapter will be the council meeting and some plans that need to be put in place to rebuild the community supplies.

I hope you are liking the first two chapters so far, and that you enjoyed the brief Rick/Daryl dynamic. I loved the season finale with the two of them together. Got a lump in my throat when Rick told Daryl he was his brother.

Please leave me a review, they really help encourage me to keep writing. It's like the precious fuel they all desire in this story.

Take care and enjoy your Sunday night...hopefully this will help with your Walking Dead Fix during the hiatus.

Missy

XOXO