A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone that have been following/favoriting/reviewing the story, i really appreciate it.
Ed paced around his living room, he was furious. Not only had his late wife cheated on him with some piece of shit redneck. But it turns out that this man was the father of his fucking child. Someone had to pay, there was no way he was going to let this slide. And he would start with that redneck. He was going to get his revenge, and he didn't care who would get hurt in the process.
Xxx
T-dog sat with Andrea outside her office while Daryl and Sophia talked.
"Poor kid. First her mother dies and she finds out that her dad isn't her real father." T-dog sighed. "And on top of it all she would rather live with a complete stranger instead of the man that she spent the first 9 years thinking was her dad." He added.
"I know. Much be tough." Andrea mumbled.
"How did this 'Ed' react?" T-dog asked.
"He was furious. Didn't want anything to do with her after he found out. I'm glad Daryl decided to take her in." Andrea answered.
Xxx
"I'm sorry about your mom." Daryl said. They were sitting next to each other on the couch, Sophia looked down when he mentioned her mother.
"Thanks" She said in a low voice. Daryl hesitated before putting a hand on Sophia's shoulder, noticing the way she flinched when he came to close. His heart dropped, she had to go thru the same shit he had to when he was younger. He wanted to kill the fucker that did this to her.
"Hey" He said, making Sophia look at him. "I'm not gonna hurt ya. I ain't like that." Sophia gave him a small smile.
"Andrea says you're nice. Do you have any other kids?" She asked. Daryl snorted, "Nah, just you." It felt strange for him to say that he had a kid, in fact he never wanted them. He really had no idea what he was doing, and that scared him.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked. This time Daryl laughed.
"Nope, no girlfriend." He answered. They stayed silent for the next few minutes, Daryl fumbling with the zipper on his jacket. It wasn't a comfortable silence, but it wasn't an awkward one either.
"Have you been staying at your old house?" Daryl finally asked.
"No…" Sophia said and looked down at her shoes, "Ed didn't want anything to do with me when he found out, I've been staying at Carl's house."
Andrea peeked her head into the office, "Everything ok?" She asked.
"Yeah" Daryl answered. Andrea walked into the office and closed the door behind her. Then she pulled out an office chair and sat down in front of them, crossing her legs.
"I just wanted to talk to you both about a few things." She said and picked up a notebook. "Have you given any consideration to where Sophia will be staying?" Andrea asked and looked at Daryl.
"Nah, not really. She told me she had been staying at a friend's house. But if she wants I guess she could stay with me." He said. Sophia looked up, a smile appearing on her face.
"Really?" She asked and Daryl nodded.
"Great! Then we don't have to worry about that." Andrea said and wrote a few things in her book. When she was finished she returned her gaze to Daryl. "I talked to a few other lawyers, you should receive full custody in a few days."
"Alright."
"But right now you two are free to go." Andrea smiled and stood up. Daryl and Sophia stood up as well. After shaking Andrea's hand Daryl walked out of the office with Sophia following him.
xxx
"I have a few questions I want to ask you, if you don't mind." Sophia asked Daryl once they had sat down in Daryl's truck.
"Go ahead." Daryl answered.
"How old are you?"
"34"
"What's your favorite thing to do?"
"Hunting"
"Do you have any siblings?"
"One brother."
After asking Daryl several other questions, and learning that his favorite food is venison, and that he's scared of heights, she asked him a question that he didn't expect.
"Did you love my mom?" She asked and looked at him with big puppy-like eyes. Daryl looked down at her for a second before returning his attention back to the road.
"No. I didn't really know her that well." He finally said, "I might have, if I would have known her longer." He added and started to rub his lower lip with his hand while the other one hung loosely on the steering wheel.
"Mom told me that you have to love each other before you have sex." She said casually. Daryl laughed at her choice of words.
"Yeah, well, this was an exception." He finally mumbled without taking his eyes off the road. Then he realized that she really didn't have any stuff with her, only her doll and the clothes on her back.
"Where are your things?" He asked.
"At Carl's house. I had to go with Mr. Grimes to get it at my old house, because he's a cop." Sophia answered.
"Should we go get it now? You at least need a change of clothes." Daryl suggested.
"Yeah! Then you can meet Carl, he's my best friend!" She said excitedly, nearly bouncing up and down in her seat. After giving Daryl the direction of her friend's house, Sophia jumped out of the car when he parked into the driveway and ran to the front door. Daryl wondered for a second if he should follow her or not. He had never been a people person, he was actually surprised that he talked so much to Sophia. But then he figured that she probably needed help carrying her things, so he stepped out of the old truck, slamming the door behind him.
He suddenly found it ironic that he was voluntarily visiting a cop. It was a known fact that cops and Dixon's did not mix. He walked up the three steps up to the front door, he saw that someone had left the door open so he knocked on the doorway.
A few seconds later a smiling brunette walked up to him. He could clearly see the baby bump on her stomach.
"You must be Daryl." She said and extended her hand. Daryl gave her a small smile and shook her hand briefly.
"I'm Lori, Carl's mother." She added and leaned against the doorway. A moment later a man appeared, probably around Daryl's age, although his thick beard made him look older.
"I'm Rick Grimes." The man said and shook Daryl's hand firmly.
"Daryl Dixon." Daryl answered. After some small talk between the three grownups, Sophia finally came running down the stairs, carrying a backpack, and behind her was a grinning boy, holding a box. Rick smiled and put his hand on the boys head, Daryl assumed that this was Carl.
"She has a few more things upstairs, I'll go grab them." Rick said to Daryl then disappeared up the stairs.
"Is this him?" Carl whispered to Sophia, who rolled her eyes, "No, this is a spare one." She said sarcastically. Rick emerged down the stairs holding three full boxes. Daryl took one box from him and the box that Carl had been holding then walked to his truck, the other's following him.
After loading all the boxes in the bed of the truck, Sophia and Carl were sitting on the tailgate, laughing about something only children understood. Daryl turned to Lori and Rick.
"Thanks for letting her stay here." He said. Rick and Lori both smiled at him. "It was our pleasure." Lori said before turning around and heading back into the house, leaving Daryl and Rick alone.
"She's a really sweet girl." Rick said and turned to look at the two children. "Sophia's really smart, doing great at school. Has lots of friends." He added. Daryl smiled and felt and odd sense of pride well up in his chest. Then Rick turned to look Daryl in the eyes with a serious expression.
"But she has lost so much already. And she had to deal with abuse for years. We just have to know that you're going to treat her right, and be there for here." Rick said. Usually Daryl would have told him to fuck off, mind his own business. But he knew that everything that Rick just said was right, and he was going to do everything he could do to make Sophia happy, although he had no idea how.
"I will." Daryl said and shook Rick's hand.
"Come on Carl." Rick yelled and Carl jumped down from the tailgate, and ran after his father that was already halfway to the house. "Bye Sophia. Bye Mr. Dixon." Carl waved before running up the stairs.
"Bye Carl!" Sophia yelled back. Daryl opened the passenger's door for Sophia who jumped into the old truck. Then he made his way over to the other side of the car and quickly jumped in as well, the door squeaking as he opened and closed it, he figured that he probably soon needed to lubricate the doors.
About halfway to his house, Daryl turned to Sophia, who had been surprisingly quiet the whole way.
"You shouldn't be expecting a five star hotel." He mumbled. Sophia looked at him and narrowed her eyes, not sure what he was talking about.
"My house" he explained, "Ain't nothin' fancy but it's good enough. I wasn't expecting you would be living there so soon so I don't have a room ready for you. But you could sleep in my bed tonight, I'll just sleep on the couch." Sophia nodded and returned her attention to the road.
"Thanks" She said in a low voice. Daryl couldn't tell if something was bothering her or not, so he just assumed that the excitement of the day was wearing off.
Once they finally arrived, Daryl got out of the car and handed Sophia the smallest box and her backpack once she had gotten out of the truck as well. Then he picked up the three other boxes and walked to his house. Trying to fish the keys out of his pocket and holding three boxes turned out to be a difficult task and Daryl had to use his right hand, left knee and his chin to keep the boxes from falling.
Sophia giggled when she finally noticed him, at that point he was jumping up and down on his free leg so he wouldn't lose his balance.
"Well…" Daryl said once he had finally managed to get the door open, "This is it." He said when Sophia walked inside and laid the box on the floor next to the door. Daryl didn't really bother to make his house 'fancy', he would rather spent his money on a new crossbow or use it to fix his truck. So the house was just pretty basic, a brown couch with a small flat screen and a coffee table in front of it. An old coffee machine sitting in the kitchen. The small two bedroom apartment had a small backyard and a garage where Merle would sometimes work on his bike. The walls were painted white and he had a hardwood floor in all the rooms, except the bathroom, which had tiles.
"Oh my god!" Sophia gasped when a dog walked into the living room. Daryl had completely forgotten to tell her about the dog, he just hoped that she wasn't afraid of them.
"He's so cute!" She giggled and went down on her knees in front of the tricolored Border collie and scratched him behind his ears.
"Yeah, that's Chaos." Daryl explained and laid one of the boxes on the kitchen counter.
"What's chaos?" Sophia asked without looking up from the dog, who was clearly enjoying the attention.
Daryl chuckled, "The dog's name is Chaos." He explained.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because he was a real troublemaker when he was a puppy." Daryl said and sighed. "But when the guy that was trying to sell him told me that he was a blue merle I just had to buy him." He said and chuckled at the memory of seeing his brother's face when he told him the dogs color shared the same name as him.
"You're the cutest little guy I have ever seen!" Sophia said to Chaos in a baby voice. Chaos was now lying on his back, letting Sophia scratch him on the stomach with his tail wagging.
"Don't baby him. He's a watchdog, a dangerous fighting dog!" Daryl tried to reason, but soon lost his case when Chaos stuck out his tongue and let out a sound of pleasure when Sophia continued to scratch him.
"Yeah, if someone breaks in I'm sure he'll lick them to death." Sophia laughed. Daryl huffed and walked into his bedroom, quickly changing the covers on the bed for Sophia while she played with the dog.
"You hungry?" He asked when he walked back into the living room.
"Yeah" Sophia said and stood up from the floor, sitting down at the kitchen table. Daryl opened the freezer and frowned when he saw how little he had in there.
"I got some cheese and a coke." He laughed and looked at Sophia who had a horrified impression on her face.
"Eeeew, I'm not gonna eat raw cheese." She said and stuck her tongue out. Daryl snorted and picked up his cell phone.
"We can just order something." He said.
Xxx
After eating pizza and watching TV all night, Daryl looked to see Sophia fast asleep. He turned off the TV and stood up. He slowly picked her up bridal style, careful not to wake her up and carried her to his bed. She had already changed into her pajamas so he didn't have to worry about that.
He carefully lied her down on the bed and pulled the covers over her. Instead of walking straight back into the living room, he bent down and pulled a lock of her hair out of her face before placing a small kiss on her forehead. He wasn't sure why he did it, it just felt right. He then turned off the lights in the bedroom and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
After brushing his teeth and changing into pajama pants and a white t-shirt, he lied down on the couch and pulled the blankets over him. Falling into a peaceful sleep.
Tbc
