A/N I only own my OCs and not the Walking Dead. Please R&R because reviews and favorites=fuel
And I've adjusted the age of Carl to 14.
Daryl had heard that Shane and Rick had found some kids in the woods and he ignored the feminine screams he heard from the shed. He turned his other ear and just went to bed, exhausted from his searching for Sophia.
In the morning he went looking for Sophia and pushed the thought of the kids in the shed as he saw Shane going in there. He didn't think about it again until he was a good half mile into the woods and heard a single long scream followed by silence.
Hayden had been thinking of ways out but she thought of nothing, these dicks had thought of everything. Sighing she heard the door open and the bald man come inside. There was something off about him, the look he got in his eyes while he beat her brother was dangerous. She had seen it before, in the world before this.
Shane knelt down beside Sean and picked his chin up. The sixteen year old looked at him through swollen eyes and a bloody nose. "Ya wanna tell me where your group is?"
"Listen ta me ya limp dick, we ain't got a group! Just 'cause ya get an erection beatin' the shit outta mah brotha doesn't mean that ya kin-" Hayden had been saying when Shane pulled out a knife and dug it into the flesh of her thigh. A scream ripped through her mouth as she felt the white hot pain in her thigh.
Leering at her, Shane covered her mouth with his hand but she bit it and he slapped her. When she pulled her head back to facing forward he placed his palm on her forehead and smashed her head backwards into the wall numerous times until her head fell slightly forward.
Daryl entered the area about ten minutes after he heard the scream and Shane could be heard inside. Walking in, Daryl went to tell him that he had found Sophia's doll in the ravine as a cover for the fact that he wanted to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him. Two kids no older than sixteen were shackled to the walls, blood dripping from various wounds. The boy's face was drenched in sweat and he was screaming at Shane as he beat the girl unconscious. The girl. She looked so much like, no Hayden was dead. Hayden was dead. Sean was dead. He was imagining that they looked like his family.
"Uncle Daryl?" The girl murmured before her head slumped forward and she didn't move except for her faint breathing.
"Daryl?" Sean muttered and realized he must be imagining his uncle swathed in the sunlight of the open door.
"Sean? Hayden!" He came out of his initial shock and grabbed Shane and shoved him up against the wall and began to pummel him with his fists. "Ya stay away from mah family!"
Rick burst in a moment later and was shocked at the state the two kids were in but even more by the fact that Shane was getting the shit knocked out of him by Daryl.
"YA STAY 'WAY FROM US!" He was barking with every punch. Finally the redneck ran over to the two kids and unchained them. The young man massaged his wrists for a second before stumbling over to the girl who Daryl had picked up and was carrying out of the shed. Rick tried to stop him before the man spoke. "Merle's kids, only ones he eva cared for."
Sean was kicking at Shane and the two were fighting. In both their weak states, Rick was surprised at how the kid was slowly getting the upper hand. He was a good fifty pounds smaller and in a worse shape but he had rage on his side. If he was Merle's kid then he must've been a bruiser as well.
Daryl carried his niece to the house but literally everyone tried to stop him. Carl paused beside his mother seeing the pretty girl from yesterday covered in blood and unconscious. Herschel took the girl in immediately and Daryl wouldn't stop pacing around outside the room.
No one understood why the prisoners had been let out, or why Daryl even cared. They heard the girl screaming, begging for her father through an open window and Carol saw Daryl rubbing his temples.
"Daryl?" She called quietly. He glanced up, saw it was her, and kept pacing knowing she didn't know anything about his niece's state. "Who are these kids?"
"Merle's." Was all he said as he remembered Sean and walked outside to see him stumbling towards the house with T-Dog coming slowly behind him looking very confused.
The group was extremely tense and everyone looked high strung. Sean was running as quickly as he could but it was more of a shambling walk. His face was bleeding still and he finally made it to stairs of the house Daryl pulled him up and into the house. They walked immediately to Hayden's room, any conversation could wait.
She was awake now and had her leg bandaged along with one that wrapped around her head since it was bleeding through the smiled when she saw Daryl and tried to get up but Herschel pushed her down gently.
"You need to stay in bed, rest your leg Hayden." He told her and she rolled her eyes before getting up and holding onto Daryl's arm.
They had made it outside and sweat glistened her face but she gritted her teeth as she looked around. The entire group was crowding around the porch yelling for answers but they paused when they saw Sean's damaged face, and the girl limping with bandages over her forehead and thigh with a bruise welling on her cheekbone. And Daryl watching over them a look of anger and betrayal etched into his face.
"Uncle Daryl? Where is mah daddy?" Hayden asked and looked around the camp. Everyone stared at the ground as Daryl explained and her face got red.
"YA FUCKIN' LEFT HIM THERE?" She shrieked her face turning red as she attempted to stalk forward but hissed when she placed pressure on her injured leg.
Sean grabbed one of his bags that had been taken from them and left on the porch and opening it up pulled out a picture. It was off Hayden standing next to Merle and Sean beside Daryl, each of them flipping the camera off. Daryl and Hayden wore smirks as they smoked cigarettes and Merle and Sean were laughing. They were in a bar and each of them appeared to be having the best time. Sean handed it to Rick who stared at it.
"If y'all had just gone through our shit!" He yelled. Rick stared at it. In the photo Hayden couldn't have been older than Carl and she was smoking in a bar and flipping people off.
Once the tense situation had been slightly averted and the three of them were sitting at a fire as Rick looked around for something.
"Hayden." Daryl barked and the girl stood up grinning. Limping over to Rick she reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a clip from Rick's gun, Shane's 22 necklace, and Lori's wedding ring. Carl stared at her, she had barely even been around Lori and she hadn't even noticed it was missing.
"'S been awhile Uncle Daryl, ah don't wanna get rusty!" She explained and she sat down beside her brother. She glanced over at Rick. "So ya were a cop?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Ya must've sucked. 'Sides cops 'r pussies." She stated offhandedly as she fiddled with the bandage on her leg.
When everyone was going to bed, the three heard T-Dog say something to Rick.
"She's just like her dad." He muttered but her ears caught it.
"Ah don't have tha clap though!" She called over to them and each looked horrified.
Hayden slept on Daryl's cot because of her leg while the other two slept on the ground.
"Daryl?" Sean asked through the darkness and all he received was a grunt.
"Where'd ya guys go? Hayden 'n me, we went ta the house but y'all were gone. Why didn't ya wait fer us or come lookin' fer us?"
"We did Sean, when y'all were goin' ta our house, we were going ta yers." Daryl murmured. He didn't want to tell them that he had to force Merle to leave Hayden's mother's house after they found her eaten in the living room with a screwdriver in her temple.
"Ah miss Daddy." Hayden murmured as she rolled over. It broke Daryl's heart but at least he knew that his brother loved his daughter and that her blind loyalty in him was not in vain. He couldn't say the same about her brother though, who Merle thought was a pussy and if it wasn't for the eyes wouldn't have considered him even his. The kid had a goddamn even temper! No Dixons had even tempers. The only trait Sean had picked up from Merle was his ability to somehow charm women.
"Ah'm sure yer dad is missin' ya too, Hayden. He's a tough son of a bitch yer daddy is, no one can kill Merle but Merle. Give 'im a hammer, he'd shit out nails." Daryl closed his eyes, it was going to be brutal with the two kids around but they were better than Merle. Well Hayden and Merle were terrible together, always betting each other stuff and pick pocketing people at the bar.
Only one bad thing ever came out of Hayden, the fact that she was the spitting image of Mrs. Mary Dixon, Daryl and Merle's mother. The long auburn hair, the dark brown eyes with long black eyelashes, the thin waist and small frame. But she was the opposite of her grandmother. Hayden had a quick temper and she fought at every chance she got.
She was her father's daughter precisely apart from the racism. She didn't understand why her father always targeting the Africans and the Hispanics but she kept that to herself to stay in her father's favor.
