A/N - WOW! 10 reviews and countless amounts of subscriptions from my first chapter! You guys are amazing. I am so glad so many of you want to read more, so here it is ...

"Daddy?"

Daryl was polishing up his crossbow, preparing for a trip to the city to bring back his brother. Mia stood a few feet in front of him, a sad look in her big, blue eyes.

"What's wrong, kid?" he asked. Mia took a step closer.

"Are you leaving again?" she asked with a soft sigh.

Daryl nodded his head, gathering all of his arrows and securing them together with a piece of string. "I gotta go find your Uncle Merle and bring him back." he told her.

"But you only jus' got back." Tears threatened to fall from Mia's eyes as she edged a little bit closer, taking the tiniest of steps towards Daryl. Daryl put his weapon and it's ammunition down by his feet and opened his arms for Mia. The little girl bounded into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck as he gently rubbed her back.

-FLASHBACK-

"Pregnant?"

Daryl pinched himself to be sure he wasn't dreaming. When it hurt, he knew he wasn't. Jenna stood before him, hands on her hips. They weren't even properly dating, it'd started off as a quick shag in some down town strip club toilets and now the woman was telling him she was pregnant.

'No' Daryl thought to himself, leaning forward and pinching the bridge of his nose, 'It can't be. This can't be happening.'

"Say something, Daryl!" Jenna screamed at him, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. Daryl shook his head. Whatever he said would be the wrong thing, so he went with the first thing that came to mind.

"We … we used protection."

Jenna's eyes widened in horror and Daryl knew that he probably could have picked something better to say.

"They're not 100% fucking effective, Daryl! Don't you have anything more useful to say! I'm carrying your baby for fucks sake!"

Daryl collapsed back on the sofa, his head buried in his hands. Jenna took a deep breath and counted to five in her head before flopping down next to him, brushing her long, dark hair off of her face. Daryl shook his head repeatedly. Daryl Dixon, a father. It even sounded ridiculous in his head. Daryl couldn't think of a worse possible father, except maybe Merle.

"Daryl, listen to me," said Jenna, taking Daryl's left hand in her right, "I'm keeping this baby, let's get that straight. I want you to be a part of this too."

"Are you serious?" Daryl sat forward, snatching his hand back and resting his chin on his fists, "You want to start a family with 'Drunken Daryl Dixon'? No Jenna, no child should get stuck with a dad like me. Keep the baby but find y'all someone else. Anyone would make a better daddy for that kid than me. Look at my family, we're as fucked up as it gets."

Jenna wiped away a tear that threatened to fall before speaking.

"You can't run away from this, Daryl. You are as responsible for this as I am and I will not let you abandon me!"

"I know that," replied Daryl, standing up, "I ain't gonna let you go through this alone. If you're damn set on keeping that kid then I'll help you financially, but that's it. I ain't set to be a dad, Jen. You know that, I know that."

Jenna went to argue back, but couldn't. She shook her head in defeat before meeting eyes with Daryl. The redneck stood up and kissed Jenna on the forehead before turning to leave. Jenna held her tears no longer and started to cry.

"You'll thank me for this one day, Jen." Daryl said from the doorway, not even turning around to look at her as he spoke, "You and that kid are gonna have a happier life without me in it." Grabbing his jacket from a hook by the front door, Daryl wiped a stray tear from his cheek and left.

-END FLASHBACK-

Daryl shook his head as Mia buried her head in his shoulder, the occasional soft sniffle escaping her. Mia needed him, but so did Merle, and Mia had a lot more capable hands to take care of her at camp than Merle did on that damn roof. Daryl looked up, not too far away from them was Lori, watching them carefully with a small, approving grin on her face as she washed up some plates from lunch. Daryl tipped his head to her and she did the same. That woman was a saint, the way she helped take care of Mia. In Daryl's mind, she was so much better at it than he was.

"When will you be back, Daddy?" Mia's soft voice pulled Daryl from his thoughts, he put her on the ground in front of him and gently lifted her chin so that she was looking directly in to his eyes.

"I dunno, Mia. But I will be back an' that's the thing you gotta remember, okay?"

Mia nodded her head. "Yeah. Daddy."

"Good girl, now go play." Daryl told her, pointing towards Carl and Sophia. Mia nodded her head and turned and sulked off in their direction. Daryl picked up his crossbow and arrows from beside him and headed impatiently towards the truck they would be driving to the city. He tossed his weapon in the back and pulled himself up before hitting the side of the truck three times, loudly.

"C'mon, let's go!" he yelled to those who would be joining him. The new boy, Rick Grimes as well as T-Dog and Glenn. Their attention was forced to Daryl and they nodded, saying goodbye to their loved ones before joining Daryl in the truck. Daryl's attention fell on Mia, who looked sad. She stood, her little boots scuffing the mud on the ground below her as she offered a small wave. Daryl raised his hand in farewell before slamming the truck door shut, and the van departed.

"Hey, Mia?" Carl said from behind the little girl. Mia turned around and smiled at the boy behind her.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going down to the lake to catch frogs with Shane, you wanna come?"

Mia giggled. "'Kay then," she accepted happily. She took Carl's hand and the two carefully made their way down to the quarry lake.

'It's okay,' Mia told herself in her head. 'If Daddy says he'll be back then Daddy will be back.'

Again, thank you to all who reviewed the first chapter, I look forward to hopefully hearing from you all again, especially SaraLostInes. I hope this chapter explained things that were nagging you, even if it was just a little bit :D More backstory (and explanations) to come.

Until next time ... Kenna x