A/N: Okay, so I know I said I wouldn't be posting anything for a good long while but I decided that just one chapter probably isn't enough for you all to decide if it's a good story or not. Hopefully this one will tide you over until I decide to start posting regularly. Sorry for any mistakes, and I wanted to say that if their accents aren't strong enough for you you'll just have to imagine it in your head, sorry.

Again, my Daryl is not really in character with the show's Daryl. He's younger so I feel like some of the views he would have developed later in life (like in the show) he doesn't necessarily have now.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, own The Walking Dead comic or TV show and do not make any profit from this story. This is purely for entertainment purposes, no copy-right infringement intended.

CHAPTER 2

A week later the two brothers sat in the truck outside the seventh small town store they'd come across since April's death. Keegan was asleep on the seat between them but neither knew how long that would last. They had gotten into the habit of alternating who went into the stores, so that one was always with the baby in case he cried while the other was able to get supplies that they needed. Baby formula was always on the list, and even though they had a good stock right now, they never knew when they would run low so they grabbed it every time they saw it.

"You going in this time or am I?" Merle grunted, tapping his fingers on the wheel as they surveyed the store.

"I'll go, anythin special you want me to grab?" Daryl asked, opening the door slowly to prevent squeaking.

"Smokes if they got them, but nothing else special."

Daryl nodded, grabbing his crossbow and holding it out ready to fire as he moved quickly to the door and inched it open, trying to prevent the bell on the door from chiming as he went in. He went down each aisle, finding only one walker who looked to be an employee of the store, and the remains of a body in a back corner. A quick arrow to the skull took down the walker and he grabbed the body before it could slam into the floor, lowering it slowly to avoid the clatter.

He immediately headed for the baby aisle, slipped the duffle bag off his arm and started packing it with formula, pacifiers, diapers, and all the baby medicine the store had. He had been reading April's baby book when he wasn't busy this last week and it said that babies can get sick a lot and he didn't want to take the chance of not having what they needed. When he'd cleared out all the baby stuff he thought was useful he headed for the food aisles and started grabbing all the canned stuff he could. When the bag was full he brought out the second one and continued his raid on the canned foods. Finally he headed toward the front where the cigarettes were held and grabbed five cartons of Merle's brand, feeling lucky that Merle's taste in cigarettes sucked or there would have been none left.

Scanning the outside of the store to make sure he was clear, he ran to the truck and threw the bags in the back next to Merle's motorcycle.

"I'm gunna go grab some cases of water, be right back," he explained as he turned and ran back to the store. Just as the door closed behind him he heard Keegan start to cry. Cursing under his breath he ran to the cases of water, stacked three on top of each other and thanked his lucky stars that the door opened outward, so he just had to push his way out with the water. He was setting the water in the back when the walkers started to swarm.

"Shit, hurry up Daryl, we gotta get out of here!" Merle shouted. Daryl slipped past a walker that had gotten too close and threw himself into the truck, careful not to crush Keegan, who was still crying because Merle had put him back down when the walkers got close.

"Go!" Daryl yelled as he slammed the door shut behind him. The tires squealed as Merle threw the truck into drive and they sped off. Heaving a relieved sigh, Daryl reached down next to him to pick up the baby, shushing him and bouncing him lightly to get him to stop wailing. "It's okay buddy, it's alright. Settle down now. Here, you hungry? Let's get you a bottle," Daryl coaxed the boy, pulling an already made bottle out of the bag. Almost immediately Keegan's cries stopped and he just stared up at Daryl with those bright blue eyes that hadn't changed at all since his birth. Daryl felt kind of bad that most of his bottles weren't as warm as they should be, but they didn't exactly have any means to give him warm bottles on a regular basis.

When the truck cab was quiet Merle cleared his throat and said, "so where too now baby brother?"

"I don't know Merle. I heard Atlanta was a safe zone, they have some kind of shelter set up or somethin. Even if we don't go there we have to find a place to settle, we can't raise this kid out of this truck forever."

Merle nodded and rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, I suppose we could head toward Atlanta and see what's what. If we don't like how it looks we can always turn around."

Daryl nodded his head up and down once before focusing on Keegan again. The baby was just about asleep, so Daryl replaced the bottle with a pacifier and bounced him a bit to help the process along.

"You know, for someone who ain't ever even held a baby before this one came along, you're pretty good with him," Merle observed when it got too quiet again.

"I kinda had to get good, after April…but I would have done it anyway, because I wanna be a good dad. I don't want to be like our dad, abusin and beatin and neglectin him. I'm gonna do everything the opposite of what he did. You're not too bad with him yourself, Uncle Merle," Daryl teased cheekily.

Merle laughed and tapped the door of the truck by the window. "Yeah, us Dixons are just amazin father figures. Can you imagine what everyone back home would be sayin to see us now?"

Daryl chewed on his thumb, like he did whenever he was nervous or thinking. "You say that like we couldn't be good father figures."

A derisive snort was all Daryl thought he was going to get in answer, but Merle replied, "Dixons aren't meant to be good fathers. That's why there hasn't been one since as far back as I've heard stories. Pop was a bad father, and so was his father, and his father, as long as the line goes. Some things you just can't change boy. Now you can say all you want about bein a good father now, when the kid is tiny and helpless and isn't gonna talk back. But what about when he's seventeen and the dumbest little shit you've ever met? You sayin you won't take your hand or belt to him?"

Daryl glowered at his brother. "No I won't ever beat my son. There are other ways to handle misbehavior. Just because we grew up like that don't mean we have to become people who force it on others. When we were young and Pop was beatin you didn't you ever think 'I would never do this to my kid. I don't even understand what I did wrong?' And most of Pop's problem was the drinkin. I am not turnin out like him Merle, or any other Dixon if that's the case. I'll gladly be the exception to the rule."

"Good luck with that little brother. With our upbringin, I don't see how you can't turn out like him."

"Because I'm not like him, even now. I ain't ever been like him. I've never been like you Merle. Sometimes I think you took after Pop and I took after Momma, and there ain't nothin wrong with that, we're just different people," Daryl whispered, stroking his finger down Keegan's face and silently vowing to never lay a hand on him in anger.

Merle glanced sideways at his brother, silently wondering if they were even really brothers. He knew Daryl wasn't like him, he didn't need the younger man telling him that. He just didn't understand how they could be so different, having come from the same exact lifestyle. Maybe Daryl was right and he was more like their Momma than their Pop, it would explain the personality differences.

Three days later saw them thirty miles outside Atlanta, pulled over at a gas station. Neither of them thought they would find much here but at least there might be some more gas, which they needed, and maybe some cigarettes, which Merle wanted. Daryl had given up smoking, at least around the baby, so he didn't even go looking for them anymore.

"I got this one too," Daryl said. "When I get back we can siphon some gas to get us to the city." He got out of the truck and closed the door without latching it.

The gas station was nearly empty, Daryl could tell that just by walking inside. But he had to do a sweep first before he looked for anything of value. Before he'd gotten very far the door burst open and Merle ran in with Keegan and the diaper bag in his arms.

"There's a bunch of walkers headed this way. They would have found us in the truck!" Merle said in response to Daryl's angry glare before turning to lock the door as a precaution.

"What? There's walkers outside?" came a voice from the back of the store.

Daryl and Merle whipped around toward the voice, Daryl slightly ahead of Merle to protect the baby. "Who's there? Show yourself or deal with an arrow in your face," he growled, crossbow armed and ready.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up. I don't mean any harm. I'm just looking for supplies same as you. Is…is that a baby?" the young Asian man who came out from behind the next aisle over asked.

"No, my big ass brother here just likes to carry around life-size dolls. Of course it's a baby ya twit!" Daryl said, still glaring at the man. He didn't look threatening in the least, in fact he looked way too weak and innocent to have even made it alive this long.

Merle looked back through the window and hissed, "alright boys, we're gunna have to save this little chit-chat for later. Those walkers are gettin closer and we need to be quiet and out of sight. You," he said to the Asian man, "there a back room or somethin with no windows and a door that locks from the inside?"

The Asian nodded, "yeah, looks like a store room in the rear. Come on," he said, picking up his dropped bag as he led them to the back of the building.

The room was small, making Daryl wonder what they could have even stored in here. There was barely room for the three to sit without touching each other. And it was pitch dark, until the Asian man turned on a portable, battery operated camping lantern in the middle of the room.

"I think there's an access door to the roof in here too. Well, there's a ladder anyway and I can't imagine it goes anywhere but to the roof," he explained.

Merle went to inspect the ladder, handing Keegan off to Daryl who made some soothing sounds to keep the boy sleeping. "Yeah, I think this goes to the roof," he said, his head tilted back to look up at the door in the ceiling. "Good work Chinaman."

"I'm Korean, and my name's Glenn," the man said, sounding offended.

"Now don't get uppity, don't you know a compliment when you get one boy?" Merle said with a cocky grin. "I'm gunna go up and see how things look outside," he said to Daryl.

Daryl didn't answer, he knew Merle didn't expect one; he just stood near the door, shifting back and forth, trying to make sure Keegan stayed asleep. If he woke up now and was cranky, it could mean game over for all of them. He couldn't help but notice that Glenn was watching him.

"You got a starin problem?" he demanded, not looking up but noticing that he'd made the man jump.

"Sorry, I just…I haven't seen a baby since before the dead started walking. How old is he?" Glenn asked quietly.

"Little less than a month," Daryl responded.

"And his…his mother?" Glenn asked.

Daryl finally looked up at him; his eyes narrowed, but didn't snarl or growl when he said, "she didn't make it, died about a week and a half ago."

Glenn's face fell a fraction, as if he hoped that somehow April was alive but absent from her child's life rather than dead. "I'm sorry. What's his name?"

"Why are you askin all these questions? As soon as those walkers move on we probably won't ever see each other again," Daryl answered, feeling like he'd already told this stranger too much.

Glenn's face brightened now, as if he'd had some sudden idea. "Not necessarily. You could come back to camp with me! We have women and children, and more men to help protect everyone! And we're at a quarry with a lake so we have fresh water all the time!"

Daryl looked up towards where Merle had disappeared. His brother didn't do well in groups, especially if those groups had anyone black, brown, yellow, pretty much any color besides white in it. But he did know that the way things he and Merle were doing them wouldn't work forever. Sometimes they would both need to go into some building but with a baby they would always be separated. Being somewhere with more people to help watch the baby and their backs might be nice.

"I'll talk to my brother, see how he feels about it. We were headed for Atlanta, you don't know how things are there do you?" he asked finally.

Glenn averted his eyes. "I really hope you're not headed there to look for anyone. The whole city is overrun, all there is left is walkers. As far as I can tell, making a 'safe zone' just meant there were even more people in the city to turn when it hit there. You can't go there, you can't take that baby into that city unless you're looking to die."

Daryl looked down at his son's sleeping face. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll give you one in return, my brother…well you heard what he called you. It's not just…Asians that he talks to like that. If we went back with you he would be a very difficult person to live with. I want you to be aware of that before we even consider your offer."

"I figured as much, and the offer still stands. There's no way I could live with myself if I let you leave here with that baby without even offering a place of safety."

They were quiet for a while, waiting for the herd to pass or for Merle to come down and tell them how things looked. Finally, after the silence had stretched for ten awkward minutes, Daryl said, "Daryl Dixon."

"Huh?" Glenn asked. He had sat down against the wall and begun picking at the dirt under his nails while they waited.

"My name, Daryl Dixon. That's my brother Merle up there, and this, this is Keegan," Daryl introduced, sighing when Keegan's eyes opened and he started to squirm. After a few minutes it seemed like he was going to be content with simply looking around, as Daryl had slid down against the wall opposite Glenn and now had the baby partially propped against his chest.

Glenn's face broke into a smile when Keegan let out one of his adorable baby coos. His smile vanished when Merle's feet on the ladder rungs echoed into the room. The large burly man barely glanced at him as he stepped off the ladder to stand near his brother.

"The walkers are headed off. They couldn't get into the buildin and we were quiet enough they didn't hear so they lost interest pretty quick. So I suppose this is where we say goodbye and part ways," he said, directly the last sentence toward Glenn.

Daryl shifted the baby so he could stand and pulled the diaper bag up onto his shoulder. "Actually Merle, Glenn here offered us a place back with his group. They got women and children, men to protect everyone. He also let me know that Atlanta is pretty much walker central, there ain't no point goin there. I want to talk to you about takin the offer."

Merle looked between his brother and the Asian with a distrustful eye. "Could you wait outside for us Glenn?" Merle asked, stressing the man's name in some attempt to prove some point.

Glenn nodded quickly, grabbed his things and left the room, shutting the door gently behind him.

"What are you thinkin Daryl? We don't know this guy from David and you want to take your kid back to his 'group of women, children, and stand up guys'? How can we trust that his group is what he says? Or that Atlanta is too dangerous now?"

"I just have a feelin about him Merle. He ain't a bad guy, he's way too nice, innocent, to be in bed with a bad group of people. And he has no reason to lie about anythin. I think we should go with him, at least check it out," Daryl replied, trying to keep his brother calm.

"I can't believe you're choosin to trust a chink's word over your brother's instincts. We don't need anyone else baby brother. It's always been you and me, just us, alone." Merle was pacing now, clearly fighting to keep his temper in line so he didn't scare Keegan into crying.

"It hasn't ever been you and me until all this mess started. It was always you alone, and me alone. You left as soon as you could, I practically raised myself. I'm not choosin anyone Merle. I'm tryin to do what's best for my son. You know there will be situations where the two of us just won't be able to work out a way to get things done with a baby. With women and more men around we'll be able to do things we can't do now, and Keegan will have people to watch him, maybe women who've had kids and know how to take care of him properly. I wanna do this Merle, I wanna at least go and see if it's an option. Not to go would be bad for all of us."

Merle knew that Daryl wanted this, and he wasn't going to back down this time. It wasn't often that his brother went against him, but he had a feeling it might start happening more now that he had someone to take care of. He also knew that Daryl would go even if he didn't, and if he wanted to stay with his brother he had to go to this magical group of misfit toys.

"Alright little brother. We'll go and check this place out and see if we like it. Let's go let the chink know we're on board."

Daryl wanted to tell him to stop calling Glenn that, to keep his mouth shut about race altogether. Although he had never really been on board with Merle's white supremacy thing, he knew it was easier to act like he agreed about things like that than deal with Merle calling him a pussy for having different beliefs. But he had barely gotten him to agree to come; he didn't want to push him too much right now. With a grateful nod he let Merle push the door open.

Glenn was waiting outside the door with a hopeful look on his face.

"We'll follow you," was all Daryl said before waiting expectantly for Glenn to head out of the store.

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