August 3rd-4th

Evening of August 3rd

Daryl came home, he had changed his schedule so he could be home before Charlie got home from school. He hurried and showered, washing the sweat and grease off of him. After his shower he goes into the kitchen making Charlie some food. He remembered that when he was in school he had always been hungry when he came back home. He was standing at the sink looking out the kitchen window when he spots the bus, he goes outside waiting for his daughter.

"Hey daddy" Charlie yelled running to him.

"Hey princess, I've missed you" Daryl says hugging her.

"I'm hungry dad" Charlie tells him.

"Yeah I figured you would be, come on daddy made you some food." Daryl says taking her backpack. They go into the house, Daryl puts her backpack on the table and gets her food. "So do you have homework?" Daryl asked getting her backpack.

"No but I feed Murphy on Wednesday. Can we put it on the calendar?" Charlie asked, Daryl loved that she was so excited.

"I got papers in my backpack for you" Charlie tells him pointing at her backpack. Daryl pulls out a folder with her name on it, getting papers out that needed to be filled out and sent back.

"The calendar daddy" Charlie says. Daryl laughed as he got up and got the calendar down putting 'feed Murphy' on Wednesday. "There ya go" Daryl says, hanging the calendar back up. Daryl sit back down with her asking her about school.

"Mr. Manus wears a bow on his shirt dad" Charlie says motioning around her neck.

"Mr. MacManus Charlie, remember you have to say the Mac too, okay? He wears a bowtie, hmmm." Daryl says scrunching his eyebrows.

"Yeah Mr. MacManus…..and he sounds funny."

"That's not nice Charlie" Daryl tells her.

"No daddy he moved, he showed us on a map" Charlie tells him.

"Oh okay that's why he sounds different than us" Daryl says.

"Daddy can I watch Cartoons?"

"No remember one week that means seven days without cartoons. You can go color in your room." Daryl tells her.

"Otay" she huffs going up the stairs to her room.

Daryl shook his head as he pulled the papers to him, he goes through them filling them out signing his name under the last paper, when the phone rang.

"Hello." It was Maggie.

"Hey Dar, I was just calling to see how Charlie's day went?" She says.

"Good, she seems real excited about feeding the turtle."

"Yeah all the kids seem excited about that, my students asked me if we could get a turtle too" she laughed.

"Yeah also she told me her teacher moved here?"

"Yeah, he came from Boston" she answers.

"Ah that makes sense Charlie told me he sounded funny but he showed them on the map where he lived."

"Yeah his accent is very thick, I'm glad she liked him, he seems like he a very great teacher." Maggie says.

"Well Char likes him so far, so that's good" Daryl says.

"That's great."

"How did Sophia do? Carol was worried about that?"

"Yeah I think I may have to change her teacher, already today she didn't wanna listen." Maggie tells him.

"Yeah that's what Carol was worried about, she asked just like her dad" Daryl laughed.

"Hell yeah she does" Maggie laughed.

"So how are you, is my nephew giving you any trouble?" Daryl asked.

"I can't wait for him to get here, he's keeping me up and when I do sleep he's waking me up" Maggie answered.

"Good boy, if you or Glenn need anything let me know." Daryl tells her.

"You know we will" Maggie tells him.

"Well tell Glenn I said hi, maybe we can get together this weekend. Us, Carol and Merle, hamburgers or something." Daryl says.

"Sounds good I'll call Carol, set it up talk to you later Dar."

"Talk to you later Mag" Daryl says hanging up the phone.

Daryl goes up to Charlie's bedroom, she was sitting and coloring "can I color with you princess?" Daryl asked coming into her room.

"Yeah daddy" she says getting another coloring book handing it to him. Daryl sits down at the little table and was coloring with his daughter, the love of his life. "So did you like riding the bus?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah…..but there's big kids on it." She says not looking up from her coloring book.

"Did the big kids say something to you?" Daryl asked.

"No" she mumbled.

"You know princess if they do say something you can tell me or your teacher and even aunt Maggie. She's at the school, you can talk to her or even your bus driver okay?" Daryl tells her. For some reason she didn't like the big kids on the bus and it was worrying him.

"Okay daddy…..um daddy can I get my hair cut?" Charlie asked once again not looking up from her coloring book.

"Do you want to get it cut?" Daryl asked. Charlie just nodded her head.

"I thought you liked your hair like that." Daryl says.

"I don't know I just do" Charlie says.

"Are you gonna tell me why?" Daryl asks.

"I just do" she mumbles.

"Okay princess, I will call Aunt Carol and see if she knows of somebody okay?"

Charlie once again just nods her head the look on her face worried him, it killed him the thought of his little girl being sad. "I'm gonna go call Aunt Carol okay" Daryl tells her.

"Otay."

Daryl leaves her bedroom and gets his phone calling Merle's house.

"Hey brother" it was Merle.

"Hey"

"What's wrong I can tell something's wrong?" Merle says.

"I think someone has said something to Charlie and she's so much like me she won't tell me" he says.

"Why what happen?" he could tell Merle was worried.

"She wants to cut her hair, just a few days ago she liked it like it was remember she cried when I asked her if she wanted it cut."

"Yeah and she's at that age where the kids are noticing they are different."

"Yeah and she seems to not like the big kids on the bus" Daryl says.

"Well maybe if she talked to Carol and Sophia she will tell them" Merle says.

"Maybe"

"Well, we will be there in a few minutes" Merle says hanging up the phone.

Daryl put his phone away, sitting down at his table, his head buried in his hands…..he knew this day would come eventually. It only took them ten minutes to get to the house. "Hey where's my little Char monster: Merle yelled when he came into the house. Daryl laughed when Charlie came running down the stairs "Uncle Mer" she screamed running to him.

"Hey guys" Daryl says.

"Hey Charlie, why don't you and Soph and Aunt Carol go color." Daryl says.

"Yeah come on" she says grabbing Carol's hand.

After the girls got up the stairs Merle sit down with Daryl. "Ah shit baby brother we knew this day would get here." Merle says.

"Yeah but I wish Mich, was still here to help me here. That's all" Daryl says.

"I know, but we will get through this, we will help as much as we can." Merle says.

"I know thank you guys." Daryl says looking up the stairs, as Carol was coming down.

"Hey what's going on?" Daryl asked.

"One of the big kids was making fun of how kinky her hair was…..asked her if her mom was black….but with not so nice words." Carol says.

"How old is this damn kid?" Merle spits.

"Calm down uncle Mer you aint gonna do nothing." Carol says.

"We talked about her hair, but daddy needs to talk to her about her mommy and the N word" Carol says.

"Yeah I know" Daryl says.

"But we decided that she really didn't want to cut her hair she still likes it like it is and that it's pretty no matter what anyone says." Carol says.

"Daryl, we are gonna have to deal with this the rest of her life, she is the only biracial kid in the county, Michonne was the only African American in the county, she knows that she looks different than the other kids and she knows she looks different than you." Carol says.

"Yeah I know, I will talk to her, I need to do this alone" Daryl says.

"Yes you do, but you know we will be here if you need us" Carol says.

"Yeah, thanks you guys, I think I'm gonna take her to meet her uncle Morgan, he's the only member of Mich's family that will have anything to do with me" Daryl says.

"That's a great idea, she needs to know that side of her family" Carol tells him.

"Okay I'll call him, see if we can meet up this weekend." Daryl says.

"Oh I talked to Maggie, we are having hamburgers and hotdogs Sunday" Carol tells him.

"We will be there, thank you Carol I don't know what I would do without you guys" he says hugging Carol.

"I do. Dress my niece like a little boy her entire life" Carol laughs.

"Yeah, well we will see you Sunday" Daryl says.

"Sophia, Charlie come here" Merle yelled.

"What dad?" Sophia says as the two girls come down the stairs.

"We have to go darling, you guys have school tomorrow." Merle says,

"Give hugs and kisses Charlie" Daryl says.

After Carol and Merle left Daryl got Charlie's bath ready, while she was in the bath he goes and gets pictures of Michonne, she had one beside her bed, but Daryl wanted more for this conversation. After Daryl fixed her hair, they go to her bedroom.

"Charlie I wanna talk about what happen today on the bus." Daryl says sitting down on her bed.

"Otay daddy" Charlie says.

"Um can you tell me what happened?"

"A big boy from the back of the bus was pulling my hair, and said it was tinky and asked me if my mommy was…I don't wanna say it" she says.

"You don't have to princess" Daryl; says.

"What's that word mean…was my mommy that word?"

"That word is a bad, mean mean word your mommy was not bad or mean and neither are you"

"Daddy why do I not look like you?" Charlie asked sticking her arm to his.

"Well you have beautiful brown skin like your mommy, see? Daryl says showing her pictures of Michonne.

"But you have eyes like mine" he smiled at her.

"Nobody else at school looks like me either" she says.

"No they don't and that's okay you are just as great and just as smart and just as pretty as everyone mommy was African American which only means that she had pretty brown skin like you got" Daryl says.

"Am I Afritian America too?" Charlie asked.

"Yes you are, you are half African American like mommy and white like me and that's what is called bi-racial and that is great." Daryl smiles at her.

"Was my mommy great?" Charlie smiled looking at the picture in her hand.

"Your mommy was the best, most beautiful woman that daddy ever met, she loved you and was so excited when she found out she was going to have you" Daryl tells her.

"Daddy do I have to ride the bus home tomorrow?" Charlie asked.

"If you don't want to no, Aunt Carol can pick you up she had to pick up Soph and can pick you up too." Daryl tells her.

"Otay"

"Okay well I will call Aunt Carol and tell her to pick you up tomorrow okay?" Daryl leans down kissing her forehead. "Good night princess I love you to the moon and back." Daryl says.

"Good night daddy lo'e you to the stars."….. "Daddy can you leave mommy's pictures here with me?" Charlie asked as Daryl got up from the bed.

"Yes princess I sure can" Daryl smiles leaving the pictures on the table.