Sorry for the long absence. This chapter is just before they move to the prison.

I own nothing relating to The Walking Dead.

Enjoy!

Daryl awoke in the morning with a pounding in his head and someone kicking at his booted feet. He slowly opened one eye looking into Merles ass ugly face grinning like a fuckin lunatic.

"Well fuck baby bro, bout time ya woke the fuck up. Need ta go huntin, but ya better go talk ta the little one for a bit."

Daryl followed merles gaze to Sophia who was sitting on a log, idly poking the dying fire with a stick. As he sat up, he ran his fingers through his hair. What the fuck was going on? Why was he outside of his tent, fully clothed, layin on the fuckin ground? As he rubbed his eyes he started to remember what he had thought was a dream. Carol, rubbing Andreas back as she dry heaved in the dirt, Merle pointing and laughing at him for some dam reason. Then he remembered. It wasn't a dream. He vaguely recalled Sophia telling him Carol was gonna have a baby, then nothing. Fuck, did he pass out? Holy shit, in front of everyone, Daryl fuckin Dixon had passed the fuck out. He ground his face harder in his hands. He looked up at his brother still looming over him, but Merle had a more serious look on his face now.

"Look, I know yer surprised, but that little one over there is sad. She's been up all night. Carol tried to get her to sleep, since yer woman has some sense, but she wont. I sat with her, talked a bit. She's scared ya don't want her or the new baby. Face it bro, ya aint been spending much time with her."

"Shit," Daryl muttered.

He looked back at the tent behind him. Merle laughed.

"Na, mama bears ok, she knows yer just a fuckin idiot, just need time ta get used to it. But the girl there, she needs some reassurance. Ya gonna give it to her, or am I gonna have to kick yer ass?"

Daryl looked up at his brother and shook his head.

"Na, I'm ok."

"Good. Get ta fixin shit then. Ya fuckin passed out ya pussy. Let em know yer ok with it."

Daryl nodded his head. He knew he wasn't good at this shit. Fuck, he'd passed out when he heard the news.

Merle had taken Andreas pregnancy in stride, struttin around like a fuckin peacock, he was so happy. Daryl was happy, but still on the fringes of that happiness was worry. His own father had been a stupid, cruel, violent son of a bitch. He wasn't sure how genetics worked exactly, but he knew you learned from what you were exposed to. But as Daryl looked over at the girl sitting by the fire, her teeth chewing on her thumbnail, he knew he could never be like that. He would fight genetics if he had that in him.

He walked over to the blonde haired girl sitting by the fire.
"Hey sprite," he said.

Sophia looked up at him. He had taken to calling her sprite, based on the way her hair fringed her sparking blue eyes, she looked like a sprite to him he said.

"Hey," she said back.

He bit his thumbnail, trying to think of what to say.

"So, uh, ya happy about this little surprise?"

She looked up at him with sad eyes.

"I guess I'm happy, but does this mean your gonna be my dad?"

"Uh, I guess that's up to you. I love yer mother, I love that baby, and I love you."

"Well I guess that's good, but Rick loves Carl and he's nice and a good dad. My dad said he loved me, but he hurt my mom, and sometimes he hurt me. I didn't tell my mom though."

She pulled up her long sleeved shirt to reveal a thin scar that went from her elbow to beneath her shoulder blade.

Daryl eyes glazed over. He couldn't believe that Ed would do that to his own daughter. Carol had thought that Ed had never touched Sophia, but she was wrong. He knew she tried to get him to stay away from her, but he knew that everyday life probably gave him opportunity to get at the girl.

Daryl gritted his teeth and traced the thin line along her arm.

"Ya ever tell yer mom he did this to ya?"

"No, She would have tried to leave."

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"He would have killed her Mister Daryl, I know he would have. She would have tried to leave and he would have killed her."

Sophia looked back at her mother's tent and bit back a sob.

Daryl looked down at her and covered her hand with his.

"None of this Mister Daryl stuff, ya hear? Ya can call me anything but Mister Daryl."

She looked up at him and nodded.

"He was always mean to her. He would hit her for everything. One time she made a pot roast and he said she didn't make enough carrots with it. She ended up in the hospital for three days. He threw her down the stairs. Hit her for moving his stuff, hit her for not moving his stuff to clean. She was so afraid to do anything. I know if she knew he had ever touched me she would leave him. But he would kill her. I love my mom. I didn't love him though. Never. Is that bad?"

He tentatively placed his arm around her shoulders.

"No, sprite, Its not bad. He was yer pa. He needed to earn yer trust and yer love. He didn't. It's not bad ya never loved him. He didn't do anything to make ya love him.

My pa was the same way. He made ya think ya owed him something for the fact that ya were even born. But he didn't do anything to earn love or trust."

"Daryl? I'm happy about the new baby, I know mom is. I know my mom was pregnant after me. One night I was in my room and I heard her tell Ed. She was so excited, but he wasn't. He said that if she was too stupid to give him a boy the first time, she wouldn't give him a boy the second time."

Sophia started fidgeting and stuttering. Daryl placed his hand on hers to make her calm down a bit. She tried to hide her tears, and Daryl placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Its ok, ya can let it out. What happened?"

"I wanted a brother or sister so bad. I walked down into the kitchen to say something to Ed. I knew I shouldn't. He was standing at the sink with mom. He had his hand twisted up in her hair, pushing her head toward the sink that was filled with water for dishes. I grabbed his arm as her was pushing her head down into the sink. He backhanded me into the cupboard. My mom for the first time started to fight back. She started clawing at him trying to get him to stay away from me."

Sophia started openly crying now.

"He looked at me and said no, ones fuckin enough. He grabbed a butcher knife from the knife block. He wrapped mom's hair around his fist again and stuck the knife right into her belly. He just laughed and walked back into the den and turned on the TV."

Sophia looked up at Daryl whose eyes had gone black by now.

"I know you and mom aren't married, but if you don't want the new baby, please just leave her be. She's happy and excited. Please don't kill the new baby."

Daryl looked down in shock at the little girl who was sobbing into his pant leg.

Merle who had heard everything, pulled Sophia over to him. The girl was still sobbing, wet tears falling from her eyes. Daryl was paralyzed. The poor girl knew nothing other than what her fucking asshole of a father had shown her. Andrea came and sat down on the log next to Merle, she was crying silent tears, she had heard everything that Sophia had said. Merle moved Sophia so she was sitting on his leg, her head buried in his shoulder.

"Listen here little one."

She looked up at him with guarded eyes.

"Look over at Daryl."

She did as she was told and saw Daryl looking pale and sick.

"He aint looking that way because he don't want the new baby ya hear? He's looking that way cause he can't believe the daddy that ya had before the word done gone to shit, understand?"

Sophia looked at him and nodded her head slowly.

Andrea placed her hand on Merles as he grabbed Daryl's shoulder and pulled him closer to them.

"Now, Daryl here aint been to see the world they way that I have. He's a hunter, never seen much outside of tha woods. But me and Andrea here, were gonna have a baby, and that's gonna be yer family. So that means yer our family, get it? Ya think we'd ever do anything to hurt ya?"

Sophia looked at Andrea, then Merle and shook her head.

"Good, ya ever have any problems with my brother here, ya come ta me or Blondie here, we'll straighten him out. Ok?"

Daryl finally let out a breath, and looked over at his brother. Hell if Merle could deal with this shit so could he.

He got up and squatted in front of Sophia, taking both of her hands in his.

"Look, I aint never done this before, but I love yer momma. I love ya. I love the baby in yer mommas tummy. I aint never gonna raise a hand to any of ya. I might get mad or I might go off on my own for a bit, but don't think for one minute that that means I don't want you, yer ma, or the baby. Ya got it?"

Sophia nodded, overwhelmed that so many people would care about her or her mother. As she wiped her nose, she looked over at the tent just as her mom came out of the tent.

Carol looked around at the small group huddled around Sophia.

"Everything ok?"

Sophia got up and hugged her mother, wrapped her arms around her mothers waist. Carol kissed the top of Sophia's head and looked at the adults staring at her. Daryl got up and walked over to Carol. He stopped in front of her and took one of her hands and one of Sophia's.

"I'm happy about our new family, ya hear? I aint never gonna be so mad at y'all for nothing that I'll raise a hand ta any of you, get it?"

Carol looked at Sophia and both of them nodded at Daryl.

He pulled Carol into a kiss.

"Good. Now, lets get ready for Rick, Glenn and T-Dog ta get back. Hope this prison is secure. We need a spot for all these damn babies."

He smirked at Carol as he touched her stomach and pressed a kiss to her lips.