Prologue
His fingers were curled tenderly in the liquid sunshine she called hair, his lips pressed gently to her hairline as she sobbed against his chest. The world seemed to particularly enjoy kicking them when they were down, or even worse, when they'd just managed to struggle back onto their feet, the hope finally re-emerging in their chests. He didn't know how to help her, his precious girl, as the force of her cries wracked her entire body. She had thought her home was lost, her family dead, only to stumble upon them again simply due to an accident, a near tragedy really. Just as she'd started to accept that it was real, she was home- not just on the farm but with Daryl by her side- it had been viciously torn from her once more. How could she come back from that, he wondered. How could someone so kind, so beautiful, so strong, suffer so much? His belief that the universe was cruel was only reinforced in that moment as the woman he loved broke apart in his arms. He knew there was nothing he could do to lessen this blow, his own heart feeling like it was being shredded as he struggled against his desire to lash out at something, his instinctual response being to protect and destroy. But he couldn't destroy this. He couldn't destroy her own emotional pain. So instead he simply sat, cradling her to him as if he could absorb her into his own chest and keep her safe there forever, and wished he wasn't so fucking useless.