Disclaimer: I do not own anything except Abby!

I'm not good with timelines. This is just taking place some point in the apocalypse. Abby is 14. Daryl 30. Rick 36.

Part One

The group and I were staying at a few houses in a small rundown looking neighborhood. Rundown before the turn more than likely. I liked our house though. It had four bedrooms upstairs. My dad had the first room at the top of the stairs, then Carl was in the one right across from his. Then once you turn the corner, there's a hallway and two more bedrooms. Mine's on the left then Daryl's room was right across from mine, which I liked of course. I was nice and let him have the bigger room. Daryl is the only one I would do that for, even though he didn't care which room he lived in just as long as he got one. He was such a simple person when it came to that stuff. I loved that about him.

Speaking of Daryl, I had taken to following him around and tagging along on runs with him. I offered to help him with things like if he was going hunting or working on a car. Most of the time he turned me down. But also, we had nights where we occasionally would play games and if it was ever a game that you needed a partner, you best believe Daryl was my go to guy. It was kind of funny though because he never wanted to play in the first place. But we always talked him into it.

Anyway, my dad and Michonne just got back from a run and I was outside helping them carry the bags inside with the items they found in them. I looked up and saw Daryl down the street a little doing something with a car. He looked to be struggling. I waltzed down there. "Want some help?" I offered.

His mouth set into a straight line when he looked at me. "Yeah, sure, if ya wanna." He said. "Go ahead, climb in 'nere." He was referring to the trunk.

I got inside. "What am I doing?" I grinned.

"Hold this thang open and shine the flashlight down 'nere." He showed me. "I gotta get these little lightbulbs outta here." I did what he said. It was kind of hard to hold the flap open and hold the light on it as well. I hoped that he would hurry up. "Hold the flashlight higher. Yer blockin' my view." He scolded me.

"Sorry." I fixed it. There was a brief pause. "What do ya need the lightbulbs for?" I asked him.

He sighed and didn't answer me right away. "Glenn said he needed 'em fer somethin'. He wants to build some kinda…nerd machine."

"Nerd machine?" I laughed.

"Yeah." Daryl said with a smirk.

"Well, tell him to get his own lightbulbs." I joked.

Daryl gave me a look. "That ain't how it works with us."

"Yeah, I know but he's the one who wants them."

"Don't be selfish." He scolded me. He grunted as he had his hand down in the thing. "I cain't get it." He finally gave up.

"Let me try." I offered.

"Nah. Just forget it. C'mon." He practically lifted me out of the trunk. "Let's go inside." He pointed and guided me along.

Daryl and I had gotten pretty close over time. He's definitely my favorite person here besides my actually family, of course. No one could ever replace my dad. We have a very strong bond that I wouldn't change for anything. We've always been that way and I hope it stays that way, I don't think I could ever love anyone more than my dad.

However, Daryl was like…an uncle maybe. Or possibly even an older brother that I never had. Avuncular is a good word to use to describe him. I remember learning that vocabulary word in school. But mostly, Daryl, to me, is a friend. I wanted us to be super close friends even though there's like a pretty big age gap between us. That doesn't matter to me though. Age is just a number.

What mainly attracts me about Daryl is just the way he is. I feel like I can be who I really am around him. I know that sounds corny but it's true. He's just the realest character I've ever known. He won't judge me for just being me. And I'd never have to worry about him talking about me behind my back like some of the superficial kids I went to school with. I'm so done with that shit. There's a few things that I don't miss about the old world. Things oddly seem more simple now. I'm sure Daryl would agree with that.

Well, I could go on and on about how great Daryl Dixon is but anyway, we were all sitting around talking at the dining room table. Carol and Michonne came over for dinner and we pretty much just got done eating. Daryl and I always sat at the front of the table facing each other. However, today Carol was next to him. I watched them talk and laugh occasionally. It made me jealous, which is immature, I know, but Daryl is mine. Those two are pretty good friends though. They had a good connection and were close in age. I don't care that Daryl has other friends, that would be just ridiculous if I was like that. So, I wasn't mad about it or anything but still…

"That turned out pretty good from what we had to make with it." My dad said with a laugh. I laughed too. We made some kind of casserole dish with some noddles and canned things that we found. It wasn't the best thing I had but it was alright. More importantly, it was something.

"Yeah, it was good." Michonne said.

My dad nudged me. "Where's dessert?"

"I didn't make any dessert." I said and gave him a weird look. I still laughed though.

"What? Abby!" Everyone started saying my name.

I put my arms out. "I don't even got anything. What do you want from me?" I smirked. They laughed. I just remembered something. "Oh, I have a funny story about dessert." I sat up.

"Of course ya do." Daryl said.

"It's funny though." I said. "Well, at least I think it is."

"Go ahead. Let's hear your story." My dad said.

"Okay, well…" I trailed off trying to remember exact details. "My friends and I went to this restaurant called Gali's. Gay-li's? Maybe it was GAlis. I don't know how to pronounce it." I waved it off. "It was a gyro place. Anyway…we each ordered these huge sampler platters with all this stuff on it. Plus, a different sampler platter for all of us to split." My dad raised his eyebrows. I almost laughed. "And believe it or not, I actually ate all of my food. It was really good. But I was SUPER stuffed after that. Like really full. There was no way I could eat anymore. But…" I trailed off and laughed a little. "This woman, the waitress comes out and is like 'I have very good baklava for dessert'." I imitated her Greek accent. "So, me and my friends look at each other and I was just like…bring it out." I said. "I was like sickened but I had to get it because I always wanted to try baklava. Plus, the Greek lady said it was really good and her gyros were amazing so I trusted her. And it was really good."

"Was it?" My dad asked.

"Yeah. I cut a piece with my fork and it looked like grease came out and I was 'eww' but it ended up being honey." I paused for a second. "It was really good, I loved it." I said the last part quickly. The others let out a small laugh, then there was a pause.

"Hey." Daryl said to me. "It wasn't funny." He teased.

"Shut up. I thought it was funny." I laughed a little.

"Did you get sick after eating all that?" My dad asked me.

"Surprisingly no." I stated. "But I did feel pretty gross for a while."

"Yeah, I bet." My dad said again. "If you would've had alcohol I bet you would've been real sick."

I made a weird face. "How would they have given me alcohol? I was…this age." I said. Then, I thought of another time. "Although, there was this one time…"

"Oh." My dad and Michonne said with a laugh.

"This one better be funny." Daryl said to me.

"It probably won't be to you. It'll probably get me in trouble." I pointed out. "Anyway, my friend, Sam, and I went to a late showing of a movie, then went out to eat afterwards. And the waitress sat us at the lounge. I guess since it was late she thought we were older…I guess." I made a stupid face. "So she sat us down and was like so what can I get you ladies to drink? A margarita? And me and Sam looked at each other and I was like…yeah, sure. I'll take that." I smirked.

"What?" My dad said. "She gave you alcohol? She didn't even ask to see your ID?"

"No." I grinned.

My dad's eyes widened but there was a hint of amusement in them. "And you took it?"

I gave him a weird look. "Uh, yeah, of course we did. Why wouldn't we? We were kids. And they served us alcohol."

"Ya should 'a got somethin' better than a damn margarita." Daryl said.

I looked at him. "Well, I didn't know. I had to take what I could get."

My dad shook his head but had a small smile on his face. Then, it was as if he had a thought just then. "I picked you up that night." He pointed.

I thought for a minute and smiled once I remembered. "Yeah." I nodded. "Yup, you did. You were our DD." I teased.

"Ohh." He shook his head again.

"There's so much you don't even know, man." I smirked.

"Yeah?" He looked back at me. "Like what?"

I had a thought just then. I better stop before I actually get myself in trouble. "We can…do this some other time." I grinned innocently. The others laughed. I had a funny thought just then. "I'll sing you a song one day about all the things I did that you never knew."

"Okay." My dad said with a laugh.

"Okay, yeah. Blah blah blah." Carl said. "Are we gonna play this game or what?"

"What game?" I looked around at everyone.

"Michonne found this new game that she wants us to play." My dad said.

"Oh. What is it?" I asked her.

"It's called Apples to Apples." She said.

I perked up a little. "Oh, I've played that before. It's pretty fun."

"Good. You'll have to show us how to play then." She said.

"Okay." I grinned knowing I get to be teacher.

So we got the game out and I passed out cards to everyone. "Okay so…" I finished passing out the cards. "If I'm remembering correctly…someone takes one of these cards and reads it out loud. Then, everyone else has to choose a card from their hand that somehow relates to the word or phrase that was read. Then, the person whose turn it is will pick the one they like the most. And the person whose card got picked wins the green card. Whoever gets ten green cards first is the winner."

"I'm confused." My dad said.

"Of course." I laughed. "I'll show you. But it's really funny."

"Like that story you told?" Daryl teased me.

I narrowed my eyes at him as a joke, he smirked. "Anyway…I'll go first then." I picked up a green card. "The word is phony." I stated. There was a brief pause while everyone was looking through their cards.

"I don't have anything that relates to the word phony." Michonne said.

"Yeah, same here." Said my dad.

"Just pick any random one then." I said. I waited for everyone to put a card down. Carol was first then my brother, then my dad then Michonne and Daryl was last. "Okay." I smiled and picked up their cards, then shuffled them a little. "So we have…icebergs?" I made a weird face. "Okay." I read the next card. "Alien abductions. Well, that's a little better."

"That one's mine." Carl said.

I laughed. "You're not supposed to say which card is yours."

"Oh." He made a weird face.

"Salads, knock-knock jokes, and feathers." I laughed at the last one. "You guys are so boring." I teased them. They laughed. "The only one that kind of makes sense is knock-knock jokes." I held the card up. "So whoever put that, you win the green card."

"That was mine." Carol said with a laugh. I handed her the card.

"Do you guys think you understand it now?"

"I guess." My dad said.

"Well…you're going next. Unless Daryl wants to go?" I looked at him.

"Nah, he can go." Daryl said. I laughed. I knew he would say that.

"Okay." My dad sighed and grabbed a green card. "Scary." He said.

We started looking at our cards. I noticed my dad put a card down. "You're not supposed to put one down this round." I told him.

"Why not?"

"Because you're the judge right now. You could pick your own card if you wanted and that's cheating."

"Oh okay." He let out a laugh and picked his card back up.

I also realized that everyone had less cards than me. "Oh yeah. I forgot a rule." I said. Everyone looked at me. "You're supposed to pick a card up from the deck once you put one down. So you all have to grab a card." They all grabbed a new card. I finally looked through my cards and picked cops because my dad was a cop and I thought it would be funny.

Once everyone had their cards down, my dad read them. "We got…James Bond, reptiles, vacations, Woody Allen or cops."

I giggled when he read the last one. "Well, I know who put that one." My dad said. I giggled again. "I'm gonna go with reptiles."

"What?" I said like I was completely appalled. "Cops!"

"I'm pickin' reptiles." He said with a smile.

"That's mine." Michonne said. My dad handed her the card.

I just stared at him the whole time. "You just didn't pick cops because you knew it was mine." I didn't let it go.

"Yeah, that's why." My dad said with a laugh and raised his eyebrows.

"My turn." Carl said. He grabbed a green card and read it. "Fancy."

"Oh, I gotta perfect one for that." I said and immediately put the card down. It was gold chains.

Carl started reading when everyone put the cards down. He ended up picking my dad's card.

"What?" I said. "What could be more fancy than gold chains?" I said.

"I could think of a lot of things that are fancier than gold chains." Michonne said.

I paused for a moment. "I haven't won a card yet."

"Well, that's because you need to put down some better cards." My dad said.

I just stared at him like he was an idiot. "Oh yeah. Like yours are any better. Putting feathers for phony."

"That wasn't me." My dad said with a laugh. "I put icebergs."

I let out a laugh. "That's even worse. At least feathers are artificially made. Icebergs make themselves." I waved.

"Honey." My dad looked at me. "Feathers come from birds, which are not artificially made."

I paused for a minute. "But what about those little ones in pillows?"

He raised his eyebrows. "They come from geese."

"What?" I just stared at him for a moment. "Really?" He nodded. I thought again. I felt stupid so I decided not to let this go. "I don't believe you. I wish Google still existed so I could look it up." I smirked.

"Well, the internet would tell ya the same thing." My dad said. The others were laughing at me. I was a little embarrassed because I don't like when people think I'm dumb.

"Whatever." I said and shook my head. "Whose turn is it?"

"I believe it's mine." Michonne said. She picked a green card and read it. "Boring." She said.

I looked through my cards and picked Old Man and the Sea because I read it in school and didn't care for it. I silently put my card down this time. My mood was a little soured from the last round still.

Michonne ended up picking my card this time. "Yes!" I said. "I finally won one." I reached for the card.

"Oh wait." Michonne pulled the card away. "Never mind. I like this one better." My jaw dropped. "No, I'm just kidding." She gave me back the card. Everyone laughed. "I'm just kiddin' with ya, Abby."

"I know." I said.

Carol took her turn and picked my card as well. So now I had two. For a minute, I thought they were picking me on purpose because of how I was acting earlier, but then I knew that was impossible because they didn't know whose card was whose.

It was finally Daryl's turn. He was the only one that hadn't won a green card yet. I don't really think he cared too much though. To be honest, I don't even think he's trying. I think he just grabs a card and slaps it down.

"Tasty." He read his card.

"Aw, I wish I had my card from the last round." Carl said.

I looked through my cards and picked almonds. When I put it down though, it accidentally flipped up right. "Uh oh." I said. Daryl grabbed it and flipped it over. He probably saw what it said, now he knows which is mine. He ended up picking my card too. I couldn't help but think if he did it on purpose. I smiled when he handed me the card.

"Okay. Back to me." I said happily. "Confused." Everyone laid their card down pretty quickly. "Wow, that was fast." I said. I read them. "We have…cats, roadkill. That's messed up." I commented on that. "Boy bands. Pickles and Hel—Hellen Keller!" I laughed loudly. "That's so wrong but so funny. I HAVE to go with that one."

"That was me." Daryl said with a smirk. I gave him his card. "That was a really good one. They all like worked, except for not really pickles. No offense who ever put that down."

I heard someone laugh. "Thanks a lot, Abby." My dad said. "Ya hurt my feelings."

I laughed. "Well, that's what you get for making me feel stupid about the feathers." I crossed my arms over my chest and smirked.

"That's—that was your fault." He said with raised eyebrows.

"Stop makin' fun of me." I said only half joking. "How was I supposed to know that?"

"Can we just forget about the feathers?" Carl said. There was a brief pause. "It's your turn, dad."

We played more rounds until someone got ten cards. And you'll never guess who won. Me! I was very excited. We had a pretty good time, besides when I felt stupid about the whole feathers thing, but I'm going to choose to put it behind me. It wasn't even a big deal to begin with. Now we were just sitting around talking.

"Well…" Michonne started to say and stood up, she stretched. "I hate to be a party pooper but…I'm gonna head to bed." She said.

"No, yeah. We'll probably all be going soon." My dad said. "I know I'm tired." He stretched and glanced at my little brother. "Carl, why don't you head on up now?" He pointed towards the stairs.

"Okay." Carl said sounding a little annoyed. I'm sure glad I'm older now, I always hated so terribly bad being sent to bed. Mostly because I just don't like being told what to do but also, I've always had sleep issues. So, I usually stay up pretty late.

I watched Michonne and my brother leave. Now it was just my dad, Daryl, Carol and me. "I'm goin' on a run in the mornin'." Daryl informed us, it mainly looked like he was talking to my dad. "You gotta list?"

"Uh, yeah. Abby wrote it." My dad said. "You got that list?" He said to me.

"Yeah, but…I thought I gave it to you?" I gave my dad a weird look. I think I heard Daryl sigh.

"You didn't give me no list." My dad said with raised eyebrows. "You said it's your job to keep track of things around here." He put his hands up in defense.

I felt around in my pockets and felt something square shaped. "Oh yeah. I put it in my pocket." I said stupidly. I handed it to Daryl. He began looking over it.

"Alright, good." Said my dad. "I'm gonna go check on Carl, then go to bed myself." He kissed my head as he walked by. "Night, baby."

"Night, daddy." I said.

"Does this say soap?" Daryl asked me. I nodded. "I just brought back…four bottles. Yer tellin' me 'at's gone already?"

"Uh…no but…I just figured if you saw it you could grab it." I shrugged. "I mean…it's not like it won't get used."

He gave me a look. "No, Abby. We only get what's necessary." He drew a line through the word soap on the list. I bit my lip. Is he mad at me or something? It made me nervous.

He continued to look over the list. "Toilet paper. How good are we on toilet paper?"

"…I-I think we're good."

"If we're good then why's it on the list?" His hand dropped down onto the table.

"I mean…I know I just changed it earlier—

"Are there any extra rolls in the closest?" He spoke roughly.

I hesitated. "…I think there's…" I trailed off trying to think because I didn't want to be wrong. I got a thought just then. "Actually, I can just go check." I moved my leg to get up.

"Yeah, I can go check too." Daryl said. I stopped. "I thought it was yer job to keep track 'a thangs?"

I looked at him for a moment, then looked down. He was kind of making me feel bad. When I looked back up, he was looking right at me. "Well, are ya gonna go look?"

"Oh." My eyes widened a little. "Yeah." I stood up, then stopped because I just remembered something. "No, I remember now. There's…there's—there's three rolls in the closet." I nodded once.

"Are ya sure?"

"…"

"Just go look." He snapped and shook his head.

"Okay." I said quietly and started walking away.

"She is so stupid. I cain't stand 'er sometimes." Daryl said. I stopped dead in my tracks. He's talking about me! I stayed where they couldn't see me and listened.

"She is not." Carol said. "She just forgot. And I think she's funny."

"I thank she's annoyin'." He said again. It felt like I was punched in the stomach. He thinks I'm stupid and annoying? And he said he can't stand me. My lip began to quiver and I looked at the floor.

"Oh, Daryl." Carol said. "Please don't ever say that to her. That would hurt her feelings so bad." Too late. "She likes you a lot."

"Yeah, I know." Daryl said. There was a brief pause after that. "Someone said they needed toothpaste, I think Michonne, so I'm gonna add that."

"Yeah, try to find band-aids too." Carol said.

I figured they were done talking about me so I left and went upstairs. At first, it was like I was in denial. I couldn't figure out why Daryl would say those mean things about me. Is that really how he feels about me? Or was he just mad? I didn't know but I did know that my feelings were hurt and I was about to cry. It was hard to keep it in. I had to though because I needed to go back down there.

I checked in the closet, then went back down stairs. I just didn't think about it. Carol was gone when I got down there. I walked through the kitchen so Daryl's back would be to me. "I was right. There's three rolls in the closet and one on the thing." I said quickly and quietly.

"Thanks." Was all Daryl said. I didn't say goodnight to him or anything, I just went upstairs to my room.

Tears started spilling down my cheeks as soon as I closed my door. I cannot believe that Daryl said that about me. I thought we were friends? I thought he liked me? But apparently he thinks I'm dumb and annoying. I sniffled. I never thought I would hear that from him. He judged me and talked behind my back, those are two things I never thought Daryl Dixon would do.

I was completely crushed. I didn't know what I would do now. If he can't stand me, then I guess I will just stay away from him from now on.

I was so sad.

If only I could take back the night.