"What is it?" Lydia asked as they sat around the table.
"Connie asked me about my past, thought you would like to hear it too." Daryl paused and he saw there was curiosity in Lydia's eyes.
"You know, my dad... he was similar to your mom. Used to beat the shit out of me, when I was a kid. He liked it when I was scared. He liked it when he had the power. Always told me that I was nothing and I will always be nothing. Sounds familiar, huh?"
"Yeah," Lydia said, lowering her eyes.
Connie was upset, she could feel how her heart started to hurt as she learned Daryl's story. She was raised by loving parents, who died too soon and it was hard to imagine that people did such things to their own children. She took Daryl's hand and he continued:
"When he was drunk, he had this expression on his face, that's when I knew I should better run and hide." Daryl paused again for a moment.
"One night, he found me hiding in the woods. He beat me so hard, I thought I was gonna die. And now I have a nice reminder of it for the rest of my life."
He pulled his shirt up a little bit and showed Lydia the scars on his back, then he quickly pulled it back again.
"What an asshole," said Lydia angrily.
Connie was shocked and had a big lump in her throat.
"Thing is," Daryl continued, "you can't choose the family you're born into. And when parents threat you like shit it's because they're full shit, not you."
Daryl and Lydia were looking at each other.
"You can always choose to be better than them. And not to believe the bullshit they're feeding you," Daryl told her.
Lydia nodded.
"And you still can choose to leave them finally," she said.
"Yeah, that too."
"When did you leave your dad?" Lydia asked him.
"When I was 17."
"And you lived on your own then?"
"Nah. I was with my brother after that. Can't say it was the best choice of my life, but that's another story."
Daryl looked at Connie who wrote: I'm so sorry
"It's okay," Daryl said. "It was a long time ago."
"I'm glad we're all together," Lydia said finally. "And I'm glad you're my family now," she added shyly.
Daryl gave her a pat on the back. "Yes, me too."
On the next day they helped the people in Oceanside again. While Daryl was still fixing the roof, Connie helped Martha with the laundry. She was lost in her thoughts, still thinking about Daryl and what he has been through in his life. She felt sorry for him. Even if he said it was a long time ago, she could feel that it still haunted him. And it would probably be on his mind until the end of his life, just like the scars on his back.
Martha got her out of her thoughts, when she started to talk to her in sign language and Connie answered her. It was nice to know someone, who knew the sign language. She learned that Martha was living in Oceanside with the others after the Saviors killed several of their family members. Connie was shocked when she heard that the Saviors have killed so many people. Martha told her they killed her husband too and that she was glad they didn't have any kids. She was also thankful that Rick and his friends defeated the Saviors finally and put their leader in jail.
It was late afternoon when they finished their work.
Daryl, Connie and Lydia decided to go to the beach then and Lydia was excited about it, because she had never been to the beach before.
"It's so big!" Lydia shouted when she saw the ocean.
Connie tried to enjoy it too. She breathed the salty air in and watched the silent ocean, while she was walking. She had a basket with food in one hand and Daryl was holding her other hand. But no matter how hard she tried, there were too many thoughts on her mind to enjoy their peaceful time together.
Connie and Daryl sat down on a stone. They looked at Lydia, who crouched in front of the ocean watching the waves with a content look on her face.
Martha told me about the Saviors, Connie wrote then.
"Yeah, that was tough. One of our hardest fights."
But when they gave up, you forgave them?
"Rick wanted to end this. So he spared them. Put their leader in jail."
Connie thought about it for a while.
I don't know if I could do that, She wrote then. I know , I could never forgive the people who murdered my sister.
"I can't forgive Negan either. He's an asshole but he has nothing on Alpha."
I hope we will never see her again.
Daryl put his arm around Connie and she tried to think about something else.
The ocean is beautiful, She wrote.
"You are beautiful," he told her and she kissed him.
They spent several weeks in Oceanside and people finally got used to them. They were smiling at them and greeting them and Daryl was happy about it. He and Connie also got some private moments now and then, everything felt good and he was almost afraid to let himself be happy, because he knew it always didn't end well when he did.
Connie was doing the dishes and Daryl was studying a plan for another building, the Oceansiders were planning to put up, when Lydia came in, out of breath from running.
"Hey guys, you have to see that!" She shouted.
When they all went outside, they saw a couple of snowflakes.
"It's snowing, isn't that cool?" Lydia was spinnig around with her arms wide open. Daryl and Connie exchanged a look and smiled.
Daryl put his hand out with the palm up and he could feel how the snowflakes were falling on his palm and melting immediately. He looked up and caught a couple of snowflakes with his tongue. He didn't see snow for a long time and it was never snowing much. But this time it continued to snow until the evening and soon everything was covered in snow. Everyone was outside. Vicky and Lydia were building a snowman. Daryl watched them for a while and felt happy. At least Lydia could have some careless moments now and do things he never did when he was young, like building a snowman. Something cold hit him from behind. He turned around and saw Connie, who threw a snowball at him. He crouched down to gather some snow and make a snowball, when she hit him with another snowball on the head.
"Just you wait!" Daryl shouted and threw a snowball at her, but missed, because she dodged it. She put her tongue out at him and ran away laughing while Daryl made another snowball and started to chase her. It became a real snowball fight, they were chasing each other, hiding, throwing snowballs and laughing like little kids. Daryl's hands were almost numb from the cold snow, nevertheless he made two snowballs and he was slowly walking towards a tree where Connie was hiding. Suddenly something hit him from behind again, he turned around and saw Lydia and then Connie came out of her cover and hit him with a snowball too.
"Hey, that's not fair," Daryl complained, while both of them were laughing. He finally got to Connie, who tried to run away and was too slow. He held her tight in his arms and she struggled to get free, until they stumbled and fell into the snow. He picked some snow up, making another snowball and when Connie saw that, she kissed him and he let the snowball roll out of his hand.
"Okay, you win," he said, when they moved apart.
They came home, all cold but happy. They ate and warmed themselves at the fireplace, before they went to sleep.
Daryl was enjoying the cozy warm bed more than ever and he was also enjoying having Connie close to him. He smiled all the time and fell asleep soon.
In the middle of the night there was suddenly a loud noise and Daryl woke up with his heart racing. Then he heard somebody screaming.