The day of Judith's birth was the day he had to face up to a truth he had almost allowed himself to forget – life was not something to be taken for granted. The group was not invulnerable and even within the prison walls they could sustain losses.
He was at the far side of the prison complex with Rick and Glenn when they saw the walkers in the yard. They had marvelled at Hershel's resilience after seeing him up on his feet and out on the yard for the first time since the amputation, whooping and cheering their encouragement, and then suddenly there were walkers everywhere. Hearing Rick scream for Lori and seeing the bewildered and terrified expressions on the faces of their people trapped behind the fences, he'd had only one thought and his legs were carrying him towards the gates as fast as he could move.
He had been the one who found her head covering on the ground near to T-Dogg's ravaged corpse when he and Rick, accompanied by Oscar and Axel, headed into the prison to find the generators and shut down the alarms. There were no words that he could say, no breath with which to form them, so he had just picked up the length of fabric, twisting it around his fingers and then tucking it into his pocket. It seemed impossible that she could have survived, especially when their continued search turned up no sign of her. Heavy hearted, they returned to the yard contemplating the losses that had seemed catastrophic. But there was worse still to come.
The moment that Maggie and Carl had emerged from another cell block, a squalling newborn wrapped in the boy's shirt and clutched to Maggie's chest, they had known that nothing was going to be the same. They hadn't needed to see the traumatised expression on Maggie's face or the blood that covered her up to her elbows, they'd all noticed the space where Lori should have been. All of them understood what her absence meant. They had lost three of their group in one day including the baby's mother and it sobered them all.
He had volunteered to go on a run to get the baby formula they needed, taking Maggie and raiding a former daycare a couple of miles from the prison, unable to cope with the idea of losing another member of the group. Determined not to let anything happen to the baby that Carol and Lori had worried about all through the winter, he had done what needed to be done to save her. He might not have been there when Carol needed him but he could damn well make sure that he was there for the baby in this small way. He owed that much to Rick, while the sheriff couldn't be a father to his newborn, Daryl would watch over her and keep her safe in his stead, just as he would all of their people.
Later when they had returned with the formula, he cradled her in his arms, absorbing the tiny weight of the bundle that filled the space from his elbow to wrist perfectly, and he had promised her dead mother and the woman who had fought so hard for her that he would protect her until his dying breath. Feeding her for the first time, rocking her gently as he marvelled at the miracle of new life in a world where they were surrounded by death, he had mourned just for a moment the fact that he would never see this tiny human being healing a small part of Carol Peletier's heart.
