Hello fellow fanfiction writers and readers, here is another chapter of this story that I hope you guys will enjoy. As usual I own nothing except new characters and ideas, I make no money from writing, and all rights go to the rightful owners. Thanks for reading, please leave a review!
Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future has not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once, exists and expires.
I look at my son.
To me he is perfect with his observant nature, he sits with Gracie and Rhee, his best friends. Judith was normally there but now she has friends her own age. Two years ago, I gave birth to this little angel, I named him Daryl Franklyn Dixon after his pa and my own. He had long dirty brown hair and dark blue eyes with unique flecks of hazel scattered. A few freckles touched his little nose, but all in all he looked like his father. I was surrounded by Michonne, Tara, Denise, Enid, Abby, and Maggie when I gave birth, Rick was a mess as the boys had to wait in the lobby.
But for now, he never asked who his father was, he was not very talkative, but he was a fighter. He was taller then the few little ones his age, as Michonne says he has my brains but his fathers bulldog fighting nature. Uncle Jess says little Daryl looks and acts a lot like his father when he was a babe, and that made me smile. I hated my ex, he had made a very rash choice even though in his head he validated it. He left me regardless, and now it has been two years, two damn years, Rick was hurt by this while his wife was down right homicidal.
Maggie smiled, "I never thought we would see these days again, I wish Beth and daddy were around to finally see them too. Daddy always thought the dark days of the outbreak would end." she looked to the sky as she spoke. I had heard such great things about her pa, Hershel, he seemed like a great man and father.
I retorted, "They see it and glad you got to experience it with your family."
Time does not pass, it continues.
Life was as normal as it could be, I stand in the kitchen cooking with Daryl behind me strapped into his chair, coloring his little heart out. He was just mumbling under his breath in words I could never understand, his eyes cast down when I turned to him. "Okay, its supper time. You hungry?" he smiles at the sound of my voice and it made me wonder if his father ever had the chance to look up to his ma and just be happy.
"Yes mama." his voice was silvery, it was light and pleasant even though it sounded a tad husky.
We eat together but my mind is off, it hasn't been like this but at times thinking of his father brought everything back. I was still in love with him, some nights he was my last thought, sometimes he is my first thought when I wake. I caught myself thinking about everything we had been through while I work, I know it needs to stop it has been over two years and about to be over three as our son's birthday is tomorrow.
Daryl slams his sippy cup on the wooden table, "Mama kay?" his little face worried but it faded as I smiled down at him.
"Mama was thinking about your birthday party tomorrow, are you super excited for all our friends and family to come?" he was, his face was lit like a Christmas tree. We talked while he finished his supper, he deserved a father, one who was around but then again, I was very closed off now.
"Come on little bulldog, time for bath than bedtime. You need to have a good sleep, so you can have your party."
"Yes mama." he spoke clearly, but like other children he at times mumbled gibberish.
This was us, our nightly thing, supper, bath, and bed. I set the book down looking at my son. He did, he looked like his father with little parts of me nestled into his features and brain.
I whispered, "Know that being my son means something. It means I will protect you to the very last vestige of my power. I will stand before you should danger come your way, beside you as you find your footing, and only behind when you are ready to be a man. I won't ever leave you. Not ever. Though these bones will age my love is eternal, so am I, so are you. I hope you never felt you had to earn my love, to prove yourself worthy, you never did. I was there when you came into the world, I saw the divine spark that is your soul kindle in your newborn eyes. Whatever challenges come your way, I know the real you, the one inside, the one that is my son." with a small kiss to his head I leave him to sleep while I go clean up the kitchen and get some sleep myself. Tomorrow was a new day, the very day three years ago my son chose me to be his mother.
It was now near noon; his party was at three. Rick walked in with Michonne, Judith, Carl, Duane, and Enid. "I came for my grandson, we are going to go fishing with Carl while you ladies do all the hard work." he has been my rock, he lost too when Daryl left.
Michonne laughed with her arms wrapped around me, "Come to grandma, little bulldog." and he did he loved his grandparents and Uncle Carl and Auntie Enid.
"Thank you, we have so much to get done. Daryl, you be a good boy for grandpa." my lips to his forehead as his little hands mushed my cheeks together, kissing any inch he could as he was passed to grandpa.
I turned back, "Carl, Duane, you are in charge of them both."
He laughed," You got it, sis." his voice was gruffer now, he seemed to grow like a weed too. His hair was longer now as his height reached 6'1 with life being normal, food being given.
Maggie, Tara, Rosita, Abby, Denise, and Enid are all doing task's from blowing balloons up, to decorations anything and everything in little Bulldogs favorite thing, Motorbikes. I was in the kitchen with Michonne and Aaron, we are cooking up some food even though Glenn and Jesus are on their way with pizza. My house would soon be filled, the grill was warming up as Aaron was slathering chicken and ribs with his homemade BBQ sauce. All six of my brothers are out back setting up a play set they built for their only nephew and his little friends. Rosita was taking a break her head on the table as she popped a chip covered in dip into her mouth, she was 4 months along now.
I just rubbed her back, "You got this." she just smiles back holding my hand, her and Markus are a match made in heaven.
I called out, "Denise, is Cyndi on her way with the cake?"
"I AM HERE!" was yelled back, Cyndi was smiling behind me with an awe-inspiring confection in her arms.
"Rick is on his way back, Aaron he said back off the grill." Michonne called out as Glenn arrived everything was perfect as his friends arrived, Judith and Rhee are being watched by Jesus as they break in his gift outback.
Carl was carrying a sleeping Daryl, Rick was smiling with three large fish they reeled in. "I got those." Gale smiled she was good at deboning fish, Oceanside were the best at fishing period.
The party was on, balloons being pooped, kids running around laughing even as I grabbed my son to clean his face, his great Uncle Jess let out a booming laugh. "Run boy, here take a sickle." he handed Daryl a blue raspberry popsicle before he was bolting for the back door.
"You have to let loose once in a while, he is a boy let him get dirty." he was right, I was so strict and that needed to stop. My ma and pa let me get dirty and act like my brothers, as long as every Sunday I was a lady while sitting in the church pews.
This was a great life, Jesus was watching a now mobile Gracie as she tried to hang with the big kids, and the kids took her under their wings helping her onto the playset with both her daddies watching like hawks.
I just laughed as Daryl and his friends sit in a circle covered in ice cream and cake, orange, black, and yellow icing in their hair and Jesus's, he should have let Gracie finish her cake first.
"My god, you did good, you did really good with my grandson. Better than I ever did with my boys, better than their own ma did. I am sorry my boy left like that, I blame myself, I have so many things I needed to say to him and his brother. I saw the ones ya'll killed because they couldn't reform back to who they were, all I can say is that I am glad I changed, that I found Mable when the world fell. Merle is gone, and I can't tell him how sorry I am, but my bulldog is still out there." I had watched this man for the last three years and saw how he must have changed, he came around with little gifts for his grandson and tried to be there, teaching him tracking and hunting with Uncle Jess.
Smiling, "It is never to late, give it time and you will be able to try and make things right."
I moved just watching the fun, even Dr. Brenner is here having fun which is a creepy sight. My brothers watching him as they drink moonshine and love on their wives, my eyes catch something in the kitchen, someone was watching out the window.
Who would be inside when the party was hoppin' outside, I walked away to go drag who ever it was out. The kitchen was empty, but a gruff voice called out. "You havin a party?"
It was Daryl.
"Three years and you come strolling in like it was yesterday, boy you got me twisted. You left me with a note, you left all your family, Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Denise, you left me alone!" shoving him into the wall, my voice reaching high levels.
"Cameron, I never meant to be gone so long. I was wrong, I fucked up, I needed to leave and find myself!"
I yelled, "AND YET YOU COULDN'T TALK TO ME! YOU JUST UP AND LEAVE WHEN I NEEDED YOU, YOU HAD SOMETHING TO STAY FOR!"
A voice chimed over my shoulder, "You thought of no one but yourself, you abandoned your family. I never wanted you to be me, I was a fuck up and a piss poor father to you and your brother. You left your girl and your son." I winced hearing his father behind us, but it was the look on Daryl's face that worried me. He paled steppin back from us both.
"My son?"
"You never talked to me, the day you left I was on my way home to tell you I was pregnant. We have a son, his name is Daryl Franklyn Dixon, he turned three today, this is his party."
Maggie walked in with Tara, both paled with wild eyes as they spotted my ex. Then it was like hell on earth, Tara screamed out. "THIS MOTHERFUCKER CAME BACK, PLAN A1" what was this plan A? But as a horde of angry females started screaming at him he was retreating from them, I saw a smile or two from him, but they just advanced on him until Rick and Morgan broke it up.
The kids filed in. "Get them out until we hose them off, I called to Jesus who did just that, all but my boy who was trying to climb up my thigh with dirty hands, in his wake he left my jeans coated in cake, dirt, and food.
"MAMA YELLIN!" he clapped about to mush my cheeks when my face moved back from him.
"Daryl, you have very dirty hands. Mama needs you to go with Uncle Aaron." Aaron had Gracie, but he came over snatching my boy up.
"I got him, you just calm down."
Daryl was watching all this, the way his eyes lingered on our son, taking in how much they looked alike. "My boy?"
"HER BOY!" Maggie just let lose her fist, we all watched as it slammed into his nose.
