Chapter 4
Daryl, Rick and Emily decided to go looking for Lauren. She's only been missing for about twenty minutes so she couldn't have been far. After about five minutes of walking they heard a walker snarling. "Stay here." Daryl whispered to Emily. She just nodded and prayed her little girl wasn't its most recent victim. Daryl shot the walker with his crossbow then he walked over to the body to pull his bolt out. "Mr. Daryl!" He heard a small voice exclaim happily. "Lauren?" He asked in confusion. He was still trying to figure out where her voice was coming from. "Was that Lauren talking?" Emily asked as she ran up beside Daryl. "Sounded like her, but I don't know where its comin' from." Daryl told her. "Mommy! Mr. Daryl! Up here!" The young girl called from the tree Emily and Daryl were standing beside. Emily looked up and saw her daughter. "Oh my God! Lauren!" She said happily with tears in her eyes. Daryl looked up and saw her too. He couldn't help but to smile. He reached his arms out for her. "Alright kiddo get over here." He said playfully as she moved towards his hands. He scooped her up and brought her into her mothers arms. "Oh Lauren are you okay baby? I'm so glad we found you." Emily said happily as she hugged her daughter. "I'm okay mommy, I ran up into the tree before it saw me!" Lauren exclaimed proudly. "That's my girl, you're so smart and so brave." Emily told her daughter softly before she kissed the top of her head. Rick looked at Lauren and smiled. "How'd you know to climb into the tree?" Rick asked sweetly. Lauren turned to look at him and smiled. "When we were on our way to see Uncle Jenner mommy told me that if the monsters were ever chasing me to go somewhere high up where they couldn't reach!" Lauren said proudly. "Well you're a really good listener, you're very smart too. It was really brave of you to do that." Rick said kindly as he smiled at the little girl. "Well I'm a big girl and big girls listen!" Lauren said happily. Everyone let out a small chuckle before deciding to head back to the highway. Emily began walking with Lauren in her arms when Daryl stopped her. "I've got her." Daryl said as he took off his crossbow and reached his arms out to Lauren. "You don't have to." Emily told him softly. "I wanna." Daryl stated firmly, but kindly. "Yay! Can I have a piggy back Mr. Daryl?" Lauren asked excitedly. "Ya sure can kiddo!" Daryl said happily as Emily placed the little girl on his back. "Yay! Thank you!" She exclaimed. "No problem girly." He said happily as they walked back to the highway. When they got back to the highway despite everything that happened with Emily Lori looked relieved.
Emily began walking towards Lori to go apologize when Shane stopped her. "Nuh uh, not happenin' girly." Shane said firmly as he grabbed her arm. "You best let go of me Shane." Emily warned him. Shane laughed. "Fine, but don't go anywhere near her." He barked. "Well you aren't her husband, hell you aren't really anything to her as far as I know so why don't you back off?" Emily said bitterly. She noticed a flash of hurt in his eyes, but failed to understand why. "If you fuckin' touch her.." Shane warned. Emily rolled her eyes and walked over to Lori. "So uh.. I'm sorry about stabbing ya." She began awkwardly. "I over reacted a little. I was just so worried about her.." Emily said quietly. Lori chuckled a little. "Well at least I know you'll be able to protect us from bandits, but I'm a mother too I understand why you'd do that. Hell if something like that happened to Carl I don't know what I'd do." Lori said kindly. "So..are we okay then?" Emily asked hesitantly. Lori smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess so." Lori said sweetly. "Good, did someone already take care of your stomach or do you need it looked at still?" Emily asked. "Its fine, go be with Lauren." Lori said quietly before waving her in the direction of her daughter, who was now tossed upside down over Daryls shoulder laughing hysterically. Emily smiled and walked over to the two.
Emily POV
Seeing how Daryl is with Lauren makes me so happy. She isn't his, hell he's only known her two days, but he's treating her like his own. I've always wondered what it would be like if Lauren grew up with her dad around. Lately I've been reggretting just running away to Atlanta the second I found out I was pregnant. Me and him really had something special, but I just left him without even telling him he was gonna be a father. Sure he was a nice enough guy, but he wasn't ready. His family wouldn't have reacted too kindly if he brought home a baby either. Daryl reminds me of her father in a lot of ways. They have the same eyes and the same sense of humor, funny enough they even have the same first name. I don't know what Daryls last name is, but I doubt its him. Laurens fathers last name was Dixon, and he had a fucking crazy older brother. He was great to have on your side, but crazy none the less. Merle Dixon, I remember him clear as day. If anyone was still surviving its him. Since Daryl doesn't have a brother as far as I know they're deffinitly not the same man. I should ask Daryl his last name, its weird being with a man and not even knowing who he is. I walked over to where Daryl and Lauren were playing and smiled at them. "Mommy! Make him stop tickling me!" Lauren cried out happily. "I'm on it!" I said happily as I ran over to them and scooped my giggling daughter up into my arms. I smiled at her then looked over at Daryl. "Hey I've been meaning to ask you this, what's your last name anyways?" I asked curiously. Daryl smiled at me. "Dixon, yours?" He asked casually. If I didn't know any better I'd think my jaw hit the ground. Here in all this hell I not only found the father of my child after four years, but we're together and happy before we even knew. I just found Laurens father, but what happened to Merle? I feel sick. I loved Merle like family and I know he'd rather die than admit it, but he loved me too. I have so many questions now. "Mommy? Mommy are you okay?" Lauren asked, breaking my thought process. "Um..yeah baby I'm okay. Why don't you go play in the RV for a bit? I need to talk to Daryl privately." I told her shakily. Lauren shrugged and kissed my cheek before I put her down. "Okay mommy, love you." She said as she ran off into the RV. "Love you too sweetheart." I said sweetly.
I just stared at Daryl for a while before he broke the silence. "So um..you said ya wanted to talk?" He asked nervously. How do I tell him this? "Daryl..when you were twenty you were dating a seventeen year old named Emily, well..how do I say this? That was me. I know this is a lot to take in right now, but there's something else..Lauren, she's..yours." I said nervously as I looked at the ground. When I looked back up at Daryl his face was unreadable. He had so many different emotions, anger, relief, happiness, sadness, hurt and even resentment. Daryl just stood there saying nothing so I decided to speak again. "Look I don't expect you to forgive me for just leaving you like that, it wasn't right. When I found out I was pregnant I got scared and moved to Atlanta with Jenner. I was scared of what your family would do. I was scared of putting too much pressure on you, and I'm so sorry. I really did love you though. Every day on Laurens birthday I'd wanna pick up the phone and call you, but I'd always get too scared. I wish I never left you and I'm sorry. If you wanna hate me go right ahead, but please don't take it out on her. She adores you. If you don't want her to know that's fine, but I think she should. I can't lie to her about something like this." I told Daryl nervously. I realized that I was crying so I wiped my tears quickly. Daryl took a stepped forward. He stood there for a moment then he pulled me closer and kissed me. "I told ya from the start I could never hate ya. I love ya." He told me gently as he looked into my eyes and stroked my cheek. I smiled at him. "I love you too, I never stopped." I admitted. Daryl smiled at me. "Lets go get our daughter." He said softly and he took my hand and lead me to the RV. I smiled at him as we walked hand in hand. When we walked into the RV Lauren ran and threw her arms around me. "I missed you mommy, I missed you too Mr. Daryl!" Lauren said sweetly. Me and Daryl both smiled at her. I crouched down so I was looking right into her beautiful blue eyes. "Baby, I don't think you should call him Mr. Daryl anymore. I knew Daryl from a long time ago. Back before you were born, I didn't realize until a few minutes ago though." I began to say softly. Lauren just looked at me with confusion. Daryl crouched down and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm yer dad." He said softly. Laurens eyes got wide and she had a big smile on her face. "Really?" She asked excitedly. "Really, really baby." I said calmly. "Yay! I didn't wanna tell you..but I wished that he was my daddy. He's really nice to me and fun to play with. I guess my wish came true mommy." Lauren said quietly in a happy tone. Hearing her words caused my smile to get even bigger. Lauren ran to Daryl and gave him a huge hug. I'm so glad we found eachother in this hell. I wish Jenner was here to see it.