"Daryl, now is not the time."

"Now is a good a time as any, Georgia Rayne an I ain't fuckin' arguin' with ya. Both a ya. Get out here. Now." Daryl's voice held no room for argument but DJ didn't care. He rushed to the front of the tent and made his way out quickly to glare at the man in front of him.

"Look, Daryl, I like you alright but you don't talk to my mom that way!" DJ snarled, his scowl matching the one that adorned Daryl's face. "You might be pretty cool and I'm glad you've been taking care of us and stuff, but you don't get to talk to her like that! She's just trying to keep me safe. Don't cuss at her!"

"Look, boy…" Daryl began.

"No, you listen to me, Dixon. I don't care. Don't talk to her like that."

"DJ," Georgia sighed as she came out of the tent, "don't yell at him. Daryl's right. We need to talk."

"Mom, you can't let him yell at you like that! You can't do that! If you do that, it will be just like with Eric all over again! Don't do that!" DJ cried out.

"Who the fuck was Eric?" Daryl snarled.

"Nobody," Georgia said at the same time as DJ answered, "When I was little, he was her boyfriend. He used to yell at her and hit her! He used to talk to her like you do!"

"Ya were with someone who hit ya?" Daryl asked in shock.

"It was a long time ago."

"I was five. And I'm not going to let you treat my mom like that! So if you're only being nice to me so you can be mean to my mom, it's not going to happen."

"DJ, calm down. Daryl doesn't hit women."

"You still have a bruise on your cheek, Mom! Was that an accident like Eric hitting you used to be?"

Georgia sighed, knowing her son was too smart for his own good. "Baby, calm down. We really need to talk to you."

"I didn' hit yer momma on purpose. She grabbed me an I was hurtin' an I did it on accident," Daryl said quickly. "Wouldn' hurt yer momma a day in her life!"

"How do I know that? You just show up and grab us and act like you have the right to boss us around. Well you don't, okay? You're not the boss of me! You're not my dad! I don't even have a dad!"

"DJ," Georgia finally snapped, "I know damn good and well that I never taught you to talk back like that and if you would listen to me for two seconds you'd find out something really important."

"What, Mom?"

"Daryl is your dad, baby. This isn't the way you were supposed to find out."

Daryl and DJ stared at her, their mouths hanging open in identical expressions of shock, but she was tired and worn out and done with fighting about everything with them. She was tired of hurting and tired of doing it all alone. She explained, "Daryl and I were together for a long time before you were born, but we had a fight. A really bad fight, and I left when I was first pregnant with you. I always meant to take you back to him and introduce you, but there were always reasons why I couldn't or things getting in the way and it eventually was just easier not to take you back at all."

"Daryl James Dixon, Mom," DJ said slowly. "I've been here with Daryl this whole time and you told me not to tell him my first name. You told me not to tell him my last name."

He whirled on Daryl and demanded, "What's your name? What's your real name?"

"Daryl Emmett Dixon."

"I'm named like you. I knew that but I didn't know why. I didn't know why we had the same name. Mom named me after you, even though I never got to meet you. All the kids at school made fun of me because I didn't have a dad and I didn't have the same last name as my mom. They said my dad didn't want me."

"It weren'…wasn' cause…I swear…" Daryl stuttered desperately and looked over at Georgia.

"He wanted you, baby. He wanted you so badly. But I was scared and I didn't know what to do, and I ran away. So don't blame Daryl. Blame me."

DJ stared at his mom, his blue eyes full of tears. He said low and powerfully, "I hate you."

Georgia's entire body froze and tears welled up in her eyes. She looked down at the ground, away from her son and away from Daryl. DJ turned to Daryl and snapped, "I hate you too. You didn't even try to find me!"

"I…I didn'…you were…Merle told me…God damn it, boy! Don' talk to me or yer momma that way!" Daryl's temper got the best of him and started yelling.

"Don't yell at him, Daryl!"

"I don't need you to defend me, Mom!" DJ turned and ran. Georgia turned to run after him but Daryl grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"I'll go. I kin follow him an keep him safe without havin' to be up on him. I kin give the boy some time. I'll bring him back."

Georgia nodded and Daryl shouldered his crossbow and took off after him. Georgia sat at her campsite, buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.

Daryl followed DJ to a small pond in the woods. The boy was sitting on the dock, staring angrily at the water and wiping his eyes. It reminded him of when he was a boy, running into the woods so that he could get away from his piece of shit daddy. He'd sit somewhere quiet and peaceful, mad at himself for feeling like crying and wiping at his eyes, telling himself it was just dirt in them. But then he'd found Georgia and he'd run to her when his daddy got done beating on him. She didn't say anything if a few tears fell but she didn't let him pretend it was dirt because she cleaned him off and took care of him. She'd clean him up, get him something to eat, and then make him sleep on her couch until her dad get home and then they would have dinner with her dad.

Daryl watched DJ for a few minutes until DJ turned around and stared at him. His intense stare matched his own. DJ snarled, "What do you want?"

Daryl walked over and sat on the dock beside him, not close enough to touch but close enough so that he could see the red rims of the boy's eyes. Daryl said quietly, "Yer momma loves ya a lot."

"She never told me about you. Where were you?"

"I lived in the same town as yer grandpa."

"We went and saw Grandpa James for Christmas every year. The rest of the time, he came to us."

Daryl knew why she'd picked Christmas. For Christmas, he and Merle always got incredibly wasted and spent all day passed out in the trailer. When Georgia lived in the trailer, she would decorate it all big and nice with lots of lights and a big Christmas tree in the corner and she'd bake lots of cookies and a big dinner for him and even Merle if Merle was out of jail. She said that even if Merle was an asshole, he deserved something for Christmas.

"DJ, yer momma…yer momma did what she thought was best. Not sayin' I liked it. I'm still fuckin' pissed at her. That ain't gonna change no time soon. But she left cause I fucked up."

"What did you do? She always said you were a good man and stuff. Why did she leave if you were a good man? What did you do to my mom?"

Daryl looked away from the boy and out at the smooth, glassy surface of the water. He was silent for what felt like eternity to DJ. Finally, he said, "Weren' what I did. Was what I didn' do fer yer momma. She had the right to leave me. Don' matter how mad I get at her, I always knew she shoulda left me long time 'fore she got pregnant."

"That doesn't tell me anything, Daryl. I don't know if it's an adult thing or what, but I don't get it."

"My brother, yer uncle Merle, hit yer momma day she found out she was pregnant with ya. I didn' know she was pregnant an I didn' defend her. She left cause she said I weren' ever gonna pick her over Merle."

Daryl was surprised when DJ moved and his tiny fist collided with his arm hard. The boy kept hitting him in the arms and chest until Daryl reached out and grabbed him. He pushed him backwards roughly until DJ was sitting in front of him, glaring. DJ snarled, "You let him hit her! What's wrong with you? Why couldn't you protect her? Why couldn't you take care of her? Then you would have been there growing up! I would have a dad and the other kids wouldn't have picked on me!"

"I'm sorry, alright? I didn' know what to do. Was always yer momma that made these big decisions an I just didn' know what to do. I never wanted her to get hurt. She was the only person in my life that ever cared bout me. I didn' mean fer her to get hurt."

"But she did! And you let her! You suck! You suck so bad! You suck and Mom sucks! Neither of you know anything!"

"Boy, calm down. This ain't a damn walk in the park fer me either. I ain't never been a daddy but I'ma be a good one now."

"So what? I have to call you dad and shit?"

"Watch yer fuckin' mouth, boy. Don' be talkin' like that an don' be lettin' yer momma hear that shit."

"Well, do I? Do I have to call you dad?

Daryl stared at him. His chest felt tight and his mouth was dry. It felt almost like the day Georgia left him, but different. He finally said, "No. Call me whatever the fuck ya want. Now 'mon. We gotta get back to camp. Yer momma's upset an ya oughta 'pologize."

"She's the one who's wrong! She should apologize."

"An she did. She took care a ya. Ya hurt her feelins real bad an I don' think ya shoulda. Now 'mon. I still gotta take care a Carol an make sure that lil girl gets buried."

Daryl rose up from the dock and extended his hand to help up DJ. He turned to head back but DJ paused. He said quietly, "Daryl?"

"What?"

"Did you love my mom?"

"What?"

"Did you love her? She loved you, you know. Did you love her?"

Daryl stared at the boy staring up at him. His matching blue eyes were rimmed with red and his shaggy sandy hair was messed up. He was staring at him with his little hands clenched into fists, demanding answers that Daryl didn't have. Daryl stuttered, "I…I can'…I don'…yer momma an I…I cared bout yer momma."

"But did you love her?"

"'mon. We gotta get back to camp."

Daryl turned his back on DJ and stared back to camp. DJ stared at his retreating back for a moment before he followed him. Georgia wasn't at their tent though. She was caring for the bodies, washing them and dressing them for their funerals. DJ followed Daryl over to where the other bodies were being disposed of but Daryl shook his head. He ordered, "Go on up to the house. Ya kin apologize to yer momma later. Don' need to be round all this death. See if ya kin do somethin' useful up there."

He stared at Daryl and then looked down at the bodies littering the ground before he nodded and headed up towards the house, still stomping angrily. Daryl watched him until he reached the house, and then looked back over at Georgia, who was using a bucket of water to wash Sophia's hair and body. Daryl studied her red rimmed, swollen eyes and the way she stopped to rub at her back after a few minutes. He watched her hurting for a moment before turning away to help Rick burn the rest of the bodies.