I turned my head and looked at the hand on my knee through my tears. I followed the arm and looked up at Sophia's face. I held out one of my arms and she quickly snuggled into my side. I pulled her close to me and we sat there for a few minutes before she pulled away. I turned and looked at her as she sat on her knees. She looked at me before reaching out and pulling my sleeve aside and looked at the burn.
I tilted my head down, but couldn't see the mark too well. What I did see looked an angry, red, color and shiny. I quickly looked away and wiped my eyes with one hand. I then turned back to Sophia and she was still looking at my shoulder.
"Does Dad hate us." She didn't look away from my shoulder.
"No. He's just sick, but it's just all in his mind. He really does love us." I know he does, at least a little.
"Is it because of me?" I quickly turned to her and pulled her arm away from my shoulder. She was looking down at the ground.
"Sophia don't ever think that. The way Dad acts has nothing to do with you." I saw tears start to build in her eyes as she continued staring at the ground.
"You always talk about how he used to be nice and it just seems like when he started to be mean was when I was born."
"That's not true. He did start being mean after you were born, but it had nothing to do with you. It was a whole bunch of other things that no one had any control over. Mostly it was Dad and how he didn't want to treat us right anymore." I pulled her close and hoped that she wouldn't feel that any of what Dad did was her fault. "I love you, Sophia."
"I love you, too. We should probably go, Mommy sent me because dinner was almost ready."
"OK, you go on I have to grab another shirt."
Sophia stood and walked back towards the camp fire while I went into our tent to grab another button up shirt. I put it on, but left it unbuttoned because it was still so hot out. I made sure that it would cover the burn before going out to dinner. As I walked over towards the tent I saw everyone else was already there and eating. I walked past my family's small fire and my dad held his plate out in front of me. I took it and looked at him startled.
"More of the meat." He kept starring into the fire and didn't look at me.
I quickly took his plate and moved to the main fire. I got another plate for myself before putting some of the canned fruit onto it. I wasn't very hungry and there was only a little meat left anyway. I didn't want to take all that was left and I had to get some for my father. I could feel someone looking at me and I looked up across there fire.
I looked up and saw the Dixon brothers across the fire. Merle was looking down at his plate while he ate, but Daryl was staring right at me. He looked angry with his eyes narrowed. I quickly thought about what I had done that could have upset him, but I couldn't think of anything. That's when I realized that he was looking me in the eyes, but staring at my shoulder. I looked down and saw my shirt sleeve was gaping and the burn was showing. I panicked and looked around the fire, but no one else seemed to have noticed. I quickly fixed my sleeve and stood with my plates.
I glanced at Daryl before leaving and he was still looking at me, but now right at my face. I didn't know what to do so I just went back to my family's fire and handed my dad his plate back. I sat down next to Sophia and slowly started to eat. I didn't have much of an appetite before, but now that Daryl had seen my burn it made me nervous and made me want to eat even less. In this world you don't have the luxury of being able to go without a meal so I tried to eat as much as I could.
I didn't think Daryl would say anything, but he was very hard to figure out. I never would have thought that he would take me hunting with him, but he surprised me. Daryl was very private though. He didn't want anyone to know his business and also didn't care to know anyone else's. I think he would just keep quiet about it. But, I have also never seen him look at another person that long. The last thing I need is for everyone to know that about our family secret. I had enough time talking to anyone let alone if the all started to feel sorry for me.
"We are running out of food here and I think that we may want to try to make a run into town." Ahane stood up and started to address the group. "It has to be done on a volunteer basis because of how dangerous it is. Each person who volunteers has to awknowledge the risks involved with going."
"I'll go. No one knows the streets better than me." Glenn said, but he didn't look very pleased.
"I'll go." This was Morales as he put his arm around his wife.
"I'll go too. We need more clothes and I can get stuff for the girls." Andrea said while Amy turned to her with her mouth open. Andrews just put her hand on her leg and looked at her.
"I'll go to help with getting clothes." Jacqui said.
"I'll go, somebody's got to protect what's comin' back, since it don't look like cop's gonna volunteer." I was surprised that Merle volunteered to go. He doesn't seem like the type to want to help anyone else. Daryl didn't look like he cared at all; he just continued to eat.
"Alright it's greatly appreciated to everyone who volunteered. The men who stay here will have to make sure to be extra vigilant in protecting the camp. Daryl could you take a watch across the camp from the RV?" Shane asked
"Can't. Found a deer trail that was still fresh today." Again, Daryl didn't look up from his meal.
"Well fresh food is just as important. We will just have to try and be careful."
Everyone broke apart from the fire and Mom stood to gather our family's dishes to put in the RV to be washed tomorrow. I stood and went with Sophia to help her get ready for bed. We quickly changed into pajammas and brushed our teeth then I left Sophia in the tent to go to the bathroom. I ducked into the woods and went before heading back to the tent. I was almost there when I felt a hand grab me and pull me back into the woods as a second hand covered my mouth. I was turned around and brought face to face with Daryl, who did not look happy.
He removed his hand he removed his hand and stared at me for a few minutes before looking down at my shoulder. He pulled my sleeve to the side and looked at my burn closely. I shut my eyes and looked down. Before pulling his hand away again.
"How did ya get that?" I didn't say anything I just opened my eyes and continued to look down. "Did ya at least put some medicine on it?"
I shook my head, but I didn't look up. Daryl took a step back and reached into his pocket before pulling out a small tube. He opened it and squeezed some of it out onto his finger. He then shoved the tube at me. After I took it he pulled my shirt sleeve over and then slowly rubbed the medicine into my burn. It stung, but I tried not to make any noise.
"It's some sort of antibacterial shit. Works good enough." Daryl didn't look at me and just continued to rub it in.
I just nodded and let him continue. He finished and rubbed his finger on his pants before reaching into his pocket again and pulled out a band aide. He ripped it open with his teeth before he pulledon side off the tape and placed it over the burn. He then pulled the other paper off and stuck the other half down. Daryl let my sleeve fall back in place before he took a step back and rubbed the back of neck.
"Thank you." I said as I finally looked up at him.
"Not a big deal. I already had the stuff in my truck from when I go huntin'"
"Well it's a pretty big deal to me. No one else would have cared to help me."
"Don't think anybody else knew to help and I doubt ya'd tell them anyway."
"Well I don't want anybody else to know. It's embarrassing enough that you know." I looked back down and I could feel Daryl step closer to me. I looked up at him and was shocked by how close he got to me.
"Ya don' have anything to be embarrassed about." He looked me right in the eyes.
I think it might have been the most he ever looked a person in the eye. It was as close as he had ever got to a person as well, other than helping me shoot in the woods. Suddenly I felt really hold from how close he was, as if he felt the same way about me. I leaned forward and quickly kissed him on the cheek. I then whispered thanks in his ear one more time.
As I pulled back I saw how shocked he looked. His cheeks were slightly red and he took a step back before he quickly turned and walked away. I saw Daryl lift his hand and start to chew on his thumb as he left though. I thought it was an adorable habit. I smiled and turned back towards camp. I walked back to my tent and got in still smiling. I laid down next to Sophia and saw that she was already sleeping. I reached over and stroked her hair for a few moments before rolling over. For the first time in a long time I went to sleep with a smile on my face and was looking forward to good dreams.
The next day was relatively uneventful, as most days are now. By the time I was up and out of the tent the group had already left for Atlanta and Daryl was already in the woods. I did a bunch a different household tasks like washing dishes. I also helped Carl and Sophia with their school work, but most of the day was spent anxiously waiting for everyone to get back, well for me mostly Daryl.
It was late in the day when the Atlanta group returned, but it was worth the wait because they had found Carl's dad Rick when they were in the city. It was great to see someone find a loved one alive in a world where it was more likely to find them dead, or worse as a walker. The day wasn't an overall success because Merle had been left on a rooftop in the city after he started to act out.
The group returning didn't do anything to help me though because Daryl still hadn't come back from his hunt. I was worried that something had happened to him out in the woods. It was silly really because if anyone could survive in the woods alone it was Daryl. Walkers or no walkers. The only problem with Daryl's return was the fact that we would all have to deal with Daryl's response to Merle being left behind. That was the least of my worries though. I couldn't care less about Merle, but I was worried about how Daryl would take it. As I lay in my sleeping bag I tried to calm myself down enough to sleep, but all I could think about was seeing Daryl come back to camp with those cloudy, lifeless eyes. Seeing Daryl as a walker haunted my dreams and the dreams usually ended with his teeth in my neck.
A/N: Big thanks to SIGK1. I wasn't really sure where to go with this chapter, but I didn't really like where I was having it go if it was Sophia. I had no idea what to do, but then for some reason why I read your review it all just clicked.