Between the Thorns

Chapter 30

"Are ya sure about this," Daryl asked, glancing at Jean one more time with his hand hovering above the bedroom doorknob. She bit her lip nervously. But then she nodded.

"Let's pick up breakfast first, we can talk to them after we eat," she suggested. Lily wasn't liable to listen to anything when she was hungry.

Daryl eased the door open quietly. When he got about halfway into the hall, he felt Jean take her hand in his. When they entered the small living area of the apartment, Lily stuck her sleep rumpled head out the bedroom door.

"I'm hungry!," she announced. Daryl chuckled. Good morning to you too, he thought.

"We're going to pick up breakfast right now," Jean assured the girl. Lily ducked back into her room without any further complaint. "I don't know where she puts it all," Jean whispered. Despite eating more than her and Rose combined at times, Lily was still stick skinny. Jean wasn't looking forward to having two hormonal girls to deal with. But she hoped puberty would at least help Lily fill out a little through the hips. She was still at the stage where she looked like a gawky little baby deer.

Jean locked the apartment door behind her. She reached for Daryl's hand but he slung his arm around her shoulders instead, holding her close to him while they walked. It was still early enough that most of the people in the cafeteria were coming in off night shift. Jean headed straight for the coffee station, pouring herself a giant cup with lots of cream and sugar and garbage in it.

"That's not all yer having fer breakfast is it?," Daryl asked, casting a pointed glance at the giant mug in her hands. She bit back a smile. He might not know everything about her, but Daryl clearly knew her well enough to have picked up on her bad habits. The worst of which was drinking coffee and not eating. Jean shook her head. Then she stepped forward and asked for a bowl of oatmeal with some fruit in it, like that's what she was planning to do all along. Daryl ordered for himself and the girls, asking for pancakes and whatever breakfast meat was available. Today, it looked like some sort of venison sausage.

By the time they got back, Lily already woke her sister. And the two girls were sitting at the table in their pajamas, reading a comic book together. Jean picked at her oatmeal, letting her daughters get most of the way through their sticky syrup pancake mess before she told them she had something she needed to talk to them about.

"What's the matter?," Rose asked, glancing at her mother with concern. She picked up on the serious tone in her mother's voice right away.

"Nothing's wrong," Jean assured her, her voice rising unnecessarily. "I just have something I need to tell you. About your father." Lily's head popped up. And she talked through the giant mouthful of pancake she just shoveled in.

"Is daddy alive?," she asked, her brown eyes big and hopeful. "Is he coming back?" Jean shook her head, trying her best to hold back her tears. Of all the questions she prepared herself for, she wasn't expecting that one. Daryl's arm was resting on the back of her chair. And he moved his hand forward, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Not daddy John," Jean said. She looked at her older daughter and added, "...your other dad."

"Daddy John was my dad," Rose argued. "He told me he was. He adopted me." Jean nodded. John never treated Rose differently from Lily just because she wasn't biologically his. And she could hear the rising emotion in her daughter's voice. Jean cringed a little, thinking maybe all this truth telling wasn't such a good idea after all.

"He was your daddy," Jean assured her. "He loved you very much." She paused, glancing at Daryl and then looking back at her daughter. "But you remember how we told you that daddy John wasn't the one that got me pregnant with you."

Rose nodded. She remembered the story well. Her daddy told her that he met her mommy when she was on the way home from the hospital from having her. And her mom told her that god blew out her tire so that she would meet John. Because he was always meant to be her father. Rose asked a few times about the man that actually fathered her. But her mother always deflected the question or gave her a vague answer. Rose didn't even know his name.

"I knew him," Daryl told her. "...yer real father." Daryl watched the girl to gauge her reaction to this new information. He was relieved when her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Are you him?," Rose gushed, scraping her chair back from the table. "Are you my dad?" She looked so excited and hopeful that for a moment, Daryl considered lying and telling her he was. He wished he was. But planting seeds all over the Atlantic seaboard wasn't really his style. That was what Merle did. Not him.

"No," Daryl said, shaking his head. "But I knew him. He was my brother."

Rose looked like she was about to die with disappointment. But only for a moment. Then her face lit up into a big smile.

"You're my uncle?," she asked. "Like my Uncle Jason?" Jean leaned in, explaining that Jason was John's brother. He died at the beginning of the outbreak. Daryl nodded. He barely had time to brace himself when Rose came rushing at him. She wrapped her good arm around him, hugging him tight around the neck. Daryl hugged her back, trying not to laugh as she started trying to climb onto his lap. An activity that he was quite sure she was too old for, and probably had been for years.

"Rose," Jean scolded, "...get back in your own chair." Rose jumped up. She grabbed the back of her chair and drug it over, pushing it as close as possible to Daryl's seat. Then she sat in it. She took a deep breath. And then she began peppering Daryl with questions. They came in rapid succession, without waiting for any type of answer from him.

"Do I look like my dad? Where is he? What's his name? What's he like? Will you take me to meet him?"

"Uh…," Daryl stuttered, looking at Jean to see if she had any opinion on what he ought to tell Rose and what he ought to leave out. He was so eager to claim the girl as his blood, he didn't really stop to think about all the questions she might have. Jean put her hand on his leg, giving him a gentle squeeze. Daryl guessed that she probably didn't want to tell her daughter that his brother got her drunk and forced himself on her in the parking lot of a bar. Maybe it would be best to focus on Merle's good qualities. He didn't have many. But Daryl was sure he could come up with a few.

"I can't take you ta see him," Daryl explained. "He died a year ago. Some bad people were after me and my friends. Merle died fightin' with 'em."

"Oh…," Rose sighed. She seemed a little disappointed to hear that he was dead. But to lose a man she never knew existed before today didn't seem like it was having too much of an effect on her. "His name was Merle?," she asked. Daryl nodded.

"You have his eyes," he said, smiling as he looked Rose over. She also had Merle's wild ass curly hair. And when she made certain facial expressions, Daryl could see his brother in her. There was also something else there in the way Rose carried herself that reminded him a bit of the man. Daryl suspected if he took her out in the woods, she would pick up hunting and tracking and shooting like she was born to do it. Because in all reality, she was.

Before they could take the conversation any further, someone started pounding so hard on the door that it shook the entire apartment. Jean leaped up from her chair, gathering the girls to her sides. And Daryl groaned, wondering what fresh form of bullshit was going on now.

Daryl only swung the door open a few inches, blocking it from pushing in further with the steel toe of his boot. But when he saw Negan outside, he was quick to open it the rest of the way. Before he could even think to kneel or offer the man whatever form of respect and worship he was demanding that day, A few armed men pushed into the apartment behind him.

"Where is she?," he boomed. Daryl gave the man a questioning glance. "Sherry! She's missing."

"We haven't seen her," Daryl huffed, casting an irritated look at the men that were searching the apartment bedrooms.

"I did her hair the day before yesterday," Jean said. "I haven't seen her since." Negan just nodded. He could tell they were telling the truth. And he really didn't think Jean or Daryl had anything to do with the woman's disappearance. At this point, his men were just checking the entire compound.

"Ya think someone did somethin' to her?," Daryl asked. "...or ya think she took off."

"Why?," Negan asked.

"If she took off, I can track 'er," Daryl said. Negan looked at him with sudden interest. Daryl seemed quite confident in his ability to find the woman. And after the report he got from Gavin about the man's skill set, Negan believed what he said.

"Well hop to it Daniel Boone," Negan ordered, stepping back out of the doorway so that Daryl had room to exit the apartment. Daryl waited until Negan's soldiers left. Then he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

"I'll find her for ya," he agreed. "...but when I do there's somethin' I want in exchange."