Little Grimes

twenty

"Daryl Dixon, tell me you're not actually walking away from me like this," I push at Daryl's chest, getting angrier by the second.

Maggie and Glenn refuse to have Merle go back to the prison with us, rightfully so.

Daryl's bright idea is to leave the group to be with Merle.

"You just kicked his ass for insulting me now you're leaving!" I get louder as he takes the abuse i'm giving him.

"Maeve," He tries to start but I don't want to hear a word.

"If you walk away from me, we're done," I threaten.

He finally grabs me by my shoulders and pulls me into his arms, "He's blood."

"What am I to you?" I ask softly, letting the tears fall.

He doesn't answer as he presses a goodbye kiss to my lips. I kiss him back, knowing that it might be the last time I see him.

He pulls away from me, leaving me alone as he walks towards Merle fucking Dixon.

Rick chases after him but I don't bother moving.

I thought after months of us being together that he would never leave me.

Flashback

"Come here," Daryl says in a rough voice, pulling me onto his lap.

We've been hiding in this old farmhouse for a month. After what happened, I couldn't leave. Physically or mentally.

I didn't know I was pregnant until I started cramping terribly. It was way worse than any period I have ever gotten.

I began gushing blood and felt the urge to push. Daryl didn't know what to do so he held my hand and stayed by my side.

After what felt like eternity, I heard a plop on the floor. That's when I seen it. A fetus. A baby. Our baby.

I broke into a sob as I picked up what would have been our future. A future of us as a family. The world is dangerous and unpredictable but once I seen what could have been, my heart broke.

Daryl wrapped our baby into the first flannel he ever gave me. A piece of us to be buried with.

I stayed in the house when Daryl went out to bury him.

I couldn't do it anymore.

Daryl asked if I wanted to name him and I did.

Asher Rick Dixon.

Asher means happy and Rick was after the brother I lost.

Daryl and I grew closer after we lost our first child together. He stayed near me at all times and was constantly reassuring me.

Reassuring me that he loved me and that he would never leave me.

Daryl's Pov
I can't get the look she had out of my head. I just ripped out her heart. The heart I was supposed to be protecting.

Merle and I walk through the woods. I'm frustrated that he still has this type of control over me. I know I should have stayed with Maeve but Merle drilled in my head that blood came before anything.

My entire life I was told that he was all I had.

Every abuse I ever faced from our father, every time I was alone, when our ma died.

I felt like I deserved it all.

I just gave up the one thing that made me feel like I deserved better.

I can't even stand the sight of my brother right now. He's ranting about what direction we went in. I can barely focus on his words when I hear a baby crying.

"You hear that?" I ask him.

"What? sounds like some animals going at it," he says, shrugging.

"It's a damn baby crying," I tell him.

He doesn't look convinced.

I run towards the sound and see two men on a bridge getting attacked by walkers. They're surrounded. A baby crying is definitely not helping.

"Come on!" I yell back at Merle as I continue running towards the bridge.

It didn't take long to take out the walkers that were attacking the family. The last one I pulled out of the car that held a mother and child. The men seemed grateful until Merle's dumbass tried to rob the group.

I watch as he begins to gather things from the backseat as the two men yell in spanish.

I can't understand a word they are saying but I can understand a mother crying for her child.

It reminds me too much of when Maeve lost our baby.

That's not going to happen to this mother.

I point my bow at Merle's head, "step away from the car."

"I know you're not pointing that thing at me, little brother," Merle states like it's a fact.

I don't answer and I don't move from my position.

Merle glares back at me in disbelief and begins backing away.

"Get in the car and go!" I yell at the two men.

They listen to me as I follow Merle off the bridge.

I know he is pissed but I don't care.

"There was a baby, man!" I yell at my brother.

"and if there wasn't a baby?" He scoffs, "you and the sheriff are all buddy-buddy now. You're even whipped by the little sheriff."

"Stop talking about her," I say in a threatening tone.

"and what if they found out we planned on robbing the camp blind?"

"It didn't happen."

The next thing I know, Merle is pushing me down on the ground and ripping the back of my shirt off.

I'm embarrassed and ashamed of what he's seen. The same scars that he has on his back are on mine. Our father was an abusive man. He knows that yet he still left me with him.

"I didn't-" He stutters.

"Yeah that's why you left," I snap, pulling my bag over my shoulders to hide my bag.

"I had to. I had no choice," Merle tries to explain but I don't want to listen, "where are you going? I can't go with you."

"I may be the one walking away this time, but it's really you walking away," I tell him as I walk away from him and to the prison where I belong.