𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝟐 | 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞.

Jamie has now become desensitized to the walkers to a certain extent. She no longer cries when hearing their sounds or seeing one of us kill them from a distance. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

Maybe things are easier to accept for the children than the rest of us. We often talk about the way things once were and how much we wish things could go back to normal. I never stopped to think that to Jamie she'll grow up with all of this being the only way of life she knows. Carl at least experienced life before, more than she did due to their age gap. She's seven right now and the way we're going I've never been more terrified about someone's future.

She took Millers death hard for the first few weeks. Her nightmares were back forcing her to relive the loss of another parental figure. It caused Danny and I to develop a new routine with her. He was outside keeping watch with Daryl when I woke her from another night terror.

Like all the other nights before I'd take her into a different room of whatever house we were held up in that night. I'd hold her in my lap and run my fingers through her hair as she let her tears be muffled into my chest. We'd stay like this till she calmed herself enough to talk. Then after a bit we'd return to the group and try sleeping again.

"He's gone because of me." She whispered softly as she pulled her head from my shoulder where she laid crying. "He came to save me."

My heart shattered hearing she carried the weight of his death on her shoulders this whole time. It was the first time she ever mentioned it. "It's not your fault, baby." She argued. "It is. You should be mad at me. I lost you a friend."

"There's nothing in this world that could stop him from protecting you. You being here with me and everyone else was what he wanted more than anything." I said as she stared into my soul with teary eyes. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yes. He loved you."

She was quiet for a while after that. I was about to move us back into the other room when she spoke again. "Do you love me?" Without hesitation I placed a kiss on her forehead. I guess I never paid attention to the fact that I haven't said the words out loud to her before. "I love you, Jamie Campbell."

"I don't like it."

My brows furrowed slightly. "What don't you like?" She took a moment as I wiped her tears from her face. "My name."

I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Why not? I like your..."

She gave me a nervous look. "I want the same name as you." It was me who paused this time. My chest begged for air making me realize I hadn't breathed since she ripped the air from my lungs in amazement.

"Carl has the same name as his family. Why can't I?"

The words couldn't register in my head as quickly as they should've making her lean back farther in my lap. "You guys are my family, right?"

"You will always be our family." I said. "Your last name is Campbell like your mother's was."

The distress she displayed at the mention of Claire nearly me want to shoot myself in the foot.

"But she's gone now. I want to be with you guys."

"You know your name doesn't change the fact that you are with us. That you are our family." Reasoning with a seven year old. Never would've guessed it.

She sighed in frustration as if I wasn't understanding her. My heart skipped a beat at the memory of Claire doing the same thing to me countless times in the past.

"You don't want me to be a Grimes?" She asked as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

Is this what it's like to have a daughter? My mom got off easy, didn't she?