Triggerfinger ➳ Daryl Dixon

e l e v e n

Sometimes John felt as though he were getting closer to her,

and other times not.

Presley had always been a difficult child. She was bull-headed and defiant, but he'd raised her like that. However, there was one thing that John had never anticipated with that defiance: her willingness to help people, even when it put her in danger.

From a young age, Presley had always been willing to go out of her way to help everybody. While most people wouldn't see that as a bad trait, John knew one thing: to care about people was opening your heart. Opening your heart could be a wonderful, glorious thing. He'd opened his heart for Mary, one of the few people he'd ever trusted in the world.

And he'd come to regret it upon her death.

But Presley? She cared too easily; she was too soft. 

While she was too stubborn to die, he knew that she was also too stubborn to let an innocent or a friend die. 

John knew that Presley was strong enough to survive this world, but she would never be strong enough if she let herself care about people. People were a weakness for his daughter. Weakness only meant vulnerability, and vulnerability meant death.

John stared absently through the trees. 

He knew that he had to find his daughter before she began to care about somebody, for that would mean her certain death. 

- - -

"If you could be anything, what would you be?" Daryl glanced down at Presley when she asked the question. She was staring forward, only stealing a single glance his way.

"A farmer." Daryl said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Presley rolled her eyes. 

"Actually, I could see it. I see you walking through a cornfield with a banjo and your milking cows following after you like loyal servants." She laughed. "You know what I dig?"

"What's that?"

"Old farmers." She said, and he was surprised to see that she was entirely serious. "They're just... They're so proud of what they've created. They spend a lifetime growing things and killing them at harvest. They overlook the same hill every time the sun rises, already in their little tractors, ready for whatever weather whirls their way."

"That was observant, Pres." Daryl said with a chuckle. "Even for you." 

"I wanted to travel. To Greece, to Germany..." She brushed a lock of raven black hair behind her ear. It seemed to be impossible to have that light of skin and that black of hair, and those radiant blue eyes of hers. "Do you think this outbreak happened over there?" 

Daryl inhaled quietly. "Probably." 

Presley stopped to look at him, "So, Daryl Dixon, what would you be if you could be anything?" She repeated the question after a moment of silence. 

"Your man." She laughed at that reply, shaking her head and continuing to walk.

"That was cheesy and entirely unlike you."

"That's why I said it." 

She smiled a little, "So?"

He gave a little sigh, "I never really thought about it, I guess." He shrugged. "I was all about the present; I didn't have time ta' think about the future. With pa being... Well, pa, I couldn't afford to look for anything else."

He could see a gentle curiosity in her eyes, "You must have wanted something."

"Not really," He admitted, "I just wanted to be free of the life I lived. If that meant being an old farmer that killed all his crops every season, then so be it." 

- - -

"We're not far now." Morgan said to Rick. "I think you'll like it there."

Rick didn't seem quite certain. "We just need to get Beth." He said quietly. "I don't trust any places anymore; not after Terminus." 

Morgan frowned, "What went down there?" 

"Cannibals. It was some sort of religion." He said with a small shrug. "They had us trapped in old train carts, I think. Before they were about to slaughter us, Carol, Michonne, and Presley broke us out." 

Morgan nodded a little, "Interesting. Carol and Michonne seem like good women."

"They are." Rick nodded. "They all are."

"I don't know about that Presley girl, I guess." Morgan shrugged. "She's a tough cookie, but..." He shook his head. "I don't know that she'll make it through this world, Rick." Morgan said so quietly that nobody else could hear.

Rick trusted Morgan, but he felt wrong about that. Looking at Presley, he knew that she was too stubborn and defiant to go down without a fight. Fighters lived in a world like this. Her weaknesses were her loyalty to the group, and her love for Daryl. 

Daryl would never let anything happen to her, and neither would that canine of hers. 

She was probably one of the safest people in the group. The only thing that could end as her downfall was her own stubborn loyalty to those around her.

"She'll make it." Rick said without a drop of doubt in his tone. "If you knew her, you'd know. That girl's a kicker." 

"For all your sakes, I hope so." Morgan said, leaning against his staff. 

Falallalalala, la , la , la

I need some good tv shows on netflix while I wait for the new TWD this August. I've watched PLL, the vampire diaries, the 100... I dunno man I'm running out of good things! 

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