𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

76 | TREE IN THE ROAD

Beneath the morning sun's watchful gaze, her tiny hands grasped a pink chalk that barely fit in her palm as she dragged it along the concrete, drawing messy lines and zigzags with a bright smile lighting up her rosy face. Eagerly colouring in the jagged circle she'd drawn, the chalk piece snapped in her hand. Making a small "Oops," sound, she looked up at the man whose lap she sat in, holding up the broken chalk.

"Dada broke it."

"Pretty sure Halley broke it, but alright," Daryl muttered lightly, taking the chalk from her hand, "It still works though, look." He drew a small smiley face on the ground in front of them, and Halley giggled, pointing at the drawing.

"Is dada!"

Playfully frowning, Daryl shook his head, "It ain't me."

"Yeah," a chuckling voice came from behind as Tori descended the porch steps, eyeing up the picture Halley was still laughing at. "That's too smiley to be your dad."

Halley stood from Daryl's lap, toddling over to Tori and lifting her arms. "Up, up!"

Tori lifted the girl into her arms, sitting her on her hip. Pressing a kiss on Halley's cheek, she told Daryl, "I gotta head to the infirmary. You good with her for the day?"

"Course," he replied, wiping the pink chalky dust off his hands onto his pants. "You gonna be there all day?"

"Few hours, maybe. I'll come back if I run out of things to do."

Daryl leaned his head back slightly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her. "You look a little pale."

Tori lifted an eyebrow, "Well, the tanning shop was fully booked."

After scoffing a small laugh, he asked, "Seriously, you okay?"

She lifted her shoulder in a shrug, "Yeah, fine." She gave Halley another big kiss as she set her back down on the ground, the toddler immediately sitting down to carry on with her drawings. Tori turned back to Daryl, leaning up to kiss his cheek. "See you later."

"Later," he smiled before sitting back down with Halley, grabbing a chalk, and poking the girl's nose.

Tori smiled to herself as she walked away, taking her time to stroll around the town. A warm glow spilled from the sky as the sun shone over Alexandria's streets, chasing away the morning's coolness. The air seemed so light compared to the darkness that had slowly been descending upon the town in the past month. But with the trade deal with Hilltop now in full swing, the people of Alexandria felt they could finally take a breath, knowing that, for as long as the deal held, they wouldn't have to worry about starving. People were getting back to their old roles – the ones set by Deanna Monroe. Different teams were planning repairs and reinforcements to the walls, Maggie and Glenn were working on plotting out some gardens to grow vegetables, and Jake was getting back into planning classes for the kids.

Tori had let herself become swept up in the near perfection, too. It had only been a couple of days since she and Daryl had found the old cabin in the middle of nowhere, miles away, and they were already planning to head back to it soon, to start making way on rebuilding it. But as excited as she was to get started, she was happy to be here, too. Here in Alexandria, which was finally starting to feel like a real home for her and her family. And she was growing in confidence, taking much more pride in her job at the infirmary, pushing herself to keep studying the textbooks.

With vigour, she jogged up the porch steps to the house, where the infirmary door was already open slightly. Her boots tapped along the floorboards as she headed inside, finding Denise sat at the desk in the corner, her nose buried in a map.