Bite Me .:Daryl Dixon Love Story:.

Chapter Nine

.:Kat's POV:.

Laughter filled the room as we sat around the table, drinking and eating. Hailey sat between Lori and I as she nibbled on her dinner thanks to Jenner.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner." Dale informed us. I smiled down at Hailey, running my fingers through her hair. "And in France." He looked at both me and Lori, I smiled as I shook my head.

"Well, when Carl is in France or Italy, he can have some then." Lori said.

"Cheers to that, sweetie." I raised my glass, sipping at my wine. Letting the cool liquid rush down my throat.

"What's it gonna hurt?" Rick grinned at Lori. "Come on."

Everyone laughed, including Lori as she shrugged.

"There you are, young lad." Dale handed Carl a glass of wine.

Then began to hand a little glass to Hailey, which she was eagerly reaching for. Daryl reached over me to grab the glass away from Hailey before she could drink it.

"Not my daughter." Daryl's gruff voice said, gulping down the drink.

I nodded, looking up at Dale. "She's way too young." He nodded in understanding.

"But Momma, Carl's Momma is lettin' him drink-" Hailey began.

"Yuck!" Carl gagged, making the room erupt into laughter once more. "That tastes nasty."

"Nevermind." Hailey shook her head. "I don't want it."

"Good girl." I kissed her head, looking over my shoulder at Daryl.

His eyes were already on mine, a small smirk on his lips as he raised his wine bottle to me and taking a large swig from it. A blush formed on my cheeks as I looked away, biting my lip to hide the smile.

"Stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane chuckled.

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl grinned, pushing off the counter as he leaned over me.

"What?" Glenn asked, looking up from the wine bottle in his hand.

"Keep drinkin', little man." Daryl said, grabbing another bottle. "I want to see how red yer face can get."

Couple of the men chuckled as Glenn shook his head, I patted Daryl's stomach as I giggled along. Glass clinging made us all quiet down, looking up to see Rick standing.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick said as we all looked over at Jenner at the end of the table, sitting quietly.

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog said, raising his glass.

"Hear, Hear!" People chanted.

"Booyah!!" Daryl yelled out, drunkenly.

"Booyah!" Hailey and I yelled out after Daryl along with few others, giggling as we clapped for Jenner.

"So, when you gonna tell us what the hell happened here?" Shane asked, bringing us down from our joy. "All the, uh, the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick confronted Shane, sensing this was not the time to talk about this.

"He's right. We don't need to do this now." I agreed, glaring at Shane.

"Whoa, wait a second, this is why we're here, right?" Shane asked. "this was your move, Rick. Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we," He chuckled. "We found him."