I need you here with me // Carl Grimes [EDITING]

Seventy Eight - Ain't It Sweet?

As days passed by I conversed with Daryl more and more and slowly he began to gain my trust. Dwight had let him out of his cell and made him work with the walkers on the fence. I hated to see him do that, although I didnt entirely believe he was my father I knew we were connected some how, that atleast before my 'accident' I knew him. That he meant something to me.

"So you never told me?" I spoke quietly as I approached the gruff man at the fence

"Kid, you're gonna get caught talking to me and then we'll both be in trouble." He jabbed at a walker.

"I need to know, who is Carl?"

Daryl let out a sigh, before leaning his metal stick against the fence, he hooked his fingers through the holes and pressed his forehead against the cool metal, he looked too worn down to talk altogether, let alone about this so called Carl. But I had to know who he was, he was the only thing that I knew. He was all that was left.

"This stays between me and you, okay? You're not supposed to know."

"Why not?"

"Negan." Daryl let out a unsteady breath, "He doesn't want you to know anything about who you were before."

"I don't care what he wants. This Carl guy is all I have left of what I was before, so please just put me out of my misery and tell me who he is."

"He was the love of your life."

"The love of my life?" I stepped back in shock, "But I'm only-"

"Sixteen. Right." He nodded, "You've loved him since... before the apocalypse even started. Since you were thirteen Lydia."

"How do you even know how old I am?"

"I told you, no matter how many times I say it and no matter how many times you don't believe it, I am and will always be your Dad."

"It's not that I don't believe you..." I sighed, "It's just that it's all too much to take in... You, Carl, Negan. I don't know what's fake and what's real anymore."

"I can prove it to you." He grabbed my hand through the fence, "You have a scar beneath your hairline from where your uncle Merle dropped you the day you were born. A-And you have a birthmark in the shape of a bullet just beneath your collarbone. You've got a metal plate in your left shoulder from where you fell out of a tree when you were younger. You have a scar on both sides of your right ankle from where your knife went through it and you're missing a leg from where a walker bit you and you had to have it removed."

"My leg?" I repeated, "Negan told me I snagged it on some barbed wire..."

"He's a sociopathic liar!" Daryl let out a broken yell, slowly, he shook his head, "Please, Lydia, you have to believe me now, right? C'mon look at me, you're my flesh and blood. We're the same."

And something in that moment, it made me believe that Daryl really was my dad, that he wasn't lying to me. The man had nothing left to lose, he'd lost his dignity and was forced to work for the man he despised, what could he possibly gain from lying to me?

Nothing. He had no reason to lie. Which could've meant only one thing, he really was my dad.

"I believe you." I stuttered, tears of happiness fell down my face, "Now, why don't you tell me more about who I was before?"

"You want me to fill you in on everything? Even-"

"Even the bad stuff. I have to remember. Memories are the only thing that make you human now, so I need to know everything, even the bad stuff, otherwise I'll become one of the monsters. And that's not what I want to become."