He could hear her cries from her small nursery at the end of the hall all throughout the house. The high pitched screams of distress waking him up, and causing him to walk swiftly two doors down to see her.
His bare feet felt the cold hardwood flooring beneath him, as he walked. Still half-asleep and in nothing but boxers and a pair of plain grey sweatpants he pushes the white door open more than the small crack you had left.
It was dark in the room, but thanks to the small nightlight in the corner there was a soft blanket of light that floated over the room. Allowing him to see the simple outlines of the flowers on her powder pink and white walls.
Reaching the crib he had built, he looks down. Her wool blanket had unwrapped itself from around her small body, and her fists banged in the air as she cried harder.
"Hey there," He whispered, lowering the side just slightly to reach in and pick her up gently. "ain't no need for cryin."
She was tiny in Daryl's large grasp, his hands almost half her size. But they craddled her with care; afraid that any wrong move could break her like a fragile glass vase.
"What's got 'cha cryin huh? What's the matter baby?" Daryl softly whispers to the small infant.
Her screams died down, but still she whimpered. The wetness from her cheeks smudged onto his bare chest as he held her closer. Her head resting against his heart; allowing the beat of his loving heart calm her down more.
Soon the whispers faded, and she stares up at him. In curiousity, in adoration, in love.
"There you go." He lowers his finger down and she grasps it with her tiny hand. The feeling of her soft skin on his tough and worn sending memories through him.
The way his wife's hand felt the same way when it grasped his for the first time. Soft, gentle, kind.
He knew from the moment his baby girl was born that she was like her mother. Beautiful; radiating off her like a beam of light. A kind heart; something that always amazed him time and time again. Happy; something he had difficulty feeling in the world today.
But it wasn't until one night as the woman he loved pointed it out to him, that his daughter shared his qualities as well.
Her blue eyes; the ones that look up at him now, shining in the light like a glimmer on a lake. Her stubbornness; something his wife complained about yet found it cute at times. But above all, the way you could already tell she was going to be someone special. She already is someone special, but it's that little light in their eyes that you see and instantly know that they will do great things one day.
You saw that in Daryl; the moment you met him.
The feeling of a warm wet feeling on his finger brings him out of his thoughts, finding his daughter nawing on his pointer finger.
"What ye doin there honey?" He laughs softly, letting her continue. He simply observed the way she held onto him, and the way it felt holding her close in his arms.
Her skin warm against his own, as her arms are bare from the lace nightgown she wears.
"Ye know," Daryl whispers, sitting down in the painted rocking chair in the corner. Something else he built just for the nursery. "e'rytime I look at 'cha, I somehow fall more and more in love with ye."
Daryl smiles softly, as his daughters head rests fully against his bare chest now. His arm craddles her close, and now that she's let go of his other hand he's able to rub over her tiny back softly.
"And I gotta tell ye, it scares me." Maybe it's because he knows only himself and his baby daughter are the only two that will hear him say that, or maybe it's because he wants to be truthful in the dark nighttime moment. But he admits it nonetheless.
"Told your ma the same thing when I told her I loved her." Daryl shared with his girl, who rests calmly on his bare torso. Breathing soft breaths just below his heart.
"And I'm tellin you now. Scares me, lovin ye so much, lovin your ma so much."
Kissing the top of his baby girl's head, his lips linger. "But don't mean I don't want it."
Daryl never saw himself becoming his father; he just never saw it in his future. But once you walked into his life, it began to become a possibility in his mind.
"Lovin ye and your momma, brought me joy I ain't never known before." He whispers calmly to his daughter who had fallen asleep.
"And that, I'm thankful for."
You think you know love. Whether it's for a parent, a friend, a significant other. But the moment you have a child, that thing you thought you called love... Changes.
"I love ye princess," He coos, kissing her head tenderly. "daddy loves ye."
Loving his wife, loving you; was something he thought he'd never get the chance to have. Finding someone who loves him for him, and someone who he loved unconditionally.
When his daughter entered the picture; his life flipped. His heart did a full 180, and the love that swelled in his heart for his wife flooded him for his little girl.
Standing up slowly, careful not to wake the sleeping baby in his arms. Setting her back down in her crib, he spreads the lavender blanket back over her. Watching her even breaths, feeling like he could stand here for hours just watching her sleep.
Daryl never knew a world where pain wasn't part of it, where disappointment didn't show up. Where love could be true and there could be unquestionable good. But when his wife came along; he was showed that there was such a life.
And once his baby girl came into the world, he realized that it didn't matter where he came from. What he had gone through, what the world was going through now. What mattered was this glimmer of hope and happiness in every day things, his family.
Proving to him loud and clear, that he had a life that's good.
A/N: 😍❤
