Daughter of a Dixon ✔️

47: The Cool-Southern Dad

When we arrived at Father Gabriel's church, we were pleasantly surprised to find that he had tons of canned goods from a food drive, and was open to sharing them with us. He allowed us to stay in the church, to our delight, but Abraham's dismay. He wanted to get to D.C. as soon as possible, I couldn't blame him, but the thought of food, shelter, and protection for even as short as a night was enough to convince us to stay at the church.

After we got settled, everyone, minus Tyreese, Carl, Alex, and I, split into three groups. Rick's group, consisting of Father Gabriel, Sasha, Bob, and Michonne was going to check out a food bank not far from the church, Dad and Carol were going to check the perimeter around the church, and Tara, Glenn, and Maggie were going to a small store off the road.

While they were gone, I hung out with Carl and Alex, just sitting on one of the pews and talking amongst ourselves. Tyreese was giving Carl a break from holding Judith, walking around and humming to her softly.

For some reason I can't remember, Carl, Alex, and I were talking about what cartoons we watched before the world fell.

"I was a big Phineas and Ferb fan," Carl had said. "I liked Ben 10 too, though."

"Oh, me too!" Alex said, laughing. "Did you watch Rugrats?"

"I loved Rugrats!" Carl exclaimed.

"Ugh, you guys are such nerds," I said. "The Fairly OddParents was so much better than those shows."

Carl shrugged. "I guess. But, you know what show trumps all of those?"

"Spongebob!" We all exclaimed at the same time, bursting into a fit of laughter afterwards.

"What are you kids laughing at?"

I turned around to find that Carol and Dad had returned, and that Carol was smiling down at us.

"Oh, nothin'. Just talkin'," I said, nodding my head. "Did you guys find anythin' out there?"

"Nah, jus' an old car," Dad told us. "Has about a quarter tank of gas in it."

I shrugged, "that's not bad."

"Ain't too good neither... anyway, c'mere for a second, Sid, need yer help."

I nodded, and jumped up from the pew. I followed Dad out of the church, and he led me around the back of it. I didn't know what we were doing, but I was sure I'd find out soon enough, so I just kept quiet.

Then, he stopped, leaning up against the back of the church, and turned around to look at me. He was holding an expression that I couldn't really read; for some reason, I wanted to say he was amused.

"Ya like him?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at his question. "What do you mean, 'ya like him'?" I asked, mimicking his voice.

He said the next word like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Carl."

"Whoa, whoa, okay, where did you ever get that idea?"

He shrugged. "I ain't as dumb as you think, and I sure as hell ain't blind," he said, chuckling to himself.

I stood, unable to speak out of confusion for a moment, just staring at my dad. "Wha- okay, why are we even talkin' about this?" I asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "Why can't we?"

"Because you're not that Dad," I said, fighting back laughter. He gave me a confused expression, and I decided to explain. "I mean, there are a lot of different types of Dads. The Helicopter Dads, the ones that get all in their kid's business. There's the Cool Dads, who are just calm and don't really care what their kid does. There's the... um... the Embarrassing Dads, who'll do anythin' to embarrass their kid.

He seemed entertained by my explanation, and cracked a smile. "Which one am I?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

I had to think on it for a minute before I chuckled, and said, "you're like a two-in-one: the Cool-Southern Dad. It's like, you don't get too involved in my business, but you're there if I need to talk. And the southern part comes from... well, look atcha."

"Mhmm," he said, looking down at his attire. "Guess so."

A silence went by, and I was about to ask if we could go back inside, (it was getting extremely dark out) before I looked up and saw Dad smiling like a child.

"Do ya like him, though?"

"If I give you an answer can we go back inside?"

"Yeah."

"Then yeah... a little bit."

He gave me a knowing smirk, and I turned around quickly, rolling my eyes. "Come on," I said over my shoulder, already beginning to walk back to the church. He chuckled to himself, and carefully began to follow me.

"He likes ye too, ya know," he said to me as we rounded the front of the church.

But, I wasn't really paying attention. Something else had caught my eyes, and I was focused entirely on the road in front of the church.

Approaching our temporary home was a black car, and on the rear window was a large, white cross.

"Beth," I muttered inaudibly under my breath.

"What?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows and stepping closer to me.

"Beth, the people who took her! The white cross on that car," I exclaimed, pointing to the vehicle as it flew by the church.

Dad looked up, and saw it just as it passed the church. He let out a quick gasp, and immediately grabbed my hand and began running.

He led me to a car, presumably the one he and Carol had found, and released my hand as he flung himself into the driver's side. I sprinted around the vehicle and hopped in the passenger's side just as he started the car, and sent the pedal through the floor.

"Don't follow 'em too close. We don't want them to know we're comin'," I told him.

He nodded in response to me, and the thought crossed my mind that he probably already knew what to do in a situation like that.

I exhaled as I stared back out at the open road, our surroundings speeding past us in a blur. Momentarily, I let a small smile find its way onto my face.

We were going to find Beth; we were going to save her.

With two Dixons coming after her, there was no chance that she wouldn't be found.