TWD : Love Is You

Chapter 3

Daryl sighed as he scrubbed at Carl's clothes against a washboard. He was down at the quarry where all the laundry was done but sat away from the women who were also washing. Carol had offered to wash Carl's clothes for him, and usually, Daryl would accept as he had other things to do, but Carl had made a right mess of them, and Daryl felt bad asking someone else to do it.

Carl had been running around with Louis, Miranda, and Sophia, the other children of the camp. They were misbehaving and being silly as they darted through tents and climbed trees, and Carl had ended up slipping over in a patch of mud and made his clothes absolutely filthy.

Daryl understood that they were just kids, and it's what kids did, but he was frustrated because Carl didn't have a large wardrobe of clothes at his disposal anymore.

Daryl, along with the other parents, had sent the children to their respective tents; and Carl had stomped off muttering under his breath. Daryl was certain the boy would be talking about how awful of a father he was to Shane.

"How's it going?" A voice asked softly, and he looked up to find Carol standing by him; she was a quiet woman, scared of her husband and every other man in the camp except for him and Glenn. Glenn wasn't intimidating, and very friendly, so she never appeared to be phased by him, but Daryl knew how she acted around him at first. He went to a great effort to show her that he wasn't going to cause her any harm.

Daryl huffed, "I miss my washing machine," he grunted.

She laughed softly, "Me too," she said, "I can finish up if you want to go and check on Carl?" she asked, having seen that Carl had been moody.

"I'm almost done, but I'd appreciate it if you hung them out for me?"

Carol nodded, "Sure,"

"Thanks, I'll bring them over," he said, and she gave him another small smile before joining the other women who were sitting around chatting.

Daryl finished up a few minutes later and left the clothes with Carol before climbing back up to the main part of the camp and making his way through it to his, Carl's and Merle's tent. Merle, along with Glenn, Andrea, and T-Dog had gone into the city to try and scavenge for more supplies, and Daryl was trying to ignore how anxious he felt about his brother being back in that place.

Daryl found the tent unzipped as he approached it, and he could hear Carl, and sure enough, Shane inside talking. Daryl loved Shane, he did, the man was a brother to Rick and a very good friend to him, but sometimes it really did get on Daryl's nerves how involved with Carl he liked to be, sometimes Daryl just wanted to yell at him that Carl wasn't his son.

He stepped inside the tent and found a red-eyed, puffy-faced Carl sitting on his bed with his knees drawn to his chest, and Shane sitting in front of him. Both looked up at him, and Shane quickly stood up.

"I'll see you later, bud," Shane said, reaching out to ruffle Carl's hair before slapping Daryl on the shoulder as he left the tent.

Carl glared up at him, and Daryl sighed as he sat down, "Hey," he said. Carl didn't say anything, so Daryl continued, "Tell me why you're upset," he said.

Carl huffed a little, and picked at the clean jeans he'd put on, "I didn't do anything wrong," he said softly, refusing to meet his eyes, "Not like I meant to slip over,"