#when judith gets older i promise we will have some 'nuh uh i learnt this one on my first rodeo i know how to parent' uncle daryl moments

[404writes]

being raised by daryl dixon: part two

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A/N: ty for all the love on part one!! mwah mwah!! i rlly wanna put it out there, the strong group bond exists! that just isn't the focus of this story so it does get skipped over a bit. also i apologise for this part covering such a short time span. did also change y/n to be feminine, it's needed for some of my later ideas to make sense, which you begin to see in this part. hope you enjoy!! <333

-S404

Warnings: Just normal TWD stuff! Also kind of a filler part, nothing too serious happens, just a ton of fun Dad Daryl moments!

Word count: 1.3k

After the ordeal at the highway, the group spent months travelling on foot. It was during this time your bond with Daryl really grew stronger. You had learnt not to complain about being hungry, or your legs being tired, but Daryl didn't need you to say it for him to carry you on his back and give you more rations than he could spare.

He spent a lot of time separate from the group, hunting whatever animals remained out there. He realised then, that he was doing this for the whole group because he cared about them, not just because he had to.

After a few weeks of travelling, the group reached a promising small town. Hershel was given the responsibility of watching over you whilst houses were cleared, as Daryl was out hunting. That day you got into an altercation with a walker which ended with a bite taken out of your sneaker.

When Daryl came back and Hershel informed him on the situation that day, everyone fell silent in the next room to hear what he would say. "I don't care if she didn't get bit ol' man. If she ever come back to me with a hair plucked out of her head, or god forbid an actual injury, whilst yer the one caring for 'er, you will never see the light of day again, yer hear me?" As Daryl walked into the room, everyone pretended to have not paid any attention.

Over the next few days, Daryl found you proper hiking boots and began teaching you basic knife skills. You told him you were jealous of Carl, because he could shoot, Daryl promised to teach you how to shoot when there was the leisure time and ammo to spare. He stayed around the group as much as he could until he was confident you wouldn't be found in that situation again if he was gone.

Back on the road, scouting out a grocery store, you found a box of pregnancy tests and gave them to Lori because you read the word "pregnancy" and thought of her instantly. She laughed and said "God I can't wait until we really settle down and get these kids learning again." Shortly after, her and Daryl got into an argument because he thought teaching you how to hunt was more important than teaching you how to read, because "Yer don't need to read 'rabbit' to kill it."

You felt much safer after arriving at the prison. As promised, the second working on the prison's security wasn't mandatory for him, Daryl began taking you outside of the perimeter to teach you how to shoot. You were such a natural that after a week of practise, Daryl could move onto teaching you what he really wanted to, hunting skills.

One day, you and Daryl were tracking a squirrel, and just as you were about to take a shot at it with his crossbow, you stepped on a stick and alerted the creature. As it started to scatter away, Daryl ran after it, eventually pinning it on the floor, letting you take the shot again, he knew how much it meant to you.

You were there to witness Lori's death, and it devastated you. You watched everyone piece themselves back together eventually, but you felt on edge constantly, feeling as though something like that could happen again easily at any given time.

You moved into Daryl's cell to make yourself feel safer. At first you snuck in during the night with your pillow and bear, and slept on the cold concrete floor. You woke up that morning tucked into the bed. The next night when you went to sneak in, you were welcomed by three stacked mattresses on the floor, with pillows and blankets on top ready for you. The two of you never said anything about it, but it became routine.

Daryl took on Judith very well, and you helped him look after her whilst Carl and Rick were grieving Lori. You loved the baby. Daryl left you with her once and came back to you telling her that she was "going to beat the world." He told you that "she'd only be learnin' from the best." That made you smile.

When Maggie and Glenn decided to give each other haircuts in the prison barber's, you begged Maggie to cut your hair like hers. Daryl said no because "you'd regret it, yer love your long hair don't ya'?" But really he just thought you'd look so much older with it cut, he didn't want you to grow up. When you told him it was annoying and got in your face all the time, he offered to braid it for you instead. He didn't know how to braid. He got Carol to teach him soon after the exchange, and prepped himself up heavily for the moment you finally came for him to do it.

You finally felt comfortable in the prison at night, so you started sleeping alone in your cell again, that was until Carl came to you one night asking if he could sleep on the floor, Judith was being too loud in the other cell block where he usually slept.

You and Carl spent the next day moving a second bed into your room, Daryl helped you on the condition you wouldn't tell Rick he was involved. You all ran and hid after dropping the mattress from the balcony which made Rick call out "What in the hell was that?" He walked into the silent cell block, but caught you all after Carl started giggling too loudly, Daryl bolted away from the scene and Rick chased after him. You were sore from laughing afterwards.

Daryl made Carol help him give you the boy talk that he felt was growing necessary. Carol gave you the entire talk whilst Daryl sat next to her occasionally grunting in agreement. The only contribution he made was when Carol stared at him, trying to get him to say something encouraging. He said "If a man... or a woman, up to you. If they ever try pull anything on you that yer don't like, you remind 'em who taught ya how to kill." As you looked at him mildly confused, Carol definitely regretted allowing him to speak.

For your thirteenth birthday, Carl recruited Daryl's help to bake a cake for you. They sneaked into Rick's farm to milk the cow and collect eggs. The milk was an easy grab, but they found there were no eggs at all. Daryl, in frustration, held a chicken at knifepoint, cursing at it to "scare it into layin' something." Carl just stared at him. They ended up surprising you with a chocolate bar instead.

You became aware of a prisoner being held hostage in the prison, no one would tell you what her business was being around in the first place, so you decided to speak to her yourself. Michonne explained Woodbury to you, about the Governer and what he would do if he knew the prison existed. But the information that shocked you the most was of Merle's survival.

You knew that if faced with his brother again, Daryl wouldn't know what to do with himself and he'd end up losing all the progress he'd made in the group. You had to look out for him just as he looked out for you. You had to kill Merle before Daryl even caught a whiff of his living existence.

~ taglist: @unadulterated-syd @darylsgarden @lilfishyyyy