4. Rescue

o n e h u n d e r e d f o r t y f i v e

Lydia laughed, shaking her head.

"Something funny to you?" Daryl asked from behind Theo, moving in closer to his wife, whose heart shattered from her discovery.

"That's a bold assumption" Lydia shook her head.

"Mary Jane St.Louise's School for Girls?" Theo asked, the girl's eyes going wide.

"That was the school I left my daughter at on the 19th of June 2007, three days after I gave birth to my little girl" Theo explained as the girl stood up.

"You?" The girl looked shocked, she never thought about meeting her real mother, especially when the world ended.

"You're my mother who left me?" Lydia's voice broke.

"I had no choice, I was 17, I had no education, no money." Theo defended herself, staying truthful, not wanting to lie about something so sensitive.

"Are you my dad?" She looked at Daryl who shook his head slowly.

"Who is my dad?" Lydia looked at Theo who tried not to cry.

"He's dead" She lied. "He died a long time ago, but he never knew about you" Again she lied.

Lydia shook her head trying not to cry.

"I didn't think I would ever meet my biological mother, what's the chances of it being now?" Lydia cried, staying in the corner where she sat.

"I understand if you don't want to know me, but I can help you, if you just be honest with me" Theo crouched at the bars, looking into her newly discovered daughter's eyes.

Lydia shook my head.

"You can't decide now that you want to be my mother. I grew up with someone else that I called my mum for years, you can't just walk away from that" Lydia avoided eye contact.

"I understand that, I really get it. My name is Theo Dixon, by the way." Theo introduced herself.

"What was my real surname? Is it Dixon? The one I would have had if it wasn't for..." Lydia asked, desperately she wanted to know more, but she was afraid to let her guard down, after all this could be a trick.

"Grimes" Daryl told Lydia as Theo looked to the ground, the tears falling to her eyes, landing on the concrete floor below her. "Theo is one of three kids, you have an Aunt that is 12, and an uncle who is 19..." Daryl explained.

"Do you have a big family?" Lydia asked, crawling forwards to talk to Theo.

"Biologically not anymore, my parents both died because of this world, but my family now is the people who survived this world with me, my husband, best friends, they take care of me and I take care of them." Theo smiled through her cloudy eyes, wiping her tears away

"I'm sorry" Theo told Lydia before standing up and walking away, unable to take her guilt anymore.

Daryl unlocked the door to Henry's cell, bringing him up and back up top before he slipped any more information about them or any of the other communities like he had almost done with Hilltop.

"I'm going to go back down to speak to her, see what I can gather, you going to be alright?" Daryl asked Theo as she took Daryl's crossbow from him.

She nodded before climbing the ladder, heading up to keep watch.

A day had passed and Theo couldn't bring herself to head back down to the cells, but that morning, as Daryl took down the food for Lydia, she sat on the top of the stairs, listening to what they had to say to one another.