South Tree * TWD

16. Funeral

Come Funeral time, Lillian's tears had dried. She didn't have any more to cry. She stood next to Daryl, holding onto his hand. Colton stood next to Maggie.

They had separated when Dale brought them to the house. Lillian ended up with Carl during the time they had been at the house, she didn't leave his side. He didn't seem like he was all that emotional about it, which helped her toughen up. As soon as they had all gathered for the funeral, Lillian found Daryl and ran over to him. She just looked at him with side eyes, making him hold out his hand for her before walking to the spot they had buried some of the walkers, one of them being Sophia.

Nobody knew what to say. Not even Colton knew what to say, and he always talked. So nobody said anything, instead they all dispersed. Daryl began to let go of Lillian's hand as he turned to walk away but she kept a strong hold on his as she followed beside him. They went back to where their tent was set up and that's when Lillian dropped Daryl's hand. Daryl continued off.

"Where are you going?" She questioned him as she followed behind him.

"Out." He stated plainly as he continued walking at a faster pace.

"Daryl. Daryl, wait please!" She let out a small cry in pain as she jogged after him. He stopped and turned around with a sigh. When Lillian got up to him, she hesitated, pulling at her shirt nervously as she tried to find the words.

"What?" Daryl grumbled, loosing his patience. Lillian's eyes began to blur with tears as she finally just sit it out.

"Can i have a hug?" She asked him softly, her voice quivering as she asked. Lillian watched as the man seemed to physically relax, his face softening.

"C'mere." Daryl held out his arms towards the girl, she went and hugged his torso where as he had other ideas and reached underneath her arms to pick her up. She moved to wrap her arms around his neck, her legs wrapping around his torso as he had his arms wrapped securely around her body.

Lillian started to cry again. She started to cry over everything. Over Sophia, over her mama, over her loss of friendship with Carl, over her daddy, over everything. She remembers when her daddy would hold her like this, when he was a little nicer than he had been before he left. She missed him and she missed her mama. She missed Sophia too. She missed her really bad. She missed her for Carol too. She felt so bad for Carol.

"I'm sorry that i didn't stay with her. That i lost her." Lillian cried out, her voice cracking as she spoke. Daryl held the girl a little tighter.

"It ain't your fault. Okay?" He spoke softly to Lillian. "Okay Lilli?" He repeated when he didn't get a response. Lillian nodded as she rested her head on his shoulder.

They stood there for a while, until Lillian had calmed down basically. Daryl had set her down and they had both went their separate ways. Lillian decided she wanted to go see Colton. When she had walked up to Colton's room, both Carl and Colton were in there coloring on some coloring pages while sitting on the floor.

"Hey." Carl took notice to Lillian's presence.

"Hi." Lillian greeted, her voice weak as he sniffled.

"You wanna color?" Colton offered, holding up a coloring book.

She nodded and so Colton held up the coloring book for her to take. She sat down and picked a page, one with a butterfly and flower on it. She thought maybe she could give it to Carol and make her feel better. She picked out green, yellow, purple, blue and black for all of the drawing, determined to make it as perfect as possible.

All of the kids sat in there, quiet for a while until Colton spoke up. "Maggie said you could stay if your group left, Lillian." Both Carl and Lillian gave him a weird look.