Pushing Up Daisies - TWD

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

༻❁༺

She shovels bite after bite of pasta into her mouth at a rapid speed. She doesn't care if pasta sauce is covering her face, or if her slurping and chewing is too loud. This is the most she's had to eat in ages, and she's damn well going to enjoy it.

Dale's pouring all the adults wine, but her dad is on about his third bottle of beer. Why the government kept a full stock of alcohol , she doesn't know. Her dad always gets all funny when he's drunk, overly affectionate and playful towards her. He keeps tugging at her curls and poking her back, dodging her slaps towards his hands. After her mom died, he would drink a lot, but he would always be moody and sometimes forget to feed her dinner or take her to school. That only lasted for a year or so, though, then he drank less and was like this when he did, so she didn't mind much.

"You know, in Italy," Dale chuckles, "Children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France."

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." Lori responds.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on." Her husband tells her.

"Can I have some?" Daisy asks her dad with a mouthful of pasta, giving him her best puppy dog eyes, looking exactly like Lavender did when the mutt used to sit at their feet during dinner and beg for food.

He snorts, his cheeks tinged pink. "If you can manage a sip in between your spoonfuls of pasta, sure."

"Really!?" She splutters, expecting him to say no. He has never let her have a sip of a drink before. She guesses the world ending changes things. He did also always toss Lavender his leftovers when he thought Daisy wasn't looking. So, maybe those puppy dog eyes work for her, too.

He throws an arm around her shoulders and nods with a grin. Her and Carl take a sip at the same time.

"Eww!" Carl says, face scrunched up.

She herself sports a sour expression that she attempts to mask. "It's not so bad," she lies.

"Liar!" Her dad laughs, "You hate it!"

She breaks, dramatically gagging at the unfamiliar, strong taste, "Yeah, tastes like shit."

Everyone laughs, and her dad doesn't even correct her language. Soon, Rick taps his fork to his wineglass, calling everyone's attention.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog adds, raising his glass.

"Here's to you, Doc," says her dad, raising his beer, "Booyah!"

"Booyah!?" She laughs, harder than she's laughed in forever, at her dad's silly, drunken choice of word. He shrugs at her and takes another sip as she keeps laughing and laughing.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" Shane says suddenly, interrupting everyone's laughter. "All the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Jesus, she really wants to splash her cup of Cola on his ugly face in that moment. Can't a girl have a bit of peace in the apocalypse?

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick says, voicing what she was thinking, albeit in a much nicer way.

The adults go back and forth with the Doctor guy for awhile. She catches Sophia's gaze and rolls her eyes at the adults, causing the girl to silently giggle. Daisy doesn't really pay attention to conversation, instead making herself another plate of pasta. She can't control what's happening in the world, so why does she need to hear about how all this happened? It's not like she can do anything about it.