Complicated ✔

Ch. 47 - Little Ass-Kicker

DARYL’S POV

She was gone. She needed me to protect her and I wasn’t there, now she’s just gone. We went in, looking for the others in the tombs, looking to see if they found a place to hide. All that was left of T-Dog was two walkers and a bloodied form too disfigured to know who it was. The only way we could tell was because of it being bigger than it would’ve been had it been either Kat or Carol. When we made it back out to the courtyard, I was looking around as Rick talked with Hershel. Saying we were going back in to look for Lori, Carl, and Maggie too. But he stopped talking the second a baby’s cries reached our ears. When we all turned around, there was Carl and Maggie, with a little baby but no Lori. That was a double blow for Rick, he’d just lost his eldest, and now he learnt that he lost his wife too.

And that’s what led me to what I’m doing now, looking for formula for the baby to eat with Maggie’s help. We just lost several members of our group, we weren’t loosing this little girl too. Before we left, Rick had disappeared into the prison, this determination and anger in his eyes. There wasn’t anything we could do at the moment, that baby was more important than chasing a man who seemed to be losing his mind after losing his wife and eldest daughter. Maggie and I came across this daycare, seemed like a good place to look for something for a baby to eat. As Maggie looked around for the things we would need, and I kept watch around us, I spotted some names along the wall to one of the rooms we were in. I had to look away the minute I saw Kat’s name.

Glancing over at Maggie, I could see she was looking at me with a sad expression. “Everything will be okay Daryl,” she said. I scoffed before walking on, looking into other rooms as I walked down one hallway and she went down another. Finding the formula we needed in the kitchen to the daycare, we quickly left out of the building and got back on my bike, heading back home to the prison. When we made it inside, you could hear the baby crying as she was obviously hungry. Maggie walked over to another table, calling her sister to follow her, while I walked over to where Carl sat with his new baby sister in his arms. Pulling my poncho off and placing it on the bench beside him, leaning my crossbow up against the seat on his other side, I knelt down in front of the kid. “How she doin’,” I asked as he looked up at me with sad eyes.

CARL’S POV

“I don’t know,” I stuttered out as I looked up at him while he knelt down and looked at the baby in my arms. I was still trying to come to terms with what Beth told me, that my sister was gone too. “How’re you holdin’ up,” Daryl asked as he looked at me. I could see the sadness in his eyes and I believe he was referring to Kathryn more than Mom. I didn’t say anything, I just looked down at my sister in my arms as she continued to cry. “Shh,” Daryl cooed at her as he held his arms out, wanting to hold her. I awkwardly handed her over to him, having never really held a baby before. After having her securely held in his arms, he stood up before looking over to Beth as she held the bottle with formula in it. “C’mon,” Daryl cooed out after taking the bottle and holding it to where she could drink from it, “c’mon.”

Slowly, she stopped crying as she began drinking from the bottle. I watched as Daryl slowly rocked her back and forth as he held her in his arms, a small smile on his face as he looked up and looked around at all of us. “She got a name yet,” Daryl asked, looking straight at me. My face instantly fell as I wasn’t sure of what to name her yet. “Not yet,” I said looking down at the ground for a second, “but I was thinking maybe Sophia. Then there’s Carol too. And Andrea, Amy, Jacqui, Patricia, Lori, or Kathryn. I don’t know.” I looked down after that, after mentioning my mother’s and sister’s name. Honestly, I didn’t know what to name my little sister.

MAGGIE’S POV

The minute Carl mentioned Kathryn’s name, my eyes instantly went to Daryl. His face fell the second he heard her name. I knew how close Daryl and Kathryn got since we lost the farm, she had confided in me a few days later when it was just the two of us going out to get some supplies for the group. But Daryl instantly put back on his emotionless mask before anyone else could see his change in mood and looked back down at the infant in his arms. The second he looked down at the baby in his arms, that small smile for before returned to his face. “Yeah,” he cooed down at her, “you like that? Huh? Little Ass-Kicker.” His face lit up slightly as he lifted his head, smiling at the rest of us while we laughed at the name he decided to give the baby.

“Right,” he said looking around at us, “that’s a good name, right?” I felt Glenn wrap his arm around my shoulders, causing me to lean into him as I continued to watch Daryl holding the infant in his arms. If Kathryn could be here to see this, see Daryl holding her little sister in his arms, I think she’d be proud to see him like this. Regardless of the fact that Lori died while having the baby, I think it would’ve been better on Carl than him losing both his mother and sister, and then his father running off as he wasn’t in his right mind finding out he’d lost Kathryn and Lori in the same day. I tuned back into Daryl talking as he continued to rock the little girl in his arms while feeding her. “You like that,” he asked, “huh? You like that sweetheart?”

DARYL’S POV

I couldn’t sleep that night. I actually found myself in the cell that had belonged to Kat after a while. So I just sat there, on her bunk, looking at all of her things that were laying along the floor and by the built in desk on the wall. I still couldn’t believe she was truly gone, she had been such a fighter since the start of all this. But I had also been near her every time she was in trouble. I was always there to rescue her. Hell, I may not have liked her in the beginning, but that day I came back and her father was in our camp back in Atlanta, when she threatened me for attacking her father was when I knew she was strong. I guess that was why I didn’t allow her to be eaten by the walkers that night when the herd attacked our camp. I could’ve, I could’ve let her fend for herself, but I didn’t.

By dawn the next morning, I was making my way out into the field where we buried our fallen group members. I walked out to the graves, looking at each one until the one on the very end caught my attention. Carl must’ve come out at one point after they dug the graves and filled them back in with something that belonged to the person we lost and wrote her name on the cross. Either he did or Glenn. I didn’t even know how Glenn was taking all of this. He and Kat had been real close since her first night in camp back in Atlanta. Pushing that thought aside, I walked up to the last grave that belonged to her and knelt down, placing my hand on the handmade cross. “I’m sorry Kat,” I whispered before standing to my feet and walking off, away from the graves and out into the woods.

OMG last night's episode almost had me in tears! And Aaron dropping that hint haha!
- Kenz