The Sheriff's Daughter

Chapter Six: Switching Tents

A week had passed since the Dixon brothers had found our camp. As the days passed by, the two seemed to grow more and more irritated with one another. I often saw them whispering fiercely to each other, but I never got close enough to hear what they were talking about. Though whenever they did argue like that, they'd gesture to the camp before noticing that I was watching. Then, Daryl would stomp off into the woods and Merle would just laugh before deciding to bug me. Or I'd follow Daryl into the woods and have a one-sided conversation.

"The two of them need to pull their weight more," Shane told me as we checked the perimeter of the camp, just after we had nearly collided into an angry Daryl. He had, once again, been arguing with Merle. He grunted in greeting upon seeing me, but ignored Shane all together and I wondered briefly if that meant I was growing on him.

Shane and I normally did patrols separately, but ever since Shane noticed the way Merle's eyes followed my form, he tried to stick close by. "They barely do anything. Hell, Merle really doesn't do anything at all."

"Daryl hunts for the group," I reminded him softly, fairly certain that the hunter could still hear us. I wasn't sure where he was, because he seemed to vanish into thin air when he was in the woods. "And if you haven't noticed, they're not the only men in this camp who don't do much of anything."

I nodded towards the center of camp, where I could see Ed smoking his cigarette, Jim and Dale fiddling around with the RV, Glenn eating a poptart that we had found on a run, and T-Dog helping one of the older women in camp move her things to a shadier place.

"Glenn goes on runs almost every single day. Dale's almost always on watch on that RV of his. Jim goes around offering to work on everyone's cars. T-Dog's a sweetheart and helps out everyone that he can. Then there's him. As far as I'm concerned, Ed is a thousand times worse than Merle." Shane turned just in time to see Ed throw down his cigarette and stomp it out before instantly pulling out another and lighting it up.

"He's a, he's a real piece of work, isn't he?" Shane shook his head. "I feel bad for that daughter of his."

"Sophia's the sweetest little girl," I told him with a smile, turning away from the monster that was ruining her life before the dead walked. "I taught her how to braid hair yesterday. You should have seen her face, she was so pleased with herself."

Shane smiled, an almost sad look appearing in his eyes. "You know, you've really stepped up around this place. A natural leader. Your dad would've been proud, Angel."

I looked down, suddenly unable to meet his gaze. Tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly wiped them away. Shane's arms wrapped around my shoulders and I hid my face in his chest, fighting back the tears that I hadn't let fall in a while now. There was no point in crying - it wouldn't change anything. At this point, I wasn't even sure if they were sad tears or tears of happiness that Shane thought my dad would have been proud.

"Shane?"

He pulled away so that he could see my face.

"Do you think Daddy really would have been proud of me?" I looked into Shane's deep brown eyes, studying the expression on his features through slightly blurred vision.

"Are you kidding? Your dad would have been amazed by how incredible you are. I swear, you do more work than anyone in this camp. I mean, name something you don't do." When I couldn't answer, Shane smiled. "See? Your dad would be so happy to see you like this."

I smiled, wiping away the last bit of the tears. "Thank you. I just. . . I still miss him like crazy. I mean, I'm trying to do what he would have wanted. What he would have done. Y'know? I - I take care of Carl and Mom, I help out wherever help is needed at camp. . . I just. . . Dad would have done that."