Cherokee Roses {Daryl Dixon's Daughter}

e i g h t

They say that your eyes are the window to your soul. When I look into Carl's I see an innocent little boy. When I look into Shane and Lori's, I see secrets. When it comes to Hershel and Dale there's a sense of knowledge they've gained just from growing older. Then there's mine, whenever I look into the mirror and I see my eyes, I see a little girl, sure she looks tough, but she's just a shell, on the inside she's trying to figure out who she is and why she got to live instead of the other millions of little girls that died when the apocalypse hit.

Last night I had a dream, that instead of Sophia going missing I did. It would've been better for everyone if it was me. Sure my dad would miss me, but he'd push through, he's strong. I'm not important, I'm just a small girl with a large attitude and a crossbow. 

Lori and Carl are feeding the chickens now, I smile at the sight, I never knew my mother and if she somehow showed up to meet me now, I might accept her just because of the current situation, but if it was before I probably wouldn't. It's terrible to say but it's true.

"Don't look so worried." Carl tells his mom. I smile at the thought of me telling my own mother that.

"It's my job." She states throwing some more feed to the chickens.

"No it's not, you're a housewife." He states as if testing the waters.

Lori looks shocked for a moment before smiling lightly and throwing her handful of feed at her son and I snort. "Yeah punk? You see my house around here?"

Carl tosses his feed to the chickens. "They don't have a mother."

'Neither do I.'  I wanna say but I keep my mouth shut, this is the end of the world, not your sob story. "She might be somewhere else." Lori tells her son.

"Maybe she got eaten." He mentions. "Everything's food for something else."

Carl continues feeding the chickens and I look down at my spot on a piece of wood before standing up  I give the rest of my feed to Carl and walk away.  "See you later." I mumble as I leave.

I see Glenn handing out fruit and I go over to him grabbing two peaches before making my way to my tent. When I reach the tent I see Andrea's inside apologizing to my dad.

"I don't expect you to forgive me but if there's anything I can do," Andrea starts before my dad cuts her off.

"You were trying to protect the group, and that include's my lil' girl." He says and I smile lightly. "We're good." Andrea starts to leave before dad speaks up again. "But hey, shoot me again and you'd best pray I'm dead."  Andrea turns and leaves for real this time and I enter our tent. I toss him one of the peaches and he catches it as I take a bite of mine.

"How ya feeling?" I ask sitting cross-legged in front of him.

"Take your best guess." He says giving me a smile and I chuckle. We sit in silence for a while before I lay down and look up at the top of our tent just thinking. "You're awfully quiet."

"Just thinking." I say still looking up at the tent's ceiling.

"Care to enlighten your ole' man?" He prods.

"What was she like dad?" I ask after a quiet moment.

"Who?" He asks cautiously even though he already knew the answer. That's always the one thing that stuck with me. Never ask questions you already know the answer to.

"You know who." I assured.

"She was probably one of the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. " He starts. "She cared about everyone, which was a change for me. When she got pregnant with you she was terrified, but obviously still gave birth to you. That was the first time I'd ever seen her not care, she gave you to me, signed over all the custody papers, and then she left. Didn't see her again, I don't know where she went or what she was doing but I obviously got the better end of the bargain. I got to see you grow up and obviously you got her gene's."

"You're such a liar!" I giggle at his comment about the genes. "Anyone I've ever met always told me I looked just like you!"

"That's because they only ever saw me."  He joked.

"Why'd you finally decide to tell me about her?" I ask, usually he'd just retaliate with a 'When your older Cheri Rose.'

"Because I realized I might be dead tomorrow." He admits pulling me closer to him and running his fingers through my hair. A habit of his I've loved since I was younger. "I'm not gonna leave you with any unanswered questions."

"If anyone can survive this it's you." I admit to him.

"No it's you." He tells me poking my side. "You're one of the toughest people I know."

We have another moment of silence  before Rick shows up outside of the tent. "Shane and I are going to teach some folks to shoot, you want us to bring Cheri with us?"

"Yeah she should go." Dad tells him.

"Daddy, I already know how to shoot." I interrupt him before he can say anything further.

"Cheri." He starts.

"I already know how to shoot." I repeat.

"Cherokee." He says sternly and I just give him a strange look before grabbing my crossbow and exiting the tent. I follow Rick to one of the vehicles and getting in sitting next to Carl with my crossbow on my lap.

At the makeshift gun range, old bottles are set up as targets and gunshots go off consistently after everyone has learned the basics of a gun I stand next to Carl as he shoots the his gun. I stop and watch as Rick compliments his son on making one of his shots.

"Alright kid, your up." He tells me when he's done with Carl.

I put the gun up and aim it at a bottle, I steady my breathing and shoot, completely missing my target. "What the Hell."

"Go ahead and try again," Rick reassures me. Once again I steady the gun and aim and when I pull the trigger I miss again.  "Hold on let me see your crossbow." Reluctantly I hand it to him and he weighs the items in his hands. "My guess is that you're used to the weight of your crossbow, let me give you something a little heavier and see how well it balances with you."

He hands my crossbow back to me before taking the gun and getting a new one. When Rick comes back he places the gun in my hands and points to the bottle "Alright try again." Like the two times I did before, I raise the gun, aim and steady my breathing before pulling the trigger and hitting the bottle.  "Nice shot Kiddo."

I smile and he ruffles my hair before walking off.

"Maybe one day you can teach me to shoot your crossbow," Carl insisted.

"Not a chance cowboy." I tell Carl laughing.

"Oh come on why not Cheri?" He asks laughing with me.

"I don't think you could handle it." I admit to him with a raise of my brow.

"Now that's just cold." He states.

"Why don't you two run along now, we're almost done here." Shane tells us before walking away, spitting in the dirt as he does.

Carl and I head back to camp and when we're far enough from everybody he grabs my hand giving me a smile as he do. I look down to hide the fact that I'm blushing.

"Why are your cheeks so red Dixon?" He asks with a cheeky smile.

"We're in Georgia Grimes, it's hot out." I retort trying not to let him know that I am truly in fact blushing.

"Or you're blushing." He challenges me and I look up at him my two braids almost hitting me in the face as I do. "Look I won't tell if you won't."

"Won't tell what?" I ask confused and then he places a kiss to my cheek right as we near the edge of camp. My blood rushes to my cheeks deepening the shade of red and I feel as if I'm on fire. How the hell did he manage to get me so flustered? He gives me a smile before letting go of my hand and wandering over to Dale as I walk slowly over to my tent touching my cheek.

'What the Hell just happened?'

~~~

Word Count: 1463