Daryl Dixon Imagines

And Then She Ran

By such-a-common-girl on Tumblr

Daryl can still remember his daughter’s death like it was yesterday.

It was her on her eighteenth birthday. Daryl, not one to show his emotions, had gone out of his comfort zone that day to make sure it was a special one. He’d had Carol over to cook her favorite breakfast (at least, her favorite out of the few options they had), and while on a previous run, he found her a beautiful diamond necklace in a house that was still in good shape. He managed to find some paper to cover it with. He had everything ready to go. It was not often that she got to feel like she was special.

They had a fight that day. This was not just any normal fight, not like the ones that they usually had. And they had fights often. This fight was different.

Everyone had noticed that she had been acting differently lately. Nobody brought it up with her, but everyone knew something was wrong. Daryl was the last one to catch on, and when he finally convinced her to tell him what was going on… It turned into the worst fight they’d ever had.

She had run off after that fight, but Daryl didn’t pay any mind to that. She had a habit of “running away” for a few hours. The first few times she did that, Daryl freaked out. He looked for her up and down until the minute she came home. Usually she came home drunk, which would just piss Daryl off more, but at least she was ok. So after a few times of her pulling that act, Daryl stopped worrying.

“She’ll be back soon.” Daryl told himself that day, not bothering to run after her.

She didn’t come back. As a matter of fact, she never came back. A few days after her disappearance, Rick, Daryl, and Glenn went out looking for her. In her place, they saw something they wish they never saw.

She was dead. She was a walker.

Daryl broke down after that, crying harder than he had in his entire life. He just lost his little girl. When he got back to their house later that night, he grabbed the necklace and threw it out the window, sobbing.

It took Daryl a while to be okay after that. In reality, he knew he’d never be okay, but he was okay enough to move on. It took almost a year before he could even go into her room again. It smelled like her; he could almost feel her presence in there. That was comforting for the first few days, until he realized he was never getting her back. She was gone.

-

This was the first time he’d been in your room since that night. Daryl took in the surroundings- it was a mess in here.

‘She was definitely not a tidy person.” Daryl thought to himself, laughing softly. He sat on the bed, taking a deep breath.

“I shouldn’t be in here.” He said out loud to himself, getting up to leave. But something stopped him. He noticed a notebook nudged in between the mattress and the floor. Hesitating, he picked it up and opened it to the first page.

‘I’d been caught with Carl more times than you could imagine.

At first it wasn’t anyone important catching us, only people like Maggie or Glenn who I knew wouldn’t say anything. Then, Rick found out. Rick was pissed, and told Carl to stay away from me.   “She’s too much trouble, Carl. Don’t get involved with her.” Rick had told him. I know he doesn’t like me. He only tolerates me because I’m his best friend’s daughter. I know he’d kick me out of the group if he could. So when he promised me that he wouldn’t tell my dad if we stopped while we were ahead, I agreed. I cried, and told him I’d keep it friendly between the two of us.