The fresh morning sunlight hit Daryl Dixon the second he stepped foot outside of the Alexandrian house. Though some rays were concealed by the roof that extended out to cover the front porch, heat still found his skin as we walked out into the fresh air.
He closed his eyes for a moment; basking in the feel of the sun and the smell of the wind. The summer that invaded his senses and calms him down to his troubled soul. But as his eyes reopen to the bright new morning light, his blue eyes land on something that brings a frown to his face.
There she sat, on the top step of the porch, with her feet tucked together as she sat with them crossed. Her head tilted downward as she looked at her hands that rested against her knees, and her soft brunette hair blew gently behind her in the faint breeze.
Walking up behind her quietly, Daryl settles down onto the same step right beside her. His shadow engulfing her small frame.
"Why ye up so early?" Daryl asks softly, and a pair of blue eyes look up at him.
The five year old shrugs her shoulders at the redneck, mumbling a response Daryl knows he's used once or twice in the past. Rubbing the back of his neck, Daryl hides a small smile as he realizes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
"Ye want to head out with me?" Daryl offers as this usally perks his little girl right up. Time spent with her daddy out in the sunshine and nature. But this time, her eyes don't light up like they usually do. Instead, she looks back down at her hands in her lap.
The denim overalls she wears are stained in the knees by the dirt he finds her playing in time and time again, and the yellow shirt she wears underneath makes her look like a bundle of sunshine. His sunshine.
But looking at her right now, his little light looks burnt out.
"What's goin on huh?"
The little girl with eyes and personality like her father shrugs her shoulders again, but Daryl doesn't take it for an answer.
"No," Daryl says and nudges his baby girl softly with his shoulder. "Tell me what's up with 'cha."
The young girl looks downward, as if hiding her face from him will make Daryl disappear. Watching her tiny hands as they fidget anxiously against her legs.
Sighing to himself, Daryl looks down at his lap himself. Sometimes wishing she hadn't inherited all of his traits. The avoidance, the shyness that overwhelmed the young girl. Sometimes he wished she had gotten her mother's free spirit attitude rather than his isolated one. Her mother's way of always being able to express what was on her mind, instead of hiding from it like he did.
"It's your birthday tomorrow, ain't ye excited for it?" Daryl asks his daughter and that's when he gets a real response.
His baby shakes her head adimitly, telling him every thing he needs to know right there. He had finally found the source of her melancholy.
"Why not? Ye gonna be the big six!" Daryl says and her blue eyes lift to look up at him.
"Carol's gonna bake you a cake, and Deanna said ye can pick any record ye want from her collection. And--"
"You promised me a party. A princess party." His little girl's soft voice enters the morning air, and she looks up at him with her big eyes of sparkling blue. "Before momma died."
And it's then when Daryl puts two and two together.
This was the first birthday his baby was going to have without her mother. And being five-about to be six- he knew she felt the loss deeply. Almost as deeply as he did every day.
