Darker Days

* 23 *

©JRF2015-R2022

Daryl is in shock as he now stares at his newly discovered daughter. Carol smiles, jumping off the bed around Daryl and wraps Jade in her arms. I laugh when she flinches at the sign of affection. "Yep," I joke, "She's Daryl's kid. Only a Dixon would be that afraid of a hug." We all look over to Daryl who is still staring at Jade.

"Where's your ma?" He finally asks. Jade's head falls. "I'm sorry, kid," Daryl adds quickly. No need for a verbal answer to that question. "What was her name?" Jade slowly brings her gaze up from the floor.

"Jasmine," she whispers.

Daryl having stood up, immediately falls back onto the bed. "Jazz? I ain't seen her in...god, I was a dumbass kid when I knew your mom. I didn't know anything about you, how could I not know about this? Why wouldn't she tell me?"

"She tried to find you my whole life, even before. She wanted me to know you. After the dead people showed up she seemed even more desperate to find you. Every place we went mom would always tell me we were 'a minute too late'," Jade tells him still unsure what her mom really meant by that. How could she tell it was only a minute, and how did she know he was there? It always looked like they were days behind whoever was there to her. "Mom had a feeling about the last place. She was sure she'd find you there. We were looking for you before..." She pauses, not wanting to finish that sentence. Daryl holds out a hand and she slowly takes it and sits next to him. They start talking and Carol moves over next to me.

"I think we should give them some time alone," she whispers to me and I nod in agreement.

"What's goin' on here, sweet cheeks?" Merle asks as he slings an arm over Carol's shoulder.

"You're an uncle, Merle." She tells him pointing to his brother and Jade. He cocks his head confused.

"That a fact? Hey, little brotha, why ain't you ever told me about this?"

Daryl looks up at his older brother, "Because I just found out myself Merle. This is Jade. Jade, this is your Uncle Merle." Carol nudges me and we walk out to the common room. Rick is holding Judith as he walks up and kisses my cheek. "I thought you were going to lay down?" I exchange a knowing smile with Carol before answering Rick.

"Had a little surprise for Daryl. The little girl I found while we were out hunting turned out to be Daryl's long-lost daughter."

"Really? So Daryl's got a little Asskicker himself, huh?" I nod and laugh.

"Yeah, I guess he does."

~~~~~~~

The next morning, Carl walks outside and sees Jade standing by the fence watching the walkers outside snapping and grabbing at her through it. Everyone though he was asleep but he had heard all the talk. There was a new girl that Rachel brought in from the hunting trip. And apparently she was Daryl's daughter. He walks down to the gate and stops two feet behind her, "Hey," he says startling her, "you're Daryl's daughter?"

"Yeah," she replies very shortly.

"I'm Carl." She looks back at him and snorts before turning back to the fence. "You're not going to talk to me?" She gives no response. Carl lets out an exasperated puff of air and starts to walk away. He mumbles to himself, "Yep, guess you're a Dixon, you've sure got the attitude." Jade turns around quickly.

"The hell do you know about me?"

Carl smiles smugly, "I know you got your dad's attitude and I got you to talk to me." Jade rolls her eyes. Carl stands there tall, proud, smug grin firmly in place. She starts shifting back and forth on her feet. What the hell does he think he's doing? Jade's mind is racing as she stares at him coldly, no emotion showing at all. He's making me nervous the way he keeps staring at me like that. She is trying hard to keep cool even though she can feel that there was something else happening that she didn't really fully understand nor did she want to admit -- I like him, he is really, really cute.