THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

chapter 28 ; target

Coda finally quietened her sobs, and whimpered, "Daddy doesn't talk about his mom and dad. I like knowing..."

Ellie and Daryl immediately made uncomfortable eye contact, with the two frozen in place with uncertainty. They both knew the topic of Daryl's family had been entirely difficult to talk about amongst themselves, let alone their infant daughter, who truly didn't understand much. She had been precocious for her age, but it didn't carry her that far in regards to processing advanced information.

Daryl cleared his throat, and gestured towards Shane awkwardly, who nodded, and understood the small family needed their space. Daryl then fully sat on the ground, and sat Coda down on his knee, before admitting, "My family is complicated," to which Coda tilted her head, not fully understanding, "they aren't good people."

"Are you a good people?"

Ellie and Daryl both chuckled at her question, and Ellie ran her hand through Coda's blonde locks, before whispering, "Of course he is. But your dad has been through some tough things."

"Like us?" Coda questioned, slowly crawling up towards Daryl to pull him into a tight embrace. She curled around him perfectly, and he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with adoration as she did so.

"My dad wasn't a nice guy," Daryl added, clenching his jaw as he suddenly became overwhelmingly uncomfortable with the discussion, "and my brother was... difficult."

"What is his name?" Coda asked, tilting her head to the side innocently as she listened intently as her father spoke.

Daryl clenched his jaw tight as he struggled to utter his brother's name, as he felt a lump from deep in his throat. He cleared his throat, and sighed, "He's your uncle Merle."

Coda widened her eyes, almost as though she had discovered the rarest of treasures, and held her hand over her mouth in disbelief, "I have two uncles? And
an auntie? I'm so lucky..."

Ellie felt a deep stab to her heart as she realised that both of Coda's uncles had been missing, without anyone knowing their locations. Ellie froze for several moments, stumbling over her words in her head as she attempted to devise a sufficient explanation to her child — only she couldn't. There couldn't have been a sufficient explanation for her, when they didn't understand it themselves.

"Yes," Ellie nodded, and took her daughter's small hand in her own, and pulled her close, "and when we we're all together again, you can meet Merle."

Coda squealed in excitement, and held up her doll to her father, and grinned, "Dolly is excited." Ellie observed as Daryl began to play with Ellie, talking through the doll to her, and it warmed Ellie to her core. All she wanted to do was be at peace with her family, and for order to restore.

"How are you holding up about Merle?" Ellie finally asked as the two stood to their feet, once they were sure Coda had been engrossed in her playing with her dolls, "I guess we haven't really talked about it."

Daryl shrugged as he stared down at Coda, his eyes adoringly longing over her as she babbled to herself, "I miss him, man. I can't explain it."

"I'm sorry, Dixon," Ellie whispered as she placed her hand on his shoulder in reassurance, and he slowly placed his hands on her hips, and rested them there, "Merle didn't deserve—"

"We both know he did, Ellie."

A silence of grief fell over the two as they stood together in seclusion, the group seemed so far away from where Daryl had set up their camp after the barn incident. In the silence, Daryl pulled out an old carton of Marlboro cigarettes, and lit it up, inhaling deeply as he did so. Ellie observed for several moments in silence, until Daryl raised in eyebrow in suspicion.