THE PERSON YOU'VE BECOME-104
Daryl's face paled dramatically, multiple thoughts ran though his head as he spoke. "What's happened? Is she okay?"
Max nodded. "She's fine. She's been asking for you. When are you coming to visit her?"
His father didn't reply, looking down at his foot and turned away. The young Dixon felt anger bleed through him as his dad walked away with a word.
"She wouldn't like the person you've become, you know!" He exclaimed, loudly making his father stopped in his tracks. "This isn't the Daryl she met years ago, this isn't her husband. This is a shell of that man with somebody else living in it."
His father didn't face him, but Max knew he was listening due to his body being stiff. He hit a nerve, his mother was a sore topic but the older Dixon need to hear this.
"She wouldn't like the way you isolated yourself from everyone. Living by yourself, saying you're better by yourself...abandoning your children. I wouldn't care so much if it was just me, because I've been through this before but Cassidy. The daughter you were supposed to raise, the only person that links you to mom."
Max stepped closer to his father, trying to make eye contact with him but it didn't work. His dad refused to look him in the eyes.
"Cassie, she's starting to understand. I can't make up excuses for you anymore. She's...she's smart. She knows I'm lying to her and I hate it." Max throw up his hands. "I hate lying to her but what am I going to tell a six year old who understanding that her daddy doesn't want to see her anymore."
He reached out his hand, placing it on his father's arm, turning the man towards him and still didn't make eye contact.
"Dad, you need to see her. Even if it's ten minutes outside the gates of Alexandria, she would just be happy to see you." Max pleaded, dropping his hand from his father's arm. "I'm starting to lose hope. That she's alive. It's been years since we've found any trace of them. We didn't even find their bodies, for all we know they could be roaming around as one of them."
"I'm gonna find them." His father murmured. "I'm gonna find your mom."
Max shook his head. "It's a dead end, dad. It's been a dead end for years. After a while, without finding trace, evidence that mom and papa are alive, out there somewhere, hope starts to run out."
His father turned away, muttering that he was gonna find them. Max grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"It's time to come home, dad. It's time to see Cassie. The search can wait, but your daughter, your little girl, she's can't. I don't know how much longer she can wait before she decides you're aren't worth asking about."
With that, Max walked away towards the stables, leaving his father thinking about what he said. He did feel slightly guiltily that he may have been to harsh but his father didn't to hear it.
***
Feeding Satellite an apple, Max heard Michonne and his father talk in hush voices before the woman called out to him.
"Max, I want to help your dad get information out of the girl." She said, looking at the boy she thought as a second son.
Max glanced at his father before looking back at the woman. "I'm gonna come back with you. Cassie needs me."
Michonne gave him a look he knew to well. "Max."
"Fine. I'll stay." He said as Dog sat at his feet. Dog wagged his tail, looking up at his owner's son. "Hey, Dog."
"Thank you. I'll tell Cas that you're staying longer." Michonne said as they walked towards the burial ground.
After Jesus's funeral, Michonne and the others left going back to Alexandria as Max followed quickly after his father, who stormed into the jail.
"Who are you?" His father asked the girl, standing in front of her cell.
The girl throw herself off the chair, clawing back until her back hit the wall. Daryl opened the cell door as the girl pushed herself against the corner of the room.
"Answer the question. You wanna die? Is that it?"
"Daryl, what's your problem?!" Henry yelled from his cell.
"Quiet!" Daryl snapped, harshly which Max to flinch slightly. "Do you? People to there just buried a good man. And they are ready to string you up right now. All I got to do is drag your ass up them steps. How many in your group?"
"I already told you—" the girl let out a gasp as Daryl grabbed her by the arm and pinned her against the cell.
Max reacted instantly by grabbed onto his father's arm. "Dad! Let go of her!"
Daryl shoved his son back, making Max stumble into the wall behind him. "Back off, Max! How many?!"
"Ten! Ten! There were ten of us!" The girl cried, petrified. "I think. We wore skins to blend in. We didn't have names. I mean—I mean, we did, but we didn't use them."
"How long been out around here?"
"I don't know. We moved around with the—with the dead. I mean, the skins made them leave us alone. They protected us, so we protected them." The girl answered.
"You got a camp? Walls?"
The girl let out a breathy chuckle. "Walls? Walls don't keep you safe. Please like this don't make it. They never make it. That's how it is. My mom and me, we saw it happen over and over. I—I barely remember the world before all this. But my mom, she told me how it was changing, how we had to change with it, how we need the dead and each other to keep safe. We're never alone."
"Why'd your people kill our people?" Tell me!" Daryl snarling, aiming his knife out the girl.
Max stepped forwards, shoving himself between the girl and his father, pushing Daryl away. As the redneck stumbled back at the force of the push, he accidentally swung his hand causing his knife to slice against his son's already scarred cheek.
"Shit, Max—" Daryl started, guilt filled his eyes.
Max shook his head. "Don't." He turned towards the scared girl with a much gentler expression. "W-why did you kill our people?"
The girl seemed to respond calmer than she did with his father. "Why always gonna kill you. It's just what people do now. Everybody stop alive's a threat. It's us or them."
"How many p-people are in your group?" Max asked, as the girl glanced at his father behind him. "Ignore him. F-focus on me. How many people?"
"I've already told you."
"The truth!" Daryl sneered, stepping towards the girl and was held back by his son.
"It is the truth!" The girl cried.
"Don't lie to me!" Daryl shouted.
"Dad, stop! Let me handle it." Max said, pushing his father back.
Daryl backed off, as the girl cried. "My mom! It's just my mom. She's a good person. Please don't go looking for her. Please. She's just one woman, out there alone."
"You said your people were never alone." Max said.
"She—she was at the cemetery. She got separated, but just her."
"Liar!" Daryl growled.
"Please, I'm telling—" the girl was cut off by the redneck moving around his son and grabbed her by the arm.
"I told you what was gonna happen!" He snarled, pulling her out of the cell.
"Dad!" Max yelled as Henry yelled."Daryl!"
"Shut up!" His father shouted.
"That was everything! Please! Please! Let go of me!" She pleaded.
"Dad, stop!" Max shouted, making his father look at him. "This is not how we should handle this. Let her go!"
Daryl stared at his son for moment before looking down at the pleading girl. He let her go, making her claw back towards the corner of the cell.
Max walked out, looking his father. "This is not how we supposed handle it."