#uncle daryl

♡ Daryl Dixon ♡

(Read Part One on Tumblr here. Ao3 link for both parts combined.)

(Contains spoilers for TWD season 11, episodes 23 and 24.)

Weeks later, Judith lay in a hospital bed. She had narrowly avoided bleeding out, and yet she still smiled weakly up at Daryl.

“Whatcha smilin’ at, Jude?” He asked softly, brushing her bangs back. It was a gesture that provided him with more comfort than it did her, reminding him that she was still alive, still breathing. Her heart was still beating.

“Why not smile?” She asked, so soft Daryl almost missed it. Her speech slurred as she talked, but Daryl made sure to catch every word. “‘S gonna be alright. I know I’ll be okay.”

“How are you always so sure?” Daryl whispered. He didn’t want to scare her, or make her think there was any reason she wouldn’t live through this. But he couldn’t understand how she had so much faith all the time. 

He remembered how she had collapsed immediately, her tiny body crumpled by a bullet meant for him. Her body had felt so small and weak as he carried her past the walkers. Even after seven years, it still felt like Beth’s body in his arms, and he struggled to hold himself together. 

He remembered how she had looked through him as if he wasn’t there, her words unintelligible as she barely clung to consciousness. The iv had started to make him feel weak on his feet, and it took all of his strength to pull it out instead of leaving it in; he would’ve given every last goddamned drop of his blood if it would’ve saved her, but if he had died there’d be no one left to protect her.

He remembered how scared she looked when she asked if she was going to die. He couldn’t even say no because, as he had told her in the past, he couldn’t lie to her.

Judith’s smile widened, full of the trust and love that never ceased to amaze him.