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.

Releasing a saddened sigh, Daryl drops his head. "Baby--

"Ye promised me."

Daryl turns his head to the left and his daughter's eyes are still focused on him. Her eyes are sad and soft, a mixture that instantly makes his chest tighten.

"I know I promised ye, but--"

"But momma's dead." His daughter cuts him off, and her answer sends a chill down Daryl's spine.

He doesn't know what to think, much less say or do the moment those words escape his young daughter beside him. The words came from her so simply, as if she had held them the entire time. And it broke his heart further to see the pain she was still in. A pain a girl her age shouldn't have to go through. Especially on her birthday.

"C'mere." Daryl murmurs softly to his baby girl, and extending his left arm out, he wraps it around her small shoulders. Bringing the girl with soft brunette curls closer to him, he feels as she climbs up into his lap.

And they sat like that; quiet and together for longer than Daryl can recall. But as he listened to the breaths his daughter took in his strong arms and watched the sun shine over the horizon, he knew he had to make her birthday tomorrow one she would never forget.

* * * *

She exited the house the Grimes had claimed as their own with a small grin when Daryl picked her up. He had been out most of the day, on a supply run. And she enjoyed spending time with Carl and Judith. And everytime Daryl picked her up, she came out smiling.

"Good day?" Daryl asks her as they walk hand in hand on the way back to their own small house at the end of the road.

Nodding her head as she kicks a pebble around with her foot, she hums. "Mhm."

"Good." Daryl nods and a silence floats over them as night casts above them. But they enjoyed the quiet, something that always bugged her mother. They could just be in the quiet without needing to fill it with words.

"Brush your teeth and change into your pj's," Daryl says as they walk into the dark house. "Then straight on to bed."

He smiled to himself as he listened to his daughter climb the stairs in a loud fashion, her footsteps thumping along as she reached her bedroom. The bedroom her mother had set up for her.

Climbing up the stairs slowly, Daryl meets up with his little girl just as she climbs into her bed. And walking closer, he takes a seat on the edge of her mattress. The lamp on her bedside table illuminating the room in a soft glow.

"Gonna need ye rest for tomorrow, birthday girl." Daryl says tucking the covers around her.

"I love ye." Placing a kiss to her smooth forehead, Daryl stands up as he flicks the lamp off.

But just as he reaches her door, his little girl's voice fills the room.

"I wish momma was here."

Daryl could've sworn his heart could be heard breaking in the silence that followed.

"I do too baby," Daryl breathes out as he closes his eyes. "I do too."

* * * *

Sunlight woke Daryl up the next morning, that and the patter of little feet across the hardwood floor of his room.

Tiny hands find his shoulder, and shake him gently.

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Opening up his eyes, he's met with a blue that takes his breath away everytime he sees it. It was something her mother had always said about his eyes, but he never understood it until he saw his daughter's eyes. And then he got it.

"There's the birthday girl," Daryl smiled softly as his daughter climbs up onto the bed beside him.

"I'm six now." She smiles widely at him, and he can spot the place where her baby tooth had come out weeks prior. And waving her hands at him, she holds up six fingers.

"You sure are." Daryl laughs as his daughter lays down beside him. Still in her purple pajamas and her hair slightly wild from where her head was on her pillow.

Looking down at the girl with beautiful blue eyes and a light too bright for Daryl to even understand, his smile slips from his lips. Realizing that here she is happy as can be on a day she had begun to dread, and yet despite her good mood, all Daryl can think of is how her mother isn't here to see it.

Slipping out of the bed slowly as he retreats his arm that had wrapped instantly around the girl, his bare feet meet the cool hardwood. And walking over to the small closet, he opens it up and grabs a bag from the top shelf.

"What's that daddy?" His daughter asks as curiousity coarses through her tiny body.

Turning back around with the pale yellow bag in hand, Daryl spots her sitting up on the bed with her legs criss crossed. Her messy tangles threatening to cover up her face.

"This," Daryl says as he walks back to her. The mattress dips as he sits back on the bed beside her. "Is a gift for a very special girl."

His daughter grins up at him, "I'm special."

Daryl laughs lowly, and ruffles her tangles with his hand. "That you are. Here, for the birthday girl."

Holding the bag out to her, his little girl takes it from him And sets the small bag onto the pale blue bedspread. Her left hand pushes her hair out of her eyes before she dives into the tissue paper. She has to dig till she hits the bottom of the bag before finding the treasure inside, but the moment she pulls the gift from the bag, her face lights up like never before.

In her small hands, she holds a tiara. A play tiara made of plastic, painted in silver with plastic pink jewels to catch the light. He had found it in an old abandoned dollar store on his run the day before, and spent the night cleaning it till it looked better than new.

"Every princess needs a tiara." Daryl murmurs softly, taking it from her hands and gently places it on top of her messy brown curls.

His daughter's blue eyes gaze up at him, and they glimmer with a pure undeniable happiness he hadn't seen since before her mother passed.

As his little girl giggles as she tries to look up at the tiara balanced on her head, he reaches behind him for the bedside dresser drawer. Pulling out the last of her presents.

"Something else for the princess to wear." He says and his daughter's eyes refocus on him and his hand that holds something out to her.

There in the palm of his hand is a thin gold chain, parts of it still shimmering and some spots tarnished by age. But at the end of the chain sits a gold ring that still glimmers like the day Daryl got it.

Her mother's wedding ring...

"Your ma would want 'cha to have it." He tells his young daughter as they sit together on the bed. "Now ye got somethin to always remember her by. Ye got her with ye, right there."

Daryl's holds up the necklace and places it around his daughter's neck. Her eyes instantly dropping to look at the jewelry that adorns her neck.

"I know it ain't the party I promised ye, and I know it isn't the same like how it was before. I know momma ain't here to see what a pretty princess ye make, but I hope it's enough to make your big day special sweetheart."

Daryl's daughter looks up at him through her lashes, those big blue eyes threatening to suck all air from his lungs.

"But momma is here daddy." And taking him by surprise, she lunges forward and wraps her arms around him.

Kissing the top of her messy head without knocking off her sparkly crown, Daryl closes his eyes. She was right. Her mother was here with them... She was here in the form of this beautiful girl they had created together. And she would always be with them. No matter how much time passed them by, or how old they both got... She would be with them. Forever.

"Happy birthday princess." 

A/N: Wow! I didn't expect for this one shot to be so long or so beautiful!😍 But I love it! I hope you all enjoyed this sweet daddy Daryl one!