Chapter Text
"Bitch assaulted me first," Ed spat at Daryl, still that awful shade of maroon, and very extremely overly sweaty by now. Amy was consoling Carol off to Cassia's right, and Andrea was still right by her side on her left. Daryl's eyes narrowed that little bit more, and he raised his crossbow up to his eye level, indicating he was about to shoot,
"Beat y'little girl too, don'tcha?" Daryl voiced his secondary incentive to shoot the man, and everyone all at once seemed to recall the bruises they'd noticed on Sophia from time to time, and suddenly the atmosphere was a little thicker and just that bit more antagonistic. Daryl was waiting for some sort of confirmation or answer, although everyone knew it was true. Ed wasn't exactly subtle. Ed licked his lips, a sickening half grin spreading after he did so, and shrugged, returning Daryl's glare,
"Sophia's just clumsy." Was all he said, and for a moment, Cassia was sure Daryl was going to shoot the man. His finger even twitched on the trigger, but then Shane came out of nowhere, and tackled Daryl from behind. Ed immediately took this opportunity to escape and dragged Carol off with him, backing away. Death glares followed him until he disappeared from sight. All eyes returned to Daryl and Shane, who were now wrestling in the dirt. Cassia sighed,
"Shane!" She called out, stepping towards their entangled forms, "Ed provoked this. He hit Carol and then tried to hit me." She folded her arms over her chest and watched as both men got to their feet. Shane nodded in her direction and took up that awfully obnoxious stance he always did,
"Right, well. I'm inclined to believe you, but shooting people with crossbows," He emphasised the last part, turning to stare pointedly at Daryl, who returned it unrelentingly, hoisting his crossbow back over his shoulder and folding his arms, "is not going to solve thangs." Shane finished, glaring between Cassia and Daryl and then over to Andrea, who pursed her lips and gave him a noncommittal shrug. Shane sighed and moved closer to her to try and appeal to her, "Cassie, I know there's hormones-" He began, in a tone that was way beyond patronising, and raised a hand to gesture as he spoke. Cassia's expression immediately shut down and she scoffed, slapping his hand away,
"Screw you, Deputy." She turned and stalked off towards her tent.
Daryl caught her forearm before she'd reached her destination, however, and spun her around, one hand remaining on the crossbow as it lay over his shoulder, "Y'alright?" He questioned gruffly, staring off to the right of her. She watched him avoid her gaze for a few seconds before replying,
"I'm fine." She told him and then shrugged his arm off. Daryl grimaced and then stalked off back towards the trees.
It wasn't until the decision was made to send a group into the city to try and garner supplies and weapons that Cassia realised just how much other people disliked Merle Dixon. There was even a collective sigh of relief when he set off with Andrea, Morales, Glenn, T-Dog and Jacqui on the mission. This sigh did not stretch as far as Daryl and Cassia. They were probably the only two who didn't cherish him being gone. Sure, it was nice to not be criticised, made fun of, be the subject of sexist jokes, or to watch him drive Daryl crazy, but he was still a part of their tiny family. Her, Daryl, Merle, and... the thing. Cassia grimaced at her own thoughts and shifted around on her seat, mentally apologising to her unborn and currently undeveloped child. There was no way she was going to refer to the baby as a foetus. She wasn't sure the Dixon brothers even knew the meaning of the word. She huffed unhappily, her mind coming up with no cute alternatives. She'd decided from the day she'd found out she was pregnant that she wasn't going to try to pre-guess the child's gender. She knew from Basil's experience with his wife's pregnancy that it did no good to get excited over having a baby of one gender, only for it to be born as another. Although, it was very possible that the baby might be transgender. It wasn't too important to Cassia, as long as the baby was happy, then she was all good. Gender schmender. She was sure Daryl had different ideals, but that was a bridge to cross when they came to it. She didn't expect he'd be around much while the baby grew up, anyway. She couldn't explain why, she just couldn't picture him being all too interested.
It was surprisingly lonely around the camp with Merle gone. She realised that she missed him jumping out at her and insulting her with a big smarmy grin on his face, as if he were just discussing the weather. She missed the selfish threats and the unnecessary remarks, the racist ones, too, and the horrifying suggestions for baby names. Daryl had never been much company. He always kept to himself, and wasn't really one to engage in casual conversation. However, he was kinder than Merle, and Cassia was probably one of the very few who knew what he could really be like. Alas, he'd gone off hunting again, so Cassia really was alone. She decided to get up and see how she could help around the camp.