Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own The Walking Dead or any characters and places associated with Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard's story or Frank Darabont's adaptation. No profit is made from the writing for this fanfiction!

Sometimes I look at Daryl, all dirty and greasy as he tears his way through a snake or crawls up on a squirrel and I wonder what I would have thought of him if our paths had crossed before all of this.

Would I have jumped on the back of his motorbike and hung out with him in the sun round the back of some beat up little moonshine shack that he called home, laughing about nothing and listening to progressive rock well he convinced me to break my good Christian girl rules? Maybe I have chopped up my hair and got a rebellious little tattoo of a love heart or maybe something in Chinese on my backside but be too cowardly to get anything bigger. He would laugh at me for being a pussy and I'd get mad at him but we'd still be friends.

Would I have brought him home for dinner with my family, even knowing that I'd get picked to pieces over finding myself a good, clean Church-going lad by mum? Daddy would have welcome him with open arms because he was always so accepting of people no matter what they are like, but he would still have that concerned look when I would wave goodbye to Daryl from the door and I would beg daddy to let me see him again and he'd say "Speak to your mother" because he'd know how mum felt about it.

Maybe I would have found myself in some tangled, drunkenness mess - his hands on my hips and my thighs clenching around his waist.

But then again… Maybe my judgemental nature and misconceptions have stopped me from knowing him as I do now, being as close to him as I have become since the fire destroyed my daddy's farm? Would I have let his rough life style and difference in age get in the way? I would have looked down on him for just being another wasted redneck type who ain't gonna be no good for nobody… It's sad to think that I was like once. That I would judge someone on the clothes that they would wear or the way their hair cut. That I would avoid people because they smoked or because they rode a bike instead of a car… but I guess some of us needed the world to end to understand how important we all are.

I know it's stupid to think like this.

What if. What if. What if.

Such a silly little phase but still I can't help but think about it.

Where would I be without Daryl?

What would I be without Daryl?

If the world had stayed the same would I have missed something not having known him or would I feel misplaced at all. If the world had ended but they hadn't stumbled our farm, would I even still be here or would I have died before that winter, along with daddy and Maggie. Would I feel something missing then?

I'd want him to read this. When I die, I hope he does. At least, maybe if nothing else good comes from all of this and I wake up one night to a walker tearing through me and Daryl fighting his way free… at least he would know that it was enough, to say that I knew him.

Thanks for reading!