you were the middle child after merle left for the military and your father was still the abusive drunk he always was you were basically Daryl's parent you were 5 years older then him and Merle was 5 years older then you.

Daryl was currently 16 he dropped out of school because frankly it didn't help him much and got a job at a hardware store he was still pretty young so he couldn't work as much as the adults but the pay was pretty good and it kept food on the table for you both.

tonight he came back unusually late you normally didn't care what he did as long as he didn't do something stupid. But you did feel partly responsible for him and this was starting to become a reoccurring thing

"Hey I'm back." daryl mutters shutting door behind him softly not wanting to disturb your father who was drunk in the living room watching tv once again