Chapter Text
Daryl was pretty good with kids for some reason. He might have been the youngest brother, but in his time alive he had picked up some pointers on how to look after young children. He secretly liked the times he had to take Judith and keep an eye on her. In this particular case, Beth had passed her over and expressed her desperation for a shower, her clothes and skin apparently stinking of baby puke.
He didn't really complain. He didn't have a problem until he smelt the tell-tale stink of trouble. “Ah Jesus,” he grumbled to himself as he hooked his hands under her arms and held her out in front of him. “That just ain't right.” Judith make a small raspberry noise and stuck her fingers in her mouth, seemingly not bothered by the mess in her diaper.
There was a changing matt in one of the cells, with supplies for cleaning Judith up, and he lay her down on it before rummaging for a clean diaper and other items he needed. When he straightened up, Judith was wiggling her legs in the air and trying to reach her toes. “Bein' adorable doesn't make it better,” he muttered as he placed down the diaper, wipes and some powder.
Changing diapers hadn't been on his résumé before, but he had helped enough to be up to the task now. He teased her with tickles as she started to grizzle, scrunching up her face and pouting at him. She was starting to get incredibly unhappy with him as he removed the dirty diaper and carefully placed it to one side with his nose wrinkled. “Damn, you stink,” he teased gently.
“She's not the only one,” came a soft voice from the door. He turned his head to see Carol stood there, leaning up against the wall, with a smug little smile on her face. He mock sneered at her and went to pull a wipe from the packet, faced with the daunting task of cleaning her up. “Here,” Carol said quietly, moving into the room and taking the wipe from him. Judith was getting increasingly grumpy, kicking her legs as Carol went to hold her bum up in the air.
Daryl was more than happy to watch, taking a small step to the side to let Carol do her usual efficient work. He tried to keep Judith occupied with his fingers, the little girl trying to grab onto them as he wriggled them in front of her. She stopped grumping so much and let Carol get her cleaned up and put some powder on.
He was the one to reach for the clean diaper first, gently nudging Carol out of the way as he unfolded it and slid it smoothly under Judith. Carol went about putting the dirty diaper and wipe in a bag to dispose of. He tried to ignore the soft smile on Carol's face as he gently fastened the diaper and then scooped her up easily. “There, li'l asskicker,” he muttered, adjusting her little pink dress. She reached up to grab a small fistful of his shirt and waved her other arm around happily.
“You know, one day she's gonna know what that means,” Carol pointed out, but there was still that smile on her face.
“Yeah, and she'll know how awesome she is,” he answered simply. Carol grinned at that, turning to leave the cell with Daryl following. Looking after kids wasn't so bad, just a bit smelly sometimes.