Daryl was wearing socks.

Rick tried to decide for long moments what part of that observation struck him as weird. Maybe it was the fact that Daryl was wearing only socks and no boots. Most days, Daryl didn’t even take off his boots in bed. But it was pretty warm and cozy in the prison kitchen with all the warm bodies of their family heating up the place.

Also, Judith had apparently stolen Daryl’s boots and was currently chewing on the laces.

So it clearly wasn’t Daryl’s lack of boots that had Rick so hooked. It might have been the fact that those socks were clean. Yes, Rick checked again, they were indeed nearly spotless. Upon closer inspection - that required Rick to sit down next to Daryl and take a long look at Daryl’s feet - there were a few discolored parts and the heel had seen better days, the cloth threadbare and about to rip into a hole.

So, no, it couldn’t be the sight of clean socks that weren’t, in fact, all that clean.

Then Rick remembered what it was and that epiphany hit him like a freight train. Because he recognized those socks! Most of them just wore whatever socks they could find in their size for as long as they could be worn. Most of them had about five pairs each and they were wearing two pairs in cold weather like now. And Daryl was wearing random socks, no question. Rick could see them peeking out from underneath the top layer.

But the socks on top, the ones that gave Rick a weird sense of familiarity and déjà-vu, those socks, they were Lori’s.

They were marine blue with a tiny flowers print at the seams. The socks were stretched thin over Daryl’s too big feet and barely reached over his heel, but the hunter was wearing them anyway. And Rick knew exactly why: because she had given those socks to him during that first winter on the run.

Rick remembered how Daryl had supplied food for their family while Rick had worried about shelter, always giving anything they scavenged to the others, Carl and Lori in particular. One night, Rick had listened to Lori and Daryl talk about cold feet and Lori had chided him for having but a single pair of socks.

“Here, I have some spares”, Lori had insisted, some back and forth between them telling Rick that Daryl was trying to turn the offer down. But Lori was very persistent when she wanted to be and that day, she had given Daryl her socks and made him wear them throughout the remaining winter. And the archer had worn them without protest from then on, drawing a small smile from Lori whenever he took his shoes off.

That this gift, that tiny token of gratitude still remained with Daryl and was cherished just as much as it had always been made Rick’s heart soar high, his pulse flutter wildly and the breath catch in his throat.

He looked up to find Daryl’s eyes on him, telling him silently how much Lori still meant to him, even despite everything that had gone wrong between the two, that he loved her as family nonetheless. That she was a fond memory not in the back of his mind, but in his heart.

And Daryl’s eyes said “I love you”.