Chapter 1: Carry On

(DARYL POV)

She was back. After all this time I finally found her…I was more than happy bout it, I really was.

How come it feels like something's still missing then?

I sat in the watch tower watching her train Carl in the court yard, it's been three months since we found and cleared the prison now. So far everything was quiet, almost too quiet for my liking really. No sign of any other groups around our area yet.

She's been teaching Carl hand to hand combat since the kid didn't know shit about defending himself without a gun, she's been spending a lot more time with the kid than anyone else, 'sides me, and sometimes Rick when he needed our help on decisions.

It didn't bother me any, the time they spent together seemed to keep them both grounded. I saw on the road Carl was gettin distant, he was gettin better with her help. He was helpin her too in a way…though I had a suspicion she was tryin to fill the void.

She wasn't ever gonna get to raise our baby…she can't teach it how to survive in this world, can't teach it how to protect itself…so she's teaching Carl.

She would've been 7 months along now… I keep picturing her with her belly swollen with my child…she would've been so beautiful. I always get a pain in my heart when I think bout it, I never thought I'd be someone who even wanted kids 'fore all this happened.

I took my eyes off her to check around the area again, this was how I always passed my day shifts on watch…I kept my eyes on her if she was outside, only lookin away to make sure there wasn't anythin 'round.

She did end up finishin her story, she told me how messed up she got after she lost our baby…she fell into a black hole for a while. Kissing Merle seemed to have shocked her out of it, only cause she knew it was wrong.

Sure I was mad at her fir it…but I know she doesn't like Merle like that, hell she wouldn't be here now if she did.

"Hey! No fair!" I heard Carl shoutin and my eyes darted over to see him lying on his back on the ground in front of my Girl.

I chuckled, she was good. Carl was growin fast he was just over a foot shorter than her now. He's in good hands, and he's gonna be a good fighter jus like her.

I liked watchin her move, she's almost back to her regular self after three months of training with the kid. For a while she didn't eat nearly enough to get her strength back…she thought I didn't notice but it wasn't hard to miss.

She was way too skinny when I found her, hell I didn't recognize her at first until I seen her face. Now that I got her to eat more and she's got most of her muscles back she almost looked like her old self again.

I liked takin watch while she was trainin cause then I had time to jus think alone. My thoughts centred on that Girl most of the time, only sometimes drifting off to my brother.

It was the middle of February now, the weather was starting to heat up…yet there's been no sign of Merle or even her brothers looking for her. Maybe we're too far off their beaten track for them to come this way, they may someday…but hopefully it'll be far in the future.

I watched her flip Carl to the ground a third time and laughed, she helped him up and patted his shoulder smiling down at the boy. She playfully ruffled his hair and jerked her head back at the prison, training was ending early today I guess.

She looked around the yard and then her eyes met mine all of a sudden, she knew I was watching them. She smirked at me and started heading over.

I watched her walk until she was out of my sight, moving my eyes to look around the yard while she climbed the stairs of the watch tower. It's been three months since we got back together, almost all our issues were worked through.

After she told me the rest of her story when we got the prison sorted out I left for a three day hunt without a word to her. She let me have my time on my own to think it through, but on the fifth day when I was on my way back, she found me.

"Rick told me you said three days…" was all she said when we broke through the bush to come face to face with each other.

She wasn't mad at me for being gone longer than I said, she had been glad I even came back. The worry and doubt in her eyes that day told me she didn't think she was good enough anymore…but she came after me anyways.

I just shrugged and tossed her a string of squirrels to carry, we shared a smile and came back home.

Home… it was still weird to call this place home, but that's what it was now. Maybe if Lori's baby comes into this world a'right I could bring up us tryin again…

I could feel her presence behind me before she even touched me, she wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me from behind while I stayed sittin on the chair. Her breath tickled my neck but I kept facin forward.

She placed soft kisses on my neck, and I had to bite my lip to stifle the groan that rumbled in my chest.

"Keep doin that an' I ain't gonna be able to finish my shift, Girl." I bit out playfully.

The past few weeks the sexual tension between us has only grown, all we've done these last month's together was kiss… our relationship was takin a lot slower route then when we first met.

"Glenn and Maggie do it all the time on watch" she said against my neck.

She hasn't pushed us havin sex at all, seemed she understood I wanted to wait, guess all girls have their limits though. Hell I was barely containing myself, especially when she wore her damn yoga pants and her tight white tank top out for practice.

I pulled her around quickly surprising her, she ended up on my lap with a slight squeal. I chuckled and she glared at me playfully but didn't have time to scold me before I pulled her into a kiss, I nibbled on her bottom lip causing her to moan.

The sound alone made me get hard and having her in my lap wasn't making it any easier.

She pulled away and I looked up at her confused before she smirked at me and got off of my lap. I was about to protest when she fell to her knees in front of me.

"Girl…ya don't have ta" I breathed out, every nerve in my body was hating me for saying that...but she had to know I don't expect anything from her like that.

"I want to" she said moving her hands slowly up my thighs. I shivered at her touch and leaned back into the chair more…this woman was gonna be the death of me.

(SPOV)

We've been together again for three months already and we've yet to do more than kiss…until today of course.

It's been an exhausting few months, I just figured we were both too tired at the end of the day, and Daryl seemed to wanna take things slower. I was in no position to oppose so I said nothing.

There was little to no privacy in cell block C too, put that with the fact that Daryl doesn't wanna sleep in a cell and it's pretty hard to get time alone. So I figured the perfect time would be in the watch tower, while everyone else was on lunch break.

"Consider that a preview, since ya don't wanna do anything on watch" I said as I stood up and stepped in between his legs so I could rest my arms on his shoulder lazily.

"Damn woman, where did that come from?" he asked, his voice deep and rumbly, his eyes looking up at me in a kind of haze.

"What? I can't jus give my man a lil somethin while he works to make sure we're all safe?" I replied and while I talked he wrapped his arms around my hips and brought me closer into him, his head resting on my chest.

"Well then, ya better find a good place for this to continue tonight. Cause ya can bet I'm gonna be returnin the favour." He said placing a kiss over my heart.

"Rick wants to start clearing the rest of the prison tomorrow, with Lori's due date getting closer he wants to find the infirmary and the cafeteria might even still have some good food in it." I said pushing his hair back out of his face.

His hair was always in his eyes now, but I liked it. His skin was tan and his muscles were only getting more defined by the day… honestly I couldn't picture him being any other way. He always had a layer of dirt on him and his hair was usually greasy…but he was mine.

Hell until we find the showers we all usually had some dirt on us too, not as much as Daryl's but still. I shook my head back to make my hair go behind my shoulder, mine had grown to just past my shoulder now… I was thinking on cutting it again sometime.

"After three months of going on runs, and making the fences as strong as we can…he finally wants to move further into the prison. I told him we should ages ago. Guess the flashlights n things we found on the last run'll help though" Daryl shrugged, I pulled away again only so I could sit across his lap like I had been before.

"Yeah, it'll be better now that we can all have one. It wouldn't have been that easy to clear things out if we only had one light to the group." I said, Daryl knew I agreed with him. I stood right beside him telling Rick we needed to start clearing the rest of the prison already too.

Our leader had insisted on waiting. We knew the tombs were filled with walkers, we could hear them every once and a while. It would be a dangerous task…and really if we didn't need to find the infirmary we could probably leave it.

We have one safe cell block to ourselves, there's not much need for us to risk our lives to clear anything else out. Except for Lori…we needed everything we could get for her delivery.

It's by the grace of god that she hasn't gone into premature labor, she's about 35 weeks along now if I had to guess. Just one more month to go, I had a hard time being excited that she's gonna have her baby…she's gotten this far along with it.

I knew she was way too skinny for a pregnant woman, I've been slipping her half of my rations since I got back. Daryl noticed but didn't say anything as long as I ate everything I had left.

"We'll try again someday" his words brought me out of my head and I looked at him a little surprised.

How the hell did he know what I was thinking?

"How?" I asked, there were so many meanings behind that one word… like- how are we gonna try again in this world? How will we ever be safe enough to even consider it? How can we move on from the one we lost?

"Ya get this look on yer face…when yer thinkin bout it, bout Lori, bout ours…It's the same look ya had when ya told me about it" he said looking out across the prison yard.

With us being back together it was easier to handle to hole in my heart, it still hurt sometimes…but I knew everything was going to be alright as long as he was still in my life. I yearned to feel a life growing inside of me again…it was a feeling I didn't think on while I had it before…but now I missed it.

"We'll try again someday" I said leaning against him more heavily.

It was quiet while we sat there in each other's arms, all the words needed to be said were passed through our touch. He knew I loved him and that I needed him in my life, just like I knew the same from him.

"What are we gonna do...if they find us?" I said breaking the silence after almost an hour of us just sitting there keeping watch.

"First of all, I'm gonna git some time alone with Merle…gotta have a brotherly chat with him. Second yer gonna talk to yer brothers…and depending on what their intentions are… we send them on their way. Or…or it'll break out in a full out war. One thing I know fir sur…they ain't takin ya from me again" his voice carried the conviction of a man that was willing to fight for what was his.

"Hey! You two better be decent up there!" Glenn yelled up the stairs breaking our quaint little world apart.

"We are! Some of us can actually keep it in our pants when there's work to be done ya know" I yelled back laughing. If Glenn had come up earlier he woulda seen a lot more of Daryl then he wanted.

"Rick sent me to get ya guys. He wants to go over the game plan for tomorrow" Glenn said after he got to the top of the stairs.

"Agh fine, go git Carl for watch then. I ain't leavin us without a set o' eyes on our surroundin's" Daryl said rolling his head back to look at Glenn.

After Glenn left, Daryl looked back at me, his eyes piercing into mine with the intensity I've only ever seen from him. I couldn't lose him, not again…we've kept each other alive these past few months, and I was gonna spend the rest of my life making sure he survived.

No matter what I was gonna stand by his side, we managed to get through the hurdles almost unscathed. I knew we could make it through whatever life threw at us next.

"They ain't takin you away from me again either" I said pulling him to me for one more kiss before Carl got here.

I already told him everything I knew about the Governor and Woodbury, we both agreed that if we ever ran into them it wouldn't be pretty…the Governor doesn't seem like the type to wanna live in peace. This was the first conversation we've ever had about our brothers though.

We'd stayed away from bringing them up for a while now, but I needed to know what we did if or when we ever came face to face with them again.

Daryl told me he didn't want me alone with Merle ever again, Merle broke his trust…hell he broke my trust too. Daryl was furious with his older brother, I was a little bit scared of what's going to happen when he sees him again.

I knew one thing for curtain, nothing was ever gonna go back to how it was before.

It wasn't ever gonna be the three of us against the world again. Merle screwed up. I screwed up…and now Daryl and I are left to pick up the pieces.

It had been three months though, maybe Merle moved on now, maybe my brothers just accepted that I wasn't going back, that I didn't belong there. I sure as hell wasn't going to go back there and check though.

Only time would tell.

Ahh okay so there's the first chapter!

I did a little time jump, and I let them be in the prison for longer then in the show...they've been there for three months, and i'm gonna pick up around the beginning of the third season now

I found it funny that I wrote that lil bit about carl not knowing how to defend himself without a gun last month... and then watching the new episode :P i'm soooo happy the show is back though! it was a good first episode, even tho Carl was kinda a little douche... I enjoyed the pudding part.

so I am thinking on having some flash backs also, maybe on Daryl's take on what happened at the little cabin at the end of the last story. and of course i'll have a chapter showing what Merle is up to as well! I wont leave Merle outa it for too long :)

now as to weather or not Merle finds them...i'm still debating on if it'll be sooner OR later... so review and let me know what u think