R E U N I O N

Daryl's only gotten out of bed when he hears the low purr of what he knows is a motorcycle engine. It wasn't the low, sweet rumbling like that of the Harley he had claimed, but more of a high pitched, frantic whir. A "crotch rocket" (as they were dubbed) he was sure. With a wince he maneuvered as carefully as possible to pull on his shirt, grateful for Carol having taken it upon herself to wash it for him while he had been laid up in bed.

"Carol!" That was Glenn's giddy little giggle that followed the call from the front yard. "Carol! Come out here!"

There was the sudden rush of movement in the hall; pounding footsteps on wood, the desperate rush of a mother trying to do as she was asked. Daryl moved as quickly as his body allowed him to for fear of pulling his three day old stitches, but his heart was pounding at a million miles per hour as he moved into the hall towards the front door.

"What's going on?" Lori asked with wide eyes as she came up behind him, one of her hands finding the small of his back in an effort to help steady him as he worked on doing up the buttons of his shirt.

"I don't know," he said with a slight shake of his head although in his heart he knew what it was. They all did.

"Sophia!"

Daryl stepped out onto the porch in time to watch Carol sprint across the front lawn with such speed he was sure she had flown.

"Oh, my God," Lori gasped, and he felt as her hand left him in favor of covering her mouth. From the corner of his eye Daryl saw Rick wrap his arms around her, a smile of too many emotions (awe, relief, comfort) was pulling at the edges of his mouth.

"Look at that."

After a moment everyone descended the porch steps to join Carol and Sophia- who was battered, but looked well despite how long she had been gone. Carol was all but unable to suppress her tears of joy (which were a welcome change).

"You found her," Carol sobbed while hugging Glenn tightly and kissing him on the cheek before moving to bestow the same treatment on T-Dog, who pulled away sheepishly at the kiss to nod just over her shoulder.

"You should thank her."

All eyes shifted to the stranger still sitting atop the now silent motorcycle- a Suzuki Hayabusa, Daryl noted- and in the silence that settled they all watched as said stranger worked on removing her helmet after closing the visor. Leather encased thumbs curled under the helmet's edges, pushing upwards gently at an angle, and Daryl found himself blinking rapidly as long waves of thick chocolate brown cascaded and tumbled towards the earth before coming to a stop well past the middle of her back.

Carol neared the woman slowly, all the while keeping her hands firmly on Sophia's shoulders as if to keep her from disappearing from her sight every again. Noticing that she was still seated, the young woman gracefully dismounted the bike and set her helmet aside in time for Carol to come to a stop just before her.

"Thank you so much-" Carol sniffled with a trembling lower lip.

"Megan, mommy. Her name is Megan." Sophia looked up at her mother with a smile. In return the brunette cast a mock stern look at Sophia very much the same way an older sibling would before looking to Carol with a warm curl of her lips.

"I'm Megan," she chuckled quietly at the secondhand introduction while extending her right hand. The sound was cut short as Carol bypassed the offered hand completely and threw her arms around the young woman instead in a tight hug full of gratitude and relief. With her arms trapped at her sides, Megan's eyes bounced around the faces of the group still gathered around watching.

"Carol," Lori laughed and stepped forward to pull the two women apart gently. "You're going to scare her off before we've had the opportunity to properly introduce ourselves."

As introductions were made Megan went about shaking all hands held out to her, Daryl's included. The leather gloves she still wore, and her jacket, were worn and much too hot for the rising temperature. Rick spoke up once the group had either gone inside with Carol so as to allow Hershel the opportunity of looking Sophia over, or to finish up what chores they had started before the reunion had taken place. Daryl opted to stay on the porch as he wouldn't be much help in either case.

"We can't begin to thank you enough," Rick sighed with a shake of his head, smile kind. "How did you come to find her? We've scoured every inch of these woods."

"On a fluke," she admitted as she stepped up onto the porch with a sigh of her own thanks to the shade. She pulled the straps of her backpack down her arms, the once brightly patterned material now dingy and faded from too many hours in the sun. "There's this old farmhouse out in the woods. I found her hiding in the pantry after I had done my rounds to make sure the place was clear so I could crash for the night."

Rick and Daryl exchanged a look in silence, Daryl's eyebrow shooting up sharply as if to say, "Told you so."

Megan continued, all the while beginning to remove her gloves. "Sophia told me about what happened on the highway and how she ended up in the woods. I knew that there was no way in hell you guys would quit looking for her." She tucked the gloves into the back pocket of her jeans, both men watching as she then began to unzip her jacket, working diligently in removing it from the equation with another sigh as the kind breeze moving along the porch cooled her skin now that she was down to her tank top. "I decided that we would make the trek together, and we would have made it back to the highway sooner- but we had to keep rerouting due to the ones wandering the woods."

"True," Daryl chimed in quietly, looking from Megan to Rick and back again. "There haven't been very many thankfully, but they're annoying as all hell."

Megan nodded with a smirk that bordered on a smile. "Had it been only me I could have handled my own, but there was no way I was going to risk it with Sophia. We eventually made it back to the highway, found the car, and I made sure she ate. It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes before your boys showed up."

"Did she mention she had a gun pointed at us?" Glenn interjected as he appeared at the front door. Daryl scoffed a laugh while Rick cast a surprised look at the woman.

She shrugged one shoulder with a chuckle before bending down to retrieve her bag from its place at her feet and pulling her gloves from her pocket, opting instead to stuff them into one of the bag's own side pockets. "Sue me for being careful."

Glenn pushed away from the door jamb and motioned inside the house with a nod of his head and a lopsided smile. "Carol's asking for you."

Megan nodded and draped her jacket over her arm before excusing herself from the trio, all three men watching now as she disappeared inside the house. Glenn gave the other two men a knowing look once he was sure she was out of earshot.

"I know, I know... She's HOT."

L A U G H T E R

The high of Sophia being found lingers for days after her return. And only after the young girl and Carl are cleared to travel does Rick tell the crew that they need to start packing up shop just as he promised Hershel they would. Everyone concedes and scatters to start getting their things in order despite Maggie's consoling that there was no real rush for them to leave.

Daryl's busy gathering his own few things from the bedroom he had been given since the day he had come stumbling out of the woods delirious and rabid from the words driven under his skin by the phantom that was his missing brother. He was damn glad to at least be rid of the gauze halo he had going on. The stitches were another story.

The soft knocking at the door prompted him to look over his shoulder, followed by his body turning to do the same.

"Hey," he greeted quietly. With brows drawn down tight over his eyes in his confusion as to why she was there he waited, hands half attempting to fold/roll his newly laundered things (thanks again to Carol).

"Hey," Megan echoed with a smile as she leaned against the door, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Word on the street is that the Harley belongs to you. It's leaking, and since I know you're still out of commission I thought I could fix it for you. Not too sure if you're one of those anal types that doesn't like people touching their things."

"I don't," he confirmed. His eyes dropped down to the shirt in his hands briefly in thought before coming back up to fix on her. "But I'd appreciate the help."

Megan's thankful that the day is overcast with the way she's sweating as she works on fixing the leak on Daryl's motorcycle. And he's watching with this shrewd, hawk-eyed expression as he tracks the movements of her hands. In no way does she take offense to his silent scrutinizing; on the contrary, she welcomes his help when he takes it upon himself to point something out that she had missed.

"I hadn't realized just how much tunin' up she needed," he murmured while rooting through the toolbox in his lap. After another few seconds he finally tossed the wrench he had been searching for underhand to the brunette.

"Good thing I offered then, huh?" Megan flashed a bright smile and a cheeky bounce of her brows at him.

"Where you from originally?" He asked after a thoughtful moment of silence of watching her work; taking note of the way the sun that appeared from time to time played off her hair in shimmering flashes of deep bronze and gold.

Dropping the wrench at her feet, Megan leaned back to inspect her work while slowly wiping grease from her hands on a rag that was dirtier than her own hands were. "Jersey," she said before leaning forward to run her fingers over something that had caught her attention. "Newark, to be exact."

Daryl's eyes popped open. "Shit. What the hell you doin' all the way down here?"

"Visiting." Hazel eyes met steely blue as she looked over at him with a chuckle before looking away. He knew better than to push.

"How you likin' your stay? Enjoyin' the scenery?" Daryl felt his lips quirk as Megan did her best to hide her smile.

"The scenery is lovely. Gorgeous, really," she agreed while turning to him on the crate she was seated on, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "The locals are top notch, too. A bit persistent, and they're not too keen on personal space, but I like them."

A beat passed before Daryl dissolved into laughter; one hand shielding his eyes as the other held his injured side.