Author's Note: Well...here we are! First chapter of Dark Paradise and I'm really stoked for this story to continue. If you haven't already read Borrowed Time I highly recommend it because it is the first book in this series. ENJOY! :)

Back Together

You would think sleeping in a walker infested world would be hard, but when you were exhausted sleep could creep up on you in the most unexpected ways. That was how it had been last night around the small open flame from the fire. One minute Vicki remembered smiling across the fire at Calvin, and the next she was out, as if sleep had come up and knocked her out cold.

Vicki opened her bleary eyes to the morning sun and reached her right arm out to find the space beside her was empty. Her fingers were met with dirt and leaves, and upon contact with it she felt the bubble of a panic stir in her midsection while her breath caught in her throat. Vicki's green eyes were alert and wide open now that she wasn't met with a familiar body next to hers.

Where was Daryl?

She swallowed past the dryness in her throat and sat up quickly, adjusting to the morning sun that was dead set on cooking her skin dry. Vicki took in her surroundings to see Rick, Carl and Michonne huddled together. Instantly, relief flooded her bones and she felt the tenseness in her muscles offer momentarily relief at the familiar faces. Rick looked her way and there was a smile on his face she hadn't seen since the prison. It was moments like these that made Vicki think of better times back at the prison. The times when everyone was together, and no one was separated.

Even though none of them had no idea that Daniel would show up at the pharmacy that day, Vicki couldn't help but feel a smidgen accountable for the aftermath. Her guilt wasn't as prevalent now as it was back on the road with Daryl, but it was still there. How could Vicki not feel some sort of guilt? Everything was still relatively fresh, and sometimes she would catch herself dreaming of Daniel and his men.

Hershel's face was still a vivid memory, which caused her heart to ache in ways that were almost crippling.

Vicki smiled sheepishly at the three of them, and stood up from the little spot on the ground she had been sleeping on moments ago. She ran a hand through her auburn hair, her hands getting tangled slightly until she yanked them through. Bed head was still an enemy of hers, even during the end of the world. She made a face as her hands ran through her hair and she saw Michonne smirk as Rick took the initiative to come towards her after she had gotten up and brushed herself off from the debris on the ground.

Vicki stuffed her right hand in her blue jean shorts pockets and rocked on her boots, taking the bottled water that Rick offered and smiling lightly, "You shouldn't have let me sleep so late. Now I have major case of bed head."

"Don't worry 'bout it, Vicki. You needed the rest."

Rick's accent was something she had found comfort in at the prison and it was no different now. She was feeling nostalgic as she took a swig of the water bottle and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. It was as if Rick knew the next question on the tip of her tongue because he nodded towards the woods as he spoke,

"Daryl and Calvin went huntin'. They should be back soon. Daryl told me not to wake ya'."

Vicki nodded, "Of course he did." Her voice held slight sarcasm, and Rick laughed lightly. Leave it to Daryl to be benevolent enough to keep quiet while he got up in the morning so he wouldn't wake her. Despite Daryl's rough exterior, his heart was purer than most people knew. He seemed to put her first more often than not and it didn't go unnoticed by Vicki.

Rick tilted his head to the side and nodding towards the woods one more, "I was about to check the perimeter. Wanna' join?" Vicki nodded enthusiastically in response. The feeling of being useful was something she liked. She never cared to be sedentary for too long.

"Yeah, let me grab my sickles."

Rick nodded while she dug through the bag that was next to where she had been sleeping. She attached them to her hips, slipping them in the little makeshift utility belt Daryl had made her back on the road together. They both walked past Carl and Michonne, to which Rick gave Michonne a polite smile. Vicki took Carl's brown hat and placed it on her head. Carl hadn't seen it coming and his eyes rounded widely in protest as his favorite hat was now gone.

"Hey!" He squeaked out in surprise.

Vicki laughed lightly tilting the hat down and then up in a very southern like greeting. She rested her eyes on the boy who was slowly becoming an adult. Carl could be stubborn as a mule, but he had a good heart to make up for it.

"I'm just borrowing it." She added coyly. He made a face at her, but she didn't yet give him back his prized possession. Michonne reached a hand out to her shoulder and squeezed lightly. Vicki looked up at her and gave a curt nod. No words needed to be said in the small moment. Michonne's gaze looked so relieved, even now that they had all found one another. The grateful demeanor between everyone was something they all had in common.

"Not sure how you managed with those two." Vicki playfully mentioned as Carl rolled his eyes. She smirked and Michonne shook her head with a small smile, "They weren't bad company." Carl looked up at Michonne as she spoke and smiled.

"I'll be back. I'm going to walk the perimeter with Rick." Michonne nodded at her comment and went back to helping Carl gather firewood.

As Rick and her walked, she sensed the small foreboding feeling between the two of them. They were hopeful for the future, but since the showdown at Juno, they were all reeling from the violet loss there. Vicki frowned as she remembered Carl had been the one to take the killing shot at Daniel. Carl was just a kid, and when she thought about him killing someone, even if for the greater good, it made her sad. The rise of the dead had changed so many things. It was now kill or be killed...or be killed and reanimate as a very dead corpse.

"I think we should keep movin' after we eat." Rick mentioned casually, and she nodded in agreement. Vicki wanted to keep moving because she had a strong feeling if they had found Rick alive and well, then there were others out there that got away at Juno as well. She always held on to that hope. It was one of the things that kept her going.

"Rick." She stated hesitantly, and he stopped in his tracks. His baby blue eyes looking up at her as if he knew what she was about to say. It had to have been written all over her face at this point.

"I'm sorry about-about Judith-I"

She couldn't even let Judith's name roll off her tongue in more than a whisper. It felt so final to speak of Judith in the past tense, to even allude to the fact that Rick and Carl might not ever see her again. Vicki didn't even know if Judith was even alive. She couldn't finish her sentence, so she averted her gaze from him before finding the courage to look at him again. Rick knew what she was trying to say, and he nodded, a far away look to his eyes that she was all too familiar with.

"S'alright."

It was all Rick offered her, and she didn't dare bring it up again. They were both walking along, and Rick had gone quiet for a bit until he looked up at her curiously, "So, ya'll found the kid?"

Vicki nodded to his question and then smiled lightly, "Well, Calvin found us. Those men were after him. We got caught up with them in a grocery store, but we all got out."

Rick nodded, and she held her handgun in her hands at the ready for anything suspect around the perimeter. Rick held his rifle steady, patrolling silently for another moment until he spoke up again, but this time with more conviction in his voice.

"I want you to know Vicki, I'd have done what I did over again if I could. We wouldn't have just left ya'll at Juno. I made a call and I gotta' live with that, I know, but there wasn't any other option. We had to come for you and Hershel." His accent faltered on a few words, but she heard him loud and clear as he tried to get some things off his chest, as he tried to make her understand that no matter what they would have come back for them.

He stopped and looked at her. It was in that moment Vicki saw the strong-willed man that was Rick Grimes. He was trying to make amends for the decisions he made that might have cost lives, but also be firm in his decision to try and save Vicki and Hershel.

"I would have done the same for you, Rick. And you know I'll always be in your debt for that." She answered with a lump in her throat, her right hand made its way to his shoulder as his right hand clasped over her left shoulder.

He patted it lightly, "No debts, Vicki. It's what family does for one another."

There was a kind smile that graced his grizzly face and she smiled back, nodding at his mention of family, "We are like a family, huh? I mean dysfunctional, but definitely family."

Vicki cracked a smile and dropped her hand at the same time that Rick did. He smiled, a light chuckle escaping his lips as if he agreed. They continued to circle the perimeter for one more sweep. Rick eyed her for a moment, as if hesitant to ask something while they walked back to the camp after their last sweep.

"You and Daryl seem to be getting along." His voice was low, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear and she looked up at Rick with widened eyes. His smile grew with Vicki's reaction. She quickly covered her tracks and shrugged lightly with a casual air to the gesture. She didn't want to say too much.

"Yeah, you know, we're...in a good place." Vicki mentioned casually as she pulled her long hair from around the back and over her right shoulder. She twirled it a bit with a nervous edge to her movements.

"That's good, Vicki." Rick answered earnestly, and she saw the corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiled. Rick was good about not really prying, but she knew he was just curious, and the fact that Daryl and her were in a good place made Rick happy.

"It's a little fortuitous that we ended up together out of everyone in the group." She mentioned with a thoughtful smile and Rick seemed to have caught on to her comment and nodded.

He smiled thoughtfully, "Since you showed up at the prison, he's been hard pressed to let you out of his sight. I didn't doubt for a second that the two you had gotten out together."

His faith in the two of them getting out together made her heart swell with gratitude for this amazing, but dysfunctional family she had come to know in this walker infested world. Vicki looked at Rick and smiled before they came back to where Michonne and Carl were standing. Carl was now playing with a knife, twirling it around in his hands while Michonne wiped down her swords.

"You still hung on to those all this time?" Vicki asked as she made her way towards the two, Rick pushing his rifle aside on his hip.

Michonne looked up, "Wouldn't let these babies out of my sight."

Vicki laughed, and Carl looked up at us with a shy smile, his eyes holding so much more maturity to them than she had seen since the prison. A pair of boots thudded to her right and she saw Daryl clad in his brown pants, dirty boots, and his cropped plaid shirt with his signature leather vest. He was carrying what looked like a handful of squirrels. Calvin was at his side smiling gleefully. Her body relaxed at the mere sight of Daryl, and she smiled at the boys as they arrived at the campsite with breakfast.

"Got a few of 'em." Daryl muttered gruffly and tossed them on the ground before them while Calvin winced lightly at the dead squirrels being handled so carelessly. Vicki laughed at Calvin's reaction and he looked up at her with a frown.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still getting used to this kind of eating." Calvin muttered in response to being caught wincing at the way Daryl handled the carcasses. She turned to see Daryl getting the things he needed to fix the squirrels up to be cooked on the fire. His eyes met hers. He instantly noticed the brown hat on her head and he made a face, blowing out a huff of air from his thin lips.

"We got a new Sheriff in town or somethin'?" Daryl asked with a small smirk appearing on his face. She sauntered over to him while the others were getting the fire ready to start again.

Vicki murmured lowly with a joking tone to her voice, "I might need to make some arrests." She wiggled her brows at him and per usual, he scoffed lightly as he turned away to start working on the squirrels. She smirked as the hue of red he tried to hide on his cheeks was plain as day. The two of them fell back into the same pattern as usual and it was nice to have some semblance of normal between them. She enjoyed the banter they shared, and even more when Daryl would tell her to, 'Shut it.'

She knew she drove him crazy sometimes, but she also knew he enjoyed her company more than he cared to admit.

Vicki took the hat off and helped Carl get the fire going for the squirrel. She put his hat back on his head and smiled, "I think it looks better on you than me." Carl smiled up at her and laughed lightly, rubbing his right hand around the brim of the hat.

The fire was going now as Daryl quickly prepared the squirrels, his hands working meticulously as they always did with rodents and dead animals that they would eat. Once the squirrels were done and they had their fill of the food, the group started to pack their things quickly, while Daryl and Vicki worked to put the fire out. They piled the backpacks on their backs, making sure the ammunition was loaded and doing one last sweep of the perimeter before heading out again on the trail that would take them to their destination.

Michonne, Rick, and Carl trailed ahead of Vicki and Daryl. Their hands bumped into one another every once in awhile at the close proximity they kept with one another.

"Ye' get 'nuff to eat back there?" Daryl asked her with a hint of concern in his eyes. She nodded lightly, but then laughed to herself, shaking her head as if she had thought of something funny.

"Yeah, I did, but you know I'm always hungry." She smirked in his direction as he snorted to himself and eyed her stomach for a brief moment, his long strands of hair covering his left eye, so it hid those deep pools of blue.

"Yer' a bottomless pit." He added as Vicki laughed lightly, nodding her head in confirmation at his accusation. He knew better than anyone just how hungry she always was due to her fast-acting metabolism. He glanced at her for a moment and looked away as he chewed on his thumbnail.

They had been very coy and quiet about their time bonding together while being separated from the others. The kiss they shared was brief, but intense, and it was not something that Vicki would shout from the rooftops about because it was such a private moment. She knew Daryl liked his privacy, and she wouldn't treat this as anything other than something that was between herself and Daryl. The others could make their own deductions and assumptions whatever way they want, but simply telling everyone they were in a good place was all they would get from Vicki.

But, when the sun would go down and the moon would rise high in the sky, that was when Vicki would get her alone time with Daryl. And by alone time...that meant sleep. The two survivors would sleep with their backs against one another, their breathing lulling one or the other to sleep, and the simple contact of having their backs pressed against one another was a comfort they never really thought they would actually need from anyone.

By dawn though, he was always farther away from her, as if he didn't want Rick or the others to see his affections for her...as if letting the others see was like letting his guard down. Vicki understood why he did that, and she never said anything about it. She had him most nights to herself without prying eyes and that was enough for her.

They had walked on the trail for another full day since they had the squirrel for morning breakfast, and while the sun was high and shining down on their tanned skin there was a slight breeze that hadn't been felt in a while. Vicki took the moment to let it flutter along her skin, enjoying the rarity of the breeze as it rippled past her thin cotton forest green tank and around her legs. She continued to wear her favorite pair of blue jean shorts, and despite the grime and a few blood stains that would not come out, she still kept them around.

On their way down the trail, they stopped for a brief moment to rest their feet at Carl's request, who had been walking for a very long time without taking any breaks. He admitted to having to use the restroom and they all waited in a huddle while he ran behind a tree. Rick was keeping an eye out while the others, including herself, stuck together.

"Think we're going to find that safe place to lay our head soon?" Calvin asked optimistically, his blonde hair fluttered in the breeze.

Vicki shrugged, "I can only hope this path will lead us there."

Michonne listened to the conversation as Calvin kicked a rock lazily and started to open his mouth to speak again.

Before Calvin could say something else a rustle in the tree line behind them caught everyone off guard. Vicki stilled for a brief second and already placed her right hand on the handle of her handgun that was holstered on the side of her upper right thigh. Daryl's crossbow was drawn, pointing towards the rustle in the woods while Michonne had her hands resting on her the hilts of swords.

Calvin was ready as well. His rifle pointed at the unknown source as another twig snapped and a rustle stirred again. It sent Vicki's heart into over drive as she glanced at Daryl from the corner of her eye. He looked at her, apprehension clear in his eyes, and then he returned his narrowed gaze back at the tree line. She turned her head to the left and saw Rick and Carl frozen in their spot as Carl had just made his way back to his father.

Rick's gaze narrowed and the look he sent the tree line was lethal. Rick was done playing with people that messed with his family. That much was seen from the icy steel gaze he held. She knew Rick was shaken from Juno and now any foreign person was a possible threat. She hoped it was a rogue walker, but their familiar moans couldn't be heard from the tree line. Rick turned to Vicki and gave her a warning look, his eyes glancing to the tree line and then back to her as he put his index finger up as if letting her know to stay quiet. She nodded curtly, her stomach flip flopping as anticipation hit her in the form of sweat dripping her forehead.

What emerged from the tree line stunned them all to silence.

A very rough looking figure ambled out of the bushes. They looked worn, tired and their shirt was bloody, but if it was their blood or not she hadn't a clue. The figure's features became apparent as they shielded the mid-day sun from their eyes and smirked.

"Wellllll, looky what we 'ave 'ere. Hey there, legs."

Vicki's mouth opened agape with surprise as she mustered the name of the person that stood before them in a surprised whisper,

"Merle?"

Author's Note: Wellll there is chapter one! Merle is alive! Whoop! I hated the death he got in TWD sooo I'm changing things up a bit ;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always leave a review. So happy to have my Vickyl back (that is their ship name) hehe