"Hell no"

"I wasn't asking."

The confidence in Laney's words died at the look Daryl gave her. Her shoulders sagged and she said in her normal, quiet voice

"I can't stay here. I just can't. You don't have to watch my back or anything. Just-just let me come with you to Hilltop. Please?"

Daryl didn't say anything for a moment just continued to do up the straps on his pack. Finally he looked up and said gruffly

"Leavin' in ten. You ain't ready, ya don't come."

Daryl had been pleasantly surprised that not only was the Laney girl ready in time but she hadn't said a word since they left.

That was good.

He was not in the mood for listening to mindless bullshit chatter.

But something told him that Laney was not the chattering bullshit type.

They had been walking for nearly five hours and she had not asked for a rest or even a pause once.

But as five hours turned into six and then seven, he could hear she was starting to struggle. Still she didn't ask him to stop or even slow down.

Finally he stopped turned to her and said

"Gonna stop here for a bit."

"I can keep going" she protested but Daryl shook his head.

"Bad idea to travel at night. Here's good."

Something was off.

The more the sun set and the darker it got, the more tense Daryl saw Laney getting.

True he was always alert when outside any of the communities but the word hypervigilant didn't even seem to cover what Laney was behaving like.

Any noise, any breath of wind, even any movement from him had her jumping, hand twitching towards the knife at her belt.

Truth was Laney was terrified.

She hadn't been outside the walls of the Kingdom for almost a year and the last time she'd been out here was the day Jesus saved her from-

Nope, now was not the time to think about that, it wouldn't help the paranoia that even the wind was the sound of walkers coming to get them.

"Sleep" Daryl's gruff voice made her flinch once again and she looked over at him across the small fire he had made.

"Sleep" he repeated "Wake ya when it's your turn to look out."

But of course she didn't sleep.

She couldn't.

Being outside again just... she couldn't.

After what felt like ten hours but was actually more like two she sat up again with a sigh, giving up on the prospect of sleep.

Daryl glanced at her then went back to sharpening his knife, the sound of scrapping metal strangely soothing to Laney.

Not soothing enough though as she still twitched and jumped at every little sound, to the point where Daryl finally mentioned it.

"Ain't gonna let nothin' happen to ya." he muttered tersely.

Laney didn't say anything in response.

The sullen promise was not meant to start a conversation or any sort of dialogue between the two of them.

It was meant to set her at ease.

And strangely enough that simple sentence, that promise, from a man who was a virtual stranger, did just that.

At least, it set her at ease enough that she finally managed to fall asleep.

At least for a little while.

And Daryl was good enough not to pass comment or even look at her any different when a nightmare woke her up.

"Laney?"

"Paul!"

She had spotted the man as soon as the guards had let her and Daryl through the gates at Hilltop. It didn't look anything like she had imagined from what Jesus had told her about the place. It was a hell of a lot bigger for one.

As she trudged up the path and through the gates behind Daryl, she had glanced up from where she had been simply staring at her feet as they walked. There was Jesus, walking down from near the big house with a curious expression on his face, clearly wondering who was coming through the gate. The expression on his face changed once he saw her behind Daryl, from curiosity to happiness to confusion and concern mixed into one.

"Laney?" he said walking forwards, slowly picking up speed as he went towards her.

"Paul!" she cried out in a voice of broken relief and pain and then she was running towards him, and him towards her. They closed the distance in a matter of seconds and then Paul was greeted by another surprise when Laney was the one who initiated the hug, all but throwing herself at him. In all the time he had known her, Laney had never initiated contact between them, and he had had to be extremely careful not to spook her with any touch she wasn't prepared for.

But here and now Laney threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his neck as he returned her hug.

"What're you doing here?" He asked pulling back so that he could look down into her face. It was then he realised that there were silent tears sliding down Laney's face.

"Okay. Okay, let's go somewhere quiet yeah?" he said and she nodded silently.

He led her away from the small crowd of onlookers who had gathered to see who had arrived at Hilltop. They walked in silence to his trailer, one of Paul's arms gently around her shoulders, and one hand gently gripping her upper arm to steer her in the right direction.

They entered his trailer and he deposited her softly into a chair before crouching in front of her.

"Talk to me kiddo"

Laney took several shuddering breaths.

Her lip trembled.

"He's gone" she whispered in a broken voice.

And then she broke down.

"Daryl!"

Daryl looked up from where he was sharpening his knife, sat on a bench between two of the trailer homes. Jesus was walking towards him, clearly intent on having a conversation with him.

"What?" he grunted, going back to his knife, not looking at the younger man.

"I just wanted to thank you" Jesus said earnestly "For getting her here. She hasn't been outside the Kingdom walls since I found her and took her there and that was almost more than a year ago. I don't think she would have made it on her own. So thank you."

"Nah. Kid's tough." Daryl muttered and Jesus gave a tired chuckle, settling on the bench next to him and looking up at the night sky.

"That she is. She's sleeping now, something I get the impression she has not done in a while."

The two men sat in silence for a while before Daryl surprised Jesus (and himself) by asking

"Girl's jumpy as hell. The hell happened to 'er?"

Jesus seemed to think for a minute before saying carefully.

"She can deal with the dead as well as anyone. But not all the living are as good as you are Daryl."

" t'snot an answer" Daryl said and Jesus sighed, running a hand through his long hair.

"Guess it's not. But I don't think it's my place to say more. You want details, you should ask her. But give her some time. I don't think she's ready yet." He said and Daryl grunted in acknowledgement.

As Jesus approached the door to his trailer, he could hear muffled noises coming from inside.

Cries.

Quickly he pushed open the door and headed straight for his bed where he had left Laney sleeping soundly.

Now she was tossing and turning, crying in her sleep as she did so, whimpering like she was afraid.

"Laney" he said softly "Laney wake up sweetheart. It's just a dream. Wake up." and he laid a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.

The next thing he knew, Jesus was flat on his back on the floor, Laney on top of him, a knee either side of his torso and a knife at his throat.

"Laney, Laney!" though he raised his voice, he still didn't shout at her "Laney, kid it's me! It's Je- Paul! It's Paul." he finished softly, slowly raising his hand to the one of hers that held the blade at his neck. As he spoke the almost frightening look in her eye slowly started to fade and she blinked down at him, like she was only just seeing him now.

As the haze cleared Jesus gently moved her knife hand away from his neck saying as he did so

"It's okay. Not gonna hurt you. It was just a dream, it was just a dream. It's okay."

Fully awake and aware of what she had just done now, Laney all but fell off of him and pushed herself back into the corner away from him mumbling over and over in a horrified voice

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Paul, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay" he kept assuring her carefully moving across the floor until he was sat beside Laney, who had her knees pulled up to her chest and her head in her hands. "It's okay."

Slowly, carefully he put an arm around her back and took it as a good sign that for once she didn't flinch at the contact. After a long moment, she slowly leaned into him until her head was resting on his shoulder.

And that was how they spent the rest of the night.

Laney with her head on Paul's shoulder.

Paul with his arm around her.

Telling her over and over

"It's okay. You're okay."

Even though they both knew she wasn't.

Ta da!

I love writing about Jesus lol, I really wanted to try and build the relationship and friendship between Jesus and Laney this chapter so sorry there wasn't much action.

Let me know what you think, love to hear from you guys. Thoughts, likes, suggestions let me have em lol.

More soon.

Geronimo xx