This is the second update.

I think subconsciously I'm trying to get this story done before Sunday's Season 4 premier.

So I suffered puffy eyes (they were so wonderful together...why?why? for the love of Daryl, why?) sorry I needed a moment, to make this as accurate as possible.

Again a lot of dialogue from the show, its a necessary evil.

Anyways hope you enjoy it and please help me add more stories to this couple. They are so cute.

Andrea didn't make eye contact with Martinez as she stepped off the platform and out of the building. She stood for a moment looking back and forth between Herschel and Daryl on one side and Milton and Martinez on the other and feeling utterly bereft.

Milton stopped his scribbling and turned to face her while Martinez came closer to no doubt to find out how it was going. He didn't have the usual smart ass look on his face and for some reason that was the thing that did her in.

She glanced away from him and sat down in an attempt to keep the burning in her eyes from developing into more. She'd never be able to live with herself if she cried like a stereotypical girl in front of these men.

Andrea had already been shown that she wasn't needed and she sure as hell wasn't going to prove that she was more than a warm body if she broke down now.

Philip motioned to the chair and Rick pulled it out and sat. He glanced at the open door but Andrea was no longer in its doorway and he faced the Governor in an effort to erase the sight of her standing, looking lost and alone.

He knew that Philip had questions as to the nature of his involvement with the blonde but whatever he would have asked was laid aside out of professional courtesy. Rick still set his jaw and turned steely blue eyes on the man, telling him in no uncertain terms, that his personal business was just that…personal.

Philip nodded at the man at the door and it was closed with a thud.

"So you're the Governor."

"That's-their term, not mine."

"Oh. But still, you're beholden to your people."

"Well, of course."

"You have a responsibility to them." 'To her.'

"Mm-hmm." 'Personal, your rule Rick.'

Rick changed his tone, going for more conversational than accusatory, "Wasn't Merle your Lieutenant?"

"He was helpful, yeah." 'Isn't he with you now?'

"But you knew he was erratic." 'Daryl is my lieutenant. Merle is his brother, I respect that.' "You blame him for scooping up Glenn and Maggie in the first place? "

"Exactly. I was trying to sort it out when you attacked." 'I know you don't trust him, I know you don't trust me but you trust her, don't you?'

"So it was his fault?" 'I know what kind of scum he is.'

"He's a wild card, but he's effective. He gets the dirty jobs done." 'He doesn't ask questions.'

Rick shook his head, "I thought you'd take responsibility."

"I thought you were a cop, not a lawyer."

"Either way, I don't pretend to be a governor." 'I don't need a title or be feared or to be respected.'

"I told you, I'm their leader." Philip said smugly.

"You're the town drunk who knocked over my fence and ripped out my yard, nothing more."

"Didn't you ever misjudge someone? Hmm?" 'Like Andrea, didn't you misjudge her loyalty to you?'

Rick didn't answer the silent question. He refused to give the Governor anything else.

"Andrea told me about your baby." 'She told me everything.' "That it might be your partner's." 'She hides nothing from me.' "But you're caring for her and I admire that." 'That why you let Andrea go, because she doesn't belong to you.'

Philip continued unperturbed that Rick was just eyeing him quietly. "Restitution for your own lack of insight." 'Sure she'd turn on me like you were sure that your wife was faithful.' "For failing to see the devil beside you." 'She's made her choice and it wasn't you.'

Rick didn't move a muscle, didn't utter a single word in his defense. He hated that the man was talking about private and hurtful things but he hated more the fact that Andrea had divulged any of his personal problems, to a man she'd known less than a few months.

"Oh, I see him, all right." 'She feels obligated to you, nothing more. She knows what you are.'

"Ha, ha, I brought Whiskey." 'Let's begin then.'

Daryl was tired of waiting. He hated waiting and usually he wouldn't but he couldn't compromise Rick's mission or Hershel or the dejected Andrea. He didn't trust the man with the gun or the man with Rick. It wasn't his call so his hands had been tied.

"There's no reason we can't use this time to get to know each other," the man with the glasses said to Daryl.

"Boss said to sit tight and shut up." The Hispanic man ordered.

"Don't you mean the Governor?" Daryl asked sarcastically.

"It's a good thing they're sitting down, especially after what happened." Hershel left the wall and moved toward the bespectacled man, eager to hear from inside the Governor's group. "They're gonna work it out. Nobody wants another battle."

But Daryl was too agitated from waiting to be polite. "I wouldn't exactly call it a battle."

"I would call it a battle and I did. I recorded it."

"For what?"

"Somebody's got to keep a record of what we've gone through. It'll be a part of our history."

"That makes sense." Hershel interjected.

"I've got dozens of interviews-" he began excitedly.

The conversation was cut short as several walkers found their way closer to their area. Daryl went to investigate then Andrea got up from her self-imposed exile and followed. Martinez seeing no choice but to help got a bat from the car and took off after the pair.

Daryl spotted three walkers, two males and a female. Martinez caught up to him before Andrea and waited behind him. Daryl motioned to him, "after you."

"No way, you first."

Andrea came up behind them just in time to hear the conversation. 'Great cause it wasn't enough that she had been dismissed like an obnoxious child, now she had to witness a pissing contest between Daryl and Martinez?'

She went past them and took out the male with a well-placed knife to the head. She had stabbed way harder than usual but she knew that it was a way to deal with being pushed out of the negotiations. She had hoped that being in on the decision would help her choose her home and it did but given how Rick had been with her lately, she was scared to go back to the prison with him.

She didn't think she could handle being looked at as if she was some dumb bimbo too caught up in her man to not notice that he was a psychopath. She didn't think she could handle seeing the disappointment in those blue eyes over and over, every time they met her green ones.

Knowing Martinez and Daryl had the rest of the walkers in hand; she left them to continue on alone. She had too much thinking to do to be dealing with the walkers properly and didn't want to get herself bitten because she was too busy moping.

She walked back to her spot slowly and sat once more, pondering how it was she allowed men to dictate what she did or didn't do. This would have never been allowed to happen in her past life.

"How's it going in there?" Herschel asked quietly.

Andrea looked up, "they kicked me out." 'Rick kicked me out.' "I don't know what I'm doing here."

"You're trying to help."

Maybe it was that Hershel reminded her so much of her own father or maybe it was the fact that she needed to be useful instead of being this sad pathetic excuse of a person.

Sure she lost Amy and a few friends along the way. Sure she'd made the unfortunate mistake of being more than half in love with a man who even now still loved his dead wife. A man, that had nothing but contempt for her choices, even though it was he who had left her stranded on an overrun farm with little other options.

Despite her hardships, she had been blessed to find Woodbury. Excluding Philip, Woodbury was a good place with good people and good chances of survival. She knew she'd been very lucky to find her old group after so many months apart and for that she needed to bring them whatever aid she could and to do that she had to stop feeling bad for herself.

"What happened with Maggie?"

"He's a sick man."

"What am I gonna do now? I can't go back there." 'I didn't kill him. I couldn't kill him. I can't give Rick the information he wants.'

"We're family. You belong with us. But if you join us, it's settled."

"I know."

Fifteen minutes later the door opened and Philip stepped out, walked to the car and passed Andrea without a word to any of them. Rick followed at slower pace but he at least looked at Daryl and Herschel and very briefly at Andrea before heading to his own vehicle.

The engines started and Hershel and Andrea remained outside, each looking at the other. Wondering what the decision was going to be, the prison or Woodbury, Rick or Philip.

She knew where she wanted to go but she couldn't help at the prison, she was no longer welcome. At Woodbury, she could at least try to shield the people from Philip's madness. She could do what she promised Carol she would try to do. She would kill the Governor and so help her if she died doing it, at least she would rid the world of an evil man.

Daryl took off first, glancing at the Governor's vehicle and secretly worried that Andrea had just shortened her life. The two cars faced each other then twisted and veered off to their opposite destinations.

Hershel had tried to talk to Rick the entire ride home but he had used his typical silence to keep the man at bay. Unfortunately for him, Hershel had teenage daughters and he knew the silent treatment and was well versed in the art of combating it and after a steady stream of useless talk, Rick conceded defeat.

"She needs help, Rick."

"She chose her path."

"You think so? What choice did you give her?" Hershel asked.

"Andrea is a grown woman, she is not my responsibility. She never was."

"Andrea is family. She belongs with us. She is going to kill that man and she no longer cares if she survives. She thinks she is unwelcome with us, with you."

"She wouldn't do that."

"You so sure? Would you bet her life on it?"

"I can't help her, Hershel."

"Why? Because of him, the Governor? Because you think she tricked you into meeting him somehow."

"No."

"Then tell me why?"

"Because she put herself in danger!" he shouted. "Because she let that psycho see what she meant to me in there. She showed him where her loyalty is and he knows it's not with him!"

"Then let's find a way to help her."

"There is no way. The lines are drawn and we can't go back. None of us can."

The prison came into view and Hershel let the matter drop. He could see that Rick was conflicted but there would be time to deal with the aftermath of their decisions once he told everybody what the Governor had said.

Rick parked the car and got out. He glanced at the people who depended on him, the people who followed him and it pained him that Andrea was not among them. 'Why didn't you get in my car? We could have worked it out. We would have.'

He didn't have the resources to take off and save her no matter how much he wanted. He could barely manage the people here. He saw Carol then Maggie and Glen go help Hershel.

There would be no blonde head emerging from his side of the vehicle and walking alongside the rest of their makeshift family any time soon, if at all, and the sooner he accepted that the better. They had all made their choices for good or bad.

"Let's get inside." He commanded not wanting to be out in the open. He still had to think about the Governor's offer. 'Could he give up Michonne for the rest of them?'

It was an unthinkable thought but a little matter of fact voice, that sounded like Shane, told him that he had already given one up. The nagging voice remained in his head as he walked to their living quarters and kept echoing the thought until a different one took its place. 'What difference did one more person make if he kept them safe?'

Back in Woodbury

"Thanks for setting that up. You really put yourself out there." 'I know who you really are, Andrea.'

"Glad I could help." "I do too.'

"Rick and I set terms. He's gonna consider them and then we'll meet again in two days." 'Don't worry, you won't be there.'

"What sort of terms?" she asked but Phillip just smiled. "Hope it works out." 'I'll be long gone.'

At the prison

They assembled before him and he couldn't help but feel the loneliness of leadership.

"So, I met this Governor. Sat with him for quite a while."

"Just the two of you?" Merle asked.

"Yeah," he managed to say but couldn't stop seeing the disbelief and sadness on Andrea's face as they kicked her out. 'I came to talk to him.'

"Should have gone when we had the chance, bro." Merle directed at Glenn.

"He wants the prison." 'Not just the prison.' "He wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead." 'Some of us already are.' "For what we did to Woodbury. We're going to War." 'For what he thinks I took from him, what I want to take from him.'

Hershel followed him out to the gated catwalk after the announcement with the distinct impression that the younger man was hiding something.

Rick had wanted time alone to consider the Governor's offer but was strangely grateful that Hershel had decided to follow him. He needed to discuss the option with someone other than himself.

"The group is taking it as well as can be expected. Merle and Michonne are convinced we should hit first. Carol and I think we should take our chances on the road. We're in this together. So if we stay and fight, so be it."

Rick clung to the gate and not for the first time, he doubted his leadership. He doubted what he had done and said today, to the group, to the Governor and to Andrea. He wondered what Shane would do in his place but then realized exactly what Shane would have done with all of the above.

"He gave me a choice. A way out."

"What does he want?"

"Michonne." 'He already has Andrea. He wants to complete his collection.'

"He'll kill her."

"And then kill us anyway. But what if he doesn't? What if this is the answer?"

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"They need to be scared." 'Like I am.'

"They are."

"Good, 'cause that's the only way they'll accept it." 'What's one more?' the voice echoed.

"She saved my life. And Carl's. Glenn, Maggie, if she hadn't come here, we never would have known they were taken." 'Never would have known about Andrea either.' "She's earned her place."

"Yeah." 'And look where that got her. Look at what happened to us. Look at what happened to Maggie and Glenn.' "Yeah, she has." 'Daryl got his brother back.' "Are you willing to sacrifice your daughter's lives for her?" 'We got saddled with Merle.'

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because…I'm hoping you can talk me out of it," Rick answered.