The sun was starting to set a bit when they finally reached a road that Daryl seemed to recognize. "This here… we're getting close. Prolly 'nother fifteen minutes or so."

"That's… good." Henrietta spun a strand of still damp hair around her index finger.

Her tone made Daryl stop and look at her. "What?"

She shrugged. "The living have always been more of a threat to me than the dead. I know they're your friends… and I do trust you… but it's just hard for me. You know?"

"Yeah I got it." Daryl moved the strap of her satchel to his other shoulder. He'd offered to carry it after the river. "It was hard for me to trust them at first. But they earned it, and then some. Can't make it far these days if yer alone."

The smile Henrietta sent him was hesitant, but the warmth he'd come to expect in the short time he'd known her was back. "So… you never told me, how'd you come to be all the way out there if your group is all the way back here?"

Daryl chuckled, "Stupid dog split up me an' my partner on a run for supplies. Brought a herd right to us. I tol' her to take the car and get out, head back an' I'd meet up with her." He shrugged, "but then I had to swing wide around 'em an' those psychos helped me out."

"By psychos you mean Len and the others."

He gave a brief nod. "Lucky thing though. Found you din' I?"

This time her answering smile caught him off guard. That unquestioning faith, he saw it whenever she looked at him now and he wasn't really sure what to do with it… but he also couldn't say he hated it.

He shook his head and started walking again, hoping she would ignore his awkwardness.

"What?" She asked as she trailed behind him, still grinning ear to ear.

"For someone livin' through the end of the world, goin' through what you did, you sure smile an awful lot." He tried to sound gruff, but he was pretty sure he failed.

"I figure if I can find one good thing to hold onto, then I'll be able to smile through anything." Henrietta sounded content, peaceful even.

"Oh yeah? Was' that?"

"You, obviously."

"Stop."

"No, you stop."

He turned and raised an eyebrow at her, but he couldn't hold her cheerful gaze for long before he had to turn back around so she wouldn't see his cheeks heat up. Not that she would've been able to tell under all the dirt and grime, but still.

They remained in companionable silence for another ten minutes, until the prison was just around the bend of the road. Every now and then he could hear her humming a little tune under her breath, one he didn't recognize but he wasn't about to ask. Conversations with her always ended up a bit too sincere for him. It wasn't like that was a bad thing, just unknown and unfamiliar territory.

"The prison has some good fences around it, but there's always a few walkers around, trying to get in 'em. So stick close and we'll go in low, and whoever is on watch will open the gate."

Henrietta looked up at him as they rounded the curve and the safe haven of the prison came into view. "Yes sir."

Daryl rolled his eyes a bit at the little salute she gave him, a serious look on her face but a sparkle in her eyes. "Okay, come on lil' soldier."

He tried not to smile when he heard her laughing under her breath behind him as they crept down the road toward the prison gate.

It didn't take long for a few walkers to notice them, but the archer noticed that though some of them took a few steps towards Henrietta, their dead eyes passed right over her in favor of him. He sunk his knife into a few of them before he heard someone call his name.

Maggie was at the inside gate, sliding it across now that she recognized him while Glenn worked the other mechanism that swung the outside gate open. There weren't as many walkers as usual to block their way as Daryl and Henrietta ran through the two openings, or at least that's what Daryl figured. Once they were through and the gates were closed behind them however, he looked back and realized that it was more like the walkers to the sides just hadn't really noticed them.

He didn't have time to wonder if that was Henri's fault before Glenn and Maggie approached them.

"Hey man, good to have you back." Glenn nodded, his face serious. "We were a bit worried when Beth came back without you."

"Rick wanted to go find you," Maggie continued, though her attention was being drawn by the newcomer that Daryl had brought and she wasn't really looking at him anymore, "but we knew you'd be okay. Who's this?"

Daryl looked over at Henri, who seemed to be sinking into herself and she seemed even smaller than normal. Though the clothes she'd changed into after the river, basically just an oversized flannel shirt that went down to her knees and oversized boots that swallowed half of her calves, didn't help that picture at all. It hadn't even occurred to him until now how young the ensemble made her look.

"I'm, um, my name is Pu-" She blushed, tugging at one of her sleeves anxiously and side stepping behind Daryl ever so slightly. "I'm Henrietta."

"Welcome to the group, Henrietta."

Henri jumped at the new voice behind her and turned with such speed that Daryl had to catch her to keep her boots from toppling her over.

The Rick Grimes bent down slightly and held out his hand to her with a smile, "My name is Rick, I'm pleased to meet you."