I hope everyone is enjoying Restless. Feel free to drop me a comment or review. Thanks for reading!

Dayna was emotionally and physically exhausted after everything that had gone on the last two days. Daryl almost getting caught by those walkers was the last straw. She just wanted to lie down and sleep for hours and hours and wake up to her old life. What she would give to be back in her condominium that she saved and saved for getting ready to head out to work. She wanted her old boring normal life back. Unfortunately that was never going to happen.

"That's the house on the left Sasha…the green one," Dayna told her in time before she drove by it, day dreaming when she should have been paying attention was always a problem for her. As soon as the car was parked, Sasha hit the trunk release lever to let Daryl out. Dayna jumped out of the car to make sure he was okay.

"Are you alright? Did any of them get you," Dayna asked. Without even thinking she started to run her hands all over Daryl as he emerged from the cramped trunk. Daryl pushed her hands away.

"I'm okay. Let's just get inside. C'mon." Daryl led the way into the house. One they were all inside, Abraham helped him move a loveseat in front of the door. "Let's go upstairs it gets us away from everything."

The sun was starting to set so the deep shadows upstairs were making the rooms much darker than before. It was a small house with only a kitchen, living room and tiny dining room downstairs and two small bedrooms upstairs. It was the closest thing to having his own place that Daryl had ever had.

"That was off the shitting charts, man!" Abraham exclaimed.

Sasha rolled her eyes at him again. "Let's not have to do something like that again. Daryl that was too close."

"You're telling me. Whose idea was the trunk, that was a great idea," Daryl asked. He was having a hard time standing still with all the adrenaline still rushing through him. Close calls like that always had him amped up.

"It was Dayna's," Abraham said. "She really came through." Dayna met Abraham's eyes and she was surprised at the acceptance she saw there.

"Thanks for thinkin' of that. I couldn't make it to the door," Daryl told her.

She put her hand on his arm and gave him a small smile. "Just glad I thought of it…hey you're cut on your forehead. We need to clean that. What happened?"

"Shit that musta been when I jumped into the trunk and closed the hood. The damn crossbow nailed me in the head. It's nothing," Daryl explained slightly embarrassed. "I better call Rick and tell him it's done." Daryl wanted to do anything to get the attention away from him.

He pulled the radio out of his shoulder bag and turned it on. "Rick, you copy?" When he didn't get a response he tried again. "Rick, you copy?"

It was several long moments until they heard, "Yeah, I'm here. Did it work?"

"Worked like a charm," Daryl said. "Got Sasha and Abraham here with me now too. They finally decided to show up." Dayna could see his eyes twinkling with amusement. Sasha punched him in the arm.

"What you want us to do next?" Daryl asked.

"We're going to need your help in taking out the walkers that we have inside, but to do that you need to get to us and the wall. How many walkers are left out there?" Rick wondered.

"Too many. Unless we get rid of them, we won't be able to get close to the wall," Daryl explained.

Abraham signaled for Daryl to hand him the radio. "Hey Rick, what if Sasha and I get their attention with the car again. We still have a few flares left that would get them going in our direction. Then we just lead their lazy asses away like we did before. The plan woulda worked fine except that fuckin' horn that had them breaking off. What the hell was that?"

Rick momentarily thought about Abraham's suggestion. It worked once, why not a second time? "Daryl can explain what happened. I think your idea is good, Abraham. You guys figure out the best way to get them to follow you like before. You know the route away from here. I don't think Daryl needs to go on his bike this time, but ultimately you guys figure it out."

Daryl took the radio back from Abraham. "We'll work out the details and do this tomorrow. We'll check back with you then, okay bro?"

"Be safe guys," Rick said before he signed off. Daryl turned off his radio too.

"What the hell happened yesterday?" Abraham asked Daryl.

Daryl turned and faced everyone. "The horn we heard that took away half the herd was from a semi that plowed into the wall."

"Oh my God," said Sasha.

"You better not be shittin' me man," said Abraham his eyes filled with fury.

"If looks could kill," Dayna thought to herself, "Daryl had this idiot dead ten times over."

Daryl ignored Abraham's comment with great restraint. He liked the guy, but he rarely thought before he opened his mouth. "A group tried to take Alexandria, but they fought them off. This was before anyone that was with the herd got back. Our group is okay, but they apparently lost some if the others. Before you ask, I don't know who. When the semi crashed, it hit the base of the clock tower and cracked it. When everyone but us were back, the tower finally fell and that's what took out the wall and the part of the herd that was outside of the wall went in."

"Talk about a clusterfuck," said Abraham.

"Now that the hole is closed, we need to get rid of the walkers on the outside and Rick will work on the ones on the inside. We'll take care of that tomorrow." Daryl fully intended on being part of the big move. He just needed to figure out what to do with Dayna.

The house was almost fully dark by now, since the sun and set. Daryl pulled his lighter out if his pocket and lit one of the candles on the dresser in the bedroom where they stood. The room glowed in eerie shadows.

"You got another one of those?" Abraham asked.

Daryl lit another and handed it to him. "It's early, but it's been a fuckin' crazy day. We should eat something and take it easy. We can plan tomorrow…early." He looked at Sasha and Abraham, "You guys need food?"

"I still have some left, we're good," replied Sasha. "What's the room across the hall like?"

" 'nuther bedroom," Daryl told her.

"Alright, good. Let's go big guy." Sasha took hold of Abraham's arm and together they walked into the other bedroom and closed the door.

Dayna who had been quiet this entire time looked at Daryl in surprise. "Well I didn't see that coming."

"Neither did I," said Daryl. "Neither did I."

Daryl doled out more of the food supplies he had stashed away to them both. He and Dayna ate lost in their own thoughts. After eating her share, Dayna got up and walked around the small room and stopped in front of a small dresser. She looked in the mirror that hung above it.

"Oh my God, have I looked this bad the whole time?" Dayna exclaimed. Daryl held in a laugh when he saw Dayna's expression. It was priceless.

"Ah...yeah. Neither one of us is looking to clean right about now," he said.

"But this!" Dayna used her hands to indicate her face. "Is…is disgusting!"

"Wouldn't go that far," Daryl told her. "Dirty…yes, disgusting… no."

Dayna opened the chest of drawers in front if her and tried not to let it get to her that it was filled with little kids clothes. She fished out a shirt and began to wipe her face with it. They didn't have any water to spare, but this would be better than nothing. Dayna rubbed her face and arms until they were as clean as she could get them. Then she took off her ball cap and let down her hair.

Daryl was watching her quietly from beneath his dark hooded eyes. He hadn't realized that she had that much hair hidden under the cap. It flowed half way down her back. Dayna opened another drawer, then another until she found an old comb. She used it to get out the snarls and tangles from her long hair. It reminded Daryl of the color of a chocolate bar…a soft brown. He had always loved brunettes. Suddenly he realized that the internal stirring of interest started to flow through him. It was something he hadn't felt in a very long time. He looked away from Dayna forcing himself to suppress any hint of emotion that he was possibly attracted to her.

Dayna was oblivious to Daryl's conflicting emotions across the room. She pulled her long hair back into a smooth ponytail and surveyed herself once more in the mirror. "That'll have to do," she thought.

The room was unnaturally quiet all of a sudden. "Is Rick family?" Dayna asked breaking the silence.

Daryl's serious eyes met hers. "He's my brother by choice, not by blood. "

"Do you have any family?"

"Not left I don't." Daryl didn't take his eyes off his pitiful meal of canned chicken. "What about you?"

This was the first time since they met that Dayna had time to get to know him. He intrigued her, yet confused her at the same time. "Not anymore I don't think. My sister…I just don't know cause she lives in Indiana My parents died in a car crash a few years ago. Looking back that was a blessing."

.

"How so?" Daryl asked. He finished the chicken and tossed the can aside. He couldn't believe people paid for that shit in the store. He had road kill that tasted better.

"They never had to experience this…this horrible world we live in. They wouldn't have made it and I wouldn't have been able to handle seeing them…turn." Once again facing that she was all alone in this world almost brought Dayna to tears, but she refused to let them fall in front of Daryl.

"My brother turned," Daryl said softly. "I…I took him out." The weight of the admission was always hard for Daryl to handle. He sat down on the bed, his head down in the despair that he rarely shared. It surprised him that he had done so with Dayna.

"Oh Daryl…"was all Dayna could say. The tears that threatened earlier now fell freely.

He looked up at Dayna and shook his head. "Don't cry for Merle. He…was a piece of shit human being and an equally shitty brother."

Dayna's sad eyes met Daryl's hard one. "But Daryl…no matter what, he was still you're brother. I don't know what happened between you two, but any way you look at it, that had to have been impossibly hard for you. I'm sorry you had to do that." She sat down next to him and simply laid her head on his shoulder.

That small gesture moved Daryl more than anything else could have. This stranger who he had met barely forty-eight hours ago understood him more than anyone else. He didn't need anyone making a big deal out it, even thought it was. Her head on his shoulder helped…more than she knew. They just stayed that way for several minutes, not talking, but finding comfort in each other.

"Tell me about Alexandria," Dayna asked softly.

"What do you wanna know?"

"Anything…everything," she told him, so Daryl talked about Alexandria. He told her about the houses and how they all had electricity and running water. Food was pretty plentiful, but the people were living in a bubble and how they were not ready to deal with what lay outside the fence. Reality had just smacked into them…big time.

"It's been a long day, maybe we should get some sleep. I'll go downstairs to the sofa, you stay here," Daryl suggested. The room only had one full size bed in it and Daryl was trying to be a gentleman.

"This is your house and you use this room. Don't go downstairs. We can share the bed." Dayna saw that Daryl was about to argue with her and cut him off. "Daryl, I'm sure that you didn't get any sleep last night and I did. Today was exhausting fighting off all those walkers. You need a good night's rest. Stay here…please."

He was a loner and wasn't used to being close to people either physically or emotionally, at least not since Beth. He said, "Alright," before he could change his mind.

Dayna scooted herself up the bed and turned onto her right side. She finally felt the bed dip behind her as Daryl lay down. She could tell he was laying as stiff as a board. "Relax," she whispered over her shoulder. "Just relax."

Daryl finally settled in and got comfortable. He kept his distance from Dayna even though she brought him comfort. It didn't take long for them both to fall asleep…together.