AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

Thank you to everyone who is supportive of this story. I'm so glad you're enjoying it because I'm really enjoying writing it.

I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!

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After supper, Daryl had returned to his activities where he'd settled alone near the back of the gated complex. He'd brought Hope back there earlier and gotten the little girl to help him on his "treasure hunt" for the rocks in the area that were best suited to make arrow heads out of…and now he was busy making arrow heads out of those very same rocks.

He heard Tyreese coming, but he wasn't surprised by it. Tyreese had hovered around him since they'd gotten back from the trip they'd taken, though he hadn't actually spoken any words.

When the man finally settled down to sit not too far from Daryl on what was a poorly constructed stone bench that may or may not support the man's weight for any length of time, Daryl was finally driven to speak to him if for nothing else but to end the uncomfortable silence.

"You gonna say what the hell's on your mind?" Daryl asked.

The light was fading and it wouldn't be long before Daryl was driven inside to abandon his arrowheads for the evening, but he was holding out as long as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tyreese drag a hand over his face.

"I'm not going to say that you did," Tyreese said, "but do you think that you might have…are you sure that you handled things the way they…had to be handled?"

Daryl chuckled to himself.

"You think I overreacted," he said frankly.

"I didn't say that…I just wanted to make sure…" Tyreese started.

But Daryl cut him off.

"You wanted to make sure I ain't lost my mind?" Daryl asked. "You wanted to make sure I didn't overreact? That I thought about what I done? You wanted to make sure that killin' ain't got just too easy for me?"

Daryl stopped with the rock that he was handling at the moment and looked at Tyreese.

Tyreese nodded slightly at him, but he didn't speak. It wasn't really necessary for him to speak at the moment.

"I'll tell you the truth…killin', it is pretty damn easy for me now," Daryl admitted. "And…I was just sittin' here…wonderin' if I felt sorry for it…wonderin' if I oughta feel sorry for it. But I don't. They was gonna kill Sadie, sure as shit, cut her throat."

"I don't think they wanted to kill her…" Tyreese offered.

Daryl laughed again and shook his head, raising his eyebrows at Tyreese.

"No…no they weren't gonna kill her, not until we showed up," Daryl said. "But I know what the hell they was gonna do to her before that…what they was gonna do to Calista. And they were gonna kill her once we did show up. Cut her throat, right there…every damn thing we all been through and they was just gonna cut her throat, right in front of us…let us watch her die."

Daryl turned his attention back to the stone a moment before he paused and spoke again.

"If it'd been Carol…or do you think if you were Glenn and it was Maggie…if I'd done what I did then, do you think you'd wonder if I mighta overreacted?" Daryl asked. "And if they were gonna do any of that now…then I figured, and I think I'm right for it, that it was best to just up and do away with all of 'em…'cause that means there's less of them fuckers in the world now…less of them fuckers that one day would do the same damn thing…same thing to Hope…to Jude…"

Daryl saw Tyreese's face change and he nodded his head slightly.

"I didn't lose my mind, and I didn't overreact," Daryl said. "But killin'…it's real damn easy to me when it comes down to it because we ain't losin' no one because I was too slow taking some asshole down."

He shook his head in time with his own thoughts.

"Nope…not 'cause I was too damn slow," Daryl said. "And now? Now there's a little less bad in the world...a little less bad that Hope and Judith and every other damn kid around here's gonna have to deal with one day."

Tyreese nodded and stood up. He crossed the area over to where Daryl was and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't think you'd lost your mind," Tyreese said. "I just wanted to make sure that you knew what you were doing…but I think you did the right thing. And, you're right, and maybe I'm just not as…ready as you are…for everything because if it had been Carol or Judith, I would have wanted you to shoot before you did."

Daryl just nodded his head and began to collect together his stones to take inside with him so that he didn't lose them somehow or some mischievous squirrel didn't scatter them so that he had to bring Hope back out there to go on an Easter egg hunt for future weapons.

"What are you doing?" Tyreese asked.

"Making arrow heads," Daryl said. "The rocks around here…because of the river…where the hell we are…they're the best you can get for making good solid arrowheads."

He held one of the ones he'd been working with up so that Tyreese could somewhat see it in the failing light.

"Figure Beau can make these into some real nice arrows for everyone," Daryl said. "Figure we might need 'em…I ain't dumb enough to think after yesterday that we alone out here…and like I said, I ain't playing around with no one. I'ma kill first…and dead men don't answer no damn questions."

Daryl got up then and took the last of his stones, filling his pockets and reminding himself to empty them before Michonne passed his pants to Carol. She would likely think that the rocks were just something he had stuck in his pockets because Hope or Zeb had offered them to him as presents and she would unknowingly scatter them out again.

"Night, man," Daryl said as he walked toward the motel. He heard Tyreese's offer of a goodnight behind him and mounted the stairs, figuring that Michonne and the kids would already be asleep or at least would be close to it, their mornings typically starting early enough that they didn't stay up much longer than the sun without a special occasion.

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When Tyreese got into the motel room, he was already peeling off his clothes. It was almost too cold to go without them, but with the blankets it was much nicer to sleep without them than it was to be wrapped up in the dirty clothes. No matter how much they were scrubbed, they still retained something of a smell…it was the smell that was simply the smell of their lives these days.

He smiled at his little family in the flickering lamplight.

Carol was out cold…they all were…but it looked like she'd been trying to come out of her clothes and simply never made it that far. Probably one or the other of the children had demanded some attention and she'd simply given up on herself for the moment…and then she'd fallen asleep.

Curled up next to her, her duck hugged between them, was Judith. On the other side, curled in the crook of her arm was Isaac.

And there was nowhere on the bed for Tyreese, but he was going to fix that problem.

He eased over and slid his hands under Judith, trying to scoop her up as gently as he could so that none of the trio had to fully wake. He wasn't, however, as steady as he'd hoped to be with lifting her and she woke slightly with something of a shock, flexing her fingers and grabbing for Carol.

"Mama…" Judith got out, her voice still heavy with sleep.

Tyreese shushed her and hugged her to his body like an oversized infant and she curled into him.

"Mama…" she repeated, fainter than before, her eyes still closed.

"Mama's not going anywhere," Tyreese said. "Jude's going to sleep in Jude's bed…and Daddy's going to sleep with Mama for once…"

Tyreese carried Judith over to the other bed that they'd cleaned up for her. He'd gone around and "altered" all of the extra beds in rooms with small children to drop them to the floor. He'd taken the frames apart on the motel beds and redone them so that instead of being a frame that held the mattress up, they served to be something like a metal fence that would keep anyone from rolling off of the beds, even if they really tried.

Once Judith was settled into her bed, Tyreese stood there for a moment with his hand flat on her back until he was sure that she was going to commit to sleep.

He fixed then the little bed that he'd made for Isaac…a bed made out of one of the oversized drawers he'd wrenched out of the dresser and padded with blankets…and he returned to the bed, carefully trying to free the baby from Carol's unconscious hug.

And that's when she woke with a start, threatening to wake the baby that otherwise wasn't going to wake.

"Shhh…" Tyreese hissed at her. "It's just me…I'm just moving the children…"

Carol looked disoriented, but quickly she seemed to be coming back into her senses.

"Where are you putting him?" She asked.

"In his crib," Tyreese responded, easing the baby down into the drawer.

"That's not a crib…" Carol said.

"It is now," Tyreese responded. "He's going to be fine. This is nicer…even safer…than his crib at home was."

Carol didn't seem sure about it, and that was clear by the time that Tyreese had stripped off his clothes and got into the bed. She remained on top of the cover next to him, still half dressed, watching both the children who were sleeping.

"Carol, they're fine," Tyreese said. "Get in here in bed…come under here and keep me company. We haven't had a lot of alone time in a while."

She somewhat reluctantly undressed and then took a moment to wander from the bed to the other bed and check on Judith before she examined Isaac's newly made crib. Apparently satisfied that both the children were safe and asleep, she came back to the bed and Tyreese moved over, lifting the cover for her to crawl in beside him. It was only then that she offered him the warm smile that he'd been waiting on.

He brushed his fingers across her face once she was settled in beside him and then leaned to kiss her, but he could tell when they broke apart that something was on her mind.

"What is it?" He asked.

"It's nothing," she offered.

He chuckled.

"It's something…and you're not going to be involved in this until I take care of whatever it is…so what is it?" Tyreese asked.

Carol sighed and reached a hand up, trailing her fingertip across his lips so that he kissed it and she smiled at him.

"Did you think about it? What I asked you to think about?" Carol asked.

Tyreese sighed this time.

"Ty…she's starting to understand, I think," Carol said. "And we promised that when she was old enough to understand we'd…explain things to her."

"We've explained it to her three times," Tyreese said. "She hasn't been able to understand yet…or she hasn't cared."

Carol sat up on her elbow, but Tyreese held her so that she couldn't escape from him entirely.

"She was younger then," Carol said. "She didn't understand, but she might now. We did promise that we'd tell her."

They were both quiet for a moment, and then finally Carol spoke again.

"Tyreese…I'm in the same position that you are. When we tell her…she's going to know that I'm nothing to her too. Neither one of us are. But it's not fair for us to just not tell her when she's got Rick and she's got Carl. She needs to know at least," Carol said.

Tyreese raised his eyebrows at her. This was one of those conversations that you had so many times it felt like you were simply replaying a recording over and over again.

"The difference is that we're telling her that she had a father…a real father…and she's got a brother…a real brother," Tyreese said. "There's no real mother around."

Carol frowned and nodded her head.

"It scares me too, Ty," Carol said. "But…maybe it isn't about replacing or forgetting…maybe it's about…letting Judith have more. Instead of thinking of it as one father or another, maybe it's a case of two fathers? Two brothers?"

Tyreese sighed and nodded his head slightly.

"We'll talk about it more in the morning," he said.

"You're just trying to avoid this again," Carol said.

He shook his head.

"No…I'm not. We'll talk about with Rick in the morning, if that's what you want," Tyreese said.

He rolled, pulling her along with him to slide her under his body, kissing her as she settled in to the rut that he'd made for her.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow…but tonight I don't want to worry about it anymore," Tyreese said. "I'm trying to spend just a little time with you before Isaac has us up. Everything else that's waited for years can wait for a few more hours."