"No! Leave me alone! Stop!" Dayna cried out waking Daryl instantly from his sleep. He jumped off the bed with his knife in his hand seconds before Abraham burst through the door. The moonlight illuminated the room enough for them to see that there wasn't anyone else there. Abraham looked at Daryl.

"Hey man, don't look at me. I was asleep when she started yelling," he whispered.

Dayna started tossing and turning in her sleep, mumbling words they couldn't understand. "She's having a nightmare," Sasha told them. "We should wake her up."

"Let me," Daryl said. "She may be embarrassed if we are all here. She would expect me too, because …"

"Because you were sleeping with her?" Abraham smirked.

"We were just sharing the bed, douchebag. Sasha get him the hell out of here!" Daryl growled. Abraham was pulled from the room and the door closed quietly behind them.

Daryl walked around the bed until he was next to Dayna crouching down. As long as she didn't slug him, he figured he'd be okay. "Dayna, wake up," he tried. "Dayna, you need to wake up." He gently touched her arm and she shot up in bed gasping for breath.

She looked around the room wildly as she tried together bearings. "Hey it's okay," he told. "I think you were dreaming. You, okay?"

Dayna looked around the room wide eyed and realized where she was. She was safe in the house with Daryl. Her dream had her back in the camp that she knew was dangerous, but others in her group wouldn't listen. She went along with even though in her gut she knew something was off.

And it had been.

A few nights later her life changed drastically and they didn't all make it out of there alive. She hadn't had that nightmare in a while and it always left her shaken.

Dayna looked into Daryl's worried eyes and saw strength, safety and comfort. No matter what she knew she was safe with him. "It was just a bad dream, I'm sorry I woke you Daryl. I'm okay." She could see he wasn't convinced.

"Just bad memories popping up, that's all. I'm fine. They are already gone," she said with a forced smile. "Let's go back to bed."

"You sure?" he asked. Something wasn't right, but he didn't want to push it with her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Dayna lay back down and curled up on her side, closing her eyes ending the conversation. She didn't want to talk to Daryl about what had happened to her, in fact she had told no one. It was something she lived with and had been dealing with for a while now. Occasionally the nightmares returned and she re-lived that horrible night. Maybe it was the fact that she was sharing a bed with a man that triggered or it could be the stress of the last few days, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she knew she could trust Daryl not to hurt her. The rough biker she had only met yesterday she trusted implicitly and she didn't know why. It was just a feeling she had and she had learned to follow her gut. She doubted that she'd be able to fall asleep again, but she kept her eyes closed and tired.

Daryl walked back to his side of the bed and lay down on his back. He wondered what caused the nightmare that Dayna had. It was more like she was remembering something than just a regular bad dream. They didn't know each other well enough to talk about it. Hell, he didn't talk about that shit was anyone any way.

He stared at the ceiling for a while, not wanting to fall asleep until he knew she was okay. Daryl finally closed his eyes when he heard her gentle even breathing indicating that she had fallen asleep. It had taken a while, but she was finally out. Only then was he able to doze off too.

Daryl awoke the next morning just as the sun was starting to come up. It took him a moment to get his bearings as he wasn't used to waking up snuggled up to someone. He didn't remember stirring during the night at all and it was the first time in a long time he had slept that deeply. Yet, somehow during the night he must have rolled over and ended up spooning with Dayna. Daryl had never really ever found himself in this predicament before, so he was unsure on how to extricate himself. Not only was his right arm around Dayna, but she had her arm on top of his. The longer he stayed with his arm wrapped around the sleeping Dayna the faster his heart started to beat and he felt stirrings happening that could only prove to be very embarrassing for him.

Just as he was about to try to pull his arm away, Dayna turned rolling onto her back and slowly waking up. He didn't dare move a muscle. She gradually opened her eyes and smiled at him. There was no outrage, shock or screaming that would have brought Abraham and Sasha running across the hall. "Good morning," she said her voice still thick with sleep.

Daryl was still afraid to move. He didn't want to bring attention to the fact that his arm was still stretched across her. "Idiot," he said to himself. "There's no way she can't notice, so just pretend it's no big deal." Daryl looked over at Dayna and he felt the thumping in his chest speed up. "Mornin'," he replied back. "You okay, now?"

"I am," she said with a shy smile. "I felt very protected throughout the night…thanks to you. I haven't had that in a very long time. Thank you Daryl." Dayna sat up and kissed him on the cheek. Daryl felt the blush spreading across his face and thankfully Dayna didn't mention it.

"No big deal,' he said trying to blow it off. Daryl pulled back his arm and sat up. The sun was up by now and the room was filled with bright sunlight. "I hope those two don't sleep in, we have a lot to do today."

He couldn't have timed those words any better as just as he finished say them, the sounds of a very loud squeaky bed started to come from the other room. "I think they're up," Dayna said laughing. The more the bed squeaked the more Dayna laughed and as awkward as it was Daryl started to smile and finally he started laughing too. Dayna certainly took notice that when Daryl relaxed, his face was completely different. He was serious so much of the time that seeing him like this was like looking at a whole new Daryl…a Daryl that caused butterflies in her stomach. Dayna's smile was now for a completely different reason. Daryl unknowingly was starting to work his way into her heart.

"What's for breakfast? Dayna asked, her stomach starting to grumble. She needed to get her mind off he sex that was going on in the other room. Dayna swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched as she stood up.

"Well the choice are getting slim…protein bar, protein bar and canned soup," Daryl replied. His stash of food was almost gone. "We're going to have to do a supply run soon or we won't have anything left."

Dayna walked over to where Daryl had their minimal choices of food out. "Protein bar," she said picking one up. She grabbed a second and tried to hand it to Daryl. "I'm good," he said waving her off.

"No, you need to eat. Take it." Dayna again tried to hand him the small protein bar.

"I'm. Good." He said more forcefully than he intended.

"Quit being stubborn and eat the damn bar. We'll find more food soon, but in the meantime you need your strength. So eat!" Daryl finally took the protein bar from Dayna and tore open the wrapper. He ate it in a couple of bites.

"Happy?" he said with his mouth full.

"Ecstatic," Dayna replied rolling her eyes. She wondered to herself why all men were so stubborn.

The door across the hall finally opened with Sasha and Abraham emerging. Daryl finished chewing and tossed the wrapper in the corner. "You ready to talk about today?" he asked them.

"Yes," said Sasha. She looked over at Abraham before continuing. He nodded to her to go ahead. "This is what we came up with. The big guy and I will take the car and try to lead the walkers away…again. We'll yell and use the horn anything to get their attention to follow us. You and Dayna can use the flare guns to keep them headed in the right direction. We figure it you guys get into that blue house with the porch along the road you can fire the flares from out of the top windows. Hopefully, then the majority will follow us down the road and away from here. You guys can stay and start taking out the stragglers until we come back."

"Fuck no," Daryl said. "I'm going with you guys. Just like before."

Sasha looked over at Abraham. "Daryl, we don't need you man," he said. "Sasha and I can do this. I'll take care of the slackers. Someone needs to start getting rid of the ones that are left so we can get into Alexandria. You …and Dayna can do that."

Sasha could see that Daryl wasn't convinced. "Daryl, we got this, we really do. Stay here and help Rick and the others."

Dayna had stayed quiet during the discussion as she knew this wasn't her call, but she preferred Daryl to stay with her. "It makes sense," was all she said.

Daryl knew it did even though he was fighting an internal battle. He finally caved. "Alright, I'll stay here, but I need you guys to do something for us on the way back. We need food and water. You'll need to get us a decent supply if we don't get into Alexandria for a couple days. My stash is 'bout gone."

"I know of a place that we can check out," Abraham said. "We'll get rid of these geeks and bring back food. All in a day's work," he added with a big grin.

Together they finalized the details of the plan. Everyone would go as far as the blue house in the car where Daryl and Dayna would jump out and get inside so they could send up the flares. Then hopefully the whole damn walker herd would get out of town. Daryl gave Sasha his extra radio battery so they could stay in communication. Then before Dayna knew it, the time had come again have to deal with the walkers face to face. She was glad that she was with Daryl. She knew he'd have her back and it helped her confidence in situations like this. She got the feeling that these guys did stuff like this all the time, but she had spent the majority of her time hiding or running. She fought only when she had no other choice.

"You ready?" asked Daryl looking at each of them. There was a resounding 'yes' from everyone. The guys moved the small sofa away from the door and after a quick, but thorough glance outside, they all made a dash for the car. Abraham made quick stop to fill up the gas tank from one of the extra gas cans they carried. Daryl stood watch.

Within a couple minutes they had made it to the blue house that was Daryl and Dayna's drop off point. Everyone wished each other luck and to stay safe, and then car drove off in search of walkers.

"I don't like not doing this, "Daryl grumbled as they made their way to the upstairs of the house.

"I got that the first two times you said that, Daryl," Dayna replied rolling her eyes. When they reached the top of the stairs, she put her hand on his arm. Daryl turned to her quickly, he wasn't used to people touching him. "Listen, I know I barely know you, but I get the impression that you like…no make that need to be in the middle of things, but they can handle it. There's a lot more that we can do here while they are relocating the walkers. We can start taking out the leftovers and I need you for that. I can't do it alone." Dayna could tell that Daryl was still fighting the fact that he wasn't going. "You brought me here. You told me about Alexandria, and I want to see this place, but as it stands now that place is going to cease to exist with your friends in it if we don't get this done. Sasha and Abraham can handle it, okay."

Daryl knew she was right. He was being stubborn about this and he had no idea why. "You're right, you're right." He turned and walked into the room that faced the street and pushed up the window. He could see the car moving very slowly. It was time to try this again. He waved to the car that they were ready. Dayna stood by his side. "Thanks," he said quietly to Dayna.

"No problem. Whenever you need a kick in the ass you can count on me," she answered with a smirk.

The corner of Daryl's mouth lifted into a small smile. "Not many people would volunteer for that job."

"You're a pushover, Daryl. You show that hard exterior, but inside you are just a softie." Dayna's observation of himself surprised Daryl. It was rare that anyone figured out that under his gruff exterior and his in-your-face way of dealing with shit, he was in fact a push over when it came to his group…his family. The honking of the car horn brought this attention back to the task at hand.

They could see the mass of walkers turning towards the noise and the slow shuffle of them following the car. Sasha had a nice speed going with the car, just fast enough to stay ahead of the quickly forming herd, but slow enough to keep them interested. Once they got past the house, Daryl fired off the first of the flares we were going to use to send as many as we could in the direction of Sasha and Abraham.

The two of them watched from the window as the spread out walkers all came together to become a herd with one intention, and that was to follow the car. Daryl shot off another flare to keep those towards the back moving ahead. As unpredictable as walkers could be in a herd they moved as one. Quietly they kept watch until the car was long out of sight and the majority of the walkers had moved out.

"Daryl, you copy?" came from over the radio.

"I'm here," he answered to Abraham.

"How does it look back there? Did they move their lazy ass's outta our town?"

"Yeah, they did. We're 'bout to head out to see what's left. Just keep those pricks moving," Daryl told them.

"That's what we are aiming to do. If we don't make it back tonight, we'll see you guys tomorrow. We're out." Abraham said cutting off the conversation.

Before Daryl could turn the radio off, Rick called out to him. "Daryl, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. How goes it in Walkerland?"

"Sucks, bro. What's the plan?" Rick asked.

'Yeah, we're making good progress out here. The RV is parked by the wall, so no more can get in. Sasha and the prick are leading the rest out of town as we speak. Now we can start taking the rest out," Daryl told him.

"I see Abraham is being his usual dick self," Rick said laughing.

"You have no idea. Hey, how's it going inside?" Daryl caught Dayna's eye. They both noticed that Rick hesitated before he finally answered.

"I think now that the fence is closed we can start to make progress. This is gonna take a while and time isn't on our side. We can't get to the food pantry or ammo room." Rick sounded a bit dejected to Dayna.

"If we can't get to you guys tomorrow, then it'll be the next day. We're on our way, man." Daryl was doing his best to reassure Rick. It made Dayna wonder how bad was it actually inside the wall. "Don't want to run out of battery, so we're out. We'll catch you tomorrow. Stay safe, bro," Daryl told Rick.

"Back at 'cha. Out." When Rick signed out Daryl's heart sank. It was worse in there than he imagined. He'd been with Rick too long not to notice the desperation he heard.

"He sounds like he needs help," Dayna said quietly.

"They do. I can tell it's worse in there than I thought. When Sasha and Abraham are back we need to get inside or at least be able to start taking them out on the inside. They need us badly," Daryl realized.

"But we're only four people?"

"Yeah, but four strong people," he told her. Daryl ran his fingers through his long bangs, pushing them aside.

'No, three strong and me," Dayna said contradicting him. She knew her fighting skills wouldn't come close to matching theirs.

"You'll be as good as we are in no time. I'll help ya. Let's get outta here and see what we got left to deal with." Daryl grabbed his crossbow and headed down the stairs. Dayna followed behind not as convinced as he was to her skill level. When they reached the downstairs they both stood by the front door. Daryl put his hand on the doorknob, but before he opened it he said, "We're heading back to the other house, now's as good a time as any to practice. You take point."

"I was afraid you were going to say that. Are you sure?" Dayna asked not feeling very good about doing this.

"Yeah, I am. Don't worry I got your back. You can do this." With a smile Daryl flung open the door and they both took off at run. Dana got in plenty of practice on the way back to the small green house and Daryl had her back the entire time.