Pru gets a job! Daryl plays with a stick! Excitement abound!...But no, really. We get the full story on the guys who'd been dumb enough to fuck with Pru. A nice, calm, chapter where they both find out a bit more about each other. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING HAVING TO DO WITH TWD. KTHXBAI.


The smell of a stable had been one of her favorite scents for as long as she could remember. It was relaxing. The hay, the horses, the oats, the leather; every part mixing together to make such a comforting and nostalgia inspiring aroma.

She hefted the heavy Western saddle onto the animal's back and fastened the flank cinch around the horse's belly. "Okay, let's go, you." She said to the horse and began leading her out of the stable before mounting. After what happened in the barn a few hours before, she'd talked to Rick about what was to become of their prisoner. Since he, himself, was not the man who'd done it, they both agreed that killing him outright wouldn't be right. They'd stick to Rick's original plan, though it seemed even more risky now than before. If this kid somehow managed to survive being dumped out on his own with only a few days' worth of supplies and no weapons, then made it back to his group, they'd come to the farm. She knew they would. Deacon would, if he'd lived.

…Then again. Those odds were absolutely astronomical, she'd figured. He was injured, on top of everything else. Either way, she just wasn't willing to execute some kid for no reason. She and Rick were on the same page.

During the talk, the topic of the farm's security also came up. Whether the threat came from walkers or the new danger, other survivors, no one wanted anyone showing up on their doorstep unexpectedly anymore. Rick, with Herschel's permission to use the horses, suggested to her she take up a patrol of the property line. The horse's swiftness would provide both safety and quick transport in case of trouble, and her ability to ride and shoot accurately made it an obvious niche suited to her.

She jogged the horse down through the field behind the house against the tree line, peering into the woods as she went by. She'd gone most of the way around the property's lengthy perimeter when she began to approach the area of the property that Daryl had basically laid claim to. As she closed the gap between her and his camp, she saw him busying himself with digging a small pit, likely for a meager fire. She said noting as she came upon him, but slowed the horse to a halt. He looked up, setting his jaw and nodded a small greeting to her.

"You ain't plannin' on runnin' off with that horse and goin' to look for that cocksucker, are ya?" he asked.

"Do I look stupid?" She snapped.

He cocked an eyebrow at her, tempted to give her the obviously smart-ass counter that she'd baited him with.

She narrowed her eyes at him, realizing she'd set herself up for that. "I thought we called a truce?" she countered.

"What? I ain't said nothin'." He barked, turning his attention back to the stick he was using to clear dirt from the hole. She sighed heavily, frustrated by the fact that they'd apparently regressed back to this point. Seeing there was no reason try to continue the conversation, she gathered up the reigns again and nudged at the horse's flanks with her heels, urging it to move forward. She heard him clear his throat as she slowly rode away.

"Sorry…'bout yesterday." He said. The apology was quiet, as if there was someone else in earshot. She stopped the horse, bewildered at the man's voicing, and turned back to look over her shoulder at him. He looked sheepish. Not wanting to prod him about the incident, she mulled over what she wanted to say before opening her mouth in response. "It's…Whatever. Shoulda let you be when you said, huh?"

He nodded. They both fell silent for a moment, neither of them ever much in the way of making conversation. She could feel that he wanted to say more. It was almost as if he wanted to explain his actions, but he hesitated. She'd gotten the briefest of glimpses of the scars that covered his lower back yesterday and wondered if they'd gone the length of it, as well as if that was what he was currently trying to explain. They were no doubt, at least part of the reason he reacted the way he had. She decided not to push, opting to no longer let him struggle in his search for words.

"Thank you." She said suddenly. His brow furrowed and he cocked his head, not understanding.

"Huh?" he responded dumbly.

"For this morning. Being there, I guess. Idunno." Her voice fell, feeling stupid for saying it now.

He shrugged and pursed his lips. "Rick asked me to go with 'im."

She scoffed and looked off over the field absently, able to take in more of the view from her vantage point upon the horse's back. "Coulda said 'no', though."

He shrugged again, turning around and walking back to the stone chimney to set himself down, stick still in hand. He tapped it on the ground for a second before speaking quickly. "Rick said you knew 'em. The guys that did it…Tried to."

Abashedly, she answered. "Uh, yeah. Kinda…They found me when my sister died. Kinda saved me, actually." She paused to laugh, seeing the irony of what happened. "Fucked up."

She saw him quirk an eyebrow, questioning. Whether it was in response to her finding humor in the unfortunate situation or if it was to urge her to explain further she didn't know, so she continued. She took a deep breath, realizing the conversation had just become a bit more in depth than either one of them had probably intended, and climbed down, out of the saddle. She led the horse to where Daryl sat down, parking herself on the dry, dusty earth just in front of him.

"We'd pulled over…Couple miles from here, maybe. She got out to use the bathroom." She began, "When she didn't come back right away, I knew something was up. So I got out the car, and when I looked into the bushes…"

Her breath caught. Eyes welling up with tears, she pressed on. "She tripped or something, I guess. Smacked her head when she went down. I dunno…A walker just happened to be right fucking there, too. So when I looked, it was already over her, rippin' her apart…I screamed, ya know? Freaked out. So the thing came at me. I couldn't shoot. I guess I was in shock, or something…I just started backing up. Fell backwards. It kept comin'. Then someone grabbed me from behind…It was Deacon. The other guy, Bill, shot the thing."

She looked up from the spot in the grass she'd been staring at to his face. His expression was intent but otherwise undecipherable. She shrugged. "Their car broke down up the road from where I'd stopped, so they were gunna take mine until they heard me freakin' out…We drove into town, cuz that was the whole reason they'd been out in the first place. Right? Scavengin'. Anyway, we were there, like, not five minutes when we got overrun and had to hide out in that auto shop I ended up stayin' in. We stayed until morning, when shit calmed down…Walked over to a few shops to see if we could find anything useful before we left…Gun shop was our last stop, then we were gunna leave…"

He ran his filthy hand over his mouth before speaking. "…So what? They just jump ya'?"

She nodded. "Pretty much. Got my guns away from me. Then, I guess, they were gunna take turns? Deacon was keepin' lookout in the doorway. Bill had me on the floor. I went catatonic or something for a minute…And then I looked over and there was a ballpoint pen on the floor next to me. I got my arm away. I wasn't gunna let that shit happen again…Jammed it in his fucking ear and got his gun…I missed the first time."

"Nerves." Daryl offered, simply. She nodded, half smiling and wiping at her face.

"Well, I didn't miss. I hit him. Twice. One in chest, one in the arm…He just ran off. Fucking pussy…Idunno if he lived, made it back to his camp, or bled out…Got eaten…I never found his body and I never saw him walking…And that's it. That's what happened." She shrugged again punctuating the end of her story.

The man rubbed his hands on his pants. "He's dead," were his only words offered as consolation. His steady delivery was almost completely assuring, as if because he'd said it, it became so.

She laughed sharply in response. "Yeah, well. Let's hope so, for his sake. Cuz I'll fucking butcher him."

Her frank morbidity caused him to let his guard down long enough for a quiet laugh to escape him. "Easy, Killer."

She shook her head, taking in his relaxed posture and his laugh. She figured this was as good a time as she'd get to dig a bit into him and his past a bit. She forced her smile to fade slightly, and narrowed her eyes, taking a leap of faith with her next sentence, "I heard about your brother…I'm sorry."

His expression morphed before her eyes, different emotions playing across his rugged features quickly before conceding, "Nothin' to be sorry for. He's still alive…Someplace. Ol' Merle's tougher than a fuckin' cockroach…'Sides, it's probably for the best this way, right now. He don't exactly go 'round tryin'a make friends."

"Well, you neither." She jabbed.

He nodded, chewing his bottom lip and dared her, "Go 'head, jackass…I'll see 'im again. He's 'round here someplace…'Sides, I got his bike. An' his drugs. He'll be wantin' them back."

She laughed. A steady breeze, more common now in the late summer evenings, distracted her momentarily as it shook the branches above them, gently causing the old tree to groan under its own weight. Despite the lighter mood, she'd decided not to press him too much more. Standing, she made a futile attempt at brushing the dust from her rear.

"I'm gunna finish up makin' my rounds, man." She said as she hoisted herself back up onto the sorrel mare. He nodded and stood, going back to his tiny fire pit. A feeling of accomplishment washed over her as she brought Nelly into a trot, continuing on with the task at hand.