hey everyone! so first, thank you all for the reviews, keep them coming, i always love reading it. You guys can drop me personal messages as well, I'd love to talk! Also, I hope you like this chapter, I think you will but anyway.
I own nothing, as usual (I know, sad but true) Wish I did own them, at least, Daryl and Rick anyway...

Enjoy:D

Chapter 9 -

When Glenn had told the others that there were walkers in the barn, it was safe to say that panic had risen in the group fairly quickly. When they had all made their way to the barn, Shane looking through the doors best he could, most of them were riled up.

Everyone of course, except Rick.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this." Shane said.

"No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick said.

"This is our lives!"

Glenn was pleading. "Lower your voice."

Andrea shook her head. "We can't just sweep this under the rug."

"It ain't right," T-Dog agreed. "Not remotely."

"Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time." Shane pressed.

Ariel, who usually stayed by Daryl, was by Rick this morning. But as the others spoke, she saw Daryl sneakily moving closer to her. She knew that though everyone was worried, Shane would be the one to probably lose his mind. Though she secretly agreed with him, not about leaving but about taking care of the situation, she would stand by Rick no matter what. He was their leader.

"We can't go."

"Why, Rick? Why?"

Ariel snapped at him. "Because Sophia is still out there."

"Okay," Shane closed his eyes and put his hands over his mouth, breathing in and out. "I think it's time that we all start to consider the other possibility."

Rick was becoming angry too. "We're not leaving Sophia behind."

"I'm close to finding this girl!" Daryl exclaimed. "I just found her damn doll two days ago."

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

Daryl paused, looking at Shane in disbelief. He walked up, waving his arm. "Man, you don't know what the hell you're talkin' about!"

Rick put his arm in front of Daryl while Ariel took him by his wrist. Shane shouted over them, "I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead; it's in the first 48 hours."

"Shane stop." Rick snapped.

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive and out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction."

Well, that was it. Daryl made for Shane and Shane was in a hurry to fight back. Daryl was yelling profanities while others screamed over him, Rick trying to push Shane away while Ariel, T-Dog and Andrea struggled with Daryl.

"Daryl, Daryl, enough!" she yelled.

"Get off me." he pushed them all away, walking off a few meters.

Rick watched Daryl go, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Let me talk to Hershel, let me figure it out."

"What are you going to figure out?" Shane yelled his face red.

Ariel had just about enough with Shane. "Shane just shut up!" she exclaimed, pushing his chest with both her hands. "This isn't your business, not right now. Rick said he'll deal with it, so let him!"

Shane had fire in his eyes that Ariel had never seen. He grabbed her wrists harshly, and Rick yelled at him to let go of her. Ariel's heart stopped as his hand clutched her. She would not be able to think properly with him holding her like that. There were too many bad memories that followed. Sure, she could stab or shoot a walker easy, but she could not do this, not now.

"Don't ever touch me again." he growled.

"HEY!" Daryl yelled, running up to him. He pushed Shane by the side, forcing him to let go of Ariel. Shane looked like he was going to fight Daryl again but Rick intervened, using his body as a shield and pushing Ariel and Daryl to the side.

"You good?" he murmured.

Ariel touched his arm, forcing herself to stay calm. "Yeah, I'm fi−I'm good." she smiled at him, getting her breathing under control.

Dale walked forward to Rick. "'Hershel sees those things in there as people...sick people, his wife, his stepson."

"You knew?"

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked angrily.

"I thought we could survive one more night and we did. I was waiting until this morning to say something but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"This man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no!"

"Just stop!" Rick yelled.

"Come on," Daryl muttered to her. "Let's go."

He took her hand which surprised her. She did not think that he would grab it around the others, but maybe he was too mad and riled up to really care what anyone else was going to say to him. He brought her around to the stables, relaxing when they got inside.

Angrily, he pushed away a nearby stool with a horse saddle on it. He groaned and crumbled over, holding his side.

"Are you alright?" she got on her knees next to him. "Jesus Daryl."

He huffed and puffed, sliding his way to one of the wooden walls, holding his side and looking at her with one eye barely open. "M'fine." he muttered, grabbing her arm. "How's your wrist?"

"I'm okay Daryl." she said softly, curling up next to him. "He didn't hurt me too much."

"Shouldn't have touched you at all." he growled.

"Hey," Rick came in, jogging. "I was looking for you two." he came down, steadying himself on his toes, his arms resting on his legs. "I'm sorry about Shane."

"It's okay Rick."

"It's not." he was stern. "That was not right of him, and I am sorry."

Daryl snorted. "Ain't up to you to say sorry." he winced, touching his side.

"Well we both know he won't." Rick sighed. He slapped Daryl's foot. "I'm going out later to follow the trail to Sophia."

"I ain't gonna sit around and do nothin'," Daryl made to get up but Rick and Ariel both held him down.

"You're not going out there." Ariel said. "You're going to go out there and just get hurt worse."

Rick nodded. "She's right, you're off duty today."

"Fine." he mumbled. "Be careful out there, don't take any of these horses, they'll throw you right off and beat your ass."

Rick chuckled and tapped his foot again, getting up. He touched Ariel's head before walking out, leaving the two of them together.

"Can I ask you something?" she whispered.

"I guess."

"Do you really think we'll find her?"

He clicked his tongue. "You losin' faith?" he looked at her sideways. "Come on, let me show you somethin'. Just help me up..."

Daryl took her to the house with the Cherokee roses. "Sit here." he told her, pointing to the ground.

"Daryl, what is this?"

"Just sit." he pushed down on her shoulder, following her a little bit after. He had to take his time to try and not hurt himself more than he already had. "You see it?"

Ariel sighed. "See what?"

Daryl pointed to the array of roses. "I'll find her." he told her.

Ariel smiled, and Daryl knew she had remembered the story. "Why do you want to find her so bad anyway?" she asked him seriously. "I mean, she was nothing to you before, you barely spoke to her anyway."

There was so much Daryl wanted to say. That he wanted to find her because Ariel loved her and saw herself in her. He wanted to find Sophia because he found himself in her. He had been lost once too, which she knew, but it had scarred him. Sure, it had made him stronger, made him learn to survive, but still, no one had cared, no one had noticed he was gone. There was just him in the woods, crying for the whole first night.

Instead of saying any of this, he said, "Cause I think she's still out there."

"You know what?" she grabbed his hand. "I think you're right."

Daryl smiled his small smile. "Know I am."

"You know, right now, in this moment, it's hard to believe that we're in the apocalypse." she got up and Daryl watched her. The sun beat down on her and he watched as she took another one of the roses, slipping it into her hair. Standing there, in the sun and against those flowers, he realised she was right. It was hard to believe that they were trying to survive the end of the world.

"Do you think we would have met, if...if this hadn't all happened?" he asked her.

She turned around and looked down at him. Her hand was out, waiting for him to take it. He did but he didn't pull himself up, he pulled her down. She sat in front of them, her hands on his knees, tracing her thumbs on his outlines.

"Yes." she said finally, after a long moment of thought. "I think we would have. I think the way the world is now, is just something on the side. Whatever is supposed to happen with people, the ones we find, the ones we love or hate, that was supposed to happen anyway."

"What happened, with you and your fiancé?"

She sighed. "There were so many issues. The bigger ones like he had to move to London for a job and I didn't want to leave my family, or how he was angry at me because I couldn't have kids, and all the bigger things led to stupid arguments, like having a fight over where to eat for dinner."

"He sounds like a jackass."

"Well, I'm sure I wasn't easy to handle." she nodded at him. "Come on, you've even said so yourself that I annoyed you."

"You don't annoy me enough for me to leave you." he said lowly.

She looked thoughtful. "I think that was a compliment."

He smiled lightly, his hand coming up to turn her strands away from her face. He touched the flower in her hair and asked her, "Do you feel broken today?"

"No," and when she smiled it went all the way up to her eyes, making them sparkle. "No, today I feel alive."

"Try and keep it that way."

"Why, hot stuff? Thinking of trying something?"

Yes. "No, just like the way it looks on you." he regretted his words even though they weren't anything bad. He just found that he sounded like an idiot saying them.

"Thank you." she said quietly, blushing. "Well, just so you know, if you would try something, I wouldn't stop you."

"Yeah, I know." he grinned, getting up. He took her hand and pulled her up with him, keeping it entwined with his as they began to walk back to the farm. "Believe me, I've thought 'bout it." what the hell Dixon, he snapped to himself, you're just spittin' out everythin' you think now?

She laughed so loudly and so deliciously that it made his warm. He wanted to swallow that laugh with a kiss. "Have you now? Are you going to tell me what exactly you think about?"

Daryl stared at her. "I don't like this game."

Ariel laughed again. "I've thought about it too you know, in case you're wondering." she turned so she was walking backwards, facing him and pulling his hand. "Don't you want to know what I thought?"

Yes, fuck yes. "N-no?" his voice was not at all convincing.

She laughed softly. "I've thought about touching you." she said lightly, her eyes hooded and full of lust. Daryl was definitely not going to survive this conversation. "Touching you everywhere, with my hands, and my lips." she yanked on him roughly and he was pushed against her and she felt his hard on against her thigh through his pants. "I would take you in my mouth and watch your face the whole time, so I could see how much pleasure you're getting out of it."

Daryl had to bite his lip, because just this, just her talking about it would be enough for him. He had problems with these things and he did not want her to find out about them, not like this, not now. So he put his hand over her mouth and begged her in the most pathetic of tones.

"I need you to stop." he pleaded. "Otherwise I'm gonna..."

She giggled and licked the inside of his hand. He made a face and pushed her off, wiping her saliva on her shirt. "You twelve?" he asked her.

She laughed again and grabbed his face between her hands, kissing him so hard on the nose it actually hurt a little. She walked off, and Daryl followed behind her, shaking his head and grinning lightly. He couldn't help himself.

"...were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago." Andrea said as Daryl and Ariel came up to the group.

"Yeah you were, what the hell?" Daryl scolded.

"Rick told us he was going out." Ariel said, crossing his arms.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." he waved his arm and looked around at Shane, nodding in his direction. "Oh, here we go. What's all this?" he pointed to the guns.

"You with me, man?" he asked, anger clear in his tone.

"Yeah." Daryl caught the gun that he threw at him, and even before Ariel could say anything he shot one to her, and she caught it despite her distraction.

"Time to grow up." Shane growled. "You already got yours?"

Ariel's eyes widened. She looked at the barn and then back at Shane. "Shane, no, Rick said that..."

Shane walked up to her and she tensed, Daryl moving with him to be sure that nothing went any way less than how he wanted it to. "Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daises when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't. I know you care for these people, I know you care about Rick, and I know, we all know, that you care for him." he pointed at Daryl, right there in front of everyone. Daryl looked away, shocked and embarrassed, but Ariel could not stare away from Shane. "I'm going to protect mine, are you going to protect what's yours?" he was still pointing at him.

Ariel felt herself nod.

"No," Maggie said. "You do this, you hand out these guns, and my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay Shane." Carl said.

Daryl walked over to Ariel while Shane went over to Carl and Lori. His voice was low, because Ariel was still in shock.

"This is happening." she looked at him.

He looked at her. "This ain't about you and me." he told her. "You ready for this?"

"No." she said honestly. "You heard what Dale said, Hershel thinks..."

"Don't matter what Hershel thinks." he murmured. "Remember that day at camp with Amy and Jim? You agreed with me that day, zero tolerance."

"I do agree, it's just−"

He shook his head. "Need you to be with me on this. So are you?"

Ariel took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh shit!" T-Dog yelled suddenly.

Ariel and Daryl turned their gaze towards Rick, Jimmy and Hershel who were coming out of the forest. They were leading two walkers on sticks and it only made Ariel feel all the worse about what Shane wanted to do.

"What is that?" Shane yelled as he began to run. The rest followed, Lori yelling to Shane. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled at Rick.

"Shane, just back off." Rick growled.

"R-rick..." Ariel murmured, she was so scared for him, only a bare meter away from something that was trying to kill him.

Hershel was angry too. "Why do your people have guns?"

"Are you kidding me?" Shane yelled again. "You see? You see what they're holding onto?"

"I see who I'm holding onto."

"No, man, you don't."

"Shane," Rick begged. "Just let us do this and then we can talk."

"What do you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick! They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do, they kill!"

"Put your gun up." Daryl growled, and Ariel did what she was told, having her gun pointed at one walker while Daryl pointed his at the other.

Shane was on a rampage. "These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy!" they had walked right up to the front of the barn now. "They killed Otis! They're gonna kill all of us."

"Shane shut up!" Rick yelled.

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" he took out his gun, and despite Rick's protest shot the walker three times. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?"

The pain on Hershel's face twisted Ariel and although Shane was right, Ariel could not help her heart that was breaking for him.

Shane shot again. "That's its heart," again, "its lungs. Why is it still coming?" he shot a few more times.

"Shane, enough!" Rick yelled.

"Yeah, you're right man, it is enough." and Shane walked right up to the walkers and shot them in the brain. Hershel went right down with it.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" he yelled, and Ariel felt her heart tighten. "Enough living next to a barn, full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now."

Rick was panicking. "Hershel, take the snare pole. Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now, Hershel! Take it!"

Shane was opening the barn with an axe, Rick yelling for Shane to stop, Daryl looking at the walker that was near Rick, Ariel trying to look at everything and everyone, but it was too much.

No, the voice inside said, it's not too much. You want to stand next to Dixon for the rest of your days, however many you have left? Then stand up straight, point your gun at whatever comes out of that barn, and shoot.

Finally Daryl looked at her, and when he nodded at her, that was all she needed.

The barn was open and Shane ran back to Rick, putting a bullet in the walker's head. Rick picked up his gun, while Andrea, Glenn Daryl, T-Dog and Ariel went up to meet with Shane, putting the walkers down one by one. It was easy for them, despite Rick's yelling. Ariel was between Daryl and T-Dog, not shaking, not fighting, but getting her target for most of her shots. Whichever ones she didn't get, Daryl picked up the last shot for her. This was what she wanted, this was all. She wanted to be a team, and now she was.

When it was all over and done, Ariel breathed heavily with the others, wanting to look back at Rick but she find she could not turn her head. Because there was one more, one more that came from the barn, slowly, as though it was scared.

Ariel dropped her gun to the floor.

"Sophia." she whispered. "No." she ran forward, but Daryl threw away the gun and caught her around the middle, dropping her gently on the ground, staying with her. "NO! SOPHIA!" she screamed, tears falling from her eyes easily. She was dying, everything inside her was falling apart.

Daryl held her against his chest, whispering in her ear, saying something, but she couldn't hear him. He was rubbing soft circles in her arms, his lips were on the back of her neck, whispering, but she couldn't hear, couldn't feel.

All she saw was Rick. All she saw was Sophia.

The one thing she did hear, was a gunshot.

There are a lot of different kinds of sadness. That's what Daryl thought about when he was sitting in the rv with Ariel. She wasn't talking and he didn't want to try and make her talk either. If silence would help her right now, if anything could anyway, then he would give it to her.

But what kind of sadness was this?

She wasn't a mother, so she wasn't feeling that kind of pain. It wasn't her sister, or her niece or her cousin. Daryl knew how it felt to lose a family member, because even though he didn't know what happened to Merle, he had come to terms with the fact that he would most likely never see him again. Daryl had grieved in his own, weird, silent way.

Ariel was just staring at the table, her knees pulled up to her chest. Daryl wondered how she was able to fit like that between the chair and the table but he didn't ask.

It's not that he wasn't sad too, after all, he had nearly died looking for the kid. It was a different kind of sad for him though, obviously. She had made promises to Sophia, read to her, held her hand, it was different. Maybe that's why she was sad, because sure, it wasn't a little sister, but it was a friend.

Daryl crossed his arms. What did he know anyway? Whatever sadness she was feeling, he would be there to try and be there in whatever way he could. The others, they could wait. They didn't need him to dig holes or burn people. He was right where he needed to be.

This would put them all back, all of them, especially Rick and Ariel. What happens now, now that the little girl they were chasing was dead? They were chasing after nothing, all this time. It meant something, finding her. It meant that things could still be okay here, every once and a while. That's what Ariel wanted, that's what she needed. Daryl needed it too. He wasn't able to find his brother, but finding a lost little girl...it just...it was supposed to mean something.

He just didn't want her to be broken anymore. Was that selfish of him? He wasn't sure.

Lori came in the rv, and Daryl nodded at her. "They're ready."

Ariel whispered, "She wasn't even mine."

"She was." Daryl disagreed lightly. "She was your little girl at the end." he jumped off the counter and went to her, putting his hands over hers. It didn't matter anymore, if people saw them or what they would say about it. "Come on."

She looked at him and sighed, in that way she always did when she gave into him. He walked with her outside, Lori in front of them, holding her hand tight. They walked to the gravesite and watched the others put the bodies in the three graves that had been done. No one was saying much, not even Rick, they all just watched Shane and T-Dog lower the bodies, one by one.

Rick walked over to Ariel and put his arm around her shoulders, kissing her cheek, whispering sorry to her. For the first time, Daryl didn't get jealous or angry. They were her family, and she loved Rick. She thought of him differently from Daryl, that was all.

When it was over, no one said anything. Daryl nodded once at Rick and took Ariel away.

"You could um..." he looked sideways at her. "You could stay in my tent if you want, tonight..."

Ariel nodded, for the first time in hours he heard her speak. "Yeah, yeah, that would help."

Daryl chewed on his lip and pulled her close, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I got one of Dale's books in there...you can read it if you want."

"No," she murmured. "I'm so tired. I just want to sleep."

"Middle of the day." he unzipped his tent for her. "If you sleep now, won't sleep too well tonight." he crawled in after her, his hands on his knees.

She stared at him and smiled lightly. "Then we don't need to sleep. But I'm not reading."

"You wanna talk?" he asked.

"No." she said.

"So...?"

"I want you to kiss me." she said, and before he could shake his head she moved closer to him and touched his lips with her hands. "Please listen to me. I don't want you to kiss me because I'm broken, or because I want to forget or because of any other reason besides the fact that I am in love with you Daryl Dixon, and I want to feel happy for one fucking day in my life."

Love. "You don't know what you're sayin'."

"I know what I feel. And if you don't love me back yet, or you do but you can't say it, that's fine, I'll wait for you to say it. But for God's sake we both want to be with each other, so please, just be with me."

"I don't know how." he said sadly.

"I told you I would show you." she whispered. "We don't need to do anything else. I just need to kiss you."

Daryl didn't know what to say. He kept on his knees and watched as she shifted, coming closer to him. It was hard for him to breathe, to think, to understand what was happening. He didn't know if this was the right time or not anymore, how could anything be one way or the other? All that he understood was that there was the smell of her, and she was closer, and her breath was mixing with his again.

Ever so gently, she pressed her lips to his.

Well that...that was all Daryl needed.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew how to kiss. He just wasn't sure that he did it the way girls liked. Mostly because when he got what he wanted he didn't need to kiss them. He didn't care about pleasuring the girls he was with. Not until now.

He wanted to take his time, but the taste of her overwhelmed him. He jammed his tongue in her mouth, grabbing her by her ass and lifting her up on top of him. He fell on his own and held on to her for dear life, like this was his reason for being alive. His hands moved up, all the way up her back, wrapping around her body, crushing her to him. Her hands, they were in his hair, she was running through them over and over again, her nails scratching his scalp in the most lovely way.

She needed to breathe, she pulled away, her head thrown back as his mouth ran down her neck, his tongue leaving a trail as he went.

She pulled on his hair and forced him to look up at her. He growled as his mouth was taken away from her skin, he wanted to taste more of her. To have his tongue travel all over her body, he wanted all of her.

And yet...

"Take off your pants." she breathed heavily, and those four words had his imagination in a spiral. Those four words made his hands grip her tighter, made his pants get tighter.

"I..." he lost his voice.

Somehow, she understood, and he realised then that this was the reason he was falling for her, because she knew his thoughts without him having to speak all the time. "It's okay." she moved his hair so gently. "We can do just this...for now."

He kissed her neck, and it tasted so good. "Guess this means I gotta take you crossbow trainin' tomorrow." he only spoke his words between kisses.

"Guess so." was all she said before she pulled his hair again, leading his lips back to hers.