Later That Day

"When are you going to do something about the way you feel about Daryl?" Amy Harrison asked her with a curious look in her eyes. Brianne stopped sewing the hole in Daryl's jeans as she bit her lower lip and then said quietly, "I don't know."

"So you know you feel something."

"I mean I did kiss him about two nights ago… I just don't really know what to do next… I mean if we cross certain lines now, Amy, then we're no longer just friends. And I'm scared to death to mess our thing up..." Brianne sighed and then added, "But it's driving me crazy because I've never actually wanted anything more than I want to tell him how I feel."

"So do it. Shane had his chance, I mean from what you've told Andrea and I, and he blew it. Besides, Andrea… Do not tell anyone I told you but she's kind of into Merle. She said he's challenging."

"I'm not sure I'd use the word challenging to describe him, but hey… She going to tell Merle? Because I can just picture that conversation in my head as it happens." Brianne gave a soft laugh and then shook her head a little. Lori and Shane were fighting again and Brianne nodded to Lori right as Carol asked quietly, "What's your history with Officer Walsh?"

"To sum it up. Girl meets boy. Girls brother warns her repeatedly about boy. Girl is stupid and does not listen to brother's warnings. Girl gets her heart broken not just once, but at least 3 major times. But this time, Carol, I'm done. Completely and totally done… Besides, why the hell would I want a little boy when there's more man in Daryl Dixon's pinkie finger than there is in Shane Walsh's entire body. A man doesn't leave the woman he's going to marry stranded in the middle of nowhere while he takes off to go tend to her sister in law."

"And now it makes sense, why you and Lori don't get along either." Carol mused as she grumbled quietly when she saw Ed leaving their tent. She hoped that just once, Ed would leave her alone, let her talk to the other women in the group.

"Somehow, right now, my brother is rolling in his grave. He loved her. He put her before everything… We all know how she's repaying him. She only 'mourned' for 60 odd days. If she really loved him, wouldn't have been that easy to just move on… But hey, I don't know the whole story and I didn't like her prior to my brother marrying her, so there you go." Brianne answered quietly, finishing the patching up of Daryl's jeans.

"That was a pretty hot kiss two nights ago… Maybe if you told him how you felt, Brianne..." Amy looked at her friend and Brianne got the dreamy and faraway look in her eyes again, it tended to happen if Daryl were around or if he were the subject of conversation.

"I…. I've never actually been the forward person in a relationship… I'm still surprised I kissed him, I mean.." Brianne faltered, raking her fingers through her hair as she watched the treeline, waiting to see him walk back into camp from his hunt.

"You made one move… Making the next one shouldn't be too hard.. Besides, it kind of seems like maybe he's not the whole approach a girl first kind." Amy said, but Brianne was too busy watching the road, the loud horn of the red Challenger that sped down it. "What the fuck even?" Brianne mumbled, nodding to the road.

The Challenger stopped, Glenn got out and Shane stormed over, swearing up a storm as he disarmed the horn. Brianne mused aloud, "And he finally does something that's actually of use." as Amy gave a quiet laugh.

But then the delivery truck slid into the campground as hot as someone could come in hot. And Daryl approached the camp, calling his brother's name. And as Brianne watched the others unloading from the back end of the truck, she saw no sign of Merle.

But then, the driver got out.

And Brianne heard Carl shout "Dad!" and take off at a run past her. Lori's face was paling more with each second and then Brianne saw her older brother walking towards his wife and son, towards where she stood herself.

"Rick… I thought you were..." Brianne slumped, Glenn managed to catch her -under a glare from Daryl, of course- and get her to a chair. Rick hugged his family, on the verge of tears. He'd almost given up finding them quite a few times, but he'd kept going, kept pushing.

And he'd found them, all of them, alive and well.

Brianne came to and ran straight to her brother, hugging him. "I thought you were dead. I came to see you, in the hospital…Before we had to come up here.." Brianne was crying but Rick hugged her and then said quietly, "Nope. I'm alive. And I think, Brianne, you left something with me." as he pressed the necklace he'd given his sister back into her hands.

"Where's Merle?" Brianne asked, a confused look on her face as she scanned the crowd. Andrea tensed all over, she got Brianne off to the side and explained quietly, "There was an incident… The son of a bitch was being, well… Merle."

Daryl caught the tail end of this and asked, "What the fucking hell happened?"

"He got handcuffed to a pipe on the roof of a department store… We were leaving, nobody could find the key… I tried to stay with him, Daryl… He made me leave." Andrea explained quietly as Daryl shoved his way towards where Rick stood now, talking to Shane.

"You got something to tell me, Rick Grimes?"

The fact that this was Brianne's older brother, that wasn't sinking in currently. The fact that his own older brother, Merle, was missing, that was what Daryl was primarily thinking about.

Brianne tensed all over and when Shane grabbed hold of Daryl, putting him into the choke hold, Brianne shouted at him, "Oh way to be a fucking man, Shane. Let him go. Now." as she went to push forward more, being stopped by Andrea.

"Did you not see 'im tryin to take my damn head off with the shovel in 'is hands, Brie?" Shane asked, an angry look in his eyes as he and Brianne stared each other down. Rick stepped up and said quietly, "We'll go back for him."

"Damn right yer gon go back for 'im." Daryl snapped, glaring angrily at Rick, shoving his way through the rest of the group, taking off to his truck. When Brianne walked over, he didn't hear her, he was too busy being angry, swearing.

She caught him off guard.

"If my brother said he'll take you back and go get Merle, Daryl, he will." Brianne said quietly, standing there behind him, not sure what the hell she could say or do in this situation. Parts of her knew that logically, Merle had probably gotten Merle into the situation he'd found himself in, but other parts of her knew exactly where Daryl was coming from and remembered Daryl taking her to the hospital to see if Rick got evacuated.

Daryl looked up at her, nodded quietly. The angry glare was still set in, and he could look at her and tell she was tense and skittish. "What are ya doin down here?"

"You looked like you needed someone around.. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, I know how it feels…" Brianne mumbled quietly, her voice smaller, shaky. She knew he was furious right now, and that the wise decision would be to leave Daryl alone, but… She couldn't, she didn't want to because the simple fact of the matter was that she loved him and it killed her to see him hurting and she could just tell right now… he was definitely hurting.

"Yeah, well, maybe yer wrong. And no, you don't know how it feels… Yer brother's alive and well right now, ain't he, princess? Mine's chained on top o' some god damn roof like a dog, waitin to die. And nobody gives a shit..." Daryl grumbled, glaring at her. It was sinking in now, her brother was the man who'd made the decision to chain his older brother onto the roof and then he'd gotten left behind. "Why don't ya just go on? Beat it. Don't want nobody around right now." Daryl snapped angrily, glaring out at the water, not even bothering to look at Brianne for more than a few s econds.

Anger was clouding his normal reasoning. Honestly, he didn't want her to leave. He didn't want to be snapping at her right now, either. He knew he was angry and taking it out on her but before he could stop himself, it was happening.

"Yeah, it wasn't a good idea to come over here. I'm sorry, I'll go." Brianne quickly turned, taking off, because no way in hell was she going to let Daryl see her upset. She got why he was upset, she knew that he was angry right now, but it still hurt, the angry way his eyes bore into her just now, the distant tone he took.

She shoved past Shane and Shane stopped her by saying quietly, "Guess yer seein Daryl's true f eelins now, huh?"

"Go fuck yourself, Shane. I'd rather be all alone than have anything to do with you ever again. Are we clear? Just because Daryl doesn't want me around right now... Doesn't mean I'll be crawling back to you." Brianne spat angrily.

Rick looked from Shane to Brianne and then got Shane off to the side and asked quietly, "What the fuck is going on with you and my sister?"

"A misunderstandin is all… Just a little misunderstandin… We'll be okay." Shane answered, holding Rick's gaze.

Brianne had been sitting down at the quarry pond on the sandbar for almost 3 hours. Daryl started to find himself looking around for her, whether he wanted to or not. Andrea told him that the last place she'd seen Brianne was down on the sandbar and Daryl quietly made his way down to the sandbar.

"Shane, I swear to God above, if you're down here when I look up.." Brianne grumbled when she heard the footsteps, heard someone sitting down next to her. She didn't look up. All she wanted was a few minutes to sort of calm down, reflect on how shitty her timing was and why a guy like Daryl Dixon would never go for an annoying pain in the ass like her.

"I shouldn'ta lost it on ya."

Brianne's head raised and her eyes met his. She shrugged and then said quietly, "I actually can't blame you. I mean I wasn't in the best frame of mind when I thought my brother got left behind in that damn hospital to die..."

"I still shouldn'ta lost it on ya. Shane been botherin you again?" Daryl asked, his voice a little tense and edgy because frankly, he was still madder than hell and looking for a fight.

And if Shane were going to use the little argument that he and Brianne had earlier after he exploded on her and she just quietly ran from him, well… He wasn't going to waste a single second, taking the guy's head clean off his shoulders.

The jealousy came up quickly before he could stop it.

"I handled it. Told him he could go fuck himself." Brianne shrugged, careful to avoid Daryl's gaze. She didn't want him seeing the redness in her eyes. She didn't want any man seeing her cry ever again. She'd made her mind up on that after things went so horribly wrong with Shane.

It didn't stop Daryl from seeing it though. But before he could say anything, Rick called his sister's name from the top of the hill.

"Down here, Rick."

"It's probably not safe, sitting down there alone in the darkness." Rick called out, shining his flashlight down to the sandbar. He saw the guy from earlier, Daryl Dixon, sitting by his sister. He wasn't quite sure what to think about it, really.

Lori informed him quietly, "She's been with Daryl and Merle since the whole thing started… Something happened on evacuation day and we all got split up. But Shane, he took me and Carl so we would make it out."

"And he left Brianne?"

"He tried to find her, Rick. She didn't want to be found."

Rick's jaw set grimly, but not wanting to fight with his wife about just how strange things seemed between herself and Shane and how it made zero sense that Shane wouldn't try everything to find his fiance before going to help Lori and Carl leave town, he just did what he'd been so good at doing before the outbreak, before his coma..

He pushed it all down as far as it would go.

"You cannot be seriously considering helping Daryl go back into the city to find his brother."

"I can, Lori and I am. It's the right thing to do."

"But we just got you back!"

"And I'll come back again, I promise. I need to go back anyway… I had more weapons, I left them behind in the hurry to get us all out alive." Rick stated it calmly, turning to walk back to the tent that Lori and Carl were sleeping in.

Down at the sandbar, Brianne looked up to find Daryl sitting there, quietly, smoking a cigarette. "I'm sorry… I know you needed to be alone earlier. I should've just let you be alone."

"It's okay. It's not a big deal."

They both went back to staring out at the water, the ripples being made by swimming fish just beneath the surface of the quarry pond. Brianne sighed quietly and then turned, looking at Daryl… She wanted to ask about the other night, the kiss, what it meant, but now was clearly not the time to do that.

Instead, she said quietly, "Do something for me tomorrow?"

"What's that?"

"Be careful… Come back here… To me… In one piece." Brianne said quietly, her eyes fixing on his. Daryl blinked a little, as if her words shocked him, as if the fact that she wanted him to be okay shocked him and the two started to lean in again.

Daryl pulled her into his arms, much like the last time and his lips found hers. The kiss was slow, lingering, he nipped at her lips, she nipped at his, both succeeded at taking the other's breath away and when it broke, Brianne stood and started to walk quickly up the hill. Daryl sat there in the darkness for a few minutes collecting himself.

"That's what's gon get my ass killed. Attachments are not a good thing, man." Daryl muttered to himself even as the smirk was coming easily. He knew deep down of course, he was already attached in a thousand different ways he couldn't possibly ever explain, to himself, let alone to anyone else.

When he'd finally gotten himself together again, he stood, heading back up the hill. He bumped into Shane and the two had this two minute staredown. Daryl leaned in and practically growled at the other man, "Leave 'er alone or I'll kill ya. We clear?"

"Funny, Dixon, I was about to tell you the same thing. I mean judging from earlier… You probably just blew it all to hell."

"I don't give a shit. The point is, Walsh, keep yer ass away from 'er. Or you die." Daryl turned and stormed off, in the d irection of his truck bed. Which was where Shane had seen Brianne heading to.

He grumbled to himself as he watched Daryl getting into the truck bed, knowing Brianne was already inside the truck bed. He punched at the side of his Bronco.

"Just wait, Dixon… She's gon see what you really are.. Then I'll step in and save 'er from it." Shane glared at the Ford where it sat parked in the darkness.

Inside the bed of the truck, Brianne was already sleeping in her designated area when she heard Daryl getting settled into his. What surpised her was when he rolled over and his arm slipped over her in the darkness.

It was something he hadn't done. He wasn't big on physical contact with other people, Brianne knew this.

Rather than call any sort of attention to it and make things even more awkward than they might already be at the moment, she snuggled herself in comfortably and not too long after, she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, it was to find that Daryl and her brother and two other men, Glenn and T Dogg had already left to go back to the rooftop Merle had been left on.

I'm so shocked right now, I have 13 reviews! So happy! -hugging everyone who reviewed-. I also want to thank you 22 favoriting and 32 following. Without everyone's encouragement, this story wouldn't have made it this far and I owe you all my deepest thanks. I'm so glad that so many seem to actually want to keep reading!

Okay, so Rick is back! There was a lot of action going on here, I hope I got everyone IC, I tried not to focus entirely on the OC, if it seems like I did, I'm sorry. I do have a question for everyone reading though... I thought about having Merle be found as opposed to going missing... Because I've been toying with the idea of having a Mandrea (merle and andrea) pairing as the secondary pairing for the story. Plus, I happened to like Merle too and kind of hated it when he and Daryl got split up so early in.

I'm undecided as to which way I'm going to go as of right now, but I'm working on that chapter as we speak.

Daryl and Brianne sort of had a rough patch in this chapter, but realistically, I think they'd have reacted similar. I hope they would have, at least. I mean her brother essentially made the decision to leave his brother behind so yes, there would be tension. And no worries, she will NOT be going to Shane. I hated that damn guy. Anyway, here you go, have more sexy moments and fluff and a whole lot of chaos too. I hope you guys like it!