Notes: I took a couple of days off from this to work on a new project (not writing, pony modifying... if you know me on tumblr then you'll know what they hell I'm talking about). I thought I'd let this grow for a while and see what I came up with.

Here we go again.

They found a house.

It had enough space so they could have a room for Rick and Carl, and Maggie and Michonne, and Daryl could have his own.

Rick picked the smallest, barest room there. He made sure he secured it himself. Took out everything but the bed. Blocked up the windows too.

And once they put him in the room, he didn't come out.

They settled. Once they had food, some traps set, then the issue of Daryl came up again.

It was after they'd settled for an evening, before the night watch needed to start and once they'd eaten. Michonne had excused herself and come back with the bowl of food Maggie had left for Daryl. It was as full as when she'd left it, only the water bottle had been taken.

She'd noticed that Daryl only took a little food when he needed too.

"We need to do something," she told the others, putting the bowl of food aside. She felt like they were on the verge of losing him. It was hard though. They'd already come to terms with Daryl's demise after the lost the prison. And the man who sheltered alongside them was so far removed from the hunter they'd known, she wondered if they'd even grieve for him again.

"What can we do?" Rick said. He didn't seem interested in trying. They all knew Rick didn't want to trust Daryl again after how close they came to losing Carl. His indifference to the man's mental state scared Michonne.

"Rick, we all know what we saw when we bought him back here. The abuse." She would let her gaze waver from Rick's and she saw guilt and pain flash across Rick's eyes briefly before he stowed them away. "He can't deal with this shut in a room."

"I'm not the one shutting him in there," Rick defended.

Maggie had stayed silent, pulling at a loose thread from the jacket she wore, but she couldn't hold back any more. "You didn't see what I did when I cleaned him up, Rick. I didn't want to see. I know he had scars before. Daddy had told me one time, a long time ago. Back when we were at the farm. But these were new. All over his lower back and thighs." Maggie swallowed the lump that seemed to be rising in her throat, lowering her voice as she continued. "He did that to him. He took him back to a time where he was helpless and made him feel it again. And then he made him think that he cared. And that he didn't have anyone else." Maggie barely noticed the tears that ran down her face. Didn't wipe them away.

Rick sighed, rubbed a hand across his face. He hoped they might think it was from tiredness and not Maggie's words that caused the moisture to well in his eyes. But the idea of trusting Daryl again right now wasn't something he thought he was ready for.

"Maybe tomorrow, I can try and get him to go on a run with me." Michonne suggested.

"Just the two of you?"

"I don't think crowding him is a good idea."

"Turning your back isn't either." Rick reminded her.

"I'll be careful."

oOo

The heavy thud woke everyone up.

Rick was on watch and he motioned for the others to stay where they were.

Unlike them, he knew where the sound came from. Using a flashlight he headed upstairs.

He'd heard the floorboards upstairs creaking as Daryl crept across to the bathroom. Daryl always waited until the middle of the night to clean himself up.

Rick quietly made his way upstairs and opened the bathroom door. He was slightly surprised to find it unlocked and even more surprised that Daryl sat in a heap in the middle of the floor.

His eyes darted across to the door and then downwards when he saw Rick there.

In the brief seconds they'd made eye contact, Rick had seen the fear again and Daryl huddled up.

Rick closed the door and grabbed the towel from the back of it. he noted there was no lock on the door and it made sense now why Daryl came in the middle of the night to clean up. Except the fact that he'd not been very discreet this night.

Rick passed the beam of light over Daryl. His skin was wet as he sat naked on the floor and Rick dropped the towel down onto the man, half covering him with it. Daryl didn't move an inch as Rick watched him, light shining down on him.

He knew he was intimidating standing over him like that and at first, he couldn't find it in himself to care that much. But as Daryl refused to move even slightly under his glare, Rick lowered himself down.

"You can't stay there all night," Rick said.

When Daryl made no attempt to move still, Rick's patience ran out. Grabbing Daryl by the arm, he pulled the hunter to his feet, taking the towel with the other hand and dragged him back across to his room. Once inside, he let go of Daryl's arm and dropped the towel at his feet, before he returned to the bathroom and picked up the flash lights he'd left in there. One of them was Daryl's the other his own. Rick flicked his flash light off, leaving the other to illuminate the room.

Daryl stood stiffly where Rick left him, body trembling in the cool night air. It didn't help that he was still dripping wet or the fact he was standing there naked towel still at his feet.

"God dammit, Daryl." Rick said, anger getting the better of him and he picked the towel up and thrust it into the man's hands. "Dry yourself!" he said, as though he were talking to a naughty child.

Rick closed his eyes to his own temper, missed the way Daryl gulped down his fear yet his lip quivered with fright.

It wasn't until Rick opened his eyes that he felt a wave of sympathy hit him. Daryl was drying himself like Rick had demanded and it was the first time he'd been able to see the scars Maggie mentioned.

They weren't especially big, but there were hundreds of small inch long scars covering Daryl's back and the back of his thighs. Rick was curious how far round they went but wasn't about to ask Daryl to turn so that he could see.

The most pathetic thing being that he knew if he asked it, Daryl would have done it.

"I'm sorry," Rick whispered, eyes still fixed to the scars. "I'm so sorry."

Daryl froze at the words, looking just as frightened as before. He didn't know what Rick wanted from him, didn't know what would follow those words.

Rick flicked the flash light off and retreated from the room, closing the door firmly behind him.