AN: Hi guys! Thanks for reading and reviewing and hanging out with me. This is the second to last chapter and there will be an epilogue. I hope you enjoyed the story. If you haven't dropped me a note yet to say hi or let me know what you think, please type something into that little box at the bottom of the page and send me a line!

Also, please check out my girl Rhanon Brodie's fic called Runnning Battle. It's sublime and nail on the head characterization, SO gorgeous and my original TWD OTP: Daryl and Andrea. You won't be sorry!

Disclaimer: All recognizable elements herein belong to their respective owners. All other elements belong to me.

I barely slept at all that night, unlike the night before, tossing and turning, every sound and movement setting me on edge. Judith fussed in my arms as well as in her makeshift crib, and I didn't know if she was picking up on my restless energy or I was picking up on hers. I finally rolled out of bed at dawn and dragged myself down to our kitchen area to start breakfast and get her bottle ready. Daddy was the first to join me.

"Mornin', Bethie," he said, before giving me a peck on my cheek and dropping a kiss to the top of Judith's head. "What's for breakfast?"

We both laughed because we had the same thing everyday. "How 'bout bacon'n eggs? Over easy?" I played along, and he nodded enthusiastically. "Comin' right up." I turned back to my task as he angled himself into a chair and set his crutch aside. He'd laid a few maps out on the table in front of him when Rick and Tyreese came into the room.

We all said good morning and the men sat down at the table with Daddy, all three of them hunched over the map. Once I had Judith's bottle ready, I took her to Rick to feed so I could finish getting breakfast for everyone. Rick took her from me with a smile. "Thank ya, Beth," he said, easily adjusting the cooing bundle in the crook of his arm and working the bottle into her mouth. He resumed his map discussion with Daddy and Tyreese.

They talked about the route that Daryl, Michonne, and Glenn would be taking, and something about a rendezvous point. I wasn't really listening, though. I was still too distracted and balancing my tasks in front of me.

The morning wore on, hours passed, and chores were crossed off everyone's respective To-Do lists. It was like any other day, but an uneasy feeling twisted in the pit of my stomach, even more than usual. It lasted throughout the day and into the evening.

"How ya holdin' up, sis?" Maggie asked as she approached me, where I stood alone, watching the sun set. Nothing in the world seemed to have changed when I watched the sun rise or set; that was constant, and sometimes I could pretend that I was at the farm and would be able to turn around and walk back inside the house to find my mama at the kitchen sink.

When Maggie wrapped an arm around my shoulders, I smiled and turned to look at her. "Okay," I answered, studying her profile, thinking about how much of the turmoil I was feeling that she must also be feeling. "You?"

She was quiet for a moment, but even in her profile I could see her considering her answer until her brow furrowed slowly. "Maggie?" I prompted her further, then turned to see what she was worrying over.

There was a small herd of walkers slowly filling the yard, no more than a half a football field's distance from where we stood. They'd taken the fence down again. I saw flashes of the farm all over again, and that swirling feeling in my gut rapidly turned into a tornado.

Maggie slowly dropped her arm from around my shoulder and lifted the rifle from where it was balanced at her side. "Go find Rick," she said quietly, aiming her weapon on the herd. "Hurry, Bethie."

I took one last look at the herd then turned and ran inside the prison.

"Rick! Tyreese!" I called out as loud as I could, as I ran inside. Then I heard screams and ran faster.

When I found them in D, Daddy was cradling Judith in a corner, Sasha was fending off two walkers, and Carol had her knife buried in the eye of another. I heard Rick answering my calls and when I turned toward his voice, to the open grate next to where Daddy was huddled with Judith, two more walkers stumbled through the doorway.

The tall one—the one with one arm missing and a one foot twisted and dragging, with shredded and tattered clothes that had been soaked a million times over with blood and pus and gore—lunged for Daddy, and I didn't even think. I reached inside my boot and launched myself at it.

Daryl's calm, instructive words flooded my head as Andrea's and Rick's shouts to run flooded my ears.

"Eyesocket, temple, base a the skull." He tapped a finger right on that spot where I loved his lips and tongue to be. "That soft spot under the ear. Gotta be the brain, baby. Promise ya won't forget."

As Daddy turned his back, keeping Judith between his body and the wall, the filthy walker's rotting teeth connected with his neck. I screamed and my fingers gripped into its greasy, clumped hair. Then I slammed my knife upward under its ear. It's body immediately stilled, but not before its teeth had sunken into Daddy's skin.

"No!" I screamed again, yanking my knife from its head and shoving its body aside. "No!" I grabbed Daddy by the arm and spun him toward me, blood flowing from the wound in his neck and down over his shoulder. "Daddy?"

"Take the baby, Bethie," Daddy said, looking me steadily in the eye, as he handed Judith to me with shaky hands. I shoved the knife back in my boot and did what he said, then watched as his eyes rolled back into his head and his chest heaved.

"Beth!" Tyreese called to me. "Take Judith and go with Carol!" I turned in time to see him bringing a hammer down with force over the head of a walker, and the walker then falling to the floor. "Go! I got your daddy."

I turned back to Daddy slumping to the floor, then Sasha was suddenly next to me, gripping my arm tightly. "Let's go!" She pulled me away and we ran, my head spinning and my body feeling as if it were being torn to shreds from being pulled away from him; but I had to stay strong for Judith.

Out in the yard, Maggie and Rick were picking off walkers as fast as they came. Carol, Sasha, Carl, and I ran toward the vehicles, Sasha leading the way and Carl on my heels, each of them firing round after round.

We got to one of the cars and piled in—Carol in the driver's seat with Sasha at her side, and Judith and me in the back with Carl. "Where're we going?" I asked, trying not to fly apart, but we hadn't heard from Daryl yet. He was supposed to be scouting out a new, safe place for us. Our family was divided and scattered, just like we were after the farm, and I was terrified.

"Rendezvous point," Sasha said, looking pointedly at Carol, then Carol slammed the car into gear. I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. When I reopened them, I saw Andrea and Tyreese emerging from the prison, Daddy draped lifelessly over Tyreese's shoulder.

Carol drove fast for close to 30 minutes with no other sound in the car than Sasha quietly giving her directions. I couldn't get the thought of Daddy's bloody wound out of my mind. It took over all of my thoughts, twisting and morphing until I thought I might get sick.

I thought about Carl, sitting silently beside me, stealing small, quiet glances and giving me comforting smiles. He'd watched his mother cut open in a gruesome, emergency c-section, then shot her in the head to spare her the change. I didn't have half the strength Carl had to even give my daddy that final out.

We eventually came upon a clearly marked intersection of two highways. There was no sign of walkers, but it was dark, so we stayed in the car and waited for the others to arrive.

"You okay, Beth?" Sasha asked quietly, but didn't turn to look at me, her eyes continued to scan the dark surrounding us.

I nodded in answer, even though she couldn't have seen me. "I shoulda taken care of him," I muttered. "The way Carl did for Lori and Daryl did…" My chest tightened and I felt my eyes prick. I was going to cry. I was so sick of crying. I felt like such a baby compared to the rest of the group. I hung my head, holding back my tears, resting my cheek against the fluff of Judith's hair, as she quietly dozed against my chest.

"It happened too fast," Carol replied, barely audible. "Ya couldn't've known."

I shook my head, then gave Carl a sideways glance. He was nodding in agreement with Carol.

"She's right," Carl said, staring at me intently. "And you only had your knife."

My mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of how that could have gone down, and I wanted it to all go away. I needed to see my daddy one last time, to know that he'd been taken care of properly. And I needed the rest of my family around me; I needed Daryl.

I changed the subject. "Do Daryl'n them know about the rendezvous point?"

Sasha turned slightly in her seat. "Yeah."

I nodded then turned to look into the black night. Judith stirred in my arms and grunted, pulling my attention back to her. "Gonna have to find some formula, diapers…" I tried to lull her back to sleep.

It didn't take long before we heard a car approaching and saw headlights. It was Maggie, Rick, Andrea, and Tyreese. When they pulled up next to us, I could see that Daddy was slumped next to Tyreese in the backseat. I sat, staring blankly.

Maggie was the first one out of the car, running around the back from the driver's seat, leaving the door open and the engine running. She came to my door and pulled it open. "Beth." She breathed heavy and didn't say anything else. I carefully climbed out of the backseat and stood to meet her, and she wrapped her arms around Judith and me both, crying into my shoulder.

"Y'all okay?" Rick asked, his eyes scanning the group as we all assembled between the two cars. Maggie released me slightly, but kept an arm around my shoulders. Rick's gaze landed on Judith where she fussed in my arms, then it drifted upward and held my own gaze. The pain in his eyes matched what I felt in my heart, and I couldn't look away. I nodded in answer to his question while everyone else murmured some form of yes.

"Okay," Rick said, dragging his eyes from mine to look around at everyone as he spoke about next steps. "This is the turn off back to the prison route for Daryl and Glenn and Michonne. We wait here for 'em—shouldn't be long." Without further ado, Rick took Judith from my arms and the group walked a few feet away from Maggie and me, leaving us alone.

"Who…?" I asked, wondering aloud who had put Daddy out of his misery, looking just beyond her shoulder to where he lay in the back seat.

"Rick," Maggie answered, following my gaze.

I nodded. "That's good." My voice was barely above a whisper. I was numb.

Maggie squeezed my shoulders. "They'll be back soon," she said, and I knew she meant Daryl and Glenn. I nodded again, agreeing, as the night grew colder and our breaths turned to mist before our eyes.

Sun filtered through the lace curtains as they billowed in the morning breeze. His hands were strong and warm on my back, sliding around my waist, trailing my hip and thigh. My bed was warm, and his body was so close. Then he was kissing my shoulder, brushing my hair to the side to bare my neck.

"Baby," he whispered, tracing the shell of my ear with his lips and breath. "Baby, wake up."

I sighed and shifted, turning and reaching for him.

"Daryl..." I cupped his face with my hand, and his eyes... they were like a crystal blue, mountain stream, and happy in the sunlight and warmth. "I love you."

Then it was cold. I'd been dreaming. We'd waited for hours before Maggie and I finally climbed into the back of the car Carol had driven, and we fell asleep. I guessed that Maggie had left me at some point to stretch across the back seat by myself.

"Baby?" Daryl's voice was gentle and quiet. "You awake?"

I was facing him, and my eyes fluttered open to see his face in my hand. He was kneeling on the floor of the car, hovering over me. I slipped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down, closer, and he shifted to lay partly across the seat with me. It was an awkward angle, but I needed him close. "I missed you," I whispered, and he nodded then turned in to kiss my neck.

"I'm sorry, baby," he whispered, running his nose along my jaw and his hands up along my ribcage. "I'm so sorry."

I squeezed my eyes shut tight, the lump in my throat swelling to burst and the tears finally spilling over my cheeks. I let out a quiet, gasping sob.

"He was protectin' Judith," I whispered, sniffling and burrowing into Daryl's warmth. "He saved her."

He nodded in answer, holding me and letting me cry. "I know, baby," he said. "He was tough, your daddy. Runs in the family." He kissed me again, that time he lingered against my lips. Then he shifted to pull away slightly. "C'mon, now." He moved to leave the backseat, gently tugging me by the wrist.

"Where're we goin'?" I asked, but followed without resistance.

"Gonna have a service for your daddy."

As we climbed from the car, the sun was just peeking up over the horizon. Daryl pulled me into his warmth once again, as we stood in the chilly morning. "Hey," he spoke quietly in my ear, nuzzling my skin and breathing in time with me. I looked up into his eyes, questioning. We held our gaze for a few beats before he closed his eyes and dipped his head to kiss me again. "I'ma take care a ya, okay?" he muttered against my lips.

I nodded, taking his kiss as deep as I could, and letting him keep holding me.

Thank you Leiah, Rhanon Brodie, and MsKathy for sticking with me.