Thank you very much to the reviewers RebornRose1992, Dragon, Iluvolympus, Kima Woldwood and jeanf. You're reviews always mean so much! And thanks to the followers and favorites!

I'm going to be changing the storyline a little, but that's only because I don't want to do the same shit the show did in the same order and everything like that. Now on with the story!

Sam couldn't sleep.

When her eyes had opened early that morning, she couldn't get them to close. Nightmares of the monsters all around her had haunted her dreams again, and even though she wanted to be strong and forget about them, every time she closed her eyes she would just see them dangling over herm wanting to take a bite out of her skin.

She had seem those kinds of monsters before, in a movie her and mommy had watched a long time ago, but she never thought that they would become real, and be as scary as they were today. She didn't like how they had to live now, how they had to hunt for food, or how they had to learn how to use a weapon. She didn't like knives, or the sound that guns made. It hurt her ears.

When she realized there was no way she would be getting back to sleep, her little feet had found its way down the ladder of the bunk bed her and mama shared and went outside to watch the sun rise. She didn't know how early it was, but it was early enough to see that the sun hadn't risen above the trees yet.

She sat on the pavement near the opening doors, a little bit away. No one was up this early. Her arms were wrapped around her legs as she held them close to her chest. Her head rested on her knees in boredom and tiredness. She wished she could do something, or at least get back to sleep. She hated waking up early.

The sound of a door opening caught her eye, her head turning over to see who was also up at this hour. As the hinges squeaked she saw a man step out with a weapon and her head tilted. The sun still hadnt completely risen, so darkness was still a bit spread over the land the prison was on. She got up fom her spot to look a bit closer, trying to see exactly what the weapon the man had in his hands was. When she finally recognized it to be a crossbow, she smiles.

"Mr. Daryl!" she yells to the him. He jumps at the sudden voice and turns to where it came from, only to find that Sam was running at him full speed. He sighs, running his hand across face angrily before turning to her. He nearly scared the shit out of him.

"What'd I say about scarin' people, Sam?" he asks annoyed.

"Sorry," she mumbles. "I didn't want to scare you. I can't sleep." His brow furrows.

"That's why yer up?" he asks. She nods, shuffling her feet.

"I kept having nightmares," she whispers. "All the monsters coming close to me. I wish I wasn't a wimp." He sees the small fear in her eyes and feels the anger disappear within him. He couldn't blame the kid. He had defiantly gotten used to the rotten look the walkers had, but some of 'em looked like they had walked straight out of 'Night of the Living Dead.' She was only four, after all.

He sighs at her sullen look and leans down to her height. She was looking down at the ground in shame. "Hey, c'mon, look here," he says softly. He places his hand on her chin and tilts her head up so she would look at him. He sees that some tears had fallen from her eyes and mentally punches himself. Ah shit, did I really look that mad? he thinks to himself. "Sammy-"

"I wish I was brave like you and mommy. I don't like being afraid," she cries silently. He places his hands on her shoulders in a comforting gesture, trying to get her to calm down.

"Sammy, ya are brave," he states, causing her to take a deep, shaky breath and look at him. "Yer one of the bravest little kids I have ever met in my life. Ya and yer mama. Both of ya are so brave it surprises me, especially after everything that's happened to both of ya. So don't you dare think that ya are a wimp. I would never let anythin' happen to ya and Lucy anyway." He wipes some of the tears from her face. "And stop cryin'. Don't look good on ya."

Her small smile returns to her face and she throws her arms around his neck in a tight hug. He was surprised to say the least, and a bit awkwardly places his arms around her. After a moment though, his grip tightens around her. It felt almost...natural to hold the little girl like this.

"Thank you, Mr. Daryl," she says happily. He didn't really know how to reply to the girls thanks, so he simply nodded, keeping his mouth shut. A minute later Sam pulls back and smiles at him. "Can you teach me how to shoot a gun?"

His eyebrows raise at the question. "Ya don't know how?" he asks. She shakes her head.

"Mommy says that they make too much noise, so she taught me about knives and how to use them. How to throw them. But I see a lot of people use guns and I want to learn how to use them." Daryl turns away for a second. This was a four year old kid wanting to learn how to use a gun.

"I think ya should ask yer mama first," he replies. She sighs sadly, but nods.

"Why are you up?" she asks.

"I had to go on watch. Gotta get up early to do that." Her head tilts.

"Aren't you tired?" she continues. He chuckles at the question.

"Course I am. Gotta sacrifice a bit to keep this place away from the monsters, right?" She nods, her mouth opening up to reply. But when a shrill scream echos throughout the prison, her smile is gone in the blink of an eye and a frown appears. He places her away from him worriedly and turns towards the the tall building. "Stay by my side, Sam. Don't run off." Sam quickly nods as he runs back to the prison, Sammy right behind him.

When they get inside, Sam nearly screams just as the others had been doing. In fact, most of them were still screaming. There were walkers all around this place, not as many as outside, but enough that she clenched onto the side of the doorway in fear. All of them were on the other side of the room, but were vastly approaching. Bullets flew and arrows soared.

"Mr. Daryl," she whimpers, her arms still clinging onto the doorway.

"Stay there," he commands, running off to go and kill the creatures. She doesn't even think twice about keeping her arms attacked to the doorway, far away from the walkers on the other side. She was trying hard not to cry as some of them clamored towards other little kids her age, but before they could touch them something went through there heads to kill them.

But she finally hears the scream she didn't want to hear, and then the struggle. "MOMMY!" she yells, her head looking for her mother. Daryl hears the little girls voice screaming and frantically looks around for Lucy's cell. In all the panic, he sees her trying to stab a walker that was maybe twice her size in weight. His arm didn't even hesitate in pulling the trigger on his crossbow, sending another bolt into the creatures head. It falls down to the ground in a tumble, while Lucy stared down at the creature in horror.

Daryl rushes over to her and quickly checks her over. She wasn't moving. "Lucy...Lucy are ya there with me?" he asks. His hands cup her face and she finally makes eye contact with him.

"He almost got me, Daryl," she gets out, her body shaking. "He almost got me." Daryl sees just how much of an impact that was making on her. Not even thinking about who might see, he takes the young woman in his arms as she breaks down. Her own arms sling around his waist, pulling him closer to her. She was crying into his shoulder. His hand was rubbing her back in a slow, circular rhythm.

"Yer fine, Lucy. Sam is fine, and ya are fine. Aint nothin' to be scared about," he murmurs softly into her hair. After a moment her cries settled down, and she stepped back to look around.

"Where's Sam?" she questions scared. "Sam!" she yells. Not a moment later the girl rushes through the cells door, her arms wrapping around her ankles. She was crying again.

"Mommy," she cries. Lucy lets go of Daryl to wrap her arms around Sam to calm her down.

"It's ok. I'm ok. Daryl saved me, see? No bites, no scratches." Sam wipes her nose on her arm and looks up at Daryl with a small frown, her eyes still watery and red.

"You did?" she asks quietly. He nods.

"I told ya nothin' would happen," he replies softly, knowing the girl was in a very fragile state right now. She sniffs, nodding her head and turning back to Lucy.

"I thought you were dead," she mumbles. Lucy holds her tighter.

"I'm not, honey. I'm not gonna be."

"OH MY GOD!"

The scream echoes throughout the prison and Sam's grip on Lucy's tightens. "No more," she cries into Lucy's shoulder a bit. Lucy sighs, placing Sam down on the bed.

"Daryl!" she hears Rick yell. Daryl looks to Lucy and Sam, the little girl still crying. Lucy looks up and nods towards the door.

"Go, they need you." Daryl nods and runs off to where Rick had ran while Lucy cradled Sam in her arms. She was crying hard. "Shh, it's ok sweetie. Eveyrthing will be alright. No one's going to hurt you. I'm ok and so are you." She hears a distant baby crying and knew that was Judith. All the commotion must have woken her up.

"Sing," Sam cries. Lucy sighs, thinking of a song that could get her to calm down. The movie 'Dumbo' came to mind.

"Baby mine, don't you cry. Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine." She feels Sam go slack on her chest and Lucy sighs. She had finally passed out from all the shock. Her four year old just witnessed all of this. She could only guess what the little girl had been feeling.

She lays Sam down on the bed and covers her with a blanket, hoping that she would stay asleep and let all the troubles disappear. She gets up from the ground and walks outside the cell quietly. When she closes the curtain, she turns around to see that some people were staring down the hall, while some were crying. A few had their hands on their mouths, trying to conceal the gasps they wanted to so desperately let out.

Lucy's brow furrows as she walks towards the hallway where Daryl and Rick had gone. Before she could turn a corner, someones hand reaches out to stop her. She looks up at the person and sees it was Maggie. She shakes her head.

"You don't want to go down there," she says softly. Lucy removes her hand.

"I want to see what's going on." She continues to walk, but Maggie was relentless.

"Lucy, really, you don't want to see-" She stops talking and catches up to her, the pads of her feet sounding off the walls of the prison. "Lucy you're not going to like it."

"Maggie, I've seen enough shit in this world. I'll be fine." When she turns the final corner, she sees all the people, including Daryl, staring at something on the ground that she couldn't see. Some in misery, some ion anger, and a few in shock. Lucy walks up to Daryl and lays a hand on his shoulder.

"What's going on?" she asks quietly. He doesn't reply. She turns her head and sees exactly what they were staring at, and Lucy's hand goes to her mouth in shock and disgust as she looks at it.

It was a woman from the prison. Her name was Nicki, and her and Lucy had actually been getting close, talking during dinner and sharing pasts. Nicki has actually told her about her boyfriend, Paul, and how he was going to propose. He lived inside the prison as well. He was staring at her, no expression read on his sullen face.

She was torn to pieces. Her blood was dripping from the limbs that had been ripped from her body. Her head was taken off, laying next to her body. Arms and legs were shaken off. Lucy felt like she was going to throw up. She backed up away from the dead woman, one of the few people in here that she had gotten along with. Her head began to feel dizzy.

"Who did this?" her boyfriend asks. She could hear the anger in his voice. "WHO THE FUCK DID THIS?"

"I don't know," Hershel states, staring sadly at the murdered woman. "But we know one thing. There's a killer in the prison." Lucy could feel the blood draining from her face. Everything started to turn foggy.

"Lucy?" she hears Maggie states softly, coming to her side. "Are you ok?" At those words, Daryl turns around from the bloody scene in front of him to see all the color in her face gone. He comes forward to stop from anything and happening, but as soon as he took one step, he was too late.

Her mind fogs over, and everything sinks into blackness as she falls to the ground. All she heard was the panicked shouts of the people around her.

~%~

Tensions were rising. It hadn't even been two hours yet and people were yelling, the prison group at the Woodbury people, and vice versa. Daryl was surprised Sam was still sleeping with all the commotion happening around the place. He was actually really thankful that she was still asleep, because if she was awake he didn't know how to handle the panic attack that the little girl would have over seeing her mother passed out in bed.

But for once, Daryl wasn't in the line of fire of all the yelling. After Lucy had passed out, he brought her to a room that actually had a working door so that no one would disturb what Hershel was doing. Daryl honestly didn't understand why she had fainted. He'd seen her eat daily. There was no way she had given her food to Sam. Was it the fact that Nicki was killed? He didn't even think they were that close that she would faint.

She laid in the bed, her eyes closed in a bow peaceful slumber while Hershel and Beth tended to what had made her faint, as well as the small bump on her head that had developed from when she hit the ground. Daryl stayed near the door, making sure no one came in. His arms were crossed and he was staring at the ground angrily.

"What could have made her faint like this?" Beth asks quietly, wiping away at the small trickle of blood that was making it's way steadily down Lucy's forehead. Hershel sighs for a second, shaking his head. He was seeing more and more people like this now a days in this world.

"I know exactly why," he mumbles, rubbing his face at the stress that was clearly visible. Beth looks at him with a questioning face. "She was poisoned."

Daryl's face snaps up at this statement. "What?!" he growls out. "Who the fuck would poison her?!"

"Daryl, the yelling isn't going to help this situation." Daryl steps back a bit, his anger not diminishing in the slightest, but even he knew the old man was right. He sighs, his eyes closing reluctantly, and takes a deep breath.

"How do ya know?" he asks more calmly, sitting down in a chair near the bed. Beth nods as well. Lucy was her friend, and even she wanted to know who did this.

"The IV traced a specific poison called Botulinum Toxin that was running in her blood. So whoever did this to her didn't just want her sick, they wanted her dead." Daryl feels his hands clench at the thought. He was trying so hard not to explode at this.

"How does it kill?" Beth asks.

"It paralyzes the muscles and eventually the reparatory system. It's meant to kill very slowly, usually a few days or more, but with everything that's happened today it speed up the reaction of the poison and traveled through her stream faster. Then with Nicki being killed it just added onto it. It's a very good thing she fainted in front of us. If she hadn't, ten minutes later she would have been dead."

"Is it all gone from her blood now?" Beth asks worriedly. Hershel nods.

"We've gotten it out, so she's safe for now." Beth sighs.

"So we have some sort of sickness roaming around the prison, a murderer tearing people apart, and someone who wants to kill Lucy." Hershel nods sadly.

"That's basically the gist of it," he replies. Hershel looks to Daryl to see what his reaction to all of this, but only finds him staring at the ground. He was either thinking hard about this, or really, really angry. Hershel nods to his youngest daughter. "Beth, go tell the people out there the story. I gotta talk to Daryl." Beth nods, a bit knowingly. She had a feeling Lucy and Daryl were really close. She gets up from her seat and goes outside the room, closing the door behind her. Hershel turns to Daryl. "Daryl?"

"Is she gonna be alright?" he replies softly, finally looking up at the old man. Hershel nods.

"She's gonna be passed out for a little while, maybe a couple of hours, but she'll be fine." Daryl nods, swallowing a bit while staring at Lucy's still body. "Daryl, are you and her together?" Daryl turns back to him, his brow furrows.

"No, we aint...together," he says, sort of thinking exactly what they were. "We're just...friends." Hershel nods, but even Daryl knew he thought differently about their relationship.

"Ok," Hershel states, standing up from his seat and heading over to the door. "I'm going to head out to see this sickness that's spreading. When Sam wakes up, and you know she will, you be the one to tell her what happened to Lucy."

"Why me?" Daryl snaps at him, but Hershel shows no signs of being affected. "Her kid aint my problem." Even he knew those words were bullshit.

"That kid trusts you a lot more than most of the other people in this place," Hershel acknowledges. "And I know that she would understand the news better from you then she would from anyone else." Daryl thinks for a second before nodding, looking back to Lucy. "You can't stay here forever, Daryl."

"I know that," he snaps again. "Just...give me a few minutes. Please," he forces out. Hershel nods, heading outside. When the door closes, Daryl lets out the long awaited sigh and places his head in his hands. This was exactly what he had been worrying about. Not wanting to care if this happened to someone or not, but with Lucy, it was so real. He felt like shit right now.

He hadn't even noticed the other scream that had ensued from the other side of the prison. All his attention was on Lucy. The only thing that made him worry less was the steady breathing and the movement of her chest going up and down. A few stray pieces of dark brown hair lay on her face, and Daryl gently brushes them to the side.

He needed to murder the person who did this. He needed to kill the person who murdered Nicki, and then torture the person who poisoned her. That was the only way possible right now.

He hears the door open and his head glances backwards to see Carol closing it. He turns back to Lucy and sighs. "Hey," she says.

"Hey," he replies glumly.

"How's she doing?" Daryl turns around and senses a bit of nervousness in her steps what on earth did she have to be nervous for? It wasn't like she had poisoned Lucy. At least he thinks she didn't. Carol was practically nice to almost everyone here.

"She was poisoned," he states simply. "What do ya think?" Carol shrugs uncomfortably.

"Is all the poison gone?" He nods, and unbeknownst to him, her shoulders slump a bit. "Two more people were killed." His eyes narrowed.

"Who?" he grinds out.

"Karen and David. They were both sick, but they were killed. The...the person strikes fast." Those were two other people Lucy talked to. Jesus, how would she react to all of this when she woke up.

"Great, fucking great," he mutters, standing up angrily from the chair. Carol places her hand on his shoulder to calm him down, but he jerks away. He really wasn't in the mood for one of her lectures.

"Daryl, they're heading out to get medicine. They need you, now." Daryl tries to protest, but realizes that doing so would be selfish. The sickness needed to be gone, and going out to get shit would make it go away. He sighs. "Daryl, why do you care so much about her? It's not like she's one of us." Daryl glares at her.

"I care about her just as much as I care about the rest of the group. She aint just some piece of trash. and if ya can't see that, then screw you." Carol's brow furrows at the insult, and she begins to speak, but the slow opening of the door behind her stops any talking. A small shadow appears, and Daryl looks over to see a tired Sam appear.

Her hands grip onto the door. She looks up at Daryl, and then at the bed. Her eyes begin to moist up. "Mommy?" she cries softly. Carol turns to Daryl once more.

"Hurry up with this," she bites out, leaving the room and slamming the door behind her. Sam jumps at the loud sound, but shakes off her discomfort a minute later and runs over to Lucy.

"Mommy?" she repeats more forcefully. She turns to Daryl, tears running down her face. "You said nothing would happen to her!" she cries. "You said you would protect her!"

"She's not gone, Sammy," he says softly, trying to calm the sobs that were escaping her. She spots for a small second and looks up at his tall frame.

"She's not?" she whimpers. For once in his life, Daryl feels his heart break at her expression, full of pain and sorrow. This little girl did not deserve to live a life like this, worried about her mother every single minute of the day.

"No, she aint. She'll wake up. Someone tried to kill her." Sam's eyes widen at the explanation, and she looks back to Lucy, her small hand taking her mother's.

"Someone wants to kill my mommy?" she whispers. "Why?" Daryl descends next to her and gingerly places an arm around her shoulders, seeing if she was ok with it. The little girl didn't even flinch. In fact, she wrapped her small arms around him, trying to stop the cries that wanted to get through.

"I don't know," Daryl replies honestly. Lucy didn't do anything to anyone here. He didn't know who would want her gone. "She'll wake up, but until then ya stay near the Greenes, ok? Din't need ya gettin' hurt." Sam looks up with a questioning look on her face.

"Why? Where are you going? Why are you leaving again?" He sighs, placing his hands on her shoulders again for the second time that day.

"I'm not gonna be long, Sam. I just gotta pick up some medicine for the group, ok? Ya stay near those women, or Hershel. Lucy's gonna wake up soon, but ya gotta stay safe." Sam nods, her grip on him tightening ever more.

"I don't like all of this," she states quietly. "I don't like it at all." He holds her close to him, staring at the sleeping Lucy.

"Neither do I, kid. Neither do I."

~%~

Review? :) Luv ya!

I'm heading out on my college program tomorrow, but like I said, I'll update as soon as I can!