Good morning! This one isn't as late but it is a little shorter. I hope you all enjoy this one. It's just a filler though so beware. I feel like most of these chapters have been fillers. littleshelly, I haven't forgotten what we talked about and I'm getting to it, I promise ;) Thank you all for reading! Have a great day!

Chapter Eleven

Daryl slammed the door shut behind them and then he turned around and punched it twice. Unfortunately for him it was an old building with solid wood doors and his hand was left throbbing. When he spun around Carol was standing there staring at him with her hands on her hips, she wore a worried expression that ate at his gut.

"You shouldn't hurt yourself over this. We're gonna be just fine, okay." She held his gaze for a long time but the certainty in her expression did nothing to relieve the boiling anger that rolled through his mind. It was nearly blinding. He wanted nothing more than to make that man bleed.

He tore his eyes from hers and stormed into the kitchen. He didn't need to hear any more bullshit reassurances. He needed to get his ass to that fucking town, find that psycho bastard and make him suffer for the shit he had said. for the shit he wanted to do. Earlier he had thought it best to leave Woodbury alone for now. But shit just got real. He was going to that town and he would kill as many people as he had too until he got to Philip Blake and then he was going to kill that son of a bitch slow. He would, for the first time in his life, channel every single ounce of Buck Dixon's blood that pumped through his veins and he would make that man feel more pain than he could ever imagine.

He braced his hands against the counter and hung his head for a few seconds. He felt her arms slip around his waist and then her face press into his back. He put his hands over hers but realized they were shaking and then placed them back on the counter.

"We just have to keep ours eyes open. We'll be able to protect ourselves if he comes." She said into his shirt.

He turned around slowly and pushed her hair back from her face. "That ain't gonna happen." He said softly. "If they come here, we're dead. I'm goin' there."

Her eyes widened and she stepped back, shaking her head. "You can't do that, Daryl."

"I can't let him come here." He said firmly.

"How do you know that man is even telling the truth. We don't know him." Her voice was filled with fear.

"Then how'd he know your name? How the fuck could he have known you were pregnant? You said yourself we don't know him," He said angrily. He had to keep himself in check and not take this out on her.

"Daryl, please think about this. Maybe we can leave. We can find somewhere else to go..." She let her voice trail off when she realized that it wasn't going to happen that way. They had already tried to leave and there wasn't a way out. This was all they had.

He closed the distance between them and placed his hands on her hips. "It's gonna be fine, alright. Just don't worry about it." He didn't want her to get stressed out, even though they just got the news that every one of them were in danger. He knew his words were falling on deaf ears when she shook her head quickly.

He thought that she was going to argue and she had all the right in the world too. He remembered how he had felt just earlier when he had been arguing with Shane about all of this. She felt the same way he did but he couldn't risk waiting around for that man to come to the town and bring an army down on them all. But she didn't argue at all. She just put her head on his chest and stood there. She didn't cry either, which he had expected. She wasn't calm by any means. He could feel her own hands shaking on his back when she wrapped her arms around him, but there were no tears.

"We'll be fine." He muttered, hoping that he was telling her the truth. He wanted to leave now. He wanted to go to that town as soon as the sun set and then finish this. He knew that son of a bitch was no good the moment that Blue had decided he wanted to tear into the weird bastard. But they needed a plan. Going in there all fired up was a stupid move. But right now he had to make sure she was alright. She was his priority and from what that new guy said, Philip wasn't planning on doing anything right away.

"What are the odds of this happening to me twice?" She asked miserably. "I'm not very interesting. I've never been the type to draw too much attention to myself. Why the hell is this happening again?" She finally pulled her face away from his chest and looked up at him with sad blue eyes.

All he could do was shake his head. He had been wondering the same damn thing. Sure, to him she was fucking perfect. She was smart, beautiful, funny, kind, loving... he could go on for days, but she wasn't one that went out of her way to draw attention to herself. That was one of the things he liked the most about her. So the odds of having two freaks after her in a matter of months was pretty crazy. He could hardly believe it himself. "Are you scared?" he asked.

She met his eyes and seemed to be thinking about it before finally shaking her head. "I'm not letting this get to me. As crazy as it sounds I feel safe. You wont let anything happen to us. I know that. So I can't say I'm afraid for me but I can't help but be afraid for you. You have to promise me you wont do anything stupid."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Depends on what your definition of stupid is."

"Daryl, I'm serious." She groaned.

"So am I. If you think us doing something to him before he gets to us is stupid then I can't promise you that." He didn't want to scare her but he wasn't going to lie to her either and he wasn't going to make any promises that he couldn't keep. He had no choice but to try to stop this. He had to protect her and the baby.

Now it was her staring at him with narrowed eyes. "You don't have to be the one to do it. Buck and Merle and the others can go there. You don't need to go with them."

He hadn't planned on going with them before but now this was personal. If he didn't do something about this himself then Shane would have been right and Daryl couldn't let the others do this in his place. "I can't do that." He gripped her shoulders gently and then pushed her away slightly, dipping his head so his face was only inches from hers. "I can't do that. You're mine. The baby is mine. And you two are what the bastard wants. What the fuck kind of man would I be if I sat here with my thumb up my ass while the others went and fought for whats mine?"

She frowned. "For one, that is so sexist. For two, you would be alive. Anything could happen to you out there. If we're your main priority then you should do everything you could to keep yourself alive."

"Carol, I have to do this." He muttered.

Finally she let the tears fill her eyes, filling him with guilt. But he really couldn't do it. He couldn't send the others there to do his dirty work. He didn't even want too.

~H~

Buck tried to keep his anger in check as the bumbling little idiot with the moronic mustache stuttered through the same story he had told the others. He was afraid, that was obvious, even though Buck hadn't done or said anything that would cause the man to be afraid.

The boy that had escaped with him was apparently orphaned after the dead started walking. He looked to be about thirteen years old and didn't say much at all even though Oscar tried to coax a conversation out of him. His name was Duane. He, too, watched Buck suspiciously. Blue took an instant liking to the both of them which, as stupid as it seemed, put everyone at ease. At the moment the man that called himself Axel was rubbing Blue behind the ears, using the dog as an excuse to not have to look at Buck.

"So you know for sure that the son of a bitch is after my son's woman? And my goddamn grand kid?" he was trying, but wasn't succeeding. He was speaking from between clenched teeth. He felt like the room was too hot as angered boiled through his veins. Axel shifted uncomfortably in the chair he was sitting in at Buck's kitchen table.

"If your son's woman is this Carol person he was talkin' about then I 'spose so, mister. I thought y'all needed to know. I didn't feel right takin' part in somethin' like that. I was with that group cause it was that or die and I didn't wanna die. But I had enough. I ain't a bad man. Not like they are."

Buck felt Andrea's hand on his shoulder and he tried to relax into her touch but he couldn't force his tense muscles to sink into it. "And you think it's gonna take'em a while to do this?" He asked.

To Buck's surprise it was the kid that spoke up. "I heard'em talkin'. They didn't know I was by the window. They wanna get more guns and ammo first. The man said that he's gonna do whatever he needs to do to take back what's his. He's a real freak."

Buck locked eyes with the boy. There was something about this kid that he liked for some reason. At first he hadn't been too thrilled about taking on the responsibility of someone so young but now he didn't think he would have that much of a problem. It wasn't like the kid was some little snot nosed toddler or anything.

Shane, Rick, Oscar and Merle were standing around the small kitchen while Michonne leaned into the doorway. Merle looked about as murderous as Buck felt. This wasn't just there group that was being threatened. This was some sadistic freak that actually wanted to take Carol and the baby and pretend they were his. That baby was blood and Carol was like his own. She was like a sister to Merle and he knew that Merle was crazy about the baby already. This Blake character didn't know what kind of fuse he had lit. there was going to be pain brought to that man. A lot of pain.

"Merle and Shane can go with me tonight to scope the place out. Daryl, Rick and Oscar can stay behind with the others." Buck said in a harsh voice.

Merle nodded.

"Hell yeah. This son of a bitch ain't gonna get his hands on her or that baby. I'll kill him myself." Shane was scowling.

"Not unless you have no other choice," Buck said as his eyes landed on Shane. "He's Daryl's. When this all goes down, he needs to be the one to end him."

Shane didn't look too happy at first but finally he nodded. "I guess you're right. But I sure as hell hope I find myself in a situation where I ain't got no choice."

"Jesus, Shane." Rick mumbled.

Buck liked Shane. He actually liked them both but Shane seemed to be the one that knew that this world called for a different type of man than who the two of them had been in the past. He was learning quickly. Rick was still a little stuck. He was a fine leader and a capable man but he wasn't cut out for the gory stuff yet. He would be eventually, Buck was sure. But right now he could tell that the thought of simply killing their enemy seemed to be a little extreme. But there wouldn't be anything he could do about it. It wasn't like Rick could march into town with a warrant and then arrest the asshole. Nope. The asshole had to die. And this would be Daryl's kill.

"So, do ya want us to leave?" Axel asked.

Buck gazed at him for a long time before making his decision. The dog thought the guy was okay and he had risked a lot to get here to warn them about Philip's little plan to execute them all and kidnap Carol. Hell, him and the kid coming all the way here had probably saved all their lives.

"There's a few extra apartments on the third floor. The kid can stay with me and Andrea. There's an extra bedroom."

"I can take care of myself." The boy snapped.

Buck gave him a level look. "You can make yourself at home here in this apartment or you can hit the fuckin' road, boy. It's up to you. I don't give a shit either way. But I ain't handin' over an apartment to some kid, ya got it?"

Duane looked like he wanted to argue but he finally nodded. "Yes sir."

Buck stood up then, causing Axel to stand up quickly himself and then nearly fell over when his feet somehow got tangled up in the chair legs.

"We leave tonight. Y'all need to make sure you're ready." Buck said as he watched the man steady himself.

~H~

"Tonight?" Sasha hissed.

T-dog and Tyreese both nodded.

"What about the biters?" She asked. "We don't even know for sure if those men were telling the truth."

T-dog frowned. "They wouldn't have made it up. There wasn't any reason too. And I'm tellin' you, the Dixon's took that town. My town. I'm goin' home, Sasha. The Dixon's are good men and I'd bet that they are the ones that took it. And it isn't just them either. There's others there and it's gotta be safer than this place."

"How do you know for sure it's these friends of yours and not some other sick freak?" Sasha argued.

T-dog sighed. Why was it so hard for this girl to just listen to him? They had all three heard the men talking before Philip had taken them someplace where they could discuss it without the rest of the town over hearing. The new groups leader had described Buck and the other two Dixon's. They had also mentioned that they were dangerous. He'd learned that most people had looked at them like that before but it really wasn't the truth.

"I just know, okay." He snapped, not meaning too. He was so tired of her questioning everything him and Tyreese had to say. "I know it's them and we'll be safe there."

"How safe are we gonna be when those things get a hold of us as soon as we go over that wall?" She snapped right back.

"They wont. All we have to do is get to one of those cars. They've let a whole lot slip when they're around me. I know where they keep the vehicles. All we have to do is make it to one." Tyreese said eagerly.

T-dog knew that he wouldn't leave either of them behind, especially not both of them. He really hoped that Sasha would jump on the band wagon with them and agree to this. He had a feeling that if he didn't get them out now, he wouldn't be able to at all.

When she finally nodded him and Tyreese shared a relieved look. They hurriedly started packing up things they may need and sat their bags by the door. They had hours to wait still but T-dog didn't even care about that. As long as he knew they were leaving. At the moment that was all that mattered.