Disclaimer- I own nothing except my OCs and my own ideas

The sun was just starting to set when my engine started to sputter. I looked at the gas gage and saw that I had probably a fourth of a gallon left. This camp seemed to be pretty far out of Atlanta. I let off the gas enough to fall back into sync with Merle. I looked out the window and looked to Merle. He was smoking a cig and looked to be deep in thought. I didn't want to pull him from his thoughts, but I needed to know how far away we were since I was running low on gas. I was about to ask how much further it was, but he pulled ahead and turned off onto a back road. I guess we were closer than I thought. We went up a long, snaking trail on the mountain. Merle pulled into a parking lot. I was still going pretty slow, so as to not make too much noise. By the time I got up there, I was about sick form the twisting roads. I shut the car off, and got out and went to turn around. I stared right into a loaded bolt in a crossbow. The man pointing it at me stared at me like I was the devil. I knew right away that he would not hesitate to pull that trigger. I looked behind him and saw two more people with guns pointed at me. One had curly dark hair and the other was older with white hair and a beard. He was standing up on top of an RV.

"Guys, it's okay. She helped save me from Atlanta." A voice came from behind them, which I instantly recognized as Rick's.

The two men with the guns lowered their weapons, but the guy with the crossbow refused to put his down.

"Daryl!" The guy with the dark curly hair said harshly. The man, Daryl, winced, and hesitated lowering his crossbow. I sighed, exasperated, and brought my arm up and pushed the crossbow down. He jerked back like I had burned him or something, and glared at me. I glared at him and walked to the group.

"Where's Griffon?" I asked.

No sooner had I asked the question Griffon appeared and looked at me. We nodded at each other. That single nod said everything that needed to be said without getting to emotional. Rick walked up to me and put his arm on my shoulder, which made me flinch away. Rick looked at me with apologetic eyes and removed his hand.

"Everyone, this is Sapphire. She's Griffon's brother, and the girl who saved me from being tapped in the tank for all eternity" he told everybody, with a small smile. Some people said hi, some nodded, or some, like Daryl, just stared at me. I nodded back to them. I hate being the center of attention. Suddenly, a woman with long brown hair rushed up to me and pulled me into a tight hug. I stood there, again, not knowing what to do, and let her hold me.

"Thank you so much for saving my husband" she nearly cried while whispering to me. I stood there, wishing she would let go of me. Rick came up and pulled the woman away from me. He whispered something in her ear, and she nodded. "Sorry. I'm Lori Grimes. You know my husband, Rick. And this is Carl." She said, motioning to a young boy who looked to be about 10 or so. She wiped her eyes and hugged Rick. Another man came up to me, the one who had the curly dark hair.

"Shane Walsh. Rick's deputy" he said, holding out his hand. I hesitated, but eventually reached my hand out. When our hands touched, I tried my best not to flinch away. We shook hands briefly, but as soon as I could, I let go. I took the chance to look around and get a view of my surroundings. There were a lot of tents forming a semi-circle. There was the RV, a few other cars, and a big campfire pit. There wasn't really much of a fire in it, only glowing embers. I guess so that they couldn't be found by walkers or other people. I looked to my right and saw Merle going back to what must be his tent, and Daryl following him. So, this Daryl must be Merle's brother. Interesting. Some of the people went back to the fire. Shane went back with Rick and his family. Glenn appeared and smiled really big when he saw me. I gave him a small wave and walked over to him.

"Hey. You made it." Glenn said as calmly as he could. But I could tell he was overjoyed to see me.

"Yeah, I did." I responded.

"Well, I guess you're staying?" he asked hopefully.

"For now" I told him.

"What do you mean?" he said, his face falling a bit.

"Griffon believes it's safe in numbers and we need to stick with you guys to survive. I think we'd do just fine on our own, but I need to look out for my brother. You seem like good people, but I can't be completely sure until we've stayed for a while." I explained to him. I think that was the most words I had ever spoken in a conversation.

Glenn nodded in understanding. "Well, I guess you'll need a place to sleep. You and Griffon." he said.

"It's fine, I can take watch on the RV if you want…" I started.

"No. You need sleep and you've done more than enough for us already. Please." He practically begged me.

I looked him over, contemplating what he said. I nodded. "Okay"

Glenn grinned and went to one of the cars and opened the trunk. He pulled out a bag and brought it over to me. "Here's an extra tent. It's big enough for you and Griffon. You'll have to set it up over there between the Peletier's and Daryl and Merle's tent." He said.

I winced. Now I have to sleep in a tent near the man that wanted to shoot me? Great. Just fucking great. I took the tent from him. "Thanks Glenn." I said.

I walked over to Griffon, who was hitting it off with Carl and another little girl with short dirty blonde hair. I walked up behind him and tapped him on the back with my knee. He looked up from where he and the two kids had been sitting on the grass and talking.

"Hey. Sapph, this is Sophia." he said, motioning to the girl.

"Hi. You're Sapphire?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Griffon was telling us about you." Carl said.

I looked at Griffon and he just shrugged back at me. "We have a tent to set up. Can I borrow my brother for a minute?" I asked the kids.

"Sure" Sophia said.

I motioned my head to where we needed to put out tent up at. Griffon stood up, nodded, and walked over in that direction. I smiled as best as I could at Carl and Sophia. "Thanks. You can have him back after we get the tent set up."

Sophia giggled. "Okay" she said, smiling.

I turned and walked over to Griffon. I started to take everything out of the bag and set the tent up. With Griffon helping me, it only took about 10 minutes. I walked over to the convertible to get some of the stuff we got for the group. There was a good crowd around it. Everyone was admiring it. I opened the trunk and back doors. I turned to Shane. "Merle and I were able to get as much stuff as we can. There's food, drinks, and other necessity items in there." I told him.

"Thanks. We needed more supplies anyway, so this saves us a trip into town." He said.

"Where'd you get such sweet ride?" Glenn asked. He was looking at the car as if it were a naked model or something.

"I found it in an alley. Gas in the tank and everything" I said.
"Can I drive it?" he asked.

"Sure, whenever you get the chance. You might have to fill the tank up" I told him.

He almost jumped up and down at that. I turned around to go to my truck to get my and Griffon's things, but came face to face with Daryl. He was quiet enough to come up behind me without me hearing him. He must be a hunter like me, I thought. I looked at him, and he just looked away. I stepped around him, and walked over to my truck. I climbed up over the tail gate and into the bed of my truck. I checked to make sure all of our bags were still there, and they were.

"GRIFFON" I shouted out to see where he was. He came running over.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Take your bags over to our tent. Here." I said, tossing him his two bags. He caught the first one with ease, but the second one nearly knocked him over. He recovered quickly, blushed and walked over to the tent. I picked up the remaining two duffle bags, the heaviest ones that Griffon would never be able to manage in a hundred years, and put them crisscrossing over my chest and shoulders. I climbed over the tailgate again with some difficulty and jumped down. With that much weight on my shoulders, my knees buckled a bit, but I was able to stand back up. I walked around the side of the truck and nearly ran into Daryl.

"What, are you followin me now? Makin sure I ain't killin nobody?" I spat sarcastically.

"Hey, listen here girly, I didn't know who you were. I had to protect the group." He growled back.

"Whatever" I said. I continued over to my tent.

"You sure you can handle that much, princess?" he said.

I kept walking to the tent, but I could hear him following me. Why couldn't this asshole leave me the fuck alone? I set the stuff down inside the tent. I turned to Daryl and took a step towards him.

"You sayin that just cause I'm a girl?" I questioned back.

He looked at me, and gave me a cold hard glare. I returned it with as much venom as he was giving me. "Fuck off" I told him, and turned to walk away. But he grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I jerked my arm out of his grip.

"Don't talk to me that way" he hissed.

"Don't fucking touch me again, or I swear to God, it'll be the last thing you ever do. And yes, that's a threat." I growled at him fiercely.

"You can't do shit to me" he near yelled at me. "You're just some wanna-be country bitch"

My mouth dropped. How could he talk to me that way? Most of the camp was watching us, some with looks of shock, and some with amusement. I drew back my hand and punched him as hard as I could in the cheek. He stumbled back.

"SAY THAT AGAIN, I FUCKING DARE YOU!" I yelled at him. His hand went for his knife, but I already found myself reaching for mine as well. We both drew them, and I faintly heard people gasp and call for Shane or Rick. Daryl took a swipe at me, but I was too fast and dodged it easily. I swiped and narrowly missed his arm. He swung again, but I kicked his arm with my foot and the knife flew out of his hand. I put my knife in my other hand, and tackled him to the ground. I heard shouts, and I swear some of them were cheering me on. Merle's voice was among them. I wound my arm around the front of his neck, putting him into a choke hold. I held my knife near his throat. Rick and Shane came running up, but stopped when they saw me. Rick almost smiled. Shane just looked at me with great surprise.

"Choke hold's illegal!" Daryl gasped out.

"Yeah? Well, why don't you file a complaint?" I asked sarcastically. He struggled, but I easily held him in place. I was standing with him kneeling on the ground by now. "Now, I would like to go back to my tent and unpack my things. Is that too much to ask?" I asked him. He didn't answer. "Is that too much to ask?" I said, more fiercely this time.

"N…No" Daryl gasped out, rudely.

"Good." I answered. I pulled my knife away and put it back in my holder. I took my arm off of his neck and let him fall to the ground. He rubbed at his throat, and looked back to me. I just bowed sarcastically, and walked back to my tent. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, but I didn't give a fuck. He had it coming. They want me out, fine by me. I walked into the tent and continued unpacking stuff. Maybe staying with this group wasn't gonna work out. I heard someone come in behind me, but I didn't turn to look.

"Hey. Sapphire?" a voice said that I recognized belonged to Shane. I heard someone else come in, and I guessed it was Rick. "Please, look at me."

I turned, with a cold hard glare at them, but it softened when I saw that Shane and Rick were smiling. Shane looked near tears. I gave them a questioning look. Shane just chuckled.

"That was pretty impressive, what you did back there." He said.

"I understand if you want me to leave." I said.

Rick and Shane looked at each other, as if it surprised them that I had said that. Rick looked back to me.

"Now why would we kick a girl out of a group, a girl, mind you, who kicked Daryl's ass?" Rick asked.

"I could have killed him" I said.

"I know you, you wouldn't do that. Daryl had it coming." Shane.

"You don't know me. Don't under estimate me." I told him.

"The point is, I'm not mad." Shane said. "That doesn't mean you can go around putting people in headlocks when they piss you off, but still, I want you to stay. You're a valuable asset to the group."

"What about Daryl?" I asked.

"Oh, he grabbed his crossbow and stalked off into the woods. Probably won't be back for a few days. Needs to calm down. I would love to hit replay and watch it again, but that doesn't mean I want you to do it again." Shane said.

"Understood." I said. Shane stood up and left the tent. Rick smiled at me.

"Next time, though, choke up on your hold. Your arm was a bit low." Rick said to me. I smiled at that. This camp was alright. Besides Daryl, of course.

A/N

I didn't want you guys to be confused. This all is happening around sundown. So, there is still some light left when Daryl and Sapphire are fighting. Just wanted to clear that up. Thanks for reading. Oh, and don't forget.

REVIEWS! please