A/N: Thank you to all my new followers and favourites. And to my lovely reviewers, you know who you are :D
Big thanks, as always, to my beta Calcifer179!

Hope you enjoy this chapter, I might not update for a little while because I want to focus on my other story, but you readers may be able to persuade me to change my mind and churn out another chapter soon ;)
I added an interesting relationship to the story in this chapter, I'm excited to explore this particular element now. Let me know what you think!
Xo

11.

"Stop whinging and try again!" Daryl berates, picking the rejected knife off the ground and pushing it's hilt firmly into my grasp. I stare daggers at him, my brown eyes clashing with his blue, their colour only emphasised in the sunlight and stand my ground.
"Nope, no way! We've already been through this. I can't do it!"
"Yes ya can!" The man insists, changing tactics fast enough to give me whiplash, "I believe in ya."
Groaning internally, I step once more towards the body of the Walker that is lying before us. Rick and Daryl dragged her in earlier that morning after putting her down quickly. This is their idea of practice, if I can get past the idea of putting a blade or bullet into a corpse, maybe I can manage a the real thing, so to speak. The smell coming off of her skeletal and decomposing form stings my nostrils and causes my eyes to smart, especially when I take in her blank grey stare, her rotting skin…
Taking a deep breath, I lean over her, replicating the knife hold Daryl showed me earlier and remembering the hunter's encouraging words plunge the blade deep into her eye socket. I am forced to kneel over her to ensure the weapon goes all the way through her brain and a wave of stench washes over me when her black blood boils to the surface. It sends me reeling, and I push back so that I am sitting a reasonable distance from the now twice taken down Walker.
Daryl whoops in delight;
"See I told ya! Ya finally did it…" He stops shorts when he sees the paleness of my skin and my slight shaking. I am torn between crying and vomiting as my body seems to go into a state of shock. Before this all happened I was someone incapable of even killing a bug, just the thought of being so violent towards something, someone, that was once human sickens me.
"Lily, are you okay?" There is genuine concern in his voice, which seems to trigger my emotions even more and I stand roughly, unable to even open my mouth to speak.
I gag suddenly and am surprised when Daryl walks to me and lightly touches my shoulder. I brush him off harshly and shoot him another glare;
"I can't believe you made me do that! That was so disgusting!"
He grins broadly, the first full smile I have ever seen from him and I can't help but let a small smile cross my features in return;
"You're sick, you know that?"
"I'm a survivor. Ya gotta learn to do the same Princess, ya don't got The Governor keeping ya safe anymore."
"Yeah, don't I know it…"


For the first time in as long as I can remember I feel like I am actually having fun, in stark contrast to the morning's events. Maggie and Glenn laugh loudly and freely as I teach them the complicated steps to the paso doble that I am helping them choreograph, positioning their bodies and demonstrating the moves myself.
"You're the matador and she is the cape Glenn, you have to lead her! Come on, be a man!" This comment elicits a giggle from Maggie and a half-hearted scowl from her fiancé.
"I'm beginning to regret asking for your help with this…" he mutters, allowing me to grab his hips and show him the proper movement, "You're like a drill sergeant!"
"Trust me, you want your wedding dance to be amazing yes?"
They both sigh and resume their starting poses and I provide the music beat by clapping my hands in time. Within a few moves we have all dissolved into fits of laughter again;
"No, no! It's like this…" I twist my body, raising my oversized singlet a little so that they can see the roll of my hips and take three strong steps, extending my legs in an exaggerated fashion to emphasise the theatrical and passionate nature of the dance.
"Woah, okay…That looks sexy!" Maggie grins.
"Yeah why can't we look like that?" groans Glenn, rubbing his eyes. I flash a smile and conclude my demonstration with a small bow.
"You guys will get it! No rushing it, I've been dancing since I could walk. You are doing really well, I promise. I need to get myself cleaned up; it's so hot out here!" They both nod in commiseration; despite the steady approach of fall the days are still warm under the Georgian afternoon sun and dancing in the courtyard hasn't helped my already elevated body temperature.
I wave my hand in goodbye and make my way towards D block, smiling at a few people from Woodbury who are going about their daily tasks in the yard and throughout the prison. I have to admit; Rick is running a pretty tight ship around here. Bit by bit our combined groups have been fixing up our home, fortifying the fences and clearing out the remaining undead from the surrounding areas.
Tyreese and Daryl are standing near the entrance to my cell block, overseeing the job of removing all the Walker corpses that still litter this part of the prison, and they are engaged in conversation.
When I hear my name mentioned I slow my walk and duck behind a nearby building wall, watching their backs as they continue their discussion.
"…Lily's pretty nice to look at isn't she?" Tyreese is saying, a touch of humour in his deep voice.
"Yeah, that's about all she's good for," comes Daryl's growled reply and he rolls his shoulders.
"She is a little…superficial. Sasha loves her though, thinks she is the best thing to happen to her since all this began. There must be something more there, Sash doesn't warm to people for no reason."
"I don't think so. Beauty is only skin deep and all that. She's Walker bait." Ty gives a short laugh and turns back to observing the small group who are dragging bodies into the open one at a time. He points towards Carl and Bob, who are struggling under the weight of one particularly bloated corpse and moves to assist them.
Tyreese's opinion doesn't shock me; he has always been nice, but distant and judgemental, making it very clear that he just sees me as a nuisance. And while Daryl's words weren't exactly a surprise after all our interactions, for some reason it hurt to hear him refer to me as "Walker bait".
Without thinking I stalk passed the hunter, who is standing with his back facing me until he hears my approaching footfalls on the concrete ground. His expression changes from confusion to one of sadness when he realises I have overheard the previous conversation and I feel a strange sense of happiness that he at least has the decency to look ashamed.
I make no attempt to walk around him and instead brush against him roughly, which hurts me more than it does him as I bang into his firm shoulder.
"Lily!" Daryl calls, reaching out to grab my arm as I retreat quickly into the block D and rush up the steps and into the small cell that has become mine and Sasha's room. The bottom bunk is mine and I lie on the thin mattress, face down and resisting the urge to cry, which I know will be a childish reaction.
I can't see Daryl approach, but I can hear him, despite his natural quietness. The cell block is unusually deserted, and his footsteps echo throughout the dark building.
"Can I come in?" He asks from somewhere in the vicinity of the doorway.
"No," I mumble into my pillow.
He hesitates, before choosing to ignore my words and entering the cell anyway. I roll over slowly and sit up to glare at the redneck.
"Ya heard me and Tyreese." It's not a question, just a statement of fact and I see no point in denying it so nod and frown a little harder. Daryl shakes his head, and stares down at his boots awkwardly, avoiding my harsh gaze.
"Are you going to apologise or what? Because otherwise you can just leave right now." My voice quavers slightly and to mask my nerves I stand up so that there is only a small distance between us. I have never been good at confrontations and seem to be having a lot of them with Daryl, it reminds me of the interactions I had with his older brother, who was never good at playing nice with others.
The younger Dixon shuffles his feet and glances up at me through the layers of his scruffy hair. His gaze is piercing and I freeze like a rabbit in headlights, caught in his blue stare.
"I'm not good at apologising…"
"Oh well that's interesting, because I'm not good at forgiving arseholes who think it's okay to bitch about people behind their backs!"
Daryl's lip twitches in a half smile,
"That's some nice language there."
"You called me Walker bait…what word would you use to describe someone who does that? You know, I tried really hard this morning Daryl…I didn't put that knife into that woman…that Walker, because I wanted to." I can't look at him anymore and move away slightly so I am almost facing the narrow bunk.
His hand grazes my cheek gently, wiping away a tear I didn't notice had fallen from my eye and he grasps my chin, directing my face so that I am turned towards him once more. The contact is so intimidate that my breath catches in my throat and all I can hear is my heart beating too fast in my chest.
"I'm sorry." Daryl's voice is sincere and husky. I'm standing closer to him than I ever have before and can see him more clearly than I ever have before. My eyes rake over the stubble that coats his jawline, the small mole that sits above his mouth and the fairness of his eyelashes. For a moment I think he is about to kiss me, when I see that he is inspecting my features with a look of longing in his eyes, and I realise that that thought excites me. However, he releases me all too quickly and steps away. A flash of anger runs through me at the thought of how familiar this situation is becoming, this back and forth that seems to constantly be happening between us.
But I don't voice my feelings, just nod meekly in acceptance of his apology and watch the wings on his leather vest as he leaves the cell and walks away wordlessly.


I had stayed in my small cell all day, staring idly at the bottom of Sasha's vacant bunk above me. I am avoiding Daryl, and quite frankly, avoiding having to be outside in the autumn sun, the memory of my staged Walker take down still fresh in my mind. The last thing I want is for Rick or someone to coerce me into attempting a real kill so soon, I'm definitely not ready for that.
"Hey girl!" Sasha's cheery voice stirs me somewhat, and I smile at her, happy to see her. Most of the time I feel like the young woman is the only one who genuinely enjoys my company or sees me as someone worthwhile.
"Are you okay?" She asks, as she places her gun against the wall opposite our beds and sits down next to me, pushing my legs over a fraction so that she has more space.
"You seem to be asking me that an awful lots lately," I sigh, crossing my hands behind my head.
"You thinking about The Governor…or is it Martinez?" Her tone is almost mocking and I don't have to look at her to know there is a broad grin plastered on her face.
"No!" I laugh, "I haven't thought about Caesar in a long time."
"You don't miss him? Thought you guys were 'friends with benefits'?" She punches my shin lightly and giggles girlishly.
I think about Martinez and the feelings we had developed for one another over the course of our time together. How he had turned to me for comfort after his family had been killed and how I had needed him to relieve some of the loneliness I eventually came to feel. His handsome Latino face flashes through my mind and I smile at a few choice memories, but realise quickly that I don't miss him, that what we had didn't merit any feelings of loss or sadness now that everything had changed.
"Well…" I eventually answer Sasha, "You've got the 'benefits' part right!"
She howls with laughter and I join in, enjoying the normalcy of typical girl talk, something that is rare these days.
"Maybe you don't miss him because of a certain ruggedly handsome redneck hey?" She wiggles her eyebrows knowingly at me and I sit up so we are shoulder to shoulder on the narrow bunk.
"Ha! Daryl hates me, so much as said so in a lovely conversation that he and your charming big brother were having before."
"Ty and Daryl were talking about you?"
"Yep, but behind my back of course. When did men start turning into gossiping old woman?"
"I can talk to Tyreese if you like? Sort something out? You know that neither of them meant what they said honey, men can just be real dicks when they get together…"
"They meant it Sash," I interject, "And they were right too…I'm not going to last long in this world. I am Walker bait."