A/N: I'm posting this quickly between classes so I'm sorry that I don't have much to say today. JUST REMEMBER: READ, REVIEW, REPEAT!

Chapter 11

The next month and a half passed in relative ease. Walkers were few and far between, making the patrols pretty simple and uneventful. Less than ten shots had been fired since Rick and the others had come to the Compound. November was upon them and the last of the vegetables and herbs from the garden had been harvested, leaving behind dying plants that needed to be cut back and ground that needed to be prepared for the following spring.

Emrys had entered his seventh month and Logan had largely restricted his movement. He barely was allowed to go downstairs for meals anymore for fear he would fall down the narrow, steep staircase. The old doctor had even limited his hours on guard duty further than originally thought: no more than two hours at a time, even with the lack of walkers. He spent the majority of his time keeping track of the stores and planning for possible catastrophes in the future.

Glenn, meanwhile, was falling into a simple routine. Every morning, he would wake up at sunrise to help Emrys with whatever plan he was in the process of creating or implementing. After lunch, when Emrys would take up his post upstairs, Glenn would help Lori and Carol out back in the garden, something that he knew Shane was snickering about. When Shane's shift upstairs ended, he would take over, sitting in the armchair with a shotgun across his lap and his eyes scanning the edge of the woods beyond the high walls of the Compound.

Sometimes, Daryl kept him company during these times, not talking, but just sitting beside him. Just before sundown, Glenn and Daryl would go down for dinner before the older man left to patrol the back walls with Lance. Following dinner, Glenn would help clean up before heading to bed. Usually, he lay awake for a while, listening to the silence that filled the Compound. He'd eventually fall asleep, but he would always awaken when Daryl slid into bed beside him just before sunrise.

The two men had barely discussed their relationship going forward. They'd had sex a couple times in the small window of time between when Daryl would go to bed and Glenn would get out of it. Most of the time, though, they simply lay in the silence and waited for Daryl to relax enough to fall asleep.

Everyone in the group had avoided discussing their relationship as well, mostly to keep Shane from going off on all of them. Emrys, Avi, Dale, and surprisingly, Andrea had asked Glenn a few times about it when they were in private, mostly concerned about how closed off both Glenn and Daryl seemed with each other.

Glenn tried to reassure them that he would talk to Daryl about it, but he tried to put it off as long as possible. He was scared to bringing it up with the older man, terrified really. Daryl had never been very open with any of them, even before they'd left Merle on that roof in Atlanta. When he wasn't angry and yelling at them, he was sneering at their attempts to survive in the wild or stoically, silently critiquing every action they did. Daryl was far from the epitome of open.

Toward the end of November, Emrys decided that enough was enough. After a quick, but fruitful discussion with Andrea and Dale, they agreed to help him.

Slipping into Glenn and Daryl's room early one morning, Emrys stepped over to a still-sleeping Glenn, gently shaking him awake. The younger man jerked up, raising his fist as though to attack. Emrys backed up and step and held up his hands.

"It's just me, Glenn," he said quietly.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Glenn dropped back onto the bed and groaned, "Don't scare me like that, Emrys. Hell, I could have hit you."

"I've had worse," Emrys chuckled before he quickly sobered. "Have you talked to Daryl yet?"

"No. Talking to Daryl about anything is difficult. How would this be any different?" Glenn sighed.

"It needs to be done. You can't just wait until your in the middle of labor to talk to him about your relationship," Emrys said.

"I've been sleeping with him for only two months, Emrys, and I'm pregnant. It's not just a surprise; this is a shock! Neither of us knew that such a thing was possible so don't berate me if we aren't exactly in the best of places," Glenn growled.

Placing a hand under his swollen belly, Emrys eased himself down onto the bed, sitting beside Glenn. He turned to the younger man, fixing him with a bright blue gaze.

"You have no choice, Glenn. This baby is coming whether you two have talked or not, but you both need to be ready. He can't just leave you to deal with it on your own. Pregnancy is a trying experience for anyone, let alone a man. If I didn't have Avi with me, I probably would be a complete mess right now," Emrys explained.

"Yeah, but you and Avi have been together for years," Glenn argued.

"That doesn't matter. Even if your relationship with Daryl completely goes downhill, he still owes you something for helping to put you in this position. It does take two to do something like this, but Daryl bears some responsibility," Emrys replied.

"Yah think I don't know that, blondie?" Daryl snarled as he entered the room, crossbow over one shoulder

Emrys fixed him with a serious stare, the blue gazes of the two men meeting.

"It's not that I don't think you're unaware of it, but I do think you two need to discuss it. You need to open up, Daryl; you too, Glenn. This is not the time to act manly and unemotional," the blond said.

"Don't talk like yah know me," Daryl snapped.

"I've lived with you for the past month during an apocalypse. If that doesn't teach you something about the people you're living with, I don't know what will," Emrys replied.

"See, Emrys? We're just not ready to talk about it," Glenn murmured, motioning to Daryl. "We need time."

Emrys rounded on him, frowning heavily. "You don't have time."

Glenn glanced over at Daryl who was silently seething and fixed him with a glare that could silence even Shane. With a sigh, Glenn nodded to Emrys and shooed him away. The blond stood and pushed past Daryl, raising one blond eyebrow at the man before he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Slowly standing, Glenn watched as Daryl took the crossbow from his shoulder and carefully set it on the stool beside the bed. The older man fixed Glenn with a small glare, turning to him with arms crossed over his chest. He was pissed, heavy lines forming around his mouth as he silently seethed and snarled like a territorial animal.

"Well? Talk," he commanded harshly.

Glenn flinched at the tone, clearing his throat as he tried to collect himself. He shuffled uncomfortably under the cold gaze of his lover.

"W-What do you think?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"Of what?"

"Me having a baby. I never really asked you how you felt about it."

Daryl snorted and looked away for a moment before turning his gaze back to Glenn. "I don't need to think 'bout it. Yahr havin' a baby and that's that."

Glenn's heart dropped into his stomach. "You surely must have some thoughts on it."

"Well, I don't."

"Alright. I know you're part of the group and all, but I have to ask. Do you really want to have anything to do with the child after it's born?"

At that, Daryl frowned and his arms dropped to his sides. He stepped over to Glenn, the couple inches in height difference making all the difference. Daryl's eyes were cool and slightly angry as Glenn met his gaze, his heart pounding in his chest.

"'Course I do. I'm not that much of an asshole."

Glenn was about to reply when Daryl cut him off.

"Just don't expect me to act like a carin' mama or anythin'. I'm still a man."

"And I'm not?" Glenn snarled.

"I know yah are, but yah're still pregnant, aren't yah?" Daryl asked before he grabbed his crossbow and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Glenn was seething, although he really shouldn't have expected anything less from the other man. Daryl was one of those men who felt they needed to validate their masculinity at all times and in everything they did. Anything else was considered weak or girly.

His reaction though left Glenn a little confused. Since the night he'd told Daryl, the older man had been exceedingly careful with him, even if it was done in a way to make sure Glenn didn't notice. If Glenn had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have. During the afternoons before Daryl took over guard duty, he would watch Glenn whenever he was within sight. He would stick close behind the smaller man when going down the stairs, almost as though he was making sure that Glenn didn't trip or slip. Every night, he would make sure that Glenn ate enough, inspecting the smaller man's plate over his shoulder.

With a quiet sigh, he shook his head and left the room. He found Dale standing outside his door, a worried look on his face. Glenn shot him a small smile.

"That didn't go too well, did it?" Glenn laughed, his voice full of mirth.

"I'd say not," Dale agreed.

"I just don't understand him sometimes," Glenn sighed. "One day he's watching to make sure I don't get hurt and the next, he's as cold as fucking ice."

"That's Daryl for you. I was hoping he was changing after he lost you back at the motel, but it seems I was wrong," Dale said.

"Changing?" Glenn asked.

"Yes. He went charging after you when he realized that you weren't in the vehicles with us. I think that was the most panicked I've ever seen him, even more than when Jenner locked all of the doors at the CDC," Dale explained.

"Really?" Glenn asked in shock.

The older man nodded, glancing in the direction of the stairs. "I think he was ready to shoot down every walker in the area if he could have."

"He's never shown concern like that to me," Glenn snorted.

"Of course not," Dale chuckled. "He's a man's man, I guess we could call him. His masculinity should never he questioned, not for a minute."

The white-haired man turned back to look at Glenn, smiling. "To be honest, I wasn't shocked by his reaction to your talk."

"Neither was I. I know how much he hates talking about those sorts of things," Glenn said.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much though. I have a feeling that he'll come around soon enough," Dale replied. "He just needs more time."

"I told Emrys that we just weren't ready to discuss it, but he had to go and initiate it anyway," Glenn sighed.

"Honestly, I think you'll owe Emrys a favor sooner than later. You two got Daryl thinking about stuff that he didn't want to think about. He can't push it away for long. Before he knows it, he's going to have a son or daughter that he'll need to help take care of."

Glenn shrugged. "We'll see. Don't be surprised if Daryl does the opposite of that."

Dale smiled. "No, I think I've got Daryl pegged more than either of you know."

A week had passed since Glenn's attempt at talking to Daryl about their relationship.

The weather had gotten colder as November had passed and December approached. Glenn was dressed in thick jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a heavy jacket as he sat in the living room, tallying the cans of sliced, preserved carrots that they'd found in the basement of the Compound.

Glenn thought about his older lover with a sigh as he mechanically counted the cans. The older man was ignoring him in almost every way, never speaking to him although they still slept in the same bed. While this was nothing new, Glenn noticed the heavy, daunting aura that it gave the rest of the group. It made them nervous, unsure if Daryl was going to explode in anger.

Shane wasn't of much help either, always shooting snide comments at Glenn whenever they happened to pass each other. The ex-cop always had a smug look in his face, smirking almost manically at Glenn's misfortune. Even Andrea, who had been Shane's biggest supporter during their time at the farm, wasn't sure what to make of the older man's actions. His homophobia seemed to have risen to a whole new level.

Hearing the door open, Glenn looked up from his work. T-Dog and Rick walked in, guns over their shoulders. They were talking quietly, throwing him a quick glance as they approached.

"Something you need?" Glenn asked.

"Yeah, actually," Rick said. "We're going to make a run into town. Emrys said he drew a map of the town layout for you."

"He did. It's upstairs in my pack. I can get it for you," Glenn replied.

"We actually were wondering if you wanted to come with. Thought you might want to get out of the Compound for a while," T-Dog explained.

Glenn shot them a smile and nodded. "Let me just go get my stuff."

Carefully taking each step at a time, Glenn walked up to the second floor and to his room. Grabbing the small backpack from the corner, he opened the flap to double check that all of his scavenging supplies were still there. He silently tallied in his head, nodding once for each item: a lock pick set, an extra pistol that was fully loaded, two bottles of water, and a few granola bars he'd stolen at the beginning of the crises.

Swinging the pack over his shoulders he went back downstairs to find Rick and T-Dog waiting by the door. They exchanged glances, silently alerting each other that they were all ready.

"Got the map?" Rick asked.

Glenn patted the side pocket of the backpack, slipping his hand in to pull out the small piece of paper that Emrys had given him nearly a month earlier.

As they headed out to the cars, Glenn glanced up at Anna who had taken over Rick's usual afternoon guard. She had her shotgun set against her shoulder, hair pulled back in the severely tight ponytail it always was. Her strides along the foot-wide breadth of the wall were sure and graceful, moving like a lithe cat. She motioned to him with her gun, rocking it forward off of her shoulder slightly in some strange form of a salute.

Opening the back door to Rick's SUV, Glenn threw his pack inside and leapt up, sliding onto the seat. The second that the door was closed, Rick started the SUV and they were off, driving through the gates that Avi had opened for them. Glenn glanced back through the window to watch the large man close them again, securing the chains and locks.

"Anything specific we're looking for?" Glenn asked, turning back to face forward.

"Food more than anything else," Rick said from the driver's seat. "We have enough to get us through winter, but it's best to be careful. If the Compound ever gets run over, we want to have food stored in the RV and the cars as a precaution."

"Emrys told me that there is a market just off the main road. The front shelves are pretty well picked over but the back room, where the owners kept all of the stuff that hadn't been put out for sale yet, is pretty well stocked still. Apparently no one thought to go back there when they tried to leave town and escape," Glenn explained.

"You'd think that the ending of the world would have made people more resourceful," T-Dog mused.

"Panic makes them do crazy things, but when you have walkers behind you, most people would try to get out as soon as possible. They may not think about something that isn't in front of their faces," Rick sighed as they turned a somewhat sharp corner along the winding dirt road.

Glenn nodded in agreement, thinking back to those early days when the walkers had broken through the Army and National Guard barricades around Atlanta. He had been delivering a pizza at the time as his boss had decided that, even with the city on lockdown, business needed to go on. The house he was delivering to was near South Bend Park and just blocks from some of the outermost barricades. He had just handed over the box when he heard shouting followed by shots and even screaming. Rushing back to his car, he'd opened the driver's side door when the first walker had appeared on the street.

He knew that he would remember that walker –a man- until the day he died. It had come stumbling towards him, one arm missing as well as a large chunk of its throat and right shoulder. A few bullet holes decorated the front of the walker's torn and dirt-stained collared shirt. This had been before the National Guard had become aware that shooting them in the head was the way to kill them.

The walker had turned its white eyes to him, growling and snarling as it limped down the street. Jumping into his car, Glenn had stomped down on the gas pedal as quickly and with as much force as he could. The car wheels squealed as he raced back to his apartment, leaving a quick message for his parents and his friends from work that he knew were out on deliveries.

He never heard back from any of them and that night, he left Atlanta.

As they turned out onto the main road, Glenn was knocked out of his thoughts, focusing once again on the road in front of them. They passed a single walker that was straggling along the side of the broken, cracked asphalt, barely even noticing them as they drove by. Coming to the center of the town, Rick pulled up in front of the grocery, two blocks away from the main street.

Slowly, Glenn crept out of the back seat, searching around for walkers. Rick got out beside him and they glanced at each other, nodding. They stepped up onto the cement walk in front of the market, T-Dog following close behind with watchful eyes and a crowbar in hand.

The inside of the store was a mess. The glass from the front door had been smashed it, probably by marauding walkers searching for people once trapped inside. A few boxes of various grain foods had been thrown on the floor, along with various other items. Fruits and vegetables sat rotting in the crates on one side of the store. Mold and various other unidentifiable fungi had started growing on the meat inside the glass case at the back.

One shelving unit had been overturned and a dead body, a walker, lay underneath unmoving. Dried blood streaked the ceramic floor beside the downed walker, having once flown freely when the falling shelf had crushed its head. Other bloodstains were littered around the small market, flung up on walls and covering parts of the floor. In the far corner, Glenn even found the skeleton of a human, the flesh pulled away by the walkers that had eaten it.

Gagging slightly, Glenn rubbed his stomach gently, trying to quell the rising nausea. T-Dog noticed the green tint to Glenn's face as he passed, setting a hand on the younger man's shoulder. The Asian man jumped slightly, swinging around, thinking it was a walker. T-Dog shot him a small smile and patted his shoulder once in comfort. Blushing slightly, Glenn pushed into the back room of the store, following Rick.

Emrys had been right. Most of the shelves were stocked full of foods that Glenn had never thought he'd seen again. The perishable food had long since gone bad, but the seemingly endless cans of preserved fruits and vegetables, the boxes of noodles, and the canisters of cheap, ready-made soups make his heart swell with excitement.

Grabbing a small crate from the corner, Glenn set it on the floor and started to rifle through the shelves, searching for anything that would last as long as possible. T-Dog kept watch at the door as Rick started to help, placing cans, jars, and plastic containers full of the necessities in his own crate.

Glenn was bending down to pick up his full crate when T-Dog hissed, "Glenn, don't!"

Frowning, Glenn looked up at the older man. T-Dog motioned to the crate with his crowbar. "No heavy lifting, remember?"

"I'm barely two months, T-Dog," Glenn sighed.

"Logan's and Emrys's orders," the black man replied.

Touched by the other man's concern, Glenn glanced over at Rick. The ex-cop nodded as he picked up the crate he had filled.

"I'll take that to the car next. Fill up another one for the RV," he said as he left the room, heading towards the cars.

With a soft sigh, Glenn did as he was told, reaching for another crate. Moving to another shelving unit, he started to go through the boxes there. Pushing aside the crackers and jars of spaghetti sauce, he found something that interested him greatly. He glanced over his shoulder. T-Dog had his back turned to Glenn, still standing guard and Rick was out at the SUV, loading the first crate into the back.

Swiping a couple of boxes from the back of the shelf, Glenn tore them open as quietly as he could and dumped the contents into the front pocket of his backpack. Nervously, he looked over at T-Dog one more time before placing the now empty boxes back on the shelf. As he zipped the pocket closed and set the backpack on his shoulders, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He really didn't want to face teasing from T-Dog for what he'd just dumped in his bag.

While the man was usually so serious, T-Dog and Glenn had formed quite a close bond as the only two in the group that weren't white. If he could find anything to tease Glenn about, he would break his serious exterior in a second, especially when it came to Daryl. Of course, both men knew that it was friendly fun and there was no malice behind it, not like with Shane.

Just as he was about to start going through the shelves again, he heard a quiet swear and he whipped around just in time for T-Dog to rush out of the back room. Glenn frowned and moved to follow him, staying low as he slinked towards the front of the store. T-Dog crouched in the open doorway, glancing around the side of the doorframe. Rick was kneeling behind the SUV, hiding behind the back bumper.

Moving to the other side of the doorframe, Glenn shot a quick glance through the open doorway and paled. A herd of walkers were slowly coming up the street from the center of town, moaning loudly as they shuffled their feet along the cement. They were still a good two blocks away, but it was only a matter of time before the walkers were upon them.

Rick motioned for Glenn to come as T-Dog dashed towards the back of the store, probably to get the last crate Glenn had filled. Silently and slowly, Glenn slipped outside and practically crawled on all fours to Rick. The ex-cop quietly opened the two doors on the driver's side of the car, shooing Glenn into the back of the car. Crouching down on the floor of the back seat, the Asian man glanced out the window and quickly ducked back down. The walkers were getting closer.

Just then, their attention shifted away from the road at their feet to the SUV. T-Dog came running out of the store and threw the crate into the back of the SUV, slamming the hatchback door shut.

"Get in, get in!" he shouted as he rushed back around to the driver's side of the car.

Rick jumped into the front seat and started up the car as T-Dog leapt in beside Glenn, swinging the door shut. The moment that the SUV roared to life, the walkers were less than twenty feet away. Stepping on the gas, Rick directed the speeding SUV out onto the street, away from the walkers. The hoard moaned and reached for them, turning to follow the vehicle.

"Shit, we need to get back to the Compound," Rick cried as he swerved onto the next street, directing the attention of a few more walkers that stood on the front lawn of a boarded-up house.

Pulling the map out of his backpack, Glenn searched for any potential way to get back to the main road while avoiding the herd.

"How many do you think were out there?" T-Dog asked, glancing through the back window. "I haven't seen so many in one place since Atlanta."

"At least a hundred if not more," Rick replied breathlessly.

"Okay!" Glenn shouted. "In about four blocks, turn left onto Lee Drive. Take that for about half a mile then turn left onto Irvine. If we follow that to the end then take another left, the main road that leads to the Compound's driveway should be less than block away. I bet we can completely go around the herd."

"I sure hope this works," Rick groaned as they sped down the street, the SUV bumping as it raced through potholes and over cracks.

Glenn gripped his seat tightly, staring out the window to watch for walkers. Inside his head, he was swearing quietly. It seemed that his supply runs were almost cursed. First, there had been the disaster in Atlanta when they found Rick. Now, they were being chased by a herd of walkers the likes of which they hadn't seen since that day at the department store.

Sighing, he rubbed his temples. The world was still hell outside even if they had found a haven once again.

A/N EDIT: I just wanted to post a request here. If anyone desperately wants to co-write a Daryl/Glenn story, I'm looking for someone. I already have an idea which will be pretty AU and involve abuse of Glenn. His backstory will probably be vastly different as he won't be with the group for the plots of Seasons 1 and 2. Here is the idea and it takes place sometime during the long break between seasons 2 and 3: Rick, Daryl, and the other Atlanta survivors are scavenging through a house when they hear noises coming from the basement. Down in the darkness, they find three things: a dead walker, a large supply of food, and a young man locked in a cage. Anyone interested or should I just write this story myself? Looking for help here guys.