Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Chapter 12

Talitha Pov-

When I woke up in the morning Daryl wasn't in the tent so I changed out of the dirty clothes I was wearing and into a black t-shirt and a holy pair of jeans. I walked out of the tent to see Andrea still leaning over her sister's body so I walked over to her. I got a gun pulled on me when I kneeled down to talk to her. I backed off and went to the group that was standing in a circle. "There's nothing we can do without her threatening to shoot us so lets just leave her be and clean up these bodies." I heard Rick say as I walked up. Everybody nodded and dispersed.

"What did I miss?" I asked Daryl as we walked to a walker body.

"Well Andrea hasn't left Amy all night, Rick went to talk to her and she pulled her gun on him." He grabbed the walker's arms and I grabbed its bloody bare feet. We threw it into the back of his truck to hall it off a burn it. We grabbed the body of one of our fellow camp members and was about to throw it in the truck when Glenn yelled at us.

"We don't burn our people, we bury them!" Glenn stomped off angrily. Daryl and I just looked at each other and shrugged. We laid the campers bodies side by side to be prepped for burial. We were walking to get another walker when we heard Jacqui say that Jim had been bitten.

"Be right back." Daryl said before he went to investigate. I could see him and Rick discussing what to do. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head, the line's pretty clear; zero tolerance for walkers." I could hear Daryl say angrily, I walked closer to the men. "We can't kill him he's still alive." I heard Rick say. Daryl just shook his head turned away picked up his pickax. He was in mid swing when I screamed "No!" stopping him.

Rick had pulled a gun out and had it pointed straight at Daryl's head. "We don't kill the living." He said determined, and dropped the gun to point at the ground.

"Funny, coming from a guy that just held a gun to my head." Daryl said and threw the pickax to the side stepping back. Rick brought Jim to the RV and made him stay there while we all had a meeting outside to discuss our next actions.

"I say we go to Fort Benning there were broadcasts coming from there, said it was a safe place, food, shelter and protection." Shane stated. I on the other hand didn't think that was a very good plan of action.

"I don't think that's a good idea, no disrespect Shane, but I have been to every military base from College Station to here and there is nothing there. Any promises they might have made are no good." I spoke to the entire group.

"I say we go to the C.D.C. The center for disease control, if there is any form of government left, it'd be there." Rick was the last one to have any sort of idea of were we should go so we all agreed. It was decided that we would start the 25 mile drive in the morning.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning up bodies. I sat by and watched as Daryl gave Carol the pickax. He had a look on his face that I couldn't decipher, I couldn't tell if it was just sadness, or sympathy, or if he had a connection to this woman that I didn't know about. Either way it caused pain to shoot through my chest. He winced every time the woman brought the pickax down on the man's head. She released years of bottled up anger towards the man by beating his dead face to a bloody pulp. "Just burn the son of a bitch." She said as she handed the pickax back to Daryl and walked away.

Soon all of the walker bodies were piled up flames rolling off of them. All of the bodies of former survivors had been wrapped in sheets and laid to rest in the graves that Jim had dug. Everyone cried as they covered the bodies, even me and I didn't even know the people other than Amy. Needless to say, no one felt like eating when the burial was over. No one spoke; we just went to our tents for the rest of the night.

"Ya stink." Daryl said as we sat side by side in the tent.

"Gee thanks." I said and slapped his shoulder. "Ya don't smell so good yer self there mister Dixon."

"That came out wrong what I meant was ya need a bath." He said.

"That's just a nicer way if saying I stink." I laughed. I couldn't believe I was laughing when our camp had just been attacked by walkers. There was just something about this man that made me forget all the bad things going on around me.

"Erg no, what I mean is we need a bath." He had a glint in his eyes and I finally caught on.

"You don't think that is a bad idea considerin what happened last night?" I asked.

"Na if it happens again I got yer back and ya got mine. Right?" he was smiling at me. How could I say no to that smile?

"Yeah I gotcher back lets go." He flashed me another smile. And I gathered up clean bed clothes, underwear, a towel and my shower essentials. I hadn't noticed before but Daryl had moved his things into my tent. He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a clean shirt, pants and boxers. We walked to the lake hand in hand, and bows on our backs.

When we got to the lake I watched Daryl as he undressed, when he was done he undressed me. I could tell he was nervous again. His hands were shaking as he attempted to unhook my bra. He got aggravated giving it a good yank breaking the hooks. "Hey, I liked that bra." I giggled.

"Sorry, guess ya'll just hafta go braless from now on." He gave me a hopeful look.

"Don't count on it." I said and he fake pouted. I laughed before I kissed him then finished undressing myself. He surprised me when he picked me up and carried me into the water.

"Saw it in a movie once." He said before he released me and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck to keep myself from floating away from him. His hands were soon pressed to my back holding me to him. The sensation of our wet skin pressed together was almost too much to handle. I released the kiss and looked into his eyes shining bright in the moonlight. I wanted so bad to tell him I loved him but I didn't want to say it too soon. I still didn't know what it was I saw between him and Carol.

My thought process was interrupted when his lips pressed back to mine then trailed down my jaw line to my neck where he kissed and sucked. I let out a soft moan when he bit down; I wrapped my legs around him. I heard him let out a husky groan when our bodies connected. I lean back, my hands sliding to grip his shoulders where I dig my nails into his skin. I hear him hiss but is just fed the intensity and his pace quickened. I couldn't hold back any longer and soon we both reach the point of complete ecstasy.

I hugged him tight kissing his wet earlobe nibbling on it a little. "Daryl I…" I almost said it; I had almost told him I loved him.

"Ya what?" he asked pulling me back to look in my eyes.

"I really" I kissed his neck, "fuckin" then I kissed his cheek "enjoyed that" I pressed my lips to his and gave him a long kiss before I hugged him again. He laughed in my ear.

"Me to" he said and started swimming to the bank and I followed. He tossed me the shampoo and I washed my hair as he scrubbed his body with my Japanese cherry blossom shower jell.

"Yer gonna smell like a girl." I laughed and he tossed it to me and I tossed him the shampoo.

"Long as I don't smell like walker blood" he said as he washed his hair. When we had scrubbed all the dirt and walker off of us be dove back into the water to rinse off the soap.

We didn't speak again until we had dried off and put on our clean clothes. "Nice tattoo by the way, it's…unique." I hadn't thought about him seeing the tattoo on my hip bone. It was a fairy sitting on the hook of an anchor.

"Thanks. I got the anchor because of Kayde, and the fairy because I've just always loved fairies." I don't think he knew what to say at the mention of my late husband, so he changed the subject completely.

"Lets get to bed, ya tired me out woman." He said laughing and we started walking to our tent.

"I tired ya out? It was yer idea." I said bumping him with my hip and he bumped me back. When we got to the tent he took his shirt off and slid into bed. "Why'd ya put a shirt on just to take if off again?" I asked as I slid into bed.

"Didn't want anyone to see me without it." It was then that I realized that he didn't trust anyone but me to see him shirtless, he didn't want people asking about his scars. "One more question?" I asked.

"Sure."

"Is there something goin on with ya and Carol?" I wasn't sure if he would like the question.

"No why do ya ask?"

"Because I saw ya lookin at her today when she was uh killing Ed"

"No, it's not what ya think. I just know how it feels to hate someone so much ya want to kill them. The man was an abusive son of a bitch, so was my dad." I could hear the sadness in his voice.

"I'm sorry."

"Ya have no reason to be sorry."

"I know, but no person should have to deal with that. But what I also know is that neither your dad or Ed is here now and both you and Carol have people that care about ya. Ya have me and she has Sophia." I kissed him gently then snuggled up to him. I felt his arm wrap around me as he placed a soft kiss on my cheek as sleep overcame me.