Rick, Glenn, and Hershel had returned. But they brought someone else with them. Some random kid that they had found on there travels, his leg had gone through the fence post or something. His name was Randall. He was from some other group. I sat at Daryl's camp, sharpening arrows. Daryl had shown me how earlier and I was doing it because I had nothing better to do and it would at least help out. I mean, after all, I was sleeping in Daryl's tent at night. I had offered to fix him up when he arrived, but Hershel insisted he could do it. He was a veterinarian, so I supposed he was medically qualified enough. Oh well. Apparently this wasn't my job right now, and as much as I liked being a doctor, I was fine with it.

Currently, Daryl was talking to this new group member, but being as Daryl was not much of a talker, I had a feeling that something other than talking was going on. Something more along the lines of talking with his fists. Or, it could be the intimidation factor. I had noticed, when Rick returned, he didn't look me in the eye. Maybe that was better. I didn't want to talk about what had happened. It was a mistake. It should not have happened. Bottom line, he was married and cheating.

I saw Daryl walking back from the barn, blood dripping from his knuckles. I stilled my knife and met his blue eyes. "It ain't mine," was all he said. Like I said, there had not been much talking in the barn. Just Daryl beating up the kid instead of talking.

"Let me―"

"I got it," he grabbed a rag and wiped his hands off. I saw a couple of cuts on his knuckles.

I grabbed rubbing alcohol from my bag in the tent and came back out. "Sit," I commanded.

"'M fine."

"I don't give a fuck. Sit your ass down. You don't know what sort of diseases he could have." He grumbled something before having a seat. "Good Daryl," I squatted down and cleaned his knuckles.

"Whatever ya do, stay 'way from 'im. He's not good, a'right?"

"I can take care of myself," I stated.

"So can I," he looked at his knuckles.

"Eh," I shrugged. "But you like when I touch you," he pulled his hands away, just as I knew he would. "It is sweet that you're trying to protect me, though. They said chivalry was dead."

"Don' ya have somethin' better ta do?"

"Aw, c'mon, Daryl. You know you want me to be right here with you. Why else would you let me sleep in your tent?"

"'Cause."

"Good answer Daryl," I smirked. "If you just went for it, I'm sure we could have great sex, let's be honest. I bet you're very dominate. I kinda like when a guy dominates me in bed. It's really fucking hot." He wouldn't meet my eyes and I grinned a little. Why did I get so much enjoyment out of making Daryl squirm? It was honestly great.

I headed towards the house and Maggie caught my attention. "Daddy's going to let all of you move into the house for the Winter," she said, smiling.

"That's good!" I said. "It's going to be cramped with a hell of a lot of people that I don't particularly like, but y'know."

"C'mon, who do you really even like?" she smirked a little.

"That's fair...There's you...Daryl...I don't mind Glenn. Rick's alright from time to time...and...um that's about it." I laughed. Wow, I really did not like many people. "Carol's okay too." Really though, the people that I had most of my conversations with were Maggie, Daryl, and Rick. Shane worked his way in there but that was mostly just to be a pain in my ass. Even if I still loved the sorry bastard. But that was a different thing. I really hated sharing any sort of small space with my brother. It was like he would infect you with his jerk disease if you were around him for too long.

"Short list, glad to be on it, though. You can always sleep in my room."

"God, I haven't had a girl roommate since Freshman year of college."

"Only Freshman year?"

"I got my own apartment after that. Plus my roommate that year was a raging bitch."

"Well lucky for you, I'm not a raging bitch."

"So I've noticed."

XxX

"We should talk," Rick said. I was sitting on watch that night and he had climbed the ladder of the RV.

"No, we really shouldn't. There isn't anything to talk about."

"Sure there is."

"No, Rick, there isn't. What happened, it happened, but it shouldn't have. So that's that."

"Fair enough," he said. "I'm glad it happened though."

"How can you be glad? You cheated on your wife!"

"Who cheated on my first."

"That is irrelevant. I might make a lot of jokes, but I do not condone cheating."

"I'm not in love with her anymore."

"And you're sure as hell not in love with me. So enjoy having a family, Rick. You love your son. That's what really matters. Your son. Not trying to hook up with me or whatever the hell the end goal is here."

"Sadie."

"Rick. I'm being serious. Stop. Okay? Just stop. Either go to bed or take over watch."

"I'll take over."

Rick had to be in a weird place right now. I accredited everything that was going on, to him trying to cope with what was going on with Lori. That was all it could be. I knew that there couldn't be anything there. And I should've shut him down when he started to kiss me before. This had been a mistake. Rick and I were friends. But we could not do this. Any of it.

"Rick, I want you to think about something...Think about the fact that you know me. Think about what this whole Lori situation has done to you...and you'll know, you don't really want any of this. You just think that it makes sense because I'm an available female here―one that you had met before all of this. Just, think, Rick. Please."

I could be serious. It was little bit harder than most things for me, but I could do it. And Rick needed for me to be serious.

I went back to the tent and unzipped the flap, Daryl looked at me, wide awake, as I crawled in. "Hey," I greeted, sitting on my sleeping bag and untying my boots.

"Already done with watch?"

"Rick took over. He was insisting we talk."

"Talk 'bout what?"

"Ugh, about how we kissed. That should not have happened."

"Oh," he said.

"No need to be jealous. It didn't mean anything," I grinned over at him. He didn't say anything else though. Not for a long minute.

"What makes ya think there's anythin'?" he asked, kind of vaguely.

"I just like annoying you, I'm sure there's probably not. But I don't know, it's kinda fun."

"So ya don' think 's true?"

"Nah. I mean, if it were, I feel like you would've made a move."

"An' how do ya 'spect me to make a move on ya?"

"I don't know. I mean we share a fucking tent for crying out loud. You could be over here fucking me right now."

"What?"

"Exactly. That's how I figure that you're not actually interested."

"Jus' 'cause I ain't jumped yer bones?"

I laughed a little. "You could say that."

"That somethin' ya want?"

"Mm, I'll let you know when I do," I said. "Let's get some sleep, Dixon."

AN: Is this story getting to the point where it's OOC? I'm concerned. I feel like Rick's parts are really getting there. I tried to explain my mindset on that a bit. He's trying to cope with the whole Lori thing in a more out in the open fashion. And, there is a female there who he knew before it all...so I don't know. It makes sense to me, but I don't know if it's working for all of you. Same with Daryl, I don't know if that bit at the end was too out of character. Ugh. I'm writing this at two o'clock in the morning while watching Boondock Saints (if you haven't seen it, watch it. 10/10 would recommend) because I can't sleep so it might be weird. Honestly scared to proof read this later.