A/N: Oh god I'm so sorry for the wait! I got caught up in my real life project - I do this professionally, y'know! ;)

Please enjoy and remember to leave me a review so I know how I'm doing! :)

All Daryl could do was run. The cop handed him a gun once they reached the edge of the quarry camp that they would surely be abandoning soon. He would, at least. Him and his wife. There was no way he would allow Sarah to stay here any longer. He'd known. He should've gone with his instinct and done what any real man would do to protect his wife. In this chaos, in this confusion, he didn't even know if she was alive.

"Stay behind me!" Shane shouted, sweeping an arm to shove Sarah, Lori, and Carl in that direction. Sarah was frozen, knife in her hand. She didn't know what to do. She'd thought she'd know what she should do in the moment, always thought she'd be able to act, but she couldn't.

"Sarah!"

Her neck whipped in the direction of Daryl's voice.

"Baby! I'm over here!" she cried, hand cupped around her mouth to project the sound over the bullets.

Daryl shivered noticeably with relief. "Stay back!"

Sarah's ears were beginning to ring horribly with the so many gunshots ringing off the rock walls. It was the FEMA camp all over again. An ambush. People dying. People crying. People screaming. People being eaten alive.

"Look the fuck out!"

Sarah jumped, falling backward into the dust. Daryl smashed the butt of his gun against the walker's skull, sending its now-lifeless body to the ground beside her.

"Geddup," Daryl whispered harshly, his hand reaching out for her. She looked around them, finding that Shane had moved himself, Lori, and Carl away. He'd just left her there. They'd just left her.

Sarah stood behind Daryl, holding onto the back of his shirt and squinting her eyes shut until the noises all faded.

"Sarah? Sarah!" Daryl shouted, shaking her by her shoulders. The woman jumped back to awareness and it was almost daylight. Daryl was pulling at her clothes now. "You bit? You bit, woman?"

"No, n-no." Sarah shook her head tersely. "I'm fine. I'm alive."

Practically covered in dry, putrid blood, Daryl pressed their foreheads together. She suddenly realized they were sitting in the back of his truck.

"What happened?" Sarah whispered.

"Attacked by walkers. Lotsa folks died. I packed up our stuff already. We're goin'. Not just us. You been walkin' around lookin' half-dead for hours."

"You're okay too, aren't you?" Sarah asked, gripping his shirt again. He nodded.

"I'm good. As long as yer good, I'm good."

Sarah pulled herself fully against him. "I don't wanna be here anymore. I didn't know what to do. How can we live like this if there's nowhere safe to go to? Why are we trying?"

Daryl shook her angrily. "The fuck're you talkin' about, woman? You cut 'at shit out right fuckin' now. I won't fuckin' hear it. You lost all yer faith in me already? I ain't ever leavin' ya alone again, I swear. Fuckin' cop just left ya standin' there alone. So fuckin' pissed. I ain't ever gonna let a thing happen to you. I didn't last night and I ain't ever. I done told ya a dozen times, I ain't gonna tell ya this shit again, hear?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Sarah squeezed him. "Please don't go off again. Don't be mad. I'm sorry. That was just so scary. Nobody was even taking watch. We were having dinner, and. . ."

"Folks here are s' damn ignorant. Good Lord." Daryl shook his head, his hands tight around Sarah's.

"I know, baby. But hopefully this will wake them up. You're so smart. Oh hey, where's Merle?"

Daryl waited a minute to say anything. He wasn't sure if she was mentally prepared to hear what wound up happening back in Atlanta. He'd barely been, and he'd been noticing a very definite change in Sarah. "Gone."

"Dead?" Sarah's voice had raised at least half an octave in pitch, thin and stinging with the effort to keep from crying. She could try all she wanted, but that was an impossible task. If Merle Dixon was gone, she told herself, so was she.

"No," Daryl shook his head. "He just lit out. He, uh. . .he cut off his hand. Cauterized the wound. Took off with that box truck. S'why we came back on foot. I don't know where he run off to."

"What do you mean? Why didn't he come back?"

Daryl closed his eyes, trying not to let this get to him. He'd known she would react this way and he'd been trying to prepare himself for it, but he still rolled his eyes. "I dunno. Couldn't tell ya. We looked, but he was gone."

"Why wouldn't he come back here? He knows I would've taken care of the wound—" A horrible thought struck Sarah. "Oh God, it's all my fault. We had a fight. He probably thinks nobody here cares about him anymore. I told him we hated him."

Daryl shook his head. "It ain't yer fault. Merle don't care who hates 'im. I don't know what's goin' on, like I said, but we can't stay. The cops are talkin' about what we oughtta do."

"We have to look for him—"

"Where?" Daryl snapped. "Ain't nowhere to look. No, there's everywhere to look, but we can't. Cain't look all the places for 'im. He don't want us anymore. All he had to do was wait. He didn't want us."

Sarah leaned her face down into her open palms, the blood on her fingers not even a thought. "How can you just give up?"

"Don't think for a second I wouldn't rather have 'im here, where I can look after him, but he fuckin' took off like he always does, not even thinkin' about nobody." Daryl's palm slapped down against the bed of the truck, the thunk echoing. "If he'd thought about you, or God forbid me, don'tcha think he'd be here? At least for what we could do for 'im? But he didn't. He ain't. And I ain't gonna letcha act foolish. I put it outta my mind and you will, too. I wanna get all this blood off you, now. I got you some clean clothes, I'ma take you down to the creek."

"Don't you have some for you?" Sarah's voice was weakened. She didn't have what it took to argue any further. This is what Daryl knew to do in hard situations. It was all he knew to do, and he was quite literally all she had anymore.

"Yeah, I got some. Come on and let's go, now." Daryl jumped down from the tailgate and turned back to her, his hand reaching out. Sarah gasped sharply when her feet hit the ground. Walking almost felt unnatural. "Get on, woman. We ain't got time to waste."

"I'm trying, Daryl." Sarah's legs felt shaky and she grew anxious about his apparent impatience. "Look, I'm sorry—"

"Just. Walk."

"Why are you so mad at me?"

Daryl gave her a shove. "Just get on. No more time for bein' silly."

Sarah was stopped abruptly in front of the rippling waters when Daryl started pulling her shorts down. He'd taken her clothes off hundreds of times before, but this time, Sarah didn't feel beautiful or sexy or wanted. Daryl looked just like he did when he field dressed a deer or changed the oil in his truck. She simply felt naked.

"Stop," she whispered, pushing his hands away.

Daryl narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"I don't want you touching me like that."

"Fuck're you talkin' about?"

Sarah put an arm around herself to cover her breasts and looked away, headed for the water.

"Sarah, don't you walk away from me," Daryl warned, his voice low.

"Didn't you want me to take a bath?" she asked. Daryl tossed his ruined shirt over his head and into the bushes, working his belt after.

"Woman, you turn around right now. Ain't gonna tell ya again."

Sarah stooped down in the lukewarm water to scoop up a handful of near-white sand. "Let's just get this over with. I'm really hungry. I wonder if we have enough for breakfast for everybody before we go."

The woman gasped when Daryl's rough hands jerked her against his own body.

"I ain't used to bein' scared if yer alive 'r not," he whispered loudly. Sarah wriggled, but his grasp was unrelenting. "Lookit me, look at my face! Even when I left ya alone, you were safe. I could get Merle to look out for ya when we lived in Colliers. At yer apartment before then, that girl was there. I worried when ya moved to Atlanta, but nothin' like this. Truth is, I always figured you'd come home 'ventually. Now I can't hardly go out huntin' without thinkin' 'Holy shit, my woman might be dead.' I go huntin' and my brother's gone fer good, and he's the toughest sumbitch I ever met in my life. I come back last night and those shits are munchin' on everyone and my wife is walkin' around in a daze. What'm I s'posed to do 'bout you?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happ—"

"I ain't gonna let it happen," Daryl growled, shaking her again. "I ain't gonna letcha just check out on me 'cause ya can't handle it. I handle it. All ya have to do is just stick by me an' ya can't even do that?"

"I'm trying—"

Daryl shook his head. "Naw, I ain't lettin' it happen. From now on, shit's gotta be different. You don't walk off on your own. Ever. You stay by me. Not Shane, not Rick, not that chink, ya stay at my side. You fuckin' understand me, woman?"

Sarah nodded rapidly, her eyes wide and watery. What was this? Daryl was hardly ever like this, especially not toward her.

"Yer mine. Yer all I got an' you are most certainly mine, lady. I ain't ever givin' you up. Never. I'd sooner die. I used t' think I could if I had to, like when ya moved to Atlanta, and call me just plain ol' fuckin' selfish but I ain't. I don't care if I gotta write Daryl fuckin' Dixon on yer arms every fuckin' day for the rest of our life. I don't care if I gotta fuck up any fella that looks yer way. I know what's best for ya, I keep ya safe, I made sure ya didn't get et last night. You fuckin' hear me?" he shook her again.

"Y-yeah, I understand."

"Fuckin' right." Daryl hoisted the woman up and roughly pulled her leg around his waist. "'Member when I said I wasn't ever lettin' you forget it?"

"I didn't forget," the woman gasped.

"Put yer arms around me, Sarah Claire." Daryl's voice was low again, but softer. More husky than harsh, as it had been. Sarah swallowed deeply, but complied.

"Tell me whose you are," Daryl whispered, using the leverage of her supporting herself to guide himself inside her. Sarah's core abdominals shivered and she gasped again.

"Daryl fucking Dixon's." Sarah gripped him as hard as she could for fear of falling, but he didn't seem to mind or even notice at all.

"And ya like it that way."

"I love it."

To exemplify her sentiment, to soothe and assuage these strange, violent worries that'd overcome him, Sarah put a hand on his scalp. Her fingers caught and tugged at locks of dirty, dark blond hair. Daryl was making soft noises, huffing them against her earlobe. Sarah couldn't bring herself to make much more than him, no matter that it was starting to hurt a little.

"I love it so much," Sarah whispered, nuzzling scraggly facial hair. She kissed him right beside his nose. "I don't know what's got you so scared, but you're the only."

Just when it seemed he wasn't going to let up, Daryl was letting her stand again. He reached for more sand and scrubbed at her arm, not at all acknowledging what'd just happened between them. All Sarah wanted was to sit in the water and let it take the ache out of her, or at least scrub her own skin, but it seemed that an almost punitive romp wasn't enough to get whatever this was out of his system.

"That help?" he grunted finally.

"Help what?"

"Get yer ass back to normal."

Sarah frowned. "What, you think I need some dick to bring me to my senses? Fucking knuckle-dragging—"

"Shut yer mouth," Daryl warned. "Yer the one said you'd rather take it than take a pill to make yerself feel better."

"I'm sick of you making me feel bad for liking what you do to me."

Daryl grunted again. "Didn't mean that. Quit puttin' words in my mouth, woman. I'll lay ya down in that grass over there and not give it to ya so easy."

Sarah's jaw dropped. "The way you're talking is not funny!"

"Am I laughin'? I know it ain't funny."

"Why are you talking like this to me? I'm your wife."

"Yer my Sarah and I do what's right by you. You wanna tell me you wouldn't fuckin' love it if I took ya over there, right underneath them trees, right now and I fucked ya 'til ya made that sound like ya can't breathe no more? Hell, Sarah Claire, seems like nailin' ya is the only way to get you back to yerself these days."

"No, I wouldn't love it! You hurt me."

Daryl stopped scouring at his hair. "What?"

Sarah turned away again, lowering in the water. "That hurt a bit. You never hurt me before. I don't know what's goin' on with you."

"I didn't really do nothin' we ain't done before," Daryl said emptily. "Think it was how we did it?"

Sarah shrugged, frowning at the utter lack of apology in his words or tone.

"Still hurtin'?"

"No."

Daryl touched her underneath her chin. "Well. . .it ain't like ya weren't ready. . ."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "I get turned on a lot when I'm with you no matter what you're doing."

"Yeah," Daryl nodded. "So I noticed. I'm thinkin' it mighta been the angle."

"Oh, Jesus Christ." Sarah rinsed her hair one last time, hoping to God that got all the blood out of it. "Thanks for sounding so concerned about me."

"I am," Daryl snapped defensively. "Ya know I wouldn't hurt a woman."

"Unless they were me, right?"

"Hey." Daryl wrapped his arm around her waist. "Cut 'at shit out. 'M sorry. Didn't mean t' make it hurt. Y' know that."

Sarah blinked a few times and swallowed. "Just be careful. Especially when we're standing. It wasn't all that bad, but it scared me."

Daryl touched their foreheads together. "Don't ever feel like ya gotta be scared of me. I ain't no threat t' you. Yer the threat to me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You act like you ain't got nothin' to lose," Daryl whispered hoarsely. "All I got is wrapped up in one walkin', talkin' package. She got big hazel eyes and kinda reddish hair. Freckles all over. Real pretty, but real mean."

Sarah's hand landed on his chest with a wet smack. "I ain't mean!"

Daryl nodded. "Way meaner 'n Merle."

"How?"

"Talkin' about givin' up. Keepin' my baby from me all this time. Makin' me worry everyday about yer fool ass."

Sarah chewed on her lip a while, understanding better why he had acted so callous and rough. "Even with all this going on, if I could still be pregnant, I would. If I could make that choice and he be healthy, believe me, I'd take him over this. . .emptiness. I've felt empty for so long. Like my body's worthless now 'cause it can't even keep my babies alive."

Sarah hadn't revealed much about her feelings about their son's miscarriage, or there'd never been much time since she initially revealed the loss to him. Hearing his wife say that she felt literally empty after losing Daniel cut Daryl down to the quick.

"I mean, think about it, I'd be like six months pregnant by now if I hadn't lost him, but his little heart failed and it was genetic and there was nothing, nothing I could ever have done to fix it. He was never going to make it, Daryl, no matter what happened. Sometimes they die before they're born, like Daniel, but sometimes you get to see them and hold them and they still die anyway. It's horrible." Sarah walked to where their towels were located and covered herself up, bending over her knees. "M-Merle said I partied too much. Can you believe that? I hardly drank at all until after he died. You wondered why I drank so much?"

"Don't talk like that," Daryl said, drying quickly. "One day we're goin' into Atlanta and yer gonna show me where he's buried. Ya buried him, didn't ya?"

Sarah nodded. "Crestview."

After dressing himself, Daryl reached for her clothes. "Put yer arms over yer head, now. We gotta go 'fore we get left."

"No, not yet, please." Sarah held his arm. "Just one more?"

"Golly, woman." Daryl couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"You owe me one, just real fast—"

"Hey, nobody ever said I don't take care of my woman." Daryl laid a towel on the grass for her.

"I'm sorry."

"No sorries, woman. C'mere to me, now."

"Glenn, what is the hold up?" Shane enunciated each word as the Asian walked quickly back to the RV.

"Dude, you go interrupt them," Glenn said defensively. "I went twenty minutes ago and they were doing it then, too. Daryl's gonna fucking kill me if he finds out I saw Sarah naked. I'm not saying anything to them. I'd just as soon wait."

"We oughtta just leave 'em if this is how it's gonna be," Shane fumed, stalking toward the creek. Rick grabbed his elbow gently.

"Hey, I'm sure they'll be back shortly." Rick wrapped his arm around Shane's shoulder. "In the mean time, you and me need to discuss our next course of action a little more thoroughly."

"We ain't even havin' this talk until she gets back," Shane hollered. "You tell that girl we ain't goin' where I promised we would."

"Shane."

"You were just talking about leaving her behind," Glenn said incredulously.

Shane glared at the smaller man until he moved away from his line of sight, then looked back to Rick. "That's where Sarah's brother told us we oughtta go. We had a communiqué patch through the night they got here and he said it was still safe there. There's protection, there's guns, there's lots of men, there's food, there's water, there's shelter. Our people got family there. Fort Benning is where we need to go."

"Shane, it's a hundred miles away for a long shot, who knows what could've happened there by now?" Lori asked, hands on her hips.

"It's a major military base, Lori, they got families there, you think they ain't protecting them?"

"What's going on?" Sarah asked, toweling her hair dry. Daryl stood directly beside her, hand holding her arm.

"Hey Sarah, look who just woke up from a coma and thinks he knows what's best for us in a world he ain't used to livin' in," Shane said, not taking his eyes off Rick.

Sarah looked to her husband, whose eyes narrowed.

"I don't think there's any reason to talk like that," the nurse said slowly.

"No, look at all this!" Shane took Sarah by the arm and indicated all the bloody patches of Earth where half-eaten bodies once rested. "I told 'im before he was leavin' us to a fate like this. You heard me. Yer just about the only one with half a brain anymore, all these other jackasses think we oughtta waltz right back into Atlanta and find the CDC."

Sarah's eyes widened. "No. We can't do that."

"Thank you." Shane glared over at Rick. Furious, Daryl shoved the belligerent man's hand away from Sarah and pulled her back to himself.

"You don't fuckin' touch her, you don't try an' use her," the hunter seethed.

"Hey, hey, I think we should all calm down." Rick calmly made his way to stand between the couple and his best friend. Paying no mind to the corded arm around her, Sarah shook her head at Rick.

"Listen, we can't go there. They don't have any kind of answers for us and, even if they did, they wouldn't give them. I worked at a major teaching hospital in Atlanta and when the CDC came in, they didn't tell us anything. They didn't warn us, they just set up quarantine for phase one. When phase two came and the hospital got overrun, they left us all there. They left us to die."

"I don't think we have any other choices," Rick said slowly, blue eyes begging her to see his unspoken logic. No one needed to hear the truth that was so obvious to them all.

"We have somewhere to go! Listen, my brother is Command Sergeant Major Shawn Moultrie. The last I heard from him before the AT&T towers went down and I lost cellular on my iPhone was that they were closing off the inner base, taking the armories. That was the night I got here and I told him I was with a large group of people. He said to bring 'em all, even Merle. I know the way to Columbus like the back of my hand, Rick, I know just how to get there, just the roads to take—"

"We simply don't have the resources, Mrs. Dixon." Rick reached out to touch her shoulder, but thought better of it when Daryl snarled. "I would truly love to reunite you with your kin and to get us all to such an apparently safe place, but—"

"So yer not just givin' up on my brother, yer givin' up on hers, too?" Daryl snapped. "We sit around here for months when we had the supplies and coulda gone?"

"Then I wouldn't have found my husband," Lori breathed through clenched teeth.

"We had every reason to hold out—"

"—scavenge for supplies in the city—"

"—too big of a risk, we don't know what's there—"

"The military could protect us! You heard Dixon, she said they just left 'em there to die!"

"Please, could everybody just please calm down?" Rick seemed exhausted, but unwilling to raise his voice above the crowd.

Trembling in Daryl's hold, Sarah turned to face him. "I'm not giving up on Shawn! I don't care what I have to do, he's my only family!"

Daryl shushed her, growing more and more restless as he listened to the endless dissent from what was left of their group. So many missing faces, hardly any of them had he ever even known. He held Sarah tightly to himself, and he could not convince himself it was not partly for self-comfort. This was the only person he even knew. His brother was gone. He was responsible for Sarah, and he wasn't even sure what was best this time.