****Hi and a big thanks to the new followers. I appreciate it! Just a reminder: the story is Rated Very M. This chapter is getting to the good stuff. Smutmance. (Romantic smuttyness) :)

The cold made her fingers ache. Danni wore her sweatshirt with the hood up over her head desperate for extra warmth. What was this place? Chilled sunlight filtered in through dirty, cracked windows. An odd assortment of tools scattered on all surfaces. She noticed a broken a table saw on a filthy workbench. This place was a wood shop that was shot to shit now. Paint peeled on the high ceiling. The walls were cinder block and the floor concrete. That was why she was cold. No heat in here. She walked up behind Daryl, placing her hand gently on his back. She startled him and he turned his head. They both looked bit older; darker somehow. His hair had deepened with growth and his cheeks hollowed out some. She was paler than ever and her eyes had darkened from the things she'd seen.

"What are you doin' here?" He shook her hand off and looked away.

"You came back alone...and you look so..." She ventured.

He didn't let her finish. "What? What do I look like? A traitor? How bout some weak piece of shit who can't protect his own family?" He directed his anger at himself more than at Danni. "I killed him. That what you wanna know? I got there and he was turned. I had to. My own brother. " He sounded stunned.

"Daryl, I'm sorry."

He finally turned toward her. She could see he'd been crying. Suddenly he was furious. "Don't tell me you're sorry about Merle." He choked out his brother's name. "You don't know nothin' about us."

"I know you loved him."

"Shut up. You think you got me figured out. You feel sorry for me, huh? Fucked up family, stupid, violent, backwoods hick. I don't belong here. " He paused His crystalline blue eyes bore down on her. "You don't know me, so stop acting like you do. You don't know shit!"

She pulled back as if he'd hit her. She felt their entire friendship dissolving right there. Any amount of trust they'd managed to develop was gone.

He asked her again "What are you doin'?"

"Checking on you."

"I didn't ask you to. You keep trailing me around. What do you want?" He glowered at her. His eyes were slits.

"Nothing." She managed to say, feeling ashamed of being wrong about him.

"Good, cause you ain't my problem."

"Yeah, well, you're not mine either!" She shot back louder, this time. "I'm sick of the games. One minute you treat me like a human being, the next you act like don't know me. It's been over a year and you won't let me in. I have a hard time with people too, you know, but I let you get to me. It was a mistake. God, we wasted so much time." The realization left her defeated and exhausted.

"You're a scared little girl all alone so you been hanging on me thinking we'll be something for each other. Making up some stupid idea of how its gonna be with us. We're both alone. We're nothin'. Hear me?"

"You're right."

Her agreement caught him off guard.

"I might die tomorrow. I'm not gonna spend what could be my last day being talked to like that by you or anyone. I've taken enough shit in my life. I am not doing that anymore. So just get out of my way." Her shoulder knocked into him as she rushed past. She stalked away, yelling back, "Speechless?" She screeched with fury. "What else is new!"

He couldn't let her have the last word. "We might all die tomorrow, so I'll say whatever the hell I want to all y'all! Even a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked." He immediately regretted his words. There was no time for fear like this. He'd take on a group of Walkers without thinking twice, but his feelings about this goddamned girl terrified him. He had been too late with Merle; too late to fix things, to make it right and that mistake would pain him for the rest of his life. He wasn't going to do that with Danni. He knew that with Merle gone he needed her more than ever. "Shit." He muttered. Moving quickly, he beat her to the door and blocked her exit. She pivoted and tried to push past, but he grabbed her shoulders. His grip was firm and as she started to struggle and protest he shoved her against the wall. "Just hold still."

"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.

"Dammit girl, do what I say."

"Why?"

"Just shut up." He pushed her hood off and moved his face in close to hers so that their foreheads touched. It shocked her. He seemed unreal until she felt the scratch of his scruffy chin on her cheek and his rough hands under her sweatshirt. She reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair. He hesitated but only for a second. He pushed his lips against hers and she kissed him hard, breathlessly taking his tongue into her mouth. They were hungry for each other.

They had spent enormous amounts of energy denying and avoiding the attraction. A mutual refusal born of fear. Fear of caring about someone in a time when life was so cheap and uncertain. Still, the longing had been there and it made this release almost too intense. Neither Daryl nor Danni could hold back anymore. They were ready as soon as their bodies came together.

He immobilized her against the wall. His mouth still covering hers sucking in her hot, jagged breath. When she felt him unsheathe his knife, cut the waistband of her leggings and push them aside she almost came. His knee kept her legs apart. He undid his own belt. She heard his zipper come down, then felt his hands firmly on her hips lifting them to the perfect height for her to feel him as he entered her. She bent her knees and pressed them on either side of his waist. He held her there, hands on her ass, relishing the power he felt being able to control their movement. He rocked her back and forth thrusting at the right time, hitting that perfect spot as he moved inside her. She fell in on herself and as soon as he realized she was climaxing, he stopped. It was obvious to him by the way she stiffened, gasped and hiccupped his name; now he wanted her to beg for more. She writhed against him until he started moving again. He made her work for every breath-stealing contraction. Fear pricked at the back of her neck, the terror that it would fall away and she'd lose everything so she did beg. She begged him not to stop.

"Open your eyes." He said, his voice pure gravel. "I want you lookin' at me."

She woke up mid orgasm. She had surrendered herself to the swelling waves of pleasure washing over her in the dream state and they continued now, her breath becoming more ragged with each flash of heat. As the last twinge low in her belly faded, she gasped and dug her fingers into the material of her sleeping bag. "Shit," she sighed then "What is happening to me?" She felt like she'd just watched a movie that was too explicit for her comfort level because it involved Daryl. Again. Must have been the Vicodin. She'd taken the pain killers last night for her head. Drug dreams are the craziest right? And the concussion. Maybe. Or maybe it was happening again. Her premonitions. Two dreams about him meant more would come. They were increasing in intensity and this one referenced Merle. Merle was back? Daryl had killed him? The symbolism in that could fill a book.

She lay stretched out on her back.

She thought of her Nana Brigid, an Irish Traveler. She was known as a Cailleach; a wise woman of her clan. She'd always said Danni had the gift. She'd encouraged her, as a child, to work on her talents; to practice, and study the lore of the old ways. Danni didn't take it seriously. She read her horoscope and was never without her tarot cards, but presently, she was a lapsed Irish Gypsy Witch. Her friends called her psychic because her hunches and feelings often panned out. But the dreams were a constant as she grew up. Dreams that came true. Before her mother would pack her and her sister up to move when the rent was due, she saw the new house or apartment in a dream. She had dreamed of living in Austin, and of forming her band before she moved there. But the dreams had stopped. For a long time. She hadn't dreamt at all for a couple of years. Until now.