Chapter 21

She opened the door and jumped as she came face to face with Daryl, who was fixing to leave himself, his hand was on the opposite knob. They both wordlessly stared at each other like two horny teenagers and she watched, transfixed as his bright blue eyes darkened with desire.

"I was just goin' to look for you." He said, his deep, gruff voice was quiet.

Before she had a chance to reply, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room, closing and locking the door behind him. Before she could speak, she found herself being pushed against the wall and her mouth being ravaged.

"Oh ... Daryl ..." She managed to get out between moans and shuddering gasps as he kissed every inch of exposed skin.

"I've missed you." He growled into her ear, causing goose bumps to erupt over her entire body. They broke contact only long enough to pull each other's shirts off, Daryl started backing his way to the bed, pulling Charlotte with him until he felt the side of the bed bump against his legs. He let himself fall back, pulling Charlotte with him.

He rubbed his cheek against hers, relishing in the feel of her soft skin, she gently traced his scars, both old and new with her delicate fingers. "So many scars." She said, her voice full of empathy and remorse, because some of them were because of her.

"Could say the same thing bout' you." He said as he gently put his thumb on the scar from where she had been shot, and then traced the scar from her ruined eye.

She leaned down slowly. "I think scars are sexy." She whispered sensually into his ear, her lengthening hair tickling the side of his face.

Another growl rumbled from deep within his throat as his hands flew to his pants, he unbuckled them and shoved them down, underwear and all as she did the same with hers.

It had been a wild and reckless quickie, much to Charlotte's disappointment, but it was to be expected, they hadn't touched each other in weeks.

It was times like this Charlotte liked to pretend that there was no end of civilization, no zombie virus, just him, and her.

"What r'ya thinkin?" Daryl whispered as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"Sometimes, when we're alone like this, I like to pretend that there is no virus, no walkers, just … us." She confessed, he chuckled, his chest rumbling under her ear.

Suddenly, they heard shouts and a commotion coming from down the hall. Daryl and Charlotte jumped into action, dressing in mere seconds and rushing out the door, grabbing their weapons as they went.

They rushed down the next hall to find it littered with bodies.

"What the hell …?" Charlotte trailed off as a very exhausted and bloody Rick met them.

"Walkers … snuck up on us while we were sleeping … must've escaped from upstairs somewhere." Rick said, looking as though he were about to collapse where he stood.

"I thought we cleared the upstairs?" Charlotte said.

"We did, that means tomorrow, we're gonna have to do fence checks." Daryl said.

Sure enough, there was a break in the rusted, iron fence. Years of neglect and exposure to the harsh DC weather.

"Wait a minute." Charlotte said as she inspected the fence a little closer. "This didn't break, not on its own, someone helped this along."

Daryl took a closer look, and sure enough, there were marks where something, probably a crow bar snapped a hole in the fence.

"Looks like someone's been comin' and goin'." Daryl said as he crouched down and studied the ground and traced the faint outline of shoeprints with his fingers.

"It rained last night, so there's no tellin' how old they are." He said as he stood once more, when Charlotte didn't answer, he turned to see her scanning the tree line with her finger on the trigger of her rifle.

"What?" He asked as he watched and listened as well.

"Nothing I … I just have this feeling someone's watching us." She said with a final shake of her head as they went back inside.

Daryl gave the tree line a final cursory look before following her back inside, the last time she had had that feeling, she had been right and he felt it was worth mentioning to Rick.

Rick's brow furrowed, adding ten years to his appearance as they told him about the fence and the fact that Charlotte was sure they were being watched.

"What do you want to do, law man?" Charlotte asked, Rick rubbed a hand over his face.

"We'll discuss it at the council meeting tonight." Rick said, and with that he turned and left their company, leaving Daryl and Charlotte to watch his retreating form worriedly.

Rick's behavior had become a cause of concern for the other members of the council, he was becoming increasingly detached from the group and was going off on his own more and more under the guise of "making rounds."

"I don't know about you, but I say we have another meeting, one without the law man, I have things I want to discuss without him listening in." Charlotte said.

Everyone sat in Daryl and Charlotte's room, no one said a word, the conversation was inevitable, but that didn't make it any less difficult.

"Rick's going off his rocker, if we leave him alone, he's gonna get us all killed." Michonne said, her voice low.

"That's easy for you to say, you haven't know Rick as long as some of us have." Glenn replied as he looked to Daryl, and Maggie.

"I agree with her, somethin's gotta be done. Rick's decisions ain't sound no more." Daryl said.

"Okay, what do you suggest we do? Oust him? Kill him?" Glenn challenged, his expression hard.

"We go to him first, try to make him see." Maggie said.

"And if he doesn't?" Glenn replied, Maggie's eyes were steeled as she spoke.

"Then we do what we have to do."

Notes: I know I am going to sound like a broken record with this, but I am super sorry I haven't updated in so long, I have been dealing with moving, as well as some personal problems. Thanks to all for hanging in there and please, please review! Reviews are fuel for the fingers!