A/N - Thanks again for the on-going support for my story. This is another Daryl/Sienna chapter (originally just meant to be a scene in the next chapter but it became longer!) that I really wanted to sneak in, as I have suffered a little with writers block on the next chapter following this, but I am so excited for the rest of my story that I need to push through that. I know a lot of you are desperate for them to get back to Alexandria and I am too! It is coming really soon, but I wanted to develop Daryl's character and build his relationship with Sienna first.

Daryl held his torchlight up to show the way as he walked along the beach beside Sienna. They were heading to a small pile of wood he had made earlier. In the dark they could just make out shadows. On their left where the land was, they could hear the faint cries of life from back at the base. On their right the waves broke gently on the shore sending up sprays of phosphorescent surf.

The sounds and sights of nature were still wonderful. The occasional bangs and voices coming from the base in the distance the only blemish to the otherwise perfect natural surroundings.

They found the wood and crouched down. Sienna put a match to it and slowly but steadily the fire grew. Soon they were basking in the orange glow of the bonfire. It wasn't the first time they had done this at night. The warm glow of the bonfire was a far cry from the coldness of the world Daryl had been used to.

Sienna had suggested it on this occasion. After Daryl had left Aaron at the hospital and arrived at the bar, she had grabbed a bottle of tequila and said they should go down to the beach to get wasted and talk rubbish as it would be their last chance for a while. Daryl was heading out with Monroe the next day.

...

Once the fire was going, Sienna unscrewed the lid to the bottle to take a swig.

"Where d'ya get all your booze from?" Daryl asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as he watched her.

"I have my contacts." She replied mysteriously with a grin as she handed it over to him and he took a swig before passing it back. "Alcohol is getting harder to come by these days. Everybody wants some, thats why they set up the bar."

"I suppose to drown away the fact that the world is fucked." Daryl commented as he watched her put the bottle to her lips again. "And I notice you're pretty good at putting away that tequila."

She laughed at his comment and shrugged. "What can I say. I used to like party a lot when I was younger, I got in a lot of practice."

"Bet you were in some kind of college sorority." He said with a mocking smile.

She rolled her eyes and gave him a deadpan stare. "Nope. Actually, I would describe myself as having been more quiet and interesting. I never really fitted in. Just pretended to when I had to. Until I found people that understood me for who I was, that is."

"What about you, I bet you loved booze and girls when you were younger?" Sienna asked, shifting the focus on to him. She imagined he would have broken a few hearts when he had been younger with his brooding good looks and sullen, bad-boy attitude.

He threw a stray twig on the fire. He'd never been to college or anything similar, he'd never had the chance and he'd always been more of a loner. "I'm a dick when I drink." He mumbled.

She laughed as she swigged some more and the burning liquid went down her throat. "Why do I find that hard to believe?" She asked sarcastically.

He smirked back at her as she handed him the bottle. It was moments like this that Daryl was starting to live for now. Just the two of them. Away from everything.

"My mother always told me I drank too much." Sienna said. "She said I wouldn't find the answers to my problem at the bottom of a bottle."

"Your mother was right." Daryl responded seriously.

"My old man was a mean drunk. He used to smack my mom around, then after she died he started beating the shit out of me."

"I'm sorry about your mother." Sienna said.

She watched him kick some sand with his foot, and sadness clouded her features as she thought about Daryl as a young boy being abused like that with no-one there to take care of him. Every child needed their mother and no child should ever have to suffer like that. No wonder he was so guarded and defensive at times.

"She was just as bad. She passed out drunk and burned the house down and killed herself." Daryl dismissed. He was never normally this open about his child-hood, but something about Sienna and this place was making him want to be now.

"My brother took care of me for a while, before he left. Then I had to just learn to look out for myself. Didn't do me no harm in the long run though, never having to rely on no-one, learning how to take care of myself!"

Neither of them spoke for a moment, as they concentrated on the sound of the crashing waves.

Sienna reached inside her bag to pull out some loose tobacco and rolling papers. She didn't smoke anymore, but she knew Daryl liked to sometimes to relax and she would happily join him if she was in the mood.

Daryl watched her silently as she sprinkled the tobacco into the rolling paper and spread it out evenly, using her fingers to form a pile into the shape of a cigarette.

"How many people have you killed?" Sienna eventually asked tentatively, changing the subject as her wide blue eyes looked up from what she was doing and over at him.

Daryl looked away into the night. His body tensed and his expression was deadly serious. He hadn't been fully prepared for that question.

"I don't mean, infected people. I mean real people…." She said as she put one end of the rolling paper between her thumb and middle finger, holding the paper in the crease with her index finger of the same hand she used the other hand to adjust the paper into a creased, open chute.

He touched his jaw. "A few." His eyes became dark slits as he hid behind his hair. He wasn't proud of some of the things he'd had to do to keep himself and his group alive. "I aint a killer, just did what I had to do."

She carefully rolled the cigarette between her fingers, before putting it to her mouth to seal it with her lips. "Kyle says he has counted every single person he has had to kill to stay alive, both infected and living. He says it's the only way he can keep hold of who he used to be."

Daryl swallowed hard. He liked Kyle a lot. Despite his young age, Daryl respected Kyle because he was one of the only people here that had that look in his eyes, the look that said he had been out there, and he had survived this far, just like Daryl had.

Sienna's blonde hair fell over her face as she leaned down to place her rolled up cigarette in to her mouth and light it. She sat back up as the end sparked and she inhaled and blew smoke out into the night air. "Your group, are they killers?" She asked, wide-eyed and curious still.

Daryl met her eye for a brief moment before his gaze shifted away into the night again. None of the people he had been surviving with, the people he considered his family, had started off as killers. They had become that way, because they hadn't had a choice.

"They aint bad people. No-one started out wanting to hurt anyone. But the way it is out there…..It's either you or them." He explained, he wasn't going to bull-shit her, if she couldn't handle who he and his people were it was best he found out now.

She passed him the cigarette and he silently took it.

"It was just something you had to do. I get it." She responded slowly. She reached for the bottle of tequila and put it to her mouth to take another long swig.

"Nah…You don't.." He grunted, taking a deep drag of the rolled up cigarette, exhaling forcefully. He paused and looked at the crackling fire in front of them. She might think she knew because she had interviewed survivors, and seen the devastation wrecked upon the world with her own eyes. But she could never really get it unless she had actually lived through it.

Sienna lowered the bottle and clutched it with both her hands. They'd joked about her writing a book about him. But one day she actually did want to interview him properly, so she really could tell his story, all of it, everything he had been through since the start of the outbreak. Alex had been right when he'd said that Daryl and his group had most probably had to do unspeakable things. But that didn't make them bad. It made them strong. She had looked deep into Daryl's eyes at the most intimate moments and she had seen the vulnerability in them and the pain, but she had also seen the light just waiting to escape, he had a lot of love waiting to give. He wasn't a bad person. He had just been pushed to his limits.

"People have to change." He mumbled and he looked straight at her. His expressive eyes studied her face to gauge her reaction.

"I don't think we ever really change. We just evolve into better versions of ourselves. Stronger and more resilient …..You know, you were made for this world now."

"I weren't made for nothing!" He said roughly. He wasn't a hero, he'd screwed up many times, people had died because of him. She needed to know that.

"How can you say that?"

He shrugged, his brow was furrowed with pain.

"You can't let your past define who you are, Daryl." She reached out and took the cigarette back from him. "Sometimes you just have to let shit go."

His face twisted and his creased eyes studied her, she fascinated him. She seemed to understand him at the most basic level.

"Aint always that simple." He frowned.

Sienna felt her eyes flicker with emotion. She had no idea what he had been through, but she had seen his scars and she wanted to help him, to try and take some of his pain away. "You can't suppress your pain forever, it will just destroy you in the end. You need to find a way to deal with it."

"Yeah, well, somethings you just can't deal with. You have no fucking idea." He snapped. "The things that happened that to me." His voice cracked slightly. "No-one ever gave a shit. I was on my own."

There was a brief awkward silence. Sienna gave him back the cigarette and she felt a strong wave of pain and sympathy. She wanted to tell him that wasn't true. That she was sure someone would have cared about him. But she didn't want to patronise him because she had no idea what his life had been like. So instead she just reached for his hand.

"You were just a kid, Daryl. It wasn't your fault." She said softly.

"Yeah." He quietly agreed in the dark. Enjoying the comforting sensation of her touch.

"Look at how far you've come. The man you've become. You have a fire in you. Thats the best revenge on the people that have hurt us. The biggest 'fuck you' to them." Sienna said passionately.

Daryl tightened his grip on her hand. She was right, but he had never looked at it like that before. He had feared his whole life he would end up like his father. But Daryl could honestly say now after everything he had been though in the past two years, finding Rick's group and becoming part of something, being willing to sacrifice himself for them - that there wasn't a trace of the man that had raised him left anywhere in him.

Sienna released the grip of his hand and took a final drag of the cigarette before throwing it into the fire. She laid down flat on her back with her knees drawn up and her hands over her eyes as her long hair spread out around her. Her head was spinning slightly with the rush of the alcohol as her chest rose and fell with her heavy breaths.

"Are you looking up my skirt, Dixon?" She asked playfully, lightening the mood again.

Daryl smirked back at her, his eyes lighting up. "What if I am?" He asked in low voice.

He shifted closer to find her hand again and he pulled her up and on to his lap. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and he moved his lips into hers to kiss her. The edges of his long hair tickled her face as his tongue darted into her open mouth and his hands slid through her hair. He groaned in to her mouth, grinding himself up against her. She smelled of alcohol and tobacco, mixed with her usual sweet scent and it was turning him on at an alarming rate.

Eventually they broke apart and Sienna put her thumb up to touch his tired, stubbled face affectionately. Her brilliant blue eyes were locked with his as she whispered into his ear. "I love you."

A shiver ran across Daryl's whole body at hearing her say those words. No-one had ever said that to him before and at that moment he felt loved and wanted and needed all at the same time. He kept his eyes on hers, his fingers trembling slightly. He wanted to say it back, because he knew he loved her too. But it was as though a lump had formed in his throat preventing him from speaking. Before he had the chance to do anything further, her lips were on his again and he kissed her back hard. He put everything he had in to this kiss, trying to tell her with actions and without words, how much he loved her too.

A/N - Thanks for reading! Hope that wasn't too fluffy! The next chapter will be up in the next couple of days! Just editing it it at the moment.