Hey everyone, time to see Daryl's reaction, beware for raunchy scenes and sillyness;) Thanks for all the follows and favourites, as well as to BookKeeper88, farawayeyez and Lumora The White for reviewing, you all inspire me to type and update faster!

farawayeyez: Yeah, super close and she'll see some of the consequences to her actions in this chapter:)

Enjoy!

Chapter 21

"Come on, let's go. We got more than enough for today." Anamika nodded, taking a deep breath before releasing Daryl and allowing him to help her up. Her ankle throbbed and though it hurt to walk on it, she doubted it would take more than a few days to heal. Hobbling to the car, the journey back home was silent, though Daryl had held her hand tight to his thigh the entire way home. It was uncharacteristic of him to be this open and affectionate, but she knew she had scared him with the close call. She knew as soon as the shock wore off, he was going to ask her why she had wandered off and she felt kind of embarrassed to admit it was in pursuit of a deer.

Reaching the gates of Alexandria, they waited for the person on guard to open it, which was Eugene and drove through to Olivia's house, where the supplies will be dropped off for inventory. It was already late in the day, about an hour or so before sunset, so after dropping the supplies off, they made their way home. Anamika had declined going to the infirmary, saying she or even Daryl could easily take care of her ankle with the basic first aid kit she had in her room. Making a pitstop at Rick's, they told him of their day and Anamika apologised to Michonne, as she couldn't find any toothpaste for the woman. When they finally reached their house, they ate some of the casserole Carol had left out for them, before they retreated to Anamika's room.

"Come on, lemme see that ankle." Smiling, she watched as Daryl quickly fetched the first aid kit after he sat her down on her bed and gently, more gently than she had known he could be, removed her boot from her ankle. He cleaned the blood from it and winced at the dark purple bruise that was already starting to form. With the blood gone, she could easily see the wound was mostly from scrape marks of the boot rubbing against her skin and not even that bad ones. Daryl gently disinfected it, before tightly wrapping it, making sure the bandage won't come loose. As he packed away the first aid kit, Anamika couldn't keep her eyes off him.

She had seen a side of him that she doesn't see often, but like every other time she had seen it, it filled her heart with an incredible warmth and affection for this gruff man. When it looked like he was going to leave, even if it only was to return the first aid kit to her bathroom, she quickly stood up, her hand reaching out to his arm to stop him. He paused, half turning towards her.

"Daryl… Thanks. If you weren't there today… I… I wo-" She could see the darkness that flashed across his eyes as he considered how differently this could have ended up and then he moved faster than she could keep up with. One moment she was standing slightly behind him, the next moment he had swung her around so that her back was against the wall and his body pressed against hers. His tongue had invaded her mouth and was battling against hers, twisting and licking all inside her mouth. It was not lost on her that this was the first time Daryl initiated anything between them, but she decided to just go with it and not bring attention to it, like the massive grin threatening to break across her face would do.

Shifting to get closer to him, she winced a bit when she placed weight on her ankle and Daryl seemed to notice, but instead of stopping as she thought he might, his hands slid around to cup her ass and he lifted her, her legs instinctually wrapping around his waist as he pressed her back into the wall. His hands were kneading her ass and she moaned, arousal flaring up in her as she grinded against his hard on. Using his hips to pin her to the wall, Daryl broke away from her lips to rip her shirt off over her head, followed by her bra and a wanton moan escaped her as his teeth nipped at her nipple, before he sucked strongly.

She almost couldn't believe this was the same man who was so shy and withdrawn when it came to her romantic advances, but she definitely wasn't going to complain, not when he was doing such wonderful things to her body. Gripping his shirt, she pulled it over his head before he could protest and as he was drawing back, a peculiar expression on his face, she rolled her hips against his, sucking a love bite onto his neck. A deep groan vibrated through his chest and he seemed to forget whatever had been bothering him, as he turned with her still in his arms and carried her to her bed. Throwing her down, she bounced twice as she watched with heated eyes as he unbuckled his belt, his arousal straining against the material of his jeans. When his pants dropped, she licked her lips and shimmied out of her own jeans, her eyes trained on the hard cock that stood proudly to attention.

However, before she could get rid of her panties as well, Daryl had pressed her to the bed, his large body covering hers and his lips on her own. Her arms wrapped around his neck, one hand clenched in his hair as the other clawed at his back. His one hand trailed down to her heated centre, his fingers pushing the soaked material aside to drag through her lips till they found her clit. He pressed down hard, before quickly circling it and she arched up, groaning in pleasure and need. The sound was too much for Daryl and she could heard a rip as her panties was torn from her body and two fingers plunged into her.

"Guh, uh Daryl! Please, please, I need-" Her voice gurgled as a third finger joined the other two while his thumb pressed down on her clit. Daryl's eyes was intense on hers, the blue darkened in arousal and she moaned in ecstasy.

"What do ya want darlin', tell me what ya want. I need you to tell me what you want darlin'!" His voice, rough, low and desperate, sent a thrill through her body, causing her thoughts to become scrambled in desire, but not enough for her to miss the slight insecurity in his voice, the question he was asking her.

"I-I… Ngh, oh… fuck me. Daryl, please! I want you!" She moaned in loss as his fingers left her, but soon they were replaced with something much bigger and more pleasurable. As the head of Daryl's cock slowly breached her, Anamika threw her head back, her eyes clenched shut as her breath shuddered out of her. Daryl had his face buried in her neck, his own breath shaky and groaning as he pushed into her, bottoming out inside her after a moment. They both paused, their breathing heavy as they just revelled in the feeling of each other. She felt so incredibly close to Daryl like this, as if he was telling her everything he can't seem to get past his lips, as if he was showing her the extent of his affection. A bubble of warmth was steadily growing in her chest and Daryl was the main reason for that unfamiliar feeling of deep affection to grow.

Then he was moving, pulling out and pushing back inside her with deep, sure strokes, the tip of his cock lightly bumping against her cervics, just enough to cause a pleasurable pain that had her gasping. He slowly sped up, encouraged by her moans, until the slap of his balls against her ass and their pleasure filled moans were the only noise in the room. Her fingers dug into his back as she clung to him, her high fast approaching and Daryl pumped into her harder as she clenched around his dick, her inner walls contracting in pleasure around his member. Then Daryl rolled his hips as he pushed into her, his pubic bone grinding against her clit and her eyes rolled back in her head as stars exploded behind her vision, her mouth open in a silent choked scream as her orgasm washed over her. Daryl was breathing heavily, groans buried in her hair as his hips stuttered as his own orgasm was triggered by the clenching of her walls. His hips jerked unevenly into her a few more times, prolonging her pleasure, before they both stilled, sweat beading on their bodies and breathing labored.

He finally rolled over, slipping from her as his chest rose and fell as he tried to catch his breath. His arm snaked out to drag her limp, satisfied body to his and she had no hesitation in cuddling the fuck out of him. Snuggling deeper into his embrace, she ignored his chuckle as the arms of morpheus soon dragged her under, his fingers tracing shapes on her back lulling her to sleep.

WD

Daryl lay staring at the ceiling, the dark-haired beauty lying in his arms sleeping peacefully. It was the early hours of the morning, but Daryl couldn't get his mind to calm down. When he had seen that walker bit Anamika, his heart had about stopped and the world had gone quiet. He had thought that he had lost her, that he was going to watch another person he cared about die in front of him and to be honest, he wasn't sure if he could live through that. Sure, he would survive it, but he wasn't sure how he would have kept going, kept having hope.

When Beth died, it had almost killed him. He had shut off from everyone else, he had walked for weeks with that festering pain inside his heart. Beth had helped him believe in not just others, but also in himself. She had him thinking that he might be a good man, that he was worth something more than just the messed up Dixon legacy his father and brother left behind. For that, he would always be grateful to her.

With Anamika, it was more like she knew him, inside and out. She shared her worries and past and didn't expect anything in return and that made him want to give her everything in return. He didn't think he could give her everything, though, someone like Rick or Glenn would probably be able to give her more, to give her the support she needed. He could protect her, not that she needed it, but he knew he wasn't the most emotionally supporting person there was; hell, he hated talking about feelings. It was only recently that he started accepting it from Rick and Carol, yet she had managed to crawl and claw her way into his mind and heart.

Hearing a soft murmur, he looked down to see her mumbling and smacking her lips lightly, her brow furrowing, before it smoothed out as he brush her hair away from her face, his finger tracing the bridge of her nose and cheekbone. The fact that his touch could calm her had something inside him lighten and suddenly, a lot of the things he had been worried about seemed irrelevant. He respected her enough to trust her to know what she wanted and if she went through the trouble of forcing him to accept that he wanted something more than friendship between them, then she probably wants him as much as he wants her.

He wasn't exactly sure what this was between them, as he had never bothered trying to get close to a woman before and never met someone he really wanted to get close to, but he was filling to follow this to the end, all the way to her becoming tired of him or to one of them dying. He just hoped to god it was him that went, as he couldn't take the thought of her dying. She seemed too strong, too beautiful and too full of life to die. He would do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

The sensation of her skin sliding against his had him looking down again to see her slowly blinking, her eyes sleepy as she yawned. Her hand came up from where it had been resting on his chest to rub her eyes, before it fell down again and she was blinking up at him. Looking into her blue eyes, he remembered how terrified she had been yesterday when she thought she had been bit, the tears glistening as she had bit her bottom lip in pain. That walker never should have gotten that close to her, hell, he shouldn't have left her alone to get surrounded.

But then again, he didn't leave her alone in the alley, she had gone off on her own, had run head first into that herd without checking for them. He felt anger start to thrum inside his body as he thought of her going off on her own, placing her life in danger and his expression morphed into a scowl.

"Why?" She blinked, seeming confused about his clipped question and he breathed in deeply through his nose, trying not to scream and yell at her.

"Why'd ya go off on your own?" A sheepish look came over her face and her eyes flickered away, but they met his gaze again when his arm tightened around her back and shoulder. He could see her biting her bottom lip, her eyes apologizing but it wasn't enough for him, he wanted to know what she risked her life for.

"Why?!" She looked down at his sharp tone, before glancing at him again and inhaling deeply. She mumbled something under her breath, but even Daryl's sharp hearing couldn't really make out what it was.

"What?"

"Uhm… I said, I saw a deer and I wanted to shoot it…" It took a moment for the hunter to wrap his mind around what she said, but when he did, he closed his eyes and exhaled heavily, irritation coursing through him. It was a good reason, the community alway needed food, though they weren't desperate yet, but he was just pissed she didn't warn him before going off on her own.

"Anamika, you can't ju-"

"I just wanted to give you a deer to make up for that time I stole some of yours!" His eyes flew open and instead of being touched by her admission, he became even more mad.

"Ya risked your life, to get a deer not for the people back home, but for me to make up for something that don't even matter no more?!"

"Daryl, it does ma-"

"It doesn't matter! Not enough to risk your life for it!" Daryl sat up, detangling himself from her and standing up from the bed, shrugging on his jeans in jerky moves.

"Daryl! I can take care of myself! I was out there for about two years, with no one to rely on, only myself and I did fine!"

"Yeah, you can take real good care of yaself, it wasn't as if a walker almost took a chunk outta your ankle!"

"Oh screw you Dixon, it didn't get me and you don't get to doubt me like that. I can take care of anything by myself!"

"But ya don't have to anymore Anamika!" Something in Daryl's voice must have surprised her, because the woman Daryl was rapidly starting to care for stared at him in silence after his outburst, her eyes wide and shocked. Daryl felt something ballooning in his chest, growing and growing till it seemed to suffocate him.

He swallowed, his voice quiet when he spoke again, "Ya don't have to anymore. Don't you trust me?"

He couldn't look her in the eyes, ashamed of the weakness he was showing in front of her, that was clearly reflected in his choked voice and trembling body as he turned his back to her, running his hands through his hair. Though he wasn't looking at her, he could hear her getting up from the bed, the sheet dragging along the floor as she had it wrapped around her body in an attempt to cover her nudity.

"Daryl?" He hunched his shoulders further, as he couldn't bear looking at her, knowing she would see everything he was uncomfortable with showing, however, that didn't seem to phase her. Her arms wrapped around his middle, the sheet falling to the ground as her warm body pressed against his back and he could feel her nipples pressing into him as her hands splayed across his stomach. It took him back to when Beth had held him like this, comforting him, but this was so much more. This was closer, more intimate than he had ever been with anyone else. Her warmth soaked into him, causing him to unwillingly relax his muscles.

He cleared his throat, his voice softer than a whisper, "I just wanna know when you're going off on your own, just so I know where ya are in case something happens. I trust you to take care of yourself, but in this world it's always better to have a fallback…"

"Daryl, I'm sorry. I do trust you and I will tell you when I'm going out or wandering off, as long as you do the same for me. I guess… I guess I was just too caught up in catching that deer." Daryl scoffed, but the anger had left him and sighing deeply, he turned around, gathering her lean body in his arms and holding her tightly to him, his face buried in her hair. Breathing in deeply, he let her scent calm him, before he stood back. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, he reached down to take her hand, leading her back to the bed.

"C'mon, we still have a few hours to sleep." Anamika nodded, following him and climbing onto the bed to settle down beside him. He pulled her soft body closer to his, revelling in her warmth beside him. His lips twitched as she snuggled deeper into him and it wasn't long before he could hear her breathing deepen as she fell asleep. He placed his hand over hers, which was resting on his naked chest and it was only then that he realised something. He hadn't been wearing a shirt, she had taken it off during sex and he never put it back on. She hadn't said anything, but he had been standing with his back to her, there's no way she didn't see his scars.

He wanted to feel ashamed, angry, sure that she was disgusted with the ugly, angry marks that covered his back, but before he could work himself up into a state, he remembered her warm body pressed against his back, the way the sheet had dropped as she had wrapped her arms around him and her bare breasts and stomach pressing against his skin. She hadn't hesitated, didn't even mention it and that, more than anything, showed Daryl what she thought of them. To her, his scars weren't ugly or disgusting, it was just another part of him that she accepted without question. He closed his eyes, feeling humbled and awed that he could have such a woman in his arms and sleep came without trouble to him that night.

WD

Anamika sat silently, not moving as her body was pressed against a tree, her breathing slow and controlled and her ears catching every noise. Her prey walked closer, their steps slow and soft, but not soft enough to avoid her notice.

They came closer and she tensed, her body ready, and when her prey stalked past the tree, she jumped out, her hand snatching the rugged sheriff's hair as she bolted, her laughter trailing behind her.

Carl's indignant shout rose behind her and she could hear him pursuing her, but she was determined not to let him catch her. Her spoils clutched in her hand, she dodged to the side when Carl lunged for her, his fingers missing her by inches. He was a fast little blighter and she had to keep on her toes to avoid the teen, her smile stretching wider as she heard his laughter intermingled with threats.

Rounding a corner, she narrowly missed a body in front of her, doing a dizzying twirl to avoid crashing into Maggie as Glenn's eyes widened at the close call. Without stopping, she shouted an apology over her shoulder and kept going, knowing Carl was right behind her.

Carol was standing to one side, a laughing Judith in her arms as she smiled fondly at the scene, that became more common around Alexandria after Anamika had decided she needed to train Carl, but wanted to do it in a fun and unique way.

And so the game of "Snatch the Sheriff" started, only with her trying to grab Carl's hat without him noticing her and then Carl having to get it back, using whatever means possible. It had been about a week since her close call with the walker and her ankle was healed in her opinion, though it was still a mottled yellow color and twinged when she poked it, much to Daryl's exasperation.

Unfortunately for Carl, this meant she had a lot of pent up energy she needed to get rid of, hence her ambushing the poor boy. So far, he hadn't managed to get the hat back once, she had always given it back after he surrendered, lying on the ground with her foot on his neck.

"Dad, grab her!" Anamika had one second to process Carl's yell, before traitorous steel bands appeared in front of her, she skidded on her heels, trying to turn or slide beneath them, but she had noticed it too late and the next moment, her feet lifted off the ground as Rick's arms enclosed around her.

"Traitor! Cheater! You unholy sons of sin and hell! Bloody idjit, let me go!" Rick's deep chuckle filled her ears as Carl advanced slowly, a grin on his face as his hands were held up, knowing she could get loose if she really wanted to and so ready for anything she might pull.

"Nah, if I go out there, it will probably be with backup. What's the point of having comrades if I don't ask them to help me from time to time?"

"You chuckleheads better start praying, cause I'll whoop both your asses without breaking a sweat!"

"O yeah?" Carl had a gleam in his eyes that instantly had Anamika on guard, her eyes narrowing as her struggling ceased. Carl stepped forward slightly, his fingers wiggling at her and her eyes widened dramatically.

"NO. You little traitor, I told you in utmost confidence! You pinky swore and shaked spit hands on it to never tell a soul!"

Carl grinned, his eyes sparkling mischievously as he answered, "I'm not telling anyone. Not my fault if they happen to see it though."

With that, he lunged forward, tickling Anamika and despite her efforts to get loose, she couldn't help but squirm as she started laughing, her entire body spasming. Carl was relentless and Anamika knew she had to do something and quick if she wanted to get away. Luckily for her, she saw someone who could come to her rescue.

"Daryl! Daryl, help! The spawn of Satan is torturing me!"

"Hey!" Rick protested, but Anamika was focused on Daryl, who had stopped when he saw what was going on. Carl had paused, waiting to see what Daryl was going to do and Anamika smiled, sure victory was in her grasp. Daryl's eyes flicked to Carl, Rick and then her, before his lips twitched and he lifted one hand mockingly, wiggling his fingers in a wave, before he turned and strolled away.

Anamika's mouth dropped open.

Rick grinned.

Carl burst out laughing.

And she didn't even notice when the Sheriff's hat was liberated from her grasp.

WD

Just some fun to lighten things up and keep it from becoming too serious, figure you guys are going to need it as we're close to getting back to canon again. Also, this is my last fully typed chapter I have, the next one is typed about halfway, so I need lots of motivation to pump out a few more chapters:)