msgemgem: I am so happy that you love Ariel and her relationship with Daryl and Rrick; especially Rick. It moves me to know that people have recieved what I was going for with them, that she loves him to the same capactiy that she does Daryl but not in the same way. I also love that you enjoyed how Daryl and Ariel developed and what they do for each other. Thank you for your long and very flattering review.

Chapter 20-

Ariel was trying not to panic, but she was finding that it was becoming very hard not to. They were holding up in a home after somehow managing to sneak their way in. But now that they were on the inside of the town, Ariel wasn't so sure that they would make it out in one peace. Walkers were one thing, but sneaking around in a town full of people who what, tried to kill their friends? Well, that was something else altogether.

"Thought you said there was a curfew." Daryl said, letting the curtain drop.

"The street is packed during the day," Michonne said.

"If anyone comes in here, we're sitting ducks. We gotta move."

"They could be in his apartment." Michonne suggested.

"Yeah? What if they ain't?" Daryl hissed.

"Then we'll look somewhere else." she answered rudely.

"You said you could help us." Rick raised his eyebrow, circling her.

"I'm doing what I can."

"Then where in the hell are they?" Ariel whispered.

"Hey." Rick tilted his head to them. Ariel and Daryl followed to the doorway where Rick said low to them, "If this goes south, we're cutting her loose."

Ariel bit her lip. "You think she's leading us into a trap?"

"Right now it's the blind leading the blind." Daryl shrugged. "Let's split up."

Ariel rolled her eyes. "I don't think that is a good idea." she whispered. "We're already few enough as it is, what the hell is splitting up going to do? It's not like we can send word if one of us is lost."

The door sounded, a voice calling out to them. "I know you're in here. I saw you moving from outside." he opened the door and they all disappeared. "All right, now. You're not supposed to be in here and you know it. Who's in here?" he walked to the doorway, Rick pushing him up against the wall and pointing a gun to his head.

"Shut up. Get on your knees. Hands behind your back. Zip tie him." as Daryl did as he was told, Rick asked, "Where are our people?"

"I don't know." the man answered quickly.

"You are holding some of our people. Where the hell are they?"

"I don't know!"

"Open your mouth." Rick said, shoving a cloth into his mouth. The man talked through it but Daryl knocked him out cold.

"Very nice." Ariel rolled her eyes.

"Come on," Rick said, opening the door. They slipped out, noticing that many people were running in the streets. They came through a small hallway eventually in another building, one that looked like an old garage or a very small factory. They stayed up against the wall, Daryl looking through a small dirty window, hearing Maggie and Glenn.

"They're there." she whispered.

Daryl put a finger on his lips, giving Rick one of the weapons that he chucked out into the open space, it exploded, the gas releasing itself. Daryl had his crossbow steady while Ariel and Rick ran through, grabbed Glenn and Maggie before running off.

They ran so swiftly, Daryl with his crossbow up the whole time, Glenn limping and Maggie halfway close to crying. When they found the same building they had been at before, Rick said, "Inside, quick!"

"Ain't no way out back here." Daryl said.

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asked as she tended to Glenn.

He ignored her and asked Glenn, "How bad are you hurt?"

"I'll be all right." he was holding his stomach.

"Where's that woman?" Maggie asked.

"She was right behind us." Rick said, looking through the curtain.

Ariel bit her lip. "Maybe she was spotted. Want me to go look for her?"

"No. We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own." Rick said quickly.

Daryl nodded. "I ain't havin' you run around out there, not now."

"Daryl," Glenn called, as Maggie helped him put on a shirt. "This was Merle."

"Oh my God." Ariel put her hand on his arm. Daryl was staring at Glenn like he was a ghost, like nothing that had happened up until this point really mattered, or in fact, really happened.

"You saw him?" he asked.

" Face to face. Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

"S-So my brother's this governor?" he was lowering his crossbow a bit, and Ariel knew from the way he was moving that he was itching to hold her hand.

"No, it's somebody else." Maggie answered. "Your brother's his lieutenant or something."

"Does he know I'm still with you?" he asked hurriedly, walking up to them. Ariel was getting nervous, he was acting like he wasn't even listening to what they were saying. Ariel had never met Merle, but God if he was so ready to torture these people, one of whom he knew, what kind of person could Merle be.

"He does now. Rick, I'm sorry." Glenn breathed. "We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."

"Don't. No need to apologize." Rick put out his hand.

"Rick," Ariel said, looking at him significantly. "They're gonna be looking for us. We have to get back." She tilted her head towards Daryl, hoping that he was understanding exactly what she was trying to say.

" Can you walk?" Rick asked, understanding what she needed. "We got a car a few miles out."

"I'm good." Glenn answered.

"All right."

"Hey," Daryl walked up to Rick, but Ariel followed. "If Merle's around, I need to see him."

"Not now. We're in hostile territory."

"He's my brother. I ain't-"

"Look at what he did!" Ariel told him. "Daryl, come on, these are the people who you have been with."

Rick nodded. "Look, we gotta- we gotta get out of here now."

"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out." he said quickly.

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight. Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us?"

Ariel nodded. "Daryl, please. You can't do this to us now," she put a hand on the side of his face. "If you leave us now, we won't make it out of here, not in one piece. Stay with me, please." she breathed, because if anything made her afraid, it was not walkers or the governor, it was Daryl leaving her.

"I need you." Rick said. "We need you. Are you with me?"

"Yeah."

Ariel kissed his lips quickly. "I love you hot stuff."

"I love you too."

"You with me?" she whispered, clutching the ends of his hair.

"Yeah." he breathed, kissing her again.

"Stay tight," Rick murmured. They came out of the house, but were immediately spotted, someone pointing out their position and firing off immediately.

"Get cover!" Rick yelled as shots fired.

Ariel was trying to move in the same direction that Daryl was moving, but it was getting hard to see through all the smoke. She was panicking, shooting best she could, getting cover in a small alley of a building. She touched Daryl, looking him over and being sure that he was okay. She barely heard them talking, there was too much happening, getting shot at instead of just running away, Merle being here, Daryl having wanted to go to him, too much, and Rick...Rick had barely just come back from what happened with Lori, if something happened now, to any one of them, Rick would go into the deep end of insanity.

"We need to move." Daryl finished.

"Any grenades left?" Rick asked.

"Yeah."

"Get 'em ready. We gotta gun into the wall."

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna lay down some cover fire." Daryl said.

"No." Ariel snapped, coming out of her thoughts and forcing herself to pay attention to him. "You are not leaving me, do you understand."

Maggie nodded. "We gotta stay together."

Ariel got on her knees, grabbing his chin in her hand. "I know he's your brother, but if you leave me now I will never forgive you."

Daryl sighed and kissed her forehead hard. "I'll be right behind you, I promise."

Rick touched Ariel's arm. "He's got this, and I got you." he promised her. "Come on."

"Ready?" but before anyone answered, Daryl shot another grenade out.

So Ariel did the only thing she could think of and ran with Glenn and Maggie while Rick and Daryl both took cover and fired off shots. Ariel helped Glenn first, helping him climb on a bus before helping Maggie. They jumped over the fence, Glenn landing in a way that she was sure did not help his situation and the three of them waited.

Ariel was scratching her arms, waiting.

Rick and Daryl, Rick and Daryl, Rick and Daryl, Rick and Daryl...where were they, where were they...

"DARYL!" She heard Rick yell and Ariel felt vomit come up in her mouth. She spit some of it out, Maggie rubbing in between her shoulder blades.

When Rick came over the fence, without Daryl, Ariel felt her insides squirm again.

"Where is he?" she said, getting up, wiping her mouth.

"Sh," he held her hand and ran with her to the other side of the fence, Maggie and Glenn following behind. "Get down."

"Rick," Ariel breathed. "If he's there we have to go back."

"He'll come." he whispered, looking behind them when he heard something. It was Michonne, who had a few minor injuries to her, but Ariel could care less about that right now. "Where the hell were you?" he put his gun to her. "Put your hands up. Turn around. Turn around." He took away her sword. "Get what you came for?"

"Where are the rest of your people?" she asked.

"Daryl is missing," Ariel said, lowering her gun stupidly, but her fear was overwhelming her right now. "You didn't see him? Oh my God, if anything happens to him..." she breathed, putting her hands on her knees to throw up a bit more. She felt pathetic, a little bit, but she didn't care too much.

"Hey, we'll get him." Rick told her.

"We have to." she breathed. "I can't...I can't go on if he's not..."

"I know, I know..." he picked her up so she would stand straight. "She's going to help us get Daryl back, and then we are out of here."

Ariel, who had been throwing up but five minutes ago, now looked like more of a killer than any of them ever had. She had killed all of the people on the guard tower, her search for Daryl sending her into a spiral of pure rage. Rick had never seen her like this, not once. Michonne had said something about an arena, and it was like Ariel had been here fifty times before already that she knew where they were. She ran swiftly, jumping over dead bodies like they were nothing. She hid behind something allowing the others to catch up to her, when they found the arena.

"Ariel, wait," Rick said. He shot a bomb out the same moment that Maggie shot a walker in the head.

Ariel ran, she saw him and she ran. She watched Daryl look at her, and for a brief moment, the entire world slowed down. Daryl said something to Merle, but all she could see was him, that he was hurt and looking at her. She grabbed his hand, and he tightened his grip and out of the smoke they ran, hand in hand.

When they had made it back to the forest right by the road, Daryl dropped his crossbow and Ariel her gun. Daryl, shy, awkward Daryl, did not care that his brother was there, or a woman they barely knew. Ariel didn't care about any of it. She wrapped her legs around Daryl and kissed him thoroughly. Merle was making stupid comments and Rick looked away, but neither of them cared for it.

When Daryl dropped her she laughed into the kiss, wiping her tears. "Never do that again." she hit his chest.

He grinned. "My bad."

But their peace was short lived, Glenn and Michonne coming back from the road, all of them yelling.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn yelled.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Hey, put it down!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Put it down!"

"He tried to kill me!" Michonne yelled.

"If it wasn't for him-"

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl said, pointing at Glenn.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Rick said angrily.

"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle said.

"Jackass." Daryl muttered.

"Hey, shut up."

"Enough!" Rick yelled.

"Hey, hey, relax!"

"Put that down now!"

"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl yelled.

"Man, look like you've gone native, brother." Merle said with a chuckle. He waved his hand to a girl. "This your little sweet butt?"

"Shut up!" Daryl yelled. "No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there."

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that." he looked over at Michonne. "Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby."

"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn said.

"Right next to the Governor."

"You know Andrea?" Rick said. "Hey, do you know Andrea?"

"Yep, she does." Merle said. "Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it."

"Shut up, bro." Daryl yelled.

"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying. Snug as two little bugs. So what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."

"Shut up!"

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them."

"Merle, shut up!"

"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you all! And you, you've been fucking some tart instead of looking for your big brother?"

Ariel, having had just about enough, would not let herself get demeaned by some asshole who didn't even know her, didn't even understand what she and Daryl had for each other. She grabbed Rick's gun and knocked him in the back of the head. She gave it back to him. "You're welcome."

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now." Daryl said. "Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."

Ariel was standing with her arms crossed, between Rick and Daryl. That was becoming a common place for her, being in the middle of them, trying to find common ground between Rick and whoever he was arguing with. Or middle ground between being on Daryl's side because he was right or because she loved him. Right now, she did not know who to agree with; Rick didn't want Merle to come back, but Daryl, obviously did. Ariel already reserved judgement that he was an asshole, but he was Daryl's brother, and she loved Daryl.

"I'm not having him at the prison." Rick told him sternly. "Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Ariel or Beth?"

"He ain't a rapist." Daryl said. "Besides, he wouldn't do a thing, specially not to Ariel, not since he knows that she's mine."

Ariel frowned. "Did you piss on me or something? I'm not territory up for grabs."

"You know what I mean." he sighed.

Ariel looked at Rick, keeping her frown. "It doesn't make sense to bring Michonne back but not Merle."

"So you're on his side now?" Rick asked, offended.

"I'm not on either side, I'm just saying−"

Daryl snapped, "Why aren't you on my side?"

"Jesus Christ," she breathed. "I'm just saying that we can't bring one back but not the other."

Daryl looked at Rick. "We don't even know who she is, not really." he waved his hand. "But Merle, Merle's blood."

"No, Merle is your blood." Glenn said angrily. "My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison."

"And you're part of that family." Rick told him. "But he's not. He's not."

"Man, y'all don't know." Daryl said. "Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."

"What?" Ariel breathed.

"That's not what I was saying." Glenn said.

"No him, no me." Daryl said.

Ariel moved in front of him now and slapped him. He didn't retaliate and she immediately felt guilty about it, but she did not move. She stared at him, her tears overwhelming her. "Rick, can I have a moment with Daryl please?"

"Yeah..." he brought Maggie and Glenn away.

"What the hell..." he mumbled, touching his cheek.

"Are you trying to kill me?" she breathed, pushing his chest. "I just got you back, you're going to leave me now?"

"It was always Merle and I before this." he explained softly.

" Don't."

"Ariel..."

"You cannot just leave me, you cannot just..."

"Don't ask me to leave him." he said, coming forward to her.

"But you're okay with leaving me?" she snapped.

"Course I ain't..." he sighed, taking her face in both of his hands. "If I let him go now, now that he's alive, I can never forgive myself. I love you, have practically from the moment I saw you, but he's my brother, and he would do it for me."

"So would I." she whimpered, tears falling from her. "Let me come with you."

But she wasn't surprised when Daryl shook his head. "Your place is with Rick, he needs you in a way that I still don't really understand."

"But I...I can't survive without you..." she cried, letting her forehead fall to his chest.

"You can," he kissed the top of her head. "You did once."

"I love you." she whispered. "I love you so much it consumes me."

"I love you too." he tilted her head up and kissed her lips.

God, it was the most heartbreaking kiss she had ever experienced in her life. She was crying, making it even more wet than it normally would have been. She was curling up into his body, tasting every piece of him, committing it to her memory. She was shaking too, from all the crying, and he was holding her in his strong arms, his eyebrows furrowing together, his lips quivering, and she knew he was holding back tears.

When they let go he kissed her forehead. "I love you, always have, and always will."

She looked up at him, his dirty, messy brown hair, his gorgeous blue eyes, his handsome face, his toned body...but no, she would not miss any of that. She would miss this, being held by him, feeling happy in such a bad world, having this man feel like the husband she always wanted. He was hers, and she was his, and now he was leaving and she could not follow.

"I can't watch you go." she shook her head.

He wiped her eyes and kissed her lips again. "Go wait in the car for Rick. He'll take care of you."

"I wanted you to take care of me."

He said nothing else. "I love you."

"I love you too...hot stuff..." she smiled lightly while he chuckled and pecked his lips, turning away. She went forward to the car, getting inside and waited for Daryl and Rick to have their words with each other.

Once she was sitting, she could not stop crying. She brought her legs up to her chest and put her head on her knees, crying so hard that she thought she would die from it all. There was nothing left of her now, Rick had lost Lori and Ariel lost Daryl. She would never see him again, she would never hear him get annoyed with her, or look at her like there was no one else in the room besides her. He would never nod at her in that way of his, the way that told her that he was trusting her, that he believed in her. There was nothing anymore.

"Ariel..." Rick was in the car now, the others in the back.

"I can't breathe." she cried.

Rick took her hand and held it while he drove, kissing it every so often, because quite frankly, there was nothing else that he could do.