Sleep was the main thing on my mind for the rest of the day. The rest was very much needed after almost dying yesterday. Maybe now, since I got more sleep, I won't be so exhausted.

The sound of cars approaching, woke me. They must have been back from gun training. It was hard to believe that I had slept that long.

Daryl was still sound asleep on the other side of the tent. I didn't want to wake him, so I stayed as quiet as I possibly could. I moved slowly, mostly because of the pain, and exited the tent.

I waited by the tent's door for Shane. Looking around at the people who had just arrived, he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I knew that he was fine, or else someone would have come over to me and told me he wasn't. It just bothered me that I didn't know where he was.

Rick was passing by, so I stopped him. "Hey, Rick. Do you know where Shane is?"

Rick stared at me, confused. "He didn't tell you?"

Now, he was starting to confuse me, too. "Tell me what?"

"After gun training, Shane planned on going to look for Sophia."

"By himself?" I asked.

"No, he took Andrea with him. He was going to teach her how to shoot at the moving objects. He brought her as back up." Rick seemed a little on edge, like he expected me to throw a fit of some kind.

"Oh, okay. Thanks." I walked away, leaving Rick by Daryl's tent. I wasn't upset at all that he went out. In fact, I was happy that someone went looking today since Daryl was down and out.

I didn't want to push my luck, so I sat at the picnic table. The air was making me wake up some. It felt perfect in my lungs.

Who knows how long I was sitting there before Daryl's hand was on my shoulder. "Hey."

"Hey. How ya doin'?" I asked while Daryl sat next to me.

"Not too bad. Still hurts like a son of a bitch, but I can manage." He nudged me slightly on the shoulder, trying not to hurt any of my bruises. "What 'bout you?"

"Pretty good. I'm just chillin', takin' in the day." I sucked as much air as my lungs could take in.

"Chillin'?" Daryl didn't understand my new lingo.

I choked a bit on the air. "Yeah, I guess these brauds are starting to rub off on me."

Daryl laughed. "Yeah. I guess so."

The two of us sat in silence as the birds chirped around us. Everyone else had gone off to their tents or were doing other work around us. They were pretty quiet today, though.

"I, um," Daryl started.

"What?"

"I'm gonna saddle a horse and go back out there." He waited for me to say something.

I stared ahead of me. I wasn't surprised at all for what he said. I knew that's not what he expected, but that's what I felt. "When?"

"A couple minutes." My brother cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Okay." There was no sense in arguing. No matter what I said to him, he was planning on going. For some reason, he thought this was some mission of his that he had to complete.

Without another word, he stood up and headed for the stables. He didn't want to give me the chance to change my mind and start going off on him. The truth was, I didn't have the energy to.

A car pulled up behind me. Without even turning to look, I knew that it was them. The pain was too great for me to get up and go see him. I knew Shane would come to me.

The feel of Shane's hands on my shoulders sent shivers down my spine. I looked up at him and he bent down and planted a kiss on my lips without warning. When he pulled away, he spoke softly to me. "I see you're awake." He moved and sat next to me at the table.

"I see you're back from searchin'." I placed my hand in top of his. "Find anythin'?"

"Nah. The place was overrun." There was something in his eyes that his mouth wasn't telling me. I couldn't exactly pinpoint what, but it was something that was bothering him.

"Hey, you still wanna go on that walk?" Shane asked me.

"Yeah, sure."

Shane stood up first. He wanted to help me stand up. It was nice that he was there because I doubt that I would have been able to do so by myself.

We walked in silence. The fields that surrounded us were pure golden yellow. The grasses swayed in the breeze and the sun was starting to set. It was becoming cooler now and the skies were changing to a lighter shade of the grasses. This was a place of peace.

Once we reached one of the wooden fences, we stopped. This was one of the few fences that did not have barbed wire attached to the top. Without speaking, Shane picked me up from my waist and placed me on the top of the fence, where I sat staring out into the surrounding forests. Despite the fact that I didn't like to be picked up, this was the perfect setting.

Shane leaned against the fence next to me. He placed his arm behind me and rubbed my back slowly, melting away every ounce of pain I had ever felt. This moment was flawless. It was the most beautiful one that I had had in a very long while and I doubted that something this nice was ever going to happen again.

The silence was broken when Shane cleared his throat. "Ariel, I need to tell you something."

Right now, my whole body at peace. I thought that no matter what he said, I was going to stay calm. I had a feeling that whatever he was going to say was going to be something bad. "What?" I asked calmly.

He struggled to find the right words. That was all too easy to see. I placed my hand on his shoulder, letting him know that no matter what he said, it was going to okay. I wasn't sure what else I could do to make him talk.

After a few more seconds of thinking, he finally spoke. "Ariel, it's, uh, it's Andrea. She tried to have sex with me while we were out there looking for Sophia."

All sense of peace that I felt was long gone. "She fucking did what?" I nearly screamed.

Shane tried to explain what happened calmly. "I told her that I was with you and that we couldn't. I let her know that I was a one woman man and she backed off. There's no reason to get upset. I just wanted you to know. I don't there to be any secrets between the two of us."

Every word that came out of Shane's mouth was ignored. "That bitch is going to fucking die!" Not even thinking about what was going to happen, I jumped down form the fence and made my way back to the camp.

Unfortunately, I forgot about my head injuries and the world started to spin around me. I would have hit the ground if Shane hadn't been there. He caught before I could do anymore major damage to myself.

Once I had regained my balance, I pushed Shane off of me. "I'm going to fucking kill her."

"Ariel, wait!" Shane called out to me, but I didn't listen.

I was almost running back to camp. I was beyond pissed off at this moment. Lately, I had kept my anger in check. There were several occasions where I could have lost my temper, like her constant flirting or her obsessive complaining, but I calmed myself. Even when she shot Daryl, I let her go. Now, it was boiling over.

Shane was the best thing to ever happen to me. There was no way in hell, heaven, or earth that I was going to let anyone take him away from me. Andrea threatened it and now she was going to pay for her stupid mistake. She should know better than to mess with me and the people that I care about.

It wasn't long before I reached the camp. Shane was repeatedly trying to stop me, but was always one step behind. "Hey, Andrea!" I screamed when I couldn't find her.

She slowly popped her head out of her tent. She slowly walked toward me with a terrified look in her eyes. She was walking too slow for me so I approached her quickly. I didn't allow her a chance to say anything. My right fist, tightened, flew through the air and hit her in her face. I felt my knuckles connect with the bottom half of her jaw.

I wasn't done with her, however. I wanted to go back for more. I would have, too, if Shane's arms didn't restrain me from doing so.

Rick heard the commotion and rushed to the scene. He placed himself between Andrea, who was on the ground holding her face, and me as the women surrounded Andrea. They checked to see if she was alright. "What's going on here?" Rick demanded to know.

"Let go of me, Shane!" I screamed, ignoring Rick completely.

"Not until you calm down so we can talk about this."

Before I could scream anymore, Daryl was running up to us from the corner of my eye. "Hey, let her go! If she wants to be let go, let her go." Daryl pointed to Shane as his face turned a deep shade of red.

I knew that this was going to get extremely ugly if I didn't put a stop to it now. I threw Shane's arms off of me and it got quiet. I pointed down to Andrea on the ground. I spoke slowly to make sure she understood ever single word that came out of my mouth. "If you ever come near me or my family again, I'll kill you."

Without saying another word, I pushed myself between Shane and Daryl and headed back into the fields. I needed to be alone to cool down. If I didn't, I would have come back and killed someone, preferably Andrea.

The grasses were the perfect place for me to hide for awhile. They seemed, lately, they were the place of peace. The smell hypnotized me. It didn't let me go. Eventually, all of my anger was released with the breeze. It just seemed undisturbed, unlike the rest of this shitty world.

The crunching of nearby grass didn't startle me. I knew that someone would come looking for me sooner or later. I just stared out into the fields as I waited for whoever was coming.

"Whatchu sittin' out here for?" A voice called from behind me.

"Had to get away, Daryl."

My brother took a seat right next to me.

"I thought ya were goin' out for the girl." I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

"Carol stopped me." His voice was soft and understanding.

"Told ya. She's got a thing for ya."

"Yeah, maybe." He sat in silence with me as we watched the sun go down. There wasn't much to be said really, without bringing up what happened. I knew that's what he came out here to talk to me about.

For the first time, I couldn't take his silence. "Either ask me what you were gonna ask or leave. The choice is yours."

He sighed. "What happened back there?"

"Shane told me that she tried getting in his pants. Andrea had done a lot of things to piss me off and that just - that was enough for me. I went over as fast as I could and layed one on her. Threatened that if she come near me, you, or Shane again, I was gonna kill her." I chuckled to myself, unamused. "It sure has been a long time since I threatened to kill someone. And for some reason, I don't feel any better. Not like how I'd used to."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. This world is changin' the way me and you think. Gettin' angry is just not cuttin' it these days."

"I guess not."

"There is one thing I want to ask you though." Daryl was never much of a prier. That was one of his best qualities. One that I was missing at that exact moment.

"What?"

"You told her 'Stay away from my family'. I just wanted to know why you said family and not Shane."

"Ya know that I consider people who care about me, family. Right now, that family consists of you and him. If she goes near either of you, she knows what's comin'."

"Why me? Why not just Shane?"

"Because I know what kind of woman she is. Now, if ya plan on screwing her, just let me know so I can slap you upside your dumb head."

"Hell no. After seeing what kind of men she's into, I wouldn't touch her with a twenty-foot pole."

I laughed at him and hit him in his arm. "Asshole." The way he referred to Shane made me giggle. There was some sort of an insult towards me, so he deserved a little smack.

"Yeah, I know."

The two of us sat for a little while longer. I was in no rush to get back to those people and neither was he. We just needed our space, especially me, and I was glad that they gave it to us.

"Ya know you're gonna have a lot of shit to deal with when we go back, right?"

I sighed. "I haven't given that much thought."

"Yeah, well, whatever happens, I got your back." Daryl's eyes were sincere. It pleased me to know that he would stick up for me. Lately, I doubted he would do such a thing. I regretted ever thinking that.