Daryl left her alone with the others, knowing they all probably had a lot to talk about. They had set the girls up in the home Negan stayed in, Ren trusted him not to do anything to them while they all recovered from their captivity, she knew he'd kick anyones ass who tried too. He was standing on the back porch smoking a cigarette when he saw Ren walking out of the house and towards the fence.

He watched as she stood there for a little bit, hands on her knees taking in deep breaths. Slowly he approached her, "You alright?"

She stood up, startled by him and nodded through a sniffle, "Yeah, yeah I'm okay."

"Ren…" His voice was soft, and she covered her mouth.

"I left them." She said, "I left them to find their own way out and I just drove off. I blew up the place and just left." She started crying and he wanted to go to her, to hold her, but with how she'd been he didn't know what that would do to her, "They've gone through so much, they said the road wasn't as bad as the compound, but it was two years. Two years Daryl. They went through so much all while I was in a car, on my own, living in a dorm growing fucking fruits and vegetables." Her eyes found his, "I thought I'd killed them, I'd hoped that I hadn't, but I thought I had, then to find out that they were being dragged across the country and enduring those dickbags at the same time?"

"It ain't your fault." Daryl told her, "You can ask anyone of them in there and they'll say it too. When you left that place you were goin through a lot and they understand. Ren, you didn no nothin wrong."

"Shit. I'm sorry." She said covering her face, "I'm a fucking mess. I'm a fucking mess you don't deserve to have to put up with."

"Ren-"

"Don't." She cried, "Just don't. It doesn't matter how much I clean or scrub myself I'm still filthy. I'm damaged goods. Through and through."

"The fuck? No, you're not." He stepped closer to her.

"Yes I am." She looked at him, "I'm so scared."

He knew it, "I…I shouldn'a did what I did at the hospital."

"No, it's not you." She looked at him, her eyes glassy from tears, "It's me. I like you Daryl. I like you a lot and I like it when you kissed me but then…then I think about the things that normal people do and I don't know how I'll react to that and I don't want to make you feel bad like you do right now." Her body shrunk in on itself in guilt, "And then I just let him do those things to me right in front of you."

"No." He moved over to her, his voice cracking, "Don do this. You didn ask for it, you didn want it. I made it bad for you. He wanted to get a reaction from me, and he got it. I'm sorry."

"Please, don't blame yourself." She shook her head, "You…you're amazing, you always have been."

"Tell me what to do then, how do I make it better?" He asked her.

"I don't know…because I'm so damn scared of myself." She told him.

He wiped away the tears from her cheeks and had her look at him, "Ren, if I ever do anythin that you don't want, or you want me to stop. Just tell me, I'll understand, you don have to be scared. Cause I never want to hurt or scare you. We don even have to do anythin', just being next to you is enough."

"God even that scares me." She let out a slight laugh and smile. "But…I want to try."

"C'mere." He put his arms around her, and she went into him, hugging him back. He ran his hand down her hair, calming her down more and he thought of what she had said at the hospital. Moving her hair out of the way he leaned down slowly and put his lips over the nape of her neck. She stiffened slightly at first but then she realized he was replacing what Timothy had done and she smiled against his shoulder. He removed his lips and she felt his breath against her skin, making her stomach go tight as he asked, "This alright?"

"Yeah." She replied and felt his lips again and they moved around her neck, slowly and gently. Her grip on him increased as he went, but it wasn't bad, she enjoyed it more than she thought she would. Her breath shook as he made his way up her neck, stopping at her ear and he just held her now. She whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being you." She answered, "For not expecting a lot from me…for being as okay with it as someone can be."

"It's never changed the way I look at you." He told her, "Never will."

She smiled against his neck, "I'm glad I didn't kill you that day."

"Me too." He kissed her forehead, "How's your hip?"

She looked embarrassed, "Worse… I went to the bathroom to clean it and instead I ended up scrubbing it."

"Can…can I take a look?" He asked, not wanting to go too far.

"Y-yeah." She said and he let go of the embrace, kneeling down as she pulled her shirt slightly up. She swallowed hard as she felt his fingers at the top of the bandage and closed her eyes as he pulled it down to see, having to lower her waistband slightly to look at all of the wound. Ren was embarrassed and ashamed of him seeing the mark on her.

He looked at the bite mark that was bloody but the skin around it was red and agitated. He ran his fingers over it gently and it felt slightly raised compared to the rest of her skin. She gasped quietly feeling his mouth on the skin and looked down to see him kissing the skin around the wound. Her stomach tightened as he looked up at her and her mind flashed to him being down there just in another spot and her face went red as her heart stopped beating, not sure why she would think of that or if she could even do that. It was something that none of the pricks had ever done, so she wouldn't have any negative reactions to it, right?

"You okay?" He asked.

She nodded, her voice soft, "Just surprised."

"We'll keep an eye on it. No more scrubbin' though." He put the bandage back up and stood back up. Daryl wasn't sure what to do now, they were both just standing there.

"Do you think…" She started, not sure how this would work or if it even could, "I know it won't be…but…do you think we could try to be normal and then stop when it becomes too much?"

He nodded, "If that's what you want."

"I think so." She looked up at him, "Because I…I don't know what is too much or will actually scare me."

"Alright, just lemme know okay." He looked down at her.

Ren laughed slightly, "I'm sure you'll know."

He nodded with a smile, cupping her cheek and leaned in, doing something he'd wanted to do for a while, and finally doing it properly. She couldn't stop the smile as he kissed her, she knew this she would be alright with, they'd already done it before, but this time it was better, it wasn't urgent with the threat of death looming. He kissed her slow and gentle, taking his time, moving a hand to be on her waist and she slid a hand up his shoulder, her fingers grazing the back of his neck. Sliding his arm around her he whispered, "You doin aright?"

"Yeah." She answered, being pulled closer to him. He didn't plan on doing anything more than this, every time his hand moved, he felt her flinch or stiffen slightly for a moment, but she never stopped kissing him back. He kissed her in a way she'd never been kissed before, it wasn't demanding, or needy, it felt the same way the rest of their relationship did, natural and comfortable, and she wondered how that could be that after everything, after the end of the world as she knew it, it was possible for her to have found something like this.

"What the fucking fuck is this shit?" Negan bounded down the back steps.

Their kiss broke but Daryl kept her close just in case, not sure what the hell Negan might try. Ren looked at her Uncle, "It was what it looked like."

"What the fuck Daryl? Do you not remember what I told you at the very beginning of this?" Negan looked at him, "She's a goddamn child compared to you."

"I am not." Her voice was stern. "I haven't been a child for a while."

"Really? Cause I'm pretty sure you're closer to being a child's age than you are being his age."

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Ren tried not to get to loud since it was night time, "So this is going to be your problem this time? Our ages? With Chris it was him being to skinny. Brandon wasn't on a good career path. And now age? That's the cross you're going to die on this time?"

"I'm not dying on it." Negan walked up to them and Daryl held her close, "I'm climbing to the top of it and screaming 'There is no way in hell I'm allowing this.'"

"It's not your choice to allow." She looked at him, "It's my decision to make and it's his decision to make. No one else should be involved."

"Serenity Mae. You will go inside that house this moment and we will have a conversation about this right now." Negan stared her down. Daryl had seen the man give this look to many people who just cowered at it, but not Ren. She stepped out of Daryls arms and right up to him.

"You can't make me do shit because I'm a grown ass woman who does what and who ever she wants." She then turned to Daryl and told him, "I'm going to go take a shower."

"Alright." Daryl said watching her go. The two men were silent until she was inside and once she was Daryl looked at him, "Man, are you stupid or somethin?"

"Says the man who had his hands all over my niece." Negan squared up to him.

"Nah, I ain't doin that shit with you." Daryl waved him off, "You look at those women in there and you can tell they've been through some shit, but you refuse to see that Ren went through it too because then you'd realize just how bad you fucked up not goin to get her. But she went through it, and now she's makin decisions you don like, but you don get a say. Only she does. Because she knows what she needs and wants, no one else does. We don get to make decisions for her, that's why she's still stayin at the dorm half the time, because if I had a say, she'd be here where we could all keep an eye on her. Dipshit."

Negan watched as he walked off back to the other house where he stayed. Daryl was right, he didn't want to admit to himself what had happened to Ren because he'd given up on her. And realizing it now and coming to terms with it, made him sick.

Ren was standing with the girls, "I'll be back in a few days, I'm just going to be making sure that everything's good there, the soil needs to be prepped for a new harvest, stuff like that."

"Someone's going with you right?" Charlotte said.

"Yeah, when they realize the others are gone, they'll probably start looking even harder for you." April told her.

"Daryl refused to let me go alone." Ren let out a laugh, "I may have blown up a water heater and gave myself a concussion."

"Hermana you have a knack for blowing things up." Sera laughed at her.

"Whether I want to or not." Ren laughed, "There's a long-range walkie I'll make Daryl fork over before we leave this way if you guys need something you can call."

"We'll be fine, you just take care of yourself, yeah?" Sera put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah." Ren smiled back. She went to go and find her uncle but couldn't. She went up to Rick, "Hey have you seen my uncle?"

"Negan left this morning." Rick told her, "I tried to stop him, but he said he had to go find something."

"Oh, alright." Ren said wondering what the hell he could be looking for, "When he comes back just let him know Daryl and I will be back in a couple of days."

"Will do, we'll take good care of your friends while they're here. And of course, they're welcome to stay permanently if they want." Rick smiled at her.

"I'll let them know."

Daryl was putting a bag in Rens car when he heard someone behind him, "Hey."

"Hey." He turned around seeing Sera.

"You really like her?" Sera asked.

"What?" Daryl looked at her.

"I saw you two out back last night. You really like her?" She repeated.

"Yeah." He told her.

"Then take care of her." Sera said, "She might have fooled the others by telling them it was dealing with the plants and all that but I'm not stupid."

"What'd'ya mean?" he asked.

"She might have known you all were coming, she might have known that it would only be an hour or so…but she had been out for two years." Sera explained, "I was out only for two days and I knew the panic of having been captured again, and I gave myself up as a distraction. She must have had the panic set in at some point, even if she swallowed it down, thinking that it was permanent. She needs a recovery. A place she's familiar. The three of us, we have each other, and she has us too, but she went so long just on her own that she needs that time again to let things go back to normal, so just take care of her, yeah?"

"I will." He assured her.

"Good." Sera smiled at him, "She endured more than most. Ren was there the longest out of all of us. I know we were on the road but that was a perk. Half the time spent was surviving, in the compound it was just pure hell. And she endured all of it. I'm glad she found you, she deserves to be happy…after all she's lost."

"You all do." Daryl told her.

"And that's why I like you." She smirked, "You say that stuff because it's true, and you know it's true. But you say it for her too, knowing that it's what she wants too. I saw it yesterday when you let her be with us instead of checking on her, making sure she was alright, because you knew that she needed to be with us. You're a good man, and coming from me, that's a lot."

"Thanks." He felt the corners of his lips being pulled up from talking to this girl.

"What are you two talking about?" Ren came up to the car with a teasing raised eyebrow.

"Oh, just that if something happens to you while you two are away, I'll kill him." Sera patted Daryl on the shoulder.

"You'd have to get behind my Uncle." Ren laughed at her.

"Hell no, no man's gonna beat me to that punch." Sera told her, "You two have fun with your soil and stuff. Relax a little too."

"We'll try." Ren said as they got into the car. She put her hand out the window and waved good-bye to the girls as the gates opened to let them out.

A/N: Alright guys, it finally happened. I guess I wasn't joking when I said slow burn in the description, huh? Normally I go a lot faster with my ships. But what do you guys think? I know it's not exactly Daryl as he was in this time frame of the show, but things were a smidge bit different so I felt like I could keep him a little Season 3/4 but still the Daryl he is now, sort of. So let me know what you think! More to come soon :)