VPOV

Since we all got inside it had been the same thing. Hershel trying to convince everyone that we should leave. Merle telling us over and over that we should go before the Governor does something; and then usually adds some details at the end. Glenn stood by my dad, stating that we're not cowards and we won't run. Everyone had something to say. I was fine with whatever honestly, there were good points to each side. But as long as we stuck together, I wasn't going to complain.

Hershel had finished stitching up my arm, bandaged it, and told me I should rest, seeing as my body had been through hell for the last week.

"Hey."

I rolled over on the bottom bunk of my bed, seeing Daryl standing in the door way. "Hi."

He chewed his nail, looking away. "How's your arm?"

"Sore." I answered plainly. "I was shot."

He sighed. "Vic-"

"You left."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know."

I sat up, sitting cross legged on the bed. "You left and I didn't know if I would ever see you again. Do you know how worried I was? I haven't been able to sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see images of you as a walker."

"Vic-"

"Do you have any idea what you did to me? To all of us?" I shook my head. "We're family here, Daryl. You're a part of this family. How could you just turn your back on us?"

"Merle's my brother. He's blood." he argued.

"Yeah, okay. He's your brother. He's your blood. But wasn't he the same guy who kidnapped us, who had a gun to my head?" I pointed to my face. "The Governor's not the only one who hit me. And my ribs? That's your brother. He was going to kill me, Daryl. And you just left with him."

"I didn't know he hurt you-"

"But you knew he hurt Glenn. You knew he nearly killed Glenn. Threw a walker at him." I shrugged. "You still left."

"You don't understand. I left him before. I couldn't do it again!" he yelled. "And anyway, it was your dad who locked him up on that roof."

My jaw dropped as I got off the bed. "I don't know if you remember but I volunteered to go look for Merle." I stood just over a foot away from him, looking up into his eyes as I boiled with anger. "I was right there with you in the back of that truck telling Shane and my dad that I was going to help. I didn't like what had happened. So don't you dare use that on me. It's not my fault!"

"You remember?" his voice was low and quiet again.

I nodded, trying to calm myself as well. "I've remember a lot acually."

There was a silence that fell between us and I realized no one had come to see what all the commotion was about. But then again they were busy arguing over whether we should go or not.

Daryl's hand rested on my arm as he stepped closer. "I couldn't stop thinkin' about you. What might happen if I wasn't there to protect you. It made me sick." he sighed. "So I came back."

"You would have come back even if I wasn't here." I gave him a half smile. "It's just the kind of person you are."

He scoffed. "Think you got the wrong person."

I shook my head, stepping forward until there was no space between us. "It's true Daryl. You're one of the kindest, bravest, most caring people I've met." I pushed my lips against his, kissing him softly, my lips only brushing against his.

I pulled back so our lips weren't touching, but we were still so close. His hands held my waist, holding me to him.

"I missed you." I whispered.

He rested his forehead against mine. "I missed you too."

DPOV

I leaned against the railing right outside Vic's and my room. I had stayed in there last night, holding her as we slept. She told me she had been sleeping with my poncho on, it apparently helped her relax. But this morning she told me it was nothing like having me there. I felt so guilty, leaving her, but I was grateful she didn't hate me.

Right now she stood next to me, Beth on her other side and Carol next to Beth. We looked down at Rick as he talked, the argument from last night still going on.

"We're not leaving."

"We can't stay here." Hershel wasn't letting it go. He wanted to leave, to find somewhere else. But it wasn't that easy.

"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie was right, Woodbury had weapons we couldn't fight against.

"We can't even go outside." Beth sighed. It was true, we couldn't exactly leave when the Governor might have people waiting outside for us to move.

"Not in the daylight." Carol noted.

"Even if we do make it out, where can we go?" Vic asked. "You looked all over the place during the winter, and the herds are just getting bigger, coming together."

"Rick says we're not running, we're not running." Glenn was stuck on the idea of fighting, but he just didn't get it. We didn't have the numbers or the supplies to win this.

"No," Merle started from the other part of the cell. Rick had locked him in there, keeping him from the rest to lessen the conflict. "Better to live like rats."

"You got a better idea?" Rick asked, surprisingly.

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."

I moved along the walk way. "We ain't scared of that prick."

"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

Maggie turned to Rick. "Let's put him in the other cell block."

"No." I sighed. "He's got a point."

She turned to Merle, obviously still pissed at him. "This is all you. You started this."

"What's the difference whose fault it is?" Beth called, shutting her sister up. "What do we do?"

"I said we should leave." Hershel started up again. "Now Axel's dead." all eyes turned to him. "We can't just sit here."

Rick turned away from him, heading for the door.

"Get back here!" Hershel's voice echoed off the walls as he got up, shouting at Rick. Rick stopped, and so Hershel moved towards him. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something."

VPOV

Dad walked away, going to check out the perimeter. I looked down, seeing Carl watch dad go. Sighing, I made my way down to my brother, knowing that look in his eyes.

"He won't like you going out there with him."

Carl just turned and shrugged. "I need to talk to him."

"About what?"

He looked to the ground, saying, "I think he should stop being the leader. With everything that's happened, maybe he should have a break. Let someone else do it."

I nodded, leaning against the wall. "I think you're right. But what do you think dad will say?"

"Does it matter? He needs to know how we feel." he straightened up, turning for the gate. "I'm going to tell him." I watched him as he walked out, moving right past Merle.

Merle's eyes followed my brother as he walked away before turning to look at me. He nodded and turned away, moving to the area where he had set up his things- though he didn't have much seeing as it was all at Woodbury.

I marched to the gate, going in the next section and into Merle's 'room'. He didn't look up at me, didn't say anything. Just sat down on his bed.

"Are you going to say anything to me, or am I going to have to hate my boyfriend's brother forever?"

He shrugged. "If you want me to apologise for hurtin' ya then fine. I'm sorry I punched and kicked and nearly killed-"

"I don't care about that. I know you were doing what you were told. What I want you to do is apologize for what you said. You told me Daryl was just using me to get back at my dad. You were wrong. Now apologize."

He scoffed, looking up. "You got fire, don't ya?" he nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry for telling ya that Daryl was using you. I didn't know the truth, and I shouldn't have said anything." he sighed. "That good enough?"

I gave a short nod. "Thank you." I turned, going back to the cells.

"Have you told him?"

I stopped, looking over my shoulder. "Told him what?"

He stood up, moving to the doorway of his room, leaning against it. "About what the Governor did."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He laughed. "You can't pretend sweetheart. I know what he did. To you and Maggie. I also know what Daryl will do if you told him."

"He'd want to skin the man alive and hang him from a tree for the walkers." I turned to face him proply. "He'd go on a war path."

"That might be what we need."

But I just shook my head. "He'll go on a war path, and he'll lose."

...

"Take watch. Eyes open, head down." dad told someone as he headed for the end of the cell block. "Field's filled with walkers." he sighed. "I didn't see any snipers out there but we'll keep Maggie on watch."

I stood with Michonne and Hershel watching Daryl as he came down the stairs to stand by me, dad and Glenn joining us too.

"Vic and I can get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl shrugged, carefully giving my dad a reason to let me go with him.

"Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Michone suggested.

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel pointed out. By the time we got the field sorted, we wouldn't have enough ammo to defend ourselves against the Governor.

"So we're trapped in here." Glenn shook his head. "There's barely any food or ammo."

"Been here before. We'll be all right." Daryl shrugged.

"We can go out hunting." I suggested. "You said you didn't see any snipers. Daryl, Merle and I can go out and hunt, stay low and quiet. Plus it'll get Merle out of everyone's hair for awhile. And he'll help us, keep an eye out for anything that might be suspicious."

Glenn shook his head. "No way do I trust Merle getting us food."

Daryl turned to look at him, not liking what he said. "Man, we gonna go through this again? Look, Merle's stayin' here. He's with us now. Get used to it. All y'all." he said before walking off, up the stairs.

Dad went to follow but I shook my head. "I got this." I gave him a half smile before heading up to my room where Daryl had gone. I poked my head around the corner into the cell. "Is the coast clear? Can I come in?"

He nodded, pacing the room.

I sighed, sitting on the bed. "You wanna talk about it?"

"I don't know why they can't just deal with it. He helped Rick back when he was pinned on the fence by walkers. He got us out of Woodbury, helped us escape. He's-"

"Your brother." I cut him off. "But he's not Glenn's brother. Or Michonne's. He tried to kill them. That's not something you can easily forgive."

"You did."

I smiled. "Yeah, but I'm not normal, remember. I went all crazy and crawled around like a monkey."

He gave a short laugh, his pacing slowing. "Why did you forgive him?"

I shrugged. "He apologized."

"So? Would you forgive the Governor if he said sorry?"

I rolled my eyes. "No." I sighed. "But he's your brother. I can't hate him Daryl. Just like you can't hate my dad for locking him up on that roof. There's just somethings you have to let go of. This is one of them."

"You know I forgave Rick before I started liking you."

I scoffed, standing up. "You liked me the moment I took your knife from you."

He grinned as I moved to stand in front of him, my hands moving up to rest on his shoulder. "I've been meaning to give you this." he pulled something out of the back of his pants.

I smiled as he handed me the knife. "I thought it was at Woodbury."

He shook his head. "Merle got it back 'fore we left. Gave it to me when he realized he couldn't give it back to you."

I held the knife, looking down at the blade. "You know Merle was talking to me when I remembered how we met. It was like what he was saying triggered the memory."

"What else do you remember?" he asked as I slipped the kinfe into the back of my pants.

I smiled, looking up at him. "That's a hard question to answer. There's a lot up here now." I gestured to my head.

He grinned, leaning forward. "Do you remember more about me?"

I nodded, my skin shivering at the feel of his breath on my cheek, so close. "My favourite memory is when we kissed for the first time."

"Are you sure you remember the first time?" his lips brushed my cheek.

I let out a quiet sigh. "You carried me to your truck. I was having a panic attack. The CDC was about to blow up. When it did, the force pushed you against me. And when it was over and you pulled back, I kissed you."

"Mmm. What else do you remember?" he asked, lips moving to my jaw. He was placing soft kisses along my skin, but his hands held my waist with a strength that told me he was trying to hold back.

My eyes closed as he backed me up against the wall. "When Maggie caught us making out. How you had me against the wall then just like now."

He nodded, his hands moving to my thigh, pulling one leg up. "Anything else?" his fingers rubbed and squeezed my leg, adding more heat to my core as my body seemed to vibrate with want.

"The night you got shot. When you..." I couldn't even say it. The thought alone was enough to get me going.

He grinned against my skin, his lips now at my neck. "Hmm, any more?"

"Oh God." I whispered, moaning as he kept kissing my neck. "In the tent. Our first time together. The way you looked at me, hungry and determined." my hands moved to run through his hair at the back of his neck.

He lifted his head and I opened my eyes to look at him. His eyes were dark and cloudy, desire filling him. Just like in the tent. "You remember more?" he asked as he moved back to my neck.

"Uh-huh." I nodded, my eyes closing once more. "When we were hunting. That deer got away and I went under the water. The way you were staring at me, watching me. How we were against the tree and-"

He lifted me off the ground completely, wrapping my legs around him. I could feel the lump in his pants, pressing against my thigh as his hands moved to unzip my pants.

"Someone's impatient." I grinned, bitting my lip as he pushed himself against me more.

"So, God damn beautiful. Just wanna-"

"Hey, Daryl, Vickie. We got a situation outside!" Glenn yelled from down stairs.

"Shit." Daryl put me down, adjusting himself as he stepped back.

I sighed, pulling my shirt down and moving to the bed. I reached under it, grabbing the gun that was there. "Looks like we've got work to do."

As I headed for the door he grabbed my arm, pulling me to him before pressing his lips against mine. "We're not finished here."

I grinned, nodding. "Never thought we were."

So close, yet so far... damn!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review :):)

Love and miss you all xox

BaMbY