Author's Note: OH MY GOD. It's been forever since I've updated and I'm truly sorry. If I thought I had writer's block before... I had no idea what was coming. I honestly apologize for such a delay in posting this chapter but I just couldn't get it written, and I appreciate everyone's patience and some of the messages with encouraging words! Thank you darylisperfection, Pixie P, ReadWriteLove715, Lila-Renee SO much for the reviews of the last chapter, I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. It makes me sincerely happy when you guys let me know how you feel about it! So, without further ado, here is the long-awaited chapter twenty-eight. I hope everyone likes it! :3


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
I'M COMING HOME.

Rick glanced around the perimeter before nodding back to the rest of the survivors, everyone scurried out after him. After taking down a few rough walkers they were all back inside their safe haven ; they were finally in the prison they called home. Everyone was sore and tired from a restless night's sleep in the woods, and all anyone could think about was laying in their cells, in the slightly more comfortable than dirt beds, and eating some food. If you could even call it that. It was mush, really, but they would take anything at that point.

An uneventful week had passed and there was no word from the people of Woodbury, they had feared retaliation from the Governor's people for killing him and a handful of their people, but found nothing thus far. Daryl walked down the corridor until he found himself standing awkwardly in front of Taylor's cell. He had avoided her for a few days with the plagued thought of abandonment, but finally came around to check on her injuries from Woodbury. In fact, he hadn't stopped checking since early that morning, coming over every hour or so.

"Is it botherin' ya?" Daryl nodded to Taylor's cheek and finally walked past the cell door, she shrugged and attempted to act nonchalant, though he knew it was an act. He could read her like a book, and after all they'd been through together, it would be startling if he couldn't.

"No." She shook her head and brushed the hair away from it, as even the slightest touch to the cut stung. It needed cleaned again, if she didn't keep up with properly washing every day it would get infected, and having an infection in this apocalyptic world was as good as a death sentence.

"Don't be usin' that wrist either," he glanced towards the damaged body part that Cassidy had played a major role in; though he didn't know that, Taylor hadn't mentioned to anyone what happened to her, just went on acting like it was hurt when the Governor came into the picture. No one had actually seemed to notice Cassidy's disappearance and most probably thought it was for the better anyway.

"Yes mom," Taylor rolled her eyes and let a small smile tug at the corner of her lips. "You're being a bit of a mother hen, you know?" She smirked up at him and he returned her eye roll, starting to walk off and give her some space. He had to admit he was being a little overbearing, but with the thought of leaving looming over his thoughts constantly, he couldn't really help himself. He found that the closer the time came, the harder it was to accept that he was ditching everyone in such a cowardice way.

He gave a slow nod and focused on walking again, to the best of his ability anyway. The only thing Daryl could really focus on was that fact that soon he'd be leaving everyone behind to go off to God only knows where with his brother. Why had he agreed in the first place? Why couldn't they just stay at the prison? Sure, Merle was a loose cannon, but he would be tame for his brother's sake. That's when it hit him, Merle wasn't going to leave without him, so all he had to do was find a way to make it seem as if he was needed here- make it appear that he couldn't leave. Then Merle would have no choice but to stay put.


"Hi Merle," Beth mumbled as she squeezed past him. Her cheeks lit up in a bright, pink blush and she refused to make eye contact. Merle's eyes followed her like a lion assessing its next meal. Taylor's eyebrows rose and she snaked her way towards him with a frown.

"What's up with Beth?"

"Whadaya mean?" His forehead creased and he gave her a disapproving glare.

"She seemed awfully nervous around you," the blonde noted aloud, giving him another hard look. He shrugged his shoulders casually and tried to push past her.

"I dunno liddle blondie, should probably mind yer own bidness though." She stopped him from leaving, suddenly getting a sinking feeling of what was going on.

"Do you... like her?" Her lips curled up into a small smile. Sure, the age gap was ridiculous, but Taylor figured there was no room to judge. She had been with older men in the past and couldn't really believe Beth would want to be anywhere near a hulking brute like the elder Dixon.

"Nah! Get outta my way, yer startin' to piss me off." He used his good hand to wrap around her bicep and force her to the side. Taylor moved after not really having a say in the matter and called after him.

"I know you got a crush Merle Dixon!" She folded her arms over her chest and watched him go with a satisfied smirk. Was it even humanly possible for a person like Merle to like a girl - a woman rather, Beth was grown now - in any way other than sex. Oh shit, that's when the thought dawned on her. Had they been having sex behind everyone's back? She was sure that her uncle, and cousin, would put a bullet in his head if they found that out. She rushed to catch up to him, pinning him to the wall to the best of her ability. He not only outweighed her, but he obviously had started lifting weights again, she noticed when she glanced at his bare arms.

"You're not screwing around with her," she paused, looking him up and down for any body language that would give it away, "are you?"

"Shucks, like I'd tell ya shit 'bout my sex life. I don't ask ya 'bout Daryl's-"

"Hershel will murder you." She cut him off before the conversation steered towards her and Daryl and got even more awkward. Not that it wasn't already incredibly uncomfortable to talk about him fucking her cousin. "Not kick you out, not chop off your other hand, he will literally shoot you in the face."

"That old gimp?" He scoffed and stroked the stubble on his chin thoughtfully, and for a moment, Taylor saw perhaps what Beth saw; what maybe all the other women he ever had saw, his husky attractiveness- oh fuck no. She shook the thoughts away and narrowed her eyes at him.

"That's my uncle. And she's my little cousin." Taylor took shallow breathes, she hadn't realized it up until then that he was a very intimidating presence, and she was certainly putting herself in a compromising position.

"So t'was okay when ya thought I liked 'er? I can't sleep with 'er? I ain't no thirteen year old, neither is the little angel. She likes 'em big n' bad." His lips turned upwards into a mischievous snarl, he figured no one would like the idea of him getting it on with the youngest Greene, but didn't really care since he was leaving soon.

"Oh my god. You're going to die." She shook her head at his stupidity, didn't he care that everyone would be on his case when they found out? She didn't have any plans of spilling the beans but Beth sure wasn't good at keeping it a secret.

"Ya threatin' me?" His eyes darkened and he took a step forwards, causing her to take one back away from him. She shook her head furiously as she stumbled backwards.

"No! I just told you, my uncle and Maggie-"

"I don't give a shit 'bout none a y'all. Me n Daryl r takin' off soon anyway." Her face fell at his words and he knew she wasn't informed of the plan before his mentioning of it. "Ah, baby brother didn't tell ya, did 'e?" For a slight moment he felt guilty, apparently he was the one to be the bearer of bad news, and he didn't want to be in that position. He hated to admit that he kind of liked her, they bonded in the woods, she had brought his little brother somewhat out of his shell, and she wasn't as much of a thorn in his side than he originally thought, and he had to be the one to crush her. He shrugged it off, she would have to mourn over the loss on her own. It would toughen her up anyway.

"No." She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears and he hurried to make an exit. When he was far enough away that he knew he couldn't be heard by anyone he finally spoke quietly.

"Sorry liddle blondie..."


"What are ya packing up for?" Beth's small frame came into Merle's peripheral vision and he sighed audibly. He already had to deal with one emotional blonde, why did this little one have to come along? This one... he had only taken a minuscule liking to due to the fact that she was the only one who had spoken more than three words to him since his arrival. Everyone else seemed to walk on eggshells around him, unsure of how to act since the "Atlanta" incident that caused him to fall away from the group; and cost him a hand. Merle couldn't give two shits about that anymore though, maybe still holding a grudge against Officer Friendly, but no one else really bothered him.

But her small acts of kindness and acceptance of him made it just that much harder to shun her and use his usual 'no bullshit' attitude. He knew in the little time he had been at the prison she attached herself to him like a leech, just looking for some company that didn't have a uterus. He wasn't sure he wanted to break the news to her, not the way he had done to Taylor anyway.

"Juss doin' some spring cleanin' sugar." He didn't turn to face her and Beth's stomach immediately dropped, twisting into an uncomfortable position.

"Ya leaving?" She whispered, her voice hoarse as she tried to contain the tears that threatened to spill over at any given moment. One wrong word by him and the waterworks would surely start. He spun at a snail's pace and her face fell, she could tell by the guilty look on his face that he was planning on skipping town... without any of them... without her. No more feeling protected by the big, bad, force-to-be-reckoned-with Merle.

"Me 'n Daryl..." he started slowly, fumbling in his mind with what to tell her. "Gonna take care a Woodbury for y'all-"

"Don't do us any favors," Beth mumbled, halting him from continuing his explanation. "We can handle our own here." She gave him a curt nod, very similar to the type he usually gave people, and swept away before he could stop her. Not that she truly believed he'd try to, but in the rare case that he was planning on it, she made sure he wouldn't have the time. She only made it halfway down metal staircase when he said her name so sadly she had to stop. His gruff, gravely voice made the clinking of her tattered cowboy boots stop abruptly. Her body went rigid as the singular word left his chapped lips; her blonde hair slid off her shoulders as she slowly turned the upper half of her body. He gave her a brief smile, the corner of his lips twitching up for just a second.

"You'll be fine. I promise."


On her quest to find Daryl, Taylor walked with a brisk pace, every thought imaginable running through her mind all at once. She could barely even walk with all the emotions that were consuming her being at the moment, but she trudged on anyway. She honestly had no idea what she was even going to say when she found him, and frankly, she didn't care. She just needed to know if he was truly planning on jumping ship without a single word. Didn't he remember how broken she was after her finance's abandonment? Or did he not care anymore?

It seemed as if Merle's reappearance had changed something in him, like he was slowly drawing himself away from her again, and she wasn't sure she could handle that.

She was still on her mission when she heard it. It was a very distinctive sound, one she'd come accustomed to during the Woodbury raid. It was the sound of death... human death. Taylor pressed herself against the wall right before coming to the corner. Her breathes were short, shallow, and shaky as her mind began a new thought process. What was happening?

All she could hear was a blood-curdling scream, only able to decipher that it was coming from a male. Suddenly the pleading started.

"Why?" There was a guttural moan after the question, he was clearly choking on his own blood. It suddenly dawned on her that it could have been anyone: Rick, her uncle, Daryl. With this realization she decided she had to intervene. She tried to unsheathe the knife from it's small holster strapped to her boot as quietly as possible, sliding it out painstakingly slow. When Taylor finally had it clutched firmly in her hand she rounded the corner, and her jaw went slack as her eyes widened in complete shock.

"What..." she gasped by accident, her whisper giving her position away instantly.

Lori let her own knife fall to the ground with a small clink. She looked up and frowned, her eyebrows creasing as she recognized Taylor standing stalk-still in front of her.

"Why are you here?" The brunette muttered, her bloody hands coming up to grip her swollen belly.

"I... I..." she stuttered, trying to back away. Her fear-filled blue eyes dropped to the floor where Rob lay with both hands covering the gash across his jugular. Taylor could tell he was fading quickly, but she didn't have the time to worry about him. Once her eyes refocused on the crazed soon-to-be-mom her heart sank.

"I can't let you tell anyone," Lori took two steps forward gingerly, her hands now shaking as they gripped a revolver that she must have had hidden on her person.

"I won't tell anyone Lori." She paused, lifting both hands in the air to show she wasn't going to attack, despite the knife she was gripping. "I promise." Taylor threw on a fake smile to try and convince her further. It seemed to be working.

"How do I know I can trust you? I couldn't trust that one," she nodded her head towards the lifeless corpse beside her. "He found out about Shane and I's little secret and threatened-" Lori's lips stopped moving as something began ticking in her mind, her eyes suddenly shifting to devious. "I never figured out how he knew. It was you," she clutched the gun tighter, Rob's blood beginning to drip down in small splatters. The barrel of the gun lined up with Taylor's forehead and she began to softly shake her head from side to side.

"No!" Her voice went up an octave as she protested. She couldn't help the instinctive steps she was taking backwards, this action only further infuriated the elder woman. "I didn't tell anyone Lori, you have to believe me."

She scoffed, "I can't trust anyone anymore. I just have to worry about me, Shane, Carl, and the baby." Her dark eyes never wavered, making Taylor even more unsettled. "But I guess..." the revolver leisurely lowered in her small hands. Her steely, manic eyes filled with tears as a whole new personality came into place. "What happened?"

"What?" Taylor gawked at the transformation she had just witnessed. "You seriously don't know?" The blonde cocked her head to the side, Lori had officially lost it.

"No," her head shook, her long, dark locks flowing with it; that's when she spotted her soiled hands. "What is this?!" She shrieked, looking around frantically.

"Lori! Lori!" Taylor took careful steps forward and wrapped her hands loosely around the terrified woman's biceps. She gently shook her and used her steady voice to draw her worried eyes back to her. "Just breathe, Lor."

"What is going on?" She brought her hands up between the two of them and tears began to trickle down. She seemed so psychotic moments ago, and now she seemed so fragile. "Did I kill a walker? Did you? Were you bit? Was I?"

She was throwing questions too quickly for Taylor to answer so she simply sighed. Lori followed the blondes eyes as they trailed over to Rob's body.

"I...?" She pointed to herself and finished the question she didn't want to do verbally.

"Yes," Taylor started, "we have to demolish the brain before he turns." She bit her bottom lip and made a quick, silent decision. She did not want to be on Lori's bad side if she was this severely mental. She was going to help her cover this murder up; just another a secret to add to her list. "And we have to hide the body."


Daryl had just slung his bag over his shoulder opposite the crossbow when Taylor ran by his cell without so much as glancing in his direction. Merle had told him what happened and he was expecting an onslaught from her, crying and maybe even throwing a fit, but she didn't even seem to notice him. He made his way to her cell and peeked his head in, watching her fling clothes and other small objects around at a rapid speed.

"What are ya doin'?" He finally asked, breaking her from her intense search. She gasped and looked up to see it was only Daryl. She shook her head as a signal that she didn't have the time or energy to tell him.

"Tay, are ya okay?" She ignored him again, frantically ripping a sheet from the top bunk that nobody slept on. She bundled it up in a ball and held it in her hands, facing Daryl with an emotionless expression.

"I'm fine." She finally managed to speak, having a hard time looking at him because she knew what was happening. He was leaving, and apparently he was choosing now to say goodbye; she didn't have time though, and she really didn't want to go through it anyway. She still felt betrayed that he was going to leave without so much as a 'see ya', and figured the only reason he was doing it now was because Merle had tipped him off.

"What are ya doin'?" He repeated his question again, nodding to the sheet she held tightly in her hands.

"Nothing."

"Why are ya bein' short with me?" He furrowed his eyebrows, he knew she would be upset he was leaving, but he wasn't expecting the cold shoulder. He wanted to tell her how he planned on convincing Merle to come back after they make sure Woodbury wouldn't be retaliating, but she didn't seem interested in anything he had to say. She shoved past him and gnawed on her bottom lip to keep from crying.

"Taylor!" He grabbed her arm and forced her to face him, a sad look playing in his eyes. She pursed her lips and refused to meet his eyes. "Ya don't even wanna say goodbye?"

"I don't have anything to say to you." She answered simply, trying her best to keep her voice from shaking, she just had too many things going through her mind.

"Really now?" He arched an eyebrow, this was not what he was expecting. He didn't really like the fact that she didn't seem to care they were parting ways. "Why's that?"

She shrugged out of his grip. "You were going to leave me here... without even letting me know you were leaving!" Taylor couldn't help the raise in her voice, her true emotions were starting to show, despite her trying her hardest to hide them.

"I didn't wanna hurt ya... didn't want to see ya cry." In that very moment he appeared as a small child, fragile and helpless, just telling the truth and hoping not to get scolded. She inhaled deeply and finally let a few tears fall.

"That would have hurt worse." She glanced over his shoulder to see Lori waiting in the shadows. "I have something I gotta do. Sorry." She went to move past him and he stopped her a final time. He brushed the last few tears away and kissed her softly on the lips, unsure if they would ever cross paths again.

"We're gettin' rid of the threat at Woodbury... I..." I love you. "I'm sorry." He cursed himself for not saying what he wanted to, for not using his heart for once in his life. For some reason he couldn't bring himself to say what he knew she wanted to hear, in his mind, it would only hurt worse. Her bottom lip quivered as he started to walk away, after everything they'd been through, after he saved her fucking life, he was going to walk out on her and he couldn't even tell her how he felt.

He felt a sting on his cheek and it took a second to realize she had slapped him; something else he wasn't expecting.

"I love you, dumbass." She whispered, forcefully gliding past him to collect Lori and go back to their hiding of her victims body. Taylor couldn't believe how much she just wanted to vomit from the aching pain that was developing in her chest, or how loudly her heartbeat was drumming in her ears. She didn't have time to deal with any of that, and she knew she would regret not having a proper goodbye with him.


Vanessa and Milton were busying themselves with trying to find a way out of the locked room. They had been locked in for what they thought to be three days, and they were running out of food and water. There was only minimal supplies left in the room in case of an emergency and those supplies were wearing thin. She looked over at Milton with a loud sigh.

"Still nothing." She whispered and slumped against the wall where he was sitting and slid until she was next to him. She shook her head and wiped away the small amount of sweat that had built up from the effort mixed with the heat of the boxed in room. Neither one wanted to talk loudly or make too much noise since the Governor had made a brief appearance to inform them that he was going to go blow up the prison. The prison that held the immune ones. Defeat and depression had slowly started to sink in on them, they were never going to create a cure, and they were never going to get out of the room.

Milton glanced up sadly at her, offering a cracker with a small smile. "Thanks."

"We're dangerously low on water Vanessa," he started anxiously, "we could last days, maybe even weeks without food before starving. But water?"

"I know how the human body works Milton-" she stopped in the midst of her chiding when they heard a banging at the door. They feared it was the Governor on a rampage to get rid of their discovery and scrambled to their feet quickly. They hadn't even made it a few feet away when the door came crashing down.

"Whadaya need in here Merle?" Daryl peered around the room until his eyes fell on the scientist and doctor. "What are ya doin' in here?"

Merle came shoving past him, letting out a low whistle, "Milty!" Milton rolled his eyes until he realized what the brother's arrival meant.

"Ya know 'em?" Daryl asked, keeping a skeptical eye on the pair. Initially he thought they would be the Governor's lackeys and try to kill them, but that thought quickly faded when he remembered them being locked in the room. That didn't seem like something a man like the Governor would do to people who were loyal to him.

"Yeah, Milty here is tha Governor's pet." Milton scoffed, and tried to speak up again when Merle continued. "I wish I 'membered the liddle brunette there," Merle licked his lips and rose both eyebrows at her. Vanessa furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest, not used to Merle's advances. Daryl suppressed the urge to slap his brother upside the head, he would hit on anything with a pulse.

"Wait a minute," she mused, rushing over to get the pile of manila folders off the desk. She plucked a single one off the table with a smirk, holding the picture up near his face. "You're Dixon!"

"The one and only," he replied arrogantly, reaching for the folder and flipping through it. "What's all this bullshit?"

"You and your brother... you're both immu-"

"We don't got time for this!" Daryl finally called. "Is the Governor alive or not?"

"He is," Milton answered quickly, nervous about both Merle's, and now his brother's, temper. He adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, glancing at Vanessa with a 'please don't piss these people off' look. "He said he went to take out the prison."

"What?" Merle shook his head, he already knew what Daryl was going to say. "We have to-"

"I know, I know. We have to go save 'em." He rolled his eyes and slapped his brother on the shoulder. "Fuckin' knight in shinin' armor." He took the folder with him, giving Vanessa and Milton a devious grin before turning back to Daryl. "Can't juss let Officer Friendly take care of his people."

"It's not him I'm worried 'bout."

"Course not." Merle shook his head and started to walk out the door after Daryl who had already left in a hurry. Vanessa and Milton both watched them leave before she turned to him.

"Why didn't you let me tell them! We could have gotten more blood, done tests, all kinds of stuff." She took a step forward to chase after them when Milton grabbed her arm gently and tugged on it.

"They're dangerous men Vanessa, I don't think you should go after them." He pleaded with his eyes but she was having none of it. There was a chance at a cure here and she was not going to pass it up.

"Then come with me."

"What?" He asked incredulously, eyes wide as he internally debated her proposal.

"Come with me. We'll go to this prison with them. The Governor thinks we're a liability anyway, he's going to kill us regardless. Maybe we'll have a chance with them. And God knows we'll have better luck with walkers if we have two people who are immune with us." She took him by the shoulders and gently shook him. "Think about it." Milton paused for several seconds before slowly nodding.

"Okay, we'll go with them."