A/N: Last week was a crap week, and I think this week might be the same. Though my Walking Dead comics arrived the other day, so that was very uplifting, but basically! I hate cold weather and college. But your reviews have cheered me up! Thanks for those, and I'm sorry about the slow updating, I'm hoping it won't be a week between updates like this, so let's hope for the best and enjoy this mushy-ridiculously-awkward-and-adorable chapter.

Everything's Fine / Like Lori and Rick

For the rest of the day, Lacey, Rob, Jo and Amy talked about the possibilities of Keenan's actual survival and showing up in Georgia. They wondered what they would do, what he would do, where they would go, and of course, Robert played the 'what about Daryl' card.

"Ya know, I'll just- I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it, how 'bout that, huh?" Lacey answered in a mildly high pitched, uncomfortable tone, along with a series of shrugs. Robert rolled his eyes and watched as his sister stood up and excused herself to see what was going on in the kitchen.

She left Honey in his care and as she walked she saw Ben in the distance, he gave her a wave and she returned it and headed inside. She wasn't really in a talking mood, and with Ben she knew Robert would spill the beans and he'd probably get into a fight with her about morality again. And she just wasn't really up for it. She had a lot weighing on her mind and right now she just really need to focus on getting Erin back to a healthy 98.6 degrees.

Erin was still asleep, and before she changed her washclothes again, she took note of her temperature against the back of her hand, she was cooling down. Lacey smirked in momentary triumph and then headed to Carl's room, her music hadn't woken him and he seemed to regaining some slight color in his cheeks.

There was nothing to worry about, nothing to stress her out, nothing at all...

Except the fact that her fiance, or was it ex fiance? She didn't know which to classify it as, but Keenan had called her a month ago and made a promise to find her, collect her and take her somewhere safe, she assumed. But with that burning thought in mind she thought about Daryl. How could she not...

Daryl was the man she was sleeping with and sharing a tent with. The man was in love with her adopted baby daughter, and was taking a quick liking to Erin, her newest girl, as well. She liked the guy, she had established that, and he liked her too. They had admitted it, but it wasn't like they were dating or something. They were just... survivors and they cared about each other and the safety of each other and everyone else and-... yeah. They were just two members of this group, who had connected and... well... the more she thought about the more she couldn't explain what it was exactly. It honestly confused the hell out of her. Things were so much simpler before, when you liked someone you could pursue them and date and what ever else should happen after that. But in this after world it seemed like such a hassel, or like it didn't seem right... it felt like taking advantage of someone...

Her eyes widened at her thoughts, 'Oh God... Am I taking advantage of Daryl?' With that question in mind she followed up with a wide array of curses, accused herself of being a rapist, and found her mind scolding her in a way that Ben might have.

But then she thought about her girls. What would Keenan-

She halted her thoughts, stopping them before she developed a murderous headache which was already pricking at her temples. She reached up and tried to rub the pain away, and half hoped to rub the thoughts away. If only it were that easy.

"You okay? You look like your about to have steam come out of your ears or somethin'."

Lacey looked around her, she was back in the sitting room, she damned her body parts for betraying her while she was in deep thought, and she appeared to have been pacing, she turned and saw Maggie, "Just some, uhh, troubling thoughts, is all. How's dinner coming?"

"Fine. But, umm, I was wondering..." Maggie glanced around, her tone turning into just a whisper, "I kinda wanted your opinion. Since you've got an active sex life..."

Lacey raised a brow, "Active... I've done it twice in the past 2 and a half months. Yeah, active." she shook her head with a snort.

"Well, you know what I mean." Maggie laughed quietly, she bit her lip before she continued, "I mean, I kinda wanna be with Glenn again. But I told him it was a one time thing, and I've kinda been bitchy to him. Do ya... Do ya think if I offer he'll go for it?"

Lacey let out a short chuckle before laying a hand on Maggie's shoulder, "Oh, to be young... Darlin'," she paused, and realised how much she loved how Daryl said that, it put a calm in her like no other nickname did, but she shook the thought off and put her head back into the matter at hand, "if you offer sex to any guy, he'll take it... Well, not any guy, but most guys. And Glenn?" she laughed, "Look at you, Mags. He won't be able to resist." she laughed again when Maggie fell into a fit of giggles when her accent had tweeked from southern to absolute New Yorker in a matter of seconds.

A loud crack echoed through the quiet country air, causing everyone on the farm to jump and become silent. Lacey's head snapped to the direction of the sound, she looked back to Maggie, the same question in her eyes that Lacey had, the two shot out of the house quickly. A thunder of steps followed them, Lori, Carol and Patricia coming from the kitchen.

Lori came to stand next to Lacey and shaded her eyes, Lacey did the same and squinted slightly to see the men, Ben, Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog, in the distance scrambling over something.
"Your eyes are better than mine, Lace. What happened?" Lori asked.

"Can't really tell." Lacey mummbled, but as she squinted a little harder and her vision came into focus, she saw two of the five figures heft up a sixth. Through all the dirt, grime and blood covering the slumped figure she wasn't quite sure who exactly they were supporting and bringing back into camp. But then she saw Glenn pass Ben a crossbow and everything was answered, her heart skipped a beat before it pounded furiously a moment later, "Daryl!" she practically screeched as she ran as fast as she could to the group. Her legs were screaming for her to slow down but she didn't stop until she was in front of Rick and Shane supporting a bloodied, battered and passed out Dixon.

"What happened!" she cried, tears falling from her eyes without her knowledge as she gently touched around the two bleeding areas on his head, she gasped at the bloodied clothe cinched tightly around his middle, the clothe was almost dripping from all it had soaked up. She placed her hands on his face, treating him like broken glass, "Daryl? Come on, baby, wake up." she urged him, but he just hung limp against the men holding him up.

"He's unconscious, Lacey. He's hurt bad." Rick explained with an apologetic look on his face.
Lacey gave a short nod and moved out of the way, following them closely as they walked toward the house, "What was that shot?"

She looked around to see Glenn, T-Dog, who made an effort not to make eye contact, Ben just shook his head when she looked at him, and for second, though she wasn't very good at it, she could almost read his expression, like he knew she was going to be upset, much more than she already was. And as they got closer to the house she noticed Dale and Andrea approaching them, and the female of the two looked frazzled and guilty.

"I'm sorry. The sun was in a bad place. I thought he was a walker, I didn't know. I just-" Andrea sputtered quickly, but shut up when Lacey gave her a fierce glare.

Lori grabbed the younger girl's arm when she saw her fists clench, her right arm started to give a shake before reeling back, knowing her friend far better than the rest of the group, aside from her brothers, she knew she had to intervene. There was no telling what exactly Lacey would do to Andrea, but she'd seen Lacey almost kill a girl once, and she assumed it would be similar, or even worse. And they didn't need to lose anymore people.

"Come on, Lace." Lori consoled her as they; she, Lacey, Shane, Rick and Daryl entered the house.

One of the few rooms down stairs now contained an injured Daryl.

Lacey insisted on stitching his head up, while Hershel took care of the arrow wound on his left side.

"Shit." Daryl winced, reaching up to swat away what was pulling at the skin of his forehead.
"Easy, babe. I'm just stitching you up." Lacey spoke softly, her nurse voice.

Daryl's tired eyes looked all around before landing on her, her soft smile and her sad eyes.
"Well, 'f it inn't little miss nurse Black. Pretty sure I could do with a sponge bath." he slurred slightly before his head cleared and he looked around to see they weren't alone. Lacey rolled her eyes, and was slightly amused at his lack of filter and silly musings due to his major loss of blood, she gave the final stitch before stepping away to get some gauze.

"What happened to you, Daryl?" Rick spoke up, and the bruised and filthy Dixon ran through his tale, explaining what he went through and in the end found Sophia's doll near a stream.

Rick and Shane left the room after that, rolling up the survey map and departing without a sceond glance. Hershel washed his hands of blood in a bowl on the dresser before nodding to Lacey, "I assume you'll be taking care of him?"

She nodded back with a small smile, "Yeah, I got it covered, Mr. Greene, thank you." He nodded, a knowing look in his eye that didn't go unnoticed by Lacey as he left the room.

"You scared me." she mummbled as she put the gauze away, satisfied that his stitches were well protected.

"Shouldn't you be worryin' about Erin... or your husband."

Lacey raised a brow as she crossed the room, she wasn't sure how he'd managed to find out about the voicemail, Lori had been there and she'd only just told Jo, Rob and Amy. He must have heard it through the door, and he probably heard other things said too. Lacey sighed, this is what she deserved for eavesdropping on him, but the way he was acting about it was... troubling, more troubling than how she was reacting to it. She took a seat on the edge of his bed so he had no choice but to look at her.

"Erin's fever's going down. Slowly. But it's going down..." she paused, thinking of how exactly to express herself without any embarrassment or too much implied or said.

"Keenan's message was over a month ago...And he was still in New York, who knows if he's made it past the state line...or if he's alive even..." she scooted closer to him when he rolled his eyes and looked off toward the wall. Her hands flinched and entangled together, not knowing if she should try and lay a hand on him or not, not sure if he was mad and jealous or just mad. She knew Daryl, but this wasn't something she knew how to deal with. She hadn't ever had a situation like before, actually. No boyfriend of hers ever got mad at her, or got jealous, she was always a sweet, goofy and faithful girlfriend, though her mind did tend to go astray sometimes she never cheated or picked fights. But Daryl wasn't her boyfriend, he was... something else, something not categorized, and she didn't know how to rememdy the situation.

But then she thought back to the 20 or so minutes before... her reaction was miles different from how she had reacted to the voicemail earlier that morning... And with that detail now in her head, she found she didn't have that little pinch in her head waiting to explode into a blinding, cripling headache. In just her actions she found her answer, she made her choice. A smile pulled at her lips, but at the risk of looking like a grinning fool she smothered it as best she could before speaking again.

"I'm gonna keep my head out of the clouds and stick to what I know...I care about you, Daryl Dixon." Lacey spoke in a steady, unwavering voice, and touched her hand to his shoulder, unafraid of the consequences if there were any.

"I care about you, my brothers and my girls and that's it. Keenan should've been with me the moment this started. He should have been the one protecting me. He-... he didn't even think to call me until a month after this started. He isn't my husband either, 'cause if he was I'd be thinking of, or dreaming of or cheating on him with you." she laughed at her own words, and quickly followed up the silly comment with an explanation, knowing it didn't really make much sense, "And I know we didn't know each other before this, aside from you being a customer at one of my less than respectable former occupations, but I'd sure as hell search and search to find you, Mr. Dixon." she kept her eyes trained on his face, looking for any sign, any detail to show her that he was listening and that he believed her, she saw a twitch on his mouth, and she knew he was forcing himself not to smirk.

"I need a man who looks out for me... not only me, but others too, people he doesn't need to protect or don't even deserve his protection, but he chooses to, 'cause he's a good man. And he's always there when I need him...and he's always a few steps ahead of me... he sends my heart racing when he looks at me, but makes my heart stop when he's hurt."

Lacey paused and saw him glance at her from the corner of his eye and she smiled before adding her final words, "A man who never gives up...and a man who doesn't want me calling him my boyfriend."

Daryl let out a chuckle, but winced slightly from the pain in his side before turning to look at her.
"You mean it?"

She nodded, "I do."

He glanced at the door way, the door was slightly cracked but he still shifted so that he lay on his back and brought his right hand over to hold onto her hip, "So you mean to say, that if that guy did show up you'd stick with me?"

She nodded in the affirmative and he gave a nod too, "You're crazy, Darlin'."

She glared before hitting his arm, after that huge, somewhat embarrassing speech to get him to actually look at her and speak to her again he went and made a comment like that.

He laughed before actually looking at her, Lacey Black, the small blonde, the nurse, the badass, the girl that made him think that he wasn't good enough, that made him jealous, all those negative thoughts he had, they all seemed to vanish. She'd choosen him. The little New Yorker and a Georgian. A smirk was on his lips at the new uplifting thought, but it fell a few moments later.

"What's wrong?" Lacey asked, that nurse in her never seemed to miss a thing.

Daryl looked at door way again, unsure if he wanted to actually tell her or just keep it to himself. But after all that she'd said and her choosing him, and her being a nurse and such, he gave in, giving her a look that told her that this was to stay between the two of them, "I saw some things while I was out there. I don't want anyone else knowin', but... I wanna tell you."

She nodded, hearing his quiet tone she took the hint and spoke just a little above a whisper, "Saw? Besides walkers?"

"Yeah... I, umm...I saw Merle...but it was my mind playin' tricks on me, I know that."

"Did he talk to you?" she asked. It wasn't out of the ordinary for Lacey to hear about hallucinations, quite a few patients of hers had the chance of hallucination like symtoms, and when they did, and they told her about them, she heard the strangest or most ordinary of things.

Daryl snorted, "Bastard said a lot of things. Makin' me feel guilty as fuck for not lookin' for him... said...no one cares about me but him...not even you...since you got that message from your..."

Lacey snorted this time, "Well, obviously that was your subconcious, and it was obviously wrong." she smiled, "When I heard that shot and I saw you. There wasn't anything else in the world that mattered, except when Andrea started apologizing, then I got into a blind fury, she better keep her distance from me for a while or I'll be forced to beat some ass."

"Hey," Daryl said after a chuckling, "heard you callin' me 'baby'." he smirked, gripping her hip a little tighter, "Am I another little kid for you to protect 'n take care of?"

She smiled, "No, no. Honey and Erin are my babies. You...you're my baby." she practically purred as she leaned closer to him. The mood in the room shifted again, and Daryl's eyes seemed to darken.

His grip on her hip tightened a little more, "Say it ag'in." just close to a growl. His grasp on her made her gasp, only playing into it a little more as her lips were just a centimeter from his, and her breath ghosted over him, "Baby."

He groaned, biting his lip as his eyes rolled shut, "Feelin' better already." he nudged her with his hips, and she noted the definite hardness poking her from beneath the sheets.

And just as quickly as Lacey had turned it on, she shut it off. "Don't think so." she stood up from the bed, away from his touch and out of his reach, "You need rest and you've lost too much blood to be sending it south like that. Just relax, doctor's orders." she smiled.

Daryl grunted in irritation, "Can I at least have a kiss?"
"Hmm, I don't know. Staff-patient romances are strictly forbidden." Lacey smirked, Daryl rolled his eyes and she leaned down and kissing him so softly that even he felt like he was made of glass.

She pulled away and kissed his cheek before standing up.
"Why don't you bring Erin in here? Use up less room in the house. I know if I was that old fella I'd be pissed as hell that strangers were takin' over my house."

Lacey stared at him, eyes widening slightly, "That's a good idea... and it had nothing to do with killing walkers or tracking things... You're delusional...I think you lost too much blood."

"Damn it, woman, just do what I say... And bring my baby girl in here."
"Alright, alright. Just trying to have a bit of fun. I thought you were dead. Forgive mefor trying to lighten the mood." she smiled smally and left the room, "Don't go anywhere." she popped her head around the door and winked, before she disappeared from the house.

"How's Daryl?" asked JoJo as Lacey approached the camp.
"He's fine. I'm gonna watch over him and Erin. He wants to see Honey. Needs some cheering up."

"Ma!" Honey squealed from Amy's lap, the young blonde laughed, "She certainly knows when she's being talked about." she stood up and passed the girl to Lacey.

"Hey there." Lacey cooed to the girl, "You know where to find me." she called over her shoulder to her brother and Amy as she walked toward the house with Honey.

"There's my baby girl." Daryl's voice wasn't as strong as it was before she'd left, he must have fallen asleep for a minute or two, he had to be exhausted. Lacey laughed as the girl squirmed in her arms and crawled onto the bed, sitting in the area where Daryl's body and his extended right arm made an arch. But just as Honey's playful demeanor started it ended, her tiny brow wrinkling at the sight of his bandaged up head and side.

Daryl chuckled quietly, "This girl makes the most serious expressions, I've never seen a baby so concerned."

"She's worried, just like everyone else." Lacey smiled.
"Not everyoneelse." he mummbled with an eye roll, "Got hurt, baby girl." Daryl explained to the little blonde in front of him, he took her tiny hand into his, her small fingers circling tightly around his middle finger, "But your Mama fixed me up, made me better." his eyes looked over to Lacey who blushed slightly, taking his other hand when his fingers began to wiggle at her.

At the word 'mama' Honey looked to Lacey, "Ma." she mummbled in a quiet voice, then looked to Daryl, a confused yet calculating expression on her face now. Lacey grinned, she couldn't help it, the girl was just too adorable, the way she tried to piece things together. She couldn't walk, she was just learning to sit up on her own, and she only knew one word and she maybe 4 months away from what could possibly be her first birthday. But even in her fresh, young mind she was trying to figure it out and in doing so extending her vocabulary.

Lacey offered her a small nudge, "Daryl." she supplied, "This is Daryl." she pronounced his name in an obnoxiously slow way, but as she looked into Honey's eyes to give that new word a try she saw something click in those beautiful browns.

Her stomach dropped when she heard the girl say it. It was so unexpected, yet it seemed so well praticed. Her hand in Daryl's grasp stiffened and she found an itching in her legs that wanted her to jump out the window.

"Dada!" Honey had squealed with such enthusiam that she even clapped for herself. She grinned proudly at him then to Lacey.

Lacey's eyes wide, amazed, confused and worried stared at the girl, and she smiled back at the girl after her moment of frozen shock.

"Mama." Honey mummbled next before crawling closer to Daryl.

Lacey nodded in approval, she couldn't look at Daryl... She didn't know why, it was strange, her stomach was clenched up and she found herself unable to form words. Mama and Dada? She was scared, and she wasn't sure why. But what she did know was that she needed to get out of that room, if only for a minute or two. She felt tears pricking her eyes, making them burn and water and she mentally cursed her emotions for making her less than stable again. She needed that damn cry and she needed it soon, but now was definitely not the time for it. She needed to wrap her head around this 'Dada' thing first, before anything. She had a feeling her initial reaction of fear was irrational, but... she just couldn't shake the feeling. She made her move, trying to appear casual and unshaken.

"I, uh. I'm gonna check on Erin, see if she's hungry, then I, uh...I'll, uh... yeah." she stumbled through her words as she got up from the chair next to the bed and left the room. 'Smooth. Fucking idiot. God! What is wrong with me?'

Of course, when they get everything set to normal (nothing could be classified as normal in this world. No where near to normal, the farthest from normal they'll ever be, but it was close enough) something pops up to disrupt the calm (mild calm, mild)...

"Dada? Really?" she grumbled and sighed, rubbing her temples with the heels of her hands and walked to the couch where Erin lay, gently rousing her to come and eat something, and opening up a jar of baby food for Honey. She knew someone else was behind this, she saw the way Honey had put things together, she couldn't have put them together by herself, there was another party involved in this. Someone that knew what they were doing, and she knew exactly who that someone was... he'd get a severetalking to when she found the time.

After Erin had her fill Lacey guided the girl toward Daryl's room. She set the girl on his bed and the jar of food on the nightstand before leaving again to retrieve the cot from the tent. Setting it up at the foot of the bed and laying Erin down comfortably before moving on to Honey.

"Come on, baby girl. Time to eat." she smiled, Daryl noticed how the smile didn't reach her eyes as she spoon fed the baby on his bed.

His eyes never left her as she fed Honey until the girl rejected the next spoonful Lacey offered.
"You gonna stay? Watch over Erin?" he spoke as Lacey put the top on the tiny jar and set it on the nightstand again.

"Yeah." she ran her fingers through her hair, tucking some behind her ear, "You and Erin." she stood up reaching for Honey, "I'm just gonna get her situated with JoJo, then I'll come back."

"She can stay. She can't do any harm to me."
Lacey nodded, "Okay." and leaned back into her chair, it was padded, but it just as uncomfortable as a wooden chair.

"Darlin'," Daryl's voice called to her, a smirk on his mouth, "You ain't sleepin' in that chair...I just won't have that."

Lacey matched his smirk, "You need space."
"No, no, darlin', this is the first bed we'll have in months, we're gonna share it. We shared a goddamn couch, we'll share a bed, so get in here."

She smiled, unable to deny him and the look on Honey's face as she realised they would all be together for the night.

Lacey turned out the light before lifting up the covers and scooting in onto the mattress, pulling Honey into her chest as they all got comfortable.

Darkness and quiet filled the room, and for five minutes Lacey believed everyone had fallen asleep and she could eventually sneak out to give Daryl more room, but that plan fell through at the sound of Daryl's voice. Gravely and tired, in a whisper he spoke.

"Saw the look on your face when she called me that..."
She stayed quiet. Thankful for the darkness to hide her blush taking over her entire face, ears, neck and chest.

"Why you scared?"
"Not scared." she whispered, then bit her lip, "Maybe a little...she's grown attatched to us...we're her..." she gulped, never believing she'd associate the word with herself and someone else, "parents..." she paused, the word seemed so foreign when she referred to her and Daryl, but when she spoke of Lori and Rick or her own mother and father it didn't seem strange at all. But then a thought came to mind, hitting her like a punch to the stomach, the thought of her own parents. "What happens when we're suddenly not there?"

"We'll be there." Daryl was quick to answer, startling Lacey slightly, there was no hesitation, "We'll always be there. For Honey and for Erin...these girls lucked out on parental figures, they got two tough, badass parents. They'll be fine."

Lacey chuckled quietly, running her fingers through Honey's hair for a minute before speaking again, "I thought you'd be freaked out by it...like it...like her words suddenly swore you in...ya know? I mean, she sees us as mom and dad, like a... like a couple, ya know...like Lori and Rick..."

"Yeah...kinda like them." Daryl agreed, choosing not to note the fact that Lori was knocking boots with Shane for a while before Rick came back. He figured it wasn't his place to out Lori's secret to her best friend, it didn't seem right to tell her and smudge the image she'd created. The two people she'd known longest in Georgia, people she idolized in terms of marriage and family.

Things quieted down after that, and just before Daryl almost fell asleep to the calm sounds of his three girls sleeping he thought about his parents and Lacey's parents. They didn't have the greatest upbringing, but he vowed to always be there for the girls, always protect them and care for them. Lacey's parents had loved her, they'd treated her like a princess, but Daryl... he barely existed in his father's eyes, and his mother? It's safe to say he didn't recieve even a fraction of what Lacey and her brothers were lucky to have before it disappeared.
Parents... they were parents now... but weren't parents supposed to love each other?

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.