The last couple days had been pretty warm. But it was cooler today, an' it's cold tonight. If I had to guess, I'd say it's late October. Explains my baggin' another deer earlier. I think 'bout last winter, how fuckin' hard it was for us to find anything. Our group needs to get to Washington before winter sets in. Deer'll be a hell of a lot harder to come across then. Someone clears their throat behind me, an' I turn to see Michonne.

"Thought you could use the company tonight." She sits next to me. We're a little ways from the road, out in the woods. It's safer hidden in the trees than takin' our chances out in the open. Ain't as safe as actual shelter, but we make the best of it. Before night fell we set up our tents an' sleepin' bags. Beth's sleepin' in our tent right now. I couldn't close my eyes if I tried, so I volunteered watch. Guess Michonne couldn't sleep either. I've got my back propped against this old tree, my knees pulled up. My bow balances on top of my legs, finger by the trigger. I know I always have to be ready.

"Been meanin' to give you these, but keep forgettin' to." I feel somethin' tappin' my arm, look down to see her handin' me a pack of Reds. I look back up to her face. She shrugs her shoulders an' explains. "Took these outta the car I slept in a few days ago. Back by the tracks? They're all yours." She smiles at me as I take the pack in my hand, noddin' my thanks.

"Shit. Probably why I can't fuckin' sleep. Jesus, I missed nicotine." I pack the smokes before openin' them. I offer one to her. She laughs.

"No thanks. I quit years ago. Enjoy your lung cancer." She says it with an even bigger smile, winks at me. I roll my eyes as I pull one out, puttin' it between my lips. I shove the pack in my jacket an' reach into my back pocket for my zippo. She watches me as I flick it open, bringin' the flame to my mouth. After savorin' a good, long drag I speak to her again.

"Maybe you haven't heard. Apparently, there's shit out there a lot worst than cancer." She tries to muffle her laugh with her hand. I puff out a cloud of smoke, creatin' a veil in front of my face. I hear her let out a heavy sigh.

"It's gonna be winter soon." I nod as I inhale again. She knows as well as I do what winter means for our group when we're out on the road. She dealt with it when she'd been alone with Andrea. Maybe it's 'cause I'm comfortable with her, or 'cause we're two of a kind. Shit, maybe it's 'cause she gave me some smokes. I decide to voice somethin' I been chewin' over ever since we left that damn lake.

"Fuckin' prison woulda been nice to have right 'bout now. We didn't get there 'til it was almost spring. I didn't think I'd have to live another winter like that anytime soon." She looks down to the ground, thinkin' 'bout somethin'. I regret even sayin' anything 'bout that place. I try not to even think 'bout it if I don't have to. Maybe she's been doin' the same.

"I never shoulda stopped lookin' for the bastard." Her voice is low, but it still cuts through the air like a knife. I hadn't meant it to come off like that. I'd only wanted to get the feelin' off my chest. This was probably her way of doin' that. I nudge her with my elbow.

"I shoulda never told you to stop. Shoulda never stopped, myself." I tip the cigarette between my fingers before bringin' it back to my mouth. I had no intentions of dealin' with heavy shit tonight. Least not openly like this.

"You were busy bringin' us more survivors, huntin', steppin' up in the council. You had your reasons to stop. I didn't." I hate hearin' her blame herself for what happened. Funny that just a few weeks ago I was doin' the same. I look back to the tent where Beth's sleepin'.

"You gotta let that shit go. Your past? It ain't good for none of us to keep focusin' on what we done wrong. The world's changed an' we changed with it." She lets out a humorless laugh.

"Sometimes I wonder what the changes I made cost me. How much of myself did I lose along the way, just tryin' to survive?" I know I didn't change much to survive. It's all I've ever known. But I did change. I never woulda stuck with so many people, never woulda had friends like Rick an' Michonne, any of them. I woulda never fallen in love or had someone worth dyin' for. I can't help but appreciate the change in me, now that I think 'bout it. I take one last drag of my smoke before grindin' it into the tree bark an' flickin' it to the ground. I blow the smoke outta the side of my mouth when I speak to her.

"You gotta stay who you are, not who you were. Got you this far, gotta count for somethin'." I hear Rick stirrin', probably gettin' ready for his watch. Michonne looks me right in the eyes, I see so much pain behind hers.

"I don't think I can let go of any of it. Not who I was, not the mistakes I've made." Rick's just walkin' over to us. I stand an' look down at her.

"You don't let it go, it'll kill you." I place my hand over my heart. "Right here." She nods, then a smile breaks across her face.

"When did Daryl Dixon become such a motivational speaker? What happened to the rough redneck who only grunted his answers?" Rick's just come over to where we stand. I nod to him, glance over at my tent, then turn back to her.

"Someone once helped me with the same shit. It ain't so bad once you let it go. Kinda nice." I start to walk to my tent, look back over my shoulder. I pull the Reds outta my jacket an' hold them up. "See what happens when you hang 'round? You learn shit 'bout people." She winks at me, even laughs a little.

I crawl under the blanket with Beth. She's out cold. My hand moves back the hair from her face. She always looks so much younger when she sleeps. I know she's made me a better person, helped me to even wanna be better. I'd still be alive if I didn't have her, but I wouldn't like the man I'd be. Always angry, always a short fuse. I ain't sayin' I've turned into some fuckin' saint. There's still times where I let my temper go, or when I wanna shut everything out. But I don't do that anymore. I lean down an' kiss her cheek before I lay down. The girl saved me.

"Do you think we'll make it to South Carolina today, Daryl?"

"Might. Pass me the squirrels. We should head back to camp." We been out since sunrise huntin'. Couple squirrels won't fill us all, but there's still some deer from yesterday. My bow is over my back, her hand in mine. I always preferred huntin' solo, now I can't imagine goin' without Beth. She's back to playin' that I Never game again, her idea of us learnin' more 'bout each other.

"I never went to prom."

"Shit. Makes two of us." She stops walkin' an' stares at me.

"You never went to your senior prom?" I can't hold back the laugh.

"Dropped outta high school. I wanted to run off with Merle. Since he was always runnin' 'round, I didn't see no more point to school."

"Guess that means neither of us ever graduated."

"Yeah, but you had no choice. Don't worry 'bout it. Ain't like math an' shit can help you out here. No more than the basics. Guess I can't regret givin' up on it, too much." She squeezes my hand, blue eyes burnin' into mine.

"You didn't have a choice either, Daryl. You'd never have survived if you stayed under that roof. Look how far you've come, what a great person you are." There's a lump in my throat. I still have to get used to people tryin' to prove to me whatever they think my worth is. Rick always tells me how valuable I am to our group, but I've never taken it past face value. I know what he means, he thinks I'm some fuckin' hero. It's the same with Beth. I can't stand the thought of ever lettin' any of them down. She reaches up an' kisses my cheek, then we keep goin'.

We make it a little farther when I hear somethin' movin' through the bushes to our side. I pull Beth behind me, tell her to pull out her knife. I face the brush, bow in front of me. It don't sound like walkers, the pace is too even. No moanin', no draggin'. I hear a man say he heard talkin'. That tells me there's at least two of them, an' they know we're here. We could run, but it'd lead them to the others.

"Hold up. Step outta there slowly. Hands where I can see them." The talkin's stopped. I look down to Beth, she mouths "Walkers?" but I shake my head. I know I heard a man speakin'. "You deaf? Get your asses out here. Don't do nothin' stupid."

"Daryl?"

I freeze to the spot. Beth grabs my arm. We know that voice. She steps outta the brush knife at her side. The man behind her has a gun in his hand, a large pack on his back. When they face us, Beth lets out a sob. An' it's all I can do not to fall over. When my brain finally sends the signal to my voice, the words are weak.

"Carol? Tyrese?"

Beth runs out from my side an' throws her arms 'round Carol, then hugs Tyrese. I still can't move. These are two people I never thought I'd see again. Carol approaches me slowly, like I'm a stray dog. Then she hugs me. It takes me a second to register what's happenin', an' I hug her back. I thought she was long gone from all of us. I was so pissed when Rick sent her out. Part of me always understood why he did it, but I never wanted to lose her. She was the first person who treated me like I was more than just the hunter. Carol was like the sister I never had. She smiles at me, then turns to Beth.

"Is it just the two of you? Where's everybody else?"

"We have a camp just that way. Maggie an' Glenn are with us. So are Rick, Carl, Michonne, Sasha an' Bob. An' we met three others." When Beth said his sister's name, Tyrese let out a sob, placin' his hands over his face. I can't believe they're here. That the two of them made it this far from the prison. Carol says they've been lookin' for us for days. I can't hide my surprise.

"How'd y'all know where to look?"

"We were on our way to Terminus. We heard gunshots an' ran to where they came from. We went through the gates of the sanctuary to find all those dead people." Tyrese looks back to Carol. She picks up where he left off.

"There was a young man on the ground, his knees were shot. He asked us to kill him, put him outta his misery. We asked him if he'd met our group. When we described it to him, he'd told us you were the ones who killed everybody. That you had said something about D.C. So, I shot him in the head an' we started makin' our way out. I can't believe we've found you." She's cryin' now. All I can think is how Beth had stopped me from killin' Travis. If I'd killed him, they'd never know where to go, they'd never find us.

"They were bad people. Cannibals. A man there took Beth. But we found her an' we took care of them." They both look shocked.

Tyrese twists 'round to reach the pack on his back an' it catches my eye. I see him pull off somethin'. When I hear the little cry, my heart stops. Beth's heard it, too. She lets out another sob as she runs to grab the baby from his arms, holdin' her to her chest. I see the little hands reach for Beth's cheek, hear the little giggle.

"Asskicker?"

I don't need an answer, I just get to Beth. That beautiful baby girl smiles up at me an' it's like the world stands still. All this time I thought she was dead. Thought she was too pure to ever survive in a world like this. Beth hands her to me, an' it's like the first time I held her all over again. She reaches up an' tugs my hair. I can feel my eyes waterin'.

"Hey, sweetheart. You miss me?" She grabs my finger an' squeezes it tight. I laugh at her an' look at the others. They're all starin' at me, smilin'. "Shit, she's gonna have a hell of a trigger finger. Ain't that right, Asskicker?" They laugh at me.

Beth helps Tyrese change Asskicker an' Carol stands next to me. "I'm glad you made it out, Daryl. The group needs you most of all. You're our guardian." I roll my eyes at her an' tell her to stop. She nudges my arm. I'm too busy watchin' Beth with Asskicker. Takin' care of that baby comes so natural to her. She's nurturin' an' sweet. The warm feelin' I usually get whenever I look at her surges through me again. Before, seein' her with the kids at the prison just made me think she was the maternal type. Like watchin' a buncha kids all day was just as natural to her as breathin'. But now I see her in a new light. She's beautiful when she looks at that little girl an' her heartbreakin' smile lights up her whole face. Shit, it's like fallin' in love with her all over again. My heart is 'bout to break through my chest at the sight of her.

We hook Asskicker back up on Tyrese's back an' make our way to camp. I take Beth's hand. Carol notices it an' gives me a big fuckin' grin an' raises her eyebrows at me. I know I'll have to explain it all to her later. If anybody would understand, it'd be Carol. She wants me to be happy. An' in this moment, I am.

"Wait 'til everybody sees what we brought home. Y'all gonna be more welcome than a whole line of fuckin' squirrels."