Lupe survived that nightmare. She always survives. She fears for the day she might be the only one left. She withers further into Daryl, unable to stop herself at this point.

Daryl keeps her from fully collapsing and scoops her up into his arms. "Let's go to Denise."

Lupe flails weakly in his grasp, "I can walk!"

Daryl snorts. "I know you can, damn. I just ain't fuckin' lettin' ya. Said yer knee went bad and I don't wanna risk one of our best fighters." He carriers her out of the backyard.

Lupe stops squirming and looks up at him, "You think I'm one of the best?" Barbacoa takes the lead, scanning through the area and deciding on threats. There weren't too many because Daryl took them back through his path on purpose.

Daryl almost laughs. "Sugar, I've seen you comb through nearly fifteen of those things by yourself with them little sticks. Yer more than just a good shot with that little gun and a rifle, plus that sling shot of yours. You ain't even pause to think about letting people down, you just don't do it." He huffs defensively. "Course I think you're one of our best fighters. You hit your fuckin' head?" Lupe giggles in his arms. He enjoys the sound so much he wants to bottle it, bathe in it, sleep in it. He swallows heavily and continues, "This place needs ya…" The words want to stay in his throat. A desperate fear claws to keep it closed. He forces them out anyway, "I-I need ya."

He doesn't keep talking, but Lupe is unsure she's right in what she just heard. "Y-you n-n-need me?" she asks incredulously.

Daryl doesn't look at her, not even a glance. Well, maybe one, but he can't stand that look in her eyes. It's too pure to be directed at him. He shoulda kept his damn mouth shut. "I don't — I ain't —,"

"Put me down…"

"Huh?" Daryl flutters from his mumbling.

Lupe starts wriggling again. "Put me down!"

Daryl instantly does as he's told and takes several steps back from her. "M'sorry…" He shakes his head furiously at her as she limps forward.

"Daryl?" Lupe smiles at him, even though he won't look at her. She lurches after him, even though he keeps backing away. "Daryl, I'm gonna need you to shut the fuck up and stay still so I can catch you and kiss the shit out of you."

Daryl's head pops up and he hits the reboot.

She grins at him as she hobbles closer. "That is, if you want —,"

Daryl's mouth slams against hers and she is right there ready for him. The kiss is intense, but not overwhelming. They don't claw each other's close off or slam against any walls, but there's a lot of whimpering and confused hands grasping at a place to hold. They end up entangled, and sink into each other's bodies. They hold on for dear life cause it's the first taste they've had of it in a long fucking time.

Till they realize they're in the middle of the goddamn street.

Till they hear the cheers of the fucking entirety of surviving Alexandrians, hooting and hollering from maybe a house or two away.

Till they hear Eric, who grabbed a bunch of leaves to toss in the air like confetti, shouting, "It's a Christmas Miracle!"

Daryl and Lupe pull away smiling and huffing, just staring back at each other. Daryl cups Lupe's face in his large calloused hand and relishes in the peace she provides in just one look.

"I'll admit I am a slightly impulsive person and that may have been ill advised in the current setting." Lupe chuckles softly. Her eyes flit around his face and the surrounding town, but she leans up for one more soft kiss.

"S'alright, we're all on top of each other anyway." Daryl huffs and curls his other hand around her jaw, his thumb brushes along the warmth of her round cheek. "Fuckin' in a john with the right person, right?"

Lupe sputters, her head drops on his chest so she doesn't spit in his face. She looks back up at him with an enchanting smile. "I'm not gonna fuck you in a bathroom Daryl, no matter what your kink is."

"Hey, s'just a thought," he deadpans and scoops her back up in her arms. "Jus'sayin, we got options." Lupe buries her face in her hands as he carries her to Denise, amidst some more hooting and hollering.

Denise opens the door from the inside and looks out at all the noise. "What's happening?"

Daryl squeezes past her. "Ain't nothin', need you to look at Lupe's knee."

Denise is about to close the door when Tara barges right in after them. "Not nothing!" she rasps, knowing well enough to keep quiet in the house. "Daryl and Lupe just made out in the town square!"

Denise whips around to look at them, her mouth wide open in delighted shock. "You guys finally kissed?" Her hands clasp at her chest and it looks like hearts are going to start floating around her head any minute.

Daryl plops Lupe on the counter he just sat at, far enough back she can straighten out her knee for support. "Ain't yer business right now, but her knee is. Stop fussin'."

Denise walks forward and gives Daryl a dirty look. "I can do both!" She starts helping Lupe roll up her pant leg to get a look. "Dislocation or sublux?"

"Sublux I think. Corpse just fell on it bad, but I could walk on it a little after," Lupe replies.

"So this was your first kiss?" Denise asks as she gently prods Lupe's knee.

Lupe bites her lips shut and looks at Daryl with a question in her eyes. It's not like they really had a chance to talk about the parameters of their relationship, or if there even was one.

"I said ain't yer business, make sure her knees alright," Daryl grumbles.

Denise sighs animatedly with manipulating Lupe's knee. "I so called it," she chuckles smugly. She looks at Daryl and her smile is bright. She lunges and hugs him tight, then turns back to Lupe. "You know the drill, keep it wrapped for a while and ice it for a bit, on and off. Rest a few damn days."

"What you mean 'called it'?" Daryl snaps.

Denise grins. "I've always said to myself, the only person who might pop up on Daryl's radar is someone who can knock him on his ass," she chuckles, "one way or another." She winks at Lupe.

Lupe broils in embarrassment, plus the exhaustion, but also kind of twirling with the high of kissing someone she really cares about. She was scared she'd never get to have that again. Especially after Negan. The thought only sours her mood slightly, but she knows that she'll always struggle with her past with that monster. He hurt her deep.

"Man, shut up Denise," Daryl grumbles.

Denise turns and grabs his cheek. "D'awwww, young love."

Daryl slaps her hand away with a grimace and drawls, "Stop."

She smiles at him knowingly, watching the blush on his cheeks burn. She turns back to Lupe. "We don't have much in the way of pain meds unfortunately."

"That's okay, I'll be fine." Lupe waves her away. "You have any mobility aids?"

Denise walks over to a tall med cabinet. "We don't have much in the way of anything if I'm gonna be honest." She opens it up, rather bare, but there's a metal cane with an offset handle. "You are in luck though." She grabs two ace bandages and brings them all over. "Now go home, take a nice hot shower or a bath or both, then wrap it and ice it."

Lupe salutes. "Yes Doctor." Denise winks.

Daryl helps Lupe off the counter and adjusts the cane for her height. She stabilizes with it and is able to walk on her own. She's just getting ready to shuffle out the door with Daryl, when Michonne and Rick come around the corner.

"How is Carl?" comes shooting out of Lupe's mouth. She shuts her eyes tight. "I'm sorry, that was rude."

Rick shakes his head with a weak smile. His eyes are red rimmed and Michonne is basically all that's keeping him standing at this point. "It's alright… He's alright. Denise did great," he says with a crack in his voice that gets everyone a bit misty eyed. He smiles, so openly grateful at Denise. "He woke up for just a short while, able to squeeze my hand and give me some one-word answers, but he's tired."

"He worked so hard Rick. He is such an amazing kid," Lupe replies, smiling and bright.

Rick sniffles and wipes at his eyes, nodding his head. "Yeah, yeah, he really is." He smiles at Lupe with quivering lips. She supplies whatever compassion he needs in this tortuous space, just with that single wide open look. He understands her daunting vulnerability more now. She's always there for people, even if they don't know it. He nods at her hard. "Thank you." He swallows and shakes his head again. "What was all that racket outside?"

Michonne chuckles softly. "We thought we'd see people doing the wave out there."

There's a beat of silence where neither Daryl or Lupe have the guts to put words to what just happened.

So Tara does it for them, spitting the statement out fast, "Daryl and Lupe kissed!"

Daryl and Lupe get immediately bashful, acting as if they aren't in the same room. Rick's eyes just about pop out of his head while Michonne grins on knowingly. Their leader finally lets out a hefty chuckle and shakes his head. He pats Daryl on the shoulder solidly and smiles at him. "Bout damn time."

Daryl gets and bristly and grimacy, and Lupe just giggles, mostly at his reaction.

"Shit…" Daryl grumbles at Rick and shrugs off his hand. "Man, yer an asshole."

Rick's smile just gets wider.

"Sorry to interrupt, I really love seeing Daryl blush," Denise smiles, "but we should probably give Carl another dose of medication. We should keep him stable as we can until we run out."

"Alright, thank you Denise." Rick nods. "We'll start scavenging again once we've all had some rest."

"Wait!" Lupe jumps, her eyes popping open and a gigantic smile spreading across her face. "I know where we can get meds! A lot of them too!"

"Where?" Denise sounds urgent.

"It may not be enough for a whole town and it may not even be there anymore, but it's in my dad's old truck. Before I was captured, me and my sister had it hidden." Lupe grins. "We had a whole bunch of supplies in there. We mostly collected medicine and such, we thought it'd be more useful for trades. We stopped trying with people after a while but the habit stuck. We had some ammo in there that I'm pretty sure was still in the cab. Little bit of food and water too, we mostly hunted and purified out own water, boiling and rock filtering." She nods urgently. "It was Savior territory back then, I don't know if they change their shit up, but if it's a small group we can probably evade them pretty easy."

Rick smiles at her so wide she thought he might pass out from the effort. "It might be something Lupe, and that's enough. Let's take the day to rest up. Tomorrow we start on restoration and you and Daryl can make plans for the trip." Everyone nods and says their goodbyes.

Daryl stays by Lupe as she limps out. Barbacoa is careful after knocking the cane once. She learned pretty quick that the silvery thing kept her pack leader from crashing to the floor. Lupe is pretty practiced with a cane, as she used to use them often when her shit flared up. She hadn't used one recently because she usually just forced her way through, keeping her joints as supported as they could be, and hoping for the best.

Everyone smiles at them as they leave, so they avoided looking. Managing to get away from the giggling throng, Daryl helps Lupe through the corpses. Barbacoa runs ahead and pulls on bodies them to make a path. They eventually get to her house and he helps her up the stairs.

"Think you can stand for a shower?" he asks her. He's trying not to hover too much, but he doesn't like the way she grimaces with each step.

She nods. "I can, at least to get the gunk off. I might still want a bath after because fuck all of the last twenty four hours."

Daryl scoffs playfully behind her. "All of'em?"

Lupe snorts. "Fishing for compliments already?"

Daryl chuckles and then slips by to open up the bathroom door. Lupe waddles in and stares for a little bit. He waits and then slowly makes his way to leave until he sees her shudder. "Ya alright?"

She shakes her head slowly. "No, no I'm not. I don't know if I ever will be, Daryl. Do you know that?"

He shrugs even though she isn't looking at him. "Y'ain't the only one who might not be okay. Don't have to be perfect, just have to be you."

She shudders again, but there's a soft laugh along with it. "I feel like I can't lift my arms." She sniffles and turns, slow and stiff. "I'm exhausted to the fucking bone."

"We can cut you out if you want." Daryl smirks.

She chuffs at him, wiping at her face. "Funny…" She smiles a twisted grin of her own. "You already trying to get me naked?"

"I mean to shower right now? Yeah, I am. But later on down the line? Maybe… fer, uh something else? Yeah also… if yer interested, at least." Daryl steps forward nervously and curves his hand along her cheek. His thumb strokes through the blood and grime to touch her skin. "Ain't no rush for any of that, even if we joke, ya hear?"

"No rush? Feels like everything is a rush these days." Lupe turns away to lean her cane against the wall and sits on the toilet cover to start taking off her shoes.

Daryl nods. "Sure, maybe, but we don'need to rush that. I'm happy to just keep kissin' yer face off if you let me."

Lupe snickers and Daryl comes over to help her with the shoes. His hand carefully wraps around her ankle and she stills, eyes wide, but not seeing much of anything. She's trapped in a memory when her ankles were sore and rubbed raw from cuffs. A set of fingers traced the bruised lines left over like they were a trophy. She could still smell the distinct stench of her sister's body being freshly burned.

"I don't gotta talk about nothin' if yer unsure about this," Daryl says, trying to catch her eye.

Her gaze pops to his face and the blank look covering the trap in her mind softens into a smile. "Oh jeez Daryl, I'm not unsure about you, like as a choice and a person. You're so brave and kind. I like talking to you about anything cause you always have an interesting perspective. You're kind of silly. You're honest and genuine. I think you're strong, but not just cause you can wrestle gators. You're super handsome, and I can't tell you why but your shoulders drive me to a vaporous delirium." Her nose wrinkles in a smile while he's blushing up a storm. The smile twists with a pain unrelated to her sore body. "I'm unsure about myself and what I'm ready for. It might be sort of… one step forward, two steps back sometimes is all. Trauma is a shit of a thing."

He nods. "I get that." He stands up and puts out his hands.

She shakes her head at him, but smiles. "I might need to take my pants off sitting down, so I don't twist my knee. You can go ahead and wait for me downstairs or I can come find you when I'm done."

Daryl shakes his head. "I'll wait, you take your time." He chuckles, "Maybe just don't take up all the hot water, else I'll have to hose off in the back with Barbacoa."

Lupe giggles and nods. "I'll try to be good." She grabs onto the sink to help leverage herself to stand so she can more easily unbutton her pants and get them down over the easy parts. Unfortunately her legs decide they've already checked out for the day. Chewing her lip nervously she sighs. "Um Daryl… I don't think I can stand up on my own."

"I'll help ya up." He reaches down to position himself to help her stand, like Merle used to help his ma on her bad days, but Lupe stops him.

"I mean —," she huffs a few breaths, "I mean, I also don't know if I can shower on my own."

Daryl's eyes go wide. "Oh," he looks around bashfully, "ya want — uh — can I —?" He doesn't really know what to offer.

She cringes. "This might be weird, but me and Alma used to have to do it sometimes… You could, um, be — in there — wi-with me." Her eyes screw shut with a distinct embarrassment.

"I don't mind," Daryl drawls, "I just don't wanna make you uncomfortable."

"I don't wanna do that to you either." She shakes her head. "Never mind, um, if you can sit me in there, I can strip and wash on the floor, if you'd just wait within yelling distance, I'll need help out, that's all, and I can —,"

"We could keep our skivvies on," Daryl interjects and her nervous muttering ceases.

"We could." She swallows heavily. "I should warn you, before we decide on anything, that I have scars Daryl. A lot. I don't know if they're quite like yours." Her voice goes shaky, "Negan put them there for a reason, but it wasn't just the punishment. He, uh, he —," she looks up at Daryl and he's kicking off his boots. "What're you —?"

"I'm doing this before we keep trying to talk ourselves backwards." He slips off his vest, arms stretching and flexing.

"Daryl, this is —," she chokes. There's no explanation that goes along with her scars. They're self evident, if horrible too. Daryl continues stripping and he's not looking back, but theres tension in the way he undresses. "N-Negan —," the name stings like a needle through her tongue, "c-carved the letter N into my stomach with his special barbed wire bat." She bites her lips closed and the tears form in her eyes. "H-He branded me with him. It'll never come off and now you have to see it." Her face sinks into her palms.

Daryl slows his movement of unbuckling his belt. "I don't gotta see anything you don't want me to see." He walks over to her and kneels right in front of her, half dressed. "I can keep my eyes closed the entire damn time or we can turn off the lights. This is about carin' for you. Nothin' else."

He insists this part because it's the most important, "He did all that to you because he wanted to break ya. He hurt ya, but he didn't break nothing. You're good Lupe, scars and all. He don't matter one fuckin' bit." He clears his throat and reaches out, gently stroking the back of his knuckle along her forearm as she cries into her hands.

"They're a part of you, your survival, and you're beautiful and fierce. That's all I wanna hear on the matter, cause you left his ass and showed him who the fuck you are. You were never who he tried to make you. You always stayed you." He hangs his head for a bit. "Shit, you even faked your name, sweetheart. He don't get to keep one measly bit of the real you. You showed him that. You proved it."

Her hands peel away from her face and she shudders out a breath, nodding to him. "Fuck him," she snarls through her tears.

"Fuck'em," Daryl agrees.

She smiles weakly at him and her hand rises to brush along his jaw. "You know you really are the sweetest thing, one big ol'softy."

Daryl smiles. "See how soft I am once you let me get down to business, huh?"

"Daryl!" she admonishes him. "We were having a moment."

"Sugar, I meant being a hard ass cause you're getting up and into that shower. I don't want no more dilly dallying," he commands with a smirk.

She rolls her eyes. "Oh I fuckin' bet that's what you meant."

"Yeah, you better," Daryl chuckles.

Lupe sighs for a real long time. She nods to Daryl. "Alright, fuck it, help me take off my pants. Let's get this over with."

"That's what all the girls say…" Daryl shakes his head at her and she pokes his uninjured shoulder playfully as she laughs. He chuckles and gets to work helping her more than he really knows.