Daryl settled under a cluster of trees housing an old stone fireplace that had seen better days and slowly started to chip away at the long thick stick he'd found, making it sharp would be easy, making it straight would be a pain in the ass. "Moving to the suburbs?" He rolled his eyes not bothering to look up as her heard Lori's voice as she headed towards him. He honestly wanted nothing to do with anyone right now, not after what had gone down only a few hours before. "Listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shock, we need Hershel"

"Yeah? So what?" He continued to chip away at the end of the stick trying to get it as sharp as possible.

"So I need you to run into town real quick," She stated crouching down a few feet away from him. "Bring them all back" She waited for his answer and he continued to chip away at the stick. "Daryl?" She pushed for an answer after a few seconds.

He looked towards her briefly and stopped sharpening his makeshift arrow. "Your bitch went window shoppin', you want him go fetch him yourself," He turned his attention back to the arrow. "I got better things to do"

"What's the matter with you?" She snapped at him. "Why would you be so selfish?"

He growled lowly. "Selfish?" He stood gripping his knife. "Listen to me Olive Oyl, I was out there lookin' for that little girl every single day," She stepped back as he carelessly waved the knife in her direction. "I took a bullet and an arrow in the process, so don't you tell me about getting' my hands dirty," He turned away from her. "You want those two idiots have a nice ride, I'm done lookin' for people" She was silent after his outburst and turned on her heel striding back towards the homestead as he went back to carving his arrow. He shook his head testing the tip of the arrow against his thumb and watched the thick red blood roll down from the small puncture, his eyes moved to Lori's fleeting form and then towards the homestead, he could remember seeing Neon standing only a few feet from the house, he remembered how their eyes had met briefly for a second before Sophia had stumbled out of the barn and Carol had broken down in tears. His eyes dropped to the arrow in his hands as he shook his head again, he didn't know if he'd be able to bare it if he had to put a bullet in her, if he had to end it for her. A shudder ran through his spine and a choking feeling spread through his chest at the thought, he quickly pushed away the feelings and decided his only course of action was to steer clear of her, that decision alone brought and almost overwhelming sense of sadness to him. She's smart, she'll get it. Not like we were serious with each other anyway.

Daryl slammed the hammer against the end of the last stake for his tent and looked around, the spot he'd retreated to was isolated, far away from the camp and far away from the homestead, it was sheltered within a small alcove of trees beside the old stone fireplace; it was a place he could be alone.

His anger flared as he remembered that Carol hadn't even bothered to move from the RV to attend Sophia's funeral, he'd gone through hell for nothing, Neon had taken a bullet for nothing. Another twist of anger swelled in his chest and curled through his organs, the hammer in his hand hurled towards the brickwork of the fireplace, several of the stones broke and crumbled under the hammers weight and he watched as their remains fell to the ground before he exhaled through his teeth and turned his ire towards the tent he'd finished setting up, he wanted nothing more than to tear into something, anything. The sound of boots scuffling through the grass made him turn and he saw Quinn, dried blood staining his hands and the front of his shirt. "What the fuck do you want?"

"It's Ray," A jolt ran through his spine, something was wrong, Quinn's tone was off. "She saw what happened, saw Sophia… saw Rick put her down"

"So? Ain't my fuckin' problem, she's your sister not mi–" He grunted and winced as the back of his head collided with a harsh smack with the rough bark of a nearby tree, Quinn's forearm pressed heavily against his throat and anger burned in the man's eyes. Fear shot through him, the position was all too familiar to him from his youth.

"Yeah, she is your problem because she fuckin' cares about you," Quinn snarled viciously at him. "And don't give me that bullshit that you don't give a shit about her because I know you damn well do," His eyes were dark, he was hurting and lashing out. "If you didn't care about her you wouldn't have gone out lookin' for her, you would have left her to rot like that other bastard wanted too" The forearm against his throat applied more pressure almost closing off his airway completely before Quinn pushed back and stepped away running a hand through his hair. "You didn't see the look in her eyes when I found her, she– she's losin' hope, she thinks she's never goin' to see Connor and Amelia again, she thinks that if she does they're gonna be like Sophia," Daryl's eyes drifted towards the homestead, so many different emotions swirled within him and he didn't know quite what to do with them. "She doesn't want to go on anymore, she's losin' the will to live Daryl," There was desperation in Quinn's tone. "The day Boston was overrun I watched her put a bullet in a little old lady that used to watch Amelia after school sometimes, I watched her put a bullet in one of the guys we worked with. She never batted an eyelid, but never once did I see her want to put a bullet in her own head, never once saw that look of goddamn pain and desperation that I saw today," Quinn scrubbed his palms over his eyes and sighed heavily into them. "Amelia, Connor and I are the only family she's had for a long time, and to lose them…" He shook his head. "It's goin' to kill her, she's done fightin', done tryin' to live, she hate's bein' a burden on–"

"She ain't a fuckin' burden!" He snapped cutting Quinn off.

"You tried tellin' her that?" Quinn shot back angrily. "Because the look in her eye, the smile on her lips when she looks at you, I've never seen that before. She never used to look at Clayton that way, never looked at anyone else that way before either and I'll tell you now, 'cause she'll never fuckin' admit to it; not to you, not to me, not to anyone. She hate's not knowin' where they are, she hate's herself for lettin' them go to Atlanta, and she hate's bein' unable to defend herself, unable to even go out and look for them"

"She's gettin' better, she'll be back on her feet in no time"

Quinn gave a cold bitter laugh and motioned towards the homestead. "Maggie and Patricia are in the house right now tryin' to patch her up again because she dragged her sorry crippled arse outside to see what the hell was happenin', she ripped open her stitches, she's bloody lucky she ain't bleedin' internally again"

"Where the fuck is Hershel? Shouldn't he be patchin' her up?"

Quinn shrugged. "He's fucked off somewhere else, gone and checked out after that mess with the barn," His shoulder's slumped. "All I'm sayin' is you might want to go and see her before she checks out completely. I don't know how much more she can take, fuck, she was in tears when I found her, I haven't seen her fuckin' cry in years, hell, I don't think I even saw her cry when she came home from that shit overseas"

Daryl looked towards the homestead and then back at his camp, he wanted to say to hell with everyone and everything, tell them to all fuck off and wing in on his own again but as much as he wanted to do that he knew Quinn was right, he cared about Neon. Hell, he cared about the whole group, they were like one big fucked up family after being together for so long.

A heavy sigh drew him from his thoughts and he looked towards Quinn as he gave a weak huff of a laugh. "You're as bad as she is; it's like tryin' to draw blood from a fuckin' stone, talkin' to you. Ray is out of it in the house, Maggie and Patricia have done what they can for now, just go and see her at the very least, let her down gently if you're goin' down that road," He watched Quinn start to walk away. "Last thing I want is to be buryin' her too"

Daryl hovered in the doorway of the bedroom and watched Neon sleep for a moment, she had curled herself around Spud, the rosary she'd leant to Carol was now hooked around the bedpost closest to her. He kicked off his boots shoving them to one side and settled carefully on the bed. Seeing her like this, so vulnerable, it made him angry but it most of all it made him feel guilty, guilty that he couldn't stop it from happening to her. He shifted trying to get comfortable and laid out on his side carefully pushing a few loose strands of hair from her face before she groaned lowly and opened her eyes, their colour was much stronger that it had been previously. "Hey"

"Hey" She mirrored his reply in a despondent voice and shivered slightly before slowly beginning to stroke Spud's head and down the length of his spine. "What're you doin' in here?"

He shrugged lightly running a finger down her cheek stalling at the corner of her lips. "Quinn–"

She snorted derisively. "Kinda figured he'd stick his bloody nose in," She groused before shaking her head and pulling away, the look in her normally bright eyes was devoid of anything, it was just blank, lifeless. "You can go now" She grimaced as she shifted onto her back and turned away from him obviously trying to end the conversation.

He growled mutely and tipped her face back towards him roughly. "He told me what you said, 'bout how you're losin' hope, don't think you're gonna find your kids, how–" The words stuck in his throat, saying them out loud made them real and he didn't like the implications that came with them. "How you're givin' up"

Her eyes slipped shut and she stubbornly refused to open them and look at him again. "What the hell do you care?" A hint of anger coloured her tone. "It's not like they're your kids, you've never even met them before," He felt the stinging bite of her words and withdrew his hand as if he'd been burnt. "Watchin' Rick shoot Sophia made me realise that my kids don't stand a fuckin' chance, they've been gone since the start of this and I still haven't found anythin' to tell me if they're still alive" Her eyes flicked open, a vicious storm brewing behind their glassy exterior.

"Yeah, but they had you as a mother, they're your kids," He didn't know what else he could say to convince her. "You told me you taught your boy everythin' he know, taught him how to handle a gun, taught him how to survive; he ain't goin' to let anythin' happen to him or his little sister until they find you"

The storm brewing in her eyes swirled brighter before slowly dying away and they moved towards the rosary hooked around the bedpost. "Carol came in before, told me how you ripped into Andrea when Hershel was tryin' to fish the bullet out of my guts, how you spilled it about my kids"

He grimaced and scratched at the back of his head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to, it kinda just slipped out"

She shrugged wincing in pain and placed a hand on her stomach for a moment. "Doesn't matter, Rick and Carol already knew, surprised the rest of the camp didn't know already" She reached out with a shaky hand carefully linking their fingers together, a sincere but slightly awkward gesture. "You know, Carol said you ditched camp and decided to fly solo in one of the paddocks," A smile cracked at her lips. "Manky bitch hermit"

He gave her a half-hearted glare. "What did you just fuckin' call me?"

"You heard me, saighdeoir; I called you a bitch hermit"

He shook his head chuckling softly and shifted closer to her brushing a hand through her hair before carefully placing a kiss to her lips; a sweet, genuine kiss, one of the only things he could do to convey the thoughts and emotions in his head. Their lips parted briefly, foreheads resting against one another's and his eyes shifted towards their linked fingers as she squeezed them. Spud moved to lay at the bottom of the bed and watched them as he moved to lay beside her. He could still hear Quinn's words playing through his head, that if he was going to go down that road to let her down gently. Hell, would it really be that bad to have a lady like Neon at my side? She ain't no damsel in distress, she can hold her own in a fight just fine. She ain't afraid to dig in and get dirty, she ain't afraid to speak her mind. People like us don't need someone to protect us all the time, we need someone to watch our backs. A small smile crept to his lips as he watched over her as she began to doze and he knew then and there that he wasn't going to let her slip away from him. Ain't no one better to do that. Ain't no one better to look out for me and keep me warm at night. Ain't no one better to have a future with. He grinned letting his eyes slip shut and squeezed her hand lightly before feeling her squeeze back, a small but reassuring gesture that she was still with him.

Authors Note

So, I have a question. Do any of you find Neon to be a Mary Sue? Because I had my first negative review over on A03 and it basically said Neon was 'the most feisty, badass mary sue ever', and I would be more inclined to believe it if more people said it but so far no one has, if anything I've had nothing but praise about how I've written her character.

But anyway, things are going down in my personal life as well, I've got a follow up interview of the job I was interviewed for at Jobfest, so with any luck I'll ace this interview like I did the last and be out of unemployment hell, because I got shit I want to do and don't have the money for, like getting a tattoo (or four, well it's more like a sleeve that's going to be made up of many different things, so it'll start off as just the one and then I'll add to it until it's a full length sleeve), and I want to start riding again because that shit was fun and I miss doing it.

Reply Time!

galwidanatitud: Yeah, Sophia for me was kind of like a representation the groups innocence, so when she died their innocence of the world they were living in died as well, then Dale died and it was like their moral compass died with him.

FreeSpiritSeeker: I know, it broke my heart too.

EmpressLupin: For some reason I don't get an email notification when you make a review so I had no idea you were reading until I had a looksee at my reviews on the site, and now I feel like an asshole because you've been reviewing and I haven't been replying, I'm really, really sorry about that (kinda makes me wonder how many reviews I've missed from others because of whatever glitch it is that they have going on). I'm glad you've decided to keep reading, hopefully I'll be a little more onto shit this time around.