AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

Plenty more to come and we're going to be hearing from different people and learning a little about their situations in the fallout as we advance and "clean things up" around the community.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Daryl had been out of the house for probably less than two hours and already he was ready to call this day done and go back inside.

Because the first thing he'd done was run into Alice's little skinny girlfriend who had asked him to go by the clinic. When he'd gotten to the clinic, a flustered Alice had asked him…like he was some kind of king of the world and cut out for making damn near impossible decisions…what she should do about Rachel if she didn't get any better, given that resources were scarce and she didn't seem to be making any improvement.

He'd simply told her to keep doing whatever she could do, buy them some time, even though he didn't know what the time was going to be used for.

And then she'd asked him if he could help get Carol and Isaac back to their cabin and settled, since Tyreese was nowhere to be found and hadn't been back by to check on things since early morning.

So Daryl had taken care of that and gotten Carol settled in, promising to find and send someone, even if he didn't know who, to check on her before too long had passed.

And then he'd found Michonne, hiding almost, out by the fences on the far side of the community, down by the deeper part of the creek. And she was overseeing Judith, Hope, and Zeb as they helped clean off hooks they kept baited and set in the water in an effort to get whatever fish they could to eat.

Because he hadn't been hunting since the incident…and they still needed meat.

But today he wasn't going hunting either, because then Michonne had declared that she wasn't going to take care of Carol. She'd declared that was Tyreese's job and Daryl or some damn body else better get his ass in gear or she had plans to kill him…and at the moment Daryl hadn't doubted her promises of homicide.

So now he'd finally found Tyreese.

"Ty! What's your problem?" Daryl called out to him as he approached him.

Tyreese was working, alone no less, in one of the cabins that they were working to get finished before winter came. Although it was something that they should definitely be getting done eventually, it didn't mean that this was the appropriate time for him to be working on it.

Tyreese lowered the hammer that he was using to drive nails into the piece of board that he was putting up and he turned around, plucking the other nails out of his mouth that he was holding with his lips.

"I don't got a problem," Tyreese said, panting a little. From the looks of it he'd very nearly put up all the interior walls of this cabin on his own since morning. It was quite the accomplishment and Daryl marveled at it a moment. If they could all work at that speed then they could crank out a finished building a day.

"Man, what the hell is going on?" Daryl asked. "Michonne wants your head on a pole right now and I gotta say, I don't think she's bluffin'."

Tyreese shook his head and wiped his forehead with his arm. Daryl looked around to offer him water, but there wasn't any water there. Of course there wasn't, there was no one working today and there wasn't really anyone worried about carting about the liquid.

"I'm trying to get these cabins up," Tyreese said. "People are going to freeze to death come winter if we don't have housing."

Daryl shook his head.

"Ain't gonna freeze," he said. "Might stay in close quarters, but we'll get through."

Daryl scratched at his forehead.

"I don't know if you and Rick have talked about it, but who the hell is drivin' the damn crazy train? Y'all gonna trade off or what?" Daryl asked, biting his lip not to laugh at the fact that he amused himself.

"I'm not crazy," Tyreese muttered. Apparently as a show of his sanity in the moment, he drove another nail into the board he'd been working on earlier, leaving it tight against the wood with three good blows of the hammer.

Daryl cleared his throat.

"Carol might like it if you could swing by," Daryl offered. "She's at the house now. I took her and Isaac there myself."

"Thanks," Tyreese said, the word almost coming out nonchalantly.

Daryl reached and caught Tyreese's hammer before he could begin to pound in another nail. Tyreese looked like he wasn't going to give it up at first, but a hard yank later and Daryl held it in his hand.

"You and me," Daryl said. "We gotta talk. You ain't talkin' to 'Chonne and you ain't talkin' to that skinny ass little blonde, but you gonna talk to me."

"I don't have anything to talk about," Tyreese said.

"We were out there together, Ty," Daryl said. "I was just as out there as your ass was and I got took just as much as you did."

Tyreese averted his eyes for a moment. Daryl had heard from Michonne part of what was going on, but it didn't take a genius to figure it out. And maybe he couldn't blame Tyreese entirely for freaking out. He was scared. It might not be something that any man wanted to admit, and it might not be great for the masculine ego, but it happened. They got just as scared as the women ever did.

And Tyreese had been terrified.

When they'd been taken, Daryl wasn't in the same boat as Tyreese. He knew they were had once they'd killed the first of the two men that had attacked them…caught them all as off guard as if they'd had their pants down around their ankles…and then they'd found themselves surrounded and held at gunpoint. He'd figured they were all going to die. He'd figured he wouldn't be the first to go and he'd be forced to see someone else go…unless Michonne could get there first, but he hadn't figured they'd all make it out.

But he still hadn't been in the same boat as Tyreese. Because Tyreese had watched as they'd beat his wife. He'd watched as they'd abused his son. And Tyreese had seen the possible undoing of his family right in front of his face.

Daryl hadn't been in that boat. Because he knew both of his children were safe. He knew that his wife was probably coming for them, but she was on the right side of the assholes chains and ropes.

Daryl hadn't been reduced to begging for mercy, at the cost of his own life, for the lives of his wife and children.

So he couldn't blame Tyreese for a short trip off the deep end. He just needed him to come on back up for air, because what could have happened, hadn't happened.

"Carol's alright, man," Daryl said. "She's alright. Your kids? They're alright. I need you to sit your ass down somewhere and think about that because if it was me? If I was you? I'd be checkin' over every square inch of my wife right now. I'd be…thankin' whoever the hell I could that my kids was OK. I wouldn't be out here driving no nails in no boards because I'd be up there, bigger'n shit, just rolling around in how damn happy I was that what the hell coulda happened didn't happen. So you tell me…why the hell are you out here right now?"

Tyreese didn't respond to him. He stared at him. He swallowed hard enough that it looked like he was choking on his own spit, but he didn't respond.

"When Carol got shot," Daryl said. "Back before there was even Isaac to think about, you stayed by her side every damn hour. I remember. You were ready to sell your soul to that little ass old woman for a chance…just a chance…that she was gonna bring her ass back from where she was. You forgot that?"

Tyreese continued to stare at Daryl. It was like he'd gone mute. It was almost as if he'd lost the ability to even understand the language that Daryl was speaking.

Finally, though, he did speak.

"No, I didn't forget it," Tyreese said. "You don't forget something like that."

Daryl nodded his head, feeling at least a little satisfied that Tyreese was speaking, even if he sounded somewhat defeated.

"Then what the hell are you doing down here, man?" Daryl asked. "Get your ass up to the cabin. Get her some damn water and something to eat…hell…I don't give a shit what you do but get your ass up there and remember what the hell it was like when you didn't think her ass was gonna live. 'Cause she's gonna live. Rachel might not…but she's gonna live."

Daryl chuckled to himself.

"And you are too if you don't make 'Chonne kill your ass," he added.

He was surprised when, after a moment, Tyreese chucked. Tyreese looked around the interior of the building that they were standing in and then he looked back at Daryl. Daryl decided it was better if they didn't ever bother to mention the fact that Tyreese's eyes were a little wetter than they probably naturally would be.

"I've lost too many people, you know?" Tyreese said. He shook his head. "Lost everyone…and it just occurred to me that…maybe the smart thing would've been…not to put any more people there to lose. But…"

He stopped and when he resumed, he did so with a laugh, but it didn't sound too sincere.

"But I went and instead of not putting anyone else there…I went and got myself a wife. Got two kids. Got two more on the way," Tyreese said. "I'm tired of losing people and I've got more to lose now than I started with."

Daryl could understand the sentiment on its deepest levels. He really could. He'd thought the same thing, from time to time, when voices that he was able to push away wanted to come and taunt him at night. They were the voices that reminded them all that they weren't ever really safe. They were the voices that reminded them that death was just around the corner.

But Daryl had learned to push them out the best he could by remembering something that Muh had told him once…something that had sounded like the dumbest thing in the moment, but had ended up being one of the truest things he'd heard since the world had gone to shit.

The world was no more dangerous than it had ever been. Death was no more prevalent. It was only now that they were more aware of what was already there…what had always been there.

"The only way to have less people in your life," Daryl said, "is to lose them. Or to die first. Either way, there ain't no easy way out."

Tyreese nodded slightly.

"Muh said people die now just as much as they used to die," Daryl added. "Only difference is, now we're paying attention to the fact it's coming."

"Is that supposed to make it easier?" Tyreese asked.

Daryl shook his head.

"Just means that the world's the same as it ever was," Daryl said. "Isn't the world that changed, just how we see it. But…Carol and your kids? They ain't dying today."

"Rachel might," he added with some heaviness. "But they ain't. So…go get Jude and take her home. Spend your evening with your family. Don't spend it out here alone feeling sorry for yourself because one day you might not have the family you could be spending time with right now."

Tyreese stared at him, and then he chuckled.

"You're an asshole, Daryl," Tyreese commented.

Daryl laughed in response to that.

"Might be," Daryl said. "But I'm an asshole with enough good damn common sense to get your ass back on track."

Daryl accepted the handshake that Tyreese offered him coupled with the quick and hard clap on the back. Then he tossed the hammer to the ground for them to be able to find it later, when it was appropriate to work, and followed Tyreese out of the cabin. Maybe by sending Tyreese back to his wife, he'd find a little less aggression in his own.

"Hey Daryl," Tyreese said as they were crossing the community.

Daryl hummed at him.

"Tell Alice," Tyreese said, "to change Rachel's position."

"What?" Daryl asked, confused by the comment.

"When Carol got shot," Tyreese said, "and she wasn't getting any better? Muh changed her position. Something about fluid building up or something because of how she was laying. Muh explained it to me once. Tell Alice to change her position."

Daryl nodded his head.

"Don't know if that's gonna help," Daryl said, "but I'll tell her."

"It's worth a try," Tyreese offered. "It saved Carol."

Daryl hummed, chewing on his thoughts as they got closer to where he knew that he'd find Michonne and Tyreese would stop long enough to get Judith.

"Carol had a lot going for her. Had you…still does when you got your head together. Had a lot to live for. Lot to fight for," Daryl said, not having put to voice before any of his concerns about Rachel. "Reckon she knew that, even back then."