It was getting late and the car was running low on gas. The trio were getting tired. Abby was still asleep in Daryl's lap, but the other three were in need of sleep soon.

"I'm getting tired." Michonne was the first to say.

"Yeah, it's gettin' late."

"How are we on gas?" Asked Daryl.

"Low, of course." Rick answered.

"We'll need to find a new car or look for some gas in the mornin'."

"Yeah, we should stop for the night." Rick nodded.

"I saw a sign for a motel." Michonne said. "That may be our best bet right now."

"Yeah, I don't see anything else around." Rick said again. He glanced at Daryl and his still sleeping daughter through the rearview mirror. "You might wanna get her up." The father suggested. "Or she won't wanna sleep tonight."

"I could just carry 'er in." Daryl smirked.

Rick let out a laugh. "I think she might get mad about that. She's a little too old to be carried."

"I was just kiddin'." Daryl said. "Abby." He gently shook the girl's arm. She stirred a little.

Abby's POV

"C'mon, sleepyhead." Daryl said. "Time to get up." He patted my bottom a few times.

"Uh." I lifted my head off of his lap and looked around. It was dark out, so why did he wake me up? "Where are we?" I tried rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"We're gonna stop fer the night."

"Then, why'd you wake me up?" I whined. My dad and Michonne laughed.

"Cuz ya won't be tired enough to sleep tonight if I didn't." He smirked and squeezed my face with one hand. I still didn't see the point and felt annoyed because I was still tired and wanted to just go back to sleep. I didn't say anything else though.

We stopped at a motel for the night. It was the only place around. My dad and Michonne checked around the lobby to make sure it was safe while Daryl stayed with me. They came back with keys to a room, then we drove around back to hide the car.

The motel had two stories, our room was on the second floor. It was just safer that way.

Daryl went in first and checked around the room and the bathroom, then he nodded telling us that it was okay. It was dark in the room so we had a lantern. I saw that there were two beds, but there are four of us. I wondered how we were going to work that out for sleeping, but I didn't say anything.

"Thank God." Michonne said and practically collapsed onto one of the beds.

"Anyone else starving?" My dad said.

"Me." I said still feeling sleepy.

"I'm surprised to hear you say that." He said again.

I rubbed my eye. "Well, I am."

"There's a can of baked beans in one of those bags." Said Michonne.

"I'm sick of beans." I complained. My dad let out a laugh.

"I thought ya said ya liked baked beans?" Daryl came up behind me and ruffled my hair.

"Yeah, but not everyday." I continued to complain. "I wish we had black beans…or at least kidney beans. It would be a little different."

"Black beans and kidney beans." Daryl repeated. "I'll remember that."

"Why so we can just have them every single day?"

"Abby, go to bed." My dad said with a laugh. "You're crabby." He pinched my cheek. I cringed and moved away.

"Speaking of that," Michonne started, "what's the sleeping arrangement going to be?"

I looked at my dad because I too was wondering about that. He looked at the beds with a weird look. "Well…I don't really know." He scratched his head. "Maybe you and Abby and me and Daryl."

I blinked a few times. "No, I wanna sleep with Daryl." I grabbed Daryl's arm.

"Abby." My dad said with a laugh.

"What's the big deal?" I shrugged. "We did it before back at that house."

My dad hesitated and looked at Daryl. "Are you okay with this?"

Daryl shrugged with a smirk. "I don't mind."

"You sure?" My dad raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, really. It's fine." Daryl nodded then looked down at me and patted my head. I smiled up at him.

"…well, okay. If you're alright with that." My dad said and kind of shrugged.

"She won't bother me." Daryl looked down at me again. "Huh?" He pinched my cheek real hard making me cringe but I still smiled. "C'mere." He lifted me making me giggle and tossed me onto the bed. After scooting up more on the bed, I kicked my shoes off and deciding to leave my sweatpants on, I laid down. Daryl sat on the edge of the bed on what I guess will be his side.

We all just decided to go to sleep after that without eating. I guess the others were pretty tired or maybe they were getting sick of baked beans too.

I woke up at some point and there was light coming in through the window but it must've been really early still because every one else was still asleep. Daryl had his back to me. It was a little chilly so I scooted closer to him and wrapped my arm around him and put my face into his back. He smelled a little bad, but we probably all smell a little. I slept a lot yesterday and through the night so I wasn't exactly tired anymore. So, I just smiled and laid there enjoying this time.

Everyone was up a couple of hours later. Michonne came out of the bathroom in a robe and her hair wrapped in a towel. "Well, there's still water." She said.

I perked up because it's been a while since I was able to bathe. "Really?"

"Yeah, but you better go quick." She said. I smiled and got off the bed and was about to go in the bathroom.

"While the ladies are showering and getting dressed, why don't we check around the motel for some food and supplies." My dad said to Daryl.

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. That idea sounded good to me. "Wait, I wanna go look for supplies with Daryl." I said.

"I thought you wanted to take a shower?" My dad asked me.

"I can shower when I come back."

They shared a look. "It's up to you." Daryl said to my dad.

My dad looked like he was thinking. "How 'bout me and you go?" He looked at me.

I hesitated because I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be going with Daryl, but I couldn't say that. "…I don't care." I shrugged.

My dad let out a laugh, then looked at Daryl. "She can come with me. You can relax and shower if ya want." He patted Daryl on the shoulder once. "C'mon, baby." He looked at me.

My dad and I left the room, he put his arm across my shoulders. "Are you mad at me?" He asked as we were walking.

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"You looked a little disappointed when I said I would go and not Daryl."

Oh. He noticed that? I decided to mess with him. "Yeah, Daryl's pretty cool. I would've rather gone with him." I smirked.

He looked down at me. "What? You gotta crush on 'im?"

My smiled faded immediately and my face flushed. Anger arose in me and I wanted to say something but couldn't form words. "…that's…"

He laughed. "I'm just kidding, sweetheart. I never saw your face so red before." He teased me and laughed some more.

I gave him a dirty look. "Well, I thought if Daryl and I left, then you could have some alone time with Michonne." I put my head up.

"Oh, did ya?" He raised his eyebrows and let out a laugh. We walked into the lobby. "Well, maybe I wanted some alone time with my other girl." He grabbed me and kissed my cheek a few times.

I decided to mess with him some more. "You have another girl? What are you, a player now?"

"Mm." He said. "Ya know, you're real cute…until you open your mouth."

I giggled, then looked around. "I thought you guys checked the lobby already?"

"We did. I wanna get the keys to the other rooms." He stated.

"Oh." I said stupidly. I turned my head and glanced down a hallway. "We're not gonna check every room…are we?"

He looked at me. "Yes, we are." He nodded once.

I thought for a minute. "Okay." I shrugged. "It's not like I got anything better to do." I looked at all the keys in his hand. There was a ring that had all of the room keys on it, it must have been for the person who owned the place. "Can I do it?" I asked and took the keys from him.

"Yeah, but you gotta be quick, okay?"

"Okay." I put the appropriate key into the lock of the first room we checked as quickly as possible, my dad had his gun up ready to kill. Nothing was there so he went in. I did the same thing brandishing my gun around. The first room was clear. Now it was time to check around for supplies. All we found was some used soap and a pack of crackers.

"We should take a blanket just so we have extra." My dad said and started taking it off the bed.

"We should do that in the last room so that we don't have to carry it around or have it lay on the ground while we check the other rooms." I suggested.

"Good idea." He looked at me. "You're smart."

"I know." I crossed my arms in front of me.

We moved on to the next room, there wasn't much in that one either. By the sixth room, we finally had a small pile going. The rooms were pretty good so far, meaning there weren't any people or walkers. However, I opened the bathroom door of one of the rooms, and a walker came out right at me. I had my gun up, but I didn't want to shoot it because of the sound so I quickly switched to my knife. The walker grabbed me in the process. I squealed and struggled with it.

My dad ran over and killed it causing me to fall to the ground with the walker. He lifted me to my feet in a second. "Are you okay?" He asked with clear concern and started checking me over.

"I'm fine." I pulled away a little.

"It didn't scratch you?" He checked up and down my arms.

"No." I answered quickly. He still pulled me closer to him and checked anyway. He lifted my shirt in the back a little. "Dad, stop. I'm fine." I pulled away.

He exhaled sharply and gave me a serious look. "Next time just shoot it."

"I know, but I didn't want to make noise."

"I don't care about the noise, I care about you." He said. "I'm serious, Abby. I already lost one kid."

I stared at him for a moment. "Okay. I'm sorry." I understood what he meant.

He touched my face. "C'mon, baby. Let's keep lookin'."

We walked over to this little bridge kind of thing that led us to the other building where there were more rooms. It looked like there were holes in the windows. I touched one. "Are these bullet holes?"

"Looks like it." My dad said and moved me away from the window. "Let's try to do this quickly."

We were gone for a pretty lengthy time but it was worth it because we had a good pile of stuff by the time we headed back to the room. "We should get back to Michonne and Daryl." My dad suggested.

"Yeah. What do you think they did the whole time?"

"Probably nothin'." My dad shrugged. "Probably just sat there."

I laughed. "That'd be weird."

We took all of the supplies that we found back to the room. "Well, look who's finally back." Michonne said. "Find anything good?"

"We found a lot actually." I threw the bags down. "We checked every single room so…" I trailed off.

"Damn. No wonder y'all was gone for so long." Daryl said. It looked like his hair was wet so he must have showered after all. I was surprised. He started walking over to see the stuff that we found.

"Oh good, toothpaste." Michonne said. "And…you guys actually found food?"

"Yup. That was mainly all Abby." My dad said. "She found someone's secret stash."

"Stash?" Daryl said with a weird look. "You thank they're still alive? Thank they'll come back?"

I looked up at my dad. "No, I don't think so." He answered.

"Yeah, there's some dust on it so they probably died a long time ago." Said Michonne.

"Alright." Daryl shrugged. "Nice." He gave me a pat on the back. I smiled.

"Yeah, she's a little smarty." My dad grabbed me and started planting kisses on my cheek.

"No." I giggled and tried to pull away. He still got me though. He gave me three right off the bat, then gave me one more. It embarrassed me a little and I looked at the others. Michonne wasn't paying attention and was still going through the bags, but Daryl was staring right at us. He looked down with a tiny smile when he saw me looking. My face flushed. I never used to get embarrassed by that before, but I guess it had something to do with being the only kid now.

"I'm starving." Michonne said. "Let's eat."

I took a shower and changed into some clean clothes, then my dad showered last. We ate the food that my dad and I found, it ended up being a pretty good turn out. We didn't have a lot but we had enough that everyone would be full. It was turning out to be a pretty cool day. Maybe we could all watch a movie later something. I was feeling pretty good about the day and turn out and just blurted out, "we should just stay here." I said.

Daryl and Michonne looked at my dad and my dad looked at them, then he looked at me and shook his head. "I don't think so, baby."

"But why not? We have a roof and beds…and I shower."

"It's just not safe enough." He told me. "Anyone could just roll up here and…" He trailed off.

I looked down feeling a little disappointed. If it was too dangerous to live here, then what are we even doing here in the first place? I didn't say anything though because I didn't want to ruin our nice time. "Okay." I said.

"Hey." Daryl said making me look at him. "We'll find someplace…one day." He nodded.

I just stared at him for a moment, I didn't believe what he said. We'll never find a place where we can stay permanently, we'll always be on the run all the time. Never settling down. I still didn't say that though. "Maybe we can watch a movie later?"

"Are you sure you packed it?" Michonne came back into the room from checking the car for the portable DVD player.

My dad gave her a questioning look. "It's not in there?"

"I looked everywhere for it." She said. "Maybe we left it at that trailer."

I put my head down feeling saddened. "Oh no."

"We'll find another one." Daryl said softly.

"Yeah, but…we can't watch a movie tonight now."

"Well, we'll just have to do somethin' else." My dad said with a shrug.

I looked down trying to think and spotted the art supplies that I found. I grabbed the canvas and some paint and smiled. "Yeah, why don't you paint me a pitcher?" Daryl smirked.

"I will if you want me to."

"Just don't get paint on the bed, Abby." My dad told me. So, I sat on the floor and painted.

"Is anyone else gonna paint with me?" I said. "Daddy?" I looked up at him.

"I don't really want to right now, baby." He smiled a little.

"Michonne?"

"Uh uh. Sorry, honey."

I turned my head and looked at the last person with a smirk. "Daryl?" I tried to give him puppy dog eyes but I was kind of laughing.

He smirked. "Fine, I'll paint with ya." He sat on the floor with me and grabbed another canvas.

"What are you gonna make?" I asked him.

"Uh…I'on know." He shrugged.

I looked at my dad and Michonne and suddenly got an idea. "I got a good idea." I smiled. "You guys give us an image to paint and then you can judge them when we're done."

"Okay." My dad said. They smiled. "So, what do you want to paint?"

"You have to tell us." I said seriously. "You guys think of something and tell us what to paint."

"Paint the room." My dad said.

I gave him a stupid look. "That's not creative at all."

"Okay, how about the whole building?" He said again.

I stared at him with an annoyed look. "You suck at this."

He laughed.

"How about fireflies in a glass jar?" Michonne said.

My expression changed and I thought about that. I liked it. "Oh, I like that." I looked at Daryl. "Is that good for you?"

"Sure." He said apathetically. I knew he really didn't care, he was just doing this to be nice because I asked him.

"Okay. I'm gonna start." I said. I started off by painting the background dark blue to make it look like a night sky first, then I'll draw the grass and the jar on top like it's sitting in the yard. The actual fireflies will be last. I needed to figure out a way to make them look like they were glowing.

I felt like I may have an advantage here because I've always been artistic and took art classes in school. Then again, Daryl isn't the one to show off his skills so he might be really good and is just not giving anything away. Because of that possibility, I decided not to show any mercy and give this my all.

I drew everything the best to my ability and made sure to add precise detail. For the fireflies, I mixed together yellow and bright green to get the prefect shade for their glowing bodies. I painted them slowly and carefully.

"I'm done." Daryl said.

I looked up at him with a surprised look. "What? You're done already?"

"Yeah." He was about to show his painting.

"No!" I stopped him. "You have to wait. We have to show them together."

"Oh okay." He held his painting. "Well, hurry up." He teased me.

"I cannot." I held up my head. "Art requires time and patience."

He snorted. "Alright, whatever."

I looked at him again, then smiled. "I can tell that you lost just from your attitude." I laughed.

"You don't know that." He teased me some more. My dad and Michonne laughed.

I finished my painting and was looking it over. "Okay, I'm done—wait…no, I'm not." I had to fix one of the fireflies' wings.

Daryl sighed. "C'mon already." He teased me again.

"Oh, shut up. What are you such in a hurry for? You gonna be late for bed?" I waved. Michonne laughed at that. I fixed up what I had to do and ended up fixing something else. I was happy with it, which meant that I was done. "Okay, I'm ready for real this time." I looked at Daryl. "Ready?"

"I been ready." He raised his eyebrows.

I giggled. "Okay, show them." We both turned our paintings around at the same time.

"Oh nice." My dad said looking at mine.

"Yeah, really nice." Michonne said. I smiled. Her eyes moved over to Daryl's painting and she busted out laughing. I looked over and saw what she was laughing at. Daryl's painting was…pretty bad. He didn't even have a background and his fireflies just looked like dots. No wonder he was done so quickly. However, I didn't laugh at his painting. I've learned that it's not right to laugh at someone else's work.

"Did you even try?" Michonne said to him.

"Not really." He answered with a smirk. "I didn't thank it was that bad."

"It's not good." My dad said with a laugh. "I can't even tell what that is. It looks like a kindergartener drew that." They laughed.

"You know, it's not nice to laugh at someone else's art." I said and crossed my arms. "I would like to see you two do better."

There was a slight pause. "Oh, okay." Michonne nodded. "Okay. I want some of this now." She got up and grabbed another canvas. "You and me now."

"Okay." I shrugged like it was no big deal. "We should do a different one."

"Alright. What are we painting then?" She asked.

"Don't ask my dad." I said. She laughed.

"Actually, I think I have a pretty good one." My dad said. "How about feet in the sand on a beach?"

I was a little surprised because that was pretty creative. Michonne and I shared a look. "I actually kind of like that." I said.

"Alright, that's what we'll do then." Said Michonne.

"C'mon, Michonne." My dad said. "You got this."

My jaw dropped. "Dad?"

"I'm rootin' fer Abby since she stuck up fer me." Said Daryl.

"Thank you, Daryl." I looked at my dad when I said that. So, I started my painting by first drawing the ocean. I loved going to the beach, we didn't go many times but it was fun. My brother hated it. The thought made me laugh. "You know what this reminded me of that I miss?" I asked no one in particular while painting.

"What?" Michonne answered me.

"Swimming." I stated. "We should go to the beach one time."

"…I think that's a fine idea." My dad said. "We'll have to make that happen at some point."

I smiled. That would be so cool if we actually did that. I continued my painting. The next thing I drew was the sand. I had an idea to draw flip flops instead of feet so that's what I started to do. However, the assignment was feet in the sand so I ended up adding feet in there too. At the end, I decided to add some small details like a bucket and shovel. I drew sand in the bucket with some seashells like the person was collecting seashells. I added a little shovel next to the bucket, then I added some seashells in the sand and I even drew a little starfish. Looking over my work, I was pretty happy with it.

"I think I'm done." I announced.

"I'm just about done too." Michonne said. She finished up, then we showed our paintings. She was definitely a better artist than Daryl, but I think his would have been better if he tried a little harder. However…mine was still better than both of theirs.

"They're both really nice." My dad said. "But…" He trailed off and squinted. "I think Abby's is a little better."

"What?" Michonne said.

"Ha!" I said.

"What do you think, Daryl?" My dad asked.

"Mm…Abby's is better." He nodded with a smirk.

"Well, looks like I won." I smirked.

She gave me a defeated look but still smiled. "Alright, you won. Fair and square."

I let out a laugh, then looked at my dad. "Daddy, you're the only one who didn't paint something yet, so you're doing it." I tossed him a canvas.

"Alright." He sighed. "Let's do this quickly cuz we're losing daylight."

"What are we painting now?" I asked.

"We should do something different." My dad suggested.

I looked at Daryl. "And you're the only one who didn't give us an image yet, Daryl, so you have to give us one now."

"Ugh." He said. "Why don't y'all just paint whatever ya want?"

"Because…we'll be sitting here forever trying to think of something. At least give us a theme or something. Like city or countryside or…" I trailed off.

Daryl looked like he was thinking for a moment. "I got an idea." He looked up. "How 'bout somethin' like eerie or creepy but something nice about it."

"That sounds interesting." I said. "What about like finding something beautiful in something creepy?"

"Or something bad in something good." My dad said.

"Yeah." Daryl said.

"Alright, I gotta good idea." My dad said and started on his painting.

I looked in his direction. I still didn't know what to do. Shit! He's going to be done and I'm still going to be working. I thought long and hard until I finally came up with something. "Oh, I think I have an idea." I started planning out my painting. Maybe I could draw a graveyard in the early morning so there's like fog and dew. And maybe there's a spider web with the sun shining on it and the dew is all shiny. I smiled because I really liked the idea. "Yeah, I know what I'm doing." I said then started my painting. I had no idea what my dad was making, but that's okay because this is going to be good.

"Y'all might wanna speed this up a little." Daryl said. "Sun's goin' down."

"Maybe we should give them a time limit." Michonne said.

"That's fine with me." Said my dad. "I'm almost done."

"No fair. Mine has a lot of detail in it." I complained.

"Well, that's not my problem." My dad said with a laugh. I just gave him an annoyed look.

I didn't care about what they said and continued taking my time with my painting. It would only be nice if I took the time out to make it that way. So far, I had the background done and was working on the graveyard. Now that I think about it, I kind of wish that I would've just did the dewy spider web in the sunshine because it would have required less time, but it's too late now. I already started the graveyard. Oh well, I just won't make it my main focus.

I was fully done with the graveyard when my dad said, "I'm done."

"I'm not." I said. "I still need way more time."

My dad leaned over and I saw him glance at my painting. "A graveyard? Really?" He said. "How original."

"Don't look at it." I snapped. "You should be disqualified for that."

"Oh." He said. Michonne laughed.

It took me about ten minutes to finish up my painting. I looked it over and was very happy with it. I think this one was my favorite. What I did was, I drew the spider web hanging from a porch with the sun shining on it showing the dew. It really stood out. And the graveyard was just in the background, I thought it was a good touch and I was glad that I added that.

"Okay, I'm ready." I finally said.

"Finally." Daryl said. "I almost fell asleep."

I stuck my tongue out at him, then turned to my dad. "We should show them separately since we'll probably have to explain them. You go first since you've been waiting." I grinned.

"Mhm. Of course." He said and let out a laugh. He turned his canvas around. It was an apple that had a worm in it. The details were pretty good though, he added some water droplets which made it shiny. It looked really good.

"Oh nice." Michonne said. "Would you care to explain?" She smiled.

"I'm glad you asked." My dad said. I knew they were just playing around with each other. "So, you have a nice, juicy, fresh apple and it's ruined by a worm." He said.

There was a brief pause after he explained his painting.

"That's it?" I said.

"Yup. Short and sweet. Just like the apple." He smiled.

"I like it." Daryl said. "It's simple but makes sense."

"Yeah, it's pretty good." Said Michonne.

"Yeah, dad. I didn't know you were artistic." I must have gotten my artistic side from him.

"Well, there's probably a lot you don't know about me." He kind of put his head up and smirked.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get cocky yet. You still haven't seen mine." I smiled.

"Well, let's see it." Daryl said.

So, I turned my painting around so they could see it. "Oh wow." Michonne said. "You really went all out with that one."

"I did." I smiled.

"I don't get it." Daryl said.

I gave him a surprised but stupid look. "Are you serious? You're the one who came up with the idea. Look," I pointed at my painting, "it's a creepy graveyard with fog and the spider and stuff, but the sun is shining on the web making the dew visible and pretty." I stated. "It's finding something beautiful out of something creepy."

"That's really good, sweetheart." My dad said.

"Yeah, I like that one a lot." Michonne said wide-eyed.

"Thanks. I worked really hard on it." I said. "Yours is really good too, daddy." I smiled.

"Thanks, baby."

I looked around at the judges. "So…who won?"

"I like yours." Michonne said. I smiled.

"I…I like Rick's, I thank." Daryl said. I was a little surprised that he didn't pick mine. "Like I said, it's simple but true. That's enough to ruin yer day."

"Well, now it's a tie." I let my arms hit my sides. "What do we do now? Do another one?"

"We can do more painting tomorrow." My dad said and stood up. "We're losin' too much light." He kissed the top of my head.

"Okay." I said and started to put the supplies away. I spotted a sharpie on the desk, which gave me an idea. "We all have to sign our work." I signed my paintings quickly, then handed the sharpie to Michonne, who was the closest to me. She gave me a look with a smile but still signed her painting. Then, my dad signed his and Daryl was last. I got another idea just then. "We should put these in the windows of the other rooms."

"Why?" Daryl said.

I looked him, he was looking at me weird. "If anyone comes by, they'll see 'em." I shrugged.

"Alright, if that's what ya wanna do." He said.

"Abby, your paintings are so nice though, don't you wanna keep 'em?" My dad suggested.

I looked down at my paintings and thought about what he said. Art is meant to be appreciated. "Nah. I like the other idea better." I smiled.

Hope you all enjoyed this filler chapter! Haha