A/N: got a long chapter for you guys! Not a lot of Rick/Pol unfortunately but it has her interactions with the other characters which is interesting! This one follows season 4 episode 1 fairly closely and just shows where werew at with feelings and meotions. Just a small side note: WHO HAS WATCHED THE NEW EPISODE OF TWD? I WAS BAWLING. I mean we knew it was coming but I still couldn't take it. I'd love to hear you guys thoughts on this.

Thanks to all the readers who fave and follow! Ms. Lady wolf, 3, 301, marssierra117! And to my lovely reviewers without whom I would not be updating!

Kylo Den Emily Skywalker: Thank you! I'm glad you're still with me :) I thought I abandoned this story, but the new season inspired me.

Ryane: haha I'm glad my story occupies your brain space ;). And yeah you basically explained my exact reason for having Rick reject her despite his own feelings. Our boy Rick is s lil confused. It'll take him a while but he'll get there.

I remember I used to have a few more regular reviewers when I updated a lot. Where have y'all gone? People like frosiedog and purplepecky, I miss you guys!

- Angels and Douchebags

"Hey Carl, where you going?" I was lacing up my boots, waking up early for once when I spotted the younger Grimes' attempt to sneak out.

"I'm lookin' for my dad. And I'm gonna go check on Violet." He grinned sheepishly.

"Oh no. You named the pig?" I asked cracking a smile.

"Yeah."

"You know we're gonna eat it at some point right?" I checked.

"Yeah I know." Carl shrugged.

"I don't know if I can stomach breakfast after that deer last night. It was good." I patted my belly. It was literally the first huge meal we had since Maggie and Glenn's wedding, and we all enjoyed it, courtesy of Daryl.

"Yeah I never thought I'd be happy to say I ate deer." Carl chuckled but I could see he was impatient to go.

"Alright you go on. Tell your dad if he keeps getting up early I'm gonna start calling him Farmer Rick." I called out as Carl left the front of my cell.

"Will do!"

I stood up and brushed my hair back. It wasn't long enough to tie up so I tied it half back out of my face. So yeah, I was friendly with Rick. Shocking considering the events of the wedding, when he not so subtly rejected me.

But that was almost three weeks ago, and in this day and age there was no point living life ignoring and hating on people. I vowed to keep my feelings to myself, and to just stay friends with him. No matter how much it hurt, because I would rather have him in my life some way or another.

That definitely didn't stop Rick's pity looks when he thought I wasn't looking. And whilst we were back to being friends, I spent less time alone with him, then I had previously.

"Hey Beth. You good?" I looked at the blonde haired girl who was rocking Judith up the stairs.

"Mornin' Pol, you should get some breakfast. It's good." She smiled brightly as she sang to the baby.

"Who made it?"

"Carol." Beth replied.

"Better get going then before Daryl finishes it!" I raced out of C-block and into the courtyard. We had made a small canopy area which had tables and a grill.

A few people were already sitting and eating who smiled at me as I made my way over to Carol. The sun was shining brightly and the Georgia heat was definitely getting to us all.

"Morning." I smiled at Carol busy cutting and cooking meat.

"Hey Pol." Carol smiled.

"I still can't get over the fact we have so many people living with us. Even after a month. It feels nice, like our own little community." I looked around at all the familiar faces whom I had gotten to know and become friendly with.

"I think that was the point." Carol eyes were fixed behind me.

"What's up Dr S?" Daryl's gruff voice came into earshot as he came to stand beside me.

There were different chorus shouts of people greeting Daryl as Carol and I grinned at each other.

"Smells good." Daryl ignored our pointed stares and began filling up his plate.

"Just so you know," Carol started.

"We liked you first." I finished with a smile.

"Stop." Daryl said to our teasing.

"You know, Rick and Pol brought in a lot of them too." Daryl stated pointedly.

"Yeah I know. Don't worry they like me too." I said turning around to face the people sitting at the table.

"Hey guys!" I called out to them.

There were various shouts of greeting directed towards me as I raised my eyebrow.

"See." I said pointedly to Daryl.

"Giving the strangers sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love." Carol continued her teasing.

"Right." Daryl shook his head disbelievingly.

"Please let Carol give you a haircut." I looked up at his ridiculously long hair which was beginning to cover his eyes.

Daryl pushed my fussing hands away from him in annoyance. I took a plate and filled it with the deer meat that tasted so good. But I knew it was gonna run out eventually.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Daryl asked defensively.

"Nothin' Pol's just teasing." Carol fixed me with a motherly look as I smiled impishly.

"But you need to take a shower." Carol emphasised.

"Oh please! Your hair looks permanently greasy." I winced looking at the bird nest on his head.

"I do shower!" Daryl said defensively.

"With shampoo. We found some on the last run please use it." I pleaded with Daryl who grunted and shoved me.

"I need you guys to see something." Carol's face turned seriously.

"Patrick you wanna take over?" Carol asked the young guy who came over enthusiastically.

"Yes ma'am." He smiled coming over.

Carol began leading us away from the grill where Patrick came running to talk to Daryl.

"Uh Mr Dixon, I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday." Patrick said nervously.

"Mr Dixon." I mouthed to Carol who suppressed a smile.

"It was a real treat sir and I'd be honoured to shake your hand." Patrick finished with a smile and his hand held out.

"Sir." I sniggered behind Daryl who elbowed me harshly in the ribs.

"Hey ow!" I whined as Patrick looked at me confused.

Daryl looked helplessly between us but I shrugged smirking at him. With a deep sigh he licked all of his fingers and shook Patrick's hand, who looked awestruck.

Me and Carol walked away giggling as the hunter followed behind us.

"Mr Dixon will you autograph my face?" I said mockingly causing Carol to laugh outright.

"Shut up." Daryl barked from behind us.

Carol led us around the courtyard to the back of the buildings, where we kept our stores.

"About today, I don't think we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run." Carol started.

"That place is good to go. We're gonna move on it." Daryl said.

"Yeah, thing is we had a pretty big build up overnight."

Carol led us to the barbed wire barrier which separated the courtyard from the field.

Beyond the field were the inner and outer walls with the wooden stakes reinforced. I could just make our Karen and David killing the snarling, snapping mass of Walkers along with the other Woodbury residents. But the walkers banged and gnashed in concentrated areas, that the walls were shaking.

"That's a problem." I looked worriedly as the wall was ready to give way.

"There's at least dozens more towards tower three." I pointed out.

"It's getting as bad as last month, they don't spread out any more." Carol placed her hands on her hips, facing Daryl.

"With more of us sittin' here we're drawing more of them out. You get enough of them damn fence clingers and they start to herd up." Daryl made a valid point.

"It's manageable once we get ahead of it, but not for long." Carol's words hung in the air as a feeling of dread washed over me.

We had one whole month of nobody dying or getting hurt, of course it wouldn't last. And then there was the Governor, constantly on the back of our minds and still out there somewhere.

"Sorry Pookie." Carol gave him a wry smile.

Daryl bumped her elbow forwards before walking away. I started sniggering as soon as Daryl left, not wanting to be the recieving end of his harsh bumps.

"Pookie?" I gasped through laughter.

"Yep, and remember I'm the only one who can call him that." Carol winked before we followed him.

...

I walked back to my cell to gather my weapons and supplies. I put the colt into my holster and grabbed my rifle as well as my water bottle to put inside the empty large rucksack.

I walked out of the cell before a hand grazed my wrist.

"Pol, hey." Rick smiled briefly.

"Hi Rick." I smiled.

"You sure you wanna come on this run?" He asked.

"Your short-handed I need to. Plus I haven't driven my car in so long." I grinned. My poor BMW was probably collecting dust in the garage.

"Fair enough." Rick laughed.

"Just hold up I got something for you." Rick paused before walking inside his cell.

For me? What would he get for me? Come one girl don't go getting your hopes up. I calmed myself down.

He emerged a minute later holding a brown leather jacket in his hand.

"No way. You found it!" I ran and took the material from him.

"Yeah got it yesterday, figured I still owed ya." Rick smirked in amusement.

"Now I'm ready for this run. Let's go." I gestured to the man who followed me out of C block.

We met the others who were loading up supplies in different vehicles. Daryl and Zack were loading up a pickup truck, Sasha and Tyrese were filling supplies in another car.

I saw my BMW standing there in the sun and ran over to hug the metal body.

"You know some people would say you've got a weird intimate relationship with that car." Glenn walked past me.

"This car brought me back to you guys. It's lucky." I defended.

"I'm sure." Rick chuckled loading oil tanks and more empty bags into the back of my car.

A sharp whistle came from the gate as Rick and Carl ran down there. Michonne must be back.

"Hey Bob you're coming too?" I asked the man getting into Sasha's car.

"He convinced me." She said with a faint smile on her lips.

"Yeah, wanted to earn my keep." Bob replied.

"Well good on you." I smiled at the man who waved back at me.

Our three cars plus Daryl's motorbike were loaded up. I got in my car and felt the interior putting Rick's aviators on.

We started our cars and drove down to the front gate where Michonne was standing with Rick and Carl. I rolled my window down and came up alongside them.

"Well look who's back." Daryl said with a slight smile.

"So you decided to show up huh. I'd given you up for dead." I joked at Michonne, as Rick and Carl cracked smiles.

"I guess you don't want these then." Michonne held three books on her hands.

I gasped in delight and held out my arm from the window.

"Give!" I called out.

"You know I love you Michonne." I smiled and blew a kiss to her. Michonne rolled her eyes but walked over nonetheless handing the books to me.

"Thank you." I smiled sheepishly at her.

"Yeah yeah your welcome." She smirked.

"I didn't find him." Michonne said seriously as the rest of us frowned.

At least when he was back in Woodbury we knew where he was, but now he was out there alone and disempowered - it made him more dangerous.

"Glad to see you in one piece though." Rick said.

"I'm thinking of checking near Macon. It's worth it." Michonne said not giving up.

I gave Rick a look which didn't go unnoticed by Michonne.

"70 miles of Walkers. You might run into a few unneighbourly types." Daryl suggested.

"Is it?" I asked Michonne who gave me an intense stare before turning away.

"I'm gonna go check out the big spot. The one I was talking about - just seein'" Daryl informed Rick.

"You should come with." I called out hopefully to Rick.

"Yeah, but I gotta go out and check the snares." Rick backed away.

"Are those my sunglasses?" He put his hands on his hips and squinted at me through the sun.

"Uh no?" I offered as Michonne and Daryl gave each other amused looks.

"You know what, why don't you just have 'em." Rick sighed.

"Really?" I grinned.

"Yeah, you wear 'em most of the time anyways." Rick chuckled.

"Thanks Grimes!" I smiled.

"I knew I'd wear you down." This earned a few chuckles from the cars around us.

"I don't wanna lose whatever we caught to the Walkers." Rick defended to Daryl.

"You sure man?" Daryl asked as Rick nodded.

He was no longer interested in going out on runs as much, but was much more focused on growing food and the building of the community - Hershel convinced him of that. He stepped down a little. We also formed a council which Carol begged me to be a part of, but I was better doing the work as opposed to making decisions.

"I'll go." Michonne said decidedly.

"Get in." I opened the car door for her as she came into the front seat of the BMW.

"You just got here." Carl whined.

"And I'll be back." She smiled, placing her katana off her shoulders in the back.

Daryl started his motorbike as Rick ran down to open the gate.

"Be safe y'all." Rick tapped the rolled down window of my car.

"You too." I said seriously.

"Please take your gun out with you when you're outside the fence." I pleaded with Rick who gave me a pointed look.

"Yeah I know you got your knife. But the council wanted me to talk to you. Something about the fact you listen to me. I told them they were crazy." I smirked as Rick also cracked a smile.

"Yeah okay." Rick relented.

"You'll take your gun?"

"Yes. I will take my gun." Rick rolled his eyes.

"Great! We'll be back before you know it! And when I come back I'm burning that brown shirt."

We parked the cars outside a fenced off area with a large brown warehouse building inside it. Hopefully, just hopefully it would have more food and supplies which we needed.

"This looks cheerful." I whistled at the large barbed wire fence.

"Army did this. Made it a place for the people to go." Daryl stated.

"When me and Daryl came here last week, there were a whole bunch of Walkers behind this chain link, keeping people out." I said to the group.

"So where the hell did they go?" Tyrese asked.

"They just left?" Bob asked holding the rifle uneasily.

I looked back at Zack who appeared to be nervous. I walked back towards him giving him a smile.

"Zack, how you doing buddy?" I gave him a clap on the back.

"I'm alright." He shrugged.

"Look, this is just a simple run. We get in, we go out. Done it a million times before, stick with me." I gave him a reassuring smile as he nodded.

"We put a boom box out there three days ago. Drew them out." Sasha explained, as the faint sound of music wafted the air.

"Hooked it up to two car batteries." Glenn smirked.

"That was my boom box." I glared at them.

"Priorities Polaris." Sasha smiled, using my full name knowing how it irked me.

"Come on, let's make a sweep. Make sure its safe." Daryl led our group through the cut in the chain link.

True to my word I stuck by Zack, who had nervous energy radiating off him. I watched his finger hovering over the trigger of the rifle.

"Hey," I gently pushed his finger away from the trigger to hold the butt of the gun.

"Okay?" I checked as Zack nodded with a faint smile.

There were camouflage tents set up outside the warehouse, probably as an old triage centre. We glanced inside the smell rife with dead Walkers, body parts and blood. We walked past empty crates and abandoned jeeps until we reached the front of the store area.

Daryl knocked loudly on the glass windows as he held the crossbow, leaning against the wall.

"Okay I think I got it." Zack smirked slightly.

"Got what?" Michonne came around the corner from her sweep.

"Oh, I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn." Zack explained.

"You may as well give up now on that front." I chuckled, as Daryl appeared disinterested.

"He's been trying to guess for like 6 weeks." Daryl scoffed.

"I'm pacing myself. One shot a day." Zack said more confidently as he sat beside the archer.

"All right, shoot." Daryl relented, turning to face him. No matter how much he hated to admit it, he had a soft spot for Zack. Because of Beth.

"Well the way you are at the prison. With you being on the council, you're able to track. You're helping people but you're still being kinda surly." Zack explained as I laughed.

"Kinda surly is Daryl's MO." I grinned at Michonne who smiled.

"Homicide cop." Zack pumped his fist in the air as me and Michonne burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Daryl asked us offended.

"No nothing." Michonne laughed.

"Yeah it makes perfect sense." I piped in.

"Well the man's right." Daryl nodded as I shook my head at him disbelievingly.

"Undercover."

"Come on really?" Zack asked half smiling.

"Yep. I don't like to talk about it because it was a lot of heavy shit you know." Daryl couldn't help but smirk at us.

"Dude, come on really?" Zack asked as his face fell.

"Ok. I'll just keep guessing." Zack said determined.

"You can try, but I've known him for a few years and I still don't know." I shrugged.

A Walker slammed against the glass suddenly but Daryl didn't even flinch at the sound.

"You wanna do this?" Daryl got up walking towards the store doors.

"Sure let's go detective." Michonne mocked.

We opened the doors and killed the one Walker that made it's way into the store front. Bob kept guard out front as we entered the dark store. There were sounds of distant snarls but it sounded far away.

We grabbed shopping carts and split up, trying to find as many supplies as possible. I took the torch and shone it in front of us as Zack pushed the cart. I kept my knife out, the gun would be no use here, it would only attract more noise and as far as we knew there was only entrance and exit to the warehouse.

"What are we lookin' for?" Zack asked.

"Non-perishables." I replied as walked past shelves of electronic equipment. Televisions, laptops, blenders, things which would be no use to us now.

We reached an isle of canned goods.

"Like this. Bingo." I smiled.

We began filling up the shopping cart with the cans when suddenly there was a loud crash. The sounds of bottles smashing and shelves collapsing made a sound like an atom bomb. I inwardly ground, we just needed an ounce of good luck.

Zack immediately had his rifle aimed into the darkness as I took out my knife, shining the torch around us.

"Stay here a minute." I told Zack as I walked around the shelves seeing the collapsed shelf.

"Daryl! Jeez you scared me." I whisper shouted at him.

We both bent down as there were broken bottles of alcohol and liquid scattered across the ground. Beneath the shelf was Bob.

"You alright Bob?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm not cut my foot is caught or something." He said. Zack came around with the shopping cart as well as Tyrese.

"What happened?" Glenn's voice sounded out from far away.

"Help me with this." Daryl said as the four of us lifted the shelf back up to the upright position.

"It's alright we're over by Wine and Beer!" Zack replied to him.

"What happened?" I bent down by Bob who was lying on the ground.

"I was moving fast man, I dove right into the shelf!" Bob said, but his story had made no sense. He shouldn't have been anywhere near the alcohol, I looked at him disbelievingly.

"Well you lucked out man. If this had fallen on you the wrong way." Tyrese trailed off.

Just as we had made our way to help him out the ceiling collapsed and a Walker swung down, hanging in the air by his intestines caught on panelling and his insides splattering on the ground.

"Yeah we should probably go now." Glenn gulped.

"Bob's still stuck." Daryl said.

"Come on, let's get him outta here." I eyed the Walker as I began removing the other items on Bob which had made him stuck.

"We'll get the others." Michonne said pulling out her katana.

Suddenly Walkers began raining down on the shop, falling through the ceiling all around us. The snarling and biting sounds filled the warehouse and the ground was coloured crimson by the blood. Daryl's arms looped around my shoulders dragging me back from Bob as Walkers narrowly missed us.

"Bob!" I protested.

"We'll get him, stay back." He helped me up as we moved away from the collapsing ceiling.

The group was scattered as more Walkers kept falling through, up immediately.

I pulled out my colt and began shooting them as Daryl fired his arrows. I looked around to find Michonne hacking at the Walkers with precision when one came up behind her. I aimed the gun for the Walker and shot it in the head.

Michonne nodded her thanks as we continued running to get away from them.

"Hey!" Bob shouted his attention.

"Where's Zack?" I asked Daryl who shouted back.

"I dunno! Haven't seen him." Daryl jumped on top of the boxes of alcohol and looked up to the large collapsing hole in the warehouse. I pulled out my machete and sliced the Walkers trying to get to him. Glenn came running into the fray as back up and began shooting the creatures.

There was a groaning sound as we looked up, the nose of something big was creaking it's way down through the hole, ready for the whole warehouse to be destroyed.

"Daryl, let's go!" I called out to him, as he jumped down from the boxes and as far away from the hole as possible.

Daryl and Glenn approached Bob, as a limbless Walkers was crawling it's way to him. I was shoved hard down onto the ground, face first as I felt wetness on my face.

I turned around and above me was a particularly heavy Walker, had me pinned. I wrestled with the disgusting creature, it's jaws snapping at my face, when I heard a large gunshot. With the help of another pair of arms, the unmoving body was pushed off me and Zack's hands helped me up.

"Thanks kid." I smiled widely at him as he nodded.

We ran over to left the other shelf from Bob with the help of Daryl and got him out. The building started coming down above us. I snapped my head around hearing Zack's scream. A Walker hand had grabbed his calf and bit into it, the blood and flesh hanging off.

"Zack!" I shouted as I began moving towards him. Daryl held my arm back and shook his head. We watched helplessly as Zack was dragged by a Walker. It crawled over him and ripped into his flesh.

"Go, go, go!" Daryl shouted as the entire warehouse collapsed and we ran out of the store, heaving and panting. We got out of the facility and to our cars.

"I didn't load the cans from the shopping cart." I groaned, looking back sadly into the warehouse.

"Zack was helping me." My voice wavered as Sasha placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, we found enough to last us." Glenn said reassuringly as they loaded the supplies into the back of the cars.

"I told him to stick with me." I said wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Who's gonna tell Beth?" I gasped.

"I'll take care of that. Hey." Daryl said as kind as he could.

"He saved me." My voice cracked as Daryl pulled me in to his chest giving me a hug before releasing me.

"Come on, let's go home."

...

We parked our cars in the garage, feeling defeated and at a loss. It had been 30 days since we had lost anyone. Andrea. But now because I took my eye of Zack, he was dead. And poor sweet Beth would be unhappy.

"I don't want to talk about it Rick." I shook my head as I saw him approach me.

"And I ain't askin' you to. But I'm here, if you do." I could just make out his silhouette in the dark. His fingers caught my wrist, leaving my skin electrified.

"Thanks." I grounded out, pulling away from his touch.

I know he was trying to be my friend after rejecting my feelings for him. But sometimes I couldn't take the distance that wormed it's way between us. I just wanted to be close to him. To be held by someone I loved. But beggars can't be choosers.

I walked back to my cell tired and sat on the bed, throwing the rifle down on the ground, with my head in my hands. I felt someone walk into the cell, their boots making echoed sounds as they sat on the bed beside me.

"I don't want to talk about it." My voice wavered as I tried to keep it steady.

"Neither do I." I looked up to see Daryl leaning against the wall on my bed.

I sat against the wall beside him in silence as I took his hand, he didn't brush me off as we just sat there.

"How did Beth take it." I asked the dreaded question.

"Like a badass." Daryl replied.

"I'm tired of losin' people." He said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Me too."

A/N: let me know what you think of that chapter guys! I'm working now so my updates will be weekly as opposed to bi-wekly.