A week later found Ani asleep on the bed next to Daryl in their tower. He was running his hand lazily up and down her spine as she slept, not wanting to wake her up, but wanting to touch her nonetheless. Even though her skin was marred, it was still soft and beautiful in its own right. She sighed and rolled towards him, moving her body into his chest and wrapping an arm around his waist. He smiled and kissed her forehead before laying his head back down, turning on his back and thinking about the day. It was the biggest run they'd planned all month and was two weeks in the making, and of course, Ania insisted on coming with him.

Ani began to stir, sighing in content before moaning and grinding into his hip before opening an eye slightly. "What time is it?"

"Time to get up," he told her. "Got work to do."

"Mmm. Give me a sec," she said with a yawn, turning to her back and stretching while moaning and kicking of the covers.

The popping in her back and shoulders still caused Daryl to wince. How she could crack her joints like that and not be in pain was beyond him. Taking a moment to admire her naked form, Daryl got up off the bed and began to dress, knowing full well she was watching him too. He turned around just in time to catch her coming up on him from behind, grabbing her and lifting her off her feet and into a kiss. When he put her back down, she began to dress as well, adding all her knives, her daggers, and the machete and gun to her belt before deeming herself ready. Leaving the guard tower, they walked up to the courtyard and over to the grill amidst a bevy of greetings and jovial thank yous.

"Smells good," Daryl told Carol as they stood in front of her while she cooked up some meat.

"Just so you know, I liked you both first," she told them.

"Technically, ya liked 'im first. I came lata," Ani corrected.

"Stop," Daryl told both women just as Carol was about to retaliate. "You know, Rick brought in a lot of 'em, too."

"Not recently," Carol told him while looking down and making a 'no duh' face. "Give the stranger sanctuary, keepin' people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love."

"Nah thank ya, ma. Got D, ya, Phia, and Merle for that. Don' need any more attention."

"Right," Daryl agreed.

"I need you two to see something," Carol said, switching the subject and turning to Patrick behind her, "Patrick, you wanna take over?"

"Yes, ma'am," the boy said before stopping Daryl and Ani. "Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Dixon? I just wanted to thank you for bringing that deer back yesterday. It was a real treat, sir, ma'am, and I'd be honored to shake your hands."

Daryl looked at the boy for a minute before making a show of licking his fingers while Ani smirked on beside him. When Patrick offered his hand, Daryl all but slapped his into the boy's, earning a proud and amazed smile from the boy. Ani simply smiled and clapped the lad on the shoulder twice before following Carol. The herds had been getting larger lately and they'd taken to having people in the dog walk killing the walkers off one by one through the fence since they couldn't get outside to burn the pits. Ani was worried her defenses weren't going to hold due to how quickly the pits had begun filling up and how out of control the herds had become.

"About today," Carol said as she showed them the fences while Daryl and Ani ate pieces of venison from the bowl Daryl was carrying. "I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run."

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

"Yeah," Carol said, sounding discouraged. "The thing is, we had a pretty big buildup overnight."

"Shite," Ani whispered as she took in the sight.

Both of her walker pits were so full that walkers were beginning to climb out and over them and the stakes along the fence had been pushed away from their useful positions. In no less than three spots, effective hordes of walkers were pushing right up against the fence. Even now, Ani could see the fence swaying in some parts.

"This prison was neva gonna last, was it?" she asked herself, though said it aloud accidentally.

"It'll hold, Ania. We'll make it hold," Daryl told her, resting a hand at the small of her back and pulling her into his side as they looked out at the fence.

"There's dozens more towards your tower. A few more dozen that have gathered along the fence. It's getting worse than last month when we had fires burning all day every day for a week straight. They don't spread out anymore and they've filled the pits. But we can't get to them to clear them, so they're spilling over," Carol informed them.

"They can see and smell us. I told y'all we needed ta cova the fences, but no, that was too big an endeava," Ani quipped angrily, making sure to elongate her no in a way that stressed her point.

"With more of us sitting here, we're drawin' more of 'em out. Get enough of those damn fence-clingers and they start to herd up," Daryl agreed.

"Pushin' against the fences again," Carol finished for him. "It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long. Sorry, Pookie, Sweet Pea."

Daryl nudged Carol's bicep with his elbow while he scoffed as Ani looked out over the fences, "We could easily build a flame throwa. Could kill 'em all with fire, well, melt 'em all with fire right along the fence line. It could potentially kill two birds with one stone; eliminate the immediate threat and afterwards provide protection against renewed threat by having a walker-zone outside the perimeter."

"No, could take down the fences if it gets too hot," Daryl told her, pulling her away and over to Glenn and Sasha.

"Maggie's not comin'?" she asked the Asian man.

"No, she wasn't feeling well," he told her.

"Still worried?"

"Yeah," he admitted, knowing full well Maggie had told Ani about the problem they were facing.

"Ya know it's gonna work out how it's s'pposed ta, right?"

"That's funny," Glenn said with a small smile. "Maggie said the same thing."

"See? Great minds think alike."

Tyreese walked up as they were loading gear into the back of the truck and volunteered to go, earning a round of approval from Daryl, Sasha, and Ani. Ani noticed Beth walking up and watched her and Zack having a moment. Zack did his best to try to impress Beth, but she just shot him down at everything he said. Ani couldn't help the chuckle that came out of her mouth when the girl walked away after just giving the boy a kiss.

"It's like a damn romance novel," Daryl quipped.

His comment earned him from Ani, "And what does the rough and tough Daryl Dixon know 'bout romance novels?"

"I read," he stated.

"Dude, I don' even read romance," she teased him.

"Want a romance novel?" Sasha quipped as she walked up. "Just look at yourselves."

Everyone shared a laugh at the Dixons' expense, though even Ani and Daryl chuckled after they shared a look. They all started prepping, Daryl putting an extra pack in the truck just in case they found somebody while out there. It happened more often than he liked to admit, but Ani just couldn't leave anyone out there if they were decent people. She'd ignored a few over the months, even killed two that refused to take no for an answer when told they couldn't come back to camp. He grabbed the leather coat he'd gotten for Ani on the last run they'd gone on and helped her into it as Bob walked up.

"I'd like to start pulling my weight around here," he said, essentially offering his services to the group.

"Bob, it's only been a week," Sasha said, glancing over to Ani who just shrugged a shoulder; they needed all hands on deck and a willing set just came up.

"That's a week worth of meals, a roof over my head. Let me earn my keep," he insisted, laying on the charm thick for Sasha, who looked at him critically.

"You were out on your own when they found you."

"That's right."

"I just want to make sure you know how to play on a team," Sasha told him.

"We ain't gonna do it unless it's easy," Daryl commented to her as he walked towards his bike.

"He was a combat medic, Sash. Give 'im a chance," Ani said as Daryl pulled her along.

"Yeah, he was in the Army," Glenn agreed.

Sasha just continued to look at the man, prompting him to say, "You a hell of a tough sell. You know that?"

"Okay," she told him as Daryl started up his bike.

They began heading towards the gate when they saw Michonne standing in the field talking to Rick and Carl. Ani smiled brightly, having missed the woman she came to call a close friend. While Ani and Daryl had stuck around the prison after the first couple months, Michonne had yet to give up on the chase for the Governor. Undoubtedly, part of Ani and Daryl's reason was each other, but they really had no trail to follow, no clues, no leads. There was no way of even knowing if the man was still alive. Yet Michonne insisted, going further and further and staying out for weeks at a time now. Generally speaking, the only reason the two hunters even knew how the woman was doing was because they had met up with the woman once or twice while out on runs or hunting. Daryl rolled up next to her and stopped the bike.

"Well, look who's back," Daryl said to her.

"Didn't find him," she informed them.

"Didn' think ya would, Mich," Ani told her.

"Glad to see you in one piece," Daryl said.

"I'm thinking of looking over near Macon," Michonne told the three in front of her. When Ani, Rick, and Daryl all shared a look and a sigh, Michonne argued, "It's worth a shot."

"Seventy miles of walkers. You might run into a few un-neighborly types. Is it?" Daryl argued back.

"I've already had ta kill people out in the woods for bein' less than friendly. I don' wanna lose a friend 'cause she can' let go. If the Gov'na's still out there, it's like findin' a needle in a pile a needles at this point," Ani reinforced Daryl's argument.

"We're gonna go check out the Big Spot. The one I was talkin' about. Just seein'," Daryl told Rick as Michonne looked on, contemplating what she'd been told.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go check the snares. I don't want to lose whatever we catch to the walkers," Rick responded.

"I'll go," Michonne offered.

"You just got here!" Carl complained, having formed a bond with the woman over comics and candy bars.

"And I'll be back," she told the young man with confidence before walking to the car as Daryl started up his bike again.

"Talk ta Hershel, Rick!" Ani called to him as the man walked over to the fence.

The ride to the Big Spot was uneventful. When they'd spotted it the first time, there had been a gate surrounding it jam packed with walkers. As such, the pair had considered the possibility that nothing had been touched inside the store itself since early on. With so many walkers in front of the store, no one would risk going into it. They'd told the council about it later that day and a unanimous vote had been made for this run to be put in motion. Ani was excited and hoped this trip was the stroke of luck they needed.

~x~

Carl, Sophia, and Patrick walked down to the fence line where the other kids were standing, waving at the walkers. Carl and Sophia looked to each other before looking at the kids in front of them, the soccer ball in Carl's hand forgotten as they watched on. Even though they weren't horribly younger than themselves, these kids were overly immature in a world that needed them to be tough. There were so many people now that even though Ani's lessons continued, a lot of people had managed to slip through the cracks and didn't take them. The two preteens wondered if these kids even knew how to hold a knife, let alone get away from a walker. Getting closer, they could hear the kids calling out names, making them both scowl in disgust.

"You're naming them?" Carl called out enraged.

"Well, one of them has a name tag, so we thought all of them should," Mika, one of the little girls, told them.

"They had names when they were alive. They're dead now."

"No, they're not," Lizzie, Mika's older sister, stated. "They're just different."

"No, Lizzie," Sophia said firmly. "They're dead. Stab anything in the heart, it dies. Not these things, 'cause they don't need a heart. Their brains are only working because the virus makes it work. It's dead."

"Yeah, Lizzie. I mean, what the hell are you talking about?" Carl asked her. "Okay, they don't talk. They don't think. They eat people. They kill people."

"People kill people. They still have names."

"Yeah, like 'inmate 6' or 'prisoner 132,'" Sophia said snarkily. "And, you know, people are still, well, alive."

"Have you seen what happens? Have you seen someone die like that?" Carl asked her.

"Yeah, I have."

"Then you know they aren't the same thing as people," Sophia responded.

"They're not people and they're not pets," Carl told her sternly. "Don't name them."

Lizzie gave them both a dirty look before telling the other kids with her, "We're supposed to go read. Come on."

Mika asked Patrick if he was joining them, to which he looked at Carl and Sophia before responding that he was. When Sophia just looked at him, he shrugged his shoulders and commented how he liked being immature sometimes and that they wouldn't like story time because it was for kids. Another comment regarding how not everyone can be hard and tough all the time like the two of them left Sophia feeling just a little hurt that the guy she liked thought of her as hard and tough.

"I'm not that hard, am I?" she asked Carl.

"I don't think so. I think you're strong. I mean, you're an actual hunter now and have brought back a couple kills with Merle," Carl responded. "You've gained more muscle than me, which is not fair. But I'm still taller than you, so that's good."

"But Patrick-"

"Is still a kid. We aren't, not really," Carl said. "I mean, how many walkers have any of them put down? How many have we? We've gone scouting, we ran all winter with guns in our hands. Dad might have me playing farmer, but I haven't forgotten any of the lessons Ani gave me."

"I know. After all, I'm the one that spars with you the most. They don't even want to learn."

"Yeah, well, with Ani out all the time, nobody really follows the routine anymore. There used to be people in the field running all the time, now only a few people do, mostly from our group. What's the point in bringing these people in if they aren't even going to learn how to protect themselves?"

"I don't know, but sis won't leave people out there if she doesn't have to," Sophia told Carl as they walked up to the courtyard. "Think we should tell her about Lizzie?"

"I think so. Think you could teach me how to use the bow sometime?"

"Sure," Sophia said. "I'm not sure how to, though. Maybe you should just ask Pops. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Yeah, maybe. Think we should go to story time?"

"No, that's boring."

"Nothing better to do."

"I guess."

They raced each other to the library, carefully making their way into the library without being noticed. One of the kids asked if they should take watch after Carol quit reading when the last adult left the room. Carol told him to before pulling out a tray full of knives to show the kids. Kids Ani wasn't wanting to have knives yet because she felt they were too young and/or whose parents had expressed a deep desire against it. Luke, Lizzie, and Mika being some of them. Patrick spoke up, asking to be excused because he felt sick. Carol told him he'd have to fight through it at some point, but he insisted that he simply didn't want to puke on anyone. Excusing him, she went back to telling the kids about the knives as Sophia and Carl walked up, both giving her dirty looks.

"Please, don't tell Ani or your father," Carol asked them.

Carl just grabbed Sophia's hand and pulled her out of the library, "Let's go do our chores. At least we can do what we're told for a while."

"Yeah, I guess we should," Sophia agreed, removing her hand from his and walking next to him.

~x~

"Army came in and put these fences up," Daryl told the group as they looked at the store in front of them. Made it a place for the people to go. Last week, when we spotted this place, there were a bunch of walkers keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs."

"So they all just left?" Bob asked.

"Give a listen," Sasha told him.

"You drew them out," Michonne said.

"Put a boombox out there three days ago," Sasha said.

"Hooked it up to two car batteries," Glenn said.

"Alright, let's make a sweep," Daryl said as he entered through the hole in the gate, Ani hot on his tail. "Make sure it's safe. Grab what you can, come back tomorrow with more people."

"Gotta check the tents, too. Might be some meds or equipment in there we can use," Ani said, pointing to Sasha and Glenn and then nodding with her head.

As she and Daryl walked up to the store, Glenn and Sasha entered the tent only to be disappointed. They came back out and shook their heads at Ani as she and Daryl banged on the glass. She sighed and then shrugged; it was a long shot that there would be any supplies anyway. This wasn't a medical camp, but just a safe haven, or what was supposed to be one.

"Just give it a second," Daryl told Zack as they stood in front of the store, waiting to see if there were walkers inside.

"Okay, I think I got it," Zack said, making Ani start giggling only to cover her mouth with her hand as Daryl scowled at her.

"Got what?" Michonne asked as she came back around from her circular pacing.

"Oh, I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn," Zach told her.

"He's been trying to guess for like six weeks," Daryl complained.

"And it's been down right entatainin' how D gets flusta'd 'bout it," Ani laughed.

"I do not get flustered. Shut it," Daryl growled as Ani laughed louder.

"I've been pacing myself," Zack told the man. "One shot a day."

"Alright, shoot," Daryl said, finding it mildly amusing himself.

"Well, the way you area at the prison, you bein' on the council, you're able to track, you're helping people, but you're still being kind of, uh," Zack paused while trying to find the right word, making Ani chuckle when he did. "Surly. Big swing here. Homicide cop."

Michonne busted out laughing while Ani looked somewhat impressed; she could easily see Daryl as a homicide cop. Like the kid said, he was surly, smart, could see details others couldn't and he had a tendency to helping people. She could almost imagine if he had been a homicide cop, working at the APD with her. Picturing him at the station as an officer, she thought to herself that her imagination was running a little to wild and dangerous and turned her face to keep Daryl from seeing her blush. Thankfully, he was more paying attention to Michonne's outburst.

"What's so funny?" he asked her, slightly offended.

"Nothin'," the woman answered. "Makes perfect sense. Even Ani likes the thought of it with how red she is."

"Shut up," Ani told her, crossing her arms like a petulant child.

"Actually, the man's right," Daryl told them all, though Ani knew the truth. "Undercover."

"Come on, really?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, used ta work with 'im," Ani fibbed, nudging Daryl's boot with her toe.

"I mean, I don't like to talk about it, 'cause it's a lot of heavy shit, you know?" Daryl elaborated.

"Dude, come on. Really?" Zack asked, not fully believing Daryl.

Daryl just stared at the boy as Ani openly started snickering. When he looked away, Daryl cleared his throat and adjusted his crossbow. While he wasn't offended by the fact that Ania was laughing, he couldn't help but be a bit uncomfortable by the fact Zack thought he was something special. He was nothing before the turn, just a drifter and a hunter and a drunk. He and Merle just did odd jobs for money that almost always went towards Merle's next fix, fuel for the tank, or beer. All he'd ever done was go along with what Merle had told him to do. Now, he could be something, he was someone to Ania and so many others. But it still made him uncomfortable and ashamed of himself to think about how he'd been nothing before. He couldn't help but wonder if Ania really would have cared about him before as she did now, something she'd said a few times but he couldn't quite believe. He cleared his throat again, trying to rid himself of his thoughts only for Ania to step up to him and run her fingers through his hair, forcing him to look at her. She mouthed the words 'love you' before pulling her hand away, though she didn't step back.

"Okay, I'll just keep guessing, I guess," Zack told him, finally giving up.

"Yeah, you keep doin' that."

"Mmhmm."

Just then, walkers began banging on the window, causing Michonne to tease Daryl, "We gonna do this, Detective?"

"Let's do it," he said, moving to stand in front of the doors.

Breaking the lock, he opened one for Michonne and Ania to enter. Michonne went first, having the longer weapon for immediate threat while Ani had her knives at the ready. Moving out of Ani's line of sight, Michonne took out a lone walker by the cash registers while Ani expertly launched her throwing knives and embedded them in the two by the window. There were no other walkers in the store, so they let the men haul the bodies out.

"Alright, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep," Sasha told the group. "After that, y'all know what you're supposed to look for. Any questions?"

"Was there ever a time that you weren't the boss of me?" Tyreese asked her in good fun.

"You had a few years before I was born," she quipped right back, making Ani smile at their interactions.

She looked over to Bob who had walked a little ways off. The bottom half of a walker was laying on the ground, but the torso was no where to be found. Ani looked up to see if she could see anything, but nothing came to mind.

"That don' bode well, does it?" she asked the man.

"Hard to say. Let's get in and get out," he told her.

"Amen, brotha. This place is givin' me the heebie jeebies," she said while walking into the store after him.

Ani moved around the store, eventually crossing paths behind Daryl and touching the small of his back to let him know she was there. He turned his head and nodded at her before continuing on his way, the group moving in a criss-crossed grid to cover the entire store and ensure there were no blind spots missed. Thankfully, there were no other walkers in the store, so they each grabbed a cart and split up.

"Was that really necessary?" Ani asked Michonne as the woman destroyed a display.

"I thought it was," was the only response she got before both women continued on their opposite courses.

Ani moved to the canned goods section and started clearing it out. She wasn't taking any chances and they had the entire back of the truck they could put the stuff in. Quickly filling an entire cart, she moved it to the front of the store just as she heard Bob yell out and the sound of a loud crash. Ordering Michonne and Glenn get the others to take the carts out to the lot, she ran over to where she saw Daryl heading.

"You alright?" he asked Bob, shining his light at him under the overturned shelving unit. "You cut or somethin'?"

"No, man, but, uh, my...my foot is caught," he told him, gesturing at where the unit was on top of his foot.

"Alright," Daryl said as he stood back up. "He's just caught. Come on, help me get this up."

He, Ani, Tyreese, and Zack began lifting the shelves up as Glenn asked what happened. Zack explained where they were right before Ani yelled that they should keep working. Who knew what that loud crash would attract. Better get out with what they could than get out with nothing. More than enough people were working on getting Bob out that the rest needed to concentrate on the task at hand, which was gathering supplies. Together they got two shelving units up before Tyreese bent down to help Bob up.

"I was movin' fast, man," Bob said. "I drove right into the drinks."

"Man, you lucked out," Tyreese told him. "If this thing had come down on you the wrong way, you'd've been toast."

No sooner had he said that than a walker fell through the roof right over Ani's head, covering her in walker guts and debri from the ceiling. Thankfully, it wasn't anything that could seriously hurt her and the sound had alerted her to what was happening in time for her to hunch over and cover her head, but that didn't stop her face from contorting in disgust at having dead guts all over her backside. Daryl shone his light at her and grabbed her away from the hanging walker, double checking her for cuts.

"I'm fine, but Bob's still stuck," she told him.

"Yeah, I know," he gruffed at her before telling the others to get Bob.

"Yeah, we should go now," Glenn commented as another walker fell through.

They began backing up as the damn things kept coming. Ani had no time to think, pulling her gun to take aim as more and more fell through the roof. She watched as Daryl climbed onto a stack of boxes as she helped Sasha take care of the ones swarming around her. Running over to him as fast as she could, she and Glenn helped take care of the walkers surrounding him before a different kind of groaning, that of metal, caught her ears.

Looking up, all Ani could say was, "Oh, shite! Daryl! Move it!"

He jumped off the boxes and pulled a walker away from Bob before putting his foot through it's skull. Zack lifted the unit still stuck on top of Bob as Daryl pulled him out, the helicopter that was on the now crumbling roof causing more of the roof to collapse. In a flurry of movement, they hurried to get Bob away from the area only for Zack to scream out as he got bit by a walker that came up under the fallen units. The walker pulled him down before Ani could do anything, taking a chunk out of his neck as the young man screamed.

"I'm sorry," Ani said as she raised her gun and took the shot, ending his suffering.

"We gotta go," Daryl told her as he pulled her along. "Go, go!"

Everyone ran out of the store as the helicopter came down. Ani was happy she had told the others to take the carts out to the lot, because although they would have to work fast, they would at least still have something to show for their loss. She punched the side of the truck, leaving a small dent from how hard she'd hit it. Beth had just started finding a little piece of happiness, and now she had to go tell the girl that it was gone. And here she'd been thinking that at least they had something to show for their loss. What could possibly be worthy of showing in exchange for a human life? The rational and emotional sides of her brain went to war with each other over the morals of her own thinking as the group silently and quickly loaded the vehicles with their finds.

"Do ya want me ta change me clothes?" she asked Daryl when he climbed on the bike.

"Naw, won't matter much anyways. Had worse on it."

"I don' wanna know," Ani told him, not even wanting to imagine what he was talking about as it had once been Merle's bike. "Let's get back home. I got a little girl ta talk ta."

"I can do it if you want," Daryl offered as she climbed behind him.

"Nah, I'm the leada. Me job ta break the bad news," she said stubbornly. "Though, wouldn' say no ta ya comin' with."

"You got it."

The trip back to the prison was uneventful. Many cheered as they unloaded their goods, but the cheers quickly died out upon learning about the loss of Zack. Several of the warriors apologized to Ani, having been out on the runs with them from time to time and knowing she never let anyone suffer; Zack made the fourth to die from mercy at her hand. Ani didn't waste any time in dawdling, preferring to get the unpleasantries out of the way first. Walking through the commons and straight towards Beth's cell, she steadied herself for what came next.

"Hey, Bethy," she said, leaning against the door frame.

"Hey," she said. "What is it?"

"Zack," Daryl said from beside her.

"Is he dead?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Ani said.

"Okay," the girl responded, somewhat shutting down before removing the three from her sign that said 'days without incident,' leaving the zero behind. Ani and Daryl watched her, Daryl half expecting her to cry and Ani to make sure she was alright. "What? I don't cry anymore, guys. I'm just glad I got to know him, you know?"

"Me too," Daryl said as Ani nodded in agreement.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Just tired a losin' people, that's all," Daryl said.

"Tired a puttin' good people outta their misery," Ani agreed.

Beth put an arm around them both, giving them a comforting hug as she said, "I'm glad I didn't say goodbye. I hate goodbyes."

"Me too," Daryl said.

"Yeah, me three."