CHAPTER 18

- Kate -

It was a chilly morning and the sun had just started to shine on the dewy prison yard when Kate made her way outside to see Daryl and Michonne off. She pulled her blue knit sweater, the one she found in an abandoned house shortly after they fled the farm, tighter around her and watched the two of them stack supplies into the back of the green Hyundai. Every time they used that car she thought back to that traffic snarl they had lost Sophia in. It seemed like a lifetime ago, they had lost so many and seen so much since, but it hadn't even been a year.

"I think that's it." Michonne said after the last of their crates were placed in the back.

Daryl shut the hatch and wiped his hands on his pants, glancing up at Kate. Michonne headed to the driver's seat and Daryl waved her on, "Go on, I'll meet you over there." She drove down the gravel drive slowly, stopping at the gate where Maggie and Glenn were standing, ready to help let them out.

Daryl walked towards Kate and for a second she was afraid she was going to start crying so she quickly threw her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. The familiar smell of dirt, sweat and leather filled her nostrils as she took a deep breath to collect herself. After all the times she had to see him off lately, this was the time she was going to cry?

"Hey, hey." He said gently, grabbing her elbows. "It's only a couple nights. I'll be a'right."

She looked up into his serious face and smiled. He kissed her sweetly, wrapping his arms around her and she let herself enjoy the strength and protection she felt whenever he held her like this. He let go too soon, he always seemed to, and the two of them headed down to the car.

"Don't worry about me. You take care of yourself while I'm gone."

They reached the end of the path and Daryl ducked into the car, but before he could shut the door Kate leaned in and laid a big goofy kiss on his mouth.

"Get out of here girl." He acted annoyed but, although clearly embarrassed, he was still smiling. "You've got a gate to open."

Maggie pulled the Woodbury bus away from the gate. She parked it and hopped down the steps, pulling her knife and waiting for Kate and Glenn to drag it open. Glenn took one side and Kate entwined her fingers around the chain links at her side. On his count they lifted it and awkwardly carried it to the right. Maggie stood ready to take care of any walkers that managed to get through, but Michonne hit the gas and sped down the path before any had a chance. As quick as possible they dragged it back in place. Kate stood watching the car retreat down the road suddenly feeling incredibly lonely.

After maneuvering the bus into position, the three of them headed back up towards the prison. Maggie put her arm around Kate's shoulders and grinned.

"Cheer up. Michonne'll keep your man safe."

Kate laughed.

"She better!"

"Wanna get some breakfast?" Maggie offered.

"I think I'm going to try and get some more sleep in. It's too early for me."

Later that morning, after getting in a few more hours in, Kate headed down to the common room to grab some breakfast. She was happy to see some of the Woodbury group sitting around. Kate was a people person and it was exciting to her to have new people to get to know. She was determined to not just waste her days away on watch, counting the minutes until Daryl returned and the Woodbury folks would provide a welcome distraction.

She approached the first table. Mrs. McLeod, an older Hispanic woman, and a young girl of maybe 12 were sitting across from each other.

"Do you mind if I join you, Mrs. McLeod?"

"Of course not!" The woman smiled.

Kate sat and turned towards the girl. "Its Eryn, right?" The girl shook her head. "Are you guys settling in ok? I know its a big change."

"Yes. So far. Thank you so much for welcoming us." Mrs. McLeod said.

"Of course, we are glad to have you."

Eryn remained quiet and Kate wondered if everything was ok for the girl. What a difficult world to live in as a child and if she remembered correctly she didn't think Eryn had any family come in with her.

"I'm still trying to keep your group all straight in my mind." Mrs McLeod explained. "Are you Maggie's sister?"

"No. Beth is Maggie's sister. Hershel, the man with the crutches, is their father and Glenn is Maggie's fiancee."

"I see. Is Beth the one with the baby?"

Kate smiled, it wasn't the first time Beth was mistaken for Judith's very young mother.

"The baby is Judith. Her mom, Rick's wife, she died giving birth to her. Beth takes care of her a lot of the time."

"Oh no, I didn't realize Rick had lost his wife. That poor baby, without a mother. That is terrible. Eryn here lost her parents too."

"I'm so sorry Eryn." Kate said.

"What about you?" Mrs McLeod continued. "Are you married? Do you have family here?"

"Me? No. I'm not married" Kate hesitated for a second before adding, "Daryl and I are together, but I don't have any family here, well not family from before the turn, but I consider everyone in my group my family now."

"Daryl? Which one is he?" Mrs. McLeod frowned. "He's not Merle's brother is he?"

"That's him."

"Really?" Mrs. McLeod said slowly, a hint of disapproval darkening her response. "That surprises me."

Kate started to feel defensive for Daryl. Maybe she wasn't so eager to get to know Mrs. McLeod after all. Before she had a chance to respond Eryn spoke up.

"What happened to your family?" She was looking at Kate with a mix of sadness and hope. Like she could maybe find comfort in the kinship of tragedy.

"It's kind of a long story." Kate began.

"What else have we got to do?" Mrs. McLeod offered, Kate barely glanced her way. She was still annoyed at her attitude towards Daryl.

"I'm not from Georgia actually. In fact, until just days before everything fell apart, I had never even been here before. I'm from California and that is where my family is. I have no way of getting to them, knowing where they are or if they're even alive. They have no idea if I'm ok either."

"Why were you here?" Eryn asked.

"I had a boyfriend, we hadn't been together long and his parents lived here in Georgia. We flew out for a visit, I was meeting them for the first time. We had heard a few odd stories here and there about a bad flu going around, but nothing that made me think I shouldn't leave. I don't think anyone really believed something like this could ever happen anyway, you know? A couple days into our visit things started to go bad pretty quickly. I called my mom and told her I would try to fly home. That was the last time I spoke to her. My boyfriend offered to go home with me of course, but I could tell he was worried about leaving his parents. I didn't want to ask him to leave them. I was so confident at the time that I would be able to get to LA, I insisted he stay. I left, headed for Atlanta and ended up stuck on the road. There were cars stopped as far as you could see. We hadn't moved an inch in hours. The radio had started directing people to the refugee center in Atlanta, reporting the airport was shut down. I was literally stranded with not a single soul I knew, scared to death and I didn't know what to do. People were getting out of their cars, setting up lawn chairs, some people fighting. Finally, I went up to these two women who had kids with them, figured they were safe. One of them was Carol, the woman here with the short gray hair and the other was Lori, Rick's wife. There was another man who used to be in our group there too, he was a sheriff like Rick was, and when he went ahead to scout he saw that Atlanta was being bombed. He was pretty sure it was Napalm and he knew there wasn't any place safe in the city. He led us to safety. We ended up making a camp at this rock quarry. Our group was pretty big at first, that is where I met Rick, Glenn and Daryl. I've been with them since the beginning."

"Do you think you'll ever see your family again?" Eryn asked quietly.

"I don't know. At first I thought I might. I was hopeful. I thought the government would get it all under control. That it might take a while, but once communications were back up I could find them. Eventually though, I think I realized it wasn't very likely."

Kate got quiet remembering their experience at the CDC and the moment she realized how bad everything really was. After that she spent a lot of time trying to think of some way to get to California or maybe even to her grandfather in Arkansas, but she was hardly capable of such a journey. There were walkers and worse, the people who were thriving in this lawless world. She missed her family so much and most days she was in denial about it. She told herself there was some chance, anything was possible, but explaining it all to Eryn and Mrs. McLeod made it difficult to fool herself and coupled with Daryl being gone, she found herself with tears coming to her eyes.

She waved her hands in front of her face.

"Oh man, I'm sorry. I feel so stupid crying. We've all lost people we love."

"It's ok." Eryn said in a small voice. "I cry all the time."

- Daryl -

Michonne headed down the walker dotted road towards the last place they knew the Governor had been. Karen had told them that she heard him drive off heading North as she was playing dead in the field. Daryl didn't really track vehicles, but it was all they had to go on and maybe they'd get lucky.

"You and Kate are cute together." Michonne said with a playful grin, knowing it would ruffle Daryl.

"Cute?" He snarled.

Daryl had never been called cute his entire life and he didn't really want it to start now. He had to admit though, it was kind of nice to hear Michonne say that. He still couldn't believe Kate wanted him and he liked someone else acknowledging it was actually true.

He couldn't stop thinking about how Kate was all over him last night. It surprised him how eager she was to be with him and it had taken a lot of self control to slow it down. He didn't know anything about her sex life before the turn, but he didn't think things would move along so quickly. He was glad, but he had to admit to himself he was nervous too. It wasn't that he was inexperienced. There were plenty of nights that he and Merle had hooked up with women they met in some bar. He was usually drunk out of his mind and it was rarely anything but a one night stand and none of them were meaningful.

The first time he had sex was when he was 16. Merle had gotten out of the army and rescued Daryl from the hell hole he lived in with his old man. If Daryl thought his Dad would insist he stay, he was wrong.

"I don't give a shit where ya go. You've always been more trouble than yer worth you fucking crybaby." He had slurred loudly from his ratty recliner.

Daryl was disgusted with himself for letting his father's words hurt him, but they did. Merle must've sensed it too because he started carrying on about knowing just what Daryl needed. Fifteen minutes later Daryl sat alone in Merle's junky car, parked alongside an alley, while he watched his brother talk to two women in extremely tight skirts and heels so high they barely could walk straight on the broken asphalt as the three of them headed towards him. Merle had opened the door and yanked him out by his arm, shoving him in the backseat next to the one with dark hair. She was wearing a purple top that showed her stomach and her boobs were overflowing. She had a tattoo on her left tit that said, "Ray" and hickies all over her neck. She put one arm around him and the other about two inches from his dick and whispered that her name was Michelle. She smelled like grape gum and cigarette smoke.

Merle pulled into a cheap motel that rented rooms by the hour and came out of the manager's office holding two keys, tossing one to Daryl before grabbing the hand of the other woman and disappearing behind a door.

Michelle took the key from his hand and next thing he knew she was taking his clothes and her own off. It didn't last long and afterwards Daryl didn't know what to do, so he got dressed and headed back out to the car to wait for his brother. Merle and his "date" stumbled out of their room the full hour later and Merle started in on embarrassing Daryl right away.

"So how was it baby brother? Did she make a man of you?"

After that it was just a string of nameless, faceless encounters. He followed Merle's lead and Merle liked women.

He thought of Kate then and felt ashamed of his past. She was so good. Wholesome. He didn't suppose she was a virgin or anything, but he didn't peg her as the type that slept around. He felt like he was walking across the snow in dirty boots. She deserved more than him. She deserved someone who could at least remember half the people they'd slept with.

The other thing making him nervous was that despite the fact that he had been with quite a few women, it was never with any effort to help them enjoy it in anyway. He was worried he wouldn't be any good at that part and he wanted to be for her.

Daryl was thankful when Michonne pulled off the road onto the small main street of the first town they had come to. He needed to get his mind off his past and concentrate on the task at hand.

They made their way through the town quickly. There were several walkers to contend with and most the stores had been looted a long time ago. They got back in the car and Michonne unfolded her map, placing an 'X' over that town before tracing her finger north and pointing to their next stop.

Four towns later and there still was no sign of the Governor or anyone else. They had found some supplies, so it wasn't completely a waste of time, but it was going to get dark soon and they needed to find a place to stay. The pair headed to a neighborhood of houses that was down the road from the main part of town. It was a small cul-de-sac of two story homes tucked back into the trees.

They approached the second house on the right. It looked untouched and they headed around the back to get a better look inside. The property was overgrown and Daryl kept himself from taking aim at several fat squirrels that scurried up trees at their approach. They took the steps two at a time to the wooden deck. Michonne went to the back door and peered through the open blinds.

"Kitchen. It's a little messy. Can't see much else." She rapped on the window and they waited about a minute before she shrugged.

"I got this." Daryl raised the butt of his crossbow and Michonne stepped out of the way as he sent it cracking through a spot near the knob. He reached in carefully and unlocked the door and swung it open.

"Ladies first."

"Oh what a gentleman." Michonne rolled her eyes and headed in, her boots crunching on broken glass, her katana poised for action. They searched the entry level: a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. There were stairs leading up and another set heading down to a basement below. Michonne headed to the stairs to the second floor.

"I'll take upstairs, you get the basement."

Daryl grunted in agreement and headed down the narrow stairs, crossbow ready. At the bottom there were two doors. He slowly turned the knob to the one on the left. It was dark down here and he stuck his flashlight through the crack long enough to identify the room as a garage. They could go through it later, it looked promising. He shut the door and turned his attention to the door on the right. He knocked and when he didn't hear anything banging or groaning he slowly eased the door open. The room was pitch black, he grabbed the flashlight out of his mouth and bounced the light around the room. Crouched under a desk he saw a kid about Carl's age, maybe a little older, watching him fearfully from behind dark rimmed glasses.

"Hey kid. It's a'right. I ain't gonna hurt you. You by yourself?"

Daryl moved inside to clear the rest of the room.

"It's...it's just me." The boy said, afraid.

"Well come on out. I said I ain't gonna hurt you."

The kid crawled out slowly, standing with his hands raised like a criminal. Michonne appeared at the door.

"What's your name? This your place? Put your hands down, you ain't under arrest."

"P-Patrick. No, my house is two doors down. I was here looking for food when I heard you guys come in."

"You have anyone back at your place?" Michonne asked.

"No. Just me."

"You tryin' to tell me you've been on your own since the start?"

"It wasn't always just me. My dad was with me, but about a month ago, he went on a run and never came back. I've just been living off what we had, but it's gone now. I've been trying to go through these houses hoping we missed something, except the blue house. There are those things in there."

Daryl looked at Michonne and she must've understood the question in his eyes because she nodded her head.

"We've got a place. It ain't nothin' fancy, but it's secure. Plenty of room, food, good people. We can take you back with us, unless you'd rather..."

"Yes!" Patrick cut him off. "Please. I'll go. Thank you!"

"We'll stay here tonight. Round up supplies and you can get some of your belongings in the morning. We have a few other towns we need to hit tomorrow. Probably spend another night somewhere before heading back to the prison" Michonne explained.

"The, the prison?" Patrick repeated nervously.

"Ya. What were you expecting? A 4-star resort?" Daryl retorted, swinging his crossbow over his shoulder and heading back up the stairs.

As promised, they returned to the prison two days later. Daryl left Michonne and Patrick in the courtyard to unload the car. He was anxious to see Kate again. He found her in her cell, her back to the door. She was singing, which made it easy for him to sneak up on her. He came up from behind and threw his arms around her, whispering in her ear, "Didja miss me girl?"

She half-screamed, half-squealed before turning in his arms and kissing him eagerly.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." He said between mouthfuls of kisses. He took a couple backwards steps towards the door, dragging her playfully along with him and stuck his head out of the cell.

"Must be our lucky day. Everyone's gone."

He walked her back to the bed and lowered them down onto the bunk, the days away from him making him bold. She felt so good in his arms, soft and warm and damn she smelled good. Even the way she was breathing turned him on - slow and deep and then suddenly, if he touched her a certain way or moved against her, it would catch and he felt like he was going to lose his mind.

He kissed her ferociously letting his hands roam. He pulled his mouth back a second and she whimpered in protest. He grinned and started sliding his hand up her shirt.

"Hey Kate?"

Rick's voice abruptly pulled them back to reality.

"Whoa! I'm sorry. I didn't realize...I'm leaving." Rick had turned his back, one hand up in a declaration of innocence and the other holding Judith and headed back to the stairs. "I'm sorry you had to see that Judith." They could hear him joke.

Daryl let out a frustrated sigh, dropping his head on her shoulder. Kate covered her face, laughing in embarrassment.

"Goddammit!" Daryl groaned. He rolled off the bed slowly and stood, adjusting the front of his pants. "You better go see what Rick wants. I should go help Michonne unload the car anyway. We actually brought someone back with us - a kid, Patrick."

"A kid? How old? Where'd you find him?"

"About 13. He was holed up alone, in a house we were searchin'. Nice kid. Kind of strange."

"Any sign of the Governor?"

"Nope." He leaned his head down and kissed her. "See you later."

Daryl was unloading the supplies from the back of the Hyundai when Kate walked outside a few minutes later carrying Judith. She smiled brightly at him and his breath hitched. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the fact that this girl had anything to do with him.

Michonne was standing a few yards away, Patrick happily by her side. She had been introducing him to Tyreese and Greg who were now busy letting her in on plans for the new gate. Greg was one of the newcomers from Woodbury and he apparently had experience as a builder.

"The idea with the wooden spikes is that if there are walkers piled up at the gate, when it swings open they'll be pinned." Greg explained.

"Hey Kate!" Tyreese's enthusiastic greeting caught Daryl's attention and rubbed him the wrong way. "How is baby Judith today?"

Daryl watched as Tyreese leaned down close to Kate to coo at Judith, grabbing a tiny hand in his fingers. Tyreese looked up at Kate and said something that Daryl didn't catch. Kate laughed loudly. Michonne started to introduce her to Patrick then and Kate shook his hand, but Daryl had stopped paying attention. He couldn't get the image of her laughing with Tyreese out of his mind. Had he ever made her laugh like that? Was Tyreese interested in her? Did the new people know they were together? Worse than the thought of Tyreese being interested in her, was the realization that Kate had choices now. He knew she was too good for him, couldn't believe she wanted him to begin with. Maybe that explained it. There wasn't much choice before. Now there was Tyreese, Greg...he tried to think if there was anyone else in the Woodbury group. He was pretty sure Michonne had told him Tyreese had been a pro football player back in the day. Daryl hadn't been anything.

Daryl stopped himself. He remembered the look on her face when he surprised her in her cell, the way she kissed him, how she'd let him touch her. He tried to push the doubts out of his mind and hoped with everything in him that she wouldn't wake up and realize how much better she could do than him.