Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.

AN: Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! So today is going to be super fun for me because it will be The Walking Dead marathon of season 2 ALL DAY! I just recently got a friend (who absolutely hates zombie shows) into TWD thanks to the ever sexy Norman Reedus and she is now as obsessed as I am. So here is chapter 5, I may be posting chapter 6 later in the week. A special thanks to all of my readers, followers, and reviewers. Thanks so much for your support. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

It was well after dawn and everyone was covered in dirt, sweat, and other things better left unsaid. It had been decided to burn the bodies of the "walkers" as the people from the camp called them and the people that had been killed during the night would be buried.

Adrian and Kale were dragging the emaciated body of a walker to the fire that already had multiple burnt or burning bodies there.

"Are you sure that it's such a great idea, letting them bury the dead?" Kale asked when the were still far enough away to not be heard.

Adrian looked up at Kale from the body that they were carrying and stopped. "These aren't our people Kale. We have no right to tell them what to do with their own dead. If the want to bury them, then we help and keep our mouths shut." Adrian said giving Kale a serious but gentle look.

"You wouldn't want outsiders tell you how to put me to rest." she said starting to walk again. They threw the body into the fire being manned by Glenn and walked off to get another body.

"How would you want me to put you to rest? If I ever had to?" Kale asked after a long awkward silence. Adrian stopped in her tracks and looked at the uncomfortable young man.

"Burn me. Bullet to the head and set on fire. The same I would do for you." she said with a sad smile.

"Besides...you know how I am about the dark. I'd rather burn then willingly go back into a dark hole." she said placing her hand on his shoulder before walking off.

A while later, Adrian was taking a short water break by the tree line when she heard the commotion about one of their people having been bitten. Everyone went on instant alert and began to circle the poor man as if he was the prey to a pack of wolves.

After seeing the bite for themselves, the group crowded together to decide what to do with the man. Daryl became extremely agitated and raised the pick axe he had been impaling into the skulls of the dead with the intention of doing the same to the infected man.

After being made to put weapon down, Daryl walked off with an angry huff. "Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this comin'!" Daryl yelled as he stormed off towards his tent.

"Do you really believe that?" Adrian asked from her hiding spot, startling Daryl just before he entered his tent.

"Do I believe what?" Daryl demanded. Adrian just gave him a blank stare, giving nothing away through her emerald green eyes or body language.

"Do you really believe that so many people deserved to die just because one man got left behind?" she asked, still giving nothing of her emotions away.

"Hell yeah. That 'one man they left behind' was my damn brother. Besides, what the hell do you know about anything around here?" he demanded again heading off into the woods.

"Alot more than you think I do." she said pushing from the tree she had been reclining against and started to slowly follow him.

"I know that Sophia's father beat her mother. I know that Dale still mourns his wife. I know about Shane and Lori, and that was not something I wanted to happen upon either." she said while Daryl was still angrily walking.

But her next words stopped him cold. "And I also know lot about you and Merle." Adrian said stopping. Daryl felt himself get hot and cold at the same time. Daryl turned around to look at her for a second.

Daryl didn't know anything about the woman other than that she was good with a bow, her partner and her cared for each other, and that the only reason she had a lick of concern for the group was because of Carl.

"And just what the hell do you think you know about us, huh? You don't know shit." Daryl growled in a low voice.

"I know that Merle was a drunken junkie before all of this. Still a junkie now. I know he thinks that nothing in this world is free, not even kindness. I know that he wasn't there for you when you needed him to be there the most." Adrian said not afraid, even expecting, retaliation for her words against his brother.

And Daryl wanted so badly to deny her words against Merle. But he couldn't because he knew them to be true.

"And I also know about you. About what you went through when you were young." Adrian said finally getting to her final point. Daryl instantly went red from anger and embarrassment.

"You don't know shit!" Daryl yelled stalking towards her only to be stopped by her words again.

"I've seen them, you know. The scars. You don't get that many scars from every day accidents. I also know that Merle has them too. Not as many, but still, they're there." Adrian said with a hard look in her gem like eyes.

"We should be getting back. See you at the camp." Adrian said to leave him to his thoughts.

She had seen the scars. The scars that he hated so much. The scars that proved that not even his old man had loved him. But when had she seen them? Daryl was careful about undressing around people so that they would never learn about the scars.

If she had seen them then she had been keeping very careful tabs on him and he hadn't even known it. 'Some kinda hunter I am.' Daryl thought heading back towards the camp to help finish with clean up.

It had been decided that the group would go to Atlanta to the CDC and try their luck there and also to try and get the infected man help there. A man said that he and his family were going to try their luck by going up north to look for this wife's family. After giving them a hand held radio, a gun, and a half full box of bullets the family went on their merry way.

"What about you Adrian?" Carl asked bring attention to Adrian and Kale who were standing apart from the group.

"Are you coming with us?" he asked her. Adrian gave him a small sad smile and walked towards him, much to his mother and Shane's disgruntlement.

Adrian walked up to the small dark haired boy and squatted down, sitting on her hunches with him between her knees. She reached up gently wrapped her hands around his upper arms.

"No, honey, me and Kale aren't going with you. Remember what we discussed back at the cabin? These are your people, not ours and we don't expect your people to do anything for us. Okay?" Adrian said softly to the young, scared boy.

Daryl was actually surprised at how gentle and motherly she was with the Grimes boy. She had just basically told the boy that he would never see her or her partner again but with the way she was saying it it made it seem like he had just had a nightmare and she was telling him that all the monsters weren't real.

Only this time, the monsters were real.

"Okay." Carl said looking as if he might cry.

"Now give me a hug, huh." Adrian said pulling him into a tight hug.

"You listen to your mom and dad, okay? Be a good boy and listen to them." Adrian said as she let him go and walked back over to Kale.

"Adrian." Rick said as he walked after her. She stopped and turned towards the former cop.

"Come with us. We could use you and Kale. I know we're a big group and there isn't much trust to work with, but we could use you." Rick said in a low voice to her.

"We're going back to our place. Packing up what supplies we have and getting outta here. There's been too much walker activity around here lately and we were planning on puling up stakes anyway. We'll meet up with you in Atlanta at the CDC, we'll just be a little late." Adrian said walking into the thick forest with Kale.