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

AN: Sorry that I almost didn't post today guys. I've had a crazy weekend.

Chapter 11

They had been searching for about half an hour when Daryl couldn't keep from asking anymore. He was at the front of the line and Adrian was just a few steps behind him. The rest of the group was a few feet behind them.

"So what the hell was that back there? Drawin' on Andrea like that." he asked her in low voice so no one else would hear.

"I'm tired of her complaining. It's all she's done in the time I've known her. She crawled up Dale's ass about him taking her choice away on a way out. So I decided to shut her up and give her a way out. She chose to keep her mouth shut and live. Now she has no more reason to complain to Dale about taking her choice away." she said in the same low voice he did.

Daryl wanted to ask her something else, she could see it on his face. "What is it? You want to know something just ask. Whether I answer or not is a completely different story." she said to him with a small smirk on her face.

"Fine." he said after a minute of silent debating. "Why don't you like guns?" he asked her. She was quiet for so long he thought she wasn't going to answer. "Guns have killed every person but one that I have ever cared about. And I was there every time. The first time alone was enough of a reason. But the second time was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak." she finally said.

"All but one. Who's the one?" he asked although he was pretty sure he wouldn't get an answer to that one.

"The boy I tried to get out of Atlanta. Although I guess you could say that technically a gun killed him too." she whispered.

Daryl decided to shut up after that.

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A while later they happened upon a little clearing where someone had set camp. Daryl crouched down low to the ground when he seen the tent. He and Adrian motioned for everyone to get low as well. Daryl, Rick, and Shane slowly walked forward towards the tent. Daryl tried to look inside to see what was in there but couldn't see anything clearly.

Daryl had his knife out and at the ready while Shane and Rick had their guns aimed and ready, just in case. Adrian stayed back with the rest of the group. She knew when she could get away with crossing the line and when to know her place.

Daryl unzipped the door to the tent and quickly jerked it open only for all three men to start gagging. 'Better them than me.' she thought with a grin. Daryl went inside and came back out a minute later. "Just some guy." Daryl told the group.

Suddenly a very faint noise could be heard. "Is that...church bells?" Adrian asked in confusion, more to herself than anybody else. Everybody ran off in the direction that Rick, Shane, and Daryl took off in. They hit a little clearing and everyone was trying to figure out which direction the noise was coming from.

Adrian stopped and listened for a full second before she shot off straight ahead. "Adrian!" she heard Kale call out but she just kept running. She heard the stampede of footsteps behind her so she didn't bother stopping.

Adrian broke the tree line to see a large, spread out graveyard and a small white church on the other side. She must have stopped too suddenly and too close to the tree line because someone ran full force straight into her.
Adrian flew forward and thought she was going to kiss the grass but she felt a pair of hands grab onto her quickly and hold on. They jerked her backwards and kept her from falling. She turned to see Rick standing there.

"Thanks." she said.

Shane started to say something about it being the wrong church but Rick took off running full force across the graveyard and towards the church. Adrian took off at a slower pace after the rest of the group had passed her by. By the time she reached the church everyone else was rushing outside at the sound of bells ringing again.

"It's on a timer." she heard Daryl sigh as he paced around. Carol said something about going back inside for a while. She noticed that everyone but Andrea, Shane, and Lori. Adrian decided to look around the graveyard until everyone was ready to go.

"There ain't enough death goin' on these days, you wanna go and take a tour of a graveyard?" she heard from behind her.

Adrian turned to face Daryl standing not far too far behind her. "Oh there's more than enough death doin' around to quench my bloodlust. But me and God haven't been the greatest of friends over the years." she said turning back to the headstone at her feet.

"It's not that I don't believe in Him or anything. Just that it seemed when I needed him the most in my life, He wasn't there." she said never looking away. She gently placed her hand on top of the headstone.

"It was my mother and grandfather." she said letting her hand slide off the sun warmed stone.

"What?" she heard Daryl ask in confusion. "Earlier, when you asked why I don't like guns. It was my mother and grandfather." she said turning to look at him. She didn't know why she wanted him to know or even why she thought he deserved to know something that now only two living souls knew.

"They were killed. Both shot by the same man although they were years apart from each other. But there was never a body so the person was never found." she said in a low, even tone.

"Thought you said that you were there both times." Daryl said looking at her. He had to admit, just to himself, that she was beautiful even if she was a tough bitch who didn't take peoples crap. Like the thing with Andrea before they left the highway.

Her hair was braided back again but during the course of their search a few short strands got loose and hung around her face. He had never noticed it before but he thought he could make out a small patch of freckles across her nose.

He took in her outfit. It was the first time he had seen her up close in something that showed a good bit of skin. He could make out a few easier to see scars, pink and slightly puckered, but most of the other ones he could make out were white and flat. They ran all the way up her arms but he knew better than to ask about something personal like that.

He knew he wouldn't want her to ask him about his. Not that he would answer her even if she did and he had a feeling she would be the exact same way. She was also practically armed to the teeth, which he found kinda hot.

Not many women could get away with the look but she pulled it off really well.

"I was. But how does an eight year old tell the police that her father killed her mother? Or a twelve year old that her grandfather was shot to death by his own son? How does a child tell somebody something like that?" she asked him with a humorless laugh.

'And I thought my old man was a bastard.' Daryl thought.

"I think that they're ready for us to gather up." Adrian said pushing away from the headstone and going to walk past him when she stopped beside him.

She looked at him with her bright green eyes, the softest he had ever seen them. She gave a half smile, which seemed to be genuine, and brought her left hand up to her lips and kissed her fingers. She then took her fingers from her still smiling lips and touched it to his cheek, which he jerked away from.

"What the hell was that?!" he asked irritation in his voice mostly because she had made him feel slightly embarrassed and very uncomfortable with not only the skin to skin contact but the slight intimacy of the act.

"A thank you for listening to me." she said with her hand on his shoulder, which she let slide off as she walked away. It was as she was walking away that Daryl finally realized that she had had her hand on his shoulder and he hadn't even noticed.

Much less jerked away.