Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. Although I don't know a fangirl out there that wouldn't love their own personal Daryl.

AN: So I realize it's been a while since I've updated but I hit a bit of a snag. I tried to think of so many ways to make it work, but it wanted to be a bitch and refused to work with me. And so I did what I normally do when I can't work through something...I skip it and work around it.

Chapter 26

It had been a month since Adrian had asked Daryl to help keep her demons at bay, and on most nights it worked. They couldn't sleep beside each other every night and they didn't complain about it. Adrian had started acting a little like her old self after that night as well.

She spoke a little bit more, not only when it mattered but also just to have a conversation here and there and more often than not it wasn't with Daryl.

She had also started eating more as well and had gained a fair amount of weight back over the past month as well. She still had her times where she was the angry, bitter, ice woman she had been before but she was getting better about it.

They hadn't seen any large amount of walker for a few days and they were in desperate need of food. But then again they were always in desperate need of food. Since the group had gotten better about protecting themselves and not mostly relying on Adrian or Daryl's skills, the pair decided to spend the day hunting for any and everything they could find.

They split off in opposite directions hoping to find more food that way while the group tried to scavenge a few near by houses. Game was getting harder and harder to find in such cold weather, so when Adrian came across any kind of game she shot it.

Rabbits, the occasional squirrel, even large birds. But Adrian also knew that there was plenty of food to find on the ground. They only problem with that theory was the cold weather.

The forest could provide food in many different ways, fruit trees, berry bushes, even nuts. But for those things to grow they needed lots of sunlight and warm weather.

Adrian had just called it a day and started back towards camp when the most beautiful sight caught her eye. A monster of a white tailed buck. It had been months since she had seen a deer this big and healthy. With the large amounts of walkers around everywhere these days it was hard to get big game like that now a days.
The deer was far enough that it hadn't heard her yet and thankfully she was downwind so he hadn't caught her scent either. Very quietly and equally slowly, Adrian raised her bow. The deer moved here and there every few seconds, snipping at some leaves or digging at the ground. After Adrian got done admiring the beautiful creature, she loosed her arrow. And the deer went down.

There was only about an hour of daylight left when Adrian finally managed to get back to camp with her days catch. At first when she had caught sigh of the deer, it had seemed like a good idea to kill it.

The problem she hadn't thought about was how to get it back to camp. The deer easily weighed two hundred pounds, if not more, and she had already had a dozen or so of mixed game and her bow and arrows to carry. It hadn't been easy, in fact it had almost been downright impossible, but she had managed to get it back in time for dinner that night.

By the time she got back to the house she was pouring sweat despite the cold weather and thoroughly exhausted. She was leaning over, resting her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath in the back yard of another small farm house they were hiding in when she seen the back door open and T-Dog walk out.

"Adrian. What the hell girl, do you have any idea how close to dark it is?" he said looking down at the pale woman. "Yeah yeah." she said panting before she looked up at the dark man. "You're welcome for your fucking dinner for the next three days." she said hanging her head again. "Ingrate." she panted.

"Holy shit. Is that a deer?" T-Dog asked in amazement. It wasn't often that they got good game like that these days, so when they did, they managed to make it last as long as possible. "Yeah. Where's Daryl? We need to find a spot and start skinning it and breaking it down before we loose the light." she said standing up straight as she dropped the other game onto the ground next to the deer.

"In the house. Got a few squirrel an' a couple a rabbits." T-Dog answered. Adrian walked up the few steps to the back porch and followed T-Dog inside. "Yo, everybody, Adrian caught a damn deer!" T-Dog told everybody excitedly when he walked into the living room where everyone was sitting down.

All heads flew up at the statement to look at her. "Dumb luck. Daryl." she said finding the man in the corner of the room looking out the window. "Get your fine ass out there and help me get broken down. I didn't spend all that time and energy getting it here just so walkers could eat it." she said walking back towards her dead game.

Between Daryl and Adrian, the group had been able to eat for a week on everything they had caught that day. It seemed that the bigger Lori got, the more Adrian seemed to help look out for her. And it was apparent to everyone in the group that the farther along Lori's pregnancy went, the more Rick became a cold hearted bastard to her.

There were a few times when his attitude would make Adrian snap and she would give him a good blistering lecture about his attitude towards his wife. Sometimes he would take the advice, but most days it would just bounce off of his icy exterior. Which only seemed to piss Adrian off more.

Six months they had been on the road. The weather was getting warmer, which they were all thankful for. Adrian and Daryl had become a little more affectionate towards each other the past few months, and while everyone noticed, no one really commented on it.

Although Adrian had become friendlier with th group, she had to admit that she enjoyed Hershal and T-Dog's company the most. Since they had left the farm she and Hershal had spoken often. Adrian had apologized for her behavior back at the farm when she had found out about the barn, but Hershal told her that it was okay because he had eventually realized that she had just been trying to snap him out of his fantasy world so he wouldn't have to accept that his family and friends were really dead.

It was a full moon that night and it had been a bad few days, which was why Arian was thankful that it was her night for watch because she knew she couldn't sleep even if she tried. Full moons had been Adrian's lease favorite time of the month for the past ten months.

"Hey." Adrian heard from behind her. Adrian turned from her post on the hood of the large silver Chevy that they had picked up not too long ago to see Hershal coming towards her with what seemed like something to eat. Food had been a little easier to come by since the weather started to get warmer but they still had to fight for it.

"Hi." she said as he handed her a small bowl of squirrel meat. "How is everybody doing over there?" she asked the older man. "About as good as can be expected I suppose." he said. "How are Lori and the baby?" she asked and she put a small bit of meat into her mouth. "Good under the circumstances as far as her health goes." he said.

"Rick still being a dick to her?" Adrian asked, already knowing the answer to that question. The day before Lori had tried talking to Rick about something only for Rick to stalk away from her and Lori stood there trying her best not to cry from his cold treatment. Adrian had seen the tears and even though she held no real love for the woman, she was a member of the group and very much pregnant to boot.

Adrian cut her hard, bright green eyes in Rick's direction and stormed after him with Daryl's words to leave the man alone falling onto her deaf ears. Adrian had made no attempt over the past few months to hide her extreme dislike for Rick's dismissive attitude and everyone knew it. She knew that everyone disliked Rick's treatment towards his wife but only Adrian had the guts to say anything to him about it.

There had even been a time or two when blows had been exchanged on Adrian's part and the day before had been one of those days. Adrian had already been in a foul mood due to period paying her a surprise but Rick's actions had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Rick!" she growled as she talked towards him. Rick had turned around just in time to catch her right fist with his face and then her left fist with his right kidney before she had kicked his feet out from underneath him. Satisfied that he got the point, Adrian walked away to go and check on Lori.

"He hasn't really spoken to her today. At least not like yesterday." Hershal said. "Good. Maybe that beating yesterday knocked a dime sized amount of common curtesy back into him." she said finishing off her food.

"You can't keep doing that Adrian. None of us likes the way he treats her, but you can't keeping fighting with him about it. Rick's the leader, he's trying to keep us all alive, Lori included. He's got alot on his mind." Hershal said trying to keep the peace.

"He wouldn't have so much on his mind if he hadn't proclaimed himself Lord and Master over us all six months and a half months ago. He acts as if his word is law and the no one is allowed to say otherwise." she said bitterly.

"My father used to be that way when my mom was alive. Acted as if me and my mom were dirt beneath his boots. Like to get drunk every night and take it out on her too. Then I got old enough to where he would start in on me too. Mom tried to help me a few times, draw his attention towards her. And then came the night that he nearly beat me to death. My mom tried to stop him. Went after him with a butcher knife. Got in a few good cuts too before my dad pulled a damn gun from nowhere and shot her. He didn't kill her at first. Decided that he had had enough of her and decided to empty his whole clip into her. The first dozen shot weren't anything that would kill her. But those last few were." she said surprising the old man.

Even though Adrian had been with the group for a long time no one really knew anything about her. She would reveal bits and pieces of her past here and there, but nothing like this. He supposed that Daryl knew more than the others since they cared so much for each other but he was sure even Daryl didn't know everything there was to know about her.

"I can still hear her screaming sometimes. When I allow myself to think that far into my past. My dad laughing occasionally at her pain but he mostly just yelled and cursed at her. After I got better, for the most part, I ran away to my grandfather's. He lived far away from us and he and my father hadn't spoken in years so I figured that it would be the last place he would look for me.

And I was right. I lived with my grandfather for a few years before my father found me. After I had shown up at my grandfather's house I told him about everything and he promise me that as long as he breathed, he would keep me away from my father.

But then my father found me and when my grandfather refused to give me back, my father shot him too. The only thing I was thankful for was that my father hadn't tortured him like he had my mother. It was quick and painless. I ran away three years later. And I made damn sure that he wouldn't find me that time. I ran states away, here to Georgia." she said with small smile at the last part.

Hershal became curious and decided to see how much she would reveal since she seemed to want to talk. "And what happened after you got here? You couldn't have been very old, I'm sure." he asked.

"I was fifteen when I ran away from home. I grabbed as much money, clothing, and anything I could find to protect myself with and slipped out when he was sleeping. I did anything I could to get away. Bummed rides from those who would give me one, hopped trains if I could get away with it, walked. I had been in Atlanta for about a week when I showed up at a homeless shelter one night. It was cold out and I couldn't take it any more. The next day I showed up at a soup kitchen that I would show up at time to time. There was this old lady that volunteered there. She spoke to me a few times, she was nice. She seen me on the street one day, it was pouring rain and freezing on top of it.

I was soaked through when she showed up with an umbrella and asked me if I would like to stay the night with her. She was a widow in her early sixties. She and her husband had never had any children so she lived alone.

I accepted her offer and ended up staying a few days. When I told her I didn't want to intrude on her anymore and that I was going to leave, she begged me to stay. She said that she had always wanted children but could never have any of her own and that I was not trouble and good company after I loosened up enough to converse with her. I ended up staying with her for the next nine years." she said looking up at the moon.

"What happened?" he asked.

"She died. We went to sleep one night and when she wasn't in the kitchen drinking her morning tea, I went to check on her. She had passed sometime in the night in her sleep, just like she had wanted. After the funeral I began wondering what I was going to do next when I got a call from her lawyer asking to see me. He had told me that a few years after she took me in she had made out a will leaving everything she owned to me. I lived in the house she left me for the next few years, until the outbreak." she said, shedding a few silent tears.

"You and Rick, you have no idea how lucky you are to still have your families. But Rick needs to pull that piece of steel pipe outta his ass and start letting his wife know just how much he loves her because one day, one of them is going to die and the other will never know their true feelings." she said looking back towards the fire that everyone was sitting around.

"Thanks for the food, Hershal." she said, dismissing the old man.