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 Dixon.

AN: So everyone will be glad to know that I have been on a writing frenzy. I wrote 2 chapters in a day and a half which is awesome for me. I am currently writing chapter 32 but honestly I don't know if I'm going to end it where season 3 leaves off or if I'm gonna continue on into season 4. Any thoughts?

Also some Daryl/Adrian cuteness in this chapter.

Chapter 28

The next morning everyone woke up hot and exhausted but Rick wanted to get into the inner yard and at least one cell block cleared before nightfall. Because there were so many walkers in the inner yard Rick wanted only silent weapons used. It was decided that Rick, Glenn, Maggie, T-Dog, and Daryl would make up the group to go inside and clean up.

"You sure you don't wanna come in with us? You've gotten pretty good at throwin' them knives of yours and we could always use another person." Daryl asked Adrian as she was fixing her hair while the kill group was getting ready.

"I'm sure." she said finishing braiding her hair and flipping it over her shoulder. "Besides, I wanna be out here with the rest of them just in case something happens." she said leaning up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"What's the matter? I can tell somethin's the matter." Daryl asked her in the harsh morning sunlight. Adrian looked up at him and then cast a worried glance in
Lori's direction.

"It's the baby. Not only is Lori overdue but she seems worried about something. Just getting antsy is all." she said trying to shake it off but she wasn't fooling Daryl.

Daryl had learned more and more over the past year how to read Adrian, especially when she didn't want to be or was hiding something. "Hey." he said making her look at him. "It'll all work out. We got Hershal and he's been keepin' a good eye on her an' the baby." he said trying to reassure her.

"Yeah, well..." she said looking away for a second before looking back at him with a playful smile and a wicked glint in her eyes.

"Just be careful in there. I'm looking forward to being able to have sex on something relatively soft this time. All those damn trees are startin' to tear up my back." she said before she sauntered off in the direction of the fence.

Daryl knew she was doing it on purpose so he decided to take in the way her hips swayed and her ass as she walked away.

"Teasin' bitch." he muttered at her. Adrian threw a teasing smile over her shoulder at him to let him know that she heard him.

It was decided that everyone who wasn't going inside the fence was to spread out along the fence and distract and kill any walkers close by them. Everyone was giving the group last minute "good lucks" while Adrian walked up to Daryl.

Reaching up, she cupped the back of his head and gently pulled him down for a quick, soft kiss. Pulling away she looked up into his blue eyes with her serious green ones.

"Be careful and come back to me." she whispered. She was already stressed as it was, so the idea of him going inside that fence, and possibly inside the prison, with only a few members of their seasoned group didn't help her stress level any.

"Be back before ya know it. Keep an eye on everybody out here while we're in there. Soon you'll get to take a nice long nap on a somewhat real bed all by yourself. " he said with a ghost of a smile. "I sure hope I'm not in it by myself. What good is a bed if you're not in it with me?" she teased with a small smile.

Noticing that the rest of the group was getting into position, Adrian reached up for one final kiss before letting him go and walking towards the fence, pulling her hunting knife from the back of her jeans. Hershal closed the gate behind the group once they were all in. They fanned out into a loose circle so none of them could be surprised from behind.

They slowly made their way to the back of the yard where everyone outside of the gate could hardly see what was going on. Not long after they went in there they started back towards the gate only to be stopped by the sound of Rick's voice. Adrian couldn't tell what was really being said but from the vibe she was getting from the group it couldn't have been good.

Daryl pointed back towards one of the walkers that he had killed and then a minute later the group walked into one of the fenced off entrances into the prison.

"Where the fuck are you goin' Dixon?" Adrian muttered to herself out loud. "Maybe to see how many walkers are inside." she heard Hershal say beside her. "Well it's a dumbass idea. They could get overrun easily in there." she said somewhat heatedly.
About ten minutes later Glenn came outside and told them that it was all clear and to grab all their gear.

"Is everyone okay? Daryl?" Adrian asked the young Asian boy. "Yeah, we're all fine. It was worse out here than it was in there actually." Glenn said helping pack supplies in. They walked in the same way the group had earlier and followed Glenn into the cell block that she could hear noise coming from.

She walked in between Lori and Carol and starred along with the rest of the group in open mouthed amazement. It was the most secure and most space they had had since they had been forced to leave the farm eight months earlier. It seemed almost too good to be true. It was the closest they got to Heaven in this their new lives.
"It's secure?" she heard Lori ask. "The cell block is." Rick answered.

"So we sleep in the cells?" Beth asked still looking around. "We found some keys on a guard. I have a set and so does Daryl." Rick told them. "I ain't sleepin' in no cage. I'll take the perch." Daryl said from above them.

Everyone start to break up and look for a cell that they could claim as their own. "Thank you." Lori said to Rick as she reached out and touched his arm. He just walked by without a word or even looking at her.

Adrian said nothing to him because she was just too tired at this point to even exert the energy to say anything, so she just cut him a look that held so much fire that it could have melted the skin from his bones.

"Come on. Let's get you settled in." Carol said to Lori. Carol, Lori, and Adrian all made their way to the upper level and picked out a relatively clean cell. After Carol said that she would help settle Lori in, Adrian said a brief goodbye to the women and made her way over to where Daryl was dragging a mattress from a cell. She looked inside to see that this cell was also pretty clean.

"I think I'll take this cage then. At least when I go to sleep at night you'll be in my line of sight." she said walking into the cell and dropping their stuff onto the floor with a hard thump. "I swear that stuff has gained weight overnight." Adrian mumbled as she grabbed onto the frame of the top bunk and leaned her head against it between her hands.

She had just closed her eyes when she felt Daryl behind her.

He was close enough that she could feel the heat coming off of his body, which he always seemed to radiate which was good news for her when it was cold but not so much in the summer.

She didn't turn to look at him or so much as move but she knew that he knew that she knew that he was there. Which is why he wasn't surprised when she didn't jump when he wrapped his hands around her hips and gently pulled her back to his front.

His thumbs dipped into the band of her dirty, holey, and blood covered low rise jeans. Her hair was braided back as always, which left her shoulders and arms exposed from her black cotton tank top, which he took advantage of.

They had barely had two seconds for each other over the past three days. Daryl leaned his head down and placed a few gentle kisses onto her right shoulderblade.

"You shouldn't kiss me there. I'm filthy." she mumbled as she rolled her head to the left, her eyes still closed. Just enjoying the feel of him while they could still enjoy it.

"So. You kiss me while I'm filthy too. What's the difference?" he said against her shoulder. "Hmmm." she hummed when he kissed his way up from her shoulderblade to the top of her shoulder. "Are you okay? No scratches or anything?" she asked barely opening her eyes to look at him.

"Nothin' that'll kill me. And you?" he asked against her skin. She closed her eyes at the feel of his warm breath on her skin as he slowly made his way up her neck.

"Nothing that I didn't have when I woke up this mornin'." she murmured. She gave a low moan when he started to little nibble on her neck.

Then she felt his right hand work underneath her tank top and work small circles from her hip to her stomach, while she felt a slight tug on her head. Alerting her that Daryl was releasing her hair with his left hand and then after her hair had been unbraided his hand dove into her hair and lightly fisted it.

His right hand worked its way into the front of her jeans but only a few inches. He then pushed her even harder into himself with his right hand while his left pulled her head back onto his shoulder where his lips then attacked hers.

It had been a while since they could really take their time with sex and even though she wanted nothing more than to rip their clothes off and have a hot, sweaty, screaming round of sex, she was just too tired.

"Daryl." she panted pulling away from him and opening her lust filled eyes to look at him. "We can't. Not now. Anyone could come up here and see, and we need to rest because you know the dick downstairs is gonna want more done before nightfall." she said regretfully.

Daryl knew she was right but his raging hard on pressed firmly against her ass said otherwise. "Alright." he panted back. He removed his hand from her pants but kept his other hand in her hair but released the dirty strands from his light hold. Holding the back of her head gently but firmly, Daryl leaned down and gave her one last mouth invading kiss although is was much softer than the first kiss.

"Come on out there and nap with me. I know you had another nightmare last night and didn't sleep much." he said pulling his hand from her hair, grabbing her hand, and pulled her from the cell and to the mattress that he had placed on the perch.

Daryl laid down first and bunched his poncho up underneath his head as a makeshift pillow and held his arm up, signaling Adrian to join him already. Adrian stretched out beside Daryl on her right side, placing her head on his left shoulder after he wrapped his arm around her back and began to play with her dirty red hair. After she laid her head down she wrapped her arm around his torso, wrapped her leg around his to help scoot her as close as possible to him, and then nuzzled her head underneath his chin.

Daryl could tell when she finally got comfortable because she always let out a contented sigh, like the one he had just heard. Daryl could tell when she finally let her guard down and fell completely asleep, which was within minutes of laying her head down, and moved his head enough to look down at her. She had been more exhausted in the past week or so than she had been in a while.

She had been keeping watch all night long more often than he thought was wise and then she would stay up all day helping watch out for Lori, helping him hunt so they could get more food for the group, driving all day when they needed to, and the list just went on.

And then when she did allow herself to sleep, mostly after he had told her that if she didn't try to get some sleep he would knock her ass out one way or another, she didn't sleep well or for very long.

He knew the reason for it, and she knew that he knew, but they never talked about it. She was having nightmares again. Ever since they had started sleeping together when they were constantly on the road, they had happened less and less.

But for some reason they were coming back more and more. he didn't bother to ask her because he knew that she wouldn't tell him. Or if she did she would come up with some half truth.

After giving a sigh at his half depressing thoughts, Daryl placed a small kiss on the top of her head and whispered a secret he hadn't shared with her yet into her sleep deaf ear.

He then relaxed and rested for a few hours.

When Daryl heard Rick come up the steel steps a few hours later, he turned to the man and put a finger to his lips, telling him to keep as quiet as possible. Adrian had twitched here and there but other than that hadn't moved since she fell asleep a few hours before.

Rick quietly made his way to the top of the perch and looked down at his second in command and his girlfriend. Rick and Adrian had been at odds for months, mostly because of his treatment of Lori, but Rick let her take her anger when she got angry enough to confront him about it.

Adrian was a strong woman, and not everyone in the group knew why she had become that way. He knew that she was looking out for what was best for Lori which was why he let her get away with the occasional beating on him.

And because he remembered a truth that she had spoken to him some time ago. It was because she was strong and cared for the group so much that she stayed with them after the farm, but he needed her much more than she needed him and the group. She had survived on her own, with the exception of Kale, for a while before she had been asked to join the group.

And while he had his doubts that she would leave the group now, mostly because of Daryl, he didn't want to push the wrong button and it cause her to leave the group. Looking away from the sleeping red head, Rick looked over to see Daryl looking at him.

"We're gettin' ready to head out to the armory, if you can manage to untangle yourself." Rick whispered down at him. Daryl looked down and seen what Rick was talking about and gave a soft snort of amusement. He then looked up at Rick and gave a nod.

A few minutes later Daryl joined Rick and T-Dog with his crossbow. "How's Adrian?" T-Dog asked when he noticed the hunter without his woman stalking from somewhere in the background. "Sleepin' still. Didn't wanna wake her up. She's been more exhausted than usual lately." Daryl explained to him.

"And you managed to get away from her without wakin' her up? Is she okay? That's unlike her." T-Dog asked a little worried. They were all light sleepers but Adrian was known for jerking at the slightest sound or movement.

"Ain't been sleepin' good lately. Nightmares are comin' back more often." Daryl said. They all knew of her nightmares too. Some of them were louder than others. "Yeah, well let her sleep. She's been pushin' herself too hard lately. She needs the rest." Rick said as he checked the ammo in his gun.

"Alright, let's go." he said as he holstered his weapon.

Adrian woke a while later to find herself alone. Looking around Adrian heard more than seen the others. Getting up Adrian walked over to Lori's cell and seen the woman laying on the bottom bunk with her hands on her stomach.

"How's she doin'?" Adrian asked as she walked in and took a at on a seat that had been brought up.

"She?" Lori asked. "I can tell. It's a girl and she'll grow up to be strong. Like the rest of us." she said with a small smile as she placed her hand on Lori's extended belly. "Okay, I suppose. As good as we can be." she said as she looked at Adrian. Lori noticed that Adrian's hair was loose and wild, as it tended to be when she was alone with Daryl for an extended period of time.

"Can I ask you something?" Lori asked. Adrian just looked at her to let her know that it was okay. "Why did you start looking out for me? I mean, when we met you could barely stand me." she asked. Lori had thought about it alot since they left the farm but never had the courage to ask.

"Well in my defense as to when we first met, you treated me as a threat. Acted as if I was trying to take Carl from you, be his new mother when all I wanted was to look out for him." she said before she looked down at where their hands lay.

"I had to accept almost at the beginning of this thing that if you wanted to survive, you had to rethink everything you had ever been taught before the outbreak. I lost Seth because I didn't look out for him right. And then Kale showed up and I thought it was a small way to redeem myself for what I let happen to Seth. And then Carl showed up and it was Seth all over again." she whispered.

"Carl was small, defenseless, and didn't know how to take care of himself. I found him in that tree without so much as a stick for protection. So I decided that I would take him back to camp and teach him a few things. Just in case he every got separated from your group again. And then after the CDC blew up and we had to stay in the nursing home, everyone was trying to protect the women and the kids from the truth of things, when in my opinion they should have been telling it to ya'll straight. You needed to be afraid. You needed to know the real dangers of the way the world is now." she continued.

"But when I seen you with Carl, all I saw was everyone babying him and Sophia. 'Keep within my eyesight. Don't touch that weapon.' I had my opinion about how he should have been treated in the beginning but I also respected that you were his mother and not me, which is why me and Kale kept an eye on them so much. If I'm being honest, I didn't really trust ya'll to protect them properly." she said looking up to see Lori's reaction to the confession.

"But then when we had to leave the farm, with you pregnant, I knew that for the safety of not only you but for the baby, that you needed extra protection. And not from just the walkers. I know that Rick has pulled away more and more the closer she gets to coming and I try to beat some sense into him, but we need him alive so I can't beat him the way I would like or feel that he deserves." Adrian said with a small smile at the end.

"Alright. Enough with this depressing shit, lets get you downstairs and with some proper company." Adrian said getting up and helping Lori up from her bed and down the stairs.