I started this story because I felt like I needed a bit of delicious Daryl fluff in my life - so hopefully that appeals to some of you out there.

This is set at the beginning of Season 4 where I think Daryl is the most relaxed and (sort of) open, before some of the later heavy stuff hits.

The major movements of the fic will be canon, however this is mostly non-canon to keep it interesting (and canon stuff won't be too detailed).

Also I'm taking artistic liberties with the timelines, starting with an imagined extension of about 4 months between the start of Season 4 (start of this fic) and the prison sickness.

This is primarily a romance, and there'll be enough fluff to give you allergies. Or make you puke. Or both. But I promise there is plot and drama too.

And it's a slooooooooooooow burn as the Daryl/OC relationship is set up, so hopefully it's believable.

Lots of eventual focus on Daryl/OC over action.

Gets a bit gritty in parts - there are a few trigger warnings in this story (apart from the usual Walking Dead graphic violence) at this stage, namely referenced suicide, sexual assault and rape, which I'll mention at the beginning of a chapter. Explicit language throughout. Rating will change later for smut.

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Walking Dead.

So, if you got through all that and this STILL sounds like your cup of tea, please, have a taste.

Fic is cross-posted on AO3 under my username there: stormmminateacup

Chapter 1 - Finding Tahlia

"Clear!" Glenn rounded the corner in the convenience store, ushering the others forward.

"There's not much left here that's any good to us!" remarked Maggie, swiping her hand along empty shelves.

"Just grab what you can. Anything!"

"Walkers!"

The rouse to arms came from Michonne, as the rasping groans surrounded them. The undead followed the noise in from the streets, and were blocking safe exit. Michonne unsheathed her sword and advanced without a second thought. The sound of the damned dead really riled her up sometimes. She could only stand so much of that moaning before she wanted to tear her dreadlocks out. As she slashed her sword through the nearest walker's head, she caught sight of Maggie to her right, knife in hand.

"How many we got?"

"Not too many – yet." replied Maggie. "A handful. But we'd better get what we want and go soon."

"I'll clear the entrance to the store."

"How we going ladies?" shouted Glenn from behind them. "I can't even find a single Advil on these shelves! Have I got time to shoot to the storeroom and see if there's anything worth grabbing in there?"

"Glenn!" cried Maggie, worried, glancing behind her.

"I'll cover him." came Daryl's gruff voice, as he followed the younger man to the back of the store, crossbow at the ready.

In the gloomy storeroom, it took the men a while for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

"This way! I think I can see some boxes, might have some useful stuff in them." Glenn vaulted over spilled goods on the floor, and headed down a dark aisle.

Daryl stopped in his tracks, the skin on the back on his neck prickling. There was a faint rustle to his left. If he hadn't been a seasoned hunter and tracker, he would surely have missed it, as Glenn had, but Daryl knew they weren't alone. Raising his crossbow to his chin, he slowed and let the environment talk to him.

"I got some stuff! Here!" called an excited Glenn. "Finally, we've got some-"

"Drop your weapons and raise your hands." Daryl's growl stopped Glenn's ransacking in his tracks.

"Daryl?" Glenn couldn't see the other man, but it was clear he'd identified a threat.

Shoving as much as he could manage in his pack, Glenn tentatively pulled his gun, and headed back towards his friend. As he rounded an aisle, he saw Daryl's crossbow pointed into the back of the neck of a kneeling female, her hands on her head in surrender. The meagre light in the dingy storeroom made it difficult to get a good look at her, but from her rigid posture, Glenn could see she looked strong and not as afraid as she should be of the bolt digging into her neck.

"How many others?!" demanded Daryl.

"Just me."

"How many?!" Daryl pressed the tip of the bolt into her skin.

"Just. Me." came her steady low hiss. "I'm not a threat to you. I was just laying low until you left. Let me go."

"Not happenin'!" snarled Daryl. "Glenn - got what you need?"

Glenn grunted assent, still training his gun on their detainee.

"You." Daryl shoved her roughly with his crossbow. "Stand up, walk to the front of the store, keep ya hands up. Glenn, grab that pack and that sword."

Following the instruction, Glenn was surprised to find a katana nearly identical to the one that Michonne wore everywhere, but picked it up without question, and followed Daryl through the storeroom to the front of the shop, where Maggie was waiting anxiously for them.

"Who is this?" questioned Maggie, standing near the store's exit, as Daryl and his hostage emerged.

"Found her hidin' in the storeroom, probably waitin' to take us out."

"If I wanted to take you out, do you really think I would have just been sitting back there behind some boxes?" replied the female mildly.

"Shut it!" barked Daryl, jabbing his arrow at her once again.

Glenn appeared a few feet from Daryl, dropping the packs on the floor, still holding the captive's sword casually in his hand, and looked towards Maggie. "You girls ok? Walkers taken care of?"

Without warning, in a blur of movement, the woman ducked out of Daryl's reach, forward rolled towards Glenn, sidestepped behind him and knocked the sword from his hand, while flipping a knife out of her back pocket and pressing it hard into his throat with one hand, yanking his head back with the other.

"Glenn!" screamed Maggie, aiming her gun in that general direction, but knowing full well she couldn't take a shot without hitting him, should she need to fire.

Daryl whirled immediately, mentally kicking himself for not patting her down properly, and once again trained his crossbow on her. "Let'im go!"

Her steely green eyes met his glare from behind Glenn's shoulder. "Hmm, funny. I asked you for the same courtesy a few minutes ago. And what was your answer...?"

Just then, Michonne, who had been out in the carpark putting down the last of the group of walkers, entered the store, stopping in her tracks at the tense scene.

"What the..?" Instinctively she drew her sword, and dropped her stance defensively. The assailant hadn't seen her yet, so Michonne ducked behind a shelf, hoping to sneak up on her blind side.

"You're outnumbered. Let him go, and we won't kill ya." growled Daryl.

"Bullshit." came the reply and a disbelieving laugh. "How about - drop your weapons, and I won't kill you. All of you. Starting with this guy."

A sudden sharp intake of breath from Michonne drew Daryl's attention for a brief moment. He darted a sideways glance at her to see what was going on. The dreadlocked woman had re-sheathed her sword and stepped slowly forward, her eyes searching, trying to get a good look at the woman behind Glenn.

"Hey!" Daryl barked at Michonne. "Hey!" trying to convey the need for her to be on guard - but she took no notice. Instead, she took one more tentative step forward, squatted down and craned her neck, studying the handle of the dropped katana. She slowly raised her head. "No. Way. Tahlia? Tahly? Is that you?"

A long, tense moment passed, then the knife at Glenn's throat slowly lowered, he was released, and his captor peered cautiously around him before hesitantly stepping into the light. Her clothes were ragged and her skin was smeared with dirt, her dark hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun and her green eyes were narrowed, disbelievingly eyeing the woman kneeling by her sword.

"Mich?"

Michonne suddenly dived forward, scooping the newcomer into her arms with an excited whoop. They embraced tightly, half laughing, half sobbing, rocking from side to side.

"Lower your damn weapon, Daryl." instructed Michonne, her face still buried in the other woman's shoulder. Finally, they let go, holding each other at arm's length.

"How is this possible?!" said Michonne, shaking her head. "I searched for you... I thought they had killed you!"

The newcomer swiped a rogue tear away from her face. "And I thought you were dead. You sure looked dead when... when we got separated. And the biters were coming..."

An ominous rasping noise started to rise from outside the store front, and Maggie shouted out. "Come on guys, we gotta get out of here, now!"

Obediently, everyone headed for the door. A horde of walkers were stumbling across the carpark towards them.

"In the car, quick, let's go!" shouted Glenn, diving into the Hyundai.

Daryl grabbed Michonne's shoulder. "Hold up! She ain't coming with us! We don't know her!"

Michonne shot him a deadly glare. "I know her. She's coming, I'm not leaving her here!"

"Ain't happenin'. Haven't even asked her the questions yet!" Daryl said stubbornly.

Maggie intervened. "Daryl! What's your problem? You've brought others back to the prison, what's one more? If Michonne says she knows her, then she's safe! Come on, we have to go, now! The questions can wait!" Maggie shoved the new girl into the back seat of the car, and the decision was made.

Daryl scowled, jumping on his bike, speeding after the car down the dusty road.

In the back of the car, Michonne gripped tightly to the filthy hand of the other woman, and they stayed silent for a long time. Glenn kept checking the rearview mirror as he drove, half expecting her to lunge forward and slit his throat.

"So..." Maggie broke the silence. "You guys know each other?"

Michonne nodded, but was too emotional to speak, so just tightened her grip on her friend's hand.

The stranger drew a ragged breath. "Yes. We know each other. We used to... survive together. From the beginning." she managed evenly. "My name is Tahlia."

Maggie introduced herself and Glenn, then waited for more information, but it never came. "So..." she started again, twisting round from the front seat. "Can I ask what happened to you two... out there?"

"It was just me and Mich for a while. But then we got separated."

Michonne brushed away a tear, then turned towards her friend, her voice heavy with emotion. "I searched for you. For any trace. But I couldn't find..."

Tahlia patted her friend's hand. "It's ok. They put me in a car and took me away. There was no way you could've found me. But... but they left you there on the ground... you were unconscious and the dead were coming. I thought you were..." Tahlia choked on her words.

Michonne shook her head. "They gave me a pretty bad knock to the head, then I passed out as they were dragging you away. It took me a while to come around. But that rasping noise! It got me moving. I managed to climb a tree before any of them got to me, I waited it out 'til I was strong enough to fight them. And then I started searching." whispered Michonne, her eyes shining with tears. "I couldn't find you, but I found someone else who was in a bad way, so I decided to help her. You know, pay forward what you did for me."

Maggie, still twisted in her seat, sank a little lower, feeling like she was witnessing a private moment as the two women clutched each other's hands and spilled their last memories of one another during what was obviously a very traumatic time.

"Thank God, Michy. Thank God you've survived all this time! I just can't believe this - imagine you raiding a store that I was hiding out in."

Michonne shook her head in disbelief. "Must've been meant to find each other again."

They shared an emotional look, squeezing their hands together, unable to believe their paths had crossed again by chance.

"So..." ventured Michonne, afraid to ask the question, but she had to know. "Those guys... those fucking assholes... what happened? How did you get away? Did they... did they... hurt you?" She was sure she knew the answer to that. She just didn't know how bad the answer would be.

Tahlia chewed her lip for a moment. The metallic tang of blood stung her tongue. "I had a chance to escape, and I took it. I got away. Nothing else matters."

A look of concern crackled across Michonne's face. Those guys were savages, there was just no way that Tahlia had escaped from them unscathed. "Tahly, they-"

"I'm still here." she said firmly. "Let's leave it at that."

Michonne nodded, knowing not to push any further, and squeezed her eyes shut tight, laying her head on her friend's shoulder, hardly daring to believe that this was real, that she had been reunited with Tahlia, that good things could still happen in this world.