Daryl was gone when I awoke, so I made my way to the group campfire just in time to see Rick, Glenn, and Herschel arrive with Randall, throwing a new wrench into the works. After what seemed like a never-ending discussion about what to do among the group members, Shane predictably taking sides against Rick and Herschel, I decided I couldn't stand it anymore and needed some fresh air. I kept myself busy helping Patricia with the animals and garden, and found that I really enjoyed the familiar task of pulling weeds. If I closed my eyes I could almost imagine I was at my parent's farm.

Daryl spent the day with T-Dog, working on the tractor, which had been giving them some trouble, and repairing a fence. I didn't talk to him until dinner, which we were now eating inside the farmhouse. Herschel had clearly warmed to Rick, and it seemed our group was going to be able to stay.

Watching Daryl and T-Dog work on the fence had gotten me thinking about how we could make the farm safer, and I hoped to get a few minutes to discuss it with Rick, our de facto leader, but Shane wouldn't let the issue of Randall go, and between that and all the work around the farm it took a couple of days before I could get some time alone with him.

Daryl and I had mostly just crashed at night, tired from working all day, but I'd talked a little about getting ready for winter, and he'd hummed his agreement or nodded most of the time, so felt like I was on pretty solid ground. I caught up to Rick as he headed toward the fence repair project and asked for a minute.

"I think we need to really think about the next few months, or even longer." I said, ramping up my persuasive argument skills. "If we're going to stay here for the winter, and I think we should, we need to start making runs into town to find warm clothes and some warmer bedding. We've got to figure out how to keep everyone inside, maybe go to abandoned farms and pick their produce so we can preserve a lot of it since we're nearing the end of the growing season. If we can find some animals to bring back we'll be able to have meat as well, and maybe we can even find a cow or goat that's in milk, or at least bred. We should be able to get lots of dried beans, grains, and flour in town but we've got to start now so we can arrange storage for it all, and come up with a chore schedule so everyone's pitching in. And I think we need to use the winter, when there's not much to do on the farm, to build walls. We can find all kinds of material that could be built up around the fences so we aren't so visible to walkers."

Rick had stayed silent while I talked, and I stopped to give him a chance to reply. I knew I had blurted out a lot and caught him off guard, but he just nodded slowly and said, "You're right. I shoulda been thinkin' about that too. I've just been so focused on what needed to be done right now . . ."

"Of course you have," I said. "You've been doing a good job of taking care of all that, which is the only reason I've had time to think about it. And I'm happy to organize it and come up with a plan, I'm just going to need your help to get everyone on board when the time comes." He regarded me thoughtfully and shook his head with a rueful smile. "I guess I shoulda taken more time to get to know you, Ana. I just kinda thought of you as Daryl's liberal friend who packs a punch when she gets pissed off."

I could feel the heat in my cheeks as I retorted defensively, "Just so you know, I'd never punched anyone before. And I apologized!" but Rick was laughing and raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, no judgment! You let her know how you felt and she survived just fine. But in all seriousness, you want to organize this? It's not too much?"

"Nope, it's right in my wheelhouse," I said. "I'll talk to Maggie about what's available around here, see if she and Glenn can scope out some nearby farms. I'll work on a list of what we need from town so folks can be more organized on runs, and figure out who knows what when it comes to food preservation. That'll get us started." Rick nodded and grasped my shoulder. "I appreciate that, and it sounds like you're more than capable. Let me know what you need from me, anytime." With that, he headed toward the fence and I walked to the farmhouse with a new sense of purpose.

I spent the next couple of days working on a list of projects and needed supplies with Maggie. She knew all the local farms and we speculated on what we could recover from the ones she knew were abandoned. I could tell she was hesitant to raid the homes of people she'd known her whole life, and worried about what she might find, but knew it was necessary. Whatever we didn't find there, we needed to get from town, including medical supplies. It sounded like Lori's labor with Carl was difficult, and we needed to be prepared for that in addition to injuries and illness.

Carol had done some food preservation in the past, and I spent every fall canning on the weekends, so we created a rough schedule for taking over the kitchen to preserve what was left of the harvest, and I figured we could use the cold months to teach everyone some basic cooking skills so we could share the burden of meal prep.

Coming up with a way to reinforce the fences was more difficult, particularly since I didn't know much about construction. I made my way to my tent after dinner, the night before Rick and Shane planned to take Randall out and drop him off, and found Daryl had built a fire and was working on forming more bolts for his crossbow.

He looked up as I sat down on a log across from him. "How's the planning comin'?" I wiped a hand over my face and groaned. "Fine, I guess, I'm just kind of stumped when it comes to the protection part. Any ideas on how to build up the fences so walkers can't see us, or get through? I'm worried we'll get a big group like on the highway, and they'll push through a fence if they're drawn toward the lights and noise."

Daryl scratched his chin, thoughtfully. "Could take down a barn nearby, maybe, or find a lumber yard. Wouldn' be hard to build the fences taller and close in all the gaps, it'd just take a while. But makin' 'em stronger . . . I dunno. Wood just ain't gonna hold under enough pressure. We'd need bricks or cinder blocks, and probably concrete to make somethin' really sturdy." I nodded. "Maybe we start by building them higher, and then collect any bricks or cinder blocks we can, and work our way around the base to start? It won't be perfect, but better than nothing. Is that even doable though?"

Daryl shrugged. "Yeah, we jus' need to start now and do a little at a time. Not sure Shane's gonna be on board though. I don't think he wants to stay here, and he's barely talkin' to Rick right now. You told him about any a yer plans?" I shook my head. "No. Just Maggie, Carol, and Rick. Lori's focused on Carl and helping with Beth, and Andrea doesn't know shit about putting up food for winter. I figure she can help with runs to town maybe, but I haven't talked to her about it. I was holding off on recruiting folks to help until after this whole Randall thing was over."

Daryl huffed out a humorless laugh. "Takin' care of Randall ain't gonna solve the problem between Rick and Shane. It's gonna end bad and I jus' hope it's Rick that comes out on top. Don' trust Shane at all." I knew that Daryl had come to respect Rick and I was pretty Rick had started to see Daryl in a new light as well. I could imagine the two of them working well together, if Shane wasn't constantly causing problems. "Yeah, he worries me too. He was weird the other night when I ran into him."

Daryl turned to look at me and raised an eyebrow in a silent question. "It wasn't a big deal," I assured him, "he just got pissed and told me there wasn't room for everyone in the group." I left out the physical intimidation - Daryl didn't need another reason to go off on someone. He watched me carefully for a moment with narrowed eyes but went back to his work without comment.

I watched the flames for a bit, listening to Daryl's knife scrape down the wood he held in his hand until I was too tired to sit up straight and the logs had burned down. We kicked dirt on the embers and I was trudging to my tent when Daryl spoke quietly in the darkness, "It's good what yer doin', Ana. Rick sees that, said as much today. Nobody else can think that far ahead, make plans. He's gonna listen to what you say."

I took a couple of steps until I was close enough to see Daryl's silhouette in the dark. "He needs you too, you know. He's not relying on Shane anymore and I think he's starting to look to you." He didn't respond, but I reached out and squeezed his arm gently. "Good night, Daryl," I said, lifting the flap to my tent.

I lay in the dark, straining to hear Daryl's steady breathing just a few feet away in his tent. I closed my eyes and tried to think of my husband, rather than leather and smoke, tanned skin, and piercing blue eyes. I pushed my hands down against my stomach, willing the arousal to go away so I could sleep. It felt like hours, but eventually, I drifted off, only to dream of his voice in my ear and hard body pressed against mine.