sorry for the wait folks. I've been busy with life, but I'm back now!

please leave a comment, i wanna read about what you think! LY!


oOo

Diana was rudely awoken from her sleep by a kick to the shin. By good luck, too. Dream-girl was back and it seemed to Diana that her subconscious was trying to make her go absolutely crazy.

She'd dreamt of a night spent on top of a tree, evading walkers down below. Her heart had been racing and her hands had trembled with a tingle Diana recognized.

She had been mumbling something almost inaudible, over and over, like a mantra. Diana caught her faint whisper right before waking up. I'm real, Diana, I'm real.

Diana had no idea what to make of it. She'd already established that these were no normal dreams, but was she willing to toe across the line as to say that they were real? That 'dream-girl' was real? Out there somewhere, and somehow Diana was picking up on her memories?

It was the kind of absurd she relished to believe in. But what if instead of that she really was just going crazy?

Diana sat up groggily, hands to her pounding head, making the ache in her shin completely vanish. She glared up at the culprit of the kick, Alice, and offered her a pained sneer and a waved dismissal.

Alice scoffed at her sister. She crossed her arms and lifted one shoulder casually. "Okay, thought you'd wanna know that Daryl's back and shit's pretty much going down, but I guess you don't care about that, huh?"

All grogginess fell away. Diana wiped her face with her hands, rubbing away the stickiness of her eyes. She struggled to entangle her legs from her bedding and got up. She didn't waste time to change out of her sleeping clothes nor redo her messy droopy half-ponytail. She ran barefoot past a snickering Alice.

It was easy to follow the sounds of the scuffle and see where the most people had aggregated. Diana ran up to Dale's RV, a sharp rock that caused pain to shoot up her bare foot. She called out to the spectators, demanding them to step aside as she limped past them.

For some reason, they easily obeyed.

She saw Shane putting Daryl in a choke hold. Holding him down while the man struggled to free himself.

She saw red. Rage pooled in her lower belly and her legs propelled her forward. "Hey! Hey!" she called out and punched Shane on the side. "Let go of him, Officer Dum-Dum, you hear me?" He flinched away and glared up at her, but didn't lose his hold.

Her next instinct was to bite him, but Rick grabbed her before her snapping jaw could get anywhere near Shane's flesh. He lifted her away with some difficulty, as she kicked the air and embedded her fingernails into his forearms.

Diana contorted herself and elbowed him on the side of the head, freeing herself. Her stomach started turning at the almost lost memory of sweaty hands holding her and the terrible thought of what could've been. She turned to Rick and pointed a finger at him. "Don't ever touch me without my permission." It was out of place but she needed that to be established.

Rick lifted his hands in surrender and nodded his agreement.

Diana could see the red spot on the side of his temple that she'd hit. Soon, a bruise would take its place. She felt sorry underneath it all. It wasn't her job to do harm to the people under her care.

In that breath of a moment, she found clarity. She must've looked like a wild thing, feet bare and bloody, tousled hair, all that was left was baring her teeth.

She saw her mom and dad stalk up from the crowd, her dad seemingly on a warpath towards Rick. Diana raised her hand to him and shook her head fiercely. Irene held Sam back by the arm and said something to him that called him off but still had him at the edge of his figurative seat.

Diana wondered if Rick knew how much power she held over his life? The intrusiveness of that thought repulsed her.

She shook it off. She tightened her ponytail until it was half decent and straightened her disheveled shirt. She cleared her throat, careful to keep an even neutral tone, and asked, "What's the meaning of this?" She gestured at the two men locked in fight while avoiding looking at the sight.

Rick tilted his head. "We just want to have a calm discussion with him about what happened with his brother," he said, trying to appease her.

Diana snorted, neutrality falling away. She looked at her friend being held down by Shane, his face turning red, his eyes wild on hers, then back to Rick. She swallowed thickly. "And that's your way of going about it? Real progressive." She glared at Shane and clenched her fists along with her jaw. "Let him go, you chewed up piece of gum."

One good look at her mom in a crowd of judgmental faces and Diana realized she'd forgone every bit of diplomacy the woman had taught her. So she straightened herself, swallowed down her anger and embarrassment and smoothed back her hair with calm breaths.

She nodded at Rick. "Tell your buddy to back off, then we'll discuss things."

"He came at me with a knife," Rick told her in an attempt to justify their actions.

Diana breathed in disbelief and gestured wildly with her hands. "You left his brother handcuffed to a pipe on an overrun building. Shit, I would come at you with a knife!"

Rick looked at his feet, somewhat troubled. Seeing as Daryl had ceased to struggle against his captor, he nodded at Shane to release him.

She stepped around Rick and considered pettily bumping into his shoulder, but decided against it. She liked Rick, even despite this.

Shane's glare towards her didn't vanish as she helped Daryl up to his feet, but she was way past caring about what he thought of her. She returned the glare, with a side of disgusted sneer. She'd been almost on the verge of blowing him a raspberry but refrained herself.

Daryl shook her off as soon as he was standing, looking at her as if she'd committed high treason. "You knew and you let 'em?"

Diana could've rolled her eyes. "I only found out he wasn't with us once we got back. Don't think so low of me, Daryl."

He was pacing, like he often did in times of distress, his gaze jumping from Rick to Shane to her.

She noticed the red around his neck from Shane's tight hold. She stopped his pacing by reaching out and cupping his neck. Her fingertips prodded lightly against the red ring, her thumbs gently over his Adam's apple. "Does that hurt?" she whispered, feeling it move as he swallowed.

He looked conflicted, his blue eyes soft on her but the rest of him rigid and tense, halfway between melting under her hands and exploding in an outburst of rage.

Finally, he shook his head. Diana let her palm rest against the side of his neck, her thumb along his jawline. She gave it a small caress before dropping her hand and facing Rick, who'd been observing the interaction with interest.

"Now we talk," Diana announced and Rick nodded at her. Diana spotted her mom's nod of approval as she locked arms with a calmer Sam.

Rick looked past Diana at Daryl, who stood silently, glaring daggers at him. "You gotta understand that what I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others. You should've heard what he said to her," Rick said, gesturing at Diana. Sneaky son, this Rick. "It was the catalyst of the dispute."

She widened her eyes at him in reprove. "That doesn't- it's got nothing to do with it." She glanced quickly at her family and back to Rick; they didn't know about that. And also, did he really think Daryl would see that as a plausible justification? She was nothing to him compared to his brother, she'd be a fool to think otherwise.

"That grant him to be chained up like some animal, left for dead?" Daryl retaliated before resuming his pacing.

"It's not Rick's fault," T-Dog interjected, all eyes on him. "I had the key. I dropped it."

Daryl frowned at him. "Couldn't pick it up?"

Diana cringed as T-Dog sheepishly explained how he had dropped it down a drain. She turned to Daryl, awaiting his response.

He breathed in dejection, almost a sob, before swiping his forearm over his eyes, cleaning away tears that had pooled there. Diana's heart skipped a beat in compassion. He glared at T-Dog and started walking away. "If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

T-Dog explained how he chained the door to the roof, and that the chances of any walker bringing it down were very low. Merle was still alive out there.

"It's gotta count for something," said Rick, hand on his hip in authority as he squinted at Daryl in the sunlight.

Daryl kept his pacing, his chest expanding with every heavy intake of air. His brow creased and the back of his hand flew to his eyes again.

Diana chewed on the inside of her cheek, her hands itching to do something. She didn't move, though, knowing that in his state of mind, he'd resent anything resembling pity coming from her. And knowing herself, she'd resent his rejection and would shut him off out of hurt. And that was sentimentality that she couldn't afford right now.

"Hell with all y'all!" Daryl yelled out, pointing at them, "Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him." He sounded completely exhausted.

Just when Diana parted her lips to volunteer to go with him, Lori, from her perch by the RV, spoke, "He'll show you. Isn't that right?"

Rick regarded his wife for a short moment and nodded. He told Daryl that he'd be going back. Daryl stared at him before stalking away, past Diana without a second glance at her, and only stopping to grab his stuff off the ground.

oOo

"What do you mean you're going back?" Irene asked Diana, enraged, as soon as they were back at their camp. "Remember yesterday, when we forbid you from that? Did you hit your head since then? 'Cause I'll tell you again: NÃO! Should I tell you again in Spanish? ¡NO!"

"You don't fucking remember what happened last time? You just itching for another near-death experience." Sam grabbed Diana by the upper arm and turned her to him just as she was about to enter her tent.

"You're hurting me!" she whimpered and clawed at her dad's larger fingers.

He let go and stepped away, breathing heavily through his nose, reminding her of a bull before it charges. "You could've fucking died! Is that what you want? You wanna die? We had this goddamned conversation before and you still did what you wanted and were almost taken from us." Sam paced. "Now you wanna go through that again? For Merle motherfucking Dixon? Did it get into that thick skull of yours how insane that is?"

Diana stood silent, any other time and she would've quietly acquiesced to her parents because they were right and she was wrong. But she didn't want to go back just to defy them, this wasn't mindless rebellion. This was simply something she had to do, with or without her parents' blessing. She'd been hoping towards the former, however unlikely that seemed.

There was a sense of duty that compelled her, the need to do good by her friend, to help him recover his only family. It became a powerful cocktail when mixed with guilt.

Twenty-one years she had always done what her parents asked her, had always been a good daughter. Was it too much to ask that they let her do this one thing?

She understood where they came from, they wanted to keep her safe and away from danger. But danger was everywhere nowadays, and they wouldn't always be able to shelter her from it. One way or another she'd end up exposed to it.

She had proved herself out there in the city, she had shown herself and others of what she was capable and her parents knew that. That was only the beginning of what she could become. They told her to believe in herself but didn't let her do what she needed to do, what she believed to be right.

Besides, she wouldn't be alone; Daryl would be there, with his incredible skills, and so would Rick, whom Diana knew to be a good marksman. They would have each other's backs.

"I'll be back before you know it," Diana whispered, staring into her dad's hazel-green eyes. Her tone was half begging, half affirming. She tried hard not to recall her siblings' words from the night before. Tried hard not to imagine her dad's teary eyes.

"Diana, I'm not fucking around. I will tie your ass down if that's what I need to do." His jaw was clenched and Diana could see the speed of his pulse on his neck.

"Then I'll find a way to untie myself and go," she whispered back.

Sam exhaled through his nose, his lips pressed tightly together. He stalked towards her with a raised hand. Diana whimpered and cowered behind her arms, awaiting the blow. She felt herself revert back to her seven-year-old self, fear filling her very form.

"Samuel!" Irene called out, grabbing onto her husband's arm, bringing it down. "If you hit her, I swear to God I won't ever forgive you!"

Sam stomped away and shouted out in rage before grabbing a foldable chair and flinging it off camp, into the forest, where it disappeared among the underbrush. "She's going to kill herself! Why can't she see that?! I'm tryna protect her, tryna keep her alive! I'm just- I want-"

"I'm not going to die," Diana insisted, feeling her gut clench with dread and her chest tighten with strange foreboding. She approached his turned back, somewhat fearful that he'd lash out, and slowly put her arms around him, her hands resting on his chest. "I'll come back safe and sound and with stupid tales to tell, I promise."

"If I can't convince you to stay the hell put, then there's no fucking way I'm not coming with you," Sam whispered, ignoring her promises.

Diana ripped herself away from him and frowned as he faced her. "What? No, you're not! You're not coming with us."

Sam stared intensely back. "It's the only way I can be sure you'll be safe."

"But you wouldn't, you'd only put us in more danger," Diana regretted it as soon as she said it.

Sam inhaled, indignant. "Why's that? You think I'm not capable of protecting my own goddamn child?"

"No, of course it's not that, that's not what I meant. I- You don't understand the language, pai, what if there's an emergency and they need you to do something and you don't even know what the heck they're saying?" Diana defended.

Irene chimed in, arms tightly crossed and bloodshot eyes, "She's got a point, Sam. I don't think that's such a great idea. Don't get me wrong, I don't think she should be going, too." She eyed Diana, pleading. "We should let them go about their business and we keep to ours. We've always functioned that way and it's always worked for us so far, so why bother now, Diana? Please."

"I don't know!" Diana admitted, throwing her hands up. "I don't know, maybe I've got something to prove, maybe I wanna show you that I can take care of myself!"

Irene came to her, desperately grabbing her hands. "But you don't need to. Diana, mija, you don't need to prove anything to anyone."

"Or maybe 'cause we- I owe a lot to Daryl, okay? And how do I repay? By letting his brother chained like an animal, out there to be eaten by walkers.

I mean, what if it was Alice? What if it was Felix? Or me? Or dad? How'd you feel if your only family was left behind and no one else gave a shit except you?!" Diana sucked in a breath and looked to the side, avoiding her mother's tearful gaze and the effect it had on her.

"It wasn't your fault, you said so yourself, you only found out when you came back. It's not your responsibility."

"But I let Rick handcuff him, hell, I even thought it was funny, I enjoyed it. I'm part of the problem here and I need to do something about it. I need to, you understand? It's only right."

Sam sighed, his shoulders sagged and he didn't bother to look at her. "We could stand here all fucking day and I still wouldn't get why the hell you wanna do this. So go. Do whatever the fuck you want. Run off and don't come back, for all I care."

His words struck a bolt through her chest. "Don't- don't say that," Diana begged, her voice cracking. "Don't say that to me."

"Sam…" Irene called at her retreating husband, her voice wavering.

"You're so eager to abandon your family to go on your damn hero quest," he sounded defeated, and it opened a hole in Diana's chest to know she was the cause of his suffering. "You never should've found that thing."

She felt the tears prick behind her eyes as they threatened to spill and the ache in her throat as she forced back her sobs. "Papa… please, please," she begged, "Don't be mad at me, please."

"If you come back, don't fucking bother coming to see me." He disappeared into his tent without a backward glance.

Irene gave Diana a remorseful and disappointed look over her shoulder before following him in, leaving Diana to the guilt and conflict festering in her conscience.

oOo

Diana stepped out of her tent, fully clothed and equipped. Med-kit on her back and bow on her shoulder.

She chanced a glance at her parents' tent, which remained closed all the way. Diana couldn't begin to imagine the heartache she was causing them. It hurt her deeply to go against them like this.

She was torn between staying and going, she honestly didn't know what to do. She thought she did, but now neither choice seemed like the right one. No matter how she looked at the situation, she couldn't find an easy solution. So she was stuck with her initial conviction.

"Just like that, huh?"

Diana jumped, startled, and turned on her heel. She saw Alice step out of the tree line as stealthy as a cat, folded chair hanging from one hand. The corner of her mouth was turned in distaste, and she was glaring with an intensity that made Diana curl in on herself in shame.

"If it was you or Felix, they'd want someone to go get you," Diana defended weakly, avoiding her sister's hazel-green gaze, so much like their dad's.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of differences between one of us and Merle fucking Dixon," Alice spat and forcefully folded open the chair. She dropped onto it, back facing Diana.

"Alice, please, not you too. Don't be mad at me," Diana pleaded and immediately realized it had been the wrong thing to say. Alice didn't like it when someone assumed how she was feeling.

She stood abruptly, her short frame extended to its full height. "I'm not mad," she hissed between her teeth, seething, eyes boring into Diana's from under her long lashes. "You don't get anything. If you're gonna leave, then JUST. LEAVE."

Diana flinched away, her chest feeling both empty and heavy. She gave her an apologetic look, which was scoffed at, and turned away. She walked fast out of there, tears pooling in her eyes.

She didn't know how she'd make up to everyone once she came back, but she knew she would have to work hard for their forgiveness.

oOo

Diana wiped her eyes dry as she walked into earshot of the group gathered, just as T-Dog volunteered to accompany Daryl, Glenn, and Rick.

"That's four," Dale said, looking around the bystanders, maybe waiting for more volunteers.

Diana walked up behind Daryl. He was sitting on a wooden box, cleaning and readying his bolts. He looked up when she dropped her bag next to him. "Five," Diana said around the lump in her throat.

Daryl stood up in surprise and shook his head at her. "No, no, you ain't comin'."

Diana raised an eyebrow and stumbled over her words, "What the- what do you mean I'm not coming? Merle might need medical help, I'm the best person we've got for that."

"She tells me you've trained her, that right?" Rick asked him. That brought some curious looks from those who thought he was referring to her medical skills.

Daryl glanced from Rick to Diana, and tilted his head towards the man, asking a voiceless question.

Diana nodded, feeling slightly self-conscious. "He knows. And T-Dog, and Glenn, and all the others from yesterday. I had to… I had to show them."

Rick put a hand on the waist of his pants and looked at Daryl. "Now, you're the best judge of what she can and cannot do. You know whether or not she can help us out there. With what she does, I know I'd feel safer with her watching my back."

Diana felt highly flattered by his praise. Although it sounded as if he was putting the decision up to Daryl instead of her, and it irked her. If she was already going against her parents' wishes, it wasn't Daryl saying no that would stop her.

"I'm going whether you 'let' me or not. You need me, that's final." It was a pretentious thing to say, but she needed to sell it.

Shane rubbed his head, looking exasperated, and said, "What the hell are y'all talking about? Rick, why her? What training?"

Dale, ever so observant, stepped towards Diana, his eyes on the bow on her shoulder.

She shifted self-consciously, adjusting it with a shrug, feeling its casual purr.

"I believe," Dale started, drawing attention, "that he's talking about the golden secret Ms. Lobo's been keeping, isn't that right?" His wide owl-ish eyes bore into Diana's and she had to avert them.

"That thing? You mean to tell me that thing's not just for show?" Shane asked mockingly.

Rick fixed Diana with an encouraging look. "Now would be the time for a demonstration."

Diana gulped drily, feeling her heart skip a beat and then start thumping wildly in her chest. "Uhm… I don't- I don't think-" She didn't like that idea a lot. She didn't like being on display and she didn't want to be everyone's show monkey. She didn't want to be interrogated nor put on trial for what she could do. Yesterday had been only a sample, with only a few witnesses. She wanted to put off the real thing for as long as she could.

It also came the problem that she didn't like being the spot of attention before a crowd, especially one she feared would become a pitchfork and torch-bearing mob. Her doubts and fears became overwhelming; it was almost ridiculous.

"Or not," Rick concluded.

A hand on her forearm brought her back to focus, breaking the spell. Diana followed the touch to Daryl. His eyes stared into her own and she nodded at his silent question. "I'm fine, everything's hunky-dory." She winced at the expression, wondering where that one had come from.

He didn't look convinced, but Diana knew dwelling would only make her cry. She slipped her hand into his, hidden from everyone's sight, and gave it a gentle squeeze, trying to draw comfort from the touch but failing.

"You know what?" Shane said, thankfully moving on. "Fine, that's five of you. But It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick." He paced and faced Rick with an earnest expression. "Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"There was a walker here?" Diana asked Daryl in a whisper.

He whispered back, "Yeah, sunovabitch ate my deer."

Rick continued, "It seems to me what you really need most here… are more guns."

"Okay, and who here got a gun dispensing machine lying around?" Diana asked, squinting to look at Rick in the bright sunlight. "Not the claw ones, though, we'd die before we got something out." Her attempt at humor was ignored, probably for the best.

Glenn interjected and stepped forward, starting to remember, "Right… the guns."

Shane asked about said guns one last time before Rick explained that he'd left a duffel bag full of them lying on the street after he'd gotten swarmed in the city. Shotguns, rifles, handguns, all of which he'd retrieved from his station.

"You went through hell to find us," Lori interjected, look of disapproval pointed at her husband, "You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?"

Wait, what? "If my memory serves me right, Lori, you were the one who said Rick should show Daryl where to find Merle. You said that, right? Or am I imagining things?" Diana let go of Daryl's hand to cross her arms, fixing Lori with a cold stare.

Lori shook her head and huffed. "To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon?" she said with disdain, conveniently avoiding Diana's question, "He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand."

Diana breathed in disbelief. She wanted to like Lori, she was all about women supporting other women. But Lori was too much for her.

Rick walked up to his wife, telling her about a man and his little boy, who had saved him and whom he owed a debt. That was about when Diana turned to Daryl with a long sigh of exasperation. She grabbed onto his arm and bumped her forehead against his shoulder repeatedly.

"The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back, damn it," she whispered and rested her cheek on his warm skin.

"You sure you good?" Daryl asked in a whisper, for her ears only. "What'd your parents say?"

Diana winced and shook her head minimally. "I don't wanna talk about that." He sure knew how to hit the nail on the head, damn him.

oOo

"Hey, Diana," Glenn called as she waited for the van to pull up.

She expected an additional reprimand or demand for her to stay put. "Hey, what's up?"

"I'm uh- I'm glad you're coming with us," he started. He chuckled at the rise of Diana's brows. "Yeah, I mean, not really glad-glad, but like Rick said, I'll feel safer with you watching our backs. If you're as good as you made us believe."

"She is," Daryl supplied from inside the van as it parked next to them. "She's damn good." The corner of his mouth perked up in encouragement for a second.

Diana mustered a smile and faced Glenn while gesturing up at Daryl. "From the teacher himself. Fear not, youngling, I'll be there to protect you."

"Awesome," Glenn said, fighting off a grin. He gave her a friendly over-the-top slap on the arm and left to climb into the cabin of the van.

The smile dropped, too exhausting to hold. She passed Daryl her backpack and bow and accepted his hand to climb into the back of the van.

Once she was inside, Daryl pressed his foot on the steering wheel, making the horn blare. He shouted out the back at Rick and T-Dog to hurry it up.

Diana settled in, backpack cushioning her back and purring bow on her lap like a cat. She happened to eavesdrop on Shane and Rick as the former searched around his duffel for some loose rounds to give the latter. He brought up four. "Four men, four rounds."

Diana scoffed at being ignored by him once again, even in relation to something as morbid as mass suicide.

Rick heard it and glanced shortly at her, looking troubled. He replaced it with a small smile and said light-heartedly, "Not you, Diana. You… you'll outlive us all."

Diana chuckled humorlessly and looked outside. "Yeah, well, tell that to my parents."

She hoped to catch sight of her family, just any one of them, coming to see her off. She saw only relative strangers.

Then Daryl rolled down the back panel and her heart plunged to her stomach in near regret at what she was doing. But there was no going back now, she was going to go through with this, and she'd be back before they knew it.

oOo

The tension was thick like fog during the entire ride.

Diana considered saying something, anything, to ease it, but came up short. So she dwelled on her own problems, letting her thoughts fester inside her mind until they were like a literal weight on her.

She thought mostly of solutions; of how to make her family forgive her short of begging at their feet. She always thought it was better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. But this was not the case, seeing as permission had been denied and forgiveness would, therefore, be hard to achieve.

The bow purred against her fingertips, calming and tingling, and of a sudden Diana recognized the sensation anew. Dream-girl. Whether she was real or part of her subconscious, she had also been in contact with that same physical feeling that Diana's bow gave off.

Diana pulled her legs up and hid her face against her forearms. She shut her eyes tight and tried to make her mind go blank. If she wasn't already trickling down towards insanity, she'd soon be on the way if she dwelled on it any longer.

She was on the verge of sleep, lulled by the swaying of the van, when Daryl broke the silence, addressing T-Dog, "He'd better be okay. That's my only word on the matter."

Diana propped her chin on her forearm and blinked blearily at the two men.

T-Dog almost rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us."

The van stopped and Glenn turned in his seat towards them. "We walk from here."

Diana nodded and stood up, feeling her stomach tighten in knots with pure anxiety.

Daryl rolled the partition back up and jumped out. He held out a hand for Diana while she rushed to put on her backpack and bow in place. She took it and dropped down, her knees aching with the bad landing.

T-Dog clambered out after her, wincing in pain, a hand to his side. Diana hoped she hadn't misdiagnosed the state of his ribs.

The five of them followed the train tracks at a hurried pace, Glenn taking the lead.

When they reached the train station it was easy to go unnoticed. There weren't many walkers around, they made way by hiding train to train, then bus to bus, until they reached busier streets.

They took alleyways, keeping low and silent and quick until they reached the department store. It felt like a stealth-based game to Diana, those had always been her favorite.

They sneaked inside through the broken glass doors. It was pure chaos inside, as was to be expected. Mannequins were knocked over with missing limbs, clothes were strewn about, items knocked off their cases, overturned clothing stands, but at least the horde had dispersed.

Diana released her breath at the emptiness, her heart beating wildly from the suspense.

She almost knocked into Rick when he abruptly stopped and raised a hand for them to stay put. He gestured ahead to a lone walker, navigating down the store, comically looking like it was perusing the wares.

Diana tightened her grip on the bow, about to volunteer to take care of it. Unfortunately, Daryl was quicker. He stepped forward, spewed an insult at the walker's decrepit looks, then shot a bolt through its eye socket.

Rick deemed the area clear and led them up the stairs to the roof. Diana took two at a time at the rear of the group, trying to keep up and keep her breath even.

At the top of the staircase, she was glad to see that the chain and padlock had indeed held, which increased the probability of Merle's survival. Now it was only a matter of treating any existing nonfatal injury.

T-Dog cut through the padlock with Dale's borrowed bolt cutters, Daryl rushing him, almost shaking with anticipation.

Glenn counted down from three and Daryl kicked the door open. He burst outside, calling out for his brother with borderline desperation. They followed him out and Rick led them to the spot where he'd been handcuffed.

He was gone. Merle was gone. That was good, Diana thought, it meant he was alive. In his possible condition, he couldn't have gone very far, it was only a matter of finding him.

Daryl kicked the pipe and yelled out in anguish. He put his hands to his hair and started sobbing. Diana frowned in confusion and compassion. She noticed him looking down at something on the ground.

T-Dog huffed out as if he were gagging, while Glenn and Rick turned their faces, wearing expressions of varying levels of disgust. Glenn caught Diana's confused look and shook his head at her.

She excused herself past them and down the stairs, standing next to Daryl. "Eee, g'anda merda," she mumbled, seeing what he was seeing; the handcuff still attached to the pipe, dripping a line of blood onto the ground, and a hand – Merle's severed hand. "That's something I can't fix."


don't forget that I'll be updating Alice's polaroids on the side-story in the near future, check that out

stuff is not going well in the Lobo family, as you can see. it hurt me so much to write those things that I had to take a break almost every paragraph

we're also moving on to Vatos, let's see what comes out of that