A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters in any way, shape or form.

TRIGGER ALERT: While not in every chapter there are chapters that mention rape and/or abuse.

I'd like to dedicate the song Skin and Bones by Beth Crowley to this chapter. I had my Beta listen to it and she suggested that it was perfect for this portion of the story for Daryl and Adrian and I wholeheartedly agree that it's perfect for these two in this chapter.

Chapter 20

Daryl woke the next morning to find it dark in their little shack. Rain hammered the roof loudly and he gave an internal jump when a loud crack of thunder sounded before a brief flash of lightening lit up the room. He looked down beside him to see Adrian still sleeping peacefully, which was surprising considering how light a sleeper she was sometimes. He remembered she had mentioned one time that she loved thunder storms, the worse they were the better. She loved the sound of the rain and thunder and, if she was lucky enough to have a view of the sky, watching bolts of lightening light up the sky.

She had had another nightmare the night before but it wasn't as bad as her previous ones, where she woke up screaming. He had woken up in the middle of the night, the only light in the dark house was the dim light of the moon that managed to creep into the broken windows. He didn't know what had woken him up until he heard a whimper from beside him.

He looked down to see Adrian still asleep. She may have been sleeping but it wasn't peacefully. She wasn't tossing or turning but she was twitching pretty badly. The twitching reminded him of aftershocks after someone had been electrocuted. She wasn't crying in her sleep as she had in the past but she would whimper or make small whining noises in her sleep. He figured it was her distressed sounds that had woken him from his sleep, sensing on some level of his subconscious that she was troubled and needed him. He turned and gathered her body closer to his own and muttered quiet reassurances to her as she slept on, and eventually, she settled into a restful sleep.

Daryl carefully untangled himself from her and stood up, stretching out his slightly sore muscles. He walked over to the cheap table that held their food and water, grabbing his water bottle and taking a drink. He pulled the now empty bottle from his mouth, absently thinking that they would have to put their bottles, and maybe even a pot or something, outside to catch some of the fresh water that was falling from the sky, and looked over at the still sleeping woman on the floor.

He had noticed that he'd been doing that a lot since they had gotten there yesterday, starring at her. He had never looked at her as much as he had in the last 24 hours. He was sure most of it was due to the fact that it was only the two of them there, but it was also because they were always so busy with other things. Hunting for food, keeping watch while the others slept, cleaning up and clearing what and where they could at the prison. They were always so busy that he never really got to stop to just take in and appreciate the sight of her.

Sure, there were little moments where he could just stop and look at her, just take her in, like the morning before when she had been sleeping so peacefully with Ass Kicker sleeping next to her. He treasured those little moments, but he would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that he was really enjoying it being just them, and they had only been there a day. He had known she had needed the time away but he was surprised at how much he was enjoying the time away as well.

"I can feel you starring." he heard her grumble from across the room. Her eyes remained closed but there was a tired smile on her face. "And I can hear you thinking from all the way over here." she added. After a second a smile of contentment replaced the tired smile. "Or I would be able to hear you thinking if I wasn't focusing on the wonderful sound of the storm outside." she said as she opened her eyes and looked out of the broken window high up on the wall a few feet from her.

"It's been a while since we've had a good rain storm. Hopefully the others will think to put out an empty barrel or something to gather as much of the rain as possible." she said, eyes still looking through the dark window. It didn't escape Daryl's notice that her mind had wondered to the others and on a plan to gather a valuable resource that was hard to come by at times if you were constantly on the move. "Not a bad idea. We should probably do the same since we ain't goin' nowhere til it stops." Daryl told her.

He stood from the chair he had been sitting in, found and put on his jeans, grabbed their water bottles and walked outside, leaving the door slightly ajar. Adrian got up from the floor and stretched, hearing a few pops from her back, and sighed. She found Daryl's discarded shirt on the floor and put it back on, only bothering to button a few buttons. She walked to the table and grabbed four granola bars, opening one before eating it in a few bites, and followed Daryl outside.

He was standing on the porch, looking at the rain through the mangled screen that was meant to protect that portion of the porch. She walked up behind him and snaked her arms around his waist, giving his shoulder a quick kiss before laying her head on his shoulder. "Brought you some breakfast." she said holding up two of the four bars she had grabbed. He grabbed the bars from her hand with a quiet grunt of thanks and silently started eating the simple breakfast of granola.

They stayed quiet for a few minutes before Daryl grabbed her arm and gently pulled her around his body, pulling her back against chest and wrapped his arms around her waist, switching their positions. Adrian rested her hands over his and they continued to watch the rain in silence, the only sound they could hear, besides each other breathing, was the sound of the raging storm.

"I can honestly say that I find the situation we're in a little funny." she said quietly.

"What's that?" he asked.

"This all feels so domestic. Us being here like this, as if we're the only people left in the world. I feel like this should feel weird somehow, but it doesn't. It feels right, us being here like this." she told him.

Daryl had never been in a domestic kind of setting before, not when he was a kid and definitely never as an adult. Any and all of his dealings with women extended to a single night unless it had been in passing. But he could understand how Adrian saw their current situation as domestic now that she had brought it up.

Given his background he should feel weird about the situation somehow but he didn't, like she had said. It felt as if they belonged there, just the two of them. He knew that if anyone could make a life in such a shitty setting it could be them. The place was a shit hole, there was no arguing that, but maybe they could fix it up a little and it could be their own private escape from now on. There was never any privacy with such a large group where they all lived in such close quarters and surely things would even out eventually where they could afford to sneak off for a weekend every once in a while. The longer he thought of the idea the more he liked it.

The wind started to pick up, blowing the cold rain at the content couple, and they agreed to go back inside where they would be safe from the weather. Daryl walked over to the steps and grabbed their now full water bottles and followed the red head back inside.

TWD

"You bitch. You're cheatin', ain't you?" Daryl growled at her in the dim light of the room.

Adrian laughed at his annoyed glare.

"Don't be a sore loser and drink. That's the rules we made, loser of each hand has to drink." Adrian told him, a smile still on her face at his annoyance.

They had left the porch for the safety of the shack some hours ago. Adrian refused to just sit around in the dark for the remainder of the day and had grabbed a small flashlight from her bag and began to look around the tiny house.

Adrian had shouted in triumph when she had found a few large candles in a drawer by the sink. She grabbed the candles and carried them to the tiny living room and began to dig around in her pack. She stood up straight with another shout of triumph, her hands above her head with a large smile on her face. Daryl smiled at the goofy smile on her face and seen that she was holding a lighter in the same hand as the flashlight and a deck of cards in the other. Leave it it his woman to always have a deck of cards in her bag.

Adrian walked over to the small table and put the cards and candles on top. She lit the candles before she turned off the light and put it back in her pack. She walked back to the table and seen the mason jars filled with moonshine Daryl had brought in the day before and had suggested they play a drinking game to pass the time. Adrian learned very quickly that Daryl had never played any drinking games when his face showed no recognition at any of the games she suggested, so she then suggested that they play poker and the loser of each hand had to drink.

That had been about three hours ago and Daryl was getting pretty low on moonshine, much to his annoyance. He had been so sure that he would be the better player at poker, never pegging the red headed woman across from him as a good poker player, but she was and she was thoroughly kicking his ass at it too. Adrian could tell by his small temper tantrums that he wasn't a happy drunk, so she managed to keep his tantrums in check as much as she could. She had decided that she had wounded his pride enough and let him win the next few hands.

They finished their jars and Adrian put her cards away before she joined Daryl on their pallet on the floor. She had moved the candle from the table to a spot above their heads so they wouldn't be plunged into complete darkness while they were laying down. Adrian started to feel restless so she sat up and straddled Daryl's waist. She was still only in his shirt and one of the few pairs of underwear she still owned and Daryl was still in his jeans. Neither of them were in the mood to fool around, so Daryl gently ran his fingers up and down her legs and she gently traced her fingers over his many scars.

He had felt much less insecure about the scars since their talk the day before, knowing that she accepted him for exactly who he was, despite his many scars and how he got them. He should've known better than to ever think that she would judge him for his past, especially since she knew that he accepted her after everything she had been through herself. But there was a big part of her past he didn't know, and he wanted to, but he didn't know how to approach the subject without making her shut down on him. Then he got an idea. How he came up with it with as alcohol soaked as his brain currently was, he'd never know.

"What's some good stuff you 'member 'bout your boy?" he asked her suddenly. Adrian's fingers halted mid-trace as she looked up at his face. His eyes connected with her's in the dim candle light and she could see that he was genuinely curious. Adrian looked back down to where her finger hand stopped and continued to trace the scarred skin of her lover as she thought back to her son. "He was smart." she said, a small grin on her face as she spoke. "Smarter than I was at that age. The little shit." she laughed.

"He was smart as a whip when it came to his school work. Always came home with amazing grades on all of his assignments. Of course he still did the usual dumb stunts that didn't work out like he thought it would." she told him. She suddenly gave a breathy laugh as her smile widened. "I remember one time when he and his friend Jax had snuck out to a party. I got a call in the middle of the night from a number I didn't know. Imagine my surprise when I answer the phone and Seth is on the other end crying that he can't find his way home and that Jax was asleep on the floor and not helping him home. I managed to pry the address out of him and drove over to get them. I called Jax's older brother and he met me at the house. I had never seen so many teenagers try to disappear as I did when Luke and I stormed though that door. Luke dragged his unconscious brother out of the house and I got Seth into my car. We had agreed that it was best to bring the boys back to my place and let them sleep it off. And boy did we make them regret ever touching a drink the next morning. They were so hung over the next morning and we did everything in our power to torture those boys. Loud noises, bright lights, yelling at them when we spoke to them. Seth would flinch every time he seen a beer after that." she said, laughing at the memory.

"What happened to him, Adrian?" Daryl asked, finally managing to gather the courage to ask her. "I know how he died, but you've never told me how it happened. Only that you were the one to keep him from turnin'." he said softly. The wide smile that she had been sporting was quickly wiped from her face and was replaced by pain, not only on her face but in her eyes as well. "It happened when we were trying to escape from Atlanta." she said, her voice so soft that he could just make it out over the rain pounding on the roof. "I had been keeping close tabs on the news about the virus and once the news stopped reporting on it, I knew it was time to leave. Little did I know that we should've left much sooner. We packed only the essentials and tried to get the hell out of dodge. It seemed like it took forever before we got even close to the edge of the city. There were people everywhere, some were running from walkers, others were trying to get out of the city on foot. The rest were either killing walkers or dead. Looking back I'm amazed that we even managed to get as far as we did in the car." she said, still keeping her focus on her fingers as they traced Daryl's scars. She knew that if she looked anywhere else that she wouldn't be able to tell the rest of the story.

"We were only a few miles from being out of the city when it happened. They dropped bombs on the city. The first one was a few miles from where we were, scared me so badly that it caused us to crash. I looked behind us to see everything on fire and I could hear them dropping more bombs onto the city. I was so scared but the second I seen the terrified look on Seth's face I knew I had to swallow my fear and get my son to safety. It was all that mattered, getting him to safety. I told him that we had to leave on foot and we were only taking the bags with things that we absolutely needed." she said before she got quiet.

Daryl had never taken his eyes off of her face as she spoke, so he spotted the second her chin started to tremble and see the tears slowly stream down her face before the warm droplets landed on his bare stomach. His fingers had never stopped their gentle movements on her legs, his silent way of letting her know that he was still there, still listening. He could hear the emotions she tried to keep at bay as she started speaking again.

"I was digging though the bags to see what we would be bringing at the back of the car. I had thought Seth had stayed inside the car since he hadn't come around the back yet. But then I heard him scream and I swear my heart stopped. I had only heard him scream like that a handful of times in his life and it never meant anything good. I ran around the car and seen Seth on the ground, a walker holding onto his leg, it's teeth just inches from his leg. I pulled my gun, the only weapon I had on me, and shot it. I'm lucky I didn't shoot Seth in my panic, but I managed to kill it before it bit him. After I dragged him off the ground we grabbed whatever bags we could and lit out like our asses were on fire." she said, the tears coming faster now.

Daryl could tell that she was deep into the memory now, no longer feeling her fingers moving on his bare skin. "We had made it maybe 10 miles from the city before Seth said he couldn't walk anymore. I figured we were safe that far out of the city so we set up camp but Seth wasn't looking so good when I looked at him. He looked tired and worn out and he was hot to the touch when I checked on him. Then I saw it. There, on his ankle, were three deep scratches. He had been infected all that time and I had never even known it. I had pushed us so hard to get us as far away from the city as possible, to safety, but it didn't matter anymore because the one person I had sworn to protect and keep safe, was slowly dying." she said, her face crumbling at the last word.

"After I seen the scratch I couldn't make myself find a reason to leave that spot. My baby boy was sick, dying, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. As the fever got worse so did the pain. I was forced to sit there and watch my son as the fever slowly ravaged his body, having to listen to him cry out in pain. I know you never had children but let me tell you, the most painful thing in the world that a parent can feel is helpless. Helpless to be able to help their own child, no matter what it is that's hurting them. I felt so helpless as I held him as he cried out in pain, his skin so hot from the fever. I would have given anything to take his pain away, to make it my own so he didn't have to bear it." she said.

She could barely get the words out, her throat wanted to close up, her emotions getting the better of her the more she spoke and her tears flowed like twin rivers down her cheeks. "I don't know how long it was before everything went quiet. The sudden silence was deafening after hearing Seth's painful cries for so long. I looked down to check on him, I had been holding him for hours knowing that it might be causing him pain to be holding onto him, but I couldn't make myself not hold him while he was in such pain. When I looked down he wasn't moving, I couldn't even hear him breathing anymore. I became hysterical then. I started to shake him, screaming his name, even though I knew he was dead. I knew what I had to do, I knew that I should have done it so much sooner than to let my little boy slowly die in so much pain, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't let him turn, I wouldn't have been able to kill him if he came back, I would've let him kill me first. I couldn't look when I did it. I had to turn away when I pulled the trigger, and with as badly as I was shaking I'm surprised I even hit my target even at point blank range. When it was over I gathered him into my arms and cried until I couldn't cry anymore. I don't even know how long I sat there holding him but I know it was hours at the very least. Once I finally stopped crying I knew I couldn't just leave him there. I decided to burn his body instead of burying him. I don't know how long it took me to gather all the wood but eventually I had gotten enough for a small pyre. I didn't leave until the fire was out. I don't remember much after that. I think I was in shock but once I seen the cabin I seemed to snap out of it a little bit. A few weeks later is when I found Kale and he never knew it, but finding him that day saved my life." she told him.

Her eyes finally found his again and he could see how glassy they were from the tears as he looked back at her.

"I had been going through the motions of living since the day Seth died and the more the days passed the more meaningless it all seemed. What was the point of living if the only person I had left was now dead?" she said, her eyes fell to his chest, as if the admission shamed her deeply.

"You were gonna kill yourself." Daryl said, a statement instead of a question.

Adrian silently nodded. "Seeing Kale had been such a shock, I hadn't seen a live person since I had left Atlanta. When he told me he was being chased I told him to hide and I would be back for him. Even as deep as I was in the darkness of grief and despair, I couldn't not help him. After I had killed the walkers that were chasing him I brought him back to the cabin. After about a week and he still didn't want to leave I had decided, my new mission was to keep that boy alive. My son was gone but this boy had survived against all the odds and I knew Seth would have wanted me to help him, because it was the right thing to do." she said but her words were barely understandable since the tears had finally taken over her voice as well as her face.

"And in the end I couldn't even keep Kale alive either. I failed them both." she cried, the sobs taking over her body.

Daryl, unable to look at her in pain any longer, reached up and cupped the back of her bowed head in his hand and pulled her down until she buried her wet face into his neck, her sobs sounding so much louder now that she was so close to his ear. He knew how much it hurt her to talk about the day her son died, but he felt that she needed to get that day out in the open. He wasn't sure that anyone, outside of herself and now him, knew about how her son had died other than that he had been infected.

Daryl hated when women cried, it seemed like all men hated when women cried, but he said nothing about the tears Adrian was shedding. She needed to get this out, he knew that, so he said nothing about her crying but instead offered her words of comfort as she mourned the death of her only child.

TWD

Adrian didn't know how long she had been crying for but it had been long enough for her tears to run dry. She had to give Daryl credit, she didn't think he'd last more than a few minutes before he grew tired of hearing her cry and being soaked in her tears but he never said a word that discouraged her to stop before she was ready.

She could still hear the rain coming down outside and since she had stopped crying it was the only sound that could be heard aside from their breathing. Adrian hadn't moved from her position since her tears had dried and Daryl didn't seem inclined to make her move anytime soon. "Why did you ask about Seth? You rarely ever ask about him, so why now?" she whispered, her voice a little sore after crying for so long. "Because you needed to talk about it, how he died. You've told me a million things about him but never the one thing that haunts you the most about him. And you needed to talk about it, even if it was just this once, because keepin' somethin' like that inside will slowly kill you. You listened when I told you about my snake of a dad and I felt better after I did. I needed to tell somebody and didn't even know it, so I figured that it was the same for you." he told her.

Adrian sat up, still sitting on his lower stomach, and looked down at him. He held no judgment in his face, none whatsoever, completely accepting of everything she had told him. Daryl looked up at Adrian as she looked down at him, her eyes red and puffy and dried tear tracks on her face. She looked equal parts confused and awed by whatever it was she saw as she looked at him. Daryl reached up and cupped her face in his large calloused hands, rubbing his thumbs over the slightly crusty tear tracks, clearing them from her face, and just took her in. This beautiful and strong woman, probably one of the strongest women he had ever met, emotionally and mentally if not physically, was his and he would never know what he had ever done to deserve someone like her. She accepted everything about him and he could do no less for her.

With the her admission of how Seth had died Daryl felt like he finally knew everything of the woman he cared so much for, would do anything for. He could tell that she felt that Seth's death was all here fault, that she had been careless in keeping him safe, when Daryl knew that she had done everything in her power to keep her son safe. But he also knew that sometimes you could do everything right and it still went wrong and that had been one of those times for Adrian.

He could tell from the look on her face that she expected some kind of judgment on his part, maybe finding fault in not keeping her son safe, but Daryl knew he was the last person on Earth who had any right to judge anyone on their life choices. He could see on her face that she expected him to say something, anything, negative about her but he thought no such thing.

"You did everything you could. You did everything you thought was right for you and your boy, but sometimes everything just isn't enough. You got you and your boy outta the city when it was at it's most dangerous and you did everything you could once he got sick. You never left him, stayed with him 'til the very end, and even made sure he didn't turn when most people wouldn't have the courage to do that. You even made sure to give him a decent send off when most people would've just left." he told her, seeing the slight surprise in her eyes at his words.

"I'll never tire of hearin' you talk about your boy because he was an important part of your life, an important part of you, and I'm only sorry I never got to meet the kid because he sounds like he was a great kid. And his mom is just as amazing." he told her, sincerity in his every word. He could see tears fill her glassy eyes in the dim light but none of the tears ever fell. Adrian copied Daryl and cupped his face in her softer calloused hands and just looked him deeply in the eyes.

He could see emotion swirling in her eyes but he could never pin any of them down before they would disappear and be replaced with another. Daryl watched for several heartbeats as Adrian seemed to search his eyes for some sort of answer and he was watching her just as closely and seen the moment she had found whatever it was she was looking for. He could tell that whatever she had found had sparked something in her because he seen her eyes take on a soft yet determined look.

"I love you, Daryl. I think I've loved you for a long time now but I've only just now realized that it was love that I've been feeling for you. And I don't expect you to tell me that you love me back any time soon, if you ever manage to gather up the courage to say the words." she said, a small grin on her face as she said the last few words.

Daryl got very still and deafeningly quiet as her words registered in his brain.

He felt her words sober him up instantly.

"You can't mean that." he told her, his voice barely above a whisper.

"And why not?" she asked him.

"There ain't nothin' about me worth lovin', that's why." he told her, looking away from her intense gaze.

Adrian quickly grabbed Daryl's chin and jerked his gaze back towards her.

"First of all, that's your father and your brother talking, and there's only enough room in this relationship for you and me, so you keep those bastards out of your mouth. There's more than enough about you that is more than worth loving. Second of all, no one, and I mean no one, gets to tell me what or how I feel. Not even you. It's taken me a long time to realize it, but I do love you, Daryl. You're not the man I met in that camp outside of Atlanta, but you have grown into an amazing man since we left that camp and don't ever let anyone ever tell you differently." she told him firmly.

It seemed that the firm tone she took with him sometimes made him really pay attention and actually listen to the words that she said to him.

She could see the uncertainty in his eyes, like he wanted to believe her words but just couldn't bring himself to. He had lived a life of unhealthy relationships, be it with strangers or his own family, namely his father and brother, so she knew that while he wanted to believe her words, a lifetime of hearing that he was only worth whatever he could do for someone else and that he meant nothing to anyone was a big obstacle hurdle.

Daryl had his default emotions that he reverted to when he was unsure, or just plain old wanted to ignore, how to handle some situations or words. His big default emotions were anger or denial and being told, probably for the first time in his life, that someone genuinely loved him for the man he was, despite everything that he had done in his life or what had been done to him, she knew that he would clutch onto denial with both hands.

But she was nothing if not determined to make the man in front of her to not only believe, but accept, the fact that she loved him and that he was worthy of every ounce of that love. "I'm not asking you to tell me that you love me too, because I know that that's not gonna happen any time soon. You are a man that speaks his emotions through his actions, and while I can't tell you that you're actions done not only to but for me were done with love in mind, they do tell me how much you care for me. You've been there for me at every turn that I needed someone, whether it was for emotional or physical comfort. You not only ask but also listen to me when I talk endlessly about my son, even if I've already told you the story. And now? I have nightmares that I wake up screaming from and instead of letting me lock myself away from everyone like I wanted to, you brought me out here and stayed with me every second. I know that you're not a man who puts his emotions into words, I'm not even sure you know how to do that, but you are a man who shows people how he feels through his actions. And if actions mean more to you than words than I will do everything in my power to make you believe that I love you with every fiber of my being." she told him.

Daryl knew she meant every word that she had just spoken to him but it was hard for him to believe that a woman like her, smart, independent, and strong in so many ways it made his head spin, could ever love a man like him. She said that he had grown into an amazing man but he knew underneath it all that he was still that white trash Dixon boy that had never done anything meaningful in his life. All his life his father had told him how nobody loved or cared about him. Merle liked to always point out that no one but him loved or cared about him. No one had ever done anything to ever prove either man wrong, and it took him a long time to accept that those in the group did care about him.

But for Adrian to suddenly tell him that she loved him, as in the way a woman loves a man, it was hard for him to accept. He knew that he had strong emotions for her as well, but he had never felt love before, so how the hell was he supposed to know if what he felt for her was love or just strong affection? Since the farm the group had made him feel a range of emotions that he had rarely experienced before, such as pride, compassion, comradery, but love was something he had never felt before, aside from the love he had for his brother but even then it was often mixed with hate as well so looking to that as a reference was unreliable.

He knew that it would take him a long while to sort out his feelings to fully understand what it was that he actually felt for her but he promised himself that he would do it. A part of him still doubted that Adrian really loved him and another part was overjoyed that such a miracle could happen. He didn't know what he had really done to deserve the love of such an amazing woman but he swore that he would do everything in his power to be worthy of that love, and hopefully someday even be able to say the words back to her, because if anyone could ever make Daryl Dixon feel love, it would be Adrian Hunter.