Walking off the plane she texted Becca that she had landed. Her friend responded saying she was waiting by baggage claim for her and so that's where Ren headed. When she got there, she didn't see the bright blonde hair of her friend, so she stood up on her tip toes to try and find her.

She felt a large hand with a firm grip on her shoulder and reacted by grabbing the hand and spinning around, twisting the person's wrist as she went.

He laughed, "Good reaction time!"

"Hammond?!" She immediately let go of him, a smile breaking across her face as she jumped into his arms. He laughed, squeezing her tight and giving her a kiss on the forehead. When he put her back on the ground, she looked up at him still surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, me and dad, and me and Lena all talked about it and she and I determined that Thanksgiving together would freak her dad out, and dad and I determined we didn't want you out here all alone on a family holiday after a break up like that, so she's with her family, dads with his brothers, and I'm with you. Surprise!"

"You didn't have to." She said, a smile still on her face though as the baggage started coming through. Ren knew she probably would have been fine without him, but she was glad to see her big brother.

"I know. But I wanted to be there for you, it's literally the least I've ever been able to do our whole lives." He laughed as she pointed at the two bags, which her other brother picked up with ease. Carrying them out the door he asked, "These are really heavy, someone helped you at the airport, right?"

"The guy at the car rental place got them out for me." She told him as they walked, "But I carried them to check in."

"You get some muscle working out in the woods for that long?" He teased as he led the way to where her car was parked.

Ren laughed at her brother, "More than you know. I hoisted up all of equipment while Daryl carried it from the car."

"So, he's not around now, tell me about him honestly this time." He looked down at her as they got to her car in the parking lot.

"I was telling you about him honestly." She defended with a laugh. "He was nice, made sure I didn't forget to eat, saved me from a pack of wolves, the normal stuff."

"Saved you from a pack of wolves?! You didn't say anything about that!" He looked at her as he handed her the car keys.

"Oh, I didn't?" She must have left it out because it was so close in time to her and Daryl having sex. "My bad, I'm pretty sure I have a scar on my foot if you want to see it."

"You know people call me crazy for forgetting matches I'm in, but forgetting to mention being attacked by wolves?" Hammond looked at her with a raised eyebrow before getting into the car.

She smiled at him sweetly, "So forgetfulness just runs in the family!"

"Uh-huh." He got in the car, "So you and Daryl going to stay in touch? Become a little team on saving the forests?"

"I would love to, but he doesn't have a phone."

He busted out laughing at this, "Guess I really don't have anything to worry about with the two of you then."

"What do you mean by that?" She almost glared at him.

"He doesn't have a phone, lives in the mountains, and hunts for a living. You work for one of the most technologically advanced companies in the world, live in one of the most modern cities, and build computers systems for a living." He looked over at her still amused, "You're both from two completely different worlds."

"Yeah," she had to admit it. They were opposites. It didn't make sense how they could work outside of the forest, outside of their own little world. "I guess we were. But we still worked well together."

Hammond couldn't help but notice the slight sadness in her eyes at what she'd just said. He knew that Ren got attached to people pretty quick, so it must be hard for her to not see the man every day now. He patted her leg as she backed out, "That's all that matters. I'm sure he'll be around when you go back."

She sat at the table with her brother, both of them having a beer and empty plates in front of them. He sighed, "Yeah, neither of us inherited mom's cooking skills."

"Right? Even with her recipes, nothing tastes like how she made it. The fact that I remember how her mac and cheese tasted considering how young I was says a lot." Ren looked at him. "Maybe it's the pots?"

"No, I think it's the fact that she actually liked to cook for us."

"Yeah...I'd probably remember to eat more if I liked to cook." She took a sip of her beer before Hammond started laughing.

"God she'd have had a conniption if she saw the 'meal' we just had as Thanksgiving dinner."

She laughed with him. "I don't know, I think we did pretty well considering."

"Considering what? The fact that Lena cooks for me and you only ever have take out?"

"Pretty much, yeah." She said and they both laughed now.

Hammond looked around the apartment, "So are you going to take the space two floors up they offered? It's got a balcony."

"And a spare bedroom I can turn into an office, maybe be able to work from home on rainy days." She said. After looking around her current apartment she nodded, "Yeah, I think I'll take it, plus a new bed."

"Definitely that. Burn the mattress."

"And the couch."

"I should get a blacklight, see what else we should burn." He looked around the place.

"Gross." She fake gagged.

"What, you won't let me find him to ask." Hammond shrugged.

"Because you wouldn't ask, I'd be bailing you out of jail...again."

"Bails pretty steep for murder."

She picked up her empty bottle from the table and grabbed his as she stood, "Which is why you aren't allowed to go find him. He's not important enough for me to lose my big brother over."

"Well he shouldn't have been cheating on you. Or living off of you. Or any of it." He said as she put the bottles on the counter and got two fresh ones from the fridge. Hammond watched and finally asked, "Are you really as okay as you're acting?"

"Yeah." She answered quickly, then paused, really thinking about it, "Yeah, I think I am. I had some time away from it all when it happened, and I think that made it easier? I had time before I had to actually face it and by then I was used to not having Chris around and gotten used to the idea of not being with him anymore. Plus, all of the clothes shopping Beccas been having me do."

"I'm surprised she's not dragging you out right now for all the deals."

"Oh, she's already said she's picking me up early in the morning to go shopping while you get to stay in bed." Ren laughed sitting back down. "I think that if I had been here all alone when it happened, then I wouldn't be this good. Maybe the fact that I have you and Becca around, plus the people at work and that I was away making a huge leap in my career makes it a lot easier to accept that I'm not getting married next year…" She also thought about Daryl, how easy it was to just move to him, to be comfortable with him. "And maybe that means I didn't love Chris like I thought I did."

Hammond held back a proud smile as he sipped his beer. "Well, let's see if they'll let you start moving before I leave. I'm sure between me, you, Becca, and Greg we should be able to get all the big stuff up there."

"That'd be awesome." She smiled at him.

Ren moved into her new apartment, spent Christmas with her family, and New Years with Becca and their friends from work. But her mind kept wandering to the forest in Georgia and crystal blue eyes. Depending on what thought of him entered her mind, her chest would tighten, or her lower stomach would clench. The second one mostly happened at night, when she was alone in bed and the thoughts of him on top of her, making her moan and sweat, and the way he'd kiss her, the way his fingers worked in between her legs, the way he would hold her as they laid down to sleep when they were done, the way he'd looked at her that last night she was there. On those nights she found herself wanting him more than she'd ever wanted anyone, and not just sexually, she wanted him in the bed with her, wanted to go to sleep knowing she would wake up with him too.

She closed her laptop and turned off the TV as she headed to the bedroom, changing into shorts and a t-shirt. Plugging her phone in to the charger on her night stand she crawled under the covers and laid down before setting her alarm.

Her phone started ringing and she flicked the light on before looking at the screen. It was a little past midnight and she didn't know who could be calling. Looking at the number her phone said it was from Georgia and her heart stopped. It'd been four months since she'd left, she'd thought she'd never get a call from him after that much time had passed. Quickly pressing the button, she said, "Hello?"

"This is Lumpkin County Police Department, you have a call from a Daryl Dixon, do you accept?"

A/N: Don't forget to let me know what you're thinking of it so far! I love reading you're reviews :)