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Maggie couldn't stand being in the house anymore, it was stifling. So much grief and despair, after everything had quite literally gone to shit, and she just needed some air. She stepped out on to the porch of her house and looked around at their land. She could see the other group, Rick's group out in front of the house, all huddled around a fire. She didn't blame them, not really. Those things weren't sick and need of healing like her dad had kept telling them. She saw that now, especially after that little girl had come out. That little girl that they had spent weeks looking for. Maggie shook her head trying to get those thoughts out, trying not think about the looks on their faces, or the sound that the bullets had made. With a sigh she rolled her shoulders back and swung her neck around trying to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. She was looking out at the fence line of the property, just as the sun was setting, when something caught her eye. There was a figure out there, on the horizon. She couldn't see it properly because it was still far away, but it seemed to be walking at an even pace, not the way that walkers usually stumbled about. She tried to squint her eyes at it to get a better look, but it wasn't working, without really thinking about it, Maggie stepped off the porch and started walking to the fence.

"Uhh Maggie?" she heard Glenn call after her, his voice laced with confusion and concern.

"Glenn, look" she pointed at the figure on the horizon "what is that?" She asked

"Hey Dale" Glenn yelled to the man on the RV, "look out there, can you see what it is?"

Dale swiveled his head around to the fence and brought his binoculars up to look through them. "It's a girl" he cried "… on a horse" the confusion evident in his voice.

"What the hell" she said, in her soft country drawl. Who would be riding up to their property, on a horse of all things? She kept walking toward the fence trying to get a read on the stranger riding up on her home, so she wasn't really paying attention when Dale got Rick, and Daryl's attention, and they all started after her toward the fence, out of the corner of her eye she could see that Daryl had his crossbow raised, and trained on the figure in case things went south.

When they made it to the fence line, the figure on the horse suddenly moved, and raised her hand in a wave motion, the wind suddenly picked up and caught the girls hair blowing it to the side, Maggie could just make out that she had red hair, like the color of a sunset. "Oh my god" she cried, the recognition suddenly dawned on her, and quick as lightening she had jumped the fence, and was in a dead sprint toward the rider with Rick, and Daryl following quickly behind her. She was almost halfway there when the girl suddenly slid off the horse and fell to the ground in a heap. "Emma!" She cried and picked up the pace thankful for her long legs that let her reach her friend quicker. When she made it to her side, she fell to the ground beside her and held the girls head in her hands.

"Em, come on Em" she was saying, while patting her cheek to get her to open her eyes. She wanted to cry, when she saw Emma's eyes open slightly.

"Hey Mags" was all she managed to say though before she promptly passed out again. Maggie breathed a small sigh of relief when she realized her friend was still alive, and turned to see that Rick, and Daryl were there.

"We have to get her back to my dad Rick" she said looking up at him. Rick gave her a nod, and quickly holstered his gun before he bent down to pick up the fallen girl and carried her back to the house. She turned and saw that Daryl had managed to reign in the horse that she was riding and was leading it back with them.

"Can you put him in the stables with the other horses?" She asked him, only receiving a grunt and a nod in response, she laughed a little to herself, that man was not a talker. When they finally made it back across the fence, she could see that everyone had come out and was standing around, all very curious about what had happened.

"Maggie, what's going on?" She heard her dad Hershel call to her in concern

"Daddy, it's Emma. I don't know what happened, but she passed out" she told him making her way up to the house, she watched as her dads eyes widen in surprise, and then quickly moved to concern, Emma was like another daughter to him.

"Quick get her inside, put her in the upstairs room" he instructed to Rick, before telling Beth to get his medical bag. Rick made his way to the upstairs bedroom, and carefully laid the girl on the bed.

"Maggie, take everyone downstairs while I look her over" her dad said to her, as he pushed past everyone into the room.

"Come on y'all, you heard the man" she said to them, leading them all downstairs, and out the front to sit on the porch.

She couldn't help but smile a little as Glenn came and sat down next to her, he was sweet kid and she knew that he had feelings for her, hell she had feelings for him to if she would just admit it to herself. She sighed and leaned her head onto his shoulder enjoying the warmth and the comfort he brought her. She wished her dad would hurry up, she was anxious for her friend, and more than surprised to see that she was alive. After hearing about what happened to Atlanta, she was sure that her friend was long dead since she had been studying at the University of Georgia. After what felt like hours but was probably only 30 minutes or so she heard the familiar sounds of her father coming back downstairs. She stood up so suddenly that Glenn had let out a little yelp in surprise, she turned to the door and waited.

Emma felt herself drifting back to consciousness, and for one blissful moment she thought she was back in her dorm room after her afternoon nap before her night class. When she opened her eyes however she realized she wasn't in her dorm room. Slowly sitting up she took stock of the room she was in, before everything came rushing back to her. She had been riding for days, determined to make it back to the Greene farm to find out if the people she considered her family were still alive. When she has started to see familiar pastures and woods, she pushed herself and her horse even harder. She had run out of water about 2 days prior but knew that if she kept pace, she would make it to her destination before she was in dire straits. She remembered coming up to the familiar fence line about sunset and had been surprised to see so many people standing around in the yard, but she was pretty sure one of those people had been Mags. She slowly looked around the room she was in and realized she was indeed in the Greene house, she stood up out of bed and went to the mirror across the room and took in her reflection. She had always been petite at only 5'2", but now she noticed that she was too skinny, by product of the world going to fucking hell she thought, not enough food, and way too much cardio.

She took her long red hair out of the ponytail it was in and went across the hall to the bathroom where she knew there was a brush, so she could get the tangles out. It was so long now that went passed her shoulder blades, after she finally got the tangles out she decided to just leave it down, knowing that her head would thank her for that. After taking in her reflection for a minute longer noting her sunk in cheeks and the dark circles around her eyes, she knew she had looked worse. She was still wearing her jeans, white wife beater, and boots but noticed that the holster she had around her left leg was missing, along with her bow and arrows, she assumed someone had taken them off her. She left the bathroom and made her way downstairs, where she heard voices coming from the front porch.

"She is gonna be fine Maggie" she heard Hershel say in his soft, deep country drawl "she's a little malnourished, and dehydrated, but other than that she's fine. I promise. No bites or scratches." She heard him finish telling her, and she could see there was quite a few people standing outside with them. Opening the door as quietly as she could, she leaned against the door frame.

"Come on Mags, you know I'm a lot harder to kill than that" she said, her voice coming out a little scratchier than normal, at the sound of her voice though Maggie jumped, and she almost laughed at the bug eyed expression on her friends face, but before she could do anything Maggie had enveloped her in what could only be described as a bear hug. A little taken back by Maggies sudden onslaught she stood there quite awkwardly with her arms sticking out by her sides

"Mags... Maggie... I can't breathe" she managed to breathe out, and Maggie finally let her go, relieved to be able to breathe again, she looked up at Maggie and saw that she was crying.

"Aw come on Mags, none of that. You know I don't do tears." she told her

"I'm sorry Em, it's just... I just... I can't believe this. When we heard about what had happened in Atlanta, I thought for sure..." Maggie said, her voice trailing off at the end, not wanting to admit she had thought she was dead.

"It's alright, I understand" she told her, her voice still hoarse "anyone got any water?" She asked and was a little surprised when one of the unknown men standing by the porch with a crossbow offered her his canteen. She took in his appearance, he was taller than her of course, short brown hair, she could see the tattoos on his muscled arms cause his shirt didn't have any sleeves, and he was wearing a leather vest. Biker, she decided as she took the canteen from him with only a nod of her head.

"Oh my god, that is heaven" she said to the group after she took a long drink.

"Well?" Maggie said impatiently "Are you gonna tell us what happened?"

"Alright, geez girl. Keep your pants on." She looked around at the rest of the group and could see they were equally as curious as to how she made it all the way to the Greene farm.

"Well I guess I was lucky, when the world started going to shit, I was staying with a friend just outside of the city, really we had no idea what the fuck was going on. Even though the news was still going on, it just wasn't very clear you know? Anyway, I knew at some point we would have to get the hell out of dodge, but we stayed holed up for a while, about a week after all this shit started that's when they started dropping the bombs" Even now she could hear the sounds of the bombs going off in city, the screams and cry's that followed, the way the sky lit up, and the eerie silence that followed, she had to take a deep breath before she continued "needless to say, not something I wish to see again. After that calmed down a little bit, we knew we had to get out, being that close to the city wasn't safe. Justin, my friend wanted to go to Fort Benning, thought we would be safe with the military. I just wanted to come here" She looked up at Maggie and shrugged her shoulders before drinking some more water "We decided we would come here, but we knew there was no way we would be able to go through the city, so we decided to go around it. We had been about a week on foot, when Justin decided to head out one morning to try and scavenge some food for us. He never came back. I found him about a week later, he was the first one of those... things I ever killed"

"Walkers, we call them walkers" the little Asian kid next to Maggie told her

"Sure walker, good name as any, I guess. Anyway, that's when I learned you had to get the head. I managed to find a sporting goods store that hadn't been completely picked over took what weapons I could from there and headed out. I had a car for a while, one I managed to hot wire, but that was getting tricky with all the pile ups all over the roads, plus I ran out of gas. I never thought I would rue the day when I didn't learn to siphon gas from cars" she said with a chuckle "after that I walked. Hunted when I could, scavenged when I couldn't. Slept in trees, caves, sometimes empty houses. Got lucky finding that horse, had to break him myself but he came around. Where is he anyway?" She said looking at Maggie

"I had Daryl put him the stables with the rest of the horses" Maggie told her

"Hmph, I'm surprised he let you." She said turning to the one Maggie had indicated was Daryl, he was the one who had given her his water. "He don't really take to other people all that well, but he's a hell of a horse. We'd come upon one of them walkers, and he'd rear back and hit it in the head like he knew exactly what to do, plus he's fast. Owe 'im my life a few times over." She sighed running her hands through her long hair, when she did, she caught a whiff of herself and crinkled up her nose in disgust "Oh god, I stink" she turned to Maggie "Please tell me y'all still have runnin' water?" She asked, the desperation evident in her voice. Her answer was Maggies throaty laugh.

"It's even hot" she told still laughing "Go on, get yourself cleaned up, you know where everythin' is. I'll even bring you some clean clothes"

She gave Daryl back his canteen, and quickly left the group, and made her way to the upstairs bathroom, if she thought the fresh water was heaven it was going to be nothing compared to a hot shower.

For the longest time she just let the water wash over her, taking with it all the dirt, dust and blood from the last 3 months. Funny how something like the end of the fucking world makes you appreciate the simple things, like running water and electricity, she decided to also take advantage of the fact that she could shave again. 3 months of going without had turned her armpits and legs into something from the Middle Ages, she even washed her hair twice, just cause she could. Only when the water finally started to go cold did she get out the shower. After she dried off, she took stock of her body in full for the first time, she had cuts and bruises all over her body but nothing too crazy. She was skinny, too skinny really. Her hip bones jutted out, and she could almost count her ribs, but considering the circumstances it really wasn't too bad.

After she had dried off, she looked down at her filthy clothes, and turned her nose up at them. There was no way in hell she was putting those on after her first hot shower in 3 months. She made her way down to Maggies room to raid her closet instead. She put on a pair of simple grey sweatpants, that were much too long because Maggie was so much taller than her, and a pink tank top, and even though it was risky she decided against shoes. Her feet having been in them constantly for the last 3 months, she thought they could use a breather. She smiled as she looked around Maggies room, it hadn't changed much, the only thing really noting the passing of time was the change in the pictures. She made her way back downstairs, stopping at some of the newer pictures that had been added.

When Emma walked outside the front door, no one was left on the porch. She took time to survey the land, she noticed an RV and motorcycle parked on the lawn, and next to that she could see a makeshift campsite set up. She assumed it was for the group of people that she didn't know. She could see them all sitting around a fire out in the yard, she was a little surprised to see Maggie sitting over there with them. When Maggie noticed Emma standing on the porch, she raised her hand and waved her over.

"Emma! Come join us" Maggie called to her. Emma couldn't help but smile at her friend, as she stepped out into the yard and made her way over to the group, she was a bit surprised to see there were quite a few more people than before.

"I didn't realize y'all were runnin' a BB Mags" Emma said with a laugh in her voice, as she came upon the circle of people.

"Emma Monroe, I'd like you to meet Rick Grimes" Maggie said pointing to the guy closest to Emma, he stood up and shook her hand. She recognized him as one of the men from the front porch earlier, he had startling blue eyes, short brownish hair and she couldn't help but notice he looked as haggard as she felt.

"This is my wife Lori" Rick said, pointing to the brunette to his right "and our son Carl" motioning to the boy next to his wife, Emma noticed that that the kid was wearing a sheriff's hat. "This is Carol" Rick pointed to a woman who was slight, with short brown hair. She had looked up at the sound of her name and gave Emma a sad smile and a nod as a greeting. The blonde woman who was sitting next to Carol stood up and stuck her hand out for Emma to shake and introduced herself as Andrea. Sitting across from the Grimes family Emma noticed that Maggie was sitting quite closely to the little Asian kid from earlier. She eyed them, and quirked her eyebrow giving Maggie a smirk.

"And who is this Maggie?" She asked, still eyeing the kid with amusement, he looked absolutely petrified to be meeting Maggie's best friend. The kid swallowed nervously and stood up rubbing his hands on his pants before holding it out to her.

"Uh... I'm uh" he cleared his throat "I'm Glenn. Glenn Rhee" he finally managed to tell her. She put her hand in his, and she couldn't resist going for the intimidating hand shake, making sure to grip his hand harder than what was culturally appropriate. Before he could pull his hand from hers, she pulled him closer to her

"Emma Monroe, and don't forget Glenn... the best friend is scarier than the dad" she gave him a smile, and a wink before letting him go. She couldn't help but laugh when Maggie did as Glenn shook his hand trying to get some of the feeling back.

"And this is Shane Walsh" Rick pointed to the man on her left, she took a second to eye him up, he had a shaved head and she thought he kind of looked like GI Joe with his cargo pants, and black shirt. He had looked up at her when Rick introduced him, but he didn't hold out his to shake, he just looked her up and down and nodded. Deciding that was as much as she was going to get Emma decided to take the empty spot on the log next to Shane.

"And behind you is Daryl. Daryl Dixon." Rick mentioned and he nodded his head behind her. She turned to see Daryl leaning against a tree, a cigarette hanging lazily from his mouth. She remembered him as the one that gave her the water earlier. She nodded to him again and noticed that no one was speaking, there was an awkwardness that hung in the air, and a sadness too. Clearly something had happened before she had arrived, and she made a mental note to ask Maggie what the hell had happened, and how these people had come to be on their land to begin with, but for now she was content to enjoy the quite that the farm brought. A soft breeze had picked up, and Emma tilted her head up, pleased she could see so many stars above her. That was something she had desperately missed when she had gone off to college, you can't really see the stars when you're in the city. Emma was lost in her thoughts running her hands through her wet hair, trying to get it to dry faster when Glenn cleared his throat.

"So... uh how did you and Maggie meet?" He asked them, and she couldn't help but notice that everyone turned to her for the answer.

"Oh, uh" she started as she glanced at Maggie, who gave her a little smile and a nod of encouragement "well I guess it was the first day of first grade." She smiled a little at the memory "we were outside at recess, and I was just sitting on one of the benches watching all the other kids play. I was painfully shy as kid, and the night before I had fallen down the stairs at my house and injured my arm. We didn't have a lot of money, so going to the hospital wasn't really an option" it was a lie, one she had told a million times, and by now she almost believed it herself "so anyway, I was just minding my own business when this one" she pointed to Maggie "just plopped herself down beside me, and started just chatting away, she finally asked why I wasn't playin with the other kids, and I just held my arm up."

"I swear, I didn't even think she could talk at the time" Maggie said laughing.

"Yeah, well you talked enough for the both of us. Anyway, the she told me that her daddy fixes animals all the time and that he could fix me up too, and to meet her outside after the last bell, and then just got up and walked away. I thought she was certifiable, and ain't no way in hell her daddy was going to fix me up without payin'. So, when school ended that day, I just went on my way to the bus that would take me home, and all of a sudden there she was chatterin' away, talkin' about how I was going the wrong way and that her daddy's clinic was just down the road so we could just walk. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn't have gotten a word in edgewise" she said throwing a playful glare at Maggie "and before I knew it there, we were walking into that clinic, and she's just walkin' in like she owned the damn place. Tellin the receptionist to tell her daddy the we was in his office and that he needed to come right away." Emma, she was dehydrated and all this talkin' was making her even thirstier, but she hadn't thought to grab a glass before she came outside. "Damn" she muttered more to herself than anything "Anyway, her daddy came in, and fixed me up just like she had said, and the girl still hasn't shut up or left me alone since" she finished the story with a smile to Maggie.

"Yeah well she didn't really have a choice in the matter. I had pretty much decided on the walk to the clinic that I was gonna be her best friend whether she liked it or not" Maggie said from her spot across from the fire. Everyone chuckled at her comment.

"I gotta know" Glenn started "What was Maggie like in high school?" Maggie turned and hit Glenn playfully on the arm

"Oh god, she was a little shit is what she was" Emma told them "that girl was hell bent and determined to give her momma and daddy as many heart attacks as possible, and they never found out about half the shit she got herself into"

"Excuse me?" Maggie cried "I do believe that you were right there with me"

"I may have been right beside you, but it wasn't my idea to get fake ID's, drive 2 towns over to sneak into a bar, and then start a bar fight" Emma told them sending a pointed glare in Maggie's direction. Glenn had started choking on his drink from laughing so hard, it was hard to tell if everyone else was laughing with him or at him.

"No way, you started a bar fight? How'd ya do that" Glenn asked Maggie, but before she could answer, Emma cut in.

"By bein jail bait, that's how" She told him "I still can't believe I talked tha owner outta callin' tha cops. Should'a made your ass stay the night in jail, let Hershel sort you out in tha mornin'." She finished with a shake of her head.

"But that's why your tha best best friend. Besides without me, you would have just stayed in all the time readin' your damn books. Had ta make you get out and have some fun." Maggie shot back at her.

"You leave my damn books outta this. They saved your ass plenty of times, and got me pretty far too" Emma said, and she decided to go all in and stuck her tongue out at her for good measure.

"Whatever" came Maggies retort "don't know why you had to spend all that time studyin, you couldn't a graduated any higher" Maggie looked at the group and noticed that they were were a little confused "oh yeah, your lookin' at lil miss valedictorian over there" she said as she pointed to Emma "with her 4.3 GPA, makin' the rest of us look bad" Maggie told them with a hint of snark in her voice. If anyone else had said it, Emma might have been offended but she knew it was Maggie's way of bragging on her.

"'Cuse me, it was a 4.5 thank you very much" Emma replied tryin not to sound too pleased with herself. Emma had started looking around to see if there was any water outside, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw it was Daryl again with his canteen, motioning for her to take it.

"Oh... no I couldn't..." Emma tried to tell him before he cut her off.

"Gonna have'ta get your own after this, but ya need it so drink" he told her, even though he sounded nonchalant about it, his voice was firm and insistent. Emma looked up at his face and noticed that while Rick's eyes were a stunning bright blue, Daryls were a darker blue and... intense. They reminded her of the way the ocean looked at night with the moon shining down. She hesitantly took the bottle from him and muttered a thanks before she took a drink.

After that the group seem to quiet down, the air was still thick with tension, and Emma was dying to ask what the hell was going on but she bit her tongue not wanting to ask in front of everyone. It felt like someone had died. With a jolt, Emma realized someone probably had died. She hadn't seen Annette, Shawn, or Otis, she wondered if it was one or all of them. These people were her family, in a very real sense because she basically lived here after she turned 16. It broke her heart to think that they hadn't made it, but at the same time she was almost... relieved? The world had gone to shit almost overnight, the dead were walkin, tryin to eat you alive, and people, well sometimes they were worse than the dead. She had learned that lesson the hard way, and she shuddered at the memory. It wasn't till Carol announced that she was going to bed that she shook herself out of her own thoughts. She watched as everyone bid the woman goodnight, all of them looked at her with sad eyes. Not long after that, Carl was nodding off on his mom's shoulder and she too announced that they would be going to bed, and her and Carl headed off toward one of the tents, Andrea's good nights followed closely after theirs.

"I think I'm going to bed too, its been a long day" Maggie announced as her and Glenn stood up. She walked over and pulled Emma into another crushing hug and kissed the top of her head. "I am so glad you are here" Maggies voice was barely above a whisper.

"Me too Mags, I'll be in soon okay?" Emma told her, giving her a look that hopefully said that she better not go to sleep because she had about a thousand fucking questions to ask her. She watched as Glenn, and Maggie said goodnight at the front door, and when Maggie went inside Emma breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god" She said as she pulled out the pack of cigarettes she had in her pocket and closed her eyes as she took a long drag off one, relishing the way the nicotine hit her blood stream. When she opened her eyes, she noticed the remaining men giving her looks.

"What?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders "it's the end of the fuckin world, not really in the mood for a lecture on cancer and shit. Not yet anyway" she could hear Daryl chuckle from somewhere behind her.

"See, he gets it" she said with a smile as she took another drag.

"So, I gotta admit, I'm surprised a lil thing like you managed to make it all this time by yourself" Shanes comment caught her a little off guard, and she turned and gave him a look before shrugging.

"What can I say? I'm tougher than I look" she sighed "plus, I wasn't by myself the whole time. I was with a group... for a little bit" she took another drag of her cigarette and tried to keep her voice steady.

"Wha' happened?" Daryl asked as he came around her, dropping the butt of his cigarette into the fire before taking the spot that Carol had occupied. Emma sighed as she ran a shaky hand through her hair, dry enough she thought, she slowly stood up and took the last drag from her cigarette before dropping it in the fire like Daryl had done. She watched the flames dance for a minute before she finally looked into his eyes, she didn't think she would ever get used to the intensity of his eyes. It felt like he could see right through her, through all the masks, and lies, and walls she had built up. It was unnerving, and it made her shudder.

"People. People happened" she told him, she finally had to break the contact and turned to the other men "Anyway, its been a long ass day, and I havta admit that I'm really lookin' forward to sleepin' in a bed. See y'all tomorrow" she told them as she began to walk back towards the house.

She opened the door as quietly as she could knowing the rest of the family was probably asleep, and when she was inside, she leaned against the door and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath she tried to will the memories away. Even now she could still smell the gunfire of the other group that had attacked them that night, the screams were still just as loud. As long as she lived in this god forsaken new world, she knew she would never forget the sounds of those screams. She willed herself not to cry, she had promised herself she wouldn't cry over that night and she wasn't one to break a promise. Even after all that she had been through to get here though, she didn't regret a single minute of it. This place was her home, and she knew that she had made the right choice. She took one last calming breath, and then made her way upstairs so she could finally get some fucking answers from Maggie.

A/N – So this is my first ever story posting, and I did it with the encouragement of a friend, but I was so nervous posting this, that I forgot the disclaimer (I DON'T OWN ANYTHING – I barely own my Character)

Also, you will notice it is going to follow the show to a point, mostly till the end of season 2. After that I will be adding my own stuff. Also, I am changing the time line, mostly just adding a little more time – because everything happens so quickly in the show.

Love it? Hate it? Please let me know – also if anyone wants to Beta that would be hella cool.