Thanks for being such good sports about the less frequent updates. It makes me feel better about this. Thank you everyone who reads this. I just hope I can give you a decent temporary ending for a short while.

Turns out the push to finish season 2 has given me more ideas. Here goes!

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.

"How about majority rules?" Lori added.

"Well, let's just-let's just see where everybody stands," Rick took the lead in this discussion. "Then we can talk through the options."

"Well, where I sit," Shane spoke with his cocky ass attitude. "There's only one was to move forward."

"Killing him, right?" Dale asked. "Why even bother to take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick said.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn."

"Put me down for life," Lily said. All eyes turned to her but none bore as harshly as Shane's.

"She's voting to keep him alive?" Shane snapped. "They almost killed you."

"But HE didn't!" The raise is volume made her stomach scream in pain but she couldn't back down from this. "Why are we even voting? You are going to kill him regardless of the vote, Shane. Just like you killed Otis."

"Now who is telling you those lies?"

"Who said they were lies?"

"You have got one hell of a nerve talking to me like this..."

"What are you gonna do? Huh? Beat me? Torture me? Rape me? Killing me is the only thing that hasn't happened yet. If you're gonna do that at least be somewhat original! I don't like you and you don't like me so why do we play this game?"

He had no response and the house had fallen completely silent. Rick didn't even know what to say about the whole matter But Daryl did.

"Come on," he took Lily's arm and led her out of the room. "I think you've had enough excitement for one day."

"Daryl, please." Her voice was so unthreatening, there was almost no way he could have made her do something she didn't want to do. "I need to see what is gonna happen to the kid."

Dale looked pleased three people were now for the kid but the look on Glenn's face said otherwise.

"I think you're pretty much right about everything," Glenn said, "all the time, but this-"

"They've got you scared," Dale argued.

"He's not one of us."

"Neither was Hershel and Maggie and Otis, but look where we are now," Lily piped up not nearly as angry as she was earlier.

"We've lost too many people already."

"How about you?" Dale asked Hershel and Maggie. "Do you agree with this?"

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" Maggie asked.

"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl added.

"It may be a lean winter."

"We could ration better."

"Well, he could be an asset." Dale piped up loudest. "Give him a chance to prove himself."

"Put him to work," Glenn suggested.

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick said in a tone of finality.

"Then just kill him," Lily said and every one looked to her. "No one deserves to live locked up and tied up in a small room. It's better just to end it if you're not gonna let him go."

She hadn't spoken about her time being held captive to anybody but Daryl and now everyone was getting a sense of exactly what happened and why she voted the way she did. They all knew how she looked, but didn't know how she got to look that way and most didn't want to know.

"We could put an escort on him," Maggie suggested.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane remarked.

"Well, we know you don't want to have anything to do with this so just shut the hell up," Lily snapped. Daryl held out his arm to stop her in case she wanted to attack Shane, but she didn't have even enough strength to think about hurting him. He just glared back at her from across the room.

"Lily's right," Rick said. "We know where you stand on the matter, Shane, so please keep your comments to yourself."

"I volunteer to keep watch on the guy."

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy."

"He's right," Lori said. "I wouldn't feel safe unless he was just tied up."

"Why are we even still talking about this?" Lily whispered in Daryl ear. "Why did we vote? It's clear they want him dead."

"Being tied up all the time is no way to live," Daryl piped up.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles and sentence him to hard labor," Andrea said.

"Either kill the kid or drop him off somewhere," Lily said. "You're worried about him going back to his camp and getting the guys for back up. In case you guys forgot, everyone he knows is dead. He's no more of a threat than I am. I'm done talking about this." She walked out the door past Lori and went outside.

"Make sure she doesn't set the kid lose," Shane barked from inside making no effort to lower his voice. Daryl was behind her in a moment.

"No, I wasn't going to let the kid go, Daryl."

"Didn't think you were."

"I want away from the vote and you can still hear everything from the room."

"Take a walk with me."

"Imma get straight to the point. Shane is dangerous. Don't provoke him. Don't egg him on. I know you're standing up for yourself and you'd rather see Shane dead, but don't provoke him. He's the most unstable guy I know."

They were at the tree line and walked into the shade which was a relief after the sun.

Lily's legs had begun to hurt from everything that had happened so she leaned against a tree.

"I can't go much farther."

"Hurting?"

She nodded. A grimace crossed her face as she tried to massage her legs through the shorts. She wasn't wearing shorts and tank tops for the sole purpose of showing her bruises. It was just the easiest to get into without causing a whole lot of pain.

"How could you kill all of those men?" she asked not meeting his eyes.

"You really want to know?"

"If I didn't I wouldn't have asked," she said not trying to give her statement attitude.

He sighed before continuing. "I did it 'cause the thought of you being stuck there bein' attacked everyday drove me crazy. I had to get ya outta there."

No one had ever done this for her. Of course because killing people was wrong.

"You said it was wrong to be tied up and locked up all the time-"

"In any situation that's wrong. I don't like that kid being here anymore than you do, but he needs to go and I vote someone takes him far away from here."

He patiently waited for her to finish before speaking. "I'm not talkin' about the kid. You called them animals, that's what they were. They were goddamn vultures. If they so much as breathed on another human being, I was going to rip their guts out with my bear hands. They had done their deed and needed ta go."

He rested his hand on the tree by her head. "You got so damn lucky-"

She leaned and kissed him, but pulled away quickly. She tried to walk off but he placed his other hand on the tree pinning her there. She wasn't acting nervous but if she had Daryl would have backed off in a heartbeat.

"What was that for?"

"Thanks," she said quietly. He cupped her cheek making her face him. "For getting me outta there." What amazed Lily most about the man before her was how much he cared for people despite how he appeared on the outside. Like the gentle way he rubbed her cheek. Like the way he held her close to him. Like the way he kissed her in return. She leaned in to kiss him again, but he turned away.

She didn't have to ask what was wrong because he was halfway to explaining himself. "You are aware that Rick will most likely ask me ta help kill the kid? I can't kiss ya and have that on my mind."

"Do what you think is right, Daryl."