Thanks for the review guys. Oh, I have good news. Yesterday I wrote 10,000 words for this fanfic. Once I realized how much I'd added, my head spun. It was awesome. Having written so much makes me want to post it, but I'm not at the third season yet! Gah!

Lily is my OC and belongs to me. The Walking Dead does not.

Enjoy

"Hey, bud. Wanna come in?" Daryl asked looking down at Carl's small form.

"Yeah. I wanted to check up on Lily. See if she's awake." He leaned around Daryl and waved shyly at her. "Glad to see you up again."

"Glad to be up. Come in," she waved to him.

"How do you feel?" he asked her sitting on the bed.

"I feel sore all over, and I will for a while because I have to heal. Not fun-"

"But it has to happen," Daryl finished for her.

"Hey, what ever happened to that umbrella I got on the highway?"

Daryl scoffed thinking an umbrella was hardly worth worrying over. But Carl's face lit up.

"Oh, I have it. I don't remember how I got it, but it's with my stuff. I can get it for you."

"Not right now, but maybe later. Thanks for keeping it safe while I was incapable of lifting it."

Carl smiled.

A knock came from the door and Carol poked her head inside. "Dinner's ready. You three eating up here?"

Both Carl and Daryl looked to Lily seeing what she wanted. "Let's go downstairs for a change."

All three of them made their way down the hall towards the dining room. Carl flew down the stairs and grabbed one of the three empty chairs. He looked up at Lily and Daryl and patted the seat next to him. Lily placed her hands on the chair, but Daryl pulled it out for her. Then he took his seat.

It was nice sitting around a dinner table. Everyone was smiling and laughing, passing home cooked meals around the table. It almost felt like nothing had changed in the world.

Dinner was done when the three crawled back up the stairs. Lily told Carl a story about growing up with her crazy sister and then told him it was time to go back to his tent. He got up reluctantly but eventually left.

She was settling down for bed when she noticed Daryl preparing the chair for sleep again.

"Huh uh. Bed."

"I thought that was a one time thing."

"Nope, you kissed me, now you have to sleep in the bed."

"That's all it takes to get me in your bed?" he raised an eyebrow as a smirk crossed his face.

"Shut up!"

She felt like such a child around him sometimes, but he hardly seemed to notice. After she crawled in bed under the sheets, Daryl made himself at home on top of them.

She rolled onto her side and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Why do you sleep on top of the bed?"

"Because it's better than sleepin' under it."

She smiled. "You know what I mean."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I do. Because I'm not comfortable sleeping with someone I still barely know."

His blue eyes stared back at her as she thought about what he'd said. Even during an apocalypse, men with good morals remained.

"You know something." She rested her chin on her hands. "For a rough redneck, you're rather attractive."

"Excuse me?"

"You're attractive."

"I think it's time you got some sleep."

"You're supposed to say something back."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I'm not picky, but it's usually something nice in return."

"Can I take a rain check?"

She huffed and rolled over onto her back. Lily wanted to check up on Carl, to make sure he had actually gone back to his tent so she rolled over and tapped Daryl.

"Hey," she whispered shaking his shoulder.

"What now? I'm thinkin'."

"I wanna make sure Carl got back to his tent."

"Ok," he groaned getting out of bed. "Thanks for saying something this time."

Quietly, the two of them walked outside and peered in his tent. Lori and Rick were asleep wrapped in each other's arms and Carl snored softly from his own cot.

"See, he made it back. He listens when you speak to him."

"Because I'm trying to be his friend. Not his parent." There came a thump behind her.

She smiled at Carl's sleeping form and turned to go back to her room but Shane blocked her path. Daryl was in a crumpled heap on the ground in front of her.

"Shouda stayed inside," he whispered lunging at her. She couldn't scream before he clamped a hand down over her mouth and wrapped his other around her waist pulling her from the ground.

'Did he kill Daryl? This is it. I'm gonna die tonight.'

He carried her to the woods before forcing her against a tree. Before she could scream he pinched her vocal cords and punched her in the stomach so she couldn't muster the voice to scream not to mention making all her other bruises scream in pain.

"You're planning to bring all the walkers down upon us? Huh? That what you got planned by screamin'?" Shane shouted at her. "You are SO stupid!"

A knife was all she had to protect herself from Shane, so she drew it. He cackled. "You're gonna use a knife against me?"

"Stay away from me Shane! Just leave me alone! What did you do to him?!"

"All you do is put our group in danger. You run off after them all the time. Sophia. Daryl. Hershel. And little Carl. He was supposed to look at ME that way. Not you."

"How does he look at me?" 'I have to keep him talking.'

"Like a best friend. It was me he was supposed to see as a best friend, not the little lost puppy."

"You're going to kill me over a couple of kids?"

"I'm going to kill you over Rick and his family. You took my family..."

'His family? The Grimes? Lori and Carl were not his. They were with Rick, not Shane.'

"They're not yours to keep! They belong to Rick not you."

"Shut up!" Shane hit his head with the heel of his hands.

"Tell me about Otis. What happened that night? Tell me how you killed them. Did you kill Daryl? At least tell me that before you kill me." Tears brimmed in her eyes. This is exactly why she didn't want people knowing what she was doing because they always had a habit of getting hurt or in trouble and she didn't want anybody dying on her behalf.

"I killed nobody."

"Don't lie to me! Tell me the truth before you shoot me!" she screamed at him.

"I shot that son of a bitch because that was the only way I was getting back here alive! That what you wanna hear?"

"That the truth?"

"Yeah."

"Then yes. What did you do to Daryl?"

"Daryl this. Daryl that. You don't make any decisions for yourself. You just do what he tells you to do. You listen to everything that stupid hick has to say and can't make a decision for yourself. Well, now you're gonna have to make one for yourself."

Shane pulled out his gun and aimed it at Lily's head.

"All I ask now is that you don't miss." Pain filled her chest at the thought of Daryl being dead.

"Don't worry. I don't. Run if you want. It'll make it more fun for me."

She closed her eyes waiting for the bullet to end her life, but a bullet was not what threw her to the ground. It was Rick.

When she opened her eyes, Daryl was punching the bejesus out of Shane and a trickle of blood ran down his face. Rick and Lily had to pull him off Shane.

"Stop killing us!" Rick shouted to Shane. In the process of pulling Daryl off Shane, Lily got punched in the shoulder. Her breath got caught in her throat as she gasped for air trying to over come the pain. She staggered around for a minute before she was able to catch her breath.

Shane had almost shot her. He'd almost killed Daryl. She almost just died. She'd almost died several times but this was the first time someone threatened to kill her and give her a fighting chance. He tried to kill her for a family. A family that wasn't even his.

"Rick," Lily choked. "Rick!"

"Lily go back to camp..."

"No! I need to tell you about Shane."

"Shane just tried to kill you-"

"He tried to kill me because I am close to your family. He's in love with Lori." Rick's eyes were locked with hers. "Shane isn't going to let you have your family, Rick. He's going to kill you. Somebody has to kill him."

"You bitch! What are you telling him?" Shane shouted at her.

"That you killed Otis!" she shouted back. "You'd kill us all if you had the chance!"

"Eve'ybody just shut the hell up!" Daryl shouted. "You want every walker comin' down on us? Lily..."

"It doesn't concern you." Daryl cocked his head and gave her an almost hateful look. "This is between Rick and Shane. Not you and me."

"He almost shot ya point blank!"

"Because she's going to get us killed. All she does is run around looking for the few of us that run away!" He stared off in the distance before looking back at her. "Just because you lost your sister doesn't mean you can make up for it by saving these kids."

The fist against his nose came too quickly for him to retaliate.

"Don't you bring my sister into this!"

Daryl ripped her from Shane and made for camp.

"What was you just sayin'? He'd kill us all? So don't provoke him."

A cry of pain came from her as he readjusted his hold on her and he dropped her to the ground.

"Why'd he bring my sister into this?" she asked gingerly touching her shoulder and stomach.

"He's an asshole. Come on." His hand dragged her along behind him as he walked back to camp.

With a violent shake she shook Daryl from her arm.

"Someone needs to deal with Shane!"

"There's nothing we can do. We have to move on."

"No! He's going to kill Rick if we don't do something," she didn't realize she'd been clutching to his sleeve. It must have been the only alternative to hitting him.

"So you want to save Rick?" he asked distastefully.

"I'm trying to save this group and everyone in it as best as I can and to do that, Shane needs to go. I know I'm in no position to tell you to do something like that but it NEEDS to be said."

"Lily has to go!" Shane shouted trough the trees.

"Go back to camp, Lily," Daryl told her.

She watched as he disappeared into the trees going back toward Rick and Shane. She looked back towards the woods and saw Randall's hut. It was all boarded up, but the door was open. She ran over to the hut and found it empty.

"Daryl!" she shouted running back down to him. "Randall's gone."