So I'm going back and reading what I've written and am realizing I've rewritten things. There are like two times when Daryl shows Lily the scars on his back. Yeah, sorry about that. I'm scatterbrained and I guess it doesn't help I write this in chunks and out of order. I need to start planning this thing out better... Maybe writing things in order to start with. ;) thanks for hanging in there and reading my fic. It means a great deal to me.

On a different note I added 10,000 words to the fic not that long ago! Yay! Can't wait until season 3. Things are going to get intense.

Sorry it took so long to get back into this but school has been kicking my butt. Hope this was worth waiting for.

Lily is my OC and the Walking Dead does not belong to me.

They rode for a while, the wind cold against their faces. Lily almost wished she'd chosen to jump in a vehicle, but she decided that motorcycles were more fun.

"You know how to take care of people!" Daryl shouted over the roar of his bike. "And you know how to shoot many kinds of bows. You never said you knew how to drive a bike. How did you?"

"Not that hard..." she responded hoping she was loud enough for him to hear. "Not after watching you. You're mostly show!"

"You've never ridden a bike before?!"

"No!"

"Well, next time you decide to do somethin' new, don't just jump right into it!"

"What's the worry? I'm fine aren't I?"

"Define fine!"

Just then a horn blared behind them and Daryl pulled the bike over to the side of the road.

Rick got out of the truck and ran up to Daryl. "You out?" he asked.

Rick nodded. "Runnin' on fumes."

"We cant stay here," Maggie said holding her shotgun.

Glenn piped up. "We can't all fit in one car."

"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning," Rick said.

"Spend the night here?" Carol asked.

Carl's small voice piped up. "I'm freezing."

"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori said trying to warm Carl up.

"You go looking for firewood, stay close," Daryl said.

"Don't go any farther than you can shout," Lily added. Daryl clapped her on the back. She took it as a friendly gesture meaning she was right in her thoughts.

"Only got so many arrows," he mused looking at the few he had left. "How you doin' on ammo?"

"Not enough," Rick answered.

"We can't just sit here with out asses hangin' out," Maggie added sounding more nervous than earlier.

"Watch your mouth," Hershel snapped. "Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."

"All right. We'll set up a perimeter," Rick began speaking. "In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."

"Glenn and I can go make a run now and try and scrounge up some gas," Maggie offered.

"No, we stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car."

"Rick we're stranded now," Glenn informed him.

The way he said it made a shiver run down Lily's back. Daryl read it as her being cold so he ran his hand up and down her back comfortingly.

"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure— I really was't— But we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter someplace. There's gotta be a place."

"Rick, look around," Glenn said. "There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something."

"There's gotta be a place. Not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it."

"Well I'm game for a tree house if everyone else is," Lily whispered only loud enough for Daryl to hear. It was a small way her her saying there was nothing they could do without having to say it to Rick, but if that was there only option, she wouldn't be opposed to it.

"Even if we do find a place," Maggie added, "and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe."

"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel said a matter of factly.

"We'll make camp tonight, over there." Rick pointed out the remains of an old stone house. "Get on the road at the break of day."

Carol made her way over to Daryl and leaned over Lily. "Does this seem right to you?"

"What if walkers come through or another group like Randall's?" Beth asked Rick.

"You know I found Randall right?" Daryl asked Rick. "He had turned, but he wasn't bit."

"How's that possible?"

"What the hell happened?"

"We know what happened," Lily said.

"Shane killed Randall," Daryl said confirming her statement. "Just like he always wanted to."

"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked.

"We're all infected," Rick said looking at the ground.

The words had to sink in before anyone fully understood what he said. 'We're all sick. We're gonna turn anyway.' Her hands began to shake and not from the cold.

"What?"

"At the C.D.C., Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."

"And you never said anything?" Carol asked him.

"Would it have made a difference?"

"If he told there would have been a panic," Lily defended him still upset that he had made the decision not to tell them but completely understood why.

Glenn asked, "You knew this whole time?"

"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that mo—"

"That isn't your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone."

"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know."

When Rick walked off, it was clear the discussion was over. Daryl watched him walk off as Lily tapped his shoulder. "Food?" she asked and he nodded his understanding.

Together they went into the woods. Lily gathered firewood as he hunted for anything that moved.

After at least half an hour of hunting Daryl heard the distinct noise of branches snapping. He found Lily violently breaking large branches down to sizes small enough for her to carry on her own.

"You're chasin' off all the wild life," he said making an attempt at light humor. The look on her face said otherwise. "What's wrong?"

"How could he keep something like that from us?"

"What would you do with the information is you had it?"

"Exactly. Tell us now or tell us then. It wouldn't have made a difference if we're all gonna die anyway. If I'd died at that camp, it would have been nice to know that I had died of natural causes of something like…starvation rather than have you think I'd been killed!"

"Calm down," he said stopping her from breaking another branch with her foot.

"I am as calm as I should be." She raised her foot and brought it down breaking the branch in two. "Now, I'm just trying to get wood to keep everyone warm. Ok?"

The pile she'd created was quite impressive, but even though Lily grabbed only a portion of the pile she still grabbed more than she could handle and pushed Daryl away. There was nothing he'd done but she was just mad at Rick for having withheld information. Being a doctor, she'd thought he'd have told her something about that.

She tried to take a step but tripped over a root she couldn't see sending the firewood flying. Her body still hurt from being a prisoner in that awful camp and where Shane had grabbed her but she hardly felt it. Daryl ran over as she threw a stick as the nearest tree in frustration.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew," he said handing her his crossbow to begin gathering the firewood again. With a huff she threw it over her shoulder so she wouldn't have to use her hands to carry it.

"Don't patronize me, please," she asked already beginning to calm down.

Together they regathered the sticks and began the walk back to the makeshift camp.

"You know, you don't look half bad wearing that bow strapped to your back."

She smiled as she looked over her shoulder. "And you don't look half bad helping around the house."

The corner of his mouth turned upward in a smirk as his eyes narrowed. As cheesy as the playful banter was, it was comforting after the day they'd had and the world they were living in.

"You calmed down quickly," he observed.

"Had to. No point in being upset over something I can't change."

"That's final."

"Yeah, because I don't want to talk about it."

"Then what do you want to talk about?"

"You're quite the chatter box today. Why?"

"Have to be. You're not and talking keeps your mind off things it needs to be off of."

"And what does it need to be off of?" she inquired.

"Oh, things that don't matter. Now let's talk about things that need addressing."

"Like what?" she scoffed.

"Us."

"Us?"

"Yeah, what are we? I feel like I keep getting all these mixed signals. I express my concern to your well being and you punch me because that's so different than hitting. You hate me sometimes yet you make me sleep next to you in bed because I kissed you. I save you and you cry. It's a lot to process…"

"I find it interesting that not once have you mentioned that I had been abducted, abused, and raped. Those do play a small part in who I am."

"Then tell me about it. Why are you the way you are? Why are you so shy and soft spoken? Why do you talk with someone like me?"

"You listen when I speak. You look after me. Not many people do that. I never used to speak much before everything happened then I got into the habit of not speaking because it would get me hurt. In the days before you found me I had gotten into the habit of not speaking because it usually meant a new bruise and less clothes. Just as I was getting used to speaking again after you'd found me, I found myself in a dark room, bleeding and being attacked for trying to fight for myself."

"Why do you talk to me? People hated me before you showed up. I made my way into the group through you and keeping you safe. The kids loved you so through their love for you, you snuck into the group. I just followed behind."

"You were familiar. You know how a small child will cling to their mother's leg when they go somewhere new. It was kinda like that. You were the only other person I'd met since walkers took over that wasn't interested in what I could give them. It was a welcoming quality."

"You said you stopped speaking when in the presence of those ill at heart because it got you nothing good…if that was the case, then why were you almost beat to disfigurement when I found you?"

"Because I fought back. I was tired of just letting things happen. I didn't want to have to depend on someone else to save me because it took so long for you to come along the first time. I just wanted to get out. I'm tired of being taken advantage of."

Without realizing it, she had stopped walking and was staring at the ground.

"You're stronger than you realize. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, ok? I've watched you grow stronger since meeting you and the differences are astonishing."

"You were waiting for me to come and get you. It's brave and foolish. It also puts pressure on me to do well."

"If you hadn't come when you did, you'd have found me dead." Her voice was so low Daryl almost hadn't heard her.

"What?"

"I'd been there three days when I made that promise to myself. If you still hadn't showed up by the time the day was over, I was going to kill myself, to end it. To end everything. To make the pain stop."

"Without pain how do we know we are alive at all? It's what keeps us human." His words did little to calm her shaking hands and how she felt at him ignoring her words. "And I will always find you. Always."