I didn't post yesterday!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"I'm gonna sit with Hershel for a little while longer. To make sure he doesn't start bleeding out again or need a blood transfusion. You know. Medical stuff."

"Well, if he sees his blood all over you, he might just pass out again." He dampened his bandana in the next cell and gave it to her to wipe her face with.

"I thought I got it all?"

"You still missed a little. You were scary earlier. Had it been walker blood that would have been different. Human blood, fresh blood was scarier."

He cleaned the spots she missed. It made her smile at the little things he did. When the world was normal the only people who seemed moderately interested in her were a handful of the many people she'd been able to save or the extreme know it alls from her classes when she was still in school. Now there seemed a moderately normal guy interested and she took pleasure in that thought.

"You promise me you'll sleep tonight. You've watched him all day. Get Carol to watch him at some point. You're exhausted."

She nodded returning to the cell as Daryl went to the perch to sleep.

It had become too uncomfortable to sit in the chair after everyone had gone to sleep, so Lily moved outside the cell to the floor where she could extend her legs and lean against the wall and still hear Hershel. Maggie and Beth were in the cell watching him, but Lily was close if they needed her.

"How long have you been here?" someone asked her through a haze. When she didn't answer they asked again. "How long you been sitting here?"

"A couple hours," she said opening her heavy eyes with a great effort.

"A couple hours my ass," Daryl said crouching down to her level trying to take her in his arms.

"I—I need to watch Hershel." She tried to push him away.

"You've been watching him…all day. It's time for you to sleep," he said lifting her in his arms. "Carol can take her turn."

He carried her light figure upstairs and placed her on the mattress in the cell before taking off her shoes.

"Get some sleep." Before he even finished speaking, she was asleep.

When she woke the next morning, a can of beans was lying outside the door for breakfast. She ate it quickly before changing out of her bloody clothes. As soon as she saw the blood, she remembered Hershel and went down to check on him. He was still asleep which was probably the best thing for him at the time. Beth was by his side and a pair of crutches were leaning against the far wall.

After checking up on him she made her way outside where Carol, Daryl, T and Rick were moving all the vehicles into the compound. Finally, all of their stuff was with them again.

She was greeted by smiles when she walked up to them.

"You sleep a lot," Daryl teased her.

"Maybe I'm still growing," she replied smartly.

"You can't grow anymore. You done shrunk."

"Shut up."

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Carol asked. "We could use the help."

"Up in the guard tower."

"Guard tower?" Rick asked. "They were just up there last night."

"Glenn! Maggie!" Daryl shouted to the tower.

"Hey what's up guys?" Glenn said stepping out of the tower buttoning his pants. Maggie's head popped up in the window and ducked back down. The five of them started to laugh amongst themselves because it was obvious what they were doing in the tower.

"You coming?" Daryl shouted.

"What?"

"You comin'?"

Glenn passed a wary glance to Maggie who stepped out of the tower.

"We could use the help. Come on."

T-Dog tapped Lily's arm as she tried to talk away and pointed something out to her. "You see what I see?" She looked to where he was pointing and saw two prisoners she could only assume were the ones from yesterday.

"Yeah, I do."

"Rick."

"That's close enough," Rick said approaching the prisoners. "We had an agreement." Daryl pushed Lily behind him shielding her from the prisoners.

"Please, mister. We know that," the blonde one with a mustache said. "We made a deal. But you gotta understand…we can't live in that place another minute. You follow me? All the bodies—people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts."

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asked.

The arguing went back and forth about whether to let the prisoners join the group or not.

"We'll do whatever it takes to be a part of your group. Just please, please… don't make us live in that place," the blonde one said.

"Our deal is not negotiable," Rick said flatly. "You either live in your cell block, or you leave."

"I told you this was a waste of time," the large african american man said looking at the blonde one. "They ain't no different than the pricks that shot up our boys. You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out, like. These were good guys. Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Thomas and Andrew. Now we've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me, we've paid our due—enough that we would rather hit that road rather than go back into that shithole."

Rick turned to see what Daryl had to say about the whole matter. He just shook his head. Rick at least agreed to keep them outside, but he locked him in the entrance gates.

"I get guys like this," Daryl said. "Hell, I grew up with 'em. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been in there with them just as easy as I'm out here with you guys."

"So are you with me?" T-Dog asked.

"Hell no. Let tham take their chances on the road…just like we did."

"What I'm saying, Daryl—"

"When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial—suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and then two weeks later, show another girl. We've been through too much. Our deal with them stands."

"They are literally begging to be a part of the group," Lily said. "Why not let them prove themselves?"

"No," Daryl said. "Not after what's happened to you in the past. I'm not gonna let that happen again."