92 thanks for the review! You too Nellie.

I'm so sorry for the late update. Things have gotten away from me. Hope this was worth waiting for.

I do not own the Walking Dead, but I do own Lily.

"You found her?" Daryl's voice reached her ears asif through a dream. She could hear him but couldn't respond. All she could do was listen. "And you brought her back?"

"Yeah," Merle responded. "Why is that such a big surprise ta everyone here?"

"Because you tried to kill 'er," he hissed through his teeth. "And if half of what she said is true about Woodbury, then I'm surprised you even gave 'er a second glance."

"It's all true. I told ya that. But I had ta do it, little brother. Don't you see?" Merle stated plainly. "Without her, there's no you. There's no them either. These people need ya. I didn't save her for me."

.. .. ..

The next voices to fill her ears belonged to Carl and Hershel.

"When I asked her why she hurt herself, she told me 'One for every time.' " There was a pause as Carl inhaled and continued. "Do you're know what that means? If it means anything at all."

Hershel's voice was flat when he responded. "Once for every time she's been raped I'd say. I'm guessing in the moment she did it, it was her way of controlling the situation. It was her way of feeling like she had survived everything. Like she was strong enough to escape them." Clothes shuffling filled the silence.

"Now, I've heard her say before that she can't hurt people on purpose. And from everything I've seen that's true, that's all except for the Governor. But even then if she had the chance, she probably couldn't kill him. Maybe this was her way of expressing her anger. I don't know. It's just frightful thinking that the way she expresses anger is through self harm."

"The Governor is an awful person though."

"That he is."

.. .. ..

"There's somethin' I've been needin' to ask ya, but I never had the courage, not until you were almost gone," Daryl said as he sat next to the bed staring down at his hands. Before he continued, he took a deep breath. "My biggest problem is knowin' when to speak and how much to say. So, here we go," he said in a hushed voice so only she could hear.

"We've been through a lot together and I ain't gonna question that you've been to hell and back, but not without a price. We've all had to do things we wished we didn't have to, but we did. I've killed at least a dozen people…people who weren't tryin' to eat me. They were just tryin' to stay alive like we were, but I killed 'em. Sent an arrow through their head, their eye,…their heart. I almost shot you…" A deep intake of breath filled her ears as he prepared to continue.

"When I was with Merle, we had time ta catch up. Long, ugly story short, not a lot was said but enough for me to see we was practically the same. We had a code, but that code's changed. It's not what it used to be. He's livin' like nothing has happened and I couldn't jus' forget everything. He's done things he wished he hadn't, but you ain't ever gonna hear him say that. He can shrug things off. I can't. Because of what he'd done, to Glenn and Maggie, to you…I couldn't bring him here. You're nervous around Merle and I understand that…what I don't know is, do I make you nervous?"

Without opening her eyes or even giving a sign that she was conscious, she pressed her thumb and index finger together before pulling them apart slightly so he could see the gap.

She heard his clothes rustle as he leaned in close to place his warm fingers between hers and push them apart. Opening her eyes, she pushed her fingers together to reinforce how she felt around him.

He looked into her green and blue eyes before leaning over and untying her wrist from the bed post and placing it upon her stomach.

"Get some rest," he said leaning back into his chair.

"I can't," she said tiredly. "It's already been a day since I passed out. We have that argument to finish anyway."

"Nah, sleep. Sleep before you decide to do something else stupid. You're already too calm."

"I've had a lot of time to think about why I did what I did and I couldn't agree more with what Hershel said." She took a deep breath. ""

(Dark Harbor 1998 26:41 watch?v=-STmiL8M7nY)

"You're way to calm for someone who tried to kill themselves only a day ago," Daryl said.

"I didn't try to kill myself," she said holding out her arm to him. "If I had really wanted to kill myself I would have slit my wrist, not cut my arm and I would have cut a lot deeper."

"This still isn't comfortin'."

"Also," she continued with an informative tone. "I would have cut vertically with the vein, not horizontally to it—"

"I get it! You know how to kill yourself."

"I didn't realize why I did it until I heard Hershel talking. I was spiraling out of control and this was how I took it back. Yeah, it's stupid, but it just happened and I couldn't stop it. Now everyone thinks I'm crazy."

"What I think is interestin' is how none of this happened until I came back…You seemed to be doin' fine until I showed up."

"Shut up," she snapped, her whole attitude changing as she jumped to her feet. "You left us and then you come back expecting nothing to have changed. You left us."

"I came back for you," he replied standing up to meet her eyes.

"I can't keep riding this roller coaster," she sighed sitting back down.

"Then don't," he said flatly.

"How? We're in the same group. We have to stick together. And don't you dare think of leaving again!"

She watched his light blue eyes stare down at her which made her look away. When she turned away, she heard what sounded like him snoring. Her head snapped back up but he was gone. He was asleep on the bed behind her.

Lily's eyes snapped open at the sound of snoring coming from the darkness next to her and she balled her hand into a fist. The crack of her fist hitting the snorer's face echoed off the wall.

In her attempt to stand and crawl away from the snorer, she discovered that her wrist had been tied to the bed post. The startled snorer darted from the cell as she tore free from the twine holding her to the bed and lunged for the back wall.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the room and take in her surroundings before she realized she'd just broken someone's nose.

Following the groan from outside the cell, she saw Daryl leaning against the rail holding his nose with his bandana.

"Damn," he groaned. "That's the last time I sleep next to you."

"Oh, my God. I'm so s—"

"Don't. Don't apologize." He tilted his head back to try and stop the bleeding.

"Let me see it," she said sternly.

"You broke it, What else do you need to know? Don't touch it!"

"Don't be a baby. Let me see."

"It's fine."

"You just said I broke it," she argued. "Now show it to me." He just looked down at her with those blue eyes filled with anger which was not directed at her but at the situation. "Tilting your head back won't stop the bleeding. At least lean forward."

He closed his eyes as he leaned forward, so Lily shot her hand toward his face. She pinched his fingers around his nose and jerked his hand. His nose snapped back in place as she jumped out of the way thinking he would lash out his arms.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed as he leaned against the railing, punching it to release anger.

"Now will you let me see it?" she asked.

"You've done enough."

Some people had gathered outside their cells to watch the two lovers quarrel.

"Maybe I was wrong about 'er," Merle's gruff voice reached her ears. "She's not as weak as I gave 'er credit for."

"Would you just shut up," Glenn snapped at him.

Carl ran up the stairs and into Lily's arms. "Stop hurting yourself," he begged her. "Please. We need you."

She looked up to meet Daryl's eyes and he nodded his head agreeing with the small boy.