I want to thank all of you who reviewed and thank you to my new followers and favorites! It has been too long since the last update, but I hope this chapter was worth waiting for. If you review, please do so gently.

Disclaimer: Lily Sullivan belongs to be and just about nothing else involved with this show belongs to me. Yeah, major bummer.

Warning: This chapter contains strongly suggestive situations, but not as strong as some I've read...

Alas, here you go.

When Carl let Lily go and took a step back, Daryl lowered the bandana from his nose. It was covered in blood like she expected to see, but at least it was straight.

"You fix it?" Daryl asked her in a monotone voice.

"Yeah," she replied quietly. "It's straight. I guess you learned not to sleep next to someone when they're not expecting it. I suggest you put cold water on your nose to help the swelling go down." When he looked away from her, she sighed and hung her head in her hands. "We can't keep living like this," she said hanging her hands. "I'm tired of living on my toes all the time. Something has to be done."

"Let's take the day off," Daryl suggested as her looked down at his hands.

"What?" Carl asked shocked.

"We'll take the day off. You and me, Lily."

"What?" she asked shocked. "Leave just like that?"

He sighed, "I see no other options. You seem to hate me and that's causing issues for the group. We need to work them out before someone else gets punched."

"That sounds like suicide," Glenn responded. "The Governor could hunt you two down on your own and kill you."

"I can take care of us both," Daryl reassured the group. "We have things to work out. You comin'?" he asked Lily who was standing with her arms crossed.

Hearing him ask that reminded her of when he asked her to come with him and Merle after leaving Woodbury.

She replied, "Yeah, I'll come."

Merle seemed shocked at her willingness to leave the prison after everything that had happened.

"You're gonna leave home for a walker infested place you've never seen before?" Merle asked her.

She responded quickly and sharply, "It's better than being here with you and your positive attitude."

"Leave her alone," Daryl snapped at his brother. "You've done enough already."

"She broke your nose," Merle responded just trying to get a reaction out of his younger brother.

Daryl responded hotly, "What's your point? It's nothin' you ain't done before!"

"If we're going, we need to go now while it's still dark outside," Lily said stepping between the brothers. "With the dark, we can still hide somewhat."

"You're right," he replied. "Let's go."

"What about Rick?" Glenn asked me. She looked between him and Hershel.

"You two were in charge with me, now be in charge without me," she replied. He's not gonna do anything."

Without saying a word t Daryl, I knew to grab a blanket and food supplies for the trip. We'd be away for a while.

"Are you really going?" Carl asked her as she threw her belongings in the back of the car.

"Yes, Carl I am," she responded tersely. "If I'd going to be stuck with anybody in a tight spot, I'd like to be stuck with Daryl. I'm not worried. You shouldn't be either."

Daryl asked agitated form the driver's seat. "Today?"

I hugged the boy one last time, jumped into the passengers seat and they drove away.

"You should get some sleep," he suggested. "You look exhausted."

"How long till we get there?" she asked wrapping the blanket around her.

"No idea. All I know is we are leaving the prison."

She took his word and curled up in the passengers seat to sleep for a few hours while he drove.

When he parked the car, he backed his seat away from the wheel because he knew they would not be leaving anytime soon and he wanted to stretch out his legs. He took a deep breath before beginning the discussion.

"I'm sorry I left. It wasn't the right thing to do but y'all didn't understand—"

"Can we just stop talking about you leaving? Please," she asked closing her eyes. "I get why you left, but you came back which is what we needed. It's what I needed."

"You say that, but my comin' back seems to have made you suicidal."

"Please," she held up her hand to stop him also making eye contact with him. Those blue eyes made it hard to think straight. "I know what I did and I don't want to talk about it either."

He groaned and slammed his hands against the wheel. "Then what do you want to talk about?"

"I wasn't finished." After a moment of silence and both of them taking a deep breath, she spoke again. "Things were spiraling out of control and I lashed out. One minute, there was support and safety and the next, there wasn't. Not to mention the fact that the person we all looked to was not there to help. He was having a meltdown. Then we had visitors which Rick banished from the prison because he was melting down. Things have been hell since you left and I am living proof of that, but at least I'm willing to admit that I needed help."

He held out his hands to calm Lily down. "I get that. Please, calm down."

She hung her head and sighed again. Now it was his turn to speak.

"It just wasn't the same with him. The code I've gotten used to with us," she knew he meant the group at the prison as well as herself, "was just gone. He wanted to pick up like nothing had happened, but that wasn't the case. We were hungry, I said let's go through that house, and he wanted to hunt. As if that was the only reliable way to get food these days. And then there was this family with a baby. He just…he was just gonna leave them there to die by the walkers."

"Well, on the behalf of the family you saved, thank you."

"Bein' with Merle made me realize many things. The most important one was realizin' how being with you made me feel."

"And how is that?" she asked quietly avoiding his eyes by continuing to stare into her lap. "Enough to make you freak out and leave? Too scared of being loved?"

His sigh was so full of agitation it almost shook the vehicle. It took him a moment to collect his emotions before he could touch her and when he did, he forced her eyes to meet his.

"You have to stop this. I get that you're pissed, but we have to move past this."

There was a moment of silence as his words bounced through her head. "We? Us together? You said we?"

"Yeah, I did and I never felt so sappy in my life. We have to work together to get everyone back on their rockers."

"Thank you," she said quietly, giving the slightest smile. In that moment, she felt she had over reacted, but she had been allowed to have a minor freak out. Everyone else had and she had kept the group safe for at least one night which was a feat considering the group was all scatter brained. "Thank you."

"Now, on behalf of my brother; I need to speak for him because no one else will. He's an asshole, but he belongs to me. From now on he won't be bothering us anymore."

"How'd you manage to do that?"

"I threatened to kick him out of the prison by himself. That shut him up real quick."

"He won't bother us, but can we pick on him?"

He chuckled for a moment. "Yeah. We can."

They stared at each other for another moment before they took a single move and met in the middle kissing. In one swift motion, he took her and pulled her into his lap so they could be closer just finally getting some alone time. No brothers to ruin the moment or children to walk in unexpectedly or leaders having meltdowns. It was just the two of them.

Among kisses, Daryl pulled off his vest and cast it to the passengers seat before taking her slim waist in his calloused hands and pressing his lips roughly to hers. She pulled her head away and looked down with closed eyes.

"Are you ok?" he asked her, moving a hand up and down her back and brushing the short hair from her face. "If I'm moving too fast for you.."

She shook her head no. The fact that he was willing to go at her own pace touched her. All she really wanted was just to feel his arms around her. He accepted her decision and leaned back in the driver's seat. Lily placed her hands on either side of his face and planted another kiss on him before removing her own shirt and tossing it to the passenger's seat.

Her sudden movement caught him by surprise. Having rescued her from too many bad scenarios, so much of her he'd already seen, but he'd never looked upon her with hungry eyes. His only concern had been to save her. Now, she was sitting before him in nothing but her pants and bra. 'LIAR' was more visible than ever dug into her stomach and the scars on her back were more prominent than he'd ever seen them, but she was no longer afraid. There was no fear in her eyes when she kissed him again.

They maneuvered into the back seat, tossing clothes to the ground. In the back seat of the car, they became one. The scarred

couple found no flaws in each other.

.. .. ..

Her body was covered in a fine layer of sweat when he looked into her green and blue eyes again. Leaning in close, he placed a kiss on her forehead. They both knew they were too exhausted to continue, but could't bring themselves to part or even separate long enough to sit up.

Eventually, Daryl sat up and wrapped the blanket around her pale shoulders. With a gentle pat on her head, he told her she could sleep while he drove back. Night was almost about to fall and they didn't want to be outside much later.