Not five miles from the prison they found Michonne, katana in hand, dispatching a deadhead as she walked along the side of the road in front of a semi residential area. She was headed in the direction of the prison. Daryl pulled the bike up beside her.

'Ya kill him?' He shouted over the roar of the engine.

Michonne shook her head. 'He let me go'.

Before Asha realised what was happening, Daryl had kicked out the stand and was manhandling her off the bike.

'Hey,' she protested. His eyes were dark, mouth set in a thin line. She tried to push his arms away, but he quite firmly moved her in the direction of Michonne— before her heel caught and she was suddenly on her ass on the ground, one hand pressed to her injured ribs.

'Don't let anyone come after me,' Daryl said, before revving the engine and tearing away.

Asha and Michonne watched in silence as he disappeared over a rise in the road, the roar of the bike trailing after him. For a long moment after there was quiet, broken only by the sound of the gentle breeze rustling in the overgrown grass and neglected gardens in front of the houses. Asha watched the fallen leaves on the tarmac, still fluttering in the bike's wake.

'Reckon he'll catch him?' she asked.

Michonne shook her head. 'He's been gone a while.'

Asha's forehead creased. 'Crazy bastard's gonna get himself killed. He tell you what he was planning?'

Michonne snorted. 'That crazy fucker doesn't know himself what he's gonna do from one moment to the next. Besides, we didn't really chat.' Her mouth twisted. 'This isn't the first time he's tried to kill me.'

Asha looked at her sharply. 'But he didn't go through with it. Wasn't even his idea this time. Rick made the call.' Her earlier anger at Rick came flooding back. 'How could he do that? He's supposed to be keeping the group safe.' She shook her head. 'How can they trust him to be in charge?'

Michonne arched an eyebrow at her. 'Rick changed his mind—and before Merle did, by the way...And I'm not part of the group, not really. Not yet. He was trying to keep the group safe.' She shrugged and looked off into the distance. 'Decisions like that are what it takes to lead people sometimes these days.'

'So if Rick had handed you over you would have been ok with that?' Asha was incredulous.

'Of course not. But in the end, that's not the call he made.'

Asha frowned. 'Daryl didn't think he'd go through with it. But from what I gather Rick's changed a lot since all this started.' It still bothered her that Rick had thrown her in with Merle as bait. 'Dunno if I'd be trusting his moral compass anymore, it seems a bit warped these days.'

'Different world, and you've known Rick for what, five minutes? Michonne gave Asha a long look. 'I get why he had to consider it. Don't tell me that you don't.'

What galled Asha was that she did. Deliver up a virtual stranger to die in exchange for the safety of her family—or in her case, the return of her brother? Her throat tightened and for a second she couldn't breathe. Oh god, what she wouldn't give to have Nash back. Her stomach ached at the thought. She couldn't even pretend to herself that she wouldn't have considered it. Hell, she wasn't sure that she would have pulled back from going through with it doing it the way Rick—and Merle—had. That thought made her blood turn to ice.

Her shoulders slumped. 'Damn it,' she muttered. She looked down at the ground. 'I knew they were handing you over.'

Michonne looked at her sharply.

'I overhead Daryl talking to Merle about it.' She rubbed the back of her hand across her forehead as she looked up at Michonne. 'I went looking for you, but you and Merle were already gone.' She waved a hand quickly in Michonne's direction. 'I'm not trying to suggest you owe me or anything, just because I say I was going to help. I just didn't want to cover up the fact that i knew.'

Michonne was quiet for a moment, then said knowingly. 'So you considered it too—'

'And decided against Rick,' Asha retorted.

'Why?'

Asha looked Michonne in the eye. 'Two reasons. Merle's told me about the Governor. He wants to get hold of you alright, but that wouldn't have held him off in the long run. When he was done with you, he would have come back for the rest of us. Handing you over would have been a waste of time. I think Merle thought that too.' She shook her head, puzzled. 'I still don't really get why he brought you out here knowing that.'

'Wasn't really about me,' Michonne said. 'Merle thought that if he did this for the group, they'd start letting him back in, even if it was just as the guy who does the dirty jobs.'

Asha 's brow furrowed slightly, but she couldn't detect any real malice in Michonne's voice as she offered her assessment of Merle.

'What was the second reason?'

'If it was me I'd want to know.'

Asha drove her spear through the skull of the deadhead sprawled on the ground, cutting it off mid snarl, and then spun quickly to check behind her. She could see a couple of walkers in the field across the road, but they seemed unaware of her for the moment. There were five or six houses along the stretch of road, most with doors kicked in and windows broken. Even if they hadn't obviously been picked over she would not have gone inside and risked missing Daryl and Merle. Michonne had continued walking back to the prison, but Asha had decided to wait. Daryl and Merle had to come this way to get back. She couldn't face the thought of going back to the prison without knowing whether the brothers were ok. She was choosing not to analyse that feeling too closely at the moment. She paced through the overgrown front yards, relishing the distraction offered by the occasional walker which stumbled into her path, eyes drifting to the road every few seconds.

She heard Daryl's bike before she saw it. She rushed to the edge of the road, straining her eyes as it came over the slight rise and down towards her. There was only one man on it, the familiar shape of his crossbow poking up over his shoulder. Her stomach seized and she bent over double and gagged. The grass blurred in front of her.

She heard the bike go past her, but before it had gone far she heard it turn and then come to a stop behind her.

'Get on,' Daryl snarled.

She held a hand out to stop him saying anything else. Her eyes were fixed on the grass, not really seeing it, and she braced her other hand on her knee as she drew in a couple of long reverberating breaths, trying to steady herself. She wasn't sure why it should affect her this much. Daryl growled something and she heard him kick out the stand on the bike and come towards her.

Come on Asha, get your shit together. You only knew him a few days.

She backed away.

'What the hell are you still doin' here?' He snapped.

'What happened?' She asked, forcing her eyes up to Daryl. His eyes were red rimmed and raw.

'Like you give shit. Get on that god damn bike or I will leave you behind,' he snarled.

'Fuck you Daryl,' she snapped eyes flashing. 'You don't know.' She took a long breath, felt it hitch in the back of her throat. 'I think your brother may have been my friend.'

Daryl's eyes narrowed at her.

She fought hard to swallow the lump in her throat. 'Now what the fuck happened?'

His voice was flat. 'Ambush. Looks like the Governor must have had at least twenty men with him. No way that bastard was letting us walk away if we'd brought Michonne. Merle sniped a couple of 'em, found their bodies. Governor wasn't one of 'em, though.' Daryl looked away. 'Merle was dead when I got there...Turned... Reckon it weren't no accident that he was shot in the chest not the head. He… I….'

Suddenly Asha didn't want to know any more. Her chest felt hollow, but she knew it was only a shadow of what she would feel if she ever came across Nash turned. She choked in a long deep breath, chest jerking, and then another. Done was done and Merle was gone. She fought the stinging that sprang up in the back of her eyes at that thought. She swiped angrily at her eyes as she straightened up and looked around.

They had company coming in again. That god damn bike was too god damn loud. She could see a handful of deadheads stumbling towards them, none close enough to be worried about yet.

Daryl was still staring off into the distance. Asha reached out and put a hand on his arm. He flinched, but in a distracted kind of way, and didn't shake her off.

'Come on,' she said gently. 'We gotta go.'

He nodded numbly and they got on the bike.

'Wait,' Asha said. 'Give me that.'

She tugged Daryl's crossbow off him and slung it across her own back next to her spear so she could sit more comfortably behind him. The scent of leather from his vest filled her nose, for a second distracting her from the smell of blood and sweat. She wrapped her arms around his waist, leant in and rested her head against his back, ignoring the spasm of tension that went through him. She didn't much care if he was ok with it, she just wanted the comfort of a bit of human contact. Daryl didn't exactly relax, but he gunned the bike when it became clear she wasn't going to move. They rode back to the prison like that—Asha with her cheek pressed into Daryl's back, gazing at the paddocks and trees flash by with unseeing eyes, and aching as she thought about how she was going to miss that crass, damaged, crazy ass bastard.

[A/N: Are you gonna miss him? I'm am.

...but there will be a lot more Daryl and Asha now.]