A/N All characters belong to the writers and creators of The Walking Dead. Except those that arose from my own twisted imagination.

Chapter Five-Night Watch

The night was quiet. With everything secured from walkers, the only real need to keep watch at night was for the living. Rick insisted that everyone take their turn on night duty so Maggie and Danielle volunteered. Over the past few days, they had bonded over their similar experiences of abuse at the hands of the Governor and, in spite of a ten year age gap, were quickly becoming friends. Sitting up in the tower, they kicked back and stared into the darkness. The only light came from the stars. Even with the thick trees, they should be able to see lights from an oncoming vehicle in more than enough time to get downstairs and warn the others. No one slept that deep anymore anyway, not since the group got back from Woodbury.

"Glenn hasn't slept a single night through since then," said Maggie. "He says that he can't sleep because he's worried about me not sleeping. I've tried to tell him that I can't sleep because I'm worried about him not sleeping." Both girls laughed. "It's a vicious cycle I'm tellin' you." She stretched and glanced around the yard. Everything outside was quiet. Danielle could make out the shapes of walkers in the outside fields, wandering aimlessly looking for anything to sink their teeth into.

"I've kind of figured everyone's on edge. Daryl just tosses and turns up on the landing. I know I make him uncomfortable and I've tried to say I'm fine on the ground but he said the concrete is too cold and if I can't sleep in a cell, I might as well sleep on the landing. I asked Hershel about it and he kind of said Daryl had a point but…" Danielle bit her lip. "I just don't want to be responsible for everyone being all wound up all the time, especially Daryl. I'm trying to stay out of his way but whenever we group up, he's always there. I go down for target practice and I know he's watching me. I don't know whether it's because he thinks I'm gonna go after y'all or if it's something else." Maggie frowned.

"Daryl's different than the rest of us. He's always got to do his own thing. Glenn said he's more social now than he was before I knew him, not that that's really sayin' much. The only other person I've seen him interact with really, I mean besides the baby, is Carol. I thought they were getting pretty close there for awhile." Danielle stood from the chair and leaned against the table, facing Maggie.

"Carol had a daughter too, didn't she?" Maggie nodded. "What happened?"

"Their group was on the highway by our farm and got ambushed by a herd of walkers. Carol's daughter Sophia got chased into the woods. Rick went after her but somehow she got separated. Daryl went nuts looking for her. When other people wanted to give up, he went out on his own. He borrowed one of our horses and got thrown down an embankment. Got impaled on one of his arrows, took out a couple of walkers that attacked him, messed up his shoulder…Dad was not too happy having to fix him up. That was before we knew what the walkers really were. Dad thought that they were just sick and we needed to wait for a cure so we kept the walkers locked in our barn." Danielle started at this news.

"You did what?" Maggie got defensive.

"We didn't know what was going on. All communication dropped out. Our farm was back off the highway, you wouldn't have known we were there unless you were lookin' for us. You don't just kill sick people and Dad was sure that a cure or something was coming any day. Their group found out that the walkers were in the barn and one of them, this asshole guy Shane, he opened the door and let them out and started killing them. After most of the walkers were gone, Sophia came out…" Maggie's voice trailed off. Danielle was shocked.

"She'd turned." Maggie nodded.

"I think she was twelve. Daryl kind of broke down after that. He stayed away from everyone, even talked about going off on his own to look for his brother but in the end he decided to stay. We made it here and it was a mess. We cleaned out the walkers but we lost some people. After walkers got in the cellblock, we lost Carol and thought she was dead. Rick's wife, Lori, she went into labor but something was wrong and I had to do a c-section to save the baby. She didn't make it and Carl shot her before she could turn. Rick went nuts for a while and Daryl stepped up and took care of that baby. A few days later he found Carol. That was when Glenn and I got taken by Merle to Woodbury." She paused and took a drink of water. "You know what happened next." Danielle let out a bitter laugh.

"Yeah. But why then, if he knows what Merle did to y'all does he not believe me?" Maggie shrugged.

"You heard what he said. 'My brother's a lot of things but he ain't no rapist'. Kidnapping me and Glenn, he could accept that. Beating Glenn almost to death, he could accept that too. But actually trying to force himself on a woman, that's a step too far." Danielle could see Maggie smile in the dark.

"Did you really bite him?" Danielle's eyes widened.

"Did Daryl tell you that?" Maggie shook her head.

"I heard y'all talking that night. Everything echoes in those cells. Everything." Danielle laughed.

"I did. When he dropped to the ground I hit him over the head and then kicked the shit out of him. I'd honestly be surprised if I didn't damn near kill him." Maggie nodded.

"Good. Son of a bitch had it coming." They were both quiet a moment.

"You like him don't you?" Danielle's eyes widened.

"Who?" Maggie rolled her eyes.

"Who do you think? Daryl. You like him." Danielle started to protest.

"Don't deny it. I see the way you look at him. Everyone can. You like who he is, how he looks, what he can do. Probably the only one who doesn't see it is Daryl and that's only because he wouldn't figure it out unless you jumped in his lap naked. And even then I'm not sure he'd know what the hell you were doing." Danielle was speechless for a moment.

"He's just something familiar. I grew up around men like him. I can relate to him. That's it. It's probably just my stupid subconscious way of trying to grab on to something that feels normal again." Neither girl spoke for a few minutes. It was after two am and they were both getting tired. Their relief should be coming up soon. Maggie was pretty sure it was Oscar or Axel.

"You should try it and see what happens." Danielle, who had been thinking about the supply run the next day, didn't understand what Maggie was talking about.

"I should try what?" Maggie looked at her incredulous.

"Try talking to Daryl. See if you can feel him out. Don't tell me you're as dense as he is. He may not even realize it but he might like you. Seriously, what have you got to lose? It's not like you've got a bunch of choices anymore." Maggie started counting on her fingers. "Rick's got a ton of baggage, Glenn's taken, there's my dad…" she trailed off and shuddered. Danielle laughed. "and then there's Axel and Oscar." Danielle shook her head no. "Exactly. So who does that leave you? You'd have to wait another ten years or so for Carl to grow up. Daryl's the only one left."

"Maggie, I'm not going to go after Daryl just because he's the only man around who's remotely available!" Danielle went quiet when she heard the door open to the tower and footsteps on the stairs. Maggie stood up and shrugged.

"I didn't say you had to sleep with him. I just said talk to him. Y'all are a lot more alike than you realize." The door to the control room opened and Daryl walked in. Danielle felt her face burn red. Maggie's eyes widened and she tried to hold back laughter. Daryl looked at her.

"What's going on?" Maggie shook her head, trying hard to keep the smile off her face.

"Nothing. I think I'm going to bed." Maggie held the door open as Daryl sat in one of the chairs and put his feet up on the control board, his crossbow in his lap. Danielle, still surprised and embarrassed at almost getting caught having that particular discussion, hadn't moved from her chair. Daryl glanced at her.

"You goin' or stayin'?" Danielle started to get up but Maggie shook her head at her.

"Talk to him," Maggie mouthed at her. Danielle flipped her off and readjusted herself in her chair.

"If it's alright, I can stay up here a bit longer." Daryl shrugged without looking over at her and kept staring at the window. Maggie gave Danielle thumbs up and went down the stairs. Daryl and Danielle sat in silence. She did not want to be the one to speak first.

"How's your hand?" She actually jumped when he spoke, she was so tense.

"It's fine. Hershel said there's no sign of infection. He should be able to take the stitches out in a couple of days." Daryl nodded slightly.

"Did you grow up in Louisiana?" He was actually talking to her. Five nights of sleeping not three feet from him and this was probably the longest conversation they'd had outside of planning strategy. She swallowed. She didn't know why she was so damn nervous.

"Yes. We lived in a trailer on my grandparent's property."

"Just you and your mom and dad?" He still hadn't looked her way, keeping his eyes focused on the window and the world outside.

"In the trailer. My dad's three brothers lived within walking distance so I had all my cousins around all the time. I was the only girl out of the bunch." Daryl looked over at her for a moment and then returned his gaze to the window.

"That's how you learned how to hunt?"

"My dad took me duck hunting for the first time when I was six. I could shoot any gun straight by the time I was ten. I was twelve when I got my bow and took down my first deer. I knew how to catch it, I knew how to kill it and I knew how to clean it. Never did learn how to cook it." Daryl smirked.

"That must have made your momma real proud." This time Danielle snorted.

"That woman hated me from the moment she laid eyes on me." Daryl looked over at her, frowning.

"I thought you said she got knocked up on purpose?" Danielle nodded.

"She did. It just didn't work out the way she planned it. See, Daddy was supposed to graduate from Ole Miss and then play for the NFL and become the next Joe Namath. Then she could be free to sit back and spend his money while she left me with the help. She didn't want to be a mother. Instead, they got married right away to avoid the dreaded scandal in Jackson with my mother's family, she dropped out of school while Daddy finished but the offers to play pro football never came. Since he had my mother to support and me on the way, he brought her home to his parents. Mother deemed him useless even though he worked his fingers to the bone every day. She wasn't happy but her parents wouldn't let her even think of getting a divorce. So, instead she drank herself stupid and bitched at him day in and day out for not being good enough, for being backwoods redneck trash. I think he would have been a drinker too if Grandad and MeeMaw hadn't been so against alcohol. When I was born, Mother just brushed me off as another white trash kid and let MeeMaw raise me. She might as well not have existed as far as I was concerned. She was just the drunk bitch in the trailer." She paused. She really hadn't meant to say all of that. Daryl was looking back out the window.

"My mom was a drunk too. She smoked in bed. Fell asleep and burned the house down with one of her cigarettes. I was out playing with some of the kids from the neighborhood when it happened."

"I'm sorry." Daryl looked over at her.

"Don't be. I'm not." A star shot across the sky. Daryl smiled.

"I remember one of my teachers in school telling us about shooting stars and making wishes on 'em. I sat out one night watching for one. I really wanted a bike and I really wanted my daddy to stop knocking me and Merle around. I just wasn't sure which one I wanted to wish for first. Merle came out and asked what the hell I was doin'. When I told him, he said it was horseshit and that wishes were for pussies. And that I better get my ass inside before he whupped me one." He looked at his crossbow and set it on the control table. "I guess it's too late to start believing in that shit now." Danielle shrugged.

"I don't know. I still believe in wishes coming true." Daryl laughed.

"What's wishing going to get you? It's not going to get your daughter back. It's not going to make you un-raped." That was the first time he'd mentioned that since the first day. "Prayin', wishing, hoping…none of that means shit when you've got fifty walkers on your ass."

"True but we're not under attack now. We've got the place secure, we've got food and water. Good people to be around and a roof over our heads. That's a lot to ask for right now." He thought about that.

"You might be right. I don't know." Low in the east, a faint light was rising. Daryl stood .

"Another few hours and the sun'll be up." He stretched and looked closely at her. "Did you get any sleep tonight?" Her eyelids were heavy and her head nodded. She felt his hand shake her shoulder.

"Danielle." That woke her up. The first time he had actually said her name. She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her with a trace of concern. When he spoke next, his voice was quiet.

"Why don't you go down and go to sleep? We're doing a supply run sometime tomorrow. You don't want to get caught tired out there." She nodded and got to her feet.

"Good night." She passed by him towards the door when he stopped her.

"Danielle don't sound like any redneck name I ever heard." There was a slight mocking tone to his voice. She met his gaze and for the first time she saw genuine kindness.

"Everyone called me Dani when I lived back here." Daryl nodded his head and opened the door for her.

"Dani'll do." He shut the door behind her. She carefully made her way down the stairs and into the cellblock. She saw that her blankets were already made up on her side. Grateful, she pulled the blanket over her shoulder and went to sleep.