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

Chapter 56-He Saw the Devil

The night was a long one, everyone restless and on alert. Daryl and Taylor were standin' guard when the sun finally rose and lit up the remaining stained glass windows.

"Maybe the walkers got 'em last night," Taylor said as they cautiously removed the barricade from the front door.

"Maybe. I don't know if we're that lucky," Daryl opened the door and blinked in the bright sunlight. "Or if they're that stupid. They got someplace they're holed up." They walked out into the front of the church, scanning the woods and the driveway for any movement. Aside from a squirrel chittering in one of the trees it was quiet. Taylor spotted something on the ground, walked over and picked up a set of wire cutters.

"Check it out Daryl," Daryl walked over to him and Taylor handed him the wire cutters. "Those assholes must've dropped these." Daryl nodded.

"Probably. C'mon, lets get back inside. We got a lot of shit to do today so we can get out of here before they come back tonight." Walking back in the church, Daryl saw that everyone was awake. Maggie, Glenn and Alice were emptying their backpacks and talking to Father Gabriel.

"Father Gabriel is gonna show us his supply cache," Glenn told Daryl. "He said there's a lot of canned foods there that we can take with us." Daryl looked at Gabriel as Rick joined them.

"Won't you need that after we go?" Gabriel looked nervously from Daryl to Rick.

"I was hoping that you would allow me to join you. The church isn't secure now and I believe that God sent you here as the next step on my path to redemption." Daryl glanced back at Rick.

"It's up to you. Even if we leave, those Terminus assholes will come back." Rick nodded.

"Alright. So long as we can get that bus you were telling us about, you can come with us." Gabriel smiled.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." He looked at Daryl. "The bus is at the school bus yard on the west side by the creek. I know there's a number of the dead inside the fence but the yards are gated off. Unfortunately, I don't know the buses condition after all this time but I know it was used not long before the dead rose. We picked the….youth group up from Bible camp up near Senoia." Gabriel trailed off, probably remembering that some of those children had been among those he'd locked out of the church that night. He shook his head to clear it. "Anyway, the bus ran fine then. Super easy to drive and will hold thirty people I think so we should have plenty of room." Gabriel took a set of keys out of his pocket. "Here's the keys. There should be a set in the glovebox of the bus but just in case. There's also gate keys for getting in the bus yard." Daryl nodded and took the keys.

"I'll take Taylor, JR and Rosita to get the bus." JR piped up from the back of the room.

"Eugene is comin' too. I'm not takin' my eyes off him until we get to DC." Daryl nodded.

"Fine. I'll go check on Dani and then we'll head out." He walked into the church office and found Dani was still asleep on the couch. Between the stress of listening for an attack and Jesse being Jesse, she hadn't slept much. Jesse was awake and yawning. Daryl picked him up gently and carried him out into the sanctuary. Andrea quickly took the baby from him.

"Let her sleep a bit ok? Jesse was up most of the night." Andrea nodded.

"Don't worry. I've got this guy." Daryl kissed Jesse quickly and joined Taylor, JR, Rosita and Eugene at the back of the church.

"So Daryl," They had barely left the church driveway before JR started talking. "Since you're family now, why don't you tell me about yourself. What were you doin' before all this?" Daryl shrugged.

"Nothin' that needs talkin' about now. Just tryin' to survive. Now, I do the same thing. I take care of Dani, take care of Jesse, help take care of the group. Still just tryin' to survive." JR nodded and chuckled.

"That little Jesse sure takes after you. Though, I can see some of Grandad in his face. He woulda been pleased as punch that Dani finally had someone with her who cares about her. She was his pride and joy." They walked along quietly for a bit. "Has she told you much about the family?" Daryl nodded.

"Yeah. Said she was the only girl around, that she started huntin' when she was six, that she and her mother weren't close and her grandparents pretty much raised her. Said all y'all were really close when you was younger but that she took off for California to get away from her mom and pretty much regretted it ever since, except for havin' Abigail." JR nodded.

"Pretty much. My dad and her dad were brothers, the oldest two of four boys. We all lived in the same town but my family and Dani's all lived right next door to our grandparents. Well, we lived next door. Dani, Uncle Charles and Aunt Jolene lived in a small mobile home behind Meemaw and Graddad's place. Aunt Jolene was a piece of work. Spoiled bitch from Mississippi, thought she was owed the big life from Uncle Charles and she blew through every dime he made. He died when Dani was…fifteen I think? Heart attack or somethin' I don't know. Anyway, she and Dani got into a fight the summer after she graduated high school and Dani announced that she was gonna leave Louisiana. I had just turned fourteen but my brother Garrett and her were the same age and had been joined at the hip since they were babies. He drove her to the airport in Shreveport and spent the whole drive tryin' to talk her out of it. She wouldn't even think about it, said she'd been accepted to some school out in California but just hadn't ever told anyone. We all thought she was goin' to Louisiana State down in Baton Rouge with Garrett but she'd apparently been plannin' on leavin' since her daddy died. Garrett could not talk her out of goin'. She came out once after her momma died and then she had hurried back because she'd met Greg." He snorted. "That asshole treated her like shit, took her off to get married in Vegas after she graduated, and we didn't even find out until awhile later. He wouldn't let her to work so he controlled the money and he wouldn't let her come back out by herself. I was home on leave for Christmas the year after Abigail was born and all of them finally came out so Meemaw and Graddad could meet the baby. Dani didn't even look or sound the same. I know she was happy to have Abbie but she looked so sad and broken. He was such a dick, talkin' down to all of us and had scheduled flights so they arrived on Christmas Eve and flew back the morning after Christmas so she didn't even really get to see or say goodbye to anyone except those of us there at dinner. Garrett, Sam and I wanted to drag him down to the swamp and feed his ass to the gators for the way he talked to her. My momma was convinced he was beatin' her but I swear Daryl, if we'd seen any evidence that bastard ever laid a hand on her we'da killed him. That was Meemaw's last Christmas with us and Granddad died not long after she went. Greg wouldn't give Dani the money to fly back out for the funerals, son of a bitch. Garrett flew out there a couple of times and she snuck around to see him but Greg found out and forbade her to ever talk to us again. After that, I didn't hear from her. She would call Garrett and my Momma whenever she could so I heard some things but I was sent overseas to Afghanistan, Iraq…saw a lot of shit, even though there wasn't supposed to be shit to see, before I got stationed in Texas. Haven't laid eyes on her in at least ten years. Almost didn't recognize her when I saw her yesterday." Rosita called from behind them.

"Hey Jasper, are you gonna talk the entire time? Don't mind him Daryl. The other guys would always give him grief for runnin' his mouth non-stop." Daryl smiled.

"No it's fine. I'm glad some of her family made it. I know she's felt guilty that she didn't leave Atlanta sooner to make it back home." JR's smile fell.

"I'm glad she didn't. Rosita and I, we actually made it to Monroe. I had to put down my daddy, my momma, my brother Sam and his wife. I didn't see their three kids and I don't even want to think about what happened there. I don't know where anyone else is. We headed down to try to get to the Gulf and find a boat. Garrett has lived down 'round New Orleans for the past few years so I was thinkin' we might could find him on the way. I hope he's safe somewhere. I keep hopin' we'll run into him and his partner on the road to D.C. Anyway, we ran into a herd down around Baton Rouge and lost most of our people. We saved Eugene on the way out. After that, I've been focused on gettin' him to D.C. and fixing this thing. Then maybe I can find out what happened to Garrett and the rest of the family." He stopped Daryl from walking.

"Please don't tell her about my folks and Sam. Dani was always the girl Momma and Daddy never had and we were all real close, despite how things were the past eighteen years. I didn't tell her we made it to Monroe and I don't think she knows Garrett was livin' in New Orleans, especially since he had no idea she was in Atlanta. Dani's always acted real tough but she was sensitive and it never did take much to get her upset. She's so worried about you and Jesse and all this, it's best we keep this from her now. I'll tell her when we get to D.C." Daryl nodded.

"I understand. I'm sorry about your family. I hope you and Dani find your brother again. As for Greg," Daryl smirked at the memory of feeling Greg's jaw cracking under his fist. "We ran across him a month or so back and I beat the shit outta him for callin' Dani a slut. Bastard's dead now. Walkers got 'im." JR laughed.

"Good to know Daryl. Hell, I like you even more now."

They walked in silence until they got to the school. The yard had been used as an army refugee area, probably a medical screening location based on the number of medical vehicles, and whoever got out had the sense to lock the gate. The walkers reminded Daryl of the prison yard when they first arrived. They crept along the fence line, following Gabriel's instructions to the bus area, and found the transportation yard. The church bus was parked with the smaller yellow school busses and there appeared to be few walkers on that side.

"It looks like it's been sittin' there for a long time, even before all this," JR whispered. "We need to make sure it can run." Daryl nodded.

"I've worked on diesels before."

"Great. You and I will have to inspect the truck after we deal with those dead heads over there. Rosita, Eugene and Taylor can keep watch." Taylor nodded and picked up the wire cutters they'd found outside the church.

"Let's go back here, get behind 'em. Then they won't hear us cutting through the fence." JR smiled at Taylor.

"Good plannin'. You military?" Taylor shook his head and smiled slightly.

"Pre-med."

"Can you hand me the socket wrench Rosita?" She handed the tool to JR and he slid back under the bus.

"Since we got some time," he grunted slightly "why don't you tell me how you and Dani met?" Daryl carefully removed the fan belt to inspect the timing chain. The engine was similar to the bus at the prison and looked like it was in better condition.

"We were all stayin' at a prison we'd cleared out. Dani had been livin' at this nearby place with Abigail. Abbie died and Dani ran from there to the prison." He put the fan belt back on and moved to inspect the spark plugs. "Kinda liked her from day one but…took a bit of time on my part and we just, I don't know…" he trailed off, feeling his face heat up. "Anyway, we got together, had Jesse and now we're a family. After Greg showed up, Dani said she wasn't a Robertson anymore so I told her she could be a Dixon if she wanted to. So she is." Rosita laughed.

"You're about as romantic as Jasper." JR slid out from under the bus.

"The hell you talkin' about woman? I'm romantic as shit." Rosita smiled at him.

"Oh yeah because 'Hey baby wanna drive my tank' is the equivalent to roses and champagne." JR smiled and winked at her.

"Worked on you didn't it?" He wiped off his hands and looked at Daryl. "I know it's bad because officers and enlisted aren't supposed to date but Rosita and I hit it off and were doin' a pretty good job of keepin' it under wraps until the world came to an end." Eugene looked up from his radio.

"Fraternization between enlisted servicemen and non-commissioned officers has always been prohibited." JR rolled his eyes.

"Well yeah dumbass. That's why it was a secret. But Rosita isn't some dumb kid. She was 21 when she joined up a year or so before the world went to hell."

"23 actually," Rosita corrected. "And you were too busy starin' at my ass to realize I wasn't an officer when you first hit on me." She walked over to the bus. "Y'all are checking out the engine and changin' the oil but did either of you check to see if there was even gas in it?" Jasper grunted and rolled back under the bus.

"First thing I checked. Full tank." Daryl looked over at the gate where Taylor stood guard.

"Taylor! Still all clear?" Taylor turned and gave a thumbs up before turning back to watch the schoolyard. Daryl closed the hood of the bus and backed away.

"Everything looks good. Should get us to awhile down the road." Eugene looked up from his radio.

"We should have carseats for the babies. NTSB rules and regulations say that infants and toddlers must be properly secured in all moving vehicles." Rosita nodded.

"You know, Eugene's right. What if we get into a wreck or have to stop really fast?" She slung her gun over her shoulder. "Eugene and I are gonna go see what we can find." Daryl saw that Eugene seemed to perk up for the first time since he'd met him.

"Of course. I'll be happy to accompany Rosita to find the proper safety equipment for the youngest members of our group." They both climbed back through the hole they'd cut in the fence and headed down the road. JR slid out from under the bus.

"Oil's changed." He wiped his hands on a rag and leaned on the bus next to Daryl.

"Let me ask you somethin' about Dani, Daryl." Daryl glanced over quickly and then looked away, squinting into the distance.

"Alright."

"What happened to her? And don't tell me 'nothin' because she was skippin' stuff last night when she was tellin' me about Abbie. Somethin' happened to her in that place she stayed before she got to the prison, didn't it?" Daryl shuffled his feet and looked down.

"That's Dani's place to tell you, not mine. If she wants to, she'll tell you when she's ready. She's pushed down a lot and some more she probably doesn't need to go through ever again." He could feel JR tensing up next to him. "I can tell you that every single person that hurt her is dead." He looked up. JR's face was a stone mask, his fists clenched.

"It's what I think happened, isn't it?"

"Like I said, if Dani wants you to know what happened, she'll tell you. But don't you make her re-live somethin' she's not even had a nightmare about in months. We got enough goin' on and she don't need to bring all that back up." JR nodded.

"I'll let it be. I don't want to hurt her or make her go through somethin' she's already dealt with. Wish I coulda been there to keep it from happenin' in the first place." Jasper kicked angrily at the gound. "She shoulda stayed home. She shoulda gone to LSU with Garrett and stayed around home where she belonged." Daryl felt a flash of anger.

"Don't you go blamin' her for what happened. She's done that enough to herself, she don't need to hear any of that shit from you." JR looked away ashamed.

"I'm sorry man. That came out wrong. It's just…we should've gone out to see her instead of sittin' in Monroe tellin' her what to do. Truth is, me, Garrett and the rest of the family were all mad she left. We understood wantin' to get away from Aunt Jolene but we thought she was selfish takin' off like that instead of stayin' with her family. She coulda gotten away from her mother by goin' to LSU. Meemaw talked to her the whole time she was in college before she met Greg and Meemaw told us a bunch of times to just get off our high horses and go see her but our stubborn asses wouldn't do it. If Meemaw could've stood the trip she would've gone herself but her and Grandad weren't in the best of health. If one of us boys had gone back there to see her, instead of just tellin' her to come home, maybe things would've been different. Honestly, we cut her out and probably made her feel like she couldn't ever come back, otherwise we would've known when she was in Georgia and that she and Greg finally split up."

"She wanted to come home you know?" JR turned to Daryl in surprise. "After she left Greg, she planned on goin' back to Louisiana but Greg went to court to keep her from taking Abbie out of Atlanta. He wanted Dani under his thumb forever. It wasn't until right before Atlanta fell that she finally packed up to get her and Abigail out of the city and the only place she wanted to be was with y'all. By that time though, the military was pushin' everyone on the highway south. But she was goin' home. All she could think about was gettin' to y'all." JR sniffed and blinked rapidly, quickly turning his back on Daryl. He stood there, his head down and his hands on his hips.

"Thanks Daryl. Thanks for tellin' me that," JR's voice cracked slightly and he sniffed again. "Ah god damn…" he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and he chuckled. "Don't you go tellin' her I cried or nothin'."

Michonne and Rick stood on the church steps, watching the woods and the road.

"What do you think about this D.C. thing JR keeps talking about?" Michonne asked him.

"Not sure. We already went to the CDC and Doctor Jenner didn't say anything about a cure being worked on in Washington. He mentioned something about his French counterparts comin' close but nothin' about us." Rick shrugged. "Course, he was suicidal after his wife was infected and was ready to blow up the building with all of us in it. So either he didn't know or he didn't believe it."

"Or Eugene is scamming everyone to stay safe." Rick turned to Michonne.

"Could be. For his sake I hope he's tellin' the truth. If JR's temper is anything like Dani's he might kill the man if this has all been bullshit." Rick looked up at the sun's path across the sky. "It's been a few hours. The supply group should be comin' back soon." As soon as he spoke, he heard branches breaking and first Maggie, then Glenn walked out of the woods followed by Alice and Gabriel. Glenn smiled.

"We're loaded up. Is the bus back?" Before Rick could speak, they heard the sound of breaking glass followed by Judith's scream. Rick ran into the sanctuary in time to see Gareth holding his daughter in one arm and pointing a knife at Tyreese. Andrea huddled in the back corner, shielding Dylan and Jesse behind her. A woman held Andrea at gunpoint. Another man had Carl in a headlock, holding a machete at his throat. Behind them another man herded Maggie, Glenn, Alice and Gabriel back into the sanctuary.

"Gareth, check it out," the woman threatening Andrea called. "We got two smalls over here." Gareth nodded.

"Perfect. They'll be easy to carry for later." He adjusted his hold on a screaming and wriggling Judith, his back to the pulpit and the office door. Michonne started to walk towards him and Gareth held the knife to Judith's neck. "I wouldn't do that." Michonne stopped and saw movement behind the altar. The office door cracked open and Dani slowly looked out. Michonne watched as Dani surveyed the room, saw the woman threatening Andrea while Dylan held a screaming Jesse. Gareth snapped his head over to the woman.

"Shut it up!" The woman cocked her gun and a shot rang out. The woman fell as a bullet pierced her skull. Another shot fired and the man holding Carl dropped the machete as his body slumped to the floor. Dani walked out of the door and fired again at Gareth but her gun clicked empty. She tried again and the gun clicked again. Gareth, who's face had gone from fear to a smirk, turned back to Michonne and Rick. He still held Judith and brought the knife back to her throat.

"More for us I guess." Tyresse saw his opportunity and launched himself at Gareth, tackling the cannibal like he was back on the field sacking a quarterback. He grabbed Judith and tucked her into his arms and ran towards the Dani. With the children safe, Maggie, Glenn and Alice overpowered their captor and quickly used his weapon on him, his blood spraying across them and Gabriel. Father Gabriel stood horrified and watched his church being desecrated by these murderers. Carl picked up the machete and handed it to Rick, who still stood staring through Gareth. Gareth dropped to his knees.

"Please, I'm sorry." Rick walked towards him and raised the machete.

"Stop!" Gabriel rushed forward. "The man is repentant. God calls on us to show mercy." Gareth, spotting an ally, turned his attention to Gabriel.

"Father, yes! I am! Please! Forgive me!" Gabriel nodded.

"Yes son, God forgives you," as Gabriel stepped forward to reach for Gareth, Rick slashed the machete through the air decapitating him. Gabriel felt the warm blood splash across his face and saw the jugular pulsating, spraying blood into the air as Gareth's headless body slumped to the ground. Rick descended on the body, hacking away in a blind rage. His children had been threatened again and he was going to make sure this piece of shit never rose again. He didn't stop until Michonne grabbed his arm and quietly but firmly said his name. Outside, the bus pulled into the parking lot and Rick could hear voices in the distance. Blood dripped from his hair into his eyes, coating his world in red. He could hear Daryl and Taylor calling his name. Rick dropped the machete and turned towards his group. Gabriel stood there, staring at the remains of the man so brutally and mercilessly butchered in his church, at the pool of blood spreading towards the altar. The house of God had been defiled. He quickly crossed himself and looked at the large cross over the pulpit. He could feel the eyes of Christ looking at him, could hear God speaking to him.

"Dear God help me," he whispered as he dropped to his knees in prayer. "Rick Grimes is the devil."