Sorry it's late. I'll try to upload every Monday but I get busy with school. Here's the next chapter. Hope you like it.

Chapter 2: That's My Brother!

Daryl's P.O.V

"She's my sister." I say no one says a word. I feel Katie behind me peeking out over my arm. Once the shock wears off I know the questions will come.

"I don't see the resemblance." Carol blurts out.

"We ain't blood related." I say. "But she still my sister." I say looking back at her.

"Daryl, we didn't know." Rick said obviously feeling ashamed.

"Yeah and if someone had come to get me when she first showed up I would've told you! I would've also told you she can't be locked up like that!" I said releasing the railing and it slid down. "C'mon baby girl lets get you cleaned up" I say as I help her off the bed. We walk passed the crowd and head for the door.

"My stuff." She cries quietly.

"Carl bring her stuff." I yell back. Using a tone to let them know I ain't shitting around. Carl knows he jumped in and followed us with her bag. We go into my place. I only had the living room set up. I was never a nester. I laid Katie down on my makeshift bed. Carl put her bag down and left without saying a word.

"We're staying?" She asked alarmed.

"No" I say as I stop her from getting up. "We'll figure it out tomorrow. Just get some sleep. Don't worry I'll be right here nothing's going to happen to you while I'm around." I say as I push her short hair out of her eyes. She nods and drifts off to sleep. I keep the lights on, knowing that after that she'll wake up with a nightmare and she hates waking up in the dark. I watch her sleep for about an hour in amazement that we found each other. Just when I get up to go to sleep I hear a quiet knock on the door. I walk over to open it and it's Rick. I don't say anything I just leave the door open and walk back to my spot I was sitting at before. Right beside Katie.

"Look Daryl I'm really sorry I h..."

"s'okay" I interrupt. "I'm sorry. When it comes to Katie I get a little over protective" I explain.

"What did you mean by she can't be locked up?" Rick asked.

"When we were younger, I was 16 she must have been 5, her and her folks moved in across from us. Her folks weren't going to get any parent of the year awards anytime soon. She was always alone. I started taking care of her since then. He parents abuse got bad. Sometimes they'd lock her in the basement. They'd take the light bulbs out and leave her in the dark. She couldn't talk when I found her once because she was screaming for so long. Other times her father would handcuff her to a chair and leave her there for days. I always tried to get to her but I couldn't always get past her parents without them calling the cops on me." I explained and saw the sadness in Rick's face

"Oh my god Daryl. I'm so sorry."

"No it wasn't your fault. I should've told you about her a long time ago. Just then I hear Katie scream. I jump and turn. She has a knife in hand and swinging I grab her arms as gently as I can and hold her down.

"Katie! Sweetie it's just a dream! Your having a nightmare." I repeat the phrase over and over until she calms down. I throw the knife away as she goes back to sleep. I sit down beside her and feel something warm running down my arm. I lift it and there's blood she caught me with the knife.

"I'll go get Denise." Rick says.

"No, just grab some bandages. Don't wanna wake her for nothing." I said. He nods. Katie is still having her nightmare. She's breathing heavy in her sleep. Rick comes back with gauze a bottle. He kneels down and opens the bottle.

"What's that?" I ask moving my arm before he touches it.

"It's hydrogen peroxide. It'll keep it from getting infected." Rick said. I've never used it before but I let him be. He pours it over the cut on my right forearm. The pain stings worse than a bee sting as it makes its way deeper into the cut. I bite my tongue and try not to be a wimp about it.

"It's alright Daryl. This stuff brings me to tears. Especially a cut this deep." I let out a chuckle as a way to hide the pain.

As soon as Rick is done the bandage is neatly wrapped. Soon enough I drifted off to a restless sleep. Waking up every little while to make sure Katie was safe. She was aside from the occasional jump.

The next morning the sun rises and I wake up; Katie is already up sitting beside me.

"What's that?" She questions nodding to my arm. I look down and the bandage has a spot where my blood soaked through.

"It's nothing." I say getting up. Katie looks past me. I turn and the knife beside me has my blood dried on it.

"Did I..?" She trailed off.

"No, Katie it wasn't you. I couldn't sleep and was being stupid. Throwing the knife around. Caught my arm." I said lying hoping she would buy it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah Rick was here ask him." I say hoping she doesn't agree to ask him.

"Fine, I will." She gets up and grabs her knife back and leaves. I drop my head, now I have to face it. "Hey Rick!" I hear her shout from the lawn.

"Shit" I whisper to myself and get up to run and see her. I get there just as Rick is walking up to her. He looks at me and I point to my arm and then toss the knife in the air then mimic cutting my arm. He just nods once.

"What's up?" He asks.

"How did Daryl hurt his arm?" She asks.

"He was throwing the knife in the air and missed it. Caught him." He answered not missing a beat. I let out a small sigh.

"Okay" she said and turned back to me and walked in the house.

I stepped down the few steps in front of me. "Thanks."

"Why did I just lie?" Rick asked

"I lied because if she knows she left a little cut on me she will feel bad about it. She's already been through enough." I explain.

"Sounds reasonable but it's more than a little cut" he says pointing to my bandages still soaking through. I just brush it off. "So is she going to be sticking around?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm not planning on letting her leave me again." I say.

"Okay, but she will be your responsibility. She has to follow the rules like everyone else. She has to pull her own weight like everyone else. I understand what she's been through but I can make exceptions." Rick gives me a small lecture.

"Don't need the lecture Rick. If you mean I can't let her go crazy I won't." I said becoming slightly defensive before walking back into the house.

"You two are such liars!" Katie says.

"What?" I ask.

"You got him to lie for you didn't you?" She asks.

"Why'd I do that?" I ask.

"He was looking at you, you got him to lie. How did you hurt your arm?" She asks again.

"Enough about my arm. What about you? What happened to you out there?" I asked and she became quiet.

"I'm not ready to talk about it yet." She says turning away. Just as there's a knock on the wall. I look up and Aaron is there standing in the doorway.

"Hey Daryl, I just thought I'd check on Carter. How are you doing?" He asks.

"Carter?" I question.

"It's the name I've been going by. Katie isn't exactly a tough name." Katie explains. "I'm okay." She answers him. I catch myself trading smiles with Aaron when I jump up.

"Well I'm going to see when Rick needs me to make another run." I say "You wanna come?" I ask facing Katie.

"No I'm fine here. I'll look for you if I need you." Katie answers.

"I'll come with you. I need to know if I should still be recruiting." Aaron says as he walks out. Katie gives me a thumbs up.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"He seems nice." she nods to Aaron waiting on the porch with a smile.

"Hey it ain't like that. He's a friend." I say trying not to let my real feelings show.

"Uh-huh sure he is." she giggles.

"Shut up." I say.

"Love you too." She yells at me as I leave. I avoid eye contact as we walk down the road.

"So she's your sister." Aaron asks.

"Yeah, practically raised her." I say admitting the truth.

"That's pretty cool, after all this time you get to see her again." he says flashing his usual smile, as I give in and look up from the ground. I don't know what it was about him that I liked to be around. Maybe it was that he didn't judge me.

"Yeah, still a pain in my ass." I chuckle.

"Guess that's what younger siblings do."

"Yeah I guess so." I laugh as we approach Rick's house.

"Hey guys." He said holding Judith.

"Hey, I just wanted to know if I should take another run for supplies? I figured I'd bring Katie with me just to ease her into this place by not making her stay all the time. Right now at least." I explained forgetting that everyone knows her as Carter.

"Katie?" He asked confused.

"I mean Carter." I correct myself.

"Oh, yeah we could use some more supplies. Especially some baby food." He looks at Judith.

"Are we still going to recruit?" Aaron asked.

"I think we'll hold off until we get Carter settled in." Rick said.

"You could come with me and Kat…Carter. Could use the extra hands to bring back more." I suggest. Aaron smiled and nodded. We walked off to get "Carter", it'll take me a while to stop calling her Katie. We pack up a few things, mostly empty bags and weapons; then we head out and I see the weight lifted off Ka..Carter I correct myself in my head.

"So why Carter?" Aaron asks

"Technically it was my last name. After everything that happened I started going by Carter Dixon." She shrugs.

"So, how did you two meet? If you don't mind me asking." Aaron asked.

"Oh Daryl pretty much raised me. He's 11 years older than me. My 'parents' and I moved across the street from him when I was about 5?" she say using finger quotes around parents.

"That was nice of him." Aaron smiled at Carter.

"Yeah, I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for him. Probably bouncing from foster home to foster home getting lost in the system. He took care of me for so long by the time I was 10 I started telling people he was my brother. It was easier than explaining that he was my neighbour that's been taking care of me since I was 5." She explains.

"I never knew that you were good with kids." Aaron smiles at me.

"That's my brother! Always so mysterious." She laughs.

"So Aaron, how is Eric doing?" I asked as we continued to walk.

"I..uh…we actually broke up." He said trying to hold back how he felt.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I say trying to hold back feeling happy. I feel a nudge on my other side and Carter smiles at me. How could she know? I don't even know what I'm feeling. "Stop it" I mouth to her.

Hope you like the story so far. Do you think Daryl and Rick are going to remain on the same page? What happens if Daryl puts his sister before everything? He's already got Rick to lie for him to protect her.