Little, flickering orange glows lined the marble counter tops of Phoebe's en suite bathroom. The lit tealight candle's were giving off the aroma of cinnamon and cloves to accompany to sweet scent of the bubbles that Phoebe had just added to the running bath water. She let the tub fill up as she walked, wearing nothing but a towel that was wrapped around her, to the mirror that hung above the bathroom sink. Phoebe bunched up her curly hair and secured it with a hairtie to make a sloppy, high bun. Walking back to the now full bath tub, she turned off the running water and dropped her towel to the floor. She started by just putting the toes on her right foot, gently, into the water, to check the temperature, before climbing in and settling her whole body into the warm, bubbly water. Phoebe let out a relaxed sigh as she leant back, sinking her body deeper into the water so that the bubbles were grazing her chin.

It was just two weeks before Phoebe would have to drive back to Atlanta and begin another semester of college. Usually around this time she would start to feel depressed about having to leave home and Daryl, but instead, as well as feeling a little anxious, she was feeling hopeful. Over the summer Phoebe and Daryl had been almost inseparable, thanks to Phoebe's parents caving and letting him stay at their house, practically every night. And Phoebe was excited because tomorrow they would be spending the weekend camping. Daryl was under the impression that it would be their last chance to spend time together before Phoebe went off to college, but Phoebe had a little surprise for him. One that she hoped he would be happy about.

It had just gone 10p.m. on the summer's Friday night when the front door to the Steven's home crept open. A grey coloured duffle bag hung over his shoulder and a heavy tread in his step, Daryl entered the place that had been as good as home and shut the door behind him. He set down the duffle bag, full of last minute camping supplies that he had gone to collect, with the other things that him and Phoebe had ready in the downstairs hall way. He figured he should go to sleep soon as they would have to head out early in the morning, but before he could head up stairs, his name was called.

"Daryl? Is that you?"

He followed the sound of the sweet, gentle voice into the sitting room, where Phoebe's mum was sitting, with the TV on.

Doctors of the French capital, Paris, say that the unknown disease outbreak has been contained, for now, and are still not releasing any details regarding the nature of the disease; but say that it is like nothing they have seen or heard of before. They are still doing extensive tests, and say that they are confident that they will find a cu-

Phoebe's mum angled the TV remote towards the TV and switched it off.

"Yeah, it's just me," Daryl answered giving a half smile, standing in the door way.

The welcoming woman gave him a warm smile, "Everything all set for tomorrow?"

"Just about." Daryl was a horrible conversationalist and at times like this, he hated that. Especially when this woman had been so kind to him all summer. He just hoped that she knew he appreciated it.

"Well that's good. I hope you two have fun." Her smile never leavingher lips.

He realised the trust that she was putting in him, to take care of her daughter, and having her trust made him feel good. Responsibility over others wasn't something he was useto having, but he kind of liked it. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and gave an awkward smile.

"Thank you."

Daryl's shyness humbled her,

"Well Phoebe's upstairs, taking a bath, I think, if you want to go up."

"Yeah, I think I'll probably go to bed now."

Like she was his new adopted mother, she replied, "Alright sweetie. Have a good night, see you in the morning."

"You too."

Daryl entered the upstairs room that use to be Phoebe's, but was now more like a shared space and sat on the edge of the bed. Taking off his boots he heard a sound - a very sweet sound with an even sweeter melody. He followed the melody into the bathroom and stood silently, listening, watching, from the door frame.

"Round and around and around and around we go

Oh now tell me now tell me now tell me now you know
Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay."

Phoebe was lying in the bubble filled tub,with her eyes closed, singing soulfully. She had always enjoyed singing, she had a decent voice and a history of singing as she was lead in her high school choir.

Her voice increased in feeling,

"Ooh the reason I hold on
Ooh cause I need this hole gone
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving
Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving."

Mesmerised, Daryl walked a little closer towards her, settling against one of the counter tops. Phoebe felt his presence and opened her eyes to look at him.

"Spy," she teased.

He smiled. "Maybe."

She sat up and leant against the edge of the tub, only her shoulders and upwards were visible, "Come'ere."

He went over and knelt down next to the crystal white, porcelain bath tub, resting his chin on top of his arms as they were crossed on the rim of the tub. "Mmm?"

Phoebe smiled, put her damp hands on the back of Daryl's neck and gave him a soft, tender kiss before resting her forehead against his.

Daryl tucked a free curl, that was hanging down and clinging to Phoebe's cheek, behind her ear.

"Why did you ever give up singing?" he asked.

Imitating her father, she said, "Because Daryl, there is no solid future in singing."

He was unimpressed. "Right. Well I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Whaat?!" she whined, "you don't have to sleep yet..."

Almost pouting, she replied "But I'm tired."

Phoebe gently placed her hand on his cheek. "Aww, is my baby getting old?" she teased.

"Old?!" he exclaimed. "There's only a 6 year age difference you know."

"So old," she teased, biting her lip, trying not to laugh.

"I'll fucking show you old!" Daryl promised as he lifted her out of the bath and threw her over his shoulder, not caring about his clothes getting drenched by her warm, wet, naked body.

"No! Daryl, wait!" Her attempt at pleading was ignored as he carried her through to the bedroom and dropped her onto the middle of the soft, neatly made bed.

They indulged in a playful wrestle, on the bed. Gentle pushing, soft biting, feverous tickling but now Daryl was straddling Phoebe, holding her hands above her head with one hand while he sucked and bit at her neck and tickled at her ribs. Her giggles mixed with faint moans.

"Daryl! Stop!"

"Nah, I don't think you mean that," he replied, with her neck still in his mouth.

He was right, but she let out a sighful moan as she tried to keep in her laughter, "I do, I do mean it."

He removed his mouth from her neck as he let go of her hands, looking into her eyes. Daryl suddenly realised that she was naked, underneath him, as his arm grazed the side of her breast. He looked and realised that her skin was covered in light goosebumps.

"You're cold," he stated.

Phoebe looked down and then back at him.

"No," she breathed, "I'm feeling quite hot actually."

Her words soaked into him and ran through his head as she caught him off guard. Obviously he was up for anything Phoebe wanted to do next, but Daryl couldn't help but just stare and admire at what he had. She was beautiful.

After a night of shared, intense passion, Daryl was awake surprisingly early. He had found himself lying wide awake at 6:00a.m., unable to get back to sleep. Usually he would have quite happily passed the time watching Phoebe, who was curled up at his side, sleeping; watching her chest rise and fall as small, peaceful breaths escaped her lips, but instead he decided to get a head start on the day.

Daryl gently manoeuvred himself out of bed, trying desperately not to disturb a still sleeping Phoebe, as he knew if she caught him leaving the bed, she would force him to stay. It's not that Daryl didn't want to stay curled up next to the woman he loved, he wanted nothing more than to just lay with her, in his arms, feeling totally undisturbed, but he would be disturbed. Disturbed by the haunting fact that the time for her to leave was coming suffocatingly close and he had to start creating a little bit of distance between them, as an attempt to lessen the pain when she is torn from his world, again. He knew that creating some sort of distance between them would be difficult, which is why he protested against spending the weekend together, alone in the woods, but he was once again defeated by Phoebe's persuasive ways.

Besides, Daryl liked the woods. He knew about the woods; Daryl knew more about them than he knew about most things. In the woods Daryl could be alone, yet surrounded at the same time, focused on the task at hand. Be it hunting, tracking or just wandering as far away as he could. Getting lost within the rough bark covered tree trunks, that were all different heights and different shades of brown; something he did quite frequently, until he actually did get lost. Daryl was close to 12 year's old when he had wandered out too far and couldn't find his way out for nine, long gruelling days. Although he was young, he was already partial to fending for himself, picking and eating wild berries when he got hungry, which turned out to be more food than what he would have received if he were at home, and substituting the ever needed toilet paper with poison oak; something he later regretted. But when Daryl finally returned home, a cruel and hurtful reality was made very apparent to him when he realised that nobody had even noticed his disappearance , or so he thought. One person had noticed, the one person who would always notice him; and not just because his clothes were often dirty and he would often be covered in unexplainable cuts and bruises. And when he didn't turn up in the neighbourhood for nine days, to watch the other kids play joyfully and carefreely, the young, inquisitive girl definitely noticed.

Once Daryl had gotten out of bed and made it to the bathroom, without disturbing Phoebe, he closed the bathroom door behind him and reached for his tooth brush, that shared a pot with Phoebe's, on the counter top by the sink. Phoebe was later awoken by the sound of the running shower water. She rolled over in her spot and checked the time on the digital alarm clock, that was set on her bedside table; 6:30a.m.? The fuck is wrong with that man? She thought to herself as she tiredly yanked the covers up over her head, trying and get a little more sleep.

A short 15 minutes later, while still laying with her head underneath the covers, drifting in and out of light sleep, Phoebe heard the bathroom door swing open and the sound of familiar footsteps make their way across the room. She peeked out from the covers, only slightly, and watched Daryl as he busied himself with getting dressed and ready for the day. He had a cream coloured towel wrapped around his waist, trailing loosley down his muscular legs and cutting off above his shins. Water droplets were trickling down all parts of his perfectly toned body as he swaggered over to thechestnut coloured chest of drawers. Still blissfully unaware that he was being watched, he took the smaller towel, that was draped over his shoulders, and used it to dry his hair. Harshly running it back and forth over his scalp before turning and dropping it onto the end of the king sized bed, and that's when he noticed her.

Their eyes met. "Hey, what'er ya doin'?" Daryl asked, feeling a little embarrassed as he didn't know that she was awake.

"What, are you the only one who's allowed to spy?" She teased as she sat up in bed.

"Yes." He answered as he gave her his back, and beganrummaging through the chest of drawers, looking for clothes. "Thought you were sleepin' anyway."

"I was trying to..."

Daryl required some items of clothing from the chest of drawers and perched himself on the edge of the bed, "Sorry. I'll get dressed and go out for a smoke. You try and sleep some more."

"Nah, it's okay, I'm awake now."

She crawled over to him, sitting cross legged, behind him and resting her chin on his shoulder. He leant into the gesture, if only for a minute and rested his cheek against hers. Daryl's skin was rough in comparison to Phoebe's and his stubble would scratch against her smooth porcelain complexion. It should have felt uncomfortable and irritable, but it was the complete opposite. She always felt comforted and reassured whenever she felt his touch, even if it were only briefly.

"We should try and head out early," he offered as he began unfolding and studying the clothes that he had picked out for the day.

"I like this one." Phoebe smiled as she reached her hand out, from under Daryl's arm, and lightly tugged on the hem of the shirt he was holding up. Daryl never cared for fashion and clothes, as long as it fitted and didn't make him look like a douche, he didn't care.

He put the light weighing, dark coloured fabric down beside him. "Yeah, I guess." Turning his upper body towards her, he said, "Are you gonna get ready or what?"

She sat back and scoffed, "No Daryl, didn't I tell you? I'm a nudist now."

Daryl smirked. "Yeah right, like I'd let another son ofa'bitch get any kind of look at you. You're mine girly."

Phoebe met his icy blue gaze and smiled. She was his. She only ever wanted to be his, and the thought of being anyone else's made her feel physically sick.

She placed a playful kiss on the side of his neck before setting off to the bathroom. As she had just passed in front of Daryl, she felt two strong hands grip onto either side of her waist and pull her back a few steps. He wanted another and she could tell by the look in his eyes, the right amount of the puppy dog stare mixed with hidden lust. So she threw her hands gently onto his shoulders and leant down far enough that she could connect and soak into the kiss that he was so generously offering. He knew he shouldn't have done it. It would only hurt him more when the time comes, but he never learnt. Not when it came to being heart broken whenever she would have to leave for college and then falling hopelessly in love with her all over again when she would return.

It took the couple a few hours before they were finally ready to head out. They loaded Daryl's Ford pick-up with the equipment that they would need for the weekend: a tent, a couple of sleeping bags, some cooking equipment and among a few other things Daryl's Horton Scout HD 125 crossbow. He was adamant on bringing it and determined to try and teach Phoebe how to hunt. Her father didn't approve of said idea, but it was one of the few things that Daryl was naturally good at and enjoyed, so he wanted to share it with her regardless of her father's opinion.

Daryl had just finished loading his pick-up and was in the middle of awkward conversation with Phoebe's mother and shared stern glares with her father when he became painfully aware that she wasn't out in the driveway with them. So he took the first opportunity he could to wonder back into the house and find where she had gone.

Phoebe was in the kitchen, leaning with her back against the counter top while talking in a hush tone on her cellphone.

"So you're sure he's gonna reserve the job for him?" She asked anxiously to the person on the other line.

"Okay, good."

She began to chuckle.

"Kirsty, I don't wanna know about your 'special' friendship with him!" Phoebe carried on laughing until she heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"Okay girl, I've gotta go- Yeah, we're about to leave.- And thank you, I really appreciate it. Bye, I'll talk to you Monday."

"Pheebs, what're ya doin'?" Daryl asked, standing at the door way, just as Phoebe hung up her cellphone.

"Kirsty just called, wanted to tell us to have fun and all that." She stepped over to him and held on to the sides of his shirt.

"Alright?"

Looking down at her, he replied, "Alright, but we've really gotta go now."

Phoebe extended her neck to peck at his chin and smiled. "Let's go then," she commanded before waltzing off to the car.