Of all the ways she suspected someone might find out, a bite from a stray zombie on one of the girls was not in her cluster of mental worries. Especially not when the person in question had barely left the farm.

Lured by the sound of a small animal crying, Sharon had wandered off the property by a mere dozen feet and straight into a tiny herd who had cornered a rabbit. She took out three of them before the fourth sunk it's teeth into her shoulder blade and got a machete to the head for it's efforts.

Buffy knew it would happen eventually. She'd tried to kid herself into thinking they'd be able to keep their biggest secret from the new additions but in the back of her mind she always knew. Something would tip them off. Either obvious as a bite or subtle as someone throwing their strength around just a little too hard.

A bite however, was harder to hide, especially when Carol had been within seeing distance of Sharon cursing a blue streak and dripping blood all over the foyer of the main house. Then Daryl had shown up shortly after and she half expected everyone else to follow suit and just walk in single file like they'd gotten a memo.

Buffy's mind spun with options for damage control. News would spread like wildfire if she let it.

She would have to tell them. Well, she would have to tell them something. Lies were easier to swallow when they were coated in truth.

Daryl was staring at her like he expected a power point presentation of what the hell was happening as Carol finished tending to the wound. She hadn't had time to come up with anything to tell Carol before he'd burst in the door so at least she wouldn't have to spin this twice. Took a deep breath and did her best to sound calm.

"We're immune."

Blunt and to the point. Like ripping off a band aid. Figured it was easier than beating around the bush. Daryl stared at her in open disbelief. Carol's brow creased and she side eyed her before speaking.

"Define immune."

Buffy sighed and turned away from them. Lifted the back of her shirt to reveal two walker bites that had long since scarred over on her lower back.

The room was silent. If she listened hard enough she was certain she could hear her own heartbeat having an epileptic fit in her chest. This was the moment. They would either accept this explanation as fact and not question it, or they would never stop questioning it.

Would either agree to keep it to themselves or tell everyone they knew.

Buffy hoped she hadn't made the wrong choice in allowing them in. In more ways than one.

Carol spoke first, her voice barely a whisper. "All of you? How?"

"All of us except Xander and Dawn. We just are."

"You could be a cure. Whatever's floatin' around in your blood keeping the virus in check. Could be a way to.."

She didn't let Daryl finish before she cut in. She'd heard it before. Hoped it herself a long time ago. "It doesn't exactly work like that. We've tried. It's…a part of us in a way that can't be transferred. I'm sorry."

"Well this is good news, right? Means Sharon is going to be ok?"

Buffy couldn't help but smile back at the genuine smile Carol was giving her. Then remembered she had one last thing to hit them with.

"I'm going to ask that you both keep this to yourselves. That you don't tell anyone else from your group. I know it's a lot, I know that's the first thing you'd wanna do because if the situation were reversed it's the first thing I'd wanna do…but there's a reason we don't lead with this info when we meet people."

"Never?"

Buffy regarded Daryl. "I'm not saying never. When the time is right, if the time is right, I'll tell them myself but it's not your secret to share. I'd appreciate the choice to tell it if and when I choose."

She paused and ran a hand over her face in exhaustion and huffed out a sarcastic laugh. "Or… one of us will get bitten again tomorrow in full view of everyone and then it won't be an issue because at the rate we're going, luck is not exactly on our side."

She saw them both look at each other for a few brief moments. Witnessed an entire conversation happening without a single word and then Carol was nodding at her with just a trace of sympathy.

"We won't tell anyone. I'm just happy you're going to be fine." She regarded Sharon and then looked back at Buffy. "You can trust us."

And that was how half their secret was told to one fourth of their new friends. Not exactly how Buffy would have planned it but it certainly could have gone worse. Had gone worse.

A few minutes later she'd sent them both back home to the shed. Sent Sharon upstairs to her room with strict orders not to scratch the bite as it was healing and rifled through the kitchen cabinets for a stash of chocolate she'd hidden a few weeks ago. For nights when she felt like the powers that be were fucking her over extra hard. Tonight was one of those nights.

Her mind played through the last time she'd told someone new the truth. The whole truth. Her blood ran cold at the memory.

It had been an ordinary day by all accounts. Willow was seated directly across from her on one of the bar stools eating from a bag of red vines and scrying for live people on a map.

That was their mission at the start. Find people. Help them. It was what they did and they were damn good at it. Picking up slayers along the way didn't hurt matters either.

They'd found a dozen people in an army supply store not long after their searches began. They'd assimilated surprisingly well considering the situation and Buffy felt like maybe she really did still have a purpose here in this world that was slowly eating itself alive.

It didn't take long for her to stop considering them separate groups and start thinking of everyone as a single entity. Invited them on runs, shared the daily responsibilities that never ended on the farm, traded puns with them.

Roughly six months after she'd first allowed anyone who wasn't a slayer entry to the farm, someone got bit.

Buffy had been careful up until then. Making sure all traces of magic or slayer skills were glossed over and well hidden. She trusted these people, yes, but it was a lot to take in for anyone that'd spent their life thinking these things weren't real. That monsters were only in fables and super powers only happened in comic books.

But then someone got bit and she couldn't just sit by and watch them die. That wasn't what they did, after all. So she gave Willow the go ahead to heal him in full view of the others. Would never forget the shock and awe on their faces when they witnessed it.

The gratitude they'd given her and Willow afterward.

The ambush she'd walked into that night after the sun crept down and she entered the front door of the main house and saw Willow dead on the tile only a few feet away. Magic was no match for a bullet no one saw coming.

Someone move up behind her and placed a knife at her own throat, pressing just slightly but not cutting. She didn't react just yet, could only stand there and stare at her friend while a voice hissed next to her ear.

"Witches! You did this. You're the reason the dead walk the earth."

She felt the blade slice into her flesh and blood drip down her collarbone. Saw Xander, Faith and Dawn approaching from the opposite direction, coming from where she wasn't sure, but it didn't matter now. The haze of shock broke and her elbow shot out to catch the man square in the eye.

He fell like a rock and that's when she noticed they were all there. Everyone they had welcomed into their home with open arms. Everyone they offered sanctuary to when they needed it the most.

All there to slaughter them where they stood on the false belief that they'd caused this apocalypse.

Her vision swam with unshed tears and she locked eyes with Faith for a split second. Decision made. Blind rage overtook her and then she was shoving the sharp end of her knife through the skull of the closest person she could reach.

Then the next.

And the next.

They had come to see a slaughter and they'd gotten their wish, they just didn't expect to be the ones on the receiving end. Between her and the others they'd blown through the entire group in under sixty seconds, leaving nothing but carnage at their feet.

It was the first time she'd ever taken a human life but it wouldn't be the last. She had to protect the girls. Had to make sure no one got a second chance to put a bullet through them.

The gates to the farm hadn't opened to another outsider since. Searches for live people stopped. If they saw someone they went the other way.

Until now. Until this new group that Buffy had already felt herself get far too attached to. Tried hard as she could to be indifferent because when she told Xander he made the wrong choice, that they were safer out there then they were in here with them she hadn't been exaggerating.

She took in a muffled sob as she relived the memories of that night and could only hope that this time it would be different. That this time their new friends wouldn't turn on them when they least expected it.

Daryl and Carol sat side by side on the living room sofa of the small house they shared. Forearms resting on their knees, complete mirror images of each other right down to the conflicted looks that graced their faces.

"What do ya think about this?"

She spread her hands a moment as if trying to search for an answer and then dropped them just as quickly. "I don't know. It's a good thing? I think?"

He nodded, chewing his bottom lip in an effort to channel the sudden influx of stress. This day started out being weird as fuck and it had only gotten worse since then. He wasn't even sure how to rationalize any of it just yet.

"Feel ok about not tellin' Rick and the others?"

Carol sighed. "No. I don't feel ok about it. I want to tell them. I feel obligated to tell them. But…" She gave him a confused look before continuing. "I also feel a strange sense of loyalty to Buffy and I understand why she doesn't want everyone knowing."

He nodded again. He knew what she meant. Felt the same way and it was a relief to know she did too. That it wasn't just him allowing himself to become completely entangled in life with these people. To feel a sense of loyalty to them that he couldn't even categorize in his own mind.

"Far as secrets go it's harmless. Right?"

He regarded her question and agreed. "Yeah. We ain't keepin' shit from them that could end up hurtin' them. Knowing wouldn't change anything anyway."

He saw her relax some then, run a hand through her short hair and sigh and was reminded of his conversation with Faith earlier. How he'd been so adamant about coming back here and 'showing her he gave a shit'. He had a completely unplanned goal of getting her to talk to him earlier that day, and now it felt like the wrong time, wrong place, wrong everything.

When would there ever be a right time, he thought.

"You ahh…you ok? Been gone a lot, it's quiet as shit in here without you."

Well that was great. One sentence in and he was already cursing at her and making no sense. His leg tapped in a hurried rhythm and he chanced a look in her direction to find blue eyes staring right back at him. A small pout on her lips for good measure.

"I have been gone a lot. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

"Ain't gotta apologize. Didn't do anything wrong."

She was giving him a sad smile now and he was certain he'd legitimately fucked this all up. She was already looking like she wanted to cry.

"No. I did. I've been avoiding you and you don't deserve that."

"Why you been doin' it then?"

She huffed out a completely unexpected laugh that sounded hallow to his ears. "Because it's the opposite of what I actually want."

He felt the corner of his mouth turn up just slightly. "You know that doesn't make any sense, right?"

She nodded. "So I've been told."

"I won't wake you up again. If you want me to leave you be. If you need more space."

He was rambling now and couldn't stop. She had to know he wasn't going to push her too hard. Would leave her alone and keep his distance every time she woke up screaming from a nightmare if it meant she'd start coming home when he was there too.

He felt her fingers on his face, brushing the hair out of his eyes and thankfully his mouth finally stopped forming words. For someone who barely held a conversation without consistent effort he was on a roll there.

Her voice was soft and sad when she spoke to him. "I want less space. That's what scares me."

She wanted less space. He wasn't sure what that meant entirely but it was a hell of a lot better than what he'd expected her to say, which was to back off and stop trying to make her talk. Less space he could do. Somehow.

He didn't have time to over think it though because seconds later her hand left his hair just as quickly as it had come and she curled her legs up onto the sofa next to him and pressed herself into his side.

He froze for a moment, arms held as far away from her as he could reach, unsure of where or how to touch her when she was plastered against him, but she only settled in further and his arms quickly wrapped themselves around her of their own accord.

"I'll start coming home more."

Her voice wafted up to him and he rested his chin on the top of her head. "Good."