(A/N: Well, one more for this week…you might get another over the weekend at some point but I wouldn't hold your breath. Today was my last workday for the week that was actually reasonably paced. Now until Monday however…not so much but, I will try…cause I'm enjoying this so much haha.

Thank you all again for all the favorites and the reviews. Those of you who have reviewed this in the old version and are doing so again here…thank you all the more…I'll get to the new stuff at some point next week I promise…hopefully.

I had planned to write little individual notes, but once again I am very tired…next go around, I promise!

Enjoy!)

Chapter Three: Vatos: Pt. Three

"Mind if I have a look?" Rick asked pointedly, his eyes fixed now too on the wreckage that was Analeigh's leg.

"As a matter of fact, I do." She bristled and brushed him off abruptly. "I told it's nothin' you need to worry yourself about. It's a little cut…I'll live, I promise you."

"And a sprained ankle."

"I can manage."

"Might even be broken." Rick continued.

"I doubt I'd be walkin' on a busted ankle."

"Who's to say you still will be a day from now? Or even an hour."

"Just…leave me alone."

"I wish I could." Rick flashed her a sympathetic smile. "But I just don't feel quite right about leavin' you here on your own not knowing if you're okay."

"Ain't any of my concern how you feel…that's on you." Analeigh huffed, lower jaw jutting out in frustration as she turned and negotiated her way towards the next set of stairs at half speed.

Much the same as she was in no mood for impromptu company and attention she was in no mood for games wrapped in the guise of idle conversation. The longer they held her in their presence, the longer they could pepper her with questions and pry a little more out of her. Some things she had to bear were far better buried in the back of her mind, and the longer she stayed to converse, the more likely it was she wouldn't be able to keep the thoughts and the memories from flooding back.

"I can manage on my own." Her voice caught slightly as she hobbled down the first couple steps.

"How about if it gets infected? You'll be able to manage on your own then?" He chided. "And what if it already is?"

"Why do you care so much?" She snapped, strident glare effectively getting Rick to concede and back off just a little. "I ain't your problem."

"Man, she if she doesn't want our help, then she doesn't want our help…let's just…let her go." Glenn pointedly lowered his voice.

"You'd sleep alright just leavin' her here as is?"

"Look, I'm not trying to be insensitive alright?" He toyed with his baseball cap and pawed at the back of his head sheepishly. "But we have bigger fish to fry and we can't be gone from camp this long, not again. We got lucky once but it's not safe for anyone, you know that it isn't."

"We have medical supplies and it won't take but a minute."

"We brought that first aid kit for Merle." Daryl growled. "We use it on her, what if there ain't nothin' left when we find him? How'd you sleep then?"

"We have enough."

"Thought you said Merle was as good as death proof anyways." T-Dog quipped. "What's it matter if we spare a little?

"That ain't the point." Daryl chewed back his temper and trailed after Analeigh down the staircase.

"We're wasting time." Glenn reminded them again. "We've wasted enough already. We either do this now or we're here another night…without the guns. I say we make a run for it now and grab the guns as fast as we can, that way if we have to stay tonight we at least have more than enough to save our ass if we get jumped."

"What do you mean if?" Analeigh smirked and turned back towards them, bracing herself on the railing. "You're here another night whether you like it or not."

Rick followed her eye line towards a tiny, dirty window in the corridor of the stairwell. No benefit of electricity meant a rapid decent into night fall and already the world outside of the office tower had been graced with the eerie deep blue cast that dusk had to offer. It was far from pitch black of course, but walkers didn't seem to care one way or another about the varying degrees of nighttime. Once the heat of the day had started to dissipate it was never very long before they came out in full force. Dark was dark regardless of all else.

"Damn it." Rick ran a palm over his face as he tried in vain to regroup and come up with some sort of plan. "Well, that's that then.

"Sorry." Analeigh flashed a sarcastic smile.

"That's that?" Daryl spat, pacing across the landing at the top of the stairs like a big cat stalking back and forth in its cage working up the nerve or the strategy for an attack. "She says we're stuck here and that's the end of it?"

"It's not like there's much bend in the situation." Glenn offered. "The truck's what, a half mile from here."

"So?"

"So, we barely made it half that distance in broad daylight, and that was after walker gut bath."

"That halves the odds, at best." Rick simplified.

"And Merle?" Daryl gnawed at his thumbnail anxiously, still pacing and never quite able to stay still for longer than a few seconds strung together. "Ya'll expect his odds to be any better out there?"

"Daryl…"

"Screw this." He spat, dodging around Rick with crossbow slung over his shoulder. "Ya'll don't wanna go out there, that's fine. I'll find him myself if I have to…"

"You gotta be kidding me." Rick chortled. "You can't out there."

"What difference is it to you?" He gave the group a hostile once over. "Never asked for your help anyhow, ya'll invited yourselves along. Woulda found him by now if I was by myself."

"You go out huntin' for your brother now all you're asking for is a death sentence. You do know that don't you?"

"We'll see about that."

Daryl grazed by Rick and made it all of a few steps towards exiting only to have Analeigh block his path. Tiny frame rooted at the top of the stairs, her reclaimed bat covered the span of the stairwell her outstretched arm could not.

"Move."

"I ain't gonna." Chin edging upwards in defiance, Analeigh held her ground.

His eyes narrowed, more in disbelief than aggravation. Whoever she was, or rather whomever she thoughtshe was, she had her share of balls at the very least and Daryl made a mental note to inform her later that she was lucky she was a woman. If she hadn't there was no doubt whatsoever that she'd be picking her teeth off the floor by now.

"Move," He growled again and took a step closer to her. "Or I'll move you."

"You really wanna go out there?"

He nodded.

"Chasing after a brother you don't even know is alive?" Analeigh cracked a half sympathetic smile. "That worth being torn to shreds to you?"

"Maybe it is."

"There ain't no one that wants to go out there with you, and rightly so." She leaned in slightly. "You've four arrows in your favor, how the hell's that gonna work for you when you're cornered by a pack of forty?"

"Why do you care so much?" Daryl fed Analeigh's words back to her.

"I don't." She sighed and lowered her bat. "You wanna go, then go. I'm tryin' to cut a bargain here but seeing as you seem to have a death wish Darlin'you go right on ahead."

"Yeah? What makes you think anyone's gonna bargain with you?"

"The fact that I have the upper hand."

"What kind of a bargain?" Rick's interrupted, interest piqued.

"Ya'll have been yammerin' on about a bag of guns…I want one of them…and a fair bit of ammo to go along with." A bold request, if it could be called that, but one she was desperate enough to make.

"Be wasted on you." Daryl sneered smugly. "You probably can't even shoot."

"You wanna test that theory out?"

"You want one of our guns but I don't hear what you bring to the table." T-Dog chimed in, none too thrilled with the prospect of just up and giving away such a valuable asset.

"A place to sleep for the night, ya'll don't have one." Analeigh offered. "I chain you in with me for the night, you give me a gun and we all live to see another day. Seems like a fair trade to me."

"And if we do give you a gun, what then?" Rick asked. "What happens to you from there?"

"Home…" Clearing her throat, she turned her eyes to the floor solemnly. "I home."

"And home is where exactly?"

"Far away…does it really matter?"

"Anything far away now a days is risky." Rick folded his arms across his chest. "You thought about just how it is you're gonna get home?"

"Well, see…there's these things on the end of my legs and they're called 'feet'. I use them for this concept called 'walking' and it's real easy like. Takes a while but it'll get me there."

"Now who's got the death wish?" Daryl scoffed.

"Don't recall asking for your commentary on the matter." She sighed. "Look, deal or not it's up to you if or how I try and make my way home. But you'd best sort out if we have a deal or not so you can suss out your own little bunker if you wanna be on your way."

"How many guns did you say were in that bag?" Glenn asked, trying to assess whether or not the proposition was even feasible.

They needed everything they had as it was, and giving a way guns willy-nilly seemed irresponsible at best and beyond reckless at the very worst.

"I didn't keep count, but enough to get by on with a few left over." Rick assured him. "Analeigh has a point, we need some place that's damn good and secure. They can't have much left to eat around here and we're prime pickings if they smell us…which of course they will. We need locking doors between us and them or we're about done."

"Come on, there's gotta be a dozen good places to hide out in around here." Daryl grumbled. "I say we ditch the mouthy little…"

"Everywhere you go will be crawlin' with them, you get lucky enough it make it down the block you ain't gonna do it without a hundred, if not more, hot on your trail I can guarantee you that." Analeigh cut him off with an icy stare. "Unless you got horse shoes up your ass you ain't gonna find someplace to seal yourselves off completely. You got a plan for keepin' them from getting' at you?"

"We got chain."

"The chain's not the problem." T-Dog reminded the group. "We cut the lock when we busted the door down, I doubt there's another in the tool kit."

"Well hell, don't worry." Analeigh laughed, still staring Daryl down. "I'm sure you can just…tie it in a knot and ya'll will be just peachy."

"You think this is fuckin' funny?" Daryl clenched his jaw and took a couple of quick strides towards her. "You think this is a game?"

"Lay off her Daryl, she's only tryin' to make her case." Rick intercepted him and once again attempted to settle the dynamic.

The groups exchanged a silent glance collectively cursing themselves on account of how foolish they had been to think that anything would actually go off without a hitch for a change when that sort of thing just plain didn't happen anymore.

"You're call." Analeigh shrugged, cautiously lowering her bat and freeing up the stairwell. "We good or no?"

"We are good." Rick nodded. "No other way about it, you'll get your gun come first light and we'll leave you be if that's what you want."

He extended his hand in attempt to shake on the bargain. Rick was and had always been a man of his word, but he was quite certain Analeigh would need his tongue to come notarized in order to believe him. Even a handshake seemed like a silly notion that wouldn't really do much to set her at ease, but it was worth a shot. Only but a small gesture of faith, but something he wouldn't feel right about not imparting.

Analeigh remained steadfast a moment, leaving Rick to silently encourage her before she relented. Doing her best not to audibly exhale the breath she had partially been holding the entire time the entire time they had been in the stairway, she stepped forward and took his hand. A firm shake and the deal was sealed with the first kind contact she had with someone else in weeks, something that was now almost a foreign feeling.

"Well, come on then." She nodded her head in the direction of the floor below and waited to take her turn down the stairs as one by one they slipped past he with Daryl the last one to leave.

Quite intentionally, he moved by her far more closely than would ever have been necessary. Shoulder grazing hers, his eyes near burned a hole clear through her in the same sort of stare she would gave given him were their roles reversed. The same sort of stare she was as present giving right back, and the kind of stare that under different circumstances would have her feeling more than a little wobbly in the knees.

Whether it was currently to be taken as some sort of threat or just simple reminder, it was quite clear that he didn't like her just the same as she didn't like him and if nothing else, that alone was going to make for a long evening to say the least.