Warning: The first is a taste of the M rating.

Grace doesn't try to please itself.
Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked.
Accepts insults and injuries.

- The Tree of Life (2011)

A sudden blaze of light woke me up. The first thing I saw was the mint green sheets I was lying on. My eyes wandered up to the lamp that was turned on and the nightstand that sat on with a thick hard cover book hanging off the edge. I had never seen this room before in my life.

Where am I? I felt sort of hot and shaky. The collar of my shirt was sticking to me in a cool sweat.

Did I have a bad dream? I sure felt like I did. But I don't remember having one and I always, always remember them.

"Hey," Daryl was sitting on the unfamiliar bed.

Everything came back to me like a light switch was flicked on in my head. I was at a farm or something like it and Dad was dead.

Why was Daryl here? What did he want?

I rolled on to my back without thinking. His face was blank and that made me nervous. Sometimes you can tell what a person's thinking by something in their eyes or if they move their mouth, even if its only a twitch. Not with Daryl.

"Sorry to wake ya but you gotta drink this. Don't need ya to wake up dehydrated," He held out a glass of milk.

My mouth went dry instantly. I had no clue where he could've gotten milk, maybe they had cows on this farm. Was it safe to drink milk right out of a cow? I pushed myself up too fast and took the glass from him. It was really cold, like brain freeze cold and it had odd taste. But I didn't care, it had been so long since I had had milk.

"Whoa, take 'er easy. Don't need ya getting sick neither," Daryl pulled the glass away when I started drinking it too fast.

I drank the rest slower and when I was done, I gave the empty glass back and lay back down, making sure to lay on side rather than on my back. Daryl stayed, probably to make sure I went back to sleep was all.

The sooner I went to sleep the sooner he'd go away. But I couldn't keep my eyes shut when he was sitting so close.

Just pretend he's not there.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to see yer mom tonight." It was even harder to pretend he wasn't there when he wouldn't shut his mouth, "She missed you so much, was so worried about you. That night when we stayed out on the highway in the RV, she cried all night."

I wondered where Mom was right now. Daryl said she was nearby. Was she in the RV? Our tent got wrecked that night the walkers came in. Well not really wrecked but there was a huge stain on the floor that would probably never come out. It smelled too. Wherever she was spending the night, I hoped she wasn't crying, that maybe Lori or Andrea are keeping her company.

"We could go out on a horse again," said Daryl. I felt my heart lift up a bit. I didn't remember much of being on Memphis earlier and it was the first time I'd ever been on a horse.

A overly friendly hand smoothed "Yeah figured ya'd like that and I don't really want ta put you on the bike 'cause I don't got a helmet for ya."

I wasn't comfortable on my left side, so I rolled over to my right.

"That light's buggin' ya, huh?"

No. It's mostly you.

Daryl reached under the lampshade and turned the light off. I went blind for a second than I could sort of see the outlines of the furniture in the dark. His hand landed on the back of my shoulder. I pulled my knees up even though he would force them down.

"Ya cold?"

Daryl's hand moved off my shoulder and disappeared under the covers. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Think about something else. I commanded my brain to take me somewhere else.

I thought about the pain. Was Daryl going to be really rough? Like Dad was-

I don't want to be bloody. Please don't make me bleed.

"I just got all cleaned up," I said, without meaning too.

"I know ya did, I helped a bit."

That's right, you did. Why wait till now? Did you think I would trust you more? That I wouldn't fight that way? I don't trust you but I won't fight. I won't make this hard on myself.

"Can turn this up a little. It feels pretty hot already," He clicked the electric blanket up with the control at the end of the bed.

His hand went back to stroking my shoulder and back. I kept waiting for his hand to go down to my hip…to move to…to move somewhere else.

Just be gentle. I'll hold still and be quiet.

"Don't pick at that," he grabbed my wrist with his other hand and pulled it away from the scab on my shoulder.

I didn't know I was scratching it. Sometimes I don't feel it until the skin is red.

Get it over with already.

"I won't tell nobody," I whispered.

If that's what you're worried about. You don't need to be. I know that no one can know.

"Won't tell what?"

I couldn't say it.

"That I like getting my hair shampooed," he said, "I know ya won't, sweetheart."

Over and over and over again, Daryl's hand went up and down my back. The bed got warmer and warmer underneath me. My eyes kept shutting and it took me longer and longer to open them again. I was a second away from being a sleep when I felt Daryl get off the bed.

"I'm gonna go crash on the couch. If ya need anything just holler."

Then he vanished like he had never been there at all.

Author's Note

Tiny chapter but I thought this should stand on its own rather than have a huge chunk of the next chapter be in italics.

I hope you know I was not implying anything about Daryl, it's just what Sophia was thinking. If it was Rick or Glenn, her thoughts would be the same.

You guys are the reason that my clothes don't make it back into my dresser. I always write on laundry day and by the time its done, I'm too involved to put them away: 6474, deelove1, bigpinkstork, Narnian at Heart, Surplus Imagination, war90, Emberka-2012, bspooky3, Ihasabukkit, sammyjase, elijeha2000, Rising Phoenix416, GemmaTellerSoa.