AN #1: Thank you everyone for your kind words! My mom's home now, which is good, so I've been writing away.

But after this, don't expect too much from me for a while for this story. If this is going to make any sense at all to y'all, I need to get my butt into gear with All Was Lost (pray for me dear God).

Anyways, I hope you like it!

OoO

They rode in silence as the sun dropped below the horizon.

When the first stars had finally risen, the army guy – Abraham, he thought – pulled over and switched places with the girl, showed her the map, and promptly went to sleep in the passenger's seat.

It was mostly quiet for a while. Tyreese was asleep as well, but Daryl wouldn't allow himself to drift off in such an atmosphere. He couldn't allow them to see him as weak, especially not when they were going into a potentially dangerous situation.

No one wanted another Woodbury.

The girl kept looking at him in the rearview, watching him as she drove down the clear roads, avoiding walkers and armadillo smoothly, barely changing face as she occasionally swerved.

It was silent, and it was awkward. Not like with him and Carol, him and Rick. Or even him and Michonne.

She was making him squirm.

She finally spoke.

"You're Daryl, right?" she whispered, watching him with big brown eyes.

He nodded.

She smiled, flicking her eyes back to the road momentarily. "I'm Rosita."

He nodded again stiffly. Well. Now he had a name for her.

She looked back to the road and drove for a couple more minutes.

Then: "Do you love her?"

He jumped, almost bumped his head on the ceiling of the cab. He looked at her incredulously, irrational anger rolling in his gut at her words.

He didn't answer. Just glared at her.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "The lady with the gray hair. Carol, I think? Do you love her?"

He swallowed. Kept silent as she continued to stare at him

"I don' think that's any o' your business," he growled, sending as much distaste and annoyance into his eyes as possible.

She shrugged, nodded her head good-naturedly. "You're right. It's not."

He half-sighed with relief, glad to have an end to her pestering.

"…I just asked, because Maggie seems to think she loves you."

He groaned, swiping a hand down his face in exasperation.

"Maggie likes to meddle. Jus' like every other god damned person in this group."

She laughed at that, rolling by a small herd stealthily as she hit the headlights.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but Daryl had had enough, and if the only way he got out of more interrogating was by driving, then so be it.

"How bout I drive now? You can sleep," he prepositioned her, speaking loudly as her mouth began to move again.

Her mouth shut with a soft clack. Her eyes went up to his and held them as they narrowed, but then she sighed heavily and braked, put the car in park, and jumped into the backseat as he got out to walk around.

He settled in and started driving, ignoring her huffs of disappointment.

oOo

He switched once more with Tyreese, and then, as the sun was finally beginning its ascent into a cloudy gray sky, and the digital green clock on the dash read 5:34 a.m., they came upon it.

Or, rather, what they assumed was Terminus.

It was at the same spot on the map as it had been on the one on the tracks, but the sight of it sent cold shivers down his spine.

Rosita gasped and Tyreese gripped the steering wheel tight, slowly parking and killing the engine.

"Well, what now?" Abraham barked, his eyes studying the slanted Greyhounds like he planned on tipping them over themselves.

Nobody answered him, just looked ahead. Rosita opened the car and stepped out.

There was a layer of buses around the station, blocking off anything from getting in past the parking lot. But that wasn't what was worrisome.

"Nothing," the girl muttered. "Nothin' out here but biters 'n birds."

Daryl aimed his head to look out the closed window and sucked in a breath, saw what she meant. There was a flock – probably several of them, by the looks of it – of what seemed to be buzzards, circling and occasionally swooping down lazily behind the buses, to what he assumed was the train yard.

Tyreese still sat, kneading the leather under his hands nervously, his eyes squeezed shut.

Daryl reached forward, put a strong hand on his shoulder. "Don't mean nothin'," he muttered. "Lemme go check it out."

Tyreese nodded to him, let his hands fall from the steering wheel and rested on the head rest.

Daryl leaned back, grabbed his gun and crossbow quickly, one for each shoulder. He slid from the car silently and started towards the metal wall before him.

OoO

"Hands up!'

Daryl and Abraham jumped at the sound, each bringing up their weapons and turning from side to side, trying desperately to put a face to the unfamiliar voice.

"I ain't shittin' you! Guns down and arms up! Ya got five seconds!"

He could feel the army man eyeing him, but he saw the perpetrator now. Well, he saw the top of her brown hair and the barrel of her automatic rifle, peeking out from the top of one of the buses.

He looked to Abraham and darted his eyes towards her before slowly lowering his weapons to the ground, Abraham quickly following suit, giving him the barest nod of the head to acknowledge that yes, he had seen her.

He looked up at the woman, waited.

She didn't move, didn't even shift the gun, and a cold fear suddenly gripped his heart as he realized she could kill him right now, put a bullet through his brain, and it would be it, it would be the end, there would be no more time to make things right and to do what he needed to do.

His palm burned and his head throbbed and all he wanted to do was go home.

"Walk forward until I tell you to stop," she yelled, much more calmly now. "What are your names? Where are you from?"

Daryl felt Abraham's eyes on him, but he didn't know what to do, either.

But if they had Sasha and Bob, and that other girl, then telling them who they were may be the only thing to get them out of this. Well, if they knew his name.

So he spoke first as he shuffled quickly, side-stepping fallen walkers, tilting his head up so that she could see him, could see all he wanted was to get his family back.

"'S Daryl," he hollered at her, stopping a good fifty paces from their weapons. "Daryl Dixon. We're from the prison."

"Daryl?!" another voice cried. He smiled to himself and held his breath as twin pompoms bounced from behind the woman with the gun, leaping up to her feet and then sliding down the side/roof of the bus until her boots hit concrete. "C'mon, Tara, he's a friend!"

She ran into him and hit him full-force, crushing him to her uncomfortably, and it all happened in a flurry, Tyreese flying from the car, the girl smiling and gathering their things and then sliding down as Sasha had done. And then Sasha was crying out, stumbling towards Tyreese, looking tired but not sick.

And it did feel good, delivering Tyreese to his sister, being able to deposit him in her arms, being able to see their reunion as they collided and sobbed and held each other.

And Bob wasn't there. Which could only mean one thing.

The girl came up to him, her hair pulled back into a single ponytail, a backpack on one shoulder and a gun on the other. She set her hand out to Daryl first. "My name's Tara," she said with a quick smile. He smirked at her and shook her small, callused palm, and then she moved to Abraham and Rosita, her eyes lingering, and he smiled to himself, watched Sasha a bit more closely, wondered if there was more to this than he was seeing.

She had extricated herself from her brother, but her eyes darted uncertainly when they landed on Abraham and Rosita. Her eyebrows drew in and she turned back to Tyreese, her hands going to her hips in defiance. "Who're these people?" she growled quietly, sending him devil eyes that Daryl had been sent himself more times than he could count.

Tyreese belly-laughed at that, wiped the tears that had caught on his cheeks with the back of his hand as he quickly introduced them.

Sasha nodded waveringly, holding out her hand and introducing herself. She turned back to Tyreese.

"How many got out? Where you holed up? Did Maggie and Mrs. McLeod make it?"

He nodded and swallowed quickly. "We're at one of the safe houses, the big farm house. Maggie and Mrs. McLeod were already there when we got there, with Rick, Carl, Judith, Michonne, Glenn, and Abraham, Rosita and their friend."

"And Lilly," Daryl said, watching Tara. "That girl Lilly that was taking care of Eugene."

Her shoulders stiffened and she rushed him, eyes desperate, hands up to her mouth.

"Lilly?" she started, voice edging on hysteria as she searched his face, her chin quivering as she spoke. "Is she a nurse? Did she have a little girl with her, a little blonde girl named Megan?"

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, we have a nurse named Lilly."

He wouldn't tell her her niece was long dead, would leave that up to someone else, someone who could put it delicately, ease her into the realization.

But he didn't have to. She swallowed, and then tears were streaming down her face as she breathed deep, brought the back of her hand to her nose and nodded, squeezing the tears out from behind long lashes, and he knew his face had betrayed him.

Sasha broke away from Tyreese slowly, patted his hand as she went to the girl and embraced her, held her close against her as soft, bittersweet sobs curled from her chest, her head sagging against her friend's shoulder, Sasha hushing her and rubbing her back with soft hands.

He brought his hand to his mouth and breathed, breathed, breathed.

OoO

Abraham volunteered to ride in the bed of the truck on the way back. Waters and bags of chips were passed around the car as they settled in for a long day of driving.

It didn't take long for Sasha to ask about who Tyreese had escaped with.

Rosita was driving, Daryl in the passenger seat, focusing intently on the view outside his window, hoping that Maggie had kept her trap shut.

"Those girls, Lizzie and Mika, they saved my sorry ass, and we ran out with Judith," he started, breathing deep, a half-smile playing on his lips. Sasha watched him attentively, and Daryl found himself sending silent mental pleas to Tyreese to end it right there, end his story, don't say anymore.

Maybe Maggie had been told once they were reunited at the safe house.

Maybe there had been no time to talk about such things.

But Sasha was Tyreese's sister, so if there had been anyone she would have told, it would have been Sasha.

"And then? Y'all went to one of the safe houses?" she asked, hands folded in her lap and eyes wide, like a small child listening to a scary story.

He nodded. "Yeah. But first, Carol met up with us, and then Daryl and Beth."

She breathed in deep and he could see her reflection in the rearview as she blinked at him, eyebrows drawn in, incredulous.

You could cut the tension in the cab with a knife.

Goddammit, Maggie.

"Ty," Sasha breathed. "Do you know?"

He tried desperately to give her a look in the mirror, tried so hard to get her to shut the hell up, but she flicked one look at him, and then she was mad.

"Oh, what, Daryl, you're going to stand up for a murderer? Really?"

Tyreese looked from his sister to Daryl with wide, confused eyes. "Murderer? Who-"

Sasha slapped him lightly, kept her death glare trained on Daryl.

"How could you have left her with everyone else? How could you have done that?"

He called on patience, breathed in deep and fought the ball of fire that was building in his chest.

"I'd shut your mouth, if I were you, Sasha," he breathed, deathly cold, bordering on fury. "You don't know shit 'bout what went down."

That only seemed to piss her off more, her eyebrows just about hitting her hairline in her anger.

"Alright, now, let's just wait a minute," Tyreese tried, raising his hands and putting a soft palm on his sister's knee. "Let's just cool down a minute and talk about this like normal people."

Sasha narrowed her eyes at Daryl, but it didn't intimidate him. He'd been on the backhand of her fury before; it was nothing new.

Daryl flicked his eyes away from her and met Ty's in the mirror. "I don' wanna talk about this here," he intoned softly. The man nodded slowly, still looking incredibly confused.

"Ok. We can do that. This can wait."

Sasha scoffed and crossed her arms, eyes flying to the window.

oOo

It was raining, pouring, not your average little sprinkle with some thunderclouds thrown in for dramatic effect.

No, the sky was black, the rain came down like milk on their windshield, and they had hydroplaned at least twice.

Daryl gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, his heart hammering in his chest as he tried desperately to remember the right turns, to see where they were at, taking every flash of lightning as a seconds-long lamp, illuminating the threats around them, the street signs and the walkers that were stumbling around clumsily, coming for their loud-as-sin pickup as it barreled through the rain, taking everything in its path down with it.

Abraham had gotten back in once the rain started, and was sitting in the passenger, all three girls and Ty in the back, all clutching at each other in slight fear.

It was the worst storm he had been caught in in a long, long time.

The sound of a freight train echoed in his ears and he knew there was a tornado brewing somewhere out there, and the smart part of him knew he should stop and go find a ditch or something to hide them in, but he also knew they were close, so close to home, and if he could just get there he could do something.

He needed to get home.

And then the truck turned the corner, and the sight sent electricity into his veins as he floored the accelerator to the gate, slamming on the breaks to leap out and throw the gate open, not bothering to stop and shut it as he passed it.

"Dios mio!" Rosita breathed, staring at the sight before them.

All the lights were on, flashlight beams playing in the woods beside the house. Lights were a big no-no, a huge waste on fuel, but at night, it was downright stupid. The sight would call any walker that saw them.

He swallowed deep and killed the engine, barked at Ty to go shut the gate, jumped out into the icy rain and brought his palm to his mouth, taking several deep breaths as he headed towards the front porch. He threw open the front door, and Rick was there, holding Judith, a look of absolute fear on his face as he stared out the windows.

"What happened?!" Daryl bellowed as people streamed into the house, eyes wide and faces full of shock at the strength of his words.

Rick swallowed, got a funny look on his face, and Daryl knew, he just knew, and his stomach dropped to somewhere around his knees and he sagged against the banister, tried to breathe, tried to see straight and stay upright.

Rosita put a tentative hand to his back, but he shrugged her off immediately, roughly.

He knew that look. He had seen that look back at the quarry, had seen it out on the highway at the pileup, had seen it just a week ago at the prison as the words of Rick's sin came tumbling out of his mouth. It was the look he gave when someone was lost.

"What happened," he breathed, one hand to his chest, the other curled into a fist around his crossbow. "What happened, Rick."

Rick tucked the baby closer to his breast, looked pained for his part.

Good.

"We don't know where she is," he whispered, his voice still crackly from his ordeal. "She's probably fine, Daryl."

Daryl shook his head fiercely, ran a hand through his hair and then went to the kitchen to grab a flashlight from the pile, flipping it on to make sure it was working, then turned back around.

"Where's Lizzie?" he growled, anger and fear mixing into a cocktail that sat like liquid fire in his gut, clenching and burning him from the inside out.

Rick looked away again, and then Daryl knew, and a million and a half scenarios went through his head and he couldn't do it, he couldn't do this, he couldn't handle it.

He brought his fingers up to pinch his nose and breathed deep, gathering stop-go breaths, trying to calm himself down.

Gone.

She was gone.

"They just disappeared," Rick muttered. "I heard the door slam shut, and I ran out and she was already flinging on her boots, rambling about how she had to find them and how I had to keep Judith close."

She was going to kill them.

She could already be dead.

Rick reached out to him but he flung his hand from his arm, buttoned up his jacket and flicked the hood over her head.

"Look, Daryl, almost everyone's out there, just stay here and rest, and we'll-"

He flew from the house without another word, slamming the door with a growl, the rain and cold striking him to his core, his flashlight on and crossbow out.

He would find her.

He would find her.

OoO

AN #1: Don't…hate me…please…

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