I listened to the sound of his boots dying away down the corridor and I turned to inspect the contents of the room. The large sash window looked out onto the back yard where another orange glowing lamp identical to the one out front was casting an eerie light over a small wooden outhouse. Everything else surrounding it was in pitch blackness, the whole house was surrounded by dense looking woods not unlike the woods near my house. Up until that point I had almost forgotten about my parents and their whereabouts but suddenly as I stood looking out into the darkness the thought returned and I felt a panic grip me. Where were they at this moment? I hoped desperately that they were safe somewhere. Tears emerged suddenly and I began to sob as the reality of the past few days hit me. What was all this happening around us and why? I felt a deep weariness wash over me and I moved towards the bed and lay down, shutting my eyes...

I woke what must have been some hours later although there was no way for me to tell for sure. The room was in darkness and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust and notice that the window was still uncovered and the light from the yard was casting a weak glow into the room. My eyes adjusted to this illumination and I realised that Daryl was sat there at the window in an old wooden rocking chair that he must have dragged in when I was asleep. The light revealed the lined contours of his face; his eyes narrowed suspiciously looking out through the glass into the distance in that way he had and his crossbow resting across his raised knee with his arm slung across it.

"Daryl", I called to him in a soft voice, I felt almost afraid to break his serene stance and it seemed almost a shame to not go on looking at him like that. As I took in that scene I thought to myself that I would never forget that moment, with him sat in that chair like my wild but valiant protector.

He turned rapidly at the sound of my voice and rose from his seat.

"Why is it dark?" I asked and glanced towards the direction of the lamp.

"Merle thought he mighta seen some walkers out back earlier on when you were sleepin'. I'm keepin' watch this side and he's out on the front porch. He said there was a hell of a mess out towards town...shit has gon' crazy. The light needs to stay off for now".

I watched his silhouette run his fingers through his hair with an exasperated gesture and he moved towards the bed and sat down next to my feet. His face was visible once again now it was turned towards the window and I watched him look out from under his eyebrows into the distance. The light picked up every contour of his bare arms, every ripple of muscle in those lithe looking limbs of his.

I shuddered as I felt the cold of the night seep into my skin and he turned to face me.

"You alright?" He asked softly. "I didn't want to wake you, you looked so peaceful lyin' there and you probably need sleep after the day we had".

"Yes I'm ok now I know you're here," I replied and we stared straight back at each other, my old memories of him came flooding back to me as we did.

"Do you remember that time you were helping my Daddy fix up the roof?" I asked nervously. Daryl didn't seem much for talking and the heat between us from earlier wasn't so fresh now we had been apart for a few hours and the reality of these 'walkers' as Daryl called them was beginning to seep in. I suddenly felt less bold about questioning him now he was sat here next to me in the flesh.

"You, you know, we..." I stammered as I tried desperately to pluck courage.

"I saw you that day," he interrupted. "Looking out at me from that window...my god it was sure as hell hard to stop myself from dropping those tools to the ground and running straight up to that room and taking you into that bed".

I felt the heat from earlier rise within me at those words.

"You were so damn beautiful...and then that asshole boyfriend of yours was there. I would have torn that boy's throat out if you had told me to...if he had put one finger on you I swear to god!" He growled and I could see the muscles tensing in his arms and chest as he gripped his crossbow tighter.

"You're better than them Molly...you're more than them, you always have been. Ever since you were a lil' girl and I knew as soon as you got away from this goddam town you'd realize it."

My heart was pounding at those words. I felt as if I was unravelling, he had said more than I had expected.

He looked back at me and placed his crossbow on the ground, sliding towards me across the bed and I moved towards him in reply. He placed his left leg up on the bed with his right leg still on the floor and reached forwards, grabbing me by my hips with a grunt and pulling me in slowly, right in between his thighs. I was facing him with my legs crossed and he spread his legs either side of me as he pulled me closer. The closer I got I could feel the heat of his body against my skin, I could smell him.

"Is this what you want?" His gravelly voice asked.

"Yes," was all I could say in reply my heart was captive in my throat and I felt unable to utter anything more.

"A good for nothing like me huh?"

"Yep a total good for nothing like you Daryl Dixon," I replied playfully.

"Oh right, a trailer park piece of trash is good enough for Daddy's girl huh?" He teased back, knowing full well that this was one of my sore points.

I lunged towards him and bit his lower lip, he yanked it away and bit my own lip back but probably much gentler than I had done to him. Our lips locked and we kissed ravenously as we had done for the first time in the woods, as if the suspense had been built up over years yearning to find a release and had suddenly found it in that moment on that bed in the middle of the night. I moved my hands to his neck, feeling his skin which felt hot and roving my fingers up into his hair, pressing his face even closer in to mine.

"Oh Baby," he whispered into the dark with a teasing reprimanding tone, I could practically hear his grin as he dug his fingers into the flesh at my hips. That unexpected word, a word I hated hearing from Johnny's mouth sent shivers of excitement through me to hear it come from Daryl. I moaned with anticipation and he quickly brought his lips against mine again, I parted them and he sunk his tongue into my mouth. That swift confident movement made me gasp and I moved my tongue against his in response. Without breaking apart I uncrossed my legs and clambered up on top of his lap, straddling him. I could feel my hips involuntarily pressing into him, wanting him, needing him.

"I want you so bad Daryl Dixon", I whispered into his ear and just saying that out loud sent me into ecstasies. It felt deliciously forbidden and I loved it.

"You want me huh?" He growled as he traced his rough hands up and down the sides of my torso allowing his thumb to lift up the sides of my tank top and graze the bottom of my bra. I nodded vigorously and he moved his mouth down to the side of my neck just underneath my ear and kissed me.

"Say it again then...do you want me?"

"Yes," I breathed in reply.

"I didn't hear that quite clearly enough. Say Again..."

"Yes."

He lifted my tank top up over my head and flung it across the floor towards the window and grabbed the edge of my black balconette bra, yanking it down to expose one of my nipples, swiftly putting it in his mouth and teasing it with his tongue. I could feel myself panting, his mouth felt hot as he began sucking and grazing my nipple with his teeth. The glorious sensation from this ran right through my body, I felt a flood of madness engulf me...I just wanted him to touch me all over, put his hands everywhere he felt like and do anything he wanted.

He pulled down the other cup of my bra and moved his attention over to my other nipple leaving the other one wet and glistening in the light radiating in from the window.

"Oh god," I gasped and he moved his head back, taking both of my breasts in each hand, licking my right nipple and then licking and briefly sucking my left before leaning back just slightly and lifting his own tank top up over his head, sending it sailing across the room to join my own by the window.

"You're sexy as hell," He growled surveying me with roving hungry eyes.

I laughed with pleasure at his appreciative gaze.

"And those are some amazing titties huh?" He grinned biting softly on one of my nipples with his eyes still locked on mine.

Then the noise came from the back of the house, another unwanted interruption to bring us crashing back to bleak reality and remind us once again of what was going on outside this wonderful lust crazed little bubble of ours. It sounded like a bin falling to the ground with a loud metal clang. We both craned our necks towards the window and I could feel myself trembling with the suddenness of it knocking me so rudely out of my ecstasies.

"Shit," Daryl cursed.

"What is it?" I asked and moved off his lap, pulling my bra back up over my breasts and standing up to move towards the window. He followed right behind me and we could see right away what had caused that noise and it wasn't Merle...five walkers came shuffling across the backyard, visible in the orange lamp light. Their gaping mouths were hideous and the light cast eerie shadows over their grey misshapen faces. For one brief moment I believed I was watching some sort of horror movie, nothing about that moment felt real.

"Jesus!" Daryl exclaimed before scooping down to pick up his tank and pulling it back over his head. "Stay here baby," he said to me before kissing me firmly on the mouth.

"Jesus Daryl be careful...where's Merle?"

"He aint here," Daryl replied.

"What the fuck?"

"He went to his lady's house after we talked. Don't you worry bout' him...no one can kill Merle but Merle. Don't be worrying bout' me neither, aint' no walker going to put me down. Stay right here!" He jabbed his finger towards the floor and stalked out of the room.

I picked up my tank top and got dressed but I wasn't prepared to stay in that room. I had left my Dad's shotgun in the kitchen so I ran down the corridor and the stairs to pick it up from the table. I wanted to make sure Daryl had some cover fire just in case. As I burst out the back door and onto the porch I heard him take his first shot which went ripping into the first walker's head. Her face barely registered a change and she just fell down to the ground with the exact same expression as when she had been moving. Daryl had obviously figured out that to kill them or at least to immobilise them he needed to shoot them through the head. He shot the next one that was shuffling over towards him with the same accuracy. The other three were further away from the house and were lurking beside the wooden outhouse. Before moving over to them he reached down to the two he had taken out and with a look of disgust on his face placed one hand on their skulls and used the other to yank out the crossbow dart. It made a sickening squelching noise as it was removed and a spurt of black congealed looking blood shot out of one of their craniums. I faintly heard Daryl curse with disgust before reloading his crossbow and moving towards the three others.

The side of the shed was partially in darkness and I watched him take down all three swiftly. His hunting skills were impressive. He collected his darts from two that were next to the shed but the third one was further back in the darkness next to a scrubby looking bush. As Daryl bent down to yank the third one out of the walker's head a flash of white caught my eye and another walker loomed into view from behind the shed. Daryl must not have seen it in the darkness. I trotted towards him in no great hurry because it didn't look close but as I got nearer I realised that I had got the perspective wrong and the walker was much closer to Daryl's back than I thought.

"Daryl!" I screamed as I lifted the shotgun in my hand. I took aim and as I came close enough I fired the gun as near to the walker's head as I could see but it was a poor aim and it caught it in the right shoulder instead. The walker fell to the ground but it was still alive, squirming and gnashing it's teeth, emitting that horrible death rattle breath.

"Fuck!" Daryl hollered. "What the fuck girl? The fuck you doing down here?" He was furious with me and quickly turned and shot the walker in the head just as it was attempting to crawl towards us. He reached forwards and yanked out the dart and rammed it into his holster. His expression was stormy as he turned to me and grabbed my face in between both his hands. My breath was ragged in my throat and my shoulder was stiff after firing the gun not to mention my ears were ringing slightly.

"Huh?" He shouted. "Answer me! You could have got killed!"

"I was saving your fucking life! You're the one whocould have got killed!" I screamed back.

He held my head tight and kissed me hard on the mouth, thrusting his tongue in, angrily tasting me. I kissed him back equally as furiously, my fear that he could have been killed turning into angry lust.

"Oh fuck," he gasped.

He bent down to pick me up into his arms and carried me towards the house, up onto the porch and burst through the back door by kicking it violently with his foot. He moved towards the table and sat me down on the edge. I looked up at him and he looked down at me with defiance and desire as he pulled his tank top up over his head and dropped it to the floor. I placed my hands on his chest and ran my fingers up along his taut stomach and up over his strong contoured chest. He reached down to my pants and undid my belt without taking his eyes off mine. I let him push me back onto the table and he dragged my jeans down my legs, pulling my boots off and throwing them behind him before doing the same with my jeans. He left my panties on and I could hear him unbuckling his belt as I lay panting up at the ceiling. He appeared in between my legs and looked down at me with his chest heaving and I could feel him hard pressed up against my panties. I didn't know what he was going to do next until he reached down and pulled my panties to one side and entered me so quickly and with such assurance I cried out. There was no fumbling no false starts just one hard confident stroke of penetration...it was exhilarating.

I looked up at him, my eyes shining with delight as he grabbed my hips and thrust into me hard over and over again, pulling my hips closer towards him, drawing him deeper inside me. I cried out with delight over and over and I could feel a release building within me as I drew my knees up towards my chest to allow him to go deeper.

"This is what you wanted huh?" He growled.

"Yes," I gasped.

"Say it again...you wanted me to fuck you hard like this right?"

"Yes."

I didn't think it was possible to come just like this but I could feel it building inside me and I knew it was going to happen quickly. I had never in my life fucked like this with anyone before, with an active desire, a feeling that I was engaged in what was happening to me. I usually lay there and pretended to enjoy it but here I was about to burst with pleasure just from him taking me over the table.

My whole body gripped and tightened and the exquisite release finally came and as I did so Daryl came seconds later with loud gasping moans. I flopped back onto the table and Daryl bent over me, his head to one side, sweat pouring off the both of us, slippery skin touching and both chests heaving.

"Jesus," Daryl exclaimed and lifted his head to look up at me. "I think I've gone blind."

We both laughed so hard we could feel our sides ache and afterwards he wiped his brow and kissed me tenderly before moving out slowly from inside me and away from the table to get dressed.

Exhaustion followed that release and I suddenly felt faint as I bent down to grab my clothes. Daryl put out a hand and stopped me from stooping, picking up my jeans himself and handing them to me with a grin. When I dressed he scooped me up into his arms again and carried me up the stairs and back to the bedroom, laying me down on the bed. He locked and barricaded the door with the rocking chair and took one more glance outside before drawing the blinds down. He lay down beside me and I curled into the crook of his arm with my head on his chest and we both slept deeply.