12.

It was late evening by the time he returned to the detention room. He was busy all day setting up and strengthening the fence. The walkers started to cluster at certain points and pressure against it.

He found her sitting on a window shelf, looking out into the night. The window was quite high and he wondered how the hell she managed to climb all the way up there.

She didn't acknowledge him so he rolled a can towards her through the bars and assumed his usual place outside by the room. He figured she must be upset for locking her up again and let her be.

His eyes were closing when he felt a body snuggling up against him. He turned slightly and saw her on the other side of the bars, sitting back to back. She was eating from the can in silence.

Having her so close felt pleasant and he didn't move away. He heard her sighing loudly as she placed the can down and leaned with more weight against his back.

"So who's the mother of Rick's baby?"

Not the first question he'd expected.

"His wife was."

"Hmm? Oh…" There was a silent pause. "How did she…"

"A couple of outsiders we took in wanted to take over the prison. There was a fight, walkers came in…. She got cut off in one of the blocks and died during childbirth. Carl, Rick's son, put a bullet in her head."

"Shit…"

"Mh-mmm."

Another pause. "Daryl…ehmm, you've been very kind to me. I mean you have your own ways of showing it, but you care."

He felt her head turning slightly.

"Why?"

He didn't know how to respond to her question.

"I know we've been…umm…intimate-"

"That ain't it."

"Then why?"

Somebody banged on the door.

"Daryl! We need you, the fence broke down…" Glenn shouted from the outside.

He immediately sprung to his feet, took the bow and dashed towards the door.

Niko too jumped up and pressed against the bars: "Take me with you, please! I can help!"

No chance of that happening, he decided without a shred of hesitation.

He came back dirtier and bloodier. They contained the walkers and put up some provisionary fence, but it was clear it was only a matter of time before the breach happens again at some other place.

Niko came to the bars as soon as he came in. "I could have helped, you know that."

He was tired and in no mood to debate. He put away the bow and sat down, exhausted. He scrubbed out what was left of the food in his can and drank almost all the water from the bottle.

"Last time, down in the corridor, I helped you."

He looked up at her. "You locked me in a fuckin cell."

"I had to. It was to protect you. I couldn't fight so many Zeds and take care of you at the same time."

He snorted dismissively.

"You were distracted. You dropped your knife. I just did what I thought it was best. That's all."

"You really believe that, don't you?"

"I could have left, you know. But I decided to stay to save your ass, since you stupidly decided to save mine, when nobody asked you to."

"Is that your way of saying thanks?"

"Just saying it."

"I saved your ass so many times, I stopped counting. Just saying it…"

"Okay, I get it, tough guy. I admit, you saved me. Is that what you want to hear?"

"What's your problem?"

"What do you want from me?"

"For starters, stop lying."

"I'm not lying!"

"You lied about that man asking for you…"

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"Come on, you really think I didn't notice… you almost dropped to the ground when Sasha said the man was looking for a blind woman…"

She slid down, leaning against his back. "I just got scared, that's all. I mean…wouldn't you, if somebody was asking about you like that, out of nowhere? It all sounded so ominous."

"No, I wouldn't. I'd wanna know who the fuck was he. You don't scare that easily either."

She sighed with heaviness. "I have nothing more to say about that. Believe what you want. At the end it might turn out it's not even me, he was looking for. Can't be I'm the only blind chick left in this world."

"No, but I'll be damned if it was just a coincidence."

His words remained hanging in the air.

"So let me ask you again, why do you care…why do you keep saving my ass?"

He detached from her and lay on the blanket he spread earlier. "Go to sleep."

He's been watching her since he woke up. She fell asleep on the floor right next to the bars, with her back turned towards him. She didn't move at all and after a while he shook her by her shoulder to wake her up. She slowly turned her body and blinked at him.

"What…."she muttered with sleepy voice. "Let me sleep, it's not like I'm going anywhere."

"I need to check the fence. You're coming with me."

He got up, sashed his knife and checked the bow. She put on the glasses, got up quickly and waited by the door till he unlocked it. As the day before, she placed her hand on his arm.

"Keep up."

She nodded with a smile on her face.

"Take this, you won't miss much if you just poke with it randomly in that direction. They bunched up." He pushed a wooden rod with a spike in her hands. Up until then she just stood there, looking bored, while he was pricking the walkers' heads with his knife.

She got to it immediately and he was amazed how precise hear aim at the heads was.

"Can't you give me my sword back?" she asked after a while.

"No."

"It's of a great sentimental value to me. I'd really hate if something happened to it."

"Nothing will happen to it."

"I don't trust..ehm…Michonne…is that her name?"

"She don't trust you either."

"Do you?"

"Mh-mmm?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Not in the slightest."

The spike just flew close to his temple and penetrated a skull of a walker on the other side of the fence.

"Heey…easy with that….move more over there," he pushed her rod away.

She smirked and continued. "We're doing a Sisyphean work, you know that?"

"A what?"

"A futile task. They'll just keep coming."

"We'll keep cleaning…build a better fence or a wall eventually."

"You plan to stay here?"

He shrugged. "It's better for the group."

"But do you want to stay?"

"As long as they need me…"

One of the walkers reached through and almost caught Niko by the hair.

"Watch out!" he warned her and cut off the arm.

Niko moved back and pushed the spike into the walker's head. "Or as long as you need them…"

"You have any family left?"

"Nope."

"Happened before or after?"

She stopped for a moment leaned on the rod and looked at him, smirking. "Are we like…sharing stuff now? Or you're just fishing for information?"

A splash of blood covered his face.

"You don't wanna talk, we don't have to," he muttered, wiping the blood from his eyes. He got back to work and so did she.

"It was before. My parents died long before the Zeds… in a terrorist attack in Tokyo. They were killed by sarin gas. Terrorists released it in the subway. I was six at the time. "

He paused and looked at her. "That sucks."

She shrugged it off, continuing with the trusts at the heads. "How about you? Parents still alive? A wifey somewhere?

"My mom died when I was a kid. My father, he lingered on the old bastard, but I wished he'd died. I have a big brother… Merle. There's no one else."

"Oh? Where's your brother now?"

"He's on a supply run, he should be back soon. He ain't the nicest guy, but not the worst either… his biggest talent is to rub people the wrong way… now you kinda took that from him."

She frown at his remark and laughed. He smiled too.

"What's the story with your sword?"

"A present of my fencing teacher, who was, well, much more than a fencing teacher to me. After my parents died, they found no other relatives, so he took me in, to live with him. He was a close friend of my father. It wasn't easy not for him not for me. He wasn't a man to have kids, yet alone a broken kid with an odd disability. But he felt duty towards my father, so he tried his best. Teaching me the way of the sword was his way of teaching me life. He was a tough, strict teacher and mentor, and 'cause of my disability and the fact I was a girl, he pushed me twice as hard. There were times I wished to die, but in the end… his teachings might as well be the reason I'm still alive today."

She sighed thoughtfully. "Sometimes it almost feels like all that happened in another historical era and not just years ago."

"That scar on your face…it looks old…got it in training?"

"No. This scar-"

"Look at ya…If that ain't the kid and his doll. I see you put her to work."

Daryl cursed and didn't bother to turn. From the corner of his eye he observed Niko. She didn't turn either, but he saw she flinched at the sound of Frank's voice.

"You better be careful, Frank, or those stitches on your face might open up again."

"Heey, no need to be hostile, kid. I came here in good faith. We're family, you still remember that, I hope." Frank gave him a strong pat on the shoulder. Daryl shook off his hand immediately and looked him in the way, Frank took a step back.

"I get it, kid, you wanna keep the doll to yerself. I ain't sayin it don't bother me and the way ye came at me, that you'll have to square it with Merle. But we all got to keep good relations goin', ain't that right, doll?"

Niko took out the spike from a walker and slowly turned towards Frank. She firmly pushed the spike into the ground beside her and leaned on the rod with both hands. Frank's cocky expression disappeared from his face. Daryl followed Niko's movements with keen attention, feeling the tension building up. All of a sudden Niko's mouth collapsed into a wide smile, which looked more crazy-like than pleasant.

"But of course, Sir," she said. "I couldn't agree more. Let bygones be bygones."

Frank was dumbfounded at first, but soon his usual cocky appearance took over. "Ya see, kid, your doll here, can be quite reasonable." He stepped closer to her. "Oh my, Rick did a nasty job on your face. Ain't that a pity. I'd never do that, I mean, a few slaps, yes…. you know, women should be slapped from time to time, otherwise they start getting ideas. But to destroy a pretty face like that, that's a damn shame. And then I'm the bad guy." He laughed out and Niko joined him with a rather forced and exaggerated laughter.

Daryl observed it all quietly, thinking of it as a foreplay before some big disaster. "C'mon," he said to Niko, and nudged at her arm. "Frank can finish here on his own."

With a smile on her lips, she bowed slightly her head and searched for Daryl's arm. As he led her away, Frank slapped at her bottom.

"Where I come from this's considered a friendly gesture to a lady, ain't that right, kid?"

Daryl paused and turned slightly to the side, catching Frank with the corner of his eye. His lips slowly formed a smirk. "Hmm…" His fist clenched.

Just before he was about to act on his intent he felt pressure on his arm. It was Niko, she was holding him back, while she turned to Frank and tilted her head to the side. "Aren't you a real Southeren gentleman?"

Grinning, Frank scratched his head with his three finger hand and spit on the side.

Daryl kept glancing at her as they were walking away. "That required quite some self-control. I was about to trust the spike up his ass myself."

"Thank you, I wanted to show you, I'm trying."

"Mhmm. Right."

"And anyway, what goes around comes around."

He didn't like the sound of that at all. "Listen, let me deal with people like Frank, ok?"

She muttered something to herself.

"Ok?" he repeated.

"Sure…"

Fuck. He should have punched that idiot's face and be done with it.