"Sorry," Carol told me laughing. "I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

I gave her a big hug. "Not a problem, Carol. I had already told him no, but he was trying to convince me otherwise and my will power was slipping. We have too much to do right now anyway. He just doesn't like to hear the word no." I rolled my eyes for emphasis.

We both burst out laughing. After a moment she put her hand on my shoulder. "He's very special to me and he hasn't had a lot of happiness in his life. I know you are going to be very good for him, I know that deep down. He's smiled more today than I've ever seen him…so thank you Lauren."

I looked Carol directly in her eyes so that she would know I was serious, "I love him, Carol. I love all of his quirks that make him Daryl, even the surly grumpy side. I'll take good care of him." I knew that Carol and Daryl had a very special bond and I was very happy that she knew how much I cared for him.

"I know you will, I don't doubt that, because if I did, you'd know it. You haven't told him that you love him yet, have you?"

"Are you psychic?" I asked her astounded at her. "No, I haven't. It's way too soon for that, I don't want to scare him off. Hell, I bet everyone thinks that this just developed because we were alone here, but it didn't. It was a long time coming."

Carol looked at me with that wry smile she has. "I know. I spent months watching you looking at him and Daryl watching you, with neither you realizing what the other was doing. I tried to give him a little push once, but he told me to stay out it."

"He was under the completely wrong idea that he wasn't good enough for me. Stupid man," I said rolling my eyes again. "But… I changed his mind."

We hugged again each understanding where the other was coming from. We both had Daryl's best interest at heart.

"So what did you need?" I asked, leaning against the counter.

"Oh right, I did disturb you for a reason," she laughed. "First, the clothes and stuff in the bathroom are those yours?"

"Yeah, they are. I'll get them out of your way right away."

"No rush, I just wanted check with you. Can we also go over the kitchen supplies or should we wait until after the meeting?"

Rick was walking in the front door with Abraham and Carl who carried Judith. "Why don't you wait until afterwards," he said. "The sooner we can get this hashed out the better."

"Sounds good to me," I told him. Carol and I joined them in the great room and we each chose a different sofa to sit on. I was glad that this house was designed for large groups. The wide open living room boasted three separate sofas, plus several comfortable chairs and assorted other pieces of furniture. My mom's decorating style had been a combination of country comfortable and rustic cabin. The numerous seating options meant we would all easily fit. Soon the others started to straggle in. Tara and Michonne looked relaxed and I could tell that they had showered. Only Daryl was missing.

"Lauren, where's Daryl?" Rick asked.

"Still upstairs," I replied. "Want me to get him?" I was thrilled inside that Rick automatically saw us a couple.

"Naw," he said walking over to the bottom of the stairs. "DARYL," he shouted. "Get your ass down here."

"I'm comin', I'm comin'. Shit there ain't no fire is there?" he drawled slowing coming down. He plopped himself down next to me and whispered in my ear. "I'll deal with you later." It took everything I had not to burst out laughing. I was glad to see that Daryl had made use of more of my brothers clothes as I saw he was black jeans and gray t-shirt this time.

Rick moved to the edge of the chair he sat on and we all turned to see what our leader had on his mind. I had a good idea. "Abraham and I took a quick walk around the buildings. They look really sturdy and secure. The log construction makes the walls very thick and I like that the shutter on the windows secure from the inside… that is a real bonus. We are going to need to set up some kind of security around the perimeter, but we can wait until tomorrow to come up with a plan. Daryl, what did you guys see when you arrived? Any sign if people havin' been here on the property?"

"No. Didn't see no tire tracks or footprints at all. Nobody's been here for a real long time. With all the rain I didn't check out the woods for tracks or trails, I can do that tomorrow, but Lauren said that the area tends to be pretty dense and since they own all this land, no one should be on it. We ain't seen a person or a walker here or in town since we got here." Everyone looked at Daryl and me in surprise.

"None?" Rick asked surprised. "No walkers?"

"Not one," I answered. "We rode through town on the day that we got here. Didn't see any evidence of people and not one walker and believe me I was looking. We did go into the small grocery store. Oh my God guys, it's still fully stocked. No one has touched it at all and the really weird part was that the door was unlocked. Everything was covered in dust, but there's a lot of food in there for us. The stuff in my pack that I gave Carol came from there." I knew we needed to get back to that store as soon as possible and clean it out of everything. "We didn't have time to investigate anyplace else," I added.

"Didn't have time or didn't make time," Abraham smirked.

Daryl got instantly defensive. "What you mean by that?"

"Nothing, man. Nothing. Just bustin' ya. Take it easy, bro." I knew Abraham was just teasing.

"We have just finished checking out the store and filing up our packs to bring supplies back, when we noticed the dark clouds rolling in and the wind started whipping stuff all over the place," I told them. "We had fully intended to head back to you all that day, but the weather went from nice to bad to really bad in like seconds. We were lucky we made it back here in one piece. Since the rain never let up we were stuck here for the next day and half." I was hoping they weren't going to get too pushy with the questions about what happened in the time that we were stuck here. Hopefully, since Carl was here Daryl and were safe.

"Looks like you two made interesting use of that time," Rick drawled with a smile.

"That we did," Daryl said while putting an arm around my shoulders. "That we did." I think he just claimed me in front of everyone! That simple move put butterflies in my stomach and a smile on my face.

I gave Daryl's knee a little squeeze. "Anyway…"I started to talk again, "With children in the room… I'm going to get us back on track."

Everyone began to laugh when Carl said, "Oh man, I never get to hear the good stuff."

"Nor will you for a few years yet," Rick told him adding, "Thank God."

"Getting back on track once again guys, besides the grocery store we need to checkout the hardware store, the pharmacy and any other building on Main Street as soon as possible." I turned to look at Rick. "I think they are gold mines when it comes to supplies. With winter coming we are going to need everything we can find, including warm clothes to make it through." The enormity of potential for what we had here hit everyone. "Daryl can hunt for fresh meat and we can catch fish out on the lake to supplement our supplies. I think we need to make town runs a priority at least for the next few days. But that's just my opinion."

I looked around the room and realized for the first time I was really stepping up. I saw respect in all of their eyes, especially Rick's. That meant the world to me.

"What Lauren said makes perfect sense," Rick said looking at everyone. "Supplies …and security are our first priorities. Tomorrow, myself, Abraham and Carol will stay here and work on a plan to secure the perimeter. The rest of you Lauren, Glenn, Maggie, Tara, Michonne and Sasha can head into town. Carl, do you want to join them?" Carl eagerly nodded yes. I was glad to see Rick letting Carl do more things without him. The kid was growing up.

Rick then turned to Daryl. "What about you?"

"I want to scout the woods and hunt tomorrow. I'll be more comfortable knowing what's out there," Daryl replied.

Rick stood up and looked at each one of us. "We have a plan guys. I think the move here was the right one. Thank you Lauren."

"Well, we finally made it far enough north that this place became an option for us. It certainly wasn't when we were in still Georgia." I stopped for a moment and then said to everyone, "This is no longer my house guys… this is now our house. It belongs to all of us. I love you guys." My eyes filled with tears. These people were so important to me I had to let them know.

We all stood up and Maggie hugged me first, then Sasha and finally we ended up in one big group hug. I was extremely lucky to call everyone my family. Just as we were all letting go Carl said, "When are we gonna eat? I'm starved."

"Yes Carl, soon," Carol said laughing. "Lauren let's finally go check out the supplies." And as it typically happens in families the ladies headed to the kitchen while the men relaxed. Apparently not everything changes when the world turns upside down.