They left the horses behind to go and find Daryl's 'something cool'. Kate didn't know what it might be, she only hoped that the hike wouldn't be too strenuous. For all she knew his version of a hike might include climbing a cliff face. He didn't hesitate as he led her through the trees. Just like hadn't the other day when they had been hunting. To her it all looked the same but he seemed to know exactly which way to go. He belonged in these woods like some sort of wild, feral huntsman. She was already disorientated.

Kate tried to hold back as she followed him. She wanted to put some distance between them and the awkward moment next to the carved heart. They could still be friends. She was probably overthinking the situation.

Daryl began to disappear down a dip in the terrain. She was too far back. Kate imagined losing him and being stranded out here alone before she jogged to catch up to him. She found him waiting with one arm outstretched to help her down the steep slope. She didn't take it. She grabbed a tree and managed to get herself down with a small stumble and a big jump.

Kate could hear a small gruff laugh that fell from Daryl's lips followed by the clicking off his Zippo. She turned to see him surrounded by a puff of smoke as the cigarette dangled carelessly from his mouth like he was some sort of bad boy from a 1950's movie. She hated smoking. But more than that Kate hated that she liked the way Daryl looked when he was doing it.

He pointed in the direction she was supposed to head and let her lead the way. She wondered if he was letting her lead so she wouldn't have to breath in his fumes and looked over her shoulder to him.

What on earth was she doing in the middle of this forest with this wild man? If she was sensible then she should have been having lunch in the botanical gardens with Mr Cliff, the attractive high school teacher from last Thursday who had invited her for a cultural tour of Atlanta.

Kate brushed away the dirt that was speckling her jeans and scoffed lightly. She didn't want to be on a "cultural tour". The second the words had left Mr Cliff's mouth she'd wanted to run a thousand miles in the opposite direction. He'd sounded exactly like Ryan.

Daryl jumped ahead, "we're almost there…"

/

"Welcome to Fort Dixon."

"Oh my god…" Kate let out a gasp and Daryl watched the way her eyes lit up just like he'd hoped they would. He might not have had much when he was growing up, but he had this. His grandpa had built the treehouse for Merle when he was a boy and when Daryl had come along his grandpa had added to it and improved it. It wasn't pretty, it was made of a mishmash of all sorts of materials that had been added over the years, but it was the location of his happiest childhood memories. Probably Merles happiest memories too.

He'd maintained it for Dale's nieces and nephews. When they had grown up he had maintained it for himself. He couldn't bare the idea of it crumbling and being reclaimed by the forest plus it didn't take much to keep it standing.

"I would have adored this when I was little," she approached the tree and walked around the outside of it, running her hand along the trunk.

"Not many people know the secret location of Fort Dixon… ya gotta swear not to tell."

Kate laughed and peaked her head around the tree to look at him.

It had been a long time since he had brought someone new to Fort Dixon. He remembered the playful feelings of being young and cocked his head to the side before he pointed at her, "swear it…"

A slow smile spread across her lips before she stepped out from behind the tree, placed her hand over her heart, "I solemnly swear never to reveal the top secret location of Fort Dixon on pain of death."

"Maybe if they're threatenin' to kill ya then ya can say…" he laughed and Kate did too. Most everything about Kate was sexy except her laugh. Her laugh was cute, she laughed with her whole body in the most ridiculously girlish giggle that made his stomach feel like mush.

"So…" Kate looked up at the fort "how do we get up?"

"Ya wanna go up?" He wasn't so sure she would be that interested.

"Of course…" she crept closer to him and looked side to side before whispering, "the sheriff's men will find us."

A chill ran up his spine, she said it with such certainty. Then he snorted. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually played in the fort. "The sheriff's men?"

Kate's cheeks started the flush with the slightest hint of pink and she looked away from him, "you have your bow… a tree fort… just like Robin Hood…" she let out a small laugh and bit her lip.

Daryl couldn't help but stare at her. Jesus, she was so pretty and she was playing. If he thought about it, this could get pretty sexy. He could tell that his silent gaping was making her uncomfortable. But there was something about the pink of her cheeks and the way she wasn't looking at him that made the bee's in his stomach go wild.

There was only one girl in Robin Hood that Daryl could think of. "If I'm Robin hood…" He swallowed hard and stepped closer to her, he could sweep her off her feet just like in the movies. Shit, maybe she wanted him to, it was her idea to play this little roleplaying game. An uncontrollable smirk plastered on his face, "does that make you Maid Marion…" He could play this game with her all day. They could enact the scene's they didn't show in the movies.

Kate's blush went even redder before she said, "I'll be… Catwoman."

No damsel in distress then. No sweeping off her feet. "There ain't no catwoman in Robin Hood…"

"Did all your games have to be historically accurate?" she stepped away from him. "Maybe Catwoman has a time machine?"

Daryl snorted. Time machine, his ass. Was she flirting with him or not? He couldn't keep up this crazy woman.

Kate looked up at the tree once more.

"Ya have to climb it… there ain't no ladders to Fort Dixon." Ladders were for pussies.

"Climb the tree?" Catwoman looked undecided. This city girl had probably never climbed a tree in her life.

"I thought cats only had trouble climbing down…" he smirked, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

Kate gave him a typical Miss Uppity pissed off look as he closed the space between them. "Here," Daryl pointed to the place where the first foot hold was and held out his hands to help her. To her credit she went for it and before he knew it his hands were on her again. He hadn't even planned it this way but he sure as shit wasn't complaining. He told her where to put her feet and she did as she was told until she was in the treehouse. He appreciated the view as he was climbing up after her.

Kate sat cross-legged at one end and he sat at the other. He didn't remember it being so small in here. Together they took up almost all of the room. He placed his hands on his knees and hardly knew what to do with himself. Well, he had some idea of what he wanted to do.

They stared at each other before she leaned onto her knees and for a split second he actually thought she was going to kiss him. Instead, she looked out of the window and he shook his head at himself. Her neck was at eye height and his eyes inspected every inch of the side of her face while the smell of that damn perfume she wore filled up all the breathing room. When she turned she had a playful smile as she pressed her index finger to her lip. "Ssh..." she leaned forward and he felt his breath all but stop as she whispered, "they're here."

Daryl let out his breath and got that childish feeling again, "they are?" he reached his hands above his head to locate the familiar hidden shelf in the rafters where he wrapped his fingers around what was always stashed there. He pulled down the slingshot and one little rock and Kate laughed.

"I can protect ya ma'am."

He nudged forward until his knee was pressed against her leg and he glanced out of the window then back at her. He only had one rock. "Ya wanna try?" he held out the little handmade slingshot. His Grandpa had shown him how to make one when he was little and he had made about a hundred of them since.

Kate took the little weapon from his hand and her fingers brushed against his. He wondered what it would have been like if he had known her when he was a teenager. What he would have given to have a girl like her in this treehouse with him. She was easily the prettiest person that had ever stepped foot in the place. He swallowed hard and rubbed his thumb over the rock before he passed it to her.

Kate's big brown eyes fell from his to the little rock and she loaded it in the slingshot.

"Ya think ya can hit the tree?" he pointed to the big one that was slightly left of the window and Kate leaned even closer to him to take aim. The top of her head dipped just below his chin and his heart started to thud hard. She fired the rock and it hit the tree with a woody ping followed by a laugh of pure delight as she raised her head bringing his face within inches of hers. Her breath smelled sweetly of the lemonade that Irma had given them for their ride.

Daryl's finger tips prickled with longing. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to have her. His hand began to float from its position on his lap until he was touching her soft as silk hair and removing the tiny little stick that he noticed nestled in between the loose waves.

/

This didn't feel very platonic anymore. He was a single man. She was by all accounts a single woman. The feel of Daryl's touch, which was so painfully gentle as his fingers teased through her hair, sent tingles along her body to the places that hadn't tingled for another person's touch for a long time.

She looked at the little stick which he twirled between his thick, rough fingers before flicking it out of the window. Kate cleared her throat and her eyes darted to anywhere that wasn't him as she let herself fall backwards with a painful thud, "what time did Irma say she wanted us to return?"

Daryl's brow furrowed before he finally looked at his watch, "20 minutes ago."

"I hate to be late…" it was the truth but more than that there was something about this treehouse that made her feel like she might do something that she might regret later.

Daryl climbed from the treehouse and Kate had no choice but to allow him to help her down. Then she had no choice but to allow him to help her back on the horse. She tried to ignore how she felt when his hands were wrapping around her body and lifting her with ease. But as they rode the horses back to the stables she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have sex with Daryl Dixon.

Would his mouth taste like smoke, or something else? Would he be rough or gentle? She hadn't been touched in a long time and this was the first time that the notion had bothered her. The first time she'd felt the desperate longing to be filled, caressed, kissed, to fall into oblivion at the hands of another person.

"Did you have fun?" Irma grinned. They were shamefully an hour late for dinner but the middle aged woman didn't complain.

/

Dinner was as tasty as it always was at Irma's table and Kate seemed to be enjoying herself. He was wondering if he should invite her to do something tomorrow. They only had limited time and he would happily spend every minute of the entire weekend with her.

"Can I speak with you Daryl?" Dale whispered as Irma offered to show Kate the quilt she was making for her great niece who was due to be born next month.

He followed the man to the porch where they took a seat on one of the many chairs outside and Daryl lit a cigarette. He didn't know what Dale wanted to say but the longer the man sat silently looking at his hands the more Daryl became worried. He finished his cigarette and waited five minutes before he said, "what is it?"

Dale looked at him and his eyes were wide and fearful. "It's never seemed like the right time to talk about this…"

"What?"

"Irma's sick…"

Daryl couldn't find the words to say anything.

"They think she has a year."

A year? He looked into the house. How could that be? She wasn't so old.

"We're selling the farm… I wanna take her travelling like we'd always planned…"

"Ya can't do that!" Daryl felt like his life was starting to crumble. Losing Irma, Dale and his Grandpa's farm. His stomach turned over, he felt sick, then his adrenaline started to pump. He wanted to hit something. So he did. He slammed his fist into the siding of the house and the pain jolted down his arm making him even angrier.

"I want the last of our time together to be fun… doing the things we'd always said we'd do but never did…" Dale held his shoulder. "You've found someone, you're happier, we both saw it when you brought her the other day and we see it today… reminds me of when I first met Irma."

Dale was trying to be nice but it only infuriated him more. Now he was being reminded that he couldn't have Kate either. "Ya don't know anythin' old man… she's fuckin' leavin'… she don't want me like that!"

Dale let out a heavy sigh "I thought…"

Daryl didn't care what he thought, he jumped over the railing and landed heavily on the grass. He couldn't stay here anymore. He was finished. After everything, they were just going to leave and he was going to have even less than he already did.

/

Kate took a seat on the settee and Irma handed her the baby blanket that she had been working on. It was all the colours of the rainbow and beautiful. She ran her fingers over the delicate stiches and admired all the little animals that had been lovingly stitched on to each square.

"I've been making blankets like this for all the babies of our family for thirty years," Irma pulled some glasses from the side table and set them on the end of her nose then grabbed her basket of fabric to show Kate the next square she was working on. It was a light green paisley background and she was stitching on an orange fox. "Do you want to get married, have little ones?"

The direct question made Kate's chest tighten. Did she? Could she imagine another brown eyed baby with a head full of fly away hair? "No."

Irma looked surprised. "Its early days I suppose," she winked before her eyes fell to her stitching.

Early days? Kate looked towards the outside of the house where Daryl was standing with Dale. Surely the woman couldn't be referring to him, they were hardly on their way to anything.

The muffled shouts of an argument permeated the peace of the living room and Kate looked out of the window just in time to see Daryl climbing into his truck and driving away.

She looked over her shoulder to Irma who put down her sewing and said, "Dale gave him some bad news. I'm sure he'll come on back…" Irma forced a smile and stood up, "I'll make us tea…" then she left Kate in the lounge while she went to have a hushed conversation with Dale in the kitchen.

It wasn't Kate's place to pry, no matter how much she wanted to. She looked at the time on the clock, it was 19:17. She'd thought that Daryl would be taking her home by now.

By the time she had finished her third glass of ice tea and listened to Dale and Irma tell her all about the trip they were planning on taking the clock read 20:55.

Dale caught her staring at it and stood up, "I thought he would have come back for you by now… let me take you home."

It was a long drive. She wasn't going to impose on him and she loathed asking people for help. Daryl brought her here, it was his idea, he should take her back. "Where do you think Daryl might have gone?"

A part of her had the sudden sick feeling that he'd crashed his car and was lying in the road somewhere. But the feeling was quickly dismissed when she saw the knowing glance that Dale and Irma shared before they said, "Joe's."

Kate had seen the bar nestled amongst the trees and a dirt track on her drive here with Daryl. It wasn't too far to walk. If he was there when he should have been driving her home, then she was going to be bloody pissed off. She was already bloody pissed off.

Despite Dale and Irma's protests, and perhaps even her better judgement, she grabbed her jacket and started to say goodbye.

"This isn't a good idea. When he gets like this it's probably better to let him stew…" Irma said for the third time.

Kate scoffed, "let him get away with it you mean?" She pulled on her jacket and began to walk quickly down the road to the bar. With every step she felt a prick of irritation. He'd brought her miles from home, to a strange place and now he had abandoned her.

The red sign that simply said 'Joe's', lit up the night and when she got closer she could see Daryl's truck nestled among the others along with several motorcycles.

The actual bar was more like an oversized shed. It was the type of establishment that she would never have dreamt of setting foot inside of on any ordinary day. The word 'Redneck' came to mind and then when she thought about it, Daryl, who didn't look like he belonged in the museum but looked perfectly at home with a cigarette, crossbow and a layer of dirt, was a redneck.

Kate walked across the car park to the door and when her hand wrapped around the long silver handle she hesitated. This probably wasn't the best idea that had ever occurred to her. She thought about Ryan saying, 'must you do this Kate?' but the memory only urged her inside rather than back to the safety of Dale and Irma's where she should have been.

The soft hum of music became louder, the smell of stale smoke and beer filled her nostrils. It was a hive of chatter inside Joe's until she stepped into sight. It was like walking into a western movie. Everything but the jukebox seemed to go silent. All eyes were on her. She was a stranger in this bar which seemed like the type of place that had the same customers from their first drink to their last.

Kate spotted the back of Daryl's head. He was sitting at a big table with a group of four men. Part of her wanted to walk back out, run back to the farm and call herself a cab. But a bigger part of her refused to walk away and let him get away with behaving like an arsehole. She wondered if anyone ever called Daryl Dixon out on his shit. Dale and Irma sure didn't seem like they did.

Kate ignored the eyes that watched her and the whispers that talked about her as she strolled over to his table, shoulders back, head high. She stood to the left of Daryl and folded her arms across her chest. She could smell the stench of alcohol that was radiating off him like a vile perfume.

"Ya lost girlie?" the jeering voice came from one of the men at Daryl's table.

Kate's eyes settled on an older man with a shaved head and a satisfied smirk plastered across his face. She raised one eyebrow and ignored him. She could only deal with one drunken dickhead at a time.

Daryl finally turned to look her up and down before turning back to his glass of beer and finishing it.

That was it? He was going to ignore her? Everyone was watching her so she couldn't just walk away. She kicked the back of his chair to jolt him. "You're supposed to be taking me home."

Daryl grunted and lit a cigarette.

One of the men at his table stood up and ran his fingers though his long, dark hair before slowly looking Kate up and down with an approving smile and a lick of his lips. "I'll take ya home sugar… Mmm hmm… I'd treat a pretty little thang like you real good."

Kate felt a tinge of pink flush her cheeks and betray all the efforts she was putting in to her cool exterior. This was awful. She jabbed her finger into the redneck security guards shoulder, "I'm in the arse end of nowhere and you're sitting here shit face drunk."

"This where ya disappeared to Darylina? Gettin' yerself all wifed up? Well shit. Didn't think ya had it in ya," the bald headed man slammed his hand on the table and let out a loud laugh.

"She ain't my girl…" Daryl cast a disapproving glance to her, "she's nothin'… just some uppity bitch I have to fuckin' work wi'."

All of his drinking companions started to whoop and laugh. Kate felt like the air had been knocked out of her. The words stung. Who the fuck did he think he was? She clenched her teeth and tried to steady the uneven breathing of rage. In another life she might have backed down but that was before. Back when she gave a shit.

"You think I'm a bitch?" Fine. Kate's hands wrapped around the pitcher of beer in the centre of the table. It was two thirds full and before she even thought that it wasn't a good idea she upended the whole thing over Daryl's head.

"How about that for being a bitch!" she spat out at him before slamming the pitcher down on the table. The laughter from everyone was even louder now and she felt completely ridiculous.

"Ya gonna let 'er get away wi' that? Oughta show that hoity-toity pussy who wears the damn pants…" it was the bald man again and his grin was bigger than ever.

Daryl jumped up, his hair and the top of his shirt were soaked and his cheeks were tinged with the red flare of embarrassment, or maybe it was anger.

Kate took a step back but held her head high "what exactly are you going to do Mr Dixon?" She challenged him and his nostrils flared before he shook his head wildly in an attempt to shed the beer. He staggered closer and she knew that he could probably tear her apart with his big hands but she also knew that he wouldn't. He just stood there, his breathing uneven as his jaw tightened and flexed angrily. The sound of laughter and shouting from all around filled the air and they were at an impasse.

Kate relaxed, "you're not going to do anything…" she scoffed at him, "you can barely put one foot in front of the other…"

"Can too" Daryl slurred before he tried to move forward in an effort to disprove her. Kate stood aside as he fell to the floor. Being right didn't feel so good but it didn't feel so bad either. He was a mess. She flashed a look of distaste to his drinking companions before crouching down and shoving her hand in the pocket of Daryl's jeans to find his car keys.

Kate pulled the keys free, then hesitated. She should have just left. He was an arsehole but she reached her fingers forward and swept the hair from his brow, he was still breathing, he was okay; just well and truly inebriated.

"Ya gonna steal my brothers truck?" So that's who the bald man was. Daryl's brother. Being an arsehole must run in the family.

Kate stood up and clenched the keys in her fist. She wasn't going to baby him, it wasn't her job to take care of Daryl Dixon, "he's a big boy… he'll figure it out."

"Hoooo weee… where'd he find you Sparky?" there was even more laughing but Kate ignored it all. She couldn't get out of Joe's bar and into Daryl's truck any faster if she tried. When she pulled away and the red lights of the bar faded she could finally breathe. Her adrenaline was still racing and she was somewhere in between anger, humiliation and hurt.

Kate drove and drove, until she was certain she had no idea where she was. It was dark, there were no street lights or houses, she was lost. She pulled over in a layby and slumped over the steering wheel to let out the tears that had wanted to burst from her eyes in the bar. She'd been so stupid. To Daryl, she was nothing more than some stupid bitch. He probably had a bet with Shane to see who could fuck her first and she'd almost been foolish enough to fall for his bullshit.

She leaned down and opened his glove box to see if he had a map. A million CD's, a pack of cigarettes and a roll of condoms fell out. Daryl probably did have sex with Hailee. Kate threw his condoms out of the window and wiped the tears from hers eyes. She needed to calm down. She wasn't lost, she had a car, she was on a road, all she had to do was keep going.

A/N- Big thank you to everyone who left feedback, I love reading it :)