Lucy attempted to sleep for a couple hours and then relieved Dennis from his post. It didn't matter who kept watch and who didn't these days since neither of them wound up counting many sheep. It had been much easier when his sons and the others were still with them.

She watched the sunrise in the distance and thought about saying a little prayer for being able to start another day, but she was never religious and it seemed wrong to start now. Ducking into the cabin quickly, she grabbed the little first aid kit and headed back out to the shed. It would have been smart to wait until Dennis woke up so that she would have back up in case he tried to attack her. She paused at the door knowing that she shouldn't go in there alone, but then her curiosity got the best of her.

Since he was still asleep she took a minute to examine him. With the door open, there was enough light to see his outline sleeping with his back facing her and his wrists still bound. She put her weapons on the table just in case he was able use them against her and took a step closer. He must have tried to escape for a while during the night because his wrists were cut deep from the ropes. When he rolled over slightly, she almost mistook him for a walker his face was so caked in dried dark red blood. Even though she knew what Dennis had done, she was still surprised by the effects never really having seen someone beaten before.

"Merle," he murmured in his restless sleep. He repeated the name a couple more times followed by what could have been an apology. She couldn't make out anything else he was saying, but he seemed upset even in the dream state so she figured it must have been someone close to him that passed away.

Everyone had those same nightmares now.

"Hey man," she said as she tapped him with her foot.

He woke with a start and backed away as far away from her he possibly could while still being attached to the pole.

"You met my friend last night. He's right outside the door ready to wail on you again if there's any trouble. All right?"

He didn't say anything only stared with a mild hostility.

"I want to clean you up a little bit, but I want to hear it from you first that I don't have anything to worry about. You understand me?"

"Yeah," he grunted.

She crouched toward him and started to examine the cuts a little more. They weren't as bad as she thought originally once the blood was cleared away he would look like he was in a late night bar fight. The cut on his forehead was a bigger cause for concern since it was the oldest, from his fight with the walker, and still hadn't closed completely. If it didn't close, he would need a couple stiches, which none of them knew how to do without making the victim look like Frankenstein.

"Water?" she asked. He nodded so she gave him a couple large gulps.

"You were in the tree," he mentioned. His voice was raspy from being dehydrated.

"Yes, I saw you take out that biter with your hands tied."

"Pretty neat trick, huh?"

"I've seen better," she lied. Truth be told she had never seen someone come close to that level of skill. If he successfully escaped and wanted revenge, they would have a far bigger problem than the flesh-eating freaks out in the woods.

Lucy poured out some water on a rag and motioned to his head. "May I?" she asked.

He gave a quick nod barely blinking as he kept staring at her trying to figure out what kind of person she was since she clearly was not a soldier. After the previous night, he'd forgotten about the girl in the tree so she was the last person her would have expected in the morning. As the light poured in the small room, he realized that her hair had a reddish glow making it a light shade of strawberry blonde. She tried not to focus on his intense gaze and concentrated on doing the least amount of damage to his banged up face.

"You ain't from the South," he stated.

"Baltimore, that's where I grew up mostly."

"What did you do wrong to wind up in this godforsaken hick land?"

"I got transferred with my job. I had only been working in Atlanta for 3 months when it all happened."

"Lucky you, Baltimore," he coughed to clear his throat and spit in the corner away from her.

She cleaned off his face as best she could without getting too close. There was still a lot caked on his chin and hairline, but he started to look like a real person again. Even though he looked like he had been through the ringer and he talked kind of like Yosemite Sam, Lucy admitted that she found him more interesting than she should have. In the dark early morning light, she could still see those clear blue eyes that shocked her the day before and as much as she avoided eye contact she kept glancing back up again.

"My name's Lucy, if you were wondering."

"Think I'll stick to Baltimore considering the present circumstances."

"Fine by me. What's your name? Merle?"

"No, where did you hear that?" he got defensive when he heard the name.

"You were saying it in your sleep. Someone you know?"

"Knew."

"Sorry," she told him as she moved on to his hands. After clearing away some of the dried blood, she poured some peroxide over the wounds and let it soak in a little bit. He swore under his breath, but didn't yelp in pain.

"Daryl," he groaned.

"Pardon me?"

"My name's Daryl."

"Good to meet you," she gave a small smile.

As she finished working on his wrists, Daryl tried to size her up and wasn't too sure what to make of the situation. The man from the night before had that tough military persona that came from seeing too much tragedy, but the girl in front of him was not in the same category. She couldn't have been more than late 20's and seemed sincere in her interest to help him. It gave him a small hope that his captors were normal people like his group unlike the psychopaths over at Woodbury.

"Suppose you wouldn't let me go now that we're all acquainted?"

"You know I can't do that."

He shrugged knowing it was a long shot to begin with.

"You hungry?"

He nodded and she told him that she would bring him something to eat. As she headed back to the cabin, Dennis stood on the porch with his arms crossed waiting for her.

"You should have waited until I was up," he told her.

"I can take care of myself, Dennis."

She pushed past him to the kitchen where she filled a bowl of cereal from the supplies they had found there. Nell and Annie were still curled up in the bed on the other side of the room so she tried to keep the noise to a minimum.

"We don't know what he's capable of yet," Dennis hissed at her.

"Well I don't want us to be capable of that mess," she whispered back.

Lucy hurried back outside knowing that she was getting upset and was likely going to yell about it.

"We can't be the sort of people that beat a man to death! Then we're not any different than the scumbags that killed Alf to take his weapons and left him to rot out there."

"Lu, we're not," he coaxed.

"Not yet, but it's easy to slip off the edge. You know that Denny."

"I did what needed to be done. Nothin' wrong with that."

"Let's leave tomorrow. It seems wrong leaving him trapped in there. We'll cut him loose and be on our way."

"No way, Nell needs to rest. The last couple weeks really took a toll on her."

They finally agreed to leave in two days, which would hopefully be enough for everyone to rest up and heal their cuts and bruises a bit more. The past month, they had been on the run constantly never staying more than a night anywhere. The walkers were migrating to search for food. Even the middle of nowhere wasn't far enough away anymore. Exhaustion would kill off their companions first if they didn't take the time to recover when they had the chance.

She stomped back over to the shed to give Daryl the cereal still in her hand. He looked a little confused when she threw it at him in a huff and then turned on her heel out the door. Walking away Lucy realized the door had been open during her conversation with Dennis and she wondered if the pissed off hick had heard everything. It didn't matter much either way she supposed since she didn't sleep anymore.

May be cliched but I love a good patient nurse scene ;)