A walk in the woods gave Catori time to think on everything that had happened the next morning. Most of the others were still asleep when she left except for Hershel who left for a bar and Shane who was lurking about.

There were no walkers around to be seen so the young woman remained calm as she made her way towards the creek area. Soft wind gently made its way through the area and she sighed. Though she was homesick, she knew she couldn't go back home to her father but part of her felt that this was her new fami-

Quick footsteps caught Cat's attention. She closed her eyes and counted.

1… 2… 3… She stood from the fallen tree and jumped just out of Shane's reach, "Shane?"

"Well, I guess you do have fast reflexes."

"What are you doing?"

"Following you." He stepped forward and she stepped back. "I have a favor to ask…"

Back at camp, Brooke ran up to Daryl almost tackling him.

"What the hell?"

"It's Cat! I saw her walk into the woods but Shane started acting strange before he ran after her…"

"Let me go, you fucker!" Cat struggled against the cop. His fingers already leaving bruises around her wrists and neck.

He let her go after getting an elbow to the nose and she wasted no time in running.

She always talked about beating a bitch's ass if something like that was to ever happen but now that it had actually happened, she found herself frozen almost and unable to defend herself. But once he loosened his grip she made sure to just get the hell away from him.

She made her way to the large field where she saw Daryl running towards her with T-Dog and Rick behind him.

"Cat!" She ran straight into his arms and clung to him.

"Daryl-! Shane, he tried to-!"

"I'll get him." Rick looked as if he had gone psychotic as he walked into the woods with a gun in one hand and a metal pipe in the other.

T-Dog opened the first aid kit he had brought and asked Daryl various questions after Cat refused to speak. "I don't know if she was hurt or not but something was telling me to bring this along for her."

"Thanks, man…" Daryl nodded to T-Dog then turned back to Catori who was trembling as she held onto him for dear life. "Come on, we're going back to camp."

"N-no… I can't… I don't… Can I just stay away from people for a while? Please?"

The hunter stood there then nodded, "I'll move our tent a good ways from the others; that sound like a plan?"

She nodded.

Later, Shane arrived and T-Dog was the one to act for Daryl. T-Dog had spoken to Cat before and considered her a sister more than anything. So, T-Dog did what any good big brother would do. He punched the cop in the face before he could even speak, "What kind of sorry fuck are you, man?!"

"Can you blame me?!" He screamed back, watching Dayle walk up to him. "I need some kind of stress relief!"

"I think it best if you just left everyone alone for a while, Shane."

At the edge of the field, Daryl had set up the tent where they were in sight so the others could keep an eye on them and vice versa but far enough away to not be bothered.

She was inside the tent with her knees towards her chest and her eyes staring off into space.

"Kitty?"

"You know… I always said that I would kill someone if they ever tried something like that… But… Now that it actually happened, I found myself frozen and terrified… My father would be so disappointed in me…"

"No, he wouldn't. You hit the fucker in the face and ran to get help. You just got scared; it's okay to be scared." His fingers traced over the bruises on her neck then the cut on her leg under where her skirt was ripped. "I should kill the bastard!"

"T-Dog already took care of it. I saw it while you were setting up the tent down here."

Daryl's fingers reached up and stroked away tears she hadn't even known was there.

...

Back at the camp, Dayle was furious with Shane but managed to stay calm by coming up with another list of supplies for Glenn to gather on his next trip to town. Thunder rumbled gently through the sky after his part of the list was complete. One thing listed being magazines or a new book, at least. Being at the end of the world with a few boring books was murder.

"Dayle?"

"Glenn, here's the list." The older man handed over the piece of paper, "Anything on your mind? You look a bit distracted."

Glenn's cheeks turned a bit red, "Well, Catori gave me her list of stuff this morning but when I walked out to where they moved the tent to ask her if she needed anything else since her list was short and… Uh…" The sentence was left unfinished and he scratched his head.

The elder of the two just laughed and patted Glenn on his shoulder, "Chances are, Genn… She is making Daryl erase what happened with Shane. It's fine." His eyes looked at the girl's list in Glenn's hand, "She wanted candy?"

"She said low blood sugar was never a good thing but she's mainly doing it for Carl. She said kids need candy but I think I'll get enough for everybody. That place did have a lot of it. I'm pretty sure it's still good, most of it." He was quiet again before he spoke once more, "I'll go now."

"Be careful."

With all of the stuff he had brought back, Dayle was surprised the horse held out under so many bags.

"You find everything?"

"Yes, sir!" Glenn reached in one of the bags and pulled out two books, "I got you these and a few more to go with it."

Dayle looked at the first book and looked back up at the Asian, "Twilight?"

"Yeah… I liked it!"

He looked at the second book, "World of Warcraft?"

"…I'll go give everyone their things!" Then Glenn ran, leaving the old man with the big bag of books. He had grabbed nearly all of the books in the store; surely there was one he'd be interested in.

Cat was lying in the tent with a blanket over her body; she had her bra and panties on but had no intention of putting anything else on at the moment. She had her weapons with her so if anyone tried to do anything to her, they'd get a bullet between the eyes faster than Glenn when he screws Maggie.

"Knock, knock!"

Without thinking she held up the gun and only lowered it when she saw Glenn's terrified face.

"Sorry!"

"It's okay, I'm sorry. I've been a bit jumpy today…"

Glenn kneeled beside the opening of the tent, "I got almost all of the candy in the store, including the little boxes of chocolate. Those things last longer than I thought."

"Thank you!" She looked in the bag and pulled out a book. She looked at it for a moment, "The Boondock Saints?"

"Yeah! It's an awesome comic! I thought you'd like it so I brought it back. It seems like it'd be up Daryl's alley too."

"Awesome, thanks."

A familiar voice called his name and he nodded a quick goodbye to Catori and ran to Maggie.

Catori started reading the comic, it didn't take too long since she was a fast reader. After that she opened a box of the little chocolates and wrote in her book some more with her stuffed dragon plushie in one arm. Cat was laying on her stomach, her elbows propping her up and her feet up in the air behind her as she wrote and snacked on the chocolates slowly. Once it started getting dark, she turned on the two lanterns that lit up the tent like it was daytime.

She couldn't help but feel relaxed when Daryl stepped in; stopping when he saw her lying on the floor of the tent on top of a blanket with her stuffed animal in one arm, her book opened in front of her and the other hand had a chocolate. She was mid bite and had frozen when he stepped in. "Damn…"

She began moving and shoved the rest of the chocolate piece in her mouth.

"That made me feel better, walkin' in on that."

"What's wrong?" Cat held up a chocolate piece to his mouth and he bit down, taking it from her before settling on his stomach beside her.

He didn't seem happy at all, "The guys brought back some kid with them. Came from a group that tried to kill them."

"Did the group follow?!"

"No."

She relaxed again. He was worried about the situation.

Cat closed her book and put it back in her bag carefully then zipped it up. She blew out one of the lanterns and moved to hug Daryl.

They stayed that way for a while in each other's arms, not saying a word. Before pulling apart, Daryl kissed her forehead.

About that time, Mina's voice came from the outside.

"Cat? You in there?"

Then Chad's voice was heard. "They could be doing something nasty and calling it clean, Mina! We shouldn't bother anyone at this hour!"

"We're not doing anything." Cat answered.

Then Daryl added, "Not anymore." He earned a snicker from Chad. After Cat had the blanket around her, he unzipped the tent and Mina waved, "Hey! I brought you a pair of jeans. They might be a little big since you're skinny. I heard about your skirt and all…" She handed her the folded up pants that were almost identical to the first pair she had before she was forced to wear the wretched skirt.

"Thank you!" She jumped up, throwing the blanket down to hug the girl. Mina didn't care about her state of dress; they had the same thing only Cat was white and petite. Chad, trying not to piss off Daryl just looked up at the sky until he was given the okay to look at the other couple again. "Hey, Daryl…"

He looked up at Chad, "What?"

"The others didn't really agree with me but… Something isn't right about that kid they brought back…"

Daryl lifted his hands towards the heavens, "Thank you! Finally someone sees it from my point of view!"

"Brandon is somewhat paranoid about him too. He's keeping an extra eye on him with Kory."

"Psht! I trust that kid more than that Shane guy!" Mina voiced her opinion, in which Cat agreed. "But screw all of this shit, I'm going back to my tent and I'm going to sleep." She waved to Cat and Daryl before grabbing Chad and leaving.

"They really have grown up, I'm proud of them." Cat smiled. She cuddled her back up to Daryl's chest while he pulled the blanket over them and they both went to sleep.