Damn Good Reason

Jamie leaned over the edge of the building, the sun beginning to rise in the distance. Walkers trudged along the alleyway, making their way slowly toward the street. The walkers had almost completely dispersed from around the building that Rick and the others had been trapped in, still wandering around the streets brainlessly, though. Letting out a silent sigh, she raised to her full height and adjusted the strap of the rifle on her back before taking one last look to make sure the walkers wouldn't hear her before she silently slipped down from the roof and onto the fire escape again.

She made sure to keep as silent as she could on a metal fire escape, her sore and tired muscles barely keeping her up on the ladder. She descended down until she was level with the roof of the building next to her, stepping onto the railing and crouching down to spring. The distance wasn't too great, but the fact that she was still about six stories above the ground was highly unsettling.

Pushing hard with her legs, she leapt across the space before she had time to second guess her actions, her feet hitting the roof and her knees giving out momentarily at the shock of hitting the ground. Her hands fell before herself to stop her body from falling face first onto the rooftop, her face drawing into a grimace when the skin of her palms was torn slightly. She rose onto her knees and pulled her hands before herself, looking down at the blood that was beginning to well to the surface.

Moving over to make sure that she hadn't alerted the walkers down in the alley, she winced and moved back when she leaned down on her hands, her blood smearing on the ledge. Trying again, she leaned over and looked down at the alley, seeing that there were no walkers acting differently. Moving away from that side, she crept around to the back and checked quickly to see the conditions back there before moving to the opposite side as she had come to the other fire escape, moving away from the crowd of dead on the streets.

A low rasping sound drew her attention and she swung around immediately, her hand falling to the knife on her thigh. A walker was limping over toward her from the stairwell of the building, half of its face torn off with blood still dripping from the wound. She pulled the knife from the sheath and stepped quickly to the side of the dead woman, preventing her from being able to scratch her and stabbed the large knife into a soft eye. She went limp immediately, felling down and pulling the knife from her eye in the process.

"Damn," Jay grumbled aloud as she leaned down to wipe the blade onto the remainder of the woman's clothing, cleaning it. She kept the knife in her hand for protection and leaned over the side of the building to check for walkers before slipping out onto the fire escape. The sun hit her back as it peaked over the tops of the buildings, lighting the city. If only the nightmares disappeared with the darkness.

Moving silent as night, Jay made her way down to the streets, careful not to irritate her hands too much. She needed to find a place that would have first aid supplies or her hands might become infected. She had already pulled out the gravel that had been stuck in her skin but the cuts were still raw and softly bleeding. She couldn't wipe them off because of the amount of walker blood on her clothing. She wasn't going to chance getting any in her hands. She already risked it enough stabbing that woman.

Looking carefully for the signs that were located along the buildings, she kept her eyes open for a pharmacy or clinic, anything that could hold medical supplies. Slipping out onto a deserted street several blocks away from the main hub of walkers, she noticed a corner store that had the windows busted in. They should at least have bandages if not peroxide. Darting across the street on silent feet, she held onto the strap of her gun with her knife in her hand, using one great jump through the window to get into the store. It appeared that people had looted the place already when everything went to shit, but she couldn't see any walkers. They probably weren't smart enough to climb over the four feet to get to the window and inside; luckily the door was still intact.

Crouching low as soon as she was inside the window, she adjusted her hold on her knife when the hilt rubbed against the tender skin of her palm and look a careful sweep of the store with her eyes. Moving along the floor silently, she made sure the look down every aisle in the small room, seeing that the place was clear. She didn't let her guard drop as she stepped down each aisle, looking along the near empty shelves to try and find where the medical supplies would have been.

Only a couple of minutes of searching and boxes of Band-Aids that had fallen onto the floor from the shelves caught her eye, scattered supplies pushed about in the rush of people. She moved some things around quickly, her eyes darting around herself several times as she looked for something to cover her hands. A small box that held a tenser bandage meant for small things, like a wrist. Pulling the box from the shelf and ripping it open, she told herself that she would just have to disinfect it later.

Placing her knife in reaching distance, she carefully opened the box and wrapped her right hand gently. She looked along the shelves for another one, but it seemed that the others had all been raided. She snatched a box of Band-Aids and pulled a handful of them out, stuffing them into her pocket to patch up her left hand when she'd found a more secure location to hide away in. The store was too open to do much of anything.

She stalled a moment longer in the store, trying to think if she'd need anything else before she pushed herself off the floor and climbed out the busted window, into the morning sunlight. She squinted against the sudden change of light, lifting a hand to shield her eyes and stepped around toward the alley to get out of immediate sight on the streets. As she ducked into the back alleys she could have sworn she heard yelling in the distance, short cries that echoed along the buildings.

Rick, Glenn and T-Dog would admit that they were slightly concerned for the fact that Daryl seemed to be a ticking time bomb as they made their way down the block to where Rick and Glenn had seen Jamie while they were still on the roof of the department store. They were cautious about walkers, noting that several were still on the street but didn't seem to frequent the alley.

"Who's going up?" T-Dog asked as he looked up the twelve stories that led to the roof of the building. Glenn looked over to Rick, but Daryl had already moved to the base of the escape, shouldered his crossbow and began up the ladder with a determination that they hadn't seen since he had kicked the door open on the roof of the department store. He scaled the first ladder, then the second, and was onto the third before Glenn had moved up to follow after him more slowly, leaving T-Dog and Rick to watch the alley.

Daryl moved with a fast pace, reaching the top of the building before Glenn had made it over the top of the one next to it. The dark tanned male pushed himself up onto the roof of the building, looking around for any sign of Jamie still being there. But the roof was empty; the only sign that she had been there was mussed gravel. He moved over to the corner that he had heard Rick and Glenn talking about, seeing the stones from the roof had been far more shifted there than anywhere else. She's slept there.

His hands lifted to grip at his hair, feeling the anger roll through him at the thought of having Jamie slip through his fingers after he had only just found that she was still alive. He had already lost Merle, but if Jamie was hurt as well, he might lose his mind. Crouching to the ground as his hands continued to grip his hair, he did his best to calm the tension of his body, the want to rip something apart.

"Fuck this bullshit," he growled out, turning back around the way that he had come. Glenn had stopped on the escape, looking over to the other roof. As soon as he heard Daryl above him, he pointed over to draw the man's attention. Daryl squinted as he tried to see what he was pointing at through the sun, noticing right away the body of something on the floor. Throwing his crossbow strap onto his back, he quickly began to descend the fire escape until he was nearly the same level as Glenn before he lifted his foot onto the railing and jumped to the next building over. T-Dog tried to get Glenn's attention quietly, wondering why Daryl had just launched himself to another building.

"Hold on," Glenn called down, watching as Daryl ran over to the body that lay on the top of the roof.

The youngest Dixon jogged halfway across the roof before he realized that it was not Jamie that was lying face first in the gravel, but a rotting walker that she must have killed. He stopped running and simply walked up to the body, using his foot to turn it over onto its back. A stab through the eye was what had killed the S.O.B, rather violently as well. He stepped over to where the fire escape was located a couple of feet away, looking down. She must have needed a different route than the one at the base of the first building. Turning to face where Glenn was watching him from the fire escape, he knew that he needed to go back. He wasn't going to get anywhere trying to follow Jamie's tracks. Once she hit the ground, she would have been too careful to leave many behind.

"What did you find?" Glenn asked cautiously from the escape, watching Daryl.

"Walker, must have gotten in her way or something," Daryl answered simply as he raised a boot up to the ledge to jump back over to the fire escape when he paused, looking down at the metal. Blood. Smudged, bloody hand prints were left in a distinct leaning pattern. He let his eyes linger on the spot a moment more before he lifted himself up onto the ledge and jumped over to take hold of the ladder across the way, startling Glenn back against the wall.

They quickly made their way down to the ground again, T-Dog and Rick ducked behind a dumpster so they weren't in the view of walkers that were wandering the street. They quickly moved to join them, every once and a while checking to make sure that nothing was coming their way.

"I take it she wasn't there," T-Dog said as he looked between Daryl and Glenn.

"Nah, took down a walker not long ago, though. She jumped from this building over to that one, scraped up her hands something bad, too. There's blood on the ledge where she leaned against it," Daryl explained as he leaned slightly around the dumpster to check for any walkers. "Must have gone down the fire escape on the other side."

"Now what? We can't keep wandering around hoping to run into her," T-Dog said, seeing the sharp look that the hunter sent him and chose not to react to it.

"We'll go get the guns, hopefully we can find a sign of where she's been. She's only got so much ammo in that gun, she might have gone back for more at some point," Rick said as an answer, sounding reluctantly resigned.

"You're just going to give up?" Daryl demanded, hand tightening on his crossbow in anger. Rick turned his eyes to him, shaking his head.

"That's not it, Daryl. We can't just walk around here like lost kids," Rick said carefully, trying to take control of the situation again. "We'll find her, Daryl, but we can't do this blindly."

They could all see the irritation on Daryl's face at being told what to do, and Rick understood completely. He kept thinking back to how desperate Jamie had sounded about finding Daryl, the love and devotion that had dripped from every word whenever she spoke of him. If Daryl felt even half of the same feelings as she did, then there was no way that he would easily give up on her. He would keep fighting until he saw her again. It was just the person that Daryl was.

He always has a damn good reason for everything he does. That was what Jamie had told him, and it was at this moment that he knew it was true. For blood relations and love relations, Daryl was willing to put his life on the line. He had a damn good reason.

Jamie's face was marred with a frown as she looked down at the paperwork that she had been forced to bring home with her, reading through a paragraph for the third time before finally realizing that she didn't even understand the words that she was seeing anymore. She sighed loudly as she leaned back in her desk chair, her hands rising up to wipe at her face in exhaustion. It wasn't even midnight and she already felt like she'd been awake for hours.

A sudden clack caused her to jump slightly, looking forward to see a shot glass filled with an amber liquid sitting on her desk, calloused working hands leaning on the desk.

"Take a break a'ready," Daryl's voice wasn't slurred in the least, taking her slightly off guard. She would have expected him to fully take advantage of the celebrations at the bars and get completely plastered and call to have her come and pick him up.

"I thought you were out drinking?" she asked tiredly, looking up into clear blue eyes. She didn't look drunk in the least, either.

"Why go out to a bar and pay for drinks when I can just raid your stash here fer free?" He smirked back, getting a short glare from the woman. She refused to touch the shot that he had placed on the desk for her, even though that was exactly what he was waiting for. "Come on now, it's almost midnight."

"I thought you didn't follow tradition?" she mocked, folding her arms across her chest as she looked at him challengingly.

"Now why would you think tha'?" He ginned back, turning his body around so that he was sitting on the edge of the desk and crossing his own arms. His defined arms only looked all the more muscular from the action, his white wife beater exposing a lot of skin in the process.

"Experience, past years… because I know you," she replied back sharply, challenging him with her eyes. He huffed in amusement as he pushed himself off her desk, the movement jarring some of the objects on top and ruffling her papers.

"If you know me so well," Daryl started, picking up the shot from on top of her desk. She could hear the tenants in the apartment below her begin to yell loudly, telling her that even if Daryl hadn't come here and she had been focusing on her work, it would have been much too loud when they started cheering to pay attention to the words on the pages. "Then why am I here?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly, eyeing the shot glass in his tanned hand.

Daryl didn't say anything but instead knocked back the shot in his hand before he could give her another chance to take the offered alcohol. The cheering in the apartment below picked up even more as Daryl slammed the empty shot glass down on the wood of her work desk, nearly making her jump. Daryl ducked forward faster than she could comprehend as one final, great cheer erupted down below. His lips pressed to hers, forcing them to part with the pressure before warm Amaretto alcohol flooded into her mouth, the sweet taste mingling with the sharp tang of alcohol. He made sure that she had swallowed before he pulled back; leaving her dazed and half drunk in the chair, unsure of how much alcohol it truly took to get her tipsy. Although, she wasn't quite drunk off the drink.

"Happy Birthday, Babe."

There you go, the flashback you've all been asking for! I'll have more, I promise, but this one's just a short one that I decided to throw in for you guys. Anyway, there'll be more if you all review(or at least most people). There's a nice surprise in the next chapter…. ;)

Chapter 9 – Reconciliation

"Fuck me," she yelled to herself before she began running again, her boots slamming the ground. She slid her knife back into the sheath on her hip and thigh, strapping it down so she didn't lose it, and ducked past another walker that popped out of another alley on her way passed. She looked ahead and saw that the back alley she was using cut off several yards ahead from a fence. She reached the fence at a jump, her feet finding the holes and pulling herself up and over as quickly as she could. A hand swiped along the back of her calf, not fast enough to grab the material of her pants, and she fell unceremoniously onto the ground on the opposite side of the fence.

She choked down a cry of pain as her back collided hard with the ground, her already sore body feeling like it was getting kicked while it was down. She groaned in pain as she rolled onto her side, looking around herself quickly to check for other walkers. She couldn't see any, but it wasn't safe to linger. The noise that the ones behind the small fence were making was sure to draw attention.

Raising her gun up before her, she took a moment to remain on her knees and try to regain her breath before she pushed forward again. She made quick work of getting away from the small group of walkers behind the metal fence, not knowing how long the chain links could hold them if they continued to beat and press. Her ribs screamed in protest as she jogged silently away from the main back alley, coming to a stop before she rounded a corner to a side alley. She had moved far enough away from the center of the city that she was sure there wouldn't be many more walkers, but after what happened before she didn't want to take any chances.

The sound of shuffling steps made her cringe before swinging around the corner, rifle raised and pointed between two blue eyes.