This is the final chapter for this story, but there will be a sequel, I promise. I haven't finished planning everything out and I can only mooch off of public wi-fi for so long, so I just wanted to get this chapter out to all of you wonderful readers. I'll update again when the first post for the new story is up, I'll have the name decided by that time, hopefully.

The number of people that begged for Jamie and Daryl to stay together made writing this chapter all the more touching, because I assure you that I have been intending to keep them together the entire time. Didn't think of how until I was writing this chapter out, though.

I'm not going to have some longwinded thank you for all of the readers because there will be a sequel, and I would feel like I'm about to die and am writing a Will instead of a last chapter's author's note. But I hope that I made this story worth the seemingly endless number of chapters, and more than likely an expected longer story for the sequel, where I have so many things to play with the terms of relationships and…hmm, an engagement? ;)

Scream Once For Me

There was a steady throb of pain coming from her knee, but Jamie refused to give up and return to the farmhouse. She needed to find Daryl and Rick, because she knew that they wouldn't just return to the others. The last she had seen of either man they had been running after Shane like they hounds of hell after a sinner. She did feel much more assured with her knife in hand, however, so that was a plus.

Slowing her strides slightly, Jamie took a moment to try and decide how far away from the farm she actually was. The moonlight could only provide so much visibility but it was enough for her to register the placement of the fields and which direction they would lead her if she found on. The nearest field, however, wasn't so unoccupied.

Ducking into the brush, Jamie could still see where the two distinct male figures were making their way up the hill of the field, their forms nothing but black silhouettes to her. Even if she couldn't make out details, there was no mistaking Rick and Shane's forms though the silvery light behind them. Rick walked a couple of paces in front of Shane and he was only gaining more ground as Shane seemed to slow to an almost stumbling pace before halting. They weren't so far out to be in the middle of the field, but they were quite a distance from the treeline and Jamie had no chance of hearing what they were saying.

Creeping forward, she kept her feet burrowed in the leaves so as to not step on any sticks or crunch the leaves. Pushing them slowly only caused a shuffling sound that could be mistaken for the faint breeze that had claimed the cool night air. The forest fell into darkness for a moment when the wind blew the misty clouds in front of the large moon, but Jamie was soon able to focus once more and quickly took large careful steps between sets of trees.

Why did Rick have his back to Shane, though? The thought continued to nag at her brain, because she knew that there was no way Rick would have just given up. He would fight until there was no breath left in him for Lori and Carl.

They shifted position then, however, and Shane turned enough for her to see that he had a gun drawn on Rick, but the sheriff continued to remain in an almost casual stance, leaving her to frown as she quickened her pace ever so slightly. It wouldn't do for Shane to turn and catch her sneaking up behind him when he had a gun already in his hands.

Pulling her rifle from off her shoulder she knew that there was still ammunition in the barrel, loading it as quietly as she could while keeping her steady crawl forward. When she stepped from the treelines and onto the cool grass of the field, Rick could more than likely see her by now. He didn't physically show in any way that he could see her, but there was no way that he missed her.

Her feet were silent as death along the grass, her hands and arms steady as they held the gun up toward where Shane's heart would be through the back.

"I thought we worked this all out?" Rick was asking Shane, his voice loud enough to carry over to me.

"Is that what you think we did?" Shane demanded in return, the laughter in his voice taunting and cruel. "We tried to kill each other, man. Did you think we were just going to forget about it all, ride off into the sunset together-"

"You gunna kill me in cold blood?" Rick interrupted, walking slightly forward toward Shane, too filled with adrenaline to keep still.

Close enough to Shane and still unnoticed, Jamie lowered her gun and instead lunged for him, knocking his arm toward the ground. The gun went off and the bullet imbedded in the dirt instead of Rick's head, but Shane was quick to react and Jamie was pushed back onto the ground when her knee gave out from the stain it had been under all day.

"Bitch! You stay out of this!" Shane ordered, turning to point the gun at her. But even on the ground, Jamie was not defenseless and was not going out without fighting. She already had her rifle pointed at his chest, her core muscles keeping her half sitting up while her knee throbbed in pain when it was finally rested.

"You aren't going to walk away from this, Shane. They'll have heard the shot, and they'll come to investigate."

Shane barked a laugh, looking over to where Rick stood with his Colt Python aimed at Shane's head, a sure kill, but Jamie actually had the doubt that he would be able to pull the trigger. Only for a moment, however, because she could finally see his face and there was something there that just wasn't Rick anymore.

"Who, Jamie, your fiancé? Is your precious knight in shining armor gunna come riding in an' save your sorry ass again? It's pathetic! You're always in the way, always getting yourself in trouble and needing to be saved," Shane spat out, reaching up to reload his gun, Rick taking a threatening step toward Shane in reaction.

"I don't need Daryl to save me, but I know that he'll be there for me. It's you that won't be around much longer, 'cause if Rick doesn't shoot you, I will. And if I don't shoot you, Daryl will. And somewhere down the line, I have a strong suspicion that even Lori would cap your ass if she had to."

Shane's face darkened over with rage and Jamie actually thought that he was going to pull the trigger. Rolling to the side, she could feel the weight of her hunting knife missing from her belt but didn't dare take the chance of checking when a second shot rang out before there was silence. Turning back to face where Shane had been standing over her, he was draped over Rick's shoulder with a shocked stare on his face. Her blood ran cold when the red substance began to leak from Shane's open mouth, his breathing laboured and pained.

She didn't speak as Rick fell to his knees with Shane, an agonized sob sounding from him as he dropped Shane to lie on his back. His hand was stilled wrapped around the hilt of her hunting knife where it was embedded in the other man's chest, blood welling up around the stab.

"Damn you for making me do this, Shane!" Rick yelled at the dying man, his voice rough and raw. Jamie felt like a shadow invading on a private moment between the two men that had once been best friends. But she said nothing, because she knew that Rick wasn't finished. "This is you! Not me! You did this to us! This is you, not me!" Shane was reaching up and touching at Rick's face and throat, as though he was trying to convey what he wished to say, but Rick gave him no leeway, and his life was fading too quickly.

Pulling the knife sharply from Shane's pectoral, more blood welled up and flooded through the material of his shirt, pouring along his chest with unbelievable speed. Rick had pierced his heart in that one swift stab. Shane reached for him again, his hand bloodied, as Rick continued to yell out not me, his voice cries of anguish now.

Even as Shane choked on his last breaths, his life taken by Rick, the older man reached for him and grasped his hand, as though seeking his forgiveness in his final moments. Before, Jamie hadn't thought she would care one way or the other what happened to Shane, but the deep rooted emotion that overtook Rick broke her heart, because her friend was shattered and she didn't know if there was any way of putting him back together.

As Shane fell still, Jamie pulled herself up onto aching legs and moved over to carefully take hold of Rick's shoulders. He thrashed, trying to push her away and shrug her off, but she held fast and pulled him away from where Shane stared along across the field with unseeing eyes. Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him down to try and hide him from seeing what he had done, attempting to shield him from further decay.

He sounded like he was struggling to take in air, choking on his inhalations; trying not to cry. With his face buried in her chest, he screamed. Fingers fisted in her leather jacket and blood smeared across her clothes, but she remained still and held him tightly, refusing to let him shut her out as she knew that he wanted to do. That he was libel to do with everyone else.

She winced at his screams but didn't relent, allowing him to cry because she knew that he had to otherwise he would bottle it in and it would consume him. Admittedly, she wasn't sure what to do, because she had never been in this situation. Of all the times she had been there when people lost loved ones, both when they killed them or when others did, it was never when they were not a walker trying to tear their flesh from their bones. She didn't know what to do with someone who had just stabbed their best friend in the heart, no matter the reason for doing it.

Only when the screaming stopped and Rick began to calm down, with his grip on her coat slackened and his breathing starting to even out, did Jamie dare to so much as move. Dare to speak. However, it was Rick who spoke first.

"I killed him," he mumbled out against the wet material of her shirt, his screams and tears dampening the fabric with salty water and saliva. "I killed my best friend."

"He was going to kill you, Rick. That's what he wanted all along. Not me," Jamie replied in a soft, barely audible whisper. "I was a pawn, Randal was a pawn. He just wanted to get to this moment, when you two were alone." She felt like she was trying to sooth a child, and it felt wrong. Because these were not the problems of a child, not the fears or pains of a child; Rick was faced with a reality that could cripple him.

Yet, there was still that moment of the person she had seen that had been someone different than the man she had found bound to the bed because of Morgan's paranoia. Rick had been gone for a moment and someone else, someone blank and cold, had taken his place. And this was the price that he paid for it.

The resulting guilt.

They rose from the ground, neither wanting to look back at Shane. Just leaving him there felt wrong, but at the same time they knew that they couldn't very well drag his body back with them. Even if Rick could carry the dead weight, the reactions when they returned wouldn't be of the best variety. Rick stood lingering over Shane's body, finally looking to his friend's bloody face.

"We have to go back, Rick," Jamie said quietly, reaching out for his arm.

"Dad!"

The small voice caused them both to turn away from Shane's body, looking to where Carl was standing a couple of yards away from them, clearly able to see Shane lying on the ground. Jamie immediately moved toward him, holding out her hands. "Carl, you shouldn't be out here," she began, "Come on, we were just heading back to the house."

Carl was breathing heavily, whether from the reality of what he was seeing or from his trip through the fields to get to their position, Jamie wasn't sure. Rick moved in behind her, saying his son's name in a resigned voice. "You should be back home with mom-" Rick stilled a stride ahead of Jamie when Carl raised a gun toward them, freezing both in place. The gun trembled with his hands as he squinted his eyes, his already heavy breathing becoming shallow.

Rick took a step to the left, blocking Jamie's body with his own as he held a hand out toward his son. "Just put the gun down," he tried to sooth, "This isn't what it seems," Rick tried again, moving to block Jamie more. A faint rasping sound drew the blonde's attention backward, flinching at the sight of Shane stumbling toward them, his mouth open with air struggling through his dead airways.

Before she had a chance to say anything a gunshot rang out and Shane dropped for a second time, making her jump. Turning back, Carl's gun was still raised but it was no longer aimed at them. Moving around Rick, she limped up to his side and gently lowered the gun away from his father, offering a smile of reassurance. "It's alright, Carl, put the gun away."

Rick was moving back to check that Shane was down for good, never to rise again. Carl grasped at her leather jacket for a moment before he pulled away to move after his father, leaving Jamie standing where Carl had been when he shot him. If there was one thing that could save Rick, perhaps it was his son, the boy that he would do any of this for again.

Letting her arm relax, she kept her grip on her rifle strap but allowed it to slip off of her shoulder and hang at her side.

Back at the farmhouse, Daryl pushed his way inside of the farmhouse where everyone had congregated together upon Andrea and T-Dog's return. He had heard a couple of gunshots go off and he couldn't help but to hope that it was Andrea or T-Dog.

"Jamie and Rick never came back?" Daryl demanded as soon as he was in the room, all eyes turning to him.

"They were with you, what happened?" Andrea asked as she rose quickly to her feet, her eyes wide.

"Shane, that's what. He caught Jamie from behind when we ran into a group of walkers, he got away and Rick and I took off after him, but we got separated. I haven't seen them for hours."

"Those shots must have been them," Lori said as she looked out the window, trying to see any sign of where they could be.

"We went back to check Randal's body, there were no signs that he was bitten or scratched. His neck was broken and that was it, it's like he just died and turned," Daryl said as he reloaded his crossbow. "I gotta go back out there and find Jamie, bring her and hopefully Rick back here."

"Need help?" Glenn asked, but Maggie reached out and grasped his arm, unnerved at the thought of having Glenn out there with groups of walkers in the area. Daytime was bad enough but nighttime was just too dangerous for her preference. Daryl declined, however, and moved toward the door with the others following out to the porch in an attempt to find where they could be.

Jamie stood near the fence that separated the fields as Rick spoke quietly with Carl, guiding him forward as Carl questioned him about Shane. Lifting her eyes from the father and son toward the moon, she let out a sigh at the peaceful appearance of it, so deceiving to the real truth that had happened beneath its silvery light. The dark shadows stretching out from the trees seemed more fitting for the night.

"Oh, shit," she breathed out as she pushed away from the fence, rushing forward toward Rick and Carl. "Get down!" she urged, looking behind them. Rick ducked immediately, pivoting to look at what had startled her so much. "Walkers!"

An entire herd of walkers were making their way across the field behind them, more and more pouring from the trees like an infectious disease. "Go, go, go, go, go!" Rick ordered, holding something out to Jamie as she ducked on Carl's other side, boxing him in between them. Her knife was still coated in Shane's blood as well as the blood of the walkers that she had already killed throughout her trips in the forest. Taking it in her hand, she slipped it in her belt and quickly wrapped an arm around Carl to lead him in front of them and away from the walkers.

Ducking down at a cluster of trees, Jamie used the chance to draw the rifle tighter to her shoulder and instead pull out her knife again, scraping off the blood on one of the trees as she looked around to make sure that there weren't any walkers that noticed them crouched down hiding. "We need to get out of the open like this," she gasped out, trying to catch her breath.

"The house, we have to get to the house," Carl said as he desperately looked around, pressed back against his father.

"There's no way we'll get through that," Rick denied, staring out at the thick crowds of dead people that had rushed so suddenly onto the property. "The barn, go for the barn," he ordered, pushing Carl and Jamie forward while he pulled his Colt from the holster and moved to follow after them. Jamie went to grab one of the shovels near the front of the barn, closest to the doors, and tossed it to Rick when he closed the doors to seal out the walkers.

"That's so not gunna hold," she groaned, leaning against one of the pillars that were holding up the second floor of the barn, her knee throbbing in protest to what it had been put through. She really wanted to collapse and not get up, but she knew that wasn't even a worthy thought to have.

"I have an idea; Jamie, get Carl up there," Rick instructed as he pointed up toward the ladder that led to the second floor. Jamie watched as Rick collected a can of gasoline and began throwing it around the flood, soaking the hay inside. "Here, take this." Jamie caught the small object that he threw to her and look down at the small lighter. "I'm going to open the doors, and I want you to drop that behind me-"

"But dad," Carl began, hesitating on the ladder.

"It's okay, I'll be right behind you two. This should stop some of them from getting to the house and distract others." Jamie nodded her head and scaled the ladder after Carl, pushing at his legs to get him moving as he continued to watch his father.

"Don't you dare hesitate, Rick," she warned, looking him in the eye before she climbed up after Carl, guiding him over to the side and lighting the lighter in preparation. Rick looked up toward them as Jamie outstretched her arm over the floor, waiting for Rick to get in the clear. Glancing up toward her and Carl one last time before he began slamming his hands against the door, shouting to get the attention of as many walkers as he could, Jamie waited.

Pulling the handle of the shovel from the door, he opened the barn doors wide and let in the hoard of walkers. "Come on!" he yelled, challenging, backing away to get to the ladder. Jamie kept the lighter ignited, waiting. Only when Rick reached the higher point of the ladder did he turn back and look at her. "Now!"

Dropping the lighter, she and Carl watched as it fell between the scrawling bodies of the walkers, igniting the hay at their feet. The gasoline burned the hay up in seconds, lighting the clothes left on the walkers and stretching to begin to consume everything they touched. Rick hurried over to where they were crouched and watching. The flames heated Jamie's cheeks, banishing the once cold air that had been biting at her skin all night.

"Come on, we can't stay here," Rick yelled over the roaring of the fire. Jamie turned away from the edge and rushed for the back exit, shuffling along the beams of wood and avoiding the reaching flames. Jamie fell to lean against the wood to try and remove the pressure from her knee, looking between Rick and Carl.

"Rick, the RV!" Jamie yelled, motioning in the direction of the mobile home.

Glancing into the windshield, it was Jimmy that was driving the large vehicle, following Rick's directions to park near the overhang. Walkers were already crowding beneath them and around the RV, preventing them from getting down or for Jimmy to leave. Rick leapt across from the doorway to the overhand, assisting Carl with the short jump. Jamie hesitated as she moved to the edge, leaning her support on her good leg. Rick turned back to her after he helped Carl to move over to the RV, leaping from one surface to the other.

"Jamie, come on!" he yelled. Pushing away from the wall, she kept the weight on her good leg but couldn't change her posture fast enough and landed hard on her sore knee, screaming in pain as she tipped to the side. Rick yelled out and snatched hold of her arm as she tipped over the side, stopping her descent. Jamie grunted with the effort to pull herself back up, Rick pulling at the back of her jacket to get her back onto one solid surface.

"Dad! Come on!" Carl yelled, watching as pulled Jamie to her feet and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her before he almost threw her to the other side and onto the RV. She made sure not to take the weight one her bad knee again and nearly toppled over because of it, but remained on her feet as Rick made the short jump to stand beside her and Carl.

"Carl, help Jamie," Rick ordered as he moved toward the back of the RV to clear the walkers away from the ladder. Jamie placed a hand on Carl's shoulder and gratefully used him to relieve some of her pain.

"Are you alright?" Carl asked as he looked up to her, knowing that she had an injured knee but unsure of just how bad it was.

"Yea, I'm good," Jamie assured, making her way over to the ladder. "You go down first, alright?" she said, directing Carl over to the ladder. He went down after his father, taking it slow as the walkers on the other side of the wooden fencing reached for him. "Be careful," she stressed.

"You, too," he returned, directing his eyes up toward her as his father helped him down the last couple of steps. Jamie slipped over the edge after him, taking the ladder slowly. Rick's arm slipped around her waist as soon as she was low enough, taking her from the ladder and carefully placing her on the ground.

She nudged him toward Carl, nodding to him in thanks. "I'm alright, thanks."

They made their way through the field as quickly as they could, stumbling in between walkers and helping to pull each other along. Jamie kept her knife in one hand but started to swing her rifle like a bat to knock the walkers away before they had the chance to take a bite out of any of them. "Go for the trees!" Rick called, pushing Jamie forward when she stumbled on the uneven ground.

The rasp of a walker had her swinging without even looking, smashing the side of its head in with the butt of her gun. The force knocked her down as well, however, and the blood of the walker sprayed across her face, forcing her to close her eyes and try to hold her breath.

She wasn't sure who was walking around her, whether they were walkers or Carl and Rick, but she didn't dare move immediately except to wipe at the gore that was covering her skin. She needed to get it away from her eyes and mouth before she took the chance of opening either. Pulling her shirt that was still damp in the front, she wiped at her eyes quickly before doing the same with her lips.

"Jamie!" Rick yelled over the dead, but he couldn't see her anymore, not with so many of them rushing to get to all of the living beings that were left. Jamie kicked in the leg of a walker that was passing her by, stabbing it through the head as soon as it hit the ground and pulling the dead body on top of her, masking herself from the strangely acute sense of smell that the walkers had. Even with her scent masked, she knew that there was no possible way for her to stay in one place waiting for the walkers to just wander away. She had no other choice than to move while they were even slightly distracted.

Pulling herself onto her stomach, she hoisted the dead body onto her shoulders and back, a mock fireman's carry. Her leg trembled with the effort to keep herself on her feet, her knee almost numb with the pain that came with the added pressure on it. She knew that there was no chance her stitches were still intact, but that didn't deter her.

"Rick!" she screamed, keeping low in hopes that it wouldn't draw attention to her. Some of the dead paused, but continued on when they couldn't actually detect her. Keeping herself up on one knee, she stabbed her knife in the ground and pulled her belt free enough to weave it through the leather strap of her rifle before redoing the belt. She would only use her gun as a last resort and she couldn't chance holding it as well as the walker on her back. "Alright, let's go stinky," she groaned, stumbling onto her feet. The forest thickened a couple of yards ahead and she moved for it, glancing back toward the barn as the wood crumbled and the burning structure went down like a large, decayed body.

Huffing with exertion, she turned away from what remained of the farm and trudged through the leaves, roots and branches. The walker wasn't as heavy as a regular person because of the decayed flesh, its starved body as thin as a skeleton.

Where's Daryl? Did he get on his bike and leave? They would have left the property, wouldn't they? They couldn't have tried to stay.

Jamie nearly fell into a tree when her foot caught on a root, but her leg was almost numb at that point in time and the jostle to her knee barely jarred her. As she travelled deeper into the trees the walkers became more and more scarce, but the odd one would stumble past her, the odd time bumping into her or the splayed limbs of the dead one she carried.

Only when she knew that they farm was far in the distance behind her, the light appearing on the horizon, did she take a moment to lean against an old oak that supported her weight, taking in greedy gulps of air even if the dead body on her back brought so much stench that she wanted to wretch. The only place she considered to be safe after the farm was the highway jam where they had first lost Sofia, soon setting the events of today into motion.

"Dude, you're getting too heavy," she wheezed out as she finally dropped the body, looking around in the new light for any sign of other walkers. It had been a couple of minutes since she spotting one through the trees, but that had been only one and they had been scarce even before then. The rifle bumped against her leg as she discarded the body, reminding her that there was still ammunition in her pockets. Looking down at the knife that had remained against her palm for the entire night, Jamie couldn't help but to smile pathetically at finally having it back with her.

Moving away from the tree and the walker that she had used as her shield for the night, Jamie moved for the highway, the new weightlessness that had come with the abandonment of the body giving her new energy. She was hungry, thirsty and tired, for sure, but she also knew that if there was any chance of her surviving she had to get to the highway with hopes of the others being there.

She almost wanted to laugh when she came upon the stream that Rick and left Sophia in when he drew the walkers away, and she happily fell into the cold water, reaching down to wipe at her face and rinse the blood off of herself. She didn't want to chance drinking it anyway, so she instead let her body fall into the cold depths of it and soaked herself, washing away the blood and gore and soothing her burning muscles.

Pulling herself from the stream, she carefully pushed the water from her face and slicked back her hair, at the cold air. It bit at her skin and soaked clothing, but she didn't take the time to think on it and instead moved for the highway, collecting her rifle on her way passed it. Daryl's hunting knife was clean again, appearing as though there had never been blood staining its surface.

"Daryl," she called out tiredly, knowing that even if he was at the highway he wouldn't hear her from where she was, but she could almost imagine how he would call back to her and run to try get to her, to protect her.

The sun was beginning to stream through the bare trees, leaves falling around her and crunching beneath her feet. Jamie was reminded of the evening that Daryl and proposed to her on the dock and looked down at the engagement ring that he had found, spinning it on her finger as the sun caught the shined surface.

The sun was reaching to the noon-hour point when she spotted the guard-rail in the distance, one top of the small hill that led into the trees. Pausing only a moment she smiled in relief as a shivered rocked her body tremendously, un-deterring as she pulled herself up the hill with her hands grasping at the grass, not trusting her legs to carry them up on their own.

Hoisting herself up, she nearly toppled onto the ground and ended up dropping the rifle when her knee caught and her leg collapsed beneath her.

"Shit," she hissed out, feeling the sharp pain from the stitches that Hershel had given her before, knowing for sure that one of them had definitely torn this time. Rising unto unsteady legs, she retrieved the rifle.

Rick watched as Daryl pulled up on his bike with the car and truck moving in behind him, covered bumper to bumper in blood from the walkers that they had crashed into on their way off the farm. Carol sat with Daryl on the bike while Maggie and Glenn were in the car. His attention was drawn to Lori, however, when she jumped from the truck with Beth and T-Dog, the brunette rushing toward Carl immediately.

Putting aside any anger that he had felt for Lori before, he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around his wife and son and kissed Lori softly.

"Where's Jamie?" Daryl asked in a withdrawn tone, rising from his bike as he looked around. She didn't step out of the vehicles and she didn't appear from around one of the cars to show that she had been with Rick and Hershel. Rick pulled back from Lori with a tired look, turning his attention to the other man.

"I lost her, when we were running from the barn. I didn't see if she got bit or if she got away, I'm sorry."

"Did anyone else see her?" Maggie asked hopefully, looking around. She hadn't been seen since Rick saw her swinging her rifle at a walker, breaking its head in before another got between them and he lost track of her. He needed to focus on Carl, but he felt guilty that he hadn't protected her better. She was barely walking before she was lost from them, so he couldn't be certain of what condition she was in at the moment or if she was even still alive.

Daryl looked down at the ground silently before he turned away from the others and moved back to his motorcycle. "I have to go back for her."

"You can't got back there," Lori said as her eyes widened with disbelief. "You'll be killed, the farm is completely overrun and even if she did survive you know that she wouldn't have actually stayed there. She'd get out and try to get somewhere she knew was safe."

"I think Lori's right," T-Dog added on as he glanced over to Daryl.

"How can you be sure?" Carl asked as he looked between the adults, worried about Jamie as well. He was still unsure about what had happened when she and Rick were with Shane, but she had helped keep him and his father safe, she had never done anything to tell him not to trust her or not to like her.

"Because I think that's her," T-Dog said as he pointed out among the cars in the distance. Every set of eyes turned in the direction he was pointing, Daryl rushing around the van that was in his view to try and see what T-Dog was pointing at. Others followed after him, the group surrounding the front bumper of the van as Jamie came into view past a flipped car, dripping with water and as pale as snow, but alive.

Her feet stumble to a stop when she saw them all, the rifle that had been hanging from the strap falling to clatter on the pavement and gravel. Rick felt the immense rush of relief at the sight of her, clearly too tired to move much more but alive and appearing bite free. She was soaked through to the bone and cleaned of blood; there were nicks and tears in her jeans that looked like they were from falling and crawling, blood staining her jeans around her damaged knee but nowhere else.

Daryl didn't hesitate as soon as he was assured it was her and she was real, soon running toward her with the rest of the group remaining still as they watched him rush up to their missing friend. Jamie stumbled forward a step before she was taken off her feet, her arm wrapping around Daryl's shoulders in reaction.

Jamie gasped out of pure joy and relief as Daryl's warmth surrounded her trembling body, her tired arms embracing him in return as he fell to his knees and buried his neck in her neck. She manoeuvred her bad knee out from under her and allowed him to sit her on his thigh, his gasping breaths of hot air warming her throat as she pressed the cold tip of her nose against his neck to inhale his scent. He had been sweating heavily and the scent was strong, mixed in with his own musk and the nature scent the always clung to him.

"Well, I didn't point a gun at you this time," she rasped out, her throat raw. "I don't think I can walk anymore," she admitted, hearing his teary laugh in her shoulder. Salty liquid burned her own eyes as she pulled him tightly against her, finally letting herself relax completely. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she shook, finally realizing the fear of nearly losing Daryl again. "God, I was so scared."

"I'm here, Angel. I'm here," he assured, pulling back to look her in the eye. Her lips were beginning to turn blue from the cold and she couldn't stop shaking. They needed to get her a new set of clothes before she caught hypothermia.

Looping an arm through the rifle strap and the slipping an arm beneath her knees, he was careful of her ripped stitches as he lifted her from the ground and rose back to his full height. Jamie didn't fight against him and allowed him to carry her back to the rest of the group, Rick stepping forward to them as they approached.

"Good to see you again, Jay," Rick said in greeting as he clasped a hand on her shoulder, feeling the icy cold of her clothes. "Let's find you something dry to wear, huh?"

Smiling tiredly, she lifted a trembling hand to pat his before she let her hand fall back against her stomach and her shoulder against Daryl's shoulder. The group welcomed her back, Carol and Lori taking off to find something for her to wear while Maggie and Hershel wrapped her up in the nearest blanket they found from a car that was closed up and still in good condition. Lori smiled to her when she brought back the clothes, hesitant and weary but their relationship slowly mending. Daryl remained on guard for walkers, his crossbow quiet enough that they didn't draw the herd back in their direction. Jamie leaned her head against Maggie's shoulder as Hershel checked over her leg, her attention on the man that stood a couple of yards in front of her, his dusty, well-worn angel wings caught in the bright noon sun.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

The quote is by Charles Dickens

Hope to hear from you all, love you lots.

Keep an eye out for the update with all of my sequel information.

(Or keep an eye out for the sequel).

Can't want to hear the final chapter's reviews!

-stAnd out