A/N: Don't own (although I'd love to have my very own Norman Reedus :D) don't sue!

Lyrics are from 'Rain' by Patty Griffin

Rain

Chapter Twelve

It's hard to listen to a hard, hard heart
Beatin' close to mine
Poundin' up against the stone and steel
Walls that I won't climb
Sometimes a hurt is so deep, deep, deep
You think that you're gonna drown
Sometimes all I can do is weep, weep, weep
With all this rain fallin' down
Strange, how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I'm holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
It's hard to know when to give up the fight
Some things you want will just never be right
It's never rained like it has tonight before
Now, I don't wanna beg you, baby
For something maybe you could never give
I'm not lookin' for the rest of your life
I just want another chance to live
Strange, how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I'm holdin' on underneath this shroud
Rain

"Jessica. Jessica. Jess-i-ca."

"You can stop saying it now." Cassidy pointed out, although she sounded more than a little amused.

"Jessica." Daryl repeated as if she hadn't spoken. "Sounds like a rich girl's name."

Cassidy snorted, winding her long damp hair around her fist and shoving it over her head out of her way. It was stiflingly hot in the tent, the interior muggy and heavy with sweat and sex.

"Really? Not a farm girl name? Or a sweet country girl with huge boobs?"

Daryl shot her a look and she laughed. To free up some room amongst the tangled sweaty sleeping bags, blankets and discarded clothes, she'd propped her feet up against the side of the tent and she could feel the heat of the sun beaming through the flimsy material. Daryl watched a trickle of sweat work its way down her bare thigh.

"Are you going to start calling me by my name?" She asked curiously.

"Maybe." He grunted, his fingertips drawing lazy circles on her sweat-beaded navel.

"I like the way you say it." She said thoughtfully and he cracked open an eye to peep at her. "It sounds different." She wasn't looking at him, she was gazing intently at the chipped polish on her toenails. "I haven't heard anyone use my real name since I left England. We say it differently over there, emphasise the 'ca' and lengthen out the 'ss'."

He said it again, tasting the syllables on his tongue and rolling them around his mouth experimentally.

"OK, you're giving me goosebumps. Stop it." She ordered with a delicate shiver.

"Jessica." He repeated stubbornly and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm warning you, redneck-"

"Jessica."

"It's not funny-"

"Jessica."

"I mean it."

He opened his mouth and she clapped her hand over it with a loud smack and a sharp glare. She could feel his smirk against her skin, felt it when his lips parted and his tongue darted out to trace the lines on her palm. She shivered again. His eyes were glittering wickedly. The hand that had been on her stomach danced across her bare hip and caught her up against him, rolling her on top of him.

"How could you possibly have any energy left?" She grumbled, flicking his sweaty hair off his damp forehead. "You know, I think you know more about me than anyone else in this country." She mused thoughtfully, propping her folded arms on his chest.

His brow furrowed as he watched her. Cassidy always met his gaze boldly but her eyes had slid to one side now and she looked almost shy.

"You know my real name, my birthday, what I do, where I live, my sister…" She trailed off, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "Huh." She finished weakly.

Daryl didn't answer, he had the feeling she was thinking about more than just the facts she was reeling off. He examined her closely. Maybe she was right. Everything he knew from observing people he filed away at the back of his mind. He couldn't help picking things up that's just how he was, but maybe he did know her. He knew that she hated strawberries but she liked strawberry flavoured stuff, that she tapped her fingernails to a song when she got it stuck in her head, that Carl and Lochie were the only people who made her genuinely smile with pleasure, that Glenn made her laugh, that her eyes lit up when she was thinking about something that tickled her, that she would always sit with one leg pulled under her, that her eyes softened when they sat like this and she didn't seem to realise it, that her hands had started to tremble when he touched her. He'd picked all of this up without realising it. Maybe Lochie was right.

"Still with me?"

He blinked, focusing back in on her smirking at him.

"You left the planet for a while there." She grinned at him. "You looked more spaced out than usual." She taunted.

He grimaced and she sighed, drawing her fingertip along the length of his nose and tracing the curve of his lip.

"I think we're in trouble, here." She said quietly.

He didn't reply, her eyes were sad and he could feel her heart thumping steadily against his chest. He didn't want to ask what she meant and he knew her well enough by now to realise that she didn't want to talk about it either. She said things that needed to be said. That's just how she was. He'd never met anyone who connected with him so well, even when they were both silent.

"You're not going to get all mushy on me, are you?" She said suddenly, her chin propped up on her arms as she peered at him.

That was another thing he liked about the little wench; whenever things seemed to be getting even the slightest bit romantic, she managed to thoroughly ruin the moment before it could quite get started.

"I want to talk to you."

Cassidy swore as she caught her hand on something sharp, startled by Lori's unexpected approach. She smacked her head on the bonnet of the car for good measure too. Still cursing she lifted a hand to shove her fringe off her forehead, squinting against the sun.

"Excuse me?"

Lori frowned irritably and repeated her previous statement through a forced smile. Cassidy continued to stare at her suspiciously until Lori crossed her arms over her chest and eyed her defensively.

"Well? Can I talk to you?" She asked again, shooting a furtive glance around to see who was watching. "There's something I need to ask you."

Cassidy finally straightened up, wiping her greasy hands on her shorts and leaving black streaks on her thighs. She still hadn't gotten the stupid thing to start yet.

"You want to ask me a favour?" Cassidy said slowly as if she didn't understand the question.

"Yes." Lori could hardly get the words out through her tightly pinched lips.

There was a loud clatter and then Lochie's head emerged from the backseat of the car, thrust through the open window curiously. She looked from Lori to Cassidy and back again.

"You want to ask me a favour?" Cassidy repeated again, her voice practically dripping with disbelief.

"You heard her." Lochie chipped in disapprovingly. "What are you high?"

"I wish." Cassidy muttered, shooting her a dark look. "Fine."

Lori glanced at Lochie who was still leaning out of the window and looking at them both with absolutely no intention of leaving them alone. Cassidy jerked her head at Lori and they walked a few feet away towards the trees.

"You heard I'm-" Lori broke off awkwardly.

"Up the duff? In the family way? Knocked up?"

"Yes." Lori snapped tetchily. "I know it's going to be dangerous. I know I might not make it."

Cassidy glanced over Lori's shoulder impatiently, not entirely sure why she was suddenly getting all chummy with her and not impressed at the over reaction. As if women hadn't been giving birth without epidurals for thousands of years.

"I want to make sure you'll take care of Carl."

Cassidy blinked in surprise, completely taken aback.

"What?"

Lori looked irritated now, as if she figured Cassidy was too smart to be playing dumb right now.

"If something happens to me, I want you to make sure my son doesn't die out here."

"Isn't that something your husband would be doing?" Cassidy pointed out.

"I know he will, he'd die for Carl. He'd kill for him." Lori's voice took on a darker intonation that Cassidy guessed was something to do with the stuff that had been going on lately. "But if something happened to me…"

Cassidy sighed and waved a hand at Lori before the blubbing started. She got the point, if Lori croaked because of her own stupidity Rick would probably be a gibbering wreck for a while. Ick.

"Why aren't you asking Shane? If you ask me he'd be perfectly willing to kill someone for your son."

Lori looked up sharply, a flicker of unease flashed over her face.

"Shane would do whatever it takes." She admitted. She levelled her gaze at Cassidy and she had the uncomfortable feeling that this was actually painful for Lori. "I'm not asking you to babysit my son, just…" She struggled for words for a moment. "You're more likely to survive than any of us… except maybe Daryl. I've seen Carl when you're teaching him those moves-"

"The moves you didn't want me to teach him." Cassidy pointed out.

"I know. You can't blame me for worrying." Lori snapped.

"I'm confused." Cassidy said shortly, folding her arms and staring hard at Lori. "What is it you want me to do?"

"I know you like Carl." Lori said bluntly. "And I know he likes you." When the flattering clearly didn't impress her, Lori sighed. "He trusts you, and Daryl."

"You don't."

Lori shifted uneasily.

"I think if it came to it, you wouldn't let my son be killed by walkers."

Cassidy opened her mouth but the words wouldn't come out. She'd spent a lot of time with Carl, he was one of only three people who ever voluntarily sought out her company and who seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with her.

"I just need to know that there's someone looking out for him, in case the worst happens."

"I think everyone in the camp would volunteer for that duty." Cassidy grumbled, unwilling to commit herself to someone else's burden, no matter how much she liked the little brat.

"It would make me feel better." Lori pleaded.

"Well I live to provide your comfort."

Lori glared.

"If anything happens to Rick or me, Carl will be safer with you and Daryl." She said patiently.

"Me and Daryl?" Cassidy repeated in surprise.

No one had ever linked them that way before, as if it was so obvious what the two of them were to each other, so casually tossed it out there. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Lori had completely thrown her off. The brunette seemed to take her silence as consent and she tactfully withdrew.

"What about Bucky?"

Lochie scrunched up her nose and shook her head.

"I'm rather partial to Brenda." She suggested thoughtfully, squinting at Carl's freckled hand lying on her knee.

"Buzz." Carl announced triumphantly.

Lochie laughed, cocking her head so she could examine the pattern she'd drawn on his fingernail closely.

"Geraldine."

Carl frowned, obediently switching hands so she could work on the nails of his left hand.

"Rex."

Lochie shook her head, impatiently brushing a stray lock of hair out of her way.

"Sounds like a dog. Or a dinosaur. Bertha."

Carl giggled, struggling to straighten his face when Lochie frowned at him for making her smudge.

"Hunter."

"I like it. It's blunt. To the point. Bit obvious." Lochie grinned. "That says Daryl Dixon all over."

Carl stopped laughing although he couldn't quite wipe the grin from his face as Daryl stumped into view with his bow on his shoulder. He spoke with the rest of them briefly and then continued on his way towards them. Lochie rolled her eyes, the problem with Daryl being so good at being stealthy was how easily he overhead conversations he shouldn't know about.

"What's so funny?" He growled as the two of them giggled again at the sight of him.

Cassidy had been sunbathing a few feet away, her top and shorts rolled up as far as they would go and still preserve her dignity, and she rolled over onto her back to look at him.

"They're arguing over what to name your bow." She indicated the crossbow. "Young Carl here seems to favour the more masculine, rather butch, names. Whereas Lochie seems to think it should be given a girl's name like a car."

Daryl turned puce. Lochie and Carl were staring intently at their hands rather than meet his blazing eyes. Cassidy merely looked amused. When you managed to push the 'might get eaten alive or ripped apart at any moment' factor to the back of your mind, survival in an apocalypse was pretty boring. Especially if you were an eight year old kid or a twenty year old thief with the attention span of a goldfish.

"Hey guys." Glenn chirped before Daryl could actually strangle Lochie.

"What's that?" She asked immediately, reaching up and snagging the folded newspapers from under Glenn's arm.

"Stuffing for the fire." Glenn said cheerfully, sweeping his hat from his head and scratching his sweating scalp.

"What are you doin'?" Daryl demanded when Lochie began rifling intently through the pages.

"Looking for my horoscope." She muttered.

Glenn stared at her. Daryl looked from her to Cassidy as if the redhead would actually offer some polite explanation for her friend's behaviour. Lochie seemed to find the right page because she pored over the tiny print.

"Those are a few months old, you know." Glenn pointed out.

"So if it mentions the end of the world, or the likelihood of you becoming a fast food snack, or ending up squatting on a farm halfway up the back end of beyond then I'll officially take back anything negative I ever said about all your mystical junk." Cassidy said lazily.

She was about to roll back over when she glimpsed the blood on his hands. He returned her accusing look with a blank one of his own so she followed him to his tent.

"I take it you didn't get that from shaving."

She propped one shoulder up against a tree and watched him swing down his bow and clean the blood from his hands.

"Needed answers." He grunted.

He was alternating between glaring at her defiantly and avoiding her eye. Eventually she dragged his pack towards her, digging out the small bottle of alcohol and an almost clean rag. She yanked his hand between hers, wiping the alcohol over his cuts with a little more force than was necessary. He didn't flinch.

"You got a problem with what I did?" He challenged and she could feel the heat of his gaze boring a hole into the top of her head.

"I don't know what you did." She replied calmly.

He grunted. He didn't really need her to do anything about his hands but he wasn't going to protest. Even after everything that had happened she still had soft gentle hands.

"I don't care what you did to him." She said suddenly, lifting her head enough to meet his gaze calmly. "I care that they had you do it."

He squinted at her in silence.

"Did you volunteer? Did they ask?" Her voice wasn't entirely reproachful. "Or did they all just assume?"

He kept his silence, his frown deepening.

"I don't care that you did it and I don't care that you're capable of doing it."

She still had hold of his hand even though she'd finished cleaning it. She looked at him for a long time then she let go of his hand.

"You're a good guy, Dixon." She punched his shoulder and he snorted. "But don't tell anyone I said that."

"Are you gonna go?" He asked suddenly, catching her off guard.

"Why? Alive he's a threat." She turned away from him, putting a few steps between them. "I suppose they'll want you to take care of that, too."

"No. Rick-" He broke off awkwardly, it was hard to put Rick's sense of honour into words.

"If they knew what I was, they'd want me to do it." She said thoughtfully, almost coldly.

"What you are." He repeated in a voice she couldn't quite decipher. They hadn't actually discussed what she used to do for a living, but he wasn't stupid.

She shrugged it off.

"It doesn't matter."

On her way back to the camp she almost flattened Rick in her distracted state.

"Sorry, Sheriff." She muttered.

"No problem. Have you seen Carl?"

She shook her head. Truthfully she'd been avoiding Rick because she didn't want to talk about their current crisis. It was none of her business and that's how she wanted it to stay.

"Are you coming tonight?" He asked almost immediately, frowning when she shook her head.

He had dark marks under his eyes and his cheeks had a hollowed out a little, he looked tired. Deathly tired.

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?"

She looked at him for a long time.

"You don't need me to reassure you that you're making the right decision." She finally said, in a tone that she hoped would end the conversation. He continued to look at her.

"It's a chance for everyone to-"

"Rick." She interrupted, annoyed that everything had to be a four-ring-freaking-circus around here. "They don't care about giving you their opinions, you're in charge and they're all more than happy to shift the responsibility onto you. So no, I'm not coming to the meeting. I'm not going to sit there and talk myself out of feeling guilty for doing what needs to be done. He's a problem that needs taking care of. Dithering around ain't gonna solve the problem." It didn't occur to her that she sounded like Daryl. "The difference between us Rick, is that I don't feel guilty about it."

He looked a little stunned, and slightly horrified, so she put a hand on his arm in what she hoped was a comforting manner.

"Maybe that's why you're their leader." She said softly. "You're a better person than I am, Rick. Don't doubt yourself." She gave herself a little shake. "OK, I think that's enough sappy for one day. I'm going to go find Andrea for a nice little argument before I officially cross over into 'lame'."

Rick's lips twitched.

"That's better. You real purty when you smile, darlin'." She put on the worst accent she could conjure up until he laughed. "Uh oh."

She indicated over his shoulder where Lori was approaching with a face like thunder.

"Time to beat a hasty retreat." She called over her shoulder as she darted away.

LadyLecter47 – thoroughly enjoyed the episode finally, lots of Daryl goodness yay hope you like it

VileMalapert – glad you liked it, who could ever stay mad at Daryl?

undeadangel – that's how we spell tyres in England :)

Dalonega Noquisi – extra cookies for you! It's the first time I've used my actual name in a fic, I used to hate it but I quite like it now :) hope you like this chapter just as much!

vexingvixen7 – I still love Carl even if he is being a bit bratty, I really hope they don't kill him off :( glad you liked it