What's On Your Mind

So seeing as how the rest of the season stuff revolves around the Randell issue and I don't have him in my story, going to have to make some stuff up. Nice little challenge for me there lol.

Bo watched Rick and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He had lost his wife, the mother of his child. She couldn't imagine it was an easy thing to go over. Everything had been fine with the foursome had returned to the camp, hell, they even all laughed at Bo for slamming her foot in the door. But then things had calmed and Rick had noticed the missing people in the group. Anna had spoken up, telling the same tale of being the one to put down Lori and Carol. Shane had winced as the story was told, his head down, mouth shut. Andrea had patted at his knee and made an attempt to comfort him.

"So...you gotta talk to anyone?" Bo asked, finally speaking up to break the silence that she and the Sheriff had fallen into. The rest had gone off in an attempt to get some sleep, leaving the two at the fire. Bo had witnessed Andrea sneak to Shane's tent and held back a grin, wondering on just how long that had been going on for now.

"What's there to talk about?" Rick asked. Bo sighed and rubbed her head. Her lack of sleep over the last few days starting to get to her in the form of a rough headache. She was going to crash, she knew it. If not that night then very soon. The very thought of crashing pissed her off and she frowned slightly as she processed different ways to prevent it.

God, she wished she had cigarettes at times like this.

"Does anybody really know anything about you?" Rick suddenly asked, turning his eyes to the irritated med student. She blinked and looked at him, curiousity taking over. "Does Daryl really even know you?"

"He don't really ever ask." Bo muttered.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the mentioned hunter was listening from inside his tent, having been unsuccessful at getting to sleep and the sound of their voices just ruining the still, quiet air.

"How did...I mean...why..." Rick wasn't sure how to phrase what he wanted to know. The woman sighed, knowing already what he was going to ask because she had been asked it a few times.

"I joined the group." Bo explained, launching into the only real time she had actually given off the explanation. "And...one of the men...probably was more disgusting then Merle. I mean, don't get me wrong, Merle's a pig, but he's upfront about it. This guy...sort of took stalker to a new level. Couple of days in, I wasn't the only one who noticed him constantly watching me but then denying it. Daryl had come with me to the quarry to be all guard like when I was cleaning shit." Bo paused in her story, thinking back to the day and tilting her head, remembering her thought process. "He had offered to deal with the guy for me, joking about feeding him off to the walkers."

"Sounds like something Daryl would do." Rick laughed slightly. Bo smiled fondly as she picked up a stick to poke at the dying fire.

"I told him if he really wanted to help, I had a better solution." She continued her story. Rick tilted his head in curiousity. He remembered getting told by Shane that everyone had known that it took only a short while for Bo and Daryl to get into what they were doing but no one had said anything about the actual day and what happened. "Told him not to be surprised later and left it at that. We returned to the camp, had dinner, spent some time with everyone and then Daryl had gone off to his tent, still confused. There was a few people still around, including stalker man, and I had made a big show of standing up and stretching. Then I had simply gone over to Daryl's tent and went inside."

"And he was okay with that?" Rick asked.

"He thought it was funny when he realized it was my plan." Bo explained, smiling. "Merle had yelled out that his little brother was gonna get himself a piece of ass. At first, it wasn't really a thought in my head. I had just intended on just spending a night or two in the tent. But then we sort of got talking and...just...ended up doing it." She chuckled lightly at her wording. She leaned back, her eyes watching the burning embers fade away. "We talk about things: what we did before, what we were like, that sort of stuff." She couldn't keep the smile off her face as she thought over her time with Daryl. "He's...I ain't going to pretend that, if the world hadn't fallen to shit, I would have still gotten with him. Chances are, I probably wouldn't have, unless, you know, I was trying to piss someone off and he was the way of doing it."

"Yeah, he has those characteristics." Rick agreed. Bo nodded enthusiastically and looked at the Sheriff. "Probably would have been great to annoy parents." The woman laughed lightly, clearly amused by the path of the conversation. "Are you glad that you're with him now though?"

There was a pause as Bo considered the question and everything else related to it. Her smile slowly faded off and she didn't look as happy as she been earlier.

Inside his tent, Daryl sat up, straining his hearing to find out the answer. He mentally cursed himself for being so interested in the answer and actually anxious about what it could be.

"Case you haven't noticed...we...ain't exactly together right now." Bo muttered, sounding fairly unhappy. "I don't know what happened to him in those woods but...he's just shut down."

"Bo..." Rick started but came up short when the blonde woman stood up.

"You should get some sleep." Bo insisted gently. "Keep with your boy for a while. Afterall, he did just lose his mom. He's gonna want his dad around for comfort."

Rick knew she was right. He sighed and nodded in agreement. Rising to his feet, he gave the woman a soft pat on the shoulder and uttered a low 'good night' before retiring to his tent for the night. Bo took a deep breath and sat back down, unsure on where she should set herself up for the night. Even if Andrea was in Shane's tent, that didn't mean she wasn't going to go back to her own. If she was sneaking, that meant she didn't want to make it obvious, which left the tent mate in a state of unknowing. Bo wanted to be nice, she wasn't going to go the tent then grill Andrea about it later when she snuck back in. The kind option also meant that she was more likely going to have to stay out of the tent the full night just to make less explanations.

"Never did understand why you just continued to stick with me." Daryl's voice made her jump, her hand instantly shooting to her hip where her gun was holstered. Bo paused then sighed and relaxed as the hunter dropped himself down next to her. She looked at him curiously, wondering what had brought him around. She was disappointed as he stayed quiet, his shadowy figure slightly hunched on his elbows rested on his knees, his face turned toward the last embers of the fire. Bo didn't even know what had caused the problem to begin but by this point she was irritated enough to not want to be the initiator to any conversation.

When the quiet dragged on for a few minutes and the blonde was sure that nothing was going to be said, she shook her head and rose to her feet. There was a slight crack with a few of her bones as she stretched and let out a yawn.

"Why did you stay with me?" Daryl asked suddenly as Bo lifted a foot to head to Andrea's tent. She paused and sighed before slowly turning to look down at the hunter in the dark.

"Because I wanted to." Bo answered, her wariness from the small amount of sleep starting to catch up to her. "You're a better guy than you give yourself credit for. You're stronger than Merle said you were. You're one of the best people I have ever known even if you are a stupid hot headed hick." Daryl chuckled slightly, a low rumble in his chest, and Bo was sure that he had cracked the smallest of smiles. She sank back down to her knees in front of him and looked at his dark form. "You've always been doubting me. Always so certain that one day I'll get tired of you and move on. I thought, after the CDC, that...you had stopped that. And then this happened."

Daryl turned his head away, even though they couldn't see each other's eyes in the darkness. Bo sighed heavily, a sound of disappointment, as she leaned back then rose back to her feet. He caught her again, physically this time, as she turned to try once more to get to the tent. He had risen to his own feet and lightly locked his hand around her wrist. She didn't turn to face him this time, but she didn't move either. His grip allowed for her escape if she so chose to make one.

"I don't know what to do." Daryl confessed. His eyes narrowed slightly as he frowned, irritated with himself. He saw Bo's silhouette turn toward him and heard that heavy sigh again. He wanted so desperately to make her stop making that sound but he was stuck on a course of action.

"I can't tell you what to do Daryl, I ain't your brother." Bo stated, exasperated. She lifted her free hand to warmly cup his cheek and she contemplated her next words carefully.

She knew damn well that Daryl Dixon was not an emotions type person, but then she had never asked him to be, never expected him to be. Hell, she wasn't even an emotions person. She was, however, an 'actions speak louder than words' type person. With that in mind, she stepped closer to him, her encased hand becoming nestled between their bodies. Even in the darkness, she could see the slight puzzlement on the hunter's face. She brushed her thumb gently over his cheek before she rose slightly on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

The response was almost instantaneous.

His hand had released her wrist in favour of burying into her hair. His other hand shot out to grasp her waist and hold her close, trapping her hand between them. His grip held so firmly that she wondered if he feared her pulling away and leaving. Her hand on his cheek drifted back to copy his, burying into his short hair. She parted her lips to allow his prodding tongue access to her own. He slid his hand under her shirt and ran his rough fingers gently over the skin of her lower back, across one of her few scars, another reminder that he didn't know much about her as he didn't know what the scar was from.

He let out a slight groan of protest when her head moved back, separating their oral contact in favour of touching her forehead to his. They stood like that, completely still and breathing softly, for a long couple of minutes. Finally, Bo let out a soft yawn, her knees bending slightly as her body wished for her to lay down and rest. Daryl went to tighten his grip on her and make the move to bring her to his tent but she was suddenly gone from his grasp. He looked at her in bewilderment, an expression that was lost in the darkness.

"I am yours, Daryl." Bo muttered softly. "Whenever you want to believe that. I know you won't right now. You might think you do for the amount of time it takes to have sex but come the morning, you'll look at me that same way that you always do, always wondering what I'm doing and why I've picked you." With his eyes adjusting, he could actually see the vaguely disappointed expression on the young woman's face. Daryl wasn't very pleased with that expression but he knew she was right. Even at the CDC, even after what had happened and he was almost certain that he could believe it all then...by the time they found out what Jenner had planned, he lost that belief all for another belief that he just couldn't be happy with anything.

He didn't even notice Bo had moved until he heard a tent zipper and saw her across the way at Andrea's tent, ducking inside. Daryl was half tempted to call after her, demand she come back out of that tent and into his, but he didn't want to do that to himself. He didn't want to do it to either of them.

Because he knew damn well that they would lay there, they would get naked, they would have sex and fell asleep. The morning would come along and he would look at her, wondering how on earth she had decided to be with him, doubting the chances that he could actually keep her attention and wondering when she would stop being with him and turn to someone else. He knew damn well, once she saw that look, that disappointment would resurface, that heavy sigh would come past her pouty lips, and they'd end up right back to this point.

She doesn't sleep much when you're out, you know. Always up before and after everyone else.

Carol had told him that once. Explained that Bo was always awake when Daryl went out for hunts. With that bit of knowledge, he knew that she was suffering from this 'separation' as much as he was. They relied on each other for a good night's sleep, as odd as that sounded. These last few days were killing both of them and it would only get harder and harder.

With a sigh of his own, Daryl entered into the tent. He sat down quietly and removed his boots, pulling the tent zipper shut. He took a small look around, not noticing anything really interesting in the darkness. Satisfied with the surroundings, he shrugged off his leather vest and set his hunting knife aside. His mind drifted momentarily under the pressure of the sleep trying to force itself inside. He shook his had before twisting and crawling to the makeshift bed. He laid down on his side, moving his arm carefully under his head and closed his eyes.

Almost as if it were an afterthought, he lifted his arm off his side and moved it forward. It fell lightly over the waist of the blonde haired woman already lying there and it tightened enough to pull her against his chest. There was a light breathy laugh of a sound and the slacking of tense shoulders but no further indication of his actions making an impression on the woman.

And just like that, the pair of them drifted off into sleep without a word.

Not to rain on any parades, but Daryl and Bo aren't exactly reconciled yet. I'm curious on who you guys think should get separated from the group and end up in Woodbury with Andrea. Sometimes I think Bo, sometimes I think Anna, sometimes I even think Shane. Also sometimes wonder if I should even split up the group and just find another way for them to find out about Woodbury and the Governor and Merle. I just do not know so I need reader assistance.