Author's Note: Thank you to Angel, transf0rmer, and Lila-Renee for the reviews, I appreciate them so much! You turned a bad day into a great one, or a good day into a super one.(; And thank you to any new followers or favorites.(:

Disclaimer: I own no Walking Dead characters.
Also the song at the end is Daylight and that belongs to Maroon 5.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.
DAYLIGHT.

Her heart pounded in her ears, it felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest. Her ribs surely had been broken by how hard it was thumping against her ribcage. All of her limbs were like jelly and all of her bones felt like they were shattered. It all felt too surreal, like a dream. It had to be, right? There was no way that a walker was actually about to take a chunk of Daryl's arm off.

But it wasn't a dream, and there was, in fact, a walker about to nom on his arm like a chicken wing. She trampled over her own two feet, the water sloshing every which way and into her eyes. Taylor had to ignore the stinging sensation that pierced through her when it splashed roughly into her vision. She slid across the slippery patch of wet rocks and mud, falling to her knees and continuing to slide until she came to his crossbow. She picked it up and examined it with a frustrated grunt. How do you even work this thing?! At that moment she mentally cursed the incapacitated Daryl for never teaching her, it could have actually saved his life.

"Damn," she stumbled over him to clock the walker in the head, leaving a decent imprint. "That works," she took heavy breathes as she set the crossbow back down next to him, on a new mission to find a heavy rock. She would kill the walker with or without a weapon; a rock seemed justifiable with the lack of anything more productive at her disposal.

She heard a moan from behind her and whipped back around quickly, kneeling down next to him as his eyes struggled to open.

"Daryl?" His grunts went on for a few more seconds, she could tell he was trying to say something, but was unable to fully understand what. "I can't understand you." She brushed his messy, wet hair from his face. He recoiled at the touch, eyes springing open with shock deep seeded in them.

"Mov..." he tried, coughing up blood that forced him to stop.

"You're really hurt, don't talk." His eyes seemed to widen further, if that was even possible, and it didn't appear that he was shocked over his injury anymore. Taylor couldn't figure out what he was trying to tell her or why he was afraid, since he didn't seem to give two shits about the spear through his side. He battled with his wounded body to reach over and grab the crossbow, feebly checking to see if an arrow was still loaded in it. He slowly started to sit up, a fresh pool of blood making its way down his side and into the lazily flowing water beneath them.

"Don't get up!" She warned, the blood pouring out at an alarming rate. She was not prepared for this, she knew he had a very good chance of bleeding out at this point.

"MOVE!" He called out at last, giving her one last chance after his many attempts to warn her. When she didn't heed his warning he fired the shot, piercing her directly through the bicep, the arrow slicing through effortlessly until it struck the walker straight in the eye. It fell behind them with a loud thud but Taylor could not process that, she was too busy with her own pain now.

"SHIT!" She looked horrified at the small hole in her arm, grabbing it rapidly with her free hand. The blood began to ooze out around her fingers, soaking herself with her own blood, as if being covered in his blood wasn't enough. "YOU SHOT ME!"

"No shit..." his eyes began to roll into the back of his head, clearly ready to pass back out now that they weren't in danger. She couldn't tell which she was more stunned by, the bastard shooting her or that he gathered enough strength in that state to use the crossbow. "Blondie," his parting words as his world went black.

As she cursed him under her breath she gently rolled him up off the ground enough to grab his handkerchief out of his back pocket. She let him back down on the ground gently and scooted backwards until she bumped into the dead walker. The sound of her own surprised gasp scared her equally as much as the lifeless corpse behind her. It made sense now why he had shot her in the arm, but it didn't make her any less angry at him.

"Please God," she whispered out loud as she scrambled to get the handkerchief tied around her own wound. It wasn't nearly as bad as his, they were both bleeding too much for their own good, but considering that fact that the was coughing up blood as well as leaking it from the hole in his side, she knew he was worse off. She had to put up with this pain if he was going to live. "Please God help us." She tied the piece of cloth tightly around her arm in a mediocre attempt to tourniquet it.

"Jackson!" Taylor craned her neck up to look a the spot where he last was.

"Yeah?" She could hear him respond and began to worry that he would peek over to survey the damage.

"Don't look down here, okay? Just stay put!"

"Okay!" His voice seemed to shake, she could tell he was growing weary of the situation, but couldn't find the strength in herself to move any faster than she already was. She inhaled deeply, letting it slowly exhale over a span of a few seconds. She had to mentally prepare herself for how much of a bitch it was going to be to move him- with a defective arm nonetheless. She looked down at the spear again, vaguely remembering what her grandmother had told her so long ago. It was nursing 101 as her grandma liked to put it; she needed to make sure that thing wasn't going to shift around while she moved him, or get it out.

"Think... think..." She scrutinized herself for already using the handkerchief for herself, now what would she tie off his injury with? She looked down at herself and instantly remembered the shirt that Maggie had given her, it was a short sleeve flannel that was thin enough that it could work. She slid it off, careful to graze slowly over where the arrow had passed, peeling it off with one last tug.

"This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me," she whispered, knowing full well that he couldn't hear her. One... two... three... She yanked the spear out with one, swift pull, yelping as she fell backwards from the force. Daryl twitched and she could have sworn she heard a whimper, but he didn't wake up. She crawled forward quickly to use Maggie's shirt to tie around his waist. She secured it with two tight knots before leaning back on the soles of her feet.

"Hard parts over, for you anyway." She grunted and stood up, remembering at the very last second to pick up his crossbow and sling it over herself in the same fashion that he wore it. She grabbed his arms and began to drag him across the low laying dirt. She made it few feet when the ground began to slant upwards against her heels. She saw the bloody streak that lined the trail of where they'd moved so far and shook her head. Could this really work? It certainly wasn't looking good thus far.

As she restarted her trek that would now force her to drag at an angle she heard a muffled groan. Her eyebrows furrowed thinking that Daryl was awake.

"Good, you can walk your own ass back-" When she finally tore her eyes away from the ground she dropped his arms in a hurry. "Ohh, fuck me sideways." Two more stray walkers staggered along through the creek, spotting Taylor and Daryl with ease. They broke into a slow, limping sprint, making a direct line towards the defenseless pair.

Sophia and Carl ran in circles around the RV, clearly playing a game of it tag while Andrea and Edwin climbed up on top of it. Rick stepped down from his position on 'walker duty' and patted Carl on the head as he passed by. He was heading towards Lori who was racing around panicky, apparently looking for something, he wasn't sure what though.

"You think it's a good idea?" Edwin looked over at Andrea skeptically. "Me having a gun, I mean?" He smirked, tossing the small handgun back and forth.

"I don't think it's a good idea if you keep doing that-" She reached over and put her hand over his to stop him from the dangerous juggling act. "Not to brag but I'm a pretty good shot, with me here I don't think they really care who the second person on walker duty is." She smiled and picked her rifle back up, placing it gently on her lap. She held the binoculars up and did a quick scan which came up empty.

"When do you think we should tell them?" He stopped fooling around with the gun and dropped his tone to ominous. She was surprised by his sudden change in subject.

"I... I don't know." She sighed and looked down at her hands, twiddling her thumbs anxiously. "This is just like last time, I hate thinking about how we're going to tell them all over again."

"You think they'll freak out?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I pretty much lost it when you told me." She shuddered, thinking back to the night when he broke the horrible news to her; entrusted the horrible secret with her. "It's devastating to think about. I care about a lot of these people and to think that no matter how they die... they're still going to become one of those things." She felt tears bristle but bit the inside of her cheek to keep them away. She didn't like appearing to be weak in front of anyone, especially the men. "It's awful."

"Yeah... it is." He nodded gravely in agreement. "We should tell them soon, before it's too late."

"Too late?" She glanced over at him, confused with the inference he was suggesting.

"Just think about it," he mulled over his words carefully in his head, not wanting to upset her any further, "if someone dies in an unrelated way to the walkers... everyone will know anyway. Then the panic will start and it could lead to some horrible things. But if we tell them ahead of time, it might save us from some problems."

Andrea simply bobbed her head up and down a few times to silently concur. She could have sworn she saw shadows moving along the line of the woods, but wasn't one hundred percent. She lifted the binoculars again and peered through them, her heart racing at the sight.

"WALKERS!"

Taylor's arms had just about given out when Daryl was finally beginning to come to again. She was drenched in blood- hers, Daryl's, and the two walkers she had to fend off by herself at the bottom of the creek. She was lucky they got out alive, she'd be luckier if they both ended up living after all was said and done back at the farmhouse. She stopped, checking over her shoulder to make sure Jackson was still tagging along, and although he was going about it slowly he was still there.

"You okay Jack?" She whispered, bending down to get a better look at her half-conscious counterpart.

"Mhmm," he nodded feebly, still uneasy about all the blood, guts, and outright gore they were both covered in. He wasn't sure what to do in all honesty.

"Good." She focused her attention back on Daryl again who was stirring. "You're back?"

"Wha?" He sat up, causing a head-rush of vertigo. "I'm... fine."

"You're not fine, Daryl." She sighed, shaking her head at his usual stubbornness. "You've got a hole in your side, Uncle Hershel needs to fix you."

"Ah, whatever." He waved her off with his hand, struggling to get to his feet, falling over a few times.

"Are you going to walk back?" She asked dubiously, unconvinced that he would be able to handle it in his condition. "You can't do it by yourself." She stood back with her hands on her hips, letting him scramble to his feet and lean against a tree once he found himself able to stand firmly.

"Watch me," he snipped while trying to take a few baby steps forward. He almost fell over but grabbed another tree to keep himself from taking another fall. She sighed dramatically and walked up next to him, letting him lean his weight against her undamaged side. Taylor could tell he was still not completely with it, his eyes glossing over and his legs seemingly unable to function. He begrudgingly let her help him walk and they continued along in a painfully lethargic manner. Once they broke the lining of the woods she heard a faint yell, but it was completely inaudible, just loud enough to recognize that it was a person screaming.

Taylor glanced up and noticed Shane, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog all running full speed towards them. At first she assumed they were coming to help, that maybe they had noticed they were both injured; but that idea quickly faded. They were running- no sprinting- at them with all their weapons bearing down on them. She was just about to yell to them, to stop anything else from happening, but she was too late.

"Daryl?" Glenn questioned in pure disbelief, neither one of them looked well, they kind of did look a little like walkers.

"HOLY-!" She jumped back as Daryl fell to the floor, the gunshot ringing through all their ears.

"Taylor?" Rick raced forward to meet them, instantly helping to pick Daryl up. He shouted back to Andrea who was still smiling triumphantly at her kill. "NO! STOP!" She watched him wave his arms and scream to her, and then she knew that it was a mistake. She shouldn't have taken the shot, just like they warned her.

"What the hell happened?" Glenn assisted in the retrieving of the limp body, looking at Taylor with horrified eyes. He noticed her own wound that was now bleeding through the handkerchief. "That must have been one hell of a fight!"

"We didn't fight!" She snipped as she followed behind them, still pissed that they were shot at, and that Daryl actually was shot. She had busted her ass to save him and drag him all the way back here and someone carelessly shot at them; he was almost killed after all she went through to ensure he'd stay alive.

"Were you bit?" Shane finally spoke up, still a little stunned by what he was seeing. He hadn't even noticed any of them went off in the first place, let alone all of this chaos happening right under his nose.

"No... he fell down the cliff and speared himself," she nodded to where his abdomen was tightly wrapped with her shirt.

"What about you?" He looked at her arm suspiciously, wondering if she was trying to hide what had really happened in those woods.

"I got hit with an arrow," she shot back, knowing very well that he thought she was lying to all of them. "Jackson's fine," she commented quickly when his gaze had fallen on the small child.

"Oh my god!" Andrea came racing up and did the math as she was approaching. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" She stopped ahead of them, surveying the damage she had caused. She knew she couldn't have had anything to do with his other injury, she hadn't been that far off. Andrea did see the slash across the side of his head, she had been slightly off her mark, thankfully.

"You're sorry?" Taylor chided, pushing past her to get back to the farmhouse as fast as possible. She didn't have time for any of this, Daryl needed help now.

"Taylor wait!" Andrea chased after her, putting her hand softly on her shoulder and repeating herself. "I'm sorry."

"What... what were you thinking, Andrea?" Taylor could not hold back the vehemence in her tone. She was beyond fuming and was under the impression that the older blonde was just pressing her luck by even bothering to talk to her. "You're always trying to prove yourself to the guys... God, Andrea. You're not a badass, you're an asshole!" She realized she was in her face now, her temper rising and the pain in her arm only making it worse.

"Taylor back off," Rick had swapped Daryl off to T-Dog who was now walking back to the farmhouse with Glenn. He stepped beside her, trying what Andrea had done earlier and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"No, she shot him!" She stepped out of his reach balking at the idea that Rick was honestly taking Andrea's side on the matter. Taylor had a sinking feeling that Andrea was told not to shoot, seeing that there were four people coming up to 'off' the walkers by hand, and she still insisted on doing it anyway. "You are so unbelievably self centered. You pretended to be there for me, but you never really were. And then, and then you are so obsessed with proving your worth to the guys that you just have to take any chance to prove you're awesome with that damn gun. Look what you did!" She sprang forward in an attempt to attack but Rick was quicker, it seemed that he was expecting it.

"Just back up and stop talking," he had grabbed her and dragged her back away from striking distance of Andrea.

"Sorry I don't come equipped with a muzzle." She relaxed after he had restrained her. She turned away from Andrea and heard her mutter a quiet 'dumb bitch' under her breath. That was when she lost it. She got out of Rick's reach and tackled Andrea to the floor where they exchanged punches, scratches, and hair pulls. She completely ignored the piercing, shooting, pain that was rising through her arm and straight to every nerve in her body. Rick jumped back into action, prying Taylor off of Andrea and using his powerful grip to keep her in place, he wasn't going to let them fight again.

"You're so oblivious Taylor," Andrea spat some of the blood out of her mouth and wiped it off with the back of her hand. "You're out here fighting me because I shot him? You're fighting for him." She chuckled again, amused at the conclusion she'd brought herself to. "Do you really think he gives two shits about you? I was right, you are a dumb bitch. Daryl doesn't give a fuck about you! Why don't you do him a favor, hell, do all of us a favor and drop dead!" She sneered before walking away to her tent. She turned around, ready with one more threat, "better watch your back!"

"Oh really?" Taylor struggled against Rick as he held her in place. "Well you should try getting off yours sometime!"

"Are you calling me a whore?"

"I'm not calling you a saint!" Shane finally decided to intervene, quickly scooting Andrea along and far away from the issue. Once they were out of sight, Taylor collapsed into Rick's arms, the wet tears streaming down her cheeks. He led her over to the stairs where he helped her sit, she crumpled into herself, hugging her legs to her chest to cover some of the sobbing.

"Hey... it's okay." He rubbed her back comfortingly, just like the way things used to be. "She's just trying to get under your skin."

"No..." she looked up and laughed a little, holding her arm out. "I used this arm to hit her, and now it really hurts."

"Really?" He laughed until his sides ached, and then shook his head at her. "You mean you used that arm to whoop her ass." She smiled, the tears beginning to fade.

"Some of what she said did hurt, but-"

"She'll come around, apologize... she just said that stuff cause she was upset," he shrugged his shoulders fully believing that this were true. Taylor knew it wasn't, Andrea had always come off as a little odd to her, and now she knew why, she was fake.

"You're such a good person Rick," she grinned over at him, unable to make the smile go away.

"What do you mean?"

"If it were you and Shane that just had that fight, you would be the first to apologize. And even if you didn't apologize and he did, you would accept it. He could hit you in the face and tell you that Lori never loved you and you would just graciously let it go." She used the tips of her fingers to get the last of the lingering tears. "I'm not a good person, I'm not like you."

"You are a good person, and everything will be okay... that's all I know." He sent her a lopsided smile and went off to take Andrea's place on walker duty since the post was now abandoned. Taylor stood up and regrouped herself before going into the house, knowing that in one of the rooms her Uncle Hershel would be trying to fix Daryl up.

"How long are you going to stare at him before you're satisfied that he's alive?" Hershel was nearly done patching up his niece's wounds when he decided to call her out on her constant staring.

"I'm never going to be satisfied," she sucked in a deep breath and bit the bottom of her lip as he continued to sew the wound together. She definitely preferred to be the one doing the sewing than being the one getting sewn up; it hurt like a bitch. She peered through the open doorway again, watching Daryl's chest rise and fall perfectly. He would be one hundred percent okay in time, but she still couldn't get Andrea's words out of her head. Did he even care that she was okay?

"You're all done," he smiled and cut the extra ends off, leaving her with a expertly performed clean up job on the arrow hole. He applied a patch of gauze and taped it on, leaving her with a giant bullseye if anyone wanted to really hurt her, mainly Andrea.

She sat down in the big green chair that was pulled up next to the bed and frowned at the sight. A small set of tears grazed down her cheeks, falling off onto the bed. Hershel noticed this as well and hovered in the doorway.

"Dry them tears child, our time is much too short for so much sadness."

"I... I can't," she sniffled, hating herself for crying in front of him.

"Rick told me what happened with you and Andrea." She looked up at him with frightened eyes, she had forgotten about his no fighting rule, and now she was going to be the one that got them kicked off the farm. He sighed and shook his head, knowing exactly what was running through her mind. "No... it's okay... I just wanted to let you know that he asked about you the whole time. Even when Patricia and I were poking around to clean it out, which hurts a lot, you know that," he nodded to her bandaged wound. "He didn't care about that, just where you were. Just thought you should know that." He took his leave, exiting the room so she was alone. Daryl's eyes popped open, looking around the room rapidly.

"Hey," she whispered when his eyes landed on her.

"Hey..." he looked around once more, noticing that no one else was around. "Where is everybody?"

"Out at the campfire," she rested her chin in the hand of her good arm, propping that up on her leg.

"What happened to your arm?" His voice was barely a whisper, but she was almost certain there was concern in it.

"You shot me asshole," she smirked when his face fell.

"What?"

"You shot me, with an arrow. Went clean through." She looked down at it and shrugged her shoulders, an action she immediately regretted when the pain began to pulse again.

"Sorry-"

"You killed a walker, it almost got us, but you shot it." Taylor sighed, trying to explain that he didn't need to apologize, it wasn't like he did it on purpose, but he wouldn't accept that so she decided against saying it. "I think I've repaid my life debt to you." Suddenly she found it difficult to look at him, she tried to look past him, but his seemingly sad eyes pulled her back in.

"Life debt?" He asked, his head swimming with confusion, some of which she assumed was the lingering pain pills in his body.

"Remember you saved me first? So I owed you..." she smiled and fell back into the chair, getting slightly more comfortable. "I paid it back."

"Well I-" his hand moved down to his side where the spear had gone through. "Ah shit."

Taylor grabbed the little orange bottle on the side table that Hershel had left there. She took out two pills and a glass a water, handing it all over to him quickly. "Take these." He downed them without protest and looked over at the bottle.

"What's that?"

"Morphine pills, you're probably going to fall asleep again." Before he could answer Jackson made his way into the room, rubbing his full belly with an enormous grin. Taylor deduced that they had fed him well before sending him inside. He crawled up onto Taylor's lap and smiled brightly at Daryl, not saying a word the entire time. Even though he was just a child he had immediately picked up on the quiet atmosphere, figuring that no one else was talking so he shouldn't either. A few silent minutes had passed and Daryl felt his eyelids going heavy again, he protested against them closing, but they did eventually against his will.

"Tawor?" She set her head down on top of his small one.

"Yeah, Jack?"

"Can you sing fer us?" His voice was quiet, like he was falling asleep as well.

"What for?"

"Sing fer me and Darrol, it will help us sweep." She smiled at his request and he snuggled into her form, his eyes already closing.

"What should I sing?" She propped her legs up on the bed as she awaited his answer, and eventually it came.

"Anyfing," he yawned and stretched, falling back into the spot.

"Okay," she sighed and looked over at the bag in the corner of the room that she had packed earlier, the bag that she planned on sneaking out with. She knew she was leaving the group, she was going to leave in the middle of the night so she wouldn't cause a fuss. The words Andrea had spewed at her earlier had not stopped repeating in her head, over and over like a broken record.

Do you really think he gives two shits about you? I was right, you are a dumb bitch. Daryl doesn't give a fuck about you! She couldn't look at him anymore without an overwhelming pain taking her entire body over. She had always worried about it, but to hear someone else say it shook her to the core. Taylor couldn't face being a burden to everyone, to him, and to have the heart wrenching love not be mutual.

She gazed at the single bag one last time, knowing that she was going to be leaving Jackson too, not wanting to drag him back into that world; but also knowing that he would be okay, he was in good hands here.

"Here I waiting, I'll have to leave soon, why am I holding on?
We knew this day would come, we knew it all along.
How did it come so fast? This is our, last night.
But it's late, and I'm trying not to sleep.
Cause I know, when I wake, I will have to slip away."

She looked down at Jackson who was already long passed out, snuggling in between her and the chair. She smiled and continued to sing quietly.

"And when the daylight comes, I'll have to go.
But tonight I'm gonna hold you so close.
Cause in the daylight, we'll be on our own.
But tonight I need to hold you so close."

Jackson slept silently, but Daryl seemed to be having a fitful sleep, tossing and turning a bit every few minutes. She frowned and wondered what he was dreaming about. Every time she sang it was as if he was okay again, so she pressed on even though the song was tearing her to pieces.

"Here I am, staring at your perfection.
In my arms, so beautiful.
The sky is getting back, the stars are burning out.
Somebody, slow it down,
This is way too hard, cause I know,
When the sun comes up I will leave."

She readjusted herself so that Jackson had the entire chair to himself, and then steathily slid away without detection. Taylor lifted the curtain and saw that although the campfire was going everyone appeared to be in their tents asleep. The house itself was quiet and all the lights were out, another good indication that everyone was asleep. She grabbed her bag and pulled it up onto her shoulders, wincing when it scraped the bandage. She kissed the top of Jackson's head and tucked him into a blanket that was resting on top of the armchair.

She walked over to the other side of the bed, her heart breaking into a million pieces at the thought of never seeing him again. She touched his hand delicately and retracted when he began to stir, once she was sure that he wasn't going to wake up she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. When she finally forced herself to the doorway, she let the familiar line of the song play in her head.

This is my last glance, that will soon be a memory.