"Fuck." Daryl swore. He stared at the two dead men by the swamp. Rick came up behind him.

"These were the men who had Charlotte and Tanner when we found them." Daryl looked at the bodies. These assholes had their disgusting hands on his girl. He aimed one good kick to the head of the one that was closest to him. He looked around. "Daryl, calm down." Rick tried to lay a hand on Daryl but Daryl threw him away from him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" he yelled. "She can't stay still for two fucking minutes. If she would just stay I wouldn't be out here all the god damn time looking for her." His blood was boiling, he couldn't see straight. "Every walker around here heard the fucking gunshots."

"Daryl, which way did she go." Shane asked, trying to hush him down.

Daryl looked around the area. One of the men had a knife laying next to him. Daryl examined it, his heart sinking. He looked a moment longer and stood up. "She went that way, and she's hurt."

"What?"

"Climb up the fucking tree!" Charlotte snapped, pushing her toward the tree in question. She was panicking, trying to force the women to climb even though she clearly didn't know how. Charlotte instructed her, roughly at that, and the women climbed up about twenty feet and rested on a branch. The biters came into view, the Latina looked like she would scream. Charlotte clamped a hand over her mouth and held it there. Ten of them wandered into the area, not aware of their existence above them.

Fuck.

The women next to her was shaking, but Charlotte was steady despite being filled to the top with fear inside. This was the end for her, how long could she possibly wait them out? They just wandered around the area beneath them, it didn't look like they were leaving. Minutes were passing, and Charlotte needed to come up with something.

"Charlotte!" a voice screamed. The biters heard it, every one looking up at the sound of Daryl

Fuck.

"Charlotte!" he roared louder. The hissing got louder and they began to migrate toward the sound.

And it just came out. "Daryl!" the biters stopped, and looked up. The girl next to her was sobbing by now. They sneered, bunching around the tree and clawing at the trunk. An arrow took one down and she looked to the clearing.

"Fuck!" Shane yelled, beating a biter in the head. They biters began to go after the three. Charlotte didn't know what to do, if there was too many undead for her friends to handle. But Rick was shouting orders and the boys spread out, taking biters down one by one, quietly. When the last one was dead, Charlotte ushered the girl down the tree. "Are you alright?" Rick asked.

"I'm fine."

"Who's this?" Shane asked. Charlotte looked to Daryl and there was no embrace, no thank god you're okay. His eyes were burning; he was mad.

"These men…" the girl stuttrered. "They took me. They did awful things to me." She sobbed. "I tried to escape, they came out here to find me. Please, I just want to get back to my group."

"We'll take you back." Rick answered. Shane made a noise of disapproval, rolling his eyes.

"You're bleeding." Daryl said. Her hoodie was still unzipped and he further exposed her by peeling the sides away to look at it. "Fuck, Charlotte."

She snatched his hands away from her, zipping her hoodie back up. "I'm fine. Lets get her back." Daryl glared at her before pacing ahead of her.

Once back at the camp sight, Charlotte walked with Shane and Rick to one of the cars. "What the hell ya' think yer doin'?" Daryl snapped, grabbing her elbow.

She tore her arm from him. "I'm going with."

"The hell ya' are!" he yelled. By then everyone at the camp was staring.

Charlotte glared at him. "I am."

He got up close to her. "'Sides the face that I'm pissed at ya' fer' runnin' off, we need to get that cleaned up." He said lowly, gesturing toward her chest.

"The last thing she needs right now is to be alone with two men." She said quietly back, venom dripping from her words.

"Who is that?" she heard Lori ask to Rick.

"You ain't goin'." Before she could lose it, and scream at him, Andrea came between the two.

"I'll go with." The blonde was confused, just like everyone else. Charlotte nodded to Andrea, then shot one last look at Daryl before stalking off to their tent. He followed behind silently.

But once they got in the tent, they were yelling again. "Thank God I'm alive Daryl."

"If ya' didn't always run off doing this and that all the damn time, I wouldn't haft'a worry about ya' bein' alive or not."

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"Like hell I can't!" he barked back. "Yer' out of yer' fuckin' mind if ya' think I'm okay with this. We talked about this yesterday and yer' already goin' back on what ya' said to me."

"I didn't promise you shit."

"What the hell were ya' doin' out there anyway?" he added, his voice getting louder. "I don' get why ya' thought it was a good idea to be out there in the dark by yer'self." He stared at her expectantly but she didn't respond. She didn't have a good reason. Or a bad reason for that matter. She had no idea what. "Well?"

"I don't know!" she snapped. "I just did!" Daryl didn't say anything at first, just kicked over a suitcase of their belongings. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you!"

"Anything!" he yelled, coming face to face with her. "Anything to get me to understand why. You don' even have reason and that don't make any sense."

"I don't know!" behind all her anger was a child wanting to cry. The only time he yelled like this was right before things went bad in the world. "I was upset about Randall, okay? After hearing Dale, what he said just made sense." It set in that by now the kid had to be dead. She sat on the bed and rested her head in her hands.

Daryl bit his lips, not looking at her. "The kids alive. Dale's dead."

Her head snapped up. "What?"

"A walker opened up his chest out in the field." He said quietly. "We couldn't save him; I had to put him down."

Charlotte could only stare at Daryl. She didn't know if that would be called irony, or karma, or the forces of the universe being a bitch, but it was fucked up. Dale fought hard to keep Randall alive and now Dale himself was dead. "I can't believe it." Was all she could say.

Daryl was still standing, and he seemed to be thinking. "We talked about it."

"I know."

"I tol' ya' I didn't want ya' goin' off."

"I know."

"And then ya' went off alone in the dark. What if I couldn't find ya'?"

"I know." She snapped.

"I don't want ya' dead!" he snapped back. Charlotte stared at their plaid blanket, feeling guilty now. She understood why he was mad, he had a hard time showing concern or worry, so he would just get angry. And then she would get defensive, and they would yell. But she wouldn't want Daryl out and alone.

"I'm sorry." It tasted bitter in her mouth. Apologies didn't come easy to her, not one bit. Daryl didn't respond. "Daryl, I wont do it again. Not without you." She tried to sound sincere, she meant it.

Daryl sighed crawled on the bed, and sat behind her so she was in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "All I wanted was for you to stay still. Jus' for a couple of days until we got it figured out." Charlotte didn't know what to say. For a long moment she stared at Daryl's feet.

"What are you guys doing with Randall?"

"I don' know." He laid down in the bed, legs still around her. "Jus' kinda' happened a bit ago." And that was it. Neither said a word and eventually fell asleep.

The following morning was Dales funeral. Surprisingly, Charlotte couldn't cry. She felt bad, because tears were all around her but she just stood there not saying a word. He was a very kind, nice man but she never really go to know him. Regardless, it was very sad.

After that, Charlotte caught up with Rick when he was secluded from the group. He looked exhausted. "Hey. How was it getting her back?" he turned to look at her.

"We got her back." He shook his head. "She was terrified."

"Did she say where Crawford was?" she asked. Rick sighed deeply, glancing to Daryl in the distance. Charlotte followed his gaze and looked back to Rick. "Rick."

"I don't want you running off to these people." Rick said. "They're bad news. From what I heard, they like to take outsiders as prisoners."

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Where is it Rick?"

"We can't start a war with them." He continued. Like he could convince her. He didn't know how stubborn and dead set she could be. "Why do you want to know where they are so bad? It's not worth it, Charlotte. It's just not."

That was a good question; she had no plan of attack once she knew where Crawford was. No plan on what she would do once she stood outside of the town. But it was a gnawing feeling inside of her she couldn't understand; the only way to find out was to find Crawford. "Where is it?" she repeated. Rick glanced at Daryl once more. "If I do anything he'll know about it. He won't hold it against you."

Rick stared at her before answering. "It's in the outskirts of Macon. You familiar with Macon?" Charlotte nodded slowly; Daryls father had lived in Macon. Not like they visited him ever. "It's less of a town and more of a large apartment complex these people who call themselves soldiers live. They're dangerous. They kill men and take the women home with them. From what the girl was saying last night they keep the girls there, as long as they can, until they die and they have no use for them."

Charlotte's face got hot, her anger bursting thinking about the girls trapped with those Crawford assholes. And she very well could have been one of them. She wanted to get them out of there, she wanted to kill every asshole there. She slowly nodded. "Alright."

"I have to ask you-"

"I wont be running off anytime soon. If I do, Daryl will know about it." She assured. Rick looked relieved; it had become apparent to the group that helping Charlotte get into trouble, directly or not, would put them on Daryls' bad side. "What are you doing with the kid?" she asked suddenly.

"We're goin' with the original plan, taking him out and letting him fend for himself. I was gonna' have Daryl come with me, if that's alright."

She shrugged. "Not like I could make him stay." She joked lightly. Rick smiled appreciatively and Charlotte made her way to the house; they were driving the cars up and moving their things inside. "What's going on here?" she asked Daryl, who was standing outside surveying the area.

"Ol' man is lettin' us move in." he said. "It's getting' cold out. Didn't want to keep us outside." Charlotte looked up to the dark and dreary sky and shivered slightly in her zip up. She had barely noticed the heat leaving and the air getting chillier. "Do ya' want to stay in the tent?"

She looked at him. "I'd rather be inside with them." Daryl chewed on his lip slightly, glancing to the house looking unconvinced. "I'd feel safer with them then just us two being outside. Besides, I don't want to isolate us."

"I can protect ya'."

"I know Daryl." She assured. "But my mind would better rest if we were in the house." He nodded, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. "I'll ask Glen to help me get our stuff in." Charlotte grinned, grabbing his hand and tugging at it slightly. She gave him a giant grin, and despite people being around Daryl smiled back slightly and kissed her on the mouth. He let go of her hand to run over to Glen. Charlotte smiled after him when someone spoke up a couple of feet behind her.

"It's so weird seeing him like that." She turned to find Lori trying to lift a bin out of the truck. Charlotte paced quickly to the women, grabbing it from her hands. "Thanks." She added, smiling gratefully.

"What's weird?"

Lori chuckled. "Seeing Daryl being civil with another human being." She shook her head slightly. "Knowing that another human being got close enough to him to get married."

Charlotte grinned. "One of my better acomplishments." She glanced to see her husband talking to some of the men. "He has a tendency to pull back and isolate himself, but he always comes around. He's a good man though." She looked Lori in the eye because she needed to know, Daryl wasn't some brood that liked to be alone because he didn't; he just pushed people away and would end up alone in the end of it.

Lori nodded. "You definitely brought out the human part of him. Since I known him anyway."

Glen stood awkwardly by the truck while T-Dog and Daryl took the contents out of Daryls tent. Glen figured that Charlotte had talked her husband into moving into the house, surely Daryl wouldn't want to be in one house sleeping with ten people in the same living space.

Glen stared at his shoes, kicking at the dirt. "What's your problem man?" he heard T-Dog ask. He looked up.

"Huh?"

"You've been acting weird. Weirder then usual." He added, looking to Daryl for confirmation. Daryl shrugged.

Glen glanced behind him, to make sure they were out of earshot of anyone else. "Maggie offered me to stay in her room with her."

T-Dog laughed. "Nice, man."

"I told her no." Glen added, shrugging. T-Dog looked at him incredulously. Daryl was standing by the tent, looking confused. "It seems inappropriate. With her father in the house."

"Man, that's bull and you know it."

"Who's Maggie?" both men turned to stare at Daryl.

"Hershels daughter." T-Dog answered.

Daryl scoffed. "Little young, ain't she?"

Glen rolled his eyes. "No, that's Beth. The girl with the short brown hair."

"Man, you really are secluded." T-Dog chided to Daryl. He shrugged, throwing some of Charlotte's clothes in the truck. "And you are coming up with lame excuses. From what I hear you got Hershels approval. So don't use him as an excuse."

"I don't know man. With all of this-" he gestured to his surroundings. "-Going on, dating doesn't seem ideal. Can love happen in an apocalypse even?" T-Dog gestured to Daryl, causing Glen to roll his eyes. "Okay, they met before all of this."

"You got any advice?" T-Dog said to Daryl.

Daryl scowled. "That's Charlotte's thing." T-Dog grinned; neither men saw the issues that Glen did. "I'll let ya' know what, don't be expectin' to get laid a lot with the world goin' to shit." Glen turned bright red, T-Dog was chuckling.

"Man, how many times have you got it in since people started eating each other?" T-Dog asked. Daryl glanced toward the house, to make sure Charlotte wasn't close enough to hear. She was laughing at something Lori had said.

"Once, the night Charlotte came back." He said. T-Dog looked unsure. "Girls worry a lot, she ain't in the mood when she thinks some dead assholes going to come in the tent and eat her while she sleeps."

"Just once?" Lori asked. Charlotte looked out toward the field to see Daryl talking to T-Dog and Glen. She wasn't sure how it happened, but her, Andrea, Maggie, and Lori were on the top of "relationships".

"It's hard to get in the mood when I'm in survival mode all the time."

Maggie grinned. "I feel like 'm in the mood all the time." Lori and Charlotte grinned.

"Oh that changes." Lori said.

Charlotte nodded in agreement. "Oh yeah. After a while you stop trying to think about getting him naked and you're thinking about what to make for dinner when he is." Maggie snorted, covering her mouth.

"How do you stay with the same man for more then a year?" Andrea asked. "Doesn't it get boring? How do you keep him interested?"

"We find ways to keep it interesting." Charlotte said, causing Andrea to grin. "And it's not about keeping him interested."

"That's right." Lori agreed. "Men can do the same things for years and years and not get bored of it. It's about keeping yourself interested. And it's a lot of work." The women were laughing loudly when Carl came up.

"What's a lot of work." Maggie snorted.

"Nothing baby. Nothing."

"Sure as hell wont be happening now that I'm gon' be sleepin' in the same room as all ya'll." Daryl was saying. T-Dog snorted.

"What, you cant keep it quiet?"

Daryl raised an eyebrow. "I don' care if ya'll are around me, I can be quiet. She's the one that'll be all freaked out against it." T-Dog was chuckling. "My advice is to take Maggie's offer. It beats being cramped in the living room with everyone."

"If you don't want her bed, I'll take it." T-Dog added. Glen rolled his eyes.

All this talk about sex and how Daryl wasn't getting any of it was making him restless. He hadn't noticed how long it had been until T-Dog brought it up. The men wrapped things up and brought the truck back to the house and started to unload.

Daryl glanced at the barn to see Shane, standing their pacing back and forth. It was unnerving. Daryl just stared at him while he paced like a crazy man. Shane stopped suddenly and made eye contact and Daryl saw nothing; no feelings in Shane, like he was an empty shell. And he knew men like that, and they had nothing to lose.

The boys had brought in their things from Charlotte and Daryls tent. The living room was a little crowded but it could be dealt with.

Charlotte was in the kitchen, cutting up some of the vegetables. She heard a creek and glanced over her shoulder to see Daryl and looked back to what she was doing. "Hey babe. Are you hungry?"

He pulled up a chair and sat next to her at the counter. She paused what she was doing and glanced at him. "What is it?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Something feels off."

"Like what?"

"I don' know. I saw Shane earlier pacing around the barn and it got me thinkin'." He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eye. "He's losin' it. And he's gon' become unpredictable."

"What are you saying?"

"Something gon' happen and we need a plan when it happens."

"What do you suggest."

"Me and you." He said. "No matter what. When shit goes' down, we worry about each other. And we get out of here."

It didn't feel right, but it was; they were married and she meant her vows when she said it. Til death do they part, and she had to put Daryl above the group. If shit went down, she needed to worry about Daryl.

Charlotte nodded a little and he tugged her down. She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. "Me and you?"

She nodded again. "Me and you."

AN Sorry for the long wait, I have been very very sick. Please review.