I'm really sorry these posts aren't longer, I'll try and make them longer after I've posted the posts I've already written.

Hope you're all okay :)

xKim

Daryl crossed the forecourt with his crossbow slung over his right shoulder, he felt much lighter on his feet after last night, talking to Carol had been almost therapeutic, she had such a way with words, she made the darkness a little brighter.

And so today, when Rick smiled at him and he smiled back, he actually meant it.

"There's a breach in the fence." Rick explained, nodding his head in the direction of the surrounding foliage. "More Walkers are filterin' through. I need you to help me fix it."

"Okay." Daryl replied quickly, he started towards the direction Rick had indicated to. "How many are we lookin' at?" He asked squinting his eyes into focus at the Walkers at the bottom of the prison fields.

"Ten, maybe more."

Daryl nodded his head and adjusted the strap on his crossbow. "Nothin' we haven't faced before."

"Hm," Rick grunted, "I wanted to ask you, how're you holdin' up?" He asked, "After Merle..."

"Fine." Daryl interjected curtly, this had been the second time Rick had tried to talk to him about his feelings and the second time Daryl didn't want to. "I'm just fine."

"You've been kind of distant," Rick observed, "Doin' a lot of runs, goin' away a lot. The only person I see you talk to is Carol. I just want you to know you can always talk to me, you know, if you wanna..."

"I appreciate that." Daryl muttered as he lifted his crossbow and fired it through the skull of an incoming Walker. The corpse dropped like a sack of meat as he prepped his crossbow for the second Walker.

"I got it." Rick stated, holding his gun up and shooting the nearest Walker to him.

"We should be conservin' ammo, what with the Governor still bein' at large."

"He's vastly outnumbered, don't you think? He'd be insane to try anything."

"I think we've established that he's insane," Daryl replied, "Just don't know what he's gonna do next."

Rick nodded his head and took out his knife, he raised it above his head and charged at the female Walker advancing on him.

Daryl watched as Rick effortlessly took down the Walker, it was strange how easy vanquishing Walkers had become. It was like a second nature to them now... As natural as breathing even.

Rick tossed Daryl the thick chain and padlock and floored another Walker with a swift jab to the brain.

Daryl ran for the break in the fence, leaving Rick in charge of the remaining Walkers, he knew that Rick would be fine – he always was.

He threaded the heavy chain through a hole in the fence, using all of his strength to pull the two sides together, he threaded it again and did more of the same before fixing the padlock into place.

He turned just in time to see Rick eliminate the last threat and smiled a satisfied smile, "We done?"

"We're done." Rick repeated with a nod.

"That ended quicker than I thought it would," Daryl said, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked up to the watchtower to see Carol looking through the scope of her rifle at nothing in particular, "I can go on watch too, if you like."

"Well, I wouldn't want to keep you from Carol for too long." Rick smirked, "Go ahead."

Daryl shot him a 'What you talkin' 'bout?' look before he started back towards the prison forecourt.