So despite the fact I have two midterm papers due in two days, I decided to write rather than do school work. Probably because I am infinitely frustrated with Walking Dead. Infinitely frustrated, and intrigued in some manner of speaking. Anyway, here's my offering, hope you guys enjoy!

Not the first, but the second time one of them almost fell out of their saddles from almost falling asleep from sheer exhaustion was when they decided to make camp. There was no shelter to speak of, they merely hauled off what supplies they still had with them and tied their horses together in a string and that string to a pole that held up long dead power lines. They were camped out in a field on the edge of the highway, making their way towards the intersection of the Missouri, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers. Having the horses would help cut down on the travel time, but something else that he couldn't name was gnawing relentlessly at his insides, preventing him from sleeping like the rest of his group.

"You ok?" Fox asked softly as she sat next to him, her hip pressed lightly against his. He'd noticed that she'd mostly avoided saying anything while they had kept moving through what remained of the night. The sun would be coming up soon, and while daylight was generally safer, it wouldn't make anything easier.

"Fine," Daryl huffed softly.

"It's ok if you're not you know," Fox continued. Most of the rest of the group was sleeping. The only one still awake was Ivy, and she was a good fifteen feet away, staring out into the emptiness of the field without so much as a twitch. The only reason they knew she wasn't made of stone was because of the way her hair would flutter whenever a breeze would come through.

Daryl shrugged and didn't answer. Fox tipped her head to the side and tried to decide if she should let him alone or inquire more. In the end she couldn't stop herself.

"Are you upset about what I did?" The words were soft, and although there was no hint of humility, there was curiosity. It reminded him back to when he'd first met her, when he was first learning who she really was, and maybe who he really was too.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "I know you better than that by now," he murmured slowly. "I know what you're capable of."

And in that moment, the difference between him and everyone else she'd ever known shined through. He leaned into her just a little, pressing his flank up against hers, and when she leaned back against him, he accepted the movement. Everyone else who knew what she was really capable of was rightly frightened. But not him. Never him.

"I thought I couldn't forget what people are capable of," he muttered quietly, causing her to pick her head up and watch him out of the corner of her eye.

"Almost twenty years of having no one but your family would make anybody forget."

He looked at her, his blue eyes going hard. "But not you. You didn't even hesitate." He cracked his knuckles ominously. "Before Luna was born, when all this shit was first happening, that would have never happened. That bastard would have never got the jump on me."

Fox let out a soft breath, trying to find the words. "They got the jump on all of us." Her fingers twisted into the dead, dry grass by her sides, picking at the coarse stems restlessly.

"Shouldn't have happened," Daryl growled. "Our people could have died."

Emerald irises turned hard as the jewels they mimicked. "You could have died," she clarified. "But did you ever think for one second I was ever going to let that happen?"

He shook his head. "No. But that's not the point. You shouldn't have to rescue me."

She snorted with rueful laughter. "As opposed to what? You rescuing me?" She pressed her flank lightly against his. "Even though we're back on the road and everything is going to hell, it's not like it was before. Nobody's keeping score. Nobody thinks twice. If you're in danger, we come running. That's just how it works."

Daryl let the silence hang between them for a while, choosing his next words carefully. "Does it bother you? What you did?"

"Yes," she answered, her husky voice dropping to an even softer tone. "But for all the wrong reasons." She couldn't look at him when she finished. "It's too easy."

Daryl leaned against her firmly. "You protected what's yours. Ain't nothin' to feel sorry for."

She crooned deep in her throat as she let her face lean into his shoulder. "This is why I'm yours," she whispered into his chest. "They're all grateful for what I did, but they don't understand."

Daryl leaned his cheek against the crown of her head as his arm encircled her shoulders protectively. "Ain't their fault."

She nodded and let out a soft sigh and managed to look up at him. They were so close that he could see every detail of the scars that marred the left side of her face. She'd borne them for almost twenty years but even after so much time he couldn't always look at them and not feel his stomach twist with grief. His body was riddled with scars, the last thing he had ever wanted was for someone he loved to wear them too, but still he used his calloused thumb to trace them gently, the raised ridges and ropes stiff underneath his fingertip, causing her to shiver.

"I'm yours," she murmured as his hand dropped from her face and jaw down to her neck. "I don't care how far Rick's twisted his head on his neck, he'll never understand the way you do. I do things to help him when he needs it, but you…" she smiled softly and dared to kiss him gently. "You know me."

His mouth burned as she kissed him but he ached with far too much exhaustion to move much more. He pulled her to lie down next to him and he tucked her into his side, his nose nuzzling the back of her neck, inhaling her scent. "I knew that," he breathed softly. "You didn't have to say it."

She hummed in acknowledgement. "You know me. I'd rather say something than nothing."

He laced his arm over her waist and tugged her firmly against him. "You didn't always." He nosed a strand of hair out of his way so he could very lightly kiss the back of her neck. "Remember the fight at the quarry?"

She smiled softly at his touch and let her eyes flutter close. "I remember. You wanted to run. And I called you out on your shit."

"And wouldn't leave." He squeezed her more firmly against him and sighed softly as he started to settle into sleep, exhaustion stealing over his aching body.

"I'll never leave. Ever. I am yours." The words trailed through his dreams and for the first time in weeks he slept without cold sweat and choking fear suffocating him.

The sun was climbing higher in the sky by the time the group woke. They might have slept longer but the sound of a body hitting the ground jolted them all awake. Daryl twisted around to look for the source of the noise and found himself staring at Ivy who in turn was perched over a Walker body that she had just slain. It must have crawled its way through the field through the night and had only just now reached them.

"We should probably go. When there's one, there's always more." Her voice was flat as she wiped the black blood off her stiletto and tucked it back into her pocket. She had her hood and mask up again because of the wind blowing the loose earth of the field about. The rest of them had slept with their clothes shielded around their mouths as well.

The horses picked up their heads as the nearby humans began to stir. Daryl went to his mount and checked him over with a quick hand over the animal's muscled flank, and was soon joined by Rick.

"Any chance you could hunt?" the former sheriff asked.

Daryl shrugged. "Mice," he muttered, gesturing to the desolate field they were in. "Further up ahead is probably some wild crops that there might be food in."

Rick nodded. They both glanced towards the sky when they heard the soft cry of buzzards that were circling. Daryl knew that was never a good sign.

"You alright after everything last night?" Rick asked as Daryl fit the horse's tack back onto his head, shushing him gently when he balked at the unfamiliar hand.

Daryl nodded, making eye contact with his friend out of the side of his eye as he worked. "I'm fine. Pissed they got the jump on me more than anything. That's the kind of shit that lost us our girls."

"You know that they're ok," Rick said firmly. "We trained them well. They took them alive for a reason."

Daryl didn't reply and tried not to jerk too roughly on the horse's saddle as he readjusted it. "It's been a long time, Rick. Who the fuck knows what's happened to them by now."

Rick grabbed his friend by the shoulder and turned him roughly, forcing their eyes to meet dead on. "Don't. Don't think like that. You can't. We can't. We know that they're alive. We know what their capable of. They'll be ok, Daryl."

Daryl nodded slowly. He had to help Rick save face. That was all they had left at this point. If they didn't have hope, they had nothing, and it was his job as Rick's right hand man to back him up. It's what he'd done for going on twenty years; he didn't have the right to quit now.

When the group was mounted on their horses, ignoring the painful growling in their stomachs, they turned their mounts to the highway. They rode in a loose formation, clustering in the middle of the road, taking care not to let their animals get too close together nor too far apart. Michonne noticed that Ivy was smiling forlornly as she stared off into the distance, sometimes going even so far as to close her eyes even as her horse kept moving forward. Maggie noticed too, and it didn't take long to decipher what the Russian was thinking about.

"Who was he? Before?" Maggie asked softly.

"You should know better than me," Ivy replied quietly. "You knew him longer."

"He never said anything about Before," Carl piped up. "He lived with me and Dad for almost eighteen years, he barely ever said anything about Before. Not even about you."

Ivy's sad smile deepened and she murmured something in Russian. "Somehow I'm not surprised. Benjamin was always very private about his own life."

"Why?" Rick asked.

Ivy twisted in the saddle to look at him. "Why are all people quiet about their lives? Shame and hurt."

"Or it's just none of anybody else's business," Daryl growled. Fox lightly brushed his arm with her hand to soothe him.

"Someone with no shame has nothing to hide," Ivy said simply. "Someone who's never been scarred isn't afraid to show their skin." Her pale green gaze zeroed in on Daryl. "You know this more than most. I can see it in you."

Daryl snorted. "You don't see jack shit," he rebuffed.

"The wounded animal bristling to ward away a threat. Your fangs betray you. If it means anything, I don't take it personally," Ivy chided. She shifted in the saddle and glanced towards Rick. "Benjamin came from money. But that money came at a great price. His oldest brother was his parents pride and joy, but he contracted some sort of sickness. His death was slow and agonizing to the whole family, who at the time wasn't poor, but wasn't wealthy either. They couldn't afford to keep him alive for long. Benjamin was six when they put his brother in the ground. They sued the hospital for malpractice and won. Benjy told me it was a ten million dollar settlement, paid in full."

Glenn whistled. "God damn," he breathed. Beside him, Maggie nodded.

"After that, his parents left him alone frequently, always on business, always trying to grow the money pool they'd started. In those days, if you had enough money, you could protect yourself from anything."

Daryl gritted his teeth and he saw Fox shift in a silent form of agreement. She'd grown up poor like he had, just in a different way. She knew what it was like to go through life thinking that if you only had the money most people did that shit wouldn't be so hard. It wasn't until the world ended that their lack of pampering had set them up to outlive almost everyone else who had never struggled for food or other basic necessities before.

"I'm sure his older brother's death influenced his desire to pursue medicine. His parents traveled abroad for work and left him at home with his studies. Did he tell you he graduated high school when he was sixteen, had a degree in organic chemistry by the time he was eighteen, and was starting medical school at the end of that same year?"

Rick shook his head. "He never even said he had a sibling."

Ivy exhaled softly. "Again, I'm not surprised. The source of his family's wealth was his greatest hurt."

"How come he told you?" Carl asked. Daryl could hear the accusatory tone in the young man's voice, but if Ivy did, she ignored it. She shrugged a little as she settled her eyes onto Carl's.

"Benjamin was always good at seeing in others what they never wanted to see in themselves. But he knew better than to pry. Too often someone sets off our alarms and sends us running. He was patient. And maybe back then all I wanted was someone patient." She smiled sadly only to herself and glanced back up at the expanse of empty highway stretched out for miles on end in front of them, as if she could see the whole world unreeling on the sun-bleached asphalt. "He came to Russia for a semester abroad during his second year of medical school. The first night there him and a bunch of his classmates went out to get smashed on Russian vodka. I was bartending and when he was so drunk he could barely walk, I helped him get back to the dorms he was staying at. He was always a lightweight." She rubbed her eyes a little and exhaled a shaky breath. "Everything I saw him do with you, I always knew he had in him."

"I didn't," Daryl admitted quietly.

Ivy twisted in the saddle and smiled a little. "He probably didn't either."

"Anything?" Glenn asked when he saw Daryl come trudging back through the fields they had camped in off the side of the highway, this time surrounded by grass so tall they had to be mounted on their horses to see over it. The wild was taking over what had once been fertile farmland that had fed the country. It wasn't lost on Daryl how this was so much more his element than the world Before, but it didn't make it any easier to survive in.

"Nothing." His irritation was evident as he sat down next to Fox and dropped his crossbow down next to his leg. "I was hoping for at least a couple rodents but something's got 'em scared. They're hiding."

"Can't be you can it?" Michonne asked with a sly look.

Daryl narrowed his eyes at her, but she knew better than to think he was really agitated with her. "Ya go on out there miss priss and see what you get." He picked his teeth with a blade of grass he'd snagged between his fingers. "Whole lotta nothin'."

Fox let her hip press against his briefly before she got up to her feet. Rick was on watch on the highway, pacing slowly back and forth to help keep himself alert as he watched for motion in the small town that was less than ten miles in the distance.

"How you doing?" Fox asked as she came and stood at his side.

He didn't turn to face her. "Hard to say," he muttered.

"You seeing things?" she asked softly. She knew that was dangerous territory, but she wanted to know if he really was ok or not.

"Was," Rick growled quietly. "Now I'm just seeing how far it is between us and Ivy's next cache. And how much food we don't have."

Thunder rumbled over their heads, lightening turning the heavy purple tinged clouds brilliant white for a split second. A chilly wind began to blow and Fox was grateful for the leather jacket she had on. If Rick's bare arms felt the chill, he said nothing. He had a rifle in his hands as he kept his gaze fixed on the town ahead of them, spinning and shifting the gun every so often.

"We're three days shy of the river. When we get there we have a guarantee for food, but until then…" He squeezed the stock of the rifle hard, the tendons in his hand popping out against his weathered skin.

"We'll make it," she assured him.

He turned to speak to her but he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye. Daryl had left the loose circle that the rest of camp had made and was jogging towards them, urgency ratcheting every step.

"We have to move, now," he panted. He glanced at Fox, the urgency in his eyes so plain that it shocked her. "I just saw lightening hit one of the fields behind us. It won't be much longer before it sparks a fire. If it pens us in, we're trapped."

No sooner had the words made it past his teeth than another bolt slammed into the ground as if hurled from Zeus himself. Immediately thick plumes of white smoke began to bloom over the grass less than half a mile behind them.

They took off running; Daryl and Maggie moving towards the horses to untie their leads while the others packed up what little they had with them. By the time they were in the saddle, the wind was carrying the scent of acrid smoke straight down their throats. Fear thrummed through Daryl's chest like a kick inside his ribcage. Fire. It had cost him his mother's life, and very nearly his own. He tried to hit the breaks on the runaway memory train, but it only worked so well as the combined weight of his family's fear hit him all at the same time.

They drove their horses onto the asphalt at a high gallop, the flames already sweeping across the plains towards them faster than any of them could have even anticipated. With nothing to slow it down or stand in its way they all knew that the flames would engulf anything that couldn't outpace them.

"Ivy, we need the fastest way to the river!" Rick called.

"The river's too far away and we can't double back. There's a stream that feeds into the river, if we cross it we stand a chance!"

She wheeled her horse towards the right and spurned him with her shoes. She took off at a headlong gallop and the others followed out of instinct, their riders doing their best to just stay in the saddle. Daryl had an easier time of it than most, but he could see Fox was shaking and slipping. He dared a glance over their shoulders and saw how bad their situation was. The flames had already jumped the road thanks to the wind blowing the loosened, still burning debris, and now their field was rapidly becoming engulfed as well. The horses brayed with deep throated calls of panic as their riders drove them nearly parallel to the flames. Daryl's own fear was like their hooves pounding into the ground except it was inside his skull, hounding every bit of logic and beating it to useless pulp. The smoke was beginning to sting their eyes and cloud their vision. Ivy had already yanked her mask back up around her nose and mouth, leaving only her eyes visible. The others quickly did their best to copy with whatever fabric they had on hand even as their horses bolted through the field.

They had no choice but to keep running, no matter how dizzying the smoke became. If they stopped for even a second to collect their bearings the flames would overtake them, but even when the stream came into sight they were forced to turn parallel towards it and bolt back the way they'd come because otherwise the flames would close in on them. Overhead the thunder snarled like a monster from hell and Daryl could only hope that the rain wouldn't hold out much longer. Because as they searched for a way to cross, they all saw with terrible desperation that another bolt of lightening slammed into the ground across the stream and turned the scorched field of grass into a lake of fire.

"We're trapped!" Glenn howled.

They all yanked their horses to a stop as they struggled to keep in some kind of formation and not lose each other in the smoke. Daryl's brain was on overdrive, trying to see them a way out of this when he heard Rick's voice through the smoke.

"Through the water! If we run through the water and cross the flames we'll make it! Fire can't burn what it's already used!"

He spurned is horse towards the stream, trying to get him to go down the bank and into the water itself as the flames came ever closer, but a horse's natural response to fire was paralytic fear. No matter how hard Rick urged he couldn't make his mount move one step. Daryl was about to smack the horse in the rear to get him moving when Maggie threw herself out of the saddle. She ripped her outer shirt off and used the sleeves to tie the main body of the shirt around her horse's head, completely blocking out it's vision.

"Cover their eyes! They'll follow if they can't see!"

Everybody followed her lead, using their outer shirts or blankets, anything that they had to blind their animals before yanking on their bridles tugging them down the creek bed and into the murky water. The chill of it hit Daryl at mid thigh and he could only hope that nothing dangerous was living in here as he dragged his horse forward. There was a noticeable current which didn't make resistance from the animal he was pulling behind him any easier to deal with. The flames swept over their heads, the high winds billowing the balls of orange and red right where they had been standing not a minute before. The horses screamed with terror, bucking against the human hands holding them, but the riders held on for everything they were worth, dragging them through the water.

"How much further?" Maggie choked out as she struggled to breathe through the clouds of smoke and ash blowing all around them.

"Can't tell!" Rick coughed. The ash and the heated temperature of the air was making his eyes and skin burn ferociously as though he were baking in the afternoon sun of a Georgia summer. More thunder echoed overhead, but the roar of the fire almost drowned it out as they struggled to keep their footing in the slick mud of the creek. Suddenly Michonne cried out with surprise and terror as her foot slipped and she went sliding into the water feet first as her horse reared up on it's hind legs, kicking out wildly as the cover on its eyes slipped. They all lunged to try and grab Michonne but the current of the water pulled her further away from them. She bucked and thrashed, trying to get a hold on anything to stop her forward motions, just as three ashen Walker bodies rose from the water, struggling and kicking out, arms outstretched for the swordswoman headed their way.

Fox unsheathed one of her throwing knives and sent it hurling forward with all her might, slamming one Walker right in the skull but the other two latched onto Michonne, tearing at her legs even as she kicked out with all the strength she had, while her hand grabbed onto the root of a plant that had been growing into the side of the creek bed. Her booted foot slammed into the jaw of one of the Walkers that had a hold of her, sending many teeth flying but still it scrabbled at her. She cried out even as Carl finally reached her and grabbed a hold of her hand and her arm to try and haul her away from the other Walkers while Rick pulled his machete loose and with a ferocious roar struck one of the Walkers in the skull, setting Michonne loose from the corpse's fingers. He spun and was swinging back to slice the other head free when a bolt suddenly appeared in the creature's skull, silencing its movements forever.

"Got your back," Daryl huffed as he worked his way down the stream to yank his arrow loose of the monster's forehead. He grabbed the other body that was now starting to float away and pulled out Fox's knife before kicking the stiff in the shoulder to get the oozing body away from them.

Rick and Carl helped Michonne back onto her feet and they gathered their horse's reins again, securing their bonds over their eyes, continuing to tug them forward down the creek, but they hadn't gone more than twenty five feet when an earsplitting crack of thunder struck just over their heads, causing them all to cower down at it's force. But right at that moment, the torrents opened up and water came gushing down from the sky.

Grey smoke turned to white, the snarling crackle of the fire died, the temperature of the air began to drop significantly as the heavy rain continued falling. One by one they managed out of the creek and back onto the nearby highway, now soaked through to the bone, but still alive. All around them in every direction the fields were scorched completely black, the acrid smell of ash flooding their senses as further in the distance the fire still raged, but fortunately, heading away from their current direction.

"Where now?" Carl asked his father as he tried to mop the water and grey, ashen mud away from his face and skin, blinking his eyes rapidly to try and keep them clear.

"The river," Rick said firmly. "The sooner we make it there the better."

They were all untying the clothes from around their horses' eyes and mounting up when Rick approached Michonne. She was leaning up against her horse, still shivering, but Rick doubted it was from the rain. "You ok?" he asked as he cautiously came towards her.

She started, almost jumping back from him, her fingers tightening onto the reins of her horse. "Yeah. I'm fine," she huffed. Her dreadlocks were streaming water rapidly down her shoulders and chest, pouring over her ebony skin in thick sheets. "Why did you do that? You could have been killed!"

Rick managed an almost exhausted smile for her. "You're one of us."

And wonder of wonders, she smiled back.

piratejessieswaby: Please get the kids back to the others x.

They are certainly going to do their best xD

DarylDixon'sLover: I hope the kids get back with their families

Don't they all? That is certainly what I think most everyone wants. And they're not about to go down without a fight, that's for certain…

Brittney: I can't wait for Luna to meet Merle! Mal and Leland will be getting their butts kicked by Daryl and Rick when the reunion finally happens...I can't wait till the next chapter :)

Oh that is going to be so epic, I am so stoked to start writing that interaction for sure. Mal and Leland surely will have /lots/ of explaining to do if/when they meet Daryl and Rick that's for damn sure. XD

Emberka-2012: They want to ask for help Merle? Interesting idea. I can not imagine how to meet uncle and niece. Yeah, when Daryl and Rick will find their girls, will be a question, "what two-daddy bear will do to their daughters boyfriends?".

Oh don't worry my friend, I have that all planned out, though the logistics might be a tad stretched, I think it still works. Heh, if Mal and Leland thought Luna and Judith were tough, they're walks in the park compared to their fathers. That should be interesting, for certain.