"You held in there as long as you could, baby bro," Merle was saying.

Daryl stared at his older brother darkly. The soldiers were conferring and he hadn't been invited. Even Rick wasn't involved in their super secret conversation, though he was caught up in hugging Carl and Judith, relieved to have survived.

Dawn was beginning to crest over the horizon, reminding everyone that is had been a long and sleepless night.

Andrea, Glenn and Michonne were being useful and fixing the gate. It would hold out walkers and give them a chance to get some sleep before tracking down the Governor. Enough was enough. The bastard had to die.

Daryl was standing off to the side with only Merle for company though at this point he'd rather be alone then listening to any more of Merle's 'insightful' commentary.

"You just can't trust women folk like that. They'll break your heart an' leave you cryin' in their wake."

Merle's words might have been sympathetic if he didn't sound so god damned pleased with himself.

Daryl tried not to roll his eyes at Merle's words. His obvious delight that things might have ended badly was grating and premature. Mara still hadn't looked at Eric with anything more than stunned bewilderment. He wasn't exactly worried about Mara. It was the way Eric tracked her movements that let Daryl know he wasn't the only one that loved her and that was what made him uncomfortable.

Nathan was looking at the other sergeant with thinly concealed distaste for the man. The man seemed brash and arrogant. He had been dismissive of the group at the prison and that had already rubbed Daryl the wrong way.

The two teams fanned out behind their respective sergeants, looking a bit like two rival gangs that wore very similar clothes. They all seemed to know each other and Daryl assumed that they had gone through training together. There was clearly no love lost there.

Mara caught his eye and her pained expression would have made him smile in any other circumstance. He managed to tune out Merle's annoying contributions and focus on his relief that she wasn't hurt, though some part of him felt guilty that he hadn't been the one to save her. She had needed him and he had failed, though she would tell him he was stupid for thinking that way.

A presence joined them and Daryl turned his head to acknowledge Elias. The man had been lying down when the Australians had begun their conversation and Daryl still wasn't sure he should be on his feet.

"How you doin'?" Daryl asked, cutting Merle off mid-insult.

"Fine," Elias answered though he wasn't. His colour was awful and Daryl had managed to get a good look at the cut before Hershel had carefully stitched him up. If Elias didn't have a concussion than Daryl was a unicorn.

"What's your opinion of them new comers?" Merle asked, jerking his finger in the soldier direction. Daryl wasn't surprised that Merle wanted an inside assessment. He had been yammering on but he'd also been watching them just as closely as Daryl had been.

Elias frowned as he thought it through. "Cheiny's a dick-"

Merle snorted at Elias' blunt description but didn't interrupt.

"-but the others might be different. They could just be badly behaved because of Cheiny's influence."

Daryl crossed his arms. "Monkey see, monkey do?"

Elias nodded. "But these monkeys have guns."

"I reckon we could handle them," Merle stated.

Daryl had to fight not to sigh. Merle would have claimed he could handle an entire army division all on his lonesome.

"You think it was the Governor's men?" Daryl asked, changing the subject to the attack.

"Without a doubt. I recognised some of the men from Woodbury."

"He's gotten ballsy," Daryl muttered.

"You got that backwards, brother," Merle disagreed, "He's always been ballsy but now he's got the numbers to do the damage. This here was just foreplay."

...

Eric hadn't deluded himself into thinking that his appearance would be a magic bandaid for him and Mara. He had hoped it would give her an opportunity to see him in a different light, to see that their ideals were more aligned now than before. He hadn't planned on kissing her but seeing her that close to death, being the one to pull those creatures off her, he hadn't been able to stop himself.

The kiss had lasted only a few seconds before he'd been torn away by a rough scruffy man at least a decade older than him. That had been followed by a punch that had almost sent him to his knees. He'd had every intention of retaliating until Mara had intervened. She had inserted herself between him and the new guy.

Eric had taken a step back, quickly figuring out that this man was one of her allies. At least he had thought ally until they had walked away from him. Mara had wrapped herself around that man like he was the only person in the world that mattered. When she had kissed his cheek, Eric's chest felt tight.

Eric hadn't suspected that Mara would come to Georgia and find someone and that person was the last man Eric would have thought of as being her type. The man was a stereotypical red neck who had batted her hand away when she'd tried to touch him with affection. Mara had just smiled indulgently and when she walked away the man had love in his eyes. He looked at Mara the same way Eric had.

...

Mara was glad when the other soldiers had set themselves up outside. They were grating at the best of times and, after the evening they had, they didn't need outsiders disturbing the balance they'd established in the prison.

Mara ran a hand through her hair, unaware that she left blood in the brown strands as a result. She didn't want to over think the fact she considered fellow Australian soldiers as 'outsiders'. If had been another team other than Cheiny's maybe it would have been better.

Nathan had accepted their offer to guard while the others got some sleep and, to some extent, they trusted them to keep them safe but Cheiny was bound to be trouble.

Nathan had given them all dark looks, articulately telling them that even though it was dawn there was more discussion to be had once they were back inside and had some privacy.

Mara had passed Merle on the way back inside and he had given her a sideways smirk that said he knew she'd mess up when it came to his brother. Mara couldn't muster up the energy to explain that she had no control over what Eric did. She was still surprised that he was here.

Eric wasn't suited to war; he was a relaxed person who struggled to give situations the gravity they deserved. That said, anyone with medical experience and a stocked first aid kit could only be a boon to the group. She wouldn't be explaining that one to Daryl any time soon though. Daryl's insecurities were going to be driven to the forefront in the instance.

Mara couldn't be too annoyed with Merle. He'd just fought by her side, coming between her and death on a number of occasions. Merle might enjoy trouble but not enough to let her get killed, which was comforting. Still, she wasn't pleased to see the Dixon brothers standing shoulder to shoulder right now. Mara wanted to get Daryl by himself so she could at least start the process of explaining.

By some unspoken agreement, everyone gathered in the common area. Exhaustion and fatigue were obvious on everyone's face but this was too important to delay.

"Can we trust them?" Rick asked Nathan. There was no time to mix words. People needed sleep more than diplomacy.

"To an extent," Nathan offered unhappily. Mara knew the feeling. The trust they instilled in them was more due to the uniform they wore than any kind of personality traits.

"They won't slit our throats in our sleep if that's what you're wondering," Yussuf said with a yawn. With Cheiny out of sight, Yussuf had relaxed a little.

"Reassuring," Maggie said in a tone that indicated it was anything but.

Rick hadn't taken his eyes off Nathan.

Nathan sighed. "Cheiny is the worst but he's a commanding personality and the others will likely follow his lead."

"Who are the others?" Hershel asked. "If we have to share a living space with them shouldn't we at least know their names?"

Nathan actually looked a little blank and Mara had to confess she was hard pressed to remember the names of Cheiny's men. Yussuf mostly refereed to them as 'the goons.' Christine refereed to them as something Mara wouldn't say in front of Carl and Judith.

"Richard, Paul, Frank and David," Elias ended up answering, checking names against his fingers. There was a faint reddish tinge to the bandage on his forehead now and Mara realised how badly he'd been injured. She was glad that he seemed lucid.

"Don't forget Eric," Yussuf added, trying not to look at Mara as he said it. Perhaps because he thought if he didn't look at her then she wouldn't see the first hints of a grin. But Mara knew Yussuf too well and already suspected that while he was displeased with the current turn of events, he would still get a little mischievous pleasure out of her predicament.

Nathan shot Mara a full on look as if something had changed in the last ten minutes and she might suddenly have answers about why Eric was there.

Mara shrugged, "Don't look at me." She tried not to sound too defensive but she wanted to make it clear that she had no allegiance to Eric. She heard Daryl mutter under his breath but couldn't hear the specifics. It was probably a good thing too judging by the dirty look that Carol shot him. She was holding Judith and clearly didn't think Daryl's language was anything fit for a baby to hear.

"We have to decide what to do about the Governor!" Glenn said darkly. "I think that's more important than these soldier's names and whether we can trust them."

"Don't under estimate the enemy livin' in your home, boy," Merle countered sardonically.

Glenn visibly tensed at being addressed directly by Merle and being called 'boy' but he didn't retaliate, which was progress.

"The Governor is the more pressing problem," Rick agreed.

"Maybe we can discuss this after some sleep," Hershel suggested, laying a hand on Rick's shoulder. "None of them look up to crafting a strategic strike."

Rick glanced around the group and saw that Hershel was right. Andrea was leaning against the wall, obviously too tired to support her own weight. Even Michonne was watching the conversation through slitted eyes.

Rick nodded. "Grab a couple of hours sleep everybody. Eat something too. I wanna go after him tomorrow."

Andrea looked at the ground as Rick spoke but didn't offer an argument.

"You think he's still close?" Christine asked.

"I know it," Rick said. "I can feel it." Nobody questioned how Rick could feel it.

Now dismissed, Mara only wanted to get the blood off her. That's all she could think about and so, joined by Christine and Maggie, she ducked down to the shower block and had a shower so quick it defied belief. Back home her father had always complained about how long she'd spend in the shower. He wouldn't know her now.

When she was done, Mara didn't even bother going to her cell. She went straight to Daryl's. He was sitting on the bed with a wet rag in his hand. He had been wiping the blood off his own arms. His skin was clean now but he still sat there, absently staring in front of him with a slight frown on his face.

Standing there now, Mara couldn't find words. She was just too tired to navigate the minefield of Daryl's emotional trauma and mistrust.

He seemed to be waiting for her to say something but he wasn't breaking the silence either. Mara neatly moved around him so that she could slide into the cell bed. There were some days when she thought these tiny prison cots were designed to torture people. Other days, like today, she thought it was the most comfortable thing in the entire world.

She stretched out under the covers, already feeling the ache in her muscles set in. It would be worse in a few hours but at least she was alive.

Daryl watched her for a bit and then, after a moment of hesitation, got in beside her. The beds were so narrow that even if they had wanted to put space between them, it was physically impossible. Mara didn't want even a centimetre between them.

She was glad he got in with her instead of walking out of the cell. Back when she'd first known him, when he barely trusted her, he probably would have left just to protect himself.

Mara curled herself around his warm body, glad that he'd taken his shirt off so she could feel his skin against hers. She exhaled and a tension she didn't even know she had been holding left her body. Being in Daryl's arms felt right and seeing Eric again hadn't changed that at all.

Mara shifted so his heart was right under her ear. The steady beat of it was soothing and she shut her eyes so she could focus on it. Daryl had wrapped his arms around her, fingers almost digging into her bicep he was holding her so close.

Mara understood that, more than anything, Daryl was struck by how close he had come to losing her today. He couldn't put it into words, that just wasn't Daryl's style, but he could show her with his body. And so Mara responded in kind. She shifted slightly so she could press a kiss to the spot where his heart beat.

Who needed words?

AN: I'm pretty tired right this second so please excuse and grammatical errors lurking in there. I have this idea of who Eric is in my head and I'm trying to give him life on the page. He's a bump in the road so to speak but not a one dimensional villain either. Please review, kind people. It makes my soul sing.