This chapter does have a lemon in it, so yeah . . . it was pretty fun to write, I won't lie ;)

And by the way, this fanfiction will follow the course of the show, pretty much. This part of Daryl and Tessa's life is actually going to probably span until the last episode of season two and then the next part, which will be an entirely new story, will pick up first or second episode of season three.

- Nagiana


Favorite Line(s):

She felt his knees buckle slightly and felt a spear of smugness shoot up her spine. This man, who claimed to be so badass with his crossbow and his 'walker killin'' and his hunting skills – who claimed and appeared to be so omnipotent and immortal, could be felled with just one well-placed stroke of her tongue in his mouth. It reminded her just how much of a man Daryl Dixon really was.


"Jesus, Tessa, will you settle down; your acting like you just downed a triple red-eye!"

Tessa couldn't help but laugh as she glanced over at Dale approaching her, a worried look in the old man's eyes as he did so. She shook her head, a soft look appearing in hers. "Don't worry about me, Dale, I'm just . . ." She sighed and shrugged. "They've been gone for hours and they're not back yet. I'm just worried for Ethan, that's all." Dale's eyes softened at the explanation, and he chuckled as he placed a gentle hand on her back.

"Come on now and join us by the fire; it's starting to grow a tad chilly." He urged, and Tessa nodded as she allowed him to lead her to one of the empty chairs, where she took a seat. Rick smiled in amusement at her through the crackling fire. Dale was right – it was much warmer by the fire and as she sat there growing warmer and warmer, she found her worries slowly ebbing away.

"Tessa, take my word for it - your boy is with one of the best shots I've ever seen! Daryl is a little hot-headed, granted, but there is no one better he could be out there with." He assured her before smiling a comforting smile. "It's just . . . taking them a while to get back, that's all." He gave her a nonchalant shrug then, and Tessa gave him a small, grateful smile at him.

"I hope so, Rick, I really do!" She replied and it was then that Dale's brows knitted together in interest.

"Now, Tessa, we didn't really get to ask last night, but we're probably all dying to know just where you and Ethan are from, originally?" He asked, changing the subject, and she sighed and let out a laugh.

"Now that is a long story! Uh, the short version is that my parents were full blooded Cherokee going back centuries and centuries – all the way back to the Trail of Tears. So, understandably, they grew up on a reservation somewhere out west where our family was relocated. I was born there but I was very young when we moved and unfortunately, I forgot the name. They never told me it either, so I never figured it out. When my grandmother died, which was probably the only reason we stayed out there to begin with – to take care of her and to be with her in her twilight years – we finally packed everything up and moved. When we did, my father decided to move us to Shooter's Mill."

"Which is where Daryl and Merle are from, right?" Rick asked, and Tessa nodded.

"Yeah – that's how I know him, err . . . them, I guess. Daryl and I went to the same highschool together and when he graduated, was when we officially started dating. In highschool we were just really, really good friends but when his graduation rolled around, we decided to . . . make it official."

"So you two were highschool sweethearts, then?" Andrea asked with a grin, and Tessa grinned as well and laughed.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that we were."

"How did you parents approve of the match?" Lori asked in interest, and Tessa shrugged.

"Like I told Carol earlier, back then, Daryl was a lot less crass than he is now. And also back then, my parents were working much of the time, so I barely ever saw them. Hell, I don't even think they ever met Daryl more than once, they were gone so much! So, while it was really just me, Daryl was one of the only friends I had and for a while there, so was Merle. Hell, whenever their father wasn't home, their place became was like my second residence – at least until I got my own apartment. And when I did move out and get my own apartment, was when my parents decided to move to another Cherokee reservation somewhere north of Atlanta – which was where me and Ethan come from. They were social workers and they thought that their talents could be of particular use there, speaking that reservation was well known for its troubled youth – instead of staying in Shooter's Mill. When they left, all I truly had then was Daryl and Merle – especially Daryl!" They all nodded then, content to leave it there for now and when they did, was when they all heard rustling in the brush.

Rick, Shane and T-Dog dove for their guns, however, it was a false alarm as only Ethan and Daryl ducked out of the brush and into view. Immediately, a broad beam appeared on Tessa's face as she jumped to her feet and ran for them. "Ethan – oh thank God your back!"

Ethan only had enough time to brace himself before he felt himself being drawn into the surprisingly strong arms of his mother, where she hugged him to her tightly. Daryl sighed and gingerly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'm back too, safe and sound and without a bite or a scratch on me – so don' worry 'bout me none!" He told her, his tone a little bitter, and Tessa simply smiled as she broke apart from her son and moved over to Daryl. One of her hands slid up and over his chest as she moved to embrace him in a tight hug as well, despite the dead squirrels and the rabbit that swung almost grotesquely from his belt. Immediately, Daryl froze at the touch and when she moved to release him, he visibly relaxed. However, she paused and stood up on her tiptoes to whisper into his ear and he tensed again.

"Thank you so much for giving him a chance, Daryl! You have no idea how much it means to me!" She whispered before her lips met his stubbled chin in a gentle kiss. For a moment, the need to turn his head – to capture her lips with his own and to deepen the kiss to near passionate levels – was almost too great for him to pass up. However, he managed to rein himself back in at the last minute, and when she finally withdrew from him and settled back onto her feet, he allowed himself to release that breath that he had been holding in since she had first moved over to him.

"I, uh . . . I gotta go . . . go clean these squirrels for supper . . ." He found himself stammering as a light blush appeared on his face, and Tessa smiled a small smile as she placed her arm around her son's shoulders and steered him in the direction of the others huddled around the campfire.

Hot damn, she still looks as purdy as ever, don't she? Hell, she looks like she could still suck tha chrome off a trailer hitch! Merle's voice was soon accompanied by laughter in his head. And tha' kid, too . . . guess tha' makes ya a bonafide squaw hopper, eh baby brother?

Daryl continued on his way to his truck and the still lowered tailgate, determined to push Merle's voice from his head. Fuck him. He had never tolerated Merle talking that way about Tessa before and he certainly wouldn't stop then – voice in his head or not!


Supper that night was a semi-somber affair. Everyone sat grouped around the roaring campfire, quietly eating their food and rarely saying much of anything. Everyone listened for the sound of walkers in the woods and the crickets and cicadas chirping in the gloom of the forest not that far from their campsite were the only sounds that pierced their otherwise completely silent night. The stars twinkled above them high overhead, and Tessa found herself closing her eyes fairly often throughout the entire dinner, even when she had been busy eating. If she concentrated hard enough, she could pretend that the walkers had never come – that they weren't real. She could pretend that this was all just a camping trip between friends – a trip that once it was over, they would go their separate ways and return to their homes and their individual lives.

But where was her home now? Where was Ethan's home? Was it back on the Cherokee reservation on the other side of Georgia – with Sam and their life of lower to middle-class boredom? Or was it with the man sitting beside her – the redneck hick that she had left behind and subsequently found herself pregnant with his child? Had her home ever been with him?

And as she thought those last words, she mentally kicked herself in the ass. Her home had always been with Daryl, Merle around or not - who was she kidding? Everything had always made sense with Daryl and nothing seem to matter whereas everything did with Sam. Money hadn't mattered so long as they could afford everything they needed because, after all, they had each other. Who needed money when you had the one you loved? With Sam, money had always been an issue.

However, in the end, when it all came out in the wash, not even the sex – that mind-numbing, toe-curling entwining of their bodies - mattered either. When it came to Merle, nothing – not money, not sex – found itself mattering when he stepped into her life and subsequently into her relationship with Daryl. In the beginning, she knew that Merle was his brother – that she had no room to complain, because, after all, family was everything, right? And at first, his racial slurs and his anger were funny, if not a little endearing and she tolerated them simply for the fact that him and Daryl were the only two people in Shooter's Mill that she could even remotely call her friends and/or family. And when its entertainment value started to decline and started to border more on irking her than anything else, then Daryl just came by her apartment whenever they couldn't stand to be away from each other any longer and they found that mostly everything reverted back to normal.

But like she had told him earlier, love could handle only so much. And with Merle Dixon, that hadn't turned out to be a lot.

"Hey, ya okay?"

Tessa jumped out of her thoughts and nearly out of her skin, when Daryl gently elbowed her in the ribs to get her attention. She smiled a tight smile and glanced at him, where she nodded. "Yeah, yeah, just . . . thinking about how things were way back when." She told him and Daryl nodded, his eyes telling her that he understood and she knew he did. She had no doubt in her mind that her abandonment of him hit him infinitely harder than she could even begin to comprehend and once again, a lance of guilt pierced through her heart.

They sat there for a moment, Tessa and Daryl in their chairs by the campfire, and watched as everyone slowly left them for their cots and sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses in the tents and the Winnebago. Ethan had fallen asleep long ago, his head pillowed on his mother's legs, and she smiled down at him as she lovingly brushed her son's hair out of his face. "You know, it constantly surprises me how he can sleep so deeply while all this shit is going on around him . . ." She told him, her voice quiet, and Daryl glanced at her but didn't answer, his fingers moving to rub at his lips. His eyes flickered down to the kid's dark head lying on his mother's thighs – his kid's dark head lying on his mother's thighs - and his tongue darted out to lick at his bottom lip.

"Ya know what they say 'bout kids, Tess - they always somehow manage to bounce back." He replied, and she grinned and let out a wearied laugh.

"He's only thirteen, but he's not a kid, Daryl - not how Carl is still a kid, anyway. His childhood ended the day he shot a bullet through a walker's head; the day he saw those-those walkers pin someone underneath them and rip their guts out through their stomach . . ." She shook her head then and it took a moment for Daryl to realize that her hands were shaking as they continued to brush Ethan's black hair out of his face and that tears were brimming in her eyes. "When you have a child, you want so badly to shield them from every unfairness in the world for as long as you can – if you love them, of course! In this world, though, there is no shielding them. You either live or you die and age is never taken into account! It's such a cruel, Darwinian existence . . ."

They stayed silent for a moment before Daryl finally spoke. When he did, his voice was low and quiet, not at all unlike his normal grumble. "Ya know . . . Merle knew ya'd left before I even did . . ." He confessed, and Tessa's eyes shot up to his, wide with surprise. It was a look that had Daryl simply shrugging his shoulders. "Don' ask me how, but he did." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she moved slightly closer to him – as close as she dared without waking up Ethan. The dying fire still flickering in front of them cast eerie shadows on the man's rugged and exhaustion lined face and she shook her head in slight disbelief.

"What did he tell you?"

"He told me ya were dead; that ya died in a car accident comin' back from Atlanta," He replied, his eyes pinned onto the flickering flames. "And I believed him – why wouldn' I? I . . . I couldn' move on after ya, though. I mean, yeah, I had one-night stands and those drunken flings everyone talks about, but a relationship – a genuine relationship tha' takes actual work to keep goin' . . .!" He shrugged his shoulders then. "I couldn' do it. Don' know why, I just couldn'!" He turned his eyes onto her. "Ya were tha only woman tha' I ever loved, Tess. And after ya left, I . . . I jus' couldn' love again." She grinned and looked down, blinking back her tears.

"I bet that certainly gave Merle fuel for his ever-present racial fire. 'Ah, Daryl, she's jus' a bushnigger – ya can move on!'" Daryl grunted in amusement.

"Ya sounded jus' like him for a minute there . . ." He grumbled and Tessa shrugged.

"Yeah, well . . . I should, shouldn't I? I was around him a lot back then – more than I wanted to be, actually . . ."

"Was it really tha' bad . . . bein' with me?" He asked, turning his eyes onto her and she swallowed hard and shook her head. "'Cause at times, I know it jus' 'bout damn killed ya!"

"You were one of the only good things at that time of my life, Daryl. I loved you for you – I was with you for you, not Merle!" Her hand smoothed over his cheek then, gently turning his eyes onto hers. "And Daryl, as stupid as it sounds, please believe me when I tell you that I still love you, thirteen years later!"

He turned an expressionless gaze onto her and she let out a defeated sigh as she leaned in and kissed him. It was slow and he froze at first but then it grew steadily deeper and more passionate when he finally kissed her back. Her hand slid up his neck to fist in his hair and she jerked him to her, the both of them starting to breathe out harshly through their noses as their tongues fought for a dominance that they hadn't fought in such a very long time.

But soon, the tables found themselves turning. When Tessa found herself submitting to the fierce insistence of his tongue, Daryl found himself in control of the kiss. He tore his lips away from her and instead planted them on the pulse-point of her neck but froze, however, when Ethan shifted in her lap, reminding them of his presence. Daryl let out a little groan and Tessa grinned and laughed as he withdrew from her, his hands moving to rub his face.

"Damn kid – interruptin' at tha worst fuckin' minute!" He grumbled and although his grumble was one of irritation, his eyes sparkled in amusement. She smiled a small smile, a slightly conspiratorial smile.

"Well, we can always carry him inside to his sleeping bag . . ." Daryl turned his eyes onto Tessa and she shrugged. "And I can, uh . . ." Her eyes flashed in the firelight. "Find myself sleeping in your tent for the night . . . if-if that's what you want, of course!" Even in the firelight, Daryl could see the blush that tinged her cheeks at her words, and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards in a smile as he nodded.

"I'd like nothin' else in tha world, Tess . . ."


That night, they made love for the first time since the night she left him thirteen-years-ago – a lovemaking that seemed so out of place in such a shitty world, that for a moment, Daryl and Tessa thought that they had dreamed the whole encounter – they were afraid that they had dreamed it, in fact.

They had ended up carrying Ethan into the Winnebago a few minutes after Tessa suggested spending the night with him in his tent, Daryl careful not to wake anyone up as he deposited his son gently onto his sleeping bag. As Ethan let out a sigh and shifted onto his side, his face burying into the fabric stretched out underneath him, Daryl felt Tessa's hand slide into his. She pulled him gently backwards - towards the outside world and his tent beyond and this time, he didn't flinch at her touch – he welcomed it.

The tent was a pretty good sized one - big enough to where you could stand up in it and have room to move around (well, Tessa could, Daryl had to stoop slightly). Black crossbow leaning against one of the support poles, the only sound that filled the air was Daryl zipping up the tent entrance after he followed her inside. When he turned around, he found his lips connecting with hers again as her arms moving to wrap around his neck. They stood there and continued to kiss for a moment, and when they finally broke apart, their breathing came slightly ragged. He took the time to gaze at her profile bathed in the light of the moon shining in through the thin nylon fabric of the tent, and shook his head in halfway wonderment.

"Ya have no idea how long I've been wantin' ya touch, Tess . . . to feel ya hair runnin' through ma fingers and down along ma body . . . ya lips pressed against mine . . ." He shook his head as his fingers moved into her hair to gently tilt her gaze up to his. " . . . And now, standin' here in front of ya - as close to ya as I've been in thirteen long, Goddamn years, I find myself longin' to remember what it feels like to have ya tongue in ma mouth . . .!"

The last statement came out in a strangled, desire-filled croak and Tessa swallowed the knot that had been steadily building up in her throat as he scooped her up in his strong arms and pressed his lips hard to hers again. Her mouth parted underneath his and his tongue delved deep in-between her lips and teeth, where it came into a heated contact with hers milliseconds later. When she kissed him back, her tongue found its way past his lips to run up the roof of his mouth, and he let out a guttural groan that seemed to shake his entire body.

She felt his knees buckle slightly and felt a spear of smugness shoot up her spine. This man, who claimed to be so badass with his crossbow and his 'walker killin' and his huntin' skills – who claimed and appeared to be so omnipotent and immortal, could be felled with just one well-placed stroke of her tongue in his mouth. It reminded her just how much of a man he really was.

Fingers clenched in her dark hair and he cradled her head in his hand as he gently lowered them down onto the blown up mattress lying on the ground a couple of feet away from them, their lips still connected and their tongues still fervidly coupling. Slowly and methodically, they divested each other of their outer clothing; flannel shirts and socks and boots moved to fall to the ground beside them, the articles doomed to be long forgotten for at least a few hours. They broke apart long enough for him to pull his shirt over his head and she couldn't help but run her hands along the smooth, rippling plain of his chest and stomach before allowing her fingers to follow the line of sparse hair that stretched down underneath his belly button, only to disappear into his belted jeans. His breath hitched and his body trembled as she ran her fingers lightly over the bulge of his trousers to cup him.

Again, she was reminded from just one touch, just how much of a man Daryl Dixon really was, and she couldn't help but grin at the fact.

He let out another groan at her touch, and she stiffened slightly at the fear that the others might hear them. She calmed down, though, when he shook his head and continued to divest them of their clothes, silently telling her not to worry about them – to only allow herself to focus on them. Her walking out of his tent in the morning would be all the others would need, to know about what was up between them.

Remaining clothes finally free of their frames and lying forgotten along with the other articles of clothing they had removed moments earlier, their bare skin felt scorching hot when they finally pressed against each other without any barrier of any form between them. The first ecstatic moan that came from her throat when he first entered her was cut short as his lips joined hers in a silencing kiss. She could feel his grin against her lips at the sound.

She writhed between the smooth, all-encompassing warmth of his body and the slightly rough clothe of the army blanket stretched out along the length of the mattress underneath them. She arched her back with heady pleasure as he sunk down into her again and again, his hips rocking against hers with a slow, torturous passion that momentarily left her breathless and aching for so much more. Groans and pleads came to her lips but he said nothing aside from those scarce groans that fell from his lips every now and then whenever he felt the smooth ripple of her inner muscles tighten around him just a little bit more, but answered her pleas with what she wanted - going faster when commanded and harder when begged.

Eventually, their breathing hitched and slowed in tandem as they finished each other off in a heady reunion. She lay there motionless afterwards, half on his chest and half off of him in his warm embrace, her eyes fluttering close as his fingers stroked almost lovingly through her hair. Perhaps he had somehow planned it this way, where entrapment was inextricably entwined with the overpowering draw of the dark, heady desire that had always existed between them ever since their first night together in the barn, but she couldn't be sure.

They lay there for a moment, listening to the crickets and cicadas chirp outside the tent and it was then that Daryl reached over and began fiddling with something in the back pocket of his jeans. Tessa's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she craned her head over his chest to better see what he was doing.

"I was savin' these puppies . . . for a special moment . . ." He told her, teasingly proud as he finally brought a rumpled packet of Marlboro cigarettes into view. Tessa's eyes brightened at the sight.

"Daryl, where did you manage to find them?" She asked him, and he chuckled as he glanced down at her.

"It jus' so happens to be ma secret . . .!" He mumbled as he took one out and lit it with a match from a box of matches that he nicked from the Winnebago. He took a long draw before Tessa got tired of waiting and almost snatched it from his hand, where she too took a long inhale. The smoke flooded her senses and she wanted to let out a moan of bliss, however, the slightly amused gaze he settled onto her made her want to laugh instead. "Hey, do ya mind? Get ya own!" He remarked as he took it back from her and she shook her head.

"What if I don't want my own?" Daryl's eyes lit up with amusement as he took another drag and for a moment, Tessa thought she was with the much younger Daryl – the Daryl she had known and fallen in love with before she left him.

"Well then, ya jus' shit out of luck, I 'spect!" He grinned then, his eyes flashing in the darkness. "Though I do wish we had a bottle of Maker's Mark on hand . . ." Tessa grinned up at him and he nodded and continued: "I dreamed about tha' last night, actually . . . our first time together in tha barn tha night of ma graduation. . ."

"Was it like you remembered it being?" She asked him, and he nodded as he handed her the cigarette. She took it from him as he answered her:

"Yeah, it was pretty damn spot on . . ." He winked at her. "Ya were a little bit thinner back then, though -!" He managed to get out before her slapping him on the chest interrupted his laughter. He brought her closer to him with an arm wrapped around her and that quickly stopped the slaps.

"Well excuse me, jackass, if I had a certain someone's baby that caused me to gain maybe an extra few pounds!" She threw back a little defensively, although a grin still graced her features, nonetheless, and she heard Daryl chuckle as he pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Naw, don' worry about it none, Tessa - ya perfect. I happen to like ya curves 'cause ya look like how a woman should look like! Fuck tha' Olive Oyl tha' Rick is married to!" He told her and she shook her head and let out a laugh.

"I'm the farthest thing from perfect, Daryl!" She muttered and felt him shake his head as her eyelids started to become heavy with sleep.

"Ya perfect to me, Tess, and I'm pretty damn sure ya perfect to our kid too. So once ya think about it, ya will realize tha', tha's all tha' matters!"

It wasn't exactly an 'I love you', but Tessa found that she would take it - gladly!