Yes, I hate to inform you dear readers that this chapter is one of the dreaded filler chapters. A big event is going to happen in the next chapter and I guess I wanted to give one more AU-esque chapter before hopping back into the televised drama.

There is also a little teensy tiny half lemon in here. I know I've been doing a lot of those lately but after this one I'm not really planning on another one for a while (maybe not even until the next part which encompasses season three) so I suppose this is somewhat of a apology lemon lol

Remember, read and enjoy and that reviews are definitely welcome :)

- Nagiana


Favorite Line(s):

"And I realize that I wasn' exactly the one who helped ya raise him, Tess, however, for someone whose only a few weeks to a month into this, I like to think that I'm doin' a pretty good job so far!"

Tessa was on her way back to her and Daryl's tent (the long away around to avoid the completely nauseating smell of cooking meat) when she stumbled upon a very heated discussion encompassing Rick, Lori, Dale and Carl sitting a little ways off from the group of adults, an ashamed look on his slightly pinched face. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she moved to join them.

"I know this is probably none of my business, but what's going on here?" She asked and Lori heaved a sigh as she turned a frustrated gaze onto her friend.

"Thank God your here, maybe you will agree with me! Carl lied to Dale in order to get into the RV and get a gun." She told her and Tessa's eyebrows rose in shock.

"Oh my God, are you serious?" She asked as she glanced behind her at Carl and Lori nodded as Shane spoke up.

"Look, he asked me to teach him how to shoot a gun earlier. Now, this is not my decision, nor is my call, but if you guys want me to, then I'll be happy to teach him!"

"I don't want him interacting with a gun – period, so please do not make me out to be the unreasonable one here! Rick?" She asked as she turned her attention onto her husband standing beside her, who only heaved a sigh.

"I know, and I have my concerns too, but -"

"There's no 'buts' about it - he was just shot!" She interrupted him in disbelief. "He's just back on his feet and he wants a gun?"

"It's better than him being afraid of 'em." He told her and Tessa couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"He's right, Lori. I know this isn't my place, but he's right. I'd rather Ethan know about guns and know how to work them and know not to be afraid of them, then him walking around unprotected!" She spoke with a shrug and Rick nodded.

"There are guns in camp for a reason. He should learn to handle them safety. After all, Ethan does!"

"Carl is not Ethan, Rick!" Lori hissed to him, a fiery look appearing in her eyes. "Ethan is thirteen but acts Glenn's age! His father is fucking Daryl Dixon for God's sake! I think half of what that boy has, is thanks to his genes alone - no offense, Tess." She immediately added and Tessa shook her head and put up her hands.

"Don't worry, no offense taken, Lori!"

She shook her head then. "I'm sorry, but I don't want my kid walking around with a gun!"

"How can you defend that, though?" Rick asked. "You can't let him just walk around without protection!"

"He's as safe as he'll ever be right here!" She retorted vehemently and Rick nodded in slight disbelief and she quickly moved to smooth things over before they got too heated. "Look, everything you're saying makes perfect sense. It feels wrong, though! I mean, I didn't feel good about him following you out into the woods, and I wish I had said something. I should have gone with my gut."

"He's growing up - thank God!" Rick immediately replied, his voice becoming more impassioned the longer this discussion lasted. "We've got to start treating him more like an adult!"

"Then he needs to act like one!" She turned a fiery gaze onto her son. "He's not mature enough to handle a gun!"

"I'm not gonna play with it, mom!" Carl spoke up then as he got to his feet and moved over to them. An impassioned gaze filled his eyes then too. "It's not a toy and I realize that. I'm sorry I disappointed you, but I want to help look for Sophia. I want to help to defend our camp. I can't do that without a gun," He sighed and shook his head then. "I know I'm not Ethan - I know I won't ever be Ethan! But he's my friend too and I . . . I look up to him. I want to do what he does - I want to go hunting and help look for Sophia - I want to help in the way that he does!"

Lori and Tessa shared a slightly surprised look as Rick began talking again. "Look, Shane is the best instructor I know - he's taught kids younger than Carl!" Rick told her as Lori's gaze slid from Tessa's to Rick's. Tessa smiled a small, comforting smile and Lori pursed her lips as she finally gave an acquiescing nod.

"Fine . . . fine!" She moved over to Carl then and grasped him by the chin, where she forced their gazes to connect. "But he will be responsible about this! If I hear anything about how you are not taking this seriously, you will lose this opportunity, do you understand?" She told him and he nodded.

"Yes, mom I will."

"Yeah, he will not take this lightly!" Rick added in a warning tone and Carl nodded again as he moved past his mother to join his father. The two of them alongside Shane, moved over to the cars currently being surrounded by Patricia, Jimmy, Beth and Andrea. Lori joined Tessa as they saw Beth sneak Ethan a shy look over her shoulder. He returned the look with a slight wave before turning around and ducking into the closest tent which also happened to be the one that currently held Daryl.

"I think Ethan's crush isn't exactly one-sided . . ." Lori murmured and Tessa shook her head in slight disbelief.

"He's thirteen Lori! Why in the Hell would she want a thirteen-year-old when she has a guy closer to her age – a guy like Jimmy?" Lori shrugged.

"It's like I said earlier – Ethan doesn't exactly act and look like a thirteen-year-old should! Not-to-mention he's a good looking kid and he can take care of his own. For a young girl that stuck in this shithole of a world, why wouldn't those traits be desirable?"

Glenn shooting Shane the excuse of polishing spark plugs with Dale brought them out of the conversation they had been in. Both of them weren't exactly mechanically inclined but they knew better than to think 'polishing spark plugs' was a good excuse to use whenever you were trying to get out of doing something. Shane accepted the excuse and nodded nonetheless as he closed the back of the car and got in the driver's side with Andrea. The rest of the people piled into the Cherokee and they watched as they drove up the drive. Tessa took that moment to gesture to the two peaches she still had in her hands.

"I should probably one of these back to Daryl, I've been carrying ''em for a while!" She spoke with a slight laugh, and Lori nodded as she squeezed her friend on the shoulder comfortingly before moving off in the direction of Glenn. Tessa sighed and moved towards the tent, thankful that the smell of roasting meat was no longer carrying on the breeze towards her.

"Look, I know this prolly ain' what ya wanna hear, but ya gotta be careful, ya know?"

Tessa stopped dead when she heard Daryl's low voice and knew that he was talking to Ethan. Her grip tightened ever-so-slightly on the peaches in her hands and her ears strained to hear the conversation taking place as she moved to stand where it would be most easy to peer into the tent without being seen. "It don' matter if ya even like her beyond nothin' but a-a one-night stand, ya just . . . ya gotta be careful - especially if her father is sniffin' 'round ya."

"She's got a boyfriend, deddy."

She could see Daryl shaking his head. "Normally, I would say tha' wouldn' matter, but with Hershel, who's incredibly old-fashioned, I suppose it does," He turned a careful, searching gaze onto Ethan then. "Ya do like her, right?"

Ethan shrugged. "I guess . . ." Daryl laughed.

"Guessin' ain' nothin', Ethan. Guessin' will get ya killed in this day and age. Now do ya like her or not?" Ethan shrugged again and heaved a slightly irritated sigh that Daryl simply smiled at.

"Well, since you are forcin' it down my throat, then yes, I suppose I do," He shrugged, his voice laced with slight irritation. "Not that I can't do anythin' about it! I'm thirteen and she's seventeen – she has a boyfriend -!"

"Yeah, well boyfriends can die," Daryl interrupted him with a grin and Ethan turned a curious, slightly shocked gaze onto him – a gaze that Daryl hurriedly backtracked at. "Look, I ain' sayin' go out and kill tha kid – God no I ain' sayin' tha'! What I am sayin', though, is tha' people die every day 'cause of tha walkers and of disease and of starvation! No one's immune anymore - especially little wet-behind-the-ears boyfriends!"

Tessa felt her teeth grit in anger and she chose that time to march into the tent. She stopped and pinned Daryl with an angry glare, a glare that immediately made Daryl nod to Ethan. "I think tha's ya cue to get!" He told him and Ethan nodded hurriedly as he got to his feet and darted from the tent. She waited until she was sure that he was out of earshot before speaking and even then, her voice was quiet and angry.

"I told you to talk to him – not enable him!" She hissed through tightly gritted teeth and Daryl adopted of look of disbelief on his face.

"Who tha Hell is enablin' him?" He asked and Tessa let out a bark of a laugh.

"Who the Hell is – are you shitting me, Daryl? You just told him that her boyfriend can die! I can successfully call that enabling!" Daryl let out a laugh.

"Ya yell at me for tellin' him tha truth – for tellin' him somethin' tha' he already knows? Everyone can die any day, Tessa! Ya can die, Rick can die – Hell, even I've almost died! Excuse me for tellin' him tha damn truth! And besides, it's not like I told him to go out and put a damn bullet in tha kid's head!" Tessa shook her head.

"That's not -!"

"Then what are ya tryin' to say, Tess?" He interrupted her, a note of anger appearing in his voice and as his hands sat up in disbelief. "Our talk might not have been tha conventional 'father-son' one tha' he might have had with tha' 'Yankee' ya was married to, but when have I ever been called conventional?"

She balked then, realizing that what she had accused him of, had been somewhat unreasonable. Why had she jumped the gun so readily?

Daryl continued when she didn't say anything for a while, his voice still carrying the same 'irked' tone but was a lot softer: "And I realize tha' I wasn' exactly the one who helped ya raise him, Tess, however, for someone whose only a few weeks to a month into this, I like to think tha' I'm doin' a pretty good job so far!"

She couldn't help but nod in agreement as her mind settled onto deeper things – more present things. He was right. She could never have bucked up enough to raise her son through this without him and felt bile rise up in her throat again that she took a moment to push down as she shook her head. She shouldn't be surprised. She hadn't had any breakfast yet, however, the smell of roasting meat had made the hunger pangs go away with a vengeance. "You're right . . . I don't know why I jumped up your ass so quickly. I just . . ." She shook her head. "I don't know," She smiled then as she tossed him one of the peaches she had been holding. He caught it easily and gazed at her questioningly for a moment as she moved to take a seat on her side of the air-mattress. "Glenn's been handing these out all day. Maggie brought them for him . . ." As a show of good faith, she took a bite out of hers and the taste alone almost made her want to sing. Compared to the smell of the cooking meat, it was Heaven! She hadn't tasted a peach in so long and a look of amusement crossed Daryl's face as he took a bite out of his.

"I take it its good?" He asked and Tessa nodded as she wiped the juice away from her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Oh yeah, it's phenomenal!" She replied and he nodded as he took another bite.

"I'm glad ya finally eating somethin'. Ya haven' been eatin' lately and in fact, ya startin' to look a little peaked." She stopped mid-chew on her second mouthful.

"You've . . . started to notice I'm not eating?" She spoke slowly as she chewed and swallowed the mouthful of peach, and he nodded.

"Believe it or not, a guy notices these kinds of things, especially when they have to do with his woman. I mean, we are tha ones who see ya naked, for the love of God!" He gave a shrug. "Tha' and food is kinda important in this day and age. Ya need to grab what of it ya can when ya can," He turned slightly worried gaze onto her. "Is anythin' tha matter, Tess?" She shook her head but got to her feet nonetheless. She suddenly felt sick again – very sick.

"N-No, but I gotta go. I just remembered that I'm supposed to be helping Lori and Carol with the clothes!" She handed him her peach before bending down and quickly grabbed up the basket of dirty clothes sitting beside her. She smiled tightly at him. The look of confusion on his face was practically comical, however, she wasn't exactly focused on laughing at that moment. She was trying to focus on a way to get out of there without tossing her cookies for the umpteenth time that week and alarming Daryl at the same time. "I-I'll be back in a minute, okay? Tha laundry never takes long to do." She told him with a short laugh before she quickly turned and ducked out of the tent. She heard Daryl call her name in worry but she ignored him as she moved behind the tent and walk towards the clothesline. Thankfully no one was around and noticed when she suddenly veered off the path. She reached the other side of the blessedly clear Winnebago before she dropped inexplicably to her knees, vomiting as she did so. The basket of dirty clothes dropped onto its side, spilling articles on the dusty ground as she heaved and heaved. She hadn't eaten a lot in the past few days which explained the lack of any real substance to the vomit other than acid and water.

Groaning, she slowly sank back on her ass with her back to the Winnebago when she was done. She closed her eyes and allowed her head to fall back against the RV with a metallic 'thunk'. She had a reason for why she thought she was so sick all to Hell, but like a lot of things in this new world, she hoped and prayed that it wasn't true. That was the last thing she needed in this world – the last thing Daryl needed in this world! He was older now – he wasn't the same twenty-something young man she remembered. He didn't have the energy or the time to chase after . . . after . . .

She forced her thoughts to end abruptly there. She didn't need to think like that. There was still the slim chance that she wasn't and just had a small stomach bug that no one else in the camp had been unlucky enough to catch yet. There was a completely normal, non-life-shattering reason as to why she was suddenly throwing up every morning and especially to the smell of roasting meat!

She swallowed hard then, wincing at the tangy, bitter taste of vomit that still hung in her mouth, and got shakily to her feet. She stooped and gathered the clothes back into the basket before picking it back up and heading back to the clothesline. She dropped the basket off with the rest of the dirty clothes that people had left there in anticipation of wash day the next day, and moved over to the tent Lori and her family shared. Her friend was sitting on a chair out in front of the tent, shakily stitching one of Carl's shirts that had mysteriously gained a tear in the fabric. Tessa noticed she was shaking almost as bad as she was and hoped it wasn't anything big – not her level of big if it came out as her suspicions being correct, though.

"Hey Lori . . .?"

Lori jumped slightly at Tessa's slightly shaken tone and looked up when she saw her walking towards her, a slightly nervous look on her face. She smiled a tight smile and nodded. "Hey, honey, what do you need?" Tessa bit down on her bottom lip for a moment.

"You're the . . . you're the only woman I would ever think would ever carry something like this around, but you wouldn't happen have an, uh," She swallowed hard. "A p . . . preg . . ." She trailed off but Lori immediately understood. Her eyes widened slightly but she silently nodded and stood, where she ducked into her tent. She returned moments later and snuck her friend the white box she had in her hand.

"I got Glenn to get me a few when he was in town the other day. Ya know . . . just in case . . .!" She spoke and Tessa nodded in understanding and shot her a thankful look. Lori returned the look as she pulled her into a hug. "Good luck, honey." Tessa nodded as they parted. She stealthily stuck the box up under her shirt as she made her way out of camp, up to the crumbling chimney in the distance. There, on top of the Winnebago she could still be seen, however, not what she was planning on doing.

"Oh hey – one minute, Tess, please?"

Tessa turned around at Lori's voice and she immediately noticed when the taller, thinner woman shoved her hands down into the front pockets of her jeans and turned a nervous gaze onto her. "Yeah, Lori, what do you need?" Lori swallowed heavily.

"You'll . . . you'll tell me if you are, won't you?" She asked and Tessa's eyes softened as she nodded.

"Lori, you'll be the first I tell, regardless - I promise!"


"Oh come on . . . come on . . .!"

Tessa couldn't remember a lot about that day so far, so embroiled in what she was currently going through to care much. However, she did remember sitting there on the broken, crumbling edge of the brick chimney until her ass went numb, and as her leg jittered up and down and until she was gripping the crumbling edges of the chimney until her knuckles turned white. The little plastic pregnancy test, which was lying on her knees, was the only thing with her at that moment – the longest two Goddamn minutes of her life.

She reached over and upon glancing at the wristwatch she had nicked from the Winnebago and finding that she had just only a minute to go from the two the box told her to wait, slowly released the breath she had been holding in. The birds were no longer singing in the trees around her anymore – Hell, it was like the entirety of nature had fallen completely silent, but Tessa hardly registered it. She was looking everywhere but the pregnancy test.

She opened her eyes again after another moment of waiting and reached over to check the wristwatch again. She gave a helpless little whimper when she saw that her seemingly endless wait was finally over. Shakily, she set the wristwatch back on the crumbling brick wall beside her and closed her eyes as she picked up the tiny little stick of plastic lying on her jeaned knees. Sucking in another breath she slowly let it out before she opened her eyes.

Tears immediately filled her eyes when she saw the result glaring blindingly up at her from the tiny white plastic stick and she took it in her curled fist before closing her eyes. She let out a sob as she wrapped her arms around her and started rocking back and forth, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't want to look at the tiny little computerized 'positive' sign glaring up at her from the pregnancy test in her curled fist. Nor did she want to think of the future – how dangerous it would be. Gone were her days of giving birth in a safe, sanitized hospital with epidurals and centuries old doctors who had been delivering babies practically all their lives. No . . . no, now she would be giving birth in a ditch somewhere, very bloodily and in extreme pain with likely someone who had never delivered a baby in their lives and not knowing whether she would live to see past the birth.

Or not knowing whether her baby would live . . .

Her heart twisted almost painfully in her chest then and it took her a minute to realize that, that was the real reason why she was so anxious and terrified of telling Daryl that she was pregnant – why she had been so anxious and terrified of telling him ever since she got her first signs. She wasn't terrified to tell him because he could grow angry and walk off – he would have done that ages ago with the whole Merle incident!

No . . . no, she was terrified of telling him because she was terrified of placing a dead baby in his arms nine months later . . . the baby that he had wanted with her so badly.


"Oh Tess, how long have you known?" Lori asked her when she finally returned to camp later that afternoon as evening started to loom closer on the horizon, her eyes red and puffy from crying and her mind and body exhausted. Lori's eyes grew wide with shock when she saw her, and Tessa weakly shrugged her shoulders and sniffed as she took a seat beside her.

"You want the God honest truth, Lori?" She asked and then heaved a sigh when she nodded. "I've probably known for a few weeks now, I just . . . didn't want to admit it to myself. I didn't want to think it was possible." Lori's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"I was lucky to have conceived Ethan, you know. I wasn't born very fertile for whatever reason and I grew up thinking that I would never ever be able to have a child without medical help. My life had been in shambles before I finally resigned myself to being a motherless woman all my life," She shook her head and gave a little sarcastic laugh then. "I guess . . . I guess when it came to Ethan, I was just lucky enough to have a sexual relationship with the one man who was fertile enough for Mother Nature to look past my infertility, huh?"

"What about this one?" Lori asked, gesturing to the positive pregnancy test that Tessa had so recently passed her, and Tessa shrugged again.

"It was stupidity on my part mostly. I thought that by taking my age and combining it with my infertility, it made the conceiving of a child . . . close to damn near impossible levels!"

"Well, my doctor did tell me when me and Rick were trying for Carl, that if you want a foolproof way of conceiving a baby, then you have sex every single day!" Lori chuckled before pinning Tessa with a sympathetic look. "And honey, I'm sorry, but you and Daryl aren't exactly known for your restraint when it comes to each other – especially these last few days! Hell, I teased you about this morning, remember?" Tessa laughed and nodded as a tear slid down from the corner of her eye.

"I know, I know! I suppose, in the back of my mind, that it was always there – that the possibly was always there. I mean, after all, Daryl had managed to accomplish the impossible before – why not shoot for a second time?" She shrugged. "Like I said, though, I just didn't want to think that it was possible. I chose to be stupid and naïve and look what it got me." She turned around to face her friend then and smiled a tight smile then as she wiped away her tears. "But we're in the same boat, aren't we? You're pregnant too, right?" Lori's tight smile matched hers as she nodded. She handed her back her pregnancy test and Tessa took it as Lori's arms moved to cross in front of her chest.

"Yeah . . . probably as far along as you are, I guess, since I took my own test a few days before you. How did you know, though?" She answered, her eyebrows furrowing in interest, and Tessa ran her tongue along her bottom lip as she looked down at the ground underneath her feet.

"Not long, I'll admit. I saw the abortion pills on the table in your tent when I asked you about the test and, after all, you were the one I got the pregnancy test from in the first place. Why else would you have had it other than 'just in case' moments?" She asked and Lori laughed a little before she turned a keen gaze onto her.

"Tessa, don't make the same mistake that I did. Tell Daryl as soon as you can - he'd especially want to know!" Tessa nodded in agreement.

"I know, it's just . . ." She gave a nervous laugh and weakly shrugged her shoulders. "Gathering up the courage is probably the hardest thing to do! I have no idea how he'll react and I . . ." She shrugged then, tears filling her eyes. "I know it's selfish of me, but I want this baby too, Lor'! I want this baby almost as much as I know Daryl wants it and I just . . ." She shrugged. "I don't know what I'll do if the time comes and all I can present to him is a dead baby! It'd destroy him!" Lori nodded in sympathetic understanding as she wrapped her friend up in a tight hug.

"It'll be okay, honey! We'll survive this together! I promise!"

Tessa smiled tearfully as she moved to hug her back and for a moment, the two women sat there in their matching chairs in front of the Grimes' tent, nothing but silent tears rolling down their cheeks. The both of them felt keenly like they had just received matching death sentences, however, for two totally different reasons.

Lori felt like she had been handed her own personal death sentence, whereas Tessa was only worried about the baby she carried.


Tessa couldn't sleep.

All she could do was lay there, half on Daryl and half off him, gazing out the mesh wall of the tent to the moonlit world outside. She lay there, mired in her own poisoning thoughts while the father of her unborn child lay there, sleeping as restfully as the baby growing inside of her. She wanted to tell him. The words constantly bubbled up on her lips – on the very fringes of her tongue, and yet . . . she never managed to build up the courage enough to say them.

Multiple times that night as they got ready for bed (or more like, Tessa got ready for bed and Daryl watched because Daryl had been ready for bed all afternoon, practically) She had begun to try to tell him by saying his name and waiting for him to answer with his customary 'Mmhmm?'. Always, though – always – the words she needed to say found themselves falling on a deaf tongue and she always ended up smiling a small smile and shaking her head upon answering him with 'Nothing.' instead of what she really needed to say.

She was drug out of her thoughts by Daryl letting out a groggy sound and shifting slightly underneath her. She shifted slightly to accommodate him, ever careful of the stitches in his side. "Ya still awake?" He asked her, his tired voice slightly shocked and husky with sleep and she nodded, unable to tear her eyes away from the world outside their tent.

"Yeah, I can't . . . I can't sleep for some reason . . ." She murmured back.

"Anythin' I can do to help?" She couldn't help but grin at his words and shook his head as she turned her head up so that they could kiss, slow and deep and passionate and although her lower body immediately thrummed with want for him, she heeded Hershel's words and reluctantly broke apart from him.

"You should probably go back to sleep. I have a feeling that we're gonna have a long day tomorrow – you'll probably be up on your feet too, knowing you. And besides, Hershel said to stay away from sex until your stitches come out. They could cause major problems if they decided to open up." She told him, a tad coldly as she moved to lay her head back on his chest again and she could hear the hurt in his voice as he nodded and replied with a simple 'Yeah.' It was the first time she had turned down sex with him since they were reunited and it had nothing to do with not wanting him, because that was exactly the opposite! Blame it on her already raging hormones and the desire-filled kiss, but there was an uncomfortable ache between her legs that she tried her best to ignore as she closed her eyes and willed herself to go to sleep.

But damn her imagination and the uncomfortable draw of the warm, hard body next to hers! All her scumbag mind could think of while trying her damndest to get to sleep, was the feeling of Daryl's hand moving between her legs . . .

She gritted her teeth and shifted uncomfortably beside him again. The movement caused him to release a sigh of slight irritation. "Look, at least try to get to sleep, alright?" He hissed and Tessa rolled her eyes as she shifted again.

"Sorry! Jesus . . .!" She muttered before releasing a long, shaky breath. She didn't know what gave her away, but all of a sudden, she found herself lying on her back with Daryl above her. Her eyes immediately widened and she barely missed the flicker of pain originating in his side that crossed his eyes when he settled more comfortably above her.

"Daryl, you really shouldn't -!"

"Tess, do yaself a favor and shut up for once!" He interrupted her in a hiss and she obediently shut her mouth, however, she only ended up gasping out in surprise when she felt his hands move underneath her shirt and slide along the smooth skin of her stomach. She stiffened slightly when she felt his fingertips lightly graze the underside of her breasts. A kiss on the side of her neck forced her to relax some, her nipples rising as the pad of Daryl's callused thumb lightly skimmed over them. She felt him grin against her skin as she relaxed into his embrace, sagging back against the mattress underneath them. She tried to fight him as she lolled her head further to the side, giving him more tender flesh to trail his lips across. She felt his hand slide back down her belly, his movements becoming uncustomarily rough and anxious. Goosebumps broke out across her limbs as a warm hand slipped underneath her panties and softly began to stroke her most tender of areas.

Tessa bit her bottom lip, trying desperately to stave off a whimper as Daryl's other hand resumed the kneading and tweaking of her breasts and nipples underneath the thin shirt. The fingers stroking her picked up their pace as she felt something hard push against her hip and as Daryl started breathing heavily against her neck. His thumb starting playing with her nub and Tessa blushed with unreleased pleasure as her legs began to jerk slightly, her hips thrusting against her will as the fingers began to swirl inside her. Everything began to fade as chills and warm waves started rushing through her. She couldn't hear how loud her gasping had become or the slight moans she was emitting, but she allowed his lips to cover hers nonetheless. She heeded Lori's words as well - they did need to start being a little quieter.

But she wanted him. She wanted all of him so badly but she knew they wouldn't move past anything but this stage that night. She wasn't about to go against Hershel's advice and Daryl knew better than to push her when she put her foot down. One of her hands moved down to clench the callused hand that was making love to her while the other came up and smoothed behind his neck, bringing his face closer to hers as their kiss grew more impassioned. They broke apart and his breathing started to come out harsher against her neck. The fingers stopped swirling and went back to a fast, hard thrusting, pulling up through her folds, scraping the spot inside her that made her go wild until she couldn't take it anymore and her back arched underneath him. She drifted warmly as her body convulsed, his arms coming up around her to hold her until she stopped.

"Ya know, despite what ya sometimes think, I'm not exactly a selfish bastard . . ." Daryl murmured to her when she finally came down from her high, his voice hard and slightly cold and she shook her head.

"Daryl, I never -!"

"Shush, Tess and go to sleep. Whenever ya need to tell me what ya need to tell me, I'll be here. Although, for the life of me, I don' know what I did to make ya think I'd walk from ya after all this shit we've been through already!"