Guest: I melted while writing the baby moving scene and as always, I have a very fun time writing the Daryl and Ethan scenes :)

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been feeling kind of sick and considering I just now got Season 3, we can moved this along at a slightly faster pace than normal. I am also in the works of debating whether to continue Season 3 in this story with just another Part (ex. Part 1 would be Season 1 and 2, Part 2 would be season 3 etc, etc) or continuing Season 3 in a completely different story. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews :)

Read, Review and Enjoy!

- Nagiana


Favorite Line(s):

Daryl wasn't a crying man - he had never been a crying man. He preferred to suffer in silence but at that moment, being alone was the last thing he wanted to do.

Rick remembered standing there in stunned shock for a moment after hearing her words before numbly watching as she spun around on her heels and marched off in the direction of Daryl and Ethan. He saw her wipe at bitter tears as she went and his heart ached slightly but he shook his head, knowing he had no right to feel such things. Daryl, Tessa and Ethan were close friends – as close family friends as Shane was . . . or had been, anyway. After the way he had turned so furiously on him when they were at the government building attempting to drop off the kid, Rick knew he could no longer place his stock in his old highschool friend. Shane was growing too unpredictable - too unstable. Rick found that he was starting to need a new second, someone who he could rely on in hairy situations as well as who would help him make the right calls - someone who had his own family to look after and wouldn't have time to needlessly worry about his other than what was absolutely necessary. But yet, he also needed someone that his family could rely on too.

His eyes flitted to Tessa again and watched her as she finally closed the distance between her, Daryl and their son. He watched as she placed a soft hand on his forearm and spoke to him, Daryl moving to place the belt of squirrels and rabbits on the table in front of him with unnecessary slowness as he pinned his eyes onto her. It was a slowness that screamed of the intent way with which he was listening to her, the hand underneath her arm absolutely still. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and their eyes met for the briefest of moments over Tessa's shoulder. Rick sighed and placed his hands on his hips as eventually Daryl gave her a curt nod before pushing gently past her and approached him.

"Ya needed to talk to me?" He asked and Rick nodded as he glanced towards the shed, Daryl followed his gaze.

"Yeah, we uh . . . we need your help getting information out of the kid." Daryl nodded and moved to chew briefly on the corner of his thumbnail.

"Tess mentioned somethin' like tha'. We can only imagine what I'll need to do and needless to say, she's not exactly happy with it." Rick turned an interested, slightly relieved gaze onto him.

"But you'll do it?" Daryl shrugged as his hands dropped to his sides.

"It's for tha protection of the group, right? She understands tha'. She don' like it none, but she understands it," He gave another shrug then and turned a keen gaze onto him. Daryl might not have been the most educated man on the face of the planet but he wasn't stupid by any means. He caught a lot of things that many people wouldn't and called it just him being observant. And Rick would agree with him – he had never met a man more observant than Daryl Dixon.

"Not-to-mention, ya'd rather have me do it than Shane, right? Unlike jackass, I actually have some self-control – I know when to stop when tha kid can' take anymore," He smiled a small, slightly sarcastic smile. "Ya think Shane doesn' – tha' or ya afraid tha' he doesn'!" Rick returned his small smile but unlike Daryl, there was no undertone to it. He clapped a hand on his shoulder and Daryl had to physically restrain himself from recoiling away from the touch. Rick noticed and let up a little but his hand remained on her shoulder nonetheless.

"Well maybe Daryl, I'm in the works of searching for another man that I can put me and my family's trust into." Daryl couldn't help but recoil at those words and when he turned to glance behind him at Tessa, at her just starting to show her pregnancy and at the wisps of blue black hair that fluttered around her as she grinned and joked with Ethan, he pursed his lips and turned back to Rick.

"Jus' as long as ya don' mind me puttin' ma family ahead of ya's if things turn tha' way," He shook his head. "I gotta look out for 'em, Rick – I can' be puttin' anyone else before 'em, especially now tha' Tess is pregnant! And speakin' she's almost useless with a weapon tha' doesn' have a pointy end, she . . . she needs me." Rick nodded, a halfway relieved smile appearing in his eyes and on his face at his words.

"That, Daryl, is perfectly fine by me!"

He recoiled again at that, knowing that deep down inside that Rick was referring to the little thing between Lori and Shane and was glad that Daryl wouldn't be that way. He found himself scoffing inside at the mere thought of that. He would have a better chance of Tessa leaving him again - for Merle - than him ever touch Lori in the way that Shane had.

But good Lord people, how do you not notice two fully grown people disappear in the woods together and not reappear for hours at a time? They weren't exactly in there knitting tea cozies!


"Hey . . ."

Rick, Shane and Andrea turned around when they Tessa approach them and the closed shed doors, an expressionless look on her face. Rick nodded towards them and they nodded back before they left, heading in opposite directions in order to give them some privacy. Shane hung back a little ways but eventually, he loitered off after seemingly eons and Rick turned a slightly interested gaze back onto Tessa when they were alone.

"Tess, what are you doing here?" He asked, hardly missing the flinch that wracked through her petite frame when the sounds of punching flesh could be heard from inside the shed accompanied seconds later by cries and Daryl's angrily yelling out:

"Ya ain' told me shit!"

Then suddenly, there came a great weight that they heard crashing into one of the walls. Rick swallowed hard, suddenly very, very regretful that he had asked Daryl to do this in the first place and that Tessa was standing there with him, having to listen to it. Tessa shook her head.

"I thought . . . I thought I should be the first thing he sees coming out of that Hell . . . something to bring him back to ground, ya know?" Rick nodded in agreement as she glanced at him. "How long has he been in there for?" Rick swallowed heavily.

"He just went in. He's been in for only about fifteen minutes now, I think . . ." His voice came out tense and slightly awkward and Tessa nodded as she swallowed heavily as well, her face becoming stony as the kid tried telling him that he didn't know the guys that he had been with – that he had just met them on the road and Daryl replied with a demand of how many there were in his group before the kid evaded the question by pleading with him. Seconds later, cries and yells of pain could be heard again, as well and Daryl's voice rising in order be heard over him. Tessa's arms moved to cross in front of her chest, where she hugged herself tightly.

"How many of ya are there?!"

"Uh-Uh thirty – there's thirty guys!"

"Where are they?"

"Uh . . ." The yells of pain came again, but shorter this time, and Daryl's voice dropped down to a slightly more menacing tone. "I don't know, I swear! We were never anywhere longer than a night -!"

"Were ya scoutin'? Were ya plannin' on stayin' local?"

"I don't know – they left me behind!"

"Have ya ever picked off a scab before?" Tessa's ears immediately pricked up when she heard those words leave Daryl's lips and immediately, her heart jumped up to a frantic beat when she realized that he was repeating what she had said just months ago when Patricia and Maggie had tried removing her jeans before stitching up her wound.

And for some reason, Daryl repeating those lines then, as he stood in there and tortured some poor kid, made Tessa feel sick to her stomach.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tess - you okay?"

"Come on, man; I'm trying to cooperate!"

"Ya start out real slow at first, but then sooner or later, ya jus' gotta rip it off!"

The kid let out another yelp of pain at that before he quickly acquiesced. Tessa, who had started to steadily collapse to the ground, was now being supported by Rick. She was still sick to her stomach at knowing that Daryl had dared to use her own words in such a context and it was then that she realized just how dire things in there was. "Tess, are you okay?" Rick's gentle but firm voice reached her and she nodded as he slowly backed away from her, his eyes wide and worried. Hershel had said Tessa was to undergo no extreme amounts of stress, and he found himself wondering if this was that extreme amount of stress that they had been warned about.

"They have weapons!" The kid started out by saying. "Heavy stuff too – like automatics," He was stammering by then. "But I didn't do anything, I swear!"

"Ya boys shot at ma boys; tried to take this farm! Ya jus' went along for tha ride – ya tryin' to tell me tha' ya innocent?" Daryl replied, his eyes cold as he held the kid's eyes – as he twisted the hunting knife more poignantly into his leg and the fear in the kid's eyes was clearly readable. However, Daryl didn't see it. He simply shut himself down – shut himself down and then tucked that side of him away from what was actually happening. Right then, he wasn't a loving father or a doing lover or a best friend. At that moment, he was the one mean motor scooter that would haunt the kid's dreams for as long as he continued to live.

The 'yes' the kid shot at him then was so emphatic that Daryl had no choice but to back off, the tip of his hunting knife withdrawing from the kid's wound. The kid had also bonked his head on the wooden wall behind him when she said it and then sat there, dazed for a minute before summoning the strength to reply to him. His breathing started to tear ragged from his chest as Tessa shook her head.

"You do realize that he's channeling all the frustrations and anger that he's had these past months, into torturing that poor kid, right?" She spoke and Rick deigned not to speak, opting for Tessa to continue on as the pads of her fingers skated over the smooth black amulet hanging alongside her wooden one - the one that Daryl had given her. "All his anger at me since I came back – all the frustrations I've given him with this whole pregnancy and this Merle and me thing . . . Hell, even his anger at you guys leaving Merle behind and the frustration of never finding him – it's all being channeled right now. He could do some pretty heavy damage if he's not careful and if he wanted to . . . he could be vicious."

"How do you know?" He asked and Tessa glanced at him.

"I've only seen him that angry once, Rick . . . and it didn't exactly end pretty, especially for his father. He was so angry I almost didn't get him back."

"These – these people took me in!" The kid's voice brought their attentions back onto the shed and the two people currently locked inside. Rick saw Tessa swallow heavily again and her arms around herself tighten slightly. "They are not just guys, though – there's a whole group of 'em! There's men and woman, kids, too – just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? But . . ." He trailed off and swallowed the lump that had been steadily forming in his throat the entire time, finding it quite hard to tear his eyes away from Daryl's cold, piercing blue gaze as he paced in front of him like a predator with his prey in his sights. "We go out and we scavenge – just the men. One night we-we found this little campsite. There were this man and his two daughters - teenagers, ya know? They were real young . . . real cute . . ." He trailed off again, turning a gaze up to Daryl that he couldn't rightly place and his lips pursed in angry irritation as he continued to pace for a moment before turning his back to the kid. He didn't even want to look at the kid right now . . . if he did, he'd strangle him, because he already had a pretty good idea on where this little confession/monologue was going.

"Their daddy had to watch while these guys, they . . ." He stopped then, unable to finish what he was saying and Daryl felt his hands ball into fists as the kid turned a pleading gaze up to him, his voice becoming quicker. "And they didn't even kill him afterwards, too! They just – they just made him watch as his daughters – they just-just – just left him there afterwards." He shook his head again. "But-but-but I didn't touch those girls – no sir, I didn't! No, I swear, I didn't -!" The kid let out another crying yell of pain as Daryl's boot connected hard to his side. Tessa jumped again at the yell and Rick settled a calming hand on her shoulder, resisting the urge to take her in his arms. And likewise, Tessa found herself resisting the same urge not to fall into his arms.

Daryl supposed that it had been his fault that he had ended up kicking the kid a little harder than he probably should have – Hell, he had kicked him hard enough to where he'd probably be pissing blood for a week! But he had allowed himself to stand there listening to this kid talk about the rape of two innocent teenage girls and suddenly, he envisioned it being him – the father or the man who had to watch. He envisioned one of the girls being Tessa and the other as the daughter that she would possibly bare him – their little Cat Liz. He had allowed his imagination to run wild and currently, this kid was reaping the (rather questionable) benefits.

Daryl stood there, allowing his anger to continue to boil, as the kid lay there in a pool of his own quickly growing blood, pleading with him through his own sobs. "Please – please – I'm not like that! I ain't like that . . ." He shook his head. "Please, please, you gotta believe me!"

Daryl felt himself shutting even more of himself away – the side that when he would leave the shed, he would take out and wear around Ethan and Tessa, almost as smoothly as him slipping on his black leather vest. It was the good side of him - the good wolf. He delivered another resounding kick to the kid's stomach that had him turning in on himself with the pain again.

This time, the kid screamed out in pain and this time, Daryl almost couldn't bring himself to stop.


A few moments later, Rick noticed Lori walking along the camp, clearly wanting to talk to him and Rick touched Tessa gently on the shoulder. She, rather reluctantly, turned her eyes onto him and his lips pursed at the sight of her teary eyes. "I gotta go check with the others. Will you be fine here by yourself?" Tessa nodded, her arms remaining in front of her chest, and Rick nodded in turn before he turned around and moved back up to the campsite and the others, leaving Tessa quite alone and waiting for a Daryl that she didn't know if she wanted to face.

And eventually, the Daryl that exited the shed moments later was just the one that Tessa had feared who would walk out. He was no Daryl that Tessa recognized or loved. Gone was the Daryl she knew – the one that she brought out in him – the good wolf. In his place was the bad wolf – the vicious Daryl.

"Oh my God, baby -!"

"Where's Rick?" He asked gruffly, interrupting her and she shook her head, her eyes wide with shock. They lingered for a moment longer than necessary on his bloody hands and split knuckles and she felt her stomach roil.

"He's over at the camp with the others – but my God, Daryl, what did you do?" She asked him, and when he ignored her and took a couple of steps towards the camp, her jaw hardened and she moved to step defiantly in front of him. When her hands landed on his chest, his eyes finally moved down to connect with hers and she shook her head, her voice lowering to a shaky whisper. "Daryl, what did you do?"

Fear encased her heart in an icy coldness when she saw that his eyes were just as dead and expressionless as they had been that one time, so long ago, when his father had overstepped the one boundary that he never should have tried stepping over. She found herself praying that the good wolf was still in there somewhere – that the bad wolf – the vicious Daryl – was only temporary. Tears appeared in her eyes then as she gently touched his stubbled cheek with the tips of his fingers and for a moment, she recognized a flicker of him coming back – a flicker of something in his eyes. They warmed slightly and when he caught her hand and moved it away from him, it was to take it instead, their fingers entwining as he moved past her and continued on to the group, Tessa quickly wiping away her tears as they went.

"Boy there has a gang he was ridin' with – 'bout thirty men," He spoke as they closed the distance between them, his voice no-nonsense and his walk brisk. "They got heavy artillery and they ain' exactly lookin' to make friends," He finished when they finally met and he stopped moving. Tessa remained clinging to his hand - as if it was only lifeline tethering her to the Daryl she knew and loved. She didn't like this strange, no bullshit Daryl. This Daryl was too much like Merle for her comfort. "If they roll through here, our boys are dead," He continued on before he glanced down at the still shaken Tessa standing beside him. Their eyes met and he swallowed heavily. "And our women . . . they're gonna. . ." His hand squeezed Tessa's and she immediately squeezed back. "They're gonna wish they were."

"What did you do?" Carol asked him in immediate worry as she nodded towards his bloody and split knuckles before her eyes finally landed onto Tessa standing beside him. She was trembling, her hands latched onto him until they were white. Everyone's eyes widened at the sight and when he glanced down at his knuckles, it seemed that woke him up a little more. He averted his eyes to the ground as he moved in the direction of their tent, Tessa readily following him.

"We had a little chat – that was it. Where's Ethan?"

"He's with Glenn and Maggie in the house - why?" Carol asked them, her voice quick as she turned around to follow them with her eyes, and Daryl nodded and glanced back at her.

"Check in on him, okay?" She nodded weakly in response and they heard Rick tell everyone that no one, under any circumstances, was to go near Randall except for him and Hershel (and that was only to patch up any cuts and lacerations that he had gotten from Daryl) but they both chose to block out anything further of the conversation, including the way Carol's eyes stayed pinned on them.

They ducked into their tent seconds later, Tessa turning around to zip up the entrance behind them, giving them some semblance of privacy as he sat down on the edge of the mattress, feeling a sudden weariness descend upon him as he did so. Tessa immediately got down on her knees in front of him, in-between his parted legs, and picked up his hand – the hand that was bloodier than the other and whose knuckles were split open the worst. It was his punching hand and she flinched slightly at the sight of all that blood that did not exactly come from gutting squirrels or rabbits. She shook her head, her eyes widening slightly.

"I don't . . ." She stopped and shook her head, tears filling her eyes. She blinked them back, desperate for them not to fall while she was in front of a side of Daryl she didn't know and wasn't exactly comfortable with. "Daryl, I'm not Patricia or Hershel - I don't know what I can do with these other than clean them. I think they'll have to heal on their own, though. I-I-I need water and-and soap -!"

"Tessa . . ."

"Yeah, one minute - I'll be right back; I just gotta go get water -!"

"Tess, babydoll, will ya wait a minute?"

He held her back by reaching out and taking her hand in his, his grip firm but gentle. He kept her from going anywhere with that one little grip and when she turned around to face him, she almost missed the bowing of his head. Her eyebrows furrowed as his hand left hers to wearily rub at his face. A look of confusion appeared on hers and it wasn't until then that his shoulders started shaking in silent sobs and she started realizing that she had the old Daryl back – that she had the good wolf back.

He shook his head, clear misery flowing through him. "Tess, what tha fuck did I jus' do? What tha fuck did I jus' do to tha' kid?"

Tessa immediately swallowed hard, tears prickling in her eyes as well as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him against her in a tight, hard embrace. His face moved to bury in the crook of her neck as her fingers curled into his hair, holding him close. Her heart ached at the realization that she had her old Daryl back and she took a shuddering breath. She felt a few drops of wetness on the skin of her neck and knew that they were tears. However, she also knew that they would be the only tears he would give her. Daryl wasn't a crying man - he had never been a crying man. He preferred to suffer in silence but at that moment, being alone was the last thing he wanted to do.

His hands sought out her stomach and she shook her head and let out a little laugh. "It ain't moving anymore. Probably tired itself out from this morning." She laughed and Daryl nodded and she felt him smile against her neck. His hands didn't move, though, still continued that same gentle touch on her stomach, and it was then that Tessa knew that he wasn't angry at himself from torturing the kid. The kid was, after all, an enemy – an enemy who had valuable intelligence that they desperately needed. But no . . . it was because the kid was young – maybe only a few years older than Ethan or Beth were. It had felt close to him actually torturing his own son.

"Daryl, you had me so scared -!"

"Tess, listen to me. In order to do what I had to do to tha' kid, I had to go to a very dark place," He shook his head as he brought his head up out of her neck and turned his gaze onto her. His eyes were wide and slightly frightened when he gazed at her. "It was tha same place I had to go in order . . ." He trailed off and she knew he was referring to his father. When he spoke again, he partially changed the subject. "I was – I was so terrified of bringin' tha' home to ya and Ethan – what I did! – tha' I . . . I separated myself from it – prolly a little too much!" She shook her head, her eyes betraying the bewilderment that she felt inside.

"Daryl, you almost didn't come back!" She told him, her voice thick with emotion, and he nodded.

"I know, babydoll, I know! And I don' ever wanna do tha' again, Tess. I don' ever wanna go to tha' place again!" She nodded in agreement and Daryl stayed silent for a while before turning his eyes back onto her. "If Rick asks me to do somethin' like tha' again, we . . ." He heaved a sigh and shook his head. "We gotta leave. I can' do tha' again, Tess - I jus' can'!"

And suddenly, Daryl's walls were down – completely down – and she saw a vulnerability there that momentarily frightened her. She quickly pulled him back into her arms again and held him close, feeling his arms wrap around her as well moments later. They sat there and held each other like that for a moment and when they broke apart, Tessa saw his walls were back up and she let out a relieved breath. Daryl had always had his vulnerabilities – his many insecurities stemming from a harsh childhood. Tessa had battled with them since their first day together as a couple back in highschool, however, at that moment she didn't think she wanted to face them at that moment.

In fact, she didn't think either of them had the strength to at that moment.