Daryl's POV

"She's entirely too pleased with herself, " Daryl thought as he made his way through the maze of corridors to the other cell block. Stella and Gertie following quietly behind him. Still, he couldn't fault her for wanting to give the food to the prisoners. They didn't seem like bad guys and although he didn't really want them in the group, he couldn't say that giving them some of the meat was a bad idea. You never knew what might happen in the future.

He heard Stella's foot catch on some of the debris in the hallway and her quick steps to keep from falling down. He also heard her quick intake of breath. Must have twinged those ribs. Probably wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't carrying the meat. Daryl had started to carry it into the tombs, but she had insisted.

"You have to have your hands free. I can't work that crossbow and if we come on some walkers you need to be able to shoot quickly."

Still, he didn't like it. Didn't seem right her carrying all that weight with those broken ribs. He couldn't figure out a way around it though. "You alright?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, no problem. Just caught my toe is all. I'll try to be a little more careful." She whispered back.

She rarely complained, Daryl had to admit. It was one of the things he admired most about her. However, the thought of her her hasty departure the night before entered his mind and he found himself saying, "See that you are. I don't want to be picking your ass up and carrying you back just because you can't pay attention to where you're walkin'."

Moving forward Daryl could all but hear Stella grinding her teeth behind him. "She's got a temper on her," Daryl thought, "But damn if she doesn't keep it in check." It would be interesting to see how far he could push her.

"Here we are" Daryl said as they came upon a section of cells exactly like the ones they had just come from. "Dump it on the table and lets go."

"We can't just leave it. They wouldn't know where it came from." Stella insisted.

"Woman, where the hell else is it gonna come from? The meat fairy? Just leave it and let's get out of here." he said with exasperation.

"No." was the simple reply she gave him as she moved through the row of cells into the common room.

"Shit, where the hell you think you're going?" Daryl called after her. When he got no response after a minute he hurried after her. He found her standing in the doorway to the yard, the meat sitting on a table next to her. He knew the moment the prisoners saw her. She moved back to stand next to Daryl. Close enough so he could smell the soap she had used that morning. She smelled like some sort of flower. Lilac, or Jasmine perhaps?

The arrival of the prisoners in the doorway broke through his preoccupation. They were a mismatched pair. Oscar was a black guy in his late twenties and stood about six-two with a solid build. The other, Axel, was maybe five-five and had skin so pale you could practically see through it. He couldn't have weighed more than a buck thirty and had to have been pushing fifty.

"What the hell you doing over here? This is our area." Oscar growled at them, moving closer. His tone make Stella move closer to Daryl, her nearness clouding his head a bit. It also brought Gertie over from the corner she had been exploring. The low growl she emitted caused Oscar to stop in his tracks.

"I'd just hold up there if I was you. Look, we just wanted to bring you some meat. Bagged a deer yesterday and there's no way we're gonna finish it. Figured the two of you might like some," Daryl retorted.

"Oh, now y'all are concerned about us. After dumping us in this pit with all those bodies? How we know that you didn't let one of those things nibble on it first." Oscar remarked snidely.

With more bravo than Daryl was sure that she felt Stella spoke up. "Eat it or don't eat it. We just didn't want it to go to waste. Come on Daryl, lets go." With that, she spun around and headed back to the corridor.

Daryl slowly backed out of the common room, crossbow aimed at the pair standing in the doorway. He gave a quick whistle for Gertie, who was still standing there, growling, hackles up at the two men. She turned and trotted through the door. As soon as he reached the gate to the corridor, he pulled it shut and turned the key.

Five feet down the corridor he found Stella. The waves of tension coming off of her were palpable. Daryl walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to spin around. The tears in her eyes caused him to swear softly. Quickly she turned away and started back down the hall.

Daryl was caught between wanting to rush after her and comfort her, and going back in there and pounding Oscar's face in. In the end he did neither, he hurried down the hall till he had Stella in his sights then he followed her silently back to their cell block.

Stella continued straight outside and after building the fire back up reached to grab the bucket for some water. Daryl closed his hand over hers and gently tugged the bucket away. She looked up into his eyes, and Daryl was relieved that the tears had vanished. Her voice was quiet though when she spoke.

"You were right, I was a fool to think I could go there myself."

Daryl recalled what he said to her before and called himself a whole list of ugly names. Sometimes he didn't know when he was going to far. "Hey, if you had gone by yourself things probably would have been a whole lot different. You weren't here before. They got no reason to hold you responsible for them being in there. It was me, Rick, and T-Dog that put them in there. It was me they were mad at, not you. Hey," he said placing his hand on her arm, he waited till she looked back at him. "You were trying to do the right thing. Hell, you did do the right thing. Don't forget that."

A small sweet smile spread across her lips. "Thank you, thank you for saying that, for trying to make me feel better." She said, her voice husky with emotion.

Daryl looked down, embarrassed. People rarely talked to him this way, with such honesty. He didn't quite know how to handle it. So he did what he always did when he was uncomfortable. He turned and walked away.

As he headed to fill up the bucket with water he could have sworn he heard an exasperated sigh behind him.

Sitting around the fire that night after dinner, Carol came and sat down beside him. He was a little disappointed. He was hoping that when Stella came back from getting her sweater she would chose to sit next to him. Besides, lately Carol had been making some jokes about them getting together that were less humorous and more serious. He supposed it would make sense if Carol and he paired up. He knew the rest of the group kind of expected it. They both came from poor backgrounds and they were both... well, for a lack of a better word, somewhat broken. Trouble was, he didn't think of Carol like that. He really liked her, and enjoyed spending time with her but she was more like a big sister.

"Haven't seen you much lately," Carol said. At Daryl's grunt she went on. "Worried I'll pull you into a broom closet and do unspeakable things to you?"

"Yeah, terrified. Thought you might like a break from my company at any rate."

Carol shook her head. "Went looking for you this afternoon. Thought I'd give you a list of things that we're running short on, just in case you came across anything. Couldn't find you though. You or Stella. Where'd you two go off to?" The tone of her voice wasn't quite accusing but wasn't totally friendly either.

Daryl didn't want to get into it with Carol. Tell Carol something, you might as well tell the whole group. He wasn't ready to let Rick know that they went to the other side of the prison yet. "Nothing, just helping Stella with something."

"Hmph. Well what was it?" Carol persisted.

Daryl was watching Stella walk back towards the fire. She had a way of walking that was so graceful. It wasn't overtly sexy, she didn't strut, it was like she floated. "Sorry, what?" he asked Carol.

Carol tracked Daryl's eyes and clenched her jaw. "Nothing, just making small talk."

"Guess I'm kind of talked out for the day. Sorry Carol." Daryl was having trouble focusing. Stella had brought her hairbrush out and was trying to brush through some of the knots that had accumulated throughout the day. As she worked on one particular knot he saw her grimace with pain. He wasn't the only one that saw it.

"Here let me." Beth said, hurrying over. "You shouldn't be reaching like that with your ribs. Daddy said they'll take about six weeks to heal."

"Unfortunately that sounds just about right" Stella said wryly. She readily passed over the brush over.

"My mom used to do this for me. She's come into the my room at night and we'd talk about what went on during the day while she brushed my hair." Beth was quiet for a minute. "I think that was my favorite time of the day, just me and her."

The conversation was secondary to Daryl. He couldn't help it. The sight of the brush running through her hair, the crackle it made, was driving him nuts. "Why can't she cut it like everyone else" he grumbled to himself. But still... it was mesmerizing. The voices continued around him as he watched Beth run the brush through her hair over and over again. He couldn't help but wish it was him. He wondered what the texture of her hair was like, how it would feel in his hands.

Suddenly he was aware that someone was watching him. He only had to shift his eyes over a fraction of a degree to see who it was. Stella was staring back at him intensely.

Quickly he dropped his gaze to the ground.