Heterochromia Iridum

Hello, you! I'm pretty busy right now, but I just had to get another one out before the show starts up again on Sunday. I'm so excited! Though I'll probably need a box of tissues. Who else is pumped?

Thank you to jomoisbae81, I'm a Nerd and Proud, Guest, JenTen, Jennifer, Faelyght, Biasoul, Kaiya's Watergarden, sweetlilac, .2016, addicted2memories, jeanf, Steph, KuteKati1989, Jean, norcalpc, Suzzie, Bactrian Camel, Lady-Finwe, Dezzal, and GawkyTC. Thank you to everyone new that's added this story to their alerts and favourites, and thank you even to whoever hasn't enjoyed this story for giving it a shot. A couple reviews haven't been the nicest, but honestly, this is basically the first thing I've ever written, and everyone has a different opinion, so it's alright. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters associated with the franchise. I own the plot to this story and any original characters you may see, like Katty or Calum.

Chapter 17: Answers

Katherine Harvey was fucked.

And not in the good way. She was fucked in the sense of someone that had woken up hung over and in the middle of eating breakfast realized that they had thrown themselves at Daryl Dixon and grinded on his cock last night. Screwed in the way that she had remembered that Maggie had caught them and it had taken Katty twenty minutes of drunken pleas before her friend finally caved and promised not to tell anyone except for Glenn, because she "couldn't possibly keep secrets from him". Which, knowing Glenn, probably meant that everyone would find out anyways.

She subtly tried not to react when the memory flooded her conscious mind, but apparently simultaneous choking and wheezing on oat porridge midway through eating it was enough cause for concern.

"Holy shit, Katty, chew your food," Calum laughed from across from her at the table. "What's your problem?"

She coughed a few more times before the food dislodged from her trachea. "Nothing," Katty gasped. Her face fell into a grimace and Katty's eyes glued themselves to her bowl of oat porridge, willing Calum to mind his own business and not investigate further.

She glanced up after a moment to see her friend's lips quirked into an amused expression. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment before casually asking, "This wouldn't have anything to do with you drunkenly yelling at Maggie 'don't tell anyone' and following it up with 'I felt his bloody dick, Mags,' last night, would it?"

The noise Katty emitted was reminiscent of a dying animal, possibly of feline variety. She opened her mouth, her mind blank of any viable excuses, and then shut her gob dumbly before planting her forehead loudly on the wooden surface of the table. The front of her head throbbed dully, adding to the still there headache from dehydration.

"I'm such a prat, Calum," she groaned into the table.

"Yup," he popped in return. Katty rolled her face from the table so that she could scowl up at Calum's Cheshire face. "Who was it?"

"Daryl," Katty whispered in return, aware that they weren't the only ones in the house currently.

She had returned home last night to find out that the three men that had been out on the scouting expedition were all, in fact, living at the house Katty had been occupying. Heath, Scott, and incidentally, Calum. She didn't fail to see the irony in the fact that her lost friend had been residing in Alexandria, right in the particular room that she had wondered if he would have liked, pre-apocalypse. They had stayed up late last night, talking and, on Katty's end, yelling and crying. The reunion had finally hit her and she had become emotional in her inebriated state. The night had ended with her clinging to Calum, sleeping, drooling, and sprawled out beside him in the aforementioned bedroom.

"Daryl?" Calum laughed, somewhat surprised. "The hillbilly? He's your type?"

Katty scowled once more at him, "Don't call him that," she snapped irritably, sitting up and crossing her arms across her chest.

Calum waved his spoon at her dismissively. "He looks mean," he commented before stuffing another spoonful of porridge into his mouth. "Whatchu like 'bout 'im?" Calum mumbled unattractively around the food in his mouth.

Her nose wrinkled at her friend, not impressed that she had to defend her taste of men to him. "He's rugged, manly, intelligent," Katty listed, and then paused, her mind drifting back to last night. "Sexy, mysterious, rough."

Calum rolled his eyes, "Keep it in your pants, Casanova."

"Really good kisser –"

"I get it."

"And it felt like he had a big –"

"Katty!" Calum interrupted. "Shut up," he said with a laugh that resembled a sharp bark.

"Cock."

"I hate you."

She shrugged and then grabbed her bowl to wash it in the sink, unconcerned with Calum's discomfort. "You asked. I answered. You're welcome," Katty explained simply with an exaggerated, extravagant flutter of her hand. She could feel him roll his eyes at her from behind her back.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So how long have you two been boning for?" he asked crudely, joining her at the sink.

"Haven't," she admitted, ignoring the raised eyebrows Calum sent her, seemingly in disbelief. "That was the first time we kissed, but we were both pissed, he might not even remember it," Katty grumbled to herself. She had really fucked up. How was she supposed to be able to look him in the eyes ever again, never mind pretend that their moment on the veranda hadn't happened?

"Well, stop being a pussy and go find out," Calum jerked his head towards the door, indicating her to leave.

"No way," Katty disagreed immediately. "He'll probably bite my head off for jumping him like that."

Calum snorted loudly and then pulled Katty's hair away from her neck. "Looks like he's already tried," he said through a laugh, pressing his thumb on the bruise under Katty's ear.

She swatted Calum's hand away and tugged her brown hair forward again so it covered the light mark. Katty could feel a blush creeping up her neck as she tried to think of something to avert the conversation away.

"He's Merle's brother," Katty tried to say conversationally, ignoring the heat in her cheeks.

Calum guffawed, "You're joking. This just keeps getting better and better." The laugh turned to a sharp, girlish yelp when Katty wound up the dish towel and snapped it on Calum's arse.

"I just mean," Katty said pointedly as she turned back to the sink, "You got along really well with Merle, so you'll probably like Daryl. He doesn't talk much, but he's easier to like than his brother."

"You don't have to sell him to me," Calum said, shooting a bright grin Katty's way as he dried their dishes. "You had me at 'big cock'."

Katty laughed freely, shaking her head incredulously at Calum. Yesterday had honestly been the best day that Katty could remember having in a long time. After the overhaul of shit that had sprayed in their direction recently, it had been nice to have a series of fortunate events to balance it out.

She just wasn't sure if having Daryl's tongue down her throat was a fortunate event yet.

"What was up with that girl yesterday?" Katty asked suddenly, switching gears. The woman's frowning face jumped out in her mind. She had seemed to dislike Katty immediately, eyeing her up and down distastefully like Katty had been trying to steal her boyfriend or something.

"Annie is – uh – complicated," Calum awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and slightly wrinkled his nose. Katty's lips twitched into a smile.

"Meaning you're shagging and that was her being jealous."

"Well – yeah," he shrugged as if she had just asked him a pointless, obvious question. "I re-explained who you were again to Annie, so hopefully she'll be nicer," Calum didn't sound too concerned with the woman's animosity towards Katty.

Katty snorted. She doubted that. Living in California, she hadn't been a stranger to catty, jealous women. Katty also wasn't blind to the fact that she was conventionally attractive and that she had certain features that made her stick out in a crowd to the opposite sex. She wouldn't consider herself to be manipulative per say, but Katty couldn't lie and say that she hadn't used her looks to get her way before. A bigger tip when she was a server, flirting with a professor or two to scrounge a passing grade in uni. One of the last jobs she had was solely based on appearances, in fact.

"Don't worry, I can handle it," Katty affirmed, thinking that out of everything in this world, nothing would feel more normal to her than a catty woman.

"She's harmless," Calum waved it off. "Daryl, however, looked like he was going to murder me yesterday," he cast a weary look to Katty, who smiled at the mention of the redneck.

"He's not so harmless," the look Calum shot her was withering. Katty laughed again, "He probably won't do anything, but try not to piss him off."

The scornful look disappeared and a wide-eyed, innocent expression appeared in it's place. "What would I ever do to piss anyone off?"

"Michonne said you called Rick 'big boy' yesterday."

"I was being charming," Calum exclaimed dramatically, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Well they want you to charm their pants off some more," Katty replied, remembering that Carol and a few others had mentioned that Katty should bring Calum by sometime today. She figured that they, namely Carol, had questions for Calum, particularly about his mother's involvement at the CDC in Atlanta. Katty considered warning Calum that it would be an interview about Biters and the virus, but she refrained from doing so. Calum had never liked talking about the virus, especially since Woodbury. She chewed her lip, hoping that her friend would get over the guilt he felt.

"They want to meet you officially, I think," she clarified at his curious expression. Calum's trademark grin slid onto his face, and Katty could feel herself smiling back at him in spite of herself. His smile was like an infectious disease; one that she couldn't help but mimic.

"Well, let's not keep my audience waiting."

It was like a dream to have him back with her.

Daryl wanted to slap himself. He was nervous, scared of a fuckin' girl. Kat had always made him feel somewhat uncomfortable; she smiled at him entirely too often, she didn't seem to be affected when he was borderline rude to her, and Kat was, as much as he hated to remind himself, fucking gorgeous. But, then again, a lot of people made him feel uncomfortable. However, Daryl Dixon was never nervous. His palms were sweaty, and Daryl kept trying to casually wipe his hands on his pants. He knew he was fidgeting, and it was definitely obvious by the looks that he was receiving from the other members of his group.

Carol kept sending confused, concerned glances his way; his energy was thick with tension, radiating off him like the summer heat. Carol, he could ignore. Daryl knew she would goad and prod him about it later, but he could at least pretend she wasn't looking at him until he could make a quick escape at the end. Glenn, however, Daryl had the urge to throttle.

Daryl liked Glenn. Glenn's face and the stupid fucking knowing smirk on his face, not so much. He resisted glaring at Maggie, who was situated near Glenn, as usual. It was obvious that Kat had said something to Maggie, or the farmer's daughter had at least realized what had transpired between the two on the bench last night. Probably a combination of the two; Kat was different, or so he liked to think, but she was still a female. And even though Daryl had limited knowledge of women, he knew that they loved to gossip.

He winced as he thought of what had happened last night. He had been drunk, and his inhibitions had waned enough that he broke and ended up grabbing Kat and assaulting her with his mouth. When he had realized in the moment what was happening, it had already been too late. Kat was entirely too close and too warm and felt too good against him – on top of him. The noises she had made and the motions that had sent her centre grinding on top of Daryl, even now, sent the blood rushing downwards.

Daryl changed his mind about resisting glaring at Maggie and sent a scowl her way. If she hadn't of interrupted, in the next few minutes Daryl would have hauled Kat over his shoulder to take her somewhere – anywhere – to finish what they had started.

Daryl paused. Maybe it had been a good thing that Maggie had interrupted. That would have ended up being a shitty situation.

One thing was for sure: He could definitely never let his guard down like that again. There's no way that it would end well for either of them.

Daryl wondered briefly if Kat was going to pretend like nothing happened, or even remember the event. She had been pretty hammered. So had he, but Daryl had never had a problem with blacking out while drinking before.

He gripped his knee tighter when Daryl realized that he was bouncing it in a nervous tick. Rick had mentioned that Kat and Calum would be making an appearance at the main house. Carol had also not failed to inform them a while back what Kat had said about Calum and his involvement at the CDC in Atlanta.

What started the virus didn't fuckin' matter anymore; after hearing from Jenner that there wasn't any chance of a vaccine, Daryl stopped caring about any details surrounding the cause of the end of the world. But he couldn't say that he wasn't the least bit curious about what the retard knew about it. He hadn't seemed like an intellectual and Daryl didn't understand what the kid's involvement was at the CDC.

There was a part of him, and Daryl cringed to admit it to himself, that knew he was using his 'curiosity' as an excuse. He wanted to see Kat and Calum together, to make sure that she hadn't been lying to him last night when she said he wasn't her type. It was morbid really, waiting for the confirmation.

Another, moody portion of him was angry that he lost his purpose once again in Alexandria, now that he and Aaron weren't to scout for more people. He was looking for ways to distract himself that didn't involve offering the help the construction crew or fucking around with the bike uselessly for the nineteenth time.

Daryl was so on edge, he almost jumped when the door swung open, with Kat and Calum waltzing through. If he had been anyone else, he would have jumped.

Maggie and Glenn immediately got up to introduce themselves to the man, even though Glenn had briefly seen Calum the other day, and Daryl found himself scowling at Calum again. It felt like a routine at this point. The younger man let a wide, childish grin slide across his face and he roughed his stupid hair up before clasping hands with Glenn and then Maggie. Daryl smirked slightly when Kat slapped Calum's hand away from mussing up with hair, but ducked his gaze away when she looked over to him.

"Judith!" Kat cooed immediately, and walked to where Rick was seated with the baby in his lap, bouncing slightly. The second that the girl gurgled and reached her arms towards Kat, Rick held Judith out towards Kat with an amused look.

Watching Kat bounce Judith on one hip while she greeted Carol set off a weird, primal feeling in Daryl, and he chewed the side of his thumb to erase the sense from his mind. She wasn't his wife, his woman, she wasn't his anything at all, and he could feel himself becoming irritated with his own brain.

Daryl felt someone watching him, and glanced to find Calum staring at him, a slight smirk on his face. Normally, he would consider the change in expression a breath of fresh air compared to the normal Cheshire grin the man wore, but the knowing smirk somehow still pissed Daryl off even more.

"Hey, Daryl," a British accent murmured, and all the muscles in his body tensed when Kat's hand brushed on his shoulder in greeting. His dick twitched when he recalled how Kat had murmured his name very differently last night, and Daryl averted his eyes from what he assumed was her weird, mismatched ones boring into his.

He grunted something that resembled a, "Hey," and picked at his fingernails. Daryl cringed to himself. So fucking casual, he scolded sarcastically.

Maybe it would be better to pretend like they hadn't sucked face last night, and Kat would do the same. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Daryl's internal dialogue distracted him from the rest of the room, until Carol caught his attention.

"I know it isn't the most appropriate conversation," she started, and Daryl watched as she adjusted her homemaker's sweater. It was still bizarre to him, seeing Carol play the submissive housewife role. "But Katty mentioned before that you were at the CDC in Atlanta before everything?"

He remembered. There was no way he didn't.

Katty could feel the awkward, sexual tension as soon as she walked in and felt his eyes on her. And she knew Daryl well enough that he was probably going to ignore her until he thought she'd gotten over last night or just pretend it never happened. The man oozed sex appeal, at least to her, but social skills, he had not. It was both charming and infuriating.

She watched him as Daryl and Calum had an odd standoff, one glaring, one smirking, and Katty felt her own lips tug up into a smile. She wasn't accustomed to men playing hard to get with her. She bounced Judith on her hip and made a decision.

Katty was going to make sure he remembered.

" – – Katty mentioned before that you were at the CDC in Atlanta before everything?"

Her one track mind switched gears and Katty's attention flew to her friend. Calum looked startled, but it quickly faded away to one that looked in between slight frustration and fatigue. He was tired. Katty knew that, and she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth as she waited for him to respond.

His Adams apple bobbed in his throat slightly before Calum responded, a dismissive tone to his voice, "The CDC is long gone by now, the generators would have only lasted – "

"We were there when it blew up," Glenn interrupted, "Jenner let us out before," he trailed off, unsure how to finish his sentence.

Calum's eyebrows raised, "So he did stay 'til the end then," he hummed a noise in his throat that sounded moderately impressed. "More than anyone else could say."

"He stayed for his wife," Carol added, watching Calum carefully. Katty wondered if she was trying to gauge the extent of Calum's involvement and the reliability of his information.

"Candace," Calum concurred. "Probably one of the best minds we had working on Project Wildfire. My mom, along with a lot of others, left after she was infected; lost hope, I suppose." He finished disinterestedly with a slight shrug. Katty knew it was a defense mechanism; Calum's mother had died shortly after they had left. The memory was surely flickering behind his eyes at the mention of the CDC.

"Katty mentioned your mother worked in the etiology of the virus," Carol stated conversationally, but Katty could hear the underlying urge for information in her voice.

Calum could too, apparently. He sighed and rubbed his hand across his face. "What are you all actually getting at here? This obviously isn't just a friendly little welcoming party," he drawled sarcastically.

"Details, answers, anything," Maggie answered evenly when no one responded right away.

Calum looked at Katty for a moment, one that felt like an eternity, while she assumed that he tried to figure out how much they knew about her exactly. She wanted to shake her head at Calum, but figured that the group would be watching the two of them closely, and confined herself to what she hoped was an unreadable expression.

The dark haired man turned his sights back to Maggie, before he flickered over the other individuals in the room. "You want to know about Project Wildfire?" he asked testily, though the question sounded more like a statement, and asked for no confirmation.

"What does it matter anymore?" Calum's brow furrowed, as if the question irritated him, which it probably did.

"Calum," Katty decided to interrupt what was surely going to be a pointless back and forth between the group and Calum. "They have the right to know, they live here too," she explained softly.

Calum's lips twisted at her words. "Right to know, huh?" her heart picked up speed at the look that Calum shot her. They had talked extensively last night about the members of Rick's group, and Calum had asked her, after she retold Noah's story, if she planned on telling them about her immunity. Katty, still a coward, didn't have an answer for him. "I agree, Katty."

She attempted to cover her discomfort with a smile, but knew that it ended up looking more like a grimace.

"There's no cure," he said bluntly, addressing the lot of them once more. "There never was, never will be. At least not from anywhere in North America."

Glenn's brow creased. "Why North America?"

"Canada was just as bad as the States before it went dark. Europe was more sheltered from the virus, the first few incidents that appeared over there were actually from American and Canadian tourists. There was even some stupid theory that the virus's efficacy had to do with the hosts exposure to pesticides, preservatives and GMO's, which were a lot more rampant in North America," Calum rolled his eyes. "It was just a pathetic scare tactic, really."

Katty remembered the messages on the news. After they stopped blaming a derivative of bath salts or some other substance, the media had turned to what touched their food. That was one of the last theories that she had heard on television, the day before she had gotten on a plane to Florida.

"So it ain't some messed up form of mad cow disease?" Daryl asked, and Katty was surprised at his contribution. Daryl always appeared disinterested, but it seemed that he was as curious as the rest of them. She looked at him briefly, and noticed that he still wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Might be, actually," Calum said lightly to the other man. "Some thought that it was a misfolded protein similar to the prion disorder that caused Mad Cow. But prions don't contain genetic material like virus' do, and prions are typically fatal. There's a chance at survival with virus'." Calum paused to stretch where he was standing and then shrugged at everyone. "There's no real answer, what caused the wildfire; it might as well be a fucked up fairytale."

Katty had heard all of this before from Calum, but it still made her stomach churn to listen to once again. It sounded so hopeless. How could you fight something without knowing where it came from?

"Can I hold her?" Calum asked suddenly, and turned to Rick to ask for permission. The older man just nodded once, a thoughtful look on his face. Katty couldn't blame him. So far, Calum hadn't given them any solid answers. She figured that he wouldn't, unless they asked the right questions.

A smile broke across Calum's face as he took Judith from Katty and started to make nonsensical noises at her, bouncing and playing with her. Judith's giggles were an odd, hopeful sound in a room that otherwise felt gloomy.

"There ain't any chance of survival with this virus though, so couldn't it be a prion?" Maggie pointed out, her face slightly pinched and eyes searching Calum's.

Katty tried to keep her breathing regular and quickly stuffed her hands into her pockets when she noticed that they had started to tremble. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Calum's eyes flicked for the briefest of moments towards Katty before he sent a smile Maggie's way.

"That's where you're wrong."

The somber expressions around the room changed immediately, varying from shocked to confused and everything in between. Katty missed them all, however, considering that her gaze was locked to her feet, suddenly fascinated by the ratty Timberland boots.

"Jenner said that everyone's infected," Rick stated lowly. Calum nodded in response.

"Yup," he popped and Judith giggled at the noise. He glanced down at her with a grin before continuing. "I prefer the theory that there's two strains from one virus. First one, that everyone is infected with, your immune system can fight off until you're dead. The second strain comes from a lethal bacterial that they give off from a bite or scratch. It exponentially multiples and makes you become septic. It disrupts the clotting cascade, meaning you bleed out, and fucks with your inflammatory response, which causes the fever." He looked around the room at the serious faces and then shrugged. "That's just what my mom and me thought, though."

"So when you said that people survive, you just were referring to the fact that everyone is infected," Glenn concluded.

"Nope, there's been cases of survivors." Katty didn't miss the sidelong glance he sent to her. She bristled uncomfortably, annoyed that Calum had decided to play this game with her again. She knew that the people at Alexandria were different from Woodbury, but her anxiety spiked at the similarities that prevented her from revealing the truth. Calum hadn't said whether or not telling the group would be a good idea last night when they talked. He had expressed his anxieties about it, but agreed that these people weren't Woodbury – weren't the Governor.

"Over in France, there was a man that got bit early into it. He was afebrile the entire time, but they couldn't figure out how to stop the bleeding. Had a continuous infusion of blood products while they tried to work on a cure."

"What happened to him?" Carol asked quickly.

"Died due to complications from experimentation," Calum stated darkly. A shiver ripped up Katty's spine at his words. "France went dark shortly after. It was unclear if it was because the man was exposed so early on that the bacteria hadn't had time to become truly lethal, or if he just had a wicked immune system. Maybe there's just somethin' in the water over there," the joke didn't land with anyone, and the room was quiet for a minute as Calum bounced Judith some more.

"What about here?" Rick broke the silence, "Have there been any survivors here?"

The scratch on her arm and the old bite on her hip throbbed dully at Rick's question. Katty resisted rubbing the marks, or moving at all really, and tried to look casual as she inclined her attention back to Calum.

He had been silent for a moment, and Katty wondered if he was giving her a chance to decide if she wanted to tell them. When she remained soundless, Calum answered. "Every now and then, before we left and after Atlanta had been napalmed, someone would approach the CDC. Claim that they had been bit or scratched couple o' days back and were asymptomatic." He shuffled uncomfortably and switched his grip on Judith.

"First three were gunned down immediately, everyone was too panicked, too scared about what was happening. In hindsight, they could have truly been immune. Last person that claimed that, we brought in to study. Turns out that they weren't, their genetic material had just altered and been able to fight off the virus for an extra extended period of time before showing symptoms."

"That was how Candace Jenner got infected," Calum concluded grimly.

Katty hated this information. It always made her wonder if that was her story, that one day if she was feeling ill and her immune system was lower than usual, maybe her body wouldn't be able to fight off the virus and she, too, would become a Biter. Her stomach churned and Katty felt nauseous.

"It's not all sad stories and broken families, though," Calum added in a different, lighter voice. "The human race has always adapted to it's surroundings. There's a possibility when we consider how exposed we are to the virus, that we will adapt to beat it."

"Virus' mutate too, though," Glenn pointed out, though the look on his face stated that he wished he hadn't.

"Yeah, there's that, too," he conceded. Calum shifted Judith's weight once more in his arm and then ran a hand over her head, smoothing her curls. "There's a strong possibility that any child conceived after the spread of Project Wildfire is immune as well," he murmured, and Katty saw everyone snap to attention at the information. "Prenatal exposure and all that." He sniffed. "Not that it's worth the risk to find out," Calum added drearily, and passed Judith back to Rick when she started becoming fussy.

"No, it's not," Rick concluded in agreement, and the conversation seemed to end at that. He got up and disappeared down the hallway with Judith, assumedly to put her down for a nap.

"Thank you," Maggie said quietly to Calum, who roughly shoved a hand through his hair and shrugged in response.

"Don't need thanks for it. Not like I had any answers for y'all." He dismissed her appreciation, and then turned to Katty. "I'm goin' to talk to Rick for a minute, I'll find you after," he reached out and squeezed her shoulder firmly before retreating down the hall that Rick had walked down.

"Had you heard all that before?" Glenn suddenly asked Katty, appearing at her side. She paused, and then nodded.

"Yeah, he's mentioned it," she admitted, brushing her long hair over her shoulder. She saw Daryl get up from his position, leant against the wall, out of her peripheral. Katty felt the urge to follow him and shifted in her spot.

"What do you think of it all?" Maggie prompted her.

She chewed her lip. "I think that answers are sometimes scarier than the unknown." The door shut lightly, and she turned to see that the redneck had left once again. "Sorry, I – uh – have to go do something," she interrupted lamely, and the couple, simultaneously, glanced towards the door before turning back to Katty with matching, knowing smirks.

"Right," Maggie drawled at her. "Good luck." Katty felt her face heat up as she ducked away from them and followed Daryl out the door.

She wasn't sure why she felt the need to follow him; maybe she needed a distraction, maybe she needed a reminder that she was alive and wasn't going to become a Biter, maybe she was just pathetically infatuated with the man and craved his presence.

Walking out to an empty porch, Katty felt her spirits sink. He had definitely left to get away from her, not just go out for a cigarette, or else Daryl would have been here, in the usual place. She supposed that she got her answer. He regretted what had happened between them, obviously.

Like she said, answers were sometimes scarier than the unknown.

Daryl had seen the looks that Calum had sent Katty's way when he was talking about the virus. He didn't understand it, wasn't sure why, what the point was, or what the message was behind the sidelong glances, no matter how short they seemed, but it unsettled Daryl to his core. There was definitely more to the story, Daryl just wasn't entirely sure he wanted to find the answer out yet.

Daryl watched from his position, standing in the grass of the walkway between the two homes. Watched Kat interestedly as her eyes roamed around, presumably looking for him. Daryl still wasn't sure if she remembered, but he was starting to assume that she didn't, considering that she still wanted to talk to him.

He shook his head to himself. It didn't matter either way, because he wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Ya followin' me?" he asked gruffly before he could stop himself, and watched in amusement as Kat jumped and whirled around to face him. He met her eyes for the first time that day and tried to gauge what exactly she had come after him for.

"Is it that obvious?" Kat joked as she walked down the steps and towards him, once she realized that Daryl wasn't going to move from his position against the siding of the house.

Daryl just grunted in response to her, and resisted frowning when Kat smiled at him in response. It didn't matter what shitty reply or lack of response he gave her, she never seemed deterred from it.

"Yer boyfriend seems ta know a lot," he stated lowly, his hands unconsciously flexing and releasing in the pockets of his vest. Daryl wasn't sure why he said it, she had already told him that they weren't together. It was probably the petty side of him, wanting Kat to confirm it again.

Daryl scowled to himself. He really was a damn girl.

Kat rolled her eyes at him, though it seemed more good natured than annoyed. "I told you last night, he's not – "

Daryl didn't understand immediately why she had cut herself off. After a short moment, he realized that she had just brought up last night and that she remembered saying that. They hadn't made out more than a few minutes after she had said that last night.

Kat licked her lips subconsciously before she tugged her lower one in between her teeth. It was a nervous habit, but Daryl's mind immediately went to the memory of her tugging at his lip. His jaw clenched as he watched her, and got a strange satisfaction at how uncomfortable Kat looked. It was a change from how their roles usually went, and Daryl felt himself want to relish in the moment.

"Finish yer sentence; what happened last night?" he found himself asking, Daryl's voice more gravelly than usual. He took pleasure in the fact that he could see the slightest shiver run up Kat's body.

"I told you that Calum isn't my boyfriend," Kat answered when she found her voice, and Daryl couldn't keep the smirk off his face, both at her response and at the breathy tone of Kat's voice. It almost seemed submissive, though he knew she wasn't, but it set off another primal urge within him.

"That all that happened last night?" When he couldn't meet her eyes before, Daryl couldn't look away from Kat now. He wasn't sure if he wanted an answer to that question, or if he just wanted to see how much he could make her squirm.

"No," she responded quietly, and Daryl eyed her suspiciously when he noticed that Kat was a lot closer than she was a few minutes ago. When had she moved?

When her arm brushed his, it was like the bubble, filled with tension and uncertainty, popped. Daryl took a step back and regained his composure. He had told himself that it wouldn't happen again, and he was going to make sure of it. Even if she'd be pissed at him over it.

"Don't matter neither way. It ain't happenin' again, ya get it?" he asked roughly, and looked away from Kat as soon as he saw her eye widen. Daryl wasn't about to stick around to either have her yell at him, or cry, or whatever else women did when he was rude to them.

Daryl turned and started to walk away with the intent of avoiding Kat for the next few days, or as long as he possibly could until both of them got over whatever the fuck had happened last night. His ears perked when he heard her let out a breathy laugh. What the hell?

He paused momentarily, the urge to look back over at her peaking his interest, before he felt her hand roughly encase his shoulder and turn him around before he could decide.

Kat's hands immediately went to Daryl's face, and she brought his head down with a jerk, towards hers. Their teeth clashed together, the feeling reverberating through them, though Daryl ignored it for the time being. His mind was whirling, buzzing as he tried to figure out what he should do. Their lips disconnected briefly before she tugged him back towards herself a second time, taking a step forward and leaning into him, pressing Daryl's body into the siding of the house. His mind went blank, the only thing he could focus on was the feeling of her soft body slanted against his, and Daryl gave into Kat once more.

It wasn't as frantic, as rushed as last night, and Kat slowly trailed her hand down his arm, taking his hand and placing it on her hip. Daryl cursed himself at how hesitant he was; he didn't know what she wanted or what he should do, so his hand just stayed at her hip, unmoving. She seemed to sense his discomfort, and pulled away once move, enough to look at him. Kat was still so close that Daryl had to blink twice for her face to get in focus for him.

"Relax," she murmured at him, her accent twirling and lilting in a way that made him swallow thickly. One of her hands moved and scratched at the scruff on his face, while the other slid behind his neck and lightly tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck.

"We're friends, right?"

Her words made him scoff, the unexpected noise making Kat jump slightly. What a fuckin' stupid question, Daryl thought. He may not be a people person, but Daryl had definitely had friends before. Daryl wasn't sure what type of friends Kat had, back before everything, in California, but he didn't like the idea of Kat doing this with all her 'friends'.

The question had made all the uncertainty and doubt vanish from Daryl, and his hands gripped her hips roughly as he took a step and twisted their bodies so that now Kat was being pressed into the side of the house. The shocked, excited look that he received in return from the smaller female was enough to make his lip curl into a smirk.

"Nah. Friends ain't do this shit," he replied gruffly and then leaned down, kissing her almost bruisingly hard. Kat let out a noise that resembled a mewl when he pressed his leg firmly between her own, grinding it against her. Daryl's hand left Kat's hip to grab her jaw, pinching lightly as his tongue demanded entrance to her mouth. She complied and allowed his dominance, twisting her own with his as she mimicked the motion with her hips against his.

A growl left Daryl's throat and he slid his hands back down to her hips, and then curled around to her ass. "Jump," he ordered as soon as he ripped his mouth away from hers once more. Kat's brows furrowed, and then she squeaked girlishly when Daryl lost patience and hoisted her up by his own accord. He let out a bark of laughter at the surprised look on Kat's face, clear as day to him now that she was eye level with Daryl.

They were pressed together more solidly now, and Daryl could feel his own chest heaving against Kat's. She was watching him unabashedly, eyes tracing over every aspect of his face and it made Daryl suddenly self-conscious.

"You're right," she murmured at him, lowering her voice since they were in such a close proximity with each other. His brows furrowed. What?

"Friends ain't do this shit," she parroted back to him in a replica of his southern twang. Daryl snorted.

"Fuck did I tell ya 'bout the voice, Kat?"

Kat laughed loudly, tipping her head back as she did. The laugh slipped into another mewl as Daryl attached his lips to her neck. He didn't miss the appearance of the light bruise that had been left, a reminder of last night. He scoffed to himself as he continued down the column of her throat and the front of her chest. Of course she would remember after seeing that.

At least he had his answer now.

A/N: Hello! Please take the virus stuff with a grain of salt; it was really just me having fun with it since the show refuses to theorize anything. I'm not a science major by any means, all that crap up there was just high school biology stuff and quick google searches haha.

And I appreciate the couple people that mentioned they wanted an AU where Katty and Tyler join the group at the quarry. Thank you so much for the suggestion, but as of right now I have no plans to do that. I'd have to map out the plot for a long time before I would even consider it, I think.

Feel free to leave a review! I would really appreciate it!

-Submechanophobia

Next Time: "Have you ever had to put anyone down before?"