When the beating started on her door, she dropped the plate she was holding and watched it shatter across the blue kitchen tile. She sighed in frustration and stepped over it carefully on her way to the front door. As she yanked it open, she growled, "Better be a damn good reason why you're beating on the door like you're a cop."

She came face to face with the fifteen year old Daryl Dixon and she gasped in shock at the state of his face. He was black and blue. His left eye was swollen shut and his right eye was held shut to block out the blood pouring from his eyebrow. It looked like it had been torn half off and there was mud and dirt mixed into it. She could barely tell the color of his sun worn skin under all of the blood and dirt. Georgia grabbed his arm and yanked him inside.

"Daryl, what is going on? What happened?"

"My dad said I stole money offa him but I didn'. Merle did last week an used it to buy booze an cigarettes. When I couldn' give him back the money, he got real pissed off. Quit kickin' me when my eyebrow split open though so that was good."

She slipped her tiny hand into his and led him into the kitchen. He protested, "Wait, wait, wait, Georgia. I got my boots on still. I'm gonna get mud all over yer floor. Ya gotta wait. I'm gonna get yer house dirty. Yer daddy's gonna get mad at ya."

"He is not, Daryl. He'll understand that your health is more important than our carpet. Besides, he's at the hospital still. He's working late tonight. Come on. I have to clean you up. That eyebrow is going to need stitches."

"Be gentle."

"I'm always gentle with your stitches, aren't I?"

"'m jus sayin'."

She pushed him down on the chair and grabbed a broom from the corner to sweep the broken plate out of the way. She pulled a clean rag out of the drawer and ran hot water over it before handing it to him. She ordered, "Clean up a little while I go get the medical kit."

Daryl pressed the hot rag to his split eyebrow and watched as his fourteen year old best friend left the kitchen to get the medical kit she kept just for him.

Daryl jolted awake to the sound of her murmuring in her sleep. He looked over to find her wrapped around her little boy. It was their second day in the tent. The first day, Georgia had made her introductions and he hadn't been surprised to see that she fit right in. She'd always been really friendly and people liked her. Shit, she'd lived with the Dixons for two years. If she could handle them, she could handle anyone. DJ found a quick friend in Carl and was patient about the fact that the boy was injured. She hadn't spoken to Daryl at all and he hadn't cared. He went out to search for Sophia and when he came back, she handed him a bowl of food without talking. They were fine that way. He didn't have anything to say to her.

The little boy slept completely curled into himself. He wrapped himself around whatever he could get his arms on and Georgia curled around him. It's how Daryl slept when he was scared as a kid. It was a comfort thing. He understood that. He crawled out from under the blanket Georgia put on him after he fell asleep and searched around the tent for his boots. They were stacked neatly by the door and things were organized. It almost pissed him off how much it reminded him of living in the trailer with her.

She woke up as he was yanking his boots on and crawled out of the sleeping bag to join him. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as she braided her hair down her back and scrubbed the sleep out of her face. She dug around in her duffel bag for a second to find a pair of clean socks and she yanked them on. She whispered, "Are you looking for that little girl today?"

"Sophia. Ya. Goin' on patrol 'round here an then headed out. If ya need anythin', talk to Rick or Glenn. Keep an eye on DJ."

"I know how to watch my son, Daryl. Do you need anything before you go?"

"Somethin' to eat after I get back from patrol. An laundry done today."

"Okay."

Georgia busied herself with washing laundry and keeping an eye on Carl and DJ. She'd only been around for a couple days but she could tell that Lori was useless with her own kid. The child had been shot five days before and she barely kept her eyes on him. He couldn't move around a lot but it was still important to keep an eye on a child. Especially during the end of the world. Georgia made sure to watch the boys while she was washing laundry by the fire. They sat up on the front porch and played checkers. She kept an eye out for Daryl and the little girl he'd be bringing in. She knew that if anybody could bring back a lost child, it was Daryl. Hell, he'd been a lost child himself.

She was twelve when Daryl had disappeared into the woods. They'd known each other for a year. He was thirteen and she was the only person he talked to. She planned to surprise him by making him cupcakes and taking them to his trailer. She was going to let him ride her bike with her on the handlebars up to the creek so they could swim. When she got to his house, Merle was gone on a stint in juvie and his daddy's truck was in the driveway. Daryl told her a lot that she wasn't ever to go to his house if just his daddy's truck was in the driveway. She knew his daddy was dangerous so she turned around and went back home. She packed the cupcakes up and put them back into the fridge, nice and neat. She decided that she would take them to school on Monday and give them to him then. Even though he was a year ahead of her, he always ate lunch with her and glared at anybody who gave them weird looks.

But he didn't come into school on Monday. Or Tuesday. By Wednesday, she decided that, no matter what, she was going to figure out what was going on. She took the cupcakes with her down to Daryl's trailer park and gave them to the neighbor kids because they were going to go bad anyway. She told herself that she would bake Daryl a whole cake if he was still alive. She gathered up all of her courage and rode her bike right up to Daryl's trailer. When she knocked on the door, the biggest, meanest man she'd ever seen opened the door and she lost her voice. He snapped, "What do ya want?"

He had the same blue eyes as Daryl and Merle but she knew better than to think he was anything like Daryl. She knew though that Daryl wasn't home. If he had been home, he would have answered the door. So she said quickly, "I'm a local Girl Scout from Troop 317 and I'm selling Thin Mints."

"Ain't buyin' nothin' from ya, lil girl, so fuckin' get lost 'fore somethin' awful happens to ya. Shouldn' be down 'round here anyway. Don' yer parents have any fuckin' sense."

"Sorry, sir," she said quickly before she dashed away. Daryl came to her house the next day and she baked him a cake. He'd been lost in the woods the entire time. She made him stay on her couch for two days before she let him go back home.