The sound of Daryl shouting made Georgia's head jerk up quickly. It was coming from the stables. He shouldn't have been in the stables. The dumbass redneck should have been in his tent where she left him when she went to milk cows that morning. She was on her way back to the tent to ask him if he felt like eating lunch when she heard the shouts and took off running toward the noise. She made it there in time to see Carol running out and Daryl kneeling on the dirt floor, clutching his side. She raced over to him and dropped beside him. As soon as her hand touched his shoulder, she knew she'd made a mistake. He reacted roughly, throwing his hand out to push her away and instead colliding with her cheek. She fell backwards and cussed, "Fuck, Daryl!"

"Georgia!" he gasped. He turned to her and crawled to where she was laying on her back in the dirt. He bent over her and grabbed at her face.

"Fuck, Daryl. God damn it that hurt! Seriously? I told you to stay in the fucking tent because of your side! What the fuck are you doing out here?"

"Told yer dad a long time ago I weren' gonna let nobody hit ya ever again. I promised him that if he'd tell me where ya went," Daryl said frantically. He was examining her cheek desperately where a bruise was already forming.

"Daryl, calm down. It's nothing. You didn't break it."

"I fuckin' hit ya, Georgia. I fuckin' hit ya. Said I never would. Said I weren' nothin' like Merle. I ain't like Merle. Ya gotta believe me. I didn' mean to hit ya."

"Daryl, calm down. You didn't mean to. It was an accident," Georgia tried to assure him. His response was unexpected. Georgia was trying to assess why Daryl Dixon was hyperventilating over accidentally hitting her when half the time he was threatening to skin her ass or something of the sort.

"It's all fuckin' bruisin' an shit an I didn' mean to be beatin' on ya. Ya know I ain't like that. I never hit ya 'fore. Not once!"

"I know, Daryl. You're a good man. Calm down. You didn't mean to hit me."

Suddenly, she found herself yanked flush against him with his hands in her hair and his cheek pressed to hers. She was shocked and worried. Daryl wasn't a hugging to make it better kind of guy. Daryl was a rolling his eyes and storming off until hours later when he would come back, mumble something that barely sounded like a word, and pat your hand kind of guy. He muttered, "I don' hate ya. I don' hate ya an I don' hate yer boy an I don' hate Carol or Sophia. I wanna hate ya. God I really wanna hate ya, Georgia Rayne. What ya did 'cause a me an cause a Merle weren' right but I can' hate ya."

"Daryl," she whispered, "I have to tell you something."

"No, jus shhh. Ya don' gotta talk. Ya don' gotta talk."

"It's about DJ, Daryl. I think you have to know."

"No, ain't gotta explain nothin' to me. I don' care 'bout it."

"Daryl, this is important."

"I jus…."

"Daryl, I didn't abort your baby. I had that baby. I have that baby. DJ's name is Daryl James Dixon. He was born January 18 the year after I left you." Georgia blurted out. The air whooshed from her lungs as Daryl dropped her onto her back on the ground and stared at her with cold blue eyes.

Through gritted teeth, he ground out, "What?"

Georgia froze, wondering if she'd made the wrong decision for her son and for herself. But she knew it was too late to turn back. She said quickly, "The day Merle hit me, I moved to Atlanta with my aunt and eventually I got a job as a secretary there. I made a life and I had DJ. I knew that one day I wanted to tell you about him, so I gave him your last name. It's your name that's on the birth certificate. I kept telling myself that I was going to tell you and tell DJ but I was so scared. Every time I thought about it, I thought about taking DJ back to Merle or away from the life he knew. I kept putting it off and then the virus broke out and everything happened and then you found us and I've been here for a week, trying to figure out if I wanted to tell you or if it mattered."

"Course it fuckin' mattered!" Daryl screamed. "My fuckin' son! Ya let me believe ya killed him! He don' even know me! Thinks I hate him! Why the fuck would ya do that?"

"Because I thought it was best for him! Damn, Daryl, Merle was always around the house, drunk or high. I always tried not to let it bother me but after he hit me, I knew I couldn't bring a kid up like that!"

"I woulda taken care of ya! I wouldn've let him hurt ya or my boy!"

"Not your boy, Daryl! My boy! I raised DJ! I took care of him!"

"I woulda took care of him but ya didn' let me. Ya took that from me!"

"Three years, Daryl! I was with you for three years and you couldn't even tell me that you cared about me! I knew you for ten years and you couldn't even say that! You only told me that you liked me, sometimes. That you wanted to keep me around. That you were grateful. God, Daryl! How could I take a baby into that? How could I bring a kid into a relationship where I didn't even know if he'd be loved. If he would ever feel anything from his father other than gratitude!"

"I woulda taken care of him! He woulda known how I felt!"

"How you felt? How you fucking felt, Daryl? You can't even say it! You can't even tell me you would have loved him!"

"Ya know I woulda taken care a him!"

"A kid needs more than that, Daryl! He needs to feel loved! He needs to know somebody cares!"

"Ya shouldn' a kept it from me! Does he know? Does he even know he's been 'round his dad fer a week now?"

"No, Daryl. I haven't told him. He doesn't know who his father is."

"Why the fuck not? Ashamed ya were fuckin' me?"

"No. I didn't want to make it any harder on him. I didn't know you'd turn up out there. I didn't know I'd have to face you. I thought that I'd tell DJ eventually, but I didn't know I'd have to tell him when his dad was running around cussing his mother out every time I turned around."

"Well yer gonna fuckin' tell him now."

"No, I'm not. He doesn't need to find out like this. He needs to be sat down and have it explained to him. He doesn't need you running up to him screaming and carrying on like a fucking lunatic!" Georgia sat straight up and her hands clenched into fists. "It might have been wrong for me to keep him from you but I was only doing what I thought was best to protect my son. And I'm not going to stop protecting him now just because his father's around."

"So what? When d'ya plan on tellin' him?"

"I don't know. I don't know how long I'll be here. How long DJ and I will be around you."

"Ya ain't fuckin' leavin'! Ya ain't fuckin' leavin' 'cause I ain't fuckin' lettin' ya."

"You are not going to tell DJ that you are his father until I think he's ready to hear it." Her eyes were as cold as Daryl's and they both looked as if they were going to rip the other to pieces.

"When will that be?"

"I don't…."

Suddenly, their fight was interrupted by a shout from outside. Georgia leapt to her feet and Daryl growled, "This conversation ain't over!"

"That was Shane." Her dark eyes were frantic.

"So fuckin' what? Ya got another secret? Ya fuckin' Shane now?"

"He yelled DJ's name."