Daryl ran behind her out of the stables. He'd just gotten a son. He didn't know what to do with him or how to be a dad but he wasn't going to lose him to some psycho, no account, piece of shit cop like Shane before he figured it out. In the camp, Shane was staring up a tree and holding the side of his head. Blood was trickling from his ear. Lori and Rick were next to Shane and Lori's arms were looped around Carl's shoulders. Georgia winced when she saw Carl's black eye and split lip. Shane spotted her running over and moved towards her. He grabbed her shoulders and yelled, "You need to get your fuckin' kid out of that tree and bust his ass. He's just fuckin' like you and Daryl. He can't go around attacking people like a God damned animal."

"What the fuck did you do to my son?" Georgia demanded, ignoring the pain in her shoulder from being shaken by Shane.

"DJ! DJ!" Daryl screamed.

"Mom, Daryl, I'm up here!" Daryl looked up to find DJ high in the peach tree.

"Baby, what happened?" Georgia planted her hands in the middle of Shane's chest and shoved him hard, knocking him backwards.

"I warned him!" DJ shouted down. "I warned him and he didn't listen!"

"DJ, what happened?" Georgia repeated.

"He had a gun! I saw him taking it from Daryl's motorcycle and I told him to put it back and he didn't! You said guns aren't toys and he wanted to play with it like it was a toy!" DJ spat.

"Who?" Daryl snarled.

"Carl."

Carl paled and said quickly, "No, I didn't! He's lying."

"My boy doesn't lie to me," Georgia said evenly. "But it's very clear that yours lies to you."

"Your boy attacked my son!" Lori argued.

"Yer son was stealin' from me!" Daryl joined in. He and Georgia had their backs to the tree, keeping DJ behind them. Shane was standing to the right of Georgia and she and Daryl were glaring at the family in front of them. They were a unit.

"I wasn't!"

"Oh yeah? Why'd I have to hit you then?"

"DJ!" Georgia scolded. She turned to Rick and plead, "Rick, you're a logical man. Talk to your son and I'll talk to mine. We can resolve this. But right now, you have DJ treed like a coon!"

"Your damn kid attacked me!" Shane snarled.

"A lil eight year ol' boy kicked yer ass."

"He slammed his hands down on my ears. Popped my ear drums and climbed that damn tree!"

"Did you try to talk to him or did you just assume he was at fault?"

"Georgia, Daryl, calm down. Shane only saw the two boys fighting. He tried to break up the fight and DJ reacted."

"Of course he reacted! You all have been in a group this whole time! Your boy has never had to take a walker down! Your boy has never had to fight for his life! It's in him now to react! Shane's only lucky DJ didn't have a knife on him!"

"You need to leave!" Lori snapped. "Your psycho family is a danger to all of us."

"No!" The look on Daryl's face was almost feral. They knew he was dangerous. 'They ain't leavin'!"

"DJ attacked Carl!"

Daryl studied them for a moment before stomping over to his motorcycle and searching through his saddlebags. After digging through them, he announced, "My handgun is missin! Explain that, ya uppity bitch!"

"It's in the tent!" DJ yelled down. "I tossed it in there when I got it away from him. Mom always says to make sure your attacker's weapon is out of reach!"

"I wasn't going to shoot him!" Carl protested.

Daryl disappeared into the tent and reappeared with his handgun. He pointed at Lori and snapped, "Yer boy's a liar. Georgia an DJ go an I go with 'em."

"Daryl, calm down," Rick ordered. "Lori and I will deal with Carl."

"Rick!"

"Lori, he was stealing and lying," Rick sighed. "Georgia, Daryl, we would appreciate it if you talked to DJ about not using violence to solve disputes. He should speak to an adult from now on."

"If DJ an Georgia wanna stay, I'll stay, but 'm movin' our camp away from him," Daryl pointed at Shane. Shane glared back at him.

"Now, Daryl, we can talk about this," Rick began.

"Good. I'm glad you'll be moving your psycho, fucked up little family away from mine."

"Bitch, I promise you that one of these days, I'm going to slap you so hard your grandma's gonna feel it."

"Georgia!" Rick cried out.

Georgia turned her back on them and looked up into the tree where DJ was staring down at her. She called up, "Come on down, DJ. Help me and Daryl move everything."

DJ scrambled down the tree quickly and into his mother's waiting arms. He murmured, "Sorry about that, Mom. I shouldn't have done that."

"You did fine, honey. You did what you thought was right and you listened to what I've told you all these years."

"Ya did good, boy." Georgia and DJ looked up at Daryl in surprise. He rarely spoke to DJ and he never handed out compliments. When he noticed their stares, he looked away quickly and ordered, "Now c'mon. We ain't got all god damn day."

Georgia and DJ followed Daryl and started loading stuff into his truck. They took the tent down and the clothesline Georgia had strung between the trees near their tent. They were silent as the rest of the group watched them haul their things away, to what had once been a house and was then just a chimney jutting out of the ground. Daryl went to work setting up the tent while Georgia and DJ unloaded the truck. When they were done, Daryl commanded, "DJ, run up to that house an get a shower. Me an yer momma gotta talk."

"I don't have to listen to you," the boy warned him evenly. "I'm glad you stood up for me and thank you for being there for my mom, but there's nothing that says I have to listen to you."

"DJ," Georgia said softly as she watched the hurt flash through Daryl's eyes for a moment before it as covered by his usual blank stare, "go on up to the house like Daryl said."

She leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead before he nodded and walked away, looking back over his shoulder to check on his mom while he went.

"He's stubborn. Got a lotta fight in him," Daryl commented as he stared after the boy, letting himself see the similarities for the first time when he should have noticed them as soon as he laid eyes on the boy.

"He's a Dixon," Georgia sighed. "I've never been able to deny that. He came out of the womb silent as could be. I was so afraid because I didn't hear crying, but he was just lying there in the doctor's hands, staring at him. He wasn't like other babies. He didn't cry just to be held, but, when he did cry, he made a fuss. You always knew when he needed something. And he tended to always need it at three in the morning when I had work at seven."

"Yer fault ya had to do it all on yer own. If ya woulda let me, I'da been there," Daryl growled, angry that he'd missed the child growing up.

"Don't put all the blame on me, Daryl. I shouldn't have kept DJ away from you. We both know that. But you shouldn't have let Merle hit me like you did. I was young, scared, and confused."

"Weren' that young. Ya was twenty one. Weren' no baby."

"No, I wasn't a baby. But I wasn't ready for him either."

"Ya regret him?"

Georgia's head turned to Daryl quickly and he was shocked by the sneer on her face. She growled out, "Not for a single day of my life or his. He's the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"Ya like the other girls? Ya keep pictures an' shituv him layin' 'round."

"I have two photo albums." Georgia looked down at the ground.

"What are they of?"

"One is of DJ growing up. The other is of me and you."

He paused and stared at the blush forming on her cheeks. Finally, he said, "I wanna see 'em. Both of 'em. Now."

"Your son first," she ordered.