AN- Mostly a filler chapter. IF you would like to see a "trailer" for this go to youtube, my name is Freedomnova and the trailer is called It's Time To Come Home.

As Soon as they were in the gates the car had hardly come to a stop before Daryl was opening the door to take the girl out. He wrapped his arms around her limp body and hurried inside ignoring the questions from the group he didn't care what they thought he just had to make sure she was ok. He put her down on one of the bunks and kneeled down next to her, "Come on girl wake up." He mumbled, "You lived this long don't die now." Still she didn't wake up he was able to relax when he saw her chest falling up and down to show she was still breathing.

"Daryl?" Carol questioned as she walked into the cell, "What's going on?"

"I need a bucket of water and a rag." He responded ignoring his question. Carol nodded her head and hurried away only to return shortly with a bucket of water and a clean rag.

Daryl dipped the rag in the water and softly began to clean the dirt from her face. He didn't talk he ignored as the cell filled with people. He just kept cleaning her off his frown grew with every bruise and cut he found on her. He felt as if someone stabbed him in the heart every time, who had done this to her? He could see old scars on her once perfect skin. He wanted to kill the people that had harmed her he only hoped he already had when he and Rick had killed all those men she had been with.

"Daryl?" Carol's voice finally broke threw, "Who is this?"

Daryl looked up at her then back at the girl, "We found her in the store." He didn't want them to know he knew her, not yet anyways if she died he didn't want to deal with their pity he didn't want them to feel sorry for him.

"You were ready to kill her until you saw her face." Rick told him, "Then you stopped me when you saw her face. Why?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, "She looked scared, and look at her I don't think she was with those men of her own free will." He paused, "She has marks around her wrist from hand restraints and she has bruises all over her body, and scars." His voice broke, "They hurt her."

"For all you know she's a traitor." Rick told him

"Don't say that." Daryl growled,

"Easy Daryl." Maggie said, "Why do you care so much?" Before he could answer her, the girl began to stir.

"Daryl." She whispered weakly, "Is this real." He turned as quick as he could and knelt down at her side again.

"Shhh" he told her, "Easy don't push yourself."

Tears began to fall down from her eyes, "It's really you."

"Yes." He mumbled to her, "Yes it's me, you're safe now." The group watched at the way Daryl touched the girl so gently.

"I never thought I would see you again." She whispered.

"The end of the world can't get rid of me." He joked with her, "I thought you were gone I went to your plantation after shit hit the fan, your sister had turned I only assumed you did as well."

"I didn't live with her anymore." She whispered then broke into a fit of coughing.

"Bring me drinking water." Daryl yelled to the others, Carl quickly handed him some. Carefully he lifted the cup to the girl's mouth and let her take it in slowly. "When was the last time you drank girl?" he asked.

"Two days ago." She said softly once she had her fill.

"What about food?" he asked her.

"I don't remember, I only got fed when I-" she paused "When I behaved." She didn't want Daryl to know how many men she had been with now due to those horrible men. He wouldn't want her she wasn't his princess anymore she was damaged goods everything he had once loved about her was gone.

He didn't push her to tell him what happened to her while she was with those men, he could only guess he knew the bruises he saw the scars he knew what they did to her. He would wait until she was ready to tell him he wouldn't push her. "We will get you some, why don't you rest."

"How can anyone rest knowing they could get us at any moment." She whispered.

"We killed all those men you were with don't worry they won't come for you." Rick told her.

"Not just them." She whispered again, "But the dead people."

"The Walkers?" Daryl asked, "Don't worry we are safe here they can't get in, sleep and know I'm here and I won't let anyone or anything hurt you."

"Hold me like you used to please." She asked. Daryl glanced up at the others who took that as their queue to leave. Once everyone left the cell Daryl climbed into the bed with her and wrapped his arms around her. Once his arms were around her she felt her body relax she began to sob, her body shook with her sobs and cries, but she knew this would be the last time. She had found him he would keep her safe. It had been so long since she felt safe since she trusted a man's arms to be around her.

"Shhh." He said softly, "Everything is going to be alright you're safe now Vicky."

Daryl sat on the ground with Judith in his arms he lifted her above his head making airplane sounds and the baby laughed. He grinned he enjoyed watching the little girl when he needed to. Vicky was asleep in one of the cells he had brought her some food late last night then they had fallen asleep. She still slept, but he couldn't sleep past the sun rising, most everyone else was still asleep when he got up so he took care of the baby to let everyone else still rest he didn't mind. By now Carol was already putting together breakfast for everyone across the room.

Vicky was wearing one of Daryl's shirts and a pair of pants from one of the other girl's when she walked into the room; she walked quietly as her eyes settled on Daryl playing with the baby. She felt her heart skip a beat, after all this time he still made her feel a way no other man had ever made her feel, even her own husband. She leaned on the wall next to him and smiled, "So you like babies now?" she questioned. Daryl looked at her and placed the baby in his lap,

"You made sure I did." He grinned up at her. She smiled down at him and knelt next to him,

"What's her name?" she asked.

"Judith." He looked down at the baby.

"Is she yours?" she asked as it hit her perhaps he had moved on, maybe he had a wife, this child, a family that she would be on the outside of.

"No." Daryl laughed, "I ain't had sex since this whole thing started haven't had time for it." He paused, "She's Rick's daughter the man that was with me when I found you."

"The one that wanted to kill me." She asked.

"He didn't-" Daryl paused, "Vicky in this world you protect your own you can't afford to risk bringing someone new into the mix, we have tried and its only gotten us killed. He's a cop you can trust him."

"How did you convince him to not kill me then?" she asked.

"Because you aren't a random person." He paused, "I know it's been five years Vicky, but." He looked away, "You're still my person."

She felt her heart race when he said those words, she had always wanted him to say that to her, or at least she had dreamed of hearing him say it again after he had left. She dreamed of he day he would come back, but had never thought he would. "And you're still mine." She whispered as she kissed him. The baby cooed in Daryl's arms causing the couple to look down and smile at her.

"Want to hold her?" he asked.

"I don't think her father wants a stranger holding her." Vicky told him softly.

"Rick trusts me, trust my judgment." Daryl told her, "If I say you're safe you are."

"How did you win the trust of a cop?" she asked him

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, "Different times." He looked at her, "With Merle gone I had to find a new family and they took me in, it took a long time before I realized I was part of this group, but these people here will stop at nothing to keep each other safe."

"I'm happy you found them Daryl." She smiled at kissed him again, "I'm happy you found me too."

"I'm happy I found you too Princess." He smiled up at her, but as he spoke she frowned.

"Don't call me that." She stood up as tears filled her eyes, "I'm not your princess anymore."

Daryl stood up and frowned, "Is there someone else?" he asked, he had assumed when she said he was her person that meant she didn't have anyone else. He glanced at her hand and felt his heart drop she wore a wedding ring.

"There is no one else Daryl, but I'm not your perfect little princess anymore, look at me." She turned and walked away.

"Carol." Daryl said quickly, "Take Judith." He handed the baby over to Carol then hurried after Vicky. "Wait a second." He said as he stopped her.

"Daryl don't" Vicky told him trying not to look him in the eye.

"No Vicky you're still my princess." He told her, "You always will be."

"No Daryl I'm not, not anymore not after what they all did, look at me, the scars the bruises, how many men-" her voice broke, "I'm not the girl you used to love."

"It doesn't matter to me." He told her, "If I hadn't killed those men already I would go kill them now, by Vicky you're still my girl you always have been always will be."

"After all this time?" She asked, "You never moved on?"

"How could I move on from you?" he asked her, "I never had a chance."

"But how could you still love me when." She paused, "When I'm no longer what you used to call pure."

"Girl." He smiled at her, "You loved me when I was broken why wouldn't I love you when you are a little broken?"

"How can you?" she asked, "How do you know I'm still the girl you used to love."

Daryl kissed her on the top of the head; "I walked away from you once girl I'm not doing that again."

"We can't keep this up." Daryl told her as he sat down at the kitchen table, "What happens when your parents find out."

"Annie already knows." Vicky told him.

"Yeah cause she likes me, your sister ain't your parents, once they find out." He paused, "don't let them find out."

Vicky walked over her blonde hair blowing in the wind. She smiled he didn't know how she did it but every time she smiled she made his heart race. The way her white sun dress hugged her in all the right spots made him want to take her upstairs, but he couldn't or rather he wouldn't. She had never been with a man before, he couldn't do that to her.

"I'm just the guy that cuts the grass, that you hired." He mumbled.

"I don't care." She told him, "I don't care what you are or who you've been."

"I've been to jail, multiple times." He told her.

"Stop trying to convince me to stop loving you." She told him as she sat down in his lap.

"Love?" he asked her no one had ever said they loved him before.

"Yes Daryl, it is possible for me to love you." She told him as she kissed him wrapping her arms around him. He paused for a moment but the returned the kiss pulling her closer to him. She broke away for a moment, "You don't have to say anything, I don't expect you too."

He wasn't planning on saying anything, he had never loved anyone or rather loved someone that loved him back other then possibly his mother. While she wasn't a great mother she was the only person that had almost been kind to him. His father always let him know he was worthless his brother had always spoken of loyalty but never love. His lips moved without him thinking, "I love you too Princess." He told her in a whisper.

"Take me upstairs." She told him.

"I can't," he told her, "you said when we first met that you were waiting until marriage."

"Who cares what I said." She told him

"I care." He cupped her hands in his, "I don't want you to regret that one day, and I'm not the guy to marry."

"I think maybe you are, you just don't know it yet." She smiled, "I will be your wife one day and we will have a family."

"Keep dreaming." He smirked he wouldn't let her know but that was his dream as well to belong in her life, to keep her his girl for the rest of their days. Yet the reality of the matter she would never be his one day she would belong to a rich man her parents approved of he would never be the type of guy to bring home to daddy. He grinned at her and picked her up and laid down in the grass first he started on his back but when she kissed him again he rolled over on top of her propping himself up on his arms, "I'll make a deal with you, if one day we marry then I'll take you upstairs." He told her, "But until then you will have to enjoy a PG version."

"You're going to kill me." She laughed.

"Victoria!" a shrill voice yelled. Vicky's head snapped up to see her mother standing in the gate looking at the two lay next to the pool. Daryl rolled off of her but stayed sitting on the ground.

"Crap." Daryl mumbled, "I warned you."

"What has he done to you!" The woman yelled as she hurried over and pulled Vicky off the ground.

"Nothing mother." Vicky told him "He hasn't done anything."

"You get off of this property now!" the woman yelled at Daryl. He wanted to yell back, he wanted to allow his anger to flow, but he held back for Vicky's sake she hadn't seen him angry he didn't want to scare her.

"Don't you tell him to get off my land." Vicky told her.

"He is white trash!" her mother yelled at her. "Way beneath you!"

"No he's not, he's better then any of the men you have tried to set me up with, he respects me, respects my wishes." She told her, "He's a good man."

"Vicky don't-" Daryl started but her mother interrupted him

"Her name is Victoria, Vicky is the name of some Trailer park trash whore!" she glared at him, "The type you're used to."

"Mother!" she yelled, "Get off my property now!"

"You can't tell me to leave." Her mother said to her shocked.

"I'm leaving." Daryl said shaking his head as he began to walk away. Vicky pulled away from her mother and hurried over to him.

"Don't leave." She said to him, "Please."

"Princess, listen to your mother." He kissed her on the forehead, "I'm no prince charmin. Go find the man that can make you happy."

He then turned and walked away the first time of many when he walked away from her the first time of many when he would try and leave her.

"You all did this, with your small group." She asked in amazement, she had been with a group of thirty and they still hardly had any place more then a night. They were never safe, they always were attacked you had to sleep with one eye open.

"Yeah." Daryl answered.

"And you all follow Rick." She question, "Even though he's the reason your brother is gone." She knew his brother was one of the reason he had left her, said he couldn't leave his blood when he was needed.

"My brother was a danger to the group, we went back for him, Rick lead the way and kept us safe even when I got hot headed he made sure I did nothin stupid." He shrugged his shoulders, "Times like this sometimes you need to look to one man for now that's Rick."

Vicky leaned back into his chest, "This is amazing it's like a sanctuary here."

Daryl chuckled, "Not exactly it's far from perfect, but its home for now." He had never dreamed he would hold her in his arms again.

"I was talking with Carol earlier she told me everything you did to try and help her find her daughter." She said softly, "And Carl told me everything you did to make sure Judith had food when she was born."

"Yeah." He didn't know where she was going with this conversation.

"If my mother could see you now she wouldn't think of you as she used to." She told him.

"Perhaps if you had been there that day more of my family would have lived." She said softly.

"I doubt it, I wasn't who I am right now the reason I joined this group was cause we." He paused, "Me and Merle planned to rob them blind."

"But you didn't." she told him.

"Cause Merle didn't come back." He shook his head

"I don't think you would have done it even if he did." She told him.

"Maybe." He said doubtfully. "Anyways I got to go for a bit help Glen on a run." He kissed her on the top of the head, "Don't let anyone know." He told her, "About us or what ever we are alright?"

Vicky frowned after all this time he still wanted to hide who he was or hide what they were. "I won't." She told him, "Promise."

"So you knew Daryl before all of this?" Carol asked Vicky as they folded laundry together.

"Yeah last time I saw him was five years before the outbreak started." She smiled thinking about him, "He mowed my lawn, or rather it was my sisters lawn I lived with her." She sighed, "Some how we became friends I guess but when his brother got out of jail he left."

"How long did you guys know each other before he left?"

"Five years." She paused as she folded a blue shirt, "He had some hard times so we let him live in the guest house if he did odd jobs around the place. It was nice she was recently windowed and I didn't want to live with my parents anymore and he just helped us out."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Rachel he creeps me out." She whispered to her sister

"Come on" Rachel said laughing as she bounced her baby onto her hip, "Just because he's a little rough around the edges doesn't mean he's creepy."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't kill the squirrels in the back yard and used them in some kid of stew for his dinner." Victoria wrinkled her nose.

"Come on now you sound like mom." Rachel shook her head, "I saw him earlier when I went for a run, and he's sleeping in that truck of his."

"So." Victoria told her.

"I was thinking offering him the guest house in exchange for his help around the house you know with things we can't fix." Rachel smiled at her sister, "What do you think?"

"You want that hick across the lawn from where your baby sleeps?" she asked, "He's defiantly what mother would call white trash."

"Victoria come on I thought you said you wanted to get away from mom, give him a chance he's down on his luck maybe we can help him get his life on track." Rachel glanced back out at the man mowing the lawn.

"What ever you want this is your house." She shrugged her shoulders, "If you want a guy that has been in and out of jail his whole life living in your backyard it's up to you."

"Have you even tried talking to him?" Rachel asked.

"Nope." Victoria told her turning away from the window. "And I never will he creeps me out."

"Most of all what surprises me about him now is how much he's changed." She sighed, "Back then he couldn't handle my nephew let alone functioning in large groups."

"Tell you the truth it has taken him a long time to be part of this group for the longest time I think he just traveled with us because he knew just one couldn't survive long." Carol smiled a sad smile, "I think I was the first one to realize he really had become one of us when my little girl went missing he was the only one that really kept up the search I mean Rick and the others didn't give up but they got preoccupied, Daryl almost got himself killed and still he kept trying to find her."

"Did he?" Vicky asked.

"He wasn't allowed to leave the farm he was still hurt from his fall, but he kept trying eventually we did find her, but it was to late she became a walker and he held me back when I wanted to run to her. Then when Judith was born Rick wasn't in his right mind since his wife died at birth of the baby Daryl stepped up and went out to get supplies for her. He's taken a shine to her he doesn't mind helping take care of her or anyone else here." Carol glanced back down at the clothing she was folding. Vicky watched the woman before her, did she like Daryl more then she should?

"It's nice to see him as the man I always thought he could be" Vicky told her, "Actually it was my sister who first believed in him, I thought he was nothing but white trash that wasn't to be trusted."

"I think everyone here thought that." Carol said with a slight laugh, "What made you change your mind?"

"You have to be kidding me!" Victoria growled as she looked at the box with a flashlight she had no idea what she was looking at. All she knew her power was out and this box was the only way to get it back on. She thought these things were supposed to be in the basement, but she had found out that it also powered the guesthouse so it was outside. Leave it to go out when she was home alone during a rainstorm. She had thought about asking Daryl the guy that rented the house but he still gave her a strange feeling, the look in his eyes sent chills through her spine. He had been living on the property for almost three months now and she had done good to avoid him and keep her distance she wasn't about to ruin that record now. Lightning crashed making the nightglow she whimpered to herself she didn't like being out here in this storm, in the dark.

"Careful Princess." A deep gruff voice said behind her, which caused her to scream and jump away.

"Why are you sneaking up on me?" she asked backing away.

"I ain't sneekin on you." He told her, "Power went out so I came to switch the breaker box." He glanced up at the house that back at her, "You alone?"

She narrowed her eyes at him not trust him she didn't want him to know she was alone, that no one was around to keep her safe who knew what he would do with her. "No." she lied, "They are all up at the house I drew the short straw and had to come out and fix it."

"Great good you're doing." He moved to the box and flipped the switch. "Why didn't you just wait until I fixed it you know it's my job."

She just glared at him, "Maybe I want to do this on my own."

He snickered at her, "Spoiled princess like yourself can't hardly end care for yourself."

"I can too," she argued.

"Sure with your parents money or your sisters." He told her

"We pay you to do work not talk." She snapped at him before she stormed off. Daryl watched her storm away a smile playing at his lips as he watched her run through the lawn barefoot her white dress soak threw he hadn't let her know that when they had been talking.

"Time." Vicky told her, "He showed me that you should never judge a book by its cover. When I first met him a feared what he would or could do to me I thought so low of him because he grew up the way he did." She sighed, "Yet turns out the man I ended up marring was probably one of the richest meant around, but he was the one I should have feared not Daryl."

"You're husband wasn't a good man?" Carol asked as she thought of her late husband who wasn't a great man either, nothing like Daryl or Rick.

"No before everything happened he never was around he was cruel, then." She paused, "He was one of the men that Rick and Daryl killed before they brought me here."

"I'm sorry." Carol told her.

"Don't be I dreamed of the day all those men would drop dead." Vicky placed another shirt in the pile of women's clothing. "My mother would roll over in her grave if she ever knew the type of man Ethan really was and the type of man Daryl really is she had them mixed up."

AN- Review and let me know what you think the more reviews the more inspired I get to write.