++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated character apart from my OC's ++++++

Thirty-Four

After a quick fight, carving a path through the crowd of walkers, the five of us made our way to the courtyard and watched in horror as walkers flooded the prison yard. I dropped my bow and ran straight into Rick who hugged me fiercely mumbling thanks into my ear.

Ebony came out of the bottom of the tower with Jade and Sophia, the moment that Jade saw Daryl, she broke away from her mother and took off running. "DADDY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and crashed into his leg, sobbing. "Don't ever leave…"

I raised an eyebrow at Daryl, Jade had always called him Uncle Daryl-never daddy before. It was certainly an interesting turn of events, I knew that Jade had never gotten to know her father and that was because he was a dead beat asshole who took off running as soon as the stick turned blue. The only reason Ebony had moved to America was because Jade's father had tried to take her-something about child support that he didn't want to pay.

Daryl hesitated before he knelt down and hugged her. "I'm not going anywhere, rabbit," he whispered.

"Well ain't that sweet," Merle smirked, starring at Daryl and Jade. "Don't you think so, Eb's baby? Makes you wanna be sick."

Ebony ignored him, she seemed to have that down pat. I broke away from Rick and went to look back to the prison yard, trying to think how on earth we would close the giant gap now letting walkers into the yard. Everyone except the four of us had slipped back into the cell block to talk about the problem.

Daryl cleared the tears away from Jade's face. "You should be with your mother, rabbit."

Jade shook her head in fear. "Walker," she whispered.

Daryl shook his head. "She's your mother-she's not a walker," he assured her.

I came back over to Jade and knelt down in front of her. "Rabbit…Daryl's right…you're mother isn't a walker…you remember how I used to go away for my job and come back months later?"

Jade nodded, her bottom lip trembled. "Did mama go to fight the bad people too?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Yes, mama did. And now she's back and she needs all the cuddles in the world because she missed you so much. Just like I missed you…when I got home from fighting the bad guys I would snuggle up and read you the Hobbit even though you didn't know what was happening. You stayed with me because you knew I needed all the cuddles in the world. Now mama does." Ebony had tears streaming down her face at that point and I must admit so did I.

Jade ran over to her mother and crashed into her crying as loud as a five year old could.

"My darling baby girl!" Ebony cried, tears rolling down her face. "Oh my darling baby girl, mama missed you so much!" she sniffed and continued sobbing into her daughters dirty pink, Hello Kitty shirt. "Mama loves you so much…to the moon."

"And back…" Jade hiccupped.

I tugged on Daryl's shirt and motioned for him to go over to Ebony and Jade. "You're family now buddy…ohana, dude."

Daryl stared at me. "What the hell?" he growled.

I shook his head, pity on Daryl Dixon for never having seen Lilo and Stitch a million times like I had. "Lilo and Sitch, Dixon. Ohana means family, Daryl…you're their family now." I stood up and pushed him when the hesitation became written all over his face.

Daryl crossed the courtyard and when Ebony stood up with Jade in her arms, he enveloped them in a hug that made me kind of envious. This would be one of those perfect family photos.

"Baby girl," Ebony whispered, kissing Jade on her head. "Sweetie…Daryl isn't you dad-"

"But I can be," Daryl cut her off. He looked at Ebony with a smile despite the shit that was happening and kissed her softly. "I want to be."

Ok Merle had it right when he said it was so sweet it made you want to be sick. I turned around and shook my head to clear it-too much god dang emotion in less than twenty-four hours is too much for me. I took a deep breath to clear my head and when I saw Rick standing on the cat walk observing the mess the Governor and John had made I knew I had to go up and have my moment with him.

"So what's the plan?" I asked Rick, stopping by his side. "We running or staying?"

Rick sighed. "We've spent too much time running, we make a stand. You with me?"

"Always," I replied. "You've done good by us even if some of us cry about it. We'll need weapons though. The Governor will have us outgunned. And if I know John and his OCD they will have cleared out everything so we'll have to go further."

"Will you and Matthew pick out some locations you think we could clear?" Rick asked me.

"Yes," I answered. I gripped Rick's hand and squeezed it gently, "I'll be here until the day I die just promise me when I do you put a bullet in me and you don't look back or hesitate. I'm not gonna be a walker."

"You say the most romantic things," Rick lightly joked.

"I'm serious," I told him. "Look-I don't have long term relationships because the men and women I've dated hate the fact that I'm not all prissy and innocent. They expect someone who isn't-well-me. I'm never going to be Lori but what I will be is the best damn parent I can be to Judith and whatever Carl wants me to be I can be."

Rick turned away from me and stared back over the prison yard. He looked so tired.

"Maybe you shouldn't be leader anymore," I whispered. "You deserve a rest-let us handle this."

He faced me. I was expecting an argument from him, not the face of an agreeing man. "Carl said that same thing," Rick confessed.

"Children are surprisingly wise," I told Rick. "One morning I was meant to be watching Jade but I fell asleep. When I woke up she was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor covered in chocolate topping and marshmellow frosting. When I asked her why she did it when she knew full well that she would get into trouble she turned to me, looked me in the eye and told me that she did it because it was tasty but now she was sticky and that she should probably get cleaned up or the mess would attract ants. She was a few days off four."

Rick laughed. "Carl did that one day but with paints."

I chuckled. "Messy little bastards aren't they?"

"Thank you, PJ," Rick smiled. "For being my god given solace when I needed it. I know you're not Lori and I know you never will be. You are your own person. I look forward to knowing you."

"We should go talk with the others and start on some kind of defence plan," I suggested. "If we can get a couple of us in the towers we can have a guard. We also need to look at the tombs."

Rick nodded. "Looks like we've got a lot of work to do."

"Let's get started," I smiled.