A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm starting to get into this one as much as I am 'Mama' so I foresee a lot of chapters on this one, too. Thanks for reading :)

Beth shooed Carol away so she could finish up the dishes after dinner. They had a little time to kill before their private lessons with Christie and Carol looked dead on her feet, and Beth felt the need to be alone for a bit. Doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen after a meal was the perfect opportunity. No one dared enter lest they be asked to help.

She still felt bad about her exchange earlier in the day with Daryl. She knew she'd hit a nerve when he decided to have his meal on the back patio by himself. Everyone seemed to be confused by his sudden decision to seclude himself, and Hershel even asked her if she knew what was wrong. She could only shake her head and say she was just as confused as the rest of them. This was one time she knew not to say anything, to keep her mouth shut. She'd promised him, after all, that she wouldn't tell anyone.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw him sitting out there still, having his after-dinner cigarette. She noticed that he hadn't brought his dishes in, and so she dried her hands and quietly opened the sliding door and grabbed the dirty plate and silverware.

"My being tough helps keep us alive." he muttered as he put his cigarette out, rubbing it into oblivion on the pavers by his foot. "You being too soft could hurt us."

"I know." she mumbled. "I was out of line earlier." she took a deep breath. Part of her felt like she was back-tracking on what she'd said earlier, but another part of her knew that she had overstepped some boundaries. "It's been a bad couple of days, and today on top of it I have to have special lessons..."

"Just try to mind your own business." he said as he stuffed the cigarette butt in his pocket and got to his feet.

"You know, if you don't want others to hear..." she gulped when he stopped, his hand on the door handle. "You should sleep in one of the bedrooms, so you have privacy."

"All the bedrooms are taken, princess." he pointed out.

"You could have mine." she said, motioning for him to open the door.

"Have you take the couch while I get a nice big bed?" he laughed as he watched her scrape the plate she held.

"Just until we're totally settled." she made herself busy, not wanting to actually look at him while she spoke. "Christie said that if all went well some of us would get our own places..."

"You could just not spy on people while they sleep." he suggested.

"I don't spy!" she said defensively, turning to look at him. "Besides, I'm not the only one who might come down at night." she turned around again, realizing his accusing her of spying was his way of teasing her. He couldn't be too mad if he was teasing her, could he?

"I might just take you up on that offer then, princess." he grabbed his glass before she could empty the contents into the sink and drained it.

"Why do you keep callin' me that?" she asked, the nickname beginning to grate on her a bit.

"That's what you remind me of at times." he shrugged. "A bit like a spoiled princess." he handed her the glass and left.

"You almost done here?" Stein asked, a few people standing behind him. "I've got some people here for their target practice."

"We're almost done." Christie shot him a look that he immediately knew the meaning of and motioned for the others to come back soon. "I hate that little weasel." she groaned as she watched him separate from the group he was trying to get in for practice.

"Has he been here long?" Carol asked as she watched Lori aim and fire.

"He was here when Mitch and I arrived." she got up behind Lori and readjusted her arms. "Don't lock your arms." she instructed as she stepped back. "I think he found this place with Reichert."

Lori fired again and noticed an improvement with Christie's adjustments, though she wouldn't admit it had anything to do with them.

"Go ahead, Beth." Christie motioned for the youngest woman to approach. She watched as Beth took hold of the weapon and raised it. Her attention wandered a bit and she started looking around at her surroundings. She was about to turn her attention back to her pupil when she saw Stein talking to a man she didn't recognize. There were less than a hundred people in their colony, she knew everyone. She watched as the two men huddled together in conversation, unaware of the fact they were being watched and then headed down a little alley that ran between the back yards of the houses on two streets.

"Like this?" Beth asked as she aimed the gun at the target.

"Huh?" Christie forced herself to look away from the opening to the alley, back to where it should have been the whole time. "You're doing like Lori and locking your elbows..."

"How go the lessons?" Mitchell asked as he stopped next to Carol, looming over the small woman.

"Someone seems a bit distracted." Lori rolled her eyes.

"Sorry." Christie said, shaking her head and wiping sweat from her forehead.

"Go get somethin' to drink." Mitchell grasped her shoulder gently. "I'll take over here for a bit and keep that little creep at bay if he tries to bother them."

"Thanks." Christie nodded. "I'll grab something for you guys, too." she said as she headed out of the firing range, towards the alley without even thinking about it.

She noticed quickly that the alley ran between Maple and Orchard Streets, and she knew Stein lived on Orchard. "House guest?" she muttered to herself quietly moved along, trying not to be seen. She got to the privacy fence she knew to be Steins and looked around for something to stand on. A six foot privacy fence was an issue for the woman who only stood at five foot three inches. Seeing only a medium sized rock, she dragged it over and stood on tip-toe to just barely see over the fence. Keeping her head low enough not to be seen by anyone inside wouldn't prove to be much of an issue for her as she could just barely see over by pulling herself up by her fingertips.

"Is this what we have to look forward to if we get a place of our own?" a voice from behind her whispered.

Startled, she lost her grip on the top of the fence and landed with a cry of pain on top of the rock. "Damn it!" she hissed as she rubbed her aching backside. "What are you doing?!" she punched at the knees in front of her, looking up and finding Daryl staring down at her.

"I could ask the same thing." he countered.

"I was just seeing if Stein was in." she lied, horribly.

"Y'all don't use the front door?" he asked skeptically. "You've knocked on ours enough."

She got to her feet and groaned in pain. Sitting was going to be painful for a while. She was no good at lying. She never had been and at that moment she was annoyed by that fact. "You're not gonna tell anyone you saw me, are you?"

"You gonna tell me why you're spying on one of your boys?"

Christie bit her lip, looking at the fence, and back to the man standing in front of her. He'd caught her sneaking and spying, and she knew her skills of deception left a lot to be desired. "Can I trust you?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

"I'm as trustworthy as they come...you on the other hand..."

She waddled away from the fence, heading down the alley, wincing as she walked. She motioned for him to follow. "Since you've already caught me, I might as well be honest..." she stopped again, not sure if she wanted to tell him what she'd seen.

"And apparently you couldn't lie to save your life, so that's probably a good idea." he waited for her, laughing as he watched her walk along.

"Come on." she said as she turned at the end of the alley and made a beeline for her street.

"Where we goin' now?" he asked, following along.

"My house." she winced. "I need ice."

"Shouldn't have fallen ass first onto a rock." he wasn't sure he wanted to go into her house, but he figured he could take her if he had to.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people." she turned down her street and her pace picked up a bit when she saw her house. Daryl watched as she walked up to a small yellow bungalow. "Sit anywhere." she instructed as she went into her kitchen and emptied one of her ice trays into a cold compress bag. "Okay, then." she sighed as she sat down on the ice bag.

"Okay." Daryl looked around at the floral motif of the room and sneered.

"It's not my taste, either." she said as she settled. "But, not much I can do about that." she sighed. "I saw Stein talking to someone I don't know."

"That's it?" he asked.

"There aren't many people here." she reminded him. "I know everyone here, and this guy...I've never seen him before in my life."

"He come through the gates?" he asked as he moved a ruffled pillow away from him.

"He would have to have come in with someone, and none of the scouting parties are due back for another couple of hours." she shook her head. "My ass really hurts." she groaned.

"Hershel could take a look at it for ya." he laughed.

"I think I'll just let the ice do its job."

"Do you think this guy is up to somethin'?" Daryl leaned forward.

"If it was someone other than Stein, I might be inclined to say no automatically." she looked him straight in the eye. "But it is Stein..."

"And you don't trust him."

"I've never liked him. I'm not sure if that's affecting my judgement or not."

"Seems weird he'd be having outsiders just popping in from nowhere." Daryl got to his feet and began to move around, thinking.

"I need to go over there tonight to see about housing assignments." she carefully got to her feet. "I'll see if I can find anything. I can also speak to the gate guards, see if they let anyone in."

"What do you want me to do?" Daryl asked. He knew something was wrong with this place.

"Lay low." she replied without hesitation. "You're still new here, haven't even gone out scouting or anything yet. If you start get nosy, that might raise some eyebrows."

"I'll keep an eye out for any other way he might have gotten in." Daryl decided. "I can do it quietly so no one's the wiser." he turned to leave, opening the front door to find Mitchell standing there. "Afternoon." he nodded to the other man before leaving.

"What was that?" Mitchell asked as he walked into the living room and saw Christie waddling into the kitchen.

"Nothing." she said. "Is target practice over?" she asked, having completely forgotten the group.

"Yeah, Reichert's eager to get your new guys ready for patrol and watch." Mitchell eyed her still. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"No." she shook her head and smiled. "Nothing at all." she headed to her bedroom. "I just need to lay down for a bit. I'm so damn sore."