"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

Albert Einstein

*Daryl's POV*

Ear-piercing screams were heard not far from where I was. I stood up quickly and rushed to a cell only two cells away from mine. I ran in and saw Cecilia tossing and kicking in her sleep, she was sweating and crying as she kept screaming incomprehensible words.

The rest of the group was outside getting rid of some of the walkers so they wouldn't ruin the last fence we had and if possible, try to fix the other fences. Hershel and Maggie were taking care of Teresa, Merle was locked up and Axel was resting, his wound was quite nasty. So, it was just me who rushed in here.

"Cecilia!" I said loudly as I put my hands on top of her shoulders and shook her, gently at first. "Cecilia, Cecilia! Goddamn it Peletier!"

She wouldn't wake up, she just kicked even more and tried to hit me so I grabbed her wrists to stop her from hitting me and then shook her quite harshly now until I saw her opening those light, gorgeous blue eyes of hers, but filled with fear and sorrow this time. She sat up quickly, still being really shaken up, she crawled away from me.

"It's okay, it's okay," I said softly, my hands were still on her shoulders. "It's alright, it was just a bad dream. It's okay."

She blinked and looked down at the floor, panting. She grabbed the end of her shirt to run over her face to dry the sweat and the tears and I noticed she had some faint abs muscles showing on her flat stomach, which was incredibly sexy but this was not the time to be noticing that kind of stuff.

"I dreamt Teresa died over and over again," she muttered to me, with a hand over her chest. "It was horrible."

I knelt in front of her so I could look at her since she was refusing to look up at me, tears were still in her eyes and drops of sweats kept running down her forehead. She tried to dry her face once again before looking back at me, but her face didn't stay dry for long, she kept sweating.

"It was just a dream," I repeated. "She's still here. She's a fighter."

Hershel, Carol, Maggie and Sean had been trying hard to keep her alive. She lost so much blood and her heartbeat was dangerously low and she wasn't able to breathe without help but I wasn't going to tell Cecilia that now.

"Want some water?" I asked her, she nodded at me. The tears had stopped by now but the sweat hadn't. "You should probably change that shirt."

She was wearing a grey shirt that showed wet patches all over it, mostly around the neck. She didn't even react to my words, she still had an empty look on her eyes and she was still slightly shaking but that had almost stopped by now.

I sighed, knowing what I had to do. I stood up, grabbed her two hands that were extremely cold and pulled her up to her feet as slowly as I could manage, I quickly rubbed her two arms with my hands to warm her up, her arms were just as cold as her hands.

"I'll change your shirt, you can't stay like that," I informed her so I wouldn't freak her out by me taking off her shirt.

I grabbed a dry, clean shirt from her bag, walked back to her, put the shirt in between my legs while I grabbed the tips of the sides of the shirt she was wearing and slowly pulled it up, she slowly lifted her arms just before I got the shirt over her head and threw it to a corner as she let her arms drop to her sides.

I tried really hard to not look at her stunning body, at her black bra or at the faint freckles she had just under her prominent collarbones and on her shoulders. I grabbed the clean shirt from in between my legs and this time I quickly put it on her.

I led her to the sink that was inside the cell and helped her bent down a bit so I could clean her face from the sweat. Once done I helped her dry it with my own shirt, even when at first she refused. Then with an arm around her waist I led her to our kitchen. I made her sit on a bench while I went to search for a bottle of water, once I found one I rushed to her side and handed it to her, she uncapped it and took a sip.

"Thank you," she muttered.

"No problem," I told her as I sat next to her.

"Daryl?" she said softly.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you come back?" she looked at me, her eyes widened instantly after the words left her mouth. "I mean, it's not th-that I don't want you here be-because I do but I was just wondering, what changed your mind?"

"I was miserable out there," I told her with a sigh. "I had to go out there to realize I belong here with all of you and well I mi... I, I , nothing, forget it."

"What? You can tell me," she said just before she took another sip from the bottle.

"It's nothing important."

"If it isn't, then it won't matter if you tell me. I'm curious and you won't get away from this, you have no choice but to tell me, Daryl." I sighed in defeat.

"I missed you, alright," I said in a bit annoyed tone, feeling a bit on the spot. "You had just gotten back here. I thought you were dead, I thought I'd never see you again but I did. I wanted to spend some time with you, I didn't really want to leave."

"I missed you too," she told me, I never thought someone would say those words directed to me. I was shocked, but instead of looking surprised, I actually smiled, those simple four words made me feel this funny feeling inside, in the pit of my stomach and all I could do was smile at her. "You have no idea how much."

"Really?" I asked before I could stop myself, she nodded at me.

"I was very tempted to go with you when Merle offered it. I have nothing against Merle and you are the person I'm closest to but I couldn't leave Carl, I couldn't leave Michonne either. I couldn't."

"Well, I'm back now, so it doesn't matter."

"You won't leave again, right?" she asked in a weak tone, almost being afraid of asking it.

I sighed, even when I wanted to assured her with all my heart that I would never leave, I couldn't. I would never pick the choice to leave her, that's for sure, but any of us could get kidnapped, could get separated because of walkers or die, I didn't even want to think about that.

"I promise I'll never choose to leave," I said, picking my words carefully, she looked satisfied with my answer.

I put my right hand in my pocket and felt something inside and then I remembered I had her Cartman earring, the one I found when I was looking for her and Sophia. I never got the chance to give it to her before the farm got overrun and I didn't have the heart to just throw it away after her 'death'. I used to keep it safe inside my bag for months and I would grab it at night sometimes, just remembering her. Her smile, her laugh, her eyes, just her.

I put it inside my pocket last night when I saw it among my things and I was planning to give it to her but she was already sleeping. I looked at her and noticed she didn't have the pair of the earring, she must have lost it months ago or she thought wearing only one wasn't worth it. I took it out and extended my arm to give it to her.

Hey eyes scanned the object for a few seconds, she looked confused until she gasped and took the earring in her left hand. She smiled up at me before looking at it again.

"How did you get it?"

"Found it in a house when you got lost, I kept it as a clue that you were around," I told her. "I didn't even remember I had it," I lied. "Until I looked inside my bag and saw it there."

"Thank you," she told me with a smile. "I thought I would never get it back. I have the pair in my backpack."

"So, you liked South Park?" I asked her with a tiny smirk forming in my lips.

"You kidding? I loved that show, I never missed it."

"I liked it too, even when they were cartoons."

We kept talking about that stupid show, remembering certain episodes and funny moments. She even looked happy for a few minutes but then her smiled dropped when she saw Oliver walking in to get something before he walked out just as quickly, saying no words to any of us.

"I, uh – I dreamt that Teresa died in so many ways, each one was awful but the last one, the dream you woke me up from, was by much the worst. Teresa was bit in her shoulder, a big hunch of it was missing. She turned, ate Oliver and Sean first, the rest of you were either gone or dead. She came for me, I was cornered, I couldn't escape, she scratched my arm when I tried to evade her, I fell to the ground and she started to take bites from me, it was so painful."

"It wasn't real," I muttered as I rubbed her back, noticing how her voice was starting to break. "That won't happen."

"I looked into her eyes but she was gone, you know? It hurt me so much to see her like that, well, her body at least because she wasn't there anymore."

"If she... if she doesn't make it I promise we won't let her turn."

"Where is everybody else?" she asked me, changing the subject after she took a very deep breath and nodded at me.

"Outside, trying to fix the gate."

"What are you doing here, then?" I chuckled.

"I offered to take care of Little Ass-Kicker, she has slept since Beth fed her before she left to help, I was surprised she didn't wake up with your screams." When I said that she blushed a bit. "I'm glad about it because I wouldn't be able to take care of both."

"How is Merle?"

"Pissed off, as usual. I think it will do him good being in there for a while," I told her. "I'll let Rick leave him in there a little longer but then I'll try to get him out."

"He's not entirely bad, you know?" she softly said to me with a small smile on her pink lips.

"What do you mean?"

"He's impulsive and is not afraid of his actions or even cares about them but he has a heart, buried very deep inside of him but he has one. I was going to leave with Michonne that day and Merle knew what the Governor wanted to do so he warmed me," she told me. "He didn't explicitly tell me but by the look on his eyes and the way he almost begged me to stay I caught on with what he meant and back at camp before the roof thing he confronted my father a couple of times, if you want to convince Rick to release him, count me on."

"He really did that?" I asked in shock.

"Yeah. I tried to get him to stop hunting Michonne and he told me he couldn't because if it wasn't Michonne, it would be him. He had no choice. I forgive him for trying to kill her and for taking us there. I'm glad you found him, I know how much you care about him."

"I'm glad you found us."

She smiled up at me and nodded at me. "I'm more glad than you that I found you all."

"Come on, I'm supposed to keep an eye on the baby."

We walked back to what I think is my cell now, I didn't like the idea of sleeping in a cage but sometimes having at least a bit of privacy was nice and where I was sleeping before I left didn't really give me that.

I noticed Judith was just waking up so I took her in my arms before she started crying. Cecilia just sat on my bed, watching me with a smile on her face. I took the bottle Beth had prepared for her before she left and sat next to Cecilia on the bed.

I shook the bottle before giving it to Judith, which was her name now but I still would call her Ass-Kicker, always. She immediately started to suck on it and drink the formula. Cecilia wasn't looking at me anymore but at the baby in my arms. Hesitantly, she stroked her little head and eventually her hand, Cecilia's finger actually ended up wrapper around one of Judith's small hands. She smiled more at it.

"She has quite an appetite, huh?" she commented when she was almost done with the bottle.

"You have no idea how much she eats," I told her with a chuckle.

"She's adorable," she whispered, glancing at me for a second before looking back at Judith.

"Do you want to hold her?" I asked as I put the now empty bottle next to me on the bed.

"Uh, sure," she said nervously.

As careful as I could, I handed her the baby. I looked at her and noticed how nervous Cecilia was. I rubbed her arm to calm her down a bit.

"Never held a baby before?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Not this young and not for a long time," she told me. "I used to take care of So... of Sophia when she was a baby, and I don't know, I'm just awkward around babies, unlike you."

"It's not hard," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "It's easier to be with a kid than a grown up, easier to handle them."

It was then when we heard the front door of the prison being opened, followed by at least five different voices. I was going to go meet them when Cecilia stopped me and told me to take Judith from her. She stood up as I approached her, I got closer to her and as I was taking Judith in my arms I looked right at Cecilia's eyes, I stayed frozen in place, staring at those eyes, we were so close.

It wasn't until now that I realized how many tiny freckles she had on her face. I had seen a few but this close I saw she actually had more really faint and small ones that I hadn't noticed before and I hadn't really seen her eyes this close. They were three different shades of blue, making the unique colour I had always seen from afar. They were more beautiful now.

I heard Rick's voice again, making me snap out of my trance. I must have looked like an idiot. I finally took the baby in my arms and quickly walked out of my cell, followed by Cecilia. We stayed upstairs since there was no need for us to go down, we heard them well enough. Everyone was in here with the exception of Axel and Teresa, but Hershel was here, meaning Axel was probably helping the girl with the artificial breather.

The rest of them were discussing about leaving or staying at the prison. Half of us wanted to stay, the other half wanted to go. Beth went up the stairs and approached me, quickly taking Judith in her arms, it was her job to take care of her but today she wanted some fresh air, wanted to feel more helpful I guess.

"We're not leaving!" Rick said sternly.
"We can't stay here," Hershel said.
"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds," Maggie added, Beth didn't want to stay either, making the whole Greene family in one group.
"Rick says we're not running, we're not running," Glenn exclaimed.
"No, better to live like rats," Merle exclaimed from inside his cell.
"You got a better idea?" Rick asked him, keeping himself calm.

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."
"We ain't scared of that prick," I told him from upstairs.
"Y'all should be," he said, looking up at me. "That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

A long silence followed as the information dawned on everyone. He was right, he was with that man for months, he was like his right hand, he knew him better than all of us.

"Let's put him in the other cell block," Maggie said.
"No!" Cecilia exclaimed before I could. "He's got a point."
"This is all you!" Maggie shouted, at first I thought she was shouting at Cecilia but it was at Merle. "You started this."
"What difference whose fault it is? What do we do?" Beth exclaimed quickly, going down the stairs again.

"I said we should leave, now Axel was shot and Teresa is almost dead." I heard Hershel said, I looked at Cecilia, who bit her lip at his words, her expression becoming sad all over again. "We can't just sit here!"

"That's another reason why we can't leave!" Sean exclaimed. "If we leave, Teresa will die for sure, Axel can't run, just like Hershel and what about Judith?"

No one said anything else after that. Rick actually turned around and walked away from Hershel, from us. Hershel stood up quickly, gripping his crutches, the man was furious, his face had gotten very red.

"Get back here!" he yelled. Rick didn't turn around but he stopped walking, Hershel went to him. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it, we understand why but now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands so get your head clear and do something."
The little chat didn't end up in anything. We still hadn't decided if we were going to stay or not. Rick left, Hershel left too, probably to check on Teresa. Beth went into her cell with Judith and everyone just went their own way, this was just a waste of time.

"I'll go see Teresa," Cecilia told me, putting a hand on top of mine, which was gripping the rail. I looked from her hand to her face, which at the moment showed nothing more than sadness and fear.

She let her hand drop to her side before turning around and walking away from me, going down the stairs with her head hanging low. She was so down and I wished I could do something to cheer her up or make her forget what was going on, just for a few minutes at least.

"She has you wrapped around her finger, bro!" Merle exclaimed with a chuckle as soon as Cecilia was out of my sight.

"Shut up!" I said loudly, being annoyed by him and walked back into my cell, ignoring everything my brother was saying to me, which mostly concerned Cecilia.

* Cecilia's POV *

I walked into this big room where Teresa was. Axel was there, helping her to breathe and Hershel was checking her. There was still some dry blood on the table where she was, the blanket that covered her body had also stains of her blood.

"How is she?" I asked Hershel.

"Not good. If she can't breathe for herself we will have to make a hard decision soon. She lost so much blood, her heartbeat is barely there."

I stood next to her, I was about to hold her hand when I noticed she was cuffed to the table. At first I wasn't sure why but only seconds later I knew. She could die and become a walker at any time, they must know then, that no matter how you die, you just turn.

I heard the door being opened, I turned around and saw both, Sean and Oliver walking in. I smiled sadly at them before looking down at Teresa's pale face. Oliver stood next to me and put an arm around me, while Sean stood in front of us, on the other side of Teresa, while Axel just kept pumping air into her lungs.

"I was remembering when we went to our apartment before renting it, and we just fell in love with it," I told Oliver. "I remember how positive she was about life, how happy she was when we moved in, how everything was falling into place."

"Those were good times."

"Not so good but compared to now, they were great times."

"I want to save her, you know? But if she's suffering we should think about letting her go," Oliver whispered to me.

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"You heard me. We don't have a machine to help her breathe, poor Axel has been doing that for the last two hours or so, we don't have blood to give her, her type is O negative, no one here has that type and we don't have many things she needs. I'm realistic and for once I'm surprised you aren't the one saying that."

"When I was realistic she told me to have faith, when I do you tell me to be realistic," I muttered. "I think I should have some hope for her, to not give up on her so easily."

About four hours passed. Maggie, Beth, my mother and now Glenn had pumped air to help her breathe while Hershel checked on her every half an hour or so. He said nothing to us after he was done but his face tells us everything, she's not getting better.

I was sat in between Sean and Oliver on the floor, with our backs against the cold, grey wall. I turned to look at Oliver and he didn't look so devastated, even when he had already said there was no hope for Teresa.

He looked sad but not sad enough, not like if we were about to lose Teresa. I also had noticed they had barely been talking, they didn't even share a cell.

"Oliver?" I muttered, he looked at me but said nothing. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Lots of things happened, Cici."

"I mean, between you two. I knew you before all of this and if things were still like that you would be next to her, holding her hand as you cry but now you haven't even shed a single tear."

Oliver shifted, looking uncomfortable and a bit upset. He sighed and turn to look at the floor. He started to play with his shoe laces. He always used to play with something whenever he was nervous.

"We broke up a long time ago," he told me, shocking me a lot. "We tried to fix things but we just ended up drifting away."

"What happened?"

He was quiet for a very long time and finally I saw his blue eyes watering a bit. Sean stood up in that moment to help Glenn with the breather, while I put my arm on his shoulder to let him know he could count on me.

"She got pregnant, Cici. She was and she didn't even bother to tell me. Remember I used to tell her how bad I wanted to form a family with her? Remember that?" I nodded at him. "Well, she probably forgot about it. She was bleeding a lot one day, I was freaking out, thought she was shot or stabbed or something but turned out she had taken some abortive pills and if it wasn't for Hershel she would have died. I understand this is not a world to have kids, it isn't even a world for adults but she kept it from me and made that decision, thinking I would never find out."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"If she would have told me I would have supported her, you know? Even if I wanted her to have it but I understand the circumstances are so bad right now. I would have been there for her but she didn't care about me," Oliver said with a single tear falling down his face. "She said the group had enough with Lori and her pregnancy, they didn't need more problems and that she just wanted a more fair chance at surviving and the only thing she regretted was that I found out."

"She probably didn't mean it, Oliver."

"You weren't there, she did mean it. After that we kind of tried to stay together but it was a waste of effort, time, everything. She became cold towards me, she barely let me touch her, and I was supposed to be the one to be mad not her. I tried to put myself in her shoes and move on but you know what happened about two months after that?" I shook my head. "Guess, Cici, guess what happened."

"I don't know, Oliver, tell me what happened."

"I went on a run with Glenn and Maggie, we couldn't pass with the car and it was too dangerous to walk all the way to that place so we came back way earlier. I walked into our tent and saw her fucking Sean." He chuckled sarcastically then. "Can you believe it? Why didn't she just tell me? She should have told me that it was over instead of cheating on me."

I stayed silently next to him, feeling extremely shocked about everything he was telling me. Teresa wasn't like that, not the Teresa I once knew.

"Things went to shit after that, we just stand the other for the sake of the group, and that includes Sean. He changed so much after he found out his uncle was dead and Teresa wasn't good, mentally. She took your 'death' really bad, she used to blame herself but we all did take it bad, but that didn't change us in the way it changed her. Look at your mum, for example, she even knows how to shoot now, she can stand up for herself, she didn't fuck Rick or someone like that."

"This world changes people in so many ways, Oliver. It made my mum stronger, it made me stronger, it made you different too, and unfortunately Teresa was very unstable to handle it in the best way. I'm sorry she hurt you, I know how much the two of you loved each other."

"It's okay, I got over it a long time ago. It's better to not have someone to worry about, you know? Now I just worry about myself, makes life way easier."

With that he stood up and left, leaving me quite astonished at his cold words. Oliver wasn't like that, he was a sweet, caring and understanding guy. I didn't like this new Oliver at all.

Glenn joined me a few seconds later, sitting next to me. He looked sadly at me and I did the same, taking a deep breath.

"I never imagined what happened between them," I told him, knowing he heard us, or he knew what I was talking about, he was with them this whole time.

"I know, they were so in love when I met them. It got really awkward but we all got over that."

"Guys!" we heard Hershel in a panicked tone.

We both stood up as quickly as we could and rushed to Hershel's side, who was once again checking on Teresa.

"What? What is it?" I asked hysterically.

"Her pulse lowered even more, it's barely there, I'm sorry to say this but we can't do anything to help her."

Hershel ordered Sean to stop helping her to breathe, I wanted to take that thing and do it myself but a part of me knew it wouldn't help at all. Tears rolled down my face as I saw her chest go up and down for the last time ever until it just stayed still. She was gone.

Sean was crying so bad that his gun fell from his hand, he later collapsed to the floor, so Glenn grabbed his gun, pointed at Teresa's head and without hesitation pulled the trigger.

I ran out of there and went straight to my cell after I heard the shot, I didn't even look at Teresa one last time, that image would haunt my nightmares for weeks. I lied down and let the tears flow from my eyes and I did cry all night long but I promised myself I would move on and not allow myself to cry for her again. I couldn't let myself be down for another person, last time I did, I pushed everyone away and tried to kill myself.

I still remember how lonely and miserable I felt after Sophia died and if I let those feelings taking over me again, who knows if I would be able to beat them again, I didn't want to end up like Rick was at the moment, I needed to stand strong, so even if it hurt or even if I seemed heartless I wasn't going to cry for her more than one night.

Hello guys, so a bit of Daryl's POV :D What do you think?

QOTD: Do you like the quotes at the start of each chapter?

I'm in the middle of a tournament but I don't have to play today so that's why I'm updating. I have done so well in this tournament. I played so good in one match (even when I lost) that everyone congratulated me, even people I have never talked to and a man said he wants me be part of the team and wants me to go to a tournament in USA in September. Finally good things are happening!

Just so you know, I have had such a hard time in my sport but I have pushed through so I wanted to tell you all to not give up when things get hard, you will get your reward :)

And if people try to bring you down or make life hard it's just because they think you are a threat.