Newly Revised

Ani used her hunting knives to bash in the brains of every single walker in her way and it made it so difficult for her to find her way back to fence as she began tiring. Every muscle in her body was sore from crouching most of the night and then being on that damn tower most of the day. All the running she'd done on little to no sustenance and now Bobby and Catty were starting to fuss from being in the bag so long. She'd barely slept more than a few hours a day with the exception of when she passed out with the kittens and dreamed about her old life. That had been the only day she'd gotten enough sleep, and getting so much sleep after not sleeping had only made her more tired. Kicking herself up off a board, she managed to get herself to the top of the fence before hauling herself over and booking it in the direction she'd come into the property from. She didn't even bother stopping as she climbed the tree and grabbed Daryl and Merle's bag and scramble back down. Ani let the kittens out once she was on the ground and quickly got to work heading around the gate once again. It was going to be night soon, and they had over half a day's journey ahead of her at this point, but at least there would be clear tracks she could follow. All she had to do was find the trail that they were sure to have left from where they got over and follow it. If she tried hard enough and traveled at least some of the night, she might be able to catch up to them by morning.

"Well, that was an absolute load a bullshite if I eva did see one," she told the kittens as they moved. "Plus side, I know my man's alive for sure now. Jus' got ta keep my promise and find 'im."

She walked along for quite some time before she caught their trail. Ani took no time to start along it, though she knew she was either going to have to find shelter or lash herself to a tree before the end of the night. Even though she wanted to get to Daryl as soon as possible now that she'd seen him and knew for a fact she was following him, she had to be reasonable. She was too tired, too hungry, and too sore to go all night, especially since she didn't know if she would even be able to find them before the night was out. As the light dwindled, she sighed heavily and gave up the ante. Climbing a large oak tree, she nestled herself in a nice perch where three large branches diverged from the trunk at the same place about six feet up. For once, she'd be able to sleep without tying herself down, laying down and passing out with the kittens curled up beside her. Ani slept like the dead for what had to have been two or three hours when the twins' squirming and mewling woke her up. Shushing them by stroking their heads, she managed to quiet them just in time as a twig snapped beneath her. Quiet voices rang out in the darkness, people who were obviously from Terminus chasing after her family. They were chasing after her, too, from the sound of it, as Ani cautiously looked down at them through the crick in the branches. There was a group of six, talking into a walkie to another group that was apparently supposed to meet up with them at a school somewhere close by. Easy peasy, pumpkin squeezy, Ani thought to herself as she carefully put the kittens on the bags and hoped they wouldn't be able to climb down before she was done with her newest task.

"They're up ahead," one of the women said, Ani's eyes narrowing at the sight of the garment she was wearing. "Gareth and Albert's watchin' 'em."

"So we can catch up and make camp soon?" another girl spoke up.

"Should be able," a man said. "Let's spread out again, look for clues for that girl."

She quietly moved up one of the branches and waited for the group to either fan out or split into teams, waiting for her moment to strike. As soon as only one person remained below her, she jumped down with a precision strike, she landed with her thighs on the man's shoulders. Using the momentum of her jump and combined with the force of her hold with both her hands and thighs, she twisted her body down and around along with his head. The crunch of his neck snapping as they hit the ground made her smile before she quickly rolled away and pulled one of her throwing knives. She ran through the brush, catching sight of two of her targets, nailing one right at the back of the neck with her throwing knife as she ran off. When the other man was caught off guard, she used a sneak attack to plunge her hunting knife up into this back and twist it to make sure he was dead. There were at least three more Terminus people out in this area that she needed to deal with and she needed to do it fast if she was going to keep to her people's trail. If she was going to be able to follow it without it being too mucked up too much by these assholes, especially with the number of walkers in the area. Walking up to the first victim, she smiled as she grabbed her knife and all but ripped the garment the woman had on her off.

"That's my fuckin' poncho, bitch," she said before she spat on the corpse and went to put the poncho on, stopping and retching at the smell of the barbecue on it. "Yeah, nope. Ya need fuckin' washed 'fore I put ya on again. But damn if I ain' happy ta have ya back Ponchy..." Ani stopped and jerked her head up towards the sky. "Nope. Nope. Fuckin' nope. I am not namin' Daryl's fuckin' poncho. Nope, not happenin'. Leavin' the damn thing here, got ta come back for the bags and twins. Ain' fuckin' namin' it. Nope."

Ani did, however, go to put it on before she smelled the thing and gagged so hard she called attention to herself from the odor that radiated from dropped the offensive smelling garment as soon as she heard a twig branch to her left, making her swing to her right around a few closely growing trees. It was dark enough to provide her enough cover to keep her safe, but she had to move quickly and quietly to get to another position so the man who had come up wouldn't know where, exactly, she was. Ani waited and watched as the man came to his knees next to the woman she'd killed only moments before and tried shaking her awake, the idiot. He yelled for help, which was the distraction Ani had been waiting for, as crept on the man and slit his throat before running in the direction he had come from himself. She waited behind a fallen log, crouched as low to the ground as she could with a throwing knife in both hands. As the final man and woman came back into view from opposite directions, she sprang up and launched her knives, hitting both square in the eyes and taking them down. Standing up and looking around her, she let out a breath at how lucky she'd been to have been able to get the drop on them. If she had been anywhere other than the tree, if it had been daylight, if there had been any more of them, she would not have faired so easily.

"Well, that was fun. Time ta get back ta the boys," she said to no one in particular as she turned around and walked over to the poncho.

She grabbed it up, as well as the walkie on the guy's belt, and made her way back to the tree she had left Bobby and Catty in. Catty was still up in the branches crying for his brother while Bobby was yowling back at him from the ground. Ani chastised them as she walked up to the tree even as she broke out into a smile at the antics of the two. She still wasn't sure how old they were, if they were boys, girls, or both, or what all they would be able to do when older, but they certainly made her happy as they were now. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the two of them, she would have probably either been dead or fully acting like the wild child everyone seemed to think she was. It would have been worse than when she'd first been on her own in Atlanta. She had barely been able to say anything unless she was in class answering a question and she had been openly hostile towards the people who wanted to make friends with her. That had left her an outcast until Jesse had become her roommate and slowly learned about her past. The kittens were to her now what Jesse had been to her then; they allowed her to stay open, to feel, to remind herself that she was a human being, not a machine, not a cold, unfeeling thing. If it weren't for her kittens, Ani would have forgotten herself as Ani and would have regressed back to 'Tea' before Jesse. The one that didn't know how to feel, the one that hid away from human contact and presence. It hadn't been a fun existence, but it had been safe, and after finding the cabin, 'safe' was something she had desperately wanted again.

Having the twins had kept her from completely shutting down and for that alone she would be eternally in their debt. Sure, she had owned a cat before and had given it love and decided that she was more a cat person than dog, it wasn't the same. She had gone into the shelter with Jesse, who had insisted that Ani get a pet when she found out she'd never had one, and looked around. The only reason she'd taken in the cat on death's door was because it was missing an eye, an ear, most of his tail, and his fur had been scorched off by the fire that had left him homeless. The poor creature had reminded her of herself and she couldn't let it live whatever time it had left in a cage. It was different with the twins, though, because she hadn't needed the old cat to regulate herself or give her a reason to care. She needed the twins now in almost the same way that she needed Daryl. Dropping the poncho on top of Bobby with an order of 'stay there, she put her hand flat and palm faced down in the hopes that starting verbal and visual commands early would make them easier to train in the long run. She shimmied up the tree and untied the bags, carefully lowering them to the ground without hitting Bobby, who had come out from under the poncho. Ani grabbed Catty and put him on her shoulders before she started climbing back down only for the damn thing to stick his claws in her shoulder and hold on for dear life.

"C'mon! Ya don' need ta bloody me up! We're on the ground now! Let go!" she chastised the poor kitten as she tried to pry him off of her. When he finally released her, she grabbed all her gear and headed in the direction she knew her people had left in, but not before turning on the walkie and saying, "Left ya some breakfast. Bon appetite!"

Keeping an eye on the kittens to make sure they stayed with her, she watched as the morning's first rays rose over the horizon. She'd long since dropped the walkie before coming to a road and following it, double checking the dirt every once in a while to see if she was still following Daryl's trail. He'd made it a point to step just a little harder to give her some clear tracks to follow which made her smile softly despite how stupid that was. If she could see his trail plain as day, any other hunter or tracker could, which meant that any of the remaining survivors from Terminus could be on their trail right now. The kittens had done a good job keeping up, padding along silently as they traveled along. She'd followed the tracks until they diverged into the woods and had gotten muddled by presumably walkers. Ani assumed they would return to the road at some point and decided to rest instead of trying to find them in the woods. It was selfish, but her legs were killing her from the jump off the roof as well as out of the tree and if she didn't rest them for a little while, she was going to need someone to carry her. The twins didn't seem to mind the fact that she'd stopped as they chased each other around while climbing all over Ani. She laughed at their antics before picking up a twig with a leaf on it and started playing with them, getting them to chase and paw after it.

"Level one a ya trainin' has officially begun," she told them while smiling. "I'll make huntas out a ya yet!"

Ani was humming to her kittens while resting and rubbing her legs, massaging the muscles to help relieve the tension and checking the bones for any possible cracks or fractures. While she wasn't entirely sure about hairline fractures, she had definitely jarred her joints and bones and strained her muscles. There was no real pain that indicated anything worse than that and she thanked her lucky stars she hadn't seriously hurt herself. Daryl was probably going to be pissed at her for being reckless in his opinion, but she'd done what she'd had to do in order to make sure they got out safe. Besides that, she couldn't change the past now that it had already happened and if he really wanted to be angry at her, then he could be angry at himself for getting caught in the first place. If he had staked the place out like she had, those Terminus assholes might not have gotten them. Then again, their patrols and the way they cornered people by sending out even more people before the, for lack of better term, round up of her people. Even she hadn't predicted that and instead had been able to sneak in only because the patrols became extremely lax really late at night. She was pulled from her thoughts when Bobby pounced on her hand as she was rubbing her legs, making her stop and play with him for a minute, rolling him on his back and tickling his tummy.

"Or were ya lookin' for me, hmm?" Ani asked him.

"Help!" a disembodied voice cried over the air. "Help! Somebody! Help!"

Ani quickly stood up and looked around her, trying to find out the direction that the voice was coming from. She knew the others would run to it if they were close by and it could very well be where she finally met up with her people. There weren't many people that were willing to run into danger to help someone they didn't know, but that was something her people would do. At least, that was something she hoped her people would do; it's what she was doing. Whether or not she met up with her people, someone crying for help wasn't someone she wanted to leave. A part of her brain thought that it could be a trap, one of the groups after her trying to lure her in to capture her. It would be an easy way to catch her off guard and outnumbered, but she had to try, had to check. She didn't care if it was a trap, though, because she knew her chances of finding Daryl would increase the closer she got to that voice.

"C'mon, boys!" she told the twins.

She took off into the woods after the screaming, it getting louder and bringing in more walkers the closer she got. Ani understood the situation immediately as soon as she saw the rock and the man on top of it surrounded by the dead. His outfit looked cleaner than most of the clothes she'd seen since the turn and his voice was higher than Carl's even. His head was still shaven neatly as far as she could tell from the angle she was coming through the trees at. He was still yelling as she began to take out the walkers that were still coming up to it, a total of ten trying to swarm the damn thing. It would be a lot considering how much pain her legs were in, but that didn't matter much since there was obviously no way the man was going to save himself. She threw one of her knives and fell the walker that had a hold of the man's arm while another knife thrown fell the walker closest to the man's head. A gunshot from the other side of the rock alerted her to the arrival of others and Ani made to move away, further into the woods and out of sight. She waited until they came into view, her knives at the ready while the twins hunkered down around her feet. Ani's breath came out in a laugh as the others came into view and spurned her to run at full force towards the wings she knew and loved.

"There's someone else out here."

"Hey guys, isn't this a throwing knife?"

"Do you think-"

"Shit!" Daryl yelled when she tackled him with a hug and made him fall.

"I found ya!" Ani said while laughing and crying at the same time, finally back in his arms where she belonged. "I finally found ya!"

~x~

They'd traveled along the road for a while before moving back into the woods to make camp for the night somewhere less open. Rick talked to Tara while Daryl watched on, angry the man was forging new friendships when he'd been so quick to leave Ani behind. Daryl couldn't blame the man considering the only reason they'd been able to make it out so easily was because of the extra hands they'd had. It just didn't make him feel any better after he had left her out there by herself to begin with even though Beth had tried to get him to look. He stood off to the side and a short distance away from the others under the pretense of taking watch, trying to do his best not to let his anger at the situation devolve into rage. He knew that sticking around that place was going to be the death of them, but they'd left Ani there. How was it safe for her to be left on her own when it wasn't safe for them as a group to stay? And then the way she'd jumped off that roof, even with all the adrenaline rushing through her, that had to have caused some damage to her. If it wasn't her bones themselves that were injured, it would be her joints and definitely her muscles. It had been a twenty foot drop followed immediately by another ten foot drop, at least! His mind kept replaying that scene over and over again, seeing her taking on those men after that jump and how she'd taken a boot to the jaw. It was enough to make him pace menacingly as he looked out at the woods before he picked up his bow and started towards them.

"You alright there, boy?" Merle asked as he blocked Daryl's path.

"Goin' huntin'."

"Like hell you are," Merle said, grabbing the man's shoulder. "You're stayin' in camp tonight. Me and Phia'll take care of dinner. You get your head on straight."

"Is on straight."

"Bullshit. You're damn near primed to take all of us on just to go back there."

"She's out there alone!"

"And she's probably been since the prison," Merle reasoned. "She was alone at Terminus, too. When she took out the Governor's men. When she saved Sophia. Hell, she was drugged up and alone when those sick fucks tried sellin' 'er off. Thrown at a man at least three hundred pounds and still got the drop on him. Alone ain't such a bad thing for Ani. Ain't a good thing, but ain't a death sentence. She'll find us. Hell, how much you wanna bet she'll be waitin' up at that road when we get back to it tomorrow?"

"Ain't bettin' nothin'," Daryl said petulantly.

"Stay in camp, baby brother. Don't be reckless," Merle said, giving him a final pat on the shoulder before shouting to Sophia.

There was a distinct difference in how Sophia was acting towards her mother now and how she was back at the prison. Daryl couldn't help but notice it as he sat back against a tree and played with Ani's dagger while watching the group. The girl hadn't even looked at her mother before leaving with Merle to go hunting and had walked with him for the better part of the day. It didn't help much that Carol wasn't doing much to change the situation, either. If anything, she was being even more distant from the kid than she had been at the prison. It made Daryl wonder what had happened in the week they were all separated that had made things so drastically different. Ani would be pissed no matter what happened or when she got back to them at the entire situation. She was already pissed when she'd found out what the woman had said about Sophia in the first place. His mind was so preoccupied with thought that he didn't even realize he'd fallen asleep until Glenn was shaking him and offering him some food.

"Dude, I know you're worried about her, but you need to eat," Glenn said, practically dropping the small amount of squirrel in his lap when he tried to refuse it. "You're on watch next with Carol."

Daryl sighed and finished the meager meal quickly before going over to the log Bob was currently sitting on. He clapped the man's shoulder as a sign that he was relieved and took his seat when the man walked away. Shortly thereafter, Carol walked up and sat a foot or so off to his side and otherwise ignored his presence as they sat on watch. He looked at her, wondering what had happened and when she had started to close off so much. While he had known that she was less involved with her daughter, he'd assumed it was because they both had their own responsibilities around the prison. Sophia and Carl both had been less like the other kids that had been protected by their parents and had lived relatively easy lives. They had more responsibilities than the rest of the kids and Carol had been in charge of helping the other kids when their parents were busy. It had made it to where mother and daughter had both spent less and less time with each other and that distance had only grown when Lizzie and Mika came in. Daryl was watching her quietly, not wanting to breach the subject but also wondering where those two girls were and what she had been thinking at the prison.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said without looking at him, seemingly knowing what was on his mind as she looked dejectedly out at the trees. "I can't. I just need to forget it."

"Alright," Daryl told her as she looked him in the eye; Tyreese had escaped with Judith, Lizzie, and Mika, but the latter two were no where to be seen. "About Ania. Would you have? If she'd've been down there?"

"I've thought about it. A lot, to be honest. And yes. To protect everyone, I would have. For what it's worth," she said as if it made anything better, "I'm glad she wasn't. I really don't hate her or blame her for anything, but she's..." she broke off as her voice broke. "She's a constant reminder. She and Sophia both. Of Ed. Of what I should have been. Of what Sophia should have been. I can't keep acting like I'm still a mother to Sophia. I can't keep worrying about her or being angry at Ani for it. It's not fair to either of them and I can't be weak like that. Not anymore. Not if I want Sophia to survive. Not if I want to. I don't have to like it. I just have to accept it."

"You know that's bullshit, right?" Daryl told her quietly. "That little girl thought the world of you. Never shut up about you before them girls got there. That's why Ani was always tryin' with you, you know? She only took over more and more 'cause you let her."

"I know, but there are things I just can't...That was a different life. A different person. I know Sophia won't forgive me. I can't fix it, but it is what it is."

Before Daryl had a chance to reply, rustling in the trees had him standing up and turning his eyes to the trees while motioning for Carol to stay put. He thought it might be Ani, but after waiting for a moment without seeing hide nor hair of her, he knew it wasn't. Ani would come running right to him when she saw who it was and would definitely make her presence known. She might not be the biggest talker outside of being a shrink or with the people she felt at ease with, but it was hard to miss her. Between her hair and the fact that she was the only member of their core group still alive and missing, her return would be noticed by all. There was still something off, though, and years of hunting had helped him develop a keen sixth sense. He was positive something was out there in the dark watching them, possibly getting ready to attack, possibly just investigating. He couldn't see anything out in the dark and nothing else sounded; even if there was something out there, there was no point alerting the others just yet.

"It's nothin'," he told Carol, the two of them staying on high alert.

He left to go hunting as soon as his watch was done since there was no point in sleeping with the sunrise off in the distance. Besides, if he was right about the night before, he would be able to find some sort of trail or something to prove that someone had been out there. Daryl knew he wasn't wrong, but even as he managed to get several squirrels, he still couldn't find any sign that something had been watching them. There was nothing he could do if he couldn't find a trail and he had to catch up to the others before they got to the road. Besides that, he was still hoping that Ani was up at the road waiting for them somewhere they could find her. If something really had been out in those woods, and it definitely hadn't been his wife, it could have already gotten to her. The sooner he got to the road, the faster he would be able to find her and give her all hell for what she'd done at Terminus. He came around a tree only to be met with a bunch of guns and knives raised in his direction as he met up with the group.

"We surrender," he told them mockingly before walking over to Rick and Merle. "No tracks. No nothing."

"So whatever you heard last night," Rick started.

"It's more what I felt," Daryl corrected. "If someone was watching us, there would have been somethin'."

Rick looked at Daryl before looking to Merle, who simply nodded his head in agreement that they all needed to be on their guard. He whistled and brought everyone closer together to tell them to keep close, keep quiet, and keep up. They didn't know what was out here and they didn't need to be caught with their eyes closed. With the possibility that there were survivors from Terminus, they couldn't do anything that would risk the group. Everyone needed to be prepared for the possibility of a fight before they could get where they needed to go. Rick left the brothers to lead the group as he slowed down to talk to Abraham about what the plan was after they got there. It was pissing Daryl off the more he listened to them because of what was being said. They knew his wife was still out here and yet they still had the audacity to start talking about leaving for somewhere completely different. Daryl wasn't going anywhere until she came back and if they tried to make him stay, they would all regret it. He stormed further ahead as they kept talking with Merle following behind him shaking his head at his brother's obvious train of thought.

"Ready to get some concrete under your feet?" Abraham asked Rick.

"I think it's time," he replied.

"That is sweet music to my ears, Officer. Get back to the road we came off of and try to get back to goin' north 'til we find a vehicle. Good?"

"Good," Rick said. "Might have to leave a sign for Ani, though."

"You guys seriously won't cut one broad loose?"

"You saw what she did at Terminus," Rick scoffed. "You really wanna lose a fighter like that with the mission you've got?"

Abraham sighed heavily while mulling it over, "No, I do not. But I'm not puttin' the mission at risk over one person."

"Tell that to Daryl, then."

"What is it with you people and your wives?" Abraham complained.

"It's hard to find someone these days," Rick told him. "When you do, you don't want to let go."

Abraham simply hummed before walking away, still thinking these people were crazy for constantly running after women. It wasn't like he didn't understand what being with a woman was like at the end of the world; Rosita was a damn fine woman. But he wouldn't put his mission on hold or jeopardize it if they got separated and he couldn't find her within a day. Yet both Daryl and Glenn had both refused to give up on their wives and there was nothing that could deter either of them. It was pretty damn baffling that they would be so devoted to their significant others that they were willing to put the fate of the world on hold just to find them. The hunter still had his brother and the kid that hung around him all the time; it wasn't like the man was alone. Still, he'd done worse to keep his own wife and kids safe once upon a time and it had only been Eugene's mission that had brought him back from that dark place. Abraham could only sigh as he fell back to talk to Rosita about their next move and why they were still with this group to begin with.

Daryl had taken point, missing the silent ambiance of the woods and the feel of Ani walking beside him. He could hear all the idle chatter behind him but paid it little attention as he lead the way back up to the road. When they'd left the road to make camp and find water, they'd decided to head back to the road in a different direction. Ani would still be able to catch up to them if she was already on the road or in the woods since they weren't leaving them too far from where they'd entered. It would only be a thirty minute or so walk, so it'd be easy enough for him to double back to check and then catch up to the group again. She had to be waiting for them at the road by now and he didn't give a damn what anyone had to say about him going to get her. They had already left her once and he wasn't about to go on some far-fetched mission to save the world without her. If all else failed, he, Merle, and Sophia could always split from the group and go their own way in order to find Ani. The four of them could easily make it on their own out in the woods; he wasn't leaving her behind. He was pulled out of his thoughts as someone started crying for help off in the woods, both he and Carl taking off after it.

It didn't take them long to find the man who was calling for help as he was trapped on a rock that was surrounded by walkers. From what they could see as they ran up, one had a hold of his foot and he was trying to kick it off while also pull his arm up from the other side. Carl broke through the trees first, killing the walker that had a hold of his leg while Michonne used the butt of her rifle to bash the skull of another one. Rick used the rock itself to break the skull of another while Carol killed another with her knife, leaving herself wide open for an attack for the walker coming up from behind her. Sophia put an arrow right through the thing's ears as Daryl killed one of the remaining walkers with a shot through the eye. Glenn killed the final walker before bending down to grab something from the head of one of the walkers as Daryl spoke.

"There's someone else out here. We didn't take all these walkers out."

"Hey guys," Glenn said, holding up the object that had caught his attention. "Isn't this a throwing knife?"

"Do you think-" Sophia started excitedly before Daryl was tackled off balance in the middle of standing straight, making him fall backwards as something heavy collided with him.

"Shit!" he yelled, causing everyone to raise their weapons.

"I found ya!" Ani cried with joy, laughing even as tears fell and Daryl's arms came around her as tightly as hers were around him. "I finally fuckin' found ya!"

"Don't you ever pull that Mission Impossible, James Bond bullshit again!" he yelled at her when he pulled back. "You jumped two fuckin' stories!"

"Yeah, but at least it wasn' three," she quipped with a smile before leaning in and kissing him, making her hiss as she had forgotten about her bruised jaw.

"Ania, I'm serious!" Daryl said as he pulled away. "You could have died!"

"And so could a ya in that damn place! I did what I had ta."

"Uh, guys? What's that?" Glenn asked as the twins started screaming from the woods.

"Ugh," Ani groaned as she somewhat stiffly stood from her perch on top of Daryl. "That would be one very scaredy cat and anotha not-so-scared-but-still-very-much-a-cat cat. Hold on, I got ta go get 'em. Oh!" she said, stopping in her tracks. "The two a ya can carry ya own shite now."

She tossed Merle his bag while handing Daryl his before walking into the woods a short ways to where she'd left the twins. While they didn't know how to take commands yet, they had at least accepted that they were stuck with her now and had made it a point to stay close. The others could still see her back when she stopped and bent down into the bush. They could tell she grabbed something and then another before coming back to them, but it was hard to see what. Ani had both kittens in her arms and was cooing at them as she walked back. She already knew that she was going to be getting chewed out so badly by the brothers about having them and being adamant about keeping them, but she still didn't care. Daryl was just going to have to accept that the kittens were sticking around and the kittens were just going to have to get used to Daryl. As expected, when she got back within proper sight distance to where they were standing, both her brother and her lover started cussing.

"Meet Bobby and Catty," she said with a smile, producing the kittens proudly to her family and the newcomers. "Found 'em in a tree while their momma was bein' eaten by walkas. Couldn' leave 'em ta die, so I'm their momma now!"

"Cool!" Sophia said.

"Not cool," Merle countered. "You do realize those are actual bobcats, Ani?"

"Well, I kinda figya'd. I mean, I didn't know for sure, but I did name 'em Bobby and Catty afta all," she deadpanned, causing the redhead to laugh. "Fuck ya laughin' at, Red?"

"Red? I've been called worse, but even I can come up with some better names for a bobcat than Bobby or Catty," he told her.

"Well, I ain' takin' advice on namin' my babies from a soulless ginga, that's for sure!"

"Look who's talking," he said.

"At least I don' look like Lucky the fuckin' Leprechaun fucked a giant and popped ya out."

Abraham's sharp gaze fixed on her with a scowl, but she wasn't even looking at him, to busy putting the cats in her bag and setting it by her feet. Before he had a chance to say anything, Rick cleared his throat and turned his attention to the man on the rock. Ani didn't give the man any attention, seeing as there were enough eyes on him. Besides that, he was a man who'd climbed a rock and screamed for help rather than fight and she was not worried about him at all. Her attention was on Daryl, whom she latched herself to, and his black eye and busted lip. She wondered how the hell he had gotten to be in such bad shape in the last week and who she needed to kill for roughing him up. She knew she probably wasn't looking all that great herself; her own jaw was probably bruised and she was sure her hair looked horrible. All the people who she had been hurt by were dead, though, with the group that kept trying to claim her no where to be found and Terminus only having one group left. It really didn't matter to her about the ones that had been after her but seeing Daryl how he looked was heartbreaking. She nuzzled her face into his chest as she smiled at Sophia and watched Glenn walk up to carefully hand her her knives.

"You're seriously going to keep those bobcats?" Glenn asked her.

"What? The twins? A course I'm keepin' my babies!" she told him.

The sound of puking had them all looking over at the new guy with looks that ranged from humored to confused. Ani started laughing her ass off in Daryl's arms as he scratched his head and Merle rolled his eyes and mumbled a curse. After a moment she quieted down and noticed all the looks she was getting, the strangest one of all from the redhead she'd yet to be introduced to. All she did was flip him off with a smile before looking back at the man with the priest collar and snickering again. It was hard to believe a grown man had yakked over walkers over a year into this waking nightmare. Not even Sophia had gotten sick after killing her first walker let alone when Ani had been stupid and taken on more than she could chew. How in the world such a pitiful and weak man had survived this entire time was beyond Ani's comprehension as she stood in front of Daryl. Sophia came over and gave her a tight hug while she was staring at the odd man they'd all saved. Ani squeezed her just as tight before Daryl pulled her back into his chest and kept his hand on her hip to hold her against him.

"Sorry," the man said after wiping his mouth before introducing himself. "Yes, thank you. I'm Gabriel.".

"And I'm Ani, nice ta meet ya, god-man," Ani piped up, earning a smile from Daryl as he bent down and whispered in her ear to stop before she looked up at him with a smirk of her own. "I'm supa high on the feel goods right now," she whispered back. "Got my family back. Got ya back."

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asked.

Gabriel looked around with a small chuckle before he asked Rick, "Do I look like I would have any weapons?"

"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like," the redhead said.

"I have no weapons of any kind," Gabriel said, not understanding what was wrong with this group of people. "The word of God is the only protection I need."

Daryl quickly slapped a hand over Ani's mouth as she went to open it, not wanting to have to deal with a religious debate as soon as he got her back. She just shot him a look before crossing her arms and pouting, Merle and Sophia both wondering what was up with her. She had never behaved so childishly in front of them but all she could do was be petulant about the fact that Daryl hadn't let her speak. Then again, the last time she had gotten into a religious debate had been with Carol after T-Dog had died and the older woman had been found and nursed back to health. Carol had said something about how they'd see T-Dog again only for Ani to tell her that she was stupid trying to talk to her about the Christian deity. It wasn't something she would ever be able to agree with because there was just too much bad in the world for something like that to exist. Daryl had stepped in and dragged her off before it had gotten too heated and that was with Carol. This man was a priest that adamantly believed that his god was looking out for him when he had almost died and letting her open her mouth would most likely set a bad tone. Even though she knew that was the case, she was still pouting about the fact that her fun had been thwarted by Daryl's ability to predict her reactions.

As far as acting childishly; she had been alone for a week with nothing but kittens as company to talk to. She had been so alone the entire time, trying desperately to find the others and now she finally had and was showing it the best she could. She was giddy from being so excited and elated to be back with her family and the exhaustion she was feeling was starting to catch up to her. The only time she ever really got like this without drinking or being stoned as all hell was when she was riding the waves of an emotional storm. Normally, those waves would result in tears or anger, but when combined with exhaustion and elation after fear and intense adrenaline, she couldn't help but be childish. Daryl had seen her like this a few times over the past year and honestly would never complain when she acted this way. The first time he'd seen it was when they'd gotten stuck in a motel for two days thanks to a walker horde that was passing through. He'd told her it was cute seeing her act her age for once and that had only made her pout because she thought he was treating her like a kid. Ani had to give it to Daryl, though, since he showed her just how not a kid she was to him shortly thereafter. He still treated her like one every once in a while, his hand being over her mouth being a prime example. Even if she hated it, the man was twelve years older than her and she did behave childishly from time to time. Case in point; she started slobbering all over Daryl's hand to get him to move it, which he only did after he talked himself.

"Sure didn't look like it," Daryl said in her place, a much nicer form of what would have come out of her own mouth.

"What 'e said," Ani smiled.

Gabriel smiled and dropped it a few times before chuckling dryly and saying, "I called for help. Help came." He looked around, seeing all the hard faces and one smile that made him more anxious than comforted, "Do you have—have any food? Whatever I—I had left, it just hit the ground."

"We have a few pecans," Carl offered.

Gabriel took the meager offering before saying, "Thank you." Looking around once again, he noticed Judith in Tyreese's arms and commented, "That's a beautiful child." When they remained silent, Ani turning in Daryl's arms to just nestle into his chest while she could, Gabriel asked, "Do you have a camp?"

"No. Do you?" came Rick's quick reply.

He hesitated a moment, once again looking around while chewing his cheek before saying quickly, "I have a church."

"Hold your hand above your head," Rick said in exasperation; Ani thinking no one could be so stupid as to do what they were told only to immediately be proven wrong. "How many walkers have you killed?"

"Not any, actually," came Gabriel's reply.

"Turn around," Rick commanded, not waiting for the man to move as he roughly turned him himself.

"How many people have you killed?"

"None," the man said as if he were offended by the question.

"Why?" Rick finished.

"Because the Lord abhors violence."

"Didn' when 'e took Egypt's firstborn or destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but, hey, ya do ya God-man," Ani retorted, holding onto Daryl's hand this time so he couldn't cover her mouth again.

"What have you done?" Rick asked incredulously, knowing there had to be more to the story than the man was telling. "We've all done somethin'. Might as well say it now before we let Ani finds out and tells us for you. She's good at figurin' out secrets like that."

"I'm a sinner," Gabriel said, making Ani highly aware that he didn't want to tell them what he'd actually done. "I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to God, not strangers."

"Nice excuse ta cova up what ya hidin', but ya definitely hidin' somethin'," Ani said, looking at the man from her post against Daryl, Bobby poking his head out of her bag.

"You said you had a church?" Michonne asked.

"Yes," he said timidly.

"Ya really goin' ta make a wee babe stay out in the open?" Ani asked. "Promise not ta pressure ya 'bout that sin ya ain' wantin' ta tell us 'bout."

After a few moments of deliberating, Gabriel shook his head and said, "I'll take you there."

"Thanks," she told him. "Hey Phia? Ya mind carryin' my bag and the twins?"

"No, why?"

"'Cause I'm goin' ta need help gettin' ta this church," she admitted. "My legs are killin' me afta jumpin' off two stories and then out a a tree."

He handed his own bag and crossbow off to Merle, bending and picking her up bridal style, not wanting to let go of her just yet anyways. She felt lighter than she had before she had gotten sick and knowing that she had hurt her legs did not make him happy at all. It had been reckless, though he couldn't say that adopting fucking bobcat kittens was anything to be proud of either. He knew she liked cats and knew that she had owned one once before, but he had never thought that she would come back to him with a couple. And the fact that they were bobcats; they'd be better to eat or otherwise use as bait than they would be to keep. They were too young to go without food for more than a couple days, too small to be able to defend themselves, and they would be dangerous since they were wild animals. No amount of training would make it to where they would forget their wild tendencies and there was a good chance that they would bite the hand that fed them at some point. Between what she had pulled at Terminus and now the bobcats, Daryl was seriously considering making true to his thoughts of tying her to the bed so she couldn't get into any more trouble.

"What do you mean, out of a tree?" Daryl asked.

"There were survivas," Ani told him, making everyone stop in their tracks from following Gabriel. "At least two groups. I got one. All dead. But I jumped out a a tree onta one a their backs and broke their neck."

"You have a penchant for breaking necks, don't you?" Michonne asked jokingly.

"Breakin' necks, stabbin' hearts, huntin' squirrel," Ani listed off. "I'm the full package!"

"Where'd you learn how to do all that anyway?" the redhead asked.

"Do what, Red?" she asked, somewhat confused.

"Quit callin' me Red. I got a name, you know."

"Nah, I don', Shortcake."

"Shortcake? Shortcake?" he asked flabbergasted. "Listen here, Tiny, I am on a mission to get that man there," he said pointing to Eugene, "to Washington D.C.. I do not have time for your childish attitude."

"Then don' get pissy 'bout me callin' ya Red when ya ain' even given me ya fuckin' name yet, asswipe. I ain' a damn mind reada and, bein' honest, I'll prolly keep callin' ya Red anyway. Everyone gets a nickname," she said. "Ain' that right, Mer-man?"

"Mer-man?!" Abraham repeated before guffawing loudly. "Damn, guess Red ain't so bad after all. Name's Abraham, and I could use someone with your skill set on my journey north. What do you say?"

"If my people go, I go. But, I want ta talk ta ya man. Hear what 'e has ta say. Make sure 'e's right in the head. I ain' chasin' some wild goose and I ain' followin' a madman," Ani said seriously.

"How'd you learn to do all that back there?" he asked again, thinking she was full of shit if she thought he was going to let her talk to Eugene alone.

"Back where? At Terminus?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm," she hummed, thinking about her honest answer, nestling into Daryl's hold on her and sighing. "Well, lot a the fightin' was from the dojo. Mixed Martial Arts, Judo, Muay Thai, self-defense. The breakin' bones and where ta stab not ta leave blood? A mix between crime dramas, true crime TV shows, and then case files at work. The blowin' shite up? Action movies. Loved Bruce Willis and Rambo and Lethal Weapon. Ya can learn a lot from watchin' those movies. Hell, almost had a Roadhouse moment back there."

"Yeah, ya did, girly," Merle chuckled. "Told you she thinks the world's an action flick."

"Wait, you said that too?" Bob asked, having been walking ahead of Merle. "Daryl said the same damn thing after we got free."

"Well, where else ya goin' ta learn how ta be the badass hero?" Ani defended with a laugh of her own, before turning her head to face Daryl. "Give me a piggyback. Ya goin' ta kill yaself carryin' me like this."

"I got you."

"D..."

"Just let me, Ania," Daryl pleaded, the two of them studying each others' bruised faces. "Just let me."

Ani didn't say anything else, just wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him to rest her head on his shoulder. Honestly, it felt good to be in his arms again, even if it was to be carried like a baby around the woods. She couldn't blame him for it, either; if they weren't walking, she wouldn't have wanted to let go of him if he'd been gone that long. It didn't help that it had been the second time she had disappeared on him without giving him a way to look for her. It also didn't help that that had been the second time she'd caused a scene like she had at Terminus without anyone else around. Daryl, on the other hand, had guilt eating away at him because he hadn't looked for her at the beginning and had left her back there. He'd given up ever seeing her again and now was holding her in his arms as they trudged through the trees. As her breathing started to even out, he held her a little tighter and became more careful of his footing. They were both determined of one thing, though; they weren't going to be very far from each other for a good long while.