"The past can't hurt you anymore, not unless you let it."

Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

The next day I found out the other group came back hours before us and they didn't have much problem to get the stuff, at least not like us.

Michonne informed Rick on how the run went, told him pretty much everything, including how we escaped the supermarket. Rick was upset about it but he was really glad none of us perished back there.

As my mother said, almost everybody helped getting the supplies we got inside the prison, in the little room we use to keep the food and right now it was almost full and Hershel was going to show Rick and whoever else wanted to learn, how to plant the seeds the other group got and how to tend them.

And luckily Amanda didn't follow me around today, I woke up quite late and only went down to eat with Michonne and Daryl and then went back to my cell, I was extremely tired for what we did yesterday, my arms ached as crazy and I got a bruise on my back from when I hit the shelf when the walker attacked me but I was fine besides that.

"You were quite, uh, affectionate last night," Carl said with a smirk on his face. "Good night, Mr. Dixon!" he teased.

"Shut up!" I exclaimed, throwing a pillow at him, hitting him straight in the face but that didn't stop making me feel so embarrassed about the fact that Carl heard us and who knows who else heard. Carl grabbed the pillow and threw it back at me, hitting me in my back.

"I have a bruise there, damn it!" I exclaimed, glaring at Carl.

"What happened?"

"Got it while I was on that run, nothing important," I said, sitting up on my bed.

"Heard you got in a horrible situation yesterday, I'm glad you are okay," he told me, sitting in front of me on the bed. "Your mum was hysterical when Sasha added the part where a walker almost bit you, she asked my dad to never allow you to leave again."

"I can imagine," I said rolling my eyes.

"Are you still mad at her?"

"I don't even know," I admitted. "Are you still mad at your dad?"

"Not really," he said shrugging. "I still don't like having them here."
"It's just... weird," I agreed.

I heard footsteps so I raised my head a bit and saw Glenn by the door of my cell, I smiled at him and told him to come in, he never comes to my cell so I wondered what he could want.

"Can I borrow Cici for a few minutes?" Glenn asked Carl with a polite smile.

"Sure," Carl said, standing up. "It's going to be dinner time soon, anyway."

Carl left my cell and Glenn sat on my bed, taking Carl's place. I noticed he looked happy for once, there was something in his eyes that hadn't been there in so long, probably since the farm or even before that.

"What's up?" I asked him curiously.

"I don't know how to start," Glenn admitted, looking down at his hands. "It's about Maggie and me."

"What about it?"

"I proposed to her, you know that. We really didn't want a wedding, seems kind of ridiculous during these times but Maggie want us all reunited and we decided we will do a small simulation of a real wedding," Glenn told me with a shy smile and then I heard him chuckled. "Daryl even volunteered to get some alcohol to celebrate."

"That doesn't really surprise me," I told him with a grin.

"Anyway, the thing is that since you are my best friend, always have since all of this started and we always had each other's backs during all those runs I kind of need you to have my back that day," he told me, once again looking down at his hands.

"What do you mean?"

"I need you to be next to me, to be my best man, I mean, woman in this case, I suppose," he said nervously. "So, would you do it?"

"Are you serious?" I asked him with a huge grin on my face. "I would love to, actually I feel honoured."

"Great!" Glenn exclaimed happily, finally looking up at my face and not looking away from me. "That's fantastic!"

Glenn and I hugged each other. Since I found them after the farm incident, Glenn and I hadn't been that close, many things had happened in these few weeks but it was nice to know he still considered me his best friend and that I was special to him.

"Maggie thought it would be a nice thing to do, you know? Make us forget how shit the world is at least for a couple of hours and enjoy the moment? Just fill our hearts with joy and gather up strength from it so we could keep on fighting."

"I think it's a great idea," I told him. "It will help us all for sure. These days had been all about death and grieve that maybe we all need this, so, when will it be?"

"Soon," Glenn told me with a smile. "We are not sure yet but soon."

"Sounds great."

"Beth will be like the maid of honour, you know? Beth was so excited when Maggie told her."

"Just like me?" I said with a grin.

"Just like you."

Then the topic was changed, Glenn and I talked about how our runs went, he told me one street was full of walkers and had to take another route but that everything went okay and that Joshua, the guy who went with them, was very skilled at throwing knives but he needed more practice with guns.

I also told him about ours, told him how the walker attacked me and the toys fell and started making noise and if it weren't for Sasha's idea we would have probably not made it. There were too many of them and we would be trapped.

"The bad part is that we can't go there again, there were so many things and now there are about fifty walkers inside. We can't just risk it."

"That's a shame," Glenn agreed. "But we'll find other places."

We continued talking until Beth called us so we could all eat dinner. I was quite surprised to see that Amanda wasn't here, but I was actually relieved. I liked the girl and all but she can be really annoying.

Another two weeks had passed and with each day we had been getting more and more accustomed to live with more people than just us, I had actually met some of them and found out they are nice people, even Carl had also socialized a bit.

During these weeks, Hershel had taught Rick how to plant the seeds and how to tend them, Beth and Maggie had also helped and if everything goes well, we'll start getting food from them very, very soon.

A council had also been made, now that we are so many we need to organize ourselves better. It was made up of Hershel, Daryl, Glenn, my mother, Sasha and surprisingly, Rick wasn't part of it. He had decided to step aside and focus on more important things, like Carl. In my case, they said I was too young to be part of it plus I didn't want to be part of it, as long as they let me go on runs I was fine.

"Hey," Michonne said, she had decided she wanted to look for the Governor, she still wasn't sure where she was going.

"Hey," I told her.

I had been outside practising with the crossbow. A few days ago Daryl had put the target even farther and drawn a smaller circle, it was challenging and this proved I wasn't as good as I thought I was but luckily everyday my aim was getting better and better.

"I realized I never told you that thing I promised," she said. "What happened to Andrea, and the run and all the stuff here just made it slipped my mind."

"It's okay," I said, setting the crossbow on the picnic table. "I thought you just weren't ready to tell me."

I sat on the table, criss cross and pat the place next to me, Michonne nodded and sat next to me, I heard her sigh as she started to play with her fingers, avoiding eye-contact.

"One of the walkers I kept," she said. "Was my boyfriend, the other one was his best friend. The three of us were very, very close."

Michonne told me experiences she had with them, including how she met Mike and how much they dated. I was a bit surprised and flattered she was opening up with me and finally telling me something about her life.

Andrea and I tried so many times to try to get her to tell us things, like her parents name but she always refused to share that kind of stuff with us and now that she was sharing something so important made me feel like finally she considered me a real friend, not just someone she lived with.

"Thank you for telling me," I said with an encouraging smile after about an hour of talking. "I appreciate it a lot."

"That's not all," she said quietly and for a few seconds I saw how her lip quivered. "I, uh, I had a son, Cici."
"What?" I exclaimed in shock, gasping at this.

"He was only three when everything started, his name was Andre Anthony and he was everything to me," she said allowing one tear to fall down her eyes.

It broke my heart to know that she had lost her son and that he died being so young, she hadn't told me he died but it was obvious.

"I went for supplies and when I came back the camp had been invaded and those two assholes were so high they couldn't defend themselves – or Andre," she told me. "I waited for them to turn, I cut their jaws and amputated their arms, you know how helpful it was to have them around."

"I'm so sorry, Mich."

"They deserved everything that happened to them," she exclaimed in such a dark voice it scared me. "They really did deserve it."

"You were right," I said after a few minutes of silence, Michonne had broken down, finally allowing herself to let it go. "About the thing you said to me in Woodbury."

"What did I say?" she asked.

"You said you thought my last boyfriend was the reason I stopped believing in love... of any kind."

"Right, I remember."

"He did hurt me, just like you suspected. Except I didn't stop believing just in love because of him, I stopped believing in humanity and true happiness."

It was my turn to look at my hands as I started to play with them and the tips of my hair, I hadn't talked about my ex-boyfriend since we broke up and it wasn't easy to remember him and tell Michonne but if she told me about her son's death then I could do this, we made a deal back at Woodbury, if she told me, I would tell her this.

"I met him in school, he was a year older than me and very popular. His name was Peter. One day he approached me during lunch, sat in front of me and asked me if I was going to the basketball game that weekend, said he would like me there. We started dating not long after that," I told her with a small smile, that part was good. "He was the only person that knew to a certain extent how shitty my life was at home."

I never told him my dad hit me, he thought he just grabbed me tight and was a bit rough but he knew he hit my mum and that he was very controlling and treated us pretty much like slaves, not like if we were actually related to him.

"I graduated at the same time as him because I was a year ahead and he had the great idea of going away together, anywhere, but just away. We moved to Florida for two months and then settled in New York, it was amazing... at first."

"Did you love him?"

"As much as a seventeen-year old could love someone, of course I thought I was in love and that we were going to be together forever. We were young, everything was improving, life was just great, you know? But I guess it was just too good and soon it came to an end."

Quick flashbacks invaded my mind of how things went from perfect to shit and I started to tremble, Michonne noticed, she put an arm around my shoulders and rubbed my arm, telling me it was okay, that if I wanted I could skip that but I just shook my head at her, I needed to tell her.

"We lived together for eight or nine months and we had dated for a year and two months before we moved to New York. One night he didn't come home to sleep, the following morning he reeked of alcohol and I just knew he had cheated on me, probably with a prostitute or just a random girl at a party. I confronted him and soon the argument got heated, we were screaming at the top of our lungs in each others faces."

As I told Michonne I could almost perfectly hear Peter's voice yelling at me, telling me to stop being so clingy and so annoying and to leave him alone. And telling me things like his life would be so much better without me, things he had never told me before.

"But that was nothing, just stupid words from drunkenness and anger, what really shattered me inside was that as we were yelling at each other, he actually, uh." I took a deep breath, bringing one of my hands to my left cheek. "He slapped me, quite hard."

Michonne sadly nodded at me, understanding why it had affected me so much. I lived a whole life of abuse and now that I was free of it, he was just bringing me back to those nightmares.

"He knew about my dad, he fucking knew what he did to my mum and he did that to me, he didn't even apologized. He said 'I know now why your father is the way he is and I understand him', that was the worst someone had done to me."

I closed my eyes to stop tears from falling down my face but I saw Peter, wearing his fancy blue long-sleeved shirt, half buttoned, his blonde hair was all over the place and his normal soft, caring green eyes were full of hatred and fury. I opened my eyes quickly because that scene of him saying that to me after slapping me kept repeating in my mind over and over again.

"What did you do?" Michonne asked, her voice showed off how angry she was now.

"You know I learnt self-defence and Taekwondo, so I recovered from the shock and I defended myself. I grabbed my stuff and left," I told her, leaving out so many details I still wasn't ready to tell her. "I let my father abused me all my life, I just wasn't going to let him do that to me as well. I had done everything to not become my mother and I am glad that I could be strong when I had to be."

Michonne actually smiled as I said that and nodded proudly at me, patting my back and then grabbing both my hands with hers.

"I'm proud of you because you didn't fell down, you stood up for yourself," she told me. "You are strong, Cici, you truly are, and not just because of that but also for making it all this time and in the way you have done it. You just had to go through those awful experiences to toughen up."

"I'm sure that son of a bitch is dead now and probably got what he deserved," I told her. "Just like your boyfriend."

"We both need to let it go, so we can heal," she told me. "It's in the past and now that be both have shared it, we will heal faster, you'll see."

"I had just blocked everything related to Peter, the good and the bad stuff," I told her. "I felt so ashamed it was happening to me again that I just decided to tell no one and put it in the back of my mind, maybe if I ignored it, it wouldn't be real, but it was real and deep inside of me, I knew it happened because it prevented me from trusting people again, I couldn't allow anyone to get close to me because I feared they would just end up hurting me again."

"You don't need to feel ashamed anymore, it wasn't your fault," Michonne exclaimed, looking straight into my eyes, which were shining with fresh tears that were threatening to fall at any minute. "Is that why you can't just let your mum in? Because you think she'll hurt you again?"

"Yeah and also because my heart just can't forgive her for all those years, I kind of blame her for everything that happened to me, including what Peter did, even when I know that really wasn't her fault. Also, I feel like things will be good and then she'll just let me down, as always. I want to leave it behind me and forgive her, I have tried so many times but I can't."

"Look how far you have gotten so far, you have a whole group that loves you and care about you and you care and love them too. You let them all in, some more than others but you did. You told me Glenn and you were close at the start of this, said you loved Carl as if he were your brother. You allowed yourself to do that and that means you are not broken beyond repair, you can heal. Whatever your mum has done, you can heal from that and give her a chance, it will help you feel peace inside of you again, just try."

"I've tried," I told her.

"It won't be an easy process, you may even fail several more times but you can do this, Cici, you deserve to be happy."

"I guess," I mumbled.

She got on her feet then and stood right in front of me, patting my shoulder with her right hand as she nodded at me. I looked up at her and returned the nod.

"Don't be upset at Rick or Daryl," she told me. "They're right, if I had a plan I would happily let you come with me."

"He killed Andrea, I want to find him as much as you do."

"I won't take long, maybe next time you can come with me if I don't find him this time."

"Are you sure you'll be fine on your own?"

"You know I'll be," she said with a grin. "Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it."
With that she grabbed her katana, that was on the table and walked away from me, towards the fence, where Sean was on guard there, he opened it and let Michonne walk out of here.

Truth was that I wanted to go with her but Rick and Daryl didn't allow me to go, mostly because Michonne had no idea where she was going or when she was going to get back, I didn't need their permission, I wasn't ten, that wouldn't have stopped me but Michonne said she wanted to go alone.

And a week and a half later I realized I made the right choice by staying, because it was Glenn and Maggie's wedding and I just couldn't miss that.

Everyone thought it was a nice idea to do this and luckily today was a perfect day, it had been cold lately but today the weather was very warm, the sun shone bright up in the sky and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.

Many people woke up earlier to kill the walkers through the fence so it could be perfect for Glenn and Maggie. They wanted to do it inside because the moaning of the walkers would be a turn-off and ruin their day but now that they were all killed we could do it outside.

Of course we weren't going to wear nice clothes and heels, use make-up and have our hairs in fancy hair-do's, but I worn my best shirt and jeans, making sure they were clean, without a single blood spot on them. I also, for once, let my wavy hair down, getting curlier on the tips, it actually looked really nice.

A little bit before midday everything was ready, everyone gathered outside in the courtyard, I stood right next to Glenn, who wasn't nervous but he was anxious and excited. I put my hand on his shoulder to let him know he had all my support.

As we waited for Maggie to arrive, I looked at the crowd and in no time I spotted Daryl. He was with Rick, who was holding Judith, and had an arm around Carl's shoulders. Daryl was wearing his vest but he had showered this morning, something he doesn't do often, he still had the tips of his hair a bit wet and he was looking more handsome than usual, he turned to look at me and caught me staring at him, he smirked at me and I smirked back at him.

A few minutes later, Maggie arrived with Hershel, my mother had gotten her a brand new white shirt a few days ago, but the thing that got the most attention was the big smile on her lips and how her green eyes shined with happiness and joy.

Maggie walked to Glenn with Hershel on her right and Beth on her left. Hershel kissed Maggie on her forehead and then let go of her, as Glenn took her hands in his and faced this man, named Horatio, he was a Christian and they thought it was better that he married them instead of Maggie's father. He was in his late fifties and knew stuff from the bible, almost as much as Hershel.

Everyone either stayed on their feet or sat down on the floor, except Hershel, Rick brought a chair for him.

"I, Glenn, take you, Maggie, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, to love, honour, and cherish, until death do us part," Glenn said without hesitation at all, he smiled at Maggie as he said it.

"I, Maggie, take you, Glenn, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, to love, honour, and cherish, until death do us part," Maggie repeated after Horatio, her smile couldn't be bigger and I was sure I had never seen any of them as happy as they were now.

"You may now kiss the bride," Horatio said, he had a big smile on his full lips as well.

Maggie and Glenn shared a sweet, small kiss. I could swear Hershel had tears from happiness in his blue eyes. Everyone clapped at the couple as they kissed.

This was for sure the happiest day we had all had in a year or more, we had all been surrounded by death, by danger, grieve and hopelessness, we all needed this and I was glad Glenn and Maggie had decided to do this.

After that we all moved closer to the prison but we still stayed outside, we opened a few bags of junk food, including some chocolates and split them in half or three piece and of course Daryl went on a run to get several bottles of alcohol and he was the first to open one.

I grabbed one of vodka, which he had gotten just for me, knowing I wasn't into beer, whiskey or wine, but if I had no choice I would drink any of those.

"Go easy on that," Glenn said as he saw me taking my third sip from the bottle.

"I am celebrating," I told him with a smirk on my lips, he just rolled my eyes at me before walking away.

Glenn went to Maggie, wrapped his arms around her waist, kissed her on the lips and then they started dancing, having their first dance as husband and wife, everyone cheered and clapped at the young couple. There was no music but as they continued dancing, everyone got quiet and Beth started to sing and it was not until she finished the song, that Glenn and Maggie stopped and everyone clapped again.

"Why don't you ask Daryl to dance?"

I turned to look behind me and saw Beth there, she had her hair down as well and my mother also got her a brand new shirt, but this one was a light purple colour. She looked so pretty.

"Yeah, right," I said chuckling at her. "Besides, I can't really dance."

"You can't dance?" Beth asked in shock.

"Nope," I said as I took another sip. "I never could and never will."

"It's easy."

"There isn't even music, I'll just do a fool of myself if I try."

Beth grabbed my free arm without warming and started to swing it as she moved her hips, trying to get me to dance but I just chuckled and looked away from her, telling her there was no way she was going to make me dance.

"You have to move," she said. "It's not hard."

"It is for me."

"You could at least try."

But of course I didn't even try, I knew I couldn't and I didn't even want to dance. Beth just sighed disappointedly at me. I was awkward around big crowds, if it were just us I might have dared to try, especially after drinking about half a bottle of vodka but there were about fifty people here, I just couldn't.

Beth left minutes later and went with her dad, who couldn't look happier, I was actually happy for him. He liked Glenn and approved of this, it was so nice he had lived this far to see this day.

I looked around and saw Oliver chatting to Amanda, well, Amanda was doing most of the talk but still, I didn't even know they talked. I also saw my mother having a drink with Axel, that made me almost puke, but we came to a deal. If I didn't say anything about them then my mother wouldn't say anything about Daryl and I, it sounded fair to me, but that doesn't mean I accept them together.

"Want to dance?" I heard Sean's voice saying to me.

"Uh, no, I can't dance," I said to him.

I had stopped avoiding him but I still didn't feel comfortable around him, he usually got way too close to me and it made me feel uncomfortable, plus he never even apologized for what happened that day back in my cell.

"Come on!" he exclaimed with a smile on his lips, showing his still perfect teeth.

"Why don't you dance with Beth? She wanted to dance."

Sean didn't leave, though. He stayed next to me, trying to make conversation while I just kept looking for an excuse to walk away.

Then I felt a strong arm around me, I turned to look at my right to see who it was, even when I didn't need to, I knew who it was. Daryl.

"Hello Sean," Daryl muttered with a smug smile on his lips.

"Daryl," Sean mumbled with a nod, acknowledging him.

Sean's smile was gone and replaced by a frown in his face and he refused to look at any of us. I couldn't just accept Sean had some kind of crush on me but by the way he had been acting I couldn't help but think he might. He was still too close to me and I knew Daryl had realized that, the next time he spoke to me, he tightened his grip on me and as more seconds passed I could feel how tense Daryl was getting but he still was making an effort to make a conversation with Sean, slightly pulling me further from him, bit by bit so Sean wouldn't notice and get closer to me again.

Then without warning Daryl leant down and kissed me on the lips, I was really surprised because this was the first time we had kissed in front of people and I could also feel how different this kiss was, this kiss mostly didn't mean anything, at least not concerning us, but to send a message, it was about marking his territory, letting people know, specifically Sean, that I was his and that he should back off.

"Couldn't help myself," Daryl said as he pulled away, both of us were oblivious to some people looking at us quite stunned, still after all this time, most people didn't know about us, mostly because of our lack of affection, we barely have a chat in front of people, we usually just stay close to each other but there are people with us most of the times. "You just look so gorgeous, besides it's a wedding, I guess it's the atmosphere too."

Daryl was drunk, it was obvious. I was getting there myself while Sean was completely sober and probably feeling horrifically awkward.

"We should dance," he muttered and I just looked at him in complete surprise.

"But I ca..."

"If you excuse us, Sean," he said to the young man, who only curtly nodded at Daryl.

Daryl took my hand, intertwining our fingers and led me away from Sean, as we walked we gained the stares of more people but just as before, we didn't notice or we just didn't care about them.

"Daryl, I can't dance," I said, panicking a bit, I just heard him chuckled as he kept pulling me away from Sean.

"And you think I can?" he said in a mocking tone. "I just needed an excuse to get you away from him."

"Someone's jealous!" I teased, by now we were by the entrance of the prison, everyone else was at least thirty feet away from us. He took the bottle from me and took a sip.

"This is disgusting and I'm not jealous!" he exclaimed. "But you didn't notice the way he was looking at you besides," he said, finally stopping and turning to look at me. He set the bottle on the floor and then he slowly put his hands on my waist, . "I did want to dance with you."

"I thought you said..."

"And I was telling the truth," he said quickly. "But I thought we could try."
We were in the middle of the hall of block C, I slowly put my hands around Daryl's neck and we started to dance together, or at least try. One step to the right, another forward, then left, then backwards and so on, we stepped on each other's feet more times than we could count but we were having fun.

We were moving slower, making less mistakes as we danced. I rested my head on his shoulder and seconds later he rested his on the top of my head. I closed my eyes, trying to enjoy every minute of it, every second, trying to just treasure every moment and retain the memories in my mind for as long as I live, wishing this could just last forever.

Hello guys! I hoped you liked the chapter and liking the story so far.
I knew the wedding part was a bit ridiculous during those hard times but I do hope you like it anyway.
And what do you think of jealous Daryl? :P
And you guys got more information on Cecilia's past and understand why she is the way she is, there will be more details as the story continues.
So, this has nothing nothing to do with this story but how would you name an orange male cat? In another story I will get my main character to adopt a kitty :P