"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,

but because he loves what is behind him."

– G.K. Chesterton

Before it got dark we finished cooking the rabbit, and split it into four, again I think I ended up being even more hungry than before I ate. We decided to leave the nuts for tomorrow morning because we had nothing else than that.

I sat on the hood of the car after we finished eating and lit a cigarette with the fire we made to cook the rabbit, they hadn't (turn it off yet.) I was never a smoker, I had one with my friends when we went partying sometimes, but that was it. Then at the prison it became a habit, I was doing worse things than smoking, so why not? But once I was out, I quitted immediately. I barely had money to buy food, I couldn't buy cigarettes and even if I did, I wouldn't have bought them.

"Cecilia!" Rick exclaimed angrily, already walking towards me. "What did I tell you last time?"

"It curves my hunger," I told him as I took a drag.

I found two packages of cigarettes after we had to leave that nice house all those days ago. I had only smoked four of them during all this time and the four times Rick had scolded me like a father would. The first time he snatched it from my hands and stepped on it, I was so mad we had such a bad argument and we attracted so many walkers and we agreed that he would never do that again but I knew he wanted to.

"Maybe smoking is causing you to be so out of breath, I remember you used to exercise back at the prison, run around the place and all that. You should be in better shape than us. Just stop it."

"I'll stop when we have food," I told him. "And four won't make such a huge impact on my health and shape, it must be something else. Did you ever smoke?"

"No," he told me. "I thought and still think it is a disgusting habit, my parents used to smoke all the time since I was a little kid."

"My dad used to do it too," I told him. "I didn't like it but that didn't stop me from trying it."

After the apocalypses, I had barely smoked. I did it a couple of times after the farm was overrun, I actually shared one with Merle back in Woodbury and then another at the prison, Daryl never found out. Actually, I wonder what he would say if he knew I smoke sometimes, I know he does and quite often but I never asked Daryl to give me a cigarette, I thought he would get mad at me.

When I finished, I jumped off the hood and got inside the car with Carl just as it was starting to get dark. The two of us were exhausted, I told Rick to wake me up for second watch, they let me skip mine last night but I was planning on doing double tonight, to make it up to them, but I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, taking into consideration how weak I had been lately.

"Cici," Carl said. I was in the driver seat and he was next to me on the passenger seat. I opened my eyes and turned to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"I saved you this," he said as he took a brown wrapper out of his sweater pocket. "I thought that I could save it for a time that you would get worse, like close to fainting. Maybe this piece of chocolate could help you and I wasn't sure if I should give it to you today or wait for a worse time but I think I should just give it to you."

"Is that the chocolate you bet with Michonne?"

"Yep."

"You saved me a piece?" I asked surprise.

"Of course, I just thought it would come handy at some point but you can have it now. It snapped in half but it's still good."

"I think you should keep it and give it to me during a bad time, like you said. If you give it to me I won't be able to resist it and eat it in an hour at the most, so keep it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, thanks for saving me some."

"Always," he said smiling.

I turned to look out the window again and saw the sky turning into different shades of red, purple and orange, this sunset was beautiful. I smiled at its beauty and actually fell asleep while I stared intensively at it.

I was having such a bad nightmare, I woke up with a gasp as I sat up quickly and what I saw in front of me wasn't any better than my nightmare. A man had a gun pressed against Rick's temple and another man was pointing his gun to Michonne, who both were sat in front of the fire that now was gone, four more men were around with weapons in their hands and one of them was walking towards the car. He hit the window, waking up Carl.

"Come here," I exclaimed as I dragged him away from the man outside of the car.

"Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve," the older man, the one pointing his gun at Rick exclaimed. "Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh? Tony, is this the woman you saw in the house? I thought you said she could be this bastard's daughter."

Tony. House. I bit my lip as those words clicked in my brain. These were the men that walked inside the house all those days ago, what was it, four, five weeks ago, maybe more? And Tony was the man that saw us under the bed. They found us and they wanted revenge.

"No, she wasn't black," the man I assumed was Tony said. "She was blonde."

At that the six men turned to look at the car and I wasn't going to lie, I was very scared. There had only been a few times I had been this afraid of people, and the last time was when the Governor destroyed our home. My crossbow was in the back seat and I doubted I could shoot one of them without getting killed even if I had it in reach. I would kill one, yes, but the other five would shoot me.

"Okay, we will deal with her later. Let's start the countdown. Ten Mississippi!" he said loudly after a long laugh, that bastard was enjoying this. Another man walked to the car but this time on my side, I grabbed the door's handle tightly to stop him from opening the door, since the locks didn't work. "Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi."

"Joe!" I heard another voice saying, making the grey-haired man stop the countdown. Despite how frightened I was, I could recognize that voice anywhere but I seriously doubted Daryl could be here. It was just my mind playing games.

But I turned around to where I heard the voice coming from and saw a seventh man approaching the scene, as he got closer I saw the man's face and for a second I was truly happy, I even felt my eyes watering at the sight of him, Daryl was only metres away from me. I could see how his expression changed to a horrified and surprised one as he kept walking and recognized Michonne and Rick, he hadn't seen me and Carl yet.

"Hold up."

"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl."

"Just hold up."

"This is the guy that killed Lou and Jason and the girl is in the car, so we got nothing to talk about!" another man exclaimed as he kept pointing his rifle at Rick.

Daryl turned to look at the car, he narrowed his eyes and then only a second later I saw how all the colour drained from his face and he looked truly terrified, he looked like he had seen his worst nightmare. I bit my lip, trying hard not to scream his name or do anything stupid and I hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid either.

"The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time. Say your piece, Daryl," Joe said calmly.

"These people, you're gonna let 'em go. These are good people."

"Now, I think Lou and Jason would disagree with you on that. I'll, of course, have to speak for them and all 'cause your friends here strangled one in a bathroom and shot the other with a freaking arrow!"

"You want blood, I get it," Daryl said as he put his crossbow on the ground besides him, I shook my head at his action. What the hell was he doing? "Take it from me, man. Come on."

"No! No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and tried to get out of the car but Carl didn't let me. I attracted the attention of everyone, except Daryl's, who didn't look at me, but I was sure he heard me. "Please, no!"

"This man and that girl," he said pointing at me. "Killed our friends. You say they're good people. See, now that right there is-is a lie." At that Daryl, dropped his hands to his his sides and looked disappointed, I think. I couldn't see all his face from this angle plus the lack of light didn't help. "It's a lie!" the man shouted.

As soon as he said that, three of the men started beating Daryl. I watched horrified at the scene in front of me, frozen in my seat but a few second later I reacted and opened the door of the car, I had to save him or at least try. They were technically next to the car, so I jumped on one of the man's back and started doing anything I could think of, I scratched him, kicked, pulled his hair. He struggled with me for probably a minute or two until a second man grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me down to the ground, I stood up quickly but the first man grabbed me and wrapped his strong arms around me tightly.

"Holy shit," the second man exclaimed as he gasped. "Annika?"

"You know her?" Joe, the grey-haired man asked surprised.

I looked at the man in front of me and it took me a while to recognize him but when I did, I just felt worse instead of better than someone in the group knew me. The man was probably the youngest out of all. His blonde hair was covered by a hat, that's why I didn't recognize him at first. His green eyes stared into my blue ones as he smirked at me and I felt exposed at how intensively he was looking at me. Right in front of me stood Peter.

"Tony, bring her here."

I kicked and tried hard to not be taken to this man but Tony just lifted me up and he took me right in front of the man, Rick and Michonne. In the distance I could hear Daryl's grunts and the sound of fists connecting with something and heard Carl's struggling as well, but I couldn't see any of them right now.

"Well, aren't you a beauty?" Joe exclaimed after he checked me out.

"Let Daryl go, he had nothing to do with this," I pleaded. "Do whatever you want to me. I'll take it instead of Daryl, please just let him go."

"Don't worry, sweetie. You'll get your share, just as Daryl."

"No! Please, no!"

"I think it's only fair that Peter takes care of her, Tony," the man said with a smile. "How do you know her?"

"We dated," Peter replied with a smirk. "I think we will finish this night as we ended our relationship, isn't that right, Annie? Except it will be the other way around this time."

I met Peter before I moved to New York, so he met me when I was Annika, not Cecilia. He kept calling me Annika after we moved to NYC, preventing me from letting go of my past completely.

Tony handed me over to Peter, who held me from behind, he whispered things in my ear as I tried to break free, he told me the things he was planning to do to me. Then he actually had the nerve to leave a kiss right on my cheek and that's when I totally lost it. Not only because of what happened with Sean but also because I felt nothing but hatred towards Peter, I felt disgusted by the fact his arms were around me, much more by that kiss. I started kicking and struggling harder and I actually managed to break free but Peter tackled me to the ground and sat on top of me, crushing me with his weight and pinned my hands above my head.

"Listen, it was me. It was just me!" I heard Rick desperately saying to Joe as I stopped struggling and started crying, not because of me, but because I was scared for my family. I kept hearing Daryl's grunts and I couldn't help him, same with Carl.

"See, now that's not entirely right. The girl was in the house too."

"But I killed them both, I did it."

"Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl, the black one and then the boy and then the blonde and then I'm gonna shoot you, but since Peter knows this girl, what was her name again, Peter?"

"Annika."

"Right, well, since he knows Annika so well we are going to keep her longer, you know? Make her feel welcome among friends, he said they dated." He laughed. "And then when we all get bored of her and when Peter says it's time, we are going to shoot her too and just then we'll be square." Joe laughed again as he finished that.

My blood went completely cold, not because what they were planning to do to me and who knows for how long but because they were going to kill Daryl and Rick, and I was going to be alive. Anything they could do to me was nothing compared to killing them both, my fiancé and what was the closest to having a father, and that's without talking about Michonne and Carl.

Right then I saw out of the corner of my eye a portly man pushing Carl to the floor and getting on top of him, the sight was horrible, how could they do that to a boy? I yelled and screamed but Peter only smirked at me and held me tighter.

"Let him go!" Rick demanded. I turned to look at Rick for a second and saw how his whole face changed, like if something had taken control of him.

Joe kept laughing at Carl, Rick and me, because we were so helpless. Then, Rick backwards headbutted Joe, making him shoot but the bullet didn't hit anyone. Joe stumbled backwards as he held his nose, which was bleeding.

I noticed how Peter's grip loosened around my wrists and I turned to look at him instead, who was stunned, looking at his leader. I took my chance. I pushed my hips up with all my strength with the help of my legs and managed to get Peter off of me, then I quickly pounced on him and started beating him like if there was no tomorrow, I didn't even give him a chance to react, I just kept going. I punched his head and shoulders repeatedly. Then I kind of snapped out of my trance, I couldn't lose any more time with this piece of shit even when I wanted to make him suffer, to make him pay for sending me to jail for months, for what he did tonight. Nevertheless I stabbed him forcefully right in the middle of his forehead, I pulled the knife out and stood up quickly. I stood frozen for only a second, debating who to help, Daryl or Carl.

That man was trying to rape Carl and Daryl was being beaten merciless by two men. It was a tough decision but I ran towards Carl, he was just a boy but for a second time Tony stopped me. He got in front of me quickly, almost making me crash against him but I recovered quickly and started fighting him. I was doing pretty good until he got to punch me right in the face, making me a bit disorientated. I fought the feeling and attacked him again. I kicked him right in the balls, ran to Daryl's crossbow, which was only a few feet away from me, grabbed it and shot him right in the head.

I was going to help Carl now when I saw Rick for a split second. He leant forward and actually bit Joe in the neck, ripping a piece of skin, probably muscle too. Rick broke an artery, making Joe bleed no stop, he was done for. Then I heard gunshots, close to me. It was Michonne, who took advantage of the shock to kill the man that was pointing the gun at her.

The man that was trying to harm Carl, pulled him up and held him by wrapping an around his neck. Carl kept struggling but the man was too strong.

"I'll kill him. I'll- I'll kill him!" he threatened.

"Let the boy go!" Michonne exclaimed as she pointed the gun at the man, I also was aiming at him with the crossbow but Carl was moving too much, it was too dangerous.

"He's mine." I heard Rick saying. I looked at him and saw his curls all over the place, he was all covered in blood and he actually looked scary.

"Stay back!" the man weakly exclaimed. "Please, ugh!"

Rick stabbed him quickly, while Carl ran to Michonne, who was the closest to him, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly. He looked pretty shaken up, and he had all the right to be.

At the moment, Rick was torturing the man. He stabbed him again and this time he ran the knife up the man's body, all the way to his chest, cutting his skin and flesh, I put the crossbow back in the ground and covered my ears, the man's screams and the sound of skin and flesh being cut were awful. Rick continued to stab him and I just stared completely stunned at him and then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I screamed and actually made a swing but he moved fast out of the way.

"It's me, Cecilia, it's me!" I heard Daryl saying, making me stop trying to hit him. I took deep breaths as I nodded at him. I was turning my head to look at Rick's direction when Daryl stopped me. "No, don't look. Just don't."

I nodded again, biting my lip. I closed my eyes and once again covered my ears because I could hear every stab, every grunt, and when the man died, I kept hearing the stabs until it was all over. I collapsed on the ground and took deep breaths to calm myself, I didn't want to cry.

Daryl knelt in front of me and looked at me with a worried expression, while I looked at him like he was an illusion, a mirage. I shook my head in disbelief as I looked right at his blue eyes.

"You can touch me to make sure I'm real," he muttered making me heartlessly chuckle at his words.

"Hey, don't steal my phrase," I told him. "That's what I say every time we find each other."

"It was my turn," he told me with a shrug.

"I hope there isn't another time."

He nodded at me before he raised his hands and caressed my cheeks and cupped my face, seconds later he leant forward and kissed me on the lips. I kissed back immediately and put my hands on top of his, and that was what broke me, tears started to run down my face, Daryl noticed, breaking the kiss.

"Hey, hey," he said softly, wiping the tears away with his thumb. "What's wrong?"

"I just... I just can't believe I found you," I muttered. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"We always find each other," he assured me. "Don't we?" I nodded at him.

"I love you," I whispered, it seemed like I could barely find my voice now but it was enough to make Daryl smile. He nodded at me and pressed his lips against mine once again but this time he pulled away quickly, he rested his forehead against mine and closed his eyes.

"I love you too."

We stayed like that for a long time, embracing each other and just taking our time to accept we found each other once again. He kissed my forehead before he stood up and brought me up to my feet. He put a finger under my chin and made me look up at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, I nodded at him. "Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine," I assured him. "Are you okay? I wanted to help you but..."

"I'm okay," he said quickly, interrupting me. "I've gotten worse beatings. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why did that guy call you Annika?" I sighed.

"Daryl, he was Peter, remember? I told you about him."

"Hold on a second, that piece of shit was your ex-boyfriend? The one that hit you and sent you to jail?"

"Yeah, that's the one. I seriously thought he had died and if he was alive, that I would never see him again."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I finished what I started about three years ago. It's over now."

"You sure you are okay?" I nodded, even flashed him a small smile to reassure him. "How did you guys even end up in this mess, anyway?" he asked me.

"After the prison we ended in a neighbourhood, we randomly chose a house and spent a few days there. One day Michonne and Carl went looking for supplies in the other houses while Rick and I stayed in the house. Rick was unconscious for a whole day and I had some injuries too from the prison battle, so we both stayed to rest," I told him. "Then we heard some voices, hid under the bed for a very long time. Two of them started fighting over the bed, one pushed the other to the floor and saw us, but he fell unconscious, when the other guy fell asleep, we managed to get out of the room but another man was going up the stairs and saw me, I didn't even think about it, I just shot him and then I followed Rick inside the bathroom, he was trying to kill a man that was there. He strangled him and left the door open so when he turned he would cause a distraction, make an opportunity for us to escape."

"That was clever," he told me.

"We jumped out the window and when we heard a chaos inside we ran away from there, meeting Carl and Michonne in the process. Were you with them when all that happened?" I asked quickly, thinking that the walker we let loose could have gotten to Daryl.

"No, but I was told about it. I just... I never thought they were tracking you all... if I had known..."

"Don't even think this is your fault, Daryl," I exclaimed as I took his hands with mine. "We killed those guys and weren't careful enough, but now it's all over so you shouldn't really think about that."

"I hate it when you kill people, it's something that changes you," he told me, I bit my lip and looked down at the ground in shame. "I wish you didn't have to do it."

"I know, I hate it too. But in most cases you don't have a choice, it's either them or you."

Fragments of the Governor with his people flashed through my mind, the girl that was so determined to kill me, the girl I had to kill to survive. I hated that it always comes to that, them or me, I hate what I have become, a heartless murderer that doesn't even blink at the time of pulling the trigger.

"I know," Daryl muttered.

"Daryl, what is bothering you? I already told you none of this was your fault!" I exclaimed. I let go of his hands and instead wrapped my arms around him, holding him close to me.

"It's no – nothing, I'm just a bit overwhelmed by everything, that's all."

We let go of each other slowly, he pecked my lips one more time, making me feel slightly better. Daryl was here, he was back. We had a rough and horrible night but everything was better now, he was alive and well and so was I, we reunited once again.

I turned around and saw Michonne softly talking to Carl, who still looked pretty shaken up. Rick was on his knees next to the body of the man that tried to harm Carl. He was like in a trance, he wasn't moving at all and I was sure he was in the same position after he stopped stabbing that horrible man.

"Go help Michonne with Carl, get him inside the car, I'll help Rick." I nodded at Daryl and reluctantly walked away from him.

I knelt in front of Michonne and Carl, who was in her arms, and as soon as I did, he reached for my hand, squeezing it hard. I leant forward and hugged him as well, then I kissed the top of his head. I hated to see him like this and feeling so helpless.

"Come on," I muttered. "Let's get inside the car."

Michonne and I helped Carl up, as we walked I noticed he was trembling, his legs were shaking, even when both of us were helping him walk. I let go of him to open the door of the car and helped Carl get inside. I told Michonne to get inside with him, I was going to come back later.

"No, don't leave me!" Carl exclaimed when he noticed I was closing the door and I was still outside.

"You are safe, Carl," I told him. "I'll be back, I have to help Daryl."

"No, please."

"Give me fifteen minutes, just fifteen. You'll be okay."

I didn't let Carl keep arguing with me, I closed the door and walked towards Daryl, who was speaking to Rick, who shook his head every once in a while. I stepped on a twig, breaking it in the process. Daryl turned to look at me and just gave me a look.

"I told you to help Carl!"

"I did, now I'm helping you."

It took a lot of talking and many failed attempts to get Rick to get away from his position in front of that dead man but we finally managed to move him from there. He let us move him only a few inches until he jerked away from us and collapsed on the ground, he crawled backwards, getting closer to the car and then rested his back against it.

"He's just in shock," Daryl told me. "Now get inside the car and get some sleep."

"What about you?"

"I'll stay with Rick."

But Daryl didn't walk in the direction Rick was, he actually went the opposite direction. I watched his moves and realized he was attempting to move the bodies. He grabbed Joe first by his ankles and started to drag him away.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"It had been awful for all of us so I don't want the bodies to be here in the morning to remind us what we went through, I don't want Carl, Michonne, Rick and you to see these men when the sun comes up."

"I'll help you then."

"No, you go rest."

"I'm fine, Daryl. We'll finish quicker if we work together."

I walked towards him despite him complaining and grabbed Joe's wrists and together we carried him to the woods, we threw the body there, away from the others' view. Then we went back to the road and did the same with Tony, and then with the man that Rick killed last. Even when he was dead I still got angry when I saw him, Carl was just a boy and had nothing to do with what Rick and I did. I bit my lip as we carried him, not only he was way heavier than the other two, but I could see the damage Rick caused, I could see his insides and that wasn't a nice view.

When we threw the body next to the other two, I coughed and crouched over, I felt sick from the view and from what he could have done to Carl. But I didn't puke, my stomach was empty, there was nothing to throw up in there, not even the piece of rabbit I ate a few hours ago.

I knew Daryl wanted to scold me, I knew he wanted to tell me to just go to the car with the others, that he could handle it on his own. So I just spat after I knew nothing was coming up, wiped my mouth and stood up straight and went back to the road without a word, I was okay and I had to show Daryl I was.

We did the same procedure with the two other bodies, one was the man that was keeping an eye on Michonne and the other was the man who kept beating Daryl until the end. His face and even skull were destroyed, I didn't ask Daryl what he did to him and I was sure he didn't want to tell me. We all do horrible things during desperate circumstances, we become other people, scary people. We become survivors, no matter the price.

"That's enough, Cecilia. Now go with Carl," he said in a firm and authoritative tone, he was giving me an order.

"Don't you think I can handle it?"

"It's not that. I just think you have suffered enough."

"He's dead, Daryl. He can't hurt me anymore," I assured him. "I can do it."

"I know, I just don't want you to."

"Come on, we would have finished with this already if we weren't arguing."

I took a deep breath before I grabbed Peter's arms, Daryl sighed and moved to help, grabbing his feet. Blood was dripping from the knife wound in his forehead, he also had lots of bruises already forming, I could see them on his face, shoulders and chest, his shirt was ripped so I could see part of his upper body. He didn't look as bad as three or so years ago, when I was sent to jail for 'excessive force' used on him but last time I didn't stab him and kill him, I finally ended all of this.

We threw the body on top of the others, Daryl and I had made sure none of them would turn. We only had to stab Joe and the corpulent man, the others already had wounds in their heads.

"See? It's over," I told Daryl. "And I'm alright."

"I know you are tough," he told me as he grabbed my hand, pulled me closer to him and kissed the top of my head. "Let's go."

We walked back hand in hand to where the car was, we spent so much time apart I just didn't want to spend a single moment without him anymore. I was afraid that if I didn't have him close he would just dissolve into thin air or I would just lose him again in some way.

I turned to look at Daryl and with the help of the little light we had from the moon I could see his lips curving into a smile as he intertwined our fingers. He looked down at our hands for a second before he looked up again.

"What's that smile for?" I asked him, as we walked out of the woods once again and the road came into view, plus the car and the others.

"The ring," he told me. "I had forgotten about it. Like I knew I proposed to you and all that but I didn't really give much thought to the ring."

"I just couldn't lose it," I told him. "I probably checked if I still had it on every five minutes or so."

He stopped me, turned me around and hugged me tightly one more time, I didn't complain, I just hugged him back. I looked up at him and pressed my lips against his, I had missed how this felt. I had missed being in his arms and being able to kiss him and just look into those eyes and have him around. I just missed him so much.

"Go to sleep now," he told me. "I'll stay with Rick, make sure he's okay."

"Alright," I said, agreeing with him for the first time tonight.

I got inside the car on the passenger seat, I tried to close the door slowly so it wouldn't make much noise, I didn't want to wake Carl up but he was still awake, and so was Michonne. She was sitting behind the driver seat, looking down at Carl, who had his head on her lap as she caressed his head softly.

When Carl saw me, he reached for my hand. I smiled at him and extended my arm to hold his hand. I gave it a squeeze. Carl looked better than the last time I saw him, he didn't look so afraid anymore, and he had stopped shaking but the look in his eyes, killed me. The terror in them showed me he was still terrified, even when at first glance he didn't look like it.

I rested my head on the seat and tried to fall asleep, I was fatigued but every time I closed my eyes I saw those men, I saw Peter on top of me, trying to kill me, I was sure that was why Michonne and Carl weren't sleeping either.

Even though it was quite late already, I felt like an eternity until it started to get light. I think I only got fifteen minutes of sleep, if that. Michonne had Carl in her arms all night and I didn't let go of his hand, not even for a second. We were all awake during the rest of the night but even so, none of us said anything. I didn't hear Rick or Daryl talking either, but I knew they were outside, I saw Daryl walking around a couple of times, so he didn't get any sleep either, and I was sure Rick didn't either.

"I didn't know what they were." I heard Daryl saying to Rick, outside the car.

"How'd you wind up with them?"

"I was with Beth." I frowned when I heard that, why didn't he tell me that? It probably slipped his mind. We had a rough night. "We got out together. I was with her for a while."

"Is she dead?"

"She's just gone," Daryl said. "After that, that's when they found me. I mean, I knew they were bad, but they had a code. It was simple. Stupid, but it was something. It was enough."

"And you were alone."

"They said they were looking for a guy and a girl. Last night they said they spotted them. I was hanging back. I was gonna leave. But I stayed. That's when I saw it was you four. Right when you saw me. I didn't know what they could do, I just..."

"It's not on you, Daryl," Rick told him, a long silence followed. "Hey, it's not on you."

"I should have protected her and instead she helped me, what kind of man am I? I couldn't help any of you."

"You being back with us here, now, that's everything. You have no idea how much she missed you, we all did," Rick told him. "You're my brother."

"Thank you," Daryl said after a very long silence. "For keeping her safe."

"We kept each other safe, all of us."

"Hey, about what you did last night... anybody would have done that."

"No, not that."

"Something happened. That ain't you," Daryl whispered, I barely could hear him.

"Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese. It ain't all of it,but that's me. That's why I'm here now. That's why Carl is. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."

"We are all safe, that's what matters and we should just let it go," Daryl said. "I'll get into the woods, see if I can hunt something for us. I'll be back in about an hour, you get some rest."

Hello guys! I'm kinda happy that I updated the chapter when they reunite right after the finale. Btw, what did you think of it?
And I hoped you liked this chapter and they way they reunited :) I'd love to hear your opinions.