Disclaimer- I do not own the Walking Dead

I'm so sorry, I was suffering with some serious winter blues and really didn't want to do anything. I couldn't seem to do anything except lie down with a blanket and watch TV. I'm feeling a lot like myself again today and managed to get out my laptop and write.

Alwaysand- They stayed locked away safe in their apartment since the beginning, they never stood a chance.

Shadowoftheblackdeat- Hi, yes I definitely do. I read everything you send my way, I even write them down but I usually realise you've sent them when I get up at 6am to go to work and I always leave them on my phone to message you back but I'm one of those people that if I don't reply then and there then it's unlikely I'll ever text someone back. I love all of your ideas.

KEZZ1- Thank you.

Thank you for all the new followers and favourites.

Enjoy

Danny's POV

Tara lays a flower on the last grave and steps back, nobody talks and nobody tries to comfort her. She doesn't know us, we don't want to make things worse. I jerk my head at Daryl, silently telling him to come with me.

We don't go too far away but just far enough that we can talk without her overhearing. "I'm sorry that this turned from a quick pit stop into an ordeal. If you're okay with it we should probably just stay the night here. Start again in the morning". We can stay in Tara's apartment building, we know the ground floor is clear of walkers.

He nods as he runs his thumb against his bottom lip quickly. "I've said it before but I'll say it again." He looks down at me, and I swear there's a glint in his eyes. "You'll be the death of me one day. It took everythin' I had to not run up those stairs to get ya".

I fully believe that, I'm honestly surprised he didn't. "You'd have made it worse".

He pulls his lips into a line. "I know".

"How did Glenn convince you not to". Because I know it was Glenn because everyone else wouldn't have even bothered to try.

"He came runnin' down those stairs and said someone had you at gunpoint, but then he said you had it under control and if we went upstairs we'd probably make it worse. My god did I wanna come up there but I have to let ya handle things 'cause I know ya can. And you did".

"She was scared and we outnumbered her, once Sophia and Glenn had left I knew I'd be able to convince her I was just there to help."

He brushes some loose tendrils of hair behind my ear. "I can't promise I'll always be understandin' but I'll do my best and I will always be stood next to you, ready to back you up the second ya give me a signal".

"And what if you misread that signal? You could shoot someone when I'm actually silently saying everything's good".

He chuckles, "I can read ya better than I can track so that ain't somethin' we're gonna have to worry about".

I purse my lips, "Well just in case, I'll say Pizza if everything's good and Pepper if it's not."

He looks up for a second like he's trying to hide the grin he's now wearing. When he looks down at me it's gone but I can still see the hint of it tugging at the corner of his mouth. "And they have to be food related".

"I'm hungry and all I can think of is food so yeah, they're food related".

"Let's get everyone inside then we'll get some food, alrigh'"

I nod but just as he goes to walk away I reach out and grab him by the arm. "Wait". He stops and looks back at me, eyebrow raised in question. "Tara. I want to ask her if she'll come with us. She doesn't have anything left here now and if she's ready to leave then I think we should help her".

His eyes look over me and towards the woman in question, who is still standing by the graves of her family. "Are you sure? She pointed a gun at you, remember and she doesn't know much. She's lived in that flat since the beginnin'."

He doesn't mean it in a bad way, he's just pointing out the facts. He wants me to tell him I'm certain of my decision. "There are plenty of us here to help her learn. I'm not going to force her but if she wants to come then I'm letting her".

He nods, "Okay then, We'll ask her in the mornin'. Let her have the night to mourn". He looks around at all the people we have with us. "We need to sort out watch shifts and then get everyone else inside for the night".

To make sure we could keep all of our belongings safe in the cars overnight we always had two people on watch. One that looked out for Walkers and the other looked out for the cars. The watch shifts were done by those that weren't driving, Merle and Daryl didn't like that but the drivers need sleep to be able to drive today. We can't have any accidents because someone was tired.

With Riley in his sling attached to my front I step over the legs of some of our people that are still asleep. I'm all for waiting for them to wake up on their own time, no need to wake at the crack of dawn and immediately hit the road.

As I step out into the early morning sun I have to step around Glenn who's sat on the front step.

"Morning".

He looks up at me, mouth full of whatever he's just stuffed inside it. "Morning." He says back although it's extremely muffled. He didn't have a watch shift last night because he's a driver but Maggie's was this morning with Tyreese so I can bet he woke up at the same time as her and has been out here ever since. With his cheeks full of food he then grins at Riley and gives him a little finger wave.

I don't hang around so he can continue eating his breakfast in peace. I reach the pavement and look around. Tyreese and Sasha are leaning up against Merle's truck, also eating breakfast and Maggie is with Daryl looking over a map they have spread out on a dumpster. I come up behind them and touch Daryl's back with my hand.

"Is everything okay?" I peer round him to look at the map.

"All's fine, just going over the route". He looks down at me. "When do ya wanna leave?"

"When they get up and all eat something. Probably another hour or so. Where's Tara?" I need to speak to her today, see what she wants to do. She wasn't inside so I'm hoping she's out here somewhere.

Maggie points off towards where Tara's family has been buried. "She's over there". I stand on my tip toes and can just make out the top of her head as she's kneeling on the floor. "Do you think she'll say yes?"

"No idea". I step off the curb and walk across the street to stand behind her. She doesn't say anything when I stop behind her but she turns her head just enough that she can see who it is. "Have you eaten?"

She shakes her head, "I'm not hungry thanks".

"I get that but you should really eat something, even if it's just something small. You can have anything we have." I saw the cans in her room last night when Daryl and I did some more exploring of the building. They were basically eating the same things for months. "We have some cereal bars in the car somewhere."

I wrap a hand under Riley's bum and kneel down beside her. I clear my throat suddenly feeling very nervous to bring this next part up. I don't want to come across as insensitive, it's really not how I mean for it to sound. "In an ideal world I would want you to mourn, take as long as you needed. We would wait but this isn't an ideal world and this group needs to move on. We'll be leaving in the next couple of hours and I would like for you to join us".

She looks at me. "You don't know me".

"I don't but I would like to help you. And if you ever want to come back here to visit them then I'll drive you myself. We'll come back as much as you want".

"I don't know. It feels wrong to leave them here by themselves."

"I know it does; And it will be hard to leave them if that's what you decide to do. You haven't got to decide right this minute but these people have all lost someone and we can all help you". I get back to my feet as she puts her attention back on the graves.

When I get back across the road Daryl and Carol are standing waiting for me. "How'd it go?" He asks.

I shrug one shoulder. "I think she wants to come but the thought of leaving her family is stopping her. We'll give her a couple of hours to think about it before moving on."

He frowns, "But only a couple of hours. I wanna get a couple more stops in on today's journey".

"Why don't I go and see her, I can give her some motherly affection. Listen to her." Carol offers.

"You don't think I can be motherly?" I jokingly say back.

She smiles, "You're a great listener but without being rude, you're not very good at knowing what to say to people who are upset. It's not your forte Darling."

I look at Daryl but he just bites his bottom lip and shrugs at me. Completely agreeing with Carol. I know she's not wrong, it's something I've always known I suck at but I didn't know other people noticed it too.

"Car", Tyreese shouts from further down the road. Daryl's crossbow strap is immediately off of his shoulder, he loads an arrow and turns to Carol. "Go to Tara, see if she knows who this is". Carol nods and takes off at a jog over to where I left Tara. I look around me to see who we have. Glenn and Maggie come running over followed by Sophia.

I lay my hand on Sophia's shoulder, "Can you get everyone, who's still inside, up. Please".

"Sure, you want us all ready to go", she asks.

I nod my head at her before she runs off to go and get everyone up. Daryl, Glenn, Maggie and I head over to where Merle, Sasha and Tyreese are. When we come up to them Daryl and Merle step closer together, not completely hiding me from view but enough that they can help protect Riley who is happily gurgling away on my front. I take my gun out, safety off.

The car stops in the middle of the road about three hundred yards away from us. The morning sun is glaring off the windscreen so we can't see who's inside.

"You recognise the car?" Merle mumbles to his brother. Daryl just shakes his head in reply.

The passenger door opens and then the hat that pops out first is instantly recognisable. It's the Sheriff's hat that Carl has been wearing since the farm. When Carl stands up to his full height he side steps away from the door but doesn't move any closer. I instantly flick my safety back on and slide my gun back into its holster and then I squeeze between the two brothers.

"Carl?"

He looks back in the car and shakes his head at whoever the driver is. "Dad isn't here". He raises his voice so it can be heard clearly.

"How did you know we were here?" I ask him.

"I went to Woodbury and Andrea said you left a map of the stops you were gonna make in case anyone wanted to come and find you." He got lucky. We were meant to be long gone yesterday but I'm guessing he was willing to stop at every point on the map until he found us.

He doesn't say anything else, he wants to but just doesn't seem to know how to. "What's happened, is everything okay?"

"We don't get along, there are things I can't forgive you for but in spite of everything you always looked out for Judith." Carly takes his hat off to run his fingers through his extremely dishevelled hair, he then places the hat back on. "Dad isn't doing so well, he'll get better but he just needs to work through things." He looks at us all before dipping back into the car, when he stands back up my heart clenches, he's holding Judith. "I need you to take her".

I shake my head without even meaning to. "Carl, no. Your dad…"

"Please, I know you will keep her safe just while he gets better. As soon as he is, we'll come and pick her up. I know you don't owe us anything and I wouldn't ask if I had any other choice."

Taking Judith away from her dad was something I had thought about plenty of times but I couldn't do it. Taking her away from her only family just felt too cruel especially because she wouldn't have any clue what was going on. She couldn't have a say in it.

"Does your dad know you're here?"

Carl shakes his head, "It will take him hours to realise I'm gone."

I take in a deep breath and then let it out very slowly. I look at Judith who's playing with buttons on Carl's shirt. He wants her away from his dad so badly that he took a trip out here, even planning to go all the way to Washington if he didn't find us on the way. He's willing to ignore the hate he has for me, he wants me to protect her. She's all that matters to him.

I don't look at anyone else as I walk forwards, I don't know what Daryl and Merle think of us taking Judith but I'm not giving them the chance to say anything. We have to do this. He hates us with everything he has but he trusts us enough to know that we'll do anything to protect her and I'm not going to let him down.

Somebody follows me because I can hear the shoes hitting the pavement behind me, when I stop in front of Carl Maggie stops beside me. I don't hold my arms out for her, I don't want him to rush, he needs to give her over on his own time. He pulls Judith closer to him and then buries his nose into the top of her hair.

When he finally lifts his head back up it's easy to see the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. He holds her out for me. I take her from him and then immediately hand her over to Maggie.

"I will protect her with my life, just the same as I will do for Riley. We'll be waiting for you when you're ready to come get her".

He nods and mumbles a thank you. He gets back in the car but I grab the door before he can shut it. "Why don't you come with us?"

"I can't leave him". With that he yanks on the door forcing me to let go. The car starts as I look through the window at the driver. It's Martinez, I stare at him silently trying to tell him to look out for Carl, he needs to get back safe. Martinez gives me a slight nod before putting the car in reverse and backing down the road.

I turn to Maggie and look at the girl in her arms.

"I'll help you", She says before I have the chance to say anything.

I close my eyes against the tears that are suddenly pooling in my eyes. I hate that the safest place for her is to be away from her dad and brother. All we had to do was make it work between us all, we could have lived beside each other if we'd tried but we didn't and now this has to happen.

I open my eyes again when I have the tears under control, "Thank you. I should probably feed her." There's no telling when she had milk last.

As walk back over to where everyone else is now waiting, I untie the scarf that's around me and hold Riley in my arms. When we reach Daryl I hold him out for Daryl to take, which he does without a word, I then take Judith from Maggie.

"Come with me", I don't wait for Daryl's response, I just start walking back towards the building we slept in last night.

Daryl shuts the front door as I take a seat on the sofa, in fact he doesn't say anything until Judith starts feeding.

"Ya sure you're okay with this?"

"Yeah".

He comes and sits down beside me. "You've just taken on the responsibility of another child without any warnin', that ain't somethin' to take lightly".

"I know, but I couldn't say no to him".

"You're gonna protect her like she's your own, what happens when they come back for her. Them takin' her away from you will hurt, a lot."

I stare at her innocent face as her eyes move around, she's looking at my face. Inspecting every inch of it. I know that and if and when that day comes it will be painful but she'll be safe and that's all that matters.

"Do you think I should have said no. Is this a bad idea to you?"

I hear him sigh heavily causing me to tear my eyes away from Judith and look at him. "No, it's the right thing to do and I will protect her the same way I protect you two I just wanted to know if you were ready for this."

I don't answer because the answer would be no, I'm not ready. I started the day off with a son I would do anything to protect, including laying down my own life in favour of his but now within the space of ten minutes I have another child. I don't think I'm ready for one let alone two, "You'll help me".

"Always".

With the babies fed and after making sure everyone else has eaten it's time to go. We're all packed back up and most of the people are sat waiting in their cars but we're just waiting on Tara. Tara and Carol walked back into the apartment building about an hour ago and have yet to come back out. I want nothing more than to walk inside and find out what is happening but I don't. I have to leave it up to Carol.

Riley and Judith are both sleeping peacefully in the car, Sophia and Merle are sat with them making sure they're okay. I'm sitting on Daryl's bike, my feet tapping nervously on the floor. Daryl has the front wheel between his legs and is leaning with crossed arms on the handlebars of his bike. Staring at me.

"Want me to go get them?"

"No, we can't rush them".

"Well ya ain't gonna 'ave any nails left if I don't".

I pull my thumb away from my mouth, "Sorry".

I suddenly stand up when Carol appears in the doorway, she steps outside and moves to the side to reveal Tara carrying a duffle bag. She's coming with us.

I wait for her to come closer before going over to her. She smiles a very sad smile. "Thank you for letting me come with you."

"I'm glad you're coming. We have space in Michonne's car if you're okay riding with them?" I point to where Michonne stands leaning against the driver's door of her car. Tara follows my arm and then nods. "If you need a break don't be afraid to speak up. We can stop whenever you need to".

She nods and then heads over to Michonne. I turn back to Daryl.

"Can I ride with you until the next stop?"

"Ya ain't gotta ask".