Disclaimer- I do not own the walking dead

Shadowoftheblackdeat- Thank you. can't believe you're still excited to have new chapters. Wow, yes you should definitely do that. It sounds good with what you've said. If you do it please let me know. I'll happily be one of your followers.

Alwaysand- Yes you do, without a doubt

Enjoy the change in perspective.

Daryl's POV

She stood behind the gate watching us leave as we rode down the road, I could see her in my wing mirror right up until we disappeared around a bend. She's angry at me, I could see it the moment I said we needed to talk last night. I fight most of her decisions to come out here without me but I know she can handle herself so I usually always end up giving in but her coming out here to hunt these fuckers wasn't happening, not with how angry this situation as made her and not without me. She is holding a very personal grudge against these people and I don't, for the first time ever, trust her judgement on this. I know if she came out here without me she wouldn't stop. She would keep looking, keep fighting no matter the risk to her.

I was standing beside her when she made the decision to come out here, we'd been speaking privately only twenty minutes before yet she never said anything to me, not even a look. I know that she knew that deep down I wouldn't agree with it which is why she put it out there before talking to me. Turns out it's not the first thing she hasn't spoken to me about. I asked the others who went out with her yesterday what happened while they were out but they all kept their mouths shut. If it wasn't for Freds shit poker face and my knowledge of Danny then I would never have known that she tried to send them home without her.

I'll give them their dues, they're loyal to her and I couldn't be any fucking happier about that but I know her well enough to know what questions to ask and even though Fred never answered them verbally, his face gave away all the answers. She was willing to go out alone to save people she didn't even know and she hasn't told me a thing about it herself. I'm not going to question her about it because that whole situation messed with her. The way she broke down as soon as she saw me last night sets it home that something is wrong and she doesn't know it. I don't think she's keeping anything from me on purpose because in her mind she didn't see anything wrong with that decision, in fact she's probably already forgotten that she made that choice.

I want to be able to come home with something but I'm not going to risk myself or anyone that has come with me to get it, and she can be mad at me for as long as she wants to but I didn't tell her she couldn't come. I told her I was coming with her whether she liked it or not, because I want her to do what it is she needs to do but I need to be with her to stop her if needed; However she's so hung up on not leaving Riley at home without one of us she had to stay and she's gonna hold onto that. Merle, Carol, Glenn, Maggie, hell even Oscar. I trust all of those with the life of our son, I know they would lay down their lives for him but somehow Danny can't.

When someone else, even Sophia, has Riley it's easy to see how she never quite has all of her attention on the task at hand, she's always searching for him in her peripheral vision. Either she thinks I don't notice or she's not even aware that she's doing it. Since he's been born the anger and protectiveness she possessed has been heightent a lot. She's definitely going through something and I don't know how to help her, especially if she isn't going to admit there's a problem. Carol told me that Danny got short with her yesterday morning when Carol said she'd happily take Riley for the night again. It took Danny hours to get to sleep that night, she kept tossing and turning and then when she heard him cry I honestly thought she wouldn't settle again but I think her tiredness won that one.

The new guy Ben, Glenn, Maggie, Oscar, Trevor, Michonne, Fred, Abraham and Rosita have come with me. Getting Merle to stay behind was another fight I had to have but as soon as I mentioned my concern for Danny he agreed to stay behind. He wants the same thing as Danny, to exact revenge no matter the cost but that isn't what we're out here to do, not yet.

We're gonna go back to the place Ben and the others were caught and I'm gonna see if we can track the one that got away. Find out if he's alone or if they were part of a bigger group. If she wants them dead then I'll kill them but I'm not doing this filled with the rage she has in her right now, and if it's too dangerous at the time we'll go home and make a proper plan. This isn't gonna be done half-arsed.

Oscar points in the direction he saw the guy run in so I head over to it. The footprints are a mess where he clearly stumbled before getting his footing. I rise from my crouch and start heading where the trampled ground and partial prints lead me.

For the first hour they all walk silently, as they can, behind me until Glenn hurries to catch up with me. I cast him a side glance, "What?"

"What if we're actually following a Walker?".

"We're not".

"But how can you be certain, he ran off over twenty four hours ago".

I glare at him. "You wanna lesson or ya want us to find these people?" I know he's not questioning my skills, he's just tryna get conversation out of me.

"You know Glenn," Trevor starts. "You're basically insulting his skills right to his face".

"No, no I wasn't", Glenn stutters through looking pretty damned flustered. His grip tightens on his gun as he lets the blush fade from his cheeks. "Sorry".

"It's fine", I give him a one shouldered shrug. "Now what do ya really want?" He didn't come running up to me to ask about tracking. He's never bothered about it before.

He looks behind him before moving a little closer much to my annoyance. "Is Danny okay", he whispers to try and stop those behind us eavesdropping.

Is he talking about why she's not here, "She's fine"; Or because he's seen something, "Why?"

"Cause this is what she wanted to do, she looked pretty adamant about it but she's not here". He points out the obvious.

I keep my eyes on the ground in front of me. "She's stayin' back with Riley", not a lie.

"Yeah but that's the thing. She's my best friend and I know that she wouldn't give up something like this", I stop short and turn on him but he carries on. "It's not just this, she's been different since we left the prison. I know we spent some time apart so I may not know her as well as I did but something is definitely different about her. It's like she's waiting for something really bad to happen".

So others have noticed it too. I know I give him a hard time sometimes but they're close even after being separated for eight months they still knew each other, they still care about each other which is the only reason I don't tell him to mind his own fucking business. He only wants what's best for her, and maybe if she's not gonna talk to me maybe she'll talk to him. I latch onto his shoulder and steer him away from the others. Maggie makes a sound of protest but Glenn throws her a look and she stops. When we're out of hearing range I stop and spin him around to face me.

"Has she said anythin' to you?" I ask a little more aggressively than I should.

He shakes his head. "No, I was hoping she'd spoken to you and you could tell me I was wrong. But I guess not".

I sigh heavily. "You love her right?"

He nods. "Yeah".

"Then you've gotta do somethin' for me."

"Anything." He says quickly.

"Talk to her. She'll talk to you if she knows you want to listen". I know I sound desperate but I am.

"She knows I'm always there to listen to her if she needs it".

I shake my head at him to stop him. "We both know she won't come up to you, you have to go up to her, it's the only way she'll know she's not bein' a burden. It worked after Lori died". When she told me she wanted to be alone I knew it was because she didn't want to be a burden, she didn't want to make her issues my issues. Which, no matter how much she doesn't want it, will always be the case; Her issues are my issues. I asked Glenn to go out there to be a friend, she doesn't have many of those. I can never give her the advice a friend would, nor can Merle or Carol, not even Sophia. I shift my eyes to look just over his head because I'm ashamed to admit what I'm about to say. "The idea of her admitting she's weak to me will be hard for her, she'll think that I think less of her", even though it is absolutely bullshit. She is not weak, never has been and nothing she does will make me think that but she apologised just for crying yesterday.

"She's not weak" He says matter of factly. "Not in the slightest but I'll talk to her".

I run a hand through my hair. "You ain't gotta tell me what it is, but when she tells you just let me know she's okay".

He nods. It will eat me up not knowing what it is but clearly there's a reason she's not talking to me about it and I can't break her friendship with Glenn by making him go behind her back.

We start walking again, and I can hear the others as they start following us. "Did I ever apologise for how I treated you before we left the farm?" I ask him with my attention back on the ground.

"No", I can hear the grin in his voice which makes me smile, internally.

"Mmm" I just reply.

"Shit!" I kneel on one knee. He joined up with more people, a lot more people.

"What is it?" Michonne asks as she steps up beside me.

"Either he had people waitin' for him or they were on their way to him, but right here he met up with a lot of people".

"Are you sure?" I look over my shoulder at Fred who suddenly grins. "Right sorry, no questioning your skills". He ignores my glare and just keeps grinning.

"We're outnumbered just by what I can see here, so if we keep goin' we've gotta be careful and stay quiet". They all nod at me and that's when I realise Ben looks like he could throw up any second. "You alrigh'?" I ask him.

He nods hesitantly. "So we were nearly screwed then. If they were coming to where we were".

Abraham scoffs, "Sounds to me like you were already screwed but if you had been kept alive to wait for the rest of the group then I'm guessing it would have been a slaughter. You are fuckin' lucky These guys and Danny made it to you when they did". Rosita whacks him on the arm but he just raises an eyebrow at her, he's not wrong just blunt about it.

"Fuck", Oscar exclaims. "Danny was so close to following after the one that got away, we'd have run into this."

"And you would have been dead within minutes", Maggie's voice is low as she makes the statement.

"Lets go" I say roughly, I don't want to think about what could have been.

This time round they all stay quiet as we move in a line through the forest, although they aren't fully silent. Not all of them have mastered how to tread silently.

I only just see the person moving through the trees, I drop to my knees and with only a quick glance behind me I see the others have done the same without question. When the person moves away I scan the area before rising half way up and then moving forwards again. A few minutes later I hold up my hand telling them to stop before looking at Glenn and jerking my head for him to follow me. We move left and start walking diagonally, south easterly, and that's when we see it. A huge group moving around the forest like they own it, no walls no alarm warnings to help them in case of walkers. Just about forty men and women moving around like they couldn't give a shit that someone or something could walk up to them at any second.

We're fucked, there's nothing we can do. We're outnumbered and being here puts everyone at risk. I don't see a gun on any of the ones I can see clearly but even so there aren't enough of us to be able to make a stand. I look at Glenn and mouth for us to go back but as I look at him I can see the one thing I can't ignore. The one thing Danny would hate me for if I left.

Prisoners.

Let me know if you liked this. I feel like I can write Daryl from Danny's POV but maybe not so well from his own. ALSO sorry it's a cliffhanger.