Naomi

Daryl started his bike, looked back at me with a grin, "You ready?"

"Yeah…" I said, but I hesitated.

Since Lucas and I had run into the Wolves in the woods, Daryl hadn't been far from my side. I probably would've found it annoying if he hadn't spent the days before it doing the exact opposite. I couldn't think of much worse than when he'd been cold and distant. Having him hovering around wherever I went like a sarcastically grunting ghost had been kind of nice. So I hadn't fought him on it when he'd told Rick that there was no way in hell I was doing anything other than getting on the back of his bike while he led the horde out of the Quarry. I'd thought I'd have time to come up with a way to suggest that it might not be the best use of manpower to have both of us on the same bike doing the same thing.

But here we were, having to put Rick's plan into action way faster than any of us had hoped because one of the trucks holding them in had fallen earlier than we'd expected. Daryl revved his engine. "What's up slowpoke, you got cold feet?"

"I just think I could be more useful elsewhere. Maybe…"

His smile dropped. He instantly knew what I was up to. "Get on the damn bike. We gotta lead these people outta here."

"Fine…" I didn't have time to argue with him, and we both knew it. I climbed on behind him.

"Hold on, girl," he said.

He was full of energy. Most I'd seen from him in a while. Having everyone out here, taking care of the new Walker problem, had given him a boost. He hadn't said anything, but I think being outside of Alexandria's walls, doing something productive with his group, made him feel like he had a purpose. A place with all of them again. He was happy enough for me to hold on to him without telling him off for calling me 'girl' because it was just so damn good to see him smiling like that.

He took us to where the truck had fallen, and a steady stream of Walkers was pouring out. He waited just long enough to make sure the ones at the front knew we were there and then kept a safe distance between them and us, leading them down a route we'd decided a few days before. I could tell Daryl was bored by how slow we had to go and wonder if that was the real reason he'd wanted some company on this thing.

It was such a comfortable speed that I could relax my grip on him, sit back on the bike a little. He glanced over his shoulder. "How you doing back there?"

"Good," I said. "Walker-stink is pretty bad in this heat, though, huh?"

"That what that is?" he said. "Thought that was you."

"Shut up," I said, pulling a face at his back. "You want any snacks?"

"You brought food?"

"You didn't?"

"This was supposed to be a dry run," he said. "We weren't meant to be out here that long."

"Well, it's a good job one of us came prepared then, huh?" I said and passed him a PowerBar out of my backpack.

"Thanks," he said, his mouth already full.

"Sasha and Abraham should be just over the next hill," I said. "Should I radio them?"

"Nah," he said, still seemed super relaxed. "Abraham talks too much, I like the quiet."

"Okay," I said and didn't point out that the Walkers behind us were still snarling away or that we'd been chatting the whole time.

Sasha's car was sitting close to the next turn in the road. It started up when we got close, and they drove along with us. We'd lined the route with these big barricades meant to stop any of them from getting off the path we wanted them on.

"Looks like those fences they used to put up when there was a marathon on," I commented. "Y'know the ones?"

"You ran a marathon?" Daryl asked.

"God, no," I said. "Just watched one once."

"Why?"

"Someone I'd been on a few dates with was running it," I said. "Kinda guilted me into going."

"Dumb thing to do," he grumbled. "Running for no reason."

"Agreed," I said. "Super boring to watch, too. You want any water?"

"Nah, I'm good," he said. A few miles down the road, we heard a car door open and close again. Daryl glanced back, "What was that?"

I turned around to see Abraham running out of the passenger side of Sasha's car. A few Walkers had wandered off into the woods.

"We lost a few of 'em," I said. "Abraham's just taking them out, maybe I should…"

I started to fiddle with the machine gun strapped to my back. "Don't you dare," Daryl barked.

"I just thought I could…"

"Get off this bike, and I'll feed you to the Walkers myself," he said.

Abraham was already on his way back to the car, so I let it go.

We drove for a few more miles, and then Sasha's voice crackled over the radio. "Alright."

I reached up to Daryl's shoulder, where our walkie was clipped and pressed it so he could talk, "That's 20?"

"It will be," Sasha said. "642 is a mile ahead. We've gotta put distance between us and them before the turnoff."

"So floor it," Abraham added.

"Alright," Daryl said. "Try to keep up."

"Daryl, have you looked at this car?" Sasha said. I felt Daryl laugh in my arms, and I smiled into his back. He was so relaxed. I let go of the walkie and turned around to wave at them in their rust-bucket of a car. Sasha waved back. Daryl turned his head slightly.

"You ready?" he said, so much anticipation and excitement in his voice that it caused a flutter in the pit of my own stomach.

"Yeah."

"You sure?" he said. "Might wanna hold a little tighter."

He sped up fast. My whole body automatically tensed, arms gripping him. I felt him laughing again, longer and harder than before. We turned a corner at full speed. I whooped in his ear, and he cursed at me for being too damn loud. The road we were on took us through the remains of somewhere that had probably once been an alright place to live. Nice houses. It could have been a little village. Or a suburb, maybe. Before I had the time to try and piece together where we were. A series of loud pops and bangs made me jump. I was so unprepared for them that for a second, I thought it might be Sasha and Abraham's car backfiring. But that wasn't it.

Gunshots. From nowhere.

Daryl swerved on the road.

"You okay?" he yelled back at me. I didn't answer right away, was too busy trying to see where they'd come from. I reached for the gun I had strapped to my back. "Naomi! Are you hit?"

"No, I'm fine," I told him. "You good?"

"Always."

Men shooting at us from the gaps between old houses blurred as Daryl tried to speed past them. I fired back, but it was damn hard from the back of a moving bike. Maybe Daryl's idea to have me on here with him wasn't so dumb after all. He wouldn't have been able to fire back if it weren't for me. Our small team wasn't alone on the roads anymore. Shots rang out from cars that were following Sasha and Abraham.

"The hell are these assholes?" I said, trying to get a good look at any of them. I wanted to see if they had marks on their foreheads like the Wolves Lucas and I had run into, but he was going too fast for me to see.

"I'm gonna have to drop the bike, Naomi," Daryl said over his shoulder. "Try and lose a few of them. You've gotta brace yourself, get ready to roll, yeah?"

"Daryl, it's fine," I tried to yell back. "If you keep steady, I think I can get some of them."

I kept shooting at them. A bullet grazed my arm, and I made the mistake of crying out. I felt Daryl react to it immediately.

"No. Fuck that," he said. "You ready? On three. One, two, three."

I felt his body tense, and the bike tipped, swinging toward the ground. I let myself let go of the bike, let it slip away from me as the ground rushed up to hit me in the back. I scraped along the concrete, felt the wind get pushed right out of me. Dazed, I stared at the sky for a moment.

"You alright?" Daryl called to me.

"Yeah," I said, although I'd hardly had time to check myself over. I sat up. Daryl was back on his feet again, back with his bike. I reached out to where my gun had fallen a few feet away from me.

"Stay here," he told me, and I realized with a flash of anger what his plan had been all along. "Stay low. I'll draw them off."

"Daryl!" I yelled after him, trying to scramble to my feet and get to the bike before he could take off without me. "Get back here!"

"Stay here. Stay safe," Daryl said, starting his bike up again. "I'll lead them away and then come back and find you."

"Daryl, don't you dare!" I yelled, but he was gone, roaring off with a cloud of dirt behind him and the car of assholes on his tail. I ducked down behind an abandoned car as they passed me by. I filled my lungs and screamed, "Asshole!" to the heavens, but I wasn't sure if it was aimed at Daryl or the people chasing him. If I'm brutally honest, it felt like both.

The sound of engines faded and eventually disappeared. The silence was awful. I felt it swallow me whole and spit me out the other side. The world had never felt so big, and I had never felt so small and angry. How could Daryl just leave me like this?

The anger burned me up pretty quick. And when it cleared, there was nothing but fear. Dark and bottomless, stretching out underneath me for every second he was away. Like the bottom of the world was dropping out under my feet. I moved to get a better view of the road he'd taken. Seconds dragged by like hours. No sign of Daryl.

I heard hushed voices behind me, and carefully treading footsteps in the mud. I pressed myself into the ground and peeked under the car at two approaching sets of boots. I heard the crackle of a radio. Sasha and Abraham, looking for us. I wondered what the hell had happened to their car. I got up so they could see me, half expecting bullets to come flying from nearby windows. Abraham caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned on me, gun raised and trigger finger poised. He stood down when he saw it was me.

"Over here," I called to them in the loudest whisper I dared. They hurried over and crouched down next to me.

"Where's Daryl?" Sasha asked.

"He went that way," I told them, pointing in the direction he'd gone in.

"He ditched you?" Abraham asked. The way he said it kind of stung.

"Yeah, said he wanted to draw them off," I said, still fuming about it. "You guys stay here in case he comes back, I'm going to find him. And if he does come back, you tell him from me that he's a dead man."

"Wait," Sasha grabbed me by the wrist, pulled me back down.

"Let me go," I warned her. I'd break her damn arms if she tried to hold me back any more.

"Not until we know what's going on," she said. "There aren't enough people around to just wait around for somebody to ambush. And they couldn't have just been watching us, not with what we were doing."

I hadn't given much thought to who these people were or why they'd done what they'd done. Truth was, I didn't much care. All I cared about was that Daryl had ridden off into a cloud of dust with them hot on his heels.

"Nah, they were looking to chew up someone in particular," Abraham agreed. "Whoever the hell they were."

Sasha pulled her walkie out of her back pocket, "Daryl, you copy?"

Nothing but static crackled back at her. Where the hell was he?

"Dollars to doughnuts he's on his way back to Alexandria now," Abraham said.

"He said he'd be back," I said, shaking my head. "And he ain't."

"He wouldn't leave us behind," Sasha agreed.

"He already did," Abraham said. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise like the hackles of an angry dog.

"Shut your damn mouth," I said. "If he said he'll be back, he will."

"You wanna go look for him?" he said like it was a dumb idea.

"The best way to find a tracker is to stay put," Sasha said. "Let him find you."

"Screw that," I said, standing up. "He could be hurt out there. What if they caught up with him?"

Sasha reached up and tugged me back down again. "Will you stay low?" she hissed.

"If she wants to go off on some damn suicide mission," Abraham said. "Let her. We can't just sit here."

"Alright," Sasha said. I could see her cracking under the stress of trying to come up with a plan that would keep both of us from ripping each other's throats out. She looked at me. "Daryl said he'd find you. So he will. Just give him time."

"Alright then," I said and sat down.

"But…" she said, with a glance at Abraham. "We gotta move someplace safer."

"No. Daryl said to wait here," I said. "So I will sit on this damn patch of road and wait until either he comes back or I'm dead. You're welcome to sit with me or not."

"We know he's looking for us," she said. "So we'll make sure we're easy to track. Alright?"

"No," I said, but she'd already stood up. She made a footprint in a patch of mud that pointed in the direction she was heading in. Abraham stood up and followed her. She looked back over her shoulder at me.

"Give him time," she said. "But we gotta stay safe too."

I looked around. The buildings were quiet, but this place was pretty exposed. The car hid me from the view of anyone coming on the road, but if the assholes who'd ambushed us looked out any of the windows, I'd be a sitting duck.

"If he ain't found us soon," I said, standing up. "I'm going after him."

"Fine," she said like she was giving in to the demands of an unreasonable child. "But please, come with us for now."

We walked a little way into town, covering every gap we could see in case the men with guns were still there. Lurking in the spaces between buildings. There was nothing. It was an eerily quiet contrast to the bursts of gunfire that had come before. If Daryl hadn't still been missing, I might've thought the whole thing had been a dream.

Sasha stopped by the door of an open building, took out a knife, and handed it to me. "We'll camp out here for a bit," she said. "Scratch his name on the door. I'm going to stop this idiot from leaving unwanted breadcrumbs."

She nodded to where Abraham was aiming his gun at a Walker stumbling down the street away from us. If the assholes with guns came back, we didn't want a trail of dead Walkers leading them right to our door. Sasha went to remind him of this, while I started to write 'Daryl' but only got as far as the 'D.' I suddenly worried that if this ambush had been meant for us, and those people had been watching everything we were doing, they might recognize his name. So I wrote 'Dumbass' and knew that he'd know it was from me. He'd be able to find us with even less than we'd given him, but that didn't stop my heart from racing or my hands from getting weirdly sweaty. Felt like a part of me was missing.

Sasha led us into the dark of the office building, and we swept the shadows for any Walkers. There was only one, already trapped behind the locked glass door of a conference room, eternally stuck in whatever his last meeting had been. Sure that we were safe, we spread out across the room. I went to the window and piled up a stack of old filing boxes, giving me somewhere to sit while I looked down at the street and listened for the sound of a distant bike. It had been too long. The sun was getting low in the sky, and the lengthening shadows sent a chill down my spine. What the hell was I doing just sitting on my ass?

"It's almost dark," I said. "I gotta go look for him."

"No," Sasha said immediately. "If he doesn't make it back in time, you know he'll find somewhere safe for the night and pick up our trail in the morning."

"Yeah, or he's already back in Alexandria all tucked up," Abraham said. I could've smacked him in his big, dumb, ginger face.

"I should've gone after him," I said. "Shouldn't have listened to you dumbasses."

"You wanna go out there and get yourself killed?" Abraham said. "Be my guest."

"Stop," Sasha said to both of us. "We are staying here. Do you want to stand watch or sleep? Your choice."

"I ain't sleeping," I said. How could I possibly relax enough to sleep with Daryl still out there? "You guys might as well get some shut-eye."

"Not so close to the window," Abraham warned me. "Someone might see."

That was the damn point. I wanted Daryl to see if he came by. I wanted to see him too. But I knew he wasn't the 'someone' Abraham was thinking about.

"Nobody but the dead out there now," I said, but I shut the blinds so I wouldn't be quite so obvious if they guys who'd been shooting at us came back. The Walker in the conference room banged on the glass door.

"You have no idea how much I want to release that thing from this plane of existence," Abraham said, glaring at it. "Is this our new home? Should we give him a name?"

"You got yourself into this," Sasha said. I was surprised by how calm she could stay with Abraham intent on picking a fight with every living and once-living thing he laid eyes on. "I was driving that car solo until you chose to come with."

That was news to me, I'd just assumed that Rick had assigned them to work together.

"Oh, I didn't have a choice there," he said.

"Tell me why."

"You going stag was not an option. And Dixon was too hell-bent on having this one on his damn bike for her to go with you."

I flipped him off, didn't have enough brain capacity for any kind of witty retort. I looked back out at the darkening street, my stomach twisting as I tried not to think about how long Daryl had been out there on his own, or why he hadn't made it back yet.

"Tell me why," Sasha repeated.

"You were out of control for a good while there," he said.

"I'm in control now," she said so calmly it had to be true.

"Me too."

I snorted with laughter. Abraham always seemed about two seconds from blowing his lid in any given situation.

"That's why you wanna kill that Walker?" Sasha said. "The one down the street? The guys in the car? 'Cause you're in control?"

"'Cause loose ends make my ass itch," he said. "If I have not gotten my psyche situated straight, it's because the shit's continually been hitting the fan without respite."

"Oh, there's been a respite," Sasha said. "There was a party."

"Oh, I remember that," he said with a tone like neither of them had enjoyed Deanna's dumb welcome party.

"You jump out of an airplane, you don't have choices after that," Sasha said. "Maybe you play some chicken with the ground, but you pull the ripcord, you live. But if you have a roof over your head, you have food, you have walls… you have choices. And without Walkers and bullets and shit hitting the fan, you're accountable for them. I mean, hell, you're always accountable. It's just with all that other noise, you know people won't notice. Stand watch or sleep?"

"The former," he said and stood up from where he'd been leaning on a nearby filing cabinet. "Straight through the night. We'll reassess in the morning."

"What do you mean?" Sasha asked, but he was already walking out of the room.

"What the hell we're doing here," he muttered. We heard him stomp off, further into the office building.

"You want the radio?" Sasha offered it to me. "In case Daryl gets in touch?"

I nodded and took it from her. Turned it over and over in my hands, just waiting to hear his voice again. After a while, holding it like that became too much. Made everything worse. So I pulled my knees up and balanced on the top of them. Switched between staring at it and staring out the window. I could feel Sasha watching me, but I was way too anxious to get self-conscious about it.

"You two really care about each other, huh?" she said. I nodded.

"It's always been that way," I said. "Since we was little. He was all I had."

He still was, I'd trade all of Alexandria to ensure his safety, but I didn't want to tell her that because I knew how reckless it would make me sound.

"My brother, Tyreese, he was all I had for a while," she said, her eyes kind of misted over, which was how I knew he was dead. And pretty recently too. "One of those big brothers that really tries to protect everyone, y'know? Even though he didn't always have the stomach for what needed to get done. He was a total pacifist, always trying to get to a peaceful resolution, even when it was clear there wasn't one to be had. It was frustrating. Always so… optimistic. Meant I had to be the realist, just to protect him."

"That must've been hard," I said. I could kind of relate. Shielding Mia from things sometimes meant taking on more shit.

"It was," she said. "But he was my brother. I did it because I had to. Drove me nuts, but I always kind of admired that he had the strength to stay who he was before all of this. I sure haven't."

"Yeah, that takes a special kind of person," I agreed, not wanting to point out that her ability to adapt was probably what had helped her get this far. "What happened to him?"

"He got bit," she said. "Nothing I could do about it. Just… happened."

"Sorry to hear that," I said.

"Thanks," she said and managed a small smile. "Tyreese was always kind of a hero to me. Even when he was annoying me. Followed him everywhere when we were little, copied everything he did. Probably what made it so easy to follow him when all of this started. I could just… trust that he'd do what's right."

I nodded, and thought about how Daryl had followed Merle around when they were kids, wished he'd had a brother more like Sasha's to follow around instead. And then I wondered how Mia felt about following me in all of this when I'd let her down so badly. At least following Merle had kept Daryl alive.

"He like a brother to you?" she asked, interrupting my train of thought. "Daryl? Or…?"

"Um… No." I felt my face getting a little warm. I'd never thought about it like that, or been asked so directly. Usually, people started with the 'Or…?', the other option, the one she'd trailed off at. And it was easier to answer that way round. No, Daryl and I were not together and never had been. It was so clear cut and simple. And people dropped it after that, made their own assumptions or whatever.

But was he like a brother to me? Also no.

Daryl had always just been… well, Daryl to me.

"But, you guys have never….?"

"No," I said. I thought I'd be happier to have something more straightforward and familiar to answer, but I wasn't. Sasha's questions had really thrown me into a weird tailspin. We'd always reserved physical affection for only when it was needed and unavoidable. But was that because the thought of being together in that way was repulsive and weird? Had we never crossed that line because we didn't want to? Or something else?

"I love my sister," I said. "And I took care of her because I had to. She's blood and I knew that if I didn't, nobody else would. But Daryl… he's a survivor. I know he can take care of himself."

Sasha gave me a little smile. "You can say that again."

"With Daryl, it's like… I need to know he's okay," I said. "And I need to know he ain't just surviving. I want him to have the best damn life he can because he's been through enough. Caring about him was never a choice I made. Or an obligation. It's just… what's right. Family can really fuck you up, and you don't get to choose 'em. Daryl's the family I chose a long time ago, and who I'll keep choosing. He makes me see things different. See myself different."

Ever since I could remember, there had been so many things about the world that I'd wanted to change. And I'd thought that working hard in school was the best way to go about it. To get people to listen to me about the cracks in the education system, the justice system, the care system. Churning out article after article about breaking cycles of violence or addiction. Every case of prison reform I'd investigated, every story I'd told about poor folks swept up in the drug trade in an attempt to humanize them. It had all stemmed from wanting to change his world, build him a safe one. One where he could be happy. Like I could somehow undo everything that had been done to him.

"So… whatever that means," I said, realizing I hadn't really answered her questions despite giving it more honest thought that I ever had. "That's what Daryl is to me."

Sasha was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Few days before I lost Tyreese, I lost Bob."

"Bob?"

"He made me see the world different too," she said, and although she was sad, she had this brilliant smile on her face. "He could take any situation and find the positive. No matter how bad. And I… I was the hard opposite. I assumed everything that was happening would be the worst-case scenario."

"Easy done," I said. "Everything is often absolute shit."

"Agreed," she nodded. "And I thought I'd find it really annoying that Bob couldn't see, but I didn't. I liked hearing him find the good in the bad. Helped me find it too. It made me think that I'd always wanted to find it but just hadn't known how to look, y'know?"

"Was Bob a friend, or…?"

"Boyfriend, I guess," she said. "If that kind of thing still exists these days. It's not like we went on dates or met each other's parents, but… we loved each other."

I nodded, studied her face. She wasn't paying me much attention, her thoughts had taken her to some far off place. The only place that Bob or Tyreese existed now. "What Abraham said… about you being out of control. It because you lost them?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "But I'm okay now. It doesn't stop hurting, but the world keeps turning.

"Sure does," I said, although it seemed impossible. I wondered what I'd do if Mia and Daryl stayed missing forever… could I be as strong as she was about it? Talking about him had made me less angry that he was gone, but it had made me a thousand times sadder. Where the hell was he? Why wasn't he back yet?

I watched every hour of the night pass from that window, and I'd be willing to bet it was the longest night of my life. Sasha fell asleep just after it got properly dark. I curled up with the radio close to my chest, alone in the dark, occasionally testing the button. Sometimes I'd say his name quietly into the receiver. Sometimes I just wanted to check it still worked. "Daryl," I said, quietly enough that it wouldn't wake Sasha. "If you can hear me… if you're out there… if you're hurt… I'm coming for you, okay? Just stay safe."

When the first ray of sunshine hit the top of the building opposite us, I jumped down from my perch and woke up Sasha. My legs were stiff and sore from having been in the same position all night.

"It's morning," I told her. "I gotta find him."

"Please don't," she said, her voice still thick with sleep. She rubbed her eyes. "I don't want to be the one who has to tell him that we lost you."

"You won't have to," I said. "I'll find him, and I'll bring him back here. Just wait for us."

"Naomi…" she sighed, but I was already heading for the door. I turned to her, "I left you the walkie. Radio us if you get in trouble."

"Maybe you should…"

"Won't need it!" I said. "I'll have Daryl'."

I gave her a wave and heard her sigh as I bounded out of the door. I think something about the lack of sleep and sitting in the same position for what must have been about six straight hours, gave me this massive burst of energy now that I was finally able to get up and do something.

Stepping outside of the office building, the world had never felt so big.

I made my way back to where I'd last seen him riding off into the woods. I listened for the sound of cars, in case the ambushers came back. I listened harder for the sound of a bike. I walked the path he must have driven down. Every step I took, my heartbeat more violently in my chest.

What if he wasn't here?

What if I never found him?

What if he was dead?

My chest felt like it was filling with water. I stopped and forced myself to take a few deep breaths. I tried to remember everything Daryl had ever told me about tracking. I was dizzy and queasy. I looked down at the ground by the side of the road to steady myself and saw tire tracks in the mud. Very faint but running as if someone had ridden a bike from one side of the road to the other. I looked further down the road ahead of me. Saw a bend not far down. If you were trying to throw people off your trail, this would be a smart place to do it.

I can do this.

He'd hidden out and turned off into the woods, I was sure of it. But why hadn't he come back? This wasn't that far from where we'd been. I knew which way the tire tracks ran, Daryl had taught me how to read that. I could follow them. They lead me deeper into the woods. And then they changed. He'd gotten off and pushed it. I could see his footsteps. I looked down at them, did my best not to cry.

Where are you?

It looked like the ground had been scorched. I saw a body in leathers lying in the mud, and for a second, I felt like I was about to throw up. It moved a little. I heard a snarl, and my heart sank. Then I saw their helmet.

Not Daryl.

It was the first time in my life I'd been glad he wasn't wearing one. But there was an imprint of a body in the mud beside it. Big enough to be Daryl. Maybe. But he wasn't there now.

I kept walking. It felt like my legs were made of lead, all of my previous energy was eaten up by new despair. Nothing in the woods but the gentle snarl from the dead biker and birdsong in the trees.

And then a gunshot. Loud. Close. I ran towards it. Far as I could remember, Daryl didn't have a gun. Just his crossbow.

The silence in the forest was broken again by the deep rumble of a bike. It had to be Daryl. It just had to. I caught sight of it, moving in the distance and ran to head it off. It was his bike. But it wasn't him on it.

A man and a woman. They looked tired and dirty and scared. I didn't recognize them from any of the people that had shot at us before. I checked their foreheads, but neither of them had the dumb 'W' symbol there. So where the hell had they come from?

I stepped out in front of them. Watched them skid to a halt.

"Where'd you get that bike?" I nodded at it. The woman on the back hid her face in the guy's shoulders. Daryl's crossbow was slung over hers. "Where is he?"

I raised my pistol. When she saw it, the woman on the back of his bike lifted her own and pointed it at me. Her hands shook a little, and her eyes were afraid, I didn't think she'd had much practice in firing one. Certainly not to kill.

"Don't know what you're talking about," the man said. But he started up the bike again, a look in his eye that told me he was a damn shitty liar. I walked around to stand by the woman who was pointing her shaking pistol at me. I pressed mine right to the base of her skull and heard her whimper.

"He alive?" I asked, staring her down. She blinked a couple of times, and I thought she was about to burst into tears.

"We're sorry," she whispered.

"He's alive," the guy nodded. "Back there."

He pointed through the trees. I let his girl go, and he immediately sped off through the trees. "If you're lying, I'll find you!" I yelled after them, firing a few warning shots over their heads. I watched them duck. "I'll slice you open and gut you like fish. You're gonna wish you'd never-"

"Quit screaming," Daryl's voice behind me almost brought me to my knees. "You'll bring Walkers out."

The sound of the bike engine faded into the distance. I wondered if I'd imagined his voice and if everything I was feeling had pulled his ghost out of the woods. But no. There he was. Walking towards me through the trees. Bare arms and bleeding.

I yelled his name, despite what he'd just said. I couldn't help it. It just burst out of me like my throat was on fire, and his name was the only thing that could soothe it. My relief at seeing him alive turned to anger real fast. "What the fuck was that?"

"Some assholes took my bike, that's what," he said. "Took my crossbow too, so I hope you ain't wasted too many of them bullets firing damn warning shots."

"Not that," I said. "Why the hell did you chuck me off in the first place?"

"Keep you safe," he said, picking his way over some tree roots snaking down the verge in front of him.

"You thought flinging me off a damn bike was safer than staying together?" I stormed towards him.

"Safer than you getting shot at," he shrugged. "You're alive, ain't you?"

"You are too," I pointed out. "Could've stayed alive together."

"Ain't risking anything on a could've," he said. "What's your nose all bent out of shape about?"

"You can't fight with me about sitting on the back of your damn bike if you're just gonna throw me off at the first sign of trouble!" I said, glaring at him as we got closer to each other. He didn't respond, just kind of glowered darkly at me like he wanted to disagree but didn't have the guts. There was fire sitting in my chest, and it was making my lungs tight like they were all filled with smoke. "We used to be a team, Daryl. What happened to that?"

"What?" he said. "We are a team."

"You don't even trust me to sit on the back of your damn bike."

"Trust's got nothing to do with it," he snapped but didn't elaborate.

"I got your back, Daryl."

"I know you do," he said. "And that was fine back when it was just assholes at school. Now the assholes have guns, and some of them are dead and want to eat your damn flesh."

"You think I haven't noticed all that?" I said. "You think I survived long enough to get to Alexandria on pure dumb luck?"

"No…," he admitted reluctantly.

"You think I'm that stupid, huh?" I snapped.

"You're the smartest person I know," he said. "I just… I already lost you once, and I ain't doing that again."

"Well, I ain't losing you again, either," I told him. "You think trying to find you in these damn woods has been fun? You think I ain't been worried out of my damn mind about you?"

"Oh, you think I don't know what that's like?" he said. "When someone just takes off and goes missing in the damn woods? Yeah, I got no idea about that, Naomi!"

I stopped walking. A twist of guilt hit my stomach. I guess he did know what that was like. He knew very well what it was like. The frantic searching. The fear that every Walker you passed was them.

"I'm just trying to keep you safe for fuck's sake!" he said.

"I don't want that," I said. "I don't need you to decide what's best for me. You want me on your bike? You want me on your team? Fine. But you gotta let me fight. What's the point of having each other's backs if you're just gonna leave?"

"Fine," he snapped.

"Fine," I snapped back.

We stood opposite each other now, inches away and breathing hard. I still felt mad for someone who'd just reached an agreement. I felt a whole lot of things. I pulled him close. Felt the familiar comfort of his body against mine. His arms around me in a tight hug. After a moment, I felt him laugh at me too.

"What you laughing at?" I grumbled into his shoulder.

"You were really worried about me, huh?"

"'Course I was, dumbass." I took a small step back, moved my head so I could look at him without letting go of where my arms rested on his shoulders. "You ever take off on me like that again, and I swear you better not come back because I will rain holy hell down on you, do you hear me?"

He was still laughing at me a little, "Yes, ma'am."

"Okay, good." I let go of him.

"For what it's worth," he said. "Probably could've used your help with those assholes."

I stopped myself from saying I told you so because I didn't want him doubling back on what we'd just agreed.

"From now on," I said, looking him dead in the eye so he couldn't squirm out of it or lie to me. "Whatever we face, we face it together."

"Deal."

"Let me see your arms," I said now that our yelling match was over.

"It ain't so bad," he said, trying to dismiss me. He held up some bandages. "They left me with these, at least."

I reached for them, "Let me."

"Nah it's fine, I'll do 'em," he said, trying to brush me off.

"Like hell you will," I said and snatched them off him. Daryl cared about himself just enough to stay alive, but I didn't trust that it was enough to patch himself up right. "Stand still."

He put on his usual show of sighing and muttering. But he didn't bat me away again. He moved closer, so it was easier.

"Wish I had something better to clean these with," I lamented as I poured the contents of my water bottle onto his cuts.

"They're fine," he told me. "You best be saving that water for yourself."

"It's my water supply, I'll do what I want with it," I told him. He sighed. I could feel him looking at me, and it was distracting.

"You ever get tired of patching me up?" he asked.

"No," I said. It was second nature to me at this point. I knew how much pressure on a wound he could handle, and the face he involuntarily pulled when it was too much, but he didn't want me to know about. I'd always hoped that getting out of his dad's place would mean he'd end up with fewer scrapes and bruises, but that wasn't him. All I wanted in this world was to keep Daryl safe, but he wouldn't stop putting himself in harm's way for the people he cared about, that much was clear. I felt a familiar deep pain. Like my heart was as torn up as his arms.

Wherever he went, I would be there to keep him together.

"Who were they?" I asked, in an attempt to distract both of us from the blush I could already feel creeping into my cheeks.

"They were just… scared," he said. "They were running from somebody. Never really said who."

"Think they were who the ambush was meant for?" I asked.

"Probably," he shrugged. "These guys came into the woods this morning, looking for them in these big cars… we got away okay, though."

"Did you get a good look at any of them?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, and then because he could so often tell what I was thinking, he answered a question I didn't have to ask. "None of them 'W's, though. Different group."

That was a huge relief. It had been a few days since Lucas and I had run into them, and they'd left their latest Walker uncomfortably close to Alexandria. He watched as I put a bandage over one of his worst wounds. I didn't have enough to cover all of them, so the more superficial ones would have to wait until we got back.

"I almost brought them back to Alexandria," he said.

"Really? Why?"

"There were three of them," he said. "The chick had a little sister. She needed insulin. They'd clearly been running with shitty people, just doing things because they was scared. And now they'd broken free and were trying to make it on their own. The sister died. I just… thought they might be alright in Alexandria. Might be able to rebuild themselves."

"What went wrong?"

"They pointed a gun at me and took my shit," he said. "So next time I see them, they're dead."

"I find those assholes I'm going to tear them apart with my teeth," I muttered. I'd thought my homicidal thoughts about Daryl's dad had just been because we were kids, and he was an adult who was supposed to love him. I looked up at him, caught him smiling, like what I'd said amused him, but I'd been dead serious. Looking at him now, I knew it wasn't just his dad. I'd kill anyone who meant him harm.

He smiled at me, and I felt a little rush of something in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it was relief at finding him alive, or how familiar that smile was. Maybe it was more than that. It felt like nerves. Like I was standing on the edge of something huge and trying not to fall.

I was overthinking everything, and now I stood in front of a stranger with a familiar face.

One I could not look away from.

Damn Sasha for opening this can of worms.

The way he held me in his gaze. He could look at me like nobody else in the world. When we were kids, I'd thought it was just because all we had was each other. But now he had a whole other family. And that look in his eyes was the same.

He wasn't a kid anymore, either. Neither of us were.

The future we'd spent so long talking about, planning for, this was it. We'd arrived. It looked nothing like either of us had imagined, but that felt okay. Because he was here with me. And that was infinitely better than any future where he wasn't.

And there it was. The reason I never let myself get too close to Daryl. It wasn't worth messing up what we already had by messing around with each other. He was too important.

"You alright?" he asked. "I got something on my face?"

"No," I said. I let go of him, took a few steps back. "I mean… yeah, you got some mud and blood on you, but when don't you?"

He wiped his grubby face with an even grubbier hand. It did nothing. I forced myself to look back down at his arms so I could fix on the last bandage he had. Had they always been this muscular? I could feel his eyes on me again, giving me that goddamn look.

"Okay," I took a quick step backward. Distance from him felt safe now. Let my heartbeat settle down. I hadn't even realized it had been racing. "You're done."

"Alright," he said. "Let's find a vehicle and get you home, weirdo."

We walked slowly back out of the woods. I thought he'd be more pissed off and antsy about having lost both his bike and crossbow in one fell swoop. But he seemed content, almost happy, to wander in the woods with me. Talking about nothing in particular. We walked so close to each other that the back of my hand brushed against his. I thought about what it would be like to just reach out and take it. To walk with him like that, without one of us needing to be in horrible pain or danger for it to feel acceptable.

And I didn't know how I felt about it, or what to say. So I didn't say anything.

Daryl

"Did you know Abraham was the one who insisted he get in the car with Sasha?" Naomi asked as she hopped up into the front of the fuel tank we'd found. I pushed some vines out of the way and climbed into the driver's seat. "Rick had her riding solo."

"Actually," I said. "Rick had her riding with you. But I said no."

"Why wasn't I asked?" she looked predictably indignant. Eyes narrowed at me like she was warning me not to lie to her.

"Didn't want to give you that choice, I thought you'd ditch me."

"Ah," she said. "So you could ditch me instead? Nice."

I'd walked right into that one. "I told you, I was try-"

"Trying to keep me safe," she finished like she was bored of hearing it. "I know."

She sat back, sunlight from the window streaming in and hitting her face. I noticed how tired she looked, and she stretched her shoulders out like it was the first time she'd relaxed them in a while. I thought about suggesting she get some shut-eye now, but knowing her deep aversion to being told what to do, I swallowed it back.

"Why do you think he did it?" she asked.

"Did what?"

"Insisted on going with Sasha?"

"Probably just looking out for her," I said, trying to get the car to start.

"Didn't realize they were close," she said, reaching over to help me fiddle with the wires.

"They ain't," I said, the engine coughed and then came back to life. Naomi sat back in her seat again. I looked around to try and work out the best way to navigate us out of the damn bush that had grown around it while it had been sitting here. "Think he's got a thing for her, though."

"Really? Thought he was with Rosita?"

"He is."

"Then how do you know…?"

"He wanted to be in that car to make sure she was safe," I said, too distracted by trying to reverse out of the damn weeds and branches to realize that I might be revealing more about myself more than Abraham. "You don't want to keep an eye on someone like that unless you really care. The respect he's got for her, the value he puts on what she says… the way he looks at her. It's different from how he is with Rosita."

I'd got us out onto the open road, and now I could feel her looking at me, studying me like she was seeing me in a whole new light.

"That's very astute of you, Daryl," she said. The way she said it was almost suspicious. "Didn't know you paid attention to that kind of thing."

"Got eyes, don't I?" I said, doing my very best to keep them on the road.

"I guess," she said.

"So, where am I going?" I asked.

"Back to where you threw me in the dirt," she said. I wondered if she'd ever stop holding it against me. "It ain't far from there, but I can direct you. We left you a few markers, actually. In case you were tracking us."

"So, you could've just waited for me to come and find you instead of coming all the way out here like a damn fool?"

"I tried waiting," she said. "Didn't like it."

Of course, you didn't.

There was a comfortable silence. Naomi rolled down the window on the passenger side, looking out at the passing trees.

"You think he should tell her?" I asked.

"Who?"

"Abraham," I said. "You think he should tell Sasha how he feels?"

"If that's how he feels, you mean," she said. Then she gave it some thought. "No."

"Why?" I asked. Felt my heart turn over. "Because it'll make their friendship weird if she don't feel the same?"

"No," she gave me a weird look. "Because he's still with Rosita. That ain't fair on her. Ain't fair on Sasha, either."

"Yeah, I guess." This really didn't help me gauge her opinion on whether or not one friend telling another that they had feelings for them was a good idea. "What if they broke up?"

"Then yeah, sure," she said, but she didn't sound super convinced. "Although, she told me about this guy, Bob-"

"Yeah, I knew Bob," I said. "How'd that come up?"

She looked away from me, out of the window. Something made her uncomfortable. "Don't remember. It just did."

I knew it was a lie, but I wasn't sure why she'd lie about it.

"Well, what did she say about him?"

"Just that they'd been together," she said with a shrug. "And that she'd really loved him. It sounded like she's had a hard time letting go. So… I don't know if she'd be ready to start something new."

"Maybe not," I said. This was now wildly out of the realm of anything I actually wanted to ask.

"Abraham should be so lucky to get a girl like Sasha. She's great, I like her. Hey, she ain't married to Maggie too, is she?"

She grinned at me, mocking me for the time I'd mildly freaked out about how quickly she'd taken a liking to Glenn. I rolled my eyes at her, "No, she ain't. So if Abraham bottles it, you can always ask her out instead."

"Great," she settled back into the seat, still smiling to herself. "Take a left here."

I'd known that, but I'd been distracted. I turned, passed the place where I'd left her on the road, and caught sight of what looked like two footprints in the mud close by. "Let me guess… that way?"

I pointed in the same direction they did. She nodded. "There's a building just up here…."

I noticed a metal door with the word 'Dumbass' had been scratched into it with some kind of blade. I pulled up and parked opposite it. The blinds on the second story were closed, but I saw them move like there might have been people looking out from behind them.

"That for me?" I asked, pointing at the word on the door.

"'Course it is," she said and opened up the passenger door to jump down. I climbed out the other side and went to stand next to her as we waited for the other two to come and join us.

The door opened, and Sasha and Abraham walked out, blinking in the sunlight.

"Looks like Abraham had time to do some shopping," I said, noticing his brand-new dress blues like he was some kind of marine. He also had a huge-ass bag slung over his shoulder that I was sure he hadn't been carrying before.

"Looks like a fucking dumbass," she muttered, raising her hand to shield her eyes from the sun as we watched them walk out of the office block.

"Not a fan of a guy in uniform?"

"Not particularly," she said. "Looks like Sasha might be, though…"

She raised her eyebrows with a less-than-subtle nod of her head to where they walked together. Sasha had a smile on her face that only seemed to get wider every time she glanced at him.

"Told you so," I said. Naomi stuck her tongue out at me but didn't say anything else because they were close enough to be in earshot.

"Found him then?" Abraham called over to her.

"Told you I would," she said, with a relaxed shrug. Like it had been no big deal. Like she hadn't been screaming like a banshee in the woods. Hadn't looked at me with a mix of rage and relief when she'd found me again. Hadn't held me tighter than I think she ever had before.

"Well, you'll never guess what we found," he said with a smug-ass grin.

"What?"

"Motherfucking RPGs," he said and held the bag he was carrying over his head like he'd won some kinda trophy.

"No way," I walked towards him, and he unzipped the bag so I could take a look. "They work?"

"Don't see why they wouldn't," he said.

"Alright, get them in the back," I said, taking him round to the back of the fuel truck and opening it up for him to stash them inside.

"You got fuel in here too?" Abraham said. "Shit, is this our lucky day or what?"

"Let's get this haul back," I said. His enthusiasm was infectious. We'd successfully lead a horde away from Alexandria, evaded an ambush, and were returning with weapons and fuel. It certainly felt like a damn good day.

It was cramped in the front with all of us, Naomi's thigh squished against mine and we had the windows down to stop it from getting too sweaty. I picked up the radio from the dashboard.

"Rick, you copy? Anybody?"

*garbled voice over the radio*

"Say it again?"

"Help,"

"Who was that?" Abraham asked, sitting up straight.

"Weren't Rick," I said, and tried contacting them again. "Hello? Anyone out there?"

Nothing.

A bend in the road and I slowed down. A group of guys on bikes was blocking the way. Didn't look like no accident, either. They'd been waiting for us. How long had they been watching?

"Daryl?" Sasha sat up straighter.

"Yeah, I see it," I said, but there was fuck all I could do about it now.

"What in the holy shit?" Abraham asked.

I slowed to a stop in front of them. None of us got out of the vehicle.

"Why don't you come on out?" the guy at the front said. "Join us on the road? You know, if you wanna resist, try something… I mean, it's a choice, I guess. But we will end your asses, split you right in two, straight through to the sinuses. So, come on."

There were far more of them than there were of us. Even if we tried to turn and get away, I knew most of the bikes were faster than I could get this truck to go. And we'd left the damn RPGs in the back. I switched the engine off, fought the impulse to tell Naomi to stay put. Not just because I knew she wouldn't take kindly to it, but also because I wanted her close. So I could protect her if these assholes tried anything. She gave me a look like she was warning me against giving her any kind of orders.

From now on, whatever we face. We face it together.

I opened the doors, heard Abraham do the same on his side. I stepped out, waited for Naomi to slide across the seat, and held a hand out to help her down. She jumped without taking it.

"Yeah, that's great," the Commander of the Asshole Brigade said. "It's going well right out of the gate. Now step two, hand over your weapons."

"Why should we?" I asked.

"Well, they're not yours," he said, which I took to mean this asshole now thought they were his.

"What?" Abraham said.

"See… your weapons, your truck, the fuel in your truck, if you got mints in your glove compartment, if you got porn underneath the seats, change in the seats... Hell, the seats themselves, the floor mats, your maps, the little stash of emergency napkins you got there in the console, none of those things are yours anymore."

"Whose are they?" Sasha asked.

"Your property now belongs to Negan," he stepped forward with a long dramatic pause like that should mean shit to any of us." And if you can get your hands on a taker, you're people our person wants to know. So let's get those sidearms, shall we? Right now."

He walked up to me. I handed over the pistol from my back pocket. Then he wandered over to Naomi. I saw her glaring at him, prayed that she wasn't about to mouth off. She glanced at me, seemed to get what I was thinking, and I saw her swallow some kind of retort. Thank God. She handed her weapons over, and he moved on to Sasha, thanking them both for their surrender. Abraham stared him down.

"If you have to eat shit," King of the Assholes said, "best not to nibble. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. It goes quicker."

Abraham handed his gun over, but I could feel like rage coming out of him like he was radioactive.

"Who are you people?" Sasha asked as he turned to walk back to his bike.

"I get the curiosity," he said, "but we have questions ourselves. And we'll be the ones asking them while we drive you back to wherever it is you call home. Take a gander at where you hang your hats."

Naomi stepped forward. I don't even think she meant to, it just sort of happened. There was a look on her face I hadn't seen before. This frozen kind of panic in her eyes, cold and hard as steel. I reached out, grabbed her by the wrist. Didn't want her stepping any closer to them. She stopped where she was.

"We ain't taking you anywhere," she said. Every muscle in her body was as tense as it had been when she'd been getting ready to drop off my bike.

"You're in no position to be negotiating," Commander Asshole said. "First, your shit. What have you got for us? "

"Yeah, you just took it," I told them.

"Come on," he said. "I mean, can we not, okay? There's more. There is always more. T… take my man to the back of the truck, start inside the back bumper, work your way to the front."

One of the big, burly assholes behind him got off his bike and walked towards me, giving me a shove toward the back of the truck.

"Who's Negan?" I heard Abraham ask.

Commander Asshole started going off on one about how they usually killed at least one person they met right off the bat, but I missed most of it because I was round the back of the truck with one of his goons. I made out like I was having trouble opening up the back. When the Goon bent closer to see what I was doing, I jabbed an elbow up into his dumb face. He was dazed for a moment, and I used that as a way to get behind him, one hand over his mouth to stop him from yelling anything. He tried to twist around and fling me off. Tried to get at me with a knife in his hand but couldn't see where I was, so it wound up just cutting my back. I felt it sting, felt warm blood run down it. One of my arms went around his neck, squeezing his air pipe closed.

"You don't have to do this…."I heard Sasha say. There was fear in her voice, so I guessed Commander Asshole had pulled a gun again, made some kind of threat.

Come on, fucking die already.

He choked out his last breath. I opened up the back, quiet as I could, and unzipped the bag of RPGs.

"Lemme get this straight," my heart sank as I heard Naomi pipe up, bold as brass. "You ain't Negan? You're just some little bitch collecting for a man who can't be bothered to come out here and collect for himself?"

"Shut up," I heard Abraham warn her, although I was willing to bet that the damage was done.

"Well, I guess you've made it easy picking for which one of you

Think again, asshole.

I fired the RPG. It was stronger than anything else I'd ever fired, damn near threw my shoulder out. The whole Asshole Brigade went up in smoke and flames, and my only regret was that they didn't die slow. When the smoke cleared, Sasha and Abraham picked themselves up and came, coughing round the side of the truck. Both of them grinning like fools. Looking at me like people look at Rick. Like I was some kind of hero.

"Son of a bitch was tougher than he looked," I said, nodding to the guy I'd just taken down.

"Did he cut you?" Sasha asked, noticing the blood soaking through my back.

"A little," I said. I glanced at Naomi, expecting her to have a reaction, but she was still staring at the burning mess in front of us like she couldn't hear any of us. Like she hadn't even registered that we were safe. "Will you give us a sec?"

Sasha nodded. "See you in there."

Naomi had her back to me. I reached out to put an arm around her, but when my hand brushed against her elbow, she flinched. Jumped like it was her that I'd set on fire. I pulled my arm back.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, but it was a damn obvious lie. I could see her hands were still shaking, and she didn't want to get any closer. Not even to me. I thought about all the times when she clearly hadn't been as fine as she claimed, and I'd let it slip. Not anymore. If we were really going to do this, all of this, together, I couldn't have any more damn space between us.

"Nah, you ain't," I said, and I stepped in front of her. She looked at me then, and her eyes were sadder than I thought they'd be.

"I just… I couldn't let them take our home," she said. "Not again."

Again. I knew this was about Terminus, and whatever had happened to her there.

"They ain't taking anything," I said.

"Could be more of them out there," she said. "Whoever the hell Negan is, he's gotta have more guys, right? What if they come looking for these asswipes?"

"We'll be long gone by then," I said. "Ain't nobody gonna take your home, Naomi. Anyone who tries is going to end up like these sorry assholes. I promise you that."

She looked at me then, slowly coming back into the present. I thought she might warn me against making promises like that when none of us had any idea what was coming, but for once, she didn't fight me on it. Just looked at me with this total and complete trust in her eyes.

"I got a cut," I blurted out. Wouldn't usually have told her about it, but there was something in the way she was looking at me that made me want to.

"Where?" her eyes scanned my face like she was looking for it there.

"My back," I said. Where all of the other scars she'd patched up were. "Will you look at it when we get home?"

"Of course," she said, and she looked surprised that I'd asked. I guess I was too. I'd never tell her, but she had a way of making things hurt less.

"Home?" I asked.

"Home," she nodded and climbed up into the truck to sit next to Sasha.

We were all tired, and it was a long way back to Alexandria. Although the sun was setting, the car was warm and quiet. I felt something brush against my shoulder. Naomi had fallen asleep, her head tilted towards me. Another bump in the road and then she rested there properly. Sasha caught my eye.

"Want me to move her?" she whispered.

"Nah, let her be," I said. "I can still drive this thing, and it ain't far now."

"Okay," Sasha nodded. "Don't think she slept last night."

I wanted to ask why, but I already knew. I'd have been the same way.

"Neither did I," Abraham said. "And you don't see me snoozing now."

But he yawned and rested his forehead against the window next to him. I saw Sasha smiling to herself.

By the time we got back to Alexandria, it was dark. The windows were still down. We could hear gunshots. Screaming. The smell of Walkers wafted into the truck.

"What the hell is going on?" Naomi sat up, looking around like she'd just woken up inside one of her nightmares. I stopped by the gates. Nobody opened them for us, but through the gaps, I could see that Alexandria was overrun with Walkers.

"Get up on the roof," I told them. "See what's going on. Get this gate open."

Abraham opened his

"Naomi," I reached to catch her arm, but she was further away than I thought, so I wound up grabbing her hand instead. She turned to me, a fiery warning in her eyes like she thought she knew what I was about to say. "Be careful out there."

She gave me a big and brilliant smile, "You too."

I let go. Heard her climb up to join Sasha and Abraham. A fresh round of yelling and gunfire from the top, and then the gates opened. Glenn ran out, made his way round to the side of the truck.

"What the hell happened?" I asked as he jumped in to join me.

"I don't know," he said. "I just got back. We can… we can lead some of them away, but they're scattered."

"No," I said. "We get 'em all together. Won't have to lead them away."

"How?"

"Get everyone off the roof," I told him. "We need to get to the lake."

Glenn leaned out of the window and yelled for everyone to get down. I could see Naomi ahead of me, already fighting her way through the gates. I resisted the urge to tell her to jump in where it was safer and resolved just to get this done as fast as I could, so she wouldn't need to fight for long. The living leaped out of the way as we sped through Alexandria, the dead did their damndest to slow me down.

I backed the fuel truck up to the small artificial lake in the middle of the town. I jumped out and ran to the back while Glenn switched into the driver's seat. Pulling out the hose, I dumped as much fuel into the water as I could. Then I grabbed an RPG and climbed on top.

"Alright, that's it," I smacked the top of the truck to let Glenn know I was done. He drove forward a couple of feet and then stopped. I turned and fired the RPG at the water. The fuel caught immediately, sending a ball of fire right up into the sky. I watched it spread out across the top of the lake, bright light bathing all of the houses nearby.

The Walkers closest to it all turned, distracted, and started heading towards it. Right into the first. The ones who didn't were so few and far between that it was easy to take them out.

Noami found me again when it was all done. Covered in blood and Walker guts, tired and breathing hard, she stood beside me. Watched them burn. The heat warmed us both as the flames rose high into the sky. Some higher than the damn houses.

"Hey, Daryl?" she said. I looked at her, flames reflected in her eyes, and it was much prettier to watch them burn that way. She said it real quiet and looked calm, but there was a small frown that creased her forehead, one she only gets when she's real deep in thought. It made me kinda nervous about what she might be about to say.

"Yeah?"

"I ain't gonna leave this place without telling you again," she said. "Not even for a quick run."

Relief lifted my tired heart.

"You ain't gotta do that," I said, although it was all I'd wanted to hear since I'd found that burned-out car on the side of the road.

"I want to," she said. She still wouldn't look at me, just kept staring at the flames. "When I thought… when I couldn't find you… Damn near lost my mind."

It's easy to forget when you're caught up in loving someone that they can care about you too. Even if it might not be in the way you want.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "Ain't ever seen you look like that."

"Just got me thinking," she said. "I don't ever want to make you feel that way again. So I can't promise I ain't going to go out there, but I promise to let you know when I do."

"Deal," I whispered, put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to my side. She rested her head on me, and I felt her sigh. Tired now that the battle was done. So many people around us, but it still managed to feel like it was just us two. Caught in a fragile little bubble that could burst at any second when shit hit the fan or one of us got called away.

"I should take a look at that cut on your back," she said. "Don't want to leave it too long in case it gets infected."

"Okay," I said. The streets were clearing out. Most of the bodies littering the ground were Walkers that had been taken out. Everyone else was congregating in little pockets around Alexandria, checking on each other, trying to work out who'd been lost.

"I'm only seeing the most severely injured," Denise said when we approached her. Since Pete died, she'd taken over as our resident medic. She'd always been kind of nervous about it, and I could imagine the number of injured today was a real test of her skills. "I don't have time to…"

I felt dumb for letting Naomi drag me here when all I had was a scratch compared to some folks. I turned to tell her that, but she'd already squeezed past Deinse to get to the supplies.

"It's okay," Naomi assured her. "I can do it, and I know what I need. When I'm done, I'll bring it right back, and then I can help you out with some of your other patients."

"Alright," she said, too flustered to argue. I waited by the side of the house, and she emerged a few minutes later with some supplies.

"I think you'll need stitches," she said, "C'mon."

She led me back to my own house. It was quiet. I could hear people inside and hoped she wouldn't suggest going in. I didn't much want an audience for this. But she didn't, she got that. She just made me stand out on the porch, in a place where the light from inside helped her see what she was doing. From there, we could still see the dying flames across the lake. Alexandria was starting to fall quiet as people dealt with the aftermath of all it had been through that day. I lifted up my shirt, let her take a look.

"This'll sting," she warned me like she always did. It never felt as bad as she seemed to worry it would. She was always quick and gentle. The way she touched me was kind of soothing, too. Even as I felt her stitch me up after she'd cleaned the cut, it wasn't so bad. I still felt safe with her. Safe enough to let her see me like this. She was right; from now on, whatever we faced, we would face it together. It really felt like we could get through anything. Maybe that even included staying friends if she didn't feel the same about me. She cared about me more than anyone else in my life ever had. Maybe that was enough.

"Hey, uh… you wanna get dinner?" I asked, trying to sound like the thought had just occurred to me, rather than being one I'd been running over in my head for weeks.

She laughed. "Smell of cooking Walkers making you hungry?"

"Oh," I said. "Uh… Didn't mean right now."

"What?" she said, and I felt her pause, lifted her fingers slightly from my back. "Because I am pretty hungry actually, and I think Eric might-"

"I just, uh… thought we could get dinner sometime," I cleared my throat, tried to sound like this wasn't a big deal, and she could say no without worrying about it. "Maybe get a rabbit, some squirrel. Cook it up like we used to."

"Oka-ay," she said slowly like she didn't get why I was asking so formally to do something we'd done so many times before. She went back to wiping the blood off me now that the stitches were in.

"And… uh…" I cleared my throat again. "I thought it could maybe… just be us?"

"Oh," surprise softened her voice. I felt her pause again, waiting for me to follow up with some insult or name-calling. When I didn't, she said, "Yeah. That sounds nice. Like old times."

I think she was smiling. It sounded like she was smiling.

"Alright," I said, smiling too. Felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. I knew Naomi hadn't understood what I'd just asked or where it had come from. That what I'd really meant had gotten lost under all of my hesitating and throat-clearing. But that didn't matter. I'd find the right time to make it clear to her. When the dust had settled on all of this, when the dead had been buried and the walls put back up around Alexandria, I'd make sure it was just the two of us. And far away from where anyone else could butt in or eavesdrop, maybe I'd stand a chance of getting it out.