Theme Song: "Are You With Me" - Trapt

The two men sprung around the corner of the large tree that concealed their very feeble and slender frames. One had dark salt and peppered hair and looked homeless with a beard and the other man was a bit more stout and broad shouldered with cropped blondish brown hair. I didn't recognize either of them and if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought they were walkers as they looked so nasty.

The man with the beard sent a right hook to Daryl, as they had caught us both unawares. His bow was lost from his hands the moment he was hit. I was so engrossed in Daryl getting hit that I didn't even see the punch to my jaw coming from the larger man. For sickly men, they were lightening fast.

I fell to the ground and instantly felt the intense pain shoot from my jaw all the way to my hairline. I saw stars and almost got sick from the sheer force. I looked up in time to see Daryl was straddling the first man and had already jammed his hunting knife under the bearded man's chin and straight through his mouth. I noticed they were near the edge of the drop off and had probably rolled in their scuffle.

I whipped my head towards the stockier of the two. My attention was now to the second threat, who was picking up Daryl's crossbow and aiming at Daryl who had his back to the man. Cold dread flooded my veins as well as adrenaline. Fight or Fight. There was no other option. And I was not going to let Daryl be killed by his own crossbow.

I pushed up off the ground without a second thought and ran full speed towards the man. In the exact moment that I tackled him, Daryl had turned around to see his own bow being pointed at him. However, my body collided with the man's in that precise moment and since they had been so close to the drop off, well, I already knew what was going to happen the moment I slammed into him.

The man grunted and we tumbled down the steep edge together down to the creek, the bow flying over my head and landing in the shallow water below. I defensively tucked my head in close and allowed gravity to take me down the edge. I felt every rock and twig that cut or bruised me and right before I hit the water my head nailed a stray branch jutting from the Earth. My body collapsed into the water with a splash. I blinked a few times before hearing another splash nearby.

I looked up, slightly disoriented and my eyes widened in fear as the burly man was getting to his feet. I could hear a shout from above coming from Daryl and he was already coming down the cliff as fast as he could without hurting himself. He wasn't going to get to me in time. I had to act and now! I pushed up with a surge of urgency and saw the man look towards the bow. It was closer to me and I knew I could get to it first, but it didn't stop him from charging towards the bow.

I wrapped my hands around the bow with sweet victory, breathed in and whipped it around to face the man just as Daryl had taught me in our training. Without blinking, I fired and the arrow hit him in his right eye. He stumbled slightly, gurgling incomprehensibly before falling into the shallow water with a thud.

I sat there on my butt for a brief moment, dazed, until Daryl had made it down and ran towards me, stopping only to see the man was lying still in the water. He immediately crouched down to me. It was then I could feel the warmth running down the side of my head and winced lightly. Daryl's face was a mix between panic and fear as he hesitantly put a hand to my face, "Ya' alright?" His voice was low, but I could tell the situation had stirred a frenzy in him. That made the both of them.

I nodded before taking his hand that he offered me to get me to my feet. "Think it was jus' the two of 'em." He muttered, looking at me in a way that made me slightly uncomfortable. There was anger and pride in his face.

I started to wipe away the blood that had trickled down from my gash, bending down to wash off my hands, before looking to him proudly as it sunk in what I had done. He kicked the dead man over and yanked his arrow from his eye and paused at my next words.

"Those lessons really paid off, huh?" However, when I looked back up to him he wasn't smiling. He was staring at me with a steely gaze, "What the hell ya' do that for, huh?" His tone was now full of upset and he switched from hot to cold on a dime.

I cocked my head to the side and looked to him dumbfounded, "What? I had to kill him-" He was shaking his head and cut me off, "Not what I'm talkin' 'bout!" His words slowly sunk in and I scoffed, not believing what I was actually hearing.

"You mean save your life? Uh-I don't know, because you were in trouble and I just reacted." I bit back to him in a pissy way and he frowned. I also saw his right hand twitch. Oh, he was mad now. How ungrateful of him!

He yelled now, heated and severely pissed, "I don't need no one dyin' for me. I don't need no damn savin'." It didn't take me but a few seconds to piece together what he was feeling. It was pretty clear that Daryl was a fighter, but he didn't want anyone dying for him.

Given the track record of Sophia and Beth, he was not having any more burdens placed on his shoulders. I saw the way he looked and if I wasn't so pissed off at him for being ungrateful, I'd probably have felt something more than anger for his conflicted emotions. I'd probably have felt more understanding, but in the moment I couldn't feel anything other than frustration and anger.

My hands trembled and I balled them into fists at my side that didn't go unnoticed by Daryl. "You are every bit as worth saving as any of the others." I now pointed my finger back towards the direction of the prison angrily. I paused, allowing him to take in my words. "I can see it. Why can't you?" I could tell my tone was full of disappointment, but impactful all the same.

I found my feet already moving back towards the cliff side. My heart was hammering in my chest and I hated that Daryl felt that way about himself.

Daryl stood up straighter, rooted to the spot and unable to really say anything back. He looked perplexed by my words. "Where ya' goin, now?" He asked, his accent pouring on thick.

I huffed and gestured towards the woods behind Daryl, "I'm going back up, but be my guest if you want to stay here with those guys." Daryl turned around in time to see two male walkers stumbling out towards the creek.

I walked past Daryl now and upon getting to the cliff side, I dug my hands into the ground and started to climb back up. He didn't say a word, nor did he kill the stray walkers. He shouldered his crossbow and headed over to where I was at. I was nimble and quick, given my strength in climbing at the circus, and I made it to the top without dropping a sweat.

I could have swore I heard Daryl mutter something about me being a little spider monkey, but I didn't look back down at him. I could only concentrate at the task at hand, lest I pop off and say something else to Daryl that I might regret later.

It wasn't until Daryl was basically to the top that I reached my hand out and he took it hesitantly. When I pulled him up he briefly looked at me. He then brushed past me and went to dig through the pockets of the bearded man, not finding much. They didn't even have guns on them.

"Recognize them?" He asked gruffly while standing back up and looking to me briefly. I shook my head, "No, they aren't anyone I know. They looked..sickly and deranged." I recalled the wild flash in the burly man's eyes and it wasn't the typical wild..it was deranged wild. Demented. They had been out in the woods for too long probably.

I wondered briefly if I would have ended up like them. I silently looked to my hands for a moment as I realized I had killed another person. I didn't let my thoughts linger on it for too long. This world was different now..and they all had to fight to survive. Fight for it..or die trying.

"C'mon, let's get back. I got a butterfly stitch in the first aid." I nodded and we walked back to the truck in silence. The tension between us was still thick and I chose to keep quiet back to the truck. Once we were finally there, Daryl wasted no time in popping out the first aid kit from the backseat and motioning for me to lean against the side of the truck.

He closed the space between us and he worked at the side of my head, only allowing his eyes to drift down to mine twice. I found myself looking up to his pools of blue eyes and staring. If he noticed, he didn't say anything as he cleaned the wound and patched me up.

My jaw was killing me and he glanced down at it for a moment as if he knew. He frowned, "Yer' already turnin' colors down there." I nodded lightly as he worked, "I'll survive."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek before saying suddenly, "For a roughneck you have pretty eyes." He froze mid dab, looking down to meet my eyes now for the third time. I smirked up at him silently.

However, he recovered quickly and scoffed while muttering sarcastically, "I'm startin' to think ya' hit your head a lot harder than I thought." I couldn't help but chuckle at this and he quickly backed out of my bubble, putting space between us as I reached tentatively to feel the wound.

There was a sobering moment between us as we stood there. He came and leaned against the truck next to me. We were silent as the events of the day washed over us. At least we had come out of it unscathed. My body was going to be severely sore tomorrow, but it was better than the alternative. Better than Daryl dying by his own bow.

"C'mon Red, let's go." I stopped in my tracks by the name Red and quirked a brow at him. Despite the tension, Daryl took a step towards me while reaching his hand out to my long auburn brown locks. He used his middle finger and thumb to flick large pieces of hair near my shoulder.

"Suits ya'." He muttered. I realized he meant my hair color, the fading dark auburn locks. I concluded his temper was mostly gone judging by the way he was acting.

I watched as he opened the door to the truck and slid the first aid kit back in with a coy smile. To the lighten the mood even more I spoke up again, "Wow, a nickname. I'm such a lucky girl." My tone was slightly sarcastic and he shot me a look while rolling his eyes. "Get in the damn truck, Red. Before I change it to tick for bein' a pain my ass." I watched as him, shaking his head while a little smirk pulled at his lips.

I rounded the truck and got in quickly as he unloaded the squirrels in the truck bed. I grabbed a protein bar from the cup holder that I had been stashing and started to eat silently as he drove away. "Gonna' have to tell Rick about that. He ain't gonna' like it." Daryl murmured in thought as he drove out of the gravel drive. The sun was now high and it was probably mid-afternoon. I could tell the random strangers had not only shaken me, but Daryl as well.

"Let's just hope they aren't part of a bigger group, but I doubt it." I added. He grunted lightly and continued to drive before looking over at me a short time later while I ate, doing a very quick and non-chalant once over from my legs and up to my face. "Ya' always eat. Don't know where ya' put it..."

He seemed annoyed at the crinkling wrapper so I quickly shoved it off the rest of the bar and said, "My hips mostly." He muttered something I couldn't hear, but I could of swore he said something about my big fat head and it made me smile to myself.

I held my hand out to him as he drove, offering him a piece and not even bothering to look as I stretched my boots up on the dashboard. "Gimme that.." He muttered and took the piece I offered him. I hid my smirk behind my locks of hair and watched as the winding road drifted on before us.

"I saved your life today." I said smugly, smirking now and raising my chin at him. He shook his head while saying, "I had it under control." His voice was defensive and rough, yet I smiled and added, "Uh-huh. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

It was the same line he'd used on me the night I had my night terrors and he seemed to have made the correlation, "Watch it, girl."

Like a cat sitting beneath an open window, I closed my eyes, reveling in the feel of the sun as it dried out my still damp clothes. A few moments later I got that feeling that I was being watched and I looked over at Daryl as he stared at me with a look that I couldn't quite comprehend.

Under his scrutiny, I shrugged my shoulder, suddenly feeling self-conscious, "What?" I asked. He seemed to be shaken from his thoughts and cleared his throat, "Ya' did good back there. With my bow, I mean." I felt my smile escape me, "I had a good teacher."

He looked over to me with those beady blue eyes and then back towards the road. I looked away and closed my eyes in the sunlight once more. Though I couldn't see him, there were times on the ride back to the prison that I could I feel his piercing blue eyes upon me. And in those moments I couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was he was thinking.