Theme Song: "Surrender" - Natalie Taylor

Author's Note: This theme song though... *heart eyes*

¤

It had been an hour or two of stark quiet and I stretched my legs, getting up from the love seat and somehow finding my boots taking me into the dining room.

Daryl looked up to me and I shrugged, "All quiet on my end. Need company?"

Daryl shifted on the window and pulled his legs up as an answer and I took the spot opposite of him. "I can see yer' area from here too."

He nodded in the yard and I noticed from his point of view he could see the area I'd been watching from the living room.

I furrowed my brows and looked back to him, "You just sat me up in there to give me something to do, huh?"

He smirked lightly, "Ya' were insistent on takin' watch and the back is all locked up. Ain't no one gettin' in unless it's from the front. I got it covered all from this spot."

I smiled lightly and let the rifle rest against the wall beside her for quick access. It was quiet for a brief moment before I spoke without thinking, "I'm sorry..for before. The fight.." 

I let my words trail off and Daryl eyed me wearily, his blue eyes reading me in a way that felt more than just a friendly glance.

"Nah, I was an ass, Red. Shouldn't 'ave yelled at ya'." I nodded lightly, accepting his apology, but I realized the tension between us had thickened considerably.

I swallowed, pushing my semi-damp locks away from my face.

"Didn't mean it..what I said." Daryl stated roughly, looking at me intently before looking back out the window.

His bow was resting in his lap, but his hands were ready to grab it and pop a bolt off if needed.

"What part?" I asked lowly, my throat tightening as the conversation continued to drift towards dangerous territory.

As he continued to look outside, I could see what he saw; the stillness of the night, the stars outside twinkling and the silence.

The silence was deafening and I felt relieved we were making small talk within themselves, despite it being about the fight.

"All of it." Daryl finally murmured, his gravelly voice thick with a different tone and I nodded lightly, taking in his apology and feeling better now that it had been laid out on the table.

"I never thanked you..risking your life for that medicine. You saved my life."

He blew out a breath and shook his head with a rueful smirk, "It's kinda' our thing, Red. Savin' each other's asses."

He looked over to me now, the smirk still plastered on his face.

I felt the fluttering of odd things inside her belly at this rueful smirk, "So, we have a thing now?" 

I quirked a brow his way and his blue eyes pierced mine in way that seemed he was actually considering they might have a thing.

Even though the moonlight was the only thing that kept anything lit up in the bay window, I could see those blue eyes as clear as day.

He groaned lightly and shook his head, but he never once disagreed with me and I smiled wider as I leaned my head against the window.

The minutes ticked by and Daryl shifted as if he were uncomfortable, but I noticed he had looked at me once or twice in between the shifts of his movements.

His eyes weren't predatory by any means, but he looked to me curiously, taking in my semi-damp hair and just..all of me; alive and well...sitting and talking like we used to.

However, there was something lying under the surface of his demeanor and I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was.

After a while the conversation had drifted to the textile plant and I laughed lightly as Daryl spoke of being underneath the shitty ass grates and how bad it smelled.

It was anything but funny, but the way he told the story made me chuckle.

After all, Daryl wasn't the cleanliness of people so if it smelled like shit then it had to have been bad. 

I remembered an odor while being in the textile plant, but I imagined being underneath with the trash that was probably down there had been awful.

After a moment I shook my head again recalling the moment I really thought Daryl was gone.

A wave of emotions passed me and Daryl must have noticed because he looked to me again as I looked down at my hands, rubbing them together nervously.

"I-I thought you were gone."

My voice broke at the end and Daryl responded quickly to ease my fears, "I was fine, Red."

"I wasn't."

Those two words escaped my lips and my voice was hoarse as I said them. I had to swallow past the lump in my throat and when I met his eyes, I knew he saw it.

He saw the despair that was in my green eyes, the raw emotion that someone had been completely shattered that they thought Daryl Dixon had died.

He stared at me with an intensity that had me looking away and down at my hands again. I absentmindedly wiped my eyes as they threatened to spill over, but I stopped them immediately.

No, no crying.

He was here. He was safe.

Daryl is with me.

When I looked back he was staring out the window and the conversation stopped suddenly for a while.

That is until Daryl looked back at me, "Didn't know if you were gonna' make it either."

I looked up to him and smirked, trying to lighten the mood, "Oh, I can't be beat by a little infection."

He snorted, "Ya' call that a little infection?"

He nodded towards the bandage on my left arm and I looked to it with a shrug, "I call it a war wound. Ya' know..another scar for the books."

He smirked before letting his eyes rest on the scar on my eyebrow.

I smiled lightly, "This one doesn't count. I got that pre-walkers, remember?"

He nodded lightly, another jerky movement and he looked out the window before murmuring, "Got plenty of 'em too."

I froze and I knew he was speaking of the ones on his back. The ones I wasn't supposed to see that day in the creek, but accidentally did anyways.

"I saw..at the creek." I trailed off, picking at a stray piece of string on her camisole and pulling it out.

The strand growing longer as I tried to find the sweet spot to yank it out. I already knew he had tensed up even though I wasn't touching him or looking at him. 

I just knew him too damn well.

"Thought you said no peekin' that day?" I felt the tension dissolve upon his words.

I looked up upon yanking the string off my camisole and dropping it to the floor below them.

Daryl had long since let his hands drift away from the bow since the quiet night continued.

He moved them to rest atop of the bow instead and he peered at me from under a stray lock of hair.

He ground his teeth nervously as I protested in a heated whisper, "I didn't mean to! It was an accident-I mean.."

He smirked now, "Ain't gotta' get defensive." I shoved my boot at him and made contact with his shin. I  saw him chuckle lightly.

"I just mean..I saw them. I-no," I stopped short and realized I was about to say the standard statement that everyone said..'Oh, I understand.' 

I didn't understand. I never would because I didn't have the life he had.

"No, I don't understand because I didn't have your life exactly, but I guess I just mean I get it...what you've told me about your life when you were younger. I guess I had an idea of what you meant that day we talked in the cabin..after the dog attacked. But, I didn't really know to what extent."

Daryl shrugged lightly, "It is what it is." He obviously still held some pent up emotions towards his father and Merle, but I'd never push him to talk about that stuff unless he offered.

He kept it buried down deep and I felt the most I got from him was probably more than he had ever told anyone in the group. 

I bit my lower lip in thought about that day at the creek...when I had buttoned his shirt and how intimate it had felt, despite us not even touching.

It got quiet again for a while, but throughout the next couple of hours we had minimal conversation ranging from the walkers, to Rick and the others, the train tracks and oddly enough all the pets I ever owned.

Daryl had told me about a dog he found one day as a stray.

He was sickly and they sure as shit didn't have the money to take care of it, but Daryl pleaded with his mother to hang up signs or ask around for a good home so they could cure him.

A woman in a local grocery saw the sign that Daryl and Merle had hung up the morning after he had been found.

Merle said on numerous occasions that he hated the stupid mutt, but Daryl claimed he saw Merle feeding it bits of scraps the few days they had it and talking to it in a low voice so no one else would hear.

And then the woman came to pick up the dog so she could it the attention it needed at the vet.

When Daryl had to give the dog to the woman he admitted he cried like a pansy, but the dog laid his head on Daryl's shoulders as a way of thanking him for taking him in and out of the cold.

Daryl claimed the dog watched him out the back window as the woman drove away down the dirt road and back to the city.

He admitted that even as a kid he wished someone like that woman would have rescued him from the shit life he had and drive him away.

He envied the dog, but he also wouldn't have wished his life on anyone.

And being around his father, he knew the dog would have wound up dead. Giving it away was the best decision, despite crying his ass off.

I was quiet for a moment before I shook head to try and lighten the mood, "Don't even compare yourself to a stray dog, Daryl."

He looked up at me and smirked lightly, a small chuckle escaped his lips and I continued, "You're more like a lone wolf."

He seemed to appreciate this, despite them having just talked about something from his past.

He knew I understood the gravity to the story, but I didn't want to linger on the bad stuff for too long.

"Lone wolf, huh?" He added with a raised brow and continued, "Guess that makes you part of the wolf pack then?" 

I smiled brightly, "Uh, duh! Who else is going to get your ass out of trouble?"

He scoffed, blowing out a breath as if my statement was ridiculous, "Nah, yer' the one that needs a watchin'. Yer' trouble, Red."

I smirked knowing he was right and got up to grab a few rations of food. In particular, we had an old protein bar that was half eaten.

Probably Daryl taking a bite and then putting it back.

I shrugged and grabbed it before walking back over to where Daryl sat,

As I reached the bay window my right boot hit a lip in the floor that was uneven and askew from the rest of the floor.

I clumsily fell forward with a small string of curse words, but Daryl was already off the bay window in a flash, his bow clattering to the floor.

Since I had been so close to him I fell directly into him, my hands grabbed his shoulders, but my face had landed on his chest.

There was a brief moment where my hands were gripping his shoulders and I lifted my head off him and looked down to my boots, letting it hang lightly knowing my cheeks were burning up.

Daryl's hands had ended up underneath my arms, steadying me.

"If the walkers don't get ya', yer' own two damn feet will, Red."

His words weren't mean, but they held an exasperated tone and a part of him was also giving me a hard time.

And then a ripple of giggles escaped me. It was an unknown sound and one that I hadn't done in a while.

They carried on lowly and I tried to stifle them the best I could, but my chest exploded with laughter, heaving up and down at my clumsy self.

I looked up, my hands still gripping his shoulders and his hands were still under my arms, but when I met his blue eyes I saw the coy smile on his face as I laughed.

It was the first time we had been in such a close proximity in a while..like this. Touching. And in each other's personal space.

When our eyes met something softened in Daryl like I hadn't seen before..something started to break and I saw before my eyes that the walls that Daryl put up were crumbling.

Slowly, but they were crumbling nonetheless.

His hands on me spread a fire within me and the static between us was practically crackling. I knew he could feel it too. His entire demeanor changed and I realized why he was acting so off earlier.

Daryl had been uncomfortable because he was trying to work out his feelings for me.

And maybe having these near death experiences had added some kind of impact in the way we both felt about each other, more so now than ever before.

"Well, you're stuck with me. Clumsy feet and all." I murmured with another laugh and a smile.

He smiled down at me appreciatively, as if being stuck with me wasn't the worst thing in the world.

His blue eyes captured my green ones in a way that I had never seen before. My breath caught my in throat as he held me there.

He still didn't let go and he looked as if part of him didn't want to let go.

Like ever.

I had to get away..or else I was going to do something foolish and ruin the moment. 

I pulled away first, ending the intense moment and straightened my camisole nervously.

His hands pulled away from me and left a trail of electricity all down my arms.

I could hear him clear his throat and he averted his eyes as he always did when embarrassed.

"Can you believe I used to be light on my feet?" I asked jokingly and realized we were still close to one another since Daryl hadn't moved from his spot.

"Ya' still are." He muttered while I grabbed my protein bar. Before I took a bite I looked to him with confused eyes, "What do you mean?"

I bit into it and he smirked, "Back at the prison I used to watch ya' sometimes. When ya' trained. Ya' still got it, Red. Ya' ain't lost it."

Daryl looked bashful, if Daryl Dixon could look that way and he flushed a crimson color as he admitted he watched me train. 

I found myself gazing at Daryl softly.

He had watched me.. And not creepily watched me..just watched me. 

Before I could retort, a clearing of a throat broke us apart and I whirled around to Calvin rubbing his eyes and having a bad case of bedhead with his still freshly clean hair.

"Oh, Calvin." I stated quickly and Calvin looked a little embarrassed as his face flushed from his neck to his cheeks.

"Oh, hey. Uh, I-uh I was going to take watch for a bit. If ya'll wanna go relax or rest up. It's been a few hours..so.."

I hadn't realized it had been so long since we had taken watch, but the time had passed so quickly with Daryl, as it usually did.

Daryl nodded curtly and grabbed his bow off the floor before making his way up the stairs and not saying a peep to me as he walked past. 

I bit my lip and when he was out of ear shot Calvin threw his hands in the air silently and I gave him a warning look.

When Daryl's footsteps were gone Calvin stalked towards me, despite my warning look seconds ago and shook his head, "You just need to tell him how you feel. He's stubborn as a mule, remember?"

I opened my mouth to protest and then closed it quickly. I grumpily took the last bite of my protein bar so I wouldn't have to say anything to Calvin, but he smirked as I looked resigned, knowing he was right.

I handed off my rifle to him, "It's been clear so far, wake us up in a few hours. And if you see anything, get us up."

He nodded a few times, "Yeah, of course." 

I disappeared up the stairs silently grinding my teeth and feeling my heart beating erratically from feeling as if I had been caught doing something with Daryl I shouldn't have.

When I reached my room I didn't dare go to the other end of the hallway where I knew Daryl was at.

I lingered in the doorway for a brief moment before walking in the room and feeling a little tired again.

None of us ever slept soundly for more than four to five hours at a time so their shifts were a bit off, unlike we had been at the prison.

But, we also didn't have fortified walls and a large group anymore.

I knew Daryl probably wasn't sleeping, but he just retreated like a cat to his quarters so he could be alone.

I curled up on the bed on top of the covers, boots on and all after placing my sickles on the night table next to me. 

I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until I was being shaken awake some time later.