Author's Note: The song below though..man what a good one! Always makes me think of Walking Dead. Especially now a certain pairing.. ;) Vickyl! Enjoy a more lengthy chapter! And definitely don't skip it..I mean it's a Vickyl centered chapter..we all love those! :D

Theme Song: "War" - Poets of The Fall

We ran for what felt like hours, but it really wasn't. It was still a long ass time. My feet were aching, burning even, but I kept going with Daryl. We ran until we collapsed where the woods ended and a highway began, which on the other side of the highway the forestry began again. There was a lone truck on the highway, but I didn't care to look for supplies just yet.

I lay there, catching my breath and Daryl leaned up against a tree not too far from me. We didn't speak a single word to one another, both of us trying to catch our breath and not hyperventilate. I rolled silently onto my side so that I wasn't facing Daryl and then pushed myself up into a sitting position.

My breath caught and the days happenings hit me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to cry, wanted to scream even, but I stayed silent. However, I didn't want him to see me...didn't want him to see the horrified and weak look I had on my face.

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Hershel...my insides swarmed and I almost threw up, but cleared my throat and pushed it all back down.

Finally, I turned slowly to look at Daryl, who had been staring at my back. I saw the defeated look on his face, the hardened mask that he put on so well. He was void of emotions until he got good glimpse of my face.

The bruises that lined them..the fading one on my jaw, and the split lip. Daryl looked away quickly as if he couldn't take seeing me like that. I understood..I could barely look at myself in the mirror that one day at the house.

"Ya' alright.." He muttered lowly and I nodded numbly. "Need to rest up, check tha' truck out there for supplies an' hole up in there overnight." His voice was not his own and he was already going into survival mode. It wasn't near night time, but it was clear Daryl didn't want to walk anymore today.

We back tracked walked further into the forest and set up a camp, but at the sliver of the evening, Daryl said we would hole up in the truck. I didn't speak, but just nodded obediently at everything he said.

My body and my mind were in shock. Shock from what I had seen..shock from the emotions I felt. Daryl was closed off and besides asking if I was alright, he didn't speak at all for hours.

Later in the afternoon, we looked in the duffel and the backpack and we counted out the rations we had and the water. Daryl had brought her backpack with him on the journey over to Juno and I didn't say anything, but just that little sentiment meant something to me.

"Your bike?" I asked hoarsely, rubbing my sore wrists before popping a squat on the ground and Daryl hovering nearby, his knees pulled to his chest.

"Couldn't get to it. Didn't have much gas left anyhow. Wouldn't 'ave gotten us far." He was abrupt with his sentences and he barely met my gaze. I nodded, pulling my own knees to my chest and placing my chin ontop of them. "The others?" I ventured without looking at him.

When he didn't respond I let my eyes linger upon his guarded blue ones. He shrugged, "Jus' gone." He roughly bit out before looking down at his boots and not uttering a single thing more.

He had shut himself off. Clearly, everything we had just been through was still digesting. We had a family. We had a community in the making and now we had nothing. We were on our own.

As the afternoon turned to dusk, Daryl went with me to go make sure the truck was clear. The truck was big and rather spacious and I wondered if this had been one of Daniel's men's vehicles. Regardless, we were callimg it ours for the night.

It had a step bar to get up into the cab and it was lifted ever so slightly. It had a front seat and a backseat and the bed of the truck was piled up with random things. However, it had dents and dings galore like it had been through hell and back. Once upon a time, this had been a nice ass truck.

"Ain't a trunk, but it'll do." Daryl stated looking at the truck with distaste. I understood though, a trunk would have kept us completely hidden. Being in a truck was a little risky, we were more exposed.

When dusk came, we were both in the backseat. I sat down on the floorboard, leaning my back against the door. Daryl was laying on the seat, his crossbow and rifle handy. As long as we were pretty quiet, nothing would find us.

"You need to sleep too." I spoke up bravely as Daryl stared up at the roof of the truck. "'M, fine." He bit out in an annoyed way. I was facing him in my spot on the floorboard and I could see even in the darkness that fell upon us in the sky, he was awake.

His eyes staring up and his hands fidgeting with his red hankerchief. The events wore us both thin, my own eyes started to get extremely heavy and I realized they were filling with tears. Neither of us talking about what happened was bad. It wasn't bad right now, but it would be bad. It would be explosive and neither of us could handle more arguments.

Not that I wanted to talk about what happened down to the details, but my heart was growing more full of unrelenquished pain by the second. I was human, and though I was strong, my mind kept replaying the image of Hershel over and over.

A stray tear slipped out and I looked down quickly at my hands. An involuntary sob escaped my lips, my emotions refused to be silent. Daryl sat up now and he eyed me for a brief moment as he knew she was crying. I could feel his gaze upon me like a hawk.

The tension in the cab thickened and he looked slightly angry, "Can't handle this shit.." He muttered aloud before pushing off the seat and hopping out of the cab. I heard the truck door close and I flinched at the impact. I stayed still for a long moment, maybe fifteen mimutes tops.

When I didn't hear footsteps walking away I crawled out of my side of the truck and lowered myself down on shaky boots. I pushed thick strands of reddish brown hair out of the way of my face as some clung to my cheeks from sticking to the tears.

When I rounded the side of the truck, I saw Daryl leaning up against the wheel. He was sitting, his knees up against his chest and his head was bowed so that his face was obscured. His hair was a matted mess of sweat and grime and he was breathing heavily.

I felt so many emotions run through me all at once. Regret. Hurt. Loss. Sadness. Pain.

All of it started to smolder within me, threatening to erupt. He didn't look up at me, but he did lift his head slightly, looking out into the darkness of the night. This was dangerous though. We needed to get back inside as soon as possible.

"Daryl, please don't shut me out.." I pleaded lightly, but he didn't respond. He just sat there staring and I sighed heavily before starting to walk towards him. I sat down, knees first on the concrete facing his right side.

He didn't look at me and then he tilted his head down again and I noticed he avoided all eye contact with me.

"Maybe if I had come on my own.." He muttered dejectedly, his voice rougher than I had ever heard. And it cracked slightly. I shook my head, wanting to tell him not to beat himself up about the what ifs.

But he continued on, "Could've maybe stopped it all..stopped 'em from hurtin' ya...and Hershel.."

He trailed off now and his voice broke uncharacteristically. He looked, in that moment, more broken than I had ever seen him.

I felt the threat of tears attempt to blur my vision, but I stopped them from happening. Until he spoke again.

His voice pitched higher now and it was no longer rough and dejected, "Didn't come soon 'nough and that's on me. I know tha'."

It was different; he was heightened to a level of emotion I had never seen before. And I didn't think he had ever seen himself this way either.

At this point, he was yelling to the blackened abyss before us, "Jus' took ya'll right out from under us!" His shoulders shook and made a noise like a sharp intake of breath.

He had been fighting back tears the moment he started talking, but now it was like a volcano that had reached its peak. And then, just when he couldn't take it anymore, they spilled over in a rare display of heartbreak and emotion.

"Daryl, no, don't say that.." I whispered and tears over flowed from my own eyes as I involuntarily launched myself towards him.

My left arm wrapped around his back and my right arm snaked around his front so that I was hugging him from the side. I rested my head on his shoulder so that I was facing behind him, staring at the tire behind his head. He didn't freeze or tense under my gesture.

He allowed this moment with me as I clung to him for support. A life line. A friend. I could feel his body tremble in sniffled and sobs, but I stayed silent and let him have his moment. This was his time to cope and let everything he possibly could out.

And as he did, I did the same. My tears soaking up his shirt was evidence of that. We stayed that way for a long moment, until he started to pull out of my grasp. His sniffling had stopped and I started to back up from his personal space.

He looked down to my hands as I rested them on my knees again. Even in the darkness the red blood stains on my hands stood out.

He looked up to my face, awkwardly avoiding my eyes and furrowed his brows, "C'mere." He muttered and we got up off the concrete and climbed back into the cab.

Not a word was spoken about what had just transpired. I sat beside him on the seat, and he pulled out a single bottled water from my backpack.

"Tha' only one we got." He mumbled and I nodded.

He dipped his hankerchief in it and got it damp before he nodded at me to turn my head to the right. I did as I was told and he hesitantly held my face in his hands as he started to rub at my upper left cheek.

The hankerchief was soft against my skin, but his rubbing agitated my skin a little. I kept quiet all the while. I knew what he was doing..cleaning the blood of Hershel and Daniel off of my face.

And we certainly didn't talk about my episode after Daniel had died either. But, he did look on at me with a hint of concern. I knew we were both thinking about it without having to say it aloud.

Daryl continued to work silently until I was cleaned off and then he handed the hankerchief to me. He nodded to my hands. I cleaned them off myself, but every time I wiped I cringed and saw pieces of Hershel's lifeless body fading away from my mind.

"Thanks.." I muttered lowly and he nodded lightly, the tone between us less tense than it had been since we stopped running.

When I was done, I handed him the hankerchief back and he shoved it into his back pocket before we sat in silence once more. Instead of crawling down to the floorboard I shoved off into the opposite corner of him on the seat, laying low.

We awkwardly tryied to separate our legs and feet away from each other so no one was touching the other. I got as comfortable as you could in the back of a pickup and let my eyes drift towards Daryl once more. He was chewing on his thumbnail, looking anywhere but at me.

"Where are we heading?" I asked in a low whisper, my voice still hoarse from all the screaming. He shrugged, "Suppose ta' be that place, tha' one Michonne said she saw signs for, but that was before.." He offered and stopped.

He didn't even want to say Hershel's name and I pursed my lips in solemn thought. "The one by the railroad tracks?" My voice had a tinge of hope and I had a feeling that that was where everyone else had gone to..it was just a hunch I got.

He grunted in response and I looked to him exasperated, "Is that where we're heading?" He shrugged again and I rolled my eyes, a little annoyed by his behavior.

"Well, that's where I'm going." He scoffed at my words, "Don't even know where tha' hell yer' goin', you'll get lost." I furrowed my brow at him, "I'm going with or without you." I peered at him as he looked away, knowing full well he wasn't about to leave me.

Everything changed the moment Hershel had been murdered. This was not the homecoming or reunion I had wanted. It was all messed up..it was just..terrible. But, I knew Hershel would want us to keep going, to forge on and keep hope. "You don't think it exists, do you?"

He shook his head to my question, "Nah, ain't got my hopes up on it neither." He pointedly looked to me and I turned away quietly, stewing on his words before I responded in a fierce whisper, "If we don't have hope, then what's the point? I think I had this conversation with you before, but it must've not sunken into that thick Dixon skull of yours."

He muttered something under his breath, but looked away as did I. We sat in silence for a long time before Daryl, of all people, broke the silence, "Better get some rest. Might be yer' only chance at a decent night sleep."

I felt my hands shake at the idea of closing my eyes and I stilled them, clasping them together. I was afraid to sleep, afraid to close my eyes, but I kept quiet. He eyed me and gave me an exasperated look as I finally sighed resignedly. I hated him seeing me like this..so weak. This was not who I was.

Losing Hershel was not something that was going to just get easier to deal with in a day, this was going to take some time. I spoke before I could think, "I'm afraid if I close my eyes, I'll see it..all of it. All over again."

My voice cracked and I shook my head furiously, "I probably sound so weak." Daryl gnawed on the inside of his cheek, taking in my words. What people failed to remember was that Daryl Dixon observed everything.

"Ya' ain't weak, yer one of the strongest people I know." It was the rarest of compliments and I looked up to him and he held my gaze for an intense moment. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." I mumbled lightly, looking away from those pools ocean blue.

I shifted slightly in my spot and winced, my breath catching as my ribs were still sore. My adrenaline was wearing off and everything that did hurt me before, came back to remind me.

"Tha' freak did that to you?" Daryl bit out, taking in my bruises more closely. "No, his brother. The one you killed out in the woods."

I paused at the ugly memory of Charlie before continuing, "You know, Merle saved me from him...when he was attacking me the first time. I honestly don't know if Charlie would have stopped had it not been for Merle intervening."

He was still now as I situated myself into a position that was better for sleeping as he was leaned all the way up against the left door. His legs were now in front of him to give me more room on the seat.

He clenched his fist around his bow for a moment as if he was angry at the thought of someone hurting me. I quietly laid down on the seat so that I was near to him. My legs curled up slightly and my boots were touching the door.

I looked up at Daryl from my position,
"You think he's alive? Or the others?" I pressed again, as if I needed some sort of confirmation from him.

Maybe I did.

He was silent before answering roughly, "Maybe." I could tell he didn't even know and he was ready to just think the worst instead of hoping.

From my position below, I could see the pained look it caused him to talk about Merle too. I didn't know how it would feel to reconnect with your brother, only to lose him again. Not that Merle was dead, but we just didn't know.

"Merle's a tough son' bitch though....caused a nice lil' distraction back there with tha' explosion." I realized now Merle must have snuck away while the others had the stand-off with Daniel and his men.

I wondered who had done the damage to the warehouse and now I knew. However, that talk led us both down the road to thinking of Hershel and a heartbreaking silence engulfed us once more. My eyes started to get heavy as exhaustion settled into my weary bones.

I swallowed thickly and wet my dry lips before saying sleepily, "Thanks." He responded back with a confused tone, "For wha'?"

When my eyes started to close I couldn't help but have a safe feeling creep into my bones..just by being here next to Daryl. I would always be safe with him. And I would try my hardest keep him safe too.

"For coming back for me.."

My words drifted off and I didn't know what his response was because sleep overcame me like a thief in the night.

When I awoke in the wee hours of the early morning I saw he had brought right his leg up on the seat and it was close to my face. I also noticed my right hand was now lying gently on top of his pant leg on his knee.

And though I couldn't see, I knew he was awake. He probably hadn't slept at all, it was just the kind of person he was; selfless man with a big warm heart underneath.

I stole a few moments to myself and pretended to still be asleep. Selfishly, I didn't remove my hand. I wanted the comfort of actually touching him.

Though, it did strike me as odd that Daryl hadn't removed my hand during the night either.

Maybe he just needed the comfort of my touch too.

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Author's Note: Channeled a little bit of Daryl from the episode where he broke down about Hershel and the Governor. Hope ya'll don't mind! <3