Guys we have reached 5,000 reads and over 300 votes!!!! I can't believe it. This is all you guys. Thank you so much for your continued support! I hope you are enjoying reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it!!!!

Jo

We stood there together on the rooftop until the fire burned itself out. I held Daryl's hand and thought about my past. Maybe Beth was right, we both needed to let go of the things that happened to us if we were going to live. Not just survive but live.

Just the thought scared me. I knew how to survive. All I had been doing since the beginning was surviving. I glanced over at Daryl. His face was shuttered as he watched the bodies burn. The shadows on his face disappeared as the sun rose over the buildings. He looked tired, I wondered if he slept at all the night before. As I watched his face I realized I was ready to start living again.

I thought about my family, about losing Tommy and Michael. So much of that had defined me. I thought of everything I had been through with The Governor and losing Kate and losing myself. I felt like I had been clinging to who I was before for too long. I glanced down at myself. There was nothing wrong with who I was now. I was strong, I was a survivor. I had fought that for so long because it was what The Governor had made me, but without him I never would have lived this long. I tightened my grip on Daryl's hand. I wasn't willing to sacrifice what I had in front of me at the expense of my past.

Daryl and I walked back to the bedroom in silence. We found bags and raided all of the rooms, digging through the dressers and drawers for anything we could use. I was out in the office, pulling on my jacket when Daryl stepped out of the room. He looked ready to go. I swung the backpack onto my back and checked to make sure the straps didn't interfere with my ability to draw my knives. Then I slung the rifle over one shoulder.

Daryl was watching me closely but when I met his eyes he quickly looked away and cleared his throat. "That car was headed downtown. I say we get up in one of the tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we see."

I nodded. "That sounds good. We can stay close to the buildings and keep quiet but sooner or later we're gonna be drawing them."

Daryl nodded thoughtfully and snatched up a yellow legal pad as we left the office, shoving it into the messenger bag slung across his body. He moved towards the door and looked back at me. "Ready to do this thing?"

I nodded. "Let's get Beth and get home."

<><><><><>

Daryl

Jo followed me through the city. I hadn't spent much time here, but the whole city was a grid. It wasn't hard to get around. Jo stayed close but I had to stop myself from glancing back to check on her anyway. Things had changed with us since last night I just didn't know how or what it meant.

I don't know what made me decide to tell her last night of all nights. I had just been thinking about rescuing Beth and knew the bubbly girl would have told me to. I snorted as I thought about how Beth probably would have yelled at me for not telling her before now. Beth knew how I felt about Jo. Hell some days it seemed like everybody knew. Everybody except Jo.

I slowed as we came to a blind corner. I held up my hand silently, to signal Jo to stop. I heard her footsteps pause. I crouched down so I came to corner out of the line of sight. I held my crossbow up, tucked into my shoulder. I could hear the growls. Judging by the sound there had to be over twenty. I glanced back at Jo. She was crouched down, tucked into a small doorway, her knives clutched in her hands. She looked tense but not scared. She was watching me calmly and I felt something in my chest tighten. She trusted me to get us through this in one piece.

I moved towards the corner and saw at least thirty walkers milling around the intersection. There was a parking garage twenty yards down, it would be a good place for us to get up high. I turned back to the walkers and did another count in my head. No way we could handle that many. If they all came for us at once we were dead. I slunk back to Jo, moving silently.

I moved until our knees were touching so I could whisper. When I looked down at her I was surprised to find her face only inches from mine. It made it difficult for me to think for a second. I never should have brought her here. What happened to Beth was my fault. Jo should be back at that church with the group where she would be safe.

I cleared my throat. "Alright," I whispered. "We can get up there, there's a bridge, but there's a lot of Walkers."

Jo nodded thoughtfully. She glanced down at my crossbow. I watched her count my bolts and then she set down one of her fighting knives and checked to make sure her throwing knives were loose enough for her to draw quickly. "How many?" she asked calmly.

I chewed on my lip. "At least thirty. We're gonna distract them and make a run for it. It's the only way we get through."

She nodded in agreement, trusting my call.

I dug in my bag and pulled out the legal pad. I took my lighter and ran it along the pad until it I was certain it would stay lit. I moved back to the edge of the corner, this time I could feel Jo at my back. One of her fists was resting lightly against my back and I knew it was the one holding her kukri.

I threw the pad into a large pile of garbage. It took only moments for the paper in the pile to go up. The snarls of the walkers increased in excitement and they all began moving towards the distraction. I held my crossbow up in one hand and reached back, grabbing Jo's wrist and made a run for it.

We made it to the parking garage before I had to let go of Jo to fire a bolt at the walker in front of us. I ran at the next one, swinging my crossbow into it's skull. Jo came behind me. I glanced back at her and she had the bolt I had fired in one hand.

We ran together through the abandoned parking garage. We couldn't move as quickly as I would have liked. Our footsteps echoed loudly, bouncing off the cement walls. Three floors up we came to the boarded up doors that let to the skyway. I paused outside of them and looked down at Jo. At glanced from her knives to the rifle. We were going in blind. If there was a large herd on the other side it would be the better choice of weapon for her.

She narrowed her eyes at me. I knew she hated the rifle. It didn't suit her fighting style. I needed to find her a hand gun. I didn't look away from her narrowed eyes. Finally she let out a disgusted sigh and tucked away her knives. I nodded once and gave her a teasing smirk before turning back to the door. I stepped to the side and flipped the door open. She stood at the ready with the rifle but no one came. We moved into the skyway.

<><><><><>

Jo

The smell hit me first and I flinched back for a second. I did not want to throw up. For the smell to be this strong there must be a lot of walkers in a very confined space. We jogged in and both hesitated. People had set up a camp in here. There were Walkers still trapped in their sleeping bags. Clothing and supplies littered the ground. Daryl pulled his knife and immediately killed the walkers closest to us. Their snarls increased in excitement at our close proximity. They probably hadn't eaten anything since their turn.

Daryl jerked open the first sleeping bag and started searching the bodies. The next sleeping bag over the Walker started to shimmy itself loose in it's excitement. Daryl looked up and frowned. He fired his crossbow and looked up at the two tents that were still up in the middle. The tents billowed and moved with the walkers straining against the nylon sides.

Daryl shook his head and glanced back at me. "Some days I don't know what the hell to think," he muttered. He jerked his arrow out of the walker's skull and slipped around the side of the tents, careful not to touch them. He glanced back at me in annoyance when I wasn't keeping up. I rolled my eyes and trotted after him.

The door at the other end was chained on the inside. It was just wide enough for us to slip through. I went first. Daryl stood over me protectively while I shoved all my gear through the small space and then wiggled my way through. Once on the other side he passed me his stuff and followed. He grunted as he fought to get through the small space.

"Good thing we skipped breakfast," he muttered.

I snorted, flashing him a smile. "Come on chubby."

He shook his head, chuckling as he followed me through the building.

The building had been an attorney's office, and it was mostly untouched. Everything was still pristine aside from the fine layer of dust covering everything. It was easy to feel like we had stepped back in time. We took the stairs up to the office on the top floor. The door read Managing Partner below the name that no longer mattered.

I set down my rifle and tossed my backpack onto one of the plush leather chairs. I walked over to the window and the feeling of going back in time was gone in an instant. I leaned forwards against the window frame and touched the cool glass. All the buildings in front of us had black charring on their faces from when the army bombed the city. Abandoned cars and crumbling structures littered the streets.

I felt Daryl step up behind me silently. I rocked my weight back so I would be closer to him. "How did we get here?" I asked softly.

"Mmhhmm," he agreed. "We just did," when he shrugged I felt his shoulder brush mine and I leaned back so my back was touching his chest. I couldn't feel his warmth past both of our leather jackets, but it made me feel better.

I adjusted the strap on my backpack and licked my lips. "When I left..." I cleared my throat uncomfortably as I felt Daryl stiffen behind me. "The first time," I clarified. "Kate told me it was because I was afraid. She said there was something between us, but I was too afraid of letting go of the past to let anything happen..."

I turned around so I was facing Daryl. He was so close now my hip brushed his as I turned. Daryl shifted his weight and swung his crossbow over his shoulder freeing his hands. I looked up into his face and my breath caught in my chest as I stared into his intense blue eyes. "Kate was right," I looked away. "Beth was right."

He looked down at me cautiously, as though he wasn't certain where I was going with all this. When I didn't say anything more he nodded and spoke. "The reason I said we get to start over is because we gotta. The way it was...we gotta let go of all that shit or it will bring us down."

"Yeah..." I agreed nodding. "But we're okay."

Daryl nodded thoughtfully. "We're okay."

Daryl looked over my head and frowned. I stepped back and turned around but I didn't see what he saw out the window. He leaned forward, pressing against the glass.

"You see something?" I asked, frowning. The windows were huge and it was a lot of area.

"I don't know, hand me that rifle," he said holding out his hand.

He lifted the rifle to his shoulder and stared down the scope. "Right there," he said pointing on the glass and handing back the rifle without looking at me. His whole focus changed back to finding Beth.

I followed his finger and looked down the sights. There was a white van, crashed through the guardrail of a bridge. It's back windows were blacked out but had two white crosses taped onto them. "It's been there a while," I said cautiously. I didn't want to get his hopes up. "But it's definitely one of them."

He leaned closer to the glass in his excitement. "It's definitely some kind of lead."

I turned back to the room and gathered my stuff so I was ready to move. I noticed a water cooler in the corner. I downed my water bottle. "We should fill up," I said.

"Alright," Daryl agreed, and he tossed me his bottle as well. I caught it easily one handed and turned back to the water cooler. Despite all we had said I wasn't sure if I really understood Daryl Dixon. He obviously felt responsible for Beth and it wasn't in him to leave one someone behind.

I filled my bottle and started drinking again. Who knew how long it would before we found more fresh water in the city. When I turned, Daryl was staring at an abstract painting on the wall.

"What?" I asked.

Daryl snorted. "I bet this cost some rich prick a lot of money."

I handed over my water bottle and studied it. I had never been a fan of modern art, but Tommy had loved it. Any time we visited a new city we would tour the art museums.

Daryl took a swig of the water and shook his head. "Looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped it's ass all over the place."

I chuckled. "Really?" I bit my lip and turned my head. "I kind of like it."

He snorted, "stop."

"I'm serious," I said. Instead of feeling sad the painting reminded me of better times. Wandering through the quiet hallways of art museums holding Tommy's hand. He would bring me to the museum of modern art when I was too stressed to work on my dissertation. He would make me laugh as we walked arm in arm.

I glanced over at Daryl. "You don't know me." I snapped, feeling a little put off now. I cared about Daryl, a lot, but being here, like this brought into sharp contrast what my life had been and what it was now. Letting go of the past wasn't going to be easy as we would both like.

Daryl shook his head and grabbed up his gear. "Yep, you keep telling yourself that," he said and led the way back towards the skyway.

I didn't like the idea of going back into the walker infested skyway, not blindly, which was the only way for me to slip through the door. I put my bag through first, then my rifle. Daryl watched anxiously until I was through, then pushed his crossbow through. I turned back to the skyway and froze as I stared down the barrel of my rifle.

<><><><><>

Thank you again! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! Since we hit such a major mile stone I will work extra hard to get another update out as soon as possible!!!!!