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Jo

I woke the next morning before dawn. It was our last night of all sleeping together in the living room. I had slept in the same place near Judith but I didn't think Daryl had come in. Or if he had, it was after I went to sleep and he was already gone. The man needed sleep. It had been days since I had seen him sleep for more than a couple hours at a stretch. 

I padded silently up the stairs into my room. I changed into a new tank top and slid my boots on. I took my shoulder rig off of hanger and put it, my kukri from under the mattress and the knife roll into my backpack. I shouldered my backpack and headed into the basement.

The rec room only had two small windows. I closed the blinds on both of them. Then I took one of the oversized couch cushions and leaned it upside down against the wall. I went over to the far wall, which had the dart board and leaned that backwards against the cushion. I didn't want there to be any visible damage. I opened my bag and slid my shoulder rig on. I rolled my shoulders and was amazed by how much better I felt. I slid Daryl's hunting knife into the spine sheath and my kukri onto my belt. I felt like I could breathe. I shoved the coffee table out of the way opening up a large area.

I started with the workout I had done in Woodbury. I ran through the sequence twice and I was sweating more than I should be when I was done. I pulled the hunting knife and kukri first. I went through a few sequences, pushing my body harder and faster each time. When my heart was pounding and my palms were sweating I threw them down and pulled the throwing knives. I whipped the first blade into the target. I twisted around and threw the second while I pulled the third. I did one of the showy kicks that used a ton of energy but had a lot of power behind it. I flipped off the knife and when I landed I moved into a forward roll, drawing the knife in motion and when I came up I used to momentum to put some serious power into the last throw. I rocked back onto my shoulder blades and threw myself to my feet. 

I was trembling and gasping for breath. I had lost a lot of fitness when I was hurt and then on the road. I needed to get that back. I was going to need some cardio as well. I wondered if a demur housewife/academic got to go jogging. Probably. I pulled the knives out of the back of the dart board, they had all landed in the center within an inch of each other. I slid them all back into the sheaths beneath my arms. They were a little slim for the sheaths but it was doable. I chewed on my lip as I looked at my new throwing knives. If I could find a thigh sheath for them I would be able to carry more of them plus my other knives. Though with my kukri on my right I would have to put them on my left. I was strong with my left, but I was was still right handed. 

I turned back to pick my other blades up off the floor and froze when I saw Daryl standing in the doorway of his room. His hair was rumpled from sleep and he was wearing nothing but his boxers. I sucked in a breath and forced myself to stare at his face and only his face. All the tension, stress and anger were gone. His face was soft and he looked well rested. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Morn'in," he drawled, his accent soft and thicker than normal.

I struggled to swallow. "Morning," I replied and my voice came out a little breathless. "I-I ah," I was stammering now and a slow smirk spread across his face. 

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Sorry," I said. "I didn't know you were sleeping down here. I didn't mean to wake you."

When I opened my eyes he was studying my face curiously, like the big ass had no idea why I was so flustered. He reached up and scratched at his scalp and yawned. I finally couldn't help it and let my eyes travel over his chest and abs as the muscles flexed as he moved. He dropped his hand back to his side and I peeked up at his face, fighting unsuccessfully to keep a guilty smile off my face.

He shook his head and snorted. "Stop," he said, a smile still on his face.

I took a step towards him, worrying my lip with my teeth. His face turned serious and he frowned down at me as I walked slowly towards him. His eyes trailed over me and my skin suddenly felt hot. I pressed my lips together, overcome with the need to close the distance between us. I swallowed thickly and stopped when I was just a foot from him. His eyes were hooded as he watched me.

He cleared his throat, but didn't look away. "Trying out your new-"

"Toys?" I interrupted. I raised my hand and ran my fingers over my lips nervously. I had just completed the action before I realized I had done it. 

Daryl's eyes narrowed as he followed the motion. "About yesterday-" he started, his voice low and gravely.

I shook my head and looked away. "Doesn't matter," I replied, and it didn't. He had been stressed and exhausted, I didn't blame him for being a little bit snippier than normal. I certainly hadn't helped anything. 

"It does," he took the last step, closing the distance between us. He cocked his head to the side and reached up and touched my new throwing knives in their sheaths. "Looks like you got the hang of the new hardware."

I nodded, but didn't trust myself to speak. My skin was cooling rapidly and the sweat drying on my body made me shivery. Either that or maybe it had something to do with how close Daryl was and how badly I wanted to run my hands over the planes of his chest.

I bit my lip and watched him as he was carefully studying my new knives. His fingers touched the empty leather sheath for my kukri while his other hand snaked around me and glided over the spine sheath. I closed my eyes against the onslaught of sensations. I was trembling and could hear nothing but my heart racing in my ears. 

His breath fell in calm, gentle puffs against the sweat dampened skin of my chest. I swallowed again. My mind was completely blank, I couldn't come up with a witty response of any kind. I just wanted him to keep touching me, or rather for him to touch my skin the same way he was touching the leather of my shoulder harness.

He chuckled once, lightly. "You look more like you again," he said. And he reached up and touched my hair, tucking a piece of it behind my ear. It was sweat dampened and I was sure it was sticking up all over the place like it normally did in the morning.

I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. He made a soft noise in the back of his throat and cupped my face in his hand. I reached up and laid a tentative hand on his chest. "Dare-" I started to say.

"Jo?" Carl's voice called loudly as he pounded down the stairs loudly. I jumped back away from Daryl, facing the stairs. Daryl stepped back into his room and closed the door before Carl appeared.

"Yeah?" I asked when Carl appeared on the lower landing.

"Dad's looking for you," Carl called.

"Thanks Carl."

He nodded and looked around, noticing the knives and the target I had set up.

"Hey, Jo?" Carl asked, suddenly looking a little nervous for once. 

I raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to continue. 

"Would you teach me sometime?" he asked jerking his chin towards the knives on the ground.

I looked back at the knives and then back to Carl. "Sure," I said.

He nodded, smiling. "Cool, Dad's looking for Daryl too if you see him."

"I'll let him know," I promised. 

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Daryl

I could hear Jo and Carl talking outside the door as I snatched up my clothes and pulled them on. My heart was still pounding as I thought about Jo. I shook my head, trying to get myself together. Rick needed us. I needed to find out what Rick needed. I scrubbed a hand over my face and pulled my vest on. I was sitting on the bed pulling on my boots when the door opened.

I looked up to see Jo leaning in the doorframe smiling at me. "So..." she started to say. She had retrieved her kukri and my hunting knife and they were tucked away on her belt.

I arched a brow. 

She didn't look embarrassed, maybe a little annoyed we had been interrupted. "That was...intense..." she drew off and looked away. I was amazed she wasn't still pissed at me. I was an ass to her yesterday. No sleep and this place with these people had me on edge and as per goddamn usual I took it out on the last person who deserved it. 

"We should see what Rick wants," she said. 

I nodded and stood, scooping my crossbow up. "Yeah," I agreed.

She turned to head back upstairs.

"Jo," I called after her.

She looked back at me expectantly.

I wanted to kiss her, or drag her back in this room and spend the day together. "You going dressed like that?" I asked instead jerking my chin towards her shoulder rig.

She glanced down at the knives and sighed. She slowly began unbuckling them and I found myself watching her fingers. When she shrugged out of it she stowed it all in her backpack. She shrugged her backpack on and turned to head upstairs.

I sighed, whatever Rick needed it had better be good.

Jo and I came up the stairs together. Rick and Carol were standing alone in the kitchen. Glancing around the house I wondered if the others had gone back to the other house. I ran a hand over my mouth when Carol ran her eyes from me to Jo and back again.

"We ah, we should take the girls out and get some shooting practice in," Rick said carefully.

I nodded thoughtfully. "Ya got a place in mind?"

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Jo

The four of us met out by an old house not far from the gates. It felt good to be back out in the woods again. Not far away I heard a snarl. I turned just as Daryl and Rick did. My hand dropped to my waist, but it landed on the hunting knife instead of my kukri. I missed my baby and using it this morning only made me miss carrying it more. As did the sympathetic smile Olivia gave Carol and I when Rick checked out two guns under the pretense of teaching us to shoot. She patted me on the shoulder as though I were a child. 

Daryl took a step forward with his crossbow in hand. "I don't see it, but it's close. There's just one of them."

"We won't be here long," Rick said reassuringly. "So what do you think?" Rick asked looking at each of us in turn.

Carol's lips were pressed into a serious line, which was completely at odds with her over the top purple, floral cardigan. "We can go in when it's empty."

Rick frowned at her. "How's that? It's locked up at night."

"The window," I reported. "There was just a latch. Carol or I can leave it open. Depending on which of us can get closer."

"A latch?" Rick asked in disbelief."

"Yeah," I said rolling my eyes. It was ridiculous to think of leaving your armory so exposed. We were going for subterfuge but if someone wanted to take all their guns all they would have to do was break the glass. 

Daryl frowned at the two of us. "What if one of those pricks shuts it?"

Carol shrugged glancing at me. "We wait a couple of days and leave it open again."

The snarling came again. Daryl swung away from us. "It's getting closer," he called to us.

Rick waved off the lone walker that was approaching. "We need to do this sooner rather than later. Right now they're not watching us, not worrying about meetings like this. We may need the guns, we may not."

I frowned. I agreed we needed to be ready in case things went south, but Rick was starting to sound extremely paranoid. I glanced over at Daryl but he was watching Rick carefully. 

Carol shook her head. "We will, whatever way it goes," and Carol's paranoia wasn't far behind his. 

Rick agreed with her. "They're the luckiest damn people I ever met. And they just keep getting luckier."

"How's that?" Daryl asked.

Rick grinned. "We're here now."

Daryl snorted and nodded in agreement.

I stepped forward. "I only got a quick look, but I saw a couple of footlockers full of 9 millimeter autos, Rugers, Kel-Tecs. Just tossed in there. They don't use them, they'd never know they're gone," I explained. 

"Someone's got one now, right?" Daryl asked, his eyes traveling to where Rick had found his hidden gun missing the day before.

"Mmhhmm," Rick shifted his weight, looking each of us in the face. "Listen...the others...we want them to try."

Carol's eyes immediately traveled to Daryl. "You too," she said severely.

Daryl scoffed.

"I'm serious," she snapped. Then she looked back at Rick and I. 

Rick nodded. "So we keep it quiet. Just us. Here is comes," he said jerking his chin towards the trees. 

"I got 'im," Daryl offered.

"Wait," Carol said and she turned, lifting the gun in her hand. She fired off seven shots into the walkers chest before landing the eighth perfectly in it's forehead. She turned back to us. "We said you guys were taking us out shooting. We couldn't go back with a full mag."

"Lucky he came by," Daryl drawled.

"We should get back," Rick said glancing towards the sky. Daryl walked towards the walker to check it. "You'll pull the latch and we'll pick our moment," Rick continued. "Us, we don't need to be lucky."

Daryl hesitated over the body of the walker. "What the hell's that?" he asked motioning down at the body.

"Is that a W?" I asked frowning down at the body.

Rick crouched next to the corpse. He frowned. "Yeah."

There was another growl. I reached up under another flowy shirt and pulled the hunting knife. I took a step towards the Walker but Daryl reached out and caught my forearm. I looked back at him. He leveled his crossbow and killed it. 

"Ya ain't exactly dressed for it," he said tightly. 

I nodded in agreement. I was back to wearing the silly ballet flats and my skin felt dangerously exposed in the flimsy material. I missed my heavy boots, jeans and leather. Daryl stooped down to rip the arrow out of the walkers head. He froze. "Got another one here," he said toeing the body. 

It was unsettling. Who would go to the trouble to mark walkers, or were they marked before the turned? I looked around at the trees surrounding us as a feeling of unease went over me. I shivered as a light breeze picked up. I adjusted my grip on the knife. Being a nomad was dangerous, but having a community was also dangerous, it made us a target.

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Daryl

I walked the others back to the gate. After what we found those walkers in the woods everyone seemed uneasy. Jo especially seemed worried. She was quiet and carried the knife in her hand the whole way back. 

Once they were safely inside I turned away. "I'm going hunting." I called over my shoulder. I heard Jo hesitate, the soft shift of her shoes on the asphalt was unmistakable. I didn't look back, I couldn't go back in there, not yet.

I had been out for less than an hour and I was following some tracks through the forest when I heard movement. I paused for a second, it was the living. I hefted my crossbow. "Come out!" I snapped angrily. "Now!" I barked.

I was surprised when Aaron came out of the underbrush with his hands up looking at me nervously. I lowered the crossbow but continued to glare at him. Why the hell was he following me out here? Were we all being followed? Made me wonder if someone had been listening in to our little meeting earlier. 

"You can tell the difference between walkers and humans by sound?" 

I just glared.

"Can you tell the difference between a good guy and a bad guy?" he asked. "Rick doesn't seem to be an expert at that."

I shifted my weight restlessly wondering if I was going to have to do something about this guy. He seemed all right, and he fought with our people, but if he was a threat I wasn't going to hesitate.

"There ain't much of a difference no more," I growled.

"That how you feel about your people?" he asked curiously.

"Why you following me?" I demanded stepping up into his space.

He took a step back away from me. "I didn't know I was," he said honestly. "I came out to hunt rabbits," he chewed on his lip like he was debating what to say next. "I know why you're out here. Mind if I join?"

I stared at him for a few long minutes. I didn't know what his play was, and I was too tired to try and figure it out. I turned and started stalking back into the woods. "Keep up," I growled over my shoulder. "And keep quiet."

He didn't say anything just followed.

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Jo

It surprised me when Daryl chose to stay outside the gates. I had tried to catch his eye but once he made sure we were safely inside he left us without a backwards glance. When the three of us got back to the house Michonne was sitting in the living room playing with Judith. 

She frowned at us and glanced behind me. "Where's Daryl?" she asked. 

"He's out hunting," I replied and walked in, leaning against the counter. 

Michonne nodded but didn't look surprised. "Deanna stopped by. She invited us to a welcome party at her house tonight." 

Carol nodded. "We know, we were invited earlier today," Carol's eyes traveled to me. "We promised to make some food to bring. The whole group needs to make an appearance." 

I smirked, this could get interesting. 

Michonne set Judith down on the blanket near a small pile of toys and came into the kitchen to speak with us. "Deanna also wanted to meet us as soon as possible to discuss our job," she said looking at Rick. He nodded distractedly. He had a lot on his mind, and I didn't think a party was at the top of his list of things to worry about. 

"I need to head over to the pantry," Carol said. "Pick up a few things," she met my gaze meaningfully and I knew she was going to try for the window. The party would be a good cover for someone to sneak in and steal some guns. 

Rick's eyes fell to Judith. "I'll stay with her," I offered. "Get her fed and down for a nap."

Rick nodded as he and Michonne went out the door.

Carol turned back to me. "I wrote directions down on that pad," she said motioning to a small notebook sitting on the counter. "I picked up everything you will need yesterday. It's an easy recipe. Even you can't screw it up," she called over her shoulder as she went out the door.  

I chuckled, "Wanna bet?" I called after her. 

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Daryl  

There was movement in a clearing off to the left. I held up my finger, warning Aaron to stay quiet and moved towards it. There was a black horse grazing on the long grass. 

Aaron stepped up behind me. He was too close and I took another step away. 

He frowned at me but shook it off quickly. "I've been trying to catch him for months, bring him inside. His name is buttons."

I glanced over at him.

He immediately backtracked. "One of the kids saw him run by the gate a while back. Decided he looked like a buttons. I haven't seen him in a while. I was afraid it was too late. Every time Eric or I come close he gets spooked," he explained as he pulled a rope out of his backpack.

I swung my crossbow over my shoulder and took the rope from his hands without asking.

"Have you done this before?" he asked, letting me take the rope. 

"My group did," I responded nodding. "But they weren't out there that long. The longer they're out there the more they become what they really are."

Aaron stared at me for a few long moments, really thinking about my words. I couldn't help thinking about our group, being out here for so long. 

I stepped out into the field, rope in hand. "I'm not gonna hurt you, come on boy," I started saying soothing nonsense words. "Yeah, Just keep on eating," I encouraged quietly. "Good boy. Yeah you used to be somebody's huh?" I stepped close. "Now you're just yours. Hard to give that up huh? I get it, believe me. I been there pal," I whispered the last. 

A twig snapped to my right and I whirled in time to hear the first snarls. "Shit!" I yelled as Button's reared and tore off at a gallop.

"Come on, they're coming!" I yelled. It was a small herd. I swung my crossbow catching one across the face, then pulled my knife. Aaron killed three with silenced gun shots then ran forward with his knife in hand killing two more. He wasn't bad, seemed to know how to handle himself. He turned to look at me and we nodded to one another in respect. The rest of those idiots back there might be useless but Aaron knew what he was doing. 

Once they were all dead we continued through the forest. I tracked the horse easily through the trees. A galloping horse left an easy trail. Aaron followed for a few minutes in silence before he started chatting at me again.

"You ride horses?" he asked, tripping over some roots. 

"I ride bikes," I replied

"I take it you don't mean ten speeds." he said with a grin.

I didn't bother to respond, just kept tracking. This was what I was good at and it felt good to be back in the woods. I only wished Jo was here as my backup instead of this guy. Things were always easy when it was just the two of us. 

"I know you're feeling like an outsider. It's not your fault you know. Eric and I, we're still looked at as outsiders in a lot of ways. We've heard our fair share of well meaning, but hilariously offensive things from some otherwise really nice men and women. People are people. The more afraid they get, the more stupid they get. Fear shrinks the brain. They're scared of you and me for different reasons. They're less scared of me because they know me. It's less and less every day. So let them get to know you. You should go to Deanna's party tonight," Aaron suggested. 

I couldn't hold my tongue any longer. I didn't plan to go when we heard about it that morning and I was't changing my mind now. "I got nothing to prove," I said. "I met a lot of bad people out here, doing a lot of bad shit. They weren't afraid of nothing." I said thinking about The Claimers.

"Yeah they were."

We traveled the rest of the way in silence. I tracked the horse to a small, fenced in area. The gate was small and it wasn't likely the horse would figure out how to get out on it's own. "We gotta move quick, he's penned in with them. I'll take the far ones," I said firing my crossbow at the first Walker.

Aaron nodded and trotted off to kill the ones on his side. He lifted his rifle when one grabbed him from the ground. He cried out as he went down. I turned away from the horse and ran back to help him. He had just hacked off the Walker's hand with a machete when I got there. I slammed my heel down on it's head, and whirled around to grab the next one coming. I slammed it's head into the ground, spilling it's brains all over the grass.

"Thanks," Aaron said accepting my hand up. 

I nodded and bent down to get my crossbow out of the grass. I heard a gunshot over my head and looked to see a Walker only a couple feet from me go down. I looked back at Aaron. "Thanks," I replied.

He nodded. We crossed the pasture in time to see the remaining walkers swarm the horse. They managed to get it cornered and mob it. The horse fought to keep its feet under it but it was no use. They got it down and attacked it, pulling it's stomach open in front of us. 

I grimaced. "I'll take the ones on the right," I said.

Aaron nodded and we moved in. They were easy to kill because they were distracted by feeding. Once they were all dead it shocked me to see the horse was still alive. He was grunting in pain, his legs moving convulsively as he fought to get away. 

"Go ahead," I said, looking away from the suffering animal. 

Aaron grimaced and pulled his gun around into his hands. He ended its suffering with a single shot. "He always ran," Aaron said sadly.

"You were trying to help him," I said. I don't know why I bothered trying to reassure Aaron. All the good intentions in the world didn't matter if you ended up dead. I couldn't help but think that this horse was similar to us in a way. I just hoped we didn't end up the same.

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Phew another long one. I hope you guys liked it. Thank you so much for continuing to read! At some point I will have to go back and reread some of the stuff I've written, maybe do some editing or something. Some of these chapters are going out pretty rough, but I want to keep the story moving forward! Haha

Comment/vote and all that good stuff!