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Daryl had done his best to keep it a secret, but ever since Glenn had shared the story of what happened on that run in Atlanta, all sorts of scenarios had run through his mind. He wanted to talk to Parker before the group left to kill the Saviors and get rid of Negan, but he hadn't found the time. Especially with the paralyzing fear he spent the day in when he realized his wife had been taken hostage. Now that they were home safe, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer.

"Hey, can we talk?" Daryl asked, leading Parker away from the rest of the group, pushing his motorcycle alongside him. Parker seemed nervous, constantly picking at her nails or biting her bottom lip.

"Sure. Is.. is something wrong?" She looked up at him, clearly being able to tell that something was bothering him,

"No," He shook his head. "I just wanna talk about somethin'." He waited until they were alone in the house except for Judith sleeping upstairs. Parker sat on the couch and Daryl joined her.

"So.. what did you need to talk about?" She asked him, expecting it to be about what happened during the time she was away.

"Glenn told me something," Daryl started, trying to figure out how to word it. "..about what happened in Atlanta." There was a flash of betrayal in Parker's eyes as she tried to get up from the couch, probably to find Glenn and beat him senseless. Daryl grabbed her arm, keeping her from actually doing just that. "No, sit down." She dropped back down onto the cushions, unable to meet his gaze.

"He had no right.." She stated, ignoring how her voice broke.

"He didn't tell me everythin'," Daryl explained to her. "I remember you told me about runnin' into survivors on our way to the CDC. But you didn't wanna talk about it. Was it the same one?" She nodded, blinking back tears.

"Probably. It's the only actual bad run we've had."

"What happened?" She sighed at the question, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just Maggie and me," Daryl assured her. "Rick doesn't know."

"Well, I'm sure you know that it was that time we were in the city for three days," Parker figured Glenn had only really gone over the basics of it. "We'd never gone that far in, but every other place had been raided or overrun..."

"Look, there's one that looks empty," Glenn pointed out a store on the corner of the block. Parker nodded, not really liking the idea of checking out a charity store. There weren't many things that they'd need seeing how it was the middle of the summer but doing a quick sweep of it is better than ignoring it. That, and it gave them a minute to rest since they had been running for the past few hours trying to stay ahead of a herd.

"Let's hurry. The walkers aren't far behind us." They had spent almost three days in the city. This was the longest run they'd been on. And, it was also the furthest into the city they'd ever been. So everything seemed unfamiliar to Parker. It had been three days of searching, and although they managed to get a car started, courtesy of Glenn, they had to abandon it and carry their supplies on foot when the engine began to sputter and a herd of walkers snuck up on them. They've had relatively good luck up to that point, and given Parker's track record, she was expecting bad luck to hit them like a truck. The store gave her a bad feeling, but she trusted Glenn and knew that she would rather face whatever was lurking inside the store than be swarmed by hundreds of walkers. She and Glenn pushed open separate doors, neither of them worried about the bell that rang as they stepped through. Parker leaned against the wall, out of breath from running with two duffel bags full of supplies on her shoulders and a backpack weighing her down. Her eyes traveled around the store, surprised to see it pretty untouched, a few things missing here and there. She wondered if perhaps her bad feeling had been a mistake. Turning to Glenn with her hands on her knees, she smiled. "You think we could rig up another car to get back?"

"Definitely," He replied confidently, his lessons with Dale had paid off. A gun cocked and Parker and Glenn both tensed, straightening as they looked to the other side of the store, where a man faced them from behind the counter with a shotgun pointed directly at them.

"Who the hell are you?" The man demanded. Glenn raised his hands in surrender, his eyes wide in fear.

"We're nobody, man. We're just hiding from some walkers."

"This place is occupied," The man said. "You have about three seconds to leave before I blow one of your heads off."

"Please," Parker pleaded quietly, raising her hands up away from the knife on her belt. "If we go out there, we will die."

"What's in the bags?" He motioned with the gun towards the bags she carried. "Show me."

"Just some food," Parker answered him, taking the bags off her shoulders. "Food, water, and a little medicine. Please, that's all we have."

"Leave the bags and go," He ordered, nodding at the doors.

"Listen, if we leave right now... we'll die out there." Glenn tried to tell him. "We don't want to hurt you. We're just trying to survive. Like you are." The man didn't seem convinced, but a door opening behind him made him turn around.

"Nick? What's going on?" A new guy said as the door squeaked shut behind him. The newcomer, another man, saw Glenn and Parker and smiled. "Well, look at this. I haven't seen a woman since before all this shit happened. Unless you count the dead ones in the street." He approached the two carefully. "And I sure as hell haven't seen one look like you. Hello darling, My name's Dylan."

"Parker," She said through clenched teeth as she jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "That's Glenn."

"What brings you here?" Dylan asked, still stepping towards them, his steps were slow like he was a predator preparing to attack. "So far into the city?"

"We're looking for supplies," Glenn responded, standing slightly in front of her now. "We'll leave you alone as soon as the walkers pass through."

"Now... what kind of man would I be if I left a woman as pretty as your girlfriend out there to defend herself?" He cocked an eyebrow, now only inches away from Glenn and Parker.

"We don't want any trouble," Glenn told them. "Just leave us alone." Dylan formed a sickening smile on his face.

"That's not going to happen." He punched Glenn in the stomach when four other men came to see what all the fuss was about, and Dylan hooked a hand around Parker's arm. She hit his arm as he dragged her away from Glenn, who was lying on the ground trying to catch his breath.

"No!" She screamed, grabbing onto whatever she could as she yelled. "No!"

"Parker!" Glenn coughed as he struggled to get his feet under himself. "Let her- let her go!" The first guy they'd seen slammed the hilt of his shotgun into the back of Glenn's head and he fell to the ground, not moving.

"Glenn!" Parker shouted in fear for herself and him. Dylan dragged her through the door which led them to a random hallway. As he dragged her through that, he opened a door to a back room, where she saw another woman lying in the corner. She wasn't moving and was so thin that Parker wondered if she was even still alive. She didn't have any pants, just a worn-out bra and underwear that looked like it had seen better days, and she was huddled against the wall like she was trying not to be seen. Dylan slammed Parker against the wall and she screamed, yelling the first words that came to mind as she fought him, trying to get his hands off of her. "Get away from me! Get off!"

"The more you move, the more painful it will be for you," He hissed out. "So.. stop... moving!" She couldn't just fight him with her hands, remembering she had a knife strapped to her belt. She managed to grab the handle while Dylan worked on getting his own belt off, she let out an angry yell, grabbing the knife with one hand, raising it above her head before lodging it into his shoulder. He roared in pain and took a step back, his hand slamming into Parker's face. Dazed, she staggered toward the cache of weapons the men had hidden on a table. Before she could even lay on finger on any of the weapons, she felt a hand grab her by the hair and drag her back. Her eyes burned from the tears she failed to hold in as she was once again thrown into the wall. "You're going to regret that. You stupid little bitch." He had a gun holstered to his thigh, and Parker tried to grab it. It happened in an instant, almost as if she had passed out and let instinct take over. One moment she was pinned against the wall, and the next a gunshot rang out and Dylan fell to the floor. 

Parker let herself fall against the wall, looking at his body, the pool of blood forming around his head. The sight of it made her feel sick. That was the first time she had killed someone. His brains were scattered across the floor, she remembered how his head jerked back from the force of the shot and how his body crumpled like a ragdoll. It was something she hoped to never see again. At least, after she got out of there. His blood painted her face and the wall behind her. She stepped around his body and picked up her knife, looking around the room. There were plenty of supplies, enough to last their small group for a month or so. The woman in the corner moved a little, and Parker jumped, startled by her movements. She cautiously neared the woman and saw that she was in worse shape than she had initially thought. Her skin was pale and her face was sunken in. Her lips were dry and chapped and her hair was stringy from being neglected. Her eyes held a terror that instilled fear in Parker, because they were frantic and nervous as if she were anticipating an upcoming attack, and Parker wondered what the hell had happened to this woman.

"Hey, hey," Parker whispered almost silently, crouching down in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?" The woman's eyes slowly lifted to meet hers.

"No.."

"No?" Parker repeated.

"Kill me," The woman whispered, her voice raspy. "Please... kill me."

"I can't," Parker shook her head. "We can help you."

"No. I want- I'm ready. Please."

"What did they do to you?" She asked, her voice breaking as she stared at the broken soul sitting before her. Her entire body was visibly trembling, it was clear that it was taking all her energy to even keep herself sitting upright.

"They are horrible men. Horrible.... they killed my husband, they raped me... tortured me and... please. Please! Kill me." She begged her.

"I can't do- I can't do that," Parer refused, clearing her throat. "I can't."

"Please!" The woman begged again. "Please.. so I can be with my husband again. Please, I'm begging you." Parker closed her eyes to try and stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks as she stood up.

"I'm.. sorry." She couldn't stop the woman. If Parker didn't do it, then maybe she would pick up a gun or a knife and not do the job properly. Maybe she would end up like one of the dead outside, wandering until her body could no longer move. Parker couldn't let that happen, not when this woman had already been through enough. She pointed the gun at the woman's head, turned her head away, and pulled the trigger. Her body flopped to the ground with a quiet thump and at the sight, Parker felt a rush of anger surge through her veins. She turned around, walked past Dylan's body, and opened the door. His friends were standing there, waiting for their turn and when they saw her instead of the dead asshole inside, they were too stunned to do anything. Parker raised the gun, pulling the trigger three times before the sound of a click alerted her that the gun was empty. She grabbed her knife from her belt, tossing it and catching the blade with the tips of her fingers and hurling it toward the fourth one, watching as it met its target. She felt satisfied as their bodies dropped to the floor. She knelt down, took her knife out of his head, and took a new gun as she tossed the empty one aside and started walking to the door that led to the main part of the store. As she stepped through the door, she spotted Glenn, who was still on the floor, just managing to wake up.

"Parker..?" He muttered, staring wide-eyed at her.

"I'm fine," She assured him, her voice empty of any emotion. "I'm fine." Just as she said that the man who had pointed the shotgun at their head walked through the front doors, not expecting to be greeted with a bullet to the head.

"That was the first time I ever killed a real living, breathing person," Parker told Daryl as she finished her side of the story. "The first time I realized... that the world- that the world we knew was gone, and that bad people were thriving. That woman... they must have done so many terrible things to her to the point of wanting death."

"She asked you," Daryl reminded her. "Glenn told me you said she killed herself."

"That's what I told him." Parker looked down. "I didn't think he'd be able to stomach it. I told him that I missed the first shot and killed Dylan with the second. Doing that made it easier. Easier to convince myself that what I did was right." Daryl pulled her into his arms.

"Why'd you never tell anyone?"

"What were they going to do?" She asked him. "Those men were already dead. No one else needed to know. Glenn kept it a secret, even though he's bad at keeping things to himself. I thought... I figured if I didn't tell anyone, what happened that day would just disappear."

"Did it?" He asked her quietly and she shook her head.

"No. I mean, I managed to forget about it, ignore it. But then all that shit with the Claimers happened and that brought up all those memories back."

"I won't let anyone hurt you," Daryl promised her. "Never again, alright? I'll die before I let anyone hurt you again."

"I'm glad you know. And... I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"I get it," He assured her. "You don't gotta hide from me. I love you and I ain't gonna judge you. Sure as hell ain't gonna blame you for somethin' that wasn't your fault." She smiled sadly at him.

"I love you too." They fell asleep together that night, wrapped in each other's arms. Parker had never felt safer than when she was with Daryl, and after being taken she wasn't eager to be away from him.