Daryl had brought me back to the cell blocks and I guess everyone was outside or something because it was just him and I. ''Whoa, easy. Let's lay you down." Daryl said as he gently put me down on one of the bunks. My body was weak and my throat was dry. Daryl left only for a second, when he came back he had a bottle of water with him. I took it quickly downing it in seconds causing myself to cough.

"Easy, little bird." He said and I looked at him with tears in my eyes.

"I thought I was going to die in there." My voice was finally able to speak. Daryl looked at me, his blue eyes were drowning in sadness.

"I ain't ever gonna let that happen to ya." His voice was soft and I threw my arms around him.

"Thank you. My redneck in shining armor." I said my face buried into the crook of his neck. He had tensed up at the sudden hug, I knew he didn't like physical contact really. After a moment as I was about to pull away I felt his arms wrap tightly around my waist and he buried his face in my neck. We stayed there like that for a few moments and then he slowly let go.

"I'll be back. Gotta tell the other's you're alive. Rick. He missed ya almost as much as I did." He said and he got up and left. I noticed I was in my own cell or more as the cell that I kept all my things in. I stayed there on the bed till I heard voices. I saw a tall dark figure in the doorway so I sat up leaning into the sunlight with a smile on my face.

"Ra...Raven." Rick said and I held out one of my hands but, Rick wasted no time in scooping me up in his arms and holding me there. I could feel his tears on my neck as he whispered into my ear.

"I thought I had lost you too. Please don't ever do that to me again. I love you too much." He said, his voice barely audible. I nodded and held him close.

"I'm not leaving you anytime soon, my love." I whispered into his ear. I looked up to see the rest of the group staring at me. Hershel was the next one to hug me.

"How?" He asked me and I shook my head.

"Broom closet." Was all I said.

"Little thing fought her way into there, passed out of dehydration." Daryl said and I shook my head as I let go of Hershel. Beth came in holding a little girl in her arms and I looked around for Lori and I could find her.

"Rick...Lori..." I said looking at him as I was using the bed to stand up. His face fell into sadness.

"Oh god." I said and tears started to roll out of my eyes. Lori was my best girl friend. She never bugged me about girly shit but, she also knew how to take my mind off of the military when I needed it. She was a sister to me and she was gone. Rick started to cry and I held his face in my hands.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered and pulled him into a bear hug. He seemed to need it and I could tell he hadn't talked about her much. Letting him go my attention was turned to a little boy in a sheriff hat.

"Carl." I breathed out and he ran into my arms crying hard into my chest.

"I know baby, I'm so so sorry." I whispered to him. Glenn and Maggie walked into my view and I let out a small laugh.

"Glenn, you look like shit." I said still holding Carl close.

"You should see yourself." He said with a joking voice.

"Can I hold her?" I asked Rick and he nodded. Beth gently laid the little girl in my arms.

"Hello, they're beautiful." I said in a soft voice. She had Rick's eyes for sure but, Lori's nose, she was beautiful.

"Does she have a name yet?" I asked out loud and Carl, who was still next to me, spoke up.

"Judith." He said with a large smile on his face.

"Judith. I love it." Holding the little girl in my arms she had a hold of one of my fingers.

"Let's get you up to speed." Rick said as I handed Judith back to Beth.

After about a few days Rick explained everything I was absolutely dumbfounded. "Okay, so let me get this straight. Merle Dixon is alive, you found some chick with a katana, we have a new enemy called the governor? And to top it all off we have four new people." Rick nodded and I was just so surprised.

"Yeah. That's all right." Rick told me and I looked at everyone.

"Fucking hell. We just cannot catch a break can we." I walked away back to my cell to change my clothes.

"Hey Raven, Um...Just so you know we're going back. For Daryl. The Governor took him." Rick said right before I could do much of anything.

"What? Why didn't you start off with that!" I yelled at Rick.

"Look, I know you two have gotten close and I just didn't want to worry you. Or have you push yourself." Rick was concerned which made perfect sense.

"I'm going with you, end of story." I said and shoved him out of my cell. Peeling off my torn clothes I used a makeshift rag and cleaned my body. It felt good to be as clean as I could be. Pulling on a new bra and underwear there was a knock on the cell.

"One second." I said and it didn't work out very well because Rick ended up pulling my curtain that I had put up open and stepped in.

"Oh shit. Sorry." He said but he didn't leave.

"Rick. You've seen worse." I laughed and he walked up behind me.

"I'm just letting you know we are leaving here soon." I pulled on some black cargo pants and a yellowish white cropped t-shirt.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go save my favorite redneck." I said grabbing my crossbow, hand gun, and switchblade. Rick laughed and we walked out of my cell and headed out to the cars. We drove back as fast as we could parking by the woods as night fell.

"So, how are we doing this?" I asked as we all sat behind some cars.

"We're gonna go in. Use the smoke bombs and flash bangs then, we find Daryl grab him and we leave." Rick said, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, and myself nodded in agreement. We got ready and ran over to get inside Woodbury. Once inside we saw a bunch of people gathered up and they were yelling and cheering like a damn battle royal. There was a break in the group and I could see Merle on top of Daryl and people were chanting 'Kill him. Kill them.', it hurt my heart to watch Daryl's own brother beat the shit out of him. I pulled out my sniper after watching them bring out walkers on sticks to use against the two men. I shot Maggie right along with me.

We started to lay out as many walkers and people as we could. I sniped out another walker and then we moved in to get Daryl. We all grouped up as Daryl and his brother came running up and we all ran for the gate trying to blend in with the people there.

"Move. Move. Come on!" I yelled and we kept in a tight group making our way through the town.

"They're all at the arena this way!" Merle said and Rick shook his head.

"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick said in a stearin voice.

"You really want to do this now?" Merle argued back at him and then he went and prayed open a panel in the wall behind us.

"Rick, come on." I said tugging at his arm. He looked at me and we all ran out of the hole making our way down the street and back into the woods.

"Little help would be nice." Merle said as he took out a walker. Daryl and I raised our crossbows and took out two walkers that were standing 5 feet from Merle at the same time. But, more kept coming. Merle ran off and Daryl followed forcing us all to follow to just get out of the situation we were in. Yes, we didn't trust Merle who honestly would but, we did trust Daryl. So we followed with as much caution as we could trying to run from the walkers and any of the governor's men that could have been following us.

We spent the night running through the woods till we spotted Glenn sitting on the ground by the car. "Glenn!" Rick called out stern but quiet.

"Rick." We heard what he said and then it dawned on us. Merle had tried to kill Glenn and Michonne. This was not going to go over well and I think Rick sensed that same thing too.

"Now we have a problem here. I'm gonna need you to back up." Rick held his hand up in defense as Glenn pulled up his gun in sight of Merle and Michonne pulled out her katana ready to cut him down.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn yelled and the sounds of everyone yelling at each other filled the once quiet forest line.

"Put it down!" Rick yelled pointing his gun at Michonne.

"He tried to kill me!" She yelled back at Rick, she had a fire in her eyes. I liked her.

"If it wasn't for him..." Glenn started but Daryl cut him off.

"He helped us get out of there." I just stood behind him with my hand gun pointed at Merles head.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." My eye was trained on Merle but, when Daryl looked at me I felt almost bad for holding that gun to his brother's head.

"Hey, we both took our licks, baby girl." Merle said, licking his lips as he looked me head to toe.

"Jackass." Daryl said and I was just disgusted by the look Merle was giving me.

"Hey, shut up." Merle told Daryl.

"Enough!" Rick yelled at Merle. Just as Rick took his eye off Michonne she moved in to kill Merle but, Rick was right back on her in second.

"What, you wanna cuff me again?" Merle said barely over everyone yelling.

"I might just tie you to that tree and leave you there." I said getting real irritated with this fucking human trash. Merle smiled and winked at me causing me to literally puke in my mouth a bit.

"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl yelled at Glenn causing me to look over at him.

"Man, look like you've gone native, brother." Merle said relaxing up against the tree and Daryl got pissed coming after him.

"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there." He yelled in his older brother's face.

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." Merle said moaning and looked over at Michonne. Andrea. The girl we had thought died back on the farm, we had left her to fucking die.

"What?" I asked Merle as a sense of regret for not going back for her swept over me.

"Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked, looking from Michonne, to Merle, and then back. We were all surprised by the sudden news. Considering we had all thought she died but, we also thought Merle was dead and we were so very wrong about that fucking shit.

"Right next to the Governor." Daryl said and I looked at him.

"You saw her?" I asked him and he nodded.

"I told you to drop that!" Rick yelled at Michonne as she tried to push further forward.

"You know Andrea?" Rick asked her anger filled his voice and Michonne stood there stone faced.

"Hey, do you know Andrea?" Rick asked her again and she was giving Merle a killer look but she refused to answer Rick.

"Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I know about it." Merle said, making faces at Michonne. I could see Rick debating on whether or not to bring this girl back to the group. We already knew that Merle was not going anywhere near the group but, this girl. This newcomer, how were we supposed to trust someone who has yet to prove themselves.

"Shut up, Merle." I said getting tired of hearing his voice. I mean this man could give you a migraine in less than 5 second by just breathing wrong.

"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying." Merle continued after we all told him to stop talking.

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So what are you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh?" Merle said being irritated as always. This man was driving me up a fucking wall. All I wanted to do is punch him in the mouth to make him just stop talking.

"Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards." Merle was now starting to press Rick buttons.

"Shut up!" Daryl yelled at his brother but he didn't stop.

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them." Merle kept going, just making everyone more and more pissed off.

"Merle, shut up!" His younger sibling yelled in his face.

"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll..." Merle pushed himself off the tree and yelled but Rick knocked him out in a few seconds of him losing his shit.

"Thank you." I said with a sigh as I watched Merle's body hit the forest floor. Everyone stood around and Daryl seemed sad but also mad at his brother for pushing everyone.

"Asshole." Rick said and we went back to what we were doing leaving Merle there on the dirt floor.

We were on the street and Daryl was trying to convince Rick to let Merle come back to the prison with the rest of us. "It's not gonna work." Rick told Daryl and he wasn't giving up.

"It's gotta." I shook my head and crossed my arms.

"It'll stir things up." Rick told him and Daryl was right back with an answer.

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle." Daryl said, trying to give a good reason to have human trash at our 'home' or what was close to it.

"Look Daryl, I get it I do but, when we had fugitives from ISIS come to us we didn't invite them in for tea. We kept them at a distance. Sure he knows the Governor but, we can't trust him." I told him and he looked at me almost pissed that I wasn't on his side.

"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie added.

"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Glenn stated, stating a new concern.

"He ain't a rapist." Daryl said, defending his older brother.

"Well, his buddy is." Glenn said and I looked at him and then at Maggie. Maggie was pissed at Glenn for what he had just said and honestly I didn't blame him.

"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." Daryl told us and we all knew that answer was going to be no. No matter what he said, but that didn't stop Daryl from trying.

"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." This only made Daryl more angry.

"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" Daryl more asked then said and Rick was quick to decide on that thought.

"She's not coming back." "She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie said which I mean she wasn't wrong but, fuck why were there always strangers coming in our way of our happy little family we had going.

"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn said, defending her.

"And then ditched us." Rick said and my head was spinning tryin to keep up with all this shit.

"I tap out." I said walking away as everyone kept arguing. I was leaning against a tree when I saw Daryl walking over but everyone was yelling for him.I watched as Rick and Daryl opened the trunk to the car.

"No him, no me. That's all I can say. Take care of yourself. Take care of lil ass-kicker. Carl. He's one thought kid." Daryl said, walking away.

"What's going on?" I asked Rick and Daryl as he was pulling his bag from the car.

"He's leaving." Rick said motioning towards Daryl.

"What? Why?" I asked and he looked up toward the hill his brother was on.

"Oh. You've got to be kidding me. You're leaving a family we have built for someone who could give two shits about you." I was pissed that he was leaving just as we were getting good.

"Raven don't..." He said and I shook my head.

"No. Don't you don't me. How could you. He literally beat the fuck out of you just to 'prove his loyalty'. How is that someone you want to hang around? I get he's your brother but he left you." I started to say and Daryl got pissed at me.

"Raven." His voice was rough and full of anger.

"No, Daryl. You told me he left and when he did things for you only got worse. Look at the scars you have from it. He left because he will always and only care about himself." I finished and Daryl was pissed and Rick was just shocked at me. My heart sank as I watched him walk off. Maybe I wouldn't ever see him again.

As I watched Merle smile at the fact that Daryl was going with him I knew I only had one chance to tell Daryl. I couldn't let him leave without him knowing how much I needed him. So I ran off into the woods after him as I ignored the yells of my name.

"Daryl, wait." I yelled as we got deep into the forest.

"Raven." He said looking back causing his brother to look at me and lick his lips.

"You joining us, hot stuff." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up, Merle. Daryl, can I...Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone. Then you can leave." I asked him, I half expected him to tell me no since what I said but, I was surprised as he took my arm and led me behind some trees far from Merle.

"What?" He asked and I took a deep breath.

"Look, I'm sorry for what I said. It's just...I just got you back and you're leaving all over again." I said kicking the dirt at my feet as sudden nerves flooded my body.

"I ain't leaving my brother." He said and I nodded.

"I know, that's why I need to get this off my chest now in case you and I never see each other again." I looked up at him and he looked sad at my words.

"What are ya' talkin' about?" I ran my hand through my hair and bit my lip.

"Fuck. Look, I don't know how to say this, so I'm just gonna go for it and if you push me away so be it." My voice was shaky just like my body was and he looked at me confused.

"What..." Before he could say anything else I grabbed his face in both of my hands and crashed my lip onto his. I didn't dare move as he tensed up and I stayed there for a moment but he didn't move so I started to pull away. But as I did Daryl wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him. He started to kiss me back and I felt sparks fly though my body and I wrapped my arms around his neck tangling one of my hands in his hair pulling him closer to kiss him deeper. Daryl backed me up into a tree and pressed his body flush against mine. I let out a small gasp and he took that as the chance to dive his tongue to tangle with mine. Moaning into his mouth he became more bold and he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

My mind was racing and my heart was fluttering at his actions. His lips were like a drug and I only wanted more of him. I needed him. I needed his skin on mine to feel his heartbeat against my chest. His lips left mine only to attach themselves to my neck. I let out soft quiet moans as he found my sweet spot. He nipped at it and I moaned and yelped in pleasure. I could feel his hard on pressed against my thigh, so I pulled him closer with my legs grinding on him just a bit. He let out an animalistic growl that went straight to my core. He pulled away as we caught our breath but he didn't put me down.

"Do you have to?" I asked him, leaning my forehead against his.

"I wish I didn't." His voice sounded sad at the fact that he had to leave.

"What if I beg you to stay?" I asked him, not wanting to open my eyes in fear that when I did he wouldn't be there.

"Raven, you mean so much to me. But, he's my brother and I can't leave him like that." He gently let me onto the ground but our foreheads were still connected.

"Will we see each other again?" My voice cracked as tears started to well into my eyes.