The "Z" Word

Slater pulled away from the kiss and laid her head on Daryl's shoulder. He had his arm around her and she closed her eyes. "You have soft lips," she whispered.

He smiled and said, "So do you."

Slater didn't hear him though because almost as instantly as she had said the last word, she had fallen asleep.

Daryl sat there in the darkness, lost in his thoughts. He could feel Slater's breath, war against his neck, and he smiled. All this time she had been fighting him, not literally of course, but fighting him. Fighting her feelings. Constantly trying to push him away out of fear that she would get hurt. The one time she had let her guard down and given in to her feelings, it was because she thought they were about to die, and even then she refused to admit that she felt something for him.

There was a soft knocking on the door and opened just enough for the light in the hall way to protrude in and illuminate Slater's face in the darkness. "Is everything okay?" Andrea asked, without looking inside the room.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Daryl told her.

"Um...is it safe to come in or should I...." Andrea's words trailed off and it took Daryl a moment to catch on to where her thoughts were headed.

He chuckled slightly and said, "It's safe to come in."

The door opened further and Andrea stepped inside. She seen Slater asleep next to Daryl and she smiled, "Poor thing," she sighed. She could relate to Slater's pain, after all, she had lost her sister due to an attack. As she looked at Slater's face she remember having to see Amy get bitten by the infected. Her sister's scream rang in her ears and she had to fight to not break down and start crying.

"Are you okay?" Daryl asked, noticing the anxiety that now filled Andrea's face and eyes.

She blinked a few times, pushing the thoughts away, and nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." She walked over to where her bag sat and dug out her pajamas. As she did, she told Daryl, "We're going to Fort Benning in the morning. Once we've ate and everything. We're going to stop by some of the stores first, try to restock on supplies."

Daryl nodded. He wasn't surprised that they were headed there. After all, Shane had been trying to get them to go there for so long he had become a broken record.

Andrea stood up and turned to face him, "I'm going to go change in the bathroom. I'll be right back."

He didn't say anything and she left the room. About five minutes passed before she returned. She laid down on the empty bed.

After laying there in silence for awhile she said, "Daryl, are you still awake?"

"Yeah. What is it?"

"She needs you. I know she fights you, but she does need you. Just be patient with her."

Daryl didn't reply immediately. He just let Andrea's words sink in. He had already thought the same thing, and hearing it from Andrea only confirmed it.

When morning came Slater woke up, but just laid there in bed, not wanting to move yet. She kept her eyes shut and shifted slightly, getting more comfortable in the blanket that was wrapped around her. She could hear a light snoring, and assumed it was Andrea on the bunk beneath her and she smiled. Maybe she could get a few more minutes of sleep before they had to be on the road again.

However, it didn't take long to figure out that the snoring wasn't coming from Andrea. The cloth under her cheek wasn't a blanket or a sheet either, she realized as her head slowly rose and fell, only to rise and fall again with Daryl's breathing. She opened her eyes and could see part of Daryl's arm. She sat up only to feel a sharp pain in her head, a result from all the drinking she had done the night before. She laid her head back down and moved to the side so that she wasn't laying on Daryl anymore.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember what had happened the night before. She remembered arguing with Rick, but she couldn't remember what was said. And she remember Daryl coming to comfort her, but that was it. She groaned and sat up despite the pain in her head. Slater had every intention of going downstairs, maybe someone else would be awake too. Plus, she had to find something for her headache. She stopped though when she heard a yawn.

Slater turned and faced Daryl, who was laying there, just staring up at the ceiling. "Good morning," she said in a quiet voice.

"Good morning." There was a pause, then he said, "I'm surprised you haven't disappeared out of the room."

She shrugged, "You woke up before I could." Daryl didn't reply so they just sat there in silence. Finally, she asked him what exactly had happened.

He filled her in on what she couldn't remember, and told her the plan Andrea had filled him in on. She didn't regret what she had said to Rick. It was the truth, all of it. She fully believed it was just a matter of time before they all died, and she did believe that Merle deserved some form of revenge. They had been civil towards each other so that they could stay at her place and be safe. They had needed somewhere safe at the time. Now they didn't have somewhere safe, and what was to stop Merle from getting his revenge?