AN: Here's another chapter, sorry for the long wait. I want you guys to vote who you want Jami to be with.

A. Amy, B. Beth, C. Glenn, D. Another OC

Let me know what you guys want and depending on how many I get for each I'll decide.

Emily runs her hands over Daryl's shoulder, rubbing and soothing the tense muscles. Merle was a real bastard, but Emily wasn't one for killing unless absolutely necessary. "You okay, hon?" Emily asks as she places a kiss just below his ear She felt a shiver run through his body, causing her to grin. "Want me to help ease the tension from you?" Daryl pulls away, causing her to frown. He grabs her and pulls her onto his lap.

"Not now, Emily." He didn't call her by her real name too often. She places a hand on his cheek and forces him to look at her.

"He's going to be okay, Daryl. Everything will be okay. I promise."

"You can't promise that."

"Daryl, what is it you always tell me?" She asks as she runs a hand through his hair. "That'll you protect me no matter what?" He hums in response. "Well, let me do the same."

"I don't need protection." Emily bites her lip.

"Maybe you do." He turns and looks at her. "Merle's going to cause hell when you get him back. I don't want you to receive his punishment. You're a good man, Daryl, don't let him ruin you."

"He's blood, Emily." His words are sharp enough to cause Emily to flinch. "Em…" Daryl frowns, guilt and regret slipping into his eyes. "I didn't mean to snap."

"I know. But blood doesn't always make a family, Daryl. I'm not blood, but I know you'd do anything for me just as I would for you. Love and friendship make a family, Daryl. Just promise you'll remember that." Daryl brushes her hair off her shoulder.

"I promise, Bambi. I love you." She moves and kisses him.

"I love you more than anything, Daryl. Please make it back safely. Don't forget you have a family here as well."

"I'm going to have Jami stay with you. I don't want you alone here." He leans down and gives her a soft kiss. "But are you going to be okay being away from me for a few hours?" Emily grins as she runs a hand down his chest.

"Yeah, I'll have a girl day." Daryl raises an eyebrow. "I like Carol, she's nice, and it'll give me plenty of time to catch up on the laundry. You boys tend to keep me busy." Daryl grins, pulling her closer to him.

"I'll keep you busy all night when I get back." He whispers in her ear, causing a shiver of pleasure to run through her.

"You better." She purs.

"I promise, Bambi." He leans down and kisses her.

"Well, look I-I don't, okay, Rick?" Emily pulls away from Daryl as she watches Shane and Rick heading towards them. "So could you just-Could you throw me a bone here, man?" Daryl rolls his eyes and set to cleaning his bolts. "Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Jami turns to look back at them as he hears Shane.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl snaps, pointing his bolt at Shane.

"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant." Jami scoffs at the pure arrogance coming from Shane. Emily runs a hand through, Daryl's hair. He needed a bath, he was filthy, but so was she. "Merle Dixon." Emily didn't like the way he said her brother-in-law's name. He said it as if it was the filthiest thing in the world. Merle wasn't perfect, but he's blood like Daryl said. "The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst-me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Emily looks at Rick as he spoke. He wasn't like Shane. He was a good man, Emily could see it. He was selfless and kindhearted even to those who probably don't deserve it.

Rick turns to go when his wife spoke up. "So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Jami goes to step forward, but a look from his father stops him in his tracks. Rick turns to Glenn then, causing Jami's eyes to shoot over to Glenn. Glenn was his friend. He didn't want him going into the city and getting himself killed.

"Oh, come on." Glenn sighs.

"You know the way. You've been there before. In and out, no problem. You said so yourself."

"Well, that was dumb of you." Jami mutters as he bites his thumb. Glenn shoots him a glare before looking back at Rick.

"It's not fair of me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick says as he motions to Lori.

"Yeah and I'd feel better if Jami came with." Glenn gave Jami a look knowing Jami would back him up. Jami's eyes met his dad who gave a pointed look to Emily.

"Sorry, bud, ain't going on this one. Already got one too many Dixon in the city." Glenn sighs and lets his head fall as Jami says this.

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"

"Four." Daryl and Emily look over towards T-Dog who spoke up.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl scoffs, causing Emily to hit his arm.

"Stop it." She whispered quietly. "You should consider yourself lucky that he's volunteering."

"Your wife's right. You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" Daryl glances at Emily before looking at T-Dog.

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's four." Dale pipes up.

"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick."

"Should have thought about that before leaving my uncle in the city." Jami speaks up, earning a glare from Shane.

"Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns."

"Right, the guns." Jami raises an eyebrow at Glenn.

"You've been holding out on me, Glenn?" Jami asks, nudging Glenn.

"Wait. What guns?" Shane asks.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left." The camp falls silent as Rick tells them that. They can all agree that those guns are essential for their survival. "I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Emily never liked Lori. Sure she could understand why Lori didn't want Rick to leave, but Emily would never tell Daryl not to do what he believes is the right thing. She also probably would never sleep with another man because her heart belongs to Daryl alone, but that is a whole thing.

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl says and Emily could clearly see how hard it was for Rick to not give in. Jami was also like Emily. Even if he was worried about his dad, he still wouldn't hold him back, but again, Emily could accept Carl's plea because he is still a boy.

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right." Emily rolls her eyes as Lori says this. She was siding with the lover over the husband if only Rick knew this. "Merle Dixon?" Emily felt Daryl's hands grip harder to her. He was getting angry and Emily was close to following along with him. "He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in."

"But it'd be different if it was Shane or Rick?" Emily asks, causing the camp to look at her. "He's human, good or bad, he ain't being left there." Rick looks at Emily before looking at Lori, who stands up.

"Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy." Lori looks at Carl as if he is enough of an excuse. Emily learned real fast by knowing Daryl that you pay your debts. End of the world or not. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These are our walkies?" Shane asks. This Jami was familiar with. Most of the police in Atlanta had these old walkies that never connected to anything beside each other.

"Are these walkies the ones from the 70s?" Jami asks.

"The very same." Shane huffs.

"So use the C.B. What's wrong with that?" Andrea spoke up.

"The C.B.s fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap. As Jami said, date back to the '70s don't match any other bandwidth-"

"Not even the scanners in our cars." Rick says as he looks at Jami. "How'd you know about them?"

"Used the same ones in Atlanta." Jami spoke up, biting his thumb once more. "They were a pain in the ass."

"I need that bag." Rick speaks up again. Rick moves down to Carl. "Okay?" Carl gives him a nod after a long moment. "Alright." Rick says before everyone begins to get ready.

"You need to lose that tension before you go to Atlanta." Emily whispers in Daryl's ear. "I don't want you losing your temper while you're there. It blinds you and makes you not think clearly."

"Emily-"

"Come on, you need a bath." She whispers, nipping his ear. He huffs but allows her to pull him and lead him down the hill. Everyone was still getting ready, so they had time. She leads him to a secluded part of the river and begins to strip. Daryl rests his calloused hands on her bare hips, kissing down her neck.

"You're skin's so soft," He whispers as he runs his hands up her stomach and to her breasts. "These are so soft." Emily sighs and leans her head back against him. She liked when Daryl was rough, but sometimes she needs it soft and right now this was pure heaven.

"Take off your clothes." She whispers as she pulls away from him. She kicks her boots and socks off before starting on the buttons of her jeans. Daryl strips down to nothing and once they're both naked he walks into the water with her. "We don't have any soap, so it'll be harder to clean, but I'm sure you can manage to clean me up." She purs in his ear as his hands move over her body, rubbing the dirt off in the water. She pulls away and holds her breath before going under, scrubbing the dirt from her face before coming back up.

"Tilt your head back." Daryl whispers, his voice rough. She does as she is told and he begins to run his fingers through her hair, trying to get the dirt and sweat out of it. "You know, this hair could be the death of you."

"I ain't cutting it, darling." She turns back to face him. "I like you pulling it too much." She pulls his head down and kisses him, her hands moving over his body and scrubbing all the dirt, blood, and sweat off him. The water did feel good. It was cool against their heated skin. Daryl pulls away and goes under, doing the same as Emily. When he comes back up he runs a hand through his hair. She motions him to crouch down and tilt his head back. She begins pouring water onto his head and washing his hair clean. It was clean as they were going to get with the sun still burning hot and no soap on them.

"All clean."

"Let's fix that." He picks her up, her legs wrapping around his waist. He walks further back in the water until the water is up to his shoulders. He slides into her with ease, causing her to gasp.

"Make love to me, Daryl." She moans in his ear, causing his grip to tighten.

"I love you, Emily." She moves and kisses him. He thrusts his hip in a slow and easy pace. She kisses down his neck as his fingers run through her hair. "You're so beautiful." Her nails dig into his back, but he just groans in pleasure.

"I love you so much." She whispers as she rocks her hips against his, meeting him thrust for thrust. "Daryl." She whines as she feels herself getting close. She was still sensitive from just a few hours ago. Daryl picks up his speed, his fingers running up and down her spine. She gasps as she climaxes, her lips sucking on his pulse point, leaving what will become a large hickey. Daryl groans, spilling his own seed into her. It's a wonder how they only have one child from the amount of unprotective sex they have. Normally Daryl pulled out, but he loved the feeling of her milking his seed from him. He loves the idea of coating her walls.

The two take a moment to catch their breaths before washing up for another moment. They climbed back out, letting the warm harm dry them as much as possible before slipping on their clothes and shoes. Emily pulls her wet hair up into another bun before taking Daryl's hand and heading back to camp.

"Promise me you'll come back, Daryl." Emily whispers as they stand together.

"Bambi, I ain't gonna leave you." He whispers as he caresses her cheek. "I'm gonna come back to you. You and Jami both." Emily stares up at him.

"Daryl…" She hesitates as she runs her thumb over his bottom lip.

"What is it darling?"

"I want a baby." She whispers. She's been thinking about it since before the world went to shit and the idea of him going into the city and possibly getting hurt only made her want it even more. Daryl rests his forehead against hers.

"Baby, you know why we can't." He whispers. It's not safe anymore for babies.

"Can you bring back tests just in case?" She asks. Daryl pulls back and looks at her.

"You think you're pregnant?" When she was pregnant with Jami she knew before she even started feeling symptoms. If she's asking for tests then Daryl knows she's pregnant.

"I just want to make sure." He lets out a heavy breath.

"If you're asking then you already know, Bambi."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't put this on you when you're going to the city." He tilts her chin up.

"Don't, Bambi. Don't apologize. I'll get you some tests, okay?" She nods and he leans down, giving her gentle kiss. "I gotta go, but I promise I will be back and with those damn tests." She nods and kisses him back. "I love you."

"Love you more." He grins and gives her one last kiss before starting for Jami, who was resting against the shiny red car.

"Keep an eye on your, mama." Daryl orders, causing Jami to look up at him.

"Something wrong?"

"No, just don't like leaving her here without me."

"Don't worry, I'll keep her safe." Daryl nods.

"I know you will. I'll be back soon." He goes to leave, but Jami grabs Daryl's hand.

"Dad?"

"What?" Jami's thumb goes to his mouth, causing Daryl to look at him worried. Jami was a lot like his mother, but he still had some habits that he got from his father. The thumb biting was a nervous tick he got from Daryl. "What, kid?"

"Make sure not to kill Glenn. I rather keep the one friend that I have." Daryl chuckles.

"He'll come back fine."

"Go easy on him, yeah?" Daryl rolls his eyes and gives Jami a look. Jami just smiles, causing Daryl to smile back.

"I'll be back soon, kid."

"Be careful." Daryl nods moving and kissing his son's temple before getting into the van. He might be a Dixon and maybe he is some white trashed redneck, but he was a good father and a good husband and he'd be damn if he let anything happen to either of them. Over his dead body.