Nox: So I've ventured into a new world, where Daryl and Ass Kicker make their way amongst the dead, and the living. Hoping to survive when all they have is each other. And all Daryl can remember is those he's lost.

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead belongs to Kirkman and AMC.

Nightmare

"Stay with Daryl," she said softly, brushing the tears from her cheeks. "Remember what I've told you. Don't you ever leave him." The girl nodded quickly, blinking her wide brown eyes. Her lip quivered but she didn't say nothin'. She pulled her arm back and stood up, reaching back through, toward him.

"You have to go," she said, brushing her fingers across his cheek. Just a ghost of a touch, cos she knew how he felt 'bout touchin'. But now, it didn't matter. If the damn chain link fence wasn't standin' between them he might a pulled her to him, flush against his chest, in the hopes that he wouldn't have to lose her too.

Cos this was not fuckin' happenin'.

But it was.

Bang, Bang.

She looked back, her blue eyes calmer than they should have been. She turned to him once more, smiling somethin' sad. "I know you'll protect her. Like you always been." She pulled her arms back through, and he watched as a single tear slipped down her haggard cheek.

She pulled her huntin' knife out of her pocket, the one he'd given her so long ago. It'd kept her safe, all this time.

She turned on them both, her back tall, shoulders straight. He watched as the walkers surrounded them, the only people he'd had left after all this time.

"You get her outta here Daryl! You keep her safe. Just like he always wanted us to." His friend, more like a brother, fired another shot into the oncoming walkers, backing closer to the fence.

He touched the fence, eyes softening as he took in the girl at his side. The moment was short-lived as he tore his gaze away and held his eyes firmly.

"Don't worry 'bout us! Go!" How could he have let this happen? Why'd he have to let it?

She lunged forward, a streak of white, silver-gray hair, and tattered blue-sweater, striking out at a walker that had gotten too close. "Go!" She yelled, her voice catching.

And he knew he couldn't waste their sacrifice. Couldn't watch them die either. Her head turned, eyes finding them, as she pulled the blade from its skull.

"I l-"

"Daryl!" He jerked awake, hand flying to the knife at his side. He bolted upright, swinging the blade outward.

And stopped.

Her wide brown eyes peered up at him, waiting, cautious as he held the knife just barely below her neck. The knife quivered with the energy it took for him to hold the swing at bay.

"Christ Jude!" He dropped it, and exhaled loudly, hands shaking just a little. He fisted'em, hoping to hide it from her.

But she didn't miss nothin'. Just like her Ma.

"You were havin' the sleep scare again," she said pointedly, eyes searching out his face. She'd always been observant. Picked that up from Carol.

"Nightmare," he said absently, rubbing at his temples. It was still dark out, and the fire was still burnin' low, which meant that he'd fallen asleep, again.

She scooted closer. "What's a nightmare?" He sighed and picked up the knife, moving it away from her. Now that the space next to him was open, she pulled herself into it, making herself comfortable.

She was always doing that. Gettin' close.

"It's sorta like…when you have these memories in your sleep, only they ain't memories. It's just shit your head makes up for ya, and it's scary and sad and ya wake up feelin' worse than when ya went ta bed." Her eyes went wide, those chocolate orbs takin' in everything he said. She was like a sponge, absorbing everything he said. He never noticed it before now, now that they were the only ones.

"You were scared and sad?" He scowled, cursing his poor choice a words.

"Hell I ain't. I was just…" Just what? Rememberin' shit ya wish ya could forget?

"Rememberin' Carol?" She said softly, looking up at him from beneath her lashes. She'd gotten that look from Carol too. He looked at her, at her soft brown waves, fallin' over her shoulder, her wide brown eyes takin' in everything, and the set of her strong shoulders carryin' the weight of a world she shoulda never been born into without a mother.

But she'd had one, in everybody. Especially her.

He sighed. "It ain't nothin'," he said, running his finger across the blade. And it couldn't be. He couldn't be sitting around, dwelling on the past. He had to move the hell on, had to be strong for those small hands, and her small feet, and those brown eyes that looked so much like Lori's he wondered when she was gonna start sassin' him instead followin' him around like a puppy. He had to take care of Judith, cos Rick had done right by him, and Carl had been a brother to him.

And now, it was just him an' her.

She studied his face for a moment before lookin down, fiddlin' with the grass between her legs. "You started mumblin', callin' her name."

He heaved another sigh, and ran a hand across the stubble on his face, and then through his hair. Since they'd lost them, the last of their group, things had been…rough. Especially on her. She was used to havin' her family around, people she go to when she wanted to talk, and laugh. He knew he weren't none a those things. She may a loved him just as much as the others, but they had somethin' different. He knew that.

"Come'ere." He opened up his arm, callin' her forward.

And then her face opened up, sudden emotion filling it. He could see the fear that she had been hiding behind the blank face she had started using so regularly around him. And instead of sitting beside him, she curled up in his lap, resting her head against his chest. He froze.

This was something he hadn't done in a long while, not since she were a baby. Once she got older he took over other duties. Teachin' her how to survive; how to hunt, how to make fire, how to live. He'd never been the one to hold her. Carol had always been the one to mother her, to rock her when she was upset, hold her when she was cold or needed comfort, to be the woman in her life.

She ain't here though.

"Yeah," he admitted, folding his arms around her tentatively. That feeling, of knowing that she weren't here no more, hit him square in the chest. Seized him up, as if he couldn't breathe. And he realized that he missed her just as much as Jude did.

"Listen Jude." She looked up at him, intent on his words.

"You know I'd never leave ya." Her innocent eyes never blinked as they started to shine. He noticed she weren't breathin' either.

"No matter what happens," he said, wrapping an arm around her tight, brushing at her cheek with his fingers, "it's you 'n me." She closed her eyes then, letting her head fall to his chest, as she released the breath she was holdin'. She buried her face in his shirt, her hands gripping him tight. He could feel her heart beating fast against him.

"Just like your brother," she mumbled against him.

He smiled. That was a tale she loved to hear, when he and Merle had escaped from the prison called Woodbury and his brother had almost died to save him. He'd told her then that Merle was always talkin' bout how it was always you an' me. Somehow, she got the wrong picture of Merle. But he didn't have the heart to correct her.

Merle'd been long gone since then anyhow.

Watchin' her, fall asleep against him, he couldn't help but notice just how much of a kid she really was. Six years in a world gone to hell, and she still weren't meant for it. Not that Carol would have wanted her too, but he knew that Jude needed to know how ta survive in it. And she did, he 'sposed, she just weren't meant for the death of it all. The way people just came and left. As if they didn't have no choice in the matter.

And most days, ya didn't.

"I love you." He couldn't tell who she was lookin' at, him or Jude. But maybe that was the point. Maybe, she loved'em both. Carol was like that, always doin' shit that she knew he hated, when in fact, he didn't. Maybe she knew that too.

"Carol!" Jude slammed against the fence, the tears streamin' down her face. She shook the metal hard, makin' more noise than she knew she should have been.

"Brother," she whimpered. Carl never looked back, but Daryl watched as his head tipped down for a moment, the gun suddenly heavy in his hands.

"Take care of our ass kicker," Carol said softly, attempting a smile. And he could still heard her, over the drownin' moan of the walkers, and the clangin' of the metal fence.

But it was the soft blue of her eyes that told him everything.

He snatched Jude up into his arms, as she wailed and hollered and threw her small fists against his back, and ran. Those fists, the small ache as each one pounded into his back kept him lookin' forward, kept his head focused, kept him from thinkin' bout those soft blues. Because he had to keep her safe. Had to keep her alive in this world of despair.

He had to make sure that everything he did, he did for them.

Thump, Thump, Thump

He ran, and never looked back.

A/N: What is supposed to be Daryl and Jude, is also the story of the group. How they came to pass through Jude's life. Or how they never made it into it. I hope you'll stay along.