A/N: Woohoo Walking Dead is back on and thats when I decided I wanted to go ahead and try to tackle this one too! I'm trying to get Daryl right but its kind of hard to in the beginning because you know how he is in the later seasons, so let me know what you guys think!

Her legs burned, leading the walkers away had been mostly uphill. She paused for a moment to let them catch up to her before moving at a pace just slightly faster than them. Grabbing a tree limb she finally managed to pull herself up to an even slope and turned to see the walkers having a hard time. She counted them, nine, three more had joined the chase since she and Mike had spotted them while they were patrolling ahead of the group. Her shoulder burned where the strap of her bag had begun to dug in, she muttered to herself, "Good job Angel, couldn't have given the sack to Mike before running off, no of course not, that would have been too easy!"

She looked up at the sun, she had led the pack west for at least three hours. At this rate she wasn't sure if she was going to make it back to them by night fall, but Angel knew they would wait for her for a day before moving on.

Daryl paused when he heard light footsteps coming towards him he froze and lifted his crossbow towards the noise, not sure it if was a walker or some game, but whatever it was he would be ready for it. He slowly moved closer to the noise aiming his sights toward the tree line and cringed when he stepped on a twig.

Angel heard a snap in front of her, she pulled out her pistol, knowing she would have to use it if they were around her on both directions. When she came around the tree she saw a man with a crossbow aimed at her, she didn't lower her gun, knowing that people weren't as trustable in this new age. Instead she evaluated him, like he seemed to be doing to her.

He was shocked when a woman stepped out in front of him, her dark brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her sapphire eyes were bearing into him past the nose of her gun. He noticed over her jacket and jeans she had leg and arm guards that had spikes on them, and he couldn't help but see that the woman was remarkably clean.

She could tell by the looks of this man he was a hunter, the crossbow wasn't the only thing that gave it away, or even the squirrels hanging from his shoulder. He was disheveled, hair unkempt, skin not having been washed for a day or so but he wasn't near dirty enough to be living out here, so it had to be a trip. His clothing also matched with the colors of the forest, mismatched green and khaki, and despite not knowing the man those colors made her just slightly more trusting of him.

"Where ya headin'?" He spoke first breaking the silence.

"West." She said and neither of them lowered their weapons.

He squinted his eyes at her, "Why west? And why alone?"

"I'm leading a pack away, afterwards I'm gunna meet up with my group." She side stepped.

"You aint bringin' no geeks west." He looked over and noticed the group following where her still, moving slightly faster since there were two of them to eat now.

"You have a camp there?" She asked and he nodded. She looked from him to the heard and holstered her gun, "Well, shit. Can you at least give me a hand getting rid of them, then?"

He turned and shot one of the walkers in the head and watched as she set her bag down and ran towards the small group, he was careful not to hit her as he watched her kick a walker in the face, landing the hit with her shin so it spikes invaded its brain. He had to admit, it was a genius way of not firing off a shot if you didn't have any other kind of weapon on you.

Angel was careful to stay far enough away from the group so that she didn't get over run, but still managed to take down four walkers. She turned to the man who was helping her and saw the crossbow aimed at her then heard the trigger release zooming past her ear. Hearing the gurgled sound followed by a thump she breathed a sigh of relief, "I wondered where that one went."

"Yeah, I figured best no to let you find out the hard way." He started getting his bolts from the heads of the dead and she shook the blood from her guards.

"Thanks for that." Angel pulled her sack back on her shoulder and looked back at him, "Well it was a pleasure killing zombies with you Mr. Hunter but I have at least five miles to make by sundown."

"Five miles." He wanted to laugh at her, "By yourself?"

"Yeah," She said turning around and put her hand in the air gesturing a goodbye, "Maybe I'll see you around, the world just got a hell of a lot smaller."

Daryl nodded his head even though he knew she couldn't see him and turned to head back to his own camp and didn't make it two steps before he heard a snap and the girl was swearing. He rushed over to where she was and saw her with a hand on a tree and a stick from a trap through one of her lower leg. She turned and noticed him standing there and he didn't see an ounce of lingering pain on her face, just annoyance, "One of yours I take it?"

He nodded his head and she rolled her eyes at his small smile as he walked over to unlatch the string freeing the stick that was through her leg. Daryl put her arm over his shoulder as he helped her sit on the ground before examining her leg, "You got a doctor in that group of yours?"

"Nope, please don't tell me I need one." She said looking down and him and the look he gave her through his brows told her she did, "Fuck, I'm not making it to the check point tonight on this leg, am I?"

"No, I'm takin' you back to my group, see what we can do for ya, we aint got no doctor but we got women that have kids, so they'll probably know what to do." He looked back down at the blood seeping out by the twig, and ripped the sleeves of his shirt and wrapped it around her ankle.

She hissed in a breath as he messed with the stick and she looked at him, "Do I have a choice?"

"Not unless you wanna bleed out then be made a meal," He looked at her, "I know I don't know ya but ya look like you're a tough bitch. But ya don't look like your makin' at least five miles without passing out."

She groaned and she knew from experience and the fact that could barely lift her leg without a searing pain in her ankle, she knew he was right, "Fine."

She held out her arms to him and he helped her up, wrapping his arm around her waist once she was up, "Here let me take that bag for ya, I can just carry my bow."

"No." She held it closer to her body, "I've carried it through worse."

He just shrugged his shoulders and secured the arm that was over his shoulders walking her the short quarter-mile back to the quarry. He could feel her body tense to take the light weight she put on her leg every time she had to take a step with it.

Angel kept her hand steady on the strap of her bag but kept it slack enough to get to her gun in case this guy tried any funny business. She realized she knew nothing about the man and so she looked at him while they walked, "I'm Angel by the way."

"Daryl." He spoke back using one arm to almost completely lift her over a fallen tree.

"Who all's back at this camp of yours?" She asked.

"Theres about twenty-five to thirty of us. Bunch of strangers that found the quarry off the highway when we couldn't make it into the city." Daryl kept his eyes open for any walkers knowing that she wouldn't be as much help this time as she had been before.

"Good thing you couldn't." She said her eyes saddening, "Atlanta isn't a place for the living anymore. Only scavengers with the skills should go there now."

Angel felt him looking at her and when she returned his gaze she couldn't tell if it was confusion or concern that was in it, "So you're from Atlanta?"

"I was there when it all started, me and the others decided it was time to get the hell out of dodge so we did." She said, "Grabbed what we could and left."

"Where were ya headin'?" He thought Merle might like to know where another good group to hit was.

"Didn't quite know, just north for now." She wasn't stupid, she wasn't going to tell a complete stranger where he could find them if he were to end up killing her then going after them.

"Fair enough." He said and they broke through the trees and she saw a small community, an RV with someone on look out, tents, a few fire pits, and as many people as he had said there would be. He called out for someone and she watched as a man ran over to him she could tell just by looking at him that he was an asshole who thought he was the shit, her least favorite type of person, but her favorite person to put in their place.

Another man wearing a funny looking hat and a dirty white button down shirt pointed at them while talking to another man who was wearing a tight shirt and what to her looked like working mans pants with matching shoes. They walked up to the two and the working man spoke first, "Daryl, whose your friend?"

"I wouldn't exactly say friend, just someone who didn't see his trap in the forest." She spoke dryly now rolling her eyes at Daryl and he almost let out a laugh. "Damn good at hiding those things. My names Angel. He said you all might be able to patch me up, then I'll be on my way."

"Shane." The working man said and he held out a hand, she shook it and he was surprised at how firm it was for a woman, "We'd be more than willin to help but we need supplies for our own people, just in case."

"I understand," She said readjusting her weight, Daryl still helping to support her. The man he called over now known as Merle was still standing there listening giving Daryl a large smile, "I also know your people will need to eat, and I have food that I can trade."

The man wearing the funny hat came up to them now, "Well that sounds like a decent investment, now doesn't it Shane? Plus we can turn the poor girl away when it was one of ours who technically hurt her."

"It wasn't my fault!" Daryl almost spit at him and then he felt Angels hand that was holding onto his shoulder squeeze it and he thought it an odd gesture.

She smiled at the men, "Regardless of how I got the injury the fact still remains that I need to be patched up and I'm willing to trade you for the treatment. Daryl already said you don't have a doctor, but anyone who knows their way around a needle will be fine, just stitch me up, give me gauze, and I'll give you food then be gone."

"To where?" The hat man asked, "It's not safe out there for you on your own."

"I have people waiting for me, they aren't that much farther north, and I could make it there without an issue after some rest and patch work." She spoke matter-of-factly.

Shane thought about it for a moment then a woman came up behind him, "Shane we can't turn her away, she needs help."

"Your right," He spoke looking at the woman and they shared a smile, "Let's get you seated and see what it looks like."

Daryl helped her hop over to a seat near the fire pit and they put a chair across from it Shane sat down and asked the funny hat man, who he called Dale to bring him some things from the RV if he had them. He picked her leg up and the woman, Lori, came back with another one, Carol, and their two kids, Carl and Sophia.

Angel laughed at the kids as Carl seemed interested in the wound and Sophia grimaced and looked away. She reached over and started digging through her duffelbag and when her hand hit the two things she was looking for she looked up and smiled at the four of them, "If your mothers say its okay I think I have something that the two of you will like."

The two children's eyes widened as she pulled out two bags of candy, one a Skittles and one M&Ms. They both looked at their respective mothers and when the two women nodded they grabbed the bags and ran over to a table to start dividing them up.

Shane looked up at her, "Why'd you do that?"

"Just because it's the end of the world doesn't mean people don't still do nice things for others." She smiled still watching the kids, "Plus they'll get more enjoyment out of them than I will now, I had plenty of them growing up."

"Well thank you Angel." Lori smiled at her.

Carol had begun looking at the stick through her leg with Shane and said she could fix it up no problem, it would just be getting it out that was hard. Angel looked at her and smiled as she took the guard off of her leg, "Oh no ma'am, getting it out is the easy part, patching it up is what sucks."

She had an audience of over half the camp now, two blonde girls, Dale, the kids and their mothers, Shane, Daryl, Merle, an Asian, a Hispanic family, and a African man and woman. Carol looked at the stick and looked at her, "If you need to prepare yourself, now might be the time. Try your best not to scream, we don't want the walkers to hear."

Angel nodded then grabbed the pistol from her hip and popped the bullet from the chamber, sticking it in her mouth and grabbing the sides of the chair, "Do it."

Carol looked at her one more time and everyone began grimacing or flinching when her hand hit the twig, all but Daryl who wore a small smile of admiration, and Merle, who had a huge grin. When Angel felt the slight pull she bit down on the bullet she had put between her molars and looked up at the sky rather than watch it happen.

She had always hated medical procedures and out of everyone she knew it seemed like she was the one getting something done more than anyone. Angel knew how to process the pain through her body but it was hard to do with it loosing so much blood, more so now that the stick was out. She heard rushing water in her ears and her vision began to go blue, she knew she was fainting. She spit out the bullet and her head rolled to the side looking at Daryl, her words slurring, "If I wake up and I don't have a foot, Imma kill you."

They all watched as she fainted and Merle was the first to speak, "I don't know about y'all but I like her!"

"You like anything with a vagina Merle." Andrea said to him.

He laughed as he watched them carry her into Dales RV to get Angel out of the heat, "Not anything, girlie, even I have limits."

Daryl noticed her bag still sitting on the ground where her chair was then noticed spray painted on the side in what looked like a military font to him were the words Touch My Bag I'll Kill You. He let out a quiet laugh so no one heard remembering her last words to him. He grabbed the bag synching it up and followed them up to the RV with it.

"Where you takin that Little Brother?" Merle asked.

"She seemed protective over it, figure she might want it when she wakes up." He turned the corner in the RV and saw Carol finishing up Angels leg with gauze. He set the bag down next to her and walked back out of the RV. Merle had a huge grin on his face, "What the hell are you smilin about?"

"You wanna get yourself some of that don't ya?" His brother smiled at him and Daryl just grunted at him, "Come on little brother, you have to admit that she has one amazing figure, she's got meat, but just enough so that she don't look like bones."

"Then why don't you go for it?" Daryl turned to look at him.

"Cuz, I wanted to make sure if you wanted her you got her, since you were the one that found her." Merle sauntered up to him, "But since you don't, I will go for it."

Angel tried to stretch but her leg hit a wall and a searing pain shot up it, she looked around at where she was at and panicked before remembering her injury and coming to this camp. It was dark outside and she slowly moved the blanket off of her and set her feet on the ground, when she stood the pain on her leg was awful, but not unbearable, she could make it. She made her way out of the RV with a horrible limp and hopped down the steps seeing a majority of the group around a fire. Lori was the first to spot her.

"Woah, should you be walkin on that?" She asked and when Dale saw Angel he quickly rushed to her side to help support her.

"Yeah, it only stings like a mother-" Angel remembered the children, "In labor, but I can walk on it."

Dale helped her sit down and she could help but notice Merle and Daryl over in their own part of the camp. Dale was handed a bowl for her and she thanked him after taking it not realizing how hungry she was, "You were beginning to worry us with how long you slept."

Her head shot to look at him, "How long was I out?"

"More than a day." The words left his mouth and they all watched the horror slip over her face.

Her group would have already picked a destination for the next day and two of them would already be marking the path to get there. She set the bowl down and moved as quick as she could to the RV, to her dufflebag. Shane and Dale followed her and saw her digging through the large back and she pulled out a walkie-talkie, "Sol to the Reapers. This is Sol come in!"

She paused and cursed under her breath, "Romeo, are you there." She was only responded with silence, but didn't give up, "Aiden? Can you hear me, its Angel?"

When she still didn't hear anything she put the walkie down and braced herself on the makeshift bed and let her head hang for a minute. They were out of range, they had already moved on like they were supposed to. She couldn't help but smile, she was one of the ones that came up with the rule, and she was proud they had followed it. Angel looked over her shoulder at the two men and with a weak smile asked, "Got enough room for one more?"

They both paused and she turned to look at them leaning on the bed, "I can pull my weight, I'm one hell of a shot so I can help with any walker issues. I have supplies I can share and I don't need a tent or anything. I'll mostly keep to myself too so me having an issue with anyone else won't happen."

"You can stay." Dale spoke, "We don't need to know any of that for you to stay."

Shane still hesitated, "As long as you follow our rules, you're welcome here."

She nodded and followed them back out to the pit. When she exited Daryl couldn't help but see the disappointment on her face. Angel picked the bowl back up and continued eating. Lori was the first to speak, "What happened?"

"My group moved on, they're no longer in contact range, so I'm sticking around." She smiled at the woman whose son was lying on her lap.

"They just left you?" The younger blonde asked.

Angel smiled down into her bowl, "No, we didn't like the idea of staying in one place for the night so when we settled in for dinner and sleep we would plot a course for the next day and head there. We told each other that if one of us was to go missing that we would only wait a day for them in that spot and my day has passed."

"That's harsh." The older blonde said.

"Not really," She shook her head covering her mouth, "We had a system since we were travelling off the main highway, a pair would wake up before the rest of the group and make their way to the destination, clearing a path for the others to make it through and if one of them were to go missing then we wait a day, but if one of the non-scouts were to go missing, in case we had to scatter or something, we would look for them. There were only six of us that were scouts, the rest had family or someone with them so we didn't want to chance them losing each other. The six knew that if it happened that the whole group would be better off to keep moving rather than stick around and wait. Plus with the way the world is now, if the person were to be captured by people wanting to take their goods then they could take them to the empty campsite and say that they were left behind and honestly not know where the group was. Might sound harsh but we haven't had an issue yet, and with people clearing the way we can travel farther faster."

"How'd you get separated?" Shane asked.

Angel explained, "By the time the group would have been up and moving me and the other scout were almost to our destination for the night when a small group of walkers showed up, I lead them west away from where we would be and after a few hours I ran into Mr. Hunter over there and here I am."

Merle and Daryl had been listening to the conversation and when she finished speaking Merle nudged his brother, "You sure now, it's been longer for you than it has me, and she even has a nickname for ya already!"

"Yeah because she's gunna wanna sleep with me after I'm the reason she got left by her group." Daryl snorted at him.

"So you do wanna give it to her." Merle laughed.

"I ain't no damn dog, I don't want to stick it to the first bitch that comes along even if it has been a while." Daryl muttered to his brother. It had been a while, even before the world went to shit, Merle was the one who was good at getting girls and Daryl either bit the bullet so his brother could get some or he just ended up getting his left overs eventually, he'd only gotten lucky a few times and actually been able to land someone decent looking.

"Well how's about we see who gets there first little brother." Merle slapped him on the back and Daryl turned to watch the newest member of their group talk with the others then walk with Dale back to the RV.

Dale waved her along, "Come on, I'm sure we have one more tent, Glenn brought back a load full a month or so ago."

"Oh no, you don't have to do that. Really I'll be fine with just my sleeping bag." She smiled at the man and he smiled sweetly back.

"And if it rains?"

She laughed, "Sleep under a tree?"

He laughed back and then handed her a compacted tent, "Well I know this will do a better job than a tree."

She thanked him and threw her bag over her shoulder before exiting the RV and looking around for a spot to set herself up. Angel saw a small plateau not too far behind where Daryl stayed and figured it would give her some privacy, she got the impression from the rest of the group not many people bother them that much.

Once she had it set up she unpacked her bag for the first time since she had put everything in it, they had been on the move since they left the city and she never saw the point in getting comfortable somewhere, but now it looked like she was stationary for a while. Once she had everything out she looked at the neat piles of clothing and organized lines of food while, not to mention the unstringed bow and other various sized knives and guns. Angel groaned when she realized how much she missed the feel of her AR-15 in her hands. With that thought she reached in for the last things in her bag, she had left them on the very bottom and smiled when she felt the semi-rough material in her hands. She pulled out her combat jacket and ran her hands over the patch that said U.S. ARMY and the rank badge right next to it.

"Angel." She heard Shanes voice outside her tent and she quickly put her jacket back in her bag and unzipped the tent to look at him, "I think you might be owin us some food."

Angel nodded and leaned back in her tent and when she returned she had six cans with her, "Some stew, a few vegetables, and a few fruits."

He smiled at her and then thanked her, and before he turned to leave she stopped him following him out of the tent, "I can hunt to, you just have to promise me that Daryl will let me know where all his damned traps are."

"That's his department, you'd have to talk to him about it." Shane said before walking back towards the main group. She went back into her tent for a minute and grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of her bag and glanced at the stacks of food she had, the six cans barely made a dent.

Thank god for dufflebags, she thought and left her tent and walked down the road a little bit, her limp slowly disappearing as her leg got used to the pain. Daryl watched her walk past and his eyes lingered and grew wide as he saw a lighter then a puff of smoke leave her. He looked over and saw Merle was already in his tent so he jumped up and walked off towards her.

"Didn't know you smoked." He said bounding down towards her.

She looked at him, "You never asked."

"Can I get one?" He asked and she nodded throwing the pack at him.

"Guess I do owe you that." She traded the pack for her lighter and couldn't help her lips curling at the look of enjoyment on his face. He handed her back the lighter and she stuck it in her jacket pocket, "You wanna show me where all those traps are when my leg is a little bit better? I can hunt too and I like pulling my weight."

"Can't use a gun." He inhaled.

"I know. I don't hunt with a gun. My grandfather insisted that I hunt with a bow, and not your kind of bow." He turned to look at her and she held her figure like you would with a recurve bow and he nodded in understanding. She leaned on the tree and looked at him, "So you just over here for the cigarette?"

He wondered if she had heard the conversations he had had with Merle but she continued when he didn't speak, "I don't really care I just can tell you're not the social type unless its Merle who's your brother."

"How'dya know that?" He gave her a smirk.

"I've watched people my whole life. You're mostly a loner but you throw yourself into conversation when Merle does and needs back up on something. Merle is the only one your constantly with but you back down when he talks and always follows his lead, which make you brothers, if you were friends or whatever you would both be pretty much equal, which you aren't even when it's just the two of you." She smiled at him and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah he my brother but it aint like that." She gave him an unbelieving look and he waved her off, "I don't care what you think."

"Then why are you still standing here?" Daryl looked over at her and saw Angel with a small smile on her face, "You want to make sure I don't hate you or anything for not making it to my group. Which I don't. You saved my life, you were right I wouldn't have made it five miles and if I had hit that trap and you hadn't of been there I wouldn't have been able to fight the walkers off. So I don't hate you, I owe you more than a cigarette."

"Hell then give me another." He smiled holding his hand out and she tossed the pack back at him.

"See and now that you know I'm not mad we can move past it. And you can ask for a smoke anytime, I managed to get two cartons out of the city somehow," She laughed to herself, "Cant believe they weren't all taken, the end of the world seems like a great time for a cigarette."

He looked over at her, "Why are you so nice to us? You don't even know us?"

"I learned a long time ago not to judge a book by its cover."