A/N: Thank you all so, so much for your reviews! They truly keep me motivated to continue this story and I love reading your input, ideas and predictions! Seriously, I'm so ridiculously flattered to know you all took time out of your day to read and think about my story! This took a little while longer to get published because I was drafting the entire story. BUT this chapter is extra long and I now know exactly where this story is headed if you all enjoy it enough and want me to keep going. Again: thanks for reading and please, please review. That's the only way I know you are liking it.

Also: to Aelia O'Hession: who said that this reminded them of Benny and Joon: Aw, I haven't seen that movie in ages but I remember it being so good and cute; so thanks for that compliment.

Alright. Enough author's notes. Here's the chapter. ;)

I don't have to look up to know it's Lori standing at the foot of my bed. I can see the brown hair just barely out of sight and I know it can't be anyone else. She normally doesn't visit me without Rick but he had a case in Cynthiana (that's what he said on the phone this morning) so Lori's here to fill out paperwork so I can go home. They tell me I'll be out by the weekend.

Lori's very pretty, and very scary. Which might be because she's so pretty and I don't ever want to piss her off. I've known her longer than I've known Rick but I didn't like her much back then; like I sad: she can be scary.

"Where's Carl?" I ask without looking up at her. I keep my head on the pillow and my eyes on the white, tiled ceiling.

"At a friend's. He wanted to say hi but I told him he should just wait until you're home."

I grunt because I'm a little sad the kid's not here. I like him and I've kinda missed him since I've been here.

I finally pull myself up again and I feel my stomach protest 'cause I'm outta shape. I used to work a lot at home: fixing old cars, working around the house and all the land around it. I kept busy and it gave me a workout. All I do here is sleep.

When I'm sitting up in bed I finally look at Lori and she's even more pregnant than the last time I saw her which was a week before christmas. She probably caught me staring at her because she puts a hand on her belly like pregnant women do and says,

"It's going to be a girl. I don't know if Rick told you."

I shake my head. Rick hadn't told me. We don't talk about him much anymore when he's here. Always about me. He asks me how I'm feeling, what I've been doing, what I fucking had for breakfast!

When Lori comes, she tells me about how Carl's soccer team is doing and how she got a really nice blender on sale the day before. I like it when Lori comes over sometimes. I don't like thinking about me all that much. All I can think of is how long I've been holed up in this place.

Lori's still standing at the foot of my bed, rubbing her belly and she smiles a little at me.

"Rick fixed up the old garage. You know the detached one out back? It's gonna be a great place for you to stay."

I squint up at her because I don't know what to say. I don't much like the idea of living in a garage when I have a house I can go to but Lori looks so excited, I don't want to burst her bubble. I know she can tell I'm not as excited as her, she's always good at being able to tell those kind of things.

"You'll like it. We've been working on it for a while. Rick wanted it to be a surprise."

I nod once and then start looking around the room, thinking about how long I've been looking at these same walls and how in just a couple of days, I won't be anymore and I'll be staring at the walls of Rick's garage for God knows how long until I'm allowed to go home again.

"I don't think you'll miss this place, Daryl." Lori says and I just shrug because I know I probably won't, but there's still something bothering me in the back of my mind. Lori can tell. Like she always can. "Anything you will miss?"

"Just a girl." I answer quietly. My face goes red because I can right away tell how that sounds and one look at Lori's face and I know she does too. She's smiling a little.

"Ain't like that." I mumble. "She gave me chocolates." As if that is supposed to explain everything and I know it doesn't because Lori just raises her eyebrows at me. So I keep trying to explain myself. "She's been here longer than I have. No one ever comes to see her and she probably won't be leavin' any time soon. She kissed me twice." And I really don't know why I said that last part but Lori doesn't laugh or act surprised. Instead she pulls a very serious face and nods and walks over to the side of my bed where she sits down.

"Where's her family?"

I shrug, a little confused that she doesn't want to know about Beth kissing me. People are nosy that way and they always want to know about that sort of stuff. Merle was always asking me about the women I hooked up with; not that there were many.

"Got some sister up north. Her daddy's in her farm. No one comes to visit her on Sundays. She just sits there waitin' and no one ever shows up. I'm just her friend. Don't like seeing her so damn lonely in here. I know how that's like."

Lori stays quiet and after a while she pats my leg like I've seen her do to Carl before.

"Maybe you should tell her you're leaving then." She says to me. I nod and decide to go find Beth as soon as Lori leaves.

It wasn't hard to find her. She's sitting under an oak tree outside in the courtyard not doing anything in particular. She's just sitting there quietly and I smile because most of the time, that's what I like to do. Don't care for people much.

"Hey." I say when I sit down next to her. The grass feels cold even through my pants and there's a little bald spot on the ground, where Beth's been yanking some out; for a while probably. She doesn't even let me think about telling her when she says,

"So, you're leaving?"

"How'd you know that?"

She shrugs her shoulders and her sweater falls off of one shoulder and my hands itch to push it back up but I'm too curious to find out how she knew I was leaving, so I ball my hands up into fists instead and wait for her to say something.

"Heard some nurses talking about it. Your friends are getting you out?"

"Yeah, Rick. I'm gonna be living with him for a while."

"'Till you can find Merle?"

"Yeah." I answer, and she nods her head a little before staring up at me with those eyes that shouldn't be as pretty and blue as they look with the sun next to her.

"I hope you find him." She says quietly. I don't know why I do it, if I say it's because I feel bad that would be a lie and also kind of a douche bag thing to say because you don't kiss girls just because you feel bad for them. I guess I reached over and kissed Beth because I wanted to. Because I didn't know if I would ever see her again and even though I could see how sad she was that I was leaving, she still wished me good luck and that was a really nice thing to do. So I kissed her. This time it was different though. We didn't stop or run away right away and next thing I knew, I had a handful of her hair in one hand and was dragging her closer and she was grabbing my arms and making little noises in the back of her throat that I kinda liked. I kept pulling her closer by the back of her neck and it took me a while to realize she was almost sitting on me. Noticing that though, was enough for me to pull back.

We're both panting and red by then and she stares at me with wide eyes like she either can't believed I kissed her or she can't believe I stopped. I try not to think too much of which one it is that's shocking her.

She looks away first and pulls her sweater back over her shoulder like I'd been wanting to before looking back up to me.

"Okay..." she says quietly and I think that means something like 'ok, you can go now' so I pull myself up and stand there, looking down at her.

"I'll see ya." I say; it sounds stupid, because I don't know if I'll be seeing her again but 'bye' seems too much like I won't and I don't want her getting sad about that. She nods but doesn't look up at me and I can tell she's already sad.

"Yeah. See ya."

I turn around and start walking towards the hospital before I can think of any other stupid things to say.

Rick picks me up first thing Saturday morning; before anyone else is up and I walk out of the upstairs like I've been wanting to since Rick dropped me off here the first time.

"Lori told you about the garage?" Rick asks me. I nod and stare out the window of the police car he picked me up in. I wish he had picked me up in that mint green SUV Lori drives instead. Rick's police car makes me uncomfortable.

"I think you'll like it. We put in a kitchen and everything. Of course you can eat with us but if you want your space...you'll like it." He said again and I raise an eyebrow at him because I have a feeling he's telling himself that and not so much me.

"I had your bike and your truck brought over. They're waiting for you at the house."

I feel a little better when I hear this. I was in the middle of fixing up the truck when I was put in the upstairs and with how long it's been since then I'll probably need to work on it more, but it doesn't bother me. I want to have something to do while I'm living with Rick and Lori.

When we get to Rick's house, Lori and Carl aren't home. "Carl's soccer game." Rick says. He tries to show me where the garage is but I just squint at him and have the urge to ask if he thinks I'm stupid. I helped him put up drywall in there five years ago; I remember where the damn garage is. He probably remembers the same thing because he stops trying to herd me and lets me walk on my own. I open the door to one giant room. There's a bed (a lot bigger than the one at the upstairs) at the farthest end from the door and a tv mounted on the wall in front of it. There's a tiny kitchen; not a real one. Just the kind you get in hotel rooms. With a microwave and a mini fridge and a coffee maker. I wasn't allowed coffee at the upstairs; doctors said it messed with my pills and I wonder if Rick will let me have coffee since I'm not smoking anymore.

"Bathroom's through there." Rick says from behind me; and points at the only other door besides the one I'm standing in. I nod and take my first step in but already it doesn't feel right. The walls are a pale blue that I can tell was Lori's idea, just like the million sheets on the bed that make it look way too tall and fluffy. None of it feels right. Because it's not my house; it's just another room someone else gave me. I drop my bag on the ground in the middle of the room and I'm about to head out, when something sitting next to my bed stops me. Rick notices too.

"It was Carl's idea. Probably just an excuse to get you to take him out again."

I stare at my old crossbow and almost want to go pick it up, but don't.

"You sure I should be trusted carrying weapons?" I spit out. I don't know why I'm pissed, but the blue room is annoying me and I suddenly have the urge to just get out of there and go sit in my truck; unless Lori painted that blue too.

I can hear Rick sigh and start saying "Daryl..." like I'm his kid, so before he even gets his speech started I turn around and stomp out of there without looking at him.

"But Dad says I can get the new xbox for my birthday instead." Carl is smiling and shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth and I try to smile at the kid but it probably looks more like a scowl because I'm still not really feeling better from the day before with Rick and the blue garage. Carl doesn't look like he notices or cares though and just keeps talking. He's gotten way older since I last saw him. Needs a haircut too.

"Alright Carl, you finish up and then help Dad load the dishwasher." Lori's already standing and taking the plates from us and she comes over to stand next to me. "Daryl, I was thinking you could come grocery shopping with me."

I give her a look.

"Why?"

Rick does too. "Yeah, Why?"

"Well, you're going to be living here; I just wanna know what kind of stuff you like. That's all."

I almost argue back and say I don't want to go anywhere but she has this look in her eye. The one that she gives Rick when him and Shane make a joke she doesn't like or when he'd come back from a long case without calling her for a day or so. It's a scary look so I just nod and drag myself out the door without saying anything, going to stand by her minty Hyundai.

"You didn't like the room." She says when we're already driving down the main road.

"How do you know that? Rick tell ya?"

"Daryl, you slept in your truck last night."

I shrug. "Don't like blue." I lie. Lori knows that.

"Blue's your favorite color. You don't like that you didn't pick the blue."

I have nothing to say to her so I stay quiet, watching the stores pass by and it takes me a little while to realize that we've already passed the supermarket Lori normally goes to.

It's just a few miles later when I start seeing a familiar white building in the distance and I can't help feel my heart start hammering in my chest, like I've been running instead of sitting in Lori's green SUV. Shoulda taken all the pills. I say to myself when my breathing starts coming out in little puffs. It's the hospital again; and I wonder if Lori's sending me back because I didn't like her blue. I want to ask her. I want to tell her to let me out of the damn car and I'll just walk back to Rick's but instead I grip the locked handle and start counting in my head.

I'm at '54' when Lori pulls up to the front doors of the hospital and I finally turn to stare at her. Willing to take all my pills and sleep in her damn blue room if I have to. I know I had to go back to the hospital. I had to see Dr. Mack every week and get my meds refilled. But that would all be at Dr. Mack's office; downstairs.

Lori smiles a little and reaches over to pat my shoulder.

"I'm going to run to the supermarket and do my grocery shopping. Pick you up in an hour?" She reaches into her purse and takes out a cell phone. I don't take it though and she just inches it closer to me.

"It's sunday." She says. I blink. I don't get it. "I thought your friend my like it if you visited."