The responce to the last chapter was so amazing! The most reviews I've had on a chapter! I'm so grateful for you guys, I've reread all those reviews more than once lol. I saw some new names as well as old names commenting this time! They all made me so happy! It was a great early Christmas present!

I decided to update early because of the reviews last chapter!

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

And Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays to all!

(I said chapter ^ way to many times)

Words: 2,116


When Charlie wakes, it's not like last time. Sleep doesn't try to hold her mind captive nor is there any immediate threat. She's still resting against Daryl's shoulder. He also seems to be asleep. Good, he needs it.

As carefully as she can, Charlie sits up and moves away before standing and dusting off her pants. It's no use really, they're already filthy.

"D'you get enough sleep?" The teenager asks Carl while holding her hand out to Judith to take.

"Yeah. Did you?"

"Yeah," She nods with a small smile. "I feel great. Though, a shower would be nice." Carl chuckles and Charlie does the same before nudging his hat down over his eyes. "I'm going to find some scissors and I'm going to cut your hair."

"Sure," Carl mumbles sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Since when can you cut hair? I don't want you butchering mine." He says while placing a protective hand over his head.

"I'm hurt," Charlie says flatly. "Truly."

"Uh-huh," Carl hums and Charlie snorts.

As the others continue to wake and move around, Charlie lets herself relax. That is until Maggie and Sasha return. With someone else. "Hey, everyone...this is Aaron." Immediately, everyone is on their feet with a weapon in hand. "We met him outside, he's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear."

Gun in hand, Charlie keeps it by her side while standing in front of Carl, eyes glued to Aaron. He looks clean, very well put together, she notes.
"Hi," He greets just before Judith starts crying. Charlie chooses to ignore that as any bad sign and reaches out to take the girl from Rick before passing her to Carl. She then resumes her position in front of the two Grimes children. "It's nice to meet you." Aaron tries to take a step forward but is quickly stopped.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rich ignores the man's greeting and turns to Maggie who moves forward and hands the man's gun over. "There something you need?"

"He has a camp nearby," Sasha speaks up. "He wants us to audition for membership."

"I wish there was a better word," Aaron chuckles weakly. "Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of a dance troupe. That's only on Friday nights." The joke only earns him blank stares in return. "Um, and it's not a camp," He starts again after a moment of silence. "It's a community. I think you all would make valuable additions. But it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home." Charlie can't help but think that that sounds a little suspicious. But maybe that's her paranoia talking.

"I know, if I were you I wouldn't go either," Is that supposed to be convincing them? "Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into." Aaron is quick to add. "Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?"

Sasha stares for a moment before doing as he requested. "Front pocket. There's an envelope. There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community. That's why I brought those," Charlie raises herself onto her toes to look over Rick's shoulder when he pulls something from the man's bag.

"I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last-"

"Nobody gives a shit," Daryl cuts off the man's nervous rambling.

"You're absolutely a hundred percent right," Aaron turns and says to him and Charlie actually snorts. But the teenager quickly clears her throat to hide the noise. Carl still sends her a look but she only shrugs in response.

"That's the first picture I wanted to show you," Once again, Charlie cranes her neck to see what Rick is looking at. "Because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe. If you join us, you will be." Dance troupe, sounds more like a cult. Charlie shivers at the thought.

"Each panel in that wall is a fifteen-foot-hight, twelve-foot-wide, slab of solid steal. Framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubbing. Nothing living or dead gets through that without our say-so," When Rick stands, his cold glare leveled right at Aaron, Charlie sighs. "Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival. The people."

Charlie watches Rick share a look with Michonne while Aaron continues. "Together, we're strong. You can make us even stronger." Rick grits his teeth and starts towards the man. "The next picture, you can see inside the gates. Our community was first construc-" But before he can even finish the word, Rick throws his fist, knocking him out.

Wincing, Charlie shakes her head. She doesn't agree with that but the man could talk. It was starting to give her a headache.

"Tie him up," Rick says and a few people jump into action. One quiet morning, is that too much to ask? "Dump his pack, let's see who this guy really is," Rick throws her and Carl's way after exchanging quiet words with Michonne.

"I got her," Charlie offers to take Carl and lets the boy do as his father said. Oddly enough, she doesn't feel like rifling through the stranger's stuff.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when, but they are."

"Me and Sasha, we didn't see him," Maggie directs her words at Rick. "If he hadn't wanted to hurt us, he could've."

"Anybody see anything?" Rick questions as if Maggie hadn't spoken and Charlie bites her lip.

"Just a lot of places to hide." Glenn answers. Charlie thinks she understands where they're coming from. With the governor and Terminus. She wasn't there for the latter but from what Carl told her, it was pretty bad. And don't get her wrong, she's definitely not going to be the first to trust a stranger but...as stupid as it may sound, she didn't get any bad vibes from the guy.

"Alright, keep looking," Rick says before moving over to Carl. "What'd you find?"

Charlie ignores the others and focuses on Judith. The girl sits in her arms, mostly content. She's hungry, Charlie has no doubt about that. But she's chosen to be quiet right now. "It's okay," Charlie whispers to her, smiling softly when she grabs onto her hair. "Just don't put that in your mouth." Her clothes aren't the only things that are dirty. Her hair is in desperate need of washing.

"That's a hell of a right cross there, Rick," Aaron says when he regains consciousness.

"Sit him up,"

"I think it's better if-"

"It's okay," Aaron cuts Maggie off and lets them help him into a sitting position. "You're being cautious. I completely understand-"

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick cuts Aaron off, his voice stern. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. Yes, it does." Rick continues to question the stranger who responds easily, but the former sheriff isn't satisfied with his answers. Charlie feels chills run down her arms when they discover they were watching them for a while. A long while. And Charlie had no idea. Which she finds strange. She can usually feel when someone's eyes are on her.

One person. That's who Aaron is traveling with. Charlie isn't sure what she thinks of this whole thing. It feels too good to be true. There are cars. Rick sends Glenn, Maggie, Rosita, Abraham, and Michonne out to where Aaron said they were.

"If we're all in here, we're a target," Rick says after the others head out.
"I've got the area covered," Daryl says while motioning for Charlie to follow him. For some reason, the teenager is a little surprised by that. Before, at the prison, she never would've given it a second thought. But now, things had seemed different. Maybe she was wrong.

"Alright, groups of two, find somewhere safe within eyeshot," Rick instructs the others while Charlie hands him Judith, allowing the teenager to grab her bag and weapons before following behind Daryl.

"What are you thinking?" Charlie asks Daryl after they circle around the barn. When he looks back at her in question, she gestures towards her face. "You have a face." He always gets this look when he's deep in thought.

"Do not," He grumbles but still answers her question. "I'm thinking this guys full of shit."

"Hm, I'm not so sure," Charlie mumbles while looking out towards the barn.

"Are you saying you trust him?" Daryl scoffs and looks down at her as if she's suddenly grown a second head.

"I'm saying," Charlie starts, turning her head to look back at him. "I have a pretty good douche-bag detector and it's not going off." Something about Aaron just screams 'trustworthy'. She can't explain it. That's never happened to her before. Well, it has. Once.

Daryl huffs at her statement while keeping a close eye on their surroundings. The others have one hour to come back or they'll be going to them. "And he made a good point. There are much better, more efficient, ways to kill us if that's what he wanted."

"Why're you so trusting all of a sudden?" Daryl had always thought she was less trusting of others than he himself is. She seems even more guarded ever since coming back.

"I'm not," Charlie is quick to tell him. "But I am tired," She admits in a quiet voice, looking away before he can catch her gaze. "There has to be more than this," She gestures out around them, her voice dropping so low Daryl almost doesn't hear her next words. "I'm not sure there's a point if there isn't."

"Hey," Reaching out, Daryl taps Charlie's arm, finally getting her to look at him. He opens his mouth to tell her that there is a point. There is something more. Even if he's not so sure he believes it himself. But before he can, a rustling has him spinning around, crossbow aimed.

Two lone walkers push their way through the trees and towards them. Charlie sighs and smoothly removes one of the knives strapped to her thigh and aims, throwing it just as Daryl releases a bolt. Both weapons hit their mark at nearly the same time.

"Where'd you learn that?" Daryl asks the teen while she retrieves her knife from the walker's skull.

"A friend," She mumbles cryptically, her lips twitching up in a fond sort of way. "I think you would've liked her. I mean she's not dead. Not the last time I saw her, anyway."

That's as much as she's told him about her time away. Daryl finds a small amount of comfort knowing that she wasn't alone the whole time. That she met someone who was at least halfway decent.

"What's her name?"

"Chris. Christina," Charlie shrugs. "She found me after..." The teen trails off and gestures towards her leg. "Stitched me up. Didn't try to kill me, so that was nice. Oh, and she has a dog."

"A dog?" Daryl huffs. The last time he saw a dog, it was feral and then Sasha shot it. And the rest of that story doesn't need to be told.

"Yeah, his name is Whiskey," Daryl actually snorts at that. "Good dog. Sweet. Though I'm sure he could take someone's face off if he wanted."

"What happened?" Daryl ventures to ask.

"Nothing," Charlie shakes her head with a sigh. "Just, went our separate ways. She had her cabin in the woods and I had to find you guys."

Though Daryl couldn't be happier that they'd found each other again, that she found them, knowing now that she had someone good and a safe place just for her to risk it all and leave... "You're making that face again."

"Am not," Daryl huffs and Charlie merely shrugs.

"Whatever you say."


Charlie really doesn't want to talk about what happened between the prison falling and her finding the group. Though every one is worried, they don't want to push. But they might end up needing to...

And Aaron is here! Yay!

Thanks for reading! I really hope you guys liked it! And enjoy the holidays!

Reviews, of course, are always welcomed!

Until next time, friends!


'-'