Chapter 9: What is Seldom

"What does it say?" Daryl asked as he watched Nicole searched for her shirt. He trailed his finger down her spine, following the tattooed script.

"An rud is annamh is íontach." Nicole replied in perfect Irish Gaelic.

"What does that mean?"

Nicole stood up and pulled her shirt over her head. She turned to Daryl, and smiled before moving to straddle him. "'What is seldom is wonderful.' It's an Irish proverb."

"What language is that?" He tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Gaelic."

"You speak Gaelic?"

"I pretend to speak Gaelic. In all reality, that's the only phrase I know."

"So yer' not full Filipino? Irish too?"

"Far from it. It's an Irish proverb I appreciate. I thought it should be kept in it's original language." She explained, softly kissing his lips before getting off.

"I just seem to be learning more and more about you, Ramos."

"I know you are." she replied softly, bending over to retrieve something from her backpack. "That's what I was afraid of." Before Daryl knew it, Nicole had a small hand gun pointed at him.

Daryl didn't flinch. He blinked at the gun and sighed.

"How long have you known?" she asked.

Daryl sat up. "I've been trying to talk to ya about it."

Nicole scoffed. "What? When?"

"Whenever I tried to you would do somethin' like...distractin' me with whiskey. Or...takin' off yer shirt."

"Have you and Merle been plotting to blackmail me? All this time?"

"Merle?" Daryl asked in genuine confusion. "I found out two days ago."

"Because you went into my bag. Daryl, there are some things that are better off not being said. My past being one of them." she lowered her gun. "The others can't know about this. There's no reason for them to."

Daryl started putting himself together. "Nicolette Ramosian. That's your full name right?" He pulled his pants up and began to tie his laces. "Asian. 23 years old. Black hair. Brown eyes..." Daryl stood up at full attention and walked towards Nicole slowly. He finished buttoning his shirt before he finished his sentence. "...Secret Agent?"

Nicole snorted. "Please. Don't turn this into some cheesy Vin Diesel movie. I'm not some secret agent. Don't make this a big deal."

"Then what are you? Where did you come from? I deserve to know."

Nicole signed before crossing her arms. "During college, I was recruited into in a Black Ops program called Blackguard. I wasn't an agent," she said quickly when she saw Daryl about to open his mouth. "I worked in the lab as a neurobiologist." She paused and Daryl noticed her voice shake a bit. She cleared her throat before continuing. "You know all that controversy that used to be out there about stem cell research?" Her sarcastic, light-hearted tone was back, much to his relief. "Well, the whole thing with stem cells is that they can basically be used to re-generate dead cells. They wanted me to run the research on neurogenesis. Which...is a method that can be used to re-grow dead brain tissue." She trailed off to wait for his response. Refusing to make eye contact, she concentrated on his elbow.

After what seemed like a lifetime of silence, he finally spoke in a low growl. "What did you do?"

"What do you think I did?" She responded. Her defenses were up. "I did what I was told to do. I did what I was damn good at."

"Yer' the reason for all of this?"

"Blackguard needed a secret weapon. Firearms and agents that might as well have been trained by Jackie Chan and James Bond weren't enough. There used to be a terrorist group that Blackguard could not seem to bring down. The more we failed, the stronger they became. The main plan was to let this virus that my team and I created loose into their headquarters. Let them be their own worst enemy." She finally looked up at Daryl. His jaw was clenched. "But while we were finalizing the experiment, a double agent let the virus loose into our own home. During the escape...there was no way to contain it."

Daryl's jaw clenched even more if it was possible. His arms were crossed and his knuckles were white with fury.

"So there's your signed confession, Scooby." Nicole concluded. "I'm the reason that the world is ending. Now you and Merle can go off and tell everyone. It's for the best. I don't want to endanger you all anymore."

"Anymore? You've already bent us over a table."'

"That double agent? Gone rogue. I killed everyone he ever knew. Everyone he loved. He's after me."

"What makes you think he's gon' find you?"

"Daryl, I don't need to explain anything anymore. In fact I've explained way too much for-"

"-Shut up." he interrupted, rolling his eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"Shut. Up. It's a sad day in the end of the world when I'm the one who's gotta be the voice o' reason." Daryl walked towards her. "The last thing you need is to be left alone. I'm makin' this promise to you right now Nicole Ramos, or whatever yer name is." He took her arms to uncross them and put them at her sides. "I ain't lettin' anyone hurt you."

As Nicole tried to read Daryl's eyes, she knew that he was telling the truth. She chuckled lightly. "You're getting soft on me, Dixon."

"Never felt that when I'm around ya'." He smirked at his own dirty joke.

"Was that really appropriate?"

Daryl grabbed her roughly towards him and gave her a hard kiss. He loosened up his grip on her when she attempted to wrap her arms around his neck. As they pulled away, she felt a corny sort of bliss take over.

This definitely wasn't about surviving anymore.

"So," She asked, twirling her fingers around his brown muss of hair. "Does this mean you like me, or something?"

"I'm just territorial. Don't get those panties in twist." he tried to hold back a smile.

"There's that charming panty line again."

"Yea'. And this time you can't say that I had any effect on 'em. Speaking of which," he let go of her and bent over to grab something. He backed up towards the opening of her tent.

Holding up her panties, he silently put them in his pocket and winked before making his exit.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been adding this story on their alerts and their favorites. It's pretty flattering. I've been getting short with the chapters, I know and I'm sorry! But you guys finally know what her secret is! =)

Also, for St. Patrick's Day, it seems like some friends and I are going to be getting our Irish on with some Guinness, Jameson, and a Boondock Saints marathon. I guess I'm just a big ol' masochist. It's going to kill me to watch my boy Norman on screen. I just want to hold his hand. haha

You guys know the drill. I love reading every single review on here so please keep them coming! The more reviews I get, the faster these chapters will be put up. =)