Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated recently, but Chapter 9 is finally here. I made it a little longer than usual. Thanks so much for the feedback, favorites, and follows! I didn't feel so bad about the last chapter after getting the reviews. But, here goes! Enjoy!

"We brought dinner", Daryl claimed as he held up the dead opossum he just put a bolt in.

Nobody said a word. The air was a bit tense. Daryl felt the first moment to bring levity in weeks, but it didn't work.

Just then, a petite, blonde, short-haired women came to the gates to greet them. She had a huge smile on her face. It seemed like she was going to welcome strangers into her sanctuary right on the spot.

"I'm Deanna. Welcome to Alexandria." She welcomed them as she introduced herself.

"Rick." Rick simply replied, "This is your home?"

"It is. We've been lucky to have such a beautiful place in such a time like this. It hasn't been easy, but it's been worth everything. We're pretty fortunate." Deanna informed him.

"Yeah..." Rick said, still skeptical. Nobody really knew what to make of the place. It had looked like a distant dream everybody had and they couldn't believe it was real. It was too good to be real. They figured something had to be up with the place. It had to be corrupt somehow...but, they had nowhere to go at this point. Rick was strongly considering giving the place a good go.

"If you want to stay, then we'll have to conduct some interviews. You guys shouldn't mind that, right?" Deanna asked.

Nobody was sure on how to answer that, but Rick finally spoke up after a moment and told the women that it would be fine to be interviewed.

Rick went first. After his interview, he seemed to feel a little less tense about Alexandria. Him and Deanna must have had a good, convincing talk. After Rick went Carol, who seemed to have the same reaction, wearing nothing but a smile on her face. It concerned Daryl. Were they really going to stay in this place?

Then, it was Daryl's turn. He followed Deanna into a sitting area, packed with un-tarnished furniture and books stacked to the ceiling it seemed, he had never seen so many. This place really hadn't been touched. It looked like a normal house in a normal world. It was so foreign.

Deanna took a seat on the sofa behind the video camera that they recorded all of the interviews on. Daryl circled around to the fireplace to look at everything and to prepared to answer whatever Deanna might be wondering about him.

"Please, sit, Daryl." She instructed him.

Daryl resented as he paced the floor still. "Nah, I'm good."

Deanna wasn't going to ask him again. She understood in a way. She took a breath and prepared herself for the first question.

"Tell me about your time out there, Daryl. Your experiences?"

Daryl snapped his head back to face her before directing his attention to the other side of the room again. "They ain't good, that's for sure. We've had to go through a lotta shit."

Deanna simply nodded and continued. "Have you had to kill people?"

Daryl paused for a moment. He doesn't know how many people he's killed exactly, but his mind went straight to Dawn. His murder of Dawn was the freshest on his mind, even if it happened to fast that the memory seemed to be a total blur. He knew what it was for. It meant something to him in his mind. That stupid bitch had gunned down Beth. Dawn had put out Daryl's light, so he made sure he put out hers in return.

"Yep," He finally answered, "but, they deserved it."

"Why is that?"

"They were a threat. That's what the world is now. There ain't many good people left, if any."

That is not the answer Beth would have liked to hear.

Deanna studied him for a moment. "Do you consider yourself a good person, Daryl?"

He almost didn't know how to answer it, even though he did. He wasn't like those people who deserved death. He wasn't Dawn or the Governor and he never would be, of course, but this world was making him cold. Cold like he used to be. Distant like he used to be.

"I'm tryin'", he simply answered.

That answer seemed good enough to Deanna. She didn't seem to see a bad man in Daryl, even if he was a bit resentful. She knew he wasn't the kind of man to cause trouble inside of the walls, especially if he had been traveling around with people like Rick this whole time. She understood that they had to do hard and extreme things to survive.

"Do you want to be here, Daryl?" She asked him.

"Eh...the kid and the baby deserve a roof, I guess." He said, still pacing around the room aimlessly.

"I certainly think so." She said, agreeing with him. She hesitated at her next question, hoping to not upset the wandering man, but she asked anyways.

"How many people that you were close to have you lost since the outbreak?"

Daryl chewed on his lip. He hated these questions, this one in particular.

"Does it matter?" He shot back at her.

"I'm trying to get to know you, Daryl. I understand it's hard to think back about those times, but yes, it matters."

Daryl still didn't understand. He didn't want to open up about these sort of things. But, after he paced a few more steps, he decided he might need to if they really decide to stay at this place. He decided to not be stubborn with the woman and to just give her the answers she wanted.

"Everybody we lost in the group was a blow..." he started, "but, really... two, I guess."

Deanna nodded. "Who were they to you?"

"One was my brother, Merle." He answered after a moment.

He had to stop and think about what to say about Beth. He stopped dead in his tracks then. He didn't know how to word it to Deanna without pretty much confessing his love for Beth to this strange woman. He didn't want to do that. Beth wasn't sister. She wasn't just some kid. She was a strong, brave, articulate woman. She wasn't just a friend to him either, even though they had never been more than that in their time together. She was the world to him, to be honest. That's what someone is when you've based all on your hope on them, right? That's what it felt like anyway. Ever since he lost Beth, he lost the world that he wanted, that she taught him.

"The other was a girl...named Beth." He simply replied.

"Girlfriend? Wife?"

"No...just a friend."

After Deanna finished everybody's interviews and everybody turned in their weapons, they were free to look at the houses they would stay in. Rick decided it wasn't such a good idea to split up the group, so he decided for everyone that they would all stay in the same house for a night or two. The group didn't have a problem with it and agreed.

They all rushed into the house to have a look around. Many rushed to take much needed showers. Even though they were still suspicious of the place, they took advantage of the amenities. It was too hard to not to after all. It was hard for everyone, except for Daryl. He just didn't care. He stayed out on the porch to skin and eat his raw opossum instead. He never had a stable home life, so he wasn't going to start now. He remembered when he had once wanted to settle down in a home, with Beth at that funeral home, and look what happened.

Even after hours had passed, Daryl continued to sit on the porch. He only went in one time to walk around the place once, but he decided that the porch suited him much better. He was an outdoor cat, that he knew. Joe knew it too. Joe was right. It's pretty sad when an outdoor can thinks he can be an inside cat. Daryl remembered when he thought he could have been once. He thought he was pretty damn close, but boy, was that a cruel joke.

Daryl watched as everyone exited the house to go explore the rest of the safe zone, making their way down the street. He noticed that Carl was pushing Judith in a stroller.

He chuckled to himself. "About damn time that kid gets a stroller," he thought.

Rick suddenly stepped out of the door, catching Daryl's attention again. The man had shaved his beard completely off and he had gotten a haircut. He looked just like the Rick he first met a couple of years ago.

"Go take a look around." Rick advised him.

"Nah. I'm gonna stay here." Daryl said, refusing.

Rick didn't move and looked around from the porch for a minute. "You know, me and Lori...we used to drive around neighborhoods like this," he laughed a little, "trying to pick out our dream home..."

Daryl just looked at him. He didn't know where Rick was getting at or why he was telling him this, but it made him uncomfortable. Yeah, he knew someone else who would have loved the idea of this place. A place where they could have birthdays and summer picnics. A place where they could simply be and live. Beth deserved to be here more than he did. In that moment, he wished he could take her place if it meant she'd be alive and happy with her family. In his mind, he wasn't supposed to be there. She was.

Or, even better, maybe if he hadn't opened the door to welcome in the dead into that funeral home that night, they could have been there together. Maybe. Just maybe.

Daryl shifted and cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, we're here now."

Rick looked at him for a moment and just nodded. After that, Rick made his way down the porch steps to join his family and the rest of the group to take a look at what might very well be their new home.

The first night's sleep at Alexandria was refreshing, even if Daryl did sleep out on the porch all night. It was the longest sleep anybody had gotten since the prison. After a much needed night's rest, everybody was out and about the next day still exploring the new place. Some even started helping out the community. Glenn and Tara had taken a job to go on a run with Deanna's son, Aiden, and a couple of others, while Carol took a duty of cooking for some of the community. Daryl still continued to sit on that porch, tweaking and cleaning his crossbow. Pretty much nothing was going to move him.

Carol stepped out of the house in what looked like normal clothes. It was strange to see her in such casual attire, rather than her dirty, old, blood covered shirt and pants. She was explaining to him that she was going down the street to cook a meal or two for some of the people, but Daryl couldn't get over how normal she looked.

He scoffed at her. "Okay then."

Carol squinted her eyes at him. "Have you taken a shower yet?"

"Mmhmm." Daryl lied.

She knew he was full of shit.

"Take a shower," she said, making her way down the porch steps, "and I'm going to wash that vest!"

"I ain't never cared about hygiene before," he said, still messing with the crossbow, "I ain't gonna start now."

She didn't even reply while she made her way down the sidewalk.

"You look ridiculous!" He called out after her. He wasn't lying either. Normal looked ridiculous now. There was no such thing as a normal, ideal world anymore. He never really knew it in the first place, but he had an idea. But, even the idea was totally diminished after the two years they've all had. It was something he couldn't even begin to wrap his head around anymore.

A few minutes later, Daryl all of a sudden heard yelling towards the gate. He didn't know what was going on, but if was any kind of endangerment to his people, he was going to make sure nothing happened to anybody else. He hopped off the porch and made his way down the street towards all the commotion.

He was just in time. As soon as he caught sight of everybody standing by the gate, he seen Glenn punch Aiden right in the face. It didn't matter what was going on at that point. Glenn doesn't punch a guy for no good reason. That was enough proof to Daryl that something screwed up was going down. Daryl's mind started to cloud, as he was starting to go in defense and attack mode.

Before he knew it, he had already made his way through everybody and had Aiden pinned down on the ground. He had a strong hold on him and he wasn't going to let up until this kid knew he wasn't playing around. Daryl was going to get his point across to him that nobody else was going to be antagonizing any of his people, especially Glenn. Someone who Daryl made great friends with during all their time together, trusted, and ended up confiding in. Especially Maggie's husband. Especially Beth's brother-in-law.

It was also an opportunity for Daryl to let some of the built up aggression and anger out, even though that was the least important thing. After losing Beth, he just wanted something to punch and beat up until it made him feel better until the next time her loss crossed his mind. It was the only way he knew how to really deal with it all now. Beth wasn't here to help him keep his composure anymore.

Daryl finally came back to reality as he felt Rick on his back, trying to get him to let up on the poor guy.

"Don't do this," Rick said, struggling with Daryl, "not now."

He finally let up and stepped away from Aiden, who was obviously taken back from Daryl's ferocity.

Deanna finally managed to calm everyone down once and for all after that. She actually praised Glenn for putting her son on his ass. They were glad she recognized that Aiden was in the wrong, even if he is her son. She then went on to praise Rick, and in that moment, she offered Rick to be the new constable of Alexandria. Rick was offered his old job back. He looked very pleased, and was even more satisfied when Deanna offered the job to Michonne to be his partner. Michonne had a look of pride in her eyes, and you could tell that she wanted to accept. Rick looked at Michonne for a moment before giving his attention back to Deanna. He nodded and accepted the job offer. Michonne smiled and accepted, too.

That was it. They were staying.

Daryl couldn't believe it. Actually, he did. But, he didn't want to believe it.

He scoffed at them like he was disgusted, being the old, pessimistic Daryl he still was. He merely shook his head at them in disbelief, before making his way back to his spot on the porch once more.