The next day Rick, Michonne, and Carl all left for a run. Daryl had tried to convince him to just let him go but Rick said he needed to go. We spent the day getting ready for a war we didn't know was coming. We took turns on who was going to watch from the guard tower that was inside the prison walls.

"Hey Carol, you're up. I'll watch Judith." I told her as I made my way back into the prison.

"Yeah okay." She said as she handed me Judith.

"Hey there baby girl." I said in a soft voice as Judith grabbed onto my finger. Her bright blue eyes reminded me of Ricks. But she looked more like Carl did when he was a baby. I wondered about the prison singing songs to her and rocking her. She was a very happy baby girl and healthy. I was sitting in Rick's cell where she slept rocking her as she fell asleep.

"You're really good with her." I heard a voice say from the door and I looked up to see Daryl standing in the doorway.

"Thanks." I said as I got up and kept rocking her.

"You sure you ain't never had kids." Daryl joked and I glared at him shaking my head.

"Nope, when I came back from my first deployment Lori had already had Carl. He was a handful. I watched him for a while that way Rick and Lori could catch up on their much needed sleep." I remembered the day I had come back.

Shane was over at their house and so when I came home I got to surprise them all. I wasn't supposed to be home for another 4 months but I was able to come back early. Shane was in shock when I walked through the door, Lori screamed and Rick had all but tackled me into a bear hug. The memory made me smile as a single tear slipped from my eye. I missed those simpler days, when we didn't have to constantly sleep with one eye open. I was in such deep thought I hadn't realized that Daryl was talking to me. That was till he whistled at me like I was a dog, it worked but still.

"Hmm. Shit sorry zoned out." I said as Beth came into the cell.

"My turn." She said and I smiled, kissing Judith on the head and handing her to Beth.

"Love you, little bug." I whispered and left the cell with Daryl. We had walked outside and hadn't said a word to each other. It was a strange yet comfortable silence, that was till Daryl broke it.

"You know you'd make a great mother." We had stopped walking and were sitting on one of the tables outside.

"Thanks but, that is just a fantasy." I told him looking out into the walker filled yard.

"Well, I'm not saying we should be having kids right now but..." Daryl started as I cut him off.

"Daryl, we? It's not that I wouldn't love to have kids with you someday it's just... I can't have kids." Daryl looked at me confused about what I meant and so I stood up and lowered my jeans just enough so he could see two scars equally placed where my ovaries were.

"On my second deployment one of the groups that had taken me found a new form of torture. They stuck two knives in me and realized that it caused me agonizing pain but, it wouldn't kill me unless they removed them. So they left them for 2 months. It caused my ovaries to basically shrivel up and die. When I came home they had to do surgery to stitch them up but they told me that I would never be able to have kids due to the extensive damage. I've learned to accept that. When I told Lori she said that I could always just help raise Carl. And so I did but, I ended up leaving again." My fingers were gently pressed against the scars as my voice grew horse. I wanted kids so badly but, It was just a pipe dream. Something that would never happen. Daryl placed his hand on mine.

"I'm sorry that happened to you. You shouldn't have ever had to go through that shit." Daryl pulled me into a hug and we stayed there for a moment.

"Thanks, Daryl." I said and Maggie came down from the tower.

"Raven can you cover for me. I gotta use the bathroom." She handed me her rifle and I nodded.

"Talk to you later Dixon." I said kissing him quickly but, just as I was about to run off he grabbed my hand.

"The fuck was that." He said and I looked at him with an evil smile and shrugged. He grabbed my waist and pulled me into him kissing me deeply, once we pulled away I was a smiling mess.

"That's a fucking kiss." He said and then left back inside the prison.

The next day was fairly quiet. No noise coming from the Governor, it was strange. Andrea had told Rick that the Governor wanted to meet with the leader of our group and negotiate. After some debate we realized that Rick and I basically lead these people. He agreed to go and he decided to take a small handful of us go and make sure everything went okay. The team consisted of Rick, Hershel, Daryl, and myself. It took a lot of yelling at Rick and Daryl to convince them to let me go. But, after telling them I would just follow without their permission they agreed. I got on my bike and Daryl walked over to me.

"You know you're stubborn as hell right." He told me while pulling his crossbow over his body.

"Yes, and you love me for it." I told him and started my bike. Daryl shook his head with a small smirk on his lips and started up his bike and we were off. We pulled up to the place Daryl talked about. He and I had our crossbows ready and left Hershel in the car. Daryl, Rick and I headed off behind the buildings and the tall towers to what looked like a small farm house. Daryl led and I took up the rear with Rick between us. We made our way through and there was no sound. And that was terrifying. There wasn't even a walker. The closer we got to the house it seemed to only get quieter. Daryl spotted a walker that was down in the grass and he stopped to check it out as Rick and I continued our way to the house. Rick pointed around the back end of the building and Daryl nodded heading around as I stayed with Rick. The only sound was the creaking of the old wood and our breathing and footsteps. The door was open,

Rick and I carefully walked into the little farm house, once inside we realized it was a feed store. There wasn't any sound as we entered till some odd tapping came through. Rick stopped and cocked his colt and we kept walking. In the middle of the dusty barn was a table with two chairs and then more noise as we both turned to see the Governor coming out of the shadows. He walked around the room and up to the table as both Rick and I looked at each other. He looked at us for a moment then raised his hands, as a signal that he was unarmed.

"We have a lot to talk about." He said as he lowered his hands.

"You attacked us. Makes things pretty clear." Rick said as he turned fully to face the Governor.

"I was trying to make things clear. I could have killed you all. I didn't." He said to us shaking his head.

"And here we are." Rick said and the governor reached for something and both Rick and I raised out weapons ready to fire at any moment. The Governor froze and put his hands up.

"I'm gonna remove my weapon. Show that I mean to negotiate in good faith. I'd like you and your girlfriend to do the same." I rolled my eyes and laughed

"I'm not his fucking girlfriend." I said keeping my crossbow on him.

"My apologies. I just assumed." Rick cut him off.

"She helps me run things." He told him as the Governor put his weapon holster on a hook behind him.

"See. No trouble." He said and motioned to Rick and I.

"Now, you." Rick holstered his gun and I put my crossbow over my shoulder. The Governor laughed and sat down.

"Suit yourself. Sorry there's only one other chair if I had known such a... beautiful young lady also ran your show I would have brought another one." The Governor spoke a nasty grin on his face, as Rick sat down and I leaned against a wooden beam behind him. Something seemed off to me. We didn't see anyone when we got there. There was no cars, no people. Something was off for sure, and just then I heard a car pull up outside and doors close.

The door to the barn opened and in walked Andrea.

"What's going on?" She asked the Governor.

"Nothing. Your friends aren't much for small talk." He said motioning over to Rick and I.

"You want to talk, talk." I said with a very large dose of sass.

"I wanted you to talk, too many people have died for no reason. Let's end this." Andrea started to drone on. I was getting really sick and tired of her playing judge.

"Save the bullets for the real threat. We can solve this. That's why I asked you to come here." Andrea continued on.

"I know what you've done. I heard about the raids, the heads, Maggie." Rick said as he stood next to me.

"Merle did that." The Governor spoke quickly.

"No. You know what we're talking about." I spat at him.

"You know all about me and I know all about you, Rick. Sadly I can't say the same for your co-partner here. But, I don't care about any of that. We're here to move forward." The Governor said with a sick grin on his face. All I wanted to do was drive my switch blade right through his skull.

"I've known you both at different times, but only after the world went to shit. And you both stepped up for the good of others. Sorry, Raven. You three stepped up for the good of others at great personal risk. There's no reason..." Andrea spoke but Phillip cut her off.

"Get to it." I rolled my eyes and handed Rick the map we had drawn out of what they get and what we keep.

"Woodbury takes west of the river. The prison takes east." Rick said after he threw down the map and Philip picked it up and opened it.

"No one crosses, No one trades." I told him as he looked it over.

"They're right. We should hammer out boundaries then leave each other..." Andrea said but Philip cut her off.

"I'm sorry what is this?" He asked and Andrea answered for us.

"It's a solution." The Governor laughed and threw down the map.

"Absolutely not." He said and Rick looked at Andrea.

"What the hell are we doing here? You told me...you told me he was willing to talk." Rick yelled at Andrea.

"I am, but the truth is, Rick, she's in no position to make such an offer anyway. I'm here for one thing only... your surrender." Philip said with a sound of happiness in his voice and a smile on his face.

'This fuck wad has got to be fucking joking.' I said to myself so I didn't start a war but, my filter between my mouth and my brain seemed to have shut off because of the words that left my lips.

"Are you fucking kidding me. You want to surrender? Come get it." I slammed my hands on the table saying the last part through barred teeth. I was fuming and Rick could tell, even Andrea could.

"You think we hit Woodbury heavy last time?" I said, as Philip just sat there smiling his smug little grin.

"Just take it easy, all right? We're here to settle this." Andrea spoke over us.

"You're right. Would you step outside? And take a little firecracker over there with you." Philip told Andrea.

"What?!" Andrea shouted.

"No, there's no way in hell I'm leaving him here with you." I spat back at him.

"Rick and I, we got a lot to talk about." Philip said. "I'm not leaving." Andrea protested and Rick spoke up.

"I came to talk to him." Rick said and Andrea headed out. Rick leaned over and grabbed my hip whispering in my ear.

"Get ready for a war. I'll see you out there beautiful." He pulled away and nodded his head towards the door. I sighed at Rick and looked over to Philip.

"If anything happens to him. I will personally cut your head off and keep it as my trophy." I told Philip to which he laughed and I walked out the door.

Caesar closed the door behind me and I walked off. Daryl followed after me as he noticed my irritation. "Hey, you doin' okay?" He asked me as he reached out and grabbed my arm stopping me from going any further away from the rest of the group.

"Yeah I'm fine. Fucking prick kicked me out?" I said running a hand through my hair.

"I thought we agreed you and Rick lead our group." He said with a slight question on why I was out there.

"Yeah we did but, Philip thinks that only men can run things apparently." I yelled at him slightly.

"Hey calm down we'll figure it out." Daryl reassured me and he gave me a side hug placing a quick kiss to the side of my head.

"Come on." He said and we walked back over to the others. We waited another 3 minutes and Daryl started to get antsy again pacing back and forth next to the car while I just sat on the hood.

"There's no reason not to use this time we have together to explore the issues ourselves." Milton said, walking back over to us. Everything in me wanted to just shoot him in the face and blow his glasses to bits. Although, that might only be because I was still pissed off at Phillip for kicking me out. Especially after Rick had made it very clear that we run our group together.

"Boss said to sit tight and shut up." Caesar scolded Milton. I guessed it was the guy to replace Merle.

"Don't you mean the Governor?" Daryl asked him with as much sass as the man could muster. I smiled and shook my head at him as I messed around with a stick I had picked up.

"It's a good thing they're sitting down, especially after what happened. They're gonna work it out. Nobody wants another battle." Milton explained.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a battle." I scuffed, throwing the stick off into the grass.

"I would call it a battle and I did. I recorded it." Milton held up a small notebook.

"For what?" Daryl asked him, turning his body to face Milton.

"Somebody's got to keep a record of what we've gone through. It'll be a part of our history." He explained and this caught Hershel's attention.

"That makes sense." He said and I could tell that they were going to get along. Even though we were enemies I knew Hershel saw something in that young man.

"I've got dozens of interviews-" Milton started to say when we all froze at the sound of a walker growling and metal clanging.

"That's my cue to get the fuck out of this shit." I said as I jumped off the hood of the car and headed for the sound. Daryl and Caesar followed right behind me with Andrea dragging along the tail end. I knew Daryl was following because he was worried. He always worried when I wasn't in his line of sight or he couldn't at least hear my voice. It made me feel safe knowing how protective he was. There were two walkers hiding behind one of the siloes. Daryl and Caesar had gone ahead of me and Andrea to take care of the walkers.

"After you." Daryl told Caesar motioning for him to go ahead. Caesar stopped and shook his head.

"No way. You first." Caesar pointed off to the walkers with a baseball bat. I rolled my eyes and pushed between them. I shot a bolt into one hitting him right in the eye as he fell back and collided with the silo. I heard Caesar call Daryl a pussy and I ignored him as I reloaded my crossbow. Caesar walked over to my left and with one hand swung his bat, splattering a walkers head all over the side of the silo. He looked over at me and with a smile on his face as he laughed. I think it was his failed attempt to hit on me. Daryl rolled his eyes and walked around Caesar taking a walker out with his crossbow. I followed him taking another one out with my own bolt at the same time both of us hitting them dead center. Caesar came up behind us and took out another walker with a single swing. It was impressive I will say that but, he was annoying as all hell. Andrea walked off back to Milton and Hershel I assumed as Daryl, Caesar, and I finished off the walkers.

Daryl was ransacking the corpse's when he found a pack of cigarettes. "Look what he's got." Daryl said, holding them up. I laughed and stayed leaned up against the silo we were by. Daryl offered me one and I pulled my pack out of my pocket and he rolled his eyes at me. Then he turned to Caesar.

"Nah, I prefer menthols." He said and I scoffed

"Now who's the pussy." I breathed out and he looked at me from head to toe. Honestly it made me a little uncomfortable. I never thought I was that attractive but, it seemed to be quite the opposite since the world ended. Daryl lit his cig and he looked at me as I fumbled around my pockets looking for my lighter. He walked over to me and flipped open his lighter, well my lighter that he apparently jacked from me. I raised an eyebrow at him and leaned in lighting my cigarette and stealing my lighter back. He gave me a small smile and went back to facing Caesar.

"You army or something?" Daryl asked him. I was thinking the same thing but, I didn't care to ask.

"Nah, I just... just hate these things. Yeah. After what they did to my wife, kids." Caesar spoke with a sadness in his voice and you could just tell that he was ready to watch the world burn because of those things.

"Sucks." Daryl said, taking another drag.

"I'm sorry that happened to your family." I told Caesar with sincerity in my voice. It would suck to lose your family to those fucking things. I lost mine by killing my brother, Lori dying in childbirth, and Rick, he was going crazy. Daryl was all I had left.

"Thanks." He said looking down at the ground. We stood there for a moment before anyone said anything.

"You know, this is a joke, right? They ain't gonna work anything out. Sure, they'll do their little dance and tomorrow, the next day...they'll give the word." Caesar told us and we both already knew that was a fact. This was pointless. I told Rick that it was before we even left. I also had a gut feeling it was a trap. Thank god that was wrong.

"I know." Daryl told him and Caesar looked over at me.

"What about you? Are you ready to fight in a war?" I smiled, took a drag and looked at him.

"I've fought in my share of wars. This won't be my first and I guarantee it won't be my last." Caesar looked at me confused.

"Marine." That's all I had to say for him to nod his head and continue on. He looked at Daryl and motioned for a cig. Daryl gladly dug into his pocket and handed him one as I tossed him my lighter. We stood there just there, three of us smoking in the silence, waiting for the inevitable to happen.