— DURING THE ALTERCATION, NATE HADN'T noticed the pain across his whole stomach until he stood back up and used the car next to him for support, the man had so much adrenaline inside of him, that he hadn't noticed one of the men beating him up had sliced across his stomach with a knife, attempting to end his life early. The only thing going through the man's mind, however, was Zoe and Carl, the two Grimes' having had to endure those two disgusting men whom were going straight to hell; Nate still felt anger rush throughout his body still at what he had seen happen, being unable to do anything to help — he hated himself for it, and he was ashamed that he couldn't help at all. As he looked over at Zoe holding Carl in her arms, pushing through her own trauma to take care of her brother, he felt his heart break into two, the poor kid that had to go through something at such a young age, and Nate and Daryl were travelling with the man for days, without knowing what kind of man that was. The two brothers knew that the group they were with, were bad, but to this extent, they wouldn't have guessed, and the fact that Zoe had run into the group before the Dixon's even came into contact with them, made Nate feel physically sick.

Zoe held onto Carl and looked up at Nate as she rested her chin on his head, the big shaking uncontrollably as he had suffered the wrath of a much older, and larger man, the girl was afraid to even let go of him, as well as look down at him to see his broken face; she knew that this would be a change for Carl, that he would be growing up faster because of this encounter. Nate seemed distraught, too, the man clutching his stomach as he began to make his way slowly towards Zoe and Carl, Michonne standing by the two Grimes' to make sure that Carl and Zoe were okay after what had just happened and what they had witnessed their father do just now. Daryl was still half on the floor, looking over at the dead man on the floor whom had just been practically chopped up by Rick, as well as his brother limping towards Zoe and Carl. When Carl finally looked up, he saw Nate limping over, and Michonne had pulled the boy gently away from his sister, the kid then clinging onto her and beginning to cry again, he felt just as comfortable with the older woman than he did with his sister, due to the mothering nature she had.

Zoe noticed Nate walking over, and she noticed instantly that something was wrong, the girl pushed up off of the ground, checking that Carl was okay, before rushing over to him by the car, the man unable to hold himself up anymore. "Hey." The girl spoke up, Nate feeling like it was music to his ears hearing her voice again after so long believing that he wasn't going to see her again. Nate fell against the car, his back leaning up against the side as he felt his vision fade in and out, Zoe not knowing what to do, looking over at her father who instantly rushed over, everyone ignoring how he had blood coating his beard and shirt from biting Joe's skin off of his neck, killing him. "What hurts, baby?" Zoe asked, taking both of her hands and placing them either side of his face, looking into his eyes as Nate just looked at her like he was seeing a ghost.

"I found you." Nate whispered, lifting up his own bloody hand and placing it on the side of his cheek, feeling his shirt lifting up with cold hands and a small gasp following, before more footsteps were heard as Rick and Daryl rushed around to check every bag of the groups to see if they could fix the cut along the front of his stomach, because if they didn't, it would just get worse. Zoe kept talking to Nate, telling him to keep his eyes open, but he could barely even register what she was saying anymore, not now that his whole head was buzzing. "Are you okay?" He asked the girl instead, pulling her hands away from his stomach and back to his face, already missing her touch after having been deprived of it for so long.

Zoe looked at the man in disbelief, shaking her head at him as she stroked his face, knowing that he wouldn't like her to pull away, "Am I okay? You have a slash through your stomach!" She stated, unable to believe that he could be asking her that question when he was clearly in so much pain. When she said this, Daryl came limping over with Rick as they shuffled through each bag owned by the men to see if they could find anything to clean Nate's wound and wrap it up. But Nate didn't care about that, the only thing going through his mind was Zoe, and wether or not she was okay after what Len did to her and what he also attempted to do to her.

Though the girl in question had completely forgotten about that moment as she looked at the love of her life, feeling her father and Daryl come back next to her as they began to sort through the bags of the dead men around them; there must be something in the bags that they could use in order to clean up Nate's wound and make sure it didn't get infected, because that was the most important thing to do right now. Rick kept looking over at Carl and Michonne, and it broke his heart to see his son looking at him in fear with what he had just done, the fact that Rick had taken a chunk out of Joe's neck with his very own teeth, made everyone uncomfortable, but they all also knew that it had to he done to get out of the situation alive. Daryl pulled out some alcohol from a backpack and instructed Zoe to take off his brothers shirt; which she did, cringing as Nate cried out in pain from his wound being stretched out from the action; the girl felt her chest tighten at the sound, having never heard her boyfriend, or seen him, in so much pain before. "We've got to clean it up." Daryl mumbled, also in a lot of pain himself as he had received a beating, too, just not as severe as Nate.

Zoe nodded, knowing that she was the one whom had the most knowledge with medical care due to Hershel teaching her, so she let go of Nate's face, the man's head slowly and gently falling back against the car behind him, groaning in annoyance that Zoe had let go of him and he couldn't feel her touch anymore. The girl grabbed some of the rags and cleaning supplies that they could find within all of the bags, she couldn't be more glad and lucky with finding them, as well as the bandages that Joe had in his own backpack. Zoe began to open up the alcohol and pour it over his stomach, before dabbing around it with water to clean it up, trying to ignore the painful hisses coming out of Nate's mouth, having never heard them before. Nate had always been the strong one, the one who never got hurt, and seeing him like this, broke her heart. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, feeling a tear slip down her face as she dabbed around the cut on the man's stomach. She felt Daryl's hand on her back to comfort her, but it wasn't working, as seeing the love of her life in this condition was breaking her apart.

At the moment in time, however, Nate hardly felt any pain, he was just so happy that he had found Zoe after all of this time, and that he could finally hear her voice and see her face in person instead of in his mind. Even if his eyesight was currently blurred, he could see Zoe's face clear as day and it hurt him to see her so upset and concerned for his well-being, their reunion should have been happy, but instead, they had all suffered tremendous trauma. When Nate seemed to have completely passed out from pain, Zoe hurried with wrapping his wound up to stop the bleeding, noticing he had a fever and holding a damp and cold rag to his forehead, stroking the hair out of his face with a frown on her own, not knowing what to do, since they didn't have many supplies out here to help fix his wound and make sure he didn't get any worse than he was — they were lucky the cut wasn't deeper, or he would be in much more trouble than he was right now..

After wrapping the wound up to her best abilities, Zoe sighed and sat down besides Nate, taking his hand in hers as she listened to his light breathing, afraid that he could stop breathing at any moment in time, since they didn't have the proper equipment to deal with the wound; they couldn't get to Terminus quick enough.. As Zoe leaned her head on Nate's shoulder, she wished that she couldn't see her fathers face, the blood drenching his beard; she knew that Rick did what he had to do, and they were all only alive because of him, just like he had done over and over again, keeping them all alive. "Zo, I'm sorry you.." Her father began to apologise to her, only for the girl to shake her head at him.

"You don't have to apologise, dad. You saved us all, like you always do. Don't apologise for that." Zoe told him, not knowing how he could even try to apologise for saving them all. The girl here that Carl was slightly afraid of their father after what he had done, but Zoe knew that the boy believed their father did it for them, and eventually, he wouldn't look at him in slight fear anymore. Daryl looked over at Rick and nodded his head, confirming that Zoe was right, and they all knew that Rick did what he did in order to save them all from Joe's group; Zoe felt Nate's hand twitch in hers as they spoke, and she couldn't help but smile, because even though it wasn't the best situation, she was with him, and that's all that mattered to her right now.

The car doors opened up and shut again as Michonne took Carl in there to get him to sleep, and Zoe felt awful that she wasn't comforting him like Michonne was, but the look that the older woman gave her, told her that she had nothing to worry about, especially since Carl had moved towards the woman in the first place, knowing that Zoe needed to look after Nate. After she heard the car doors open up and shut again, the morning felt like it came very quickly, with Zoe napping on Nate's shoulder and the man never waking up, sleeping off his exhaustion from being beaten by that many men very harshly. Daryl seemed exhausted, too, even though he got up every few minutes to check on his brother and to make sure he wasn't still bleeding — he wished that they hadn't given these men the time of day, but he also knew that if they hadn't, they wouldn't have found Rick and the others.
Zoe was half asleep when she felt Nate shift underneath her, before she heard his gruff voice speak up, "Am I dead?" He asked lowly, having opened his eyes and seeing Zoe leaning on him; believing that he couldn't be seeing reality, because he had lost her after the prison was over run, when he couldn't find her.

Zoe instantly sat up straighter upon hearing the man's voice, turning towards him to find that the man was already looking down at her, a look of disbelief in his eyes at how he didn't believe the girl was besides him right now; he just couldn't believe that after all of this time of thinking she was dead, she was now currently sitting in front of his eyes, alive and well, even if she was covered in cuts and bruises. "No, you're not." Zoe told him, a huge smile on her face as she moved to crouch in front of him, still unable to believe that he was in front of her. "You're here." The girl whispered, unable to keep from smiling at him, feeling strange that he was sat in front of her, in real life instead of her dreams and imagination.

Nate looked around at their surroundings, seeing the morning sunlight deep through the tree lines, unable to even recall falling asleep, knowing the last time he had his eyes open, it was dark with the fire light illuminating the small group. Daryl instantly looked over at the sound of Zoe talking, and relaxed the second he saw that his brother was awake, and not as pale looking as he did the night before. "What happened?" Nate asked Zoe, as the girl lifted up his shirt, smiling when she realised that he had stopped bleeding a while ago and knew that he would begin healing soon as long as they kept the wound clean.

Zoe sighed, not exactly wanting to relive the whole incident that happened last night, "Joe's group attacked us." She ended up telling him, not wanting to ask him why he was with that group in the first place, she could see how the two brothers were uncomfortable at the time, and she hoped that it was their last choice to travel with them. Even Daryl looked ashamed with himself when Rick saw they were with Joe's group, but they all knew that they were alone, and they were probably scared that they wouldn't survive without other people as backup.

Nate's face fell at her words, now remembering everything that went down; finding out that Zoe had killed two of Joe's group, the man and Len wanting revenge for what they had done, and finding happiness in beating him and Daryl near to death. The whole evening had been crazy, but now that the morning had come, he could see their dead bodies piled up by the fire, and couldn't be more glad that it was finally over. He reached up and stroked the side of Zoe's face, "I'm sorry." He said, shaking his head and scoffing at how he had betrayed her by staying with a group like that, one that preyed on young women the way they had with Zoe, and young boys like the way one of them had with Carl; the whole incident made him sick to the stomach. "Me and Daryl, we had no idea the extent some of them would go.." He started explaining, when Zoe placed her hand over his.

"You're okay, that's all that matters.. Forget about them, okay? They're gone." Zoe told him, taking a seat cross legged in front of the man, hating how guilty he looked at what had happened. She could hear Daryl and Rick talking quietly around the other side of the car about the same thing, and they both knew that no one was upset with them about being with Joe's group.

"You deserve to know why we were with them, Zo." Nate sighed, closing his eyes and facing up to the sky, taking a deep breath in, "We were with Beth, we got out of the prison with her, and we were with her for a while, trying to survive." He began explaining, as Zoe listened intently with a concentrated look on her face.

Zoe felt anxiety swirl around in her stomach, "Where is she now?" She asked, afraid to find out the answer — the girl knew that it was likely that not everyone had survived from the prison attack, but hearing it out loud was a completely different story, and she didn't know if she wanted to hear it, not like with Hershel.

"We don't know." Nate admitted, looking down at his hands, his fingers twitching and fiddling as he hated to relive Beth's disappearance. "I didn't know how I was going to make it without her, I was in my own little world, without you, I felt like I was suffocating. Like nothing mattered without you; Beth helped me to keep going, I probably wouldn't even be here without her, and now she's gone.." He explained, the small ring burning a hole in his pocket, remembering how Beth had cleaned it and given it to him when he finally started talking again and realising that more of their group could still be alive. It wasn't the right time to do ask the girl to marry him, he knew that, but he wanted to ask her the question so badly.. "We didn't know what to do after we lost her, we felt like we should just give up.. Then we found Joe's group, and we knew they were bad, I didn't want to follow them at first, but we felt like we had no choice, we knew who they were, but not to that extent. If I knew the kind of things they did, I would have killed them all without even blinking." Nate carried on to explain, knowing that if he knew what they did to Zoe at the time, he would have killed them all in their sleep.

Zoe sighed, knowing that he meant what he said, but even so, he couldn't have known the true extent of the mens actions and plans with other people they come into contact with. The girl remembered running into them, when she had killed Len's brother, and she knew for a fact that Daryl and Nate wasn't with them at the time, because they would have stepped in to stop them, they wouldn't have allowed the men to prey on a young woman, and she was confident about that. "I believe you. I do, okay?" She told Nate, not wanting him to ever think that she didn't believe him, he would never lie to her, and she knew that. "I love you so much." The girl added, finally leaning in to kiss the love of her life, the man kissing her back, gripping the back of her head and pulling her close like he was starved from her touch, from her hold.

As well as Zoe, Nate felt like he could breathe again when he kissed the girl of his dreams, he felt like he was finally alive again now that he had her in his arms, that they both could stop looking and finally relax now that they had each other, like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Whilst the couple were suffering without one another, they hadn't realised that they were slowly making their way towards one another, slowly but surely, suffering as they did so. But what they did know, was that they were finally together, and nothing could split them up again..