Hindsight was a god damned bitch.

It was all very domestic, as far as falling in love with another bloke went.

Christ, she must have really gotten her bell rung.

In the end, his sweet little suburban dream had guttered itself with salt-tracks, silence and something a bit less than a whimper.

Christ, how bad did someone have to mess up that they forgot the god damned baby?

Well, that settled things. They were officially stuck here.

What was it Rick had said all those months ago? Looks like there's a new sheriff in town.

The irony was he'd planned to tell her in Rome.

The tug on his rib cage was firm – persistent - grating. It took everything he had not to stumble over to her. Knowing instinctively that the moment he got close, the moment he had her in his arms, everything would stop. Everything would make sense again. Everything would be different - better. But he didn't. He couldn't.

"I'm not pretending. You were. I know. I can hear them… They just want me to change. They can make me be like them. Maybe I should change. I can make you all understand."

She needed – well – she needed more than to just be needed.

He'd learned many things in their quest to regain Erebor. And while the list itself was exhaustive, some of the highlights go as follows...

He grew up knowing two things for sure. One, archery ran in the family. And two, Clint Barton was an arsehole. (Avengers crossover)

She sat on the couch and waited for the world to end. It didn't. And for some reason, that almost made her feel worse. (The Purge crossover)

He thumbed the line of pages, flirting with a paper cut as the edges threatened to cut deep.

He wanted what they'd had back in the prison. That life. What'd been taken from them.

She got distracted as a sheath of moonlight lit up the span of his knuckles – highlighting the way they tensed and released around the wheel before the darkness swallowed them again. He'd been like that since they'd spotted the car. Fingers tight and white-tipped since she'd said it.

He shifted, testing the give of the ropes, fingers scrabbling across the frayed ends, looking for an opening, something – anything to give him an advantage. Because at this point he figured it was pretty safe to say he was on his own. Rick and the others were still stuffed up in that damned train car. It was up to him to get himself out of this mess.

When the moon and a man stands between her and love, whats a girl to do but to try her best?

He sensed the beats between the breaths as the fabric of Daryl's gag creaked – straining. Shoulders brushing against his like words unsaid. Sensing more than seeing the way the man was pushing and snarling just underneath his skin.