Act Nice And Gentle

A/N: Act Nice and Gentle is a song by The Black Keys, one of my favorites and I can just imagine them dancing together to it. It's my Caryl song.

I do not own The Walking Dead or any Characters, I just like to bend then to my will.

Carol sighed and rolled over in the bed, onto her stomach, she had the dream again last night, this time it felt so real. More real than ever before. One day she knew she would have to go to the student counseling center and talk to someone, maybe get some therapy. She'd already read everything she could get her hands on the meaning of dreams. Nothing had helped, it wouldn't go away.

It wasn't right the way she dreamed about him sometimes, he was her best friend, all her life. It bothered her that she couldn't stop this, that her mind did this to her, while she was asleep. She realized she had a headache this morning, which was better than the ache she always had after the dream, the ache in her heart and everywhere else. She was glad the dream only came a few times a month. But it unnerved her every time. She didn't understand why this kept happening. She felt ashamed of herself.

She opened her eyes carefully not to make her headache worse and winced, the sun was way too bright. Shining in her eyes and heating her skin. Her window wasn't on this wall, near the bed, it was over by Lori's bed. She shouldn't be feeling the heat of it so strongly. Did she have a hangover?

Then she realized she didn't have any cloths on. This wasn't her dorm room and she wasn't alone. She looked up on the wall opposite the bed and saw the familiar Metallica Ride the Lightning poster on the wall. She looked to the other wall, thinking 'please, please don't be there,' but it was.

The '65 Mustang poster. Oh my God, she thought to herself, she was in Daryl and Rick's room. It wasn't a dream this time!

And this was the most epic fuck up of her life.

She looked around with one eye and saw her bra and cellphone across the room on Rick's desk, Daryl's boots by the door and things started to come back to her as she started to wake up. She could hear his slow steady breathing next to her.

/

They had all been out last night at their favorite bar, Donovan's, three blocks away from campus. They loved it because they could walk there and not have to worry about driving. Her roommates Lori and Tara were there. Glenn, Maggie and Daryl who she already knew from home. Rick, who was Daryl's roommate, Eugene, Alisha, Andrea and Michonne, and a few others they had met at the dorm or in classes they had. She had been celebrating the end of a horrible six month long relationship, with the school star Lacrosse player, who couldn't keep his hands to himself. He had grabbed her arm once during an argument, and that was it. They were done, Carol was not taking crap from any man. It had left a bruise because he had grabbed her so hard. She dumped him, immediately, but Daryl and Rick still wanted to go have a talk with him. He was having trouble getting the hint, so that might still happen. She didn't tell them about the bruise, though.

Daryl would kill him, for sure.

They had all been drinking, having a good time, and she and Daryl got a little lit. They were feeling really good, and happy last night. That wasn't something new, they had been friends all their lives, shared a lot of good times through the years. They grew up right next door to each other back home in Flowery Branch, GA since they were three. They had drank together lots of times. She remembered leaving with him, before that kissing him in the hallway by the pool table in the back of the bar.

That was new, she may have thought about kissing him, but she never acted on it. Too afraid to ruin the good thing they had.

She tried to calm herself down and remember what happened, while suppressing the urge to run.

/

They stopped to kiss a few times during the walk back to the dorms, his arm around her holding her tight to him as they walked. It was March still a little cool at night, but they hadn't really noticed. He smoked a cigarette while they walked, she remembered that too. They talked a little on the way home too. About the usual things they always talked about, classes, homework, all so normal. They Said hello to Milton and Tyreese, who were manning the front desk of the dorm. Daryl always called them the desk commanders. They were the ones who buzzed them into the building. She remembered that too. She also remembered they were sobering up a little by the time they got home.

Then he was kissing her against the door to his and Rick's room, his body against hers, running his hands through her hair, and whispering things into her ear, and she felt drunk again. Just enough so when he asked her finally what he always wanted she nodded her head and said yes.

"I want you. "He had said into her ear his voice gravely and hot, placing kisses behind her ear. His voice sounded like every dark thing she'd ever want, his kisses tasted like the first time she had ever had chocolate.

"Yes." She said, her hair practically standing on end from what he was doing to her ear. "Yes." And he looked at her, his hands on her shoulders now. "I want you too."

He went in for another kiss and pressed against her, this time so she could feel him against her.

"This is gonna be so good." He drawled into her ear, slowly.

She went in his room with him, of her own free will, knowing what was going to happen. She wanted it to. They both did. But as always he was looking out for her. She remembered him asking her a few times more if she was sure, if it was okay, it was more than okay and she was sure, then. And she was sure a few hours later when he woke her up again with the sweetest kisses she had ever had, but, now in the light of day she felt confused and a little scared.

/

She looked over, he was laying on his stomach and the sheet was around his hips. His blonde hair, splayed over the pillow, his head turned towards the window. One arm over his head, one on his side under the sheet. She was trying to push down her panic. Telling herself to "Just Breathe" over in her head. She could handle this, she'd have to. She slowly sat up careful not to wake him.

She looked down at him, she had always loved his shoulders and arms. He was strong from working with his hands all his life. He didn't have to work out like all the jocks in their dorm. He naturally had that great build. He also gave the best hugs, if she was upset, she could count on that to make her feel better. So many times growing up she had sought out his arms, for hugs only. Even the smell of him could calm her down, a divine mixture of the earth, coffee, cigarettes and chocolate. He smelled like home.

She had seen him shirtless before, of course she did, but it was different now, after what they had done.

And she remembered everything they had done.

She started to reach over to touch the two tattoos on his back, she had gone with him to get those. They had both been sixteen. Thanks to that little adventure she had two nice dragonflies on her back, in the same spot, which she loved. That was the summer he taught her how to drive too. But then she shook her head to herself, sat up and reached over to the floor for her shirt, tying to be quiet and not wake him, because she had to get out of there right now. She was losing the fight with her panic and she needed to go.

Suddenly his hand was around her wrist, so lightly, because he knew not to handle a woman roughly. She hadn't even saw him move, he was fast as lightning, from years of hunting in the woods and stalking prey, back home. She should have known he would feel her movement, no matter how quiet she tried to be.

"Don't even think about it." He grumbled into the pillow "You ain't bailing on me."