'Daryl & Rick actually talking about Merle and Lori and their losses.' Requested by liddym2113.

Set sometime after the Season 3 finale, when Carl is still angry with Rick.

Rick was never one to talk.

Never with Lori. Nor Shane. Even as a kid he kept his feelings to himself. Worked problems out and came up with a solution. Dealt with it. Moved on.

It was how he'd always been.

He could live that way then. The end of the world seemed to make it harder. It made Carl harder to deal with, made Rick need to communicate with him, need to make him understand and he wasn't good at that.

So he'd come outside.

Walked down and out to where he was drawn. To Lori.

And he could speak to her, tell her what was happening with their son and how he didn't know what to do and he could hear her, in his mind telling him it would all be okay. He needed to hear that, even from his own mind.

It wasn't until he was halfway there that he spotted another figure out there. Rick stalled a moment, hesitated before he continued.

And Daryl, because it was so clearly Daryl, shifted awkwardly as Rick grew closer, stepping away from the markers as Rick got there, greeting the other man with a quick nod.

Rick returned it as he's eyes fell on Lori's grave and Rick heard Daryl walking away before he called out to stop him. "There's no grave for him out here," Rick said, knowing that he didn't need to say who. Rick kept looking at Lori's marker. "I always wondered why."

Daryl shifted behind him, shrugged unseen to Rick. "Don't need it. He ain't in there. None of 'em are."

What was left of T Dog had been buried, Andrea too. But there hadn't been enough left of Lori to bury her. But he knew that wasn't what Daryl meant.

"We could have gone back you know. If you'd wanted too." Rick said. He'd offered when Daryl had got back, late that night, hours after Michonne.

"Took care of it," Daryl said, still talking to Rick's back.

"Him," Rick said. To remind Daryl it wasn't just a body, it had been a person. His brother. Because he didn't talk about it. Barely at all. He'd barely heard Daryl mention his name. "I came out here to talk to her. To tell her about Carl. How I'm in over my head."

Daryl heard some of the desperateness in Rick's voice and he turned away from him, just in case Rick turned round and he had to see that sadness in his eyes. Hershel was good at this sort of thing. But Hershel wasn't here. Rick was talking to him. "You come down here to make yourself feel better. Ya'll ready know what to do."

Rick turned to Daryl, saw he was still poised ready to walk right on back to the prison. "Do you regret coming back here with him?" He watched Daryl tense up at that. Coming back here had put Merle into a position where he was asked to risk his life.

"No. Jus' that it could have been... different." Daryl looked down to the ground and Rick turned from him again. Back to Lori.

"I should have told her I loved her."

Daryl looked at Rick again. Watched him until Rick turned back to Daryl and their eyes met. And there was a comfort to be had in that moment, the reality of it was mere seconds before Daryl looked away.

And Rick found he didn't need words. Didn't need to go through Lori to know what he needed to do with Carl.

So he picked some flowers growing by the fence and laid them by the cross that marked Lori's grave.

"I love you." he said, whispering just to her. Because that's all he needed to say to her now, and forever.