Welcome to my new story, this is a little different. It is in essence one story told from four different points of view. It is set right before Carol leaves Alexandria, before the scene with Negan and before Daryl takes off after Dwight. Everything that preceded that is as written in the show, from this moment on however it will be my take on what could have happened.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR.

CARL

His dad had told him he wasn't to take night watch; that the others needed more practice than him, but Carl had never been one to follow orders well. He scanned beyond the wall of Alexandria through the sights on his rifle. For now everything was quiet, there hadn't been much walker action all night. A good thing Carl supposed, but he was starting to get a little bored. Taking his eyes off the scope for a moment, he turned his attention to inside the walls. Wondering what was going on behind closed doors. His eyes scanned for any movement, any tell tell sign's that people were up to anything they shouldn't be. He smiled to himself remembering the time he caught Spencer looting the pantry late at night. Deanna had not been happy to hear about her sons late night wandering.

Carl hadn't wanted to rat on the oldest son of their new communities leader, but there was something about the young man that didn't sit well with Carl. Now with Deanna gone Carl was glad that Spencer had been keeping to himself. Taking a deep breath and looking away from the buildings deciding that there wasn't anything going on worth watching, Carl stood up for a moment, shaking out his dead legs and giving his back a stretch. Watch could be a long boring job, especially on nights like this.

Carl wasn't really looking at the moment he saw her, he had been simply getting himself comfortable again when he happened to look down. If it had been a few seconds earlier, or later he would have missed her flitting between the shadows. It just so happened that has his eyes passed a small break in the buildings, where the light from the moon shone through illuminating her for just a moment.

At first he thought it was Enid off on one of her trips away, but he knew even Enid wasn't stupid enough to run off in the middle of the night. Also this figure was taller, longer in the leg and also knew exactly what they were doing. Carl had to search now, using the sights on his rifle to scan the fence line. It took a few moments before he spotted her, her face covered by some kind of cloth, a large beige coat hiding what could be weapons, and a big rucksack thrown over her shoulder, as she took hold of the fence and began to climb.

It took Carl only seconds to stand up and make his way down the stairs, his heart pounded in his chest, as his feet finally met the concrete of the street and he ran towards the shadowy figure in the corner. His need to shout out squashed by his own fear at startling her and maybe getting shot. He virtually skidded to a halt under where her feet stood on the small ledge of the support beam. It was dark here, and as Carl looked up he couldn't tell if she had heard his approach or not.

"I thought your dad told you no more night watch." Her voice started him, his hands unconsciously going to his pockets, like they did when his mum would tell him off when he was little.

"Yeah." Carl replied finding his mouth suddenly dry and lump forming in his throat.

A second later Carol and dropped back down beside him, her eyes now boring into his. Carl regarded her with trepidation. He was not scared of Carol, even though he knew she could probably kill him in an instant if she wanted to. No he was scared that another one of his family were going to leave him, and this time not because they had died. He searched her face, wondering if her decision had anything to do with him.

"You were going to leave?" Carl asked after the silence dragged on, as Carol obviously wasn't going to say anything. That she was waiting to see if he knew what she was planning.

"Yeah." Carol replied, the single word almost crushing Carl's heart. He knew the woman that stood before him now was a world away from the one who had taught him back in the camp in Atlanta. The lady that always looked out for him back when he had been unable to take care of himself, who brought him food, and always had a kind word for him. To Carl she would always been that person, no matter what else she had done over the years.

"Why?" The question fell off his lips before he could stop it, his heart fluttered in his chest as she dropped her bag on the ground and rubbed her hand down her face. All the fight drained out of her as Carl watched unable to say anything.

"Because I have to." Carol's words were soft, almost whispered, but Carl heard her loud and clear. The woman from the Atlanta camp may have been gone, but the woman standing before him now seemed just as broken.

"No you don't, what would the others think, what would Daryl think."

Carl said now, desperately using the one card he had to play. Family.

"Don't tell them Carl, just let me go it's for the best." Carol replied, her voice almost pleading now and Carl knew she wasn't so sure about her decision. He knew he had to stop her, but he was just a kid, in the end she wasn't going to listen to him, but he knew someone she wouldn't be able to ignore.

"I'm going to get Daryl." Carl said turning to leave as Carol reached out to stop him, Carl felt the wisp of her hand as it grazed his arm, and for a split second he wondered if she was going to knock him out cold. He froze looking back over his shoulder as Carol dropped her arm back to her side, bending down to pick up her bag.

"Where should I tell him to find you?" Carl asked realising that for now he had won. It was a strange feeling to be happy about something so glum, but he couldn't stop the smile that came to his face as Carol shouldered her bag and looked at him across the few feet of space between them.

"I'll be at home."

DARYL

He hadn't been asleep, in fact he hadn't slept since Denise's death. The knock at his door was still a shock however. For a second he thought about ignoring whomever it was, simply sitting in his chair looking out of the window. Carl's voice shocked him out of his stupor, the mention of Carol's name had him almost sprinting for the door.

"What's happened to Carol?" Daryl demanded pulling open the door and speaking at the same time. Carl looked back at him, his face held a look of shock, but he quickly snapped out of it.

"Nothing has happened to her, she was trying to leave." Carl's voice seemed to break here for a moment, and Daryl felt a mixture of panic and anger, neither of which was going to comfort the young man.

"I'll deal with it." Daryl said mustering all his empathy to place a hand on Carl's shoulder before he ran out of the house and down the steps.

"Where is she?" Daryl said as he turned back to Carl who was lingering on his doorstep.

"She said she would be at home." Carl replied and Daryl didn't stop to thank him before taking off. He made a mental note to say something when he had this all sorted out. Right at the moment however he could only think about getting to Carol before she did something stupid.

Virtually running down the street Daryl stopped outside Carol's house, he realised that he had been inside only a few times, that recently they had been growing apart. It hadn't happened all of a sudden, but in a slower less noticeable way. First they had stopped spending so much time together, then she had moved out. Then she had stopped coming to see him as much, and finally there had been Tobin. Daryl's hand shook slightly as he raised his fist to knock at the door, this last thought however topped him. He dropped his hand, and went straight for the door nob, turning it and walking right into her darkened house.

For a second he didn't think she was there, the house was quiet as a grave, no lights were on, and Daryl could hear only the sound of his own heart pounding in his chest. He walked forward, moving through the hallway and into the living room. There was more light in here, the curtains were open and the moon shone through into the small but quaint room.

"Daryl." The voice behind him made him jump almost visibly in the air, he span on his heel ready to berate her for scaring the crap out of him, but at the sight of her face his mouth slammed closed. The light from the moon was highlighting her face as she raised an arm, flicking on the light in the living room and giving Daryl his first real good look at her.

She hadn't been crying, but her eyes showed sorrow, her face looked haggard, and her lips were pressed in a thin line.

"I've been expecting you." she said now moving to sit on the cough, her hands clasped in her lap as she stared down at her own shoes. Daryl wanted to go to her, to reach out and hold her until she felt better, and yet he could not bring himself to move. He still felt angry about her trying to leave, without any thought for herself or the rest of them.

"You weren't even gonna say goodbye." It wasn't a question and the sharp look Carol flashed him had Daryl's anger flare again.

"If I had you would never have let me go." Carol replied as she continued to not look at him, and play with something on her shirt.

"Right, ya know why? Cuz your family, we look out for our own." Daryl said now taking an unconscious step towards her as Carol finally looked up at him. Their eyes met, and for a moment there was nothing but silence. Daryl did not feel that old familiar connection that they once had. To look at one another and simply say everything they needed to without speaking. No, now there was hidden meaning, and secrets behind her look. Daryl knew he had to fix this and quickly, that maybe he had a part to play in Carol's decision to leave.

"Is it me?" he asked, his heart thumping inside his chest, equally scared that the answer was yes, and no at the same time. The small almost imperceivable shake of her head did little to comfort him, Daryl knew he would have to talk to her, get her to tell him what was really going on, but talking was not his strong point, action was, but there was no one to fight here, nothing to defend her from except her own thoughts.

"It's me, it's what I have become." Carol's voice broke both the silence, and Daryl's inner turmoil. He knelt down in front of her, placing one hand tentatively over her own. Her pull away shocked him, his anger returned. He pushed it down before he sat back and looked at her, his stare and silence forcing her to meet his gaze finally.

"If it ain't me then why'd you pull away?" he said keeping his voice as even as he could as Carol looked away again before taking in a long deep breath.

"You need to let me go Daryl, I thought, I thought maybe now you could." her words hit a cord, neither of them had pulled on for a while, and Daryl felt himself now being the one to pull away. Standing up and pacing around the room, he felt like a trapped animal, needing to break free, but at the same time desperately needed the approval of its master.

"Never." He finally said stopping his pacing and standing in front of her once more, unable not to tell her the truth. She had always been the one person to see though him, to see than man behind the bravado, and his somewhat tragic upbringing, to see him. As her eyes drew back towards his Daryl registered the slight shock, hidden behind a vale of anger.

"You don't need to protect me any more Daryl, I don't need it, and more to the point I don't want it." Her words were like ice cold fingers on his skin, and for a moment Daryl could do nothing but process what she had said. He looked down at her now, she was still sitting on the couch, but now her hands had balled into fists, rubbing up and down her cargo pants. For a second Daryl wondered if she was planning on hitting him.

"I know, you ever think that maybe we want ya around cuz we all like ya, cuz ya are our family." Daryl replied finally in an attempt to appease her, and yet the sentiment seemed somewhat lacking. Worse, Daryl knew she knew it too.

"I can't be around any of you any more, if I stay I will end up doing something that I can't come back from, I wont be me any more." Carol said her voice almost pleading with him now. Her emotions were like a roller-coaster. One moment she was sad, the next angry. Now she seemed defeated. It was then that Daryl noticed the light streaming in from the window. They had been talking long enough for the sun to come up, but Daryl felt like he had had only a moment with her, and no where near long enough to convince her to stay.

"Your still planning on leaving aren't you" he said, it wasn't a question, and Carol didn't answer, she didn't need to, whatever had once been between them was now nothing more than a small flicker amongst the flames that burn on both their souls.

"I won't let ya run from this, whatever it is that's eating at ya, we can get through it, we've all done terrible shit since this all started. I should'a killed Dwight when I had a chance, then Denise would still be here, I should'a done a lot of things but ain't." Daryl said in a rare moment of truthfulness, and it actually wasn't that bad. Daryl couldn't take his eyes of the woman before him, her face held a small smile, but it wasn't a happy one.

"Wrong thing done for the right reason, still the wrong thing."

RICK

He had woken up the the smell of Michonne cooking, it brought a small smile to his lips as for a moment he forgot about the world he lived in. Stretching his muscles luxuriously in the warm comfortable bed. He let out a small satisfied moan as he sat upright and pushed the covers away from him. The sun was shining through the window, he had a beautiful woman downstairs cooking him breakfast, and his children were safe and sound inside the protective walls of Alexandria. For a brief shining moment he was no longer the leader of a band of survivors. There were no dead banging at their door. No enemy's left to fight, and all he had to worry about at that moment was that Michonne was not burning the breakfast.

As it was in this world now however the moment was short lived, the world once again shattered as a loud pounding came from the door below. Rick dressed quickly, knowing that that type of knock was not bringing good news. He lurched down the stairs to find Enid looking frightened and flustered babbling to Michonne who was trying to calm her. Carl was not far behind him, as Rick turned to his son, he noticed a tortured look on his oldest child's face. He was about to ask Carl what the matter was, but Enid was finally starting to make sense.

"It's Maggie, something, wrong, maybe the baby." It was disjointed and punctuated with deep gasps of breath, but Rick wasted no time in rushing through the door and over towards Maggie and Glenn's house.

"Is Glenn with her?" Rick called as he noticed everyone following him.

"Yes." Enid's voice floated through the air, as Rick felt a little better knowing that they were together.

When he arrived at the house and finding Maggie in a bad state there had been no question as to what they had to do. The RV was the only vehicle big enough to fit everyone inside. Rick noticed that Carol and Daryl were the last to arrive, both arguing as they approached. Rick even saw Daryl grab Carol by the arm and force her to look at him. Rick knew that something was going on, but for right now that would have to wait. As he watched them climb onto the RV he nodded at Abraham to start up the engine. Leaning out of the window he looked to Gabriel and then his eyes fell on Morgan. He hadn't quite figured the man out yet, but he knew that he could trust him with the rest of the community.

"Look after the place." he spoke to all of them, briefly remembering the moment of peace he had that very morning, not more than an hour ago. The nods returned to him made Rick feel marginally better as the RV moved off and the gate was opened.

Rick knew as soon as they came to the first roadblock that something wasn't right, he knew this was not the last they were going to see of the saviours. He kept that thought to himself however, making sure not to let the others know he was worried. Everyone seemed to buy into it, at least from what Rick could tell. Glenn was too worried about Maggie to care or notice. Rosita and Sasha were ready for a fight, along with Abraham and probably his own son. Daryl was a little harder to read, he had been a silent observer since he had boarded the RV, and Eugene was preoccupied with finding them alternate routes to pay too much attention.

Carol was the only one looking at him with concern, her eyes had been flitting between Rick and the road since they climbed back on board. Rick found her looking at him once more, her eyes connecting with his own as he spotted another roadblock. It confirmed what he had known from the start, that this was far from over, and the only one who seemed to realise it as well was the woman boring holes in the back of his head. Sometimes Rick hated being in charge.

The weight of leadership had never been so heavy, here in the dirt on his knees, surrounded by his enemy, and flanked by his family. He would have given up his own life in a second if he thought that it would save even one of the others, but the decision had been out of his hands. He was frozen to the ground, terror keeping every muscle in his body tense. He knew he could not stop what was happening, they had been warned about interfering. Rick had no doubt that this man would follow though on his threat. Every single time the bat pointed at someone and a word was spoken, Rick shock a little harder. He felt like he was about to pass out, but he knew he could do no such thing. He dared look at the faces around him, his eyes flitting across each terrified face after another until they landed on a single set of blue eyes. There was a calmness there, as though she wanted this. Carol's eyes never moved, she never saw his looking at her, and for a second Rick wondered if Carol had finally lost her mind.

The thoughts went out of the window the second Negan had chosen, the thwack of the bat and Abraham's final words spluttered from his lips brought only the shrill sound of screaming from the others. Rick needed the calmness of Carol now, but this time when he looked at her all he could see were the broken tears of one of his family in pain. 'She wanted it to be her' the thought passed unbidden though his brain as suddenly Daryl shot up and punched Negan in the face. The scream that came from Carol was the most haunting one Rick had heard in his life. The entire ensemble of people stopped and looked at her as she pounded her fists into the ground, and yet did not move from her spot. Rick's heart leapt into his throat, unable to do anything but sit there in terror as Negan had Daryl restrained and a gun put to Carol's head.

"I'm gonna kill you." Rick whispered under his breath, his body shaking, not caring what happened to him any more. If Negan hurt Daryl or Carol he would rip his throat out with his teeth, bullet to the head be dammed.

In the end it wasn't either of them, but Glenn who paid the price. Glenn who told Maggie he would find her, Glenn who stopped all the thoughts of retaliation in Rick's mind. There was no getting out of this, not without losing everyone. Rick could barely mutter a single word when Negan had Carol and Daryl placed in a van to be taken away with the saviours. Rick could feel the life ebbing out of him, the will to go on almost vanished in the blink of an eye.

CAROL

She thought it could have been her, that the sequence of events leading up to this point had not been for nothing. Getting caught by Carl, sitting up and arguing with Daryl all night, finding out that there was something wrong with Maggie's baby. All of it for this moment, where she could finally do something for the group that would also put and end to her own misery.

She knew the moment Negan made eye contact with her however that this was not to be her day to die. She even knew who the man had chosen maybe even before he did himself. She knew he was not going to kill one of the women, it just wasn't his style. Rick and Carl were also off the list as Negan was smart, psychotic but none the less smart. Killing Rick would have the rest of them enraged, killing Carl would make Rick uncooperative. Glenn was a mess and not a threat as was Eugene. No it was either going to be Daryl or Abraham. The brief thought of loosing Daryl had Carol's palms sweating, but if Negan choose him then she would have no choice but to go out trying to take the man down. In the end it all happened so quickly that Daryl beat her to it.

When Glenn was put down due to Daryl's reaction Carol forced herself to keep still, the scream that erupted from her mouth was something she couldn't control, but she remained still, knowing that she could not be responsible for the death of one of her family.

She climbed into the van meekly, unable to speak, barely able to coordinate her legs to climb up into the truck, and Daryl in the end had to lift her. She had been lying to him earlier when she had told him she didn't need him any more, she did need him but not in the way she used to. She couldn't look at him now as the truck pulled away she did not have anything left to give him. Soon she would, she knew she would have to save her family one last time.

Carol had no concept of time in the truck, it seemed both like hours and seconds before it finally rolled to a stop and the back doors were opened. Carol supposed that not being able to see where one was going, and being kept in complete darkness would cause some lack of concept of time. But most of all, and Carol was fast coming to this realisation. Having witness first hand the deaths of two of her family, then being ripped away from all but one of them was the real reason for her minds turmoil. In some way it comforted her, it was the first time in a long time she realised that she wasn't the monster she thought she was.

"Get out." A strong male voice instructed her, as a strip of light fell across her face and she had to raise up her hand to block out the intense light that was now blinding her after the darkness of the truck.

Carol did as she was instructed, she knew there was nothing to be gained by not complying right now. She knew however as she stepped out of the truck, feeling rather than seeing Daryl do the same beside her, that there would inevitably come a time when she would no longer comply. All the men now looking at her seemed to be regarding her with nothing more than contempt, like she was only property, a thing to be used and thrown away. She could hear a low growl coming from Daryl who was stood shoulder to shoulder with her as the saviours continued to look at them, unspeaking, unmoving. Fortunately no one it seemed could here her companions, less than silent challenge, as finally the sea of people parted, and Negan walked through his people. Coming to a direct stop in front of them and swinging his bat so it sat over his shoulder.

"Now look what we have here, I think this is going to be fun."

Carol could do nothing except to hide both her rage and her fear, it seemed however that Daryl had less control over his hatred of this man. His voice came out in a low growl, a tone that Carol had never heard from him in all the years. It was almost as frightening as Negan himself.

"Touch her, and I will kill you."

TBC...

Thank you for reading, please let me know if you would like to read more. Ps I am a Carly shipper so please expect some of that.