A/N: Hi all, this is kind of a test. I wrote this FF in german and it is completed on a german FFside. I was curious if its possible for me to translate it. So please be invited as my laboratory animal to test if its worth to translate the whole story.

Just to give you an overview - this story starts right after Terminus and leads to Alexandria, so season 5 if you want to see it this way. It will include a little smut, a little drama and lots of Caryl.

I'm no native speaker so you might find grammar issues and a mixture of british and american english. Sorry for that in advance! I hope you will enjoy it at least a little. And if you like i would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Have a nice weekend!

[And of course I earn nothing from this work and do not own The Walking Dead]

Now

Her eyes were closed. The lack of space made her shiver. She hated being trapped like this. They were standing in this too small room and were forced to touch each other, due to the tightness, although both very much like to avoid a contact like this. With closed eyes her senses were so much stronger than normal. More sensitive than normal. She could smell him, a mixture of cigarette, bonfire and leather. She could feel him. Due to the lack of space their knees, legs, hips, the whole upper part of their bodies were pressed together. She could hear the walkers, moaning and stumbling around outside of this hideout.

Her breath accelerated. The whole situation was so unaccustomed, awkward but also very thrilling. He always had this charisma of security, no matter in which situation they were stucked. Even now he could feel his breath on her cheek. Warm and soft and calm.

Suddenly a shot broke the silence. It was outside, not so far away. She lifted her head, looked him directly in the eyes. It was exactly this moment in which she realised, how close they were. Their noses nearly made contact. His eyes were on her. Although it was very dark in here she could see it. Feel it. His pupils were dilated, they coloured his eyes nearly black. He was like a predator, completely tense and always prepared. But why was she feeling as if she were the bait?

Besides his tension she could feel her own too. But it was changing. At first it was sorrow, the adrenaline that had rushed through her veins before the attack and thoughts of escaping. But now it was none of that. It was different. Daryl was different. He lifted his hand to her cheek, slowly rubbing it with his thumb. She instantly enjoyed the sensation it was creating and snuggled into his touch. This little gesture, and surely he was just trying to comforting her, let the outside disappear, even the moaning of the walkers.

A tingling feeling, which she hadn't felt in years, spread from this thumb to her neck and down her spine. They didn't spoke a word and of course they didn't need to. It was like one soul in two bodies. They understood each other on a very different, nonverbal level. And now his face came close to hers. She could sense every wrinkle, every scratch, every scar, every spot on him. His hair tickled her face. And all she could do about it was to close her eyes and let it happen. From all this adrenaline, all this tickeling from his closeness and the cocktail of feelings inside her she nearly got overwhelmed. She felt him like she was oversensitive or his presence was way too much for her to bear.

His lips nearly met hers when someone tear the door open to their little hideout. Both startled and instantly Daryl shoved his arm protectively over her body as if he wanted to push her behind him.

"Did I interrupted you?" , a sardonic voice asked and they looked right into the barrel of a rifle, which was pointed on them.

Before

Daryl and Carol were on watch duty. It was night, a very dark night and they were sitting on a rock, which they found a few minutes away from the church, straight in the woods. The smell of damp earth and pine needle filled the air.

They were completely silent. Listening to the sounds of the night. But it was not an awkward silence. It was more like a speechless agreement not to talk.

Daryl was watching her. He noticed that Carol had changed. Banning her from the prison and all those unspoken things that happened, when she was with Tyreese, had changed her. It was like a dark aura that surrounded her and that was unfamiliar. He was a hunter. He could see and sense things, which wasn't obvious to others. And Carol appealed dark, dreary and desperate.

He watched her. Not like a predator would observe his bait, but like a friend who tried to help.

"I don't want to talk about it." Carols voice was determined and a little cold. Of course she recognized his glances. The unspoken question. But she wasn't ready to talk about what happened with Lizzie and Mika yet. The pain was buried too deep in her heart, like a wound gaped open which didn't want to heal. All those memories of what happened in the grove, even the things that reminded her of Sophia were still aching so much that she often thought she was only on step away from insanity. And not only her heart was aching. It was her complete soul. Heavy from the weight of all those unspoken things.

"Mmmm", Daryl grumbled. Sooner or later she would talk about it. And if not, if she could make her peace somehow without speaking, it was just fine. He would not urge or push her to anything. He just was so grateful that she came back.

A crackling sound in the undergrowth draw their attention.

With just one fluid movement Daryl had his crossbow in position, all his senses on high alert, listening into the dark. Carol was holding her breath, watching how he slowly moved to the direction where the crackling came from. He was moving like a cat, his movement smooth and noiseless on the ground. Carol pushed her rifle into position. Adrenaline was pulsing through her body. Although Daryl could not have seen that she was pointing her rifle into the darkness now, he gave her a sign to stay back. To stay safe.

Somebody was there. She could feel something like a presence. And she could see that Daryl was feeling it as well, the tension of his body was obvious, even in the dark of the night. He moved forward, deeper into the wood until the darkness absorbed him and Carol could not hear or see him anymore.

Her heartbeat was loud in her own ears. Even her breath. A bad feeling was growing in her stomach and got bigger and bigger. She could her nothing. She was all on her own, abandoned with a kind of foreshadowing that something was about to happen.