Nox: So I don't know if this has been done before, but I've haven't seen it yet. And I'm doing it regardless. The 'what if' Carol left to find Daryl instead scenario. Because the Caryl in me needs to!

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead belongs to Kirkman and AMC.

Choice

She couldn't stop her heart from racing, and she couldn't seem to catch her breath. It was like she wasn't even there. It didn't feel real, but the weight of her body, the bag slung across her shoulders, the knife in her hand, all told her otherwise.

And then his eyes.

The clear of the blue was so bright against his haggard, dirty face, and he couldn't keep from staring back at her.

She'd never felt so relieved to see him, so happy. Like her heart would burst from her chest.

And then his chest was standing between them.

"Well look at what the cat dragged in."

|15 Hours Earlier…|

"Why?" She kept packing the bag. Clothes, food rations, a few bandages that could be spared. She fingered the gun, thinking of leaving it but thought better of it. She might need it if something went wrong.

She would just use it as a last resort.

"Carol, please," Maggie whispered, placing her hands on the last of her belongings. She looked up, finding Maggie's pleading eyes.

"I have to go," she said confidently. She pulled the small knife, her mother's necklace and Sophia's doll out from under her hands. They were things that the group hardly ever saw, things she kept close to her heart. She knew enough to keep them hidden, safely tucked away.

"But if you go out there," Maggie said heatedly, gesturing to the prison walls, "we can't protect you. We can't go with you." She smiled. It was comforting to know just how much the young woman cared for her. It was enough just to know that when she left, she wouldn't be forgotten.

She reached forward, took hold of her hands. "Maggie, I don't want any of you to go with me."

Maggie's face twisted like she was in pain, and she gripped her hands back. "But Carol, it's not safe." She shook her head slowly.

"If it was Glenn who never came back," she whispered gently, holding Maggie's gaze firmly, "would you sit around just waiting to see if he ever came back? Or would you go looking for him?"

Maggie pursed her lips, eyes conflicted. She took a deep breath then, and nodded.

"I'll help you." Carol shook her head no, pulling her hands from Maggie's.

"No, Maggie. That's not necessary." But Maggie was shaking her head and walking out.

"I'll be back in a minute." She released the breath she'd been holding, and pulled her bag over her shoulder.

She was really going to do this.

She'd taken care of Judith. Taken care of the group. Taken care of everybody else but herself. It was time she started thinking about that. Thinking about what she wanted.

And she knew what she wanted earlier.

"Gone?" She echoed as her voice wavered. It wasn't true. Daryl wasn't just gone. He wasn't not coming back. Any minute he would walk up to those gates, with his brother, and they'd share that look that had become theirs.

But he wasn't coming back. She could feel the weight of that as Rick wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. The weight of his hand on her neck as he held her down. She felt like she could float away.

But what she really wanted was to walk out those gates and never look back. What she wanted to was find him, and never leave his side.

The more she thought on it, it didn't matter if they came back or if they stayed with Merle. All she wanted was to find him, and be with him. That was all she cared about.

She needed to see his face, to know he was okay, to know that whatever happened, she would be with him.

Being separated from him wasn't something she was going to suffer. She would find him.

"You ready?" She looked up, her hands resting over Judith's bundled form. She would miss Judith the most. Miss seeing her smiling face, miss holding her.

It was going to be hard not knowing if everyone would be okay while she was gone. She traced her fingers down Jude's cheek.

"Yes," she whispered, and walked away, out of the block.

"Keep off the roads, but don't lose sight of them," Maggie whispered hurriedly as they made their way through the prison.

"We left Daryl here," and she pulled a map out of her pocket, and pointed to a place she circled. She noticed another mark where it said prison. The distance between the two was far. It would take her most of the night to cover that much ground.

"If you push on through most of the night, and push hard, you should make it before morning," and then Maggie handed her a flashlight. "Don't use it unless you have too. I don't know how much battery life is left." She nodded; suddenly feeling like this would be their last goodbye. She didn't want to lose them forever. She wanted to come back someday, wanted to bring Daryl back here, where he belonged. But she knew there were no guarantees.

"You hear walkers, you keep moving. Don't stop for'em, don't panic. As long as you know you can take them down, you can." Maggie turned to her then, as they stood outside the gate leading to a world she hadn't ventured into since they came to the prison.

Carol could feel the anxiety curling her stomach.

"And whatever you do, don't die." Maggie's eyes shone bright, and she suddenly felt her own welling up with tears.

"Tell the others I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye," she said, choking back the tears. "Tell them goodbye for me, and that I love them." Maggie pulled her into her arms, the embrace tight.

"Take care of Jude," she whispered into Maggie's ear.

"We will," she said forcefully. "And take care of yourself." Maggie squeezed her once more, and then pulled away. She pulled the keys out of her back pocket and then went to the gate.

"One more thing," she said absently, and pulled a crowbar out from her waistband. "I know it's heavy, but it should do the job. Your hunting knife will take you too close, and you shouldn't use the gun unless you absolutely have to." She nodded, holding the crowbar close.

"Where did you find it?" Maggie smiled, and unlocked the gate, pulling it open slowly. "One of the cars we looted around the prison. We've been keeping it around, just in case." Carol nodded and held it firmly, her fingers running over the hard, heavy metal.

"Thank you," she said, and walked out, beyond the gate. She turned around to face Maggie, the silence between them heavy with unspoken words. And then she pulled the gate closed between them.

She put her hand up against the chain links, gripping them tight. Carol put her hand against Maggie's.

"Bring him back," she whispered softly.

Carol nodded, squeezed her fingers, and then turned away. Walked away from the only other people she had left in this world. Walked away from the only place that was safe.

And walked towards the only person she had left that she cared for with every part of her soul.

"Carol?" Her heart jumped at the sound of his voice. She leaned to the side a little, to try to see his face beyond Merle's body standing between them. But he just leaned down, his face coming into her view, a wicked grin on his face.

"Hell, I remember you," he said, eyes narrowing. He approached her, his hand rubbing at his chin thoughtfully. He looked anything but thoughtful. He looked like a man with a daunting past. A man who had nothing but his brother at his side and that was all he wanted.

"You that wife a the deadbeat." She didn't like the smile on his face, didn't like the way he sauntered up to her.

"Back the hell away Merle." Merle stopped, eyes narrowing dangerously now. She watched as his lip curled up, and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Or what little brother?" He took another step toward her, his smile growing. He reached out his hand, and she felt the breath catch in her throat as his fingers flicked across her shirt at her shoulder.

"You got a claim on this bitch or somethin'," he murmured softly, eyes dancing over her. She stiffened.

"Dammit Merle!" She swatted his hand away and took a step back, the distance between them giving her room to breathe.

And then Daryl was between them, and she felt her chest deflate at the sight of the wings on his back.

"The hell's your problem?" he barked, taking a threatening step toward Merle. She watched Merle's face, watched the interest in it as he glanced between them both.

But it didn't matter. None of it did. All that mattered was that she had found him, he was here, and she could finally breathe.

"I found you," she murmured, reaching out to touch the wings on his back.

|12 Hours Earlier…|

She made it. Her legs were exhausted, her arms were tired, she couldn't catch her breath, she was covered in blood, but she had made it.

She glanced around, taking in the glaring silence around her.

But now, she didn't know where to go. What direction did he go? Where would Daryl have gone with his brother? How far had they gotten ahead of her? What would drive him?

She fell against the tree behind her, and breathed deep, pulling the map out of her bag for the sixth time. Blood smeared across the corner of the paper, and she wiped at her forehead.

There wasn't much on here, but the marks that Maggie had made for her. And she wasn't very good at identifying anything else either. But if she could guess right, one of them was a river. Two were bridges. A third was a landmark.

She looked up, scanning the area around her. Where would Daryl go?

She had to think like he would.

She sighed, and rubbed at her face. She kept forgetting that Merle was with him now. She had to accommodate for that. It changed things, made it different. What if influenced Daryl, made his choices different than what she had learned?

It didn't matter. She would have to take that gamble. And she realized where Daryl would go. When they were on the farm, and he was always camping out on his own he was always hunting. He still did that now when he got the chance to get out from behind the walls. But then it was easier. The woods were right behind him, like his own backyard.

He'd looked for a place to hunt, or find food. And from what she remember when the others had come back, he'd only taken his own belongings that had gone with him. And that meant they needed everything.

Clothes, food.

Water.

He would head for the river.

She glanced down at the map and checked to see where it was, if it had a name. It didn't have a name but someone had marked its place on the map. And she had a direction to go. It wasn't much to go on, but it was all she had. And she was going to take it.

|7 Hours Earlier…|

She'd found the river as the sun was beginning to rise. After the closest encounter she'd ever experienced with a walker that had her shaking, she'd found it. She fell to her knees, and plunged her hands into the water, washing the blood from them, and then splashing the cold water across her face.

But now it was a matter of which direction to follow it. Did she follow it upstream, or downstream?

She sat there, staring at her reflection in the water, and wanted to cry. Found she couldn't breathe. What if she never found him? What if she wandered forever, in a world of the walking dead, and never found him?

Or worse? What if he went back on his own? Would the world be so cruel to her? Would she die on her own, by human or walker?

She stared at the woman in the water, with her short graying hair, her blue eyes, and saw in the set of her jaw that she wasn't going to just give up. She didn't come out here to wallow in her own self-pity. She'd made a choice. She made a choice to find Daryl, and to be with him.

"Get up," she ordered to her reflection, to herself. "Get up and find him."

She hauled herself to her feet, picked up the crowbar and started walking. She just picked a direction, whichever her gut told her, and walked. She would find Daryl.

She had to.

And by some god damn miracle, she had found him. He was right here, and she was touching him. He was real. It wasn't a dream, or a hallucination. She had found him.

"What the hell are ya doin'?" She focused on his face, focused on his blue eyes staring into hers, and she wanted to cry in relief, wanted to, selfishly, pull him into her embrace.

"I found you," she repeated, reaching up, her fingers running down the side of his face. He flinched back like she'd burned him.

Merle's laughter echoed around them, and Daryl's face filled with shame. "Well would ya look at that," Merle taunted, circling them. "Lil' brother went an' got himself a girlfriend."

She watched his face shade red, his shoulders hunch. She hadn't seen that expression on his face ever. Not that horrible pained shame and submission. That wasn't Daryl.

"I'm not his girlfriend," she forced out, her voice sounding hoarse to her own ears. Merle laughed, mockingly and harsh.

"Oh yeah," he said, coming up behind Daryl, leaning over his shoulder. He let his hand fall over it, and she could see him grip hard. She felt something simmer inside of her as Daryl could only look away, his lips shut tight.

"Then whaddaya doin' all the way out here, talkin' bout findin' ma brother like he's some goddamn Jesus." She chewed her bottom lip.

She couldn't admit to either of them why she had really come out here to find him. Those were her reasons, and she wasn't even sure she was ready to admit to them, let alone admit them to Daryl and Merle.

But watching him cower under Merle like a scared little boy lit a fire within her.

"I had to find him," she said firmly, squaring her shoulders. All those times that Daryl had fought for her, she had let him. All those days he'd gone out looking for Sophia, she had watched his retreating back and prayed.

This time, she would fight for him.

Merle smirked and slung his arm over Daryl's shoulders. "Why? Didn't yer little friends tell ya he weren't comin' back? Didn't they tell ya he chose me?" Daryl looked at her, his eyes pleading. But for what? For her to go? For her to stay?

"I don't need a reason," she pushed, gripping the crowbar tighter in her hand. She took a step toward them. She wasn't going to let Merle push both of them around.

"Ya just don't take a stroll fer ma brother fer nothin'," he whispered cruelly, stepping away from Daryl and closer to her.

She pulled her shoulders up, drawing on whatever strength she had gained over the winter, over her time in the prison. Merle was just a man, with a damaged soul. He didn't know how to treat people, didn't know how to do things the right way.

All he knew was pain, and suffering.

"Yes, I did. Because I care," she forced back, between her clenched teeth. She watched his lip quiver, and the metal arm raise up to his side.

"Merle," Daryl warned from behind him, stepping closer. He was still hesitant to do anything against Merle but she could see the crossbow getting higher.

Fear gripped her suddenly, as Merle's eyes darkened.

"Nobody cares," he muttered darkly. And she flinched. The words were not what she had expected. There was pain in the echo of that admission, pain and an ache that left her heart hurting. There was more to those words than she could guess.

And she could see in his eyes that there was something she was missing.

She turned suddenly, at the sound of voices screaming, the echo of a gunshot. The cry of a…

She caught Daryl's eyes, her own widening in fear.

"That's a baby," he said and turned for the river.

"It ain't no baby," Merle called, trailing after him. "That's a couple coons makin' love sweet love," and he motioned something vulgar with his hips. She couldn't stop the look of disgust from crossing her face and he just wiggled his brows at her. She didn't bother with him as she turned to follow Daryl. She watched him wade into the shallow parts of the river and look up. She followed his gaze, and took in a sharp breath. She could just make out some people, cars blocked on a bridge, walkers.

"They're in trouble," she whispered. Daryl caught her gaze and then took off up the trail.

"Hey man, I ain't wastin' my time for a couple a boys who ain't cooked me a meal," Merle called. Carol couldn't help the hate that burned inside of her for him in that moment.

"That's my policy, you'd be wise to adopt it brother." She turned on Merle and glared. It didn't matter what they'd done, or not done. You didn't leave people to die like that.

"We help people," she spat in his face, and turned to follow Daryl.

"Daryl wait!" she called, chasing after him.

"Stay put," he yelled back, moving further ahead of her. She felt her heart drop into her stomach. He was leaving, again.

"Daryl!" She yelled frantically, trying to run faster. She could hear Merle laughing behind her, but it didn't matter. She didn't want to lose him again, not even if it meant to condemn someone else. He turned on his heel, and she watched shocked as he ran back to her. He stopped so close to her she could smell the sweat and see how tense his shoulders were.

And then he did something she had never thought he would do.

He reached up and trailed his fingers along her jaw, eyes flicking between hers. "Stay," he pleaded in that whisper, and she couldn't do anything but follow his request.

And she watched his retreating back as he ran for the screams of the innocent people who were in trouble, Merle at his heels grudgingly.

All she could focus on were his wings, and she prayed he would be okay.

A/N: Oh who can blame me for Caryl-ing up 'Home'? Really, this ended up being a Maryl too. I don't know what it could be, but I'd like to take it further. I just had an idea, and I needed to get my feels out. Let me know what ya think! And this is actually my first time going AU with a scene that has already happened in the show.