He tells her how he lost Beth, how she was taken from him. She can hear the guilt in his voice. She knows it doesn't belong there and she won't let him be consumed by it.
"It wasn't your fault," she says.
He looks at her and nods, accepting her point.
"What about you?" he asks, "You gonna tell me what you're carryin' that you don't need to? Ain't that how it works?"
He pulls his eyes from the road for a moment to look at her again.
There is an openness in his eyes. They are searching and vulnerable, but focused like a true hunter's gaze. She feels him zoning in on the raw ache in her soul. That damaged space that used to hold her heart. And it strikes her, how patient he has been with her. How tender. How affectionate. The insecure bravado had been shed somewhere along the way. He was trying so hard to be there for her, to show her how much he cared. It made her realize how much of a wall she had erected around herself, to keep herself going.
"I thought it could be different with them," she declares finally breaking her silence. "I thought I could teach them to be strong. But in the end, I couldn't save them either, Daryl."
She confesses the tragedy in the pecan grove, crying as she tells him about Lizzie and Mika. By the end of her story, he's cursing himself that he can't pull over and hold her the way he held her when they found Sophia. He reaches out his hand instead and finds hers in the darkness. He weaves his fingers between hers and squeezes them gently to reassure her, coaxing her back into the light.
"You did what you had to do."
His voice is soft and full of understanding and the sound of it massages the hard mass around her heart, setting it free, and restoring her to life. She takes a breath and feels almost like a person again.
"Carol?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm sorry you felt like you were alone. At the prison."
He looks at her and gives her hand a squeeze again.
"You ain't, you know, alone. Whatever happens, we're in this together."
"Of course we are," she confirms, feeling the warmth from his hand extending to the smile on her lips.
"So, you ain't gonna try to leave again?"
There is a sadness in his voice and she takes responsibility for putting it there.
"No, Daryl, I'm not gonna leave you."
She squeezes his hand back, determined to stay. He's giving her the chance to save a girl. Of course, she's going to help him find Beth.
"We'll find her," she says the words again, but this time she means them.
He thinks maybe things will be alright again. He got her back and they were hot on the trail to find Beth's kidnappers.
In a vow of his loyalty, he brings her hand to his lips and kisses it.
"We will," he promises her.
And he's certain that it will be true this time.