"I got you, you're okay. I got you." The words hit Carol Peletier through a thick fog and she chokes, gagging on something she can't place, gasping and heaving as she fights to get air into her lungs. Smoke, she realizes, she's gagging on the smoke clogging her lungs. But why is there smoke? "I got you, breathe for me, come on Carol breathe!" Carol diligently sucked in a mouthful of air, trying to understand just where she was and what was going on.

Hot. She quickly gauged that she was very hot, too hot. Her skin was burning and she didn't realize she was full-blown screaming until she was forced against a very warm chest, cradled in strong arms.

"Take a deep breath into this." Something was held against her face and she took in a large lungful of oxygen, heaving gratefully as she was graciously allowed another dozen lungfuls of air before Daryl returned the device to his face. "You have some serious burns but I'm going to get you out and you're going to be just fine, alright?"

"How-" Carol coughed a few times and Daryl gave her another hit off the breathing tank before she could continue. "How did you know my name?"

"Your nametag." Carol remembers she's still wearing her visitor's badge from the school, her head swimming and she tries to recall the fuzzy images. Her breathing begins to stutter and Daryl places the mask firmly over her mouth, attaching it to her head so it won't slip. "You can rest, but don't you fall asleep on me, ya hear? I want you conscious."

So Carol looks up at him with big eyes and a very far away expression. She watches the pink in his cheeks, where his skin is ruddy from the heat and the way sweat drips down his face and neck. He's got such blue eyes, even through the mask and the helmet, they're so blue. She's jarred from her staring when he kicks a support beam and darts under the falling rubble, keeping her safe against his chest.

"You okay?" He's panting by now, his voice low and scratchy and carol realizes she has all the oxygen. With fumbling fingers she pries it off her face and presses the mask to his mouth, her vision once again swimming.

She doesn't even get the chance to answer his question before everything is fading to black and she's gone.


"Severe smoke exposure, third degree burning up the left side, fractured arm, she's coding, shit she's coding! Code blue!"

Carol hears running feet and a female voice from very far away, like she's standing at the end of a tunnel and is unable to force herself to come back. Everything fades out again, nothing but a sea of black and hurt and a strangely familiar warmth, heavy in her hand.


"How is she doing, Doc?" Daryl Dixon was still in his fireman's uniform, suspenders slipping down his back. There were tubes in his nose and an IV pumping him with fluids in his arm. He'd 'been in the burning building too long' and it'd 'sucked the moisture out of him' or some bullshit like that.

"The Peletier girl? Oh, besides some burns and an exposure to smoke, she's gonna be fine, thanks to you Mr. Dixon, you saved her life, you know." The doctor gave him an approving look as he began adjusting his stethoscope. "Now, take a deep breath when I ask you to, okay?"

"Sure, Doc." Daryl hates doctors and hospitals. It's taking everything he has not to rip the goddamn IV out and run like hell back to his house. But, he has to make sure she's gonna be okay, if only for his own sanity.

"Dixon!" Firehouse chief Abraham Ford stomped into the room, tracking soot in, his face flushed in anger. "I thought I told you to watch your ass! We can't keep sending you to the ER!" Abraham raked a hand over his short cropped hair and sighed, voice softening. "Just because you're only nineteen you think that gives you the right to be some cocky asshole? I aughtta fire your ass right here and now-"

"There was a girl. In the house. There was a girl. In the fucking house you swore up and down was empty." Daryl was positively seething. "THERE WAS A FUCKING GIRL IN THE HOUSE. THE HOUSE YOU FUCKING SWORE UP AND DOWN WAS EMPTY AND THAT NO ONE WAS IN THERE. SHE WAS FUCKING IN THERE." He stood up, way too fast, his head swam, the room spun and everything went to black.


When Daryl came to his head was pounding and he groaned, relieved he was free of the oxygen tubes. The IV was still firmly hooked into his arm and he shook his head slowly, eyes rolling to look up at the person standing next to his bed. It's his brother, Merle, dressed in army fatigues with a very distant expression on his face.

"Hey little brother, looks like you're beat to shit. They called me up and told me to take your ass home, you're all better girl scout." Merle laughs, the sound cocky and arrogant, but his face softens almost instantly, and he sighs. "The hell were you thinking? Running back into that burning two story when the foundation was coming loose? You got a death wish, boy?"

"A girl," Daryl rasped, cutting off to cough into his hand.

"Ah, I see you're awake Mr. Dixon, good you gave us quite a scare." The nurse who entered had a soft smile, blonde hair and her name tag read AMY in blocky, print letters. "You can go home today, but you have to take a tank of oxygen and use it for the next five days, so we get all that smoke out of your lungs." She motioned to the small, back-pack sized oxygen tank sitting beside the bed. "You're very brave for what you did, Ms. Peletier wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you." Amy flashed him a smile and scribbled down a few notes on her clipboard, taking his temperature, heart rate and checking his breathing for a final time before giving him the okay to go home.

"You can head home, Merle. I wanna check in on that girl, make sure she gonna be alright." Daryl slipped the tube over his ears and into his nose, shouldering the air tank despite the whine that came from his sore shoulders.

"I'll meet you in the car." Was Merle's only reply as he made his way out the door, not even giving Amy the time of day. 'Huh,' Daryl thought, offhandedly. 'Maybe he has changed.'

He shook the thought off and spoke to the nurse, getting Carol's room number. He couldn't quell the nervousness growing in his stomach as he got into the elevator to head to the minor ICU unit.


So, this is gonna be a couple chapters at least, I'm just kinda spit balling ideas around right now, I got the idea from a line of a fanfiction I read that said "I got you." (yes it was porn but still) and it sparked the idea for this story. Lemme know if you feel I should continue or if I should just scrap it.