A/N: Alright, so this was just something I wanted to try. Basically, it's the story of Daryl and Carol a few years after the events of the show. This is basically a trial chapter, to see if anyone is even remotely interested in something like this. Again, an introductory chapter. If you like it, or would be interested to see more of this, please review. If I don't get any reviews, I'll assume nobody's interested, and take it down. : )

Four years. It had been four years to the day that their group had fallen apart. Four years since they'd lost Lori and T-Dog, since their safe haven had been over run. A little less than three and a half since the insane Governor had waged open war on them, nearly over-running their little group.

Carol sighed as she glanced through the barred window. Between the people who'd come from Woodbury after the Governor started executing his own people, Tyrese and his small group, and the occasional straggler, their 'little' group had grown to include forty-nine people, including seven children.

Among them, the little girl toddling along after the tall, dark-haired man, as the two crossed the large yard.

A smile crossed her lips, as she heard the door to their cell block creak open. One of the nice changes with the larger group had been the entire clearing of the prison, leaving each block with two or three families, depending on size.

"Mama!"

"Hey there, sweetheart!" Carol gushed, moving away from the window, to scoop up the little girl. "You having fun?"

"Uh huh! Daddy took me down to the water!"

Carol turned her glare towards the man leaning against the open door. "Did he now?"

"Uh huh. Said he's gonna teach me how to catch fishies!"

Carol sighed again, setting the little girl down. "Alright, baby. Go get cleaned up; mama will start lunch, alright?"

"Alright!"

She waited until the small, bouncing toddler had vanished around a corner, before moving towards her partner.

"Do I have to say anything?" She asked quietly.

"Can't hold her hand her whole life, woman. 'Ventually, girl's gonna need ta know how ta take care a herself," Daryl Dixon said, clearly exasperated.

"She's four, Daryl!"

"Jesus, woman, we gotta go through this every time I take her outside? C'mon, now… Ya got two hungry mouths ta feed, an' I got two rabbits," He said with his trademark grin.

"Really? Two? Where're mouths three and four?"

He hesitated a moment, as he shifted nervously from foot to foot. "They're 'round."

" 'Round' where, Daryl?"

Daryl sighed. "Shauna's watching Glen an' Maggie's brats; Mikey's with Carl."

Carol stiffened. "With Carl? Or with Rick?"

"Jesus, Carol, I don't need this shit right now, a'ight? I'm tired, I'm hungry, an' I really don't want the third degree."

"You don't want the third degree? Oh, that's beautiful, Daryl. Why don't you tell Judy that her big brother is hanging out with her real brother, and her real father? You know, the one who didn't want her?" Carol snapped, shoving past him.

It'd been three years. Three wonderful years, that were still heart-breaking at the same time. That particular conversation was one that Carol would never be able to forget.

She'd come in from laundry, to find Daryl holding Judith, Rick standing in the door, the two men arguing.

"What's going on?" Carol asked quietly.

Daryl turned towards her, blue eyes flashing. "Carol, take Judy."

"What –"

"Take Judy!" He snapped. "I've gotta beat the good Deputy's ass!"

"Daryl, please, don't make this harder on me, you don't understand what I'm going throu –"

"What you're going through?!" Daryl barked, moving closer to Rick, baby Judith still in his arms despite his words. "You kiddin' me?! You abandonin' your kid, an' ya wanna talk 'bout what you're goin' through?"

Carol's eyes nearly bunged out of her head. "What? Daryl, what's going on?" She demanded, setting the laundry down, and getting in between the two men.

"Go on then, big guy! Tell her whatchya told me!"

When Rick stared at the floor silently, Carol moved closer. "Rick?"

"I… I can't do it anymore, Carol. I tried, but… Every time I look at her… I… I see Shane… And Lori… And the walker that… that ate her… I just can't do it anymore," The once-cop said with tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Rick!" Daryl yelled, as the deputy started walking away. "Ya do this? She's mine. Ya try an' change ya mind? I'll kill ya, understand?"

By that time, Carol and Daryl had already been living together, since his miraculous escape from Woodbury. While sex had never been anything more than the occasional fumbling in the dark, more like two awkward teenagers for the first time, they'd been a couple since that first night of his return.

A year after they'd taken Judy in, while Daryl, Tyrese and Glen had been on a run into a town twenty or so miles away, they'd come home with ten year old Shauna, a little African-American girl who'd watched her father and grandmother get eaten by walkers. Apparently her grandmother had looked like Carol, and the little girl had latched on to her.

"Um… Daryl? Can I talk to you?"

Her hunter glared as he looked up from the squirrel he was gutting. "Yeah?"

"It's… it's about Shauna. She… She fell asleep on our bed with Judy."

"And…?"

"I… I don't think she wants to leave," Carol said quietly, feeling nervous fluttering in her chest. In all honesty, she'd grown attached to the little girl in the few hours she'd spent with her.

Daryl chuckled, finally setting the knife down. "So what? Ya tellin' me I got three mouths ta feed now?"

"I wouldn't decide something like without talking to you first, Daryl."

Daryl sighed, picking up the knife again. "What the hell? Ya want a damn litter? Jus' don't go stealin' any, Angelina," He grumbled.

Micah was the most recent addition to their quasi-family. The thirteen year old had just shown up outside the fence one day, about eight months after Shauna. Daryl had rescued him from the Walkers around the fence, and from then on, the teenager had become Daryl's shadow.

Carol sighed, halfway down the hall, before turning around, and making her way back to the community room of Cell Block A. Daryl was sitting at one of the tables, head in his hands.

"Daryl?" Carol said softly, sitting down next to him. "I –"

"Carol, I'm sorry," Daryl interrupted. "I don't like Mikey hangin' out over there either, but Carl's the only boy his age… But I'll talk to him if ya want… Tell him I don't want him hangin' over there."

"No, it's…" Carol took a deep breath, as she grasped his hands in hers. "I just… I overreacted, and I'm sorry, Daryl. Let's just… let's pretend none of this happened, alright? We're good at that," She said with a small smile.

He chuckled as he kissed the top of her hands. "Yeah. We are."

"Daddy, c'mon! You promised you'd teach me how to gut the bunnies!"

Both of the adults laughed at the pleading look on Judith's face.

"Yeah, that's right, Ass Kicker. I did, didn't I?"

"Alright, everybody, time for bed!" Carol called out from inside the cell block itself. "Let's get a move on!"

"Aw, c'mon, ma!"

"Do we have to?"

"Hey! You heard your mom. Move it," She heard Daryl say sternly. "Everybody up."

"Hey, Daryl! We got problems!"

Carol bolted out of the cell at Tyrese's voice. "What's going on?" She asked, gathering Judith up in her arms, as Shauna wrapped herself around her mother's waist.

"Big group outside. Gotta be at least thirty of 'em. Beth's rounding up the kids, bringin' 'em over here," Tyrese said breathlessly, before disappearing down the hall.

"Shit. Mikey, c'mon," Daryl snapped, grabbing his crossbow, and tossing his adopted son his compound bow. "Carol –"

"Lock everybody in the cell block, I know," She said quickly. "We'll be okay. Go."

"Mama?" Judith cried. "Where's daddy goin'?"

Carol took a deep breath, before handing the now-squirming toddler to Shauna. "Shauna, take Judy to your room. Get your shoes on, get her settled down. I'll be in when Beth gets here with the others."

"Should I get the guns, mama?" The thirteen year old asked, propping Judy up on her hip.

"No. Wait till I get in there."