Ok, so here this is. I hope you like it. I don't own the characters or anything. I plan on writing a different version of this too.
Carol slept curled up around the damn walkie talkie for so many nights, she had started to lose count, waiting and listening for any sign that he was alive. She couldn't lose him, not when they had just found a place to call home. Rick had tried to take it from her, something about how she needed a break from it and how she was almost visible again; the people of Alexandria were starting to see her. She didn't care. She took the two-way radio with her everywhere she went, she needed to be there when his voice came through the speaker. She needed to hear it so badly that she could barely function.
She often walked around her house with the walkie talkie in one hand and the baby monitor in the other. She knew she couldn't just stop what needed to be done, but she would never stop clutching the radio in her hand and waiting for what might never come. She had hope.
"H-Hello? If anybody can hear m… don't kn…just tell Carol that I…"
"Daryl? Daryl, can you hear me? Where are you?"
She thought she had imagined it at first, but once she realized that it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her, she brought the radio up to her mouth so fast that she busted herself in the lip with it. She would have laughed at her clumsiness if she wasn't so worried.
"Carol… not in range… barely understa…"
His groggy voice came through the radio, breaking off into static with every other word. She couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but she knew he was alive. He was alive and he would make it back because he still had at least a few lives left, maybe not nine, but enough to make it back to her.
"Are you hurt? Tell me where you are. Daryl?"
Nothing. She waited with the walkie talkie up to her ear, needing to hear his voice come through again, she would even settle for hearing nothing but his breathing. She just needed reassurance. He had to make it, she had to find him.
Two days after she was all set to march right out of that gate, walkers be damned, Morgan got in her way. He just stood there quietly, glancing between her and behind her. She didn't care if Rick was behind her, Michonne, Maggie, Carl, she didn't even care if the zombie of George Washington dug itself up and was frolicking along behind her. She was leaving and she intended to find Daryl Dixon, even if nobody else went with her.
The thing about Morgan; he could communicate to just about anybody with his eyes and he was clearly telling her to stay put. He left no room for arguments, but Carol couldn't stay here knowing Daryl was out there, maybe dead or worse. He needed her and she would knock Morgan on his ass to get Daryl.
"Morgan, I don't have time for your concern, alright?" They were staring each other down, and her body language shifted, she stood up a little straighter and her hand clenched into a fist. She was ready to clear her path. Morgan chuckled a bit, his eyes left hers for a split second to look behind her again, but she hadn't followed them to see what he was looking at.
"Carol? Ya there, sweetheart?"
She froze as she heard Daryl's voice through the speaker of the walkie talkie that she still had clenched in her grip. She had almost dropped it in her haste to answer him, avoiding punching herself in the lip.
"Daryl? Are you ok? Do you know where you are?"
The words flew out of her mouth faster than she could think them. Her chest was aching; Morgan was looking past her, still in her damn way. Not even the least bit concerned that Daryl was out there and alive. She had to see his face again, needed it like she needed Oxygen and God help whoever tried to stop her now that she'd heard that voice again.
"I'm alright, I know where I am. Ya stayin' safe?"
She let out a laugh, he was concerned for her even though he was still out there, and he was the one in danger. She shook her head in disbelief with a smile tugging at her lips. He wouldn't approve of her going out there to look for him, but he didn't exactly have to know.
"I'm staying just as safe as can be; I still have a couple lives left, Pookie. Where are you?"
She had asked him this question at least a dozen times now with no answer. He let himself chuckle into the radio and she knew she would have to fight him tooth and nail to get an answer from him, because he knew she would hightail it to where he was in a heartbeat.
"Daryl Dixon, if you don't tell me where you are I-
"Before ya plan on puttin' Morgan on his ass to get out them gates, I think ya should turn around first."
She dropped the walkie talkie and whipped her head around so fast that she got dizzy. Her eyes met his and she saw a stupid grin on his face that she couldn't have been happier to see. He was alive, he was safe. She ran to him then, ran as if any second he would disappear and she wouldn't get the chance to hold him again. She wasn't letting that happen.
As their arms wound themselves around each other, he pulled her so close that there was no space left between them, and buried his head in her neck while leaving small kisses there. She pulled back when he began digging in his coat pocket. His hand resurfaced and in it was a Cherokee rose.