SUMMARY: "I ain't ever leavin' ya, woman, so ya better get used to having me around." Daryl and Carol get closer than ever before as the group struggles to find their way on the road. Picks up after the farm but disregards By the Dying Fire. Major CARYL!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of this. Trust me, if I did CARYL would have happened ages ago!

A/N: Thank you for all of the kind words! I had already began this chapter when I posted the last one, and your reviews and reads had me wanting to write even quicker! I think it was the quickest that I had ever gotten that many reviews! Keep reviewing! Thank you! Happy Reading! - Rachael


Carol woke up alone in Daryl's sleeping bag, almost immediately missing the warmth he had provided . He was already gone with the others, leaving Lori, Carl, Beth, Maggie, and Hershel behind, along with Carol.

She sighed as she got up to prepare for the day. A day she was sure was going to be passed by slowly and anxiously. They'd all be nervous for the rest of their family that was out foraging for anything they could use, and they were left behind, forced to fend for themselves. Neither group was prepared to fight if a large herd came upon them. There just wasn't enough people.

When she sat up, she saw a gun and a buck knife lying beside her, Daryl's gun and buck knife. Clearly Daryl had wanted her to keep his weapons on her; he never would have left them behind if that wasn't the case. He was, yet again, looking out for her. Never had someone taken the time to care for her the way that he did.

She slipped the gun into her back pocket before threading the knife through her belt.

Though Daryl had been teaching her how to use both weapons, she didn't feel confident enough to protect the small group left at camp, but it would have to do. She knew how badly the group needed the run, and Daryl was essential to it. They needed all of them; they had no idea what was out there. If they ran into any trouble, they had a better chance to survive with each other.

Camp was still quiet when she stepped out of the camp. Maggie stood on watch, quirking an eyebrow at the woman. She had clearly seen Daryl come out of the same tent at the beginning of her watch and was wondering why they were sharing. She just shook her head and smiled before beginning to get breakfast ready: powdered eggs and some squirrel meet that Daryl had left where she could find it. She smiled; he had clearly taken care of her before he left.

"Need any help?" Beth asked sweetly as she walked to Carol.

"Can you take over the eggs? I gotta get the squirrel ready."

Once the meet was added to the eggs over the fire, people began to come out of their tents to sit around. Beth helped Carol dish out some of the breakfast before passing it out to everyone.

Carl wolfed his share down as Lori timidly at the food that's smell made her nauseated, trying not to throw up. Everyone was tense, clearly nervous for the men that went out. The family was fragmented and that never led to anything good. Their return couldn't come soon enough, and hopefully it would bring back every member of their family.

The group went about their business, but decided to stay in pairs of two. They were to never leave the camp without telling the rest of the group and never went without their partner. Lori rested with Carl looking over her. Maggie and Hershel were on watch together while Carol and Beth were to stick together. It was merely a waiting game. They kept busy to keep from worrying about those who had left. Though it wasn't working for Carol. She tried to do as much as she could, cleaning up everything they had, and sorting through their materials, but her thoughts kept on returning to the group's hunter, their second-in-command.

Beth and Carol collected more firewood along the edges of the clearance once the rest of the chores were done.

"I just want them back. It's scary out here without them," Beth mumbled worriedly, checking over her shoulder as she picked up a few more sticks.

"We'll be just fine," Carol assured the younger girl, brushing her hand over her belt to make sure that the knife was still in place. When she felt confident that it wasn't falling out, she helped the girl collect what they could. If Daryl didn't' come back, she didn't know what she would do. It had already been hours since Carol had woken, and they had left before that. No one knew where the next town was or what it was like.

"You're right, your man'll get'm back safe'n'sound," Beth said, feeling more confident than Carol did.

"Daryl's not my man," Carol said quietly.

"He certainly could've fooled everyone with the way he looks at you."

Carol felt her cheeks flame up as she looked at the girl and smiled. Beth moved a little bit ahead of her as they piled themselves with more sticks for their fire, enough to keep it going through the night if need be.

"That's the problem; he needs to fool himself into the same line of thinkin'." Beth giggled at Carol as she stepped a bit deeper in the thin line of trees. Carol turned when she caught sight of a small berry bush. She was hesitant to even pick them, fearing that they could be poisonous. The only person that'd know would be Daryl.

Thinking of the berries and Daryl had her distracted that she wasn't paying enough attention to Beth until the girl let out a shrill scream. Growls and shuffling accompanied Beth seconds later as the dead came forward.

Carol was desperate for the girl to be okay. She had only ever killed a handful of walkers; everyone had done it for her, fearing that she was too weak to take any on herself without being a danger to the others or her own life.

She grabbed the knife from her hip, knowing that the gun would make far too much noise for the woods, and ran to Beth. Beth was on the ground, pushing herself backwards as a walker loomed over her. The girl was struggling to get away as his teeth got nearer and nearer to her flesh.

Carol ran at the undead being and plunged her knife in the back of the skull, killing it automatically. She helped the girl up off of the ground and grabbed her shoulders forcefully.

"Are you bit?"

"No," the girl forced out, shaking her head vehemently as she clung to the older woman. She pointed behind Carol, forcing her to turn around.

There was a small herd coming towards them. It would have been easy to take out had they had all of their people. Carol stabbed another in the eye that reached out to the two of them and grabbed Beth's arm, pulling her along. They ran to the clearing where Maggie and Hershel looked up, alarmed, at their sudden appearance. They began to grab for their guns.

"No! We can't. We'll draw every walker in the woods, and we don't have enough people to deal with that," Carol said forcefully, taking on the leadership that the group needed at that moment. The others nodded before handing out the melee weapons. Maggie gave Beth a machete, wielding her own pickax Hershel had a knife, not unlike her own. They'd made sure that Lori was still safe in the car and prepared to fight with just the four of them.

They stayed in their groups of two and carefully treaded toward the few that had already broken through the trees. Maggie and Hershel quickly took down one each, and Carol took down two on her own. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins as she worked her way through the walkers. Daryl was the only thought on her mind; she had to stay alive for him. He'd asked her to stay safe, and she was going to do just that.

There were only a handful left when Carl made his way out of the vehicle that he and Lori had occupied. He had his own weapon in hand, making quick work of one walker. Though as that one fell, two more converged on him. They were both substantially larger than the boy, and Carol knew that he wouldn't stand a chance against them.

The group couldn't lose another child, so she pushed Beth toward her family and ran over to Carl as fast as her legs could carry her. She plunged the knife into the one's head, pulling it out as quickly as she could. She then grabbed the other one by the back and pulled it away from the boy. It turned on her and growled as it tried to bite her. She pushed her blade through the forehead just before it had gotten a chance to sink it's teeth into her.

Carl quickly threw himself into Carol's arms, clutching the back of her shirt in fear. Carol turned to make sure they weren't about to be attacked to find several more of the undead lying on the ground. Maggie, Hershel, and Beth had taken the rest out, averting them from catastrophe.

"Go back to your momma, and make sure she's alright. We're gonna pack up the tents and sleep in cars for the evening," Carol told the boy, glancing at the others, who nodded in agreement. There could be more, and the cars were the safest places for them.

"It's getting dark, and they're not back yet. Do you think somethin' happened?" Carl asked, looking up at Carol.

"They might have had to wait some walkers out. Everything'll be just fine." Carol ruffled the boy's hair before walking him to the car Lori was in.

They all started packing up their tents and belongings, storing them in the proper vehicles before climbing in, so they could rest for the night. It still wasn't time to sleep, but no one felt safe exposed in the clearing. They were all on alert, careful not to make too much noise.

Maggie stayed on watch, Carl at her side. Beth decided to stay in the truck with Carol; they had been lucky that they were left with the vehicles.

"Are you sure everything's gonna be fine?" Beth's voice cut through the silence of the car.

"No, but I have to have faith."

"Faith in what? I'm not so sure God's listenin' to us anymore."

"Not faith in God, faith in Daryl. He'll come back; I know it. That man always manages to find his way back," she said, though she was terrified that he'd prove her wrong before the next few days were out. "Let's try to get some sleep. We have watch in the morning."

~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~CARYL~

"What the fucking hell?"

Carol and Beth shot up from their positions in the cab of the truck. Light was just starting to peek through the night sky when they were disturbed from their troubled slumber. No one could sleep with the worry that another herd could just walk on through, leaving Carl and Maggie alone to fend for themselves.

Carol quickly opened the door to the truck, hopping out. In the clearing was Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog. Maggie was already in Glenn's arms, as was Lori in Rick's, and Carol found herself wishing she could do the same to Daryl. She knew he would not take the contact happily.

"Thank God, y'all are back," she said, settling for a smile in his direction.

Though he was glad to see her, he didn't smile back. Instead, he looked at the ground that was littered with walkers. All with some sort of wound to the head, killing them. They had double checked each one, making sure that none of them were going to come back in the middle of the night when nobody was paying attention.

"What happened?" Rick asked, surveying the damage as well.

"Herd came up while Carol and I were lookin' for firewood. One almost got me, but Carol killed it. We ran back up here and we had to fight the rest of them. There were about twenty of them in all, but they weren't too close together," Beth explained, stepping slightly forward.

"Carol saved me too, Dad! She was so awesome, takin' out two walkers on her own to save me," Carl praised, shooting Carol a beaming smile.

"We need to move on, get everything ready and go. We managed to get enough supplies to last us a while," Rick said, moving to get the new supplies dispersed.

"I already cleaned everything up; we're ready to move when you are," Carol informed the leader, moving a little closer to Daryl as she did so.

He looked exhausted, ready to drop at any minute. His eyes were dark, and his body was slumped over slightly. However, he was ready to take on anything that came towards the group. They'd probably fought quite a few walkers themselves. As the group spread out, he closed the distance between them quickly, trying to check over her body.

"You alright?" His voice was tense, worry filled.

"I'm fine. Was worried about you, but I'm fine."

"Ain't nothing to worry about over me. We found more supplies than we thought we would. You took on a fuckin' herd," he growled, clearly upset that they had had to deal with something like that alone.

She nodded at him, touching his arm to try and comfort him, to squash his worries over her. He flinched at her touch, but didn't shy away from her. "But I'm fine."

"Yeah, but we ain't leavin' again. I'm not leavin' ya to defend the group by yourself again. I fucked up; shouldn't have left y'all so weak."

"I'd be dead if it wasn't for you," she whispered, handing out his gun and knife. "Thank you."

"Keep 'em. Ya need somethin' to use in case I'm not there to protect ya. I'm real proud of ya for what ya did," he said pushing the weaponry back to her.

Rick called from his car to let the two know that they were ready to move forward, out of the clearing. Daryl stalked over to his bike as the others made their way to the cars. He flung his leg over the motorcycle, and turned it on. Carol was unsure if he wanted her with him or not, but when he saw her waiting there he rolled his eyes.

"You comin'?" he called out to her. She scrambled to join him on the bike, wrapping her arms around his waist, eager to get out of the dangerous clearing. Daryl pulled out, leading the caravan. The others weren't too far behind, following Daryl. Carol was pretty sure that they had no idea where they were going. No one knew where could be safe.

She settled in, resting her head between his shoulder blades. They'd likely be on the road for a while, trying to find anywhere that might be secure, at least for the night.


A/N: Let me know what you think and what you want to see! You know what to do!