Hello my lovely little readers! :D thanks so much for liking my first chapter (I know it was short) Poor Carol! I'm still deciding whether or not to wait a while for Caryl to officially happen…hmm…

But anyways, i'm gonna try to update every day, but I know somedays I won't be able to.

PS sorry for the spelling errors in the first chapter!

Enjoy:)

Chapter 2

"Mommy! What happened to her?!" Carol could hear her daughter's screams from outside the RV, where she was sitting as Jaqcui tended to her cut along her lip and lower-cheek. Fresh bruises started to show along her upper cheek as well as the area that was cut.

"It's okay Sophia, she's alright." Rick reassured her. Carol could just imagine Rick's stance right now - his hand resting on the girl's frail shoulder, his other hand on his knee while he bent down to talk to her, his freshly-shaven face level with hers.

"If she's fine, why can't I see her?" Her voice was laced with concern, but the pitch was high and whiny. She's definitely got my stubbornness. She thought, chuckling slightly.

Jaqcui noticed her laugh and smiled, commenting, "That girl is just like you. Stubborn, not giving up on what she wants."

A full-belly, happy laugh escaped Carol then - the kind that made you feel good, which you rarely heard anymore. When she thought about it, she actually couldn't remember the last time she laughed like that. Before Ed, I know that much. "Yeah, and I'm glad for that. She knows what she wants and won't stop until she gets it."

After a few minutes of silence in the RV while there was still a low hum of conversation outside the door, Carol sighed. "You know Jaqcui, I could do this by myself. I've been doing it for years." Her body tensed at that - she hadn't meant to say that out loud. At least Jaqcui's the only one that heard it.

The thin black woman kneeling in front of her began chewing on her lip, hands beginning to tremble slightly. "I know, Sweetie. It's the least I could do, though. After all you've done for me and Teddy since you met us." Teddy was her husband, Theodore Douglas. Everyone else in camp called him T-Dog, but the nickname 'Teddy' was a special, couple-thing between the two. Carol always wanted a relationship like that. One where they called each other things no one else could, who touched each other just to make sure they were there, still with them; couples that truly loved each other. Every scar, every flaw, every imperfection in their personality and body, their partner loved and thought it made them even more perfect.

"Carol?" Jaqcui asked, her voice thick with confusion and amusement, a small smirk playing at the corner of her lips. This made Carol return to reality, leaving her wishes and thoughts for another time. "Sorry…I'm listening." She muttered apologetically, her face turning red from embarrassment.

"Did you hear anything I said?" She mused, gauging the older woman's reaction.

"No…just lost in my own world, I guess." Jaqcui chuckled at that, shaking her head. "But seriously, I could have done this."

"What did I just tell you? It's no big deal!" The smile on her friend's face made her smile in return.

"Fine, fine." She laughed, her hands fidgeting with a thread on her pants. Her eyes darted back and forth and the saliva built up in the back of her mouth, forcing her to swallow before she choked. That happened when she was nervous, and she always thought it was really gross. Just as she was about to ask Jaqcui something, she was interrupted by Shane's yelling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?" The deputy yelled from outside the ancient RV - probably near the fire pit - Carol guessed, trying to pin-point where his voice was coming from. The two women raced out to see Shane and Rick chest-to-chest beside the dying fire, Shane's face red with fury.

Rick looked distressed, tired of the shit his friend had been giving him lately, faint circles forming under the younger-man's eyes. "Fort Benning isn't gonna help us. The military has fallen, I've seen it, Shane! When I got out of the hospital, there was a deserted Military base there. Helicopters, Hummers, vans, guns…ALL of it, just sitting there! The CDC is our best chance! The Walkers down in the city will run out of food and come up into the mountain, looking for something - anything - alive."

A strong yet guarded voice spoke up then from the tree line, "Rick's right. Fort Benning's a death sentence." There he was, Daryl. His strong, toned arms were crossed firmly across his broad chest, his ankles crossed over one another while his left shoulder was leaning against the trunk of an oak tree.

"What do you care, Redneck? It's not like you got anyone worth protectin', 'cept Merle, who, if you somehow haven't noticed, can take care of his goddamned self." Shane retorted angrily, his body turning slightly to acknowledge Daryl.

"You can go if you want Shane," Rick's voice raised an octave to address the whole camp, "and anyone who agrees with him can follow his lead. But the CDC has everything we need. Food, medicine, protection!" His argument, and possibly the fact that he was giving people the option of whether or not to leave, persuaded most to follow him. Carol believed no one agreed with Shane until Lori, Rick's wife, spoke up next.

"How do we know the CDC hasn't fallen? What if Shane is right?" Her tone led to believe that she agreed with Shane, but her face was clouded with concern, worry lines appeared along her forehead. Yeah, she was very conflicted about this. In the distance Carol heard Daryl scoff, and mutter something along the lines of 'stupid bitch', but she couldn't be sure that's what he said. Merle howled with laughter at whatever Daryl muttered behind his brother and clapped a strong hand on his shoulder, making the younger man turn to acknowledge him, flinching slightly at the contact.

"Lori…it won't be safe there. What about Carl? What if he gets sick and we don't have the medicine, or…" his eyes traveled to Carol who looked studiously away, her face burning with embarrassment, knowing exactly what he was implying. Or if Ed was to beat me up bad again. "You know." His eyes flicked back to his wife. "People could get hurt, bit, scratched…something. We need this. I know there's something there. We just have to push to get there!"

She didn't look completely convinced, but she didn't argue further. At that, everyone dispersed, except for Carol. Her eyes wandered around the camp, but stopped when she met another pair of eyes.

His eyes.

She felt her knees go to rubber, and in that moment she was glad she was leaning against the RV. Her face became flush, and she didn't even realize what his looks could do. They could make her feel things long ago forgotten. She wanted to look away, afraid she would lose control of her body at any second, but she didn't. More like couldn't. Those pale eyes kept ahold of hers, almost as if he was holding her up with a single glance. His body position hadn't changed, which gave her a great view of his muscular arms and strong jaw that she noticed was clenched.

He seemed to be struggling with something internally, yet his eyes never betrayed him and didn't give away what it was. But she knew her eyes were being dirty traitors, showing at least some of the desire that was evident in the heat at the base of her stomach and the dull throbbing she felt between her legs. Goddamn.

*Beauty Can Be Deadly*

Merle Dixon clearly remembered telling his brother that they should head back to their camp and turned around, fully believing that he would follow. But after a few steps, he realized he didn't hear the faint sound of Daryl following him. He turned back around to see Daryl and Carol staring at each other, and he smirked at the obvious hunger in the woman's eyes. It was interesting to see this mousy woman eye-balling his baby brother with such lust it made even Merle go hard. Damn woman…

He saw his brother shift his weight, and knew he was trying to hide the obvious arousal in his pants from the intensity of this woman's look right now. Merle almost laughed at his brother, and he would have if it weren't for the fact that he himself was hard, and that her busted up-fuck of a husband was only yards away, lying unconscious in his tent, the bruises around his eyes and along his face now yellow and green, with some hints of purple and blue around the edges. One of his eyes was completely red - blood vessel must've popped. Fuckin' sucks, asshole.

The only thing different Merle wished would've happened were that Merle got a few swings in himself. Now THAT would have been fuckin' fun. He found himself grinning at the thought, cracking his knuckles and flexing his upper arms.

Snorting, Merle gave up on waiting for his brother. He was most likely not gonna move anytime soon. So he treaded on quiet, almost silent feet, acting like he was gonna head back to his tent when he had another thing in mind.

Oh yes, Ol' Merle's gonna release some pent-up tension. Best believe it boy.

Merle crept around to the tent Ed was laying in, pulling his knife out to cut the back of the tent. He found he couldn't let of steam the way he wanted to - by pummeling Ed some more - because there was a walker munching on his internal organs, what looked like the remains of his small intestine, the red blood staining the dead thing's hands and wrists, smeared around it's pale, rotted mouth. His legs were almost completely gone – the walker had eaten almost all of them by herself.

The walker looked like it was a woman in it's former life, with longish hair that had patches from hair possibly being torn out by other walkers - or it had simply fallen out, it's fingers long and slim, the thing's bones were thin and frail while her waist was small, a large bit taken out of her stomach with the edges a darker color than the center, most likely from exposure to the air and other walkers.

He spun his knife around in his hand, taking the walker out by stabbing it in it's eye socket. "Damn, you are one ugly skank." He muttered, heaving the body out of the tent.

*Beauty Can Be Deadly*

Ed's eyes could barely open, and the intense pain from breathing took over his body, making him hold his breath for extended amounts of time just to ease some of the pain.

Fuckin' Dixon. My whore of a wife is probably fuckin' him behind my back. That bitch needs to learn her lesson. No one cheats on Ed Peletier. NO ONE.

That's when he heard the footsteps and rustling outside his tent. He believed it was Carol coming to check on him, or even his daughter. Trying to sit up, the pain in his side was so unbearable that it forced him to lay back down.

Then he realized the footsteps were too heavy to be Sophia's. "Thought I told your ass to leave me alone!" He yelled, thinking it was Carol outside his tent.

The footsteps stopped. More shuffling. They headed towards his tent. Two small hands reached for the tent flap. The flimsy material was pulled back slowly. One foot inside the tent. Two feet inside the tent. The creature was on it's knees. Then those small hands ripped into Ed's legs, yet he didn't scream. His windpipe was bent to the point where he could barely breathe. He felt every single ounce of pain until he died a half hour later, the pain in his body felt like a fiery inferno, almost as if he was cast into the hottest corner of hell.

Only if he realized that was his final destination.

Then hours later, his now-widowed wife had discovered his chewed up body. Yet she didn't cry or feel any remorse. Instead, she smiled. She was finally free from him, and for the first time in years she felt safe; Carol had long forgotten what that felt like.

Hope you like this one! Ed died a lot quicker than I first imagined! Haha, well anyways please review me! I LOVE reviews! :D