AN: Here we are, another chapter for this story.

We're finding Carol and Daryl in a slightly different place than they normally are at this point in the "season".

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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The most frustrating thing about the whole damn situation was that Daryl felt like there was no support from the man who was supposed to be their leader and the man who was supposed to be his ever-faithful sidekick. Rick had been leading them, yes, but Daryl wasn't really sure where the man was leading them.

He surely wasn't leading the search for the lost little girl. Daryl had been doing that all on his own.

And there were times, even if he didn't admit it out loud to keep peace within the group, that he could've choked Rick for simply abandoning the girl in the woods in the first place. If it had been his son, Daryl was sure that Rick wouldn't have left him out there to find his way back. Even though he swore he'd had no other choice, Rick would've found a way if it had been Carl. If it had been his son, he wouldn't have practically abandoned the search either—but, of course, Sophia wasn't Carl. And Carl, perhaps, was one of the main reasons that Rick practically couldn't be bothered to put much thought or effort into searching for Sophia.

Daryl was handling any serious searching that happened. He had to. It wasn't a case of doing something himself if he wanted it done right, it was a case of doing something if he wanted it done at all.

And he did want it done. He needed it done.

Daryl needed to find Sophia.

He needed to find Sophia for Sophia's sake. Daryl knew what it was to be a child that felt forgotten in a world that seemed far too big and far too cruel. And the world, arguably, was even worse now than it had been before. He knew what it was to feel alone and lost, both literally and figuratively. He knew, too well, the kind of life that Sophia had led up to that point and he knew what that did to a child.

Daryl needed to find Sophia for Sophia's sake.

But he also needed to find her for his own sake.

They'd already lost Merle. They'd lost Amy. They'd lost Jim and everyone else that they'd known back at the rock quarry. They'd lost Jacqui at the CDC. Their group was dwindling and the constant state of loss, even if he wasn't particularly close to everyone that was gone from them, was starting to suffocate Daryl. He'd always had very little in his life, and he'd always had a fear of losing what he did have. He'd lost it all once when he was a boy and his home had burned and taken his mother with it. Loss was something that created a gnawing pit in Daryl's stomach that he couldn't fill. It seemed to stay there, open, like a void.

Daryl needed to find Sophia because he needed to prove to himself that loss wasn't permanent and it wasn't guaranteed to keep happening. He needed to find Sophia because he needed the hope that such a thing would give him.

Daryl needed to find Sophia for Carol.

She was a mother without her child. She was a widow who had lost a husband who hadn't really been worth much, but he'd still been a symbol of all that she'd depended on before the end of the world. She was a woman that was every bit as alone as Daryl was in the world and he wanted to find her daughter for her.

More than that, she meant something to Daryl—something that he'd never expected she might. It was something he couldn't quite explain.

He could easily admit that the time they'd spent together in the CDC was the result of his drunken loss of inhibitions. He'd celebrated with a little too much whiskey, she'd tucked away quite a few glasses of wine herself, and they'd both found themselves without the will to say "no" to something that they both wanted.

He wished that he could say it had been some beautiful, soft, coming together that happened between them, but it hadn't. It had been clumsy and probably not as good for her as she would've liked. It hadn't lasted nearly as long, either, as Daryl might have liked.

And when she'd gone stumbling back to her room where her daughter was sleeping, Daryl had felt an emptiness that he couldn't quite explain. It was the same emptiness that he felt when he lost something, but Carol wasn't really gone. She'd only moved back to her room and, honestly, she'd never been his to lose in the first place.

He could say that night had been born of drunkenness, but he couldn't say it was a mistake and he couldn't say that he regretted it.

Even the next morning, when he'd quietly apologized to her and let her know that what had happened wasn't really how he was—it wasn't how he acted—Daryl had felt warm and a little less empty just being near her. Even though it embarrassed him, he'd clung to the rush that came when he'd heard her say she hoped it wasn't entirely unlike him. After all, she had liked it too.

She wanted it to happen again. He wanted it to happen again. And maybe it would, but it wasn't fair to ask anything from her when she was grieving her missing daughter and there seemed to be so little concern from everyone else in their group about the girl's whereabouts.

Daryl needed to see Carol happy again, like she'd been that night, and he needed to see her daughter back in her arms. If it was going to happen, though, it looked like he was going to have to be the one to make it happen. Their leader certainly wasn't helping.

"I've searched this whole area," Daryl said, dragging his finger across the map that was laid out on the table in the tight space of the RV. Carol leaned over the map and looked at the trail he'd just drawn. "Back here? This is where we were on the highway. Now, Glenn went back up there this mornin'. Sophia ain't been there. Nothing's been touched. Nobody's been there but us when we were checkin' for her."

Carol sighed loudly and sunk back into the seat she occupied across the table from Daryl.

"What if she's not out there?" Carol asked.

"She's out there," Daryl said.

"She should've come back by now, Daryl," Carol said. "She should've found her way back to the highway. Rick said he left her at the creek and it wasn't that far from the road."

"It ain't," Daryl said. "Not if you know where you goin'. But Soph's a kid an' things look bigger to them than they look to us. She was scared. Had to be. The CDC just blew up and she almost died there. Got chased by them creatures and Rick left her in the water. You panic an' you can get lost in your own house."

"It's been three days," Carol said. "She should've at least made it back to the highway by now."

"Not if she come out somewhere else," Daryl said. "See—this here is where I found her doll. There's where I found that lil' bed in the kitchen. Remember. If she started here an' she's been here and here—I got a good idea of where she's goin'. At least I got some idea of which direction she's headed in."

"Why wouldn't she just go back to the highway?" Carol asked, wringing her hands in frustration.

"She's lost it," Daryl said. "She don't know where the highway is no more. She's movin' from one place to another. She don't know where we are an' she don't know where she is. Chances are—she's just tryin' to stay alive and she ain't thinkin' about much else at this point."

"Then how are we going to find her?" Carol asked. "How is anyone going to find her?"

"I'ma find her," Daryl assured Carol. "She's movin' this way. If she went this way—made a turn? She'd come back out at the highway. Up from where we left her. She ain't gonna know where she is. She ain't gonna know which way it is to where we left the supplies. Got a fifty-fifty chance of goin' in the right direction. One way she ends up back at the car. Other way? She's just walkin' down the highway."

"And farther away," Carol said, her voice shaking.

"I don't think she's goin' that way," Daryl said. "Not back to the highway. She'd have to make a turn from where she's been goin'. She's been movin' steady in the same direction based on where I found the doll and the bed. Just like this. Maybe she's staggerin' a little in one direction or another, but she's goin' in a straight line she's made for herself. If I can figure out how fast she's travellin', I can cut her off before she gets too far." Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "I shoot too high, she ain't made it there yet and I don't know it. I shoot too low, she's already been there an' I missed her—lost some more time."

It was dark outside. It was dark in the RV. The only reason they could see anything was because the oil lamp on the table kept the small space pretty well lit. Soon they'd have to go to bed. Right now, outside, Dale was sitting around the fire with some of the others, but he'd want to turn in before long and the RV was really his. When he was ready to call it a night, Carol would go to the little bedroom that he insisted she use while he slept on the fold out couch, and Daryl would return to his tent at the far end of the small little camp that they'd made. It wouldn't be long before Daryl would lean up, across the table, and accept the soft kiss that Carol would give him—a comfort for them both before they said goodnight.

The kiss would get Daryl through the night and, in the morning, Daryl would start looking for Sophia again.

In the days since she'd been lost, Daryl had found her doll. He'd found some cleaned out cabinets in a farmhouse that told him she was probably scavenging for food. He'd found a bed in another cabinet that made him think she'd hidden there to rest after enjoying the tuna that came out of some fairly freshly opened cans he'd found.

He'd also found an arrow through his side, a concussion, and some pretty traumatic hallucinations of his brother that had all resulted from a fall he took while searching along what he thought was Sophia's chosen path through the woods.

But Daryl had yet to actually lay his eyes or hands on the girl herself.

"You can't go out there alone," Carol said. "It's getting too dangerous."

"I'm the only one that can go out there," Daryl said. "Hell—Rick's got everyone runnin' around in different directions. I don't think he even thinks about where she might be. He just—sends people off in one direction or another. I know he don't listen to me."

"You can't get hurt again," Carol said. She shook her head at him. "You're not well yet."

"And Sophia ain't gonna wait around for me to get well," Daryl said. "She's movin' so that's what I gotta do."

"What if you get hurt again?" Carol asked. "What if she's not out there and you're just—what if you fall again? Get hurt? And you don't come back?" Carol shook her head at him. "I can't lose you too."

Daryl sucked in a breath and held it. Carol was having a hard time believing her daughter was still alive. Of course she was. Everything about this world made it almost impossible to believe that any of them would survive alone, so why should she figure that her kid would make it? On top of that, Rick and Shane weren't too quiet with their commentary about the whole damn thing and it seemed that the two of them—fearless leaders that they were—had already practically decided Sophia was dead.

Daryl reached across the table and caught Carol's hand. She let him hold it over the map for a second before she pulled it away and wiped at her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"You should be," Daryl said. "She needs you to believe in her. She's out there and I'ma find her."

"And if you get hurt again?" Carol asked.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Ain't nothin' that can kill a Dixon," Daryl teased. It was something his brother had always told him. They were practically immortal. It wasn't true, of course, and Daryl had already lost his brother. Rick had left him behind, handcuffed to a roof, and all that was left of him when they got up there was his bloodied hand that he'd cut off with a hacksaw. Daryl didn't know that Merle was dead, but he wasn't certain that he was alive either. Maybe, like Carol, he was finding it hard to hold out hope in a world like this.

It was yet another reason that Daryl had to find Sophia.

"I don't want you to die," Carol said softly.

"I ain't," Daryl said. "And neither are you. I'ma go out there. I'ma follow this path. I'll find Sophia and bring her back. That's all there is to it. Maybe tomorrow even."

The corners of Carol's mouth played at forming a soft smile.

"Tomorrow?" She asked.

"Maybe," Daryl responded.

"You said that yesterday," Carol said.

"And one of these damn days, I'ma be right," Daryl said. He sucked in a breath and let it out. "Gettin' late. You need to sleep. Tomorrow's a big day. I can feel it. Besides—Dale's gonna be wantin' to sleep soon. Old man can't stay up but so late."

Carol nodded her head at him and Daryl leaned up, across the table. Carol met him and gifted him one of the soft kisses that he'd come to rely on.

"Goodnight, Daryl," Carol said quietly when they separated. Daryl eased his way out of the bench seat next to the table and cleared his throat as soon as he was on his feet.

"Night, Carol," he said, his cheeks burning warm the same way they always did when she looked at him the way she was looking at him then.

For a moment, and if Dale wouldn't have protested, Daryl wondered if Carol might have invited him to spend the night with her in the bedroom of the RV. She didn't invite him, though, and he didn't ask. There was time for that, and now wasn't the time.

"Night," Daryl repeated, quickly making his exit from the RV. He bypassed the fire and he bypassed everyone else. He headed straight for his tent to get to sleep as quickly as he could. He wanted to close his eyes before the feeling of the kiss had completely faded. He wanted the sweet dreams, he knew by now, such a sweet kiss could bring him.

Daryl was certain that Sophia was out there and he was sure that she was safe. He had a gut feeling about it. In the morning, he'd go looking for her again. With any luck, he'd finally bring her back to her mother.