Carol and Daryl looked worried. Daryl said "you better go and lock up the house. "
"Do I need to get Father Gabriel? Should I let Morgan know?" Carol said thinking she was going to have to kill sooner than she thought.
"Yep, tell everyone to be ready." Daryl had his cross bow out and ready to shoot.
Carol jumped down and told Morgan and he told the others. Carol took Judith back inside and locked the windows and doors. She lit one candle for her to see Judith and waited. She pulled her knife out and her gun was under the couch. She was ready if someone came in. But hours passed and nothing happened. She put Judith to bed and fell asleep on the couch waiting for Daryl to end his shift.
Daryl and the others watched all night, but didn't hear anything else. At day light he made his way to the house. He picked the lock and let himself inside. He saw Carol asleep on the couch. He leaned in a kissed her on the forehead. She didn't wake up. He started to rub her legs and then her arms. "Hey woman, I'm home" he whispered to her. She woke some and looked at him and then said, "You're tired, go to sleep" She got up and took his hand and they went upstairs to the room across the hall from Carl's. Daryl would occasionally stay there. She went to check on Judith still sleeping as Daryl took off his boots and laid on top of the bed. She went and retrieve their weapons. His crossbow and her gun and knife. When she got back, he was nearly asleep. But he did pat the space on the bed next to him. Carol crawled in and cuddled near him.
"I'm too tired to finish what we started, as much as I want to." Daryl admitted to Carol. His eyes were closed. But his arm was around Carol and her head was on his chest.
"Don't worried, get some rest. Hopefully Rick and the others will be back soon." Carol yawned. They slept together for another hour before Carol heard Judith and went to go her.
She got Judith ready and then herself and went down stairs and found something for her to eat. Carol was thinking about making Daryl some pancakes, but she wanted Daryl to get more sleep and she was careful to be quiet. She would wait. Out of the kitchen window she could see Morgan walking around the neighborhood with his trusty stick.
A few more hours past and Daryl came down stairs. He had taken a shower and was in clean clothes. And Carol was snapping beans in the kitchen. "Any news?" he asked.
"Nothing yet. Did you get enough sleep?" Carol asked as he pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards.
"Nough for me." He grabbed an apple and starting eat.
"I can make you some pancakes if you want," Carol started to get up.
"Nope, I am good." Daryl looked at her as if he wanted to say something but didn't. Carol just smiled at him and shook her head.
"What do you want Mr. Dixon?" Carol asked shyly.
Daryl looked at her and blushed. "You know what I want. We need to find time."
They sat there and looked at each other while they listen to Judith in the next room. Smiling like teenagers. About that time, Morgan came in.
"They are back." He stated. He was a little out of breath. They jumped up from the table. Daryl took his crossbow and Carol put Judith in play pen and ran to the door.
Rick came out of the RV and he looked terrible. One by one they all got out of the RV but no one was talking. Everyone looked like they had been on one hell of a ride. Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, and Sasha were not with them.
"What happened?' Daryl asked as he saw Rick he was making his way to the house.
"Judith, is she ok? Where is she?" he asked as he went pass Daryl.
"She is ok, and in here," Carol told him. Rick swept pass Carol and ran to grab Judith.
Michonne stopped walking when she reached Daryl. "We need a meeting of everyone. Can you bring them to the church in 15 minutes?" Daryl nodded and took off.
Michonne got to Carol. "We met Negan. It's bad." Carol and Michonne exchanged a look of worry. Carol left the porch and ran out to help Daryl gather people to the church. When she caught up with Daryl, he looked at her with a worried expression.
About 20 minutes later the entire community was in the church. Rick still covered in blood on his face was slow to speak. But when he did, many tears were shed. He told about the traps that were played on the road. And the deaths Abraham and Glenn. And that Carl nearly lost his arm. That Maggie and Sasha went to the hilltop to see the doctor. That they all worked for Negan now. And he would be coming to the community to gather half their stuff soon.
Daryl was pissed. He stood up and was pacing. "I should have been there, I could have help."
"No Daryl, we were outnumbered. They are much larger than we thought. They have more men and guns. " said Rick. "Negan will be back and he will want more."
Daryl yelled, "We have to do something, we can't just sit here!" Michonne gave him a look as she understood.
"We have weapons, their weapons. We need to hide them." Michonne looked at Rick. "We need to hide some food too."
"We need to do what he says so we can live," Rick wiped his face and saw the blood was on his hands. "We need to live."
Father Gabriel suggested an idea. "We can keep their weapons out and hide ours. We can bury them in a grave, and they will not know. We can bury some of the food as well." Michonne nodded.
Eugene spoke, "I can make some bullets." Daryl looked at Eugene and gave him a nod.
"We can't go down without a fight." Carl was also standing and upset. "He took our friends, our family. We can't let him get away with it."
Carol this whole time was looking upset as well. She knew she would have to kill more people to protect them now. She was thinking about running again. But Daryl spotted her and shook his head. He then came down and sat beside her. "No" he said to her.
"We don't know if Maggie and Sasha made it to the hilltop," said Rick. "We need to be careful." But by the time the meeting was over with, it was decided to hide some guns in a fake grave, along with some can food and bottle water. But it was not to be touch.
After the meeting, Rick, Daryl, Carol, Michonne, Morgan and Carl went to the house and started making plans.
Carol was nervous. Their plans included possible ways to kill Negan when he arrived. She knew they were counting on her to help. She got up during the meeting, and used an excuse of needing a cigarette to go for a walk. Daryl followed after her.
"I just need to be alone Daryl" Carol was walking and trying to light her smoke at the same time.
"No you don't, you are thinking about leaving again, aint you?" He was walking to catch up with her.
"Please, this is exactly what I was talking about yesterday. I will be force to kill again. Look what he did to our people. Glenn is gone. Maggie and her baby will have to live without him." Carol was crying.
Daryl hugged her and took her to gazebo by the water. "We will do what we need to do to survive. Promise me that you want to survive?" He turned her face toward him.
"Yes I do. But I want you all to survive. "Carol admitted and turn her head into his chest and held on.
"Stay. Stay for me. " Daryl spoke into Carol's hair.
Carol looked up at him. "Ok." That is all she could said because Daryl lay a kiss on her. They stayed in the gazebo just holding onto one another until Michonne came looking for them. She caught them in an embrace.
"Well this is the best thing I have seen all day." She had a smile on her face. "When did you two finally decide to make it official?"
Daryl just said, "Stop." But Carol said, "We had a talk yesterday." She was smiling thru her tears.
"Took you long enough to 'talk', " said Michonne sarcastically. "I'm happy for you." She said with a genuine smile.
Daryl jumped up and said, "I am going to find Aaron and see how he is, and I will come find you later. Don't go off." Daryl said in a strong tone.
"What's that about?" asked Michonne. As they watched him walk off.
"Nothing. " Carol said.
"I am happy for you both." Michonne said with a smile on her lips.
Carol wanted to change the subject. "Tell me about Negan."
Michonne talked in more detail. Her smile changed to fear as she spoke of the bat he called Lucille. Carol shivered when she told about the gruesome deaths of their friends. The threats he gave them along with the big threat of Carl losing his arm by Rick. This guy was a monster. It was going to take a lot to take him and his men down.
They slowly walked back over to the men. Rick, Daryl, Morgan and Father Gabriel were talking on the steps of their house. Michonne stood by Rick and Carol walked over to Daryl. Rick was looking down and had his arms crossed. Rick spoke to the ground, "I was told some good news today, something I desperately needed to hear." Then he looked up and grinned at Daryl and Carol
Carol was confused, "what do you mean?"
Daryl nodded and said "I told him about what we talked about".
Carol was still confused. "Daryl what did you tell him?"
"That he plans on making you an honest woman. Congratulations, it is about time." Rick placed his hand on Carol's shoulder.
"What are you talking about?" Carol was getting nervous now.
"I think we should make it official." Daryl took her hand. Father Gabriel was smiling hard. Carol was standing with her mouth open and thinking, 'was that a proposal?'
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