Disclaimer: After all the shit that went down at SDCC I don't think I even want to own TWD... UGHSDNFJANLGNONWRAVNN Ok I'm done... my bad. I don't own it.

A/N: And I'm back! No, I didn't forget about this story... completely. Haha kidding everybody, but this is getting out way earlier than planned as a gift to my good friend Axelrocks because we all need some Caryl right now. So please enjoy the next installment of Understand. (Also I lied about this being the last part of the story... but after this one, I promise it's the end)

Caryl on, everybody!

-Understand-

That little shit. Daryl thought. Always interruptin' during somethin' important. I can't believe this shit. With an exasperated sigh he readjusted his crossbow and looked at Carol to see what she wanted to do. All he saw on her face was shock so he moved slowly toward the sound. Before he could do anything, Carol spoke up.

"Glenn?" She said with disbelief more than anything. "Glenn, is that you?"

Glenn shot out of the bushes and immediately tackled the two into a hug. He held it for a few seconds then pulled back but didn't let go. "I can't believe you guys are ok! Everything was so crazy at Terminus and I didn't know if you got out Daryl... And Carol where did you come from! I missed you SO much and so much has happened since you left- oh yeah about that what the hell happened? You didn't come back from that run and then we were attacked and-"

"Oh my God." Those three words caused Daryl and Carol to tense up and Glenn to spin around quickly to find the source of the interruption and locked eyes with it immediately.

"Rick, look! They're okay! Daryl made it out and Carol is with him, can you believe it?! This is awesome! I-" Glenn abruptly paused. "What's wrong? Are you ok?"

Glenn looked at Rick questioningly while Rick just stood there staring incredulously at the three. He kept opening and closing his mouth trying to muster up something to say but had not taken his eyes off the trio. Something about the look in his eyes made him seem like he had been caught red-handed in something, but neither of them knew what. Behind Rick stood Maggie, who was just as shocked to see Daryl and Carol.

Then Rick made a noise that nobody could make out so he cleared his throat and spoke. "How... How did you guys even- where... I don't-"

"Surprised to see us brother?" Daryl spat at him while also staring at him through narrowed eyes. The past two days had reared its ugly head in Daryl's mind once again, momentarily forgotten with Glenn's arrival.

"O-of course. I thought we were the only ones who made it out." Rick said looking down. Daryl scoffed but continued to glare at him.

"Um, is it just you guys? Did anybody else make it?" Carol asked in a low voice looking at Glenn.

Glenn, thrown by the unspoken hostility and tension in the air, looked back at Carol. "Uh, yeah... actually most of us did make it out. A couple of people aren't with us, but we don't know if they just aren't at the spot yet. Oh yeah! That reminds me... we have this place that we are kinda holed up in for a few days until we decide to move on. It's a red-"

"A red brick building, relatively abandoned, with an ice cream truck outside? I know, Daryl told me." Carol said, interrupting him.

"Oh, yes actually." Glenn said, surprised. "Maybe, um, we should all go back there. It's only a short walk away from here. We heard the noises and went to see what it was in case it was some people from our group. And we found you guys! So, let-let's go, there, to the place and we can get settled. I still can't believe it! The Atlanta group, still kickin'..." After that Glenn smirked and looked down.

"Let's go, guys." Glenn started walking to urge the others to follow, and after a moment, Carol looked around and followed him. Daryl immediately followed her, unwilling to let her out of his sight again, even if he was pissed off. At who, he didn't know, but now wasn't the time to think about it.

With a deep sigh Rick motioned to Maggie and they both slowly trailed behind the others, anxious about the long discussions that lie ahead.

-Understand-

After a couple hours of greetings, stories, and a handful of 'welcome back's, Rick began to notice something. Every time he would move to touch Daryl he would pull away or flinch. If he tried to talk to Daryl, or even say hi, he would receive a grunt or a glare or some kind of "fuck off" signal that threw him off. He knew that Daryl was angry at him. That much was obvious. But it couldn't be leftover feelings from Carol's banishment... right?

Just as he was thinking about it, Daryl had just walked past him and shoved his shoulder into Rick's back. Rick looked behind him in astonishment at Daryl, and at that moment, he decided that he had had enough.

Rick walked with purpose over to Daryl and tapped him on the shoulder and saw that he flinched. Daryl stiffened at the unwelcome touch and slowly turned around to glare at Rick, almost challenging him. Wordlessly, Rick motioned to an empty room in the building and walked in front of Daryl, hoping that he would know to follow him. When he didn't hear the hunter's telltale footsteps behind him, he went to the door frame and held up his arm to usher Daryl inside. Daryl entered the abandoned room with obvious hesitation and adjusted his crossbow on his shoulder. When Rick closed the door and looked at Daryl with raised eyebrows and with a sigh, Daryl perched his crossbow up against the wall and mumbled something from low in his throat.

Rick just continued to stare at him. "What'd you say?" He couldn't believe that those were the only words he had spoken to his best friend in the hours since they had been reunited.

"I said what the fuck do ya want from me?" Daryl growled at him.

Momentarily shocked by the outburst, Rick quickly regrouped, "Are you okay? Is there something wrong?" he said, genuinely confused and curious.

Daryl scoffed as a replacement for his reply.

Furrowing his brow, Rick decided to use a different approach. "Um, okay... How 'bout, uh, do you have a problem with me? Is it something I did for you to be so angry at me?"

Daryl just shook his head, "I don't know brother, why don't you tell me?"

Rick was shocked at the animosity that saturated his words. "What do you mean? Tell you what?"

Daryl just grabbed his crossbow and moved towards the door saying "You know what, forget it. I don't have tha time or patience ta do this shit with you. Why don't you ask Carl if he needs help wipin' his ass?" Once again, sarcasm was evident in his voice.

Rick, refusing to let him leave, body blocked the door and said with a little more anger in his voice, "No, you don't get to leave! We are gonna talk about this... And what the hell are you talkin' 'bout anyway?"

It was then that Daryl decided to let it all out, "You know what, you wanna do this right now? FINE." He roared, "Let's do this shit, Rick. How about you tell me why the fuck you just left, right in the middle of the damn battle, after I KNOW you heard me yellin' for your help! I was backed into a corner with three fuckin' people attacking me. You didn't give me a second look, you just fuckin' bolted with your crazy ass son, who was doin' just fine by himself, if ya don't remember. But even then, you left the rest of us to fend for ourselves and fight against those crazy bastards from Terminus. YOU LEFT US FOR DEAD YOU SON OF A BITCH. I would've given my life to save you, and you left at the first opening you saw. Brothers don't do that kinda shit to each other. Brothers help each other when they're in trouble. I thought we were family, Rick. I thought we were all family. But I guess blood does run thicker 'n water, doesn't it?"

At the end of his explosion, Rick was stupefied. He hadn't thought that anybody had seen him do that, much less that Daryl had been harboring such intense feelings of betrayal and resentment towards him. For minutes that felt like hours, Rick just opened and closed his mouth, trying to find the right words that would both calm Daryl down and explain the situation in a way that also begged for forgiveness. He felt as though he had been caught red handed, so he decided to do on the defensive.

"I... Daryl you don't understand I had no choice, I-I had to get him. He was against a huge guy and I couldn't leave him like that. He was in trouble and he needed me. I had to Daryl, you have to believe-!"

"DON'T PULL THAT SHIT WITH ME." Daryl yelled at him, "I saw you, AND Carl for that matter. He was doin' just fine against that guy, who couldn'ta been more than 25 for your information, and you might as well have been twiddlin' your fuckin' thumbs while we were fightin' for our lives. Do you know how I got out? Do you even care?"

Rick just nodded absentmindedly while saying, "Of course I do."

"Well, if you must know, Carol helped me. She got all three of those motherfuckers an' then helped get me out of there, while you had vanished inta thin fuckin' air. Carol. Remember her? The woman who almost singlehandedly raised your daughter and took care of her again after the prison fell, despite tha fact that you dumped her off in the middle of shit-stain-nowhere because she was tryin' ta help us, keep us safe from the sickness?" Daryl questioned. He didn't want to bring up Carol's banishment, but he was in too deep now to not bring it up, now that he finally had time with Rick to get some answers.

Rick's eyes widened at the mention of Carol. He had avoided her the past few hours that the group had been together, not knowing what to say to ease the tension between the two, even between them and Maggie. He spoke up again, "I'm glad that she helped you, and my daughter, but I did what I thought was best. She killed one of our own, do I have to remind you? She brought that on herself, Daryl."

Daryl just chuckled humorlessly at Rick's reasoning. "So that's what your goin' with? So, the fact that your son has killed several people in cold blood, or the fact that you ripped a dude's fuckin' throat with yer teeth out mean nothing ta you? Because ta me those are just two sides to tha same coin, Rick."

He knew Daryl was still angered by his decision, but Rick's anger was now growing as well at the mention of his and Carl's actions. Straightening himself, he said "You know what; I don't have time for this shit. I'm not gonna stand here and have you compare me and my son to her." As Rick moved to open the door, Daryl quickly came up next to him and shut the barely opened door and got close to Rick's face keeping his arm up.

When they made eye contact, Daryl said in a low, almost threatening voice, "See, that's tha thing about this world, Rick. We got nothin' but time."

Rick pushed his chest up against Daryl's and said in an equally menacing voice, "I don't have to explain myself ta you. I do think of you as my brother, Daryl, but as far as she goes, I did what I THOUGHT WAS BEST. I'm sorry if that upsets you but I couldn't risk anybody at the prison going after her. Tyreese would have lost it, you know that."

Daryl just pushed Rick away and said, "Carol 'n Tyreese was travelin' together before they helped us at Terminus and she's still alive, so how 'bout you try again."

Rick let out a heavy breath and continued to glare at Daryl. He was out of things to say, out of options. Daryl was completely destroying all of his reasoning, and he felt cornered. After a few minutes of silence, Rick still couldn't create a new defense so Daryl just grabbed his crossbow and shoved him aside roughly before throwing the door open.

The second he did most of the group scrambled away from the door and he realized that they had all been listening to their argument. Nobody looked up at him, but Carl at least had the decency to look contrite as he sat in the corner with his sister. He didn't dare look up as Daryl stormed across the room over to Carol, who was trying to organize things for dinner. Even though she didn't show it, he knew she had also heard what had transpired between him and Rick. He quickly stomped over to her and nudged her leg with his foot. She immediately looked up to meet his eyes, and he noticed that she also had an array of emotions stirring around in her beautiful azure eyes.

"Let's go."

That was all he growled before he walked off (he didn't mean to say it like that, but he couldn't help it), not even waiting to see if she would follow him, because he knew without a doubt that she would. She always did, and she always would. He loved that he could rely on her like that, but also realized that not only did he understand how much he needed her, buty how much he took her presence for granted.

Daryl continued to quickly stomp down the steps and out the door, hearing Carol's quiet steps not far behind him. When he was out the door, he looked around, searching for a place nearby that he could escape with her. He needed to talk to her, be around her without anybody else because only she could talk him down from this. Every second that passed he replayed Rick's words getting angry at each and every detail. His reasoning, the lies he so easily told, even the tone in which he spoke pissed Daryl off more and more. He felt Carol come up right behind him and immediately he began to calm down, soothed instantly be her physical presence. With a deep sigh he walked forward across the train tracks and into the forest and she continued to follow him silently.

When they had walked for about ten minutes, his steps slowed and he abruptly stopped, deciding they were far enough. He readjusted his crossbow and turned around to face her. Daryl slowly raised his eyes to meet hers, and saw that her stance was slightly defensive. Briefly he thought that she believed that he brought her out there to yell at her or blame her, but he didn't think much of it because he knew it wasn't true. He walked over to her, step by step closing the four foot gap between them.

When he was less than a foot away, he stopped and looked down at her hands and reached out to take her delicate but strong left hand in his. He didn't dare move anything else; he just gently ran the calloused pad of his thumb back and forth across the top or her knuckles. He saw from the corner of his eye that she carefully raised her free hand to lightly brush aside his bangs.

In that moment, Daryl realized how amazingly intimate this moment was. It scared him, momentarily, but he pushed that aside and struggled to think of more ways that he could prolong this moment. Their moment. He tore his eyes away from the gentle gesture he had initiated and looked into her eyes, once again shocked at the intense and beautifully clear blue that swirled around in them.

When he barely heard her say something, he realized that he had spent too long just looking into her eyes and he had to answer her. He paused the movement of his thumb but continued to hold her hand, still not breaking the eye contact. He blinked a few times and mumbled a Hm? as to urge her to speak again.

He felt her squeeze his hand slightly before she repeated in a gentle, almost angelic voice, "Are you okay?"

A/N: AHHHHH I'M SO MEAN I'M SAVING THE CARYL CONFRONTATION FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER lol my bad guys but I have most of the next chapter written, so it should be posted in the next week. So, what do you think? Daryl finally gave Rick a piece (if not most) of his mind! Yeah! Anyway, don't be afraid to leave a review if you liked it, what you thought, whatevs... The final chapter is coming up, and then I have a few one shots that I have planned so look out for those! Thank you guys for reading, and have a good day!