-Well, I have officially made it to chapter 4. So my idea with Daryl and Charlotte is that I wanna take the romance relationship slow so we don't just jump into it like a lot of stories do and just have them as friends for awhile. So I'm thinking that their romance thing probably won't start until season 3 I'm not sure yet.

-When I posted that last chapter, let me tell ya, everything blew up on my phone yesterday. Between favorites and followers and I got one review, wish I got more, but I'm not gonna beg or hold out just cause I didn't get a lot.

-Sadly, I don't own anything but Charlotte, Travis, Andy, and their story.

-Anyway, own with the story.


"I don't have to see the scars to know what you've been through."

Chapter 4) Chupacabra

Her eyes squinted at the sun light that beamed through the windows of her bedroom. She groaned and wiped her eyes before she rolled over onto her back and laid herself flat with her right arm hanging off the bed. She reached over and grabbed the clock from the bedside table, it was almost eleven in the morning. She dropped the clock onto the ground and rolled back over to see that Travis wasn't beside her. She pushed the covers back with her feet, climbed out of the bed, and stretched before she walked over to the window. The was full of activity and, from what she could see, it was laundry day for them. She squinted her eyes, most of the camp was missing. Andrea, T-Dog, Shane, Rick, Daryl, none of the were there. She quickly got ready before she walked down and into the kitchen.

She walked over to the kitchen and grabbed an apple. "Morning momma."

Patricia looked at from where she had been washing the dishing in the sink. "Monin' Charlotte."

She leaned against the table as she bit into the apple. "You know where Travis is?"

"Beth took his out earlier to feed the chickens with her."

"No Jimmy."

Patricia shook her head. "No, he went with the search parties to look Carol's daughter Sophia."

Charlotte almost chocked and looked at her mother in shock. "You're joking right? Herschel'd never let him go unless he was with me or him, Jimmy knows that. Boy, is that kid trying to get himself killed or something?"

Patricia shrugged. "I don't know but Herschel's not to happy about and, besides, one of Rick's men took a horse out of the stables."

"Which one?"

"Nellie."

Charlotte rolled her eyes and almost laughed. "Nellie, as in Nervous Nellie?"

Patricia nodded.

She scrunched up her shoulders and took a bite out of her apple. "Well, however took her's gonna be coming back without a horse if they ain't careful."

"I don't what his name was but he had a crossbow."

Charlotte froze before she pushed away from the table. "Crossbow?" She ran her hand through her hair and sighed before she placed the half finished apple on the table, kissed her mom on the cheek, and left the kitchen.

She walked out onto the porch but stopped at the sight of Glenn leaning against the house with a guitar. She looked at him. "You know how to play that thing?"

He shook his head and held it up. "No, do you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, dad taught me."

She walked down the steps and away from him towards the cluster of trees that now become the base camp or Rick's little survival group. The women, of course, she had seen them from the window, were doing the laundry, Lori and Carol. She could see Beth and Travis over by the chickens, Dale was sitting on the RV with his shot gun, and everyone else was gone. She walked past the women, who stared at her, and went up to the RV.

She put her hand over her eyes and called up, "Hey Dale?"

He looked down at her and smiled. "You must be Charlotte?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"What can I do for you?"

"Do you know which way Daryl went?"

He looked at her confused before he pointed out towards the trees. "Went towards the river, said he was gonna start there. Why?"

"He, uh, took a horse that he wasn't supposed, wanna make sure he's ok."

"What's wrong with the horse?"

Charlotte shook her head. "Nothing serious she just gets nervous easily is all."

Dale nodded.

Charlotte went to walk away but turned around before she got too far. "Hey," she called to him again, "if anybody asks, can you tell them where I went so they don't worry?"

He nodded again. "Yeah, come back safe."

"I will."


She hadn't been searching for long, maybe an hour or two, almost everyone who had been searching should've been back by now. She had found the horse tracks easily in the ground and had followed them up the river, the little girl had gone no where the highway.

She looked down at the slightly old hoof prints and frowned, the horse had veered off to the right away from the creek. She went to follow them but stopped at the sound of something in the creek. She leaned over the edge and looked around, from where she was, she couldn't see anything but water and sticks. She slung her gun up above her head and over her shoulders before she grabbed a tree and slowly began to lower herself down. The further down she went the more anxious she got, from what she could tell by the sound it was either a walker or a person. She finally lowered herself down to where she could look over the roots and that's when she saw him.

He was lying against the river side muttering to himself with an arrow embedded in his side. The sleeves of his sheet had been cut off and wrapped around the arrow wound, he must've fallen and landed on it.


Rick walked around the side of the shed where Herschel was working on the generator.

"One of my horses is missin'," Herschel said as he filled up the generator with oil. "Did one of your people take it?"

Rick said uncertainly. "I was given the impression you knew about that."

"I did not."

He shook his head. "I'll have a word with Daryl."

Herschel nodded. "Charlotte left over an hour ago to go look for him, she'll give him enough words to last him a life time."

"What do you mean?"

"The horse was Nervous Nellie, gets frightened at everything, she's Charlotte's horse." Herschel explained.

Rick nodded and smirked. "I'm sure he'll get an ear full then."


"Daryl Dixon I swear to whatever is up there in that sky that, when I get down there, I'm going to kill you."

Her foot had once again gotten stuck under a tree root when she accidently went down faster then she had wanted to and slid. She twisted her leg from left to right and yanked but it wouldn't come out. She sighed and leaned back into the hill, "Stupid."

"Merle."

She lifted herself up and looked down at the semiconscious Daryl Dixon to see that he was smiling. "Daryl?"

"A shitty day bro."

Her eyebrows scrunch, was he really talking to himself right now? She leaned back again and sighed before she pulled her knife out of her right boot and began to cut away at the tree root.

"Screw ya."

She rolled her eyes. Here they were stuck in a river and he was off in la la land, just great, and he'd lost her horse.

"A girl…..they lost their little girl."

She was almost through just a little bit more.

"Shut up."

She looked down at him. "I didn't say anything."

"Try'd like hell to find you bro."

She was so close, just a little and she'd be free, it was like Andy all over again.

"You let out, all you had to do was wait, and we went back for ya. Rick and I, we did right by ya."

"Oh my god," Charlotte angrily sighed, "I swear when I get outta this I'm gonna kill him."

"I ain't nobody's bitch."

"Your about to be mine if you don't wake up." Charlotte growled as she pulled her leg out from under the tree out and slid the rest of the way down the hill. She kneeled down beside Daryl and began to shake him by his shoulders. "Daryl? Daryl wake up, now's not nap time, wake up."

His head bounced around for a minute before his eyes slowly landed on her. She was blurry to him for minute before his vision slightly cleared, "Charlotte?"

Her blurry figure smiled at him. "Hey, dummy, your gonna be ok. Gotta figure out how to get you back up this hill."

"Charlotte?"

She nodded. "Yeah, didn't think I'd leave you out here did you? After you took my horse I ought to leave you here for walker bate."

He shook his head. "Sophia."

She looked at him confused. "What about her?"

"Found her doll."

She looked like she was going to say something but stopped when the sound of rustling met their ears. She looked around for a minute then at him. "Don't move, alright? Stay here." She stood up from beside him, pulled her gun over her head, and lifted it to her eyes. "I know your there, come on out."

The rustling of the bushes grew louder before they stumbled their out of them and towards her. She quickly took out the dark skinned one that had stumbled out first and went to shot the second when her gun jammed, she didn't see the one that had come out near her side.

Daryl quickly ripped the arrow out of his side, grabbed his crossbow, and shot the walker in the head as Charlotte took out her knife and stabbed the last one. Daryl fell to the ground and Charlotte looked over at him. She shoved her knife back into her boot and ran over to where he was sitting.

"Why'd you do that?" She asked as she pulled up his shirt to check his side, "Could've hurt yourself even worse pulling an arrow out of your side like that, stupid, I could've done it."

He frowned at her and practically growled. "Sorry for tryin' ta help."

She sighed and looked up at him. "Not that I'm not grateful or anything, because I am, it's just," she rubbed her face and looked away from him, "I should've seen it ya know? If my gun wouldn't have jammed, I didn't even see him."

"Hey," he said making her look at him again, "it happens."

She stared at him for a minute before she nodded her head, dropped the side of his shirt, and looked around. "So, how're we going to get out of here?"

He pointed towards the top of the cliff. "Climb."

She looked at him shocked. "You're joking right?" He shook his head. "You can't seriously mean for us to climb that with your side the way it is. I nearly crushed my ankle coming down that stupid thing."

He was almost panting. "Come on, worth a shot."

She rolled her eyes.


Once they had gotten him bandaged, she had folded up his shirt and tied it to his side with his sleeves, and he had eaten a squirrel, gross, taken the ears off the walkers, why she didn't know, and had grabbed Sophia's doll, they slowly began the long trek up the hillside. She was in front leading the way while he dragged himself slowly behind her.

"You do know that you have blood all over your face now?" She asked as she grabbed another tree root and looked back at him.

He stopped and looked up at her. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well," she said as she started to move again, "when we get back to camp they might think you're a walker, try to kill us."

"So," he said, "wouldn't be the first time."

She looked at him confused. "Wouldn't be the first time? You mean they've tried to kill you before?"

"More like stuck a gun ta my head twice and didn't pull the trigger."

"Who did that?"

"Rick."

"Really."

He huffed.

"Is he the one that left your brother behind?"

Daryl paused. "Who told ya 'bout that?"

She shrugged and leaned her head to the left. "No one really told me, I pieced it together. When Glenn and T-Dog got to the farm, I asked them where they got the medicine from and they said that a guy named Merle Dixon used to get the clap on occasion and that you had the medicine for him. I asked where he was but they said he was gone. You were talking while you were unconscious, you said you went back for him so I assume that he got left behind,"

He looked at her. "You figur'd that out just by listen' ta people?"

She nodded. "Yep, was I right?"

He shook his head. "Got tha basics."

"Would you tell me about it, if I asked?"

"Maybe."

She let the conversation drop after that and lightly shoved herself up to get them moving again. From what she could tell, they were almost halfway there. She looked up when the birds cawed in the sky and frowned, she really wished she was a bird.

"I was doin' better when you were missin'."

She looked at Daryl, he was talking to himself again. She rolled her eyes, grabbed the limb beside her, and pulled.

"Yeah, since when?"

She tuned out the rest of the conversation as she dragged herself up the hill and over the side. She leaned with her hands on her hips and took a breath of air, she could hear Daryl still talking to himself. She turned around kneeled on the ground, and looked over at him, he was almost there. She reached her hand down to him and waited until he could reach it.

"Come on Daryl," she said as he reached out towards her, "grab my hand."

His hand slammed into hers and together they pulled him over the top of the stupid hill. He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, and was looking around wildly before he yelled, "Yeah, you better run." He continued to look for a minute before his eyes landed on Charlotte. She, like him, was breathing heavily with mud and blood covering her from head to toe from where she had scrapped herself on the hill. Her short hair was wild, she had forgotten her headband at the house, and was leaning on her right side. She was staring at him with an expression he could place. "What?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Nothin'," she grabbed his arm and pulled it over her shoulders, "come one, let's get back to the farm."


She could see the edge of the farm as they stumbled through the trees and out into the open field. She gave a heavy sigh, she was practically carrying Daryl now with the way he was leaning on her. She could see Andrea on the top of the RV, she must've been the look out. Not long after she looked at Andrea she saw the figures of four men running towards her and Daryl. She pulled Daryl to a stop and frowned as the four men halted in front of them and Rick aimed his pistol at Daryl.

"Is that Daryl and Charlotte?" Glenn asked.

Daryl almost growled. "That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?"

The four men let out of breath of release, Charlotte sighed before a gun shot went off, and she went down.


"NO! NO!"

He could hear Rick screaming behind him, he didn't know what happened. One minute she'd been standin' right there beside him and the next she was on the ground. He quickly flopped down beside her and turned her head towards him, the bullet had only grazed her. He sighed a little in relief before he fell down beside her.

"Daryl, man, Daryl come on wake up."

"Oh my god, is she dead?"

"You grazed her?"

"Why's he wearing ear's for a necklace?"

"Guys, isn't this Sophia's."

"What's with all the blood?"

"What happened?"

"Andrea shot her."

"Take her upstairs, last room on the left, him to."

"What about Travis?"

"Keep him outside."


She could hear people talking all around her. One was on her left side very close to her ear and another was on the right. She groaned as her head pounded, she remembered being shot then nothing. Something was resting on her stomach pushing it down almost painfully. The voices stopped for a minute as she slowly opened her eyes and stared up at the blurry ceiling. She felt someone move beside her and looked at the person to her left.

The first thing she saw were his blue eyes and that, even though he was cleaner then he had been, he still needed a shower very badly. Dirt covered him from top to bottom as he laid on her sons side of the bed with Herschel stitching his side that had been impaled by the arrow. He was holding a rag to the spot on her head where she had been shot, the blood wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. She went to roll on her side but stopped when something moved on her stomach. She looked down to see a mound of black hair resting on her tummy and an arm was wrapped around her waist.

"He wouldn't leave." She heard Rick say from her right side.

She sighed at the sight of her boy and lifted her hand to run her fingers through his hair. "Can't say I'm not surprised."

"What do you mean?"

She looked at Rick. "He's always been afraid that I'll leave, now more then ever since my dad's gone."

Rick nodded.

She looked over at Daryl and frowned. "Where's my horse?"

He rolled his eyes. "You mean the horse that almost killed me? If it's smart it left the country."

She huffed. "If you would've asked I could've told you about her. Her name's Nellie, as in Nervous Nellie."

"What's so special about that damn horse anyway?"

She frowned and looked away from him. "Andy gave her to me as a birthday present three years ago."

The room went silent for a moment as she laid there petting her only child's head. Rick, Shane, and Herschel left not long after that leaving the other three people in the room alone.

She hadn't noticed the scars until he had rolled over to fully face her, they were everywhere, and his entire chest was littered with them. She reached out to touch one but stopped when he flinched away and frowned at her.

"I don't have to see the scars to know what you've been through." She said to him as he looked away from her and at the sleeping child on top of her. "I worked at a hospital, Daryl, both myself and my husband. I've seen all sorts of different cases come into my wing but the worst are always the children." He looked at her. "The children with the broken ribs, or the broken arms, legs, fingers, heads, or the ones that had to sit there in the waiting and wait until their mom got out of surgery because their dad almost killed her again."

"What's yer point?"

She rolled her eyes. "My point is that scars don't matter to me. There something that everyone, one way or anything, has to deal with whether there physical or mental or both."

He looked like a little boy to her with the way that he curled into himself and pulled the sheets up to his chin with his sad blue eyes. "You don't care?"

She shook her head and gave him a tiny smile. "No. If I cared would I be here right now?"

He stared at her before he shook his head, buried into the covers, and looked at her little boy. "Think he's gonna wake up anytime soon?"

She smiled down at Travis as her eyelids began to droop. "No, he's a heavy sleeper, should be out for hours."

He nodded at her. "Should get some sleep, look tired."

"Well, falling down that hill, saving your butt, and getting shot in the head can make a person tired."

He scoffed. "Go to sleep."


Dale walked out of the house and sat beside Andrea who was sitting on the front steps.

"How's she doin'?" She asked him.

He shook his head. "She'll be fine. What about you?"

She shrugged. "I shot Charlotte."

"Well," he sighed, "Herschel's not to happy about it, neither is her mother, or Maggie and Beth."

"I thought she was a walker."

"We know, we know, don't be too hard on yourself."

"She's gonna kill me when she gets up isn't she?" She asked.

He nodded. "Probably."


"Does anyone know how to play the guitar?" Glenn's question floated throughout the horribly quiet dinning room. "Dale found a cool one." He laughed. "Somebodies gotta know how to play."

"Otis did." Patricia said.

"Yes, he was very good to." Herschel said.

"Andy could," Maggie said to her dad, "Charlotte's husband, he could."

"Charlotte can, she tried to teach me but that didn't go very well." Jimmy pipped in.

Herschel nodded. "Maybe she'll play it for us when she's better."

"Someone needs to take up dinner to them." Rick said after a moment of silence.

Carol nodded. "I will."


He had been laying there for hours watching her sleep. Her short reddish brown hair all tangled with little leaves and sticks and her face covered in dirt. Her son had slid off of her at some point and moved to the open spot between Charlotte and him, it was weird having the little boy sleep facing him. He had just been about to doze off when Carol pushed into the bedroom with a tray full of food. He looked over his shoulder at her and frowned before he pulled the blanket further up his body to hide the scars.

"I brought you dinner." She said.

He grunted.

"How're you feeling?"

"'bout as good as I look." He grumbled.

Charlotte groaned from her spot on the bed beside him and rolled over so she was facing him, his mouth twitched a little bit.

Carol leaned over and kissed the side of his head.

"Watch it," he said as she pulled away and he pointed at his head, "I got stitches."

"You need to know something." She said and Daryl looked at her. "You did more for my daughter today then her own daddy ever did in his whole life."

He nodded towards Charlotte. "Wasn't just me. Wouldn't a done anythin' Rick or Shane wouldn't a done."

"I know." She smiled. "That makes you every bit as good as them, every bit." She walked out into the hallway and closed the door behind her.

He laid there for a moment as Travis moved a little closer to him and buried his head into his arm. Daryl looked at the kid and smirked.

Charlotte giggled. "Somebody likes you."

"Shut up."


-Hey, would you look at that, chapter 4's done. Anyway, when Daryl fell down the hill he was bleeding on the other side of his head so I decided to give him stitches so I could keep Carol.