"Daryl, don't," Carol whispered, laying a hand on his arm. "Don't shoot her, please."
"I know you'd probably like to shoot me, Daryl, but you really don't need to," Andrea said haltingly. She obviously wasn't breathing well. "I haven't been bitten. I have the flu."
"The flu?" he said, incredulous. "You look like shit. And who the fuck is this?" He swung his crossbow around to point it at the other woman.
"This is Michonne," Andrea said. "She saved me after that night we all left the farm. We've been traveling together ever since." She looked at Maggie and Glenn. "Is this all that's left of our group?"
"No, Rick and the others are in the next house," Carol said. She couldn't help noticing Andrea's surprised expression and wondering if she resented them for failing to come back for her. "We didn't know if we should come back and risk—"
"No." Andrea held up a hand. "No regrets. We're alive."
"Barely, it looks like," Glenn said. "I think Hershel should take a look at you. Are you sure this is just the flu?"
"Yeah, I just can't shake it. It might be pneumonia."
"Can we all shut the fuck up for a minute and talk about these walkers here?" Daryl shouted. "You're all actin' like this is fuckin' normal." Michonne glared at Daryl and said nothing.
"She has her reasons, Daryl," Andrea said. "And they've provided pretty good cover for us, even in the middle of a herd once or twice."
"I don't care," Daryl said. "This shit ain't right."
"I'm with Daryl," Maggie said. "We need to see what Rick wants to do about this."
Michonne reached for her sword. "Who says anything's going to be done?" she said.
"Wait," Andrea said, putting her hand on Michonne's arm. Obviously the two had grown close over the last month. Her staying hand reminded Carol of her own hand on Daryl, which she quickly removed. "These are good people, Michonne. Let's just talk to Rick. And Hershel might be able to help me finally get over this sickness."
Daryl lowered his crossbow and nodded, letting the women pass. Maggie and Glenn followed them out the front door. "I'll be there in a moment," said Carol. "I'm going to see what kind of food might be lying around in the cabinets. We'll all need some kind of dinner."
"You ain't stayin' in here alone," Daryl said, propping his crossbow against the wall.
"Then stay with me," she said. He gave her a small nod and waved to the others to go on. Carol headed straight for the kitchen, where she began opening cabinets and drawers. A few minutes later she was back in the doorway of the living room, holding a few cans of tuna and a box of snack cakes. "Thank God for highly processed snack foods, right? These things will never die."
Daryl was sitting on the couch with his legs stretched out in front of him. His head rested back against the wall, and he looked exhausted. Stressed. Carol hoped she wasn't the source of his stress. She sat next to him and placed a hand on his knee. "Can we talk about—"
"No," he muttered, shaking her hand off his leg. "We need to stay focused. We're in a new place, we got to think about this new girl with Andrea, and we don't need to think about anythin' else."
"Right," Carol said softly.
He looked up at her. "I can't keep you safe if my head ain't clear."
"You've done ok so far," she said. He grunted in response.
"Daryl, tell me something. Would you really have killed Andrea so easily just now?"
"If she was bit, yeah," he answered. "Why? You gonna say that's not honorable?" He emphasized the last word, reminding her of the night they left the farm, when she'd told him she wanted a man of honor.
"No, I'm not going to say that," she answered. "You have more honor than anybody I've ever known."
He snorted. "You just say that stuff because I looked so hard for. . ." He couldn't bring himself to say Sophia's name.
"No, that's not the only reason I. . . I. . ." Carol wasn't sure how to finish the sentence. The only reason she loved him? She couldn't tell him that, but she was beginning to understand that she did, in fact, love Daryl. There was no turning back. She looked up to find that Daryl was looking directly into her eyes for the first time all day. He was waiting for her next words, and she didn't know what to say. Would he laugh if she told him how she really felt? Was there any chance he already knew?
"Oh sweet, you found snacks!" Glenn had walked in and was grabbing the food before Carol and Daryl even realized he was there. "Hey, sorry, am I interrupting something?"
"What did Rick say?" Daryl asked.
"He sent me to get you guys," Glenn said. "We're all going to eat and talk, apparently, and figure out what to do. Hershel's with Andrea. You should've seen Rick's face when he saw those Walkers."
Daryl got up then, picking up his crossbow and heading for the door. He turned back slightly without looking at Carol, indicating that she should follow.
Carol hoped they would have another chance to talk, but she was also scared to death of the possibility. She hadn't even let herself think yet about what would happen when night fell. Another night in Daryl's arms might be more than she could stand.