A/N: Hola amigos! No, I don't really speak Spanish. That's about as much as I know, but I was feeling festive!
So, onto chapter four…I haven't planned out exactly how many chapters there will be, but I'm planning on arcing out what happens in this chapter into a few others, so it'll be around for a while. You will notice that for nearly every chapter, I will be writing scenes from both Carol's POV, and then switching it to Daryl's, and vice versa. I do this so you can get both sides of the story (and it's more fun that way too:)
This is also the first chapter where I pretty much have every main character in the same room at the same time. While you will be seeing almost all of these characters again at some point, it was fun to have them all interacting with each other. One of my all-time favorite characters is Michonne, but she's a woman of very few words, so there isn't a lot of dialog on her behalf-but don't worry. What she lacks in words, she makes up for in awesomeness Now on with the show!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or anything affiliated with it. All I own is myself.
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Ch4.
"All right, everyone be quiet and let's figure this out." Rick's voice rang out over the crowd of people gathered in the C block.
Daryl was standing next to Rick waiting for everyone to shut their yaps. It was mainly their people standing around-Maggie and Glenn huddled tightly together whispering, Hershel by the steps where he could sit, Michonne waiting impatiently in the corner, and Carol off to the side by herself. Some of the Woodbury people were there too, though he hadn't cared enough to learn most of their names. He knew the big black guy and his sister had been at the prison before, but then Rick went ape-shit and kicked them out. Good thing they didn't seem too sore about it now.
"Who's watching the kids?" Hershel inquired.
"Carl's on watch duty. Beth's watching Judith for me and Laura's looking after some of the younger ones. I told her I'd check in soon to make sure nothing's going on."
"Right, let's get this going." Glenn piped up. "We all have stuff we want to be doing right now."
Daryl glowered. "Yeah we know what kinda 'stuff' you wanna be doin'. You been doin' it all over the damn place lately."
Glenn turned red. "I didn't mean that…"
"Enough." Rick said sternly. "We're not here to fight or make fun of each other. We have a lot more people here than we used to and that means we're going through supplies a lot faster than anticipated. That being the case, we are gonna have to make a run for supplies, and it has to be real soon."
"Aren't we putting ourselves at more risk by going out as a group?" Tyreese asked in a gruff voice. "What if the Governor is still out there just waiting for us to make a move?"
"It's been six months." Michonne glowered. "We can't just sit here starving to death because we're too scared to take a chance."
"I've seen what the Governor can do up close and personal," A dark haired woman from the other group proclaimed; the look on her face saying it all. "But she's right. We can just sit here and wait to die. If we were going to do that, we should've just stayed in Woodbury."
"I agree with Karen and Michonne." Rick gestured. "Even if he is, he doesn't have the numbers with him that he did before. Even so, we need to be cautious, so we will send a small group out to scavenge for supplies and the rest will stay here to defend the prison."
"How many?" Glenn inquired. "We need at least a few guys back here to keep watch."
"I'd like at least three." Rick revealed. "I volunteer myself to go, since you wanna stay close to Maggie, and Daryl's sporting an injured ankle. You two can stay back and keep watch. Carl can help out too."
"What about Carl?" Michonne inquired. "He's not gonna take it well, you going off without him."
"We already talked about it. I trust him to stay behind to guard the others and that sits right with him. He may not be happy, but he'll manage."
That makes two of us, Daryl thought. He hated not being able to go out on runs. It was about the only time he got to hunt anymore and he was starting to miss it badly.
"My question…" Hershel spoke up. "Is where are we getting these supplies. Nearly everywhere within a thirty mile radius of here has been picked clean."
Rick nodded. "We are gonna have to go further north to try and find some land that hasn't been rummaged too badly. Tyreese was telling me that he thinks he knows some spots that might still be untouched near the mountains."
"Guess that means he's goin' too." Daryl muttered.
"I want in." Michonne chimed in. "I've been cooped up in here too long. A trip would do me some good right now."
Rick nodded. "All right. Well that's settled then. It's gonna be an overnight trip for sure, so we'll need to start packing-"
"I'm coming too."
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From the minute Carol spoke, she knew everyone had turned around to look at her, but she couldn't think about that now. She focused straight ahead on Rick, trying desperately not to take back what she'd just said. She didn't dare look over at Daryl, whose glare was so intense that she could feel heat radiating off her skin from it.
"No fucking way."
She stood her ground. "You don't have a say in what I do, Daryl Dixon."
"The hell I don't!"
"Daryl, calm down." Rick put up a hand between the two of them. "Carol, why would you want to go on a scouting mission?"
"Maybe I have something to prove to myself." She said honestly. "I'm good with a rifle, you said so yourself. I'm getting better at tracking too. I want to do this."
She was sure that Daryl's stare was going to burn a hole right through her, but she had been preparing for this moment for months. When the Governor attacked the prison and she had been forced to use Axel's body as a human shield, it altered her existence forever. In those terrifying moments of wondering if she'd ever live to see another day, she had managed to find strength she didn't know she even possessed. It had only taken her a split second to remember that Daryl had left, and that she had a decision to make. Either keep living, or stay on the ground and die.
The decision wasn't as hard as she'd been expecting it to be. With rifle in hand, she'd fought off the attackers and proved to herself once and for all that she could be a warrior. It wasn't until things had calmed down that she realized that Daryl had come back, but it only cemented her belief that she needed to know how to survive on her own.
Now came the hard part-proving she could do it.
"If you think you can do this…" Rick said slowly. "Then I don't have a problem with it. But why don't you take overnight to really think it through."
"Fine," She replied firmly. "But I'm going to have the same response in the morning."
She knew that Rick was really just trying to defuse the situation between her and Daryl, but she wasn't going to give in to him. Daryl could grumble all he wanted. She wasn't doing this for him.
"All right, let's call it a night then." Rick ushered to the volunteers. "You three stay behind. The rest of you can head back to your areas. Check your schedules to see who is on guard duty tonight. Everyone stay safe and report back anything that doesn't look right."
Carol sat down next to Tyreese, figuring that Daryl wouldn't attempt to jump over the large man to get at her. She looked directly at him for the first time and saw that he was beyond furious. Rick grabbed his arm and gestured to him to go back outside, whispering something as he passed. He went, but not before looking back at her with contempt in his eyes. Sometimes he made her feel just like Ed had. Like she deserved what she got. It killed her to think that he might actually be thinking it too.
"Okay…" Rick leaned in between the three adults. "Now we haven't been out in a while. I have to assume that the herds are getting more rampant as the food supply dwindles. We're also going into unchartered territory as far as I'm concerned, so we won't know what to expect. We will need to stay together at all times, do you understand?"
"We're gonna want to stick to using blunt weapons and knives as much as possible too so we don't cause a commotion." Michonne pointed out.
Rick nodded. "We'll take the guns, but let's hope we don't end up having to use 'em."
Carol had a sudden moment of panic at the memory of her last battle involving a knife. She'd nearly died when she lost her weapon trying to kill a walker and was left defenseless in a holding area for days. What if she ended up without a weapon out in the wilderness? How would she manage to defend herself then?
That's why we are staying together. It will be fine.
"Carol, you all right?" Tyreese's voice cut through her thoughts. "You look like you're rethinking your plan."
"I'm fine." She assured him. "Just trying to remember my battle tactics."
"You're gonna need them to face Daryl." Michonne said dryly.
Rick's voice pulled them back. "I'm gonna get a list from everyone of what they need the most so we can decide from there how to split up the tasks. Let's plan on leaving in two days. In the meantime, get your gear together and try to get a good night's sleep. I need all of you at your best on the road."
They all stood and started going their respective ways. To Carol's surprise, Tyreese hung back for a moment to talk with her.
"Why is Daryl so mad about you coming along?"
"It's a long story." She lied. In actuality, it came down to him being mad that she could go and he couldn't be there to keep an eye on her.
"Well, I'm personally glad you're coming." He reassured her. "I hear you're a great shot."
Carol attempted a smile. At least someone was glad she was doing this. Tyreese turned and left to go back to his area, leaving her alone for a moment. Instinctively, her first thought was to go find Daryl and apologize, but she'd spent so many years apologizing for things she wasn't sorry for already. She knew she needed to stand her ground and let him know that she was serious and he wasn't going to sway her decision. The only problem was, in order to do that, she had to be in close proximity to him.
Maybe letting him sleep it off isn't such a bad idea.
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(moments earlier)
All Daryl could see was red. He was so angry he was about to spit nails. What the hell was Carol thinking? After all the times he'd saved her damn ass, and now she wanted to go out risking it all. And for what? To prove that she wasn't a battered wife no more? Going out to play in the damn wilderness and poking walkers with a stick wasn't gonna fucking prove nothing, it was gonna end up getting her killed.
He couldn't stop staring. She wouldn't even look him in the eye, which pissed him off all the more. He was gonna take her aside the minute this was all over and tell her that it wasn't happening. It was bad enough that he couldn't argue going for his own sake, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let her go off into the mountains without him. Just as her eyes were lifting to finally look up, Rick blocked his view.
"Daryl…" He came up; placing a hand on his arm, like it would help. "I think you should go back to the tent now."
He didn't attempt to fight Rick on it, but he didn't exactly skip out the door either. He took his good ol' time going back outside and stopped as soon as he hit the blacktop. If she was smart, she'd come out right now and tell him that she was just kidding and forget the whole thing, but that was like wishing for a palace when you didn't have a pot to piss in. Daryl had been so messed up about the whole thing that it was just now registering in his head what Rick had said as he was walking away.
I'll keep her safe.
Rick shouldn't be keeping her safe! He should! He needed to get back in there and plead his case. His ankle was still swollen, but he could get around on it. There had to be something he could do to stop this. Suddenly, Merle's voice popped up in the back of his head, egging him on.
Nice way to drive your lil' lady away there, dipshit. Probably won't even make it back now since you wrote her off. Maybe she'll just throw herself at a herd and let them rip off her flesh like she was a rotisserie chicken.
Daryl growled and kicked the wall as excruciating pain seared its way up his leg. His anger had now turned to self-hatred, and he knew there was no way he could go on the hunt now. Damn his pride! Now she could go out there and sacrifice herself for nothing. He'd practically driven her right into the arms of danger.
And possibly another man.
She would only look up at him once she was hiding behind Tyreese. How could she be scared of what he might do to her, but she was willing to trust a guy she barely knew to protect her? Daryl's blood boiled at the thought of him trying something out there with her in the woods.
God-fucking-dammit!
Something in Daryl snapped. He hadn't felt this way about someone since his mom had died in that fire. He hadn't been able kept her safe. Not from his daddy, and not from herself. Part of him knew that she'd wanted to die; she'd just done it slowly over the course of a few decades. If he didn't stop the cycle now, he'd end up just like his old man. He'd been pushing people away for too long, and it needed to end.
Starting. Right. Now.
A/N: This was a crazy scene to write, and I went back and forth about having them make up the same night, but I decided that it'd be better to let Daryl stew over his feelings. Carol in my eyes has become a total badass in season 3, so I'm totally amped to get her out there with the walkers and have her prove herself just like everyone else.
I also started playing with the notion of there being a love triangle situation between Daryl, Carol, and Tyreese. In the novel, Carol and Tyreese were an item for a while, and while I have no plans to actually make him a threat to Daryl at this point, I want Daryl to think he could be. He's quite a complicated man, but you still have to love him!