Anything recognizable is the property of the appropriate owners. I do not make any claim to ownership, nor do I make any money from this.
Note: I have not seen past Season 4, Episode 9: After.
Warning: Things get rough here. Read at your own discretion.
In the morning, Carol carefully measured out a third of the supplies she had gathered since being banished and packaged the rest, leaving them within reach of Daryl still passed out on the soggy couch. She then quietly collected her single backpack and dismantled the barricade blocking the room they had sheltered in. The hunter would have an easier time surviving without her, the graying woman justified as she checked for walkers and picked a random direction. Firmly entrenched in denial about why she was really leaving, Carol jogged away into the pre-dawn light. Except Daryl woke as she was closing the door and he managed to scope out the direction she went. He dressed quickly, leaving most of the supplies to be picked up later after he had sorted out her ridiculous attempt to run away.
It wasn't long that he caught up to her on foot, when she stopped to check out some vehicles. "Carol, wait."
She sighed in frustration. It would have been so much easier if he hadn't caught up. "What?"
"Where ya goin'?" He crossed his arms and stood belligerently in her path.
"That way." She gestured vaguely up the road.
"Why didn't ya wake me?" Daryl had his suspicions based on his own issues, but had to know.
Carol wasn't having it though, frustrated that he foiled her clean escape. "Why do you think?" Immediately she rubbed a hand over her face and exhaled sharply. "Look, you're better off without me."
"I ain't leaving you again." The hunter declared firmly but she just scoffed.
"I don't need your pity, Daryl." Carol snapped back, suddenly angry that he apparently thought she was a burden that needed looking after.
"And what if it's not pity?" He intentionally kept his voice soft, knowing enough about her to recognize she was fired up and if that wasn't an endearing sight. She had been hurt but her spark hadn't been doused.
"Just don't." The short haired woman shook her head, unwilling to believe that it could be anything else. She had no doubts about her worth and how much of a liability she would be for him.
But when she tried to move off around him, Daryl just fell into place at her side. She ignored him for several hundred yards but quickly tired of his presence and stopped walking, letting her arms hand limply at her sides. "Will you at least go get the supplies I left?"
"Sure." Daryl agreed easily. "But yer comin' with me."
Carol wanted to argue and scream, but for whatever reason he had decided to employ his Dixon stubbornness to keep her from leaving. And while she could be stubborn, she could also be patient. If Daryl wasn't going to let her out of his sight, she would wait for another moment for his own good. Except it wasn't really for his own good, It was for hers. Every time she caught her reflection in a dirty window or cracked mirror, all she saw was the marks left by violent men, the phantom bruises that showed her as worth only what others could get out of her. She felt soiled, as if the filth she had been subjected to had stained her skin and anything she touched would be tainted too, so the short haired woman kept to herself, careful not to even brush up against the hunter.
Except, Daryl didn't seem to get the memo every time she tried to pull away when he got too close. He was constantly reaching out to her, touching her back to alert her silently to his location when clearing a building or intentionally letting his fingertips brush her hands when accepting a mug of what passed for coffee on the road while searching for the others. The hunter sat close every night, laying out their bedding together, always nudging her with his knee when he didn't think she had eaten enough. Hell, he didn't even let her take a piss alone, letting her get a few yards away for privacy, but always within earshot, even in the middle of the night, as if he was afraid she might try to disappear again.
While it might have been what she dreamed of after escaping the Greene farm on the back of his motorcycle and what she offered the first first night at the prison, it infuriated her now. Daryl treated her as if she hadn't been abused and brutalized, like everything was normal, as if they were a couple. She knew she didn't deserve his kindness, but even the thought of hurting his feelings by rejecting him didn't settle the way her shoulders tensed when he threw a blanket around the both of them through the long night. Finally, Carol had enough and snapped, throwing off the blanket and jumping to her feet, startling the taller man.
"Just back off, Daryl!" The short haired woman clenched her fists at her side as she shouted in his face.
"Easy, Carol." He held his hands up placatingly, worried that she was standing too close to their tiny fire.
No, don't tell me to take it easy!" She was well and fully revved up, boiling over and unable to do anything but shout in frustration. "You've been glued to my side and I need some space!"
"We can't afford ta be separated." Daryl didn't try to stand yet. "It's too risky."
"Just stop smothering me already!" Carol blew out a breath, losing some of her steam and stomped around the far side of the fire to sit.
He wasn't offended by her outburst, just concerned so he spoke softly. "What do you want me to do?"
She scrubbed her hands over her face and sighed defeated. "I don't know. I just want things to go back to the way they were before."
"Before he hurt you?" It was a risk to blatantly refer to Tyreese's actions, but he blamed himself for ignoring her plight, not her for the situation, never her.
"Before Woodbury, before the prison." Carol waved her hands to encompass everything in general, not just her pain, but that of the others as well. "I just want to pretend none of it happened."
Daryl bobbed his head, keeping her gaze over the fire so she would know his truth. "Okay."
"Okay? That's it?" She gaped, not sure what she expected, but definitely something more satisfying than 'okay.'
"What else is there to say?" The hunter filmed his voice, more sure of what he was saying with each word. "It's just us, on the road, with no destination. Just surviving each day."
How sure he sounded settled something that had been restless inside of her and they lapsed into a not uncomfortable silence as she chewed on his words. Anyone else, Carol would have never contemplated believing their intentions, but Daryl had never lied to her. In fact, he had actually taken the time to explain the hard truths of the world to her when Rick and Shane had pretended the Army was going to show up any day. He had also taken the time to teach her how to survive when he had no reason to unless he wanted to see her live. And there were all the little touches since the prison.
As if he could read her mind, Daryl broke the silence. "Ain't nothin can make a Dixon do somethin' he don't want to."
Carol couldn't help the little quirk of her mouth so he continued. "So you gotta know there ain't anywhere I'd rather be, or anyone I'd rather be with."
"Promise?" The short haired woman gave him a watery smile.
"Dixons don't lie neither." He gave his word and was rewarded by a genuine smile that lit up her fine features in the golden glow of the firelight.
Daryl knew he had won her over, or at least convinced her to consider his actions at face value rather than look for an ulterior motive and grinned in return. "Now, ya wanna piece'a this blanket or not?" He held up the corner of the comforter in invitation.
The short haired woman considered declining as would be her norm, but she realized that they were alone and he wouldn't offer if he didn't mean it. So she got up and joined him on his side of the fire, tucking under his arm so he could wrap them both in the blanket. Carol forced herself to relax and just enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by his presence and allowed to revel in it. She wasn't magically fixed by any means, but it was a start and they would look for the others and they would survive, and maybe, they might just live too.