A/N – Okay, LopezG, so this probably wasn't what you were thinking when you asked for uplifting, but it's the best I can do at this point in the story. I'll write you a happy one-shot and post it today or tomorrow. :)

He would have left it alone. He had every intention of leaving it alone. Not necessarily because he didn't care – when it came to Carol, Daryl cared far more than anyone else thought he should – but because he had enough going on in his own life. Merle had strayed off his program again, it was obvious he was using by the way he had started acting more and more erratic with each passing day. Their father had just been released from a six month jail stint and he was about as angry and ravenous as a dog that hadn't been fed in a week.

They didn't have a good relationship, Daryl and his father, but they were family and Daryl took his responsibilities seriously, even if no one else seemed to. And by "no one", he definitely meant Merle. His brother wasn't the same when he was off his program. He was almost predictably unreliable, and he'd disappear for weeks on end. It reminded Daryl of a tomcat they once had when they were younger. The thing would take off and disappear for days while it impregnated all the girl cats it came across, and then it'd turn up looking like hell and stinking like piss. Merle was much the same at the end of one of his benders. Of course, they'd eventually neutered the cat and that'd put an end to that. Daryl didn't think he could do the same to his brother.

It was obvious that Carol needed help, but it was equally as obvious that she didn't seem to want it. Whatever the reason, Daryl didn't judge her for it. They all deal with the lot they're dealt. They do the best with what they have and they shut up about what they don't. He had every intention of leaving it alone, but that was until he ran into Sophia.

A month had passed since the accident when he'd last seen Carol. He was at the shopping mall of all places, on a search for Merle's latest dealer to find out where the hell Merle had stole off to this time. The guy was a real toolbag, this dealer, practically twelve from the looks of him although Daryl was sure the guy was at least as old as he was. The dealer had a habit of hanging out in one of the side corridors of the place, a long corridor with a cubby area that held the entrances to the bathrooms. Daryl was sure the guy would be camped outside the men's bathroom entrance, leaning back against the vending machines making lewd comments at the teenage girls as they came out of the women's bathroom on the other side.

He was halfway down the corridor when he got distracted, when the whole reason for his being there just up and flew out the window. He passed a group of girls trailing behind a woman, was two steps beyond them when her voice – hesitant and soft – stopped him.

"Mister… uhhh…. Daryl?"

He turned in his tracks to see Sophia, her hair shoulder length and blonde, her eyes too old for her young years.

"Sophia?," the woman who was clearly in charge of the group said, her tone was suspicious.

"It's alright, ma'am," Sophia said sweetly, turning to look at the woman, "he's a friend of my mom's."

Daryl nodded, somewhat dumbstruck by the whole thing and the woman seemed pacified. She gave him a sharp nod in return and said, her words aimed at Sophia, "we'll be right at the end of the hall, dear, but don't be long." And then her eyes caught Daryl's as she added, "I'll be watching."

Sophia looked back at him, smiled with half of her mouth and muttered, "girl scouts," as if that would explain everything.

Daryl scratched his head and looked at her, a softened scowl on his face, eyes somewhat narrowed with confusion. She smiled then, her face brightening.

"My mom said you were friends for a long time, Mister Daryl," Sophia was saying.

"Daryl, ain't no mister, just Daryl," he muttered interrupting her. Her mouth closed with an audible snap and she furrowed her little eyebrows together.

"My dad wouldn't like that," she said, her words soft as if she was speaking more to herself than to him, "if I called you just Daryl." The look on her face was wary, one that Daryl recognized as one he'd worn at times over the years that he'd been dealing with his own father. Daryl opened his mouth.

Sophia shook her head to herself then, before Daryl could speak, and she started to stammer and stumble her way through her thoughts, "my mom was s'posed to be here today, it's her day for girl scout troop, but her arm… well it got broke last night…"

"Wait, what?!," Daryl snapped and Sophia visibly flinched. She blinked at him and Daryl scowled but his expression was more at himself than her.

"My mom said…," she started to say…

"Sophia!," the woman at the end of the hall called out, "it's time to go." Her tone left no room for argument.

Sophia frowned, disappointment lining her features, and then she whispered, "you were friends, she said… we need your help Mist- I mean Daryl- my mom, she needs your help." She spun around and began hurrying down the hallway before Daryl could respond and he was left standing there watching her go, his heart pounding in his chest and the start of a headache beginning to creep up the back of his skull.

He didn't find Merle that day, although he did drive past the house he knew now was Carol's. There was no car in the driveway, but he hadn't expected there would be since he was sure her car had been totaled in the accident and it was unlikely that Ed would have bought her a new car already since then. The house looked dark though and uninhabited at the moment so he didn't stop, he just drove by, his head turned to peer at the building for too long to be considered safe while driving, but he didn't care.

That evening he paced around his living room while the rain pattered heavily and loudly onto the roof of his house. He was restless, his whole body coursed with it but his mind was even worse. He needed a plan. He needed to reach out to Carol, to go to her and tell her that she had to leave Ed. He'd protect her and Sophia. He'd figure out something. Daryl's head pounded but he couldn't stop himself from thinking at this point, there was no way to turn it off now.

He wished he could have gone to Merle with this. He wished Merle could get his shit together for three fucking minutes so that he even could go to Merle with this. He didn't even fucking know where Merle was. Daryl shook his head and gritted his teeth. Merle would have known what to do because he was Merle. There was no one that Daryl trusted more than his brother. They were tough as hell on each other, and knew exactly what buttons to push to make the other holler or bleed or beg for mercy, but at the end of the day or argument or whatever it was, none of that ever mattered. Family was family, and to Daryl, there'd never be a better brother than Merle even with all his faults.

His mind wandered from Carol for a moment to think about how important it was that he locate Merle soon. It'd been three weeks now since the last time he saw his brother and that was bordering on the longest bender that Daryl could remember in years. Maybe he could find him and enlist him into this Carol problem. Merle had always thought of Carol as a little sister, he'd want to pound the shit out of Ed just as much as Daryl did. He was racking his brain for places that Merle might be hiding when there was a knock on his door.

He didn't check the window, it was pouring out and he wouldn't have seen who was there anyway. The light on the porch didn't work; it'd been shot out by a neighbor kid with a BB gun almost two weeks ago. Daryl didn't glance at the clock on the wall, but if he had he'd have known it was nearly midnight, way too late for a visitor. Instead, he strode to the door purposefully in two strides and yanked the door open. A gust of wind blew in a mist of the now sideways rain outside and Daryl blinked back the droplets in his face before his eyes finally focused on the doorway to the porch.

Carol stood there huddled with Sophia. Carol's arm was casted up and hung at her side supported by a sling. Sophia was flush against her mother as if they were physically attached at the side, her head down. They were both soaked to the bone. He opened his mouth to speak as Sophia raised her head to meet his gaze and he saw the shiner below her left eye, a fresh blackish purple and obviously still swelling.

"I had nowhere else to go," Carol said as he looked at her, her eyes were bloodshot from crying, a gash on the side of her face was oozing blood, and her voice was raw and desperate.

A/N - Thank you for the reviews, everyone! They mean a lot!