When they found an empty room to talk in private Carol sighed and sunk down on a box of supplies in the corner. "If this has anything to do with Rick I think we should wait, he's not my favourite person right now."

"Nope, nothing to do with Rick, and trust me… I can appreciate that," Lori added with a smirk. "This has to do with you and a certain handsome patient…"

Carol gave Lori a curious look, trying really hard to pretend she had no clue who Lori was talking about. "What patient?" she asked.

Lori crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "You know exactly who I mean. The one you keep visiting… Mr. Dixon."

Carol shrugged. "I don't know what you're going on about. You know I visit all my patients."

"Mmm, hmm… but you don't look at them all the way you look at Daryl," Lori replied.

Carol sighed again. "He almost died. You know I've lost a lot of patients lately. It felt good to have a win with him I guess."

"The paralyzed patient in B2 almost died too… yet you only check on him once a day during rounds…" Lori let her voice trail off.

"Jesus, what's with you?" Carol growled. "Physio has taken over the case, he's not critical anymore…"

"Neither is Daryl," she piped up.

"Fuck off," Carol snapped in exasperation. "Sorry," she added quickly. She couldn't remember ever telling her best friend to fuck off before when it wasn't just teasing.

"Shit Carol… you're taking me all wrong," Lori said, coming to sit beside her. She picked up Carol's hands. "I'm happy for you. I think this is a good thing. Maybe even great."

"Wh...what are you talking about?" Carol stammered. "Even if I was interested… he's a patient… I can't… it's unprofessional… unethical…"

Lori grinned at her and Carol knew she'd just completely given away that she had a stirring inside for Daryl… as if it mattered - Lori already knew. "He's not going to be a patient forever. He's gonna get better and he's gonna leave here… and when he does I think you should make sure you have a plan to see him again."

"No. No," Carol shook her head. "I can't… it's not right." She had already thought about the very thing Lori was suggesting, wondering if she could somehow find out Daryl's hang out spots in conversation and then just happen to show up there a few times. But so far the only place she knew he liked to go was the woods and she needed him to stay far away from there.

"Carol, listen to me…" Lori squeezed her hands. "You have not shown even a scrap of interest in men since you left Ed. You've become a workaholic, addicted to your job and not much else."

"Is that such a bad thing? I'm good at what I do. People need me, especially now. Besides," Carol said stubbornly. "I've been on a few dates."

"What? Like 3 or 4? What's that? One a year? And did you ever see the same guy more than once?" Lori raised her eyebrows.

Carol gave her a harmless glare, "You know they all sucked."

"Jesus woman, when's the last time you've been laid?" Lori nudged her and laughed.

Carol blushed and let out a long breath. "Uh… It's been a while. A long… long… while." Lori was her best friend, she knew how long it had been since Carol had slept with anyone. There was a drunk one night stand with a much younger, smoking hot fireman right after she left Ed that she chalked up to either a celebration fuck or temporary insanity and nothing since.

"Seriously Carol, you need this. For some reason this man has caught your attention without even trying when countless guys have worked their asses off for it and got nothing. You can't ignore that. Promise me you won't," Lori begged.

"I don't know if I can make that promise," Carol whispered. "It's just… it's not right. What will people think? My colleagues aren't going to approve…"

"Who gives a shit what anyone thinks?" Lori replied eagerly. "Nothing might come of it anyway and if this does turn out to be something more… by the time people find out it won't matter anymore anyway. Doctors see former patients, nurses too. It's not as big of a deal as it used to be. In other countries it's not even an issue at all." Carol gave her a skeptical look. "I'm serious. Those student nurses that were here on exchange with the College last year… they had lots of stories to tell. They didn't understand a lot of our customs because things are very different where they're from."

"But we're not in other countries… we're here," Carol responded.

"You need to relax and go with it." Lori tapped her chest. "Use your heart for once instead of that oversized, beautiful brain." Carol looked at her friend and she wanted so badly to do what Lori was saying, but the internal struggle was raging. "The look I see on your face when you leave his room is something I have never seen from you before. He asked about you during the night too…"

"He did?" Carol perked up. "How come I wasn't paged?"

Lori laughed at her eagerness. "It was the middle of the night and he was higher than a kite on morphine." She bit her lip and smirked. "I believe he called you the silver haired foxy doc with great tits and pretty blue eyes."

Carol felt a flutter inside and her heart started beating faster. She blushed slightly, but she was way too intrigued by his under the influence loose tongue. "Well at least he noticed my eyes too," she joked.

"I thought you should know that he's clearly taken an interest in you too," Lori replied with a grin. "Sometimes a good dose of pain meds is just like truth serum." Lori snickered.

"Or he was just acting crazy in a drug induced state," Carol muttered.

Lori shook her head. "Nope, he seems like a pretty quiet and shy guy for the most part, but the morphine gave him some courage. He's got the hots for you Darlin'."

"You're exaggerating," Carol said quickly, but inside her chest her heart was doing flip flops. Was it really possible? Was Daryl really attracted to her? He was likely just thankful that she saved his life.

"Trust me… he wants you and your great tits," Lori laughed.

Carol looked down the v-neck of her scrubs. "They're not even that big," she mumbled.

Lori looked down at her own chest. "Not all men like big boobs ya know. At least that's what Rick tells me."

"Rick, ugh," Carol growled.

"Not that I want to change the subject or spoil your mood… but any chance you want to tell me what my lovely hubby has done to piss you off?" Lori asked.

"He's going to investigate Daryl's brother - for the hunters getting shot," Carol hissed. "His brother. Does he really think Daryl's own brother would try to kill him? I've known the guy for a couple days and never even met Merle but I can already tell they're close. I know they had a big fight, but they're blood and that will never change."

"Carol, you know they don't have any other leads right now…" Lori tried to be rational.

"Yeah, but if Daryl finds out they are treating Merle as a suspect, rather than a missing person it's going to upset him…" She let her voice trail off when she saw the wide grin on her friends face. "What?"

"You're already protecting him. You're practically married," she teased.

Carol rolled her eyes, "You're too much." Before she could add anything else Lori's cell rang.

"The press conference is on the news, let's go find a TV," Lori announced after hanging up.

By the time they got to the lounge it was already packed with people watching the TV. They had missed the start but clearly Rick had told everyone that they believed there was a psychopath out in the woods, trying to kill hunters.

"Sheriff, do you have any leads? Any suspects?" a reported asked.

"We do have one lead we're looking into and a possible suspect, but we haven't been able to locate him for questioning," Rick replied. Carol felt her stomach lurch.

"What's his name?" a voice in the crowd yelled.

"We would like to keep that confidential at this time," Rick responded.

His response caused an uprise in the crowd, with lots of yelling and chaos. "If there's a suspect at large we have the right to know. What if we spot him? What if he strikes again and we could have stopped him? What if we know him?" The questions continued to be shouted from the crowd.

Carol saw Rick look over at someone and then he held up a hand. "The suspect we're looking for…" No, no don't do it, Carol silently prayed to no avail. "Is Merle Dixon." The room started spinning and she didn't hear anything else that was said after that. It wasn't until someone shut off the TV and people started to prepare to leave the room that she snapped out of it.

"Listen up," Carol yelled, quickly blocking the door. "Don't any of you breath a word of this to my patient," she said sharply. "Daryl does not find out about this, got it?" Every head in the room nodded. Satisfied she turned on her heel and spun, storming out of the room. What a damn mess, she thought. Without a care of who might see her she headed straight for Daryl's room. He would have no clue that his brother was a suspect in his own attempted murder, yet she still needed to make sure he was alright. This time she acknowledged it was more for her, because she couldn't deny any longer that she was falling for this man she barely knew.