Summary: Let him live. Just let him live and do whatever you want with me. But let him live.

Hey, everyone!

Wow, so many people hating me for the last chapter… But it wasn't really a cliffhanger, was it? I spoiled it with capitals that everyone was safe :)

I didn't have time to answer back to you, I promise I'll try to catch up with everyone.

Just spent the whole day writing like crazy in order to update soon, but I'm afraid this chapter is not a good one… I didn't even make a decent check, so be prepared for any kind of errors. Anyway, I really tried my best!

The Walking Dead belong to Robert Kirkman and AMC. No copyright infringement intended.

Enjoy!


His body jerked erratically, head lolled to the side, coughing and gagging, water gurgling irregularly from his mouth and nose and, finally, his eyes hot open, squinting at the daylight.

Carol drew back and watched him speechless, stone-still, jaw clenched, a blank expression in her eyes, hands tangled in her lap.

Maggie rushed next to him, propping him on his side and slightly patting his back to help him ease his agony. Glenn and Michonne grinned at each other incredulously watching the unforeseen, blessed outcome in front of them, while Beth run to the prison to update Hershel and prepare to examine the almost drowned man.

Rick dropped the gun and fell on his knees, grasping Daryl's shoulder and rubbing his own eyes. "Thank God", he whispered. "Thank God."

Daryl gasped for air, still shaking violently from the sudden rebooting of his body functions. His blurry gaze instantly searched for the person that mattered the most. When his eyes drifted on her meek figure, the dead expression of her face startled him despite his haze. He reached out a hand and made a husky sound which resembled to her name.

At the sound of her name, she instinctively jolted forward as if she was forcefully slapped in the face and, leaning heavily on her hands, she started puking, empting the contents of her stomach on the ground. When there was nothing left, she rolled on her back, brought her shaking hands in her face and sobbed violently, her body shuddering uncontrollably as if shocked by electric current, guttural groans escaping her mouth, unable to assuage the suffocating pain in her chest, legs stretched out.

Everyone's attention drifted to Carol's hysterical breakdown. There was no relief in her ferocious outburst, no soothing whimpers ebbing off her previous terror; just painful spasms penetrating her worn body. She tried to hold on to the composed rational voice inside her head that kept repeating firmly that he was alive, very much alive and safe among them and that she hadn't failed; she had succeeded, she had resuscitated him against all odds. But this voice couldn't reach her wrenched gut or unshackle her heart from the stern snatch of desperation. Uncovering her eyes was a dreadful thought, meeting his was inconceivable. She wasn't sure if he was alive, making all these sounds or if her tortured mind was shamelessly mocking her; she definitely felt crazy enough to have visions and hallucinations of him. And if, by some miracle, she hadn't gone completely nuts and he was truly coughing his lungs out less than a foot away from her, she was sure he would vanish the moment she set eyes on him. That's just how cruel and vicious this world was to her.

"I'm fine. I'm okay", he reassured everyone ignoring the stabbing feeling in his sore throat, his ragged breaths finally stabilizing. "Carol!"

She didn't respond, didn't dare to even hope that he was calling her name, she was convinced beyond any doubt that this would never happen again, not even in her wildest dreams. The minutes he laid lifeless beneath her had broken her to the core.

Strong arms held her up and fingers curled around her wrists trying to tug her hands away from her swollen face. She confined begrudgingly, too spent from the former struggle to revive him to fight back significantly. Glenn and Michonne were leaning over her, grave concern wrinkling their foreheads, while tearless sobs kept escaping her throat. They stared at her warily and she returned a wild-eyed look. They were there too, she hadn't noticed.

"It's okay, you made it. Look!" Glenn encouraged sweetly, but she didn't react.

"Turn around", Michonne ordered, rubbing her arms roughly. "Quit this shit and turn around! Just look at him!"

Carol blinked.

"Stop yelling at her", a familiar growl reached her ears; mumbled and hoarser than usual, but this growl couldn't belong to anyone other than her redneck.

She whirled around and locked eyes with him only for a split second, before turning to Rick. "Better get him to Hershel", she said flatly.

She watched him trying to resist Rick and Glenn and crawl his way towards her, but didn't move an inch from her place. The last thing that reached her ears as they dragged him away with Maggie on their heels was his raspy voice asking what was wrong and Rick's concerned "She thought you died" response.

Carol turned to Michonne who was still sitting next to her and motioned towards Daryl's direction. "He's alive, isn't he?" she asked holding her breath, afraid that the answer might shutter her heart, or whatever was left of it, into pieces.

Michonne smiled kindly. "Yes. As alive as I am."

"I'm not crazy then, right?"

"Well, it was touch and go for a while, but I think you finally kept your shit together", she offered.

Carol felt gratitude for Michonne's light behavior; she knew it was feigned. "Thank you", she told her honestly, placing a hand on her arm.

"No problem. Maybe you tell him a good word tomorrow. I bet he'll be looking for me with the crossbow loaded", she laughed, but Carol's answering smile didn't reach her eyes.

When Michonne finally convinced her to return to the prison, she found herself anxious to get close to him again, to make sure for herself that he was alive. The two of them met Rick and Hershel in the hallway and Carol's heart skipped a beat.

"He's fine, he's sleeping", Hershel reassured her before she opened her mouth.

"He's fine?" she echoed, still unable to accept it.

"Yes, he's fine", Hershel reiterated slowly, to give the news time to sink in her. "It's you we're worried about", he went on when he had her attention again. "Rick tells me you had quite a breakdown out there."

Carol's head snapped. "Rick doesn't get to talk", she hissed, addressing to Hershel but glaring at Rick. "He drew a gun on us. On him!"

"Carol…" Rick pleaded, "I had to, you know I had to."

"Draw a gun on him?" she eyed him incredulously.

He nodded, hugging her tightly around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry", she mumbled pathetically burying her face in the crook of his neck. "I know. Something's wrong with me", she confessed, new tears welling up her eyes.

"You're pretty shaken", Hershel patted her back in understanding. "You're gonna be fine. Just take this and get some sleep", he said handing her a pill.

"A sedative?" she asked confused, but swallowed it immediately.

Hershel nodded. "It will help your brain slow down a bit", he elaborated. "That's all you need."

"I wanna go to him", she told him.

"Then who am I to stand in your way, sweetheart?" Hershel laughed.

Once in his cell, she couldn't unglue her eyes from his sleeping frame. He's chest was moving up and down with steady breaths and he seemed immersed in a peaceful sleep. She sat down next to his cot, resting her head on the thin mattress, counting his breaths.

She had almost lost him. She had lost him. For some minutes that felt like years, she had lost him. Long enough to know what it'd mean for her to lose him. And she hated the realization. Remembering how adamant he used to be about love being nothing more than a death sentence, doubt crept in her gut and for the first time in her life she wondered if there was a small chance that he was right and she was wrong.


"For our young love birds", she had said to save him from the embarrassment as she tucked a box of condoms in her backpack.

"Pfff", he had snorted. "Fools!"

"Maggie and Glenn are no fools", she protested. "They are in love!"

"Getting involved in the middle of the apocalypse?" he barked at her. "Pfff! Idiots! Feelings get you distracted and distracted gets you killed. Or give you a weak spot and weak spot gives your enemy leverage and you get killed again. Or the other dies and then you die too. Either way, you die."

"And don't you die anyway sooner or later?" she had mumbled with tears threatening to roll, quickly going back to the truck.

They hadn't spoken a word on their way back to the prison that day.

One night a week later, he came in her cell with a dark desire in his eyes for the first time.


She felt much better when she opened her eyes in the dusk of the setting sun and exhaled in relief seeing him still asleep in his bunk. He'd be fine, too. She had woken up to check on him a couple of times, but the effect of the sedative forced her eyelids shut almost immediately. Picking herself from the floor, she walked close to him for the first time since the events at the pond, bent over and stroked his face adoringly with the slightest of touch, not wanting to disturb his serenity.

Collapsing in the shower beneath the flowing water a few minutes later without even bothering to undress herself, she tugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, trying to think how the hell she'd be able to ever speak to him again without bursting into tears. Or how she'd ever face him again without fearing for his life. Never had Daryl come so close to death; that was her job. And he'd be the one to save her, never the other way around. Maybe somehow they could just shrug it off as her simply returning the favor and just go on like they usually did, not really making a big deal out of it. She just had to calm down and control her nerves and she'd know exactly what to do as soon as he woke. He'd probably be mad at her, both for running after him in the first place and for her lunatic reaction when he came around. Maybe he'd rather stay away from her altogether, to avoid the hysterics, the pain and the possible loss. Maybe. She'd know soon.

Sooner than she thought. The sound of his boots brought her back to reality and he popped up from the corner moments later, surprised to see her getting soaked to the bone in the shower.

"You realize I'd rather stay away from water for at least ten years, right?" he said, eyeing her cautiously, trying to weigh her expression, voice a hint rougher than normal.

She shrugged, trying to laugh the situation off. "Not much of a shower lover in the first place".

He leaned against the wall, folding his arms in his chest.

"You should be in bed", she tried to ignore the elephant in the room. God, she hated the way she felt under his gaze; it was as if he could see right through her, instantly aware of her emotional turmoil and her weakness to deal with it rationally.

"Figured I'd made clear you can't avoid me forever", he scolded her, but it was obvious he wasn't really angry, just worried mostly.

"I was with you the whole time", she whispered, eyes downcast.

"You were on the floor", he corrected her calmly.

Of course he had noticed. Even half dead, there was no way Daryl could sleep so many hours straight. He had probably checked on her more times than she had actually checked on him.

"I didn't want to bother you", she lied. I couldn't meet your eyes would be more sincere. "You almost died." At least that was true…

"Are you planning to quit this fuckin' shit any time soon? 'Cause I'm not feeling very much like myself yet", he yelled angrily for the first time.

He took a step closer and towered over her, but didn't enter the shower. Carol tilted her head to face him and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry", she said softly.

He sighed and finally joined her inside, toeing his boots off and falling hard next to her, shoulders touching.

"Look, I know…"

"Don't even…", she caught him lamely. "Please. You have no idea. You weren't… there."

"Rick told me", he clarified.

"Maybe Rick should tell me, too. Between dragging you out of the pond and your coughing your lungs out, I have zero recollection of the events", she admitted guilty.

She exhaled a huge amount of air she'd been withholding and turned to meet his wary gaze. Letting him know without scare him off was something she didn't know how to do, but she had decided a long time ago that secrets would never creep their way between them.

"It felt like I was losing my mind. Something inside my head flipped, I swear", she said blaming the running water for the wetness on the face. "You'd think that after everything we've been through, l was the resilient type."

"You are", he corrected her confidently. "You were just scared, is all. But you saved me."

She raised an eyebrow. "You sound quite weird yourself… All this talking and understanding… What? Irreversible brain damage due to lack of oxygen?"

"Naw… More like a wake-up call", he had her full, impervious attention again. "You're not the only one who almost lost everything out there."

"I know; I 'm sorry I make this all about me. I just… I know, you almost lost your life", she apologized.

"And you", he said matter-of-factly, holding her blue gaze, "And you."

"Fuck, Carol. All I could think about was you. And things… You know, things I never said or did", he admitted with everything he had to make her understand.

She was confused. It didn't look like he wanted to put a stop to whatever was happening between them. "You don't regret it then? Us?"

"Fuck no, I don't!", he exclaimed. " Do you?"

"You told me once that smart people don't get involved in the middle of the apocalypse", she reminded him.

He mentally kicked himself for all the bullshits he used to shove down her throat. "I was just being an asshole. That's what I do…"

"But you were right."

"What the fuck is that suppose to mean? You're ending this?" His heart started racing, his stomach jolted painfully. No,no. He hadn't run in panic after her when he woke up and she was nowhere to be seen to lose her; quite the contrary, he wanted her forever.

"No! God, no! I'll never be ready to let you go, Daryl. In any possible way. It's not an option for me. Smart thinking or not, I've never been one of wise choices anyway. It's just… I felt I was dying trying to will you to live… You don't know what that can do to a person."

"The hell I don't! You've put me through this shit enough times!" He dismissed her.

She swallowed hard and remained silent. He was right.

"What do you want it to be then?" he asked, feeling his head would explode.

"You", she shrugged and waves of relief washed his frustration away.

"The questioned is, what do you want it to be?" she returned the question warily, her own insecurity twisting her heart.

His crooked smile brightened up his face, an unfathomable spark glistening in his eyes, but his lips remained pressed in a thin line. She knew that face.

"Words failing you again?" she smiled her sympathy.

He snorted his embarrassment and the inability to articulate his feelings. "It's fuckin' fight or flight, Carol. And I'm all for fighting, believe it or not. Let's fuckin' do this", he blurted everything out with one breath, his voice thick with emotion, searching her eyes for reassurance.

He found everything his was looking for in them. And a huge grin embellishing her face for bonus. "Go on…" she whispered, unable to grasp how her life had shifted from hell to heaven in hours.

She could see Daryl tried, he truly did. He blushed and stuttered and mumbled incomprehensible words and then he looked at her pleadingly like a lost puppy and then he bowed his head in defeat.

"Gimme a hand here maybe?" He breathed out.

She felt sorry and proud of him at the same time. Sorry for his crippled confidence years of abuse had subdued and proud of the man he had become on his own and the one he still fought to be. Her smile broadened.

She picked herself up and offered him a hand he willingly clasped to follow her. They were both standing directly under the shower now, water pouring all over them. Quietly she unbuttoned his shirt, taking all the time of the world to let him catch up and not flinch away. When she stripped his torso, she started tracing his body with the sponge, gently brushing the dirt off, the flowing water gradually wiping fear and constraints away. Following the sponge trail with her lips, she littered his wet chest with tender pecks lingering just a moment over his heart to feel the beat, hands caressing his sides and watched him close his eyes. She knew he was there with her, alive, and she knew he was there with her as a lover and a partner too. Last time her hands had touched his wet chest was that same morning, in a horrific, bleak, life threatening reality and she could remember of a time not that long ago, when the sensation of her hands on him and the fervent feelings they invoked him used to make him bolt, looking for a wall to punch, or a walker to smash, or a squirrel to hunt. But it wasn't this time and it wasn't this morning, either. It was right now and right there, it was a moment of happiness they were blessed with, a moment they didn't know if they would have enough time to live again; a moment to seal the unbreakable bond between them; a moment to cherish forever.

He slowly mimicked her movements, pulling her shirt off, unhooking her bra with a dexterity he didn't know he possessed and marveled at the sight of her naked breasts. Taking the sponge from her hand he did to her everything she had done to him, moaning over her delicate skin, making her knees quiver.

When he drew back, they shared a long moment staring at each other, ineffable messages conveying volumes of poetry between them. They were facing each other, but not touching, arms hanging by their sides. She knew that this was it, there was no going back from this moment; they had faced death and stood tall together. "I love you", she said simply.

Daryl nodded quickly, taking a moment to swallow the lump in his throat, his eyes burning holes in hers. "Me too", he whispered through gritted teeth, "I love you, too."

She smiled encouragingly. "Ok, remember to breathe now. Take all the time you need."

He exhaled a shaky breath, but never lost her eyes. "I'm okay. I'm ready."

"And although death lurks behind every corner…" she started unsure of how to continue.

"I still wanna do this", he interrupted her, feeling he had never spoken truer words.

She could see the honesty in his eyes; his effort to let her know moved her deeply. "Because living and surviving…" she went on, tears streaming down her face.

"… is not the same", he knew the difference now. She had shown him.

"And I'd rather live a day with you…" Her voice choked into a sniffle.

"… than a lifetime without you." His own trembling.

"Till death do us part, then?"

"Till death do us part."

They stared at each other for a long moment. She was the one to break the silence, a playful smile twitching in her lips.

"What a manipulative bitch I am! Brought you exactly where I wanted, didn't I?" she beamed at him.

He chuckled. "People here have no idea of the evil hatching under their roof", he wrapped his arms around her, eagerly searching for her lips. She reciprocated, immediately clinging to him, the sense of their touching chests sent waves of desire to every living cell of their bodies.

Their kiss was deep and passionate, tongues twirling together hungrily claiming domination, teeth biting and nipping each other's lips, savoring the moment, never managing to get close and deep enough to satisfy their aching lust. She gripped his head to unglue her mouth, leaving him panting for air.

"Make love to me, please. Make love to me like there's no tomorrow", she whispered, threading her fingers through his hair.

He lunged at her almost brutally, crashing her between his muscled body and the shower tiles, water lapping around them, and took her right there, with a passion and a ferocity common only to people in the death row, feeling her writhe with ecstasy under his steel grip.

The End.


Did I just get them married? And keep telling myself I did it in a believable way? Shit, I have no idea what I'm doing :)

After all this heartbreak, I think I'll try to write something different next time… If you have any ideas, bring them on!

Let me know if you liked it! Or if you didn't :) Any criticism is welcome if it's polite.

Thank you all for reading :) Your reviews would be extremely appreciated!

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