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- CHAPTER TEN-

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- 12 Days After Banishment

- The Double G Country Store

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Carol loaded the last of the supplies into her car and closed the hatch. After two days of lovin', and what lovin' it had been, she and Daryl had decided to go back to the prison.

"I won't stay," she told him. "Not unless everyone agrees."

Daryl nodded his head. "I understand," he said softly.

"Do you really, Daryl?" she questioned "Because if Rick, or any of them for that matter, say that they don't want me there… I'm gone."

Daryl squeezed her naked form a little tighter against him as he nuzzled her ear. "And I'll be right beside ya. We'll get the girls and get the hell outta Dodge if that's what ya want. Hell, Carol, I ain't makin' ya go back if ya don't wanna."

Carol knew his words to be true. He would never force her to go back to the prison. What she really hated about the whole damn situation was that she wanted to go back… to be amongst the ones she'd called family. It was the idea of their rejection that had her scared, shaking her to her core.

"Already told ya…" Daryl mumbled against her skin, as his hands began to roam across her body. "It's you and me… package deal. I can face alotta things, Carol. But, I won't face 'em without ya."

Carol felt her heart melt at his words and she smiled. "I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

"Ain't tryin' to be sweet," he told her, his voice gravelly as he spoke. "Jus' bein' truthful."

She moved then, turning in his arms just a bit so that she could see his face. "I love you, you big softy."

Daryl grinned wickedly at her, something mischievous peeking out from behind those steely blue eyes. "Right back atcha, hellcat."

"Hey," Daryl greeted as he came up beside her. "You okay?"

Carol nodded, grinning at the man before her. "Just daydreamin'," she told him.

"You ready to do this?" he asked, a look of worry settling onto his features.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

She watched then as Daryl chewed on the corner of his lip. "It'll be fine," he mumbled.

Carol scoffed at his words. "You trying to convince me or yourself?"

Daryl shrugged before moving to wrap her in his arms and Carol welcomed the embrace. "Whatever happens, I'll be right there with ya. Ya ain't alone, Carol. Not anymore."

And he was right.

"Now or never," she whispered against his chest and she felt him sigh into her hair.

"Yep." Daryl said softly before releasing her and heading toward his own car.

"You'll be…"

"Right behind you," Carol interrupted him, watching him grin before she slipped into the driver's seat of her car.

She watched then as the vehicle in front of her pulled out and headed toward the prison. A big part of her wanted to run, but she wouldn't. Daryl had been right; she wasn't alone anymore. And, wherever he led, she would follow. So, she started the car and headed in the same direction as the man in front of her, smiling when she saw him glance up at the rear view mirror, just to make sure she was there. She waved, knowing it fluster him to have been caught, but she didn't care. And as they picked up speed, she grinned, muttering softly to herself, "I'm right behind you."

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- 12 Days After Banishment

- The Prison

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Maggie leaned over the tower's rail as she scanned the prison yard. There were a few walkers at the fence, but it had lightened considerably since the night that all hell broke loose and she'd almost lost Glenn. She was more thankful than she could even describe that he had survived, not knowing how she would have made it if something had happened to him. Glenn was the love of her life and just the thoughts of him being gone made her ache.

Her mind wandered to Daryl then and she frowned. She compared her worry at losing Glenn to how Daryl must have felt when he heard of Rick's actions against Carol. He had lost the woman he loved… not to a walker, or to some damned flu, but because Rick had cast her out. And all because of something she didn't even do.

Maggie felt shame course through her as she remembered telling Rick that he had done the right thing. She hadn't really believed it, but she seen no sense in arguing with him since there wasn't anything she could have done to change it. But she should have done it anyway, she knew that now, but hindsight's twenty-twenty and the damage had been done.

She missed Carol, though… more so than she really even thought she would. She hadn't realized, until the woman was gone, just how much they had all depended on her. When Judith was fussy, they looked to Carol. When one of the many children in the prison needed something, they looked to Carol. When it was time to cook, they looked to Carol. When they need a shoulder to cry on, they looked to Carol. Why had no one noticed her importance in the prison until she was gone?

No, that wasn't true. Daryl had noticed. He'd seen it all along, and called them all out on their shit when Rick had finally told him what he'd done.

There, before Rick and God and the small group that had tried to break them apart, Daryl had laid it all out for them. He threw it in their face about just what and who Carol was. He let them all know, right real quick, about the kind of woman that she was and just who Rick had kicked out of the group. And the biggest thing, the thing that had shocked them all, was that he had professed his love… not with those words exactly, but they all knew what he was saying. Rick had taken Carol from him and Daryl was lost.

So, it was no surprise to her when the hunter had said that he was going to find her and God, how she hoped that he had. Maggie hoped that Daryl had somehow managed to track Carol down and that they were both okay. She hoped that the two were happy and safe and together because they both deserved for it to be that way. But this world didn't usually have happy endings and Maggie resolved herself to the fact that one, if not both, were probably dead.

She turned then, her eyes immediately drawn to the graveyard and the cross that Daryl had placed there for Carol. He'd put it there to remember her, when they all thought that she had died right alone with T-Dog and Lori. "Maybe I'll write their names on it," she said aloud. "Together."

"It's the least I can do," she told herself, making a mental note to get it done the minute her shift ended.

Turning her attention back to her duties, Maggie glanced sparingly across the prison yard until she took notice of a dust trail rising along the road leading to the prison.

"What the hell?" she questioned, knowing that no one was out on a run or off the prison property.

"Something's comin'," she warned Michonne and Carl who were walking the area by the fences.

The words were no sooner out of her mouth than she saw a Jeep Cherokee and a Ford Taurus headed toward the gate.

Quickly, Maggie grabbed the binoculars and fixed it on the vehicles.

It was Daryl.

It was Daryl… and Carol.

"Let 'em in," she yelled down to Michonne and Carl as she opened the hatch to the tower. "Let 'em in!"

The two nodded and quickly moved to open the gates, letting the two cars inside the prison gates.

"I'll be damned," Maggie said with a smile as she scurried down the ladder and headed to the yard. "Guess I won't be making a grave marker after all."

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