A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, folks. And sorry it's not a more interesting chapter to come back to. .

I've actually been struggling with these next couple of chapters, trying to get things set up properly. It turned out to be tricker than I thought. You'll probably read the next couple of chapters and wonder what my problem was, but trust me, I had issues. LOL

So, yeah, I'm not that happy with this chapter, but it's a set up for the next, so I'm just going to build a bridge and get over it, as Carol would say. ;)

Thank you again to everyone who is sticking with this story and I'm loving reading folks thoughts on TWD, Carly and this story. Such fun! :D

Okay, next chapter shouldn't be too far away, hopefully. We'll see what that muse can pull together, eh?

See you soon...

Chapter Ten

Breakfast was finished and everyone was together, deciding on what was to be done today.

Rick glanced over at Glenn. "Glenn, you want to take Maggie for a run into town? We're getting low on a few essentials. Looks like we're going to have to raid houses again."

"You should take Carol," said Maggie with a smile. "She's got the touch with findin' things lately."

"I'm happy to go," said Carol easily as she picked up a stack of dirty dishes. After her melt down with Daryl yesterday, she felt like a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders. Everything felt brighter today and all the tasks in front of them, infinitely more possible.

Maggie frowned as she noticed the marks on Carol's arms. "What happened to your arms, Carol?" she asked in concern, nodding at the bruises on Carol's arms in the shape of clear finger prints.

Carol looked down at her arms in surprise. "Oh." She glanced up and exchanged a look with the suddenly frowning Daryl. Carol hadn't noticed the bruises before then from where Daryl had held onto her so tightly during her breakdown. People rarely bothered mentioning their bumps and bruises these days. You were always covered in them, so there didn't seem much point to going on about it. It just was what it was. Carol sent Maggie a calm look. "I fell and Daryl caught me," she said simply.

"It must have been a bad fall," noted Rick in concern, eyeing her bruises as well.

Carol held Rick's gaze steadily, conscious of Daryl's intent eyes on her. "It was, but Daryl has good reflexes." She glanced over at Daryl and gave a little smile and saw him relax a little.

"That's good to know in the guy who sleeps with a crossbow," deadpanned Glenn.

"Okay, Glenn and Carol, you can head on out to town today, Oscar, you can come with me and-"

"Can I go with Glenn and Carol?" interrupted Carl.

"Into town?" his father queried.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Carl looked suddenly embarrassed as all eyes were on him. "I, ah, I need some things."

"Well, just give the list to Glenn and he'll get them for you."

"No!" said Carl sharply and then looked even more embarrassed as he glanced over at Beth who was stacking away the leftover food. "I have to go myself. I don't know what I want yet."

Rick looked confused. "If you don't know what you want, then how do you know you want it?"

Carol had caught the little look Carl had given Beth and had an idea what this was about. She put a hand on Rick's arm. "It's fine, Rick. I'm sure Carl will be a big help." She looked over at Glenn. "You don't mind, do you?"

Glenn put his cap on. "Nope, I take all comers." He paused and then made a face. "I don't mean that in a sexual way."

Hershel's response was a wry one. "We assumed as much, son."

Rick gave up. "Okay, you can go. You just be sure to mind Carol and Glenn though, you hear?"

Carl grinned. "I will."

"I'm comin' too," announced Daryl. He stood up from the stairs he'd been sitting on. "I need some things for my bow. I'll check out the gun shop, hopefully there will still be that kind of thing left."

"I can check for you," offered Glenn.

Daryl arched an eyebrow at him. "You know the kind of wax I need, you know what a dissipater pad looks like?"

Glenn pursed his lips and looked thoughtful. "A pad that dissipates?

"I'm comin'," said Daryl dryly.

"Can I come too?" asked Axel eagerly, obviously feeling there was safety in numbers with so many going to town now.

"No," said everyone at once.

Axel frowned. "Do you all get together and have meetings when I'm not around so you can do that?" he asked petulantly.

"Don't flatter yourself, dumb ass," Daryl advised him.

"I could help," argued Axel.

"How, by maimin' one of us?" threw back Daryl. "Thanks, but we all like the use of both of our hands."

"It was an accident," protested Axel for what felt like the hundredth time. "Anyways, I'm not the one bruising Carol all over."

Carol had only been half-listening to Daryl and Axel's back and forth but she immediately looked over to Daryl at Axel's latest ill-thought out comments. There was a tangible increase in tension in the room as Daryl's eyes narrowed menacingly, his jaw hardening.

Axel finally realised his mistake. "Don't hit me," he squeaked at Daryl, backing up quickly.

Glenn shook his head. "If you have options with Daryl, I'd go with the hitting, dude," he suggested. "It's kinda way down on the lists of potentially horrible things Daryl could do to you."

Axel looked around at the others for support, but they were all regarding him with varying degrees of annoyance. "Y'all are not good people," grumbled Axel.

Carol shook her head and gave a little smile. Say what you would about Axel, he did entertain, even if it was mostly unintentional.

"You're free to leave any time you like," bit out Daryl, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder with a little too much force.

Axel didn't respond, just pouted.

Rick nodded at him, changing the subject. "Axel, you and Oscar will be with me today. We need to get started on clearin' out more of the north wing of the prison."

"Not more body burnin'," said Axel despondently, seeming to have not learned his lesson yet.

"You can always bury them," offered up Rick coolly.

"We're fine with burning," said Oscar quickly, clearly not relishing that idea.

"Happy to hear it," drawled Rick.

The rest of the daily tasks were divided up and an hour later, Daryl, Carol, Carl and Glenn were in town. Carol glanced out the window of the jewellery shop she was in with Carl and saw Daryl and Glenn across the road, walking into the gun shop. She turned her attention back to Carl, who was staring intently at a glass display box. The story had been half-heartedly looted, but it mustn't have taken folks long to work out that jewellery wasn't a priority after a zombie apocalypse. If you couldn't eat it or kill with it, the importance of items declined rapidly. Carol kept her gun handy as she walked over to the boy and looked over his shoulder at the bracelet he was holding. "That's real pretty," she noted, taking in the white gold bracelet with inlays of some kind of blue gemstone. Carol didn't know enough about jewellery to know if she was looking at sapphires but regardless, it was very lovely.

Carl turned it over in his hand. "The stones are the same colour as-" he trailed off and avoided looking at Carol.

Carol lips curved in a small smile. "As Beth's eyes?" she offered up.

Carl sent her a sheepish look. "Do you think she'll like it?"

"I'm sure she'll love it and even more so because it came from you," said Carol sincerely. She paused, choosing her words carefully. "Carl, you know that Beth cares for you, don't you?"

Carl grinned, looking very happy to hear that.

Carol continued on gently. "But you also know that there are all kinds of caring in this world, right?"

Carl's smile slipped a little. "What you sayin', Carol?"

"I'm sayin' that Beth can care for you very much, but not want it to go any further," she offered up. Carol didn't want to destroy Carl's dreams, but she didn't want to see him set himself up for a fall either. "It doesn't mean her feelings for you aren't real and special, just that they're not romantic ones. Sometimes having a best friend is better than having a girlfriend or boyfriend."

Carl regarded her steadily, clearly processing her words of caution. "But being both would be the best thing of all, wouldn't it?"

Carol pulled a little face, knowing that was seldom how things worked out between men and women. "Well, yes, of course, but that's not always that easy. Isn't it better to just stay friends and not risk what you already have?"

Carl looked down at the bracelet in his hands, his jaw hardening a little and it put Carol in mind of his daddy right then. "You know, I spent so long just bein' afraid when all this started," said Carl quietly. "I was just scared, all the time. I hated it because I kind of just froze inside, like I was sleepin' and couldn't wake up from a bad dream." He squared his shoulders. "But then, just before we had to leave the farm, my dad told me no more kid's stuff." Carl looked up at Carol. "I'm not scared anymore. I mean, I get frightened, but that fear doesn't have me stuck on the spot, I can move through it and do what has to be done." His young face clouded over. "Like I had to with my Mom," he said unevenly, the pain still evident in his voice.

Carol put a compassionate hand on his shoulder. "Carl," she said softly, letting him know she understood that kind of loss.

Carl cleared his throat and kept talking. "I ain't afraid of being afraid anymore. I really like Beth and I want more than to be friends. I don't know what she'll say to that but if I don't ever try, I'll never know." Carl held her gaze with a serious look. "I reckon I'd rather know than wonder for the rest of my life."

Carol couldn't help but be amazed by the young boy's resolve. The fearlessness of youth. She tried to remember if she'd ever been that brave with her feelings. Nothing was coming to her. Ed had been an escape from an unhappy family situation but then he'd turned out to be no escape at all. She supposed the last time she remembered being hopeful about love was after that first meeting with Ed, when he'd been so kind and attentive. It had died the day when Ed hit her a month or so later. Carol had married him anyways, trained to not really expect too much else from life. Her mother had taught her that whatever went wrong, it was Carol's fault and up to her to fix it. It was only now Ed was gone Carol really understood there had been no fixing Ed. Carol was conditioned to not take chances, to not hope or dream for anything. To see someone like Carl fly in the face of all odds with his heart like this really affected Carol. She gave a wobbly smile. "You're something else, Carl Grimes."

Carl looked a little nonplussed by that. "Ah, thanks."

"Come on, we'll find you a box for the bracelet and then we really need to keep on moving."

"Okay," said Carl, starting to look around for a jewellery box for his chosen gift while Carol was left to contemplate to herself, in light of their unexpectedly thought-provoking conversation.

oooOOOOooo

Daryl turned to look at Carol. "You ready?" The day was starting to get away from them and this was the third street the four of them had searched through. The stores in the town centre were picked clean these days, so they'd decided to do as Carol had done the day she'd found all those baby supplies, and widen their search areas. He glanced down the street in time to see Carl and Glenn disappear inside a house. So far they'd only recovered a couple of items from all of their hard work and Daryl didn't want to hang around in town much longer. The later in the day it got, the more active the Walkers became.

Carol nodded. "Born that way." Her lips twitched. "As Lady Gaga would say."

"Who?"

"Am I really talking to the only person in the world who doesn't know who Lady Gaga is?" asked Carol in amusement. She paused and looked thoughtful. "I suppose she's dead now, especially if she was wearing that meat outfit during the outbreak."

Daryl was frowning at her, Carol's words not making any kind of sense to him. "You gone and lost your mind, woman?"

"You really don't know who she is, do you?" asked Carol in disbelief.

"I don't wanna know," he said gruffly. "Come on." Daryl kept the stock of his crossbow hard against his shoulder as he and Carol entered the house together. The usual smell of stale, rotting air assailed them as they walked in. A few steps into the house revealed barely any furniture however. The house almost looked like it had belonged to some kind of recluse before all of the troubles had started. There were heavy bars on the windows and the door they'd just entered through sported large padlocks. The windows, as well being barred, were also boarded up. A sign the occupants had tried to make a stand perhaps. The rotting corpse they had to step over in the hallway suggested it hadn't ended well. Daryl jerked his head up towards the stairs to their right, silently indicating he'd take the top floor. Carol nodded, her gun drawn as she moved to check the ground floor.

Daryl crept up the stairs, his eyes on the landing above him. The house seemed to be in a real state of disrepair. Even the steps he was walking on groaned warningly at him, threatening to break beneath him if Daryl didn't tread lightly. There were holes in the wall exposing the infrastructure underneath along with the creepy crawlies which had taken up residence within. Daryl moved onto the first floor, muscles tensed as he scanned the dimly lit upper corridor. Glancing down through the railings, he saw Carol disappear into another room. Daryl turned his attention back to the job at hand. He edged forward, hand reaching out to the first door and pushed it open. The door swung open with a tortured creak and Daryl was confronted with another dark room. The smell that assaulted his nostrils told him that it wasn't an empty one. Daryl's eyes quickly adjusted to the gloom in time to see the room was filled with Walkers, at least a dozen of them. They all turned in eerie unison to look at him. He quickly went to pull the door shut, but one Walker was too close and he stuck his arm in the door, preventing Daryl from closing it properly. Daryl took a quick step back and his heavier footstep caused the floorboard underneath his foot to crack. The breaking board threw Daryl off balance and he stumbled backwards, throwing his arms up in attempt to regain his balance. Unfortunately his crossbow connected with the railing of the landing and was torn out of Daryl's hand and then fell through the railings to the ground floor below. "Fuck!" he hissed in annoyance at his unusual clumsiness.

Daryl scrambled to his feet as the roomful of Walkers spilled out onto the landing. He grabbed his knife and stabbed the closest one up through the bottom of his chin. The Walker collapsed at his feet but the others kept on coming. Daryl turned around and bolted down the stairs. "Carol!" he called out. "We gotta get outta here!" The Walkers were hot on his heels as Daryl got to the bottom of the stairs and went to retrieve his crossbow. However, Walkers had come in through the front door and were now crowding into the hallway, effectively cutting Daryl off from his weapon of choice. "Fuck!" he said again in ire. A hand was suddenly on the back of his pants and Daryl tensed, spinning around with his knife drawn above his head.

Carol raised her hand in front of herself protectively. "It's me!" Daryl immediately dropped his arm. Carol grabbed it and pulled on it. "This way," she said urgently.

Daryl ran with her back to the other side of the house and into the kitchen, the sound of the Walker's moans just behind them. He looked around and saw the door was locked with more giant padlocks and the windows again were barred and boarded up. "Shit, no way out!"

Carol had run over to the corner of the room and was bent over. "I just found this," she said, throwing back a rotting mat to reveal a trapdoor in the floor. The first of the Walkers were in the room now and Daryl took them both down with his knife, kicking a third, giant, lumbering Walker back out the door. "Quick!" he urged her. "Get in."

Carol yanked open the hatch door and jumped down as the large Walker regained his footing and charged at Daryl again. The guy was well over six feet tall and looked like he'd lived in a gym when he'd been alive. Daryl put himself in front of the trapdoor opening and lunged up at the man, driving his knife into the man's skull. The blade of his knife caught on something in the Walker's head and Daryl couldn't pull his knife back out. The other Walkers were in the room and there was no time. Daryl abandoned trying to retrieve his knife and whirled around, jumping down into the hatch just as Carol called out to him, her voice high and stressed.

"No, wait, don't!"

But it was too late, Daryl had already jumped down into the underground passage and slammed the door down on both of them, keeping the Walkers out, but sealing them into their new fate...