AN: As always thank you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews. I have had nothing but positive feedback and I am blown away by all of your support and how much you all like my story. Please review and let me know what you think about this chapter and what you might like to see happen for the story, as I have the power to make some things change if I wish. Thank you again!

Jenna awoke with a start and panicked realizing she wasn't with her husband in the truck, she was in a strange bedroom. Slowly the day before's events started to come to her and she quickly looked down to her right, seeing a still sleeping Sophia curled up to her and she couldn't help but smile. She managed to keep this little girl safe, warm, and fed with the help of this kind family of strangers. Now this little girl is going to be back with her Mom.

While gently running her hand through Sophia's hair, she looks out the window to see the sun just barely starting to show and as good as she feels about what she did for Sophia, she can't help but feel guilty that she couldn't make it back to the group last night. The worry Carol must be feeling, the complete and utter fear she must be feeling for her little girl makes the guilt all that much heavier. She would be shocked if Daryl hasn't been tearing up the woods himself searching for them. She purposely left heavy enough tracks and scratches on the tree trunks to lead him right to them, knowing he would find them.

Deep in her thoughts she quietly gets up from the bed and sees their clothes dried and folded sitting in the chair in the corner of the room and quietly gets dressed back into her own clothing. There are still some stains from the dried walker blood but she is grateful to smell fresh detergent and clean air instead. Jenna sits on the window bench and steadily watches the sun rise, keeping an eye out on the tree line for her redneck. She misses him so much that she physically feels as if there is a hole in her chest. If anything were to happen to him, she would be all alone. There would be no real reason for her to keep going on, and the same goes for Daryl. She knows if something were to happen to her, he would lose his way. They keep going for the other person, and if anyone is going to survive this world, it would be Daryl. Maybe even Officer Friendly. Jenna's opinion of the man has slightly improved since yesterday. He helped keep Sophia safe. He created a diversion so they could get away when he could have done the same as everyone else and stayed with his own family. She is still pissed with him, but she respects him now.

Hearing Sophia move around on the bed she quickly averts her gaze and smiles at the sleepy girl.

"Good mornin' Soph…how'd you sleep?" Sophia looks around the room and smiles when her eyes land on Jenna.

"Best sleep I've had in a while."

"Good…how's your ankle feelin?" Sophia pulled her leg out from under the covers and twisted her ankle around a few times, slightly wincing.

"It's okay. Still hurts a little." Jenna gets up from the window and sits in front of Sophia's leg on the bed, feeling around with her fingers and watching for any reaction.

"Swellings gone down quite a bit. I think it'll be good as new by tomorrow as long as you take it easy today."

"Are we gonna find my Mama and Mr. Daryl today?" Jenna smiled at Sophia and smoothed down her bed head with her fingers.

"Yes ma'am, I'm gonna try my hardest to get you back to your Mom today. I know she's missing you too sweetheart…now get dressed and we can see about some breakfast." Jenna left the room and leaned against the hallway wall, arms crossed over her chest, sending a silent prayer that everything would go right today. She needed her husband. Jenna stood upright quickly and went to make it down the stairs when she suddenly had to grab the railing, knuckles turning white. Her head felt as if it were spinning quickly and she slammed her eyes shut tightly and waited a few seconds for it to pass. Once it did she realized she broke out into a cold sweat and her hands and legs were shaky. Taking a couple of deep breaths she made her way the rest of the way down the stairs and found Beth, Maggie, and Patricia in the kitchen starting on breakfast.

"Good mornin' ladies…need any help?"

Daryl was pacing back and forth at the guard rail. Daylight broke almost an hour ago and these people were standing around chatting and slowly gathering things like they had no cares in the world. To say he was getting pissed off more and more by the minute would be an understatement. Listening to Andrea bitch at Dale was getting real old, real fast. Ever since she thought about killing herself she acted like the old man was the reason for all of her problems. He didn't have time for the self-entitled whining, he needed to find his wife and that little girl. He needed to see with his own eyes that his wife was alright, to hold onto her and feel that she was here with him and safe. Looking to his left he saw Carol leaning against the railing, looking just as irritated as he did and he marched over to her, biting his thumb.

"We're gonna find em today. Jenna left me a good trail ta follow and she had your little girl with 'er. She'd die makin' sure yer lil girl got home to ya."

"Thank you. When we find em, I don't know how to thank her enough. She didn't leave her alone, she stayed with her and she's still out there trying to keep my baby safe." Carol took a deep breath and got a good look at Daryl for probably the first time. She sees the pride in his eyes and the love there as well at just the mention of Jenna, and she sees the clear worry lines across his face, but here he is making sure that she believes enough for the both of them. She sees the good man under the rough exterior and can't help but believe in his words, in his wife. "Ya'll would've made good parents. Goin' through all this trouble for one that ain't your own…it shows how good ya'll really are." Carol pats Daryl on the shoulder while blinking away her tears and Daryl takes a deep breath, contemplating if he should reveal anything about themselves to this woman, but she can relate and he needs her to really believe that Jenna is being the Mama Bear she was always meant to be.

"We were…parents that is." Daryl looks all around while biting on his thumb and he can picture Jenna slapping his hand away from his mouth to break the bad habit and he can't help but smile a little. Carol quickly looks at Daryl, shock overtaking her features before the sadness and realization kicks in. If they had a child and they aren't here now, something heartbreaking obviously happened.

"I'm sorry Daryl..." Carol whispers, knowing he is confiding in her. Daryl shakes his head and looks down at his feet, shuffling a little.

"It's nothin'…we had a little girl, bout yer little girls age. Name was Isabella Grace. Cutest lil thing ya'd ever seen. Mop a brown curls, green eyes and freckles all over 'er face, and just as tan as 'er Mama year round…" Daryl broke out in a smile remembering the time they went fishing and she caught the biggest fish of the season. You couldn't have taken that smile off of her face for nothing. "She had heart problems, passed some months before all this started and then shortly after we found out Jenna was gonna have another, but there was an accident and she lost it…she's never really gotten over it, don't reckon either of us ever will but when I say she'd die ta protect yers…she would." Daryl nods a few times before looking up into Carol's face, seeing a few tears fall and her quickly wiping them away.

"I believe you and I am so sorry ya'll had to go through all a that…maybe one day when the world gets fixed you can try again."

"Nah…we was told she couldn't have no more after the accident, but it's for the best. Can't raise a baby in this world the way it is. Baby would just be a death sentence." Carol can see the heartbreak in his eyes at never being able to have any more children with his wife, but also the conviction in his voice that he really believes it is for the best. She can't help but feel sympathy for the couple. They both look up to see Rick and the group walking towards them.

"We're gonna start off as a whole, follow the trail Jenna left as far as we can, according to the map there's a clearing with a church…we think we should split into two groups at this point cause this is where we are most likely gonna lose their trail. I want you to lead one of the groups Daryl. If anybody is gonna find em it'll be you. You know the woods better than anybody."

"Aight…what are we waitin for then? Burnin' daylight." Daryl hops over the guardrail and starts walking towards the riverbed where he remembers picking up her trail the strongest yesterday. Rick is the next to hop over, sticking close to Daryl, making sure to keep in contact with the man as they look. Rick has come to realize that Daryl isn't the ignorant redneck the group has passed him off to be. He isn't much like his brother and anyone that pays enough attention would realize that. The man is slowly gaining respect in Rick's eyes. He sees the good natured, determined man for what he really is. Jenna has also impressed Rick. Her action's yesterday were more than what any of them would do, more than what any of them did do. He sees why the group is instantly at her defense and why she is so missed when she is gone. He knows he needs to make it right with the Dixon couple. They're better off on your good side.

Reaching the clearing of the church took about 2 hours judging by the sun's position. Daryl is determined to keep going with or without the rest of the group. He can see the fatigue on everyone's faces and he can't help but think about how much quicker this would all go if he were by himself.

"Alright, I think we should all take a few minutes to rest, drink up some water, then we will split up into groups an-"

"Nah, we ain't gotta split up man. Jenna's trail is clear as day, they headed southeast." Daryl pointed to the trees showing an "X" marked on it with blood.

"She marked trees for this long with blood…you don't think she-" Lori started to say but her thought was cut off quickly by Daryl before she could utter her last words.

"Nah…she scraped her legs up pretty bad climbing a tree. She's fine." The finality in his voice stopped any further argument from Lori. Daryl walked up to the tree while everyone else was resting and looked around, seeing the heavy footsteps underneath some leaves that had fallen. Looking back at the tree he couldn't help but hope that he was right and that she really was okay. "Hold on jus a lil longer baby…I'm comin…" Daryl whispered into the air.

After cleaning up from a good breakfast of eggs, peaches, and toast with fresh milk Sophia went off with Beth to her room to play with nail polish and to gossip a little. Beth was thrilled to have someone around her age with only a 3 year age difference between herself and Sophia. Patricia went to go pick eggs from the chicken house and Maggie and Jenna were sitting on the porch drinking coffee and gossiping a little themselves. They took an instant liking to one another and Jenna was honestly sad to be leaving her as soon as Otis got back from his hunting trip. He had left out before they had woken up that morning and should be back any time now.

"So…you're married?" Maggie asked with a gentle smirk on her face, causing Jenna to raise an eyebrow while laughing and holding her left hand up.

"Yes ma'am…my rough and tumble redneck."

"What's he like?"

"Honestly…couldn't have asked God to send me a better man. We went to high school together and I knew who he was, hell…everyone knew who the Dixon's were, but we just never really ran into one another. Then I went off to college to become a nurse while he stayed and took care of his big brother the trouble maker. When I came back, his brother was one of my patient's and the rest is history."

"So no love at first sight? No fireworks?" Maggie asked with genuine curiosity and Jenna couldn't hold the smile from her face.

"I always thought he was attractive, don't get me wrong, I just never thought we'd end up together until Merle kinda pushed him towards me. My first real good look in his eyes I felt the world kinda shift out from under me. I felt like time just stopped and when we had our first kiss, girl…fireworks doesn't even begin to explain what I felt." Jenna looked to Maggie, not realizing the ridiculous smile she had on her face the whole time she was speaking, to see Maggie mirroring her own smile back.

"You really love him, huh?"

"He's everything to me. Without him I don't have a home, I don't have nothin." They smiled at each other again and before Maggie could open her mouth to speak back they heard yelling coming from the field, causing both of them to jump up and look and Jenna couldn't believe her eyes. She rubbed her eyes once just to be sure and found herself jumping off the porch and running towards Rick and Carl while yelling for Maggie to get her Dad. When she reached Rick she skid to a stop and checked Carl over frantically.

"Rick? What happened?"

"He was shot…we, we were out lookin for you and Sophia and…the deer…then he just…he just…" Rick was clearly in shock and Jenna knew they had to move quickly. Carl's pulse was slightly weak and his skin was becoming pale and clammy.

"Rick, I need ya to listen to me, okay? This house has a doctor, and I can help him to help Carl but we got to get him to the house and quick…can you do that or do I need to take him?"

"I got him…"

"Okay…let's go…now." Jenna spoke in her calm voice she had used on many patients and parents before and took off at a sprint, with Rick right on her heels. Reaching the porch Jenna ripped open the door and told Hershel who they were, that they were a part of the same group and Carl's vitals. Rick laid Carl down on the bed that Hershel instructed him to do and Jenna saw Sophia out of the corner of her eye crying. Knowing she needed to compartmentalize and calm everyone down Jenna went straight to Sophia and got eye level with her.

"Sweetheart, Carl is gonna be just fine. I'm gonna help Hershel and we are gonna fix him right up, okay? No more tears sweetheart. Can you do that for me?" Sophia nodded solemnly.

"Do you promise? You never break a promise." Jenna took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully.

"I promise to do everything I can." Jenna stood up just in time to see Shane and Otis walk through the door.

"Jenna? Sophia? We've been lookin everywhere for ya'll!"

"We stayed the night here. I don't have time to explain everything. What exactly happened?" Hershel was right behind Jenna getting the full story as Otis explained it.

"What's his blood type?" Hershel asked Rick, trying to get some sense into the man before him.

"A+…same as me."

"Good…don't go too far, we'll need ya. You able to help me Jenna or are you too close to the boy?"

"I was gonna help whether you wanted me to or not, sir. With all due respect, I was a trauma nurse and you can use me, plus I'm type O+, I can take turns donating so Rick doesn't wear himself out." Hershel nods his head before heading into the room, telling her to wash her hands ASAP.

"Rick, I'm gonna do everything I can. He's a strong kid, he'll get through this but I think you need to stay out here. This isn't gonna be pleasant and I don't want to stress you or Carl any more than what ya'll already are." Rick nodded dumbly before Jenna walked into the room, giving once last look to Shane for him to look after Rick. After shutting the door she got right to washing her hands and getting in place between Hershel and Patricia.

"The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life, but it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out and I'm countin' six." Hershel said, causing Jenna to take a sharp inhale. She knows this isn't good. This is risky surgery back in a hospital with proper equipment. This is going to be a miracle if he pulls through.

Shane and Otis went to get supplies needed for Carl's surgery about an hour and a half ago. The longer they take, the less chance this kid has of making it through. Rick has already given blood twice and now Jenna is sitting in the chair on the other side of his bed giving him blood. Looking at Rick she can see the exhaustion and pain on his face, and she knows exactly how he feels. She's lived through the horror of seeing your child near death. Lori doesn't look like she is fairing much better, the way she is pacing the room, tears sporadically falling. She suddenly stops pacing and looks at Jenna.

"Thank you. I don't think anyone has said that to you all day and you've kept two of our children alive." Rick suddenly looks up at Jenna and realizes Lori is right. Rick hasn't said much of anything to her at all today.

"Jenna, Lori's right. I know we got off on the wrong foot, and you didn't have to do any of what you've been doin', but you did anyway. So, thank you for keeping Sophia safe, and thank you for all you're doin for my boy."

"Ya'll don't need to thank me. Just doin what anyone else would do. Just cause we got off on the wrong foot Rick, doesn't mean I'd wish you or your family any harm. You got a good boy, the deer proves that and I know you know it. Look at the positive of the situation. He'll surprise us all and be causin mischief in no time, just wait and see." She offered both of them a tired smile, feeling the light headedness from giving blood. "Ya'll go eat somethin', Patricia said something bout making sandwiches…I'm here for a bit longer anyway so he won't be alone." Jenna makes shooing motions with her unoccupied hand and gave them a reassuring smile watching them walk out the door. Laying her head back she started to fall asleep until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up with a start she saw Hershel ready to take the IV out of her arm.

"You should eat somethin'."

"How long was I out?"

"Maybe 15 minutes."

"Wow…didn't think I fell asleep."

"How far along are ya?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Hershel looked at her skeptically before realization dawned on his face.

"Your pregnancy, how far?" Jenna was honestly flabbergasted.

"I'm not…I can't get pregnant."

"You sure?"

"That's what I was told by three different doctors. Too much scar tissue to the uterus and cervix…I had a miscarriage when I was brutally raped and beaten by 2 men last year." Jenna told him in a low voice, hoping no one else heard.

"I'm sorry to hear that happened to you dear." Hershel patted her shoulder gently. "But, I still say you're pregnant. I saw that dizzy spell on my stairs this mornin, nausea after eating, and not to be rude but your lower stomach appears to be hard and slightly bulged…just let me know if you want me to check ya." Jenna stood still in her spot as he walked out and she stayed in a daze, feeling her stomach wondering if it were possible. Hearing the sound of a motorcycle broke her out of her daze and she ran out onto the porch, Sophia jumping into her arms while looking for her Mom. Seeing them both Jenna broke out into a large grin and started jumping up and down with Sophia.

"What'd I tell ya sweetheart?" Sophia started giggling and looked back out into the driveway seeing them all standing still in shock at the site before them on the porch.

"Let's go get em!" Jenna said while running down the stairs, putting Sophia down and them both running in their respective directions. As soon as Jenna reached Daryl she jumped up in his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist while the gripped her tight to him. Both breathing heavy, letting out quiet laughs.

"Welcome home, baby." Jenna whispered into his ear, causing him to grin like a cheshire cat. He didn't care who saw as he pulled her face to his and kissed her like she was his oxygen.

"Don't run off on me like tha' again, ya hear me woman?"

"Can't promise that but I know you'll always find me."

"Damn straight." He gave her one last kiss before placing her back on her feet, keeping an arm around her shoulders as Carol and Sophia made their way over to them.

"Thank you so much for keepin her safe!" Carol said before pulling Jenna into a vice gripped hug while crying. Jenna hugged her back just as tightly, trying not to cry herself.

"Anytime Carol…anytime." Pulling away from the hug Jenna realized she had a line of hugs to give and couldn't help but laugh as she became bombarded with everyone. Everyone was finally back together again. Daryl saw all the scratch marks from the trees on her legs, arms, and hands and couldn't wait to get her alone and check her over for himself. She looked fine, she looked healthier than she had in weeks despite the cuts and bruises, but he needed the confirmation for himself. Knowing she was going to insist on helping with Carl's surgery, he knew it would have to wait until later. For now he would take what he could get and he pulled Jenna away from everyone else, around the side of the house once she was no longer the focus of attention.

"Woman, you scared the hell outta me…you aight?"

"I'm fine baby, I promise…just some scrapes and bruises. Heal up in no time." Jenna buried her face into the crook of his neck and breathed him in, missing his scent and the feel of him, slowly feeling the hole in her chest fill back up. Daryl wrapped his arms tightly around her and stuck his nose in her hair, smelling the scent of the shampoo she used the night before and the smell of the laundry detergent her clothes were washed in.

"I love ya…more than ya know. Ya can't just up and disappear on me like tha'."

"I love you too Daryl, so much." She squeezed him tighter, putting what Hershel said into the back of her mind, knowing it wasn't possible. No reason to worry Daryl over nothing. She just wanted to enjoy this feeling of being in her husband's arms a few moments longer before she would be back in a mad dash to save Carl's life. For right now, everything in this moment was perfect.