Daryl and Carol get a little alone time and then we also learn the sad fate of some other missing survivors of the prison attack. Sweet smut warning.

Beautiful Death

Daryl had to jog to catch up with her.

Carol didn't have much of a head start on him, but she was walking swiftly back into the fenced in grove of peach trees, her head down, refusing to slow even when he called out her name.

"Carol, stop—wait." Daryl said again, more loudly and with greater urgency as he picked up speed, running now, focused on her, but cursing loudly as he tripped over some fallen branches concealed by a drift of leaves and went sprawling. "Goddam son of a bitch!"

At his exclamation Carol stopped and turned back, saw him lying in the ground holding his leg and ran back to him.

"Daryl? What happened?" Carol asked, kneeling beside him. He pulled his crossbow off over his head and set it down on the ground beside him.

"I'as chasing after you and I tripped over my own two feet, what does it look like?" Daryl grumbled.

"Let me see." Carol said, rolling up his left pant leg so she could examine his ankle.

"I'm fine." he said, scoffing at her, but quieted when he felt her soft strong hands on the skin of his leg palpating it gently.

"Does that hurt?" she asked, but startled when he raised his hand to cup her chin, drawing it up so she looked at his face.

"Worth it to get your hands on me again." he drawled softly, giving her a crooked smile.

They hadn't had any time alone for the last three days. Everyone slept in the same building so it was easier to keep watch. Carol traded off shifts taking care of Judith with Beth and Maggie through the night while Daryl, Tyreese, Glenn and Michonne shared sentry duties. They let Carl and Luke sleep through the night, telling them that they needed at least the two of them fully alert during the day to help keep watch. It was partly that, but also because kids their age needed as much sleep as possible to keep their immune systems up, eight or nine hours was ideal.

Carol sighed, tears filling her eyes. She was so thankful that they had found the others alive, especially the four children who needed their protection more than ever, but she missed what she and Daryl had shared in that first week alone together on the road. They had been building something, a real deep relationship, and now it felt like fate was forcing them apart, back to what they had been before, two people too busy trying to keep everyone else safe to find each other.

Seeing her tears, Daryl reached down and drug her up his body, cradling her against him, scooting back to rest his back against the nearest tree. He just held her while she cried softly, enjoying the closeness of having her in his arms again.

"I miss you." Carol mumbled against his chest, "I see you every day, but I miss you—how ridiculous is that?" she sighed, sniffing.

"You miss naked me." Daryl drawled with a lightly teasing tone, making her snort a little at him.

"I do like naked Daryl." Carol admitted, "Think I'll ever get to see him again?"

"Don't know—how about naked Carol?" Daryl said, tugging her blouse out of her pants and sliding his hand up under to ghost over her abdomen, circling her belly button with his long fingers.

"Daryl..." Carol warned. Someone could come looking for them at any minute...

"Shhh...need this...need to touch you..." He whispered, leaning down to kiss her gently, deeply until she was making little whimpering pleasure noises, "Gotta be quick though," he apologized, quickly unbuttoning and unzipping her pants, loosening them enough that he could slip his hand inside, caressing her intimately.

"Oh God...Daryl..." Carol gulped and his other hand continued up under her shirt to find her breast, squeezing and pinching at her nipple until she bucked against his hand at her center, flooding his fingers with her wetness.

"That's it, honey." Daryl urged, "Here...more..." and he pushed up inside her welcoming slickness with one finger, continuing to work at her with the others, catching her cry with another kiss, feeling her throbbing against his hand as she arched against him, shuddering with the quick sharp force of it, gripping his biceps with her hands.

When he released her lips she drew a gasping breath and then laughed out loud, sounding freer than she had in days. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling down at her, and she felt shy but jubilant.

"Beautiful." Daryl said quietly, his own breathing a bit irregular now. Carol reached up and cupped the side of his face in her hand, scratching her fingers into his whiskers there.

"La belle petit mort." Carol said, the French term for orgasm, literally 'the beautiful little death.'"

Daryl was about to say something in response when they heard the sounds of someone coming through the trees.

"I think they went this way!" Michonne said loud enough to both signal her search partner and the ones for whom they were searching. Carol quickly fastened up her clothing and helped Daryl to his feet.

When Carl found them Daryl was giving Carol instruction in how to aim the bow, standing close behind her, the front of his hips to the back of hers, one hand helping her aim, the other steadying her at the small of her back. As Michonne joined them, Carol released the bolt and it hit the large old peach tree in front of them dead center.

"Learning to kill trees?" Michonne dead panned.

"Thought someone 'sides me oughta know how to use this thing," Daryl said, shrugging. Carl made an exasperated noise—he'd wanted to learn to shoot it since the farm—and glared over at Daryl.

"So what do I have to do to get a turn?" Carl asked Daryl.

"You don't want to know, little man, you don't want to know." Michonne chuckled, shaking her head. "How 'bout some sword lessons instead?" she offered and Carl immediately brightened.

"Really? You'd let me use your sword?" Carl asked.

"Till we find you one of your own." The swords-woman nodded.

Carol and Daryl frowned at Michonne, pulling apart a little, looking a bit concerned about this turn of events. The idea of Carl with a lethally sharp blade was a bit disturbing.

"That will be so cool!" Carl exclaimed excitedly, beaming at Michonne.

"Like you said, someone 'sides me oughta know how to use this thing," Michonne drawled mockingly at Daryl, feeding his words back to him. "C'mon kid, I'll give you your first lesson, don't look like Daryl's done with his yet." she added, putting her hand on Carl's shoulder, turning him back towards camp and then she let her eyes drop to the obvious bulge in the front of Daryl's jeans and back up to grin at him knowingly before ushering young Mr. Grimes out of the grove.

As soon as they were out of sight Daryl dragged Carol forward to the big old peach tree she'd shot through the heart, pulling out his bolt and resetting his bow before dropping it on the ground beside them.

"Now where were we?" Daryl murmured, pressing her back against the tree, his hands at her hips, "You were talkin' in tongues?"

"La belle petit mort." Carol repeated, pulling his face to hers, nodding against his cheek, rubbing her soft skin against his beard.

"That French?" Daryl asked. He knew a bit of Spanish, not much French, mostly just Cajun expletives.

"The beautiful little death..."she translated in a breathy voice and his hips molded to hers, pressing the whole of him against her, "What you do to me every time..." she moaned as he shifted his hips up and back, teasing her, teasing himself. His mouth found her pulse point at her neck, kissing, sucking at it as his hands explored her waist, her ass and she started those little whimpers of need again.

Daryl knew they shouldn't... knew they should get back to the others sooner rather than later, but she was too much, too close, her tantalizing scent still on his fingers, the sounds of her coming undone still in his ears. He couldn't take it, found the button of her pants again, hesitated briefly until her heard her gulped out "Yes..." and then made quick work of getting one of her boots off, her pants down, hanging off one foot, dropping his own to his ankles, lifting her, one leg lifted higher to wrap around his hip, inside her with no more preamble, already wet and ready for him, sinking into her, coming home. Groaning at the perfection of it, hot and hard against the tree, one big hand cupping her soft butt, shielding it against the rough tree bark, the other under her thigh, supporting her weight, he pounded into her, lost in the rising tide of pleasure.

She kept repeating his name between the kisses she pressed all over his face, pulling hard on his hair, moving against him, with him, desperate to hold onto the sensations, neither of them knowing when they'd have a chance to be together like this again, wanting it to last, but knowing they could be discovered again at any time.

Daryl tried to be quiet, he really did, but when she let loose, came around him with a strangled scream, he yelled in triumph, coming bone shaking hard, with such force he went weak at the knees after and had to lean against her, against the tree, breathing heavily, his face buried in her neck.

"Holy hell, woman." he sighed, "You just about killed me s'right..."

"But what a beautiful way to die..." Carol said with a smile, hugging his solid strong body tightly.

Daryl walked with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, keeping his arm around Carol's shoulders as they came back out of the grove and into the area where they had set up the outside cooking fire.

"Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree..." Glenn sang mockingly, taking a bite out of one of the ripe fruits they had gathered from the grove earlier in the day. Maggie made a disgusted noise and stirred the contents of the big pot hanging over the coals, rabbit stew.

There were lots of domesticated rabbits gone feral living inside the fence, the empty hutches testimony to the original orchard owners' plans to have them as fertilizer, fur and meat producers. They were a couple of generations past regular human contact, but still had the multicolor coats and larger size of the various Rex and Lop breeds, which marked them as anything but the small sandy colored wild bunnies Daryl usually hunted.

He'd been teaching Luke and Carl to make snares and also the necessity of learning how to kill and then butcher the pretty little things once they caught them. Luke had discovered a nest of half grown ones in the tall grass and wanted to keep them pets. After seeing Judith cooing and ahhing over them Daryl allowed them to choose one and one only to keep in a cleaned out hutch, wincing a little when Luke named the little brown and white bunny "Mr. Daryl" in his honor.

Luke called Daryl over to the hutch, wanting his help with his new pet and Daryl kissed Carol on the cheek before releasing her, glancing to Glenn, daring him to smart off about it. Glenn just grinned and finished eating his peach.

Carol loved seeing him interact with the kids, knowing he would've been a wonderful father despite his fears about it. Growing up as he had, he'd told her he never wanted kids, never wanted the responsibility of them depending on him, but she knew he also worried that when push came to shove that his temper would flare, that he'd become his daddy and lash out physically, hurting the ones he loved.

Watching him as he sat with Judith on one knee and Luke leaning on the other as he showed them how to safely hold the little rabbit so it wouldn't scratch them, she wished she had met him long ago, wished Sophia had been his...felt that heartache push against her ribs the same as it did whenever she thought of her daughter. The loss of a child was something you never got over. She looked over at Maggie and Glenn, saw the strain on the younger woman's face and knew there was something she had to ask Glenn about.

Just before the change of watch shift that night, Carol found Glenn and indicated that she needed to talk to him. Something had been bothering her since he and Maggie had rejoined them.

"What happened to Alice and Graham, Glenn?" Carol asked softly. She hadn't wanted to bring it up before, to remind Luke that his little friends hadn't been with the young couple when Daryl and Tyreese found them, everyone too happy that they had shown up at the rendezvous site at all.

Glenn looked bleak, swallowing hard against an obvious lump in his throat before he tried to speak. He looked back at Maggie who was holding a half asleep Judith, humming a lullaby and rocking her gently. Carol followed his gaze and then they moved further away from the group, close to the door to the yard.

"We had them—they were with us when we left the prison." Glenn began, stopping and standing still, making sure they were out of the hearing distance of the others, looking back at Carol.

"Luke told us." Carol nodded. It had been precursor to the little boy's confession to Tyreese of the children's part in the killings.

"Our second day out–none of us had any sleep since we left the prison, we were dead on our feet—so we decided to hole up in this big ...shed...we came across." Glenn told her, looking off into the middle distance as he remembered. "Maggie said it was for drying tobacco. The stuff was all over the pace, sickly sweet kinda smell, you know? We fell asleep—didn't mean to, but we told the kids to stay inside, we did...we told them it wasn't safe outside and to stay inside."

Glenn became more and more agitated and finally went over to the exterior door and yanked it open so he could go out into the yard. Carol saw Daryl start to stand, looking concerned, but she raised her hand, indicating she had this, and followed Glenn out, leaving the door ajar.

"And they didn't? Walkers got them?" Carol asked sadly, putting her hand on Glenn's arm. The younger man hung his head, shaking it back and forth before he spoke.

"No—in some sick way it would've been better if they had—easier to accept somehow—easier to understand. That's how we lose people now? Right? Monsters take them?" Glenn said bitterly.

"I don't understand Glenn—what happened? Did they run away? Get sick? What happened to the kids?" Carol asked.

"They were trying to help...that's the hell of it...they were just trying to help." Glenn turned his face to hers and he was crying, fighting the tears so he could get the rest of his story out.

"What?" Carol said gently, rubbing her hand up and down his arm in sympathy.

"We were so hungry—I'd grabbed the medical supply back pack, but none of us had gotten any food in the chaos of the attack. I'd planned to go out that morning and set some snares like Daryl taught us. We had a safe home base, could stop running for a day, rest up and get our bearings before we headed to Michonne's rendezvous site, you know?" Glenn asked plaintively, looking for confirmation he'd done the right thing.

Carol nodded, encouraging him to continue, to get it all out, purge himself of something that had been eating at both he and Maggie. Glenn took a deep breath before he continued.

"They decided to surprise us, go out scavenging off the land to bring us back some breakfast. They had..." he choked out a sob but then wiped his sleeve across his mouth and nose so he could continue. "They had grapes and elderberries and mushrooms in their pockets when we found them." He half smiled and then took a quavering breath looking over at her, "but they didn't know...or they forgot..." his head went down again, taking a shuddering breath before he blurted the next, "...these big black berries, Hershel warned us, said they'd taste sweet, said only a few could kill a grown man..."

"Oh God." Carol muttered, gripping Glenn's bicep more tightly, "Belladonna?"

Glenn nodded. The plant, also known as "Deadly Nightshade" or "Beautiful Death," was one of most toxic plants that grew in the Georgia woods. A single leaf or berry would be fatal to a child.

"Maggie lost it when we found them, she was devastated...I didn't know at the time that she was pregnant...it...it really fucked with her head, Carol, seeing those dead kids there in the woods. At first she thought they didn't believe we could save them, that they ate the berries on purpose..." Glenn said, trying to explain why Maggie had been acting the way she had towards Carol.

"What? No Glenn! They were just children!" Carol gasped. Despite all they had been through, Alice and Graham had been happy kids, always willing to work and play hard in equal measure.

"I told her that—after we...took care of them..." Glenn looked away, reliving the nightmare. Carol recoiled, of course, they'd reanimated, how horrible for Glenn and Maggie to have to put the two children down! "When we checked their pockets and found the other stuff they'd gathered I think she started to believe it had all just been a terrible mistake, an accident...but she still felt so guilty that they'd died while we were supposed to be caring for them, protecting them." Glenn said.

"I understand the guilt." Carol said quietly, thinking of Sophia, of Lizzie and the others. Thinking you understood what a child was thinking, but being so utterly wrong. "But I don't understand what that has to do with the way she'd acting now..." with the mistrust and anger she was throwing at me.Carol wanted to say, but held back.

Glenn understood the unspoken question.

"She's terrified, Carol. After Hershel died she was barely holding it together—secretly knowing she was pregnant, afraid to tell me, knowing that without her dad or Dr. S or you there—she knew she could end up like Lori or worse." Glenn explained in a fast low voice. "Then the prison fell and she lost Beth too...and if she couldn't protect Alice and Graham, how would she be able to care for a baby?"

Carol knew that Maggie could be fatalistic, had seen it when Hershel had been hurt, when she'd returned from Woodbury, but believed her marriage to Glenn had buoyed the elder Green girl's spirits, made her better able to cope with the shit storm of their existence...maybe she'd been wrong.

"She was so angry at you, believed that you took life instead of trying to save it with what happened to Karen and David—she put herself, put me in their places—what of it had been one of us who had been so sick...?" Glenn stopped speaking—he had been that sick, saved only by Hershel's quick actions and the drugs Daryl's group had brought back from the vet school.

"She has to let go of that." a gravel laden voice came from behind them. They turned to see Tyreese, back from his shift patrolling the fences. Carol took a step back, surprised at the sentiment coming from him. Glenn shifted his body so he was between Carol and the big man, subtly shielding her, and Carol felt a swell of warm appreciation for his impulse to protect her.

"I saw how you went in to care for Beth this mornin', Carol." Tyreese said, nodding his head thoughtfully, his voice gentler than she'd heard it since they'd met up with him at the pine forest. "Knowing she could've had what killed the others and you went in there anyhow." he sighed, his eyes going moist. "Been thinkin' on it all day." and then he cleared his throat and held out his hand to her, surprising both she and Glenn.

Carol looked at the large calloused hand and then up into his eyes, trying to divine his intentions. Could he really have had such a drastic change of heart? When she didn't immediately take his hand Tyreese slowly lowered it and cleared his throat, realizing he needed to talk, to explain.

"We all lost so much since this thing started...and well, I thought I'd found something...someone to hold onto...and then she was gone and then Sasha..." Tyreese stopped and shook his head to clear it, his closed tight mouth working, trying to get the rest of the words out. "I thought I lost everything when Karen was killed. I wanted to punish someone." he sucked in a deep breath and then let it out. "I wanted to punish you." he leaned closer, "But you were just protecting them, the kids, thinkin' about everyone else, like you always do. What happened, what you did, taking the blame, bein' willing to die to protect them...that's a part of you now, I can see that." "

Carol frowned at him. Was he really willing to forgive her part in shielding the children, the ones who had killed his lover?

"What Dixon did, saving you? I...I guess that was the right thing he did. Them kids made a mistake, but they didn't understand." Tyreese looked over at Glenn with sympathy, "They just kids...I'm sorry they're dead, Glenn, but that weren't you and Maggie's fault either." Tyreese held out his hand again and this time Carol took it, letting him pull her forward into an embrace. As he held her tightly she felt a rush of hope. If Ty could forgive her, maybe Maggie could come around too. Maybe she and Daryl wouldn't have to leave their family again.

"Everything all right out here?" Daryl asked from the doorway behind them, sounding concerned.

"Fine, we're fine, Daryl." Carol said and Tyreese released her so she could turn back to reassure him.

"I'm sorry, Dixon." Ty held out his hand to Daryl as well. "Sasha always said I'as like a dog with a bone once I got an idea in my head. I been blaming Carol for everything that went wrong...so much death...I...I just lost my sense for awhile. I know she's a good person, known it since I met her." he said, looking back at Carol sorrowfully.

"Ain't gonna hafta hug it out too, are we?" Daryl drawled, cocking his head to the side and scrunching up one eye while he contemplated the other man. Tyreese chuckled and Daryl slapped his hand hard against the big man's, shaking it firmly. Carol smiled, glad to see the men in such good humor but then sobered as she looked through the door and saw Luke and Carl asleep on their cots.

"I think we all need to have a refresher course in edible and inedible plants," she murmured, worried now as she thought of anyone making the same mistake that had killed Alice and Graham.

Glenn gave her a painful look while Daryl and Tyreese looked puzzled.

"You go take your watch shift, Glenn, I'll explain it." Carol told the saddened young man. He gave her a grateful look, glad to not have to tell the story again. Tyreese handed over the flashlight and machete they'd found after a more thorough search of the buildings and Glenn set off to walk the perimeter.

"What is it, Carol?" Daryl asked, looking worried.

"Survival...it's all about death or survival..."she said with a sad smile, taking his hand to lead him back inside, Tyreese following them inside the building.

Atropa belladonna, also known as "Deadly Nightshade" or "Beautiful Death," is one of the most toxic plants found in nature. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids. The berries pose the greatest danger to children because they look attractive and have a somewhat sweet taste. The consumption of two to five berries by a human adult is probably lethal. The root of the plant is generally the most toxic part, though this can vary from one specimen to another. Ingestion of a single leaf of the plant can be fatal to an adult. However, cattle and rabbits eat the plant seemingly without suffering harmful effects.

The name "Atropa" is thought to be derived from that of the Greek goddess Atropos, one of the three Greek fates or destinies who would determine the course of a man's life by the weaving of threads that symbolized his birth, the events in his life, and finally his death, with Atropos cutting these threads to mark the last of these. The name "belladonna" comes from the Italian, meaning "beautiful lady" because women in the Middle Ages used it in tiny doses to dilate their pupils to look more attractive.

AN: The four children Carol knows they have to keep safe? Judith, Carl, Luke and Beth. Enough said.

Don't know if this one will keep coming so easily, but I just go with the flow of my muse! I don't expect to have another chapter practically write itself in my head as I was mowing the lawn yesterday afternoon, but I finally got it all down so I could get it out to you! You get to be a little spoiled having two come so close together, LOL!

Thanks for reading, favoriting, following & reviewing. Knowing you are out there & interested in the story is what helps motivate me to keep writing! Love to hear from you.