Shoo! Holy moses, this chapter idea smacked me in the face like a brick this morning, and I'm really hoping you guys like it. Let me know with a little thing called a review.

Thanks to those ahead of the game and reviewing already: Demonic Hope -still trying to work out the kinks of how Faline's getting food, we'll see if I can find a smooth enough way to work around it; Nelle07 -yes indeed, just trying to reinforce that they're all existing in this same little universe and letting us know about where we sit along the timeline; drummerchick06 -thanks for that fantastic compliment, I'm slowly but surely trying to weasel him in there more throughout, but fret not, he's definitely a main player (especially in this chapter!).

Enjoy!

It was positively killing Daryl to sit in his tent with those hens constantly checking in on him and clucking around about how sorry they were that Andrea nicked his temple. He wasn't dead. Hell, he wasn't even bedridden if they'd just let him get up and get back to looking for Carol's little girl. Didn't they realize that every moment they kept gingerly bullying him back into his tent –like he was going to shatter right then and there with on off touch— was just another minute that child was out there with no one looking after her? Every day he wasn't able to get further from the farm looking for her was another day she'd probably cry out for her mom, shit probably even her good-for-nothing dad, somebody to find her and help keep her safe from those monsters.

Daryl swung angrily at the slick siding of the tent, the bright blue mocking him as it swished with the movement of his action and caused him to tumble down with his excess force. A string of curses left him as his side punished him with stings of fire flaring out from where his own arrow had punctured him.

'Damned horse,' He thought maliciously picturing some gruesome fate for the four-legged beast that had practically tossed him down that ravine, 'If it weren't for you and your damned nerves I'd still be out there. If she's dead it's your fault.' He chided himself after that thought. The horse hadn't been the one to let that little girl hide on her own, nor had the horse abandoned her in the woods expecting her to know the way back. No, the horse had only been acting to save himself from some unseen danger. Daryl couldn't fault the animal at that, because then he'd have to turn a more judging eye on himself, and the only way he was getting by was not dwelling on what he'd done.

"Get outta here woman, I don't need no more of your prodding fingers or any'uh that gruel they're callin' food up there," He snapped as he saw Carol toting a plate of God-knows-what and the kit Hershel kept sending with whatever hen volunteered to put up with his attitude and redress his wounds. He pushed aside his shame to keep a stony face when Carol let her hurt show; sure, he hadn't meant to lash out at her, but he sure as hell wasn't going to keep being babied. He wanted out of this camp, off the farm land, and back to searching for little blond Sophia. Carol was already half-way back to the farmhouse before Daryl thought it might be better to apologize to the poor woman. He knew how she must be feeling.

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl called, shaking his brother out of a drunken stupor on the couch where he'd passed out in the wee hours of the morning. There wasn't much time to deal with easing him awake with coffee and dry toast like most Saturday mornings; he had to get up and move. Daryl punched his older brother's arm and darted back to avoid the swings as Merle rose up and shook himself awake to strike back at his enemy. "Get up, you ass. If you're still gonna sleep, take it in the bedroom. Allison's almost here."

"Ah, got a little weekend special comin' over, little brother? You sure I should crash in the bedroom, won't you be needin' that?" Merle raised his eyebrows suggestively, sparking more frustration in the younger man, but Daryl held back and responded through clenched teeth.

"Allison's dropping off Sadie," He waited for some recognition to dawn on his brother, but he was apparently later coming home than Daryl thought and still suffering from a drunken fog. "It's my Saturday, Merle. I can't have Allison come in with this place looking like a dump and your drunken ass crashed on the couch. I just got her to agree to let me have a regular day with Sadie."

Merle had already waved his brother off as he bumbled to the bedroom, making a pit stop at the bathroom beforehand. Daryl tried to cool his frustration as he picked up the living room and kitchen, anxiously glancing at the clock until he heard the tires disturb the gravel drive out front. He straightened himself inside the trailer as he gave them time to unpack from the car before going out to greet them. He'd been waiting for this day for far too long.

"Daddy!" A little blonde blur rocketed from the backseat as soon as the buckle on the child seat was undone and crashed into Daryl's left leg, knocking him back a pace before her lifted his assailant into the air. Giggles escaped the child as she was swung high above the ground and brought to hug him.

"Hey kid, how are ya?" Daryl couldn't stop the coo as he held her close. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too, Daddy. Look what I brought for you!" She wiggled in his arms, digging into her tiny pockets with her dainty hands and producing a folded piece of paper. She spread it out, using his chest to flatten it before turning it so he could examine the picture. She had drawn –though roughly as she was just coming into her art skills- a big tree at the center of the page, to the right the green grass dropped into a big blue blob, two figures were on the grass hold sticks in the air with lines connecting them to the blue, one was very short and covered in pink scribbles, the other very tall and covered in brown. "It's us!" She squealed.

"That's beautiful Miss Sadie. Where'd you learn to draw like that?" He asked as he gently set her back on her own feet to take the small backpack the woman was pulling from the backseat.

"I saw Mom's drawings, and I tried to draw like her," Was her shy answer.

"Hi Allison," Daryl offered as the backpack transferred to his hands. She offered him a polite nod, but that couldn't ward off the chill Daryl felt in the air around them.

"I'll be back to pick her up around 7 tonight. Be good princess," Allison had turned her attention to her child without batting an eye at Daryl. He offered his agreement to her terms nonetheless before latching hands with the sweet little lady beside him.

"Say bye to Mommy so we can start having fun little miss," He suggested to the child.

Daryl allowed himself to grin at the memory, he hadn't been that happy in a long time, and probably never would be again with the turn the world had taken. These monsters had snatched the first great thing the world had given him and turned it into a torn carcass, chewed to bits, but still wrapped in her mother's arms. That stupid woman hadn't even tried to get them out of their house, she hadn't taken them to her father's –Daryl knew Allison's father was well-armed for this type of danger, but instead they were overrun ten feet from his child's bed. He couldn't stop wondering if she'd called out for him to save them, telling himself that there had been nothing he could have done at that point. He reminded himself that it wasn't his fault he lived too far from them, that everything had happened when it wasn't his day to have Sadie, it was Allison's. Just like it wasn't his fault Sophia was in danger now; it was Carol's or Rick's; there's nothing he could do about how Sophia ends up.

'No, I can. I'm gonna to find that little girl. Those walkers ain't taking her too.'