DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of The Walking Dead. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Find A Way.

The next morning after everyone had shared in a small breakfast of the sorts, Daryl figured he had to go talk to Carol. He left Leah and Skyler with their original group as he stepped into the RV to find her in the same place she was yesterday.

Daryl stopped in the hall where he stood yesterday feeling like everything was on repeat. He opened his mouth to say something but Carol beat him to it.

"I don't have anything to say to you." Carol barely looked in his direction.

Daryl narrowed his eyes, half out of confusion half out of anger. "What the hell is that suppose to mean? I came in here to make sure you were doin' okay, not to have you bite my head off."

"Nobody is looking for Sophia. That's what that is supposed to mean," Carol glanced over at him. "Ever since we left the highway it's like everyone just forgot. My baby girl is still out there all alone. And now you bring these people here? People we don't even know."

"I didn't give up lookin', so you need to bring that up to everyone else. Not me. I didn't forget. And those people seem to be just fine so far." Daryl folded his arms in front of his chest as he leaned against the wall.

"You have Leah now, what do you care if Sophia is alive out there or not?" Carol muttered.

Daryl scoffed, "Is that what this is about?—Leah? You think I don't care if Sophia is still out there or not because I have Leah back?"

"You said it yourself."

"And you're twisting my words," Daryl spat. "I never once said anything about not caring. And I don't see anyone else making a huge effort to come in and check on ya or even make an attempt to search for Sophia. So if you want to continue to sit in here, mopin' and cryin', then be by guest."

Carol fell silent as she tore her stare away from Daryl, looking out the window across from her. A single tear slid down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away.

Daryl chewed on the inside of his mouth, mentally telling himself to calm down. Apparently he still had a lot of anger to vent and get rid of and he quickly learned that unleashing it on Carol was not exactly the best way to do so. But he wasn't going to apologize. Not for this. Carol just assumed that he didn't care now because he had Leah?

Daryl turned on his heels and called back to her, "Just to let you know, I'm going out. Gonna look for her. And when I come back, she'll be with me. She's gonna be just fine." And Daryl slammed the door to the RV behind him as he exited.

For a moment, he almost forgot about the others still right there at camp. His actions had caught their attention as they all stared back at him. He was certain they didn't hear anything he said but catching him slamming the door was bad enough. He stalked off back to his tent to retrieve his crossbow. And once he slung it over his shoulder, he caught Skyler and Leah approaching him from the corner of his eye.

"What was that all about?" Skyler asked first, glancing up at his face and down to the crossbow. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Out," Daryl fumed, ignoring her first question and blatantly answering the second.

"You're leaving? Why are you leaving?—Daryl?" Leah grabbed his arm as he tried to walk away. It was like she knew that she was his weakness because he stopped in his tracks and sighed before he turned back to face her.

"I'm goin' out to look for Sophia. Carol thinks no one is taking this seriously. If you want more detail than that, ask around." Daryl bit his tongue, realizing how harsh he still sounded. "…Sorry."

"You're going out by yourself? That's stupid! At least let me come with you or somebody. Take Andrew. He's a good shot." Skyler crossed her arms.

"No thanks. Don't need him glaring a hole in the back of my head," Daryl grumbled. "And you don't need to be going anywhere. I'll be back before you know it."

Leah stared up at him, waiting for him to look at her. And when he did, he could tell she was sad. But he couldn't stay. He had to go look for Sophia. He was a man of his word and he wasn't about to change that.

"Hey, I'll be fine. I'll be gone for a few hours at most. Definitely be back before sun down." Daryl leaned over and kissed her on top of her head. "Ain't no need to worry."

"Come on, Leah." Skyler's voice made it apparent that she was defeated. She placed a hand on Leah's back and led her back towards the others before Daryl took off for the stables. He figured if he could borrow a horse and head into the woods, he could cover a lot more ground at a faster rate. And even though he was determined to find Sophia—the faster he could return, the better.

While Leah was directed back towards the others, she couldn't help but bite her lip. She felt like she could cry. She was twelve years old and she felt like she could cry just because Daryl was leaving for a few hours. She told herself that that was just silly. He was going to go look around in the woods—how bad could that be?

But what if something did happen? She had just found him—or rather he found her. She already lost her mom, she couldn't imagine losing Daryl too…

Skyler returned back to Alex, Olivia, Lucas, and Andrew. Leah decided she wanted to talk to the others though. She wanted to start learning their names and furthermore, she wanted to figure out the whole Carol/Sophia thing. She didn't understand why Daryl seemed so angry. She couldn't really recall a time when he was before now. He never yelled at her and he never yelled at her mom.

Leah looked around at the group of strangers who she had yet to fully meet. She had talked a little bit to Amy and Andrea. She learned that they were sisters and that they seemed really nice. She had spoken a little bit to Dale, having been introduced to him through the sisters. After just sitting and watching everyone interact after a while, she could almost remember everyone's names.

Leah glanced back and forth between the two men she figured were sort of like the group leaders. If she was going to ask some questions, she figured they would be her best bet. It didn't take her long to make up her mind on which one to ask either—because he seemed a lot nicer than the other guy. Or at least less intimidating.

"Hi, there." He noticed her standing by him and smiled at her. "Something I can do for you?"

"I just had some questions. Mr…" Leah waited for him to give his name.

"Rick Grimes. But you can just call me Rick," he replied. "Leah, right? You're… Daryl's daughter?"

Leah shook her head, "Not really. But he feels like my dad."

"Well, I'd say that counts," Rick smiled. "You said you had some questions?"

Leah forced a smile in return. She wished Daryl was her dad. But he pretty much was, since he was the only man she ever knew to sort of take that role. "Yeah, about Carol and Sophia? What… happened?"

Rick nodded as he placed his hands on his hips. He looked like he was thinking about what to say. "We got separated back on the highway. Some walkers chased Sophia off and we couldn't find her. So we're still looking."

"Walkers? The dead things?" Leah asked. She was so used to hearing them be called 'biters', she never gave it much thought that there could be other names for them.

"That's right."

"You said you're still looking, as in… everyone? But why is it that Daryl seems to be the only one leaving?" Leah stared at Rick.

"Because he's too damn stubborn to give up when it's pretty obvious we all know what's most likely happened by now." The other man walked over, the one who seemed to be the other leader.

"Shane," Rick warned. "We've had this discussion."

Shane shook his head, "It's a shame, it is. But I think it's about time we've just faced the facts, man. That's all I'm saying." He briefly caught a glimpse of Leah before he walked away.

"Sophia!" Daryl called out for the girl after he climbed down a rather steep ravine. He sloshed through the water that settled just above his ankles as he grabbed the worn doll from off of the fallen tree. It was definitely hers and it was the main reason Daryl even climbed down in the first place. She had to be close.

He tucked the doll up and under his belt as he glanced around at his surroundings. For as long as the girl had been gone, she would've had to have stopped at some point to get a drink. All Daryl could think was that she had to be close—she wouldn't have left that dumb doll behind… Unless she got chased off by more geeks.

"Sophia!" Daryl tried again, his eyes searching. There was no form of movement from anywhere around him and the only sound he could hear was that of the rushing water. He turned back to where he had come from and decided he'd go ahead and climb back up. If she followed the stream, he'd have a better view from up there.

It proved to be a fairly easy climb as his foot only slid out a couple times, easily regaining his balance and managing to pull himself up, back to land. He untied the horse from the tree and jumped back onto it. He had to admit, he was a bit terrified of the creature—which sounded absolutely ridiculous. But he shrugged it off and just kept going.

The horse spooked a couple times as birds became disturbed and flew off just in front of it. Daryl kept his attention down at the ravine though, looking for any more signs that Sophia had been there. So far he had been coming up short. The doll proved she had to have been through here, but it didn't suggest when that was or where she could have gone since.

The next thing Daryl knew was that the horse must have gotten spooked again because it started to buck up, and it managed to throw him off. He certainly wasn't prepared for that and he wasn't prepared to take a nasty tumble down the steep rock that led down into the creek.

He finally came to an abrupt stop as he hit the water with a splash. He could feel the slight burn of a cut on the side of his face just as a sharp pain flared up from his left side. He regretted looking down and flattening his shirt out to see what the problem was: he had impaled himself on one of his own damn bolts.

"Son of a bitch—" Daryl rested his head back down in the water, "Dumbass horse…"

He lay there for a moment to try and collect himself before he forced himself back to his feet. He stumbled through the water, gripping at his side and falling to his knees a couple times before he crashed to his knees on a patch of sandy dirt. He pulled his knife from its sheath and cut his sleeves off to tie together and help secure the bolt in his side. He gritted his teeth once he pulled it tight and got back to his feet.

It was just then that he heard the leaves rustle nearby. He froze as he watched them move. There was definitely something there…

"Sophia?" Daryl called out quietly, taking a few steps back. He cursed under his breath once he stepped into the water, almost tripping backwards. Out of habit, he reached for his crossbow and quickly realized he didn't have it. He tore his eyes from the rustling bush and spotted it a little ways down.

He clumsily splashed through the water before he reached it, tossing it over his shoulder and glancing back at the leaves. They were stationary now. And as he concentrated on them, he about pissed himself when a squirrel shot up out of them and scurried up the tree.

Daryl held his side as he looked back to what now resembled the climb of death. It had been an easy task to accomplish when he wasn't injured, but for whatever reason, he was beginning to think he had a challenge on his hands. But no matter what, he had to make it back to Leah. She was his main concern. And Skyler.

"Can't be that hard…" Daryl mumbled to himself as he approached the base of it. No matter where he looked, it all seemed to be just as steep. So he picked a place and started to climb.

He learned pretty quickly that no matter what kind of pep talk he gave himself, whether out loud or internally, it wasn't cutting it. The pain in his side was agonizing with each step, twist, or stretch. He lost his footing a couple times, barely catching himself. He grasped onto a tiny little tree beside him and tried to catch his breath. He didn't quite understand why it was so hard to climb. Yeah, he had a bolt threw him but that was nothing. It was probably the equivalence of being shot with a gun. Who was he kidding—gun shots had to hurt like hell so this had to be damn near close…

Daryl tried to reach for the next object to grasp onto, another tiny tree that was growing sideways into the incline of the ravine, but his hand slipped. And just like a domino effect, his foot slipped with it as he desperately clung to the first tree he had a hold of. But it wasn't good enough. He lost his grip all together and fell backwards, taking another harsh spill down the incline until he hit the sandy dirt with rather hard impact.

"Shit!—" Daryl rolled over onto his back and squeezed his eyes shut. The pain only flared up worse after the fall as he focused on his breathing. He felt slightly light headed which caused him to open his eyes and briefly look around at his surroundings again. He immediately noticed his vision wasn't quite right—everything was moving and fading out. He tried to fight against it, tried to stay conscious, but it was out of his power. Everything just faded to black.

It had been at least a few hours since Daryl left that morning. Leah had been doing her best to try and keep track. She talked with just about everyone in the group and could now confidently call them by name.

She sat with Skyler, Lori, Carl, and the Greene family at the dining room table. The young brunette woman, Maggie, had found a deck of playing cards for them to play with. Of course, Leah didn't know how to play any sort of game with a regular deck of cards and neither did Carl. So it was Carl's idea to try and make a card castle—which definitely turned out to be a lot harder than it looked.

"Watch out for that one," Carl pointed at the bottom corner of the castle. "It's about to collapse."

"But this is the tallest we've gotten it so far! It can't fall!" Leah laughed. She was actually enjoying the company of everyone. The older adults had their own discussions while Leah and Carl hung out with Beth, Jimmy, and Maggie.

"You're doing pretty good. Better than I could," Maggie smiled.

"I don't even think I could get the first row stacked if I tried," Beth admitted.

"Yeah, well that's because you're not a card castle pro…" Carl carefully set the next one on top. Leah watched as it threatened to collapse at the pressure. And just as Carl released it, the whole thing tumbled down and a few cards flew out onto the floor. "No!"

Leah giggled, "Card castle pro, huh?"

"I spoke too soon…" Carl mumbled. He scooped up the cards on the table and pushed them into a pile while Leah helped him collect the fallen ones up off of the floor.

There was a sudden loud crack like thunder off in the distance. Leah almost shot up and smacked her head into the table at the sound as she could hear all of the chairs within the room scoot across the hard floor.

"Was that a gun?" Lori spoke up first, her voice full of panic.

"I thought I told your people to put the guns away," Hershel muttered, leading the way out the front door. Lori, Maggie, Patricia, Jimmy, and Beth followed as Leah exchanged glances with Carl. Carl immediately shot up and ran after his mom and Leah looked to Skyler.

"Come on, let's go see what's going on," Skyler offered Leah a hand up. They took off after the others as Lori yelled for Rick.

"What on Earth's going on out here?" Hershel demanded.

Leah stayed close to Skyler, not sure what to expect. Her eyes searched for what the problem could be. Everyone was looking straight out in a particular direction and so that's where her eyes landed. She saw Glenn and T-Dog, then Andrea and Dale. It was only then that she finally recognized Shane and Rick… And that they had Daryl in between them.

Leah froze at the sight. All she could see was the blood that stained the entire left bottom of his shirt from his side down. And the blood had run down because his left pant leg had a thick trail of blood almost reaching his knee. She could see the visible dirt and blood on his hands and his arms, his face… And she felt sick to her stomach. She could feel the queasiness hit her just at the sight. Her first thought was that he was dead. Someone shot him. But she quickly threw that thought away. He couldn't be dead—they wouldn't be carrying him otherwise. Right?

"Oh my God—what happened?" Skyler asked as she kept firmly planted next to Leah. She got down on her knees next to her and pulled her down, facing her head away. "Don't look, Leah… Don't even think about it… He's okay. It—It just looks bad…"

Leah bit her lip and tried not to cry but Skyler's words didn't help any. She held onto her aunt and couldn't help but let a few tears fall. She listened to her though and she refused to look back at Daryl in that condition.

"He's just unconscious. I don't know what the hell happened or how he even made it back here…" Rick let his voice trail off. "Hershel—you think you can help?"

Hershel sighed as he shook his head, looking defeated. "I'll certainly do my best."

I'd just like to take the time and say THANK YOU to my faithful reviewers: NL March, MollyMayhem84, and FanFicGirl10. You guys are seriously the best! I look forward to reading your reviews every time I post a new chapter. So thank you, thank you, thank you! Much love for the three of you! I adore you and I love the chats! xoxo

I would also like to thank JadedTinks, Tell me you're still you, and Amethiste as well for your reviews!

That being said—c'mon you silent readers! I want to hear from you!