A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for the nice reviews, I loved each and every one of them. I got this one out as quickly as I could, I hope you guys like it as much as I loved writing it. Again, don't forget to review and comment. They really do make my day... - Karen
Chapter 12
Daryl woke up, and rolled off the old couch, and grumbled to himself. His stomach started to growl, and was determined to find something to eat for both him and Sophia. He quietly headed up the stairs to check on Sophia. She was sound asleep still. He figured she still would be, as it was still early in the morning. The room felt stuffy, so he walked over to the window in the room, and opened it. It made a loud squeak noise. Sophia turned, but it didn't wake her.
Daryl quietly walked out the room, turning around before leaving completely. She was quietly sleeping, with one arm hanging out of the bed, and that made him smile. Something about that little girl made him smile more than he could remember ever doing before in the past.
He slowly made his way down the stairs, grabbing his crossbow before heading out. He headed out the front door, and did a quick perimeter search, when something small and white caught his eye. He walked over to it, and smiled. A Cherokee rose.
~NLA~
Breakfast was over, and Maggie worked to gather all the left overs, and made sure to gather the left over bacon, and eggs. Beth walked over to her, and gave her a paper plate. The sisters grabbed as much as the plate could carry, and bought it to the kitchen. Hershel was in the other room with Patricia and Otis, discussing the tasks at hand today. They welcomed the break, made it easier to cover up the fact that they were going to sneak food out to a complete stranger.
"Hey Beth, can you run up to my room to get my backpack, I'll need to bring that hide the food in it."
Beth nodded, and headed to Maggie's room.
Maggie made her way to the kitchen with the plate, and wrapped it up as tightly as possible with saran wrap. There was quite a bit of food on the plate, probably enough to give him breakfast and lunch. Beth returned with the backpack, and Maggie stuffed the plate in her bag, just in time to avoid Hershel from noticing.
He did, however, notice the backpack. "Heading out again?"
"Yes Daddy, I saw this huge blueberry bush, and I know how much you love blueberry pie," Maggie said, looking over at Beth, and winking, "And Bethie promised to help me make a pie, as long as I get enough blueberries. There is probably enough there to make blueberry muffins!"
"Blueberry muffins sound amazing!" Patricia said, walking into the kitchen. "I have my grandma's recipe, and I could make them, and you wouldn't have any other ones better then hers."
"Sounds like I will need a lot of blueberries then, which won't be hard." Maggie smiled.
~NLA~
Rick and his "rag tag" team headed out to try their luck. Rick brought them to where he had last seen Sophia.
"This is where I told her to stay, but something must have scared her. I figured it was a walker, but I wasn't there, so I can't honestly tell you."
Carol let out a little whimper, knowing that not too long ago, her baby girl was there. All she wanted to do was to see her and hug her.
Andrea noticed this and gave her a side hug.
"We will find her, I promise." Andrea smiled.
"I hope so. I miss her so much."
"So do I; and I know Carl also misses her. He asked about her last night, and wanted to know if I thought if she would ever come back. I told him that somehow or another, we will find her." Rick said, as he laid his hand on her shoulder.
Carol mustered up a smile. That was the most she could do, considering all she wanted to do was cry.
"Hey!" T-Dog called from about 25 feet away from where the rest of the group stood, "Look! This walker has a hole in her head, and I could swear it was from Daryl's bow."
"Yes!" Andrea threw her fist in the air, and smiled. "At least we have a direction to follow."
They followed that path for a good twenty minutes, and found at a half dozen of walkers who met their fate at the hand of Daryl.
"I've got a good feeling about this. Something tells me, we are on the right track." T-Dog spoke up, with a hint of happiness in his voice.
"Come on, let's keep going Team Rag Tag, let's prove that jackass wrong." Everyone chuckled at Andrea's joke.
~NLA~
Maggie got on her horse, and headed back towards the house where she last saw him. She was surprised to see him outside. She watched him studying the flower bush. She watched him as he touched the petals of the white flower that grew on it. She shifted herself off of Firefly, and landed on her ankle weird.
"Damn it" Maggie murmured to herself.
Just then, she saw him grab a hold of his bow; squinting his eyes, and studied the woods to the side of him.
Daryl called out, "I heard you, where are you? Don't make me come and find you."
Maggie knew better then to hide, knowing what kind of damage he did to Mr. Sampson. She slowly walked out of the woods, having Firefly following behind her.
She watched as he kept the crossbow trained on her. She could tell that it would take a lot of convincing to get him to put it down. She walked up to him, leaving approximately 50 feet between them.
She was about to speak, when Daryl interrupted her.
"Who are you?" He asked with in a gruff tone.
She was trying to think of a way to explain exactly why she was there, when he asked again.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"You know, if you give me a second, I could answer you! I saw you last night when I was out, right before the storm hit, and you got very angry when you saw Mr. Sampson eating on your deer. "
"So the ugly bastard has a name. He ate my damn deer, and you want to treat him with respect?" He spoke while still having the bow trained on her head.
"That doesn't matter, I'm Maggie." She extended her hand, attempting to show that she was harmless. Daryl didn't even try to lower the bow. "Okay, not so much for manners."
"You still didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"
"I saw you capturing squirrels, and I figured you would want something else for a change."
She took her backpack off her back, and knelt down to the ground. Daryl still had the bow trained on her. She unzipped her backpack, and produced the plate full of eggs, bacon, and other breakfast goodies.
Maggie looked up from her kneeling position. "You know, I am not going to hurt you, I just came here to make sure you had food. Can you please put down the bow?"
Daryl squinted his eyes at her again, and grunted. He slowly lowered the bow, disarmed it, and threw it over his shoulder.
Maggie stood up, and extended the plate towards his direction. He reached for it, but then Maggie pulled it back.
"I'm not giving it to you until you tell me your name."
Daryl mumbled to himself, not wanting to tell this stranger his name, but his stomach growled. "Fucking traitor" he said looking down at his stomach.
Maggie laughed, "Okay, that is different, never heard anyone called 'Fucking Traitor' before, nice to meet you."
"That's not my name!" Daryl protested. Knowing his stubbornness wasn't going to get him the plate of food, he finally gave in, and told her his name. "My name is Daryl."
"Well, that's a lot better than the last one." Maggie chuckled. She gave him the plate, and he studied it.
Maggie watched as the hunter stared at the plate. "It's been a while since you had real food, huh?"
Daryl grunted. "Ya."
He walked over to the porch of the house, and sat down. He unwrapped the food, and was about to eat it with his fingers.
"Uh huh…" Maggie said, as she reached into her backpack, retrieving a fork.
Daryl nodded as he took the fork from her. He began to separate the food in as equal parts for him and Sophia.
Maggie sat down close near him, but he quickly moved away from her.
He proceeded to eat the one side of the plate, making sure that he didn't eat the other side.
Maggie sat there and mentally tried to figure him out. He looked over at her, as he felt her eyes staring at him. It was as if he could hear her thoughts.
"I'm saving it." He didn't go into detail as for what and why he was saving it. He didn't know her; he didn't want to tell him about Sophia. He had to protect her.
~NLA~
Glenn was able to find some more weapons, and at the current way of the world, one could never have enough weapons, especially ones that don't require ammo to work. He walked over to Lori and showed her what he found.
"I also found some clothes that may fit you." As he handed over the blouse that he found in one of the vehicles about a half mile up.
"Thanks Glenn, you're sweet."
"Sweet isn't going to get you anywhere in this world," Shane said as he walked out of the shadows. "You have to be a jackass to survive."
"No you don't, Shane!" Lori rebutted. "Not everyone is built to be an asshole like you."
"You didn't think I was an asshole when you slept with me when you thought Rick was dead."
Lori gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Luckily she remembered that Carl was inside the RV playing, trying to stay out of the sun.
Her eyes clouded up with fury. "You said you would never say anything. I regret doing ANYTHING with you! And for the record, you are the one who told me that he was dead. I trusted you, you used me!"
Shane just stood there and laughed. "You made it easy, too easy!"
Glenn was just standing there trying to stay out of the way. And then the unexpected happened. The normally calm Lori fought back. She threw a punch that knocked the air of Shane.
"Damn bitch, what the hell is wrong with you women. First Carol, now you!"
Dale looked down from the top of the RV, "I would have to say, look at the common denominator in this equation. Both of the situations involved you, so I'm guessing you are doing something wrong."
"Shut up old man, like you know anything."
"At least he knows how to keep his mouth shut and his dick in his pants, especially around married women." Lori said through gritted teeth.
"It takes two to tango, just remember that." Shane said as he walked away.
"You are the one who told me he was DEAD!" Lori yelled.
Shane turned around and spoke up. "I'd lower your voice if I was you, you don't want your precious little boy find out that you cheated on his father with me."
Lori's eyes got wide, not thinking about Carl at the moment. He couldn't find out about her and Shane. Little did she and everyone else know; Carl heard everything that was said.
~NLA~
Maggie watched as he finished up his side of the plate. Daryl covered up the food, and placed it down on the porch area behind him.
"How long exactly has it been since you had an actual breakfast?"
Daryl shrugged his shoulders, and didn't answer.
"That long?" Maggie chuckled.
"Ya."
"I live on a farm with my family, so having this kind of breakfast never really went away. We are pretty secluded, so we haven't had any prob-"
Maggie's statement was interrupted by a scream from inside of the house.
"'Phia!" Daryl dropped the plate, and run up the stairs, with Maggie in hot pursuit.
~NLA~
Rick, Carol, T-Dog, and Andrea were nearing the lake when they heard the scream.
Andrea looked over at Carol, and watched as the realization came to the surface. The scream took the breath out of Carol's lungs, and tears started to flow down her cheeks.
"That's Sophia. She's still alive!" Carol said, "I need to get to my baby!" as she ran in the direction of the scream.
T-Dog, Andrea and Rick ran after her, to make sure nothing happened to her.
