AN: Hi there! I have another chapter for you.

This chapter (like many) comes with an Ed warning. Nothing too detailed, but there is mention of domestic abuse (not in progress, just mentioned from the past).

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Daryl was sure that Sophia, should she return to the highway, would see the note that they'd left for her scrawled in large letters across the windshield of a Mustang that was parked almost exactly where Carol remembered her daughter going over the rail. They'd left supplies for the girl too—blankets, food, and water—and Daryl, himself, had made sure that the Mustang was cleared out so that she could take refuge there to wait for them.

Part of Daryl doubted that the girl would return to the highway simply because she'd failed to backtrack to that location before. He thought that, maybe, she no longer saw the location as safe. He was almost positive that when he found her—because he had to remain positive that he would find her—he'd locate her at some distance from the highway. The other part of him wanted to believe that finding her could be as simple as waiting for her to show up.

Whether she showed up or she didn't, though, they'd done everything possible to let her know that she hadn't been forgotten and she hadn't been left behind—they'd return for her. Daryl had promised Carol that they would return, every day, to the highway. He didn't plan for them to stay there, since it was pretty much out in the open, but they could come by daily to make sure that Sophia hadn't wandered back.

The morning had seen Daryl and Carol taking a final quick look around for the girl and preparing the Mustang as something of a beacon for her while Andrea had continued to scavenge cars nearby and pack anything she found into the RV. It had seen Dale tinkering with the RV's engine while Ed walked around grumbling about things that nobody listened to and nursed a hangover that, in Daryl's opinion, served him right. Daryl, for his part, had done his best to keep Carol busy so that she simply wouldn't hear Ed's insistence that the whole thing was stupid and they were wasting their time leaving any kind of note for Sophia.

Ed had given up on his daughter, but Daryl had a gut feeling that he'd done that long before the girl had gone missing. Judging by what he saw of Ed, Daryl wondered if it hadn't happened before Sophia had even been born.

Daryl didn't point out that the RV, almost miraculously, was repaired a mere ten minutes after he told Dale that it was about time they looked into moving out and heading for the Greene farm to join the others. Whether or not Dale admitted it, Daryl knew that the old man had sabotaged his own vehicle but he wasn't going to push the man into explaining himself.

The RV could be tricky and that's all there was to it. It was fine if it remained between Daryl and Dale that the old man could be far trickier than the vehicle ever would be.

The Cherokee that Ed drove and the RV were the only vehicles that had been left behind the night before. It didn't take Daryl the full ten minutes that it took Dale to finish with the RV to hotwire a truck that wasn't too caught up in the traffic snarl on the highway. With Andrea in the passenger seat, the Cherokee behind him with Ed and Carol, and the RV trailing behind them, Daryl followed the directions that had been left for them to find the farm. It wasn't as easy to find as it had been made out to be, but it wasn't impossible either.

"That's the mailbox," Andrea said, leaning up toward the dash to get a better look and pointing. Daryl slowed the truck from a crawl to a stop. "Gate's closed."

"S'posed to be," Daryl said. "Hop out. Open it. Close it after everyone's through?"

Without saying anything, Andrea opened the truck door, hopped out, and walked toward the gate. Daryl watched her, scanning the area around her to make sure that he saw no Walkers seemingly popping out of nowhere, and then he waved at her to move out of his way when the gate was open. He pulled into the gate and pulled his truck off the driveway, leaving space for the other vehicles to creep in. Daryl watched as the Cherokee passed him. Carol stared straight ahead out of the windshield in front of her. Ed appeared to be speaking, and Daryl was at least a little grateful that he didn't have to hear whatever the asshole had to say. The RV creeped through next and followed the Cherokee up the drive. Dale slowed and made eye contact with Daryl. Daryl gestured backward with his head to indicate that he was waiting on Andrea and then he threw a hand up at Dale to wave him on. When the RV had fully passed inside, Andrea closed the gate behind them and Daryl waited until she was seated in the passenger seat to pull forward and follow the others up the long driveway to the farmhouse.

They were in the right place. That much was immediately clear. The rest of their vehicles were there and, though nobody was outside to greet them when they pulled up—all of them staying in their vehicles for a moment—the door opened as soon as all the engines were killed and the young woman who had taken Lori Grimes stepped out on the porch in the company of an old man who looked like Santa Clause if he were to retire and take up the vocation of farmer.

When Ed finally opened the door on the Cherokee, the first sign that any of them intended to actually get out and get to know the new people around them, Daryl spoke to Andrea.

"It's time," he said. "Let's go."

Andrea didn't say anything to him. She simply followed his lead and got out. Daryl got out of the truck and walked around to the front of it. Dale stood by the RV. Ed stood by the front of the Cherokee and Carol stood with her arms crossed across her chest right by the door that she'd just closed. Andrea joined Daryl and stood beside him.

All of them stared at the old man who descended the steps like he wasn't in any hurry at all, his expression letting them all know that he was less than thrilled with their presence there.

"You can't leave that parked there," the old man said to Dale, gesturing toward the RV.

"I'm happy to move it," Dale responded. "I wasn't sure where you wanted me to park it."

"Nowhere," the man said. "But as long as you're here, you'll park it over there. That clear area between the trees. You can set up camp there." The man looked at all of them, then, scanning his eyes over the small crowd of them. "Your friends are inside. You can help them set up a camp tonight. They informed me that your gear is in the RV?"

"We've got a couple a' tents," Daryl said. "Food. Supplies. It's in the RV."

"You can set up camp over there," the old man repeated, gesturing once again to the cleared area that he'd selected for them. "I won't turn you away while the boy's in a delicate condition, but don't get comfortable here. I won't have you staying here either. Not as soon as he's able to move on."

Daryl laughed to himself and leaned a little closer to Andrea. He didn't want his voice to carry any farther than the blonde.

"I don't think I ever felt so damned welcome in my life," he muttered.

Andrea cleared her throat to keep from laughing and turned the throat clearing into a fake cough which she stifled with her hand.

"That house looks big enough for everyone," Ed pointed out.

Daryl winced. Although, for the first time since he'd known the man, he agreed with Ed, he also knew it wasn't up to them to decide where they stayed. The farm belonged to the old man. He could tell them to sleep wherever he wanted. The truth of the matter was that he didn't have to offer them anything at all. It would be unfair and cold if he were to turn them out, but he didn't know them and they didn't know him. The old man, honestly, didn't owe them the sweat off his wrinkled old ass. And, if he was taking care of Carl, he was already giving them far more than he had to.

"We'll be fine set up in the field," Daryl offered to soothe over the expression that crossed the old man's face.

Dale caught his eye from where he was standing and nodded his head before he spoke.

"I'll move the RV and we'll get the tents set up," Dale said. "Get everyone out of your hair."

"There are several wells on the property," the old man said. "We've got the second well over there shut off. Don't use that one. There's a well in the pasture, there, that you can use though. It'll provide you with more than enough water for the time that you'll be here."

"Dale Horvath," Dale said, practically interrupting the old man's words.

"Beg pardon?" The man asked.

"I'm Dale Horvath," Dale said. He offered a hand in the man's direction and stepped forward two steps to promote closing the distance between them. The man stepped forward, then, and shook Dale's hand. "That's Carol and Ed Peletier. Daryl Dixon and Andrea Harrison."

Ed was the only one that hadn't somewhat waved or gestured when Dale introduced him to the old man that would be their host.

The man backed up and looked them over again, this time from a closer distance. He gestured in Daryl and Andrea's direction.

"Married?" Hershel asked.

Andrea laughed. Daryl didn't think it was that damn funny, but he caught the laugh from Andrea in spite of himself. He shook his head.

"No," he said. "We ain't married."

"You're not sharing a tent," the old man said. "I'm a Christian man and this is a Christian farm. As long as you're on my land, you'll live by my rules."

"Weren't plannin' on it no way," Daryl informed him. "It ain't like that. Didn't catch your name."

"Hershel," the old man said. "Hershel Greene."

Hershel stepped toward Ed and Carol and clearly examined the two of them more closely. Daryl could see Carol grow uncomfortable under the examination and she turned her head to the side, taking a sudden interest in the ground. Ed didn't buck. He simply stared smugly back at the old man.

"What happened to you two?" He asked. Carol looked at him, then, but she didn't say anything. "Were you injured?"

Daryl's stomach twisted. Immediately he realized what Hershel Greene was questioning. It was something that rest of them had simply started to take for granted. Ed's face was still healing from his altercation at the rock quarry. It was several shades of green and purple. Carol, too, wore the same colors, here and there, where bruises Ed had left for her were still taking their time in disappearing. As far as Daryl knew, there weren't any fresh marks on her skin, but Hershel wasn't used to seeing what was still healing.

Ed sucked his teeth and then laughed low in his throat.

"Shit you don't know is that some of the people in this group? They turn into damn violent maniacs when things don't go the way they think they should," Ed said.

Daryl knew that Ed was referring to the beating that he'd endured. What he was forgetting, more than likely, was that he was certainly pretty high up there on the list with the most violent among them. He wouldn't mention that, though. Men like Ed never saw their faults. They were too busy searching out what they could condemn in others.

Daryl turned away for a moment, not wanting to see Carol's face when Hershel stepped in her direction to look at her marks a little more closely. Carol preferred for people not to mention what happened to her. Most people in her position preferred that. Daryl didn't want to see evidence of how she felt crossing her features.

"I won't stand for that," Hershel said. "I won't stand for violence on my farm. If you're going to be engaged in that kind of behavior? You can leave now. I don't want that here."

Ed started to say something and, in light of what was going on, Daryl couldn't stand it. The first word out of his mouth was innocuous, but it sounded like screeching train brakes to Daryl's ears. Daryl interjected and spoke over him, wanting to at least make Ed's words disappear if he couldn't make the man vanish entirely.

"We don't want violence neither," Daryl said. "At least—most of us don't."

"And we don't want to leave," Andrea added.

"Then I would suggest that you have a talk with whichever of your friends doesn't feel the same," Hershel said. He looked straight at Daryl. Daryl nodded his head. He wasn't sure if Hershel suspected him or if he was simply choosing him to say something because he'd spoken up. Either way, it didn't matter.

Ed laughed, drawing Hershel's attention back to him, his voice grating on Daryl's nerves once more.

"Nobody wants it," Ed said. "But—sometimes? Things happen. Sometimes? They've got to happen."

Daryl stared at Ed. Ed glanced at him and Daryl wondered if he could actually glare at the man hard enough that he'd feel it.

"That much is true," Daryl said, directing his words at Ed and not at Hershel. "Sometimes—things happen."

Ed shifted his weight, but he didn't take his eyes off Daryl for a moment. Daryl wasn't intimidated by his stare, either, and he returned it as hard as he could until Ed finally gave up and found himself something else to look at.

"It better not happen here," Hershel said. "Not on my farm. You can move all this now. I have things to do."