Here you go; another chapter. And we're moving forward.

Have a great weekend!

S.-

"I ever what?!", Carol spatted, convinced that she was sleepy and had heard him all wrong. She propped up on her elbows, covering her naked chest with the sheets and looked up at him.

He chuckled. "Hunting, woman", he told her simply, looking at her as if it was something most people normally did. Well, maybe so. They were in Georgia after all.

"And we kill them?" she asked, her brows forrowing in concern.
"If we can eat it, we kill it, yea". He yawned and caught her by the shoulder, pulling her towards him.

"Or we don' kill 'em, whichever way ya want", he told her, his lips brushing over her forehead before her eyes closed, her legs tangling with his, both of them still naked underneath the sheets, and she eventually fell asleep.

It was beginning to get light when she woke up, and the first thing she noticed was he wasn't there. She remembered then what he'd told her the other day, that he woke up at 5.30 every day, and she didn't think it was that early but she still didn't understand how he managed to be up, especially considering they hadn't exactly slept so many hours the night before.

She would have expected to feel uncomfortable, even to regret all of it or to at least be scared about Ed finding out, but as she sat on the bed and got dressed, not ready for him to see her naked in the light yet, she realized she hadn't felt this good in a while. Months. Years. She absolutely didn't regret it, and as images of what'd happened last night in that bed came to her mind, she suddenly felt that desire arise again. She thought about getting him into bed and trying to make him forget about his plans, but he'd sounded so enthusiastic last night it'd been a little contagious, and as long as she got to spend time with him, she didn't exactly care what they'd be doing. Even when she didn't have the right outfit to go hunting whatsoever.

"Mornin'", she heard his deep voice say, and she looked up and saw him leaning against the door frame, his jeans hanging low on his hips and a coffee mug in his hand.

"Hi", she said shyly, taking him in. And for the first time the thought of what a guy like him could possibly find so interesting about a woman like her didn't cross her mind. He was gorgeous, no one could ever question that, and he could certainly be with one of those women she used to feel jealous of, either for their youth, their beauty, their attitude are all of them. Last night though he'd made her stop feeling sorry about herself, ashamed about those marks on her body. He'd made her believe, after a long time of being told otherwise, that she was so much more than that. He'd almost made her feel she could go ahead and tell him the truth about her. Almost.

"Ya wanna have some breakfast 'fore we leave?" he asked her, still standing by the door. His eyes flicked over hers and she noticed how bright they were, making him look refreshed even this early in the morning. She smiled. There was a boyish attitude about him that was cute and insanely attractive at the same time.

"Some coffee is just fine", she said, standing up and heading towards the door. She looked down at her sandals and wondered how she was going to walk through the woods or wherever they were heading, but she suddenly felt it was the best plan in the world.

"Am I supposed to be quiet?" she whispered as she walked behind Daryl, who carried a huge crossbow on his back, making him look sexy as hell. They were walking down a dirt path so it wasn't that hard to do it, even in her sandals, but she had to jog a bit to keep Daryl's pace, who walked fast and easily yet very silently, stopping to search in the ground for tracks.

"Yea, well, if we wanna hunt anythin' we should. Ya see this?" he told her, benting down and pointing to the floor. She mirrored him and looked at the ground, her eyes fixed on the bare soil. She could distinguish some shapes but she had no idea if they belonged to an animal or if they were the result of the leaves falling down.

"What is it?" she asked him with a frown.

"'s a deer. Been walkin' ere some minutes ago or so. See tha V shape? An' they are still fresh.. it started to run at some point, pro'bly heard us, see?", he explained her, pointing towards the other footprints down the path. They became clear to her now; to the point she couldn't believe she hadn't seen them before.

"Wow, yeah.. I do see them now", she said, impressed. "And you hunt them too?" She'd heard the meat was delicious but they were just too cute and she doubted she could go ahead and kill it if she ever ran into one.

"hell yea,.. they are hard ta find though.. if ya get one ya could eat for 2 weeks, plus they jus' taste fuckin' good", he told her as he stood up. "C'mon, ya go ahead an' try ta fin' more tracks, I'll be righ' behind ya", he said, stretching his hand out for her to stand up.

She smiled and continued to walk, her eyes fixed on the ground, marveled at the little footprints that she couldn't help but follow. She observed they turned to the right and then the grass was just too tall and she lost them, but she spotted a little pond surrounded by yellow wild flowers.

"Oh, wow", she muttered, stunned by the beauty of the place, being in contact with nature something she'd really enjoyed when she was a kid, but that she'd stopped doing at some point, probably after getting engaged with Ed. He'd always hated it just like he hated most things that didn't involve money and alcohol.

She heard a noise and immediately stepped backwards, bumping into Daryl's hard chest. She almost tripped but his hands instantly went to her shoulders, steading her.

"Keep quiet, I think it's somewhere ova there", he whispered in her ear. She shivered at the sensation of his warm breath on her skin, and did as he said; the noises increasing in frequency and sounding indeed like some animal walking on the grass. His hands suddenly moved down her sides and wrapped around her stomach as he pulled her further towards him, her back instantly warming as her stomach began to tingle, but she tried hard to focus on whatever was going to show up, her eyes fixed on the pond in front of them.

"Oh my god!" she bursted out, her hand going to her mouth as the animal leaped out the tall grass, its eyes flicking over them as it apparently decided they meant no harm and headed straight to the pond, benting its head down to drink some water. Carol instantly grabbed Daryl's arm, which was still wrapped around her waist.

"Please, don't kill it", she whispered, and he nodded behind her.

"I won't, it's a girl, that one", he replied, and she couldn't see him but she thought he also sounded amazed, even when he probably got to see them a lot more than she did.

The deer looked up at them one more time, and Carol could have sworn it fixed her eyes on hers before it turned around and headed back to where it'd come from until they could no longer see it.

"Oh my god, that was the prettiest thing I've ever seen!" she said in awe, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"Naw, that's gotta be you", he whispered softly on her ear once more, a chill running down her body as her hands went down to cover his and her body leaned towards him to the point she could feel every inch of his body pressed against hers.

He moved his mouth to her neck and placed a chapped kiss on the skin there, and she instantly tilted her head to the side, her hands running up his arms. He nuzzled his face on the crook of her neck, the tip of his tongue tracing the skin that went from her clavicle to her ear and she felt him grow hard behind her, her heart starting to beat faster and her body heating up despite the chilly air.

"Daryl", she hissed, slowly turning around, his piercing blue eyes flicking over her face as he caught her chin with his hand and leaned in, his eyes shutting down the second his lips met hers. He kissed her softly at first, his hands caressing her face and then moving painfully slowly down her sides to wrap around her waist. His teeth gently nipped at her bottom lip while one of his hands slipped behind her neck, holding her still as her lips parted and his tongue found its way inside her mouth, sliding against hers. She sighed in his mouth, her tongue tangling with his and her arms wrapping around his neck, her body arching into him, seeking for more contact.

Daryl dropped his hand off her neck and cupped her ass, pulling her straight against his erection. He groaned at the contact and kissed her jaw and her throat, another growl coming out of his mouth as she grinded against him. The friction was making her feel an unbelievable pleasure and a little frustration as well, the sudden need of stripping right there in the middle of the woods and just letting go. He moved his mouth back to hers and kissed her again, his hands moving to the waistband of her jeans as he slowly pulled apart.

"Damn", he said, his fingers absently brushing the skin of her stomach as a crooked smile spreaded over his lips. "Such a nice mornin'".

She let out a little laugh at his statement and just stared at him, speechless while her breathing slowed down.

"C'mon", he said, grabbing her hand. "Let's get us somethin' ta eat since ya didn' let me put tha' deer down".

Carol didn't want to leave, but she was running out of excuses to stay, and she had to go back to Ed's house since Glenn had to work there all the afternoon. She couldn't just leave him outside, and she had no way of calling him. For the first time Ed wasn't the reason why she couldn't stay, since he wouldn't be there until Sunday afternoon, but she also figured that maybe she should leave him alone for a while, although if that was what he wanted, it didn't show at all.

So they were now standing on his front yard, waiting for the cab. Daryl hadn't insisted about taking her home, but the way he was glancing at her every now and then got her thinking he was probably hoping she did ask him to take her. They hadn't seen each other that much but it'd always been uncomfortable when they had to say goodbye. Because it was always there, in the air, the sensation of something going wrong. She felt bad, all of a sudden. She felt it was unfair to hide all those things from him, but she had no idea about how she was supposed to handle it and that was another reason why she didn't want to go back to Ed's. She knew she'd start thinking about all these things, she knew she'd probably conclude that the best she could do was keeping her distance, even when right there, right now she felt it was simply impossible. She liked him. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to stay with him and find the courage or the insanity to leave everything and simply stay.

"Hey", he said suddenly, distracting her from all those thoughts.

She tried to smile at him, but she didn't know how effective the smile turned to be, because he furrowed his brows.

"How can I reach ya, I mean.. ya gonna call, ain't cha got a number so tha' I can call ya sometime?" He was biting his nail, his eyes flicking over her face as if he was trying to read her mind.

"I will call you", she told him. She knew she hadn't exactly sounded convinced and the last thing she wanted was him thinking it'd got something to do with him.

"Daryl.. I.." she added, trying to find words to explain. He was watching her carefully, his eyes never leaving hers. "This is what I can do", she told him, tentatively looking at him. "This, whatever it is, this is the best I can do, this is all I can give... for many reasons".

He sighed and brought his hands to his pockets, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"I take it", he said finally. "Whateva it is, I take it.. jus' don' disappear on me?"