A/N: Alright, folks. Since I spent all last night writing, and actually came up with the next three chapters for this, I decided that I'd give you an extra special Christmas present, and post another chapter tonight, before I go tie my child to his bed lol. Hope y'all enjoy. : )

Dale didn't miss the way the girl's face fell at Daryl's words, and he slowly moved over next to her, careful to avoid any actual contact with her. He'd seen enough in his life to recognize a person who didn't want to be touched, and he respected that, even if it did look as though the poor girl's heart was breaking.

"It's not your fault," He said kindly, as she stared at the spot where the men had disappeared. "You did the best you could."

She turned towards him, and he was shocked to see tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"Yeah? Wasn't enough, was it? That little girl's still out there, alone in the damn woods. But hell, why don't ya go tell her mother that I 'did the best I could''. See if it makes her feel any better," She said bitterly, before climbing up on top of the car Daryl had been on, pulling her knees up to her chest, and resting her head on them.

"Why don't ya come on down, and give us a hand?"

Jesse ignored Shane's words, as she moved her head just enough to put him in her line of sight. "Ya know... The others might a bought ya bullshit, 'bout pickin' up her trail, an' it jus' bein' a matter a time," She finally said, the words practically dragging themselves out of her chest. "But I ain't stupid. Ain't a damn sheep like them. If ya had her trail, an' there weren't no problems, you an' the Asian wouldn't a come back. Y'all would a kept on til ya found her. Or she would a been back by now."

She scuttled back a few inches, hand dropping to the hilt of her knife, as Shane stepped towards her menacingly, green eyes flashing dangerously. "You jus' keep those thoughts to yourself, ya hear me?" He hissed. "Last thing we need is you startin' a panic, or gettin' Carol all worked up. Rick an' Daryl are gonna find her. Now get down here, an' give us a hand."

"Find somebody else ta do ya bitch work," She snapped, her eyes moving to find Carol.

She barely heard Shane's muttered curses, as he stalked off, her gaze locking onto the broken woman, who hadn't left her vigil by the guard rail since Jesse had come back.

She'd failed. She'd talked a big talk to Daryl about keeping the kids safe, but in the end, she'd failed that little girl. Failed her mama. She knew Daryl was right; she was just dead weight at the end of the day. She shouldn't have convinced Rick to head back to camp. She should've just told him to go back, and tried to find Sophia's trail on her own. From what Shane had said, they'd picked up her trail just on the other side of the creek bed, heading back towards camp like Rick had told her; hell, she'd probably been standing on top of it, and completely missed it in her rush to get back to the others. If she'd just stuck with it, and looked a little bit harder, she probably would've found it; maybe even found the girl by now, and already been back to camp.

Instead, Daryl and Rick were out there fixing her fuck up.

Dusk was coming on, Jesse noticed, still perched on top of the car. Would be getting to dark to follow the girl's trail, even for Daryl.

"What happened out there?"

Jesse nearly fell off the roof in shock, spinning around, hand on her knife, before her eyes found Carol, standing next to the car, looking up at her tearfully.

"What happened?" The gray-haired woman repeated.

Jesse swallowed thickly, pulling her legs back underneath her, unable to look the other woman in the eye.

"I uh... I tried chasin' after 'em. But I kept runnin' in ta groups a Geeks, an' by the time I hit the creek bed... She was already gone," She said quietly, scrubbing at her face with one hand. "Rick showed up... An' when I realized that... that she wasn't with him, I thought... He said he'd told her the way back to the highway. Told her which direction ta go. So I figured... I figured she must a circled 'round me somehow. Made her way back. So I... I tol' him that we should head back. That she was probably waitin' for us here. An' even if she wasn't... Daryl's better at trackin' then I am; figured he'd have better luck pickin' up her trail. I uh..." She stopped, unable to continue, the woman's penetrating gaze making her feel like she was two damn feet tall.

But to her surprise, when Carol's hand reached up to her, it wasn't in anger. The woman gently set her palm on Jesse's foot, giving her a sad smile.

"Thank you. Thank you for going after her," Carol said quietly.

Jesse pulled her foot back sharply, her feelings of inadequacy turning to anger. "Didn't do no good," She snapped, turning away to look at the woods. "All I did was fuck things up worse. If... If I had been there sooner... If I'd been there 'fore she took off... Hell, if I'd been there ta help Rick... I was too damn slow. Daryl was right; I'm jus' dead weight."

"No." The woman's voice was quiet, but firm. "You went after her. You tried to find her. You did your best."

Jesse scoffed. "Guess my 'best' jus' wasn't good 'nough then. Why don't ya go bother somebody else, an' leave me be?"

"Oh God, they're back!"

Jesse was already sliding down the windshield, moving towards the edge of the road as Daryl and Rick appeared from the brush. She stopped halfway down the hood, when she realized that Sophia wasn't with them, her stomach heaving as she seen the blood covering Daryl and Rick's pants. Oh God.

"You didn't find her?" Carol sobbed, seeming to fold in on herself, arms wrapping around her waist as she shook.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light," Rick said determinedly, but Jesse didn't miss the way his eyes wouldn't meet Carol's. Or anybody else's for that matter.

"You can't leave my daughter out there in the dark! Alone in the woods!"

"Huntin' in the dark's no good," Daryl said quietly. "Jus' be trippin' over ourselves; more people gettin' lost."

"But she's only twelve! She can't be out there on her own! You didn't find anything?"

Jesse moved towards Carol unsurely, tentatively reaching out a hand, and setting it on the woman's shoulder. She was surprised when Carol grabbed at it like a lifeline, clinging so tightly that her nails were digging into Jesse's palm.

"Look, I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic, alright? We know she was out there."

"We tracked her for a while," Daryl added, moving closer, before taking another step back, clearly uncomfortable with the woman's grief, as lost as to what to say as Jesse had been earlier.

"We have to make this an organized effort," Rick said, his gaze finally turning to the group. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody; I've asked him to over-see this."

But Carol was just noticing what Jesse had already seen, her eyes widening as she took in the blood on Daryl's jeans, her face going pale white.

"Is... is that blood?" She asked hoarsely, as Daryl glanced at Rick, clearly waiting for him to explain.

"We took down a walker. But there's no sign that was ever anywhere near Sophia," Rick said quickly.

"How can you know that?"

Jesse barely resisted the urge to smack the blonde bimbo upside the head, but she couldn't help the glare she gave her. Was that really necessary right then? Carol was near falling apart; extra commentary wasn't going to help anything.

"We cut the sum bitch open," Daryl said after a moment's hesitation. "Made sure."

Jesse had never been more appreciative towards Lori than in that moment, when the brunette gently pushed her aside, and helped Carol towards the guardrail, where the older woman seemingly collapsed.

Jesse started to draw back – to where, she wasn't sure, but she couldn't take another minute of being there.

Daryl sidled over the metal rail uncomfortably, as Lori and Andrea tried offering what little reassurance they could to Sophia's mama. He snorted a bit at that particular thought; wasn't much they could say that would make any mother feel better in that type of situation. He was heading towards the RV to see what sorta food he could find, when he spotted the midget's black curls over the top of the cars, already a good twenty yards away from the group. He frowned when the curls disappeared, and started moving that way.

By the time he caught up with her, he found her sitting in the driver seat of a small car, feet barely touching the pavement, as she sat with her head in her hands.

"Hey," He said quietly, kneeling in front of her. "Sorry 'bout... what I said earlier. Didn't mean it like that."

She scoffed as she looked up at him, tears filling her gray eyes. "But it was true," She said bitterly. "Wasn't no good at all out there."

"Hey, ya went after her. That's more than anybody but Rick did," He said gruffly, hesitantly setting a hand on her knee, unsure of what else to do. Or if that was even the right thing to do.

"If one more person tells me that I did my best, I swear ta God I'm gonna fuckin' slit 'em from ear ta ear."

Daryl sighed, not sure what else to say. After a few more minutes of tense, awkward, uncomfortable silence, he finally pulled his hand away.

"C'mon. We should find somewhere ta bed down for the night; got an early start ahead of us."

"Ya lettin' me go out with ya?" Jesse asked in surprise, as he stood.

"Yeah. Figure two sets a eyes are better than one. 'Sides, nobody else knows their way 'round those woods; figure if I have ya with me, maybe we can keep this group from losin' anybody else," He muttered, offering her a hand up. "Ya jus' gotta take it easy on that ankle. Don't even wanna think 'bout how bad ya screwed it up tearin' through the woods."