Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I got so many from that chapter, tell me if my English is getting better, I hope it is, this chapter is a bit longer than the others, I will hopefully post again tonight. Hugs, Lauren x

Merle POV:

I picked her up off the floor, I left the others to make sure the walkers were all dead, I wasn't going to let her die. She wasn't conscience but after what she did I would have been shocked if she was. I'd suffered blood loss cutting my hand off but I sealed it in minutes she was fighting it, running on empty, I took her pulse before I had started carrying her, it was weak, but she was fighting, I would do anything to keep her safe, and the day after she find out I love her she nearly dies.

The plan was that Hershel stayed in C block in case anyone got injured, I carried her as quickly as I could, holding her against my chest to try and keep her warm she was freezing, and she was so pale, I felt like I was going to break her. Daryl was running in front of me unlocking all the doors so I could walk straight through with her.

'What happened?' Hershel shouted looking at Carol soaked in blood and guts.

'She needs blood now.' I lay her down on the nearest table, someone was gonna have to donate, we never took the blood supplies from Woodsbury never thought we would need to. I watched Hershel taking her pulse. It was going to be worse than when I took it, blood was still pouring down her arms, he needed to stitch her up now. I stood anxiously waiting, Daryl was stood chewing his thumb, he had done that since he was a child, no matter how many times daddy tried to beat it out of him he did it.

'It's weak, very weak, I don't know her blood type, I can just stitch her up and see how it plays out.' I couldn't believe this group they didn't know important stuff like this. I sat on the chair next to her head watching Daryl come through with the docs bag. I held her hand while he stitched her arm up. She could have died, she still could, she would die saving Daryl. When the doc moved to the arm I was holding I moved around to hold her other hand. I wasn't gonna let her die alone. No. She risked everything for other people, people who loved her, I saw her mouthing that she loved me and Daryl when the walkers attacked, someone should have been with her out there. She could die, because she cared. I looked at Daryl he was motionless on the floor his head in his hands. Hershel finished up and I moved her into a cell. Rick, Glenn and Maggie had gathered around Hershel now. He was just going to state something we all knew.

'Hershel how bad is it?' They all looked at him expectantly, Rick leading the questions everyone else looked so shocked to have seen her lying motionlessly on the floor outside. I stood my her cell, no I wasn't going to leave her alone she was more Dixon then anyone and we looked out for our own.

'If I knew her blood she would be fine I don't want to risk just pumping her with our blood when it could kill her. She might pull through from what I can tell she was fighting a while with the blood loss she's strong lets just pray.'

'She was fighting maybe five minutes with the cuts, she just kept swinging her knife but then she collapsed.' Glenn stuttered.

Well maybe if they had decided to help her get the children in, or started shooting sooner she would be alive, she wouldn't of had to do that, Daryl shouldn't have got surrounded, the group in the fence should have kept it save for him to run back if he needed to. They didn't care though, their family, their real family were safe, locked away or behind the fences.

'Merle I'm so sorry.' Maggie cried as she came running towards me, tears streaming down her face, I couldn't stay mad at them, I was like them, I didn't fight as hard as I could for people who weren't family. That Hispanic family I would have let die, Daryl wasn't like that though, he still cared about everyone after everything that had happened to him, he was so much like Carol.

I pulled Daryl towards the cell Carol was in, I left him there to grab a bottle of water and a cloth. She was ours and we looked after our own. I quickly ran to her cell grabbing the clothes off her bed, they looked comfortable and they were clean, I wasn't going to have her wake up covered in god knows what. When I got to the cell I pulled the blanket over, Daryl was stood where he had been when I left him, this was killing him, he was blaming himself.

'It wasn't yeah fault.' I put my hand carefully on his shoulder pushing him towards the chair in the corner, he wasn't going to be able to help me he was in shock. He had always wanted to protect her, fight to keep her save and now she did the same for him. He was pale, sweating, his breathes were awkward. He would start crying soon, hell we both would. She would die with her last memory of us being us fighting, between ourselves, to save her.

I thought about when I saved her, I should have got to her quicker, I should have stopped her hitting the floor, I should have moved towards her, left the others to kill the walkers on the far side, maybe if I had started shooting sooner she would be fine. I watched her slice her arms to save Daryl, I couldn't reach him, I kept trying to kill the walkers closing in on him but I couldn't get a safe shot, I could have ended up shooting him. When I rounded the bus seeing her on the floor, walkers moving in as the others were killing them, I didn't think, I just grabbed her.

I looked at my shirt, tears were forming in my eyes, I hadn't cried since I was young. Dixons don't cry, daddy always told us that, but he said we couldn't care, that we couldn't love, that no one would want us, they we were worthless, I looked at Carol laying on the bed, motionless and though, he was wrong, she wanted u, she loved us, she cared for us. I let the tears flow, I could hear Daryl sniffling behind me, we would both ignore the fact that the other was crying, we weren't going to make the other feel weak.

I slowly lifted Carols top half up resting her on my stump arm, I used my other to lift her top off her, I moved to take her shoes and trousers off, once she was free of her ruined clothes I took out the water and cloth slowly cleaning her, I wasn't going to completely strip her, no, she would keep her dignity, every so often checking for her pulse I could still feel it but it was weaker than before, she was going. I washed her face first using the towel at the end of the bed I dried her and moved onto her arms, covered in blood and gunk. I dried them as I went being careful of the stitches. She was so pale without the blood covering her, she looked so fragile, I couldn't stop crying, I was going to lose her, the first woman I had loved since my mama, the first person either of us had loved since our mama.

'She's gonna die because of me, I dropped my magazine, she saved me.' He finally spoke, his voice horse, he'd been crying I already knew but I couldn't look at him he would feel weak and storm off, she needed him. He needed to be here, if he wasn't he wouldn't forgive himself.

'She loves us more than herself, just like she loves that little girl she saved, she kept fightin' remember that.' I replied softly, this would shatter him. I kept my voice strong, I needed to keep going for him, I wasn't going to let him opt out when she went, we needed to stick together. I moved to her hands, one had much more blood that the other I cleaned them and dried them not really paying attention, I dressed her before pulling the sheet around her. She looked so peaceful in the bed, I moved towards her head, pulling out bits of skull, and dirt, I needed her clean and warm to have a chance of fighting this.

'It wasn't your fault, she shouldn't have been out there alone with the kids, we shouldn't have strengthened the fences sooner, we should have started shooting sooner, we're gonna change all that when she's better, make this place safer for her, us.' I looked at him, he didn't look up at me, he knew I was crying, he heard my voice waver.

I sat on the bed, stroking her hair, one of us would do it, stop her turning, do it right, once we knew she was gone we had to do it, she would have done it for us.

'When she goes, I'm gonna go bury her with Sophia, that's what she said she wanted, I promised I would do, stop her turning, bury her with her little girl.' He looked up at me, I could see tear tracks down his face washing away the dirty, he looked so young again, vulnerable.

'We both will.' I reached into my pocket, pulling out the necklace I found her, I kept it just waiting for the right time to give it her, looked like this was the best I was gonna get. I slowly put it on her, I could feel her breath on my hand, it was so weak, but she was still going, still trying, I felt her arm, she was so cold, she wasn't going to fight much longer, I climbed over her sitting by the wall, I put her head in my lap, stroking her hair, staring at her eyes hoping they would open. Just to see her blue eyes one more time, I thought about when I kissed her, she tasted like chocolate and smelled like lavender, she was so beautiful but she wanted us, she wanted a Dixon. I looked at those lips, they were turning blue, she wasn't going to be breathing much longer, maybe a few minutes, her organs would start shutting down soon. I just couldn't let her go, if I held her close enough she would keep fighting, I could keep her going, bring her life.

I saw Daryl watching me, 'If she's warm she has a better chance, same with being clean, I ain't gonna just let her go. He nodded, moving to sit on the other side of the bed, he closed his eyes, I loved my little brother and I just wish I could take all the pain away, I remembered the scars on his back, that didn't break him but losing this little lady would, she take most of the group with her, she was what held us together.

I watched Daryl walk out of the cell, he better not be running, she needed him. I looked down at her and kissed her forehead. 'He'll be back darlin' he wouldn't leave yeah.' I could hear footsteps getting louder before the curtain opened. Daryl was stood there holding an old tattered book. He sat back down on the bed and opened it.

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the…