Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead. *sniff* But at least I have fanfic.

Author's Note: A HUGE thank you to HarryMakepeace for help on this chapter, and for the best trans-Atlantic text-based gun training I could have asked for. Usually I am lucky enough to get to edit her TWD story, Reboot (if you haven't read it, you should, because it's awesome), but this time she got to check mine, since I know absolutely nothing about guns. So if anyone out there finds mistakes in that part of this chapter, please excuse them. I did my best. Hope you all enjoy it. :)

Between season 2 and season 3

On the road, Mid-day

They hadn't been on the road too many more days when it was decided that everyone in the group who didn't already know how to shoot needed to learn. They couldn't afford to have anyone who couldn't defend themselves, or couldn't contribute to defending the group if the need arose. This meant that Beth, Carol, Lori and even Carl – despite Lori's misgivings about it – needed training. For a former pizza delivery boy who had had no need to know about guns before the Turn, Glenn seemed to have become a suspiciously good shot recently, and most people were pretty sure Maggie had had something to do with that.

They'd arranged a makeshift shooting range one day when they were between stops, in an area with multiple clear possible exit paths, just in case. It was stressful, trying to arrange for the gun training that the four of them needed, knowing all too well that the noise could attract walkers. But it had to be done somehow, and they couldn't learn to shoot without practicing, so Rick, Daryl and T-Dog were to be the instructors, while Maggie, Glenn and Hershel kept watch around the perimeter that they'd set up around their shooting range.

Carol had been jumpy and distracted since she'd gotten up that morning. She'd slept badly – more intense nightmares than usual – and had woken up calling Sophia's name, crying hysterically, more than once before she'd given up on sleeping for the night. They'd been staying in a big house that night, and she'd found herself in a bedroom alone, which she hated. The group members generally took turns sleeping in the bedrooms these days, since there were almost never enough beds. She always tried to defer her turns, let the others take the bedrooms. It felt selfish to take up a precious bed when she fought so hard against sleep anyway. Besides, she hated being there alone. At least if she was in the living room there was usually someone else around. As much as she hated waking up the others when she had a nightmare, she hated being in a bedroom alone even more.

She knew that her exhausted and stressed state was not going to blend well with that day's shooting practice. She'd been distracted by thoughts of Sophia all day, even more so than most days, and she just couldn't concentrate. Rick was leading the training, with T-Dog and Daryl assisting him, and today for whatever reason, Rick's voice was just grating on her last nerve. More than anything she just wanted the session over with. Maybe she wasn't cut out to handle a gun, she thought miserably as she missed the target time after time.

Daryl watched her as her frustration grew with each miss. He tried to show her what to do, but each time he felt like he was getting somewhere and that she was beginning to relax, Rick's voice would ring out from a short distance away and he'd see her tense up again. Finally he suggested quietly that she take a break, and she accepted readily.

He pulled her aside gently, guiding her to sit against a tree. It had been a long time since he'd seen her so tense, and he sat down beside her, but with his body turned to face her.

" 'S wrong?" he asked with concern. She was radiating tension. No wonder she'd been missing all the targets. "Ya look exhausted."

She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly in an attempt to calm herself before speaking. She was beyond exhausted and agitated and really wanted to just curl up in a little ball… but she knew that Daryl wasn't going to let her get away with that. For anyone else, she would have insisted that she was fine, but not him. He'd call her bluff without batting an eye. There was no point in pretending.

"I am exhausted. I kept waking up again last night. Don't think I slept more than thirty minutes at a time, max. I'm just not in the mood for this today. I can't concentrate. And Rick's voice… it's just getting on my nerves," she admitted, pulling at individual strands of grass as she stared at the ground in front of her.

"Nightmares again?" he asked softly, pretty sure that the answer would be "yes."

She didn't even look up, just nodded her head and continued to pull at the grass that was unlucky enough to be directly in her sights.

" 'Ts why you always try not ta take the bedrooms, ain't it? Not ta be in there alone?"

He was watching her carefully, trying to will her to look at him, but her chin wasn't budging. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to dispel the memory of the feeling she'd had each and every time she'd woken up that night. She shivered involuntarily, despite the fact that she wasn't cold.

"So was it Sophia or…?" he asked simply. It wasn't often they uttered Ed's name if they could help it. Usually Daryl just called him "the Asshole," or something like that. He didn't have to tell her what "or" he was referring to, it was understood between them.

"Sophia," she sighed sadly, a tear escaping from her eye. She drew her knees up in front of her and wrapped her arms tightly around them, setting her forehead down against her knees.

As it always did, guilt stabbed at him suddenly, and he wished again that he could have found poor Sophia for her, and saved her from all this pain. This is not about you, he quickly reminded himself. He focused instead on the woman in front of him who was quickly retreating back into herself.

He turned so that he was facing her, but simultaneously beside her, leaning down so that his face was close to her level, his shoulder beside hers. "Hey," he whispered softly near her ear, just to remind her that he was there.

Just hearing his voice beside her, she felt herself relax just a little. She leaned toward the sound of it without opening her eyes, her head finding his shoulder. She was still pulled into a tiny ball, and though he felt a little unsure about doing it, he pulled his arms loosely around her. It certainly wasn't something that came naturally to him, but at that moment he didn't care about his own discomfort, only doing something to help her calm down. She had changed so much, had grown so much stronger even in the weeks since they'd left the farm, and he hated to see her slip backwards like this.

They sat that way under the tree for a little while. At one point Daryl saw Rick look over at them from the firing range, a questioning look directed at him, but Daryl just nodded slightly to say that everything was under control. Rick didn't give it another thought. Whatever was wrong with Carol, Daryl was the one who was most likely to be able to fix it, as usual. That much was common knowledge in the group, even if no one could figure out exactly what was between them.

Finally Carol stirred, lifting her head reluctantly off Daryl's shoulder and smiling sadly at him. "Sorry, I've probably been drooling all over you there," she joked quietly, looking at his shoulder.

"Pffft," he replied, letting his arms fall and sitting back slightly, glad to see she was feeling better. "That'd be the cleanest thing this poncho's had on it in… I dunno how long," he reassured her. They both chuckled, not doubting that he was right about that. The world sure was a dirty place without indoor plumbing.

She looked wistfully back toward the rest of the group, who appeared to be wrapping up their lesson for the day. "I wish I could focus today. I need to know how to shoot, I know I do. Rick's voice was just like nails on a chalkboard in my head today." She couldn't even explain why. He'd never bothered her that much before.

"We could try again once they call it a day," he suggested. "Looks like they're windin down." They looked back over at the firing range, where Rick and T-Dog were giving the impression of being pleased overall with the progress of their students. They all looked relatively happy with the day's lesson. Daryl looked back at her. "Whada'ya say? One more try?" Then added, "No Rick or any of the rest of them, just you and me."

She exhaled slowly, nervous at the idea of trying again when she had already felt like quite the spectacular failure at shooting today, but decided that if anyone could help her get it right, it would be Daryl. "Okay," she said, nodding her head in an attempt to convince herself that she could do it. He smiled at her reassuringly.

He pushed himself off the ground and swung his crossbow over his shoulder, then reached down to offer her his hand. She let herself be pulled to her feet wearily, meeting his eyes as she came back to her full height, and he swore he saw the spark that was usually there flare quickly, then settle down to the sparkle that he had grown accustomed to seeing there.

They walked back over to join the others, who were just handing their weapons back to Rick, ready to call this practice session over. Rick looked concerned as they rejoined them. "You alright, Carol?" he asked. She could see that he was genuinely concerned.

She pushed her mouth into a smile and nodded. "Just really tired today, and I was getting frustrated with myself, which made it worse, so it seemed better not to waste the ammo."

Rick nodded understandingly. "It's not an easy thing to learn," he said. "But I know you'll get it."

"We're gonna give it another shot," Daryl said. "Y'all go on back up to the camp, we'll be up there when we're done." The camp was probably a generous way to describe the area where they'd built a campfire earlier. They weren't planning on staying there that night, especially not after they'd been shooting off all those rounds, possibly drawing walkers from who knew how far away, but they didn't have too far to go before nightfall and they could afford another hour or so.

Rick nodded. "Alright. I want Maggie and Glenn to stay here and keep watch for you, though." Maggie and Glenn, who were standing nearby, nodded their agreement. It was common knowledge that the two never minded watch duty when they were asked to take a shift together. Daryl and Carol both nodded as well.

Rick handed the bag of guns and the ammo that they'd been using for their practice over to Daryl. "We should leave in an hour or two," he reminded them.

"Plenty of time," Daryl replied. "We'll see y'all up there soon." They watched as Rick led Carl, Lori, Beth, Hershel and T-Dog back to the day's "camp."

Maggie and Glenn looked slightly sheepish, as though there was something they wanted very badly not to talk about. "We're just gonna be over there, there's a good vantage point we found, where we can see most of this area," Glenn said, pointing towards a ridge slightly hidden by trees. "Holler if you need anything."

"A'ight," Daryl said, nodding. The two scampered away, and Daryl and Carol looked at each other, shaking their heads. Carol burst out laughing.

"Somehow I don't think they're gonna be much good for keeping watch," she ventured.

"Like goddamn teenagers er something," Daryl grumbled, looking in the direction in which the two had disappeared and shaking his head again. This just amused Carol more.

He turned back to look at her, almost smirking, returning to the reason they were there. "Ya ready ta get started?" he asked. She don't look nervous or tense anymore, that's a good start, he thought.

She nodded, smiling the most genuine smile he'd seen on her face all day. "Yes. Ready," she replied, the familiar glint back in her eyes. She felt like the earlier failure hadn't ever happened. I can do this, she told herself. This was exactly the effect that Daryl usually had on her.

"Okay, let's start at the beginning. The first thing ya gotta think about is how yer standin. 'S the most important, cause ya can't line up with yer target otherwise," he told her. She nodded seriously, paying attention as he talked. He didn't usually like people watching him so closely, but when she did it, it didn't bother him. Hell, he almost liked it. He walked over to stand beside her, facing the makeshift targets that the others had been using. They'd lined up whatever they could find along the narrow boards of a wooden fence, mostly things like old soda cans. Most of their targets now littered the ground around the fence, but it didn't matter. They weren't ready to shoot yet anyway.

He stood beside her, shoulder to shoulder, demonstrating the stance: his feet about one step apart, parallel to each other. She imitated the way he was standing, and he nodded at her. "Good," he mumbled. He touched the middle of her back ever so slightly with his fingertips, and said "Gotta make sure you keep your back straight, too." She wasn't sure if she straightened up as tall as should could because she was following his directions or because of the sudden warmth that she could swear spread through her body when his hand connected with her back. It caught her off guard, but she tried not to let it register on her face. She had to admit, she liked it.

"The trick is," he mumbled, moving his hand away, "ya gotta stay calm if ya wanna be able ta aim right. Gotta hold perfectly still." She tried to demonstrate holding perfectly still, glancing at him out of the corners of her eyes to see him watching her intently. She couldn't help but grin.

"I feel silly just standing here like this," she whispered. Why am I whispering? she wondered. He said stand still, not be quiet.

"Yer doin pretty good," he replied, nodding approvingly. "Keep that back straight," he reminded her, finding the same spot on her back that he had before.

If anyone had been watching them, they would have thought that he was intentionally flirting with her, and that she was purposely relaxing her back to get him to put his hand there again. However, they would've been wrong. First of all, Daryl Dixon did not know how to flirt. Of all the skills he had to offer, flirting or any other socially related skills were not among them. And while it have seemed that Carol would have been more distracted with Daryl's hard on her back, that was exactly the opposite of the truth. Somehow Daryl had a calming effect on her, he always had. The closer he was, the calmer she became. She didn't understand it herself, but she remembered trying to use it to her advantage back when he'd been out looking for Sophia, and couldn't be there to sit on the guardrail with her. She remembered trying to imagine that he was there next to her just to summon up the soothing feeling she felt when he actually was beside her.

Daryl's approach seemed to Carol to be the direct opposite of Rick's. Where Rick's voice had grated on her nerves with every word, Daryl's voice did exactly what it usually did for her – gave her confidence, and made her feel calm and safe. When he was satisfied that she was standing correctly, and after making sure that the safety was on, he gave her one of the guns, just to hold. He told her to relax and stand normally while holding it, so that she could get used to the weight in her hand. "Just hold it for a while. Don't worry about how yer standin, just keep holdin it, so ya get used to it," he told her. That seemed easy enough to her. He tried to distract her from thinking about the fact that she was holding it by changing the subject completely.

"Ya hungry?" he asked, knowing that neither of them had eaten in hours, and that if she said that she wasn't, she'd be lying. He retrieved 2 apples from the bag that he'd carried up from the camp earlier that day. Her eyes grew wide in surprise. Fresh fruit was a very rare commodity these days, since they couldn't stay anywhere long enough to grow any themselves. He thought of tossing one to her, but decided that it probably wasn't wise to throw it at her when she was holding a gun, even with the safety on. He walked over and handed it to her instead.

"Where'd you get them?" she asked, looking at the apple in her hand almost reverently. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had an apple. How quickly things can change, she thought, realizing that she had never once been as astounded by a piece of fruit in her entire life.

"Oh, ya know… a tree," he replied with a smirk. She laughed, shaking her head, and would have thrown her apple at him if it had not been such a precious commodity. She did as instructed, and kept the gun in her right hand while holding her apple in her left. When they finished eating, which didn't take long, she threw the core as far as she could toward the targets – not bad for a left handed throw – and he proceeded to throw his, also with his left hand, almost twice as far.

"Pfft," she said, imitating him and pretending to sulk. "Show off."

"Alright, back to work," he replied. She stood straight and ran through what she had learned so far, trying to recreate the stance she had stood in earlier. Feet apart. Back straight. Calm and still. She took deep breaths, trying to be as still as possible.

He watched her getting ready, and could tell that she was running through the steps in her head. "Ya look ready," he told her. "How d'ya feel?"

"Ready," she confirmed.

"Alright, c'mon," Daryl said, and began jogging towards the targets. She followed slightly behind him, confused at first, but quickly realized what they were going to do. They jogged over to the fence and found that most of the objects that had been used as targets, while they had some holes in them, were still usable. They set them all back up on the fence, then jogged back to where they had started. "A'ight, get yourself ready again," he told her.

She inhaled deeply and went through the steps in her mind again. Feet apart. Back straight. Calm and still. She glanced up at him for his approval. He nodded at her, and she smiled. "What's next?" she asked.

"Now you're ready to aim," he said seriously. "What ya wanna hit first?"

She examined her choices. It didn't really matter. "The Coke can," she replied.

"A'ight, so, how ya feelin with the gun? More comfortable?" he asked.

She looked down in surprise at the hand holding the gun. She chuckled, and said "I'd forgotten that I was holding it."

"Good," he said. "So now let's work on aimin at the target." She raised the gun hesitantly, holding it out in front of her, not really sure what she was trying to do. "OK, just like ya gotta be standin calm and still, ya gotta hold ya arms that way too, and ya gotta get the target in yer sight. Lemme show ya," he walked around and stood behind her, bringing his face level with hers, so that their cheeks were almost touching, raising his arms on either side of hers. It if had been anyone else, it would have been more than just a little bit uncomfortable, even awkward. But it was Daryl, and she felt herself relax, even if she did suddenly feel just a little flushed… She had to remind herself not to relax against him. She glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye, which barely required any movement whatsoever since their faces were so close together. He saw the tiny movement and glanced back at her at the same time. "Focus, woman," he said in his deep gravely rumble. Carol smiled and flicked her eyes back to the gun in front of her. This was definitely better than practicing with Rick.

"So the next thing to remember is to keep your arms steady." He dropped his arms slightly so that he could grip her forearms gently. He felt them trembling slightly. "Focus on yer arms. Ya can't aim right if they're movin all over the place." She took a deep breath and tried to steady her arms. Daryl could feel a difference almost immediately. "Better, ya got it," he told her, releasing his grip on her forearms and moving his hands to her hands, which were holding the gun. There was something reassuring about the pressure of his hands over hers, helping her to steady the gun. "So ya got yer arms steady, now ya gotta get the target in the sight, line it up so ya see the Coke can right through there."

Carol looked and saw the Coke can between the sight lines. She smiled, feeling like she might get the hang of this after all. Being around Daryl always had that effect on her, made her feel like whatever it was, she could do it. Like she wasn't so worthless after all.

"Now before ya can take the shot, ya gotta release the safety, like this," he said, showing her the release level lever. "One last thing ta remember," he said, "is ya gotta take a deep breath, steady yourself one last time, then hold yer breath in 'til ya pull the trigger." She was fairly sure that if she had thought about it, that last piece of advice was some sort of metaphor for her life.

Before he removed his hands from around hers, he checked that she had the gun lined up steadily, then released his grip around her hands and put them back around her forearms, checking to be sure they were steady. Working through the lesson backwards, he then put his arms down and took a small step to one side, placing his fingertips on the spot on her back where he'd started, before withdrawing them and looking down at her feet.

It was as though as he'd stood there so close to her, he'd been radiating not only warmth, the loss of which she noticed as soon as he stepped away from her, but something else that she'd absorbed as well, something unfamiliar to her – confidence. It was as though during those few minutes she'd been somehow infused with it.

Then he took a step back and looked at her stance. "Now clear your mind, just think 'bout whether ya doing all the things we talked about." She tried to think about everything they'd gone over. Feet apart. Back straight. Calm and still. Arms steady. Target in the sight. Safety off. Deep breath and hold it in.

"I think so," she said, eager to see if she could hit the target.

"A'ight then, give it a try," he said encouragingly. " 'T's gonna kick back a bit when ya fire, just hold it steady, best ya can." He took another small step backwards so he could get a better look at how she was standing when she fired. She looked to him like someone who'd already had some practice.

She mentally went through all the steps once again in her head, remembering the sensation of warmth and calm that had spread through her when he'd touched her back, when he'd stood behind her. She took a deep breath and held it, feeling perfectly still and calmer than she could remember feeling in a very long time. She squeezed the trigger slowly, then suddenly felt the vibration run through her body, heard the shot ring in her ears. She looked at Daryl shyly before looking back at the target. He was grinning broadly, looking toward the fence. She was afraid to look, but simultaneously dying of curiosity. "How'd I do?" she asked, bracing for bad news.

"Guess you just needed someone with a different approach," he said slowly, looking at her, then motioning with his head to the target. She followed his gaze to the fence, where the Coke can was now laying on the ground.

"Did I hit it?" she asked in surprise, a smile creeping across her face.

"Straight through the middle," he told her. "C'mon, lemme see ya do it again." She blushed proudly, disbelief reflected on her face.

She started to get herself ready for another shot, then suddenly she stopped, lowered the gun and turned to face him. "Thank you Daryl," she said earnestly. "Actually, I don't think I can ever thank you enough for this."

"Pffft," he mumbled, "Stop. 'T's not a big deal."

She shook her head slowly. "It's a very big deal to me," she told him. "I never thought I'd be able to do it. I'll actually be useful to the group if I can shoot."

"Pffft. You? Not useful? Stop." He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Ya gonna go again?" he asked in mock impatience, changing the subject. She smiled, knowing exactly what it was like to not be able to take a compliment.

"Absolutely," she said, her face now filled with determination, almost excitement, as she got back into position.

This was the beginning of a new Carol Peletier.