A/N – Don't worry, I plan to deal with the Lori situation… I have a plan for where that's going to go very soon. But I figured we could all use a little something else after all the drama…

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Chapter 53 – Fighting and Loving

Carol was nowhere to be found when Daryl and the others reached the lobby of the building. Hershel and Glenn were waiting there for Daryl, T-Dog, Andrea, and Lori. Clearly Carol had told them what had happened.

"Take her into the empty room next to mine," Hershel directed T-Dog. "Stay there with her, Theodore."

T-Dog nodded and went off with Lori. Andrea and Glenn went off as well, presumably to check on Carl and the others.

"Carol see ya?," Daryl asked.

"Yes, she did. I told her Rose seems fine… we can't know at this point if there will be any permanent damage, but from what I can tell right now, she's a happy enough three month old. Her body temp is still coming up, but she's engaging like normal, and her reflexes seem to have no change from her last check-up with me."

Daryl nodded. "And Carl?"

Hershel gave Daryl a grim tight-lipped smile. "He's stable… for now. I gave him a sedative though so he can sleep. What's the plan for Lori?"

Daryl ran his hands over his head, through his hair and grimaced at the man. "I'm-a gonna get group input on that. What're yer thoughts on the matter?"

"Hard to say… I knew a woman once, most docile thing you ever met. I used to treat her cows when they needed it, played poker with her husband. She used to bring me apple pies and casseroles after my first wife died. She had three kids, all younger than 9. Her fourth baby died at two months, SIDS, I guess, but before they called it that. About a month later she drove her car, herself and all the other little ones into a lake… only the oldest made it out."

Daryl eyed the older man, his eyes hooded and his brow furrowed. "What're ya sayin' here 'xactly?"

"I guess just that, sometimes people in the best of times can snap when something bad happens and they can't handle it, do things they wouldn't normally have ever done."

"This ain't 'xactly the best of times," Daryl said.

Hershel nodded, moving away from Daryl, his voice was soft as he spoke, "don't I know it." About halfway down the hallway, Hershel turned back to Daryl. "I think though, before you talk to the others, before we make any decisions… we need to involve Carl in this. She's his mother, and the kid should have a voice here."

Daryl nodded in response.


Carol left the bedroom, and a very sleepy Rose, briefly to meet with the others. She kept her eyes averted as Daryl explained that while he knew something had to be done, and done fast, it wasn't something just one man could or should decide. It had to be a group decision, regardless of what was decided. He'd told them they would have the night to think it over. He wanted Carl involved, and Hershel wanted to give the boy the night to sleep and to heal before asking him something of this magnitude.

Their options weren't many. They could kill Lori, or leave her to die, or try to help her and keep her with them. As Carol glanced around surreptitiously at the others, she knew it wasn't an easy decision to make. Her anger still clouded her thoughts. In her anger, she wanted Lori to die. Somewhere deep down though, she knew that Lori hadn't been in her right mind. She knew Lori had done what she had done for reasons Carol prayed she would never understand; she knew Lori had snapped at the loss of her baby… but none of that helped Carol at the moment. Even knowing all of that, Carol didn't trust Lori. Not now, not after this. She'd never trust her. Even if the group kept the woman alive, tried to help Lori get through this, Carol would never trust her. Carol wouldn't have anything to do with her ever again. As far as Carol was concerned, Lori was dead to her already.

T-Dog and Andrea offered to keep watch on Lori through the night. They had shut her in a room and had considered tying her to the bed, but finally Andrea had offered to stay in the room with her, with T-Dog standing watch in the hall outside. They didn't expect a problem from her though. Lori was just lying there on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, as Carol passed by the room.

She moved into her own room, the room she shared with Daryl, and peeked in on Rose. The baby was sleeping peacefully. Carol couldn't help herself, hovering her hand a few inches from the baby's mouth to feel the hot air exhaled there. She needed to reassure herself that Rose was alive, that Rose was okay.

Then Carol stripped down and lay down in the bed under the covers, her back to Daryl's empty side of the bed and the door.

It wasn't long before she heard his soft footsteps and the door clicked shut behind him. She could hear the rustlings of him removing his boots, stripping down to his undergarments. She felt his presence as he stood next to the bed peering down at her, but she didn't move, didn't turn, didn't make an effort to look up at him.

"Ya fuckin' pissed now?," he said abruptly.

She almost laughed. This was the old Daryl. The Daryl who was gruff and had a habit of snapping at people back at Hershel's farm. The Daryl who didn't share feelings. She thought they had left that Daryl behind.

She wasn't really mad. Not at him anyway. He hadn't done anything wrong as far as she was concerned. But she didn't want him to know that yet. She knew it was childish, giving him the cold shoulder, making him think she was pissed when she really knew he was right in everything he'd done, everything he'd said. But she almost couldn't help herself. She never got to be pissed back when Ed was around, and even after Ed… it had taken her a long time to realize she had a voice, an opinion, and that there wasn't anything wrong with that. So she let herself lie there in silence, not responding to his question, keeping her body still, letting the empowerment of anger cover her like a blanket.


Daryl knew she was awake. Even in the darkened room, he knew her eyes were still open. He huffed at her silence, and got into the bed. He laid there on his back, not encroaching into her space on the bed, their bodies not touching in any way.

He ached to touch her. So much had happened since they'd been in this room last.

The room was so quiet. Deathly quiet. He hated this quiet. It was uncomfortable. He'd always like the quiet in the past. He was greatly accustomed to the quiet; the quiet of the woods on a hunt, keeping himself quiet so that he could observe, take in more than he let out. Carol was quiet in some ways too, but with him, when it was just the two of them, she was never quiet. His woman was a talker. And he hated the way she wasn't talking now.

Minutes passed in silence. He let himself think about all that had happened. The morning she left for the run with Alex, Andrea, and Glenn. The car crash that killed Alex. Glenn coming back to the golf club alone. Setting out to find her, and then finally finding her. A short-lived reunion before fighting broke out. Carol stopping him from killing his own brother. More fighting, but this time with walkers. Finally making peace with Merle, and then putting Merle to rest. Asking Carol to be his wife. Then coming back to find Carl, the loss of Lori's baby, Lori's breakdown… losing Rose, saving Rose.

He could hear the tick, tick of the battery powered clock on the wall. "I almost lost ya too, ya know," he finally breathed out into the still, quiet room.

Carol shifted on the bed, turned her body to face him, but still curled up a few inches away. She gazed at him for a few moments before speaking, "you'll never lose me."

He turned his head to look at her. "Are we's fightin'?"

Carol smiled at him. "No." She pushed her body across the few inches that gapped them, put one arm across his chest to bring her fingers up to trace the jut of his jaw, curled one leg over and around his, and snuggled close to him. He realized then that she was naked.

He smiled broadly, turned his face to her fingers, and took one in his mouth, suckling it, letting his tongue twirl around it.

Carol grinned, let the desire build as his warm mouth enveloped her finger, and then she twisted, moving her body to lie on top of his. Pulling her finger free, she kissed him, replacing it with her tongue in his mouth, languidly slipping it in between his moist lips, and letting it dance with his own. She ran one of her hands down his side, sliding it into his boxers and grasping his shaft to roll the soft, velvet-like skin. Daryl moaned into her mouth as they kissed, their lips growing hungrier as they tasted more of each other.

Daryl moved his hands across Carol's back, feeling her smooth, warm skin, and then he grasped her hips, and rolled, maneuvering her beneath him on the bed so that he hovered over her, his lips still hot on hers.

He let his hand stop at her breast, rolled the nipple there until she arched up at him, a groan of pleasure, a smile of delight; and he moved the hand down across the soft canvas of her belly, down to her soft mound, and let his fingers trace around her core, before dipping one in, sliding it into the wetness there, her muscles rippling to give it access.

Carol moved her hand across Daryl's back, the hard, chiseled muscle there, and then down over his smooth, tight ass, to skim his thigh before reaching for his shaft. She flitted a finger across the hole at the head, and he jerked, wiggled the finger he had inside of her. She moaned, giggled in delight against his lips.

And then he moved again, drawing his finger out slowly, and then replacing it with his hard, pulsing member. She lifted her hips, drawing him in deeper, letting her body cradle him inside, the walls of her core rippling with pleasure at finally being full with him again.

They rocked together on the bed quietly, using their lips and their tongues to silence each other's moans and cries of love. Their climaxes built as he thrusted inside, as she matched him with each plunge. Their pace was slow but sweet, as he rocked deeper inside of her, and she grew hotter and wetter and tighter around him. She broke first, her orgasm coming in waves as she throbbed around him, the soft whimper of satisfaction she gave that died against the skin of his neck as she kissed and licked her way across it.

He grew harder, felt himself coming to release, as the walls squeezed tighter around his erection, milking him as she moved her hips slightly to take more, and then he felt the gratification of release as he came, his body trembling as he spurted into her, as she rocked with him, keeping the movement and feeling going when he could no longer do so, until they were both moaning together and kissing to quiet themselves. Afterward, they broke apart only long enough for her to slide over, wrapping her leg back around his like before, her head on his chest listening to his rapid, but slowing heartbeat, and they held one another in the quiet peace of the room as they fell asleep.