I didn't plan on writing this story, it simply wrote itself. It's nothing special, just my take on how I want Carol and the group escape from Terminus. Of course Caryl through and through :)


His ears were painfully ringing from the explosion and Daryl started coughing in desperate attempt to gulp more air into his burning lungs. First, he'd thought he was hallucinating. That the days spent in the darkness of boxcar, where all of them had been left with nothing to do but waiting for inevitable and struggling with their own demons, finally took its toll on him. First, he'd thought that his brain just mercifully took him back to the days when he felt good. The days when he'd felt safe and appreciated, when he actually started thinking he might have been worth all the goodness, which life after the apocalypse brought to him. All it'd taken was a glimpse, no more than a flash, of crown of silver hair he thought he saw in the crack of the door. It'dmade his heart skip a beat and as soon as it picked up again, it started galloping in such speed Daryl was afraid it would jump out of his chest.

He'd known why his worn brain chose that image. Why it'd chosen her. No matter how hard he'd been trying to deny that, it was always about her. From the first moment he'd handed her the pickaxe and watched her turn her husband's head into bloody mess, everything he did was about her. His relentless search for Sophia, his sudden urge to prove himself, everything made perfect sense now. Now…when it was too late. Suddenly he understood his unexpected protectiveness toward tiny yet stubborn woman that had kept him awake and bewildered in the middle of the night and almost broke him when she went missing. He remembered wild joy he was afraid he couldn't contain when he'd found her in the tombs and carried her back to the safety. And he certainly remembered the creeping feeling of taking a wrong decision that had kept him on the edge when he decided to leave with Merle.

By some unexplainable ironic twist of universe she'd seemed to seek him out for similar reasons he was drawn to her. Somehow they'd fit together like two last parts of some crooked jigsaw puzzle and he never remembered being so much at ease with somebody, let alone a pretty woman. At the same time, every time he'd seen her approaching him with that small sweet smile of hers, he felt nervous clenching in his guts and he wished he could have done better. That he could have had cleaner pair of pants on, he could have washed his overgrown hair or that he could have brought her something from the last run. But she'd never minded, she'd never wanted anything special for herself but his presence, which he willingly offered. She'd been always there for him. And the only time she'd needed him to be there for her, to understand her acts, to change Rick's mind, to protect her…he was gone. He'd failed her.

That was why his brain had chosen her image to flash in front of his eyes in what he thought was his last moment. His failure, his wasted chance for real happiness, would be the last thing on his mind. Fitting ending for the useless dick he'd been all his life.

His ears were still hurting and he got on all four trying to get his bearings in thick veils of dust stirred up by the explosion. Daryl had no idea what had happened but he knew it was their only chance to escape. He heard moaning on his right, reached out and touched the edge of sheriff's hat.

"Carl…Carl…get up. We gotta go," his voice was raspy. The dust started settling down and Daryl saw more figures scrambling up to their feet with curses and groaning. Rick was already standing by the door.

"The explosion was close enough to cause confusion but not close enough to hurt us. Whoever did it was trying to help us," Rick's voice was pursy but firm, "when we get out, spread quickly…don't make an easy target. Get behind the train car and then climb over the fence. We gonna disappear in the woods. We'll meet at the tracks by the first Terminus sign, OK?" He looked around and then pulled the door wide open.

When they jumped out of the boxcar, they heard screaming and shooting in the distance. Terminants obviously didn't know what was happening so they had no time to waste. Daryl helped Tara to jump out and quickly peeked inside to make sure everybody had gotten out. He darted in the direction of fences when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. For a second Daryl closed his eyes, willing his brain to stop playing tricks on him, but when he opened them again, it was still there. His throat closed up and he shook his head trying to clear it. But he wasn't going crazy and his heart started its impetuous rhythm all over again. There, ten yards away on his left, half covered in debris, hazy in the smoke screen, he saw Carol's boot and her leg dangling over large fragment of concrete. He would have recognized that boot everywhere. Hell, he'd been the one to bring her the pair when he got sick of seeing her running around in crappy soft shoes she was prone to twist her ankle. He would never forget her look of disbelief she'd given him after he presented his gift to her. Her blushed cheeks and delightful sigh when she'd put them on would stay burnt in his memory forever.

Although his brain was having hard time to comprehend what was happening right in front of him, his body had the will of its own and he started sprinting toward the body, which laid in the opposite direction than everybody else was running.

"Daryl!" Rick's voice reached him through the shooting that was getting closer and closer, but he didn't slow down.

"It's Carol! Meet ya at the tracks!" he shouted back, not really caring if Rick heard him or not.

It seemed like eternity before he finally reached her and he choked down a sob when he fell to his knees by her side. It was her. Hurt, dirty and half unconscious, but it was Carol. And she was alive. He couldn't help it, he needed to touch her. The urge to touch her, to hold her, to tell her everything he'd been keeping to himself for so long threatened to blunt his self-preserving senses.

He ran his fingers gently over the gash on her forehead that was bleeding and small trickle of blood was slowly running down the side of her face. He sighed in relief when he checked it and it wasn't too deep. He noticed her other leg was covered in debris and he started removing them carefully. She moaned and her eye lids fluttered when he uncovered much deeper gash on her thigh, just above her knee.

When he looked at her again, he was staring into her big beautiful blue eyes and his hands started to shake. He still couldn't believe it was real.

"Daryl…," her voice was hoarse but he thought it was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard, "I screwed it up…I was standing to near when it went off…"

"Ya did well. Ya saved us. They all got out and they are in the woods now. Ya saved us all," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion, "now we need to get ya outta here too, ok?"

She nodded slowly and tried to sit up but hissed in pain when she touched her injured leg.

"Shit…,"she groaned and fell back.

Daryl desperately looked around. He needed something to bandage her leg and stop the bleeding. She was losing far too much blood.

"My bag….there is a bandage in my bag," she whispered and pointed at her bag lying next to her.

Daryl didn't waste time and started tending her wound quickly. He was halfway through when the dose of bullets ricocheted a few feet from them. Without thinking Daryl threw himself over her, covering her body with his and shielding his head with his hands.

"Daryl, get out of here!" he heard her muffled voice from beneath him and when no more shooting was coming, he straightened up and finished bandaging of her leg quickly.

"No way in hell I'm gonna left ya behind. Never again, do ya understand?" he hissed angrily and slipped his arms under her thin form, "hang on woman, I'm takin' ya for a ride."

He couldn't help but smirk when she rolled her eyes at him. Despite their gloomy situation, he sighed in contentment. He finally held her and there was nothing better than feeling her weight in his arm.

He ran to the nearest wall and hid behind it, clutching Carol in his arms and looking around. There was no way he could get her over the fence in such state. His eyes fell on the battered old car, standing several yards from them. He had no idea if it was still mobile but he saw no other choice. He looked down at Carol who was fighting to stay awake.

"I'll get ya outta here now, ok? Just hang on, we gonna be all right," he whispered and dashed out from their cover. He felt the bullets before he heard them and he cursed when one of them scratched his arm, leaving a bloody gash. He hissed and stumbled but carried on. It was just a scratch, he knew how the bullet penetrating the body felt and he knew it was far from that. He felt rather then saw Carol biting her bottom lip in pain and pressing her face into his shoulder when he unintentionally yanked her injured leg, fighting to stay upright.

He couldn't believe their luck when they made it to the car. He opened the door a laid her on the back seat gently, putting a seat belt on.

"Stay down," he said and smoothed one of her locks behind her ear, "and try to stay awake."

He slipped into the front seat and hotwired the car, muttering under his breath all the prayers he could remember. He almost cried out in relief when the car started. Their captors were getting closer but quickly jumped aside when Daryl stepped on the gas pedal and the car dashed out with a jerk. Soon the Terminus front gates appeared in front of them. When Daryl saw five armed men guarding the gate, he ducked his head under the dashboard keeping his hand on the steering wheel. He gripped the steering wheel with one hand and stretched the other one back to steady Carol and minimize the impact of the collision. Several bullets shattered the windshield and Daryl shook his head to shake off the shards and pressed the pedal harder. He heard Carol whimper and in the next moment the car smashed through the gate.


When Carol slowly opened her eyes, she frowned in confusion. It was pitch dark and she felt warm and comfortable. The last thing she remebered was Daryl hovering over her with worried but outrageously happy expression all over his face. She must have admitted it'd been her favorite hallucination by far.

She stiffened when she realized she was dressed only in her underwear and slowly lifted the edge of the sheet and peeked under to confirm her suspicion. She almost jumped out of her skin when big mass behind her back, that had been keeping her warm, stirred and snored gently. Only now Carol realized there was a body wrapped around her tightly, almost smothering her. In the rush of panic she jerked and tried to wrestle out of the grip, effectively elbowing the stranger into the stomach. She hissed when her impetuous movements send the jolts of pain from her injured leg directly to her brain and her vision darkened for a second. She helplessly leaned back against the body behind her.

Painful groan and irritated 'what the fuck' made her heart skip a beat. Her eyes were as big as saucers when she quickly turned, cursing under her breath when she forgot about her injury again. There, propped up on his elbow and rubbing his stomach was Daryl, eyes fixed on her face.

"Daryl...," her voice was no more than a whisper, "I though I was hallucinating when I saw you..."

He smirked and inched closer, reducing the distance she'd created.

"I assure ya that I'm very real. As much as the bruise ya just gave me," he rubbed his stomach meaningfully again.

Carol swallowed, not really knowing what to say. Hundreds of thoughts were flying through her head, hundreds of things she wanted to tell Daryl, hundred of things she wanted him to know, but she didn't know where to start. She reached out her hand and placed it on his chest gently, still not believing he was real. His eyes darkened when he covered her hand with his.

Daryl seemed to have similar problem because he was biting his lower lip and he opened his mouth several times to say something but nothing came out and he just kept staring at her.

When they finally decided to break the awkward silence, they both blurted out at the same time and sudden urge to be heard out, to confide in somebody they'd trusted the most, didn't allow them to stop. Words were flowing, mingling, sentences overlapping, voices raised and softened. Carol had no idea if they understood at least half of what they were trying to say to each other. Suddenly Daryl raised his hand and fell silent and Carol followed his example.

"Important things first, ok?" he asked and raised an eyebrow on her questioningly.

Carol nodded and gasped when she suddenly felt his palms against her cheeks and in the next second his hungry lips claimed hers. Her mind went blank and she felt boneless when she let him lay her back into the sheets and in the next second he was looming all over her. Daryl's kiss was heated and wet and Carol was embarrassed when she realized she was moaning but she focused all her remaining strenght to stop her heart from bursting out of her chest. Daryl seemed to be struggling with similar problem because when he pressed against her she could hear his heart hammering against his chest. He was devouring her mouth like no one had before and when his tongue plunged into her mouth, she snaked her fingers through his hair and pulled him even closer. Now it was him who moaned into her mouth and she felt tingling sensations curling in her toes and rushing devastaing rush of pleasure through her body like a wildfire.

She groaned in disappointment and frustration when he suddenly pulled away and looked at her, his eyes wide and dark with unmistakable desire. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.

"I'm glad we agreed what the important thing is."


Thank you so much for reading! I hope it wasn't too dull.

I'd like to dedicate this little story to my dear friend Diana – I know you're having hard time my friend but hang on, it will be over soon as you'll come out of all of this so much stronger!