Olivia S- That is for the complement! And... my name is Olivia S. too. I love coincidences.

Wendy imouto chan- I still love you, so freaking much. Thank you for the many reviews.

This is a short chapter, but it's a building for a deeper relationship between Carol and Daryl, which I live. Sorry if they are a little OOC, I really do try. And please forgive the typos!

Please review, comment, or criticize! I love all feedback!

Carol POV

"I'm never going back, the past is in the past. Let it go. Let it go." Let it Go, Frozen

The sun was still low in the sky as I ate my breakfast. This morning we had held a funeral for Mrs. Greene, her son, and Sophia. It had been a beautiful, albeit short and quiet, ceremony, held at sunrise. Everyone had been there, except for Beth, who was still in some sort of catatonic state. The entire time, people had been shooting me short, pity-filled glances, but I managed to ignore them.

I knew that they had been expecting more from me. They had been waiting for me to start sobbing, to break down, to fall to my knees and scream at the sky. But they were wrong. I wasn't going to cry. I couldn't anymore. I had come to accept the fact that my daughter was dead almost a week ago. Now, now I was ready to move on.

I poked my eggs lazily with my fork, my appetite gone. Nicole and I were sitting around the empty fire pit. I was at the picnic table, and she was sitting in a lawn chair about 20 feet away. Everyone else had scattered. Rick and Shane were taking Randall back to town, so they could dump him. Dale was keeping watch. Lori was with Carl, still insisting that he do homework, although I no longer saw the point in that. Hershel and Maggie were in the house, trying to deal with Beth. Glenn was feeding the chickens. Andrea and T-Dog were fixing up the RV. The only one unaccounted for was-

"Hey." A voice said next to me, startling me. I turned to see Daryl standing beside me. Hershel had sewn up the cut on his head, but it was still an ugly red color.

"Hi." I gave a weak smile, scooting over on the bench, gesturing to the open space. Slowly, he sat down, almost hesitant, like he thought I would suddenly change my mind and scream at him.

You could cut the awkwardness with the knife. Daryl and I sat there silently, staring at Nicole as she ate her food slowly. The bruise on her face was horrible, spanning from her eye all the way across her nose. The rest of her skin was really pale.

After a few minutes, Daryl finally broke the silence. "Cole?" He said. The woman looked up, startled at being addressed directly.

"What?" She asked quietly.

Daryl sucked in a deep breath, as if debating whether or not to speak. "Who's Marcus?"

Nicole's eyes got wide as she set her fork down on her plate. "Wh-what?" She stammered, clearly startled by Daryl's question.

"Marcus. You were talking about him last night, in your sleep. And some guy named Jack. It sounded like a bad memory." Daryl nodded. "Not that I really care. Just curious."

"People from my past." Nicole whispered, barely audible.

"Any people we should be worried about coming after us?" Daryl cocked an eyebrow. I groaned at his abrasiveness.

"No." She said, shaking her head slowly.

"Ex-boyfriends?" Daryl chuckled. "Did they treat you like a princess? Pamper you? Is that why you miss them? Miss the easy life?" He snickered at this. I sucked in a breath.

Nicole's eyes narrowed. She stood up out of her chair, putting her plate down on the now empty seat. Slowly, she walked over to us, deliberately putting one foot in front of the other, before she was standing right in front of us. I was waiting for her to scream at him, to hit him. But she just stared, which was more terrifying than her yelling. She wasn't angry, she was pissed.

"Listen here asshole." She hissed. "You don't know anything about me. You don't know my life, my struggles, my past. You don't know me. So just shut your mouth before I break that stupid jaw of yours." She turned on her heels and stormed away, cursing Daryl under her breath.

Daryl sat next to me, stunned by her outburst. I released the breath I had been holding, looking at him.

Once Nicole was out of earshot, I turned and smacked his arm. He cringed away, rubbing his arm.

"What the hell woman?" He groped, leaning away.

"What the hell was that?" I snapped, folding my arms over my chest.

"What? I was just messing with her." He reasoned. "Didn't think she'd react like that!" I rolled my eyes at his ignorance. Obviously he couldn't tell that that was a touchy subject for her.

"I don't understand you." I grunted, looking away.

"Why not?" He chuckled, leaning back against the table.

"You act like an outsider. You choose to set up camp far away from the rest of us. You go off on your own, instead of meeting up with the group. You insult people and berate them. You act like you can't stand any of us." I ranted, turning so we were face to face.

"And?" He raised his eyebrow, obviously expecting more. "What about that do you not understand?"

I sighed. "But, when you searched for Sophia, you did everything you could to find her. You went out on your own, you risked your life. Hell, you accidentally shot yourself while you were looking! Why the hell would you do that if you don't care."

He opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off, not done with my rant. "And then last night. Last night you went with Rick, Glenn, and Nicole to go get Hershel back. And then, you fought off a group of men to keep the rest of us safe! And then, you carried Nicole back and put her in her tent. Why would you do all of those things? You hunt for us. You protect us. You help us, but then you resign yourself. You choose to be an outsider. You choose to stay away! Why do you do that I yourself?"

He stared at me, his emotions unreadable. I bit my lip. Normally, I wasn't this vocal. I never spoke up like this. At first, it was because of Ed. If I had spoken to Daryl, he would have hit me, yelled at me for fraternizing with a 'redneck'. And after Ed died, I was to weak, to afraid to speak my mind.

But now, my abusive husband was dead. My daughter was dead. My old life as I knew it is gone. And now, now I have the chance to start over, to be stronger than ever. Starting with Daryl.

"My whole life," Daryl spoke lowly. "My whole life, I've been nothing more than an outcast, a washed-up redneck with no promise or skill."

I almost laughed out loud. "Who cares about your past life? No way in hell am I the same person that I was before all the shit hit the fan. You don't have to stick with who you used to be." I smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. I was surprised by his openness. From what I could tell, I was the only person he actually spoke with.

"I.. I don't know who I am. Every time I try and figure it out, something happens to change it all. It's easier to just remain who I used to be. Why would you fix it if it ain't broke?" He grunted, but he didn't move my hand away, a gesture that I took note of.

"Then why, out of all of the people here, did you choose to open up to me? To help me?" This was a question that had been on my mind for weeks now. Why had he chosen weak little me to be his friend?

"To be honest, I saw myself in you." He shrugged. "I know a thing or two about abuse. Mine was from my old man….. but, still the same. I guess I just, I just wanted to help you, because no one ever helped me."

I looked intently at him. "So it's true." I said quietly.

"What?"

"I had thought you had an abusive past. From the way you acted. You're so guarded, so removed, the marking of someone not confident in their own skin." I explained, giving him a kind smile.

"Huh." He grunted, looking away. The silence took over again, this time not awkward, but peaceful, calm. I could tell we had just turned a new page on our relationship, and hopefully this would help him open up to the others as well. But for right now, I had to settle for him being my friend.

"Daryl." I said. "Go apologize to Nicole."

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Apologize. You were kind of an ass back there." I chuckled. "And something tells me that Nicole is not someone you want on your bad side."

And boy, little did I know just how right I was.

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