Ok, so this chapter is going to be a little shorter and a lot less Rachel and some more Daryl. The reason is simply that I wanted to have a little more insight on his point of view and I might have changed a few things a little so it would make more sense for me at least.

I wasn't really sure what I was feeling until the pain and realisation finally settled in. I heard Rick's cry of agony when he went down and leaned over Carl. I barely felt Shane's hands on me when he crouched in front of me. My vision was blurry from tears and blood loss. I knew I was losing a lot of blood in mere seconds.
"... Talk to me already! I don't care if you yell at me or whatever, just talk already!" How long had he been trying to get me to respond?
"Need… a… tourniquet… Carl!" My voice was weak and my brain felt as if I was walking through quicksand. I was barely aware of Shane putting his belt around my right thigh and pulling it painfully tight. Hell, I barely registered the bald man tumbling from the woods and looking at us as if he had seen a ghost. I gleaned from the raised voices that Shane was tearing the poor guy a new one.
Suddenly I was lifted off the ground and I was out the second my head limply rolled against Shane's chest.

Shane wasn't sure what he felt in that moment. Carl went down, his shirt immediately soaking red with his blood. Not even a second later Rachel was down to her knees, her pants not even able to contain all the blood. It seemed even she herself needed a moment to realize what had just happened. Rick was bent over the boy, screams of agony leaving him and pressing down on the wound in his abdomen.
He shook his head and went down in front of the girl. She was paler than ever, her eyes wide from pain and fear and slightly glazed over due to the rapid blood loss.
"Shit! Talk to me girl. I need you to stay awake. You hear me? Hey, eyes on me! Talk to me already! I don't care if you yell at me or whatever, just talk already!" he practically shouted at her with his hands on her shoulders to keep her upright. They might not always have gotten along, but losing her would have an effect on the whole group. Even though he hated to admit it, they needed her, her medical skills as well as her willingness to fight walkers. He would rather have her scream at him not to touch her than look up at him and weakly whisper something about a tourniquet and Carl's name.
Shane quickly pulled his belt out of the loops and as gently as possible tightened it around Rachel's upper thigh to slow down the blood flow. He couldn't even determine where she had been hit, only that the bullet must have hit one of the major blood vessels.
A snapping twig had him grab his shotgun and whirl around as a bald man came rushing from the brush. He stopped and stared at the four people in utter shock. "Oh God! Did I do this?"
Shane snapped at the man's question and shot to his feet. "What does it look like?! If either of those two die, so help me, I will take that rifle, shove it up your ass and…" he started yelling into the guy's round face.

"Shane!" Rick interrupted him, his boy cradled against his chest, and pointed at Rachel. The girl was slowly leaning forward, her eyes fluttering shut.
"Shit!" The dark haired man exclaimed and rushed over before she fell to the ground. He scooped her up into his arms, surprised by how light she actually felt. She was out like a light the second her head hit his chest and went completely limp.
"No, no, no. Come on, keep breathing girl!" He laid her down again, searching frantically for a pulse and started chest compressions when he couldn't find it. The blood loss and shock must have been too much for her body since she had pushed so hard during the search for her brother. With a start her body suddenly shot up and she took in a deep breath. Her blue eyes were wide and unfocused before she fell unconscious again, only this time she kept breathing.
"We need to do something…" It broke Shane's heart to hear his best friend so helpless and he nodded. They would never make it back to the highway and even if they made it, there was nothing they could do without a doctor.
"I… I don't live far. Hershel can help, he is a doctor." Their eyes shot to the panting man who was responsible for the current situation and his face turned hard.
"Bring us there. And you better pray they both make it." The man nodded, fear evident in his eyes.
Rick staggered to his feet with Carl in his arms as Shane picked Rachel's small body up and held her bridal style against his chest. They followed the guy through and out of the woods, Shane being grateful that the girl in his arms looked heavier than she really was. It didn't take as long as he would have thought until they broke through the tree lines where he could see a white farm house in the distance. He kept yelling at the guy, Otis, who wasn't built for running this long and at such speed. If he hadn't had his hands full, he would have pulled and shoved him around instead of just yelling at him. Rick was already a good few feet in front of them and Shane prayed that they would make it in time.

I regained consciousness from being jostled around. It felt like I was on a boat in the middle of a thunderstorm. I was somewhat aware of the dark blue fabric against my face and the thundering heartbeat underneath. I felt nausea hit me like a truck.
"Shane!" I croaked, already dry heaving.
"Shit!, his voice boomed and suddenly the movement stopped and I was on my feet, still held up by the much larger man. I leaned forward and emptied my stomach into the field we were in, aware of the arm around my waist and the hand rubbing my back. In any other situation I would have screamed at him to keep his hands off me, but not now when I couldn't even stand on my own. For the first time since I met him, I was actually grateful to him, and maybe a little surprised that he hadn't just left me behind, given that we were constantly at each other's throats.
"Go on, we'll catch up!" the man behind me hollered at Rick, who only appeared as a blur ahead of me. The thought of the injured boy in his arms had me throwing up again.
"Better to let it out than keep it all in, princess," he mumbled in a low voice. When I was finally done with emptying my stomach, I straightened myself and leaned back into Shane.
"That doesn't mean I can stand you one bit, Walsh." He hummed and the vibration went through my whole body, or maybe it was just that I had started shaking involuntarily.
"Yeah, I figured that much. Honestly I like it better when you yell at me, at least I know you're alright when you do." Someone panting heavily next to us caught my attention and I vaguely remembered seeing the baldheaded man when I was in and out of consciousness.
"Who is he?, I asked and closed my eyes for a second while taking in the warmth Shane was radiating.
"The idiot that almost killed you!" Shane snapped and I heard the other man's breath hitch.
"I… I didn't see her or the boy until it was too late. I would never…"
"It was an accident. Happens. Just my luck," I interrupted the poor guy. I weakly tried to push off of Shane and it was mere luck that he still held on to me or I would have just fallen over.
"What are you doing?" he asked and adjusted his grip on me to pull my body back into his.
"Getting to that house. I can walk from here." I pushed myself off him again, but the second I took a step, an excruciating pain shot through me and my legs gave out.
"The hell you can walk! Stop that bullshit and let me help you for once." He had scooped me up before I hit the ground and I was in his arms again. I hated it. I hated being so weak and helpless and I certainly hated it even more that it was him of all people that I had to depend on. He slowly started walking again, probably because I was conscious. I put my arm around his neck to try to stay upright on my own and take a little of my weight off his arms. Once I was at a different angle, I looked down and gasped. The right leg of my pants was soaked in dark red and judging by my foggy mind I had already lost a lot of blood.
"Hey, you gonna pass ou…" I never heard the end of it as I fell limp again and everything went black.

Daryl was annoyed. Fed up with Andrea's constant complaining about everyone's lack of confidence in holding her own. Fed up with the fact that there was not even the faintest hint on Adam and Sophia's location. And he felt so irritated by the fact that it bothered him so much that Rachel had stayed behind with the two cops and the boy. He understood her motivation, understood the urge to be there when her brother was found. Still, he hated it that he wouldn't be there if Shane tried anything again, despite the fact that he knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself.
He had felt a tug deep in his intestines when two gunshots disrupted the afternoon, leaving him even more irritated. Surely those shots hadn't been fired by their people, they knew better. So why was he so tense and why did his mind keep wandering off towards the blonde archer rather than watching out for tracks?
"You still worrying about it?" The hunter turned around at Andrea's words, only now realizing that Lori had stayed behind to look back once more. He rubbed his face in annoyance as the women again went over what those gunshots could have meant. He brought an end to the argument by reminding them of the fact that they couldn't do anything about it at the moment, anyways, that it was more important to keep the search going.
He hadn't even taken five steps when he overheard Andrea and Carol. That blonde just couldn't keep her damn mouth shut. He had never been one for faith, but praying and hoping would get them nowhere.
"I'll tell ya what it's worth. Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here?, Daryl interrupted the two of them, then turned back towards where they had been going that whole time. He wouldn't let them begin to doubt any chance of finding that girl. Even if nobody believed in him, he would find that girl. She had survived her father and he would make sure she survived this world. And Adam… He had no attachment to him, but he was important to Rachel. And if he understood one thing it was the loyalty towards an older brother that didn't give a shit about anything but himself.

About another hour later, he decided that it was enough for one day, that it was time to make their way back towards the interstate and meet up with everyone else. Of course not everyone was pleased with that idea.
"Hey, I'm gonna find that girl. Bring her back to ya." Daryl had fallen into step with Carol. He found her somewhat less annoying than the other women in their company. She gave him a sideways glance.
"Thank you. Do you really think Adam is still with her? What do we tell Rachel if we find Sophia and her brother isn't around?" she replied with a weak voice, the desperation evident.
"Ain't worth a damn what I think. We deal with shit when it happens, not if. And if that idiot is anythin' like his sister, he ain't leavin' yer girl out of his sight," he assured the insecure woman.
"How much farther?" Daryl turned slightly to face Lori.
"Not much... Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies," he replied and heard Andrea muttering something about birds. He rolled his eyes and let out a snort as she kept rambling on. Ungrateful, stupid, stuck-up bitch. Even before all this, people like her had looked down on him, thought themselves so much better. Some good it would do her if she ended up on her own in this new world…
A loud shriek had him whirling around. Andrea was nowhere to be seen and he sprinted towards where he last saw her. A few feet further she was in the grass, on her ass and a walker almost upon her, tearing at her clothes in hopes of an easy enough meal. It crossed his mind that this was just proving what he had been thinking about. He readied an arrow, but before he could release it a large horse with a woman on top broke through the brush. She knocked the walker off Andrea with a baseball-bat and turned the horse.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" The girl's eyes wandered over their group in search of the woman whose name she just called. "Rick sent me... You've got to come now. There's been an accident... Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you. Just come!" the strange girl continued urgently, already holding her hand out towards Lori to help her up onto the horse. The woman's eyes went wide and she made a step towards the pacing animal.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse. 'Sides, Rachel should be with 'em. She can handle whatever that is. Why'd Rick send this girl? Am I the only one thinkin' that through?!" Daryl was getting frustrated with this group as he still tried to hold back Lori. Something wasn't right.
"Rachel? That the blonde with the dog-tags?" the girl asked with her hand still motioning for Lori to come.
"Yes, that's her," Carol now answered.
"Yeah… She's not doing too good herself. Not really in the state to help anybody right now. Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox, Name's Greene. Hi-yah!" With that she spurred the horse on, Lori sitting close behind her, and sped off back into the woods.
Daryl just stood there, unmoving and confused, the same as everybody else around him. He was dimly aware of Carol's shocked words and Glenn trying to calm her down.
"What do we do now?" The hunter turned his eyes on the blonde still sitting on the ground. Walking towards her he put an arrow in the walker's head as it just started to sit back up.
"What ya think we do? Get to the highway!" The hunter snapped at the woman and walked past her.

"Shot? What do you mean shot?" Dale looked at them with wide eyes once they finally emerged from the woods and staggered up to and over the guardrail. Glenn briefly explained what had happened out in the woods to the older man and T-Dog.
"You let her?" Dale asked Daryl when Glenn explained where Lori was.
"Climb down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's," the hunter growled back and stomped past the man.
"What about Rachel and the others?" T-Dog asked while clutching his injured arm.
"We don't know…" Andrea started, still shaken up from her close call with the walker.
"Don't know my ass! That chick told us she ain't lookin' too hot right now, either! Ya think she wouldn't have taken care of that boy herself instead of sendin' some stranger for his mom?!" The hunter was inches from the blonde's face and almost yelling at her.
"Whoa there. Calm down son," Dale tried to reason with him, only for Daryl to shrug him off and walk a few paces to get everybody to lay off of him.

Once he had calmed down a little, Daryl rejoined the others, not wanting to be alone with his own head right now. It didn't take long for the decision that they would stay the night on the highway, in case Sophia and Adam came back. They would be leaving a sign and some supplies for the two so they would know that their people were still looking for them once they left for the farm. Everyone decided that they would all stay the night in order not to further split up the group until Glenn complained about being the only one to be sent out again like so many times before.
"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on- But most importantly, you have to get T-dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-dog will die, no joke." While Dale lectured the Korean, Daryl turned towards his brother's bike. Annoyed, he picked up one of Dale's dirty rags from the bench and opened one of the leather bags attached to the bike. He pulled out a zip-bag full of prescription pills and walked back.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle," the hunter growled and shoved the cloth towards the older man before putting down the pills and rummaged through them.
"Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, X…. Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers. Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion." He didn't talk to anybody in specific while digging through the bag of meds and occasionally threw one of the bottles at the people around them. At least at one point something good would come of the fact that Merle had a habit of sleeping with just anything that had a pulse.

Night came, and at some point Daryl realized he wouldn't be getting any sleep with Carol weeping in the back of the RV and Andrea fiddling with the gun clips at the table. With a grunt he stood from the RV's floor and asked the blonde to hand him his clip. He slung his crossbow onto his back and met Andrea's questioning eyes.
"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl." At his words Carol stopped crying for a moment and gave him a thankful glance. Stepping out of the vehicle, the hunter told Dale that he would be heading out.
"I'm coming too," Andrea stated while leaving the RV as well.
"Nah, y'ain't comin'. Don't need ya tippin' off every walker for miles out there in the dark, blondie," the hunter immediately replied. He wasn't going out there just to look for the girl. He needed space. He had no intention to take Andrea with him, sure that she would just slow him down.
"Gonna be back soon." He turned towards the woods before Andrea could argue any more.
Daryl kept walking straight for a while until he trailed off to the side, wanting to take another route this time and maybe have some more luck. The dark didn't scare him, he had spent half his life alone in the woods and felt safer out here than anywhere else. He lost track of time at one point and only stopped once when he came upon a tent. Up in a tree a few feet from it was a walker hanging with a slipknot around his neck and its legs chewed off. A note was pinned to the tree with a knife.
~ Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit. ~
Daryl had to suppress a laugh, thinking that Rachel might be laughing her ass off about that sick joke. He instantly sobered up when his mind trailed off towards the blonde once again. He had tried his hardest not to think about her all day since that strange girl came rushing in on horseback. He had tried his hardest not to think about everything that could have happened to the tough woman.
"Well shit… So much for not thinking," he mumbled to himself. He had no idea why the thought of her being deathly injured affected him so much. She wasn't his responsibility. Still, he felt guilty. Whatever happened to her had been his fault. He had let her stay behind and look some more. He should have just dragged her back with him, made sure she was safe. Damn that stubborn woman and her damned eyes that seemed to haunt him so much as of late. Realization hit him hard as he made his way through some more brush. He actually cared about her. A lot. A lot more than he should, and certainly more than he was comfortable with.
'She got some nice legs, baby brother. Should make a move before someone else does. Get some before she realizes she could do much better.'
"Shut the hell up, you dumb bastard! I ain't interested in her. She's just some stupid army brat…" he practically yelled at his brother's voice, fully aware that there was nobody with him and that it was just his subconscious trying to cope with his brother not being here and him feeling guilty.
'Ya keep tellin' yerself that, Daryllina. Pretend ya haven't looked at her ass at least once.' He tried to push his brother's voice out of his mind. He didn't need that shit right now. Even if he had looked at Rachel like that once or twice, there was no way in hell she would ever look at him like that, no matter how scarred and broken she might be under all those walls she had built up around her. He was some redneck piece of shit, he made his peace with that, and she was just too good for him.