It had been three days since the incident with the glass. Despite the slip up, Daryl did not take back the level of trust he had been giving her before. It was no small relief for her. Carol and Daryl continued with their new routine, but he was also giving her more time unsupervised. It gave her hope that something close to normal was possible and that, just maybe, Daryl could someday trust her again.

Speak of the devil, Carol thought with a small smile as she looked up to see Daryl standing over her. "Hey ya hungry? Nabila's on cook duty today, thankfully."

Carol nodded, wiping the garden dirt on her jeans and reaching a hand up towards him expectantly. Daryl smirked, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet a touch harder than necessary, so that she fell into him and he had to steady her.

"Brute." She griped at him as he chuckled and swung an arm over her shoulders. She smiled at the contact as they headed over together. Daryl had been helping with diverting and clearing a small cluster of walkers who had been getting too close to the walls. Carol had stayed and been helping with gardening, so they'd been apart for about three hours. It had been the longest he'd left her unattended before and the fact that he came back up and had not looked at her with suspicion or questioned her was more comforting than he could ever know.

They sat and ate together, chatting casually about their days. Daryl told her about the successful mission and some concerns about the increasing frequency of larger groups of walkers. Carol leaned her chin on her hand as she chewed thoughtfully. "How long until you think we can finish the last gap in the wall? Maybe we should be diverting our attention there."

"Probably should. We should get the guys together and see if we can get it finished this week." He lifted up his bowl to lick the juice from the meal.

"So classy, Pookie." Carol teased.

"Oh, forgot we were at a banquet." He scoffed.

Carol kept smiling as she finished her food. "It is good today. I'd swear this stir-fry was chicken."

"Yeah." He roughly wiped his chin. "Pretty damn good." He burped and she shook her head at him with affection. "So, you finished up with the garden today or what?"

"Yeah, mostly. We've got watch in a bit, don't we?"

He leaned back on his hands as he surveyed the people walking about. "Ya, in about an hour. I'm thinking about going around and seeing who I can round up for a trip tomorrow. We're gonna need to get some more lumber if we're gonna get that wall finished this week. We should take out a horse and wagon to the woods."

Carol hummed in agreement. "I can find Jerry, he'd be interested, also Alden, Kelly, Aaron, Magna, Negan" she slowly listed off.

Daryl frowned at the addition of Negan's name. "Ya sure you want to bring the asshole?"

She shook her head. "Even assholes can help out." You let me help out.

"Pfhh. I guess he can carry shit." He stood up then. "Wanna split up and each go ask half ta get this done quicker?"

"Sure, I'll go find Jerry, Kelly and Negan, you take the rest."

He shook his head at her. "Nah, you take Aaron, I'll handle the asshole."

Carol rolled her eyes at him. "I can handle Negan. Actually, I think he might be a little afraid of me." She mused.

Daryl actually grinned at that. "I bet. Fine you can go ask the asshole. Put a little fear of God into him."

She let him pull her to her feet again, this time more gently, and set off to find the others.

L I N E

"Ya get everyone?" Daryl asked as he reached down to help Carol finish climbing up the ladder to the top of the wall. She nodded as she stepped up next to him.

"Ya. Negan wanted compensation so we worked out a deal." She smirked with mischief.

Daryl narrowed his eyes. "What kind of deal?"

She smiled at him. "He agreed to help, and I agreed not to give him a new hole to breathe out of."

He rolled his eyes at her, unsure she was exaggerating but knowing the asshole would deserve it even if she wasn't. He was part of the community, mostly due to Lydia, but that didn't mean he had to be nice to him.

They settled into their spots on the wall as they took up watch. After several minutes of silence, Daryl glanced over at her.

"How was today?"

"Fine." She had a feeling he was asking more than he was saying but she wasn't looking to enter uncomfortable conversations voluntarily.

"Ya have any kind of…thoughts about doing anything?" he asked slowly.

She found herself wishing that he would just say the words instead of tiptoeing around it. So, she decided to end the misery herself. "You mean did I want to cut."

He glanced over at her again. "Ya."

She shrugged. "Not really." She paused.

He turned then. "That wasn't a no."

She took a breath. "You're really annoying, has anyone ever told you that? Because it's something I think you should know."

He smiled a little. "Ya, I'll work on that. But tell me what happened?"

Carol sighed, knowing that it was pointless to continue to be evasive. "I want you to know that I didn't do it. I wanted to but only for a minute. I just stayed busy."

He nodded, looking at her with an odd gaze. "That's good. Why'd you want to?"

Carol chewed her lip for a moment. "Honestly, I'm not sure why. Nothing happened. Got lost in my head I guess."

He moved closer to her and squeezed her shoulder briefly. "Hey, I know that's going to happen sometimes." He nudged her chin gently to get her to look him in the eyes. "But I'm proud of you for not cutting."

She went to shake her head dismissively, but he gently grasped her chin and held her gaze. "I mean it. I'm proud of you."

She felt her face burning from the feeling of undeserved praise. Before she could respond, however, she heard a sharp whistle from below.

They both turned to see Negan grinning up at them. "Hey why don't you two get a room?" he leered.

"Don't you ever fucking shut up?" Daryl snapped at him.

Negan was unfazed and continued to grin mockingly. "I, for one, am not comforted that they've got the lovebirds on watch together. Whole damn herd could be tap dancing across our gates and you bozos would still be lost in each other's eyes. I mean, who the hell thought this was a good idea?"

"Get lost, Negan, before I slice that smile a little wider for you." Carol warned, flipping him off.

He snickered at them. "Okay, okay, Silver Fox, I don't want to break up ya'll's fun but do try to do some actual watching on your watch." He walked away then.

Carol rolled her eyes in a mix of annoyance and amusement as she turned back to the hunter at her side.

"What an asshole." Daryl grumbled. She shrugged.

"He is, but he just enjoys riling people up. He doesn't have anything better to do."

Its bothering him because the idea disgusts him. Not exactly flattering to be accused of dating a monster.

Daryl lifted one shoulder and then turned back forward to return to watch.

LiNE

Carol sighed as she sat against a log and took a long drink from her canteen. They'd left that morning and had been working for hours, and she was feeling exhausted. Dusk was approaching soon, and the guys were finishing up loading the freshly cut wood onto the wagon. While she typically got annoyed when she was treated as a weak woman, her exhaustion overruled her pride.

Kelly came over suddenly from where she'd been wandering around nearby, a strange hustle in her step. "Hey, I found something."

She pulled out a small notebook and showed Carol. "The handwriting looks like Connie's." She said excitedly.

Carol took it and quickly looked it over, a strange spark of hope hitting her chest. "Where did you find this?"

Kelly led Carol away from the others. Carol threw a look over her shoulder at Daryl, who was busy lifting a large log with Jerry, Negan, and Magna. A small voice in her head told her she should let him know she was walking away but she was burning to find out if Connie really was alive.

Kelly had seemingly stumbled onto a small camp in a clearing just a little farther into the woods than the group was. It seemed to be cleared out as there were just imprints and a burned out fire circle. Carol immediately began crouching down to look for more signs, instinctually utilizing some of what she had picked up from Daryl over the years.

Wait, why am I pretending to be Daryl when we have a real Daryl 100 feet away?

"We should go back and get the others, set up a search party." Carol said, standing.

"We're losing the light. She's close, I can feel it. Let's just go look around quick before we go back."

Carol sighed, she knew Kelly couldn't handle waiting if it meant that it got dark before she got a chance to search, and she'd have to come back tomorrow. They were only about 45 minutes away from Alexandria but even that was too far. "Okay, let's go but we stay together, and we go get the others in a few minutes." She looked again at the ground. "There's prints leading off that way. But don't ask me to track them through the brush."

The decision made, they quickly set off in the direction of the tracks. Carol looking to see if she could find more tracks as they went. She could occasionally see signs that the ground had been disturbed but wasn't as adept at determining what tracks were from live humans versus other creatures. They'd been rushing along for about twenty minutes; Carol could tell that the sun was dipping below the horizon from the growing shadows in the forest.

"Kelly, I don't see anything. We should go back and get Daryl. He can track in the dark better than anyone."

"Come on Carol, just a little longer. By the time we get back it'll be too dark even for him and we'll have to come back tomorrow. She could be gone by then!"

Carol nodded. "Okay, but once its fully dark we are going back. We didn't tell anyone where we were going."

They continued trekking through the woods as the shadows grew into actual darkness. Carol felt trepidation slink into her skin. She didn't even have a knife on her, and she'd left her bow with the wagon. She was not going to leave Kelly though. She owed her this much and more. So much more. She would handle whatever happened and however mad Daryl got at her, too. They'd been gone for almost an hour, she figured, but Kelly showed no signs of stopping. She wanted to call out for Connie, but Carol had stopped her earlier, fear of drawing unwanted visitors encouraging her to stay quiet. They were far enough into the woods that the light from the moon and stars was muffled through the branches. As much as she wanted to continue, Carol knew it was quickly becoming pointless. She was about to urge Kelly to turn back again when the younger woman tripped over a fallen branch she couldn't see and fell. The sound of her crashing down echoed around them in the quiet and Carol quickly went to check on her when she heard a gun cock.

"Whose there? Announce yourself!" came a hard voice in front of them.

Carol immediately froze, kicking herself for not having a weapon on her. She looked out into the darkness and was able to make out two figures.

"There's two of us. We're unarmed and mean you no harm. We're just looking for a friend." Carol called out. She could hear Kelly trying to quietly stand beside her.

"Carol? Is that you?"

"Wait who is that?" Carol hesitated at the familiarity of the man's voice.

"Virgil and Connie."

Carol's heart froze in her chest at the sound of the second person's name. Before she could respond she felt Kelly jump to her feet.

"Connie?!"

And then it was only a moment before the figures collided in the dark. Carol quickly found her way over to them and was able to clearly see the two sisters engaged in a strong embrace with Virgil standing nearby smiling at the image.

Carol felt tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched the reunion she had never thought would happen. As she watched, Connie and Kelly separated, each crying as they stared at each other. Then Connie turned towards her, and Carol felt a hot flash of guilt ricochet up her spine at the expected condemnation from the woman she'd nearly sentenced to death.

She was startled when Connie came to her and wrapped her long arms around her frame with nothing but caring and gratefulness on her face. Carol gripped onto the younger woman tightly, relief and joy spreading through her body.

They parted a moment later and Carol took a small step back. "I am so happy to see you and I am so sorry. What I did to you is unforgivable." Carol signed to her as best she could while speaking.

Connie shook her head and pressed her into another hug. When she pulled back, she looked at Kelly quickly before signing to Carol.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. And I'm so glad to see you too." Kelly interpreted for her.

Carol sniffed, feeling more tears slide down her face as she nodded dumbly in thanks. Her brain was reeling, her inner voice whispering dark thoughts to her, but she shook her head against them.

"Come on we better get you two home."

LNE

He was in front of her before she fully registered that he was there, his hands grasping her shoulders tightly.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he demanded, his voice a mix of anger and relief. He quickly pulled her in for a hug, the action countering the anger he was showing. He released her just as fast and looked her over. "Where did you go? We've been looking for you guys for hours."

She smiled at him and stepped aside to allow him to see the figures behind her. "We found her, Daryl."

He looked over and shock and happiness passed over his face. He swiftly headed over to Connie and wrapped her up in his strong embrace. Pulling back and grinning at her, he signed.

"I am so happy to see you. I have so many questions for you."

Connie grinned back at him, and Kelly kept smirking from her spot next to her sister. Carol watched the scene with warmth before turning to greet and watch the others, who all took their turns greeting their two missing companions.

Several minutes later, Carol was walking alongside the wagon listening as Virgil filled Jerry in on what had happened while they were away. She was enraptured by the tale of their escape from an insane house of living monsters. She occasionally cast her eyes over to Daryl, who was walking next to Connie a few steps ahead of her and talking to her animatedly.

He doesn't want you anymore. He's got her back. Hope you enjoyed the attention while it lasted.

It was never like that. It will be good for him to not have to take care of me anymore. He deserves better. He deserves Connie. She'll be good for him.

And maybe now he can finally let me be... so I stop dragging him down with me.

Carol nodded to herself as she focused back in on the conversation with Virgil.

It was late when they finally reached home, and she was relieved that they had luckily managed to make it back without coming across any walkers. Leaving the wood just inside the walls, the group scattered to their homes for bed. She helped Daryl get a quick meal prepared for Connie and Virgil. The rest of them had eaten packed food while out working but Daryl still snatched a bite of meat out of her pan and sucked it into his mouth, smiling at her cheekily as he did so. She swatted him away before serving up the plates. After watching the returned companions tuck into their plates for a few minutes, Carol politely excused herself.

"I've got to get to bed. You guys sleep well." She murmured before going back over to Connie and giving her a quick hug. "I'm so glad you're okay." She put a gentle hand on Virgil's arm. "Both of you." They both gave her a grateful smile and she left to head back to her house. Before she hit the door a hand caught her arm and she turned to see Daryl standing there.

"Hey, I'm not going to be long just wanna finish up talking for a bit. You gonna be okay on your own till I get in?" he asked softly. She was a little surprised he was coming to her house, she figured this would be the end of their new routine now that he'd have his friend back. But then she understood that that was what he was asking for.

She smiled reassuringly at him. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, I've been doing good…and I feel good right now. Just so relieved she's okay."

He smiled back. "Ya, me too. Ya sure you're good though, because I can come back now?"

She shook her head. "No, you stay. Relax and take care of Connie. I'll be okay staying on my own." She met his eyes and put a hand on his shoulder. "Really. I'll be fine. And if you don't believe me, I'll let you strip my stubborn ass down later." She teased.

He scoffed with a smile "Stop." Then he leaned in quick and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I'll see you later."

That is goodbye. He's saying goodbye.

She smiled back before heading home. She changed and walked around her house for a few minutes, feeling odd to be alone for the whole night. She busied herself with washing up and getting ready for bed. It was weird but, despite feeling so relieved and happy about Connie, the guilt from what she had done to her was still present. Even more oddly, she was feeling a crawling urge in her skin. Words came to her mind and she was tempted.

Don't betray him, don't be selfish.

Deciding that she needed a distraction, Carol went through her small collection of books and chose one that she hadn't read before: Neverwhere. It seemed to be a fantasy. She figured something a little far from any realm of reality she'd ever known was a good idea.

She settled down on her bed, feeling weird about how big it seemed now. She was three chapters in, and finding it rather interesting, when she got tired. She thought about getting up to put the book down but decided to finish the chapter. She ended up falling asleep with the book on her chest and her lights still on.

When she woke up in the morning, she wasn't surprised to find that Daryl was not there. But she was a little puzzled when she saw her book was on her bedside table with a page dogeared where she'd left off. She knew that she had not done that, even half asleep, because she hated dogearing books. Then she noticed that her light was off and she was covered by one of her blankets.

He came home then...just not to bed... it isn't his bed afterall.

She got up and softly padded out to her living room. Daryl was sound asleep on her couch with Dog curled up around his legs. She watched him for a moment in silence. Although she knew she had no right to him, and it was kind of him to still watch over, her she still felt a small pang of sadness that he was choosing to already start to distance himself by moving out to the couch.

I guess it would be hard to explain to Connie why he is sleeping in his friend's bed. He's actually protecting me by not letting anyone know how crazy Carol really is still. Its okay. This was always meant to be temporary. She sighed before walking away to let him sleep.

LINELINELINELINELINELINE

Please review. I'm not actually sure if anyone is reading this or if its just going out into a void lol. Only one chapter left in this fic and i believe i've got it mostly shaped out.

Much Love - Di