A/N: Big thanks to everyone who has fav'd, followed and reviewed this fic. This story can get a little daunting for me at times, because I know how damn long it is. So when I get nice reviews or see that someone has taken an interest in it, it gives me the nudge I need to keep going.

Chapter 27

Sometimes the silence was deafening. As a rule he preferred silence and he knew Sophia did to. But this wasn't the same. This was tense, and uncomfortable, and awkward.

He wondered how he could be out in the middle of nowhere and still feel like walls were closing in around him. There was no escape from them and no way to be around anyone but them. He couldn't lie and say that there weren't times when he fantasized about running away in the middle of the night, about getting the hell away from them both before they drove him completely crazy.

There were days when he was happy to see the random walkers they encountered, because at least that was a fresh face. At least the walkers weren't passive aggressive or spiteful. All the walkers wanted to do was eat him alive, but at least after they did that he'd be dead. Daphne and Sophia were not going to be so merciful. There was no end in sight between them and that felt like the exact spot he was stuck in. It was a constant - "I need to pee, does Sophia want to come with me?" "Dinner is finished, is Daphne hungry?". He was no closer to either of them then they were each other, but for some reason he was being used to relay questions between them.

But no matter how much it annoyed him, he had no intention of trying to relieve the tension between them.
Daphne did her part in keeping watch and helping out with everything. Sophia was carrying her weight as best she could. He couldn't hope for much more.

He had circled the small house a dozen times, but didn't see or hear anything until he noticed Daphne sitting outside, on the steps.

There was only an hour or so left of darkness and she had been getting up earlier and earlier each day as they adjusted to the new routine.

"Found these" she said extending her hand towards him. He walked over to her, seeing the two unopened packs of smokes in her hand. He took them from her and stuffed them into one of his pockets, then began searching the others for his lighter, while looking around them to assure the area was still clear.

"I'm not good with kids. I never have been" she admitted quietly, leaning her elbows into her knees.

He paused in his search and looked down at her. She was hunched over, wringing her hands together roughly and watching the action with a hard stare.

He didn't truly believe that Daphne was evil. She wasn't some kind of villain that was out to ruin his life. She was just exactly what she had said, not good with kids. She could be an insensitive bitch till the cows came home, she could be inpatient and cold - most adults would simply take or leave her, engage with her or ignore her. But Soph wasn't an adult.

"You're gonna have to deal with that shit, cause she ain't going anywhere" he muttered, looking back over his shoulder again to check the area.

Daphne nodded, keeping her eyes on the ground."Fair enough"

"I ain't asking you to be her mother, she's got one of those. A good one. But could you just try being patient with her. She's just a kid, this is hard enough on her without you bein' a bitch"

He instantly regretted calling her a bitch. She was one. But he wished he had chosen his words a little better. Even so, he didn't correct himself and he didn't apologize. The fact that she didn't flinch or even change her expression at hearing the word was enough to let him know that it was not the first time that someone had applied it to her.

She nodded and rubbed her hands together in front of her and he could see that this was hard for her. Not just being around Sophia, but having this conversation and admitting she was bad at something. There was defeat in her voice and he knew it was because she was aware that she needed him as much as he needed her. That was hard for both of them to admit.

"Is that who your looking for? Her mother?"

He nodded not wanting to say anything more about the one thing he was trying not to think about.

He had been doing his best not to let Carol enter his thoughts. He did that by focusing on what they were doing and what they needed to do. He kept busy from the moment his eye opened until they closed at night. Even when he was falling asleep he focused on listening to his surroundings, listening to her daughter sleeping soundly and safely and planning out the next day in his head.

"What about you?" he questioned, wanting to change the subject before she pushed for more information on Carol.

"My fiance Lou and our friend Patrick. Our group, we got split up, we all said if that ever happened we'd head to Charlotte, where we started." she said before shaking her head and dropping her eyes back to the ground again. "Stupid of us to leave in the first place."

"Why did ya?"

Daphne shrugged before smiling at him, but he could see that it wasn't genuine. "Looking for a community, something safer. When we got on the road and started moving around, we realized that there was nothing to find."

He wished he'd made some kind of a plan with Carol and the others. Somewhere they could meet up if things went south. But right now he had no destination. His plan was to simply make their way back to the campsite and move on from there. He knew they wouldn't be there, he knew it had been to long to find any trail they had left behind, but it was all he had to go on. That would have to be enough.

He sat beside her and finally lit a smoke, thanking her for the packets and asking her if she had found anything else in the house.

She told him about the canned food she had found, a map and a torch. She was ready to continue listing things off to him when they heard the door open behind them.

He looked over his shoulder to find Sophia looking at them both, before fixing her eyes on him.

He was stunned taking in her glowering expression, wondering what it was he'd done to deserve it. Though it was nothing new. He spent a great deal of his time wondering what he had done to piss the kid off.

She huffed out a heavy breath and stepped back inside. She didn't give him a second to question her before she slammed the door behind her, making him flinch as the sound clapped in his ears.

His eyes remained focused on the door for a few seconds wondering what had just happened. As angry as he had seen Sophia, she never let it hit the boiling point he had just seen. Slamming a door may have seemed like something small and insignificant, as far as outbursts go. But for someone like Sophia it was huge.

"Can you wait out here a second" he asked, not bothering to look back over at Daphne as quickly got to his feet and went after the enraged kid.

He stepped inside quietly and closed the door behind him. He hadn't even laid yes on her but he knew he was in for it. He knew because he could clearly hear her grumbling out parts of sentences, sentences that he was sure she was yelling in her head.

He found her sitting on the floor as the break of daylight started to fill the room, not stopping to so much as look up when he came in.

She was pulling her blue socks on and ignoring his presence, but she still looked like she wanted to smack him upside the head. As he watched her for a second, he noticed that her socks had a pattern of suns and clouds over them. Watching this tiny little ball of rage pulling on those socks was almost enough to make him laugh.

"What's wrong?" he asked kneeling down in front of her. Once he got closer he could see that she wasn't just angry, she was visibly upset. He could see her lower lip trembling and her eyes turning red. It sent a quick panic through him.

"Where are we going?" she snapped, roughly grabbing her shoes so she could starts pulling them on.

He wondered for a second if Sophia had finally realized just how impossible the trip ahead of them was. Maybe it just occurred to her that the chances of their group simply being where they left them was slim to none.

"To the campsite. From there I don't really know" he admitted, watching her expression grow darker.

"You going to Charlotte? With her!" she grumbled, making his whole face contort into a confused expression.

"What? Why the hell would I-" he stopped himself realizing what was going through the kids head. Her reactions to him talking to Daphne, helping her, to saving the women from loosing her foot to a rusty bear trap, it all finally made sense.

He spat out a humorless laugh and tilted his head to the side trying to get a better look at her.

"You're serious" he questioned, making her look up to meet his eyes, showing that she was very serious and really pissed off.

"Her?" he spat out, way to loudly, unable to cover his revulsion at the idea.

She raised her brow to him and crossed her arms, silently calling him out.

"You really think I'd do that. Just forget about Carol and run off with her…Her!"

She shrugged coldly and kept her eyes fixed on him, as though she was looking for signs he was lying.

He shook his head at her and tightened his jaw. He didn't appreciate the accusation, but he had every intention of keeping his shit together while he sat her straight.

"I'm with your Ma. No one else. Never gonna be with anyone else. When we get to the campsite, I'm gonna look for some kind of clues…something. And were gonna start searching for her"

"What if we don't find her? Are you gonna run off with that-"

"Were gonna find her." He snapped far to harshly, not giving her a chance to finish. "Ain't gonna be easy and it might take us awhile, but were gonna find her. I won't stop until we do."

Sophia still didn't look convinced and he was having trouble keeping his temper from rising at the sight of her expression.

He could take a lot from Sophia. He could keep a leveled head and remember she was just a confused kid. But right now, with the shit she was implying, he was struggling.

Sophia's eyes zeroed in on his and hardened. He had never seen her like this. He had caught glimpses of it and she had said things to him, things that let him know there was a lot more to Sophia then he thought there was.

"So when we get to Georgia and she keeps going, you're just gonna let her go off alone? We're just gonna walk away?"

He leaned in closer to her, keeping his eyes locked on her's while he spoke. "I won't even look back"