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oOo

"Hey, y'all seen Alice?"

At the mention of her sister's name, Diana almost whirled towards the source.

"Y'all seen her?" Daryl repeated when he encountered confused looks. Everyone looked at each other and at their surroundings, expecting to see her just standing there unannounced.

Diana took a puzzled step toward him: why was he asking? A cold shiver went down her spine as if someone had slipped an ice cube inside her shirt. She looked at Felix on the other side of the road, and the horror-stricken expression on his face further told her that something wasn't right.

Glenn spoke up, "I spoke to her like ten minutes ago," he jutted a thumb in the direction she and Felix had come from. "Said she'd left something behind, wouldn't take long…" The decrease of tone in his voice showed his slow realization.

"You've got to be kidding me," Shane breathed out in exasperation.

Ice spread through Diana's veins, making her break in a cold nervous sweat. Her eyes widened significantly and she stared at Daryl, who found her gaze with his determined one.

He narrowed his eyes, turned heel and left. Diana followed.

oOo

Felix scraped his fingernails along his shorn curls, scratching his scalp in helplessness. He thought she wasn't going to do it, he'd asked her not to do it. Why did his sister have to be so fucking bullheaded? Did she think she was being helpful? All she was doing was causing more worries. At this rate, he'd be having a heart attack by the age of sixteen!

He'd never expected apocalyptic life to be easy and free of trouble – he'd have to be very stupid and very naïve to think so – but he also hadn't expected to be anxiety-ridden every hour of every day. Was it even normal that his chest was feeling so constricted? His vision started filling with dark spots and he heard everything as if from the other side of a tunnel.

T-Dog grabbed him by the arm to straighten him up, and it felt like his bones were made of jelly. "Hey, bro, you alright? You ain't looking so fresh."

Felix nodded loosely and bent forward, leaning his back against the nearest vehicle and grabbing onto his thighs with a weak grip. He took deep breaths and slowly felt his soul return to his body.

Someone exclaimed about Rick's return and that made him perk up, hoping to see his sister's familiar face along with Rick's and the little girl's.

But it was only Rick that emerged as he vaulted over the guardrail, looking around as if getting a sense of the atmosphere. The tension was obvious. Carol covered her mouth to muffle her wails and was enveloped by Lori, who gave her husband a very pointed look. Rick rubbed his sweaty forehead while Shane marched up to him, making hushed conversation. Neither looked very pleased.

"D'you see Alice out there?" Glenn asked, very well knowing the answer. "She- we think she went after Sophia."

Rick's mouth became a pressed line as he looked at Shane for confirmation. He nodded, and remarked, "Girl gotta be a special kind of stu-" he was interrupted by Rick's hand on his upper arm, a disappointed look marring his worried expression.

It didn't matter that Felix agreed that Alice had been pretty imprudent, because nobody dissed his sister and was met with silence on his part. Fire overcame his every emotion and he prepared to spit something back but was cut off before he could open his mouth.

"Does calling her stupid for doing something brave make you feel superior?" No one was more surprised to hear Lori's words than Felix. With one arm around a frowning Carol, her face was full of disdain. "Do her actions make you feel so emasculated that you resort to insulting a child?"

Shane was caught by surprised, floundering for a second before his brow dropped deep over his eyes. "You think that's brave?" He spat out, arm outstretched toward the forest. "You said it right, she's a child, you think she's gonna do a better job at protecting that little girl than your husband did?"

Shane remained rooted to place, Rick's hand white-knuckled on his upper arm. "Enough," he said with a masked voice, hard blue eyes jumping from his wife to Shane.

Dale made a noise in the back of his throat to disperse the heavy atmosphere, took a step forward and said, "We can argue about whether or not what she did was wise, but the fact that she took action despite any shortcomings is worthy of nothing less than respect." Felix felt himself nod along to his words, eyes full of conviction. "Now, her sister and Daryl are already out looking for her. What of Sophia?"

Rick put his hands on his hips and shifted his weight to one foot. He took a fleeting look at Carol and said, "She wasn't where I left her." He scratched along his hairline and continued, "I need more eyes with me, help to track her down."

Dale mopped the sweat beading under the brim of his bucket hat with a handkerchief, which he then returned to his pocket with a knowing nod. "Daryl Dixon would've been the man for the job."

"Yeah, with all his flaws, he's still the best tracker we got," Glenn acknowledged.

Shane propped his firearm against his hip, frown deep between his brows. "I'm gonna have to suffice."

As he and Rick were leaving, Felix threw at his back, "You sure your IQ's high enough?"

oOo

Diana and Daryl still hadn't exchanged a word since their departure. He being too busy focusing on what was happening underfoot, having found Alice's point of entry into the forest, keeping low, reading her tracks, Diana being too busy freaking out over the fact that her sister had just up and disappeared.

The silence between them was unnerving as all hell! Not a word of comfort, not even to inform her of his progress with the tracking. It was as if he was simply trying to block out her presence. She didn't like it, but if her silence would help him find Alice, she would keep it zipped.

Ooooh, Alice was gonna get an earful when they found her. If mom and dad had considered Diana reckless, imagine if they could've seen this stunt. They would've gone berserk!

Daryl halted her with an outstretched arm. He pointed down at some crunched leaves, which… looked just like everything else she'd seen until now. "These ain't hers," he whispered, clarifying his finds. "Walker," he said behind clenched teeth. Diana's heart felt like it shriveled inside her chest. Alice was being followed.

Her mind started cooking up gruesome scenarios, which fueled her determination. "Let's not waste time."

During the next minutes, Diana found herself thankful for the peaceful forest sounds, chirping birds and rustling leaves and absolutely no terrified screams of horror.

In fact, the next human sound they heard was Rick and Shane's whispering as they stood over a fallen walker.

Diana paid no attention to exchanged words as she and Daryl approached the two men; her vision tunneled toward the walker. Its belly was inflated as if from a large meal, but it could have just as well been due to trapped gasses from decomposition. She pointed down at it. "Did you do this?" she asked Rick and Shane, exchanging glances with them.

Rick shook his head, nose wrinkled with the foul smell. "Found it like this. We thought we were on Sophia's tracks."

"More complicated now that we got two little girls to look out for, ain't that right?" Shane near scowled at her, his brow furrowed with distaste she knew he no longer bothered to hide.

But for real, who gave a fuck what Shane thought? Diana's eyes rolled skyward and used her outstretched palm to physically block him from her vision. "Shane, do shut up." She didn't even bother with a well thought out insult, too damn emotionally exhausted for such complexity.

Daryl was quick to act, coming back to the more important subject with a subtle curl of his lip. He examined the tracks Rick and Shane had been following and determined they weren't a live human's. "It ain't the same walker, though, we been northbound trackin' this one, y'all came from northeast."

"So there's another one still out there," Rick stated the question and pressed his lips together into a frustrated line. His eyes automatically made a quick sweep of their surroundings, possibly hoping to see it right away.

Shane, who had gotten over Diana's dismissal quickly, nodded down at the one at their feet while simultaneously gesturing with his firearm. "But who did this one in?"

"Alice did," Diana breathed. She had no distinct evidence, just a gut feeling.

Rick cocked his head at her, blue eyes searching hers. "How can you know?"

"She's right," Daryl confirmed, "Her tracks keep goin a while." He walked alongside Alice's supposed trail that only he could see, his steps careful as to not disturb it. "She hid behind this tree, waited for the walker-" he doubled back behind said tree "-then went up from behind-" a stabbing motion in the air "-and got it.

"It was pro'bly still alive after she attacked or it woulda stayed face down. It turned over, then she stabbed it in the eye." He supplemented the mental image by continuing to act along, standing over the walker, one leg on each side of its chest, then mimicked the stabbing. The bloody eye socket was telltale that Daryl's story was some version of the truth.

Diana tried to pat down the flicker of pride. It would do her no good to feel these things once she faced Alice. It was a sure way that she'd slip and compliment her dexterity and astuteness instead of being angry over her imprudence.

Rick tilted his head down at the walker, frown pensive. "There a way this one could've been anywhere near Sophia?"

"The fuck I look like, psychic?" Daryl breathed out as he straightened himself over the corpse and stepped away and back to Diana's side. He shrugged loosely at Rick. "Don't know. It was headin south before it caught wind of Alice and turned around. Coulda crossed paths with the lil girl."

"The stomach, it's-" Shane gestured vaguely at its overinflated midsection.

Daryl kicked its shirt up with the toe of his boot, exposing the bloated veiny gray skin of its belly. He knelt down beside it with his knife unsheathed and resting on his thigh. "Yeah… Guess there's only way to find out."

oOo

They returned emptyhanded, the search interrupted by the setting sun, which blurred their surroundings and slowed their senses.

Felix had joined Diana's side with an urgency, dark eyes wide and fearful, a mirror image of Carol's blue ones.

"If Alice has found Sophia," Diana had told both, "she'll keep her safe, I know it."

oOo

The sky was turning dark. That wasn't good. Fuck, fuckity fuckening fuck. She had to find a place to sleep, a safe one if possible, thanks. Which was a pretty ridiculous request when you were in the middle of the fucking forest.

But the sun was setting and she would be dead by morning if she didn't find someplace safe to spend the night. A tall tree would do just fine, but without some kind of rope to secure herself, she'd fall straight to her death in her sleep.

Strangled groans of the undead up ahead had her crouching, cussing under her breath. Really, another one?

The twilight was turning her into blind walker bait, but she followed the sound, knowing it'd be better to be aware of the sonofabitch's location before it could sneak up on her. What she found was an unexpected surprise, but not an unwelcome one.

She climbed up the tree, blanching at the sap sticking to her hands and almost getting stabbed in the inside of her leg with a short and dusk-hidden branch. She had to make good use of her time, she wouldn't have sunlight for much longer.

The hanging walker was an easy kill, after that it was only a matter of sawing through the rope that had held it and tie it around the tree trunk with herself so she could turn in for the night. Shit, Katniss had done it in the movies and it had worked for her, so…

She double checked the knots she'd tied over her belly and sighed up at the stars through the canopy, eyes closing briefly. She was usually a toss-and-turner, add to that the current circumstances, and she knew her sleep would be light.

In the morning, she'd go back.

oOo

Diana had come back without Alice.

Felix was lying curled on his side, willing himself to remain optimistic. He trusted Alice to be smart enough to stay alive, but there were times when your smarts couldn't help you.

A weight dropped onto the sleeping space he would be sharing with Diana, and a hand found his upper arm, the thumb grazing his skin familiarly. He peeked over his shoulder to confirm it was his sister, then turned to her completely.

She looked tired. As he surely did too. Felix knew the expression on her face, the silent question it showed. He shrugged in response – he was okay, sort of. "I told her," he whispered through a scratchy throat, "I knew what she wanted to do, it was plain on her face, that moron. I told her t-" he stopped himself, the guilt of not having done more choking him. And then the realization that he was speaking as if they'd lost her forever hit even harder.

Felix cleared his throat subtly and sat up, back against the window of the RV. Diana took the opportunity to sit beside him, their temples grazing the cool glass as they looked at each other. She intertwined their fingers and put their joined hands on her lap, and then began 'soft tickling' up and down his arm.

It helped to calm him down, which, of course, had been his sister's intention. He wasn't against the method. He rolled his head to face forward, his eyes landing on Carol's back where she lied on the bed opposite them. He'd heard her cry softly not long ago and had felt pretty sorry for her, but being in the same situation as her kind of excused him from having to do something about it.

When Diana spoke, her voice was so quiet he almost had to read her lips. "Ela vai ficar bem," she started, then repeated it as if reassuring herself, "She'll be fine. Bet she'll stroll in pissed as hell 'cause she forgot she was on her period and didn't have an extra pad on her."

Felix resented the period joke, never finding it funny how casual his sisters were with BLEEDING every month. His squeamishness more to do with the blood itself, in its heavy quantity, and less with where it came from. Feminism. He rolled with it.

Nonetheless, he appreciated Diana's attempt, he knew her way with words had an on-off switch she couldn't really reach. He breathed out an amused scoff.

"So she's gonna be seeing red in more ways than one, huh?"

Diana released a soundless breath of laughter. Silence fell comfortably between them, and Felix's eyes naturally began to flutter closed. His anxieties hadn't stilled yet, but he believed in Alice's tenacity as much as he believed in her stubbornness.

He was already half asleep when Diana's fingertips left his skin and she led him down until he was horizontal. Pillow under his head and a kiss on his forehead, and Felix was out like a light.

oOo

Diana hugged her goosebumped arms to herself as she stepped out of the RV in need of fresh air. The sweltering day had given way to a chilly night, and she hoped that wherever she was, Alice was safe and warm.

She looked over her shoulder towards Felix's sleeping form and caught Andrea's eyes. She was sat at the table assembling and reassembling her pistol the way that Shane had shown her. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them, but she seemed to refuse to go to sleep.

Diana could understand it to some point, having been witness to her bathroom scare with the walker during the passing of the horde. She'd been too busy with Alice, taking her time with a perfect aim so she wouldn't accidentally shoot her own sister.

Andrea nodded at her in something like solidarity and returned to her task. Diana's gaze lingered a few more seconds, finding the similarities between her and Amy: the slope of their nose, the flat top lip, the long fingers and hands that hadn't known hard work until recently.

Then the image of Amy's delicate hands was replaced with her mom's calloused freckled ones, intertwined with dad's thick fingers and even thicker skin, his hands marred with scars from old work-related injuries, because that man just didn't like wearing gloves while working.

Both he and his wife shared that quirk, and oh how many times had Diana lectured them about it! Mom because she worked all day with cleaning products, in and out of water, and how it would dry and age her skin. Dad because as a diabetic any injuries would take longer to heal.

They never listened. Had never listened.

She tightened her hold, rubbed up and down her arms for warmth, and walked to the front of the RV to lean back against it. Her eyes swept the visible road in mild paranoia and spotted the four different vehicles where she knew the rest of their people were resting in.

Lori and her family farthest to the left, then Shane, then Glenn and T-Dog, and then Daryl at the RV's immediate right.

With him in mind, Diana admitted how Daryl's attitude was becoming annoying to her. She had excused his silence when he'd been tracking Alice, and she'd thought his subliminal choice to never stray far from her side out there meant things were going back to normal, but then he'd gone and ignored her again back at the interstate.

'That's the reason why', she'd told herself, 'that's the reason why I'mma always stay single. All relationships do is give you unnecessary drama and trust issues and a broken heart, ain't nobody got time for that in this day and age!'

She startled at the sound of footsteps.

oOo

Daryl hadn't planned on joining Diana when he saw her climb out of the RV, he wasn't planning on spending more time in her intoxicating presence than necessary, no need to do that to himself.

His body had acted instead of his mind. He blinked and his hand was on the door handle, blink and he was standing outside the car he was supposed to be sleeping in, blink and he was walking towards her.

It was as if she was his magnetic north.

Her shoulders jumped and she pouted when she saw him. Was she disappointed? He could understand why.

The thought stung and robbed his lungs of air, and he stood there, leaning against the RV, stupidly speechless.

He could feel the gap of his own making in their relationship widening into an abyss. He'd fucked up but there was no way to go back; he was doing the right thing. So why, he thought, was he standing there while feeling more awkward than he ever had in his entire life.

Because her sister's missing, he reasoned, and he could pretend all he wanted but he still cared.

A chill in the air made Diana shiver, he heard her whisper something under her breath in response as she rubbed her forearms. Her elbow caught his side on accident and she spoke her first words to him, "Shit, sorry." Instinct, he thought. She still apologized all the time.

"S'alright," Daryl drawled, glad to have his tongue untied. He slid closer to her, as inconspicuously as he could, until his arm pressed against hers, lending her some of his warmth.

There was a small gasp on her part and a twitch of her head in his direction, and Daryl wanted nothing more than to drape his arms around her so she'd never be cold again. He could see it in his mind's eye, she'd smile at him afterward and he'd understand what hokey people meant when they said their heart sang.

The fuck?!

He swatted those thoughts away. He briefly wondered what his brother would think of him if he knew the things that went through his mind. Then he realized he didn't care.

"You okay?" he whispered, getting his head out of his ass. He shifted his weight and accidentally bumped his hip into hers. That made her head snap in his direction and her eyes were livid.

"Okay? It's nighttime and Alice is still out there in the woods, where walkers also are!" Her hands were gesturing widely along to her words as she always did when she was worked up. "Only an idiot would think I'm okay." Her voice lost its power at the last word and she looked away.

Daryl saw the regret in her hunched shoulders.

Once again he wondered if he was losing his mind. He could feel his old anger banging on the door of his conscience, demanding to be released, to let her know what happened when you spoke like that to Daryl Dixon.

He remained passive. He had no will to act upon that anger, hadn't in a while, at least not with Diana.

It was ridiculously ironic how she had to insult and yell at him for Daryl to realize he was becoming a better person because of her soothing presence in his life. And still, he was willing to give that up for her sake, to protect her from his undeserving infatuation.

"That it?" he asked. Diana might as well have a question mark tattooed on her forehead. "That all you gotta say?" he rephrased.

"What do you mean?"

"'Idiot'? That all you got in ya?"

Diana stammered for some seconds, then stopped with a deep exhale and said, "Sorry for that… I'm just- I'm freaking out so hard. First the thing with the horde and she goes on a killing rampage and now she runs off… I'm-" she sighed and rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. "I'm a terrible sister. I shoulda noticed she wa-"

Daryl grabbed her wrist, effectively silencing her. He pulled both hands away from her face and turned to look at her. There was self-loathing twisting her expression, but the way she withdrew her hands and crossed her arms told him that even if she hadn't meant to insult him she was positively mad at him.

He didn't blame her; he was mad at himself. He would have to learn to live with it if he really meant to follow through with his plan.

"What Alice did, it ain't your fault," he said, "You can bitch and moan or you can do somethin about it." His voice was contradictorily soft. The urge to touch her was there, to comfort her physically in some way because even though it wasn't his thing, he knew it was hers.

He crossed his arms to prevent from doing it – unintentionally mimicking her – because it would probably cause her to recoil from him and he did not want that to happen.

"We'll set out at dawn, we gon find Sophia and we gon find Alice. Or she'll find us. You saw what she fuckin did when the horde came past and you saw what she did t' that errant in the woods. She can take care of herself for the time bein."

Diana's arms dropped to her sides. She was staring sightlessly at the center of Daryl's chest as if processing his words. Then she blinked hard and joined her hands in front of her with fidgety fingers and her eyes found his in the dimness. "Okay."

"Okay?" he repeated, trying to read the reason behind her easy acceptance. He found only exhaustion.

She nodded while cracking her knuckles absentmindedly, then walked past him without another word and climbed into the RV. Daryl watched her leave with that frown on her face, an unknown heaviness settling on his shoulders.

He'd find Alice and reunite their family. He'd do anything if it meant bringing even the smallest bit of sunlight back into their lives.


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