A/N: 12/23/2014 Wow, I wasn't expecting so many reviews! Thanks, guys!

Guest: Aww! Thank you so much, guest reviewer! *hugs* I hope you like this one and all the ones after :)

wildcow258: Yeah, it's a pretty great moment in the Caryl universe. Lol I love your use of the word prickly XD

Tlozzy: Thank you, for both of your reviews ;)

Poppy P: Yeah, it is. And you're welcome! My goal is to have these done before then, and if I can keep going at the rate I'm going now (one a day) I should be done in roughly 2-3 weeks! :D

jj: Thank you! I most definitely will! *salutes*

Prettyprincess45: Thanks again. I'm so glad you look forward to email alerts for this story. And don't worry, I won't! I have no intention whatsoever of stopping now :D

Terp4Life: And I can't tell you enough how much it means to me that you like these. Thanks! :D

Reading time: 2 mins.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Chapter seven: Broken~

He had failed.

Sophia was dead.

She had died, and become one of those things. A walker. A zombie. An endless reminder of what Carol couldn't protect and what he couldn't find.

It made no sense. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He was supposed to search, to look and look and then look some more when all the others had long since given up, and then finally, when he was ready to give up himself, find her.

She shouldn't have been in that barn. She should have been with him, walking for a mile or so through the woods and out into the clearing, across the fields and into the arms of her mother. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It made no sense.

Daryl held tightly to the now childless Carol, clenching his jaw as he watched Rick put a bullet between her daughter's eyes.

It had to be done.

It didn't make it any less painful.

Carol ripped herself away from him, tears running down her cheeks in streams. He tried to reach out to her. To touch her, give her some form of comfort, to let her know that she wasn't the only one hurting, the only one who'd failed, but she was having none of it.

She slapped his hand away, and, unable to cope with her grief, ran off towards the house, her sobs fading with the growing distance.

She had changed over the time he'd known her.

She wasn't just one thing anymore.

She was many things.

And now, because of him, because he wasn't good enough, she was something else.

Broken.

A/N: Up next: Patient.

Don't worry, the next one won't be so much of a downer :P

See you tomorrow!