So... umm... Thank you all for being so open minded about this little project. It's really good to see that you are all totally embracing the strangeness of this story! I think we are all our own worst critics and every chapter I post I'm usually worried that it will be the one that makes you guys say, "Okay, Haitus, there is no way in hell that shit would happen!" And, unfortunately, this is another one of those chapters. Is it unlikely to ever progress this fast on the show for these two crazy characters? Probably. But the way I look at it is... Zombies walking around eating people alive is kind of unlikely too so once again, I hand you the chapter and let you decide if I've gone overboard. Not that anything can be done about it now. On the bright side, unlikely or not, this is pretty hot stuff. LOL! So at least there is that =) Thank you all for reading and letting me know your thoughts. You all are beyond great and I hand out love as eagerly as you people hand out cookies and stuff ;) Enjoy!

Huge thanks to ldyjaydin, who is scrambling to catch my mess ups! And who also happens to be one of the sweetest lil things ever! And one of my favorite writers on here AND who just found out that after much hard work ;) she is gonna be a brand new mama! Her stories are grand. Go read and congratulate her, this is a big deal! =)

Settled Demons

Chapter Ten

When they pulled up in front of her house she was hesitant to let go of him. She couldn't believe how it had all worked out. He was dealing with the same things she had been dealing with. She was confused about how it all had happened. Why the two of them would be the two who saw it all unfold before the others, but it was okay. She wasn't alone in it anymore. She never really had been. She wished she had went looking for him sooner.

Finally she let go of his waist and climbed off the bike. He hesitated as he looked towards her house. "I been wonderin' what your house was like. You talked about it sometimes..." He shook his head and climbed off himself, eyes still narrowed and staring at the dark windows. "This is fucked up."

She felt her heartbeat pick up at the thought of him remembering everything she remembered. Why had he started dreaming those dreams as soon as she did? Why did the dreams hit him and not the others? From what Merle said his dreams began around the time she was in the accident, not before.

"So, you dreamed about it but you woke up everyday knowing it was a dream?"She asked as he followed her slowly to the door.

When she looked back at him he was chewing his thumb nail. When his eyes met hers it was only briefly before they darted away again. "Somethin' like that. I knew it was all in my head but it wasn't like no dream I ever had before."

She opened the door and went inside, motioning him to follow when he seemed to hesitate in the doorway. He didn't look like he did when she left him. His hair was shorter, his face much younger looking. He wasn't as thin. And he was still very guarded. Even after what had happened in his very own living room he seemed to be almost unsure of himself and she didn't blame him for it. This was a scary thing. On one hand they didn't know each other. On the other hand they knew each other better than anyone else in the world. She had been given a little more time to adjust and adapt to the situation that had just been thrown at him, leaving him disoriented. She could see it in his face, the two versions of himself warring with one another. This Daryl fighting to detach himself while the other Daryl, her Daryl, wanted to do the right thing no matter the cost. Her Daryl had won out in the living room of his house.

"I was in an accident. I was in a coma for three months and while I was out I lived that life. To me it feels just like it all really happened. All of it. I have all these memories in my head and I tried to pretend like it had all just been some strange dream. I almost had myself convinced, actually."

"What happened? What made you realize we was out there?" He asked as he followed her to the kitchen.

She sat down at the table and he joined her, taking in the room with a quick sweep of his eyes. She smiled at him when he finally looked at her and saw the corner of his mouth turn up in response. Her Daryl was making his presence known, she still had to remember that it was almost like she was dealing with two different men here. "I ordered a pizza." She said matter of factly.

His eyes narrowed. "You what?"

"When I got out of the hospital Ed wanted me to cook him dinner. I ordered a pizza instead. Glenn was the one that delivered it."

He sat up straighter and splayed his hands flat out on the table top, paying close attention to them instead of looking at her again. "Glenn." He shook his head and laughed sarcastically. "I actually missed him when I was awake. Little bastard."

Carol laughed, causing him to look up at her, his smile growing into something that nearly knocked the wind from her. All too soon he looked away and the smile fell from his face. She went on then. "Lori and Rick are both fine and I think we can keep Lori alive pretty easily."

"How?" He asked, still avoiding her eyes.

"If we can warn Rick about the third man in that car then he'll be prepared. He wont get shot. He'll never get put in the hospital to begin with and then when everything gets crazy, Lori and Shane wont have a chance to get together. Not with Rick being there."

"Then there won't be any lil ass-kicker." He said sadly.

Carol pressed on. "There could be. We still don't know who's baby she really is. Or was. Whatever. Rick could still get her pregnant if he's the one that fathered Judith. We won't have to run. We wont have to starve and things will be better for her. I can make sure things are better for her. We can have Lori and Judy both."

"And so far we're the only ones? Just me and you know what's comin'? That don't make any sense. Why us?" he asked.

"I don't know. But it's the truth. Unless one of the others I haven't ran into yet are experiencing the same thing." She said the words but she didn't believe them. By the look in his eyes when they met hers he didn't believe it either. It was just the two of them, for reasons neither of them would probably ever know.

He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. "This is fucked up." He whispered.

She nodded. "It is."

Suddenly his head snapped up and he was glaring at her. At first she thought she had done something wrong but soon she realized that wasn't the case. "Why the hell would you come back here? Why would you come right back to Ed?" he sounded outraged. He sounded... jealous.

She shrugged. "I told you before that I wished he were still alive. I wanted to shoot his kneecaps out, remember?" He was scowling so she went on. "I let him come back because I wanted him to know. I wanted him to really know the person I had become."

"Yeah, and how the hell did you do that? I know you didn't shoot out his kneecaps. What the hell were you thinkin'?"

She shook her head and smiled sheepishly. "I hit him in the face with a frying pan... twice. And then I held a knife under his chin and dared him to put his hands on me again."

He was stunned into silence for a few long seconds and then he laughed. "No shit?"

"No shit." She smiled.

"So the two of you ain't..." He let his voice trail away and then looked towards the back door.

"No. definitely not. I have more self respect than that now. I don't need a man like that in my life and my daughter doesn't either."

"Where is she?" He asked suddenly, apparently over whatever he was angry about.

"Rick and Lori's. She's spending the night with Carl. The two of them became pretty close while I was apparently off living it up in a prison with you."

He nodded like this wasn't some sort of insane conversation.

"Did you know? Did you know in your dreams that I was waking up?" She asked.

He didn't say anything for a long time. He just kept studying his hands. When he finally spoke he didn't look at her. "They all told me you had to go back to Sophia." He said in a low voice. "But I thought that meant you were dyin'. I didn't know what the fuck they were talkin' about. I thought I could..." He shook his head. "I don't know what the fuck I was thinkin'. You just disappeared and then I woke up."

"When did you have that dream?" She whispered.

Now he looked at her again. "Last night."

"I remember that. I remember the others were there, alive. The moon..."

"Turned black? I know. Creepy shit." He cut her off.

She nodded. "Very creepy shit." She studied him then, really looked at him and then her face flushed crimson.

"What?" He asked hesitantly.

"So, if everything that happened to me happened the exact same way with you then we..." She couldn't finish the sentence. She could see it in his face that he knew exactly what she was talking about. They had slept together and he knew they had slept together. She cleared her throat. "Do you want a drink or something?" She asked, feeling even more strange about all of this than she had before.

He nodded.

She got up and was about to pass him to go to the fridge when his hand flashed out, snagging her wrist, stopping her. His grip was tight but it didn't hurt. He stood up quickly and pressed her into the table until she was nearly sitting on it, kissing her more aggressively than he had earlier or he had that first time. It was another example of how this Daryl and the one from the prison were so different. The one at the prison had learned gentleness. She never thought about what it would be like kissing Daryl from, say, the quarry. Even earlier he had had the reservations of the man from the prison. This kiss was almost angry. But it wasn't unpleasant. It was definitely not unpleasant. She found her hands fisted into his hair. His arms went around her waist and then slipped up the back of her shirt, retrieving the gun and then slamming it down on the table.

She could feel every inch of him pressed up against her as she gave him dominance over her mouth.

~H~

What the hell was he doing? He didn't even know this woman and now he was kissing her... again. This wasn't him. This was that guy in those fucking dreams. He didn't go around kissing women he didn't know. Fuck! He didn't even talk to women he didn't know. He hardly talked to the few he did know. And now this. This was completely beyond him.

So he gripped her hips more tightly and pushed her back so she was all the way on the table now and he was standing right there between her legs, pressing against her even though there was a voice in his head screaming at him to stop all of this crazy shit. Just pull away and run right out the front door the same way he had ran away from the bar when he had first seen her. But the memories in his head were vivid and had taken him to a whole new place.

The other voice in his head was adamantly telling him that this was where he needed to be. It was telling him that all the things he lacked in the world, she could provide. Understanding, unending forgiveness, patience, love. It was all right there and all he had to do was take it. It was already his for the taking. She had always been the one that gave him purpose. And even when he failed, and he had failed her miserably several times, she still looked past those failures and offered him hope. She still made him feel like a man worthy of something as good as her.

He pulled her closer.

He remembered how he had felt that morning when he had woken up and felt that gut wrenching loss when he thought the dreams were finally over and he would never see her again. It had felt like someone had died. Like he had lost the only person in the world that he could turn too.

Her hands unlocked from around his neck and glided down to his chest as soon as his lips moved from her mouth down to the base of her throat. Her pulse throbbed under his tongue, giving him a sense of power unlike any he had known before. Her heart was hammering like that because of him. It was a heady thought. He'd never figured he would be any good at any of this.

But that didn't matter, did it? As crazy as it was, at least as far as the two of them were concerned, they had already slept together. So all this stuff was coming so natural to him because that was exactly what it was. Natural. They had been tiptoeing around all of this for what felt like a lifetime already.

The shrill ringing of the phone had them both freezing up. He had just been about to slip his hands up her shirt but he dropped them both down to the table once more. Now it was time for him to revert back to himself instead of the guy he was in those dreams. He stepped away from her quickly and she slid off the table, standing in front of him for a few seconds before she kissed him lightly on the lips one more time.

She walked to the phone on the wall by the doorway leading to the living room and answered on the fourth ring. He wasn't sure who would have been calling her house this late but her face lit up when she heard whoever it was on the other end.

"Do you miss me already?" She laughed as she turned towards the living room. "Do I need to come get you?"

He listened to her end of the conversation. He realized who she was talking too, marveling at the fact that after all of that, Carol had gotten her daughter back and now, even once the walkers took over, she could keep the girl safe. They both could. Carol was no longer that meek little thing that jumped at the sound of a raised voice. When she finally hung up he was chewing his thumb nail again but he pulled it away from his mouth when he saw the look on her face. She was fucking glowing. He'd never seen her look like that.

"I thought she was going to end up wanting to come home." She shook her head and laughed. "She was actually checking to make sure I was alright."

The corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. He wasn't sure how he would feel about seeing the girl again. He hadn't really said a word to her before she turned up missing on the road and he didn't think it would be a good idea for the kid to know that there was something going on between him and her mama. Even though he wasn't even sure what the fuck was going on between the two of them. He wasn't ready to answer those kinds of questions if the girl caught wind of him sneaking around with Carol. "So, do you need me to take you to get your car? I should probably head home. Make sure Merle don't try anything stupid, like drive my damn truck back to the bar."

He saw the flash of disappointment on her face and the slight hurt behind her blue eyes. "Sure, if you're ready to go."

He shook his head. "Not really but I don't think you want people to start talkin' about you lettin' men spend the night."

She frowned. "I can handle rumors, Daryl. I'm grown."

"I know that. But shit like that gets back to kids and then other kids have to get shit for it. I don't want her getting any shit from other kids because of me. The girl's had it bad enough without me makin' things hard on her at school."

Her face softened and she smiled. "I'm getting the sweet stuff early this time around. I like it."

He scowled. "Shut up."

She went to the table and grabbed her gun, stuffing it into the back of her pants. "I completely understand. So let's go get my car." She walked towards the front door so he followed. When they reached the front porch she stopped and turned around. "You know something? I don't think you will have to worry about that too much."

He narrowed his eyes in the dark and gave her a questioning look. "Why is that?" He asked.

She looked past him and her eyes took on a look that made him think that maybe the wheels were turning in her head. "I think Monday morning I'm going to go to that school and pull her out. I can teach her everything she is going to need to know. How to use weapons and other skills that will keep her alive after all of this starts."

He looked quickly towards the bike and then back to her. He didn't want people talking about her but he really wasn't wanting to go home either. Every fucking morning he woke up and she wasn't there was a hard way to start the day. So once again he initiated it and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to him. This time she grinned wickedly and actually kissed him first.

He opened the door and stumbled backwards into the house, tripping on the riser and falling flat on his back with her on top of him. She didn't break the kiss once but he found himself laughing against her lips as he removed the gun from her pants once more, setting it on the floor next to them, and let his hands roam up the back of her shirt. The feel of her skin under his rough hands had him kissing her harder.

The front door wasn't even closed all the way. The screen door had slammed shut once they had both hit the floor but the big door had been pushed all the way open. The screen door was made of a single sheet of glass so anyone that was close enough could see exactly what they were doing, even with the house as dark as it was.

She had his shirt unbuttoned without him even realizing she was working on it. Her hands were hot against his skin once she had the shirt pushed open. He pushed at the shirt that she had on over her tank top and then flung it onto the coffee table. He couldn't get enough of the feel of her. He pushed one hand up the front of her tank top and growled when his fingers brushed across the lacy material of her bra. The way her body felt under his hands was slightly different than the way she had felt in the dream. Her breasts were fuller than they had been in the prison and all of her bones weren't as prominent. He ran his hands down her sides to a slender waist and then hips that she had been lacking much of at the prison.

She was straddling him and he knew that she could feel the hard length of him between her legs. Tugging lightly as his bottom lip with her teeth she finally let go and sat up. She was back lit by the streetlights behind her so he couldn't make out anything other than her silhouette. She crossed her arms in front of her and then pulled the shirt up over her head, tossing it where he had tossed the other shirt.

He couldn't help himself anymore. He sat up so fast he probably startled her but he didn't care at the moment. His hands went around to her back to fumble with the bra strap as he licked a wet trail right up the center of her breast bone, dipping his tongue into the hollow between her collar bones and then finally her lips met his again, hot and hungry. She pushed his shirt away and ran her hands over his shoulders and up his neck. He couldn't remember anything ever feeling as good as her soft touch on his skin. That was until he remembered that it got much better than this. The way her legs felt wrapped around his waist as he pushed himself inside her. The way she felt when he made her come.

"Fuck..." He growled as he snapped the hooks, pulled the bra away and tossed it. His teeth had her trembling and gasping as his hand grazed her other breast, just enough to have her arching into him, the rough callouses causing goosebumps to break out over her sensitive skin.

The first time they had been together hadn't been real. It had felt real. And to them he supposed it had been or else they wouldn't be here on her living room floor right now. But he also knew that it had been the act of a desperate man. He had wanted her to stay with him and so he did everything he could to keep her there. He had used that as a way to keep her closer, as close as he could get to her. But this was much different than that. All he could think of right now was how good it all felt. How good he wanted to make her feel. How unbelievable she tasted.

She pulled away from him and stood up. At first he was afraid he had done something wrong but then he saw her hands moving towards the button on her jeans. He reached the open door with his foot and kicked it closed, his heart thundering against his ribs. He felt himself start to get nervous once again, so he fought through it, reached up and slid her jeans down her hips, while she was kicking off her boots. As soon as she was freed from all of that restrictive clothing she was on him once more, straddling his hips. Now he knew for sure she could tell how much he wanted her.

"You have no idea how awful it was to think I would never have this again." She whispered in his ear right before she kissed the side of his neck.

The sound of her voice sent another rush of blood straight to his crotch and he nearly groaned when her lips met his. He leaned back, bracing himself on his arms instead of rolling her over and rushing it. He had sort of rushed it that first time and he didn't want to do that again. There were no walkers. No prison full of people. As long as he could keep himself in check this could go on all damn night.

Her lips made a path down to his jaw bone and then his throat and then further down still. His breath hitched when she moved her mouth down his stomach, causing his fingers to dig into the carpet. He tried to control his breathing when her fingers started working to free him from his pants. With one hand flat on his chest she pushed him until he was on his back once again and she was now knelt there between his legs. He leaned back up on his elbows, even though it was much too dark in the room to really see her.

Her hand went around him first causing his breath to rush out of him. It wasn't long after that when he felt her lips wrap around him, lowering her head so slow it had his toes curling. He groaned and then his shoulders hit the floor once more when his elbows could no longer support his weight. Suddenly his limbs felt like Jello-O. She didn't bring her head back up until he felt himself press against the back of her throat and then she brought her mouth down again.

She was going to have to stop or they wouldn't be able to do anything else at all. But he sure as hell didn't want to tell her to stop. He was hesitant at first but he finally placed one hand on the back of her head. He guided her until she picked up her pace. She drug her nails down his inner thigh and then cupped him firmly. He groaned and then finally relaxed, biting desperately at his bottom lip while she did things with her mouth that he never would have guessed she knew how to do. She was in complete control and he was more than happy to let her have it at first but some of the things she was doing felt too good. Much, much too good, causing every muscle he had to jerk almost embarrassingly. It took everything in him not to let go.

"Damn it, Carol. Ya gotta stop," he finally croaked but he was pretty sure that he had already waited too long. He'd blown any chance he had at prolonging anything at all. As soon as they started he wasn't going to be able to keep himself from making it a very short lived experience.

But she didn't stop, instead she moved her tongue back and forth across the underside of him every time she brought her mouth back down. He was pretty sure a woman like her wouldn't appreciate what was about to happen if she didn't get him out of her mouth. And it was going to happen soon. His muscles tensed and a warm heavy pressure unlike anything he'd ever experienced seemed to settle in his lower body like a massive storm.

"Carol, I'm gonna..."

She moved faster on him, causing his eyes to roll back into his head and his teeth to clench together. If he didn't then he was going to turn into a whimpering moaning fucking mess. Fuck. She just wasn't able to take a hint.

"Really, Carol, you gotta move... now." His voice was about five octaves higher than usual, making her laugh a little which made strange vibrations in her throat. "Oh holy fuck," He groaned. He actually covered his eyes with the heels of his hands and she literally started sucking him dry. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." He cursed himself and he cursed her and he trembled, whimpering there on the floor like a beaten dog and still she skillfully played him like a fine instrument, prolonging every sensation that wracked his over sensitive nerve endings.

When it was over he didn't move. He lay there gasping as she slid up the length of him.

He was pretty shocked. Who would have guessed that Carol was a closet freak? After he finally caught his breath this thought had him chuckling quietly.

"Was that comical?" he could hear the smile in her voice.

He shook his head. "No. But no more kissin'," he said in a hoarse voice.

"You know," she said as she laid her forehead on his chest, "I never would have thought that you would go for any of this. I remember you from the quarry and I thought I was really going to have my work cut out for me."

"You probably woulda if I hadn't been livin' the same damn thing every night for months. I don't think I was that bad at the quarry anyway." He ran his hands up her thighs and over her hips and was surprised to find that maybe it wasn't over after all. He was already standing at full attention again. He couldn't help but be pretty impressed with himself.

"You changed a lot by the time we were at the prison," she said quietly.

"So did you," he countered right before he rolled her over quickly. When her arms locked around his neck he couldn't help marveling at how natural it felt. But she was right. If anyone would have tried to get close to him back then he would have instantly chewed them out. But this was back then, technically, and here he was.

"I did." She sighed as she moved her hips a little.

His lips met her throat as he kicked off his boots quickly. She didn't waste any time using her feet to wrestle his pants down his legs. As soon as he was free of them he moved into her, clenching his teeth once more to prevent himself from making anymore embarrassing sounds. It was better than he remembered, even though, in his own mind, this very thing had happened recently. The way she stretched around him as he filled her had him gasping, gripping him as he went deeper and deeper.

He almost felt guilty doing this on the floor but he didn't see either of them making it to the bedroom. He didn't want her on a bed that she had shared with Ed anyway. He'd rather have her on the floor.

Her nails dug into his back when he moved a little faster. He forgot all about what she had done earlier and kissed her deeply when she said his name. She was already gripping him like a vice, trembling under him slightly. She pulled her mouth away from his and gasped, clamping her legs around his waist. He felt every muscle inside her tense and then release over and over as he moved faster into her, his name like a broken mantra escaping her lips.

He didn't know how long they were there on the floor but somehow she ended up on top of him. He was desensitized at first because of what she had done earlier but he was close to losing it. She leaned over him, hands planted on each side of his head. He bit his lip, eyes widening in the dark. He wasn't sure what he was suppose to do. Was she on birth control? "Carol... I think you might need ta stop..." but she didn't listen. His fingers dug into her hips as her mouth met his. It hit him suddenly, his fingers tightened even more and instantly her body responded to his, shuddering, trembling but never breaking stride. He ripped his mouth away from hers as he poured into her, his breath ripping from his lungs.

After she finally was able to calm her breathing she pulled away from him and sat up, reaching for the shirt that he had pushed off her shoulders earlier. She rolled off of him, landing on her back next to him. It was so quiet that he could hear her working on getting it buttoned up. He put his pants back on in a hurry and then flopped back down next to her.

Neither one of them said a word for a while. He was starting to feel nervous once more. What the fuck was he suppose to say now? It turned out he didn't have to say anything. She stood up quickly and grabbed his hand, tugging on it until he finally stood up with her. She wordlessly led him down a hallway and into a room, not bothering to turn on any lights.

"I ain't sleepin' in a bed that you shared with that piece a shi..." He started but she didn't let him finish.

"Ed and I haven't slept together in a long time. New sheets anyway," She said quickly.

He went ahead and let her push him down onto the mattress and he had to admit that it was a lot better than the lumpy twin mattress that was sitting on the floor at home that he slept on. He knew that he'd told Merle he wouldn't be home tonight but he really wasn't sure if he had been planning on staying. It wasn't that he didn't want too. It was more a matter of whether he should.

He knew that he was in too deep to do anything about it now. There wasn't a chance in hell he could put the breaks on whatever this was but it was still strange. Really strange. That's all he could think about until she crawled in next to him. Then his mind went straight back to the prison. The prison where he had felt like the world was on his shoulders until he was able to get into that bunk with her. As soon as he felt her at his back, pressed against him, that weight became bearable. That was what this felt like.

He was still a loose cannon for the most part but this woman brought him a peace he had never known before. She brought out every ounce of good he had in him. But he was still waging a war inside.

"I'll be back. Just give me ten minutes." She whispered, pulling away. She had gotten him in the bed and when she was sure he was going to stay there she was going to run off. Smart woman. He smiled in the dark.

She hurried out of the room, leaving him there with his thoughts. He actually considered sneaking out while she was doing whatever it was she was doing but he decided against it. He had to fight through the nerves and keep going head on. This was where he needed to be. She was who he needed to be with. There was a connection between them that defied anything he had ever heard of before.

When she came back she smelled like some sort of flowery soap. It smelled familiar and then he realized that it was the exact same kind he had gotten her in that dream. Go figure.

She curled up next to him and instantly, like it was the most natural thing in the world, his arm went around her, pulling her closer. He could get used to this. She settled those demons in his head. She made it easier to think. She made it easier to simply be him. Being with her was like finally being home.