AN: OK, so I had to go back and watch "Too Far Gone" to figure out the order of some events in this & cried all over about Hershel. The things I do for you people…

Anyhow, I'm not sure who all Rick told about Carol, so in my AU continuity Beth doesn't know that she was banished and likewise Carol doesn't know what just went down at the prison. Daryl's the only one who has the complete picture.


"Whither thou goest…"

"We need to get out of here, can you walk?" Carol said tersely, looking at of Daryl's left torn pants leg and the unnatural placement of his knee—it was probably dislocated...

"Dunno." Daryl admitted, still stunned by the sudden appearance of the woman that only a few hours before he'd been afraid he'd never see again. When he'd realized he was blindly clutching Beth's shirt and inadvertently her breast he'd pulled his hand back like it was on the hot burner of a stove and scowled at the both of them for staring at him. Damn women.

"I'll help you." Beth said stoutly, drawing her legs underneath her and rising to squat beside him, her hands moving to encircle his left bicep. "Ready?" she asked him.

Daryl looked at her petite frame and grimaced—weren't no way she could lever him up all by herself—he thought, and he looked beseechingly at Carol for help.

"Oh for god's sake, here." Carol sighed and sheathed her knife so she could come around to his right side and grip his other arm. Whereas Beth's grip was light and firm, Carol's hands trembled as she touched his bare arm and her eyes rose unbidden to his, filled with some strong emotion he couldn't identify, but she quickly looked away.

"Now are you ready?" Beth asked, her voice weary.

Daryl looked at the young blonde. They'd all been through hell ever since the illness had sent the prison in a downward spiral just four short days ago. Did Beth know what Rick had done to Carol? She'd been with the kids locked up in quarantine until the attack had begun this morning. Then she had lost her father...shit, Carol didn't even know that Hershel was gone. Daryl sighed, deciding he'd try to wait to break the awful news. When they were safe for the night he'd take Carol aside and tell her about Hershel, and they'd be better off not telling Beth about Carol's banishment for now. He needed some time alone with her to suss out what had really happened with Karen and David anyway...he looked at Carol, wondering where she'd been since Rick had abandoned her, why she was here now, and why even after all the fucked up shit that had gone down today he felt hopeful again.

"Daryl?" Beth asked again when he failed to respond to her question, reaching her other hand to put the back of it against his forehead, looking concerned, as if she was checking Judith's temperature.

"Did you hit your head?" Carol asked, frowning down at him as he shied back from Beth's touch.

"Thought you said we needed to move." Daryl growled and Carol nodded and caught Beth's eye.

"On three?" Carol asked the girl and Beth nodded back. "One, two, and three!" and both women hauled up on Daryl's strong muscular arms, allowing him to get his good right leg under him, but then he tried putting weight on his left leg and the red hot daggers of pain that shot through it made him overbalance and he swayed against Carol so that she had to put both arms around his torso to keep him from falling.

"Shit!" Daryl bit out even as he leaned more heavily on Carol to keep the weight off of his injured knee.

"I'll splint it for you, but when Hershel looks at it—" Carol started to say, but Beth made a strangled sound and released Daryl's arm, backing away from the two of them, holding her hand to her mouth, her eyes glazing over.

"Beth!" Daryl said, reaching his left hand out to her.

"What is it?—oh god—what is it?" Carol asked, realizing something was horribly wrong. Hershel and Caleb would've been their first line of defense against the illness, but the old vet was supposed to be in quarantine with the kids.

"He's dead." Beth said in an anguished whisper, "Daddy's dead."

"What?" Carol cried, horrified. "Oh my god, Beth, I am so sorry." and then she said in a quieter voice to Daryl, "Who else? Glenn? Lizzie?"

"Weren't the sickness." Daryl told Carol, swallowing hard, remembering the way the crimson blood had soaked the collar of Hershel's white t-shirt after the Governor's cruel blow with Michonne's katana, hacking through the side of his neck.

"Not?" Carol looked confused.

"Governor came back—with a tank and an army." Daryl told her. "Ambushed 'Chonne and Hershel while they was out burning bodies. Told us he wanted the prison for his group. Rick tried to negotiate with 'im."

Carol's face hardened. The former deputy sheriff was not on her list of favorite people.

"It's all gone." Beth said. "We shoulda just done what he said, left...daddy would still be alive...we'd be with Maggie and Glenn and Judith...oh god Daryl, what happened to Judith?" she started hyperventilating and Daryl looked helplessly at Carol, who put her shoulder under his, helping him hop over closer to Beth so he could put his left arm around the girl's shoulders and she turned into his side, burying her face in his chest.

"The tank took down the fences, the bus left, walkers were everywhere—we barely got out—it was like the last night at the farm all over again." Daryl explained in a harsh whisper, looking over top of Beth's head at Carol meaningfully, silently reminding her that he'd come to her rescue that night, just as he had for Beth today.

"Sooner or later we run." Carol intoned sadly, remembering Daryl's words to Hershel and the rest of the council. She looked away from him over at Beth and that crease between her eyebrows deepened. Daryl frowned at her.

"What?" he asked, confused by the way she was acting.

"We'll have to leave the Triumph for now." Carol said, ignoring his question and slipping into that brisk efficient tone he knew so well. "Car's around back—you got anything useful in those saddlebags?" Daryl nodded affirmatively.

"Beth!" Carol said, not unkindly, but sharply, needing to snap her out of her numbness for now so they could get going. "Honey, I need your help."

Beth looked up at the older woman, some anger showing at being made to do something besides give up and be held.

"I have to get Daryl to the car, so I need you to get everything useful off of the bike, ok? Can you do that?" Carol asked in that same sharp tone. She knew the teenager was in shock, but they'd have to deal with that later; right now it was getting close to dusk and they didn't want to be out in the open after dark.

"Beth?" Daryl asked, "Saddlebags?" and Beth blinked up at him, her big blue eyes liquid and a bit dazed, but then she nodded at him. "Get yer knife out—watch yerself." He added.

"Ok, Daryl." the girl said and released him, taking and letting out a breath, unsheathing her knife and moving back to the bike.

"Ok Daryl." Carol muttered under her breath, and Daryl looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Let's move." was all Carol said. She led him around the side of the burnt out gas station to the open lean to garage behind it and had him prop himself against the side of the building while she went inside and started up the engine, backing out a late model red Jeep Cherokee. She opened the passenger side back door and moved to help him in, but when she tried ducking under his shoulder again to support him, he stopped her and pulled her into an awkward hug. Shocked, she held herself stiffly at first, but when he rested his chin on the top of her head she relaxed against him and put her arms around his waist, holding him close.

"Can't believe you're here..." Daryl said softly, "I'as ready to take on Tyreese so's I could come find ya before the fuckin' Governor showed up."

"You were?" Carol asked, not quite believing him. Daryl was Rick's right hand man...she thought of what she'd called him the night they'd left the farm, the leader's henchman... "And I'm a burden..." she'd said of herself. She abruptly let go of the tracker and took a step back to put some distance between them. Daryl reluctantly released his hold on her.

"Gonna have a long talk 'bout all this shit—you n' me—when we get some where's safe, ahright?" Daryl said pointedly, but Carol was saved from responding by Beth's arrival carrying the heavy bags in her hands and Daryl's bow, quiver and poncho slung over her shoulder.

"Thought Rick said you had a station wagon." Daryl asked, looking at the vehicle. He'd forced some more details about what supplies Carol had been given out of Rick as they had gone looking for Tyreese in the Tombs.

"Station wagon?" Carol snorted. "That piece of shit died on me two hours after Rick watched my tail lights fade." She kicked the front right tire of the new vehicle. "He left my Cherokee in that Podunk town when he and Glenn went after Hersh—" Carol cut herself off and quickly glanced over at Beth who was stoically opening the back hatch of the car to load the bags. "Any how—I saw this one on the highway, empty thank god, and knew all about it—Ed made sure he didn't have to do maintenance on my car by making me learn how to do it."

"You are a wonder, woman." Daryl said with a tiny smile. "So where do we go?"

"Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Book of Ruth 1:16..." Beth intoned from the side of the vehicle where she'd come to stand after closing the back hatch. Her eyes were unfocused and she was as pale as milk. Carol and Daryl both looked at her with concern.

"Beth?" Daryl said, reaching out his hand to her, his voice careful, warm, pitched a little higher than normal. It was the same tone Carol had heard between them before…the night before everything fell apart.


It was why Carol hadn't uttered his name in her defense when Rick had been listing the reasons why he wouldn't have her back at the prison. With everything else going on, she'd deliberately put Daryl from her mind, trying to wall him off in the same way she had done with Ed, with Sophia, all of the people and things that if she let them would pull her under like quicksand, drowning her in liquid mud from which she could never escape.

They hadn't seen her. When she'd heard the news about Zack, she'd been on her way to Beth's cell to comfort her over the loss of another one so dear to her, remembering how the youngest Greene had shut down after her mother and Shawn, and after Patricia and Jimmy. But Daryl was already there, breaking the news, so she waited down the corridor until he finished. When the silence came she looked down towards the cell and saw something unexpected, Daryl and Beth embracing, at first awkwardly, and Carol smiled slightly, knowing how uncomfortable that would make Daryl.

In the entire time she had known him they'd never really hugged; she could count on one hand the times when he'd voluntarily touched her when he wasn't rescuing her from a herd or from near death in that cell in Solitary. Their typical interaction was like the one this morning, a nudge and a teasing sarcastic comment. There was warmth there, an attempt at broaching decades old barriers against touch, but—wait—was that Daryl's hand lifting to hold the girl closer? The intensity of Beth's gaze as she turned it up to Daryl's already lowered head, his sad guilty face, made Carol take a step back, turn and walk quickly away, back to the door to the prison yard.

Carol's face was hot and she held her cold numbed hands to her cheeks to cool it. She told herself she was being ridiculous—Daryl and Beth? She was barely eighteen and he was—well, she wasn't exactly sure how old Daryl was, but probably old enough to be her father. Well, what difference did that make in this new world they were living in? What man wouldn't want a beautiful young fresh faced innocent? And a strong vital warrior like Daryl was the kind of man who women dreamed of coming to their rescue. Many a relationship began from comfort given over a loss…

Oh god, she felt like an addlepated teenager herself. The way she'd been mooning over the tracker for almost two years now, never confident enough to push for anything more than the deep friendship and trust they shared. But how could she compete with someone like Beth? She'd already resigned herself to him hooking up with someone from the Woodbury group, thought that maybe he and Karen—even Michonne and he, out on their search for the Governor would start something, but had allowed herself a tiny sliver of hope, knowing his shyness around women, his apparent reluctance to let any relationship move beyond friendship.

And then when she'd found them today, sprawled next to the overturned motorcycle, touching so intimately, she wondered not at them being together, but what had happened to draw them together so quickly. Granted, he'd known Beth almost as long as anyone in their group, but that didn't explain why he'd choose to let the girl in, when he'd kept the wall between her, Carol and he so firmly erected for so long. She knew he cared about her, valued her friendship and contributions to the group, but she supposed that in the end he just wasn't attracted to her like that… as a woman. A thin, freckled, pale, silver haired smart mouthed bossy woman with enough scars inside and out to give any man pause, let alone one dealing with his own demons of abuse. No, the sweet young song bird, sheltered Beth Greene who'd never had a hand laid on her in anger, was a much better choice for her Daryl…her Daryl…god, she was ridiculous, she said to herself.


"Beth?" Daryl said again and she looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"He cut off his head. I saw it." Beth swayed against the side of the car, hanging on to the door handle with her left hand. "Why did he do that, Daryl? Why did he cut off my daddy's head?"

"Because he's a monster, Beth." Carol said stoically before Daryl could respond, "A monster hiding behind a human face." Carol went to her young friend then and enveloped her in a hug. Daryl looked at the strong woman who'd outlived her own monsters moving to comfort the girl who had already lost so much.

"Was a monster—Michonne got him—katana through the chest." Daryl told them. That had been the last thing he'd seen before tossing the grenade into the mouth of the tank's big gun: 'Chonne skewering Blake so he'd release Rick. Carol nodded at him in understanding.

The groans and slip sliding gait of a walker slowly dragging itself along on the pavement to their right drew all of their attention sharply away and Carol released Beth.

"Quick now, let's get Daryl in back so he can stretch out his leg." She asked Beth for help, putting her hand on the girls' shoulder, knowing that giving her something to do was the best thing.

"We all have our jobs to do." Beth said in a monotone, looking at the ground.

"That's right—and right now yours is making sure he stays still and doesn't wrench that knee any worse before I can get it splinted, ok?" Carol asked, looking down at Beth until she met her eyes and then they nodded at each other. They went to Daryl and got him into the backseat with his legs stretched out. As Beth worked on buckling him in and then climbed in to sit beside him, Carol strode over to the walker slouching towards them. It was missing both of its feet and one arm from the elbow down, but its hunger still drove it forward towards the food source it knew they'd be if it could only reach them. She stopped in front of it and the creature looked up at her, raising its remaining hand beseechingly, its pitiful face that of what had once been a young woman with long blonde hair now matted and blood soaked, its fashionable clothing partially burned away.

"I'm sorry this happened to you." Carol said quietly, and then plunged her long knife into its head.


Carol was abused and put down for so long she's not thought of herself as attractive in a very long time. What's vital to her sense of self-worth is that she is strong, capable, and able to care for others, a survivor. Beth's beauty is not all that important to her—she'd much rather be complimented on her singing or good care for Judith than on how shiny her hair is. That's one of the things they both like about Daryl. He treats people with respect based on what they can do, not on how they look.

That being said, the combination of Carol's unselfish love for Daryl and her own insecurities are leading her to push Beth, who she also loves like a daughter, towards him…

But Daryl just might have an opinion of his own about what (and who) is best for him.