DISCLAIMER: The Walking Dead Universe and the characters that inhabit it are not mine. They just like to hang out in my brain and make me go crazy unless I type up what they say and upload it here.

It felt like Carol had only been asleep for a few minutes when Glenn's low voice coming from outside the tent woke her up.

"Rise and shine, Daryl and Carol! Time for watch!" the young man sounded absurdly cheerful, and she could tell it annoyed Daryl by the way he jerked himself up and began yanking on his boots. She knew the hunter had gotten about as much sleep as she had. He'd tossed and turned next to her most of the night. Guiltily, Carol sighed and sat up, reaching for her shoes. She wasn't looking forward to the silent treatment that Daryl was probably planning on giving her, even if she knew that she deserved it for teasing him the way that she had.

"Come on, guys! Maggie and I are ready for bed," Glenn whined.

"Shut it, Short Round!" Daryl barked at him, pulling his poncho over his head angrily before grabbing his crossbow and yanking at the zipper door of the tent.

"Geez, who pissed in your corn flakes?" Glenn jumped back as the redneck stalked past him and headed off for the tree line.

"Don't mind Daryl, Glenn," Carol sighed, stepping out of the tent and zipping it closed behind her. "He didn't sleep too well last night."

Glenn chuckled as he handed her the rifle he had been carrying. "That's what he gets for throwing a slumber party."

"Glenn!" Carol found herself laughing along with him. "That's not nice!"

"I know. That's what makes it so funny," Glenn replied, still grinning. "It's been quiet. Just stay alert."

Carol nodded and shouldered the rifle. "We will. Now you, get some sleep. No staying up and having slumber parties of your own."

"Yes ma'am," Glenn saluted jauntily and headed off for his own tent.

Carol shook her head at his bright mood as she moved off towards Hershel's old SUV, which had been parked up by the road. It wasn't until she'd climbed on top of the vehicle and made a quick scan of the perimeter of the camp that Daryl reappeared from the trees and headed in her direction. She watched as he approached, looking everywhere but directly at her, and wondered how much of that was him being thorough and how much of it was how uncomfortable he probably was after her outburst last night.

She had caught herself by surprise with her confession, so Carol could hardly imagine just what it had done to Daryl. True, she'd resorted to playing dirty to distract him, but she knew him well enough by now to know that her admission had spooked him, at the very least. She felt horrible. He had enough to worry about taking care of the group like he did. He didn't need to be worrying that she might be trying to turn their friendship into something more than it really was.

Carol knew that she had to fix this situation before it spiraled out of control, but she didn't know where to begin.

Daryl stormed into the trees hoping to find a stray walker to vent his frustration on, but was sorely disappointed when none came stumbling out to meet him.

Yer pussy whipped, ain't ya, Darylena? Merle's voice taunted him. Figured it wouldn't take ya long, without me there to keep yer dumb ass in line.

"Shut up," Daryl muttered, moving stealthily through the woods that surrounded the campsite, praying for just one walking corpse to cross his path.

Ya went and got yourself a girlfriend, Darylena. Now whatcha gonna do? Live happily every after and all that shit? I taught you better than that, boy!

"Shut. Up. Merle." Daryl grit his teeth and set his jaw. He hadn't laid awake all night just to listen to a ghost berate him for trying to survive in a world gone to shit.

Sometime after T-Dog had come back from watch and Carol's breathing had finally evened out into the steady rhythm of sleep, he'd finally admitted to himself that he wasn't just trying to do right by the woman because of his failure with Sophia. Hell, she was the one thing about the whole situation that kept him going. He could give two shits about the rest of the group if he was being brutally honest with himself. Carol was the one person who made sure that they were grounded, who cared enough to make sure that they had clean clothes and a hot meal in their stomachs when the day was said and done.

She might have said her fair share of harsh words, some of them directed towards him, but she'd never been selfish or unnecessarily cruel towards any of them. After what that woman had been through since he had known her, Daryl wondered just what it was that kept her going. When it had finally occurred to him that he might have something to do with that, he hadn't known how to handle it.

He was a Dixon, and Dixons weren't worth a rat's ass before the end of the world. Why on this godforsaken earth he should be worth something now, especially to Carol, was beyond him.

Glenn had interrupted the first moments of sleep he'd managed to steal all night, and it had done nothing for his mood. Finding the woods beyond camp clear of any immediate threat, Daryl realized that he had to go join Carol and tell her just exactly where he stood with her.

But he'd be damned if he even knew how to begin, so instead he resigned himself to whatever happened next, and left the safety of the trees to confront the woman who had kept him up all night without even knowing that she had.

Daryl nodded to her as he jumped up on the SUV, looking up and down the deserted road that they had made camp beside. Carol nodded back, knowing that she was going to have to be the one that broke the silence between them. She decided to start with something easy.

"Glenn said that it's been quiet. No walkers," she offered.

He nodded again. "Nothin' in the woods, neither."

"Feels like it's not as cold as it's been, though. That might be a problem," Carol replied, keeping conversation strictly business for now. It was still chilly, but she couldn't see her breath, and that meant that the walkers would be warming up and on the move soon. Her thoughts went to Lori, and the fact that the baby wasn't far off in coming. As if he could read her mind, Daryl huffed at her.

"We'll find a place. Haven't survived this long for that kid to come into this world without someone lookin' out for us," he glanced at her, and then averted his gaze back to the road.

"I'm still worried," Carol replied. "Can't help it."

"I know ya can't. But don't," he said in a low voice. "Everythin' will be fine. We'll all be fine. Now shut up, woman."

And just like that, Carol knew that it would be. She couldn't deny the fact that she was shocked he was even talking to her, but he'd known just what to say to belay her fears. It was the reason why she slept so well knowing he was next to her at night, and something told her that Daryl understood that, too. The silence that passed between them for the remainder of the watch was far more comfortable than she had expected it to be, and for that, she was grateful.

"Well, well, well! If it ain't my ol' pal Officer Friendly and his merry band of backstabbing walker bait."

Carol was in the tent packing up the bedding for both her and Daryl when she heard the loud voice shatter the relative peace and quiet that permeated the camp. There was something familiar about it that she couldn't quite place. She knew she'd heard it somewhere before - the swagger in the drawl and bravado in the insults were telling.

"Didn't think ya'll'd still be kickin' around, what with yer propensity to be abandonin' folks an' all," the familiar sounding stranger continued, and her curiosity got the better of her. Grabbing Daryl's revolver from his pack, Carol quietly edged her way out of the tent to see what was happening.

"That's my bike over yonder there, Officer Friendly. Now, did ya'll knock my baby brother over the head and leave'm for the walkers or somethin'? Because I don't see him here. And let me tell ya, that's really disturbin' my piece o'mind at the moment."

The sight that greeted Carol was more frightening than she had expected. Two strange men had guns trained on Glenn and T-Dog. The third man, the familiar voice, had a gun pointed directly at Rick's head. Recognition slowly dawned as she made her way closer to the spectacle unfolding around Hershel's SUV, Daryl's gun hidden behind her back. The man heckling Rick was standing with his back to her, but she took in his stance and build and knew immediately who it was. The wicked looking contraption attached to his other arm, ending in a long, dirty blade where the man's hand should have been, made her absolutely certain she was right.

A movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her, and Carol turned her head to see Maggie putting a finger to her lips and pointing towards Hershel's vehicle, where Carl was disappearing around the side. Maggie nodded to the gun behind Carol's back and patted her own side, motioning her head towards the man who held Glenn at gunpoint. Carol nodded in understanding.

She swallowed and pointed Daryl's gun directly at the back of his brother's head.