Tigerlily xoxo - alas Ed is still alive and being a fat ass... for now

DarkAngelShadow - you definitely hit the nail as far as Carol's motivation went

Shadowhunter89 - It was tempting just to have them take off, but this story is all about facing demons, so in the end they had to go back.

itsi3 - that's really weird cause I kinda have a similar scene replaying in my head, I'll have to see if I can work that in for you :)

As always folks, thanks for the love.

I don't own shit...

Chapter 11 - Daryl

Daryl set up his camp at the far end of the Greene farm. It was close to the woods where he could hunt, covered enough to give him privacy, but close enough to see everything that was happening back at camp.

They'd all been livin' on top of each other so long it was just nice to have some space.

He had actually considered putting up his tent right next to Carol's Pa's so he could keep and eye - and an ear - out for those girls, but he figured that wouldn't help them too much. Besides when he got to camp he saw that Ed had done and put himself between Rick and King Shane's tents, or they had done and put him there.

Whether it was Ed's cowardice of Rick's suspicion, I was glad of it. Wouldn't stop Ed from hurtin' those girls but they would be safe enough while in their tent at least.

The sun hadn't quite risen yet and the world was asleep except for myself and -

"You're late," I said.

Carol poked her head out from behind a tree. "One of these days I am gonna sneak up on you," she said with a mischievous smile. It was a real smile, not the tight, sad one she usually pulled out.

I wondered if the other's had ever even seen her smile, her real smile. She always seemed so different when it was just us two, or three when Sophia was around.

She seemed alive and bold, like a real person. It amazed me. I knew what she was dealin' with, knew better than most what it did to a person. We were both damaged, but for her it was like water off a ducks back when she was away from her daddy. Well, not entirely, but more than I could ever manage.

"Sophie is learning to milk the cows with Beth this morning and then has "school" with Carl and Skeletor," she said, catching the pack I threw her. Technically it was her pack that she kept at my camp. Some hunting supplies of Merle's that he didn't need any more - and her daddy didn't need to know she knew how to use.

I watched her unbuckle her belt and lace it through the sheath of her hunting knife.

A very little smile pulled at the side of my lips. She was a sight. Big black boots, tight black jeans, spikes all over and a Ka-Bar 1235 fixed blade hunting knife with a near 6 inch blade on her hip. By now she was gettin' real good with it too.

We had been at the farm a month now and Carol seemed to find herself at my camp every time her Pa was asleep. I ragged her about it all the time, but truth is I didn't mind her company and that puts her on a real exclusive list.

Every morning before dawn she would find a way for Sophie to be safe from her Pa and we would hunt. He was a lazy fuck and probably wouldn't wake-up until late morning anyway, but we made sure of it. When I heard Glenn was going on a run to a drug store I discreetly followed him and the Greene girl.

Kinda wished I hadn't when I saw that they was doin' more'n diggin around for supplies in there. After they left I snuck in and found all the prescription sleeping pills in the place.

Carol had been dosing his dinner with it every night. It had been working so far, keeping them safe, at night at least...

Carol gave me the look that said she was ready to go. I tossed her my cross bow and she looked at me confused.

"Today you lead."

There it was again. That smile. Big and open and happy in an untainted kinda way. I don't know why I was always so glad to see it, but I was starting to accept the reality that this girl was in fact a friend of mine and that seeing her smile gave me pleasure for some unknown reason.

I had never had a friend before.

Maybe that's part of what the whole friendship thing is all about, being happy to see them happy. Maybe her big ol' smiles gave me hope that one day I wouldn't be so broken.

What are you a homo? Asked a voice soundin' a whole lot like my brothers.

We walked through the woods in silence. It was a comfortable silence, both us focused on the task.

I always felt better out here. We're all animals. Humans like to pretend their somethin' above it all and they act like you're fuckin' weird if you don't play pretend with them. But out here, I didn't have to pretend, and neither did she.

I watched her, letting her lead, never more or less than a half'a'step behind. She was a huntress, a feline predator. All her movements graceful, purposeful, silent.

Sometimes I had to remind myself that this woman, this confident, clever, spunky woman shared a body with the meek subservient slip of a girl that took the place of my friend any time the other's were around.

They couldn't possibly be the same person? What made her so different when it was just us. Am I different when I'm alone with her?

It wasn't long before she knelt down and touched the fresh laid tracks of a buck.

I had to say, the best thing about staying in one place was that we were starting to get a feel for the lay of the land, what the high traffic areas were for local wildlife.

She looked up at me, but I just shrugged. I wanted her to do this all on her own.

A devilish smile and a gleam in her eye was her only reply. The hunt was on. We would eat well tonight.

She walked beside the tracks, eyes going back and forth from the ground to the forest. She had finally learned to pay attention to her surroundings. I smiled at her back, proud in spite of myself.

It took us hours to stalk that buck. The first time we caught up with him, Carol lined him up in her scope but she was nervous, maybe afraid he'd catch wind of us and take off. She didn't take the time she needed to line up the shot proper and ended up getting him in the hind quarter. Still, it slowed him down and it didn't take near as long to catch up with him the second time.

When we did, Carol tried to offer the crossbow back to me but I crossed my arms and jerked my chin in the direction of the deer. She could do this. Girl was a natural.

She lifted the bow, inhaled, held her breath and the buck took his last.

It was a broadside, lung shot. Beautiful. We were already sprinting forward before the 200 pound beast hit the ground with collapsed lungs.

I didn't have to tell her to end it. She knew what to do.

Stoking the creature's neck she whispered, "I'm sorry. Thank you." Then she drew her knife across its jugular and the life went out of its eyes.

I retreated a few steps and sat, leaning against a near by tree as she field dress the dear.

After a while I noticed a geek was approaching from her 6.

I wouldn't have let it get her but I wanted to give her the chance to notice it. It was starting to get too close for comfort and I was tensing to spring foward when she piped up with-

"You gonna get that?"

She didn't look up, just kept on with her work.

I smiled to my self at her unwitting timing. Relaxing back into the tree I bit back my smile and pretended to be very busy cleaning under my nails with my knife.

She paused in her work when I didn't respond to give me a dirty look over her shoulder.

"Oh, no, please don't get up," she said, rising and spinning on her heal in one fluid motion. "I wouldn't want you to trouble yourself."

She pulled out the buck knife that I gave to her before going to Atlanta for Merle and strode up to the geek, brushed aside it grasping hands and plunged the blade into its eye. Wiping the blade on a spare rag she folded it and tucked it back in her pocket where she kept it always.

Then, she was back to work, with her Ka-Bar on the buck.

It was getting to be mid morning when we made it back to my camp.

Dropping the 80 pound pack full of venison steaks, Carol collapsed onto the log I had pulled over to my fire pit.

She was glaring at me.

"Whad you just do?" I asked sitting across from her.

"Field dressed and lugged back the whole dam buck by myself," she spat, "No, thanks to you."

I couldn't help a crooked smile from pulling at my lips. "What else."

"Oh, you know, take care of the geek that was coming at me from behind. You know, if you weren't going to help the least you could have done was have my back."

"What else?"

She looked at me like I was stupid and then seemed to catch on.

I big smile spread across her face.

"I took the buck down."

"How'd you find it?"

"I tracked it."

"Let me get this straight, you tracked, killed, field dressed and carried back a buck all on your own?"

"Yeah, I did," she smiled.

"Could you do it again," I asked.

"Yeah, I think I could," she said more seriously, like a revelation.

"I think you could too," I said.

We looked at each other for a moment and she covered her mouth with her before busting out in giddy little laughs like breathy chuckles.

That must be the laugh of someone unaccustomed to joy, I thought. Then the same breathy laugh broke out of the grin that I had let slip across my face and that confirmed it.

My little slip seems to only feed her growing fit and her hand dropped into her lap as if it had been shot down by the deep belly laugh that burst from her lips. It was short lived, she reined it back in with a deep breath but her smile remained.

Quit smiling you look like a fucking idiot, I heard Merle's voice rattle from the back of my head.

"Now," I said, putting a serious expression back into place on my face, "we are running out of morning and you still haven't demonstrated that you are entirely capable of surviving on your own."

She, nodded no longer pissed that I wasn't raising a hand to help.

"Now, get a fire started, no tinder neither, what do you always call it? Right, boy scout style, and then get this venison cooked."

She got busy and I got to relaxing.

I had to give it to her, she was right. First thing the girl had ever said to me was that teaching someone else what I can do would lighten my load.