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Tigerlily xoxo and shadowhunter89 - patience, all questions will be answered in time...

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Chapter 15 - Daryl

I carried Carol back from the field to my camp. It disturbed me more than the bruises that she didn't fight it.

Any other day she would insist on walking on her own two feet, even to her own detriment. Girl was practically neurotic about being self sufficient.

She can't hold out much longer.

When I first realized what was going on, I was so shocked that he hadn't managed to break her. Now I think she just hid the cracks too well to see.

I looked up and at the canopy we had spent so many hours under, morning after morning. Branches and leaves scrolled passed my eyes. Occasionally the sun would breach a through a gap, stabbing down like spears and burning red and black splotches in my vision. I didn't look away, welcoming the pain, deserving it.

When the canopy closed in upon itself again I looked forward and waited for my vision to clear.

"Tell me what happened."

"You know what happened."

"All summer I've seen you show up in the morning with a fresh set of bruises or some injury that you try to hide. It's slowly getting worse but this is way beyond anything..." I was at a loss for words. Never was good with them anyway.

I looked down at the girl in my arms and realized she wasn't a 'girl' at all. She was some sort of hybrid between woman and child. She had a woman's body and a woman's burdens but when your never a kid you can't really grow up?Maybe she still believes that if she can just learn to be quiet enough and stay still long enough, the monster under the bed won't get her. Maybe she thinks it's her fault, that she deserves it.

"You wanna know why he put special effort in on this one? As if he needs a reason. Why don't you ask what you really want to know? What did I do to piss him off that much? How could even I fuck up that much?"

She was crying again, but this time they were angry tears. She was struggling and pushing at my chest violently. I was afraid she'd hurt herself so I put her down gently as possible, we were back at my camp anyway.

"Ain't nothing you could do ta deserve this. Nothin'."

I stared her down like I might a wild animal bearing it's teeth, made her decide if she was gonna bite back or back down. She chose the latter, stepping backward and collapsing on a log we used as a bench.

She got that faraway look she got the only other time I made her talk about it, in the rec room at the CDC.

"I saw you ride off alone. Rick and Shane just watched you go.

"King Shane said you probably decided to cut your losses and strike out on your own since you were the kinda person who would go hunting while Sophie and I were missing."

She looked at me then, real guilty like said, "Sorry 'bout that. People questionin' your character 'cause of a secret I make ya keep. Ain't right and it ain't fair."

I snorted. "Like I give a fuck what King Shane thinks'a my character."

That wasn't the consequence of my keeping her secrets that concerned me.

"Rick stood up for you. He's a fair minded man, Rick, but he still just watched you go. It made me mad to see it, he'd go after anyone else if they went off on their own, it wasn't fair and equal treatment and I said so."

I fought a losing battle with the smirk the was forming on my face. I couldn't help it, I was so damn proud of her. She was alway so fucking meek around the others, it was about time she flew her rebel flag for the others to see.

"Whad they have to say ta'that?"

She choked out a laugh, "nothin', they was dumb struck."

She looked away then, that faraway look enveloping her like a veil.

"You're always saying I need to pay better attention to ma surroundings," she smiled at that, but it was grotesque, twisted thing. "I didn't see him coming, didn't even realize he was awake, must be building a tolerance to them drugs we've been give 'im."

I knew who "him" was.

"What in the hell did I just hear come outchyour damn mouth?"

It was an abomination to here Ed's words come from her mouth. It hurt to hear.

"What did I tell you about speaking disrespectfully to your betters, to men?"

She sniffed hard but the tears were gone.

"Dragged me off to where the others couldn't see..."

"You want the ugly details," she spat whipping her head around and fixing me with an iron stare.

"Rick and Shane just watched him drag you off?"

"Rick tried to help, which only made things worse."

I cocked my eyebrow at her trying my damnedest to contain my rising anger, "What'chu' mean tried?"

"Well, Rick's got a little more on his plait right now than just breaking up a domestic disturbance. Just as Ed was draggin' me off Glenn ran up to him with news that could NOT wait."

I just looked at her, my breaths getting heavy. It sounded like a rotten excuse to me. What could possibly be THAT important?

"You didn't get back until late yesterday and you never touched base with main camp, but it never even occurred to me you didn't know..."

"Know what?" I said very slowly and deliberately. My hand was shaking now. I could feel my control slipping.

"I couldn't go back to camp, looking like I did, so I stayed out in the woods, but I could hear the yelling, even from there. There's geeks in the ba-"

She was cut off by the sound of gunfire. A lot of gunfire.

HOLY FUCK! That's coming from camp!

I stood and took a step forward, then looked back at Carol. She was struggling up.

I couldn't take the time to carry her. I looked back to toward camp where the shots were coming from. Back to her.

"Go!" she yelled. "I'm right behind you."

I nodded and took off at a sprint, pulling my crossbow off my back and cocking it as I ran.