Disclaimer: The Original Characters of AMC's The Walking Dead belong to someone else, they're politely letting me borrow them for my own playdates and personal amusement; well and yours I hope! They have promised not to sue me (I swear I heard them say it!) Since I make no profit from this venture beyond a bit of Muse enlightenment which I don't think is something you can measure in monetary amounts...hmm...

Notes: Huge thanks to all the readers/reviewers faves and follows you guys are awesome! Especially since you had to read OU before even starting THIS insanity! That's dedication! Rock on Peoples! ; )

Massive thanks as always to me Beta Angelinaa who works tirelessly to rein in the run-ons and typos of doom; anything left below is strictly my fault and should in no way reflect on her general awesome! :D

Its about to go DOWN PEOPLE! XD

Chapter Fourteen

(Daryl's POV)

Rick's already halfway across the empty lobby space all but running to the doorway labeled stairs.

"Rick! Slow down!" For all they know there might still be Walker's in here. Rick pauses by the doorway, nodding to him he pushes it open blade ready and they're greeted by only darkness, silence on the other side.

"This is the most obvious stairwell."

"Right, it's the one I'd want to use going any place; and last thing I'd wanna do is run into one of them in the dark."

Rick pulls a flashlight from his belt, clicking it on. "Let's hope she feels the same."

They move forward, small beam sweeping the darkness and finding nothing but concrete stairs. The move swiftly; pausing at the first landing halfway between floors to listen and sweep the darkness.

"Any idea what floor she'd have him on?" He adjusts his grip on is crossbow in the darkness, pulling his knife out and holding it in his hand, the space is tight; maybe too tight for bolts; he hits a wall and his arrows will snap like twigs.

"Most critical care wards are on the third floor." Rick's voice comes from the darkness to his right, he starts up the stairs; flashlight beam moving ahead of him.

"Hell you know that?"

"It was on the sign over the front desk. See I'm pretty and smart."

"Pfft, Getting laid on the regular makes you all kinds of smart mouthed don'it?" He's certainly in a better mood since he heard Carl the other day, reading that he's alive and hearing him with his own ears two completely different things.

Maybe after he gets her back he can breathe easier too.

He can practically feel Rick's smirk in the dark. "That obvious?"

"Shit. Girl aint exactly quiet you know." Rick bursts out laughing quickly stifling the sound trying to keep quiet. Daryl shakes his head while they pause briefly sweeping the darkness above them from the next landing before they move again, circling up finding nothing but darkness until they reach the landing door labeled Floor 3 in bold blocky print.

Rick peers through the glass rectangle into the lighter hall beyond and then pushes it open. The hallway is empty on both sides. Several ward signs hang beside double doors.

He pauses chewing his lip taking in the different wards available. "Which one you want to try first? Could be patients left in these rooms." She might not have cleared everything out; just the area she was using...they don't want to open the wrong doors and find a herd of Walker's behind it.

"Yeah I was thinking that too," Rick moves cautiously beside him.

Luck for them they don't have to choose.

He jerks his crossbow up when one of the double door sets leading to a ward opens off the main hallway not thirty feet from them. He drops it immediately when a tall thin young man dressed in bright green scrubs with dark hair almost past his chin walks out, sees them and stops frowning hard.

"Carl?!"

"Dad?! What the Hell?! You Can't Be Here!"

Rick keeps moving toward his son in the hallway, ignoring his outburst completely grabbing him in a fierce hug.

"I'm so glad you're alive."

"You already knew I was alive, seriously Fin left you a note." Carl pulls back from him, turns to look at them both. "You can't be here. If she comes back she's going to flip out."

"She's not here?" Because that's not good. When she sees the parking lot she's going to know they were here.

"No, she went on a run early this morning; she's going to be back any minute."

"We just need to talk to her, tell her to come back with us.,," Rick starts holding his hand out placating like it's Carl they need to convince.

"No you don't get it! She's convinced that you guys are going to kill her, or tie her up and use her to keep yourselves safe."

"Who the hell—"

Carl levels his eyes at him. "Those Peacock Assholes you guys dealt with last year and another group before that. She had a damn good reason for not telling any of us what she could do. She's was terrified you guys are going to kill her the second you found us."

Rick doesn't even bother to correct his language this time, looks a little taken aback at just how grown up his own son looks after just a few short weeks. Kid definitely looks different...Shit, he's not a kid anymore...

"That Peacock family when they found her in the woods took her in a long time ago, and then when they found out what she could do they kept her tied up for weeks; tortured her…"

"How the Hell you know that?" Daryl stares at him; she never mentioned what they did to her, even after almost a year together. She told him nothing about what they put her through. But she tells Carl?

"She's been having nightmares. Wasn't that hard to figure out they weren't good memories, and she needed someone to talk to about it." Carl shrugs staring at him like it should be obvious. He doesn't realize they were all listening when he spoke to Mika about it before. "Now get out of here! Busting in here weapons drawn isn't exactly going to convince her of your noble intentions!"

"No we're not leaving without you." Rick is shaking his head, dead set on getting Carl back to the warehouse. "We can just wait until she gets back."

"You can't be here or she won't come back! If you're here she might just run! And I can't leave her she'd be devastated, did you know her Mom just left her behind? Just left her to die, what kind of Mom does that? Look just give me some more time to try to convince her…I had a plan, Jesus."

There's a burst of static from Rick's hip. He drops his hand to the Walkie there pulling it from his belt. "Say that again?"

"I said, if you've got Carl you might want to get down here, I'm pretty sure we just got made all the Walker's stopped."

"You see her?"

Daryl's cursing already moving toward the stairs, Carl right on his heels and then Rick.

"I told you, if she saw them she's gonna bolt. We'll never find her again!" Carl's anxious tone matches the knots twisting around in Daryl's stomach, the acid burning in his gut.

They reach the glass doors to the front of the hospital parking lot in a few tense moments racing down three flights of stairs. Carl lays a hand on Daryl's elbow stopping him just before the doors, slightly winded from the run.

Kid isn't done healing yet –not by a long shot. "You might want to let me go first."

"You can't be serious…"

Carl stares at him eyes so like his Dads laser intense and bright blue. "She sees you guys first without me and she might think I'm dead; she'll bolt for sure."

"Fine, Go."

Carl shoves the door open moving out into the lot heading straight for the trees, eyes darting to the Walker's strewn on the pavement around them shaking his head. He stops nudging one of them with the toe of his boot sticking out under the bright green scrubs he's got on. "You might as well have posted a neon sign on the building." He frowns down at the bisected body, then raises his head squinting up at the tree line frowning. "Where's Michonne? Everyone else?"

"Tyreese is positioned up by the entrance, with the vehicles." Daryl and Rick both watch him checking the lot, moving off to the side. "Glenn, Maggie and Sasha were helping Michonne clear the lot…What is it?"

"Cause that looks like you just want to talk, you brought every fighter we have!" Carl glares at his father.

"What the hell was I supposed to do?!"

Carl doesn't answer, is moving toward a car parked on the far side of the lot, he sees that the backdoor is wide open facing the trees and curses sharply. "Her bag is gone."

"She could still be coming back."

Carl's shaking his head turning to look at them. "No, you don't understand. She kept an emergency bag in here, so if we needed to split quickly we could…she wouldn't have taken it out unless she saw you guys; or saw the Walker's down in the lot. She knew you were here. She's gone."

"She'll come back for you." Rick looks so certain. Carl's still shaking his head, circling the back of the vehicle and reaching inside, pulling something out; he tosses it to his Dad over the hood of the car without another word a damn near textbook Rick Glower etched into his face.

Rick catches the tossed object with two hands, when he opens them up Daryl can clearly see what he's holding. It's a Walkie Talkie.

"She must have heard you, or saw you; one of the two. She knew you were here, and she left this because she won't be answering Mika anymore; my guess is you were already inside. So I'm either back with you or dead. She's gone, we'll never find her." Carl slams the rear door with a snarl for emphasis.

"We'll just Fucking see about that. Nobody is just gone, it don't work like that." Daryl snarls. Girl can't sprout fucking wings no matter what other crazy things she can do. She has to be on foot…at least for now. He slings his crossbow over his shoulder moving to the other side of the car, searching the ground by Carl's feet for prints. "If she's on foot I can track her."

He finds her prints all too easily moving back into the trees; heavier with the weight of the pack she's carrying. "Right here, piece of cake." He nods his chin moving confidently towards the trees. They fall in step behind him, Daryl leading them maybe two hundred feet before he pauses staring at the ground.

"What is it?" Rick is behind him, Carl says nothing.

"Two sets of tracks." He points raises his arm to show where both sets lead off.

"Someone else with her?" Rick frowns beside him, glancing at Carl who shakes his head.

He has to crouch down and stare at them. "Nope, they're hers, both of 'em, she have a bag this way?" He glances at Carl who shakes his head again.

"She can't have gone two directions at once." Rick is staring to the left.

"One way to find out. Come on." He waves them after him moving slower carefully watching the ground after fifty feet he stops staring at the ground feeling his lips twist.

"What is it?"

"It's a message."

Rick moves up beside him staring at the words scratched in the dirt before turning back to him. "She's playing with us." He's searching the trees around them, maybe expecting to see her hiding around one of them ready to jump out.

He glances back at Daryl expression not remaining completely serious despite the situation. "So…does she call you that often?"

Daryl turns his scowl on his friend not bothering with a reply.

She's not playing a game he knows better; she's stalling them for more time. And the longer he stands her contemplating her message, the farther she gets.

"Come on,"

He leads them back up the tracks to the original set; follows the second line of footprints through the trees.

They've gone another fifty feet when it splits again. "Shit."

Rick is frowning at the tracks beneath their feet. "She could do this all day."

"Nah, at some point she's gonna lit outta here, try to put some real distance between us." He kneels down checking the tracks closer this time; catches where one of them doubles back on itself; two heel impressions to the same boot he shifts his weight standing back up indicating their direction. "Real trail is this way."

Carl pauses when they start forward again. "Don't you wanna know what she wrote?"

Rick stops quirking a brow at him.

"What, you trying to give her more time to get away?" He glares back over his shoulder at the young man now almost as tall as he is.

Carl stares back at him, doesn't even flinch. "No, but if she took the time to write it, it's obviously meant for you and it can't be that far…"

He huffs, moves back over the footprints curiosity hounding at him as well. "Wait here."

The side tracks don't go far, Rick and Carl still well within sight when he finds the words, snarls kicking his foot through them.

Rick is watching him brow raised when he comes back brow raised in obvious interest having watched his reaction. "You wanna talk about it?"

He levels a sharp glare at him a gruff. "No," before moving down the trail again, when he finds the next cut off he holds his hand up to Rick and Carl and moves off alone one more time. Eyes narrowing lips thinning to a hard line at the words not fifty feet from where he left them standing. He's infinitely glad Carl and Rick aren't reading this as he toes his boot through the words scowling.

She's getting more creative; and it's not going to stop him; he's just gonna spank the daylights outta her smartass when he catches her.

The other good thing about leaving Rick and Carl on the trail is he can double back twice as fast. Girl's damn crafty he'll give her that. It's been a while since they played this game while they were out hunting; he's always wondered if she let him win because she liked getting caught.

Today feels like a different story; between her wicked words and false trails, this is a whole new level of cat and mouse.

Rick's Walkie bursting to life against his hip the second they're on the trail again.

"Rick! She was here, she spooked the Hell outta Tyreese, threw a knife at Michonne."

Rick stops short yanking the Walkie off his belt and barking his next words into the black box. "Is she alright?"

Michonne must take the Walkie from Maggie, because she answers a moment later, sounding slightly amused despite the fact someone threw a knife at her moments before. "I'm fine, Daryl's girl missed on purpose. I've seen that girl throw. She was just trying to slow me down and stop Ty. It worked too; by the time I got up Tyreese was trying to help me and she was gone."

"Where are you?"

"At the cars, you have Carl?"

Rick answers while turning his eyes on Daryl waiting until he nods.

Forget games, he'll pick up her trail off the road, it's a closer starting point and he's positive they'll be more tricks up her sleeve to throw him off.

"Let's go." They move towards the cars, also following the faint print of her boots Daryl notes absently, can't help looking down and finding the marks in the dirt; the broken limbs she passed; she was moving pretty quick here.

He stops so suddenly Rick nearly plows into his back.

"The Hell?! Walker?" Rick's tone is sharp, alert while he eyes the trees.

Daryl stares at the dirt under his boots.

If you ever loved me at all, then let me go.

He reads it twice before scrubbing his foot over the message swallowing around his tight throat.

Hell she mean ' if ' ?!

He's not letting go of anything, least of all Her.

Rick starts to ask him again, moving forward Daryl stops him with a hand smearing her message with his boot heel. "Aint Nuthin, let's move."

He's still gonna spank her; he's just going to pin her down and kiss the mess out of her first.

They exit the trees just up the road a maybe sixty feet from his truck. She must have popped out somewhere close to here when Ty spotted her. Daryl is already moving against the other side of the road; searching the tall grass for a trail while the others have there happy reunion.

"She went this way."

Rick is shaking his head. "She's gonna be moving fast, there's no way Carl can keep up." Kids already breathing hard, Michonne is hugging him tight grabbed him the second they showed up.

"I'm not going," Carl is looking at Daryl and not his father when he speaks. "You're not either Dad, Daryl can move faster alone and she's less likely to shoot him."

"Well Hell I'm going, sitting here wasting time, she's getting farther away." More time she has the harder this will be.

Rick nods slowly. "You want us to leave the truck?"

He shakes his head quickly, "Nah give me that Walkie." He holds his hand out catching it when Rick tosses it to him over the empty roadway. "Take the truck, this could take me hours with her head start, when I find her I'll let you know, you can come get us in the morning."

"You sure?" Rick is staring at him hard, clearly doesn't like the idea.

"Get outta here old man, I got this." Rick nods, waving his arm for Carl to come with him.

Carl turns back to him a few steps away. "Be careful out there. I don't think she'll shoot you, but…" He doesn't finish a flash of uncertainty crossing his features.

She wont." Or the girl wouldn't have run...not with that many Walkers in the lot. She could have made them dance a Congo line; instead she stopped 'em all so no one got hurt and took off alone. Daryl tucks the walkie into his back pocket hefts his bow and continues to follow the sharp quick footprints against the dirt.

He picks up his pace once inside the tree cover, she must have been really booking it when she left these marks; they're the clearest trail he's seen her leave in weeks.

:: Walking Dead ::

:: Walking Dead ::

Oh dear, Whatever did Finny write that has Daryl Snarling and talking about spanking?! *swoon*

Anyone who wants to take a wild guess in the comments gets a virtual muse cookie! ; D

To Be Continued! (Obviously!)