A/N: This chapter contains graphic mentions of cleaning out a wound. Blood and pus and such. Just a heads up.

Ch. 26

The next morning, Daryl was woken up by the feeling of someone shaking him.

"Huh?" He asked.

He opened his eyes to see none other than Carol kneeling next to him.

"Carol!" He sat up and hugged her, ignoring the pain in his back. Sleeping on the ground wasn't particularly helping his muscles. "Thank God you're alright! We were so worried!"

Carol hugged him back, tightly.

"When'd you wake up?" Daryl asked.

"A couple hours ago. I'm sorry I scared you. I'm okay, though. But you, my dear, are not."

"What? I'm fine!"

Carol shook her head.

"I woke up to see you tossing and turning. And your eyes are puffy."

Daryl blushed.

"I...We didn't know if you…" he trailed off, embarrassed.

"It's okay. I'm glad that you care about me so much, but I'm sorry again."

"It's really not your fault. You couldn't help it. Rick's the one who veered off the road. Speaking of…" Daryl looked around, noticing that only Carl and Judith were there. "Where'd he go?"

"Walked down to the stream a few minutes ago. Took the water bottles, said he'd refill them."

"Oh."

Carol shrugged and hugged Daryl again. Both of them enjoyed the feeling of being in each other's arms.

00

Down at the stream, Rick was doing his best to refill on water. They'd gone through most of it the night prior.

The area was quiet save for the sound of gently rushing water. Even so, Rick was always on guard. Therefore, he didn't jump when he heard someone call out his name.

"Rick?"

Rick turned to see Lori, standing there, in the creek, wearing that wedding dress again. Parts of the fabric were getting soaked.

"Lori, baby…" Rick put down the bottles on the shore. "Baby, you're gettin' all wet standin' there!"

Lori smiled.

"It's alright. I'm sorry about before."

"With the road? Carol got hurt."

"I know. I'm sorry. I wanted you to know that I'm with you."

"You coulda just shown up when we got to the overlook."

Now Lori looked sad, and it hurt Rick to see it. He took a step forward, wanting to hold her, but his foot caught on a rock. He tripped, falling forward. His leg hit a sharp rock. The first thing Rick did was register the pain of it. The second thing he did was look up. Lori was gone.

00

Rick limped back up hill to the building, carrying some water with him. He had cut himself during the fall, but didn't want to make a big deal of it. Everyone was already wary of him because of the car accident – he didn't want to make things worse.

Right before he went in, he did his best to cover up the cut with his jeans. They were torn, but not that badly. He brought the water inside and sat down with everyone else.

00

Time wore on. Carol seemed to feel fine – well enough to help care for Judith and to pass out rations to the group. Everyone was astounded by her quick recovery. Daryl, personally, took it as some type of miracle. He'd thought for sure that she might die.
As morning turned to afternoon, the sound of a car driving by caught everyone's attention.

Rick was the first to peek his head out. There was the other car that had been packed at the college – the others had arrived!
Michonne got out of the car, followed by Beth and David, who was holding Elena's hand.

"You guys made it!" Rick exclaimed, happily.

However the others did not share his enthusiasm. Then it hit him.

"Where's Hershel?"

David shook his head, and no one said a word.

"Oh, God."

Carol, Daryl and Carl soon joined Rick outside.

"Guys," Rick said, softly. "Hershel didn't make it."

There was a murmur of condolences, mainly to Beth. Daryl noticed that the girl looked terribly sad.

David was holding her, at least. Arm around her, planting kisses on top of her head. She was lucky to have him, especially right then.

"At least you guys are here," Carl finally said. "I guess everything went to hell back there?"

"The Governor showed up with seven other men. We took 'em down. The bright side is that he's gone now. Won't be coming after you." David said the last line looking at Daryl, and the hunter suddenly felt terrible again. This was all his fault. Hershel was dead because of him, just like Merle.

Carol must have read his mind, or something like that, because she took his hand and led him back inside.

"Come on," she said, to everyone else. "We have a little space in here. We'll get you guys some food and water and figure out what to do from here."

00

"Since we left a note for Glenn and Maggie saying to meet us here, we should wait a few days. We can see any walkers from up here and there's a stream nearby for water," David said.

He kept glancing over at Rick. Something was off with the older man. He was sure of it. He seemed to be sweating a lot and was looking rather pale.

Still, he hadn't complained, so David figured he would wait to see how the evening went before questioning him.

"I agree," Michonne replied. "We should wait. But where do we go after they arrive?"

"With the Governor gone, we could head back to Georgia," Carol suggested.

"We could," Rick agreed. "But maybe we shouldn't."

"How come?" Beth was speaking, now.

"Because maybe it'd be good to get a fresh start. We're already in South Carolina. We could stay here. Or move on. The only thing we really need to do is make sure we find a place to settle before Daryl has the baby."

That was another thing. How would they get the baby out without Hershel? Daryl had been counting on him to perform a c-section. That was stupid, he thought to himself. Counting on anyone for anything. Any of them could die at any time.

"Somewhere high up," Carol said. "Like this, but with more space. But somewhere near a town, too. For supplies."

"That's another thing. Supplies. We're going to need to get Daryl some baby stuff, and more things for Judith too."

The whole conversation made Daryl's head spin. They'd all just reunited! Couldn't they just relax for the evening?

"We have time to decide. Plus maybe Glenn and Maggie found something suitable," Daryl cut in. "We should wait and see what they say."

"That's fair," David answered. "I agree."

00

David woke up to the sound of someone groaning.

He glanced around, noticing that everyone was still asleep.

It didn't sound like something a walker would make, so it had to be someone in the room. David did another once over. His eyes landed on Rick.

The man was curled up in the fetal position, drenched in sweat and shaking, but apparently asleep.

'Fuck', he thought to himself.

He wondered if Rick had gotten bitten, and had maybe not told anyone.

Quietly as possible, he stepped around everyone until he got to the ex-cop.

"Rick," he whispered, shaking him.

Rick groaned again and tried to bat him away.

"Rick, wake up," he tried again.

This time Rick opened his eyes, which David noticed were glazed.

"Rick… you're sick. Come on." The young man pulled Rick up like he'd done so many times before with Daryl and helped him towards the door. A quick listen proved that there were not any walkers outside, so David opened it and dragged Rick out.

The sun was just coming up. Perfect timing. He'd need light to see what was going on.

David set Rick down on the ground. The man immediately curled up again.

"It's so cold," Rick mumbled, shivering.

Considering it was already in the low 80s, David was really worried.

"Rick, look at me." David knelt down near him and shook him again.

"Wha..?"

"Rick… did you get bit?"

Rick raised an eyebrow.

"N-no…"

"Well you're sick. Burnin' up."

Despite Rick's answer, David didn't trust him.

"Listen, I'm real sorry, but I gotta check you."

"I didn't get bit!" Rick protested, sitting up.

"Well then prove it. If you didn't get bit, show me."

Rick glared at him, but slowly began to remove his shirt. His chest, much like his face, was covered in sweat, but there were no bite marks.

"Now your jeans."

Rick sighed but complied, pulling the torn jeans off.

David scanned him, looking for any evidence of a bit, when his eyes settled on the gash on Rick's calve. It was deep and covered in dried blood and what looked like pus.

"Jesus Christ," David said, stunned. "Rick, you've got an infection."

Rick looked down at his leg.

"That? It's just a cut."

"It's covered in blood and pus! We need to get you cleaned up, now."

David marched back inside and woke Carol. She was gentle, she might be able to help out.

"What's going on?" Carol asked, voice thick with sleep.

"Rick got cut. Has an infection."

Carol groaned.

"…Shit. Alright. You guys took a bunch of supplies from the college, right? Rubbing alcohol, bandages?"

"Yeah."

"Go get 'em. Alcohol, bandages, cotton swabs, a bottle of clean water, and tweezers too. If you got 'em. I think he's got some dirt stuck in there."

"Okay." David walked off towards the car and began unloading one of the bags. He pulled out the needed supplies and came back over.

"Maybe we ought to get someone to stand guard while we do this," Carol suggested. "Because it's gonna hurt, and he's gonna make noise."

"I can hear you," Rick said, softly.

"Fine. You might scream so we need someone to keep watch so if any walkers come… Or," she began, another idea coming to mind. "We can gag you."

"Really?" Rick was angered by her suggestion.

When Carol didn't response, he rolled his eyes.

"Give me a fuckin' gag then."

Carol nodded and began looking around for a stick for Rick to bite down on. When she found one suitable, she placed it in his mouth.

"Bite down."

Rick did as he was told, watching as David laid out the products that Carol had requested.

"Alrighty…" She sat down near Rick and began to look over his wound more in depth. "Water, please."

David handed her the bottle of water, and she poured it over the wound, removing much of the blood and some of the pus along with some debris.

"Cotton balls, alcohol and the tweezers."

David handed them all over.

Carol doused a cotton ball in the alcohol.

"This is really gonna hurt."

With that, she began clearing away extra dried blood. She pulled off as much pus as possible, as well, though this just made the wound ooze more. Each time, she did her best to clean it up. Every few minutes she would use the tweezers to remove a piece of wood or dirt as well.

Rick wanted to scream. It took all of his power not to yell as Carol scrubbed away at him.

"Damn. This is really bad," Carol noted.

When she finally got the wound clean, she asked for bandages and wrapped him up.

"We've got to keep an eye on him," she told David. "Check his bandages every few hours. If there's any Tylenol in that bag, he needs that, along with some water. We gotta bring his fever down." She removed the stick from Rick's mouth as she said all this, ignoring the tears that were now running down his face.

"We've got some," David replied, pulling out a large bottle of the medicine.

"And you," Carol said, looking at Rick, "You and I need to talk when you're feeling better. Something's up with you. I'm not sure what it is, but the car crash, and now this…If there's something you're not telling us, please don't keep it a secret any longer."

"Not...hiding…anything…" Rick responded. He was shivering again and felt like he was going to vomit.

"I hope not," Carol said. "David, help him back inside."