AN #1: The response for the last chapter was lovely. I love y'all so very much! *huggles*

Disclaimer: I do not own or write for The Walking Dead or AMC.

OoO

She surged towards him, arms out, a quivering grin on her lips. Her eyes were clear, blue, dripping tears.

She engulfed him.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hands threading into his hair. He buried his face in her neck, arms clutching her sides, barely breathing. Barely holding it together.

He could feel her ribs through her leather jacket; he could smell the blood and sour milk on her body. She smelled alive, she felt alive, she was alive.

"I never thought I'd see you again," he croaked, tears making a puddle of moisture between her shoulder and neck.

Carol clutched him closer, leaned into him and sighed. "I didn't. I knew you'd find me again."

He laughed a little at that, his lips brushing her collar bone.

She pulled his face up to mirror her own, and he brought his rough, coarse hands to her cheekbones, brushing aside the little downy hairs at the top of her hairline, taking in her face, her smile, her tears.

It was her.

She leaned her forehead against his and closed her eyes, and Daryl brought his hands up to her hair, holding her, feeling her breaths on his face, touching her warm skin.

They would have stayed like that forever, a statue, but his eyes flitted away from her face, and he saw Beth on her knees, Judith in her lap, crying and rocking the little girl.

He looked back at her.

"Carol," he started, letting the panic in his voice get her attention. Her eyes snapped open, and she moved her head back a little to see him better.

"That's Beth's blood. That's her blood," he whispered quickly to her, brow furrowed as he tried to get across his meaning.

Carol's eyes widened and she stepped back immediately. She had seen the stain. She must have just thought it was from a walker, like most blood stains these days.

"Tyreese," she called calmly, turning towards the big man who was smiling down at Beth and Judith, Mika and Lizzie by his side. He looked up at her, and his face fell at her expression. She motioned for him to approach, and so he did.

"I need you to go get some more water from the river," she said under her breath, an air of authority lacing its way into her timbre. "Beth's sick, something's wrong, and she needs clean water."

Tyreese nodded quickly, worry on his face. "Sure thing. Do you want me to go ahead and take a peek at that camp, see if there's anything we can use?"

Carol hesitated, and Daryl wondered haltingly what camp they were talking about. Not an inhabited one, he was sure. Was there an abandoned one he didn't know about, that he had missed on the way here?

She shook her head. "…No. I don't know if we have the time. But I want you to bring Mika with you. I don't… I don't want her seeing Beth like this. She's too little."

Tyreese nodded knowingly, and turned back to the girls. He called to Mika, and after a second of picking up their two pots, they left.

Carol watched them leave, and when their footsteps had gotten too far away to hear, she reached behind her to take Daryl's hand, and led him towards Beth.

Her hand felt small and strong in his own, just like it always had.

"Lizzie," Carol said commandingly. Lizzie's eyes flew up to meet Carol's, her hand slowly resting on her knife.

"Can you go walk the perimeter, sweetie? Just make sure nothing gets close," she said again, and he could feel the forced compassion in her voice, the way her tone went from demanding and solid to soft and requesting in a couple seconds.

Something wasn't right here, either.

Lizzie nodded, sparing a glance that was almost reminiscent of a glare at the baby, and then she walked away.

Carol crouched in front of Beth, and touched her face. "Sweetheart? Beth?"

Beth looked up at her with tired, swollen eyes, her death grip on Judith loosening only slightly.

Carol held her hands out for the baby, and waited patiently until the girl's arms loosened from around her. She took her, and held her up to Daryl. He took Judith easily, and she immediately laid her head on his chest, sucking on her fingers as her eyes strained to stay open.

Carol stayed crouched beside Beth, and gave a brief look to Daryl.

He got the hint. He took Judith, lightly bouncing her, and went and retrieved his weapons, way out of ear shot of the murmuring women.

When he came back, he made to pass them right by, bring the guns and crossbow over to the fire, and to settle down while Carol fixed whatever was wrong with Beth.

But her hand shot out as he passed, barring his way. She looked up at him with sadness and tension in her eyes. "I need some things out of my backpack, and Judith's diaper bag. Can you stay with her while I go?"

Daryl shifted uncomfortably, his single free arm loaded down, but he nodded hesitantly. She smiled weakly and thanked him, then got up to go find her things.

He didn't feel the need to say anything, not one thing at all. He was going to shut up and let Carol help her, and if he was lucky they wouldn't tell a single thing to him.

Beth still sat, but now her knees were pulled up to her chest. Her face was rested there, but he could tell by the way she breathed and the tremors that were lacing their way up and down her form that she was hurting again.

A wave of guilt surged inside him. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to help her. At all. He was useless.

He stood there, awkwardly bouncing Judith, trying to think of something comforting to say to her.

Carol returned with a double armful of supplies, a sleeping bag tucked under one arm. He made to move off, but she looked at him quickly.

"I need you to help me, Daryl," she whispered, her eyes pleading.

He swallowed hard. "Why don't I give Judy to Lizzie, and she can help why I keep watch?"

Her face grew cold. She shook her head fiercely, rolling out the sleeping bag as she went. She turned and stood, taking his face in her hands, leaning close to his ear.

"Do not, under any circumstances, ever, let Lizzie hold Judith. Don't leave her alone with her. Don't turn your back on her. Do not let her near the baby," she whisper yelled in his ear, her breath harsh.

He was thoroughly confused, and terrified. What was so wrong with Lizzie that she was never allowed to even be alone with the baby? She couldn't be older than Carl, so 13, 14 at most? What could be so fiercely wrong with a little girl in her early teens?

But he nodded to her quickly.

She watched him for a second, as if making sure he had really heard her, had gotten her underlying meaning.

Oh, he had gotten it alright.

She helped Beth over to the sleeping bag, helped her lay down on her back. She reached into her pile and pulled out a Ziploc baggie of suspicious looking leaves.

She popped it open. "I found a car that couple of hippies had been living in. Enough medicinal herbs to give Marley a heart attack," she said wryly pulling out a single leaf and leaning forward. Beth cracked a little smile, and opened her mouth.

"It's called arnica," she explained smoothly, closing the bag and setting it to the side. "It'll help with your pain. Suck on it until you can't taste it anymore, and then chew it up and swallow it." Beth nodded, and her face puckered up.

Carol went to work on her boots, pulling them off one by one, and then her socks, and then she moved to her belt.

Daryl turned around quickly, his face burning. He was so uncomfortable, he felt like he might fall out right there.

He started making a small loop around them, keeping his head up, his eyes out, making sure not to look at the girl that lay behind him with nothing on her legs but the blood that was escaping too fast.

"I can't tell anything," he heard Carol say softly. He heard her rummaging around, and then the angry squirt of an almost empty bottle of something or other. "I'm going to have to examine you."

Beth made no noise, but his ears turned scarlet.

Back before they found the prison, with Lori big and pregnant, they were always having scares. They would haul ass out of Wal-Mart, and Lori would start having cramps, or some other crap that he wasn't privy to, and the whole caravan would stop while Hershel examined her, thumped on her belly, listened with his stethoscope for a heartbeat, and when it was clear they weren't in any real danger, they could carry on.

He kept his back turned for a couple seconds, but he heard Carol sigh deeply, so he knew something wasn't good.

"How far along are you?" she said point-blank.

He whipped around reflexively, mouth hanging open in shock. Carol had thrown a towel over Beth's lower extremities. She was staring at the older woman with wide eyes, chin quivering.

Beth wasn't pregnant. Beth couldn't be pregnant. Beth was just a little girl, there was no way-

"I didn't know," she choked out, voice high and quiet at the same time. She stole a glance at Daryl from the corner of her eye. "I thought… I don't know." She breathed deep, and started that almost hyperventilating again, groaning and bringing her hands up to her face.

Carol leaned forward and stroked her face, hushing her. "I know sweetie, I know. Just try and calm down. Try not to be too loud."

Beth nodded her head under her hands, and then drew in three big breaths, one after the other. Her hands fell to her belly. She stared up at the sky, tears streaming down her face. "I should have told him," she whispered. "I didn't know for sure, but I should have told him."

Daryl wondered if she was talking about Zach or Hershel. And the fact that both were gone, that both of those strongholds in her life were dead, made him immensely sad.

The guilt raged, a tempest in his gut, trailing self-loathing in its wake. Zach was his charge. He had watched him die.

He had watched Hershel die, too.

Carol reached forward and took her hand. "You have to think sweetheart. When did you and Zach get together?"

Beth managed a shaky smile, and reached up to wipe the tears that were continuously streaming from her face.

"Maybe a month. Month and a half."

Carol visibly relaxed, and stroked her hand softly.

"This will be easy then. You're not too far along, so the…the embryo…it's small," she stumbled quickly. The baby. The dead baby that was in her womb was small.

Daryl felt like he was intruding, completely out of place in this scenario. But what was he to do? Judith was asleep against him. He couldn't exactly go traipsing into the woods, and hope that when he came back all would be well.

"I didn't mean to lose it," Beth sobbed, the reality of her situation dawning on her. "I didn't want to. I wanted to have it. I didn't… I didn't wish this…"

Carol leaned forward, took the girl in her arms, sshing her softly, murmuring small nothings that Daryl couldn't hear.

Beth cried and cried.

OoO

AN #2: Thank you everyone for reading. Leave a review if you feel up to it!