AN #1: Sorry this took a while guys. Thanks again for your reviews!

Disclaimer: I do not own or write for TWD or AMC

oOo

Beth almost had a panic attack when they came back from the house with that orange backpack.

"Oh my God!" she screamed, hysteria lacing its way into her voice. "Was Carl in there? Rick? Are they…are they…"

Carol smiled and shook her head quickly, reaching behind her to unzip the pocket with the photos.

"No, no sweetie. Whoever was here left. They left us a note in there, said they were heading to the last house." She pulled out the stack and then threw the bag in the trunk, coming back around to hand Beth the pictures.

Daryl held his breath in discomfort, waiting for the happy-crying that was going to ensue. He flipped the safety on his semi-automatic back on and threw it in the trunk, slammed it shut.

When he squeezed back in between Mika and Beth, sure enough, she was crying through her hands, Judith's lip trembling at the sudden change in emotion.

Beth was crying too hard to even notice when he pulled the baby over onto his lap. His eyes flicked back up at Carol in the rearview, and she gave him a pointed look with those blue eyes, flicking them towards Beth and blinking slowly.

He tried not to scoff. He really did.

But he did anyway.

Nobody but Lizzie noticed, but that was well enough.

"It's so stupid," she mumbled. "We know someone's dead in there."

Mika hit her hard and shushed her, and while Beth wasn't listening, he heard. And he saw by the way that Carol's fingers curled on the steering wheel, how she kept her head trained on the house in front of them even as she backed out, that she had heard as well.

OoO

The drive to the next house took longer.

The way the houses were set out, it took minimal time to run there from the prison.

But not to drive there.

The last house was tucked away in an offshoot of an offshoot of an offshoot of a side road of a sub-division.

It took forever.

Carol tried to find music that pleased everyone, Tyreese tried to play I-Spy with the girls, and Daryl tried to calculate the odds of who they might encounter at the last safe house, if they made it at all.

Glenn was likely. No one else would have thought to grab his pictures, which was the only thing they had really seen in their hurry. If Glenn was there, Sasha would probably be, since she was sick.

Everyone else was a big question mark. It could be anyone, and it could be no one.

"Aww," Beth cooed as she smoothed out one of the pictures she hadn't gotten to. She passed it up to Tyreese.

"They're so cute, don'tcha think, Ty?" she purred, giving Carol coy eyes in the mirror. Ty belly-laughed at that, startling Judith, and passed it to Carol.

"I wouldn't say Daryl could be cute, but together, yeah, they're pretty cute," he answered, his chest bouncing as he laughed.

He felt himself jump at his name, but he figured it was the one of him chasing Carl with Judith on his shoulders. That had been a good day. Everyone had been in a happy mood.

But then Carol coughed and blushed a little, and flicked her eyes up to the rearview to look at him.

"Shit," he breathed, lurching forward to snatch it out of her hand that was already tilted towards him.

"Hey!" Tyreese yelled, turning around to grab it, still laughing.

"Uh-uh," Daryl answered gruffly as he flipped it picture-down in his palm.

"Aw, come on Daryl," Beth pouted. "It's technically mine, you know. You have to give it back."

He rolled his eyes. "Sure. An' how's it yours?"

She looked at him smugly. "My brother-in-law's camera. He's not here now, so it's now my picture."

"It's got me in it, so I say it's mine." Carol answered with finality, not looking up as she turned onto the first side road.

Beth nodded her head slowly. She backhanded Daryl lightly on the knee, and he flinched instinctively.

She pretended she didn't notice, kept her eyes steady for the most part. She motioned towards Carol, turned a little towards her. "Well. She wants it. Give it to her."

He felt a growl start in his throat, but he complied begrudgingly, reaching forward to let Carol take it back.

Tyreese and Beth started giggling again.

It was okay. It didn't mean anything. It was fine. Carol could have it.

It was okay.

Carol held it up on top of the steering wheel to look at while she drove.

"You know," she murmured pensively. "I have no recollection of this being taken."

Beth snorted.

"You think you would? Glenn only got it because y'all didn't know he was there!"

Carol cocked her head and squinted at the picture.

"That was kind of rude. I mean, really: look at my posture. He could have at least got my attention first," she grumbled, a smile contrasting starkly with her voice as she glanced back up at Beth, pinning the picture under the rim of the rearview.

"I do think we're pretty cute, Pookie," she drawled, looking back up at him through the now half-blocked mirror and batting her eyelashes.

Even the little girls erupted after that. He knew his bright red blush wasn't helping matters, but for God's sake, he hated this. He felt like his skin was being invaded, felt nervous, kept twitching his fingers, sub-consciously trying to get his thumb into his mouth around Judith.

They laughed for a while, and when they had quieted again, he decided to let himself look at the picture.

He stifled a groan. It was the picture he thought it was going to be. Him and Carol were leaning over a carcass of something – maybe a wild hog – and Carol was swiping his bangs from his blood-spotted face as he bent close over it, trying to pull out an arrowhead that had broken off in the things ribcage. He seemed to be completely oblivious to her hands there, at peace with it. They looked very together.

And, to be honest, when he saw pictures like that, it was no wonder the old ladies all thought they were together.

Well. Some of them also thought he didn't even fly for their team, but that was another story entirely.

Had thought. Past tense. They were gone now.

He made himself look away, but felt Beth looking at him. Glaring, really. She shook her head disapprovingly as she pulled out another picture, holding it black side-out. She cocked her head, and he scowled hard, gave her his best I-will-murder-you-in-your-sleep glare.

That seemed to startle her. She jumped a little, and then tried to regain her assertive, scolding expression as she put the picture to the back of the pile.

Girl was smart.

oOo

The driveway was long and wooded, every turn a potential casualty. They had switched off the stereo when they turned down the last side road, and now they were crawling along on the dirt, dust flowing up behind them, waiting for each turn to be the one that would make or break their hopes and fears of the last several days.

They came to the barbed wire fence, the metal farm gate chained shut.

Carol breathed in deep, and he watched the way her hands shook, the way she smoothed her hair down every other second, checked her face in the pull-down mirror, looked over Lizzie and Mika in the rearview. She pulled out her gun as Tyreese jumped out to unlock and open the gate, counted the bullets, and put it into the console instead of the dash.

He hadn't asked her about it yet. Hadn't even breached the subject. To him, it was obvious: she would never, ever do something like that. When she told him that night, before they went to bed, that she had brought in Lizzie and Mika to say good-bye, he really realized how little time this world gave everyone. Merle hadn't had a chance to say good-bye, both times he thought he had lost him. Rick didn't get to tell Lori he loved her. Beth hadn't been allowed to say good-bye before, and outright refused to when faced with it.

No one had been able to tell Sophia good-bye, least of all her own mother.

And he hadn't said good-bye when he left with Merle.

He had lied to Glenn, saying Carol would understand. Not really lied, but he knew that the meaning he implied was not the meaning he meant. He knew Glenn thought he was saying that Carol would understand putting family first, but that wasn't true at all, wasn't what he meant.

Carol understood because she would have gone if it were Ed.

Because despite all of his terrible flaws, all of the beatings he had sustained at Merle's hands, not one was made with sick pleasure, not one was made sober. He never took a blade to his skin, and he never failed to apologize the next morning.

Merle had kept him alive those first years, before he left. Before Daryl had grown strong enough to take care of himself, to cry himself to sleep and wake up and hide the wounds for school.

Merle had done a lot of things, bad and good.

And he knew Carol would understand that. He knew she would know why he left, why he could not physically go back and leave his brother in the woods.

And here they were, about to, possibly, face people who thought she killed their own in cold blood, had disregarded their basic right to farewells and good-byes.

He knew she couldn't have done it. He knew it with every inch of his being, knew it down into his very core.

He didn't know who had actually done it yet, but that didn't really matter at this point. Carol had taken the fall for someone, and that someone would just have to come forward and deal with Rick's wrath themselves.

Rick wasn't part of the Council. He shouldn't have made those decisions inside the prison, but if he waited on the other side of this gate?

He would get no say.

OoO

The driveway seemed to go on forever. The sun was setting, blinding them through the front windshield. Carol almost hit a small flock of buzzards that were feasting on what they assumed was a downed walker.

Beth covered Judith's eyes instinctively until they passed. They didn't speak.

But eventually, the corner they turned was the corner, and three cars were there, shining like angel's beacons, calling them.

There was a collective sigh in the car. Carol managed a nervous smile and looked up into the mirror to reflect it back to them.

Beth was practically bouncing in her seat, Judith yawning and whining against her chest as she did.

"Can you see anything? Is Molly there?" Mika piped in, her little voice high with both fear and hope.

Carol offered her another sad smile through the mirror. "Not yet honey, but they're all probably just inside."

Daryl didn't voice his opinion, that if the little girl had been with Luke, which she most likely was, then she was long dead.

Long, long dead.

The pulled up alongside the other vehicles slowly. The front of the truck was smeared with hair and blood, but that could mean nothing at all.

It was quiet. It was really quiet.

Carol unbuckled her seat belt and drew her gun into her lap slowly. She glanced up at Daryl with pleading eyes and he nodded, knew what she was saying.

He nudged Tyreese and angled his head towards the door. The man nodded and reached down to grab his war-worn hammer, and then they jumped out to go investigate.

Daryl didn't like the silence of the evening. Even the cicadas were quiet, which was both a relief and unsettling.

They walked up. Daryl peeked through the windows, but this house had already been prepped, so the blinds had been drawn, the curtains down. There was no way to see in.

So Tyreese shrugged and knocked on the door.

There was some shuffling inside at the noise, and Daryl held his breath. Tightened his grip on his crossbow.

Don't think.

Don't think.

Just act.

The shuffling had quieted, which Daryl took for a good sign.

And then the doorknob turned and he breathed out a sigh of relief.

The door swung open, and Rick stood there.

The sight of him alone flipped a switch in Daryl's mind, and he couldn't be angry. He couldn't beat him into the ground like he had wanted to. He couldn't scream at him and threaten to take Carol away.

Rick was broken.

"Oh, thank God," he croaked, nearly collapsing into Daryl's arms.

Daryl held him up, felt the thick bandages beneath his shirt, heard the rattle in his breath as he choked on sobs.

He righted himself after a second, stood and wiped his eyes. He angled his head painfully to see out the door, but Daryl knew the car was blocked from view, and that nothing could be seen.

"Did you… Are you alone?" he rasped, bringing a hand up to wipe the snot from his nose.

Daryl shook his head, studied the ground. Silently begged for Tyreese to keep his mouth shut.

But Tyreese couldn't do it. He shook his head, a big, wide grin, and stepped around, waved them in. He heard the car doors slam shut, counted them to himself. One, two.

He waited. They didn't come around the truck. They were waiting for her.

C'mon woman. Be brave.

And she was.

oOo

They walked around, all five of them, and then Rick really did fall.

He yelled, screamed out, fell to the ground and then leaped up almost in the same second, and started running as fast as his broken form could take him over to his daughter.

Carol had taken a half step back at his actions, but from what Daryl had seen, he doubted the man had even registered her presence.

Judith let out a little squeal despite her exhaustion and he couldn't help but feel compelled to watch them, to see how Rick cradled the little girl against him, talked to her lightly, checked every inch of her for injury, smoothed away her little auburn bangs.

Rick was everything he couldn't be, and despite his brokenness, he was damn proud of him for holding it together this long.

His outburst had attracted the rest of the people of the house. The next to come to the door was Carl, sheriff hat blazing, his father's Python gripped firmly in both hands.

Daryl still stood in the doorway, spared him a smirk at the teenager's wry grin. He watched his face carefully as he moved out of the way, let him see the sight before him.

He dropped his gun, knees half buckling beneath him. He breathed in a shaky breath and stumbled forward. Ran towards his father and collapsed alongside him and his sister, both crying their eyes out as Judy squealed again and reached for the hat's little gold peanuts that rattled lightly when she tugged.

For the first time in a week, he had hope.

OoO

AN #2: Thank you everyone for reading! I hope I didn't disappoint you all. Anyway, I'm going to plug myself a little here. When I first started this story, I wanted it to be Daryl-centric. I wanted it to really be about his emotional struggles and his issues and his past.

But I also wanted Caryl. And that included Carol.

I had always planned on doing a companion piece for this story in Carol's POV, more centered on her, eventually, pretty much like a sequel.

But I'm impatient. And I really, really, really, really, REALLY MISS CAROL.

I want my queen back.

So I posted the first chapter this morning, and if you want to check it out, it's there! I haven't gotten much of a response for it yet, but I also have only written one chapter so far, so…yeah. It's titled All Was Lost.

Thanks again lovelies! I adore you all! *hugs*