AN #1: I love you guys so much! I hope you enjoy. :) In my story, the arc with Tara and Lily had been flipped. Lily is the one escaped with Glenn, and Tara is the one that is MIA.

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

OoO

Rick and Carl stayed like that, wrapped around Judith, until the others came out of the house.

Glenn stumbled out first, his hair plastered to his face.

Daryl hoped that a smirk would suffice, but Glenn thought differently.

"Thank God," he breathed as he took in the sight before him. He took Daryl in a hug that was neither masculine nor feminine, just very Glenn in its essence.

Daryl tried not to feel uncomfortable. Tried to hug him back awkwardly.

He was glad he was alive, but it wasn't really a surprise.

Glenn ran towards Beth and bear hugged her. He whispered something in her ear, and her face brightened exponentially. She dropped Mika's hand and hobbled through the front door.

"Maggie?! Maggie!" She called out, already wiping the tears from her eyes as they streamed freely.

He smiled to himself as the brunette dropped a dish loudly in the sink she had been at, called out her sister's name. She ran into a chair trying to get to her, and when she had righted herself, they reunited in a tangle of arms and tears and laughs.

It was good. This was really good.

And then Glenn saw Carol.

"Carol! Oh God, no one even saw you..."

Rick's head whipped up, like he'd awoken from a dream.

She held the younger man close to her, but he saw the tentativeness, the nerves that twitched her fingers.

"…Carol?" Rick said incredulously, his voice cracking.

Carol blinked at him. He saw the way her throat strained, how her eyes fluttered and then focused strongly, her hand dropping to the handgun concealed below her belt.

Glenn moved away with a wide grin on his fevered face, but it fell quickly as he took in their grim expressions.

Daryl set his crossbow down slowly, straightening and taking a couple steps closer, just in case.

He wouldn't beat him into the ground, but if he dared lay a hand on her, even look at her the wrong way, he was going to feel it.

Rick wasn't saying anything. Carol wasn't saying anything.

Carl was watching them both closely, fierce stubbornness evident in his eyes, the tilt of his head, the way he stared at his father staring at Carol.

Rick handed Judith to Carl and stood slowly, wobbling and groaning. Carol took a step backwards, but Rick held his hands high and shook his head, not saying anything.

Carol's chin was starting to quiver. She dropped her hand from the little pistol and let her arms hang loose at her sides.

And then Rick was on her, taking her into him, shuddering and sobbing and holding her head against his neck.

"I'm sorry," he wobbled. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Carol nodded into his neck and held the back of his head, and then let go. Extricated herself slowly, offering him a half-smile and nodding over and over again.

"He told me, Carol. I'm so sorry… I didn't… I should have…"

Carol hushed him and glanced back at Carl, that sad half-smile still playing on her lips.

He didn't like that she was accepting this. He hated it. She should be strong, should be angry. Carol had cared for Judith's life when he had not, had done so much for all of them to have been turned away.

It wasn't right.

But she was forgiving. That was the way she was, was the way she had had to become with Ed.

He understood, but he couldn't empathize.

He should not be getting off this easy.

oOo

Nobody understood what the outburst was about. Once they were back in the house, Glenn asked point-blank, but Maggie silenced him with a shake of her head. Beth was curled against her on the couch, had been for the last several hours. Their whispers were never ending, turning to static as the rest of the group traded stories.

Molly was not there, as he had suspected. Glenn and Maggie were, though, and Rick and Carl. Mrs. McLeod was there as well. Michonne was holed away in the back bedroom helping one of the Governor's soldiers – a nurse – care for a man they met on the way that had suffered a bite to the hand and had to have it amputated.

At the word that her help could be used elsewhere, Carol fled from the awkward living room to go assist with her collection of drugs.

There were two other people in the room, people that annoyed Daryl the second he laid eyes on them. The girl looked to be no older than Beth and was dressed so provocatively it was a wonder she hadn't had a chunk taken out of her yet. And the man was army.

Daryl did not like army.

His very presence screamed "bully", and the way he held himself, had his chest puffed out, arms crossed gruffly, he knew he had an ego.

All army men did, really.

They talked in hushed tones. Rick and Carl took turns holding Judith and feeding her, changing her diapers, relishing in all the tasks he had been burdened with over the past several days.

It wasn't a burden to them.

The way they acted around her, how they spoke to her, only strengthened his notion that she had been presumed dead.

Well, of course she was presumed dead. They had met up with most of the people from the prison, and not one of them had so much as seen her.

Beth had searched high and low for the girl and couldn't find her, so who was he to judge?

But they shouldn't have given up so easily. They should have had some faith. In God, in Tyreese, in him…

Faith. He was a hypocrite.

Tyreese wasn't faring as well as the others. When he had not seen Sasha immediately, Maggie had brought him away to tell him in private.

Glenn told the rest of them after he had left. Maggie had found one of the Governor's soldiers in a borderline hysteric state and had taken pity on her as they left the prison. The girl, her, Sasha, and Bob had all left the prison together to go after the bus. When they found it, the only person alive was Mrs. McLeod. She had climbed the emergency hatch on the top and was perched like a bird, snacking on a sleeve of saltines, waiting for her salvation as the dead in the car below her banged and tilted the bus with their hunger.

Daryl figured she was a carrier, like him. She had never gotten sick either.

After that, they had headed for the train tracks, since the closest safe house was just off of them.

But Bob had been shot while they were leaving, and the blood had attracted walkers.

He had lost his whole left arm by the time they came upon the sign for Sanctuary, Maggie's machete doing a less than stellar job of severing the joint.

Sasha was still sick. Bob was slowly bleeding out and in so much pain he could hardly stand. And Mrs. McLeod was exhausted.

So the girl – Tara – had taken Sasha and Bob to Sanctuary while Maggie took Mrs. McLeod back the way they came.

Which was when Glenn and the three newcomers had come upon them.

Tyreese didn't take the news well. He walked out of the back room, into the living room, and straight out the door, said he needed to go for a walk.

Daryl didn't try to stop him, and neither did anyone else. He was the only person that hadn't been reunited with the person they had been searching for, and the potential for loss rather than the blanket loss didn't sit well with him.

Daryl only hoped he wouldn't head over to Sanctuary himself.

He didn't know what to think of the situation. In all honesty, he could care less what happened to Bob.

Alcoholism rendered no respect in his book.

But Sasha... Sasha was his friend. He had worked alongside her. He knew Maggie and Glenn were close with her, knew she had a kinship with Carol.

Michonne came out of the back room around that time, wiping her bloody hands on her pant legs and sighing deep.

She sagged against the wall when she saw them.

She looked from Judith, to Daryl, and then to Beth and took in several deep breaths as she surged towards him with open arms.

He felt himself lean away from her instinctively. Michonne? Hugging?

But she hugged him. Tight. Held him against her and breathed deep over and over again, her hands tilted upwards at the wrists to keep the blood off of him.

And then it was over, and she moved on to Beth. And then to Judith, resting an elbow on Rick's knee as she bent and kissed the little girl's head and smelled her hair.

Something was very, very off. Quite frankly, he was terrified.

Michonne was hugging people and kissing Judith.

Well. Maybe people could change.

OoO

Tyreese came back later that night, just as Maggie had started pacing nervously, ready to go tear after him into the dark and drag him back kicking and screaming.

He stomped into the big country house and collapsed onto one of the sofas, rolled over, and promptly started snoring.

"Well then," Mrs. McLeod breathed, looking away with wide eyes.

Maggie smiled at her and set a hand on her shoulder. "You ready for bed?"

Mrs. McLeod rolled her hand off her shoulder and hobbled to her feet slowly. Maggie tried to give her a hand, hovered near her, but Mrs. McLeod slapped her on the butt and told her to sit on down, that she knew how to get herself into bed.

Maggie sat down again with wide eyes, her mouth set into a thin, straight line. Glenn patted her back as he giggled behind his hand, trying to do so quietly without attracting attention from the retreating woman.

"I swear," she mumbled. "That old bat is going to drive me to drink."

Carl and Beth laughed a little at that, but the rest of them managed to keep their amusement down to a small smile.

And then Judith started her nightly whining that Daryl knew would turn into a full-scale meltdown if someone didn't feed her and get her to bed, and soon.

Rick noticed, and slowly straightened to his feet, taking Judith and propping her on his hip as he went towards the pile of bags by the door, taking the diaper bag and heading back to claim the last lower level bedroom.

The army man and the young girl went upstairs soon after that.

Lizzie and Mika were lying next to each other on a heap in the floor, almost sleeping, and he realized all of a sudden that he hadn't warned them, hadn't told anyone about Lizzie.

And he only guessed that no one knew about Carl.

What kind of world was it that they lived in that the most dangerous people in the house were under the age of 14?

Because it was almost point-blank obvious to him at that point that Carol had covered for Carl, that Carl had in fact killed Karen and David.

And the more he thought about it, the stupider he felt for not predicting it in the first place. When Carl had killed the boy when the Governor first raided the prison. The way Carl cared for Judith, protected her like she was his last tie to his mother.

It made perfect sense that he would take innocents lives for the sake of others.

He doubted anyone else knew. Maybe Maggie, by the way she looked at Glenn when he asked. And of course Carol and Rick.

Maybe Michonne.

Who knew.

But he couldn't sleep. He couldn't go to sleep with Lizzie just a couple unlocked doors away from Judith, couldn't let himself sleep with Glenn pouring sweat and radiating fever.

Carl hadn't put him down yet, but now Judith was here. He couldn't be sure of anything anymore, but one thing he knew, was that Carl would put anyone's life on the line for Judith.

He couldn't blame him, but he had to watch anyway.

And so he sat, perched, as Maggie and Glenn went upstairs with Beth, and Carl and Michonne went back to the other bedrooms.

He would wait.

oOo

AN #2: Thank you everyone for reading.