Okay so here's chapter 4 :) not as confident with this chapter as with the others so I hope I did an okay job. Let me know!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead

"What the hell are you people doin out here? Sound like a damn herd of elephants tromping through this forest. You're scarin away all the game" Daryl hollered as he came into view of the group. He and Merle had been tracking a deer for quite a ways and had it in their sights until branches were cracking and loud voices could be heard. The deer had taken off and Daryl's frustration had risen.

"Y'all scared away that deer we been chasin" said Merle as he came to stand beside Daryl overlooking the group. "Buncha idiots" he rambled on. The man that looked to be the one in charge of the small group came forward.

"Sorry. Guess we can say we aren't cut out to be hunters" he said with a laugh. Merle snorted.

"Ain't that an understatement. Y'all gotta be real quiet in these here woods. Animals can hear ya comin a mile away" Merle said.

"You men with another group?" The guy asked them. Daryl didn't need to answer as Merle beat him to it.

"Nah, just me and my lil' brother here. See we don't play to nice with others. Prefer to be on our own" Merle told him. Daryl looked at Merle with a raised eyebrow before turning back to the man.

"We 'play' just fine with others. Merle and I just like to be on our own"

"Been that way a long time ya see. We don't need no one else" Merle added in.

"Well Merle and..." the man trailed off.

"Daryl"

"Well Merle and Daryl my name's Shane. We have a group up at the old quarry. Got food, shelter, all the water we need. It's a good spot and you both seem like valuable people to have around. Any way we could convince you to join us for a bit?" the man, Shane asked them.

"Well considerin you scared away our deer I recon some food sounds mighty nice. Might be willin to stay a while" Merle told him. Shane nodded and the six of them started on their way to whatever camp this Shane guy talked about. Daryl wanted to keep hunting but his stomach had growled at the mention of food and he knew they hadn't had anything since that morning. Merle had long ago finished off their food. Probably thinking it wouldn't be hard to get more. So Daryl followed along as Shane led them back and when they hit the barricades Daryl was impressed. It was good thinking to have something set up to warn them if the dead were coming closer. Not that he or Merle had seen any while they were out in the woods.

"They went over the barricades and continued another minute before coming into the camp itself. Daryl was surprised. It looked like any old campsite. Tents, a fire pit, makeshift kitchen spot and a clothesline. People were moving about doing whatever needed doing. A few kids were playing some kind of game, women were hanging up clothes. Another was washing some plates and an older man was sitting atop the RV. He was the first to notice them and waved a hand. Shane waved back.

"Got some new folks Dale" he called up to the man. Daryl watched as the man Dale nodded.

"Andrea and Amy have gone down to the quarry to see if they can catch some fish. Glenn's still gone but that's to be expected. Everyone else is present and haven't seen anything moving out there yet" Dale hollered down to them. The three men that were with Shane wandered off. One man went to the woman washing dishes, and the other two went into separate tents. Daryl awkwardly shifted his feet as he wondered what exactly to do. Merle had no problems however and went right to the women hanging clothes. Daryl followed behind but stopped to sit on one of the logs someone pulled up to the fire pit. He swung his crossbow off his back and pulled a rag from his back pocket. He decided to clean his crossbow up a bit and didn't notice how long he was at it until a bowl was all but shoved under his nose. His body tensed for a moment before relaxing as he set his bow down and took the bowl. It was filled with some kind of stew and his stomach growled as the aroma floated under his nose. He looked up to thank the person who brought it to him and felt the words get caught in his throat. It was one of the women that was hanging the clothes. She had short slightly graying hair and was wearing a flower patterned shirt. She had a small smile plastered on her face.

"Figured you might be hungry. Your brother sure dug into his quick enough" she said. Her voice was soft and Daryl could only nod and mumble a small thanks. She gave him another smile before turning and heading back to where the other women were. Daryl couldn't help but watch her retreating form as thoughts swirled in his head. He started to wonder again what Carol would look like in real life. They had never exchanged photos. Alls he saw from her profile picture was a really old photo that she said was from when she was a child. It made him wonder if she might look like the short haired woman that had brought him the stew like the child with short hair in the picture. Or if she had long hair. Shaking his head Daryl dug into the stew in his bowl but every so often he found his eyes roaming over to the woman again. There was just something about her that drew his attention and he couldn't put his finger on it.

Once he was finished the stew he rose to take the bowl over to the makeshift sink. Once he got there he dunked it in the water before another woman grabbed it from him.

"Don't worry about that, i'll get it clean" she told him. Daryl nodded before once again moving away. His eyes found Merle eating what was probably his second bowl of stew and chatting with Dale who had come down from the RV. His eyes started wandering again when he noticed a man talking to the woman with short hair. He was a larger man, hair cut short. His hand had grabbed the woman and he was saying something to her in low tones. Daryl saw her expression and watched her eyes look at the ground. She nodded and the man let her go. He moved off and the woman went back to what she was doing only she didn't talk much to the other woman as she had done before.

Daryl's thoughts moved again to Carol and what she had told him about her husband. He was an abusive ass and always grabbed her to roughly and Daryl couldn't help but compare those stories to what he had just seen from those two. He wondered if it were possible that the woman was Carol but quickly disregarded the thought. What were the chances of that? She could be anywhere in the world, how funny would it be if she happened to be right there and he had witnessed the bastard put his hands on her. Besides Daryl knew she had a daughter, Sophia who he was pretty sure wouldn't go all that far from her mother. His eyes moved toward the few children who were now playing a card game. There were a couple female children and he wondered if any of them were the womans daughter. Daryl wanted to smack himself. He needed to quit thinking like that, he couldn't keep thinking the woman was Carol, he didn't even know her name. It could be Charlotte or Mandy or some name like that. Of course his thoughts were interrupted once again as one of the children, a girl, moved away from the other kids and walked over to the women who were just finishing up the rest of the hanging of the laundry. His breath caught as the girl walked right up to the woman who gave him the food.

"Mom, is there anything I can help with. I'm kind of bored with the card game" the girl asked her.

"You could always see if Lori wants some help with the rest of those dishes from lunch. Other than that everything is pretty much done till later" the woman told her. The girl nodded and went over to the woman who had taken his bowl from him. She smiled at the girl.

"Thanks Sophia. I would love the help. Grab that rag there and you can dry while I wash okay?" The woman who he assumed was Lori told...Sophia. Daryl felt his heart rate kick up a notch. He had to move so he headed over to Merle and Dale and sat down. His brother greeted him but Daryl didn't respond to him. The woman had a daughter named Sophia and a man that had grabbed her roughly and their talk seemed to make her draw away from the other women. Carol had a daughter named Sophia and a husband who was an abusive prick. Daryl couldn't help thinking that it had to be Carol and his thoughts were confirmed when he heard one of the kids call her name from their spot.

"Hey Carol! Can you come here a minute?" and the woman of his thoughts walked over to the kid.

TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWD

Carol had seen the two men come back with the rest of the group that had gone to hunt. They obviously didn't have much luck but they had brought back two more people. She watched from the corner of her eye as the group branched off, going in different directions and the newcomers start in her, Jacqui and a woman named Miranda's direction. One of them stopped to sit on one of the logs and the other one continued toward them. When he stopped in front of them he introduced himself.

"Hello ladies. Name's Merle, that over there is my lil' brother Daryl. We was wondering if we could get a lil somethin to eat?" he asked, seemingly polite. Carol smiled but it wavered a little bit.

Merle and Daryl, she thought. It sounded familiar and she knew it was because online Daryl too had a older brother named Merle. Carol moved to make up a bowl of the stew that they had made for lunch earlier that was still simmering over the fire closest to the kitchen spot. She handed a bowl to Merle and watched as he quickly dug into the stew. Carol quickly made up another bowl and started over to Daryl sitting on a log. She couldn't help the thoughts that went through her head. Could this be her Daryl? How many Daryl's were there out there that had an older brother named Merle? She thought as she drew closer. The man had pulled his weapon around to clean and her steps faltered a bit as she watched him clean the crossbow.

Daryl's favorite weapon, she thought as she reached him and held the bowl out under his nose where he could see it. He looked up at her and took the bowl. She gave him a smile.

"Figured you might be hungry. Your brother sure dug into his quick enough" she told him. He nodded and mumbled a thanks. Carol smiled again before turning and going back over to the other women. She would leave him to eat his stew and maybe later she could make time to ask him if he roamed the internet before all this. Carol laughed quietly to herself. He didn't seem very talkative and she didn't know if she could even work up the courage to ask him.

As she helped finish up the rest of the laundry she chatted with Jacqui. They were laughing at something Miranda had said before Carol felt a hand grab her arm. She couldn't help the flinch at the familiar bruising grip of Ed's hand.

"Thought I told you not to get to comfortable with the others" he told her in a low voice as not to alert the others who had moved to the clothesline from the basket of laundry. Carol's eyes lowered and she nodded her head meekly. Anything to get him to let her go.

"Don't forget again. You don't need anyone else. They don't care about you, just focus on me and your kid" he told her as his grip tightened. Carol nodded again and Ed let her go and walked off. Carol let out a breath and had to force herself not to rub the spot his hand had grabbed as Jacqui and Miranda returned. They continued with their conversation and Carol felt herself nod here and there and she didn't realize that Daryl was watching her. She seemed to zone out as they finished the laundry until she saw Sophia coming toward her. She put on a smile as her daughter stopped in front of her and asked if there was anything she could do. She told her she could help Lori and as Sophia wen't off to do just that Carol dumped the extra water from the basket that held the wet laundry. She heard Carl call for her from the spot where they were playing cards and as she walked over to them she saw Daryl out of the corner of her eye watching her.

She could only think, Could this really be the Daryl she knows?

So there it is. I apologize that my chapters are so short. Let me know how I did. Healthy criticism welcome!