Author's Note: Thank you for your reads and reviews. This is the penultimate chapter, the last one should be up tomorrow. :)

TWDTWDTWD

By the time they reached the edge of the forest, only a hundred foot or so from the clearing nearest the house, he was all but carrying her. They remained silent, save from the occassional hiss of pain from Carol, attempting to keep an ear out for anymore Walkers.

They almost collided with Rick and T-Dog, both men had their hatchets raised, fearful at the noise they'd heard them make as they awkwardly made their way through the brush.

"Get in the house. Get the fires out!" Daryl ordered at the two of them. The two men looked back at the pair of them, bewildered. "Get in the fuckin' house! There's a herd on the way!" Daryl passed off his crossbow to T-Dog and the two men ran towards the house. Passing off the crossbow allowed him to free himself up to carry Carol properly into the compound.

T-Dog swung the heavy doors shut behind them, Rick had already run towards the house, hollering out to the group to batten down the hatches. He took the porch steps two at a time, dropping Carol gently on the kitchen table before slamming the kitchen door shut behind T-Dog. He slid the dead bolts into place before sliding over the cabinet that usually sat against the wall behind the door, blocking the exit.

Rick came back into the room as T-Dog left it, helping Daryl to put the kitchen fire out. Carol tried to regain her breath, pulling the string of carcasses from her belt. She felt like they belonged to a time from days ago.

"What happened out there?" Rick looked from Carol to Daryl and back again.

"She took out two Walkers. She saw across the river. Two dozen." Daryl watched Carol as he worked, seeing her lift up the hem of her dress to inspect the damage, although he couldn't see it for himself at this angle.

"There's a college or a library or something. There was more of them, but the river current was pulling them under as they tried to cross. But they're heading this way." Carol chipped in, sliding down from the table. She limped to the door and Daryl held out a warning hand, telling her to stop.

"If they don't see the smoke, they'll pass by." He muttered to Rick.

"They better not see it. That wall ain't built for herds." Rick retorted, brushing past Carol as he left the room. Carol tried to leave with him, intending to help board up the last of the windows, but Daryl caught her wrist.

"Shit, you're bleedin'." He picked her up and she gasped with shock at the sudden movement, but she was down on the table again before she could voice her protest.

He flicked up the hem off the dress and she squirmed with embarrassment. Blood seeped from her bandage, trailing down her calf. He pulled out his pocket knife to open the bandage quickly and cleanly. The wound had split, not the entire length, but most of it and he winced for her.

"What the hell were you thinkin'?" He growled at her.

"I was fine until I climbed the tree. I rushed to get down." She muttered, turning away at the sight of her leg. Daryl rifled under the kitchen sink, hunting out the alcohol and fresh bandages.

"You shouldn'ta been out there in the first place. Never on your own. And never with a fuckin' injury." He poured alcohol on the cloth and without warning, held her leg down and pressed it onto the wound. Carol let out a silent scream, her fingers digging painfully into his arm to make him remove it but he refused. "Gotta get it clean. Can't risk stitchin' up now in case we gotta get out of here quickly."

She released her nails from his skin at that, but kept hold of his arm.

"Don't you ever do that to me again." His voice was thick but harsh, the anger barely concealed. "I mean it Carol, don't you dare."

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You can't keep me locked in the ivory tower. I won't do it." She whispered. He applied the gauze to her thigh and lifted her foot, bracing it against his own thigh so he could apply the bandage. She rushed to cover herself as Maggie raced into the room.

"They're comin' through the clearing. Daddy can see from your room, Carol. Just keep it down, alright?" She warned them in a whisper. Daryl rolled his eyes. Maggie did a double take when she saw Daryl wrapping Carol's wound.

"You alright?" She asked. "Need me to get my father?"

Carol shook her head. "I'll wait until the herd have passed." The younger girl nodded before fleeing the room.

"I ain't tellin' you can't ever go out." Daryl whispered, continuing their conversation. "It don't mean I have to like it. And it don't mean that you can risk your neck anymore than anyone else."

"Don't take this away from me. Please. You can't give me the power to protect myself and then try to take it away from me. I didn't know if I wanted to live before, Daryl."

His head snapped up from fastening the bandage upon hearing that.

"Before. I didn't know, not even when you gave me that bow. Not truly. But now I know. I want to live and I want to live well. As well as we can in this world." She brought her hand to his cheek. "I could never sit here waiting for you to come back every day, wondering if you were going to make it. Don't ask me to do that." She spoke softly, slowly, to get the words out as she meant to say them.

He rested his hands on the table either side of her, his face inches from hers and he stared at her, his gaze making her feel like she was under scrutiny. She could hear the pace of someone in the room above, adding to the tension. "Daryl, say somet-"

Without warning, he smashed his mouth against hers, an inelegant kiss that involved teeth and noses bashing in his haste to get to her. Her instinct was to pull away, she could hardly catch her breath, but he held her by the back of the neck and she submitted to his embrace, hands pawing at his shirt front to bring him closer. Finally, they found a rhythm, he brought his hands to her hips, shifting her to the edge of the table. It felt natural for her to wind her legs round his waist, for as much of him as possible to be touching her.

They broke apart suddenly at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Whoever is was though, didn't enter the kitchen, heading from the dining room instead. Carol turned back to Daryl, who was gazing at the door, pulling his jaw so he faced her.

"You're not like him. Not even a little bit." She knew that it played on his mind. She never intended for him to think that he was anything like her former husband. Because he couldn't be further removed from him.

He nodded once, putting his hands to her cheeks, kissing her again. Slower this time, softer. Carol didn't know how much time had passed, minutes, hours. The sun could've have set and risen and she wouldn't have known. Eventually, they pulled apart, the need for air finally getting to them.

"Don't ever go like that again." He repeated to her, his mouth brushing against her cheek.

"I won't." She breathed. "I promise." Her hands were at his belt, although she didn't try to undo it, she blushed at her brazen behaviour. She never wanted something so bad. He groaned as his hands slid under her skirt, grazing the top of thighs, sliding under the elastic of her panties clinging to her hips and resting there. The footsteps returned and Rick entered the room. They managed to take their hands back just as the door opened, although Daryl hadn't managed to separate himself from Carol entirely. Not that he wanted to. Damn Rick. And damn Carol, doing this to him now, the most inappropriate time ever. Rick glanced at their tangled limbs, but didn't comment.

"They've passed. Two are lingering near the entrance. If we wait a little longer, make sure the herd are out of earshot and then we can go out and take the stragglers out." He informed them. Daryl nodded and the other man left the room.

Carol unwrapped herself from Daryl so that she could look at the thorn she'd noticed that was still embedded in her knee. Her legs looked hideous, mottled from cold, covered in scratches and bruises.

His gaze followed hers and he rubbed his thumb over one of her scratches.

"I know I told you to wear this damn dress, but I didn't mean to wear it climbin' trees." He smirked.

She laughed lightly, pulling the hem down to cover her bandage. "It's going back in the drawer and staying there, don't you worry." She told him, finally taking the time to unzip her leather coat.

"I can think of a few occassions for it." He told her, fisting the material in his hand.

She kissed him lightly and slid from the table. "We'll see about that."

TWDTWDTWD

She asked him to carry her to her attic room that night. She hadn't been in there all afternoon, everyone had been using her windows as a watch point and she was eager to get out of the silly red dress.

He didn't offer her help as he watched her hop up the stairs, but he stood behind her, ready to catch her if she stumbled. She knew it took all his strength to hold back from scooping her up, but this was his way of compromising.

She made it up the first few steps, so slow it was painful for Daryl to watch. Most of the others had drifted off to sleep, they were the last two awake and last time he checked the clock, it was gone two am. Finally, she conceded defeat, turning around. "Give a girl a hand, Mr Dixon?"

Daryl gave a small smile, sliding his hands to her back and her thighs, taking the steps two at a time.

He set her down on her bed and she pulled her pajamas out from under her pillow as he set to shutting the door and pulling down the blinds of the skylights, not without one final check of outside of course, not that much could be seen in the dark.

She hesitated at whether to ask him to turn around so she could undress. It seemed silly after their display at the kitchen where if it hadn't been for Rick interrupting them, she was pretty certain she'd have let him take her on the kitchen table.

Daryl kept his eyes averted anyway, seeing her slide the dress off only in the corner of his eye. She was beautiful. He'd never looked at woman and thought that before. He kicked off his boots and slid into the bed with her. She looked exhausted, her eyelids heavy as she reached out to him.

He shuffled close to her, hooking his leg over her good one, his knee brushing against that place between her thighs. She instinctively arched closer to him, as if begging him to take her. Her eyes were closed, it seemed as if she were in that place between being awake and dreaming.

"You're fallin' asleep on me." He breathed in her ear, his arm tightening around her waist.

"I'm awake, I'm awake." She protested. Arm reaching out to his face, her hand tangling itself in his hair.

"Don't. Go to sleep." He murmured to her. She made a noise that sounded like an agreement and before he even had time to close his own eyes, she was gone.

His mind flickered back to the day they came back from her first trip into Newtown. She asked him if there was anything he desired and he told her there was nothing. Truth was, this was it.