AN: Here we go, another chapter here and a little more progress as we move along.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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The porch of the cabin that they had chosen was screened in. There were gaping holes in the screen, though, that almost made it nothing more than a tattered memory of what it had once been.

All the places they stopped these days seemed haunted. They creaked and groaned because of disuse and lack of upkeep. Some of them had clearly been abandoned before the world had gone to hell, but others, like this one, had once been someone's home.

Maybe Carol was strange, but when she wandered through the houses they chose, she tried not to ever look at the photographs. She didn't want to recognize in one of them the smiling, happy faces of a family only to later, perhaps, see their ghoulish countenance on one of the creatures that had taken the life of her daughter and would, given the chance, gladly rid her of her own.

The houses seemed haunted. And it didn't matter if their ghosts were already there or if all of them, coming in off the road, tired and worn down, brought their ghosts with them—they still seemed full of something.

Just sitting on the porch, even, like she was doing now, reminded Carol of far more than she cared to recall. Something as simple as keeping watch could require far too much concentration on simply not giving in to certain thoughts.

Carol had only been out on the porch for "watch" for ten or fifteen minutes when Daryl came out, getting her attention with a quick touch to her arm.

"You gonna be alright?" He asked, propping her rifle on the floor beside the chair that she was sitting in and leaning it so that it rested against the wall. She immediate took it and moved it so that it was lying on the ground by her feet, easy to reach if she needed it—even though it would be the last weapon she went for, good only if nothing else would do at night.

"Fine," she said.

He bumped her arm again and she realized that he was offering something in a wrapper. It was either a candy bar or a granola bar. In the dark it was hard to tell. She hummed and shook the offer off.

"You gonna have to eat," he declared. He bumped her arm again and then dropped it into her lap. There wasn't any need in giving it back. Daryl could be hardheaded about things like that and every time she gave it back to him it would simply end up in her lap again.

"Thank you," she muttered. She accepted then the last of his offers, a bottle of water, and then he grudgingly told her goodnight.

He didn't make it in the door before Rick was coming out. She heard the springs on the door squeak as he eased it shut and put a burning lantern on the floor between them.

"House had a good stock of oil," he said. "Lamps too."

"Storm supplies," Carol said.

Rick walked around the porch a moment before he chose to sit in front of her, sitting to the side, facing her if he turned his head one way and out into the "yard" if he turned his head another.

"Seen anything?" He asked.

Carol hummed in the negative.

Rick cleared his throat loudly and pretended to be interested in the darkness beyond the porch for a moment.

They weren't likely to see anything at all. They'd chosen this cabin over one that they'd seen, passing back and forth between the two, because, even though it was smaller in size, it had a pretty sturdy wooden fence running around the outside of the yard. It wouldn't keep out a herd of any decent size, but it would keep them from being plagued by the one or two Walkers that were most likely to be stumbling about.

"I wanted to talk to you," Rick said.

"There's nothing to talk about, Rick," Carol said. "I think I've said all that I have to say. All that I want to say."

Her blood ran cold now at the mere mention of Rick wanting to talk to her. If he were to find out what happened with Lizzie and Mikka?

It was different to choose to leave on her own. If she chose to leave on her own, no matter how bad it hurt, at least she was in charge of her choices. She could decide how and she could decide when. It was different to have the power to decide.

It was different than being banished from Rick's kingdom.

"I meant that I wanted to talk," Rick said. "I…I never told you thank you for what you did at Terminus."

"You said thank you," Carol responded. "It was enough."

Rick made a noise that sounded almost like a choking laugh.

"No," he said. "It wasn't. I never thanked you for bringing Judith back. For saving her."

"I had help," Carol said. "I had Tyreese."

Rick hummed.

"Yeah," he said. "I've seen Tyreese in action lately. He's…uh…he's not quite the man that he used to be."

Carol swallowed.

That was true in more ways than Rick could even begin to know. Tyreese wasn't the man that he used to be. And maybe some would blame it on what had happened at the prison—what had happened to Karen and what Carol had, at least in some degree, been responsible for—but Carol knew that what happened with the girls had really taken a toll on him.

She'd seen Sophia come out of the barn. And that didn't mean that it made it easy on her, and it didn't mean that it made the nightmares any less terrible about what she'd had to do, but it had at least taught her that this world, the world they lived in now, was cruel and it was entirely void of reason or compassion.

She'd seen the cruelest that this world could be first hand. With Mikka and Lizzie? Tyreese had only just realized that there really seemed to be nothing left that made sense anymore.

He'd recover. They all recovered from the things that gave them nightmares eventually, but it would take time.

"Tyreese is fine," Carol said. "He just doesn't…like this world, Rick."

Rick hummed and Carol understood it because it would have been the same sentiment for any of them. Nobody liked this world. And if they did? They weren't the kind of people that you wanted to be around.

"What happened out there on the road? With you and Tyreese?" Rick asked.

"What had to happen," Carol said. "We survived. We kept Judith alive."

"You told him about Karen and David?" Rick asked.

Carol knew that Rick knew good and well that she'd confessed to Tyreese. Even if she hadn't confessed to Tyreese, Rick had let it be known what had happened enough that he would have found out the moment they met with the group again.

"You know I did," Carol said.

"I do," Rick responded.

Silence fell between them, but Carol still waited a few moments before she even dared to breathe normally, almost figuring that the sound of her breathing could set off some sort of reaction that she didn't exactly want to deal with at the moment. It was an irrational fear, perhaps, but that's how fears worked.

"I know you took care of Judith," Rick said when he decided it was time to break the silence. "And I never really told you how grateful I am that you brought her back safe."

Carol shifted a little in her chair, relieving the pressure on one hip from her position to shift it to the other. If they were going to hurt, she might as well make sure they hurt evenly.

"Rick, you don't have to say anything," Carol said. "OK? I love Judith. Tyreese loves Judith. We kept her safe and we brought her back. I already know you're happy about that. You're her father."

She swallowed.

"What parent wouldn't be happy to see their child again, alive and safe?" Carol asked, the question truly rhetorical in her view.

Still, just the very thought of the question stuck in her own gut. She thought, though she certainly didn't want to put words in his mouth or even expressions on his face, that Rick's countenance, or what she could see of it, changed slightly.

"What I said that day…" Rick said, drawing his words out like he wasn't sure if they were the ones that he wanted. "What I said…that day…when I said that I didn't want you around Carl, around Judith? I didn't mean that, Carol. It was just…in the moment. I didn't mean that."

"You're a smart man, Rick," Carol said. "You're a smart man and I don't believe, not for a minute, that you're saying you speak without thinking. When you said it, you meant it."

She sighed.

"I felt that you meant it," she added.

Rick looked at her like he'd been burned and she almost smiled to herself. Men had a way of doing that. At least, all the men that she'd ever known did. They could say and do what they wanted—and you were always supposed to accept it. Take it for what it was. If it hurt you? That was your problem. But the moment that they didn't like the sound of someone else's words? The gravest of injustices had been done to them.

Carol wasn't going to coddle him, though. Once upon a time? She would have. This wasn't the world, anymore, for coddling.

"You might have changed your mind, because of what happened at Terminus, but you meant it," Carol said.

Rick looked at her, his face looking even more drawn up in concern or worry or just simply fatigue because of the fact that the light between them was so little.

"I was sorry that I said it the moment that you drove away," Rick said. He shook his head. "I was sorry that I said it even as I was saying it. I was happy to see you in the woods…outside Terminus? I was happy to see you before I even realized it was you that had done that. Saved us? Before I even realized you had Judith."

Carol almost felt like laughing from the feeling inside of her. Was it irony? Disbelief? Whatever it was, she had to swallow back her own humor for the moment.

"If you were so sorry—why did you let me go?" Carol asked. "After you—you sent me away. After I trusted you and you—told me how you felt? Why did you let me go? If you were so sorry?"

Rick stared at her. Silence fell between them while they were caught in something of a standoff. Carol fought the urge to get up and walk away. She fought the desire to go inside and call it a night and avoid looking at him looking at her like that. But she was on watch. She'd agreed to stay awake for a few hours and make sure that everyone was safe—and a good soldier doesn't leave their post. So she fought the feeling and remained seated.

Finally, though, she dropped her eyes away from him and studied the darkness around her.

"I don't know," he admitted finally. "I just—I thought it was the best thing to do. I thought that if you went back? Tyreese would kill you. I thought they might all want you dead. I thought you'd be safer, that you'd stand a better chance, out there. I—"

Once he started, it all came pouring out of him.

It was a chain of excuses. It was nothing but a stream of excuses that he'd fashioned to make himself feel better. They were excuses fashioned to keep him from carrying any of the guilt that Carol could sense that he felt.

He was washing himself clean, bathing in his excuses.

So Carol cut him off.

"Rick, stop," Carol said quickly. "You made that decision yourself. And you followed through with it. And you stuck to it. Whether it was that you were secure in what you decided or…or that you were too proud to say you were wrong…you followed through with it. And maybe you were right. I don't think that I'm cut out to be around people anymore. Least of all, Carl and Judith."

"You would do anything to keep this group safe," Rick responded. "You said it. And you proved it. You would do anything to keep them safe…Carl and Judith as well."

Carol hummed, but she didn't offer words. She couldn't at the moment and they didn't matter anyway.

"We need you in this group," Rick said. He stammered like he was going to say something else, but he backed away from it, fell silent for a moment again, and then decided to speak once more. "Carol, I need your help getting us all to Virginia. I just want us to put this behind us. I want us to work together. To be a team. All of us. And…get to Virginia. It could be a new life for all of us."

"That's where we're headed," Carol said. "As fast as we can get there."

Rick hummed and nodded, but Carol could tell that he was worked up about something. There was more going on there than Rick was saying. Ever since the beginning, ever since they'd met at the rock quarry what seemed like a hundred years ago, Rick had a certain way of acting when there was something on his mind. Carol felt like she could always tell when there was something on his mind that he wasn't saying—unfortunately she'd learned that she'd eventually find out what it was, whether she wanted to or not.

But he wasn't going to be pushed into it and she wasn't going to push.

"We'll get to Virginia," she offered. "And it'll be a new life for everyone."

Rick looked at her again and he surprised her by reaching up and resting a hand on her knee, the closest part of her body to him. He squeezed it and then rubbed the spot he'd squeezed for a second before he dropped his hand back into his lap again.

"I can count on you?" He asked. "To help…me? To help us?"

Carol swallowed again, trying to push down everything she wanted to say—trying to push down the feelings that sometimes made her want to cry when she knew it wasn't the time or place for tears.

She wanted Rick's apology, but more than that? She wanted to feel like he really meant it. Still, she knew that, as long as she wasn't willing to let her guard down and take what he offered, it was never going to feel genuine. She felt like he might still have a long way to go, if he really meant what he said about putting things behind them, but she knew that she had a long way to go too.

Every step, though, was one more toward a goal—both in their lives and in their travels on the road.

"You've always been able to count on me," Carol said.

After another moment of the silence that Carol wanted to run from now had passed, Rick spoke again.

"I know," he said. "I've…uh…I've made some mistakes. Trying to be a leader for this group. It wasn't a job that I…" He broke off before continuing again. "I just want you to know that—if you didn't already, if you'd…forgotten…if I broke that—you can count on me too."