AN: Here we go, another chapter here. More to come.

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

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Rick could never have explained the feeling that he had that made him feel like he needed to keep close to Carol—at least close enough to know where she was.

Apologies had been made and they'd been accepted, at least in word. It had been a week and a half—two weeks maybe—since she'd declared that he could count on her and he'd promised that she could rely on him.

And the group had walked.

They'd walked because, one after another, every other method of transportation they'd trusted to get them from point A to point B had failed them. Gas tanks ran dry, gas went bad, batteries died, hoses broke—vehicle maintenance wasn't what it used to be when they were pulling the decaying bodies of the "owners" out of everything before they tried to strike off for a new location.

And while they'd walked?

Rick felt that both he and Carol had proven to each other, at one spot or another, that indeed they could count on each other. They had each other's backs when it came to carrying supplies and one would easily spot the other on a Walker kill without so much as a batted eye.

But there was still something of a very obvious disconnect between them in Rick's opinion. And the disconnect didn't seem to stop with them. It seemed, in general, that Carol seemed distant.

She walked, always, accompanied in some way by either Tyreese or Daryl. The two men seemed to silently communicate about when and how they would trade off keeping her company or staying at her side, but seldom did they really seem to interact with her on a deeper level than any tossed about conversation or something brought up about this Walker or that.

And, to Rick? It felt like much of the distance was owing to Carol.

She was keeping herself apart. She was keeping distance between herself and everyone else in the group. She contributed as much as she ever had, and she stepped up to fight against whatever Walkers they needed to put down, but she wasn't taking anything from the group—at least emotionally.

And Rick knew that it was because of him.

The worst part of it, though, was that he wanted, not only her reconnection with the group, but her reconnection with him. He wanted to feel as at ease with her as he once had. He wanted to feel as welcome as he once had to wrap his arms around her, feel the warmth of her body against his, and simply know that she was there.

The sensory memory of her touch stayed with him.

He remembered the way that her body had felt, warm and alive after Daryl had found her in the tombs. It had been, in some strange way, a promise to Rick that some survived—sometimes the good ones survived. And he remembered, as well, the way that her body felt against his when he'd hugged her, comforting her, when Daryl had chosen not to return to the prison—to go with Merle instead—and it had been, between them, the best exchange of comfort that he could offer her.

More than once, he'd found comfort in her and he'd done his best to offer comfort in return.

And he would be lying, to himself and to anyone he were to voice the words to, if he were to say that he'd never lie in bed at night—just after watching her come into his cell, distracted and dressed in nothing more than the old shirt that most people didn't know she used as a nightgown, to help with Judith—and think about how nice he thought it would be to offer to her, and to find in her, even more comfort than they'd already found.

But now?

Now she was distant and disconnected from them all. Now Rick felt like she lacked any true comfort anywhere…and he'd been the one to rob her of that.

And all of his apologies, whispered here and there as they walked, always a little different, did nothing to repair the damage that had been done.

Because he hadn't been fully honest. He hadn't said, really, everything that he meant to say. He hadn't truly confessed to her his feelings—all of them—and he hadn't begged her forgiveness the way that he should, the way that she deserved.

He'd held back and, as a result, she was holding back as well.

And maybe that was why he kept an eye on her. He feared, maybe, that she'd taken his words to heart and she was holding back as a result of it…and that she might do more to distance herself than she already had.

"Daryl…Daryl…" Rick called, getting the attention of the man as he walked a few feet in front of him.

Daryl dropped back, staring at Rick and clearly waiting for him to finish telling him whatever was on his mind. He likely thought it had to do with Judith needing something, with the group needing something, or with some other request—since Rick felt like he was always making demands of the members of their group, sometimes for things they couldn't even dream of supplying.

"I'm going to go up ahead," Rick said. "See just off an exit. See if there's somewhere close to stay for the night. Somewhere we can all spread out a little, maybe? Get some beds so nobody's on the floor for a night?"

Daryl stared at him.

The going ahead to look for a place wasn't very unusual. Smaller bunches of people moved faster. Smaller bunches of people didn't have to kill every Walker that they came across simply because their smell wasn't strong enough to necessarily draw the Walkers to pursue them. They could get in and get out of places with more ease.

Since they'd hit the highway, each night required them to go a little off the main "stretch" of their walking path to find somewhere to stay. Mostly they'd been staying at convenience stores and gas stations, picking the places clean as they went, but those places meant that, as far as bedding went, there wasn't much comfort offered for sleeping.

There wasn't much privacy either.

"Where the hell you gonna find something big enough for all that?" Daryl asked.

"I was thinking a motel," Rick said. "Hotel. Something. We close off the stairwells and there's only the need to secure one floor. Right off an exit? You know there has to be something. Business people travelling had to sleep."

Daryl hummed at him.

"Whatever," he said. "But you think you're going alone?"

Rick almost laughed at the challenge in Daryl's voice. It seemed, most of the time, that Daryl thought he was the only member of the group that should ever dare to go anywhere alone. Everyone else needed a buddy, but he figured he could go trotting off by himself and no one was ever supposed to be concerned.

Rick shook his head, keeping pace with Daryl.

"I'm going to take Carol," Rick said. "She's good to help with an initial sweep. Make sure it's possible to secure whatever place we choose. I'll take Michonne…and whoever she wants…to keep watch at the road. They'll let y'all know what exit we're at. We'll stop at the first place off the exit…motel or hotel whichever…and you can all come down to help clear when you get there."

Daryl hummed and then nodded his head.

"Yeah," he said. "Whatever. Carl and Judith?"

"Safer with the group," Rick responded.

And that much was true. Any time that they split, if Rick wasn't with the main part of the group, he felt better with Carl and Judith staying with the larger portion. Though a smaller group could move more quickly, and though they might draw the attention of fewer Walkers than the mass smell of a large bunch of people, the old adage rang true that there was safety in numbers.

And Rick knew that there were several people that would protect Judith, at least, with their lives because of whatever sentimental attachment they had, whether it was to Judith herself or simply to the idea of an infant in this world.

"Fine," Daryl said. He glanced up ahead of them and gestured with his head toward where Carol was walking, a little off to the side. "You ask her already?"

"She'll go," Rick said.

"You oughta ask," Daryl responded.

"She'll go," Rick replied, repeating the words with a little more emphasis.

And she would go. She always went. She did anything that was asked of her when it came to securing a place for the group and helping them all continue on. There was no doubt that she would go this time too, even if she wore the face of silently questioning Rick's decision that she wore each and every time that he asked her to accompany him alone.

He was hoping that, eventually, she would stop making the face. He was hoping that, eventually, she'd stop reminding him, though without ever saying the words, of what had happened the first time he'd ever taken her with him, alone, on some kind of excursion.

"Mmm…you better get a move on," Daryl said. "Daylight ain't gonna hold out forever."

Rick glanced at the sky and nodded at Daryl.

"I figure that the group'll probably make it two more miles," Rick said. "That'll keep you from having to rush too much and it'll allow time for Walkers. Maybe there's enough time that you can stop for water, if you see anything."

And with that, Rick considered the exchange done because it seemed clear that Daryl considered it done. Things would proceed, with the group, as they normally did. They would slowly make their way down the highway with the thought that they had two more miles to go.

Rick would take Carol, Michonne and the companion of her choosing, and all of them would travel two miles as quickly as they could without exhausting themselves. They'd take the first exit, leaving Michonne and company to mark the spot like a human X, and he and Carol would find the first accommodations that looked salvageable and start to clear.

And if they were lucky? And if things worked out the way that Rick wanted them to?

Then he and Carol would have time to talk. He'd have time to speak to her once again about everything that was on his mind and about how he worried that she wasn't accepting his apology—how he worried that he hadn't made it as sincerely as he'd meant to.

And if he was lucky? This time he'd be able to find enough resolve and enough strength within himself to be honest with the woman.

After everything? She at least deserved his honesty and his sincerity.

Leaving Daryl, Rick dropped back and found Michonne. He gave the order that she choose someone and come with him and she accepted it with the necessity of very little explanation—repetition erased the need for explanation. Then he doubled his steps to catch up with Carol and quickly told her that she was coming with him—with Michonne and, apparently, Abraham as well—while they went to find a place to stop for the night.

She offered him the same look as always, furrowed brows and slightly twisted lips, before she nodded her agreement. She changed her pace, sped up her steps, and Rick followed suit. Within in a matter of minutes, they were joined by Michonne and Abraham, and shortly after that, they were several feet ahead of the slow moving group and gaining distance on them every second.

Two miles would pass quickly. An exit wouldn't be hard to find. Accommodations were almost a guarantee and, with any luck, Walkers would be scarce.

These were day to day things. Because of their commonality, they were beginning to even lose their ability to inspire worry or concern in anyone.

Rick wasn't under any impression, then, that it was the task ahead of them of finding somewhere to stay that made his pulse pick up to a rate that was even beyond what the increased walking speed should have caused. He knew that the tinge of fear that he felt inside him at the moment was far from being Walker induced.

It was the fear of putting himself out there, in a way that he hadn't done in a very long time, and being shot down—rejected—by the person who walked, not even two feet away from him, calmly and quietly and completely unaware of the storm that was raging inside of him at the moment.

It was the fear of losing her. Of really losing her this time. And of knowing that, in the end, if it happened, he really only had himself to blame because he'd been the one to drive her away in the first place.

But, as he was learning a little more each day, the only way to conquer fear was to face it. And so he walked, pounding heart and dry throat, at her side—now one mile down, and only one more to go.