This started out as a role play between myself (nolongeraxburden) and happyblueink (gunslingerdixon), and it was mutually decided upon to share with the rest of as a fanfiction. So here it is! Enjoy!

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He chewed the inside of his cheek as he kept his eyes on her— never leaving her trembling form. "Wasn't his decision ta make." He groused starting to pace a bit. Daryl had returned the buck-knife back to his hip, hands at his waist clenching and unclenching. His mind was reeling and he wasn't wholly sure how to approach the situation.

I found her.

He had. She was alive, but he didn't know what to do now. He hadn't thought that far ahead. In the heat of the moment, he'd known that he'd had to go out and find her. Wasn't something that was necessary, just something he felt he had to do.

His brow knit in slight anger at her words. "Need me fer what? Fer food? Fer protection? I ain't all they got. I ain't enough." He haughtily replied stopping his pacing for a moment. His eyes roved over her as she held herself up against the car. She weren't fine. Despite how strong she was trying to be, Daryl could still see the same mousy woman he'd known from back at the quarry peeking right back at him.

"Lizzie and Mika're fine." He said slowly keeping his tone somewhat soft. She'd told him about the girls she'd been charged with taking care of and in turn it had fallen onto his shoulders as well to watch over them in her stead. It was their system.

The anger was starting to build up in him as she slowly began to fight him back. Weren't in the actions, but her words. She wasn't being callous, but he could tell she wasn't going to allow herself any leeway to be hurt again. Let herself have hope that things could be any different than they already were. When she moved around to pop the trunk up, removing the gas can, he'd lost it.

Storming over towards her, Daryl yanked the gas can from her hands, steely eyes glaring down at her. He hadn't been this mad or upset with her since Sophia and back then he didn't understand why it had bothered him so much. It was a whirlwind of new feelings and things he didn't know right from left of. This. This right here was the same thing. He didn't know what it was that propelled him forward to react the way he did, just that Daryl didn't like it.

He kept his hawk-like gaze fixed on Carol, studying her next move. Her reaction to his sudden action. He felt like he was goading her into acting, but what was the thing he didn't know. Daryl knew that he couldn't just let it go. He wouldn't.

Carol wouldn't let him stay with her. He couldn't. Not when everyone back at the prison would blame her for this as well. She wasn't about to take away someone they needed because she'd made the wrong choice. She'd taken two lives. Two lives. It echoed in her brain. She hadn't let herself go there, but with him standing right there in front of her now, she had to. She'd taken lives. Did you get to come back from that no matter the circumstances that lead you to the actions? She shook her head, fists balled tight when he'd jerked the gas can from her.

He was pacing like a caged tiger, and she didn't know if she should slink back and make herself small and wait for the inevitable blow that was sure to come, or stand up to him. Where did he get off treating her like this anyway? She let out an angry growl, "Daryl Dixon, stop be so goddamned stubborn!" She knew she shouldn't raise her voice and bring attention to them. They were already tempting fate as it was, standing out there in the dark with walkers just waiting to sink their nasty, broken teeth into their flesh.

"You fill your tank, and you get on back to that prison. The girls need you. Damn it. I did this to myself. It's the consequences to my actions that brought me out here…" She gestured wildly around them and let out another growl. "You can't keep on saving my life. There's got to be an end somewhere. When do you stop saving my life, and I start saving myself?"

Her hands shook as she reached for the gas can that he still held in his tight grip. She tugged at it, harder the second time. "Now let go."

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