He leaned back in his chair with a sigh, contentment all but seeping out through his pores. After three weeks of continuous training, he and Carol had achieved a level of understanding over their link that surpassed anything he had experienced before, as an agent or as a guide. It was as if they ceased to exist as separate beings, instead morphing into a single entity. He and Carol literally shared one mind during their meld, understanding each other without words or any form of communication that he recognized, where before he had always experienced this as some sort of conversation with his partners with their sensory input added in.

If working with her was always going to be like this, he couldn't wait to go out on missions with her. This seamless, unconscious cooperation was as effortless as it was elegant and beautiful. And he assumed this was the level of understanding that the creator of the link implant, Dale Horvath, had envisioned when taking his gaming technology one step further, developing his existing motion sensors into the implant Daryl was now wearing in the bone behind his right ear.

Closing his eyes with another sigh, he opened his link and scanned the lightwaves for Hershel's characteristic signature. Once he had found him, he swooped down on the tight yellow coil and gently brushed against it until Hershel opened up his own link.

„So? What is your verdict?" Daryl did detect that slight note of anxiety in his voice as Hershel asked, and he was seriously tempted to pull his leg and tell him that working with Carol was a disaster and he would not go for it. His respect for Hershel won out, however.

„What can I say?" he began, shrugging. „She's jus' great to work with. Picks up every thought, every prompt, every hint, follows ‚em right away, like, immediately. Most intuitive meld I've ever been in, ever, with anyone."

When he sensed an unspoken question from Hershel, he elaborated. „Never have to use words to give her instructions, never gotta tell her how much input I need from her - she understands without words and does what I need her to, gives me what I need to work - turns her head right when I want her to, pays attention to sounds at the right moment …" He paused for a second, taking in the sense of joy that he was receiving from Hershel. „It's a pleasure to work with her."

Keeping a lid on his enthusiasm for the time being, completely unaware that Daryl, one of the most sensitive meld partners he had ever worked with himself, had picked up on it right away, Hershel asked „So, how did you two go about your training? What did you cover?"

Thinking back over the past weeks, Daryl recounted as much as he could without boring Hershel to death. „Started out with the simple stuff, like, sitting in her apartment looking at things, listening to things, and giving me that input. Walking around in the apartment. Giving her instructions for turning around, picking things up, opening closets, stuff like that."

He remembered her cooking and eating her meal with him in her mind, and he told Hershel about that as well as their walk before nodding emphatically. „Yeah, I get really good, useful input from her, and she picks up so quickly on what I need her to do. She's great all around - if it wasn't for …" He trailed off, and Hershel picked up some discomfort from him.

„What is it? Just come right out with it", he encouraged Daryl, sensing that he had no intention of continuing. Even over their link, he got a feeling as if Daryl were squirming in his seat.

„She's still poking", Daryl explained, sounding extremely unhappy. „Of course, you'd need to ask her about it as well, but I hope I've gotten better at shooting her down gently, denying that. But it's hard."

Hershel had, in fact, asked her about that and her answer had been that the shots he took to get her to shut up about their personal stuff had indeed become less painful. He seemed to be taking more care about what he said and about his tone of „voice" when he did it. She no longer believed him to be an insensitive jerk but rather quite a nice guy by now.

Daryl sensed his pleasure and felt hope flooding him. Maybe this wasn't a complete disaster after all.

„Ya already talked ta her?" he asked anxiously. To his own surprise, despite the positive vibes he was getting from his supervisor, he found himself holding his breath as he waited for Hershel's answer - Carol's verdict on working with him. Would she be prepared to trust him with her life?

Now that it was too late, he found himself wishing that he had been slightly more open since that was very obviously what she wanted. Yet he still found that he was conflicted over how to react to her advances. After all, the rule against exchanging personal information had been set up for the safety of everyone, and her safety was of paramount importance to him. But she would feel rejected and ignored by him which couldn't be pleasant. So - what exactly had she said?

Hershel tried to soothe Daryl's anxiety through their link. He had no idea what made the younger man this apprehensive - Carol had enthused about working with him the entire time he had been linked to her the day before, and surely she hadn't left Daryl himself in the dark about that. Apparently, they had hit it off really well, each finding in the other what they needed. Projecting reassurance, he held back on his answer for a moment to ask a question instead.

„Why do you think she would refuse to work with you?"

Daryl felt as if he'd been hit in the face with a bucketful of cold water. Floundering, he tried to explain himself. „Told ya already. She tries to establish a personal contact beyond what we want", he began. „Keeps askin' questions about me, ‚bout my past, my work, where I live … And I always push her back. I tell her to can it, or I ignore her." He paused, ashamed of himself, looking for words to defend his behavior.

„‚m responsible for her safety", he went on haltingly, and had they been talking in a physical sense, his voice would have been husky now. Sitting in his chair by the kitchen window, he hung his head. „I've been instructed not to answer questions like that, so I don't. And I keep tellin' her to stop askin'. But …" Faltering again, he tried to put into words what he felt - yet voicing his emotions wasn't a particular strength of his. He was beginning to suspect that he had been paired with Carol for a very specific reason - but that would have to wait. „I get a sense like she feels … rejected … as if I disliked her personally somehow … But I don't. I jus' want her ta be … safe." He couldn't even have named what he was feeling right then.

Hershel could almost physically sense the warmth of that last word enveloping him as Daryl fell silent. He began to get a dreadful feeling that he was getting more here than he had bargained for, but held himself in check. „You can relax on the cooperation bit", he told Daryl carefully. „She seems to be as enthusiastic as you are about the two of you working together. But -„ Through their link he felt Daryl's anxiety skyrocketing again and continued quickly. „She is asking herself what she's doing wrong - she feels that you are angry at her for some reason, and she is very unsure of herself because of that."

„‚m not angry at ‚er", Daryl assured Hershel, feeling deeply uncomfortable about all of this. He had never felt as invested before about „winning" an agent over to work with him. Always before, it had been all the same to him whether they wanted to continue with him or not. He wasn't out for anyone's personal approval of him. This time, though … While he still had no clue how to react to her teasing and probing, he nevertheless found her very kind and sensitive, and being linked with her was … incredible.

He wanted to work with her.

He needed her to stick with him.

For he needed her to be safe and dreaded the thought of trusting someone else with that.

„The thing is … she opens up so much herself, and she prob'ly expects the same from me. I mean, she keeps askin', and hinting, trying to get a reaction out of me … And I don't really know how to shoot her down without hurtin' her. I try not to, but …" He frowned in an effort to find the right words, but as always, expressing himself about things that mattered to him remained difficult. „I know I hurt her", he muttered, dejected, frustrated with himself.

He knew rejection. He knew it inside out, both the physical and psychological aspects of it. He had been abused both physically and emotionally as a child, just like Merle, which was why he could not find it in him to despise his older brother for his sometimes wayward behavior. He himself still suffered from nightmares throwing him back to his childhood. For a moment, he thought of his dream a few nights back, the weird one that had woken him up, but had had a strange guy beating him that he didn't even know. Coming from this background, he knew what she was feeling when he snarled back at her or ignored her - but for the most part he found himself unable to change his behavior, no matter how hard he tried. Her requests triggered automatic reactions in him that he didn't have the strength to stop.

He collected himself with another deep sigh, resigning himself to the fact that, this one time, when he had actually wanted things to work out between himself and a potential new meld partner, he'd botched it. He couldn't really blame her either. „So", he growled, trying to sound entirely unaffected by it all, „do you already have a replacement?"

„Why would I?" Hershel inquired, sounding mildly surprised. „She's wondering what she did wrong, but she says that working with you is … I think ‚amazing' is the word she used." When he felt cautious joy from Daryl coloring their link, he rushed on. „She is on board with it if you are. But Daryl, I have to insist that you try to behave toward her", he admonished his young charge. „She hasn't had it easy, and I don't want to see her getting beaten down by you. If she mentions anything of the kind …" He let his ‚voice' trail off, the threat implied.

Attempting to rein in his rioting emotions, Daryl took a sip of his synthcaf to buy himself some time before answering. „I'll try, but you know how it is …", Daryl mumbled, but Hershel shot him down right away.

„No, Daryl, I do not, and I will not accept any excuses about this", his stern answer came over their link. „You will behave toward this woman, or I will sever your connection. You're an adult man and I expect you to control yourself. I will absolutely not see her hurt or harmed in any way, and I will hold you responsible for your behavior toward her."

Daryl was slightly taken aback by the vehemence of Hershel's answer, but accepted it because he knew he deserved it. Ducking his head, he murmured something, repeating it when Hershel nudged him because it hadn't come across. „You got it", he growled, pushing himself up from his chair to refill his caf. „When's the briefing?"

.-.

Carol couldn't remember being this excited over a mission briefing ever before. Working with Dixon had been an amazing experience so far and she couldn't wait to actually go out there with him and wreak some havoc. Their link rapport was unparalleled by anything she had been in with her previous guides, and she was confident that they would make an unstoppable team out there.

She opened her link almost eagerly when she felt his consciousness brushing past hers a few minutes before the scheduled time and was surprised to find him apprehensive. „Have you heard from Hershel yet?" she asked in an attempt to make him feel more comfortable. She knew from experience by now that outright asking him what was wrong would not get her anywhere with him. His standard answer in such cases was „‚m fine", and she was certain this was what she would get now, were she to ask. Distracting him from what was bothering him had become her go-to method, and it seemed to work, she was pleased to note.

„Naw, ‚m just early", he replied wordlessly. Linking with Hershel two days before had made her aware once again of how very different being linked with Daryl Dixon was. Most of the time he wasn't using actual words. She wasn't getting an auditory sensation from him at all any longer unless he wanted her to. Yet she „felt" the edginess of his rough voice, and she „felt" the accent he was not trying to suppress when communicating with her. It almost felt as if his mental voice was a warm, fluffy blanket covering her, and she envisioned grabbing its edges and pulling it around her shoulders for comfort. She felt safer with him than with anyone else in her life, and it made her ridiculously happy that he had apparently agreed to doing this with her despite her constant unwanted attempts to get through his defenses.

At the same time, being so comfortable while linked with him made her feel very ashamed again for constantly pushing his boundaries when his behavior had made it perfectly clear that he was a very private person. Making up her mind, she was on the verge of apologizing to him when she felt Hershel coming on and stopped herself in the nick of time. Much as she respected the older man, she wanted to keep this private between herself and Dixon.

„All ready here", she sensed Daryl saying, and she realized that he was as excited as her. She exchanged a greeting and two sentences of smalltalk with Hershel and settled back on her old sofa, the fingers of her hands interlacing to keep them from shaking.

„We are currently planning a strike in New Atlanta. You might already know the Feina have a large settlement there, and one of the buildings is so massively fortified and heavily defended that we believe it contains a significant portion of their weaponry located there, as well as many important members of their local leadership and their central database for the country", Hershel began. „Now, as this will be your first job together, we will not be sending the two of you out for the actual attack, but we do need intelligence before sending in our people." Carol felt her heart speeding up. „And this is where you come in."

.-.

Daryl looked out over the city, slowly swirling the synthcaf in his chipped mug. It wasn't a huge mission in itself, but it was a stepping stone for preparing one. For a first run with a new partner, he was cool with doing small stuff like this. While he was convinced that they would do okay even on a bigger one with more exposure and greater danger, he was all for starting slowly.

He had sensed Carol's excitement and hoped that he wouldn't get too infected by her enthusiasm. Emptying his mug, he turned to the sink to rinse it and put it on the drain board. After a quick glance out the window to check the sun's position, he looked at the digital timer set into the wall over the kitchen door. Merle would be home soon, and as he had only returned from work an hour ago he still needed to finish the apartment and get dinner started before his brother came in.

And quite apart from that he would have to work at hiding his own excitement and enthusiasm. Six months had passed since he had last gone out with an agent.

Six fucking months.

And she was awesome.

He couldn't wait.