Damn it, he cursed to himself, why hadn't he made her promise? He snorted to himself. It wouldn't have helped. Promises don't mean anything anymore. They were running and running. All the while, Tyreese and Rick were offering to take the weight out of his arms but the thought of anyone else touching her terrified him.

"Look, if ya want me to, I'll-"

"No," Daryl snapped for the hundredth time.

The smaller group had slowed to a walk now, giving him more time to breathe. He didn't care. He just wanted to fix her and make everything alright again. She would live through this; he couldn't lose her again. All that time when he thought she was dead after that convict had let loose the walkers in the prison, he'd felt like he was on the verge of breaking down. But he was Daryl Dixon and he didn't. He never broke down. People were counting on that. Not Carol, though. She listened. She never judged. She let him talk and talk and let out his emotions. Hell, sometimes she'd even offer help. By some miracle, he had found her and she wasn't slipping away again. Daryl looked down at her in his arms. She was asleep... or unconscious. Gritting his teeth, he continued to look straight ahead and around for oncoming walkers. The threat of Woodbury had been put behind them for now.

"Hey," Rick called from the front of the group. "There's a house up there!"

Carl and Merle walked forward. Merle, Daryl noticed, hadn't said much since the ordeal happened. He had occasionally looked back at Carol and risked a glance at Daryl but Daryl's eyes had remained firmly on her frame or ahead.

"You wan' us t' check it out?" Merle offered.

Rick looked at him and hesitated. He looked at Carl who seemed completely indifferent to the situation and a possible threat from Merle and nodded.

"Sure," Rick nodded. He looked at Carl. "Be careful."

Daryl adjusted Carol in his arms and risked a glance down again. She had paled a lot since they first entered the woods and her eyes hadn't opened.

"Seriously, man, I'll hold her if y-"

"For fuck's sake!" Daryl snapped. "I'm fine! No-one else needs t' touch 'er! I can carry 'er! Quit askin'!"

Tyreese looked at him and then nodded and walked over to where Sasha was standing. A few moments later, Merle and Carl reappeared outside the house and nodded. The group quickly moved inside. The house wasn't in bad condition but it was just bare. There were no essentials, just furniture. But Daryl didn't care. He ran up the creaky wooden stairs and into the first room with a bed in it. Carefully placing Carol onto the soft mattress, he knelt down to look at the wound. It wasn't deep but they had next to no medical care. It could get infected and, if it wasn't removed with care, it could damage a vein. Daryl didn't know much about internal organs or how they could check and that only made him angrier. Michonne appeared in the doorway seconds later.

"Y' need to get the bullet out," she said slowly.

He looked at her. "The hell do you know 'bo-"

"When that old guy looked at my leg," she interrupted coolly, "he removed the bullet, cleaned it and stitched it. I stopped feeling like I was gonna pass out, then."

Daryl looked away from her and back at Carol. "Yeah, well, he's not 'ere. An' we don't have any-"

He stopped when he saw Michonne pull out the alcohol Merle had grabbed from the bar and first aid kit out of her bag. She placed them on the table next to the bed and nodded then left the room as quietly as she came in. He stood and grabbed the sparse supplies and looked at Carol. She looked more fragile than ever but he had to do something. Plucking up the courage, he moved her top up to just below her chest and faced the wound. The blood had dried around it and so he grabbed a towel and poured some alcohol on it. He gingerly wiped in and around the bullet hole and made sure it was clean. The tweezers came next. He took them with caution as though they were going to bite him at any second. But there was no good way of doing this so he looked in the wound and plucked out pieces of the bullet from her side. It was a messy job but he completed it thoroughly then began thinking about the stitches. He'd seen her do it a few times. Hell, she'd stitched people up before. Merle was one of them. His hands were shaking too much. There was no way he could-

"Want me t' do it?"

Daryl looked around and spotted Merle behind him.

"No. I can-"

"I've seen 'er do it on me," Merle said, moving forward. "I can do it. Well, prob'ly better'n 'er seen as though she pulled too tight." He half-smiled at the memory then looked at his brother.

Daryl was about to protest but, at this point, he wasn't left with much of a choice. His hands were shaking too much to even consider using a needle. Especially on Carol. He finally swallowed and stood, letting Merle closer, then nodded.

After fifteen minutes of careful stitching, watched closely by Daryl, Merle finished and stood. Neither of them were doctors but now all they could do was wait and hope that the wound wouldn't infect her inside.

...

Her eyes flickered. Then a white hot pain shot through her side. She gritted her teeth and her face contorted in pain as she let out a gasp. As she attempted to sit up, a hand came to rest on her shoulder, pushing her back down.

"Hey, hey, you need t' stay still."

She opened her eyes a crack and saw Daryl hovering over her. His eyes looked like they were glistening with moisture but she had too many questions.

"Daryl! Wh- where are we? What happened? I-"

"Hey, shh, we're fine," he said quietly, his hand still on her shoulder. "We're in a house. We've been runnin' for a while now. Was... worried you...er... weren't gonna wake up..."

Carol saw the pain in his eyes as he looked away. Making sure they were alone before she made a move, she brought her hand up to his face and caressed his cheek with her thumb. His eyes watered a little as he looked back at her but he blinked and they were gone. Her hand strayed around to the back of his neck and pulled him in. Their lips only touched briefly but she smiled and so did he. When he pulled back she grinned up at him.

"Nine lives."