Big thank you to everyone who took the time to review, I really appreciate it. Huge thanks to my beta Jaded79 for going over another chapter for me, you rock girl! I won't be able to post the next chapter for a day or two so sorry I know I usually post daily but my beta is away for the weekend so I won't be able to post till she returns but believe me chapter 8 is going to be well worth the wait ; ) Enjoy chapter 7.

Chapter 7

You'll never know.

Daryl and Carol had spent the better part of the past two days ignoring each other. They would eat at separate tables and when it was time to go to bed, Daryl made sure to stay up that little bit later to make sure she was asleep before he returned for the night. They always laid with their backs to one another, never talking, never touching.

Truth was she missed his touch; the way he wrapped his arms around her at night keeping her warm and safe. But she refused to apologise. She hadn't done anything wrong and he was just being an overprotective jerk, which she had told Andrea who had just laughed at her and suggested that Carol cut him a break.

She had for a moment considered feeling bad for giving him the cold shoulder and when Hershel asked her one afternoon if she could take Daryl two ibuprofen because he had injured his shoulder during the morning's hunt slipping on some mud, falling and hitting it on a rock, she agreed and went off to find Daryl in the dining room talking with Rick and T-Dog. She walked up quietly not wanting to disturb them but when he looked up at her like she was a bit of scum on his shoe, she felt annoyance burn through her.

"What do you want woman?," he hissed. While she had never been one to lash out and used to just meekly take abuse like that from a man, that simply wasn't who she was anymore.

"Hershel asked me to bring you these," she snapped, throwing the two ibuprofen in his lap and then promptly and calmly tipping the glass of water she had got for him over his head. "Hope your shoulder feels better," she smiled proudly before turning and leaving him there shocked and very wet. He could hear the women in the kitchen laughing uncontrollably and looked up to see the smirks on Rick and T-Dog's faces, clearly the two men were trying to stop from laughing.

"Towel?," Rick said passing him a bit of torn towel that sat on the table before bursting out laughing along with T-Dog.

"Shut it the both of you!," he snapped before rising from his seat and storming after her.

He didn't find her of course and assuming she was avoiding him, he gave up after ten minutes and returned to their room to change out of his wet clothes.

He would see her tonight anyway. Since the event in the woods, Rick had decided that Maggie, Beth and Carol were all more than capable of walking the wall, although he was now insisting that there be at least two people on the wall and one in the tower at all times. Since the women had found it so easy to sneak out before, Rick was worried it would be just as easy for trouble makers to sneak in.

Tonight Daryl and Carol were on the wall; Daryl had tried to get someone to swap with him but all had refused; not that he could blame them. Who really wanted to do the midnight to five shift if they didn't have too?

Carol was nervous, she had been able to avoid Daryl for the rest of the day, hiding out mostly in the library, no one ever came in there. Daryl hadn't stepped foot in there once, she didn't think, but now it was crunch point, it was almost midnight and she need to relieve Maggie and Glenn.

She moved up the ladder smiling at the young couple saying good night to them as they headed off for the evening. She heard Daryl climb the ladder seconds later and decided she wasn't ready to talk to him so she began to walk the wall, moving away from him and keeping her eyes out on the dark night hoping to see nothing but grass and woods.

It was nearing five in the morning and they had yet to say a single word to each other; they had just spend the past five hours walking the wall around and around, stopping occasionally to looking out into the night but it had been very quiet, leaving both of them with their thoughts. Carol was finding it excruciating and finally she'd had enough.

"So that's it? You're not going to say anything to me?," she snapped at him. He turned to face her, grunting at her before he turned away. "The least you could do is talk to me after the way you treated me." He spun around at her words, a look of shock and annoyance on his face.

"Treated you?," he started but she cut him off with a soft giggle.

"Got you talking to me," she smiled proudly.

"Damn woman!," he grumbled under his breath, turning away from her once again and pacing for a moment before he turned to face her once again. She just knew by the look on his face that she was about to get a tongue lashing from him. "I want to know what you're thinking woman? What was going through your head when you lied to me for weeks on end, when you followed those two crazy nuts out into the woods that day?"

"I was thinking I was sick of being just this," she sighed, "this scared, mousy, nervous, useless burden. Always running and hiding, letting everyone else take all the risk in saving my life, the lives of the group."

"How many times do I have to tell you that you're not a burden before it sinks in?," he hissed at her.

"My Sophia is gone Daryl, dead and buried," he felt his heart break at her words; he didn't like to think about little Sophia and he definitely didn't like talking about her. "I let Rick chase after her when it should have been me, if I knew then what I do now, Sophia would be alive."

"You don't know that."

"That's the one thing I do know, Daryl," taking a deep breath she continued, "I let you go out every day, risking your life to look for her and you took an arrow and bullet in the process."

"It was my choice; I wanted to look for her."

"And for that I will always be thankful but I should have been out there with you helping look for her too, but I couldn't because I would have just put you in more danger."

"You being out there wouldn't have changed what happened to her."

"No, she was already gone by then but if I had run after her, protected her from those monsters maybe she would still be here, safe and sound but instead she is gone. They got her and took everything good and sweet and innocent until there was nothing left. That is something I carry with me every day, why I fight so hard to get faster, stronger, so I never have to see it happen to anyone else I care about," she confessed.

"So what, this is your penance? I'm starting to think you have some sort of death wish," he spat. She knew he was taking her words the wrong way, but the more he talked, the angrier she got. "Going after those geeks in town with no training, three to one, going out and looking for trouble in the woods, following those two mad women out there, do you want to die?," he all but yelled at her.

"If I wanted to die why would I fight? Why would I have run at the farm? Hopped on your bike?," she yelled back.

"How the hell am I meant to know how your mind works? And while we are on it, I pulled you off the farm and this is how you thank me, by trying to kill yourself," he hissed at her. They were in each other's faces now, both angry and red faced. They heard someone clearing their throat and turned to see Andrea and Rick with confused and amused looks on their faces. Carol ignored them and looked back at Daryl.

"You clearly know nothing about me, Daryl Dixon, or why I do the things I do and with that bullshit attitude you never will," she spat before turning and heading down the ladder leaving him behind. Daryl looked at Rick and Andrea who were trying their hardest not to laugh but failing.

"Shut it both of you," he hissed before turning to leave himself. Rick watching Daryl follow the same direction Carol had gone and disappear into the prison before turning to look at Andrea.

"When are those two just going to admit they are in love with each other and get it over with?" Rick asked.

"I know right," Andrea laughed, she couldn't agree more but she knew it would come to a head sooner or later. They were clearly made for each other and the sexual tension you could cut with a knife. She just wished they'd get it over with so everyone else didn't have to listen to their bickering anymore.