So I know I have changed Carol a lot in this story but I truly believe she has true straight and courage inside of her but please remember she has been through so much in the story beaten, tortured, raped and her mind isn't right, she has it all bottled inside and its slowly killing her but she will slowly come back. Anyway big thanks to my beta Jaded79 for going over this for me and thank you all for reading and reviewing enjoy!

Chapter 22

Darkness inside me.

When she heard a stick snap behind her, she turned crossbow raised, she came face to face with another crossbow and Daryl behind it. He looked shocked, lowering his crossbow she saw his mouth gasp open and his eyes tear up, the moonlight shining in his eyes.

"Carol," he whispered sounding shocked and hurt, it was then that she realised her hood had fallen from her face, revealing her, she figured it must have happened sometime during the battle.

"Shit!," she hissed under her breath angry that she wasn't more aware and even more angry that now he knew, not just that she was alive but that she was here at the prison and had been for the whole day. Sighing, she knew she was in for one hell of a fight.

"You're alive," he looked at her in shock "You're here." He sounded so confused, so hurt that for a moment she actually felt bad.

"Looks like," she muttered not really wanting to talk to him. He moved forward to touch her but she couldn't stop herself from jerking back.

"You have been here at the prison all day and half the night, keeping that hood covering your face and telling everyone your name is Sophie… why? Why lie to us?" His voice sounded broken but angry.

"A lot of things about me have changed Daryl, including my name." Her voice was cold but firm.

"I thought you were dead."

"Carol Peletier did die that night."

"How could you not tell me you were alive? I have spent the past year blaming myself, hating myself and all this time you were just fine," he snapped his anger getting the better of him.

She sighed feeling herself getting annoyed, this wasn't the time or the place for this type of argument and she was just about to tell him as much when she saw movement behind her. Moving fast, she shoved him to the ground lifting the butt of her crossbow she hit their attacker with it in the face, hard, knocking him out.

She hissed as white hot pain shot through her, looking down she noticed a knife in her chest just below her collarbone. It wasn't deep enough to do a lot of damage but it would need stitches, deciding she didn't want anyone knowing and making her get treatment which meant slowing her down so she pulled the blade from her flesh, stashing it inside her cape and pulling out a clean rag, tucking it into her shirt in hopes it would stop the bleeding. She was pulling her cape around her to hide the blood when she heard Daryl stand behind her.

"What do you think?," she said kneeling down next to the unconscious man, holding the sketch in her hand that she had been given of the rebel leader.

"Excuse me?," he asked confused, his mind spinning at the events of the past few minutes.

"Looks like our guy right?," she said holding the sketch next to the man's face.

"Uh I guess so… Carol…," he started but she cut him off..

"I don't go by that name anymore," she informed him standing and raising her bow when she heard rustling, but lowering it when she saw Michonne, Merle and her men come out of the woods.

"We got walkers everywhere, we may need to fall back," Michonne told her.

"Oh my god, Carol?" Merle asked confused to see her there.

"Carol?," one of her men spoke, confusion written all over his face, they after all had only ever known her as Sophie.

"Don't ask," she sighed. "Looks like I found our rebel leader anyway so I want him bound and brought back to the prison alive so we can question him," she ordered.

"Yes commander," they nodded moving to follow her orders. She spared Daryl one last glance before moving back to the prison with Michonne and their men.

They moved inside the prison gate. Carol could feel eyes burning holes through her. Maggie and Glenn were on the wall, mouths hanging open in shock, she hadn't bothered to put her hood back up – what was the point? She knew Daryl would tell them all the truth the second he had the chance. Moving through the prison, she heard the gasps of surprise and turned to see Rick and Andrea looking straight at her.

"Take the prisoner to one of the cells, I want him restrained to a table for interrogation," she said turned to face Tyrese and Jake.

"Yes commander," they nodded moving down the hall with the rebel leader who was still out cold.

"Oh my god Carol," Rick spoke. She turned to face him. Andrea couldn't believe her eyes, she had thought for sure her best friend had died a year ago but here she was. Her hair was longer, darker and fell over her shoulders in loose curls. Her body was firmer and more toned and she bore battle scars, but it was definitely Carol. Andrea moved forward before she could stop herself, wrapping her arms around Carol. Carol stood stiff unsure what to do or how to react.

"I thought you were dead, god I missed you so much." This felt strange to Carol, foreign. She wasn't used to being held or hugged. There was only one person in her life that she showed affection to, so she found herself feeling awkward, patting Andrea's back almost robotically before stepping away from the woman. "Carol, we all missed you," Andrea spoke again but it was almost like Carol wasn't hearing her words.

"I don't… uh I don't go by that name anymore," she found herself stammering. She didn't like this, it felt wrong and all she wanted to do was flee from these people's gazes. She could feel panic and fear bubbling up and she hated it, hated that she felt weak and powerless, that wasn't who she was anymore, and she quickly found herself getting angry.

"No it's Sophie right?" Rick snapped stepping forward. "Why wouldn't you tell us you were alive? We mourned for you, the people here were left devastated by your loss and then you come in here and hide yourself from us." Michonne could see Carol get madder and madder but she was too late to stop it.

"Mourned me? Are you serious? You are the bastards that left me there that day and you guys were the ones devastated?" She laughed out loud, feeling rage burn to the surface as she tried to calm herself. "I hide because it's none of your business if I'm alive or dead and I knew I would get a billon questions that we don't have time for right now. It is only a matter of time before his people discover we have him and that gives them the chance to move base and re-group," she hissed turning to face Michonne.

"You're right, so game plan?," Michonne asked trying to calm Carol by forcing her to focus on the problem at hand.

"Well we don't really have the luxury of taking the time with the slower, more gentler approach. If we waste too much time and they move, it could take us months to track them again and in that time they could launch another attack."

"Agreed, so we take the information by force?"

"By force," Carol agreed. They moved to head to the cell when Daryl grasped her arm.

"We're not done yet," he snapped, pain shot through her arm from her knife wound; she had almost forgotten about it.

"Yes we are," she replied attempting to jerk her arm from his grasp.

"No we're fucking not," he hissed tightening his grip on her. She turned hitting him in the chest with an open hand, he flew back slamming into a nearby wall almost knocking the wind right out of him.

"Nobody touches me!," she spat. He remembered those words, she had said them the night she was raped and he knew if he could just reach her, get her to let it out, to let it all go, the real Carol would come back; she was there he could see her in her eyes.

"Someone touched you," he said noticing the blood running down the arm she had pushed against his chest. Moving her hand under her cape, she hissed when her hand came into contact with the open wound.

"Did you get bit?" Michonne asked sounding panicked.

"You know better than to ask me something so stupid," Carol replied moving over to her, undoing her cape and handing it to Michonne, she showed her the wound.

"Knife?"

"Yeah, I saw the leader coming up behind Daryl ready for the kill and I pushed him to the ground, hit the leader in the face and knocked him out but he got a piece of me first," Carol explained.

"That doesn't happen very often," Michonne said looking surprised.

"I know it was sloppy, but I was distracted," she sighed looking over at Daryl. Michonne nodded understanding, she had been hoping for this, hoping Daryl would discover it was Carol under that hood, but not like this. Not in the middle of a war; she had hoped it would happen after they had dealt with the rebels.

"We need to get you patched up."

"I'm fine."

"You're bleeding all over the place," Daryl spoke. She turned to face him, Michonne moving to her side. "You got hurt saving my life, let us help you."

"My job is to help people Daryl, to save them, so don't go getting all warm and fuzzy, thinking it was more than what it really was," she snapped turning to walk away but his words froze her in her spot.

"Is this who you are now? Jaded and bitter? Solving your problems with your fists?" She spun around to face him, fire blazing in her eyes.

"It would seem that way wouldn't it," she spat.

"Wow Ed would be so proud."

"Excuse me?," she hissed moving to get in his face.

"Carol calm down," Michonne almost begged moving to stand next to the two.

"How about while I'm here fixing a problem you can't seem to take care of, we make a deal, I'll stay out of your way and you stay the hell out of mine," she yelled but he refused to back down.

"No deal, I'm going to be in your way 24/7 until you talk to me." She hated this, she was used to people doing as she said but he was refusing to yield and it only seemed to fuel her rage.

"What do you want to talk about Daryl huh? The betrayal I felt when you left me there in that town with those men? The things that monster said to me, did to me? What I had to endure just so hell itself didn't come here and kill everyone inside this prison? What he made of…" She stopped, sobs choking her, she could feel her throat closing up and she couldn't finish her words.

"Don't stop Carol please, tell me." She shook her head swallowing hard. "Do you want to know what he made of me? What he turned me into? The pain, the rage, the confusion… I miss you, I want to come home but I no longer deserve you, if you only knew the things I have done," her mind screamed, sobbing, begging her to say it but the words wouldn't come.

"Please let me in, let me help you," he begged, he had seen her there in that moment, the woman he loved, the woman he had asked to marry him but she was gone as quickly as she had shone through, her eyes turning as cold and hard as ice.

"I don't need or want your help, if you know what is good for you, you'll stay out of my way," she hissed turning to leave but Michonne stopped her.

"Hey." Carol turned to face her. "I don't care what's going on between you two right now but you need to get that fixed," she told her pointing at her stab wound.

"But the prisoner…" Carol started to protest only to be cut off.

"Isn't going anywhere… it will take five minutes to get looked at, if it was me you would have already dragged me kicking and screaming to the clinic." Carol sighed knowing she was right. "You are no good to me dead." Carol smiled, nodded.

"The clinic still where it was?," she asked looking at Rick to see T-Dog and Beth had joined the group, they looked stunned. Rick nodded as Carol moved down the hall rounding the corner and out of their sight. Michonne turned to face Daryl.

"You can't come at her hard and fast… the things the Governor put her through changed her, made her hard. She is in there but you have to search gently, otherwise you'll just spook her… slow and steady wins the race champ," she smiled patting his shoulder before turning to leave.

"Do you want me to win the race?," he asked unsure of Michonne's intentions in this. She turned to look at him, her face soft but honest.

"If I didn't I wouldn't have brought her here in the first place." Daryl smiled as he watched the woman walk away. He would reach Carol; he would bring her back even if it took him a lifetime.