Daryl woke up with a jerk and sat up. He put his face into his hands. His brother might have not been with them in the real life anymore but he was chasing him in his dreams.

"Nightmares?" sudden soft voice from the dark opposite corner of his cell made him jump.

"For gods' sake woman, what are you doin' there?"

"You were having nightmares," repeated Carol simply.

"It ain't your damn business. Get me a damn dream catcher, will scare me less."

He didn't want to be rude, especially not to Carol. But today's events left him confused and tired and he wasn't sure of anything at the moment. He needed time to figure things out and she was not giving him that space.

"Should I leave?" she wasn't offended but he heard a tension in her voice.

"Yeah, leave me be," he replied grumpily.

Carol didn't need to be asked twice. She quickly walked past him and was almost out of the cell when Daryl's voice stopped her.

"I'm sorry…wait."

She stopped, looked at him and said nothing. He damned her for making him express everything all the time. He wasn't good with words but she kept pushing him. She knew he didn't want her to leave but still made him say that.

"Don't go…"

He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and moved so she could sit down next to him. She did, put her hands in her lap and fixed her look on them.

"I am glad you came back," Carol said quietly.

"Is this why you punched me?" Daryl couldn't help himself and chuckled.

"I punched you because you deserved that. You shouldn't have left, first of all. I mean...I understand why you did it, but it didn't help me to feel better... You shouldn't have left without saying anything. If you had been here, Axel could have lived."

Daryl's forehead wrinkled: "I just didn't know…Merle's my brother…"

Carol interrupted him: "I stood so close to him…Our shoulders were almost touching when he got shot right into his face. It could have been me."

Daryl kept quiet. His stomach was squirming again. Unwillingly, the scenes from Carol's story started projecting in front of his eyes. It had been so close. It could have been her they had been burying today. He wouldn't have forgiven himself. He hadn't found Sophia and losing her mother as well would have been too much. Carol was the only person who hadn't written him off, no matter how mean he was or how idiotically be behaved. If there was anybody he wouldn't want to disappoint, it was Carol.

But she survived and was sitting next to him, safe and sound. He wanted to tell her she was one of the main reasons why he'd come back and that it'd been her who made him believe that he belonged here. He wanted to tell her that he'd been thinking of her when he'd been out there with Merle. And most of all he wanted to tell her that sometimes he didn't know what to do and his life was not as clear and simple as it had always been. But all he managed was to keep quiet and listen to her horrible experience.

"We somehow became closer in those two days. Alex was not such a jerk as he seemed at the beginning. He could be funny and he made me laugh. He even complimented me," Carol smiled at that memory. Daryl felt a strange feeling of dissatisfaction rolling over him.

"I've been away for two days and you suddenly become the best friend with a guy you hardly know for two weeks?" he didn't want to snarl at her but couldn't help it.

Surprised, she looked at him but then suddenly a small smile formed in the corner of her lips and she lowered her eyes again. Daryl would kick his own ass if he could. What was that? What kind of freaking jealousy scene he had just displayed? Why did he mind that Alex was treating Carol better than he had been ever able to do? Dixon is never jealous! Damn it, he was not even sure what this word means. He had never been jealous. He had never minded kids from the neighbourhood having better toys than him. He had never been jealous of the guys his mother was bringing home. He hadn't been even jealous when Merle stole every girl he'd ever dared to bring home. That was the way it worked. Every girl was after well-built and brash Merle, who had gone into the fight with anybody he pleased. There hadn't been much left for his snotty little brother. Daryl had learnt to accept this as an inevitable fact of life. So why now?