I don't update as much on the weekends because usually people are busy doing other things so I try to update a lot through the week. But I told a friend I would update again if she would hurry up and post her next chapter. So here you go. Again, thank you for the reviews! You guys are the best =) Enjoy!

Chapter Seventeen

Daryl heard the commotion coming from the kitchen as soon as they stepped into the house. He heard Shane's loud mouth of course followed by Rick's more calm voice. Carol shot him an exasperated look and then they stepped into the kitchen. Shane flew out of the chair he was sitting in, Lori was hovering over him, trying to clean his face up.

"You broke my nose you little son of a bitch!" He yelled. He took a few steps closer and then Carol surprised everyone when she stepped in front of him.

"You start this all over again, Shane, in front of my daughter and you wont have to worry about Daryl anymore, you hear me?" She snarled. Her voice was cold enough to freeze the room.

Daryl actually grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her back. She shot him a look but then turned her head towards Shane again. The room was silent, even a startled Shane. And the silence wasn't broken until a small voice spoke up from the table.

"Holy crap, mom!" Sophia was grinning. Her gaze flew to Daryl who gave the girl a wink. "Bout damn time." She said as she looked back down at the paper in front her.

"She's right." Daryl said calmly. "If you ain't done that's fine by me. But you wanna keep goin' then we need to go outside to do it. It's your call." He shrugged.

Shane just glared at him as Lori tugged him by the shirt sleeve back to the chair he had been sitting in while she cleaned him up.

"No one is doin' anymore fighting." Rick said in a voice just as calm as Daryl's had been.

Shane was seething in his chair and Daryl didn't even get what his problem was really. Daryl hadn't kicked his ass. It was a pretty good fight as far as fights went. Neither of them got it any worse than the other.

"So, no one had a chance to actually find anything out there?" Rick asked.

Andrea and Carol both shook their heads. "The only thing Carol and I found were two jackasses rolling around on the sidewalk." Andrea complained.

Rick blew out a breath. "Can I trust that you two will keep a level head if I leave? Me, Glen, Dale and T-dog can go out. I just need to know if I need to take one of you with us?"

Daryl smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm over it already. It's your boy here who's got the problem." He nodded towards Shane.

"I'm bout to show you a problem." Shane growled.

"Oh for God's sake." Carol fumed. "Daryl, that's enough."

He held up his hands. "Alright. I'm done." And he was. He knew Shane was just pissed cause his pride was wounded. He'd get over it.

"That's right Dixon. Maybe you should listen to your woman." Shane snapped.

Daryl leaned against the counter and smirked again, letting the other man have the last word. Besides, he really didn't mind what Shane had to say just now. He wasn't sure how it got to this point but Shane was right. She was his woman, and the cop would do well for himself to remember that.

"So? Can we do this now? I'd like to head out as early as we can. We've wasted enough time with all this." Rick said as he holstered his gun and kissed Lori before leaving the kitchen. He didn't wait for an answer. It was pretty obvious that the tension was past them. For now.

Daryl sat down at the table next to Sophia. Carol was off in the corner talking to Amy and Andrea. Sophia glanced up at him and grinned. "Guess he finally got the hint, huh? Good job Daryl."

"Hey, that wasn't about your mom. That was about that guy bein' an idiot." He argued even though he knew that wasn't really the truth at all. He had been waiting for an excuse to hit the guy. He just happened to get one sooner than he thought he would.

Sophia wasn't stupid. She shook her head and continued on with her writing. "That had everything to do with my mom. I think I'm starting to figure you out."

"Is that right?" He grinned and leaned back in his chair.

She nodded. "You got it bad, don't you?"

He almost laughed. "What?"

She glanced up quickly and then shook her head. "Nothin'."

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful. He mostly just hung out with Sophia and avoided Shane. He was even in the mood to be nice to Carl, who really wasn't a bad kid at all. He'd just never really talked to him before. He found it a little easier to spend time with these two than he did with most of the adults. Probably because he was pretty much just a big kid himself. Not that he felt like he was a big kid but because he had heard it from other people before. Merle was always bitching about it. Screw Merle. Merle was an asshole. He loved him. He was blood. He even missed him sometimes. But he was still just an asshole.

When Rick finally came back they hadn't found much. There were a few guns in the tiny police station and they found a few more and a decent supply of ammo in a bar down the street. They still hadn't ran into any Walkers. That was a good thing. Maybe they all dropped dead, but he doubted it. When they all were ready to leave they hit up a few of the houses for food and they cleaned them out of blankets and any clothes they could find. The weather would be getting colder soon and they would need all they could get. Daryl didn't have a tent anymore so he'd probably be sleeping in the dirt if they ended up hitting a dead end at the CDC.

Sophia, for once, opted to ride in the truck with them. He was surprised since she usually wanted to be wherever Carl was. She slid in the middle and that was okay too. Driving would be a lot easier without Carol right there to distract him.

The only thing he was really worried about was fuel. It wouldn't be so bad if he could just take Merle's bike but the three of them couldn't ride on it so he would keep the truck for as long as he could. He had a feeling that they would have to abandon a vehicle or two eventually. T-dog, Rick and Shane all had their own vehicles also and it didn't make much sense to have so many when eventually fuel was going to be a problem.

"Why didn't you want to ride with Carl, honey?" Carol asked after they rode in silence for a while.

"He's being a jerk." She mumbled.

Daryl hadn't noticed them arguing or anything that morning but he hadn't been with them the entire time.

"How's he being a jerk?" Carol laughed.

Sophia glanced up towards Daryl but he kept his eyes on the road.

"He said that Daryl needed to learn some respect because Shane was a cop. And then he said that if he were Shane he would kick him out of the group."

"Oh. I see. And what did you have to say about that?" Carol asked.

Daryl glanced at her over Sophia's head.

"I told him that Shane was an asshole and if he didn't want to end up with a matching broken nose then he'd best learn to keep his opinions to himself." She said quietly.

"Sophia!" Carol sounded as shocked as Daryl felt. But his reaction was much different. He laughed, causing both of them to jump.

"Daryl, that is not funny." Carol complained but he could tell by her voice that she wanted to laugh along with him.

"Yeah it is." He chuckled again and glanced down at Sophia's head and shook his own. He was really starting to like this kid.

"Sophia, you can't threaten your friends. That isn't right." Carol said quietly.

Sophia sighed. "Mom. I'm not letting someone talk about him like that," She inclined her head towards Daryl, "And I heard what you said to Shane. It's high time the two of us stopped putting up with other peoples crap. We're better than that."

Carol's eyes were wide when he glanced over at her again. This kid was really something else. She was smart and she was strong. She was much stronger than anyone gave her credit for. He was glad to see that her daddy had never had a chance to break her.

Carol sat back in her seat and stared out the window for a while and then she looked at her daughter once more. "You're right. And I'm glad you learned this faster than I did." She put her arm around Sophia's shoulders. "But don't say asshole. It's rude."

"But Daryl says..."

"Daryl says a lot of things Sophia." Carol laughed. "That doesn't make it okay for us to say them."

Daryl flashed the girl a grin. "Your momma said fuck the other day." He said lightly.

Sophia covered her mouth and laughed.

"Damn it, Daryl!" Carol groaned.

"You did." he grumbled but he let it go.

~H~

When they pulled up a few blocks down from the CDC building Sophia actually clung to Daryl's arm with both of hers. It looked like a massacre. There were bodies everywhere. They had barely made it there with what gas they had left.

Daryl turned the truck off and just stared out the window. He patted Sophia knee absently. "Just stay right with me, alright." He muttered to her.

She nodded without looking away from the carnage before them.

Carol didn't think he was going to have to worry about that. Sophia looked terrified despite how brave she had sounded earlier. She wanted to shield her from this but there was no way to do that. Not in this new world. She glanced out the side window and saw Dale was behind him, Andrea was in the passenger seat and they were doing the same thing. Looking before them. Andrea looked horrified. No one got out of their vehicles.

Daryl took a deep breath. "This shit is crazy. We shoulda never came here."

He finally dragged his eyes away from the bodies and looked at Carol. He gave her a nod and then opened the door. Sophia stayed glued to his side, sliding out with him like she was attached to him somehow. He made her feel safe and Carol was grateful for that. The girl needed that. Carol herself needed that. She would have been lying if she said she wasn't scared to death right now but knowing he was close made it bearable.

She came around the truck and walked with Daryl and Sophia towards the R.V. Everyone else started filing out of their vehicles then. No one said anything for a moment. They all just stood there and looked on. Daryl had one arm slung over Sophia's shoulder and the girl was clinging to his hand with both of hers, leaning into him.

"You okay?" She whispered to the girl as she knelt down in front of her.

Sophia glanced up at Daryl and then back to her mother and nodded. Carol stood up and looked at him. He was worried. She could see it in his face. His eyes were narrowed and when his eyes met hers she could see the panic there. He put one hand on the back of her head and pulled her too him, keeping his other arm on the girl. She pressed her forehead into his shoulder.

"I'm givin' Rick ten minutes. Ten minutes and that's it. If they don't let us in we leave. I don't care what the rest of them do." He whispered.

She nodded and pulled away from him. She turned to face the others and of course they were staring at the three of them. I guess if she were in their shoes she would have been staring herself. Talk about the odd couple.

Rick and Shane were the first to approach them. Rick kept glancing at the bodies that littered the lot. "What do you think?" He asked.

Daryl shook his head. "I don't like it. These bodies ain't Walkers. These are military, man."

Rick nodded. Even Shane didn't have anything to say about that. "We're all low on fuel. We have to at least try it."

"I get that but I ain't waitin' around on these bastards to open up. We're leavin'. Soon. Ya'll can wait around but we ain't."

"What are you gonna do? Take her and the kid and head out on your own?" Shane asked, looking at Daryl like he was crazy.

"That's exactly what I'm sayin'." Daryl said with a clear challenge in his voice. "Unless they wanna stay."

Shane laughed bitterly and glanced down at Sophia. "Then what? They stay and you ride off without'em?"

Daryl scowled. "And leave'em here with the likes of you sniffin' around?" He shook his head. "Not a chance, asshole. I know all about your kind you sneaky fuck."

Shane took a few steps towards him and Daryl had Sophia and Carol both behind him before they could react at all. "I'm about sick of your shit, Dixon." He spat.

"That's enough." Rick hissed as he stepped between them. "Shane, could you just shut up for once?"

"Are you serious right now?" Shane looked shocked that Rick wouldn't have his back.

Rick just shook his head and walked away. Everyone else followed him, picking their way around the bodies and watching out for Walkers.