This is a bit angsty, my friends. So, with that said, be gentile with me... Thank you for your reviews! And not just that but everyone who has followed or favorited too! You are loved too =) Oh, and Axelrocks... I adore you ;)

Chapter Twenty Six

Daryl did a head count as he hurried back towards the group. It looked like everyone had made it through okay. The only one missing was T-dog. He had forgotten to mention the man earlier. He told Dale and Glen where he was and then he spotted Carol. She was there with Andrea and Amy. She had her face pressed into Andrea's shoulder. All the women were crying.

"She ain't dead. Neither one of'em are yet." He said in a gruff voice.

She turned her head away from Andrea's shoulder and looked up at him in confusion. He wouldn't meet her eyes but he shoved the sweater towards her. He wanted to reach out and touch her. Every cell in his body was telling him to pull her close and not let her go. But he wasn't going to do that. Not again. It would probably kill him but he was done. He had to stay away from her. He would find Sophia and bring her back but then he had to leave. He couldn't be responsible for these people. He didn't want to care.

She reached out and took the sweater from him and looked up questioningly. "Where?" She asked whispered.

"She got out of the camper, headed towards the woods." He left out the part about Walkers on her trail.

"And Carl?" Rick choked out.

Daryl nodded. "He's with her and the trail is pretty clear. I'll bring'em back."

"I'm goin' with you." Rick said as he turned to Lori. "You stay here in case he comes back. I want you all armed, okay?"

Everyone nodded solemnly.

"I'm goin' too. We don't know what's out there." Shane said suddenly.

Daryl just nodded and turned around. The other two men followed him to where the trail started.

~H~

Carol watched them walk away as she clutched Sophia's sweater to her chest and focused on breathing. She wasn't dead. Sophia was going to be okay because Daryl was going to find her. Daryl. There was something very wrong there but she really couldn't focus on that right now. But it scared her. The way he walked right past her in the camper and the way he had shoved Sophia's sweater into her hands and wouldn't look at her.

She glanced past Andrea, who still had her arms around her, and saw Lori standing alone off to herself. She instantly felt bad. Here she was, surrounded by her friends, getting the comfort she needed, even if it wasn't from the man she wanted it from, and Lori was there alone. Carl was out there just like Sophia and Lori was dealing with that all alone. She pulled away from Andrea.

Lori was staring off past the cars, her eyes wide and vacant looking. Carol approached her slowly.

"Lori?" She asked quietly.

Lori looked over at her and then away again. "What do you want, Carol?" She whispered.

Carol wasn't sure how to respond. Lori hadn't sounded angry but she didn't sound friendly either. "I just wanted to see if you were alright."

Lori laughed but it was a humorless sound. "Really? Isn't that kind of you."

Carol just stared at her. All she wanted to do was make sure the other woman was okay and now she was going to act this way? She didn't say anything else. She simply turned and walked away. She had tried and that was all she could do. There was nothing else to say to her.

Andrea and Amy were both leaning against the back of a car. Waiting for her to return. "How did it go?" Andrea asked knowingly.

Carol just shook her head. "She's just scared." She said but she knew her excuse for the other woman's behavior was falling on deaf ears. There was nothing she could ever say to change Andrea's mind about Lori.

Milton was standing with them now and he looked at Carol with frightened eyes. "Carol, I'm so sorry this happened. And after what I said to you last night. I just want you to know that I didn't mean that. Your man will find Sophia."

Carol just gave him a small smile and nodded. "If anyone can find her it will be him. And this isn't your fault, Milton. Even if you meant every word you said to me. How are you holding up?"

He looked around. "I think I'm okay. Shane shoved me under a car and I just kept reminding myself to stay still. I guess you could say he saved my life."

Andrea and Carol shared a look. He was the one that had done the same thing for them. Maybe he wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was. And then Carol remembered how he had acted in her room. No matter what he did today, what he had done last night was still bad. And she still wanted to stay away from him.

"That's what we have to do." Andrea smiled. "We're all pretty much family now. We have to look out for one another."

He nodded but kept glancing around anxiously.

~H~

He lost the trail. He felt like screaming but he kept his mouth shut and his eyes sharp. They had ran into a creek, literally. Their prints disappeared into the water and didn't reappear on the other side of the bank. They needed to follow the creek but he had no way of knowing which way they had went. But he was grateful that he knew they had made it this far. The Walkers had followed them this far too though and he thought that wasn't such a bad thing at this point. Where the kids could step over and around the stones in the water the Walkers would have most likely done a lot of falling down. Unless of course one of the kids fell and ended up hurt. But he shook that thought off. They were together and although Sophia had threatened to break the boys nose for him, they would still look out for one another.

"Where too from here?" Shane asked as he looked up and down the creek bed.

Daryl thought back to the first time he ever found himself lost in the woods. He had been younger than Sophia then. They went downstream. Stayed to the water so we need to do the same. They wont stay there forever. Eventually their trail is gonna end up on the bank."

Rick and Shane nodded and then, without hesitation, they all three walked right into the creek. The current was a little stronger than Daryl had thought it would be but considering the rain they had gotten the other day it shouldn't have surprised him.

They followed the winding creek for a while and then Daryl spotted some tracks on the bank opposite from where they had entered. He stopped and frowned, trying to see them better.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked.

Daryl didn't answer him, just motioned for them to follow. When he came up on the tracks they didn't belong to the kids. They were adults. Four men from what he could tell and they were wearing boots. These tracks were also older. Maybe a day or more. And they didn't belong to Walkers.

"There's someone else in these woods. "Daryl said as he peered back down the creek."

"What?" Shane asked harshly.

Daryl pointed down. "Four men. But these are older. I don't think they would have crossed paths with Sophia or Carl."

Rick and Shane shared a worried look. "I sure hope the hell not." Shane said as he looked in the direction that Daryl was looking. "Should we keep going?"

"Fuck yeah we keep goin'. It's Sophia. I ain't stoppin' till I find her. You wanna go back then go. I don't need you here." he said harshly as he continued on down the creek.

They followed him, even Shane.

~H~

"Dale?" Carol called as she walked toward the older man who was tinkering with the R.V.'s motor. He always seemed to be tinkering with something.

He turned around and gave her a smile. "You need something?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could tell me how long they've been gone. I don't have a watch or anything and it seems like it's taking forever. I'm thinking about seeing if Andrea will go with me to look for them."

Dale glanced down at his watch and looked back up. "A few hours, maybe a little more. But I don't think it's a good idea to go look for them. We all need to stay together." He looked worriedly towards Andrea and Amy. "No one knows the woods like Daryl does. They're fine as long as they're with him. And you know he's fine."

Carol nodded. She was going to lose her mind if she couldn't find something to do before he came back. She thought he would find Sophia but she was worried for him too. Daryl was the type of man that would kill himself trying. She just had to pray that they were both okay because the thought of going on without them both wasn't something she could even comprehend right now.

Seeing him standing there in the hallway of the camper with that devastated look on his face was something she would never get out of her head. And she had believed then that he had found her dead.

She started pacing back and forth. For every minute that passed the dread in her stomach worsened and the hope he had given her as he handed her the sweater was faded. He would have found her by now. It had been too long. Or maybe all three of them had gotten hurt somehow.

~H~

Daryl, Rick and Shane followed the creek for a long time before Shane finally spoke up. "We should have found something by now." He said anxiously.

Daryl shot him a withering look. "Maybe you should go back. Go tell them that I'm still lookin' for the trail."

"You don't wanna come back? What about Carol, man?" Shane gave him a look that Daryl wanted to knock right off his face.

"I'm out here tryin' to find her daughter. Go on back and let them know me and Rick's alright. Just keep your eyes open. We ain't the only things out here lookin'. Don't need nobody getting' bit."

Shane stopped and looked from Rick back to Daryl. "You want me to tell her anything else?"

Daryl shook his head. "I ain't got nothin' else to say."

Shane just eyed him for a minute and then turned around to head back the way they had came.

"Hey Shane." Daryl called. He had to take a deep breath to continue on. "You was right. I'm out. She's gonna need somebody, you know. After all this. She's gonna need somebody right now. You think you can do that without fuckin' up as bad as I have?"

Shane put his hands on his hips and frowned. "Daryl, man. Ain't none of this your fault. I hate you enough to wish it was. But I ain't steppin' on your toes anymore. She made a choice. I wasn't it."

Daryl couldn't believe he was hearing this shit out of this man's mouth. Shane had been messing with him for days over Carol. "Yeah? Well, I made my own choice. I ain't stayin' around. No sense in actin' like I am. I don't fuckin' need you people. All you do is slow my ass down anyway. Give me more shit to worry about. Ya'll ain't my kin. Rick pretty much killed the only family I had left. Shoulda took off a long fuckin' time ago." he turned then, not wanting to hear anything else Shane had to say. He trudged on through the water.

He knew he was right. He wished it wasn't like that, but it was. The last few days had been the best in his life but he should have known that it would all turn around to bite him in the ass. She would be better off without him there. She would be better off with someone that could keep her and Sophia safe. He wasn't that man. He never had been. He wasn't nothing but Merle Dixon's little brother.

He just had to find Sophia and then he could go. Forget about them both. Maybe he'd even find his brother. And he wouldn't have to worry about anybody but himself.

But God, he was going to miss her. When he thought about going on without her everything just seemed a lot more bleak. Darker. Maybe Jenner was onto something back there at the CDC. All hope seemed to be gone. He couldn't get the image of her face out of his head. The way she had looked at him last night. Everything they had said. He felt a lump form in his throat at the idea of never hearing her say that to him again.

That was the last thought that went through his mind before a shot rang out and he was thrown backwards. He felt himself hit the water. Felt a cold stinging in his side. And then he felt nothing as blackness wrapped around him like a shroud.