Just a bit of a filler chapter. I hope you still like it. Thank you, as always, for the reviews! I'm not sure how much writing I'll be doing after tomorrows episode so don't hate me if the updates start to dwindle a bit. I'm nervous! Anyway, Happy Easter to those that celebrate it! And happy Walking Dead Day! (I know you all celebrate that one)... Oh, and anyone that is doing any traveling, please be careful! There are idiots everywhere =)
Chapter Thirty
"There." Sophia pointed down the incline at a tree that was about ten yards away.
"Holy crap." Carl whispered. "That's so perfect. But what is it?"
Sophia shrugged. "No clue. I just hope it's in good shape.
They walked carefully down the hill until they were standing under the tree that she had pointed out.
"I've seen these on T.V. This is one of those things that hunters sit on and wait for deer to come. This is great. Nothing can get to us up there." Carl put his hand on the metal rung and started climbing up. It looked safe enough. It was pretty new as far as she could tell.
Sophia waited until he was at the top before she climbed up after him. It was sturdy but not very big, she realized once she got to the top. It was about two feet wide and about four feet long but it had rails so they wouldn't slip out in their sleep and they could get some rest since they didn't have to worry about Walkers finding them tonight. Last night had been a long one.
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms for warmth. It felt colder up here but it wasn't windy and the sky was clear so she would count her blessings. Carl scooted closer to her and the warmth from his arm pressed against hers helped a lot.
"You want those crackers now?" She asked him after they had sat there, lost in their own thoughts, for a while.
He nodded. "Do you think we'll find anything tomorrow?"
"I hope so. I miss my mom and Daryl." She muttered as she handed him his share of food.
"Yeah. Me too. But I'm pretty proud of us. This is our second night and we aren't dead yet. That's somethin'." He smiled.
"It is. But my mom is probably so scared right now. More scared than me I bet. I've never been away from my mom before. Not like this."
He looked out at the darkening trees. "I've never really been away from my parents either. Well, my dad. Back when we thought he was dead."
They finished their food in silence.
"Should we try to sleep?" Carl asked quietly.
They both sighed loudly, neither of them very comfortable with sleeping so close together but also knowing that it was the only way to stay warm.
"Carl?" Sophia asked eventually.
Carl's eyes opened and he looked at her. "What?"
"Can you please promise me something. It would mean a lot to me." She said in a more serious tone than she usually used.
He didn't say anything but he nodded, his expression serious.
"Promise me that after this. We sleep as far away from each other as we can possibly get." She lost the serious look when they both laughed.
"I promise. Believe me."
~H~
Maggie had gone inside long ago. The others had set up camp under a group of trees a little ways from the house. Hershel seemed to be uneasy about all the company but he was always polite. He spent a lot of time talking to Milton which Carol thought was pretty nice. She was about to go inside and check on Daryl when she saw Shane coming her way. They were back. She took a deep steadying breath.
He sat down next to her with his hat in his hands, head hung. "We still ain't turned up anything. We'll head back out in the mornin' though. It just got too dark."
She nodded. She figured that it would be like that.
"I'm really sorry Carol. I don't have a kid out there but I just want you to know that I'm lookin' for them just as hard as I would if it was my own kids."
"Thanks Shane. I appreciate it." She said as she stood up and walked stiffly into the house. She went straight to the bedroom and was surprised to see it empty. When she had left him he had been asleep.
She found him in the kitchen, leaned against the counter talking to Rick. Rick must have used the back door. Daryl looked much better than he had earlier and she was so thankful for that. He looked up and saw her in the doorway. He didn't smile. There wasn't anything to smile about.
"I'm goin' in the mornin'." He said to Rick.
"Did you run that by Hershel and Milton?" Rick asked cautiously.
"I ain't gotta run shit by anybody. You two ain't findin'em so I'm goin' to."
Rick looked up but he was looking past her. She turned around and there was Shane, right behind her.
"Daryl?" She said in a voice that she was surprised he even heard.
He looked up and then looked past her, scowling. "What?"
"Will you walk with me?" She asked.
He glared at Shane and then nodded. She took his hand and led him out the back door. He was slow moving but he managed to stay upright and keep a strong grip on her hand. Hershel said that Jimmy had been pretty far away when he had shot him so none of the pellets had went in deep enough to do too much damage but he could still mess himself up pretty good if he wasn't careful.
"Daryl." She said as she stopped next to one of the outbuildings. She could see the sheen of sweat on his forehead even in the dark. "I think you should take it easy. Let the other men find them okay?" Or try to find them anyway, she thought to herself.
"I can't do that." He said in a strained voice.
"Yes, Daryl, you can." She said as she wiped the sweat away with her hand. "Please."
"I need to find her, Carol. She ain't gonna be able to survive out there on her own forever."
"Daryl, we don't even know if she's alive." She whispered.
He shook his head. "Don't say that again." He growled.
She couldn't make out his features in the dark but she could hear the rage in his voice. She almost backed away from him but she refused. She stood her ground. "I can't have you killing yourself while chasing a ghost in the woods."
She waited for a long time for him to say something but he didn't. He just stood there, breathing heavily. He was angry but she had to say it. She had to voice her fears to someone and he was the only person she wanted to confide in. She turned away from him and then felt his arm slip around her waist before she could take a step away. He pulled her backwards gently and then she felt him lean himself against the wall of the building. His other arm locked around her next and it was the most comfortable she had felt all day.
He leaned his head down close to her ear."She ain't a ghost in the woods. She ain't dead. She ain't a Walker. I'm gonna find her and I'm gonna bring her back. You get all that other shit outta your head because that's all it is. Shit. You're just scared. You got every right to be scared. But you gotta stop actin' like she's already gone. She ain't."
She didn't want to listen to him. If she let herself believe that Sophia was fine and was coming home and then found out that it wasn't true it would kill her. It would scramble her insides like an egg and she wouldn't be able to live anymore. She had dealt with the letdown too many times over the past two days and it was driving her insane. If she accepted it now then she could try to get a jump start on the healing. But his words made her heart pound with hope and right then she really did start to believe as he did. If anyone could bring Sophia home it was him.
They both heard footsteps at the same time and Carol instantly became tense against him.
"It ain't Walkers." He breathed into her ear, causing goosebumps to break out over her arms.
He pulled her backwards until they were standing in the blackness between two buildings.
"Why are we hiding?" She whispered.
"Because Lori is one of the people coming this way."
"So what?" She turned until she was facing him but still close enough to be pressed up against his body.
"So, she's up to somethin' and I wanna find out what it is. Me and Sophia saw her talkin' to Jenner and he told her somethin' that really got a reaction outta her. And that ain't Rick she's with. It's Shane."
Sure enough a few seconds later Shane and Lori walked past their hiding spot. Carol felt like a spy. But she couldn't help but strain her ears to hear what they were saying.
"So Rick already knows about this?" Shane asked as the door to the outbuilding creaked open and then closed again. They could hear their footsteps on the wooden floor inside.
"Of course Rick knows about this." Lori snapped.
"Does he know it could be mine?" Shane said in a low voice.
Carol covered her mouth with her hand. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"It doesn't matter what you think. This baby is Ricks. As far as Rick is concerned and as far as anyone else is concerned."
"So I just stand back and watch somebody like Rick raise a kid that is most likely mine? Is that what you want me to do?" Shane asked in a hushed but angry voice.
"That's what you have to do Shane. But we can still have this. For a little longer anyway. I miss you, you know that."
It got quiet for a while after that.
Carol put her forehead against Daryl's chest and shook her head sadly.
"What a bitch." He whispered.
She reached for his hand and then they slipped from between the buildings and headed back towards the house. The noises coming from the building were definitely not something either of them wanted to hear. But it was pretty obvious that Lori was still messing with Shane's head pretty bad. Telling him all of that and then tell him that she missed him. And they were obviously doing something in there that they were both enjoying from the sounds of it.
"I hope you ain't that loud." He grumbled and she felt her face turn red. "We'd need to drive a mile away just to keep from wakin' up the whole camp."
"I guess that all depends on you. I'm not a liar Daryl Dixon. I've never made a sound in my life like she's making in there. I've never been given a reason" She shot back and then she seen some color come back into his pale face as he smirked.
"I'm gonna take that as a personal challenge, woman." He smiled at her and she tried to hide the fact that her face was probably glowing from the heat in her cheeks.
Right before they reached the back porch steps Rick came out and Carol tightened her grip on Daryl's hand.
"Hey, have you guys seen Lori? I thought she would be back where we are camped but I can't find her anywhere." He scanned the dark yard behind them.
Carol was about to tell him that she hadn't seen her but Daryl spoke before she could.
"I swear I thought I saw her goin' in to that buildin' over there." He pointed to the building that he very well knew Lori and Shane were in. "But it's dark. I could be wrong." He shrugged and stepped around Rick who was now heading right for that building.
Carol tugged him into the kitchen and shut the door firmly. Hershel and his daughter Beth was there so she only smiled at them and pulled him down the hall to what had become their room. She shut the door firmly and then spun around and slapped his chest.
"Daryl Dixon what in the hell is wrong with you! Why would you do that to him? Do you know what this is going to do to that man? What were you thinking?" She was pissed. She felt so bad for Rick.
Daryl grabbed her wrist before she could smack him again. He was looking down at her with an amused expression that made her want to hit him. "It slipped." He shrugged and then kissed her palm as he kept his eyes on hers.
It didn't matter that her palm was tingling where his lips had been. She was still mad. A little. "It did not slip. You sent him to that building on purpose to get back at Shane for telling me what you said."
He sighed and then put his hands on her waist. "Carol, if you went and slept with another man, got pregnant, made me think it was my baby and then ran off and fucked the guy some more just for fun, I would hope I caught your ass in the act. That man looks like a dumb ass because of what his wife and his best friend are doin' behind his back."
"I'd never do som..."
"I know you wouldn't ever do somethin' like that. If I thought that's how you was there ain't no way we'd be here right now."
"But we threw him to the wolves, Daryl. His son is missing and his wife is sleeping with his best friend and he doesn't have anyone to turn too." She felt her eyes start to tear up and then he was smirking at her.
"People hurt, woman. It's the way of the world. He shoulda been more picky like me." he wiped a tear away with a finger and then caught her mouth with his.
She let her mind stop for just a few minutes. She needed that escape. She let her hands trail up his chest and then over his shoulders threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him even closer. She focused her whole mind on nothing but him. The way his hair felt like silk between her fingers, the way his tongue slid lazily against her own. The way his rough hands could still feel so gentile as they slid up the back of her shirt. She wished it didn't have to stop but it did. She put her hands flat against his chest and pushed him away gently.
"You need to sleep as much as you can if you're going out there tomorrow." She mumbled as she steadied her breathing.
"You ain't gonna give me anymore shit over it?" He asked suspiciously.
She shook her head. "You're right. She's too tough and she's too smart. She's out there and she's alive. You just gotta go get her. And you're the only one that I know can actually do that." And she truly believed it was true. If her daughter was dead she would have felt something, surely. And after he said what he said earlier she was able to look past all of that doubt and just feel. And she felt like everything was going to be fine. He'd bring her home.
He studied her for a moment before he nodded.
"I'm glad I found that sweater but I woulda found that trail without it. I wish she still had it. Nights are cold out there." He let himself worry a bit and Carol gave him a small smile.
"You're the one that keeps telling me she's fine. Now you're gonna worry?"
He snorted as he eased himself down onto the bed. "Just don't want the smart mouth brat bein' cold."
"Well, if she's still with Carl then surely the two of them are smart enough to know to keep each other warm at night." She said as she slid under the blanket with him.
He sat straight up then and shot her a look that ranged somewhere between outrage and panic. He clutched his side and winced. "What? What the fuck do you mean, 'keep each other warm.'?"
"Body heat." She shrugged, not really understanding what his problem was.
He looked at her like she was crazy. "If that little fucker tries something I don't give a shit who his godda..."
Carol put a finger to his lips. "Stop it. That is not what I meant. Jesus, Daryl. Get your head out of the gutter. Their just kids." She tried to sound appalled but deep down she was happy to hear the outrage in his voice. He would have been a great dad. The kind of dad that Sophia deserved.
He calmed down quickly and then lowered himself back down. "Well, don't say shit like that. I was a twelve year old boy once too, ya know. I know what goes through their perverted little heads." He still sounded bothered.
"I'm sure Sophia would break his nose for him if he ever thought of something like that." She said as she curled up against him.
"Good. I think when we get her back I'm gonna teach her how to fight dirty. And I'm givin' her gun too and I don't wanna hear any shit from you bout how she's too young cause she ain't."
Carol yawned. "Teach her whatever you want, Daryl. If it makes you feel better." She smiled.
"I will then." He almost sounded like a petulant child himself and he actually crossed his arms over his chest.
"Are you going to lay here and be aggravated all night or can you shut off that light?"
He shot her a narrowed eyed look and then reached for the lamp. He rolled over onto his side so he was facing her. He blew out a breath and shook his head in annoyance. "Body heat. I can't believe you said that. You know I ain't gonna sleep all damn night now, right?"
She could have laughed if not for the real danger Sophia was in. "Daryl, she's lost in the woods where any number of bad things could happen and what has you upset is the fact that she's with a boy? That's just silly."
"Shut up." He grumbled.