Thank you guys SO much for the continuous support! Your words make my day, every day!

.::.

Finally, we came upon the side of the highway. The three of us climbed up the semi-steep hill and stepped over the side railing. Immediately, we were greeted by Carol's sullen expression.

"Wha-You didn't find her?" She furrowed her brow.

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." He tried to sound comforting, but I could tell he was just as upset that we hadn't found her.

"We can't just leave my daughter out there on her own. To spend the night alone in the woods." Carol hugged her arms.

"Huntin' in the darks no good." I stepped in, clutching my crossbow tightly against the broadness of my shoulder. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. We'll get lost."

"But she's twelve! She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" She cried.

"I know this is hard but I'm askin' ya not to panick." Rick leaned down to her eye level, sympathetically. "We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her fer awhile." I interrupted.

"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick glanced at the rest of the group surrounding us. I glanced over at Molly who was tryin' to take it all in. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee us."

Carol breathed heavily as she glanced down at the blood stains on my dirty clothes. "Is that blood?" She panicked.

"We took down a walker." Rick replied. "There was no sign that it was anywhere near Sophia."

"How can you know that?" Carol sighed.

Rick looked over at me, looking for an answer. "We cut the sum'bitch open." I narrowed my eyes. "Made sure."

Carol took a seat on the railing and tried to collect herself. Rick's wife, Lori, sat next to her and put a comforting arm around her. She didn't stay calm for very long. "How could you?" Carol breathed anxiously, staring at Rick. "Just leave her out there. To begin with. How could you just leave her?!"

"Those two walkers were on us." Rick bent down to face her. "I-I had to draw 'em off. It was our best chance."

Shane stepped in to help, hanging his thumbs from his belt-loops. "He didn't have a choice, Carol."

"But how is she supposed to find her way back on her own?" She cried. "She's just a child."

"It was my only option, ok? The only choice I could make."

.::.

It was late at night and I was sprawled out in the bed of an old, abandoned truck, smokin' my secon-to-last cigarette and lost completely in my thoughts.

"Can I have one of those?" Molly came out of nowhere, leaning her bottom against the tail-gate.

"Jesus!" I near-about jumped outta my boots. I calmed myself for a moment before reaching for my pack out of my pants pocket. Seconds later, I handed her one along with a lighter. After she got it lit, she set the lighter down and started to walk away.

"Hold on." I jumped to my feet. "...Where ya goin'?"

"Away from you."

"Don't ya wanna talk about this? Fix it?"

"Not really." She shook her head. Her eyes were completely devoid of emotion.

"Look-I'm sorry fer leavin' ya. But Merle-"

"You know, I'm not really mad that you chose him over me. I get it. He's your brother." She threw her hands in the air. "But you didn't leave to go down the street to your house. You left. Gone. Bye-bye."

I didn't know how to respond. I felt like a ten pound back of shit in a two-ounce Ziploc bag. So I just stood there and puffed on my cigarette, lettin' her finish.

"You never even came back to check on me. Do you remember how bad shit got that week?" She raised her voice, catching the attention of Dale and T-Dog who were sitting close by. "I spent practically two fucking months in my bedroom closet with nothing but a kitchen knife. If Tom and Sara hadn't found me I probably wouldn't have made it."

She started crying and buried her face in her dirty hands. I felt like someone kicked me in the gut. I felt awful and all I wanted to do was give her a hug and comfort her. And I wanted her to comfort me, too. "I'm sor-"

"I'm not a survivor, Daryl. I don't know how to make it on my own. When this shit first started happening, yeah, I was scared...But knowing that I had you around to protect me made it easy to sleep at night." She swallowed her tears. "But you left me. You really don't know how much that hurt."

I looked down at my muddy, worn-out boots. I didn't have the courage to even look her in the eye right now. I listened to her exhale a puff of her cigarette. "So, no, to answer your question...I don't wanna fucking fix this." She stomped off, leaving me to myself once again.

I glanced up from my feet to find Dale still staring. "Whatcha lookin' at, old man?" I spat, annoyed. "Ain't never had woman problems before?"