A/N: Hello people!

I have to say that I am pretty damn shocked right now. I just checked on the latest numbers for the story, and not only do I have 79 followers and 26 favorites, I also have 97 REVIEWS! That's amazing! I have never gotten more than 5 on any other story I've written (granted they were short) but the fact that you guys still write to me on a weekly basis to let me know you like the story and to keep going is just a dream come true. I am so thankful to the whole fan fiction community and I hope I can do you all justice

Now, I have another confession to make…I'm at the point in the story where things get a little hairy. I knew where I wanted to go with everything up until now, but figuring out how to proceed has been a little rough. This chapter is sort of a lead up to something big that's about to happen, and you will see a character in my story start to go off-track a little bit. Honestly, it was a plot decision that I just had to try and work with so I could get to the next big moment. Even though I hate doing that, it was the best way I could figure out to make it all work in the end. Anyway, I hope you all still enjoy it even though it might stray a little further from my normal range.

Remember…keep reviewing! I need to hit that milestone!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead…but I do own a light saber cause I'm a geek

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Ch13.

Carol couldn't stop smiling. It was getting a little ridiculous. Ever since she and Daryl had made up, she'd felt like a damn teenager. They still hadn't announced anything to anyone, but the group was probably starting to figure it out. He wasn't exactly great at being covert when it came to requesting time alone with her anymore. One day he'd even broadcasted it in front of her whole class. Luckily, she'd managed to cover it up by saying that he just needed help gathering vegetables out in the garden. In reality, they never even made it outside, and the only kind of gathering that occurred was of an entirely different variety.

The problem was that as soon as they got close to true physical intimacy, Daryl always pulled away. She was trying to be patient with him, knowing that he probably didn't have a lot of experience with women and sex, but she definitely knew he had the capability. It was such a strange thing to see him acting bashful around her. They'd cleared up their miscommunication about him being molested, so she knew that wasn't the reason he was holding him back. She also knew that it was getting extremely painful for him to do so. She'd even offered to relieve his tension, but he clammed up and told her that he had to go on guard duty with Rick. When she went to Rick later to ask how it'd gone, he had no idea what she was talking about.

Carol suspected that he'd probably had a bad sexual experience with a woman that was affecting his confidence in himself. Ed had always made her feel like a failure in the bedroom, so she absolutely understood if that was it. No matter how reluctant Daryl might have been in that area, he was still a much better kisser than Ed had ever been. Since they're initial rendezvous, he'd really improved his technique. They'd definitely rounded second base and even got close to third once, but she still wanted more.

She wanted to see a side of Daryl Dixon that no one else had seen.

It was mid-afternoon, but as far as she knew, he hadn't been up to the prison yet today. They'd been talking for a solid week about him coming back up to bunk with her until the heat died down for the summer, and in all honesty, she secretly hoped that he'd decide to stay bunked with her even after that. If she didn't act soon, summer would be over and she wouldn't have any more excuses left until winter kicked in.

It was the weekend, or at least it was by the prison's standards. Keeping track of days was sometimes hard with no calendars, but they ran at their own pace. As she made her way out to the field to see if she could talk to him, but was surprised to find that the tent was gone. Her heart soared at the thought that he'd finally gone along with what she wanted. She saw Maggie patrolling and immediately flagged her down.

"Hey Maggie! Have you seen Daryl?"

"I think he moved he's moving his stuff back inside." She yelled back. "Saw him packing it up earlier."

"Thanks!"

He'd actually listened for once! She ran back inside to find him, hoping to get there before he started moving her things out of the way to make room for his own. She was willing to share her space, but there was a system to how she kept her things. Carol swung around the railing and into the cell, but was stunned to find that neither Daryl nor his things were there. They weren't on the perch either. Maggie must have seen him go inside, but where was he?

She was just about to go back down to ask if anyone had seen which direction he'd gone, but as she turned to walk out of the cell, she collided directly into a pile of books with arms. The person stumbled backwards until they hit the railing, and papers went flying everywhere.

"Oh Beth I'm sorry!" Carol ran to help the poor girl. "I didn't see you coming in."

Beth grabbed up the papers that had fallen on the grating by her feet. "It's my fault. I'm such a klutz with these books."

"You're not a klutz; I am for smacking right into you." Carol laughed, kneeling down to help. "I was just going to find Daryl and I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing."

"Oh." Beth looked up at her, a slight blush on her face. "I think he's down with Rick in the new area they cleaned out. He said he was setting something up for Maggie and Glenn down there. They wanted somewhere to go so they could be alone."

This was news to Carol. She had no idea that they'd been clearing out more sections of the prison. As far as she knew, what they hadn't cleared out already was deemed to be too dangerous. Rick was very cautious about letting people go into certain areas, especially what they referred to as the tombs. Even if he was setting up a spot for Maggie and Glenn, that still didn't explain where his things were.

"Really?"

Beth nodded. "I asked him if he would help me put away some of these books when he was done. I'm not tall enough to get them up on the top shelves in the storage area."

Carol smiled. "It's a good idea to have him help you."

She sighed, holding up the papers. "Well, first I need to grade these for the class, but I was hoping you could help me go through them if you have the time."

"Sure."

"I saw some of the papers float down to the first level, so I'd better go get them."

"I'll come with you."

The two women walked down to the lower level to retrieve the rogue essays, and much to Carol's surprise, Daryl and Carl walked into the room at the very same time. Both of them were armed-Daryl with his crossbow and Carl with his knife holstered on his belt and his gun. They looked like they were planning to go do some tracking, but they were so distracted by their conversation that they barely heard her call over to them.

"Let me guess." Carol said, walking over. "Squirrel hunting time?"

"You know it." Daryl smiled. "Been too damn long. Hershel gave me a go on the ankle so we're heading out."

"You're going tracking?" Beth asked questionably. "Maybe I could come along too. I'd really like to learn how to do it, and daddy said-."

"Well uh…" Daryl stopped her, looking down at Carl. "Be happy to teach ya, but I kinda promised Carl it'd just be us guys this time. Male bonding and all that. Maybe I can take you out some other time."

Beth looked okay on the outside, but Carol knew she was probably crushed. She went to retrieve the papers that had fallen before looking back at them. "Sure. I'll be upstairs working on these awhile. Carol, can I use your room?"

Carol nodded. "Sure honey, I'll be up in a minute to help you."

"Thanks."

She turned back to the two semi-grown boys standing by the outside entrance. "I saw all your things were gone from outside. Moving back in?"

Daryl smirked. "You'll just have to wait and see."

"You trying to mess with me?"

"Maybe."

"That's not very nice." She teased, stepping closer.

He didn't back away. "I'll fill ya in when we get back. Promised Carl we could go out, but we gotta go before it gets too late."

Carol frowned, leaning in to whisper to him. "Did you really have to exclude Beth from the trip? She is so excited about being able to go out and hunt with you."

Daryl shrugged. "It's not me, it's Carl. He's still pretty sore about the 'just wantin' to be friends' thing. Last thing I need is the two of them bickering out there and me having to get in the middle of it."

Now it made perfect sense. "I get it. Well just try to make it up to her soon if you can."

"I will, now that I can get around better."

She smiled. "You two make sure you come back in one piece."

Daryl scoffed. "Ye of little faith."

"Don't mess with me Dixon, unless you want to be taken down."

"Maybe later." He winked at her.

Carol's jaw hit the floor. Had he just flirted? In broad daylight and in front of a room of people to boot! He had a wicked grin on his face, but before she could completely recover from her shock, he did something she'd never forget.

"We'll be back soon."

A second later, his hand reached up to cup her jaw; placing a quick kiss on her still stunned lips. By the time her brain was able to process what was happening, he'd pulled away. Daryl then turned back to Carl, who was now grinning broadly at them. The two walked over to the door, and Daryl turned back once he got there. Carol nearly had a heart attack when he gestured to the rest of the people standing around in the block; all looking as surprised as she was.

"What y'all lookin' at? Ain't nothin' to see."

The door creaked shut behind him, and Carol could feel her whole face and most of her neck turning bright red. Up until a week ago, Daryl hadn't even been willing to admit that they were in a relationship. Now, in a matter of ten seconds, he'd pretty much announced it to everyone.

Dear Lord Almighty…give me strength…

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Daryl may have just done the craziest thing he'd ever imagined doing. It'd given him a pretty big ego boost though. He hadn't exactly planned it out, but at that moment it'd just felt right. He knew he'd shocked the hell out of Carol with his bold move too. He just hoped she wasn't pissed off at him about it later.

"That was quite a sendoff." Carl teased as they headed down to the gate. "Guess you finally worked things out huh?"

"Shut up man."

"Hey, I'mnot the one who kissed Carol in front of the whole group…"

"It wasn't the whole damn group!"

"Have you let her rip your clothes off yet?"

Daryl pointed his crossbow at the boy. "I will shoot you."

Carl laughed. "You didn't load the arrows yet."

"Don't think I can't do that in a jiffy if I have to."

"I know you still won't do it." Carl looked at him. "I've never seen you this happy."

Daryl was happy, maybe for the first time in his whole life. It'd felt really weird for a while but now he was sort of getting used to it…not that a young kid needed to know that. Daryl grabbed him by the neck and put him in a friendly headlock.

"Keep testin' me and we'll see about that."

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In all of the chaos of the kiss, Carol had completely forgotten about Beth. She rushed back up to her room, only to find that the young woman and her papers were all gone. Maybe she'd decided to go back to the room she shared with Herschel instead. As much as Carol wanted to ask if anyone had seen her, she was too embarrassed to say anything to anyone.

She walked further down the walkway to see if she could find Beth, but instead found herself walking into Sasha, whose face said it all. She'd obviously heard about what had happened.

Daryl was right. People are too nosy in here.

"Heard I missed quite a show." She said with a smirk. "Nothing going on there huh?"

Carol groaned. "Fine, we're together now. Satisfied?"

Sasha gave her a genuine smile. "No, but I see you are, and I'm happy for you both."

"Thank you." As weird as it was, Carol still found it hard to take compliments. Even after all this time, it just somehow felt wrong. "Have you seen Beth? I was supposed to help her with some papers for the class."

"I just saw her run down the central hallway. She looked kind of upset."

"Any idea where she was going?"

Sasha shook her head. "No, but she was carrying a gun if that helps."

"A gun?"

"I tried to ask what she was doing, and she said she had some business to take care of."

Carol frowned. Where on Earth would she have gone? There were still so many parts of the prison that were unsafe to her. If Beth got down that hallway and branched off in the wrong direction, she could end up in the tombs. It was a never-ending maze of hallways that anyone could get lost in.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure."

"Thanks Sasha."

Carol immediately started walking down the long hallway, trying to figure out exactly where she would have gone. She knew that Beth had been upset about Daryl not taking her out, but that wouldn't make her go and do something stupid, would it? She should go find Maggie and see if maybe she knew what had happened. Carol was already halfway down the hallway when it hit her like a lightning bolt.

The kiss.

Oh god, she had to have seen the kiss. It was obvious to everyone that she cared about Daryl, and he'd just kissed another woman in front of the entire group! Beth was normally a rational girl, but the rejection of her request, topped with fresh image of seeing her crush kissing someone else in front of her was enough to send anyone over the edge. She needed to find her and handle this immediately.

Daryl may have thought that he'd done something daring in his quest for romance, but in reality he may have just made a very smart girl go and do something very reckless.

A/N: I know, I know…I hated to portray Beth as a clingy girl who flips out at the very sight of a kiss, but it does serve a purpose. I swear. I mean, let's face it…teenagers have mood swings, so she's bound to have some off days. Be ready for next time because there's a lot more drama to come!