By the way, there is a teeny, tinsy little lemon in this chapter too that - again - took me FOREVER to get just right. I think it came out pretty good, but ah well, you guys are the judges lol.

Thanks for reading this latest installment and please - leave a very nice review when your done! :)

- Nagiana


Favorite Line(s):

"You ain't getting my son's help any longer in searching for her! You lost that privilege when you insinuated that he was nothing more but a damn bastard while your daughter supposedly had the most stable childhood on the face of the planet!" She shot her a look of disgust. "At least Daryl's never raised his hand to me!"


Tessa had been angrily searching through another car when Dale made his casual way over to her. She heard someone approach her long before she turned her eyes on them and when she finally glanced back to see who it was, she turned back in indifference when she saw it was him and not someone else. "I don't want any company right now, Dale, I'm sorry." She told him tersely and he nodded as he finally joined her.

"I imagine you don't. Survivor's guilt is one Hell of a thing to live with." Tessa glanced at him.

"You think what I feel is survivor's guilt?" She asked him in slight disbelief, and Dale shrugged.

"What else could it be? You had that little girl inches within your grasp, yet a force that you could not foresee and in no way could have avoided, kept you from her. I'd call what you're feeling right now after that, survivor's guilt." Tessa mournfully shook her head.

"I could have done so much more -!"

"Could you really?" Dale interrupted her curiously and she turned a slightly confused gaze onto him. "You say that now, Tess, but looking back, do you really think you could have? What would you have done once you reached her? And more importantly, how would you have saved her from the walker once you did – as weaponless and defenseless as you were?" She stopped in her sorting and for once, she didn't have an answer. Dale, as always, was right. What would she have done? Could she really have made that much of a difference in the end, had the walker not grabbed her? Or was the walker grabbing her, the one thing that saved both of them from a surefire death?

Dale took advantage of Tessa's warring thoughts to continue: "I'll admit that Daryl coming along when he did was a Godsend!" A look of relief appeared in his eyes and on his face at the mention of Daryl saving her. "Hell, whenever he shows up to save anyone, I consider that a Godsend! You might not have gotten that if that walker hadn't grabbed you." Tessa glanced at him, her eyes narrowing slightly in an emotion that he couldn't really place.

"Are you saying that walker grabbing me was a . . . a good thing?" He gave a half-shrug.

"I think I am. In a roundabout, fucked up way, that walker saved you from surely being bitten or worse! And by grabbing you, it allowed Sophia to make a break for the woods with Rick on her heels. It afforded the both of you a chance at life that you might not have gotten otherwise. And Hell, the walker hanging halfway underneath the truck on your leg was probably the sight Daryl needed to know where you were so that he could save you." Tessa shrugged as she resumed her sorting.

"Carol doesn't think that . . ."

"Carol is in mourning for a daughter that she doesn't know is alive or dead and she has no right to take that out on you - or anybody for that matter, but especially not you! It was not your job to protect that little girl – it was Carol, as her mother, that should have been! Only your maternal instincts made you do it in the first place," He shook his head. "In fact, you would probably be doing the same thing if it was Ethan missing!" He told her, and Tessa laughed and sniffed.

"That's where you're wrong, Dale. Ethan . . . Ethan would have done exactly what Daryl would have done. He'd know where his best landmark would be and then he'd track his way back to the highway accordingly. If he couldn't, then he return to the landmark until rescue came," She shook her head. "Sophia is not like my son – she's nothing like my son, Dale! Sophia is still . . . very much a child – I suppose that's what made me want to help her in the first place. It's the thought of her alone in those woods with the knowledge that there was something that I could have done to help her . . ." She turned her eyes onto Dale then. "It's that knowledge that makes me hate myself."

"That's still no excuse to hate yourself over something that you had no control over!" He told her, his hand moving gently to her shoulder and his voice becoming slightly more impassioned than it had. "Just like that is no excuse to feel sorry for Sophia because she did not have the good fortune to be Daryl's daughter and be trained with the same skill set that him and Ethan are fortunate to have! However, there is still the slim chance that we can find her and that alone, should give you the hope you need to banish those guilty feelings away! Like I said earlier, there was nothing you could have done – why hate yourself for that?" Tessa stood there and thought about his words for a moment before she smiled and nodded.

"You know what? You're right . . . I shouldn't feel guilty. I'm not Sophia's mother - it was not my job to protect her!" She gave a half-shrug and pinned Dale with a soft look. "Thank you Dale . . . for always being the Socrates of the group." Dale chuckled as he gently grasped her shoulder.

"I would hardly think myself wise enough to be a Greek thinker, but yes, I do try to be the voice of reason when this group so desperately needs one!" He told her before gesturing back in the direction of the Winnebago. "Come join us again, Tess. Rick's back and he's gonna explain to us what happened, he just wanted to make sure you were with us." She turned and alarmed look onto him.

"She's not with him?" She asked, stricken, and Dale shook his head.

"No, she's not, but I'm sure Rick can explain to us what happened and I'm sure that he already has a plan formulated about how to go about finding her," He told her and she nodded in reply as she allowed Dale to escort her back to the group. Everyone smiled small smiles when they saw her and she returned them with a slightly brighter one of her own as she moved to stand in-between Ethan and Daryl. Daryl's arm immediately wrapped around her waist and she allowed him to pull her into his side as Rick sighed and told them what had happened in the woods. He told them that he had found Sophia and that he had carried her a good while but had to leave her in an creek underneath a overhang of roots in order to get rid of the two walkers that had been tailing them. When he returned to the spot of the creek where he left her in order to retrieve her, he found that she was gone, with no trace of her to be seen anywhere in the near vicinity.

"We have to go find her!" Rick told them, his eyes pleading and when they settled onto the shaking Carol, they became mournful. She replied with a stony expression and Daryl nodded in agreement. His nod was followed by everyone else and he glanced down at Tessa. After a moment of her eyes scanning his face and knowing before he could speak what he would suggest, she swallowed hard and returned the nod. She might not hate herself anymore for Sophia but that didn't mean she still couldn't worry about Daryl and Ethan going off into the woods in pursuit of her. God only knew how many walkers could have shuffled into the woods when they moved past them.

Daryl pulled her closer to him as he spoke: "I agree and since ya need a tracker, I suppose I have no choice but to go with ya. Let me take ma son with us, though. He's a good tracker, too – we could surely use another pair of eyes." He gave a flippant shrug then. "Ya know, to catch anythin' I don' happen to pick up." Rick nodded thankfully and Daryl nodded over Tessa's head to Ethan, who nodded back after receiving a smile and a rub on the back from his mother.

"I'll go too," Shane spoke up and Glenn nodded and smiled what he hoped was a joking smile as he gently fist-bumped Ethan on the shoulder. The smile came out shaky and nervous, however, he didn't know why. He would be with the best shots in the group, so it wasn't like anything would happen to them.

"And so will I – ya know . . . to keep you company while your old man does all of the work!" Ethan grinned in response while Daryl rolled his eyes. Carol looked up them all with clear thankfulness on her face. She didn't have to say anything to them - they all nodded in reply to her look. Rick then told them that they would leave out in five, once he had a drink of water and rested for a minute, and for them to take the time to get everything that they would need. Tessa turned Daryl to face her and immediately met his eyes as Ethan turned to talk to Glenn.

"I don't reckon I have to tell you guys to be careful, do I?" She asked him, and he let out a scoffing laugh.

"Babydoll, after tha fiasco this afternoon, don' ya think it's I who should be tellin' ya to be careful?" He asked her, and Tessa nodded in reluctant agreement at his words as Daryl pursed his lips and moved closer to her. His hand curved around her hip and he held her close for a moment, where he pressed a loving kiss to her forehead. She let out a sigh of contentment, her hands fisting in the sides of his shirt as he buried his nose in her hair. "I almost lost ya, Tess! When I first saw tha' walker halfway hangin' out from underneath tha' car with ya ankle grasped in his hand, I literally felt ma blood run cold!" He told her, his voice quiet. "I came so close to losin' ya and I . . . I don' know what I would have done if I had pulled ya out and ya had a bite mark on ya leg!" They pulled apart slightly then - just enough for him to peer down into her eyes. "Do ya really think I want to leave ya after thinkin' our lives together had just come to tha' kind of end? Fuck no! I want to practically become ya livin' shadow until we reach Fort Benning!" She let out a laugh then, one that he shared. "But I know ya, and if I even remotely suggested becomin' the typical overprotective boyfriend, ya'd ditch me as sure as anythin'!" He meant it as a joke, but Tessa ended up shaking her head.

"I wouldn't ditch you, Daryl – I'd never ditch you again. However, we would have to share words!" She replied with a grin and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards ever-so-slightly.

"I take it ya have been talked some sense into?" He asked, and she chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, by Dale, believe it or not. He made me realize that it wasn't my fault for what happened to Sophia," She glanced at Carol then, who was leaning up against the Winnebago with a slightly dejected look on her face. "He made me realize that I shouldn't feel guilty about something that was out of my control." He nodded then, an appreciative look in his eye.

"Thank God for Dale, then! For a minute, I thought I'd have to contend with a depressed girl again!" He teased lightly but when she shot a warning look up at him, he quickly backtracked. He should have known better than to pull the depression card, even in jest, because it was quite clearly still a very sore subject with her.

Way back when, about a month before she left him, Tessa had become depressed to a point to where Daryl had been afraid to leave her alone for any extended period of time, especially around his place. Whenever she was around his place, was when she would develop anxiety issues of unexplained origin. He never figured out why she was depressed, only that he was one hundred percent sure that her leaving him had something to do with the ever-elusive reason.

"I'm sorry - I shouldn' have pulled tha' . . .!" He murmured and she shook her head.

"No, you don't have to be, Daryl – it's all in the past and it's all water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned. I'm here now - with you - and despite everything, I'm happy!" She shrugged, a small smile appearing on her face then. "It's best just to forget that time, okay?" Daryl nodded in agreement and her smiled grew slightly more comforting as they hugged again. However, Tessa couldn't help but feel a twinge inside her. It wasn't a twinge of guilt towards Sophia, because she was confident that she had squashed down those feelings with Dale - no . . . it was guilt towards something else - something that she couldn't exactly put her finger on . . . something that had been brought about when Daryl mentioned her depression . . .

And it was then that she knew, with absolutely certainty, that, that guilt – whatever it was – would be a source of much confusion and unease within her as days went by without her realizing what exactly it was.

Rick returned moments later with Shane in tow and gestured for them to join them. Daryl planted a soft kiss on her forehead before him, Ethan and Glenn moved to join them. Her arms crossed in front of her chest as she watched them go, her heart starting to weigh heavily in her chest. She found herself hoping that it didn't stem from . . . from that . . .

She hoped it didn't stem from what happened with Merle because . . .

Tessa took a deep, shuddering breath then. She found herself hoping and praying to God that it wasn't what happened with Merle because she didn't think she'd have the strength to face that again if it was.


"Are ya sure it was here?'

"Yeah, I left her right there!"

Rick's eyes grew more panicked and exhausted as him and Daryl sloshed through the shit colored water of the creek, Daryl moving to peer underneath the overhang of roots as Rick craned his neck to peer in another direction. Shane, Glenn and Ethan stood up on the bank above them and when Ethan and Daryl's eyes connected, Daryl gave a weak little shrug. Every good tracker knew that as soon as whatever you were tracking hit water, the trail was all but gone. Not even bloodhounds could keep the scent past water.

Rick pointed off. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." He told them and Daryl shrugged.

"I don' know what to tell ya, Rick . . . can't track through water!" He sighed as he turned around and headed back to the bank. Rick shrugged as he followed him.

"I figured she just took off and ran back to the group," He pointed up the bank where Glenn and Ethan were standing. "I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Daryl moved over that way, a slight scowl finding a home on his face as he gestured to Glenn.

"Hey, Short Round, why don' ya step off to tha side a little? Ya'll muckin' up all tha evidence!" He told him and Glenn shot him a look as he did as he was told, but Ethan was already on it. Bending down and observing the ground for a minute, he nodded and glanced up at Daryl, where he gestured him over.

"That is if she knows her left from her right." Shane spoke, a tad condescending in its intended jokiness and Rick shot him a dirty look.

"Shane, she understood just fine!"

"Look, the kid is tired and scared, man!" Shane replied. "Not-to-mention, she had her a close call with two walkers! Gotta wonder how much of what you said, stuck, ya know?"

"Hey, ma kid found somethin'!" Daryl spoke up, interrupting their conversation, and both men turned surprised gazes onto Daryl and Ethan as they bent down, observing the earth by the bank.

"Got clear prints right here . . ." Ethan added, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration and Daryl nodded as he got to his feet and looked at Rick.

"Chances are she did like ya said and headed back to tha highway." Ethan got to his feet at his father's words as well and the look of pride he shot him was hardly unmissed by anyone. "Our best bet is to spread out and make our way back."

"She couldn't have gone far!" Rick added as his heart lifted at Daryl's words and as Shane helped the two men back up the bank.

With Daryl leading the group like a bloodhound and with Ethan not that far behind him to catch whatever he might miss, they slunk through the brush of the forest, Daryl's eyes glued to the leafy forest ground. When he stopped and got down on one knee, everyone could tell by the slightly confused look on his face that the trail was quickly growing cold. "She was doin' jus' fine 'till right here," He spoke and Ethan nodded in agreement as everyone crowded around them. "All she had to do was keep goin' . . ." He trailed off as he looked away and it was then that Ethan pointed off in a direction directly to their right, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as well.

"Looks like she veered off that way . . . can't see why though – she was on a straight shot to the highway." Shane shrugged.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her – something that made her run off?"

"She spotted a walker, maybe?" Glenn suggested and Daryl shook his head.

"I don' see any other footprints to be a walker and by tha way they walk, it'd be pretty damn obvious! There's 'hers."

"So what do we do?" Shane asked. "Do all of us press on?" Rick shook his head.

"No, it'd be better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking if we're gone too long and at least you two can tell 'em what's going on. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can to find her. But most of all, keep everyone calm!" Daryl nodded in agreement.

"And me, Rick and Ethan will stay on the trail. Between me and ma kid, the trail will have a hard time goin' cold." Rick nodded in thanks as Shane nodded as well.

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars, although I think Tessa alone might have half of them covered already!" He chuckled and everyone noticed the slight tensing of Daryl's jaw at his mention of Tessa, a mention that Shane was thankfully smart enough to leave at that. "I'll think up a few other chores and . . . I'll just keep 'em occupied." He nodded to Glenn and Glenn nodded back before giving Ethan a slight smile and hurrying after Shane. Daryl watched Shane go for a minute before finally getting to his feet and moving off in the direction that Sophia had gone, Ethan and Rick hot on his heels.


The one thing Ethan would never be able to banish from his head – for as long as he would live - would be witnessing his father wrist deep in walker guts.

They had stumbled upon a lone walker shuffling along in the forest not long after they entered it and after some pretty smooth double-teaming, a well-placed bolt from Daryl's crossbow made sure the walker was on the ground and that he was staying dead.

Rick had been the one who brought up the fact that the walker had eaten recently and it was the look of slight apprehensiveness that Daryl shared with his son that gave them the ultimatum to rip the thing open and find out for themselves what the son-of-a-bitch had eaten.

Blood, gore and a half-eaten woodchuck later, they were all intensely relieved when they found out that it had been a woodchuck the walker had eaten and not Sophia.

But nothing like that compared to when they finally made it back to the Winnebago just as the sun was starting to set on the horizon.

Glenn had been the one to shout out that they were back and almost immediately as they came up upon the steel guardrail, people were flocking around them, including an intensely relieved Tessa. She refrained herself from hugging a disgusting, blood congealed Daryl but Ethan, who was completely spotless aside from the odd dirt patch on his shirt and jeans, was afforded no such respite from his mother's embraces. "Oh thank God your back!" She whispered in relief and Daryl gave a small smile as he moved to join them. She shot him a soft, loving look. "I'm so glad your back too." She told him and Daryl nodded in understanding as Carol moved quickly up to Rick.

"You didn't find her?" She asked them, her look one of a completely defeated woman and Rick shot her a sympathetic look.

"Our trail went cold – we'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own – to spend the night alone in the woods!" She told him, her voice hinting that he should be ashamed for even considering the idea, and Daryl sighed and shook his head. His voice was gentle when he talked to her but his body language hinted that he was still a little irked that much of her ire was going more towards Rick and Tessa more than actually herself.

"Bein' out in tha dark is no good," He told her. "We'd jus' be trippin' over ourselves; more people'd get lost . . ." Carl shook her head and turned a pleading look onto him.

"But she's twelve! She can't be out there on her own! You sure you didn't find anything?" Rick pursed his lips and sighed.

"CarolI know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic! We know she was out there -!"

"We tracked her for a good long while!" Ethan couldn't help but interrupt Rick and the look that Carol shot him immediately made Tessa tense and Daryl's hand to immediately splay out on the small of her back warningly. It was an accusing look – a look that screamed that he had no room to talk because he still had his mother and his father. Thankfully, though, Rick quickly picked up where Ethan had left off and Tessa felt herself calm slightly.

"We have to make this an organized effort! Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this alongside Ethan. They're good trackers – if anybody can find her, it'll be them two!" He assured her and Carol threw him another angrily accusing look.

"How could you have just left her out there to begin with?" She all but snapped at him and the look Rick adopted on his face was almost akin to a kid who was getting scolded because his mother walked into the kitchen to find him with his hand in the cookie jar. "How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us," He told her, fighting to keep his voice under control the entire time and tears built up in her eyes as he spoke – as he tried to explain himself. "I had to draw them off – it was her best chance!"

"It sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol . . ." Tessa couldn't help but speak up and immediately at the sound of her voice, Carol turned a fiery gaze onto Tessa, one that had the younger woman recoiling in shock.

"And you! You could have reached her – you could have saved her! Why didn't you?"

"Carol, she was grabbed by a walker at the last minute -!" Lori told her but Carol shook her head defiantly, interrupting Lori mid-sentence.

"How would you like if your son was in Sophia's place, huh?" She demanded before she laughed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, wait, of course – how could I have forgotten? Your son is a little miniature Daryl – he can hunt and track – he's not nearly as helpless as my Sophia is and even though they're the same age!" Tessa's eyes widened and her gaze darted to Dale across the way, whose eyes widened in shock as well. Neither had known that Carol had overheard their conversation and Carol nodded as she got to her feet from her place sitting on the guardrail beside Lori, where she moved over to stand before her. Her face was still angry as she pinned Tessa with a glare of daggers.

"Yeah, that's right – I heard your conversation with Dale earlier before the guys left – you should really learn to keep your voices down! And please, do me a favor, won't you? Before you even consider comparing our two children again, please remember that your son was the one who grew up without his father thanks to you -!"

"You fucking bitch -!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa - calm down Tess!" Daryl spoke quickly as he jumped over the guardrail to wrap his arms around her waist just as Tessa made a move towards Carol, her eyes lighting up with fury. Everyone else immediately tensed in shock but when it was clear that Daryl had a good enough grip on Tessa to where no one else would be needed to separate the two women, they relaxed. Carol immediately stepped back, the anger gone from her face, only be replaced with one of shock and slight fear, almost as if it hadn't been her that got angry and then got up in Tessa's face, but another person that looked just like her.

"Let me tell you something, Carol!" Tessa hissed to her, her eyes still beyond angry as she struggled slightly in Daryl's grip. "It was not my job to watch after your daughter! And who the fuck knows – that walker could have been the one thing that saved us, considering I was completely weaponless and defenseless when your daughter decided to be stupid enough to get out from underneath the car before Rick or Shane or anyone else had given us the all clear!" She shook her head, her eyes flashing even more in the quickly growing gloom, and Daryl's grip on her tightened just in case. "And do me a favor, by the way! The next time you decide to get up in my face about my son not growing up with Daryl, please keep in mind that you do not fucking know me! You have no idea what I was going through during that time – you have no idea what it was like with Merle – so please, for the love of God, why don't you get over yourself and shove it!"

Teeth gritting in anger, Tessa then threw herself out of Daryl's arms before marching off again. Everyone's eyes remained wide with shock at what had so recently come to head between the meek Carol and the normally calm, cool and collected Tessa who made a point of trying to get along well with everyone. Even Daryl's eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline in shock at the whole thing. He had forgotten that Tessa had a temper almost as bad as him and Merle's. The only thing was that Tessa's was a little bit harder to trigger. Carol seemed to do just fine when it came to that, though.

"H-how is she going to find her way back on her own?" Carol finally asked, tears filling her eyes again. "She's just a child . . . she's just a child!" Tessa turned around and gave an elaborate shrug of her shoulders, her anger rolling off her in waves.

"You know what – that beats the fuck out of me! But I can tell ya somethin'!" She snarled as she took a few steps back, Daryl quickly moving into position in case Tessa decided to run and lunge at her again, her finger pointed unwaveringly at her. "You ain't getting my son's help any longer in searching for her! You lost that privilege when you insinuated that he was nothing more but a damn bastard while your daughter supposedly had the most stable childhood on the face of the planet!" She shot her a look of disgust. "At least Daryl's never raised his hand to me!"