'They were just kicking a ball around outside what the fuck?' Daryl was lost, Rick was dead... Rick was Dead... Rick was Dead... he looked past Shane to see if they were playing some sort of sick joke, Rick was just kicking a ball around outside then he went to bath Joey. 'What? ... How? ... where the fuck is my brother?'

'Merle's in hospital, he's pretty bad,' the officer with Shane said, 'He's going to need blood, we need to get you there, It's not good Daryl,'

Carol was crying and couldn't stop, they looked into the lounge where Joey was sitting, 'I... I... I... need to call a sitter...' she pulled open the drawer to pull out the address book, calling the neighbour who sometimes watched Joey in between Shifts and work if they needed it. She had badly shaky hands trying to ring.

The officer with Shane took the phone and the address book moving outside to ring the older women explaining they needed someone to sit with Joey urgently. With Joey in capable hands they left, Daryl having to let Joey know that they had to help Shane and they would be back when he was asleep, Carol could barely choke words out.

'Rick's got Carol down as next of kin and Merle, but we don't need you to identify his body, the captain has done that,' the officer told them, they climbed into the back of a squad car, Carol crying into Daryl's shirt.

'Two drunk teens hit them in a head on, Merle's the only one who's at this stage has survived.' he told Daryl.

At this stage?

Daryl felt crushed, his chest was crushed, he could barely breath. He was sitting by his brothers bed staring at him. What the fuck happened they were just kicking the ball around with Joey, how the hell was he nearly dead. He would be dead, all the machines breathing for him.

'What do you want me to do?' he whispered to Merle. He couldn't believe it, still trying to piece together the days events.

Carol was sound asleep on the little couch in the room. Andrea had come, she knew what would happen, she cried saying her goodbyes to Merle one of the other nurses had taken her away. He stood up and walked around going to ring home to see how Joey was, the lady next door agreed to stay over night with him until they worked out what was happening. Daryl knew what he had to do, he'd often heard Merle joke, 'don't leave me linger on, pull that damn plug!'

Rick's parents were on their way to come take him back to their home town. Carol had cried when she heard that. Shane had told her she wasn't to go look at him. He'd been one of the first responders on the scene. It wasn't good, those kids had been going so fast, Rick's car had to be cut apart to remove his body and get Merle out. Shane was asleep on another chair.

Daryl come back into the room looking at his brother then at the forms he held and signed the forms to take him off life support. He didn't know if he was a donor or anything, he ticked the box to donate his organs to whoever needed them. Not that they would find much use for his liver.

His brother was pretty banged up, he didn't look too bad, they shown him the brain activity, the blow to his head, there was none. His back was broken, his spine was crushed, he wouldn't want to live like that. They could leave him on life support for another few days to give them time with him, or they could take him off the machines that were breathing for him. They could take him to save other lives. He knew his brother, he wouldn't want to hang on.

Daryl knew he wouldn't want that. He took the form's out to the nurses station. He hadn't cried, being strong for Carol because she was barely functioning. He come back and shook her awake, and shook Shane awake to they could say goodbye.

After they took him away, they left. Shane's boyfriend picked them up in front of the hospital. They arrived at the house. Thanked the sitter and she told them how sorry she was and would help out with Joey over the next few days or so if they needed him. Daryl thanked her. Half carrying Carol to her room, going through the functions. He gave Shane and his boyfriend his room. None of them wanting to use Rick or Merle's.

He wrapped his arms around her breathing into her neck and let his wall down and began to cry. Cry for his brother, Cry for Rick, Cry for Joey, Cry for Carol and cried for himself.