Ok, here's the next chapter! I decided to leave out the technical stuff and let you all use your imaginations.

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Daryl didn't really know what possessed him to do this, but he somehow found himself walking through the woods looking up instead of down like he usually did. Squirrels skittered by and ran up trees, stopping halfway up to turn and scold him loudly. Daryl looked up at one and vaguely thought it wouldn't be so snarky if it had known how many of it's comrades he had taken down in his lifetime or how quickly he could end it's chatter if he had been out for hunting. But he wasn't hunting for squirrels this time.

Oak...holly...birch...locust...

"There you are," Daryl said softly, a grin spread across his face as he spotted the young hickory tree. He took the saw he had brought and walked around the tree, looking for just the right branch. He spotted a fairly thick and sturdy branch full of leaves and new smaller branches starting on it and he nodded to himself. Hanging the handsaw on his belt, he grabbed the lower branches and pulled himself up until he reached the intended branch and he began cutting.

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Carol nervously watched the edge of the forest and paced along the edge of the camp. The sun was nearly about to set and Daryl hadn't returned yet. He had gone out at about nine that morning and there hadn't been hide nor hair of him since.

"Daryl Dixon, where on earth are you?" she muttered to herself. She tore herself away from her vigil because people were starting to look at her funny and she didn't feel like explaining anything at the moment so she busied herself with helping Lori cook dinner over the fire. Canned peas and leftover squirrel from the night before.

They had just gotten plates full and were passing them out when Daryl walked into the circle of tents. Carol found a weight fall off her shoulders and she sighed at the sight of him safe and sound. He caught her eye and she thought there was something different in his expression...like mischief or something.

"You look pleased as punch," Carol stated as he took his plate from Lori with a nod and sat on the stump next to her. "Have a good hunt?"

"You could say that," was all the reply she got before he started stuffing his face with dinner. Carol curled her lip in disgust as she watched him chew but she didn't press the matter, he would talk when he was ready and not before. That's just how Daryl was and she wouldn't want him any other way, really.

The group sat around the fire for a good long time into the night, chatting about anything and everything. At the moment, Andrea was sharing a story about a dress her mother made her when she was little that she accidently ruined because she was playing football with the boys in her neighborhood. It was all very amusing because Andrea acted out her mother's reaction.

"Andrea! I told you time and again to act like a young lady, not a complete savage!" Andrea stood up and stuck her stomach out as far as it would go, insinuating that her mother was a hefty woman.

The entire group burst into laughter and Carol noticed that even Daryl's lips quirked at the impression.

"God...I miss my mom," Andrea then said quietly, taking her seat and looking thoughtfully into the dying embers of the campfire. The mood dampened and silence fell over the group, the night sounds of the farm filled their ears but no one was really listening anymore...everyone was lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Glenn and Maggie made the first move and excused themselves to go off to the stables. Normally there would be some teasing directed at the pair because everyone knew what they did in those stables, but not this time. Carol was starting to feel stifled by the bleak atmosphere so she stood up and announced she was going to bed and, after waking Sophia who had fallen asleep on the ground with Carl, headed to the tent.

"I'll be back in a minute, sweetie," she said to Sophia as she kissed her goodnight. Sophia looked like she didn't even hear her, she just laid down in her sleeping bag and started snoring lightly in mere seconds. Carol smiled and backed out of the tent, grabbing her toothbrush from her bag. Her butt bumped into something, however, and she looked back to see Daryl standing there, looking down at where her rear end connected to his knees with an amused expression.

"Can I help you?" Carol asked, cocking her eyebrow in a "say something snarky, I dare you" kind of way.

"Just...checkin' on ya," Daryl replied simply.

"I'm just fine..." Carol wondered if he was going to clarify what exactly needed checking on. "I just was getting tired and I knew Sophia needed to get to sleep as well."

"Ok, good." was the only thing he said before he gave her a nod and started walking off toward his tent which was still a bit of a distance from the camp.

"Daryl?" Carol called out to him, even though she wasn't sure what to say. All she knew was she didn't want him to go just yet. "Uh...are we gonna forage at all tomorrow?"

Daryl seemed to consider this deeply for a moment before he shook his head.

"Naw, I got somethin' I need to do tomorrow," he replied, "But maybe the day after."

"Ok, good luck tomorrow with whatever you're doing," Carol knew he was tired from the way he was swaying slightly on his feet and how his eyes were starting to squint a little. "Get some sleep, you deserve it."

"Hell yeah I do. Providing for all ya'll is a never ending job!" Daryl mumbled as he turned and left the circle of tents.

But Carol knew he enjoyed every minute of providing for them.

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Carol spent the day with Maggie, sun drying the extra mushrooms from dinner as well as an abundance of tomatoes from the Herschel garden, washing all the girls' laundry, and also weeded said garden with Patricia and Beth.

She kept herself busy after those chores by doing some homework with Sophia and Carl. That was probably the hardest chore of them all...neither child felt like studying when the weather was this nice and they were all kinds of squirmy and distracted.

When Carl had finished his last math problem and Sophia had written the last part of her paper on Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, Carol finally said they could be done for the evening and they bolted like wild horses. She watched them run off and smiled widely when she saw Daryl's figure returning from the woods.

He walked into camp and tossed down his catches: three squirrels, a quail and a fox. Carol looked at the fox sadly, she had always loved the pretty creatures. But Daryl snapped her out of when he gently grabbed her elbow and tugged her towards the field.

"What?" Carol asked in surprise, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

Carol allowed him to lead her into the field and all the way through it to the edge of the woods. He finally let go of her arm and held up his hand for her to stop walking as he moved to stand next to a fallen log just outside of the trees.

"So um...close your eyes, I guess," he said, looking extremely nervous.

"Should I be worried?" Carol asked, but she closed her eyes all the same.

She heard him shuffling around a little bit and heard the soft crunching of the grass as he walked back to her, coming to a stop in front of her.

"Ok, you can look now."

So she opened her eyes and, at first, didn't register what it was in his hands. When it did register, she looked up into his eyes with awe and excitement.

Carol gingerly took the gift from him and ran her hand reverently along the length of it. It was a bow. It was made of some sort of white colored wood and was nearly as tall as she was, it had a black leather grip and there were intricate vines and leaves carved along the front of it. Carol turned it over and noticed, carved at the bottom on the back of it, her name carved in Daryl's handwriting.

"Oh Daryl..." she was breathless, unable to put into words how she felt at that moment. This was the single most beautiful thing she had ever been given in her life. He had spent the last two days working on this for her, putting his whole focus into every little detail and making it absolutely flawless.

"It's nothin'," Daryl said with a shrug.

Carol finally tore her gaze from the long bow and met his eyes. Careful not to hit him with it, but also with wreckless abandon, Carol flung her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep, heavy kiss. She felt his lips turn up into a smile before they reciprocated eagerly.

The feel of this man was something completely new and wonderful to Carol. He was solid and strong, nothing soft about him except for his lips as they trailed along her jaw and his hair as she twisted her fingers in. The scruff on his face scratched her cheek as his lips found their way behind her ear. Carol had never felt more alive and more aware than that moment as she drank in every little movement he made and all the ways his muscles twitched and moved under her hands as she ran them up under the front of his shirt, feeling the heat of his skin against her palms.

After what seemed to Carol far too short a time, Daryl kissed her lips once more and then pulled back to look at her face.

"Well...I guess maybe it's not nothin'," he said, grinning like crazy. "I should make you another one if this what it gets me."

"I'm not done thanking you for this one properly yet," Carol said with a wink and she thanked him quite a lot before Rick and Shane walked out of the woods on their way back from their patrol and they jumped apart awkwardly, both blushing like schoolchildren caught kissing behind the one room schoolhouse.

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There ya'll go :) I hope this reads as well as I intended it to. I thought it was a cute idea to provide Carol with a weapon of her own finally and a long bow is simple and believable. Now...she's gotta learn to shoot it properly ;)

Thanks all of you guys for your reviews, I love readin them! They encourage me to continue writing and know that people actually give a crap about the story.