Song of the Day: Crazy Ex Girlfriend- Miranda Lambert.
Sorry these updates are taking so long, guys! I've got the whole thing in my mind but my head hasn't been in the writing mood lately so I'm doing one chapter at a time in all four current stories. But hopefully I'll get in the mood again soon and I'll start pumping them out again :)
Thanks to all my readers who are faithful to review and willing to give their input, and thanks to all of you who are reading that I don't know about, you all make it worth the time :)
TWDTWDTWDTWDTWD (Whole new pov!)
Carol had been in the bathroom for hours. Andrea had come in from walking the perimeter after she'd traded with T-Dog and found the woman curled on the floor next to the toilet, her face pale and sweaty and she was shivering on the cold tile.
"Oh, Carol..." Andrea sighed, she was so bad at this comforting thing. She knelt next to the crumpled woman and lifted her head to look at her face. Tear streaks lined her face and Andrea thought she looked years older than she should, her hair was sticking out like she'd been clutching at it.
"Andrea, I..."Carol started to whisper but she choked up and hung her head back down.
"Carol, they'll get Sophia back," Andrea claimed, completely believing her words. "Those men won't give up. Daryl will track them down and they'll bring her back."
"I keep telling myself that," Carol whispered, putting her hands flat on the floor and pushing herself into a sitting position. Andrea's eyes then noticed the dark bruise that covered a large portion of the left side of the woman's face and her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped sharply.
"Carol," Andrea breathed in disbelief, "What happened to you?"
"Nothing," Carol replied sharply, "It doesn't matter. I just want my daughter back."
"Doesn't matter?!" Andrea's reply may have been a bit sharp, but she knew Carol was good at hiding things. "Carol, someone hit you and I'm not going to just let that slide...who did it?"
Carol's bottom lip quivered for a moment before she suddenly let out a broken sob.
"It was Daryl, wasn't it?" Andrea asked grimly, her jaw clenched tightly when Carol confirmed her suspicion with a nod.
"Carol, honey, would you please come on downstairs and try to eat something?" Lori's voice interrupted the moment and Andrea glanced over her shoulder to find Lori looking at them sheepishly from the doorway.
Carol sighed heavily, but nodded. Andrea helped her stand up and they all made their way downstairs together. Patricia had a package of saltine crackers in her hand and she poured some into a bowl and handed it to Carol who took it with a nod of thanks before sitting down heavily in a kitchen chair. Andrea noticed how her eyes fixed purposely on the floor as she avoided everyone's eyes.
How could that be true? Daryl would never hit her, would he? There was no doubt in Andrea's mind that the man was head over heels in love with Carol, one hundred percent devoted to keeping her happy and safe. She'd seen him go against everything about his personality to please her...but why would Carol lie about it? She loved the man more than the sun and stars and she'd never pin something like this on him if it wasn't the truth.
"Let me see that bruise, Carol," Maggie said softly, bringing Andrea back to the present. Maggie was squatting next to the chair, holding a cold, wet rag against Carol's cheek. "Good Lord, that's really swollen. He must have really laid into you."
"Brute," Patricia muttered darkly from the sink.
"Animal," Lori hissed in agreement. Carol's pained expression didn't escape Andrea's calculating gaze and she decided she needed to get both sides of this story. She would never condone abuse no matter what had happened, but she knew Daryl and there was something off about all this. Carol was too distressed to even explain the situation.
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Andrea stepped out into the chilly evening air as T-Dog was coming in. He handed her the rifle and told her there was nothing to report so she thanked him and headed toward the field. She passed Carl and Beth who were sitting together on the log, watching the driveway anxiously for the return of the search party. Carl had two things to worry about: his father being out on the search AND Sophia being taken.
Andrea sighed and made her way to the fence line to walk it and keep watch for anything suspicious, her mind was going one hundred miles per hour as she tried to reason out the events of the morning. Who would kidnap a little girl and just leave a grown man knocked out without either taking him too or killing him to keep him quiet? Where could they possibly be hiding? Why had Daryl stooped so low as to hit Carol? What had she done to deserve it? Would they find Sophia?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the roar of a familiar engine and she scanned the tree line once more before heading back towards the farm to greet the men who were returning from their man hunt. Daryl was the first to arrive, skidding to a stop near the porch and kicking the kick stand down with a fierce scowl before he cut the engine.
"Daryl?" Andrea asked quietly, not even bothering to put too many words into the question. She got her answer just from the look in his eyes...they hadn't brought her back. He sniffed and turned to go inside and she followed him quietly.
Andrea felt the air in the kitchen tense immensely as soon as Daryl stepped onto the tile. Maggie's eyes narrowed, Lori's chest puffed out angrily, Patricia turned and leaned against the sink with her arms crossed. Only Carol looked remotely glad to see him, but she soon dropped her head and avoided his eyes when she saw his expression. Andrea knew they were all pissed at him because of what he'd done to Carol, but Andrea felt a bubbling of anger towards the prickly women in this kitchen all of the sudden. Yes, it was terrible if it was true what he did, but there was no reason to treat him like this, especially since she KNEW he was hurting just as much as anyone, Sophia was his daughter too.
"I...we..." he stuttered, his eyes wide as he took in the three angry faces before him. "I couldn't..."
"Daryl," Andrea said softly, carefully placing her hand on his shoulder. She wasn't surprised when he flinched before he tensed and let her touch him, "Come on, you don't need to take this."
She practically felt the three pairs of eyes burning into her back as she gently turned Daryl by his shoulder and pushed him toward the door, but she didn't give a shit what they thought. Someone needed to get both sides of this story and no matter what the man had done, Daryl wasn't the enemy here.
"I'm sorry, Daryl," she said softly as he drug himself down the porch steps and swung a leg heavily over his motorcycle. "I really want to talk to you, if that's alright?"
"Can it wait a little bit?" his voice surprised her. It was choked, thick with emotion and Andrea thought she heard it crack at the end.
"Take as long as you need," Andrea said with a nod. "And Daryl!"
He hesitated his escape and set his feet down to come to a complete stop and looked over his shoulder, waiting for her to finish.
"I know you'll find her. You found her once, you'll do it again."
And he graced her with the saddest, most pathetic half smile she'd ever seen before he kicked the engine alive and took off across the field towards his and Carol's tent. Andrea thought she'd never seen a man look so much like a damn abused puppy as Daryl did at that moment.
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Andrea offered to take the night watch while everyone else got some much needed sleep. There had been a long discussion when all the men had returned and the whole thing had only succeeded in making Carol cry even harder and dampen everyone's spirits. They'd tracked the tire treads and they'd led to a camp in a gorge...there had been too many men to even consider launching an attack. They were working on a plan to approach them diplomatically so as not to jeopardize the safety of the entire group. The heavy tension in the house mad Andrea thankful for the night shift on watch and only after the house was completely dark and silent did Daryl Dixon come walking across the field, slowly, head hung low.
Andrea kept her eyes on the tree line as she felt him climb up onto the RV roof with her, silent as a shadow but his movements much heavier than normal and not at all calculating.
"Did they tell you what we found?" he asked, breaking the silence between them as he sat on the roof next to her lawn chair. She looked down at him and nodded.
"Yeah," she whispered sadly, "Are you sure they've got Sophia?"
Daryl nodded grimly.
"If they hurt her..." he started, a bit of that old fire flaring up in his deep growl. But then he sighed and shook his head. "I'll kill 'em, all of 'em. But it's going to be on my shoulders...this is all my fault."
Andrea waited for him to continue, knowing that Daryl Dixon responded better to silent kindness than any words she could really say at this point. However, she did slide down off the chair to sit next to him at his level.
"I'm...I don't know what to do anymore, Andrea," Daryl confessed after a long period of silence, "I've screwed everything up in just one fucking day! My daughter got kidnapped and Carol..."
He swallowed hard and looked away, blinking rapidly as he tried to hold back the tears forming in his eyes, but Andrea could see the shimmer of them on his eyelashes from the moonlight.
"I wanted to ask you about that," she admitted quietly, "I...I know you hit her."
Daryl nodded, looking absolutely miserable.
"I just want to hear your side of things, Daryl," Andrea assured him, "I know you'd never do that unless...I don't even know what could have made you do that, actually. But I just think someone should be willing to give you a chance to defend yourself."
"I don't even wanna defend myself," Daryl muttered sadly, "It don't matter what she did, I...that was..."
And he finally broke, he pulled his knees up and leaned his forehead down onto them as his entire body shook with effort of holding back the tears but it was futile because Andrea's ears were flooded with the sound of Daryl Dixon, badass, unbreakable Daryl Dixon's, helpless crying. She was so shocked she didn't even know what to do at first so she resorted to her womanly failsafe and wrapped her arms around his shoulder in a tight hug. She held on until he shrugged her off and looked up again.
"She was right," he whispered, "It was my fault. I should have kept her safe. I...I wasn't watching close enough. I couldn't even keep her safe so how can I possibly keep Carol safe too? Look what I fuckin' did to her!"
"Daryl..." Andrea gasped lightly, horrified by the things he was saying, knowing he was only spouting back what Carol had said to him earlier that day. She waited for that one thing she must have said that had made him fly off the handle.
"I'm not good enough for them," Daryl continued miserably, "All I am is just...a complete failure. Carol sees that, all those women in there see it too...my mother saw it."
Andrea wasn't expecting that one, she sensed it was an important statement but she couldn't piece it together. His mother?
"How can I ever look Carol in the face again, Andrea?" Daryl whispered, sounding drained and tired, "I can't even imagine how she's feeling right now. Everyone was right all along...I am just like Ed."
"Now you hush your fuckin' mouth, Daryl Dixon," Andrea stated firmly, her hand went to his chin and she tilted his head in her direction. "You're nothing like Ed! NOTHING! You think he'd even give a shit if Sophia was missing? Would he be making any effort to rescue her? Would he feel at all guilty about hitting Carol? No, he wouldn't. YOU do because YOU love them like he NEVER did. Do not let yourself believe that you don't."
Daryl squinted at her sadly and sighed, clearly not convinced.
"And Carol loves you too," Andrea claimed, letting go of his jaw. "She feels terrible about whatever she said. I heard her tell Maggie she wished she could take it all back. She feels exactly the same way you do right now. Scared, unsure, afraid you hate her now...I KNOW you both can fix this."
"I'm going to get her," Daryl suddenly stated, almost as if he was ignoring her statements. "Andrea, I'm going to get Sophia back tomorrow morning before anyone else wakes up. Diplomacy be damned, I'm going in there and I'm getting her back. Ain't no point in risking anyone else's safety."
"Daryl, I think..."
"Don't tell," Daryl warned darkly, "I'm tired of this sittin' around and planning shit, that's what got her lost the first time and I ain't letting it go that long again. Just...do me a favor?"
Andrea knew there was no stopping him. He was going to go no matter what.
"Anything," she sighed sadly.
"Just...let Carol know...in case I don't come back, that...I'm so sorry and I...I love her."
"You'll come back," Andrea insisted, "But I'll tell her anyway, just because she needs to know it."
Daryl nodded and stood abruptly and walked towards the ladder, leaving Andrea sitting on the roof in stunned silence.
"Andrea," his quiet voice drifted from the ladder, "Thanks for...for believing I ain't a total piece of shit."
Andrea nodded with a smile and Daryl was gone, heading back to his tent to get much needed rest before he went after his daughter in the morning. She watched him go with a soft smile...there was so much more to that man than even he knew.
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Sorry this one's kind of short, but it was an important transitional chapter and I didn't want to get into the next part of it until I started a new chapter.
Love to all my readers, ya'll are boss :) You know what's also pretty boss? Reviews!