A/N SOoooooo sorry that this is so late. Things have been a little crazy this week. This chapter came out pretty good I think, lots of Sam/Daryl time. Next chapter is all me, so we'll see how that goes. Much loves, keep the reviews coming! 3

"Hey Sam," Carl asks, catching up with her "Have you seen my mom anywhere?"

"No, kiddo. Not in a while. Why, what's up?" Sam asks, crouching to be on eye level with him.

"I usually don't go this long without seeing her, and I saw her going to your camp," he says "I thought, maybe you had seen her."

"I haven't, but maybe Daryl has. I'll go talk to him, you go get ready for dinner, ok?" Sam pats his shoulder as he nods and turns to go into the house.

Sam approaches the fire, not having seen Daryl since the incident at the RV "Have you seen Lori?"

"No. Why?" Daryl asks, hardly giving her any of his attention.

"Nobody's seen her in a while, and Carl said she was headed up here."

"Dumb bitch probably went into town on her own. She came up here asking me to go find Hershel and Rick. Told her I was done looking for people."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Sam asks, a little surprised.

"I didn't figure she'd actually do it." he shrugs.

Sam walks back to the house in the fading afternoon to deliver the news.

In spite of himself, Daryl watches her walk away before heading into the woods to get his own dinner, like usual. He grits his teeth against the pain from the stitches and goes just a little deeper into the woods, glad that the noise from the cicadas helps mask his louder than normal trek. None of the squirrels seem very wary of his presence and make fast kills.

The anger starts to bubble up inside him. All Carol had to o was keep an eye on her damn daughter and none of this would be happening. They wouldn't be burying the little girl he failed to find and he wouldn't be sitting in the woods, breathing through his teeth as the stitches tug on the still tender skin.

The night deepens the shadows around him. He double checks the bolts, making sure he's still got them all, grabs his string of squirrels and goes back to camp. Sam comes up to their camp. He sees her stop at the line he hung up, looking at the hanging squirrels and walker ears.

"What?" he asks roughly.

"I'm just worried about you."

"Don't fuckin bother. I don't need you, or anyone else looking out for me." he starts walking away.

"Don't pull away, and don't pretend you don't care." Sam follows after him "You earned your place here, you tried harder than anyone to find Sophia. I know that. Finding her meant a lot to everyone."

"Don't give me that bull shit. Needing to earn my place. You gonna make this about my daddy? Some crap like that? Sophia wasn't mine! I didn't care!" he waves off towards the house "Carol's the one who's all alone now, why don't you go comfort her?"

"Because she's already coping with this. You're not!" Sam yells at him, her Boston accent starting to come out strong, "I don't know what you're doing, but it's not healthy. And you need to fuckin stop."

He stares at her, almost shaking with anger, and snarls "You're right, you don't know. But if you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut."

"Why? You wanna hit me? Go ahead." she says with an angry smile "You see how long it takes me to hit you back. You need to scream at someone, vent it all out, fine. You need to throw a couple punches, do it. You do whatever it takes for you to get over this. But I'm not letting you pull away, I'm not losing you."

"Why do you even care so much?" his anger starts to drain away.

"Because I need you." she says, tears forming in her eyes. "I can't do this on my own."

"You got the group. You don't need me, like they don't need me." he tries to stay angry, knowing anger makes everything easier.

Sam sighs with a slight smile "Now who's the one who doesn't get it? Rick put you in charge of the search for Sophia."

"An look how well that turned out." he replies sarcastically.

"Point is, he trusted you, not just that you're a tracker and know the woods, but that you could go out on you own and keep your shit together."

He shrugs, all the anger gone.

"And me, I never would have had a chance without you. I never could have made it to Atlanta. I probably would have died at the house if you weren't there. I didn't have it in me to kill Chris. And you've pretty much kept me sane this whole time." she sways on her feet, the whole day finally catching up with her "But I need to get some sleep before I fall over."

The next morning Daryl is still trying to figure out how much of what Sam said is true, while everyone else is preparing to go into town and try to find Rick, Glen and Hershel, who still haven't come back. He's never had anyone make him feel like a part of anything. Never really had anyone want him to stick around.

Daryl spots the old blazer coming up the road to the farm "Hey. Looks like they're back."

Sam stands by the window in the living room, listening to them try to work out what to do with the kid they brought back with them. The poor kid is probably barely old enough to drink, and they're all sitting around talking about him like he's an animal. Rick is convinced that if they just drive him far enough out, he won't cause any trouble.

She tries to stay focused on the conversation, but her mind keeps wandering back to her conversation with Daryl, hoping she was able to get through to him. He has been ignoring her all morning, but just the fact that he's standing in the living room with all of them, gives her hope that he won't pull away from the group anymore.