I'm kind of sad. In about a week, this story will be over. I'm going to miss posting for this. I really hope I have another story finished before this one is over. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Chapter Seventy

Carol glared up at Merle as the nurses bustled around the room. "What the hell do you mean he isn't answering?"

Merle's eyes flicked to the door. "I got a hold of everybody else," he said lamely.

Her heart sank and all of her fears came flooding to the surface. This was just too much for him. She knew that there was something terribly wrong and that was why she had sent him away. She thought he needed to just take a breather and calm down. But it had been too much time already. He wasn't here and he wasn't answering anyone's calls.

"Stop," Merle snapped. "He'll be here. Last thing you told him was that everything was alright, right? He might have fallen asleep or he could be out at the garage with Randy. Just stop thinking what the hell you're thinking. It ain't right for you to think that shit and you know it. He deserves better than that."

She let his words sooth her but she saw it even in his eyes. There was something wrong. "If you know something, just tell me, Merle. I was letting it slide but I knew there was something going on with him when he left and I know that you know exactly what it is."

He shook his head, his expression grim. "Look, one thing at a time, alright? You're about to have a kid. Have the kid. After that, I'll tell you what you need to know."

"You'll tell me now!" She yelled, grimacing in pain. "Now," she said in a quieter voice. All of the nurses stopped to stare at her but she was beyond caring at the moment.

He sat down in the chair, rubbing his face with his hands before he finally looked at her. "Okay," he said. "Sophia wasn't answerin' her phone."

She nodded, refusing to let herself panic just yet.

"Damon found her car on the side of the road but she wasn't in it. That's all I know. I ain't been able to get a hold of him since."

Carol tried to sit up but a nurse gently pushed her back down with a hand on her shoulder. She felt her throat go dry. "Something happened to my daughter and you weren't going to tell me? What in the hell is wrong with you?" She breathed.

Merle shook his head. "Daryl is gonna find her. He'll figure out what's goin' on and he'll bring her here. You gotta believe that."

"Ed," she gasped. "He's probably been waiting for a chance to get us back for what we did. He could have taken her anywhere, Merle."

He grabbed her hand, squeezing hard and bringing her focus onto him. "Daryl is gonna find her."

Carol was about to say something but she was interrupted. "Mrs. Dixon?"

She looked up, her heart thundering in her chest and her hands shaking. It was her Doctor and if he was here it could only mean one thing. "Yes?"

"Would it be possible to talk to you alone for a few moments. It seems like things have progressed and we need to go over your options."

"What?" She blinked, unable to follow what he was saying when all she could think about was her daughter.

"We need to go through your options."

She looked at Merle but he was staring at the doctor, his face hard. "You can talk about options with me here. I ain't goin' no where."

"Merle, just go try to call him again, okay? It's okay," she managed, even though nothing was okay. She was about to have a baby, the father was gone and her daughter was missing and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

~H~

Some men had no concept of morals. Daryl wasn't one of those men. He knew the difference in right and wrong and even though he had usually walked a fine line between the two, he knew the difference. The line of morality that he walked now was much more broad than it had been a year ago. He knew that his actions effected those around him. He knew that he had to put the happiness and wants of other people before his own. But some men didn't know what it was like to care about someone other than themselves.

Daryl was going to kill people tonight. He was probably going to make it as painful as possible. But he still had a firm grip on his morals.

The men that had taken Sophia didn't walk a line between moral and immoral actions. They were self serving. They hid under the guise of revenge to inflict pain on others. Daryl didn't have to hide under a goddamn thing. He didn't have to go searching for excuses to kill. He had to be driven to that point. And that was okay with him. He wasn't going to lose any sleep over what he had to do. He would sleep just fine.

The only thing he felt remotely guilty about was letting Damon get himself mixed up in all of this. So far, the kid had never had to spill blood. But Daryl knew there was no turning back for him now. Daryl didn't give a fuck how young Damon and Sophia were, he knew those two kids loved each other. Daryl knew that if it was Carol in this position, it would take hells entire army to keep him away. So he would let the boy do what he needed to do. Besides, killing was a way of life for some of them. The cold truth was, some lives mattered more than others did. Sophia's life mattered more than the men that had taken her. She did to him and Damon anyway, so those men needed to be taken down.

He frowned when he went to unlock the garage door, just to find out that it was already unlocked. He hadn't seen any vehicles in the parking lot or parked out front. He pulled the gun he had tucked into the waistband of his jeans and opened the door slowly. The sound of music floated out from further in the room and then he spotted Randy's boots sticking out from under a 1947 Plymouth Coupe Woody that he'd been working on for the past few weeks. Buck already had a buyer that was willing to fork over almost one hundred grand for the thing so they were working hard.

Damon joined him, not even stopping before he headed to the wall where the guns were stored. Randy slid out from under the car, looked at Damon and then at Daryl and then jumped to his feet, wiping his hands on a rag that he seemed to pull out of thin air. Daryl moved quickly, taking whatever guns that Damon handed him. All of them were purchased illegally, all of them fully automatic.

"The hell are you two planning? A massacre?" Randy asked, leaning against the wall and watching Damon and Daryl gather everything up.

Daryl nodded. "Sophia's been taken. You feel like taking a trip to the past?"

Randy frowned but he grabbed a gun himself. "What are you talkin' about, boy?"

Daryl started grabbing boxes of ammo. "Remember that old clubhouse right outside of Comer? The one Buck went and tore all to shit?"

Randy's one eye went hard and he nodded, his lips forming a thin line. "That where she is?"

Daryl nodded. He hoped that was where she was anyway. If not then that was where they had left her phone and then they moved on with her. If that was the case it would take him a long time to find her. He didn't have time. He didn't know what they were doing to her and it was hard for him to keep his mind from going there.

"Last we heard of those fella's they were just a little group of wannabe assholes. They don't have any pull because they never had a foundation. Buck destroyed that group. What the hell are they doing pulling some shit like this?"

Daryl led them out to the car and they climbed in. "Revenge. I don't know. It don't make any damn sense. What happened to them happened a long time ago. I thought all the bad ones were dead. All that was left was a name of a club with no members. What I'm worried about though, what I can't get outta my head is, what if that club Dave's cousins came from joined forces? What if they decided it was high time we paid for taking them all out."

"But why the girl? And why now? All those years ago and now they make their move? That club Dave was affiliated with ain't shit. They don't have numbers like us."

Daryl shook his head. "I don't know. I don't care. I just gotta get her back and they better hope to God they haven't touched her."

Damon made a strangled sound in the back seat. "Jesus Christ, don't say that."

Daryl glanced up in the mirror, his stomach turning. "We don't know what's goin' on. You be prepared to find her in a heap of trouble, boy. The important thing is, you keep your head. You go in their half cocked then you'll end up dead."

Daryl saw Randy shake his head and make a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He didn't want the man involved. If it was up to him it would just be him going out there. But he knew there would be no talking them into sitting this out. Ever since the night those men stormed his house and done what they had done to his mom, Randy had been a brother to Buck. He had lost his own brother, and his eye, when he had tried to save them and now he was going to stand by Daryl and walk right into the lions den.

But that was the thing about men like Daryl and Randy. Like Buck and Merle and Damon. They were capable of committing great acts of violence, sure, but strangely, they did it out of love and loyalty. This group that had taken Sophia had no idea what Daryl was capable of. What any of them were capable of. They probably thought they knew but they couldn't. If they did they never would have risked this.