"How the hell did you know how to do that? Blow the whole damn place up?" Daryl looked at her like she were a comic book hero come to life and she laughed to relive some of the tension that had started to grow. "Seriously, it was spooky timing too. They were about to kill us."
Carol shrugged, "Watched too many cartoons as a kid I guess." She squeaked as he wrapped her into a tight embrace again, "People are going to start talking if you keep grabbing me like that."
"Let them. I've seen too much to care." He let her go though, glancing back at the rest of the group. Everyone was still sorting themselves out, trying to determine what they had and what they might want to start looking for. Food was at the top of everyone's list, he was sure, and having the crossbow back was going to make that one thing that he could actually accomplish.
He couldn't stop himself from looking back to Carol though. "You saved us. I can see what happened when you were out there with Tyreese and Judith. You saved them too, didn't you?"
Carol suddenly looked solemn. "Not all of them. Lizzie and Mika were with him when I first found them. He didn't know what Rick had done to me, he just thought that it was lucky to cross paths." She hesitated and then looked him in the eyes, "I told Tyreese about what I did, back at the prison. It was after we lost Lizzie and her sister. He could have done something, but he chose not to. I gave him the gun, and he forgave me instead."
Daryl looked at her and then back at Tyreese. The man was holding the baby as Rick and Carl sorted through their pockets and the few things they pulled out with them while leaving Terminus. He didn't feel like joking around anymore. "You did what you felt was right. We've all been in that position before. Some of us just get more free passes."
She followed his gaze toward Rick and Carl and reached out to touch his arm, "Maybe, but that's the past. We have to move on, together. Rick seems to have forgiven me too, if that hug was anything to go by, and that was before he knew we had Judith. We're all alive, together, and are even stronger with the people you managed to pick up along the way to Terminus. We'll survive."
Daryl shook his head in disbelief, still frowning, "I can't believe you saved us. I didn't think that I'd ever see you again, and if you ever let someone push you away like that again, there will be more than words about it. I'll be going with you."
"Daryl, they need you." Carol found her hand straying to her knife, her small pack, as though reassuring herself that it was all still there.
"They need you too, even if they don't always remember that. I need you here with us. You'd better not forget that." Daryl took her arm again, "Come on, you should get some water before it's all gone."