Newly Revised

Daryl was confused by Tea's behavior as she refused to accept his help and only offered him a cold shoulder as they watched Beth walk up to the dead sobbing her eyes out. Tea was watching the girl carefully when she started moving the dead off one particular walker. She had just started to move the walker's head onto her lap when it started moving again and trying to get at the young girl. Most of the others ran to her, including Shane and Rick, trying to pull her out of the walker's grip. Tea had noticed it several times, however, that the walkers were stronger than they looked once they had a hold of someone. Everyone pulling at the girl and trying to kick the walker away just made it harder for her to get a good aim, but as soon as she did get an opening, when Maggie, Glenn, and Andrea finally moved, she lobbed a knife right into the walker's head between the others. Half of them looked at her like she was insane as Hershel and Maggie taking Beth back to the house with Patricia, Jimmy, and Glenn while Rick and Shane followed behind. Shane was still hollering about the barn full of walkers and how Hershel knew they'd bust through eventually, that he had been trying to kill them all. Tea just stood there, still not looking at anyone as they began talking about the walkers in general.

"You want us to start burying?" T-Dog asked him.

"We need a service. Hershel would want that," Andrea said.

"Yeah, we all want that," T-Dog responded.

"How the fuck do any a ya know 'bout what the man wants?" Tea spat at them all. "Ain' a single fuckin' one a ya that actually gives two shites 'bout otha people. All a ya only fuckin' care 'bout yaselves."

The gasps from some of the group at what she said wasn't surprising to her. She'd seen it from the quarry how most of the people only thought about themselves. Even the ones who thought about others were more concerned for themselves than anyone around them. Hell, she'd thought Daryl was different with how he had gone hunting all the time, damn near every day, just to keep the camp fed. And yet he'd still decided that instead of letting her help them with the walkers, he'd shove her back so that he could do it himself. She didn't need to be taken care of and the last thing she'd needed was to be seen as some kid that couldn't do anything for herself. Tea shook her head and spat on the ground before turning and heading back to the camp. The last thing she wanted to do right now was deal with anybody, especially right now with her ankle throbbing all over again. It had finally gotten to the point she was mostly able to walk on it and now she was back on her tip-toe hobbling about. As far as she was concerned, they could all fuck off for the time being until she had a chance to calm down and think rationally. Tea knew that if she ended up talking to anyone right now, especially Daryl, she was going to blow a fuse and say something she couldn't take back. So instead of sticking around, she hobbled into hers and Daryl's tent and grabbed her small bag, perfectly content with her decision to find some place quiet to sit and smoke and calm down. Fate was not smiling down upon her, though, as Daryl stormed back up to camp and grabbed a hold of the bag, attempting to yank it from her hand.

"What're you doin'?" he asked her, not really wanting her to get high when she'd been off the stuff for a week now.

"Gettin' the fuck away from ya!" she shot at him angrily, pulling the bag back only for Daryl to all but rip it from her hand.

"The fuck's wrong with you, now?" Daryl asked.

"Ya, ya fuckin' prick!" Tea shouted at him while turning around only to his and stumble a bit before catching herself and taking as much weight off her ankle as possible.

"Your ankle's fuckin' busted! What would have happened if we couldn't keep it under control, huh?!" he yelled back, just as angry as she was now. "What the hell was I s'pposed to do? Let you get yourself killed?"

"So ya fuckin' shove me hard 'nough ta push me down?! Hurt my ankle again?! That's the right thing ta do 'stead a jus' fuckin' askin'?! Fuck ya, Daryl! Ya had nah right ta do that! None!"

"I have every fuckin' right to protect you, dammit! That's what you said when you knocked Merle out, right? So why's this any different from that?" Daryl shot at her, his face going blank when she gritted her next words out.

"I didn' fuckin' put my hands on you or hurt you. That's how it's fuckin' different, asshole," she said while turning and storming off as best she could with her ankle like it was.

Daryl still had her bag and the only place she could think to go to get away from the rest of their group as well as Daryl was the farmhouse. Her ankle was sore by the time she'd gotten to the stairs of the porch only for her to trip up the damn things and put her full weight on it to keep herself upright. When she cried out because of the momentary pain, Patricia came to the door and went to help her inside. The thing was, Tea had felt her ankle pop all over again and some of the pressure she'd felt, the throbbing, immediately subsided. She rolled her ankle in order to see if there was anything else wrong with only for it to pop a couple more times and more pressure to be relieved. It was still tender to put weight on, but it wasn't necessarily painful anymore. Still, Tea let Patricia help her the rest of the way up the steps and through the house to the sitting room.

"Shouldn't be on that ankle so much," she said as she helped Tea sit down. "We've got some ibuprofen. It should take the swelling down and make the pain manageable."

"I think I'm alright. Ta be honest, I think Daryl and Hershel didn' manage ta fully put it back in place. When ya found me on the porch, I'd took a bit a a tumble and it popped some more. Feels a whole lot betta, honestly," she told the older lady as she gave her a motherly look that she actually didn't mind since it was a normal thing to worry about. "Look, uh, I'm sorry 'bout what happened at the barn. I didn' know y'all had people in there."

"Not your fault. You didn't even fire on them."

"I would a if Daryl hadn' a pushed me back," Tea told her heatedly. "It's absolute bullshite what 'e did, but I am sorry the people ya knew and loved were in there and that ya had ta see it happen like that. It wasn' right, what happened."

"It was kind of eye opening, to be honest," was her response.

"The one that tried ta kill Beth?"

"Yeah, that was her momma. Woman loved Beth to death. Would never allow harm to come to her. I never realized –" Patricia trailed off.

"I get it, I do. I could hardly believe what was happenin' at first, but I had ta adjust even if I don' like it much. Anyway, if ya need someone ta talk ta, I know I don' look or sound like much, but I was a shrink a sorts 'fore all this happened."

"Really?"

"Yeah, forensic psychologist, but still need ta know how ta talk ta people and help 'em work through trauma," she said as a loud crash was heard from elsewhere in the house.

"Maggie?!" Patricia shouted.

"It's Beth!" came the reply as Tea followed Patricia through the house.

Patricia started through the house with Tea hot on her trail until they got into the kitchen. There was ceramic everywhere from the broken dishes and Beth was lying in the middle of it completely unresponsive. Maggie was fussing around trying not to step on the fragments while also trying to get to Beth. Glenn and Tea worked together to scoop the girl up and take her upstairs to her room. While they were walking, Tea kept a close eye on the girl who was staring into space without blinking and unaware of the situation around her. She wasn't responding to any external stimuli even as they laid her on the bed and Maggie started trying to get her to talk, look at her, do anything but stare at the ceiling. Lori came running up the stares after hearing from Glenn what had happened trying to figure out what was wrong with the girl herself, but how was a housewife supposed to know what akinetic catatonia was, let alone how to treat it without Hershel around? On top of that, how was she supposed to help the girl through the trauma of losing the people she thought were just sick on top of the near death experience she'd had at the hands of her own walker mother? Lori wasn't equipped to deal with the situation in the slightest, but that didn't stop Maggie from looking to her when she came into the room.

"Sweetie, can you hear me?" Maggie asked. "What's wrong with her?"

"She might be in shock. Where's Hershel?" the woman responded.

"Nah 'might be' 'bout it. She is in a catatonic shock. Keep 'er warm, but keep 'er clothin' loose. Stay with 'er 'til she comes out a it. She should be fine, jus' can' process everythin' that happened taday. Watch for a feva and use a cool cloth ta keep it unda control if one develops," Tea said.

"How do you know that?" Lori asked, Maggie looking at her in suspicion while Patricia went and got what she needed to do what Tea'd recommended.

"I was a damn psychologist, Lori! How many times I am I goin' ta have ta fuckin' say it? Might a been mostly centa'd around law, but we still had ta know what ta look for in patients and how ta treat 'em! Especially if ya dealin with the victims or the more traumatized inmates! When ya got generally nice people who have violent experiences bein' asked ta try remembarin' it all, sometimes they go inta shock like this, where it's driven more by a shutdown a the brain caused by emotional disturbance. As their shrink, I had ta know how ta help 'em through it. Do ya even know what the state she's in is called? Nah! 'Cause ya ain' trained ta!" Tea practically shouted at her, thoroughly sick of her attitude before turning to Maggie with a gentler tone. "She jus' needs rest for the time bein'. Ya should stay with 'er and if she don' wake up, feed 'er honeyed milk by the slow spoonful ta keep 'er from gettin' too weak. I can make 'er some tea ta help calm 'er mind down, get 'er ta relax a bit, if ya'd like?"

"Are you sure she's gonna be alright?" Maggie asked in concern for her sister.

"I ain' promisin' nothin'. Depends on how long it takes for 'er brain ta go back ta makin' 'er neurotransmittas propaly. That's why I said ya should stay with 'er. Make sure she don' take a turn for the worse while we're waitin' for ya daddy ta get 'ere. In the mean time, I'm goin' ta make ya some tea ta help ya calm down."

"Thank you," Maggie told her, turning over to Lori and asking if she could find her dad.

It didn't take too long for them all to find out that Hershel wasn't in the house, let alone on the farm. Lori, Shane, Glenn, Maggie, and Rick were upstairs in Hershel's bedroom trying to figure out where he might have gone. Tea didn't pay too much attention to that, and instead asked Patricia if they kept a fresh herb garden on the farm so she could help Maggie. She took her outside and to a patch not too far away and tried to tell her what was what only to look behind her and see Tea already pinching leaves off some of the lemon balm and mint. Tea turned toward the flower bed afterwards and plucking some of the echinacea, lavender, and chamomile flowers off the stems, asking Patricia to help her hold everything before plucking some more. She let her know that if they were kept in a glass jar she would be able to make fresh tea for her and Maggie for the next few days, and adding some to the milk and honey mixture would help Beth relax as well. Patricia offered to watch her make it, Tea gladly taking her up on her offer and admitting it would be easier for someone else to know it for when they needed it. She made a cup for Maggie and one for Patricia, telling her she needed sleep or her health would deteriorate, even though she knew she was being a hypocrite in saying it.

After she double-checked on Beth and made sure Maggie was feeling a lot better, Tea headed back out of the house. She wanted to apologize for blowing up at Daryl and calling him an asshole when he really was just looking out for her. Yeah, he didn't need to shove her like he had, but in that moment, in that situation, she wouldn't have been able to control her strength either. He probably hadn't meant to push her down like he had any more than she had meant to blame him or blow up at him. An irrational moment of quick decisions on both their parts had led to a stupid fight over nothing. If she had to be completely honest with herself, it was the shock of being pushed by Daryl in particular that had her pissed off. She knew it was stupid and that he was nothing like her family but at the same time she hadn't been able to keep those memories from bubbling up in the moment. After the fact, well, that had been a simple matter of pride, and honestly, he'd had the same reaction to her knocking Merle out. They were two peas of the same damn pod and it had never been clearer to her than this morning. The only problem was that Daryl, their tent, and his bike were no where to be found.

~x~

Daryl stood there watching Tea slowly make her way up to the farmhouse with a sour look on his face. He'd pushed her back just to keep her safe and hadn't even realized she'd fallen so hard until her turned around and saw her with a dirty look on her face and she'd smacked his hand away when he'd offered to help her up. She was right that she hadn't hurt him when she'd protected him, but he hadn't meant to hurt her when he'd done it. They hadn't know how many walkers were in that barn and on top of that, like she'd said herself, most of the others were amateurs who were still learning how to aim properly. He went over to his tent and threw the damn bag back in it before turning back to make sure Tea had actually made it to the farmhouse. Daryl watched as she tripped up the stairs and thought it served her right for walking on her ankle so much just because she was pissed off. Stopping to think about it, though, she really could have helped in taking out the walkers and all he really needed to do to protect her was keep himself in front of her enough to be able to grab her and run if they'd needed to. He was still standing there scowling as the girl came back out of the house with the older lady and began rummaging around the garden. It depend when Tea didn't even look his way once while she was outside before she went back in with a giant smile on her face. Lori and Carol gave him sympathetic looks when they followed his gaze only for him to scoff and head back into the tent. He tried to lay down to get some rest, determined to wait until she got back, when he realized that she hadn't really been angry about the fact that he had wanted her to stay back. Tea was angry that he had hurt her to get what he wanted; her parents had hurt her constantly to get what they wanted and while he hadn't meant to hurt her, he still had. Daryl cursed as he got up and started packing up the tent, throwing most of their things into the few bags they had and breaking down the tent. No one understood his girl like he did, and he had a feeling there would be a lot more heated words passed between the two. If it was going to be that way, he wasn't about to deal with more looks from the others just because they were at odds and needed to work their shit out.

He knew exactly where he'd gone wrong in how he'd handled the situation at the barn. While she had gotten used to feeling safe when she was with him, she was still very much so affected by the way she had been raised to the point of mistrusting everyone who hurt her. Where he had been protected for a time by his mother and Merle, she'd been abused by her entire family her entire life. Where he was taught how to hunt by Merle as soon as he could hold a bow, she'd gone hungry for years due to simple neglect. His entire life was a living hell where he knew exactly where his place in life was while hers was colored with confusion due to times where she was shown the affection she should have gotten. Everyone knew that Will Dixon was a drunk and a bastard that abused his kids, they just did nothing about it but talk behind his back out of fear of what he might do to them. Everyone praised Tea's parents for how good they were with their kids and how proud they were, all in front of Tea who would be covered in unseen bruises. They lived parallel lives, and while he was sure he wasn't any of those neurodiverse things Tea went on about, they had similar survival tactics and emotional roadblocks thanks to their childhoods. Daryl knew that she was strong and had overcome a lot of the childhood trauma she had experienced at the hands of her family, but there were some things that still lingered. The fear of rejection and being hurt by the people she cared about were right at the top of that list and he was pretty sure he'd crossed both those lines without thinking.

As he waited for Tea to find where he had gone off to He was sitting watching the house while sharpening sticks that would make decent bolts when Lori walked up and quipped,

"Moving to the suburbs? Listen, according to Tea, Beth's in some sort of catatonic state. We need Hershel."

"Yeah, so what?" he spat at her.

"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back," she told him, as if he was obligated to do as she said. "Daryl?"

He looked at her before going back to where he'd been sitting and plopping down, grabbing his knife and the stick, thoroughly pissed at how she was expecting him to do what she wanted. Ever since the beginning, they'd sat there and acted like they had the right to tell him what to do and where to go. They'd been depending on him to get meat for their group but they never once actually accepted him or his brother as a part of it. It had been even worse for Tea, who everyone treated like some kind of ghost until she had an outburst due to how Shane and Lori treated her. Then they would blame her and judge her for the way she reacted to the man while pretending he had done nothing wrong. That alone had Daryl pissed off, but for Lori to walk up and basically tell him he had to go looking for Rick and the others was just bullshit and made the words he'd hallucinated Merle saying. The only one in the entire group that gave a damn about him anymore and wasn't trying to get something out of him he wasn't willing to give was Tea. And thanks to the day's events, even she was pissed at him, making him unsure if she still held him in the same regards as she had before. That worsened his mood exponentially as Lori stared at him expectantly even though he was making it pretty damn clear he wasn't going to do what she wanted him to.

"Your bitch went window-shopping. You want him? Fetch him yourself. I got better things to do. Don't even think 'bout askin' Ania either. Dumb broad shouldn't even be walkin' on that ankle," he told her, thinking about how he had to talk to Tea and not wanting either of them to leave the farm until they had the chance.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked incredulously. "Why would you be so selfish?"

"Selfish?" he asked while standing up again and turning on her, his anger getting the better of him. "Listen to me, Olive Oyl. I was out there lookin' for them girls every single day. I lost Ania for four fuckin' days and took an arrow in the process. She busted her ankle and took a bullet, riskin' her life and her health to keep that little girl safe and not one of you even cares about that! Shane sits there and acts like she's some burden on y'all and you guys act like she's someone you can't trust, yet she keeps that girl safe and it don't change a damn thing! You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride! I'm done playin' errand boy," he said as he sat back down. "And don't even think about askin' Ania to go. Dumb broad shouldn't even be walkin' on that ankle."

~x~

She was near the butcher shed when a pit formed in her stomach. My spidey senses are tinglin', she thought to herself, letting out a stupid giggle. The fight in her had gone out without tears thanks to Beth's state of shock and now she was left feeling giddy as hell. The adrenaline the emotional spike had given her had yet to be absorbed and negated, leaving her in a silly state. There were few times where she turned giddy, but without a doubt, any time she was angry and got distracted from it, she would be a giggling mess of energy and happiness for a while afterwards. It was a result of the rush of dopamine her system got from being in a prolonged fight or flight state while not actually needing to use the dopamine. Right now, though, the only thing she wanted to do was find Daryl. No one in camp would tell her where he went and he wasn't anywhere near any of the buildings she'd seen. Deciding she'd probably have better luck if she started looking further out from the farmhouse, she headed for the shed that was closer to the woods. Tea knew that if Daryl was anywhere away from the group, it'd be closer to the edge of the forest than it would be the camp. Why he'd moved out to the boondocks was beyond her, though. She just hoped he wasn't still angry and would understand that she'd just needed to calm down and spoke out of a place she didn't mean, one that came from buried deep in her psyche.

She was just passing the aging building when she was grabbed from behind and pinned flush against the shed. By the feel of his hand and the gross smell of sweat, Tea assumed it was Shane that had himself right up against her. Tea was absolutely sickened when he rubbed himself against her from behind before he turned her around and slammed her back against the wood and forcing his knee between her legs, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand, while he all but shoved his finger in her face. She knew the look in his eye, it was one her daddy had gotten every time he'd tried to sell her off, one that even Sophia had told her she was scared of. This time, though, Tea knew she was at a complete disadvantage thanks to her ankle already starting to hurt again. Her brain was going into overdrive in the best way possible, thinking of every move, every technique she could use to overcome this situation. Where her earlier state of anger had given her an adrenaline boost, she was using all of it right now to remain calm in the heat of the moment and come up with a plan to get out of this mess. The only problem was that every situation she could think of not only would she have to get hurt, but if her ankle gave out even a little bit, any opportunity she created would be thrown out the window if Shane was able to retaliate.

"Now, you're gonna listen, you crazy bitch. You're going to go back to that camp, you're going to sit your ass down, and you're going to listen to my every damn word or else, you got it?" Shane asked scathingly.

"Go suck a giant bag a cocks!" she spat, before literally spitting in his face.

"You really want me to do this,huh? You must like it rough, bein' with a man like Daryl. A straight up psycho all around," he scoffed, punching her stomach again with more force.

"Only one psycho here is ya, Shane," she shot back loudly before another smack was delivered to her face followed by a punch to the gut before Shane covered her mouth.

"Fuck ya!" was the muffled reply she tried to give before she tensed her abs and put her tongue between her teeth in the single second it took for Shane to realize what she'd said properly. The sick smirk that fell on his face before he moved a step back and let go of her wrists, was the same she'd seen a thousand times and had wanted to retaliate against. Shane sucker-punched the left side of her face before reeling back and punching her in the gut and smiling like a mad man as she bent over and coughed. He'd made a grave error, though, in letting go of her wrists when he decided to try and beat her in submission and then bringing both hands to her shoulders to slam her back against the wall again. Tea scoffed and gave him her evil smile, starting her own assault by bringing her elbows down hard in the crook of his. As soon as she was free of his grasp, her hand was cradling her fist as she bent down and came back up with her elbow smashing into his chin at full blast. She went on the offensive as he stumbled back a few paces, allowing her enough room to perform a roundhouse kick that he unfortunately dodged. The fact that he dodged when she was already on her injured ankle allowed him to tackle her right into the shed before pinning her down. She roared at him as he put his knees on her forearms and slammed his mouth down on hers to cut it off, beginning to tear her shirt open in the process. He tried to force he tongue into her mouth, but she had her teeth clenched shut until he punched her in the gut again and gave himself an opportunity.

Tea hadn't even been able to catch her breath back before he'd managed to get his tongue through her teeth, making her feel like she was suffocating until she bit his tongue as hard as she dared to without permanently maiming the man. When he sat up holding his mouth and bleeding, she spat the blood that had gotten into her mouth in his face getting it in one of his eyes. The one she didn't he used to aim another punch to her jaw and busting open her lip. Shane punched her again and Tea could feel the way her skin broke under the force of it while her vision went blurry. She needed to make an opportunity for herself and so started struggling as Shane finished ripping her shirt open and roughly pawed at her chest, once again forcing a kiss on her. The way he bent over, though, managed to give her just enough leeway to be able to move her wrist and grab one of her Darts and slowly get it out of the holster. He moved away from her face long enough to try to tell her how it was going to be as he started unbuttoning his own shirt as he sat back. It was clear by the look on his face that he had forgotten about all the knives she carried with her as he sat right back on her Dart and pierced his thigh. The pain made him move off her other arm allowing her to land her own sucker punch to his jaw that knocked him further off balance. Turning so she was on her hands and a knee, she shot a kick towards his face and broke his nose. That made him fall on his back as Tea rolled towards him and chopped his throat without realizing she still had the throwing knife in her hand. It wasn't until she pulled back and rolled again, managing to make it to one knee with one leg stretched out to the side in case she needed to dodge another attack that she noticed all the blood.

When Shane didn't move, Tea panicked. The fear that had been pushed back in order to think clearly came straight to the top as she crawled over to the man and saw the blood flowing from his neck, her knife still sticking out of it. It wasn't like she hadn't been forced to defend herself similarly in the past and reacted in the same way. It wasn't as if it was the first time her instincts had led her to survive with nothing more than an injury that she could explain away. She'd been forced to kill before thanks to what her family had done, but this one had nothing to do with them. Doing her best to salvage her shirt to cover her bare chest, she stood in a daze as hot tears burned down her cheek mixing with the blood from her cut and lip. She walked away in a daze even though she was unable to see straight and her legs felt like jelly. Tea felt like she had been walking for hours before she slumped down on all fours and began puking until there was nothing left and all she could do was dry heave.

Those days should have been long behind her; the days she felt weak and helpless, the ones where she had tried her hardest to fight only to be held down until she got lucky. And she knew she had gotten lucky with Shane. She was strong if she stayed on her feet but the second she was on the ground, especially if the opponent was a larger, stronger man, they could easily use their size and weight against her like Shane had. All she could do when the heaves subsided was curl into herself while sobbing uncontrollably while rocking and trying to get her mind to work again. She practically jumped out of her skin while damn near screaming when she heard someone coming up from behind her. Pulling a knife, she turned quickly where she was on the ground and threw it in the general direction the sound came from since she couldn't see clearly with her eyes so wet. When she heard the voice she needed to hear the most coming from the way she'd thrown it, she ran to him, knocking him down as she clung to him.

"What the hell, girl? What happened to ya?"

~x~

Daryl had begun to pace in front of the tent as the hours ticked on. He'd gone squirrel hunting in order to make sure they had food tonight and even picked some wild strawberries he happened to find. Yet she was still no where to find when he got back and he knew for a fact that she would have found him by now. She had been gone the entire day since mid-morning and the sun was starting to set on the horizon and would know that he would be closer to the forest if he wasn't in camp. Deciding that he had enough of waiting around for her, he stormed towards the farmhouse where he'd last seen her. He did not stop to talk to anyone and paused only momentarily to find her tracks before taking off on their trail. It didn't take him long to find an area where a fight had obviously taken place, lots of blood and pieces of Tea's shirt left behind. Dread filled his core as he picked up the pieces and spotted the tracks heading in opposite directions with one of her throwing knives about five feet away from the sight of the scuffle. Cursing under his breath, he grabbed it before he started running through the field in the other direction to look for her. He might have gotten fifteen yards away before he heard her sobbing and headed towards her, seeing her form sitting on the ground curled in as tightly to herself as she could get.

She must have heard him approach because one of her knives sliced against his cheek before he'd even gotten within ten feet of her. Before he could even recover from that, she was barreling into him and knocking him flat on his back as she held onto him tighter than she ever had before. She was in hysterics, sobbing through laughter she couldn't control in a state he had never seen her in before. Wondering what could have happened to her to make her like this he moved her hair out of her face and made her look up at him. His eyes burned with anger when he saw the side of her face was bruised and swelling, complete with a gash on her cheek and a busted lip. There was blood running down her cheek and chin and sitting her back her entire torso was beginning to bruise, her shirt ripped completely open. He honestly didn't have the heart to look at anything else or do anything but press her back into his chest, bringing his arms around her as she grabbed the back of his shirt and tucked herself under his chin.

"Who?" he choked out.

"Shane," she said hoarsely.

"I'm gonna kill him."

"What do ya mean?"

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill him!" Daryl growled.

"Daryl," Tea said, sounding more scared than anything and starting to . "I stabbed 'im in 'is neck. He-h-he should already be dead!"

"What?"

"Ya didn'...ya didn' see his body by the shed?"

"Must not of gotten him as bad as you thought," he rationalized.

"What...where'd 'e go?" she whispered, her body starting to shake as the thought that Shane would be able to try again came through her mind.

"Towards the woods."

"We got ta tell someone. If we don' and 'e comes back..."

"I know," he told her.

He leaned her back and took off his outer shirt to put on her, buttoning back up before practically picking her up not caring if his side was sore doing it. Daryl put her down long enough to pick her up bridal style as her hands clung to him around his shoulders. Her body was wracked with tremors and he purposely went further around the camp to the farmhouse to get her checked out. It was the second time he'd been unable to protect her that resulted in her being badly injured, third if he wanted to count her getting lost and not being able to pick up her trail. He had half a mind to find a way to keep her in the tent so that she stopped getting into these situations, but the best he would be able to do was to not let her out of his sight for now. Trying to avoid the others, he knocked on the backdoor to the house for Maggie to open it and look at the way Tea was and let them in. She led him up to the same room they'd shared so that they could take a look at her, asking what happened only for Tea to clam up and go pale, the tears falling all over again. It wasn't until Patricia walked in that she was able to fully say what had happened between her and Shane.