Newly Revised

"Do you hear that, Ms. Parker?" Sophia said quietly as they walked along, eating some of the berries they had picked a short time ago.

Tea paused and pricked her ears up, hearing the sound of bells coming through the woods, "Sounds like some sort a church bells or somethin' like that. Can' tell what direction they're echoin' from, though. Best keep movin' and tryin' ta find the fuckin' highway."

"My legs hurt," Sophia complained.

"And I'm tired. Ya stronga then ya know. Ya can keep movin'," came her reply, Tea having started talking in her thick accent since the morning.

"Do you think we'll find them today?"

"Maybe. Don' know. Eitha way, ya'll be fine. I ain' goin' ta let anythin' happen ta ya," she said.

This had been the way of conversation all day with Sophia was asking questions right and left while Tea was answering in only a few short sentences. Tea, however, kept her head on a swivel since she still in survival mode and being driven mostly by instinct and the rest by her survival knowledge. She always kept a throwing knife in her right hand while trading out her buck knife for her machete in her right. The blade was longer and offered more protections and distance between her and a walker if they ran into another group and had to fight their way out. She couldn't risk the little girl being in harm's way no matter what she did, especially since Carol would probably kill her if she didn't. The woman didn't like her much and would probably like her even less when they got back for having Sophia carry a knife herself. It didn't matter if the girl had a firm grip on the blade nor that she'd tucked the doll away in her pants to make sure she had a hand free. It didn't matter that the she looked much less frightened and more ready to fight now that Tea had praised her and showed her the correct way to hold the knife as they traveled. It wouldn't have mattered even if the girl had been like her and Daryl and knew what she was doing in the woods. Sophia was still just a child, and Tea was going to do her damnedest to keep her from having to fight for as long as she could.

They kept walking for another hour before Tea decided to cut the girl some slack and bent down to offer the girl a piggy-back ride. She was much lighter than she should be for her age, but that went right along with some of the things they had been talking about, especially concerning her father. As soon as the girl's hands were around her neck, Tea put one hand under the girl's thighs to keep her up, she relied on Sophia to keep a firm hold so that she could keep the machete in her free hand. They had been lucky so far as walkers were concerned but had yet to find relatively safe drinking water as of yet. She'd been carrying the girl for almost another hour, her arm almost numb, before they even found any water, let alone running water. Tea wasn't sure if it was the stream they were looking for or not, but the small waterfall that was offered by the rocks that jutted out from beneath a hill would at least let them have a source of water that was less likely to be tainted.

"I'm gonna drink. Ya don' got ta if ya don' wanna 'cause it could make ya sick if ya do," Tea cautioned.

She knelt down and cupped her hands, sending out a silent prayer to whatever gods deigned to listen that they wouldn't have to deal with the repercussions of drinking unboiled water. Sophia knelt down next to her and did the same motion as she drank greedily from the stream. Tea only drank a couple handfuls before she stood back up and pulled Sophia up with her, much to the girl's dismay. All she could do was nod her head in the direction they needed to go before she explained why she hadn't let her drink any more water.

"We don' know if that wata's goin' ta make us sick or not. 'Sides that, we ain' had a lot a wata since yestaday. Drinkin' too much now will cause ya ta get a bellyache."

~x~

The group was nervous as they headed back towards the highway and a shot rang through the trees. They had paused in their tracks for a few moments before continuing on since there was no other shot. Daryl knew it wasn't Tea who had fired and he doubted it would have been Rick or Shane, but that left the scarier thought that there was someone else out in the woods. He couldn't hell but usher the group to press on and get back to their cars before whoever had fired that shot caught up to them. In all honesty, he was terrified it had something to do with Tea and Sophia but even if it had been, there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it now. The group kept looking around them with just as much anxiety as he was feeling when the only sounds that came from around them were their own movements, not even birds or crickets making any noise. Lori kept stopping and looking behind them every few minutes in an attempt to figure out what had happened but only managing to make the group even more nervous the more she did it.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked her as she stopped yet again and made the group stop with her.

"It was a gunshot," she said plainly.

"We all heard it," Daryl told them as he thought the entire conversation stupid and pointless.

"Why one?" she questioned back at him. "Why just one gunshot?"

"Maybe they took down a walker," Daryl suggested, trying to end the discussion.

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker," she quickly shot down. "Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked looking to Daryl.

"Maybe it was Tea," Andrea offered.

"Ania wouldn't risk firin' a gun any more'n Rick unless she's lost her knives and didn't have a choice. There's nothin' we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasin' echoes," Daryl replied frustrated.

"So what do we do?" Lori asked him.

"Same as we've been doin'," he answered before heading off in the direction of the interstate. "Beat the bush for the girls, work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV," Andrea tried to assure Carol as the women stood up again. "I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel," she told her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I suppose you do," Carol stated. "Thank you. The thought of her, out here, by herself. It's the not knowing that's killing me," she said as she broke down. "I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." The words were out of her mouth before she registered what she had said. A look of horror crossed her face as she took Andrea's hand said, "Oh god. That's the worst thing I've ever said."

Andrea scoffed just a bit before giving the woman a sincere, albeit pain-filled, smile, "We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

"I'll tell you what it's worth – not a damn thing," Daryl said as he walked up and looked between the two women. "Ania's with your little girl. She ain't alone out here. It's a waste of time all this hopin' and prayin'. 'Cause we're gonna locate those two girls. They're gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord," he said as he walked away while trying to keep his own frustration at bay.

They continued on in silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts while Daryl was pissed at how everyone seemed to be completely dismissing the possibility of finding the girls. Tea wasn't as stupid or crazy as everyone seemed to think she was. She'd gone to all those fancy schools and gotten all those degrees while working, teaching, and going to her lessons in martial arts. She was a damn good tracker, knew where to shoot for the quickest kill, and knew more about wild plants than even he did. If anyone was equipped to handle being out in the woods and keeping a little girl safe, it was his woman. Hell, she was probably already traveling back to the highway herself with the little girl in tow, no worse for wear other than maybe being tired and hungry. He doubted even that would be the case, though, with how much Tea could recognize in the woods to eat. Daryl kept them moving while following the stream bed just in case they met up to the girls on their way back to the RV until the light just wasn't going to be fit enough for the others to see for much longer.

"We'll lose the light before too long," he told the others as they stopped again. "I think we should call it."

"Let's head back," Lori agreed.

"We'll pick it up again tomorrow?" Carol asked her.

"Yeah, we'll find them tomorrow," Lori answered, shocking Daryl as she included Tea in the statement too, which was honestly a first aside from the mention earlier that anyone had even mentioned they were looking for two girls and not one.

Daryl whistled to get the others' attention before pointing in the direction they needed to go and told them to fan out a bit. He let them know that if they saw anything on the forest floor to tell him so that he could see if it was the girls' tracks or not. If they didn't find them today, it meant that the two would be in the woods for a second night, and that wasn't something any of them wanted at all. One night in the woods was easy enough to survive, but two with no water and the possibility of there being very little food? While Tea might be able to hold out until they got back, there was no telling how long it would take or if Sophia would be able to make it as long as Tea would. And Daryl knew that if their backs were pressed against a wall, Tea would tell Sophia to run and save herself while she took on the problem alone. She wasn't the kind of person who liked the thought of children in danger and he'd seen the steps she'd taken to ensure they would be able to survive if they didn't have the others around to help them. He knew she'd keep the little girl well protected while they were out in the woods and probably even after.

"How much farther?" Lori asked Daryl, pulling him back from his thoughts.

"Not much. Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies."

"Too bad we're not crows," Andrea quipped.

She began to mumble to herself while Daryl rolled his eyes and continued forward. He didn't even notice the blonde had fallen behind them as much as she had until she started screaming and made everyone stop in their steps. She was no where to be seen as the group ran back to find her with Daryl in the lead. He wasn't as fast of a runner as some of the others in part because he'd never done much running and in part because of how long he'd been smoking, so Glenn and Lori ended up being the first to break through the trees into the small meadow they'd been through not that long ago. Daryl was right behind them, raising his crossbow as soon as he saw the walker on Andrea but had no clean shot without putting the other woman at risk. She was still screaming her head off, too, which covered the sound of a horse coming closer until it was already out of the trees and moving towards Andrea. The woman on the horse used a bat to force the walker off the woman before making her horse come to a halt and spin around to face the group as they got closer.

"Lori?" she asked frantically. "Lori Grimes?"

"I'm Lori," the woman said as she stepped forward.

"Rick sent me. You've got to come now," came the response.

"What?" Lori asked, hearing the urgency in the young woman's voice and becoming anxious herself.

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive, but you've got to come now. Rick needs you, just come!" she insisted.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl! You can't get on that horse!" Daryl yelled at Lori as she took her backpack off and headed towards the horse, completely ignoring him as she climbed up.

"Rick said you had others on the highway," the young woman on the horse said. "At that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. The name's Greene. Hi-ya!"

"Shut up," he said as he fired an arrow through the walker's head after it sat up when everyone had been stumped momentarily at the horrific turn of events.

Angry as ever, Daryl stormed his way through the woods and left the others to trail along or get left behind. It was just one bad thing after another with this group and he was almost wishing that he had listened to Merle and robbed the place when they had the chance. He could have forced the old bastard to take Tea with them by convincing him of her usefulness and they would have been long gone before any of this shit had happened. But he had taken to making excuses to stick around instead of breaching the subject to his older brother, let alone admitting that he had feelings for the girl that knocked Merle on his ass not once, but twice already. Now she was out here in the woods with nothing but a little girl for back up and with Carl being shot, they were going to have yet another reason to give up on finding Tea and Sophia. They'd all but given up on Merle when they lost his trail at the building and now everyone else was giving up on Sophia and Tea. It almost felt like whenever a member of the group went missing and it wasn't to the others' benefit to find them, the one who went missing was on their own if they wanted to get back to the group.

The others' quickly moved up to the street as soon as the highway came into view while Daryl hung back to try to get himself to calm down as much as he could with how the others were acting. Carol was distraught once she found out that Sophia wasn't at the RV while Dale tried to comfort and encourage her. Glenn started telling him and T-Dog what had happened out in the woods and about the church they'd found and split up at. Daryl was finally climbing up the embankment when Glenn told the older man about why Lori wasn't with them and how Carl had apparently been shot in some kind of accident.

"Shot?" Dale repeated. "What do you mean shot?"

"I don't know, Dale. I wasn't there," the Asian informed him. "All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

The old man looked at Daryl, "And you let her?"

"Climb down out of my asshole, man," Daryl said as he climbed over the rail, shooting back as he walked away, "Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's."

"I heard screams. Was that you?" he asked Andrea who just looked at him before entering the RV.

"She got attacked by a walker," Glenn answered. "It was a close call."

Daryl grabbed a fresh water bottle, taking a long drink from it while Glenn finished filling the old man in about what happened in the woods. Irritation didn't even begin to fully explain what he was feeling as he looked around at the group's downtrodden expressions. They'd only spent one day looking for Sophia and Tea, yet not a single damn person seemed to think they'd find them. It was ridiculous how quickly these people were willing to give up on others while trying to tout that they were the better people just because of the lives they'd led before walkers started killing everyone. All they ever did was underestimate him, his brother, and Tea even though the only thing they'd ever done to deserve the treatment is stand up to authority he thought was being stupid. Tea hadn't even done that so much as stood up for herself against unfair treatment from Shane and Lori and the complete disregard for what she knew she could do. Even now, they didn't think much of his girl when she was the only other person who had gone after Sophia while the rest stood looking out at the woods helplessly. One of these days, Daryl knew that the way they wrote Tea off was going to bite them in the ass one day, probably sooner rather than later. It didn't help the matter any when Glenn told Dale about the farm they'd been told to go to where Carl was presumably being treated and the topic of going came up.

"I won't do it," Carol told them after Glenn suggested they all go to the farm. "We can't just leave."

"Carol," Dale tried to reason. "The group is split. We're scattered and weak."

"What if she come back and we're not here?" she argued. "It could happen. Daryl said so himself that she could be coming back here."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone," Andrea agreed, "that would be awful. Tea, too," she added.

"Okay," Daryl agreed, not wanting to leave Tea out here any more than Carol did Sophia in case they came back sometime in the night. "We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning's soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign. Leave 'em some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."

"If the RV's staying, I am too," Dale said.

"Thank you," came Carol's heartfelt remark. "Thank you both."

Daryl just nodded his head at her as Andrea said, "I'm in."

"Well, if you're all staying, then I'm –" Glenn started.

"Not you, Glenn. You're going," Dale cut him off. "Take Carol's Cherokee."

"Me?!" Glenn asked flabbergasted. "Why is it always me?"

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people, and see what's going on," the old man stated as Glenn rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. "But most important," he reasoned, "you have to get T-Dog there. That is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke."

None of them noticed as Daryl walk off until he had stopped by his brother's bike and looked at the old man incredulously as he picked the dirty cloth off the seat. There were some things a person just didn't do when it came to someone else's bike and putting a filthy rag on it was right at the top of the list. He ignored it for a moment and instead just held onto the offensive thing before pulling is brother's large Ziploc bag out from the saddlebag of the bike. If they had anything that would help with T-Dog's condition, it would be something in this bag, even though he hadn't wanted to use the stuff until the last minute possible. Guess Ania's remedies can only go so far, he thought to himself as he threw the rag at Dale with a scowl before practically throwing the bag on the hood of Carol's Cherokee.

"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle," he told the man irritated. "Why'd you wait 'til now to say anythin'? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, X. Don't need that. Some kick ass pain killers," he threw the bottle to Glenn. "Here we go. Doxycycline. Ain't the generic stuff either. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion," he explained as he took the stash back to the bike and went over to Tea's pack. "Should take this stuff, too. The herbs for the stuff she makes. Ain't that hard to make and I can write it down if you need. Should use it before we use the good stuff."

"Her remedy might be the only reason that man is still alive right now," Dale told him in appreciation for both his action and Tea's knowledge.

~x~

Daryl was trying to get some rest laying on the floor of the RV, but between Carol's constant crying and Andrea's clicking away trying to figure out her gun, it was impossible. He stayed laying down until the sounds became too much for him to handle with his brain and body still being wired from thinking about everything that had happened. With Tea and Sophia still in the woods and the group meeting up with everyone else at the farm in the morning, Daryl wasn't sure if they'd ever be able to find them again. The starting point for the search would be further away from the stream they should be following, the girls wouldn't know where they were if they did make it back to the highway, and the group wouldn't be close enough to help if something happened to the girls at or near the highway. Since his mind wasn't quieting down and his body was to wired for sleep, he stood up and grabbed his gun and his clip from Andrea and told her what he was planning to do.

"I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girls," he told her, Carol's moment of quietness making him look over to see her wiping her eye and looking at him hopefully.

Andrea followed close behind him with her own bag and let him know, "I'm coming too."

He just looked at her for a second before calling up to Dale, "I'm going for a walk. Shine some light in the forest. If they're out there, maybe they'll see it and come runnin'."

"Do you think that's a good idea right now?" he asked.

"Dale," Andrea said in warning as she walked away.

Daryl just looked up at the man, nodded, taking off after the blonde in a silent agreement that he'd look after her while they were gone. He understood Dale's worry, but at least Andrea was with the group and had the older man in her corner to keep an eye out for her. That was more than what Tea had had when she came to the quarry, more than he'd had aside from Merle. Yet the woman kept throwing it in the old man's face that she had saved him when most people saw it the other way around. He wasn't sure what Tea would say to the woman, but Daryl imagined the verbal lashing she'd give the woman would be the equivalent of the one she'd given him regarding how Merle treated him. She had managed to make him see what she meant with just one breath worth of words and she would definitely be able to shut Andrea up with fewer.

"You really think we're going to find Sophia and Tea?" Andrea asked him all of a sudden after several minutes of silence.

He scoffed as he held the light up to her face and saw the same hopeless look as the others on her face, "You got that look on your face, same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with you people? We just started lookin'."

"Well, do you?" Andrea persisted.

"It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia. They could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."

"Sophia's only twelve," Andrea replied as an argument.

"Hell, Ania was maybe half her age when she got lost, and I was younger than Sophia when I got lost, too. I spent nine days in the woods eatin' berries, wipin' my ass with poison oak."

"They found you?"

"My old man was on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doin' another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back, though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for where. Except my ass itched something awful."

Andrea chuckled and apologized, "I'm sorry. That is a terrible story."

They both shared a laugh at that. "Only difference is," he continued, "Sophia's got Ania with her, and people lookin' for her. I call that an advantage."

"So, Ania, huh?" Andrea goaded.

"Only I call her that," Daryl's mood immediately chilled.

"I noticed. Care to explain?"

"Got nothin' to explain. She's my girl, that's all there is to it," he said waiting for the snide remarks.

"That's a hell of an age gap."

"That's what I said, then she told me 'bout her parents," offered Daryl, not bothering to go into further detail.

Andrea got the hint to drop that subject, instead asking, "How can you handle her? I mean, I know she's not exactly dangerous, but she's not exactly normal either."

"Of course she ain't normal. Live a life like hers and have a mind like hers and you'd be a bit weird too," Daryl defended.

"Care to explain?"

"Not my story to tell. You want answers, wait 'til she gets back and ask her yourself. Girl's an open book so long as you got the guts to ask."

"Really? Didn't see her as the kind to swap horror stories," Andrea mused.

"You hit the nail on the head with that one. Only thing she's got is horror stories."

They fell silent again as they strode further into the woods while Daryl kept looking for signs that the girls had come through this way. He hadn't meant to share anything about Tea, but Andrea was always making quips about Tea's mental stability. Maybe this would be a good thing and open the blonde's eyes to the fact that she didn't even give Tea two thoughts before writing her off anymore than she had him. Maybe she'd finally sit and talk to Tea and actually get to know her instead of judging her just because she was wired a bit different. All anyone in the group really needed to do when it came getting to know Tea was just to sit down and actually have a conversation with the girl that didn't revolve around what she brought back to eat. She might be quiet when she wasn't spoken to and was around others, but she always answered any question put to her honestly. Hell, the only time he'd ever heard her tell a lie was that first trip, was it six weeks ago now, seven, eight? And even then it wasn't so much of a lie as an omission of truth; she had hit her head slightly when she fell, but that wasn't what caused the bruise. Any time they were alone, however, and he'd ask her a question, she would reply with sometimes embarrassing honesty while she hinted at the answer to others before changing the topic. Some of the questions he'd asked about her scars, for instance, were batted away with simple answers while others, like the more intimate questions, she'd answer almost automatically before flushing and turning away. More than once he'd asked her questions just to see her blush.

A rustling sounded from the side, bringing Daryl from his thoughts and putting them both on high alert. He reflexively put himself in front of Andrea to keep her safe before making sure his crossbow was ready as they moved carefully through the woods. The rustling was coming from the trees above an abandoned camp at the base of a tree that looked like it had nothing of use to them. Still, curiosity killed the cat as they ventured closer to it to find out just what was making the noise. Daryl hadn't been expecting it to be a man that had hung himself and turned into a walker still hanging in the tree.

"What the hell?" he said exasperated as the thing tried desperately to get to them. He leaned closer to the tree to see the note had been stapled to it and read it out loud, "'Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit.' Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swingin' piece of bait. And a mess. You alright?"

Andrea had leaned over and groaned, "Trying not to puke."

"Go ahead if you gotta."

"No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a minute," she suggested. "How'd you learn to shoot?"

"Gotta eat," Daryl answered, shining the light on the creature and seeing its legs stripped down to the bone. "That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Look at him. Hangin' up there like a big piñata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs," he told her, only for her to puke on the ground as soon as the last word was out of his mouth.

"I thought we were changing the subject," she complained.

"Call that payback for laughin' about my itchy ass," he quipped.

"There wasn't a lot that came up."

"Huh. Let's head back," he replied, heading back towards the highway.

"Aren't you gonna," Andrea said, shining her light at the corpse silently finishing the question.

"No. He ain't hurtin' nobody," Daryl said. "Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang." He turned to walk off only to stop as Andrea got closer to the hanging walker in curiosity. He watched her for a moment before walking back up to her and asking, "You want to live now? Or not? It's just a question."

"An answer for an arrow. Fair?" she bargained only for him to agree in the form of a nod. "I don't know if I want to live or if I have to or if it's just a habit."

"That's not much of an answer," he said as he took aim. "Waste of an arrow," he said walking away. "You know, Ania wasn't tryin' to do nothin' but protect you back at the CDC."

"Why are you bringing that up now?" Andrea asked him confused.

"She'd be pissed about how you're actin' and treatin' Dale, but she'd also be willin' to help you through whatever you're goin' through," he told her. "She don't like leavin' people who need her help to themselves. All you gotta do is ask 'er."

"I'll think about it," Andrea said thoughtfully.

"Won't regret it if you do. Come on."

They headed back towards the highway, breaking back through the trees within half an hour of when they'd found the camp and walker. Dale was watching them in question as Andrea thoroughly ignored his presence and climbed into the RV while Daryl just gave the old man a look that told him everything he needed to know. They hadn't found the girls and he couldn't help but feel it was his fault for losing the trail to begin with or not staying in the woods the night they'd gone missing. He really didn't want to go back into the RV just to listen to Carol crying some more and while he couldn't blame her for her tears, that didn't mean the constant crying was grating and irritating to him. Daryl couldn't stop himself from comparing the woman to Tea, who was so predictable in her emotional outbursts She would only be sobbing for a few minutes before becoming quiet even as the tears kept falling. She didn't make noise indefinitely and usually was able to come out of it on her own without much of a second thought, and when she hadn't been able to, he'd been there to help her since the first time they sat at the log. Carol eventually cried herself to sleep which allowed Daryl to finally get some rest himself. He knew he needed to sleep so that he could recharge and head back out as soon as he possibly could. Nothing was going to stop him from finding Tea and Sophia, and they would be alive when he did.

~x~

They were both exhausted, but Tea couldn't bring herself to let them stop until she could find them some semblance of shelter. It was going to be night soon and shelter was an absolute necessity tonight. Not only had a gun been fired off in the distance, but they'd come across several small groups of walkers during the day and Tea didn't want to risk being in the open if one of them came up on them. It took her until the sun had set before she managed to find a run-down farmhouse that looked good enough to work as a place to hold up for the night. She told Sophia to pull out her knife and keep it at the ready and to stay right behind her while never letting her guard down. They weren't sure what they might encounter outside and the last thing they wanted was to have walkers sneak up on the in the building as dark as it was. As slowly and quietly as she could, Tea pushed the already broken door open before stepping over the threshold and waiting to hear if anything made a sound. When the house remained silent and all that could be heard was the sound of the night life, she motion for Sophia to enter behind her and started casing the house for anything they could use. She hadn't let Sophia enter the bedroom when she saw the corpse in a rocking chair and instead led her back downstairs and into the kitchen to check the pantry.

"Look at that, Sophia," Tea told her, the accent in her voice strong as ever as she opened the pantry. "We got some real food."

There had been a couple cans of peas, a can of peaches, a couple of cans of tuna, another can of green beans and stale crackers on the top shelf, way in the back which she only found because of how she'd climbed on a chair. Tea pulled all of it out and put it on the dusty table while Sophia sat down and watched her use her buck knife to open the cans of peas and one of the tuna. She handed one to Sophia and opened the pack of crackers to put some of the tuna on that before trying to hand it to Sophia. While she understood the girl's dislike of canned fish, beggars really couldn't be choosers and this was the most they'd had since they'd gotten lost that wasn't bitter or leave an aftertaste that they had nothing to wash it down with. They'd easily been able to stave off hunger by foraging but one couldn't simply forage up drinking water without having some sort of pan or hollow rock and a fire to make sure it was safe. They wouldn't have to eat the peas for the water in the juice otherwise, and the girl would have something better than peas to cover up the taste of tuna.

"Can' be picky at the end a the world, hun," she told the girl, who then reluctantly took it and ate it looking disgusted. "Need the iron and protein in the fish, love. I know it don' taste the best, but we got ta keep ya strength up ta make it back ta ya momma. Take a bite a the peas when ya done ta wash out the taste. Wish I had betta for ya, but right now, this is all I got."

The girl did as she suggested and then smiled brightly and took another bite while Tea got another cracker with tuna ready. She kept the girl distracted from her fear by going over all the names and uses of the plants they had used so far, the way to treat various injuries, and the various holds she had been taught. Sophia had been doing an amazing job making it through the woods and had really stepped into her own as they'd traveled. She hadn't been holding the doll since Tea had told her to keep her knife out in case she needed to use it as they didn't know what was stalking the woods. Tea, on the other hand, was doing her best to keep a brave face on so that Sophia didn't see how worried she really was at having lost which direction they needed to head in to make it back to the highway. If she didn't keep herself calm then Sophia wouldn't be able to keep calm either and they both would break down into sobbing messes. She couldn't allow that to happen as she ate the last bite of her peas and urged Sophia to drink the juice from her own can as well as hers so the girl stayed hydrated.

"Are we safe here?" Sophia asked innocently when they were done.

"As safe as we're gonna get 'til we get back," she answered honestly. "Wat ta sleep?"

The little girl nodded, so she led her to the bedrooms upstairs so she could grab a couple pillows, the duvet, and a couple spare blankets and made her way back downstairs. The first night they had stayed in a cramped, rocky alcove; the pantry would make a good substitute this night and offer a relatively easy place to defend should anything attack. By the time she got the pillows and blankets situated, she realized it would be a rather tight squeeze for the two and their legs would have to overlap, but it actually made Sophia relax when she climbed in. Tea wasn't about to deny the girl what little comfort she'd been able to offer her since she'd lost her path and so climbed in behind her and closed the door beside her.

"Sleep," she told the girl as she threw the remaining blanket over top of her. She put the other pillow by the door and climbed in, shutting the door just in case before settling down. "Don' worry. I ain' gonna fall asleep any time soon. I'll protect ya like I said I would."

"Don't you need sleep?"

"I'm fine."

"You didn't sleep last night either," Sophia pointed out.

"I'm fine," Tea insisted.

"You need sleep. Mom says if you don't sleep you get sick," the girl persisted.

"Tell ya what. Ya sleep firs' an' then I'll leave it ta ya ta watch out for a bit, alright?" she compromised in an attempt to lose her temper while also knowing that if she wasn't able to get some rest she wouldn't be as alert as she needed to be come morning.

"Ms. Parker?" the girl asked, continuing after she nodded her head. "Do you think we'll find them?"

"Sure as shite we will," Tea replied even though she wasn't as sure of that as she had been this morning. "Might not be right away. But mark my words, we'll find 'em. Or, betta yet, they'll find us."

Sophia nodded and laid down, getting herself comfortable. "Ms. Parker?"

"Yes, Sophia?"

"You're talking even funnier now."

"That's me momma's full Irish brogue comin' out. I've always done my best ta keep it cova'd up, ta make myself sound like the othas around me, but like I told ya, I don' have time ta be worryin' 'bout the lidle things right now, like me way a talkin'. Can only worry about gettin' ya home."

"I like how you're talking now. It's different than everyone else. Unique like you."

"It really ain' my favorite part of myself, ta be honest. Got me knocked upside the head one too many times ta like how I talk, but it ain' like I can change it any more'n I can change how my mind works."

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Isn' that what ya been doin' this entire time?"

Sophia looked down awkwardly before continuing with her question anyways, "When will you be okay again?"

The question took Tea aback as that was the first time she had been asked when she would be alright rather than if she was okay. Tea thought she had hidden things a lot better than that as she fought back the tears that wanted to fall while she tried to think about the answer. She'd managed to keep the shaking at bay and also managed to start keeping conversation flowing to help keep Sophia's mind off things. As far as she knew, she had been acting exactly how she had been at camp with the exception of her accent being as thick as her mother's. She was mentally taxed by having to stay in the present to keep Sophia company while also retaining her hyper-senses to focus on everything around them. Either the girl was extremely perceptive, or she wasn't doing as good a job at hiding her concern and nerves as she thought she was.

"I can' rightly answer that," she said honestly.

"What does it feel like?"

"Wha'?"

"How you are right now?" the girl asked curiously.

"Hard ta explain," she said. "Ever been so ovawhelmed by somethin' that ya can' really do anythin' 'bout it? Fear, sorrow, anga, happiness? Anythin' that makes it ta where that's all ya can think about?" The girl nodded, so Tea continued. "It's kinda like that except I'm not feelin' nothin' I don' have ta ta keep us safe. I'm not lettin' myself feel it. I'm not thinkin' 'bout nothin' but gettin' us home, jus' actin' on instinct 'til we get there. Answa'rin' ya questions 'cause ya askin' 'em, not really thinkin' 'bout my answas, eitha, jus' answ'rin' with the first thing that pops inta my head. When we get back ta the others I'm prolly goin' ta break down 'cause everythin' will come crashin' down on me, the possibilities, the choices I could a made ta do betta, how I could a and should a jus' grabbed ya when I grabbed Carl, or gone ta ya instead a Carl 'cause 'e's more used ta this kind a stuff with 'is dad bein' a cop and all. Ya jus' barely gettin' out a ya daddy's grip. Ya weren' ready ta face all that by yaself and I should a known it."

"I'm sorry," the girl said as she looked up at her.

"Don' ya dare. Ya didn' do nothin' wrong. Ya jus' a lidle girl who got scared. Any lidle girl in that situation would be. Hell, Carl was scared. I was scared. I jus' got more experience bein' scared and not showin' it."

"Does that mean you're scared now?"

"No, I ain' scared righ' now'. Like I said, when we get back ta camp I'm goin' ta have a hard time thinkin' 'bout all the things that could a happened ta us, but I ain' scared. I've been tellin' ya that Daryl and ya momma's out 'ere, Rick, too. That's jus' the kind a men Rick and Daryl are. They ain' goin' ta move on 'til they find us. I'm sure a it."

"I wish I was like you," the girl said sleepily.

"Ya'd be the only one who did," Tea told her honestly. "Sleep."

Tea would have thought the girl was making a jab at her by saying she wanted to be more like her, but Sophia was about as honest as she was and twice as easy to read. She didn't know what was so great about her that the girl was willing to look up to her, let alone want to be like her. Last night she'd been unable to comfort the child and just this morning she had scared her when the poor thing had already been scared out of her mind. She'd pushed the girl to the brink of exhaustion before offering her to give her any kind of help. Sure, she'd been trying to teach Sophia and Carl what she felt they needed to survive, but Tea hadn't thought of that as anything more than trying to help them survive. Why in the world would anyone, let alone Sophia, want to be like her when she didn't even want to be like her but just had to accept it? The only thing she could think of that would make Sophia look up to her was the fact that she knew a little of what had happened to her as a child and that had formed some sort of kindred bond between her and the girl. As darkness consumed her mind, she couldn't help but think that after spending the last two nights alone with the girl in the woods, that kindred bond was mutual and she was never going to let the little girl face the world alone again.