True to his word, Daryl soon returned to check on Carol. She was sitting in a corner, alone, but he knew on this day she wasn't alone. Not really. As long as she had her memories of her daughter, she would never truly be alone. And though he wasn't ready to admit this to her, but it was true of him as well. She would always have him, even if she didn't realize it.

"Hey," he quietly announced himself.

She didn't look up, but she returned the greeting.

"Care if I come in?"

She nodded, staring at apparently nothing. Daryl hated seeing her like this. He knew what others had thought, what Shane had thought, well, at times anyways. No one would have ever said it out loud, especially not to him if they wanted to keep their head, but he wondered sometimes if the others had blamed her for what happened to Sophia. They were a good enough group, better to him than his own family had been, but growing up the way he had, he'd learned not to trust anyone.

"You holding up okay?"

"I guess," Carol sighed.

"Look...you know I ain't good with words. I ain't too smart, the way Rick is..."

To his surprise, Carol actually looked ….alive...for a minute. "Don't you say that. Don't you dare say that. You're just as bit as smart and as good and as brave as Rick is, or as anyone around here is. I know you tried harder than anyone..."

He knew what she was going to say. She was going to say that he'd tried harder than anyone to find Sophia. Maybe it was true, he didn't know. All he knew was that Sophia was just a kid, a kid who needed her mother. Now suddenly he felt an overwhelming sense of sadness, though he didn't quite know why.

"I know it embarrasses you when I talk like that," Carol started. "But it's true. What you did for me.."

"I didn't do it for you," Daryl replied a bit too gruffly for Carol's liking. Seeing the hurt look on her face, he knew he'd better clarify. "I did it for Sophia. That's all."

She smiled, albeit briefly. "That's even better. You're a good man, Daryl Dixon."

"Why you got to do that all the time?"

"Do what? Daryl, I don't think I did anything wrong, but if I did...please tell me so I can make things right."

"See," he ran his hands through his frustration. "You always say those ...those things to me!"

She stood up and took his hand. Surprised, he pulled back, but kept looking at her. "Daryl, do you think I'm a nice person?"

He nodded.

"Why is it so hard for you to believe that someone thinks you're a nice person, too?" she smiled again.

"I don't know. I ain't trying to be nice. I'm just trying to survive, I guess," Daryl surmised.

"Isn't that what we're all trying to do? That's what I've been trying to do even before this all began."

He knew what she meant. Ed. That piece of work husband of hers... "Why? Carol? Tell me why?"

"What do you mean?"

She was worried that he was angry at her, and instinctively she flinched. He hated that, her being scared of him for even a second. But he couldn't help it. Daryl was so overwhelmed by his feelings, but not quite in tune with them, so he lashed out. "Why'd you stay with Ed so long, when you knew...when he did to you what he did? I don't get it!"

She looked down. "I guess you wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand? You tell me I'm smart then you treat me like I'm dumb or something.."

"I didn't mean that. Please, Daryl...don't leave. Please."

"That's it...you should have left him. I was just a redneck kid who didn't know no better than how my family treated me, but you're strong..."

Carol shook her head. "You're wrong. I'm not strong."

"You're probably the strongest person I know."

She looked at him in surprise.

He softened his voice. "I mean, after Sophia...I don't know if I could keep going on the way you have," Daryl admitted.

"I do what I have to do. I know you probably don't understand why I stayed with Ed. I thought about leaving, I really did. The one time I tried he found me, and threatened to take my baby away from me if I ever tried something like that again. I went to the police one time. Showed them the bruises. They said that Ed had every right to see his daughter, that I couldn't keep Sophia from him without good reason. Good reason? Dear God, Daryl, the man beat me up all the time, what better reason was that? I guess after that I just felt like...I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't worth protecting."

He studied her closely. Not that he didn't believe her, but it was still hard to hear.

"You know, Daryl," Carol continued. "After a while I believed that it was okay not to have anyone fight for me. I know what you think of Shane, what we all did...but when he did what he did to Ed...well, I hated it at the time because I knew I would get blamed. But you know what? I'm not sorry what happened to Ed. Not one little bit."

He looked down, trying to process everything she'd just confessed to him. He didn't know why, but he knew that he could trust Carol...about as much as he could let himself trust anyone.

"You want to go for a walk? I mean, just around the grounds?" Daryl cleared his throat.

"Will you go with me?"

He smiled that half-smile of his that she had come to find so endearing. "Yeah. Yeah."

And so the two of them were off in their own little world. There was so much he wanted to tell her- about his childhood, about Merle, about how he really felt about her. But he couldn't, not yet anyways. Maybe in time. With that he looked up at her and she caught him staring at her. Embarrassed, he looked away, but not without grinning just a bit. And even in her grief Carol took notice. Yes, she definitely noticed.

TBC