Author's Note: Hey all, long time no caryl posts :) I know, but some of you might be aware by now that this last year has been awful for me. Last spring my parents both developed serious health issues (mom mental, dad physical), my cat died in October, and then my dad passed away early last month. So, yes, again, terrible, terrible year. And CLEARLY it's not really getting better right now! In fact the real world has gone JUST apocalypty enough for my TWD muses to start scratching at the cellar door. Zero promises are being made here on regular updates, just that my two main stories in this fandom are at least on the muse radar. And this one really just needs maybe one more chapter after this one to wrap it all up, so I would love to get it done. For all our sakes :)

So to the plot, you won't find out what happened in the city right off, (as in how things were changed up from canon) because you'll see we have other concerns. But that trip will be revealed as things go along.

Direct pickup on the scene, but from another perspective.

A Good Man

Daryl's eyes popped at the headlights coming straight down what should've been a dark hill.

"BREAK LEFT, MAN!" He yelled with a smack to the back of Glenn's seat, as he heard Rick hollering basically the same thing from the passenger side of the bread truck they'd stolen an hour earlier back in Atlanta. And luckily for them, the Asian kid, against all the stereotypes, was actually a decent driver. Because he had their new vehicle swinging off to the left . . . just missing the trees to that side . . . just before impact with whatever was attached to those headlights. And as they skidded to a stop in the dirt, Daryl finally got a good look at the car that had spun off into the trees on the other side of the road.

"Oh shit, it's the Scout!" he yelled, while scrambling to get his sliding door open, "that's Carol's jeep!"

As he whipped the door back, and jumped to the ground, he heard Rick telling Glenn and T-Dog to stay put while he was going out the other side of the cab. Not that Daryl was focused on the others, not when he could see Carol and Sophia now in the glow of the dash lights, as he ran across the road.

He smacked his hand down flat on the driver's side window.

And seeing the gun barrel immediately come up to the glass, he realized that just because he'd seen it was Carol in there, didn't mean Carol had seen it was him out here. There was less light around him. So he immediately dropped to a crouch down below the glass.

"Shit, Peach," he hissed out loudly, with another smack to the Scout, this time on the metal door, "don't shoot! It's me, Daryl!"

"Daryl!?"

His name came back to him muffled by the closed door, and half in disbelief. But then the door was flying open, knocking him back and full onto his ass as Carol looked down at him in shock.

"It's really you!" She let out half on a sob, "oh thank god!"

"Yeah, yeah," he huffed out as he pulled the straps of his rifle and bow back onto his shoulder and started to push himself back to his feet, "it's me. Now what in the hell are you two doing out here in the dark?"

Before Carol could answer, Rick was there beside him, putting his hand out help him up. And enough had happened between the two them in the city, that Daryl actually took the hand offered.

He got to his feet right as Carol was sliding down to the ground . . . he could see Sophia was right behind her scrambling across the front seat.

There were tears streaming down her little face as she jumped down after her mama.

And as he stepped forward to grab Sophia up onto his hip and her mama against his other side, he hissed in Carol's ear, "now tell me, what in the hell are you two doing out on your own?!"

"Walkers," Carol choked out against his chest as he felt her fingertips dig into his back, "the camp got overrun, so I did what you said and I just grabbed Sophia and we ran!"

"Overrun?!" Rick cut back in horror from just behind him, "oh Christ!" Then he stepped forward to grab Carol's arm, "were Lori and Carl okay?!"

"Yeah," she sniffled and lifted her head, trying to pull herself back together, "yeah, they were all right the last I saw of them. They were um," she scrubbed the tears off her cheek, "they were in the field running towards the quarry. Amy was with them, and Lori had her gun." Then her voice crackled again, "there were SO many walkers though. Double digits for sure, because there was nothing but screaming over by the fire pit."

That was all it took for Rick to spin around and take off running back to the truck.

"We'll be right behind ya!" Daryl called out as Lori's husband jumped into the still open sliding door Daryl himself had leaped out of not even two minutes earlier.

So with Rick giving him a frantic half wave just to acknowledge what he'd said, Glenn sped them off in a fresh cloud of dust. And knowing there was no time to be wasting if people up in the camp were possibly dying . . . just 'cuz his two were safe didn't mean he could abandon the others . . . Daryl rubbed his hand down Sophia's back as he used his hip to nudge Carol towards the driver's side door just behind them.

"We gotta get back up there and help."

"Right, right," Carol sniffled as she let go of Daryl to turn and jump back into the Scout. Then she was scrambling across the front seat. She'd barely reached the passenger side of the bench before she felt Sophia bumping into her, and then Daryl was shoving his bow and rifle in behind them.

The door slammed shut.

And with that, he jerked the Scout into reverse, holding his foot down on the gas as they bumped back out of the dirt ditch with a hard left spin of the wheel. Once they were facing in the proper direction, he knocked the ignition into Drive again.

It wasn't until they were flying forward up the hill Carol had just driven them down, that he shot a worried look across the front seat.

"You two really are okay, right? You didn't get hurt?"

"No," she sniffed and patted Sophia's back, "no, we're okay. It was scary, but we got out of there as soon as the screaming started, so we only had one close run in right before we got to the Scout." Then she was quiet for a second before adding softly, "I shot it, the walker. Didn't get it in the head but," she swallowed and nodded, "I got him to the ground and that was enough for us to get away."

"Well that's great, Peach," Daryl cut back with a supportive nod, "really, great. And your aim will get better as time goes."

And he heard her let out a soft, "right, as time goes. Speaking of though," then she started to fumble with the zipper of the bag hanging off her side, "that reminds me, I do need to reload. There was no time when we were getting out of there."

"Can you get it okay, yourself?" Daryl asked with a half glance over to the woman now pulling the box of bullets from her bag. But she just gave him a sharp nod and a, "yeah, yeah, I watched you the other day. I can do it."

Then seeing how focused she was popping out the chamber of the little revolver, he had to figure that she really could get it all by herself. So he decided it would probably be best if he focused in on the road, because they'd be coming back up on the camp in no time.

And sure enough, it was just then that he heard the sounds of gunfire and screaming through the closed windows. Two seconds later, they broke through the trees and into the clearing where they usually left all the cars.

In the headlights, just ahead, he could see the bread truck parked at an angle with what looked to be dead walkers all over the ground around it. He sucked in a breath and hit the brakes.

Time to get back into it.

As they slammed to a stop, Daryl turned to give Carol a hard look.

"You two stay here, doors locked and that gun in your hand. If any of 'em try to break in, you hit that horn hard, and I'll come running, okay?"

"Yeah," she jerked a nod, "okay."

As he grabbed up his weapons and whipped the driver's side door open, she added a soft, "be careful." So he shot her a quiet, "always." Then the door slammed shut . . . and he was running flat out towards the main part of camp.

Carol immediately reached over to smack the lock down again.

"All right, sweetie," she whispered tightly to her daughter while shifting them around so Carol was back behind the wheel, "now we need to stay quiet but keep our eyes open. This will all be over soon, and then Daryl will be back."

Carol couldn't see everything from where they were, but with the headlights from the Scout and that bread truck the guys had shown up in, she could definitely see enough walkers still swarming through the camp to make her feel sick. And coupling that with the screams and gunshots . . . sounds which were coming through the glass clear as day . . . well, all of that together just made her heart ache and her eyes water.

Fortunately though, with Daryl and the other men now back, it wasn't too long before things started to turn in their favor. One walker after another lost its head out there in the glow of the headlights. It was still a solid ten minutes or so though before the gunfire stopped completely. And even then there was someone, one of their people, who kept screaming from somewhere off in the field. All she could think was that they must of gotten bit.

And that they were dying.

The confirmation of that theory didn't come for her though, until she saw Daryl finally jogging back towards the Scout. By the time he was directly in front of her headlights, he had his hand up in a half wave, like an all clear. So she let out her breath and reached for the lock on the door.

"Come on sweetie," she murmured while squeezing the small hand she was already holding in a sweaty vice grip on the other side, "we need to go find out what happened."

Not that she wanted to directly expose her daughter to the carnage that she knew was left in their camp, but they really had no other options here. For better or worse, this place was still their home.

At least until the sun came up.

Also though, she knew Daryl would never knowingly put her or her daughter in harm's way, which meant that the walker threat had to have been neutralized for now. And sure enough, that was the first thing he said to her when she and Sophia stepped back out into the muggy night air.

It smelled of gunpowder and that sweet, sickly, decay.

"Think we got 'em all," Daryl murmured softly, "but a few of the guys are double checking the woods to be sure." Then he pushed his bow back on his shoulder and reached down to pick up Sophia.

Her eyes were still watering.

"It's all right, angel," he hummed with a rub of his hand down her back as she buried her head on his shoulder, "it's all right. You, me and your mama are all safe now."

"What about Lori and Carl?" Carol asked worriedly while scanning the limited parts of the camp visible in the headlights . . . her friends were nowhere to be seen, "are they still okay?"

Daryl was already nodding before she'd even got the question all the way out.

"Yeah, they're fine." He answered with a grunt, "Amy too. They were all holed up on the other side of the quarry just like you'd thought. But um," his lips pursed then as he gave her a look, "not everyone's okay. That old couple, the MacPhersons who kept to their tent, they're both dead, same with that weird religious lady, Miss Diane, and then Jim, this is no loss but he got bit, and uh," he let out a heavy sigh, and gestured off to the secondary fire pit, "Andrea, she uh, well she shot herself."

"What?!" Carol repeated in disbelief, "she SHOT herself?! How bad?!"

What in the holy hell?!

"Well, it ain't good," Daryl answered with a slow shake of his head, "but I guess she was shooting at the walkers and somehow she tripped and the gun ended up going off again as she was going down. She's alive, but um," he bit his lip, "she is bleedin' like hell. Got the leg artery, I think."

And that did really just suck. Not like he and Andrea were friends, but her being a general pain in the ass didn't mean he actually wanted anything bad to happen to her for real. Her getting a solid case of the laryngitis would have served his purposes for her just fine. Here they were now though with her leg all jacked up, which meant that she needed a real doctor and they didn't have one of those, and no idea where to find one neither. He let out a heavy sigh.

It was just one more thing.

"Come on," he continued talking out loud as he reached over to catch Carol's fingers, "maybe you can think of something else to do for her besides the tourniquet we got on her now."

As they starting walking through the camp, with Carol at his side, and Sophia still on hip, Daryl muttered at them to keep from looking too closely at the mess. Not like he could shield them from the scattered mess of twice dead bodies now littering the place they'd been calling home for the last few weeks, but they still didn't need to be focusing too much on the faces of those bodies.

A couple of them were just kids.

But they made their way across the main part of camp without stumbling over anyone that was too sad to see. Off around the edges of the camp, over by the tree line, he could see flashlights moving. He knew that was Shane and T-Dog and Glenn doing that sweep to make sure no more undead friends were coming late to the party. By Daryl's opinion Shane was still a dangerous, unstable, whackjob . . . though he was kind of keeping his crazy shit under wraps for now with his buddy Rick back . . . but at the moment they did need his crazy ass to help out with the extra security.

He was at least useful for that.

So Daryl just kept moving his little group along quick as they could, until they came up to the secondary fire pit, where Daryl had last seen Andrea laid out on the ground. When he'd left her, crying, but still conscious and biting down on her fist for the pain, she'd just been alone there with her half hysterical sister. Now he could see the two of them had been joined up by Rick and Lori who he hadn't seen since he'd left the quarry with Amy almost fifteen minutes ago now.

The other two had a worrying amount of fresh blood on them that they didn't have before.

It was enough to make him almost stop short for a second, because they'd both been just fine when he'd left them and Carl. But then he saw the bright red seeping all through the ripped shirt Amy had used to bandage up Andrea's leg. He was guessing the other two probably got the mess on them when they were resetting her tourniquet.

There was a new strip layered over the first piece of fabric which had already bled through.

At the moment, Amy was kneeling on the ground, holding Andrea's foot up on her shoulder, clearly trying to help stop the bleeding with some elevation of her leg. Still, when his eyes met with the Rick's over the fire, the two of them just stared at each other for a second. Even with just the flickering light, he could tell from how the other mans' lips were pressed together, that no matter what Amy was doing, he didn't think much of Andrea's chances for making it through this. Daryl was of a similar mindset. With her losing the blood she seemed to be losing, at the rate she seemed to be losing it, she was right and truly fucked.

So instead of asking anyone there how she was doing . . . it was obvious, bad . . . he asked the other question that had come to his mind when they were walking up.

"Where's Carl at?"

"The roof," Rick answered with a half wave over his shoulder, "I sent him up with that guy, uh, Dale. Figured it was the safest place for him."

"Oh yeah that's a good point," Daryl gave a sharp nod, right before patting Sophia's back.

"How's that sound to you, angel," he asked while he and Carol exchanged a look . . . she was giving him a nod, "you want to go up there with Carl while your mama and I get things straightened out down here?"

It took a second, but then he felt Sophia take a breath.

"All right," she whispered against his shoulder, "I'll go up."

So after Carol gave her little girl a kiss on the cheek, he turned and hurried them up the small hill, and over to the back of the RV. Right before he was about to place her on the ladder, he gave that girl another good squeeze. It was nice to be able to give someone a hug.

He'd never really known what he was missing not having that before.

And while Sophia still had her head on his shoulder he whispered, "your mama and me need to help Andrea get fixed up, and make sure everything's safe. Then we'll be up there on the roof with ya, okay?"

"Yep," she sniffed and nodded right before lifting her head to give him a look, "okay."

And then she surprised with a little smile as she brought her hand up to his cheek.

"I'm real glad you're back, Daryl," she whispered.

"Me too," he answered with a faint quirk of his lip, though his eyes were sad, "I hated having to leave you and your mama, and I missed you guys the whole time I was gone."

"We missed you too," she sniffled, "so please don't leave again, okay?"

"Now don't you worry about that," he grunted, "from here on, I don't plan on leaving you two alone again for anything more than a squirrel hunt. So," he gave her a pat on the back, "up you go now."

And with that, he finally placed her on the rings of the ladder, and when she started climbing, he called out, softly, to the man he knew was on watch.

Dale.

"Hey, old man, you got another little one headin' your way."

As expected, Dale's head immediately popped up over the top of the camper, clear as day in the light from the starry sky.

"Sophia," he answered with a faint smile, "I'm so glad you're back! I got her Daryl," he continued on while throwing his rifle strap over his shoulder, "don't worry. She'll be fine up here." Then his brow darkened right before he added worriedly, "how's Andrea?"

For a second Daryl debated whether or not to tell some veiled (for the kiddies' sake) version of the absolute truth . . . that he wasn't really expecting her to make it to sunup. But then he remembered that Dale had always seemed particularly fond of the Harrison sisters.

Like if they were his daughters or something.

And really, Daryl didn't know FOR SURE, that she was gonna die. That was just speculation on his part. So rather than gut punching the guy without good cause, he took a deep breath . . . and told a kinder version of the truth. Kinder than was usually his nature. He blamed Carol's influence.

That was all there was for it.

"It's serious," he spoke on a slow exhale, "but she could be worse. We're working on it though, just uh, keep a good thought for her, I guess."

Seeing how the old man let out a breath at that, and gave him a little smile, Daryl had no regrets for giving the update the way he did. It was just lucky he wasn't one of the ones covered in that woman's blood, or it would have been a little harder to sell that 'good thought' bullshit. So from there, he just waited another few seconds watching Sophia climb . . . with his arms out ready to catch her . . . as she finally reached the top of the RV. Then with Dale's help, she scampered over the top of the ladder and disappeared onto the roof. It wasn't until he got the thumbs up from the old man though, that he finally let out his own breath. That's when turned and jogged back down and over to the group surrounding Andrea on the other side of the dwindling fire.

Carol had dropped down to her knees now and seemed be wiping some of the blood and sweat off of Andrea's forehead. The blonde's face was all creased up like she was in some serious pain. Which was probably why Carol was murmuring about how they had the Tylenol for her. And Daryl had to figure those pills would help some in that respect, but looking at the puddle of blood on the ground, soaking into the dirt, he still couldn't figure what the hell they could do about that.

Tylenol wasn't gonna do dick.

And as he walked up behind Rick, who was standing a few feet back, he murmured in his ear, "if we don't do something else, she's goin' to bleed out."

"Yeah," the other man turned, tipping his head down to talk in a hush, "I know, but all I can think of is elevation, and it should help, but it's not going to save her by itself with that artery nicked."

He looked back to the women and raised his voice a bit.

"Anybody have a thought here on what else we can do that we're not already doing?"

For a moment they were all quiet, but then Carol suddenly lifted her head.

"Oh, what about trying a transfusion?" She asked with a spark of excitement, "because if Amy's a match," she gestured over to the girl in question, who nodded slowly, "I just remembered that the Macdonald's who died, the husband was a diabetic, and I don't think he'd run out of supplies yet."

"Needles you mean?" Rick asked with a rise of his eyebrow. "Well yeah," he tipped his head, "that's something, maybe. We'd still need some kind of tubing though. Anybody here got that?"

"What about a windshield washing tube?" Lori proposed after a beat, "we've got plenty of those."

"Ain't very sanitary," her husband answered with a wrinkle of his nose, but Lori just gave him a shrug, "well, we save her life tonight, and worry about infection tomorrow."

Then, apparently realizing that might have been a bit blunt, implying that Andrea was right on the verge of death and all, she quickly turned to the blonde on the ground.

"I'm sorry, if that sounded insensitive, hon," she spoke with a faint smile while leaning over to squeeze the other woman's hand, "we're just trying to get you fixed up."

"No problem," Andrea bit back with a grimace, which might have been an attempt at a smile, "I appreciate the thought. And I'm fine taking the risk, because I know," she cleared her throat, "well, I know I'm losing too much blood." Then she blinked, "I'm starting to feel a little dizzy actually, so if we're going to try it, I'd prefer to do it now."

Before anybody could say anything to that, another thought popped into Daryl's head.

"Actually," he looked back to Rick, "I just remembered there's a half bottle of moonshine in Merle's tent. It's in his duffle. That shit's 180 proof, so it should kill off pretty much anything below walker level germs."

And his brother wasn't going to be needing it anymore. Not with him having run off and left them all for dead in that walker infested department store. And that was AFTER they'd freed his sorry ass from that fucking pipe. Still, he kept bitching and screaming up on that roof about Daryl being a race traitor and giving up his own kind just for some regular pussy. Then he told them all they go to fucking hell as he took off with a double flip of the bird and ran straight for the one fire escape . . . he flipped it back up after he jumped from the bottom.

Seriously, if Daryl ever saw him again, he was going to beat his ass into the next century!

"Well all right then," Rick rubbed his hands together as his voice pitched up with some notable excitement, "that'll at least give it a better shot. So, um," he got down to business then while pointing at Carol and Lori who were slowly coming up to their feet, "safety in numbers, so you two go together to gather up the needles and moonshine. Keep your guns out. Amy," he shot a look down to the blonde still on her knees, "your sister's going to need more layers. We have to make sure she stays warm to keep her from going into shock, so you go with the other two and get her some clothes, okay?"

Seeing the younger girl nod as she laid her sister's leg back on the ground and stood up, Rick turned to Daryl.

"I'm going to get the tubing out of the jeep, so while we're all getting the supplies, can you please move Andrea inside the RV? Get her settled in the back, I guess? I assume there's beds in there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Daryl bit his lip as he shot a quick look down to Andrea . . . she was just staring up at him, "we got two bunks." He looked back to Rick, "I'll get her settled and rig something with a belt to keep her leg up too."

So with the steps there now sorted, and him giving Carol's hand a quick squeeze as he whispered, "be careful, peach," as she walked past him, the others all set off to do what they'd been assigned to do. Somehow Rick, who had been with them for barely a day, had already become the alpha dog. But as he turned to look down at Andrea . . . the two of them were alone now . . . Daryl couldn't find any real reason to regret the change in their ranks. Based on the shit that had happened in the city, he'd already figured that Lori's husband was a damn sight more mentally stable, not to mention quick on his feet when the shit hit the fan . . . which it had both coming and going into the city . . . than Shane had ever been. But as he stepped up to the woman lying on the ground, he did wonder a bit at Rick's thought about him being the one to move Andrea. As he stooped down though, he realized it probably was better that it was him. At least he and Andrea knew each other. Rick was a total stranger to her and it would probably be kind of weird to leave her all alone with a man she didn't know.

Probably would have been uncomfortable for him too.

Still, he knew this woman wouldn't be thrilled that it was just the two of them alone now either. So as he lowered himself down to a crouch, he tipped his head.

"We both know I ain't your favorite person," he said quietly, "but I think you know by now that you can trust me. So I'm going to lift you up with an arm around your back and one under your knees. I'll try my best not to hurt you in the process. And don't you worry about needing to hang on, because I promise I won't drop you, all right? I got this."

For a second she just blinked . . . up close he could see a faint splatter of blood which had spurted up on her cheek . . . then she nodded.

"I trust you."

There was a note of defeat in her tone, like it kind of hurt her to say it out loud. But he didn't take it personal, 'cuz he had to figure this wasn't up there on her proudest of days. Christ knew he wouldn't be feeling too keen on himself if he was in her position. Which was why his only response then was, "k, then let's do this," as he leaned in. And with her clearly trying to keep as much dignity as she could, he slipped his arms around her body and pulled her to his chest. Once he was sure he hadn't loosened the tourniquet, (no spurting at least) he came to his feet, and turned to start walking them up the hill.

"Just say it," Andrea whispered after he'd taken a few steps, "just say I'm an idiot, and I deserved this because had no business carrying a gun if I couldn't even shoot it without shooting myself."

As soon as she said that, some stuff went through his head. Some thoughts on her pigheadedness for one, and how she'd always been quick to put HIM down, was another. But to bring any of that up now just seemed . . . small. Because none of that other stuff mattered. Not anymore.

It probably never really did.

So when his eyes flickered down to hers and he saw the pain and anger and yes, embarrassment there on her face, he looked away, and back across the camp.

Over to the dead bodies in the field.

"You had an accident," he murmured back, "it could've happened to anyone."

For a moment she was quiet, then she whispered back in disbelief, "that's it? You're really not going to give me any shit about this at all?"

"No," he shook his head slowly as he gave her a sad look, "and it's too bad that after everything that's happened, you still think I would. Because I understand what you were doing. The camp was under attack, you were down four guns, and I know you just wanted to help keep people safe. So you ran into the mess of it even though you aren't the best shot. So you tell me? What kind of person would I be to give you shit for that?"

To his absolute shock, his words brought real tears to Andrea's eyes. They filled up like big, shiny, pools.

It made him a bit uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I don't know why I came at you that way. I guess it was the little voice in my head that keeps telling me I was an idiot, and I figured you were probably thinking the same thing. It wasn't fair. But I know I've been, well," she took a breath, "I've been unkind to you."

"Been a real bitch, is what you've been," he muttered back with a dry look. One that actually made her lips twitch.

Though her eyes were still watery.

"Yes," she cleared her throat, "I guess I've been that too. But I stand by you being an ass when you first got here, so my being a bitch kind of put us on equal footing. But," she shook her head, "once you saved Carol and Sophia from Ed, and I had seen how gentle you were with them, I should have made more of an effort to treat you better." Her jaw twisted, "you deserved better."

Another moment passed where they were quiet, and as they'd just come up on the outer door of the RV, Daryl paused for a second to give her a shrug.

"S'all right," he murmured, "you actually ain't been quite so bad to me the last week or so. And," he sighed, "honestly, I just don't care so much about that stuff like before. Carol thinks well of me, Sophia too," he gave a firm nod, "that's enough."

Then he took a breath, and using his pinky as a hook, yanked open the screen door.

Somehow he managed to get her up and inside without bumping her head on anything . . . though he did catch his elbow pretty good on the door jamb. And it wasn't until they were down in back of the trailer, and he was moving to place Andrea down on what was usually Sophia's bunk, that she spoke again. Actually she reached out to catch the neck of his shirt . . . she used it to pull him in closer.

His eyebrow inched up.

"I'm flattered," he remarked dryly, while shifting her back on the rumpled sheet, "but I think you know I already got me a girl."

She rolled her eyes.

"Okay," she grunted while giving his collar a shake, "see now, you can still be a prick sometimes, right? You can see that?"

"Yeah," he gave her a tiny smirk as he lowered himself down on his haunches until he was even with her head, "I can see that. Now," he reached up to take her hands from his collar, though he did keep a loose hold on her fingers when he placed them back on the blanket . . . he could see she was upset about something, "what's on your mind?"

And her eyes immediately filled with a fresh batch of tears.

"Amy," she whispered back with a hitch in her voice.

He found himself wincing, because he was pretty sure now that he knew what she wanted to say, but before he could cut her off, she continued on with a crackle in her voice.

"She won't survive out here by herself."

"Well she ain't goin' to be by herself now is she?" He immediately scoffed, "she's gonna be with you."

"Daryl, you know wha . . . "

"Yeah," he cut her off with a heavy sigh, "I know what you're saying. And if it comes to it, Carol and I, we will. We'll keep her with us," he tipped his head, "you got my word on that. And I'm sorry this happened to you, Andrea. I really am, but if this is it," his lips pressed together as he looked down at the blood still seeping through her tourniquet . . . the new one was almost soaked through now too, "you went down fighting, and if you have to go out in this shit, that's the way to go."

"Yeah," she let out a bitter chuckle, "I was fighting, but I should have been looking where I was going too. That's how I tripped. It sucks but," she sniffed and rubbed her eye, "like you said, accidents happen, right?"

"Yeah," he answered with a fade, "yeah, they do." Then he shook his head and slowly came back up to his feet.

"All right," he muttered while moving over to open up the back closet, "I'm pretty sure Dale's got some clothes in here, and I bet he's got an extra belt."

It only took him a second to find the strip of leather, then he spotted a second one.

"Ah, even better," he grunted, while pulling out the second belt. Then he turned back and walked over to start getting her set up for the return of the others.

The big transfusion.

"So we're gonna use this one," he kept on talking out loud so she'd know what he was up to, "to tighten the tourniquet on your leg. I'll say sorry now if it hurts," he added while slipping the strap of leather around her thigh, "but I think if we can keep it as tight as possible for a little while, it might actually stop the bleeding. Maybe."

Noting how she'd sucked in some wind when he gave the strap a solid yank, he muttered a second, "sorry," and then pulled it tight again. Luckily with her so skinny, he was able to get it down to just the second notch on the belt. And it definitely was MUCH tighter than just the t-shirt scraps had been.

That was a big improvement right there.

And once that was set, and he could see her biting her lip, clearly in pain, he gave her leg a quick pat before he moved on to get the elevation part sorted. That was actually pretty easy. There were a couple of hooks up on the ceiling to hang stuff and one of them had a small basket of fake flowers in it. He took that down, slid the belt around Andrea's ankle, and then pulled her leg up until he could get the ends of the belt to reach the ceiling. It wasn't quite as neat as those hospital setups, but it at least got the job done. And it wasn't forever, it was just until they could get this bleeding under control. Goal one was saving her life, but secondary was trying to keep her leg from dyin' in the process.

Because if they cut the blood flow back for too long, she was going to be fucked either way.

And now that that was done, he had just muttered that he was going to go poke his head out the door to see what was happening in the camp, when Andrea called his name.

So he turned back . . . and she bit her lip.

"Could you stay, please?" She whispered, "I know you weren't planning on going that far, but . . . "

And she trailed off. But he didn't make her finish the rest.

He knew what the rest was.

So instead he just nodded and walked back over to her bunk. Then he dropped down to his knees, and slumped all the way back until he was sitting on the floor next to her head.

A moment passed, and then another. And then in the quiet he heard her whisper, "thank you."

For a second he was about to just say forget it. But then he really thought about how so much had changed in such a short window of time. About how all these people who he wouldn't have so much as taken the time to look twice at, beyond maybe a look of scorn, now held some place in his life.

They were important to him.

Not as important as Carol and Sophia of course, but, they were something. Even Andrea. So rather than just blowing off her words, he took a breath.

"It ain't nothing," he murmured back, "it's just what we do now. We look after each other."

That's when he heard a sniffle, and he rolled his eyes.

"So help me God woman, if you're crying over that I might just leave you anyway."

His words were barely out of his mouth before he felt a light smack to the back of his head.

"Still an ass," she muttered.

And he smiled.

A/N 2: So obviously heavier on Daryl's evolving relationships with Rick and Andrea than with Carol, but this was more a plot movement chapter than a romance one, obviously. And I had always wanted to switch up who got hurt/died, in the walker attack. I liked Amy and I wanted to keep her around for now. And Andrea, I think could have used a bit of a comeuppance a bit earlier on in her time with the group. Accidentally shooting herself (instead of Daryl) fit that point nicely. And I have no idea if you can gerry rig an effective transfusion kit out of insulin needles and windshield washer tubing, but, we shall see!

Merle. Clearly the flashbacks from the city need more fleshing out, but for now you can see that Merle stormed off from the group all on his own, with both hands, so already changing that up too. And as to whether Daryl would have followed after him like a whipped puppy, I don't think that works for this version of him. His brother is insulting this woman that he cares about, telling Daryl himself that he's a traitor and then basically leaves him for dead. Though of course in Merle's head, Daryl can take care of himself, but all Daryl is seeing is that his brother left him. So again, I think this means of separating them for now, works.

No promises here on another quick update. My brain is happy in my newest fandom, (Harry Potter) and clearly anything that can give me a real distraction right now is most welcome. If anyone wants to check out my new story, it's called The Mourning Fields. All AU with an Adult Hermione and a Not Dead Snape (not a Walker Snape, just 'Didn't Die, Snape' :)).

But I hope you enjoyed this most recent chapter, I'd love to hear from you guys because I always my regular readers when I fall out of fandoms :( And please try to stay safe and healthy, wherever you are. Our new normal is going to be pretty f'd up for awhile, but hopefully we won't get to squirrel stew territory. If we do, well, see you on the other side! :)