This is just little drabble I typed on my phone while being stuck in the traffic jam for three hoursJThe story takes place shortly after the reunion. Hope you'll enjoy!

Carol walked away from the group and threw her bedroll under the tree away from everybody else. The group, including new people she hadn't met before, needed privacy to discuss her faith and she understood. They deserved to know what she had done. If they were supposed to start over she wanted to start with a clean sheet.

Returning Judith back to Rick and Carl simply hadn't been enough. She'd been sick of secrets so she told them everything. She'd told them all about Karen and David and she told them about Lizzie and Mika. She'd kept a tight rein on her emotions and although her eyes stung with tears and her closed throat hurt she didn't let a single tear escape. She hadn't given a shit if they took it as a sign of her coldness or inhumanity. She'd told them the facts. Her pain, her emotions and tears were too personal, they were running too deep to share them with people she didn't know. So she'd told them everything and then walked away to give them time and space to decide whether they still wanted her with them.

She was not going to beg. She hadn't begged when Rick kicked her to the curb like a piece of trash and she would be damned if she started with it now.

But it'd still hurt. It'd hurt to see Rick's uncertain expression even after she handed him happily babbling Judith. It'd hurt to see Maggie avoiding her eyes and whispering something hurriedly to Glenn. And her heart had almost broken when she didn't see Daryl with the group. When he'd reappeared from the woods she was already telling her story. He'd stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her with eyes wide open, but undivided attention she was getting from the rest of the group stopped him from approaching her.

Now she was quickly walking away and the emotions she'd held within threatened to spill and turn her into sobbing mess. She desperately needed a few minutes for herself to calm down. She froze when she heard her name but she didn't turn. She'd felt his blue cobalt eyes fixed on her during her speech but she wasn't strong enough to meet his gaze.

And she still wouldn't. She couldn't do it to herself. She couldn't allow herself to hope. She couldn't let herself get a taste of what their bond had been and then be forced to walk away again. So she just raised her hand in rejecting gesture and Daryl stopped. He respected her, he always had. She heard him hesitate behind her and then he turned away and left. She finally stopped fighting her tears, pulled her jacket tighter around her body and sank to her bedroll. Soon she fell into deep dreamless sleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night and blinked in confusion. She was feeling surprisingly warm and cozy. She knew all her instincts should have been alerted but her feelings were far from panic. Her eyes widened when familiar scent of wood, leather, sweat and cigarettes enveloped her and she became aware of strong arm tightly wrapped around her middle.

She knew the second when he woke up. His breathing changed and his grip around her waist tightened.

"Daryl?" she breathed quietly but she knew he heard her.

"Ya were cold," he whispered back knowing what her next question would be.

Now she noticed they had his poncho thrown over them. She was too shocked that Daryl, who had always been avoiding most of the physical contact, was sudddenly wrapped all around her to ask any more question.

"And ya didn't let me come near ya. Why?"

He tried to sound angry but Carol clearly heard the hurt bubbling underneath.

She swallowed.

"I...if I have to leave again...I didn't want to..."

She fell silent. What did he expect her to say? That she didn't want to risk she would break down in front of him? That his comfort and his presence was something she'd missed the most in those hideous and sorrowful days after prison fall?

"Didn't wanna know what the things could be like?" he finished for her and she shivered when his breath brushed her ear.

"What did they decide?" she asked, desperate for any distraction that could take her mind off his closeness.

"Don't know. Don't care," he growled with irritation and she turned to him, her raised eyebrow requesting more explanation.

Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest when his lips without warning crashed against hers is searing kiss that took her breath away.

"Daryl, what...," it was all she managed to get out before her body overcame the first initial shock and started responding.

She moaned and her lips parted to allow access to his insistent tongue. Suddenly he interrupted their heated kiss and cupped her face. She frowned at the loss of his lips against hers.

"No matter what Rick decides, stop worrying 'bout it, ok?"

"Daryl, I'm not gonna b.."

He almost smirked.

"Hell, we all noticed you ain't gonna beg woman. And I ain't askin' ya to do that. All I'm sayin' is that ya ain't gonna be on your own no more."

She didn't know she was crying until she felt his fingers wipe her tears away.

"Hell, don't cry Carol," he whispered anxiously, "do I suck so much in kissin'?"

She chuckled, grabbed his face and searched for his lips again.

"I hope ya gonna keep your sense of humor, ya gonna need it with Dixon behind your ass all the time," he smirked at her and eagerly took control over the kiss she'd started.

Rick was slowly walking to the place where he'd seen Carol heading. He knew it was late but he was sure Carol would be awake, waiting for the decision that would determine her destiny. He stopped dead in his tracks and took out his knife when he heard walkers' moaning. His forehead wrinkled in confusion when he noticed a moving heap with Daryl's poncho on top and realized that the moaning was coming from there. He felt heat creeping into his face when he recognized Carol's name growled in Daryl's deep baritone, accompanied by Carol's breathy moans.

He turned and started walking away. Good news could wait.