aN: well I meant to go super smutty and I think I crash landed in angst...I still like this ending though :) tell me what you think. Your reviews brighten up my day :)

I do not own or profit from The Walking Dead

Chapter 3

It started innocently enough. Daryl tried, he really tried to find a way around staying in her bed that night but she'd looked at him, with those eyes, like she needed him, to protect her from her nightmares, and he was lost. There was nothing he could deny her.

He'd showered first, she'd made the obligatory jokes he knew she would about checking him for fleas and honey bees, and then he'd gotten rock hard in the shower at the thought of Carol thoroughly inspecting his body.

He'd wrapped his hand his dick, in his mind it was her, as he pressed his forehead to the wall of the shower, the water raining down on him. In his mind, he had her, pressed to the wall of the shower, the water beading on her fine skin, rivulets, trailing down her body.

She would be all fire, in that moment, he knew it instinctively. She wouldn't hold anything back, she would be intense sand focused solely on him.

He wanted her mouth on him. On his skin, his dick. He wanted to feel her breath, on his skin. He wanted to hear her heart beating in her chest. He wanted her, he thought with a groan as he jerked himself even faster, in his mind she was k selling down in front of him, taking him into her mouth, as he pumped furiously, coming with a muffled cry of her name.

It was for the best, maybe now, he'd be able to control himself. Maybe now he'd be able to hold her tonight like she needed and not tnry to move things in a direction she wasn't willing to go.

Jerking off in the shower didn't help. He was lying in Carol's bed after his shower waiting for her to finish in the bathroom. The pillows smelled like her. A light floral smell that seemed to permeate the air when she was near, even before Alexandria when they all had smelled like shit, she still smelled like her, and that scent that would make his gut tighten with need.

He had his eyes closed trying hard to ignore the way her scent was almost caressing him when she emerged from the shower.y

He opened his eyes to her asked back as she shimmied into a nightgown and it floated down around her hips. Fuck...this was such a bad idea, he groaned in his mind as his cock started to drip.

"You asleep?" She whispered as she snuggled under the blankets.

He rolled onto his stomach his dick straining into the bed as he bunched the pillows in his arms and looked at her.

"Getting there." He mumbled lying.

She was lying on her side, smiling at him. He'd never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

He could lie there all night, and simply watch her, and listen as she chatted about the day. Her eyes were alive, they were sparkling. That was his Carol, the one he lived for, the one he would die for. He'd almost lost her again, and the thought of losing their comfortable bond, losing that light in her eyes, put a damper on his mood. She sensed the change in his mood and stopped the story she was telling him to ask "You ok?"

"Fine" he mumbled, turning his head into the pillow, her eyes were like windows, to her soul, he couldn't lie while looking right at her. "Back's a bit sore." He murmured into the pillow.

Her touch on his back was hesitant. Like she wasn't sure he would want her touch, if she only knew what her touch was doing to him.

He groaned and she took that as encouragement. Suddenly she was only her knees beside him, both hands kneading into his muscles gently then rubbing the area, her cool hands gliding across his back.

She worked her way up, starting low at the small of his back, taking her time, she didn't miss a spot. This was Carol, his Carol. She gave him everything, love and acceptance, and for so long he'd given her nothing in return. He wanted to be what she needed in every way. He wanted to be with her, he couldn't hold it back anymore. When her fingers found his shoulders he put his hand up and held her hand to his skin.

"Daryl?" She asked in confusion.

He turned to look at her "Please tell me...Please tell me it's not too late." He whispered.

She sat back on her haunches staring at him in confusion.

"Too late for what?" She whispered, as she reached out to wipe a tear that trickled down his cheek. He rolled onto his back and say up, taking her hand hand in both his.

"You know I love you right?" He whispered his voice croaking.

"I love you too."

"Things have changed for me." He whispered his voice barely audible.

"Changed...how?" She asked her head tilted to the side

He took a deep breath, quivering as he exhaled. "That night in the tower, before the med run...I realized something."

"What?" She asked softly.

"I" he coughed feeling anxiety creep up into his gut. "I realized I didn't love you like a friend, I love you the way a man loves his woman...I love you the way a man loves his wife." He finished on a whisper looking up at her eyes.

Her mouth had formed a perfect o in shock "You do?" She said as he nodded "But.." She paused as he quickly pulled her hand to run her fingertips across the very obvious evidence of his arousal before letting go of her hand.

"But how?" She said looking up at him, a grin forming on her face. Her fingertips still resting over his arousal. He panted as she moved her hand slightly a look of discovery on her face.

"Ever since that night...when you're near.." He murmured, as her palm came to rest on top of his arousal.

She looked up and swatted his shoulder with her opposite hand. "And you didn't tell me?" She said with mock anger.

"I.." He hesitated as she crawled into his lap "I was worried you're feelings had changed, that I lost my chance."

She rocked her hips slightly as his dick came to settle in the cleft of her slit. The panties she was wearing and his old thin sweatpants the only barrier.

"Fuuuuuuuuck." He hissed, he was halfway ready to cum as it was.

She put her hands on his cheeks making him look into her eyes " Daryl...for us, for you...there would always be a chance. That door is always open, there could never be anyone else for me. You're loyal...sometimes to a fault. You needed to fall in love before you could have sex." He eyes teared up as she smiled at him "That's the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. If it's possible I love you even more." She whispered bringing her lips to his neck. She sat up then and pulled her nightgown over her head.

He flipped her onto her back, his hands by the side of her head as he stared down at her. "It had to be you, ...I could never have fell in love with anyone but you." He growled in a low whisper as his mouth attacked her neck.

She was pulling at the panties she had on, and suddenly she was naked underneath him. Her hands sliding into the waist band of his old sweats as he groaned at the sensation of her skin on his.

His fingers found her wet heat and she gasped arching her back even as she was pulling his pants down his hips, her toes flicking them off his legs.

He couldn't wait any longer and hoped by the noises she was making she was ready for him.

"Now.." She moaned answering his question.

He pushed into her slowly, the feeling a million times better than he had ever imagined. He opened his eyes connecting with hers. Overwhelmed at being connected, at feeling like she was a part of him. Everything in his life suddenly made sense, it all fell into place. It was one moment of perfect clarity where his life made complete sense.

He'd been so worried about her, hiding her true self away, he'd done the same thing. A surly outer demeanour scared that people would see him for what he did, past his mask. She saw through all of that. It was part of the reason he loved her so much. He wasn't a freak he thought as he watched her throw her head back in ex tasty, moaning his name, her walls gripping him tightly. He wasn't sure he could hold on, the feeling of her tight heat almost too much to bare, but he was waiting for her, just like he'd spent his life until they met; waiting for her.