Chapter One

All eyes looked up to see Carol standing there, a leather satchel hung diagonally across her chest. She was smiling, tears sparkling in her bright blue eyes, and Maggie almost fell over her chair in her hurry to give the older woman a hug.

"It's so good to see you!" Maggie said as they embraced, and Carol laughed musically.

"Look at you!" She gasped, taking in the sight of Maggie's pregnant belly. "You're ready to pop!"

Forgetting his recent blood loss, Daryl pushed himself to his feet to go to her, but the sudden change of position left him lightheaded and he nearly tipped over. Ava stood up and grabbed onto him before he could, one arm around his back and the other holding his elbow to support him. She held him until the dizziness passed, then wordlessly stepped back so he could move around the table, and just that simple gesture proved to him how much she cared about him.

When he finally stood in front of Carol and she saw his bruised face, she seemed ready to cry again, though now for a whole different reason. Her hands came up and hovered on either side of his face, then gently laid on his cheeks.

"What happened?" She asked him, her voice little more than a whisper.

"Met some trouble on th' road. 'M good."

Overcome with emotion, she pulled him into a hug that he readily returned, his arms around her back while hers looped around his neck, her face pressed into his shoulder. "Missed you," she murmured into his shirt. "So much."

"Me too," he replied.

When they finally separated, she turned to see Rick waiting for his turn. Smiling, she obliged him.

"This is quite a surprise," he told her. "Haven't seen or heard from the Kingdom in a while."

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "We've been a little preoccupied lately. Besides, it works both ways, y'know."

Maggie chuckled. "Got a point. So, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

Carol's features fell, and she nervously gripped the strap of her messenger bag. First looking to Maggie and then Daryl, she said, "I wish it was good news." Her eyes flickered to Rick's face. "Remember the flu at the prison?"

Rick nodded. "We lost some good people to it. Almost lost some more."

"I'm not sure if that's what's going on, but..." She took a breath to gather herself and again locked eyes with Daryl. "People are dying left and right, and we're already down a fifth of the population."

"Ya have a doctor, don't ya?" Daryl asked.

She nodded. "We do. But he was one of the first infected. But it gets worse."

"Go ahead," Rick said, laying a hand on her shoulder. He was having a hard time believing it could get any worse. What she had said was a literal nightmare.

"The King is also sick, and it's not looking good." Tears filled her eyes, and Daryl reached out and took her hand to comfort her. "If he doesn't make it...Rick, the Kingdom is in danger of falling."

"What can we do?" Rick asked. "Name it and we'll try to work something out."

"Wait," Enid said from her place at the table. "If everyone's getting sick there, and you came here, you could be contaminating us right now."

Carol shook her head. "I live outside the walls. I wasn't exposed."

"But then..."

"How'd I find out?" Carol asked, and Enid nodded. "Morgan told me. Through my closed front door."

"What're the symptoms?" Maggie asked.

Carol pulled off her satchel and set it down on the chair nearest to her. "Fever. Nausea and vomiting. Then bleeding from the eyes or ears and sometimes the nose. Pink frothy saliva, lung or heart failure, and death."

"And then the dead get back up again," Glenn said.

She nodded. "We lost four people in one day. It's terrible."

"When did this all start?" Rick asked her.

"Three weeks ago, give or take. One of the cooks was the first to come down with it, then his family, then the doctor. Within a week, twenty people were sick."

"And now?"

"Forty-two sick, almost half our original number. Seventeen are dead so far."

"Cook was one of th' first ta get sick," Daryl repeated. "Maybe it is just like the prison. Pigs or some'n."

Carol shrugged. "It could be. Then again, it could have been in almost anything. The food, the water. Even the air. That doesn't really matter now."

"It might, if we want to find a cure," Glenn said.

"Anyway, as soon as Morgan told me what was going on, I left to come here."

"How come?" Rick asked.

Daryl was the one to answer him. "'Cause it could be sabotage, 'n whoever started it'll try it here next."

She nodded. "And, I wanted to see with my own eyes how everyone here is doing. I missed you all so much."

"You were just here a few months ago," Ava reminded her.

"Wasn't long enough," Carol said. "Maybe it's because we spent so much time together in the beginning, but being away from you all for a month feels more like years."

"Well, sit down, have a drink," Rick offered, extending a hand to indicate the empty chair she stood behind. "Tell us what else is goin' on."

Carol moved to put her hand on the back of the chair, but Daryl got there first and pulled it out for her. She looked up at him with a sunny smile, and he blushed deeply before stepping back to give her room to sit down.

"Well, not too much lately," she said before thanking Aaron for filling her water glass. As Rick and Daryl went back to their seats, she added, "Which is probably a blessing, considering the situation. Our food stores are in good shape, but we could use more medications to fight this illness."

"We're low, too," Maggie told her with a shake of her head. "We've been all over the area looking for more, but antibiotics and such have all been wiped out."

"It's bad," Carol agreed. "It's heartbreaking, watching mothers lose their children, kids lose their parents."

As Daryl came back to sit beside her, Ava glanced at the faces around the table, then let her gaze rest on Chloe. "How did you beat this flu last time?"

"Didn't," Daryl replied. "Put th' infected in quarantine, treated the symptoms til it ran its course." He stared down at his plate, suddenly losing his appetite. He still remembered Patrick, the bright eyed kid who was so in awe of him, who begged to shake his hand to thank him for bringing them food and who was the first to come down with the flu. He also remembered shooting him with an arrow when the flu killed him and turned him into a walker who then attacked everyone in the cell block. He missed that kid, despite his ridiculous giddiness. He was sorry he'd had to kill him.

"Did you get it?" He heard Ava ask, and he shook his head.

"No, but I did," Glenn told her.

Maggie nodded. "He came very close. Good thing he's so stubborn."

"Sasha did, too," Daryl reminded them, and she grimaced at the memory.

"Ugh. Thanks for that. Worst week ever."

"I was just looking at our map a few days ago," Aaron put in then, "I think there's a health clinic about twenty miles from here, to the east."

"That might work," Maggie said. "If it hasn't been picked over too much."

Aaron shrugged, still hopeful. "Well, if it has, there's a few neighborhoods nearby we can try."

Rick nodded. "We can get a group together in the morning, figure out a game plan." He looked to Carol. "You're staying for a day or two, right?"

"If you'll have me," she replied with a smile. "I don't want to put you out in any way."

"C'n stay with me," Daryl immediately offered. "Bunk with Ava an' Chloe."

She nodded once before lifting her glass and taking a sip of water. "Leave it to Daryl to prove chivalry isn't dead. Thank you."

His cheeks flushed. "Ain't nothin'."

"Glad that's settled," Rick chuckled with a shake of his head. "You hungry? We got plenty..."

"I'm fine, thank you," Carol replied. She glanced around the table, her eyes growing misty with each face she took in. "It's just...incredible to see you all. You look good."

Maggie reached over to take her hand and gave it a squeeze. "So do you."

"Why didn't Morgan come with you?" Glenn asked then. "If he isn't sick..."

"He's helping take care of the ones who are. He formed a triage unit with some of those who haven't fallen ill and they're treating the others as best they can, burying the dead, and making sure the day-to-day operations are still running as efficiently as possible." She shook her head sadly. "I don't think he's had any good sleep in a while."

"Well, we'll try and find some supplies to make it easier on him," Rick said.

"And us," Ava put in.

Silence reigned for a while as everyone pondered the news Carol had brought, while Carol herself simply looked around the table and once again memorized the faces she had come to love so much.

"I could go back with you," Maggie said to Carol then. "Help treat the sick."

The room filled with noise as everyone began to talk at once, arguing against that idea. Everyone except Daryl, who was too tired to argue. But even he shook his head in veto.

"Settle down," Rick addressed the group with raised voice, holding his hands up to get everyone to look at him. When the voices had died down, he spoke to Maggie. "I know you want to help. But we can't risk you gettin' sick. Especially not bein' pregnant."

"I can take precautions," she argued back. "I can wear a mask...gloves..."

Finally, Daryl spoke up, his voice soft but his tone firm. "Too risky, Mags. Let someone else go."

"We'll talk more about who's goin' tomorrow," Rick put in. "For now, let's enjoy our guest and all this good food."

Carol nodded. Looking to Enid, she asked, "And who is this little sweetheart?"

Enid smiled. "Chloe. Daryl and Ava found her."

"'S the kid I told ya 'bout," Daryl reminded her as he stabbed a potato with his fork.

"She's beautiful," she said, a little wistfully. "Look at that dark hair."

Daryl nodded. "Grown a lot since we found 'er." He looked at Ava. "Gotta be almost twice 'er weight now."

She smiled back. "Probably. Feels more like triple, especially when she's asleep on my arm." Carol just beamed, and Daryl dropped his gaze, blushing furiously. Ava's brow furrowed and asked, "What?"

"Oh." Carol chuckled and waved her hand at the red-faced hunter. "It's just...Daryl's come a long way since we first met. I never dreamed in a million years he'd become an adoptive dad."

"'S a lot we never thought we'd do," he grumbled before taking a swig of his water. He stood up, and though they both noticed that his face grayed a bit neither woman mentioned it. Taking a step around the edge of the table, he said, "Gonna go lay down a bit. Like Maggie said."

When he was gone, Carol looked at Ava and said, "He's hurting pretty bad."

Ava nodded. "Yeah. He's been a little...intense...lately."

The older woman raised an eyebrow. She should have guessed that this young woman would be astute enough to pick up on her hidden meaning. After all, she had figured out a way to stick by Daryl's side without him pushing her away. She knew from Daryl's chicken-scratch notes that this woman was just as important to him as Carol herself was, and that was a difficult feat for anyone to pull off. It had taken the disappearance of her daughter and Daryl almost getting killed looking for her for him and Carol to bond. Not even their similar upbringings could do that. And then here comes this woman - this stranger - almost out of nowhere, who carved out a small corner of the archer's heart and got herself all neatly tucked inside.

It was absolutely marvelous.

"Why'd you leave?" Ava asked then, and Carol felt her cheeks grow warm as she knew that everyone was waiting on her answer. Years ago - it felt like centuries, these days - she would have ducked her head and shyly whispered her answer at the floor.

But not now. She was not "Ed's wife". Hadn't been for half a decade.

Now, she was Carol. Just Carol. And she liked it that way.

Glancing over at Rick, who dropped his chin in the slightest nod, she replied, "It was time. I needed to figure myself out, figure out where I belonged in this new world."

"But you and Daryl..."

"He understood," Carol interjected, her eyes softening at the mention of his name. "He and I were more alike than either of us wanted to admit. The Family needed him, to hunt for and protect them, but they didn't need me."

"Not true," Rick put in then. "We did need you, but we don't keep someone 'gainst their will. Ya wanted to go, we let ya. But we missed ya ev'ry day."

"I couldn't watch anyone else die. The Saviors were breathing down our necks..."

"We get it. Probably a good thing you'd left before Negan...before..."

Carol nodded, knowing where his head was going. Reaching across the table, she covered his hand with hers and said, "I know. I'm sorry."

Feeling the mood in the room shifting, Ava leaned back in her chair and said, "We should get to bed. Got a long day of planning tomorrow if we wanna find supplies."

"I'll start working up a list," Aaron offered. Looking at Maggie, he said, "I could use your help."

She nodded while absently rubbing her huge belly. "Of course."

Ava got up and took Chloe from Enid. Resting the baby against her shoulder, she gestured for Carol to follow her. "I'll show you where we're staying."

They stepped outside into the cool evening and just stood on the porch for a moment, breathing in the dewy air. It smelled clean, like the atmosphere after a Spring rain. Ava looked over at Carol and smiled, and the older woman grinned back.

"Don't know what you've got til it's gone," Carol said.

Ava nodded. "It's funny, the things you come to appreciate when the world ends."

The trailer was silent, the light above the kitchen sink the only one on. Daryl kept it on all the time now, a sign to Ava that he remembered her past trauma and was trying hard to make her feel welcome. She smiled as she looked up at it. He might be a gruff, sullen man, but his heart was the size of Texas.

"Back here," she said over her shoulder as she moved down to the room she and Chloe shared. "Not sure exactly what Daryl expected when he asked you to stay; there's only the one bed, but if you want I can..."

"I'll be alright," Carol interrupted her. "Been sleepin' on the ground since this whole thing started. I'll manage for a few days."

"Take the bed," Daryl's voice said from the doorway. The women both looked up to see him there, leaning against the frame as if it were the only thing holding him up. It very well might have been, but he would never admit that and neither would they mention it. "Got room fer Ava in mine."

Her cheeks blushing darkly, Ava said, "Uh...Daryl..."

"Some'n' wrong?" He asked, though his tone sounded like his "offer" hadn't exactly been a request.

"No. I just..."

His eyebrow lifted, and she closed her mouth. She had no argument, really, other than the appearance of propriety, but from the bland expression on the older woman's face she guessed that even if something "scandalous" did occur, Carol wouldn't utter a word about it.

Shrugging, Ava laid the baby in her crib and rubbed a finger down her soft cheek, then stood up and held her hand out toward the bed. "All yours. There's an extra blanket on the chair if you get cold."

Only now did Carol waggle her eyebrows. "Have fun."

"Stop," Daryl muttered, rolling his eyes.

As Ava followed him to the other room, Carol just laughed.

TBC...