For several weeks now, Carol had been plagued by a constant slew of nightmares.

Sometimes, they were about Ed, battering her over and over in a blind, drunken rage. Other times they were about Sophia, stumbling out of the barn, eyes milky and lips curled back in a snarl. Occasionally they were about being trapped in a cell, limp and barely breathing. And several times they had been about trying to outrun a herd of walkers with legs that felt like lead.

But they were always so vivid that she would wake up with hot, salty tears streaming down her cheeks, or aching muscles, or a burning thirst, or the taste of blood imprinted on her tongue, and she would scarcely be able to distinguish those terribly nightly visions from reality.

So naturally, she and Daryl developed a routine for those instances rather quickly.

.:|:.

Her eyes snapped open, and she instinctively let out a sharp gasp. All she heard was her own pounding heartbeat. Her palms were slick with sweat.

She breathed heavily, glancing around the room, her eyes discovering nothing but more darkness. She was in a bed, that much was certain; she was wrapped in sticky sheets, and a lumpy mattress supported her body. But everything else was an eerie mystery.

She couldn't tell which way she was facing, or if she was staring up at a ceiling, or the open sky, or the lid of a coffin. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten wherever she was, or what she'd done the previous day.

But then she felt a familiar, strong arm wrap around her waist and draw her in close, and lucidity came rushing back to her in a crisp, refreshing wave.

Daryl hitched a leg around both of hers and before he knew it, she was curled up in his arms like a tiny kitten. But despite the solace she found in his embrace, her delicate frame trembled like a leaf, and she clung to him like she'd never clung to anyone before.

But Daryl didn't mind much. The rise and fall of her breast, her soft breath ghosting across his skin, the warmth of her flesh pressed against his...it all reminded him that she was alive; that they both were. And in the dark, stillness of their cell, he smiled.