{Daryl's P.O.V}
Hershel left the farm after the whole barn incident, so Rick and Glenn went out to find him. Lori came to me, but I sent the bitch packing. Because of Lori's little mistake with Shane our group is at odds. I hate Shane, with a burning passion. Since a couple of days ago, whenever Shane is present Sylvie gets all tense and leaves. I wanna know why, but she's too scared to tell me.
"Hey can you watch Athena for a little bit? I need to do something." Sylvie requests, bringing the child to our separate tent away from the others.
"Yeah. What are ye' gonna do?" I ask.
"Don't ask... But I won't be long." She clams right up. I sigh, something has changed between us and I miss how well things were going.
I don't like to admit it, but I think I might be falling for her. And hard.
"Alright baby. Momma is gonna go run an errand... You stay here with Daryl and be good for him, okay?" She kneels down as she speaks to Athena. The little girl nods so Sylvie kisses her cheek, gives her a hug then walks away.
"So Thena', where's cupcake?" I ask her. She shrugs and sits in the dirt by the little fire pit I made.
"My daddy is being mean to mommy..." She pouts, drawing in the dirt with her little fingers.
"What do ye' mean?" I urge for answers, if I can't get them from Sylvie then I'll sure as hell get them from her daughter.
"She has the bruises on her neck, and I heard my daddy call her mean names!" She explains.
"What kinda' names..." I say, sitting down beside her.
"He said if she told anyone, he would hurt her... and then he called her a b word." She tells me, somehow she made it seem innocent, despite how far off from innocent the situation truly is.
"Come with me, I'm gonna have a talk with yer' daddy." I grumble. She quickly grabs onto my arm and starts crying.
"No! I don't want mommy to get hurt!" She says in between sobs.
A mix of boogers and tears run down her face, so I take out my rag and clean her up.
"I ain't gonna let anythin' happen to yer' mom. I lo-" I cut myself off before Athena catches on.
About an hour later, Athena yawns then asks me to tuck her in; it's dark out already so I figure an early night won't hurt. I know Sylvie likes to keep her on a sleep schedule, but she's not here and this kid has had a rough day.
"Night Thena'. Holler if ye' need me." I ruffle her hair after getting her snug in the blankets.
I sit out of the tent for a while, waiting for Sylvie. She's been gone for a while now, longer than she said.
"Daryl! Daryl!" Maggie yells, rushing up to me.
"What do ye' want." I mumble.
"It's Sylvie, she didn't come back with Lori and Shane. She's still out on the road somewhere. You gotta-" I immediately stand up and fetch my gear.
"Watch her." I demand, pointing to the tent to indicate I was talking about Athena.
I hop in the truck, I don't want to take the motorcycle in case Sylvie is cold or hurt, or worse. The roads at night in Georgia are peaceful, despite the monsters walking around. I could get lost in the bliss of the night, but I have to focus on the task at hand.
Driving down the road, I spot a dark figure lying on the side of the road. I pull over to get a look, maybe its her. I walk over to it and shine my flashlight, It's a dead walker. Not far from the walker is Lori's smashed vehicle.
"Sylvie! Sylvie are ye' out here?!" I call out, hoping she's nearby.
"H-help" I hear a faint voice answer. Without hesitation, I sprint into the woods where the voice is coming from.
Shining my light, I look around until I see Sylvie on the ground near a tree. From what I can see, she's bleeding and is hurt. She must have gone with Lori, gotten out of the vehicle to find help and that bastard Shane left her behind.
"Shh, it's alrigh'. I'm here, I ain't gonna let nothin' happen to ye'." I try to assure her. She winces in pain when I go to pick her up.
"Where's it hurt?" I ask, she slowly lifts her finger to point to her belly.
Carefully, I lift her shirt up and discover a piece of glass stuck in her side. Blood is oozing all over, her shirt is stained red and she's pale as moonlight.
"Hang on, don't you close your eyes. I'm gonna get ye' back to Hershel." I promise her. She nods and grits her teeth as I pick her up.
"I lo-" She starts to say, barely above a whisper. I can't quite understand.
"Huh?" She licks her dry lips and looks up at me weakly.
"I love you." She whispers, her voice cracking. I swear I can see a single tear roll out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey, don't give up on me. I ain't gonna let you die." I say sternly, despite how much my heart is racing and my nerves are fighting to get the better of me.
After setting her in the truck, I speed like a lunatic back to the farm. I lift her out and hurry her inside. People surround me and bombard me with questions. Hershel tells me where to put her, so I do and stand by her side while he gets to work.
"Daryl-"
"What!!" I snap, I'm stressed right the hell out.
"Do you want us to tell Athena what happened?" Maggie checks with me.
"I don't know! I ain't no parent, she's only four years old. She ain't gonna understand!" I panic. I had forgotten about her, how exactly does a four year old handle critical news about her mother?
"Hey... I'm sorry, I shoulda looked harder for her." Shane says, stepping into the room.
I feel my blood boil and I swear everything goes red. I leap up from the bed and charge at him. I shove him against the wall and take a fistful of his shirt in my hand.
"Ye' must got balls of steel comin' in here after leavin' her for dead! I don't wanna see ye' anywhere near her!" I yell at him. Shane shoves me away, so I instantly swing and sock him in the face.
He tries to swing at me but I duck, and in that time Rick has come in and grabbed him.
"Hey, It's alright. He's gone. Just focus on being there for Sylvie." Maggie says softly. I look at her before sighing in defeat.
I sit in a chair by her bed, I watch Hershel fix her up. I just hope she'll be okay... If Carl can survive a gunshot then she can survive this. Right?
A/N- I decided to do a little change up of P.O.V's. Hope you liked it. And since season two didn't have a whole lot of zombie action until the end of the season I'm trying to incorporate drama and action in. Thanks for all the reads! Sorry it took so long to update again, I've been crazy busy.