Complicated ✔

Ch. 22 - More Organized

KATHRYN'S POV

I managed to sleep the whole night after that, waking just as the sun was coming over the horizon. Climbing out of bed, careful not to wake Carl in the process, I slipped out of the room and then outside to see a group of people standing around Carol's Cherokee. Figuring I'd get some clothes out of the RV anyway, I made my way over to the group to see who all was going out to look and about how long they thought they'd be before they got back. "Good morning," I said smiling at Glenn as I made my way over to the group and he was the first person I came to. "'Morning," he said before looking down to my leg, "I see you're not limping as bad anymore." "Yeah," I said grinning, "I guess that walk in the woods with Daryl yesterday really helped. You going out with the group today?" "No I'm going to stay in camp," he said shaking his head. Nodding, I continued on to the Cherokee to where Dad was and smiled at him.

"Good morning Daddy," I said smiling as I wrapped my good arm around him for a hug which he returned looking down at me. "I thought I told you that you were to remain in bed today," he said looking down at me with a playful glare. "I will," I said smiling sweetly up at him, "but I need to change into some clean clothes and all my clothes are still in the RV. So I thought I'd come see what the plan was for y'all to search for Sophia." He nodded once before turning his attention back to everyone surrounding the car. It was my dad, Shane, T-Dog, Andrea, and as I was gingerly pulling my red mess of hair back into a messy ponytail, Daryl came to stand by the car as he pulled on a flannel shirt. I looked over at Daryl for a second and smiled at him when I noticed his eyes were on me before I quickly looked away and tuned back in to Dad as he began talking.

"Alright everyone's getting new search grids today," he said as he looked around at everyone surrounding the Cherokee while I stood back and listened, "if she made it as far as the farmhouse that Daryl and Kathryn found yesterday, she might have gone farther east than we've been so far." "I'd like to help," a boy said, maybe a year younger than me, from behind me causing us all to look over at him. I hadn't seen him but maybe once or twice since we've been here, so I knew that made him one of Hershel's people but I wasn't sure letting him join our search was a good idea. "I know the area pretty well," he continued as he walked slowly over towards those of us standing by the car. "Hershel's okay with this," Dad asked skeptically as he looked at the boy. "Yeah," he said quickly, "yeah. He said I should ask you."

I made a face at the boy as Dad thanked him for offering to help us, something seemed off about what that boy said. I don't really believe Hershel would allow him to help total strangers look for a missing girl, even if he did help our group with me and my brother being shot. "Nothing about what Daryl and Kathryn found screams Sophia to me," Shane said causing everyone's attention to turn towards him, me glaring actually. "You weren't there," I said as Dad placed his hand lightly on my uninjured shoulder while Shane continued on. "Anybody could've been holed up in that farmhouse," he said as my glare darkened. "Anybody includes her," Andrea asked, "right?" At least she was taking what Daryl and I said seriously unlike my Dad's own best friend who knows I wouldn't lie about something like this.

DARYL'S POV

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than," I said before moving my hand to about the height the person would've been to fit in the cupboard we found, "yay-high." "Good lead," Andrea said looking at me as I looked around at the others. "Maybe we'll pick up her trail again," Rick said from beside his daughter, his hand still on her good shoulder while she still looked ready to murder Shane with just her looks alone. "No maybe about it," I said before looking at the map, "I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right there, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's out there somewhere I'll spot her." I watch as Kathryn turned her attention to me with a smile on her face while her dad nodded his approval.

"Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too," T-Dog said with a raised brow. "Chupacabra," Rick said looking over, sounding interested while his daughter looked to be biting back a laugh. "You never heard this," Dale asked from the other side of me as we all looked to him, "our first night in camp, Daryl tells us this whole thing reminds him of that time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra." I heard someone let out a laugh and looked over expecting it to have been Kathryn as she seemed to have been holding one back but it was that boy instead. "What are you braying at jackass," I asked causing him to sober up some. "So," he said, "you believe in a blood sucking dog?" "You believe in the dead people walking around and trying to eat you," Kathryn asked as I watched her place her hands on her hips to eye him, daring him to tell her he didn't.

KATHRYN'S POV

I peered over at Daryl when it got quiet, and the boy decided he wasn't going to challenge me on what I said to him, seeing that Daryl had a smile on his face as if what I said to the guy was funny. "Hey," Dad said snapping my attention away from Daryl to see the guy was reaching for the rifle on the hood, "you ever fire one before?" "Well if I'm going out I want one," he said causing me to roll my eyes. Just because you want one doesn't mean you can get one if you don't know how to safely use it. "Yeah," Daryl said as he placed his crossbow on his shoulder, "and people in hell want Slurpees." I smiled as Daryl walked off, probably to go get a horse like he said. The talking around me seemed to continue after that, so I decided to sneak away, maybe go to the stable where Daryl was headed to get that horse.

I had the slightest of limps every couple of steps and was glad my leg wasn't hurting anymore, but it still took me a few minutes longer to get to the stable had my leg not been injured. When I finally made it to the stable and walked in, Daryl was in one of the stalls and placing a saddle on the horse's back. "Get in trouble with your ol' man last night," he asked glancing up for only a second at me before looking back to what he was doing. "No," I said shaking my head as I moved to stand by the entrance of the stall he was in, "but me and the evil step-mother had it out when I got back into the Greene's house." "Evil step-mother," he said nodding with a smirk on his face before looking over at me, "that's a good one. You and her really don't get along do you?"

"We have our moments when we'll get along," I said shrugging and looking away, "but at the end of the day, we're always back at each other's throats." "What happened to your real mom," he asked causing me to snap my head back to him to see he was walking out of the stall and leading the horse with him so I moved out of the way. "Don't know," I said, "she left when I was about 4 or 5. Dad didn't tell me why, just that she was gone. And for a while she'd call and check up on me but when I turned 13 she stopped calling altogether. I wonder if she's still out there, alive in this world." "If she's as strong willed and stubborn as you are," Daryl said as he climbed up on the horse once we were out of the stable, "then I'm sure she is somewhere." After that he rode off, leaving me standing there with a blush on my face. Did Daryl Dixon just give me some sort of weird compliment?