Daryl's pov:

"Sophia!" A man with a crossbow slung over his shoulder calls out through the woods.

Sophia had been missing for about a week and he had almost lost hope of finding her. Chances are she's dead, but he won't stop until he knows for sure.

Sophia is only a scared 12-year-old girl with no weapons and no knowledge of survival.
Yet, here he is cluelessly wandering through the woods trying to find her.

Sophia isn't even his kid, so why the hell is he spending every minute of every day looking for her? Even he doesn't know.

The forty-year-old man with the crossbow is Daryl Dixon. Currently, he is searching the woods for a girl named Sophia. Or at least a clue to help find her.

Sophia is from the same survival group as Daryl. The rest of their group set up camp at a farm owned by a man named Hershel.
Right now, Daryl is pretty far away from the farm, giving up hope on finding Sophia, until he looks down to see small footprints in the dirt below.

Any average person wouldn't recognize the bumpy dirt as footprints, but Daryl, being a skilled tracker, notices the footprints easily as if they were obvious. He follows the tracks, quickening his pace because the sun is starting to set.

"Sophia!" He calls out again.
No response.

The tracks Daryl has been following come to a sudden stop. His eyebrows pinch together slightly, half-disappointed, half-confused. He looks behind a tree and takes out his knife, expecting to find Sophia as a walker, but to his surprise, he finds Sophia curled up into a ball.

"Sophia? It's me. Daryl."
No answer.
"Sophia." He says again, checking her pulse on her neck gently to make sure she's alive.
Yup. Alive with a heart still beating.

The girl is curled up without a shirt, exposing her bare back. Her hair is messy, with some pieces of leaves spread throughout it, and her head is dropped, most likely unconscious.

Daryl's eyes get drawn to the scars and scabs on her back.
He knew Ed was a shitty father but he never thought he would do that.

Daryl is super confused.
Where did Sophia's shirt go and how did she end up unconscious?

Well, his questions are quickly answered when he looks down to find her leg gushing out blood. She took her shirt off to wrap it around her leg to stop the bleeding, although it must not have worked very well because the poor girl passed out from blood loss.

But she's still alive.
And she will be okay if he gets her to Hershel, but he will have to hurry— she's losing a lot of blood.

Daryl slips off his vest and takes off his gray shirt to put over Sophia. The shirt is dirty and has walker blood stains all over it, but it'll have to do for now.
Daryl picks up the unconscious Sophia bridal style and starts jogging in the direction of the farm.

What the hell happened that whole week she was missing?
How on earth did she survive?
How did she hurt her leg?
Was she shot, or stabbed, or bit?
How did he not notice Ed beating her?
He over anyone should have been able to notice the poor girl getting abused. After all, his father was just the same.

Despite all of the questions he has, Daryl applauds Sophia for surviving an entire week alone in the woods. Honestly, everyone was expecting her to be dead, so he finds pride in carrying her back to the farm.
Alive.

The sun is almost set, so Daryl stops jogging and starts running. The wind blows through Sophia's shoulder-length hair. Weird. Sophia's hair used to be a dirty blonde color, but now it looks far darker.
Daryl thought it was just the shadows from the trees mixed with the lack of daylight. Plus, her hair must have gotten dirty after spending a week in the woods.

"Hershel! Carol! Rick!" Daryl yells as he approaches the farmhouse. Hershel and Carol both burst through the front door of the house.

Hershel's eyes widen at the sight of the girl in Daryl's arms. The girl is clearly in need of medical attention.

"Come on. Inside quick." Hershel says, remaining calm and holding the door open for Daryl, who ran inside to lay Sophia down on the bed.
Daryl then left the room to give Hershel his space to operate.

"Sophia! Oh my baby!" Carol yells as tears start to flow from her eyes. Carol runs to Sophia's side, moves the hair out of her face, and then just stands there, completely in shock.

The girl lying in that bed most definitely wasn't her daughter.
Sophia has blonde hair, light eyebrows, and freckles.
The girl who lay on the bed does not meet those descriptions.

Yes, it was true that Sophia and the girl were both the same age and relatively the same size. It was easy to mistake them for each other, especially in the dark of night, but Carol knew this girl was not her daughter.

"Maggie! Grab me my gloves, needles, and surgical thread!" Hershel calls out to his daughter.
Hershel turns to Carol.
"I know you want to be with your daughter right now, but I do ask that you leave the room while we stitch her up." He says.

Carol doesn't say anything. She just backs out of the room, giving the doctor his space.

Tears start up again in Carol's blue eyes.
Daryl didn't find Sophia. He found some other girl.
Sophia is still missing, probably dead.
And if she isn't, the poor girl is still out there in the dark woods alone.

Carol shuts her eyes, allowing the tears to stream down her pale cheeks. Her forehead crinkles up in sadness, and she leans her head against the doorway, watching Hershel perform surgery on the girl who is supposed to be Sophia.

"Hey," Carol hears from behind her. She turns around to find Daryl, who strangely doesn't have a shirt on underneath his vest.

"Daryl.." Carol says avoiding eye contact.
"That girl that you saved... who is she?" Carol asks, fighting back more tears.

"What d'ya mean?" Daryl asks, finding her question a bit strange.

Carol pauses for a moment.
Daryl doesn't even realize that the girl isn't Sophia. He thinks he saved her daughter.
Carol appreciates the time that Daryl spent searching for Sophia and she doesn't want to tell him the hard truth, but he has to know.
"You didn't save Sophia," She says softly.

"What?" Daryl is even more confused than before, even if he barely shows it.

"That girl," Carol repeats. "She isn't my daughter."

"So ya mean lyin' in that bed...is some strange girl? It ain't Sophia? Ya sure?" Daryl questions, looking into the room where the unconscious girl still lays, with Hershel stitching up her wound.

"I'm sure, Daryl," Carol says, the disappointment still lingering in her voice.

Daryl stares into her sad eyes for a brief moment, guilt overwhelming him on the inside. He didn't find Sophia, but he feels even worse that he gave her mother false hope.
"Well... then, imma go get Rick. Gotta see what to do with the girl," Daryl says and then leaves the room.