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I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Chapter 75

It took a good long while for Rick to work up to coming his way again, raising a hand to placate him, slow like he was approaching a wild animal. Looked like he hoped Daryl had a chance to cool off...settle down. That wasn't the case though...not really how it worked, but Daryl forced himself not to fight Rick...chase him away. There might be something critical he needed. And, having Beth with him...it was a double edged sword...calmed him down some but made the aggression all the worse. Rick crouched down by him, keeping quiet either not wanting to wake up Beth or just to keep whatever was going to be said between them.

"Is she okay?"

"I dunno..." And he didn't. She hadn't said nothing to him. "They dropped her off the wall, Rick..."

It was hard to even vocalize...seeing her fall again and again in his mind. Then, what came after...thinking it was over...what he thought he was gonna have to do...

"What?!"

It was a betrayal...one of them leading walkers to their home...their safe place, but what they did to Beth...nothing could even begin to justify that...unforgivable.

"They tried to kill Beth." He couldn't say it any plainer than that, and it wrenched his gut.

"Did she...did she see who?" Rick growled low...his jaw tense, teeth grinding.

"I think she's in shock. All she said to me was 'she let go...' I asked her who, and she said 'she just let go'." Daryl was feeling so fucking helpless, but he was getting out more words than he thought possible.

Drawing Beth tighter in his arms, realizing just how quick he was getting over his issues of being affectionate with Beth with other people around...or maybe it wasn't affection tonight. It was protection. It was the only protection he had to give her.

"What happened out there?" Daryl wasn't feeling ready to tell the full of it, his failure, but this kind of felt like a need to know for Rick...his kids were back there at the house.

"Too many walkers. Both got in over our heads...I fucked up. Didn't take the first clear shot 'cause I wanted to see them all the way up to our gates so no one would have no doubts. I fucked it all. Beth could've...died." It was a hard truth.

"Hey, this isn't on you, you hear me. This whole burden shouldn't have fallen on your shoulders." Rick's voice raised a little, Beth stirring, and Rick reaching out to gently stroke her hair like he was trying to soothe a troubled child. "Beth's fine."

But it was on him...his fault. And that bitch got over the wall 'cause of him when he should've shot her dead.

"Is she? Are any of us okay?" Beth was all that could matter to him, but Rick had to know...nothing was okay.

What the hell? The engine in the distance...he could hear it a mile away.

"Beth." Daryl gently nudged her. "Beth, gotta wake up." Rick looking at him all quizzically, going on guard. "Car," he informed, crawling out from behind a shaken and startled Beth. "You're fine," he reassured, but it didn't come out all that comforting.

"Car's coming. Everybody on your feet," Abe projected for all the rest to hear, taking his ground at the front line.

_____________________________________________

Whoever was shaking her awake was trying to be gentle, but it was no less jarring to her system...just wanting to sleep...needing to sleep. It didn't hurt when she was out.

"Beth, gotta wake up..." Daryl slid out form behind her, her support system gone, Beth putting her head between her knees trying to make the sickness in her tummy go away.

Everything was so fuzzy except for the throbbing in her head, its steady, rhythmic pulses of pain.

Breathe in...breathe out...just breathe...

Those simple instructions gave her something to focus on, helping the fog in her head start to clear, eyes still closed though because she didn't feel steady enough to open them, even though instinct told her that wasn't a smart idea being outside...so vulnerable. She was happy to be forgotten, if just for the moment. No one tried to take Daryl's place at her side...grateful...she didn't want to talk...didn't have anything all that coherent to say. Beth couldn't even get her own thoughts in order, pulling Daryl's poncho closer, not just for warmth in the cool night, but like a security blanket. People...she couldn't handle people...but suddenly there were more of them than they stopped with. They came with a commotion, not a walker commotion, but a people commotion...so loud, everyone trying to talk at once, talking over each other, asking questions, trying to have their say...so many voices buzzing in her head, she'd never be able to make sense out of them, even if she wasn't so shaken.

Finally pushing herself off the ground, the chaos of what seemed like a million conversations finally converged into one she could understand while she approached the group unnoticed. But coming into the middle of everything, Beth couldn't really grasp what was going on, not yet at least. Rick was backing off, turning away from whoever had been talking, face gone grave and lethal, jaw tightening to the point of shattering, hand digging desperately into his unruly hair.

"Beth fell off the wall," Abraham boomed, answering a question she didn't hear asked.

That wasn't right though. She didn't fall...one thing she knew for certain...not on her own. They let go...chose to let her go...but only three people knew that. Beth knew, and Daryl, and..."

"Beth fell?" Carol's voice rang out in something close to...shock.

They were all being so loud...too loud out in the open...or maybe it was just that her head was so tender.

Carol...Carol was there?

Looking around, Beth saw...saw all of them...Carol, Carl, Judith, Tyreese, Tara, Rosita, Eugene...everyone who apparently stayed behind at the house. They abandoned the house...was it gone? Feeling like her knees were about to buckle, Beth just wanted to go and curl up somewhere, hide, praying she would wake up in the morning with Daryl holding her so tight, safe in their bed, that she could barely breathe, and this would all be over...this nightmare. The closest she could get to that now was going to his side; finding the wings on his back in the dark, she went to him. He was so stiff, even without seeing his face, Beth knew that, knew the danger in him.

"Beth didn't fall...Beth...someone threw her off that wall...into...into a herd of walkers." Daryl's voice was cracking in anger, Beth slipping past Rick, right up behind Daryl, hoping to be able to steady him.

"Oh my God...Beth...not Beth..." Beth watched Carol try to hug him.

Daryl jerked away violently before she even got close to getting her hands on him. Was she trying to comfort him? The way she talked...the sympathy...how did she misread Daryl's state as sadness. That wasn't sadness, that was pure aggression. And why would she think he was sad?

"Daryl...Beth's gone...? I'm so sorry." Carol sounded so wounded when he pulled away.

Why did Carol think she was gone? Where would she have gone? Beth was standing right there, trying to make sense of it; it made her head hurt more. Laying her hand on Daryl's lower back, he went more rigid at first, at that touch, then his body recognized her, finally loosening up in that tensely quiet moment that followed Carol's odd sympathy. But then Beth went stiff...realizing Carol thought she...she was dead. Not just gone. Dead. Dead and gone. Why...why would she be so sure she was dead?
You know why...

But she didn't. Beth didn't know anything.

Beth peeked out around from behind Daryl needing Carol to see...needing to see Carol. All her instincts were alive and on fire, overriding the pain and confusion because something in her body knew she needed to tap into that instinct to survive.Carol went still...confused, the look of relief taking so long to spread across her face, and there was something else in her eyes she couldn't force away...it looked a lot like fear. Even if no one else would ever notice, Beth saw.

"Beth?...You're okay...alive. Oh, thank God...come here sweetheart!" Carol reached out, trying to grab her.

Beth gasped, fear gripping her deep, a fear she couldn't understand, stumbling back even as she watched Daryl throwing out his arm to block Carol from getting anywhere near her.

"Fucking stay away from her!"

Beth wanted to run...tried to escape.

"Hey...hey...shhh...what's wrong?" Realizing that she wasn't going anywhere, her sudden flight stopped when she hit the massive wall that was Tyreese who had her by the shoulders now, turned to him.

"I..." Beth looked around, and all their eyes were on her like she was some idiot...maybe she was...all except Rick who seemed to take her really seriously, breaking away from his state of anger to take her from Tyreese.

"Beth? What is it?" So desperate, like he needed her to say it.

She needed to say it too; she just didn't know what it was that she needed to say.

"I just don't...feel good...my head...it just hurts." Beth begged off, not needing everyone to think she'd gone crazy.

But Rick knew it was something more, looking past her to Daryl who was still standing his ground, his body an unforgiving lethal mass, glancing over his shoulder at her, concerned.

Beth's eyes weren't on him though...they couldn't focus on him, seeing instead Carol, and Daryl missed nothing.

Turning back to Rick, she saw him shaking his head no to Daryl...turning again, her eyes finding...going to Daryl...Daryl who was shifting his crossbow from his back into his hand to the ready.

"Maggie..." Rick called out, trying to mask the urgency in his voice, passing Beth to her sister quick like the unspoken communication between him and Daryl wasn't enough and the moment was about to explode.

The tension in the air...it felt like it...volatile...deadly.

"What...wait. What happened?" Glenn's voice cleaved the tension. "Someone threw Beth off the wall? Who...why?"

"Who...who? Same person's been leading the walkers straight to our gates. Why? 'Cause Beth saw 'em." Daryl spat.

Daryl wasn't steady...far from it. He was teetering on the edge.

"Someone's been leading the walkers?" Maggie who was holding Beth so close went uneasy.

"How do you know?" Glenn finished up Maggie's question for her, sounding like he was trying to piece it all together, not questioning Daryl, just trying to wrap his mind around it.

"'Cause tracks don't lie. And I saw 'em tonight. Saw 'em do it...all of it..."

"What were you doing outside the wall?" Carol's question was oddly accusatory.

Beth's eyes focused on Daryl's grip tightening on his bow. He stepped forward into Carol's space, and she took three steps back.

"Hunting..." A feral growl that was barely a word.

For a split second, Beth saw Daryl go to raise his bow, but Rick's sudden sturdy grip on his forearm prevented whatever was going to happen.

"There are a lot of questions. We've all got a lot of questions, but out here, in the open, they're not doing any of us any good." Rick clearly forced himself into diplomatic mode because he had to. Daryl was ready to kill, and that didn't look like it was about to change. "We need to regroup, fortify for the night..."

Rick had to move in front of Daryl during his speech, keeping him pressed back with his shoulder, Daryl wanting at someone...

"Safety...safety is..." He had to turn and glare at Daryl, driving his shoulder deeper against his brother's chest, trying to settle him through some sort of male aggression Beth didn't understand.

Maybe she needed to go to him, trying to slip free of Maggie's embrace, but she wouldn't turn her loose. Did Maggie see or sense something she didn't?

"Let Daryl be..."

"Safety is our priority tonight." Rick was finally able to finish as Daryl took a step back.

But that step back wasn't because he was giving in or didn't have anymore to say...

_____________________________________________

"Safety..." Daryl hissed, moving quick past Rick, evading his attempt to capture. "Safety's the priority, and there's gotta be answers for that."

Rick's diplomacy wasn't sitting well with him...wasn't gonna cut it.
"Whoever did this, you're gonna answer for it." Gesturing with his bow, it passed over all of them.

Feeling Rick grabbing at him, saying his name...Daryl didn't stop, just shrugged him off hard. Abraham stepped defensively in front of Rosita who'd had the sights of his bow passed over her, raising his hand...not in challenge, just trying to get him to stop, surprisingly stable. Not in challenge, Daryl told himself. Challenge would've been a death sentence.

"Whoa...you saying it's one of us? How do you know?"

"I told you, tracks don't lie!" Didn't know how much plainer he could say it. "Whoever did this ain't no different than the Governor..."

Daryl could see 'em all, had 'em all...all the suspects within his range, eyes on them each in turn; Rosita who stepped out from behind Abraham, refusing his protection; Tara who looked all shaken, shying away from his words, or maybe it was his bow; and Carol...her name had never crossed his mind before as doing this, but in his gut, maybe it had been there all along.

"...and I ain't letting it go down like that again this time." Addressing everyone now.

Not everyone knew who the Governor was or felt the personal devastation of what he did, but the ones who mattered...they knew. Poor Beth...he shouldn't have said it...shouldn't have brought up the Governor...the pain of losing Hershel...not tonight. This was real though; he had to protect her.

"Why don't you put your crossbow down before we have to take it from you, and we can all talk like civilized people, calm and rationally?" Carol...was she trying to reason with him?

Daryl did take a calm moment to blow out a heavy breath and scan the group to see if there were any takers...anyone who was willing to try to wrest his bow from his grip. No. Not one. No one made a move. They might not be standing with him, but they sure in the hell weren't moving to stop him.

"How about whoever did this 'fesses up and dies with some integrity." Calm as cool still water, he was offering them the closest thing to redemption they could ever hope for. And a clean death...the chance to know they were going and make peace with their maker.

He was barely willing to give that...calm only because his shot would be steadier; wouldn't massacre anyone in front of Beth, Judith, or Carl...not in this second at least. The calm didn't last too long though...on the verge of going ballistic...

"Huh? Come on? Ain't nobody got any conviction for their cause? Willing to kill Beth for it, but not die for it? Or were you just a coward trying to kill Beth to keep her quiet...save your own skin?"

"Enough Daryl, back off!"

He didn't realize Rick had gotten in front of him, lowering his bow...would never point it at him, but Rick had no right. Daryl stepped up into his face, nose to nose, uncomfortably close, not backing down...not this time.

"Move outta my way."

"Not now..." It was a husky hushed plea, not a command...just for him to hear. And Rick's eyes, Rick wasn't challenging him or standing against him. He needed Daryl to stop. But Beth...this was about Beth now. So torn up inside, Daryl didn't move...didn't do nothin'. No one did, waiting to see how it was all going to play out. "Not now..."

Daryl's world was going blurry, didn't know what to do...what move to make...choosing to trust Rick who pushed him away, out of the middle of the fray, even past Beth.

"What in the hell were you thinking threatening everyone like that? You can't just go execute someone in front of the whole group, especially with no evidence." Rick finally paused when they were far enough away in the dark, barely touched by the firelight and out of earshot, turning him loose.

"You wanna watch me!" He was fighting so hard...needed to fight...needed that blood to save Beth.

Bloodlust...he'd never been one for bloodlust...but someone tried to kill her. His bloodlust was always tied to Beth.

"Who are you going to kill? Which one of them? Even if we knew for sure, you execute one of us here and now...everyone shaken...on edge, you'll divide the group." Rick was torn too, but desperately trying to hold everything together. "We're out here, vulnerable...if walkers come through, we can't have everyone turning on each other or afraid that you're going to go off and take them out. We need them all if there's any of chance at taking the house back, and right now, there's no reason any of them wouldn't want to. Everyone who's staying wants that safety back, and Abe's group...everyone who's leaving with him wants those supplies and weapons you promised them..."

Rick was making perfect sense...but still, it wasn't enough in his mind, Daryl just trying to hold himself together.

"Whataya wanna do, Rick? All sit here in our Kumbaya circle, holding hands and singing by the fire?"

Shaking his head no...that wasn't a good enough answer from Rick...not by far.

"I ain't gonna sit out here in the dark just waiting for her to slit our fucking throats in the middle of the night." Daryl's voice was getting louder, Ricking trying to shush him, but he didn't care.

"Hey...hey..." Rick grabbed him by the shoulder as he was getting more restless by the second, trying to make him focus. "Listen to me. She's going to get nervous. Beth saw her, and Beth's alive. Beth's going to remember eventually. With your little show out there, whoever did it, she's even more scared now. She's going to mess up. And we know she's not afraid to be out on her own in the dark...she's afraid to die though. There's a good chance she could slip away in the night, and you're going to be ready...watching. When she does, I've got Beth, and you're going to go take care of it. Track her...hunt her, do it however you want to. I don't care, as long as it gets done."

_____________________________________________


Beth sat silently by the fire with Maggie and Tara...consumed...too consumed to talk even though Maggie was trying to get her to. Beth was an ball of emotions...scared, anxious, nervous, worried...about everything, but she could only really focus on Daryl and his animated conversationwith Rick. But just for a second, her attention snapped to something barely discernable moving along the tree line. Once the firelight hit the steel, the bright glint off the edge of the blade, Beth could see her...Michonne whose stealth movements allowed her so easily to melt into the darkness. Michonne was prowling the perimeter, sword in a deadly graceful grip. It made a sense of uneasiness well up in her chest, not because Michonne was on watch, but because she wasn't looking out on the darkness of the woods and what could be laying in wait in the pitch black unknown. She was looking in...on them. Eyes back to Daryl and Rick, Rick catching Beth's glance and nodding her over.

Thinking it might've been something about Daryl and his state, but nope...flashlight in the eyes again, this time from Rick, eyes still so sensitive to the light that Beth instinctively tried to brush it away.

"Beth..." Rick warned, and she complied, looking up at him, understanding the drill by now. "Still lethargic pupil response. Where did you hit the ground?"

She didn't remember; the black came too quickly, but she knew...knew because of the pain and soreness.

"My back...maybe my head...it hurts..."

Rick set a gentle hand to feeling the back of her head, but it was too tender.

"Oww..." Beth shied away.

Daryl growled, moving to step between her and Rick, but laying a soft touch on his lower arm staid him...steadied the protective beast in him.

"What do you remember, Beth?"

It was a question she couldn't answer no matter how much she wanted to...at least the parts that mattered.

"I thought...I couldn't see who it was in the dark...I thought it was Daryl...helped them...pulled them up on the wall..." words were as choppy and chaotic as her memory. "I didn't have my balance...she was gripping my wrist...but she let go. She just let go...knowing what was coming...what was down there."

"Who was it? Who was she?" Rick prompted.

Shaking her head hurt, and she needed to answer in words too.

"I...I can't remember...I don't know..." She didn't know, but she was terrified of her, tummy all tied up in knots.

Daryl's strong arm drawing her near, closer into his protection helped her breathe again.

"Sometimes victims of trauma can't consciously remember at first because of the physical or mental pain; it's the mind's strange way of coping. Even so, that memory, it's there inside, and we might not be able to say it or see it in our own head, but the body remembers and acts to protect itself." Rick was using his training to try to help her remember, but Beth just stared at him blankly because there was nothing... "Why were you so afraid of Carol?"

Instinct.

That was the answer, wasn't it?

"Beth, was it Carol?" Rick was trying to be calm and even, but it was like it was something he already knew...just needed her to say yes, but she couldn't...didn't know. Her mind was chaos.

Carol...they'd had conflict...they had fought, but Carol, she was one of them from the beginning before Beth even met her new family. She had lost her young daughter to a horrible fate with walkers. Carol wanted to leave, wanted all of them to go along, but was she...was she capable of this? Willing to risk everything...putting everyone she knew and loved in danger all to serve her cause. Beth's thoughts were so...just everywhere. Was Carol capable of killing her? Beth shuddered against Daryl, remembering but not remembering. Remembering them letting go of her...letting her plunge into the dark...remembering the terror of the fall.

Then something new came back to her...was it starting to come back...her memory? Beth felt it again, that sickening feeling of betrayalthat seized her before...before she fell. It had to have been someone she knew.

Carol killed Karen and David.

Carol tried to kill you...

That little voice inside...she couldn't ignore it nagging at her, but she couldn't believe it either, not until she could see...remember the face that had looked back at her from beneath that hood...the face that chose not just to let her go, but to kill her...

"Dad?" Poor Carl...in the fury of this whole situation, Beth had forgotten Carl had existed...and Judith, both who had been left behind to an uncertain fate because of her.

Carl was holding on to his baby sister like his life depended on it.

"Yeah, Carl...come on over," Rick gestured his children to him, Carl who'd stopped a little distance away, like he was giving the adults room to talk.

Well, Daryl and Rick qualified as adults...she felt like a stupid child...her mistakes lost them their home...almost cost Daryl his life. She almost lost her everything. And was she that naive not to see the betrayal coming? So stupid.

"I..." Carl hesitated, looking to Daryl, not in fear or anxiety, but like he was contemplating, calculating what Daryl was going to do with whatever he was going to pass onto his dad. "Carol lied to you...when she told you we had to leave the house. We didn't."

That...that must've been part of the commotion she missed when her world was still blurry after Daryl woke her and left her...before the conversation turned to her being thrown off the wall. Daryl's arms around her stiffened, but he was silent and she could feel the tension recapture his stance.

"What do you mean?"

"After Rosita ran to the house and told us what happened, when Michonne and the rest of them went out after you, I mean, I couldn't see all the way down to the lower gates when we let their cars out, but there were no walkers anywhere near the timber gates, and we got those closed so quick that they didn't know we were even up there."

Rick's brow furrowed as he listened to his son's account of the events. "Then what happened?"

"Michonne...she told us to close up the house, be quiet, and keep the lights out after they left. The others were downstairs, but I went to that upstairs hallway balcony you know, went out there with the night scope rifle so I could see down to the main gates. The walkers, they were inside, but they were confused, like they didn't know whether they were supposed to follow the cars or stay where they were, but none of them at all even got close to the inner fence. Not even one." Carl sighed deep at whatever was coming next.

"What is it, Carl?" Rick prompted.

"It was my fault. I left Judith downstairs with Tyreese...Tara, Rosita, and Eugene were with him. I thought she would be okay. Then Carol...she must've come in, called me downstairs. She had Judy, told me we had to leave. No one else was really saying anything or fighting her on it...she said the walkers were coming...were gonna rip through the fence, but I knew they weren't. She wouldn't give me Judith, and I didn't know what to do...I'm sorry, Dad..."

"No...you protected your family the best you could. That's all any of us can ever do." The father reassured his son with the universal truth of their world, but he was far from as composed as he was letting on.

They were all close enough that Beth could see the muscle's twitching in Rick's cheek. And Daryl, if she turned back and looked at him, she was afraid of what she would see in his face.
"But Rosita and Tara, they shut the upper gates when we left...we couldn't shut the main gates...too many walkers..."

They shut the gates. Beth felt emotion rushing over her...tears were coming, not sadness, but tears of relief. Home hadn't been overrun...it hadn't been breached. They could still go home...it wasn't the farm...it wasn't the prison...it was home, and it wasn't lost. She wished Daryl would loosen his grip enough on her that she could turn around in his arms and hug him.

"How many were there?" Those raspy words were the first ones Daryl spoke since she came to him and Rick.

"A lot...not inside yet, and I think most of them on the road and around in the woods followed the car or were already headed that way because of the others. Inside...inside the gates...maybe..." Carl was trying to give him the most accurate estimate he could. "Maybe a little more than a hundred."

"That's doable, Rick." Daryl started to relax just a little behind her. "If we can get the main gates shut, stop anymore from pouring in, get some people up on the wall, distract 'em, get 'em moved in one direction. The rest of us...we slip over the wall in the back, get inside the inner perimeter to the house, get some weapons and my bolts, and we're good to go."

This hope...it was enough hope to bring them out of their desperate place, but it still didn't eliminate the danger.

"But there ain't no way she's...going back with us...if she stays through the night...doesn't..." Daryl wasn't awkward; he knew exactly what he wanted to say, but it was like he didn't want to say it in front of her or Carl, going all cryptic. "You know...it's gotta be taken care of either way, 'cause we know. It's all there...all we need to know. And I'm gonna..."

Rick's nod was almost imperceptible.

"Carl, go with Beth and Daryl by the fire, make sure Judith stays warm," Rick directed towards his son. "I'm gonna go check with Abe, make sure we still got him with us. We need everyone we can get."

Daryl nodded his compliance, but Beth knew he wasn't just going with them to have a nice sit by the fire; he was promising to look after Carl and Judith for him just like Rick risked his life for her. And Daryl watched them, all three of them, like a hawk, even though Maggie, Tara, Eugene, and Bob were around the fire too, and Sasha, Glenn, and Tyreese had taken up watch with Michonne since they had no perimeter or line of defense...just out in the open. Judith started to fuss in Carl's arms, not crying; she was an apocalypse baby born with that instinct to survive, but it was getting cool. Maybe that was what was wrong with her. She was cold.

"Here Carl, let me have her..." Beth reached out.

"Are you sure...you okay?" He checked before handing her over.

"Umm-hmmm." Beth was sore, head still hurting, but with Daryl occupied with everything around them, so feral, if he couldn't be comforting and holding her, she needed to comfort and hold someone. Judith would do her a world of good.

Pulling the little girl close, Beth wrapped her up, sharing Daryl's poncho with her. Daryl was watching, his eyes softening at the sight of her with Judith in a brief moment of serenity.

"...I made the call to protect your family...your children, and now you want to go back to a house that's going to be overrun by morning? For what? To get us all killed? It's over. The fantasy's over. Time to wake up to reality, Rick." Carol's voice cut through the quiet night.

"We need those guns and those munitions back there if we are going to stand a chance. Whatever you shoved in that SUV isn't enough to get us to D.C., not when we know what we're leaving behind..." Abraham threw in his two cents but was just ignored, this conflict between two people who didn't care what he had to say.

"It wasn't your call, Carol. It wasn't your call to leave. You had no right." Rick asserted, but sounding like he was keeping it together.

All eyes were trained on the two opposing forces. Beth shifted her glance to Daryl, waiting to see him throw himself into the middle of it all, but he didn't...didn't even look like he was going to make to move...but he was watching...watching so closely, eyes narrowed, hand gripping his crossbow in his lap.

"Maybe if you weren't off chasing after another man's wife, I wouldn't have had to make that call...taken care of Carl and Judith," she hissed back, but Rick didn't seem shaken by her accusations.

He was angry...that was plain enough for everyone to see. Abe was taking a step back, Glenn, the natural born mediator and level head, he wasn't saying anything. Daryl wasn't moving, but he looked like if he did, he was going to take someone out. It was an odd moment of complete inaction. Beth just kept telling herself that it would all be over soon...the group was shaken to the core, one of them...one of them had tried to kill her...Daryl was ready to kill...they just had to maintain their common tie in life long enough to get back home safe then say their goodbyes. But despite the tension snapping in the air, what Rick said next, he thought on it. It wasn't rash or said in the heat of the moment...but it was what ended it...ended the confrontation.

"Is there anything you wouldn't do for your group..."

It wasn't a question; he said it like he already knew the answer, Carol gone still and stiff, unmoving in the firelight, like it was a question she had already heard.

Notes

Comments

@Smokey85
Awww...thank you so much for coming back to read! You are amazing. I truly appreciate it!

Aireabella Aireabella
3/30/19

I am so happy you are back! I love your stories and always look forward to your updates! Thank you for sharing your work :)

Smokey85 Smokey85
3/26/19

@McDrogoInaNewWorld
So glad that you enjoyed it! It always makes my day when I can make people happy by doing what I love! Thank you so much!

Aireabella Aireabella
6/14/18

Yay!!! Another great chapter on the books, can’t wait to see what happens next!!

@blesdirishangel
Thank you so much for coming back to my fic and for your comment! I am glad that you love the update. You are amazing!

Aireabella Aireabella
6/7/18