CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE » WELCOME BACK
"I'm always on your side, Blaire."

♔

Rick, Daryl and Merle made their way into the prison looking battered an bruised. I was relieved to see Rick safe, and deep down Daryl too, but then that was soon replaced by the anger of seeing Merle in our home. And also Daryl's stupid face.

"We're not leaving," Rick confirmed firmly as I joined the group, everyone seeming to be looking to him for answers.

"We can't stay here," Hershel argued. His point was valid. We'd just been attacked, we were vulnerable. Not only that, but there were way too many people at Woodbury for us to take on.

"What if there's another sniper?" Maggie asked. "A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds."

"We can't even go outside," Beth added, seeming the most upset by this ordeal.

"Not in the daylight," Carol finished.

"Rick says we're not running, we're not running," Glenn stated, as I caught eyes with Olivia, who gave me an irresolute look.

"No better to live like rats," Merle spoke up, and I looked over at him with a glare.

"You got a better idea?" Rick threw back at him.

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day," he responded. "But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."

"We ain't scared of that prick," Daryl retorted back.

"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell," he replied, as silence settled in the room from the rest of us. "We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

"Let's put him in the other cell block," Maggie said to Rick, causing me to stifle a laugh.

"No. He's got a point," Daryl said.

"This is all you!" Maggie suddenly burst out, startling me slightly. "You started this!"

"What difference whose fault it is?" Beth asked. "What do we do?"

"I said we should leave," Hershel said. "Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here," Rick begun to walk away and I sighed, about to call his name when Hershel shouted him. "Get back here!" Rick stopped in his tracks as Hershel used his crutches to head over to him. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something."

Rick simply nodded and walked away yet again.

"Blaire–" Daryl started. I tore my eyes from Rick and nodded at him, knowing that we needed to talk. I looked to Hershel, who gave me a nod to say he had things under control.

Daryl and I headed away from the others. He came to a stop and I paused, folding my arms over my chest.

"You're a dick, you know that." He just grunted, irritating me further. "Why are you back, Daryl? Did things not work out with you and big brother Merle?"

"It's a good job I did come back," he bit back. "Everything's gone to shit."

"Hershel and I were handling it."

"Not very well by the looks of it."

My hand met with the side of his face, the harshness of the slap making my palm sting. "You don't get to come back here and criticise me!" I shouted, my emotions flaring inside me again. "You left us, Daryl! You left us when you knew damn well that we'd started something bad!"

"I came back!" He retorted, but I shook my head. How could he just think that coming back would mean everything was going to be okay again?

"That changes nothing," I snapped, angry tears filling my eyes. I remembered Merle, everything he did to me. What he did to Glenn. And what the governor did to Maggie. "And you brought him back with you! That son of a bitch-"

"That son of a bitch happens to be my brother!" He yelled, his voice practically booming around the room. Maybe it should have intimidated me, made me shrink back a little, but I was so mad that nothing even mattered anymore.

"Do you know what he did?!" I shouted, my voice rising with each word. "Do you know what they did to us?! How can you defend that?"

"I'm not defending what he did-"

"Look at me!" I snapped. "Look at Glenn! Look what he did to us!"

"I know-–"

"No, listen to me!" I barked, the loudness of my voice even startling me. I took a moment, regaining my breathing to it's normal rate. "He tortured us, all three of us. He's an abuser Daryl, you know that. And I- I don't want him staying here with us."

"It's not your damn call, Blaire." He began to storm away but I grabbed his arm, standing in front of him.

"If you cared about me at all, you would feel disgusted every time you saw your brother's face, knowing what he did to me, to Glenn, to Maggie."

"I am!"

"Then show it!" I exclaimed, my voice cracking slightly. Daryl stared at me for a moment before his eyes flickered to the side. "Show us that you care. Take my side for once."

"I'm always on your side, Blaire."

"No you're not," I shook my head, hating this whole argument we'd just had. "You're on his side."

I began walking away, back to the others, but Daryl's voice stopped me in my tracks. "I was wrong," he called after me. "When you said about us being family-"

I cut him off, our eyes meeting. My gaze hardened. "Yeah, me too."

I turned away, my hands shaking a little as I made my way back to the others without another word.

~

"Blaire," Olivia rushed out, pausing outside my cell, taking a moment to catch her breath. "Andrea. She's here."

"Shit," I cursed, diving off the bed and running with Olivia out of the cells. "Get Rick!"

"Carl's already gone to get him!" She shouted back. The two of us immediately rushed to the gate once Merle had called out that it was safe and that Andrea hadn't brought anyone with her.

"Are you alone?" I asked, reaching for the gun in my belt loop.

"Blaire-"

"Are you alone?" I snapped again whilst Olivia held her gun up. I heard footsteps running in behind me and Andrea called out Rick's name.

"Are you alone?" He questioned, just as I had done.

Andrea had a look of annoyance on her face. "Open the gate!"

Rick turned and threw the keys at Daryl and nodded, allowing him to open the gate. She stepped inside, dropping a walker that she'd appeared to have been holding on a leash. Rick rushed over to her, ordering her to put her hands up and face the fence.

Andrea knelt on the floor, whilst Rick searched her. Realising there was no danger, I slowly lowered my gun.

"Welcome back," Rick said, a harshness to his tone. "Get up."

We made our way back inside the prison, Andrea greeting everyone properly, including me.

"Sorry about that."

"It's okay," she brushed it off with a small smile. "It's good to see you, Blaire."

"You too."

"Where's Shane?" She asked, looking around until her eyes met with Rick, who shook his head. "And Lori?"

Rick looked down, unable to answer. "She had a girl," Hershel spoke up. "Lori didn't survive."

"Neither did T-Dog," Maggie added.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her eyes flitting between all of us. "Carl. Rick, I-" she cut off. "You all live here?"

"Here and the cell block," I answered.

"There? Well, can I go in?"

"I won't allow that," Rick said firmly.

"I'm not an enemy, Rick."

"We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up," Rick said, causing Andrea to frown.

"He said you fired first."

"That's bullshit," I retorted back, unable to keep my mouth shut. She glanced at me, her face showing that it did in fact all seem to be news to her.

"He's lying."

"He killed an inmate who survived in here," Hershel said. "We liked him. He was one of us."

"I didn't know anything about that," she said. "As soon as I found out, I came," she turned to Glenn and I. "I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."

"That was days ago."

"I told you, I came as soon as I could," she said, looking over to Michonne when she noticed the look on our faces. "What have you told them?"

"Nothing."

"I don't get it," she stated. "I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?"

"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us," Glenn said, gesturing to Maggie and I.

Andrea pointed at Merle who was on top of the stairs. "With his finger on the trigger. Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?" We all stayed silent, but I knew she was right about Merle. "Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done. But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out."

"There's nothing to work out," Rick said. "We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will."

"We can settle this," Andrea tried again. "There's room at Woodbury for all of you."

Merle chuckled, grabbing our attention. "You know better than that."

"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?" Hershel asked. "Did he say that?"

She shook her head, mumbling. "No."

"Then why did you come here?" Rick questioned harshly.

"Because he's gearing up for war," she replied. "The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack."

"I'll tell you what. Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye," Daryl snapped.

"We've taken too much shit for too long," Olivia said.

"He wants a war?" Glenn asked, looking at me. "He's got one."

She turned to Rick desperately. "Rick. If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town," she turned to all of us. "Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."

"You want to make this right," I started, glancing at Rick who nodded me to go on. "Get us inside."

"No."

"Then we got nothing to talk about," Rick stated, beginning to walk from the situation.

"There are innocent people," she tried one final time, but Rick didn't stop walking.

~

We all stood in the outside yard, saying our goodbyes to Andrea.

Part of me didn't want her to leave. I liked Andrea, I missed her in the group. I was worried that trusting her to put an end to it wasn't going to work out in our favour, but I had to have some faith in her.

She stood, watching us all one last time. I gave her a small smile, which she returned. Slowly, she headed into the car, placing her bags on the seat beside her. Rick walked over, handing her a gun and giving her some parting words.

I heard the engine roar to life and Daryl and Merle headed over to the gate to open it.

And then we watched her leave.

❃

Words: 1956
Published: 31st January 2017

Daryl and Blaire honestly  make me cri

The next few chapters are going to be pretty action packed and I'm very exciteddd

Also, I wasn't going to hop on the Riverdale train but I kinda have and I'm starting a fanfic on this account if anyone's interested (: