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these things will change

HERSHEL WAS IN THE BAR.

His back was turned from them, huddled over a bar stool and nursing a glass of scotch. He made no acknowledgement when Rick and Glenn walked into the bar. Hershel was hunched, his usually large, unyielding form was shrunken and small in the wake of the utter destruction of his beliefs and his values.

Glenn hung back, holding his rifle in his hands as he stared at the back of Hershel's head. Rick steps forward.

"Hershel."

"Who's with you?" Hershel asks. His voice was gruff, sounding like he had scratched his vocal chords with sandpaper.

"Glenn." Rick says, taking another step closer.

Hershel puts his drink down. "Maggie sent him? Your sister let him go?"

"He volunteered. He's good like that." Rick replies. "Iris knows that. How many have you had?"

"Not enough." Hershel scoffs bitterly.

"Let's finish this up back at home. Beth collapsed, is in some sort of state. Must be in shock. I think you are too." Rick reaches the bar, leaning against it. Glenn's feet itched to move closer, but he stayed by the door. He was not sure Iris would forgive him if they got ambushed in the middle of some bar, surrounded by old alcohol and dust particles.

Hhershel spares Rick a glance. "Maggie's with her?"

"Yeah, but Beth needs you." Rick replies. His voice was calm and hushed, as if he thought he might scare Hershel off. Before today, Glenn wasn't sure if Hershel could be afraid of anything.

"What could I do? What could I do? She needs her mother. Or rather to mourn like she should've done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now." Hershel's voice held a remorseful tone, picking the glass back up and swooshing the liquid around absentmindedly.

"You thought there was a cure. Can't blame yourself for holding out for hope." Rick says.

His words reminded Glenn of Rick's pleas in the CDC to Edwin Jenner, begging for him to let them go, to let them live. He had cited hope as the reason then, too.

When Glenn thought of the word hope, specific images crossed his mind.

Blonde hair.

Big blue eyes.

An old pin in the shape of a flower wreath.

"Hope?" Hershel echoes. "When I first saw you running across my field with your boy in your arms, I had little hope he would survive."

"But he did." Rick deflects back.

"He did. Even though we lost Otis. Your man Shane made it back and we saved your boy. That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, a bait and switch. I was a fool, Rick, and you people saw that. My daughters deserve better than that." Hershel continued his drunken rambles, staring straight ahead as if Rick didn't even exist.

Rick moves away from Hershel, walking back over to the door with a sigh. If Glenn knew Rick, he knew that Rick would never leave without Hershel. When Rick made a promise, it stuck.

"So what do we do?" Glenn whispers. "Just wait for him to pass out?"

"Just go." Hershel yells, with the same strong and loud bellow. "Just go!"

Rick sighs, closing his eyes for a moment but he starts towards Hershel, holding a hand out as he speaks. "I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe. I promised Iris I'd bring him home safe."

"Like you promised that little girl?" Hershel says. Glenn can see Rick tense from where he was standing. Rick was a lot like Iris in a lot of ways, and one of them was their intense need to do everything they could to save the people they cared about, and that comment stung Rick just as much as it would have Iris. Glenn steps closer, walking next to Rick as the words of retort form.

"So what's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?" Rick asks, shaking his head in disappointment.

Hershe takes a breath, turning to look at Rick with a yell. "Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm. You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all!"

"The world was already in bad shape when we met." Rick shoots back.

"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!"

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

Hershel scoffs. "Yes. Yes. Yes, you are."

"Now come on. Your girls need you now more than ever." Rick pleads, and Hershel turns to face him, shaking his head distinctively.

"I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an ass I'd been, that Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face. I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it now, like I do. Don't you? There is no hope for any of us." Hershel drawls on, his voice becoming louder and louder and more passionate as he speaks.

Glenn tries to think about what Iris would say to Hershel if she was here like she had wanted. Iris would've been better at this than him, she would've cited all of the different reasons Hershel has to go on, she would've done whatever it took to convince him to get back to that farm, to Maggie and to Beth.

Rick massages his temples, sighing. "Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a Walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you? Now there are people back at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This-this isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them."

Yeah, Iris would've said something like that.

Glenn can see the expression change on Hershel's face as Rick spoke. He slowly puts down the glass, swinging his stool away from it as if he couldn't stand the sight of it. He puts a hand on his knee and starts to stan

"Son of a bitch. They're alive."

Glenn whips his head around. Two men stood in the doorway of the bar, gigantic smiles plastered on their faces.

𖤓𖤓𖤓

"Can you pass the salt?"

"Yeah." Iris says, picking up the salt and bringing it to where Carol was heating up portions of stew for dinner. Iris had helped the woman prepare it and they had been working all afternoon, trying to make it perfect. They both had things they wanted to take their minds off of. Iris hoped that Glenn and Rick would return with Hershel in time for dinner, but as she stared out of the kitchen window to nothing but darkness, she knew it wasn't likely. They were fine. They had to be.

"Try this." Carol says, shoving the spoon in Iris' mouth before she had the time to respond.

Iris made a noise of surprise, holding a hand to her full mouth, and she hummed in satisfaction. "Mmm, yeah, oh my god, this is great. We did great, well, you did great. I kinda just stood here and watched."

"You were a great moral support." Carol says, taking her own bite."Yeah, this is good. It's ready."

Iris bites her cheek, checking the window one more time. It was getting darker, and Glenn and Rick were nowhere in sight.

"They'll be fine." Carol says, and Iris looks away from the window and at Carol's kind face. "They're too stubborn not to come back."

"Yeah." Iris says. A gathering of people had formed at the dining room table, chattering quietly and setting their places as they waited for food. Everyone contributed to life on the farm in their own ways, it had become a quick routine, just like the one that had formed at the Quarry. Especially since the loss of Sophia, the group had rallied together, doing things together more often like they were their own little family. Even Shane. The only person who hadn't been getting involved was Daryl, who had sulked off on his own since Sophia was found. She holds a hand to Carol's shoulder. "We appreciate you cooking. We're all here for you, you know? All of us."

"Thank you, Iris." Carol smiles. She looks over Iris' shoulder, seeing the group sitting on the table and chattering away. "I have all of you, and I'm glad that I do."

Iris smiles and picks up one of the pots, walking to the table. Carol follows her, holding the second pot and placing it down on the table. Iris puts her pot down in front of Carl, leaning down to squeeze her nephew's shoulders and hug him from behind, despite his joyous protests. Iris sits on the chair next to Carl, putting a decent sized portion in his bowl. Carl tucks in immediately, shovelling the food down his throat like the growing boy he was. It was a strange thing, watching someone grow from a tiny little baby to someone who was almost a teenager, and she almost wished that he would stop growing and stay like this forever.

"They should've been back by now." Andrea says, walking into the room with T-Dog. Iris starts plating up their dinner as they sit down on the table.

"Yeah. They just got holed up somewhere. We'll- we'll head out first thing in the morning." Shane sits at the head of the table, taking a bowl from Carol. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Shane points at Carl with his spoon. "Carl, I want you to keep your head up, okay? Your old man, he's the toughest son of a-"

"No cussing in the house." Patricia tuts.

"Sorry." Shane raises his hands. Iris brings her arms around Carl's shoulders, keeping him close. She doubted that Lori and Rick (or Shane, for that matter) had spoken to Carl about the baby, and even less so about its potential parentage. Despite the tension and the hard feelings, the four adults at least agreed on one thing: Carl would not get dragged into the middle of it. But Iris was going to do her damn best to make sure Carl wasn't influenced too much by Shane and his quick to anger attitude.

"Lori, dinner!" Carol calls.

Maggie looks up. She had finally emerged from Beth's room, having stood vigil over her little sister for hours while she stayed in her catatonic state. Iris had sat in there with her for a while, but she could sense that Maggie needed time alone with her. Iris had needed that with Carl when he was lying in that very bed. "She's not in there."

Iris frowns. She thought that Lori was upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms, getting some rest. When she was pregnant with Carl, Iris got obsessed with the idea of pregnancy and babies and she learned everything that was appropriate for a ten year old to learn in preparation. The first trimester was tricky, and it was the one that most women felt the sickest in. "She's not upstairs?"

Shane looks up and stares at her. "Where is she? Carl, when's the last time you saw your mom?"

"This afternoon." Carl says. He looks up, reading the concern on everyone's faces. Irs squeezes his shoulder again.

"She was worried about Rick, asked me to look in on Carl." Andrea says.

"She went after them?" Dale exclaims.

"She didn't say that." Andrea says quickly.

Iris raises her eyebrows. "Then where the hell is-"

Shane puts up a hand, silencing Iris. "Nobody panic. Gonna be around here somewhere."

After dinner, the group split off, all looking for Lori in different places. It was well into the night now, and it was getting unsafe to be away from the safety of the group. Iris was already worried enough about Glenn and Rick and how their 'easy run' had turned into an hours-long journey and it wasn't any less safe out on the road than it was out on the farm land.

It was to Iris' surprise that Shane had volunteered the two of them to check out the barn, considering the fact that she hadn't spoken a word to Shane unless it was to yell in days and the majority of that yelling was because of what he had done in the barn. (Another major factor was the baby and the affair, but as far as she knew, Shane didn't know that she knew that.)

She only remembered Lori's whispered words to her about how she thinks that Shane killed Otis when they were inside the barn, and she pushed down a shiver as she listened to Shane's heavy footsteps. Was Shane capable of murder? If he did, was it in cold blood? Did he feel guilty about it? Was that the reason his behaviour had been so erratic lately?

"I don't see her." Shane says suddenly, and Iris jumps, letting a frightened yelp out as he appears behind her. Shane chuckles. "Calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down." Iris snaps, walking away from him. "You don't just sneak up on a girl in the dark like that!"

"Jesus, Iris." Shane curses, shaking his head and catching up to her. "What? You still got a problem with the barn, because we would've never figured out about Sophia-"

"It's about you and Lori!" Iris cuts in, still furiously walking away.

Shane pulls her back by the elbow with a death grip. Iris tries to pull away, sending him a glare. Shane lets go, and Iris pulls her arm away viciously. "Me and Lori?"

"Having an affair when you thought my brother's body was only a few weeks cold." Iris laughs bitterly, licking her lips as she flexes her jaw. "There must've been some underlying feelings there, huh? And now-" She cuts herself off.

"Now what, Iris?" Shane smiles, which sends a chill down Iris' spine. "The baby? So you admit, it's mine."

Iris scoffs. "Go to hell."

"She was lonely!" Shane says, even as Iris pulls away and starts her walk back to the others. "I did her a favour!"

"You're delusional." Iris spits back. "And I want you to stay away from my family."

The words stung even Iris, who could've never imagined herself saying those words to Shane. He had always been there for her, but Iris was led to question everything about his intentions in the past. How long had it really been since Shane had started having feelings for Lori?

It made everything feel like a lie.

𖤓𖤓𖤓

The strangers seemed nice.

Glenn was on the other side of the bar, leaning his elbows on the counter as the two men sat down. If anything, Glenn was glad that he wasn't left alone with Rick and Hershel, standing awkwardly between their heavy conversation.

The man who had spoken when they had entered the bar smiles, finding a chair. "I'm Dave. That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony."

"Eat me, Dave." Tony says. Glenn smiles at their clearly well-known banter.

"Hey, maybe someday I will." Dave jokes. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was."

Glenn smiles, looking between Dave and Tony. He waves. "I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people."

"Rick Grimes." Rick offers. His voice was gruff, mistrusting. Glenn wasn't too sure. Not all people were bad. Hershel wasn't bad, Maggie wasn't bad. There was more to life than constant enemies, he thought.

"How about you, pal?" Dave lifts his drink in the air, pointing it at Hershel. "Have one?"

"I just quit." Hershel says.

Dave chuckles. "You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"His name's Hershel." Rick says. "He lost people today, a lot of them."

"I'm truly sorry to hear that." Dave lifts up his glass. "To better days and new friends. And to our dead. May they be in a better place."

Glenn picks up the bottle of scotch, pouring his own glass. It couldn't hurt, right? It would've been better if Iris was here, like she was at the CDC. That night with her, joking and laughing, was wirth any hangover in the world.

Dave looks up at Rick, his eyes widening in realisation as to what he was staring at. He takes his gun from his holster. "Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop."

"I'm a cop." Rick says.

Dave smiles and shrugs. "This one was already dead."

There was a short silence that followed Dave's words. Glenn takes a sip of scotch, but it was so disgusting that he disguises his disgust with a cough, holding his chest. Glenn looks at Rick and Hershel, wondering if he was going to have to carry this whole conversation with the newcomers.

Rick finally speaks, clearing his throat. "You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia."

"It feels like we're a long way from anywhere." Dave laughs.

"Well, what drove you South?" Rick crosses his arms over his knees.

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped 30 lbs in sweat alone down here."

Tony snorts. "I wish."

Dave chuckles, shaking his head. "No, first it was D.C. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumour about a way out of this thing."

"One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony adds.

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country. Kansas, Nebraska."

Glenn raises his eyebrows, leaning closer. "Nebraska?"

Dave shrugs. "Low population, lots of guns."

"Kinda makes sense." Glenn says. It did, especially for people like Dave and Tony, who seemed to constantly be on the move. Ammo would run low often, and Glenn knew how hard it was to find more, and on the move, you always needed more.

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid? A reason they call 'em flyover states." Dave asks. Glenn shakes his head, leading to a big laugh from Dave. "How about you guys?"

"Fort Benning, eventually." Rick answers. His words were short and a little snippy, and Glenn started to wonder if Rick was seeing something in these men that Glenn didn't.

But if Glenn hadn't trusted enough that some random guy in a tank was someone worth saving, he wouldn't be standing here right now. So Glenn preferred the benefit of the doubt.

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but-" Dave leans forward, holding his drink in his left hand. "We ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains."

Glenn stands up, unable to hide his disappointment. "Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?"

"Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab a hold of you when you sleep." Dave sighs. Glenn wasn't sure if he believed that. There had to be more to life than just running and surviving. Living and surviving were two very different things.

"If you sleep." Tony comments.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here." Dave frowns curiously. Something in his voice changes. "You holed up somewhere else?"

"Not really." Rick lies.

Dave raises a brow. "Those your cars out front?"

"Yeah. Why?" Glenn asks. If Dave and Tony wanted a place to stay, Glenn would happily point them into a good direction. A lot of stores around here had potential, if they could be cleared out.

"We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?" Dave stands up, and the look on his face sends a shiver down Glenn's spine. He doesn't know what to say, looking between Rick and Hershel with a rush of anxiety.

Maybe Dave and Tony were not what they seemed.

"We're with a larger group out scouting, thought we could use a drink." Hershel says. His voice was low, sounding almost like it had done when he spoke to Shane, ordering him off of the farm. There was an immediate hostility between the other four people in the room that Glenn felt like he had totally missed something.

"A drink? Hershel, me I thought you quit." Dave says. He looks around the bar, taking in a big inhale. "Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it-is it safe?"

"It can be, although I have killed a couple of walkers around here." Glenn says. He wanted to be able to at least have a benefit of the doubt, or he'd feel like he was losing himself to this world.

"Walkers? That what you call them?" Dave asks, smirking.

Glenn chuckles nervously. Rick and Hershel were still on edge, and it was messing with his head. "Yeah."

"That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

"More succinct." Tony adds, raising his shoulders and his arms as he speaks.

"Okay, Tony went to college." Dave jokes.

"Two years." Tony corrects with a smile.

"So what... so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development? Trailer park or something? A farm?"

Glenn tenses. Hershel draws in a deep breath, and Rick refuses to look up from his peircing glare at the floor.

Dave's face lights up, smiling sinisterly. He moves around the bar, singing the nursery rhyme Old McDonald had a Farm under his breath. "You got a farm?"

His voice, coupled with his mannerisms and the way that he was carrying himself had gone from just a kind stranger coming across others in a bar to a sinister predator, and Glenn started to feel like his benefit of the doubt was very, very wrong.

Tiny stands up and unzips his pants, turning around and relieving himself against the wall. "Is it safe?"

"It's gotta be. You got food, water?" Dave asks.

"You got cooze?" Tony adds. "Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks."

Glenn turns up his nose in disgust. He was suddenly incredibly glad that Iris hadn't come in his place, and he was regretting every word he had spoken to the men. He despised the thought of Dave and Tony finding the farm, finding Iris and the other women in camp — strong, incredible women that were brave and good fighters, true surivors — and disrespecting them like that.

No, they could never find out where the farm was.

"Listen, pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact. No disrespect." Dave says, waving his hand. "So listen, Glenn..."

"We've said enough." Rick cuts in, glaring at Dave with a murderous stare.

"Well, hang on a second. This farm, it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"

"Yeah, real sweet." Tony says, zipping up his pants.

"How about a little Southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We can pool our resources, our manpower." Dave suggests.

Rick shakes his head. "Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option."

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem." Dave says defensively. He was slowly getting closer and closer to Rick

"I'm sorry. We can't." Hershel backs up. Glenn felt frozen in place. He suddenly felt cornered, like the walls were closing in on him as he realised just how naive he was. If he was alone, he might've trusted Dave and Tony too much and paid the terrible price of learning exactly what kind of people they were too late. Glenn wasn't on his own anymore. He didn't just have himself to look out for. He had Iris now, he had someone that he loved more than anything that he had to protect, keep out of danger, even if she was more than capable. He had to think of Iris first, or he'd risk losing it all. It was not a risk he was willing to take, not here, not ever, not when it came to Iris.

The realisation came crashing down on him like a bunch of bricks.

"We can't take in any more." Rick shakes his head.

Dave sighs heavily, his hands on his hips and his fingers going dangerously close to his gun holster. "You guys are something else. I thought, I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too."

"We don't know anything about you." Rick points out.

"No, that's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself. Am I right? 'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on, let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other. You must be rolling in it, look at that pin on your shirt there? What is that, a bunch of flowers? How cute."

Glenn shudders.

"That's not gonna happen." Rick says again, his voice firm and unwavering.

"Rick..." Dave sighs.

"This is bullshit." Tony exclaims, throwing his hand in the air.

"Calm down." Rick tell him.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Tiny yells. "Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you three assholes in the head and take your damn farm!"

Glenn felt a chill. His heartbeat starts to go as fast as a racehorse in his chest, his lungs constricting as he scanned the bar for any exit other than the door.

Dave holds a hand out to his friend, but his tone was still light as if he was disussing the weather and not the potential shooting of the three of them. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?" Dave grunts and jumps over the counter, taking out his gun an placing it there, a smile forming on his lips. Glenn panics even more now that Dave was on the same side of the bar than him, and all of a sudden all he could think about was Iris and the look on her face if he never came back from this. "Look. We're just friends having a drink. That's all. Now where's the good stuff, huh? Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Let's see. Hey, look at that. That'll work. You gotta understand... we can't stay out there. You know what it's like."

Rick nods. His fingers graze over his own gun holster. "Yeah, I do. But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

"Keep looking." Dave repeats, looking dumbstruck. "Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know." Rick shrugs. "I hear Nebraska's nice."

Dave chuckles even harder, pointing to Rick with his thumb. "Nebraska. This guy."

Glenn doesn't know what to do. He was totally, completely helpless. Iris was right to worry about him going. He could be the best supply runner in the country but none of that mattered if he got shot by some other guy because he was too much of a trusting person to realize the guy was holding a knife behind his back. He needed to get home, he needed to hold onto Iris and never let go, he needed to —

BANG.

BANG.

Smoke filled the room.

Glenn didn't realize what had happened until a thud registered in his ears.

Rick had shot them both in the head. 

AUTHORS NOTE

❥ Welcome back to Doomsday!
❥ We're in the final stretch of season two!! Sorry if this chapter was a little boring, all I could really do was follow what happens in the episode, because all of this stuff needs to happen, and I wanted Iris to stay at the farm. However, once we finish our final stretch and get to the good stuff in the last half of season two we'll be in season three which god you guys have no idea I am so excited!
❥ I was trying to give a little insight into Glenn's mind during the encounter with Dave and Tony, especially how his opinions on trusting others is shifting and changing as the world changes and as he realises that he has Iris in his life now and he's not just looking out for himself, and I hope I did it justice.
❥ Little sneak peak: In Season Three I am introducing a new original character :)
❥ If you liked, please vote and comment <3