FALLEN ANGELS.

chapter three, angry eyes, torn heart.
[ season three, episode two ]

THE FIVE PRISONERS STARE at the scene before them. A man who's leg had just been chopped off, a redneck with a crossbow pointed at them, and a young girl with a pistol pointed at them and the most enraged look they've ever seen in her eyes.

And they've seen a lot of enraged eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl growls, stepping close to Odessa protectively.

"Who the hell are you?" The prisoner in a white tank top echoes.

"He's bleedin' out, we gotta go back. Put pressure on the knee." Rick demands, completely ignoring the prisoners.

"Why don't you come on outta there? Slow and steady." Daryl instructs the prisoners. Slowly, all five come out.

Odessa immediately takes notice to the pistol in the prisoner's waistband.

"What happened to him?" The one with the gun asks.

"He got bit," Daryl answers.

"Bit?" The prisoner's eyes widen, immediately reaching for his gun.

"Don't even!" Odessa hisses, her finger moving to over over the trigger as T-Dog whips out his own gun, taking aim at the man.

"You have medical supplies?" Glenn asks as he brushes past the prisoners and into where they had been.

"Woah, where do you think you're goin'?" The biggest of all the prisoners asks.

The walkers banging on the door finally catch everyone's attention but Odessa doesn't dare take her eyes or gun off of the prisoners.

"Who the hell are you people, anyway?" The one with the gun asks.

"Don't look like no rescue team," the with the mustache states.

"If a rescue team is what you're waitin' for, don't!" Rick hisses as Glenn rolls a table out to them. Rick, Glenn, and Maggie quickly get Hershel onto it and get the doors opened. T-Dog hastily kills the walkers outside. Seconds later, they're running through the tombs.

Odessa and Daryl take the rear. She keeps glancing over her shoulder because she can hear the prisoners following after them. Whispering.

When they finally reach the cell block, Rick shouts, "open the door! It's Hershel!"

Carl quickly unlocks the door. He moves to the side, eyes wide as they roll Hershel inside.

Odessa casts a glance at her brother but doesn't go inside the cell block with the others. Instead, she remains outside with Daryl. He looks at her. "Go inside, Des. Beth's gone need ya."

And he's right. Beth needs her right now. More than ever. With death knocking on Hershel's door, Beth needs her.

"I'm not leavin' y'all out here with them by yourselves." She glances between him and T-Dog.

Daryl only grunts as he loads a bolt into his crossbow. Odessa raises her pistol as the prisoners slowly make their way in.

"That's far enough," Daryl snaps.

"Cell block C. Cell 4– that's mine, gringo." The one with the gun demands. "Let me in.

"Today's your lucky day, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia. You're free to go." Daryl says, his voice as calm as ever.

"Whatchu got goin' on in there?" The one with the guns asks. Odessa assumes he's the leader, he's the one with the gun and he's the only one asking the questions.

"It ain't none of your concern," Daryl tells him.

"Don't be tellin' me what's my concern," he pulls his gun out, pointing it at Daryl.

"Don't be stupid," Odessa hisses, her grip tightening on her gun.

All at once, five pairs of eyes slide over to her. It's like they're noticing the girl for the first time. She stands in front of the barred door, her eyes daring any one of them to try something stupid. But then, the one with the guns eyes trail down her body, he takes notice of her jeans and her arms, her fingers around the guns handle. He starts to smirk. When his eyes meet her again, they aren't her eyes. Daryl stands in front of her now, blocking her completely from the view of the prisoners.

"Don't fuckin' look at her." It's the most dangerous Odessa's has heard Daryl's voice.

"Chill, man. Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free now. Why are we still in here?" The biggest one says.

"Man's got a point," Daryl grunts.

"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady," one of the prisoners says.

"A group of civilians breakin' into a prison they got no business bein' in— got me thinkin' there ain't no place for us to go." The leader states.

"Maybe you're right but you sure as shit aren't stayin' here," Odessa snarls.

"Maybe we'll just be goin' now," the one with the mustache agrees.

"Hey, we ain't leavin'." The one with the gun says.

"You ain't comin' in either," T-Dog grits out as he appears from around the corner.

The prisoner whips around, pointing his gun at T-Dog, who doesn't dare back down.

Odessa snaps. "Get your gun off him before you gotta pick your friend's brains off the wall."

"Hey, this is my house, my rules. I go wherever I damn well please! I point my gun at who I damn well please!" He shouts, glaring at Odessa.

"Guess what, bitch? It's ours now!" Odessa snaps. T-Dog almost laughs, even Daryl smirks, but it's a serious situation. It's the most teenager thing they've ever heard Odessa say.

That's when the arguing starts. Insults fly out, intense cursing you could only hear from a sailor, comments from Odessa about them being in jail.

"You aren't goin' anywhere except out there!" Odessa yells.

"You gone come with his, sweet thing?" The one with the guns asks, a sick smirk on his face.

Odessa's face scrunches in disgust. T-Dog tightens his old on his gun, stepping closer to the prisoners. Daryl's lips turn into a snarl.

"There ain't nothin' for you here! Why don't you go back to your own sandbox!" Daryl bellows.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rick's voice booms as he enters the common area. "Everyone relax. There's no need for this."

"How many of you are in there?" The leader of the prisoners asks. 

"Too many for you to handle," Rick tells him. It's a bluff. They all know it. But the prisoners, they don't need to know.

"You guys rob a bank or somethin'? Why don't you take him to a hospital?" The gun man asks.

This Odessa's brows to furrow. They don't know what happened?

The four of them share a look. Odessa looks back to them, she can't help but ask, "how long y'all been in there?"

"Goin' on like ten months.".

"A riot broke out. Never seen anything like it," the biggest tells them.

"Attica on speed, man," the one with a mustache says.

"Ever heard about dudes goin' cannibal, dyin', comin' back to life? Crazy," the smallest of the five asks them.

The one with the gun looks over at Odessa again. This time, her father is here and he notices straight away. His eyes turn cold, daring the man to say anything or try anything against her. His own hand tightens around his colt, his knuckles turning white.

He moves so that he's facing his daughter but doesn't have his back to the prisoners. Odessa moves so that she is standing behind him, knowing that her dad will protect her.

"Go inside." He whisperers.

She glances past her father, back to the prisoner. His eyes remain locked on her. She swallows, suddenly aware of the look in his eyes. She nods, "okay, Dad."

Rick grabs the back of her head gently, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Rick walks her to the entrance of the cell block, protecting her from the prisoner. When they separate, Odessa steps into the cell block.

The air is different. Outside with the prisoners, it was tense and scary. But here inside the cell block. . . the air is full of despair and that is even more terrifying.

She swallows again, allowing herself to walk forward. She stops beside Glenn, Carl looks up at her. Her eyes are locked on whatMe in front of hee. Inside Hershel's cell, her mother, Beth, Maggie, and Carol stand. Her heart plummets. There is so much blood. So much red.

Red red red.

Her least favorite color is red.

Odessa's eyes move from Hershel to his youngest daughter. "Beth," Odessa whisperers. Beth's head snaps up. Her blue eyes are bloodshot, her lips quiver. Beth holds her hand out to Odessa.

Odessa doesn't hesitate. Beth practically falls into Odessa's arms. Odessa holds her, keeping her arms locked gently around her. Beth allows herself to sob in the arms of her girlfriend, knowing that she's safe and secure.

Odessa allows it. She presses a kiss to Beth's head, closing her eyes. Beth cries, her entire body shaking.

Odessa doesn't cry. Not right now. Beth and Maggie need her to be strong right now.

"If we can get him through this—" Carol starts.

"When we get him through this," Lori corrects.

"— we'll need crutches," Carol finishes.

"Right now we could use some antibiotics and painkillers, some sterile gauze. There's gotta be an infirmary here." Lori states.

"If there is, we'll find it. You've gotta be worried sick about deliverin' the baby."

Beth pulls back from Odessa. She stills stands beside her, wrapping an arm around Odessa's waist as she bows her head onto her shoulder.

"Look at me," Lori says. Carol looks up at her. "Do I look worried?"

"You look disgusting," Carol replies with a silent smile. Lori's lips pull up. 

The air remains solemn.

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Odessa lays in her bed. She stares up at the bottom of the bunk bed, she tries to imagine what Hershel will be doing when he wakes up. How he will just have to lay and stare up at the bottom of this bed as he heals.

The sound of the door downstairs, bangs open. Odessa stands, leaving her cell to see what's going on. She leans over the railing, looking down as T-Dog and her dad walk in.

"Whatcha got?" Carl asks when he sees the food in their arms.

"Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans." T-Dog lists off. Odessa can't help but smile. They won't have to starve anymore. Not that Odessa has been too worried about herself starving— she will give her food to her mother anyway.

"So," Odessa starts. T-Dog looks up at her, "are we killin' the prisoners?"

He raises his eyebrows, surprised by her words. "We're gonna help 'em clear out their own cell block."

"Don't know if that's a good idea", she shrugs. "They're prisoners. They're here for a reason. Y'all need to be careful around them. Especially the one with the gun."

"His name is Tomas," T-Dog tells her. "There's Axel, Big Tiny, Oscar, and Andrew."

"Lemme guess, Big Tiny is Shaquille O'Neal?" She asks, despite already knowing.

"You got it," T-Dog grins.

A couple minutes later, Rick and T-Dog are gone again and Odessa returns to staring at the bottom of the bunk bed.

Not long later, she hears the sound footsteps of footsteps approaching. She looks to the doorway, catching sight of Carl. "What is it?"

"Wanna go look for the infirmary?" He asks, his lips perking. Odessa can't help but let her own lips lift up.

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Odessa and Carl walk through the tombs together, both being extremely quiet and cautious. Finally, Carl whispers, "you think Hershel is gonna make it?"

Odessa doesn't know how to respond. So she simply says, "I hope he does."

"So do I," Carl tells her. "We can't lose anyone else."

She glances at him. He's too young to be worried about such a thing. He's only thirteen.

"When it happened all I could think about was Dale," she confesses in a whisper. Carl's looks up at his big sister. A frown forms on his face when he sees the tears in her eyes. "Being the first to find Hershel on the ground with a walker right beside him made me think back to that night."

Carl doesn't know what to say to that. He knows that losing Dale near about killed her, he knows what she still cries about it. He hears her at night, when she whispers to herself about missing Dale, Sophia, Andrea, and even Shane.

"If it offers you any comfort, I dream about it, too." He tells her.

"You dream about it?" She asks.

"Yeah, sometimes. It's you there instead of Dale," he stops walking. Odessa stops, turning to look down at her baby brother, "I saw that walker that day. I went out in the woods and it was stuck in the mud. I was messin' with it and it grabbed me. I panicked and ran. It— it followed me, I guess. Dale died because of me, Odessa."

"Oh, Carl," she breathes out. She reaches forward, pulling Carl to her. His arms find home around her torso like a muscle memory. She places her cheek against the top of his head.

Carl has blamed himself for Dale's death for the entire eight months they've been on the roses. She didn't know this. How could she not have noticed this? Was he scared to tell her? Was he in fear of her hating him?

Odessa can never hate her baby brother. He is the one person in the world she can never bring herself to hate. He is her best friend and her brother, in a way, her son. She's raised him more than their mother has. She loves him more than any other breathing person on this Earth. Hating him is the last she will ever do.

They stand like his, just hugging, for an entire minute before they hear the snarling. Carl pulls out his silenced gun while Odessa pulls her knife from its sheath.

Only two walkers round the corner, stumbling towards the siblings. The snarls are quickly silenced as the Grimes siblings take the walkers out. Once they do this, they share a look and continue on their way.

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Odessa and Carl return to the cell block, both carrying bags full of the supplies they found in the infirmary. Glenn looks to the two of them, "I thought you were organizing the food and you were in your cell." He tells Carl. "And I thought you were in your cell."

"Even better," Carl grins, walking past Glenn and into the cell. Odessa winks at Glenn as she walks up to him. "Check it out." Carl drops the bag on the floor.

Carl leans down, opening the bag for them and Carol gasps almost immediately. Lori looks at the bag, "where did you two get this?"

"From the infirmary. Wasn't much left, but we cleared it out," Carl says, looking back at Odessa with a grin. She grins back at him. The siblings are unable to contain their excitement.

Carol grabs the gauze, wrapping it around Hershel's stump. Lori glances between her children. "You two went by yourselves?"

"Yeah," Odessa nods.

"Are you two crazy?" Lori asks, her eyes wide and accusing.

"No big deal. We killed two walkers." Carl shrugs.

Lori motions back at Hershel's unconscious body then back to her children. "Alright, do— do you see this? This was with the whole group."

"We needed supplies, so we got them," Carl says.

"I appreciate that, but—" Lori starts.

"Then get off our backs!" Carl snaps, his voice loud and harsh. Odessa's eyes shoot wide. She's never heard Carl yell at their mother like this before. In fact, she thinks he's never yelled at her before.

"Carl!" Beth cuts in, "she's your mother. You can't talk to her like that."

"Listen, I think it's great that you two wanna help—" Lori cuts herself off as Carl turns on his heel, rushing out of the cell. Her attention moves to her daughter. "Why would you agree to that? You were there when this happened."

"Because I know how to handle walkers, Mom." She scoffs, rolling her eyes.

"If you did, maybe you could have reached Hershel in time to stop this," Lori says. As soon as the words leave her mouth, she regrets it.

The way her daughter's face drops shatters her heart. Odessa gapes at her mother, shocked by her words. Tears burn in her eyes, what little food in her stomach threatens to find its way back up and out.

Lori regrets it. She knows that without having to be told, everything happening with Hershel reminds Odessa too much of Dale and the night he died. Lori knew her daughter was the one to find Hershel with his leg bitten just as she found Dale lying in that field with his stomach ripped open.

Lori might have well told Odessa she got Dale killed and Hershel bitten.

"Fuck you, too, then," Odessa whispers before she, too, rushes away.

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When Odessa hears Beth's screams, it was safe to say she almost pees herself. She flings herself from her bunk, tripped over her blanket in the process. She trips, banging her head against the wall. She gasps, grabbing her head. But still, she pushes herself up, rushing down the steps and to Hershel's cell.

"Please, help!" Beth screams. Lori rushes into the cell. Odessa freezes in the door way, heart falling to the pit of her stomach as Lori presses her head to Hershel's chest in search of a heartbeat.

She doesn't find it.

She starts compressions.

She breathes into his mouth.

Hershel's arms shoot out, wrapping around Lori's head.

Screams erupt. Chaos ensues. The Grimes siblings pull their guns from their holsters, with nothing but trembling hands. The Greene sisters reach out, both still sobbing. They grab Lori and pull her away from their father. When they do, Carl and Odessa catch sight of his eyes before they fall shut again. They aren't gray or cloudy. They're the regular blue eyes.

The relief fills the room.

Beth looks to Odessa. Her brows furrow. "Dessy, your head." She whisperers. Odessa reaches up, she feels somethin wet. When she pulls back, she realizes she's bleeding.

"Damn it."

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Odessa sits on the steps that lead to the balcony of cells. She has a butterfly bandaged on her fresh cut, it throbs against the bandage. It is angry and swollen and it hurts like a son of a bitch.

Rick and the others return.

As soon as Carl catches sight of their dad, he speaks up, "Hershel stopped breathing. Mom saved him."

Rick looks at Glenn for confirmation. Glenn nods. "It's true."

Rick then looks at his daughter. She nods as well. He walks over to her. "What happened?" He asks, gently rubbing his finger near the cut.

"I tripped." Odessa answers.

Rick laughs quietly before turning to enter Hershel's cell. Odessa stands up, coming to stand beside Carl. Daryl walks up behind them.

Hershel's mouth starts to move. Odessa's brows furrow as Maggie sits down beside her father.

And then—

Hershel's eyes open. He blinks several times, regaining vision after being unconscious for over a day.

"Daddy?" Maggie breathes out.

"Daddy," Beth kneels beside her sister, her smile wide and happy tears in her eyes.

Odessa watches with a smile of her own as Rick removes the cuffs from Hershel's wrist. The old man reaches his arm out. Rick takes his hand in his own, kneeling beside him. Hershel locks eyes with Rick. And he doesn't even have to verbally speak. His eyes say everything.

Thank you.

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word count: 3,249

wow okay that was a chapter right there. i love it. so much happened in just 3,000 words.

carl and odessa's little scene made me happy but so sad at the same time. like my poor baby carl does not deserve the weight of blaming himself for someone's death. and then being worried for eight months that your sister would hate you when you told her? like in the chapter, odessa could never hate carl.

also t-dog, odessa, and daryl >>> i fucking love them. they're all so protective over each other. odessa really would've shot tomas if his bitch ass had tried something in front of her. she wouldn't have even hesitated to shoot any of them.

t-dog and odessa are really the comedic best friend duo everyone loves. "lemme guess, big tiny is shaquille o'neal?" and then t-dog's response, "you got it," t-dog smirked. they're literally so funny and cute. i love them so much. which is WHY i'm not emotionally prepared to write episode four and you guys should definitely prepare yourselves for the episode four chapters.

so next chapter guys... i hope you ready to meet theo and cole because it's their first ever chapter!! i love them so much. they're the best unrelated brother duo ever. i hope y'all love them as much as i do.