⌜ chapter five ⌟

"Can I talk to you?" Rick asks as he walks up outside of MJ's cell.

"Uh-oh. I'm in trouble." She sighs as she stands up.

"I don't know what you said... But why'd you have to piss him off?" He asks. "It's just making a bad situation worse."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't really do well with demeaning or derogatory remarks." MJ tells him. "Wasn't born that way, wasn't raised that way."

"You need to get a handle on your temper. I can't take care of it every time you piss someone off, and they want to kill you." He says, and she raises her eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" She scoffs and then pushes past him, heading down the stairs.

"MJ." He goes after her as she leaves the cell block.

"Trust me, Rick, you don't want to be near me right now." She says, and the others turn to look at them.

He reaches forward and grabs her arm. "M—"

She turns around and shoves him back. "I didn't ask you to come to my rescue, and I sure as hell don't need a knight in shining armor." She tells him. "And Shane was a self-serving asshole who wanted us both dead, so don't you dare put what happened between the two of you that night on me."

"That's not what I— MJ."

She stops when she sees Tomas. "I'm not your sweetheart, I'm nobody's piece of ass, and I didn't touch your shit. You got a problem, you can take it up with me, but I can guarantee you — you will lose." She says and then leaves the common area.

MJ walks outside and takes a deep breath as she looks at the blue sky. It's mostly​ clear, only a few clouds.

"That was quite the show you put on in there."

"Piss off, Gabriel."

"Hey, I'm just coming to check in on everything." He tells her. "I'm not here to be your therapist."

She turns around and looks at him. "Hershel was bit, Rick had to cut off his leg. I know you can't fix that, but—"

"But I can heal him just like I healed your side." He says. "It'll be like he never lost any blood at all."

"And he won't be bleeding out anymore?"

"He'll be good as new...ish."

"Come on. Let me show you the way." She heads back into the prison, and the guys look at them.

"Where'd he come from?" Tomas asks.

"Up your ass." MJ says as she unlocks the door into the cellblock. "Hey, clear out of Hershel's cell." She calls as she closes the door behind them.

Everyone walks out, and Maggie sighs when she sees Gabriel. "Oh, thank God."

"Not quite." He smiles as he walks past her and into her father's cell.

"I can't believe nobody thought to call him sooner." Matt says.

"I didn't call him, he just showed up." MJ tells him as Gabriel walks back out of the cell.

"He's resting now." Gabriel says. "He should probably sleep a little, but he'll be fine. You can take the cuffs off of him. There's no danger of him dying anymore."

"Thank you so much." Maggie says, and he nods. She and Beth go into the cell to be with their father.

"So, did you come for a reason?" MJ asks him. "I mean, I'm not complaining now."

"I have a present for you." Gabriel says as he pulls out an angel blade.

"Yes!" She smiles as she takes it from him, much to his amusement. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She hugs him, and he chuckles.

"Hey, MJ?" Daryl gets their attention, and she looks over at him as she pulls away from the angel. "We're going to clear them a cellblock. Feel a whole lot better if you were helping us." He tells her.

"No problem." She smiles as she walks over to him. "Look at what our second favorite angel brought me." She holds up the silver angel blade.

"Hey!" Gabriel looks at her.

"Sorry." She winks at him and then heads over to the guys.

"Hershel?" Rick asks.

"He's gonna be fine." MJ says without looking at him.

"Why do we need her?" Tomas questions.

"Trust me, your ass is backed into a corner, she's the one you want with you." Daryl says as MJ picks up a clip from the table and reloads her gun.

"You know your way around a gun?"

"That's what happens when you're raised by a Marine." She says. "Bet I've been shooting longer than you have."

"Yeah? What are you willing to bet?" He asks with a cocky smile on his face.

He's been in prison for a long time now, and she's the first woman that he's been around since before the outbreak. That seems to be trumping his disdain toward her at the moment, much to Daryl's annoyance.

"Mm." MJ shakes her head as she looks up at him. "You don't have anything I want."

"Come on, sweet—" Her face turns to a scowl, and he chuckles. "Alright."

"T, you want a new weapon?" She offers him the machete, and he smiles as he takes it.

"Oh, hell yeah."

"Alright, let's go." MJ says, and they exit the common area, going back into the hallways that lead to the rest of the prison.

"Man, it's too damn dark in here." Oscar complains after they've been walking a bit.

Daryl looks at him, then he sees how he's carrying his ax. "Gotta hold it up high out in front of you. You're gonna hear them before you see 'em." He tells him.

"It's coming!" Axel yells, and Rick immediately shushes him.

Walkers round the corner, and Daryl tries to do things as they usually do, but the prisoners rush forward. One of them knocks MJ into Daryl, and his arm wraps around her to steady them. She clenches her teeth as she straightens herself out, and his hand lingers on her hip for a moment.

"I really hate these guys." She says as they watch them beat on the walkers. It takes a long time before they actually kill them because they aren't going for their heads.

They finally stop and the five prisoners turn to face the other four. MJ looks at Daryl and then shakes her head as she walks past the prisoners. The men in her group follow after her, then the prisoners.

"It's gotta be the brain." Daryl reminds them when they find another walker. "Not the stomach, not the heart — the brain." He says as he shoots it with an arrow.

"I hear you. The brain." Axel says.

Oscar moves forward and hits the next one in the head with his ax. "Like that?"

"Uh-huh." Daryl nods.

Axel kills another, then Rick. "Stay in tight formation. No more prison riot crap." The leader tells them.

They all keep killing the large group of walkers coming at them from the front, none of them noticing when Big Tiny starts to back away. They hear a scream, and MJ turns back. She sees two walkers attacking him so she rushes over and kills one with the angel blade.

Three gunshots sound from behind her, and the second walker drops. She turns around and sees Tomas looking at her. He's glaring, apparently done with his failed and feeble attempts at flirting with her. She looks back at Big Tiny and sees that he's bleeding, one of the walkers cut him with their bone. Rick moves forward to look at it, and it's bad.

"I'm telling you, I don't feel anything." Tiny says. "It's just a scratch."

"I'm sorry, man." Rick says.

"I can keep fighting!" He insists.

"You cut that old guy's leg off to save his life." Andrew argues.

"Look at where the bite is." Rick points at the spot on Tiny's shoulder blade.

"Guys, I'm fine!" He argues. "Just— I'm fine. Look at me, I'm not changing into one of those things." He sounds desperate.

"Look, man, there has to be something we can do." Oscar says. "We could just lock him up."

"Quarantine him." Andrew suggests.

"We gotta do something. Why you just standing there?" Andrew questions. "We gotta save him."

"There's nothing we can do." Rick tells him.

"You son of a bitch."

"Rick, maybe we could try—" MJ's cut off when Tomas suddenly walks up behind Tiny and hits him on the back of the head with a small pickaxe. "Or not."

Tiny's on the ground, and Tomas uses the ax to bash his head in. MJ steps back as blood starts flying all over the place. He looks up and his face is covered in Tiny's blood, he's looking directly at MJ and something about it actually unsettles her a little.

The look in Tomas' eyes is the most evil thing that she's ever seen in a human. Even with the hillbillies who kidnapped her, they were more crazy than evil. But there's something in Tomas that isn't in the other prisoners.

Tomas starts walking, and soon they all get moving again. MJ and Daryl are at the back of the group, she doesn't want Tomas out of her sight. Daryl turns to her, and the two stop walking.

"You see the look on his face?" He asks, his voice low. She glances at him, and he sees the tension in her jaw even in the dim hallways. "He makes one move, just give me a signal."

MJ nods, and the pair continue after the others. They make it to the laundry room and it's clear, but they can hear walkers outside a set of double doors. Rick tosses the keys to Tomas' feet.

"I ain't opening that."

"Yes, you are." Rick tells him. "If you want this cellblock, you're gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. Because we need to control this."

Tomas picks up the keys from the floor and then looks at Andrew. He walks forward and unlocks it, then looks at the group.

"You bitches ready?" Tomas asks. It sticks and then he opens up both doors.

"I said one door!" Rick yells as they move forward.

"Shit happens."

They start killing walkers, and MJ's trying to keep an eye on Tomas as well. She trusts him a thousand times less than she trusts the angels or even Crowley. Hell, she'd put faith in Meg before Tomas.

And with damn good reason too.

She sees him purposely miss a swing at one of the walkers and follow all the way through to try and hit Rick with his ax. She moves forward, placing herself between them, and he then grabs a walker and throws it at her. She lands on her back and starts struggling with the walker.

Rick can't get to her, but Daryl pushes his way through and stabs the walker in the head. He pulls it off of her and then helps her to her feet. She looks past him once she's standing again and sees that the walkers are all taken care of.

MJ steps forward, and Tomas looks at her; he shrugs. "It was coming at me." He says.

The brunette nods. "Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Shit happens." She glances at Rick and then looks back at Tomas.

He just looks at her for a few seconds and then starts to raise his arm. She's faster and quickly stabs him in the head with the angel blade.

"No!" Andrew yells and swings his bat at her. She ducks under it and then kicks him in the stomach. He goes down and quickly tries to get back up.

"Easy now." Daryl comes up beside her, aiming his crossbow at him. Andrew turns as he gets to his feet and then runs out of the room.

"I got him." Rick says, running after him.

MJ leans down and pulls the angel blade out of Tomas' head. Daryl makes Oscar get down on his knees, and T-Dog aims his own gun at Axel.

"We don't have no affiliation with what just happened." Axel says. "Tell 'em, Oscar."

"Stop talking, man." Oscar tells him.

MJ looks at Oscar. "No, start talking." She says, and he looks at her.

"We didn't have nothing to do with that." He reiterates, and she nods slowly as she walks over to him.

"You didn't know?" She questions.

"It was them that was bad." Axel says, and she looks at him. "It wasn't us."

"How convenient."

"You saw what he did to Tiny." He's on the verge of tears. "He was my friend. Please, we ain't like that. I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer. Oscar here, he's a B and E, and he ain't very good at it neither. We ain't the violent kind. They were. Please! I swear to God. I wanna live!"

MJ looks back at Oscar. "What about you? You got anything you wanna add?"

"I ain't never pleaded for my life. And I ain't about to start now." He tells her. "So, you do what you gotta do."

"I respect that." She nods. "See, I am the violent type. When necessary, that is. But I'm not a murderer. That's not to say I won't do what I have to to protect my family."

"MJ?" Rick walks back in.

"The deal stands." She says as she looks at him. "They can have this cellblock so long as they stay the hell away from our people. But if you do go near them—" She looks between Axel and Oscar. "—I will protect them. Whatever means necessary. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." Axel nods.

"We're clear." Oscar tells them.

—

The four of them walk into their own cellblock, and MJ starts for the stairs. "MJ?"

The only reason she stops is because the one who called out to her was Hershel. She walks over to his cell and forces a smile. "I mean... Look at you. You look great."

"I hear I have you to thank for that." He says, and she shakes her head.

"Me? No." She says. "Rick's the one who thought fast on his feet, he's the one who saved you back there. And Gabriel healed you. I didn't even think to call him. I was... I was too consumed by my own temper." She scoffs. "I'm just a girl with a knife. But I'm glad you're gonna be okay. This group needs you."

"Are you alright?" He asks. "Your hands are shaking."

"I'm fine." She slides her hands into her back pockets. "I'm gonna go get changed."

She goes upstairs, and Jo then walks over to her sister. "She seem okay to you?" The younger girl whispers.

"I don't know." Addy shakes her head, her voice just as low as Jo's. "I haven't seen her like that since Dean called and told me about those hillbillies who kidnapped her. I stayed with her for awhile, she was just...so closed off."

Jo looks at Rick and Daryl. "What the hell happened out there?" She asks them.

Daryl walks past them and goes upstairs, he stops outside of MJ's door. She drops the angel blade and it clatters on the ground. She then sits on her bed and kicks the blade away from her, sending it skidding into the wall. Her hands keep shaking as she looks down at them in her lap.

"You alright?" Daryl asks.

"Fine."

He walks over and kneels down in front of her. "Are you alright?" He asks, and she sighs.

"There's something different about it... It's not the same, shooting someone and stabbing them." She says as her hands ball up into fists. "I didn't want to do it. I hate it — that he..." She sighs as she lets her head hang and tears fill her eyes. "I don't want to be like this."

"Like what?"

"Any of it... All of it." She folds her hands together, her fingertips white from the pressure she's applying, trying to calm her nerves. "Killing monsters, walkers...people. When I was little, all I ever wanted was to be normal, now that can never happen."

Her hands are still shaking when he reaches forward and wraps his own around them. It wasn't an action that she was expecting, and the surprise causes her to look at him, to meet his gaze.

"You ain't normal, but you save lives." He says. "What's more important than that?"

"How many bad guys can a person kill before they become one of them?" She asks.

"Is that what you're worried about?" He questions, eyebrows furrowed. "Becoming a monster?"

"A good person wouldn't do what I just did."

"Do you think I'm a good person?"

"Yeah." She nods. "You know that I do."

"I would'a done it." He tells her. "I told him I would kill him if he went near you."

"What?"

"Even if you hadn't done what you did, he'd still be dead right now." He sits there a moment longer before standing up straight and walking out of her cell.