Rosie hated being out of the loop. All she knew was that Michonne was keeping Rick in some house, and she wasn't allowed to go in there and see him. She wanted to know whether or not he was going to be kicked out, but apparently she wasn't allowed to know. That was another stupid thing about this place. They didn't let the kids know anything or do anything, even if they were very much capable of it. Rosie wished Daryl was there, because he'd probably tell her what was going on.

Her second best chance of figuring out what was happening relied on Maggie. The problem was, Rosie didn't have any idea where Maggie was. Everyone seemed to be all over the place, with all of the chaos. So, Rosie decided she'd just go back to the house and wait for someone to show up there. Much to her luck, Glenn, Carol, and Abraham were there- although, it looked like they were about to leave.

"Glenn!" Rosie said, getting his attention.

"Hey, you ok?" Glenn asked, slowing down into a stop. Rosie was right, the three of them were heading out the door.

"Where's Maggie?" Rosie asked him, bouncing on her toes impatiently. Not knowing everything that was going on made her feel anxious. What if they had to leave and Daryl didn't know? Would he be able to find them after?

"She's talking to Deanna. Why?" Glenn replied.

"I wanna know what's goin' on!" Rosie complained.

"We're going to see Rick right now. I'll let you know what's going on when we get back. For now just," he paused and looked back at the house for a moment before turning back to Rosie. "Just stay here with Carl, Ian, and Judith. We'll figure it out." With that, Glenn, Carol, and Abraham were on their way to wherever they were keeping Rick. Rosie groaned and tossed her head back in complaint, but did as she was told, anyway.

When she stepped inside the house, she could see Carl sitting on the couch next to Ian, with Judith in his arms. Judith was crying, crying, crying, and Carl looked exhausted. Rosie walked over to the couch and plopped down on the other side of Carl. "Are you ok?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. Carl was probably stressed out, considering it was his dad who was holding the gun. Carl only shrugged. "Want me to... help with Judith?" Rosie tried.

"Yeah. Thanks," Carl said, letting Judith crawl onto Rosie's lap.

Once Judith was on Rosie's lap, Carl got up and went into the kitchen. Judith kept on crying, and Rosie didn't know how to make her stop. "It's ok, Judith. Rick'll be back soon," Rosie decided on saying. She wasn't sure if Judith understood her or not, and she didn't know if her statement was true, but it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, Judith just kept on crying. Rosie continued on trying to say things that would make her calm down, but it wasn't working. "Come on, Judith," she said, trying to keep herself calm. Then, an idea popped into her head. She adjusted Judith on her lap, so that she could reach into her pocket. She pulled out her velociraptor toy and put it in Judith's hands. After a moment of holding the velociraptor, Judith's crying started to slow to a stop.

"I think it worked," Ian said, smiling a little.

"Yeah," Rosie agreed, smiling a little, too. Maybe everything was chaotic, but at least she could calm down a baby. At least that was something she was somewhat good at inside of these walls.

•

"Is that Rick?" Ian suddenly asked, taking both Rosie's and Carl's attention away from their game of Go Fish and to the front door immediately. Sure enough, Rick was coming up the front steps. His face was covered in bruises and band-aids, and his right hand was wrapped up in a bandage. Carl immediately got up to greet him the second he got through the door.

"You ok?" Carl asked, pulling away from his father's tight embrace.

"Yeah," Rick replied. Rosie wasn't sure if he was really telling the truth, because he looked like he was in a lot of pain. Along with all of the bruises and bandages, he also had a hardened expression on his face. That couldn't be good. "Look, I'm sorry," Rick sighed out, coming further into the house. He ruffled both Rosie's and Ian's hair as he passed them, as if this was just a normal day and he wasn't about to be kicked out of this place.

"I heard about the meeting," Carl brought up.

The meeting was that night, and the people of Alexandria were going to decide Rick's fate. Glenn had come by, just like he promised, to explain it to them. Rick was going to explain his side of the story, and they would make a decision based on that. But it didn't seem fair to Rosie. These people were obviously going to have a bias towards Pete, considering he was their surgeon, and Rick was just some stranger that only appeared in this place less than a month ago. If they had the choice between Pete and Rick, they were going to choose Pete.

"You're all staying home," Rick told the kids. Rosie scrunched her face up, about to argue, when Carl spoke up before she could.

"That's what it is now, right?" Carl asked. Rosie wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about at first, but he continued. "Home?"

Rick turned him, his face tense. "Yeah," he agreed.

"They need us. They'll die without us," Carl continued on.

Rosie nodded in agreement. "They're stupid," she said, crossing her arms. They all turned to look at her for a moment, and Ian elbowed her in the side. She gave him a look that was supposed to say, what? It's true, but she wasn't sure if that was really what her eyes were giving off.

"I might have to threaten one of them. I could have to kill one of them," Rick said, walking closer to Carl. Rosie knew that it would more than likely have to come to that. She knew that this place was too welcoming, too lenient, too stupid. Rick was going to have to fix that in order for them all to be safe. She knew that, but they didn't.

"You won't," Carl said, denying it.

"I might," Rick told him, giving him a stern look.

"You have to tell them," Carl replied.

"I told them last night," Rick argued. Yeah, and that didn't work out very well, did it? Rosie wanted to say, but didn't.

"You have to tell them so they can hear you," Carl said to Rick.

Carl often said things like that- things that had more meaning than Rosie could understand upon first hearing the words. Sometimes Carl said things that were smart in the way that she really had to think over all of the meanings it could possibly have. Tell them so they can hear you. They heard him. He was yelling, of course they heard him. But hearing someone was different from understanding someone, Rosie had learned. And these people weren't understanding Rick. Sometimes Daryl would finish his sentences with, ya hearin' me? And Rosie would always say yes, because she was hearing him. But hearing wasn't the same as understanding, so they'd always end up in some other mess because of it. What Carl was saying was that Rick needed to tell them so they could understand him.

"I don't know if they can," Rick said in a quiet, serious voice. I don't know if they can understand. Rosie didn't know if they could understand, either. Something bad would have to happen, in order for them to understand. They'd have to live it to understand. Carl sighed. "Does that make you afraid?" Rick asked.

"Just for them," Carl said, his eyebrows furrowed with worry. "You have to tell them."

Rick nodded. He nodded in understanding. He needed to tell them, and he understood that. But he didn't know if they would hear him, or if they would understand him. Either way, Rosie decided that she was going to be there to see what would happen, whether Rick knew about it or not. She wasn't going to wait at home while Rick's fate was decided for him. What if he killed someone, and then someone killed him? What would she do then? She wanted to be there, so she was going to be there.

•

"Rosie!" Liam's voice shouted out. Rosie huffed out a sigh and chose not to turn back to look at him. She just kept on walking down the sidewalk. Of course, Liam wouldn't let up, though. "Rosie! Stop!" Liam said. Rosie didn't, but she wasn't running, so he caught up to her. "Why are you ignoring me?" Liam asked. Rosie scoffed. Why was she ignoring him? Really? "I just wanna know what happened!"

"What happened with what?" Rosie asked him, fighting the urge to punch him in the nose, right then and there.

"Where's your dad? How'd you end up with these people? Why're you with that crazy guy?" Liam listed off a few questions.

"Rick ain't crazy. He just knows," Rosie said, rolling her eyes. She finally stopped and turned to look at Liam. "You seen Glenn? He's got swoopy hair," she said.

"God, you're weird. What the hell is swoopy hair?" Liam responded, giving Rosie a judgmental look. Rosie growled in frustration and continued on walking. She was looking for Glenn, because again, she couldn't find Maggie, and Glenn would know where Maggie was, and she wanted Maggie to tell her what Deanna was thinking, and also where they were having that meeting. At least when Daryl was here, he was almost always sitting on the porch. It was easy to find him when she needed to. With everyone else, not so much.

"Swoopy hair. Like... whatever. Never mind," Rosie huffed, quickening her pace.

"Where's your dad? Sam said you still had a dad, but I haven't seem him anywhere, and you're different from how you were then," Liam said, quickening his pace, too.

"My dad's dead," Rosie said, making Liam's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "He was an asshole, anyway."

"But Sam said-"

"Sam prob'ly thinks Daryl's my daddy, 'cause Sam's stupid," Rosie interrupted Liam before he could even finish.

"Who's Daryl?" was Liam's next question. Rosie didn't understand why he was suddenly so curious about her life. Last time she saw him, he punched her in the nose.

"He ain't my dad. He's just... I don't know what he is. He's just important."

"So why're you with that crazy guy, then?" Liam asked.

"Rick ain't crazy. Already told you that. Now leave me alone," Rosie spat, just about ready to break both of Liam's legs so that he would stop following her around. Surprisingly, Liam didn't ask another question. He was quiet for a moment. And then he suddenly screamed and grabbed onto Rosie's arm. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Rosie shouted, shoving him off of her.

"Look!" Liam shouted, pointing towards the gate to Alexandria. Usually, someone was always standing there, watching and guarding. But no one was there, and the gate was open. And there was a walker. Rosie instinctively reached for her belt, for either her gun or knife, but neither were there. The walker began stumbling towards them, and Rosie didn't know what to do.

"Go! Go!" Rosie shouted, and started booking it away from the gate. She ran to the first house she could find, and it was unlocked. Everyone was so trusting here, and it made Rosie want to yell at them. They didn't understand that people were worse than walkers, and they were never safe. In this instance, though, she was grateful that they trusted the community enough to leave their doors unlocked. Rosie ran straight to the kitchen in this stranger's house, and Liam ran right behind her.

"What're you doing?!" Liam asked, backing himself into the counter. Rosie almost wanted to laugh at the expression on his face, but she held back because there were more important things going on.

"Gettin' a knife! What do you think I'm doin'?!" Rosie spat, and began digging through drawers and cabinets. In the third cabinet, there was a whole bunch of knives, and Rosie armed herself with the biggest one. With the knife, she began running back out to where the walker was. "Come on!" she shouted back to Liam.

"What are you doing?!" Liam shouted back to her, hesitantly following behind. "Why are you going towards it?!"

"So it doesn't kill anybody," Rosie answered, as if it was obvious. She spotted the walker going towards an area with a lot more light than the rest of Alexandria, and started running towards it. Liam ran after her, making sure to keep behind her, so the walker wouldn't get anywhere near him. "Hey! Over here!" Rosie shouted to the walker. It instantly changed directions and started coming towards her. Liam started pulling on her arm, shouting for her to stop, but Rosie didn't.

When the walker got closer, Liam jumped away while Rosie jumped forwards, trying to shove the walker to the ground. Unfortunately for her, the walker grabbed onto the fabric of her shirt, pulling her down with it. Within an instant, the walker was on top of her, snapping its jaws just inches away from her face. Rosie had almost forgotten what this was like- being mere inches away from the snapping jaws of death. But, nevertheless, she shoved the knife into the side of the walker's head, making it drop dead on top of her. After taking a breath, she pushed it off and got back up on her feet.

"I gotta find everyone else. Gotta tell 'em," Rosie said with her hands on her knees, catching her breath.

"They're probably at the meeting," Liam said, pointing over to the light that the walker was heading to.

"Ok. Let's go," Rosie said, starting to head towards the meeting. She paused and looked back when she noticed that Liam wasn't following her. "What're you doin'?" she asked him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm not going with you. You're crazy," Liam said, shaking his head.

"I just saved your life!" Rosie shouted at him.

"That's why I'm going home!" Liam yelled. Rosie huffed and glared at him as he ran off to go back home, apparently.

Coward.

Rosie started running towards the light that Liam had pointed out. They must've had a small fire going at the meeting. Rosie needed to be there- both to warn them, and to figure out what was going to happen to Rick. So she ran as fast as she could. But when she got there, she was surprised to see that Rick was already there. He was covered in blood, and there was a dead walker on the floor beneath his feet. Everyone else was standing around, watching him with wide, worried eyes.

"We'll survive. I'll show you how," Rick was saying. Rosie stopped in the gate, backing up a little in hopes of going unseen. Clearly, they already knew about the walkers, because Rick had brought a dead one. So she didn't need to warn them anymore. She just had to listen. "You know, I was thinking- I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night. I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready. But you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."

Just as Rick spoke of luck, Rosie felt unlucky. She heard footsteps dragging along, and she turned, thinking it was a walker. But it wasn't a walker. It was a man, covered in bruises and bandages, just like Rick was. It was Pete. And he was wielding a sword. Rosie jumped back, pressing herself against the wall as Pete walked past her, his eyes glued to Rick.

"You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" Pete shouted, so angry that he was shaking. He took steps closer to Rick, but Deanna's husband- Reg- jumped in the way, trying to calm him down.

"Pete, you don't want to do this," Reg insisted, holding his hands out in front of him as if it would calm Pete down. "Pete, just stop. Just calm down."

"Get the hell away from me," Pete mumbled out.

"Reg. Reg," Deanna kept saying, her voice full of worry and warning.

The more each of them spoke, the more tense their voices got, and the more panicked Rosie felt. And just as the intensity reached its peak, Pete sliced the sword through Reg's throat, and Reg fell to the ground, blood spewing out from his neck. Rosie jumped back while Abraham jumped forward, pinning Pete to the ground, despite his shouting and fighting. Her eyes wide open, Rosie watched as Reg gasped and gasped for a breath that he'd never be able to catch, until he was gone. Deanna sobbed over her husband's now dead body, overwhelmed with grief and rage. Her head turned to Rick, who was standing there emotionlessly.

"Rick..." Deanna breathed out, her face scrunched up as emotion overwhelmed her. "Do it," Deanna ordered, because she finally understood.

Without a moment's hesitation, Rick pulled a gun out of his waistband, and pointed it right at Pete's head. Abraham removed his hand from the back of Pete's head, and not a second later, Rick pulled the trigger and Pete was just another name on the long list of dead people. Rosie wasn't even sure if she could count it anymore, there were so many. She didn't think Pete deserved to be on her list, anyway.

"Rick?" a soft, quiet voice said from behind Rosie. She jumped again, turning to see who it was. First, she saw Aaron. Next to Aaron was a man Rosie had never seen before. But none of that mattered, because next to the man that Rosie had never seen before, was Daryl.

"Daryl!" Rosie nearly shouted, lurching forwards and wrapping her arms around Daryl's abdomen. Of course, out of all of the times that he could return, he'd come back the moment Rick was shooting someone in the head. Although he was staring at Rick, Daryl put his one free hand on the back of Rosie's head, the other holding his crossbow by his side.

After a moment, Daryl tore his eyes away from Rick's bloody face and looked down at Rosie. He was surprised to see blood splattered in her blonde hair. "You ok?" Daryl asked her, moving his hand down from the back of her head to squeeze her shoulder. "You bleedin'?" he asked.

"No. There was a walker," Rosie told him, finally pulling away and looking up at him. "Things went to shit."

"Yeah. I see that," Daryl responded, looking past her and to the two new dead bodies on the ground.