CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Take watch. Eyes open, head down." Rick tells Maggie as he gives her the keys. "Field's filled with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch."

"I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl says as they all move to the back set of steps.

"Or we use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Michonne suggests.

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel says.

"So we're trapped in here." Glenn says. "Alright. There's barely any food or ammo."

"Been here before." Daryl reminds them. "We'll be alright."

"That's when it was just us." He argues. "Before there was a snake in the nest."

"Man, we gonna go through this again?" He questions as he steps toward him. "Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it."

"Hey—" Rick tries to get between them.

"All y'all."

"Is that all you have to say Andie? Get used to it." Glenn asks as Daryl makes his way up the steps, and the brunette walks out of her cell. "Not like you said anything before you—"

"That's enough!" Andie snaps as she leans over the railing, and Daryl stops on the perch. "You wanna pitch a fit about Merle because of what he did to you, fine. But leave me out of it. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

"After what he did to you—"

"Merle didn't touch me." She stops him before he can keep going. "That was the Governor, and he'll get what's coming to him. But make no mistake, I am nobody's victim. Not anyone before, and sure as hell not that one-eyed prick's. So quit using me and what happened to me as one of your reasons to sell your point."

"And you're ready and willing to play house with Merle after he gave you to the Governor?"

"Do all men have this issue hearing women when they speak?" The teenager asks as she looks at Michonne.

"Yes." The older girl says.

"Glenn..." Andie sighs as she rests her weight on the railing. "I don't know what game you think this is, but I'm not playing anything. Especially house... Fact is — it's beneficial to have someone on your side who knows how the other side thinks. It also helps that the bastard was in the military. So, as much as I'd love to kick his ass and tell him to go pound dirt, this is the hand we were dealt. And cards is a game I play well. So shut up about who lives where and help us come up with a plan for the next time the Governor shows up on our front step."

"I wouldn't ask you to live with the Governor after what he did to you." Glenn argues.

"Merle didn't threaten to bring you my severed hand unless you stripped naked in front of him, he didn't bend you over a table and press himself up against you." She says, and Daryl's knuckles are ghostly white as he grips the railing. "You have been wanting to ask what exactly happened in that room, haven't you? I know you've been thinking it was something more. I told you he didn't hurt me, but that wasn't good enough. You had to keep making snide comments and accusations, calling him a rapist. So, let's set the record straight — he didn't rape me. He humiliated me, made me feel less than human — like I was just some object for his amusement, something he could toy with... Why is it so important that you know?"

"Because I was supposed to protect you! I was supposed to be keeping you safe!"

"Says who? Why was it your responsibility to protect me out there?" She questions, and his gaze flickers to Daryl before he looks down. "Are you kidding me?"

"Andie—" Glenn starts, but she turns to Daryl.

"I am not Glenn's responsibility or Rick's, and I sure as hell am not yours." The brunette says, and he stands up straight as he looks at her. "I don't know if it's you viewing me as a child or thinking that I need a man to come along and save me, but I've been looking after myself my entire life. I got myself this far without needing a man to come running to my rescue every five minutes, and that's not about to change now."

"They have a point." Rick says, trying to defuse the situation. "You always put everyone else before yourself. They're just trying to look after you the same way." 

"How is that any different than you putting the safety of the group above yourself? Or than you, Daryl, and Maggie following a stranger into hostile territory to find us? How is it different than T sacrificing himself to save all of us? Or different than Daryl choosing to leave with Merle rather than come back here?"

"T died. You wanna use a different example?"

"T-Dog made a choice." She argues. "No different from me or anyone else. So if what happened to me is somehow Glenn's failure, then that makes the state of his face my failure. I'm a fucking adult, and I've never been coddled before now. You can all stop treating me like an incompetent child who needs to babysat all of the Goddamn time." She then walks past Daryl and goes down the stairs that point toward the common area.

—

Andie's sitting on the floor of the generator room when the door opens. She gets to her feet, carefully rounds the corner with her gun raised, and sighs when she sees who it is. "What do you want?" The brunette questions.

"I'm surprised you lowered the gun." Merle says as he shuts the door behind him. He walks over just in time to see her slide back down the wall, then she wipes a tear from her cheek. "Your friends are worried about you."

"And they sent you? Must not really be my friends."

"Nobody sent me. Glenn's organizing teams to look for you, mentioned that this was a room with one entrance — it's close, easily accessible. I took a guess you'd be here." He explains.

"And what makes you think I would want you to find me?"

"I don't think you want anyone to find you. Ain't that the point of leaving the cell block?"

"He does have some level of intelligence." She says sarcastically.

"I don't know in what way, but I know that you're important to my brother." Merle says, and she looks down at the gun in her lap. "I was hoping you and I could bury the hatchet, for his sake."

"What do you want, Merle?" The brunette asks as she looks up at him. "Forgiveness? Do you have any idea what that sick son of a bitch did to me?"

"I do now. How do you think I got to lookin' like this?" He motions to his face — he has a welt under his eye that looks like it's gonna bruise, and split in his lip. "I know the Governor's capable of a lot of things, seen him do some nasty shit. But I ain't ever seen him do to a woman what he did to you, and I didn't know what he was planning when he said he was gonna talk to you."

"If only your ignorance changed anything." She sighs as she rests her head against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of in my life, but I'm not a rapist. Can't say I have any tolerance for 'em neither." He tells her. "I was only looking for my brother when I took you. I'd been talking to Andrea, she said he was still with your group as far as she knew. Glenn was with them same time I was. You two were my ticket to him, I didn't see anything else."

"If you came out here to try and smooth things over between me and your brother, it was a wasted effort." Andie tells him.

"You're a stubborn one."

"You aren't my problem. I don't care where you live."

"Ooh, I get it." He chuckles. "You really do have a crush, and you're mad that he chose me over you."

"No."

"It's cute, really. No need to be embarrassed."

"You're an imbecile."

"Explain it to me then."

"You wouldn't understand." She shakes her head as she gets to her feet.

"Does this make us friends?"

"No."

"Bygones?"

"If it'll make you leave me alone."

Merle follows her out of the generator room as they head back toward the cell block, and he annoys her the whole way. "So, tell me more about your crush on my baby brother."

"I don't have a crush on anyone."

"It's okay, sugar baby. We're at world's end. Old rules don't really apply anymore."

"Call me that again, and I'm gonna shoot you."

"Wait, how old are you?"

"Fuck you, Merle."

"Are you of age?"

Her eyebrows furrow as she glances over her shoulder. "Meaning?"

"Not a minor."

"No, I'm not a minor. Will you leave me alone?"

"How old are you?" Merle asks as they walk back into the commons, and everyone turns to look at them.

"Fuck off."

"Hey, baby brother,  we were just talkin' about—" Merle groans, doubling over as he holds his side; Andie just elbowed him in the ribs.

"About how much more I can stand before I can kill him." The brunette says. "The answer's not much, in case you were wondering." She says as she looks down at Merle.

"I'm growing on her."

"No, you're not."

"She's gonna like me soon."

"No, I won't."

"We'll be friends, don't worry."

"No, we won't."

"Well, she doesn't want to kill me anymore."

"Yes, I do."

"She hasn't killed me yet."

"Yet being the operative word."

"She's a bitch."

"Hey, look at that." Andie smiles as she pats Merle's shoulder. "You finally got one right."

"Most women don't admit to that."

"Admit it? Hell, I take pride in it." She tells him as she walks over to Carol. "Who's the blonde?"

"Andrea." The older woman tells her. "She was with us on the farm."

"Oh, right. She looks vaguely familiar."

"Aren't you the girl we were keeping prisoner in the barn?" Andrea asks, and the teenager smiles at her.

"I'm moving up in the world. No one's more surprised than me." She says sarcastically. "But it sounds to me like you're moving in the opposite direction."

Her eyebrows furrow, not understanding why Andie seems so hostile toward her. She doesn't even know the teenage girl, barely spent any time around her at all.

"You all live here?" Andrea asks, changing the subject.

"Here and the cell block." Glenn tells her.

"There?" She points toward the currently open door, and he nods. "Well, can I go in?"

"I won't allow that." Rick steps into her path.

"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." He tells her.

"He said you fired first." She says, and Andie scoffs.

"I was standing over T-Dog and Lori's graves when he fired the first shot. We didn't even know he was there until a bullet whizzed past my head." The teenager says. "I got lucky he missed... Axel wasn't as lucky."

"Who?"

"An inmate who survived in here." Hershel explains when Carol pulls the brunette into her side.

"We liked him. He was one of us." Daryl tells her.

"I didn't know anything about that." Andrea says. "As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."

"That was days ago." Glenn says accusingly.

"I told you, I came as soon as I could."

"No, you said you came as soon as you found out." Andie argues. "So, either you found out when you saw your boyfriend trying to kill Daryl and Merle and chose not to do anything. Or you're even dumber than you seem. Either way, I'm really not sure why we're entertaining her being here when she's in bed with the Governor." 

The blonde turns then and looks at Michonne. "What have you told them?" She questions.

"Nothing." She tells her old friend, stone-faced.

"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" She asks as she looks around at each member of the group.

"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us." Glenn speaks up.

"With his finger on the trigger." She points at Merle. "Isn't he the one that kidnapped you? Who beat you?"

"Who was put in a grudge match against his own brother, told to kill him or die?" Andie adds, regaining her attention.

"Look." Andrea sighs. "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 tells her. "We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will."

"We can settle this." She argues. "There is room at Woodbury for all of you."

Merle scoffs. "You know better than that."

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

"No." Andrea admits.

"Then why did you come here?" Rick questions.

"Because he's gearing up for war." She tells him. "The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack."

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

"No. You tell him I'm gonna kill him myself." Andie says, and the blonde looks over at you. "And anyone else who gets in my way."

"We've taken too much shit for too long." Glenn interjects. "He wants a war? He's got one."

"Rick." The blonde turns to him. "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. Look at you..." She turns to look at the rest of the group. "You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."

"You wanna make this right, get us inside." Rick walks up behind her.

"No."

"Then we got nothing to talk about."

"There are innocent people!" She turns as he makes his way into the cell block.

Daryl stands up from his seat on the round table, and Andrea looks at him. "You wanna know what kind of man your boyfriend is?" He glances at Andie. "Ask him what he did to her."

The teenager shifts uneasily on her feet as Andrea turns to look at her. Carol then pulls the younger girl into her side, squeezing her arm as she tries to comfort her.

—

They hung a sign up in our town
"If you live it up, you won't live it down"
So she left Monte Rio, son
Just like a bullet leaves a gun
Charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took the California trip
Oh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind
Said, "don't look back now, just come on, Jim"

Oh, you got to hold on, hold on
You gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
And a ring made from a spoon
Everyone's looking for someone to blame
If you share my bed, you share my name
Well, go ahead and call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops
She said, "baby, I still love you"
Sometimes there's nothin' left to do

But you got to hold on, hold on
You gotta hold on and take my hand
I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Well, God bless your crooked little heart
St. Louis got the best of me
I miss your broken China voice
How I wish you were still here with me
Oh, you build it up, you wreck it down
Then you burn your mansion to the ground
When there's nothing left to keep you here
When you're falling behind in this big blue world

You've got to hold on, hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Andie's sitting next to Beth in the cell block as she sings. The brunette's eyes are closed as she rests her head against the wall; the two girls are sitting on the ground not too far from the stairs.

"Sing something with me." Beth nudges her, and she opens one eye as she looks her way.

"I don't think anyone wants to hear my tone-deaf version of Ramble On."

"Guess that means I finally found something you can't do." The blonde chuckles, and her eyebrows furrow as she lifts her head and looks at her.

"What are you talking about?" Andie asks.

"You're the best shot in the group, you never have a problem taking out walkers hand-to-hand, so I'd bet you're good in a fight." Beth says, and she looks down at the knife she's been toying with in her hand. "Knew it... You're brave, strong, smart. And you're pretty."

"Thanks for the ego boost." She chuckles.

"How do you know all this stuff?" The younger girl asks. "You couldn't have learned it all after the walkers came around." She waits for an answer, but Andie doesn't seem like she's gonna have one.

"All that and a mysterious background." Merle says from where he's leaning against the door to the common area. "And she likes classic rock."

"Are you reaching a point?" Andie questions.

"I'm sensing Daddy issues."

"Oh, good God." The brunette shakes her head as she gets to her feet, then she heads up the stairs to her cell.

"I hit a nerve?"

"Leave her alone, Merle." Daryl tells him, and he chuckles as he looks at his younger brother.