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Daryl

We drove the truck into the city and stopped at a warehouse on the outskirts of town. Sasha and Tyreese had both offered to come with us. I wasn't surprised Sasha wanted to get away from the church where Bob had died. It did surprise me when Tyreese offered to help save Jo. Things had been better with Jo with the group but I couldn't help remembering back at the prison when Tyreese had attacked Jo.

Rick and I led the way into the wide open second floor of the warehouse. We quickly cleared it, then gathered together to discuss the plan for getting Beth and Jo back. Noah looked nervous coming back into the city but he was determined to save Beth. Made me wonder what was going on with them. Noah drew a map of the hospital on the cement floor and we all gather around it.

Rick crouched down over the map so he could point things on the map. "At sundown we fire a shot into the air, get two of them out on patrol. Then, once it's dark enough that the rooftop spotter won't see us, we go. We cut the locks on one of the stairways, take it to the fifth floor. I open the door, Daryl takes the guard out."

I nodded along with Rick's plan so far.

Tyreese frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "How?" he asked, looking from Rick to me and back again.

Rick looked up at him. "He slits his throat," he said shrugging. "This is all about us doing this quiet, keeping the upper hand. They're not expecting us. From there we fan out, knives and silenced weapons. We need to be fast. Tyreese, Sasha, take them," Rick said motioning to the map. "Daryl, you take care of whoever is in the kitchen. I got Dawn. If they're smart they'll give up then, if not it will be five on three. Six on three once we get a weapon to Beth." Rick licked his lips, glancing at me once then back to the group. "We have to assume Jo is going to be too hurt to fight. We'll have to cover her."

"Twelve on three," Noah spoke up. "The wards will help."

Tyreese nodded along. "That's best case. What's worst case? All it takes is one of those cops going down the hall at the wrong time. Then it's not quiet, all hands on deck. We're talking about a lot of bullets flying around."

"If that's what it takes," Sasha growled from beside her brother.

"It's not," Tyreese replied with certainty. "If we get a couple of her cops, alive out here, we do an even trade. Theirs for ours everybody goes home."

Rick stood and nodded. "Yeah I get that, and it might work. This will work."

I finally spoke up. "Nah, that will work too. You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together right?"

Noah nodded cautiouly. "Trying and doing are two different things."

"You take two of her cops away, what choices does she have? Everybody goes home. Like he says," I said motioning to Tyreese.

Rick stared at me like he didn't recognize me. He knew how I felt about Tyreese and he was surprised I would agree with Tryreese's plan. Then Rick stopped and thought for a long minute before he nodded slowly trusting my decision on how we were going to save Jo and Beth.

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Daryl

The cops came, just like Noah said they would. I had to give the kid credit, he was willing to put his ass on the line for Jo and Beth. We lay in wait, crouched behind boxes and crates watching. Noah ran up the narrow alley and crashed into the front quarter panel of the cop car as they skidded it around to cut him off. He fell to the ground and both cops climbed out, pointing guns at him.

From where we were we couldn't hear their exchange, but Noah didn't fight as they zip tied his hands together behind him. Just as they were about to return to their car we came out, forming a half circle around behind them.

"Hands," Rick called.

They whirled around, their handguns pointed at Rick and Sasha. "What do you want?" the woman cop asked. She was obviously the leader.

"Whatever this is, we can help," the man said in a soothing tone.

"You do what we say, we don't hurt you," Rick's voice came out in a dangerous growl. I thought I was close to the edge over losing Jo but watching Rick, I wasn't so sure how in control he was.

The man must have seen the same thing I did because he put his gun up. "Okay," he agreed, holding his hands up.

"Good, now turn around. Put your guns on the ground and kneel." Rick started walking towards the man, ignoring the woman. It was a mistake. It was the same trick Jo and I used. I would draw the attention because most people considered a man more of a threat, but in our case, Jo was the deadly one. I kept my eyes on the woman, making sure that wasn't the case with their partnership.

I swung around the woman so I was in front of them both. When they glanced from Rick to me they both knelt down, dropping their guns beside them. Sasha stepped up and searched the woman so I went around to the man. I pocketed his gun and took a zip tie from Sasha. I jerked his arms back roughly, making sure the tie was too tight for him to get loose.

"We need to talk," Rick said in a reasonable voice. "There's water if you need some and food."

I jerked the man to his feet. "Mind if I ask you something?" he called after Rick, swinging around to face him. I grabbed the man's collar, holding him in place.

Rick turned to him, but didn't say anything.

"The way you talk," he said. "The way you carry yourself. Were you a cop?"

Rick didn't react.

The man chuckled as though Rick had answered his question. "Believe it or not I was to."

Noah leaned forward. "That's Lamson. He'll be down for this. He's one of the good ones."

Squealing tires made my head snap up as the car that had hit Jo came speeding around the corner headed straight for us. Without hesitating I opened fire. They fired at us and we were forced to run for cover. The cops jumped into the back of the car and it sped off. Sasha leapt out and fired a single shot blowing the back tire.

We ran after it to a burned out section of the warehouse. The whole place was charred with melted walkers laying on the ground snarling. The car was abandoned, the doors thrown open. As we rounded the corner the woman and Lamson ran behind the building.

"Two!" Rick yelled. "On me." He ran forward, leading the group while I hung back, bringing up the rear. I stopped as we passed the car. This felt like a trap. I cleared the car then moved towards one of the FEMA trailers. I opened the door, clearing it as well. When I didn't find anyone I turned to go.

The cop slammed into me, knocking my rifle away and throwing me off balance. I skidded across the ground. I kicked him back and jumped up to my feet, throwing a punch. It knocked him back but he came back at me and tackled us both to the ground. He was bigger than me and strong. He wrapped his hands around my neck, I pushed him back to hold him off but I could hear a Walker near my head.

The walkers were snarling and snapping their teeth and he stopped doing anything but holding me down and chocking me. Either I would pass out or the walkers would get me. I reached out to grab one but I couldn't see and I felt my fingers glide over it's teeth. I recoiled as I heard them snap. My vision was going dark as the pressure around my neck increased. I reached for the next one and found it's eyes. Trying not to think about it I shoved my fingers into the eye sockets and ripped the head off the body. I smashed it into the side of the cops head over and over. He fell off and to the side as I continued to bash him with the skull. As he fell sideways I shoved him back and away from me. He was in a crouch ready to come for me again when he froze.

I looked back and up behind me to see Rick standing there glaring down the barrel of his python. His eyes narrowed and his head tilted to the side. Shit was about to go down.

"Okay," the cop said holding his hands out to the side. "You win asshole."

"Rick," I called, trying to get his attention. I needed to break his focus, just like I did with Jo from time to time. "Rick!" I called again as I scrambled to my feet.

I stepped up behind the cop which made Rick hesitate. "Rick," I said again and he finally looked at me. "Three's better than two man."

Rick held my gaze for a long time before he slowly nodded and lowered the gun. He and Noah walked off ahead of us to talk about the plan.

I zip tied the man's hands behind his back and we escorted them all back into the factory.

I led the way with Sasha when the female cop started talking. "Your friend, what's his name? I need to talk to him. Your plan is going to get me and my friends killed."

Sasha shot her a glare but kept walking. "We're gonna make it work." Since Bob died Sasha was harder, more determined. I didn't trust it though. It was grief and it could make her dangerous.

The female cop stopped walking. "It would work if you had different cops to trade."

Sasha and I did stop and face them at that.

"Dawn's running Grady into the ground. A bunch of us want her out and she knows it. Pretty sure she knows we want Lamson to replace her too."

The cop I fought stood beside her and shook his head. "Dawn doesn't know that."

The female cop pinched her lips before she spoke again. "She might. And she's smart. So there's a good chance you can't make this deal work and that'll leave us all dead. But if you let us go-"

I snorted at that. Here it comes. This cop would say anything to get us to let them go. We couldn't trust a word she was saying.

"We'll take care of Dawn ourselves and we'll let your friends go and this is over." She spoke in that same soothing cop voice Rick used to use. All it did was piss me off.

Lamson, who had been quiet the whole time finally spoke up. "No, we're not gonna do that."

Sasha glanced at me frowning. If this was the guy they all wanted to take over why wasn't he jumping at the gun to be the boss man.

"Do you want to die?" The female cop asked Lamson, glaring at him when he wouldn't go along with her plan. Seemed to me the female was the one in charge and she was just using Lamson, but it wasn't my circus.

Lamson shook his head. "No, I just need you to shut up now. You can make this work, but you need to be able to talk to her."

Sasha snorted, "Noah told us all about her."

Lamson shook his head again. "I've known her for eight years man, I know this woman. And my only interest is peaceful resolution, not dying and sleeping in my bed tonight. So please, let me help you." He was looking back and forth between me and Sasha. "Please," he said again.

Sasha put her gun up and nodded. She gave in before me. I stared into the man's eyes for a few moments longer before I decided. The woman would say anything, but this guy I did believe.

I turned back to the room. "Hey Rick," I called to him. Rick and Noah looked up from the map on the floor. "You're gonna wanna hear this."

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Jo

I groaned as I started to wake. My body felt so heavy but my eyelids were the worst. I hurt everywhere, my whole body ached. I wanted to open my eyes but I couldn't. There was a pulsating pain in my temples and I just wanted it to stop.

"Jo," I heard a quiet voice through the dark. Just the sound of it made the pain increase exponentially. "It's Beth."

There was a sudden warmth in my hand and I thought of Daryl.

Her voice was hushed but determined. "I just wanted you to know I'm here. You aren't alone. You're gonna be okay." Her voice was quiet and fierce and the pressure on my hand increased.

I tried again to open my eyes to respond to her, to let her know I heard her, but I couldn't. There was a warmth spreading through my veins and it soon pulled me back under.

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Daryl

I stood over the last two cops my crossbow slung over my back and a rifle in my hands. I glanced up once at Sasha and quickly looked away. She was pissed. She had wanted to go after Lamson but Rick insisted he'd handle it. I could tell it was because he didn't trust Sasha not to kill him on sight, but I didn't think Rick was going to be much better. He was only gone ten minutes before he came back alone. Both Sasha and Tyreese stiffened.

I glanced at them then stepped away with Rick so we could talk.

"He wouldn't stop," was all he said.

I nodded not caring one way or the other that the guy was dead. Only how it would affect getting Jo back. "This changes things?"

"It has to," Rick glanced back at the hostages.

"Maybe not."

Rick looked back at me. "She said the plan won't work. The guy who did is dead. Maybe we gotta rethink this," he was looking at me like I was gonna fly off the handle.

I just shook my head. "They also said the cop in charge didn't have any love for him. Maybe you did her a favor," I said shrugging.

Rick ran a hand over his face. "I don't know if they'll play ball."

I shrugged. "Let's find out."

We walked back to the hostages.

"He was a good man," the woman said. "He was attacked by rotters. I saw it go down," she said without any prompting.

Rick stared down at her, "huh," he said. "You're a damn good liar."

She shook her head. "We're hanging by a thread here. He was attacked by rotters. That's the story."

I stepped up. "You said the trade was a bad idea, what changed?" I wasn't going to risk Jo's life on this chick maybe changing her mind or lying to us.

"Lamson was our shot. So it's this or you go in guns blazing right? You don't want that," she said desperately.

I took a menacing step forward pointing at her chest. "If this is some bullshit you're spinning and things go south-"

"I know!" she yelled interrupting me. "I know the good ones from the bad. Let us help you."

Rick looked thoughtful for a minute and then turned back to the man. "And what about you? You want to live? How much?"

The man chewed on the inside of his lip for a minute before he nodded slowly. "Dawn's afraid she'll look weak in front of us. Thinks it will tip things against her. Hell, it will. She'll see this trade as a rip off if she thinks you took out one of our guys. So, it's a good thing Lamson got aced by rotters."

Rick glanced back to me and I nodded subtly before turning back to check the perimeter out the windows. As I was walking away I heard Rick step up to the hostages. "So you know, one of those women is his. You pull something on us and it won't matter what I say. He'll kill you without thinking."

I smirked as I walked off. Rick's words were absolutely true.

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