Buckle up! This is the longest chapter to date but I didn't have the heart to delete anything or break it up. So...sorry, not sorry. Hope you don't mind. I ended up taking this chapter a different direction than I had first intended based on comments and feedback and I am super excited about how it turned out, so I really hope you enjoy it as well! 

Please Comment/Vote!

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Daryl

I led Aaron through the woods following the tracks of one guy. He wasn't too far ahead of us. "Somebody came through here a while ago," I said keeping my eyes on the trail. I motioned to the tracks, unsure if Aaron knew what to look for. 

Aaron looked down but it was clear he didn't know what he was looking at. "If we see them we hang back, set up the mike, watch and listen."

I nodded. "For how long?" I asked.

"Until we know. We have to know," his voice was thick with emotion and I glanced back over my shoulder at him.

"You've sent people away before?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied tightly.

I jumped across a small creek and paced both ways along the bank until I saw where the tracks started up again. "What happened?" I asked glancing over my shoulder.

Aaron looked away in shame. "It was early on. It was three people. Two men and a woman. Davidson was their leader. Smart as hell and strong. I thought they'd work out. They didn't. I brought them in and I had to see them out. It was me, Aidan and Nicholas. We drove them out, far, gave them a days worth of food and water and left them."

"They just went?" I asked in disbelief.

"We had their guns. We had all the guns," Aaron said, and then he glanced at me regretfully. "I can't make that kind of mistake again."

Like they did now. They had all the guns. They had all our guns. I glanced at Aaron, pinching my lips together tightly. With me out here the only weapons our group had were knives and only one person would really benefit from that. I walked faster. 

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Jo

The next morning Abraham, Carol, Glenn and I went to visit Rick in the empty house Deanna had insisted we put him in. When we got there Michonne was already there, crouching in front of Rick who looked a little like he had been run over by a truck. 

"Where'd you get the gun?" Michonne was asking as we came through the door.

Carol stepped forward to Rick's defense and immediately piped up. "You took it didn't you? From the armory? Why'd you do it?" She asked innocently. As though that act would work on Glenn and Michonne. Abraham wouldn't care either way. "It was stupid," she finished, sounding more like her normal self. 

Rick stared at her for a moment before he shrugged to Michonne. "Just in case," he replied simply.

Glenn stepped up behind us. "Deanna's planning on having a meeting tonight, for anyone who wants to attend."

"To kick Rick out?" Abraham asked from the door.

"To try," Carol responded angrily.

"We don't know that," Glenn said defensively. "Maggie's with Deanna right now, she's going to find out what it is."

Carol listened to Glenn with a pitying look on her face, then she turned to Rick and her face became hard and determined. "At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever they want you to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here."

"Why?" Michonne asked from the corner. Her eyes traveled over to me as well as though she wasn't quite convinced I wasn't involved somehow. She had good instincts.

Carol shook her head in disgust. "Because these people are children and children like stories."

Abraham spoke up. "What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" It was clear by his body language Abraham wasn't going to sit by and let that happen. Abraham had to be one of the most loyal people I had ever met. I considered myself lucky to be able to count him as a friend. 

Glenn shook his head and suddenly looked exhausted. "They're guarding the armory now."

"We still have knives," Carol said her eyes going to me. "That's all we'll need against them."

Rick nodded as he listened. "Tonight at the meeting if it looks like it's going bad I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer you grab Reg," he said motioning to me. "Glenn and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd."

"We can talk to them," Michonne snarled. It was glaringly obvious her name had been left out of Rick's plan. I wondered if Rick really didn't trust her to have his back. If he didn't, it was a mistake and he was further gone than I realized. 

Rick nodded agreeably. "Yeah, we will," he promised Michonne and then he turned back to face the rest of us. "But if we can't get through we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats."

"Like at Terminus?" Glenn asked, his voice rough with stress.

"No, we just tell them. They give us the armory and it's all over," Rick replied without emotion. 

"Did you want this?" Glenn asked suspiciously.

Rick shook his head. "No, I hit my limit. I-I screwed up," he said apologetically. "And here we are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a headache and I'm gonna sleep some more."

Abraham held the door while the rest of us filed out. "Contingencies aye little sister?" he asked smirking.

I nodded. "Yeah, that's me. A contingency."

"You gonna be ready?" he teased. 

I snorted. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just ask me that." 

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Daryl

We followed the guy all through the morning. As soon as we caught up it was easy to keep an eye on him in the bright red poncho he was wearing. He lost points in my mind for wearing something that made him so highly visible. Finally, I lost patience and told Aaron to set up the mike and crouched a little ways away. We didn't have time to be wasting with the people who attacked that camp nearby. Through the binoculars I watched him bend down and rub something between his gloves before spreading it over himself.

"What's he doing?" Aaron asked, looking through his own mono-scope.

"Wild leeks," I replied trying not to sound too impressed. "Son of a bitch knows about how to keep mosquitoes off of him. Come on," I said moving in closer. If he knew that much, we needed to be more careful. I couldn't let my impatience get us spotted. If he was as good as he seemed he might be able to track us or figure out we were watching him. 

I liked this guy already.

<><><><><>

Jo

That afternoon people were moving around the community for the first time with guns. I was sitting in the green when I saw Rick come out of the empty house. I didn't get up but I watched the others tense as Rick went by. My hand dropped to my waist where my knife was in case anyone got any ideas. 

Abraham was following Rick's progress as well. He was keeping his eyes on the armed people who had their eyes on Rick. Abraham paced, looking dangerously at the citizens of Alexandria. Once Rick walked up his front steps Abraham turned his attention back to me. He chuckled once, noticing I had been doing the same thing. 

"Tensions are running high little sister," he commented. 

I nodded thoughtfully, watching Tobin and his crew with their guns. "Where's Rosita? I asked. 

"In checking on Tara. Without Dr. Asshole on duty anymore we're circling the wagons. I ain't trusting none of these greenhorns to take care of one of our own. And we ain't leaving her alone when she's vulnerable neither." 

I nodded in agreement. It probably wouldn't come to the point of them taking Tara hostage, probably none of them were smart enough to think of it, but it was better to be prepared. 

"Abraham, Jo?"I looked up to see Spencer crossing the green towards us. 

I arched a brow, but didn't trust myself to say anything. I wonder if he was purvey to his moms current distrust of our group. 

"What can I do for you, Spencer?" I asked as nicely as I could manage given the circumstances. 

"Well, my mom wanted to make sure you were both going to be at the meeting this evening." 

"Rick's trial you mean?" Abraham challenged. Spencer took a step back away from Abraham, fear flickering in his eyes.

"What?" Spencer sputtered, his eyes widening guiltily. "No! No," he corrected more calmly but the answer was written all over his face. "This is just a public forum for everyone to understand what happened and to say their piece."

"Pretty words," Abraham snarled then he stalked off angrily

Spencer turned to me. "Are you going to be there?" he asked quietly. "My mom wanted to know." 

"Why?" I worked really hard to keep the suspicion out of my voice but I wasn't one hundred percent certain I managed it. 

"Why?" he asked, clearly confused. "Because you are a part of this community Jo."

I continued to stare at him, letting a shadow of my normal intensity into my gaze. 

He crumpled in an instant. "And...because your people will listen to you. They seem to value your opinion, and if..."

"If you vote to kick Rick out, you think I will be able to talk them down somehow?" I challenged.

 "No," he said exasperatedly. "That's not-"

"But your mother does," I said with certainty. 

He let out a breath and shook his head. "I honestly don't know what my mother thinks," he said.

I believed him. 

"But Jo," he said and he reached out and touched my forearm. I looked down at it and he immediately removed his hand. "Look, I know you care about Rick, and I understand loyalty. He saved you, Daryl saved you, and I understand that making you feel like you love them and are loyal to them, but Jo..." he shook his head. 

I frowned, how had Daryl suddenly been brought into this conversation? 

Spencer frowned down at me, looking at me like I was made of glass. "How can I make you understand? There are ugly things out in this world, and sometimes...sometimes in order to survive them...they work their way into someone's soul...and...and there's nothing you can do to save them. Sometimes people are just too far gone."

I felt like I had been slapped. I stood there, almost shell shocked for whole minutes before I could even process everything he was saying to me. 

Spencer seemed to notice and he reached out to touch me again. "Jo, I know this is hard to hear, but they might not be salvageable, but that doesn't mean the rest of you-you need to sacrifice your-"

"They?" I asked, frowning as I jerked out of his reach. "They," I repeated, unable to believe exactly what he was saying to me. "When exactly did Daryl get brought into this? He isn't even here. He had nothing to do with this." 

Spencer looked at me sympathetically and I wanted to punch him in his wide jaw. "Look, a lot of the trouble we see in Rick, my mom sees in Daryl. There's no doubt in her mind that Daryl will side with Rick when he comes back and we need to be ready-"

"I'll see you tonight Spencer," I snapped angrily and I spun away. I couldn't listen to any more of his bullshit stupidty. Not without being in serious danger of attacking him. 

<><><><><>

Daryl

Aaron and I stood outside the fence of a canned good warehouse. 

"We checked the forest, we checked the roads. We can't find him. Sometimes they slip away, it happens, but...you don't come across something like this every day," Aaron said, lacing his fingers in the chain link fence. 

I sighed. "We do this now, it means we're giving up."

"Home is fifty miles back, it's time to go. You saw it last night, there's bad people out here," he said finally. 

I nodded chewing on my lip. It was exactly what I had been thinking but..."That's why we gotta keep looking for the good ones."

Aaron looked at me. "We need more people, and we'll find them. But when we do, we'll need to feed them."

"Alright," I drawled in agreement. I knocked against the fence rail with my knife. The high pitched noise drew all the walkers in the yard to us. I killed as many as I could with my knife through the fence and then used my crossbow on the rest. 

Once they were all dead Aaron jerked the gate open. Following Jo's habit, I pulled the gate closed behind us. Aaron looked up at me with a frown. I snorted, thinking of the long ago fight between Jo and Sasha over the same thing. "I like to know nothing is sneaking up behind me," I explained. 

Aaron nodded in agreement and started across the parking lot towards the trailers. 

"Listen," Aaron said as I paced around. 

Something didn't feel right. There were cans hanging on strings outside the trailers. Something was going on here. "I don't like giving up either. But the guy is in a red poncho, you can see him from a mile away. We've gone a lot of miles here with no sign of him but...if we come away with a trailer full of cans, I'd say that's a good trip." 

I bent down, looking at the handle. It looked well worn and scratched up. I shook off the itching feeling between my shoulders. I was being stupid. This could just as easily be an old trailer. This wasn't that big of a company, probably they only had a few trailers on the road. 

"Here we go," I said, pulled the handle. 

I knew it was wrong the moment I pulled. There was too much weight behind it and then a sudden release followed by the zipping of cable. It was a snare. It was a damn snare. The trailer door in front of us as well as the two on the sides suddenly opened. They were each full of dozens of Walkers. Each one with a W carved into their forehead. We fell straight into those bastards trap. I took off between the trailers running towards the gate, but we were soon swarmed. 

"Over here!" Aaron yelled. He grabbed my arm and jerked me back the way we had come but there was no way out that way. 

"Come on," I said, grabbing him and dropping down beneath one of the trailers. I snatched up the snow chain as I rolled through. 

"Come on!" I yelled again to Aaron. I rolled to my feet on the other side and whipped the chain, knocking the heads off of the first three walkers lined up. One came from behind Aaron and grabbed him. He grunted as he struggled to push it off him. I dropped the chain and jerked the walker back. Slamming it against the side of the trailer I drove my knife into the center of the W. I had another one of those moments of both wishing Jo were here with me and being thankful she wasn't. 

I tried making a break for the fence, ducking and dodging around the herd but there were just too many of them and we were swarmed. I tried to fight but I felt cold, slick hands grazing off my jacket. I reached back and grabbed Aaron's jacket. We weren't going to make it to the fence. There was a car ten feet to our right, it was the toughest ten feet of my life. Every second I kept waiting to feel teeth sink into me. 

We dove in the passenger door, I hurled myself across the center counsel and into the drivers seat. Aaron struggled to slam the door, and ended up killing two walkers in the process. Two less we would have to fight later. 

I looked back at Aaron. "Ya bit?" I called to him. 

He shook his head, his eyes wide with fear. "The glass will hold for a while, right?" he asked. 

"Maybe," I said. The whole car shifted with the force of the herd. "Maybe we can make it so they can't see us. In a couple house, something will come by, they'll follow it." I was suddenly cursing myself for closing the damn gate behind us. "There's gotta be something in here we can use to block the view," I looked into the back seat. "We could cut up these seats," I suggested. 

Aaron went still beside me and I looked back at him wondering if he had finally snapped. He held a note written in a combination of fading pen and blood. 

Trap Bad People Coming Don't Stay

Shit, shit, shit. I sucked in a breath and looking back at the herd outside the windows felt suddenly claustrophobic. I could count eleven out the windshield alone. Even if Jo was here we couldn't handle this many. My brain started running trying to come up with a solution that wouldn't get Aaron and I killed. I was coming up empty. 

I chuckled and shook my head. 

"What?" Aaron asked, his gaze told me he couldn't possibly imagine what could be funny at a time like this. 

I just shook my head. "I came out here to...not feel all closed up back there. Even now, this still feels more like me than back in them houses. That's pretty mess up, huh?" 

"You were trying," Aaron said offering me an understanding smile.  

"I had to," I said thinking about having a safe place for the kids, and Jo...everyone. Everyone else we probably weren't going to see again. I wasn't one to give up, but I knew a losing hand when I saw it. 

"No you didn't," he said shaking his head. "You didn't have to try. Listen, I saw you with your group out there on the road. I saw you and Jo..."

I thought back to when he would have seen us. I remembered being out in the woods, convinced I was failing and so overcome with emotion I couldn't handle it anymore. It was when I had scared Jo and then...and then she had kissed me and I had picked her up and pinned her against a tree, trying to lose my grief in the smell and taste of her. I tensed, things between Jo and I were private. I narrowed my eyes menacingly at Aaron. 

He saw and immediately held his hands up defensively. "I didn't mean when you...I...I mean I didn't. I didn't invade your privacy like that. It's not my thing." he assured me, sputtering all over himself so bad that I actually believed him. "I just meant...you were upset, and you two were upset with each other but you didn't blame each other. Then you went off on your own by the barn..." 

I remembered too what he would have seen me do by the barn but I didn't want to talk about that. 

Aaron must have know that because he pushed on. "The storm hit and you led your people to safety. That was it. You were all hurting and starving and grief stricken but none of that mattered. You just led them to safety without a second thought. I knew then I had to bring you people back." He looked out his window and shook his head. "You were right. We should have kept looking for that guy in the poncho, I shouldn't have given up. You didn't."

I looked down, uncomfortable by his words. I dug around in my pocket and pulled out a cigarette. "I'll go," I said, lighting up. "I'll lead them out. You make a break for the fence."

"No, no, no. This was my fault."

I shook my head. "It wasn't a question. And this ain't your decision. It ain't nobody's fault," I said looking down at my hands. I knew what I was doing, knew what I was getting into. I wasn't going to see Jo again. 

"Just let me finish my smoke first," I said. 

I thought about the last time I saw her, at the gate when I had kissed her in front of everybody. She was too upset about me leaving to notice, but it had felt like I was marking my territory, warning everyone else off. She was mine, had been for a long time now. I was just too much of an idiot to see it. If she had realized what I was doing she would have been so mad at me. I snorted and shook my head. She was so cute when she was mad. She would be furious to know I thought that but she was so small and the way her green eyes turned to fire...I thought about how she felt in my arms in bed. Two nights, I had two nights with her skin against mine and her heart beat next to my own. It was worth it. 

"No," Aaron said defiantly. "You don't draw them away. We fight. We go for the fence. We do it together. All right? Whether we make it or not, we do it together. We have to." he said resolutely. 

I stared at him for a long moment and took the final drag. "All right," I said nodding. I pulled my knife, Beth's knife and adjusted my hand on the grip. "You ready?" 

"Yeah," he agreed turning towards his door. 

"We'll go on three," I said. "One," I called, bouncing lightly, psyching myself up for this. "Two," I growled. 

One of the skulls pressed against Aaron's door splattered blood across his window. I noticed and hesitated when his door was suddenly pulled open. A man dragged Aaron out by the arm and then swung around, with a staff in his hand, covered us both, fighting off the herd. 

The three of us made our way to the gate. Aaron ran ahead and started sliding it closed. I was about to follow him when I turned to see a walker coming up on our mystery guy. I jumped in and stabbed the walker. The man nodded his thanks to me and continued to fight with his staff. His movements were tight and controlled and he reminded me of Jo when she fought. He fought like nothing mattered beyond each movement of his weapon. 

"Come on," I called, snagging his arm and pulling his towards the gate. "Come on, get in here," I said. As soon as I dragged him through Aaron slammed the gate shut behind us. 

"That was-oh-thank you-" Aaron was still panting, his body shaking from the adrenaline as he stared at the guy who saved us. I watched the middle-aged black man clean his staff with a white cloth he pulled from inside his coat. It was a weird thing to do facing two strangers who could be dangerous. 

"I'm Aaron," Aaron introduced. "And this is Daryl." 

"Morgan," the man greeted. 

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. 

"Why?" he asked in confusion. "Because all life is precious Daryl." 

Aaron's eyes traveled to me and I jerked my chin down in a single nod of approval. 

"Whoever set that trap, they will be coming," Aaron said stepping up to Morgan. "But I have good news. We do. We have a community not too far from here. Walls, electricity, it's safe. If you'd like to come join us-" Aaron was still worked up and his pitch was off but I didn't think it would matter. Watching Morgan's face I could tell right away he was going to turn us down. 

"I thank you," Morgan said with a smile. "But I'm on my way somewhere. Fact is, I'm lost, so if you could tell me where we are..." He asked holding out his map to me.

<><><><><>

Jo

I stood in front of Daryl's closet, trying decide how to dress for the meeting. I couldn't get the conversation with Spencer out of my mind and it made me want to go armed to the teeth. I didn't trust these people anymore, not for a second. They were going to turn on Rick. 

I pulled the flowing tunic top over my head and threw the ballet flats against the back wall. I squeezed into my skinny jeans, boots and black tank top. I pulled on my shoulder rig, fastening all the buckles. I pulled my leather jacket on and ran the zipper up. The only weapon I left behind was my kukri. 

"Jo?" Michonne called from outside the door. 

I pulled it open and she froze looking me over. Her eyes widened for a second. "Jo-" she started to say but stopped. She pressed her lips into a grim line. "Do you want to walk over to the meeting with me?" she asked. 

I nodded and followed. We walked in silence for most of the way before she finally seemed to be able to work up to what she had been thinking about. "I know it's been hard-" she started but then stopped. "I don't know if I could ever realize how hard. But you were trying-really trying...just...don't give up."

I glanced sideways at her but didn't respond. It didn't seem to surprise her at all and she reached over and patted me on the shoulder. "I'm happy for you and Daryl," she said honestly and then a rare smile crossed her features. "Took him long enough huh?" 

I snorted at her words, a smile stretching across my face and nodded. "Yeah, yeah it did." 

The meeting was set to take place in Deanna's back garden. They had a small fire going on her patio and it looked like a large number of residents had come. They all stood around, speaking quietly among themselves while they waited. I stood at the back, leaning against the brick wall so no one would be behind me. Deanna saw me there and instead of a greeting, she simply met my level gaze with one of her own. I didn't bother trying to disguise anything I was or felt in that moment. If she thought she was going to kick Rick out she needed to know what she was dealing with, right here, right now. 

"We're going to start," she finally said. Looking over the gathered people. 

"Can we wait?" Maggie asked. "There's still people coming. Glenn, Rick..."

Deanna looked from Maggie back to the group. "We're going to start," she repeated completely disregarding Maggie and her request. "It's already well past dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it."

And I knew then that Deanna had already made her mind up. She was kicking Rick out. This was just a show. Smoke and mirrors to make it look like civilization. But when you got right down to it, she was in charge and she was making the calls.

"We're dealing with that. We are going to talk about one of our constables. Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armory, about how he pointed it at people and we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he would be here..."

"He said he's coming," Michonne interrupted from the back of the group. 

"I'm sure he'll be here," Carol added in a sweet voice. "And I'm sure we can work this all out."

"I'm sure we can," Deanna responded, lying through the smile on her face. "Does anyone have anything-"

Michonne stepped up. "I would like to speak first," she said. Then she turned and addressed the group. "Rick is a survivor, in the truest sense of the word. After being out there, and then not being how you were out there...it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is...is who you are gonna be, if you're lucky. A survivor."

Carol stepped up next without waiting for Deanna to invite her to speak. "Rick Grimes saved my life over and over. There's terrifying people out there, and he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us...need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry for that. But maybe we should listen to what he was saying." Then Carol smiled matronly at the group and sat back down politely. 

Deanna opened her mouth to speak, but Abraham interrupted her, looking gruff and angry. "Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit that you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit. And then some." He nodded and sat back down.

 Maggie smiled warmly at the group, keeping her focus on the faces of the Alexandrians, and I knew right then that she was just as good of a politician as Deanna. "My father respected Rick Grimes. Rick is a father too. He is a man with a good heart, who feels the things he does, the things he has to do. And all of us, who were together before we found this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now. Rick started that. And you won't stop it, you can't. And you don't want to. This community, you people, that family...you want to be a part of it too." 

Deanna seemed to notice the affect Maggie had on the group and jumped in to regain control of the talk. "Before we hear from anyone else, I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday-" 

Looking over I saw Maggie tense as Deanna started to speak and I knew whatever was coming wasn't going to be good. 

"And he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous," her eyes traveled over me and I smirked at her. She faltered for a moment in her carefully rehearsed speech and had to look away. She pinched her lips together and regained her composure. "That they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight," she said. 

Jessie interrupted. "I don't see him here, Deanna. So you're just saying what someone said. Did you tape him?"

"He's not here," Maggie said firmly. 

"Neither is Rick," Deanna countered. 

"Excuse me," Maggie said, turning and heading towards the church.

Deanna turned back to the crowd, the small smile on her face made it obvious she believed she had won. She thought she had scared Maggie off. I only hoped Maggie returned with Gabriel soon. 

I unzipped my jacket three quarters of the way. It still concealed my weapons in the dim light but I would be able to go for my knives if need be. I was not as good of a politician as Maggie or Deanna. But I knew where my strengths lay, and I was tired of pretending to be something I wasn't. 

Deanna continued to speak. "I would like to hear from some of the original citizens of Alexandria. This is your home. I want to know how you feel. Tobin?" She asked, holding a hand out as though presenting him to us.  

Tobin stood up, shifting his weight, and looking down at his feet. "I just want to keep my family safe. You know? I don't even know what that means anymore...but if it mean's we gotta get rid of-"

Tobin dragged off as a blood covered Rick stepped through the garden gate, a body over one shoulder. Without consciously deciding, there was a knife in my hand. I stepped around the back of the people, so there wouldn't be anyone in my way in case I needed to make a throw. 

Rick flopped the body of a dead walker into the middle of the meeting. There were squeaks of fear as everyone but the members of our group scuttled back away from the corpse. 

"There wasn't a guard on the gate," Rick snarled, still breathing heavily from his apparent fight with the Walker. "It was open."

Abraham and I both stepped forward in shock. I shared a look with Abraham and he scowled and mouthed "amateurs," under his breath. 

Deanna turned to look at Spencer expectantly, making it perfectly apparent to the group whose responsibility it was to man the gate. 

"I-I asked Gabriel to close it," Spencer sputtered.

"Go," Deanna commanded. Spencer ran back towards the gate. 

Rick turned to the crowd. "I didn't bring it in. It got inside on it's own. They always will, the dead and the living, because we're in here...and the ones out there. They'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us...but we'll kill them. We'll survive," he said, his gaze landing on me as he spoke. I offered him an encouraging smile. 

He turned back to the group. "I''ll show you how," he promised. Then he shook his head, and his face changed to something else. "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 going to do that. You're going to change," he said simply. Then he turned so he was directly addressing Deanna. "I'm not sorry for what I said last night," he told her openly and honestly. "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." 

Behind Rick I saw Jessie tense and followed her line of sight, tensing in case it was another walker. It wasn't. 

"You're not one of us!" Pete screamed coming into the meeting with Michonne's katana naked in his hand. Reg stepped up, trying to stop him "You're not one of us!" he yelled again barreling through Reg towards Rick. 

"Rick!" someone screamed. I saw Rick's hand move to his belt knowing he was going for a gun, but I was faster than he could ever be. 

The first knife flew, lodging into Pete's right shoulder. He howled with pain and collapsed forward into Reg who tried to hold him. Then he shoved Reg back violently with the katana in his hand. Reg stumbled back, as his throat opened up and blood poured out onto the sidewalk. 

People started screaming as Reg collapsed into Deanna's arms. 

The second knife landed in Pete's stomach. He wouldn't survive the blow, not unless he could figure out how to do surgery on himself, but he would be alive a long time to think about it. 

Rick stood transfixed, watching Deanna hold her dying husband. 

I ran for Pete who was still moving. I kicked him back, aiming my kick for the knife in his belly. He howled in pain and collapsed to his knees. I reached down and ripped my knife out of his stomach. He swung the katana at me feebly. I struck with the knife. I felt the slim blade of the throwing knife glance off the delicate bones and lodge itself through his wrist. The katana dropped to the paving stones with a clatter. Michonne was there and snatched it up. 

There was screaming and yelling around us, but my eyes were glued on the threat. He reached for the knife in his wrist with his opposite hand and Abraham stepped up. He grabbed his hand, twisting it behind his back and shoving him to the pavement. Abraham looked up at me and nodded to me. I nodded back so he would know I saw him and knew him. Abraham's eyes went to the crowd of people who were all staring, torn between Reg who was dying in his wife's arms and me and Abraham. 

I stood in the flickering firelight, a knife naked in each hand ready to fight. 

Deanna lay on the paving stones, tears streaming down her face. "Rick?" she asked in a broken voice. 

Rick looked up at her, the question in his eyes. 

"Do it." She commanded, shaking with conviction and grief. 

Rick didn't hesitate. He stalked over to where I stood and put the gun to Pete's head and pulled the trigger. There were shouts of surprise, and Pete's body went limp, his blood mingling with Reg's on the paving stones. 

The silence after was deafening. 

"Rick?" A strange, confused voice called from the gate. Not recognizing it I whirled around, my back to Rick's, a knife already raised. 

A stranger, Aaron and Daryl, stood in the gate. Aaron's eyes were glued to the body, the stranger was watching Rick and Daryl, Daryl was watching me. Daryl was here and he was alive. I breathed a sigh of relief.  

In the spirit of not giving a damn who saw me for what I was and being honest, I crossed the garden in two strides and thew myself into Daryl's arms. He caught me and pulled me against his chest. He brushed his lips against my hair. He smelled like leather and dirt and the road and everything that I loved about Daryl. 

I felt his warm lips brush against my ear as he rasped in my ear. "There's my girl."

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Daryl's back! And so is Jo!

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