⌜ chapter six ⌟

While MJ and Daryl are in the woods looking for Sophia, the others are doing things back on the farm. T-Dog and Dale found a walker in one of their wells, so now they're all trying to get it out without killing it inside. If the water isn't contaminated yet, shooting it and getting its blood in the water will definitely do the job.

Right now, they're trying to get it to go for a canned ham so that they can wrap a rope around it and pull it up. The problem: the walker won't go for the ham. They think it's likely because the ham isn't kicking and screaming — it's not alive.

"We need live bait." Andrea says, and then they all look at Glenn.

They get a second rope and then start to tie it around Glenn so that they can lower him into the well. He's gonna take the other rope with him and get it around the walker that's down there so that they can pull it up.

"Have I mentioned that I really like your new haircut?" Glenn asks Shane, who's tying the rope around his torso. "You have a nice shaped head."

"Don't worry about it, bud. We're gonna get you out of here in one piece." Shane tells him.

"Living piece." Glenn says. "That living part is important."

"Is this safe?" Jack asks.

"No." Jess shakes her head.

"That's really reassuring, guys." Glenn sighs as he looks up at them. "Thanks a lot."

They have the rope wrapped around a metal pipe, and the plan is to slowly lower him into the well. He'll get the other rope around the walker, they'll pull Glenn up, then they'll pull the walker up afterward.

"Nice and slow, please." Glenn says.

"We got you." Andrea tells him.

"Oh, you people are crazy." Maggie says, really uncomfortable with this whole thing.

"You wanna get it out of your well or not?" Shane asks her.

"Give us an eye there, Maggie." Dale says, and she reluctantly walks toward the well.

Glenn lowers himself off the edge and uses the metal bar going across the center to keep him from falling. They lower him a little, and he shines the flashlight on the ugly monster below him.

"Doing okay?" Maggie asks.

"Yup, doing great." He lies with a fake smile on his face. "Living the dream." He mutters.

Maggie guides them in how much farther he needs to be in order to get the other rope around the walker. A truck drives onto the property, and Maggie glances over. The pipe suddenly rips up out of the ground and Glenn starts screaming as he falls in farther.

"Get it! Get it!"

"Grab it!"

The commotion gets the attention of the man climbing out of his truck, and he starts running over to them. They barely manage to get the rope, T-Dog holding it while using his legs to anchor their friend in place, and Glenn's yelling to get the walker away from him.

"Matt!" Maggie yells, but he's already almost there. He quickly grabs ahold of the rope and helps them pull the Asian boy back up out of the well and away from the walker.

As soon as he's at the top, Matt reaches down and grabs Glenn's arm. He gets him out of the well, and then Glenn collapses on the ground. The others surround him to make sure that he's okay, but Matt pulls Maggie away from them.

"Where's Otis? I need Otis." He says, and she shakes her head as she looks up at him.

"He's not here. He went out yesterday on a run with Shane and he didn't make it." She tells him, and he starts pacing back and forth. "Matt, what's going on?"

"She's out there. She's out there somewhere, and I don't know where she is." He runs his hands down his face as he tries to keep his composure.

"Ellie?" She asks, confused. "Matt, slow down. Tell me what's going on."

Jack's patting Jess' arm, trying to get the blonde's attention, and she looks away from Glenn, confused. Jack's focused on the man who's panicking and talking to Maggie. Jess freezes when she sees who exactly this guy is.

"We were driving down the interstate, on our way back. My window was rolled down, and we heard screaming — it sounded like a kid. I stopped the car, and Ellie just bolted out into the woods. We found the little girl, and she was terrified." Matt shakes his head as he thinks back to what happened. "The girl ran off, something spooked her. Ellie went after her, and I lost them. It was dark and I-I couldn't see. I've been out there all night, but I couldn't find them. My little girl's still out there, and I don't know what to do."

"Alright, first, you need to breathe." Maggie tells him. "There's two people out there right now looking for a little girl, probably the one that you found. They'll find 'em."

"Who's looking? And who are—" He stops dead in his tracks when he sees Jessica and Jack staring back at him.

"MJ's out there." The blonde says. "With a friend of ours — a really good tracker. They'll find them, Matt."

"What are you— How are you..." He shakes his head. "Are you really... Is that really you?"

"Long story..." She nods. "But yeah, it's really me." She tells him, and he walks forward and immediately engulfs the blonde girl in a hug. She practically disappears in his arms.

"Ellie's missing too?" Jack asks, and Matt looks at him.

"MJ's out there right now?" Matt asks, and the two of them both nod. "Okay. Alright."

"How exactly do you know them?" Maggie asks, and Matt looks at her.

"Ellie's mom — MJ." He says, and her eyes widen. "Jess and Jack are friends of hers."

"I thought she looked familiar, but I didn't get a chance to say anything." She says, and he just sighs. "They got here early this mornin', and she went looking for the girl soon after."

"Ellie'll find her mom. Those two are like magnets." Matt nods. "Where— Where's Jr.?"

Jess and Jack exchange a sad look before turning back to Matt.

—

"Where's that knife of yours?" Daryl asks as he looks at the machete in MJ's hand. The sheath for the angel blade's been replaced with a bigger one.

"Jess has it." She tells him. "Jack needs it for protection more than I do."

"So, why didn't you give it to Jack?"

"Because he wouldn't have taken it." She says as she steps out of the woods and into a large clearing. There's a big house a few feet away from them that they need to search.

Daryl pulls his crossbow off his back and loads it as MJ grips the machete handle just a little tighter. The two of them make their way to the house, and she opens the front door. MJ looks at him, and motions for him to check the two front rooms, before pointing toward the back, saying that's where she's going. He nods, and they separate.

He clears his two rooms as she checks one in the back, then she makes her way into a kitchen area. She finds a freshly opened container on the trash can and looks to the slightly opened cupboard. Daryl walks in as she's opening it, but she doesn't​ find any kind of threat. She does, however, find a blanket and pillow on the floor inside.

"Someone was definitely here." Daryl says, and she nods.

"Someone small. Likely a child."

He sees something on the table and walks over to pick it up. "A girl." He says, and she turns around. He has a headband in his hand, and she walks over to him. "What?"

"Nothing, it just..." She takes it, and he watches the look on her face grow even sadder than last night. "It looks like something that my daughter would wear."

"We should keep lookin'." He says after a few seconds, and she nods.

They head outside and check around the surrounding property. He watches as she swings the handle of the machete around her hand. She's still thinking about her daughter, and he can tell.

"You got a title?" He asks, and she glances at him. "What you did...before all this?"

"Hunter." She tells him. "I was a hunter. Me and my family. My brothers and my father, not my husband. Addy was a hunter too — my older brother's wife."

"And you hunted wendigos and demons?"

"Among other things."

"Angels?" He questions, and she chuckles humorlessly.

"I've killed an angel before, but not because I was deliberately hunting her." She says. "I was just trying to protect my family."

"If angels ain't the other thing you hunted, what is?"

"How can someone whose voice I actually like be so damn annoying when he talks?"

"There's a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one." He says, and she laughs as she looks at him. They're walking back through the woods now.

"If you really​ think you want to know about all the stuff my family hunted... Come by my tent when we get back. I copied all of the lore out of my dad's journal and added to it over the years while I was with my brothers."

"Lore?"

"The truth in the myths and legends." She tells him, and he nods. "What's with the flowers?" She asks as she looks at what's in his hand.

"It's a Cherokee Rose." He tells her. "The story is that when American soldiers were moving Indians off their land on the trail of tears the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much 'cause they were losing their little ones along the way from exposure and disease and starvation. A lot of them just disappeared. So, the elders, they said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mothers' spirits, give them strength and hope. The next day, this rose started to grow right where the mothers' tears fell." He tells her, and a small smile crosses her lips.

"You grabbed them for Carol."

"One of 'em."

MJ looks up at him, her eyebrows furrowed. He then holds one out to her, and she smiles as she stops walking. He turns to face her as she reaches out and takes it, stepping closer to him. His blue eyes are glued to her face as she looks from the flower to him.

"Daryl Dixon... I think there might be a heart of gold under that rigid exterior and sleeveless flannel." She muses, and he smirks.

"I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers bloomin' for my brother. But, uh... I believe these bloomed for Matty and Sophia." He tells her, and her smile widens when she hears her son's name.

"The flowers on that trail didn't bloom for the children. They bloomed for the mothers." MJ says, and she sees the confusion cross his face as he looks into her dark eyes. "I wouldn't call it foolish to think a flower bloomed for you."

"Maybe." He nods, and she raises the flower up slightly.

"Thank you." She turns then and continues the way they were walking before his story.

Daryl fights a smile of his own as he walks behind her. They make it back to camp, and he goes to talk to Carol. Jack quickly rushes over to MJ, and she gives him a puzzled look as she starts toward their tent.

"You help Jess set it up?" She asks as she unzips it and goes in to put her gun with her other weapons; she leaves the rose by her sleeping bag.

"No, I was with Lori and Rick while they were with Carl. I remembered how talking helps you sometimes when you're upset." He tells her, and she nods. "Matt helped her."

Her body goes rigid, then she turns to face him as she stands up straight. "What did you just say?" She questions.

"He's here, M. He lives here." He tells her, and she immediately exits the tent.

"Where is he?" She asks and then she sees him and Rick talking by the house. "Matt! Matt!"

He immediately turns at the sound of her voice, and she runs over to him. Daryl's stepping out of the RV just as MJ slams into her ex-husband. He watches their embrace and tries to ignore the stinging feeling that runs through him. He knew that she had a husband, a family — he shouldn't care about her anyway.

"Where is she?" MJ asks as she pulls away from Matt, her hands lingering on his arms as she looks past him. "Is Ellie here? Is she inside?"

"MJ." Matt grabs her arm and tells her what he told Maggie earlier.

"W-What are you doing here? We should be out there. We have a better lead now." She says as she starts walking back the way she came. "We have to find them. We have to."

"Hey, wait." He tries to grab her, but she breaks into a sprint.

"MJ!" Rick calls after her. "MJ, stop!"

Daryl stops her from running past him and he holds her in place with her back against his chest. Everyone watches as she struggles against him while Matt and Rick rush over to them.

Rick grabs her wrists and makes her stop trying to hit Daryl. "Hey, listen to me. You're exactly right. We have a better lead now and we will all head out first thing tomorrow. We'll have more people working on finding both girls." Rick tells her. "Matt says that Ellie's a lot like you, she knows how to take care of herself on her own for awhile. We'll get them back."

"Not against walkers." She argues, shaking her head. "We have to get them. We have to, we have to, we have to... I can't lose her too! I can't— Let me go!"

"We will find them." He insists. "But you running out there without a plan, and in this state... The rest of us will end up having to look for you too. Do you hear me? We will find them." He says, and after a few seconds she nods.

MJ finally stops struggling and lays her head back against Daryl's shoulder. He loosens his hold on her, and she takes a deep breath as she wipes tears from her cheeks. One of her hands falls to her stomach as her breathing evens out, and then she feels Daryl's hand near hers. Her fingers lace through his, over the back of his hand, and she holds it tightly, trying to find some sort of comfort or something to make her feel more grounded.

"How... How's Carl?" MJ asks as her eyes land on Rick again, she's hoping for some good news after what she just heard.

"He's better." He tells her, and she sighs in relief. "He's been awake and talking."

"Good." She nods. "That's good. I-I'm glad."