The Greater Good?
"I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good because we are the greater good."
-Rick Grimes, TWD S3, This Sorrowful Life
"Daryl, I'm gonna need your help with Tyreese."
That was Rick's strategy. Get Daryl aligned with the program. Blunt his anger at Carol's expulsion by making him party to defending the community from the anger Tyreese was certain to express about the woman who had confessed to killing Karen not being brought to trial. Everyone else had fallen into line, from Maggie and Hershel to Michonne; they'd agreed that while it was painful to see one of their own go, it was better for all concerned that Carol not be here when Tyreese returned.
Rick glanced over at Michonne who was unloading corpses onto the pyre. He'd have to schedule the woman onto watch shifts with Daryl as well, encourage the friendship he'd seen developing between them to bloom into a stronger attachment to replace the one he knew Daryl had felt for Carol. The two warriors had a lot in common after all—and if that meant putting his own thing with the katana master on the back burner, so be it. He needed Daryl here, as his second, his strong right arm, more than he needed the possibility of a quick fuck in the watch tower, which had been great, but was a luxury he now couldn't afford.
He had to play this just right...
Daryl had become a steady calm presence over the last three years, admittedly in great part due to the influence of the small woman who had been the first to see something more in him besides the hot headed squirrel tosser Shane had had to choke hold to the ground. Rick knew that the hunter would question his decision, but he believed that his loyalty to the group, and the ties of friendship he and the man shared would trump any lingering loyalty or attachment he felt to the older woman.
Daryl looked towards the prison buildings where the Tyreese had gone in search of an update on his sister.
"Somthin' wrong with Sasha?" Daryl asked, crossing his arms in front of him, his brow wrinkled in concern.
"No. Not far as I know. She's holding her own."
"He said he asked Carol to watch over her—that where she is? Hershel said she wasn't with Lizzie n' I should ask you." Daryl asked, squinting at the other man.
"That's why I needed to talk to you about Ty." Rick said patiently, shifting his body forward, coming into Daryl's space. He reached out his hand and put it on his best friend's shoulder.
Daryl frowned and looked at Rick's hand then back up into his eyes. Rick took a deep breath.
"While you were gone Carol and I went on a run to look for medicine and supplies." he began. Concerned watchfulness sharpened Daryl's gaze. Rick took another breath. It was time to go all in.
"She confessed to killing Karen and David—said she thought it would stop the outbreak—I knew if she came back to the prison Tyreese would probably kill her, so I found her a car, gave her supplies and sent her away—to protect her—to protect us." Rick squeezed Daryl's shoulder hard, trying to break through his disbelieving stare.
"Daryl? Do you understand what I'm say—" Rick began, but was flung violently backwards by two powerful hands slamming into his chest. Barely able to keep to his feet, Rick said Daryl's name again.
"You took Carol on a run and you left here there?" Daryl yelled disbelievingly. Michonne's head came up, her eyes searching out the two men and Hershel winced and shook his head.
"She murdered two of us in cold blood." Rick said self-righteously. "She acted on her own instead of bringing it to the council. She lied about it."
"The way I see it, she saw Patrick turn in the space of a few hours, and so when the rest of us was fightin' to keep the fences from collapsin' she acted. And you just said she confessed—ain't what I'd call lyin' about it."
"So you think what she did was right?"
"Hell no—but I got hindsight that she didn't—and leavin' her out there to die wasn't the way to go neither." Daryl turned and headed back up the hill.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm gonna go get her."
"Daryl—I don't want her here. I don't trust her—what's to stop her from doing the same thing again? What if next time it's Carl or Judith who's sick?"
Daryl stopped and turned back to Rick.
"You don't want her here? You didn't ask anyone else when you decided to just cut her loose, did you?" the tracker asked darkly.
"No—but after I explained it to them, they all agreed—"
"All of 'em?" Daryl looked over at the pyre makers, and then up towards the buildings. "Yeah, that's right." he said with disgust. "You explained your side—you all made up your minds that she's the next Governor or some shit. Gettin' all your scared little duck lined up in a row. These people are lookin' for someone to tell them what to do—and someone to blame for everything that's gone wrong and you handed her to 'em on a silver platter."
"Daryl, she did it."
"She's one of us. You let Merle in and you kick Carol out? That's bullshit, man." Daryl snorted. "You're back to runnin' the show your way and the rest of us be damned."
"I made a sacrifice for the greater good." Rick said stoutly.
"Ain't that exactly what Carol did?"
"She's changed Daryl—she's cold, calculating—she's not the same woman—"
"That's more bullshit." Daryl retorted. "She thought she 'as protecting us. That's all she's ever done. She lost everything- everything when Sophia died and she didn't fall apart and wander off talking to dead people." Rick's face went colder at the criticism of his own drastic sink into insanity as he mourned his wife last year.
"I get that you care for her, but you're letting your feelings for her keep you from seeing what she's become—"
"She cared enough to take care of all of us—including your kids—when Lori died. She practically ran this place since you brought in Woodbury—while you were off planting peas and sloppin' pigs she was making sure everyone had a place to sleep and a hot meal in their bellies."
"She was teaching the kids how to kill—Carl saw—told me..." Rick played his ace in the hole.
"How to kill walkers? And if someone would a taught Sophia she might still be here." Daryl returned. "She told a dying man she'd take on his daughters, two girls almost the same age as Sophia- it must have been terrifying to her—she'd already failed her daughter once, weren't gonna fail her again."
Daryl looked Rick up and down.
"Wasn't honorable, Rick, what you did. She's strong, but no one can make it out there on their own—ain't that what Andrea said?" his steel blue eyes bored into Rick's for a few beats and then he turned away, heading up the hill.
"You're not leaving, I won't allow it." Rick yelled, all rough edged authority, but Daryl just kept walking, so he yelled again, furious, "Daryl!"
Tyreese came out of the prison building to see what all of the yelling was about and started towards Daryl. Right before the men met, a shot rang out. Daryl heard the whine of the bullet as it passed by his ear, barely missing him and then saw a flash of red appear on Tyreese's shoulder, knocking the big man backwards from the force of the round that hit him. Daryl hit the ground on top of Tyreese, frantically looking back over his shoulder—had Rick lost his mind?
Rick looked on in disbelief as Ty went down, and then hit the deck and rolled, crouching behind the pile of logs that had been gathered as fence supports. He turned back towards the fences, from where the shot had come. Michonne and Hershel had taken cover behind the Jeep, their gazes directed at the main gate, where, standing in the bed of a tan king cab pickup, holding a scoped rifle, stood a grinning Phillip Blake.
AN: I am really really (insert about 100 more reallys here) angry at the character assassination that the TWD writers/AMC has perpetrated on Carol and how they are ret-conning everyone into vilifying her, including even our former supporter of all things Caryl, Chris Hardwick on TTD.
This little thing is what I wish Daryl will say in her defense when he is told by Rick, but I also fear that we will never see this discussion at all on screen, that it will be "yadda-yaddaed" as some other minor character saying in passing, "Yeah well, Daryl was upset, but he knows we need him here so he didn't leave." And then we get the return of the Governor.
Thanks for letting me get it out. It's my therapy...I've been needing it after every Sunday night.