"Writing with Blood"
"Don't leave me, daddy." Rick can see him. He can see her. Their faces torched, burned by the flames. And he can hear the neighbors screaming at them. He can feel Shane pulling him back. "No." He cries out, "let me go, no!" Lori holds the boy against her chest. Her face is black, raw, and her beautiful, blue eyes now buldge out, puffy and red. Sweat rolls down her brow. "I love you. She mouths, "we love you." Rick thrashes out, getting nowhere, "No! no, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" "Don't leave me!" And they're gone, taken by the flames, engulfed, swallowed.
It's all over. The search is over. Sophia, Carol's daughter. She's laying on the ground in front of him dead. Rick closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath, shaking the images out of his head. His son and wife are safe. He can see them on the ground, Lori cradling Carl in her arms as they mourn Sophia's death. How could he have let this happen? An innocent woman, dead. He's a cop for crying out loud. The sound of Carol's cries assault his ears, making him feel even more guilty than he already does. How did she end up in the barn?
Hershel is being led away, up to his house by his daughters, Patricia, and Jimmy. Glenn too is going with them. Rick looks over and catches Shane's eye.
"We've been out combing these woods looking for her and she was in here all along?" Shane begins. "You knew," he accuses Carol.
"Hey, Shane, stop man!" Rick pleads, grabbing his arm in an attempt to hold him back, "what's your problem?" Rick asks him between gritted teeth, "don't you think she already has enough to worry about, her daughter was just discovered dead."
Shane stares him down, his eyes darting to Carol, who is now cowered in the corner, and Rick, "Get your hands off me," he growls.
"Don't you dare do this to me again," Rick whispers, "I won't have it." Shane realizes that he's been movie further and further away from him. This is his partner, his best friend. He won't have it either.
"I'm sorry," Shane says. Rick nods, accepting, only to let Shane finish, "But I can't believe she knew and kept it from us!" he barks at Carol.
"I didn't want to worry anybody," the woman trembles, sobbing into her cracked and dirt-caked hands."
"That's bullshit! I think you all knew!"
"WE DIDN'T KNOW," Hershel yells. Shane is speechless. "Otis ran into all the walkers in the barn. Maybe he used her as bait."
"To save his own ass?" Shane questions.
"There isn't a single bite mark on her," Rick chimes in, "checked her whole body."
"I never said she was bit, Officer," Hershel corrects.
"So what, the girl just drops dead? Does that not seem suspicious to you?" Lori asks looking over Carl's head.
"It sounds extremely suspicious to me," Rick confirms. Shane brow furrows in disgust.
"And you expect me to believe that? What do I look like to you, man, do I look like an idiot? Am I supposed to believe that Otis, shit-head, dumb as a board, Otis, set all this up. Tell me, look me in the eye and tell me that's true," Shane challenges him. The sobs continue to rock through Carol. "Go ahead and tell me, that you yourself didn't kill that little girl, go ahead! Tell me, Hershel-"
"Shane, that's enough!" Rick jumps in front of him, blocking his fist from colliding with Hershel's face, but he doesn't stop, he shoves Rick away, but it allows for Rick to grab him around the chest from behind.
"No, go on, let the boy kill me! See if that makes him feel better!" Hershel taunts.
"You bet it will, you bastard," Shane lunges again, only to be pulled back.
"Come'on, come at me! Punch me!" Shane struggles against Rick, thrashing wildly, cursing, snapping.
"THAT IS ENOUGH, SHANE." Rick demands, throwing him to the ground, and then he leans down on top of him, looking directly into his eyes. "You are scaring my child. You are scaring my wife and Carol, and futher more, you're scaring me." Rick spits on his face, but he doesn't seem to care at the moment. His eyes focus on the bruises under Shane's left eye. "So if I were you, I'de knock it the hell off before you scare anyone else." Shane's face twists into an unreadable expression.
"I scare you, Rick," he whispers, "you don't know me anymore, do you?" Rick shakes his head.
"Come'on, you know I didn't mean it like that."
"Then how'd you mean it? Huh?"
"I mean, you're not yourself."
"Are you going to say something to me, boy?" Hershel asks, looking down on the two men. Shane turns his attention back to him and shakes his head. Hershel walks up the steps and turns around to give them one last look. "Get off my land," he orders. And with that, he walks out, closing the door behind him.
Glenn sighs before following suit, walking out of the barn. Lori lets go of Carl, allowing herself to comfort Carol. Rick lets Shane up, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
"Dad?" Carl looks up at Rick.
"Yeah, buddy?"
"I didn't want Sophia to die, I liked playing with her." Rick nods his head, wiping sweat away from his brow.
"I know, I know..." he says, "but don't you worry, we're going to get you out of here," Rick kneels down and places his hands on his sons shoulders, "we're going to figure this out." He watches Carl's lips move upward into a smile, and he can't help but smile himself. It's been a long time since he's done that. "Right, Shane?" he turns his attention to his partner. Shane looks down at Carl, who's smiling from ear to ear. He lets out a slight cough.
"Right...uh...yeah, definately," he assures the boy, "your dad's right, and maybe when we have this all figured out, we can have some of those frog legs." Shane points at Carl, who responds by laughing. Lori looks over at her son, happy to see him being himself again.
"There, you see? We're going to handle this," Rick says to Carl. He nods and wraps his skinny arms around Rick's neck.
"I love you, dad." Rick lets out a huge sigh, closing his eyes.
"And I love you, now go with your mother, we got some things to discuss here." Lori and Carl follow Glenn's footprints out the door, along with Carol, leaving Rick and Shane by themselves. Shane lowers his head.
"Daryl almost died looking for her, Rick. Anyone of us could have, I'm telling you, that son of a bitch...he knew."
"He didn't know." Rick responds, "he's not like that, he opened his home to us!"
"Yeah, so he could use us as walker-food! He put everyone of us in danger. Might as well just stand out in the middle of the street with big "Eat Me" signs on our foreheads."
"Look," Rick turns to Shane, "I don't know what exactly happened here, I don't know how you know what happened here, but I'm not about to risk another persons life who we don't even know for sure is guilty." Shane makes a sound of disgust. "We're cops, we don't do things like that."
"No, Rick, no,we were cops, as in past tense, as in it doesn't even matter anymore, because either way, we ain't going to make it much longer anyway."
"How can you even think that?"
"How can you not think that?" Shane shrugs his shoulders. Rick pauses, but then answers, "Because I have something to live for. My son. My wife. My career. And I thought my partner was supposed to have my back."
"I do, Rick," Shane raises his voice, clearly losing his temper again, "god dammit, you know I do...but not when go around and hand out guns to a man who wants to start an insurrection and massacre every one of us."
"I'm going to handle it, brother, I was handling it and you-"
"He had us looking through those woods, looking for a little girl that he knew the whole time, was dead! Think about it, Rick, there wasn't a bite mark on her, you said it yourself, she just happens to get herself killed when Hershel is there watching her?"
"It could have been a coincidence, Shane."
"Suppose it could have been, but what are the odds? What are the odds that Otis killed her and left her as bait, at the same time Hershel was out and about?" Rick sighs.
"They're low," he admits, watching his friend smirk, "but that doesn't mean Hershel killed Sophia or got her killed."
Shane then looks at Rick in disbelief, and shakes his head.
"Rick, you're just as delusional as Hershel himself."