AN: I just loved the Governor's character to pieces and I was devastated when he died! (I know, I know, he's evil and killed Hershel, but what can I say? I am a sucker for villains!). I'm not sure if this will be continued after the first chapter because it's sort of me just testing the idea out. If you guys want more, please let me know. :)

I know some of the dialogue is incorrect, but I didn't want to watch the episode and get it down word-for-word because that can be a little tedious.

Brian listened to Rick's pleas as he looked into his eyes with his single good one. He didn't have to glance behind him to know that his side was beginning to hesitate. Once Rick mentioned sick children that weren't going to make the move, every single on of his men seemed to feel ashamed of what they were doing.

Then they don't care about surviving, a small voice in his head reminded him. If they aren't willing to do whatever it takes to survive, then they have no right to be here right now. They have to right to claim that they have made it this far after the world went to shit.

Brian continued to look at Rick, so lost into the pathetic, pleading eyes that he almost forgot he was holding a sword to someone's throat. He couldn't help but look past Rick to the two girls who were crying for their father. He instantly recognized the one whom he forced to undress and pressed her up against a table.

"We can live together!" Rick begged, looking at the man who had the sword to his throat. "Please! No one has to die!"

"No one has to die as long as we get the prison," Brian reminded the prison's former leader. "I am giving you the option of walking away unharmed."

"I told you, some of us aren't going to make it!" Rick yelled.

"And if I don't get the prison, all of you will die."

"We can live together!" Rick said again.

Brian felt himself chuckle at the thought. "Do you really think we could all live together peacefully? Do you think that I could live under the roof of Michonne? Maggie? Glenn? Or how about you and I?"

"We could live in different cell blocks," Rick explained. "We wouldn't even have to see each other."

"It could work," the old man underneath his sword called out. "You know it could."

"It doesn't have to end this way for either of us!" Rick exclaimed. "Look, I've fought him before!" Rick told the group pointing at Brian. "And afterwards, we took in his group. They became leaders! Is this what any of you want? If you walk through those doors, you become one of us. We can forget all of this! And nobody dies! Everyone is alive right now, everyone has made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive! We can still come back, we are not too far gone! We can come back! I know we all. . . can change."

Brian didn't even realize he had withdrawn the sword from the old man's neck until he was looking at it, the sun gleaming off of it into his good eye. He thought about his daughter Penny and his wife who he couldn't even think about without feeling like someone had stabbed him in the heart.

We are not too far gone, that part of Rick's speech kept going through his mind. How the hell does he know that? Why the hell does Rick assume he wants forgiveness for his actions? Brian wasn't even entirely sure he wanted or needed forgiveness for what he has done to people. Mostly because. . .

No one had ever offered it.

Now that it was right in front of him, he could sense his own hesitation. He wanted to stop being the Governor, this is his chance to actually prove it. . .

The sword slipped out of his hands and hit the ground, but he didn't take his eye off of Rick. He could see the look of excitement and hope in his eyes as the sword hit the ground.

"Come inside, Governor-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Brian yelled at him, speaking up for the first time in a while. "I haven't gone by that name in a long time."

Rick nodded. "Fair enough."

"Brian?"

Brian recognized Lilly's voice from behind him. He turned around and saw the woman carrying her daughter, Meghan. . .

"Meghan-" Brian began, unable to finish his sentence. He could feel all of Rick's men and all of his own watching the two of them. It was then he noticed Lilly's eyes- streaked with tears and full of pain.

"I couldn't. . . she wanted me to help her dig. . . I thought it was-" Lilly was unable to form a single sentence, but Brian understood well enough what happened.

"I-" Lilly began, but broke off sobbing.

"She was bit," Brian stated, not as a question but Lilly nodded anyway. "Lilly, what I did to your father-"

"I know," she whispered.

Brian took Meghan in his arms. He didn't know how long it took for Lilly to make it to the prison on her own so he didn't know when Meghan was going to come back as a Biter. What he did know was how much this situation reminded him of the similar one he had with Penny. Meghan was not his daughter- he did not bring her into this world, he wasn't even married to Lilly. However, he grew fond of the little girl and enjoyed how much she did remind him of his own daughter. He felt it was Meghan and her family who truly helped him change from being the Governor to being Brian Heriot.

Brian gently lowered Meghan to the ground and slowly took out his pistol. He then soon realized he couldn't bring the gun to her head, let alone shoot her.

He remembered the conversation he had with the man he had taken as hostage to capture the prison. He remembered the man's plea, "Everything you've said, the way you've said it, you've changed. So has Rick. We'll find a way. You say you want to take this prison as peacefully as possible. That means you'd be willing to hurt people to get it. My daughters would be there. That's who you'd be hurting. If you understand what it's like to have a daughter, then how can you threaten to kill someone else's?"

Brian had venomously replied, "they aren't mine." As if not having a relation to someone meant that it was all right to murder them, tearing them away from their families and friends. Yet, Meghan wasn't his and now he felt what it was like to love someone who wasn't even related to you.

"I'm sorry, Pumpkin," he whispered, willing himself not to cry and look weak in front of Rick's group. Lilly made it more difficult for him with her sobbing in the background.

"She-she's gonna'", Lilly began but wasn't able to finish.

He knew. Of course he knew. He knew better than she did. He remembered the look of horror on her face when he killed her father, not having a complete full understanding of the new world they all lived in.

"I can't," he whispered to her, feeling yet another weapon slip from his fingers. "I can't do it, Lilly, I'm sorry." Anger and frustration overwhelmed him due to his weakness. "DAMN IT!"

Everyone was definitely staring now, probably silently judging him for being so weak.

"Brian, is it?" Rick suddenly was right beside him. Brian didn't answer his former enemy, instead he was looking at the gun in Rick's hands. "Do you need some help?"

"I don't need your help!" Brian spat. "I don't need help from anyone."

"Then what's stopping you?" Rick asked him.

Brian didn't answer and Rick's expression changed for a brief second, a look that could almost have been pity. Brian hated being pitied, but he didn't have time to protest as Rick approached Meghan closer and held the gun to her face.

"No!" Lilly yelled. "Please!"

"Lilly, you know it has to be done," Brian whispered. "You said so yourself that you knew." He wrapped his arms around the sobbing woman. "Just don't look," he ordered her and she buried her face into his chest. He looked up at Rick, hating the fact that he needed the man's help. "Just do it!"

Rick nodded and Brian felt himself looking away as well, tears welling up in his eyes.

He jumped when he heard the gun shot.

Should I continue? Please let me know what you thought! I wasn't sure how to write him changing from the Governor to Brian.

Thanks for reading! And I am terribly sorry for any errors in this. My word processing program doesn't have grammar or spell check and I don't want to download a new one, so I just trust the document manager to catch them, but we all know the internet can make mistakes. :/