A/N: Chapter Four of "Begin Again" is being written I promise :). But this idea wouldn't let me go so I had to get this out. After seeing the previews for this Sunday, I wondered what it would be like if Ed was causing all this commotion as a revenge against Carol thing. Please enjoy and let me know what you think!
The Bitterest Taste: Chapter One
What if Ed survived and left Carol and Sophia after Merle unleashed the Walkers at their camp outside Atlanta? Now in Woodbury, he hears news of that same group bunkered down in a prison and decides it's time to forcibly take her back, or else. A multi-chapter Caryl story.
TWD
It had been months since she'd seen him. What felt like a lifetime. Before the CDC, before the farm, before the winter, before the prison.
"What you think you're worth this shit, you selfish bitch?!" he screamed at her, splitting opened the fresh cuts on his face from the beating Shane had given him.
After a night so terrible, so terrifying, Carol almost couldn't stand this. So many people had died, so many still in shock at the sudden appearance of tens of Walkers. But this on top of all that was proving too much for her. She just couldn't fight it anymore.
The tent was getting smaller and smaller as she was pushed back in the corner, trying to wait out this outburst and praying her dear Sophia couldn't hear from here she was with Lori. Roughly he stepped up to her, grabbing the back of her neck hard, pulling her in against him.
"I give you a week without me before you put a bullet in your head you pathetic cow." he spat, eyes glowing threateningly. Like if she didn't, he would.
"Hey!" the angry voice of Shane cut through the air, the zipper of the tent opening and what felt like every man in the camp flooded in. His and Rick's faces were just about as furious as Ed's.
"Get your hands off her!" Shane barked, ripping him away from her, despite his determined grip. Deep scratch marks cut across the back of her neck and down her chest, Ed cursing up something foul as the men pulled him kicking and screaming from the tent.
Carol stood for a moment, tears brimming her eyes before she ran out after them.
"Please, it's fine!" she said, worried what Shane or the others would do to him. Ed and Sophia was all she had from her life before all this, they were all she knew.
Rick, Shane, Morales and T-Dog pulled her husband to the dirt road, throwing him harshly down onto it.
"We heard you're hollering, your threats, so why don't you make good on them ?" Rick said, blocking Ed from Carols view. Neither of the ex-cops were going to back down to this.
"You fucking bastards, you think she'll survive without me? Ain't no one gonna look after you bitch!" he yelled at her.
He pulled himself up, spitting blood that trickled into his mouth from his split lip. His we're teeth red and grotesque, glinting in the firelight.
"The world ain't got time for your kind so go ahead and take your wailin' ass somewhere else." Shane said, fingers brushing the hilt of his gun strapped to hip, eyes hot
Carol clutched her hands to her chest, watching as the man spat in her direction, before turning around and walking away into the darkness.
Carol watched in horror as his figure faded in the darkness. He didn't say goodbye. Not even to Sophia. Just left them like it was the easiest thing in the world. She opened her mouth to call him back, but her words were caught in her throat, her emotions choking them out.
"If you even try to come back here," Shane yelled, making everyone shift uncomfortably. No one had been so loud. "We won't be so nice, you hear?"
Eventually, after some time had passed and no one caught a glimpse of any dark figures coming back, everyone drifted back to the devastation and heartbreak that was their little camp.
She stood motionless, looking out and trying to will Ed to come back to her as a man walked up beside her. She remembered vaguely that the man's name was Daryl, though they hadn't said a single word to each other.
"Don' worry." He offered, eyes following hers out to the darkness. "You ain't need him to look after you. You an' yer girl'll be looked after."
She turned to him, eyes red and cheeks tear stained. He didn't wait for a reply, just gave her a nod and walked off.
Not a few minutes before her revelation did Maggie up at the watch tower start yelling out. As everyone broke through the prison threshold to the outside, they saw them. Two deep green army trucks complete with men hanging onto the back and sides, guns waving and faces none too kind.
Well that had kicked everyone into gear and fast as every body ran back inside for weapons, Rick hollering orders fast and decisive.
Carol had been ordered to go to the watchtower with Maggie and Glenn, while Rick, Daryl and T-Dog walked up to the newcomers. The rest of group were to stand in the courtyard, guns ready if they were needed. That was the plan til she saw an oddly familiar man step out of one of the trucks.
She stopped, confused for a moment at why he caught her eye. Squinting in the late afternoon sun, Carol walked closer to get a better view.
"Get yer ass in gear." Daryl said, walking up beside her, giving her hip a push with his hand in the direction of the water tower. "They're comin' out!" he yelled out Rick who started running up to their direction.
"Oh my god." Carol whispered. She recognized the man. It was Ed. "It's him."
Daryl gave her a look, unconsciously stepping in front of her for her protection, squinting to get a better look. "Oh shit."
She took off running towards the man, not believing what she was seeing at all. Carol heard Daryl swearing ferociously after her, the sounds of Rick, Daryl and T-Dog's feet catching up to her.
Fifty feet from the inner fence, Daryl grabbed and roughly yanked back her arm, moving to step in front of her, crossbow trained and ready to kill.
Rick took point, gun at the ready as well, with T-Dog stepping up beside Daryl.
The memory of the night he left flashed in her mind, everything so vividly clear. And there now he stood, nothing separating them but some land and the prison fences. Well, and Daryl, who had one hand gripping her arm in case she got it in her head to run up to him, with the other tightly gripping his crossbow trained at her husband's head.
Minus the bruising and blood, he looked the exact same, except a lot more threatening. That and the fact that he was with several men packing some serious weaponry were not reassuring.
"Lucy, I'm home!" he laughed, the smallest tinge of malice in his eyes. No one else might've seen it, but Carol had plenty of times. Daryl shifted forward at that remark, riled up and moving to block Carol from his eye line even more. Apparently she wasn't the only one to see through his words.
Ed brazenly stepped away from one of the army trucks they had shown up in, sauntering almost lazily towards the fence.
"Whatcha got behind your back, hoss?" Daryl called out her husband. The smirks of the five other men around Ed instantly put everyone on edge.
"What, you with this redneck trash now?" Ed said, titling his head and looking to Carol. "I'm your damn husband, and you're fucking some back woods, inbred son of a bitch, are you?"
Before a pissing match to end all was unleashed from either side, Rick raised his hand, face set in determined lines. "Hey! Let's just cut the crap and get down to it. What are you doing here on our land, Ed?"
"Come to get what's mine." Was all he said, not needing to be any clearer what "mine" meant.
"You piece 'a shit, you think ya'll can beat on her, ditch her, then steal her back? You got another thing comin' like my arrow up yer ass."
"Stop," Carol said softly. Daryl glanced back, a look of disbelief crossing his face. Carol gave a reassuring nod to man still holding tight to her, and slowly he dropped his hand away, uncertain.
Carol looked to Ed, speaking up louder. "I'm not comin' with you Ed. And you all aren't coming in here either."
She wasn't the same person as when Ed last saw her. She had changed. Gotten tougher and was able to hold her own now. Ed wasn't going to bully her into something and she wasn't going to let him bully anyone else.
Rick turned back to the men, giving them a shrug. "You heard her. There's nothing else you could possibly say, so I would get on back to where you came from. Before my people start getting a nervous trigger finger."
At that Daryl tapped his crossbow audibly.
But this whole thing wasn't right. Ed was never so nonchalant. She stepped closer to Daryl, whispering low in his ear. "Something's off here. I can just feel it."
"Tell me about it." Daryl whispered back, eyes never leaving Ed. "This feels all kinds of wrong. He ain't even mention Sophia."
Ed whistled, bring Carol's attention back to him. "I figured you'd be difficult, so I thought I better come prepared to do the same."
Finally revealing what was behind him, Carol was a little underwhelmed when she saw an axe. The group stood a little confused, but not backing down.
"We'll just hang around for a while," he finished. "'Til you change your minds or we make you."
He directed that last part at Carol, making her feel a flash of cold run through her veins. She hid that icy fear from him as his group stepped back into their vehicles.
Terror pulled through again when they heard Carl's yelling voice behind them in the courtyard followed by rapid fire gunshots. "Walkers! Dad, Walkers!"
Whipping around the four of them bolted full speed back to the prison, forgetting the men.
"Carl! Lori!" Rick yelled, running to get to his family as Walker after Walker streamed into the courtyard. Shots rang out from the watch tower as Glenn and Maggie fired, everyone now suddenly fighting for their lives.
Ed had cut the chain that kept the Walker out. That's how this happened, it must have been. Rushing back to the scattered and terrified group, tears fell at the feeling of an overwhelming sense of guilt hit her.
"Get back in the cells! Get back in the cells!" Daryl screamed to her and others, as the scene in front of her broke out into all out war. Frantic and engulfed by the feeling that this was somehow her fault, Carol tried to focus her mind, reaching to grab Lori as the two crossed paths. Holding on to each, they ran as fast as Lori could go to get to the safety of their cell block. They were just steps behind Hershel, leaning heavily on Beth, as both Rick and Daryl covered them, a shot ringing out every second.
She heard screams and yelling behind her, wondering desperately if anyone was hurt but not daring to turn around, merely steps from the cell block door.
If anyone died or got hurt it would be on her hands. She knew Ed wouldn't stop here. However he had found her didn't matter. They only thing she knew was that now that he had, he would be back again and again until he won. Until she left with him.