A.N.: From here on, we will be following along with the episodes in order starting from S.1Ep.4, 'Vatos'. During some parts the paraphrasing will be heavy, but my main goal is to (mostly) write in tandem with the show while adding in Kylee's interactions and affect on the show's characters.
I'd love your insight and welcome any comments.
Hope you enjoy!
~Annie
Kylee is laughing, sitting in a circle with several elderly men as they swap war stories and reminisce about better times, when she hears the first commotion from afar. Earlier that morning Jorge, Felipe and his cousin Miguel, and another man named Carlito had gone out on a run, but Kylee prefers to stay safe inside with the old folks while Guillermo and his men handle most of the supply runs outside the walls of the compound. Normally the runs go pretty smoothly, but today something different must have happened.
Rising from her chair, Kylee goes in search of answers, following the angry voices until she finds Felipe in the garage bay ranting about strangers jumping them in the city.
"What happened?" she asks Jorge. "What's all this about a bag of guns?"
He tells her about a scouting mission the day before, and the duffel bag full of rifles and ammunition. There had been a horde of walkers surrounding one of the tanks left behind by the military, and today they had gone to retrieve it now that the crowd has dissipated some, but they'd been attacked by strangers.
Apparently Felipe had taken an arrow to the ass, too.
"We've got their boy now, though," Jorge explains with a triumphant smile. "And G isn't gonna hand him over 'til those putos give us the guns."
"So that's what we do now?" Kylee asks scathingly, turning to Felipe just as Guillermo joins them. "We take prisoners and demand ransoms?"
"You gotta understand our position, cariño," Guillermo responds. "We need those weapons to protect this place. We don't know these people, and they took Miguel hostage, too."
Kylee shakes her head in agitation, but they're all riled and ready to brawl. Making eye contact with their appointed leader, she gives him a glare that relays undoubtedly her dislike of their plans, and stalks off to find that their own hostage has been sat in a chair with Felipe's abuela and another older man named Mr. Gilbert.
The Asian boy looks terrified, his dark skin flushed and sweat beading on his brow. Kylee walks into the kitchen and comes back to him with a glass of water, offering the drink with a sympathetic smile.
"Please, let me go," he begs as he takes the glass with trembling hands.
"I'm going to talk with Guillermo again," she reassures him. "We'll get this all sorted out, and get you back to your group."
"This is all just a misunderstanding!" he continues frantically. "Please, you gotta tell them that those guns belong to us! Rick dropped them when the walkers attacked his horse, and we need them to protect our camp. We were just trying to protect ourselves, not attack your homies, or whatever."
Kylee hushes him and pats his forearm, but the name he drops during his plea makes her heart clench. It's been ages since anyone has said her deceased father's name aloud. "I promise I'll talk to them, but I'm a newcomer here, so I don't know how much I'll be able to affect their decisions. But Guillermo isn't the type to hurt innocent strangers. You'll be okay."
She pauses for a moment. "We have to protect our people too, you know. Maybe we can work out a trade or something."
"What's your name?" the new kid asks her.
"Kylee. What about you?"
"I'm Glenn. Please, you have to help me. I just want to go back to my friends, and I don't want anyone to get hurt."
The young woman nods and sighs, running her fingers through the tumbled mass of her honey-blond hair. Unlike her dark-haired parents, Kylee had gotten her lighter locks from her grandmother.
"Just stay put, and I'll see what I can do, okay?"
Glenn nods, but before she can make good on her word she's stopped by a choking gasp from Mr. Gilbert. She rushes to his side, followed closely by Glenn, and tries to calm him down as he's hit by a full-blown asthma attack. Felipe's abeula totters off to fetch her grandson, and they can do nothing but wait and watch until Felipe arrives to assist.
Minutes pass in tense silence, broken only by Mr. Gilbert's wheezing, and Kylee doesn't even look up when Felipe finally trots into the room, still limping slightly from his injury.
Until she hears the other sets of footsteps, and glances up to see who's followed. What she expects is Guillermo and Jorge and the other members of their crew - But what she sees almost has her fainting on the spot.
Her voice is barely more than a whisper, but in the spacious room, it manages to carry far enough.
"Daddy?"
.
..
…
..
.
For that moment, everything around them seems to freeze. The noise falls away, and Kylee stands rooted to the spot as she watches her own father stroll into the room - Alive and well. She pays no mind to the two other strange men who follow at his heels, and when their eyes lock, Rick Grimes stumbles to a stop.
"Ky?"
Kylee's feet can't carry her fast enough as she sprints across the room and hurls herself into her father's arms, crying with relief and burying her face into the curve of his neck. She couldn't care less about the big black man who curses in surprise, or the scruffy redneck who instinctively aims the shaft of his crossbow directly at her. All she cares about right now is that her dad is alive. His arms clamp around her back, crushing her against his chest, and his own sobs are muffled against her shoulder.
"Oh, Daddy I missed you!" she mumbles through her tears. "I got separated from everybody, and the walkers almost got me in the city. I didn't think I'd make it."
"You're okay, baby girl. You're okay," Rick reassures her, carding his fingers through his daughter's hair. "Everything's alright now, I'm here."
"Sorry to break up this tearful reunion," the rough-looking stranger suddenly interjects. "But don't forget we still got to deal with this shit."
Kylee turns to see him motion towards the group gathered around Mr. Gilbert as Rick reluctantly releases her, but he keeps one hand on her shoulder while they move closer, as if worried that breaking contact will make her disappear.
Her father's attention is eventually drawn to Glenn, who stands at the edge of the crowd watching on with everyone else as Felipe helps Mr. Gilbert settle his breathing.
"What the hell is this?" Rick questions.
"An asthma attack," Glenn answers as he looks up. "Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden."
"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man," the black stranger quips.
Kylee presses her fingers against her lips to stifle a giggle as Glenn turns to look down at the three small Chihuahuas cuddled together on a leopard-print doggy bed. The bravest of the canine trio, a long-haired little scrap, yaps fiercely at the commotion.
During all the fuss Kylee must have missed Guillermo's arrival, but she feels her dad turning and sees him hiss under his breath, "Could I have a word with you?"
Still refusing to relinquish his hold on his daughter, Rick tows her along with him as he leads Guillermo off to the side.
"You're the dumbest sonofabitch I have ever met," he whispers harshly. "We walked in here ready to kill every last one of you."
"You what?!"
Kylee looks up at her father in shock, and he levels her with a steady glare.
"We would have done whatever it took to get Glenn back."
"So you were just gonna bust through here, guns blazing?"
"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way," Guillermo interrupts the pair before their argument can devolve any further.
"If it had, that blood would be on my hands."
"Mine too," Guillermo counters. "We would have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine - What's left of it."
"I can't believe you two!" Kylee snaps, glaring between the two men as they size each other up. They each pause, and while the younger Grimes snatches her arm from her father's grasp, Guillermo sighs heavily.
"These people, the old ones - The staff took off, just left 'em here to die," he explains. "Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed."
What are you, doctors?" Rick inquires.
"Felipe's a nurse - A special care provider. Me… I'm the custodian."
Guillermo checks to make sure everyone is settled and Mr. Gilbert's attack has passed before leading Kylee, her father, and the three strangers into an empty room off to the side. Rick sets the duffel bag that has caused so many issues into a nearby armchair, and questions the Hispanic leader once again.
"What about the rest of your crew?"
"The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents," he explains. "They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing, too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart; the worst kind - Plunderers, the kind that take by force. With the exception of your daughter, that is. She's been a great help to us since Felipe rescued her from the walkers."
Rick glances at Kylee, who's been perched nearby on an empty TV stand. She shrugs her shoulders noncommittally.
"That's not who we are," he responds.
"How was I to know?" Guillermo insists. "My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage - Appearances."
The bigger stranger pipes up from his own spot slouched in a chair by the far wall: "Guess the world changed."
"No," G responds instantly, "It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars; talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something."
Kylee watches the two men share a knowing look, and she shifts restlessly on her perch. Directly across the room from her stands the scruffy stranger, studying everything with a guarded expression. His gaze lands on her for a moment, their eyes locking, but a shot of uneasiness trickles down her spine that makes her look away with a frown. He looks half-feral - like a dog who's one step away from his brother wolf in the forest.
Like he could inflict a lot of damage without even breaking a sweat.
Guillermo is still talking about how he and his crew fortified the building, barring the windows and welding the doors shut.
"The vatos, they go out - Scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."
"Because they can," Rick tells him steadily. He looks down at the shotgun in his hand, and then hands it over silently before turning to the duffel bag and pulling out a rifle, setting it on a small table nearby. Slowly he doles out a few more guns along with several boxes of ammo, and then zippers the bag shut again.
The two men exchange goodbyes, and Guillermo leads everyone back into the main room. He tells his crew that the strangers are all free to go.
"I guess this is goodbye then, eh cariño? I'm sure you'll be wanting to go with your padre."
Kylee turns to see Guillermo and Felipe smiling somberly at her. With a tearful nod she hugs them each in turn, before moving about the room to say her farewells to each of the residents she had come to know during her stay. They all wish her the best as she trots after her father and his group, and while they all make their way back onto the street, Rick drapes his arm across his daughter's shoulders.
"Now we can get you back to your mom and brother," he murmurs, rubbing his palm against her arm in reassurance. "I'm sure they're missing you pretty badly by now."
Kylee's smile is blinding as she turns to her father in shock, and he gives her a smirk in return before gently steering her away from the heart of Atlanta.
The group's trek back through the city is blessedly uneventful. They remain mostly silent along the way, not wanting to risk attracting walkers, with the exception of introductions. Kylee already knows Glenn's name, but her father acquaints her with T-Dog, the bulky African American who gives her a friendly smile, and Daryl, the feral-looking one who does nothing more than squint his eyes and spit on the ground near her feet. She glares right back at him, and when her father's back is turned she sticks her tongue out childishly.
But as they finally reach the outskirts, Glenn pipes up. "Admit it: you only came back to Atlanta for the hat."
"Don't tell anybody," Kylee's father responds.
Daryl, who hasn't said a word since their departure from Guillermo's compound, finally turns to Rick and speaks out.
"You've given away half our guns and ammo."
"Not nearly half."
"For what?" The wild-looking man questions. "Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?"
"How long do any of us?" Kylee snaps, leveling him with an icy glare. "I lived with those people for weeks, and I gotta say that most of them have more decency in their little finger than you do in your entire body."
The pair lock eyes, each sporting a sour expression, but before he can respond their group circles around the front of an overturned bus and come to a stumbling halt.
"Oh my God," Glenn murmurs.
"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl demands, momentarily ignoring his consternation with the Sheriff's daughter in lieu of more important issues.
"We left it right there," Glenn continues. "Who would take it?"
Rick responds without hesitation.
"Merle."
Realization dawns on Daryl's face. "He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp."
