AUTHOR'S NOTE:
** A friend of mine asked me to continue this and I always have a hard time telling her no, so here I am. ;)
** In my version of "the talk" between Rick and Daryl, there's a lot more than what was shown on TV. There are some rewrites of their conversation, but I also kept a lot of the dialogue that was actually said between the two.
** In my world, the Governor doesn't attack the prison.
** Everything else should be the same or explained as we go along. Hope you like it.
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- EXILED -
- CHAPTER TWO -
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- 2 Days After Banishment
- Cell Block C
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Daryl stared at the empty cellblock below as he waited for Rick to hurry the hell up and tell him where Carol was.
"Now, I want you to stay calm," Rick said softly, but with a nervous hitch in his voice that instantly had Daryl on edge. "And, I want you to listen to me."
"Stay calm, huh?" Daryl repeated. He was already so worked up that he had the coppery taste of blood on his tongue from chewing on his lip so hard. "I've been tryin' to stay calm for a while now. But, I'm gettin' real damn tired of the run around you all've been givin' me."
He moved then, wrapping his hands around the railing, tightening his grip as he tried to make his heart settle it's rhythm so it didn't feel like it was gonna jump out of his damn chest.
"Hershel won't say nothin' other than that I need to talk to you. I try an' look for you and somehow, you're nowhere to be found. No one else knows what the hell is goin' on, 'cept maybe Maggie cause she keeps givin' me this weird ass look. So spill the beans already and get this shit over with."
"You all… were gone a long time," Rick told him, rubbing his hand across his forehead.
Daryl scoffed in his direction. "That's what happens when you run into a herd, Rick. You have to change plans, figure out where the hell you are and how the hell to get back. Takes a bit 'o time."
"I know… but, it meant that me and Carol needed to go on a run to try and find some kind of relief for those that were sick."
"Makes sense," he told himself, even though Carol usually only made runs with him.
"We found a town," Rick continued. "We run into a young couple there. Sam and Ana. They didn't make it, though. At least, I know the girl didn't. Sam? I don't know. He never came back."
"What's this all got to do with Carol?" Daryl snapped, waving his hands in the air for effect. "All you're doin' is givin' me more of the same runaround. Spit it out already." He couldn't explain his reason for being so short with Rick. The man hadn't done anything that he knew of, to warrant such a hostile response from him. Yet there he was, trying to smother a rage that was steadily rising inside him.
"Carol's gone," Rick blurted out as he took a step back.
"Don't," Daryl mumbled, clearing his throat before he could continue. "Don'tcha dare tell me she's dead, cause I ain't believin' it."
"She's not dead." Rick assured. "She's just not… here."
Finally, for the first time since their conversation had started, Daryl turned to face his friend. "Then where is she?"
"I don't know."
"What do ya mean ya don't know? Did ya get separated?" Daryl questioned, worry now showing on his features.
"No."
"Then what, Rick?"
"She drove off. She's… not with the group anymore."
Daryl stopped his movements, standing quiet as he tried to register Rick's words.
Carol had left of her own free will? No walkers chasing them? No gettin' lost from one another? No nothin'. She just up and left.
"Why?" came the question, Daryl's voice low and edged with a hurt, a chink in his armor showing. "Why would she do that?"
Rick swallowed hard, a look of fear shining in his eyes. "Because I told her she couldn't come back here."
Daryl was in the man's face before he had time to even think. The hotheaded hunter was staring at him, shooting daggers through him with his icy blue eyes.
"You best pray I heard you wrong," he warned, understanding now why he had felt so much rage. He knew to trust his instincts and this time had been no different.
Rick moved to put a hand on Daryl's shoulder, but he just shoved it away, kicking at a cell door as he turned to pace.
"She killed them, Daryl. David and Karen."
Daryl shook his head. "You're outta your damn mind. She wouldn't do somethin' like that."
"Well, she did," Rick mumbled. "She told me so herself. And, I couldn't just let her stay here."
"So what, Rick? She confesses on a run and you just decide to make her leave? What happened to you not decidin' things on your own anymore? Ya couldn't of waited til we got back?"
"Wait til Tyreese got back?" Rick countered.
"I coulda handled that," Daryl told him. No one woulda hurt Carol, not as long as he was around.
But he hadn't been around...
"Hey. Hey," Rick called out a second time. "She killed two of our own. She couldn't be here."
Daryl just glared at him, tightening his fists at his side.
"She's goin' to be alright," Rick assured him. "She has a car, supplies, weapons. She's a… she's a survivor."
"So stop sayin' that like you don't believe it!" Daryl yelled, pointing a finger in Rick's face.
Rick just took a breath and nodded. "She did it. She said it was for us. That's how it was in her head. She wasn't sorry."
"Well, that ain't her," Daryl said through gritted teeth, glaring at the man across from him. He shook his head then, turning back to lean over the rail, knitting his hands together before resting his head upon them. "That ain't her."
"Ya know you had this comin' don'tcha?" he heard Merle goad him in his head. "Ya knew better than to stay here an' get attached to these people. Ain't nobody ever cared about a Dixon except a Dixon. Eh… Lil' Mouse mighta, but we see what happened to her don't we? Tried to tell ya, baby brother, but you wouldn't listen to ol' Merle, would ya? That Officer Friendly? He ain't so friendly now, is he?"
Daryl straightened, his body tense with anger as he tried to make sense of it all. Something wasn't addin' up right. Rick wasn't tellin' the whole truth and it was startin' to piss 'im off. BAD.
"Maggie told me earlier that you came back with a pretty good bit of supplies. Y'all were damn lucky to have had such a good run, 'specially to have been divvying it up."
He was fishin' for the truth and they both knew it.
"Daryl…"
"Might have to hit the place up again since it was such a sweet spot."
"Daryl…" Rick repeated, his hands on his hips.
Daryl turned to face him. "She didn't confess on the road, did she?"
Rick shook his head as he answered. "No, she didn't. She did it here at the prison."
Daryl nodded his head, his eyes narrowing. "You planned it didn't ya? That's why you took her on the run?"
Rick told the truth, knowing that the man across from him would have known if he'd lied. "Yes."
With that one word, the river of rage that had been rising inside of Daryl came spilling out.
"Bastard!" Daryl yelled out as his fist connected with Rick's face, bringing the two men to floor.
Several people, hearing the commotion, ran into the cellblock, now gawking up at the brawl that was taking place on the catwalk. But, Daryl did care. Screw 'em all!
It was Maggie and Carl that pushed through the onlookers and made it to the upper cells to pull the two men apart.
"Stop this," Maggie yelled.
"You conned her," Daryl yelled over Carl's head as the younger Grimes and Maggie stood as a wall between him and Rick.
"I did no such thing!" Rick defended as Maggie put her arms out to widen the barrier between the two men.
"The hell you didn't!" Daryl shouted. "Did ya tell her you were gonna leave her when you asked her to go on the run with ya? Did ya tell her to gather her things so she'd at least have some bit o' home with her before you told her to hit the damn road? NO! You let her think everything was okay, didn't ya?"
"She knew I wasn't okay with what she did!"
"And she still went Rick!" Daryl yelled. "She still crawled into the seat next to ya and went where ya asked her to go. What the hell does that tell ya?"
"Are you talkin' about Carol?" Carl asked, his question falling on deaf ears.
"What kind of man are ya that you'd have her help ya gather things FOR the group and then cast her OUT of it?"
There were audible gasps from the people below and Maggie yelled down to them. "Somebody find Michonne and Daddy… and the rest of you get the hell out of here!"
"What did you want me to do Daryl?" Rick yelled, throwing his hands up into the air.
Both he and the man across from him paid no mind to the people below or to the two standing between them, for that matter. "Did you just want me to pretend like it didn't happen? Or, I know, pat her on the back and say, "well thanks for tryin". What? Tell me! What should I have done?"
"Ya shoulda waited!" Daryl shouted. "Ya shoulda took it to the council an' let them decide what to do. Ya shouldn't have fooled her into thinkin' one thing when you had every intention of doing somethin' different. You drove away from this prison, knowin' ya wasn't bringin' her back. You can't play farmer for months and then come back and wanna be in charge, Rick. It don't work that way."
Carl turned to face his dad. "What's he talking about?"
"She went rogue, Daryl. Why can't you see that?"
"Pfft. No more than you did."
"I didn't kill two of our own."
"Ain't ya?," Daryl said with a sigh. "You took out Shane and now you've given Carol a death sentence."
Carl was stunned, glancing at Maggie, who stared down at him with a frown. "Dad?"
"I did what I had to!" Rick defended, his eyes moving back and forth from the three before him. "She… was a threat. A threat to us all."
"Aw, that's bullshit and you know it."
"It's not."
"What's going on?" Hershel asked as he and Michonne made their way to the upper level of the cellblock.
Neither man answered. Hershel looked at a teary Maggie who just frowned and shook her head at him, telling him everything he needed to know. Rick had finally told Daryl what had happened.
"Tell me something, Officer Grimes," Daryl taunted, venom oozing from his words. "Was she a threat when she was pullin' baby detail for Lil' Asskicker, and tryin' to teach Beth how to help her, while you were AWOL and talkin' to ghosts? Was she a threat when she was wearing herself down tryin' to cook for everybody in the prison? Was she a threat, Rick, when 15 minutes after I carried her out of a cell where she'd been left for days, she was comforting YOU over Lori."
Rick just dropped his head, unable to answer his friend's questions.
"That's what I thought," Daryl mumbled as he let his body slide to the floor, crossing his legs in front of him. Dropping his head back against the bars, he sighed; a deep and long breath escaping from his lips as the anger burned out of him, leaving him with an emptiness that he knew could never be filled.
"That's who you left out there, Rick," he whispered, tired of yelling. "That's who you took from this prison, who ya took from… me."
All five turned to look at Daryl then, various degrees of shock and sympathy covering their faces. They'd all known of the connection between Carol and Daryl, there was no denying it. But, to hear the anguish in his voice as he spoke of her? None of them were prepared for that.
"I'm sorry, brother," Rick said softly, a sudden hint of shame echoing in his voice.
"Don't call me that," Daryl warned in a tone that made all who heard it know to take the threat seriously. "Don't ever call me that again."
Rick nodded his understanding and Hershel took the silence as a chance to break up the party before there was a chance of either man getting riled up again. "Let's get you cleaned up."
"She didn't do it," a voice announced to the group.
"What did you say?" Maggie asked, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.
"Carol…" the voice spoke again. "She didn't kill Karen and David."
"How do you know?" Rick asked, keeping an eye on Daryl who was now rising from the floor.
"I know," the voice continued, "because it was me."
Moving to put his hand on the confessor's shoulder, Rick felt the sudden stream of tears sting his eyes. "Oh Carl…"
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