AN: AHAHA another update! This will be the second to last chapter, but it will be a longer one. . . well longer than the last one at least.

Foxfacefan1: Thank you so much! I was so relieved to see you still have an interest in the story! Just one left!

deez nuts: Thank you! The "TWD" things in between paragraphs were line breaks, so you know when the perspective or location is about to change. I didn't have time to insert the lines that usually are in fanfictions. You will see them again in this chapter and the next one after that.

Guest: Thank you! It means a lot! I really hope you enjoy this!

I apologize if everything seems rushed, I really wanted to work on the pacing in this chapter, but seeing as I can only work on this in school, it sometimes is difficult. I only have so many free periods. Also, once this is done, I will finally work on my multi-chaptered "Glee" story, and then it will just be one-shots for a while. Like, a long while. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter and then the last one. Thank you guys so much for reading!

The wind was blowing, the Biters were growling from behind the fence, and the people were all keeping themselves busy. Basically, it was an average day in the prison. Brian turned his attention away from the Biters and watched the people instead. Women were smiling and chatting while doing laundry, watching their children or the children of others who have past; children were playing; and the men were all either working in the fields, or working on the gate to prevent the Biters from coming too close.

"What do we say to her?"

Brian turned his attention to Carol who had snuck up behind him. He didn't have to ask her who or what she was talking about. He shook his head. "I don't know yet. I'm thinking about it."

"Brian, it's been a day," Carol protested. "This is hard for me, too, but we have to do something. We have to make Lizzie understand. If she doesn't, she could get hurt. She's not even scared of the Walkers, she treats them like they're pets."

"Like I did with my daughter?" Brian pointed out. He turned away from Carol and continued to watch the people of the prison. Lizzie was with her sister playing with a couple of other girls in the grass and dirt. "I've been watching her, but there's only so much I can do."

Carol sighed, her eyes on Lizzie, too. "I just don't know what to say. I can't even say the word 'Waker' without her yelling at me. God, Brian, she names them."

Brian nodded slowly. "I'll talk to her again," he said softly. "Maybe I can get through to her. But the more frustrated she gets. . ."

"What?"

"I just think she might do something stupid. We can't push her too far, Carol. Someone is going to get hurt."

Carol sunk down until she was sitting on a large rock in the grass. "I feel responsible for her, you know. I was the one who had to shoot their dad. I promised him I would look after his two daughters, so if anything happens-"

"You won't be responsible," Brian cut in. "We all want to protect the kids, but in a world like this. . . not everyone will make it. The more we learn to accept that, the more easy this whole thing will be." Having nothing else to say, Brian bid farewell to Carol, and headed down toward Lizzie. He needed to get through to her, and he was running out of ideas. He was going to use examples as a last resort and see where that got him.

"Brian!"

Brian stopped as he heard Rick call out his name. He had to refrain himself from sighing out of irritation. He had enough on his mind and prayed Rick wasn't going to ask him to go on a run or anything like that. He turned and faced the man, looking at him expectantly.

"Everything alright?" Rick asked.

Brian nodded slowly. "Anything happen to make you think otherwise?"

"You and Carol have been spending a lot of time together," Rick pointed out. "I'm just wondering if everything is alright between the two of you."

Brian was confused. "If you think Carol and I are. . . together than you are mistaken. I have no desire to enter a relationship of any kind as of-"

Rick shook his head and laughed. "No, that's not what I meant. I mean the two of you seem to be-"

"Hiding something?" Brian knew he and Carol were probably the least trusted people in the prison, him for obvious reasons, and her because of what she had done in the past. He still couldn't hide the irritation in his voice at Rick's accusation. Wasn't he the one who always talked to him about a clean slate? Wasn't it Rick who talked him about being able to change?

Rick shook his head. "Not at all."

"So what's the problem then?"

"I don't want to prye, I really don't, but if anything is going on, I want the two of you to know that you can talk to me about anything. I do my best to look after the prison and that includes the people in it."

"We're doing just fine," Brian lied. "Now if you'll excuse me." He turned away from Rick, and headed back toward Lizzie. It wasn't that he didn't trust Rick, in fact out of everyone at this prison, Rick was probably the person he trusted the most, but at the same time, this wasn't something he wanted Rick to stress about and spread around to the rest of the prison. He wasn't sure how others would handle Lizzie, and he didn't want anyone to do anything too drastic. She was just a little girl who was confused and had way too much faith in the world.

"Brian!" Mika greeted with a smile. It was probably one of the first times Brian had ever seen the young girl look truly happy. "We were drawing in the dirt."

"I see that." Brian made a mental note to try and find sidewalk chalk or something the next time he went out because this was just kind of sad. "I need to talk to your sister."

Lizzie slowly looked up from whatever she had been drawing. The look on her face told Brian she knew exactly what he wanted to talk about. "Okay," she said hesitantly. She stood up from the dirt and looked at Brian. "What?"

"Let's go somewhere else, Lizzie," Brian told her, his tone holding no room for argument. "It's going to be a nice, long chat."

"Is Lizzie in trouble?" one of the young boys asked.

Brian shook his head. "No. I just need to talk to her." He began to walk in the direction opposite of everyone else, using his hand to gesture for Lizzie to follow. She did so hesitantly, as though she expected Brian to yell at her, or even physically hurt her. He stopped when he was out of earshot from everyone else and began to talk to her slowly.

"Now, Lizzie, Carol and I are very concerned."

"She's not my mom," Lizzie shot back. "And you're not my dad."

"That's true," he agreed. "We're not your parents, and we ain't trying to be."

Lizzie looked frustrated. "I just want to show everyone what I mean."

"I know, Lizzie, but-" he stopped. "What do you mean show?"

Lizzie shook her head. "Never mind."

Brian could tell she was hiding something from him, something she was refusing to tell him, but he decided not to push it. She might have just misspoken, after all. "Look," he said after a while. "There's something I think you should know about me." He sat down on the ground, and patted the space beside him to tell her she should do the same. After a while she did, and she looked at him expectantly.

"I used to have a daughter," he told her.

"What was her name?" Lizzie asked.

"Penny. She was younger than you when she was-" he stopped, rephrasing his sentence. "She died the same way your dad did."

"She was bit?"

Brian nodded. "She was bit."

"And you had to kill her?"

Brian shook his head hesitantly. "I couldn't kill her. I didn't have it in me. Someone else had to. I was. . . confused, a lot like you. I thought that maybe there was something I could do to help her."

"Did you help her?" Lizzie asked.

"No," Brian answered. "You know why?" Lizzie shook her head. "Because there is no way to help them. The dead stay dead, Lizzie. There ain't nothing we can do about it. We can't bring the dead back to life."

"But they are alive," Lizzie protested. "Otherwise they wouldn't be able to walk around."

"But they aren't really alive, either." Brian sighed. "I don't have answers to all of your questions, Lizzie, and maybe if I did you wouldn't be so confused. Sometimes things happen that you can't explain. I can't explain this outbreak, I don't know of anyone who would be able to."

Lizzie stood up angrily. "No!" she yelled. "Why can't everyone just see? Everyone thinks I'm stupid and too young to understand, but that's not true! I'm the only one who understands. I'm sorry, Brian, but Penny died for nothing."

Brian sat there, looking for something to say, but no words would come out of his mouth. Lizzie didn't give him much time, either as she walked away back toward her friends.

"She doesn't know what she's talking about," Carol said, sitting down next to him. "She's more confused than I thought." The woman looked sad, and Brian felt bad for her, remembering what she said about feeling responsible for the two young girls. He knew Lizzie and Mika weren't the only kids she looked after at this prison, either.

"What did you hear?" Brian asked.

"All of it," she admitted. "I saw you bring her over here, and I was hoping you might have been able to finally get through to her."

"Something wrong?" Brian asked, seeing her sad expression. "Something other than Lizzie I mean?"

"Hershel cornered me," she explained. "I'm worried that people are starting to think you and I are plotting against the prison. He told me, that Rick told him, that you and I are keeping things from everyone else."

"Rick talked to me," Brian explained with a sigh. "He seems to trust us though."

"But nobody else does." Brian followed her gaze to where Daryl and Michonne were talking. A little bit away from them, Glenn and Maggie were kissing.

"That's not entirely true," Brian said. "I think most everyone trusts you." Carol scoffed but didn't say anything else. Brian straightened up. "I guess we'll have to take this one day at a time," he said. "Just see what happens."

"What if something bad happens?" Carol asked. "And it's too late to stop it?"

Brian shrugged. "What exactly do you think will happen?"

"You heard what Lizzie said," Carol said softly. "That she was going to show everyone what she means. What exactly are we supposed to think about that?"

"You think she might hurt somebody?" Brian asked.

"I don't know. I just think we might have to watch our backs."

"She's just a little girl," Brian pointed out.

"Exactly," Carol said. "No one would see it coming. When someone believes in something to a certain extent, it can get dangerous. People will do anything to get others to see something from their point of view. Lizzie really wants us to believe her about the Walkers, and if I've learned anything from being a mother, kids can get persuasive, and in a world like this, I can picture things getting dangerous really quickly." Carol stood up, too. "We need to keep an eye on her, Brian. And everyone else, too."

~TWD~

"This is ridiculous!" Daryl hissed. "We should be tryin' to actually do somethin'."

"And what do you propose we do?" Hershel asked. "Follow the two around and watch their every move? Stand over their shoulders until they tell us what we want to hear?"

"Everyone has their secrets," Rick pointed out.

"Secrets can be dangerous," Michonne protested quietly. She was standing in the back, arms crossed over her chest.

"Is it Brian's secrets that you find dangerous?" Hershel asked. "Or Brian himself?"

"We all agreed to give him a chance," Rick added, "and that's what we're going to do. I meant it when I told him that here he could have a clean slate, and I'm not going back against my word."

"Then why did you call this meeting in the first place?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah," Glenn agreed. "What exactly do you want us to do?"

"We seem to be at an impasse," Rick said. "Some believe we should ask Brian and Carol what's going on," he looked over at Daryl and Michonne, "and others believe that we should leave well enough alone."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Maggie said with a sigh, "but I'm all for just leaving the two alone. I don't know about Brian, but I trust Carol. I don't think she would ever intentionally do anything to harm this group. I know she has a few. . . mistakes in the past, but if Tyreese of all people is willing to move past that, I sure as hell am, too."

Glenn nodded. "I agree with, Maggie-"

"Of course," Daryl grumbled.

"-and I think we should just let this play out," Glenn continued. "I trust Carol, too. She's helped this group out in more ways than I can count, and I think she is a great person. I don't see her actually walking around and making evil plans with The Gov- Brian - and doing anything dangerous."

"I guess it really comes down to trusting Carol as well," Hershel said. "And I know I do. Everything she does, she does with the entire population of the prison in mind. I know when she killed those two people it seemed drastic, but we all know now she was just desperate to find a solution."

"So we leave them alone?" Glenn asked.

Rick nodded. "We leave them alone."

~TWD~

Brian was in the central cell block with the majority of Rick's group, feeling all of their eyes on him as he waited for the man to come down and talk to him. According to Carl who had asked him to go to the block, Rick needed him to do something for him.

"Brian," Rick greeted coming down the stairs.

"Your son told me you needed something?"

Rick nodded apologetically. "Uh. . . yeah, is there any chance you could go out on a run?"

Brian nodded. "That wouldn't be a problem. What is it you need?"

Rick looked relieved. "Well-"

Rick was cut off by Carol running into the room, calling out Rick's name. She was panting heavily and her hands were covered in blood. Everyone in the block immediately tensed, most pulling out weapons.

"Carol," Rick said, clearly trying to stay calm. He talked to her slowly, like he was worried she would lash out on him. "What's going on?"

"It's Mika," Carol breathed out before beginning to sob. "It's Mika, Rick."

"What about her?" Rick asked, though he probably already knew the answer. Based on the looks of everyone in the cell block, Brian knew they did, too. Even though Carol's next words didn't surprise him a bit, he still felt his blood go cold once she finally said it.

"She's dead."

ONE MORE CHAPTER AFTER THIS AND THEN IT'S OVER! Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this one!

I know how this story is going to end, so for once I am actually ahead of things! Maybe that will make the last chapter better than the others because I won't be totally winging it.