"Well, that was an unmitigated, fucking disaster," Rick said to Daryl. Hershel and Sasha sat around the table in the prison library, while Tyreese leaned against a shelf, arms folded at his chest.
"Yeah, you're telling me," Daryl scoffed. "Blondie lured me outside the fence without any weapons."
Sasha looked at Daryl, "What did you expect? You had the poor thing fighting something that holds potatoes. Maybe next time we'll bring back a blow up doll so you can do more object lessons."
Daryl glared at Sasha. "At least a burlap sack can't degut what's-her-face."
"Yeah, so you destroyed her confidence. Great trade," Sasha said as she shook her head. "The fact is: you embarrassed her. And I knew after my parents embarrassed me, in front of my friends, I was sneakin' out that night."
"Aint that the truth," Tyreese said.
Sasha looked over her shoulder, towards her brother, giving him a warning glance.
"Sasha's right. I knew Bethie was expecting something a little less…. " Hershel paused, trying to find a diplomatic word. "Structured."
"What were you thinking, man?" Rick asked Daryl. "You couldn't find a dilapidated walker? There's a shit ton of them out there."
"You guys said that pen was for pigs. You think pigs can wallow around in walker blood and not get infected?"
Hershel looked at Daryl. "You know it don't work like that. It's from the bite. Hell, Glenn said him and Rick was covered in the damn stuff in Atlanta and didn't turn."
Daryl pointed to himself and said, "Well, I ain't gonna make that bet." He paused. "And I'm not going to be responsible for blondie dying on my watch." The room stood in silence. Daryl waved his hand, dismissive of the group. "I said my peace. I did what I did, and I'm done talking about it."
Rick leaned towards Daryl. "Hey man," he said. "No one's blaming no one." Sasha softly cleared her throat.
"You got something to say, Woodbury girl? Say it," Daryl yelled. Tyreese uncrossed his arms and stood up straight.
Sasha shook her head. "No! Not to you, Daryl. But, to the rest of you, this place is going up in flames like all the other places I've been in. If it's not because of the walkers on the outside, it's going to be because of th people on the inside. I've met a whole lotta nice guys, and how many of them are around today? Huh, how many?!" Sasha shook her head. "You know, Tyreese and I thought we had it good in Woodbury. And we had the wool pulled over our eyes. For you guys to have the audacity to think you can keep everyone protected here blows my mind. That girl will probably have a better chance with the walkers than with some of the people inside this place."
Hershel cleared his throat and spoke gently. "This ain't Woodbury, Sasha." He reached across the table towards Sasha. "I know you and Tyreese are good people. I can." Hershel lifted his hand and patted his chest, " … feel it. We wouldn't have let you in here if we didn't trust you." Sasha's face softened. Hershel continued, and his gaze moved to Daryl. "At the end of the day, she's just a girl. Beth's just a girl. She didn't mean to spite anybody. She obviously thinks she's got something to prove. And that wasn't Daryl's fault. It was no one's fault. She's figuring it out like all of us. And today, I think she learned a lot. God help us if we didn't learn something from today. And, and I saw Daryl and all of you guys rally around her and save her from her self."
The room stood silent. Grateful the tension was temporarily eased, Tyreese started to clap and finally said, "Yo, yo, The Master has spoken."
Rick put his hand on Daryl's shoulder. "Hey man, from me too. Thanks. Someone had to do that, and it was you."
Daryl reached for the door knob. Growing up, Daryl never did anything right. Walkers and ripped pants and all, he'd take yesterday over 90% of the ones with his piece of shit dad. He turned back towards Rick and Hershel. "It was nothing," he said.
Daryl felt the knob twist in his hand, and Maggie tumbled in. "Woah, what is going on in here? Did you guys issue out some nuclear launch codes or something?" Maggie asked.
"No, no, nothing like that," Hershel groaned as he got out of his chair and walked towards Maggie. Daryl walked out while they hugged.
Sasha exhaled. "I need some air. C'mon Tyreese." He obliged and tailed Sasha out the room.
Maggie shrugged her shoulders. "Wow, I know how to clear a room. Do I stink? I washed … 2 days ago."
"We all stink," Hershel joked.
Rick headed to the door, but Maggie stopped him. "No, no. You come back, Grimes. I need to talk to the both of you."
Rick walked back to Maggie and Hershel. They stood in a tight circle.
"Before you ask, yes, this is about Beth. And before you say no, hear me out," Maggie said to her dad. Rick's hand automatically went to his temples and rubbed his forehead.
"Did Beth learn anything about walkers today?" Maggie asked.
"A little," Rick said.
"What?" Maggie countered.
"Well. Maggie. They're nothing to mess around with."
"Okay, she already knew that. So that was a horrible answer."
Rick glimpsed at Hershel. "Is Judith going to end up like this?" he said, pointing to Maggie.
"Umm," she interrupted, raising her finger at Rick. "You can only hope."
Rick put his hands up, surrendering.
"Dad, do you want Beth defenseless against walkers for the rest of her life?"
Hershel sighed and crossed his arms. "C'mon Maggie. Don't try and trap me with twenty questions. Get to the point."
Maggie took a deep inhale. "Okay. Hear me out. Glenn and I were at this place, up a little north. And we didn't hear any walkers. Like, zero walkers. We didn't have too much time to check things out, but the one house we walked into had lots of stuff. That's where we got that medicine a few weeks ago, actually – all from that house. We just didn't have time to stay because we were losing daylight. Glenn and I, we are going back. And there's so much stuff there, we're going to need two cars. I'm talking about a huge haul here." Maggie widened her hands, pretending to hold a large bag, for effect.
"So where does Beth come in?" Rick asked.
"Beth is coming with us," Maggie immediately said.
"No, no, no," said Hershel. "I'm not letting her go with you and Glenn into a place that's never been scouted before."
"Dad, there's nothing there! It's a little subdivision. They had lawnmowers and Radio Flyers in the yards. There's no evidence it was ever disturbed. We'd be crazy not to check it out." Maggie paused, "And Rick is coming too. I don't trust any of those Woodbury people with something like this. We need Rick." Rick blinked, trying to comprehend what he just heard. Maggie continued, "I mean, Daryl might be an option. He's good with cars, and we're gonna need two of them." Maggie shook her head, pretending to hammer out all the details. "But Rick is probably better considering all that happened yesterday." Maggie exhaled loudly and smiled. The plan was to make everything sound light-hearted, planned out, and foolproof. Just an all-around fun adventure.
They didn't look convinced.
Maggie backhanded Rick's arm. "It's probably going to be hard to find walkers there, but we'll find them. And while we give Beth some real-world experience, it'll help you hammer out Walker 101. You gotta train Carl some time. And probably the other kids too. We'll turn them into walker fighting machines." Maggie laughed. But Rick looked away, and Hershel furrowed his brows.
When no one said anything, Maggie turned serious. "Guys, she already knows about it. So unless you lock her in the cell or something, we're leaving in two days. We don't need two cars. We can take the truck." Maggie turned around and started to leave the room.
"Maggie …" Hershel warned.
She turned around. "Dad, you've always babied her." Maggie then looked at Rick, "And, before she died, I promised Lori I'd take care of Judith. But it's not me. It's Beth. So you stay here, Rick. Don't let the Greene's inconvenience you."
Sometimes you gotta play hardball, Maggie thought as she slung the door open and stomped out.
Rick looked at Hershel and said, "What the hell was that?"
Hershel rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. "She's acting like it's a done deal. I don't like when they do that ganging up on me thing. That girl has her mom in her all right." He paused, and then looked at Rick. "Do you think it's a good idea? Are you game?"
Rick thought, No and no. "Yeah," he said. Rick weakly smiled, while Hershel patted him on the shoulder.
"Good," Hershel said. He walked past Rick and continued talking. "I don't want Beth running around with just Glenn and Maggie in the woods." He stopped next to Rick's shoulder, "And I don't want anything happening to Beth." Hershel lowered his voice to a whisper and joked, "Bring her back with all her appendages." He patted Rick on the shoulder and walked out of the room.