Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.
Previously:
"He's wearing body armor…he's alive."
Michonne sardonically asks, "Do we care?"
Rick then pulls off the mask to find an unconscious Morgan, and both Ross and Rick quickly answer her question, "Yeah, we do."
"Holy fucking shit he's heavy," Ross huffs out, as they drop Morgan onto his bed. She stands up with her hands on her hips and turns around, staring at the walls. They're covered. She grazes the walls with her hands, as she reads the harsh writings of a man gone mad.
Rick hasn't gotten up yet and is inspecting Morgan's wound. "He'll be okay, right?"
"I think that depends on your definition of okay. Rick look around you. Morgan's anything but okay. He's gone completely mental," she states, still examining the walls.
"Can you—can you just come over and look at his stomach. We might want to wrap it, it looks like he might have a cracked rib."
Hearing this, Ross immediately turns and walks over to examine Morgan's abdomen. "Yeah, definitely a cracked rib. However, never compress a cracked rib, it restricts their deep breathing and could lead to pneumonia. Got that? Don't want you dying if I'm not there to fix you up. We just need to ice it…if only we had a fucking freezer. God, wouldn't that'd be nice," she rants on. And then notices Rick hasn't spoken in a while. She looks up to see him staring at her with his bright blue eyes piercing her dark ones. "Rick, what? Is there something on my face?"
"You're gonna be there," he says, looking at her with serious eyes.
"I mean of course. I just…you know, in case. It's always good to know a little first aid. Anyways, we need to give him some pain killers when he wakes up."
Michonne speaks up incredulously, "He tried to kill us."
Rick stands up and looks at her with a stern expression on his face. "He told us to go. He didn't know who we were."
"He tried to kill us, and we didn't leave him for the walkers. He's had a good day. Plus, he doesn't need half of these guns. We do."
"We're waiting for him to wake up. That's it," Rick declares with finality.
Michonne just shakes her head. "Have you taken a look around this place? The axe, the spikes, the walls."
"You think he's crazy?"
"No. I think he's dangerous."
"I know him. He wasn't like this then. We're gonna wait for him to wake up."
Ross nods in agreement. "I know he looks mentally unstable, and for all we know, he is. But I owe him, and something tells me that Rick owes him too. He's a good man, no matter what has happened to him since then. But I do agree we need to be careful. If he didn't recognize us earlier, he may not recognize us now."
They all nod except Carl who is staring at a map of the county drawn on the wall. Rick looks at him and asks, "What do you see?" Walking up to the drawing, something registers on his face. "It's our neighborhood."
Carl answers blankly, "It's gone."
After Carl convinces Rick to let him look for cribs for Judith, and Michonne eats one of Morgan's protein bars, which gets a chuckle out of Ross, Carl and Michonne take off with a worried Rick in their wake.
Ross and Rick wait patiently for Morgan to wake up in comfortable silence. They zip tie his hands in case he freaks out when he wakes up, which is likely, since they are in his home. Rick starts to inspect the guns, while Ross continues to look at the walls, feeling disturbed and sad all at once.
Without warning she hears behind her a scuffle, so she whips around, knife in hand, to find that Rick has knocked Morgan down to the ground, as he tries to reason with him. "Do you know who I am? Do you see who I am?"
Morgan just answers cryptically, "People wearing dead people's faces." And suddenly, he jumps at Rick, pushing him against the wall with his knife raised against him.
Ross jumps into action, wrapping her arm around Morgan's neck, with her knife to his throat. "Don't make me hurt you, Morgan!"
When she hesitates, Morgan head butts her, and she falls back, dazed, with her nose gushing blood. And in an instant, he has Rick on the ground about to stab him.
"Morgan, listen to me," Rick yells at him, trying to push the knife away from his chest.
"No, I don't know you!"
"You do know me! You saved my life, Morgan! You know me. Look at me!"
"You don't clear, man. You turn. You just die. I don't know anyone anymore!"
Ross, finally able to come out of her fog, rushes over to pull Morgan off him. But before she can get there, Morgan stabs Rick in the shoulder.
"Holy fuck!" Ross screams, as she pulls out her gun and puts it against Morgan's head. Rick pushes him off, holding his shoulder in agony.
Rick just shakes his head in shock. "You crazy son of a bitch!"
"One wrong move, and I'm gonna blow your fucking head open," Ross states harshly, still clutching her nose with one hand.
Morgan just backs away to the wall, staring at her with the look of a man who has nothing left. "Please. Please kill me. Just kill me."
They tie him up again, attaching him to a table. Rick looks at Ross's bloody face and crooked nose with concern, "You okay? You're nose—"
Cutting him off, Ross answers, "Yeah, I think it's broken, but I can set it if I can find a mirror. First, I need to wrap your shoulder."
"Looks like I needed you to fix me up sooner than expected," Rick says to her, chuckling.
A laugh escapes her as Ross starts wrapping it, trying only to focus on his wound. "Yeah, I think you might be more trouble than you're worth, Rick Grimes. Try not to move it. Think you can do that?"
"Probably not," Rick declares, his blue eyes sparkling.
Ross just rolls her eyes, "Okay, well I'm gonna go find a mirror and fix this bloody mess," she states, motioning in the general area of her face. "I think you guys should talk."
"We will. Watch out for booby traps," Rick tells her. She nods in understanding.
After stepping over a few trip wires, Ross is able to find a wash room with a cracked mirror. She hears Rick and Morgan talking in harsh tones and wonders for the thousandth time what happened between them. Looking at her face covered in her own blood, she braces herself for the pain that is about to ensue. Forming her hands into a triangle, she presses her fingers to her crooked nose. There is a loud crunch. "Fucking hell!" she screams in pain.
"Ross?!" Rick yells from the other room.
"Tell Morgan he's an asshole!"
"On it!"
Ross snorts, and immediately winces when pain shoots up her face. Yet again, she is in need of ice. After wiping off the blood as best she can, Ross walks into the room with Morgan and Rick.
Morgan looks up to her walking in, and he backs away slightly. "Who are you?"
"You may not remember me, but I came here a little while ago. You knocked me out, asked me some questions, and then I tried to join you. But you didn't accept, so you sent me on my way with supplies and my horse."
Morgan just looks at Ross with a blank stare. "I don't know you."
"I told you about my sister dying, and you locked my horse, Carpus, in a pharmacy with oats? Ring any bells?"
"No. I don't know you. You don't know me."
"Morgan, it's Ross. Please."
And then it dawns on Morgan, "You—you survived?"
"Well I'm not dead yet."
Morgan nods, his mouth twitching in what could be a smile, but turns to Rick with a new look of intensity.
"Hey, your boy— is he dead?" Morgan asks Rick.
He hesitates, "No."
"No? He will be. See, 'cause people like you and Ross, the good people, they always die. And the bad people do, too. But the weak people, the people like me, we have inherited the Earth," Morgan tells him, self-loathing apparent in his eyes.
After trying vehemently to convince Morgan to come back with them, they finally realize he just can't leave this burden he has put on his shoulders to compensate for the guilt he feels for losing his family. They leave King County with more guns, a cat statue, a family picture for Judith, and Carl's word that Michonne is one of them. Ross can't help but feel warmth spreading throughout her body because she was included in Carl's revelation like she was already a part of the group. And that's all she secretly wanted since she met them.
Andrea comes by the prison again and sets up a meeting for Rick and the Governor to talk terms. Rick chooses Daryl and Hershel to go with him the next morning. While they are eating dinner, Rick comes to sit by Ross, who had been keeping to herself ever since she heard the news.
"So, what do you think about all this? You haven't given your opinion…" Rick states, his eyes searching hers.
"I don't know what to think honestly. On the one hand, I want to be there with you guys and look the Governor in the eye and prove to myself and him that I'm not broken. But on the other hand, I'm glad you didn't chose me. I'm scared of what I'd do if I saw him, either break down or shoot him in his demented face. Neither do us any good. I mean, if we can make terms where I'll never see him again, that would be ideal," Ross tells Rick, trying her best to be open with him.
"I understand where you're coming from, on both ends. I'm keeping you back here for your reasoning, and because if you were there, I honestly don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from killing him on the spot for everything he's done," Rick states, his grip on the table tightening.
Ross nods in understanding. "Rick, I— just please don't trust him."
"I won't, Ross."
She lets out a sigh of relief. Getting up to go to bed, she turns around but stops and leans down towards Rick. Ross whispers in his ear, "Be careful tomorrow, Rick." And then walks away to get some much needed rest.
When she wakes up, the group has already left to meet with the Governor. Ross goes to check on Judith, only to find her sleeping peacefully upstairs near Beth and Carol's cells. Feeling the need for some fresh air to think, she walks outside on the bridge. For a long period of time, she stands there, mulling over what Rick and the Governor are talking about right now. She realizes the thing she wants most is for him to be dead. It isn't enough for her not to see him again, she'll never be far enough away. However, she recognizes that is unrealistic unless they go to war, which isn't always the right choice.
Her thoughts are abruptly interrupted by the sound of a gunshot inside the cell block. She pulls out her machete and runs inside, only to find Merle and Glenn prying themselves off each other after a tussle, and Beth holding the gun with a severe look on her face.
Merle leaves the room to blow off some steam, and Glenn storms off pushing passed Ross to go onto the bridge. Realizing she has been neglecting her friend, she runs after him.
"Glenn! Glenn! Wait up!"
He turns around and sighs in defeat, letting her catch up to him. "What is it, Ross?"
"Glenn, are you okay?"
"Just peachy."
"I know you can do better than that. Come on, it's just me. What's wrong?"
"Merle is living with us, Maggie won't speak to me, you've been hurt, and I haven't plucked up the courage to even support you, and I'm just so angry all the time. It's like I'm going to be consumed by it. There's this fire full of rage inside me, and it's all I can feel nowadays. And Maggie—Maggie is perfect, and I can't even talk to her right now because I'm afraid what I say will be wrong. I'm sorry, I'm not even making sense."
"First of all, Merle just thinks everything he does is right, no matter the consequences. All he cares about is Daryl, and sometimes that agenda lines up with this group, but other times our group is caught in the crossfire. Plus, he loves to get under your skin, and you're so stressed, it's easier to let it get to you. Second, I know I have your support. I know you care. But even talking to me about nothing important makes me feel better. You're one of my best friends here, so anything you have to say, right or wrong, I want to hear it. Lastly, Maggie loves you. Just being honest and telling her how you're feeling right now will be enough for her."
Glenn just smiles at her. "Who knew you could be such a sap," he chuckles. "Besides Maggie, you're one of my best friends too, so you'll be giving me advice for a while longer. Good luck with that, by the way. And you're right about Maggie. It's amazing I couldn't figure it out on my own…anyways thanks, I owe you one."
With another bright smile, he runs off. Ross returns to her spot on the bridge with her smile slowly receding, as she realizes the only thing she can do right now is wait for Rick, Daryl, and Hershel to come back with the verdict.
As the day slowly turns into night, Rick, Daryl, and Hershel arrive at the prison unscathed. Rick gathers the group together to discuss what happened.
With a critical look in his eyes, Rick speaks. "So, I met this Governor. Sat with him for quite a while."
Merle speaks up. "Just the two of you?"
"Yeah."
"Should have gone when we had the chance, bro."
Rick then looks to each member of the group, as he speaks with severity, "He wants the prison. He wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury." Pausing, he asserts, "We're going to war."
Thank you guys for all the support from both new and old readers! Reviews really do keep me going, so thank you for that! Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed it (: