Fixing what needs fixing

Rick wanted to talk to Carol in private so he took a little walk with her outside. Carol had no idea what was going on in his mind and frankly, she didn't know if they could even fix what they had and be friends again. After all, she was still disappointed by his decision to banish her although she could understand why he would do this. She didn't hate him for what he did but she felt like maybe their relationship could never be like it was before. Carol looked at him quickly and saw how tired he looked from the last few days. Clearly, he hadn't slept really well in a very long time. Despite everything, she still respected the man he was, the leader he had been since day one. She still saw the good man in him and the loving father he was to Carl and Judith. He had his faults but at this point, who didn't really?

"Thank you." Rick started.

Carol quickly shook her head in confusion and disbelief.

"What?" she answered.

"What you did at the prison. Thank you for that. You saved us."

"How do you know it was me?"

"Michonne told me. She defended your case."

"She…she did?" Carol asked, even more confused.

Rick nodded, slightly amused by Carol's reaction as she clearly didn't expect any of that.

"She made me understand that I wasn't right to doubt your loyalty to this group. I wasn't right to send you out there on your own. You are part of this family and I owe you."

"You said I could survive and I did."

"It was a death sentence sending you out there."

"Maybe…but I'm still here."

Rick stopped walking and stood right in front of Carol.

"It was a mistake. We both know it. There was probably another way to settle this without leaving you to die out there."

"You tried to protect your kids. You did what you thought needed to be done. Making decisions these days is not an easy thing to do."

"Like I said, I owe you. You saved our lives back at the prison. Will you have us? Can we join you?"

Carol pondered his last words in her head, nodded and offered a little smile. He seemed sincere in his speech and she could see it in his eyes. He felt really bad about what he did. With a little step back, she could see that they were probably in the same place now. They both knew the cost of living. They both knew that making decisions was not easy. The longer they would survive out there, the harder it was going to be. And sometimes, whatever you choose is gonna have strong repercussions one way or the other. You are damned if you do, damned if you don't.

As they turned back to head to the cottage, a scream cut through the peaceful silence of the road. Carol had the strange feeling of reliving Maggie's attack all over again. She looked at Rick a quick second and they mentally agreed to go see what was happening. They looked around and finally entered the woods where the scream kept coming from. After a few seconds, they encountered a young female adult surrounded by a few walkers. Without hesitation, Rick pulled out his knife and killed as many as he could while Carol grabbed the girl by the arm and rushed her behind a tree. Carol then came back to help Rick finish the work. The girl seemed traumatized and confused, as she couldn't realize what was happening at that very moment. She sat down on the ground and pressed her forehead against her knees, crying.

"Are you alright?" Rick asked, crouching in front of her.

"Yeah…yeah. I'm just a little bit overwhelmed, that's all. Thank you for saving me." responded the girl.

"Do you have a group? Hard to believe you were alone all this time…" Carol added, giving her a water bottle from her bag.

"I used to have one." the girl answered, taking a sip of water.

"They are all dead?"

"Yeah…That's usually what happens, right?" the girl shrugged as she hesitated looking in Rick's eyes.

Rick nodded, stood up from the ground and asked the girl to rest a little bit. He took Carol with him for a little talk, not too far from the girl still resting against the tree.

"She is hiding something." Rick finally said.

"You think so?"

"Something seems off with her. I don't know if we should bring her back with us…"

"I think we should talk to her a bit more. There's no way to tell what she is hiding, if she is hiding anything in the first place…"

"We are in the middle of nowhere and she is alone, clearly unable to protect herself. There's no way she made it here on her own. That's what makes me think something isn't right."

"I'll talk to her. We will see soon enough." Carol finally offered.

Carol leaned against the tree where the girl was and decided to know a bit more about her.

"So…, what's your name?" Carol asked, trying to be friendly.

"Tara." the girl answered.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Carol."

The girl lifted her fist and tried to bump it into Carol's. Intrigued, Carol just went with it and played along.

"How long have you been on your own?"

"A few days. I was involved into a… war that left no survivors from my group. I took a random car and left on my own. I ended up here because I had no gas left. I've been sleeping in that car and trying to hunt ever since."

"A war…?" Carol asked, baffled.

Tara looked around her and took a quick glimpse at Rick who was keeping watch.

"Look…we both know which war I'm talking about. I was part of the group attacking the prison. I remember your friend trying to talk it out before everything went down. I don't remember you but I remember him and I don't know if he would be able to tell I was there. He already doesn't seem to trust me. But I didn't kill anyone, I promise. I ran off at the first chance. It was too much for me to handle. " Tara finally let out.

"You didn't want to be a part of this, don't you?"

"No! Of course not! That guy…he used my sister to get what he wanted from us. He convinced us that fighting for the prison was the solution because it was more secure than living anywhere else. He really tricked us. And now, there's no one left but me. I don't know who killed him but good riddance. He was an asshole."

Carol couldn't help but find this situation oddly amusing. Tara didn't know that she was involved in the war, that she killed the Governor on her own, and that it took her everything to find her family back, leading her to be standing right there to talk to her. Did she count on telling her the whole thing? Maybe, maybe not. She didn't really know yet. The priority was to figure out if Tara was trustworthy enough to bring back to the cottage. And from what she could see, she seemed like a genuinely good girl.

Leaving her out there with those things would definitely be inhumane. She still had no clue how to convince Rick to bring her back with them but she knew she had to try. Sometimes, they would have to trust people and allow them in their group, even if they used to be in an opposite camp. That's what they did with the Woodbury community and they turned out to be good people.

"Do you want to join us? You won't survive out there very long…" Carol finally asked.

Tara seemed conflicted and didn't know what to say.

"He won't let me in, that's for sure." she answered, pointing at Rick with her chin.

"I'll just tell him the truth and he will have to accept it."

"But why do you do this? You don't even know me…"

"Because I know what it's like to get left behind and trust me, that's not something I'd want to do to anyone who is just trying to survive."

"She was with them? She was in the Governor's group?" Rick asked, stunned.

"She didn't want to kill us."

"We don't know that. Listen, I almost lost my daughter in this war. If it wasn't for you, we would all be dead. If you didn't come back for us…"

"But she had nothing to do with this. She explained that the Governor pushed them to attack the prison because it was a safer place for their group. She really had no other choice. And she found a way to escape before it really went downhill. She must be telling the truth because I didn't see her at all when I was on the battlefield."

"I don't know, Carol…I don't know if she would fit well with us."

"You will just have to trust me. I know it's not easy given what we've just gone through but we have to go past this together. We can't leave her out there to die alone. You know I won't let that happen."

Rick realized that he had been wrong about his perception of her. He thought she had become too pragmatic and calculated to live in a community but it wasn't true at all. She was being pragmatic only when she needed to, when there was no other choice for survival. But she was still a good-hearted woman and she still had empathy for people. Her advocating strongly for a stranger to come back with them despite the difficult circumstances was absolutely proof of that. She really had no malice in her heart and she only wanted the best for everyone.

"Alright. We'll go with your idea." Rick finally answered.

Carol smiled, happy to have made her point come across. She went back to Tara, who had still not moved from the tree, and gave the final answer to her.

"You can join us."

"Really?! Are you sure? I don't want to cause trouble…" Tara responded.

"It's okay. We have your back now. Come on."

Tara stood up and smiled, giving her first real eye contact with Rick since the very beginning. Rick smiled in return and started making the way for them so they could leave the woods.

Tara was given a few weird looks when she arrived at the cottage with Rick and Carol but she introduced herself quickly and tried to erase the little tension in the air with playful jokes.

"Hi, I'm Tara. You got a nice mullet there." Tara said to Eugene.

"Uh…thanks. I'm Eugene." Eugene answered, flustered.

"She is part of our group now." Rick explained.

"Where did you find her?" Glenn asked.

"The woods. She got attacked by walkers not too far from here."

"Wow…she's lucky you got there right in time to save her." Glenn added. "You have no one left from your group?" he then directly asked her.

"No…they are all dead." Tara answered, looking at both Rick and Carol to make sure it was okay to go there.

"What happened?" Maggie asked.

"It's a really long story...Let's just say it ended badly." Tara concluded.

Maggie nodded, a little disappointed to have no real answer.

"Alright. It's time to plan our next move." Rick offered.

"Now, that's something I can agree with! We can't stay here forever with the number of people we have." Abraham added.

"Michonne knows of some place on the map…It could be a good start." Rick continued.

Abraham listened as Rick went on with what he had previously discussed with Michonne.

Daryl walked beside Carol and asked very quietly while everyone talked:

"Is everythin' good between you and Rick?"

"Yeah. We found some type of agreement."

"Good…uh…Can I come visit ya later in your room?" Daryl asked, clearly embarrassed.

"Of course! You don't have to be shy about it…It's not like we were trying to hide something."

Daryl nodded and gave her a quick half-smile before getting closer to Rick and Abraham for the big discussion. Meanwhile, Carol stood in the background observing the whole group. She noticed Tara talking to Beth and Carl about Judith. She could even hear her giving cute nicknames to the baby.

"She already has one." said Beth, holding Judith.

"It's Lil' Asskicker!" Carl added, proud.

Tara laughed and kept playing with the baby's little feet. Carol then looked at Glenn and Maggie cuddling on the floor, maybe talking about the future. There was also Michonne who tried to convince Eugene and Rosita that their next stop could be the sanctuary they were all looking for. She could even see Bob trying to flirt a little bit with Sasha but her not knowing how to respond. And finally, her eyes stopped on Tyreese. He was looking right at her from the other side of the living room, clearly still thinking about this whole story with Karen and David. She knew she had to discuss it with him if they wanted to move on. As if he had read her mind, Tyreese finally pointed at the kitchen with his head and Carol slowly nodded. It seemed like there was another big conversation ahead for her today.