Overdue recruiters, outside forces and interior secrets complicate the lives of the residents of the ASZ.


"Not everything that is faced can be changed..."

"Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced." —James Baldwin


"How long do we wait?" Glenn asked.

"Standard protocol for recruiters is three days after they were due back." Eric replied. "Sometimes you run into things—a herd—have to hold up until they pass..." he shrugged. "Sometimes negotiations with potentials take a bit longer than you want..."

They both had been out there on runs that had gone fubar in the past, runs where hostile humans could be as deadly as any herd; whether walkers rained down out of the sky or your own people panicked and fled, mayhem and death were the same result.

"You worried?" Glenn asked, but his eyes went to Carol, who stood near the gate to the outside with Michonne, as she had done the last three dusks since; just as Eric had, waiting to greet the men who had been due back two days ago.

Carol was back to wearing her boots, cargo pants and Henley shirts, looking like the capable woman who'd run the prison, but had taken to wearing one of Daryl's oversize long-sleeved flannels, ostensibly as an extra layer against the early November chill, but it was the one he'd worn the day before he'd left and his smell, that mix of motor oil, pine smoke, and just Daryl clung to it. Michonne, who never seemed to get cold, was in her crisp constable's uniform, her katana slung over her shoulder.

"They know how to handle themselves out there." Eric said, a note of assurance in his voice that Glenn knew was forced.

The recruiters weren't supposed to have gone out so far that neither the walkies nor the CB in the car could be raised. If the tech was out on both or they had been forced beyond their search grid, finding them would be that much more difficult.

The fact that Aaron and Daryl could be dead or worse was left unsaid.

"I'd send Michonne and Morgan," Glenn said, pushing his long bangs back off of his forehead. In charge of setting up supply runs, it was his job to know the strengths and weaknesses of everyone in the Zone and he worked closely with the rest of the Council on knowing them and staying updated on the needs of the community.

"You sure?" Eric asked, knowing their choices were limited. Everyone was working round the clock to shore up their defenses, prepare new living spaces; including extending the wall and securing enough provisions for the winter that was almost upon them.

"Best trackers other than Daryl we have." Glenn replied. "Both handy with quiet weapons; Michonne scouted with Daryl before and Morgan with Aaron—they know their patterns, ways of getting things done."

Deanna and Rick arrived, stopping first to greet Carol and Michonne, the ASZ leader much more cordial with the other women than Rick was. The constable was still working on repairing his friendship with Carol after accusing her in the Wolves' deaths and things between he and Michonne had been just off for the last week as the two women spent more time together than usual.

"Anything?" Rick asked as he and Deanna came closer and stopped in front of Glenn and Eric. Glenn shook his head no and Deanna sighed.

"Tomorrow then." Deanna said. "I was thinking...Michonne..."

Rick stiffened visibly and his eyes flashed to the woman in question and then quickly back to Deanna.

"If Rick can spare our other constable for a few days?" Deanna continued, making it a question when he saw Rick's hesitation.

"No one should go out there alone." Rick protested, frowning.

"I agree—what do you say, Glenn? You're good out there." Deanna asked the strategist.

"I'll go if you want, but Morgan's a better tracker." Glenn said, calmly shaking his head. "That's what you'll need."

Rick bristled. It was clear that the thought of Morgan accompanying Michonne didn't sit well with him, but he couldn't argue Glenn's logic. He finally nodded his head in agreement.

"Good." Deanna said, giving a small satisfied smile.

"We got movement." the walkie on Glenn's belt buzzed to life with Sasha's quiet voice.

"Walkers?" Glenn radioed back.

"No—Aaron's car." Sasha replied and Eric's face broke into a hopeful smile, moving towards the gate.

"What about Daryl's bike?" Carol said, as she and Michonne quickly came to stand beside Glenn.

"Sasha did you copy that? No bike?" Glenn asked.

"No—just the car." Sasha said, her voice laced with concern.

"That could explain their delay—if the bike was out of commission or Daryl had an accident—" Eric said but at the stricken expression on Carol's face, which she quickly masked, he looked apologetic. "I'll get the gate..." and then he started to move even closer towards the entrance.

"No—wait." Carol said suddenly and they all paused and looked at her. "Did they signal?" she asked Glenn.

"Sasha—did they give the signal?" Glenn asked into the walkie.

Returns from patrols and runs were vulnerable times. The wall protected them only in so far as it stayed locked down tight. Opening the gate for the wrong person could be disastrous. A series of long and short flicks of headlights or a flashlight were the coded entry signal, changed weekly, memorized by anyone going outside the walls. Without visual conformation of identity, seeing that signal or one of the distress signs instead, the gate stayed closed.

"Negative, no signal given." Sasha replied tersely.

"Fuck." Glenn said softly in frustration.

"Rick." Deanna said, and he pulled his Colt out of his holster in response and started for the stairs to the observation deck, the ramparts that had been built on either side of the wall gate after the Wolves' attack. He was followed by Glenn, Michonne, Deanna, Carol and Eric after they all armed themselves with the rifles in the lock box at the gate.

"Attention-general alert—this is not a drill, everyone to their stations. Possible intruders at main gates." Glenn talked as he walked, sending out the all points bulletin which meant kids and other vulnerable people should immediately head to the basement safe houses and all others to arms.

"Get out of the car!" Rick yelled down at the driver, training his weapon on the car and the driver's side doors slowly opened. A woman and three burly men got out, the men all brandishing heavy duty automatic weapons; all with a "W" carved into their foreheads.

"I'd like to speak to the bitch that runs this place, if that's still Deanna Monroe, if not, whichever other bitch is in charge now." the woman yelled back. She was tall, thin with raven hair streaked with white at her temples. Dressed in punk-Goth black clothing, including body armor, her forehead scar was more elaborate than the others, two additional lines as serifs at the top of each diagonal line forming the 'W'.

"And you are?" Deanna asked, imperious and cold, sighting her through the scope of the wood stocked Remington she used to hunt ducks with in another life.

"Exactly who you think I am." the Goth woman said matter-of-factly, leaning languidly back on the car's fender and smiling. "My name is Circe, Lupus Regina."

"What do you want?" Deanna asked.

"Well, not my mate, since you fucking killed him." Circe said, "I came to make a trade."

"A trade?" Rick interjected angrily, but Michonne bumped her hip into his and hissed his name.

"Now now, that'll do, pig." the she-Wolf said admonishingly to Rick, sounding amused, then she focused on Deanna."You have some lost lambs we happened to run across."

"How do we know you even have them?" Deanna asked.

"Got their car." Circe shrugged over at the rusty red sedan and then looked sly. "Oh—and how could I forget?" she giggled and made a show of slapping her forehead.

At her hand signal the Wolf standing guard next to the left front of the car turned to reach into its interior. He was wearing Daryl's vest and pulled out Daryl's bow. With a self-satisfied pout the woman pulled Daryl's sunglasses out of her jacket pocket and slipped them on.

Eric was standing behind Carol. His hand on her back was the only thing that kept her from firing her rifle, which was trained on Circe's head.

"Have to give him props; he used every bolt in his quiver and then started swinging the thing like a club." the Wolf woman said, pushing the glasses up over her forehead until they held her hair back like a headband. "Took out at least a dozen geeks and three of my men all by himself, but once we snared the other one and started to have a little fun with him, the Archer came flying in for a rescue."

Deanna looked over to Carol and Eric, gauging their reactions, striving to show them by example they need to stay in control. She was relieved to see they were; and were far less agitated looking than her chief constable.

"Give us the ones responsible for the murders of the Lupus Dei and members of our pack and you get your sheep back alive... mostly..." Circe said with a sardonic chuckle.

"If they've been harmed..." Rick said threateningly, but the Wolf woman broke into a raucous cackle at that.

"Of course they've been harmed—they are prey that fought back—they are not yet dead and walking. Nothing our missing medic can't take care of if we get her to them... soon. She'll be coming with us now." she added in a 'by the way' tone.

"Doctor Yang isn't part of this discussion." Deanna said coldly.

"So which one of them do you think has the worst wounds?" the new leader of the Wolves mused. "The inked up Archer with the delicious scars or the pretty one with the lamb soft curls and bedroom eyes?"

Carol swayed. She bit down hard on her lower lip to make the dizziness stop, forcing focus on what was being said, try to come up with a way to take the Wolves down without any harm coming to their people.

Eric's hand twisted and tightened in the soft flannel on the back of Carol's shirt.

"Wait too long and they might both die." Circe shrugged. She looked behind her briefly, indicating she knew that Sasha was in the church bell tower. "Kill us and they definitely will."

"I have to discuss this with my people." Deanna said.

"I'll give you fifteen minutes to get Yang and the fucker who killed my people out here." Circe countered, "If they're not, we're gone and so is your chance of getting anyof your people back."

"The man who killed them—Nicholas—he's dead." Deanna lied flatly. "He acted without authority and was caught in the fire that destroyed their jail. The fire he set to take them out."

"You're lying." the Wolf leader spit out. "And now you have fourteen minutes."

The group quickly climbed down from the ramparts, leaving Sasha to guard the Wolves.

"Deanna, please." Eric hissed, looking over at her. "Send for Erin."

"You can't send her back to those people." Michonne argued, quietly incredulous. "You know what they'll do to her!"

"What they're doing to Aaron and Daryl right now!" Eric said harshly, looking to Carol for back up, but she stared at the ground, deep in thought.

"He's right—we can't just abandon them." Rick said, his voice low and harsh.

"Since Nicholas is dead, who do you suggest we give them in exchange?" Deanna asked pointedly.

The thought of turning over the three teens was something none of them wanted to consider.

"Me." Carol said, handing her gun to Rick. "If I go I can take Erin's place too—they need a medic—and I can make sure Daryl and Aaron are alright."

"Carol! No!" Michonne said, shocked. "You can't!"

"Michonne don't." Carol said in warning.

"We're not letting you sacrifice yourself—you know Daryl would never want you to do this." Eric said, agreeing with Michonne.

"It's not his decision." Carol shook her head at him. "It's mine." she looked to Glenn whose gentle face was racked with pain, showing how much he wanted to deny what she was proposing as well, but understanding her reasoning.

"Glenn, run to the Infirmary and grab one of the big triage backpacks for me—make sure it has a suture kit—I don't know what I'll be dealing with." Carol ordered.

"Carol—you're not doing this!" Michonne said again, this time even more forcefully, grabbing a hold of her right upper arm.

"Glenn—move—we don't have much time!" Carol said urgently, trying to pull her arm out of Michonne's strong grip.

Glenn looked back and forth between Carol, Rick, Michonne and Deanna, unsure of what he should do.

"Glenn, go. Bring the pack and Erin." Deanna finally ordered.

"No!" Carol exclaimed. "Felicia is due any day, the baby's breech and she'll probably need a caesarian—we can't give them our only doctor!"

"I'll give her the courtesy of letting her make that decision for herself." Deanna shot back, echoing Carol's words back at her. "Go—now." Deanna repeated her order to Glenn and he took off at a run.

"Carol, I know you'd do anything for us..." Michonne began, but the words were too similar to what Rick had said to her back at the prison, making Carol's temper flare.

"I'm the only logical choice." Carol interrupted adamantly. "You know I can handle myself—the Wolves will underestimate me. I can get them out of there."

"You can't be serious!" Rick said. "This isn't Terminus, Carol—there's no element of surprise."

"And so we give them Carl? Enid? Ron?" Carol asked. "I don't see a better alternative."

Michonne was shaking her head vehemently.

"I'm sorry, Carol." the swordswoman said, and for a moment no one knew what she was apologizing for. She placed her free hand over Carol's abdomen, pushing against the flannel to show the visible rounded curve. "But it's not just your life that you'll be risking."

The look of betrayal that froze Carol's face was painful. She fought Michonne's grip on her arm again and this time the other woman released her hold.

"Carol?" Deanna asked softly, her eyebrows raised in uncertainty.

"You're pregnant?" Rick whispered and then found himself grinning, imagining how Daryl would greet the news, and then his face dissolved into bleakness at the very real possibility that for one reason or another, his friend would never see this child.

"It doesn't matter." Carol said in flat anger.

"Are you alright?" Eric asked her. "You've seen Erin?"

Carol unwillingly looked at Michonne, who had gone with her first to see Yang to confirm what she already knew from the home test she'd taken and then to Claire to talk over her choices. In the end despite all of the reasons not to go through with it, she found herself unable to let go of something that was a part of both Daryl and her, something that their love had created despite all the odds against it.

That it would change the way she could live her life, limit the risks she could take, was something she hadn't wanted to acknowledge so soon.

"I'm fine." Carol said. "It's still early."

"How far along?" Deanna asked, but Carol just shook her head and turned away, crossing her arms across her chest; done talking about it.

Before Michonne could answer, Glenn returned with Erin in tow. The doctor was wearing the back pack with the Red Cross, same as the day she'd arrived.

"About eight weeks." Erin answered, half out of breath, and then spilled the rest. "The baby is small but seems okay—Carol's anemic and underweight though...she needs to stop working ten hour shifts and stay off her feet. Under no circumstances should she be swaning off on some half-assed rescue mission!"

Glenn had filled her in on Carol's plan on the way and Yang had given it a rousing vote of "Hell no!"

The young Korean, who had known Daryl and Carol from the start, and who loved them both dearly, tentatively walked up to Carol and gently put a hand on her shoulder. They slowly melted together into a comforting hug.

"Time's up, queen bitch!" the loud cat call came from the other side of the gate.

"What's the plan, Deanna?" Rick asked, and all of their attention focused on their leader.

"We get them back." Deanna said with matter of fact forcefulness. She handed her rifle to Rick and without further discussion, started back up the steps to the ramparts. the rest of the group had no choice but to follow.

"You have our medic?" Circe asked.

Yang stepped into view and Circe smiled smugly.

"As I said before, she is not part of these negotiations." Deanna said. "Dr. Yang is a member of this community now and has all of the protections and rights that entails. As a mission of mercy, however, she has agreed to go with you to see to our people's wounds and accompany them back here. If you have any others who need medical care she will be willing to treat them as well before her return."

Circe stared up at the ASZ leader calculatingly; her head cocked to one side, trying to decide how to proceed. Her suppressed anger was clear from the bright spots of color on her cheeks, but Yang's defection was not the main issue. The risks they had taken in capturing Daryl and Eric, the men she had lost in the process, were all in the cause of revenge for the deaths these sheep had cost her pack.

"If we agree, you'll give us the killer?" the Lupus Regina asked. "Free and clear to carry out the sentence we deem fit?"

"I'm the leader of this community." Deanna said with great dignity. "Whatever happens within its wall is ultimately my responsibility. I sent Davidson away. What happened afterwards is on me."

Everyone stared at her with varying degrees of shock—what was she saying?

"You admit you ordered their deaths, then?" Circe sneered.

"No. I did not." Deanna said as if she was lecturing to a very slow child or stubborn member of the other party on the Senate floor. "The Council was still debating what to do with them. We'd used non-lethal measures to capture them. We wanted to come to a peaceful solution. Nicholas acted out of fear, not reason, as the weak often do."

Circe looked at first confused and then even angrier as she understood the implication.

"I didn't come here for a fucking philosophy lecture!" The Wolf woman screamed pulling a 9mm pistol out of the holster at her hip and pointing it at Deanna. "I have the power here! I have the strength! Not you!"

Everyone on the wall immediately trained their weapons on to Circe while her minions covered the tower and the wall.

"That would be much too quick an end to me, wouldn't it?" Deanna asked evenly. "Animals like you and Davidson like to take their revenge slowly."

"You got a pair on you, bitch." Circe's eyes narrowed in respect and then she smiled, lowering her gun. "Say your goodbyes, then."

"Deanna..." Rick said, shaking his head in denial.

"I'll go get Spencer." Glenn offered, knowing she would want to say goodbye to her remaining son.

"There's no time. Just tell him I have Reg's heart," Deanna said quietly, holding onto the heart shaped pendant she wore, her dark eyes warm and intense. "I'll be fine. This is the only choice I can make."

It was either this or the lives of three children or some other innocent. She was the leader; she accepted the blame, she was the shepherd willing to lay down her life for the sheep.

Next she reached for Carol's hand and smiled at her as she clasped it tightly.

"Does he know?" Deanna asked.

Through her tears Carol shook her head no.

"I'll only tell him if I think it will help." Deanna assured her. She meant if she thought Daryl was giving up hope or acted ready to sacrifice himself.

"We'll get you all back." Eric said fiercely and Deanna took Eric's hand as well. After a bracing grip she released them both and her right hand went to her pendant again. She looked hard at Michonne and Rick.

"Tell Spencer." she said again forcefully and with a nod at Erin, the women started down the stairs to the gate.


Note: "Lupus Regina" means Wolf Queen.

Bittersweet-a little Daryl & Aaron angst, a little Caryl baby fic...

Thanks for reading!