A/N: I apologize for the long wait. I had a lot of stuff going on, including the death of a friend, and I didn't get many chances to sit down and write. I finally finished though, so here's the new chapter! It's kind of a filler chapter, but I wanted to give you guys something since it's been so long. Also, unedited, so I apologize for any errors.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than Thea Ellis and her storyline. All rights to The Walking Dead remain with Robert Kirkman and Co.


Patty was roaring down the highway. It wasn't the subtlest vehicle, especially if they were trying to avoid further interactions with the group of people who had shot at them, but as the adrenaline of the day began to wear off it didn't trouble Thea any.

She was squished on the middle of the bench seat between Daryl and Sasha, the former driving them home. As she began to feel exhaustion, her injuries were making themselves known. Her broken finger was aching terribly and she couldn't stop the way it had her whole hand shaking in her lap. On her left forearm and up to her elbow she could feel the dried blood sticking to both the shredded sleeve of her shirt and her torn skin. She'd have to have Denise properly patch her up when they got back to Alexandria.

Daryl reached forward and grabbed the radio off the dashboard, bringing it to his lips to speak into it. "Rick, you copy?" When only static replied, he called out again. "Anybody?"

There came a hissing noise followed by a garbled voice on the other end. Whatever was said wasn't comprehensible.

"Say it again?" Daryl asked.

The static continued for several long seconds before a faint word broke through: "Help?"

Thea frowned at the radio in Daryl's hand as he tried to get more information out of whoever had called for aid. Who could it be that needed help? Was it Rick, who had been dealing with gunfire the last they had heard from him? Or maybe one of the other members of the group who had been scattered around trying to keep the monstrous herd at bay?

"Could be someone back home." Sasha spoke up, adding in another scenario to the growing inventory in the doctor's head.

If someone at home was calling for help, that meant that her sister and nephew could be in danger. The thought did little to ease the headache that had formed from when Dwight had knocked her over the head.

Not getting a response, Daryl put the radio back on the dash with a heavy sigh. He too seemed troubled by the mystery surrounding the person on the other side of the walkie.

"Someone back home's calling for help, then we need to hightail it back there before further shit hits the fan." Abraham voiced what they were all thinking.

Daryl merely grunted in response and pressed his foot down further on the gas pedal until the car accelerated to well over seventy miles per hour.

They drove closer and closer to home and Thea closed her eyes for a moment, leaning her head back against the back of the truck cabin. Was it really too much to ask for an uneventful day?

"Daryl." Sasha's voice came as a warning.

"Yeah, I see." Daryl responded.

Thea opened her eyes to find out what they were talking about and felt her heart skip a beat. On the road up ahead, there were at least a dozen men on motorcycles. They were stopped, blocking the road and preventing anyone from driving past them. It looked like they had been waiting for them.

"What in the holy hell?" Abraham muttered.

Not really having much of a choice, Daryl brought Patty to a stop and put her in park a few feet away from the men.

"Why don't you come on out, join us on the road?" the man at the head of the pack of bikers yelled over the truck's engine at them.

None of them moved a muscle.

"You know, if you wanna resist, try something. I mean, it's a choice, I guess. But we will end your asses, split you right in two, straight through to the sinuses. So, come on."

Thea wanted to tell Daryl to just plow through them. The truck they were in was more than capable of getting through the crowd of bikes, she was sure of it. However, these were human beings. Could she live with herself if they killed them without provocation? Threats were incitement, but were they enough to warrant murder? Even if these could be the men that had shot at them the day before?

Daryl made the decision before she could speak, though. He cut the engine and he and Abraham opened their doors. Reluctantly, Thea followed Daryl out of the truck and stood beside him on the road. Her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to figure out what they wanted.

"Yeah, that's great." The man continued to speak. "It's going well right out of the gate. Now, step two—hand over your weapons."

Thea stiffened in fear. This wasn't going to end well for them, she could feel it.

Daryl wasn't keen to give up so easily either. "Why should we?" He asked.

"Well, they're not yours."

Abraham and Thea spoke at the same time. "What?" they both questioned.

The biker gave a shrug, as if the answer was so obvious. "See…your weapons, your truck, the fuel in your truck, if you got mints in your glove compartment, if you got porn underneath the seats, change in the seats, hell, the seats themselves, the floor mats, your maps, the little stash of emergency napkins you got there in the console, none of those things are yours anymore."

That was an incredibly long list of things, and really all he could have said was 'everything' and called it square, but clearly this was a man who liked to drag things out for the hell of it.

On the other side of the truck, Sasha took a step forward. "Whose are they?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, a challenge.

The man stepped forward also. "Your property…" He paused, seemingly for the dramatic effect. "…now belongs to Negan."

Thea's brow furrowed. Who the hell was Negan and why did the name seem so familiar to her? It was an unusual name, even if it was a last name. It was the kind of name that one would remember hearing, and yet she couldn't quite place whether or not the déjà vu she was feeling was real.

The man continued speaking despite the foursome's confusion. "And if you can get your hands on a tanker, you're people our people want to know."

He began walking towards them, veering in Thea and Daryl's direction in particular and the doctor slid back on her heel as if to back away. She only moved a few inches though, forcing herself to hold her ground; she couldn't show how uncomfortable she was.

"So, let's get those side-arms, shall we?" he came to a stop in front of the pair on the left of the truck and held his hand out. "Right now."

Again, Thea shifted uncomfortably. She didn't have a gun on her, but would he actually believe that or would things get out of hand? Daryl was glaring at the stranger, but he reached around his back and pulled his gun from his waistband, placing it in the outstretched hand.

"Thank you." As the man's eyes turned to Thea, she gulped.

"I don't have one." She stated honestly.

He cocked his head at her, an eyebrow raised in amusement. "Do you think I'm dumb, sweetheart?"

Yes, she did think he was dumb, but she wasn't going to say that to his face. He was currently holding Daryl's gun and the other men on the motorcycles were armed as well. Telling him that he was stupid to hold them up wasn't something that would go well.

Though the offer made her skin crawl, she sighed. "Want to frisk me? I don't have a gun."

Please, please, please just take my word for it. She begged in her head.

He didn't move, but his eyes did rake over her body slowly as if he had x-ray vision that allowed him to see any weapons hidden on her person. Evidently, his scan proved satisfactory and without a word he stepped away to go to the other side of the truck for Sasha and Abraham's firearms.

Sasha didn't put up a fuss, pulling the gun out and passing it to him before he had even stopped walking. He thanked her, as he had thanked Daryl, and stopped in front of the large ginger man, who refused to make eye contact.

Abraham was staring over the man's head, determined not to comply with his demands so easily. Dressed in the dress blues he had donned at the office building Thea and Daryl had found him and Sasha in, he looked every bit the soldier he once was.

"If you have to eat shit, best not to nibble." The man spoke up. "Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. It goes quicker."

Just hand it over. Thea's inner voice pleaded.

As if she had projected her thoughts telepathically, Abraham slowly removed his gun from its holster on his hip and pressed it into the waiting hand, earning a mouthed thank you. Thea was grateful that portion of their interaction with this group went somewhat smoothly, but she knew that this was far from over.

The man returned to his group, passing their guns off to some of the others.

"Who are you people?" Sasha demanded to know.

He faced them again. "I get the curiosity, but we have questions ourselves. And we'll be the ones asking them while we drive you back to wherever it is you call home. Take a gander at where you hang your hats." He held up a finger as if to tell them to hold on. "First, though, your shit. What have you got for us?"

Daryl spoke up for the first time since they had exited the truck. "Yeah, you just took it."

That earned an eyeroll. "Come on. I mean, can we not, okay? There's more. There is always more." He sighed and motioned for one of his men, wearing a baseball cap, to get up. "T…take my man to the back of the truck, start inside the back bumper, work your way to the front."

As he sat back on his motorcycle, 'T' came around and shoved Daryl in the direction of the backside of the truck. Thea wanted to follow, but feared that sudden movement may spark an unwanted reaction from one of their new friends.

"Bite, chew, swallow, repeat."

Thea rolled her eyes and glanced to the back of the truck to see what was going on, but Daryl and T were out of sight.

Abraham finally asked the question on everyone's minds. "Who's Negan?"

Instead of answering, the leader raised the gun in his left hand and pointed it at Abraham, responding in a sing-song voice. "Ding, don't. Hell's bells!"

Thea's heart leapt into her throat out of both fear and frustration. This wasn't the first time she'd had a gun pointed at herself or her companion in the last twenty-four hours, but it still scared the shit out of her.

"You see, usually we introduce ourselves by just popping one of you right off the bat. But you seem like reasonable people. I mean, you're sporting dress blues, for Christ's sake. And, like I said, we're gonna drive you back to where you were. I mean, do you know how awkward it is carpooling with someone whose friend or friends you've just killed? Oof." He made a face that was the visual equivalent of 'oy vey'. "But I told you not to ask any question. And then what does this ginger do? So that's that. I don't want you to get the wrong impression of me."

He pulled the hammer back on the gun, but before he could fire Sasha reacted instinctively.

"Wait!" she exclaimed, fear in her eyes. She paused to catch her breath. "Wait. You don't have to do this."

Rather than appealing to some good side of him, it fueled his irritation. He raised another gun in his right hand and aimed at Sasha.

"Shut up." Abe warned Sasha, trying to save her from a horrible fate.

Sasha narrowed her eyes at him. "I am talking to the man."

Said man shook his head. "No, you're not."

He lifted both guns in line with his targets' heads as if he were about to fire. Thea felt herself tremble in terror. At the last second, he let out a sigh before dropping his arms to his lap. He waved one gun-filled hand nonchalantly. "I'm not gonna kill you."

Sasha's sigh of relief seemed to come too soon.

"Wait, wait. You know what? Yes, I am."

The guns came up again, but before they had even made it past the handlebars of his motorcycle, the group of men suddenly exploded in flames. The force of the blast propelled Thea and the other two backwards. Thea nearly hit the open driver's door of the tanker as she was sent flying, instead landing in a heap on the pavement. Her back hit the ground so hard that it knocked the air out of her lungs for a full minute.

Her ears were ringing and she was staring up at the blue sky above her as she began to cough as the oxygen reentered her body and burned her throat. Smoke filled the air making it harder to breathe and she shifted onto her side to peer over at the spot where the biker gang had been. All that was left was burning metal and scraps of bodies.

How?

Sound finally travelled back into her ear drums and it was enough for her to hear panting to her left. When she turned, she found Daryl standing there holding the rocket launcher Abraham had found. One of the ends was smoking, but she didn't need that to know he had blown up the group.

"Holy shit." Thea managed to croak out before struggling to her feet.

Sasha and Abraham appeared just as dazed as she felt as they came around to the left side of the truck.

"Son of a bitch was tougher than he looked." Daryl responded to their questioning glances.

Thea turned and spotted T lying dead by the back end of the tanker.

Sasha's voice drew her attention back to the other three survivors. "Did he cut you?" she was asking Daryl.

"A little." The archer shrugged nonchalantly.

Thea and Sasha were both quick to move to check his wound. It was a large slice across his shoulder blade, right on top of one of the white wings of his vest, and would require stitches when they made it back to Alexandria, but it wasn't bleeding too badly. Sasha pressed a red oil rag to it.

"What a bunch of assholes." Daryl commented, and Thea couldn't help but chuckle in agreement.

"Let's get you fixed up at home." Sasha responded.

The archer nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

They climbed back into the truck, and though their brief encounter with the biker gang left her feeling unsettled, Thea was relieved to know that they had escaped without any serious injuries or repercussions.

She was still left with the strange feeling that she knew this Negan, but after the long day she'd had, Thea only made it another thirty minutes down the road before she fell asleep with her head leaning back against the back of the truck cabin.


Night fell before they made it back to Alexandria.

Thea was awoken by the sudden jarring of the truck. She jumped, startled, only to find that Daryl had hit a pothole. Her reaction earned chuckles from Abraham and Sasha, and she could have sworn she'd seen a smirk on the archer's face.

"Morning, sunshine." Abraham called loudly through the small cabin.

Thea sat up straighter and lifted a hand to brush her hair out of her face. "How long was I out?"

Sasha shrugged. "About two hours, but you don't snore so we figured we'd let you sleep."

"Pretty sure you drooled all over Daryl, though." Abraham added.

Her eyes widened and she slowly turned her head. Daryl was focused on the road, but she didn't need him to verbally confirm what the other man had said when she could feel dry saliva on the side of her face. Her face heated with embarrassment as she wiped at her cheek.

"Sorry." She managed to croak out despite the way her throat constricted in humiliation.

The archer glanced her way, but before he could so much as grunt in her general direction Abraham spoke up once again.

"Motherdick." He grumbled.

They had turned onto the road that led directly to Alexandria and could see the community up ahead. The front gates were closed, but where the tower had once been just outside the wall was open air. The structure had collapsed onto the wall and knocked it down. There were a few walkers slipping through the opening, but based on the sounds coming from inside the community through the open windows of the truck, there were a hell of a lot more roaming the streets of Alexandria.

As they drew closer, they could see Maggie and Enid on the watch post attached to the wall by the front gate. Both were facing the opposite direction, shouting hysterically at something on the ground below them.

"We gotta get the guns out of the back." Sasha decided, nudging Abraham to open the door.

Daryl brought the truck to a stop and the two on the passenger's side hopped out. They ran to the back end and returned moments later with assault rifles in hand. Sasha passed a rifle to Thea before she followed Abraham up onto the roof. Daryl pulled the truck right up to the gate and they could hear the two above them firing at the walkers inside the walls.

"Can you get the gate?" Abe shouted between firing. "Appreciate it, pal!" He started laughing in enjoyment as he continued to shoot.

The gate slowly pulled open and a bloody, frazzled looking Glenn came into view. Daryl pulled up a little bit so that Maggie and Enid could jump onto the truck from the watch post, and Glenn came around to hop into the truck with them.

"What the hell happened?" Daryl asked as the man shut the door.

Glenn was out of breath as he responded. "I don't know. I just got back."

Blood coated his face and hands, dirt covering the spots that weren't red. He looked like he had been through hell and back, and based on the look in his eyes he felt that way too.

"Listen," he said. "We can—we can lead some of them away, but they're scattered."

Thea shook her head. There was no way she was driving away from Alexandria again, not with the chaos that was loose. She needed to find her sister and make sure she was alright. Even if she had to jump out of the truck and fight the walkers hand-to-hand.

"Nah, we get 'em all together. Won't have to lead 'em away." Daryl disagreed.

He pounded a fist against the roof and a moment later Abraham crawled down. Daryl got out of the driver's seat to talk to him and though they couldn't hear what was being said inside the truck, it looked like they were going over a plan.

"What happened to you?" Glenn's voice asked, drawing her attention back to the man sitting beside her. When she turned, he was looking down at her broken finger and the shredded skin on her arm.

Thea sighed, the thought of Dwight, Sherry, and Tina making her blood boil just a little. "It's a long story." She replied simply.

The driver's door opened again, but this time it was Abraham climbing behind the wheel. Maggie, Sasha, and Enid were on the other side and they all squished into the small cab as Daryl crawled onto the top of the truck.

Abraham drove the truck through the streets of Alexandria until they reached the pond in the center of the group of houses. He backed up to it and jumped out. They could hear the valve of the tank opening and the gasoline draining and Thea leaned across to look in the side mirror.

He was dumping the tank into the pond, and with Daryl standing above them with the rocket launcher, she could guess what the plan was. They would set the pond on fire and it would draw the walkers in. Any of the dead that didn't get charred to a crisp in the flames would be picked off by the survivors.

Abe came back to pull the truck forward and Daryl beat on the roof above them.

"All right, that's it!" He shouted down to them.

When the truck stopped, they could hear his footfalls on the top of the tank before the pond exploded in flames similarly to how the biker gang had. The herd was drawn to the fire, walking straight into the flaming water like sailors drawn in by a siren's call.

The group hopped out of the truck and began to kill any of the walkers that were lagging behind. They were joined by Rick, Michonne, and the others from Alexandria. Each of them used whatever weapon they had on hand. Thea fired the rifle until it was empty and then resorted to using her knife.

The process was long and tiring, but they were going to win this thing. She just hoped they hadn't lost too many people in the process.


All the walkers were dead. A couple of the Alexandrian's offered to walk the community streets and put down any that were merely wounded, as the others took a much-needed rest.

The muscles in Thea's arms were screaming from the exertion, but it was the kind of exhaustion that came from hard work.

Stepping over a particularly gross walker on the ground, she made her way towards where Aaron was standing with Eric. "Hey, do you guys know where Cat and Hank are?" she asked, slipping her knife back into its sheath.

The two men exchanged glances that had the doctor narrowing her eyes in worry.

"Hank is safe. He's upstairs," Aaron indicated the house that was used as the clinic. "But…there's something we have to tell you."

Her stomach dropped. She took a step back as if it would help her, her mouth dropping open. "W-What is it?" She asked. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage. She knew something was wrong.

Aaron reached a hand out to her but didn't touch her. "Before the walkers came, a group attacked us. Cat was at her house with Hank. One of them got in…"

She shook her head, her eyes welling up. She wished he would just say it already, say that her sister was dead and get it over with.

"She fought him off, but…but she got stabbed." Aaron finished.

Thea gasped, hand flying to cover her mouth. Her tears spilled down her face. "I-Is she dead?" Her voice was too weak to say it louder than a whisper, her throat felt like it was closing up.

She'd just gotten her sister back and now she was going to lose her again.

Aaron was quick to shake his head, stepping forward to reach out to her as if he realized how the way he had said it made it sound. "No, no. But she's not looking good. Denise did what she could."

Thea backed up several feet before her back hit something solid. She glanced behind her and saw that it was Daryl, but didn't bother to apologize before she broke into a sprint towards the clinic.

She burst through the front door, earning a startled yelp from Denise. The doctor was wiping blood off a table and she dropped the rag upon seeing Thea.

"Thea, you're—."

"Where's Cat?" Thea cut her off urgently.

Denise's eyes widened. "Oh, uh, she's over here." She led her to the far corner where there was a sheet pulled to block off the bed from the open room. She pulled it open for Thea to step up to the bed.

Cat was laying with a blanket covering her up to her chest. Her blonde hair was spilling across her pillow and her skin was deathly pale. She was so still that Thea thought she was dead for a moment before she spotted the shallow movements of her chest as she breathed in and out.

"I did everything I could think of, I even read those books you gave me for answers." Denise explained. "I stopped the bleeding and stitched her up, but the wound was pretty deep. I don't know if the knife hit anything or…or if she has internal bleeding."

Thea fell onto the stool beside the bed and reached out to place a hand on Cat's arm. It was cold and Thea couldn't help but feel like she was identifying a body.

"Ar-Aren't you going to check the wound?" Denise stuttered quietly, awkwardly.

After a moment, Thea shook her head. "No, I trust you." She said softly. "If she doesn't improve in the next couple of hours, I will."

Truth be told, if Denise said she had done everything possible then there really wasn't anything Thea could do either. Short of actually performing surgery, they could only wait and see how Cat healed. Without proper medical equipment, they had no way of knowing just how bad it truly was.

Denise stepped away to give her some privacy. The door opened and Thea could hear people coming into the clinic, but she didn't turn to see who it was. She propped her elbow on the edge of the bed, letting her head fall into her hand as she began to weep.

Catherine's gut feeling had been right. She had said that she felt something bad would happen, that she would never see Thea again. And here she was, laying close to death in a poor excuse for a hospital.

She wished there was a way to go back in time. If only she would have stayed at Alexandria instead of going on the dry run, maybe she could have done something to protect her sister.


"Thea, it's time." Cat's urgent voice came from behind her.

The doctor was sitting on the couch in her sister's living room, a cheesy gossip magazine in her lap as she looked over a best and worst dressed list. "Time for what?" She asked, flipping the page.

Her sister waddled around the couch until she was standing in front of her, both hands on her large abdomen, and the front of her gray sweatpants wet almost to the knees.

"What do you think?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Thea tossed the magazine onto the couch beside her and got to her feet. "Okay, okay. This is no big deal, we're going to go to the hospital and have a baby. Did you call your doctor yet?" she spoke in what she hoped was a calming voice.

Cat shook her head. "No, I was a little preoccupied with my water breaking all over the carpet!" She exclaimed.

Thea scrunched up her nose. "That's going to be a bitch to clean up."

"Thea!"

"Okay, all right! Let's grab your bag and we'll call the doctor from the car."

Cat nodded slowly, her hands smoothing over her belly as if to calm herself. "O-okay. What about Kyle? He went to class, I shouldn't have told him to go but I didn't think—."

Thea stepped forward and placed her hands gently on Cat's shoulders. "I will call Kyle from the car. Let's just get moving, all right?"

They managed to get into Thea's car, which was favorable due to the leather seats, and began driving to the hospital. They had each made the calls they were supposed to be making, and now it was a race through traffic to get to the hospital. The doctor was going to be meeting them there, and Kyle was already on his way as well.

Thea had flown down to Georgia to be with her sister the week of her due date; Catherine had asked her to be there in the room when she was giving birth and Thea couldn't be more honored to be a part of something so great.

Cat's hand reached over to grasp Thea's arm tightly as another contraction hit, a loud groan emanating from her throat. "Oh, my god, this hurts so bad. I'm going to find the person who came up with the epidural and I'm going to kiss them right on the mouth."

Stifling a laugh, Thea shook her head. "I thought you said you wanted to do it naturally?"

"Fuck that! I'm getting that epidural, try and stop me."

This time she didn't hide her laugh. "Alright, alright, I won't. Just don't try and blame me for letting you do it later."

They made it to the hospital without making any traffic violations and six hours later, Henry Simon Miller was born.

It was a day that changed both Ellis sisters' lives forever.


"Thea?" a voice called softly from behind her, pulling her from the fitful sleep she had fallen into with her head resting on the bed beside Cat.

She lifted her head slowly, eyes falling to where Cat was still unconscious, and then she turned to see who had said her name. Maggie stood with a soft expression on her face and a bottle of water in her hand. Thea was surprised to find that sunlight was streaming in through the window behind her.

"I brought you some water." Maggie said, holding the bottle out to her.

Her throat was incredibly dry so she took the bottle and drained half of it before thanking the other woman. She still didn't know where they stood since the way Maggie had reacted after she was reunited with Cat, but right now she was too tired to try and figure it out.

Behind Maggie, Denise was standing behind a half shirtless Daryl as she sewed up the cut on his back. Glenn was talking to the archer in a hushed tone.

"You should let Denise take a look at your hand," Maggie was saying. "And your arm doesn't look too good either. You should get cleaned up."

She wanted to argue that she was more than capable of taking care of herself, but she was far too exhausted. She glanced back at her sister's motionless form in apprehension. What if she left and Cat died?

Noticing her uneasiness, Maggie placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll stay with her." She offered.

She didn't want to leave, but she knew that there was nothing she could do right now. Nodding, she stood and allowed Maggie to take her place in the chair by Cat's bed. She went upstairs, not wanting to go all the way across Alexandria to her own house, and into the master bathroom. She unraveled the makeshift wrap on her broken finger, cringing at the way the bruises made her finger look like it was nearly necrotic.

As she pulled the long-sleeved shirt over her head, she tossed it into the trash bin by the toilet; the left sleeve was completely ruined and blood from both herself and several walkers covered the material. She stripped out of the rest of her clothes and jumped into a near scalding shower, taking the time to scrub at her hair and skin until she was sure she was clean.

When she finished, she realized she didn't have any clean clothes. She put the jeans and tank top back on and used a towel to dry her hair as much as she could. As she dropped the towel over the sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

Her face was still a Jackson Pollack painting with bruises as the medium. Her nose had been set back to its normal position, but it still had a crooked look to it. A dark bruise spread across the bridge and down to the area beneath both of her eyes. Her lower lip was split, a small bruise streaking down from the corner of her mouth to just under her chin. All were evidence of the way Pete had attacked her.

And yet she was still standing. After all of it, she was standing in front of the mirror on her own two feet.

She should be proud of herself.

The only thing she could think of, however, was the fact that her sister had fought with a man to protect her son and ended up with a stab wound that had her bedridden and unconscious. One thing had taken her out.

The mental image of her sister downstairs had her letting out a shaky breath of air. She raised a hand to cover her mouth so none of the survivors down below would hear her crying; she didn't want their stares when she made it back downstairs.

And part of her felt guilty for being so selfish. She had wanted to go on the run so badly that she hadn't let up, even after others had urged her to stay behind. She'd practically forced Rick's hand by coming up with the plan to go on the dry run so she wouldn't be on the actual run. If she hadn't done that, she would have been here to protect her sister.

Wiping her face quickly, she took in a deep breath to steady herself and pulled open the bathroom door. She stopped in her tracks when she found Daryl standing with his back against the wall across from the bathroom, arms crossed. It looked like he was waiting for her.

Neither of them moved at first, but then she stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind her.

"You alright?" he asked, his voice a barely audible grumble of words like he felt weird asking.

She swallowed, eyes falling to the floorboards. She could easily lie and go back downstairs to her sister, but he had made the effort to come and check on her despite the fact that he wasn't very good with heart-to-heart stuff like this. She didn't want to take that for granted, for fear that it would scare him off.

"No." She said simply. "This is my fault. I shouldn't have gone on the dry run."

He didn't say anything and she could tell he was waiting for her to continue, giving her the chance to vent if she would take it.

She sighed. "The other night, Cat had this feeling. She said she knew something bad was going to happen. Said she had the feeling that she would never see me again. I thought…I thought she meant something would happen to me, but…" she shook her head as her eyes began to well up again; she didn't want to cry again.

"I-I shouldn't have gone on the dry run, I should have listened to her. I could have protected her if I was here, I could have—." She stopped, bowing her head as her voice cracked and tears escaped once more. It was the third time she'd cried today and she felt so ridiculous.

He surprised her by coming forward slowly, timidly as if he didn't know exactly what to do. But he reached out for her, his hands grasping her upper arms gingerly. Hesitantly, he pulled her into him.

It would have been awkward if she wasn't so broken. But she was, so she went with it.

She buried her face in his shoulder, wrapped her arms around his waist and gripped the fabric of the back of his shirt. It'd been a while since she'd hugged someone other than her sister, and after everything that had happened to her since the world had ended she hadn't been too upset with the lack of physical contact from others. But now that someone was taking the time to show her kindness, she realized that she had been missing it.

She'd been missing the good side of people and the people who were good.

She wasn't sure how long they stood there with her tears wetting the fabric on his shoulder. The only thing that made her back away was the sound of the floorboards at the top of the stairs creaking.

They pulled away from each other, turning to find Glenn standing there with a tired expression on his face.

"Hey, sorry, I was just looking for Thea." He said, glancing between the two of them.

Thea cleared her throat and wiped at her eyes. "What's up?" She asked, eyes following Daryl as he slipped down the stairs without a word.

She wondered what was going through his head.

"Uh, Aaron and Eric wanted me to let you know that they took Hank home with them for the night. They said that he could stay with them however long is needed."

Thea felt herself blush from embarrassment. She had completely forgotten about Hank; how could she have been so careless? He must be so scared not knowing what was going on with his mother, and yet she had made it all about her. It only made her more ashamed of herself.

Nodding, she offered Glenn a small smile. "Thank you."

He simply nodded in return, his eyes falling to her swollen and bruised pinky finger. "What happened to you guys out there?" He wondered for the second time that night.

That was a loaded question. She shook her head, trying to figure out if she should tell him about Dwight and Sherry. About Tina and the men who had been chasing the three of them before they'd taken Daryl and herself as hostages.

"Well, we tipped the bike over…that's when I broke my finger." She explained. "But you said you just got back? What kept you out there so long?"

He let out a long sigh and moved to lean back against the wall where Daryl had been when she'd exited the bathroom. "It's a long story. Nicholas and I were by ourselves, we got trapped on top of a dumpster in an alley full of walkers. And he couldn't do it anymore…he shot himself in the head."

Thea inhaled slowly. "Holy shit." It was all she could say. Nicholas had been a little off his rocker since their group had arrived and with all the bullshit he had put Glenn through—getting Noah killed, shooting Glenn and trying to get him eaten by walkers—she was unsure if the feeling she had in her chest was grief at another loss or relief that they wouldn't have to keep all eyes on him any longer.

"Yeah…" Glenn trailed off, a haunted look falling over his face. "He fell on me. We fell off the dumpster…and I thought that was it. His body was on top of me and the walkers were eating him." He shook his head. "It was like they were eating me, too."

Her eyes widened in fear. He had come so close to being killed. Maggie was pregnant, what would she have done if he had never come home? "How…how did you make it out of there?" She whispered, trying to keep herself calm. Glenn was one of the people she was closest to out of the group, the idea of losing him had tears welling up in her eyes.

Maybe she was still sensitive from the Cat situation, or maybe it was because he meant so much to her.

"I crawled under the dumpster. I don't know how long I stayed there. Enid came, she drew the walkers away and saved me."

She stepped forward. "Enid?" she asked incredulously.

"She was trying to run away. I brought her back." He explained.

She shook her head. So much had happened to the group in just a day and a half and she could feel the weight of it in the air. It was heavy like a thick cloud of humidity that made it difficult to breathe. She wasn't sure how many people had been lost in the battle of Alexandria, both against humans and walkers, but she knew that it was too much.

She was glad Glenn wasn't one of the casualties. Now she just needed to make sure Cat didn't add to the number.

Stepping forward, she extended her arms out to him. They met in the middle of the hall in a tight hug. "I'm glad you're okay." She told him quietly, squeezing her eyes shut to fight off another round of tears.

He was squeezing her back as he nodded. "Yeah, you, too." He murmured.


The next morning, Thea woke up with the hopes of finding her sister awake. She stood from her chair and stretched her arms above her head before turning her attention to Cat. The disappointment at seeing her still unconscious filled her immediately, but she swallowed it down and moved forward to take her vitals. She placed two fingers on the pulse point on Cat's wrist and looked down at her watch as sixty seconds ticked by.

Her pulse was slightly elevated from the normal, but it was to be expected with how hard her body must be working to heal itself. It was really a numbers game; any lower and any higher would be alarming.

Sighing softly, she pulled the blanket back and lifted the front of her sister's shirt. There was a bulky white bandage placed over the lower right side of her abdomen, tinted slightly pink in the center where it directly touched the wound. Thea gently lifted the tape on one side of the bandage and exposed the wound to the air.

It was a clean laceration, no jagged edges or awkward angles. Denise had done a great job with the stitches and Thea couldn't have done better. Sutures were one of the first things that a student learned in medical school and Denise had clearly gotten past that point before switching to psychology.

Hesitantly, she placed the tip of her fingers against the edge of the stitches to make sure the skin around the wound wasn't warmer than the rest of Cat's skin. If it was warmer, that would indicate an infection, which was not something they wanted or needed in the old world, much less in a world with a limited supply of antibiotics.

Thankfully, the temperature was the same and the skin didn't look too red. There were no indications that there was something wrong other than Catherine's lack of consciousness and she sighed heavily, bowing her head.

"Hey, how's she looking?" Denise asked softly as she came up behind the doctor.

Thea took a deep breath and shrugged. "The wound looks good. You did a really good job, Denise." Her eyes fell to her baby sister's face and she felt her breath hitch in worry. It was killing her not knowing what was going on inside Cat's body right now.

"Do you—Do you mind changing her bandage? I just need to get out of the clinic for a minute."

Denise nodded. "Of course. Go ahead."

Placing a grateful hand on the blonde's shoulder, she offered a small smile before stepping past her and making her way out of the clinic. She felt a tiny bit of shame that she couldn't sit any longer with her ailing sister, but she thought for sure she would go crazy if she stared at her unmoving form for much longer.

She stepped out into the mid-morning sun and was surprised to find that the street was full. The neighborhood seemed to have banded together to start cleaning up the mess from the previous night. They had begun piling the bodies of the downed walkers in the back of a truck, more than likely to take somewhere beyond the walls and either burn or dump.

As she went down the porch steps, Rick was the first to approach her. He pulled a bloody glove off one of his hands and squinted through the sun at her.

"How's Cat?" He wondered, wiping sweat from his brow.

Thea shook her head. "No change." She glanced around to avoid his pitiful look. "Do you guys need any help?"

"No, no. You should stay with your sister—" He began to protest.

She waved him off. "I can't just sit in a chair and wait for her to die. So, I'm gonna help…just tell me what to do."

He watched her for a moment, something in his face told her he was in the same boat. She had heard that Carl had been shot in his eye and that Denise had stitched him up and he was recovering in the clinic. It looked like Rick was working to avoid sitting bedside as well.

He pointed to her tightly wrapped hand. "There's not a lot you can do with that hand."

Thea turned her attention to her hand. Denise had rewrapped it last night after her shower and decided to wrap her four fingers together to make for a better splint. With her thumb left unwrapped, it looked like she was wearing a white mitten. He was right, though, there was very little she could do with it.

Sighing softly, she ran her good hand through her hair. "Want me to check in on Carl?" She asked, giving into the fact that she would only hurt herself more if she tried moving bodies.

"I would appreciate it." He nodded.

As she turned to go back into the clinic, she jumped as she felt his hand land on her shoulder.

"Hey," he waited until she faced him. "Thank you."

His face was so earnest and he was so grateful that it was almost too much to look directly into his blue eyes. With the emotions coursing through her from what was going on with Cat, she couldn't handle his feelings right now.

"Yeah, no problem." She said softly, brushing his hand off and returning to the clinic.

She avoided looking in her sister's direction, instead dodging to the left and into Carl's room. He was lying in a bed with a blanket up to his chest, staring blankly up at the ceiling with a blank expression on his face. A white bandage was wrapped around his head, covering his right eye.

Knocking softly on the doorframe, she waited until his eyes flickered in her direction before speaking.

"Hey, I just wanted to come see how you were doing?" she spoke softly, moving to stand at the end of the bed and resting her hands on the frame.

He didn't respond as he turned his gaze back to the ceiling. She could tell he was feeling down by what had happened; losing an eye was hard enough, but losing it at his age seemed worse. Add in the fact that he had lost it by getting shot by someone he might have considered a friend, and she was sure he was in a low place.

She didn't know where to start. "Do you mind if I take a look? Just to make sure everything's okay?"

The teen remained silent as he thought it over. It didn't look like he was particularly excited about the idea of someone seeing what was beneath the bandage, but eventually he gave a shrug in response. It was probably more to do with the fact that she was a doctor than him actually being comfortable with her looking.

Thea rounded the bed and paused with her hand extended. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable or move too fast. Finally, she gently took the gauze into two fingers and pulled it up on his face until his eye was revealed to her…or his eye socket.

She had to hold in the gasp that threatened to make her surprise known; she didn't want him to be embarrassed or self-conscious. Instead, she nibbled on her bottom lip and kept her hand steady.

She'd seen worse. She'd done worse.

The entire orbital socket had been torn into by the bullet, but thankfully instead of going further into his skull it had grazed the side of his face, leaving a long and jagged wound on his temple.

Carl was lucky to be alive.

Denise had stitched up the eye socket and tried to follow the wound track in a straight line, but had been forced into a slight angle at his temple. Despite the intensity of the injury, though, she had done a decent job closing it up.

The skin didn't look enflamed and there was no other sign of infection. For the time being, it looked okay.

Replacing the bandage, she offered him a small smile. "It looks fine." She reassured him.

The teen scoffed. "You mean other than the fact that my eye is gone, right?"

She should have been put off by the snide comment and the tone of his voice, but she had seen plenty of patients respond the same, or worse, when losing a limb or suffering a life altering injury such as this. She was used to it and it was completely normal for him to react in such a way.

Stepping back just a step, she nodded. "Yeah," she agreed with him, not trying to sugarcoat it. He already knew the situation. "I think that you can be up on your feet by tomorrow afternoon. There's no reason for you to be bedridden. I just want you to know that your balance might be off until you figure out how to deal with the change in your depth perception. You should try doing some things that exercise your hand-eye-coordination, like playing catch or darts or something like that. It will definitely help."

She wasn't sure if he was actually listening to her advice, but it was the same instructions she would give anyone else in this situation. When he didn't respond, she nodded again before turning and heading towards the door.

"I'll let your father know you can leave the clinic tomorrow." She commented as she went through the door.

Outside, Rick was sitting on the porch steps as if he were waiting for her. She sat beside him with a heavy sigh.

"How is he?" He asked after a beat.

She wet her lips. "He should be up on his feet sometime tomorrow, but his hand-eye coordination is going to be off for a while. He might be a bit clumsier, and he might not be able to fire a gun right for a bit so don't take him outside the walls. I told him to try doing some tasks that will help him build his coordination with one eye."

He was nodding as he listened, taking it all in like she had seen many family members do during her time as a doctor in the old world.

Taking a deep breath, she hoped he would take the next part just as well. "I just want you to know that he's not going to be the same kid he has been. This kind of injury…it isn't something that he can come back from with the same mindset as before. He's going to need some time to adjust. Don't blame him for any attitude he might have or if he starts misbehaving; I've seen it before and it always has to do with the fact that the patient has lost something. He lost his eye, there will be some significant mood changes."

Rick was silent as he took it all in. "And I thought the moody teen years were behind us." He commented, trying to lighten the air between them.

She chuckled. "Yeah, well when has luck ever really been on our side?"


She couldn't sleep.

Rosita had taken a shift by Cat's bedside with strict orders for Thea to go home and get some real rest, but she couldn't sleep.

She had laid in bed for what seemed like ages, staring up at the ceiling and fighting the burning urge in her legs to get up and move. She wanted to sleep.

Finally, she threw the covers off and put the jeans she had been wearing earlier back on. She slipped her feet into a pair of impractical sandals and snuck out of the house so as not to wake any of the others who were fast asleep.

She hadn't planned on going anywhere specific, thinking maybe a walk would clear her head enough to let her rest, but she found herself on the porch of Cat's house. She tried the door and was surprised to find that it was unlocked. Stepping inside, she let her eyes adjust to the lack of light and shut the door softly behind her.

"Enid? Olivia?" She called out quietly.

There was no response, but what could she expect when she had barely spoken. She didn't know what she was looking for exactly, Cat wasn't even here. Maybe she just wanted to be close to her without being near her? Or maybe she was just losing her mind.

She walked through the kitchen and paused. Someone had removed the body of the man Cat had been forced to kill, but no one had cleaned up the blood yet. She stared at it for a long moment, at the way it was congealed on the tile. There was a trail of it leading out of the room that she followed to the stairs, where the trail ended in another pool of red.

This was where Aaron had found Cat. He'd explained it all to her, how her sister had fought off an attacker and he had found her trying to get up the stairs to Hank. The thought of it was enough to make Thea's eyes water.

Someone needed to clean it up before Cat woke up. The younger Ellis sibling didn't need the reminder of what she had endured. And Enid and Olivia didn't need to live like this. It was a wonder why no one had bothered to clean it up already.

She filled a large plastic bowl with hot, soapy water and grabbed a sponge from beneath the sink. Deciding to start with the wooden floor of the stairs, which would probably be harder to clean, she got down on her hands and knees and began to scrub away at the mess.

The blood that was still pooled on the floorboards came off easily enough, but it had been there for so long that it had stained the wood. She dipped the sponge back in the now dirty water and wrung it out before moving back to the floor. She scrubbed hard, putting her elbow into it, but the circle of red never lessened.

The floor had been really pretty, too.

Gritting her teeth, she placed both hands on the sponge and really got into it until she was sure her own hands were going to fall off. She had to get this cleaned up though. She couldn't leave it; Cat didn't need to see it when she came back, didn't need to be reminded of what had happened.

The last time there had been this much blood on the floor was when Tyreese had died. She could still remember it pooled on the floor around him when they'd gotten to Noah's house. And then it had been all over her and the backseat of the blue SUV they'd driven for a while. Before that, it had been Beth's brains spilling across the hospital hallway. The trail of blood leading from the solitary confinement cell Karen had been in to the courtyard where she had been burned to a crisp.

Suddenly she could remember being on her hands and knees in the prison library, trying to get away from Hoyt. She hadn't gotten very far before he had grabbed her and dragged her backwards. She'd tried grabbing onto the bookshelves but it had not helped her in the end.

"Thea?" a voice called to her, a soft hand landing on her shoulder and startling her.

She jumped and instinctively raised a hand as if to block her face from an attack, but when she turned she found that the hand on her shoulder belonged to Glenn.

He pulled his hand off her when he noticed her reaction, eyes traveling to the sponge she held. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Thea relaxed only slightly, her chest heaving as she tried to calm her breathing. "I-I'm cleaning." She stated, gazing down at the bloody sponge.

"It's late, you should be getting some rest." Maggie said from behind her husband. Behind her, Enid stood in the doorway with an odd look on her face.

Thea shook her head. "No, no. I don't want Cat to see this when she gets home." She murmured, dipping the sponge in the bowl and moving to start scrubbing again.

Glenn stepped forward and reached out to take the sponge from her. "Hey," he said softly to gain her attention again. "Hey, you can do this another time, okay? You've barely slept since you got back from the dry run." He placed the sponge in the bowl and picked it up slowly so as not to spill any of the water. Passing the bowl to Maggie, he faced Thea again.

She was still panting.

"Are you okay?"

She didn't know how to answer that question. She hadn't been okay in a long time and the look in Glenn's eyes told her he didn't want anything but honesty as a response. She didn't want to put the weight of her burdens on him.

Instead of replying, she looked over his shoulder. Maggie had left to put the bowl away, but Enid was still standing half in the room. "I'm sorry if I scared you, Enid." She apologized, turning her face down to her lap in embarrassment. The teen shouldn't have to see this.

"It's okay." Was the girl's only response, but it sounded genuine.

Maggie returned from the kitchen and she stooped down beside Glenn, her face soft as she reached out for Thea. "Let's get you back home, okay?"

Thea still felt in a daze from the memories that had flooded her. She had caught her breath, but her chest still felt tight. She nodded slowly and allowed the other woman to help her to her feet.

"Enid, get some sleep." Glenn instructed in a very fatherly way that had the teen doing as she was told, though not without an eyeroll.

The couple led her out of the house and down the street until they were back at the house they all shared. Maggie had ahold of Thea's left arm as she helped her up the front steps and as they reached the porch landing, a voice came from the shadows.

"She alright?" Daryl asked as he stepped forward, a cigarette in hand. His eyes traveled to the diluted blood on her pants and hands.

Maggie kept Thea walking as Glenn veered to the side to speak with Daryl.

"Enid came and got us, said she heard a noise downstairs and when she checked it was Thea trying to clean Cat's blood off the floor." He began.

Maggie took Thea inside and she wasn't able to hear any more of the conversation. They went upstairs where the former took the latter into her room, sitting her on the bed.

"I'm sorry, Thea." She spoke up, sitting beside her.

It snapped her out of her haze and she frowned. "For what?"

Maggie scoffed. "I was awful to you when you got Cat back. I was so jealous and pissed…I shouldn't have acted like that."

Thea shook her head. "Maggie, no. You just lost Beth. I understand why you reacted that way. I probably would have done the same."

"No, you wouldn't have." Maggie disagreed with a shake of her head. "So, I'm sorry." She paused for a long moment, her eyes thoughtful as she studied the floor. "When we found out Beth was alive, I was so happy. I had given up hope of finding her, I just thought she was gone. Michonne told me that she was alive and in Atlanta and we were headed that way and all I could think was that I was getting a second chance. And then we got to the hospital…and Daryl came out with Beth in his arms. I lost my second chance, and when I saw you getting yours…" she shrugged. "I was furious. Heartbroken."

Thea reached out and placed a hand on Maggie's forearm, trying to let her know that she didn't blame her for acting the way she did.

"And now, Cat is fighting for her life and—" She cut herself off with a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were welling up. "I feel awful about it…but I thought it was…karma."

Thea's eyes widened and without realizing it, she removed her hand from Maggie's arm. The other woman took it as a sign and stood, moving towards the door.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed into her hand.

Thea stood before she could open the door and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "It's okay, it's okay." She reassured her, wide eyes staring at the wall over Maggie's shoulder. She found it hard to believe that such a thought had really crossed through her friend's mind, but knew that people reacted to grief differently. Maggie was a good person; even good people had dark thoughts.

"I forgive you." She said, though there was nothing to really forgive. She didn't want Maggie to think she resented her when she didn't.

Thea was sure if their roles were reversed she may have thought the same way. She was not as good a person as the remaining member of the Greene family.


A/N: So, I found out that there were 30 whole days from the end of "No Way Out" and "The Next World". I will not be stretching out those 30 days for very long, but I will do at least one more chapter with just the time in between. I'm going to jump around so that we can see how Alexandria rebuilds and regroups after everything they have been through.

Also, I promise that I have a lot of plans for Thearyl (Thea & Daryl's ship name!) in the next couple of chapters, so stay tuned! :)