DISCLAIMER: I do not own AMC's and Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" or any of its characters/places. There may be a few OCs at a later time and those will be mine. (NO MARY SUES).
WARNINGS: Rated T for language, violence, gore, and sexual situations.
I LOVE THIS CHAPTER! Just saying...
The prison's only hope in finding the kids rested with Michonne and the small search party she was leading. Daryl was obviously the ideal candidate to track them down but he was back with Rick making sure the man didn't completely lose it. There had to be some lead the could follow though. The attackers had been sloppy and left two dead and a hole in the fence. It was a start. It wasn't much of one, but it was better than nothing. Perhaps they also got lazy and didn't cover all their tracks but even then the rain might've washed them out. If that was the case, Michonne still maintained the idea that Carl and Judith could be recovered and Carl would pop up at the prison.
Michonne, Glenn, Tyreese, and Karen walked beyond the prison. They still had a small bit of luck in that it appeared like a trail led away from the fence and into the woods. Not far along the trail, Michonne spotted a few small tree branches that looked as if they had been snapped and twisted out of the way. She looked down to the dirt floor but it had been reduced to a muddy mess.
"They came through here," she said to those behind her. "These trees are too thick; it's likely they used this trail the whole way."
The four walked farther along while Michonne kept both eyes open for anything that seemed out of place. The rain was letting up, which was a decent blessing, and hopefully they'd be able to follow any footprints that'd been left in the mud. Michonne continued on then came to an abrupt halt.
"What is it?" asked Glenn in a low, quick whisper.
Michonne was looking down at something on the ground and she bent over to pick it up.
"This is Carl's hat," she said and showed the item to the other three. The disbelief at the find was evident across the faces of Tyreese, Glenn, and Karen.
"But…but he was off with Daryl," said Glenn, scratching the back of his head. "This doesn't make any sense."
"Yes it does," sighed Michonne. "Rick told Hershel and I that Daryl said he and Carl had an argument and that they 'got into it.' Daryl's words not Rick's."
"Are you saying Daryl handed Carl over to the Governor?" asked Tyreese. "That he's been working as a double agent?"
"After what the Governor did to Merle? Daryl wants the Governor dead more than any of us. But I think that 'argument' they had was more than that," said Michonne. "I don't think Daryl gave Rick the entire truth of what happened when they went hunting."
"Ok, ok," began Karen. "Daryl and Carl had some sort of fight and maybe Carl took off. He ran over here and was caught by the Governor's men. That's pretty good timing. Are you sure Daryl didn't know the Governor was going to attack and got Carl over here?"
"Daryl would never do that. He wouldn't let Beth and Judith be kidnapped and then bring Carl over as well. He's not a traitor and he isn't his brother," said Glenn as he came to Daryl's defense. "He'd die before he'd let anything happen to the kids."
"Well something happened with Carl," said Karen. "The boy never takes his hat off and yet here it is. How do you explain that?"
Tyreese and Glenn looked to one another as if they could get the answer from the other while Michonne broke from the three and started to conduct a secondary search of the area. Something went down in the area if Carl had been separated from his precious hat.
"Look around," she told her companions, "there has to be something else."
Karen rolled her eyes feeling the answer to everything could be found back with Daryl. Glenn and Tyreese were more willing and left the path to search the forest nearby. It was hard to know what they were supposed to be looking for. The only footprints were their own. It wasn't likely they'd find another article of clothing. If shots were fired then maybe there'd be some bullet casings. Or the gun that Glenn's hand found on a blind search around the base of a tree.
At first he froze when his hand came into contact with the metal but he realized what it was. He pulled it away from the tree it'd been stashed by and inspected it without drawing the attention of his group.
"You three might want to duck when we get back to the prison…shit is going to hit the fan," he said, revealing the gun to the others.
Three mouths fell open at once and eyes were widened at the newest discovery. Michonne snatched the gun from Glenn and turned it over in her hands unable to believe what she was holding. She checked the chamber and the magazine and discovered it was still fully loaded.
"Carl didn't put up a fight," she surmised. "He was either subdued and brought here, or he allowed himself to be captured."
"Maybe he saw that they had Beth and Judith and…"
Glenn stopped when he noticed the dark way the other three were looking at him.
"There is no way a kid is going to walk up to a group of heavily armed men, who have kidnapped his sister and another girl, and volunteer himself to go with them," said Tyreese.
"Daryl is involved in this. We're going back," ordered Karen who turned and started towards the prison.
"We can't," said Glenn as he caught up to her. When Karen refused to stop he grabbed her arm and twisted her around. "Rick will kill Daryl if he thinks he's responsible for bringing the Governor's men here. There won't be a jury or a trial, only a bullet from Rick's gun."
"And what evidence is there to say that Daryl is innocent?" she spat, brushing Glenn's hand off her. "I don't see very much. He also sent us out here when it should be him. He's the tracker and can pick up signs we'd miss. He wanted us to come so we wouldn't be able to follow the trail."
"We can't stay out here," said Tyreese regrettably. "We have to tell them what we found. I think everyone needs to be included in where we go from here."
"Michonne…please," pleaded Glenn. "It's going to be very bad with Rick."
"Daryl made his bed and now he has to sleep in it," said Karen before Michonne could answer. "Two of those kids are Rick's. He's the leader here and as it stands, Daryl is a traitor to us all. If Rick doesn't do something about Daryl then someone has to. He could bring the Governor down on us tomorrow if he wants to."
"Daryl is going to have an explanation," promised Michonne, "and we'll make sure things don't get out of hand with Rick."
At the Governor's camp, Martinez brought Carl, Beth, and Judith to a holding room that had been specially prepared ahead of time. It was homier than the prison cells they had been living in but was still foreboding. They had windows but they were barred and were told a guard would be outside of their door at all times. There was a bed with a flimsy mattress and next to it, a makeshift crib for Judith.
Beth went to the crib, inspected it briefly, and deemed it fit for the baby. She placed the sleeping girl down and checked for bottles or formula. If they had gone through the trouble of bringing in a crib, the Governor surely would have stocked formula for her. Sure enough, Beth found formula and water for mixing along with diapers and a few toys. She wasn't going to be lured into a false sense of security with everything she'd heard about the Governor, but she honestly thought there was a chance that nothing bad was going to happen to them. Or at least with her and Judith, Carl was a wildcard.
Beth watched him fearfully as she sat on the corner of the bed. He'd said very little directly to her since their ordeal began. At first she was glad that he revealed himself in the forest and thought he'd make a run back to the prison and help would be on its way. Except he did the opposite and offered to join the Governor.
"Don't look at me like that," said Carl from his stance near the door.
"You can't be serious about joining the Governor? Look at all he's done," cried Beth.
"Yeah well I hope he does more," said Carl loudly, "and I hope he lets me help him. I still want to get back at Daryl."
Carl peeked at the door behind him and then went to sit with Beth on the bed. Her eyes were wide with fear and he felt bad for being the cause of it.
"You have to trust me on this. He's obviously planning something bad. If I can make him think I'm on his side, then maybe I can stop it or at least get back to the prison and warn them," he whispered. "I sorta deserved what I got from Daryl and my Dad and I…the Governor will make him suffer and I don't want that. Judith can't grow up not knowing both her parents."
"What if he finds out?" asked Beth. "He'll kill you."
"I have to try otherwise he might kill everyone back at the prison. Do you want to see Maggie and your Dad again?" Beth began to sob at the mention of her family and Carl pulled her into a gentle hug. "It's going to be ok. I promise."
Beth wiped her eyes and nose just as the door was opened and Martinez walked in carrying an extra pillow and blanket. He closed the door behind him and tossed them on the floor by the bed.
"Figured that'd make you more comfortable," he said to Carl. Carl didn't acknowledge and set his face into a stony stare. "You two doing alright?"
Both Carl and Beth nodded.
"Find everything for the baby?"
Another two nods.
"Alright. Carl, why don't I take a look at your nose? Its gotta be bugging you some," said Martinez. He went to the pile of baby things and dug through them until he found a rag and opened a bottle of water. He wetted the rag and then approached Carl was still as Martinez dabbed at his bloody nose but winced when he touched the more tender parts. "Sorry," murmured Martinez. "I'm gonna have to set it if you want it to heal right. It's gonna—"
"Damn it!" yelled Carl. Martinez pushed Carl's nose back into place before he had finished issuing his warning. "Tell me before you do it next time!"
Martinez chuckled. "No trust me; that hurts worse. Keep that rag on it though. It's gonna bleed for a bit." He pressed the cloth over Carl's nose to stop the slow trickle of blood out of both nostrils.
"What are you going to do?" asked Beth suddenly.
"Do?" echoed Martinez then paused thoughtfully. "That isn't up to me to decide. Staying calm and doing as the Governor says is the best thing for you. You really weren't supposed to be here Beth so I don't know how that changes things, if I'm going to be honest."
"I want to help out," said Carl. "When am I going to get the chance?"
"You'll get the chance in the next day or so. Is there anything you can tell me about the prison's defenses that we should know about?"
"There's always someone in the guard tower," answered Carl without delay. "The people from Woodbury live in cell block D while everyone else is in C block."
Martinez smile at the information. "That's good to know and it might come in handy," he said.
"Please, please don't hurt my sister or my daddy," said Beth.
"I'm sorry, I can't promise that," said Martinez as he turned to leave. "I wish I could but I can't.
"Then why do you stay with him? You're not like him," said Beth weakly.
Martinez paused at the door and looked back over his shoulder at the kids.
"It's about survival. It always has been and always will be. Even before all this—it was why nations went to war. The world hasn't changed as much as we think," he said and opened the door. "Food will be sent in later. Try to get some rest."
Daryl wanted to be out there for he was certain they were going to miss something critical. Michonne had a good eye but it was things like the way a blade of grass was bent or a rock turned out of place that he worried would be overlooked: anything to clue them in on the Governor's trail. As it stood though, Rick needed Daryl more. He'd been reduced to a weakened mass that was only being kept off the muddy ground by Daryl's arms.
They'd been down the same road with Lori's death, which was what made Daryl the most anxious. First it was denial and shock but then came the cloudy, uncontrollable rage. Rick was going to lose it; he was, and there were no walkers for him to take it out on. The bodies of Mason and Sue were within range, and Daryl certainly wouldn't stop Rick if he decided to hack away at the old man. That was the one small silver lining, if one could be found: Mason was no longer around.
Hershel, Maggie, and Carol had remained with Daryl and Rick. The Greenes clung to each other and cried endlessly while Carol's silent heaving tugged at Daryl's heart. It had all really happened: they'd been attacked. Two of their people were dead and another two were missing. All hell was going to break loose once the rest from Woodbury found out what happened. Rick already had enough on his plate from his own son pulling a gun on him to the kidnapping of his daughter. Throw in the chaos from Woodbury that was going to erupt and it spelled disaster.
"C'mon Rick, ya gotta help me out here," said Daryl. "I know this is rough, but I need ya with me. Ya gotta keep it together for yer kids. Ya gotta be strong for Carl when he comes back."
Daryl felt Rick move for the first time. He straightened himself and Daryl let him go for it seemed like he could sit up on his own.
"We're gonna get 'em back. Hershel, Maggie—we'll get Beth back. She's gonna be ok. She's a tough girl," said Daryl.
"Ransom," choked Rick at once.
"Huh?" asked Daryl.
"Ransom," repeated Rick brokenly. He swallowed and turned to Daryl. "He'll ask for ransom from the girls. He wants something."
Daryl nodded to Rick's reasoning.
"So we sit tight and don't do nothin' stupid. Ya say he'll come to us with what he wants? Then we'll wait here."
"And what if he doesn't?" asked Maggie. "We have to go after him!"
"We can't do nothin' 'till Michonne gets back. For all we know he coulda left his men waitin' for us in the woods and we'd walk right into an ambush. This is his game and he's gotta make the next move," said Daryl.
"But that's my Beth—" began Hershel.
"I know and we're gonna get her back," said Daryl. "We gotta keep it together."
"Daryl's right," said Rick with a voice of reason. "The Governor wants something…I don't think he's going to hurt them…not yet."
"He needs to go after them…he's the only one that can find them," appealed Carol.
"I need to stay here: Michonne will pick up the trail," said Daryl. "We need to go back inside. Put Woodbury on lockdown. Tell 'em no one goes outside unless they gotta; we'll keep armed guards at every entrance."
"Yeah—ok," said Rick.
Daryl was the first to stand and extended a hand down to Rick. He helped the man up and gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. Carol and Maggie offered assistance to Hershel who took his time regaining his footing. They had only started to walk back to the cellblock when they heard someone crashing through the trees behind them. Daryl loaded and raised his crossbow faster than he'd ever done before. Maggie and Carol each brought out a gun and Rick had his drawn and pointed towards the forest. Just when the four were thinking of firing, Glenn, Michonne, Tyreese, and Karen came into view and hurled themselves through the fence.
"What'd you find?" asked Carol quickly.
There was a moment of hesitation amongst the search party and no one said or did anything.
"Well?" demanded Rick irritably. "Did you find anything?"
"Um, yes…" said Glenn in a small, strained voice, "we found these on the trail…"
From the back of his pants, Glenn produced Carl's gun and Michonne stepped forward with his hat.
Rick shook his head in disbelief and rubbed his eyes: He wasn't seeing it. After staring at them and finally deciding they were real, he took a few shaky steps and reached out for the hat and then the gun.
"Daryl?" he asked. "What the hell happened to my kid?"
Daryl was then beside him; his face contorted into infinite bewilderment. He tried to take the gun from Rick to identify it for himself as Carl's but Rick pulled back.
"You were the last one with him," said Karen, "what happened?"
Daryl was still at a loss for words and looked to those around him. They weren't giving him anything to go off of and he suddenly felt strangely outnumbered and surrounded.
"I—I don't…this don't make any sense," he managed to say. Rick's face alone implored a better explanation but Daryl didn't have one to give. "He and I didn't come back this way."
"So what? There happens to be another kid running around with the exact same hat and gun as Carl?" asked Karen.
"I ain't stupid—I know those are Carl's!" barked Daryl.
"Daryl," tried Glenn in a less invasive manner, "we found the hat just off the trail and the gun was set down behind a tree…"
Before Glenn had finished, Rick's hands swept over the gun and checked the chamber and magazine.
"Full," said Michonne, "Carl never used a shot."
"What? He didn't try to fight back?" asked Maggie.
"Probably saw he was outnumbered and wasn't gonna risk it," said Daryl.
"Or," said Karen with a raised eyebrow, "he was disarmed before hand and led there."
"By who?" scoffed Carol. "We've all been here. Mason and Sue are dead so it wasn't either of them."
There was a second moment of silence as each person searched for a possible cause. Rick too was working things over in his head. First Beth and Judith were stolen right out from under him and now Carl. But whereas the girls looked to be taken forcefully, Carl's disappearance appeared to be less aggressive. He decided to look at things from the end back to the beginning. Carl had been taken. He had been taken from the woods. He had been with Daryl in the woods. Rick stopped that particular train of thought. Daryl had returned to the prison without Carl, insisting that Carl still had his gun on him, and said they'd gotten into it. It was a vague an explanation as he'd ever heard.
"Daryl, you want to fill me in on what really happened out in the woods?" asked Rick.
Daryl was caught rather off guard and suddenly looked down at his feet.
"I told ya what happened…"
"Yeah and I think you left a few things out…some very important things," said Rick in an unusually accusatory tone.
"I, I think I'm missing something," faltered Carol.
"You think you're missing something?" asked Rick with awful sarcasm. "I'm missing my two kids. Now Daryl, I'm going to ask you again: what the hell happened in the woods?"
"I don't really remember…"
"You wanna try that again before you really piss me off?" snapped Rick causing Daryl to back away.
"We got into a fight," said Daryl honestly before Rick's anger was given a chance to deepen. "I know I said I was gonna take care of him but he was actin' like a piece of shit…we started to fight and I—"
"You what?" demanded Rick, inching closer to Daryl.
"I hit him," Daryl finished in a dry, cracked voice. "Didn't mean to do it, just slipped out there. I feel like shit…think I might've broken his nose. He wouldn't let me see it though and he took off runnin'. I followed him but he got away…"
Daryl's words rolled right over Rick like water off a duck's back.
"Well it seems like Mr. Forgetful remembers," weighed Rick. "You hit my son—you punched my son and broke his nose."
"Ya don't—" began Daryl but Rick shook his head.
"I don't care if he had a gun to your head. You were supposed to take him out to cool him off and now he's been kidnapped by the Governor after you hit him and made him run away. You want to tell me that wasn't your fault? And now that I'm thinking about it…why was he taken without a fight? Michonne, Glenn, did you find any sign of a struggle?"
"No," answered Glenn, "but—"
"So why would Carl abandon his gun? Why wouldn't he fire a shot? Say he spotted the Governor's men as they were leaving, why wouldn't he come back here and tell us?"
"I ain't lying when I said I hit him and he took off!" yelled Daryl, thrusting his split knuckles in Rick's face. Rick snatched Daryl's right hand and examined it: Two of his knuckles showed signs of bleeding and there was slight swelling in the area. "Ya damn lost it—again—if ya think I'd bring the Governor here!"
"Oh Daryl," moaned Carol while Rick threw down Daryl's hand in disgust.
"Look, we can stand 'round here talkin' bullshit or we can go out after 'em…they can't be that far," said Daryl.
"How would you know they aren't that far?" asked Michonne. "We found Carl's stuff about a hundred yards from here but we didn't follow the trail any farther."
Daryl paced uneasily and ran his hands through his hair. He was about to get it and he knew it.
"I never said this before…and Carl was with me…but we found some animal traps out huntin' that day Carl got hurt. Couple miles—" everyone turned to look in the direction Daryl was pointing, "that way. They'd been set recently and I figured there was someone else in the area. Don't know how close their camp is and we didn't check it out: It's probably the Governor now that we've been attacked."
Rick practically choked on Daryl's confession. There was no denying he'd been withholding valuable information. If they had a reasonable lead on the Governor's presence, they could have launched their own attack and taken him out for good.
"You didn't think that was something I'd like to know?" Rick's voice deepened as he spoke. "You didn't think that maybe you should share the fact that we've been living next door to the man that's been trying to kill us?"
"No…I knew ya'd wanna go runnin' off after him and that'd get more of us killed," snipped Daryl. "Ya ain't always made the best decisions. Ya don't get it."
Rick smiled to himself and laughed at something but no one else knew what.
"You don't tell us the Governor is in our woods, you hit my son and that makes him run away, you don't tell me that either and now he's gone…Yeah Daryl; I'm starting to get it."
"Oh I forgot that ya have more experience with being stupid that I do," spat Daryl, his eyes narrowing as he closed in on Rick.
Rick cocked his head and a small, slightly amused smile crept across his lips.
"Insulting your leader; that's an interesting approach. What else you got? Because I'm really looking forward to hearing it."
"Look, I don't wanna get into a fight with ya," Daryl lowered his voice, "I'm tired of fightin' with ya man."
"Then stop talking," Rick threw back.
Daryl's jaw clenched and he ground his teeth together. He tried to remind himself that Rick had just lost both his kids so he wasn't thinking clearly. He'd do anything to get Rick to see the situation like he should but throwing a punch was out of the picture. Unfortunately, thought Daryl, that was where they were headed.
"Let me put it to you like this," Rick said first addressing Daryl and then the others, "we've been trying to make something of the world we live in. We've established ourselves here and done a fine job at making the prison into a home. There's food to eat, water to drink, and we've been reasonably safe until now. Things aren't going to be normal, not for a while, but it's time we start taking things from our old days."
"What are you thinking Rick?" asked Hershel. He hobbled forward until Tyreese held out his arm to stop him.
Rick paced for a moment while he looked down at his feet then stopped back near the group.
"I'm thinking Daryl didn't tell us about the animal traps and that the Governor was back—that's reckless endangerment. He hit Carl—that's child abuse. Then because of that, Carl ran off and got caught by the Governor and that's child endangerment…Those three things would get him locked away for about ten years inside a prison like this. Anyone want to argue with that?"
"You can't be serious?" asked a shocked Glenn. "No."
"Oh no: I am," Rick nodded and then looked at Daryl. "Daryl, you're under arrest."
A/N: Bam! Top that AMC! But seriously, I hope season 4 is good. Please don't hurt me for putting the bromance on ice for a little while longer. Daryl did make some mistakes so it isn't all Rick's fault...I want to thank everyone for their continued support and I'm sorry this update was a little delayed; I wanted to do a good job with it. Another small tid-bit...I'm thinking of upping the rating to M (not for sex) within the next 2-3 chapters just to be on the safe side. So...warning.