Christie paced back and forth in the foyer of HQ, biting her nails down to the quick. She and Mitch had decided to wait for Rick and Daryl join them before they would discuss their next move. People had been coming in all morning and into the afternoon, bombarding them with questions about what had happened, who had caused it, what they were going to do when they found that person. Neither of them really felt in the mood to answer those questions, especially since neither had answers.
"Is this what you bring to the leadership here?" Oliver asked as he watched Christie move around.
"What?" she asked, her mind slowly making its way back to the here-and-now.
"The whole time I've been here, you've done nothing but stand there staring off into space." he replied. "What exactly do you do?"
"That's enough, Oliver." Mitch growled, his protective instincts kicking in. "We're all in shock.."
"That excuse will only work for so long." Oliver warned as he shot one last glance at Christie and headed out the door.
"Seems like we've got some downtime." Mitch said as he closed the door behind Oliver. "About him, just ignore him, sweetie." he patted her back.
"He's right." she replied. "I serve no real purpose."
"You know that's not true." he wanted to punch Oliver.
"All day we've had people coming and going, asking questions, getting upset, and what have I done?" she asked. "Nothing. I've stood there, muttered some crap, giving no answers."
"You're tired...Grieving over Carlos.." Mitch tried to think of ways to ease her mind. "Remember, these people chose you."
"Mitch, I'm not an idiot." she shook her head. "They elected you and threw me in there because they think you and I come as a package deal."
"Come on, Christie." Mitch lowered himself into a nearby chair and buried his face in his hands.
"After we figure out who did this, and why, I think we should find someone else to take my place." Christie sat on the arm of Mitch's chair.
"What do you mean?" he looked up at her. "You're not going anywhere..."
"No!" she nearly screamed. "No, I'm not leaving the colony, I'm just saying that after all of this, someone else should take over for me. Carol maybe." she explained. "She's calm, and she knows how to handle you."
"I'm sorry you feel this way, kiddo." he leaned back in his chair.
"I'm not the leadership kind." she got to her feet. "Never have been. But it's fine."
"Miss anything?" Daryl asked as he walked into the house, minus his crutches. "We ready to catch some bastards?"
"Where are your crutches?" Christie asked as they watched him slowly move along with a bit of a limp.
"Don't need 'em if I'm not wearing that damn cast." he tried to hide the grimace on his face as he moved to his desk.
"And you're good enough to be on your feet again?" Mitch asked, worried that Daryl might be pushing himself before he was fully healed.
"Do ya think Hershel would take it off if I wasn't?" Daryl asked.
"Yes." Mitch nodded. "If you pushed him enough. If it was Hershel who took it off."
"Hershel does know you're not wearing your cast anymore, right?" Christie asked.
"We're gonna have to head outside the wall, I can't do that on crutches." Daryl explained, becoming a bit agitated by the fact he was having to explain himself.
"If you're leg's not healed completely, you could have permanent damage." Christie warned him.
"Right, the doc never mentioned any of that." he got to his feet. "What are we doin'? What's our plan?" he was eager to make some progress.
"Rick's not back yet." Mitch stared at Daryl. Part of him respected the other man for his determination, but another part of him wanted to smack Daryl for being so foolish.
"We think all four of us should be here before we decide on any plan of attack." Christie explained as she began to bite her nails again.
"Where is he?"
"Went to check on Carl." Mitch replied.
"Gotta get through Lori first." Daryl groaned. "Could be a while before we see him."
"I'm sure even Lori wouldn't be such a bitch that she'd hold him up when she knows what we've gotta do." Christie said, hoping she wasn't giving Lori too much credit.
Rick knocked on the door to Lori's house and waited for what seemed an eternity for her to answer. "Come on, Lori." he called out as he knocked again.
"What?" she asked as she slowly opened the door, looking around nervously.
"I wanna see Carl." he said. "Make sure he's okay after the funeral this morning."
"One of his friends was killed, how do you think he's doing?" Lori moved aside and let him in. "He hasn't said much since we got home."
"I've gotta at least see if he'll talk to me." Rick headed up the stairs, leaving her by herself, securing the door.
He got the top of the stairs and headed to Carl's room and saw that the door was shut. "Carl." he knocked lightly as he called out. "You okay?" he asked, listening carefully for any sounds. "Carl?"
"I'm fine, dad." Carl's voice was muffled by the closed door. "Can you please just leave me alone?"
"You sure?" Rick asked, not wanting to leave until he knew how his son was. "You wanna talk?"
"Not now." Carl snapped. "Please just go."
Rick knew that tone of voice and realized he would get nowhere while Carl was in that mood. With a sigh, he headed back downstairs. "He's not talkin', I'll try back later." he called to Lori as she sat curled up on the couch.
"We shouldn't have come here." Lori said as she stared at the window. "None of this would be happening right now if we'd said no to them."
"Things with Reichert would have come to a head regardless of whether or not we came, and all of this might have still happened." Rick leaned against the door frame.
"But we wouldn't have been here, none of this would effect us." she looked at him. "I wouldn't be afraid to leave my house, Carl wouldn't have lost a friend.."
"No, instead we'd probably still be movin' around out there, walkers at every turn." Rick felt that even with all that was happening, they'd made the right decision. "Hell, for all we know, we might have starved to death. You might have lost the baby. As it is now, we've got a roof over our heads keepin' us out the elements and away from walkers, food, water.."
"So you think all of this is worth it?" she took a deep breath. "I'm not so sure."
"You don't think Carl being able to sleep in one place every night is worth it?" he asked. "To know that when the time comes, you'll be able to give birth in a safe, clean clinic where Hershel has what he's gonna need to help you both. For me, it's worth it to know we've got that security."
"You should go." Lori said, wiping tears that were starting to fall. "I'm sure you've got things to talk about with your little committee."
"Yeah, we do." he sighed and left without another word. They had to figure this out as soon as possible. He needed to restore some order and a sense of safety to his son's world. The sooner they did that, the better for everyone. They couldn't bring back those who had died, but they could protect those who remained. They had to do that.