Author's Note: I'm going to leave this on a bit of a cliffhanger because I will be focusing on continuing with starting my other fanfic, The World We Live In, back up for the next week. Hope you enjoyed this one, and please READ & REVIEW! xoxo —Holly
"Our world is a huge mess right now, and not big enough for masses of intolerant people. " — Tori Amos
Tearing down the stairwell and out the door into the ground floor hallway like a bat out of hell, Rick looked more like contestant for America's Next Top Model: The Lumberjack Addition by the way he looked, rather than his usual gruff self. He was, after all, freshly bathed. His brown curls were softer and with a bounce to them, his beard seemed fluffy, and all he wore was his pair of black jeans. He'd been in such a rush that he couldn't be bothered with a shirt or shoes or even his belt. He did, however, have his Colt gripped tightly in his hand; ready to shoot anyone in the head that got in his way.
Several paces behind him, Daryl came huffing along, as Rick stepped out into the lobby; slightly wild-eyed as his chest rose and fell with worried breath.
"Where is she?" Rick demanded, staring straight ahead at the skinny redhead behind the check-in desk. He'd forgotten her name since introductions had been made in the late afternoon.
The woman stared back at him like she'd just been physically slapped. "You-your wife?"
"Who the fuck else?" he snapped, stalking onward without waiting for much more of an answer. "Jo!"
A door off the opposite hallway clicked open, catching his attention and out walked Michonne with her katana strapped to her back but Rick's focus went straight to the slight blood spray on her pant legs. He pointed right at her. He began fearing the worst. Daryl hadn't been able to tell him much because he didn't know much of what had apparently happened. All the archer had been able to say was there'd been an altercation involving Raffy and Jo, and Raffy was dead. Jo's fate wasn't known because Daryl had taken off to seek out Rick before he got any more details because he knew Rick needed to know as soon as possible that something had happened, involving his wife.
"Is that her blood?" Rick asked, starting to look crestfallen. "Is she—is she dead? Did he—"
Michonne held her hands up and approached him slowly, maintaining eye contact and a calm demeanor. "This is not her blood. It's Raffy's. I was cleaning up."
"She's not dead?"
"No," Michonne assured. "She's very much alive, just shaken up."
Processing this information, Rick got angry again. "What happened?"
Dropping her hands to her side and shifting her weight primarily onto one leg, Michonne's eyes wandered over Rick's shoulder to the approaching and skeptical figure of Daryl. "Raffy tried to pull some shit with her and Jo wasn't having it. He wouldn't let her leave the pantry, they fought and she got the upper hand," she began to explain, watching how Rick took this all in. "He tried to stab her, so I cut his hand off, and then he tried choking her with his other hand so she shot him in the head; blew his brains out."
Rick nodded slowly and then scowled. If Jo hadn't taken her gun with her, who knows how differently things would've gone. "Where is she now?"
"She's in Harry's office." As Rick moved to head in that direction, Michonne stepped into his path. "I know you mean well, and she's your wife, and you love her, but right now she needs her mother."
He started to say that Jo had never needed her mother before and that he was her go-to person in life, but the insistence in Michonne's gaze made him feel like he was a disruptive student and she was the authoritative teacher putting him in his place. Daryl's hand appearing on his shoulder brought his attention away from the katana-swinging woman before him. Looking upon his friend's face, he allowed himself to be ushered over to one of the lobby's many couches to sit down and, more importantly, cool down. When he'd be able to go to Jo and personally see how she was doing, he wanted to be calm for her. He wanted to be her rock, the way she was his. She was what kept him centered; what kept tethered to his sanity. If it weren't for her in his life, he was one hundred percent certain he'd be a much darker, angry person.
"I was eight years old the first time I remember my father hitting me."
Jo was wiping the blood from her face with a paper towel and a bottle of water Harry had given to her as both women sat in the office together. Instead of sitting across the desk from her daughter like she had that evening, Harry now sat beside Jo as Rick had. Both women sat relatively comfortable next to one another, having calmed both of themselves down from what had transpired in the pantry and now it was time for some reflection.
Jo stopped wiping and stared at her mother, a little surprised by the admission she'd just heard. "He hit you?"
"Regularly." Harry shifted in her chair with considerable ease given the subject matter. "He was a hardcore alcoholic. Worse than I ever was, so I guess that's a good thing. I never wanted to be like that man, but when I got old enough I discovered that alcohol tended to help forget the kind of man he was for a little while. It made me forget a lot of things, but only for a little while. And then I would sober up and the world came back to me and it made me angry and it made me want to drink more to forget it all again, and it was a vicious cycle." Harry looked down at the black, plastic armrest and picked absentmindedly at it. "I was the youngest of three. There was my older brother Jonah, which is who you were named after, and my sister Estelle. There were three years between each of us. When I was eight, Estelle was eleven, and Jonah was fourteen. Each one of us got beat by our father during his drunken rages. Sometimes he used his belt, sometimes his bare hands."
"My god," Jo muttered.
Harry shrugged, and then turned to look at her daughter. "When I saw Raffy put his hand on your neck, just before you pulled that trigger, all I could see was myself being attacked by my father the last time I ever saw him. I saw red and I was going to kill Raffy with my own bare hands for daring to touch you. I left you behind with your father because I wanted to prevent forcing you to live the same life I lived. I was scared I would become just like my father and that your father might turn a blind eye the way my mother did; that he wouldn't stop me I case I became violent. I wanted to keep you from that kind of life, and this disease spread and everyone died, and the dead rose from the proverbial grave, and it brought the worst out in a great many people. I could've never dreamed I would be the lesser monster in your life."
Jo and Harry locked eyes for a moment and a sad smile passed between them.
"How did you get away from your dad?"
Harry inhaled a deep breath and turned away, looking toward the far wall as she recalled that memory. "I was sixteen. Estelle ran away to California with her boyfriend after she graduated high school. She got away as soon as she could and went as far away as she could, and I never blamed her for it. The last time I saw her was about fifteen years ago. She's probably dead now from all this. Her husband and daughter, too."
"So, I have California relations, huh?"
Harry nodded. "Her daughter, Madison, is about five to ten years older than you, I think. I know she got married and had two kids, a boy and a girl. She's a high school guidance counselor in Los Angeles, if I remember correctly."
Jo smirked. "My husband, Oscar, was a high school guidance counselor, too."
"My brother Jonah, he'd just graduated college. He was attending Kennesaw State on a full ride for football. He was built like a brick shithouse, kinda like your black friend Tyreese. Well, he'd come home, just after graduation, which my mom had promised to bring me to. My dad hadn't been invited, for obvious reasons, but my dad found out and got angry, as per usual. He decided that if he couldn't go, none of us could. He beat my mother until she was unconscious and then he hit me. I locked myself in the bathroom and armed myself with a curling iron but he gave up after a while. I was honestly shocked he didn't try busting down the door. He'd done it before."
"Damn."
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "My brother came home that evening, found my mother sporting the worst bruises ever, and couldn't find me anywhere, but there was my dad, sitting in his chair with a beer in his hand and wouldn't even acknowledge Jonah when he arrived. Jonah demanded to know where I was, and I remember hearing my father say something about 'the bitch is in the bathroom like the piece of shit she is.' And then my brother was there, knocking on the door, asking me to open up, and I did. I was covered in blood, but some of it was my mom's, not mine. I couldn't see out my right eye, and too this day I still get blurred vision out of it. I think my dad did something to it, but I never sought medical treatment for it, so I guess that's my fault. Jonah was furious. He lashed out at my father who, tried to choke me, and Jonah reacted badly to that. He was much bigger than my father by then, and stronger, and also, sober, so his reflexes were faster. He beat my father and gave him a taste of his own medicine. He shoved the old man back into his chair and said if he laid a hand on me ever again, he'd kill him. He then told me to pack what I could; that I was leaving with him."
"Where did you go?"
"He had an apartment already off campus, so I stayed there with him for two years until I turned eighteen. He'd given up his bed for me to use and attempted to get named my legal guardian but I had decided to just drop out of high school by that point. I got a job as a cleaning lady at a motel that was under the books and helped out around the apartment, but then I discovered the bar life when my brother brought me out one night with his friends, and soon enough I fell in with some real partying types. And it was so freeing to just let loose and be loud and laugh and not have to worry about what my father would do to me."
Jo cupped the bloodied tissue in her hand and looked down at it. "How'd you meet my dad?"
Harry smirked. "We were at the same bar one night. He bought me a drink and told me I was one of the prettiest things he ever did see. I was so used to the bad boy type by then that I barely gave your father a second glance until he asked me to dance when some Fleetwood Mac song came on over the jukebox. No guy had ever slow danced with me before."
"Dad really liked Fleetwood Mac. He used to have a thing for—"
"—Stevie Nicks, yeah. I remember that."
"Did you ever love him?"
"I think I did, or I just loved the idea of him," Harry admitted. "I was pretty much on my own by that point. My brother had gotten married and I was too far gone with my own problems and was causing issues for him and his wife so he more or less kicked me out of his life. I'd been dating this guy, another bad guy, who was…well, let's just say he wasn't much better to me than my father. Fortunately for me, he got arrested and sent to prison for a dime and it was around then that I met your dad. He was this breath of fresh air and I got caught up in him. I actually thought I could be a normal girl with a normal boyfriend. I vaguely remember telling him plans I had to go back to school and get my GED and go to college to get a nursing degree. And then I ended up pregnant and I got scared. I felt trapped and your dad was so kind and doting and I just wasn't used to that. I had the opposite reaction that a person should have to someone like that. He drove me nuts and I almost wanted him to get angry and throw things at me or hit me when I acted like a bitch to him, but he never raised his voice. He was always quiet and kept it all to himself. He would never talk to me. He just held it all in and it made me even madder."
Jo snickered. "Sounds like someone I know."
"Rick?"
Jo nodded. "His ex-wife used to tell me he was the same way. He could never just talk about his feelings with her; that he hated confrontation with her and would just walk around internalizing everything. They could never seem to communicate very well together. The world changing the way it did, and losing their son and other personal issues thrown in just made it worse for them, and they just stopped being together, and it wasn't until they weren't together anymore that he could finally open up and argue with her the way he should've been able to do when they were together. Too little, too late, you know?"
"He seems very easily angered and very capable of expressing how he feels now," Harry remarked. "You have something to do with that?"
"Did I have something to do with him getting angry?"
"Not exactly, no. You were probably just the right person for him to feel comfortable enough to truly open up to," the older blonde clarified. "I don't think I could've ever been that for your father, even if I'd stuck around and wasn't the way I was then. He needed someone less volatile than me, and I'm sorry he never did."
"He held you up on a pedestal and I never understood why," Jo commented, honestly.
"Neither did I." Harry frowned. "I barely liked myself. I couldn't fathom anyone else loving me."
Mother and daughter fell silent again, which was when Rick had begun shouting out in the lobby. Both women looked over their shoulders, glancing at the door, expecting the blue-eyed former cop to barge right in, judging by the way he was demanding to know where Jo was in a slightly panicked voice. Michonne's voice appeared next, in a more coolheaded tone.
"How'd you find her? Michonne, that is." Jo turned her attention back to her mother with curiosity. "I like her sword."
Harry grinned. "It was about a month after I found your brother. She came wandering out of the woods, onto this road in Brooks we were traveling on. She had two walkers behind her, leading them on like pets. She had ropes around their necks, and their arms and jaws were missing so they couldn't scratch or bite."
"They were her cover to get by other walkers," Jo deduced. "They masked her scent."
Harry nodded. "It was pretty smart, though it was a little sad, too. I eventually got her to open up about who those walkers were," she informed. "One was her boyfriend Mike and the other his friend. The camp she'd been at got overrun. They got bit and turned, and her son, who was only a toddler, died as well. Michonne didn't go into that much detail, other than Mike and his friend were high when it happened. I think they might've been the ones who killed the boy. She still won't talk about it, but that's what I figure happened."
Jo looked back down at her bloody tissue, tears welling in her eyes again, which Harry noticed. When her mother handed her a fresh tissue, Jo used it to wipe her tears away. "I'm scared my daughter's dead," she blurted. "I try not to think about that. I keep trying to focus on when we find her and not if we find her, or I try not to think about what I'll find when I find her. Will she be alive and well? Will she be have been killed and turned on the side of the road somewhere? Will there be just a small grave with a small roadside marker indicating where she was buried?"
"Those are some hard thoughts to ignore. I imagine Rick's gotta be thinking the same things, but it's good the two of you still have each other, and all those people you arrived her with," Harry said, reaching a hand out and touching it down upon Jo's wrist.
"I don't know if Finn told you what Rick and I told him, that Hope, my daughter, isn't Rick's biological daughter. That he didn't find me until I was already seven months along."
Slowly, Harry nodded. "Finn gave me the cliff notes version. He didn't go into detail and I don't think he wanted to. I know he seemed pretty angry at himself. Up until he found you in the lobby, he'd have moments, every so often, where he'd get sad and I'd find him crying, alone in his room. I know he was thinking about you and wishing he'd found you. I think hearing what you'd been through made him feel like if he'd found you right in the beginning, he could've prevented the bad things you suffered."
"Rick's said as much to me, too," Jo remarked. "If those walkers hadn't sent Sophia and me off course, leading us away from the road and getting us lost, we could've made it back to the road and Sophia would've never been separated from her mother and Rick's original group. I would've joined them then and I wouldn't have ended up in Woodbury. After he found me and got to know me, the more he relayed he'd wished he'd done more to find Sophia and, by extension, me. I just try and block out my time in Woodbury these days. It happened to someone else, not me. I'm a different person than that woman who got trapped there. I'm not her anymore. I had to become someone different to survive; not just physically, but mentally. I mean, there were days—weeks, really—where I wanted to die. But then I'd feel Hope move inside me and I knew I had to fight somehow, for her. Everything had to be for her." She looked over at Harry and held her eye for a moment before looking over at the desk. "I see myself as an agnostic, but I thank the Powers That Be for putting Merle in my path and helping me get out of that place with Sophia. Because he did what he did, Rick did find us, and we got to live someplace safe for a long while. There were ups and downs, a few losses, but it was home and we were all together. Rick delivered my baby there."
"Did he now?" Harry questioned rhetorically with a smile.
"He did," Jo confirmed with a nod. "She was born a month early. It was a stressful time. I think my body was just messed up."
"You came a month early, too. Hope arriving when she did might've just been a genetic thing and nothing you could've prevented."
Jo shrugged. "I guess. She wasn't as small as I thought she'd be, considering she was a month premature."
"Or maybe you lost track of time and didn't realize you were further along than you thought."
"That could be very well."
As they fell silent again, Harry turned in her chair and leaned forward, pressing her knees together and cupping her hands in her lap. "My mother died never knowing you, Finn or any of her grandkids. She never got to be a grandma because of the way things were between her and her children. She wouldn't leave my father, no matter how bad he got. He was the alcoholic but she was the one who was addicted. Her addiction was him and she let it become her world instead of what really mattered," she spoke sadly, peering up at Jo through some strands of blonde hair that had fallen in her face. "I don't want to be like my mother, the same way I didn't want to be like my father. I wasn't the mother you needed or deserved, but I'd like to start being it now, if you'll let me. I'd like to be Hope's grandmother; when you find her, not if."
Staring back at her mother, Jo's tears returned. Her nose turned a shade of pink and her chin quivered as she bit her upper lip. "It is pretty ridiculous to hold a grudge against you anymore. I've lost so much already, so many people I loved. I lost a husband, my father, friends, and possibly my daughter; at least temporarily. Gaining my mother back…I think it's a necessity at this point."
The way Harry reacted was the same as Jo. Her nose also turned a shade of pink and her bottom lip quivered when she got emotional. The pair of them really was mother and daughter. There was no denying it. Despite never being in each other's live until this point, the nature aspect of the nature versus nurture argument proved valid yet again.
Making the bold decision, Jo leaned up off her chair and grabbed Harry's hands in her own and then pulled her mother in for a hug. This time it was different from the embrace in the pantry. She wasn't looking for consoling after a dreadful ordeal; she was looking to simply hug her mother, and Harry readily welcomed and accepted the gesture with literal open arms.
When Jo finally left her mother's office and made her way into the lobby, Rick practically jumped up to his feet and was at her side in seconds. His strong hands went first to her shoulder and then up to her face where he found traces of dried blood. Furrowing his brow, he looked at her with such concern that it made her heart swell.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Instead of speaking, Jo simply nodded and pressed her forehead into his neck as she wrapped her arms around his waist. Rick took the hint and wrapped his arms around her back, holding her tight against his chest.
"Let's go back upstairs and get some sleep. We can talk about it in the morning if you want, okay?" Glancing over Jo's shoulder in the direction of the office, his eyes fell upon his mother-in-law and gave her a nod of acknowledgement and then moved to lead Jo off down the hall.
Daryl watched the pair go and then looked at the other onlookers that had gathered in the lobby; Finn, his girlfriend Jen and a few other Communers that had been in the courtyard. "Whatcha lookin' at?" he spat. "Move along. Nothin' to see here." With a flick of his wrist he made a shooing motion at them all before glancing over at Michonne and giving her a nod. "You want any help getting rid of the body?"
Michonne shoved her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans and considered the offer for a moment. With a slight tilt of her head and raise of her eyebrows, she shrugged. "Sure." As she turned, she gestured for him to follow.
As the pair walked down the opposite hallway to the pantry where Raffy's body still was, Finn walked up to his mother with Jen in tow. The look in his eyes was not just the concern for his sister and the situation she'd just been in with Raffy. There was something that brought a deep frown to his handsome, young face.
"Lena's not gonna be happy about this."
"No one's gonna be happy about this," Harry remarked, folding her arms across her chest. "He was a founder."
"I don't care what anyone else thinks. Raffy was always an asshole, and tonight he crossed the line for the last time. I'm just concerned about what Lena will do when she finds out he's dead."
Harry, Finn and Jen looked between each other and frowned.
Just after daybreak, Rick's eyes fluttered open and he found himself staring into a wall of blonde hair which brought a lazy smile to his lips until he remembered the night before. The smile faded considerably as he lifted his arm and placed it down upon her hip; her body the little spoon to his big spoon. Leaning his head up, Rick pressed his lips upon her shoulder and gently worked his way up along her neck and to her jawline before reaching the spot just behind her earlobe.
A slight moan reverberated from within Jo's throat as his kisses began to wake her up, causing his smile to return somewhat.
"We need to get up, babe," he muttered into her hair.
"Mmmkay," she mumbled back to him. She was lying on her left side, as her right was still too sore to lie on. As she slowly turned over to lie on her back she could feel Rick shifting beside her and she allowed one eye to pop open to spy on him. "How do you manage to look so good when you first wake up and I always feel like a rotten potato?"
Rick snickered as he sat up and tossed his legs over the edge of the bed. Casting a glance back at her over his shoulder, he shook his head. "Trust me, you're not a rotten potato," he insisted with an amused smirk. "If anything, you're sweet potato pie."
"Ew, that's worse. I hate sweet potatoes."
Turning at the waist, he shot her a frown. "How can you hate sweet potatoes? They're nature's candy."
Jo grimaced and pretended to gag. "Well, it looks like I have no choice but to divorce you now," she quipped. "I want the house and the Benz."
Letting a hearty chuckle escape his lips, Rick turned back around to look forward as he got up to his feet and sauntered over to his bag to pull out the shirt he planned on wearing for what would probably end up being a few days. Doing laundry on the road wasn't exactly easy and clean clothes tended to be a luxury. As he pulled the grey T-shirt on, he turned enough where he could see Jo getting up and out of bed as well. There was blood down the front of her shirt that was easier to see now in the light of day that he hadn't really noticed the night before and what had happened returned to the forefront of his thoughts.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Rick gestured to her shirt.
Looking down at her front, Jo sighed and shrugged. "There's not much to say," she replied. "I went to get some food from the pantry and Raffy came in. He blocked my way out and started to get a bit pervy. He wouldn't move and he taunted me, so I pulled my gun on him."
"Is that when you shot him?"
"No, he got the gun away from me first and then I headbutted him and wrestled him to the ground and got the gun back." She walked over to the sink and grabbed a washcloth, which she stuck under the faucet when she turned it on. As she began to wipe the wet cloth over the front of her shirt to try and get some of the blood off, she looked back over at Rick. "He tried to stab me with a pocket knife of some sort but Michonne and Harry had gotten there in time and Michonne cut off his hand. His only option was to try and choke me, and that's when I shot him. He had nothing left to lose in choking me at that point and I sure as hell didn't think when I pulled the trigger." Jo looked down for a moment, inwardly happy most of the blood seemed to be coming off and hadn't stained too bad. When she looked back up at Rick, she found him just standing there, gripping the back of the desk chair with one hand and leaning most of his weight on one leg as he looked back at her. "I didn't feel a thing when I shot him. I didn't care that I killed him, that he was dead. I think what shook me up the most was the fact that I didn't care and how easy it was to just kill a man like that."
Rick nodded and gestured at her with a limp flick of his wrist. "I know all too well what that's like."
"I mean, I've killed people before. We all have. We had to. I didn't have to kill Raffy," she admitted. "I wanted to. Killing him was…cathartic. That's what was scary. Not just that I didn't care, but that I might've found some pleasure in it."
Taking the steps needed to close the gap between them, Rick placed his hands on her hips while she looked down toward the ground. He leaned his forehead against her and closed his eyes. "Raffy was one of the bad guys, even if he was one of the founding fathers of this little hotel commune whatever. The things he said when you'd gone off with Mika, and when I was hitting him, he deserved it. He deserved the beating I gave him, but I wanted to take it farther and I probably would've if Daryl hadn't pulled me off. I wanted to kill him." Rick reopened his eyes and stared down his nose at hers. "You just beat me to it."
"I don't want to feel so unaffected about killing someone. I want taking a life to have an impact on me. I don't want to get desensitized to killing a living person like I am to killing walkers."
"If it means your survival or the survival of our people, I don't care if we have to kill a hundred living people. I will choose us over outsiders any day."
Jo lifted her head and frowned. "Bad outsiders, though. I don't even want to think of killing a good outsider to save one of us."
"Let's hope we never have to make that kind of decision."
Bringing his hands up to either side of her face, Rick ran his thumbs along her cheek and then pulled her in for a kiss, which she welcomed quite readily. The warmth of his breath on his lips and the taste he left upon them was a little piece of heaven to her. The increasing bushiness of his beard scratched at her chin, but in a ticklish sort of way that made her bite her lips together to keep from smiling too much about it.
"What's so funny?" he perceptively noticed.
Jo shrugged and shook her head as they pulled back from one another. "Oh, nothing."
"Bullshit."
"Well, maybe your beard is very ticklish."
"Is it now?" he questioned with one raised eyebrow and a smirk that could melt her panties right off her. Stepping right back up to her, Rick buried his face against her neck and brushed his beard along the skin of her neck and up to her jawline on purpose; giving it few gentle rubs that made her instantly try to pull back and laugh.
Slapping him on the shoulders with her hands, Jo managed to push him away with a bright smile on both her lips and in her eyes. "Okay, enough of that or I'll cut it off in your sleep."
"It is getting a bit out of control," he remarked, giving the ends a tug. "Maybe I can ask your brother if he has some sort of shaving kit I can use before we leave."
Jo's face practically paled at his comment. "No. I like the beard. Then again, I've never even seen you clean-shaven except in that picture Shane found for Lori." As she began to smile, it faded when the memory of Lori receiving the picture came to mind and she knew Rick was thinking about it, too.
That picture was back at the prison, which was lost to them. There would be no going back for it, just like there was no going back for a lot of things.
The sadness of the moment enveloping them and bringing them back to the task at hand, Rick turned away and began zipping up his bag. "We need to make sure the girls are up, see that their fed before we get back on the road. If you wanna do that, I'll go 'round knocking on doors to get the rest of our people up and moving if they aren't already."
Jo nodded. "Sure thing. I'll meet you down in the lobby in fifteen?"
"Yeah." Rick handed her bag over to her and, as she took it from him and slung it over her left shoulder, he leaned in and gave her a soft peck to the lips. "Be careful."
Knitting her brow together, Jo snickered. "I'm just going to get the girls."
"And last night you were just going for a walk to get some food." Rick flashed her a knowing look and she understood he was still concerned about everything that had played out.
"I'll do my best."
The girls were both already up by the time Jo got to their room and insisted they take turns taking quick showers before they got dressed. She sat out in the room, waiting with Mika while Sophia took her turn first, attempting to play Barbie dolls with the girl for the next five minutes. When Sophia came out of the bathroom, dressed in fresh clothes and her long, damp hair hanging down around her face, Jo shooed Mika off to take a shower next. The ten year old set her dolls down and grabbed her clean clothes from her bag and then skipped off to the bathroom.
Jo watched as the door clicked shut, and listened for the water to start running before turning her attention over to Sophia, who was shoving her dirty clothes into her bag and grabbing for her brush.
"How's your neck?" Jo asked.
"It's fine," Sophia replied. "Just a little achy."
"I'm sorry you had to get whiplash like that yesterday."
Sophia shrugged and smirked. "It's okay. It's not it's your fault. Shit happens, right?"
Jo raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so we're swearing now, huh?" she teased.
"Me swearing is the least of our worries."
"And a smartass, too. Oh, now. I've officially got a moody teenager on my hands." As Jo stood up, she walked up to the girl and gave her a side hug and then ruffled her hair. "Love ya."
Sophia giggled a bit and nodded. "Love ya, too."
After both girls were showered and dressed, Jo led them downstairs; passing Rick in the hall just as he was knocking on one of the doors. The pair shared a loving look and then continued with the respective tasks. Once the ladies were downstairs in the lobby, they were greeted by a few Communers who were sitting around as well as their own people; namely Michonne and Daryl.
Harry appeared a short while later, looking slightly flustered, with John on her tail.
"What's up?" Jo wondered.
Harry looked over her shoulder at John and frowned upon looking back at her daughter. "You remember meeting Lena yesterday, right?"
Jo shrugged. "I think so. Did she have the brown hair and the permanent scowl?"
"Yeah, that'd be her," John spoke. "Finn and your mother broke the news to her last night about Raffy. The two of them were somewhat of an item."
A derisive snicker echoed from behind the check-in desk and the threesome looked to find the redhead nurse Nicole sitting there, flipping through an old magazine.
"Let's be honest, they were fuck buddies. I'd hardly construe that as being 'an item.'"
Harry rolled her eyes and looked back at her daughter. "Either way, when we told her last night she didn't handle it very well, as we pretty much expected. We just went to check on how she was doing this morning and she wasn't in her room and we can't find her. We're just worried she's going to do something reckless and get herself hurt."
"Well," Jo muttered. "I, uh, hope you find her." She didn't know the young woman and, to be honest, she wasn't bothered by her apparent disappearance. If Lena was so enamored with a man like Raffy, it said little about her as a person, in Jo's opinion.
Focusing more on her daughter now, Harry smiled ruefully. "You're leaving soon, aren't you?"
"Where you headed again?" John asked.
"Yes, and Washington DC," she answered them both. "Our only lead as to where our friend Shane and my daughter went was a message on a billboard telling us to go there, and that's what we have to do."
"When you make it there, and if by chance you come across a woman named Francine, Francine's my niece," John remarked. "I was living in Montgomery, Alabama and headed to DC myself when the shit hit the fan. I never had children of my own and the closest thing I have is my niece. She's the only family I have left. Her parents, my sister and brother-in-law, died a few years ago: both to cancer. Finn and a few found me just south of the city while they were on a run. I had a sprained ankle and a bunch of walkers were headed my way. I thought I was a goner. They brought me back here and I just ended up staying."
"Why? What kept you here once you were healed?"
"I found a purpose here. I couldn't make the trip to DC alone and no one here had a reason to go north with me."
"You could come with us now," Jo offered.
John smiled, and she noticed how his eyes shifted subtly toward Harry. "I appreciate it, but this is my home now. I belong here with these people. This is my family now."
Jo looked between her mother and John and smirked. "Alright."
"But if you find my niece—"
"Francine."
"Yes," he nodded. "If you find her, tell her I hope she's well and I love her, and if she wants to come here, if your lot do decide to return here to Atlanta, that I'm here and she has a safe place to call home here."
Jo nodded back at him. "I'll see what I can do on the off chance I cross her path."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Jo looked back at her mother and smirked, watching as John retreated to give the duo some space to get their goodbyes out of the way. Once he was out of earshot, she muttered, "I think he's sweet on you."
"John?" Harry made a face that suggested this was brand new information to her.
"He looks at you like you're the sun and he'd doesn't care if he goes blind."
A tinge of color reached Harry's cheeks as she blushed, pushing some hair off her face. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. We're just friends."
Jo tilted her head and grinned. "So were Rick and I at first."
As if on cue, Rick came sauntering down the hall with his usual bowlegged gait. Jo turned and looked over her shoulder, hearing the footsteps and already knowing at once it was him. He walked heavily when he wasn't trying to be quiet due to some sort of threat. When all was calm, he trudged. When they made eye contact with each other, he winked at her and ruffled the top of Mika's head before approaching his wife and mother-in-law.
"Everyone's just about set. Karen's just getting out of the shower, and then she and Tyreese will be down," he informed. "Sam said Ana's already down here. She wanted to get a look at the garden or something before we left. The others will be down in a minute, too."
"We should get the vehicles ready then; have them parked facing out so loading the trunks will be easier with our bags, and then we can just easily leave."
Rick nodded. "Yeah," he agreed as Merle moseyed into the lobby, wearing the same clothes as the day before, and the day before that. Rick looked at the older man with slight amusement. "We're gonna back the vehicles up toward the door, facing out toward the street to make it easier to load up."
"Whatever," Merle replied, pulling the keys to his truck out of his pants as he flashed a flirtatious grin over at Nicole.
Nicole noticed and rolled her eyes, returning to her magazine, which only made Merle smile even more. The older Dixon seemed to have eyes for the redhead and he also seemed to see her indifference toward him as a challenge. As he walked out the front doors, Daryl stood from where he was slouching on one of the couches.
"Yo, Rick, gimme your keys," the archer offered. "I'll get your car ready."
"Is it even road-worthy anymore after yesterday?" Jo wondered.
"Yeah, it runs fine," Daryl replied. "We got it here after all. The passenger doors are just a bit scraped up and dented. Your door sticks a little, though."
"How'd you even get me out?"
"I pulled you out from my side," Rick answered. "Daryl helped me carry you to the van, and then he drove the car here with the girls."
"You were the only one unconscious and bleeding so getting you here first, where they said they had a doctor, was the priority," Daryl added, catching Rick's keys when the former cop pulled them out of his pants and tossed them over.
Jo turned and looked up at Rick with a smile, placing her hands on his firm stomach and gripping the material of his grey shirt. "My knight in soiled armor."
"This is a clean shirt," he informed.
"The one from yesterday wasn't."
"Alright, you got me there."
"We need to find you some new pants, too. I swear you've been wearing the same pair for as long as I've known you."
Rick smirked. "Probably longer."
"Ew."
"I've washed 'em," he insisted.
Jo just made a knowing face at him.
"Okay," he caved. "So, you and Carol took turns washing them for me. I did have a backup pair back at the prison that I wore, if you recall. Remember the denim jeans with the hole in the kneecap?"
"The pair that that walker's intestines fell out on when Merle sliced its stomach open and then it fell dead on you after Shane shot it in the head?"
Rick grimaced at the memory. "One in the same," he confirmed. "Shit, I forgot why I did away with them."
Jo chuckled. "Yeah, those were beyond saving. Didn't you burn them?"
"Along with the shirt I was wearing."
Jo's chuckle turned into a cackle. "Oh god, yeah; you walked back up from the yard in just your boxers and Andrea was catcalling you." As Rick nodded, shaking his head with a smirk, Jo leaned in and wrapped her arms around his waist, lowering her voice. "That was just after we got back from that supply run to that Piggly Wiggly. Do you remember that?"
Rick looked down at Jo, following her train of thought and grinned warmly as the two of them silently shared a particularly enjoyable memory which had resulted in making the most of finding a package of condoms down one of the store's aisles.
Once the entirety of Team Family had finally gathered in the lobby, and once all four vehicles were at the ready, goodbyes began to get exchanged.
Jo was busy hugging Finn goodbye and Rick was followed suit; both hugging Harry as well and thanking her for the hospitality, which they found funny since they were technically in a hotel. Sam and Ana were conversing with another younger couple their age, and seemed very engrossed in whatever it was they were talking about. Merle was trying to chat up Nicole who was having none of it, and then there was Sophia who seemed to have made a friend in the girl Piper who was about her age, but probably a year or two older. Jo almost hated to separate the two girls from each other.
"Okay, now I know I mentioned it yesterday, but I'm gonna say it again," Rick began, addressing everyone; his group and the Communers alike. "We got a long journey ahead of us to DC and we don't know what's in store for us, but this is a trip Jo and I need to make. Anyone who wants to continue north with us, we're leaving in five minutes. When I say anyone, I mean anyone." He focused on the Communers mostly when he said that. Then, focusing on his own people, he added, "If you want to stay here, that's fine, too. We want to come back here eventually, regardless of what we find waiting for us in DC."
Jo concurred, nodding her head. "We'll be back," she assured.
"I sure hope so," Finn muttered with a small smile. "And you better have my niece with you."
"So do we," Rick replied with a more serious expression. It had felt like forever since he and Jo had seen their daughter and there was always going to be that fear that they might not ever see her again."
"I'd like to come with you."
Rick turned to where the voice came from and saw that it was Michonne. She had her katana slung over her back and was gripping onto duffel bag. Harry looked at her as well, with mid surprise.
"You're leaving?" she inquired of her right hand woman.
Michonne shrugged, but nodded. "I need to go with them," she insisted. "The world out there has gotten darker and they're gonna need the extra help when it gets rougher. If I had a chance to get my son back, I'd want all the help I could get along the way. I can't let another mother lose her child forever."
Jo's heart swelled at the selfless offer. Stepping forward, she placed her hands around Michonne's shoulders and hugged her. "Thank you," she spoke quietly. "For everything."
Michonne had remained stiff during the embrace but seemed to warm to it after the fact. She nodded back at Jo and then eyed Rick, who nodded at her as well.
"We're staying," Sam spoke up. He gestured between him and Ana when Rick caught his eye. "We're appreciate you guys bringing us back to that prison and giving us a home, even if that home didn't last long, and for everything you did to help save us since then. But Ana's leg can't take a long journey like that and this place is safe, and you said yourself you'll be back, so it's not like we won't see you again. At least, I—we hope we'll see you again. I guess you never really know."
Ana smacked him across the chest with the back of her hand. "No negative thoughts."
"Sorry," he nodded with a nervous smile. "We'll see you again and we'll have a party to celebrate when you return with Shane and Hope."
"See?" Ana smirked. "That's more like it."
Rick inhaled and exhaled a deep breath, and looked around the lobby. "Anyone else staying or going?"
Jo thought she saw Milton start to say something but then he just remained quiet off to the side of everyone else. Piper, however, stepped forward and gave a shy wave. Several pairs of eyes fell on her when she made her presence known.
"I'd like to come."
"You sure?" Rick asked, a bit wary about the teenager coming with them. It was hard enough keeping an eye out for Sophia and Mika during all this. "It's not gonna be some easy-going road trip."
"If Sophia can do it, so can I," Piper contended. "And I was on the road by myself for a while before Finn found me. I can take care of myself. I don't need anyone to hold my hand."
"This one's a little firecracker, ain't she?" Merle quipped.
Rick caved. "Alright, then. Go get whatever you wanna bring with you." He glanced around again at the lobby. "Anyone else?"
There was silence.
Everyone looked between each other but no one else spoke up one way or the other.
"Okay then. That's settled."
As Rick smiled over at Jo and then at his group, he nodded at them and they all stood up, if they weren't already; indicating to start loading up the vehicles again. One of the Communers, Jamal, walked over to him and Jo with a plastic shopping bag with some fresh vegetables from the Commune garden to take with them. There were tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, onions and green beans. He thanked the other man and passed the bag off to Karen who took it with her to her and Tyreese's truck.
With two new people traveling with them, but two less, sitting arrangements in the vehicles wouldn't be hard at all. With Sam and Ana staying behind, that opened up two spots in Morgan's car. Piper and Michonne had known each other a while so there would be no awkwardness in sitting together in the same vehicle. There was also room enough in Rick and Jo's car that Piper could sit in the backseat with Sophia and Mika. They'd figure it out once the girl returned and they were all outside.
As Rick watched Jo and Finn hugging one last time, Merle, Tyreese and Karen came running back into the lobby, pushing others back; wild-eyed and tense. Instantly, the hairs on Rick's arms and the back of his neck stood on end as he sensed something was clearly very wrong. Merle was the last person you'd expect to scare so easily. Before Rick could even ask what was wrong, Lena appeared, rushing inside the lobby as well, panting and covered in blood. Whether it was her own, though, was hard to determine at the moment.
"Rotters," she blurted. "A lot of 'em!"
"How much is a lot?" Rick anxiously asked.
"Have you ever been to a southern high school's Friday night football game?" Merle asked. "You familiar with how packed those stands get?"
Rick's face fell. "A herd?"
"More like a fucking horde."
"Sonofabitch," Rick growled. He darted for the doors and stepped just barely outside and then stood stock still; listening.
There was nothing out of the ordinary at first, and then there was the smell. A foul order began to grow stronger, wafting along with the breeze.
Then came the sound.
It sounded akin to hundreds of people snoring in unison mixed with the shuffling of feet.
Before Rick could turn back into the hotel, they appeared at the entrance to the hotel parking lot. There were only a handful of walkers that began to amble forward, spotting him, which he cursed under his breath at, and then, suddenly, there were tens of them and the amount didn't seem like it would stop anytime soon.
"Shit." Whipping around, Rick darted back into the lobby and the others looked anxiously at him. "We ain't getting out that way. Merle's right. That's a horde about to come down on us."
"We're safe in here, though," Nicole called out from the check-in desk.
"For now," Rick shrugged with a tilt of his head. He pointed at the doors. "Those are glass, and enough walkers on them and the doors will crack and break under the collective weight. I've seen it happen in a department store here in the city in the early days." He tossed a look around his people. Only Merle had been there that day he was referring to, but Merle had been handcuffed to a pipe on the roof at the time. "We need to barricade the doors, push the couches up against them. All the windows on this level, too. And stay away from the windows. None of you are new to any of this. Y'all know movement attracts them."
Finn gestured to several of his people. "Let's get these couches up against the doors. We'll stack one on top of the other if we have to."
Finn gestured to his friends Milo and Jamal, who helped him drag over one of the couches. Daryl and Tyreese grabbed the second. As the first couch was pushed against the glass doors, all five of the men lifted the second couch up, turned it around and then flipped it upside down so that it fit on top of the first like a puzzle piece. Peering over the tops of both, however, Jo shook her head with a concerned frown.
"I don't get it," she muttered.
Rick looked at her. "What?"
"Those walkers are determined to come this way, as if they were drawn here. I mean, there's no one outside right now and they can't possibly see movement in here through two sets of glass doors with the sun shining on the glass, unless they're simply noticing their own reflections. Once the others got back inside, they should've slowed down a bit and began to wander, don't you think? But they're coming right toward the doors."
Rick turned and looked back toward the entrance and could see exactly what she meant. Narrowing his gaze, he thought more on it when something came to mind. Whipping his head around, he set his sights on Lena, who had been covered in blood when she entered the lobby from outside. However, she was now nowhere to be found.
"Where's Lena?" he asked aloud to whoever chose to answer.
Others looked around for her, but came up just as dumbfounded.
"She ran down that hallway," Nicole mentioned, pointing toward the direction of pantry and Harry's office. "She might be going to clean up."
"At a time like this, cleaning up should be the last thing on anyone's mind," Jo remarked.
"Something doesn't smell right," Morgan added his two cents, "and I don't just mean the decaying crowd outside." He turned toward Rick and looked almost thoughtful. "Why was she covered in so much blood? There didn't look to be a wound anywhere on her? And why was she outside on her own? She didn't go out with our group to help load up the vehicles."
"She'd been missing since early this morning," John offered. "She was upset about Raffy dying. She might've gone off to be alone and deal with her grief. Maybe take it out on some walkers."
Jo placed her hands on her hips, a thought coming to mind. "No," she shook her head, looking at her mother. "You just got done telling me she had feelings of some sort for Raffy, and now he's dead, because I shot him. She's not just upset, she's angry. She's pissed and grieving, and that can lead to reckless behavior in the best of times. Lena's going to want justice of some sort, retribution."
"Were you some sort of psychiatrist in the old world?" Mila quipped.
"No, but my first husband was a guidance counselor, if that counts toward anything."
"Are you thinking she led them here?" Harry asked, folding her arms across her chest; looking out toward the parking lot at the approaching horde that was barreling down on the main entrance.
Jo shrugged. "I think it's a likely situation."
"Why would she lead them here, though?" Nicole demanded, sounding a little nervous. "We're her friends. This is her home."
"She fashioned herself in love with Raffy," John remarked. "Love makes you do stupid things."
A small glance passed between him and Harry, which Harry was suddenly more keen to ever since the comment Jo had made to her about him.
"She did come running into the parking lot from the road just before we noticed them approaching," Tyreese informed. "I think it's a good possibility she's responsible, whether it was intentional or not."
"I don't care what her reasons are. What matters is that we have a metric ton of shit about descend upon us and ain't none of us doing anything 'cept standing around talking about some chick's feelings about her asshole booty call," Merle bit out, glaring anxiously at the others.
The sound of glass shattering somewhere in one of the downstairs rooms echoed from down the hall to everyone's left. All heads snapped toward it and then among each other when haphazard thumping soon followed.
Finn dispatched Jamal and Milo to see what it was while Harry decided to go seek out Lena. John offered to come with her, as well as Jo as, who felt that she might be able to help; as she was trying to see things from Lena's point of view and feeling a bit bad about everything, even though Raffy's death had been necessary. Turning toward Rick, Jo grabbed his hand and placed a kiss on his cheek, letting him know she'd be right back, and to "hold the fort". He smirked and told her to be careful and agreed to keep an eye out on the girls as well.
Jo wasn't halfway down the hallway to the right with her mother and John when she heard the shouts coming from the left hallway. She turned abruptly around to see Milo bursting out of a room, backward, and shooting his gun into the room and then slamming the door shut and holding it closed with his back.
"Where's Jamal?" Jo heard Finn shout, which also caught both Harry and John's attention as well, stopping them in their tracks as they looked over their shoulders.
"One of the windows was open!" Milo shouted back. "Walkers broke through the other one and they were falling inside like fucking dominoes! Jamal got—he's gone."
"What?" Finn was too dumbstruck for words. "No…"
"Got him right in the face, Finn. Right in the fucking face." Milo shook his head, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to keep the door shut as walkers on the other side were obviously pushing back against it. "They won't stop coming, man."
Suddenly, there were more sounds of broken windows echoing from different rooms on the front side of the building's ground floor, which meant the pantry and Harry's office were likely victims. All those in the lobby turned back to the doors and peered over and around the couches to find the horde of walkers were smashing their bodies against the glass. Several heads smashed so hard they killed themselves and their bodies dropped; leaving room for more walkers to attempt to get inside.
"Get away from the doors and windows!" Rick shouted. "If they are close enough, they'll notice movement inside here and not their reflections anymore." He turned and looked upon each person. "We need to secure this ground floor. Every room facing out to the parking lot needs to be blocked off. Lock the doors or barricade them with whatever you can so any walkers getting in from those fucking windows can't get any further inside. We'll also need to check the rest of the downstairs perimeter." Turning to focus on Finn, he tapped the young man on the shoulder as Tyreese slipped down the left hallway to assist Milo in holding the door closed to the room Jamal had just been killed and devoured in. "Finn, is there a way to get onto the roof? If we can get up there, a few of us can go up there and begin taking those walkers out one by one with sniper rifles; thin the herd."
Finn shook his head. "It's a pitched roof." Then, "The fourth floor, though. Several of the rooms facing the parking lot have false balconies. The windows can be opened and someone could step out just enough to get a good enough aim."
Rick nodded. "Alright, then that's what we'll do." Looking to Daryl and Tara, he didn't even need to say anything to them. They just looked back at him and nodded in understanding.
"On it," Daryl announced, grabbing up one the rifles that were set down on one of the tables, as Tara did the same.
Both of them took off down the same hall Jo was in with her mother and John; running right past the trio to the very end stairwell. Jo's gaze followed after the pair and then she looked back at Rick who gave her a nod, assuring her they'd be fine and to go ahead.
Turning back to Harry, Jo ushered the older woman and the man who was crushing on her to continue forward. They went up the same stairwell Daryl and Tara had just gone up, listening to their rushed and heavy footsteps a flight and a half above them. Harry and John stopped on the third floor, though, leading the way out into the hallway and down several doors on the front facing side of the hotel before stopping at a room with the door that was open a crack.
Stepping inside stealthily, John led the way in, and then Harry knocked on the door.
"Lena, honey; you in here?"
"Fuck off," was the reply they received.
A slight breeze was permeating through the hotel room and the trio noticed Lena standing at the window, which was open; the curtains flapping very slightly. The younger woman was leaning forward, her body protruding out the window enough where she had a decent view of the horde in the parking lot below.
"Lena, did you lead them here?" Harry questioned, stepping cautiously forward.
"Yes."
All three weren't prepared for the immediate honesty.
"Why?"
"Because Raffy's dead, and none of you seem to give a fuck," Lena replied, turning around and realizing Jo was standing there, too. "You let someone you don't even know kill him and you've done nothing to get justice for him!"
"Lena, Jo's my daughter. She's not someone I don't know."
"You've never been in her life. You said so yourself. You don't know her. You know us, Harry. We are your family, not her."
The trio quickly realized Lena was holding a gun in her hands. It was a small one, a revolver of some sort, and it was most likely loaded judging by how tensely she was gripping it.
"Raffy attacked Jo. He was going to kill her, Lena. It was self-defense," Harry continued.
"He hadn't been operating at one hundred percent for a while now, honey. You have to have seen that," John spoke in a calm voice. "We know you cared about him, and we're sorry how terrible this loss is for you, but what happened had to be done. It was unfortunate and we wish it could've been prevented, but it did happen and we need to work together to get through this. But right now, we need to work on taking care of the issue outside first."
"I want them to come for her," Lena bit out, glaring daggers at Jo as the sounds of gunshots rang out from a floor above, indicating Daryl and Tara were on task.
Jo glared right back. She didn't have time for this shit. "Well, they got Jamal instead," she informed. "You led them here and Jamal just got killed by a walker in one of the first floor rooms because of you. That is on you."
Lena looked toward the floor, letting the information sink in, but then shook her head. "No, I just—no."
She smiled. "They're coming here for you. I brought them here for all of your people."
"Where did you even find that many?" Harry wondered.
"Raffy took me on a few runs, just me and him. We found them locked in the Bobby Dodd Stadium where the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets used to play their football games. I broke open the doors and let them out, killed a few and wiped their blood on me so they wouldn't really attack me and then played a little game of follow the leader."
"Oh my god," Harry gasped. She turned to look over at Jo and John with her hand over her mouth. "That stadium can hold just over fifty thousand people in the stands alone."
Jo's face fell. "Oh my god," she repeated.
"Exactly," Lena smirked, eyeing Jo. "You took from me the one person I cared the most of in this fucking shithole of a world and now the world is going to take everything from you. I call it divine retribution, you fucking cunt."
"Lena, now stop it. It doesn't have to be this way," John approached.
"There's nothing for me left, John."
"Yes, there is. There is life."
Lena rolled her eyes. "Shut up," she barked, raised her fun and shot John in the chest.
The blast echoed throughout the room, stunning the trio; especially Jo who was painted with John's blood as she had been standing off to the side from him. As he fell backward to the floor, bleeding profusely, Jo turned to stare at the man at her feet long enough to steel herself and shut down emotion to do what came next and seemed to come naturally to her now.
Whipping her attention away from John, Jo pulled her gun from her back pocket and fired a single shot into Lena's forehead without batting an eyelash.
Because Lena had been standing directly in front of her opened window, the force of getting her head blasted the same as Raffy knocked her backward, causing her body to tumble feet over head out the window. There was no sound of her body splattering to the pavement below because her fall was broken by the bodies of the swelling sea of walkers. There was, however, a decipherable exclaim of "what the fuck" from Daryl that wafted in the window from whatever upstairs false balcony he was on.
Harry, having snapped out of her initial shock of what had all just happened, dropped to her knees and scooped John into her arms and began to cry over him.
"No, no, no, no, no," she whined.
"Jo—" he tried to speak, and Jo crouched down to his level. "Make sure…tell Francine…"
"I'll tell your niece you love her if I find her," she assured, assuming correctly what he was going to say.
"Thank…you…" A gurgling of blood got caught in his throat and he coughed it up. "Harry," he glanced up at the older woman, "I wanted t—to you…"
"I know, you idiot."
"I love you," he finished.
"I know," she insisted, pressing her lips down to his forehead. "I love you, too."
"Ahh," he grimaced, half in pain and half in some sort of amusement. "Too little…too la—"
And then he just stopped; mid-sentence.
John's eyes stared lifelessly up at Harry and quickly glazed over, determining he was gone. Harry began to sob from her loss, rocking his body to her chest, which caused his blood to soak through onto her shirt, but she clearly didn't care.
"Mom," Jo muttered, touching her hand to the older blonde's shoulder. "I'll take care of him, so he doesn't return."
"No, I'll do it," Harry insisted, shaking her head.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Frowning, Jo slipped a knife that was sheathed on her left hip and passed it to her mother. "Here. Take this."
Slowly, Harry looked down at the blade and begrudgingly accepted it as she brought her tearful green eyes up to look into her daughter's same green eyes. "Thank you," she replied. "Go to Rick and Finn, and all the others. Tell them how many of those rotters we have outside. Get everyone out now before all the exits are blocked."
Jo stood up slowly and nodded. "Okay," she agreed. "I'll be back up to get you."
Giving her mother's shoulder a squeeze, Jo turned around and hurried out of the hotel room, and shuddering slightly at what had just transpired as soon as she was alone in the hall. She wasted no time, though, heading immediately for the stairwell and taking the stairs two at a time.
Nearing the ground floor, she began to make out the sounds of gunfire and her nerves began to fray. Whipping through the door to the ground floor hallway from the stairwell, Jo turned toward the direction of the lobby and saw people scattering. Guns were raised and firing off toward the main entrance and the closer Jo got, she could see the doors had been shattered under the weight of all the walkers pressing against the glass; both sets of glass doors, too. The couch that had been stacked on top of the other had toppled over and walkers were spilling into the lobby and coming out of other rooms from the ground floor via windows they'd crashed through.
People were screaming in fear or shouting directions of where to go and what to do next and all Jo wanted was to find Rick, Finn, Sophia and Mika. Those four were her priority, no matter how much she loved the rest of her people. Rick was her husband, Finn was her brother and the girls were her daughters now. They meant the most to her before anyone else.
"Rick!" Jo shouted, trying to determine where he was in the foray.
"Jo!" she heard him shouting back.
Narrowing her gaze, she could barely make him out at the other end of the opposite hallway, firing a few shots into two or three walkers.
"Rick!" she called out again. "Where are the girls?!"
"Mika's here! I don't know where Sophia went!"
"Fuck," she grumbled. "We need to leave—NOW! There thousands of walkers out there! We need to go before it's too late and we can't leave!"
"Head for the back of the hotel! I'll meet you there!"
"I need to find Sophia and get my mother!"
They both paused and held eye contact.
As several walkers suddenly began to pile out of the room closest to Jo, she jumped backward and removed her gun, firing a few shots into their heads.
"I'll find you!" Jo shouted to Rick.
"I won't leave without you!"
"You can if you have no choice!" she called back as she retreated to the stairwell again. "You get out of here if you get both the girls!"
"NOT WITHOUT YOU!" he practically screamed, trying to make her hear over the increasing din of gunfire, frantic shouts, shattering glass and walker snarls.
"Yes! Without me!"
She didn't wait a second longer. Jo darted into the stairwell and tore up the stairs like a bat out of hell, running through to the second floor, calling out Sophia's name…