Disclaimer: I own nothing. The amazing show belongs to the amazing Frank Darabont
Special Thanks SeverusSnape'sLove, Ryan1441, , bitchinstache, sweetkiwi604, peace486, MisstressWolf09, Dalonega Noquisi, purple-pygmy-puff16, mrskaz453, and VampWolf92 for all of your wonderful reviews! I have over 200 reviews now! And I cannot thank all of my reviewers enough!
All my love and thanks to my 133 followers and 83 favorites
Chapter Thirty Seven: Hold On
I open my eyes when Judith's cries sound in my ear. I lie still hoping someone would get up, but a few minutes later she was still crying so I groaned and tossed the blanket off me. I sit up and Daryl wakes up. "Where you going?" he asks, his eyes still closed and his voice gruffly.
"Judith is crying." I say, standing up from the bed.
"Judith?" he asks, obviously still fuzzy from sleep. I pull on a jacket and slip my shoes on.
"I think you call her Little Ass Kicker."
"Doesn't Beth still watch her?"
"Yes, but she's crying. Just let me go see and I'll be right back." I say pushing open the cell door.
"Don't go to the basement." He calls after me. I roll my eyes and walk down the steps and I see Beth pacing back and forth in front of the other cells.
"What's up?" I ask, walking over to her and looking at my crying niece.
"She's hungry. All the bottles are in there." Beth says pointing at the room Merle is in. "Daddy told me not to go in there without him. So did Rick."
"Keep walking her and I'll go get a bottle." I say sneaking into Rick's cell and grabbing his set of keys. I'm very good at stealing things from Rick while he is sleeping.
"You're gonna get in trouble." Beth says as I walk over to the door.
"Judith needs her bottle. I'll be right back." She still looks unsure. "If it bothers you so much go get Daryl." That just makes her shake her head. I give her a smile before I key open the door.
I look up and Merle is up on the top landing, he looks like he's asleep, but who knew. I go over to where Judith's stash is and I grab a pan off the counter and turn the stove on and heat up some water. "So what's your name little missy?" I roll my eyes as Merle talks. I should have known he was awake. It would be too easy for him to just be asleep. But I just ignored him, it would take me half a minute to get this done and back in bed. "You weren't at the Atlanta camp. You one of the old man's kids?" I poke the water with my finger before I pour some into two of the bottles. "You don't talk much do ya?" he asks again. I reach for the can of formula only to have it snatched off the counter. I turn and see Merle holding it. When had be come down from the platform? "Maybe if you answer my question you'll get this back."
This is the first time I've see him up close. He is a lot older than Daryl, probably a bigger gap between them than Rick and I. "Kelly." I answer. "And no, I'm not Hershel's daughter."
"Kelly huh? Nice name. I'm Merle."
"I know who you are." I say, holding my hand out for the formula.
"If you're not one of his, where did they pick you up at? I know all them expect for his."
"Can I have that please?" I ask, "The baby is crying."
"I know it is, woke me up."
"If you give me that she'll go back to sleep."
"I said you could have it back when I got my answers."
"No, you said you would give it back if I answered your question not questions." To my surprise he laughs.
"That I did. And I keep my word." He holds out the can, but not very far. I have to take a quick step forward to snatch it back. I quickly grab the bottles and walk away from him. I shut the cell door behind me. He made me really uncomfortable.
Beth hands Judith to me while she makes a bottle and soon she is nursing away on her green bottle. I tell Beth to go back to bed and I take Judith up to where Daryl is sleeping.
I sit down on the bed and lean back against Daryl who wakes up. "We have a visitor." I say, turning so he can see Judith. He smiles and sits up. He motions to hold her and I hand her over, tossing a burp rag over his shirtless shoulder. I lean against the wall and watch him hold my niece. It's the cutest sight I had ever seen. He looks like a natural. His eyes are glued on Judith's, he is murmuring little things at her, and when he tosses her over his shoulder and she burps he chuckles before feeding her some more.
Soon Judith is asleep and Daryl hands her back to me and I take her back down the steps to where she sleeps in a crate in Rick's cell. I guess Beth got her from Rick. I lay Judith down and put Rick's keys back before I go back to Daryl I kick my shoes off and crawl back on the tiny bed. I yawn as Daryl tosses the blanket back over me. "Go back to sleep." He says, wrapping his arm back around me. I lace my fingers with his as I close my eyes.
The next morning I wake up and Daryl is gone, I didn't even wake up when he had climbed over me. I change into my clothes for the day before I walk out of the cell. I see Daryl by our old sleeping spot. "All my stuff is exactly where I left it." He says when I sit down on one of the mattresses.
"I didn't move any of it. Just grabbed my stuff, which was in the storage cell I might add, and went to that cell. Those days after you left were not exactly my shinning moments." He looks up me guiltily.
"I'm sorry I packed your stuff up. I just couldn't stand to look at it anymore. I thought you were dead." He says, shifting up to sit beside me. "I've lost people before, my mom, friends, hell I thought I had lost my brother. But none of them hurt as much as loosing you did."
"I'm sorry." I say, looking down at my hands.
"It wasn't your fault. You didn't ask to be chased into the tombs."
"But I hid from you." I say, looking back up at him. His face a look of confusion.
"What?"
"I heard shuffling in the hallway, and I didn't have anything to kill walkers with, so I hid. And when I came out there was a trail of walker bodies. I hid from you."
"You did the right thing." He says after looking at me for a few seconds. "You didn't know it was us. What if it would have been a group of walkers? You didn't know. Don't ever feel bad because you did something to keep yourself safe." He says, giving my hand a squeeze and flashing a smile my way. "Come on. Help me pack my crap up. I'm moving in with you. That cage wasn't so bad."
We get his stuff moved and then we sit on the steps and wait for everyone else to wake up. I guess everyone is wiped from the days past. Daryl sits behind me so I can lean against him. He reaches his hands out to rub my shoulders but I jump in pain when his hand brushes against my stitches. "Sorry." He says, rubbing my shoulder above the injury. "I forgot that was there."
"So did I. Those pain-killers Hershel gave me are awesome."
"They made you lazy after a while. Made me do all the work." He says with an obnoxious smile.
"I just got shot; I'm allowed to be lazy." I say sticking my tongue out at him.
"So this is why you came back." Daryl stiffens as Merle's voice sounds from beyond the cell door he's locked behind.
"Ya know little brother, if a chick was what you were after-."
"Shut up." Daryl says back.
"Your little girlfriend there wasn't too forth coming with answers this morning. Maybe you can tell me who she is." Merle says, his seemingly always present smile on his face.
"When did you talk to him?" Daryl asks, looking at me.
"When I went to make Judith a bottle. I didn't talk to him, he talked to me."
"More like at you. She sure don't say much." Merle corrected.
"It's too early for this." Rick says, coming out of his cell. "You," he says pointing at Merle. "Back away from the door if you want breakfast." Merle raises his hand and metal stump and stepped away from the door. Rick motioned for me to follow him into the room and he gave Merle the basics of the rules and told him who the people were that he didn't know. He made a special mention that I was his sister. Rick and his protective streak.
"We're not leaving." Rick says after we all went back to the cell block and the conversation turned to what to do about this threat from The Governor.
"We can't stay here." Hershel says, and Maggie backs him up with some pretty sound logic.
"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds."
"We can't even go outside." Beth adds, Judith sleeping away in her arms.
"Not in the daylight." Carol says, folding yet another shirt. Where was this lady getting all these clothes from?
"Rick says we're not running, we're not running." Glenn says. I'm not surprised by that, Glenn is a pretty awesome guy, loyal to no end.
"No, better to live like rats." Merle sneers from his side of the gate.
"You got a better idea?" Rick asks, annoyance in his voice.
"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day.
But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now." I couldn't help but notice the more Merle talked the faster Michonne cleaned her sword. She rightfully wasn't quite over the fact he tried to kill her.
"We ain't scared of that prick." Daryl says as he paces up and down behind where I'm sitting, my feet dangling in the air over the lower cells.
"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell." Merle goes on, making points too important to ignore. Merle may not be the most likeable of people, but unlike the rest of us, he actually knew The Governor, actually knew what he was capable of. "…shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."
"Let's put him in the other cell block." Maggie says, sounding a little too nervous. She had been so different since they got back. What had happened?
"No." I say, "He's got a point." Rick gave me an annoyed look. But even he knew it was true.
"This is all you!" Maggie yells at Merle. "You started this!"
"What difference whose fault it is?" Beth asks, going down the steps. She must have put Judith down. "What do we do?"
"I said we should leave." Hershel says, looking up at Rick from where he was sitting on the steps. "Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here." Rick gives us a quick sweeping look before he turns to leave, Hershel however, doesn't let him.
"Get back here!" He yells, using a tone of voice that I have never heard him use, it even makes Maggie and Beth take a step back from him.
Hershel is in Rick's face, looking and sounding more demanding and I have ever seen. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it." He says, gesturing around the room. "We understand why. But now is not the time." Then Hershel's voice changes from authoritative to something softer, but still demanding action. "You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something" Rick says nothing back, but I can see him mind wheeling. He's thinking of a way. I hoped he would find a way. I didn't want to leave here. Regardless of the walkers outside in the yard, I still wanted this place.
I swing my legs back up and I stand to go follow Rick. "Aunt Kelly. Can I go?" Carl asks, looking up at me from the level below. I nod and watch him follow after his father. I sigh and go back to my cell. I drop down on the bed and rub my eyes.
"You okay?" Daryl asks, leaning against the wall. I nod before I turn to look at him.
"Do you think staying is the right thing? I mean, if all that stuff your brother is saying is true than we have no chance. We have four men, four women, a kid, a baby, and a useless lump. He has a town."
"Who's the useless lump?"
"Carol." I say, crossing my arms.
"You're not still on about her are you?" Daryl asks, sitting down beside me.
"How does she not drive you crazy?" I ask, completely confused as to how she doesn't bug him.
"I just ignore her. I told her off and all she's really done since then is ignore me or glare at me. I can live with that." He says, wrapping an arm around me.
"She still drives me crazy." I say leaning against him.
Eventually we get up, but there isn't too much we can really do. I play with Judith and Daryl went to go talk to Merle. As long as they didn't take off again I didn't have a problem with it. I knew I should play nice with Merle. He was Daryl's brother and it looked like I was going to be stuck with him for a long time. But that was a problem for another day. Right now I was sitting on the top level with a blanket spread out in front of me and Judith was laying on it. She was awake and I was playing with her feet, which were very ticklish. "She needs tummy time." Carol says walking by me. I close my eyes and clench my teeth. Just ignore her. I open my eyes and see her walking into the cell that Daryl and I moved into. I call down to Beth and have her get Judith then I follow behind Carol. She's picking up Daryl's clothes off the floor.
"What are you doing?" I ask, making her jump, she obviously didn't think I was going to follow her.
"I'm getting Daryl's laundry." She says, turning around with an armful.
"He has been back one day. His laundry can wait." I say, crossing my arms.
"It needs to be done."
"What is your problem Carol? Why do you keep putting yourself in the middle of me and him?"
"I'm just doing his laundry."
"No, you're trying to cause a problem. Just put his clothes down and walk away." I say, pointing at the bed. Carol just shrugs and drops them, but she magically missed the bed and they landed on the floor. I roll my eyes and walk in to pick them up.
"He'll get tired of you." Carol says as I bend to pick them up. "You gave in too fast. He'll be done with you faster than that Phillip guy-." I spun around and punched her in the face. She stumbled back with a scream.
"Where did you hear that!?" I yelled as I advanced towards her fallen form. She's scooting away from me as fast as she can, but I'm faster. I grab her shirt and pull her forward. I vaguely register the sound of footsteps and calls of my name. But I want my answer! "Tell me! Where did you hear about him!"
"A-a-at your h-house! Y-you told T-T-Dogg!"
Rick and Daryl pop into the cell and Rick grabs my arms as Daryl pries my fingers off Carol.
"Get her out of here!" Rick tells Daryl. And Daryl grabs Carol under the arms and hauls her out of the cell. Rick shoves me towards the bed before he shuts the door. "What the hell was that!?" He asks, spinning towards me. "We have enough problems without you starting more shit here."
"She started it." I say, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them.
"I don't care who started it! You know better than that!"
"She deserved it!" I say, gesturing at the door. Rick steps closer to me and grabbed the bed above mine.
"You cannot just hit people anytime you feel provoked! Carol doesn't understand how to make it in this world. You have to be understanding-."
"No!" I say standing up and confronting my brother. "None of us knew how to live in this world. But we worked and figured it out. All she's been doing is hiding behind excuse after excuse. First Ed, then Sophia. Now that she's out of excuses she's trying to get someone who can survive in this world!"
"Kelly-."
"I won't let her take him! Daryl is mine!" I say, stomping my foot and crossing my arms again. My heart is racing.
"Feel better?" Rick asks after looking at me for a few seconds. I shrug and drop back down on the bed. Rick sits down beside me.
"Kelly, I'm not saying you don't have a point. But I am saying that you can't just fly off the handle every time you get mad. There is enough going wrong without you adding to it."
"She brought Phillip into our fight."
"She did what?"
"Yea. She said that Daryl was going to do what Phillip did. And I know that's not true, but it made me so mad. What right does she have to even talk about something she doesn't know about?"
"She doesn't. But you still should have handled the situation better. You can't keep doing this. I didn't teach you how to throw a punch so you could attack people."
"I'm not apologizing."
"I'm not saying you have to." He says, turning to look at me as I pull my knees back up to my chest. "But I am saying that you need to work better at getting along with her. Carol may not be the best we have, but she does keep the cell block clean and the dishes done." Rick says with a smile, obviously trying to get me to smile.
"True." I say.
"You stay here until you're ready to go out. I'll make sure Carol hasn't latched herself onto Daryl."
I lay down on the bed as Rick walks out. I was still pretty furious with Carol. She had no right to bring Phillip into anything. I didn't bring Ed up with her. But at least if she was here I wouldn't be stuck sweeping or washing dishes. I close my eyes and a few minutes later I'm able to hear a fairly heated statement from Daryl. "Man, we gonna go through this again? Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it." I hear footsteps on the stairs and I guess he was having a confrontation with the other guys. I sit up when he comes through the cell door. "What happened?" I ask, when he sits down next to me.
"Maybe you should tell me what happened between you and Carol first. After all, you're fight ended with fists."
"But yours had to do with your brother. More important."
"Glenn doesn't want him here."
"Cant say I blame him." Daryl looks at me; I quickly put my hands up. "I'm not saying I agree. Just that I can see why he feels that way."
"What do you think?" He asks.
"I don't know him. So I can't really take a stand either way. I understand loyalty to family. Hell, I stayed in a hospital with my brother while walkers were wondering around just outside a thin door." I grab his hand. "But I also know that sometimes those we love can hold us back."
"Merle is better than he appears to be."
"And I believe you. Want to help me get to know him better?" I ask, smiling up at him.
"He's a little rough. And really rude." He warns.
"Hey, if I can spend days at a time with you, I'm sure I can handle a few moments with him."
"How was your work out?" I ask Michonne as she walks back into the block.
"Minus that man trying to tell me I need to forgive him for hunting me down, good."
"Well at least one of us is having a good day." I say, handing her my glass of water. She sits down next to me.
"What did you hit that woman for?" she asks, taking a long drink from the glass.
"Word travels fast."
"It's a very small prison." She says, smiling at me a little. "But why did you?" I sigh and look up at the windows.
"When someone brought Brandon up in conversations did you ever get mad? Even if what was saying didn't pertain to what he did to you, did you get mad?"
"For a long time I did. Is that what happened?"
"Carol has kind of had a problem with me for a while. I think she blames me for her loosing her daughter. So maybe she thinks if she takes Daryl she'll feel better."
"How would you be responsible for her loosing her daughter?"
I told her about we broke down on the road, the herd of the walkers, how Sophia and I got chased into the woods, how we got separated, then how we found her a walker in Hershel's barn. "After that she just seemed to have it out for me. I mean, she was annoying when Sophia was missing, but it got worse after we found her in the barn."
"That wasn't your fault." Michonne says, giving me her serious eyes. "You did the only thing you could. You tried to keep that little girl safe."
"But I failed. And in her eyes that's all that matters. I'm to blame for Sophia's death."
"Even if she feels that way, she has no right to bring him into this. No matter how mad she may be at you."
"I wouldn't have hit her if she wouldn't have tossed Daryl in the same boat as him. You wouldn't know it by looking at Merle, but Daryl is sweet. He feels so much, cares so much, but he hides it. Hides his own feelings for the most part. He really helped me put what happened with Philip to rest." I laugh after a few minutes. "The world has gone to hell and I'm still haunted by something that happened years ago."
"Our past shapes us into who we are. And who we are dictates how we act here, in this new world. Don't ever feel ashamed about your past. And don't ever think that you should just get over it."
"What would I do without you getting all in my face and making me see how things really are?"
"You would be Carol." She says, giving a laugh. The door opens and Carl runs in.
"Andrea is outside!" He yells, and I stand up and watch as Rick, Daryl, Merle, and Glenn grab there guns and run outside. I look over at Michonne and her eyes are locked on the door. I quickly follow everyone outside, telling Beth to stay with Judith.
The sun is hot and bright, Rick and the guys move towards the gate in formation while the rest of us hang back by the cell block door. I squint my eyes and see Andrea. She is leading a walker around with one of those things Hershel had used back on his farm. Rick and Daryl get close to the fence and Rick demands to know if Andrea is alone. "Open the gate!" Andrea yells back, obviously the walker on the stick wasn't working all to well.
"Are you alone?!" My brother yells again.
"Rick!" Andrea yells back, disbelief in her voice. I see Rick hesitate, but soon he tosses Daryl the keys and tells him to open the gates. He does and the moment Andrea is through the gate Rick is pointing his gun at her and yelling at her.
"Hands up! Turn around." Andrea stumbles back, throwing her hands in the air, looking around at Rick like he was crazy. Rick gets her against the fence and he starts checking her. "Turn around now!"
"All right." Andrea says, keeping her hands up. She stays calm until a walker gets close to her through the fence. She screams and Rick pulls her away from the fence before ordering her down on the ground.
"I asked if you were alone." Rick says, as he finishes checking her.
"I am." Andrea says, sounding out of breath. Rick rips her bag from her shoulders. She just looks at everyone, but nobody is really looking at her. No, they are all focused on the area around us. Just looking for any sign of movement. Any sign that Andrea was just bait.
"Welcome back." Rick says, pulling Andrea up from the ground. He leads her into the prison. Daryl and Merle the last ones in.
Rick leads her inside; Andrea seems to freeze as the room is reveled to her. I guess compared to the normal town she was living in this was a step back, but to us it was home. Carol comes down from the steps and Andrea immediately embraces her, finally clearing the steps so the rest of us can get inside. I sit down on a table between Daryl and my brother. "After you saved me, we thought you were dead." Carol says. I roll my eyes. Carol had said she was dead. Andrea pulls away and looks at us all. I also can't help but feel very happy about her swollen left cheek.
"I can't believe this." She says after a few minutes. "Where's Shane?" she asks, looking around. I lower my eyes. She didn't know what happened that night. She still thought Shane was a good guy. I guess she figured out he was gone because she asks about Lori next.
"She had a girl." Hershel says, breaking the silence. "Lori didn't survive."
"Neither did T-Dog." I say, not wanting her to ask about our lost anymore.
"I'm so sorry." She says, trying to process it herself. It was hard to remember she knew them too; she had cared about them too. "Rick, I-." But she doesn't finish. She just shakes her head and looks around the drab room.
"You all live here?"
"Here and the cell block." Glenn says, he sounds so different than he used to, has a different stance than before.
"There?" She asks, pointing in the right direction. "Well, can I go in?"
"I won't allow that." Rick says, finally speaking again.
"I'm not an enemy, Rick." Andrea defends herself.
"We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up."
"He said you fired first." She says, sounding very confused.
"Well, he's lying." Rick says, but his voice was anything but convincing. And if Andrea was really that involved with The Governor, then she might not believe Rick.
"He killed an inmate who survived in here." Hershel says.
"We liked him." Daryl adds. "He was one of us."
"I didn't know anything about that." Andrea says her voice thick with emotion. "As soon as I found out, I came." She turns to Maggie and Glenn. "I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."
"That was days ago." Glenn says.
"I told you, I came as soon as I could." Michonne makes a very obvious movement behind Andrea, who turns and demands to know what she told us.
"Nothing." She says, and she wasn't lying. It was Merle who had told Rick everything.
"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" Andrea says, sounding almost angry at our reactions toward her.
"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us." Glenn explains.
"With his finger on the trigger." Andrea counters, pointing at Merle. "Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?"
Andrea sighs, trying to calm down. "Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done." I look up at the name. "But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out." Andrea says. There was literally no chance that this Governor guy was the Philip I knew.
"There's nothing to work out." Rick says, advancing towards Andrea. "We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will."
"We can settle this." Andrea stands right back up to Rick. "There is room at Woodbury for all of you." Even I have to laugh at that idea.
"You know better than that." Merle says.
"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?" Hershel asks, sensing tempers were getting a little out of control.
"No." Andrea admits.
"Then why did you come here?" I ask, trying to wrap my head around her actions.
"Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack."
"I'll tell you what." Daryl speaks up; I can feel anger and distrust rolling off him in waves. "Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye."
"We're taken too much shit for too long." Glenn talks again, saying things that are so unlike him it's almost scary. "He wants a war? He's got one."
"Rick." Andrea turns back towards my brother, she's begging for reason. But I don't think she's going to find it here. Not after that man backed us into a corner like this. "If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town." Then she turns to look at the rest of us. "Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."
"You want to make this right, get us inside." Rick says, and I know that's his final offer. And when Andrea turns him down Rick walks away. "Then we got nothing to talk about."
We all just stay in silence. Andrea's face in disbelief and the air filled with unease. I stand up from the table and walk into the cell block. Let them deal with her. I take Judith from Beth before I sit down on the steps with my niece. She's squirming in her blanket. "You're getting so tired of being bundled up huh?" I ask, laying her on the tops of my legs. I check her diaper and wrinkle my nose when it's wet. "You little pee monster." I say, standing up and going over to where we keep some of the diapers. I give her a quick change and wipe under her chin and around her neck. I blow on her belly before I re-snap her outfit. "I'm gonna tell you a funny story about your momma okay?" I tell her as I carry her back over to the steps.
Several stories and a bottle later Andrea walks up the steps. "I couldn't leave without meeting Little Ass-Kicker." She says, I stand up and let Andrea see my niece. "May I hold her?" She asks, looking at me a little unsure. I nod and hand Judith over. Andrea immediately ooh's and awe's over her.
"Got her?" I ask before I let go.
"I got her. Oh, look at you." She says, a big smile on her face. "Let me guess. Daryl named her Ass-Kicker." I laugh and nod. "I bet Rick appreciated that."
"Her real name is Judith."
"Hi, Judith. Oh, how precious are you? What happened to Lori?"
"We had a walker problem, Lori got scratched. Died the day after."
"I'm so sorry." Andrea says, shaking her head sadly at me.
"I wasn't here. T-Dogg and I got trapped in the tombs; he died trying to get me out. I wondered around for a few days before another group found me.
"Another group?" Andrea asked.
"Yea, there leaders name was Tyreese. The front side of the prison is burned down. Walkers flood in through the hole everyday.
"What about Shane?" She asks, I drop my eyes and wring my hands.
"Rick killed him." I say, not really wanting to explain what happened. But Andrea wanted to know. So I told her. I told her everything from the Randal story being a lie to Shane trying to shoot Rick and how Rick shot him instead.
"Rick's become cold. Unsteady."
I couldn't help but laugh. "If you think this is bad you should have seen him all winter. Rick has his reasons for being this way, but I wish he wasn't. I miss my brother."
"I missed you all. All I wanted the whole winter was to be back with you all."
"Michonne isn't the best of company. Trust me I know."
"You know her? From before?" Andrea asks, handing me back Judith. I lay my niece back down in her little mail carrier.
"It's a small world. It had been a while, but I would recognize her anywhere."
"She's defiantly tough. Has she always been like this?"
"Take a way the sword and yea." We share a small laugh. "Can you tell me what Philip looks like?" I ask.
"Why?" Andrea asks.
"I knew someone named Philip from before. And if I found Michonne, maybe this is him." I say, even though I was praying they just had the same name. "I know the chances are slim, but I would still like to know."
"He's tall, middle 40's maybe, brown hair and eyes." Andrea says and I'm filled with relief.
"That's not him. The Philip I knew had green eyes, and he would only be in his 30's." I say, trying not to smile.
"I hope you find him." Andrea says, giving me a small smile. I let out a breath and smile at her.
"You better go. It'll be dark soon."
As night fell so did a somber mood. Rick even had Merle in the cell block. Maybe the reality that this thing with the Governor really was happening was the cause, maybe it was Andrea's arrival, her bringing up all the people we had lost, or a combination of it all. But as I sat on the steps next to Maggie, a small glow from the camping lantern casting a dim light on everyone, I felt cold. But not helpless. What Glenn had told Andrea was true. We had fought for this prison, we had lost our people here, and we were going to hold on to what we had fought for. We were going to fight Woodbury for our right to survive and live here. Rick comes down the steps with Judith in his arms. I stand up out of his way and I sit down next to Beth. She looks around at everyone before she starts to sing. Again it's a song I had never heard before. But it seemed to help the mood. Her voice gave me the chills and I wished I could sing half as good as she could.
When she was done we all broke away. I hugged Rick and Carl before Daryl took my hand and lead me up the steps. We quietly change and crawl into bed. Daryl wraps his arms around me and holds me tight. "We'll be okay." He says to me, his voice so low the darkness seemed to eat up his words. I just nod. Not sure how to feel. Even though we would fight for the prison, it didn't mean we would win.
Note: Just a quick reminder with the whole Governor thing. Since the Philip Kelly dated is The Governor's brother, this is going to involve the comic story line that has The Governor taking his brother's name. In the comics, The Governor's real name is Brian and his brother's name was Philip.