"Wynona", Rick stares the slab of ribs cooking on her brick stone wood fire grill.
"I really appreciate everything you've done for Michonne, Carl, Daryl, Morgan and his family and of course myself.
But, Michonne feels that maybe all of them should stay in your house."
"Are you serious?"
He recognizes how absurd his request is.
To ask this woman to allow complete strangers to a occupy her in-law cottage instead of one of some of the guest rooms, the reason why so many guest room were created in the first place, is asking for way more than was offered.
"Michonne feels nervous not knowing what's wrong with his daughter so she thinks that if they can be kept in ", he whispers, "quarantine, that we'd all be better off for it."
"You know…" he places his hands in his pants pocket, "…just in case."
"In case what Rick", she looks away to grab a bowl of bbq sauce off outdoor grill island.
He really didn't want to say because if he did then that would be an invitation for it to happen.
"In case…you know…if she has the flu."
She cock's her head back with the tiniest of knowing smirks.
Even Daryl who's been playing fetch with the dogs stops playing after eaves-dropping up to the point of Rick's reasoning.
Wynona looks over at Daryl and the two start to chuckles at once.
"The flu Rick. Really", she removes a brush from a drawer on grill.
She nods her head brushing sauce on the ribs, "O.k, But I want to remove some personal items from there first".
Wynona removes her apron and places it around Rick's neck, "You can cook on a grill right? Don't burn my ribs."
As she walks away Daryl walks over to Rick to laugh in his face, "You can't lie for shit".
Wynona walks in to her in-law suite to remove some sentimental items from her house.
While passing by the bathroom she sees Michonne cleaning out the bath tub.
"What are you doing Chonnie?"
She turns around, "Morgan's step-daughter. He said that she's running a pretty high fever so I'm sterilizing the tub in case she needs a cold bath."
Michonne knew that Wynona was gonna let perfect strangers stay in her suite like she had suggested to Rick earlier.
Wynona leans against the vanity to ask, "You…you believe that the little girls been bit?"
"Noni, I honestly don't know. I feel like I'm getting a handle on the truth of things what's real", she resumes cleaning the tub, "…and the truth, the real stuff that I know can happen. It only takes on person to start a chain reaction.
There's only 1 possibly two people on this ranch so coldly equip to…put down someone they're close to in order to prevent more death…".
Wynona folds her arms across her chest agreeing with her explanation. "So…is it…getting better now? Now that he's come looking for you?"
Michonne stops scrubbing to sit on the floor before answering, "Sometimes, I mean seeing Daryl, Carl…That's been great. They lighten my…", she looks down at her hands and they start to tremble.
She looks up at Wynona, "But when I look at him…", she stops a tear from running with her forearm then starts scrubbing the tub again, "…he reminds me of how much I've missed him but at the same time I remember how long I needed him but had to go without him."
"Michonne…" Wynona walks over to the bathroom door, "When you can tell your story and it doesn't make you cry, you know you have healed."
Michonne stares at the door as Wynona closes it behind her.
"By the size of the roast it will need at least another 1:45 minutes brick over", Rosita remove the rubber gloves she used to season the roast.
Aaron pulls out a strip of aluminum foil to rip and cover the roast. He pauses after tucking the edges underneath the edges of the pan.
He closes his eyes trying to build up the courage to ask her.
"You know that you can do 1000 times better than Abraham, right?"
She squints hard at Aaron before checking for possible eavesdroppers in the dining room or on the main stairs.
"Aaron, I get you don't like him. But I chose him cause he…"
He mocks her, "Because you can control him, right? Because he a simple di…"
Rosita holds up her index finger to cut him off before finishing his sentence, "He does what I want when I want minus what he thinks. That's what I want."
Rosita gets flustered by the discussion she takes the tray from the island and heads to the patio.
Aaron takes hold of her wrist and confesses, "I only told you what I was thinking because I care about…sometimes I think you…you don't think things through all the way. But I never thought that would make you move to…"
"So basically you'd be like Abraham if I stayed in Atmore and you would've kept your opinions to yourself, right?"
She rolls her eyes snatching her wrist from Aaron's grip leaving him speechless.
"Shane. There's a recording of a teenage girl in police interrogation room talking about a kid named Carl she encountered. She said that Carl stabbed her brother with a pen knife.", Gareth yells in the helicopter.
Shane becomes overly excited at the news because he wasn't seeing any trace of Rick's truck anywhere.
"They send a link of the video", Gareth proceeds to show him the video on his phone.
Everything the girl was saying described Carl. Even down to the description of the pen knife.
Shane had given a penknife to Carl year back when he was being bullied at school while Rick was out on assignment. Rick asked him to keep an eye on Lori and Carl at the time.
"This girl, she mentioned a last name of the girl who was with the boy, Harjos", Shane announces.
"She said something about the girls family being the owner of that casino in town. I want specs on everything about the casino owner. Where they live, how they make their money, their creditors. Everything."
Shane leans over to the pilot, "Take us back to base its getting too dark we won't find that truck right now."
He looks to Gareth, "Call them back and tell them to keep that girl until I get there. Tell Victoria to keep that girl on lock down. She'll probably be looking to redeem herself after that shit at the school."
Carl & Nina start putting fresh linens on the beds in the in law suite.
"Look, Nina we need to get our stories straight in case anyone asks us about what happened at the school. You know, why we got there so late and everything else."
Nina was still reeling from the events at the school and everything that was now happening with Sasha and her mother.
She lifts the sheets with Carl on the other side, "I don't want to talk about it."
"The hell you don't", Carl whisper yells.
"We need to get our stories straight or I'm gonna end up in prison and I will leave right now before I let that shit happen."
He stops tucking the fitted sheet to the mattress, Look stabbing Dawn's brother is a probation violation for me. My father said the next I get in trouble with the police he's gonna let me do whatever time they give me."
Carl gets mad and leaves her to finish making up the bed.
"Even if that means leaving your father, Michonne…me", Nina tells him before leaving the room.
He turns around and see Nina's face flooded with tears. He knows that what they experienced was traumatic but he wasn't about to get locked up.
He sighs, "Nina…I never wanted this to happen. None of it. But I can't keep putting my father in this situation. He doesn't deserve this…neither does Michonne. My Dad has been waiting for her to come back ever since she left", he takes off his cap, "I don't want to keep letting my father down...not now."
Carl grabs the door knob to leave.
"Carl wait! You're right. I don't want to put this kind of stress on my people either and I'm the reason you're in this situation in the first place so...what's the back story gonna be?"
Nina walks over to take his hand but before she could a loud crashing sound comes through the front door of the suite.
"We need to get her in to the tub ice bath right now!"
Carl and Nina rush out the bedroom and in to the hallway.
They see Aaron, Rick and Morgan rushing Carol in to the bathroom.
The three begin to strip her of all her clothes but her underwear and bra and begin to run cold water in to the tub.
"She's burning up", one of then says.
Michonne rushes past Carl and Nina and in to the bathroom to see the status of the situation. As she observes Carol's body she sees a bit mark on her wrists.
She looks at the bite mark then looks at Morgan seeing the same bite marks but electing to ignore it.
Michonne and Morgan's eyes meet in that instance.
"No", he shakes his head after having eye contact with Michonne.
"No, it's not that" he screams.
"She's not gonna be like them, Michonne. She's not!"
Rick and Aaron look over at Michonne's face then they follow her line of site to Carol's wrist.
Michonne stares at the three men solemnly shaking her head then walks out of the bathroom.
Morgan looks at Aaron and Rick, "NO! SHE"S STRONG SHE CAN BEAT THIS! SHE CAN" he yells.
Morgan and Aaron keep in line with exactly what they are doing but Rick goes after Michonne who's become detached from the detached state of events...again.
He completely ignores Carl and Nina as he passes them by in the hallway to catch Michonne.
Rick then grips Michonne by the forearm.
She begrudgingly allows him to pull her back to the bathroom, "Rick…", she shakes her head "No", knowing full well of what everybody wants her to say.
"Rick, don't make do this. There's nothing to be…"
He pulls her back down the hallway towards the bathroom, "No, you have to tell us what we can do to save her!"
Carl and Nina watch as he's pulling Michonne in to the bathroom.
Her face is void from emotion as she sees Carol unconscious in the tub with the running water.
"What do we need to do, just tell me", Morgan yells.
Without even thinking Michonne reaches for Rick's Beretta in his gun holster.
Rick immediately grabs her hand to stop her from pulling the gun out and grips her neck slamming her in to the bathroom wall.
"What the fuck are you doing, Michonne'?!
Carl gets scared and tries removing his father's grip around Michonne's neck, "Let her go Dad!"
Michonne's startled by what she was about to do, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I-I…" she grabs Rick hands around her neck.
Rick looks down at Carl realizes what he's doing and releases Michonne from his grip dropping her to the floor.
Michonne catches her breath but find it hard to speak after her actions seconds ago, "I-I…", she rubs her neck and coughs, "I'm sorry."
She glances at Rick who's now ashamed for grabbing her neck but also frustrated by her willing to shoot Carol without hesitation.
Then she casts her eyes over at Carl, Nina then Morgan and Aaron.
She covers her mouth horrified at what she was about to do
Over come with shame and embarrassment she walks over to the tub in tears, grabs Carol's wrist with the bite mark and closes her eyes holding the wrist to her forehead.
"Carol…", she cries, "Thank you for keeping my boy safe and happy. There's no way I'll ever be able to repay what you did for Carl. You're a better mother than I could ever be."
Michonne gently lays Carol's wrist in the tub of cold water then slowly backs away, "I'm so sorry this happened to you".
Everyone froze as she backs away.
"Wait a god damn minute", Rick interrupts, "Sasha is missing part of her leg because of a bite. Why can't we just amputate her arm?"
"It's been too long" she concedes, "The virus is throughout her body."
Michonne laments, "Anything longer than two hours…becomes fatal", she reminds Rick, "...and we still don't know if Sasha will make it either. People usually die from the side effects of the virus."
They all turn to stare at Carol who's currently shallow breathing in the tub but still unconscious.
"She'll die...she'll turn", Michonne leaves the bathroom.