A/N – Sorry it took me so long to update! This is a short one, but I wanted to get something up. My schedule is not allowing me to write fan fiction as much as I'd like, but I'm doing my best. Thank you so much for the reviews! I hope you can appreciate where both Daryl and Carol are coming from in this chapter.


Chapter 52 – An Ethical Dilemma

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Carol rose up off the ground with Rose in her arms; the baby's face now quickly warming to a rosy pink color. Carol offered the baby to Daryl and he accepted her numbly.

Then Carol lunged her body at Lori in full assault mode, her face twisted with rage and she screamed, "you stupid bitch!"

Lori, even in her zoned out state, seemed to be aware of the danger as she started backing up away from Carol even before she had lunged. But the retreat was useless, Carol knocked Lori onto the ground and they rolled there a moment – Lori flailing in an attempt to get away and Carol consumed by vicious anger and fueled by a desire to punish the other woman for her acts.

And then Carol was being pulled away by Andrea, the other woman's arms wrapping around Carol's body – one across her chest and the other across her waist, pulling Carol in close as Andrea made shushing, calming noises in her ear.

"Shhh, shh, shh, it's okay, it's okay, Carol, just relax," Andrea's voice floated in Carol's ear but did nothing to soothe the anger inside of her.

Carol was trembling, literally shaking with rage. She'd never been so angry in her life. Not with the governor, not when she killed Jake, and not even when Ed was alive. She locked eyes with Lori who was standing next to T-Dog now, her eyes wide and wet as she stared at Carol in some kind of shock.

"I hate you," Carol spat the sentiment at Lori, struggling to break free from Andrea's grasp.

"But… but… what… what's going on?," Lori said softly, her voice low, and she blinked several times as if she was just waking up.

"What's going on?," Carol ranted, enraged, "what's going on is you probably killed your son and you nearly killed my daughter, you stupid fucking bitch!"

"That's 'nough!," Daryl hollered coming to stand in between where Andrea held Carol and where Lori and T-Dog stood.

Carol gritted her teeth and glared at Daryl. "She almost killed our daughter!," Carol hissed after a moment.

Daryl held a hand up to her, glanced down at Rose in his arms, and then stepped closer to Carol, his face right up against hers. "I know… but this ain't the time for flyin' off the fuckin handle, woman. Git a hold-a yerself, take Rose, and get 'er to the doc… jus' in case. We've got this." He glanced at Andrea and T-Dog to confirm.

Carol's whole body was tense, but she huffed an angry breath of concession. "You want to handle it, Daryl… you better fucking handle it," she said, her tone harsh as she took the baby from his arms and stalked off up the hill toward the building.


Daryl might have chuckled if the circumstances weren't what they were. His woman had come into her own, and he couldn't help but be proud of her. He knew she was pissed at him, probably had a right to be. He couldn't deny that Lori deserved Carol's words and her attack and probably much more, but he was the group's leader now and he had to deal with this.

How exactly to deal with it, he had no clue, however. Lori wasn't a dangerous woman normally. Neglectful, definitely. Reckless sometimes, yes. Damn fuckin' stupid, hell to the yes.

He was sure in another life, before walkers roamed everywhere, what Lori had done would get her arrested, convicted, and probably sent up to jail… or at least locked up in some kind of psych ward. But this wasn't back then. Those rules didn't apply anymore.

Lori wasn't like the governor or his people, and she wasn't like the men that were back at that camp with Merle… this was something else, something they weren't equipped for.

"What are you going to do?," Andrea asked, her tone implying she already knew the answer.

"What'd ya like me to do, blondie?," Daryl snarled as he pulled the gun from his pants.

"You're gonna shoot her?," T-Dog said, one of his hands gripping the arm of a very confused Lori.

"I… don't…. understand," Lori said, her voice flat and halting.

Daryl looked at Lori, at the confused look on her face, at the way her eyes were dull and nearly lifeless; her face was pale, blood stained her pants. "Well fuck," he muttered to himself. He stuck the gun back into his belt and started up the hill briskly. "Bring 'er the fuck up 'ere," he snapped at T-Dog, waving for Andrea to follow.

"You're not going to shoot her?," Andrea said stepping into line with him as they moved up the hill. T-Dog trailed them, pulling Lori along with him. Lori didn't struggle, but she moved complacently, shuffling her feet like she couldn't pick them up off the ground, looking around as if she really had no idea what was going on.

"I ain't decided yet," Daryl muttered in response.

"What's to decide exactly?," Andrea said.

Fuckin' Rick… promise a man somethin' on his deathbed, ya best fuckin mean it. He'd promised Rick that he'd look after Lori, after his whole family. Daryl couldn't help but think that he had failed once again. But Daryl only let the thoughts simmer in his head, didn't give them voice; he didn't know if anyone would understand his dilemma anyway.

Instead, he just looked at Andrea for a second, his eyes hard and cold, and then picked up the pace, moving swiftly up the hill to reach the others. To get more information from them. To give them all the information he had. And they could figure this out together.