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Season 3, after episode 13

The Prison, Day

Daryl stood in the guard tower, alternating between standing still while chewing the skin beside his thumbnail, and pacing the balcony. He stared at the treeline as he did both. As often as he chewed on his thumb when he was nervous, fidgety or just thinking about something, he was surprised there was any skin left beside his thumbnail to bite.

Everyone seemed to have strong opinions about what to do in response to the ultimatum that the Governor had given their group, and most people had made those opinions crystal clear. The group simply could not agree on whether they thought they should stay at the prison and fight, or whether they should take their chances on the road once again. Going back on the road would mean running from the certain danger of the Governor and just hoping that he wouldn't pursue them. There could be no guarantee of this, of course. The Governor had already shown himself to be cold and calculating, more so than they had thought that a human being was capable of. Both options were fraught with infinite potential for danger.

He heard the door creak open inside the tower, and assumed it was Carol. When he was on watch, she was his most frequent visitor. He was so certain that it was her that he didn't turn around until he heard footsteps that did not belong to Carol. Curious now, he turned around to see Rick approaching him. They nodded to each other, and Daryl stopped pacing, continuing to stare at the treeline. Rick came to the edge of the balcony and stood beside him.

"The group is split about what we should do now." Rick's talk with Hershel, away from the group, had allowed the older man to make the feelings of the group clear to Rick, not that there had been much confusion about where most people stood. "Merle and Michonne both think we should strike first, which doesn't surprise me at all. Carol and Hershel both think we should take our chances and get on the road. That doesn't surprise me either. Neither of them likes conflict." He sighed and shook his head tiredly.

"The others? Maggie 'n Glenn?" Daryl asked, mainly out of curiosity.

"Seems like they can see both sides. Beth too. Think they'd go along with whichever decision that we make… since both choices seem equally bad at the moment…" Rick sighed in frustration, shaking his head.

" 'N you? What do you think?" Daryl asked him, still looking out into the distance. The last thing he wanted was to be distracted from keeping watch, not now. With everything going on with the Governor, it felt like a matter of life and death.

Rick sighed again, looking out at the treeline, then rubbing his face with both hands. "This prison is a damn good place for us. More secure than anywhere we've been up til now, and I hate to give it up. I want to believe that we can defend it against the Governor and his manpower, his firepower… but I just don't know – how can we know that for sure? And yeah, we've survived on the road before, but now we have Hershel who can't run, and Judith… she's a damn good baby, but a baby nonetheless. We're just not as mobile as we once were. And Merle's probably right about the Governor having scouts out along the road out of here, they're probably watching for us in case we do try to leave… And maybe it would be the smart thing to do… I just don't know. It feels like there's no good option."

"So we take the best of the bad ones," Daryl said simply.

"The wrong choice could cost all of our lives," Rick replied wearily.

Daryl nodded slowly. "Yeah… but so could the right one. Ain't gonna do no good to second guess ourselves."

Rick sighed heavily, the burden of leadership weighing on him.

"There's another option…" Rick began slowly. "One that I haven't told anyone else about… And I hate it, I'd love to say I wouldn't consider it… but I don't feel like I have the luxury of doing that anymore."

Daryl raised his eyebrows, wondering what other option there could possibly be besides "stay" or "go," and what could have Rick so conflicted.

"It's about Michonne…" Rick started, then broke off, looking down and shaking his head. Whatever it was, it was clearly stressing him out.

"What about her?" Daryl asked, knowing that Rick wouldn't have brought it up at all if he didn't intend to tell him. Clearly, he didn't like admitting that he was considering it, whatever this option was.

"The Governor… he wants her. Wants us to turn her over to him," Rick managed.

"Wants her… for what?" Daryl asked suspiciously.

"Don't know. I'm guessing revenge of some sort."

"She ain't done nothing to us. She helped us, complete strangers. We might never've found Glenn n' Maggie if not for her." Daryl now understood why Rick had such a bad taste in his mouth thinking about this option. It was making him feel a little sick just thinking about what Rick was proposing, and Daryl had a pretty strong stomach for the gruesome tasks that were necessary in the world in which they lived. This was just… wrong.

"I know, I know…" Rick repeated, leaning his arms against the railing of the balcony and looking down, shaking his head guiltily.

"We gotta do a lotta shit we don't wanna do, but… that's just wrong, man," Daryl said slowly. "There's some shit we just can't do."

"But what if it's the only way to survive?" Rick looked desperate, and Daryl truly felt for him. These weren't decisions that anyone should ever have to make.

"Let's not do nothin' hasty," Daryl replied, knowing that even though time was short, this idea needed to be given more than a few minutes' consideration. If Dale could only hear this conversation… Daryl thought, glancing up at the sky, letting out a sigh that sounded a lot like Rick's own.

"When you're done on watch, I want to talk to you and Hershel about this. I'll meet you in the courtyard," Rick told him.

Daryl nodded at him once, and Rick sighed and stood up straight. "Thanks, man," he said as he turned to go. Daryl continued to scan the treeline, wondering how they had possibly ended up where they were, and how much more fucked up things were likely to get before they got better. If they got better.

Carol had watched Rick leave the cellblock, and wondered where he'd been heading in the dark. She'd slipped outside the door and seen the two shadows in the moonlight on the balcony of the guard tower. Something was up, and it was pretty clear that it had something to do with the situation with the Governor. She went back to her cell to rest for the time being, knowing that she'd have better luck finding out what was going on if she asked Daryl one on one.

Carol didn't have to wait too long before she heard Rick's boots echo through the prison, signaling that he had returned from the guard tower. She couldn't see him from the angle where she was sitting, but she'd long since committed the sound of the footsteps of most of the group to memory. She glanced out into the cellblock to confirm that it was indeed Rick's footsteps she had heard, and saw him walking quietly towards Hershel's cell on the lower floor. She made her way calmly back to the cellblock door and quietly let herself out.

The first thing Carol noticed when she stepped outside into the courtyard was the moonlight. For some reason that night it was unexpectedly bright. She noticed the full moon above, which seemed bigger than any full moon she could remember ever seeing. What was it they had called an especially big, full moon back when there had been "news" programs to discuss such trivial things? A super moon? She thought she recalled hearing that term before.

She shook her head at the memory, then let it slip from her mind as she walked quickly to the base of the guard tower. Overall, it wasn't often that she gave much thought to what once had been. The only exception to this rule was Sophia. She did think about Sophia pretty often. It was something that brought her both happiness and sadness all at once, but she would never dream of blocking the good memories to escape the pain that accompanied them. Besides thoughts of Sophia, she didn't look back very often. The bad things that had been in her life were gone, and for that she was glad. The good things that were gone… well, thinking about them wasn't going to bring them back. Rather than wallow in what used to be, it made more sense to live in the reality she now found herself in. After all, if she didn't, she wouldn't survive very long. Her current reality required constant alertness if she wanted to remain alive.

She climbed the stairs quietly and let herself into the guard tower. Daryl hadn't moved from where he'd stationed himself on the balcony, leaning on the railing and staring into the darkness at the edge of the property where the woods began.

Carol walked out and stood beside him, copying his posture as she leaned herself against the railing. He didn't looked the least bit surprised to see her. It almost seemed as if he'd been waiting for her to show up. He glanced in her direction with a small smile and a nod before returning his eyes to the treeline. She shook her head slightly, smiling to herself. Everyone was anxious, herself included, about what would happen with the Governor, how they would survive, and yet… standing here beside Daryl, Carol felt herself relax. The worries were still there, the anxiety of their reality hadn't changed… but somehow the noise in her mind faded to a whisper, and she could breathe more easily. It had to work out somehow, didn't it? Of course, she wasn't naïve enough to believe such things, not really, but somehow Daryl always brought out a calm in her that no one else could. It was addictive.

"I saw Rick out here. Everything okay?" she asked him quietly.

He breathed in deeply, considering how to proceed, how much to say, and what. What Rick had told him… it was rather shocking. However, if there was one thing that he knew, it was that Carol could be trusted. He didn't really do the whole "confiding in people" thing, but what little he had confided had been entrusted to her, and he had never regretted it.

"Rick said that the Governor gave him a way to avoid a confrontation. An 'out.' It's bad though." He continued to watch the darkness, feeling that it was somehow easier to say when he couldn't see the look that would surely spread across her face when he told her. That wasn't why he didn't look at her, though. The reality of the threat of the Governor made him worry about taking his eyes off the perimeter for more than a second at a time. He could feel her watching him, and he glanced at her for only a second before looking back out at the darkness.

He sighed, figuring he may as well tell her and get it over with. "The Governor, he… wants us to turn Michonne over to him." He heard a slight gasp from beside him, and he could see the expression on her face in his mind without looking at her. His eyes flicked to the side again for a split second, and he saw that he had been right.

"We… but we… she's… Rick wouldn't do that… would he?" Carol stuttered.

Daryl shrugged. "He hates the idea, sure don't wanna do it… but he's worried about keeping everyone safe, worried that it's the only way. I don't really know what he's thinking beyond that. He wants to talk about it some more after I'm done up here. I told him not to do nothin' hasty. We could turn her over and the Governor could still decide to attack us, after all."

He wasn't looking at her face, but he could see her lean back and slip her hands around the railing, her knuckles tightening around the metal bar and the muscles in her arms growing tense, in stark contrast to how relaxed she had looked just a minute before. She exhaled loudly, then took a deep breath. She was simultaneously shocked, horrified, and angry. Mainly, she was angry. Angry at the Governor for forcing them to make these sorts of horrible choices. And slightly more uselessly, angry at whatever or whoever had set humanity down this path that had led them to these horrible choices. Slow down, she thought to herself. Breathe. You're here, there's nothing you can do to change that, and getting angry won't help. Focus on what can be done.

He watched her arms relax again, slipping back to their previous position as she leaned forward back onto her forearms, but this time her head dropped toward her chest and he heard her sigh. There was frustration there, exhaustion as well, anger – of course – and… sadness?

"Yeah, 's fucked up," he said in reply. She glanced back at him, a small, sad smile on her lips as she nodded slowly.

"Sure is," she replied simply.

" 'M gonna do my best to talk him outta it. Can't be doin' shit like that to people. Don't care if that means we gotta fight that asshole. 'T's not right. We do that, we're no better'n he is," he growled.

"I know you will," she told him. She turned around so that she was facing into the guard tower, leaning back against the railing and sighing again. It was only a few minutes before she stifled a yawn.

"Go and get some sleep while ya can," he told her, even though he liked having her there. She obviously needed it. His eyes were still fixed on the darkness. " 'M gonna be done here soon 'n then I'm gonna talk to Rick some more. We'll figure it out." He wanted to believe that they'd figure it out.

Even without looking at her, he felt the warmth of the smile she was giving him. "Good luck," she said softly. Without thinking about it, she put her hand on his shoulder lightly as she stood back up to go. She was surprised when he didn't flinch, but she removed it anyway, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. Though she would have happily stayed and kept him company in the guard tower until he was finished on watch, as she had done many times, she knew that he was right, and that she should try to sleep. Even if she only rested, it was something.

"Thanks. 'Night," he said, glancing back at her for a second, trying to look more optimistic about the whole thing than he felt.

"Good night, Daryl," she replied as she turned to go. She descended the stairs slowly, the relative calm, despite everything, that had fallen upon her in the guard tower holding, at least for now, and she wondered if she would have time to sleep just a little bit – if she'd be able to sleep – before the prison awakened to another tense day. The sky was still dark, so it seemed possible. Striding quickly across the courtyard to the cellblock door, she tried not to think too much about what Daryl had told her. It was out of her control, after all. She knew how she felt about it, of course, but she knew that whatever Rick felt personally, he had the added pressure of leading the group and trying to ensure the group's safety. She certainly didn't envy him that responsibility. Still, she hoped that he would do the right thing.

Daryl glanced back briefly at Carol as she crossed the courtyard to the cellblock door. The gravity of the discussion to come still weighed upon him, but he felt the slightest bit better after having confided in her. Somehow she had always made him feel like a better person than he would ever have given himself credit for being, which in turn made him want to be the better person that she saw, for whatever reason. He stared back into the darkness again, watching and listening for any signs of danger. It was going to be another very long day, and he just hoped that they would all survive to see the end of it.