Disclaimer - I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I only own my original character Rayne and anything else that seems out of place.
Thank you to nuku nuku6, pineapple angel, Lunar678, shawntahorton and AcaciaDawn105 for choosing to follow and favorite this story.
Also thank you to Lunar678 for the review of chapter 54.
So I know a lot of people love Carol, but I honestly can't stand her, so she won't be playing as big of a role in my story as she did in the show. Most of her somewhat badass moments, will be done by Rayne. I'm sorry if this pisses anyone off, but it's Rayne's story and she's my hero in this.
As always reviews are appreciated.
Rick notices that Sasha has been gone quite a long time, so he goes looking for her and finds her unconscious on the floor. He yells for Tyreese to come take care of her as he chases down Lamson, while Rayne, Nico and Daryl keep an eye on the other two.
He sees Lamson running down the road in between the buildings, instead of chasing after him, he jumps into the patrol car and chases him down, mowing down walkers in his path. He doesn't want to hurt the cop, or see him get attacked by walkers, so he gets on the bullhorn and tries to reason with the man.
"Stop. Stop right now. Stop. I won't ask again." The cop doesn't slow down, or make any attempt to stop running. So with a shrug, Rick tosses down the radio and slams on the gas accelerating towards the cop.
"Oh, shit." Lamson cries just before the patrol car slams into his legs, sending him skidding face first onto the pavement. He can hear the walkers snarling as they follow the cop car, but he can't move his body; he can taste blood in his mouth and his head is bleeding as Rick gets out of the car and approaches him. "Son of a bitch. You son of a bitch. Help me. Son of a bitch. Help me. You crazy- You crazy son of a bitch. I think you I think you broke my back."
"Didn't have to be like this. You just had to stop." Rick says.
"I couldn't. I don't know you. But I think- I think I'm getting the idea."
"You just had to stop."
"Take me back. Take me back to the hospital. I did it for your friend."
Rick shakes his head, "Not after this, no. Can't go back, Bob."
"I was gonna iron it over. She's under it. And you've been out here too long." He panics as Rick pulls out his gun and points it at his head, "You'll die. You'll all—"
Rick puts a bullet into the man's head, shaking his head at the stupid choice he made to run, then noticing the walkers heading for the dead body. "Shut up."
Inside the church Carla and Michonne suddenly hear screams of panic coming from Gabriel, somehow he had gotten out and was now trapped on the porch by a herd of walkers. Michonne quickly takes an axe to the board securing the front door allowing Gabriel to run inside. But there is no way to secure the doors now, allowing the walkers to funnel inside.
"The rectory, come on. That's how I got out." Gabriel says leading them to the office in the back, Carl quickly grabs Judith and jumps down into the hole Gabriel had made in the floor. "Crawl under to the back. Just go. Take the little one and go."
Michonne follows Carl as he crawl under the building, careful not to hurt Judith as he carries her with him. Once they are free they run around and kill the walkers that are stuck onto the organ pipes, then they secure the front door from the outside, trapping the walkers inside of the church.
At the warehouse Sasha had roused herself and was sitting on a cement block with the others, when Rick came walking in they noticed he was minus one cop. After a nod from Rick, Daryl and Rayne moved away from the others to speak with him.
"He wouldn't stop." Rick says with a sigh.
"This change things?" Daryl questions glancing over at the remaining two cops.
"It has to."
"Maybe not." Rayne offers.
"She said the plan won't work. The guy who did is dead. Maybe we gotta rethink this."
Daryl nods, "They also said the cop in charge didn't have any love for him. Maybe you did her a favor."
"I don't know if they'll play ball." Rick says with a shake of his head.
Daryl shrugs his shoulders, "Let's find out."
The three of them walk back to the cops, the female Darcy saying, "He was a good man. He was attacked by rotters. Saw it go down."
"Huh. You're a damn good liar." Rick tells her.
"We're hanging by a thread here. He was attacked by rotters. That's the story."
"You said the trade was a bad idea." Daryl tells her. "What changed?"
"Lamson was our shot. So it's this or you go in guns blazing, right? You don't want that."
"If this is some bullshit you're spinning- and things go south-–" Daryl lets his threat hang in the air.
"I know. I know the good ones from the bad. Let us help you."
"What about you?" Rick asks looking at the bald cop. "You wanna live? How much?"
"Dawn's afraid she'll look weak in front of us. Thinks it'll tip things against her. Hell, it will. She'll see this trade as a rip-off if she thinks you took out one of our guys. So it's a good thing Lamson got aced by rotters."
Inside the hospital in Dawn's room Beth stands by the desk cleaning up, Dawn is sitting on a bike machine working out, her radio in her hands as she tries to get a response from someone.
"Shepherd, Lamson, what's your 20? I need status on that gunfire. Do you copy? Licari, do you copy? Does anybody copy? Damn it."
"Something wrong?" Beth asks with a smirk knowing the woman couldn't see it with her back turned.
"They don't always radio back and it drives me crazy." Dawn says. She sees Beth setting a photo down on the desk, "Wait, no, no, no. Beth, no, not there. Up by the badges. Thank you."
Beth sits the frame up on the file cabinet behind three badges from fallen officers. "Is this Captain Hanson?"
"Did someone say something about him to you?"
"Just that he used to be in charge."
"Well, you'll hear stories about him. About me. About what I did. He was my mentor. My friend. I miss him. That's the part the stories leave out."
"What happened to him?"
Dawn gets off the bike and comes over to stand beside her, "They risk their lives every time they go out there. It has to be worth it. It has to matter. He lost sight of that. So he lost them. Beth, in this job you don't need their love- But you have to have their respect. Otherwise, the day is gonna come when you need backup and you don't have it. And what comes next? Everybody goes down. Hanson lost his way. That's what happened."
As they stand out side of the church Michonne questions Gabriel about where all of those walkers came from. "Where did you go?"
"The school. I had to see. I had to know."
They all turn as they hear the boards on the front doors breaking, the walkers inside pushing against them. Sooner or later they were going to get free.
"Where do we go?" Carl asks.
Before they need to make a decision Abraham and the others drive up in the firetruck, the solider driving through the porch and parking the truck up against the doors. Abraham along with Maggie and Glenn get out of the cab, while Tara and Rosita jump down off of the back.
"You okay?" Maggie asks as she hugs the warrior.
"Yeah." She says before grasping arms with Glenn with a smile. "You're back."
Glenn nods, "Eugene lied. He can't stop it. Washington isn't the end. Where is everybody?"
Michonne's head turns to Maggie as she answers, "Beth's alive. She's in a hospital in Atlanta. Some people have her, but the others went to get her back."
"Do we know which one?" Maggie says as tears of joy fill her eyes.
"Grady Memorial."
"Oh, my God." Maggie laughs as she hugs Glenn tight.
"Let's blow this joint, go save your sister." Tara says making them all smile.
On the roof of a parking garage across the street from the hospital, Daryl, Nico and Sasha peer through their rifle scopes, watching as the cops leave the hospital and head out on the streets. Daryl snaps his fingers giving a signal to Tyreese, the man nods getting on his radio. "They're headed towards the vantage point."
"Okay. Copy that." Rick radios back as he stands on the concrete roof of the hospital parking structure with Rayne. The two holster their guns as the car containing two more of the officers rolls up and stops in front of them. They approach the car with their hands up as the cops take cover behind their doors with their guns drawn.
"Officer Franco. Officer McGinley. I'm Rick Grimes. I was a deputy in the King County Sheriff's Department. This is my daughter Rayne. We're here to make a proposal."
"Lay your weapons on the ground." The driver tells them.
"All right." Rick says glancing over to Rayne and giving her a nod. She returns the nod as they take their guns and lie them on the ground in front of them. The two aren't worried knowing that over their heads, Daryl, Nico and Sasha have them covered.
"What's your proposal?"
"You have two of my people, I have two of yours. We want to make an exchange. Then we'll be on our way. No one gets hurt."
"Who?"
"Officers Shepherd and Licari for Beth and Carol." Rayne said earning her a confused look from the officers on the latter, so she elaborated. "You picked up a woman yesterday after your people hit her with a car."
"Noah, he's with you? That's how you know?"
"Yes, he is."
"What about Officer Lamson?"
"He was attacked by the dead before we got to him." Rick says.
"Where are your people?" The driver asks a split second before a walker coming up behind the cops, gets a bullet to the brain.
Rayne smirks seeing the officers starting to sweat, "They're close."
"Radio your lieutenant. I'll wait." Rick says.
Ten minutes later Rick and Rayne have the two cops in front of them as they enter the hospital. Behind them Nico, Daryl, Noah, Sasha and Tyreese cover their backs as they all follow the other cops down the hallways. They come around a corner to find Dawn and three other cops standing at the end of a long hallway before them, a set of double doors separating them all; Beth behind them pushing Carol in a wheelchair alongside a doctor.
"Holster your weapons." Dawn radios as she and her cops do as she says.
"You, too." Rick tells his group, to which they all abide and slips their weapons back into the sheaths.
The two cops open the doors and walk down the hallway to Dawn's side, Rick and Rayne moving behind the two restrained officers as they all enter the hallway, keeping a fair amount of distance between them.
"They haven't been harmed." Rick says.
"Where's Lamson?" Dawn asks.
"Rotters got him." Shepard tells her, and Licari corroborates, "We saw it go down."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. He was one of the good guys." Dawn says sadly. "One of yours for one of mine."
"All right." Rick nods to Rayne who shoves Licari forward, "Move." She takes him a few feet forward swapping him for Carol and a black bag with her medication in it. She gives Carol a smile before pushing her back to their group and handing her off to Daryl. Then Rick trades Shepard for Beth, handing her off to Dawn.
"Glad we could work things out." Dawn says.
"Yeah." Rick scoffs before they all turn to leave.
"Now I just need Noah. And then you can leave."
Rick turns around slowly eyeing the cop, "That wasn't part of the deal."
"Noah was my ward. Beth took his place and I'm losing her, so I need him back."
"Ma'am, please, it's not-" The female officer starts to say, but she's cut off by Dawn, "Shepherd! My officers put their lives on the line to find him. One of them died."
"No, he ain't staying." Daryl says pushing Noah back beside Rayne.
"He's one of mine. You have no claim on him."
"The boy wants to go home, so you have no claim on him." Rick tells her.
"Well, then we don't have a deal."
"The deal is done." Rick states.
"It's okay." Noah says stepping up beside Rick, he doesn't want to be the reason that Beth and Carol are kept from their family.
"No. No." Rick states holding out his arm to stop the kid.
"I got to do it." Noah says taking out his gun and handing it to Rick.
"It's not okay." Beth says from behind them.
"It's settled." Dawn states.
"Wait!" Beth says running up to Noah and hugging him tight. "It's okay." Noah says holding her to him.
"I knew you'd be back." Dawn says cockily as she looks at Beth.
Beth steps up in front of Dawn, staring her down. "I get it now." She pulls a pair of scissors out of her cast and stabs them into Dawn's chest.
A gunshot goes off and blood splatters over Rick, Rayne and Daryl, as Beth's lifeless body collapses to the floor. Dawn looks up at them with a look of pure terror, she knows that she just signed her own death warrant. She tries to plead her case saying how she didn't mean to, but her cries fall on deaf ears as a pissed off Daryl pulls out his gun and shoots her point blank in the forehead.
The other officers raise their guns to fire back when Shepard raises her arms to stop them. "No! Hold your fire! It's over. It was just about her. Stand down." The other officers obey, lowering their weapons as she commanded.
"Daryl." Rayne says softly as she places her hand on his gun and lowers it to his side. His eyes meet her and she can sees the tears in them, they mirror the ones in her own. "It's okay. D. Come on." She says through her sobs as she backs him a few steps away from Beth's body.
"You can stay." Shepard says trying to reason with Rick, "We're surviving here. It's better than out there."
"No." Rick utters, emotion clouding his voice as he holsters his gun. "And I'm taking anyone back there who wants to leave. If you want to come with us- just step forward now."
Out in the parking lot Abraham pulls up in the firetruck and the group gets out approaching the hospital. They see and the others walking out and a smile breaks onto their faces, but a shake of Rick's head tells them that not everyone survived.
Rayne's eyes lock with Maggie's as she steps aside revealing Daryl carrying Beth's limp body. The huntress' ears are filled with the sound of Maggie's devastated cries, the pure emotion from the woman dropping her to her knees in grief. Nico drops down beside her gathering her into his arms and holding her tight. He could imagine how Maggie felt right now, he would be dying inside if he lost Rayne. Tears fill his eyes as he thinks about what he would do if his sister was taken from him.
Nobody moves, just staring at Daryl as he cradles Beth in his arms.
