Again due to the amount of reviews, I'll address the ones that need addressing, pure love to all though.

MollyMayhem84 - Sorry I almost made you cry. Now I feel horrible.

Lilone1776 - Did you check out her artwork? It's so purdy. I just love her to to bits. (yeah, we're talking about you skittletitz, you magnificent woman you).

Hilary Parker - Well thank you. I'm pleased that the OC's aren't horrid. I honestly didn't intend for them to get this big, but you know how people are always talking about those characters who seem to take on a life of their own...well, there you have it. They were never supposed to be this big, but they're pushy. Thanks for this review and the other one as well!

GG - I agree. Daryl on the show will take three steps back, that's for sure.

Brazen Hussy - We Merle lovers have to stick together, babes. I hope you enjoy him in this chapter, because he's awesome as always...so loveable and so wicked.

Thanks for the kind reviews, my friends! And to those of you who read but don't review, I'm just hoping you're at least enjoying yourselves. Because as much as I enjoy reviews, I ain't all about them. As long as you're entertained, kiddos.


Chapter Fifty-Five: Caisse

**Old Missy**

She wasn't sure what was going on with Rick, but the poor man was just about ready to drop off the face of reality.

Setting him up with a nice hot cup of tea, she eased onto a chair at his side and mothered him quietly, ensuring he was safe and happy, brushing his hair off his forehead. It was longish, and she briefly wondered if he'd be convinced to cut it at some point. After all, they weren't going to be known as the group with the scruffy men.

"I'm fine," he whispered, eyes on the table top before them, hands wrapped around the mug of tea.

"Honey," she purred, "you're in shock. You just need to drink your tea and calm down a little. The day has been hard, I know."

"I'm fine," he insisted again. "I just need to get Maggie buried."

Taking his hand in both of hers, Grace caressed it. He had long fingers that reminded her of the Lieutenant's, they were calloused and strong. "We'll take care of the poor girl, you don't worry about a thing right now."

"She's ours, we'll take care of her," Rick went on.

"She's ours too, we'll carry the burden of cleaning and preparing her, sweetheart, you just drink your tea and calm yourself," the woman stated firmly, her heart breaking for the man. He seemed so strong the day they left and now he was a shell of himself once more. Like the ghost he was when he came to them.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders tightly, Grace pressed a kiss to his temple, wanting to physically take his burdens from his shoulders. "You poor man," she whispered. "You poor warrior."

Rick seemed to just collapse in her arms and she held him tight, stroking his hair like a mother would her sons.

"Everything will be alright," she said. "You're safe with us now, sweetie."

"Mother Superior?" Sister Mary Elizabeth cooed from the doorway. She bowed her head quickly. "I mean, Grace?"

"Yes, honey?"

"The Lieutenant is looking for you, he said Annie needs you," the young nun said.

Grace unwrapped her arms from Rick. "Will you stay here with Rick?"

The young nun nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you." Taking one last look at the poor man, Grace sighed and headed for the door. These were the times that tried a woman, she knew that, but she only wished the good men weren't put to the trials as well.

..-~-..


..-~-..

"See? She's not gone," the Cajun pointed out as Grace finally found them, standing in the shade of a truck.

In his arms Annie eyed Grace warily.

"Are you happy now?" He asked the girl.

"No." She replied petulantly.

Touching a hand to Annie's little knee, Grace leaned up against the Cajun to smile at the little girl. "Are you going to come and help me finish the dishes, honey?"

"Okay." Sliding down the Cajun, the wee boo gripped Grace's hand and called Boo the dog to her. The floppy eared creature scrambled out from under the truck, leaping at the girl's legs happily.

Reaching out, Grace smoothed the peeling name patch on Lafayette's uniform with her hand, running her thumb over the white capitalized VANCOUGHNETT. "Welcome home," she offered softly, giving him a small grin.

He beamed at her, eyeing the small hand that was currently petting his chest with a raised brow. "Glad to be here in one piece."

"Relatively," she replied. "I should stitch this for you," she mused, playing with the tattered edges of the patch. "You're really starting to look like an awful scarecrow."

"But at least I'm clean shaven," he stated with a wink.

Grace reached up and touched a hand to the scruff he accumulated while he was gone and made a small, doubtful sound in her throat.

"Relatively," he added.

"You'd better give me the jacket, honey, I can patch it for you," she ordered suddenly. "Vest too."

Lafayette arched a brow at her, before removing his rifle, setting it on the back of a nearby truck and dropping his heavy pack on the ground in order to shed both his vest and his jacket, handing both to her.

Hefting the heavy Kevlar vest in her hands, Grace eyed him quietly, folding the jacket over her forearm. She wondered how he managed to go about under all that weight, the pack looked heavy, the vest was about twenty pounds give or take a few, she'd imagine all those little things he kept in the various pockets on his person just added to the weight he carried.

"Now I'm cold," he complained.

"It's Georgia, honey, not the Arctic tundra, you'll survive." She argued.

"I'm afraid you're underestimating the heat and humidity I was born and raised with down on the bayou, bele. It's basically hell with better food."

Shifting on her feet, Grace studied him, his smile was a little painted on and his tone was perhaps not as open as it normally was.

"Are you alright, Lafayette?" She asked him.

"Sure, yeah," he nodded, scratching at his eyebrow with his thumb.

Reaching out she gripped his upper arm. "There are people here who love you and need you," she said. "You can't take this loss personally. No more getting drunk on wine in our cemetery, yes?"

He nodded.

"Are you actually listening to me or are you just nodding your head?" She demanded.

"I hear you, Grace."

Moving her hand from his arm to his chin, she gripped it lightly. "Lafayette? Are you listening to me?" She repeated firmly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Hm, best get yourself shaved as soon as possible," she stated feeling his scruff.

He playfully saluted her.

Grace eyed the man for a moment. His pointed features, his patrician nose, the arch of his brows. She had never really looked at him before, not as a woman, but there was an appeal to his looks that charmed her a little.

He wasn't devilishly good looking in an overly masculine way like Daryl, or classically good looking like Rick, in fact the Cajun could have been classified as elfish and with the dark fringe of thick lashes around his grey eyes he could almost pass for a pretty boy of sorts, but his looks appealed to her. He was appealing to her as a man.

Grace felt an unfamiliar flush take to her cheeks and she dropped her chin and her hand. "Well, things won't get done milling about like this," she mused.

"Of course," he agreed, clearing his throat. "Always things to do."

"You could kiss her right now," Annie chirped. "I don't think she'd mind!"

The Lieutenant chuckled and backed up a few steps sheepishly. "Well, I could, boo, but as you know babies come from kissing and I don't think we need another mouth to feed around here."

"That's okay," Annie stated. "The baby could have my vegetables."

Turning to the little girl, Grace pointed her in the direction of the dorms. "Get inside those dorms, little lady," she ordered with a small grin. "You'd better hope I don't catch you telling other people to kiss. We're living in a convent, not a house of ill repute."

"But you wouldn't mind," Annie argued.

"Nobody likes a busybody, Annie Louise, now get your hinder in those dorms," Grace ordered.

"I ain't being a busybody," Annie protested.

"Ladies don't say 'ain't', honey," Grace gently guided the girl in the direction of the dorms, glancing back over her shoulder to find the Lieutenant standing there with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face.

"You just did," Annie argued.

Flushing, Grace ushered the girl into the dorms quickly. "I swear I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Annie Louise."

..-~-..


..-~-..

By the time she finished the dishes with Annie, Grace was looking to get to work preparing Maggie's body for her burial. The other sister's had moved the poor woman into the church and were already washing and redressing it, but Grace had hoped to help them out. She felt it would be one small way she could prove useful to the others as they were apparently risking their lives daily and she was holed up behind walls living an easy life.

With Annie in hand she headed for the storage shed where she knew Carol would be, hoping she wasn't interrupting anything, but needing someone to watch Annie.

"I wouldn't bother her," Merle growled from where he sat repairing his bladed stump on the lawns in the shade of a small magnolia tree.

Grace paused as she passed him, her hand tightening around Annie's. "Are they…?"

"Nope, she's been in there crying for about an hour." He replied calmly.

"Crying? Where's Daryl?"

"Dummy moved his things back into the garden shed," Merle said. "Encroaching on my space once more."

"And you just decided to let Carol cry alone?"

Merle sniffed and looked up at her. "I'm not exactly a teddy bear," he stated. "I don't provide comfort."

"Of course, you're just a big, old, snake of a man, right?" She inquired.

"Yep, mean as the devil."

Annie gasped.

"Do you think you could find it in your cold, cold heart to watch Annie for me for a moment while I go in and see what's wrong?" Grace asked.

Merle eyed the kid. "Are you sure you want to trust me with a child? I could corrupt her."

"You could, but I don't think you would."

"You put too much faith in me, sister," he replied with a grin.

Releasing Annie's hand, Grace looked down at the little girl. "You be good and stay with Merle, okay?"

"Okay," Annie replied, turning to flop on the ground beside Merle. "Hi, Mr. Merle!"

"Runt," he returned.

"Thank you, Merle."

"Don't be long, I got shit to do."

Annie gasped again.

"You have things to do, right, Merle?" Grace asked.

Merle eyed her. "That's what I said 'shit to do', woman. Don't be long."

Grace eyed the man for a moment, before deciding it was alright, Annie may learn a few new words, but Merle was hardly a threat to a child.

..-~-..


..-~-..

Grace knocked on the shed door and waited patiently.

The woman came to the door looking calm, red eyes giving her previous activity away.

"Grace? I know, I should be out there helping, I just—"

"It's alright, Carol, we have plenty of hands to make light of the workload." Peering past Carol into the shed, Grace noticed a lack of Daryl or any of his things and clasped her hands together. "Is everything alright?"

"Fine," Carol insisted stepping out of the shed and closing the door behind her.

Deciding it was better to comfort her for something everyone knew about and not something Carol wasn't willing to share yet, Grace held open her arms. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry about Maggie. I didn't know her well, but she seemed like a sweet, strong woman."

Carol accepted the hug quietly. "Herschel must be taking it so hard," she said.

"That poor man, I believe Sister Mary Agnes took the lot of them into the infirmary for now."

"I'd like to help prepare her body, if that's okay?" Carol said. "We didn't have much chance to do it for the others, but I'd like to make her look good for them one last time."

"Actually, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind watching Annie while I went to help the other sisters with Maggie, the poor girl is getting cabin fever and I'm afraid she might take off beyond the wall one day looking for trouble or an adventure whichever comes first."

Glancing around, Carol shielded her eyes from the sun as they made their way over to where Merle was watching Annie. "It's going to be dark soon, I suppose I could watch Annie while cooking some dinner for us."

"That would be kind of you."

"I wish Annie and Carl weren't on the outs," Carol admitted softly. "That boy did a good job keeping an eye on her."

Grace followed Carol's gaze to where Carl was walking the wall and smiled softly.

"Poor boy feels awful about what he did, but I think he doesn't know quite what to do about it," Grace admitted.

"You're not mad at him about it?"

"Of course not, I understand why he did it, I know there wasn't any malicious intent on his part. Annie just…she's had a hard lesson learned about handguns, apparently."

Carol was silent.

"They'll both get over it, children often overcome grudges much easier than adults."

"Mother Mena! Mr. Merle said three bad words and then he spit!" Annie tattled from where she sat beside Merle under the tree.

"I said two bad words," Merle argued, "ass isn't a bad word it's in the bible."

"Does that mean I ca—"

"No." Grace stated firmly. "You can be a proper little lady and refrain from using the flavourful lexicon of Mr. Merle Dixon."

"Just words," Merle replied. He turned his eyes on Carol at Grace's side and sniffed. "Everything okay with you?"

"Just fine, Merle." She replied.

"Yeah? So my baby bro leaving your little home for the frat house is 'just fine' with you?"

"That's our business, Merle."

"You're about to make it the convent's business soon enough once my baby bro has time to really vent his frustration," Merle replied calmly. "You think he's done sulking and storming around yet? Knowing him you're all in for one hell of a shit storm."

Beside Merle Annie gasped again, then giggled, she was silenced by a stern look and a pointed finger from Grace.

"Knowing Daryl he's about to become one hell of a recluse emotionally, probably snarl and bite like some dumb assed geek, wandering around here looking for someone to pick a fight with," Merle went on.

Carol blinked at the man quietly, taking in everything he had to say with a patience that impressed Grace given the situation.

"Well, he can sulk and storm all he wants," Carol replied calmly. "I have dinner to get started right now. Come on, Annie, you're with me for a while."

The little girl hopped up with a grin. "Okay! Can Boo come too?"

"Of course."

"Bye Mr. Merle! Don't worry, I won't tell anyone else about the bad words you said!"

"I don't give a rat's ass," Merle replied gruffly. "Shit, tell everyone if you want."

Grace offered the man a stern look as Annie and Carol wandered off, her hand going to her throat. "You threw those last ones in just to be puerile, didn't you?"

Merle grinned. "That's the flavourful lexicon of Mr. Merle Dixon, sister."

With nothing much more to be done other than sigh, Grace eased against the tree at his side, hand still at her throat, eyeing Carol in the distance. "Is there anything you can do, Merle? Talk to him maybe?"

"Naw, I don't do that shit." He said simply. "Could try that man of yours, though," he added after a moment. "Seems the weepy womanly type, might be able to get through Daryl's thick pig head with some flowery words or some such crap."

"Man of mine?" Grace demanded. "And which one of these gentlemen do you think is mine, Mr. Dixon?"

"Don't pull that horseshit with me, sister." Merle growled, pointing with his blade towards the trucks where the Lieutenant was still unloading an assortment of supplies and ammo.

Tsking, Grace pushed off from the tree. "One can hardly call him mine, honey. Last I checked I was a nun."

"Former, isn't it?" He called after her.

"Still a nun," she shouted back.


The Cajun Dialect

Caisse – The back of a truck.