Connie and Daryl sat down on the steps of Daryl's trailer. Connie could see how Daryl was still nervously glancing around, like he was afraid someone could have watched them making out. She took her notepad and wrote:

So will you tell me what you were hiding from me?

Daryl, who finally assured himself that there was nobody around, took a look on her notepad.

"Who says I was hiding something?" He asked and Connie had to laugh, seeing how he tried to make the most innocent face. Lightly, she smacked his arm with the back of her hand, telling him with her eyes: "Are you serious?"

Daryl smiled.

"Alright, I'll tell you… Soon… Okay?" He said and Connie felt a little disappointed. Daryl must have sensed it. He put an arm around her shoulder and she moved closer to him. It was nice to feel his touch again and she closed her eyes while he was patting her arm and planted a little kiss on her head. She suddenly remembered what she wanted to tell him when she walked up to him.

I'm glad, you let Lydia out, was written on her notepad as she showed it to Daryl. He looked at her note.

"Yeah," he said. "Figured she doesn't belong in a cage. Girl's just messed up"

Connie nodded.

"I still don't know what to do with her, though," he admitted after a pause. "But I kinda get how she feels."

Connie gave him a questioning look, but Daryl didn't see it. Instead he turned his head and Connie realized that something must have caught his attention. He stood up and walked a couple of steps away from the trailer. She followed him. Connie saw some people standing in the distance and Jesus was standing in front of them. She could tell that there was a heated discussion going on.

Daryl had a bad feeling in his gut, when he, followed by Connie, approached the crowd.

A large group of people gathered together and even Lydia was there. Daryl noticed that Kelly was standing next to her, holding her hand.

The crowd seemed to be upset about something, they were all talking at once, and Daryl had a hard time to make out what the fuss was all about. He could only see that they were angry and Jesus tried to calm them down.

"What's going on?" Daryl asked Tara, who was standing there too, with her arms crossed.

"The lookouts we sent out didn't come back," she told him.

Daryl narrowed his eyebrows. He started to catch parts of the conversation.

"My husband was working hard here already," one woman said. "You shouldn't have sent him out."

"He wanted to go," Jesus told her.

"And why is she even here? Isn't she one of them?" Suddenly Tammy Rose said, pointing at Lydia.

"Calm down, Tammy, we don't know that for sure," her husband tried to calm her.

"We don't know what happened to them, they could be back tomorrow," Daryl said, but wasn't believing his own words. People were hardly listening to him anyway. They were still upset.

"If Alpha got them, they're dead," Lydia suddenly said out loud. Everyone became silent, then people started swarming her, asking her out, making accusations and shouting at her. Kelly tried to push them back and Daryl looked helplessly at Jesus, who approached Lydia and made the people take some steps back.

"What are you talking about? Who's Alpha?" He asked her.

"She's their leader. Listen, if she saw your people out there, then they're probably dead. That's just how it is."

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Tara asked.

"Because it doesn't make any difference." The words she said were followed by a big uproar and Daryl suddenly felt how his heart started to beat faster in anxiety.

"You can spy on her or try to fight her, but you won't be able to defeat her. If this place is in her way she..."

"That's enough," Daryl cut her off, making his way through the crowd. He saw by the looks on the people's faces how enraged they were and he was afraid they would do something to her, if she continued talking. The words she said made him uneasy too, but in this moment he was more afraid for her.

Lydia misunderstood his action, thinking he took the other people's side and gave him an angry look, before she ran off. Daryl's eyes were searching for Connie and then he saw her not far away with Kelly. They were talking in sign language. People were still enraged and Jesus gave up trying to calm them down. Daryl gave him a sign to follow him away from the crowd.

"I'll go out there. Try to track them, maybe she's wrong and they're still alive," Daryl told him then.

"I hope so," Jesus said. He took a quick look at the group of people behind him. "I'm not sure if any of them would come with you, though, so maybe I should..."

"Nah, it's okay," Daryl said. "The others need you here. And there's no need to drag more people into this mess."

Daryl could tell that Jesus wanted to say something against it, but instead he thanked him.

Daryl nodded and went to Connie and Kelly. The three of them started to search for Lydia and soon they found her, sitting beneath a tree, with her arms around her knees.

Kelly tried to put her arm on Lydia's shoulder, but Lydia withdrew her touch and jumped up, clenching her hands into fists. Then she looked Daryl in the eye.

"I trusted you. You told me, the people here cared about me. But they hate me." A single tear rolled down her cheek

Daryl felt helpless again. He knew that it was him, who talked her into telling people about the danger and now he felt guilty, not knowing what to say.

"Look, I know you wanted to help. But the things you've said... How you said them, made people nervous and..."

"All I did was just telling the truth. If Alpha wants them dead, they're dead."

Daryl was silent, trying hard to think of what to say to her.

"You don't understand, don't you?" Lydia continued. "You have walls, weapons, people. But she… she has them." Lydia pointed towards the gates.

"Them?" Daryl asked, confused.

"The dead are on her side. I told you, it's no use." Lydia went away and this time only Kelly followed her.

Connie and Daryl shared an uncertain look.

What now? Connie wrote.

"I'll go out there. See if I can track them. Maybe they're dead, but maybe they ain't. I hope they ain't." Daryl sighed and Connie nodded.

Let's go, she wrote and after they grabbed their gear they left Hilltop together.

They were tracking for a while and mostly in silence. Connie could see the sad look on Daryl's face and she knew he was blaming himself because of what Lydia said to him before. She felt guilty too.

Seeing the Hilltop residents attacking Lydia made Connie's heart heavy. She should have given her more guidance. She should have been there for her.

As they arrived at the camp where they spotted Lydia's people that one day when she ran away, they could see that it was abandoned. They cautiously approached, but nobody was there, not even walkers.

"They left probably not long ago," Daryl told Connie, inspecting the tracks on the ground.

I feel so bad for her. I don't want to think of what people back home will try to do to her if we don't find them alive.

"Yeah me neither," Daryl murmured.

She must have been through a lot already and now, Connie wrote. Her arms dropped. She was desperate and started to feel more and more depressed every minute. When she looked at Daryl, she could see by his expression that he seemed to be brooding over something. Then he looked up to her.

"Don't worry, it's gonna be alright," he said to her and his hands moved as he tried to sign his words to her. Even though not all signs were correct, Connie was overwhelmed and surprised. Her face lit up a bit.

You've been learning? She wrote. Her hand was shaking a little bit since she was touched by his effort.

"A little," Daryl said, making a sign for "little".

So the thing you were hiding - Connie couldn't finish writing the sentence, she almost started to cry.

"Yeah it was an ASL book," he told her.

But why?

"Just so I can talk to you in your language," he said making the signs for "talk" and "your language".

"And you won't need this" - he pointed to her notepad. "Anymore."

Connie was overwhelmed by her feelings. She wanted to kiss him, as he suddenly turned away.

Daryl was glad that he could cheer Connie up. Even though he was nervous and he knew he messed up some of the signs, she understood him. Daryl wasn't in a good mood himself, but seeing Connie being sad too, almost broke his heart and he felt like he had to do something. Now she was smiling again and wanted to kiss him, but before he could lean in for a kiss, he heard Dog barking and made a sign to Connie to follow him as he ran to Dog. Soon he spotted Dog, who was barking at a group of walkers, and Daryl told him to calm down. It was strange, since Dog knew how to behave around walkers and never barked when they were close. Daryl took his knives out, ready to fight the walkers, but then he stopped himself. The walkers were just standing there and staring at him, motionless. Anxiously he realized that this group of seemingly dead people was pretty much alive. The group suddenly parted letting another "walker" passing through, which had a shotgun in its hands. Daryl and Connie exchanged a look.

"Put your weapons down," the walker spoke in a woman's voice. Daryl didn't want to do that, but when he saw Connie putting down her slingshot, he decided not to risk anything and he let his knives drop to the ground.

"Who are you?" Daryl asked, but the woman didn't answer. A tall man, also looking like a walker, came to her and helped her taking off her mask.

"I'm Alpha", the woman told Daryl. She was bald and there was something feral in her eyes.

"And you must be the people who took my daughter," she continued, talking slowly with a strange accent.

"We didn't take her, she just came with us," Daryl barked at her.

"Either way, I want her back. And in exchange..." She made a sign to her people who disappeared and came back in the next moment with three men, who were bound and gagged.

"...you get your people back." Alpha continued. Connie and Daryl exchanged a look again.

"What if she doesn't want to come back?"

Alpha went to a man and put a knife against his throat, moving her head slowly and looking at him like a predator looks at its prey. Then she turned her head to Daryl.

"Then you better make her," she told him, slashing the men's throat with one quick movement. Daryl was in shock. He first couldn't believe what just happened. Then he was enraged, his hand went instinctively to his crossbow on his back, but Connie put her hand on his and shook her head as he looked at her.

Alpha went to another man and started sniffing at him.

"One gone, two more left," she whispered. "You should better hurry. Get my daughter here, or this one is next."

Connie was still in shock as they arrived back in Hilltop. Daryl went to tell Jesus and Tara about all what happened while she returned to her room. As she opened the door, she saw Kelly and Lydia sitting on the bed and kissing. They moved apart quickly as soon as she entered the room.

Connie gave Lydia a concerned look, then asked Kelly to come with her, because she had something to tell her.

"No, you can't do this." Connie saw the despair in her sister's eyes and felt a sting in her heart. Kelly was frantically signing and also using her voice, while Connie tried to calm her down. Daryl came walking towards them and when Kelly saw Daryl approaching, she gave him an angry look. "I won't let you take her away from me," she told him.

"Listen, I know you're upset, but we don't have a choice. Alpha will kill our people."

"And what will she do to Lydia?" Connie could see how Kelly was close to tears and the next thing she said made Connie feel even worse for Lydia.

"She abused her, I know you know about this too. So how can you send Lydia back to her?"

"Because like I said, we don't have a choice." Daryl put a hand on Kelly's shoulder "I'm sorry."

Kelly shook off his hand. "Yeah, tell that Lydia when you send her back to that monster." She wanted to run away before she saw Lydia, who stood behind them.

"It's okay," she told them. Kelly wanted to disagree, but Lydia went to her put a hand on her arm. "It's really okay, I never thought she would want me to come back. Maybe she changed, maybe she misses me." Lydia seemed to be excited and to truly believe what she said. Daryl averted his eyes

"Alpha said we should hurry," he murmured and Lydia nodded. Kelly gave Connie a last desperate glance, like begging her to stop this. But Connie couldn't. She knew Daryl was right and they didn't have a choice, if they wanted to save their people. Lydia said goodbye to Kelly and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Kelly was crying and all Connie could do, was taking her sister in her arms and try to comfort her.

"You better stay here," Daryl told Connie then and she desperately shook her head as her heart began to race.

"Look, I got this. You should take care of Kelly. I'll be back soon." Connie didn't want to let him go alone, but was unable to hold him back. She was still holding Kelly in her arms as he turned around and started walking towards the gates. Lydia came to Connie and thanked her for everything, before she started following Daryl. Connie was looking at them with an anxious feeling in her heart until they gates closed behind them.