Chapter Thirty-Three: Decisions, Decisions...


"You don' recognize any of 'em?" Daryl asked her seriously. "They wasn' a part a the group you spotted near yer ol' home?"

"No." Esme promised as she looked up into his intense blue eyes, "They aren't with the Governor, at least as far as I know."

"I don't think that they have encountered this other group." Hershal added, bringing everyone's attention off of her and onto him, "Tyreese said that we were the first good people they'd come across in a long time. Didn't mention coming across any of the Governor's people, they just want a safe place to live jus' like any of us."

Rick rubbed his beard, "But you're not sure?"

"No." Hershal responded, "I figured it be better not to mention this other group by name until you all got back. Just in case. I did tell 'em that there is a more volatile group in the area."

"And they didn't know about it?" Glenn asked, "How long have they been in the area?"

Daryl stopped chewing on his thumbnail as he headed for the cafeteria, "Well there ain't no time like the present ta find out."

Carl opened up the gate purposefully as the group streamed into the cafeteria. Rick and Daryl making up the front as Esme trailed at the back with Bora on her hip. The other babies, barring Judith who was taking another nap, were in their cell playing happily with the plastic farm animals Daryl had been kind enough to present to them. Bora had been feeling clingy since she woke up, and Esme didn't see the harm in spoiling her little Korean princess by holding her for a while. Especially since all of the others were happily entertained, even Primrose was cheerfully smacking on the colorful baby einstein music toy that had been brought from the daycare.

"I'm Tyreese." the man introduced himself as he extended his hand towards Rick cordially. Rick ignored the raised hand as Hershal introduced the other members of the small group.

"Sasha, Allen, Ben." he gestured to each one with one of his crutches as Rick inspected them carefully.

"How'd you get in?" Rick asked non-pulsed.

"Fire damage to the administrative part of the prison. Wall's down." Tyreese explained calmly, it looked like the man would be the spokesperson for their little group during this altercation.

A wall being down in the back of the prison did not sound good. Depending on how big the breach was they might be able to set up some spike traps out of wood to prevent rotters from getting in. Someone would have to go down there every once in a while to dispose of the impaled rotters and make sure that nothing has gotten passed the spikes, but it could prove as a simple solution to prevent rotters from getting in. Heck, it would make it difficult for a person to get passed it as well. She'd bring it up to the rest of the group later, probably the hunter since he might have an idea on how to start building the spike trap she had in mind.

"That side's completely overrun with walkers. So, how'd you get this far?" Rick questioned.

She quickly shared a look with Carl, it looked like the preteen hadn't told his father about his part in bringing the lost strangers to safety. Bora lightly tugged on Esme's brown locks before snuggling her face into the crook of Esme's neck. Esme gently rubbed the back of her daughter's back in response nervously as she eyed Tyreese.

"We didn't." Tyreese retorted, "We lost our friend Donna."

"They were lost in the gyms." Carl piped up bravely.

"You brought them here?" Rick asked incredulously, a tinge of anger creeping up his voice as he turned to stare accusingly at his son.

"He had no choice." Hershel defended, making Rick nod contemplatively as he turned to look back at the strangers seeking asylum.

"I'm sorry about your friend." Rick offered the group, "We know what that's like."

"Hershal said you could use some extra hands. We're no stranger to hard work. We'll go out and get out own food, stay out of your hair. You got any problems with other groups, we'll help with that too. Anything to contribute." Tyreese finished genuinely.

It was quiet for a moment.

"You ever hear abou' some guy called the Govn'r?" Daryl asked boldly.

Sasha and Tyreese exchanged confused looks while Ben looked at his father questioningly in the background.

"No." Tyreese responded, "Is this about the volatile group Hershal mentioned being in this area?"

"Hmm, Esme encountered a few of their men a while ago." Rick gestured over his shoulder in her direction, "They would have killed her if they spotted her."

"We haven't seen or heard of anyone like that." Sasha spoke up for the first time, "We haven't really been here that long, our old group was overrun a few weeks ago. We ended up in this area after being split up and chased by walkers."

"We'll be more than willing to help defend this place from the other group if you let us stay." Tyreese reiterated.

"No." Rick sounded almost apologetic as he looked away. The strangers' faces crumbled as their hope was dashed away.

"Please." Sasha begged. "It's like '10 little Indians' out there. It's just us now."

She ignored the strange phrase that she didn't recognize and instead focused on the back of their leader's head. Esme couldn't see Rick's face from where she was standing in the back but she could see how he shook his head at Sasha's plead, "No." he repeated.

"Let's talk about this." Hershal spoke up. Darl walked off to one of the pillars in the room and leaned against it as he began to nervously chew on his thumbnail once more.

Sasha and Tyreese looked desperate and genuinely willing to do whatever it took to get in Rick's good graces to make it work in the prison. Allen, however, glared at their leader with angry dark eyes as his muscles tensed warningly as if he was doing everything he could not to launch himself over to Rick and start pounding away at his face. Esme did not like that man. She didn't care if the man had just lost his wife, or that his teenaged son was by his side shooting fearful looks at the heavy hitters of the prison group. There was just something about this man that set her on edge.

Beth had moved closer to her during the interaction and whispered in her ear, "Do you see tha'?" she asked, referring to Allen's badly concealed rage.

Esme nodded, "I don't like it."

"We can't just keep-" Hershal started in defense of Tyreese and his group.

"We've been through this." Rick interrupted him, "With Tomas an' Andrew. Look what happened."

She had heard the general gist from Beth of the tale leading to the death of Rick's wife, Lori, and the traumatic birth of their motherless daughter. Two of the ex-cons the group had found trapped in the kitchens of the prison had been real bad people. Not locked up because of petty or minor crimes like Axel and Oscar were. No Tomas and Andrew were locked up for serious shit, like murder and assault. Andrew had somehow escaped the prison and led a group of rotters into the once cleared areas of the prison separating the group from one another during a critical moment. Lori had unfortunately gone into labor and would have not only lost her own life but Judith's as well if Maggie hadn't performed an emergency C-section to deliver to the beautiful little girl. The C-section had killed Rick's wife and eventually led Daryl and Maggie in search of baby formula to feed the newborn. It's what led them to her.

"Axel and Oscar weren't like them." Carol defended the ex-cons hovering awkwardly by the woman's side.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed, "Esme an' her lil' ones ain't like tha' either."

"Yeah, but they aren't a threat, now are they?" Rick snapped, making Esme flinch and Bora's eyes widen at the raised voices, she started to bounce her body to not only calm down Bora but give herself something to concentrate on as well. "I can't be responsible." Rick continued.

In a roundabout manner, she understood what Rick meant, the man didn't want to be responsible for any more lives and eventually possible deaths. As stoic as he'd been presenting himself he seemed like the kind of man that held failure very close to his chest and held himself accountable for everyone under his charge. In a way, Esme felt the same way about her adopted children. They were hers to protect and care for. Esme didn't think that she would be able to handle losing any of her children.

"You turn us out, you are responsible." Tyreese countered gently, "We don't mean any harm to you or your people. We're willing to do whatever it takes to make this work."

"Rick." Hershal called over making their tense leader walk over to the crippled man, "You've done so much for us. I appreciate that. We all do. We owe you our lives. We've done everthin' you asked without question. An' I'm tellin' you, you're wrong on this." he said in a gentle manner, "You've gotta start giving people a chance. Like you did to Esme and Oscar and Axel."

Rick looked over at the tense figures of Sasha and Tyreese giving him pleading looks, back to Hershal and then even to scan her and the uncomfortable looking ex-cons. Rick let out a labored sigh as he rubbed his temples gingerly, probably trying to stave off a headache. "Yeah." he agreed, "Fine."

Esme let go of the breath she'd been holding as she exchanged relieved smiles with Beth, "Don't worry," she whispered to the green-eyed teen, "We'll tell your sister about our concerns later." earning herself a determined nod from the youngest Green, as she learned was the family name of the sisters and veterinarian.

"You can stay." Rick turned to face their new members seriously, "But if you do, my word is law. You don' like the way I run things 'round here, feel free to leave."


Words 1784


(New chapter! I hope everyone enjoyed it!)

(WOOHOO!)

(Over 300 FOLLOWERS!)

(I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who is following my story, especially to all of my wonderful REVIEWERS! Love you guys!)

(I just published another TWD fanfic about an hour ago called Pogonip, it's the fic I was writing during early 2019 and inspired this one. Feel free to check it out. The main character there is a bit of a badass... No worries though, my attention is still firmly focused on this story. The other fic has a bunch of chapters already written but they all need to edited since I haven't touched them since May.)

(Again, though... This fic is a higher priority than the other one so no one panic!)

(Oh! I changed the profile picture of this story, it's still the same person that I chose to model Esme after, but it's simply a closer image of her face since the other one was a torso and up image. I hope ya'll like it!


(Guest1/30yrsoldgirlie: So this was the chapter everyone's been anticipating so far... Rick's not gone off the deep end as I originally planned, but I hope it's more true to the way his character is at this point in my writing... Hope you enjoyed it!)

(Beachgirl25: I have grown a real soft spot for Beth through writing this fic... So you'll all see more of her in the next few chapters since she's a really good character for Esme to bounce ideas off of since they are pretty much doing the same jobs... We'll see with Maggie, I definitely want to explore writing her and Glenn's character a little more.)

(Guest2/Apple Bloom: I'll hopefully be able to write some more Esme/Daryl interactions soon! Right now, they've been doing such different things that it's hard to make their paths cross in a more natural manner, I definitely don't want to force it. I hope you liked Daryl defending Esme's position in the group!)

(DarylDixon'sLover: Thank you!)

(itsprettyboy: Thanks!)

(Merry Limp: Thankyou! Aww, congratulations! Your sister must be sooo excited! The virus is really becoming very big now. They closed churches in Connecticut too so my family had watch the mass during a live stream... my dad was not happy. I hope your doing well and that you guys were able to bring your sister and the new baby home a soon as possible. I hope you all stay happy and healthy!)

(Jemstone6259: Wow, lot's of reviews to respond to so I'll just respond to them in order: Yup! That Andre. Lots of kids. Esme has the patience of a saint. LOL... I think that their meeting was rather tame in comparison to some other fics I've read... Thank you! I'm excited too! I love those chickens; Fun Fact: Peep and Pio technically have the same name since pio is the sound chicks make in Spanish, which in English is written as peep. Yup, talking to animals is a great way to relieve stress... I would never talk to my sisters about things I want to stay private... My dog Leo can keep his trap shut unlike them. LOL. Yeah, everything with Woodberry is going to be pretty different...)

(animemangaobsessed: Thanks! This is the first dirty review I've gotten (am I a weirdo for being a little flattered?)... you painted a pretty graphic and kinky image in my mind that I can kind of see happening way, way, way into the future... though, I'm not sure I'll be writing lemon scenes and posting them here... If any of you guys would like to read some sex scenes between Esme and Daryl I'd be willing to write them, but I would make a separate page for them since I think it might disrupt the flow of the story... It really depends on what everyone thinks. And yup, I try to keep everything pretty realistic and if you guys ever see me make a mistake or overlook something, please let me know in the comments and I'll fix it... Esme keeping herself healthy is important not just for her but for her children as well and I thought it would be important to emphasize that. I hope you liked the update!)