Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
"What?" Carol paled at the thought of willingly sending her daughter out there with those savages. "No. Absolutely not."
"Why not?" she demanded. "They want me, and they'll probably get to me somehow. They've already infiltrated my brain, my life and eventually they'll get to me again—physically. So use this lead, throw me to the wolves and let me play a part in ending them."
Daryl tried to look at Carol, but she dead focused on their daughter. Daryl didn't want to argue with Charlotte about this, but it did make sense. To use her as bait to lure in the Shah. They wanted her with a frothing desire of a thousand hungry wolves. If they were to use their lead to hand over Charli and follow them back to their main headquarters, it would more than a shot in the dark with the lead alone. If this lead was legit, they could use it to use Charli to follow the Shah and kill them all at once. It would be over before they could blink. It was brilliant, but the stakes were too high. She was too young. They couldn't do that to her.
Carol shook her head again. "Absolutely not. I would never allow anyone—let alone myself—to put you in the path of untold danger. No. Get that out of your head."
"I can't." She stepped forward, a hint of the fearless woman she would became playing on her young face, and she shook her head back at her mother. "I can't even get them out of my nightmares! So don't tell me no, or I can't or any of that usual garbage. Just listen to me."
"Charli—"
"No, you don't get to interrupt me. I've spent almost my entire life afraid of the darkness, because I knew they were in it. I am going to control the next interaction I have with the Shah. I am going to control how I walk into it, how I handle it, how I leave it—all of it. You are not the one they want. This has never been about you, Mom. It's been about me. Me, me, annoyingly me since the day I was born! You know that to be true!" She stomped her foot down hard, the pain rattled up her calf, but she didn't let it show. "I am going to handle how I move forward with them, so I can stop them. If you go in there, guns blazing and manage to miss just one of them, I will never be free of them. I refuse to live the next year afraid of the shadows and what's inside of them. I fucking refuse that, Mom, Dad. I know you love me, and I love you both the same, but if you want this threat gone, you're going to have to trust me. You're going to have to send me out there—alone, without weapons—to them. You know it's the only way."
Carol was speechless, looking down at her little girl, seeing the person she had become, and Carol saw so much of Daryl in her. That determination, that strength, that deep level of independence. She was awestruck—and heartbroken. Her little girl should have thoughts of what the next playdate with Hershel would be like, when was Judy going to come over and plant flowers for fall with her and so on, but instead, she had these thoughts in her mind. Infiltration plans, keep the knife Nina gave her close, hiding nightmares from her parents and pretending the world was an okay place outside walkers. Carol had done this. She had made her daughter hide the damages, because Carol said she would handle it, and Charlotte wanted to believe her, so she let that belief show, hiding all that needed comforted in the dead of night.
"Now what's the lead?" Charli demanded. "Where am I going to meet them?"
"You're not going to meet anybody." Carol found her voice. "You're not going to be exposed to—"
"To what, Mom?" She flipped her parting back to reveal the crown scar. "To those savages? To injuries? To emotional scars? Because I've already got that. I've been exposed. They want me, but they won't hurt me until next week—when I'm eight. So we need to act fast." She walked by her mother and father and over to the counter, climbing onto a stool and pulling a map out of her vest pocket. "Point out where they're camping, and you can drive me there, but I go in alone. I'll leave a trail for you to follow."
"Are you deaf?" Carol spun around. "You are not going."
Daryl approached the map and his daughter. "What will you do once we arrive?"
"Are you kidding me?" Carol hissed. "Daryl."
"I'll hide with any other kids I find." She met his eyes and smiled at him. "I'm good at hiding."
"You are." He smiled back at her. "What's your trail like?"
"Remember the p—"
"No, no, no." Carol erupted, marching over and taking the map. "You aren't going this. You're too young. You're just a little girl. Leave this to the adults."
Charlotte looked her mother dead in the eye and set her jaw. "I'll run away if you don't let me do this. I've done it before, and they've found me. I'll let them take me, and I'll let Theo in on my plan instead of you."
Carol couldn't believe her ears. "You'd really do that to me? To your dad? To your brother and sister?"
"Yes, I really would." She didn't break eye contact. "I'm sick of being the victim. I want to be…an ender. I want to put an end to the Shah and their crap. I want to see them pay for all they've done since the start of their cult. You want that too. I know you do, so just...stop. I'm not asking."
"You are so grounded for the rest of your life," Carol shot back. "No Hershel, no Judith, no Mika for a week. I want you to go to your bedroom right now. Do you hear me?"
"You can ground me to the end of my life, but I'm doing this. With or without you." She hopped off the stool and stomped upstairs, going to her and Mika's bedroom, slamming the door. She could hear the arguments picking up downstairs and pressed her hands against her ears to block it out.
Maggie was on the ham radio talking to Enid, telling her about her plans for the Shah and what lead they had received from Carol and the others. Enid wasn't so sure of this plan. She didn't like sending people to a supposed campsite of the Shah. She was going to lead them, not sit by back a fire and knit, and Maggie said she fully intended on traveling there herself. She wanted an active hand in destroying those assholes. She wanted to see them go up in flame before her very eyes.
"I just have to know the children of my town will be safe," Enid concurred. "They're our future, and we have to safeguard them."
"Exactly." Maggie gazed out the window to see Josslyn and Hershel playing outside with Glenn. "I'm glad you answered. I needed someone to vent to."
"Yeah." She laughed lightly. "Same here."
"I want to build a better future for my children and my sister and my niece and nephews." She inhaled. "And that future will begin with the complete annihilation of the Shah."
"I couldn't have said it better myself." Enid ran a hand through her hair. "I cannot wait for the day when the word Shah isn't mentioned by anybody."
"We remember our enemies to strengthen our future," Maggie reminded her. "But I know exactly what you mean. I am sick of the word and its meaning."
"In a couple days—God willing—they will be of the past."
"God willing," Maggie agreed. "I have to go. My heart is longing to dirt-tackle my kids, but I will see you soon, right?"
"Right. I'll make a trip up once the Shah are dealt with." She smiled. "I cannot wait to see those little ones and hug them."
"Oh, they're not so little anymore. I have a near four and eight-year-old on my hands." She laughed this time. "I cannot believe how big Hersh has gotten."
"Me neither." She exhaled slowly. "Those little trolls are going to have the best damn life we can build for them. You know that, right?"
"I do." She nodded, twisting her wedding ring. "And I'm grateful."
"I love you, Maggie." Enid saw Carl motioning for her to come, and it was likely about the meeting regarding the Shah lead. "I'll talk to you soon."
"Talk soon." She departed from her office and headed down the stairs to charge into the scene and tackle her son to the ground—as gently as physically possible—and pretend to be walker biting at his neck. He instantly knocked her in the jaw and rolled away, and Maggie was beyond impressed with the training going on around here. Though that knock might bruise, and it wouldn't be the first time Hersh had bruised her. Nor the last she daresay.
Rick put RJ down for a nap, knowing Judith was probably out playing with her friend Gracie, and he kissed his son's brow, admiring his beautiful little face briefly before padding down the stairs and finding his wife in the living room, resting on the couch. He knew she was going over the information Carol had given them in the meeting, and he knew she would be there on the front line. He would stand by her through it and join the ranks, as always.
"Hey." Michonne smiled at him, accepting his hand and interlocking their fingers. "How did it go?"
"Oh, he went down easy. Charlotte and Hersh must have worn him out at recess." He chuckled. "He's gonna have a good life once the Shah are gone. No more boogie man."
"Just walkers and the next group of people who threaten us." She exhaled and looked over at him. "We'll get through this."
"We always do."
"And the day we don't?"
"We'll ensure that day is so far off into the future that it doesn't exist." He smiled at her, and she snickered. "We'll keep fighting until the day that we no longer have to."
She nodded. "For our children's sake, I hope that day is soon."
"Me too."
They continued to discuss the lead Carol and Nellie and the others had found, bringing Tree Haven and Fire Found into the mix. She was curious about going to those locations and meeting the people there. She wanted to get a sense of their morality. She wanted to know them as she had come to know the people of Hilltop and Kingdom and Seaside. She wanted to know who they were when the going got tough, as it would when they went after the Shah. She hoped they were up for the challenge and didn't expect the rest of them to pull all the weight of this mission.
"We'll manage with the number of people we have," Rick assured her. "Then we'll go and see who Tree Haven and Fire Found are."
"I don't want to end up with flaky business partners, is all." Michonne lifted his hand into her lap and held it with both hands.
"If we do, we'll give them reason to rely on us and stand by us. We'll strengthen relations with all of our communities, and we'll thrive against the world and its walkers."
"I like the sound of that, Mr. Grimes."
"I only thought of it as possibly because of you, Mrs. Grimes. You are, after all, my sanity in this world." He smiled at her then leaned over and kissed her. "I love you, and we'll be just fine. They didn't get Judith, and they won't get Charlotte."
She nodded. "I love you, but we can't be sure of anything with these people. We had two of them right under our nose. Who knows how many more there are inside these walls?"
"I'm sure that two were enough, but honestly, you're right; we can't be sure of anything, of any of the people here. We trust our gut and let what happen may. We'll be there to pick up the pieces."
"Let's hope there's at least pieces to pick up."
Charlotte lied down with her hands across her chest, staring at the ceiling and hearing the door open. She didn't have to look up to know who it was. She felt Mika lie down beside her on the bed, and she moved into the same position as Charlotte.
"So…Mom and Dad are fighting." She looked over at her little sister. "Like super bad fighting."
"Yeah," Charlotte rolled her head over to the left to view Mika, "it's my fault."
"How?"
"Because I want to be used a bait to lure out the Shah's true camp."
"Whoa. What?" She rolled over and propped her head up on her palm. "Why would you want that?"
"Because it's the only way to find the whole of the Shah, not just a splinter of it." She shook her head. "I want them out of my life, out of my dreams and out of the shadows. I want to live my life and not worry about them. I'm seven, for Christ's sake. I should be worried about school grades and bruised knees, not—not being taken in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, that makes sense." She inhaled. "Makes Dad's side make more sense. He's with you."
"He is?" She smiled widely. "Way to go, Dad."
"I want to agree with you, but I can't. I don't want you in danger—ever. I don't want you in their grasp. I don't know—we don't know what they'll do to you before they kill or sacrifice you to a big melon or whatever." Charli giggled, and Mika was glad to make her laugh over such serious matters. It might take the stress out of the situation. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you, Charli. I love you so much, and it's my job to protect you. It's in the big sister handbook. Rule number one."
"I know you all want to protect me, but unless this threat is taken out…I'm never gonna be properly protected. And I've learned how to take care of myself. I've worked diligently with Theo and Daddy and Mommy, and it's not fair that when I finally learn, they won't trust me to use my skills." She shook her head and groaned. "I'm not useless. I'm not some…potato."
"A sweet potato," Mika mused, running her fingers over her little sister's plump belly.
"Don't make me hungry when I'm angry." She was trying not to smile, like, super hard trying not to smile.
"I know it seems shitty right now, but once it clears out, Mom and Dad will have plan to take them all out. I promise."
"Their plan is someone else's lead. I don't want to…follow some stranger blindly." She exhaled deeply, kicking her legs up into the air to hover. "I just want life to be normal around here."
"Well, I have some normalcy for you." She breathed in to fill the depths of her lungs and shot it out through an O in her lips. "I'm breaking up with Henry."
"What? Why?" She dropped her legs onto the bed hard enough to make them both bounce, and Mika forced a tight-lipped smile. "What happened with Henry? He's so nice."
"He is so nice—and respectful and thoughtful. He's the perfect boyfriend, but he isn't the person I want to be with romantically anymore. I respect him enough to not drag him along for the sake of his love for me. I want something real for both of us, no matter how much it'll hurt." She shook her head once. "I wish we could have worked out and been together as a couple till we were old and blue-haired, but that isn't the way my heart works. I think I need to be alone for right now. That pregnancy scare really freaked me out, especially since Mom had Owen. I am not ready for that."
"What's a pregnancy scare?" She tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Is it like it sounds? You were scared of a baby?"
"No, it means…I thought I was pregnant, like how Mom was pregnant with Owen, but I wasn't. It's a scare, because it came close but wasn't quite there. You understand?"
"Sorta." She mauled it over for a moment then said, "Sorta how I had a Shah scare when I was littler. When they carved this crown into my forehead. It could've been a lot worse, but it wasn't 'cause I got away."
"Exactly."
"I'm sorry that happened to you."
"I'm sorry that happened to you."
She snuggled up close to her sister and wrapped her arms around her torso, resting her head against her shoulder. "Don't leave me alone, okay?"
"I promise." She kissed the top of her hair. "I'll be with you through everything, Charlotte. I swear."
Downstairs Carol and Daryl were giving each other the silent treatment and glowered at each other. They didn't want to admit they had worn their voices out yelling at each other, trying to get their respective points across, and they were now recovering from the yelling.
To be frank, it hurt to yell. It wasn't a physical pain so much as an emotional one. They had worked through so much with Denise in therapy, and they had been closer than ever. They were a team. They were two warriors in love and raising badass kids. They were partners and equals, and it was perfect. Right up until Carol up and left for Fire Found. That's when everything just went downhill. What the hell happened on that boat, he wondered, and when would Carol return from it?
"I can't do this anymore." She shook her head, hands on her hips, and she ran her tongue over the front of her teeth. "I just can't do this anymore, Daryl."
"I don't think it's up to us," Daryl remarked. "We must be pretty self-involved for us to think so."
"So, who is it up to? Rick? God? The Shah?" She pointed a finger to the steps beside her. "Our sweet little girl? Because let me tell you this—it's bullshit!"
"We ain't goin' down this road again. We already had the bullshit argument about twenty minutes ago, and I can't do it again." He met her eyes. "Just…take out bein' her mom and consider it."
"All right, let's ship Judith off to the woods and see how she fares against those animals."
He lowered his head down onto the counter and growled. "Would you just think about it?!" He slammed his hands against the counter and righted his posture. "Come on, Carol!"
"I don't have to think about it, Daryl. I already had one little girl get lost in the woods! We all know how that ended!"
That hit in like a ton of bricks. For a brief moment of insanity, he'd forgotten about Sophia. The sweet ginger-haired child who was lost on their watch and returned to them in the worst possible way. His brain tried to force the image of Charli coming back as a walker, but his brain knew better. She was stronger than Sophia ever was. She had skills Sophia couldn't dream of having. She was a survivor, born into a dark world to make it brighter. There was no comparing Sophia and Charlotte, and it was time she realized that.
"Carol, our daughter is nothin' like Sophia. They may have the same face and heart, but you know as well as I do that she and Sophia are night and day." He searched her eyes. "And I love her with every ounce of my bein'—you know that—but we cannot control her. If she wants this plan to happen, she's gonna make it happen. That's how you women in this family work. You know what you want, and you go out and get it done. You have to know that she takes after you more than she takes after me."
Carol lifted her arms up to her hairline then dropped them back down to her side. "You have no idea what you're asking me to do."
"I do, because I'm right there with you. This feels like a fuckin' rock in my lungs, on my chest, crushin' me into the motherfuckin' ground, but I know… I know this is the right path here. It'll be risky, but it's always been risky." He surveyed her face and moved around the counter to pull her into his arms—and she let him—and he kissed her shoulder. "I know you want to protect her from the whole damn world—so do I—but there are things…people…we have to expose her to so she knows how to better protect herself and the people she loves. This ain't about us, she got that much right. We gotta let her go…or we'll lose her."
She lightly smacked her balled fists into his chest then wrapped her arms around his neck. "I can't let her go, Daryl." Her voice was trembling, like a plucked guitar string, and tears pooled in the back of her eyes. "I can't. She's our baby."
"Carol, I understand."
"No, you don't." She stepped out of his arms and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. "She was my everything for four years, Daryl. She was the only connection I had to you. She was the light and love of my life when I lost everyone else. I am so in love with her it sickens me. I can't live without her. She is…the perfect blend of us, and I cannot go on if something else happens to her."
"Carol…"
"I want the best for her, not this. Never this." She whimpered. "She's a half of me, Daryl. I can't lose that."
"You won't." He gripped her shoulders and locked his eyes in hers. "We will be in the shadows this time, and we will follow them back to their main camp. We will be victorious, okay? Trust me. With our little girl to guide us…what can go wrong?"
"Everything can go wrong, Daryl. The entire world has been pitted against us since the start, and I don't just mean the end of the world start." She shook her head. "I can't agree to this."
"Well, I don't think it's agree or disagree," he stated. "I think it's do or regret." He placed a kiss to her brow and stepped back. "I'll check on the girls. Why don't you…get some rest? Or some air."
"All I want is for this to be over."
They parted ways by the steps, Carol headed outside to get some fresh fall air, and Daryl padded up the stairs to check on the kids. Owen was fast asleep with his stuffed giraffe, and the girls were whispering and giggling in their shared room. He leaned in the doorway and smiled in on them, and Charli sat up, all serious.
"You need to let me go."
"I know."
She smiled widely at him. "And Mom knows?"
"She knows but won't accept it."
Her smile lost a couple watts but still remained there. "I know it may seem chancy, but it was on a chance that anything around here happened. Let me try, Daddy."
"It ain't up to me. You got my vote. It's your mom who's strugglin'."
"How do we convince her?" Mika crossed her legs on the bed. "I'm not exactly for this, but I understand why it's imperative."
"There's no way to convince a mom or dad to send their child off into danger," Daryl answered. "They either accepted it…"
Mika and Charlotte accepted a glance, and Mika pressed. "Or?"
"Or I don't know." He sighed. "I've accepted it, because I know how good at trackin' we are, how good at leavin' a trail you are, and I know we can do this."
"We so can." Charlotte grasped the bed frame and leaned over it. "I know I'm young, but I don't get to be young. I don't get to be a child. I'm a victim, and as long as they're alive, I'll always be a victim. I don't want to hurt anybody, but these are bad people, and they hurt kids. They deserve to be…extinct."
Daryl smiled faintly. "I know, baby girl." He caught her chin in his hand and pinched it gently. "I know."
"I'll be eight soon. I need to infiltrate their ranks as a seven-year-old. It'll give you guys more time." She gripped his wrist with both hands. "It's a good plan, Daddy. Mommy has to realize that."
"She'll come 'round."
"I hope its in time. I want to celebrate my eighth birthday with family and friends, not those nutjobs."
He smiled. "All right. I'll talk to her again."
"There's no need." Carol entered the room and leaned in the doorway, arms across her chest, and she sighed. "You really think you can do this, baby?"
She slid off the bed and walked over to her mom. "It's not about thinking, Mommy. It's about knowing, and I know you guys can track me anywhere. You'll always find me."
"You're damn right." Carol pulled her into her arms and kissed the top of her head, closing her eyes. "You better make damn sure it's a good trail, okay?"
"I will." She hugged her tightly. "I promise."
Mika tried to smile at the sight of them, but her heart was broken by the decision they had to make. And while she was ready for the Shah to be in the past, she wasn't ready for the steps they had to take to make them of the past. She wasn't going to stand by and let this happen without her, so she would use every talent to follow any trail Charlotte left behind.
Daryl stroked the back of her head and met Carol's hand, lifting her fingers to be holding onto a few, and Carol opened her eyes, bending down to be at height level with Charli, and she gazed up at her husband. They didn't need words to express the consternation they each felt. It was a silent anxiety that spread throughout the entire room and into Charlotte's core. They were all aware of how negatively this could go, but no one said a word just yet, because the war had officially begun.
