S4E3P1

Ava hated to think it, but at least this time the smell of corpses wasn't as aggressively rotten.

Roasted meat. She needed to throw up again.

"You found them like this?" Rick said, looking between the bodies and Tyreese, who stood deathly still, staring at the charred bodies of Karen and David.

Ava's heart broke for him. It was a terrible thing to lose the person you loved, but to find them like this? Burnt to a crisp, unrecognisable as to who they were. She tried to picture Karen's face but that memory was dimmed by a new one. One of fire and death.

"I came to see Karen," Tyreese said, turning to look at Rick. Ava bit her lip and glanced at the others. Daryl, Carol and Merle had come, Merle only because he'd been with Daryl at the time. Seems he wasn't paying attention to the 'stay away' rule. "And I saw the blood on the floor. Then I smelled them."

"Smells like barbeque," Merle muttered, Daryl scowling at him. Ava covered her mouth with her hand.

"Somebody dragged them out here and set them on fire." He yelled. "They killed them and set them on fire!"

Ava flinched, reaching out to Rick as Tyreese turned suddenly and rounded on him. Daryl ran up behind, ready to act should Tyreese lose control. Rick held his arm out to keep Ava back.

"You're a cop." Tyreese said, oblivious to the looks everyone was giving him. "You find out who did this and you bring 'em to me. You understand? You bring 'em to me!"

Daryl put his hand on Tyreese, trying to pull him back.

"We'll find out who-"

Tyreese shook him off, never taking his eyes from Rick.

"I need to say it again?"

"No. No." Rick said, stepping closer to Tyreese. "I know what you're feeling. I've been there."

"Have you? You weren't with your wife when she died!"

Ava cringed and Rick swallowed hard, looking down.

"I wasn't talking about that, even if it did still hurt." He met Tyreese's gaze. "I thought Ava was dead for months. It nearly broke me. So I know how you feel and I know that it's dangerous-"

"Karen didn't deserve this." He said, ignoring Rick.

"No."

"David didn't deserve it. Nobody does."

"All right, man," Daryl sighed, trying to pull Tyreese back. "let's-"

"Man, I ain't going nowhere till I find out who did this!" Tyreese turned, grabbing Daryl and pushing him up against a wall. He held his hand out, nodding to Rick, but Merle wasn't one to follow instructions. He dragged Tyreese off of Daryl, yelling something unintelligible as Tyreese retaliated in kind.

"No! Stop it!" Ava yelled, moving to Carols' side as Rick and Daryl tried to pull them apart. She wanted to intervene, but what could she do to stop Tyreese or Merle? She wasn't strong enough for that.

The moment there was a gap between them, Ava jumped in. Merle hesitated when she glared at him.

"Merle, back off! You're not helping anyone," she turned to Tyreese, who was seething and bloodied, a wild look in his eye. "Tyreese, you need to calm down. This isn't helping anything. I know you're grieving, but being angry and violent isn't the way to do it! Karen wouldn't want that-"

Tyreese lunged and Ava cried out, raising her arms as he shoved her away from him. She fell against the wall, her head cracking painfully against brick. Everything went fuzzy. People were crying out, yelling at each other. By the time her vision cleared enough to make sense of what was happening, Daryl and Merle were pulling Rick away from Tyreese, who lay curled on the ground.

"What…?" The rest of her question was swallowed by unconsciousness.

Ava woke not long later, laid up on Hershel's bed, a throbbing headache echoing through her entire brain. She groaned.

"Ava?"

She opened her eyes long enough to see a bright light beside her. Blinking a few times, she saw it was a desk lamp Hershel was using to tend to Ricks' hand. She saw it and frowned.

"What happened?"

Rick tried to move, but Hershel forced him down.

"She's not going anywhere. Let me finish with your hand."

Rick looked like he wanted to argue but turned to Ava, wincing as Hershel dabbed at his split knuckles.

"Are you alright?"

Ava frowned, turning her head to the side and finding a painful lump on the back of her head.

"I think so. Head hurts like a son of a bitch, but I can see straight."

"That's a good sign. Still, you likely have a mild concussion."

Ava grunted and closed her eyes.

"Great. I'm gonna just lie here and pretend I'm still asleep. Maybe that'll trick my brain into not hurting."

Rick chuckled as Hershel began bandaging his hand.

"You do that."

She hummed.

"Council meeting tomorrow morning." Hershel said, more to Rick than Ava. "Thought you should know. We just lost 12 of our own. Two more we killed in cold blood. We could be facing an outbreak."

Rick sighed, looking between Ava and his hand.

"I think I've done enough damage for one day."

Hershel cocked a brow at him.

"I've fallen off the wagon before."

"That's what this is?" he scoffed.

"Pretty close. And you may have gone too far, but no one's going to hold it against you. He may have been grieving, but that doesn't give him the right to hurt people like that. Ava's lucky the concussion isn't worse."

Rick glanced at Ava, who didn't react to Hershel's words. He smiled to himself. She was definitely asleep again.

"What do I do now?" Rick said, still staring at her. Hershel sighed.

"When it happened, I didn't stand around feeling bad about it. I got back up. I had responsibilities. People to keep safe. Just like you do." Hershel followed his gaze. "Ava's going to be fine, Rick. Are you?"

Ava didn't know how long she was asleep for, but by the time she woke up, Hershel and Rick were gone. It was light, probably morning and her head was feeling significantly better. It still ached, a dull throb like an average headache, and the lump on the back of her head was still tender, but at least she didn't feel like standing up would kill her.

Standing up almost knocked her out.

She swayed, catching the bed frame, and steadying herself as the head rush faded. A slightly more aggravated headache followed. She gritted her teeth and headed outside, thinking some fresh air would do her good.

"What are you doing up?"

It was Hershel, frowning as she made her way over to him. She shielded her eyes against the sun, wincing.

"I feel better, Hershel."

"Really? Is that why you can't look at the sun?"

She rolled her eyes, lowering her hand and blinking and few times as the headache intensified, then petered out a little.

"Hey," Glenn ran over, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I heard what happened. Are you alright?"

She started to nod, then thought better of it.

"I'll be okay. Just a headache, really – so long as I don't touch the back of my head."

He nodded, relieved.

"I just can't believe Tyreese would do that."

"I can't blame him," she said, sighing. "He's grieving. He wouldn't have acted like that if he was in his right mind."

Glenn nodded, then turned to Hershel.

"So, I was thinking, we're gonna be okay, right?" he said as the three of them headed towards the Council meeting Ava had vague memories about. "I mean, Karen and David, they were already sick. So if we were gonna get it, we'd have had it by now."

Hershel shook his head.

"It doesn't happen on a timeline. It's different with everyone."

Ava rubbed her eyes. Between what happened to Karen and David and her getting knocked out, she'd almost forgotten about the sickness.

"But we could be okay." Glenn pressed.

"Yeah, we could be." Hershel said softly. "Everything could be okay."

"But we can't be sure," Ava sighed. Glenn shook his head.

"If it's walkers, if it's people, we can do something. We can fight." He looked away, disheartened. "But with this, I'm just digging graves."

Ava put her hand on his arm, about to offer words of comfort, when violent coughing interrupted them. They turned and Ava's heart dropped. Sasha stumbled out into the courtyard, her face pasty and coated in sweat. She held a hand out as they headed towards her, stopping them from getting too close.

"Got to see Dr. S." She said, panting. "I'm gonna be okay."

Ava exchanged a troubled look with Glenn as Sasha made her way unsteadily away.