Morning rose over the horizon. Carol was at the campfire cooking eggs, Sophia sitting by Tea and Daryl. It had been two days since the two had returned and Sophia, much to the displeasure of Carol, had taken to sticking next to the pair of hunters. Daryl was sitting in a lawn chair with Tea between his legs when Carol walked up to the trio offering the eggs. She was still being standoffish towards Tea and it was obvious to everyone that Sophia wasn't happy with her mother for it and so was acting out. Even Tea had tried to reason with both mother and daughter to no avail. After giving them some eggs to go along with the squirrel they were already munching on, she walked away without so much as a word shared between them.

Glenn stood up then, seemingly apprehensive. He walked over to the group, walking past the majority before turning to them and gaining their attention. "Um, guys? So," he paused, trying to decide whether he wanted to say it or not. Deciding for the better, he blurted out in a quick sentence, "The barn is full of walkers."

Daryl had forced Ania to stay in camp with the kids while he and the others went to the barn. The swelling in her ankle was finally going down and the last thing he wanted was for her to hurt it worse walking all they way to the decrepit building. The boards were so old there were were consistent holes and they creaked and groaned as the walkers inside brushed against them. Shane was looking inside through one such hole.

As one banged on the wood near the man, Shane stormed back towards Rick, "You cannot tell me you're alright with this."

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land," Rick replied.

"This is our lives, man!" Shane hollered.

"Lower your voice," Glenn said, trying to get the man to at least be quiet.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug," Andrea said.

"It ain't right. Not remotely," T-Dog chimed in.

Storming back past the group, Shane quipped, "Okay, we've either got to go in there, we got to make it right, or we just gotta go. Now, we've been talking about Fort Benning for a while."

"We can't go," Rick insisted.

"Why, Rick, why?"

"Tea still needs to heal and recover. We can't leave," Rick repeated.

Shane looked like he was about to blow a gasket as he ran his hands over his face trying to stifle his incredulous laugh, "So that's it, huh? Still riskin' the group for the resident headcase."

"Better watch your damn mouth!" Daryl spat at him.

"Let me ask you this, man, if she was all there in the head, you think she'd be with someone like you? All methed out with your buck knife and your geek ears. I'll tell you what, if she were a normal person, she'd run in the opposite direction!" Shane hollered back at him.

"You're just pissed she chose me," Daryl told the man smugly.

"You can have the crazy bitch!" Shane yelled back, though his fury was as plain as day to everyone in the group. "Psychotic nutcase is just dead meat anyways! Only a matter of time before she jumps off the deep end and becomes walker chow!"

Daryl charged at the ex-cop, Ania's words from the quarry ringing in his ears. I know I'm jus' walker chow walkin', she'd said. The cacophony of the tussle was maddening. So many people talking over one another trying to push him and Shane away from each other. It took Lori coming up and pushing Shane away for the group to break apart.

Rick told Shane to back off as Shane looked at Lori while walking away, "Keep your hands off me."

"Just let me talk to Hershel," Rick said. "Let me figure it out."

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane roared at him while walking towards him.

Lori put her hand on his chest and backed him up as Rick tried to reason with his increasingly violent friend, "If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land!"

"Hershel sees those things in there as people," Dale started, shocking everyone at the implication that he already knew about the barn. "Sick people. His wife, his stepson."

"You knew?" Rick asked.

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane asked angrily.

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did," he defended. "I was waiting 'til this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"Man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no," Shane started.

He and Rick started trying to shout over each other. The ruckus drew the attentions of the walkers in the barn who began banging on the door. Everyone but Dale, Rick, and Daryl backed away from the structure quickly. After a few moments, the noise inside the barn died down and Rick told everyone to go back to camp. Shane decided he was going to stay and make sure the entire perimeter of the barn was secure. It left Daryl and Rick to walk back together.

"I'm sorry about Shane," Rick told the hunter.

"Ain't your fault the guy's a dick."

"He's wrong about Tea," stated Rick.

"I know."

"So you two are actually together, huh?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Nothing, just nice to see she has someone to watch her back. Seems like the kind of person who needs it," Rick said thoughtfully.

"She don't need nothin'. Girl's got grit and smarts for days. Used to think Merle was the toughest son of a bitch out there. Startin' to rethink my opinion," Daryl said.

"Yeah, she reminds me a lot of my little sister," Rick admitted. Daryl just gave him a questioning look, urging him to continue without words. "It's a sore subject; she died of cancer just after Carl was born. Rebecca was my sister's name. Blue eyes and curly red hair to her shoulders. She was a small woman like Tea. She was bright, smart, funny. But she had problems communicating with people. She was real shy. Never really opened up until she got to know you, and then she was just a ray of sunshine. Always making sure everyone around her was okay. Never took care of herself first. Always wanting to do everything herself and never relying on anyone. Sound like anyone you know?"

Daryl shook his head thinking of Ania, "Got a point in tellin' me all this?"

"You don't gotta worry about Tea as long as I'm around," said Rick. "I'll help you keep an eye on her and keep the others off her back. She doesn't deserve the way she's being treated."

"Hell no she don't," Daryl quickly agreed. "Thanks."

~x~

Andrea walked back to camp ahead of the others and watched as Tea threw a knife up into the air before catching it and immediately throwing it at the tree in front of her. It surprised the blonde when the two children who were watching her followed through with the same action, lodging their knives just below the first one. The children looked overjoyed as Tea smiled at them and sang praises, telling them to retrieve the knives.

"You teach them that?" she asked the green-eyed woman.

"Don' tell their mothers. They might make the kids stay away," came the response.

"Can I ask why you're teaching them?"

"Sophia took down four walkers out in those woods. Do ya think 'er motha taught 'er how ta do that?"

"No, I suppose not," Andrea said thoughtfully.

"Carol and Lori are still teachin' 'em math, math! As if anythin' but basic readin', writin', and arithmetic is gonna do 'em any good in this world. Jus' like how they keep wantin' the women folk ta do domestic work and let the men do all the heavy liftin'. Makes no sense in a world like this."

"You're right," Andrea agreed. "I wanted to say I'm sorry."

Tea looked over at her from where she had been watching the kids, "What for?"

"Everything. I wasn't exactly fair towards you all because of how you butt heads with Shane and Lori. And then you told us you were autistic and ADHD and I guess I just held a prejudice. Hell, I even said some shitty things about you leaving Sophia. But you brought her back and actually have been teaching the kids things they need to know that their parents won't. I was wrong about you and I'm sorry."

"Ya talked ta Daryl, aye?"

"Not much. He told me to talk to you. That you're an open book that'd answer any question I asked," Andrea said.

"Aye."

"He said you got lost in the woods at six?"

"Didn' so much as get lost as me daddy got pissed I knew the answa ta a question he asked me sista 'bout history while hikin'. Knocked me ass out and tied me ta a tree. Took all night ta come to and get the rope undone. Spent three weeks in the woods wandarin' 'til I found a landmark I recognized. Damn near poisoned meself on berries. Was shittin' me guts out from drinkin' bad wata. None a 'em even noticed when I walked inta the house. Wasn' 'til dinna when I sat down next ta me sista and asked if there was some for me that they even cared ta talk ta me. Got told ta make me own, so I did. Best meal a me life there and worth the beatin' I got. Made steak, eggs, and potatoes."

"God, that's awful," Andrea said, more shocked that she had said it as if that was a regular occasion.

"T'was normal," Tea said with a shrug.

"You're accent is different. You said you were kind of Irish?" asked the blonde, wanting a change from the heavy subject; Daryl wasn't kidding when he said she had horror stories.

"Yeah, me momma was full blooded Irish. Momma had the full brogue and I picked up on it betta than talkin' normal 'cause a a speech impediment. But I don' 'xactly have the Irish lilt, jus' the way a talkin', the vernacular. Me teacha's used ta say I sounded like a hillbilly compared ta me sista, so me momma started smackin' me face or head every time I said somethin' like she would. I did me best ta hide it, but me best left me how I talk taday. Been told recently I sound unique," Tea told her.

"Let me guess, Daryl?"

"No, Sophia."

"I'm sorry I shot you," Andrea apologized again.

"Not the first time I been shot by accident," Tea said leaning towards the older woman and moving the strap of her shirt over to show an ugly scar along the clavicle. "Got this the first time I eva went huntin'. 'Notha kid was out on 'is first trip too and discharged accidentally."

"And the bruises around it?" Andrea smirked knowingly.

Tea looked at the woman with a million dollar smile, "Daryl."

~x~

She had found a decent walking stick and was using her smallest knife, ironically a whittling knife, to help clear it of bark. Tea had been taking it easy since Glenn had brought it to her and she had tested it out. It would be a good thing to have until she could finally put her full weight on her damn ankle. While she could put some weight on it, it still hurt when she used her full weight, and so she'd had to get around camp with help for a while. This stick would allow her to move around on her own. She was starting to whittle a Triple Moon rune into the thick branch when Shane came storming up into the RV. She knew that look; the man kept calling her unstable and psycho and he was on the verge of a psychotic breakdown. Even though she didn't like the man, she hoped he would accept her help and talk to her.

When he stormed back out, he noticed Glenn on watch. "You seen where he went?" he asked the Asian man.

"Who?" Glenn asked.

"Don't even try to shit me, okay?"

"What?" the young man answered completely confused.

"Dale, Glenn!" Shane asked turning around and spotting Tea looking towards them. "Did you see where Dale went?" he reiterated to the man.

"Yeah, he asked me to run and get him some water. He said he'd cover me on watch," Glenn answered.

"And he was gone when you got back, huh?"

"Yeah," Glenn said. "You think he's okay?"

"Oh, he's fine."

"Then why did he bail then?"

"So you wouldn't tell me which way he went."

"I don't get it."

"No, man, you don't," Shane said storming over to Tea. "You see where he went?"

"No, but if ya tell me why ya need him, I don' mind trackin' for ya," she answered.

"You got your gun?"

"No, Rick said he put it in the bag with the others."

"Dale's got that bag," Shane said angrily. "The barn's full of walkers and we ain't got no guns."

"Do ya know why he'd do that?" she pried, knowing full well that it was to keep Shane from getting them.

"I don't know, Tea, but I know that barn ain't gonna hold with over a dozen walkers in it. We can sit here on our asses, or we can go get those guns and take care of the problem," Shane said.

"I don' mind trackin' ta get the guns. But this is not our land, Shane. I won' be a part a some uprisin' ya got planned against Rick and Hershel. We get the guns jus' in case," she stressed.

"I can accept that."

Using her new walking stick, she easily managed to pick up Dale's trail. It wasn't hard; she was pretty sure Shane could see it plain as day, seeing as he had started walking ahead of her a short time ago. At least he wasn't leaving her behind, though. As they got into wetter territory, Tea could see telltale white shirt of the oldest gentleman in the group.

"Man, this is a good hidin' place," Shane called out, startling the old man. "We ain't been to the swamps much, huh?"

"Why'd ya take the guns, Dale?" Tea asked, trying to convey her confusion at the current predicament.

"How about you just give me that bag, huh?" Shane told him, not giving him a chance to respond.

"I'm not gonna do that," Dale told him.

"Yeah you are, Dale," Shane said confidently. "Unless, well, you do have that rifle over your shoulder."

"Shane!" Tea exclaimed. "What is goin' on with ya? Eva since Rick came back ya been actin' more and more insane!"

"Oh, that's rich comin' from you," he sneered at her.

"I'm autistic and ADHD. I ain' insane. Insanity is an actual condition that includes erratic behavior, emotional lability, and aggression, all things ya demonstratin', Shane. Talk ta me, tell me what's goin' on," Tea said in her gentlest voice.

"I'll tell you what's going on, Dale's gonna give me those guns and we're gonna protect camp. That's all there is to it," Shane told her, trying not to think about what she had just said. "Now come on, old man. Hand them over or shoot. Or else."

"Shane!"

"What? You going to shoot me like you did Otis?" Dale asked, earning a gasp and a questioning gaze from Tea. "Tell another story?"

"Nah, man," Shane started. "Hell, when you really look at it, in the cold light of day, you're pretty much dead already."

"Shane! That's enough!"

"Just give me the guns. Do it now," he continued, ignoring Tea.

"You think this is gonna keep us safe?" Dale asked him.

"Mh-hmm, I know it is," came the quiet reply.

"Rick is trying to get Hershel to let us –"

"Dale, shut up. Just shut up and give me the guns."

Dale leaned the gun bag against the tree and took his rifle off his shoulder. Making sure it was loaded, he turn towards Shane while Tea just stood to the side trying to figure out what all happened. "Am I gonna have to shoot you? Do I have to kill you? Is that what it's going to take?"

Shane just chuckled at his line of questions. He took a step towards Dale, who held his rifle more firmly at the ready, and stopped for a moment. Then he walked right up until the barrel was pressed against his chest. Tea had started trying to reason with him, but he drowned out her words. If he really was going insane, fine. He could accept it so long as he could take what was his, including the little woman standing beside him cursing him out. He could almost picture her with the baby Lori was carrying in her arms with him holding them both. It drove him onwards, consequences be damned.

"Yeah," Shane whispered. "That's what it's gonna take."

They stood like that for only a moment before Dale lowered his gun and whispered back, "This is where you belong, Shane."

"How's that, Dale?"

"This world, what it is now," the old man said sadly. "This is where you belong. And I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that's okay. 'Cause at least I can say that when the world goes to shit, I didn't let it take me down with it," he said as he thrust the bag into Shane's hands.

Shane stopped long enough to tell him, "Fair enough," and dig Tea's gun out for her before he headed back to camp.

He left both of them standing there, Dale grieving the loss of humanity and Tea wondering what all could have happened when she was away. They followed after him before he got out of sight as Dale filled Tea in on everything that had happened in camp.

"I didn' know he'd gotten that bad," she told him.

"He's dangerous," Dale said.

"He's gonna get more so," Tea replied. "He's crackin' unda the pressure. Mark me words, Dale, someone is eitha gonna get killed by that man or have ta kill him 'fore this is all said and done."

"Why do you say that?"

"He's literally goin' mad, Dale," she said as she looked at the back of the cop. "He's not gonna be takin' ordas for much longa. He's gonna get bolda in his actions and deny any wrong doin'. Delusions a grandeur, a fantasy becomin' reality, excessive aggression, erratic behavior. Dale, Shane's gone. The man we met at the quarry, he's dead. Ya need ta tread carefully. He won' be hesitatin' ta kill much longa."

They watched as he neared the house, handing a gun to Daryl. They couldn't hear what was being said until they got closer, but what Tea had said she didn't want to be a part of she now was. Shane was like a caged animal with how he was pacing, trying to rile everyone up.

"Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't," they heard Shane say as they walked up; Daryl went over to Tea with a disgruntled look, wrapping an arm around her waist to get some weight off her ankle. Shane walked up to Glenn and held out another rifle, "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn glanced at Maggie before grabbing the gun. "That's it. Can you shoot?" he asked the farmer's daughter.

"Can you stop?" she asked right back. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane,", Sophia said, noticing how Tea had begun to lean on Daryl more than her stick. "Miss Tea isn't well enough to travel."

"I'm fine, sweetie. I've dealt with worse and done more afta," Tea smiled at her, earning a smile back from the girl and a glare from Carol.

"What is this?" Lori asked as she came out of the farmhouse.

"We ain't going anywhere, okay?" Shane told the little girl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He– well, he's gonna have to. Now, we need to keep the camp safe, am I right?" he said walking up to Carl and kneeling. "Now I want you to take this," he told the boy while holding out a gun. "You take it, Carl. You keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it."

"Ya ain' 'is parent ta make that call, Shane!" Tea growled; giving knives for emergency purposes and training them was one thing, but Carl had been shot and had one day of weapons training! What the hell was the man thinking?! Right, she thought, he's goin' mad so he ain' thinkin', jus' doin'. Fuck.

Lori pushed her son behind her and viciously told Shane, "Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

Whatever arguments that were going to be made got cut off by T-Dog's expletive exclamation drawing the attention of most of the group. Even Tea couldn't believe what she was seeing and had immediately drawn a throwing knife as well as her gun. Coming out of the woods was Jimmy followed by Hershel and Rick, each with a walker on a pole. They were leading the damn things to the barn as the entire group ran towards it. Shane was in the lead and despite the soreness in her ankle, Tea wasn't very far behind. As they shot in front of Rick and Hershel, she trained her gun at the head of Rick's walker and held it steady at the same time as Daryl.

"What in the hell are you doing, man?!" Shane roared at Rick.

"Shane, just back off," Rick said.

"Why do your people have guns," Hershel asked.

"Ya said ya wouldn' do this, Shane!" Tea yelled.

"Are you kidding me?" Shane continued as he paced in front of the two. "You see? You what they're holding onto?"

"I see who I'm holding onto," Hershel said.

"Just let us do this and then we can talk," Rick bargained desperately.

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead! Ain't gotta feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill! These things, right here! They're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us if we do not –"

"Shane, shut up!" Rick roared above him.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Could a living, breathing person, could they walk away from this?" and the man let off three rounds into the corpse's chest.

"No!" Rick shouted. "Stop it!"

"Shane, enough! Ya gotta stop!"

"Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still comin'?" the madman asked Hershel as he fired off two more rounds. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" He fired another into its gut.

"Shane! Enough!" Rich shouted.

Pacing over to the corpse Shane said in a calmer, quieter voice, "Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Then he shot the walker in Hershel's hold in the head, walking away as it dropped. The man fell to his knees as Shane walked up to the barn. "Enough riskin' our lives for shit that's just gonna slow us down! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before! You can't have weak links and cracks in defenses if you want to survive! Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it!" He said as he tried to rile everyone up. "I'm talking about fighting right here, right now!"

He ran up to the doors of the barn and started banging on them as Rick was begging Hershel to take the snare pole. Daryl pulled Ania behind him and gave her a pointed look as the man going ballistic managed to break the lock on the barn doors. She would still be able to shoot, but would not be on the front line if they got overrun. The doors began to creak and moan as Shane broke a second board before banging on the door to get the attention of the dead. He backed away then, coming to stand in the line that had begun to form, all with guns raised.

When the dead slowly started coming out, Tea realized that they had underestimated the number of walkers that had been in the barn. For every walker they put down, two more came out. She heard the sobbing of the women and Carl behind her as she, Daryl, T-Dog, Andrea, and Shane lined up and shot walker after walker. Sophia was in her peripheral field holding her knife and standing in front of her mother who was sobbing behind her and trying to pull her away. Fuckin' useless woman, Tea briefly thought as Glenn joined in after getting the okay from Maggie. They had to have put down at least thirty walkers before the area fell silent. Tea looked at the carnage in front of them. Another growl was heard approaching from the inside of the barn. Tea watched as a final walker made its way out of the rundown building.

"Jesse?" she whispered as her gun faltered in her grip.

She knew that shirt; she was wearing the same one. It had been one of the best days of her life when they had gone to the Flogging Molly concert in Boston and she had had a beer for the first time even though she was underage. Scraggly hair that had once been a luscious red with her once brown eyes obscured by death sat on a face that was beginning to decay. Her height was marred by an obvious limp from a chunk of one of her legs missing. Tea didn't even know she was moving until Daryl had his arms around her. She started fighting against him as he picked her up and brought her to the ground with him, using his weight to keep her in his arms.

Everyone in the group was watching as the girl who had never shown anything but anger and a blank face completely went hysterical in the hunter's arms. She wasn't even crying. She was screaming for Daryl to let her go, struggling even more against the man who was having a hard time keeping the girl secure. Rick and Shane shared a look that let the bald man know he was in deep shit with his friend; the way the girl was screaming for the walker told everyone that she knew the dead girl somehow. Tea watched in horror as the walker grew closer and closer. She started begging Daryl to let her go, let her end it, but he couldn't. He and Rick shared a look, a silent agreement settling between them.

As Daryl held onto Ania whispering in her ear that everything would be okay, that he had her, Rick walked up to the walker. He raised his Python and did his best to ignore the screams of the girl behind him. She was screaming at him, begging him to stop, to let her do it, that she needed to do it, but he knew as well as Daryl that she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for it. Let her hate us instead was the shared thought between them as Daryl's arms tightened at the sound of the hammer hitting down when Rick pulled the trigger. Tea went limp in his arms as the walker fell.

Updated 9/7/21