RaphealtheCowboy: Honestly, I didn't even really catch that hypocrisy, so thank you for pointing it out. It actually made me write a paragraph about it because you're right. She didn't care one way or another, so why did she fight? Aside from keeping somewhat to canon...

"Dale could, could get under your skin," Rick said as they laid the man to rest the next morning. "He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it at one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us. The truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group is broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Take control of our lives, our safety. Our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on, we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

In the cold light of day, they had buried Dale next to Hershel's family. Tea was still wondering about whether she had been wrong. Risk assessment aside, it really didn't matter if the kid had lived or died, so why had she been so insistent? Dale had been right in a lot of what he had said, and she had understood his standpoint a lot. But she had been one-track minded. Only looking at the risks and the way the boy acted in the shed. Could he be reformed? Could he really become an asset? Was it possible to send him further away in a confusing fashion so that he didn't know how to get back? She looked at things logically, only considering the group she belonged to. Dale had looked at things emotionally, feeling compassion for the guy who was no older than her. Damn it all to hell, she thought, I hate bein'0 confused.

T-Dog drove the pick up out to the edge of the farm. He, Daryl, Andrea, Tea, and Glenn had gone on a perimeter check. If one walker had gotten in, others might have too. The fences were the first they checked before going down by the creek bed. Tea pinched the back of Daryl's arm, grabbing onto his shirt and pointing at the ground. Clear as day, there was a trail that looked like a small group of walkers had come through. Sure enough, not fifteen minutes later the group came upon five walkers eating a cow.

To say they over-killed the situation was an understatement. There was no holding back, no thought for who the walkers might have been. Only anger and resentment for what happened to Dale. Andrea was by far the most vicious, laying into the walkers like it was no tomorrow and taking out two. Tea didn't see who took out the other walkers, but the last one they all laid into. They didn't even kill it. Just kicked the ever loving shit out of the damn thing until Tea decided that was enough. Taking the sledge hammer she'd grabbed from the farm, she brought it down onto the skull, watching as the brains splattered everywhere. They finished checking the perimeter, coming across a few more equally brutalized walkers before they were done. While none of them particularly felt better, their anger was appeased.

When they got back, they noticed that the others had begun breaking camp, Hershel standing next to Rick with Maggie and Beth. "It's gonna be tight, 15 people in one house," she heard Rick say.

"Don't worry about that," Hershel assured him. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up."

"With fifty head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell," Maggie finished for him.

"She's right," Hershel said. "We should've moved you in a while ago. Especially with all Tea's done for us, kept my girls safe and healthy, kept them going. This is the least I could do to repay the debt I owe her."

"Ya don' owe me shite, Hershel," she said as she walked up. "Told ya, we're family. In this group, we're family. Ain' done nothin' family wouldn' do."

"You put an awful lot of emphasis on family," Hershel chuckled.

"Well, ya know the sayin' blood is stronga than wata?" she waited to see several people nodding. "Full sayin' is the blood a the covenant is stronga than the wata a the womb. Y'all are me chosen family," she said with a shrug.

"Alright, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out towards the road," Rick told everyone, smiling about how innocent Tea could be sometimes. "We'll build a lookout by the windmill and another by the barn loft. That should give us sight lines both sides of the property. T-Dog, I'm gonna need you to keep the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going."

"What about standing guard?" he asked.

"Daryl, Andrea, and I'll take double duties with ya for it," Tea told him. "Don' worry ya pretty little head none."

"Gotcha," he said with a chuckle as he walked off to start packing up; Daryl scoffed at that, hating how she had taken to talking more openly with the group lately, giving pet names to practically everyone. His only solace was that she called him D, or baby when alone, while she called them all hun or sweetie or sugar. He was the only one with a pet name of his own, and it kept him sane knowing she still felt he was special.

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be," Hershel said as he hauled items from camp to the truck.

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked.

"Let's get this area locked down first," Rick told her. "After that, Tea'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall off site and cut him loose."

"Make sure ya take a bit a extra time. Back roads, loop 'rounds, whateva it takes ta make sure he's good and confused and then hightail it straight back here," Tea told him.

"It was the right plan first time around," Rick agreed, "poor execution."

"Happens, tensions were high and ya weren' exactly careful like ya'll be this time," she told him.

Daryl had already gone to their camp for the essentials and was on his motorbike heading back towards the farmhouse. She was walking next to Andrea and listening to Hershel and Rick talk behind them. Hershel was still concerned about Shane, even though they all knew what had likely happened with him. Tea tuned the conversation out.

"Andrea," Rick's voice sounded a few moments later. "When I'm out with Daryl, help Hershel and Tea keep an eye on things here."

"Me?"

"I need you to make sure everyone in the group stays on the same track as Tea. No in-fighting," Rick told her.

"If you're going to stay here permanently, there's certain members of your group that need to understand that it's what Rick, Tea, and I say, not whatever they want."

"You want me to babysit Lori and Carol?" she asked incredulously, causing Tea to snicker beside her.

"I need to make sure every time I leave the farm, all hell doesn't break loose," Rick said seriously.

"Then maybe you should stop leaving," Andrea retorted.

"She's right," Tea chimed in. "Might be easia on everyone if ya stayed here and let me and Daryl make the run. We're betta equipped ta survive out there anyway."

"I'll think about it, but in the mean time, can I count on you Andrea?"

"Of course."

Tea about the windmill and what would need to be done to get it up and running as a workable lookout station. They'd definitely need to build some sort of platform people could sit, if not lay on at the very least. Standing wasn't much of an option, but standing would make whoever was looking out stick out like a sore thumb anyway. She was just starting to look at the spare wooden boards when she heard Carl call out for her.

"What's up, bud? Shouldn' ya be in the house with ya momma?"

"If, um, if I tell you something, will you promise not to tell my parents?"

"No, I won' make that promise. Not if it's somethin' they really need ta know or is a risk ta yaself. But I promise ta be there with ya if they decide ta scold ya 'bout it. I ain' gonna let ya get in trouble for comin' clean 'bout somethin' ya feel guilty 'bout," she told him honestly.

Carl reached into his jacket and produced Daryl's missing gun. "I took it from Daryl's motorcycle," he told her as he handed it over. "If he found out I took it, he'd kill me."

"Nah, cuff ya upside the head maybe, but the man's a big softy when it comes ta kids," Tea said with a smile. "Now what's really botharin' ya?"

"It's my fault. Dale. It's my fault that he died," Carl said, playing with stones at his feet.

"Why would ya think that's the case, sweetie?" she asked him, going down on one knee to look up at him, since he refused to look up himself.

"I saw that walker. I was gonna shoot it," he admitted. "It was stuck in the mud. I was throwing rocks at it and stuff. But I was gonna do it! Shoot it right in the head. But it, it, it got free, came after me, and I ran away. If I'd have killed it Dale would still be here."

"That is not a guarantee, Carl. Could a been anotha walka that got Dale last night. Ya neva know. We found several on the propaty earlia. Could a jus' been 'is time. But dwellin' on the should a, would a, could a's jus' gonna make ya feel guilt ya shouldn' be feelin'. Ya ran away, like any child should, when a walka came afta ya. Was he fully free? Ya said it got out, but had it when ya ran? How'd ya get away?"

"Fell over, one leg was still stuck in the mud," he muttered.

"Alright, then, that walka'd a gotten free soon 'nough without ya bein' there, and that right there jus' proves it. I'll give Daryl back the gun, but ya gonna have ta take anotha one up soon 'nough. Don' let this scare ya, okay?"

She sent him back to the house before she began loading boards up into the truck. She'd have to wait for Daryl to get back, or ask T-Dog to help, to do any work on the windmill. She couldn't climb and lug the boards up at the same time herself. One bad thing about being short and having limited abilities due to her arm length. She could rig a pulley system up, but that would take more effort than she was willing to put into it alone. Besides, she could see Daryl walking back up to the farmhouse.

Rick came out with a map and motioned to her. He took both her and Daryl and showed them the route, "Take him out to Senoia, hour there, hour back give or take. You may lose the light, but you'll be halfway home by then. I'm staying at the house," he informed them. "You and Andrea were right. It's probably best if I stay here for the time being."

"This little pain in the ass will be a distant memory," Daryl said, his mood lightening a lot at the thought of a couple solid hours alone in a car with Ania. "Good riddance."

"Carol's putting together some provisions for him, enough to last a few days," Rick said, looking out at the farm. "That thing y'all did last night," he said, giving them both a pointed look.

"Ain't no reason you should do all the heavy lifting," Daryl told him.

"T'was mercy. For both a ya, well, the three a ya. I could do it without bein' burdened knowin' it was mercy. I doubt eitha a ya could see it that way," she said as she looked at both older men, seeing Rick's nod and Daryl simply avoiding her eyes.

"So you good with all this?" he asked them both.

"Good to me," Daryl said. "I'm goin' to take a piss."

As he walked away, Tea turned to Rick, "Ya gotta talk ta Carl, hun."

"What's going on with Carl?"

"He's blamin' 'imself for Dale's death," she said bluntly. "Apparently, he went wandarin' down by the swamp with a gun and came 'cross the same walka that got Dale. Now he thinks that, 'cause 'e was throwin' stones and planned on shootin' it and didn', it's 'is fault Dale's dead. I happen ta think 'e did the right thing by runnin' away when it pulled a leg free a the mulch and grabbed at 'im, but 'e don' see it that way. He needs 'is daddy ta set 'im straight."

"Where'd he get the gun?" Rick said, taken aback at her revelation.

"Daryl's saddlebag," she answered with a shrug. "Don' matta much. Kid's gonna need a gun eventually anyway, the soona he gets used ta that idea, the betta, same goes for Lori and ya. So don' focus on the gun, focus on the guilt," she told him seriously.

Walking back into the house, she gave Sophia a one-armed hug and let her know that she would be leaving the farm with Daryl and why. After that, she found Daryl smoking on the porch out back. She spent some time with him getting various things ready for them to be gone so long and loaded them into the truck. As it got closer and closer to the time to go, the two of them got more and more antsy. A lot could go wrong on such a long trip.

T-Dog came over and offered what he was holding to Daryl, "Only got so many arrows."

"Is that Dale's gun?" the man asked.

"Yeah," T-Dog sighed.

"Wish I knew where the hell mine is," Daryl said in return.

"Oh, here!" Tea said before she reached into her waistband and proffered the missing piece. "Long story short, Carl wanted ta play hero."

"Keep it," Daryl told her, pushing her hand back into her chest.

"I got one, Daryl. What, ya think I'm gonna turn inta Wyatt Earp or somethin'?"

Daryl blushed and took the gun, having forgotten all about her gun. It was easy to do when she'd only ever pulled it out once, and that was at the barn; she'd used a rifle back in the quarry, proving she could shoot. He handed T-Dog back Dale's gun and took his as Ania giggled and stepped up to him to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"You two really are a couple of love birds, aren't ya?" T-Dog snickered.

"Shut it," combined with "Shut up," came from the hunters.

"Ready?" Rick asked as he walked up from the barn.

"Yeah," came the unison reply.

"I'll get the package," T-Dog said.

"Thanks."

A few minutes later, a frantic T-Dog was running up to the house, talking about how Randall wasn't in the shed. Rightfully so, everyone who heard ran towards the shed. Tea, Daryl, and Rick were checking the shed while Glenn, Andrea, and T-Dog stood watch outside scanning the woods. Tea found a break in the upper supports just big enough for Randall to squeeze through with some blood smeared on them. The cuffs were gone, meaning he'd only gotten one hand free, but that was enough. She'd fucked up again, forgetting to assign someone to the shed on watch, allowing this escape to happen.

"This ain' good, Rick," she said as she knelt next to him by the blankets they'd kept Randall on as the rest of the group ran up to the shed asking about what happened.

"The cuffs are missing," he told them. "He must've broke 'em or slipped 'em."

"Is that possible?" Carol asked.

"Anythin's possible when ya desperate 'nough. Coulda dislocated 'is thumb easily 'nough ta make 'is hand smalla than his wrist, easily slip 'em that way. No way he picked the lock; they'd still be there if 'e had," Tea answered her.

"The door was secured from the outside," Hershel said.

"There's a break in the boards up near the rafters on the other side," Rick told him.

"What are we going to do?" Glenn asked.

"Alright, Hershel, T-Dog, get everyone back to the house," Rick said. "Glenn, Daryl, come with me and Tea."

"Just let him go," Carol said, ever the scared woman. "That was the plan, right? Just let him go?"

"Not this close ta the farm, Carol. He finds 'is group, 'e brings 'em 'ere, they ain' gonna play nice with Phia or Beth or ya. They're gonna make us all suffa. Ya want that ta happen? All the kid had ta do is wait, and I told 'im that earlia taday. That 'e busted out means 'e's tryin' ta stay local at best, reconnect with 'is people at worst," Tea rationalized. "Now all a y'all get inta that house and lock it tight! Phia, keep close ta ya momma and Beth. Protect 'em if ya gotta, but don' leave their sights, got it?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Sophia said, running off to the house as told.

As the four of them turned their backs, Carol pleaded with them. "Don't go out there! Y'all know what can happen!"

"Get everybody back to the house!" was Rick's final word on the matter. "Lock all the doors and stay put!"

"What way'd 'e go, D? I'm not pickin' up on 'is tracks ova here," Tea said as she searched the opposite direction of Daryl.

"Looks like it's up in this direction," Daryl pointed through the trees.

"Couldn't have gotten far," Rick reasoned. "He's hobbled, exhausted."

"Let's jus' follow the damn trail and get this done with. Randall ain' the only threat out 'ere, and y'all have way less visibility in the dark than I do," Tea said.

They walked carefully through the woods, or more like Daryl and Tea walked carefully. To them, it felt as if every step Glenn and Rick were taking was sounding the dinner bell for nearby walkers. Randall's irregular foot falls traipsing through the woods were easy to follow, until they weren't alone.

"Got two sets of tracks right here," Daryl said.

"Looks like someone was followin' 'im," Tea agreed, weary by the two sets of shuffling.

"There's fresh blood on this tree," Daryl said, taking the light from where Tea was looking at the trail to shine it on the tree in front of them. "There's more tracks. Almost like they're walking in tandem." They walked a little further and the four of them found more blood. "Had a little dust up right here."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked.

"I mean somethin' went down," the redneck said roughly, not liking how stupid Glenn could be at times. They walked a few more paces before they came across a ripped piece of cloth and a lot more blood, "Had a little trouble."

Behind them, the woods sounded something fierce alerting the small posse to looming company. Quickly, they each hid behind a tree. Daryl tossed Glenn a flashlight while Tea motioned to the others that there were two figures. As Glenn and Tea went to round their respective trees, growling sounded around them, warning them that they were dealing with walkers. Glenn's startled yell as walker-Randall grabbed at him was only surpassed by Rick's strangled gasp as walker-Shane fell down on Tea who had stupidly frozen in place seeing him. The fact that she was basically tackled made her lose her hold on her knife and it being dark she couldn't find it from the angle she laid and couldn't spare a hand to stumble for it.

Daryl didn't realize what was happening with Tea, or he would have been helping her. Instead, he was trying to get a clear shot at walker-Randall but Glenn and it were moving too much. Deciding to say screw it, he walked up and pulled the walker off of Glenn, only to lose his balance and end up in a much similar situation to Tea. However, he being much stronger, he was having an easier time holding the thing at bay. Glenn wrestled the walker away from Daryl and onto the ground, rolling to straddle its back before taking his knife and stabbing it in the head. Rick finally took action and pulled walker-Shane away from Tea. The momentum of the force threw the walker a few feet away where Tea quickly drew her gun and shot the man between the eyes.

"Fuck," Tea hissed looking at walker Shane.

"Nice," Daryl told Glenn, giving him a friendly smack to the arm.

It was obvious what had killed Randall; half his neck and shoulder were torn out and his entire stomach was missing. From the blood on walker-Shane, it was obvious who the killer had been. They checked Shane for bites, but there were none, just the stab wound from where Tea had got him. Glenn was beside himself, wondering how Shane had turned when he wasn't bit and how he had managed to get stabbed. Tea was now wallowing in a world of guilt that she was stuffing down with logical reasoning. I killed him 'cause I had ta, nothin' I ain' done 'fore. I did it 'cause I had ta, she told herself over and over again.

They started the trek back to the farmhouse silently, Glenn and Rick ahead of the two hunters. Daryl had an arm around Ania's shoulders and pressed her tight into his side. He didn't like how she was shaking, but not crying. He'd never seen her do this without a strong emotional reaction. That her reaction was neither shutting down nor tears nor anger, the only thing he could do was hold her until whatever breakdown she would have took place. They barely made it back to the house before Rick excused himself again, not wanting to handle the line of questioning coming.

"We found Randall," Daryl said.

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked.

"He was a walker," Daryl answered.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel inquired.

"Yeah," Tea said in a firm voice. "It was Shane."

The sharp intakes of breath around the room stabbed into her, but she kept her resolve. I've done it 'fore. I did what I had ta do then, did what I had ta do now. She refused to believe that she had made the wrong choice in wounding Shane, ultimately causing his demise. But that brought up a whole new line of questions in her head. If she had killed Shane that night, did that mean he had been in the woods as a walker since then? What if he had stumbled into camp at any point between then and now? Then there was the fact that he turned. He wasn't bit or scratched, but he turned. Did that mean he already had the virus, and if so, did that mean they all did? Her brain was in overdrive as more questions were asked about how Shane turned.

"The weird thing is, he wasn't bit," Glenn said. "Only wound he had was a stab wound to his thigh."

"How'd he get that?" Lori asked Glenn, who just shrugged his shoulders. Daryl and Tea shared a look.

"Would you please go back out there and find Rick to see if we can find out what the hell is going on?" Lori asked Daryl and Tea, both of which readily agreed just to get out of the awkward situation they found themselves in.

As the group left the house for some fresh air now that they knew Randall was dead, Daryl and Tea were heading towards the stairs to the porch. They all slowly stopped in their tracks, however, at the sight of walkers pouring out of the woods in droves. The shot Tea took earlier, she distastefully thought, must have drawn them onto the property, or at least towards the house.

"Patricia, cut the lights," Hershel yelled in a whisper to the older blonde.

"I'll get the guns," Andrea said as she rushed inside.

"Maybe they're just passing, like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn asked.

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about," Daryl answered him.

"A herd that size'll tear the house apart," Tea agreed.

"Carl's gone," a frantic Lori cried to them.

"What?!" Daryl and Tea said at the same time.

"He, he was upstairs. I can't find him anymore."

"Maybe he's hiding," Glenn suggested.

"He's supposed to be upstairs!" Lori cried adamantly. "I'm not leaving without my boy."

"Lori, I need ya ta take a deep breath, ok? We ain' leavin' Carl behind," Tea told her before turning to Carol. "Go inside with Lori, check every room, every closet, every nook. Be thorough."

"We're gonna look again and we're gonna find him," Carol said with more conviction than Tea had ever heard the mousy woman have.

Andrea came out with the gun bag and started passing them out. Glenn was surprised when Maggie grabbed a gun, but Tea just snorted when she said she grew up country. Everyone was gearing up, but they knew it was no use; Daryl even went so far as to point that fact out loud.

"You can go if you want," Hershel told him.

"You gonna take 'em all on?" he asked the old man.

"We have guns. We have cars," the man said as he loaded a rifle.

"Kill as many as we can," Andrea said. "We'll use the cars to lure the rest of them off the farm."

"It'll neva work," Tea told her.

"You serious?" Daryl asked Hershel.

"This is my farm. I'll die here."

"Alright. It's as good a night as any," Daryl said before kissing Ania for everything he had and jumping over the side rail of the porch, heading for his motorcycle.

"Don' die on me, D!" she yelled after him.

"You either!"

T-Dog and Andrea took the truck. Jimmy was in the RV while Glenn and Maggie were in the car. They made several passes as the dead kept coming. This was nothing like what had happened at the barn. For every one walker they put down, ten more seemed to appear. Tea was helping Hershel keep the walkers from getting too close to the house, though as of yet the two of them were doing more watching the others than fighting. Suddenly, the barn was ablaze and the walkers were moving towards it. It didn't take long for the walkers to break past the barbed wire fence used to mark the cattle's grazing lands. Tea watched with an eagle eye as the RV moved to the barn and two figures climbed on top of it.

"I checked the shed. I can't find him anywhere," she heard Lori say between the sound of her gun firing.

"Not in the cellar or the attic," Carol said.

"Lori!" Tea yelled as the woman came into view. "Rick's got Carl, I promise! Carl's fine! Ya gotta go! Get the othas and get ta the vehicles!"

"Are you sure?!" she asked, scared out of her mind.

"I promise ya! I neva break a promise! We gotta go!" Tea told her as she moved back onto the porch, yelling inside the house for everyone to move it. As the others came out of the house, Tea grabbed Sophia by the shoulders, "Keep ya knife out, but don' be a hero. Push 'em away and run like ya life depends on it 'cause it does. Keep ya momma and Beth safe, ya hear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"You can't tell my daughter what to -"

The resounding slap caused several heads to momentarily turn. Carol's face was full of shock as her left hand came up to caress her cheek that was turning red and swelling. "Now ain' the time for ya crap, Carol. Ya will listen ta what I tell ya ta do. Ya only job is ta keep 'er safe, ya hear me? Ya show up without 'er, ya lose 'er or leave 'er again, I'll give ya ta a walka ta bite, shoot ya dead and wait for ya ta turn jus' ta shoot ya again! Do ya undastand?!"

"Yes," came the weak reply.

"Now get ya asses ta the cars, go!" Tea yelled as she shoved Carol, Sophia, Beth, Patricia, and Lori down the steps. "Get fuckin' goin'! Hershel! Come on!"

They tried to call for Hershel but he wouldn't move. Tea told Lori to get the others to safety and watched as walkers came up and grabbed Patricia. The woman was holding onto Beth and refused to let go; Tea took careful aim and put the poor woman out of her misery as Lori pulled her free. Carol, coward that she was, had run forward before everyone else, dragging Sophia along in the wrong direction as she watched the scene with Patricia unfold. Sophia pulled against her mother and broke free just in time to make it back to Lori and Beth as walkers closed in around Carol. T-Dog and Andrea pulled up to the three of them, Andrea hopping out and providing cover fire as they entered the cab. Tea had taken off towards Carol and managed to help her break free of the walkers, ensuring the older woman got into the truck as well. She didn't notice the one coming up on her from behind. Andrea managed to kill it for Tea, but not before one came up close to Andrea. When she shot it in the head, it knocked her down. Tea didn't have time to check on her as the walkers were closing in on her and T-Dog had taken off.

She ran. That's all she could do. She ran as fast as she could, weaving through the walkers as swiftly as a fox, but there was no getting away from them. Screaming in frustration as her legs began to burn, she tried her damnedest to make it off the farm. The sound of a motor broke over the sound of walkers and she looked up to see Daryl coming towards her.

"Come on!" he said as he swung it around. "We ain't got all day!"

She couldn't help the chuckle that came out of her mouth as she swiftly mounted the bike, bringing her arms firmly around him as he took off. The sound drew the attention of the walkers, but Daryl's bike was way too swift for them to be caught. Tea knew that Daryl should have been long gone by the time she was left which only meant that he'd been parked somewhere out of the way watching the barn burn. It was the house fire his mother had died in all over again with the same results. The home he had so desperately helped to build was gone.

Hope this deviation was worthy as well...

Updated 9/8/21