*I do not own anything or anyone you recognize from the show or comics.*
A/N: So I have a request from my lovely readers. Who else is excited about the Walking Dead series marathon this weekend? Anyway I have finally hit chapter 40 (YAY!) but I have hit a snag. I am officially writing after season 3 now, worry not I have plenty of plans and ideas for season 4, but I don't know how to work the winter months. Now the winter months will only be a few chapters but I never really gave much thought of what to do during the winter months.
So I would like to ask you if any of you have any ideas of anything you would like to see happen during the winter months please let me know.
Chapter 38
A few days later they had gotten word that The Governor wanted to sit down with Rick and have a talk. They were told a time and location on where to meet. Rick decided to take a small group with him, which consisted of Hershel, Daryl, and Adrian.
Word had spread throughout the whole group about Adrian's breakdown but had said nothing about it.
Most were afraid that they might say the wrong thing about it and cause her to snap. Although with Daryl always close by, there was little chance of anything severe happening with her. Adrian had mostly bounced back in terms on her moods, but she seemed to stay quiet more often than not, and she seemed to run hot or cold when it came to Judith.
Daryl had only seen her interact with Judith a few times but he had woke up again the morning before to find Judith in bed with him and Adrian again. Only this time, Adrian didn't look peaceful while she slept. She looked sad and lost, even in sleep.
Daryl had been the one to convince Rick to bring Adrian when he went to go talk with The Governor. Rick had been a little hesitant at first, knowing Adrian was still pissed off at the man and could full well kill him before anything was solved.
But then again Rick also knew that he needed protection and it was better to have Daryl with Adrian when he set her loose.
Daryl woke Adrian up that morning, seeming to have to wake her up more and more. Adrian rolled out of bed, and put on her clothes for the day. A white tank top, a black mesh long sleeve shirt, worn light blue jeans, and her tank combat boots. S
he also braided her hair, which Daryl hadn't seen her do in a while. He had kind of grown a little fond of her loose hair.
They all gathered their weapons and walked out to the vehicles. Hershel and Rick in the car and Daryl and Adrian on his motorcycle. When they got to the large compound, which consisted of a handful of buildings and a few large tanks that either once held feed or grain of some sort or water.
When they got there Daryl parked his bike and killed the engine and waited for Adrian to get off before he did. Rick got out of the car and told Hershel and Adrian to stay put while Daryl and Rick checked for any danger.
Hershel was looking out of the window on his side of the car for any kind of danger when he turned to look over at Adrian.
Only to see that she wasn't standing there anymore.
He had seen that she was in a mood to do whatever she wanted to do instead of what she was told to do that day.
And clearly he had been right.
Adrian was slowly walking around the large building that Rick and The Governor were supposed to meet in. Looking through all the windows and even for way up onto the roof. She had taken a peek inside to see a large, broken window in the roof over a table, which she assumed that they were going to sit at and she wanted to know what was said.
Adrian finally found a way up onto the roof but passed it by and continued her round of the building. When Adrian circled the building, she seen that Rick was already inside, along with The Governor.
When Adrian got close to the front of the building she could hear Daryl and Hershel talking. "He's already in there." she heard Daryl say. "Where's Adrian?" she heard him ask suddenly. Then she heard Hershel. "She was gone when I turned around not long after yall wondered off." he said.
"Damn that woman." Daryl said looking around to see if he could spot her. With the way she had been acting lately, she could walk all the way back to the prison and not even realize she had done it until she was at the walker infested gates.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch, lover. I just walked around the building." she said as she came up behind him.
Daryl turned around to see her in the exact same condition that he had left her in. At least she hadn't gotten herself into any kind of danger while he wasn't looking.
They heard a vehicle approaching and all turned to see a large truck coming their way. Daryl raised his bow and waited to see three people get out of the truck. Andrea, an average man that practically had nerd tattooed on his forehead, and a man Adrian remembered seeing when they were escaping Woodbury.
Andrea seemed surprised to hear the The Governor was already there and inside and then went inside. Adrian stayed outside with the men to keep an eye on things, and The Governor's men.
Adrian was tuned into her own world when she heard Daryl. "Better watch your mouth, Sunshine." Daryl said to the very out of place man. "Look, if you and me are gonna be out here pointing guns at each other all day, do me a favor. Shut your mouth." the other guy said to Daryl.
Daryl didn't say anything to the man but he got up in his face very threateningly. Adrian already didn't like the man, but him telling Daryl to shut up made her hate him even more.
"It would be in your best interest to shut the hell up. I would hate to have to break your pretty face." Adrian said, her voice dripping false sweetness and sarcasm. "It would be awfully embarrassing to get your ass handed to you by such a small woman." she said as she placed her hand on the handle of her hunting knife.
"That's enough. If things don't go well in there, we'll be shooting at each other soon enough. Let's all just settle down." Hershel said. A short while later, Andrea came out of the building. The door was closed behind her. And Adrian didn't like that one bit.
Adrian didn't care much for Andrea, never had and that had never been a secret, but at least with her in there with Rick and The Governor, there had been someone in there with a cool head.
Both men were itching to get rid of the other but as to where Adrian knew that Rick wanted them each to stick to their own side of the river as a solution, Adrian knew that The Governor just wanted them all dead because he couldn't stand the threat of knowing that he could be taken out at any time.
Adrian noticed that everyone else was preoccupied with something or someone else, so she decided to sneak off again. She wanted to make sure she had Rick's back in case The Governor tried something underhanded, which she fully expected him to do.
Adrian managed to sneak away and quietly make her way to a large opening in the roof that wasn't very far from the table but it was close enough to hear what was said. She knew she had to be careful about moving though because she could easily be seen.
Daryl was pacing around, not liking having nothing to do but stand outside and wait. Then he noticed it. Adrian was gone again. 'Dammit. Damn that fool woman. This ain't no time to be runnin' off an' foolin' around! Why can't she jus' fuckin' stay where I put her?!' Daryl thought to himself, looking around to see if he could spot her anywhere close by.
But he knew that if she didn't want to be found, it would take one hell of a miracle for him to find her. 'And miracles are in very short supply these days...' Daryl thought knowing that he wasn't going to find her until she came back herself. He just hoped she didn't get bit wondering off by herself.
A few minutes later they heard growling coming from not too far away. 'And Adrian's gonna miss all the fun. Won't she be pissed when I tell her.' Daryl laughed to himself as he took off in the direction of the walkers with Martinez, the man Adrian had threatened for telling him to shut up, and Andrea.
The Governor and Rick walked out of the building just as Adrian walked around the corner behind he car. Rick got in the car which was everyone's que to get ready to leave. Hershel got in the car with Rick while Adrian and Daryl got on his bike and they each drove off.
The group from th prison in one direction, the Woodbury group in the other.
The made it back to the prison without any problems and everyone was out in the yard to greet them. Rick ordered everyone inside so he could talk to them and they all followed. Adrian had heard a good bit of the talk and didn't like some of the things she had heard.
Adrian was standing beside Daryl in the cell block, her head resting on his shoulder, her mind like a tornado, trying to get her thoughts together enough to talk to Rick later.
"So I met with this Governor. Sat down with him for a while. Talked." Rick said. Then he hesitated for a second. "He wants the prison. Wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury." Rick told them all. "We're goin' to war." Rick told them all before he walked out of the cell block.
Everyone went off in their own directions after hearing what Rick had to say. Adrian followed Daryl up to their cell. Once inside Adrian took off all of her weapons while Daryl took off his jacket and laid down on the bed. After the day they had had, Adrian felt the need for physical contact so after she had all of her weapons off Adrian crawled on top of Daryl and laid down.
They were touching from hip to chest, Adrian's head nestled into the crook of his neck, listening to his steady heartbeat. Daryl had one hand folded behind his head but Adrian felt the other hand rubbing up and down her back, which made her smile.
It hadn't taken Daryl long to figure out what really made her melt sometimes. She liked any kind of physical contact with him, sure, but it was when he either rubbed or scratched her back or when he would play with her hair.
"I really wish you would stop runnin' off on me. You've had me worried these last couple a days. Not to mention the kid. Keep runnin' off without tellin' anybody where you're goin' an' he's likely to have a meltdown." Daryl told her quietly.
"I don't mean to run off so much. I've just felt a little unstable here the last few days. But I think I'm good after today. I need to focus on keeping everyone safe from the real threat. Not trying to come to terms with something that happened a year ago." Adrian said, really meaning her words.
"He was your kid, Adrian. It takes a while to get over something like that. I think you blame yourself about what happened to him more than he ever thought about blaming you. You can't keep punishin' your for it forever." Daryl told her.
"I was his mother. I should have protected him better. We were almost home free. That's what makes it hurt so much." she said, drawing invisible designs on his chest.
"You did protect him. More than I'm sure he expected you to." Daryl said. Then a question occurred to him.
"Did you ever properly mourn him? Bury him?" he asked her a little hesitantly. "By the time we got out I knew enough to go for the head. And that's exactly what I did. A shot to the head. But I didn't have time to bury him, so I burned his body. I didn't want to put him in a small, dark hole in the ground. I mourned him, I guess, but I never really came to terms with what happened." she said.
"But after everything that's happened, I think I'm ready to come to terms with it. I don't ever plan on having another one, but Lord forbid I ever did if things ever got better, I don't want the first thing I remember about my first child to be how he died. There are so many good things to remember about him. So that's what I'm going to focus on when I think about Seth from now on." she said with a sad but hopeful smile.
Then she closed her eyes to take a short nap.
Later that night Adrian went in search of Rick and found him out on the catwalk, just staring out into the darkness. "Rick." she said as she walked up to him. Rick's head jerked in her direction. "Adrian." Rick said back to her. Adrian walked over and stood by Rick, just staring out into the darkness with him for a few silent minutes.
"I came out here because I need to talk to you." she finally said. Rick nodded. "Well you don't normally seek me out for polite conversation." Rick told her.
"I heard what was said today. Between you and The Governor. I heard what he offered you. And what he wants in exchange." she said, turning to look at him. Rick just looked at her.
"Do I even wanna know how you know about that?" Rick asked. "I'm invisible when it suits my need, Rick. I had to learn how to not be seen when we needed water back at the camp outside of Atlanta." she told him. Rick said nothing.
"Does anybody else know? About him wanting Michonne in exchange for leaving us alone, which by the way, I don't believe for one second." she asked. "Hershel. I told Hershel earlier today." Rick said. "And what's his opinion?" she asked him.
"Hershel and Carol think we outta lave while we can. He firmly believes that Michonne has earned her place in the group, and she has. But even he couldn't think of a reason to talk me out of it on the off hand chance that The Governor will leave us alone." he said to her.
"He's right. She has earned her place. If it wasn't for her and Kale, you never would've known what had happened to me, Maggie, and Glenn." she said. "Hershel said the same thing." Rick told her. "This isn't what we do, Rick. We don't sacrifice people who have earned their place with us! That isn't the kind of people we are!" Adrian said to him, trying to make the case that Hershel couldn't seem to.
"But doing it could save us. Carl, Judith, Daryl, all of us." Rick told her. "And you and I both know that that snake was lyin' through his teeth when he made that deal.
He intends to kill us one way or another. We show up at that place with Michonne, he'll kill us on the spot and if we don't show up at all, it's not like he doesn't know where we live. He's already hit us once here before and we all know damn well he can do it again." she said to him.
"Sacrificing members of the group is a move Shane would have done. Back at the farm, when the group had decided that the kid would have been better off dead than letting him go and on the off hand chance of him bringing his group back to us for killing their people, you let him live." she said, now grasping at straws.
"You let a complete stranger, and a threat to us no less, live and decided to let him go. Yet you would condemn a trusted member of the group to a most likely horrible death, just on the slightest chance that that two-faced son of a bitch might leave us alone in peace?" she asked him. He said nothing.
"You may not act like the Rick that made the decision to let that boy live back on the farm, but I know that that man is still in there somewhere." Adrian said as her final words to him. Rick still said nothing.
Daryl told Adrian that Rick wanted to talk to him the next day and Adrian knew that there was only one thing that Rick could possibly want to tell him, but she didn't say anything. But she did tag along.
Wrapped up in her leather jacket, a red long sleeve, one of her better pairs of jeans, her combat boots, and her hair loose, they met Rick outside. Rick was standing beside Hershel who had a very disappointed look on his face.
"What's this about? Everybody know somethin' I don't?" Daryl asked noticing the look on everyone's face. "The Governor offered me a deal. Michonne in exchange for peace. No more fighting between us if we give her up." Rick told him. It took Daryl a minute to understand what Rick was telling him.
"Rick you know that bastard didn't mean a word of what he said to you." Adrian said, still trying to change his mind. "That's not us, man. That's not what we do." Daryl told Rick. "No. It's not." Hershel said before he walked off, his disappointment clear.
"If we do this, there's no more fighting. Nobody else has to die." Rick told Daryl. Daryl seemed to wrestle with the idea for a minute before he nodded at Rick. "Alright." Daryl said to Rick.
"Adrian?" Rick asked her, hoping that Daryl agreeing would help her to finally agree to the plan. "No way. I'm with Hershel on this. Just because I know about it
doesn't mean I'll be a part of it. And nothing you say or do can change my mind." she told him, firm on her decision.
"Alright, well we'll need another person." Rick told Daryl, knowing that he meant Merle. "I'll talk to him about it." Daryl said. "No. I'll do it." Rick said. Daryl nodded his head and Rick went off in search of Merle. Daryl stood there for a minute before he turned to Adrian.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her. She was silent for a minute. "Because I was hoping he would change his mind. I overheard him and The Governor when they were talking. He told Rick that if he gave him Michonne that it would be the end of everything. No more fighting, no one else dying. But I seen through his words. I knew men like him. They lie to your face and hope you buy it because they think that they're smarter than you are." she told him.
Adrian then turned her troubled green eyes to her lovers blue ones. "I don't believe a word The Governor said. I don't think there's the slightest chance that he won't kill every single one of us the first chance he gets. And Rick is just desperate enough to want to believe what he says about peace." she told him.
She walked up to him and held his face in her cold hands, looking up at him softly. "I know you want to help, do what's best for the group, and I don't hold anything against you for going along with giving Michonne up. But I won't be a part of it." she told him, gently kissing his lips. She then turned and went back inside.
When Adrian and Daryl had gone back inside Michonne was telling everybody about a plan she had thought of to help keep the people from Woodbury from getting too close to the prison. They had thought up a simple tire trap and decided to plant them in the tall grass of the field where the drivers wouldn't see them.
Adrian, Carl, and Maggie grabbed some pots and large spoons and were to sent out to make large amounts of noise to distract the walkers from Daryl, Glenn, and Michonne who were riding around in the truck placing the traps.
When they were all done Daryl, Glenn, and Michonne rode the truck back into the prison yard, Adrian, Carl, and Maggie quite making all of the noise and started heading back up to the yard themselves.
Everybody was working on something or another around the prison, getting ready for The Governor to show up. Daryl was looking for his brother but didn't know where the hell he was at. Daryl seen Glenn working outside and decided to ask him.
"You seen Merle aroun' anywhere?" he asked. Glenn looked ever at him but didn't say anything. Daryl put down his crossbow and walked over to help Glenn with chained together some doors.
"Merle say he was sorry yet?" Daryl asked him after they were done. "Because he really is, you know." he told him. "Jus' needs a little forgiveness is all." Daryl tried again. That caught Glenn's attention. Glenn stopped what he was doing and walked up to Daryl.
"Merle threw me into a room, tied me to a chair, beat me, and then threw a walker at me. If it was just that, maybe I could forgive him, but he brought Maggie to a man who terrorized her and humiliated her. I can't forgive that. I care more about her than I do about me." Glenn told him.
"How can you forgive him?" Glenn asked Daryl as he started to walk away. Daryl stopped and turned back towards Glenn. "Forgive him for what?" Daryl asked. Glenn turned around and looked at Daryl. "How can you forgive him after what he did to Adrian in Woodbury? Has she even told you what happened while we were there?" Glenn asked him.
Glenn didn't wait for an answer. "After we were taken, they separated us. Me in one room, Maggie and Adrian in another. The rooms were separated by a couple of tin sheets. The entire time that Merle was beating on me, trying to get me to talk, Adrian was screaming at him from the other room. Threatening him, beating on the tin with her boots." Glenn said.
"He finally could't take the noise she was making anymore and left the room. She stopped kicking the walls but only because Merle had her moved to a different one, so he could try to get her to talk. I guess he figured that a woman would be more afraid of pain and more willing to talk than I was. He was gone for a while after he had her moved to the other room. When he came back he had blood on him." Glenn told him.
"When I asked him what the hell he had done to her, he just laughed and said that he was giving her the same treatment as me. Only he hated her more because she was taunting him with information about you. He would eventually get tired of beating me and then would go back to Adrian's room. I could hear her yelling occasionally. Then when he came back the last time to throw the walker at me, I could hear her yelling from her room again. After I killed the walker they finally brought Maggie in. She was so afraid and only told them where we were when The Governor threatened to kill me." Glenn told him, letting it all sink in.
"After they got what they wanted they left Maggie alone with me. A few minutes later, Merle came in, his face was all bloody but he had Adrian this time. Was dragging her behind him and she wasn't conscious. He just walked in and tossed her on the floor and left." Glenn said to him.
"So I ask again, how can you forgive him for what he did to your girlfriend?" Glenn asked. He then turned his back to Daryl, dismissing him.
When Adrian got word from Hershel that Rick wasn't going to go through with his plan with Michonne, Adrian was so relieved that she had startled the poor old man when she hugged him.
The only problem was that when Rick, Adrian and Daryl went to go look for Merle to tell him the plan was off, they couldn't fine him, or Michonne. Daryl lead Rick to the last place that he had seen Merle and found that Merle had already taken off with Michonne.
"I'm going after them." Rick said, heading for the door. "You can't track for shit." Daryl said to him.
"I said I'll do it so I'll go. Besides, if we come back, you're gonna need to be ready. You're family too. Try to keep Adrian here if you can. Damn woman's batshit crazy sometimes." Daryl said as he walked out of the door to go and look for his brother and Michonne.