I think I was right about Rick's view of Daryl in some ways, but Shane got in his head again after Randall's confession about knowing Maggie. I wasn't sure what exactly had gone down between them, but it seemed to have paradoxically put more of a rift in their relationship, and gotten Rick to listen to Shane more. Despite Dale's pleading, he seemed set on killing Randall. He didn't even try to talk to Daryl about it, though he had been happy enough to let him do the dirty work of getting Randall to talk. For his part, Daryl just retreated more into himself and pulled away from me and everyone else. I knew he'd begun to think Rick might trust him, and this had sent him back to feeling out of place.

I agreed with Dale, and I appreciated his words to Daryl about having influence with Rick, but Daryl clearly didn't see it the same way. I tried to get him to talk to me about what he thought we should do, but he refused to give me an answer. "Don' matter what I think. Rick's gonna decide this with Shane and that's final." I suspected he leaned more towards killing Randall but I couldn't tell how conflicted he was about it, and the more I pushed the angrier he got until he finally lost his cool and yelled at me to leave him alone.

I offered to relieve T-Dog on watch over Randall and slipped inside the building while no one was looking. I knelt down in front of him and my heart broke as I looked at his bruised and bloodied face. "I'm sorry they did this to you" I murmured, tilting his head gently to the side to get a better look. "I don't agree with the way they're treating you." He half-sobbed and closed his eyes, a tear sliding down his dirty cheek.

"I'm tellin' you, I didn't do any of that stuff with my group. They were just protection - I lost all my family and I didn't know what to do." I squeezed his shoulder gently. "I know. I'm going to do my best to convince them you deserve a chance."

Randall nodded and opened his eyes, but widened them as he looked behind me, and I stood up and spun around. Daryl stood there, clearly furious, the planes of his shoulders rigid with anger. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he exploded. "Stay the fuck away from him!"

I shook my head, "Daryl, he's tied up, he's not going to hurt me. I just wanted to talk to him." "No," Daryl bit out, "you don't get to talk to him. You don't know a damn thing about dealin' with real life. This ain't some courtroom with judges and lawyers talkin' it all out. This is just survival, and we do what it takes to make it."

"Is that what you'd say if it were Merle sitting here?" It just slipped out, and I regretted it almost immediately when I saw hurt flash in Daryl's eyes. "I'm sorry, I know it's not the same. But Merle was in that group in the bar and wasn't going to help me and you've got to see the parallels here!"

He grabbed my wrist and dragged me toward the door, shoving me outside where I jerked my arm free. "We can't lose sight of what makes us different from folks like Randall's group," I pleaded. "If we start killing the living, where do we stop?"

Daryl glared at me and jerked his chin toward the house. "Get the fuck outta here. I'm takin' over watch." I stood there, hands on my hips for a long moment before accepting that he wasn't going to discuss it further. "Fine," I turned back to the house. "But I think you know I'm right, deep down."

Most of the group didn't want the responsibility of making the decision, which left just Dale, me, and eventually, Andrea voicing our objections to killing a human being when we gathered that evening. Rick looked at me across the living room where I stood next to Maggie. "You've been talkin' about the future; keeping us safe. How can we do that with a constant threat?"

"Killing him is not an option, Rick," I said. "I went to work every day to stand up for kids who made stupid mistakes, and the worst thing they were facing was being locked up in juvie. I could never sentence a kid to death who was just trying to survive. I know he shot at you, but he was scared and clearly not part of a group he could trust to have his back. We don't get to execute someone just because we're scared of what he might possibly do someday, especially not when we can give him a chance to prove himself."

Rick looked at Daryl, "You got anything to add?" Daryl scoffed, "She don't speak for me and I don' give a shit what she thinks. You do what you think is best and let's get on with it." Rick nodded and I blinked back tears and looked away from Daryl's defiant stare.

I knew he was frustrated with me for dragging this out, and still angry that I'd brought up Merle, but I couldn't stop seeing Randall as one of my countless juvenile clients; scared, helpless, and regretting everything he'd done to bring him to this point. I didn't understand how Daryl couldn't see that either, growing up the way he had.

Rick, Shane, and Daryl headed out to execute Randall and Dale went for a walk. I just sat on the porch steps in a daze, struggling to come to grips with what was happening. I felt the group fracturing and wondered if I'd end up on the same side as Daryl in the end, or if our tentative friendship would be broken too.

Rick came back, obviously shaken by Carl's sudden appearance in the barn, and I saw Daryl pushing Randall ahead of him back to the shed. Shane stormed away while Rick explained what had happened to Lori and the rest of us. Andrea looked at me with a small smile. "I'll go find Dale and tell him," she said as she got up, heading toward the pasture. I thought about trying to talk to Daryl but he hadn't returned from the shed and I thought he must have gone for a walk as well.

It was only a few minutes before we heard screaming, and then Daryl's voice calling us to where Dale lay, torn open by a walker. I couldn't look away, frozen by the sight of the thoughtful, caring man suffering on the ground in front of us. Rick's hand shook as he held the gun until Daryl carefully took it from his grasp and knelt down. Dale used what little strength he had to press his head closer to the barrel, letting us know this was what he wanted, and Daryl murmured something to him before pulling the trigger.