I walk into the house Rick is in the next morning with Abraham, Glenn and Carol. "Where'd you get the gun?" Michonne asks him.

Carol responds first "You took it, right? From the armory?" She says.

"That was stupid." I add on, knowing the facade. "Why did you do it?" I ask.

He stares at us for a moment before coming up with a response "just in case."

Glenn informs Rick and Michonne "Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight. For anyone who wants to."

"To kick Rick out?" I ask him.

"To try." Carol adds.

Glenn disagrees "we don't know that. Maggie's with Deanna right now. She's gonna find out what it is."

Carol comes up with a plan for him "at the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here."

"Why?" Michonne asks.

Carol instantly responds "because these people are children and children like stories."

"What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" Abraham asks.

"They're guarding the armory now." I inform him.

"We still have knives," Carol says. "That's all we'll need against them."

Rick speaks out now "well, tonight at the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer, you grab Reg, Glenn, Sadie and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd."

Michonne raises her voice a bit "we can talk to them."

"Yeah, we will." Rick agrees. "If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats."

"Like at Terminus?" I spit out disgusted at what I'm hearing. I wish Daryl was here to talk Rick out of this plan. If Michonne can't, he might be the only one who could.

"No, we just tell 'em." He returns. "They give us the armory and it's over."

Glenn inquires to him "did you want this?"

"No. I hit my limit. I-- I screwed up. And here we are." Rick explains to his question. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more." He turns his body away from us as he lies down and we all leave him be.

"Are we really going to go along with his plan?" I question them once we get back outside.

"what choice do we have? With or without us he'd do it." Michonne comments lowly.

We all know Rick wants what's best for the group, for his children, but that's not the way, and I tell them that "we can't do that" I shake my head as we walk away, our paths splitting.

"Hopefully it won't come to it." Carol says back.

Hours later and I walk with Maggie to the meeting spot. The sun is setting and Maggie tells me how nervous she is "Glenn should be here, I wonder where he went off too.." she looks towards the entrance of the community.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon" I encourage her.

She nods, rubbing her arms within the big jacket she's wearing "you worried about Daryl?" She questions me.

I shrug "of course. I try not too though, I know he can take care of himself."

She chuckles "he sure can, but when you love someone it doesn't matter. In this world or the last, you worry."

I smile to her "well, let's hope they both get back soon so we don't have to anymore!" I wrap my arm around my friend and we continue forward.

Once there, it's an awkward tense feeling among everyone. Our group verse them is how I see it going down. I look to Michonne whose eyeing around for Rick, still not here. "We're going to start." Deanna says now that it's dark.

"Can we wait?" Maggie asks, "there's still people coming. Glenn, Rick."

Deanna doesn't oblige her request "we're going to start. It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that. We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armory, about how he pointed it at people. And we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he'd be here."

"She said he's coming." Michonne pipes in. "I'm sure he'll be here."

"And I'm sure we can work this all out." Deanna returns. "Does anyone want to say anything?" She opens the floor.

I step forward "Listen, I know what Rick did was borderline insane, but you don't understand what he's been through, what we've all been through." Someone snorts around me but I ignore it and continue "and I'm not talking about everything from before this world.

Michonne piggy backs off of what I am saying when I pause "and after being out there and then not being how you were out there— it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is is who you're gonna be... if you're lucky."

Someone from the town speaks out against him "we were fine without him here and we will be fine without him here. I don't feel safe in my own home anymore!" Her voice is high pitched and annoying.

Carol steps up, playing her role as weak housewife "Rick Grimes saved my life over and over. There's terrifying people out there. And he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry for that. But maybe we should listen to what he was saying."

"But he's our constable, and whose to protect us from him the next time he goes crazy?" A man asks. "You?" he points to Michonne and coifs.

"Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about." Abraham says lowly from where he rests. "Rick knows every fine grain of said shit... and then some."

"Where's Pete?" I ask ask Jessie, wondering where the other half of this matter is. I know Deanna doesn't want to talk about it, but he should be here as well. She shakes her head at me with her eyes down and doesn't answer.

"My father respected Rick Grimes. Rick is a father, too. He's a man with a good heart who feels the things he does, the things he has to do. And all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now. Rick started that. And you won't stop it. You can't." She looks directly at Deanna at the end "and you don't want to. This community, you people... that family... you want to be a part of it, too."

"Before we hear from anyone else, I-- I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency." Deanna steps up from where she is standing, closer to the fire. "Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight."

"I don't see him here, Deanna." Jessie speaks up, "so you're just saying what someone said. Did you tape him?" She asks.

"He's not here. Neither is Rick." She simply responds.

"Excuse me," Maggie excuses herself.

Tobin stands up after someone else from the town speaks against Rick "I just want to keep my family safe. You know? And I don't even know what that means anymore, but if it means that we've got to get rid of--"

But he is interrupted when Rick joins the group, dropping a dead walker on the ground in front of us all. Everyone from inside before we got here steps back in fear and concern. The rest of us just stare at him confused. "There wasn't a guard on the gate. It was open." He states to everyone while heaving for air.

Deanna stares at her son Spencer who was suppose to be on gate watch "I asked Gabriel to close it," He defends himself.

I look at Carol while shaking my head "Go!" Deanna yells at her son and he runs off.

Rick steps closer to us "I didn't bring it in. It got inside on its own. They always will-- the dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there-- they'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive. I'll show you how." He pauses for only a moment before going on, making sure to look at everyone in the eyes as he speaks "You know, I was thinking-- I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night. I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."

I hear footsteps coming closer and look as everyone else does. Pets runs up, Michonne's katana clearly in his hand "you're not one of us. You're not one of us" He yells.

"Pete, you don't want to do this." Reg steps in front of him, his hands up to defuse him from doing something stupid.

"Get the hell away from me, Reg." He snarls towards him.

"Pete, just stop." Reg continues to try.

Pete yells, trying to push past him "get away from me."

Deanna tries to get her husband to step back "Reg. Reg."

"Get away. Get away!" Pete keeps yelling.

"Now, Pete, stop. Pete." Reg doesn't back down.

And then Pete pushes back with his hand holding the katana and it slits Reg's throat. He falls down to the ground gripping at the open wound and Deanna screams "no, no! Oh, no, no!"

"Reg!" I run to his side to try and help Deanna hold the wound, but I already know the damage is done.

"This is him!" Pete yells out while Abraham smashes his face into the dirt.

"Shut up!" Abraham demands.

"This is him!" Pete keeps yelling.

Deanna sobs while holding her husband in her arms "oh, God! Oh, my love. My love, my love." Reg gargles as the blood continues to poor out. "No, my love, no. No, my love."

Pete screams "It's him! This is him!"

Reg finally passes and Deanna keeps her grip tight on him. I remove my hands from his throat, letting them rest beside me. I turn to face everyone, covered in this innocent man's blood "Rick will do whatever it takes to keep us safe. He always has, from the beginning. We've been together from the beginning, and I trust him with my life. You should too."

Deanna turns to Rick "Rick..." she says his name with determination "do it." And Rick kills Pete with one shot.

"Rick?" A man's voice calls out and I look to see who it is. Next to the man is Daryl and I run towards him.