This Night

Chapter 239

Author's Note: A celebration of life will be held for my friend this weekend at an Irish Pub, so I may not be posting or have posted this. A lot of us from Borders 47 are coming, where we all met A. It should be a good thing, but I cry, a lot. But please review.

Grady Rescue Team:

Mar turned around to see an officer run and ran over to where Sasha was. "Rick! Lamson is running! Sasha is out."

"Is she going to be OK?" Rick asked.

"I'll take care of her, you get him," Ronnie told Rick as she bent down.

Summer grabbed her gun. "Come on dad!"

Rick nodded. "The rest of you stay here with the other two," Rick said as he started to take off running with Summer.

Daryl went over and bent down next to Sasha. "Is she alright?"

"It just knocked the wind out of her," Ronnie answered as she helped Sasha sit up.

"She'll have a nasty bump and a hell of a headache," Mar added.

"Hey Sasha, come on, speak to us," Ronnie told her.

"Ow," Sasha said as she opened up her eyes.

"There's that head ache," Mar said. "Ty hand us a bottle of water."

"What happened?" Ty asked as he bent down with the bottle water.

"I let my guard down," Sasha answered. "I believed what he was saying, he caught me off guard, he got me to let my defenses down. His name was Bob," she said.

Mar and Ronnie looked at each other. "You did nothing wrong," Ronnie told her.

"He got away, that's on me," Sasha said. "If he gets away, back to Dawn."

"Rick isn't going to let him get away," Joey said. "He's going to do what has to be done so this'll work."

"They'll bring him back," Ty told Sasha.

"Or they won't," Joey answered.

"You think they'll kill him?" Mar asked.

"They'll do what they have to do," Daryl answered. "If they can, they'll bring him back. No one wants anyone to die today."

"Bob obviously does. He gives us this big plan, tells us what we all want to hear, and then knocks Sasha out and runs? That sounds like a man who really doesn't give a damn if he's walking out here alive or not," Joey said.

"Rick and Summer don't have to kill him, they can capture him, bring him back, go on with our plan, just the way it's supposed to go," Tyreese answered.

"The way it's supposed to go Ty? You had a chance to take care of Martin and you let him go. Look at how that ended, Ty," Sasha said as she got up.

"Sasha, easy," Ronnie said as she grabbed her arm. "Sit down," she told her. "We're going to trust Rick and Summer to do what they think is best. We haven't been at each others throats and that's how we survive. We're not starting now," she warned.

Mar nodded. "We're all going to get out of here, with Beth and Carol. Bob made a bad split second decision," she said.

"A decision that may get him killed," Joey said.

"Joey, go guard the other two," Daryl instructed.

"Right," Joey answered as he turned around and went to guard the other two.

Rick and Summers POV:

Summer took out a couple walkers' as they ran. "Dad! The car," she said as she nodded toward a police cruiser.

"Get in," Rick told her as she went to the passenger side and he got in the drivers seat. "Buckle up."

Summer looked at him. "Seriously? Didn't we have this discussion about a stop sign when you took me driving?" she asked as she put on the seat belt. She glanced at the picture of Lamson and a boy. "You had one of Lori and Carl and you in your car too?"

Rick nodded. "That was a long time ago. I'd have one of your mom and all of you, if I could," he said as he started the car.

"Do you think he'll stop?" Summer asked.

"Probably not," Rick answered as he picked up the radio. "Stop. Stop right now. Stop. I won't ask again," he ordered through the radio as Bob kept running.

"I guess that answers my question," Summer said. "We can't let him get back to the hospital, alert the others, Dad," she told him.

"I know," Rick answered. "Hold on," he told his oldest child as he revved the engine.

"Oh shit!" they heard Bob exclaim as Rick sped up.

Summer grabbed the dashboard as Rick ran him down. "He just had to stop," she told herself.

"You can stay here," Rick told her.

"No, I can't. We don't do things alone," Summer said.

"Son of a Bitch, help me! Help me! You crazy son of a Bitch," Bob yelled as they got out of the car. "I think you…I think you broke my back."

"Didn't have to be like this, you just had to stop," Rick told him as he looked at him on the ground.

"I couldn't, I don't know you," Bob told Rick. "But I think I'm getting the idea."

"If you did, then you would know this was the last thing we wanted. We wanted this to end without any blood shed, without anybody getting hurt. You ran, you knocked out Sasha, and you ran. All we wanted to do was to trade the three of you for the two of us, but you couldn't just do that, could you?" Summer asked.

"Take me back, take me back to the hospital," Bob told them.

"So Dawn can decide if you are worth saving?" Summer asked.

"I did it for your friend," Bob told them. "Take me back."

Rick shook his head. "Not after this, no. Can't go back Bob," he told Bob.

Summer looked at Rick, recognizing the tone of his voice.

"I was gonna iron over it, but your friend is she's under it. And you've been out here to long. You'll die, you'll all…." Bob said before he was cut off by Rick shooting him.

"Shut up," Rick told him. "You alright?" he asked Summer.

Summer nodded. "I'm alright," she answered as she walked back to the car. "What you said about can't go back, is that something someone at Terminus said to you?"

Rick looked at her as he started the car. "You're as perspective as your mom, you know that? Yeah, Gareth told Bob that when Bob was trying to tell him about Eugene."

"I need this plan to work, Dad. I need to get Beth and Carol back without anymore blood being spilled. I want just one thing to go our way, just to prove that things do go right for us once in a while. We have to make this work," Summer told him.

Rick reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "I know, Summer, I know," he said as he pulled up to the building and got out of the car. They both walked in and Rick nodded to Daryl to join them away from the other two cops. "He wouldn't stop," Rick told Daryl.

"This change things?" Daryl asked.

"It has to," Rick said.

"Maybe not," Daryl said.

"She said the plan won't work. The guy who did is dead. Maybe we gotta rethink this," Rick told them.

"She also said that we could let them go, let them handle Dawn, and we all know that isn't going to work," Summer reminded them.

Daryl nodded. "They also said the cop in charge didn't have any love for him. Maybe you did her a favor," he suggested.

"I don't know if they'll play ball," Rick told them.

"They will if they're smart," Summer said.

"Let's find out," Daryl suggested as they turned to walk to the rest of the group and the two cops.

Summer looked at the two cops. "We have a problem, which means you have a problem."

Shepard looked at them. "He was a good man. He was attacked by rotters, saw it go down," she said.

Rick looked at her. "Huh, you're a damn good liar," he told her.

"We're hanging by a thread here. He was attacked by rotters. That's the story," Shepard answered.

"You said the trade was a bad idea, what changed?" Daryl asked.

"Lamson was our shot. So it's this or you go in guns blazing, right? You don't want that," Shepard told them.

"If this is some bullshit you're spinning and things go south," Daryl started to say.

"Daryl, let her finish," Mar told him.

"I know. I know the good ones from the bad. Let us help you," Shepard begged.

"One down, one to go," Summer said as she turned her attention to the male cop. "So how about it? Are you in?" she asked.

Rick nodded. "You wanna live? How much?"

"Dawn's afraid she'll look weak in front of us. Thinks it'll tip things against her. Hell, it will. She'll see this trade as a rip-off if she thinks you took out one of our guys. So it's a good thing Lamson got aced by rotters," the male answered.

"Dad, this will work, it will. We've got to trust someone sometime. They aren't bad people, just in a bad situation, just like us. I don't think they want anyone else to get hurt," Summer said.

"They'd be stupid to change the story once they get in there, they know we'll blow there heads off," Joey told Rick.

Daryl nodded. "We need to try. Sooner we get Carol and Beth back, sooner we get back to the family. Back to Jewel and the baby. Carl, Judith, Mitch, Mika, Lexi. We do this nice and easy, and we don't lose anymore people."

Rick nodded. "Alright," he said.

Daryl and Summer's POV:

Daryl handed Summer another gun as she packed a bag. "You doin' OK?"

"Got to be, right?" Summer asked.

"You're worried that this is going to end badly?" Daryl asked.

"I just want it to go right, I'm losing hope that anything is ever going to be alright again. I just need both Carol and Beth to come out alive. I don't know if I can take them not being OK, not after Bob, Uncle Merle, Lizzie, Molly, Hershel," Summer said.

Daryl kissed the top of her head. "I know," he told her. "You want to talk about what happened with Lizzie?"

Summer looked at him. "What did Carol tell you?"

"She didn't tell me anything, neither did Joey or Ty," Daryl told her. "I know something happened. I've known you since before you were born, I've seen the way you look at Mika. Guilty, like something's eating you up."

Summer checked the bullets of the gun. "Nothing to tell, we were with them, then they died."

Daryl glanced at her. "You know better then to lie to me, Sum," he told her.

Summer turned and looked at him. "I'm not a kid anymore, Uncle Daryl. I know you and mom wishes you could keep me from all the bad things. But, you can't. I did what I had to do, to save people, just like we all have. I told Michonne, but I'm not ready to tell anyone else. Can you please just understand that?"

Daryl nodded. "Yeah," he told her. "But I'm here if you need me."

"I know Uncle Daryl," Summer said. "Let's get Carol and Beth back," she said as she walked away.