Hey everyone! So I FINALLY have another chapter going. Sorry for the wait

Later in the day, they released Rick from his prison, trusting Michonne and Abraham to keep him under control. Abe told her later, that him and several of the others had had a conversation with Rick, while he was still in his cell, discussing events and what was to follow. Apparently, if things went south during Deanna's little meeting, they would take Alexandria by force. Abe wasn't a fan of the plan but at the same time, he thought that the community was completely deluded, which Anna completely agreed with, and that Alexandria needed them to survive. They place would likely fall with minimal fuss, most of the residents had yet to even kill a walker and were cowards.

Since Rick's little incident, Merle had gained a shadow and was being followed wherever he went. He wanted to shake his shadow, just to piss them off but Anna told him to ignore them, they'd be a good distraction if need be. If they needed, Merle could more than efficiently distract the Alexandrian's while the rest of their group got ready for their attack.

111

Sometime around mid afternoon, Spencer found her sitting in the park by herself with Juno curled up on the bench beside her, divulging in reading the first book she'd read for leisure in years. He cautiously looked around then walked up to her and looked down at her.

"Why aren't you with your boyfriend?" He asked, sounding slightly sarcastic.

"He's my boyfriend not my shadow." Anna answered, looking up from her book calmly. "We're both independent individuals. We enjoy each others company but do our own thing. What do you need?"

"Gabriel just left the walls, without a gun and completely by himself. I offered him one, but he didn't want it." Spencer answered, looking like he felt guilty.

"Why are you telling me this?" Anna eyed him suspiciously.

"Because I don't think you're all dangerous, or at least dangerous to the community. Your boyfriend and his brother are definitely dangerous to us, maybe Rick but the rest of you are trustworthy."

"You do realize, if you kick out Rick, we'll all leave? Including his baby girl and teenage son?"

"I do realize that. That's why I'm going to try and help you. That's why I'm telling you about Gabriel, his presence can only help your people. If he dies, mom will think…" Spencer faded off as he looked away, apparently saying something he shouldn't have.

"What would she think?" Anna asked, frowning as she studied his face.

Spencer winced as he rubbed the back of his head. "That…that Rick had him killed."

Anna's frown deepened, "Why would he do that?"

"Because…Gabriel warned my parents about your people, called you dangerous. Mom might think that Rick had found out somehow and killed him."

"That's ridiculous! Rick wouldn't be pleased but even he wouldn't have killed Gabriel. He's just a man scared of his own shadow, a toothless viper." Anna closed her book as she sighed and stood up. "If you want me to go rescue Gabriel, you give me a gun. A good gun."

111

Spencer pointed Anna in the last direction he'd seen Gabriel, gave her the best gun in Alexandria's armoury and then Anna went on her way, Juno trotting along behind her. She looked at the road carefully as she walked and managed to find a fresh set of tracks that let off into the woods, just a hundred meters down the road. She followed them as they weaved through the woods for about two hours, following Gabriel's aimless trail and somehow managing to not come across a single walker.

Finally, she heard his voice off in the distance and picked up her pace. When she broke from the cover of the trees, she found Gabriel lifting a rock over his head then watched as he smashed it into the severed head of a walker. She continued to watch as he looked at the walker in horror then vomit on the road beside him.

"What you doing out here, Father?" Anna asked, startling Gabriel so much that he yelped, dropped the rock on his foot then yelped again. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"What are you doing here?" Gabriel said looking at her with an expression Anna couldn't quite interpret as he wiped the remaining vomit from his mouth.

"To find you." Anna replied. "Your turn."

Gabriel looked down a the now dead walker. "To find an answer."

"And did you?" Anna asked as she cocked an eyebrow.

"I-I don't know. Maybe…maybe not." Gabriel looked off into the distance, distress on his face.

"Are you okay, Padre?" Anna said softly as she took a step towards him.

Gabriel looked up at her in surprise. "Why do you care? We hardly know each other. Your friends don't seem to care much."

Anna snorted. "They're more your friends than mine. The only people who mean anything to me is my brother, Merle and maybe his brother." Anna softened as she put her hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "And I think people care more than you realize. Being out here, does something to a person's mind. That's why we all need Alexandria, so we can regain our humanity."

"I some how don't think those Dixon boys ever had humanity." Gabriel said shaking his head sadly.

Anna took a deep breathe, trying to not get angry. "You're too hard on those boys. They grew up in hell. They never had kindness or compassion in their lives, so now they don't know how to react when it comes their way. They need people like you, to be patient them and show compassion to them."

"People like me." Gabriel said laughing, bitterly.

"Whatever you've done, father, is in the past." Anna said studying the man carefully. "You need to forgive yourself, like you say your God does, and move on. Its what you do in the now that matters."

"Isn't that suppose to be my job? Giving people advice?" Juno, who'd been sitting quietly at the side of the road came up to Gabriel and licked his fingers, whining softly.

"Juno's right. You need help too sometimes. Like right now." Anna said smiling softly down at her dog.

"She said that, did she." Gabriel said, smiling for the first time since she'd met the man.

"Yeah, we've been together a long time, in some seriously tense situations." Anna said gently rubbing one of Juno's ears as she stared up at Gabriel. "She's saved my life so many times, and I don't mean just my body. She's kept me sane." Anna chuckled as she looked up at Gabriel. "I guess she not just a war dog to me, but a therapy dog too."

They were quiet for a long time. Finally, Gabriel looked up at Anna. "Thank you. I think I needed to hear what you've just said."

"You're welcome." Anna said with a nod. "I want to give you one more thing to think about. Maybe you're still here because people like Merle and Rick, need you here as a moral compass. To help them remember what is right and what is wrong. To remind them what kindness and compassion looks like."

"They just look at me and see a weakling. They think that kindness and compassion only leads to death." Gabriel said looking at the ground bitterly.

"You're right but you need to prove them wrong." Anna said firmly. "I'm making head way with Merle slowly but maybe you can get through to Rick."

"Maybe." Gabriel looked off into the distance, doubt plain on his face.

"Let's go back." Anna said indicating in the general direction of Alexandria.

111

Anna stood between her brother and Merle as they stood at the back of the crowd, waiting for the town meeting to start. After what Juno had done to Pete, the town had become very uncertain of her, so Anna had opted to leave her at home for the night. With the tension that was around them, it was probably a good idea, although she would have appreciated the extra heat by her legs on this chilly night.

"We are going to start." Deanna finally said, calling everyone's attention to her.

"Can we wait?" Maggie asked as she looked off into the darkness, looking for Rick, who'd yet to show up. "There's people still coming. Glenn, Rick."

"We're going to start." Deanna said firmly, ignoring Maggie's plea. "It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're not dealing with that. We're talking about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he had stolen for the armoury. And we're going to talk about what he said. I'd hope he'd be here."

"She said he's coming." Michonne pointed out.

"I'm sure he'll be here." Carol seconded, doing her best doey-eyed housewife act. "And I'm sure we can work this all out."

"After being out there and then not being how you were out there…" Michonne said. "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."

When it was obvious that Michonne was done, Carol stood up. "Rick saved my life, over and over. There are terrifying people out there. And he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him." Carol paused looked over at Deanna momentarily before looking back at the group. "I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry about that…"

"This is a bunch of shit." Merle muttered quietly to Anna as Carol continued to cater to the crowd.

"Oh, I don't know. Carol has these gullible fools eating from her hand." Anna muttered back, keeping her voice down.

Abraham shushed them then took the break in conversation to put in his two cents. "Simply put…there is vast ocean of shit that you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit…and then some."

Maggie was the next to speak for Rick. She went on about how her father had respected Rick, like that was reason in and of itself of why they should let him stay and played the father angle. She spoke of their group, the ones who'd been with Rick before Alexandria, as family that couldn't be stopped. She ended with stating that the Alexandrian's should want to be apart of that family also.

When Maggie was done, Deanna stepped forward. "Before we hear from anyone else, I—I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. 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 seems to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said."

Tobin stood up and Anna sneered, she still hadn't forgiven the man for his cowardice and nearly getting her killed.

"I just want to protect my family. You know? I don't even know what that means any more, but if that means got to get rid of…"

Anna was about to make a sneering comment when Rick suddenly stepped into the light, covered in blood carrying a body over his shoulder which he dropped on to the ground beside the fire, revealing it to be a now dead walker. Maggie got up and rushed away, presumably to find someone as Rick huffed and puffed as he stared at the people around the fire.

"There wasn't a guard at the gate." Rick finally said when he'd caught his breath. "It was open."

Deanna turned to her son. "I swear I closed it behind Gabriel and Anna!" Spencer exclaimed.

"Go." Deanna growled irritably.

"I didn't bring it in." Rick started after Spencer had disappeared into the dark. "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, and 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. We'll show you how. You know I was think…I was thinking, how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives?" Anna looked at him suddenly alarmed with his words, shocked that he'd be so blunt, as Merle snorted derisively.

"But I'm not going to do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night." Rick said now turning back to Deanna. "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."

Anna suddenly noticed Jessie shaking her head, looking towards the shadows. When Anna turned her head to see what Jessie was looking at, she saw Pete stumble into the firelight with Michonne's katana in hand.

"You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" Pete shouted.

Reg stepped in front of him, hands held out to stop him from walking any further into the circle of people. "Pete, you don't want to do this!" Reg said gently.

"Go to hell! Get away from me!" Pete growled; his eyes locked on Rick.

The moment Pete had first spoken, Merle, Anna and Abraham had slowly circled round the edge of the light towards Pete. Pete was too laser focused on Rick, that he didn't notice them circling. He barely noticed Reg right in front of him.

"Pete, just stop." Reg pleaded.

"Get away from me!" Pete said finally looking at Reg.

"Reg. Reg!" Deanna called, suddenly worried about her husband.

Reg tried to gently shove Pete back. "Pete, stop!"

Pete was getting too irritable to let him continue but no one was near enough to interfere. Anna looked to the far side of Pete where Merle was quietly inching closer, hyper focused on Michonne's katana. He was about two strides away from Pete and with a good distraction, he could close the distance quickly. An idea popped into Anna's head and she grabbed her brothers arm to make him pause and look back t her, then let out a high pitched whistle, the one she used to get Juno's attention over loud sounds.

Pete turned her way, as did everyone else, startled by the pitch and volume, giving Merle the distraction he needed to take those two quick strides. Pete heard Merle running but turned into Merle's rock hard fist then his lights went out and he dropped like as sack potatoes, falling on the arm holding the sword. Abraham rushed forward and quickly scooped up the sword, but Pete wasn't likely to be waking up any time soon

"Ain't none of ya pansy coulda done that." Merle said his posture big and aggressive, obviously riled up by the events.

"Easy, Merle." Anna murmured as she walked up to him and place her hands on his chest. The veins in his neck were still popping from his neck but he stopped glowering and relaxed his stance.

Anna turned, deciding it was her turn to say something. "I think Pete just proved Rick's point for him. We ain't the problem here. We're the answer. We're not asking for you to become cannibals or murderers. Just open your eyes and let us teach you how to survive."

"Maybe they're right." Tobin said, surprising Anna. "If anyone needs to go, its Pete."

Jessie wiped a tear from her cheek. "He was going to kill Rick, maybe even Reg. I could see it in his eye. He's not just a danger to me and my boys but to all of us."

Deanna finally dropped the hand she'd had to her chest as she'd watched the whole thing play out in front of her and grabbed her husband as she walked back to her. Now that he was safely within her reach, she looked at the others.

"I think we need to call it a night. Go home, take a breath and come back to discuss this at a later time. Mister Ford, Mister Rhee; restrain Pete and lock him up. Rick, you've gotten a free pass. Next time, think things through a little more thoroughly."

Anna looked at Glenn, in confusion as him and Abe hauled Pete off between them. He hadn't been there at the beginning of the meeting or even at the beginning of the altercation with Pete. He'd suddenly appeared from the shadows, dirtied and sweaty.

"Rick?" A confused voiced asked from just beyond the firelight.

Anna turned to see a man standing between Daryl and Aaron, and all three of them looking around in confusion as Pete was hauled off and the remainder of the community wandered off.

"This ain't got nothin' to do with you? Does it bro?" Daryl asked, his tone dangerous and angry as he indicated the meeting area.

"He's the one with the bashed up face and you assume its me?" Merle asked angrily, indicating Rick as he walked up behind.

"Merle was actually being well behaved. This was about me. Pete and I got in an altercation when he refused to leave his wife alone."

Daryl smirked slightly then turned and walked off. Merle grunted, clearly still annoyed with his brother as he marched after him.

"Oh boy." Anna said as she exhaled. "I better make sure that don't get out of hand."

"Yeah, you better." Rick agreed as she turned to follow the Dixon boys.

Anna followed in their wake, but with those boy's long legs she soon lost sight of them. She didn't need to be able to see where they were going though, Daryl was likely going home and since they lived in the same house, they shouldn't be hard to find. By the time she made it to the house, all the main floor lights were on and she could hear Merle yelling.

With a sigh, Anna opened the door to see Merle trying to get in Daryl's face as he leaned on the island sipping a beer trying to ignore Merle shouting in his ear. Anna slammed the door, startling both Dixon's slightly.

"What's your damage, Merle? Why are you trying to piss off one of the few people who can put up with you?" Anna said angrily as she crossed her arms and stared peevishly at Merle.

Daryl straightened up and looked at her surprised. "Its fine, I grew up with this jackass. Remember. If I was gonna get sick of him, I'd have done that decades ago."

"Why you takin' his side?" Merle growled.

"I ain't taking his side, I'm just pointing out that you're being an asshole!" Anna growled back making Juno whine anxiously. While she'd take Anna's side Merle decided to get physical, Merle had become her second favorite person. "You can't blame Daryl for jumping to the conclusion that he did, especially with how you're behaving now."

Merle jabbed his finger at her and opened his mouth to reply then stop, scowled at her and Daryl a moment before spinning on his heads and marching up the stairs and slamming their bedroom door after dramatically stomping down the hall.

"He's a bit of a diva, isn't he?" Anna asked as she gazed towards the steps.

Daryl snickered. "One hundred percent." He leaned against the island once more, this time facing towards her. "Why you still with him? I mean I get when it was just the two of you or even after you joined up with my group, but you got more options now. I know Merle ain't been all that kind to his girls in the past."

Anna shrugged as she approached the island then jumped up to sit on it. "He ain't never gotten rough with me. He wants to change which is why he turned away just now." Anna bent closer to Daryl and lowered her voice so that Merle wouldn't hear. "He looks up to you, you know. He wants to change like you have."

Daryl looked up at her surprised. Anna smiled at him soft then looked out of a window.

"You're a good man, Daryl and so is Merle. Life handed you two a terrible hand and Merle's lived it longer, so I think it took him longer to change. Honestly, when I first met Merle, I wasn't planning on staying with him. I was in a bad way, starving, dehydrated and injured. I just wanted to get something resembling healthy, maybe pick up a few survival skills then be on my way. Somewhere along the way, I just fell in love with him and ended up staying."

"You sure it ain't that Stockholm Syndrome?" Daryl asked smirking slightly.

Anna chuckled. "If I was gonna get Stockholm Syndrome, it'd been back when I was still living on base, I was truly a prisoner there."

"Well I'm glad my brothers got you, he needs someone to help keep him level." Daryl dropped his empty into the sink. "G'night." He said as he turned and headed for the stairs.

"Good night, Daryl." Anna answered as she watched him climbed the stairs.

Again, sorry for the wait! I know its a little shorter. I'll keep plugging along, its just taking me longer as I have a boat load of essay's to write.

-Shockra