Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Her Angel, His Strength

17 Judge, Jury, Executioner

"We won't go out today." Daryl said to Lily while she was eating her breakfast.

"Why not?"

"Gotta do somethin' Rick asked." Lily frowned but didn't have the chance to question him further as Daryl was already walking away.

Rick and Shane had come back with Randall the day before because the boy knew Maggie from school. No one knew how to deal with that situation, except Shane who thought the best solution was to kill the boy.

"We gonna keep him here?" Someone asked, breaking Lily's train of thought.

"We'll know soon enough." Rick answered looking at Daryl who was making his way back.

"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't lookin' ta make friends. They roll through here our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna - they're gonna wish they were." He stole a glance at Lily.

"What did you do?" Carol asked when she saw his bloodied knuckles.

"Had a little chat." Carol walked away, apparently disappointed.

"No one goes near this guy." Rick ordered.

"Rick, what are you gonna do?"

"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked, shocked.

"It's settled. I'll do it today." With that, Rick walked away.

Everyone started to disperse after that, though Lily stayed where she was. Rick made it sound so simple; just kill the boy. A boy that couldn't be much older than her, a boy who was somebody's something. Was that what they had become?

"Lily?" She started when she felt Dale's hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"You don't agree with Rick's way of dealing with this, do you?"

"You mean Randall? Of course not! But… I don't know what the best answer to this is either."

"We could put him to work. Give him a chance to prove himself."

"Maybe…" She sighed. "Though I honestly don't think anyone else will agree with us."

"I talked to Rick, he gave me until sunset to talk to everyone, try to change their minds."

"I hope you can, Dale, I truly do." He smiled at her, patting her shoulder.

And she did. It shouldn't be this way, killing someone off shouldn't be this easy. Lily still had nightmares from the walkers she killed; it was silly, considering the threat they were, but she couldn't help it.

Lily helped Carol fold the dry clothes in silence, seeing that when she asked the older woman's opinion on the matter, she said she didn't want to get involved in this. For some reason, Lily had the feeling Carol did not care for her much, though she always brushed off, as Sophia's death was still too fresh.

"Dale talked to you yet?" She asked as she neared Daryl's tent.

"Yep."

"What did you say?"

"It doesn't matter none ta me. It'd be better if the boy's dead." Lily sighed. Of course, Daryl would think that way.

"I think Dale's right. We cannot just go around killing everyone we meet. It isn't right."

"It won't matter anyway. Don't think many'll agree with ya, the boy will be dead by the end of the day. Better accept it now." Scowling at him, Lily entered the tent to put their clothes away.

"Has Carol talked to you about me?" Lily asked on their way to their tent after eating lunch. At his frown, she sighed. "I think she's mad at me..."

"Why?"

"I don't know… We used to talk before, now she just… Now we don't."

"She lost her little girl. Got stuff on her mind."

"Yeah… That's what I thought, but I think it's just me, you know? When Lori's around, the two talk normally, and when is just the two of us, she ignores me."

"Let her, she just doesn't know what she wanna." Lily looked at him in confusion. What?

"What do you mean?" He ignored her. Lily hated when he did that. "Andrea said Lori was angry with her for not helping around with laundry and cooking… I thought that maybe it was because I don't help much either, but she seems alright with Andrea, so…" Lily was not even talking with Daryl anymore; she was just talking to herself.

"Forget about her. Ya shouldn't do anything ya don't wanna. Ya help around." Lily smiled at him. Daryl was terrible with human interaction, but he always had a little something to say to make her feel better.

When the time came to meet up with the others inside the house, she stood in front of him, his arms circling her from behind.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked.

"Does it have to be unanimous?"

"Well, let's- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options."

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane said.

"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale replied, angry.

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know."

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me, Lily and Glenn."

"Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-" Glenn said, the tone on his voice patronising.

"They've got you scared." Dale accused.

"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already."

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale asked, pointing at Maggie.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl answered from behind her.

"It may be a lean winter." Hershel agreed, much to Lily's dismay. She thought Hershel for sure would be against something like that.

"We could ration better." Lori said.

"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself."

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick denied.

"We could put an escort on him."

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked, his tone mocking.

"I will." Dale retorted, his voice desperate.

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful; maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane said when the discussion escalated.

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." His beg had Shane scoffing.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" Patricia asked.

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane replied.

"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick stated.

"And what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked.

"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale cried.

"Ya've been talkin' all day, goin' around in circles. Ya just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl said and Lily knew he was getting exasperated, circling around her once and pulling her back into him.

"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation! Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?" Lily could tell that Dale was close to tears.

"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide. Either of you, both of you. But leave me out." Carol said, surprising most of them.

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself- there's no difference."

"All right, that's enough." Rick commanded, before anyone could go on. "Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." A few sat down, no one looking at Dale.

"You once said that we don't kill the living. If we do this, the people that we were… The world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's... Harsh. It's- it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in, and I don't- and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?"

"I do. I agree with Dale." Lily said for the first time, attracting the eyes of everyone. Uncomfortable, she tried to explain herself, not noticing her tightening fingers on Daryl's: "it isn't right to kill him for a crime he didn't commit, to just execute him for something he has no blame, just because we're afraid. If I… If I ever got separated from you, I wouldn't want- I would want the people who find me to give me a chance and not just kill me off for no reason at all."

"They're right." Andrea said, after a minute of silence. "We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" When no one made a move to say anything, Dale's eyes filled with tears.

"Are y'all gonna watch, too? No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa... I won't be a party to it." He said walking away from the group, stopping at Lily and Daryl's side, he put a hand on the man's shoulder. "This group is broken."

Exiting the house, Daryl pushed her gently towards Andrea. Lily smiled sadly at the woman as they walked quietly towards camp. Even though they all agreed with Rick and Shane, no one appeared comfortable with what was going on the barn.

"We're keeping him in custody, for now." Rick said when he came back with Carl. Lily breathed a sigh of relief, thinking about Dale. He'd be so happy.

"I'm gonna find Dale." Andrea smiled.

"I'm going with you." Lily said, walking with her. Their happiness was cut short by a terrified scream.

"Dale?" Andrea asked, running towards the sound, Lily hot on her heals.

"Help! Over here! Help!" Daryl shouted waving his arms.

"Who is it?"

"Oh, my God, Dale." Lily gasped when she saw him. His stomach was torn apart, a dead walker by his side. Andrea left her side to knell besides the fallen man.

"Get Hershel! He needs blood." Rick screamed. Lily only shook her head. She knew there was nothing they could do for Dale.

"Just hold on- hold on."

"What happened?" Hershel arrived.

"What can we do?"

"Dale, it's gonna be okay." Andrea was sobbing.

"Can we move him?"

"He won't make the trip."

"You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house."

"Rick." Hershel shook his head at their leader, confirming Lily's thoughts.

"No!"

"He's suffering. Do something!" Andrea begged.

"I'm sorry, brother." She knew Dale was as good as dead, but she could not help it. Lily flinched at the gunshot.


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Thank you,

Mel.