Rachel retched. She turned her head away, covering her mouth with a hand; thankful she didn't eat anything for breakfast. They had to be quick about it, but her pause could not be helped. All that remained of Jesse Buchanan was mess of bones with some mangled organs and flesh. Chancing another look, Rachel called out to Sarah, who had not yet come close enough, to tell her to wait inside the gate. There was no reason for the teen to see such a grotesque sight. She was already so upset over the loss; it would be best to distance her from any further trauma.
"Glenn and I can handle this," Daryl offered, draping a cloth over what remained of her friend. "Go pull the car in."
Relieved and grateful, Rachel turn back to the car. She climbed into the driver's seat and sat for a minute, watching the two men work. When they lifted the bundle, she started the car and drove through the gate as Carl pulled it open. It was an odd kind of funeral procession. When the car was parked as directed, Rachel walked across the yard to where the graves were located. It would be some time before the hole was ready for the burial. Sarah offered to help dig, wanting to be useful. Not wanting to leave Sarah alone with the two inmates, Rachel sat down in the grass and watched.
After a while, Glenn came back to get Axel and Daryl. They were headed for the generator room; Axel was going to take a look at their power supply. Walkers also needed to be cleared from the area, so Daryl and a couple others were headed down to take care of that. Rachel was not needed to either of those two tasks. She would help with the digging and then they would lay Jesse to rest.
Rachel wiped the sweat from her forehead and tossed the shovel to one side. It was finally ready. Oscar helped her out of the pit. He took one side of the unnaturally slim bundle while Rachel took the other. After placing Jesse in his final resting place, the three of them pushed dirt over the body. When the hole was filled, Oscar left them to say their farewells.
Sarah sat down at the foot of the grave and held her face in her hands. Rachel put an arm around the teen, wiping away her own tears and trying to think of something appropriate to say. The two of them sat there for some time, allowing their grief to consume them. It was nice to be able to mourn and say a proper goodbye without having to fear for their lives.
When she could cry no more, Rachel sniffed and said, "I don't think I ever apologized for almost running you over that day we met. I can't say I'm all that sorry though; if it weren't for you, I don't think I'd have survived to find Daryl. Yeah, he really was here – can you believe that? It was him riding that stupid ass motorcycle we heard yesterday." She took a breath. "Thanks for having my back in all this. I know you'll still be watching over us."
"Yeah, thanks for keeping me safe, Jesse," Sarah added, resting her head on Rachel's shoulder. "I'll never forget you."
They sat in silence for a little while longer until Rachel took a deep breath, wiped her tear-stained face, and then stood. It was time to move on from this loss and focus on what lay ahead. They had to figure out how to integrate with this group and contribute to their well-being.
"Ready to head back?" she asked, holding out a hand to help Sarah from the ground. "We should stop at the car and unload everything that could be useful."
When they reached the car, Rachel popped the trunk and started to fill bags with the food that they had collected and rationed. They might as well share what provisions they had. Sarah opened the door to the backseat and pulled out pillows, sleeping bags, and their packs. It was her intent to make the cell feel a little more comfortable and familiar.
One of the nearby gates creaked. Rachel moved to see what had caused the noise, still wary of the unfamiliar surroundings. She trusted that the prison was safe, but lowering her guard would not come that easily. It was a relief to find Daryl walking toward them. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him. She smiled contently as he neared and called out that lunch was ready. Startled, Rachel's eyebrows rose; more time had passed than she thought. Weighed down with their supplies, Sarah headed toward the cell block, glancing back at the couple before going inside.
"How's the kid?" Daryl asked, his eyes shifting toward the retreating Sarah.
Following his gaze, Rachel replied, "She'll be all right. She's worried about making new friends. We haven't done that in a while, but I'm not too worried."
"And you?"
"I'm fine," she assured him. He did not look convinced. "I promise. Y'all let us bury him and say good-bye. It's more than we'd have gotten if he'd died in another place. Besides, I got you to look after now."
"And I'm gonna look after you." Daryl smiled softly, lifting a couple of the food bags from the trunk. "I'm sorry about your friend."
Returning his smile with one of her own, Rachel pulled on the pack that Sarah had left behind and grabbed the last few bags of food. "I'm sorry about yours. So many in one day, couldn't have been easy."
"It ain't the first time – hell, it ain't even the second time." He frowned, thinking about the deaths that he had witnessed over the last year. "Certainly ain't the last. I guess it's to be expected in a time like this."
"Expected? Maybe… but I don't think you ever get used to it."
"No, you don't."
At lunch, the man they claimed to be their leader, Rick, appeared from the depths of the prison. He stayed only long enough to check on his children and inquire about the two new faces among them. After a brief exchange with Daryl, Rick was gone again. The whole thing felt a little strange to Rachel, but she chose not to question it. Rick's wife lost her life after giving birth to their second child the previous day. His behavior was clearly a way of coping with such a tragedy.
A plan for the afternoon was devised while they all ate to give them something to focus on. Axel was still working on the generator. Glenn and Maggie volunteered to leave the prison compound to scavenge for supplies that were running low. Carl, Oscar, and Daryl talked about clearing out the walkers on the lower levels. Beth and Hershel would tend to the baby and clean up from the meal. Rachel and Sarah were left to get settled into their new home.
When she had made her bed and organized the supplies, Rachel went back into the common area. There had to be something she could help with. It felt strange to have time to be idle.
"Actually, yes," Hershel said, rising from his seat after Rachel's inquiry. "Stay here with Beth and help look after the baby. I'm going to find Rick – see if I can talk some sense into him."
Rachel agreed, thankful for something to keep her occupied. It would be a good opportunity to get to know Beth. Sarah would be more likely to speak to Beth if Rachel was around; it would do her some good to make a friend closer to her own age. Watching as Hershel hobbled from the room, Beth called after him to be careful.
"Does the little one have a name?" Rachel asked, breaking the ice after a few moments in silence. It seemed odd that no one had mentioned the baby's name at all.
Beth shook her head, staring down at the bundle in her arms. A shy smile pulled at her lips and she looked up again. "Daryl calls her Little Ass Kicker."
Rachel moved around the table to sit next to Beth, giving her a better look at the baby. She grinned. "Does he?"
The younger girl gave a nod. "Yeah. He's really good with her too. She likes him."
"I'm not surprised," Rachel admitted, feeling a lump form in her throat. She was searching for a change in subject when Sarah appeared. The teen was a welcomed interruption, even if she didn't change the subject much.
"You know, Daryl is different than I expected," Sarah interjected as she sat down with them.
Amused, Rachel raised a brow. "How so?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "He's not what I imagined when you'd talk about him."
"Don't worry. You're not the first person to say that." Rachel chuckled.
"Why's that?" Beth asked.
Rachel looked between the two young girls in front of her and pursed her lips. They both looked back her with eager faces, hopeful for some ounce of entertainment. Memories were all they had left of life before the uprising. Rachel sighed, working out the story in her mind before sharing a little piece of her past with them.
"A lot of people have questioned my relationship with Daryl. He and I didn't exactly grow up in the same neighborhood. My family had money – his didn't. I was a cheerleader, had lots of friends, and was involved in just about everything in high school. Daryl had a few friends, but mostly kept to himself. Most folks in our community knew the Dixon boys didn't have a great home life, or at least they speculated about it."
"How'd you end up together?" Beth asked.
Rachel smiled fondly at the memory. "Daryl turned up at the right moment. He got me out of a rather unpleasant situation. After that I realized there was more to him than all that talk. So, we started spending more and more time together – sneaking around mostly."
"Didn't you tell me you've been married ten years?" Sarah inquired.
"Yes, I was twenty-five when we got married. Between our two families, our relationship wasn't easy to maintain. Hell, between the two of us our relationship wasn't always easy to maintain," Rachel said with a nod. "I actually think we would have gotten married sooner, but I went away to college."
Beth's eyebrows rose. "Where'd you go?"
"University of Georgia. My daddy was hell bent on me attending his alma mater. I think he just wanted to get me out Jasper so I'd meet someone new – someone more to his liking. He also wanted me to have degree to fall back on when Daryl left me – my daddy's words, not mine." The two younger girls exchanged a look and Rachel continued, "Now, I dated a few other guys in college, but none of them compared to Daryl. Like I said, it wasn't easy, but we loved each other. And that's it – nothing glamorous, but we tend to raise a lot of eyebrows."
Conversation continued on relationships as Beth shared a little bit about Jimmy and a few of the boys she had dated. Rachel took Little Ass Kicker from Beth to give her a break while Sarah regaled them with tales of the boys she had crushes on in school. It was a nice, rare moment to talk about frivolous things, and Rachel was pleased to see Sarah getting along with Beth.
They had not gotten too far into Sarah's history when Hershel returned from his pursuit of Rick. Rick had not followed him back. Hershel joined the girls at the table without much of an explanation. Conversation turned quickly from relationships to ideas for dinner. Rachel was curious about what transpired with Rick, but did not think it was her place to pry.
Not long after Hershel returned, Carl came through the door. He looked no worse for wear, which in some ways was comforting. It told Rachel that they had not run into too much trouble during their sweep. But if that was the case, why was he alone? Rachel watched the little boy all the way into the room. He went around the corner and then returned with a bottle of water.
"Where are Oscar and Daryl?" Hershel inquired, eyes flickering toward Rachel. She kept her eyes steady on the boy.
"Oscar is with Axel in the generator room. Daryl stayed behind – said he needed some time alone," Carl explained with a shrug and then gulped down some water.
"You left him down there on his own?" Rachel stammered.
Carl stared at her blankly. "It was all clear."
"Daryl can handle himself," Hershel added.
"I know that," Rachel replied curtly. Still, she didn't like him wandering around down there alone. No one should be left on their own.
Carl spoke up again. "We found Carol's knife. It was stuck in a walker's neck."
Hershel and Beth nodded grimly. The name sounded familiar to Rachel, so Carol must have been one of their recent losses. They all sat quietly until Hershel reached out for the baby. No longer needed here, Rachel stood and made to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Hershel demanded, assuming that she was going after Daryl.
"I'm not going after him, if that's what you think. Like you said, my husband can take care of himself," Rachel retorted and stalked from the room.
The eerie quiet of the prison did not mix well with a racing mind. Daryl still wasn't back. Rachel tried to keep herself busy by sorting through her clothes and Sarah's for items to be washed. There had to be a place that she could at least give them a good scrub. It had been a while since the last opportunity to wash clothes and some of them were quite foul, both in appearance and smell. After a while, Rachel returned to the common room to help with dinner. Hershel cared for the baby while the other three started in on the cooking.
Rachel was fixing a bottle when Rick entered the room. He walked over to Hershel and took his baby girl. There were very few words exchanged, but Hershel, Carl, and Beth followed Rick as he went outside. From the looks of it, Rachel thought the fresh air would do him some good. She exchanged a look with Sarah and carried on cutting up a few vegetables they had managed to keep.
"I need help in here!" Daryl called from the other room. His voice was loud and insistent.
Rachel scrambled from the table and hurried into the cell block to see what he needed. Sarah followed, close on her heels. Expecting to find him injured and bleeding all over the place, Rachel didn't quite know how to react when she saw the woman in his arms. From her distance there was no way to tell if the woman was conscious or not.
"Get water – in the second cell," Daryl ordered as soon as he laid eyes on Rachel and then moved into one of the cells.
Rachel retrieved a bottle of water and took it to Daryl, who was squatting at the side of the bed. The woman was conscious, lying on the bottom bunk, but looked fatigued. Handing the bottle to Daryl, Rachel watched as he helped the woman sip on water. After a few small draughts, she settled back on the pillow and gave him a faint smile.
"Thank you," she croaked, squeezing one of his hands.
"Where are the others?" Daryl asked, looking toward Rachel.
"Outside," Rachel replied, feeling the woman's eyes on her. "Rick came back."
"Who are they?" the woman asked quietly, sitting up slightly to sip more water. Her eyes moved curiously between the two new faces.
"Rachel and Sarah," he said, pointing to each of them in turn. "They found us yesterday. This is Carol."
Even though she had never met Carol, Rachel marveled at the return of someone they thought lost. Despite all the tragedy suffered in the last twenty-four hours, there were glimmers of hope. It was this hope that Rachel had learned to cling to because it never seemed to last. Carol was sharing her tale of fighting off walkers when some commotion came from the front of the cell block. They heard Rick giving out instructions, so Daryl went to share his good news with the others.
The joyful reunion of Carol with the rest of the group was short lived. It turned tearful when Carol realized that Lori had not made it through the birth. This moment of joy and sadness made Rachel realize just how much this group cared for one another. They truly seemed like one family. It did not go on for very long, because there was the matter of an injured woman in their cell block to tend to; Rick had discovered her standing at the fence with a basket of baby formula and a bullet in her thigh.
She was not very forth coming with information about herself, but Rick kept on her with questions. Soon the woman told them about Glenn and Maggie. A man that the woman knew had taken them to a town called Woodbury where a large group of survivors had fortified the town. On the surface it sounded like a paradise, but from the way the woman talked, it seemed less than ideal. A plan was quickly put into place to rescue Glenn and Maggie.
"How can I help?" Rachel asked as one of the cars was being packed. She directed the question at Rick since he was calling the shots.
Rick eyed her up. "Can you shoot?"
"Well enough," she replied, not missing the look he sent to Daryl, who confirmed her statement with a nod.
"Good. We need a few good guns here to keep an eye on things," he told her. "Carl can show you where the guns are kept."
A little disappointed that the offered wasn't to go with them, Rachel nodded. Daryl was part of the team headed to Woodbury. It felt a little unfair to get him back, only to have him leave for a mission that could result in his death, but she understood his reasons for going. She would have done the same for either Jesse or Sarah, if it had been them.
Rachel watched as Daryl closed the hatch on the car, signaling that they were ready to head out. With arms folded across her chest, she walked up to him and looked him square in the eyes.
"Do what you have to do, but if you die… I'll kill you." She gave him a tiny smile, pecked him on the lips, and whispered, "Just come back to me."
"I will," he replied with a nod.
Rachel stood with Sarah and the others. They watched Daryl, Rick, Oscar, and Michonne pile into the car and drive through the gates. There was no telling what they would find in Woodbury; Michonne did not speak very kindly toward it or the man that called himself their leader. This worried Rachel. What if they did not make it back? Those left at the prison would not hold a strong defense if attacked.
Sarah leaned against her and gave her a comforting squeeze. "They'll be alright."
"Yeah, they will," Rachel said with a quick nod, ignoring the uneasy feeling that was building in the pit of her stomach.
With the car out of sight, Rachel turned, intent on busying herself with dinner, and came face to face with Carol. Carol had her fixed in a confused, but calculating stare.
"It seems I've missed some of the details about who you are."