A storm is coming for sure...Will the right person be punished for their crimes? With who will Carl's loyalty lie if it comes to it...Rick is still his father after all, whatever he's done.

The Dixons were still in the river, now that they had thorougly washed themselves of the Walker gore and rinsed their clothes and left them to dry in the hot sun, they went for a swim. Challenging each other with races to see who could reach the other side the quickest. Merle beat Daryl 5 out of 9 times.

Afterwards, they sunbathed a little on the rocks, hoping their clothes would dry in the meantime.

They didn't.

'Oh shit!' Daryl had fallen into a light doze on his stone, like Rick, he'd been tired out by recent events but woke up to see the lower position of the sun in the sky. When they had found Rick and Carl together it had been about noon.

'What, baby brother?'

'We said we'd go back to check on Carl!'

'Calm down.' Merle turned on his side and prepared to relax again. 'He'll be OK.'

'He's got a fever! And Rick...'

'He's survived this long with his sick fuck Daddy, he'll be fine a little longer. Don't worry...'

'No! Ya don't get it! We have to get there before Rick does and twists things...If Herschel's found out or got it out of him and he's awake...'

Merle sat up at that. 'Ya right!' He started to get dressed.

With just as much energy as before, they ran back to the camp.

They needn't have worried, Carl was still sleeping deeply, the fever flush standing out on his cheeks.

…

Herschell looked at Rick. 'I called ya here because I got somethin' to tell ya. He's runnin' a slight fever again but it ain't nothin' serious. There's somethin' else I found when I examined him.' He paused and took a deep breath and looked at the leader. Rick was going to be devastated when he found out what someone had been doing to his thirteen year-old son.

I'm sorry, Rick, it's somethin' terrible and unbelievable.' Unthinkable, in fact. Herschel thought to himself but didn't say.

The leader bobbed up and down nervously on one leg, putting on an act of expectation as if he had no idea what the vet was going to tell him. Yet his nervous dread was genuine. Had he found out? Damn the Dixons! If they'd let me take him back with me to our tent instead of the Infirmary, after all he's only got a little cold, the man wouldn't be looking at me like that. Like he's going to tell me he died.

Rick moved closer to the bed to run his fingers through Carl's hair and steeled himself for what the old man had to say.

'This is gonna be difficult to hear, Rick. But when I did a full body exam, I found signs of...of...sexual abuse.'

'Sexual what?' Rick roared, making his voice rise in apparent horror and disbelief and clutched his son tighter to him.

'Better keep ya voice down.' Herschel cleared his throat nervously.

'How can I? When ya tell me someone's been...been at my boy? That what ya sayin'?'

'I'm sorry. There ain't no doubt...I got Susie in to look.'

Oh great. Someone else knows? Did he remind her of the medical confidentiality rule? Luckily, Susie was a trained nurse before everything happened.

'What signs?' Rick demanded. 'How...? Who...?' He stuttered and gripped Carl more tightly.

'Ya know. Ya were a cop...Bruises in certain places like he'd been held down, blood in his underwear, when I checked back there...there was damage. Nothin' permanent though, thank-God.'

'Can I see?' Rick onviously meant the bloody underpants, not the physical signs.

Herschel sighed and pointed to the heap of clothes rolled up in the corner. The father glanced at them and saw the small white pants with red stains on top.

'Oh God.' He began to sob, thinking he should start putting on a performance. 'What are they still doin' there? Get rid of 'em!' He turned to his son next and began to slap him lightly on the cheeks. 'Wake up and tell me who it was!' But there was no response.

'Don't Rick...He won't wake up. He;s sick and needs to rest.'

The ex-Sheriff knew this but didn't take any notice. All part of his act.

'Come on, son. Tell Daddy who hurt ya. '

Of course there wasn't any answer. 'It's OK, baby, I ain't angry with you. Jus' tell me who touched ya!' Now he shook him.

'Rick! Leave him alone!' Herschel pulled him off him. 'Won't do no good. We can question him when he wakes up.'

Rick broke down completely then. The old man put his arm around him while he cried and the leader thought he'd put on a pretty good show. It was all an act though, he had wanted to weep for so long about the things he'd made Carl do but he was unable to stop and he didn't think that he'd been that rough with him – not enough to make him bleed anyway.

Rick knew that he must be sick I the head to do the things he'd done to his own son but he had the group to think about. He couldn't just abandon them or cause them to lose faith in him...if they did that, they would lose hope and direction. They would die without him and if the truth came out and the group believed that it was he, who had actually molested his own son, he didn't know what they were capable of. He was surprised but glad that the Dixons hadn't blown the whistle on him, he had a sudden vision of them leading the kicking at him and spitting before they lynched him to a tree if he was lucky, even over Carl's screams and protests.

…

After a little while, Rick recovered himself. Wiping his nose on his sleeve, he sniffed. 'Do we know who did it?'

Herschel shrugged. 'No way of knowin' for sure...But I got my suspicions...'

'Who?' Rick widened his eyes as if he didn't know.

'I...I don't like to say. Better have a meetin' first.'

'No!' Rick yelled. 'We ain't tellin' no-one...Everyone knowin'! My son don't need the humiliation!'

'Fine...Fine...'

'Who do ya think it was?'

'Well...' Herschel threw Carl's discarded filthy and bloody clothes in a rubbish bag and distractedly bustled around the boy's bed. Checked his temperature. He was reluctant to name names. He'd put on the fresh pyjmas later.

'At least it's gone down.'

Rick breathed a genuine sign of relief but he wasn't about to let it go in his pretend ignorance. 'Who do ya think did it?' He pressed him.

Herschel sat back on his chair. 'This is ain't for sure – not by a long chalk but let me ask ya who has Carl been spendin' a lot of time with lately? Even sleepin' in their tent which got not a few funny looks.'

Rick got up from his chair. 'Merle and Daryl? Surely, ya can't mean...

'I didn't say Daryl. He's a decent man. But his brother...' The white-haired vet shook his head. 'Merle always struck me as a loose canon but still – would he go this far? But he may and I stress the word 'may' - have been the one who messed with ya boy.'

'How do we know it weren't the both of 'em?' Rick allowed his voice to crack and wipe an errant tear away. 'Ain't sayin' Daryl wanted to but that bastard big brother of his has a pretty strong hold over him...Maybe he threatened him or someone he cares about ...Come to think of it, Daryl always had his hands all over my son.' Rick gave an artful little shiver.

'We don't know that...Could be anyone...Carl never acted scared of them or like he didn't want to be with 'em. The opposite in fact. I mean, didn't he go and sleep in their tent willingingly?'

'That's jus' plain ole-fashioned kiddie groomin'. Make him think he likes it, wants it or more likely, is bad and deserves it.'

Rick clenched his fists. 'I'm gonna fuckin' kill'em...Daryl's still guilty even he didn't...He must have known what his brother was doin' but didn nothin' to stop it! Didn't even tell me what that sick fuck was doin' to my son!'

He rushed out the the Infirmary ignoring the vet's cries for him to 'Come back' and 'Don't do nothin' hasty.'