Bloodletting
Carol
Carol hadn't said anything since Lori had called her out on the way she kept looking at Rick, not even when they had heard that gunshot a mile or so back. She had just sat down and allowed the rest of them to talk about whether they should go back to make sure everything was okay with Rick and Shane.
She couldn't help it; she did blame Rick even if she couldn't come up with something else that he should have done in that position. She was a woman with her youngest child missing, the time for being reasonable seemed to her to be over, at least until Sophia was found alive and safe. Right now Rick was the only person she could blame other than herself. She had tried to blame Juliet too, although Juliet wasn't the kind of person who allowed herself to be blamed for anything she knew wasn't her fault. She hadn't yelled at her either, she'd just walked away and hadn't spoken to her all day. Carol made a mental note to apologise to her. Blaming her or anyone really, would not bring Sophia back.
Andrea and Juliet were talking, and occasionally Daryl would interject some remark that made Andrea look awkward and Juliet roll her eyes and smile at him slightly exasperatedly. Clearly Andrea had not mastered the art of talking to him in quite the same way her daughter had.
Glenn walked alone, near to Carol, and Lori kept looking around worriedly, stopping for a few seconds before continuing. Every time she did the same look passed around the group and she'd heard Juliet remark 'fuck, could she be more melodramatic about this' at least twice.
"Are you still worrying about it?" Andrea asked her eventually. The rest of the group came to a halt; they needed the short break anyway.
"It was a gunshot." Lori said, like they needed reminding.
"Yeah, we all heard it." Daryl sounded tired and slightly annoyed.
"Why one?" Lori asked. "Why just one gunshot?"
"Maybe they took down a walker."
"Please don't patronise me, you know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane, they'd do it quiet." Lori snapped at him.
"It could have been going too fast for anything else, that's possible, right?" Juliet asked, met by nods from the rest of the group. Carol knew her daughter was just trying to make the best of it, because she like Carol wanted to move on and cover as much ground as they could trying to find Sophia before they had to give up for the day and head back to the highway. "Or there could have been a group that they were trying to draw in a certain direction to pass around. There'll be some reasonable explanation that they can tell us all about when they get back."
"But they should have caught up with us by now…" Carol said, although she hadn't really meant to.
"Not helping." Juliet told her quietly. "If there was a group they had to get around then they might be going another way, or, if they found signs of Sophia they might have chosen to go on a little further rather than catch up."
"She's got a point." Daryl said, and Juliet looked relieved that she wasn't the only one being reasonable. "Nothin' we can do about it anyway. Can't run around these woods chasin' echoes."
"So what do we do?" Lori seemed to be looking to Daryl.
"Same as we been." he answered sharply. "We beat the bush for Sophia then work our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Since they argued earlier, Andrea seemed to be trying her best to stay in Lori's good books, a feat which Carol estimated would last for less than a day before Andrea got annoyed with something else that Lori did.
There was silence for a moment before Lori, looking resigned and distinctly like she didn't have a choice about it, began walking again, followed quickly by the rest of the group. Andrea hung back with Carol, neither of them moving yet.
"I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel." That was something Carol had really needed to hear.
"I suppose you do." Carol said with a weak smile in the direction of the younger woman. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Juliet watching the two of them like a hawk. This was obviously something Andrea had already said to her. "Thank you." She might have stopped there but she couldn't force herself. "The thought of her… Out here, by herself… It's the not knowing that's killing me." Juliet turned away. She looked sad, her eyes wide the way they went where other people might have cried rather than just looking sad. She'd never cried, not even as a baby. "I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy."
"Don't say that." Juliet snapped at her before turning on her heel and walking away from the group. No-one made move to follow her; they'd catch up eventually. Andrea looked horrified.
"Oh God…" Carol said when she saw the expression on her face. "That's the worst thing I ever said." By the looks of it, Juliet had agreed with that, although Andrea shook her head and smiled faintly, although it was obviously forced.
"We're all hoping and praying with you. For what it's worth." Andrea's response was choked.
"I'll tell you what it's worth." Daryl said, approaching them both. "Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl, and she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord." Smiling to herself for the first time in days, Carol wished Juliet had been around to hear that. She would have found it hysterical, as well as the most reassuring thing anyone could have said. Carol shared a look of amusement with Lori before she passed her.
"We should probably catch up with Juliet. We don't need another missing person." Carol said quietly, and the group agreed, picking up their pace. She was waiting for them about twenty feet away, grinning, clearly having heard the conversation.
"I know for a fact I didn't teach you what 'Zen' means. Perhaps the education system failed less than previously estimated." Juliet said, grinning at him. He rolled his eyes.
"Get up, we ain't waitin' around any more, we wasted enough time." She rolled her eyes too and mock saluted him before she stood up deliberately slowly, grinned and started walking. "The hell is it with you and the education system anyway?"
"I'm always around older, intelligent people. Well, I was. I kind of picked it up from them."
"Why'd you hang around them?"
Juliet didn't reply, rather pretended she hadn't heard him and started walking a little faster so she wasn't in step with him. Daryl turned to give her a questioning look, but Carol simply shrugged. She wasn't sure why, when he probably had a better grasp of her and Juliet's relationship than she did herself, he would think she knew anything about Juliet's life after she left home.
Nonetheless, her mind was reeling with possibilities.
Carol actually counted how long Juliet managed to go before she was back by Daryl's side, talking to him again. Eight minutes, fourteen seconds exactly. Whenever she met someone new who she admired she was always like this, she'd try desperately to spend as much time with them as possible, she'd done it with school friends as a child before she realised that most other people were beneath her. Carol remembered she'd done it with the young male English teacher she had a crush on as a senior, the one who had peaked her interest in books, helped her stop smoking and entered her for the scholarship in California that she'd taken eventually. He'd moved away from their town not long after Juliet had. Carol had always had a horrible thought that he might have moved to California too. She'd never confirmed nor denied this, but suddenly, she wanted to know.
Although, if she was brainstorming reasons Juliet might have been around 'older and more intelligent' people then that was a worryingly good answer. Perhaps she would ask later.
"Carol, come on, you're lagging." she heard Juliet say, realising she was walking slowly and that her daughter was waiting for her. She wondered briefly when it had become so normal for Juliet to call her by her first name. She could pinpoint when she had done it first – Ed had gone after Sophia one night and Juliet hadn't let him. After that she seemed to want to distance herself from Carol as much as she could.
"Sorry. Just thinking… You know how people pop in to your head sometimes for no reason? I was just thinking… You remember that English teacher you had as a senior?"
"Who, Thomas Jefferies? Yeah, of course I do."
"Did you two stay in touch after you left?" Juliet looked poised to answer before she realised there was a deeper meaning to this question. She quirked one eyebrow, looking amused.
"Are you asking if I dated my high school English teacher?" Juliet asked with a light laugh, indicating this didn't annoy her as much. "No, even I didn't sink that low. I mean, we emailed each other a couple of times, he checked in on the scholarship he helped me get, he checked in on all the students he helped personally, he was just that sort, but he moved to Canada with his wife and daughter a couple of months after I left and I heard very little from him after that. Happy with that?"
"Happy with what?" Lori asked as they caught up to the group. Juliet smirked.
"Carol's just grilling me about ex-boyfriends I didn't even have."
"Oh good, we allowed to listen in?" Daryl asked, smirking. She smirked back and shook her head.
"Don't pretend to be interested, asshole. Tell you what, I'll tell you about all my exes if you tell me about all yours." Juliet suggested. Carol knew her daughter was uninterested in peoples personal lives, and so this was purely joking, but Daryl looked horrified nonetheless. Juliet laughed loudly. "Just kidding, although I'm not telling you shit."
"I'll get it out of you."
"Like you could ever be bothered to try." Daryl seemed to agree with that.
Andrea
"As the crow flies my ass…"
The group was separated, fanned out and combing one area. She was alone.
The walker came after Andrea quickly, she hadn't realised it was there. She'd just assumed it was one of the others walking slowly. The walker caught her by surprise, and she screamed, over and over. It took that for her to realise she was going to have to deal with this herself. Two close calls in as many days.
Fuck that.
As it got closer she stabbed in in the stomach and cursed herself. Head or nothing. It couldn't feel that the way it would if it was human. Backing away, she tripped over a log, and hated herself as soon as she collided with the floor. She was going to die in the most ridiculous way possible.
She reached for her gun and remembered she had no gun, that Dale had her gun, and realised almost amused that her last thought was going to be how she hoped Dale was sorry when they told him why she had died. The others were still too far to help her. Goddammit, how fucking long would it have taken, upon hearing her screaming, would it have taken Daryl to whip out a gun, or someone to take out of the many knives they had on hand and charge towards her one-man (or woman) cavalry style?
They probably want me to die, she thought miserably. She'd be less of a liability dead.
Fuck that too. She was no damn liability.
She crawled quickly backwards across the floor, but it was no use, the walker had caught up with her and it had a hold of her leg.
She was going to die, and it was not okay.
The CDC had been different, better. It would have been quick. Amy had died slowly, in pain. She didn't want that. She only hoped one of them quickly put her out of her misery.
And then came the horse.
She heard it before she saw it, galloping along the forest floor, the rider, who was someone she did not recognise using a baseball bat to whack the walker away from her. Andrea would have been impressed if she wasn't so terrified. The others quickly caught up, and she sat up, looking at them. They were all staring in awe at the girl on the horse.
"Lori? Lori Grimes?" she asked a still dazed Andrea who shook her head.
"I'm Lori." Lori said, looking worried. This woman knew her name. How was that even possible? It was clear from her expression that this was not someone Lori knew, this was a stranger who knew who she was.
"Rick sent me." the girl explained. "You gotta come now. There's been an accident, Carl's been shot. He's still alive, but you gotta come now." Lori looked sceptical, rightly so. They didn't know who this was, had no reason to trust her, other than she knew Lori, Rick, and Carl's names. "Rick needs you, just come!" The girl insisted. This seemed to be enough for Lori who hurridly took off her backpack and threw it to the ground.
"Woah, woah, woah, we don't know this girl! You can't get on that horse!" Daryl said as Lori made her way on to the back of the horse, not listening to him.
"Rick said you had others on the highway? That big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn Road, two miles down is our farm, you'll see the mailbox. The name's Greene."
And with that she galloped off, with Lori.
The walker that had attacked Andrea sat up, not killed yet, merely stunned. Daryl took it out with an arrow and a 'shut up' moments later.
"She knew their names." Juliet said as she helped Andrea up from the ground as she saw how pissed Daryl still looked. "I'd say that was enough to go on for us to believe her. It wasn't like Lori could have ignored that… And if she'd wanted one of us for something else then why be so specific about what had happened, about who she wanted?"
"So we're gonna go to that farm?" Glenn asked.
"It would give us a base to search for Sophia." Andrea offered.
"Probably safer there than the highway…" Daryl said.
"We'll talk it over with Dale and T-Dog. For now let's just focus on getting back, we can't be far now." Juliet told them.
"Yes ma'am." Daryl replied with a completely straight face, obviously mocking her nonetheless. She looked a lot like she was going to hit him, but, a far more reserved person that Andrea herself was she simply sighed and raked her hand back through her hair and started walking.
"I hate you." Andrea heard her say to Daryl when they started walking again.
"Just tryin' to keep you entertained." Daryl said softly back to her. Juliet's face sobered as she looked at him and she said nothing more. When Juliet looked around and saw her behind them Andrea smiled brightly and pretended not to have heard.
"I know you are. Thank you."
Daryl grunted, but said nothing, and she saw Juliet shake her head in a fond way. It seemed odd to Andrea that the pair refrained from physical contact typically seen between friends, the occasional hug perhaps, a squeeze of the hand, but both were very private, closed off people, so she supposed it would feel more natural for them to be like this. "I want her to be my new best friend. The girl on the horse. Excellent stunt with the baseball bat. I'm replacing you."
"Crossbow and motorcycle beats horse and baseball bat, any day of the week, ask anyone." he said quietly to her. "And I'm not your best friend." She just grinned.
"Pull a stunt like that on a motorcycle and I'll think about giving you the position back."
"You doing okay?" Andrea asked Carol quietly. The older woman broke out of the daydream she was in and nodded abruptly.
"I managed to keep my mind off it for a few minutes, but I just keep remembering." Andrea gave her a sympathetic look and put a hand on the shoulder. "I suppose we'll just have to try again tomorrow and pray for the best. I just hope she's somewhere warm and she found something to eat." Her voice shook and she looked as though she were about to break down, but Andrea nodded in agreement anyway. She wanted to try and take Carol's mind off it but wasn't sure how to do that in a sensitive way.
Juliet didn't turn around or say anything, but she and Daryl were silent and it was clear she had overheard from the way her shoulders stiffened and her head raised from the slumped position, whether consciously or subconsciously she was trying to keep herself composed. She either had nothing to add or did but had decided against it. From what she knew of her, Andrea thought the likeliest scenario there was that it was the latter. She could think of few situations where Juliet had nothing to say, but fewer still where she actually said what she wanted to the whole group rather than one or two people later.
If Amy was here, she'd know how to deal with this. She might not be much help finding Sophia, but she was always better with people than Andrea was.
And then Juliet wouldn't have to be around Daryl all the time, and that could only be an improvement.
Not that he wasn't being helpful of late. Surprisingly so, actually. It was just, especially with Amy gone, Andrea felt fairly protective towards her and someone like him with such a closed off, difficult attitude would only serve to make her more like that. Andrea had always though Amy was good for Juliet, Amy was open and excitable and had started to bring out a more open side of Juliet and in return Juliet had dulled Amy's personality down, just a little to make it palatable at stressful times. Andrea didn't want her to close herself off again. Maybe Juliet would bring out some good in Daryl, since their friendship began he was helping the group more and becoming more involved, but there was no conclusive proof that these were linked, and if there was, Andrea was going to ignore it. She was a lawyer, she knew how to pick and choose evidence while you were building a case against someone.
They were closer to the highway than Andrea thought they were. A horrible lurching sickness washed over her as she thought if she could be confused by the layout of the woods, what chance did Sophia have? She decided quickly not to share that worry with the group. Dale and T-Dog, seeing them making their way over, rushed to them.
"Where are the others?" T-Dog asked.
"Shane and Rick went off with Carl to keep looking for Sophia. The rest of us were all making our way back when Andrea got attacked by this walker." Glenn explained rapidly as they continued moving towards them, hoping to get it all out before the questions started.
"A walker I could have deal with if I'd had my gun." Andrea said, not bothering to be quiet about it. She was still pissed. She could have died, she felt she had a right to be.
"Not the time." Juliet said quietly before picking up where Glenn left off. "This girl rode up on a horse with a baseball bat and took out this walker – it was a pretty awesome move actually." Juliet stopped this line of thought, seeing the no-nonsense look on Dale's face at the same moment everyone else did. "Not the point. Anyway, she was looking for Lori, said Carl had been shot. Lori took off with her, we got an address, we're supposed to follow suite."
"Shot?" Dale exclaimed. "What do you mean shot?" Fucking exactly that, Andrea thought, irritated as she climbed over the highway divider.
"I don't know Dale, I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."
"You let her?" This seemed to be directed at Daryl, apparently having taken the role of sub-team leader as they broke off. Andrea had to supress a smile at that, she imagined Daryl resented his current role in the group enough that he considered leaving at least once a day, putting more responsibility on him seemed to her like a bad move.
"Climb down outta my ass, old man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name, and Carl's."
"We weren't sure, but what were we meant to do? This girl told Lori her son had been shot. If she'd rocked up on that horse saying she knew where Sophia was I would have jumped on there too." Juliet told him softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. Andrea saw the flicker of regret that it hadn't been that pass over her face, but if was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "Dale, I don't think there's much call for a horseback kidnapping in the apocalypse, and she looked friendly enough."
"I heard screams." Dale said to Andrea, finally turning his attention to her. "Was that you?"
"When she was attacked." Carol told him quietly. Andrea took this as her cue to go inside the RV. She didn't want to talk about it – frankly she couldn't without screaming at Dale about her gun again, and she was currently as bored of that topic as everyone else probably was. She noticed that Juliet was diligently following her and smiled to herself.
"Andrea, are you alright?" Dale asked. She turned around and met his eyes, sighing. She noticed Juliet press her lips together and place a hand on her arm to guide her inside, neither answering him.
T-Dog
T had been watching the interaction between the group when the others had arrived back carefully. He felt for Andrea getting attacked out there without a gun. Apparently Dale hadn't considered that possibility worse than her taking the gun and shooting it at herself. T-Dog had to disagree. At least she would have had a choice that way.
Juliet came out of the RV after about five minutes and stood next to where he was crouching, blanket around his shoulders.
"She good?" he asked her, genuinely concerned rather than out of obligation. She shrugged.
"She thought she was going to die. She's pissed off and shaken up, but she isn't dead and she isn't bitten, so I'd say she got off lightly. She'll be fine by tomorrow unless the gun argument comes up again, in which case she'll be irritated and bring this up again."
"Well, like you said, at least it ain't a bite." She nodded and gave him a warm smile. "Listen, I'm real sorry you didn't find Sophia. I'll help with searching as soon as they let me."
"I'd rather you got better first, we don't need you passing out while we're looking and to end up losing you too. Hopefully we'll find her tomorrow and you won't need to help look at all." Juliet fiddled with a strand of her hair, chewing on her bottom lip nervously. She looked like she didn't believe the words coming out of her mouth.
"I sure hope so."
Andrea came out and gave the pair a smile before she waltzed over to the other part of the group who were standing, muttering quietly to themselves.
"What are we doing about this farm then?" she asked them abruptly. T-Dog and Juliet looked at each other, sharing a moment of hesitancy before they got up together and wandered over, wanting to at least look like they were contributing. She guided him, steadying him and once they were stood still she helped him lean against a car and stayed close.
"We gotta go, right?" Glenn asked. "Can't just stay here."
"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol said firmly. She looked like she was about to cry again, and T-Dog noticed her daughter wordlessly slipping her hand into her mothers.
"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak."
"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen." Carol was trying to convince herself with that last sentence more than anyone else.
"If Sophia found her way back and we weren't here… It would be awful."
"Carol, it's been a day, we've combed the area close to here. She's probably closer to finding this farm than she is to finding her way back here, and it's not safe here anyway. Not if another herd came through, we could lose more people, and right now we're the only movable ones anyway. Carl was shot, they can't up and leave that farm so we're back together, we have to go to them." Juliet attempted to reason with her.
"She's right." Daryl said, nodding. "But we gotta plan for this. We leave this until tomorrow mornin', give her a little more time to find her way back, rig up some big sign on one of the cars, leave a few supplies just in case.
"So we all stay here tonight?" Glenn asked. Dale shook his head.
"Not you Glenn. You take Carol's Cherokee and take T-Dog to the farm." T-Dog was surprised to hear himself mentioned, but one look down at his arm reminded him why Dale was so concerned about him. He kept a constant hold on it like that was going to help in the slightest. Dale looked at him. "It's getting worse that cut, it's got a very serious blood infection. You need to go, see what's at that farm, if they have antibiotics, or you could die, no joke." T-Dog noticed Daryl had walked off in the middle of this. He would too if he was able. Daryl pulled something out of his motorcycle – a bag filled with drugs.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." he said as he threw them at Dale.
"What an excellent idea keeping this potentially lifesaving medicine from us was." Juliet said, rolling her eyes. Daryl ignored her.
"It's my brothers stash. Got some crystal-"
"X. Don't need that." Dale said immediately.
"Got some kick ass painkillers." He rooted around in the bag a little. "Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion." Daryl sauntered back to put the medicine away once Dale had what he needed. The others dissipated somewhat apart from Dale and Juliet who seemed reluctant to leave him alone.
"I could take T-Dog." Juliet offered quietly. "Glenn obviously doesn't want to go, and I could use a change of scenery. Take my mind off everything, you know?"
"You sure that's the best idea with everything going on? It could be dangerous there and besides… Your mother could probably use you being here. She doesn't need another daughter with concerning whereabouts." Dale reasoned with her. She winced like he'd hit her and bit down hard on her lip.
"I'll only be down the road. I can't stay here right now… I need to be elsewhere. I think it's for the best…"
"What is?" Daryl asked walking over. She visibly straightened up.
"I'm going to take T-Dog along to that farm, not Glenn, rendezvous with everyone there."
"Tell her it's a bad idea." Dale asked him.
"Nah, I think it's better. You should go, we'll be there in the mornin', 's not like we're sending her off for a year, is it?" Juliet looked pleased, and wandered off with a word about packing up the car with her stuff and telling Glenn. T-Dog saw the look pass between Daryl and Dale. "She's no use with emotional people, Dale, it's not helpin' her or Carol havin' her here, 'specially not if she's wishin' she was somewhere else. Carol barely spoke to her all day." He looked like he might say more but Juliet came back over.
"Glenn's all packed, so we're both gonna go. He said, and I quote directly: 'the girl on the horse was cute, that farm looks like fun'. I tried to remind him that Carl had been badly injured, but he seems to be looking on the positive side of this." Juliet looked over at him when she finished speaking and rolled her eyes. "You ready to go, T?" T-Dog nodded at her and she looped her arm through his and led him to the car away from the others. She put him in the back seat so he wouldn't have to sit up and made him comfortable. "I just gotta say goodbye to Carol, okay, then we're all set."
T-Dog watched her go over. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he supposed that was a good thing, no fighting or raised voices. They hugged. Juliet was caught up in a quick word with Daryl before she was back at the car, and she arrived with a faint smile playing on her lips. She opened the front door to see Glenn in there – T-Dog hadn't noticed him getting in. He still felt woozy, whether from infection or the drugs he wasn't sure.
"Glenn, get outta the driver's seat, this is technically my car."
"Your mom's."
"Well, it's more mine than yours." Glenn got out and with a quick look back and a little almost unperceivable wave, Juliet was in the car.
"Why'd you wanna come then?" he heard Glenn ask her as they drove off. She was silent for a moment.
"I think Carol wishes it was me that was gone. I mean, she'd be sad if it was me for like two seconds, but she'd know that at least she still had her favourite kid safe and sound, she wouldn't have the whole group out searching for me, that's for sure, and that I could probably take care of myself better than Sophia. I can't deal with her looking at me like she blames me either, like I should have been with Sophia every moment so something like this didn't happen, like I should have gone running after her and Rick so I could bring her back. I probably should have, but I didn't, and nothing changes that. I tried ignoring it, but it's hard…" She stopped then to look back. "You still with us, T?" He nodded. More than anything he was exhausted now.
"Gonna take more than a little scrape to kill me."
"If that's what you classify as a scrape, I hope you weren't a doctor before this."
"What do you think's gonna be at this farm then?" T-Dog asked her, hoping to divert the conversation. He was another one who hated talking about the way things were, even a hint towards the conversation going in that direction bothered him, only serving to remind him of what he had lost and could never have again.
"Horseback Zorro." Glenn replied solemnly and Juliet grinned. "Rick, Lori, Shane, Carl… Apart from that, it's anyone's guess."
"And I have a round in the chamber in case it's some human meat farm." Juliet clarified. T-Dog wasn't sure whether this made him feel more or less safe.
"Where'd you get a gun anyway?" he asked her.
Juliet simply smiled and tapped the side of her nose.