Oh Willie dear there's no use in asking
For he's in his room a taking rest
And by his side lies a silver dagger
To slay the one that I love best

She coughed and sputtered; the blood fell from her mouth like soft raindrops from a dark storm cloud. She was naked and hurting. How she had survived Willy the night before was miracle in itself, let alone how she had fended off the few walkers that had come into the bush where Willy had dumped her.

The sun was coming up now; she could see it through the treetops. She couldn't stay here, but moving hurt too much. She could waste precious energy.

Deciding it was her best bet for the time being, Macyn curled up into a ball and stayed right where she was.

.&.

Rick let out an exasperated sigh and wiped the sweat from his brow. They had been searching for hours with no sign of Macyn. There was no way to tell where Willy had dumped her; it was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"She can only be so far," Glenn commented, pulling his arm across his face to wipe away the sweat.

"If he left her to die, he wouldn't have to take her far. Thing is, we don't know how close to daylight he dragged her out here. She could be –"

"Don't even say it," Dale stopped Rick. "Macyn is a fighter – we know that. She is a survivor. We just have to find her."

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Rick nodded, and the search continued.

.&.

She had been laying under that rotting zombie corpse for – well, she didn't know how long now. It had warded off several walkers that had come in her direction, but she wasn't able to stand the stench much longer. Moreover, laying there and trying to conserve her energy wasn't getting her anywhere either.

Pushing the body off of her, she tried to sit up. It hurt, but she kept her groans to herself. Any noise that could possibly attract more walkers was exactly what she didn't want.

Macyn reached deep within herself and found the willpower to make herself move. She crawled first onto all fours, choking back tears as the pain ricocheted through every nerve in her body. Taking a deep breath, she herself further and up onto two legs.

Willy had beat her, raped her, and left her for dead. Whatever memories she and the whiskey had dredged up, it had sent him off the deep end. The thought of her leaving with Daryl was just too much for Willy Slater to live with.

When he dumped her in the bush of the forest, Macyn had thought it would be the end. It had been nearly daylight, but that didn't mean being naked and unarmed was any more of an ideal situation to find herself in.

It was going to take time and energy, but Macyn was going to get back to that house and when she did … she had plans for Willy Slater.

.&.

Carol walked into Macyn's room to gather the bedding and wash it. She wanted to be optimistic that they would return with Macyn, but no doubt the girl would need to rest. Carol figured after all she had been through, the least Macyn deserved would be to rest on clean sheets.

Willy was standing in the middle of the room, just staring at the mattress when Carol opened the door. She immediately shrank back, but the sound of Willy's voice brought her back.

"What did you say?"

"I said, it wasn't my intention to do that to her." He paused here; in the silence, Carol got a look at the scratches and bruises on Willy's face and arms. She was sure there had to be more, for Macyn had told her once that she always fought back when she was conscious enough to do so. "I love her more than anything. That's why it's so hard to part with her. No one else deserves her. I saved Macyn. I told her to quit the hospital, I gave her all of this. I gave her a happiness her father could never give her."

"And then you took it away from her," Carol replied. "I know about men like you, Willy. Don't deserve to be called men for the way you treat women. You were probably charming and funny and caring, and you probably made her feel safe. Then you changed. You took that safety away from her and became her worst nightmare – a man who claimed to love her and want to give her a life, but who beat her and took her away from the life she wanted."

"She would have died in that hospital if I didn't tell her to quit."

"But that's not why you told her to quit. You didn't save her. You forced her to give up on her dream – the timing is just coincidence. You may have saved her from being massacred with the other hospital staff, but you kept her here like a caged animal. You stopped caring about her when you decided no one else but you could have her. I don't know what happened last night, but if they don't find her … I hope the guilt does you in."

She walked confidently into the room, gathered all the bedclothes, and walked back out, shutting the door behind her.

.&.

"We should have brought Daryl with us," Glenn commented. "He's a tracker. He knows these woods better than we do."

"He's in no shape to be out here in this heat," Rick returned.

"What about Merle? He can track. He should be out here helping for his brother's sake."

Rick nodded. "Be that as it may, I don't think he'd go against Willy."

"We could ask him," Dale suggested. "Merle's got emotions … somewhere in his dark soul is a black heart with strings that can be tugged at, just like anyone else. Just takes the right thing to say."

"Which Daryl might know," Glenn added.

Rick took a deep breath and spit on the ground. Glenn and Dale were making sense, sad as that was concerning Merle. It wasn't as though they were making any progress out here on their own. Finally, he caved and motioned for them to head back to the house.

.&.

Merle rolled his eyes and scoffed. "You people want me to help you find some bitch I didn't want to be around in the first place?"

"In my place," Daryl spoke up. "I can't go out there. Not yet. But they need someone with tracking skills, brother. I need you to do this for me."

"What is it about her that you just can't stand to be away from?" Merle snarled.

Daryl looked to Rick and then Glenn, carefully considering his answer. "That shouldn't matter. I tell you, you'd just call me a pussy anyway. All that should matter, brother, is that she's important to me, and I'm asking you to do this. To help me."

"This is your chance to do some good, man," Rick added. "Macyn, she's never done anything to wrong you. You're so adamant that her business with Willy is between the two of them, but you're on his side."

"Ain't no sides," Merle corrected. "Willy has what we need. I'm just trying to keep the peace."

"You're headed in the right direction, maybe just the wrong path," Daryl told his brother. "Please. I've never asked you for anything. I'm asking you to do this."

Merle looked at his younger brother, at the pleading look in Daryl's eyes, and felt his resolve crumble – but not without stipulations. "If I do this – help you find her and bring her back – then as soon as Daryl is back up to shape, we get out of here."

"Fine," Rick agreed.

"And we leave Macyn behind," Merle finished. "She'll drag us down. Willy'll always be coming to find her, if he even lets her out alive. If he lets us out alive. That's my terms. We go out and find her, bring her back, and get the hell out of Dodge before the shit really hits the fan."

Daryl swallowed and answered before Rick could. "Deal."

Merle smirked and nodded. "I'll gear up."

Rick frowned and waited for Merle to be out of ear shot before addressing Daryl. "What the hell?"

"I just need him to go find her, whatever it takes. I need her back here where I can know she's okay. I'll figure out the rest of it later."

Rick wasn't so sure how that was going to work out, but Daryl seemed to know what he was doing. Rick just had to trust his friend's judgment.

.&.

All she could think about was when Robbie died. That was the last time she remembered hurting this bad. Her father and Willy had both been mostly satisfied to bring her to cuts and bruises and tears before they stopped; Willy usually considered forcing himself on her punishment enough for whatever he deemed her punishable for.

But when Robbie died, Martin Ballard's broken heart targeted Macyn to release all of the pain and anguish the man was feeling. Macyn remembered wanting to beg those uniformed men to take her away with them or to just stay. She could see it in her father' eye; he was coming for her. Sure enough, as soon as the other men were gone and the door was locked behind them, Martin had her by the hair and threw her onto the floor. He beat her for nearly three hours, crying and screaming as he struck out. Macyn cried too, but it didn't stop him from hurting her.

Finally, when he was too tired to lift his arms and legs anymore, Martin backed away from her. She was bleeding and broken, a mess of pain and grief. He looked down at her and shook his head, and Macyn would never forget the words he said to her.

I'm sorry your brother's dead.

And it was as if he truly meant it – not just that Martin was sorry for himself having lost his beloved son. Just in that once short sentence, in the tone he used, Martin was acknowledging that Macyn had lost her protector; the only person she had left in the world who loved her after her mother died. After he said it, he had gone up to his room and closed the door softly behind him. Macyn had picked herself up off the floor and only made it as far as the couch before falling asleep. When those uniformed men had come back the next day, one of them asked if she was all right. She made some excuse about falling down the stairs during a crying fit, but she could see in the man's eyes he didn't believe her. Without proof though, what could he do?

She felt something like that now. Like there had to be a way to safety, but she just couldn't figure out how to get there. Closing her eyes and letting out a deep breath, she focused her mind on just exactly what she was going to do to Willy if and when she ever made it back to that house.

Macyn.

Her head and her ears perked up. Either she was having auditory hallucinations or someone was calling her name. She stood very still, waiting to hear it again.

Macyn!

Yes, this was real. They had come looking for her! She stayed right where she was, concentrating on the familiar voices calling for her – Rick. Glenn. Merle. She pushed away her initial shock that Merle was a member of the search party; tears of relief filled her eyes.

"Here," Macyn tried to get out, moving quickly in the direction the voices were coming from. "I'm here!"

"Macyn? Where are you?" Rick called.

"Rick! Rick! Rick!" Macyn screamed his name with everything in her, and finally the former sheriff's deputy came into view. He pulled the shirt off of his back and pushed it over her arms and head before anything in an effort to cover her.

Macyn was sobbing as she leaned herself into Rick's chest. She was in so much pain and, now that she had been found, she could allow herself to feel it. Paired with the relief at being found, the floodgates were really coming open.

"Shh," Rick comforted, pushing her hair away from her face before taking a good look at her. "Are you all right?"

"No bites or scratches," Macyn answered, understanding what his question really meant.

"All right, let's get you back to the house."

He kept one arm around her shoulders and scooped her legs up with the other arm. It seemed effortless, Rick's ability to carry her through the woods.

Exhaustion affected her in waves as they went. She would black out and then come back, unaware of how they had gotten as far as they did.

Once in the shelter, Lori and Carol took over her care. They helped her wash herself and bandaged and cared for her bruises and cuts. Macyn guided them on a full examination to look for broken bones she might not have been aware of, but there seemed to be none.

"By the grace of God," Lori muttered.

Macyn nodded. "Where's Daryl?"

"We'll send him in as soon as we get you comfortable," Carol promised. "There's something you should know, first."

Macyn frowned and looked between the two women. "What is it?"

Lori took over the conversation. "Rick, Glenn and Dale had been looking for you all day. They couldn't find you, so they needed someone with tracking skills. Daryl wasn't ready for that, so they brought Merle."

"I know, I saw him."

"In order for them to convince Merle to help find you, Daryl had to make a deal with him," Lori continued. "We have to leave in the next few days. We can't take you with us."

Macyn's heart fell. She tried not to cry. "You all have done what you had to do to keep me alive. I understand."

Carol propped up some extra pillows around her. "Until we leave, someone will be outside your door or sitting in here with you – one of the men – to make sure Willy lets you at least heal a little bit before he gets at you again. I'm so sorry, Macyn."

"Don't apologize, Carol. You all took my side when you didn't have to do anything to help me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that."

Carol nodded and left the room just behind Lori, promising to send Daryl in to see her. Macyn leaned back on the pillows and blinked back the tears. She didn't want Daryl to know they had already told her about his deal with Merle, and even if one of the women told him that she knew, Macyn didn't want him to think she faulted him.