14.

She sat with her arms crossed in a very leisurely manner, her face turned away from him, even though he was sure she was well aware he was standing right across her at the table, behind dead Frank, waiting for an explanation. She was like a small kid, who knows he did something bad, but tries to downplay the wrongful act by pretending it simply happened.

While no word came from Niko, Carol's stare demanded him to act and he didn't know where to start or how to go about it. Beth drew closer and looked down at Frank, biting her lips nervously. "What do we do…I mean do we have to kill him, you know, before he turns? Who will do that? Will you do that, Daryl? Will you take him out of here first…please?"

"No need for that," spoke Niko calmly. "I pushed the pencil through his socket deep enough. He won't awake from that."

He sighted heavily. "What the fuck happened?"

"It's pretty obvious…I pushed a pencil-"

"Why'd you do it?" he cut her sharply. His calmness was ruffled.

Niko leaned with her elbows on the table and turned her face at him. "I got fed up with him," she said, pronouncing each word slowly; "so, I killed him."

"You're crazy!" Beth shouted at her.

"Come on, let's be all frank." She was the only one who chuckled at her pun. "You all wanted him dead. I bet when he grabbed your ass, Beth, you wished to kill him yourself, and probably this wasn't the only time…he was particularly annoying and disrespectful today."

"You don't kill a man over that!" retorted Beth.

Niko turned her head slightly, her black glasses catching a ray of sunlight. "Really? I think men are killed over much less nowadays."

"Here we decide on things together," said Carol and joined Daryl on the other side of the table. "You had no right to make such a decision on your own. We could find some other solution, or simply expel him."

Niko shook her head. "No, you wouldn't. You would never just let him go. Too much of a risk for a bitter, vengeful bastard he was. Am I right, Daryl?"

Yes, she was right but that was beyond the point. God knows, he wanted to kill Frank many times himself, but Niko's careless behaviour was the kind of behaviour that spurs things into an uncontrolled chaos within a group.

He grabbed Frank's body and start dragging him out. "I'll tell the others. Niko, you come with me."

Noticing puzzled stares of Carol and Beth he reassured them: "I'll deal with this, okay?"

Consequences of Niko's action came down on him like dark, stormy clouds. It was all back to square one. He'll have to justify her stay again and this time not only to Rick.

XXXXX

"What are you so worried about?" she asked him, as he lit his second cigarette since he came back to the detention room. Observing smoke twirling away used to relax him and clear his thoughts. It didn't work now.

He spoke with the others. Nobody was so much concerned about Frank being dead as they were with Niko. The responses varied from genuine concern to plain hatred. Beth was uncompromising and wanted her gone. Carol, whom he thought to be among the lenient ones when it came to Niko, bluntly said they would be all better off without her. Rick left it up to him, under the condition she was back in the detention room and under constant supervision. Others were more or less in between. For the first time he wondered seriously, why does he give a damn. The chick proved way too much work and it didn't look like it will get any better. And the situation just kept getting messier. As sure as most of the group, including himself, won't miss Frank much, his brother definitely will. He'll see it as a betrayal of some sort and demand a retribution. If he managed to persuade Rick, was because deep down Rick was reasonable person and he respected his opinion. But Merle… when was it ever anything reasonable with Merle?

"Did I get you in trouble?"

Her mild voice had an annoyingly persuasive innocence about it, which made it hard for him to get angry at her. And he wanted to be angry. He directed his eyes at her. She was sitting on a table with her legs dangling in the air, as if there was not a worry on her mind. "Me? Why would I get in trouble for some shit you did?" he replied, raising his voice a little. "You got yourself in trouble. Be sure of that. You think, you can just kill those you don't like and everyone's gonna be fine with it? It ain't like that here…"

Her legs stopped dangling and she tightened her fingers around the edge of the table.

"Look, I didn't mean to-"

"It don't matter, when Merle comes back…" He puffed out the smoke and gazed thoughtfully.

"Merle…your brother?"

He nodded, then, seeing her glasses, said it out loud: "Yes."

"I'll explain it to him, I'm sure he'll understand."

He snorted. "He'll understand it all right…"

"Look, eventually something like that was bound to happen, and if already, then better by my hand than one of the women's…..or…yours." She sounded oddly compassionate. "The opinion about me is as bad as it gets…one more offence won't make much difference."

"You telling me you did it out of the goodness of your heart?"

She grinned. "No, it brought me too much pleasure. But I did give it a thought ahead. It was for a good cause."

"You kill easily…"

"Yes, must say I surprised myself, but seems Zeds or men….it's becoming all the same."

He moved closer to her, his face just inches away from her. "It ain't! Is that clear to you?"

She flinched in surprise at his sudden proximity, arched back and promptly nodded.

He drew back, took one last drag on the cigarette and flicked it away. "You can't go back to work with Carol and Beth. You'll come with me tomorrow."

"Sure. Some more pricking at the fence?"

"No, we go out."

She jumped off the table. "Seriously?"

"Mh-mmm."

"Don't know what to say…thank you?"

"I'm doing it only 'cause there's no other option, so save it. There'll be enough shit to deal with when Merle comes back. I'll try to reason with him. If it can't be done, we'll have to leave."

She tilted her head to the side. "Did you say we?"

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