A/N Sorry for the long delay in updating this story. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter for some reason and I'm still not happy with it. It was meant to be the last chapter but I decide to split it into two. Hopefully the next one will be up a lot quicker than this.

Thank you to everyone for the follows, favs and reviews, it's really is appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 6

Ethan smiled at the woman as she gazed adoringly at him. He thought her name was Anna or Amy or something similar, he didn't really care. She wasn't the youngest or prettiest of the women of Alexandria but he didn't mind that. They were usually the one's he found the most grateful when a man like him paid attention to them, the one's that were the most obliging. If he'd had a choice it would have been Maggie, up here on the watch platform with him, she was so much more his type, beautiful, fiesty and sexy as hell but sadly so much in love with Glenn and now expecting the man's child. Even he drew the line at trying to steal a man's pregnant wife away from him.

He'd tried flirting with Michonne once, only once. She'd eyed him up and down, her expression unreadable until a small smile curled her lips and he thought he'd been in with a chance. Then she'd reached behind her and slowly pulled out that damn big sword of hers. Before he could blink the tip of it had been pressed against his most prized possession.

"You talk to me again, Damn, you even look at me again, and you're going to lose something close to you" Her voice was low, almost casual as she pressed the blade even closer, causing his eyes to tear up as he tried to back away. He was suddenly aware of Rick and that damn hillbilly whose name he'd never bothered to remember watching, amusement written all over their faces. He'd fled, burning with humiliation and never attempted to speak to anyone from that group again.

Now as Anna/Amy/whatever moved closer, allowing him to slid his hand up her shirt, he tried to picture what it would be like if she were someone else. He thought of all the women in the town, torn between imagining it was pretty blonde Jessie or dark, plays-hard-to-get Jasmine writhing in his arms. He had just decided on Jessie when the sharp blade of a knife was pressed into his throat.

"Not a sound, unless you want to bleed all over the nice lady here" The rough voice drawled in his ear as the knife was pushed closer. The woman was dragged from his grip, a grimy hand clamped over her mouth, an arm wrapped around her stomach. As he watched Ethan saw two more men climb over the wall, both armed with machetes and knives.

"Got to say you are probably the worse look out ever" the man's voice was amused "So easily distracted by a piece of tail we could have got a whole army over the wall and you wouldn't have noticed"

"Now we're all going to climb down from the platform and you're going to take us to whoever your Medic is"

Ethan was shoved towards the ladder, blade still against his throat as he stumbled forward. One of the invaders went first, the woman forced to go next.

"You come quiet unless you want us to hurt him" With a frightened nod she climbed down. Ethan followed and the two of them were dragged between two houses, out of sight of the street and any passersby.

"where's your Doctor, we need them?" the man demanded.

"We're not taking you anywhere" The woman's voice shook as she stared defiantly at the group of men surrounding them.

Ethan glared at her, willing her to keep quiet.

"Let's not be too hasty here" he stammered "If we take you where you want you swear you won't kill us?" He ignored the disgusted look from Anna as he faced the man who had held the knife on him.

"Looks like the woman's got bigger balls than this guy" another quipped, earning a laugh from the group.

"You're pathetic!" Anna spat as she suddenly lunged forward, twisting herself free from her captures grip and attempting to run to the street. She opened her mouth to scream a warning but a tackle to her legs bought her down. At once her head was forced back and the blade of a knife dragged across her exposed throat. Ethan watched wide eyed as she slumped forward, making a strange, gasping, gurgling sound as she bleed out on the pavement.

"Now that's a damn shame, I liked her" The man turned to a terrified Ethan.

"Now, about this medic of yours"

Jasmine was curled up in bed, the paperback drooping in her hand as she felt sleep slide over her. Her mind drifted back to her conversation with Daryl and she hoped his admissions had helped him find some kind of peace with his past. Sleep was seconds away when she heard the urgent pounding on her door.

"Damn it" she muttered, cursing the fact that she was the only one in the town with any medical knowledge so therefore always on call.

She scrambled from the bed, pulling on jeans and buttoning a top over her sleep shirt as she hurried downstairs. Still barefoot she threw open the door to see a visibly shaken Ethan framed in the doorway.

"Ethan!, What's wrong?" she asked, concern overtaking her dislike of the man.

"Jasmine, I'm sorry" he choked "I had no choice. They killed her"

"Sorry for what, who killed…?" before she could finish Jasmine found herself being shoved back into her house and five rough looking men surrounding her and Ethan.

"Get your stuff together please Doctor, you're coming with us" One of the men stepped forward, his tone civil as he made his request.

"I'm not going anywhere" Jasmine straightened her back, trying not to show her fear. The W's carved on the men's foreheads clearly identified them as the group that had attacked them previously.

"What do you want from us?" she asked

"Eventually we want you people gone from here but for now we just want you to come with us" The man waved his machete towards her.

"I'm not asking again"

She shook her head

"Clearly you need me for something, you won't kill me" she crossed her arms over her chest,

"I'm going nowhere" she announced defiantly.

The man gave her a chilling smile.

"You're right, I can't kill you, but I don't need you conscious just yet" His fist lashed out and Ethan cringed when the impact with her jaw hurled Jasmine back. She landed half on the couch, half on the floor, her eyes closed, blood oozing from the cut to her bottom lip, a bruise already forming on her jaw.

"Do any of the women in this town co-operate?" the man turned to Ethan with a cold smirk.

"What are we going to do about you I wonder" he commented as he moved closer.

It was Marcie, trying to slip back into the house after a night with Eugene, that found the bound and gagged Ethan and raised the alarm. At once a town meeting was announced to plan the next move.

"Aint no decision to make, we go get her back" Daryl was already checking his weapons, preparing to leave immediately.

"That goes without saying" Rick assured him "We just have to be careful. The fact they left Ethan alive so he could tell us who took her means it's probably a trap. We need to have a plan. We can't just go charging out there, leaving the town undefended"

"I'll go alone then. Track 'em, go in and get her, bring her home" Daryl headed for the door but Michonne's hand on his arm stopped him.

"You can't go by yourself, they'll be expecting us to go after her, they'll be watching. You'll end up getting yourself killed, how will that help anyone?"

He was about to protest when Tobin hurried in, his face twisted in grief as he glared at Ethan

"We've just found Anna's body. He was telling the truth, she's been murdered" he exclaimed.

Rick squatted beside Anna's now covered body, his eyes scanning the area, Finally he rose, making his way to stand in front of Ethan.

"You want to explain exactly what happened here last night, how they got over the wall and killed Anna, then took Jasmine without you seeing a damn thing?" The Constables calm voice fooled no one, his simmering anger just barely under control.

"Lousy son of a bitch!" Daryl glanced at the body on the ground before lunging towards Ethan, fists clenched.

"Asshole was too busy makin' out with her to be payin' attention. That's how they got in"

Rick put a hand out to stop Daryl laying into the now cowering man.

"That true?" he asked softly.

Ethan backed away, eyes darting nervously from person to person in the suddenly hostile crowd.

"She came on to me, it wasn't my fault" he stammered "She was all over me and then they were suddenly on the platform. They held a knife to my throat" he stammered

"So how is it she's the one that's dead?" Tobin asked.

"They wanted us to take them to our medic. She tried to run and they killed her. It was her own fault" Ethan regretted the words the second they left his mouth. He saw Rick step to the side, saw Daryl raise his fist and closed his eyes, waiting for the blow. It didn't come. When he risked a peek he saw that Coop had caught hold of the hunter and pulled him back.

"Thank y…." he started, no time to finish before the huge, bearded man's fist smashed into his face.

"You sold her out to save yourself, you worthless piece of shit" Coop punched him again, this time in the gut.

"Knew we should have left you on the road, instead of risking ourselves to save you" he snarled as he hurled Ethan to his feet.

"She get's hurt or we don't get her back you better be ready to run 'cos there won't be any place you can hide where I won't find you" he promised as he shoved him to the ground again.

Ethan clutched his bleeding face,

"You broke my nose" he whimpered, as Rick and the others turned away, leaving him huddled on the floor.

Michonne stopped and faced him.

"You should get that looked at" she commented "Oh wait, you can't, you let our only Doctor get taken, didn't you?"

With that she spun on her heel and strode off.

Jasmine cautiously opened her eyes, hoping the room wasn't spinning as much as it felt in her pounding head. She lay still for a moment, breathing deeply until the dizziness passed. Her jaw ached and when she ran her her tongue over her parched lips she felt the crustiness of dried blood.

"Finally, you decided to join us again" the voice was close and Jasmine carefully turned her head to see the man who had hit her standing nearby.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up" He moved closer and knelt at her side, leaning forward and tucking one hand under her head, the other moving to grip her wrist.

"Here, let me help you sit" She allowed him to help her, then accepted the cup of tepid water he held out.

"I'm truly sorry for hitting you so hard but it was the only way to get you to co-operate" he apologised as she tried to take in her surroundings.

She was sitting on a cold concrete floor in what looked to be a large warehouse of some kind. Several windows were broken and water dripped from the floor above, running down the walls and forming large puddles on the floor. She could see at least 15 other people milling around, some cleaning knives and other weapons, some just chatting quietly. Several were openly staring at her, the looks ranging from curiosity to downright hostility. One man was eying her in a way that made her feel very uneasy and she instinctively bought her knees up to her chest and hugged her legs against her, trying to make herself as small as possible.

She was aware the man was speaking again, still in the same friendly, well spoken manner but she still couldn't help the shiver of terror at her situation.

The man gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"You don't need to be afraid" he told her "We need your help. You co-operate and everything will be fine, no one will hurt you" It was the unspoken words that sent the shiver down her spine, the unmade threat of what would happen if she didn't do what they wanted.

"What do you want from me?" Jasmine was pleased to hear she'd managed to hide the fear in her voice but still couldn't hold back the flinch as the man rose and reached down, gripping her arms and pulling her to her feet.

"I'm Daniel, by the way" he told her as if the situation were no more than two strangers meeting in a bar "What's your name?"

"Jasmine" she saw no point in lying as he began to guide her towards a door in the corner.

"Pretty name" he commented, his grip firm but gentle as he escorted her down a darkened corridor, finally stopping in front of a closed door. Several people were gathered outside, hopeful expressions on their faces when they saw her.

"Our leader, Joshua, is a wonderful man. He bought us all together and showed us the way forward" Daniel touched the W carved onto his forehead almost reverently.

"It was him who told us about the slaughter of the wild wolves when the first settlers came to these lands and told us it was time to right that wrong. He showed us it is our duty to rid the planet from the scourge that is the human race, that we are the chosen few to restore things to the natural balance" Daniel spoke with the fervour of a true zealot and she realized just how much trouble she was in.

"It was Joshua who explained to us that you people should not be in Alexandria and that it was our job to remove you" Daniel gave her a sideways glance.

"Now he is hurt and we find that we do need you after all. At least until you make him well again"

Jasmine shook her head,

"Give me one good reason why I should help him, especially if you plan to kill me afterwards anyway" She asked as she yanked her arm free from his grip.

Daniel stared at her in disbelief.

"You're a Doctor, it's your duty to help those who need it, you took an oath" His face darkened

"When you save him we will allow you to become part of our group. If you refuse to help him you will live long enough to watch those you care about die. We will take that town and each and every person will die in front of you. Your co-operation will make things so much easier for them"

A woman opened the door to the leaders room and Daniel shoved her through. The room was lit by several candles and Jasmine could see the still figure on the bed. Even in the dim light she could see he was in a bad way. His chest rose and fell in short, gasping breaths, his breathing laboured. A film of sweat coated his skin and as she moved closer she saw the grey sheen to his flesh, the only colour the blood from a gaping wound to his temple and the various cuts and bruises scattered over his face.

"What happened?" she asked, reaching for the medical supplies laid out on a small table at the bedside.

"We were after a woman and her children, planning to remove them from this earth. They went into a building and we followed them to the second floor. Joshua was about to free her and her offspring from their miserable existence when he was attacked. It seems that a Father's bond to his children is strong enough that he is prepared die for them. He and Joshua fell through a window, landing on the street below, the father died but Joshua survived" Daniel gave her a chilling smile.

"The mother and children didn't last much longer" He smile widened at her look of horror

"Don't worry, they are at peace now, all together forevermore" The smile faded "and now you have to save Joshua"

Reluctantly Jasmine moved to the injured man's side and folded the bedcovers back. He was bare chested and she could see the dark bruises that littered his torso. His stomach was swollen and distended, a sure sign of internal bleeding. His harsh breathing told her that one or both of his lungs were probably punctured. Checking the pulse at his wrist she found it to be almost non-existent. His eyes were unresponsive to light and there was severe swelling around the gash on his temple. Further examination revealed several more broken bones and a second area of swelling to the back of his skull. Jasmine's heart sank as she realised it was a hopeless situation.

"I'm sorry" she started "He's too badly hurt, he's unresponsive to any external stimulus, has two severe head injuries as well as multiple broken bones, at least one punctured lung and probable internal damage. There's nothing I can do, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before he….."

The blow caught her by surprise, knocking her back against the table, scattering the medical tools laid out there.

"You're a doctor" Daniel snarled "You will save him"

"With those type of injuries it would have been hard to save him in the old days, now it's all but impossible" Jasmine tried to explain, flinching back as Daniel raised his hand again.

"I'm not even a real medic" she blurted out "I was a psychologist, I only have limited medical training and experience" The change of expression on Daniel's face told her she'd made a fatal mistake with that admission.

"Then what use are you to us?" he asked coldly, moving closer and raising his fist.