Hope released a shaky breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. She looked into Rick's eyes. "I had to do it. He was gonna shoot you," She blinked back tears. "I had to."

"I know," Rick said. He approached her slowly; his hands out. "I know and I'm thankful. You can put the gun down now, they're dead."

Hope couldn't move it was like she was frozen.

"Hope," Rick was in front of her now, looking into her eyes. "Let me have the gun." Slowly Rick grabbed the barrel of the gun and pulled it from her shaking hands. He clicked on the safety and stuffed it in the back of his pants. "Look at me, Hope." He cupped her face. "You did good. You protected me, you protected the group, you did the right thing."

A tear fell from Hope's eye and Rick wiped it away tenderly. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. It was an oddly intimate gesture coming from a man she'd spoken only a few words with. He came behind the counter and guided her into a seat. He poured her a drink. "Here drink this; it'll calm your nerves."

Hope nodded mutely and sipped from the glass; barely tasting its contents.

"Holy shit," Glenn said as he approached Tony's body.

"You all right," Rick asked him.

"Yeah."

"Hershel?"

Hershel nodded. "Let's head back."

Rick grabbed Tony's shotgun and took some shells from his pocket. Glenn grabbed Dave's gun.

Rick knelt in front of Hope. "We have to go now, okay?"

Hope nodded. Rick put his arm around her and guided her towards the front door. Bright headlights passed in front of the bar.

"Car," Rick whispered. "Get down." He knelt in front of the door. Hope knelt with him.

"Dave?! Tony?!" A man yelled.

"They said over here?" Another man asked.

"Yeah," the first man answered.

"I'm telling you man I heard shots," a third man said.

"I saw roamers two streets over, might be more around here," the second man added. "It's hot we gotta get out of here."

"Dave! Tony!"

"Stay close we'll find them."

The men walked away.

Rick took Hope's gun out of his pants. He turned to her. "Here," he whispered. "Take it."

Hope looked down at the gun.

"Hope, take it. I need you to focus now. Take it."

Hope nodded and took the gun, she clicked the safety off.

After a few minutes, Rick stood up slowly and peeked out of the window. He crouched again and crawled to Glenn and Hershel. Hope scooted closer to them.

"Why won't they leave?" Glenn hissed.

"Would you?" Hershel retorted.

"We can't sit here any longer. Let's head out the back and make a run to the car." Rick whispered.

Glenn, Hope and Hershel nodded in agreement. They stood up but quickly crouched again when they heard shots being fired.

"What happened?"

"Roamers, I got them."

"They disappeared but their car's still here."

"I cleared out those buildings. You guys get this one?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"We're looking for Dave and Tony and nobody checks the damn bar?"

The men approached the front door. Someone pushed it open but Glenn closed it before they could open it.

"What happened?"

"Someone pushed the door closed."

"Yo, is someone in there! Yo, if someone's in there we don't want no trouble! We're just looking for our friends."

"What do we do? Bum rush the door?"

"We don't know how many are there just relax."

"We don't want any trouble! We're just looking for our friends! If something happened, tell us! This place is crawling with corpses! If you could help us not get killed I'd really appreciate it!"

"You're bugging I'm telling you there's nobody in there."

"Someone guard the door, if they're in there they might know where Dave and Tony are."

"They drew on us!" Rick yelled.

Hope held her breath.

"Are Dave and Tony in there? Are they alive?"

"No!" Rick answered.

"They killed Dave and Tony."

"Come on man, let's just go."

"No I'm not leaving. I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and say that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar."

"You're friends drew on us!" Rick yelled to them. "They gave us no choice! I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wished we didn't have to but it's like that now! You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was, wrong place, wrong-"

The front door window shattered as the bullet hit it. Hope ducked her head. Rick stood and fired through the broken window. "Get out of here! Go!"

Hope ran towards the back door with Hershel and Glenn. Glenn ducked behind the piano while Hershel hid behind a wall. Hope jumped behind the counter. She yelped in pain.

"Hope!" Rick yelled.

"I'm all right," she called back. "They clipped my side." She clutched at her right side with her left arm. Blood began to soak through her shirt.

"Hey! We all know this isn't gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us! You guys just back off, no one else gets hurt!" Rick reloaded his gun. Rick looked over at Glenn and jerked his head towards the back door. Glenn groaned quietly but nodded. Glenn ran to check the exit. Hope watched him disappear into the back. She crawled out from around the bar. Hope sat silently, waiting for a signal from Glenn. She placed a hand over her heart willing it to slow down before it beat out of chest. She wiped sweat from her brow. A gunshot went off.

"Glenn!" Rick and Hope yelled.

"I'm all right! I'm all right!" He yelled back.

Rick ran to the wall where Hershel was, Hope crab-walked over to them.

"You cover Glenn," Rick told Hershel. "Hope and I will hold them off. Try to make it to your car, tell him to bring it around back so we can get the hell out of here."

"You want me to cover Glenn?" Hershel asked incredulously.

"You missed gun training would've come in handy right about now."

"I can shoot," Hershel said. "I just don't like to." He went after Glenn leaving Hope and Rick in the bar.

Rick smiled wryly. "You picked a great time to help out."

Hope leaned her head against the wall. "Rick, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm never going into town with you again."

Rick grinned. "If we make it out of here alive, I'll hold you to it."

Shots were fired once more. Hope and Rick ran to the back. Hershel was standing at the door.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"He fired. He must've hit Glenn. He's behind the dumpster, doesn't look like he's moving." Hershel answered.

Hope's heart dropped. "Glenn," she whispered sharply.

Cautiously Rick moved along the outside wall towards Glenn. "You hit? Are you hit?"

"No, no." Glenn answered after a few minutes.

Hope sighed in relief.

Tires squealed as one of the men pulled up to the building across the street. "Come on man, we gotta go!"

"What about Sean?"

"They shot him, come on man, they're roamers all over the place we gotta go! Jump!"

Hope heard a thud and then a piercing scream.

"Help me! Help me!"

"I've gotta go! I'm sorry!"

"No, don't leave! Help me! No!"

Hope looked back to see one of the men being ripped into by walkers. She grabbed Hershel's arm and pulled him.

"The gunfire must've attracted the walkers. We have to go now." Hershel said. "Where's Rick?"

"He ran across." Glenn told him.

"Well hell, we can't go without him."

Hope ran across the street and saw Rick with the man who fell off the roof. His leg was impaled by the wrought iron fence.

"We've got to go, Rick. I'm sorry son." Hershel said to the man.

"Don't leave me please!"

Hershel gave the keys to Hope. "Get the engine started."

Hope ran back across the street to the truck. She got in the driver's seat and started the car. Looking around anxiously she waited for the others. What was the hold up? Spotting walkers in the distance, she put the car into gear and drove up next to them. "Come on, get in!"

Glenn and Rick started to fire at the walkers. "I'm almost out of ammo! We gotta go!"

"Leave him!" Hope yelled. "Come on! Get in! Rick!"

Rick grabbed the man's leg and pulled it up. Hope flinched as them man's leg was torn through again.

"Hershel help me!"

Rick and Hershel put them man in the back seat. Hershel sat with him; his legs on Hershel's lap. Glenn sat in the middle seat and Rick hopped in the front. Hope stepped on the brake and drove them out of town.

A few miles out, Rick turned to her. "I didn't know you could drive."

Hope glanced at him, "Neither did I."

Hope never thought she'd be so happy to see the farm. Hell, at one point she wasn't sure if she would see the farm again. As soon as she stopped the truck, the others hopped out. Lori and Carl ran to Rick and Maggie ran to Glenn.

Hershel told Patricia to prep the shed for surgery.

Hope got out of the car. She spotted Daryl. He glared at her a moment before looking away.

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog asked, pointing to the man in the car.

"That's Randall," Glenn answered dryly.

"I couldn't have just left him there. He would have bled to death, if he lived that long."

"What do we do with him now?"

Hershel walked in wiping his hands. "I've repaired the calf muscle but he's going to have some nerve damage. He won't be in his feet for at least a week."

"When he's on his feet we'll give a canteen, send him on his way." Rick answered.

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea argued.

"It gives him a fighting chance, that's more than he had a few hours ago." Hope told her. Rick gave her a nod of thanks, Hope smiled back.

"You're just gonna let him go?" Shane asked. "He knows where we are."

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat."

"How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one hostage and they just ain't gonna come here looking for him?"

"They left him for dead, no one is looking."

"We should still post a guard," T-Dog advised.

"He's out cold for now, will be for hours." Hershel said.

"You know what, I'm gonna get him some flowers and candy," Shane announced.

Hope rolled her eyes.

"Look at this folks, we're back in fantasy land." Shane said as he walked away.

"You know we haven't even dealt with what you did in my barn yet. Let me make this perfectly clear once and for all, this is my farm. Now I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor—keep your mouth shut."

Shane nodded and walked away.

Hope snorted.

Everyone looked at her. "What? You can't say he didn't have that coming."

Rick patted Hershel on the back. "Look we're not gonna do anything about it today. Let's just cool off."

"Let me patch up your side before it gets infected," Hershel told Hope.

She groaned, "All right."

"You shouldn't have gone with them."

Hope turned around and looked at Daryl. "You're talking to me now?"

Daryl clenched his jaw. "I'm just saying, you shouldn't have gone it was dangerous."

"Yeah, I know."

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that this group is hanging by a thread and the one person I trusted the most wouldn't even look at me anymore." Hope breathed out. "Does this mean we're talking again?"

Daryl looked down. "I've got to go."

Hope shook her head and walked towards the RV. As usual Dale was keeping watch.

He smiled as he watched her approach. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, Dale. I've got to admit for a second there I was worried we wouldn't make it out of there." Hope said as she climbed up to the roof.

"I still don't know what possessed you to go out there in the first place. Rick and Glenn could have handled it just fine. It's not like you have to prove anything to anyone."

"I know," Hope looked down. "I guess I had to prove to myself that I could. When Shane opened that barn, I just stood back and watched. I didn't do anything. I'm always watching, never doing. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something, anything. So I did."

Dale nodded. "I can understand that, I suppose. If you plan on doing that again, give an old man some warning at least. I was worried sick. Between you and Andrea, I'm gonna get gray hair."

Hope chuckled. "Don't worry; I think I've had enough excitement for quite a while."

"I would hope so; the last thing we need around here is an adrenaline junky."

They both laughed quietly.

Dale sobered. "So tell me honestly, how bad was it? What happened out there?"

Hope wet her suddenly dry lips. "It was bad, Dale, really, bad."

"How so?"

"There were these two guys, they walked into the bar. At first it wasn't so bad, they were drinking with Rick and Glenn. Then one of them started asking questions, about where we were from, what supplies we had. They asked to take them with us. Rick said no," Hope paused, taking a deep breath. "Things escalated from there. It happened so fast, one of them drew on Rick and Rick shot him."

"And the other?"

"I-I killed him Dale. I killed him before he could kill Rick."

Dale breathed out. It was a while before he said anything. "It was self defense, Hope. Those men were dangerous. I'm not saying you should take killing someone lightly but your actions can be justified. Feeling guilty is natural but-"

"That's just it Dale," Hope cut him off. "I don't feel guilty. I don't feel anything. I killed a man. A living, breathing person but I don't feel a thing."

Dale sighed. "You're a good person, Hope. Anyone with two eyes can see that and the fact that you feel guilty about your lack of guilt tells me that nothing has changed."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Now, you should get some rest. You look terrible."

"Dale Horvath you're a charmer."