Disclaimer: I own NOTHING...nothing I tell you!
Thank you so much for the reviews, means a lot to get some feedback. And I promise, before the end everything that needs to be will have been "seen".
Italics = flashbacks.
Am currently laid up with a nasty case of tonsillitis and dealing with my 2-year-old daughter at the same time has probably left me lacking in my proof-reading. Apologies for any silly mistakes!
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Chapter Three
Four figures practically flew up the stairs. The doors behind them leading to the basement they had just exited pulsed like a heartbeat as trapped walkers pushed on it. Daryl took the lead as he headed up flight of stairs that would take them to the entrance, or rather exit, of the building. This whole run had been a complete bust. They found very little that could be of use to the group, this place having been cleaned out long ago, and had only been successful in finding a fair amount of walkers on each floor and accidently releasing a substantial group of them that had been trapped in one of the basement rooms. Daryl surged ahead to the doors at the top of the stairwell, ready to get the hell out of there.
"Rick!" Glenn cried as he saw the dark-haired man take a step backwards to allow Maggie to run past him, and miss his footing on the top step. "RICK!"
Rick went stumbling backwards, losing his balance and tumbling down the steps. A loud crack resounded in the tight space as his head hit the concrete floor at the bottom. His still form came to a rest in front of the pulsing door as bloody, skinny fingers snaked their way through the gap that appeared each time the door swelled inwards towards him. There came another pulse from the door, this time much stronger, as if the tantalising smell of the meat on a prone man had pulled the un-dead forward. Fingers were followed quickly by arms and then heads. It would only be moments before the figures behind the door would begin to surge through towards the still man.
Before either Maggie or Glenn could react Daryl had all but thrown his crossbow at Glenn and vaulted over the gooseneck of the handrail, dropping himself the height of the flight of stairs and landing inches away from Rick. The force of the drop threw Daryl onto his side but in one quick motion he had dragged himself up, plucked the deputy sheriff from the ground and swung him over his shoulder into a fireman's carry. As soon as Daryl's foot hit the second step the door below them spilt open and hungry forms flooded the space that moments before Rick had been occupying.
As Daryl took long strides up the steps to rejoin them, Glenn and Maggie took shots at the furthest advanced walkers to give the men time between them and the un-dead. As soon as Daryl had blown by them they both turned and followed him out of the doors at the top of the flight. Rick had started to stir on Daryl's shoulder so the hunter lowered him to his feet and draped his friend's arm over his own shoulder, supporting both their weight.
"Ya' with me?" Daryl enquired, glancing sideways but still not stopping long enough to get a good look at the man.
"Yeah...uh...took a knock...just a bit dazed." Rick shook his head as he leaned heavily on Daryl. A bit of knock may have been an understatement.
Glenn snuck a look at Rick as he pushed open the heavy, metal doors that sealed the exit of the building. Rick looked pale and groggy, but seemed to be regaining his footing more with every step. Relief flooded Glenn as he pushed on, his only fleeting thought being how much worse it could have been. The group spilled out into the sunlight and carried on making their way around the building and towards their vehicles
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As he finished telling the story of what had happened, Rick let his head fall to rest in his upturned palms as he planted his elbows onto the table in front of him. Himself, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Hershel, Beth and Carol had made their way into the old prison library that they now used as a sort of town hall, with Tyreese and Sasha making their way quietly into the room mid-story having encountered a seething Carl and being told the news.
"So, he caused a diversion?" Beth's timid voice floated through the stagnant air from where she sat next to her father, gripping his hand in hers. "If he had gotten far enough away couldn't he have made it somewhere safe? I mean, did any of you see him...I mean, how do you know that he's dead?"
The use of last word sliced the last remnant of denial out of the minds of the group. It was the first time anyone had even spoken the word. No one had had to before, the looks on the faces from the three returning members making the use of it almost lacklustre. Rick didn't even look up as he answered.
"I know. He was surrounded. There was nowhere safe to run. He had no weapons, he had no back-up. The herd never left that truck, even after I lost sight of him. Something kept them there..."
A heavy silence enveloped the room, its presence choking everyone, no one sure who should be next to talk. Tension was building with every second that the room remained frozen, no one daring to look into another set of eyes. Finally, the oppressive spell was broken as Carol stood from her chair, her hands visibly shaking, and fixed her eyes on the top of Rick's head. Her voice shattered the silence as soon as she began to speak; Not with the volume, no she spoke as softly as usual, but with the low, rumbling tone of rage that threatened to spill over.
"YOU LET HIM DO THIS?" Her ice-blue eyes were aflame as they roamed over to Maggie and Glenn, who were stood in each others arms by the window, before she swung them back to Rick, meeting his as he brought his head up. "You let him do this?"
"I'm sorry." Rick's hands clasped together, one knuckle touching the tip of his nose, as if he was praying to the woman in front of him. His voice was weak as he spoke, "I tried to stop him but.."
"Well not hard enough it seems!" This time the volume was raised and the people inside the room visibly flinched. Carol didn't notice as she bent and surrounded Rick's still-clasped hands with her own. "You can't have tried, Rick. This is Daryl. Daryl. He trusts your every word. If you give an order he always follows it. All you needed to do is say the word 'no' and he wouldn't have done it."
Carol moved away and Rick's stubble-littered mouth opened momentarily as he searched for an answer but as soon as the truth of her words slammed into him he visibly sagged in front of the group. It was as if the figurative weight he had been accumulating since Atlanta had suddenly become too much for him and he crumpled before their eyes. His head hit the table and his fingers interlinked behind his neck as he rocked his weight back and forth ever-so-slighting in his chair. A sob wrenched itself from his very soul as he finally gave in to the tears that had threatened for the last few hours. The death and loss from the last two years finally came crashing about him as he wept openly, loudly and without abandon.
"Carol, stop. Please." Glenn spoke softly as he drew himself away from Maggie and towards the table. He reached down gently and placed a hand on Rick's heaving back as he stood directly in front of Carol, imploring her with his eyes to stop. "We were surrounded, there was no way we were making it out and he had made his mind up. I looked him in the eyes, Carol, I looked him straight in the eyes and he had made up his mind. You know Daryl better than anyone. He's the most stubborn asshole you could meet. When it comes to things that mattered the most to him you know as well as I do that no one, not even Rick, could have stopped this."
Carol held Glenn's gaze for thirty more seconds before her lip trembled slightly. The crystal blue irises started to cloud slightly as moisture built up in front of them. She stepped closer again to Rick and her hand hovered above the man's shoulder. It stayed there, swaying in the emotion-charged air as if she was going to lay it upon him in an act of comfort before she suddenly snapped it back into her chest, cradling it with her other hand, turning on the spot and heading out of the doorway.
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Beth consciously stepped lightly on the metal stairs as she made her way up to one of the remaining watch towers. She quietly opened the door and peered into the darkening room, the setting sun casting various shadows over the confined space.
At the opposite side of the room Carl stood with his back to her, both of his arms by his side. She watched with interest as he rhythmically flexed his fingers, straightening and stretching them so much that she could see a slight outwards bend, before balling his hands up into a such a tight fist that the force behind it shook his entire frame. He continued with this constant motion of flexing and balling, flexing and balling and didn't acknowledge the youngest Greene's presence.
Beth slowly crossed the room and stood shoulder to shoulder with Carl. She didn't bother to look to him or to take in his features. She didn't need to look at him to know she would see the blank stare of someone who had faced far too much loss at such a young age. She didn't need to look to be able to sense the anger that radiated from him. She wasn't here to look at him or to speak to him, she was just here for him. As the young man flexed his fingers once more she carefully slipped her own delicate fingers in between his. A moment passed and he closed his fist again, this time not with the same force but gently around Beth's fingers and held them there. He didn't flex his fingers again as they both stared silently across the prison yard and out to the silhouettes of walkers dancing on the chainlink fence.
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Glenn and Maggie sat on their cot, her head laid across his lap as he carefully combed her dark hair with his fingers. They had both sat in silence since they had returned from the library, neither one of them ready to talk through the events of the day but equally not ready to talk about anything else. The guilt of surviving the day was sitting heavily on both of their chests as they each replayed snippets of what had happened over and over again.
They had stayed in this position, not uttering a single word to each other, for almost two hours when Maggie felt Glenn suddenly tense beneath her. She waited for his words, as she knew he would be unable to contain whatever it was that had made him react. Those words, however, were just not what she was expecting at all.
"I want us to get married. I don't want to put it off anymore."
"Glenn.." Maggie sat up and pulled away from her lover, a look of confusion on her face. "Do you really think now is the time to talk about this?"
"Yes, I think now is exactly the time, don't you see?" He quickly closed the distance between them again. He gripped both of her hands with one of his own and brought his other to the side of her face, gently cupping her cheek. "We can't wait for something so important in this kind of world. We don't get to just stop and mourn like we used to. The world doesn't allow us time for that. There is nothing to say the biggest herd we've ever seen won't come tearing through the fences tonight or that the Governor won't return tomorrow and our time could be up.
"We could have died today. If it wasn't for Daryl we would have never made it out of that field. Every morning we wake up and we have to focus on surviving until the next dawn. We wake up every day and we know full well that it could be our last. I want to wake up every morning that I have and be your husband. I want to wake and know that if today is the day I am to die, then I die with you as my wife. I want us to live as husband and wife, Maggie."
Maggie listened to the young man and felt herself relaxing into his embrace on her face. She could see his eyes swimming with emotion and it made her heart soar. Of course Glenn would find some remnant of a positive in this, he always did. She scooted forward on the bed until she was almost in his lap, nodding at him. Glenn beamed, moving his other hand to the other side of her beautiful face and kissing her. He felt the strength that Maggie gave him, the want to live a good life with her even in a world like this, surge through him and for a second he forgot.
As Glenn broke off the kiss he leaned his forehead into Maggie's and rested it there. They both held the majority of their body weight on that one point as if the support here could encapsulate their entire meaning to each other. Both stayed quiet for a moment with their eyes closed, lost in their own thoughts. Memories sprinted through both of their memories as they clutched to one another.
"I just wish he could have been there."
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Hope you liked that one.
I only planned on doing one chapter of reaction back at the prison, but I started writing and suddenly I was having little ideas of Beth/Carl, Glenn, Maggie/Glenn and Hershel with just about anyone else so it all just got away from me a little bit! I've split it into two chapters as otherwise I think it would have just been too much in one. It does mean I have almost finished Chapter 4, and I already had Chapter 5 written mostly, so there may be a couple more updates in the next few days.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far.