Hershel listened in mounting disbelief as Daryl told him what had happened during Carol's way back to the bus stop. This was not the Daryl he knew. The Daryl he knew would rather have died himself than leave his agent, the woman he was responsible for, alone in this situation. He tried to convince himself while listening that Daryl would have reacted differently if he had physically been with Carol - he knew him as utterly fearless in situations that threatened his own safety and life.

By the time Daryl was finished, he was hunched forward in his chair so his head almost rested on his folded hands. Hershel cleared his throat, giving Daryl a moment to recover from recounting this ordeal, but also to buy himself some more time before he had to say something to this man who was his friend - and whom he couldn't understand at all right then.

Very slowly, controlling his emotions as tightly as he could to avoid upsetting Daryl even more, he asked: „She was okay when she left you?"

„She was when she boarded the bus", Daryl mumbled, straightening. He raised his hand to his mouth and started gnawing on the skin of his thumb. Still unable to look at Hershel, he added: „She closed the link down right after that. I don't even know where she went from there."

Hershel nodded, deep in thought.

„You know that she won't trust you again after this, right?" he asked gently after a few more moments. Daryl nodded miserably. „You also know that trust is the foundation of your work together. Without it …" He all but saw Daryl breaking. „I'm sorry, son. I understand why that was too much for you, I do. But this is … unconscionable. I could never ask her to continue after this." Daryl nodded, a choked noise escaping him.

„Course I know that. I know I betrayed her. She was so afraid of him, so afraid he'd recognize her, yet she stood her ground and faced him", he whispered, his voice barely audible even though there were few other patrons who had braved the weather to come here tonight. „She was so angry", he added, sounding heartbroken. „I need to know where she lives so I can apologize. Please?"

Hershel shook his head. „You know that I can't do that, Daryl. What I will do for you is contact her myself and let her know that you're sorry. Will that be okay?" From the way Daryl's shoulders slumped, he knew that it could not be enough for him, but Daryl had to know that he would never allow them to meet in person, even after breaking them up. The danger to both of them was far too great. He would not risk their lives so Daryl could feel better.

There was no way to soften the next blow he would have to deal him, so he just came right out and said it. „I will ask an old friend to take over for us. This mission is too important to risk or delay over your behavior." Daryl gave him a stricken look but he went on as if he hadn't noticed. He knew what pain he was inflicting, but Daryl had brought this on himself - and he wasn't the only one who would be affected by it. „I will need everything that you've got that isn't on the TE drive yet so we won't do things twice. Can you have your report finished by tomorrow night?"

As Daryl knew that there was no way he would be sleeping tonight anyway, he nodded mutely. Signalling the waiter, he paid for his beer, then got up slowly, moving like an old man. „You'll tell her I'm sorry?" he whispered.

Hershel nodded. „I will. I'm sure she'll be safe. Try to get some rest, fall back into your routines." And, very softly, knowing that Daryl would hate himself and not treat himself gently: „Take your pain medication, try to eat, get some sleep, look after yourself and your health. Don't punish yourself. I'll contact you in a few days."

„Thanks", Daryl whispered, and left.

.-.

„So, you see my problem", Hershel finished, carefully setting down his empty cup. „They're one of my best teams, maybe the best ever, but she will never be able to trust him again after this. We need a team to take over immediately, so I thought of you. Is the team you mentioned free right now?"

Tyreese tilted his head, nursing his glass of water. „Yes, they are. We just finished a project a few days ago, so they've had some rest, too. But -„ His dark eyes drilled into Hershel's as he studied his friend's face. „Are you sure you want to do this? If they're that good, maybe she knows why he did it?" Then, eyes widening: „Do you know why he did it?"

Hershel gave a soft, despairing laugh. „I'd bet you anything that she doesn't. He's locked up more tightly than a safe, he never lets anything out. He'd keep the time o' day a secret if it wasn't obvious." As a matter of fact, he had entertained the idea of Carol already knowing about Daryl, but dared not hope it might be true. Shaking his head, he continued, his voice tinged with deep regret. „I do know, but I can't tell her. It would give away too much about him - and it's too personal as well. It would make him identifiable and ashamed all in one go."

Ty nodded in understanding. „But you'll give it a few days, won*t you? I mean, there's no rush now, is there? She's safe, he's safe, they'll need a break anyway - there's no need to traumatize them even further right now. You've severed enough links - you know how it is." Hershel gave a morose nod. The number of links he'd severed for Carol was beyond counting, and she had suffered greatly every single time. He hated having to do it again, after such a perfect meld. She was going to resent him for this, but of course, leaving that link alive even though it was never going to be used again didn't make any sense and tied up two excellent operatives.

Or one, anyway.

He still wasn't certain that he wouldn't have to retire Daryl over this.

„I'll think about it", he sighed, not wanting to alienate Tyreese. „Let me know when I can transmit the material - I don't want to do it over an open line. He finished his report last night and uploaded it first thing this morning, so it's up to date already." He signalled the waitress for another synthcaf and the two men sat in slience for a few minutes until she arrived with the cup and took the empty one away.

After taking a first sip and finding it still too hot, Hershel decided to follow his heart on another matter. „Ty, there is no easy way to ask this …", he began. Tyreese's eyebrows rose, all but prompting him to go on, so he did. „You know that I used to work with Rick Grimes before you took him on", he said hesitantly. „The thing is … Rick used to be Daryl's guide, and he did something very similar to what Daryl did with Carol yesterday, which is why they were broken up and Rick came to you …"

Ty inhaled sharply. „That's not in his file", he growled, his deep voice betraying his anger. „Do I need any details?"

Hershel hastily shook his head, feeling that he was in way over his head with all of this at the moment. People were getting hurt and aggravated right and left just now, and he felt sorry for everyone involved. „No, you don't", he sighed. „But you know that the Rhee kid is my daughter Maggie's boyfriend - and I do not want anything to happen to him. Can you keep an eye on him for me?"

Folding his paper napkin with exaggerated care, his hands looking startlingly black against the coarse white tissue paper, Tyreese leaned back with a pained expression on his face. „You want me to monitor them while they're out?" he asked. „Would that have helped back then? Would it have helped yesterday?"

Hershel folded his hands around his synthcaf mug, remembering Daryl's shaking hands holding his beer glass the night before. What he wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and prevent so much hurt and anguish from happening, he thought. „No, it wouldn't", he had to admit. „But I will say that, if what happened to Daryl had not happend, then what happened to Carol yesterday wouldn't have happened either. It was a chain reaction, really, even if the two events were years apart."

Faded blue eyes met dark brown ones, both unblinking.

„Please watch out for him."

Ty nodded. „Of course I will. I'll link with you when everything's set up. Two days from now, at the latest?"

„At the latest", Hershel agreed. „We're only on day five, but of course we don't want to lose too much time with this whole mess."

With a thoughtful look into Hershel'eyes, Tyresse said softly: „You do realize that you defended him just now, don't you?" Hershel nodded wordlessly. „If you, as his supervisor, believe that he is worth defending … after what he did … You should really think again about severing their link - and even longer about throwing him out."

.-.

Listening to his wife, Lori, puttering in the kitchen as she started preparing dinner, Rick Grimes frowned at his computer. It was displaying a report on the mission that he and his agent were going to take over from the team originally assigned to it. While he hadn't been given any reasons, it seemed that they were unable to continue on this any longer, so their supervisor had asked his supervisor if he had a free team for it. So here he was, just a handful of days after the end of his latest mission, getting briefed on the next one.

Overexposure didn't seem to be a high risk in this one, but the agent had run into a Feina on their last day on the job. He made a mental note to give Glenn, his own partner, a special heads up and warn him of how closely to the New Atlanta base he was going to be working. In fact, he might have to enter the admin building to sign the pretend contract for - what was it again? Computers? - with the Feina if they agreed to it. In his experience - and this agent's run in proved it - humans of the predominant ethnicity in any one area didn't catch the Feina's atttention too much and usually did not get recognized during a second accidental encounter - but Glenn Rhee was of Asian descent, so he just might stand out.

„Lori, when's dinner?" he called out to his wife, rising from his seat at the dinner table and closing his laptop. Stepping out into the hallway, he made his way to their son's bedroom to catch a peek at Carl playing with a pirate ship, completely lost in his own world. The pirates seemed to be boarding another vessel just now, and sailors were dropping off it left and right. Rick smiled to himself and turned back to enter the kitchen next to the living room just as Lori turned to face the door.

She was, he thought, stunningly beautiful with her even face, her serene eyes and her long, shiny hair. For the past few months she had been even more radiant than usual - her belly was big with their second child. Stepping into the room, he gently took her in his arms, enjoying the feeling of her snuggling up against him. He loved these quiet little moments between them. With Carl growing older, they had been getting more of them, but once the baby arrived, they would be much rarer again, so he wanted to make every single one count.

A tiny voice in the back of his mind started nagging away at him to finally call it quits with TE. He was running a huge risk there and not only endangering himself, but two - soon to be three - innocent lives that were not his to risk. He still had nightmares dating back to that incident with one of his agents around the time Carl was born. They had been on a mission and had run into a Feina. One of Rick's decisions had left the agent with no other choice but to take him on, even though he was obviously the weaker one physically, and Rick had been able to see only one outcome to it. And there was no way he was getting caught in the backlash - not with a newborn at home.

So he'd bailed.

He had left his agent behind.

He had opened a link to their supervisor at the time, yelling at him to call an ambulance for his agent in hopes that he might still make it out, and just abandoned him, shut down his link with him for good, never looking back, never even trying to find him again.

Their supervisor at the time had severed the link quietly, not giving him any heat about it but not telling him if his agent had made it out either - or if he'd been injured … or if he'd been killed. One week later he had been transferred to a new supervisor, the one he was still with now. Nobody, neither the old supervisor nor the new one, had ever said one word about that incident three years back, but it still haunted him. He wanted to avoid a repeat, but now the same situation was building around him.

Taking a deep breath, caressing Lori's aching back with both hands and relishing the sensation of the baby in her belly moving against his stomach, he resolved to make this one his last mission and then resign.

.-.

Ed was puzzled.

He had hung out here all day, randomly walking the streets, peering into pubs and restaurants around noon and toward evening, occasionally ambling by the three bus stops in the area, but hadn't seen her all day. Maybe whatever she had been up to here that only involved walking up and down the streets and having something to eat and drink at noon was finished now? Had he been incredibly lucky, spying her on the last two occasions she had come here, only to lose her trail now?

The day before he had been so proud of himself for stalking the bus routes - and he had seen her leave, too. He knew where that bus line went by now - but unfortunately is was the next large hub where she could change to anything, and in any direction.

He needed to run into her just one last time - then he'd be able to follow her home.

And after that, it would be showtime.