Shane rubbed his head and exhaled sharply. He scowled at his boots and pressed his knuckles into his eyes. No one had bothered to come to his tent after the episode with the walkers earlier in the day. He figured some of the group understood. No- he knew they did - they were just too big of pussies to come pass along their congratulations for saving the day. Again.

When he heard footsteps outside his tent, Shane grinned. Lori. He sat up straighter.

"Hey," his sister's voice came. "You alone?"

Shane sighed in disappointment and sat back. "Yeah. Come in."

Liz entered the tent, careful to leave the flap open behind her in case she needed to get away in a hurry. "Hey." She knew everyone would think she was crazy for coming to talk to Shane. There wasn't a member of camp who hadn't warned her of his strange behavior, but something drove her to see for herself. He's my brother. At least he was.

"Well, look who came to visit her big brother. I ain't seen you around much. Where you been sleepin', anyway? With the redneck?" Shane sneered. "I've seen how he-"

"In camp with whoever." Liz cut him off. "Andrea, Carol, mostly. Sometimes T-Dog and Glenn. It's nice to get to know everyone. You could join camp, you know. It's a great community we've got going on. We sing songs by the campfire. Literally." She grinned, hoping the humor would cut through Shane's new militant attitude.

"Goin' from five star hotels every night to sleeping in tents with strangers," Shane mocked. "Welcome back to Georgia, Little Sis. "

"There's no place like home," Liz said with a smile. "I was really looking forward to seeing you, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah," Shane admitted. He cleared his throat and looked up. "So what you want?" He cocked his head and stared at her intensely. "You here to be on my side again? Use your persuasiveness to get the group back on my side?" Hope lit up on his face.

"I was never on anyone's side." Liz hesitated. "Wasn't your call, Shane. I think you made a bad choice." She shifted her weight from foot to foot and nervously fidgeted with the knife on her belt. Now we'll see what's happened to my brother.

"Wasn't my call? So, what, everything's Rick's call?" Shane snapped, standing and throwing his arms up. "I kept us alive. We were fine without Rick," Shane hissed."All of us. It was better."

"No," Liz said, shaking her head. "It wasn't better. He's like my second brother. Rick was at the house so much when we were kids- what happened? Don't you remember all those good times we all had together? Rick's a great guy. You know that."

"What happened?" Shane snarled. "Rick died. He was dead. He left a wife and child I had to take care of them. Where would they be without me, Liz?" Suddenly he was in her face, hovering over her menacingly. "They'd be dead," he whispered.

"Maybe," Liz admitted softly. "But it's not your burden anymore. You don't have to worry yourself over them. You can think of the good of the group," she fed him.

"Not my," Shane trailed off in disbelief. In an instant his face burned red and he flew off the handle as if someone had flipped a switch. "I'll tell you what's not my burden! Dealing with this old man's delusions! Waking up to find we're sleeping twenty yards from a barn of walkers! Running off after a dead kid and wasting everyone's time!"

"Lower your voice," Liz said calmly, hoping her trembling knees didn't betray her lack of confidence. "I just want to talk to you. We used to-"

"I don't care. That was a different world," Shane growled. His hand flew to his forehead. "I'm not going to let this happen. Lori, Carl, you. You're all helpless." He let the words sink in before continuing. Suddenly his voice was soft and his eyes pleaded with her. "You can't make it on your own, and Rick's got it all wrong." He reached out to touch Liz's face. "You're my baby sister. You ain't built for this kind of world. You sing songs and make people happy. How are you going to survive this world?" He stroked her cheek and grew quiet. "When did you get so pretty?" he whispered. "You were just a little kid," he trailed off as he continued to touch her face.

Liz felt goosebumps raise on the back of her neck. She backed away slowly. "Shane-"

"I've gotta keep you safe. What did I promise Mom and Dad? No one else here's going to look out for you like your own blood." Shane reached out again. "I've seen you in all the magazines. I've seen how they all look at you," he hissed, jerking his head toward camp. "Makes me sick."

Ducking out of the way of his reach, Liz held up a hand to stop him. "Shane, that-"

"And Lori, Carl? The others who aren't leering after you? Ain't no one else who can keep everyone alive. Rick's decisions are gettin' people killed. Got Carl shot." Shane's lip curled. "My remaining family ain't getting killed because of Rick." He lunged and grabbed Liz by the shoulders, suddenly smiling. He shook her slightly. "You'll start staying here with me again. We can get back to a good place." He nodded frantically. After a moment, he paused. "But not
tonight. You've got to go. Rick and Glenn ran out after the old man- Lori'll be by tonight. I'm sorry, Liz, we'll be together after tonight." He leaned in and kissed her on the jaw near her ear. "We'll do this right."

Liz wriggled out of Shane's grasp. Her skin was crawling and nausea was washing over her. "She's not coming, Shane. Leave her alone. She'll be worrying about when her husband is coming back."

"STOP BRINGING HIM UP," Shane exploded, advancing on her and swinging wildly.

Somehow managing to evade the blows, Liz retreated, stumbling backward out of the tent blindly. She fumbled for her pistol, but he was on her before she could pull it from her belt.

"HOW MANY TIMES DOES HE RUN OFF, YET EVERYONE LOOKS UP TO HIM? I'VE NEVER ABANADONED THE GROUP," Shane roared in her face. His hands were crushing her wrists in a deathgrip.

"He does everything for the good of the group," Liz retorted, pulling away as best as she could. Everyone had been right; Shane was truly out of his mind. How long have I ignored this? Does the group think I'm losing it, too? There may have been remnants of her brother left, but the new Shane was quickly extinguishing all traits of the old one she used to know. I's now or never. With a mighty jerk, she broke free of his grasp and turned to run.

"GET BACK HERE." Liz didn't get far before Shane caught up and knocked her to the ground. "You ain' right in the head," he said as she struggled against him. He flipped her over onto her back and pinned her legs to the ground with his. "It's all right. You'll stay with me." He stroked her face and brushed hair off of her forehead as she swung her head from side to side, trying desperately to evade his advances. "I'll take care of you. Like when we were kids, hmm?" He glanced at her lips. "God, you're pretty, Lizzy."

"GET OFF!" Liz shrieked as loudly as she could. There was no amount of force she could produce that would get Shane off of her, but she thrashed about anyway. Anything to keep Shane at bay while someone came to her aid. It wasn't that late - no one could be asleep in camp yet. She cried out again as she tried to kick herself out of his hold.

The struggle didn't phase Shane. "You don't get it," he insisted. "I'll take care of you. Of us. Lori, too. Yeah?"

Squeezing her eyes shut and mustering all the strength she could, Liz let a bood curling scream escape her throat.

"Let her up," a calm voice came.

"Daryl," Liz panted, knowing the voice before she saw him approaching with crossbow raised. "Help me."

Shane's body stiffened, yet he didn't tear his gaze from his sister's face. "This doesn't concern you."

"Let her up NOW," Daryl said again. He spun and let an arrow fly from his bow. One walker fell dead. "Ya'll being too loud," Daryl said, turning back to Shane. "Why don't you let her up so she'll quit screaming and bringing these things in? S'my turn on patrol and I ain't dealin' with this shit."

"This don't concern you," Shane replied. "Get back to patrolling. You're right. Dumb bitch is being too loud. She's mine- my concern."

"GET OFF!" Liz shrieked again.

"She don't belong to nobody," Daryl said, raising his crossbow and tensing his finger on the trigger. He stepped closer and kept his sights set. "Let her go."

"You ain't gonna shoot me." Shane hissed, swiftly pulling his own blade and holding it at Liz's throat. "Are ya? Go on your way. This ain't your business."

The sheer horror on Liz's face enraged Daryl. In a swift move, he delivered a hard kick to Shane's jaw, knocking him off balance. Liz quickly rolled out from under him and crawled toward Daryl, who quickly stepped over her protectively.

"Son of a bitch," Shane snarled. He spat bright red blood on the ground. "This how it is, then?"

"This is how it's gonna be," Daryl said, again looking through the sight of the bow. "She's with me. You can respect that, can't ya?" When Shane made no moves, Daryl pulled Liz to her feet and scanned her quickly. No visible bruises this time. Worse, though. All gonna be mental.

Shane got to his feet slowly and chuckled as he wiped blood from his lip. The laughter grew louder. Liz cringed. It was an ugly, unfamiliar sound to her.

"Then you two have a good night." Shane bowed his head and stepped back into his tent. Even as the tent flap swayed shut, the laughter carried out into the clearing.

"Let's go," Daryl muttered, turning back for his tent.

Liz took a deep breath and swallowed hard. "I'm over in camp, staying with-"

"Me." Daryl slung his bow over his shoulder. "I ain't takin' any chances. I'll stand watch." When Liz opened her mouth to protest, he stopped and stood before her. "You think I donn't understand what was going on?"

At last, the depravity of the situation hit her and Liz hung her head as her body shuddered. Tremors shook her body.

"I ain't going to touch you," Daryl said softly. "I'm gonna keep you safe. Let's get your stuff."